Gujarat civil society organisation Minority Coordination Committee (MCC) leaders -- Mujahid Nafees, Shakeel Shaikh, Danish Khan, and others -- who had planned a protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the VS Hospital were detained on Thursday afternoon. They had wished to highlight the alleged failure of the Gujarat government to implement "development needs" of minorities, who form 11.5% of the state's population.
An MCC communique said, the Gujarat authorities were "so scared" of the protest against the Prime Minister, whom MCC members had planned to give a memorandum of demands, that the leaders were picked up for detention from their residence at 3 pm, an hour before the protest was planned. Insisting that the Prime Minister "cannot suppress our voice", MCC claimd, "Our demands are all in consonance with international treaties signed by the Government of India."
Meant for the development and protection of minorities, the main demands are: Creation of a separate minority welfare department, separate budgetary allocation for the development of minorities, setting up of a minority commission as a statutory body, opening government schools up to class 12th in minority dominated areas, recognition of madarsa degree as equivalent to the Gujarat Board, special economic package for the upliftment of minorities, and a government policy for the rehabilitation of people displaced by communal violence.
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