How Cordoba House became “Ground Zero Mosque”?

The proposed Cordoba House near Ground Zero

G.K. Chesterton, English author and mystery novelist once wrote, “Journalism largely consists of saying ‘Lord Jones is dead’ to people who never knew that Lord Jones was alive! Seven decades later, Chesterton’s words still stand true. Journalism is synonymous with truth but these days media neither tells full truth nor complete lie. Media employs a pendulum that prefers to swing in the space between the full truth and the complete lie. It is in this context, we must zero on the so-called ongoing “Ground Zero Mosque” debate.    

Media barons and editors transact with their readers in the currency of words. Words can be loose as well as loaded. Loose words can convert an issue into a non-issue. Loaded words act like a burning matchstick on dry grass. Therefore, the word “Iraqi insurgent” or “enemy combatant” is example of the loose words which have been heavily used by American media in Iraq war. On the contrary, “Jihadist” or “Muslim fanatic” is the example of loaded words which have been employed by a section of American press. The word “Cordoba House” will fall in the category of loose word while “Ground Zero Mosque” consists of loaded words.  

So at what point proposed “Cordoba House” became “Ground Zero Mosque”?

Cordoba House is two long blocks away in north from the World Trade Center site. The five-storey building housed Burlington Coat Factory till September 11, 2001. The factory building was lying vacant since then until a group of Muslims led by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf bought it in July 2009. The factory building is being used for Friday prayer.  New York Times was the first newspaper that ran a front-page feature on December 9, 2009 on the proposed Islamic centre but it never used the term “Ground Zero Mosque.” The front-page report did not attract any attention. On December 21, 2009, Daisy Khan, wife of Imam Abdul Rauf was interviewed by conservative media personality Laura Ingraham on Fox TV. The interview was cordial and Ingraham seemed to support the Cordoba Project. It was on this programme that the misnomer “Ground Zero Mosque” was used onscreen for the very first time. The term may have been used unconsciously on the programme but there was no controversy immediately after that. In fact, according to a search on Nexis newspaper archive, there was not a single news article on the mosque for next five and half months!  

On May 6, 2010, New York City community board committee unanimously voted in favour of the Cordoba House. On the same day, anti-Islam blogger Pamela Geller wrote against the Cordoba House terming it as “monster mosque”. It is precisely at this point that a proposed 13-storey proposed Islamic cultural centre, which, in addition to a prayer room, will include a basketball court, restaurant, swimming pool and 9/11 memorial, was just reduced to a “mosque”! Geller went further to plant a lie that the “mosque” was being built on the site of World Trade Center! “What better way to mark your territory than to plant a giant mosque on the still-barren land of the World Trade Center?” she wrote on her Atlas Shrugs blog. “This is Islamic domination and expansionism. The location is no accident. Just as Al-Aqsa was built on top of the Temple in Jerusalem.” 

On the same day, Rupert Murdoch owned New York Post ran a story which deliberately identified Cordoba House as “WTC Mosque.” News agency Associated Press (AP) ran a story on May 7 quoting relatives of 9/11 victims with differing opinions on the “mosque”. On the same day, Geller’s group Stop Islamization of America (SIOA), launched a campaign “Stop the 911 Mosque!” She posted the names and contact information for New York mayor and members of the community board, encouraging people to write. Uninformed, gullible Americans and anti-Muslims from all across the world wrote to the board without verifying the details that there is no mosque being built on the site of the terrorists attack! 

On May 8, 2010, Geller and Robert Spencer, a known-Muslim-hater and associate director of SIOA, announced first protest against the “911 Mosque” to be held on May 29. One May 10, New York Post columnist Andrea Peyser becomes the first journalist-victim of Geller campaign. She openly wrote against the “mosque” saying that “there are better places to put a mosque.” On May 13, she devoted an entire article to Cordoba House provocatively titled “Mosque Madness at Ground Zero”. The article played an important role in raising and shaping the debate in the sense that it was the first article to be published in a newspaper which portrayed the Cordoba project as inherently wrong and suspect. Peyser quoted Geller thus giving credence to an agony aunt! (Geller once suggested that Malcolm X was Obama’s real father!)  

Thus within a month, Cordoba House, unnecessarily became controversial. It began with anti-Islam blogger Pamela Geller. Andrea Peyser peddled it into conservative media. Mainstream media lapped it up further. A serious newspaper like The Wall Street Journal used the erroneous term “Ground Zero Mosque” in its headline several times. Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York, termed the mosque as “desecration”. Politicians like Sarah Palin, Peter King,   Newt Gingrich and Tim Pawlenty followed suit. 

Today, the atmosphere has become so much charged and heated in America that according to CNN poll 7 in 10 Americans say that they are against the Cordoba Project. By joining the words “Mosque” and “Ground Zero”, peddlers of hate have succeeded in creating fear in American hearts. To many Americans, “mosque” is still a dangerous place. “Ground Zero” is another dangerous word. Two meanings from the American Heritage dictionary would suffice. Ground Zero means;  a) Area where an atomic bomb is detonated, b) A center of explosive change. 

It is also true that many Americans including Mayor Bloomberg of New York have spoken in favour of Cordoba House. But men like Bloomberg seem to be in minority. There is another mosque in Manhattan, near WTC and Pentagon, another terrorist attack site, has a prayer room. Why have not Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer spoken against these two “mosques” in the ongoing debate?

Americans aren’t dumb but an average American is more ignorant than an Indian. According to a recent poll one in five Americans believes Barack Obama is a Muslim, even though he isn’t! A quarter of those who believe he is a Muslim also claimed he talks about his faith too much! Where are they getting their information? Sixty per cent said they learned it from the media!

America needs to have a mass public awareness campaign against the likes of Gellers and Spencers and misleading media. Barack Hussein Obama must make a distinction between “full truth” and “complete lie.”

Till then Pamela Geller will laugh that her wildest dream has crossed the Atlantic.

The Sunday Inquilab, August 29, 2010

The Return of Holy Cow!

Saffron souls clash with police on July 22 in Malegaon

At what point did in Indian history cow become holy to Hindus? The question is obviously rhetorical but needs an honest deliberation. The cow has never been sacred to all Hindus. The view that cow is sacred is merely a sectional Hindu view. It has been a matter of inter-religious debate for decades but one thing is certain: cow slaughter and beef-eating are proven Hindu traditions. Beef used to be served as honour to guests in ancient India. Therefore, the cow became holy at a much later period as part of Hinduism reforms. In traditional or ancient Hinduism, cow has never been sacred.

The month of July can be rightly described as the month of holy cow! It has returned to haunt us in more than one way: Malegaon-Manmad-road cow row was just a flashpoint. The holy cow made a quiet entry from down South in Karnataka assembly. The controversial Karnataka Prevention of Slaughter and Prevention of Cattle Bill, 2010 was passed in the legislative council on July 15 amid protests by the opposition. If the bill becomes a law, it will affect eating habits of many communities, sportspersons, animals in the zoo etc.

The holy cow entered Maharashtra on July 21. We do not know the exact entry point but the holy cow did a road-show on the outskirts of Malegaon before landing in Mantrayla on July 22!

Why did the Opposition protest the passing of the bill in Karnataka assembly? Does the opposition consists of only Muslims?

The sacredness of cow is not a Hindu-Muslim question alone as it has been persistently made out in the media. Karnataka opposition was representing millions of Hindus who still eat beef. Dalits and tribals have always eaten beef as part of ancient Hinduism. A ban in would mean imposition on hundreds of millions of Dalits and tribals. Also, beef is eaten regularly in India’s North-East.

The “Malegaon cow slaughter”, as the mainstream media reported, never took place. Ignorance, as we say in journalism, is bliss. The phrase “Malegaon cow slaughter” is a misnomer. First, the incident did not take place in Malegaon town; eight cows were found dead on Malegaon-Manmad road. By highlighting the word ‘Malegaon’ with the cows, media is playing in the hands of communalists; they want to defame a peace-loving town which did not lose its cool after witnessing two deadly bomb blasts. Media must remember that Malegaon is not a slaughterhouse of all goodness! The word ‘Malegaon’ immediately creates a sensation. Anything sensational in media sells these days.

Second, there was no ‘slaughter’ of the cows; eight cows died because of suffocation and the post-mortem report confirms this. There was no trace of injury or cuts on the body. But not all are convinced. Miscreants belonging to Hindutva brigade are spreading a lie with the help of some pictures. Any sane man would know that body needs to be cut in order to perform autopsy. Veterinary surgeon performed autopsy of the cows. The pictures of cuts borne by the vet’s knife are being circulated over the internet. It is being claimed that cows were indeed ‘slaughtered’! (Hindu Jan Jagruti Samiti is one such website; it puts the number of “slaughtered cows” to 25!) These pictures serve as the propaganda weapon for the right-wing brigade which is consistently becoming violent. Some of the Muslims might interpret the cow incident as part of a “conspiracy” to cause riot. The cow incident does not seem to be part of any conspiracy as of now; it seems more like a co-incidental accident. But people of Malegaon may have reasonable doubts which may or may not be valid. After all, one such ‘conspiracy’ has already taken place in Malegaon in 1984. A Hindu deity was garlanded with a bone-necklace by an RSS activist in order to cause riot. Malegaon could have witnessed a massive riot because the temple of the deity stood next to a mosque. It was the genius of S. M. Mushrif, the then ASP of Malegaon, who unearthed the mystery of bone-necklace and prevented Malegaon from communal frenzy.

The right-wingers are in a mood for mischief. Kesari Chand Mehta, president of Gau-Raksha Samiti spit venom against Muslims on July 22 while presenting a memorandum to the local administration. Muslims must maintain the traditional chain of peace culminated in the aftermath of 2006 and 2008 blasts.

Interestingly, opposition survived the day of July 22 on a lie. A lie can breathe transient life in the lungs of an almost dead opposition but the life of a lie is shorter than a hyphen.

Mother cow, on whose horns universe survives according to Hindu worldview, must be angry over the lie. A slight movement of the horns will send Sena-BJP alliance into deep ravine of eternity.

The Sunday Inquilab, July 25, 2010

Paradise Lost?

          A deserted Lal Chowk, Srinagar, June 22, 2010

“How shall I write its praise? As far as the eye could reach flowers of various hue were blooming, and in the midst of flowers and verdure beautiful streams of water were flowing: one might say it was a page that the painter of destiny had drawn with the pencil of creation. The buds of heart break into flower from beholding it.”

(Mughal Emperor Jahangir on seeing Guri valley of Kashmir, Tuzuk-I-Jahangiri, Memoirs of Jahangir)

Peace in Kashmir is a delicate illusion. The placid calm of magnificent Dal Lake in Srinagar can be confused with peace. But Dal Lake has been silent for centuries. So how does one measure peace in the Valley? One need not take a dip in Dal Lake to measure the depth of peace. Peace floats on its surface in Shikaras and houseboats. Floating Shikaras are a sign of peace. The absence of any human activity over Dal is a proof that all is not well in the “earthly paradise”, a phrase uttered by Mughal emperor Jahangir.

The present trouble began on June 5 when Tufail Ahmed, a 17 year old student who passed SSC exam with distinction, was shot in head by security forces while he was playing in Ghani Memorial stadium. This gave rise to protests in northern areas of Kashmir. For the next 14 days, protests and stone-pelting followed. Omar Abdullah government did nothing concrete to contain the situation. The flashpoint came only on June 19, the day this writer landed in Srinagar. Mohammed Rafique Bangroo – a shawl weaver who has lost seven members of his family to security forces – was severely beaten up by CRPF (Central Police Reserve Force) and breathed his last a day later. During his funeral procession on June 20, people shouted anti-India slogans (One of the most famous slogans of the past 60 years is: Hum kya chahate hain?....Azaadi…Azaadi…Allah-o-Akbar). CRPF fired on the funeral procession resulting in the death of Rafique’s cousin, 17-year old Javed Ahmed Malla.

On June 21, CRPF camp was attacked in Sopore by militants of self-proclaimed Jamiatul-Mujahideen in which one CRPF died and a dozen got injured. When people protested on June 25 about the “fake” encounter, CRPF went berserk and killed 17-year old Firdous Ahmed Kakroo, a farmer and 18-year old Shakeel Ahmed, an electrician. 22-year old Bilal Ahmed of Sopore was shot in his throat when he was watching a protest march against rampant killings. More deaths followed in Baramulla, Anantnag and Srinagar.

Where was Omar Abdullah for almost a month?

Omar Abdullah, chief minister of India’s only Muslim-majority state entered into the picture only on June 19. The local media reported that Omar Abdullah was “extremely angry” over the death of Tufail Ahmed. He came down heavily on CRPF officers. Later, he addressed a press conference.

Is this the way to dissuade street anger?

Street anger can only be contained by stepping on the street. Omar Abdullah realised this only on July 5 when he visited Baramulla and patiently listened to peoples’ grievances. Contrast this with the behaviour of his grandfather, the late Anwaar Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, the lion of Kashmir. On October 4, 1947, addressing Kashmiris, Sheikh Abdullah said Rajas and Nawabs had no right to act on behalf of the people; the people must speak for themselves. Sheikh Abdullah said this as a response to Maharaja Hari Singh’s desire that Kashmir should remain an independent state.

Central government does not seem to have any concrete solution to the present crisis of Kashmir. Deployment of army may bring transient relief but in the long run it will further alienate Kashmiris. A territory cannot be ruled by application of force. As Pandit Kalhana, the first celebrated historian of Kashmir wrote in Rajtarangini:

“Kashmir may be conquered by the force of spiritual merit but never by the force of soldiers.”

Ashoka the Great and his soldiers brought Kashmir under the control of Mauryan Empire and made Srinagar its capital. But it did not last. In fact, spiritual merit of Buddhist missionaries had more impact. Same was the case with arrival of Islam. The message of Hazrat Bulbul Shah and Shaikh Nuruddin had a lasting impact.

Why do Kashmiri Muslims indulge in Kani Jung (stone-pelting)?

If only a stone can change the destiny of a nation. A stone is no equivalent to AK-47 which was once a popular form of Kashmiri resistance. Perhaps to a Kashmiri mind stone-pelting is the only way they can draw the world’s attention. A psychologist will term this as a sign of frustration and helplessness.

A thick layer of humiliation has formed over Kashmiri mind. How would one react if forced to prove one’s own identity? In one’s own state? To a Kashmiri, a valid identity card is his passport to nationalism.

Every nook and corner of Kashmir is guarded by CRPF. In the words of Pratap Bhanu Mehta, “I cannot imagine what it is to live like under half a million troops…”

So when will peace return to Kashmir? The last line must be left to M.J. Akbar:

“Kashmir will never be at peace with itself as long as the mazar of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah needs to be protected with guns.”

Sunday Inquilab, June 11, 2010

No Bend in the River

“When you reach the end of your rope”, goes an old saying, “tie a knot in it and hang on.” For last three and half years, people of Malegaon have clung to the last knot in their ropes but there seems to be no bend in the river upon which there are hanging on. There is no bend in the river. The torrential flow of stream runs in the same direction with the same old pace. Occasionally, tiny bubbles of hope are followed by hopelessness. Bubbles emerge to disappear into oblivion. Bubbles of hope are like a mirage in a barren desert which keeps deceiving the desert travellers.

September 8, 2006 Malegaon blasts are a watershed in the history of Indian Muslims. It was for the very first time that Muslims were specifically targeted on a mass scale: 31 deaths and 300 injured. We could nothing practical to prevent the arrests that followed. We screamed. The democratic scream was loud enough to be heard at 10 Janpath. There was a sense of relief in public when the investigation was transferred to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from ATS in December 2006. Frankly speaking, our sense of relief was based on a fallacy we failed to recognise. The ATS was allowed to file the chargesheet just a day before the case was transferred to CBI. The intent of State and Central government was hidden in this one single act. Congress-led State and Central governments connived to fool Indian Muslims but we failed to understand the judicial puzzle. There was no need for celebration but yet we celebrated transfer of the case. Politicians in Mumbai and Delhi must have laughed at this sheer madness. They must have felt happy that Indian Muslims had mortgaged their common sense in exchange of one single announcement.

There was only one Muslim, a former top cop, who warned against the mad movement for transfer of the case to CBI. His voice, like Maulana Azad, was subdued.

We should have taken a hard look at matters of judiciary but we were swayed by the so-called “victory.” There was no legal mind who could explain to us the judicial entrapment thrown by Central government with the active help of state government. By law, CBI could only file an investigative report in the form of a supplementary chargesheet because the matter was in a court of law. There was no single lawyer who could ask: Will CBI file a contrary chargesheet? Can a supplementary chargesheet be contrary to the original chargesheet? Is there any penal code which specifically states that a supplementary chargesheet fundamentally differs from the actual chargesheet?

CBI has finally done the expected: It has put the judicial stamp of approval on the investigation carried by the ATS. ATS took less than 120 days to file the chargesheet comprising of 3000 pages while CBI has taken at least 1200 days just to submit a supplementary chargesheet of merely 75 pages! Perhaps CBI should be renamed as CBS (Central Bureau of Sub-editing!) That brings to us to an interesting question: Which investigating agency is better as far as productivity and judicial delay are concerned? ATS was a far better agency than CBI. CBI sat quietly on the investigations for more than 3 years. Had the case not been transferred to CBI, the judiciary matter must have progressed.

The judicial battle started very late by Kul Jamati Tanzeem (KJT) is going to be a long one. It should be driven by mere judicial merit rather than any religious rhetoric. The focus of the judicial debate must focus on the innocence of all the accused rather than the blame-game on the investigating officers. Rajwardhan, the then Rural SP, may have been involved in pressurizing Abrar into wrongful confession but there is no actionable evidence against him. The same is true of the accusations made against Sadhvi and company.

Judgements are not based on individual conviction. It is based on the subject-matter and evidence laid down in a court of law. Therefore, unless KJT has actionable evidence against Rajwardhan and Sadhvi in 2006 blasts, it should keep quiet and focus on the innocence of the accused the ongoing judicial delay.

Hundreds of innocent Muslims have been framed by intelligence agencies in terror-related charges across the country. At least 20 Muslims have been acquitted in Hyderabad. This raises an important question: Cant intelligent agencies held accountable as suggested by Vice-President Hamid Ansari recently at an Intelligence seminar?

Justice and equality are our rights enshrined in Indian Constitution and we must strive hard to achieve them.

Sonia Gandhi’s Congress party has not done enough to give justice to Indian Muslims. An investigating agency like CBI may walk away without any accountability but political establishment has to bear the burden of wrongdoing.

The volcano of anger, of injustice is building up in Malegaon.

Can Sonia Gandhi step in to right the wrong?

Sunday Inquilab, March 7, 2010

Ruchika and Media Campaign

Commenting on the famous Mughal-e-Azam song ‘Jab raat hai aisi matwali phir subah ka aalam kya hoga’, M.J. Akbar once wrote,

“I have rarely come across a more startling and poignant metaphor for power.” Elaborating the metaphor he concluded, “Everyone in power is permitted the luxury of just one night, and no one ever believes that the night will come to an end. Deceivers promise a dawn filled with wine, when the truth is that dawn will bring a drug that will put the miracle to sleep. And you will wake up with nothing around you except loss; the mind swooning with the memory of what was, and the mouth bitter with the ash of what might have been.”

S.P. Singh Rathore, former DGP of Haryana and the accused in Ruchika Girhotra molestation case, belongs to Mughal-e-Azam generation and therefore it is safe to assume that he must have watched the epic film. Rathore was 19 when the film was released in 1960 and broke all the records. 30 years later, Rathore forgot the metaphor for power and molested 14-year old lawn tennis player Ruchika in 1990. For the next 19 years, Rathore was so blinded by power that he used all the available means to harass Ruchika’s family and to delay the verdict. It took more than 400 hearings with 40 adjournments to decide that Rathore was indeed guilty of ‘molestation’. (Guinness book of World Records must make a separate chapter on India: Judicial delay. Each year, it will find new records!)

Mainstream media has been totally consumed by Ruchika case. The media is running a campaign titled ‘Justice for Ruchika’. As the principles of journalism stand, it’s not for the media to crusade. The job of the media is just to report facts and not sensationalise it. Witch-hunt of S.P. Singh Rathore is not the job of media. Witch-hunt has never been part of good journalism. Witch-hunt is the duty of law-enforcement agencies and not journalists.

In the recent past, media has run successful campaigns for victims. One such name is Jesica Lall who was shot dead in 1999 by Manu Sharma, son of a Haryana Politician. Manu Sharma was acquitted by lower court in 2006. There was uproar in the media over his acquittal. A powerful media campaign ‘Justice for Jesica’ ensued. Finally Delhi High Court awarded Sharma life imprisonment based on the evidence.

One can argue for media campaign in favour of victims. But a close scrutiny of media’s behavioural pattern reveals it has vested interest in such campaigns. Such media campaigns have only been selective like ‘Justice for Ruchika’ and ‘Justice for Jesica’ although the list of such victims is long. Ishrat Jahan instantly comes to mind. Despite the different nature of the case, nobody can deny the fact that Ishrat Jahan was murdered in fake encounter. S.P. Tamang report, which has been stayed by High Court, has termed the entire operation as “planned” and cold-blooded murder.”

There was no media campaign for Ishrat Jahan. There was no slogan ‘Justice for Ishrat’.
Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Kausar Bi also deserved a media campaign for justice. Their extra-judicial killing is a much larger issue than Ruchika’s case. It’s a different matter that the accused D.G. Vanzara is behind the bars – thanks to Gujarat’s government’s “confession” in Supreme Court.

There was no media campaign for Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Kausar Bi . There was no slogan ‘Justice for Sohrabuddin and Kausar’.

Khawja Yunus case surpasses all limits. 7 years after his mysterious disappearance from police custody, trial is yet to be completed and all the 16 accused are free. There is no doubt that Khawja Yunus was murdered in police custody.

There was no media campaign for Khawja Yunus. There was no slogan ‘Justice for Khawja Yunus’.

Isn’t it strange that Narendra Modi-led BJP government is Gujarat has “confessed” to extra-judicial killings of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Kausar Bi while the behaviour of Congress-led Maharashtra government in Khawja Yunus has been that of an old confused lady?

Strictly speaking, media should not crusade for any cause. And if it does so, there should not be any selective campaign as it has been argued. There should be no double standards. It is a fact that there was no media campaign when the victim happened to be a Muslim as discussed with three examples above.

The Rajput smile of S.P. Singh Rathore has infected the mainstream media. We hope that media will detoxify it before it becomes a disease! Rathore may have learnt to smile from Jawaharlal Nehru when one is in adversity but he would do well to remember this: Nehru did not smile when he lost China war; nor did he forget the power metaphor of Mughal-e-Azam.

Sunday Inquilab, January 17, 2009

A Food-thought for Adam Smith

Adam Smith, father of modern economist, wrote a book titled The Wealth of Nations in 1776. The book is considered the magnum opus written at the outset of the Industrial Revolution advocating a free market economy which will be more productive and beneficial to society at large.

In the book, Adam Smith wrote,

“When the quantity of any commodity which is brought to market falls short of the effectual demand, all those who are willing to pay... cannot be supplied with the quantity which they want... Some of them will be willing to give more. A competition will begin among them, and the market price will rise... When the quantity brought to market exceeds the effectual demand, it cannot be all sold to those who are willing to pay the whole value of the rent, wages and profit, which must be paid in order to bring it thither... The market price will sink...”

To put it simply, it means when demand exceeds supply, the price goes up. When the supply exceeds demand, the price goes down.

The above law as laid down by Adam Smith is being challenged in India. The steady rise in the prices of essential commodities is not necessarily a result of law of demand and supply. There is one more element which has the potential to deceive the operating market forces: artificial food inflation.

Artificial food inflation is a creation of long chain of middlemen. The humble price of essential commodities becomes steeper by the time it reaches the ultimate consumer. The cursory glance at the current market prices of essential commodities will make one sweat. Potatoes are retailing at 100 per cent more than a year ago. Fruits and vegetables are 30 per cent more expensive than the last year. It was only when the inflation touched 19% (highest food inflation of the decade), government stepped in just to utter one phrase: that the rising prices are a “cause for concern”.

Outlook magazine has proved that the current food inflation is not a result of law of demand and supply rather it is the result of law of the middlemen. It followed the essential commodities from farm to the neighbouring shop. The survey compared farm prices, Mandi prices and retail prices of tomato, potato, cabbage and onion. The farm prices of four commodities is extremely cheap while the retail price is at at least five to six times higher. This cycle of steep price ride does not benefit millions of farmers as it is evident from the fact that farmer suicide continues to take place. It only benefits a handful of rich and powerful middlemen. This is the irony of a rising India that the price rise of essential commodities does not benefit the actual farmer rather it paves the way for the middlemen to make a booty out of it.

Where does central government stand in this artificial food inflation?

First of all, there is no effective mechanism to check whether there is the real scarcity of food grains. And even if corrective measures are taken to overcome this, there is no way to control the price of essential commodities. As Ashok Gulati, director of International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) puts it,

“The value chain is too fragmented. And if there’s even a slight supply shortage, agents, end-retailers raise prices arbitrarily.”

It is the job of Sharad Pawar, Union agriculture minister, to devise and smoothen the ways in which farmers cut the long chain and sell essential commodities at decent prices. Cutting the long-chain will not only benefit farmers but also the end-consumers.

Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s statement in Kolkata on Thursday that ‘cost-push’ element is behind the price rise is silly. He said, “It has to be understood that a cost-push element is responsible for the rise in food prices... it emerges from the Centre’s decision to give fair and remunerative prices to farmers among others [procurement, transportation and stocking prices].” Pranab Mukherjee very conveniently forgot the role played by the middlemen in the price rise. Pranab Mukherjee is no naivete who wouldn’t be aware of the role of the middlemen. One would like to believe in Centre’s sincerity behind such a measure but honestly speaking farmers are not getting much money out of it.

Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (EAC) must take note of Pranab Mukherjee’s insensitive statement.

India is poised to take centre stage as it has the second largest economy after China. India Rising story has graced dozens of magazine covers across the world. We boast of four of the world’s 10 richest billionaires. But yet that does not help. That’s just one-side of the story. The other-side is ugly. Poverty and hunger are written on so many faces of Nehru’s India.

Tarun Tejpal rightly points out,

“While acquire and consume has been the anthem of the elite, a low hum has been gathering in the vast undergrowth of the country’s destitute. By official figures — and we may generously add to them if we are feeling particularly dark — more than 350 million Indians still live below the poverty line (which in itself is appalling: Rs 12 for rural and Rs 18 for urban).”

Adam Smith is no longer alive to witness the wonders of a free market. But economist Manmohan Singh is.

Sunday Inquilab, December 27, 2009

A Judicial Ray of Hope

Shaikh Dastagir, a victim of September 8, 2006 Qabristan blasts

Ashwani Kumar, director of Central Bureau of Investigation, and his committed team of sleuths have suddenly discovered that power is not absolute in a secular democracy. Power comes with responsibility and subject to checks and balances by the short arm of legislators and by the long arm of judiciary. CBI sleuths were so confident of power that they went on to sleep for three long years before being woken up by a judicial bite. Isn’t it amazing that CBI took three years just to utter one sentence – which everybody in Malegaon knows – that accused of Malegaon 2006 blasts are innocent. Had it not been the deep and effective judicial bite of Justice J.N. Patel, CBI would have slept till eternity!

The response of judiciary was quick; Bombay High Court came out with its terse judgment in three months. There was no political response for three long years. Should one assume that the two arms of a democratic republic are in complete disharmony? Should one equate Manmohan Singh-led UPA with notorious CBI? Where PC Chidambaram’s golden-rule of democracy is which he very keen taught to Muslims at Deoband? Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, National Security Advisor and Home Minister must admonish CBI in two words: perform or perish.

Before being bitten by the judicial jaw, CBI had an opportunity to prove and reaffirm nationwide belief that it is indeed country’s most trusted and prestigious investigating agency. CBI had a golden chance to capitalize on the so-called “public outcry” which rose from Malegaon. It had a golden opportunity to score over ATS. But unfortunately it treaded the path of ATS which has a dead end. It followed the misleading footprints of a “communal” (that’s how SM Mushrif describes KP Raghuvanshi in his new book: Who Killed Karkare?) officer like KP Raghuvanshi. CBI inquiry may have been a ray of hope to some in Malegaon but it has proved to be eyewash.

The demand for CBI inquiry was not because of “public outcry” as the public prosecutor has claimed in the high court. It was a personal outcry borne with the desire to fill Muslim leadership vacuum. The lone voice filled the empty spaces in newspapers’ columns and each one of us accepted it as a gospel. It was S.M. Mushrif alone who publicly castigated and criticised this insane decision to demand a CBI inquiry on October 10, 2006 at KC College auditorium. CBI inquiry converted an easy puzzle into a complicated riddle.

The formation of Kul Jamati Tanzeem (KJT) did not help; it, in fact, made matters worse. KJT wanted to spearhead a democratic movement in order to release the accused but yet it forgot a golden-rule of democracy: to take help of secular activists. It aggressively portrayed itself as a Muslim organization which proved suicidal. It is precisely for this reason that KJT refused to cooperate and share its report with Teesta Setalvad and Justice Kolshe Patil. The inflated egos of its members must have further inflated when it submitted its so-called “report” to CBI. Is CBI a court of law? Was CBI legally bound to follow the report? Has KJT got any legal credentials that country’s premier investigating agency will follow its diktat?

CBI sleuths must have mocked at this blind and insane decision. The decision to handover the report was a collective mockery of people of Malegaon. KJT is guilty of connivance; it presented all the “evidence” to CBI the way a fresh bowl of soup is given to guests!

Centre and State government have been playing the role of hide and seek. Both are morally and politically responsible to pressurize the concerned agencies to speed up the pace of investigation. Home Minister PC Chidambaram need not become a judge to discover that justice is one of the foremost problems of Indian Muslims. He would do well to remember what American editor and reformer Frederick Douglass was fond of saying,

“I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong.”

Frederick once wrote:

“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.”

Judges have performed their duty. Politicians have not.

Sunday Inquilab, November 22, 2009

Raj Thackeray: Dissecting a lingual terrorist

The worst way to reason is to have no reason. There may be reasons not to have a reason. No reason is a good way to keep people guessing the reason. If you have the reason, you can’t actually fool people not to know the reason. The reason has to be real and not imaginary.

Raj Thackeray, the nefarious nephew of Bal Thackeray, has been on rampage citing a single reason: imagined insult to Marathi language. Does speaking Hindi or any other language in the state of Maharashtra belittle Marathi? By taking oath in Hindi Abu Asim Azmi has not shown any disgrace and disregard to Marathi language. Raj Thackeray’s elected goons’ rampage in Maharashtra assembly has proved that Abu Asim Azmi can alone bring disrespect to Marathi language! Is Marathi language and culture so hollow that it can be brought to disrespect by the utterance of a single being? In the recent past Raj Thackeray’s men have targeted Bollywood personalities. Jaya Bachchan’s unintentional utterance that ‘she will speak Hindi because she is from Uttar Pradesh’ did not go well with Raj although Jaya had apologized right there to the people of Maharashtra for not speaking in Marathi. Is Hindi, our national language, a threat to Marathi, Maharashtra’s official language? Can’t Hindi and Marathi co-exist in Maharashtra? Language should promote harmony and not hatred.

Raj must salute India’s tolerant democracy that allows him to indulge in lingual terrorism. Raj believes in lingual hegemony of aggression. He portrays himself as a messiah of Marathi language and Marathi manoos (Marathi population). Will his intolerant attitude towards Hindi promote Marathi? Aggression does not promote a language. It degrades the language and covers it with the dirt of exclusivity. If Raj sincerely wants to promote Marathi, he should rebrand his Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) as Multi-National Sena!

State government must make provisions to recognise ‘lingual terrorism’! The term “lingual terrorism” must find space in terror statues!

Raj is using his mother-tongue to flex his political muscle and put himself on the state’s political radar. The explosive entry of MNS in the assembly is a result of espousing a so-called ‘Marathi’ cause. Politics is the art of the impossible and Raj is very keen to master that ‘art’ even if he has to coin his own slogan of regionalism which is an antithesis to the very idea of Indian nationalism.

Raj’s theatrics began with the formation of MNS when he felt that he is being ‘sidelined’ by Udhav, Bal Thackeray’s son. A political party needs an ideology and issue to keep breathing. Raj raised an issue which became the core ideology of MNS: to check uncontrolled migration to Bombay from North India especially from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. This might have been a valid issue to an economically-impoverished Marathi but Raj’s constant maneuvering and tirade transformed it into venom. Raj suddenly jumped to language from economics. What happens when a politician propagating regional economics tries to become a linguist? He becomes a political snake whose bite is communicable.

Bal Thackeray became the first victim of the snake-bite when he had blasted Shahrukh Khan as an “outsider” who calls himself a “Dilliwala.” Why should Bollywood become a battleground for the uncle-nephew political rivalry? The answer lies in one question: What have the uncle-nephew done to improve the lot of hapless Marathis? They have only paid lip-service while Bollywood has paid fat cheques. Not many would know that Bollywood, the world’s biggest film industry, employs thousands of Marathis. To cover their collective failure, Bal Thackeray and Raj are competing with each other to target a symbol of economic success: Bollywood.

In the past, state has acted like a mute spectator. The reason was simple: The Congress-NCP alliance was in no mood to offend Marathi sensibilities. It had adopted an old British dictum: Divide and rule. It tacitly supported Raj’s rants in order to divide Sena’s Marathi votes. This political trend can’t survive any more.

Maharashtra’s mainstream political parties have reacted cautiously to issue of Marathi language after infamous slap-episode in assembly. Any official utterance is bound to have a long-term consequence. Marathi mass will not gain from this political game because players involved in this game are concerned about their private rather than public interests!

It is a dangerous game where Indian nationalism is being challenged by Marathi jingoism.

Lingual compulsions cannot succeed in a country like India. How would Raj react if Marathis working in the Middle East are forced to speak Arabic at public functions? Will Raj support the compulsion?

Bombay is a city that does not belong to any particular community. It is a city which has produced Suketu Mehta and Salman Rushdie. It equally belongs to Dileep Padgaonkar and Shobhaa De`. It is a city of dreams where a Marathi as well as a Bihari co-exist to eke out a living. It is a city of irony where thousands come for bread and butter. And a few have come here in search of the bomb as well. Bombay is Bombay not because of Marathis like Raj but because of Gujaratis, Parsis and Muslims who have nurtured this city into a cultural mega polis.

Having stayed in Poona, I know the fact that Marathi is a civilised language. Raj Thackeray and his frustrated men are making a mockery of Marathi. Average Marathis must realize the fact that lingual compulsion as demanded by Raj is not going to improve their condition. Raj is using it as an “ideology”. The empty Marathi stomach can not be fed by an ideology. The last word should be left to a Pune-based Marathi friend:

“If proficiency in speaking in Marathi was the only criteria, why not subject these politicians to examinations and elect them on that basis, rather than wasting resources on elections.”

Raj Thackeray’s terrible 13 should press to implement the above suggestion!

Sunday Inquilab, November 15, 2009

Vande Mataram and Rise of Religiosity

30th General Session of Jamiat Ulema at Deoband

Jamiat Ulema has breathed a fresh leash of life into a decaying body called Sangh Parivar. The legitimate and illegitimate babies of the Sangh Parivar, who were on a deathbed, have suddenly discovered the art of resurrection and are on a revival path – thanks to Jamiat’s endorsement of an old fatwa of Darul Uloom Deoband against singing of the controversial song Vande Mataram. It’s akin to activating the dying cells of BJP! One doesn’t intend to question the validity of fatwa since it has already been settled by Darul Uloom. The subsequent endorsement by Jamiat and its timing are questionable since the matter has been decided by Supreme Court and it’s not mandatory. Also the issue of Vande Mataram was not at all being discussed!

Before we discuss the historical significance of Vande Mataram; three important issues must be made clear. First, the song is completely Un-Islamic. One may not agree with the second issue but many Muslims believe that Jamiat has always been the stooge of Congress. And thirdly the sound health of ‘Hindutva forces’ is a pre-requisite condition for the so-called secular parties to entice Muslim community on emotional issues, so that it may forget its legitimate demands and throw them into oblivion. The strengthening of Hindutva forces means that Muslims will be likely to go with the so-called ‘secular’ parties. This creates a conducive environment and greater prospects for secular parties to capture Muslim votes through false slogan of ‘secularism’.

One may recall that a few years ago, it was Arjun Singh, the then HRD Minister, who declared that the centenary of Vande Mataram would be celebrated with its singing in all institutions. Muslims reacted aggressively giving an opportunity to Hindutva forces to spew venom against the community. Arjun Singh later withdrew the circular and emerged a secular figure in the eyes of the Muslims! The purpose, perhaps, was served: to divert community’s attention from its main problems!

The unholy nexus between ‘Hindutva forces’ and the ‘fictitious secularism’ is the most effective instrument since independence to deceive Muslims.

Indian Muslims must understand the fact that Vande Mataram is more than a hundred year old-trap.

The controversial song Vande Mataram occurs in Bankimchandra Chatterjee’s novel Anand Math which was published in 1882. The song was originally written in 1876. Bhavananda, the hero of the novel plans an armed struggle against Muslims of Bengal. While reciting the song, he meets Mahendra. When Mahendra asks the meaning the song, Bhavananda replies, “Our religion is gone, our caste is gone, our honour is gone. Can the Hindus preserve their Hinduism unless these drunken Nereys (a term of contempt for Muslims) are driven away?” When Mahendra is not convinced, he is taken to temple and shown four-armed Vishu, with two decapitated and bloody heads in front. The priest tells Mahendra, “She is the Mother. We are her children Say ‘Bande Mataram’. The same procedure is repeated at the temple of Kali and Durga. Others have been portrayed as saying, “Will the day come when we shall break mosques and build temples on their sites”? The land of Bengal has been identified with a Hindu deity. Therefore, it is safe to conclude that Vande Mataram is a religious homage rather than national tribute to ‘Mother India.’

Nirad C. Chaudhuri describes the times in which the song was written. “The historical romances of Bankim Chatterjee and Ramesh Chandra Dutt glorified Hindu rebellion against Muslim rule and showed the Muslims in a correspondingly poor light. Chatterjee was positively and fiercely anti-Muslim. We were eager readers of these romances and we readily absorbed their spirit.”

Congress Working Committee which met on October 26, 1937 decided that the first two stanzas out of five will be sung (The last three stanzas have got religious connotation and therefore considered controversial). The first two stanzas began to be sung in some provinces and gradually it became associated with India’s freedom struggle. Commenting on this noted jurist and writer A.G. Noorani wrote in 1999, “’National’ songs do not need political surgery; the songs which do, do not win national acceptance.”

A.G. Noorani has termed Vande Mataram as “unconstitutional” citing Article 28 (1) and (3) of the Constitution which read:

(1) No religious instruction shall be provided in any educational institution wholly maintained out of state funds.

(3) No person attending any educational institution recognised by the State or receiving aid out of State funds shall be required to take part in any religious instruction that may be imparted in such institution or to attend any religious worship that may be conducted in such institution or in any premises attached thereto unless such person or, if such person is a minor, his guardian has given his consent thereto.

Should a particular religion play any role in a secular democracy like India? The question is obviously rhetorical. The deadly mixture of majority religion with India’s democratic framework has acquired frightening proportions.

Why do public servants break coconuts inaugurating new buildings? Why are religious mantras recited in the presence of bearers of public office? Why do judges invoke goddess Saraswati inaugurating a new court building? What has goddess Saraswati’s picture got to do with Indian judiciary? All this has happened recently at the inauguration of new court building in Malegaon in the presence of Chief Justice of Bombay High Court.

All this injures the spirit of world’s longest Constitution whose preamble contains words “sovereign socialist secular democratic republic.” It is the duty of judiciary and law enforcement agencies to check potent mixture of religion and public life.

Since singing Vande Mataram is not compulsory, Supreme Court must take suo moto cognizance of Bal Thackeray’s utterance that those who refuse to sing it, their tongues must be chopped off. Thackeray’s statement amounts to contempt of court. KG Balakrishanan, Chief Justice of India, must intervene to reassure that India does not believe and practice jungle law.

Sunday Inquilab, November 8, 2009

Why Diarrhoea does not Matter in Malegaon

According to one estimate, 55 deaths have occurred because of diarrhoea, pneumonia and other related diseases in the last one and half months in the textile town of Malegaon. State government must declare an emergency. Is anyone listening?

Ordinary Indians, politicians and a select group of media organisations may have become paranoid over the issue of swine flu but a placid calm greets dingy by-lanes of Malegaon as the town reels under the shadow of diarrhoea, Calera, pneumonia and other related diseases. The brave hearts of this small and neglected corner of Maharashtra face death with honour. In October 2001, we faced police bullets. The 2006 blasts did not shatter us; we did not lose the element of sanity. 2008 blast was a grave provocation to spark a communal conflagration but saffron souls didn’t succeed. We lost our sense of sanity for sometime but common sense and good judgment prevailed over anger. Malegaon did not crumble.

It’s a different kind of terror this time. It has surfaced in the form an epidemic, a disease which refuses to lie low even after a month, a disease which refuses to take orders from superior government officials. Let’s face it: filth is our recognition. Whether we like it or not, it’s true. That is how a Muslim mohalla is recognised: by heaps of garbage. From Mumbai’s Kurla to Delhi’s Chandani Chowk, it’s the same old story.

That’s only the one part of the story. The second part is equally despicable and ugly. Our representatives have failed us. The issue of Muslim leadership is a mirage. According to records maintained by Bada Qabristan trust, 55 Muslims have died in the last one and half months because of diarrhoea, pneumonia and other related diseases. One may dispute the actual figure of death toll but no Muslim will provide the wrong cause of death to Qabristan authorities. That brings us to an interesting question: Will 2009 be remembered as a year of medical terror? The current estimate exceeds the death toll of two bomb blasts put together. Did anyone realize that?

The wave of diarrhoea began in the first week of July. If local administration took time to wake up late then State government was in deep slumber till Shobha Buchao, minister of state for health visited Malegaon on August 10. Her quiet visit to Malegaon did not change the prevalent ground realities. Deputy CM Chagun Bhujbhal repeated the usual platitudes on Saturday when he visited Malegaon General Hospital. He was misled by handful Marathi journalists who even went on to claim that beef-eating and slaughterhouse are the main cause of diarrhoea wave! Muslim politicians kept quiet. Silence may be a virtuous act but in such a time of communal mudslinging, silence must be declared a political sin! It seemed as if those Marathi journalists had been hired to advice the deputy CM and the local administration! The press conference was turned into a public relation conference!

As India marches ahead in every sphere of life, the colonial Indian mindset remains mired in the 18th century. State government is hyper-busy in a much-hyped swine flu precisely because it comes with a made-in-America tag! Diarrhoea is a local phenomenon and it comes with a made-in-Malegaon tag. Any foreign-export even in the form of disease and epidemic is considered worthy of media coverage. Mainstream media may have completely ignored Malegaon epidemic wave because towns are not part of their target audience.

What will happen if this kind of diarrhoea wave grips a metropolitan city like Mumbai? What would have been the response of state government if this epidemic spread in Ashok Chavan’s home town? Malegaon’s diarrhoea wave is more dangerous than India’s swine flu. It has taken more lives than swine flu if we compare it proportionately.

Incidentally, all the victims happened to be Muslims. A question worth-asking: Is Muslim blood cheap in the eyes of state government?

Malegaon should not be remembered only for riots and bomb blasts. Senior journalist Pamela Philipose has rightly observed in September 2006, “The tragedy of the September 8 blasts in this town served to uncover the greater tragedy of Malegaon, a town that Maharashtra — and India — remembers only in times of blasts and riots.”

State government needs to give a human face to human beings of Malegaon.

Inquilab, August 18, 2009

The Seeds of Anger and Despair

The collective Muslim response to dropping of MCOCA against Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and company may have confused ordinary Indians but this response is a mirror image of decades of cries for justice. It encompasses and narrates the story of decades of bias, hate, neglect and subjugation openly practiced by communal forces and at times by the state apparatus directly. It captures the mood of a downtrodden and penniless Mussalman. There is indeed a sense of victimhood among Muslims, but too is not misplaced. Exaggeration of victimhood is a natural corollary to the events that unfolded on the night of Independence Day and continue to reoccur in various forms and manifestations till today.

There was a time when riots were a means of terror. And this terror was being implemented with a sickening regularity. In the beginning, riots were sporadic, localized and controllable but this changed in post-Nehru era. As eminent historian Mushirul Hasan writes,

“Riots at Aligarh, Kanpur, Meerut, Moradabad in UP, Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh, Baroda and Surat in Gujarat, were bloodier, more widespread, and extended over weeks and months.”

Post-Babri and Gujarat 2002 riots are the finest example of this phenomenon. What more, this phenomenon was being helped and abetted by the State governments. As India entered into internet and 24x7 eras, it became extremely difficult to engineer riots. (Gujarat genocide of 2002 is an exception but then it has been heavily documented. It is precisely for this reason that Narendra Modi’s role is being investigated).

The Muslim answer to the riots came in the form of serial bomb blasts. Dawood Ibrahim pioneered this trend at such a time when Muslim self-esteem was below the belt. He successfully channalised Muslim despair into violence which turned to be fatal for the community in the long-run. Dawood’s one-single devilish idea has uncorked blocked arteries of Hindu fundamentalists! Bombs began to explode in Hindu as well as Muslim neighbourhood wearing the cloak of anonymity. Investigating agencies only gave a ‘Muslim’ name to this anonymity and the ‘Hindu’ remained anonymous till the Sadhvi episode. It was being implemented to redress a community’s grievance that it has been denied justice. Bomb-plotters of 1993 have been punished by India’s judicial system. Judiciary deserves a standing ovation for this feat. The culprits of 2003 twin blasts have been punished. But judiciary behaves like a toddler when it comes to punishing the rioters. A toddler cannot do anything without the help of his parents! (read executive). To an average Muslim, it is natural to ask: Is judiciary biased? Does it only favour the majority community?

The seeds of anger breed despair. And despair did begin to crawl in the Muslim mind. Despair can be a deadly weapon as senior journalist Shoma Chaudhury writes,

“When you lose faith that a system will protect and play fair by you, it breeds fatal recklessness. It makes you abdicate from the rules that cement human relations. Despair can turn you from citizen to perpetrator. From the hunted to the hunter.”

Meanwhile the trend of exploding bomb was being implemented by Hindu zealots as well. The myth that bomb blasts are only a Muslim specialty was ripped apart only in 2008 when Hemant Karkare’s ATS decided to lift the curtain from the hidden Hindu fundamentalists. Anonymity finally got another name. The long list of deadly masterminds (Safdar Nagori, Maulana Haleem, Mufti Abu Bashr, Atif Ameen etc) got another names in the form Sadhvi and Colonel Purohit. Bomb blasts of Hyderabad, Delhi, Jaipur, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Malegaon 2006 had only the ‘Muslim’ names. Malegaon 2008 revealed a ‘Hindu’ name for the first time although the same set of elements have been targeting mosques and other places in the Marthwada region (Parbhani, Purna, Jalna, Nanded) since 2003.

There was a full stop to a long sentence of despair.

Muslims once again regained faith in Maharashtra’s premier terror agency. The one single act of arresting Sadhvi and the company began to erase decades of mistrust. Hate, revenge, bias and injustice began to evaporate from the Muslim mind and then came the first judicial jolt which paralysed the Muslim psyche. For the first time, Indian Muslims had got an opportunity to prove their innocence. To prove that bombs-making techniques are not taught in their madrasas and homes alone. Temples and Ashrams too have been used as a terror factory. They rightly raised the issue that there was not a single blast after the arrests of Sadhvi.

The first test of sincerity of ATS will be proved in Bombay High Court or Supreme Court of India. The real test of ATS will be the conviction of all the accused of Malegaon 2008 blast; be it under MCOCA or under Indian Penal Code (IPC). If the grave charges of the ATS are to be believed, all the accused can be easily convicted under IPC. Conviction and not the legislation will be the litmus test for the ATS. And even after all this, if ATS fails to convict the accused then they will be remembered as an anti-Muslim agency like Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) of yesterday years which has slaughtered many Muslims of UP in the riots of 70s and 80s. In his book, New Wave of Violence, C.F. Rustamji quotes a senior police official as:

“I have watched with dismay during the year 1982, the conversion of the Uttar Pradesh PAC (Provincial Armed Constabulary) from the model force that I worked with in the fifties to a unit which is feted by the Hindus and hated by the Muslims in the towns of Uttar Pradesh.”

ATS can’t afford to be compared to dreaded PAC. Krish Pal Raghuvanshi can still save his team and men-in-khaki from the bad name.

The seeds of anger and despair have been planted on the soil of Malegaon. It should not turn into a volcano.

Sunday Inquilab, August 9, 2009

Justice or Just-ice?

Saffron "terror": Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur outside court (file photo)


“Doubt”, wrote M.J. Akbar, “is theoretically equidistant from right and wrong, but in real life, there is evidence, evidence creates weightage, and the weight of evidence demands judgement.” Now that stringent MCOCA has been dropped against Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and all other accused in Malegaon 2008 blast, ‘dormant’ doubt of people of Malegaon concerning ATS will get a new leash of life. And why should it not? They have an every right to be doubtful of an organisation which, perhaps, has provided little legal evidence against Sadhvi. Doubt as a consequence of rumour can be dangerous but now it has acquired judicial stamp of approval.

Doubt gives birth to many unanswered and intriguing questions: Did prosecution go soft on the accused? Was the arrest of all the accused to buy the time of minority community and hoodwink them after the general elections are over? Was the arrest meant to alter the thought-process of Muslim sub consciousness? Did the death of Hemant Karkare make space for the evaporation of “evidence”? Did KP Raghuvanshi slowly loosen his grip on the baton passed on by his predecessor? Or did he deliberately forget to implement his successful 2006 blast formula of legal entrapment? Or is he taking orders from political masters? What is the quality of evidence available with the ATS? What were the demerits of legal argument of ATS that fell flat in a court of law?

When Sadhvi and company were arrested, the men-in-Khaki behaved like trumpeters of triumph. They successfully used mainstream media to plant and leak “exclusive” stories in order to create a goody-goody image and leave an impression that they were being very ‘secular’. In a way, they left such an imprint upon people that they had the credible evidence against the accused. No other bomb blast has got so much media coverage and hype in the recent years. ATS was too busy fighting the Malegaon blast case in the media jungle rather than in a court of law. The discharge of Rakesh Dhawde from the Porna mosque blast case on Wednesday was taken lightly by the ATS. ATS officials, in fact, went on record to claim that his discharge will not affect the Malegaon blast case!

The ATS of KP Raghuvanshi must remember that their integrity and honesty is proved in a court of law. We would advise KP Raghuvanshi to follow his 2006 manual which he very “successfully” applied on 2006 Malegaon blast accused. His tactful application of MCOCA has lasted three years and its fate has been reserved in the Supreme Court.
The first major blow is judicial. KP Raghuvanshi and his men still have time to prove their assumptions in a higher court of law.

Meanwhile, a question on everybody’s lips in Malegaon is this: Is it justice or just-ice?

Justice has begun to melt like ice in public perception.

How will you deal with the public perception, Mr. Raghuvanshi?

Inquilab, August 1, 2009

Liberhan Commission, Babri Masjid: A Historical Perspective

December 6, 1992: Hindu fanatics celebrating demolition of Babri Masjid at Ayodhya

Had Zahiruddin Mohammed Badshah Ghazi, popularly known as Babar, been alive today, he would be certainly ashamed of modern India. A mosque built in his name razed by Hindu fundamentalists has become a functioning temple but yet it is termed as a “disputed structure.” Babar would have certainly argued with the present rulers that his medieval India was far better than the modern India in terms of justice. In Babar’s India, there was no such thing called as “delayed justice” or “judicial delay.” Justice Manmohan Singh Liberhan Commission of Inquiry has taken 17 long years just to ascertain events leading to the demolition of Babri Masjid. Babar would have decided the fate of the so-called “disputed structure” in 17 minutes! Politicians, judges, bureaucrats, journalists all love to use the “disputed structure” tag; it in fact gives them a legitimate right to feel ‘secular.’ Their “secularism” will pale when one compares Babar’s conception of secularism. For Babar, secularism did not mean separation of religion from the state but rather equal respect for all religions.

The secularism of Babar is hidden in a forgotten document. It could be a commandment of good governance for leaders like L.K. Advani.

Babar had drafted a secret will much before his death for his son Prince Nasiruddin Muhammad Humayun. In this will, there is a lesson for each politician father and a politician son. An extract of the will reads:

“Oh son! The Kingdom of India is full of different religions. Praised be to God that He bestowed upon you its sovereignty. It is incumbent on you to wipe all religious prejudices off the tablet of your heart, administer justice according to the ways every religion. Avoid especially the sacrifice of the cow by which you can capture the hearts of the people of India and subjects of this country may be bound up with royal obligations. Do not ruin temples and shrines of any community which is obeying the laws of Government. Administer justice in such a manner that the King be pleased with the subjects and the subjects with the King. The cause of Islam can be promoted more by the sword of obligation than by the sword of tyranny.”

(A copy of this will used to be in the possession of the late Dr. Balkrishna, Principal, Rajaram College , Kolhapur).

Can a father who abhors ruining temples and shrines of other religions build a mosque in his name after demolishing a temple?

Babri Masjid was possibly built by a courtesan Mir Baqi on the instructions of Babar in the 1528 at Ayodhya. There is historical evidence in the form of inscriptions inside the mosque to support the assumption that it was constructed on the order of Babar. Also there is nothing in history that suggests that Babar ever visited Ayodhya. A complete and close reading of Babarnama shows that Babar was encamped north of Aud on March 28 1528. According to one historian Babar was encamped at the junction of the rivers Sirda and Gagra. On April 2, Babar went out to hunt in the area north of the camp. Babar must have left the encampment, as he records on March 28, 1528 that he had asked to find ways to cross the river. We are forced to doubt if Babar ever went to Ayodhya. So the question of demolishing a temple at Ayodhya does not arise.

So with Liberhan Commission, Indian Muslims have been awarded with one more inquiry report. Will it suffer the fate of Sri Krishna Commission report? Going by the history of promise and subsequent betrayals by the government, the four-volume report will gather dust in the dustbin of history. First government needs to clear speck of dust from earlier inquiry commissions and reports concerning Indian Muslims. Successive Congress governments have been extremely good in documenting Muslim issues but the true intent of any government is measured by the pace of implementation. Congress will once again show Indian Muslims bubbles of hope but alas bubbles don’t last a lifetime. For last 60 years, Indian Muslims have been appeased with bubbles.

The role of the judiciary in Babri Masjid episode has come under sharp criticism. Strangely enough, Pakistan has done better than India on this front. The story of
Lahore’s Shahidganj Masjid is Ayodhya in reverse. All the elements of Ayodhya case were present. A mosque in adverse possession of Sikhs was demolished. Muslims agitated and there was involvement of religious figures. Muslims were frustrated by the court decision. It upheld that the title of ownership was no longer in Muslim hands and therefore Sikhs were entitled to whatever they liked to do with the structure. Muslims decided to move in the Punjab Assembly to enact legislation for the takeover of the site. They all failed. But the situation was not reversed even after the establishment of Pakistan. To this day, when there is hardly anyone to visit it, the Gurdwara Shahidganj stands in Lahore as it did before August 15 1947.

In Babri Masjid case, the ownership of the land was in Muslim hands. It is a wakf property and according to section 51 of Wakf Act 1995, wakf property cannot be transferred to ‘Nyas’ (Shri Ramjanambhumi Nyas) for Ram temple construction.

In the Shahidganj case the judiciary acted impartially and speedily. In the Ayodhya case, Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer had angrily remarked: “The judiciary will be described as villain of the piece.”

According to Ms. Anju Gupta, the then superintendent of the police, Faizabad, Police had foreknowledge of the Babri Masjid demolition. Deposing before the Liberhan Commission in May 1994, she told that on December 5, 1992, the then inspector general of police, Faizabad zone, had warned officers of his department that there was clear indication from intelligence agencies that the disputed shrine would be attacked on December 6. She had told the commission that L.K. Advani expressed his desire to go to the area to stop the Kar Sevaks but she was discouraged by SP of Intelligence, PAC (Provincial Armed Constabulary). Ms. Gupta told the commission that Advani had in her presence said that temple would be constructed at the very spot and the same was repeated by Murli Manohar Joshi, accepting that they were pleased with the actions of Kar Sevaks. The Bajrang Dal leader, Vinay Katiyar, had mocked Mulayam Singh Yadav by saying over the public speaking system ‘Yahan parinda par nahi maar sakta.’

Will Manmohan Singh speak with clarity of thought over Ayodhya issue? One is reminded of what Jyoti Basu had said on December 9, 1992 regarding the makeshift construction by kar sevaks. “It is an illegal construction and government has every right to demolish it.” When he was asked about the possible Hindu backlash, Basu was honest and blunt, “Let there be repercussions from the Hindu fundamentalists. My party will support any government willing to bring down the structure erected by demolishing the shrine.”

Men like Basu are becoming a rare breed in Indian politics.

Can Prime Minister Manmohan Singh do a Jyoti Basu in 2009?

Sunday Inquilab, July 5, 2009

Expectations high as Sonia Gandhi visits Malegaon

Malegaon General Hospital to be inaugurated today by Sonia Gandhi

For people of Malegaon, the long and patient nine-year wait is finally over as Sonia Gandhi visits Malegaon to inaugurate newly-constructed Malegaon General Hospital. The dream of a government hospital was envisioned by the then Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh in the aftermath of October 26, 2001 riots. For six years, Vilasrao Deshmukh kept dreaming about the hospital while people of Malegaon stood silently with an empty bowel. The soulful cry of a father that rose from the debris of 2006 cemetery shook the conscience of Mrs. Gandhi. Vilasrao woke up from the deep slumber of indifference and was compelled to implement his six year old dream.

So, what does people are Malegaon expect from Mrs. Gandhi, the political queen of India? People are of course happy and exuberant that Sonia Gandhi is going to visit their historical textile town. They just don’t want Mrs. Gandhi to cut the symbolic red-ribbon and repeat the usual platitudes. Any Tom, Dick and Harry can do that. People want Mrs. Gandhi to do an Obama in Malegaon. Muslim community, who very often feels betrayed by the state government, expects some plain and bold speaking from Mrs. Gandhi. She has to assure the town that the days of state neglect will be over. She has to utter unequivocally that Malegaon occupies a central place in the heart of Congress. She has to acknowledge that people of Malegaon are not very happy with the functioning of her party. The general election result in Malegaon is a testimony of this fact. If Mrs. Gandhi and her party want to conquer and safeguard Muslim votes, then Malegaon is an important bastion to wage the long and arduous battle.

Mrs. Gandhi should know that the feeling of injustice, alienation runs deep in Muslim psyche here. Her party should pick up a magnifying glass and take a hard look at ground realities. The wives of Malegaon bomb blast accused 2006 are desperately waiting for the completion of CBI inquiry. Mrs. Gandhi must use rightful political means to make sure that it doesn’t get delayed anymore. The growing kids of the accused need to know whether their fathers are really “guilty” in the official book.

People of Malegaon expect overall development of Malegaon. Malegaon is a town where the bellies of local politicians are fatter than a newly-built road. People want Mrs. Gandhi to use her political clout to ensure that central government schemes are duly utilised in Malegaon. They want Mrs. Gandhi’s government to treat Malegaon as a special zone for the development. They want colleges and institutes like the ones in Sonia Gandhi’s Rae Bareli. In the last 4 years, Mrs. Gandhi has managed to set up three institutes in her constituency.
People of Malegaon wonder whether it will also get the same kind of treatment which Rae Bareli enjoys where in a single year alone, 250 crores were sanctioned to build roads in and around Rae Bareli. One such another scheme of 313 crore was sanctioned to connect Rae Bareli to Allahabad.

There is a feeling of injustice among Hindu brethren of Malegaon. Some are of the view Malegaon is deliberately ignored because it’s a minority-dominated town. Mrs. Gandhi’s Congress party can prove this presumption false only by concrete action.

The patience of people of Malegaon can be gauged from the fact that their status has always been that of man waiting in a long queue. The wait never seems to get over. We are still waiting for railways promised 25 years ago. It has got the green signal of state government but the actual work is yet to begin.

Is Malegaon a town of waiting?

Mrs. Sonia Gandhi should know the answer.

Inquilab, June 30, 2009

Unveiling Nicholas Sarkozy

Naked Truth: Nicolas Sarkozy is a hypocrite of secular liberalism. His problem is not that he can't accept Eastern tradition of convervatism in the form of burqa but his inability to come to terms with Western culrure of secularism liberalism.


French President Nicolas Sarkozy is the finest living example of Western hypocrisy. Hypocrisy, bias and double-standard are intrinsic in human nature and Sarkozy is no exception. Sarkozy’s racist, anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant speech at Chateau of Versailles, south-west of Paris on Monday, is bound to draw criticism from the Muslim World. When one dissects Sarkozy and his personal life with the help of a literary and secular knife, he emerges as a confused personality whose hostility against Islam is steeped in his ascendancy; his Jewish origin. His language was quite similar to the one used by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu recently. The draft of Sarkozy’s speech itself narrates a tale of his outlook towards Islam in general and Muslims in particular.

The tone of his language must be understood clearly, it is only when one can draw conclusion about his intentions. “The burqa”, he said, “is not a religious sign, it’s a sign of subservience, a sign of debasement—I want to say it solemnly. It will not be welcome on the territory of the French Republic….In our country, we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity.”

Sarkozy is a self-appointed representative of the same West that believes in the doctrine of freedom. The definition of freedom in Western parlance is absolute. It includes freedom of choice rather than freedom of chance. The expression of freedom has been abused and used to suit Western convenience. So when it comes to freedom to choose one’s dress, they have no qualms about bikini but they would always have problem with burqa. A bikini is viewed as a symbol of women’s emancipation while a burqa is looked at a form of forced slavery. To men like Sarkozy, the bodily form of liberation is more important than the mental form of liberation. What more, when bodily form of liberation extends their desired limitation, they take the help of a flaccid morality evaporating slowly from the Western geography. So when an old nude photo of Sarkozy’s super-model wife Carla Bruni was leaked on the internet, Sarkozy left no stone unturned that it doesn’t get republished in any of the French magazine and tabloids!

Will an enlightened West question Sarkozy’s definition of secular liberalism? If he really believed in the doctrine that freedom is absolute then he should have allowed his wife’s photo to be published. That would have made him an icon and torchbearer of absolute freedom of expression!

Sarkozy’s comparison of burqa as a “prison sentence” can be understood if it is forced and made compulsory in a free Western society. But what if a woman chooses to wear burqa voluntarily? Won’t the same freedom to wear a bikini be extended to a lady who wants to don a burqa? In this hypothesis lies the irony of the West. This irony looks like an ugly and a repulsive creature on the mirror wall. The Western leaders claiming to be secular need to take a hard look in the mirror. There they will encounter a bitter pill hard to swallow.

The main problem of Sarlozy is not burqa but his inability to do nothing to stop the rise of Islam in his own country. According to one independent report, Islam is spreading most rapidly in France in the entire Europe. France is the only country in Europe which has the largest number of Muslims, 6 million to be precise.

Sarkozy need to understand the definition of secularism in the Indian context where multicultural and heterogeneous society is flourishing. Noted lawyer Fali S. Nariman has rightly defined secularism as, “secularism in India means the ability to comprehend and tolerate an infinite variety of social problems.”

The present Century is going to be a Century of soft power. In dress code, if a bikini is manifestation of West’s soft-power, then burqa is an Islamic symbol of soft-power. Men like Sarkozy fear that in this bikini-burqa collision, the latter may emerge as a winner given the rise of burqa in the West.

Sarkozy may be comfortable with his wife in a bikini on a beach front but the same will not be true in Eastern countries especially India. No seasoned Indian politician will ever do such a thing. He will not be comfortable in a bikini or a mini-skirt even with his wife. Therefore, if a burqa is a statement of separation as believed by Sarkozy, then a mini-skirt is not an invitation to familiarity.

The ongoing debate about separation of church and state raises some interesting points. If we apply that logic then the Church of England should be disestablished, the blasphemy laws abolished, and religious education in schools replaced by an objective consideration of the role of the various religions as a part of History and Social Studies.

Nicolas Sarkozy is a product of secular hypocrisy. He would do well to remember what a British scholar once wrote, “My old mother, a very proper Christian lady, used to wear a headscarf – whether to quell lust or just in order to look respectable I don’t know. The ‘simple fact’ is that in the customs of most societies men and women dress differently.”

Sunday Inquilab, June 28, 2009