Hindus have applauded European Parliament for reportedly deciding to discuss the plight of Roma (Gypsies) next week.

Noted Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that although European Parliament was slow to react in view of the recent France crackdown on Roma, but at least it was taking "step in the right direction".

Roma apartheid was very blatant all over Europe and its parliamentarians had a special responsibility to come up with the solution instead of watching Roma brothers and sisters suffer day after day. Did the European Parliament in Brussels only represented European "upper-class" and not the about 15-million Roma "under-class", Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, asked.

It appeared that all Europeans (minus Roma) could travel unrestricted in borderless Europe, but Roma were subject to some "special regulations". This "class system" in European citizenship needed to come to an immediate end, Rajan Zed stressed.

Europe's most persecuted and discriminated community, Roma reportedly regularly encountered social exclusion, racism, substandard education, hostility, joblessness, rampant illness, inadequate housing, lower life expectancy, unrest, living on desperate margins, stereotypes, mistrust, rights violations, discrimination, marginalization, appalling living conditions, prejudice, human rights abuse, etc., Zed argued. (ANI)