Godhra : The Verdict analysed

A judgement has branded the Muslims of Godhra "Hindu killers" by tradition. The 27 February 2002 train fire, it declares, was a conspiracy to kill "karsevaks". Ignoring the plain record that the source of the fire was inside the train even before it suddenly stopped after leaving Godhra Station, the judgement holds that the train was stalled by the Muslims to break into a coach brimming with belligerent karsevaks, pour petrol, and start a fire, and to do so all unnoticed. The half-truths of forensics and the machinations of the police have succeeded in the trial, and 31 men, unfairly made to bear the burden of proof and denied vital witnesses, have been sentenced either to death or life imprisonment.

Nitya Ramakrishnan in EPW. Read the pdf version of the whole article Here

Siddhartha Mukherjee wins Pulitzer prize

Indian-American Siddhartha Mukherjee’s non-fiction account of cancer won the Pulitzer prize in the general non-fiction category when the awards were announced in New York City late Monday. A cancer physician and researcher, Dr. Mukherjee’s book drew upon his experience practicing medicine to write “The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer,” which documents the disease from its first appearance thousands of years ago to the medical battles still waged by doctors to combat and control it today.

The Pulitzer Prize citation described the book as “an elegant inquiry, at once clinical and personal, into the long history of an insidious disease that, despite treatment breakthroughs, still bedevils medical science.” The prize comes with $10,000 in award money.
Published in the U.S. by Scribner and in India by HarperCollins Publishers India, the book was inspired by a personal event. One day a patient with stomach cancer asked Dr. Mukherjee a simple question about her prognosis: “Where are we going?” That led the author to think the larger scope of the question in terms of cancer research.

The author, a Rhodes scholar, said in an interview that when he started writing the book in 2005 he thought of cancer as a disease, but as he wrote, he began to start seeing it as something that “envelops our lives so fully that it was like writing about someone, it was like writing about an alter personality, an illness that had a psyche, a behavior, a pattern of existing.”
Before winning the Pulitzer, Dr. Mukherjee has already received critical appreciation for his book, which came out in November 2010.

The British newspaper The Guardian, in its review of the book  said, “It takes some nerve to echo the first line of ‘Anna Karenina’ and infer that the story of a disease is capable of bearing a Tolstoyan treatment. But that is, breathtakingly, what Mukherjee pulls off.”

Perhaps what may differentiate the book from other vast literature on cancer is the way Dr. Mukherjee deals with the subject and its narrative. Laura Landro wrote in The Wall Street Journal, “He has a certain awe for cancer’s victims, for their ability to withstand the ravages of the disease and the sometimes drastic measures taken to treat it. The stories of his patients consume him, and the decisions he makes about their care haunt him.”

“The Emperor of All Maladies” found coveted spots in the New York Times list of “The 10 Best Books of 2010” and in “The Top 10 Non Fiction Books” list by Time Magazine.

A report in Wall Street Journal. More Here

Welfare Party of India launched in New Delhi

A Christian priest reciting the Gayatri Mantra at the launch of a new political party at the helm of which are top functionaries of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind. A perfect secular backdrop for the leadership of the Welfare Party of India (WPI), which was launched on Monday, to assert that it was neither a Muslim party nor the political arm of the Jamaat.

Anxious not be seen as a Muslim-exclusive party, the brainchild of the Jamaat which took shape on Monday, over two years after the idea first germinated, has non-Muslims, including a Catholic priest, in its ranks.

The first challenge for the WPI would be the forthcoming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. Farooque. addressing a press conference after the launch, said the party would join hands with like-minded political organisations.

Ilyas rejected the notion that WPI was a Jamaat venture and insisted it was a secular party upholding the principles of justice, freedom and equality and seeking empowerment of the weak, oppressed and marginalised sections.

C G Manoj in Indian Express. More Here and Here

A national level political party, Welfare Party of India (WPI) was formally launched today at a political convention here in the national capital. The convention was attended by several civil society representatives and hundreds of delegates from across the country.

“It’s not for fun and power that we entered politics. It’s only when everybody whom we trusted and became dependent upon, betrayed us and considered it’s their due right to oppress us. We felt that now we can’t continue with this kind of political system,” said Mujtaba Farooque, president of the party.

The criminalization, communalization, commercialization and the sectarianization of politics are the biggest evils of our prevailing political culture and the WPI is committed to start a new era of value-based politics, added Farooque. “We might be late in terms of our arrival on the political stage but we promise you that with our genuine and sincere efforts we will try to create an alternative political culture,” added Farooque who is also the general secretary of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind.

The WPI is the result of coming together of several concerned civil society representatives belonging to different backgrounds, communities, classes and social and political groups. Prominent of them include Father Abraham Joseph, Lalitha Nair, a former Karnataka minister and the prominent social activist from the state, Zafarul Islam Khan, Editor, The Milli Gazette fortnightly, Ilyas Azmi, former MP and senior leader of BSP, Prof. Rama Panchal, an eminent social activist from Madhya Pradesh, Prof. Sohail Ahmad Khan, former chairman, Bihar Minority Commission, Prof. Rama Surya Rao, an academician besides several others.

The convention was also attended by dalit leaders including Tej Singh, president, Ambedkar Samaj Party who offered his full support and cooperation to the WPI in future.

With Mujtaba Farooque as its president, the Welfare Party of India has also got five vice-presidents -- Ilyas Azmi, Father Abraham Joseph, Maulana Abdul Wahab Khilji, Dr. Zafarul Islam Khan and Mrs. Lalitha Nair.

The five general secretaries of the WPI are Dr. SQR Ilyas, Prof. Sohail Ahmad Khan, Prof. Rama Panchal, Mrs. Khalida Parveen and Mr. PC Hamza. Mr. Abdus Salam M has been selected as its treasurer. The party has started with just 203 members but will soon start a membership drive across the country.

The occasion saw lots of speeches about ideal state of politics. SQR Ilyas, general secretary of WPI, for instance said that, “We wanted to show that even an ordinary person on the street can empower him/herself by becoming part of alternative democratic politics and that’s why launched WPI.”

Mujtaba Farooque, president of WPI said that “at present there are only two categories of people living in India, one is getting poorer day by day. It’s a class which can’t spend even 20 rupees per day and the other is getting only richer and richer. We want to change this oppressive process of marginalization by bringing about change through political participation.”

The Welfare Party aims at realizing a value based welfare state governed by the principles of justice, freedom, equality and fraternity. It will strive for the establishment of the welfare state by recognizing and realizing the right to livelihood.
 

The other thing high on the agenda of WPI is facilitating “equitable, just and inclusive growth” besides bringing about empowerment of the weak and oppressed through “affirmative action realizing the principle of social justice.”

WPI leaders specifically emphasized the protection of cultural diversity by providing full opportunities to different cultures to thrive and realize the “notion of linguistic, geographical and cultural federalism.

With a middle class and media led campaign against corruption, the disease also found mention in the party press note. WPI claimed to stand against any kind of corruption and will advocate for “mechanisms of accountability and transparency at all levels of public life.”

Sending a positive message to the fairer sex, the party’s aims and objectives specifically talk about women rights in unique words. It mentions facilitating “equal growth and development opportunities for women” so that “their femininity is respected and protected in its true spirit.”

A report in Two circles. More Here. and Here  and Here

Welfare Party of India to contest in Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections

Mujtaba Farooq, newly elected president of Welfare Party of India addresses the gathering

The new party is likely to test political waters in the Uttar Pradesh assembly election next year. "We are ready to align with like-minded groups and initiate discussion with them," said Farooque. Jamaat has welcomed Dalits and other backward castes to join the party.

Flag of Welfare Party of India

The Welfare Party of India aims at reforming Indian politics and realizing a welfare state based on moral values and governed by the principles of justice, freedom, equality and fraternity.

"To achieve this objective, the party will launch massive public campaigns and will awaken the socio-political public consciousness," a Jamaat official said. "It will try to inculcate among the common people the self esteem, the self confidence and the ambition and courage to fight oppression and exploitation. It will try to promote able and virtuous leadership among masses and advance alternative politics in the country," he added.

 A news report in Arab News. More Here. and Here

Massive audience at the launching programme of the Welfare Party of India

A report in Milli Gazette
Welfare Party of India to launch a new struggle for freedom

The Welfare party will be backed by reputed social and civil society movements and will  strive for thriving an alternative politics and shall attempt to emerge on the horizon of Indian politics as the voice of voiceless, the hope for justice and as a harbinger of a new India.

The hundred founders of the party belong to varied backgrounds, communities, classes and social groups and they will soon launch mass-contact campaigns to enroll people of outstanding moral repute and flawless character. Only those individuals will be allowed an entry into the party who can prove by word and deed, their commitment to the values and vision of the party.

This will not be just another party engaged in power politics. This will be rather a movement for reforming the Indian Politics and will try to realise a welfare state based on moral values and governed by the principles of Justice, Freedom, Equality and Fraternity.

It is not for short term political gains; it has rather embarked on a long term mission to evolve an alternative political culture in the country.

To achieve this objective, the Party will launch massive public campaigns and will awaken the socio-political public consciousness. It will try to inculcate in common man the self esteem, the self confidence and the ambition and courage to fight the oppression and exploitation. It will try to promote able and virtuous leadership among masses and shall try to advance alternative politics in the country through this social struggle.

The criminalisation of Politics, the Communalisation of Politics, the Commercialisation of Politics and the Sectarianisation of Politics are the biggest evils of our prevailing political culture. These evils have created such a rot in Indian body-politic that the people are disgusted with the whole class of politicians. This is a very dangerous situation and if unchecked, poses a serious threat to democracy.

It is the high time a new struggle for freedom is launched and a mighty social and public resistance is raised against these evils.  This only will cleanse the Indian polity and revive the faith and trust of people in the democratic institutions.

Vision and Values of the Party

Welfare Party of India shall try to promote an alternative politics in the country that is firmly rooted in high standards of morality and ethical values and that is free from crimes, corruption, selfishness and all kinds of narrow-minded prejudices

Welfare Party of India will aim at the establishment of a welfare state. Party believes that sufficient nutritious food, decent clothing, proper shelter, essential  health  care and elementary education are among the fundamental human rights and it is the duty of a welfare state to fulfill these basic needs of each of its citizens.

Welfare Party of India envisages speedy growth in industry, trade, commerce and the national economy. But it shall try to reform the economy in a way as to ensure that the processes of development and wealth creation are properly regulated by the obligations of justice and equality.

Welfare Party of India shall promote the true spirit of democracy. Party believes in democracy not in the sense of mere majorityism but in the sense of inclusiveness and pluralism. A true democratic society is one that addresses the needs and demands of every section of the society and that ensures that every section contentedly fulfills its aspirations.

Welfare Party of India envisages a society where all cultures have full opportunities to thrive and develop. The concept of federalism that party believes covers the cultural federalism along with geographic and linguistic federalism.

The convention was addressed by the party leaders including its president Mujtaba Farooque, Ilyas Azmi, Dr. Zafarul -Islam Khan, Mrs. Lalitha Naik, Maulana Abdul Wahab Khilji, Dr. Rama Panchal, Fr. Abraham Joseph , Dr. S.Q.R. Ilyas and others.

A news report in Milli Gazette. More Here. and Here

The significance of popular uprisings in the Middle East

The popular uprisings in the Middle East have brought the question of political Islam to the center stage of America’s policy debate. How do Islamist thinkers view the political transitions underway in Egypt and Tunisia, and what are they saying about the turmoil in places such as Libya and Yemen? What role will Islamist political groups play in countries opening up to democratic reforms, and what are the implications for U.S. policy in the Middle East.

A discussion of these questions and issues with one of the foremost scholars of Islam and the modern world, Tariq Ramadan with Hussein Ibish, Brian Katulis and Susan Brooks organised by Center for American Progress.


More  Here