 "Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi")
Additional Secretary in the National Commission for Minorities Ajoy Kumar on Wednesday appealed for providing security to minorities in the presence of Minister of Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, The Indian Express reported on Thursday.
According to the report, Kumar reportedly said, “situation in the country (regarding minorities) is not allowing him to sleep peacefully.” Kumar asked the government to ensure "calm and confidence".
Kumar, while delivering the vote of thanks at the National Conference of the State Commission of Minorities, sought "forgiveness" from Naqvi for "digressing" and said, addressing the government, that “allow us to live in peace”.
According to the report, Kumar said he was a Hindu who had studied in a convent school for Rs 3 a month and “lived amicably with all communities growing up in Bihar.” Kumar is a Bihar cadre IAS officer from the 1984 batch, the report added.
Speaking to The Indian Express on what had occasioned such remarks, Kumar said, “What I said in the conference has been said. All I can say is that apart from being a bureaucrat, I am also a human being.”
According to the report, Naqvi said that he had asked the official to meet him. Naqvi said that “political competition” by “so-called secular political parties” was weakening progress and eroding the trust of minorities in the government, the report said. Naqvi reportedly said that this "competition" was an issue of concern.
Speaking on the matter to The Indian Express, K P Mariamma, member of the Kerala Minority Commission, said, “This unrest and discomfort is what everybody wanted to talk about but they were cut short. We were told not to raise national and international issues, stick to what concerns the state minority commissions. Our concerns were in the end raised by the additional secretary.”
