KOZHIKODE: Rubbishing the Dr. Pam Rajput committee report on ‘status of women’, All India Sunni Jameyatul Ulema, General Secretary, Kanthauram A P Aboobacker Musliar has termed it 'anti-constitutional'.
Pam Rajput committee was constituted by the Ministry of Women and Child Development to study and make recommendations to improve status of women in India. In a statement issued here on Tuesday he said: “It’s sad to note that many recommendations made by the committee in their long report contradicts to the basic tenants of Indian constitution and other existing law and orders of the country. Since the very spirit behind giving constitutional validity to personal laws has been to protect the cultural distinctiveness of minority communities, the committees attempt to sabotage the same through their recommendations is a doubtful one.
“The attempt by the Dr. Pam Rajput Committee to bypass Indian constitution will only help people and communities in the country to question the constitutional validity of their recommendations and to challenge the same at various constitutional bodies and courts,” he observed, adding that it would finally end up in lagging the implementation of many of their innovative suggestions concerning women’s health and security.
Kanthapuram further expressed doubts on whether this was a planned attempt to divert the policy maker’s attention from basic issues and to fix the center of the debate elsewhere. “I do not think that any government can accept such anti-constitutional suggestions. This once again tells us that we have been failing in exploring the possibilities of our constitution and the rights and responsibilities it offers to people and communities in our attempts to make citizens life safe, secure and better,” he saysHe however welcomed the committee’s suggestion to withdraw Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), a controversial law responsible for many human rights violations against women in troubled areas.