"Winds of Change" has now lost its gale force with which it was raging around during the 2009 elections.

Lots of changes have taken place in Bengal since 2009 Parliamentary elections. Talks about "winds of change" has now lost its gale force with which it was raging around during the 2009 elections. The initial euphoria among people seeking the change has now died down. The last couple of years have exposed Mamata Banerjee and her party and now people have understood how hollow her rhetorics were. Even the TMC-run Kolkata Municipal Corporation is not showing any sign of ushering in an era of good governance. Most TMC councilors have failed to meet people's expectations. Even the central ministers(except Dinesh Trivedi) from Ms Banerjee's party are not doing any significant work in Delhi expect flagging off some new trains.

The people of the Bengal should weigh pros and cons of the situations before they come out to vote for any political party, as this opportunity to choose a government comes once in long five years. And if a wrong decision is through, then people are left at the mercy of an incompetent government led by some sefish, corrupt and anti-people political party.

No doubt such a "change" usually helps in bringing developments to the society. This phenomenon is evident in the states where such change in government is often taking place. Tamil Nadu, Kerala and even Karnataka show how such change in government brought about developments in these states. The fear of losing power looms large for ruling parties and it helps respective governments work overtime in the interest of the people who vote them to power.

It must be noted that in Bengal even the CPI-M is trying to bring about some changes within the set up of the party in ways possible. It has excluded many sitting MLAs and even ministers from its list of contestants in forthcoming elections because those comrades are not being favoured by people. CPI-M is making frantic effort to win people'sconfidence and recover its lost ground. And, surely it has regained some of its lost ground in recent months, given the constant bickering within the TMC, and the corruptions charges leveled against some TMC leaders. But such corrective steps appear too little and too late. The arrogance of the Communist leaders has eaten away the party's mass base.

People of Bengal cannot really choose whom to follow and they appear to have been caught between devil and the deep blue sea. However, it's a fact that to teach a good lesson to the arrogant rulers a very large section of the people have turned impatient in Bengal. The elections will soon tell how powerful this section is and if they can really trigger the change.

LOOTS OF WAKF PROPERTIES ARE GOING ON

Muslims are worried and angry the way wakf lands, which were donated by philanthropic Muslims for the benefit of the community are being openly traded by the unscrupulous mutavallis [caretakers] and others in authority. Clandestine sell-offs of wakf properties are taking place all across the country. In connivance with the state Wakf Boards the mutavallis are misusing the properties for personal financial gains. The situation is piquant in throughout India. Wakf lands are regularly targeted by real estate sharks, who approach either caretakers or members of the Boards, who in turn sell the lands for a pittance, by taking hefty cuts in the underhand deals.

Many high profile deals of wakf properties came to our notice recently. The land on which Mukesh Ambani has constructed his famous 27-floor personal home Anitilia was a genuine wakf land. Mr Ambani paid a very small fraction of the land's real market value of some whopping crores of rupees and took possession of the land through some illegal deals. On original wakf lands all across the country numerous posh residential complexes and highrises have come up where richer non-Muslims have set up their homes. Poor Muslims can never afford to dream to occupy any place in those expensive floors.

But ordeals for Muslims do not end here. After bribing mostly Hindu wakf board officials and the Muslim mutavallis- who are always ready to do away with their conscience for little monetary gains, commercial complexes have also sprung up on these wakf lands. These commercial complexes on wakf properties are minting money in crores and not a fraction of it ever comes to the benefit of Muslims who continue to perish in the society in traditional miseries. But then whom should Muslims blame for the situation? To the disposers of the lands? Or the buyers of the wakf properties. But before we the Muslims blame outsiders, we should blame the rogue members in our community. We have to unite and confront these moles, who are equally responsible for the economic miseries of the community.....