Hassan Cheruppa Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — An Indian Muslim leader and member of Parliament urged illegal Indian workers in the Kingdom to seize the golden opportunity to complete the procedures for correction of their status or getting an exit stamp to return home. E.T. Muhammad Basheer, national secretary of Indian Union Muslim League and former minister of education from the southern state of Kerala, called on expatriates not to wait until the last moment or hope for any extension of the grace period granted by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah but instead benefit from the royal reprieve well before its expiry. He was addressing a meeting organized recently by the Jeddah Chapter of Kerala Muslim Cultural Center (KMCC) at Impala Auditorium in the Sharafiya area, Jeddah. Basheer, who had arrived to perform Umrah, thanked King Abdullah for his humanitarian gesture of granting the grace period for the benefit of hundreds of thousands of undocumented expatriate workers in the Kingdom. He said the government of India has taken this matter seriously and is striving to help affected workers take advantage of the grace period. Basheer noted that New Delhi would take all suitable measures to repatriate Indians who wished to return home. He said: “The government has the best possible mechanism to facilitate the return of all those who got an exit stamp. “There is a good example in front of us on how India tackled a much bigger crisis in the early 1990s following the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq's former ruler Saddam Hussein.” Referring to the rehabilitation packages for the returnees, Basheer suggested that long-term and feasible measures are the need of the hour. “The government of Kerala, of which the Muslim League is a major constituent, is now seriously thinking over it. When addressing this issue, temporary measures would not be fruitful.” Basheer claimed that the Congress-led Indian coalition government, which has already started preparations for the general elections due in 2014, has implemented a number of programs and packages for improving the lot of minorities, including Muslims. “The Manmohan Singh government's revolutionary programs included the Employment Guarantee Scheme, the Food Security Scheme and the Right to Know Act.” The Muslim League leader admitted that corruption has become a black spot on the record of the federal government. Voicing concern over the attempts from some corners to undermine the communal equation and amity in Kerala, Basheer said the Muslim League has a clear perception on how to behave in a pluralist society. Referring to the humanitarian measures being implemented by his party, which has the largest following among expatriate Keralites in the Gulf, he said: “We are implementing several compassion-based programs, especially for palliative care, in addition to the construction of houses for the poor and needy irrespective of their religions.” Jeddah KMCC President Palayat Ahmad chaired the meeting, which was inaugurated by the group's National Committee Vice President P.T. Muhammad.
