Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Has Congress gobbled up more than it can chew, much less digest? - By Ghulam Muhammed
Has Congress gobbled up more than it can chew, much less digest?
As if, a tsunami has struck the Indian political island and only two peaks jutting out that have survived the avalanche: dynasty and power; both peaks interconnected by an inverted rainbow bridge that never curves to touch the lowly grounded masses. The dazzled masses have yet to figure out how their future will change – when will they ride the rainbow.
The most awesome sight is the trooping of all the humbled aspirants of exclusive powers at the top, who are seeking the shelter of the victorious dynasty. Be that Sharad Pawar, Mayawati, Lalu or Paswan. Sages like Lord Meghnad Desai, whose sympathies with the Hindutva forces is not a secret, all of a sudden is prominent among the cheerleaders, who wants NCP and the Communists, both to merge with the Congress. In his weekly Indian Express column, he exhorts CPI (M) to ‘make peace with the Congress, change your spots, and merge’.
However, for Congress, these are like honeymoon days. Only time will tell, if Congress has gobbled up more than it can chew, much less digest? Though it is commonly believed that the Grand Old Party itself started up as a grand old coalition party; it remains to be seen if it has gathered the same across the board goodwill and unity of purpose to nurture and nourish an egalitarian India that would care for all its people in equal measure. However, as past history shows, how greed for power, exclusivity, egoistical one-upmanship, gravy train corruption, polarisation of people as divide and rule strategies and high handed dynastic power trips, eroded the gloss that had held the coalition together. All these demons are still sheltering under the Manmohan Congress umbrella and it would not take time for them to raise their heads, at the first sign of the faltering of the top triumvirate.
The greatest challenges will come both from abroad and from within.
Skeptical observers correctly question the entire surrealism of the new Congress that is manifestly not supported by any upward mass upswing. The hoopla is more of a media creation. Congress hand seems to hide a foreign hand. The technical fait accompli may be tested at various levels as time progresses. Just as
With economists at the top echelons of Congress government now taking office, it is a moment of great challenge to choose, if
On the internal organizational front, though the Congress decision to throw off the yoke of coalition partners has manifestly succeeded in returning Congress to once again at the helm of affair, and with much better head-count, Congress is essentially riding a troika, where the Rightist, Centrists and Leftists from within the Congress stables, are being harnessed to ensure a smooth journey. However, the pull of independence cannot be discounted for long. All three groups that had tasted freedom will maintain their linkages and might try to form or encourage alternative formations, to give vent to their ideological and/or regional aspirations. Congress cannot please all the people all the time and the whip of dynastic sycophancy and discipline will be tested again and again. The temporary strength of centralized power cannot last for ever and it will call for immense resilience on the part of Manmohan Singh and Sonia, to appease the troika in not dragging the party in all directions.
Congress as a party has yet to acknowledge the voluntary participation of Muslim voters in some of the most crucial face-off constituencies. In the session of Parliament, where Smt. Meira Kumar was elected first Dalit woman speaker of the Lok Sabha, by unanimous vote endorsement from all political parties, the live telecast of the entire proceedings, appear to those from the 150 million Indian Muslim community that happen to watch, as throbbing with some unanimous conspiracy to ignore and bloat out the very existence of Indian Muslims as citizens of India, without any right to be represented in the affairs of their country. A few Urdu couplets read out by Trinamol Congress Chief Mamta Banerjee and a prominent Sikh MP, were the only forced and indirect recognizance that Muslims had some relevance to the historical proceedings that the nation was so reverentially witnessing.
Congress insensitivity towards Indian Muslims is appalling. It appears that it is still deeply committed to the 2-nation theory, while only paying lip service to the secular and democratic constitution of
Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai
www.ghulammuhammed.wordpress.com
Labels: 2-Nation Theory and Congress, Indian Muslims, Indian National Congress
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Congress’ infidelity By Kuldip Nayar - Deccan Chronicle
| Congress’ infidelity | |
| By Kuldip Nayar | |
| Friday, May 08, 2009, 12:00 [IST] | |
Backwardness of Muslims is a sad commentary on the Congress which has been in power at the Centre for over 50 years. | |
Political parties in India have proved beyond doubt in this Lok Sabha election that their primary objective has been to attain power. They have adopted the most unbecoming methods to try to increase their number without any sense of guilt. They pushed out issues and replaced them with personal attacks and whatever else suited. The polity has remained fragmented as the idea of India has become more distant. The ruling Congress has been the biggest sinner. It has stopped at nothing to try to be victorious. It has had no compunction in using criminals, communalists and casteists for garnering votes. Money and liquor was no taboo for them. The Congress has seen to it that Ottavio Quattrocchi, an Italian and known to be close to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, is off the list of those who received payoffs for buying Bofors guns from Sweden. The CBI, a department under the prime minister’s office, has withdrawn the “wanted” notice from Interpol. This move has besmirched the face of the Congress. Secular claims The party’s claim to be secular does not wash because it has not implemented even one recommendation of the government-appointed Sachar committee report which pointed out last year that the plight of Muslims was worse than that of Dalits. Indeed, the party brings secularism to the fore only during the polls and forgets it after coming to power. Backwardness of Muslims is a sad commentary on the Congress which has been in power at the Centre and in most states for more than 50 years since independence. Yet the Muslims do not seem to have many options. They cannot vote for the BJP which is out and out Hindu. The community may vote for two or three main regional parties which are said to be emerging as the king makers. The regional parties become important because they would provide the numbers to enable any party or a combination to reach the magic figure of 272. If the Congress and the BJP fail to cross the 300 mark together, the regional parties may bid for power — which means roping in either the Congress or the BJP. Where will UP Chief Minister Mayawati fit in this scheme of things is difficult to say. Muslims constitute 15 per cent of some 700 million voters and can make a difference in at least 200 seats. But its earlier tendency to vote for a winnable candidate against the BJP has got dissipated. There are several secular parties claiming the community’s vote. Mulayam Singh’s Samajwadi Party in UP and Lalu Prasad’s RJD in Bihar have been getting most of the Muslim votes. But of late Muslims seems to be moving towards the Congress which was their first choice till 15 years ago. Sensing this, the party has gone it alone in UP and Bihar even though it has destroyed the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) which gave it a majority. The party has jettisoned Mulayam Singh who helped the Manmohan Singh government survive the vote of confidence some six months ago. Similarly, Lalu Prasad who has stood by the Congress has been told that he may not be included in the cabinet if the Congress returns to power. One thing the party has proved: Infidelity thy name is Congress. Again, it is the Congress which made it difficult for the communists to continue in the UPA. The nuclear treaty with the US was crucial for both — for one, it meant nearly the membership of the nuclear club and, for the other, it indicated New Delhi’s strategic alliance with Washington. The communists have founded the Third Front. But it is tragic that their present strength of 62 may go down to 45 when they need the numbers the most. The communists have shown their anger against the Congress by declaring that they would not mind the BJP coming to power. BJP nurtured its allies In comparison, the BJP has nurtured its allies well. Except Orissa’s Biju Janta Dal which left the National Democratic Alliance on its own, the rest of the constituents have stayed with it. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is a difficult customer. He can join hands with the Congress if it means tasting power at the Centre. The NDA has added one more ally, the Asom Gana Parishad, which is not large, but it shows how keen the BJP is to have outside support to the maximum possibility since every member will count in what looks like the closest contest since independence. The BJP is conscious that the 80-year old L K Advani does not appeal to the youth since as many as 23 million are such voters. Rahul Gandhi, 38, sells better. But his stock has not yet risen so high that he can be chosen prime minister despite the efforts of his mother. His press conference can spell out the party’s strategy but not bring votes. If the Congress wins, Manmohan Singh would be the prime minister and could withdraw in favour of Rahul Gandhi later. Yet the main challenge which Indian political parties will face after elections is how to accommodate the nation’s diversities in the political structure. Problems have been left unsolved for years. The National Integration Council cannot bring about emotional unity. The issue continues to be how to string together the local and regional forces for the central idea of India. A federal structure can only tie up loose threads. New Delhi has to decentralise power and cannot stay smug or suppress aspirations that different regions represent. It has to make them feel that their entity means a lot. | |
Labels: Congress's infidelity, Indian Muslims, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi
Where the Muslims count - By Prakash Patra - Express Buzz | Atankgarh, also known as Azamgarh - Kajari Bhattacharya
http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Where+the+Muslims+count&artid=WjVLy5I||qs=
&SectionID=XVSZ2Fy6Gzo=&MainSectionID=oHSKVfNWYm0=&SectionName=m3GntEw72ik=&SEO=
Uttar%20Pradesh%20and%20Bihar,%20Nitish%20Kumar%20and%20Lalu%20Pra
Where the Muslims count
First Published : 13 May 2009 01:57:00 AM IST
Last Updated : 13 May 2009 02:18:30 AM IST
Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where the minority Muslim community plays a decisive role in successive electoral outcomes, are witnessing an interesting social churning. There is a scramble for the Muslim vote by all key actors in the two states — Mayawati and Mulayam Singh in UP; Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad in Bihar. The Mandal movement had resulted in the emergence of a formidable combination of Muslims and Other Backward Castes (OBCs) under the leadership of Mulayam in UP and Lalu in Bihar. But times have changed.
In UP, as the 2007 Assembly elections showed, a minimal shift in the minority community resulted in Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) capturing power on its own. In Bihar, it was the consolidation of most backward castes and non-Yadav OBCs that resulted in Nitish’s Janata Dal(U) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) thwarting the three-term rule of Lalu’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). In this Lok Sabha election, while Mulayam is working overtime to win over the minority to counter Mayawati’s social engineering effort of 2007 to bring together the Dalits, Muslims and Brahmins, Nitish is fast emerging as a champion of the backward Muslims in Bihar, posing a serious threat to Lalu’s formidable Muslim-Yadav combination.
Coming to UP, Mayawati’s think-tank may attribute her victory in the 2007 Assembly polls to social engineering, but the reality is different. People cutting across caste, community and religious affiliations voted decisively in favour of Mayawati to end the perceived misrule and lawlessness of the Mulayam tenure in office. Neither the Congress nor the BJP was seen as a party that could bring in a strong government in the state. A look at the composition of Mayawati’s MLAs proves the point. Her MLAs come from all communities — the majority from non-Yadav OBCs (of 51, she has only four Yadavs). In Mulayam’s 27 OBC MLAs, there were 17 Yadavs. But when it comes to Muslim votes, despite the surge against Mulayam, 21 of his Muslim candidates could win, as against 24 candidates of Mayawati.
It is natural for Mulayam to try hard to win over the minority community as well as other non-Yadav communities to make a major dent. Contrary to popular perception that the minority votes en-bloc, the community vote in UP does get split. There is no doubt that the community perceives the BJP as its enemy, but a sizeable section of Muslims, particularly Dalits, have been supporting the BSP which had hobnobbed with the BJP for power on several occasions.
Mulayam, who used to be dubbed as ‘Maulana Mulayam’ for his strong posture on the Babri Masjid-Ram Temple dispute has been facing a serious threat to his base.
Political expediency made Mulayam welcome former CM Kalyan Singh, the leader who had undergone imprisonment after owning responsibility for the demolition of Babri Masjid, twice to his fold. Mulayam wants the support of Kalyan’s backward Lodh community that has a decisive say over 10 Lok Sabha seats. No matter what Mulayam’s critics within the party like Azam Khan say, the fact is that Khan and Kalyan’s son were part of Mulayam’s Cabinet until 2007. Kalyan, who has left the BJP for the second time, now says that he has ‘dug the grave’ for the BJP and now it’s for people (read the minority community) to bury the party there.
Coming to the Muslims of UP, a distinction is sought to be made between mainstream Barelvi Sunnis who constituted nearly 70 per cent of population and Wahabis who are in a minority. Aware that vocal Wahhabis are beneficiaries of political patronage, be it of the BSP or SP, both sides have now started wooing non-Wahhabi Sunnis.
In Mayawati’s scheme of things, Wahhabis enjoy a prominent role. Mulayam, on the other hand, has given more Lok Sabha tickets to non-Wahhabis and has been making promises to safeguard their interests.
The tussle among Wahhabis saw a section of the leadership asserting itself in the Azamgarh region where the Ulema Council, had fielded its own candidates to cash in on the anger of the community against victimisation of innocent youths, post-26/11.
The Muslims of UP are going through a kind of OBC movement, the most backward castes resenting the dominance of the politically and economically advanced backward castes.
The Congress, which has, over a period, lost the minority vote to SP, the Dalit vote to the BSP and the Brahmin vote to the BJP, has been trying to win over the minority community. The community is favourably disposed towards the Congress but the problem with the party is that it does not have a coherent political structure beyond pockets of influence like Amethi and Rae Bareli.
In Bihar, two obvious factors helped the JD(U)-BJP alliance come to power. The JD(U) had managed to create a base of non- Yadav OBCs over the years and provided a credible option to the Lalu-Rabri’s misrule.
Lalu, like Mulayam, had emerged as the darling of the minority community for halting L K Advani’s Ayodhya rath in Bihar and taking him into custody.
After Nitish came to power, he has made major overtures towards the minority, particularly among the pasamda (backward) Muslims. A series of steps like providing pension to victims of the Bhagalpur riots (which had marked the decline of the Congress), loan waivers, helping handloom workers (mainly Muslims), sanctioning funds for fencing of graveyards (a source of conflict among locals), giving scholarships to minority students, free bicycles for girls studying in the equivalent of 10th standard in madrassas and various other measures that benefit lower sections of Muslims have put him in good stead among the community.
Nitish’s popularity among the minority community could be gauged from the fact of the RJD’s minority cell leader and Paswan’s former state unit president joining Nitish’s party. The JD(U)’s Rajya Sabha member Ejaj Ali, a backward Muslim leader, has become his party’s mascot.
Now that Lalu and Mulayam are jointly campaigning, Nitish is aware of the fact that there could be a consolidation of the Muslim vote in their favour. During the campaign, an assertive Nitish has kept at bay its ally BJP, which could prove heavy baggage when it comes to minority votes.
Unlike the Shiv Sena and the BJP, he has condemned Varun Gandhi’s hate speeches.
Had it been any other state, the BJP, which is now taking a piggy ride on Nitish’s popularity, would have drubbed him for ‘minority appeasement’.
Being the target of vote bank politics is not new for the Muslim community in UP and Bihar. This time, the difference may be in the multiplicity of parties vying for their support. As to the question of how much difference this will actually make to the situation of the community itself, post elections — well, that’s another story.
=============================================================
wednesday, may 13, 2009
Atankgarh, also known as Azamgarh
Nameless politicians & the siege within
Kajari Bhattacharya
AZAMGARH, March 24, 2009: Locals in Uttar Pradesh know Azamgarh as Atankgarh (place of terror). For this is the district that has had its name dragged into almost each and every arrest made of a terror suspect by anti-terrorism agencies in UP and other states. With their names tarnished, youths from Azamgarh are hostile towards strangers and refuse to reveal their names or have their pictures taken. “The ATS might pick us up next”, is the fear they voice. Now, a "Muslim political party, “born out of injustice”, has decided to take on other parties that have “used Muslims as a convenient vote bank”. The Ulema Council, a party consisting of maulanas of Azamgarh madrasas, doctors and others from this eastern UP district, is a newly formed party that has fielded candidates for five Lok Sabha seats ~ Azamgarh, Lalganj, Jaunpur, Machlishahr and Lucknow.
On the Gorakhpur-Lucknow road, the office has a telephone, packets of biscuits for any journalists who might drop by, and notices stuck to the walls with mobile numbers of the office bearers. The one thing missing is names. “We don’t want to reveal our names. And no pictures please,” said another young man, who suggested that his fictitious name could be "Salim" or "Rehman".
“Had it not been for the Batla House encounter and the way the Anti-Terrorism Squad hounded youths here, there would never have been the necessity of forming the Ulema Council,” said a young man in the Ulema Council’s brand new office in Sanjarpur. The president of the Ulema Council, Maulana Amir Rashadi, rector of the Jamaetur Rashad madrasa in Azamgarh town, attends to guests every morning at his office. “We want the harassment of the ATS to stop. They have to stop kidnapping innocent youths from our community,” said the Maulana, when asked what the agenda of the party is.
The Maulana’s disenchantment with the one party they have supported since Independence is evident when he says: “We have fielded candidates from both Rae Bareli and Amethi, as a mark of our hatred towards Mrs Sonia Gandhi and Mr Rahul Gandhi. It’s a symbolic fight against these two Congress leaders, who have refused to open an inquiry into the Batla House encounter despite our entreaties.” But even families like that of Arif, a 22-year-old youth from Sanjarpur, who was picked up from Lucknow by the UP ATS for his alleged involvement in anti-national activities, display apathy towards political outfits; even the Ulema Council. "Politics has become a business. We can only gauge if political parties are sincere after the polls; we will see if they keep their promises,” said Mohammad Nasim, Arif’s father.
He added: “We are not with any party. We simply want justice to be served. We will support any party that gets us justice.” According to the family that consists of Arif’s mother, Farzana Begum and his brother Amir Hamza (24), their son is an “innocent” boy in his early twenties who was picked up by the UP ATS while he was in Lucknow studying to take the CPMT. Mohammad Nasim says he has spent the best years of his life in the Gulf, working hard to make his family step out of the shackles of poverty. His eyes glistening with unshed tears, he told The Statesman: “I worked so hard for my family. I never once said no when my sons asked for a mobile phone or some other extravagance. There was no reason for a son of mine to take the wrong path for the sake of a few extra bucks.”
As Uttar Pradesh goes into election mode, only time will tell whether the “harassed” youths of Azamgarh find their way into the mainstream or not. With or without disclosing their names.
Labels: Azamgarh, Bihar, Indian elections and Muslim voters, Indian Muslims, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Mayawati, Mulayam, Nitish Kumar, UP
Monday, April 13, 2009
FOR INDIAN MUSLIMS, MANMOHAN SINGH IS CERTAINLY A ‘WEAK’ PRIME MINISTER -By Ghulam Muhammed
FOR INDIAN MUSLIMS, MANMOHAN SINGH IS CERTAINLY A ‘WEAK’ PRIME MINISTER
While LK Advani’s branding of Manmohan Singh as ‘weak’ Prime Minister was cheap device to denigrate the office of Prime Ministership, now that BJP is in a very desperate position; Indian Muslims have already realised that technocrat Manmohan Singh had been merely exploited by Sonia Gandhi as a caretaker regent, till her dynastic plans to plant Rahul Gandhi most undemocratically, taking undue advantage of loop-holes in Indian laws and that Manmohan Singh’s oft repeated assurance to Muslim community that they should have first right to claim redressal as they have been marginalized in share government patronage, as has been so generously showered on other favourites.
It is possible that though he had spoken about Muslim’s first right on the nation’s budget, he was shot down by the Congress High Command that is riddled with communalized soft-Hindutva protagonists. Even in Congress, nobody is ready to accept that the decades long Congress government has let down the same Muslims, whose vote bank had loyally supported Congress all along.
The key-word is scare. Congress is scared of BJP’s Hindutva propaganda; while the BJP is scared that Muslim appeasement will bring back the Mughal rule.
In the event, Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister had no guts to counter the Hindutva communalism and fight an internal war in the same manner or with the same misguided but dogged conviction when struggling to finalize 123 nuclear agreement with US.
If he was weak, he would not have travelled such a long distance with the Congress, while forcing even a break in the UPA and the risk of losing his government. Apparently, that strength and that power of conviction were not availed by him, when he was advocating affirmative action for Indian Muslims.
He failed to tackle:
- Sachar Commission implementation for the upliftment of Indian Muslims
- Babri Masjid cases for early settlement of the dispute and due punishment to the culprits. (Is he waiting for a Muslim to take up the new ritual of throwing the shoe at him and then resorting to chakka jam all over the country?).
- His Congress government has not lifted a finger on Sri Krishna Commission report in
- He has done nothing to initiate legislation against hate crimes, so that
- Gross injustice inherent in his economic policies that impoverish the very chunk of people that were already impoverished. His trickle down policies only heaped misery on the people. Rising unemployment is built-in and grass-root inflation choking people has no interest to him. He cannot fool dishing out statistics that show wholesale price indices and camouflage out inflation that has bloated the family burden for even survival level existence.
Just as he has rightly stated that L. K. Advani will be known ONLY for demolition of Babri Masjid, Manmohan Singh should be rest assured that he would ONLY be known for paving the way for US and Israel to take over India, in any of the various ways, a nation loses its sovereignty and integrity.
Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai
www.ghulammuhammed.wordpress.com
Labels: Babri Masjid demolition, Hate crimes, Indian Muslims, Indo-US strategic partnership, Manmohan Singh, Sachar Commission report
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
DON'T LET SIMI GO by Ghulam Muhammed
Thursday, August 21, 2008
DON'T LET SIMI GO
According to a front page report in Mumbai's Inquilab Urdu daily, there is a definite connection between the Supreme Court case hearing and UPA Government's counter affidavit against SIMI's exoneration by the Unlawful Activities tribunal. People were bewildered less by the sweep of the arrests of so-called SIMI activists on the suspicions of being involved in the recent Ahmedabad and Surat explosions, but more by the timing of the depth and sweep of media coverage of the mass arrests, giving out so many details on each and every person supposedly involved in the crime. Pages on pages in The Times of India were blackened on the details written out by their own staff. The whole media preparation that has gone into the project is mind-boggling.
As in the case of the now infamous Arushi murder case, the jugalbandi between Police authorities, this time of various states remarkably cooperating with each other for the 'national cause' of demonizing Muslims and the very obliging media lapping up the extensive material supplied by the investigating agencies. None of the media editors bothered to check if the media sentencing of innocents and character assassination of whole community on the basis of a few ‘usual suspects’ arbitrarily picked up by police with big hoopla, without any proof and without any authority to denigrate them, is entirely legal. In fact, in strict judicial terms, with such an organised adverse publicity by the media, the whole case against SIMI in court can be thrown out as mistrial.
The time has come when trial by media should stop.
The other strange fact is that with so much information with the investigating agencies on the supposed culprits, how the alleged criminals were able, or allowed to go through with their nefarious plans, if any.
Now, the cat is out of the bag.
A strong feeling among the dissenting people, whose majorities are getting greater and greater by the hour, is that UPA government, under pressure from their own internal extremist Muslim-haters and for consolidation of their own Hindu Vote Bank, have organised this farce of a grand drama of using summary arrests of so-called SIMI terrorist, so that their case with the Supreme Court, could be successfully processed.
The simpletons are under the impression that the august Supreme Court will be as gullible as the Media, to accept all summary charges made by the investigating agencies and stay the lifting of the ban of SIMI as a student organisation working within Muslim community.
If Supreme Court has the recent Arushi case under observation, where both police and media had gone on a frenzy of spreading concocted stories about the whole murder scenarios, the recent hoopla organised through the medium of pliant media by the UPA government, will fall on its face.
The most glaring aspect of the whole UPA imbroglio is that their own coalition partners, all non-Brahmins, like Lalu Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav, and Ram Vilas Paswan are openly questioning the unjustified arrests and demonisation of SIMI. The stark division between Brahmins and non-Brahmins in the political circles over the subject has never been so public.
It is time Prime Minister should gather courage and stand by the truth.
You can fool some of the people some of the time. Not all of the people all of the time.
Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai
ghulammuhammed3@gmail.com
www.ghulammuhammed.wordpress.com
Labels: India's English press, India's Supreme Court, Indian Muslims, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, SIMI
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Javed Anand’s ideologically driven diatribe against SIMI
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Javed Anand’s ideologically driven diatribe against SIMI
Of course! It is a question of law
By Ghulam Muhammed
It is one thing to be factually correct. It’s altogether another thing to be ideologically driven. Javed Anand’s diatribe titled: ‘Suspect SIMI? Of course’ -- published by The Indian Express, on Saturday, August 16, 2008 seeks life beyond law.
At that level, what is a difference between a religiously driven SIMI and a Leftist fighting a war in the name of Karl Marx, denigrating everything that goes under the umbrella of religion, the supposed ‘opium of the masses’.
If religion is the opium of the masses, anti-religious Marxism too is a heady brew that saps the intellectual faculties of even the most sensible people.
The key sentence that gives out Javed Anand’s subterranean insecurity goes like this: “But is it merely a question of law?”
Of course! It is a question of law.
India as a nation is a legal construct. It is based on law. If you have to find life beyond law, you are on a very shaky territory.
In fact, Javed Anand’s frustration over his gross inability to interpret the law of land by sanctifying the terms ‘secularism and democracy’, in the mould of Marxist logic, while neatly bypassing and ignoring the constitutional fundamental rights of freedom of religion and freedom of speech in drawing up a charge-sheet against SIMI, is so apparent, that it is surprising, he is so unaware that his slip is showing.
Secularism in Indian context does not stand for the denial of religion. India is not a replica of the erstwhile Soviet Russia, where the communist dictators had destroyed and/or closed down all churches and mosques. For over seventy years, people of faith had to undergo endless pogroms, purges, banishments, not to mention the ghastly gulag existence. India’s secularism has to be defined by its deeply ingrained religious ethos.
Javed Anand is ready to accommodate Mulayam Singh and Lalu Prasad, for their support of SIMI, when he writes that ‘Mulayam Singh and Lalu Prasad’s welcoming of the lifting of the ban on SIMI can be explained away in terms of vote bank politics. Why should he begrudge if mainstream Muslims too have welcomed lifting of the ban on SIMI. Are Muslims not entitled to be part of vote bank politics, just because they are Muslims?
Banning of SIMI, was a motivated political exercise, by the Hindutva extremists/opportunist of the ilk of the then Home Minister, L. K. Advani and the then Maharashtra State home minister, Chhagan Bhujbal, an old Shiv Sena protagonist. It was a grand conspiracy to consolidate Hindu vote bank, around demonizing of Muslims, by choosing a suitable candidate to focus on and by implication demonise the entire 150 million Muslims of India. Evidently, this too would be generously treated by Javed Anand, as merely vote bank politics!
Of course, there were hotheads in SIMI, as there are in every grouping, including the Marxists and the Hindutvadis. But the law cannot be so applied that it cannot stand judicial scrutiny. If on presentation of facts, the court is not convinced that SIMI is guilty as charged, why should Muslims not rejoice in being liberated from the conspiracy of the Hindu extremists?
The real problem for Javed Anand stems from his pretentious posturing of becoming the voice of the Muslims. His frustration at witnessing crowds of 20,000 to 200,000 gathering at public meetings called by religious figures is quite understandable. He fails to understand the real pain of the Muslims. Given proper interaction, even a maverick like Mamta Bannerjee could gather a mind-boggling crowd of 400,000 Muslims in the heart of a cosmopolitan city like Kolkata. But you cannot strip the Muslim of his religious identity and hope to achieve leadership of a neutered crowd.
The very fact, that Indian Express has published Javed Anand’s article denouncing SIMI, is proof enough that he is sleeping with the enemy. Let him write a similar diatribe against RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal and get it published in Indian Express, or Times of India, or even in the new avatar of ‘The Hindu’, if he is rooting for non-discriminatory justice. That will show him the limits of his journalistic prowess, if any. His ability to get published by a mainstream English broadsheet on Muslim-bashing shows how far he is treated by the media, as not with the mainstream Muslims. The mainstream media is merely using his mixed Muslim name (Javed Akhtar + Anand) to carry on their commercial commitment to demonizing of Muslims. Muslims would rather be vicitmised than become beholden to dubious benefactors with ulterior motives.
Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai
ghulammuhammed3@gmail.com
www.ghulammuhammed.wordpress.com
Labels: India, India's English press, Indian Muslims, Javed Anand, SIMI
Saturday, August 02, 2008
What is the post-Ahmedabad Blast Scenario in India? By Amaresh Misra
What is the post-Ahmedabad Blast Scenario in India?
By Amaresh Misra
The Ahmedabad blasts mark a turning point in Indian political life. Till now, whenever and wherever a blast occurred, the blame was put squarely on Muslim terrorist organizations; there was unanimity amongst all major Indian political parties, whether in power or sitting in the opposition, over the central role played by Muslim extremist outfits in planning and executing lethal bomb blasts.
The situation was such that after every blast no matter if they happen to occur in Muslim areas, Muslim youths in their hundreds were picked up by the various State Police departments of the Indian Union. After the 11th July 2006 Mumbai blasts, hundreds of Muslims youths, most of them found innocent by the Mumbai Police later, were not only arrested without warrants but tortured as well. Similar was the case after terrorist attacks in Uttar Pradesh, the Malegaon and the Hyderabad Mecca Masjid blasts.
After each blast some obscure, new terrorist organization, which was never heard of before, and which was usually never heard of after as well, popped up to claim `responsibility' for violence. After the recent Ahmedabad blasts too the name of never heard of before `Indian Mujahideen' group popped up; the pattern was sickeningly similar and every secular indeed Indian feared for Muslim youths in Gujarat.
But suddenly, things started changing—the familiar pattern was disturbed; the UPA Government at the center appeared reluctant to toe the Gujarat BJP's Government line about the involvement of a Muslim organization executing the Ahmedabad blasts. Bombs started appearing in Surat and elsewhere in Gujarat—the police was conveniently informed about them before they could explode.
Then came the bombshell: BJP—the party which had always been the most strident about blaming `Islamic terrorism' for the blasts, the party which was in forefront of open Muslim persecution, the party which always demanded the most strict measures against not only terrorist organizations but often Muslims as a community, the party which advocated revoking draconian black acts like TADA and POTA, which suspended civil liberties and put Muslims in a dock—that party went on record to state that the Congress-UPA Government at the Center planned and executed and blasts in order to divert attention from the `cash for votes' scandal following the confidence vote in the Indian Parliament over the Indo-US nuclear deal.
The allegation is shocking all the more since the BJP is a known Muslim baiter—in the past, it has not only refused to listen to reason that how could a new Muslim organization pop up every time after each blast, but it has also been consistent in standing firm with Indian security agencies, however absurd their version might be on the arrest and torture of Muslim youths. In fact, in several cases, especially the 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament, the terrorist attack on the Red Fort, and the 11th July 2006 Mumbai blasts, the BJP appeared to have advanced knowledge of the events. Then in other cases, most famously in the Nanded blasts at Bajrang Dal Headquarters, bomb attacks in Vashi and Thane, Hindu terrorist outfits were found by the police to have been involved in executing blasts. Most of these organizations were affiliated to the BJP-RSS combine. The attack on RSS Headquarters in Nagpur turned out to be a hoax, a set-up where attacking terrorists, officially shot down by the Nagpur Police in an encounter, were found to be victims of `encounter deaths', about which even the Nagpur police was clueless; in Tamil Nadu, members of the Hindu Munaani, affiliated to the RSS have been charge-sheeted officially by the Tamil Nadu Police for planning the terrorist attack on RSS' Chennai head quarters.
Thus, accusations that blamed the BJP for organizing both the Bangalore and the Ahmedabad blasts for political mileage after the formation of the Mayawati-Left alliance threatened their 2009 electoral fortunes, carried credibility. In the past the BJP brushed these allegations off by blaming secular and `pro-Muslim' forces of planting `conspiracy theories'. Now in the post-Ahmedabad blast phase, the BJP itself is constructing a conspiracy theory, blaming the Congress Government for facilitating the attack! Has anyone ever heard of anything like this before?
For the first time in recent Indian history, the glare of terrorism, has shifted from Muslims; by accusing each other, both the Congress and the BJP are in a way promoting conspiracy theories; both these parties are also going out of their way to say that the attacks happened as part of a plan to shift focus away from a political objective.
Now Left and other secular forces have been saying time and time again that a deeper enquiry has to be conducted into the nature and pattern of Indian bomb blasts; that it is insufficient to blame Muslim extremist organizations; that the angle whether Hindu fundamentalist organizations or rogue and communal elements in various State and Central agencies might be involved in the blasts, should also be probed: subtle hints have been given out about the hand of foreign agencies as well; in a country which has seen the assassinations of two Prime Ministers in which the hand of foreign agencies is still suspected; where one of those Prime Minister (Indira Gandhi) went on record blaming CIA for conducting covert-subversive activities in India; in that country the possibility that a conspiracy exists first, to carry out bomb blasts and terrorist attacks by some forces or an alliance of forces—and then make Muslims a scapegoat—at the top—both within and outside India—cannot be discounted.
But in the past, the Left and secular forces making these points have been laughed at; now, after the BJP accusations, these very forces stand vindicated. The issue is not whether the BJP charge is true or false; the issue is that a mainstream political party, a known anti-Muslim force is blaming not Muslims but the Government of India; this is the time when all persecuted Muslims and secular elements ought to stand up and demand justice for injustices committed in the past; the fracas over the Ahmedabad blasts between two main Indian political parties reveal that there indeed is a big conspiracy—involving the BJP, Congress and even some elements of the Samajwadi Party at various levels—often in collusion but opposition as well—behind bomb blasts that keep happening in India. If secular elements miss this moment, in which there seems to be a momentary collapse of the subtle understanding between the BJP and the Congress over the Muslim persecution issue, then another similar opportunity might not come by for some time.
Labels: Ahmedabad Blasts, brainwashing of India to project the whites over brown and black, Indian Muslims
Saturday, July 12, 2008
THE OPEN CONSPIRACY TO SILENCE INDIAN MUSLIMS
Saturday, July 12, 2008
THE OPEN CONSPIRACY TO SILENCE INDIAN MUSLIMS
The instant CPI (M)’s senior politburo member, M. K. Pandhe, came out with his warning to Samajwadi Party against joining the Man Mohan Singh bandwagon, lest they lose their ‘Muslim voters’ in the coming elections, both media and politicians of the pseudo-secular joined forces with the Hindutva parivar to treat the use of the very ‘word’ Muslim as communal, if not high treason.
The very next day both ‘The Times of India’ and ‘The Indian Express’ editorials were seething with anger over the gross indiscretion of Marxist leader to bring in Muslim factor in national discourse. It would appear as if the 150 million Muslims of India have no stake, no voice, no concern with their own country’s most vital interests and the selling of their countries freedom and independence to a bunch of notorious foreign powers, whose designs on weaker nations is too obvious to be so callously ignored, while ill-advised leaders of Sonia Congress are pushing the nation into a future of wars and strife.
It is regrettable that under the force of such adverse communal demonizing of potential Muslim role in Indian politics, some Ulema groups went defensive and declared that ‘we Muslims’ do not have anything to do with the government decision on Indo-US nuclear deal. That is the power of aggressive communal propaganda. However, saner minds started questioning the line of argument, as if being Muslim in India was some crime and to push any line of thinking by Muslims, even with best of interest of their nation at heart is communal and anti-national. Indian Muslims are full citizens of this beloved nation of India and have every right to hold and give their own independent opinion on national affairs, with whatever degree of clout they can muster to freely influence democratic political decision making.
As a matter of fact, Muslims do have a very important role to develop their own line of thinking, in as much as they find that the ‘Hindutva’ line of thinking developed over the time has been markedly tainted with communal and anti-Muslim content. The Hindutva Brahminical adopting of Israel and America, as their preferred partners, has been motivated primarily as a reaction to their animosity to Muslims. The choice of Israel as the new supplier of security and intelligence products to India was primarily made as a reaction to the internal anti-Muslim propaganda unleashed by the communal Hindutva forces. Israel as an enemy of Muslim Arab is the most suitable ally of the Hindutva and Brahminical worldview. There are no other merits needed as long as Israel remains a sworn enemy of the Muslim Arabs. India’s skewed foreign policy, keeping the Arab world at arms lengths at the cost of even India’s most vital economic interests, is directly motivated by ‘hate Muslim’ content of India’s internal politics.
Just this week, the most audacious suicide attack on Indian Embassy in Kabul is proof enough that the foreign affair policy makers are heavily under pressure from the US and its allies, to push India into a very dangerous area of civil war that India cannot hope to come out unscathed. The quagmire of Afghanistan and its border with Pakistan is sure to drag India into a future of constant upheaval. Indian administration cannot fool the people, by giving out all manner of concocted good face on its ‘constructive’ engagement in Afghanistan.
Indian people are not geared for any misadventure of the international kind on its borders, in which the Manmohan Singh Government is dragging it, under US and Israeli prodding. The very Idea of India is against such foreign misadventures and is certainly against the very ethos of Indian society.
In practical terms, India is not ready for another Kandahar like exchange of terrorists with its citizens in war zones of US operations, and sooner or later, most probably sooner than later, Indian government will realize the folly of succumbing to US pressures to increase its exposure in Afghanistan and will be forced by events to withdraw from the war torn area.
Regrettably, the hallmark of Manmohan Singh government is to make private deals that could mortgage India’s long term future, its freedom and independence to foreign imperialist forces whose historical record, immediate past and immediate present, leaves no doubt that India will be eventually mauled very severely by its association with the western warmongers.
Those who have even a rudimentary grasp of world affairs cannot ignore the stark fact that there is a serious fault line between US/Israel/UK with their reluctant NATO partners on the one side and the rest of world that includes Russia, China and India on the other side.
America and Israel’s relentless and unceasing efforts to subjugate rest of nations that happen to populate between the so-called East and West, and make an eventual move against China in particular, will certainly force a fence-sitting India to choose between West and East, through applying means fair and foul, and through carrot and stick strategies.
The present government and even the whole of political class, so deeply mired in political corruption of loot of national wealth, is hardly seized of the natural and most obvious consequences of any teaming up with the US/Israel/UK axis, much less interested in taking the people of India into any confidence.
The abuse of executive powers by both BJP and Sonia Congress to rush head over heels to conclude a strategic partnership with the warmongering imperial forces, is a clear sign that this government will not bother to debate the issues in public forums and seek the express approval of the people of India, to such monumental paradigm shift in independent India’s blind commitment to war games of the US/Israel/UK.
In fact, India is being hijacked by an oligarchy of Brahminical overlords that treat rest of people of India, including Muslims as their vassals.
It is this arrogance of power that had forced the media and various political groups to be incensed at the very mention of a ‘Muslim’ view on India’s dealings with the US.
There certainly seems to be a conspiracy to silence Muslims of India to raise any voice against the rape of their country. Muslims had fought the first wars of independence by shedding blood in all theaters of engagements and it is natural that they will be called upon to fight another war of independence to free the India of the future from the stranglehold of the neo-imperialists.
So those who treat Muslim role as communalizing India’s foreign policies are themselves playing communal games that are blinding them from consequences of sleeping with the enemy that is stalking our national sovereignty and integrity. Muslims should be proud to be part of the alliance that opposes the wholesale subjugation of our nation. Though the Left has its own political reasons to oppose selling of India to foreigners, in as much as they are boldly and courageously exposing the almost dictatorial and herd mentality of the opportunist political groups, they are saviors of the nation.
The move to offer strategic partnership to India is fraught with deception and fraud. India should not trust America, Israel and UK axis, as they are all out to strictly follow the neo-con blueprint of shaping a New World Order, that has no place for India except as a mercenary power base to offer the blood of its Jawans to fight proxy war on behalf of the Axis conspirators.
Some Urdu language commentators had tried to make out that Muslims are only wary of President Bush and not averse to America as a nation. These analysts are oblivious to the ground realities prevailing in the US, where the neo-con American Jews have fully laid down long term US foreign policy parameters and departure of Bush would not change the essence of imperialist nature of America’s relationship with other nations. There may be change of style with the new US administrations, but the content will remain as antagonist and exploitative as the Neo-Con laid out plans for New American Century. Its recommended use of American fire power, in conjunction with its allies will remain unchanged. It will be great folly for the victims to try to search for the some chink in the armor of their tormentors and lay back. Indian people should be made aware of the notorious nature of US and Israel designs on India and it will be the duty of Indian Muslims, that they should speak out, even at the cost of their being branded as communal, as long as their line of thinking saves the nation from a calamitous future.
Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai
Labels: faultline between East and West, Indian Muslims
Sunday, June 01, 2008
Muslims should think and vote regional - By Ghulam Muhammed
Sunday, June 01, 2008
Muslims should think and vote regional
By Ghulam Muhammed
Karnataka election victory of BJP has started a media frenzy to predict the imminent doom of Indian National Congress. All sorts of calculations are projected to nail the point that Congress is sure to lose the next Lok Sabha elections and BJP and its allies will form the next government at the center.
The whole scenario points to regionalization of Indian politics. The national stature of Indian National Congress has been declining since the demolition of Babri Masjid and the Muslim voters’ rejection of Congress as their true friend and ally, in confrontation with Hindutva and RSS forces. Like Congress, Indian Muslims too had an all India presence and this factor had immensely benefited Congress to maintain its national presence and relevance. With each election after the imposition of PV Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh team on Congress and the nation, the all India presence is being challenged not by BJP as clear alternative, but more regional parties. States have realized that Congress and/or any other National party, is seriously handicapped in being responsive to the genuine needs of one or other state, while it has to look to other states clamouring for similar sops. The resulting deadlock, or indefinite postponement of vital decisions so crucial to individual states, damages the credibility or bona fide of the national party.
When a Raj Thackeray comes out with sons of the soil demand, mere platitude about national integrity would not suffice. The rat race in on! Some states have already got cozy niche in Central government, while others are waiting their turn as the next change of coalition equation.
Under such circumstance, Indian Muslims too should think regional. They should identify themselves with local strong groups, rather than the political parties with national ambitions, especially those with Brahminical leadership --- like Congress, BJP or CPM.
The current TMM campaign to get old Nawab Masjid in Vellore Fort, open for prayers, shows how Congress being a national party, had to play divisive communal politics of the worst kind when ASI under central jurisdiction, finds it convenient to allow a temple and a church to be handed over to their respective group while refusing the same yardstick of justice for Muslims. The injustice is so glaring that Congress leadership just cannot defend its communal policy with any degree of reasonable excuses. This is a case of high crime of communal discrimination against Muslims. However, Congress worry is not confined to only Tamil Nadu. It is apprehensive that if it gives in now to the just Muslim demands in Tamil Nadu, there would become precedent all over India. Being a national party it cannot afford to lose its bigger constituency of Hindu communalists, while ‘appeasing’ the Muslims in Tamil Nadu. It is time, therefore, for Muslims to relieve the Congress of this onerous duty to be just and appear to appease the Muslims, and shift their votes to regional parties, with whom they can be in a better position to bargain. Let Muslims and Congress not be emotional about such a parting of the way; as it is in the best of the nation, that the straitjacket of pseudo-secularism that Congress is wearing, should no longer force it to deny justice and fair-play to the Muslims.
Muslims however, should be very very vigilant that they keep out of the dragnet of Brahmin formations. Each and every political grouping, if dominated by the high-caste, like even BSP should be summarily rejected. Muslims should only cooperate with OBC and Dalits and SC/ST, to the complete exclusion of the criminal gang of exploiters, that will not relinquish their stranglehold on levers of power and pelf, unless they are clearly, publicly identifies and ostracized, just as they themselves ostracized the Dalits and the Malechas.
Muslim organisations, like Jamiatul Ulama, Jamaat e Islami, Mushawarat, Milli Council together with regional Muslim organisations should openly go regional. The Delhi based Muslim organisations should be humble enough to cooperate and even accept the leadership of regional Muslim organisations, especially from South and East. They should together come out with their favorites in each state, right from the very beginning of the campaigns that are now in full swing.
The first order of priority is not to think that Congress is our only saviour. All Brahmins think alike. If Congress has its Babri, BJP has its Gujarat, CPM has its Nandigram. All such crimes should be punished at the ballot box and better take care of the ballot box rigging too.
Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai
ghulammuhammed3@gmail.com
http://www.ghulammuhammed.wordpress.com/
Labels: ballot box rigging, BJP, Dalits, Hindus, India, India's regional political parties, Indian Muslims, Indian National Congress, Islam, Lok Sabha elections, Muslims, OBC
