by admin | May 25, 2021 | Employment
Ayesha Aziz Image Source: Mashable
New Delhi: 25-year-old Ayesh Aziz, with a Kashmiri lineage, has become India’s youngest female pilot. She has drawn appreciations from across the globe for his tremendous success.
In the year 2011, Aziz became the youngest student pilot to get a license at the age of 15 and underwent training to fly a MIG-29 jet at Russia’s Sokol airbase the following year.
She later graduated in aviation from the Bombay Flying Club (BFC) and obtained a commercial license in 2017.
Her father resides in Mumbai while her mother belongs to Kashmir. ”As my mother belongs to Kashmir, we stayed there for nearly four years after completing my class 12th. I have been flying in and out of Kashmir for my training and other purposes after my high school,” Ayesha said.
”I am very lucky that I have parents who have supported me in everything. Without them, I would not have been able to get to where I am today. I am constantly looking for growth, on a professional and personal level. My father is my greatest role model,” she said while speaking to ANI.
While speaking to ANI, Aziz said that she believed that Kashmiri women had progressed immensely in the last few years and have done exceptionally well in the field of education.
”I think Kashmiri women are doing very well, especially in education. Every other woman in Kashmir is doing her Masters or her doctorate. People of the Valley are doing great,” she said.
Her message to youngsters in Kashmir is to focus on their target and ”don’t bother to think about what society thinks.” ”There would be people who will speak against you. But, one must remain focused towards his/her goal to achieve it.”
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
Soroor Ahmed
By Soroor Ahmed | Patna
The constant bombardments of narrative of Muslim backwardness with the help of half-baked figures only lead to despondency and hopelessness among the community, especially its youth. Instead the community leaders should objectively discuss each and every aspect–even its positive achievements, for example, West Bengal, Kerala and Kashmir have done exceptionally well in the last few years. Be it in the medical and engineering entrance examinations or any other field.
“There are three types of lies–lies, damn lies, and statistics,” said former British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli.
“Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are pliable,” said American English writer Mark Twain.
Yet the importance of statistics cannot be under-estimated in this modern world. We now have a subject called Statistics.
Though the government data and statistics give some idea about development or backwardness of any state, country, community etc. yet very often such figures are misleading, if not lies. They are half-truths and sometimes should be taken with a pinch of salt.
But it seems that Indian Muslims have an obsession for data and statistic. They love to be dubbed as backward. So wherever the Muslim leaders see any study or research work which highlight their backwardness they simply embrace them. Without independently examining and analysing the data the campaign starts to spread its conclusion of such surveys. The self-proclaimed leading lights of the community have been doing this with the help of the Sachar Committee report for the last 14 years. In the process the community leaders have tried to convince the masses that the only sentence written in this 400-odd pages report is “Muslims lag behind Dalits in all walks of life”.
The truth is that the Sachar Committee report is a study done on the status of Muslims in India and in the process it has made comparison with several social groups of the country. It based its report on the data of 2001 Census, NSSO etc. and has not done its own first-hand survey. The figures given in the government surveys may not be hundred per cent correct.
Before the Sachar a similar study was done by Gopal Singh report, but it could not be quoted too much as that was the period of less media publicity.
No doubt the Sachar report said that in some social, economic and educational indicators Muslims lag behind Dalits, but in some they are ahead of them or are on par with the Other Backward Castes, or may be even ahead of them. Yet in some areas Muslims are even ahead of general Hindus. But no one in our seminars or conference is going to highlight the last fact.
For example, in health sector, notwithstanding the government neglect of the community the child mortality rate and infant mortality rate among Muslims are much less than even general category Hindus. The maternal mortality rate among Muslims is less than Hindus even though Muslim women give more birth than their Hindu sisters.
Besides, on an average the life-span of Muslims is one year more than Hindus. These are just a few positive examples cited in the Sachar Committee report yet they hardly find mention in any public discourse for some unknown reasons.
As if that was not enough the community has now discovered in Christophe Jaffrelot another talent. No doubt he is a regular contributor to various journals and newspapers, for example, the Indian Express. Yet, it remained a mystery as to what prompted Bengali Academy for Social Empowerment to organise a webinar on August 8 on the condition of Muslims at the height of Corona Virus. Not only that some community portals even highlighted in great detail whatever Jaffrelot had tried to explain, in this long webinar which once again was largely based on the same Sachar Committee report and similar data. Is it that Muslims are not aware of them?
What needs to be told loud and clear that such non-stop exercises are not only futile but counter-productive as well. The constant bombardments with the help of half-baked figures only lead to despondency and hopelessness among the community, especially its youth. Instead the community leaders should objectively discuss each and every aspect–even its positive achievements, for example, West Bengal, Kerala and Kashmir have done exceptionally well in the last few years. Be it in the medical and engineering entrance examinations or any other field. In civil services examinations the youths of Kashmir, including girls, have been doing remarkably better, more by efforts of the community and less by government policy or action.
Take the example of Kishanganj district of Bihar, about which another prophet of doom, Asaduddin Owaisi of AIMIM, always makes so much hue and cry. What this gentleman does not know, or wants to deliberately hide, is that this district of north-east Bihar had witnessed fastest growth in literacy rate in India between 2001 and 2011–especially in the women’s literacy.
The tragedy is that most of the time the community relies on the lecture by some western social scientists to understand our problem. What the community leaders failed to realize is that any such research can be done by the scholars from within the country who have much larger personal experience of the social, economic and educational milieu. There is nothing like rocket science involved in it.
The compilation of old figures and data would lead to nowhere as the situation keeps changing constantly. Besides it should be also researched as to how the community is not only surviving but even doing better than the upper caste Hindus in some indicators. Very little has been written as to how remittance money has played an important role in keeping the community alive. After all remittance-earning among the Muslims is disproportionately higher.
The absurd way of drawing parallel between Muslims and Dalits should be immediately stopped. One should not be selective in quoting figures to establish that Muslims lag behind Scheduled Castes and Tribes. The truth can be known when Muslim social scientists, researchers or journalists give equal time in the Dalit as well as their own inhabitants. Just make a survey of as to how many SC/STs and Muslims own CBSE schools, apartments, hotels, restaurants, marketing complexes in any city of India. No doubt Muslims may be no match to upper castes or may be even OBCs, but their number would certainly be many times more than SCs or STs.
At the lowest level, just collect a data on the figures of those dying of starvation, committing suicide due to hunger or compelled to eat rats and roots in the jungles of east and central India. One would soon know the fact as to how bad the SCs and STs are doing.
What the Muslim researchers often do is they take up only the localities and villages dominated by their own community and come to faulty conclusion. They do not dare to spend a few nights in the hutments of Valmikis, Musahars, even Ravidas who are considered slightly better off among the SCs.
A few years back a prominent doctor, while taking part in a function where a couple of foreign dignitaries were also present on the stage, sketched a very depressing picture of Muslims. He was not exaggerating as his lecture was based on his personal experience.
Yet, I on the basis of a long journalistic experience objected to some of his remarks as it was just a one-sided version with no comparison with Dalits or any other social groups. The problem with this gentleman was that the government medical college and hospital where he was the head of Surgery department was situated in front of a big Muslim locality. His own nursing home is also located in a Muslim-dominated mohalla. So a majority of patients he treats daily are Muslims–and thus he comes to this conclusion. As if that was not enough the surgeon in question had spent quite a long time in a Middle Eastern country.
How come he make a comparison with any Dalit or backward caste inhabitants.
In contrast I tried to challenge him (but failed to get opportunity on the basis of my spending a night in a Dalit bustee, covering a number of massacres of both Scheduled Castes and Muslims, and caste and communal riots. On the basis of first-hand experience I can openly claim that all these talks of “Muslims lag behind the Dalits” should be immediately stopped.
As it has become a sort of fashion to get scholarship to do research on the backwardness of Muslims–or even Dalits–such studies would come out regularly. Many of them are just compilation of statistics.
True, Dalits have an edge over Muslims on one count–that is, on the government-sponsored schemes. But Muslims have shown resilience. They have their own system of Zakat–though it is also true that it is not properly utilised.
Lastly, it must be explained clearly that such fear of Muslim backwardness was raised even at the time of Partition. Some of the elite of the community, rather unnecessarily, raked up this issue as they wanted to justify their demand of Pakistan. The truth is that in many fields, especially the army, Muslims were over-represented.
It is after the creation of Pakistan that an overwhelming number of elite went to Pakistan. The lower middle class and poor Muslims, especially of North India, remained here.
Naturally the Hindus were bound to fill this vacuum. Thus the gap increased sharply after the Partition and Muslims started lagging behind. It is not so easy to make up for this loss suffered after 1947, though in the last couple of decades the community has covered some grounds.
Instead of parroting the old figures the coming generation should be urged to see the larger picture and make an objective study. It should be told what actually they should do, rather than keep beating the chest.
(Soroor Ahmed is a senior journalist based in Patna. The views are personal.)
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News
New Delhi: MK Faizy, national president of Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) expressed deep shock and grief at the distress of the Kashmiris, and took strong exceptions to the brutal military atrocities in the ‘locked-down’ Kashmir. It’s not only the geographical territory of Kashmir, but the inhabitant Kashmiris too are Indian. Killing, torturing and alienating Kashmiris on the basis of their religious faith will never bring peace but only aggravate the situation in the area, said Faizy in a statement.
Following the undemocratic and unscrupulous abrogation of Articles 370, and 35A and dividing Jammu & Kashmir into two Union Territories in August 2019, Kashmir was put under complete lockdown by the rulers at the centre. As against international convention, the Internet access was banned or restricted denying the citizens all communications with the outside world. Prominent, secular political leaders are under detention in or outside the state. Outsiders were banned from entering lest they should see the real nature of crackdown. Extra-judicial killing, physical torture, rape, etc have become the new normal in Kashmir.
The bragging of the HM Amit Shah that abrogation of Article 370 and 35A would ensure peace in the valley is proven to be wrong. Kashmir is now under undeclared martial law. Brutalities of the army have exceeded all limits of human decency.
The latest heart-wrenching photograph of a three-year old child sitting on the dead-body of his grandfather now being widely circulated on social media has triggered outrage all over the world. The military/government version is that they saved the boy from the militants who shot dead his grandfather. But the family of the deceased, and the witnesses refute this claim of the military and they say that the army dragged out the civilian from his car, shot him dead, made the child sit on his body, photgraphed it and circulated it putting the blame of killing on the militants.
Faizy, demanded that the inhumane atrocities of the army in Kashmir should be ended immediately and an independent team of human rights and social activists be allowed to visit Kashmir and take stock of the situation and report it.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
OIC Secretary General, Dr. Yousef Al-Othaimeen
New Delhi: In a big embarrassment for Indian government the OIC has passed a resolution on Monday calling on India to abide by the UN Security Council’s (UNSC) resolutions on Kashmir and engage in dialogue to calm the situation in the region.
OIC Secretary General, Dr. Yousef Al-Othaimeen while addressing the emergency virtual meeting of the OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir to review the latest developments in Jammu and Kashmir said “OIC is committed to finding a peaceful settlement for the Jammu and Kashmir issue as per the relevant resolutions of the Islamic Summit, the Council of Foreign Ministers, and the international legitimacy.”
Foreign ministers of the Jammu and Kashmir Contact Group member states: Azerbaijan, Niger, Pakistan SaudiArabia and Turkey joined in the virtual meeting.
“I call on the international community to strengthen its efforts to assist the people of Kashmir to decisively practice their legitimate rights denied for decades.” OIC Secretary General said.
The Contact Group reaffirmed the continued support for the people of Jammu and Kashmir and called on the UN Secretary General to use his good offices to make India abide by the UN Security Council’s (UNSC) resolutions and engage in dialogue to calm the situation in the region.
The OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir issued a statement on the recent developments in Jammu and Kashmir region in which it welcomed the efforts made by some member states to calm the situation between India and Pakistan.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World, News, World
New York : 28th Sep, As India and Pakistan addressed the world this morning from the podium at the United Nations General Assembly, thousands of Indian Americans, Kashmiris, and US rights groups protested against Narendra Modi over his government’s clampdown on Kashmir outside the UN headquarters in New York.
The Coalition Against Fascism in India (CAFI), who organised the protest, said in a press release that Modi is “orchestrating a pogrom of hate and violence against Muslims and Dalits in India,” and is “disenfranchising over seven million Kashmiris”. The Modi government had “rendered nearly two million people stateless in Assam and is building detention centres to imprison them,” they said referring to the NRC exercise.
The protest was attended by many leading activists and academics including prominent historian and academic professor Audrey Truschke and Sunita Vishwanath, co-founder of Hindus for Human Rights.
Calling Hindutva “a bigoted political ideology with many victims”, Truschke said she opposes the government because of the fact that India’s religious minorities had faced increasing disenfranchisement and violence under Modi’s tenure. The government had condemned the media, institutions and anyone who questioned his actions, his power and his ideology. She said that Hindutva supporters openly admire Hitler and they supported the treatment meted out to Jews by Hitler in Germany.
“The Modi government has been clear in its message that criticising, or even merely accurately describing, Hindutva comes with increasing risks, which makes the scale and diversity of the current protests all the more astonishing. I urge global leaders to listen, not only to Modi but to those he has not yet managed to silence,” Truschke said.
The national general secretary of the Indian American Muslim Council, Mohammad Jawad, said that the Modi government followed the RSS’s Hindutva ideology which was responsible for all atrocities and lynchings against minorities. “We are not anti-India or anti-Hindu. We are only demanding basic human rights that the Constitution of India guarantees for all citizens,” he said.
Sunita Viswanath, co-founder of Hindus for Human Rights, said that the government was destroying Indian democracy in the name of Hinduism. “As Hindus, as Indians, and as people of conscience, we say ‘Not In Our Name’,” Viswanath said.
Hawk Newsome, chairman of Black Lives Matter Greater New York, said, “We stand united against governments that exploit the most vulnerable.”
James Sues, executive director at the Council on America-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in New Jersey, said that the Modi government had “illegally stripped” the people of Kashmir of their autonomy. “We call on world leaders of conscience to reject the fascist agenda of Mr Modi and the BJP and stand with the marginalised minorities of India,” Sues said.
CAFI has demanded that the Modi government restore Article 370, end Kashmir’s “military occupation” and respect Kashmiris’ right to decide their own future. It has also demanded the repeal of the Public Safety Act and the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, the termination of the National Register of Citizens and an end to the lynchings of Dalits, Muslims and Adivasis.
The organisation also called for the freeing of political prisoners like Professor G.N. Saibaba and those in the Bhima Koregaon case and has demanded the withdrawal of “false cases” against anti-caste activists such as Anand Teltumbde.
The protest was co-sponsored by the Alliance for a Democratic and Secular South Asia, Hindus for Human Rights, India Civil Watch and Indian American Muslim Council. The protest has also been endorsed by several organisations and groups including Black Lives Matter (Greater New Y0rk), Democracy, Equality and Secularism in South Asia (DESSA), Winnipeg; India Civil Watch (ICW-Canada) and the Jewish Voice for Peace NYC.
The day before, members of the Sikh and Patidar community had demonstrated outside the UN headquarters in New York when Modi was delivering a speech on Sustainable Development at a special UN summit. The protesters, under the banner of Sikhs for Justice, alleged human rights violations in Punjab and demanded a referendum in 2020 for a separate Khalistan.
