by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business Summit, Events, Muslim World, Social Round-up
Consul General of Afghanistan in Mumbai Ms. Zakia Wardak Delivering opening remarks
Mumbai: (Press release) The Consulate General of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in Mumbai, in association with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Commercial Law Development Program (CLDP), and Indian Chamber of International Business (ICIB) hosted the Afghan Saffron Promotion Virtual Conference on 6th April, 2021. The program focused on promoting the trade of Afghan saffron to India. Over 100 participants attended, including Indian importers and Afghan exporters. Afghan Saffron recently won the International Taste Award – World’s Best- in Brescia, Italy.
During the opening remarks, Consul General of Afghanistan in Mumbai Ms. Zakia Wardak, the first woman to hold her post, shared that “By promoting the export of saffron, the world’s most valued spice, we are helping to economically empower the farmers, growers, and producers of saffron, many of whom are women.”
USAID/Afghanistan Mission Director Dr. Tina Dooley-Jones shared, “USAID, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is working with Afghan and Indian private and public sectors to increase saffron supply, reduce trade costs, and better serve Indian markets and consumers. Together, we are working to improve farming techniques so Afghan farmers can sell more, high-quality saffron while adhering to important safety guidelines. As today’s event demonstrates, we continue to find more effective ways to promote Afghan goods around the world.”
Mr. Shabeer Bashardost, Export Promotion Director, Minister of Industry and Commerce from Afghanistan, notably shared, “In 2019, Afghanistan saffron exports was $17.38 million to India, and in 2020 the exports reached $19.08 million. Over the last five years, Afghan saffron exports to India has increased by 80 percent.”
“Manpreet Singh, President of the Indian Chamber of International Business, commented, “The market opportunity in India for saffron and Afghanistan is wide open. I know that Afghan saffron is winning international quality and taste awards. The price is also right. The only problem is that consumers do not know this.”
This event was attended by dignitaries from World Trade Center Mumbai, Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce & Industries, Afghanistan Women Chamber of Commerce & Industries, World Trade Center- Kabul and Hirat Chamber of Commerce & Industries.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
By Amulya Ganguli,
Even as Narendra Modi was waxing eloquent on India as a “humanising and harmonising force” in Davos, none of these laudable attributes was on display in the country as rabid outfits with ideological links with the Prime Minister’s party were vandalising cinema halls and malls and attacking a school bus with children crying inside.
The most virulent of these marauding groups currently is the Karni Sena, which claims to represent the Rajput community, and the reason for its violent onslaughts on convenient targets is its anger about the supposedly distorted portrayal of the 14th century Rajput queen, Padmini or Padmavati, who may well have been a mythical figure, in the Bollywood film “Padmaavat”.
Although another Rajput group as well as professional film critics have rejected this charge and one of the latter has even said that the valour of the Rajputs and the self-immolation of the queen have been excessively glorified, the vandals have not been assuaged.
One reason why they have continued with their rampages is that the governments run by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Rajasthan, the traditional home of the Rajputs, and in Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat have been reluctant to act against the goons.
The official and political unwillingness to rein in the marauders is explained by their ideological affinity to the BJP, which identifies them as representatives of the community which is a potential vote bank. There have been others of their kind who have also indulged in murder and mayhem with impunity because of their awareness that a BJP government will treat them with kid-gloves.
The Karni Sena, therefore, is not the only Frankenstein reared by the right-wing Hindutva brigade. There are also those who assault and even kill anyone suspected of eating beef or transporting cattle and still escape punishment because of lack of evidence as in the case of the beating to death of Pehlu Khan in Rajasthan although he had a permit for taking cattle through the state in his truck.
Over the period when the BJP has been in power at the Centre and in several states, the boldness of these thugs has grown because of their immunity from any legal action. Nothing showed this defiance of the constitutional order better than the refusal of the Rajput activists to accept the Supreme Court’s clearance of the film, which had earlier been certified for release by the censor board.
The decision of some of the BJP-ruled state governments to appeal to the Supreme Court against the screening of the film (which was summarily rejected) must have also emboldened the brigands for it showed that the rulers sympathised with them just as when the governments had banned the film even before its release.
The vandals must have also been encouraged by the support which they have received from the saffron brotherhood’s formidable army of online warriors who have blamed Muslims for the attack on the school bus. As is known, these Hindutva netizens have a remarkable talent for spreading disinformation.
Despite the judicial negation of the ban, the prohibition is still virtually in force because the theatre owners are too scared to show the film lest their property is destroyed. Evidently, there is little faith in the ability or willingness of the BJP-led governments to maintain law and order.
Given this inability or disinclination, it is not surprising that the Karni Sena has not been called to account by either the Centre or the states for the threats which the organisation has held out against the leading actress in the film, Deepika Padukone, and the director, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, about beheading them and boasting that their graves have already been dug.
Considering that these dire warnings have been issued with great gusto on television, there is obviously scope for legal action. When the government’s opponents have been booked for sedition on charges which haven’t passed muster in the courts, the Sena activists should also have been arrested. Yet, the number of arrests that has been made are few and far between and hasn’t helped in dispelling fear.
It is possible that even these arrests would not have been made but for the presence in India of the 10 ASEAN leaders for the Republic Day celebrations. What impression they will carry back about the arson and depredations being shown on television is not known. But foreign investors cannot but be perturbed about their prospects in India despite the promised cutting of red tape and the rolling out of the red carpet.
What the rampant lawlessness in the BJP-ruled states have revealed is the divide between Modi’s promise of development and the frightening ground reality where institutional authority, like that of the Central Board of Film Certification, is ignored and its chief is told by these anarchists not to attend the Jaipur Literary Festival in Rajasthan, and judicial orders are ignored. Yet, political considerations palpably hinder any serious attempt to bridge the gulf.
(Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst. The views expressed are personal. He can be reached at amulyaganguli@gmail.com )
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
By Amulya Ganguli,
The Sangh Parivar is displeased with the judiciary. Its latest grouse is about the Supreme Court’s ban on crackers.
First off the block to express discontent was the Tripura governor, Tathagata Roy. Speaking as a Hindu since it would have been constitutionally improper for him to use Raj Bhavan stationery to issue a statement, he wondered whether the courts will crack down on cremations next.
Following the governor’s grouse, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) functionary voiced the fear that diyas or the lamps lit during the Diwali festival might also be prohibited.
Following these expressions of disquiet by the higher-ups in the saffron camp, posters written in Hindi — the Parivar’s lingua franca — appeared in Delhi criticising the judiciary. One of them said, “for Yakub Memon the Supreme Court holds a hearing at 2 in the morning. When will it make time to hear a plea to allow small children to play with fireworks?”
Another said, “There are crores of cases pending in court. But the judge (only) seems to find time for cases to do with festivals like dahi handi, jallikattu, Diwali”.
The posters were all neatly printed, pointing to an effective organisational network behind them not unlike the Ganeshji doodh pi rahein hain (Lord Ganesh is drinking milk) campaign in Delhi and elsewhere in 1995, or like the mysterious appearance of chapatis on the doorsteps of various households on the eve of the 1857 uprising.
The Internet Hindus have also got into the act. One of them said that the Supreme Court is “setting a dangerous precedent and is also setting itself up for supreme disrespect for the law”.
In addition to this call for defiance of the judiciary, the writer refers to the “anger in some quarters that the courts feel free to interfere only in Hindu religious customs and not those of the minorities”.
This, indeed, is the crux of the Hindutva angst. For all the formal commitment to the constitution by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ministers when taking their oaths of office, the saffron lobby has always felt that something is not quite right about the legal framework.
As the RSS magazine, Organizer, said in 1949, “the worst about the new constitution of Bharat is that there is nothing Bhartiya about it. The drafters of the constitution have incorporated in it elements of British, American, Canadian, Swiss and sundry other constitutions.
“But there is no trace of ancient Bhartiya constitutional laws, institutions… there is no mention of the unique constitutional development of ancient Bharat. Manu’s laws were written long before Lycurgus of Sparta or Solon of Persia. To this day… Manusmriti excites the admiration of the world… But to our constitutional pundits that means nothing.”
However, the Parivar’s political twists do not hide the judiciary’s uneven endeavours to check air and noise pollution by banning fireworks.
The efforts could not be delayed any longer, considering that India topped the list of the countries with the highest number of pollution-related deaths — 2.51 million — in 2015.
Notwithstanding the seriousness of the problem, the judiciary hasn’t followed a straight, unambiguous path. Instead, there have been unaccountable meanderings with bans being followed by their relaxation and vice versa.
It is possible that there are mental reservations among the judges about a drastic intervention which will reduce much of the gaiety associated with a traditional festival even if the ill-effects of uncontrolled celebrations are becoming all too apparent.
There was need at this time for a meeting of minds between the legal and political entities to ensure that the health of the people is not jeopardised.
After all, with the passage of time, restrictions have to be imposed on the customary observance of rituals as has been done in the case of the immersion of Durga idols in rivers and lakes.
But it will probably be too much to expect the country’s self-absorbed society and political class to understand the need for change and act in unison. Hence, the resistance to the ban on crackers by the saffron brotherhood.
While its intention of consolidating the Hindu votes behind the BJP is obvious, what is also clear is that the saffronities are posing a challenge to the constitutional order.
It may be an insidious threat with little immediate prospect of the legal structure being undermined, let alone toppled, as the extreme Left — the Maoists — want. But the extreme right’s objective is to breed disrespect towards the present system, thereby eroding its base.
To do so, it is banking on arousing the religious/cultural sentiments of the Hindus to create an atmosphere of indifference, if not disdain, towards a major institution of the state.
What is more, their crafty tactics carry the danger of influencing the judiciary to make it act with greater circumspection on matters relating to the Hindus in future.
(Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst. The views expressed are personal. He can be reached at amulyaganguli@gmail.com)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : India entered into “saffron age” due to Ram Janmbhoomi movement and construction of a grand Ram temple at Ayodhya would begin next year in 2018, VHP leader Surendra Jain said on Saturday
Jain, the VHP’s joint General Secretary, was speaking here at a conference on the subject titled “The Ram Janmbhoomi Movement: A Renaissance” at NDMC convention centre in central Delhi.
“India entered into the saffron age because of Ram Janmbhoomi movement and is headed to become world’s superpower. The participation of 16 crore people during different stages of the movement made it world’s largest movement,” he said.
“This movement became a renaissance and invoking the pride of Hindus and country’s potential. The construction of a grand Ram Temple at Ayodhya will begin in 2018.”
Addressing the conference, VHP Spokesperson Vijay Shankar Tiwary said that this renaissance redefined the nationalism and established that India is known as a country of Maharana Pratap and Chatrapati Shivaji and not of Babar, Mahmud of Ghazni and Ghauri.
Gyanendra Bartaria, a Prasar Bharti advisor, said that Hinduism is nationalism.
—IANS
