by admin | May 25, 2021 | News
‘Marriage is a matter of personal liberty, bringing a law to curb it is completely unconstitutional. Jihad has no place in Love.’
JAIPUR — While several BJP-ruled states are planning to bring in laws to curb the alleged cases of ‘love jihad’, a strong statement has come from a Congress-ruled state against the so-called menace.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has said that ‘love-jihad’ is a term manufactured by the BJP to divide the nation. “Marriage is a matter of personal liberty and bringing a law to curb it is completely unconstitutional,” he tweeted on Friday.
Gehlot’s statement has come the same day when a news from Lucknow says the Home Department of Uttar Pradesh has sent a proposal to the Department of Law to work out the legal modalities for a law against ‘love jihad’. The Yogi Adityanath government is likely to issue an ordinance in this regard.
Gehlot has unleashed a series of tweets to express his thoughts on ‘love-jihad’ to say, “Love Jihad is a word manufactured by BJP to divide the Nation & disturb communal harmony. Marriage is a matter of personal liberty, bringing a law to curb it is completely unconstitutional & it will not stand in any court of law. Jihad has no place in Love.”
In the second tweet, he said, “They are creating an environment in the nation where consenting adults would be at the mercy of state power. Marriage is a personal decision & they are putting curbs on it, which is like snatching away personal liberty.”
In the third tweet on ‘love-jihad’, he said, “It seems a ploy to disrupt communal harmony, fuel social conflict & disregard constitutional provisions like the state not discriminating against citizens on any ground.
Besides, UP, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in Madhya Pradesh also plans a law against ‘love jihad’.
Chouhan’s Home Minister Narottam Mishra has said non-bailable charges would be applicable in cases of ‘love jihad’ in Madhya Pradesh.
“We are making preparations to introduce Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Bill, 2020 in Assembly. It will provide for 5 years of rigorous imprisonment. We are also proposing that such crimes be declared a cognizable and non-bailable offence,” Narottam Mishra said recently.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
The question is: Why all these Chief Ministers and Hindutva activists are bringing law against “Love Jihad” only and why not against “Love Dharamyudh”? Why are they worried only about the Muslim boys marrying Hindu girls, and why not about Hindu boys marrying Muslim girls? Is there a sinister plan behind this? With the population of girls rapidly decreasing among the newborn in various states, are they planning to launch “love Dharamyudh” in future after making sure that “Love Jihad” is banned?
By J J Ahmad
Quoting UP Chief Minister, a Hindustan Times report says,“The Allahabad high court has said that for marriages, changing religion isn’t necessary. The government too has decided to check ‘love jihad’ with all its might. An effective law would be made that would ensure that those who cheat gullible women by hiding their identity would be effectively dealt with,” the CM said.
Love Jihad is a term used by right-wing workers to describe interfaith relationships between a Muslim man and a Hindu woman. In February this year, the government told Parliament that there was no definition of the term and no such cases were reported by agencies.”
Karnataka, MP and several other state governments too are busy in bringing law against “Love Jihad”. The question is: Why all these Chief Ministers and Hindutva activists are bringing law against “Love Jihad” only and why not against “Love Dharamyudh”? Why are they worried only about the Muslim boys marrying Hindu girls, and why not about Hindu boys marrying Muslim girls? Is there a sinister plan behind this? With the population of girls rapidly decreasing among the newborn in various states, are they planning to launch “love Dharamyudh” in future after making sure that “Love Jihad” is banned?
Long back, when I had just finished my MBBS, one of my closest friends, a Brahamin, fell in love with a Muslim nurse. They are now married for more than two decades. A Muslim lawyer of the Mohalla I lived in Saharanpur, known for its deeply religious denizens, married a Hindu lawyer. There are many other examples that I have come across where Hindu boys entered into “love” with Muslim girls. Of course we have many among the celebrities – Mahesh Bhatt’s mother Shirin, Yuvraj’s mother Shabnam, Shahid Kappor’s mother Neelima, to name a few. But no Muslim organisation ever propounded the theory of “Love Dharamyudh”. But true to its ideology of spreading hatred against Muslims more than love for Hindus, the BJP and its sister Hindutva organisations are busy throwing “Love Jihad” as its latest weapon of hate. They are presenting it as a planned conspiracy by Muslims against Hindus. The truth on the contrary remains that Islamic organisations and clerics have never supported the idea of Muslims marrying non-Muslims, even if the girl not the boy happens to be a Hindu.
If the examples of Muslim boys marrying Hindu girls outnumber the Muslim girls marrying Hindu boys to any appreciable degree, this is simply because lesser number of Muslim girls are going to higher institutions and jobs. Muslim boys studying in colleges or doing jobs find much greater number of Hindu girls around than Muslims. Mixing and close contacts soon develop into relationships. Most of these boys have relatively weaker religious leanings than the ordinary Muslim boys who prefer to marry Muslim girls.
After all, Inter-caste marriages, whatever their compositions, are not easy to manage with most fearing the long-term effects. In India, marriages are not just a relationship between the couple but involve families, and the religion almost always plays an important role in families and social life.
It is also surprising that Hindutva organisations are opposing “love Jihad” despite the fact that Muslims marrying Hindu girls tend to be closer to Hindus than the ordinary Muslims. Many of them find it hard to face the Muslim hostility towards their marriages and join Hindu dominant organisations and parties. Both of the two most known Muslim faces in the BJP are having Hindu wives, and the couples are proud of each other. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Shanawaz Hussain have proved to be more loyal to BJP than many other leaders.
If despite the massive hate-Muslim campaign by the BJP and the other Hindutva organisations, they can maintain unadulterated loyalty to their party, it should in fact encourage Hindu organisations to accept the marriages of Muslim boys with Hindu girls. This can prove to be a boon for them in the future. And if “Love Jihad” is such a big threat, Naqvis and Shanawazes should be thrown out without delay.
Rather than fearing Muslim boys, BJP would better run a campaign on war-footing against female infanticide which is rampant in the Hindu society. If, at all, the demography in India will have any shift, even if marginal, it will neither be due to Muslim boys marrying Hindu girls nor due to Muslims having a slightly higher growth rate. With lesser girls being born, it can become difficult for Hindus to cope with a situation where marriage-seeking boys will substantially outnumber marriage-seeking Hindu girls.
India is a strange society. At certain times, the whole Indian society tends to become communal; but soon they revert back to secularism, which in our country means respect to all religions.
Rather than adopting communalism, the forces of Hindutva would better try to take support of Muslims on the ground of their common positions on social vices like alcohol, smoking, gambling, family disintegration, nudity and sexual perversions and exploitations.
And if any law is passed against marriages between Hindus and Muslims, it should be applicable to both, boys Hindu, girls Muslims, or boys Muslims and girl Hindus. Otherwise, it will not just be discrimination on the ground of religion but also discrimination on the ground of sex.
Hindutvavadis are not only busy in maligning Muslims but like West are also becoming increasingly aggressive in their version of Jihad, the Dharamyudh. While in Islamic vision of Jihad, use of arms is only the last option, in Dharamyudh, use of Shastra is the only option. When they talk of “Dharamyudh” it is nothing but pure use of Shastra (weapons) for the sake of religion. What if not Dharamyudh is this that their devotion to their “gau mata” leads to killing Muslims with impunity? What if not Dharamyudh was this when they razed Babri Masjid to the ground and indulged in rioting against Muslims killing hundreds? What if not Dharamyudh was this when they went on the killing spree in Gujarat in 2002 blaming Muslims for the death of few dozen Kar Sewaks? What if not Dharamyudh is this that riots are recurrently organised killing scores of Muslims with the help of Police? According to various reports, between 30000 and 100000 people have been killed in Hindu-Muslim riots since Partition, 75 percent of them being Muslims.
Hopefully, sooner than later, their leaders will realise that Dharamyudh is not going to help them in the longer run and it will be better for their religion and community if they learn living in peace and sharing the resources with all the citizens of the country. Hopefully again, they will realise that the real challenge for religions in today’s world is not from the other religions but from the atheistic forces that want to destroy every religion and the religious morality associated with it to perpetuate their monopoly in the world. The day they realise it, we will see the beginning of a new revolution which will make the world, cleaner, purer, healthier and more peaceful.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
The Sandalwood drug scandal story became juicy after the arrest of actress Sanjjanaa Galrani by the Central Crime Branch (CCB) on September 8.
The Sandalwood Drug Case heated up after the arrest of Kannada actress Ragini Dwivedi on September 3. The arrest was made linking Kannada film actors with drugs
By Syed Ali Mujtaba
THE Sandalwood drug scandal in Karnataka has led to the arrest of several film stars and has now sparked a new controversy and that’s ‘Love Jihad.’ Sandalwood refers to the Kannada language film industry in Karnataka.
The Sandalwood drug scandal story became juicy after the arrest of actress Sanjjanaa Galrani by the Central Crime Branch (CCB) on September 8.
A Twitter handler @ShobhaBJP whose actual name is Shobha Karandlaje has raised the issue of the evil link between Love-Jihad and drugs. She pointed out that ‘Love Jihad’ cases being reported across the country have links with the drug mafia.
This BJP sympathiser wanted this angle to be also probed and the motive to stir social harmony to be stopped.
It is true that Galrani had converted to Islam in October 2018 and changed her name to Mahira. In the affidavit, the actress had declared that she converted to Islam on her own will after studying Islam for years. The document also has her photograph along with the date of conversion–9 October, 2018.
Galrani who had made her film debut in Tamil movie Oru Kadhal Seiver (2006), and soon became known for her controversial role in the Kannada film Ganda Hendathi (2006) remake of the Hindi film Murder (2004) is surrounded by rumours of dating Dr. Azeez Pasha, a Bengaluru-based cardiovascular surgeon.
The speculation became nearer to truth when a picture of Galrani with Pasha surfaced in the social media confirming their relationship.
In the picture, both could be seen dressed in a traditional outfit, which looks like a wedding attire.
On being quizzed, both Galrani and Dr Pasha had shared differing views about their marital status. The actress’s mother had her own opinion.
Galrani, who is trained in salsa dancing, said; “I am not married, I want to make it clear that I am not,” she said while addressing the media on the drug case.
On the other hand, Dr Pasha said, “Yes, the photograph is from a ceremony that is akin to a marriage.” But when Galrani’s mother was asked, she confirmed that the actress got engaged to Dr Pasha and their wedding was postponed due to covid-19.
“They were engaged around three and a half years ago. They were set to be married this April, but the pandemic made us postpone it,” the mother said.
The Sandalwood Drug Case heated up after the arrest of Kannada actress Ragini Dwivedi on September 3. The arrest was made linking Kannada film actors with drugs.
The Central Crime Branch (CCB) also arrested Galrani in the same case. She came under the scanner after her assistant was held by the CCB officials for alleged role in supplying drugs in film parties.
Both Galrani and Dwivedi, who are currently lodged in the Parappana Agrahara Central Jail in Bengaluru, have vehemently denied all such allegations.
Galrani in a video that went viral is seen refusing to give her blood samples and then arguing with the investigating officer and other senior doctors that she had lost trust in the police and that she had no clue why she was arrested.
The Central Crime Branch officials have named 12 people in the First Information Report (FIR) related to the use of contraband drugs in Sandalwood.
The CCB also arrested Dwivedi’s friend and RTO clerk Ravishankar, realtor Rahul Shetty and an event manager, Viren Khanna, and Rahul Thonshe, a close friend of Galrani.
In the FIR, it has been mentioned that both the actresses supplied illegal narcotic substances during parties that they organised.
Apart from this, actor couple Aindrita Ray and Diganth Manchale was also summoned during the investigation of the Sandalwood drug case.
Galrani who is brought up in Bengaluru, is of Sindhi origin. She received her first modelling offer when she was in college. She appeared in over 60 television advertisements, the most notable being the ‘Fastrack’ with John Abraham.
Galrani has done over 50 projects, including 43 films. Her co-stars in films include Shivanna, Darshan , Pawan Kalyan, Prabhas, Mohanlal, Mamooty, besides other stalwarts in the South Indian film industry. Her television projects include ‘Big Boss’ in Kannada. She has also worked at Colours Channel in Hindi.
The Sandalwood drugs scandal has echoes from the arrest of Bollywood actress Rhea Chakraborty. She was arrested for her alleged role in the drugs angle which had emerged in the investigations into the suicide death of her boyfriend and actor Sushant Singh Rajput.
Rajput was found dead at his apartment in Mumbai on June 14. The initial investigation revealed that prima facie it was a case of suicide but later his death has led to a drug trail in Bollywood, now under investigation.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Interviews
By Nivedita,
New Delhi : Seeing a Muslim porter carrying a Hindu pilgrim on his back — something that speaks a lot about India as a country — left a seed in Abhishek Kapoor’s heart and mind to tell a tale of “harmony” with his forthcoming Hindi film “Kedarnath”.
A firm believer of Lord Shiva, Kapoor has urged those opposing “Kedarnath” to have patience and faith in him. Reacting to the ‘Love Jihad’ controversy that the film has been caught up in over the romance between the lead characters — a Hindu girl and a Muslim boy — he says the movie is his “pure attempt to create harmony and more understanding”.
A BJP leader had sought a ban on “Kedarnath” for promoting ‘Love Jihad’.
Was he prepared to face such concerns while he was shooting the film?
Kapoor told IANS during a tete-a-tete in the capital: “You do consider stuff like that can happen, but the idea is not to titillate them (movie-goers) in a certain sense or the idea is not to create a controversy. This film is genuinely a very pure attempt to create harmony and more understanding amongst ourselves.”
However, he feels that if someone is going to find faults and tries to take advantage of the situation, he can’t help it.
“One’s attempt is to do something (with a film) that has not been done before and you have to have some courage. To answer all those people out there who are skeptical, they should know that there is nothing that they should worry about. We have not made a film that will offend anyone. If at all, they will see each other with more understanding and more love.
“I would request them to have patience, to have faith in me because the way they love Hindu religion and want to protect it, I also want to do the same. I am also a follower of Lord Shiva and love Hindu religion like anyone else. Hence, I won’t do anything that will disappoint people,” Kapoor said.
Written, directed and co-produced by Kapoor, the film tells the story of a Hindu girl who takes a pilgrimage to the historic Kedarnath Temple in the Uttarakhand mountains, where she meets and falls in love with a Muslim boy who becomes her guide.
As they grow closer along the journey, they face many obstacles, including familial disapproval and contrasting backgrounds. When the sudden rains of the 2013 Uttarakhand floods devastate the region, the couple are forced to survive against the elements and face the ultimate test of their love.
It’s not just the ‘Love Jihad’ controversy that the film has run into as the project has overcome many hiccups in its making. It was salvaged after Ronnie Screwvala took over the film from former producers Prernaa Arora, Bhushan Kumar and Ekta Kapoor.
In hindsight, Kapoor said: “There was fear and to put it lightly, they (the ones who were making it before) were just not qualified to run the show with me. They sounded pretty good in the beginning but in the longer run, I realised that they were not qualified for it.
“A movie has so many careers and so many lives at stake and once I am the owner of this film and I have brought the partner, I have to detach from them and secure my film. Tomorrow whatever the fate the movie will be — whether it is a hit or a flop, people will like it or dislike it, but as a filmmaker and as a person who is going to carry this burden, my duty is to secure the film to the end.”
Releasing on December 7, “Kedarnath” will launch Sara Ali Khan, the daughter of actor Saif Ali Khan and his former wife Amrita Singh. She has been paired with actor Sushant Singh Rajput.
Kapoor hopes the film brings “healing”.
“The intent is pure. The story is true and the characters and the actors have performed really well as I see it. The audience will decide what they have to decide but my conviction is pure,” he said.
Was Sara always in mind for this film?
“I never actually look at the cast before I have the story in place. The story did emerge first. As a kid, I used to go to Vaishno Devi very often and I didn’t have that much of faith then. So after my last movie, I had a trip there. On one such trips, to see a Muslim porter carrying a Hindu pilgrim on his back, was a vision. If you look at it and see what it stands for, it tells you what this country is all about.” Kapoor said.
(Nivedita can be contacted at nivedita.s@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
By Ashok Easwaran,
At its best, speeches at the recently concluded World Hindu Congress echoed the soaring spiritual ideals evoked by Swami Vivekananda in Chicago 125 years ago.
Even Mohan Bhagwat, Sarsangchanalak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), focused essentially on the need for unity and patience among Hindus while fighting obstacles, of which, he said, there would be many. The burden of excavating implied accusations in Bhagwat’s speech fell to his critics.
At the plenary session, the moderator requested speakers to address issues of conflict without naming the speakers or their organisations in the interest of harmony. Other speakers sought to unite the followers of all the great religions that took birth in India — Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism.
Some of the speakers from Bhagwat to Swami Swaroopananda of the Chinmaya Mission, framed the issues before Hinduism in a moral paradigm. Ashwin Adhin, the Vice President of the Republic of Suriname, began his speech in chaste Hindi, later quoting cognitive scientist George Lakoff: “Facts matter immensely. But to be meaningful they have to be framed in terms of their moral importance.”
The dissonances, between the spiritual and the mundane, were to emerge later on the fringes of the seminars which were part of the Congress. Many of the delegates appropriated to themselves the mantle of a culture besieged by proselytising faiths. There were speakers who urged Hindus to have more children to combat their ‘dwindling population’. Posters warned Hindus of the dangers from ‘love jihad’ (Muslim men ‘enticing’ Hindu women).
In one of the sessions on the media, filmmaker Amit Khanna noted that religion had always played a prominent part in Indian cinema, starting with the earliest mythologicals. “Raja Harishchandra”, the first silent film, he said, was made by Dadasaheb Phalke in 1913. He sought to reassure the audience on the future of Hinduism. “Over 80 percent of Indians are Hindus,” he said adding: “Hinduism has survived many upheavals for thousands of years. Hinduism has never been endangered.”
Other speakers, lacking spiritual and academic pedigrees, drew on an arsenal of simulated anguish and simmering indignation.
The nuances of history pass lightly over the ferociously devout and it took little effort to pander to an aggravated sense of historical aggrievement.
At one of the debates, the mere mention of Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister, elicited sniggers and boos. The speaker hinted at ‘Nehruvian socialism’ which had made the Indian economy a non-starter. He concluded with a coup de grace, to a standing ovation: “Nehru did not like anything Indian.”
The poet Rabindranath Tagore, who composed the Indian national anthem, had spoken of his vision of a country where the “clear stream of reason had not lost its way”. At some of the discussions, even the most indulgent observer would have been hard put to discern the stream of reason.
The image of a once great civilisation suppressed by a century of British rule and repeated plunder by invaders captured the imagination of many in the audience. Hanging above it all, like a disembodied spirit, was the so-called malfeasance of Nehru, the leader who had won the trust of Hindus only to betray them in the vilest manner.
These tortured souls would have been well advised to adopt a more holistic approach to Hinduism, and history, looking no further than Swami Vivekananda, who once said: “The singleness of attachment (Nishtha) to a loved object, without which no genuine love can grow, is very often also the cause of denunciation of everything else.”
Historians have informed us that Nehru preferred his father’s intellect over his mother’s tradition but he was never contemptuous of religion. While he undoubtedly felt that organised religion had its flaws, he opined that it supplied a deeply felt inner need of human nature while also giving a set of values to human life.
In private conversations some delegates spoke of how their America-born children had helped persuade them to drop their pathological aversion to gays and lesbians. Despite their acute wariness of perceived cultural subjugation, the irony was obviously lost on them that Article 377 of the Indian Penal Code,(which criminalises gay sex) recently overturned by the Indian Supreme Court, is a hangover from the Victorian British era-embodied in the Buggery Act of 1533.
In the face of the upcoming elections in the US, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi’s decision to speak at the conference was a political risk. With a newly energised political Left, even the perception of being linked with “fascist” or sectarian forces could be political suicide in the critical November elections. Despite vociferous appeals to disassociate himself from the Congress, Krishnamoorthi chose to attend.
“I decided I had to be here because I wanted to reaffirm the highest and only form of Hinduism that I have ever known and been taught — namely one that welcomes all people, embraces all people, and accepts all people, regardless of their faith. I reject all other forms. In short, I reaffirm the teaching of Swami Vivekananda,” Krishnamoorthi said.
Given the almost pervasive abhorrence of anything remotely Nehruvian among a section of the delegates, it was a revelation to hear the opinion of Dattatrey Hosable, the joint general secretary and second-in-command in the RSS hierarchy. Speaking on the promise of a newly-resurgent India, Hosable said in an interview to Mayank Chhaya, a local journalist-author-filmmaker: “A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new — when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.”
The quote is from Nehru’s famous Tryst with Destiny speech delivered to the Indian Constituent Assembly on the midnight of August 14, 1947 — proof, if any is needed, that the force of Nehru’s ideas can transcend one’s disdain of him.
(Ashok Easwaran is an American journalist of Indian origin. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at ashok3185@yahoo.com)
—IANS
