by admin | May 25, 2021 | News
Sonipat: A partially blind young Imam,25, and his disabled wife have been brutally murdered in Gunwar village of District Sonipat in Haryana.
Severely brutalised bodies of the couple were found in the Hujra [a residential room reserved for the imam] of the mosque in the morning. There are rumours that efforts are being made to cover up the deaths as accidental.
According to reports few days ago intense arguments had arisen between Muslims and non-Muslims over the wall of the mosque during which youths belonging to Harijan community had allegedly threatened the Imam with dire consequences.
This should be kept in mind that about a year ago an elderly Motakif [a person who spends the last ten days of Ramadan in the mosque] was also murdered inside the mosque. However, it would be too early to make further comments in this regard.
Since for the last few days some Muslim leaders have been trying to give an impression that Mohan Bhagwat and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar both are peace loving gentlemen and want to establish communal harmony in the country, let’s see if these two gentlemen will come out, condemn mob lynchings and Islamophobc killings like these. Let them prove that they really believe in peace and communal harmony otherwise all these high-level meetings between leaders will serve no purpose but will be share of waste of time.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Mumbai : Four days after busting a terror plot involving some Hindu right-wing activists in Palghar, the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) has found a mini arms making unit and is now probing their links in Uttar Pradesh and Assam, official sources said on Monday.
On Friday, the ATS created a sensation by claiming to have unearthed a terror plot targeting Mumbai, Pune, Satara and Solapur ahead of Independence Day celebrations and the upcoming Bakri Eid festival.
In the ATS swoop, three right-wing activists were arrested – Vaibhav Raut, 40, Sharad Kalaskar, 25, both from Nala Sopara in Palghar, and Sudhanav Gondhalekar, 39, from Pune.
Over a dozen other associates or suspects have been interrogated to ascertain their connections in other parts of the state or outside and certain email exchanges between the accused with references to Uttar Pradesh and Assam shall be probed.
Continuing the raids and probe over the weekend in Palghar, around 60 km north of Mumbai, the ATS has found a mini arms production unit and seized at least five country-made pistols, three incomplete pistols, 11 cartridges of 9 mm pistols and 30 cartridges of 7.65 mm pistols, springs, triggers and other material.
In the Pune raids, the ATS seized a laptop, six hard disks, five pendrives, nine mobiles and many SIM cards, a WiFI dongle, scores of documents and papers, besides a car and a motorcycle.
During the raids in Palghar on Friday, the ATS seized 20 crude bombs and material that could be used to make at least two-to-four dozen more bombs.
The seizures included 22 non-electronic detonators, 1,500 gm of explosive powder, wire bundles, resistors, transistors, 10 batteries of six volts each and a connector, multimeters, switches and circuits, connectors, gelatin sticks, two bottles marked as ‘poison’, diagrams and literature, all of which have been sent for forensic analysis.
While Raut is described as a prominent ‘gau-rakshak’ and linked with Hindu Janjagran Samiti, Gondhalekar is connected with the Shri Shivpratisthan, spearheaded by the controversial 85-year-old Sambhaji Bhide alias Bhide Guruji.
Charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, the trio was produced before a Mumbai Sessions Court and presently remanded to police custody till August 18.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Halal Food, Halal Industries, Opinions
By Saeed Naqvi,
On an Air India flight from London, the hostess walked down the aisle taking orders for dinner. She leaned over and asked almost conspiratorially.
“May I serve you your Muslim meal now?”
“Muslim meal?” I asked with a start, casting a glance at my equally puzzled wife.
The hostess was embarrassed. A new detail had been added to her hospitality protocol and she was not accustomed to it.
The damage, it turned out, had been done in my office. Responding to a column on dietary preferences, the person responsible for air reservation had hunted high and low for a simple non-vegetarian meal. No such meal was listed. Then he spotted “Muslim meal”. The explanatory paragraph clarified that “all non-vegetarian meals are suitable for Muslims and are prepared in accordance with halal method”.
The journalist in me took over.
“Fair enough, you have identified us as Muslim, but surely there are others on the flight who are non-vegetarians but not Muslim?”
Of course, there are non-vegetarians on Air India but they would not accept the odium of Muslim ancestry simply to indulge their dietary preference. They want to eat meat but as thoroughbred Hindus.
Two consequences follow. Obstacles in the way of non-vegetarianism depresses the demand for non-vegetarian food. By the same token, Hindu passengers feel they are being short changed. This was reverse discrimination. They see themselves being pushed to the lower end of the culinary caste system. The demand for non-veg, therefore, gains in decibel levels: we want non-veg, that’s for sure, but one which is neither “Muslim” nor “halal”.
A three-way dietary division evolves: (1) Hindus not fussy about labels: “Muslim” or “halal” accept whatever is available. (2) Those for whom realization has been abrupt that what they have been eating for generations was “Muslim” – halal. Ignorance is bliss but not now that enlightenment has come riding on an Air India menu. (3) Simple vegetarians whose tribe, by the way, is growing by leaps and bounds in India as elsewhere face no problem whatsoever.
For the authors of the “Muslim meal” idea, the first category is the most disruptive because it has skewed the process of data collection on how potentially vegetarian or otherwise, India is. This is the key research required for advancing the aspect of Hindutva concerned with promoting non-Muslim dietary practices. If this category can stand its ground despite the disincentive of being called Muslims and halal eaters, this non-veg constituency might just stabilize, even grow. God forbid, it may come in the way of full spectrum Hindutva, vegetarianism et al.
The second category is demanding a non vegetarian meal which is unsullied by Muslim-halal connotations. This is a new demand. This clientele does not quite know what it wants; it knows what it does not want in the non-veg arena. It has clearly asked the catering department of Air India a question which is not easy to answer: what non-veg fare can you serve which is not Muslim-halal?”
Here the discussion acquires exactly the potential for which it was initiated – to polarize and, as a trial run, divide the aircraft cabin between vegetarians and non-vegetarians who, the perpetrators hope, would not like to be grouped as halal-eating Muslims. The cabin is, in this instance, a microcosm of the meat-mukt India of Hindutva’s dreams.
A quick answer to halal is jhatka, the method of severing the animal’s head with one stroke, favoured by Sikhs. The jhatka-halal debate is custom made for an Arnab Goswami show. Have a devout Sikh, a muscular Mullah and a Bajrang Bali Bhakt peer out of three windows. Extract all the gory details on jhatka and halal from the spokesmen of two distinct schools of slaughter. A possible walkout by the abstemious Bajrangi may well spur Hindu consolidation on an unprecedented scale.
On a more practical note, the “shosha” (mischief) started by AI can be put to some constructive use. A new approach to cuisine may involve drastic change: a non-veg cuisine developed over centuries as a near art form may have to be jettisoned from official banquets and national carriers. The problem will, of-course, arise when lynch mobs on the lookout for a cause, enter restaurants advertising non-veg fare. Individual non-vegetarians may also incur the wrath of the lynch mobs. In fact a malicious rumour has been floated that the monkeys that have been let loose on Delhi’s citizenry are an animal loving Minister’s project directed against non-veg addicts. The monkeys, says the rumour, are being trained on the Ridge to block entry of meat into non-veg kitchens. The producer of super hit Bajrangi Bhaijan has threatened to go on hunger strike if the avatars of Bajrang Bali are involved in operations which have anything, negative or positive, to do with meat.
The hypocrisy around the cuisine at official banquets at Hyderabad House or even the Rashtrapti Bhawan until the other day has always bordered on the pathetic. There was an insistence on tasteless fare called Mughlai food at a time when streets named after the dynasty were under assault. The banquets begin with a bogus “toast” of some flat cola. This then is a good time to take a hard look at the rampaging Vegan movement globally. Climate change, animal care, fear of artificially inflated livestock for the table is turning the world to organic, vegetarian food. Jeremy Corbyn, who may well be Britain’s Prime Minister one day, is a vegetarian.
The core idea of the Nouvelle cuisine Air India should be searching for (and not just creating communal trouble) was available in the “prasada” or “offering” cooked each day in gigantic vessels at the Dargah in Ajmer. The daily fare followed one golden principle: it should be acceptable to widest possible range of pilgrims. The “prasada” was free even of onion, garlic, mushrooms, potatoes or any vegetable which grows underground. This principle is followed in all major Hindu and Sikh places of worship. Somewhere here is the answer to Air India’s quest. To monitor strict vegetarianism in flight, a free ticket may be considered for a representative of the lynch mob on every Air India flight.
(A senior commentator on diplomatic and political affairs, Saeed Naqvi can be reached on saeednaqvi@hotmail.com. The views expressed are personal.)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
By Dr Syed Zafar Mahmood,
Alas, Justice Rajinder Sachar is no more ! The world has hardly seen individuals like him in recent centuries. The very acceptance to chair the prime minister’s high level committee to report on Indian Muslim status in 21st century speaks volumes about his unique humaneness rejecting every strand of parochialism and raising the bar of philanthropic values.
Wading against the societal tide of deeply ingrained selfishness Justice Sachar argued that comfort zones are waste lands where nothing grows. His Report of 2006 stands out by itself in independent India. It is so richly documented that even the strongest political opponents of the then ruling dispensation could not gather wit to show it down. Also a couple of writ petitions against the Report had still birth.
Taking cudgels for the deprived he asserted himself eloquently yet spoke in low voice. During his whirlwind tour across India in 2004-05 when the PM’s HLC was in session he made it a point to interact everywhere with kaleidoscopic cross sections of local men, women and youth of various hues and gave them long patient hearings. Based on these inputs coupled with available authentic data he used to later sensitize senior political and bureaucratic functionaries in government ministries and departments. Ultimately he had a fair and firm session with the chief minister before making up his mind as to what should be written in the report for the state he was visiting.
The Sachar Committee was told by the people in Assam about widespread official misuse of the Special Powers Act particularly in identifying as to who is a ‘foreigner’. The matter came up later in the meeting with state machinery which was denying the allegations. Yet, when asked as to the parameters basing on which a person was treated as foreigner a young officer sitting there innocently confessed, “lungi, darhi aur topi” (the cloth that Assamese Muslims wrap around the waist downward, beard and skull cap) after which senior officers went into frenzy inviting Justice Sachar’s wrath.
Sachar J. also invited people from all directions for multiple round table conversations in Delhi’s India International Centre and appointed dozens of consultants and task forces to study specific aspects of his mandated field viz Muslim life in India. Incidentally, that was the time when USA and many other countries were carrying out similar exercises of apprising themselves about the Islamic life in respective parts of the world.
On March 10, 2017 he organized in Delhi a one day conference for the decadal review of the implementation (and lack thereof) of his Report noting despondently that the three intervening provincial reports of Maharashtra, West Bengal and Karnataka had shown further downward trends in Muslim status.
Very recently during the question answer session after his public speech I had once asked him what to do if even the judiciary seems to be going against the constitutional mandate trampling upon human rights in the garb of protecting the so called national interest. He said, “come on the street and I would lead from the front”.
The high value that he practiced and imparted to the humanity was fearing only God and none of His creatures and yet speak the truth even in the wake of apparent danger for oneself. He thus took care of the upcoming generations of human beings – at times risking his personal security and sacrificing avenues for personal aggrandizement. May his noble soul Rest in Peace.
(Dr Syed Zafar Mahmood, President, Zakat Foundation of India zakatindia.org )
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : Calling the alleged assault on a Delhi bureaucrat a “conspiracy”, the ruling AAP on Wednesday said that its two MLAs — Prakash Jarwal and Amanatullah Khan — were arrested in the case without any inquiry because they belonged to the Dalit and Muslim community respectively.
Based on the allegation of assault made by Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash, the two were arrested on the BJP’s instructions without being given a chance to state their version, senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh told the media.
Citing examples of Gujarat’s Una and Rajasthan’s Pehlu Khan’s case, Singh said under the BJP’s rule in various states, Dalits and Muslims were victims of communal violence.
Taking a dig at BJP Delhi unit Chief Manoj Tiwari, Singh said: “You call us urban Naxalites (Maoists)? We have never incited any violence (among different communities).”
He said the police ignored the evidence on the attack on AAP Minister Imran Hussain and his personal secretary Himanshu Singh but acted on the statement by the Chief Secretary.
“We have the video footage of what happened at Delhi Secretariat yesterday (Tuesday) when our Minister and his Personal Secretary were attacked by a mob that was incited by the BJP but nothing has been done about it.
“Words of the Chief Secretary are being treated as gospel truth,” he said, adding the top bureaucrat was making “false” allegations.
Party leader Ashutosh alleged that on Tuesday people outside the Delhi Secretariat were provoked and that led to the commotion and beating up of Hussain and his aide.
“CCTV footage should be made public to identify the perpetrators,” he demanded.
Singh said there was a conspiracy against their party and people were “strategically” brought to the Secretariat.
“Shouldn’t Home Minister (Rajnath Singh) show concern about ministers being assaulted inside Delhi Secretariat?”
“Will the same country have different rules for different people?” Singh questioned.
The AAP leader said that an emergency meeting was convened on Monday night to address the issue of 250,000 families who were deprived of food rations due to faulty implementation of Aadhaar.
“When the Chief Minister (Arvind Kejriwal) can visit people at 2 a.m. or 3 a.m., why can’t there be a late night meeting regarding the important issue of rations?
“If somebody dies of hunger in the state, will the Chief Secretary be answerable or will it be the Lt Governor (Anil Baijal)? Arvind Kejriwal will be questioned,” he said.
According to the AAP leader, the Chief Secretary, who has alleged that AAP MLAs assaulted him in the presence of Kejriwal during the meeting, would have called police immediately after the incident if he was actually assaulted.
“Anybody physically assaulted by someone would immediately call the police. Why didn’t the Chief Secretary do so? The next morning he started making these allegations against our MLAs.
Asking why the Chief Secretary’s injury report wasn’t prepared by a doctor on the same day, Sanjay Singh said: “The medico-legal certificate is coming today when the incident happened three days back.”
Stressing that this was a BJP-led Central government’s conspiracy against the AAP, he said: “To be associated with AAP is considered to be a crime by the Centre.
“AAP is always the soft target. The government now wishes to take the attention away from Nirav Modi, (Vikram) Kothari, Jatin Mehta and that is why this thing was brought up.”
“Since the very beginning, there have been attempts to finish our government in the state. They don’t want us to function.”
—IANS
