Muslim India  

MONTHLY JOURNAL OF REFERENCE, RESEARCH AND DOCUMENTATION
VOL. XXV NO. 288 CONTENTS JUNE, 2008

From the Editor’s Desk: On Reform & Reorganization of Haj Management

Chronology of the Month: 1 - 31 May, 2008
AMU: Annual Report, 2006-07 Highlights
Communal Violence: Shahabuddin’s Letter to PM on Nelli ‘Massacre’, 1983
Civil Service: RSS Infiltration the Civil Services
: 25 Muslims in 2007 UPSC including a Deoband graduate
Gujarat Genocide: NHRC’s Final Report 31 Dec. 2007
Heritage: Mohd. Iqbal on Khwaja Gharibnawaz
:Remembering Talat Mahmood on 10th Death Anniversary
Illegal Immigration: Shahabuddin’s Letter to PM on Rule of Law in
Identification and Deportation
JMI: JMI Annual Report, 2006-07 Highlights
Judiciary: Muslim Under-representation in SC & HC’s (1.1.06)
Kashmir Situation: Missing Persons in the Valley
: Kashmiri Pandits Killed since 1989
Muslim Ufliftt: Expert Report on Equal Opportunity Commission (Extract)
Muslim World: Palestine: AFP Report on Israel after 60 Years
: Pakistan: The Hindu Editorial on Past Election Political Drama
: Debate on Blasphemy in by Nirupama Subramanian
: Tibet: A Note on Muslims by Atul Sethi
Madrasa Education: Arshad Alam on Myths about Madrasas
: Yoginder Sikand on changes in Madrasas
Minority Rights: Political Resolution of CPI XXth &.CPI (M) XIX Congress
Muslim Empowerment: Varadarajan on Equality of Opportunity with
Higher Allocation for Deprived
National Politics: Harish Khare on Prospects for UPA
: Saba Naqvi Bhaumik on Political Dynasties of India.
: Pankaj Vohra on Course Correction by Congress after Karnataka
: Shekhar Gupta on General Election to sum- total of State Elections
: Power versus Patronage in UP under Mayawati
: The Hindu Editorial on Mayawati’s First Year in office
: Mark Tully’s Review of Behenji; A Political Biography by Ajoy Bose
Parliament: Muslim Under-representation in RS & L.S. (1. 4. 08)
Personal Law: Barbara Metcalf on Muslim Personal Law
Panchayat Raj: Shankar Mani Aiyar on Unachieved Objentive
RSS: Madhu Limaye on RSS and Break-up of Janata party
Reservation: Expert Report on Inclusion of Muslims & Christians in SC List
: Shahabuddin’s Letter to PM on Need for Policy Decisions
: Iqbal A. Ansari on Universal Reservation irrespective of Faith
: Gildiyal on Usha Mehra’s Report on Categorization of SC
Rule of Law: PUCL President Kannabiran’s Letter to M . P. H. C.
Bar Association on denial of Police to some Accused to Justice
: T. K. Rajalakshmi on Two Laws in Rajasthan, for Sangh Parivar & others
Sri Krishna Report: Report on Trial by Special Court
Terrorism: K Subrahmanyam For Bi-Partisan Approach towards Terrorism
: Anand K. Sahay on ‘Prosecution’ of Muslim Indians as a Community
Wakf: Shahabuddin’s Letter to INC President on Wakf Land, Unlawfully
Sold to Ambani

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

On Reform & Reorganisation of Haj Management
As a person associated with the management of Haj, in on capacity or the other, for more than 45 years, I was really shocked by the news reports on the difficulties faced by the pilgrims during Haj 2008, particularly while returning to India at the ports of embarkation in Saudi Arabia as well as the points of the disembarkation in India. This caused unprecedented pandemonium at the All India Haj Conference in Delhi on 2 April, 2008. This has brought to the fore the question of reform & reorganization of the Haj arrangement and to amend the Haj Act, if necessary.
Distribution of the Haj Quota
The basic foundation is the distribution of the Haj quota released by Saudi Arabia for India to various States/UTs. Since we have no shortage of foreign exchange, no Haj quota is imposed by the Indian authorities but the Government of Saudi Arabia, considering the limited space at Mina and Arafat in consultation with the Ulema has decided to have an informal ‘quota’ of 1,000 for every million of Muslim population in any country. India thus has a quota of 1,50,000. Unfortunately, this quota is not available to all Pilgrims in equal measure. Nearly one third, 50,000, is siphoned off for Haj Tour Operators (HTOs), who cater to the richer pilgrims and are particularly active in a few States like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Many difficulties arise because of this division of pilgrims between the Haj Committee (HC) and the HTO’s. Most importantly, this division denies equality of opportunity and gives unfair advantage to some States over the others. The first reform that Haj management needs is to distribute the entire quota among all States in proportion to their Muslim population, and not divide it arbitrarily between the HC and the HTO’s. The pilgrims should have the option to perform Haj through the Haj Committee or through the HTO’s & indicate it in their applications to the State HC.
Secondly, States and UTs, which have small Muslim population & therefore generate limited number of applications, say below 500, need not be processed individually but clubbed together, or with applications from a neighbouring & contiguous State, to form a Haj unit. They also need not have their separate Haj Committees.
If the numbers of applications from a State/Haj Unit are less than its quota, all applicants should be immediately advised of their acceptance after eligibility check. In case the number of applicants exceeds the State/Haj Unit quota, the selection should be made by a qurra and the balance accommodated in proportion to the number of surplus applications against the unutilized quota.
Before the State quotas are fixed the Central Government should review its own seat requirement for Haj Mission and Medical Mission, etc. as well as for catering to requests from VIPs. This Central Quota should be kept at the minimum and released before the Haj flights begin.
Role of Haj Tour Operators (HTO’s)
Haj Tour Operators should be registered by the HC and report the particulars of the pilgrims who have signed with them, state-wise both to the HC as well as to the Consul General of India, Jeddah (CGI). The CGI should also be informed about their flight particulars and places of stay and names of their Moallims. Such pilgrims shall be adjusted against the final State quotas.
It is shocking that a particular HTO known as Al Hind Tour and Travel whose owner and management are said to be close to the Minister of State for Haj and is awarded a big quata has been accused of blackmarketing in visas, which are issued free of charges. The arbitrary allotment of Haj quotas to HTOs must stop. Every year there are many complaints against some HTOs. Such HTOs may be deregistered by the HC on review.
Advance Payment by Pilgrims to HC
The next important aspect is the requirement by the HC for a minimum advance deposit. As far as Haj Dues payable to Saudi Arabian authorities are concerned, they are fixed.
Since there is no foreign exchange control and the release needed by a pilgrim is well within the limit set by the RBI for foreign travel. There is no reason for the HC to deal with this aspect. The pilgrims should draw the foreign exchange in cash or in travelers cheques/ from the main branch of the SBI/any authorized bank in the district. But HC must ensure directly that such banks are available at each district headquarters.
The third and the most important element relates to the advance of Haj Charter Fare. This is directly related to the choice of the air carrier and fixation of charter fare. So, the HC may ask for a suitable advance amount, say Rs.10,000, along with the application with the balance being payable before embarkation.
No Air India Monopoly on Haj Charter Service Over the years, a national consensus has emerged that Haj charter service should not be a monopoly of Air India (AI), and that both the selection of the carrier and the fixation of the Haj charter fare should be the exclusive responsibility of the Haj Committee. For this purpose the Haj Committee should issue a global tender giving its precise requirements in terms of type of aircraft, the year of registration and seating capacity. The short-listed bidders, which may include the AI, are expected to compete against each other and for this purpose the HC, with the approval of the MEA, should set up a Charter Negotiating Committee consisting of the Chairman of the Haj Committee, one of the Vice-Chairmen and two Members of the Committee representing the States which had the largest number of pilgrims in the previous year and representatives of Ministries of External Affairs, Finance and Civil Aviation, with Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) as technical advisor. The charter fare should be fixed basically for flights from Delhi/Mumbai to Jeddah & back on the basis of the current IATA fares in US Dollars. The Charter fare should not normally exceed 2/3 of the current IATA fares. For other boarding points, an additional amount not exceeding 2/3 of the normal internal fare may be added.
The Government of India should, at this stage, through the CGI approach the Saudi Arabian authorities to indicate whether they would like to participate in the Haj traffic or receive a royalty. If they wish to share the Haj traffic, they may be assigned either outward or inward Haj flights or both ways from specific points; otherwise, the royalty may be paid to them under the normal formula, which can be added to the charter fare.
After the carrier is selected but before the agreement is signed, the carrier must indicate the air-worthiness of the aircrafts and get them duly certified by the DGCA. The carrier should agree to position the aircrafts at the specific airports at least 24 hours in advance of the date and time of embarkation.
Arrangement for Charter Flight
In dealing with the selected carrier it is for the Haj Committee to indicate the services to be provided for the pilgrims at the embarkation / disembarkation points in India and Saudi Arabia. When flights are delayed carrier should make reasonable arrangements for boarding and lodging of pilgrims during the wait.
Excess baggage charge should be published in advance. No pilgrim should be allowed to exceed the specified limit of excess baggage beyond 5 kgs even on payment of excess charges. The carrier should agree to reimburse the pilgrims if the baggage is lost in transit or delayed in delivery.
It should be a part of the contract with the carrier that it shall transport 5-litre cans of zamzam water free of charge which can be deposited in advance with the agent of the carrier for delivery to the pilgrims on return in India pilgrims who travel by Haj charters should have the option of choosing the point of embarkation because some pilgrims from districts in one State close to the point of embarkation in another State may find it more convenient. This can be adjusted within the district batching system. But they should intimate their choice to the HC, before the charter flights are finalized.
Question of Haj Subsidy
The Government of India should at this stage decide whether it proposes to subsidize the Haj traffic and if so to what extent. It is well known that the cost of all goods & services, both in India and in Saudi Arabia, has risen since the charter fare was last fixed. Therefore, the amount payable by the pilgrims has to increase, in proportion to global inflation (indicated by rise in the IATA fare). Gradually the subsidy can be reduced and eventually eliminated, as desired by the Parliamentary Committee.
In fact, there is rising demand for the abolition of the Haj subsidy because Haj is a religious duty only for those who can bear its expenses. Morevoer, the overall cost of Haj is touching Rs.85-90,000 and an average pilgrim is not inclined to let the Government subsidy ‘soil’ his Haj. This is a theological question, more than a legal or financial question.
Introduction of District Batching System
One desirable reform is to organize the pilgrims in district wise batches (roughly in plane loads) so that they get to know, communicate with & learn to help each other. Each batch should have a small Medical Assistance Team and a Haj Assistant with administrative experience, preferably a Government servant selected by the State Government and a Khadimul Hujjaj, nominated by the State Haj Committee. The Medical Assistance Team should consist of one general physician, one pharmacist, and one male nurse.
Each batch, along with the service providers, should undergo Haj training together and elect one from among them as its Amir-ul-Haj. The batch should be booked of one Haj flight and as far as possible, be accommodated in the same or adjacent buildings, in Mecca/Madina, have a common Moallim assigned to it by the Saudi Arabian authorities (who should maintain an office near their accommodation), move to Mina, Arafat and Madina together and finally return by a common flight. During their stay in Saudi Arabia, the Khadimul Hujjaj and the Haj Assistant should deal with all problems the pilgrims face & secure the help of the Haj Mission/CGI to the extent necessary. Similarly, the Medical Assistance Team should work under the supervision of the Haj Medical Mission and obtain requisite supply of medicines from the Central pool as well as facilities for specialised treatment/hospitalization. The selection of the members of both the Medical Mission and the Haj Mission should be made by the MEA but not exclusively from Central Government employees, so that all States are equitably represented.
Accommodation Arrangement in Saudi Arabia
For accommodation in Makkah and Madinah, the present system is so complicated that no responsibility can be fixed for poor or dishonest selection. Just as Haj transport from and back to India should be the exclusive responsibility of the HC, similarly, the selection of Haj accommodation should be the exclusive responsibility of the CGI, once the framework is decided through consultation between the HC and the CGI keeping in view the difficulties faced by the pilgrims in the last Haj and their normal requirements. The HC should not depute its members individually or in teams to participate in the selection as a joint approval not only introduces complications but diffuses responsibility and has proved to be counter-productive. It is suggested that all pilgrims should have uniform accommodation.
The CGI should ensure that each batch of pilgrims as far as possible is accommodated in the same or neighbouring buildings because they are to be serviced by a common Khadimul Hujjaj, Medical Assistance Team and Haj Assistant.
The Pilgrims should have the option to make their own arrangements in hotels/ with relatives, thus also opting of various services provided for the batches.
GOI Should raise with the Govt. of Saudi Arabia the question of payment of compensation for acquired Rubats & for allotment of alternate sites for substitutes
Duties of CGI & Haj Mission
To receive the pilgrims on disembarkation and see them off on embarkation should be a basic responsibility of the CGI/Haj Mission. In fact, the CGI should maintain a continuous presence at the airport and maintain constant liaison with the incoming & outgoing pilgrims and assist them & secure the help of the Saudi Arabian authorities or the airport authorities or the carrier to resolve any difficulties that might arise, During the departure, particularly, the CGI should have a round-the-clock presence at the airport. For the people who wish to return earlier or later than scheduled, the responsibility for shifting them should lie with the CGI, who should adjust them against vacancies & intimate the changes to the carrier.
The CGI should organize progressive repatriation of the Haj Medical Mission/Haj Mission, whose strength should be systematically reduced as the number of pilgrims in Saudi Arabia goes down. Every deputationist does not have to stay in Saudi Arabia for the entire Haj season.
Monitoring Moallims as well as HTOs
The CGI must also keep a tab on the performance of the Moallims as well as the HTO’s. For the first, he should report the matter forthwith to the Saudi Arabian authorities so that these Moallims are de-registered by them or at least shifted from the Indian pilgrims. Many instances have been reported during Haj 2008 of the discriminatory treatment meted out by some Moallims to the Indian pilgrims in Mina as well as at the airport.
As for HTO’s, any complaints against them should be conveyed to the MEA which should de-register them for the next Haj. As stated earlier, there should be no official quota assigned for the tour operators, who should compete among themselves and take the pilgrims who opt for their services. The HTO’s should be required to inform the Ministry, the HC and the CGI of their detailed service tariff so that on receipt of a complaint the veracity can be verified.
Supervision of Arrangement in Mina & Arafat
The Moallims have the responsibility to make timely arrangement for the movement of pilgrims & for their accommodation in Mina & Arafat. Saudi Arabian authorities have now decided that Indian pilgrims shall as far as possible be allotted adjoining space in Mina and the Moallims shall not use this space for pilgrims from other countries or for non-IIC pilgrims. Similarly, in Mina and Arafat the responsibility for providing food lies with the Moallims. The CGI should check in advance the quality and quantity of food and take serious note of any non-fulfillment.
Abolition of Official Haj Delegation
The Government of India sends a Haj Goodwill Delegation every year formally to convey felicitations of the Government and the people of India to His Majesty the Khadimul Haramain Sharifain after the Haj when he camps in Mina. The secondary purpose is for the government to have a report on the difficulties faced by the Indian pilgrims and the performance and efficiency of the CGI, the Haj Mission and the Haj Medical Mission. The delegation is expected to submit a written report to the Government but one wonders when it was last submitted. It is suggested that the entire exercise which costs nearly three crores every year should be totally done away with and instead a small delegation of not more than three persons, led perhaps by a Central or State Minister, the other two chosen from among the eminent pilgrims themselves, should along with the Ambassador felicitate His Majesty.
The Delegation has become, over the years, an exercise in blatant political patronage. A majority of members are unknown persons with no particular social or public service to their credit, but recommended by the VIPs. The Delegation is completely cut off from the pilgrims because the members stay in 5-star hotels and have cars at their exclusive disposal. They normally take their wives & children along, against the rule. This should be strictly banned.
Quality of Service to Pilgrims
Over the years, the total expenditure on the welfare of the pilgrims has gone up by leaps and bounds but the service provided to the pilgrims still leaves much to be desired. What is needed is total commitment, round the clock supervision of the arrangements by the CGI and his senior officers including the Members of the Medical Mission who should personally visit rented buildings and speak to the pilgrims and attend to their difficulties face to face. This personal attention cannot be substituted by additional staff.
It has also been alleged that in selecting Haj accommodation, the officials engage in underhand transactions with the owners. The Saudi Arabian authorities do not indicate a proper charge for unit accommodation and yet insist that every pilgrim before arrival should have an identifiable accommodation. This sets up a competition among countries with large contingents of pilgrims. This is an administrative problem to be tackled by the CGI.
The deputation by the Government of India of a team to Saudi Arabia for pre-Haj discussions with the Saudi Arabian authorities also appears to be unnecessary. The Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and the CGI and the Chairman of the HC are adequate to negotiate with the Saudi Arabian authorities on the framework for the next Haj. Only if some points remain unresolved, the Minister concerned should visit Saudi Arabia to tackle them. The Government should take the initiative to hold pre-Haj exchange of views with other major countries with large contingents of pilgrims, like Pakistan, Indonesia, Iran, Turkey & Nigeria both in Delhi and in Jeddah on common problems.
To sum up, some policy decisions are needed to reorganize and improve Haj management;
1. Equitable and proportionate distribution and processing of the entire quota to all States/UTs in proportion to their Muslim population.
2. Exclusive jurisdiction of Haj Committee over Haj charter arrangements under the supervision of the MEA.
3. Exclusive jurisdiction of the CGI over selection of accommodation in Makkah and Madina under the supervision of the MEA.
4. Fixation of the Haj air charter fare through negotiation with short listed carriers selected through global tender.
5. Phased reduction & eventual abolition of Haj subsidy.
6. Withdrawal of the Haj Committee from the business of providing foreign exchange to the pilgrims.
7. Introduction of District Batching System so that Haj pilgrims, largely from the same district, travel to Saudi Arabia, stay, move & return to India as a group with their own Khadimul Hujjaj and Medical Assistance Team and Haj Assistant appointed by the State Haj Committee, the State Government and Amirul Hujjaj elected from among them.
8. Batch-wise accommodation in Mecca and Madina. Designation of Moallims batch-wise.
9. Abolition of the Official Haj Goodwill Delegation to Saudi Arabia.
10. Amendment to the Haj Act to shift the Haj Committee to Delhi, to provide annual grant-in-aid by the Central Government for meeting expenditure on Haj management and for the annual report to be tabled in the Parliament.


New Delhi
1 June, 2008                 (Syed Shahabuddin)



PARLIAMENT
Muslim Under-representation in Legislature and Judiciary
Muslim MP’s: Rajya Sabha (as on 30. 04. 2008)
Sr.No. Name Party State
1. Anwar Ali Ansari JD(U) Bihar
2. Ejaz Ali JD(U) Bihar
3. Sabir Ali, LJP Bihar
4. Jabir Husain, RJD Bihar
5. Munquad Ali BSP UP
6. Mahmood Madani RLD UP
7. Mukhtar abbas Naqvi, BJP UP
8. Amir Alam Khan SP UP
9. Shahid Siddiqui, SP UP
10. Kamal Akhtar, SP UP
11. Abu Asim Azmi, SP UP
12. K. Rahman Khan INC Karnataka
13. Mohsina Kidwai INC Chhatisgarh
14. Ahmed Patel, INC Gujarat
15. Anwara Taimur INC Assam
16. Ch. Mohammad Aslam INC J&K
17. Saifuddin Soz, INC J&K
18. Mohd Ali Khan INC AP
19. Rashid Alvi, INC AP
20. Syed Aziz Pasha CPI AP
21. K. E. Ismail, CPI Kerala
22. Mohammad Amin CPI(M) West Bengal
23. Moinul Hassan CPI(M) West Bengal
24. Saeed Ahmad Malihabadi Ind. West Bengal
25. Farooq Abdullah J&KNC J&K
26. A. A. Jinnah DMK Tamil Nadu
27. Tariq Anwar, NCP Maharashtra
Muslim MP’s: Lok Sabha, 2004
1. J.M. Aaron, INC Tamil Nadu
2. K. M. Mohideen DMK Tamil Nadu
3. Omar Abdullah, J&K NC J&K
4. Abdul Rashid Shaheen, J&K NC J&K
5. Mahbooba Mufti, J&KPDS J&K
6. Ateeq Ahmad, SP UP
7. M. Afzal Ansari, SP UP
8. Sayda Rubab SP UP
9. Saleem Iqbal Sherwani SP UP
10. Ilyas Azmi, BSP UP
11. Shafiqur Rahman Barq, SP UP
12 Akbar Ahmad Dumpy BSP UP
13. Mohammad Tahir Khan BSP UP
14. Mohammad Mukeem, BSP UP
15. Ch. Munawwar Hassan, SP UP
16. Rasheed Masood SP UP
17. Shakeel Ahmad, INC Bihar
18. Ali Ashraf Fatmi, RJD Bihar
19. Mohd. Shahabuddin, RJD Bihar
20. Taslimuddin, RJD Bihar
21. S. Shahnawaz Hussain, BJP Bihar
22. E. Ahmad, MLKSC Kerala
23. A.P. Abdullah Kutty, CPI(M) Kerala
24. T.K. Hamza, CPI(M) Kerala
25. Iqbal Ahmed Saradgi INC Karnataka
26. A. F. Osmani INC Assam
27. Furkan Ansari, INC Jharkhand
28. Abdur Rahman Antulay INC Maharashtra
29. Ch. Abu Hasem Khan INC West Bengal
30 Abdul Mannan Hossain INC West Bengal
31. Mohammad Salim CPI(M) West Bengal
32. Asaduddin Owaisi, AIMIM AP
Total 59/783 7.5%
JUDICIARY

Muslim Judges of Supreme Court & High Courts (as on 1.1. 2006)
S.N. Court Muslims/ Names
Total
1 Supreme Court 1/22 Altamas Kabir
High Courts
1 Allahabad 4/60 1. Syed Rafat Alam,
2. Sibgatullah
3. M. I. Murtaza,
4. Abdul Mateen
Additional Judges 2/21 Rehan 2. B.Ali Zaidi,
2 Andhra Pradesh 2/24 1. Bilal Nazki,
2. G.. Mohammad,
Additional Judges 0/5
3 Bombay 0/45
Additional Judges 1/10 Roshan Shamim Dalvi
4 Calcutta 0/29
5 Chhattisgarh 1/6 Fakhruddin
Additional Judges 0/2
6 Delhi 1/19 B. D. Ahmad
Additional Judges 0/7
7 Gauhati 2/10 1. A. H. Saikia,
2. Iqbal Ahmad Ansari,
Additional Judges 0/6
8 Gujarat 1/27 Aqil Abdul Hameed Q.
Additional Judges 0/8
9 Himachal Pradesh 0/7
Additional Judges 0/7
10 J & K 3/7 1. Bashir Ahmad Khan,
2. Nisar Ahmad Khan, 3. H. Imtiaz Hussain
Additional Judges 2/3 1. M. Ahmad Mir,
2. B. Ahmad Kimani,
11 Jharkhand 1/6 M. Yusuf Iqbal
12 Karnataka 1/28 S. Abdul Nazeer
Additional Judges 0/3
13 Kerala 1/26 K. A. Abdul Gafoor
Additional Judges 0/2
14 Madhya Pradesh 0/28
Additional Judges 2/11 1. Wajahat Ali Shah
2. Syed Ali Naqvi
15 Madras 2/21 1. F.M.I. Khalifullah
2. S.S. Zakaria Hussain
Additional Judges 1/18 K. Nazeerullah Basha
16 Orissa 1/9 I. M. Quddusi
Additional Judges 0/5
17 Patna High Court 3/21 1. Aftab Alam
2. S. Nayer Hussain
3. Syed M. Mahfooz A.
18 Rajasthan 0/20
Additional Judges 0/10
19 Sikkim 0/3
20 Uttaranchal 1/5 Irshad Hussain
Additional Judges 0/4
21 Punjab & Haryana 0/29
Total 32/574 5.6%

NATIONAL POLITICS

Will it be the UPA’s Last Supper?
Harish Khare, Editor The Hindu
On May 22, the leaders of the political parties constituting the ruling United Progressive Alliance will gather at 7, Race Course Road, New Delhi, celebrating the completion of the fourth year of its existence. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi will release a “report to the nation;” there will be, to use a media jargon, the familiar “photo opportunity”. After that, it will be time to break bread together. No one is quite sure whether the Left leaders will follow the practice of the past two years put in an appearance at the dinner table to show of political solidarity with the UPA without being part of it.
Will this turn out to be the UPA leaders’ last supper or will they still be together to celebrate the fifth anniversary? The answer to that question depends on whether the Congress bosses as also the allies’ leaders believe that they would be better off electorally with — or without — the alliance; more importantly, whether the UPA can still be marketed politically as the answer to the country’s need for stable and effective governance arrangement in New Delhi. The answer to this question will acquire a sharper urgency after the Karnataka verdict.
As a political innovation, the UPA was born out of sheer expediency. It remains essentially a power-sharing mechanism, tactically an anti-BJP conglomeration, and symbolically an anti-communal, secular front. It has yet to realise its promise of help the Indian state maximise its power potential at home and abroad.
Nonetheless, it must be presumed that large sections of the Indian society still believes that the kind of sectarian impulses and individuals the BJP represents ought to be kept away from capturing the Centre. Not only have the minorities but also every sane, law-abiding, Constitution-respecting Hindu has learnt a lesson from the central failure of the NDA era: Had there been no BJP-led government at the Centre, there would have been no “Gujarat” in 2002. The import of this lesson has become even more acute now that there is no Atal Bihari Vajpayee to provide a sane corrective to the hot-heads who want to replicate Gujarat’s “He-man” strategy all over.
“Gujarat” alone overwhelms the BJP’s claim to have in its ranks desh bhakts, men of exceptional integrity and extraordinary competence. Outside the hardcore BJP constituency, there is little support for these self-serving claims; and, even within the BJP, the age of pretence is over, as evident from the challenges from within the party to L.K. Advani’s recent memoirs. In itself, the book completed the process of middle classes’ disillusionment with the saffron brigade. It will go down as the finest self-goal in Indian politics.
The BJP, as the core of the NDA, has not shown any new intellectual energy or political insight to convince the country that it is wiser after its 2004 defeat. On the one hand, it remains a prisoner of the failed slogans of yesteryear and, on the other, it continues to remain trapped in the “Shining India” calculus: it believes that it is politically acceptable to the country at large. It is not surprising that the BJP has not gained any new members for the NDA; its principal allies, the Janata Dal (U) in Bihar, the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, and the BJD in Orissa are reluctant partners. Except for the burning ambition of one or two individuals and the undiminished resentfulness of a handful of “leaders” to the Nehru-Gandhi family, there is very little to sustain the NDA’s viability as an alternative, credible political instrument to help the Indian state conduct its affairs.
If the BJP and the NDA find themselves stranded in the margins of political imagination, it is because the Left parties have managed to appropriate the opposition space. Be it people-centric issues or the disquiet over the proposed closer ties with the United States, the Left was first off the block in protest. In any case, because of its class composition and ideological preferences, the BJP has long ceased to speak for the masses, especially the poor. The Left may have caused considerable discomfort to the UPA but it has also helped to checkmate the NDA.
Nonetheless, the UPA has to be much more than a negative platform. Has it succeeded in carving out a niche for itself? Does it deserve to be voted back to power, assuming the Congress and its allies want to stick it out? On the face of it, there is nothing compelling, or compelling enough for the middle classes and the centrist forces to favour it decisively over the BJP-led NDA.
Except, perhaps, in one crucial area. The Manmohan Singh government has definitely steered the country away from the NDA-cranked divisive and excitable, post-9/11 mood. The country has been spared a disastrous simmering civil war. If despite jihadi provocations and occasional successes, civil society has remained calm and united it is only because of a sensitive and humane approach to governance. It is possible that the Manmohan Singh government’s non-sectarian approach to the terrorist’s challenge has prompted a new and welcome response from the Muslim community. In the last two years, almost all the leading Islamic scholars, clerics and community leaders have disassociated themselves and their religion from the terror vendors.
Perhaps in no other country have the Islamist terrorists been so forthrightly isolated within their community as in India.
This wholesome beginning needs to be encouraged to deepen and consolidate itself if this country hopes to defeat the terrorist’s challenge. That challenge can be met only if we prefer the politics of inclusion and accommodation over the politics of division and exclusion (code words: minorityism, appeasement, vote-bank politics, etc.). The terrorist’s tactics are calculated to provoke rage; the secular challenge is to defeat all those whose politics depends on working on the citizens’ anger, anxiety and resentment over the terrorist’s ability to get away.
Thus, before the next Lok Sabha election, the UPA leaders need, first, to convince themselves and, then, the voters that the country has done reasonably well in providing a caring, governing arrangement. By accommodating regional voices and aspirations, the Manmohan Singh government commends itself as a worthwhile experiment in initiating regional leaders into the responsibility of governing from New Delhi this vast country.
The best interests of the Indian state can be defended and promoted only if the “national” and the “regional” leaders and parties arrive at a working protocol.
However, irrespective of the BJP’s inadequacies in answering the polity’s needs, the country will still yearn for a more decisive and more effective governance than the UPA has been able to provide. The “mainstream” discourse insists on a “firm” response to a meddlesome Pakistan, and an insensitive United States; also demands a “strong” government that would attend to every single crisis, however small and however remote — without making any demands on the citizens in terms of compliance with laws, sacrifices, or respect for the authority.
In this unhappy context the UPA leaders have to make up their mind on whether they want to stay together or will like to give in to their overweening ambitions. Individually, neither the Congress nor any of its allies can possibly mesmerise the electorate into giving a majority in the next Lok Sabha.
Only if they stay together can the UPA leaders hope to bargain with other players such as the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh to expand the areas of cooperation. Without a healthy dose of realism and sense of realpolitik, the UPA leaders will not be able to fulfil their historic role.

Cancel Taslima’s Visa for Anti-India Propaganda
Shahabuddin’s Letter to MEA, 21 May, 2008
Taslima Nasreen now in Europe has served a notice on all of us that she proposes to return to India before her current six months residence permit expire in August 2008. Her return is bound to be highlighted by the mass media and re-ignite the controversy and the agitation for and against her stay in our country.
I would like to draw you attention to the fact that she is reported to have released a book recently in Paris (on ‘her time in hiding in India’). You are aware of her statement before and immediately after departure from India now she misrepresented the security arrangement how she exaggerated her suffering under ‘detention’ and house arrest. To attract the audience in Europe, she would have painted a highly exaggerated picture. I suggest that the government should obtain a copy of this book and in the light of her writings decide whether she should be allowed to come back to India.
She holds a Swedish passport. She can reside comfortably in Sweden or any other European country.
I have never understood, notwithstanding her profession of love of our country, why she wants to settle down in India, whatever the cost to her or to the peace of the country she loves.

Political Dynasties Of India
Saba Naqvi Bhaumik
“Perhaps the blurring of the boundaries between a political party and a family may be only a phase in Indian politics, from the 1980s to 2010,” Prof. Ram Guha. “Let’s hope the phenomena has peaked because it is not healthy for democracy.”
But what makes dynasties unique is that electoral defeat does not loosen family control over the party.
Indeed, it only reinforces the need to keep the family structure intact since trusted people are required at the helm after loss of power.The Nehru-Gandhi grip on the party will not loosen if the Congress loses the next poll. Instead, a clamour will begin to bring forward the next Nehru-Gandhi. Pawar has obviously seen the virtues of family ties and brought daughter Supriya Sule into the Rajya Sabha two years ago. I owe everything to my father.
Being his daughter I knew most politicians and leaders even before I entered Parliament.
But the NCP does not believe in family rule,” she says.
Nobody would admit they believe in it. And no ideology can openly advocate it. Yet
No ideology will support dynastic rule. But then ideology here is subservient to personality in the tradition of charisma-obsessed politics followed in India, ideology is subservient to personality. Has India therefore regressed to a state where political monarchies are subverting democracy? Omar Abdullah, points out: “In Kashmir, where assembly polls are due later this year, most prominent players are offsprings of politicians - Mehbooba Mufti, Sajjad Lone, the Mirwaiz.” Can he live up to the illustrious Abdullahs? “People will keep saying I will never match up,” he admits bluntly. “I won’t because it is impossible to fill the shoes of a leadership born out of a struggle.”
There is obviously an inevitability about children joining the professions of their parents. Yet politics and electoral democracy are meant to be media of social change and politicians are supposed to be accountable. It’s different, when families control parties. But in the case of regional leaders it often amounts to reducing politics to a business and their parties to private limited companies.So much of politics is now polluted by commercial lobbies, business interests and unaccounted wealth. That is why commentators like Ashis Nandy and Cho Ramaswamy, editor, Tughlaq, argue that money and power are the ties that bind these families even as they lead to dramatic public disputes. Says Cho: “Politics has become like business. In business, no outside talent is promoted. Similarly in politics they want to keep it all within the family.”
Dynasty should be the antithesis of electoral politics. But in the hurly-burly of Indian democracy, dynasty rules. Sadly. Self-made individuals, they came up the hard way. But having arrived, they want their children to have an easy ride.
(Source: Outlook, 12 May, 2008)

For Course Correction by the Congress
Pankaj Vohra on Results of Karnataka Election
The outcome of the Karnataka assembly polls is perhaps the last wake-up call for the Congress before it gets into a preparatory mode to take on its adversaries in the parliamentary elections that do not seem very far from now. BJP’s impressive show in Karnataka. The Congress has to take the blame. Imagine a party that had six members in its working committee from the state and yet lost out decisively. The BJP will now eye Andhra Pradesh and Orissa.
It was known from the very beginning that the Congress was not going to form the government in Karnataka. Everyone seemed to suggest that the Congress would be the single largest party. Several leaders who visited the state to campaign returned with the feeling that there was no organisational network anywhere and though crores had been spent during the ticket distribution process, no preparations at the ground level appeared to be evident.
Senior leaders from Delhi were criss-crossing the state in helicopters without any clear objective but to only log in time to show Sonia Gandhi. The general secretary in charge was not accessible and in any case, it was a tall order for Prithviraj Chavan in the first place to get Karnataka back for the Congress. There had been some misgivings during the ticket distribution process when tickets were denied to relatives of some senior Congress leaders. The buzz was that tickets were being demanded so that these leaders could use their positions to collect funds from others states which they were looking after as party office bearers.
The Congress, which was in power in more than 15 states in 2004, was losing one state after the other. Many in the party attribute the losses to lack of planning and accountability by the concerned office bearers. While the figure of 15 states as well as the victory in the 2004 parliamentary polls were achieved through the efforts of the Congress president, the party was on the decline primarily because of people close to Sonia Gandhi who were taking wrong decisions to assert their supremacy.
There were states that were lost because the general secretaries in charge were unable to see things correctly or because decisions were foisted on them. In fact, it is this extensive cronyism that has eroded the party’s organisational base in most states. The Congress in a way is a strange party where voices of dissent do not come out directly but through signals…. Seasoned leaders are going to push things to test the limits they can go to without inviting disciplinary action. The time when things could be taken for granted is over and the senior Congress leaders will need to use their astuteness and influence to keep many of the ambitious leaders in check.
The Karnataka outcome is also in a way a reflection on the UPA government, its policies and its four years in office. The central government will therefore have to proceed very carefully and not in an abrasive manner in which some of its members have been conducting themselves. It is payback time for people who are going to strike back if the government does not do course correction. It is significant that 180 Congress leaders (mostly former MPs and MLAs) met last week in the Parliament Annexe to take stock of the situation and to apprise the Congress President of their views.
As it is, there is a growing perception that this government was functioning more through bureaucratic ways than through political governance. Some of the key members of the Cabinet as well as the government have not performed as per expectations and the reason why they are still in office is perhaps because some people close to the Congress President would rather have under-performing (or non-performing ) ministers in the Cabinet than efficient ones.
The poll outcome is a time for introspection. The Congress must explore new alignments and new pastures but should be careful while dealing with parties like the Samajwadi Party. The over-enthusiasm at the UPA ‘anniversary dinner’ is fine as long as it gets the party some political dividends. But the Congress must ensure that in UP, where Sonia and Rahul Gandhi have their parliamentary constituencies, it should be able to revive itself. In Bihar too, the Congress is not expected to grow under the shadow of Lalu and RJD.
There is also resentment within the party that only 25 odd people were holding all the positions. The principle of ‘one-man, one post’ must be immediately invoked, the Congress President being the sole exception. Rajiv Gandhi had enforced this strictly, Prithviraj Chavan would be better looking after the PMO and Personnel Department instead of Karnataka,. Similarly, Saifuddin Soz should either concentrate on Kashmir or on his ministry. There is no point in making everyone an all-rounder. Karnataka CWC members have proved how much of a liability they are. The case is the same in other states.
(Source: The Hindustan Times, 26 May, 2008)

Karnataka Election 2008 / Party-wise Seats /Votes
Party No. of MLAs % of Votes
2004 2008 2004 2008
BJP 79 110 28.3 33.9
Congress 65 80 35.2 34.6
JDS 58 28 20.8 19.1
BSP — — 1.7 2.7
Others Parties &
Independence 22 6 6.0 8.7
Total 224 224 92.0 99.0

Group-wise I Break-up Candidates
Party / % BrahminsLingayats VokkaligasOBC Muslim SC ST Misc
of Population 3% 17% 11% 34% 12% 23%
Congress 5 44 43 56 17 37 17 5
BJP 10 7 41 41 0 36 15 4
JD (S) 5 47 58 35 13 36 15 1
BSP 13 35 25 47 28 70 — 6


General Election Reduced to Sum Total of State Elections
Shekhar Gupta, Editor-in-Chief The Indian Express
National politics has been changing now for two decades, starting with the defeat of the Congress in 1989, then an incumbent with the largest ever majority in India’s history. Some change has been noticed, acknowledged and accepted. For example, the rise of caste leaders, regional chieftains and anti-incumbency. Together, these factors are believed to have contributed to the terminal decline of India’s only national party capable of winning a majority on its own. But national parties seem to be missing another change that has come about as a consequence of this.
A national election has now become just a net result of many state elections. The process began in 1989. Over the following two decades, with no great national leader emerging, this trend only strengthened. Vajpayee, the last of the long-marchers, was the one, but limited, exception to this. His appeal did cut across geography, ethnicity and language. But he did help the NDA buck this trend, in parts. With his wider acceptability, he was able to swing that small but crucial number of fence-sitters in various political geographies towards his coalition partners. His absence from active politics has now removed all resistance to “regionalisation” of national politics.
The UPA came into power because four things happened. Rajasekhar Reddy demolished Chandrababu Naidu in Andhra, Karunanidhi trounced Jayalalithaa in Tamil Nadu and, even more importantly, the NDA was reduced to just 10 in Uttar Pradesh and 11 in Bihar. Together, these four states accounted for a swing of nearly 120 seats and brought the UPA to power.
In Uttar Pradesh, it was Mulayam Singh’s resurgence that destroyed the BJP. In Bihar, Lalu’s caste coalition swept the NDA aside. In Tamil Nadu, it was a straight fight between two regional leaders and their respective allies. So in all three of these decisive states, the battle was won by a regional leader.
The Congress swept AP. But wasn’t it, besides Haryana, the only state where the Congress had allowed the emergence, and projection, of a clear state leader, unchallenged by local rivals. In fact, even today, he and Hooda are the only two Congress leaders who are allowed to function as unchallenged regional chieftains.
National elections are now no longer “national” in the conventional sense but a net result of elections in different states.
A national election can now be more aptly compared to a best-of-nine-sets tennis match. The coalition that wins five of these nine will take the match, and the gaddi of Dilli. These nine sets are: Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Kerala. Together, these nine states represent 351 seats in a house of 543. And while there are other large states, like West Bengal, Gujarat and Orissa, we are not considering these because in these radical change is unlikely. The nine on our list are states that can and usually change, and can go one way or the other decisively.
The national party that can win five of these nine can be nearly sure of bagging power for its coalition, since this by itself will give it a tally of 120-145, and it is reasonable to presume that it will get another 20-30 in the rest of the states. Conversely, if one of the coalitions wins a clear victory in five of these nine, it will be almost unassailable.
And how will this be ensured, and by whom? Each of these will be a local battle between a local incumbent and his challenger. So the party or coalition which has the best regional leader in each state will win. This is where the Congress is in trouble. Barring Andhra Pradesh and Haryana, it does not have any state under a leader who could even be sure of winning his own seat. Where it has leaders, as notably Krishna in Karnataka, they have been humiliated and squashed into pulp by its Rajya Sabha-ist High Command. The most striking example of this is Vilasrao Deshmukh in Maharashtra whose fate is worse than that of a daily-wage paid employee. No leader in Karnataka, one in Maharashtra dead in the water, nobody in Uttar Pradesh, the ally still punch-drunk in Bihar, and if you were a Congressman, you would think four of the nine states are written off already. The party needs to focud a crisis of regional leadership, if there has to be a real chance in 2009.
( Source: The Indian Express, 24 May, 2008)

Democracy Takes Governments by Surprise
M.J. Akbar, Author & Eminent Journalist
If Dr Manmohan Singh loses the next general election he will know whom to blame: his best new friend George Bush. Bush has achieved something unique. He has globalised defeat.
The Congress theory of political success in the next election consists of simple arithmetic. Rural sops will bring the rural vote. The nuclear deal will bring in the urban vote. The massage of promises and words will retain the Muslim vote. Hallelujah! We are all in power for five more years. The arithmetic could get disjointed by algebra. Prices cross the rural-urban divide, leaving anger in their wake. The minorities have heard the talk, and got nothing substantive; while Muslims are angry at the alliance with Bush which makes India a possible ally in Bush’s wars against Muslim nations.
The most consistent fact of democracy is its ability to surprise governments who think they have won elections before the votes have been counted. This happened with the last national government in Delhi. The BJP has still not psychologically recovered from the shock that told the party that India was not shining as luminously as it thought. If the Congress does not watch out, it could face some shock therapy soon.
(Source: M.J. Akbar’s Blog, 23 March, 2008)

Power versus Patronage in Uttar Pradesh
Vidya Subrahmaniam,Eminent Political Analyst
To anyone following Dalit history and politics in Uttar Pradesh, the past month should have presented an extraordinary challenge. Consider three images from this time. First, of an earnest Rahul Gandhi stopping over for meals at Dalit bastis as part of his party’s strategy to wrest back the Dalit vote from Chief Minister Mayawati. Second, of a six-year-old Dalit girl being hurled into a fire in Mathura; the latest in a pattern of daily assaults on the community. And third, of the Bahujan Samaj Party’s five of five, punch-packed performance in the April 2008 by-elections — a dazzling first-anniversary reiteration of power and strength by Team Maya.
Which of these contradictory narratives comes closest to telling us the real story in U.P.? Not the first, because wretched as their lives may be, Dalits of 2008 are unlikely to embrace a politics centred on a largesse-dispensing patron. The second and third are both today’s truths, except that they are diametrically opposite truths. One is a searing social commentary. The other is a powerful political statement. One is a horrible, shameful reminder of the continuing savagery against a historically disadvantaged community. The other is the triumph of the same community’s strategically brilliant politics.
The physical oppression of Dalits has made the Congress blind to the community’s political awakening. At the other end of the spectrum, Ms Mayawati speaks the language of power and politics without sufficient attention to the social problem: that one year after she took office, Dalits continue to be assaulted and humiliated in her State is a paradox magnified by the community’s unswerving faith in her.
The new, assertive Dalit is not even a factor in Congress calculation. It dismissed the suggestion that rather than push Mr. Gandhi the Congress could groom leaders from among Dalits in U.P.: “We are an egalitarian party that does not believe in community, caste or region-specific leadership.” In another age, when the Congress was all there was, with its rivals but a blip on the political radar, and its voters tied to its apron strings, such claims would have been understandable. Caste, identity and social mobility were expectedly anathema to a mostly family-run party that offered benign and undifferentiated protection to anyone under its overarching suzerainty.
Even as late as the 1990s, the Congress was unable to distinguish between caste as an oppressive social practice and caste as subaltern aspiration. Rajiv Gandhi’s much-quoted “caste is cancer” speech, made in the Mandal aftermath, was unexceptional. Yet in the context of OBC empowerment, it implied a clinging to entrenched power inequalities.
18 years after Mandal, the party is still to grasp the essence of that explosion: That once freed, power has a compulsive urge to move lower and lower down the social ladder.
The party’s confusion can be seen in its response to Ms Mayawati and the larger Dalit question. Towards the Dalit people, its approach is top-down like a royal conferring rewards. Towards Ms Mayawati, it has adopted an arrogance comically out of step with its own standing in the State. She, in the author of an audacious vote strategy that gave U.P. its first majority government in 17 years. For all its disavowal of caste-based leadership, the Congress forgets one small detail. The party leadership in much of north India is drawn from the forward castes. In U.P., where it must enlarge its base or perish, its decision-making machinery is overwhelmingly Brahmin. So is its Central leadership from that State.
The Congress and the BSP make for a study in contrasts. A Bahujan party with a core Dalit vote, the BSP jumped through hoops to get the ‘upper’ castes on its side and did this from a Dalit perspective, without sacrificing its own claim to leadership of the new vote combine.
While Congress moved externally to win friends, it has been unwilling to shed old shibboleths or carry out internal reform as is evident from its patronising approach to Dalits in U.P.
Rahul appears well-meaning. He disdains flattery and has wisely refused to be cast as Prime Minister-apparent. Yet because he is trapped in the image of family heir, his manner unavoidably becomes that of a regal overlord. In any event, fleeting visits that involve sharing a meal and lending a sympathetic ear to complaints recall princely magnanimity more than camaraderie between equals.
A good half-a-century separates today’s assertive Dalit politics from the post-Independence stress on inter-dining and intermingling, and the changed attitude becomes apparent in conversations with Dalit politicians. As, a Rashtriya Janata Dal MP, told “We are not in need of gods who will give us darshan.”
The Congress’ transformation from a catch-all party that commanded the bulk of the Dalit vote to a bankrupt has-been says it all. In the 1984 Lok Sabha election, the Congress won 83 of 85 seats from U.P. for an incredible vote share of 51 per cent. It followed this up with a 269 of 425 seats victory (39 per cent vote share) in the 1985 Assembly election. The BSP was not even in the frame then. Two decades later, in 2004, the Congress was down to nine Lok Sabha seats for a vote share of 12.04 per cent, going further downhill with only 22 of 403 seats and a vote share of 8.61 per cent in the 2007 Assembly election.
That this period has marked the ascendance of the BSP and Ms Mayawati is not a coincidence. The Congress’ Dalit vote bank deserted it because it spoke to the community from the pulpit, offering it sops and handouts in place of a share in the power structure.
The symbolism of Ms Mayawati was brought home to me by another backward caste leader — Uma Bharti. Though Ms Bharti is a Hindutva-spouting, better-off OBC, she identified with the BSP’s emerging messiah: “She is a role model for Dalit girls. Their eyes light up when they see her on television.”
But, even the BJP has not fully understood the force of the new phenomenon. When recently, Mahendra Singh Tikait rained casteist abuse on Ms Mayawati, both parties sided with the farmer leader in an attempt to slight her.
The signal this sends out to Dalits cannot do any good to either party. The BSP has further tightened its grip on U.P. with a five of five clean sweep of the recently held Assembly and Lok Sabha by-elections. In four seats, the Congress and the BJP candidates lost their security deposits.
The Maya juggernaut is not about to be stopped by the Congress and the BJP. If she falls, she will do so for her own follies, among them the failure to address the physical suffering of the Dalits.
(Source: The Hindu, 16 May, 2008)

A glass half full
Editorial, The Hindu, 20 May, 2008
As Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kumari Mayawati completes a year at the head of the State’s first majority government in 16 years, an intriguing question arises: by what yardstick is she best judged? For sheer political instinct, the Bahujan Samaj Party chief scores a perfect ten. On performance, she falls far short, with the focus on symbols rather than substance. In the summer of 2007, she off an improbable outright victory, riding on the back of an audacious vote combination of Dalits and sizable segments of other castes. A year on, she made a clean sweep of by-elections to two Lok Sabha and three Assembly constituencies. The Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party candidates lost their security deposits in four seats.
The 52-year-old Chief Minister’s political successes owe much to the boldness and freshness of approach she demonstrated in her 2007 campaign. Ms Mayawati began her new innings, her fourth since she first took top office in June 1995, with characteristic disdain for norms. She chopped and changed posts, ordered mass transfers of IAS and IPS officers, went on a demolishing spree, and unveiled a series of statues, including one of herself. Her government has wantonly pulled down buildings and structures, including those constructed at exorbitant cost during her earlier stints as Chief Minister. On the other hand, the BSP in power is yet to fulfil a major promise of her election campaign: to fight crime. The tabling of the Uttar Pradesh Control of Crime Bill, 2007 notwithstanding, law and order remains a serious concern in the State, with crimes against Dalits and women showing a surprising increase. According to the Dynamic Action Group, an NGO working in the State, there has been an average of two incidents of crimes against Dalits every day over the past year, with the police refusing to register many complaints. In a village near Mathura last month, a six-year old girl was hurled into a fire by forward caste men objecting to her walking on a road meant for their ‘exclusive’ use. Earlier, another Dalit girl was lynched in Itawah. Ms Mayawati’s electoral success will amount to little if her government cannot assure the physical safety of the oppressed folk who stood by her through thick and thin. This is the time for her to undertake a major course correction.

BSP Going Strong in UP
Venkitesh Ramakrishnan
On April 16, approximately a month before its government, is first anniversary on May 13, the BSP made a clean sweep of the five byelections held in the State three to the State Assembly and two to the Lok Sabha outplaying all its political opponents, including the principal opposition in the State, the Samajwadi Party (S.P.), as well as the two mainstream national parties, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Not merely quantitative almost all the qualitative dimensions of the results were also in favour of the BSP.
First, the quantitative aspect. The BSP retained its Lok Sabha seats as well one Assembly seat and wrested one Assembly seat from the Congress and Muradnagar from an Independent.
The Congress and BJP candidates lost their security deposits in four seats. With these victories, the BSP’s strength in the 403-member Assembly has risen to 215.
In the two Lok Sabha seats, the BSP improved upon its victory margin in the 2004 general elections.
In the Bilgram Assembly constituency, also. This, was an improvement on the BSP’s victory margin in 2007. In Colonelganj, the BSP leaped from its third position in 2007 to emerge first.
In Muradnagar, Rajpal Tyagi, who won as Independent in 2007, retained the seat, but this time as the BSP candidate his victory margin jumped from 3,020 in 2007 to 6,853.
In qualitative terms, one of the first things the BSP leadership highlighted about the byelection results was that it has once again asserted its political hold over different geographical areas of Uttar Pradesh.
A significant feature of the results is that Muslims continue to repose faith in the BSP despite the perception that some socio-political faux pas of the BSP leadership have angered them. The Muslim vote is a crucial component in both Azamgarh and Khalilabad Lok Sabha seats and in Muradnagar Assembly seat. The BSP won Muradnagar in Ghaziabad district despite the RLD fielding a Muslim candidate.
The results also show that Mayawati’s political plank of Dalit-Brahmin bhaichara is also holding on in spite of occasional expressions of resentment from both communities. In Bilgram and Khalilabad the winners were Brahmins.
Politically, the byelections have negated, to a large extent, the perception that the Mayawati government is becoming unpopular. The perception came when the BSP lost the Ballia byelection in early 2008, despite the sizable presence of Dalits and Brahmins in the constituency. Mayawati had fielded a Brahmin candidate here.
Apart from this verdict, the massive crowds that former Chief Minister and S.P. president Mulayam Singh Yadav had been drawing in almost all his public meetings over the past three months was also seen as an indicator of the anti-incumbency trend against Mayawati. However, the S.P. rank and file seem to be unable to translate the popular support.
A specific Yadav dimension of the elections also does not augur well for the S.P.
STATUS OF CONGRESS & BJP
The polls have given a new impetus to the marginalisation of the two mainstream national parties, the Congress and the BJP. The BJP, which ruled the State on its own just about a decade and a half ago, ended up with 1.35 per cent vote share in Muradnagar, 3.5 per cent in Colonelganj and 5.03 per cent in Bilgram.
The Congress’ understanding that the BSP is losing ground is completely misplaced. The party has been making overtures to the S.P. on this premise. It is to be seen whether the byelection results would lead to the Congress’ rethinking of its strategy.
In the immediate aftermath of the elections, however, she rubbed salt into the Congress’ wound by stating that “the results have exposed the newfound love of the Congress for Dalits.” She also anticipated reap a major harvest in the next Lok Sabha elections.
The immediate reaction of the S.P., the BJP and the Congress was to accuse the ruling party of misusing the official machinery to win the elections. The rank and file of the BJP and the Congress, so used to recurrent defeats, may well be taking this reverse too in their stride, but that is not the case with the S.P. cadre.
If the SP wants to get back to its number one position in the State, it may have to go beyond excuses and come out with a clear, well thought-out political strategy.•
(Source: Frontline, May 9, 2008)

Behenji: A Political Biography of Mayawati by Ajoy Bose
A Review by Mark Tully
Behenji is an apologia for Mayawati, a defence of her, but it is far from being a whitewash. Ajoy Bose doesn’t present her as a paragon of administrative probity and he devotes a whole chapter to the extraordinary wealth she has accumulated. He believes that there is a huge disconnect between the perceptions of what the urban intelligentsia consider good administrative qualities and that which the vast multitude still struggling for basic rights and facilities, consider essential”.
Behenji is an attempt to connect the intelligentsia with Mayawati.
Inevitably it is difficult for the intelligentsia to understand how a woman born into a Dalit caste, and brought up in a jhuggi-jhopri colony of Delhi, could be so successful.
Bose chronicles the struggle which has taken Mayawati from her unpromising beginning to the chief minister’s office in Lucknow four times, and then assesses her significance. He doesn’t rule out the possibility that this unique politician will become the prime minister of India. That is her stated ambition.
According to Bose, the intelligentsia misses the fundamental point about Mayawati, which is the loyalty she commands among the Dalits of Uttar Pradesh.
At first her followers were limited to her own caste, but now the entire Dalit community is backing her. It is not shocked by Mayawati’s wealth but, according to Bose, is proud that a Dalit leader has more wealth than the upper castes Leader. “Her riches have become a symbol of Dalit empowerment,” he says.
It is this loyalty which also enables her to manage her party, BSP, in a way no other Indian party has ever been successfully run before.
There have been plenty of autocratic party leaders, and there still are, but which autocrat promised nothing to grassroots workers?
According to Bose, association with Behenji is enough for them. There is no ladder they can climb to become MLAs or MPs. Many of her electoral candidates don’t even come from her party.
When Brahmin and Bania candidates are selected to bring those castes into the fold, her Dalit constituency doesn’t object. Agitations, so much a part of traditional Indian politics, are forbidden by Mayawati.
Bose says that her mentor Kanshi Ram, the founder of BSP, taught her never to pit the party cadre against the state because agitation “damaged the purpose of capturing power through elections”.
Mayawati owes her present prominence to the start Kanshi Ram gave her. If he had not been so impressed by her courage and dedication to the Dalit cause, she would be, at best, just another Scheduled Caste government official.
But Bose says that BSP in Uttar Pradesh is almost entirely Mayawati’s creation. He believes Mayawati and Kanshi Ram complemented each other. While he built the party, she provided the charisma, the ability to mesmerise a crowd. That partnership was far more important than the exact nature of their relationship.
It is clear from Behenji that Mayawati can’t be dismissed as a maverick version of a typical caste politician. She understands that development is only one aspect of governance.
Equally important is what happens in daily life, a Dalit’s relationship with the thanedar, the patwari, the sarpanch, and of course, the upper castes. These relationships change when Mayawati comes to power.
She shows that any party that wants to win the votes of the Dalits must have a leader they can take pride in and so take pride in themselves. The Congress never learnt that lesson and that is why it lost the Dalit votes in Uttar Pradesh.
There was Jagjivan Ram, but Dalits do not think the Congress showed him proper respect. Bose says a Dalit woman achieving such prominence shouldn’t just boost her community’s pride, she should also boost the pride of all Indians in their democracy.
All politicians and bureaucrats stand realise how strongly Dalits resent the centuries of humiliating oppression they have suffered, and how wounded they are.
(Courtesy: India Today, June 2, 2008)

MINORITY RIGHTS

CPI: XXth Congress, Hyderabad, 23-27 March, 2008
Political Resolution (Extracts)
118. Muslim Minority: Sachar Committee has portrayed its candition as worse than the already recognised marginalised section, in the matter of education and employment.
119. For the first time the minority community is concentrating on the real socio-economic issued faced by it. This may help in changing the agenda of the community. It is time that the CPI utilises this opportunity to bring the real socio-economic issues at the centre of the political agenda.
120. In 2007-08 Budget the UPA government has announced exclusive scholarship to poor and deserving Muslims students increased allocation for the Minorities Development and Finance Corporation and Moulana Azad Education Foundation. But there is neither any mechanism to oversee the implementation of these schemes nor have the states shown any inclination, desire and efforts to utilise these funds. Though the NDC has not approved the sub plan for the Minorities, the UPA government has repeatedly announced that 15 per cent funds of all welfare schemes will be earmarked for the minorities. It must be legislated with reference to the provisions of Article 16 (4) of the Constitution of India.
121. State governments of Andhra Pradesh and Tamilnadu have announced sub quota for Muslim OBCs on the pattern of the measures taken by Kerala. If other states follow the pattern a large section of the minority community will get benefits, at least in the matter of education and employment. To end the discrimination against Muslims in the matter of government jobs, a mechanism needs to be devised at all recruiting levels to ensure that Muslims are recruited in proportion to their percentage among the eligible applicants.
122. The minorities, particularly the Muslims, look upon the Left, as the most steadfast champion of secularism and the rights of the minorities. Consistent anti-imperialist positions of the Left too has attracted the Muslims towards it.
123. It is high time that our comrades at the grass-root level take up the various socio-economic measures and assurances for implementation. This will help in expanding the secular democratic base.
124. The Sachar Report revelations are very alarming. The Report is a wake-up call. It has set an urgent agenda for all those who stand for secular democratic values and for all-round development of the country, who oppose discrimination in any form. The leadership of the Party in each state must study the situation as revealed. The backwardness of the Indian Muslims, even after sixty years of independence, exposes the communal propaganda Muslim appeasement.
125. Communists have to boldly champion the cause of the minorities. Test of a democratic system is how it treats its minorities.
126. CPI has continuously fought for the redressal of genuine grievances of the Muslim minority. It took initiatives to force the governments to establish institutions like Urdu Academies in several states, Minority Finance Corporation, Maulana Azad Foundation and NCPUL. But they were not provided enough funds. There was also lack of political will to make these institutions work for betterment of the targeted beneficiaries. Besides, there had been discrimination against the Muslims in the matter of government employment and their share in government’s welfare schemes.
127. All professional Muslim communities should be accorded all those benefits that are available to their counterparts in the majority community. Besides there should be no discrimination in recognizing the SCs and STs on the basis of religion.
128. As large segments of the Muslim community belong to various artisan communities like weavers government of India should announce special packages for their promotion including bank loans on soft terms.
129. Adequate funds must be allotted to already existing institutions for the upliftment of the Muslims.
130. More educational institutions, including for girls should be established in areas populated by Muslims. Liberal grants should be given to minority educational institutions, particularly upto secondary level. Technical education needs to be provided to the artisans including from among Muslims.
131. There should be no bias and discrimination on the basis of religion in the matter of government jobs and other benefits of the government’s welfare scheme.
132. The party has to mobilise secular opinion in the country for more affirmative actions. A beginning has been made in some states to set up a forum like INSAF to provide a platform to the minorities to promote rational thinking and to struggle for redressal of their genuine grievances. Similar initiative has to be taken in other states also.
163. Jammu & Kashmir: To arrive at a solution of the vexed Kashmir problem, it is necessary to have talks with all political sections and parties in the state, in addition to a dialogue between India and Pakistan. Such a solution should meet the aspirations of people of all regions of J&K, including the Pak-occupied region, besides being acceptable to both India and Pakistan.
IV. BJP/Sangh Parivars Reversion Hindutva Programme
30. The BJP has not been able for a long time to reconcile itself to its defeat in 2004. Bereft of any credible programme in the new situation, it has swung back to its old Hindutva slogans. It desperately clutches at any issue that comes along, and tries to give it a communal colour.
31. However it would be wrong to underestimate the danger from the BJP. It has a large support base in many states. It is ruling in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Chhatisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal and shares power in the Punjab, Bihar and Orissa. It is the main opposition party in Parliament, and remains the main alternative where the left parties are weak and any other secular party is absent. It represents Right Reaction in Indian politics. Its electoral tactics continues to be to communally polarize the people. It has now seized on the Ram Setu. It has recently scored a big victory in Gujarat followed in Himachal Pradesh giving rise to the feeling that it is on a come-back trail.
32. The Sachar Committee Report revealed the prevailing miserable economic, social and educational status of the Muslim community in the country. The UPA and the left parties have taken note of this and come out with special proposals to change this state of affairs. The BJP cries hoarse that this is ‘minority appeasement’.
33. Its hypocrisy stands exposed in relation to the Nuclear Deal. It was the BJP which had aggressively pushed for close relations with the US during the NDA regime. It had signed the so-called ‘Next Steps in Strategic Partnership (NSSP) with the US. Now it voices opposition to the Deal which takes the partnership further.
34. Only common effort by secular democratic forces with the Left as its core can fight back the communal reactionary danger. The progressive cultural organisations of writers, poets, performing artists have a special role in this sphere. The battle in support of social reforms and against obscurantism and traditional conservatism which is the breeding ground of communalism has to be fought by the Left and progressive forces, particularly in the vast central and western hinterland of the country.
35. Anti-communism is an integral part of the Sangh Parivar’s extremely reactionary ideology. The CPI and other left parties cannot and should not let down their guard. They have to counter the offensive of the BJP and the Sangh Parivar in the ideological, political, social, cultural and other fields. ‘Soft hindutva’ or opportunist soft-pedaling by bourgeois or petty bourgeois groups is no answer to the BJP’s hindutva.

CPI(M) XIX Congress Resolution on Minority Rights,
March 31, 2008
Protection of the rights of the minorities and overcoming their relative socio-economic backwardness have assumed special significance in the context of the offensive of communal fascist forces. The Muslim community has traditionally been the target of Hindu communalists led by the RSS. The recent spate of attacks on Christians demonstrates further spread of the hate campaign.
The XIX Congress reiterates that the fight against Hindutva communalism and defence of minorities is a cornerstone of its national policies.
The report of the Sachar Committee on the social, economic and educational status of Muslims in India exposes the divisive and completely false but widely disseminated propaganda of the Sangh Parivar that the Muslims have been ‘appeased’ . It is also an exposure of the scant government attention paid to the genuine needs and grievances of the community.
For the implementation of its recommendations. our Party had formulated a Charter for the Advancement of the Muslim Community and submitted it to the prime minister. The most important demand was for the formulation of a sub-plan for minority communities. Unfortunately, the UPA government and the Planning Commission have not accepted this demand. In Budget 2008-09, an additional Rs 500 crore has been allocated, but this is far from adequate. In the previous year, even the meager sop of scholarships for 20,000 minority community students in the Budget 2007-08, was not utilised. The allocation to minority affairs ministry was reduced to Rs 350 crore and increased financial allocation to minority institutions declined. The scheme for the development of Waqf properties that has received only Rs 30 crore between its inception in l974-75 and March 31, 2007 was ignored. The demand for increasing the authorised capital for the National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation from Rs 500 to Rs 1500 crore has not been realised.
The concept of Multi-Sectoral Development Plan for minority-concentrated districts has been under discussion for the last ten years. Finally, in the 2008-09 budget, less than Rs 4 crore per identified district has been provided. Our Party has been demanding that blocks be identified as the basic unit. In the area of priority sector lending, the share of Muslim community is assessed to be only 6 per cent.
The ATR on the Sachar recommendat presented by the government at the end of 2007 reflects tardy implementation. Once again it repeated the need of conducting further studies and enquiries and does not propose any concrete policy measures backed by budgetary support.
The government has also failed to table the report of the Rangnath Mishra Commission on the question of granting scheduled caste status to dalit Christians and dalit Muslims in parliament.(also reservation to Minorities.)
The Congress asserts that democratic demands of the socio-economic development have to be raised from the secular plank and the minorities should not fall prey to the narrow sectarian communal appeal.
The Congress welcomes the efforts made by the Left-led governments in West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala, to ensure the safety and security of minority groups. These governments are also the only ones in the country who have ensured land rights to landless sections of the minority. Further steps are being taken to ensure their development and progress in all fields.
The Congress demands time-bound implementation of concrete steps with adequate allocations to empower minority communities through education, employment and wherever required, through land reform and land distribution. It also demands granting of SC status to dalit Christians and dalit Muslims.
( Source: People’s Democracy April 27, 2008)


RSS

Socialist Leader Madhu Limaye on RSS & Split in Janata Party
Translated by Javed Anand, Editor Communalism Combat
I entered political life in 1937. I was quite young then but as I had passed my matriculation examination at a relatively early age, I also entered college quite early. Active in Pune in those days were the RSS and the Savarkarites on the one hand and nationalist, socialist and leftist political organisations on the other. On May 1, 1937 we took out a march to observe May Day. The marchers were attacked by the RSS and Savarkarites. We have had serious differences with these Hindutva organisations ever since.
Our first difference with the RSS was over the issue of nationalism. We believed that every citizen had equal rights in the Indian nation. But the RSS and the Savarkarites came up with their notion of Hindu Rashtra. Savarkar said the same thing that Hindus & uslim.
The other major difference between us was that we dreamt of the birth of a democratic republic while the RSS claimed that democracy was a western concept that was not appropriate for India. In those days members of the RSS were full of praise for Adolf Hitler. Golwalkar was not only the sarsanghchalak of the RSS; he was its ideological guru as well.
There is amazing similarity between the thoughts of Guruji and the Nazis. Guruji wanted to see millions of Indians treated as non-citizens. He wanted all their citizenship rights taken away, members of the RSS were inclined to follow Hitlerian ideals. In their view, Muslims and Christians in India deserved to be treated the same way that Hitler treated Jews in Germany.
Our second major difference with Guruji and the RSS has to do with the caste question. They are supporters of the caste system while a socialist like me is its greatest enemy & of brahminism and the caste system. I am of the firm view that there can be no economic and social equality in India until the caste system and the inequalities based on it are demolished.
The fourth issue on which we differ is that of language. We are in favour of promoting the languages of the people. All regional languages, after all, are indigenous. Guruji says that for now Hindi should be made the common language for all while the ultimate objective should be to make Sanskrit the national language.
We do not wish to impose Hindi on anyone. We would like to see Tamil as the prevalent language in Tamil Nadu, Telugu in Andhra Pradesh, Marathi in Maharashtra and Bengali in West Bengal. If the non-Hindi speaking states wish to adopt English, it should be up to them. We have no differences with them on this.
Fifth, the national movement for independence had accepted the idea of a federal state. In a confederation, the centre would definitely have certain powers on specific matters but all others would be a subject matter for the states. But following partition, in a bid to strengthen the centre, the Constitution stipulated a concurrent list. What was originally meant to be in the domain of different states was included in the concurrent list only to strengthen the centre. Thus the federal state came into existence.
But the RSS and Golwalkar, have been consistently opposed to this basic constitutional provision. These people ridicule the very concept of ‘a union of states’ and maintain that this Constitution, which envisages a confederation of states, should be abolished.
Guruji wants a unitary or, in other words, a centralised state. He says that this system of states should be done away with. What he wants is one nation, one state, one legislature and one executive. In other words, he wants to abolish state legislatures and state ministries. That means they wish to see the rule of the stick.
Another issue was the tricolour, the flag chosen by the national movement. The RSS has never accepted the tricolour as the national flag. It always swore by the saffron flag, asserting that the saffron flag has been the flag of Hindu Rashtra since time immemorial.
The Guruji he had no faith in a democratic system. He was of the firm view that democracy is a concept imported from the West and the system of parliamentary democracy did not jell with Indian thought and Indian civilisation. As for socialism, that for him was a totally alien idea which should be rejected, that Indian society should be founded on Indian culture.
While we were engaged in a struggle against the Congress party’s autocratic rule, our leader, Dr Ram Manohar Lohia, was of the opinion that we should join hands with all opposition forces to save the nation and dislodge from power the Congress party which was responsible for our humiliation at the hands of the Chinese.
I kept insisting throughout that we cannot have any alliance with the RSS and the Jan Sangh. Ultimately, Doctorsaheb asked me, “Do you accept my leadership or not?” I replied, “Yes, I do.” He said it wasn’t necessary for us to agree on every issue or for him to have to convince me on every issue. Let there be an issue or two on which we disagreed. And since he was only thinking of a political alliance to defeat a major enemy, I should cooperate with him, let his idea be given a “trial”. Perhaps he would be proven right, he said, perhaps I would. I remained convinced however that a clash between the RSS and the Lohiaite ideologies was inevitable.
It is a fact that we formed an alliance with these people (RSS and Jan Sangh) when Mrs Indira Gandhi imposed the emergency. Lok Nayak Jaiprakashji believed that if the opposition did not unite under the banner of a single party it would be impossible to defeat Mrs Gandhi and dictatorship. Choudhary Charan Singh was also of the view that we should come together and form a united party. While we were in jail, we were all asked to give our opinions on the need to form such a party and contest elections.I stressed, we must participate in elections.
Since Jaiprakash Narain and other leaders were of the view that without coming together under the banner of one party we could not succeed, we (socialists) too gave it our consent. But I would like to stress that the understanding that was arrived at was between political parties - the Jan Sangh, the Socialist Party, the Congress (O), the Bharatiya Loktantrik Dal (BLD) and some dissident Congress factions. We did not come to any arrangement with the RSS, nor did we accept any of its demands.
On July 7, 1976 Choudhary Charan Singh had raised the issue of a possible clash of interests because of dual membership when members of the RSS also became members of the new party. In response, the then acting general secretary of the Jan Sangh, Om Prakash Tyagi had said that the proposed party should feel free to formulate whatever membership criteria it wanted. He even said that since the RSS, having faced many constraints, had been dissolved anyway, the question of RSS membership did not arise.
Later, when the constitution of the proposed Janata Party was being drawn up, the subcommittee appointed to draft the constitution proposed that members of any organisation whose aims, policies and programmes were in conflict with the aims, policies and programmes of the Janata Party should not be given membership to the new party. Given the self-evident meaning of such a membership criterion, there was no question of anyone opposing it. the sole opposition came from Sunder Singh Bhandari (Jan Sangh). At a meeting convened in December 1976 to thrash out issues, reference was made to. A letter written by Atal Bihari Vajpayee on behalf of the Jan Sangh and the RSS, stating that a section of leaders of the proposed party had agreed that the RSS issue could not be raised in connection with membership of the Janata Party. But several leaders told me that no such assurances were given because the RSS was nowhere in the picture at the time when the merger was mooted. Even if there was some secret understanding, I had no part in it.
The election manifesto of the Janata Party did not in any way reflect the concerns of the RSS. In fact, each point in the manifesto was clearly spelt out.
It is true that members of the RSS did not genuinely accept the provisions of the party’s election manifesto. It was my contention and I had once even complained in writing to Kushabhau Thakre that during discussions you people (RSS, Jan Sangh) very readily agree on matters that you at heart totally disagree with. That is why your motives are suspect. I have had these doubts since Doctorsaheb’s time (Dr Ram Manohar Lohia died in 1967). But despite this, the fact remains that to fight dictatorship we entered into a political alliance with them.
I was very clear in my mind that to emerge as a unified and a credible body the Janata Party would have to do two things. One, the RSS would have to change its ideology and accept the ideal of a secular democratic state. Two, the various organisations that are part of the sangh parivar, such as the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh and the Vidyarthi Parishad, would have to dissolve themselves and merge with the secular-minded trade union and student wings of the Janata Party.
But these people started insisting on their autonomy. In fact, these organisations always function on the dictates of Nagpur as they believe in the one leader principle.
I told members of the RSS that you must abandon your ideal of organising Hindus alone and find a place for people of all religions within your organisation, that you must merge your different class- based organisations with those of the Janata Party. They responded by saying that this could not be done so soon, that there were very many difficulties involved but they did want to change, bit by bit. They continued to give such evasive replies.
From their behaviour I concluded that they had no intention of changing. Especially after the assembly elections of June 1977, when they managed to gain power in four states and one union territory, after which they began to think that with this newly acquired clout they had no need to change. Now that they had already captured four states, they would gradually also gain control of other states and finally even the centre. The leaders of other political parties in the Janata Party were older leaders who would not live long; and they would ensure that no younger (non-RSS, non-Jan Sangh) leader emerged at the top.
For a protracted period I persisted in dialogue with these people. I recall an occasion when Balasaheb Deoras (later RSS sarsanghchalak) visited me at my residence in Mumbai. Subsequently, I met him once again after the 1971 polls. I also had discussions with Madhavrao Muly once before the emergency. On the fourth occasion, I met Balasaheb Deoras and Madhavrao Mule together in May 1977. I made attempt to talk to them. But I finally reached the conclusion that they have closed minds in which no new idea can germinate.
On the contrary, the RSS specialises in casting young minds in a particular mould from a very young age. The first thing they do is ‘freeze’ the minds of children and of youth, making them impervious. After this they are rendered incapable of responding to other ideas.
The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh the Vidyarthi Parishad and the Yuva Morcha despite all attempts at a merger, held aloof. This is only because of the RSS’ desire to function as a “super party”.
Their aim is not only to enter into every aspect of people’s life but also to control it.
No totalitarian organisation allows any space for freedom, its tentacles reach everywhere: art, music, economy, culture. This is the essence of any fascist organisation.
The fact is that the RSS wanted to capture the Janata Party and through it to take control of the state apparatus. For this they simultaneously dangled the carrot of the prime minister’s chair before several Janata Party leaders. On the one hand, they went on assuring Morarji Desai to the end that he was their choice for prime minister. Every now and then they would promise Choudhary Charan Singh that they would support his claim to be prime minister. Concurrently, they kept giving similar assurances to Chandra Shekhar, Jagjivan Ram and George Fernandes. When I once jokingly mentioned this to Vajpayee, he quipped, “Why you, Nanaji (Deshmukh) has never made me such a promise either. They want neither you nor me as prime minister.” Anyway, they never made any such suggestion to me, knowing only too well that I would not deny others their due nor would I allow others to deny mine. Perhaps they think, you can’t fool this man so what’s the point of promising him anything - it will only make him (Limaye) even more cautious.
What these people (the RSS) do on the odd occasion is however of little importance. Has the RSS ever said that they have abandoned Guruji’s way of thinking? Only Atalji says that we should all accept the principles of composite nationalism, democracy, socialism, social justice, etc because we cannot move forward without them in today’s world. But Atalji is the only one who says this. These people pleaded for pardon while in prison, Balasaheb Deoras congratulated Indira Gandhi when the Supreme Court ruled in her favour in the Raj Narain case. So I have no faith in the utterances of these people. I am of the firm belief that I could only have trusted these people (erstwhile Jan Sangh leaders in the Janata Party) if they had ousted RSS leaders from the party, expelled them from the working committee, placed restrictions on RSS activities and, in particular, expelled people like Nanaji Deshmukh, Sunder Singh Bhandari from the party.
(Penned by Limaye soon after the split in the Janata Party, was published by the Hindi weekly, Ravivar, in 1979. Though dated, many of the issues he raises in the article are relevant even today.)
(Source: Communalism Combat, May, 2008)

RULE OF LAW

Resolutions by Lawyers to Deny Access to Justice to some People
K.G Kannabiran’s Letter to MP High Court Bar Association
I am currently embarking on what may superficially appear as an unpopular cause. I learn you have passed a resolution not to defend the SIMI students in courts The decision not to defend them springs out of our use of this profession over long periods of time.
I think we should think out things clearly and see if we can reform the profession and our own professional attitudes- even our human attitudes – towards what administration of justice means. As Sir C K Allen points out in his Aspects of Justice “When we hear of atrocity and angrily demand retribution for it, there is often at the back of our minds a fear that what has happened to the victim might happen to us or ours…We revolt from it as from something not only ugly but menacing.
First, we must recognize the fact that ours is a plural society where minorities have also a right to live and have claims to equality of status. If you thik about it a little you will realize that we have never conceded the rights of minorities to equal treatment. Not because we woud not like to but we have not been told about it and we look upon them as our competitors . While it may be true that some among them may be even Islamic terrorists, it would be wrong to kill them for that reason or to deny them access to justice. Every citizen in this country is entitled to access to justice and a fair trial. We have been notorious for suspending Rule of Law partially. We as advocates should not be party to this partial functioning of Rule of Law. You may say that terrorist does not believe in Rule of Law. But we do; and when such situations crop up, it is our beliefs and values that are questioned and our steadfast adherence to our beliefs that will campaign our cause for sanity and peace. In this crisis what gets reinforced is our equanimity and our tolereanc and our sense of justice.
Unless we culturally and socially recognize that minorities are persons and not non-persons and that they really do not enjoy that equality which they are entitled to. Unless they are accorded equality, notwithstanding their status, this type of violence can never disappear. What is required is the systematic effort to culturally evolve ourselves out of the caste and communal culture which defines our world view.
Today we may not have peace in the society in which we live.. It does not follow that society should suffer such onslaughts by and against minorities until such cultural transformation takes place. Of course these crimes should be investigated and punished as quickly as possible. It can be nobody’s case that the guilty among the SIMI should go scot-free. The Criminal justice system should effectively function and demonstrate that the system is devised not only to spare proved innocence, but also to punish the guilty. Out of these twin attributes of justice the former alone finds expression for it is linked to the principle of liberty. Both aspects of the justice system are public duties and both are concerned with the principle of liberty, a rightly acquitted person and a rightly convicted person enhances the value of liberty. While in the former the value is obvious in the latter case the community collectively perceives liberty as a true value, as such decisions instill a sense of security that makes lives liveable.
So the resolution expressing pre-emptive retribution is not understandable. The Bar Resolution stifles that right of the accused to defened self at the trial. Our right to practice this profession is part of our fundamental rights. The accused has a right under Article 21 of the Constitution. Article 22 (1) gives the right to a suspect to have a lawyer present at the time of arrest and interrogation. The lawyers right to practice a profession or calling is directly concerned with these fundamental rights of a citizen who is an accused. Article 21 right includes the right of the accused to have lawyer for the defense. A lawyer’s freedom of choice while practicing his calling has limitations. We are not here concerned with the preferences available to a lawyer for practicing his calling. We are, concerned here with collectively imposing a ban on lawyers making themselves available to defend a particular accused? Have the professional members such freedom to practice their calling? Can the members of the Bar negate the right of the accused available to him under Article 21? The position taken by the Resolution is not morally or constitutionally justified. An emotional response is not a moral response. Arguing for a fair trial cannot be equated with or confused with asking to exonerate the guilty of his crime. Emotional indignation should not degenerate into pharisaical self-righteousness. There is no dichotomy between “morality” and the Constitution if one learns to do a moral reading of the Constitution. Let us not proceed on the facile assumption that there is no affinity between law and justice and law and morality.
I would earnestly request you to reconsider and rescind the resolution banning lawyers from appearing for the accused among SIMI (and) set a trend towards making the institution useful and accessible to the poor as effectively as for the rich and not merely a playground for the rich and the lumpen.
(Source: Email by Dr. Iqbal A. Ansari)

REPORT ON RAJASTHAN
Two Laws, one for Muslims & Christians & one for Sangh Pariwar
Draconian Law Against Change of Religion & Communal Polarisation
T.K. Rajalakshmi
On April 29, 2007 Walter Masih, a Christian preacher was beaten up by Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) activists in broad daylight, in front of television cameras. A shocked nation watched the repeated broadcast of Masih’s beating. Predictably, public outrage spread across the country over the incident. Mounting criticism of the attack forced the State police to register cases against more than 20 people including 14 VHP activists. The cases were registered at the Sodala police station and the accused were booked under as many as eight sections of the Indian Penal Code. But now the charges against them have been dropped.
In August, 2007 the police, through the District Collector, had sent a request to the State government seeking sanction to charge-sheet the accused under Section 295 A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs; punishment for this extends to three years or fine or both), Section 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language etc. and doing acts prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony) and Section 505 (statements conducting to public mischief) as these were sections requiring government sanction under Section 196 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
But the government declined, in its order of December, to give permission to prosecute the accused under these sections. Masih’s lawyer Ajay Kumar Jain did not hear about the order until recently. He said the government advocate hardly opposed the bail plea of the accused in the Rajasthan High Court. The police examined 44 witnesses; 14 of them were found to be directly involved in the incident, including the district unit general secretary of the VHP, Virendra Singh Ravana.
“The government’s permission is required to prevent misuse of these sections by the police, but in this case, there was enough evidence, including video footage,” said Ajay Kumar Jain. He said that the Supreme Court had in several cases held that the power to sanction prosecution rested with the government so that it could forestall the misuse and unnecessary harassment of individuals by other judgments delivered in 1955 and 1988.
In another judgment, the court pointed out that the “object of the sub-section is to prevent unauthorised persons from intruding in State affairs by instituting State prosecutions and to secure that such prosecutions shall only be institutionalised under the authority of the government.”
In a third judgment, the apex court held that “the government being an independent party not connected with the dispute between a complainant and the accused is expected to act fairly and to take an objective decision in the matter whenever it is called upon to grant sanction under Section 196 (1).”
The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) Rajasthan wanted to know why the Collector proceeded to take permission from the government when he himself was empowered to give sanction for prosecution under Section 505 of the IPC.
After news spread that the police had dropped religion-related charges against the accused, civil rights organisations in Jaipur took to the streets in protest. Representatives of as many as 10 organisations sat on a protest in front of the Collectorate demanding the restoration of the sections that had been dropped from the charge-sheet. “The police do a good job here and the government reverses it,” said Ashq Ali Tak, vice-president of the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC).
The organisations accused the Bharatiya Janata Party government in the State of being biased as the accused involved VHP activists. In a memorandum submitted to Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, they said that the government had acted in a partisan manner in several other cases and sanctioned prosecution where religious minorities were the accused. In 2006, the Raje government gave permission to prosecute the Emmanuel Mission International (EMI) in Kota. “
The same year, the government moved a court in Ajmer to withdraw the cases against Praveen Togadia, the all-India general secretary of the VHP. These cases had been registered during the tenure of the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government, in 2003.
The memorandum listed other cases as well where the government had selectively withdrawn sanction to prosecute accused persons, especially those who had an ideological affinity with the ruling party. For instance, the Home Ministry put in a plea in court for the withdrawal of prosecution of people accused of killing Muslims in Kalinjara, Banswara district in southern Rajasthan, which saw violence at the time of the Gujarat riots in 2002. While cases filed against members of the minority community in Kalinjara continued to stay, more than 250 cases against accused persons of the majority community had been withdrawn, the memorandum said.
In January 2004, after a lower court rejected all charges against prominent persons – which included a former Minister of the BJP, the president of the Rajput Sabha, (the nephew of former Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat) for glorifying Sati, the government refused to appeal against the order. Since 2004, women’s organisations have repeatedly requested the government to appeal against the order.
Masih was attacked in his home in Sodala, in front of his wife and young daughter, just after he had concluded a prayer meeting. The identity of the attackers became public later as they had brought with them a camera crew to record the proceedings. One of them even bragged in front of the camera that he had done the right thing.
Masih said the government order was a setback for them. “I am still not able to hold my foot straight after the beating I received last year. I had hoped that a lot of support would pour in on this issue and that we would get justice, he said. T.S. David of the Evangelical Christian Fellowship said the incident was not a surprise. “From the very inception, this government has been biased against minorities. Most of these attacks are well organised,” he said.
Most Christian organisations in the State stayed away from the protest march of April 25, which was represented by spokespersons of various minority communities, for fear of attracting more controversy and attention. but was attended by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Opposition Congress, for whom Christians an important political and economic constituency.
On March 21, the Rajasthan Assembly passed the controversial Freedom of Religion Bill, which will henceforth be called the Rajasthan Dharma Swatantrata Act, 2008. This Bill, introduced in April 2006, was returned by the then Governor, Pratibha Patil, on the grounds that it needed Presidential assent. The Bill was then put in cold storage.
The Bill was slightly altered though there was no change in the statement of objects and reasons: “It has been observed by the State government that some religious institutions and individuals are found to be involved in unlawful conversion from one religion to another by allurement or by fraudulent means or forcibly which at times has caused annoyance in the community belonging to other religion. The inter-religion fabric is weakened by such illegal activities and causes law and order problem for the law-enforcing machinery of the state. In order to curb such illegal activities and to maintain harmony amongst persons of various religions, it has been considered expedient to enact a special law for the purpose.” There are stringent provisions for conviction if the offence of conversion is committed in the case of a minor, a woman or a person belonging to the Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes. The punishment ranges from two to five years of imprisonment and a fine of not less than Rs.50,000.
The scope of the Act has been widened to include sections of the people that the government feels are more vulnerable to conversions. The Term says the Bill of “fraudulent”. It means and includes “misrepresentation or any other fraudulent contrivance”. Who is “fraudulent contrivance” is not clear.
Congress members of the Assembly and the lone CPI(M) MLA, Amra Ram, opposed the Bill. According to Vasudev, communal tensions have become frequent. In particular, Udaipur, Bhilwara, Ajmer, Jaipur, Kota and Pali have become sensitive to communal conflagrations. The CPI(M) leader said that not only Muslims but Christians are also being targeted systematically.
With Assembly elections less than six months away, the Raje government can perhaps ill-afford to annoy sections within the BJP. Her regime has not been very popular owing to the various anti-people decisions and police actions.
As for the Congress, the public perception is that the party has shown more alacrity in changing its State unit presidents over the last four years than in entering into any serious confrontation on the ground with the Raje government. In effect, it has not played the role of an active Opposition. The Raje government came to power with a majority of 120 in the 200-member Assembly. Going by the recent developments, government is trying to polarising society for electoral gains.
(Source: Frontline, May 23, 2008)

COMMUNAL VIOLENCE NELLIE MASSACRE

On Nellie Genocide, 1983
Shahabuddin’s Letter to PM, 27 May, 2008
The Nelli Massacre of Feb.1983 has been totally forgotten by the country, perhaps, because it did not receive much publicity, though, it was one of the most horrifying cases of ethnic violence, perpetrated in our country since after independence.
The government of Assam had appointed a Commission of Inquiry but its report has not been released nor any Action Taken Memorandum presented to the Assembly.
By a conservative estimate at least 1,687 persons lost their lives, nearly all Muslims of Bengali origin (not Bangladeshis) in two areas under Police Station Jagi Road in Maligaon district.
The genesis of the genocide lay in the boycott of the Assembly election by the AASU and the AAGP and the participation in voting by the Muslim community in defiance of the boycott call. The organized attack on their villages was thus an act of political retaliation.
The government of Assam was, to the best of my knowledge, provided with funds by the Central government for relief and rehabilitation of the affected people. It was reported that ex-gratia relief was provided to about 1000 to 2000 persons at the rate of about Rs.5000, along with a bundle of tin-sheets. This must be the lowest value of human life in the annals of communal violence in the country.
The Mukhiyas of the affected villages submitted a petition to the Government of India on April 1983, again on August 91 and then in May 94 for additional relief but to no avail.
A representation was made after the lapse of 10 years in July 2003, followed by another memorandum complaining about total neglect of these villages in development. The result is that the people have not been properly rehabilitated and the affected villages still do not have electricity or school or road or any infrastructure worth the name.
I am drawing your attention to this tragic and dismal situation, to request you to obtain a full report from the State Government. I cannot ask it to raise ex-gratia compensation for loss of life, limb and property to the level of 1984 Disturbances in Delhi, as pronounced by the Supreme Court, but even before 1984, ex-gratia payments ranged around 200,000 for each life lost.
It would indeed be an act of compassion if these villages are surveyed by an appropriate rural development team to identify their basic needs and to propose what needs to be, and can be done for the survivors to give them a life of dignity.

Shri Krishna Report on Mumbai Disturbances 1992-93
Performance Reports on 4 Special Courts set up in 2008 by Congress-NCPGovt.
Sukanya Shetty
The first judgment came in March-end from a special court assigned to hear cases pertaining to the 1992-1993 post-Babri demolition riots. This judgment, an acquittal, was in a case of petty theft.
Over a month later, here is the update from the four courts two magistrate courts and two sessions courts:
• Twelve cases have been disposed of, 11 ending in acquittals of all accused.
• Put together, the magistrates acquitted 44 people.
• In the only case where the prosecution managed to establish an offence, two people were convicted to three months’ imprisonment, for assaulting and molesting a Muslim couple.
“Nearly 148 cases have been sent to the special magistrate courts and over 45 cases to the sessions courts, but has the state realised that they also need to appoint a special public prosecutor?” asks Shakil Ahmed of the Nirbhay Bano Andolan, a petitioner in the Supreme Court hearing a plea for implementation of the Srikrishna Commission’s recommendations.
Not only has the state ignored the need to appoint experienced public prosecutors in these four courts, but it has also failed to provide any special aid to the prosecution, in terms of adequate support from investigating officers. The result of the oversight is in the judgments delivered:
• Of the total 12 cases disposed of, the state failed to produce important — and rather basic — post-investigative documents like a police diary and statements of the victims in four cases.
• In seven cases, the complainants were untraceable.
• In as many as three cases, witnesses retracted their statements.
• In three instances the prosecution could not produce any witness before the court.
v Perhaps worst, of the 17 policemen examined altogether, 11 turned hostile.
Asked why the state Government, which set up these courts on March 12, had not appointed special public prosecutors, Principal Secretary (Law and Judiciary) N B Geelani said: “The department was not aware that no special public prosecutor was appointed for the special court till date. The state can now look into the matter and appoint one, only for the two sessions courts as and when the need arises.”
On the acquittal of the senior Shiv Sena leaders Gajanan Kirtikar, Ravindra Waikar and former Shiv Sena leader Nandkumar Kale (now with the MNS), Ahmed added: “If the police failed to produce diary notings from the day of the event, then on what basis did the Special Task Force go about reinvestigating the case? Also action should be taken against policemen when they fail to furnish important documents in court leading to the accused walking free.”
The state’s Director General of Police A N Roy said he would not like to comment on specific cases. “In general, the conviction rate in riot cases has been low over the years. It is very hard to prove these cases for the simple reason that witnesses do not want to come forward as they fear that they have to live alongside others who they do not want to name.” He said another factor is that many of the 1993 cases were registered years after the incidents took place. “And therefore, it is possible that there were difficulties in gathering evidence,” he said.
Senior counsel Colin Gonsalves, an advocate for one of the petitions filed in the Supreme Court demanding implementation of the Srikrishna Commission report, says: “This is an ugly face of our country, in every case of atrocities against the minority, the Government has been overly prejudiced. The state has made no attempt to gather any evidence and apply any judicial mind before bringing all these cases before the special court. In incidents where evidences were produced before the Commission, it’s the police’s discretion to gather them once again and produce it before the court.”

MUSLIM EMPOWERMENT
Report of the Expert Group on Equal Opportunity Commssion
Executive Summary (Extracts)
1. the Expert Group appointed by the Ministry of Minority Affairs, to determine the structure, scope and functions of an Equal Opportunity Commission. The Expert Group is of the opinion that there is a need for an Equal Opportunity Commission in the country and recommends that the Government should set it up along the lines suggested for fulfilling the Constitutional promise of equality in its different dimensions. The Expert Group has also drafted a Bill, is a summary of the Main Points.
2. Stark inequalities mark our present social reality and prospects for the future generations. Inter-group inequalities often coincide with boundaries of communities and are becoming more visible than before. Hence there is an urgent need to supplement the existing policies of reservations by fine tuning the definition of thebeneficiaries, expanding the range of modalities and evolving a forward looking and integral approach to affirmative action. The proposed EOC will serve as a path-finding institution that serves as a mechanism to evolve and evaluate mechanisms for affirmative action, following an evidence-based approach.
3. The Constitution, as interpreted by the judiciary, provides a positive mandate for creation of a level playing field by appropriate State action. The proposed EOC is anchored in this positive obligation on the State to control direct as well as indirect discrimination, eliminate extreme forms of deprivation and take into account the burden of history.
4. The experience of such institutions acrose thw world shows that there is no alternative to recognizing social identities and to developing, gathering and publishing of evidence about persisting inequalities in opportunity. The EOC needs to be pro-active and autonomous with a wide range of context-specific policy options are needed in each country.
5. The jurisdiction of the proposed EOC should be wide ranging in terms of social groups and sectors but delimited in terms of domains and the nature of issues. It would serve its purpose best if it is open to any citizen of India and the beneficiaries are identified by evidence, rather than being predetermined at this stage. The scope of the EOC should extend both to the public and the private sector. The EOC should give priority to education and employment and should entertain only group equality related cases. The scope of EOC may apparently overlap with other Commissions, yet the EOC will own niche and unique role, for it would provide a service that is not currently on offer.
6. The EOC should focus on advisory, advocacy and auditing functions rather than grievance redressal. Such role would involve many functions: research and data gathering, monitoring and auditing, advisory and consultative role, policy intervention, grievance redressal in a limited and supportive capacity, coordination, promotion and advocacy, and dissemination of performance reports and Status Reports on Equal Opportunity situation.
7. The EOC needs the powers of a Civil Court, but not penal powers, for its inquiries and investigations. The EOC would have the power to announce Codes of Good Practice;
8. Generating, collecting, processing & disseminating various kinds of data is going to be the key to it success Besides, the EOC would conduct general and special investigations by following a standard, transparent, fair and time-bound procedure.
9. The composition of the EOC needs to reflect its diverse constituencies and multiple functional requirements. These can be met if the proposed EOC has a chairperson and six (at least two full time) members, enjoying a tenure of five years. The members should be selected from among experts professionals and activists, following the model of the NHRC. The EOC would need to work in a transparent manner and involve various stakeholders. Five Regional Commissions are proposed.


Not Reservation but Equality of Opportunity Coupled with Higher Allocation for Deprived Muslims
Siddharth Varadarajan
The Justice Rajinder Sachar Committee’s report on the socio-economic status of Muslims, has note the full extent of the Muslim community’s exclusion obvious to all. Especially those who have made political careers out of the canard that Muslims in India enjoy special privileges and have been “appeased.”
It is evident they face entry barriers Muslims — who account for approximately 15 per cent of India’s population — are unable to cross in virtually all walks of life. From the administration and the police to the judiciary and the private sector, the invisible hands of prejudice, economic and educational inequality seem to have frozen the ‘quota’ for Muslims at three to five per cent. Even in the armed forces apparent by that the three per cent formula applies.
This gross under-presence of Muslims in virtually every sector is presaged by substantial inequalities in education. Muslim enrolment and retention rates at the primary and secondary levels are lower than the national average and this further magnifies existing inequalities at the college level as well as in the labour market. For virtually every socio-economic marker of well being, the Muslim is well below the national norm — not to speak of the level commensurate with her or his share of the national population — and the evidence suggests these inequalities are not decreasing over time.
This bleak statistical picture is rendered drearier still by new trends visible in many cities. Muslims, for example, find it extremely difficult to rent and buy property outside of “Muslim areas” in some metros. In Mumbai, the situation is perhaps worse. Many Muslim businessmen have problems accessing credit, besides having to run the gamut of uncooperative officials who look upon them with suspicion at every turn. Even in politics, as Iqbal A. Ansari’s recent book, Political Representation of Muslims in India, 1952-2004, has shown, Muslims have consistently been under-represented in the Lok Sabha and all State Assemblies since Independence except Kerala. Only half as many Muslim MPs and MLAs get elected as one might expect based on their population share.
The ‘war on terrorism’ has added a new layer to this already intolerable situation as policemen across the country give free vent to their ignorance and religious prejudice. The tendency of law enforcement agencies to target Muslims during incidents of communal violence is well known. The complicity of the police in the Gujarat Pogrom of 2002 was reprehensible but not so different from what the country witnessed at other times in other places.
As for legal redress, neither government nor judiciary shows any sense of urgency. Terrorist crimes such as the Mumbai blasts are prosecuted energetically and this is a good thing. But no one is able to explain what happened to the cases stemming from the killing of Muslims in Mumbai in 1992 and 1993 nor why the Srikrishna Commission recommendations against erring policemen remain unimplemented.
The media are a corrective but only to a limited extent. If one section has sought to highlight the plight of Indian Muslims, another section is constantly ready to inflame prejudice by staging debates on irrelevant issues, giving undue prominence to ridiculous statements by unrepresentative ‘Muslim leaders’ or broadcasting marital disputes within Muslim families as proof of ‘Muslim backwardness.’
In the U.S., the old journalistic adage was ‘Jews is News’. In India, it seems, anything that shows Muslims as ignorant or fanatical helps propel TRP ratings, while rational comment is frowned upon as unhelpful. One studio guest recently advised Muslims to shed their ‘persecution complex’ and to not forget that theirs were the “hands that built the Taj Mahal.” Though no one would dare accuse Dalits of “doing nothing” to uplift themselves, Muslims are blamed for their poverty and poor education. They are gratuitously advised to study hard, as if the problem of lack of schools, delinquent teachers, inadequate books, and poverty can be remedied by will power alone.
The Reservation Trap
It is against the backdrop of this highly vitiated atmosphere that the Manmohan Singh Government must formulate a response to the Sachar committee’s findings. The reality of systemic inequality cannot be wished away and the Government must find the political courage to confront this situation head on. So serious are the implications of Muslim marginalisation that the Congress must open a channel of communication with other parties, including the BJP, to evolve a consensus on the necessity for urgent corrective measures.
In my view among the remedial measures to be considered, the least helpful in substantive as well as political terms will be reservation. Sixty years of affirmative action have led to some improvements for Dalits and Tribals but it is clear that the country and its rulers have used the sop of reservation as an excuse to do nothing about the persistent, underlying causes of caste-based inequality.
It is now universally recognised that the pursuit of “equality of outcomes” and “equality of opportunity” must go hand in hand. Even equality of opportunity has a formal and a substantive aspect. `Formal’ equality means ending discrimination on the basis of caste, religion or gender. `Substantive’ equality means overcoming the barriers (or benefits) children of equal native talent inherit from their parents so that none is advantaged or disadvantaged by birth. The India state pays lip service to the idea of equality of outcomes (through quotas) but completely ignores the necessity of crafting expenditure policies that can provide equality of opportunity. Nowhere is this more glaring than in the field of education where the increased notional access of Dalits and Tribals to university is undercut by high dropout rates and underperformance at the school level.
Both in the U.S. and in India today, the actual allocation of educational resources is regressive in that those who are affluent and socially privileged corner a greater share of social allocations for education than their relative size in the population. In reality, then, existing affirmative action — or reservation — is for the privileged and the goal of public policy has to be to reverse that by using the target of public expenditure.
In India, the first task of the government must be to guarantee formal equality of opportunity by dealing firmly with discrimination in the labour, housing and credit markets as well as educational system. Without instituting a system of reservation — which would generate more political heat than tangible benefit for Muslims — the Government must send out a clear and unambiguous message that the social cohesiveness and future growth prospects of the country require government departments and private firms to encourage the recruitment of Muslims. But in order to generate substantive equality of opportunity and uproot inequality and exclusion from their roots, the government has to guarantee better access to education at every level for Muslims, Dalits, Tribals, and OBCs.
All of this is only a first approximation and much more will need to be done. What is important, however, is that we recognise both the reality of Muslim exclusion and the urgent need to do something about it.
(Source: Azad Academy Journal, May 1-31, 2008)

RESERVATION
Inclusion of Dalit Muslims & Dalit Christians in SC List
A Status Report by Satish Deshpande & Geetika Bapna of Delhi University
Commissioned by National Commission for Minorities
Executive Summary
This objective of this study was to produce a status report on the evidence that is already available to answer the following questions:
1) What is the contemporary status of Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians in terms of their material well being and social status?
2) How does their situation compare with that of: a) the non-Dalit segments of their own communities (i.e., Muslims and Christians); and b) the Dalit segments of other communities?
3) Do the disabilities suffered by these groups justify state intervention within the spirit of the Constitution as interpreted by the judiciary, and in keeping with evolving national norms? Two main kinds of data were gathered to answer the first two questions, ethnographic and statistical. The statistical material presented in this Report consists of orginal analyses from the latest available NSSO data based on specially produced tabulations.
Report looks at four main areas of comparison: a) proportions of population in poverty (BPL) and affluence (approximately top 5% of distribution); average consumption levels as expressed through percentiles of MPCE; broad occupational categories; and levels of education, specially the two ends of the spectrum represented by illiteracy and graduate or higher degrees. The two groups with whom DMs and DCs were compared were: a) Dalit castes of other communities, i.e., Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists; and b) non-Dalit castes among Muslims and Christians respectively.
The main findings of may be summarised as follows:
• With respect to proportions of population in poverty or affluence, DMs are unquestionably the worst off among all Dalits, in both the rural and specially the urban sector. DMs are completely absent in the affluent group for urban India. There is a significant gap between DMs and DCs and Dalit Sikhs, and small one between them and Hindu Dalits. DCs may be said to moderately better off than other Dalits except Dalit Sikhs, who are even better off.
• In intra-community comparisons, DMs and DCs are a study in contrasts. DMs are only slightly worse off than non-Dalit Muslims, specially the OBCs, but this is because non-Dalit Muslims are much worse off than their non-Muslim counterparts. In other words, the Muslim community as a whole tends to be very badly off compared to other communities, specially in the urban areas, and consequently the intra-community gap between Dalits and non-Dalits is by far the smallest for Muslims. DCs are at the other end of the spectrum, with the highest inter-caste differentials, but for the opposite reason, namely, that non- Dalit Christians and specially the upper castes tend to be much better off. However, DCs are closest to Dalit Sikhs, who are actually slightly better off than them on the whole.
• The picture with respect to average levels of consumption measured by percentiles of MPCE confirms and amplifies the findings based on proportions of population in poverty and affluence. However, with the exception of rural Dalit Sikhs who are slightly better off all along the economic spectrum except at the very top, all other Dalits are basically the same in economic terms. Whatever differences there are among Dalits of different religions only become visible in the top 25% of the distribution. In other words, other than rural Dalit Sikhs, 75% of all other Dalits are economically indistinguishable from each other, both in the urban and specially the rural areas. This analysis also show the serious levels of poverty among urban Muslims of all castes including Dalits.
• With respect to comparisons of occupational structure. The only noteworthy feature is that it is only in this non-decisive area of comparison that DMs are not the worst off group, being slightly better represented among the ‘self-employed in agriculture’ (taken as a rough proxy for access to land) category than other groups. In urban India, however, DMs are back in the bottom slot, with the highest proportion in ‘casual labour’ and the lowest proportion in the ‘regular wage’ category. In urban India, DCs have the highest proportion in the ‘regular wage category’ among all Dalits, but Dalit Sikhs are almost equal to them.
• With respect to comparisons of educational levels, DMs are the worst off in rural India in terms of illiteracy, but are closely matched by Hindu Dalits in both rural and urban India. DCs are slightly better off in rural, and significantly better off in urban India. At the other end of the educational spectrum, there are no major differences across Dalits in rural India (except Buddhists, who seem to have comparatively high proportions with graduate or higher degrees). However, in both rural and urban India, and at both ends of the educational spectrum, all Dalits except Muslims do much worse than their non-Dalit co-religionists, specially the upper castes. As with the economic data, intra-Muslim differences are the least.
On the whole, it can be said that inter-Dalit economic differences across religion are not very significant for most criteria and for most of the population. DMs are the worst off while the top quarter of the DCs may be slightly better off than all others except Dalit Sikhs, who are even better off than them. However, intra-community caste differentials are very high for all except the Muslims, so that Dalits in general are much worse off educationally than non-Dalits.
The ethnographic materials reviewed. The main conclusions that can be drawn, are the following:
• There can be no doubt whatsoever that DMs and DCs are socially known and treated as distinct groups within their own religious communities. Nor is there any room for disputing the fact that they are invariably regarded as ‘socially inferior’ communities by their co-religionists. In short, in most social contexts, DMs and DCs are Dalits first and Muslims and Christians only second.
• The manner in which social distance or superiority is asserted by non-Dalits (and specially the ‘upper’ castes) varies both across DMs and DCs and also across regions and contexts. Such variation is present in all Dalit communities of all religions. Thus, it is harder to generalize about the specific content and intensity of such practices.
• Universally practiced forms of discrimination and exclusion include social and cultural segregation, expressed in various forms of refusal to have any social interaction; endogamy, expressed through the universal prohibitions on Dalit-non-Dalit marriages, and through severe social sanctions on both Dalits and non-Dalits who break this taboo. Social segregation extends to the sphere of worship and religious rituals, with separate churches and priests being almost the norm among DCs and not uncommon among DMs. Forms common to both DMs and DCs include various modes of subordination in churches and mosques, as well as insistence on separate burial grounds.
Occupational segregation and economic exploitation are also very common & usually related practices, though somewhat less widespread than segregation or marriage bans.
Untouchability proper is sometimes practiced, but is not widespread.
Conclusion
The Case for Recognising Dalit Muslims and Christians:
Going by the overall attitude of the courts the main judicial obstacle to the recognition of DMs and DCs as SCs appears to have been the lack of the appropriate kind of evidence regarding their relative status. The encouraging sign here is that the courts have not refused to entertain this line of argument, they have only asked for proof beyond mere caste identity. While there are important issues of evidence still to be clarified, perhaps this can be best done through direct engagement in the judicial process, in dialogue with the courts.
In the two decades since the last major judicial pronouncement on this question in the Soosai case, a lot more evidence has become available. This body of evidence when taken as a whole is unambiguously clear on the fact that there is no compelling evidence to justify denying SC status to DMs and DCs. If no community had already been given SC status, and if the decision to accord SC status to some communities were to be taken today through some evidence-based approach, then it is hard to imagine how DMs and DCs could be excluded. DMs and DCs are not so distinct from other Dalit groups that an argument for treating them differently could be sustained. In sum, the actual situation that exists today – denial of SC status to DMs and DCs, but according it to Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist Dalits – could not be rationally defended if it did not already exist as a historical reality.
A possible objection to the above argument could be that it is negative and counter factual. One could insist, further, that a positive argument for adding DMs and DCs to an already existing and ‘occupied’ – but not necessarily ‘full’ – category is required today, given that SC status is a fait accompli for some groups and can hardly be undone.
It must be granted, however, that even a counterfactual argument is successul in establishing that objections or obstacles to the recognition of DMs and DCs are matters of politics and pragmatism rather than principle. The common pragmatic objections that are raised concern the ‘feasibility’ of the move in terms of the administrative procedures involved. While these may seem difficult initially. They tend to get forgotten because they are in the past. Another pragmatic consideration is that of the numbers involved. Here the weight of the argument is in favour of rather than against inclusion. For both DMs and DCs taken together (at least on the NSSO estimates) appear to be under three million people, constituting about one-and-a-quarter percent of all rural Dalits, and about two-and-a-quarter percent of all urban Dalits. Though it is certain that the NSSO estimates are undercounts, the eventual numbers are highly unlikely to be such that they justify a ‘lifeboat’ type argument, where further crowding must not be allowed for it would sink the boat and drown everyone.
We are left, then, with the political factors and this is where the imponderables are. It is beyond the scope of this Report to speculate on the political factors. But one procedural factor can surely be mentioned. This is the fact that, as matters stand, going the judicial route tends to pit the judiciary against the legislature and the executive, in so far as the courts would be asked to find an existing law unconstitutional. But given the special circumstances that have shaped the history of this question, the political route may seem to be the more direct one. The previous amendments to the Presidential Order of 1950 have been achieved through that route. These legislative initiatives themselves have not been explicitly and publicly justified in terms of the kind of evidence. In effect, different standards are being applied to different groups situated similarly on the same question.
To conclude, based only on the descriptive and statistical evidence available, there is a strong case for including Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians in the Scheduled Caste category. There are compelling arguments in favour of such an inclusion based on principles of natural justice and fairness. The balance of pragmatic considerations is also in favour of their inclusion. According due statutory recognition to Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians would not only right a wrong, it would also remove an indefensible anomaly in our politico-legal system that can legitimately be construed as discriminatory.
Which surely weigh on the conscience of every fair-minded Indian.
Based on the above material, the Report finds that there is a strong case for according Scheduled Caste status to Dalit Muslims and Christians.

For Uniform Creamy Layer, Categorisation & Universalisation Based on Group Census & Variable Ceiling
Shahabuddin’s Letter to Prime Minister, 24 May, 2008
It is time to review critically various aspects of the policy of reservation. Unfortunately, the latest judgment of the Supreme Court on reservation for OBC’s in government educational institutions shirked from laying down an appropriate methodology for the determination of the quotas and sub-quotas for various identifiable social groups and sub-groups who are educationally, socially and economically backward.
Only by coupling the population and the level of backwardness of a viable social group or sub-group can its reservation quota or sub-quota be determined, since the social demography as well as the pattern of group backwardness varies from state to state. The level of reservation for each state can then be arrived at as the sum total of the quotas/sub-quotas for all eligible groups. The ceiling of 50% on reservation in all situations and in all states imposed by the Supreme Court thus appears to be arbitrary.
The Central government has so far refused to conduct a proper group census based on common basic development parameters for all self-conscious ad identifiable social groups and sub-groups, including the backward sections within the high castes which should also be accommodated if their population found in the census and their level of backwardness determined on the basis of the development parameters, give them a viable quota.
The decadal census shall also provide an opportunity for periodical review as desired by the Supreme Court.
Secondly, pressure is building up in several states for categorization within the SC/ST, as in the case of the OBC’s and consequent equitable division of quota among the various categories. Categorization will come but the quota or sub-quota cannot be calculated for a group or sub-group without group census as mentioned above. It may be added that any quota should benefit only the backward candidates from the backward families in the group/sub-group. The creamy layer cut-off has to be appropriately defined.
Thirdly, the government has ruled out any increase in the reservation quota in the legislatures for the SC’s/ST’s whose population has increased to 16.23 and 8.3 % in 2001 against the original 15% and 7.5%. The refusal will create much discontent among them. This is an adhoc and short-term decision. National decision should not only be rational but based on transparent logic. Additional quota for SC/ST can also be accommodated if 50% barrier is surmounted.
To sum up, while welcoming the recent decision of Supreme Court for total exclusion of the Creamy Layer. I suggest that;
1) The Government should define the creamy layer uniformly for the whole country, in terms of the family income from all sources.
2) The government should universalize the benefit of reservation uniformly for all viable (say above 1%) social groups and sub-groups and categorise constitutional conglomerates of the SC, ST, OBC’s, Minorities and High Castes.
3) The government should take a decision to have a ‘group census’ in 2011 based on development-orientated parameters, to be defined by a Commission of Experts who should also recommend the modality for converting the raw census data into an index of backwardness for each group (with SC/ST as 100) and determine sub-quotas of all viable groups.
4) The government can then work out the total quota for each state and for the country as a whole. In some cases it may be less than 50 %, in others it may exceed 50%. These data will provide a case for the Government to approach the Supreme Court to make the reservation ceiling rational and transparent and therefore viable and flexible.
Over a period of time reservation should bring down the backwardness and therefore sub-quotas and the total quota in all states/groups and lead to an enlargement of the general pool. Ultimately, in the fullness of time, the sub-quota and quota system would gradually diminish to zero and reservation shall lose its rational.

Reservation For All Dalits Irrespective of Faith
Iqbal A. Ansari, Secretary General, Minorities Council
The Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order of 1950 declared that “no person who professes a religion different from Hinduism shall be deemed to be a member of a Scheduled Caste.”, taking into cognizance the fact that change of religion to Sikhism and Buddhism did not remove the deprivation that members of these castes had suffered over a long period, benefits of reservation were extended in 1956 to persons of S.C. origin among Sikhs and later in 1990 to Budhists.
All members of the historically deprived Dalits who embraced Christianity or Islam, however, continue to be denied these statutory benefits. In the event of a Muslim or Christian Dalit reconverting/returning to Hindu religious fold, he is again entitled to get the benefits of reservation that he was denied as Muslim or Christian. The law instead of being based on secular criteria like socio-cultural deprivation caused by denial of rights, treats present religious affiliation as a crucial determiner of S.C. Status, thus discriminating against followers of religions of non-indigenous origin.
The plea that since Christianity and Islam are egalitarian religions, the social status of a person of Dalit origin undergoes a total change after conversion to these religions, removing thus the basis of reservation, is fallacious is it rational to expect that conversion to Christianity or Islam will give such a boost to the talents of the Dalit conventees that they can be expected to compete with historically privileged sections as equals?
Change of faith in such cases does not necessarily lead to a change in their deprivation community as Social Status. The law is not only discriminatory against a particular group of religions, but provides disincentives to persons of S.C. Origin willing to convert to non-indigenous religions and by providing incentives induces them to return to the indigenous religious fold. Thus it unreasonably restricts the right to freedom of conscience and religions guaranteed under Article 25. Such a classification of religions indirectly supports the anti-secular Hindutva ideology of nationhood, which divides people into followers of religions of indigenous and non-indigenous origin.
There is a need to make the provisions regarding reservations for members of Scheduled Caste independent of religion they choose to profess now or in future. Their historical caste deprivation as untouchables should be the only criteria for determining their entitlement to statutory benefits.
In this regard Justice Kanakaraj while giving a ruling (Devadoss Case) on the issue of entitlement to scheduled caste reservation benefit to a Dalit Christian convert observed that he failed to understand how a person socially categorized as a scheduled caste could be deprived of the benefits of constitutional protection because of a change in his religious faith. “What has religion got to do with social backwardness and ostracism practiced against certain groups of people for a number of years?”, asked the judge. Setting aside the collector’s order, canceling the community certificate, the high court judge said this case illustrated the need for a more practical and realistic approach to the problem of Dalit converts. “I am of the opinion that the Tamil Nadu government should make an in-depth study of the entire issue and see that justice is rendered to such converts”, he said.
The Sachar Committee has observed that the Muslim society in India is socially stratified and “Arzals are the lowest in Muslim social structure. They comprise those having similar traditional occupations as their Hindu counterparts in the list of Scheduled Castes. It is widely believed that these communities are converts from the ‘untouchables’ among Hindus. Change in religion did not bring any change in their social or economic status. Because of the stigma attached to their traditional occupation, they suffer social exclusion. Despite this, they have been deprived of SC status available to their Hindu counterparts”. (Emphasis added)
Though the 1950 Constitutional Order was based on the Imperial (Scheduled Caste) Order of 1936, which excluded Christian, Buddhists and Muslims, after the amendments of 1956 and 1990 for inclusion of Sikhs and neo-Buddhists, “practically only the Muslims and Christians of such origin continue to be denied the status. As a result, such Muslim groups remain impoverished and marginalized. Their inclusion in the OBC list has failed to make any impact as they are clubbed with the more advanced middle castes”.

Congress in a Bind over Call for Dalit Sub-categorization
Subodh Ghildiyal
Congress is set to take the tough call on sub-categorization of Dalits as lobbying within the party has intensified with Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy losing no time in pushing the Prime Minister for quick action on Justice Ushra Mehra Commission’s Report.
Sources said the Mehra panel’s recommendation to divide Dalits into groups, ostensibly to ensure that quota benefits were not cornered by a few powerful sections of SCs, is likely to be tabled before the Union Cabinet or the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs.
While the issue has ramifications for parties as well as Dalit mobilization, Congress is still to make up its mind.
Though it relates to Andhra Pradesh at present, it would open up the contentious scheme nationally, given that constitutional amendment to make it happen would be valid for proposals from all states.
The apex court’s striking down of categorization in AP in the E V Chinniah case in 2004 led to spiking of similar action in Haryana.
Congress is in a bind, with CM Reddy’s activism on the Mehra commission’s suggestion seeing him rush to the Capital within a day of the panel submitting its report, calling Malas as major beneficiary of affirmative action for SCs.
The lobbying has been so strong that the commission gave its report some 20 days in advance owing to pressure from Madiga groups.The advocacy of YSR, however, is opposed by Mala community leaders who call it a TDP conspiracy against Congress. The strong pressure, insiders say, has squeezed out the option before the Congress leadership to put the contentious recommendation in deep freeze. Accepting the Mehra Report is not easy either as party fears being stranded in the Mala-Madiga tussle. Madigas, hell bent on categorisation, are seen as TDP backers while Malas are largely Congress supporters who could end up antagonized.
Leaders are not venturing into any opinion either. Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty alleviation Kumari Selja said, “The government will study the report and decide.”
As a decision hangs, the Mehra report, based on data from 23 districts, has demonstrated that quota benefits have been cornered by a strong community to the detriment of others. Mala and allied castes are said to occupy 70% Class I and III posts in AP services, while they form only 42.78% of the state’s SC population.
Malas occupy the largest number of government posts in all districts except four in Telangana where Madigas outnumber them. The share of Malas is much higher than their population, said the panel. In banks in AP, Malas occupy over 50% posts available for SCs while Madigas, which is the largest group, occupy 28.4% of total posts.
Malas form 61% of bank officers, 58% of clerks and 52% of sub-staff. The panel says Madigas outnumber Malas only in part-time jobs. Adi Andhra occupy bank posts higher than their population. As many as 33 communities of 60 SC groups occupy negligible number of posts.
In education, the data of SC students in 20 universities shows skewed distribution. Only 34 SC communities were found present in these universities, of which 23 were limited to three of them.
(Source: The Times of India, 5 May, 2008)
Panel for Division of SCs into sub-groups
Subodh Ghildiyal
Justice Usha Mehra Commission has recommended that division of Scheduled Castes into sub-groups should be made part of the Constitution, in what could be ta challenge for the UPA regime.
It said a constitutional amendment should make sub-categorisation of SCs and allocating quota among them as legitimate and empower Parliament to do it on the basis of a unanimous proposal from state assemblies.
It has agreed with the contention that benefits of affirmative action were inequitably distributed among SC groups and there was a case for dividing Dalits with 15% quota quantum apportioned among them.
While the report is in relation to Andhra Pradesh, where it has analysed the distribution of quota benefits among 60 SC sub-groups over the last decade, the recommendation, if accepted, has major ramifications across the states.
The report makes sub-categorisation a national possibility if there was data to prove that quota benefits were not equally alleviating Dalit society. It says that states can make proposals only after studies done by judicial commissions headed by high court judges.
Congress would be wary of toeing the Mehra line as it could catch the party by surprise. The charge of stronger Dalit groups cornering quota benefits is against those who wield the political muscle in states — Chamars across the north, Paswans in Bihar, Mahars in Maharashtra, Holiyas in Karnataka, Pullayas in Kerala, Bairwas in Rajasthan, Palars in Tamil Nadu and Malas in AP.
The reaction was reflected in Haryana and AP where Chamars and Malas were up in arms after they sub-divided Dalits, which was later struck down by Supreme Court in E V Chinniah case in 2004.
The policy of dividing SCs, ostensibly for a judicious distribution of quota benefits among sub-castes, is dubbed as “sinister” by Dalit activists. They call it a conspiracy of power lobbies to pit Dalit groups against each other to crack open their consolidation. The mobilisation of Dalits under one platform, while making them a strong bargaining bloc in politics, is also behind the growth of outfits like BSP and its pan-Indian ambitions. No wonder, BSP has come out strongly against it.
The recommendations are potentially explosive given the emotions attached to the move. The panel has rejected the argument that the SC list is a “homogeneous group” which cannot be divided. It quoted the Indira Sawhney judgment in Mandal case to conclude that there was no constitutional bar on sub-categorising SCs.
(Source: The Times of India, 2 May, 2008)

Annual Report AM U 2006-07
Officers of the University as on 31.03.2007
Chancellor Justice A. M. Ahmadi 21.01.07 (contd.)
Pro-Chancellor Janab Dr. Mumtaz Ahmad KhanNawab Rahmatullah Khan Sherwani 14.09.0321.01.07 13.09.06(contd.)
Vice-Chancellor Mr. Naseem Ahmad, IAS 08.05.05 31.03.07
Pro Vice-Chancellor Prof. M. Saleemuddin 10.08.06
Honorary Treasurer Nawab Ibne Said Khan Sahib of ChhatariDr. Mahfooz Ahmad 14.09.0321.01.07 13.09.06(contd.)
Registrar Prof. Faizan Mustafa 04.09.05 (contd.)

Executive Council
Elected by the Court in 2006-07
Mr. Zafaryab Jilani, Lucknow
Justice S. Saghir Ahmad, Lucknow
Mr. P. A. Inamdar, Pune
Mr. Ehtishamur Rahim Khan, Gurgaon
Prof. A. M. Pathan, Banglore
Mr. Khursheed Ahmad Khan, Aligarh
Visitor’s Nominees
Prof. Saiyed Jafar Raza, Allahabad
Prof. R. Narasimha, Bangalore
Porf. A. R. Khan, Shimla
Prof. (Mrs.) Roop Rekha Verma, Lucknow
Mr. Wasim Ahmad, Aligary
Prof. Mansoor Hasan, Lucknow
Chief Rctor’s Nominee
Prof. Nishith K. Rai, Lucknow
Prof. Habibur Rahman, Aligarh
Admission / Student Strength during 2006-07
Faculty Admission Strength of Student
PG U. G. Total Student
Agriculture Science 35 ---- 115
Arts 266 829 2340
Commerce 158 260 965
Engineering & Technology 132 1045 3146
Law 25 100 497
Life Science 121 249 957
Management Studies and Research 111 ----- 218
Medicine 154 210 1144
Science 359 866 3132
Social Science 384 884 2961
Theology 21 21 55
Unani Medicine 18 60 495
Others Courses 206 76 ----
Total 1990 4600 16025


State-wise Break-up Country-wise Break-up of Foreign Students
State No. Country No. of Students
Assam 104 Afghanistan 16
Bihar 3977 Bangladesh 19
Delhi 177 Indonesia 18
Haryana 132 Iran 31
J & K 502 Jordan 47
Jharkhand 835 Oman 12
Kerala 119 Thailand 74
Rajasthan 144 Yemen 30
Uttar Pradesh 11981 Others 29
Uttra Khand 415 Total 276
West Bengal 578 NRI’s 61
Others 325 Total 337
Total 19289

Campus Placement
No. of Visiting Companies Students selected
28 360

Hostel Accommodation
No. of Halls Intake Residents
16 7346 10342

Result of Examination for 2006-07
Faculty / Course Total Passed
Faculty of Arts
B. A. (Hons) 959
P.G 4
Diploma 99
Faculty of Science
B. Sc. (Hons) Boys 558
B.Sc. 77
Faculty of Commerce
B. Com (Hons) 229
Faculty of Social Science
B. A. (Hons) Boys 233
B.Ed. 95
M.Ed 19
P. G. 59
Diploma & B.L & I.SC 88
Faculty of Life Science
B. Sc. (Hons) 117
Faculty of Agriculture Science
M.Sc. 32
Faculty of Law
LL.B 74
LL.M. 21
Faculty of Management Studies and Research
M.B.A. etc 93
Faculty of Theology
B.Th and Diploma 24
M. Th. 23

Award of M. PHIL. / PH. D. Degree
Ph. D.
Subject / Numbers Total
Arabic, 2; English, 6; Hindi, 5; Persian, 2; Urdu, 7; Islamic Studies, 2; Sunni Theology, 3; Pol. Science, 6 33
Commerce, 4; Biotechnology, 2; Business Administration, 3; Elect. Engg., 3; Bio-Chemistry, 7; Botany, 6; Zoology, 11 36
Law, 2; Chemistry, 20; Mathematics, 5; Geology, 2; Physics, 4; Education, 3; Economics, 5; Sociology, 5; Psychology, 10 56
Bengali, Linguistic, Agr. Engg. & Tech., Ap. Chemistry, Civil Engg., Shia Theology, Computer Science, Statistics, Geography, Journalism, History, Library Science ,West Asian Studies, Agriculture Science, 1 each 14
Total 139

M. Phil
Subject Students
Applied Chemistry 15
Botany 5
Bio-Technology 1
Chemistry 2
Geography 1
Geology 1
History 1
Mathematics 9
Physics 7
Statistics 1
Zoology 3
Total 46






Item 2006-07
M. Phil. / Ph. D. 187
Research Projects 130
Conference Organized by AMU 63
Participation Outside AMU 532
Participation Abroad 86

Strength of Teaching and Non – Teaching Staff for the Year 2006-07
Name of the Faculty / Unit Professor Readers / Selection Grade Lecturers Lecturers Total
Agricultural Sciences 4 5 11 20
Arts 26 52 37 115
Commerce 7 10 5 22
Engg. & Tech. 44 82 130 256
Law 5 6 9 20
Life Science 27 19 20 66
Mgt. Studies & Research 3 6 8 17
Medicine 68 57 56 181
Science 41 60 30 131
Social Sciences 30 71 40 141
Theology 3 3 5 11
Unani Medicine 10 14 13 37
Women’s College 13 49 33 95
Interdisciplinary Biotechnology Unit 4 4
Total 282 434 400 1116
None Teaching Staff
Category A Category B Category C Category D Total
145 328 2573 2855 5901


Publications

Tahzibul Akhlaq
Fikr-o-Nazar
Nishant
University Gazette














Finance (Revised Estimates)
Receipt: (in crore)
Head Revised Estimates for 2006-07
Maintenance Grant from U. G. C. 208.78
Income from fee 7.41
Income from Other Sources 4.59
Total 220.78
Expenditure:
Salaries & Allowances 142.75
P. F. & Pension 41.02
Non Salary Expenditure (Other Charges) 37.01
Total 220.78

Receipt and Expenditure under X Plan

Faculty Allocation Receipt Utilized Balance
Medicine 518.00 976.35 696.42 279.93 Cr.
Engg. 1430.15 483.00 364.54 118.46 Cr.
Other 1068.35 1255.50 779.69 493.81 Cr.
Total 3016.50 2714.85 1832.65 882.20 Cr.

Jamia Millia Islamia 2006-07

Year of Establishment in Aligarh, 1920
Year of Shift to Delhi, 1925
Date of Registration of Society,
Year of Status of Deemed University, 1962
Year Legislature as Central University, 1988

No. of Faculty, 7
No. of Department, 32
No. of Centres, 25


Officers of the University
Amir –i- Jamia Mr. Fakhruddin T. Khorakiwala
Shaikhul Jamia Prof. Mushirul Hasan
Naib Shaikhul Jamia Vacant
Dean Student’s Welfare Prof. Faizan Ahmed
Musajjil (Registrar) Mr. S. M. Afzal
Finance Officer Shri N. U. Siddiqui
Librarian Dr. G. Makhdumi

Members of the Majlis-e-Talimi (Academic Counsel) of the University (31.03.07)
Chairman, (Vice Chancellor)
Secretray, (Registrar)
Members (All Teachers) 47


Members of the Majlis-e-Muntazima (Executive Council) of the University
Chairman, (Vice Chancellor)
Secretray, (Registrar)
Members
Visitors Nominees
1. Dr. Syed Iqbal Hasnain
2. Mr. Manzoor Ahmed
3. Mr. Justice (Retd.) Mohd. Shamim
4. Mr. Justice Chittatosh Mookerjee
Teachers 7

University Teachers
Faculty Professor Reader Senior Lecturer Lecturer Total
H & L 23 24 7 20 74
N. Science 31 21 7 31 90
S. Science 21 21 14 23 79
Education 18 12 14 16 60
Engg. & Technology 28 30 11 35 104
Arch. And Ekistics 2 2 0 9 13
law
Total 123 110 53 134 420
Centres
AJK Mass Communication 5 1 2 3 11
Academy III World Studies 5 4 7 16
Academic Staff College 1 1 2
Management Studies 2 2 2 6
Peace and Conflict Resolution 2 1 0 3 6
Sarojni Naidu Centre for Women S. 0 0 0 2 2
Comparative Religion and Civilization 2 1 1 1 5
Jawaharlal Nehru Studies 4 1 0 2 7
West Asian Studies 0 1 0 2 3
Dalit and Minorities Studies 2 1 1 0 4
Spanish & Latin American Studies 2 0 0 4 6
Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation 1 0 0 1 2
Interdisciplinary Research Basic Science 1 1 0 7 9
Theoretical Physics 2 2 0 1 5
Centre of Culture, Media & Governance 1 2 0 3 6
Total 29 18 4 39 90

Total Number of Students in the University
Courses No. of Students
SC ST General Total
Undergraduate 818 293 5298 6409
Post Graduate 254 137 1827 2218
M. Phil/ Ph. D. 10 9 152 171
Diploma / Certificate 276 80 1840 2196
Total 1358 519 10117 11994

Campus Placement
No. of Companies Visited JMI No. of Students Selected
92 600



Zakir Hussain Central Library

Total: 3,34,486 Titles
No. of Books acquired: 14,072 Titles
No. of Journals Subscribed: 403
No. of Books Borrowed and returned, 1,93, 000

Hostel Accommodation
No of the Hostels No of Students
Boys (6) 680
Girls (3) 417

Finance
Receipt (Rs in Lakh)
Head of Account Actual for 2006-07
Maintenance Grant UGC 54.76
Fees & other Income 8.42
Total 63.18
Expenditure
Maintenance Grant UGC 54.76
Fees & other Income 8.42
Total 63.18

MADRASA EDUCATION
Myths about Madrasas
Arshad Alam, JMI, Delhi
A few years ago, sociologists Peter Bergen and Swati Pandey published a study (‘The Madrasa myth’, New York Times, June 13, 2005) on the social background of terrorists. Profiling 75 terrorists, they found that 53 per cent had college degrees. Of the most famous ones, 9/11 masterminds Khalid Sheikh Mohammad had studied engineering in North Carolina and Mohammad Atta had a degree in, of all things, urban preservation!
In their study, the authors pointed out that there were two PhDs who had joined the call for jehad. In fact, only nine had madrasa education, the ones behind the Bali bombings. And even in this case, the masterminds were college-educated, including two university professors.
Closer home, most members of SIMI (Students Islamic Movement of India) invariably have modern education. SIMI was formed within a modern institution, the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), and not in a traditional madrasa. This empirical de-link between madrasas and terrorism, however, has had no effect on ‘security experts’ for whom madrasas remain the breeding ground for terrorism. To their disappointment, even the Muslim-bashing BJP government, while in power, could not establish any link between madrasas and terrorism. However, despite evidence to the contrary, the Deoband madrasa felt the need to hold an anti-terrorism conference and publicly claim that madrasas do not produce terrorists.
The argument that Indian madrasas produce terrorists is partly due to an insufficient and simplistic understanding of this school system and the reluctance to question the political economy of madrasas. It is argued that since madrasas are not open to wider scrutiny, there must be something fishy going on within its walls.
This conjecture is partly valid since madrasas do not open up easily to outsiders. There are two reasons for this. Madrasas have come under negative spotlight since 9/11, making them wary of interacting with the outside world as they do not trust what might be reported about them. The second reason is much more secular. Most madrasas are run like family businesses. Often, the founder of a madrasa also manages the finances of the institute without any transparency. Questions about sources of funding and other such topics are thus most unwelcome.
It is argued that since madrasas are theological institutions, they teach hatred and violence against other religions, which gets imprinted on the impressionable students, making them more susceptible to committing violence against people of other faiths. This argument is deeply sectarian and Islamo-phobic and rests on a constructed ‘historic unconscious’ of Islam as a violent religion. Indeed, the reality is entirely different.
Like other religions, Islam is theologically plural, which means that even within the religious domain, interpretations of what constitutes ‘Islamic’ varies to a considerable degree. In the Indian context, this sprectrum of religious pluralism within Islam is manifested by the presence of various schools of thought such as the Deobandis, Barelwis, Ahl-e-Hadis and others. Each of these schools of thought consider their interpretation of Islam to be the correct one.
Madrasas invariably belong to a certain school of thought and tradition. They act as institutions of religious transmission. Although they claim that they teach ‘Islam’, what they really mean and do is that they teach their version of Islam. Thus, for the Barelwi madrasa, the ‘other’ is not a Hindu but the Deobandis against whose teaching it cautions its students, lest they stray. Madrasas neither have the time nor the inclination to teach hatred towards other faiths; as of now they are consumed by a debate which is internal to Muslims.
As long as there is evidence produced that there exists a programmatic linkage between the two, it is unfair to talk of madrasas and terrorism in the same vein. Terrorism is a modern phenomenon and is only amenable to fruitful understanding through the cognitive structures of modernity. An average madrasa student does not have the sophisticated technological knowledge required for terrorist activities. More importantly, madrasas do not share the Islamic worldview of terrorist organisations. The truth is that jehadis blame the madrasas for inculcating passivity among its students. Crucially, madrasas sustain themselves on the basis of traditional authority patterns while one of the objectives of terrorism is precisely to break such a system of authority.
Despite such conflicting interests, madrasas get mixed up with any form of discourse on terrorism. To get a sense of why this happens, it is important to understand the political economy of madrasa education in India. Wrecked by the dilapidated school system, madrasas in India are basically schools of extremely poor Muslims where their children can at least learn to read and write. As the system evolved, madrasas recruited their students from among lower castes and poor Muslims while the levers of power continued to be in the hands of upper caste.
Since political mobilisation among Muslims is mostly done on religious and symbolic issues, access to higher education has never been an agenda in Indian Muslim politics. Worse still, the State and ‘secular establishment’ bought the Muslim elite argument that madrasa education was an internal affair of the Muslim community, overlooking the fact that not talking of educational rights of children studying in madrasas is itself a violation of their fundamental right to basic, primary education.
Such a state of affairs was broken by events after 9/11 and the negative publicity that the madrasas drew. However, instead of talking about substantive issues such as the relationship between poverty and madrasas, the debate became dubiously polarised between those accusing the madrasas of terrorism and their passionate defenders. This debate is functional for all sides: for the Islam-bashers for obvious reasons, for the State since it is not being hauled up for not providing educational access to poor Muslims, and for the Muslim leadership which is not being questioned for its myopic and narcissistic politics. And till the time this false debate is on, there is no hope for poor Madrasas Muslim students. They have no option but to carry the burden of Islam on their oppressed and tired shoulders.
(The writer is Lecturer, Centre for Jawaharlal Nehru Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi)
(Source: Hardnews May 2008)

New Texts for Madrasas: Kerala Muslim Group’s
Experiment in Curricular Reform
Yoginder Sikand
The Council for Islamic Education and Research (CIER) is a wing of one of the largest Islamic movements in
Kerala, the Kerala Nadwat ul-Mujahidin (KNM). The KNM runs some three hundred and fifty part-time coeducational madrasas across Kerala, and the CIER’s work is to prepare books for these schools and to train their teachers. Established in 2002, the CIER is headed by Dr. E.K.Ahmad Kutty, former Head of the Department of Arabic in Calicut University. An other senior members of the CIER’s governing board is Saeed Faruqi, Chief Instructor of the Government-run Arabic Language Teachers’ Training Institute, Calicut.
‘Our major achievement so far’, explains Abdul Jabbar Thirupanachi, a member of the CIER’s governing board, ‘is a set of new textbooks for our madrasas, which are probably one of their kind in the whole of India’. The madrasa texts used previously, he says, were at least half a century old and badly need to be reformed. ‘We retained the basic content of the earlier curriculum as it broadly was’, he relates, ‘but made major changes in style and presentation, drawing on modern, child-centric, activity-based and story-telling teaching methods that encourage students to think for themselves rather than simply bombarding them with information’.
Thirupanachi proudly displays a set of the CIER’s new madrasa texts—brightly coloured cartoons and pictures splayed on every page, the Malayalam and Arabic lettering large and bold and reader-friendly for children, each chapter ending with a set of questions, puzzles, fill-in-the-blank exercises and so on. ‘Someconservatives elsewhere might have problems with the pictures that our new books use’, he says, ‘but in Kerala this is a non-issue really’. In addition, Thirupanachi says, the CIER has prepared a set of audio CDs of rhymes contained in its new textbooks, and plans to prepare visual CDs of lessons as teaching aids for madrasa instructors. Half of these instructors, he tells me, are women.
The classes conducted by the KNM’s madrasas are held for two hours a day, either in the early mornings or in the late afternoons, thus allowing their students to attend regular school simultaneously. These madrasas are till the seventh grade, and so far the CIER has produced new madrasa texts for students till the fifth grade. These include books for the teaching of basic Arabic and Islamic Studies. The CIER is presently working on texts for students in higher classes, which will be used once the KNM’s madrasas go beyond the seventh grade. In the meantime, for these senior students it has prepared a curriculum to be used during their summer vacations. It is also almost over with work on a set of two texts for kindergarten students, which, deal with such issues as respect for parents, elders and friends,personal hygiene and basic moral values, relayed through rhymes and stories.
Another area in which the CIER is doing pioneering work is that of madrasa teachers’ training. It conducts madrasa teachers’ training courses, of one month for new madrasa teachers and two-day refresher courses three times a year for existing madrasa teachers. Plans are also afoot to establish a separate madrasa teachers’ training institute to popularize the use of modern teaching methods in the madrasas.
The KNM runs almost 100 Arabic Colleges or higher-level madrasas across Kerala that are geared to training ulema or Islamic scholars. Students join them after finishing at least their tenth grade, which means, that all of the KNM’s ulema are also at least matriculates. Of the KNM’s Arabic Colleges, three are affiliated to Government-run universities, and use the syllabus prescribed by these universities. The others are autonomous, their syllabus being framed by the KNM authorities. Students in most of these colleges also appear as private candidates for university-conducted examinations for the Afzal ul-Ulema degree, which is now recognized as equivalent to a Bachelor’s of Arts degree. The CIER is engaged in preparing some new texts for these colleges that deal with new jurisprudential or fiqh issues so that would-be ulema that are being trained in these colleges are kept abreast of new developments.
The CIER’s new madrasa books, tells , are now also being used in institutions other than the KNM’s madrasas. Some English-medium schools are now using their texts for teaching Arabic, and the CIER is translating its Malayalam-language Islamic Studies texts into English so that they have a wider appeal outside Kerala. The books are also being used in the madrasas run by the Indian Islahi Centres, affiliated to the KNM, in several Gulf states. CIER recently organized a large conventions, in New Delhi, that brought ulema and Muslim educationists from different parts of India, particularly the north, where many madrasas still remain stuck in a medieval groove. ‘Nothing much has come out of the convention in practical terms as yet’, confesses Thirupanachi, ‘but at least provided us a means to get our message across and tell others about our efforts’. All in all, then, a unique, trail-blazing approach to madrasa reform.

CIVIL SEVICE
How RSS Infiltrates Civi Services
Pallavi Singh
Samkalp Bhavan in Paharganj’s Aram Bagh, run by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), is always buzzing with activity, especially during that time of the year when young Civil Services aspirants, having cleared the two stages of the examinations conducted by the UPSC, throng here for mock interviews and later for orientation camps.
“We serve free food to students while they train here for the interviews. Even the fees are nominal. It’s a social service initiative to help students from disadvantaged sections,” Anand Kumar, coordinator, Samkalp, says.
For the exams in 2007, as many as 825 out of 1,875 examinees called for the final interviews enrolled at Samkalp for mock viva voce classes. the final results, 295 of them had made it to the Civil Services.
Besides mock interview sessions, Samkalp, set up in 1986, also offers coaching for the Civil Services Mains examination for a paltry sum of Rs 5,000 in its RK Puram branch and hostel facilities for the aspirants in its three hostels spread across Delhi. For the interviews, it charges a nominal fee of Rs 500.
“It is indeed the hub for IAS aspirants who are preparing for final interviews. The fees are minimal and the guidance is imparted through seasoned bureaucrats and academicians,” explains Ranjan Kumar Singh, an ABVP activist and Samkalp student who ranked 257 on this year’s UPSC list.
The enrolment at Samkalp, set up in 1986, has over the years translated into an impressive success rate. It has Santosh Taneja, working committee member of the RSS as one of its founding members. About 895 students, associated with Samkalp, succeeded in Civil Services examinations up to 2006.
Says AR Kohli, former Mizoram governor and BJP leader, who is actively associated with Samkalp since the beginning: “Back in 1997 when we began coaching for the Civil Services, 84 of our students appeared for the final interviews and 59 made it.”
Other mentors include columnist Narender Kohli, Dr Jagdish Shettygar, member of the BJP’s economic cell and senior RSS leaders like Madan Das Devi and M G Vaidya.
Besides Delhi, Samkalp is also active in Mathura, Meerut, Kanpur, Kurukshetra, Bhiwani, Nainital, Gohana and Pathankot.
Kohli insists Samkalp classes that include “nation building” as one of its most important goals are aimed at identifying and guiding students who can contribute towards social welfare through civil services and helping them inculcate true Indian values and ethos.
“Our students are going t take care of people. We teach them to be loyal to the nation and also work towards development of the society at large. We are open to everyone who needs help and guidance”.
(Source: The India Express, 19 May, 2008)

Muslims Selected in UPSC Civil Services Exam, 2007
Sr. No Name Rank
1 Mariam Farzhana Sadiq 30
2 Rashid Munir Khan 69
3 *Mohd Zubair Ali Hashmi (OBC) 82
4 Rizvi Sarah Afzal Ahmed, 86
5 Shaikh Arif Husen 116
6 S Ajeetha Begum 169
7 *Tafseer Iqbal 181
8 Hamid Akhtar 202
9 Abdul Jabbar 250
10 Abdul Hakeem M 290
11 Rayees Mohammad Bhat 295
12 Sadre Alam 311
13 *Altaf Hussain (OBC) 313
14 Atesham Ansari 385
15 Leyaqat Ali Aafaqui 403
16 *Waseemur Rehman (OBC) 404
17 *Abu Imran (OBC) 418
18 *Md. Sadique Alam (OBC) 445
19 Zakir Husain 479
20 *Md. Parwez Alam (OBC) 515
21 Shammas Hameed 535
22 *Md. Shadab Ahmed (OBC) 604
23 Masoom Ali Sarwar 608
24 Mushtaque Ahmed 642
25 *Md. Faisal (OBC) 643
Total 724 Muslims 3.4%
* Coached at Hamdard Study Circle, New Delhi


A First for Darul Uloom, Deoband, Maulana Enters Civil Service
31 year old Wasimur Rehman from Uttar Pradesh’s Siddharth Nagar, .a certified cleric, however, chose the road less travelled. And in doing so, he has become the first cleric from the influential Islamic seminary Darul Uloom of Deoband to clear the Union Public Service Commission Civil Service exam, which selects officers for the country’s elite administrative cadre.
Rehman secured the 404th position this year in his fourth and final shot at the UPSC.
Rehman has three brothers one is a taxi driver, another works at a shop while the third is a student.
When he graduated from Darul Uloom, Rehman realised that an unrecognised Islamic degree rendered him ineligible for the civil services. So, he went back to his native Latia village and gave religious discourses for a while.
Then somebody told him a bachelor’s degree in Unani medicine from Jamia Hamdard New Delhi could make him eligible for civil services. Five years later, the degree cleared his way for the UPSC examination.
Rehman, who manages only a smattering of English, wrote the entire exam in Urdu, with History and Persian as his main subjects.
Far away from Darul Uloom in Gujarat’s Bharuch district, news of Rehman’s feat has triggered celebrations in Jameah Qasimiya Arabia, one of India’s most modern madrasas that has introduced compulsory English and computer classes. Rehman himself feels the modernisation of madrasas, a prickly issue, is a crying need.
The Sachar Committee, which assessed the socio-economic status of India’s 150 million Muslims, has called for a mechanism for madrasas to be linked with a higher secondary board so that students wanting to shift to regular/mainstream education can do so even after having graduated from a madrasa.”
(Source: The Hindustan Times, 21 May, 2008)

PERSONAL LAW
Putting Muslim Personal Law in Perspective
Barbara Metcalf, Eminent Scholar
The need to be vigilant about unconscious prejudice and ill-formed stereotypes about Muslims is critical in today’s world, not least in India where Muslims comprise such a significant proportion of the citizenry and where tragic episodes of anti-Muslim violence have taken place since Independence in 1947.
Some recent reports have revealed perhaps startling indications of the extent to which Muslim Indians lag in relation to their fellow citizens in economic level, education, and representation in key public sectors as well as in management positions in private businesses.
Muslim Personal Law in relation to women is one of those red-flag issues that periodically surface to ‘confirm’ the unconscious assumption that Muslim citizens are not quite Indian, or Indian enough. Whatever the official secularism, the ‘real’ Indian is an upper-class, bourgeois Hindu. As colonial authorities did before them, today media and ordinary people alike obscure gender issues that affect women of their own community by focusing on those of others and believe that in so doing they have shown their own superiority.
To be sure, anyone holding to a transnational standard of gender justice would be distressed at specific issues in the written guidelines of MPL, including, among others, the asymmetric right given to men to initiate divorce, practice polygamy, claim custody following divorce. But none of these begins to compare in impact to the poverty, insecurity, and over-all discrimination faced by Muslim women and men alike.
There are several reasons, beyond putting it in the larger socio-economic context that Muslims face, for a somewhat more optimistic view of MPL as it actually operates.
There widespread assumption that Muslim Indians, given their embattled minority position, are unable to undertake the kind of reforms possible in states like Pakistan and Tunisia. This view is too simplistic.
First off, despite considerable confusion, Muslim Personal Law is not equivalent to ‘Islamic law’ if by that is meant shari’a. Classically, shari’a is highly context specific and adaptable to social and cultural needs.
For Muslims, as for most Indians, there are many extra-judicial sources of moral guidance, from individual elders to panchayats and tribunals, some community-generated and some with official sanction. Advisory opinions or fatwas for Muslims may be more confining than even a narrow reading of MPL, but they may also be more lenient.
Secondly, as the great Indian jurist A. A. A. Fyzee explained in 1963, MPL is not tantamount to shari’a because so many dimensions of law from the colonial period on, including criminal law and the all-important law of precedent and procedure.
The CrPC makes criminal other family matters including the age of legal marriage, family violence against women, and prohibition of dowry. In relation to rape and these other matters, the respective laws protect Muslim Indian women far better than Pakistani women. Whether the laws are observed is of course another matter.
Third, in a provocative and original examination of case law, has been argued that despite separate codes of family law for Hindus, Muslims, and Christians, in their actual decisions Indian judges are demonstrating a convergence. Muslim Personal Law is, after all, administered in secular courts by judges of all religions who do not specialize in the law of one tradition or another, and they cannot help but be influenced by that experience. Even the misleadingly-named Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986, has proven in its adjudication to be substantially less detrimental to women’s interests than originally expected. Judges are limited, by prevailing norms of the respective communities, but it is important to note the extent to which those norms are multiple and competing, and thus allow judges some leeway in their decisions.
Thus to a final point about the pluralism of perspective on personal laws among India’s Muslims. Contributing to this, in contrast to many Muslim majority states, Muslims in India live cheek-by-jowl, in the context of democratic pluralism, with India’s ‘noisy democracy’ of NGOs, secular feminists, transnational rights movements and so forth. Some Muslim women, many adducing their positions from Islamic teachings. have formed into organizations that compete, for example, with the (self-appointed) All India Muslim Personal Law Board, on such matters as drawing up model marriage agreements for couples about to wed, also.
Given the realistic position that the enactment of the constitutional Directive Principle of a initiatives are very important. As is caution about the stereotypical thinking about Islam so prevalent in India as elsewhere today. Muslim Personal Law, whatever its problems, is not the defining feature of most Muslim women’s lives, and it is not as monolithic, immutable, and encompassing as many may imagine.
(Barbara Metcalf is the Alice Freeman Palmer Professor of History and Director of the Center for South Asian Studies at the University of Michigan.)

TERRORISM
Why is the Muslim Indian in the Dock?
Anand K. Sahay, Eminent Journalist
There is an odd poignancy about the state of our Muslims; the ironies of their existence as a religious community can hardy fail to startle a dispassionate observer. Dispelling myths and prejudices, the Sachar Committee has lately informed us that the Muslim community in India is barely distinguishable from the Dalits on most counts of social, economic and educational deprivation.
For some years, another crushing reality has been imposed on it, one that imprisons the mind and induces a social psychology of diffidence and fear. From every conceivable forum — whether it is the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, comprising chiefly the ulema or religious scholars, or the countless organisations of Muslims across the country that campaign on secular issues of work, employment, education, health and Muslim women’s rights — Indian Muslims find themselves obliged to proclaim that they are against terrorism. All of a sudden, they find they have been put in the dock as a collective. This is partly the result of the lingering socio-political prejudices of the majority rooted in the Partition era, but in the main this state of affairs can be traced to the aggressive majoritarianism prevalent in certain organs of the State, in particular the police and the home department of state governments across the country, irrespective of the party in power.
The shame is that the Indian Muslim has been pushed on the defensive 60 long years after Independence. When the country was partitioned in 1947, very few Muslims chose to go to Pakistan. They proved through that action that they were as much sons and daughters of the soil as anyone else (though the Jan Sangh, the earlier avatar of the BJP, ran a campaign in the 1960s demanding that the Muslims “Indianise” themselves). As a community, the Indian Muslim has been pushed on the defensive for no concrete reason. Most of them live the life of the wretched Indian poor. Their political behaviour is little different from that of other Indians. Election studies tell us their voting is as divided as that of any other community, difference only being that most Muslims might choose to vote away from the Hindutva parties. But, frankly, so do most Hindus or the BJP would have been a runaway electoral success. Yet, for all the ‘normal’ behaviour the Muslims of India exhibit in every facet of everyday existence, there has now come to be in our midst ‘the Muslim question’, sprung from nowhere and sprung God knows why....
The question of terrorism is often mentioned among non-Muslims as half-hearted justification. But no one can point to a single case when an Indian Muslim joined the Taliban jehad in Afghanistan even as hundreds of Muslims (some say thousands) languish in jails across India on terrorism-related charges without trial. The conviction rate is laughable in cases of a trial concluding. There are cases of women, on point of threatened assault, forced to falsely implicate men of the family. Haseena Khan, who for 20 years has been running ‘Awaz-e- Niswan’ in Mumbai, a Muslim women’s organisation with a feminist outlook that takes a contra-Sharia view on matters relating to gender-justice, says the threat of being searched, beaten, locked up on terrorism charges is the new equivalent of the old-fashioned communal riot. The riot was at least open as far as the judicial process went, she says. Terrorism charges are not, and Muslims across India are gripped by fear of it. This is a view shared by others — for instance, Wasim Ahmad, a former Congress MP and member of the Aligarh Muslim University court, and Mohammed Adeeb, a member of the executive of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board. A couple of months ago, thousands of Muslims ulema from across the country gathered at Darul Uloom at Deoband near Saharanpur in UP to denounce terrorism. For Adeeb, the fear of physical and economic insecurity — and riots and foisting of terrorism cases both fall in this category — are uppermost in every Muslim’s mind these days.
As a result of prejudice, it is widely believed that all that Muslims care for are their personal laws and their rights as a religious entity. The experience of Sanchetna, run by Haneef Lakdawala in Ahmedabad, is an eye-opener. For six years between 1993 and 1999 (ie. shortly after the devastation of Babri Masjid and the riots that followed in many places), he surveyed 8,000 Muslim men and women in all regions of Gujarat. He himself was surprised by the result. Rather than Babri Masjid, Muslim personal law, or the status of Urdu, the areas of top priority for his respondents were: quality education, lack of employment, lack of social reforms within the community, and strained relations with the Hindu majority. I asked Lakdawala what the Gujarat Muslims might say after the pogrom of 2002. He said they might add “insecurity” to their list of concerns that grip them.... In terms of access to politics and share in governance, the Indian Muslim is indeed worse off than the Dalits. The Dalits (at least a fair proportion among them), on account of reservations, can get to schools, find jobs, and get elected to legislatures on specified quotas. The Muslims are less fortunate in this respect.
Just about one percent of Muslims in India come from traditionally Dalit occupations, suggesting their forefathers may have converted from the Dalit castes (most are now listed as Most Backward Castes among the OBCs). And yet nearly all Muslims labour under the same disadvantages as the Dalits. The Sachar Committee data suggests this is as true of Left-run West Bengal, or Bihar and Uttar Pradesh run for decades by socialism-parroting OBC leaders who rely so desperately on Muslim votes, not to mention other states. The net result is that the Muslims are in the dock. But so is the country.
( Source: Tehelka, May 3, 2008)

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
For Identification of Illegal Migrants & Deportation in Accordance with Law
Shahabuddin’s Letter to Prime Minister of India, 21 May, 2008
In the wake of the Jaipur Bomb Blast, the Rajastan government has instructed all District Magistrates to identify illegal immigrants from Bangladesh in the state and initiate the process of eventual deportation. Whatever the Chief Minister may say, all state governments have been asked by the Home Ministry to identify, arrest and detain such illegal immigrants under the Foreign’s Act. Apart from the question whether the HUJI is using these immigrants as a tool or as a cover, the problem of illegal immigration is not limited to Rajasthan but extends to many states and metropolitan areas though it may not be as big as is made out to be.
If the Central Government has failed to stop the flow of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and if such Bangladeshis are living in many places, including the National Capital Territory, the situation demands a systematic approach and calls for precise direction by the central government to the state governments, which is effective in achieving the legal objective without causing any harassment to innocent citizens, the Bengali-speaking in particular, migrating from West Bengal or other states.
Over a period of time, many illegal immigrants have acquired identity papers including ration cards, voter cards. But they need to be differentiated from Bengali Muslims who have moved from West Bengal to other parts of the country in search of livelihood and other Indian Muslims.
My first suggestion is that the Home Ministry should advise all the state governments on the screening procedure to be adopted by them to differentiate between the illegal immigrants from Bangladeshis from Bengali-speaking legal migrants by checking their original address in their applications for identity papers, with the help of West Bengal Police. If the address is found to be wrong, they have to be subjected to detail investigation.
My second suggestion is that statutory Foreign Tribunals should be set up in all relevant states, and the cases of such suspects should be referred to the Tribunals. They need not be detained during the pendency of the investigation or the proceeding in the Tribunals. But they can be asked not to move or change their residence. The question of detention, and subsequent deportation, arises when the competent Tribunal finds them to be foreign nationals.
Since deportation to a foreign state is in the hands of the central government they should be placed in the custody of the central government and taken to the border of Bangladesh after appropriately informing the Bangladesh authorities in Delhi or Kolkata or through our missions in Bangladesh that we expect Bangladesh to take them back as their citizens in view of the Tribunals‘ finding, even though we have no extradition agreement with it. In case, the Bangladeshi authorities refuse to accept them and seek time for verification at their end, such persons and their families have to be kept in a Transit Camp established by the Central government near the border where they can be provided with minimum facilities.
In the meantime, the question of having an extradition agreement should be taken up at the political level with the Government of Bangladesh.
Under any circumstance, inhuman method of pushing them physically across the border at the point of the gun should be discarded.
Another factor that comes to my mind is that such families living in India for a long time must have children born on the Indian soil who may be entitled to Indian citizenship. If so, we have to find some way of regularizing the stay of such illegal immigrants until the children grow up.
I feel that it is a human problem, which arises in many parts of the world. Earlier the problem was limited to Assam where we had a seasonal flow of migrant labour in search of jobs which would return to Bangladesh once the agriculture season began.
We should also keep in mind that law does not differentiate among illegal immigrants on the basis of religion and the census figures show that since 1971 the non-Muslims outnumber the Muslims among illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. I do not rule out the possibility that to facilitate their stay in India, some illegal migrants change their names.
Finally, with a few exceptions most of the illegal migrants are innocent of any involvement in terrorism or aiding terrorist.
May I emphasize once again, that considering the nationwide spread of the problem the matter cannot be left to the State Governments to handle as they wish and the Central government should issue appropriate advice and guidelines to them.
I am sending a copy of this letter to the Home Minister.
Terror From The East
Editorial, The Times of India, 19 May 2008,
Even as the Centre grapples with hard questions on how to best tackle terror attacks in the aftermath of the Jaipur blasts, the Rajasthan government has issued an order to all district magistrates to identify illegal Bangladeshis in the state and begin the process of expulsion. The government order has been prompted by initial investigations suggesting the involvement of the Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami (HuJI) in the Jaipur blasts.
The Rajasthan government’s decision is welcome. According to some estimates, there are 50,000 Bangladeshis in Rajasthan. While this estimate could be on the higher side, we all know that there is migration from Bangladesh in huge numbers. It is virtually impossible to stop Bangladeshi migrants - a majority of whom comes in search of better jobs and pay - sneaking in through the highly porous 4,100-km border with India. But the government must keep tabs on the migrants to weed out the terrorists. The Indian states bordering Bangladesh - West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura - would naturally have to play a crucial role.
Many illegal migrants from Bangladesh have fake ration cards and voter IDs, often with a West Bengal address. West Bengal must cooperate with Rajasthan in verifying the authenticity of the documents held by those suspected to be from Bangladesh.
There is, of course, a danger that targeting Bangladeshi migrants - many of whom are Muslims - could become a communal issue. However, Rajasthan’s BJP Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje was that she won’t allow her state to go “the Gujarat way”. What she meant was that Muslims won’t be singled out as in Gujarat in 2002. The need of the hour is to identify terrorists who are entering India from neighbouring countries.

Illegal Lease of Wakf Property to Ambani for 1/20 of Value
Shahabuddin’s Requests to President, INC for Intervention, 14 May, 2008
The valuable Wakf property over 4500 sq. metres in area, on the Altamount Road, Mumbai, was sold to Mr.Mukesh Ambani by the Mutawalli of Currimbhoy Khoja Yateemkhan in the year 2002, without the approval of the State Wakf Board and without following the prescribed procedure. Its market value is estimated at Rs.400 crores but the Yateemkhan has received just over 20 crores. Already Mr.Ambani’s skyscraper is coming up on the site.
The Maharashtra Wakf Board CEO Mr.A R Shaikh, an officer of the State government, filed a petition in the Mumbai High Court for the nullification of this deal. The High Court did not grant a stay. So, he went on to appeal to the Supreme Court, which returned the matter to the High Court for final decision.
In the meantime the State Government has prematurely transferred Mr.Shaikh without consulting the Board back to his parent department on May 4, 2008. Mr. Shaikh has already handed over charge to his successor Mr. S. S. Gunjal, a non-Muslim. This is a malafide move to scuttle the case.
It is common knowledge in Mumbai that some one closely related to Chief Minister Vilas Rao Deshmukh is involved in the construction as one of the contractors.
The premature and sudden transfer of Mr.Shakikh and the appointment of a non-Muslim as CEO both violate the Wakf Act, 1995.
Muslim organizations in Mumbai have been agitating for the restoration of the Wakf property and now against the appointment of a non-Muslim as CEO. Obviously, an officer handpicked by the government without consultation with the Board will act merely as a tool in the hands of the Chief Minister.
The Muslim Community in Maharashtra is already very unhappy with the present State government for many reasons. This deal has added to their anger. The Community accuses both the present Wakf Minister Mr. Aziz and the Chief Minister of supporting Mr.Ambani against the interest of the Wakf Estate.
We request you to urgently intervene in this matter and advise the Chief Minister to reappoint Mr.Shaikh or find another Muslim officer in his place in consultation with the State Wakf Board in accordance with law and give the Board a free hand to pursue the matter.

In transit, in denial
Editorial, The Indian Express, 20 May, 2008
The aftermath of the May 13 serial blasts in Jaipur has drawn a string of familiar demands. The attack bears familiarities with earlier terrorist incidents in cities like Hyderabad, and therefore highlights the immense price we pay for inadequate follow-up investigations. For now, government and opposition appear focused on how to go forward gainfully, even if there appears to be an unfortunate streak of confrontation.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reiterated the need for a federal crime agency. Law and order is a state subject and given the fact that terrorist and white-collar crimes are inter-state in nature, a federal mechanism is needed. The BJP, for its part, has been quick to (focus on) the absence of terrorism-specific legislation.
But after Jaipur, another aspect has gained the spotlight. How to tackle illegal immigration.
The Centre’s reluctance to confront this issue, specifically the presence in India of Bangladeshis without documentation, can be dangerous. for two reasons. One, leads point to the involvement of Bangladesh-based organisations like HUJI in many recent terrorist incidents, including Jaipur. Two, maintaining political correctness as a contrast to communal targeting of illegal immigrants, nurtures a divisive politics of vote banks. It presents the issue as a choice between inaction and human rights violations., India as a mature democracy can confront its challenges on the basis of humanity and the rule of law.

KASHMIR SITUATION

Tears in the Valley
Tariq Bhat
Around 8,000 people who have gone ‘missing’ in Kashmir. Their names may be mere statistic in the long list of those who have disappeared, allegedly in the custody of security forces, but for this families it has been a tragic struggle. They have searched for him almost everywhere-from jails in Kashmir, to Jammu and Delhi. Them, they have resigned to living without them.
Yet, Tariq’s wife Tahira is not willing to give up. She has enrolled her three sons in schools run by orphanages in Srinagar. She wants to know what happened to her husband after he left home at Shamsbari in Uri.
A glimmer of hope came when a fact-finding mission of the Associat-ion of Parents of Disappeared Pers-ons, discovered 940-odd unmarked graves in 18 villages on the banks of the Jhelum-many of them in the three villages of Kichama, Trikanjan and Chehel.
The APDP suspects the graves are of some of the missing Kashmiri men, and has urged the government to order a probe. “I have not given up on him [husband]. I would wait for him forever,” says Tahira, who is one of the 2,000-odd half-widows of Kashmir nurturing an orphan population of 6,000. “If he is lying in one of those unmarked graves, I want to know. Let there be a probe. Maybe he is there.”
Confronted with the difficult task of raising the children and searching for her missing husband, the half-widow is in a traumatic state. She suffers bouts of acute depression. A family at Nawakadal in Srinagar has given her a shelter, where she is trying to bring up her children in a normal environment.
Tahira’s isn’t the worst case. Mughali Teli, a 60-year-old widow of Babap-ora in Srinagar, is worn out and fatigued. She has been longing for her only son, Nazir Ahmed Teli, a teacher, who went out for his job one day in 1990 and never returned. Nazir is listed among the ‘missing’.
Mughali tried everything to trace her son. She even sold her belongings to travel to places where she was told her son could be-like in the notorious Kotbilwala jail in Jammu and Tihar. Today, all that she has is the Rs 700 she gets from the education department where Nazir worked.
“I have no desire to live but for my son. If he is dead, I want to hug his body one last time. If he is buried somewhere, I want to see the grave where he is sleeping,” she sobs. “My son was not a militant. He was a simple man.”
What has given momentum to the call for a probe into the unmarked graves is the fact that some families found the bodies of their relatives in the graves. The victims were allegedly killed in custody and passed off as militants.
A Special Task force arrested three men-Javed Ahmed, Ghulam Mattoo and Nazir Ahmed-while they were escorting a bride to her home on a scooter at Soura in 1999.
Deputy superintendent of police Abdul Rashid Khan alias Rashid Billa and his men allegedly eliminated them in a fake encounter. Nazir’s body was thrown into Dal Lake; the others were buried in unmarked graves in Kichama after being branded as foreign militants.
Nazir’s body was later fished out of the lake. The photographs of the two others appeared in a local newspaper stating it as a case of foreign militants killed in encounter. The families of the two men, after getting exhumation orders from the magistrate, traced their bodies to Kichama, and brought them to Srinagar for burial.
Nazir’s brother, Farooq Ahmad, could not pursue the case of his slain brother after it was shifted to Jammu. Sitting in his small shop at Gojwara, hope for justice some day. “After the media reported about the nameless graves, we feel that the killer of our brother will also be brought to book,” says Farooq. Tahira and Mughali, too, live in the same hope.
(Source: The Week, Pril 27, 2008)

209 Kashmiri Pandits killed since 1989
Muzamil Jaleel
In the first such report compiled since the outbreak of militancy in the Valley, a Jammu and Kashmir Police Report says that 209 Kashmiri Pandits were killed by militants since 1989. Chargesheets have been filed in 24 cases while killers in 115 cases remain unidentified or untraced. 140 cases of killing of Kashmiri Pandits by militants have been registered at police stations across the Valley.
The police have booked 31 local militants for the killings in 24 cases in which the chargesheets have been filed. Three local militants involved in the killing of trade unionist and rights activist H N Wanchoo have been convicted. Wanchoo was killed on December 5, 1992 at Balgarden in Srinagar city. All other militants who have been chargesheeted are, however, out on bail.
The investigation into the killing of retired judge Neel Kanth Ganju, who was killed on November 1,1989 at Hari Singh High Street in Srinagar, has been handed over to the CBI.
According to this police report, the first case of murder of a Kashmiri Pandit was of a woman, Prabhavati from Nawagari, Chadoora in Budgam district. Hari Singh High Street on March 14, 1989. Her killers remained untraced.
Of the 209 Kashmiri Pandits killed, 109 died in 1990.
The killings of Kashmiri Pandits include the massacres at Sangrampora, Wandhama and Nadimarg — seven were killed during the night of March 21-22, 1997 at Sangrampora village in Budgam, 23 were killed in Wandhama on January 25, 1998 and 24 died in Nadimarg on March 24, 2003. According to the police report, perpetrators of the Wandhama massacre are still untraced. The police has identified Pakistani militants Abu Haris and Abu Khalid as those who carried out the Sangrampora killings. Both militants were killed in an encounter at Hewader on March 24, 1997. The police has challaned the Nadimarg massacre case, identifying Zai Mustafa alias Abdullah of Rawalakot, Pakistan as the perpetrator.
The report reveals that the majority of Kashmiri Pandits were killed in Srinagar city — 82 people died since 1989. Twenty eight Kashmiri Pandits were killed in Ganderbal, 11 in Baramulla, 28 in Pulwama, four in Kupwara, 16 in Budgam, 17 in Kulgam, three in Awantipora, 16 in Anantnag and four in Handwara.
(Source: The Indian Express, 4 May, 2008)

GUJARAT GENOCIDE

NHRC’s Final Report on Gujarat 2002 Carnage, 31 Dec., 2007
There was a comprehensive failure of the State to protect the Constitutional rights of the people of Gujarat, starting with the tragedy in Godhra on 27 February 2002 and continuing with the violence that ensued in the weeks that followed. The Commission has also noted in this connection that, on 6 May 2002, Rajya Sabha adopted with one voice the motion stating “That this house expresses its deep sense of anguish at the persistence of violence in Gujarat for over six weeks, leading to loss of lives of a large number of persons, destruction of property worth crores of rupees and urges the Central Government to intervene effectively under article 355 of the Constitution to protect the lives and property of the citizens and to provide effective relief and rehabilitation to the victims of violence.”
The tragic events in Gujarat, starting with the Godhra incident and continuing with the violence that rocked the State for over two months, have greatly saddened the nation. There is no doubt, in the opinion of this Commission, that there was a comprehensive failure on the part of the State Government to control the persistent violation of the rights to life, liberty, equality and dignity of the people of the State. It is, of course, essential to heal the wounds and to look to a future of peace and harmony. But the pursuit of these high objectives must be based on justice and the upholding of the values of the Constitution of the Republic and the laws of the land. That is why it remains of fundamental importance that the measures that require to be taken to bring the violators of human rights to book are indeed taken.
Observations of the Supreme Courts bench comprising Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice Doraiswami Raju made in the judgment of 12 April 2004 on Transfer and retrial of Best-Bakery case of Vadodra, Gujarat 2002.
If one even cursorily glances through the records of the case, one gets a feeling that the justice delivery system was being taken for a ride and literally allowed to be abused, misused and mutilated by subterfuge. The investigation appears to be perfunctory and anything but impartial without any definite object of finding out the truth and bringing to book those who were responsible for the crime. The public prosecutor appears to have acted more as a defence counsel than one whose duty was to present the truth before the Court. The Court in turn appeared to be a silent spectator, mute to the manipulations and preferred to be indifferent to sacrilege being committed to justice. The role of the State Government also leaves much to be desired. One gets a feeling that there was really no seriousness in the State’s approach in assailing the Trial Court’s judgment. This is clearly indicated by the fact that the first memorandum of appeal filed was an apology for the grounds. A second amendment was done, that too after this Court expressed its unhappiness over the perfunctory manner in which the appeal was presented and challenge made. That also was not the end of the matter. There was a subsequent petition for amendment. All this sadly reflects on the quality of determination exhibited by the State and the nature of seriousness shown to pursue the appeal. Criminal trials should not be reduced to be the mock trials or shadow boxing of fixed trials. Judicial Criminal Administration System must be kept clean and beyond the reach of whimsical political wills or agendas and properly insulated from discriminatory standards or yardsticks of the type prohibited by the mandate of the Constitution.
Those who are responsible for protecting life and properties and ensuring that investigation is fair and proper seem to have shown no real anxiety. Large number of people had lost their lives. Whether the accused persons were really assailants or not could have been established by a fair and impartial investigation. The Modern day “Neros” were looking elsewhere when Best Bakery and innocent children and women were burning, and were probably deliberating how the perpetrators of the crime can be saved or protected. Law and justice become files in the hands of these “wanton boys”. When fences start to swallow the crops, no scope will be left for survival of law and order or truth and justice. Public order as well as public interest become martyrs and monuments.
(Source: Email by Dr. Iqbal A. Ansari,31 December, 2007)

Delay in Trial is Denial of Justice
85 Detained for 6Years in Godhra Case
Nagendar Sharma
Top jurists including three former Chief Justices of India have denounced inordinate delay in starting the Godhra train burning case trial in which 85 accused are languishing in jail for over six years.
Terming it as “unexplainable” and “amounting to denial of justice,” former CJIs - PN Bhagwati, JS Verma and VN Khare strongly criticised the delay in commencement of the trial. It was an attack on personal liberties, they added.
If they are guilty, sentence them, but people can’t be confined like this,” Justice Bhagwati said. “the CJI should personally look into the matter as undertrials are presumed to be innocent till proven guilty.”
The state police had named 135 accused in the Godhra case, 85 of whom are still lodged in Ahmedabad jail. The trial is yet to start, since the Supreme Court has to decide whether it would take place in Gujarat or outside.
Khare said the bail applications of the accused should have been heard by now at least.
Justice Verma, said it was important to decide the cases promptly where the accused were behind bars for a long time. Delay amounts to denial of justice. Senior Supreme Court Advocate Rajeev Dhavan said: “The delay was intolerable. In the Godhra case, there was targeting and selection of accused, and now there is a deliberate delay.”
(Source: The Hindustan Times, 21 May, 2008)


PANCHAYATI RAJ
One Man Mission
Shankkar Aiyar
Panchayati Raj Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar’s quest to find political space for Panchayati Raj.
Panchayati Raj was formally ushered in by the 73rd constitutional amendment in 1993 but till 2004, it didn’t even have a division, leave alone a ministry.
Today there are 2,33,606 gram panchayats, 6,094 intermediate or taluka panchayats and 543 zilla panchayats. These three tiers have elected 26 lakh representatives.
Indeed, the 10 lakh women representatives outnumber all the elected women representatives world over. Yes, there is the existence of surrogate representation, the phenomenon of “sarpanch pati”. But the counter is that they are elected and the surrogate phenomenon is prevalent in other electoral forum too.
Be that as it may numerical strength has not helped the children of a lesser democracy. Although the 73rd constitutional amendment specifies devolvement of 29 subjects to panchayats, nearly a dozen of the 30 states are yet to comply. True devolution of power has thus eluded panchayats.
In the Cabinet, he is the evangelist in a rush to convert the heathen. For over 46 months now, he has been battling almost every ministry to hand over schemes to panchayats and devolve power to the grassroots without success.
This despite the fact that the prime minister had described “Panchayati Raj as the medium to transform rural India into 700 million opportunities”.
As Railways Minister Lalu Prasad observed in a Cabinet meeting, “Barring railways, Pranab babu (MEA) and Antony bhai (defence), Aiyar has tried to rope in every other ministry into a bhagidari (partnership)” with the Panchayati Raj Ministry.
Obviously in an era of expanding centralisation, Aiyar’s evangelism for devolution has few takers.
In the age of political correctness and electoral expediency, Aiyar specialises in articulating the unmentionable.
As India sang the rah-rah raga on 9-plus per cent GDP growth, he asked a CII audience if it was not limited to a 0.9 per cent of the one billion populace and, as sports minister, he questioned the hosting of Commonwealth Games and the expenditure on it, only to lose the ministry in the last reshuffle.
Earlier this year, he announced a national rally of the Panchayati parivar and sent out 2.5 lakh invites. The Finance Ministry and the Planning Commission frowned on the estimated cost of Rs 165 crore and shot down the idea.
Not to be thwarted, Aiyar hosted over 8,000 elected representatives and held a national convention which came out with a 15th Anniversary Charter that was released by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
The mantra for the convention was appropriately “pradhan se pradhan mantri tak”. The participants clearly voiced two important demands: an honorarium as received by MPs and MLAs and real power commensurate with their elected status.
The charter is prodigiously ambitious. As of now, the Centre collects revenue, shares it with states and spends the rest through ministries. These funds are then injected at the district level where the authorities or the Zilla Parishad CEO decides, at times in consultation with district planning committee (DPC).
Normally, DPC runs on the diktat of state government in concert with MLAs and MPs. Depending on the prosperity and the size of districts, expenditure could cross Rs 500 crore per year. The new charter wants planning to move bottom up. So that village panchayats decide what they want and submit a plan to taluka samitis for approval at the district level. As of now, panchayats only get informed and can monitor the works. But in the absence of punitive powers, the block development officer can ignore them.
So, the charter wants panchayats to be allowed to write the confidential reports of officers and be made co-signatory on payments. Without doubt, this combination of social and formal audit could perhaps make outlays translate into outcomes.
There is no guarantee that the panchayats will deliver better but the belief is that social audit will work. The proof of the pudding is visible in Kerala where social indices reflect the involvement of panchayats in social programmes. But the idea will completely overturn the current power hierarchy of babus, MLAs and MPs.
Ironically, the connect between inclusive growth and panchayats to improve governance could not be stronger. With 770 million rural population stuck in the queue for a place on the 9 per cent GDP growth gravy train, it is imperative to bring in grassroots participation in converting the outlays on education, health, agriculture and rural development into visible outcomes.
As Aiyar says, “If we want to move from India prospering to Indians prospering, there is no alternative to Panchayati Raj.” He bolsters his bluster with a simple calculation. Conventional wisdom drawn from a 1989 Planning Commission study says that only 15 paise of a rupee spent reaches the poor as 85 paise is lost in establishment costs and leakage.
“If we can bring down the costs from 85 paise to 70 paise, we would have doubled the spend on the poor from 15 paise to 30 paise.”
Clearly involvement of the stakeholders will change the paradigm of development. But the economic logic is in conflict with political reality.
Neither at the Centre nor at the state level will the current hegemony yield to Panchayati Raj institutions easily. As Aiyar told a TV audience recently, “Panchayati Raj is not a pre-cooked meal that can be heated and served.” It requires sustained struggle and evangelism for it to become a revolution.
Perhaps, Galbraith’s theory of countervailing pressure from the 26 lakh children of this lesser democracy will eventually overcome or co-opt the current hierarchy of 4,896 MLAs and MPs who rule India.
(Source: India Today, 19 May, 2008)

HERITAGE
khwaja Gharibnawaz Embodiment of Islamic Mysticism
Mohammed Iqbal
The aesthetic and stunning white dome that crowns the main tomb of the historic dargah of the Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer stands out as an illustrious embodiment of Islamic mysticism of the Chishtiya order founded in India after the arrival of one of the most outstanding figures in the annals of Sufism from West Asia.
The dargah at Ajmer Sharif today attracts lakhs of people — Muslims, Hindus, Christians and others — from the Indian sub-continent and from other parts of the world, depicting a rare blend of religions. People assemble at the shrine during the week-long Urs every year to beseech for fulfilment of their prayers.
Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, popularly known as Khwaja Gharib Nawaz (protector of the poor), was born in 1141 A.D. at Sanjar in the Sistan province of Iran. He was a direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammed. His parents died when he was only 15 years old and he used to look after the orchard and windmill that he inherited from his father.
During his childhood, young Moinuddin was different from others and kept himself busy in prayers and meditation. He was sober, silent and serene.
Legend has it that once when he was watering his plants, a revered monk, Sheikh Ibrahim Qandozi, came to his orchard. Young Moinuddin approached him with all humility and offered him some fruits. In return, the monk gave him a piece of bread and asked him to eat it.
Turning point
The Khwaja got enlightened and found himself in a strange world after eating the bread. This was a turning point in his life. He disposed of his property and other belongings and distributed the money thus received among the poor and the needy. He renounced the world and left for Bukhara in search of knowledge and higher education.
In those days, Samarkand and Bukhara were great seats of Islamic learning. Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti visited the seminaries of the two cities and acquired religious learning at the feet of eminent scholars of his age. He visited nearly all the great centres of Muslim culture and acquainted himself with almost every important trend in the Muslim religious life.
He became the disciple of the famous Dervish, Khwaja Usman Harooni, and remained under his guidance for nearly 20 years. They travelled in West Asia extensively together and also went to Mecca and Medina.
Khwaja Gharib Nawaz turned towards India reputedly after a dream in Medina in which he received the directions to go to Hindustan. After a brief stay in Lahore, he reached Ajmer along with his 40 followers and camped near Ana Sagar lake.
The place from where the Khwaja’s extensive missionary work was taken up is now known as Chillah of Khwaja Saheb. The residents of the city admired the wisdom, purity and grace of Khwaja Gharib Nawaz and people from various walks of life cherished to be his disciples. The vast number of his followers, both Hindus and Muslims, emulated him and symbolised his dictum of “Sulh-i-Kul” (peace with all), we had firm faith in “Wahdat-al-Wujud” (unity of being) provided the necessary ideological support to his mystic mission to bring about emotional integration of the people among whom he lived. His teaching lay stress on renunciation of material goods and tolerance and respect for religious differences.
He interpreted religion in terms of human service and exhorted his disciples to develop a “river-like generosity, sun-like affection and earth-like hospitality”. The highest form of devotion, according to him, was to redress the misery of those in distress and fulfil the needs of the helpless and feed the hungry.
Sufism like Vedanta believes in non-dual Absolute and looks upon the world as the reflection of God, who is conceived as Light. Sufism is claimed to be a way of life born of the human heart against the cold formalism and ritualism.
Ajmer Sharif emerged as one of the most important centres of pilgrimage in India during the reign of Mughal Emperor Akbar (1556-1605). Akbar undertook a journey on foot to reach the place and presented a big cauldron for cooking food after his conquest of Chittorgarh. A small cauldron was later presented by Emperor Jehangir in 1646.
Some of the books authored by Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti are Anis-al-Arwah and Daleel-al-Arefeen, dealing with the Islamic code of living.
His most famous disciples were Khwaja Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki and Hamiduddin Nagori.
The week-long annual Urs, in the dargah, commemorates the event in 1236 when the Khwaja entered his cell to pray in seclusion for six days, at the end of which he died. When his devotees opened the door, the Khwaja was found dead.” He was buried, according to the traditions of the prophets, in the same tenement which he occupied in his life and in which he breathed his last.
During the Urs, attended by people from far and wide, devotional music and recitings from the Khwaja’s own works and other Sufi saints are presented in the traditional Qawwali style.
Several monuments
Besides the mausoleum, there are several other monuments of historical interest located within the premises of the Sufi shrine. They include the tenement of Bibi Hafiz Mahal, Begami Dalan constructed in memory of Begum Jehanara, and the Chillah of Baba Farid.
Several projects have been launched for beautification of the 13th-century shrine and attempts made to improve its management.
The new dargah committee, which took over six months ago has chalked out a plan to ensure free movement of pilgrims, stop commercial activities on the dargah premises and renovate various building.
Says Prince of Arcot Nawab Mohammed Abdul Ali, president of the nine-member Dargah Committee:
He has instructed the administration of the shrine to make “value addition” to the dargah endowment and properties and put them to a productive use for philanthropic activities, such as education, grants to the destitute and welfare of orphans.
The Dargah Committee, Constitute under the provisions of the Dargah Khwaja Saheb Act, 1955, administers and controls the affairs of the shrine as well as its endowments. It also organises the annual Urs and regulates the Khadims (workers) on the premises, and determines their privileges.
The Dargah Committee has dicide establish of a university named after Khwaja Gharib Nawaz, expansion of the Khwaja Model School. Besides, restoration of the two Chillahs of the Sufi saint, renovation of Eidgah and three mosques and expansion of the guest house. The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) has incorporated the renovation of the exterior of the dargah in its project for Ajmer. Chief Executive Officer of the Dargah Committee has visited to several places in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh during the last 11 months to find out the present status of the Wakf land. The message of Khwaja Gharib Nawaz does not admit of time. It is as true today, as it was when delivered centuries ago. (EOM)
(Source: The Hindu, May 11, 2008)

Remembering Talat Mahmood on his 10th Death Anniversary
In his quivering voice you could hear the rustle of silk and the muffled sound of a broken heart. Few singers could put the listener in a blue mood like Talat Mahmood, who passed away on May 9 exactly 10 years ago. And thanks to a website created by his son Khalid that gets about 1,50,000 hits every week from Indians and Pakistanis all over the world - “and a few Israelis”, Khalid adds - his memory is fresh as ever. “Talat saab came from Lucknow and his Urdu pronunciation was perfect. He could exactly reproduce a song the way a composer had conjured up in his mind. He was an original singer whose distinctive voice was near impossible to duplicate,” recalls music director Khayyam.
One of the veteran music composer’s memorable compositions - Shaam-e-gham ki kasam (film: Footpath) - was sung by Talat, also known as king of ghazals. Khayyam recalls that in that memorable song he had experimented with the orchestration by not using any rhythm instrument like tabla.
“We used a piano, guitar and solo vox, a basic version of the synthesizer used in those days. Recording the number took plenty of time. But Talat saab ke mathe pe shikan nahi aayee,” he says.
Lyricist Naqsh Lyallpuri remembers a recording with the singer. The song was Zindagi kis mod pe laayi mujhe, from the film “Diwali ki Raat”. Snehal Bhatkar was the music director. Says Lyallpuri, “We had only two musicians at the rehearsal. They were playing the tabla and the sitar. But the producer liked his singing so much that he said, there is no need for any other instrument.
Lyallpuri remembers Talat as an extremely soft spoken man, Khayyam added. “He was a perfect gentleman. With him there was no loose talk. He was always well-dressed: his shoes shining and his trousers perfectly creased.”
To honour his father’s memory, Khalid Mahmood set up a website, talatmahmood.net, just a few months after the singer’s death in 1998 at the age of 74. Apart from the huge number hits every day, he also gets about 200-300 emails every week. “The choice for me was between doing a book and setting up a website. I settled for the latter because it is more accessible,” says Khalid.
Talat recorded his first track way back in 1941 and sang around 750 songs in 12 languages. He also acted in over a dozen movies such as “Dil-e-Nadaan”, “Lala Rukh” and “Ek Gaon Ki Kahani”.
The singer-actor aroused mass hysteria when he arrived in Trinidad in West Indies on a concert tour in 1968. Fans thronged the roads from the airport to the city. The local group, West Indies Steel Band, composed a Calypso track in his honour. They sang, “Talat Mahmood we are proud and glad, to have a personality like you here in Trinidad.” Talat is long gone. But as long as the human heart knows how to fall in love and emerge with ache, his velvet voice will live on.
(avijit.ghosh@timesgroup.com)
(Source: The Times of India, 9 May, 2008)

MUSLIM WORLD
60 Years on, Israel Feels Insecure
AFP Report
In 1948, the fledgling Israeli armed forces defeated seven Arab armies to forge the Jewish state. Sixty years on, they have a large if unconfirmed nuclear arsenal but have yet to overcome the persistent threat from Arab irregulars.
Indisputably the region’s best equipped military power, the army has found in recent years that even its vast arsenal could not secure victory in successive and drawn-out conflicts against insurgents hidden among the civilian population.
Military service remains a mainstay of the Jewish state, serving to assimilate immigrants into Israeli society as much as defend it from external threats.
With a hefty budget of some 14 billion dollars in 2008, comprising around 17 percent of the state budget, Israel’s military boasts some of the world’s most sophisticated and lethal weaponry.
The advanced fighter jets, tanks and rocketry of its standing force of about 180,000 are constantly put to the test.
In successive Middle East wars, the Israeli military developed an awesome reputation for invincibility, particularly after its stunning victory in the 1967 Six-Day War which trippled the size of the Jewish state.
Even in 1973, when it came under surprise attack from Egypt and Syria, initially taking some unaccustomed setbacks, the Israeli army secured a clear victory after three weeks of fighting on several fronts.
But since then, Israel’s military has found itself mired in less glorious adventures, including its costly 1982-1985 onslaught against Beirut and two Palestinian uprisings in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Faced with a wave of deadly suicide bombings in Israeli towns, the armed forces crushed the second uprising in 2003 only after sending thousands of troops and tanks into Palestinian cities, leading to a heavy civilian death toll.
The Islamist Hamas movement seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, becoming a source of much frustration in Israel as the army seems unable to put an end to incessant rocket and ground attacks.
But the military’s defining moment in recent years was the 2006 Lebanon war against Hezbollah, when the army’s clear technological edge failed to defeat the Shiite militant group in a month of devastating conflict.
Hezbollah pounded Israel with thousands of rockets, paralyzing the lives of some one million of its civilians and exposing the military’s inability to counter such attacks.
“It is obvious today that the front in the next war will be the civilian population which will come under rocket and missile fire,” said Amos Harel, the military correspondent of the leading daily Haaretz.
Although both Hezbollah and Hamas use tactics that do not threaten Israel’s existence, they have undermined the country’s sense of security, said reserve Major General Uzi Dayan.
Even Israel’s nuclear deterrent, acknowledged by President Shimon Peres in his memoirs but officially neither confirmed nor denied, has proved of little use.

Pakistan drama
Editorial, The Hindu, 14 May, 2008
The early appearance of cracks in Pakistan’s ruling coalition is a disappointment for those who rejoiced over the resounding victory of democracy in the February 2008 general election. Nawaz Sharif’s decision to withdraw his Pakistan Muslim League (N) from the cabinet was an apparent consequence of the government’s failure to restore, by his deadline of May 12, the judges who were dismissed by President Pervez Musharraf in the 2007 emergency. Underlying the differences on this issue between the PML(N) and the Pakistan People’s Party, the leader of the coalition, was a fundamental disagreement over how to deal with the unpopular dictator. The PML(N) viewed the reinstatement of the judges as part of its wider strategy to oust him from the presidency. On the other hand, PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari has been reluctant to head into a confrontation with President Musharraf. The reasons for this can only be speculated upon. What is evident is that the PPP wanted to make the reinstatement a part of a larger constitutional package that would have clipped the wings of the restored judiciary. The PML(N) took the position that restoring the judges through constitutional amendments would bestow an unacceptable legality on General Musharraf’s actions during the emergency. For Mr. Sharif, who made the restoration of the judges the main plank of his party’s election campaign and set himself a deadline to achieve this, there was little scope for compromise.
Considering that the issue of the judiciary has been at the heart of Pakistan’s political turmoil since March 2007, Mr. Sharif has improved his political standing by emerging as a man of his word. Mr. Zardari’s lack of enthusiasm for keeping a promise the two leaders jointly made to the nation through the March 8 Murree Declaration puts his party at a political disadvantage. Nor have the PPP’s moves to cushion a possible break-up of the coalition by reaching out to sections of the PML (Q), the ‘King’s party,’ enhanced its image. It is encouraging that both Mr. Sharif and Mr. Zardari have kept a window open for a reconciliation of their differences. In the long-term interests of democracy in Pakistan, it is imperative that both parties set aside their narrow political interests and speedily craft a formula to untangle the judges’ issue. The drama, featuring a dictator versus a hyperactive ex-Chief Justice championed by the bar, might appear overblown to the external world — but Pakistan cannot move ahead unless there is a denouement.

Killing Sparks Debate on Blasphemy in Pakistan
Nirupama Subramanian
Blasphemy is an offence punishable by death in Pakistan, but Jagdeesh Kumar’s co-workers did not allow him the luxury of a court hearing even under this infamous law. Instead, the 20-year-old Hindu youth was simply lynched by his co-workers in the factory where he was employed for allegedly making blasphemous remarks against Prophet Muhammad.
The April 8 incident has once again spurred debate in Pakistan on the levels of religious intolerance in the country and on sections 295-B and 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code, together known as the blasphemy laws.
Some see a direct link between Jagdeesh’s killing and Pakistan’s blasphemy laws that were added on to the Pakistan Penal Code section relating to “offences against religion” between 1982 and 1986. Sub section 295-B of 1982 prescribes life imprisonment for defiling or desecrating the Koran. Sub section 295-C of 1986 lays down that “whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representation, or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly, defiles the sacred name of the Holy prophet Muhammad (PBUH) shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine”.
Vague complexity of the law
According to one analyst writing in Dawn, “the explanation for [Jagdeesh’s] co-workers’ criminal conduct is to be found in the vague complexity of the law which leaves every individual free to view the ‘imputation, innuendo or insinuation, directly or indirectly’ in the light of his own conviction or as indoctrinated by the mullah.”
More than 4,000 blasphemy cases have been registered since the law came into existence. Convictions are rare, and no one has yet been hanged for it, but in dozens of instances, the accused have been killed by mobs.
Very often, the law is used to target members of the minority community, and several time, has also been used by Muslims against each other to settle personal scores. The 2008 annual report of the non-government Human Rights Commission of Pakistan details several cases in which people have been charged with the offence on the basis of flimsy evidence.
In most cases, the accused languish in prison until their cases are decided, but even behind bars, they live in fear of violence against them by other inmates. The fears of being set upon only increase after acquittal and release.
In its 2008 annual report, the HRCP comments that a growing number of Muslims in Pakistan had begun to feel that the only true version of Islam is the one they practise, and as the State had failed in its duty to protect the interests of the religion “that it is their religious duty to enforce it on all and sundry by deploying all possible means, including the use of force against those who do not fall in line”.
The report said this was also one reason for the unchecked growth of extremism and militancy in Pakistan.
Human rights activists believe that the failure of the government to take exemplary action against vigilantism in the name of religion encourages people to take the law into their hands, or misuse it with impunity.
“The kind of extremism that has been displayed in [the Jagdeesh Kumar] case, there are likely to be many more such sad incidents because governments are unable to counter it firmly,” said HRCP director I.A. Rehman.
Mr. Rehman said it would take Pakistan “a long time” to rectify the situation because no government was prepared to antagonise conservative elements in the country.
Mr. Rehman said the HRCP did not include the repeal of the blasphemy laws in the 16-point programme that it forwarded to the new government as “Pakistan is not yet ready for this”. But the rights group has demanded the abolition of the death penalty, which will indirectly bring changes to the blasphemy law.
Moderate and progressive voices in the electronic and print media are urging Pakistan’s new government to come down heavily on those who were responsible for Jagdeesh’s killing in order to send out an unequivocal message that religious vigilantism will not be tolerated.
(Source: The Hindu, )

Muslims of Tibet
Atul Sethi
Masood Butt is a Muslim Tibetan, living in India. But, unlike most other Tibetans in exile, who are Buddhists. However, apart from his faith, there is little else to distinguish Butt from other Tibetans. He follows Tibetan customs, speaks Tibet fluently and regards the Dalai Lama as his leader. Yet, Butt’s community — the Tibetan Muslims — are little known in India, even though they have shared with their Buddhist brethren, the plight of leaving their homeland. And they have been living in India for the last 50 years.”Like other Tibetans, our community have faced tough times and undergone great mental and physical strain,” says Butt, who now works with the Dalai Lama’s office in Dharamsala.
The Tibetan Muslims is that of a unique community, that has blended different cultural strains to forge a distinct identity, that has been kept alive even in the face of adversity. What is interesting to know is that Islam arrived almost a 1000 years ago in Tibet — a region that has always been synonymous with a monolithic Buddhist culture. Sometime in the 12th century, it is believed, a group of Muslim traders from Kashmir and Ladakh came to Tibet as merchants. Many of these traders settled in Tibet and married Tibetan women, who later converted to the religion of their husbands. Author Thomas Arnold, in his book, The Preaching of Islam says that gradually, marriages and social interactions led to an increase in the Tibetan Muslim population until a sizable community came up around Lhasa, Tibet’s capital.
“The Tibetan government allowed the Muslims freedom to handle their own affairs, without any interference. This enabled the community to retain their identity, while at the same time absorbing traditional Tibetan social and cultural traditions,” says Butt. The Tibetan Muslims followed the occupation of their ancestors and were mainly traders, who owned successful businesses. The community also contributed to Tibetan society and culture in many ways. For instance, the first cinema hall in Tibet was started by a Tibetan Muslim businessman. Also, Nangma — a popular classical music form of Tibet, is believed to have been brought to Tibet by the Muslims. In fact, the word ‘Nangma’ is said to be derived from the Urdu word, ‘Naghma’, which means song. “These high-pitched lilting songs, developed in Tibet around the turn of the century, were a craze in Lhasa, with musical hits by Acha Izzat, Bhai Akbar-la and Oulam Mehdi on the lips of almost everyone,” says Butt.
Many Tibetan scholars have commented on how religions as diverse as Islam and Buddhism could co-exist in peace in a traditional society such as that of Tibet. The credit for this, some feel, goes to religious leaders like the Dalai Lama, who took the lead in fostering this spirit of brotherhood. The fifth Dalai Lama readily agreed to give the Muslims land within Lhasa for building a mosque.
Tibetan Muslims also enjoyed other special privileges in Tibet. For instance, they were exempted from the ‘no meat rule’ when such a restriction was imposed in the rest of Tibet, during the holy Buddhist months. Besides, their commercial enterprises were exempted from taxation.
All these special privileges, however were withdrawn, soon after the Chinese occupied Tibet in 1959. Most of the Tibetan Muslims, consequently, opted to leave rather than live under the Chinese occupation. Those who were able to cross over to India, settled in the border towns of Kalimpong, Darjeeling and Gangtok. Later, the community gradually started moving to Kashmir — the land from where their ancestors had gone to Tibet. In fact, the move to Kashmir was significant. Even in Tibet, the Muslims were identified as Khache, since Kashmir was known to Tibetans as Khache Yul. Thus, their status was that of a foreigner, even when they were in Tibet.
On the basis of their Kashmiri ancestry, the Tibetan Muslim families who came back to Kashmir after 1959, were given Indian citizenship. Many of these families are still living in Srinagar, while a few have migrated to Nepal and the Gulf countries. Today, there are around 250 families of Tibetan Muslims in Srinagar, mostly in the Hawal and Idgah areas. A number of these families are engaged in fine embroidery work of Kashmiri carpets, while others have set up their own business. Nasir Qazi of the Tibetan Muslim Youth Federation — a body that works for the welfare of the community says. The community remains a close-knit one and, for many of them, Tibet remains an emotive issue. Recently we took out a peace march in Srinagar to show solidarity with the Dalai Lama’s views on grant of autonomy to Tibet.
And, in case a solution is found, would they like to go back to Tibet? “Maybe not for settling down, since most of us have been born and brought up in India,” says Qazi. “But once, I would definitely like to go there to see for myself the land where our forefathers lived.”
(Source: The Times of India, 4 May, 2008)

CHRONOLOGY
Monthly Chronology of Events of Concern
(1-31 May, 2008)
I- National Developments of Common Interest
Karnataka Assembly Elections: *With 60% turn out, the BJP emerges as biggest party with 110 seats though it refrains from communal canvassing. * With the support of 5 out of 6 independent members it stakes claim to form government and its leader Yeddyurappa and his team including one Muslim take oath of office. *Congress secures 80 seats and JDS, 20. * BSP also contests all seats secures 2.7% of votes, but no seat. Congress and JDS field 18 and 28 Muslim candidates of whom 7 and 1 win.
*Congress attributes its defeat to division of secular votes, price rise, Jaipur bomb blasts and sympathy wave for BJP.
National Politics: BJP *In preparation for coming elections Ram Temple, uniform civil code and Article 370 are back on RSS/BJP radar. *BJP and JDU decide to share seats in 5 States in General Election (25/5);
Congress * Apart from Karnataka, loses 3 LS seats in by-elections in HP, Maharashtra and Meghalaya. * Leadership takes stock of debacles (31/5).
BSP –*Celebrates one year in office in UP;*CM announces several new projects and blames Union for starving it of funds(12/5)
SP *Shows sign of increasing proximity with Congress and SP.
UPA *In celebration of 4th anniversary, UPA issues its 4th Report (22/5) .* Opinion poll shows UPA enjoying advantage over NDA despite consecutive losses.
Jaipur Blasts *68 reportedly killed and 50 injured in 7 explosions that rocked Jaipur(13 May).* State Police immediately accuses HUJI and SIMI. *Blasts do not generate communal tension or violence. *SIT set up for probe discovers no clues. However, an unknown organization Muslim Mujahideen claims credit for blast through an e-mail sent from Ghaziabad; *Delhi Police arrests a suspected terrorist. Rajasthan detains several Imams/ madrasa teachers;
Parliament *Speaker charges 32 Members with breach of privilege for disorderly conduct but withdraws notice later.
* Prominent Gandhian leader, Nirmala Deshpande MP passes away (1/5). Pakistan official delegation attends cremation.
Judiciary *Jurists demand voluntary declaration of assets by Supreme Court Judges (5/5); PUCL’s PIL is dismissed (15/5);
Nuclear Deal with USA *Ex-President Abdul Kalam supports deal (9/5). *Left reiterates opposition, defers discussion with UPA to June. * NAM including Iran opposes deal and wants complete prohibition of nuclear cooperation with non-NPT states like India.
Missile Test *Agni III ballistic missile with range of 3500 km successfully fired (8/5).
Agricultural Loan Waiver *Govt. increases loan waived to nearly 72,000 crores, cover marginal farmers with below 2.5 hectares.
Gujjar Agitation *Gujjars reject 282 crores uplift package and reiterate demand for ST status (18/5); renew stir(23/5) and clash with police (23/5) 25 killed all in firing (29/5). * Agitation crosses into Delhi and Haryana. Postmortem holds up negotiations (31/5)
Corruption *Central Vigilance Commission directs rotation of officials occupying sensitive posts every 2-3 years (14/5); * Supreme Court admits petition by Lalu Prasad against Bihar Government’s application to HC for stay(10/5);
* Government awaits from Germany data on blackmoney accounts maintained in a foreign bank by Indians (22/5).
Law & Order *PM proposes setting up federal crime agency; BJP supports, but wants stronger laws.
Ram Setu: *Supreme Court asks Union to conduct archaeological survey and examine alternative alignment (8/5);
1857 Memorial *Govt. decides to build 1857 Memorial in Delhi. *Criticized for ignoring Zafar, Hazrat Mahal & other heroes.
II-National Developments of Special Interest to Muslim
Women Reservation Bill - *Government introduces Women’s Reservation Bill in Rajya Sabha amid high drama (9 May); SP, JDU, RJD, DMK and several others express reservation. Bill referred to Parliamentary Committee. * BSP favours 50% quota.
*Muslim demand of 4% sub-quota though supported by several parties has been ignored.
Illegal Immigration - In wake of Jaipur blasts Rajasthan CM Raje quotes Central instruction to round up Bangladeshis and detain them in ‘transit camps’ (18/5); Centre denies (19/5); However, 42 Bangladeshis have been reportedly arrested and 2 transit camps set up, pending verification; district administration, instructed to check papers of all Bengali-speaking residents.
* MMNS leader Raj Thackeray continues campaign against all migrants to Maharashtra (3/5)
Kashmir *Pakistan invites Hurriyat leaders to discuss Kashmir issue (28/5). *Nine Pandit families return to Valley after 20 years (2/5). *Hurriyat leader Geelani claims Delhi earns Rs.25,000 crores every year from J & K. * Valley observes complete shut-down on visit by President Patil (24/5). * Pakistani rock group Junoon performs in Srinagar before audience of 4000 despite appeals by separatists.
Gujarat Genocide: *Nanavati Commission visits Godhra to look into train burning incident. *Locals protest against inclusion, as a member, of Justice Akshay Mehta who featured in Tehelka tape.
* SIT appointed by Supreme Court arrests 8 accused in Sardarpura Massacre in which 30 persons were killed;
*Government orders relief and rehabilitation package of 330 crores for victims. (22/5);
Offensive Writings: *Case filed seeking ban on Satyarth Prakash by Swami Dayanand. * Arya Samaj decides to fight both legally and politically (9/5). * Delhi High Court okays Delhi University textbook which includes an essay on many versions of Ramayana.
* Delhi H C quashes three cases against painter MF Hussain;
Election Commission * Parliamentary Committee proposes multi-purpose election photo identity cards (5/5).
* Delimitation Commission submits report to the Election Commission and proposes conducting 2011 Census Panchayat-wise and common electoral rolls for all elections.
Sachar Report *Delhi High Court questions rationale for exclusive survey of Muslim backwardness, forgetting terms of reference of Mishra Commission. *NCERT includes a chapter in Class VIII textbook of Social Science on Muslim backwardness (28/5).
OBC Reservation:*Delhi and Kolkata High Courts object to OBC quota at Postgraduate level (14/5). *SC stays objection.
Small States – *NCP leader Sharad Pawar supports creation of Telengana (27/5).
Education: *Government rejects idea of regulating foreign schools operating in India (9/5). * Announces plans to open 370 degree colleges in backward districts including some with minority concentration (11/5).* Law Ministry asks HRD to revise draft bill on Right to Education (4/5). *West Bengal decides to introduce English medium in Government schools from Class I in stages.
Public Recruitment: * Government claims 10.1% increase in recruitment of minorities in CPMFs; but releases no data on community-wise or cadre-wise overall increase.
Civil Services: *UPSC recommends 734 candidates for various services including 25 Muslims(10/5).*Supreme Court gives choice to OBC candidates to choose between General List and OBC List(19/5).
Dalit Rights*Government seeks views of National Commission for Minorities on inclusion of Dalit Christians and Muslims in SC Lists (27/5). *LJP opposes sub-categorisation of SCs as proposed by Usha Mehra Commission.
Human Rights *Human Rights Watch strongly criticizes Indian record (8/4). * UN Human Rights Council reviews Indian record (10/4). *Amnesty International as wel as US State Dept. criticize India in Annual Reports for 2007.
Panchayat Polls – Following flare-up in Nandigram, panchayat polls in West Bengal marked by 35 dead. * CPM loses across rural areas; holds review;
Babari Masjid Question:*Allahabad High Court rules in favour of CBI prosecuting Demolition cases (12/5);
III-Violence and Terrorism :
Muslim Campaign against Terrorism: *Many Muslim organizations including AIMC, both factions of JUH, Jama Masjid United Forum, Islamic Peace Foundation hold conferences & seminars to campaign against terrorism and false implication and vilification of Muslims. * So-called Indian Mujahideen threatens and abuses Muslim Ulema and leaders for anti-terrorist campaign;
* Darul Uloom, Deoband’s, Fatwa against Terrorism adopted by mass rally of JUH (Mahmood Madni Group) at Delhi (31/5)
SIMI *Police suspects hand of LTTE and SIMI in blasts in Hubli Court and in Jaipur (13/5); *3 suspected SIMI activists arrested in Morena, MP * MP Minister contradicts earlier claim of SIMI organizing training camp near Indore;
Assam Violence *MHA reports rise in civil violence level in Assam in last four years (23/5). * Militants kill 8 labourers (11/5 ).* Fresh violence reported from Goalpara where migrants are said to outnumber locals
Parliament Attack *Supreme Court dismisses SH Guru’s petition for re-opening case (14/5);
Chittisingpura Massacre *Mahbooba Mufti, President PDF, accuses Central Government of having staged massacre of 32 Sikhs in Chittisingpora with cooperation of NC, then in power (24/4).
1993 Bomb Blasts *Supreme Court stays death sentence of Abdul Gani Turk (12/5);
Mumbai Disturbances *Special court acquits 20 named in Sri Krishna Commission Report including former Shiv Sena Minister Kirtikar (20/5). *Also acquits another 35 for inadequate evidence (23/5). *Policeman claims memory lapse for not identifying ex-MP Sarpotdar.
Staines Murder Case : * Convict Hansda released after 8 years by local court (20/5);
Bhopal Gas Tragedy: *Government decides to set up an Empowered Commission for Rehabilitation of Victims
IV-* Education and Culture
AMU : *Aligarh community denies VC’s accusations on lack of community cooperation and incompetence of staff and demands a Commission of Inquiry.
Scholarships Scheme: *Cabinet approves scholarship scheme for one lakh poor and meritorious students to continue studies beyond middle level.
Minority Institutions: *Government rejects NCM’s recommendation for uniform guidelines to determine minority status.
*Delhi Minority schools appeal against Government order on nursery admissions in private unaided schools.
Madrasa Education: * Chairman NCMEI continues campaign for establishment of Central Madrasa Board.
Commemoration :*Fatiha ceremony held to mark 103rd birth anniversary of late President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed;
V-Religious Question :
Jamiatul Ulema-e-Hind *Both factions cite HC orders to claim legitimacy. *Organize parallel events on same dates on same issue.
Protected Mosques: *ASI refuses to allow Namaz in Nawab Mosque inside Vellore Fort (9/5);
Taslima Nasreen: *Plans to return to India by August.
Personal Law: *Father claims custody of 11 year old son in accordance with Muslim Law but Court grants it on basis of boy’s wish.
*AIWMPLB demands separate mosques for women (6/5);
Reservation for Muslims: *Supreme Court maintains stay by AP High Court against admission of Muslims under reserved quota till further orders.
Jamiatul Quresh * Holds mass rally in Delhi (3/5); *Reelects Siraj Qureshi as national President;
VI: * Muslim World:
Pakistan: *Talks between Sharif and Zardari in Dubai and London on reinstatement of judges as well on dealing with Musharraf fail. *Ministers belonging to PML (N) resign. Pakistan plunges into political uncertainty; PM Geelani does not accept resignations.
* Sharif calls for public agitation supported by bar and important elements in PPP.*Zardari indicates that Musharraf has no choice but to quit and ‘walk away’ without creating fuss. * Musharraf does not oblige due to US support (31/5) but snaps talks with PPP.* Sharif presses for Musharraf’s impeachment and trial for treason and reinstatement of judges by National Assembly. * Pakistan Bar Association plans agitation yatra on from 10-12 June and gherao Musharraf.
*Architect of Pakistan’s nuclear programme AQ Khan accuses Musharraf of coercion (29/5);
* Pakistan swaps its Ambassador in Afghanistan for some militants.* Also signs peace agreement with Tehrik-e-Taliban in Pakistan, controlling Swat Valley. *Its leader Mehsud denies hand in Benazir’s killing. *Commonwealth re-admits Pakistan
Bangladesh: * Dhaka High Court recognizes 2 lakh Biharis as Bangladeshi citizens and instructs Election Commission to enroll them as voters. *Government announces elections in December. * Supreme Court allows trial of Ex-PM Sheikh Hasina, police files chargesheet. *Amir Jamaat-e-Islami, Nizami, former Industry Minister in Khalida Government, arrested. * Government sets up Truth and Accountability Commission to check tax envasion and black money.
Palestine:*Observes 60 years of Israeli occupation. * President Carter estimates Israel’s nuclear stockpile at 150. *American Presidential candidate Obama pledges support to ‘Israel’s right to exist and be safe’ and ‘no talks with Hamas or Hizbullah’.
Iraq: * Sunni group rejects overtures by PM Maliki to rejoin Government because of differences over portfolio distribution. * President Bush apologizes to Maliki for target shooting of Holy Quran by US soldiers after massive demonstrations in several countries.
Afghanistan: *Suicide bomber wearing burqa kills 60; Senate President Sibghatullah Mujaddedi visits India (31/5)
Syria: *Confirms peace talks with Israel for withdrawal from Golan Heights;
Malaysia: *Ex-PM Mahathir Muhammad quits ruling party (19/5);
Somalia: * Islamist leader Ayro reported killed in US air strike (1/5)
Yemen * Bomb blast in Saana mosque kills 15, injures 60 (2/5)
OIC: *Proposes common Peace Force of Muslim states.
Nepal: Constituent Assembly abolishes monarchy (28 May); sets up Republic of Nepal; *Government stops recitation of Vande Mataram in Indian school
India-Pakistan Relation: *Terrorist attack in Jammu, kills 5, including a journalist. * Pakistan violates ceasefire across CFL. However, composite talks resumed.*Pakistan releases 99 Indian prisoners and proposes common anti-terror strategy.* Foreign Minister Mukherjee visits Pakistan, meets Pak PM, calls on Musharraf, agrees to discuss Kashmir and generally plays down differences.