Not Reservation but adequate Representation will help Muslims

In a major decision ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections in five states, the Union Cabinet has approved 4.5% sub-quota reservation to minorities carved out from the existing quota of 27% for the Other Backward Castes category. Moreover with an eye on electoral politics, a prominent Muslim Union Minister has promised a 9% sub quota for Muslims in the 27% OBC quota if Congress comes to power in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

However the community is aware that all such announcements are politically motivated with a standardized intent of political mileage. In addition, such announcements extending perks and privileges by different political parties (if they are in power) are farce and have become somewhat synonymous with politics in India. It is a culture these days to make exorbitant promises during elections and forego all such oratory vows after elections. No political party has ever offered to liberate Muslims from the misery and mess of deep rooted ghettoisation.

Unfortunately no initiatives were ever taken such as intensification of land reforms, extension of credit facilities, and clearance of backlogs in respect of poverty alleviation programme, development initiatives, and measures to spread education. A notable point in this context is that Muslims required most attention and privilege from successive governments in addition to SC/ST, but this is something that the administrators and political parties have simply ignored. There has been a “Positive Discrimination” by the higher but Communal bureaucrats, as they do not show any genuine interest in implementing “Constitutional guidelines”. A large number of posts remain unfulfilled but the officials show least interest in clearing backlogs. This only shows constitutional guideline is not enough to bring a big change in raising the social, educational and economic status of Muslims, but a “Political Will” to implement is required too.

Even Article 340 could not make way for justice or equal opportunity and a fair chance of representation to Muslims either in studies or in government jobs. More and more people are dependent on hand skills, labour, small trades, and jobs in private establishments. All this has only resulted in increasing the number of unemployed in the country. The situation is even worse than the Dalits, particularly because even Dalits have their leaders and representation but Muslims have reached such a stage where hand to mouth is a priority and hence have failed here to.

And as this was not the end of grieves, came 1990’s and violence was reported from almost all quarters of the country, there was a steep rise in atrocities against minorities across the country. The manifestation of communal forces’ prejudice against minorities was now more cruel and vulgar than in the past, like the pre 1990 conflicts were spontaneous in nature, but now the events were meticulously chalked, organized and systematically executed. What happened in Gujarat 2002 and Orissa in 2007 are somewhat glaring examples. In both the cases, they were not riots or conflicts between members of two communities. In Gujarat, it was practically a genocide perpetrated with the active support and consent of the government. In Orissa, on the other hand, it was the members of the right wings groups who literally hunted the Christians out of their establishments, tortured & murdered them. In both the cases the police force, mostly packed with members of non minorities, often side with the attackers or remained mute spectators. Most of Human right activists and secular political observers feel that violence against minorities/Muslims cannot be contained unless the police are impartial and Acts like Anti Discrimination Law is effectively used against the guilty.


Coming back to the point timely Reservation could have had some effect on the overall conditions of Muslims in India, but there as well a strong government action aimed at their emancipation was required. Reservation which was gestated as an option for removing social inequality, has failed in the past several decades. Those with better vote banks, more control over them and with better pressure tactics gained and got themselves included in the reserved list. But Muslims as leaderless community was left in lurch hereto, a time when every community is trying hard to be reserved in some category or the other as “being reserved'’ brings security for the next generation. For getting themselves reserved, parties are born. The primary idea of reservation was to remove social inequality, but instead more divisions appeared.

It is important to understand the objectives of reservation policies. It intends to create a system in which the less privileged get an opportunity to compete and excel. The structure of the policy should be such that it removes the very need to have it erased over a finite period. The statement, although simple, is hard to implement in practice. A successful application would imply concerted efforts of all, in various spheres of activity. It must remove social/religious/caste/creed based imbalances and biasness in all spheres, and if it happens, it would be our second freedom struggle.

In fact the present growth of pressure groups would make the whole population reserved in some class or the other in the foreseeable future. The policies framed, worked against the very objective for which they were created! A privileged group among the reserved has been created, who compete against their brethren to enjoy the benefits. This competition goes on and on and as a result, a creamy layer or super-caste within caste has evolved. Its members are similar to the privileged of the unreserved class, except for the apparent biological manifestations, which unfortunately the years of reservation could not erase. The reserved who enjoyed the benefits refused to acknowledge the fact that they were recipients of social support and considered the two-three letter acronym a curse and tried to hide it as much as possible, except when it came to admissions, recruitment, jobs and promotions. The fortunate among the reserved, who got admissions for better courses, did their best within their ability; got jobs, promotions, accommodation, social benefits, contacts, etc. and this continued for decades. It is natural that once the benefits of reservation are available to an individual, those continue along his/her family tree, forcing others in the community to compete with them. The majority, who does not enjoy the comforts, become further marginalized. As the size of the reservation pie is not increasing, the benefits of reservation do not reach the other sections of the less privileged.

The Ranganath Mishra Commission report recommends 10 percent quota for Muslims - the largest minority in the country. But the reservations' process will be wrought with imperfections as the community is divided into umpteen castes and sub-castes, a system that has percolated in them through their Hindu neighborhoods. Apart from that the approval of 4.5% quota reservation is to be shared between Muslims and half a dozen other religious minorities and will do more damage than good to the community and shall be the bone of contention between the groups concerned. What Muslims needs is more than reservation and quota politics, they rather need more schools in their areas than police stations. Instead of fighting over smaller slices of a small pie of the national income, what is needed is the expansion of the unbiased national pie which would help everyone to get their rightful and bigger share. The oppressed and the marginalized Muslim community need expansion of opportunities rather than half-baked, ill-thought favors’ from the state. The Muslims to have an honorable place must stop looking at charity in the form of reservations & quota’s and should seek fair representation as per its populace proportion. It’s so unfortunate that some politically motivated mullah & scholars are in favour of reservations, which is shocking in the sense that they want the Indian Muslim community to go in for the begging bowl by putting across incorrect demands.

And above all It is time our government gives up its restricted mindset as The Voices of reason demand that educational standards and qualifications should be standardized and impartial whatever the language, religion or region, with financial aid granted on the basis of performance instead of seat reservation. And if the government fails to realize the magnitude of the problem and do not implement the right solution with all collective wisdom, India will be the only existing society in which religion, caste, class and knowledge based divisions will coexist even in 2100.

Agitation against Rushdie’s visit and assembly elections

A controversy was brewing over the scheduled visit of Salman Rushdie, the well-known India-born British novelist, to India. Rushdie was scheduled to visit India to participate in the Jaipur Literate Festival along with a galaxy of other novelists. Darul Uloom Deoband, the Islamic seminary, had demanded that the central government debar the entry of Rushdie, whose novel, The Satanic Verses, outraged the Muslim world resulting in the novel being banned in India in 1988.

With passage of time, the agitated anxiety of the protestors has calmed and Rushdie, who had to remain underground for several years, is leading a normal life at present. He has visited India several times since then and even participated in the Jaipur Literature Festival in 2007, without inviting any protest. Therefore the cause of the present flare-up is little confusing. As it seems that the forthcoming polls in five states, especially in Uttar Pradesh, have something to do with the development. Perhaps the issue has been brought to the forefront keeping in mind the sizeable Muslim population of UP whose voting pattern might tilt the balance of power in the state.

India regardless of being an avowedly secular nation, has respected the religious perspective and popular sentiments. In a multicultural society like ours one must understand the social limit and the legitimate rights inherited therein, it shall not intrude or hurt others’ beliefs and sentiments therewith. Hence banning of satanic verses was not the isolated case, James Laine’s Shivaji: Hindu King in Islamic India and a famous Marathi play Mee Nathuram Godse Boltai were banned too. Even violent advances were attempted on famous painter M F Husain resulting his last years blighted by lawsuits and attacks for his nude paintings of Hindu divinities. Therefore, the claims that Muslims or Islam being intolerant are futile and unwarranted being ostensibly spread by semi educated journalists and politicians with vested interests, the inconsiderate truth is that “Might is Right” and “Vote Bank Politics” are a reality in India .

But it is also true that legally, there is nothing the government can do to stop Rushdie from visiting, without a visa. Although he is a British citizen, he has a Person of Indian Origin (PIO) card, which gives him the right to travel to India freely. It’s an interesting wrinkle to this latest iteration of the Rushdie-in-India saga. The PIO card was intended as a way for India to cultivate the influential, affluent network of overseas Indians by making it easier for them to visit India and own property. Immigration authorities perhaps never imagined that it would keep the doors open even for those Indians whose views might be unpopular or politically inconvenient.

United Progressive Alliance government is panicky as had already burnt its fingers by mishandling several issues in the recent past and with the elections round the corner shall not dare to stand further by the hallowed tenets of constitution. Apart from that Muslims, who make 18 percent of India's 1 billion-plus population, are a key constituency of India's ruling United Progressive Alliance-led coalition government, and it will be an uphill task for the Indian government to publicly antagonize the community ahead of key state elections this year. On the other hand Rushdie himself has maintained relative silence about the controversy.

Agitation against Rushdie’s visit and assembly elections..

A controversy was brewing over the scheduled visit of Salman Rushdie, the well-known India-born British novelist, to India. Rushdie was scheduled to visit India to participate in the Jaipur Literate Festival along with a galaxy of other novelists. Darul Uloom Deoband, the Islamic seminary, had demanded that the central government debar the entry of Rushdie, whose novel, The Satanic Verses, outraged the Muslim world resulting in the novel being banned in India in 1988.

With passage of time, the agitated anxiety of the protestors has calmed and Rushdie, who had to remain underground for several years, is leading a normal life at present. He has visited India several times since then and even participated in the Jaipur Literature Festival in 2007, without inviting any protest. Therefore the cause of the present flare-up is little confusing. As it seems that the forthcoming polls in five states, especially in Uttar Pradesh, have something to do with the development. Perhaps the issue has been brought to the forefront keeping in mind the sizeable Muslim population of UP whose voting pattern might tilt the balance of power in the state.

India regardless of being an avowedly secular nation, has respected the religious perspective and popular sentiments. In a multicultural society like ours one must understand the social limit and the legitimate rights inherited therein, it shall not intrude or hurt others’ beliefs and sentiments therewith. Hence banning of satanic verses was not the isolated case, James Laine’s Shivaji: Hindu King in Islamic India and a famous Marathi play Mee Nathuram Godse Boltai were banned too. Even violent advances were attempted on famous painter M F Husain resulting his last years blighted by lawsuits and attacks for his nude paintings of Hindu divinities. Therefore, the claims that Muslims or Islam being intolerant are futile and unwarranted being ostensibly spread by semi educated journalists and politicians with vested interests, the inconsiderate truth is that “Might is Right” and “Vote Bank Politics” are a reality in India .

But it is also true that legally, there is nothing the government can do to stop Rushdie from visiting, without a visa. Although he is a British citizen, he has a Person of Indian Origin (PIO) card, which gives him the right to travel to India freely. It’s an interesting wrinkle to this latest iteration of the Rushdie-in-India saga. The PIO card was intended as a way for India to cultivate the influential, affluent network of overseas Indians by making it easier for them to visit India and own property. Immigration authorities perhaps never imagined that it would keep the doors open even for those Indians whose views might be unpopular or politically inconvenient.

United Progressive Alliance government is panicky as had already burnt its fingers by mishandling several issues in the recent past and with the elections round the corner shall not dare to stand further by the hallowed tenets of constitution. Apart from that Muslims, who make 18 percent of India's 1 billion-plus population, are a key constituency of India's ruling United Progressive Alliance-led coalition government, and it will be an uphill task for the Indian government to publicly antagonize the community ahead of key state elections this year. On the other hand Rushdie himself has maintained relative silence about the controversy.

The US invasion of Iraq & Libya were serious violation of the UN Charter...

Since the sad, inglorious and atrocious murder of the Libyan strongman, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, the local dailies all over the globe are filled with ugly and unspeakable sermons about him. The annoyance is that prime pages are dedicated to articles on Gaddafi misdeeds and Most of the writers paint Gaddafi as an evil man, a terrorist, a thief, a dictator, a murderer and a man with no iota of conscience. Some say that Gaddafi was a thorn in the flesh of the first world nations, especially America, for their meddlesomeness and violation of the territorial integrity of underdeveloped and developing nations.

But the veiled thing that plays behind every venture of man is “profit”. Hence it is important to think over, is it possible for the foreign powers that pulled down the government of Gaddafi to waste their funds in these hard times of global depression without an unambiguous plan to make yield? Now that the destruction of Libya is over, the foreign powers are beginning to angle for who gets what, in the rebuilding of Libya. The foreign powers can never go on board on an extravagant gamble. The oil wealth of Libya is the sure target of the alliance forces and they have succeeded.

The query subsequently is who profits the most if Gaddafi were to quit and would it really bring egalitarianism to Libya. Everyone on the street knows this was only about oil and banking. Until last year, Libya was producing nearly two million barrels of oil a day. To put that in perspective, India’s daily national utilization of oil is roughly three million barrels a day. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), Libya a member of OPEC sits on one of the largest proven oil reserves in the world. Although Libya is not major oil producers such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the UAE or Russia, but it reserves of crude oil are about 3% of the world’s total. Apart from above Libyan oil is considered of optimum quality with low sulphuric substance. And geographically too, Libya is far away from the Gulf region; consequently Libyan oil exports are not subject to the fluctuations resulting from Gulf’s political affairs. And above all the western powers most active in opposing the Gaddafi regime, namely the US, UK and France, import only 0.5% and 8.5% of Libyan oil as compared to their total imports? Now does that mean anything?

For many unaware with his works, Gaddafi’s name was identical with bizarre, even unusual manners, accentuated by maddening diplomacy wound up in dazzling costumery and dizzying dithyrambs. But the lesser known facts are Pre-Gaddafi Libya was one of the poorest countries on the world. Life expectancy in the 1960s was only 46 years. There was no health system to speak of in those days. Most Libyans lived in tents around the few pastures around the desert. Nearly the entire population of Libya was a rural society. For the past 40 years, Libya faced economic sanctions from most of the western world. Ethnic tensions were widespread and water was inadequate even literacy was less than 20 percent.

But Gaddafi single handedly built his country over four decades — from the sand and remnants of tribal society and turned it into metropolis culture. It was under him that the health status of his subject improved remarkably in comparison with the rest of West Asia (that includes Saudi Arabia). Life expectancy in Libya before the recent conflict began was 77.65 years. Literacy was at 82.6 percent and over 97 percent of the population had access to sanitation facilities. It just cannot be ignored that in the 1980s and ’90s, Gaddafi undertook what is to date the world’s largest drinking water project: 6,000 km of pipelines carried water under the Sahara to different corners of Libya. Libya ranks 58 out of 177 on the 2004 United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Report, which measures quality of life.

In addition to the projects and development he carried out using his country’s petro-dollars, Gaddafi was a leading financier of development across Africa. More worryingly for the West, Gaddafi, not unlike other gulf rulers, was actively seeking to delink the price of oil from the dollar and float a new bullion based currency, in this case, a gold African dinar. This prompted Sarkozy to call Libya, “a threat to the financial security of mankind”, and it was the root cause of all trouble with the western powers. The trouble with the Colonel was he had sat there in authority far too long for a fuel-hungry Europe and North America to remain patient. Therefore Gaddafi’s end engineered by the US led NATO forces, after Saddam Hussein’s hanging in 2006 proves yet again that in the current world order, the United States of America can do whatever it wishes with other nations and leaders who do not toe its line.



Gaddafi treated his opponents perhaps almost as shoddily as American soldiers treat their prisoners at the villainous Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq. But then saying this does not means any support to the tormenters- be it Saddam Hussein or Colonel Gaddafi. But the military escalation on Libya was a second time that NATO is involved in an armed adventure outside its geographical zone. The point is this going to become a pattern in the future? The value of the human catastrophe, like in all wars, is inestimable. The stories of the aggressions on Libya are upsetting, the images extremely disturbing. And for those of us, who live in what is termed the Third World, the fate of Libya is something from which we must take note of. In his last address to the UN Security Council, in 2006-07, Gaddafi had asked, “What was the reason to invade Iraq? We want to know because it is mysterious and ambiguous and we may face the same destiny. The invasion in itself was and is a serious violation of the UN Charter.”

On September 17, 2002 the Bush administration published its “National Security Strategy of the United States of America.” So far, there has been no serious examination of this important document in the unbiased media. This is unfortunate, to say the least, because this document advances the political and theoretical justification for a massive rise of American militarism. The document asserts as the guiding procedure of the United States the right to use military might anywhere in the world, at any time it chooses, against any country it believes to be, or it believes may at some point become, a threat to American welfare. No other country in modern history, not even Nazi Germany at the height of Hitler’s madness, has asserted such a sweeping claim to global supremacy—or, to put it more candidly, world domination—as is made by the United States. In another passage, the document warns that the United States will take the actions necessary to guarantee that their efforts to meet their global security commitments and protect Americans are not impaired by the potential for investigations, inquiry, or prosecution by the International Criminal Court (ICC), whose jurisdiction does not extend to Americans and which they wouldn’t accept. In other words, the actions of the leaders of the United States will not be restrained by the conventions of international law! The disagreement is that the US hardly cares about egalitarianism or the well being of the people of other nations as long as its own financial and military interests are served. And this artificiality can well be judged by the fact that, the US doesn’t denounce human rights violations in countries like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia which to us all are equally fraudulent and callous regimes.

After Gaddafi’s assassination the National Transitional Council (NTC) is in the process of running democratically elected government in the country. But for the Council steering Libya out to at least a near-perfect democracy will not be an easy job when the country has no contemporary history of party politics or the rule of law. The Arab experience has not been particularly forthcoming. Much of the Arab world is ruled by hereditary monarchies, military regimes and autocrats. A recent trend has been that even autocracies have become hereditary, as it was in the case of Syria. There is barely a functioning democracy anywhere in the region .Even where democratic elections are held, inconvenient winners are soon overthrown or not allowed to assume power due to significant external intervention or with the connivance of multi-national oil companies, as in the case of Algeria. So, it will be interesting to watch how the council establishes a democracy in Libya which had been in anarchy for decades.


http://theeasternpost.org/show_news_archive.php?ofPage=12&dt=2012-01-18

Muslims key for Congress in UP

The Congress party in Uttar Pradesh is clearly in shambles. It has been in the miserable shape in the state mostly because of its internal feuds, and not because of any external political aggression. Congress has lost its popularity also because its leaders moved away from the masses over the past decades and has turned into a party of drawing room politicians. A party which once dominated the political scenario of Uttar Pradesh has been left with just a few legislative members in the state assembly today. The leaders indulged into unnecessary groupism and virulent campaign against each other. The Congress high command should act in a war footing to do away with the differences among the party leaders as it’s time for the leaders to put their heads together and to find out ways to regain their popularity they had lost some decades ago.

Muslims constitute about 14 percent of India's population, making them the biggest minority group whose vote remains critical in key swing states like Kerala in South India, West Bengal and Assam in East and Uttar Pradesh in the North. And in Uttar Pradesh, which is the most populous state in India, Muslims constitute almost 20 percent of the voting electorate and as the community is famous to vote en-bloc, more or less as a monolithic group for one political party, their votes could prove decisive in at least 40 constituencies where they constitute 40 to 45 percent of the electorate, and could tilt the balance in favor of a party.



Before 1990, Muslims voted for the Congress, which was seen to be secular as opposed to the pro-Hindu BJP, but the gradual decline of its vote share and popularity among the minorities (namely, Muslims) has been a key factor behind the erosion of Congress’ platform. But post Babri Masjid Demolition, things changed statistically and Muslims preferred regional parties and Mulayam Singh Yadav's tough posture against Hindu fundamentalism and his image as a "secular" leader saw the SP emerge as the party that protected Muslim interests. Consequently, the Muslim vote got divided between the SP and the Congress, with the former getting the lion's share.

In Uttar Pradesh Muslims sorely lack political leadership and are coveted as vote bank by every political party barring the BJP. But then all political outfits make electoral promises like guaranteeing them protection and religious freedom, which the community now finds it offensive as they desire to look beyond social alienation and religious causes. Instead, they want guarantees on socioeconomic development, education and jobs. It’s pathetic that even after 64 years since independence Muslims still need to ask for equality! No government has worked seriously for the rights of Muslims. So, by and large, whichever party promises working for the upliftment, development and reservation will be voted by them. Muslims have faced systematic discrimination in the society, government offices and businesses. The Sachar Committee findings supported what Muslims have been complaining about discrimination for decades. But even years after the committee submitted its report to the government, the Congress-led central government has not bothered to address the miseries Muslims have been living through. Some half-hearted efforts were indeed made to improve the lots of the state’s mostly backward Muslims by successive state government and then by the Congress-led UPA government in the past few years too. But as Uttar Pradesh’s Muslims continue to be denied their rightful share in country’s development by the country’s largest political party, they decided to turn away from Congress.

India’s Muslims have always behaved in secular ways and have made efforts to stay with the mainstream, and have supported secular political parties dominated by non-Muslims. And have always accepted the leaders of secular parties as their leaders at the cost of raising leaders from within the community, for which Muslims do not happen to find Muslim leaders at national level. All charges by some groups portraying Muslims as communal or narrow-minded are absurd. Muslims have been marginalized in the society simply because they face discrimination in all walks of life. If the most powerful section of the society and the government treated the Muslims in unbiased manner, the community might have been able to come out of their ghettoes long ago.

Since 1992, no major communal unrest has taken place in U.P., yet Muslims’ socioeconomic condition in the state has not seen any improvement. Despite using the key Muslim support the Samajwadi Party (SP) & Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have stayed on in power for record stretch of years, but none of the above has helped uplift the rearward community. Some time back, for a while Muslims thought that Mayawati’s party would offer a viable alternative to the rest. But now they are disenchanted with this party as well, as it appears to be paying more attention at nothing except grabbing power and minting money as quickly as possible. Many Muslims who turned to Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in last few years have begun backtracking in recent months and they believe that this party too has not served the community well. Irrespective of all above Yadav's appeasement of the BJP in recent years has raised questions over its secular credentials and fueled suspicions that the SP and the BJP might have struck some sort of a deal. The BSP and BJP might have fallen out, but that does not prevent the two patching up and holding hands in the event of a hung parliament. Both Yadav and Mayawati nurse ambitions of becoming the prime minister and they will sink to any level, including extending support to the BJP, a party they have bitterly reviled in the past.

The four main parties in Uttar Pradesh - the BJP, the Congress, the SP and the BSP – but some have suggested that the battle is a three-cornered one in most constituencies, with the Congress of some relevance only in a few dozen constituencies. And unlike previous elections, caste and communal considerations rather than development and the state of the economy will be the main issues that determine how the Muslims votes. As The BJP's previous calls for construction of a Hindu temple on what was a mosque site at Ayodhya, which is part of the Faizabad constituency in Uttar Pradesh, do not strike a chord with Hindu voters anymore. Therefore BJP cannot expect to sail to power on the temple issue itself, the mandir-masjid (temple-mosque) issue, and more importantly, the potential this issue has to trigger violence, is very much on the minds of Uttar Pradesh's Muslim community. This and the anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat in 2002 will be critical factors that will influence the Muslim vote.

The Muslims are now seething in anger and are preparing to teach all such parties a lesson in next year’s assembly elections. Taking advantage of the situation the Congress is targeting to come to power in the state. And with the emergence of Rahul Gandhi in the electoral fray has somewhat revived interest in the Congress party but whether this interest will translate into votes and improve the Congress' electoral fortunes in this politically crucial state remains to be seen. For the past 20 years, the Congress has been in the wilderness in Uttar Pradesh. The party's organizational machinery, badly battered by over a decade out of power, is said to be non-existent in large swathes of this state. Uttar Pradesh might have produced the most prime ministers and many aspiring prime ministers, but it is among the poorest states in this country. It ranks low on almost every socio-economic indicator and has witnessed the most number of communal riots and caste clashes in the county.


However, the community has begun thinking if Congress could offer a secular and progressive government which could make sincere efforts to reach out to them. And if Congress sets up a well-organized network extending to Muslims living in ghettoes - in villages, town and cities -- it will reap a good benefit in all terms. The situation provides a very good opportunity and if its leaders make sincere effort to organize them well and reach out to Muslims, the community might not disappoint them. If it can win the Muslim heart in Uttar Pradesh with proper alliances, the community has the ability to propel the Congress to power in the state and this support will also in part help Congress consolidate its position in central power, for many years.

But then Rahul Gandhi must prove that he is a serious contender by revamping the sorry condition of Congress’s organizational machinery in the state, else the fear is that a vote for the Congress would end up being "wasted vote".



http://twocircles.net/2011dec22/muslims_key_congress.html

Naxals are no modern day Robin Hoods...

It’s more than a week since Mallojula Koteswara Rao, alias Kishenji, died in a police encounter in the thick jungles of West Midnapore in Bengal, but the spectre of his movement is still haunting the respective state government. Six 'concerned citizens' were appointed as interlocutors between state and the armed Naxals. But with Kishanji killed, five of the six people have resigned.

A movement which used to be a Bihar’s problem in 70’s has taken centre stage and has spread, unfortunately to about 220+ districts out of about 600 in India. In the beginning, the movement reflected the lack of development in remote area of the country where most deprived lived with no roads, schools, hospitals or even no attention. Hence the poorest quarters of the state become the breeding hubs for Naxals. It was understandable that being ignored and unconcerned, their numbers, anger and distrust towards state grew stronger with every passing day. All this alienated a section of our population giving rise to disgruntled youth who are easily brainwashed into joining the Naxal movement. Therefore the negligence for decades has somehow put the enormous pressure on government with an odd problem, which is, to offer development as well as take out the extremist elements in the most extreme circumstances. And in this situation the fear is that if government exerts more violence at places where people are struggling to make ends meet, the more it will be alienated.



As a matter of fact more people have died in Naxals attacks than the so called jehadi conspiracies, but a large section of Bajrangi officials, administrators and section of journalists were more concerned in maligning followers of a particular religion and witch hunt them rather than work against the real problem of Naxalism in India. Hence a conspirator camouflage by some individuals against fellow citizens is blown with spilling reality out in a case like the Dantewada incident. And if 26/11 was a wakeup call for the country’s anti terrorism mechanism, the Dantewada incident was an eye opener of governments’ deficiencies in tackling the Maoist Challenge. As by baiting and wiping out almost the entire company of CRPF personnel at Dantewada & EFR at Silda camp they have proved that they are combination of well trained cadres, maneuvering with deadliest precisions and fire powers to destroy even our Mine Protected Vehicles, which further consolidates the fear that it’s a transition in strategy of Naxals from guerrilla to mobile warfare.

And irrespective of above, thanks to the lethargic leaderships and inattentive successive governments which were busy boasting their political achievements with hollow misleading slogans as “India Shinning”, or a “Bharat Nirman” campaign, undermining the real danger of Naxalism for years, which has somewhat helped the consolidation of “Naxalism”. Hence Instead of forming a concrete plan to sabotage the Maoists, the successive government relied on rhetoric. A glaring example is, not very long ago Mamata supported and shared the dais with Chatradhar Mahato, the leader of People's Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA) in Lalgarh and adjoining regions of West Midnapore while it was looked upon by the Left parties with suspicion as the PCPA enjoyed Naxal backing. And in most of Banerjee’s successes like the Singur and Nandigram movement, the Naxals have claimed equal participation. And in 2009, well before the Assembly elections in Bengal, Ms. Banerjee had refused to believe in the presence of Naxals and protested against Operation Lalgarh. But suddenly two years down the line she calls them 'Supari Killers' (contract killers), and feels there's an urge to retain the same forces which were being asked to pull out. And in between the double standards and struggle for power amongst the democratic government and armed squads, it’s the commoners who find themselves in a consistent flux.

No doubt India is developing fast and steady for last one and half decades or so with the world’s largest booming middle class populations. And statistically government after government has spent billions and billions for the underprivileged. Schemes under various names have been announced every now and then. Whereas, we have no proper accountability and system to make sure the schemes reach the right people at the right time. But unfortunately there is a huge glaring gap between urban India and rural India.

Let’s see this fact sheet:

---India ranks 134 in human development index according to 2009 UN report

---The human poverty index value of 28.0% for India and ranks 88th among 135 countries for which the index has been calculated. The HPI measures severe deprivation in health by the proportion of people who are not expected to survive to age 40

---46% of our children below 5 are underweight, ranking 137. We are just one rank ahead of Bangladesh

---41% of our population lives below 1.25$ a day

---75% of our population lives below 2$ a day

---We have 8.2% Scheduled tribe population and 16.2% scheduled caste population, together they make 1/4th of our total population and predominant among them still untouched by the economic progress we make.

It’s not surprising as according to the Berlin-based watchdog Transparency International, India figures 85th among 180 countries in the corruption perception index.

But even though irrespective of all above, the ideology of Naxalism for whatever reason it originated has steered away from the conceived ideology of fighting for the landless, deprived class and has now hit a dead-end, left with just violent streak. And the sympathizers do make mistake as Naxals are “no modern day Robin Hoods”, but extortionist with well oiled economy of extortion, kidnapping, theft and terrorists as circumstances of poverty cannot be an alibi for violence nor be a justification for terror acts. But even the “arming and training of specialized forces” has not been too effective in the wake of “poor maintenance of police stations, lax training and low motivation”. There is also lack of better coordination on State and Center on this most dangerous issue that have come to hit the lives of people living in Andhra, Kerala, Uttar Pardesh. Bihar, Jharkahand, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh.

It remains to be seen how the government is going to intercept the new developments. The high casualty has made the Center consider over strict measures. However, the sad reality is that we have been unable to keep our security personnel above from the traps set by the Maoists whereas they (Naxals) would always cross over to adjoining states after each cowardly act of terrorism. It should not be overlooked that Maoists have wrecked thousands of schools and rural health centre hence it’s not for pro developments demands only.

Therefore if the Union government is sincere they must come out with a concrete programme that is - deployment of police forces and improvement of infrastructure in less developed States, develop agriculture and generate employment as part of establishing a well-balanced social structure as the economic disparities, social injustice and infrastructural imbalances are observed to be the main problems. And to tackle this war within, the government should have multi pronged strategy. Naxal movement cannot be won only by guns. Guns for guns can never solve the problem completely. One should acknowledge the reason for the movements like Naxal to thrive and take measures to arrest it.

http://twocircles.net/2011dec11/naxals_are_no_modern_day_robin_hoods.html was published on 11/12/2011

Why brand entire Muslim community as terrorist?

Terrorism should be seen as an international menace. No religious identity should be attached to it as no religion on earth justifies terrorism that often ends up killing innocent people. Islam strongly forbids violence against the innocent. The unenlightened Muslims who say they are acting in defence of the religion may have either misinterpreted Islam or are practising it erroneously. And so, if one views at Islam on the basis of the activities of these misguided people, he or she will make a big mistake.

Yet the fact is, since the 9/11 World Trade Center attack, the entire Muslim community has been living in despair by being misunderstood by most in the rest of the world. The attack by few criminals was condemned by global Muslim leadership that identified the attackers as the black sheep in the community. But unfortunately, the entire Muslim community is still being viewed as terrorist today.

Very few non-Muslims have bothered to consider the facts that tens of thousands of local Muslims in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan have been involved in anti-terrorism operations, helping the Allied Forces and local governments. Could the US-led military action against Iraq ever succeed if it did not get key support of the Islamic country of Saudi Arabia?

In recent times, some ill-informed groups have been slapping a number of unrealistic charges against Muslims. They portray Muslims as bad ferocious individuals, citing specific incidents to their convenience as evidence, even though in almost all cases they are very far cry from the truth. They try to give a totally different impression of the Islam as revealed in the Qur’an, citing various wars that took place as the religion spread around the world. They overlook the fact that in those wars Muslims took to arms basically to defend themselves. Their charges against Muslims or Islam are routinely hollow and always go unsubstantiated. The people in question are unacquainted with Islam, and are badly informed of the true face of those who commit cruelty in the name of Islam. They are often unable to evaluate the state of affairs in question in a healthy and rational manner.

If someone truly wants to know what Islam is, he or she should read the Quran- the only authentic source to know the religion. The Quran is based on the concepts of morality, love, compassion, mercy, modesty, self-sacrifice, tolerance and peace. One, who truly follows the path of Islam- as advised in the Quran, is considered the best Muslim. Not all Muslims follow the Quran. So, not all Muslims are good Muslims or good human beings. However, today Islam is mostly being identified on the basis of what its morality-less followers are doing.

On reading the Quran one can understand how Allah instructs His followers to be nice to his neighbours around, and shun cruelty and violence. Allah says, He does not like his followers who resort to violence against innocent people. Those who do not obey this divine command are walking in the footsteps of Satan and moving away from Allah.

Even the political doctrine in Islam is extremely peaceful, moderate and accommodating. The concept that badly needs clarification in this context is that of "jihad". The exact meaning of "Jihad" is "effort". That is, "to carry out jihad" is "to show efforts, to struggle". To be very precise, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) explained that "the greatest jihad is the one a person carries out against his lower soul". Here the “lower soul" is one’s selfish desire, unhealthy ambitions and immoral intentions. The use of the concept of "jihad" for acts of aggression against innocent people, is indeed “TERRORISM”, and is not only unjustified but amounts to a serious distortion of tenets of Islam. These misguided lots- "the terrorists", ignore what their conscience says and listen to their earthly desire for violence by resorting to wickedness, which is indeed un-Islamic. They become loveless, aggressive people who do not hesitate to hurt others without the slightest pang of conscience. Having no fear of Allah or God, they do not abide by the morality of their religion, nor do they practice it. Nothing can stop them from committing crimes and hurting the innocents. Hence these misguided men should not be considered followers of any religion at all.

Compassion, peace and tolerance constitute the very basis of Islam, and the commands of the Quran leave no room for dispute and contradictions. The moral teaching offered to humanity by Islam is one that aims to bring peace, happiness and justice to the world. The barbarism that is happening in the world today under the name of "Islamic Terrorism" has no connection with the Quran. Such terrorism-related activities are the work of a section of ignorant, bigoted criminals who have nothing to do with religion and its tenets. A strong action should be taken against these individuals, groups and organizations who take to savagery under the guise of Islam.

Throughout the 13 years they lived in Mecca, our Prophet (PBUH) and his Companions were subjected to terrible duress, attacks and slanders; they were forced to leave their homes and threatened with death. But they never resorted to violence despite all this aggression and oppression they faced. When the oppression in Mecca increased, they migrated to Medina, and during the Medina period they only engaged in wars that were unavoidable and for defensive purposes. This further leaves every Muslim with a duty to represent, through his attitudes and behavior, the religion of Allah in all finest possible manners. Muslims must display kindness, humility, forgiveness, as our Prophet (PBUH) possessed. And they must be compassionate and affectionate as he was.

The people who make malicious claims, imagines that it is genuine Muslims who abide by the Qur’an that spread terror in the name of Islam. The fact is, however, that they (ill doers) have nothing to do with the Qur’an or Islam at all. By making these allegations against Muslims, the motivated sections in question ignore one very important point. As is known in history the USA caused the deaths of tens of thousands of people by dropping atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But the Islamic world never sought to lay the blame for this action perpetrated by the U.S. government or Christians. In the same way, thousands of Muslims were barbarically slaughtered during the attacks which were openly called the Crusades, and even Christians belonging to other sects were tortured to death, many mosques were both pillaged and ransacked. The blood that has recently been shed in Iraq, Afghanistan and other Muslim countries was Muslim blood. But Muslims have never used this as grounds to charge that the people who live by the Gospel are killers. Any sane person can see that irreligion always reigns anywhere in which oppression is taking place. Indeed, rational Muslims who abide by the Qur’an and believe in Allah never hold Christians responsible for the massacres in question. That is not something that anyone who genuinely believes in Allah could do.

Unless one reads the Quran he or she cannot understand what Islam is all about. The Quran preaches that Muslims must not go to extreme in any war.

“Fight in the Way of Allah against those who fight you, but do not go beyond the limits. Allah does not love those who go beyond the limits.” (Surat al-Baqara, 190)

“But if they cease, Allah is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” (Surat al-Baqara, 192)


http://twocircles.net/2011dec09/why_brand_entire_muslim_community_terrorist.html
(published on 9 December 2011 - 2:24pm)