Ghulam Hussain, the hero of Mysore

Last week we saw the passing away of a man whom most people of any substance will perhaps never miss. But the less fortunate ones amongst us, whose number is legion and who are considered a burden on society, both while they are alive and strangely even after they are dead, will perhaps begin to notice his absence from their midst very soon. 

Ghulam Hussain, the nondescript and soft spoken man whom I knew over the past thirty years, bid a silent adieu to this world and to his most humble and thankless existence without me even knowing that he was dead. I discovered that he was not only dead but buried too only when I picked up Star of Mysore on the evening of that fateful day of his departure.

He was perhaps the only person in our midst who served the living and the dead alike, unmindful of who they were or to which caste and community they belonged, as long as they just happened to be the unfortunate ones who belonged to nobody. I first 'discovered' him prowling the dingy and humid wards of K. R. Hospital, way back in the year 1982 when I started my post graduation in medicine. To be very frank and honest even at the risk of inviting the wrath of those who already knew him better, I first saw him only as a pesky nuisance and interference in my work.

He used to walk about in the wards, very often during the non-visiting hours, softly conversing with patients and making enquiries about their ailments with doctors and post-graduate students. Now, which post-graduate student, especially of a subject as lofty and as hallowed as medicine, who feels he is the absolute lord and master of the ten rickety and ramshackle beds allotted to him, will tolerate the presence, let alone the interference from a miserable looking man in faded clothes and much mended leather chappals during his work?

But very quickly and thankfully the realisation dawned on me and my colleagues too that while we considered our work very noble and noteworthy this man was only making it a little easier for us with his presence by our side. He would be in our ward, often a little before us and enquire about the poorest of the poor patients who needed some medicines or lab tests that were not available in the hospital. Incidentally, there was no dearth of the facilities that were then not available in the hospital and so we would sheepishly tell him what would do much good not only to our patients but to our reputations too.

He would write down the requirements on a small scrap of folded paper and walk over to the next block of the hospital only to reappear the next day with a day's medicine for each one of his beneficiaries that would keep their hearts and hopes ticking. How he managed to garner funds for this kind of work was beyond our understanding but he was always a beacon of hope for anyone unfortunate enough to fall sick with no one to turn to.

He would always tell me that he was only a social worker of the Jamat-E-Islami-E-Hind which had entrusted him with what he was doing under the president ship of Mr. Altaf Ahmed, another silent toiler for the cause of communal harmony and service to the downtrodden, sans communal barriers. Ghulam Hussain would not only look after the material and medical needs of poor patients but would also visit them after their operations and console them through their periods of anxiety and apprehension if they were seriously ill.

His reputation as an honest and sincere worker had grown so much that many rich and well to do people would immediately agree to extend financial help to needy patients if it was routed through him. In the unfortunate event of the deaths of any destitute in the city he would be the first one to arrive at the scene and arrange for the last rites fully in accordance with the person's religious affiliations.

That he never saw human life on the basis of baser considerations becomes evident from the fact that once during communal clashes that briefly tore asunder the harmony of our city, he stood between an armed group of Muslims and two young Hindu boys who had been cornered. He told the threatening goons in no uncertain terms that they would have to first kill him before laying their hands on the two helpless boys.
Knowing who he was, they quietly dispersed into the lanes and alleys without a word of argument with him. 

His association with the K. R. and Cheluvamba hospitals continued till his own end. On the sixth of this month when he perhaps for the first time realised that his own end was near, he took his assistant Faiyaz Ahmed to the RMO and introduced him as the man who would henceforth continue his work. Just four day after this, Ghulam Hussain was no more, having died as quietly as he had lived and worked.

The measure of this very poor and modest man's greatness can be gauged from the fact that at his funeral there was no space for all the mourners to stand in the mosque. The prayer had to be conducted in a big playground alongside. All this, while he himself was perhaps standing in surprise with his head bowed before his maker to get his rightful due. (With inputs from Prof. Riaz Ahmed and Dr. Irfan Ahmed Riazi)
e-mail: kjnmysore@rediffmail.com

Dr K Javeed Nayeem in Star of Mysore. Here 

Life and times of Moulana Abdur Razaq Latheefi

It is the unique documentary of its kind. Jamaat-e-Islami Hind has been striving in India for the establishment of Divine law in all aspects of life. It has attracted millions of noble souls and changed and shaped their lives. It continues to attract and mould countless human beings throughout the nook and corner of this country.

It has produced many stalwarts and stars. Moulana Abdur Razaq Latheefi is one of them. When we, a handful of youth and students made the goal of establishing Deen as our mission he was not in the scene. But, we grew up hearing moving, soul stirring anectodes about him. As we had Moulana M A Jameel Ahmed and Moulana H Abdur Raqeeb who never get tired of narrating anectodes from the life of Moulana Abdur Razaq Latheefi Sahib. Hence Latheefi Sahib is not alien to us.

But, still, we could not get the full picture. We had never seen his photograph. We never knew how he looked like.

Here is a documentary on the life and times of Moulana Abdur Razaq Latheefi Sahib. It is informative, inspiring and good. Scores of leaders and veterans of the Islamic movement introduce you various aspects of this towering personality. S. M. Malik Sahib's version would continue to echo in your mind : "Moulana used to undertake tours after tours. He used to remember the names and addresses of three hundred members. He never needed a file or assistant." It is simply amazing. Nowadays in this age we have become addicted to our cell phones, computers. Sometimes we tend to forget our own numbers.

Moulana Abdul Azeez Sahib and Moulana Sirajul Hasan Sahib extol the leadership quality of the late Moulana. Shakeel Anwar Sahib sheds light on his milli qidmat. Scores of his sons including Br Abdur Raqeeb Latheefi, my friend, remember him passionately.

It is worth watching. Here and Here

Mohamed Badie, the man who matters most in Egypt

Who is the man at the helm of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, now poised to lead Egypt in the post-Mubarak era?

Liberals view him as an uncompromising religious conservative and even within the Muslim Brotherhood some doubt his ability to lead. Will Mohamed Badie succeed in uniting the Muslim Brotherhood and forming a parliamentary majority?

The press conference was set to start at noon, but at one the long table at the front of the tightly packed room remained empty. The cameramen were still jostling to set up their equipment, jamming their heavy tripods into what remained of the spaces along the walls.

It almost didn’t matter, everyone knew the story they were there for. It was all about the man who would finally take his seat at the table at 2 PM: The Muslim Brotherhood’s General Masul, the General Guide, Mohamed Badie. It was September 2010 and parliamentary elections, were on everyone’s minds, as they are today. Especially when it came to predicting the power of the Muslim Brotherhood in those elections.

Mohamed Badie Abdul Mageed Samy, a highly educated man with roots in labour rights and a strong commitment to outreach, is poised to become one of the most influential powers in the ‘new Egypt.’ Yet, his rise from relative obscurity to the forefront of national politics has left many Egyptians perplexed. Liberals view him as an uncompromising religious conservative and even within the Muslim Brotherhood some doubt his ability to lead. Will Mohamed Badie succeed in uniting the Muslim Brotherhood and forming a parliamentary majority?

 Maryam Ishani in Majalla. Here and Here

A Prime Minister who paid when sons used official car

At a time when Indian politicians make news for corruption and misuse of power comes a book on Lal Bahadur Shastri, the country's second prime minister who was so upright that he deposited money in government coffers because his sons had used his official car.

The incident has been captured in the book 'Lal Bahadur Shastri: Past Forward' (Konark) by his son Sunil Shastri, a Congress politician and a former minister in Uttar Pradesh.

Sunil Shastri says he used to imagine having a big luxury car commensurate with the status of his 'babuji'(father) and Lal Bahadur Shastri did get a Chevrolet Impala for official use.

"One day I told babuji's personal secretary to ask the driver to bring the Chevrolet to the residence. We asked the driver for the keys and went for a drive," he says in the book.

Lal Bahadur Shastri later confronted the driver, saying, "Do you keep a logbook with you?" "When he nodded, babuji asked him to note the distance the car had run the previous day. When the driver said 14 km, he advised him to note it 'for private use' and then asked amma to give his personal secretary the amount applicable to be deposited in the government account."

Lal Bahadur Shastri ruled from June 1964 to January 1966, dying in Tashkent where he had gone to sign a treaty with Pakistan after the 1965 war.

The book is replete with instances of how the late Shastri lived - and the values he embraced and preached.

The son recalls how Lal Bahadur Shastri had shed tears upon meeting an Indian soldier badly wounded in the 1965 war with Pakistan.

"I don't have tears in my eyes because my death is near ... but despite being a major I am not able to stand up and salute my prime minister," the younger Shastri quotes the soldier, who was on a hospital bed, as saying.

And then it was the prime minister who could not control his own emotions. That was the only time he saw his father cry, says his son.

There are many interesting anecdotes on Shastri in the book.

Lal Bahadur Shastri was told by his mother of his marriage in May 1928 only after he reached Varanasi. "He was surprised and told his mother that she should have at least asked him once before finalising it. Anyhow since his mother had decided, he said he would abide by her wishes."

When Lal Bahadur Shastri's wife decided to learn Hindi, she paid the tuition fees by dispensing with the domestic maid and doing the household chores herself.

Lal Bahadur Shastri often handed over to his wife his khadi kurtas when they became unusable and asked her to make handkerchiefs out of them. "He lived on the simple philosophy of 'waste not, want not'."

In true Gandhian style, Lal Bahadur Shastri travelled like a commoner in trains even when he was railway minister. "He lived according to his principles."

During the independence struggle, Lal Bahadur Shastri protested when his wife smuggled two mangoes to him when he was in the Faizabad prison. He was angry because it was illegal for prisoners to have anything other than jail food.

Despite his preoccupations as prime minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri was a family man who devoted time to his mother and others when he returned home. It helped him get over the day's fatigue and worries.

A report in Deccan Chronicle. More Here.

After Rachel Corrie, Furkan Dogan is the second US citizen murdered by Israel

Furkan Dogan was struck by five bullets shortly before dawn on Monday while aboard the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara ship. His US citizenship was highlighted at the funeral of eight of the nine Turks who died during the incident.

"Furkan was my friend," said Ali Yunusoalu, who had accompanied his friend during pre-dawn prayers on the top deck of the Mavi Marmar on Monday.

Dogan's father told how his son had been shot in the forehead, but he also mentioned how the family took comfort in believing that Furkan had died in an honourable manner. "I feel my son has been blessed with heaven," he said. "I am hoping to be a father — worthy of my son."

American activist Rachel Corrie was killed by an Israeli military bulldozer, as she tried to stop it from destroying a Palestinian home in Gaza.

From a report in Gulf News. More here.

And the hero of the year is Afroz Alam Sahil

Every generation needs heroes. We, however, seem to have preferred money. There is just too much of it to be made in the 21st century, never mind ‘the-worst-economic-crisis-since-the-Great-Depression’ phase that came and went.
To disengage and chase six-figure salaries instead is the defining logic of our times. So when a young person does something completely illogical, like chase the truth, it grabs our attention.
Only 22, and already with over 3,ooo Right to Information (RTI) applications to his name, Afroz Alam Sahil is dynamite when it comes to blowing the lid off things. An aspiring documentary film maker, Sahil is a final year student at Jamia Milia Islamia’s Mass Communication Research Centre (MCRC). He moved to New Delhi in 2005 (incidentally, the year the RTI Act was passed) from Bettiah, a city in West Champaran district of Bihar, to do his bachelors in mass media.
His latest volley comes from an ongoing 18-month-long-already struggle to retrieve facts on the controversial Batla House encounter.

A copy of the post-mortem report of Atif Ameen and Mohammad Sajid, both killed in an operation conducted by the Delhi Police on 19 September 2008, was finally given to him by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), in response to his RTI application. It is the most damning evidence yet against Delhi Police’s claim that the encounter wasn’t fake.

In less than a week of the Batla House encounter, Afroz had filed four RTIs addressed to the Delhi Police, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), the NHRC, and the Supreme Court. Some of the details he sought were: number of people killed in the encounter, a copy of the FIR lodged (if at all) by the Delhi Police, copy of the post-mortem report of the two boys killed in the encounter, details on the Delhi blasts investigation, statistics on encounter killings and on terror-related cases pending in courts.

Sahil would go on to face a one-and-a-half-year long dogged resistance by the criminal justice system to deny him information. His experience with each agency could serve as a case study on how the RTI law can be subverted.

Even the Supreme Court (SC) was no exception. “The SC’s response to my RTI on terrorism-related cases was a referral to their website. It is not possible for anyone to get information on the website unless the case number is available.” Afroz, of course, persisted. When he met an SC administrative official to follow up on the RTI, his first question to Afroz was, “Tum student ho ya berozgaar (Are you a student or unemployed)?”
“When I replied that I was a student at Jamia, he said, ‘Achcha Jamia. Tabhi toh aap aise sawaal karte ho. Tum logon ki mentality aisi hi hoti hai’ (Oh Jamia. That’s why you are asking such questions. This is all that you people can think of).”
The humiliation continued.

.... .... ....

To expose the truth with the solid aid of facts is to pose an existential threat to the powers that be. Sahil is fighting an incredibly brave and dangerous game. He is not unaware of the extents to which power will stoop to silence people like him. So far, he says, he hasn’t experienced such threats. “I have faith in the law. I am not doing anything wrong,” he says.

From Pallavi Polanki's article in Open

To read the full article click here and here(Afroz's Blog)

I will continue my fight to bring about positive changes in the life of the common man.

"Ever since I have got the reply, I am getting congratulatory calls from various students of the college. The teachers have also appreciated the move and encouraging more and more students to come forward and fight for their rights rather than crying discrimination."

"I just wanted to set an example for all the students of our college and people from our community. I want that Muslims should participate and take leading role in every field. I hope my initiative will bring some hope for them," said Alam.

An RTI activist, with more than 1000 RTIs to his credit that occupies most of the space in his choc-a-bloc room, Alam has also taught the nuances and importance of RTI to the people in his native town of Bettiah in Bihar.

Buoyed by his success in the highly controversial Batla House encounter case, Alam has resolved to take his battle to a bigger field. "I will continue my fight to bring about positive changes in the life of the common man."

From Amit Singh and Shashank Shekhar's report in Mid Day

To read the full report click here