Anger, resentment and memories of the financial capital's worst ever communal riots, not dulled in the least by the 14 years that have passed since 1992-93, were the order of the day when the National Commission for Minorities held a public hearing seeking to hear the voices of various minority groups in the state.

Though people had traveled from Beed and Raigad to demand better opportunity for the community, when the depositions of the Muslim community began at 2.30 pm, the focus shifted to the communal riots and the non-implementation of the Justice Srikrishna Commission Report.

The bitterness at the Congress-NCP Government's inaction on ensuring justice for the riot victims was obvious: When Kurla MLA Arif Naseem Khan, a petitioner in a SC case on the riots, came up to depose, he was shouted down by dozens of activists and riot victims raising slogans against the Government.

Mumbai resident Salim Khan Qazi set the tone at the start: “Three and a half years have passed since this Government came to power. With only a year and a half to go for elections, is this an effort to appease the Muslims again?”

Farid Batatawala, an activist with the Jogeshwari Muslim Front and the Bombay Aman Committee, continued: “The Government is saying it will take action, but there are just two cases progressing in the courts--the Hari Masjid police firing case and that of the incident at Suleiman Usman Bakery. The minorities commission should demand action from the Government on taking action against the policemen indicted by the Srikrishna Commission Report.”