Human Rights first preference, what about misuse of 498a

'First claim': Cong shifts gearBhaskar Roy[ 31 Jan, 2007 2308hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ] : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/First_claim_Cong_shifts_gear/articleshow/1547925.cms

NEW DELHI: Making use of the international satyagraha conference and its broad humanitarian canvas, the Congress has done an important course correction.

Summing up the declaration of the conference, the party on Wednesday said "basic human rights demands have the first claim on our resources."

The statement made by party spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan acquires immense political significance as it seems to have set right the ruling establishment's priorities, as far as distribution of national resources is concerned.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's remarks at the National Development Council meeting in December that minorities "must have the first claim on resources" had fuelled a major controversy provoking sharp reactions from the Opposition BJP.

The issue had generated an in-house debate within the Congress with party strategists sizing up the possibility of its misuse by political rivals in the season of elections in a number of states.

There was a fear that its opponents, particularly the BJP, might present the statement in a distorted manner to undermine the party's support among Hindus.

Using the ambience of Gandhian values and the Mahatma's humanitarian appeal, the party sought to stand corrected as far as the controversy over the PM's statement was concerned.

The shift from "minorities, particularly the Muslim minority" to "basic human rights demands" marked a lot of political distance.

Apprehensive of any impression that the regime was on a nostalgic journey to socialism and anti-West posturing of the Cold War era, Congress sought to clarify its position.

Natarajan denounced the 9/11 terrorist attacks as the "most ignoble event of the 21st century."

The need for correction seemed to have been prompted by the objection made by some delegates from Europe. A German delegate had objected when panchayati raj minister Mani Shankar Aiyar termed the terrorist attack on New York as an example of "asymmetric war" during a discussion on nuclear disarmament.

Seeking a point of order, the delegate wondered whether the minister's observation amounted to condoning the events of 9/11.

Congress, therefore, lost no time in stressing that the Mahatma's satyagraha in 1906 and the Osama bin Laden-inspired devastation of the Twin Towers sharing the same date — 9/11, almost a century apart — was "a most ironic coincidence of history."