Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
BJP has ‘anti-Muslim’, ‘anti-Pakistan’ approach: Imran

BJP has ‘anti-Muslim’, ‘anti-Pakistan’ approach: Imran

Imran KhanIslamabad : Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has an “anti-Muslim” and “anti-Pakistan” approach and claimed New Delhi rebuffed all his gestures due to the upcoming general elections.

Khan made the remarks in an interview to the Washington Post on Thursday. Later, at an event in the capital on Friday the Prime Minister said that “the condition of Muslims in today’s India proved that the demand for a separate homeland was justified”.

Asked during the interview with the Post that why his gestures to India were dismissed since he took power earlier this year, Khan said “The ruling party (in India) has an anti-Muslim, anti-Pakistan approach.”

He claimed that India rejected his repeated calls for peace because it has the general elections coming up in 2019. “India has elections coming up. They rebuffed all my overtures.”

Khan expressed the hope that once the elections get over in India, both countries can resume talks.

He later addressed Baloch students during an event here on Friday and said: “The way Muslims are treated today in India has made people realise now why Pakistan was born.”

In his interview with the Post, Khan said that he opened the Kartarpur border to facilitate visa-free pilgrimage by Indian Sikhs to Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara where Sikhism’s founder Guru Nanak Dev spent the last 18 years of his life.

A day earlier, Khan slammed New Delhi for giving a “political colour” to his gesture of Kartarpur border opening and called it “unfortunate”.

“Unfortunately, India portrayed it as us seeking political advantage… The Indian media gave Kartarpur (border opening) a political colour as if we did this to gain some sort of political mileage. This is not true. We did it because it is part of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s manifesto,” he said.

The Pakistani leader also said that he “wants something done about the bombers of Mumbai”, adding that “resolving that case is in our interest because it was an act of terrorism”.

Ten Pakistani terrorists sneaked into Mumbai through the sea in 2008 and went on a killing spree, leaving 166 Indians and foreigners dead. Indian security forces shot dead nine of them while a 10th, who was captured, was hanged.

—IANS

A political theorist’s act of resistance against his Partition ghost (Book Review)

A political theorist’s act of resistance against his Partition ghost (Book Review)

Looking for the NationBy Saket Suman,

Book: Looking for the Nation; Author: Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee; Publisher: Speaking Tiger; Pages: 202; Price: Rs 350

Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee, who earned his doctorate in Political Science from Jawaharlal Nehru University and has been published widely in national and international media, was haunted by a ghost during his childhood. Several decades on, the political theorist has come out with a scholarly offering — backed by research and reading — as his act of resistance against the ghost.

The author grew up in a small town in Assam and one of his father’s friend, a retired railway employee, was a frequent visitor to their house. For reasons yet incomprehensible to the then young lad, this old man, and his politically sanctioned method, would cast a harrowing shadow on his upbringing.

To put things in perspective, the old man would customarily narrate stories about the violence of Partition, that erupted after India and Pakistan were separated at birth. But his stories “inevitably revolved around Muslims attacking hindu villages,” and the resistance strategies that Hindus evolved to ward off the attack.

“I remember one particular incident he narrated, where scores of bricks were stored on the terraces of Hindu households… When the Muslims attacked, the bricks were put to effective use. “We never wondered why he chose to tell a 14-year-old boy and his sister stories that would shake them to the bone,” he recalls in “Looking for the Nation: Towards Another Idea of India”.

Many years later, Bhattacharjee realised that the telling of such harrowing, sometimes skewed, stories were a part of “a deliberate plan”.

“The man, I learnt much later, belonged to a Hindu right-wing organisation. The stories he told us were part of his job. His job was propaganda. This was a politically sanctioned method to arouse and cement communal sentiments,” he reflects in the book.

But “his lies and fantasies” have caught on with the author’s present and he penned this book, “not looking for a desirable idea of the nation”, but in the quest for “the nation with irony, discovering everything that falls short of fraternity and justice”.

And how does he do it? Fortunately, Bhattacharjee’s offering breaks from the routine books that either blindly critique the functioning of Hindu right wing organisations, or are full of praise for them. His book is neither criticism, nor reflection, if anything, it is an earnest attempt at understanding how our country functions, not in accordance with what is laid down in the Constitution, but in practise in our day-to-day lives.

His arguments are broken down in six chapters, each tracing a particular trajectory that has gone in, or continues to shape, the elusive idea of India.

In the first chapter “The Surplus of Indian Nationalism”, his findings suggest that Indian nationalist thought is a product of the anti-colonial movement. In finding the root and evolution of Indian nationalism, he keenly studies the works of Nehru, Tagore, Gandhi, Ambedkar and others, who, through their participation in the freedom movement, gave voice to the sentiments of nationalism.

He explains that Nehru, in his writings, laid down the larger debate of nationalism, and its relation with modernity, culture, identity and history. Aurobindo, on the other hand, reflected on the nation as “a grand idea in the shadow of religious differences”. The chapter also suggests that Tagore engaged with Gandhi on the question of culture and universalism, while Ambedkar provided a critical perspective on the speculations by nationalist thinkers.

After having laid down the foundation of his research in the first chapter, Bhattacharjee strolls down the “territory without justice”. “…Since then (Independence), the stories of betrayal, hatred, and above all, the fetish for territory, haven’t come to an end”, he notes, before analysing the fate and predicament of the nation’s most “beleaguered people” — the refugees, the Dalits and the minorities.

In the next chapter, he looks at India’s Muslims, with the shadow of Partition behind them, and the future ahead. “The discourse of trust and mutual generosity were taken over by suspicion and hatred. Religion and history were treated as contested territories of difference,” he writes in charting what has “led to the sacrifice of ethical responsibility”.

The remaining chapters focus on “Untouchables”; the institutions of the country, where he finds that bodies are coerced through mechanisms of control; and “Thinking Against Power”, the last chapter of the book, throws light on the resistances against nationalism, caste and other embedded patriarchies.

“Looking for the Nation”, however, may come across as too heavy for some readers, flooded as it is with analogies, reflections and studies of various thinkers and leaders. This book’s merit lies in its structure, and the author succeeds in telling what he set out to do, by dividing the book into six chapters, each focussing on one theme and leading, quite naturally, on to the next.

(Saket Suman can be contacted at saket.s@ians.in)

—IANS

Want friendly ties, talks with India: Imran Khan

Want friendly ties, talks with India: Imran Khan

Representational Image

Representational Image

Islamabad : Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, who is set to be the new Pakistan Prime Minister, on Thursday said his government would seek good relations with India and would like leaders of the two countries to sit across the table and resolve all disputes, including the “core issue” of Kashmir.

“If Indian leadership is ready, we are ready to improve relationship. If you take one step, we are ready to take two. Now it is one sided blame on Pakistan. We have to resolve the main issue through dialogue. This is important for the sub-continent,” Khan told the media here as results indicated that his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was close to majority in the 272-member National Assembly.

At the same time, he blew hot over the Kashmir issue, alleging that there were human rights violations by security forces.

“Kashmiri people have suffered in the last 30 years,” said Khan, known for his hardline towards India and is widely believed to be having the backing of the Pakistan Army.

He said there has been a blame game between India and Pakistan with New Delhi holding Islamabad responsible for all its problems. And Pakistan is blaming India for what is happening in Balochistan, he said.

“We are (back to ) square one. We are ready to improve relationship with India. Now it is a one way blame on Pakistan.”

He said trade between India and Pakistan can be instrumental in eradicating poverty in the sub-continent which should be the focus of the two countries.

Khan lamented that the Indian media had projected him as a Bollywood villain. “I am a Pakistani who is most popular in India because I played there. I am a Pakistani who wants friendly relationship with India.”

Khan said his government would take all efforts for bringing peace in Afghanistan with which Pakistan would like to have open border while trying to strengthen ties with Pakistan’s all-weather friend China.

With the US, he said, his administration would like to have mutually beneficial ties. “This has been one way so far. We should have a balanced relationship.”

Set to capture power after being in politics for 22 years, the firebrand politician said he would not indulge in political victimization but would implement the law against those who go against the law of the land.

He said he would root out corruption which was the bane of the country and he would himself be accoutable first.

“The National Accountability Bureau will be strengthened and the law will be same for everyone.

He said the Pakistan economy was the most challenged and dysfunctional with high fiscal and trade deficits and the value of rupee plunging deep.

Khan pledged austerity measures for the government and said he himself won’t live in a “palace like” Prime Minister’s residence but would prefer a house in the ministers enclave.

On his priorities as the head of the new government, Khan said governance system had collapsed in Pakistan and he would like to set it right first with all policies for poor and the common man and not for elites.

“All our policies will be for workers, farmers. We are not able to give proper healthcare and Pakistan has the highest maternal mortality rate.”

Rejecting his rivals’ charges that the just concluded elections were rigged in his favour, Khan said this was one of the cleanest polls Pakistan ever held.

“I want to tell those who are saying that elections are rigged that we are ready to investigate.” he said.

—IANS

Congress lists multiple surgical strikes, slams Centre over 2016 action

Congress lists multiple surgical strikes, slams Centre over 2016 action

Indian ArmyNew Delhi : The Congress on Thursday accused the Modi government of using the 2016 surgical strike carried out in Pakistan as “political fodder” to gain votes and listed many similar strikes done in the last two decades to assert this was not the first action of its kind.

Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala’s comments came a day after the release of the video footage of the Indian Army’s surgical strikes in September 2016 when troops crossed the Line of Control (LoC) to attack terror hubs in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Surjewala told reporters that BJP President Amit Shah had “dishonoured” the 70-year-long history of bravery and sacrifice of the armed forces by making a “disgraceful statement” on October 7, 2016 that the “Indian Army had crossed the LoC for the first time in 68 years”.

Stressing that Congress President Rahul Gandhi and her predecessor Sonia Gandhi supported the armed forces and the government in the 2016 action, Surjewala said the Army had conducted strategic surgical strikes “with utmost precision and effective penetration” at different times in the last two decades.

He listed eight “surgical strikes” conducted prior to 2016.

“We are proud that our forces successfully conducted multiple surgical strikes over the last two decades, particularly post 2000 — January 21, 2000 (Nadala Enclave, across Neelam river); September 18, 2003 (Baroh Sector, Poonch); June 19, 2008 (Bhattal Sector, Poonch); August 30 to September 1, 2011 (Sharda Sector, across Neelam river Valley in Kel); January 6, 2013 (Sawan Patra Checkpost); July 27 to 28, 2013 (Nazapir Sector); August 6, 2013 (Neelam Valley); January 14, 2014; September 28 to 29, 2016.”

He said the Modi government sought credit for the sacrifices of the soldiers but had “utterly failed” to provide the direction, vision and policy for dealing with Pakistan and checkmating Pakistan-sponsored terrorism.

“No wonder the apathy and incapacity of the Modi government has resulted in the sacrifice of 146 soldiers, more than 1,600 ceasefire violations by Pakistan and 79 terrorist attacks post September 2016,” Surjewala said.

“Doublespeak of the Modi government and the BJP’s stand is reflected in the stepmotherly treatment of our armed forces, both in terms of providing for security apparatus as also in slashing their budgetary allocation.”

Surjewala alleged that Army Vice Chief Sarath Chand was “forced” to say that 68 per cent of all equipment was vintage.

“On account of budgetary cuts, procurement from ordinance factory is being reduced from 94 per cent to 50 per cent, which will force our soldiers to buy uniforms, combat dress, belts and shoes on their own.”

Surjewala said the report of the Parliamentary Committee on Defence highlighted lack of money for emergency purchases by Armed Forces after the Uri terror attack, the surgical strike and the Doklam standoff with China.

—IANS

Deportation targets for Indians, Pakistanis reason for UK Home Minister’s resignation?

Deportation targets for Indians, Pakistanis reason for UK Home Minister’s resignation?

Home Secretary Amber Rudd

Home Secretary Amber Rudd

By Naresh Kaushik,

London : One of Britains most senior cabinet ministers has resigned after growing pressure over her handling of targets to deport illegal immigrants. The resignation of Home Secretary Amber Rudd came after documents leaked in the British press showed that she set a target to increase the number of deportations by 10 per cent, despite her denials.

Rudd has been forced to quit after weeks of criticism of the British government’s treatment of long-term migrants from the Caribbean, known as the Windrush generation. They were threatened with deportation and some were even denied medical treatment because they didn’t have documents to prove that they had been living in the UK for decades.

But ironically, and perhaps unfairly, for Rudd, leaked documents also indicate that the policy of forced removal of illegal immigrants was aimed at recent arrivals, mainly from India and Pakistan, and not for the Windrush generation, though some were affected by it.

The letter she wrote to Prime Minister Theresa May in January last year, which was published in the Guardian on Sunday, mentioned her forthcoming visit to Pakistan to finalise an agreement on biometric returns which would make it easier to deport illegal immigrants to that country. And she did visit Pakistan three months later. A leading think tank, Migration Watch, has estimated that there are about 200,000 Pakistanis living illegally in the UK.

There are no such estimates available for illegal immigrants from India but another recent study by Oxford University’s The Migration Observatory has said that 6,580 Indian were deported in 2016, the top country of enforced removals or voluntary departures from Britain. Pakistan, with 3,857, stood at second place. Both countries together made it 27 per cent of such removals. No wonder illegal immigration from these two countries is a major cause for concern in Britain.

In January, India’s Minister of State for Home Affairs, Kiren Rijiju, signed an agreement with Britain on the swift return of Indian illegal immigrants from the UK, an issue that has been repeatedly raised by British government officials to their Indian counterparts.

Rudd has only followed her predecessor and the current Prime Minister May’s policy of creating a “hostile environment for illegal immigrants”. Her departure now puts May in the firing line because the opposition in Britain is unlikely to keep quiet on the issue after Rudd’s resignation.

(Naresh Kaushik is a senior journalist based in London. He can be contacted at uknaresh@gmail.com)

—IANS