LET’S GIVE A PUSH TO THE JAN LOKPAL BILL

Some weeks ago former telecom minister A Raja was arrested for taking an alleged kickback of 200 crore rupees and awarding the 2G licence to Swan Telecom. Then Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi has been arrested for indulging in financial irregularities in the recent Commonwealth Games (CWG). Eradicating corruption in the country will not be as easy as Anna Hazare perhaps assumes. We dont know how effective this Bill would be to fight against the epidemic of corruption, but it’s clear that many high-rung politicians in the past resisted the bill for which it has been stuck in the backburner for more than four decades. Still some politicians appear to be resisting the bill now and it has been a cause of worry for the citizens who have stood up to fight corruptions on all fronts.

The government’s proposed draft suggests the Lokpal as an advisory body with no unobstructed powers at its domination. At large however the bill seems to be just eyewash. It seeks to completely insulate the politicians from any kind of punitive action against them if they indulged in corruption. Such a bill, when it turns into a law, will be toothless one in its fight against corruption.

Mr. Hazare has turned an icon among ordinary Indians these days, not just because of his reputation as a campaigner for basic rights for the aam admi, but because ordinary citizens feel tired or troubled with increasing trend of corruption across the country and Anna provided them a platform to vent their protest against the menace. Corruption in the Commonwealth Games, an enormous telecom scandal, and the misuse by politicians and bureaucrats of a high-rise in Mumbai originally meant to house war widows and war veterans have aggravated public anger.

This time citizens have got a chance to channelise their growing outrage against corruption through Anna’s movement. The government has been tested in the Parliament by a united and fortified opposition and it will now face the people's verdict in five key states going to vote this month. Whatever the final outcome, let’s hope that the Jan Lokpal Bill will be able to weed out governmental corruption, at least to some extent.

"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.....

We (Muslims) have always asserted that we will abide by the court verdict

Just because the people of India have remained cool after the court verdict does not mean that the verdict is justified and correct. When mythology and "faith" of the majority take precedence over legal propriety and hard evidence, then how much conviction can the judgement carry? And if the Hindu claims were correct, why give one-third land to the Waqf Board - consolation prize?

Over the years we (Muslims) have always asserted that we will abide by the court verdict. What about the other side? Again and again we have heard that either the Court decides in favour of Ram Janmasthan otherwise they will assert that the Court can't decide on matters of faith. No wonder the judges have kept in mind the intransigent approach of the saffron brigade while delivering their verdict.

It is very unfortunate and I feel it's equally a black day as December 6, 1992. They demolished a structure on that fateful day and these Judges broke my faith in capabilities of our Judiciary on September 30, 2010.

Despite provocation at many places, such as distributing sweets, sounding fire crakers and Even showing disrespect to holy book Quran by tearing and inscripting it with Jai Shri Ram, Muslims all over India has kept quite as we fear that a decision based on reason, law and hard evidence might have led to communal riots and ultimately muslims would have faced the blunt again!!!

Minority Muslims have got caught in a real dilemma over which party they would vote for this time.

The Alliance between the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the All India National Congress (Cong I) is now through in west Bengal with TMC contesting about 228 seats while congress will fight on 65 constituencies. But it must be noted that the performance of the Congress at the centre has so far proved impotent in controlling skyrocketing prices of essential commodities. It has also been found that many heavyweights either from the congress or the ruling alliance of UPA were on headlines for all the wrong reasons, denting the image of the party.

Many find the price rise and numerous scams as the biggest negative achievements of the Congress-led UPA in recent months. It is in this Congress era that India have witnessed increased cases of harassment of dynamic and qualified Muslim young citizens by country's security agencies. There is huge number of cases in which young Muslims were falsely framed as terrorists or their accomplices. Congress boasts as a secular party. But history shows that under the rule of the Congress the country witnessed more communal riots than under the government of any other party.

On 22nd February 1949 midnight when idols were placed inside the Babri Masjid Congress was in power in centre and also in Uttar Pradesh. in 1986, when gates of the mosque were unlocked and puja was performed by the Hindu zealots, Congress headed the central as well as the local state governments. Yet again, it was the Congress party at the helm in Delhi when the Babri Masjid was demolished. Muslims were hurt again when they were asked to remain calm before the delivery of Babri Masjid judgment. We saw how joyous non-Muslims were at liberty to celebrate the ‘victory’ after the judgment came through. Congress often refutes to help Muslims improve their standard of living. The Congress did not throw its weight behind Digvijay Singh nor tried to rescue him from the verbal attacks from opposition parties, when he tried to raise questions about Hemant Karkare's unfortunate death in suspicious condition. Mr Singh also did not get enough support from his party when he hinted that some Hinduist groups had been involved in terror attacks against Muslims and many terror attacks which were being blamed on Muslims could have been engineered by the Hinduists.

Hence, with Congress as a dishonest party, Trinamool as an opportunist, and a strong anti incumbency wave sweeping against the Leftist coalition, minority Muslims have got caught in a real dilemma over which party they would vote for this time.

The law enforcing agencies are somewhat incapable to protect the vulnerable which was very much evident in case of Gujarat riots.

We as a country are passing through a transition phase both politically and economically and we need to be glued to our basic dictates as laid down in our constitution. Apathy to the Commonwealth Games (or should I rephrase it as Conmen Wealth Making-games) scams , the 2G spectrum scam and so on could encourage more massive misappropriation of public funds, with major implications for the economy. And there is a definite need to pressurize the investigating agencies so that the guilty are brought to book.

It is unfortunate that the whistle blowers are demoralized into silence or actually liquidated at times. Attacks on witnesses and accused persons lodged in jails have become too common to provoke public annoyance or media consideration. The law enforcing agencies are somewhat incapable to protect the vulnerable which was very much evident in case of Gujarat riots. Even The Rights guaranteed by the constitution and which are supposed to be inherited free of cost are bought and sold like a virtual commodity, it is a common knowledge that to register a complaint at any police station ,it will have to be backed by an illegal payments, leave aside the follow up action which further entails expenses at times beyond a victims reach making the whole process affordable only to the rich and elite class. Hence monetary constraint of victims turns the entire law awarding process “tipsy turvy” with victims as accused, and the oppressors as aggrieved and by all means and standards this is shameful state of affairs after six decades of self rule.

My greatest regret is that we have not been able to build a popular opinion in favour implementing police reforms, that is a well trained, handsomely paid, unbiased & autonomous police force which will be an an ideal towards which every democracy should work. But unfortunately even after years this merely remains an impractical and unachievable theory limited to books, which is a tragedy that continues to bedevil us all.

Although the Supreme Court has ordered reforms from time to time but they are either delayed or partially implemented, but then giving up the fight against the oligarchy of the political class is again an easy option I desist and deny…

I wonder if our civil society is also divided on the opinion or is religiously biased as well.

Swami Asemanand’s confession has opened Pandora’s Box, and the bees of the box have stung so many men in authority, it has further demolished the credibility of countless men in uniform who are on oath to be un-biased and neutral.

It is heart quenching to know as, how the police built cases against innocent men, accusing and implicating them of terrorist attacks be it on Malegaon, the Samjhauta Express, Ajmer Sharif and Mecca Masjid. Those in political power kept quietly approving this biased investigations and any doubts raised by social activists, while victims of police atrocities were brushed aside.

Unfortunately large section of Media also kept quiet and underplayed the involvement of any other (non Islamic) elements, and so most of the incidents did find space on front pages were about the involvements of Muslims, whereas the voices of victims, social activists and rational men were purposely tucked in the back pages in a subdued manner.

Whatever the reasons for the trap that was set by the police, this is a chilling story of malafide intent and elaborately cynical charades that shames the criminal justice system of our country and the lofty ideals of justice that it is meant to champion.

In our country we need to have a mechanism in place whose job should be to keep watch that no innocents are falsely accused and wrongly booked, as years of incarceration ruins them and their families completely. It also remains to be seen as how the Indian Government is going to right the wrongs done by some communal law enforcing men. Will the offending officers be booked under the same stringent laws which were abused by them?

Another important precedent deserves attention here is that the liberal & intelligentsia flocks around commenting on the issues if a non Muslim is booked in some criminal or sedition charges, which is very much evident in the cases of Dr.Binayak Sen, journalist Azaad or even an Arudhuti Roy .But then, the protest by the same broadminded & liberals are either limited or negligible, if a Muslim goes through the same agony, which is unfair in any Laissez-faire multicultural society. This regrettably forces me to wonder if our civil society is also divided on the opinion or is religiously biased as well.

While it is to be seen if the government of India just likes their counterpart in Australia apologies and compensates (as in case of Dr. Mohammed Haneef) to the innocents who were wrongly detained, charged and imprisoned. As all those who stands for the Democratic society with the concept of human rights expects the above as this will be the first step of reparation owed to the innocents, accused and their devastated families.

Therefore it is yet to be seen if India can defend its record of multicultural & multireligious tolerance…