Mamata Bannerjee steals the thunder from UPA-II

First time ever, Mamata Banerjee could transfer her characteristic unpredictable gambit to a larger uncertainty of political economy. Using what matters in Bengal politics, which is a pro-people, pro-minority and anti-Centre stance, she succeeded in showing the UPA-2 its footloose practices to the point of breaking it. In the eye of the storm is the opening of the retail trading for FDI and withdrawal of subsidy for gas and hiking of diesel prices, all a recipe for marginalization of the poor and the minorities in a corporate dominated economy of India.

Politics of reforms, here again, exhibits its hazy means-ends relationship. No government, howsoever powerful it may be, can assume an overriding decision-making power in matters of bringing foreign funds, as it erodes domestic legitimacy. Bereft of popular acceptance, reform measures that create an inevitable insecurity and crisis in livelihood of ordinary citizen eat into the credibility of the Government. Even if it is a government in majority, or it is in minority, either way, reforms sacrifice both the government and the people. In this sense, reforms make the most achieving government hostage to its antics and throw the stakes of its citizenry into the winds. Mamata decided not to be a part of such a process of gambling with the people and pulled the plug.

In her twenty odd minutes of press conference to declare the withdrawal of support from the Central Government, she established an uncanny but real linkage between Centre’s economic follies with communal riots in Assam. She sounded like a practical politician in linking up the tragedy of commons at the hands of UPA government with its Assam counterpart which could not prevent a preventable riot. That Mamata’s well known acceptance of victims and provisions for sheltering them in relief camps is not just a mere public show off came out in her serious concern about Assam riots, which she didn’t dither to call ‘communal’. Indeed Mamata could see the invisible link between economic reforms and communal politics as it is played out at a stone’s throw by the Congress. Her announcement that her ministers will resign after Jumma Namaz on Friday makes her a darling of the masses in Bengal. Indeed there are many dimensions to her apparently inexplicable act of connecting Assam riots to FDI in retail and the overall policy drift of the UPA.

It is increasingly clear that in the course of riots, Bengali speaking Muslims of the East Bengal origin has been the only target, large number of whom have to cross over to neighbouring state of West Bengal for shelter.

Except making whatever public announcements, Congress as the ruling party, both at the centre and the State didn’t have any qualms to take them back home. Just as the Congress party unilaterally passed a cabinet decision to allow entry of FDI in retail in great peril to the existence of small traders in the very sector, in the same way, they have left scores of displaced victim at the mercy of Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) administration. The criterion of land record to decide whether someone is an Indian or not in Bodoland not only violates the principle of no harm to the already harmed, but it contributes to turning genuine Indian citizens into stateless persons. The ruling party is dancing to the tune of BTC and failing to uphold constitutional principles.

In such an hour of crisis, Mamata not only withdrew support from UPA, but by raking up the issue of communal riots in Assam, she brought the truth out of claustrophobic interpretations given to Bodoland riots. Although she didn’t elaborate, but anyone can relate mention of protesting against Assam communal riots to the actually existing reality. As a glaring example of how UPA’s policies are skewed towards the marginalized and minority-ized sections of society, Assam riot stands out as one example of neglect and injustice by the Central Government.

As a statesman of a very different kind who can listen to the ground, her decision to send minister’s resignation to the Prime Minister after Friday prayer carries a lot of meaning both nationally and internationally. Nationally it marks a strong anti-Hindutva stance. It also communicates a message of peace, brotherhood and love for the Muslims that a country polarized tends to forget. It also is a re-affirmation of solemnity of Islam in the face of deliberate attempts to the film-ic mischief. Mamata establishes the right chord of concern for the helpless victims of communal clashes in Assam by connecting her FDI protest with deeply emotional pronouncements about Friday resignations. She couched the idiom of protest in terms of practical Islam that overcomes the otherwise meaninglessness of political acts such as entry and exit.

Mamata’s exit has thrown up challenges to other secular and anti-communal forces and parties to evolve a common strategy. Far from being clear about the impact of these reforms, parties like Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party are calculating each other’s response and playing a zero sum game. In such a situation there could again be a kind of reconsolidation of parties within UPA just for the sake of avoiding an early election. Such a mutual bickering is going to affect the polity in a negative way as continuation of UPA is going to bring a policy regime that does not care for the minorities and the marginalized.

Prasenjit Biswas in Two Circles. Here

After the storm by Subhradeep Chakravorty

'After the Storm' a documentary by Delhi-based filmmaker Subhradeep Chakravorty highlighting the plight of seven Muslim youngsters falsely implicated by police, was screened at the Deccan College of Engineering auditorium in Darussalam on Friday after the Hyderabad police refused to accord permission to screen it at a public venue.

Exposing the highhandedness of the police, the narrative resonates with tales of torture and inhuman treatment meted out to the victims in police custody even as family members speak of the emotional and financial burden on them. Every experience recounted left the audience with a sinking feeling about the police machinery.

As for Billah, an engineering student, he was taken into custody in 2008 for 'conspiring to spread terror' in the city.

"I was taken in by the police at gun-point when I was on the way to attend a friend's wedding. From the time I was arrested, the police tried to make me confess in the Mecca Masjid bomb blast case. They were not ready to believe me when I told them I had never gone to Mecca Masjid to offer prayers. It was not interrogation but orders to confess," Kaleem narrates in the film. Kaleem's parents were in the dark of his whereabouts until he was produced in court. "When I read the case diary, I came to know that I was accused of supplying SIM cards to the terrorists who carried out the blasts. They also accused my brother, who lives abroad, of handing me 10 kg RDX, which according to them was distributed by meto carry out the blast," he said. However the cases did not stand and Kaleem was acquitted in September 2008 after spending 18 months in prison.

The documentary concludes with each of the seven men voicing their thoughts about the secular fabric and police machinery and ruing how Muslims are picked up and subjected to torture under draconian laws.

A report in Times of India. Here

Team Anna member and Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan castigated Narendra Modi for communalizing the state of Gujarat through his propaganda campaigns. Mr. Bhushan was speaking after a documentary film “After the Storm” directed by noted human rights activist Shubradeep Chakravorty, to mark 10 years from the start of the Gujarat pogrom in 2002.

The documentary depicts the tragic victimization of seven Muslim men who were falsely implicated in terror incidents and continued to face discrimination and hardship long after they were acquitted. “Such documentaries put a human face to such stories and help create empathy in the public for such people,” said Mr. Bhushan.

Two circles Here.

The documentary opens with the story of a 49-year-old Mukhtar Ahmed who was taken into custody by the Central Bureau Of Investigation on 3 September 1993 under POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act). He was accused of being involved in the Chennai RSS regional headquarters blast case. By the time Ahmed was finally acquitted, he had spent a harrowing 14 years in jail and once out on bail is trying to extricate himself from the false charges. Eighteen-year-old Moutasim Billah was wallowing away time in front of his house in old Hyderabad on 5 March, 2008, when he was caught by the police. Though he was released six months later, the jail experience left a significant bearing on his temperament and the life of his family.

The stories that these men tell sound eerily similar — from the manner in which they were picked up and the delay to produce them in courts, to the way they were treated in jail. Most of the time, the date of arrest was falsely given and the delay in producing the accused in courts was to assess whether a successful case could be fabricated.

This similarity is not coincidental, human rights lawyer Prashant Bhushan points out, highlighting the increasing communalisation of the police force as the root cause of the problem. "This is a consistent pattern across the country. In the garb of terror investigations, the police have been systematically framing Muslim youth in terror cases. They fabricate evidence so as to implicate them. Whenever they failed to catch the real culprit, they'd pick up an innocent Muslim," says Bhushan.

He further blamed the media for operating hand in glove with the police. "Media organisations are embedded with the police and play a crucial role in further defaming the accused. Often journalists know that the evidence is fabricated but go ahead nonetheless. Media people have sold their conscience and ethics. A feasible solution to this problem is to make the police force accountable," he says.

A report in Sunday Guardian.Here 

Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan alleged that police across the country systematically frame Muslims in terror investigations when they can't find the culprits

Team Anna member and Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan yesterday claimed that police across the country were "communalised". "Police throughout the country are clearly communalised. Narendra Modi has communalised the entire state through his propaganda campaigns," said Bhushan, speaking after a documentary film show here to mark 10 years of communal riots in Gujarat.

A report in Mid Day. Here

A trailor of the film could be viewed here

Salman Rushdie, Freedom from insult and Islam

“I wrote this biography of Muhammad just over ten years ago at the time of the Salman Rushdie crisis. For some time, I had been disturbed by the prejudice against Islam that I so frequently encountered, even in the most liberal and tolerant circle. After the horrific events of the 20th century, it seemed to me that we simply could not afford to cultivate a distorted and inaccurate view of the religion followed by 1.2 billion Muslims who make up a fifth of the world’s population. When Ayatollah Khomeini issued his infamous fatwah against Rushdie and his publishers, this Western prejudice became even more blatant.

“In 1990, when I was writing this book, nobody in Britain wanted to hear that almost exactly a month after the fatwah at a meeting of the Islamic Congress, forty-four out of the forty-five member states condemned the Ayatollah’s ruling as unIslamic––leaving Iran out in the cold. Very few Western people were interested to hear that the Sheikhs of Saudi Arabia, the Holy Land of Islam, and the prestigious al-Azhar madrasah in Cairo had also declared that the fatwah contravened Islamic law. Only a handful of people seemed prepared to listen sympathetically to the many Muslims in Britain who dissociated themselves from the Ayatollah, had no wish to see Rushdie killed, but who had felt profoundly distressed by what they regarded as the blasphemous portrait of Prophet Muhammad in his novel. The Western intelligentsia seemed to want to believe that the entire Muslim world was clamouring for Rushdie’s blood. Some of the leading writers, intellectuals and philosophers in Britain described Islam in a way that either showed astonishing ignorance or a quite horrifying indifference to the truth. As far as they were concerned Islam was an inherently intolerant, fanatical faith, it deserved no respect; and the sensitivities of Muslims who felt hurt by Rushdie’s portrait of their beloved Prophet in The Satanic Verses were of no importance.

“I wrote the book because it seemed a pity that Rushdie’s account of Muhammad was the only one that most Western people were likely to read. Even though I could understand what Rushdie was trying to do in his novel, it seemed important that the true story of the Prophet should also be available, because he was one of the most remarkable human beings who ever lived. It was quite difficult to find a publisher, since many assumed that Muslims would be outraged that infidel woman like myself should have the audacity to write about their Prophet, and that if they publish this book I would soon be joining Rushdie in hiding. But as it turned out, I was greatly moved by the warm and generous reception that Muslims gave my book in those difficult times.”

- the first few paragraphs of the Introduction to October 2001 edition (just after 9/11) of book Muhammad, A Biography of the Prophet written by former Roman Catholic nun Karen Armstrong.

Karen Armstrong was motivated to study Islam so thoroughly and come out with this biography only after the protest by Muslims following the publication of The Satanic Verses about two and a half decades back.

Soroor Ahmed in Two circles. More Here

Salman Rushdie is a third class writer: Justice Katju

Salman Rushdie is a “poor” and “sub-standard writer” who would have remained largely unknown but for his controversial book ‘Satanic Verses’, according to Markandey Katju, till recently a judge of the Supreme Court.

Katju, who is now the Chairman of Press Council of India, criticised the admirers of India-born author based in Britain, saying they suffered from “colonial inferiority complex” that a writer living abroad has to be great.

From a report in Hindustan Times. Here

Slamming the Jaipur Literature Festival's focus on the Indian-origin British writer, Justice Katju, a retired judge of the Supreme Court, criticised “so-called educated Indians” who “suffer from the colonial inferiority complex” and believe that writers living in India are inferior to those living abroad.

“Salman Rushdie dominated the Jaipur Literature Festival. I do not wish to get into the controversy whether banning him was correct or not. I am raising a much more fundamental issue,” he said in a statement issued on Wednesday. “I have read some of Rushdie's works and am of the opinion that he is a poor writer, and but for The Satanic Verses would have remained largely unknown. Even Midnight's Children is hardly great literature.”

From a report in The Hindu. Here

Islam emphasises on 'Freedom from insult'

Well, whether or not freedom to insult is a Western value, Islam has nothing to do with it. It lays emphasis on its exact opposite: the freedom from insult. 

It values human dignity, decency, and harmony in the society. The freedom of religion it ensures includes freedom from insults. While it does not shy away from academic discussion of its beliefs and showing the falsehood of non-Islamic beliefs, it makes sure that the discussion remains civil. In those discussions it wants to engage the intellect of its opponents; in contrast those who itch to insult their opponents are interested in satisfying their vulgar emotions.

Thus while its most important battle is against false gods it asks its followers to refrain from reviling them. (Qur’an, Al-anam, 6:108). It also reminds them to stay away from harsh speech. “Allah loves not the utterance of harsh speech save by one who has been wronged.” (Qur’an, Al-Nisa, 4:148). Prophet Muhammad, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, who is being reviled by the scum of the world, taught Muslims to never let the low moral standards of their adversaries dictate theirs.

As a result of these teachings Muslims can never even imagine insulting any Prophet --- from Adam to Moses to Jesus to Muhammad, peace be upon them all. Even when they ruled the world, Muslims treated the religious leaders of non-Muslim also with respect – even during battles. In the Baghdad court Jewish and Christian scholars engaged in open discussions with the Muslim savants.

Needless to say they had not been attracted by the freedom to insult but its exact opposite. Freedom from insult is a fundamental value that assures peace and harmony. It leads to healthy societies. And Muslims are very proud of their impeccable record here.

A earlier post in Luthfispace Here and More by Khalid Baig Here

Family first, Job next: Thasneem Fathima

Thasneem Fathima

I first went to the AMU in 2002. At that time, I had never even dreamt that I would study there. After marriage, when my husband planned to go to the AMU for PhD, I too tried hard and passed the GATE. Thus I joined there. The Electrical Engineering Department was excellent. All the professors were eminent in their fields. And I would like to mention two who were highly inspirational and gave me confidence – Dr Yusuf Zaman and Dr Omar Faruq. Compared to the other institutes I have studied, education at the AMU was enjoyable and tension-free. Initially I had a problem of language for communicating with the local students, but I soon got it over. There was a thrill in studying in such a distant place.

Actually I increased contact with Almighty Allah after going to the AMU. There was a Muslim culture and atmosphere in the Department. Teachers used to say ‘Assalamu Alaikum’ when entering classes. There is a masjid in the centre of the Engineering College, with all the departments around it. There were facilities for prayer in the department itself. There were eight students in my class at the AMU – three Muslim girls and five non-Muslim boys. Among the teaching staff, there was only one non-Muslim. But, here in the NIT-C where I am pursuing PhD now, there are no Muslim teachers at all. There are seven students in my batch with one Muslim boy and girl.

Being a married woman with two kids, how do you manage your family and career?
Time management is very important in studying. Normally we study one or two hours daily, and I study when my kids sleep. I utilize the available time well. Also, I had servant to help at home. My youngest son was only one and half years old when I joined for M Tech. The support of family is very important. I got complete support from my husband and in-laws. Actually, my percentage of marks increased after marriage.

Most important things in the matter of education and studies are peace of mind and prayer. I used to call up and talk to my parents and parents-in-law before every exam and ask them to pray. Their prayer is very important for me. Actually I had more people to encourage and inspire after marriage. Help of Allah is the most important thing.

When studying I had never thought of a career in teaching. But now since I want to keep family and career together, I took this up. Even when I am tired during the project days, I get brightened up when I see my kids and their smile. I have dedicated my project work to my husband and kids.

What is your advice to the growing up students, especially girls?
Though family, education and job are important, family comes a bit higher.

Thasneem Fathima in Two circles. Here

Mother of all scams is not 2G but electrification of Indian Railways

The truth is that scams of much larger proportion were very much there even in the immediate post-independence India. Some got exposed, but some never. The most important difference is that with the passing of each year we have more and more means to know about them, therefore, we are able to know more about them.

The expansion of media, the emergence of strong bi-polar politics, enactment of Acts like RTI, judicial activism etc have made the common citizens more aware of various charges of corruption.

Today’s Suresh Kalmadi is in jail, but there might have been a Kalmadi––may be a much smaller in stature––during the 1982 Asiad Games too. But he could never be detected, thanks to weak media and opposition. Certainly everything was not hunky-dory then.

A senior railway official once commented privately that possibly the biggest scam in the country took place more than half a century back when the decision regarding the electrification of Indian Railways was taken. The decision in this regard was taken many years before the so-called Oil Crisis of 1973.

Today rail traffic gets stalled for hours and Accident Relief Trains could not reach the spot in time of emergency because the overhead wires get disconnected even after a minor mishap or derailment of one or two coaches.

Producing power to run electric trains requires lakhs of tonnes of coal every year. Huge dams were constructed causing environmental pollution and displacement of millions. Besides, the social cost it entails is much more than the amount spent on importing diesel.

According to that official the country may never be able to overcome the power crisis because these trains consume so much electricity. Diesel engines are equally efficient and powerful and do not pose any problem in reaching anywhere in the country in any circumstances. Incidentally, the first Rajdhani Express on electrified Howarh-New Delhi track introduced more than 40 years back was powered by diesel engine and it continued to do so for years. Even the US, China and many European countries prefer diesel engines over electric locomotives.

This whole exercise of electrification was taken under the influence of big lobbies––national and international. Yet nobody questioned it then and nor today some five decades later. But 2G Spectrum is on everyone’s lips.

Soroor Ahmed in Two circles. Here

Advani's Antim Yatra

The BJP conceded three goals in quick succession very much against the run of the play. Till a few weeks back, the party was in somewhat aggressive mood and tried to capitalize on the atmosphere created by Anna Hazare. It started appearing that the BJP would finally outplay the Congress. But then, like a bombshell, came the report of the Lokayukta and subsequent drama, which forced the party to get rid of Yeddyurappa. All this happened at the height of the Anna’s movement––that is a few days before and after his 12-day fast.

In the earlier two occasions the crusade against corruption has helped the BJP and erstwhile Jan Sangh. The party fully consolidated its position during the 1974 JP movement in Bihar and Navnirman movement in Gujarat. Thus gradually it emerged as the strongest of the five constituents of the Janata Party, which was formed in 1977. The conglomeration ruled the country for less than three years. The Janata Party disintegrated and in 1980 the Bharatiya Janata Party, instead of Bharatiya Jan Sangh, was formed. 

Similarly, the BJP fully capitalized the Bofors kickback issue for its own political end though it was V P Singh, who first raised the issue. Advani fully mixed the battle against corruption with the religious issue of Ram Mandir at Ayodhya. This ultimately paved the way for its victory. It thus led a 24 parties alliance and ruled the country for six years.

However, this time the crusade against corruption is not going to cut much ice. There is no Emergency in the country as in mid-1970s. Nor is there any scope to once again whip up the religious sentiment as in late 1980s and early 1990s. Now the voters of the country have tested the ‘honesty’ of the party with a difference too. Several scams rocked the country during its six years rule between 1998 and 2004. The then national president of the BJP, Bangaru Laxman, was caught in camera accepting Rs one crore from a fictitious arms dealers.

In the states, Karnataka has shown a new way to loot the country’s treasure. Octogenarian Advani finds his party in a very tight position. The second rung leadership of Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley are no match to the stature of Vajpayee and Advani while there is no dearth of partymen who want to keep Narendra Modi away. In that way Advani once again had to take up the responsibility of leading his team and playing another innings. 

Advani’s position is like Australian cricketer Bobby Simpson, who had to come out from retirement and lead his team after almost the premier players rebelled and joined World Series Cricket organized by Kerry Packer between 1977 and 1979. But that was just a stop-gap arrangement. Advani knows his role and is no doubt too old to captain the team, which is now packed.

Soroor Ahmed in Two Circles. More Here.

Advani's Antim Yatra

There is nothing more revealing in politics than a old, doddering politician who buries his head in the sand and tries to gauge the prevailing wind of public opinion. And so it is with the “former future prime minister of India“, Lalchand Kishinchand Advani who has announced what many are derisively calling his “Antim Yatra“.

At one level, Advani’s impromptu announcement of a nationwide tour at the age of 84 is proof that the flame of ambition has flickered feverishly despite the renunciation of key posts (like leader of opposition and party president) at the less-than-gentle nudging of the extra-constitutional knicker lobby that really wears the pants in the BJP.

At another level, the “Antim Yatra” is proof that the BJP is now officially bereft of both ideas and leadership. That it took the success of Anna Hazare‘s campaign for the lead opposition party to take up corruption as an issue reveals plenty about what it has been doing these past two and a half years since the 2009 electoral defeat.

And that the BJP leadership thinks that it has the credibility to talk about corruption, when its own governments and leaders in Karnataka, Gujarat, Uttaranchal and Chhatisgarh are battling (or stalling investigation of) serious charges of corruption shows the hypocrisy of it all.

Above all, Advani’s announcement of a yatra throws cold water on the aspirations of almost the entire second generation of leaders in the BJP, all of whom privately envision themselves as national leaders and almost all of whom entertain dreams of becoming prime minister.

Questions: Will Advani’s “Antim Yatra” evoke any response? Is Advani’s “Antim Yatra” merely to save his skin now that the reprehensible cash-for-votes scandal has landed squarely in his court? Notwithstanding the Congress’s plight, does the BJP have the credibility to talk of clean, corruption-free governance? Will Advani be acceptable as the face of the BJP in 2014, when he will be 86?

Courtesy : Churumuri. Here 

Financial inclusion of the minorities discussed at Skoch Summit

In an important development, the issue of financial inclusion of the minorities was discussed at the recently concluded 26th Skoch Summit organized at Hyatt Regency, Mumbai on June 3. The conclave was titled ‘Swabhiman- The first step towards making inclusive growth a reality’.

The Conclave was chaired by Wajahat Habibullah, Chairman of National Commission for Minorities who brilliantly pointed out and presented the relevance of “Interest free banking in India."

Speaking on the occasion, H Abdur Raqeeb, general secretary of Indian Centre for Islamic Finance (ICIF), said that RBI should re-examine stand on Islamic Finance and modify the regulations to accommodate Islamic Banking/Islamic Windows as per the recommendation of Raghuram Rajan Committee Report.

He also said that Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) should permit Takaful (Islamic mutual insurance) and Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) needs to draw up micro-venture capital guidelines to permit investment in partnerships/LLPs. He also urged the government to form an Expert Group on Islamic Finance (EGIF) as in UK from industry, citizens, and professionals, representatives from marginalized and Muslim organizations.


Among the Knowledge Partners of the Summit and the conclave were Planning Commission of India, several union ministries like Panchayat Raj, Urban Development, Unique Identification Authority, Capgemini, Corporation Bank, IOB, IFFCO and many well known Corporate Houses.

A report in Two circles. Here

Hazrat Khadija was my inspiration : Ishrat Shahabuddin Shaikh

She owns Shalimar hotel, a famous and highly successful eating joint in South Mumbai. She also runs a school SAFA, which has the unique distinction of imparting modern as well as religious education to its students.

Meet Ishrat Shahabuddin Shaikh, 42, a widow and an entrepreneur who epitomizes the idea of brilliant management as she runs her eating joint and also brings up five kids all alone. Born and brought up in Azamgarh Shaikh comes from a modestly rich family. She migrated to Mumbai after she got married Shahabuddin Shaikh at the age of 18

Shanno as Ishrat is popularly known within her family, was a housewife enjoying a peaceful and happy life until her family met with an accident in 2002. She lost her husband; her daughter, Khansa and other two daughters Zara and Sara got seriously injured.

While talking to TCN, Ishrat said, “That gruesome accident shattered my life into pieces. I was in a situation, where on the one hand I had to bring up my kids and at the same time I had to take over the business. Then there was SAFA School also, which was the dream of my husband.”

At that time her businessmen brothers and her mother-in-law, Rehana Shaikh, a highly religious woman, who lost her only son, encouraged her to look after the multi crore, multi cuisine restaurant, Shalimar which employs nearly 350 employees and is spread across 18000 sq.ft.

Shaikh takes her inspiration from Hazrat Khadija, “Hazrat Khadija, wife of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was a businesswoman and that finally motivated me to join the business.” Talking about hijab, Ishrat said, “Veil is never a deterrent but interestingly it helped me dealing with outsiders and my employees.”

She also attributed her successful business to her employees and staff in the hotel and in the school. She is very loving and caring towards her staff. Arshad a sweeper in the hotel said, “Madam, always call me as Arshad Bhai that sounds very loving.”

“Love can win you anyone in this world and these are the people who helped me at the time of distress. I am very grateful to them.” Ishrat said.

The most important aspect of the hotel is the taste of food it serves. “Taste of our dishes has improved a lot since the time Ishrat Madam took over,” informed, Abdul Rehman Azmi, manager of the hotel. “She even introduced sweet section and consolidated Dastarkhwan; five enclosed cabins offer sit-down seating from 2 people to a dozen, pure white upholstery and rare privacy in Mumbai. Each cabin has its own telephone and more importantly best suited for the family,” said Abdul Rehman Azmi.

Umaer, 23, Ishrat’s son who joined her mother at the age of 16, is geared up to open two more branches of Shalimar hotel in Andheri, western suburb and at Vashi, an eastern suburb of Mumbai.

Talking about her future plans, Ishrat said that she is planning to handover the hotel to her son, “Umaer is big enough to handle the business and I will concentrate on SAFA School. From this year only we are starting SAFA Junior College.”

Rehan Ansari's report in Two Circle. Here

Quran is for All : Justice J S Verma

“Guidance of Holy Qur’an is for the whole of humanity and Sura Al Fatiha, the opening chapter of Holy Qur’an or ummul Qur’an, itself makes it obvious with using expression Rabbul Alameen and not Rabbul Muslimeen” 


“We must continue to perform our duties and should promote pluralism in this country” 

 -Justice J.S. Verma, former Chief Justice of India while delivering valedictory address at a seminar on “Relevance of Islamic Law in the contemporary world” organized by the Islamic Fiqh Academy (India) on 29th May 2011.

More reports in Siasat. Two circles.

I speak good Marathi besides English, Gujarati and Hindi : Mumbai corporator Afreen

Imagine a scene where a burqa-clad woman, among more than two hundred corporators of Shiv Sena, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, Congress and Nationalist Congress Party, is shouting for the problems of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation. Mother of two teenagers, Afreen Fayyaz Ahmed is the Congress corporator of Mumbai Municipal Corporation for last 3 years.


Born to Parsi parents, educated in one of the best schools in south Mumbai to marrying Fayyaz Ahmed and becoming a corporator, story of Afreen is very interesting. Afreen converted to Islam at the age of 18 years and married to Fayyaz Ahmed, former Member of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly and was just a housewife till Madanpura Municipal seat reserved for women.

Although, it would be normal for Muslims but very strange for others not to see their own elected corporator ever and vote for her. Imtiyaz Ahmed, 30, a local of her area said, “No one has ever seen Afreen Fayyaz Ahmed but everybody knows her and get their work done.” Afreen, while talking to TwoCircles.net said, “Hijab is my ornament and it never stops me from serving the people of my area.” She also added that she derives all the courage from Allah and her husband Fayyaz Ahmed is the biggest support for her.

Sharing her experience of working along with hundreds of men in the corporation, she said, “Initially it was bit odd but now I am used to it because of their co-operative nature. They all respect and care for me. Sometimes they go out of the way to co-operate me.”

In Maharashtra and specially in Municipal Corporation Marathi is the only way to communicate the grievance. “Knowing Marathi is compulsory if one likes to get her work done in Maharashtra and Alhamdulillah, I speak good Marathi besides English, Gujarati and Hindi” said Afreen.

Rehan Ansari in Two Circles. More Here

Mumtaz Kazi – Asia’s first woman diesel engine driver

Nation’s Pride and all along a supportive daughter, sister, wife and a caring mother. This is Mumtaz Kazi, the first woman diesel engine driver in Asia. Limca Book of Records, in its 1995 edition, has acknowledged her great success. Adding another feather to her cap is that she is the first train driver who has the skill of driving both Electric and Diesel engine.

In 1989, the change in the railway recruitment board policy in India enabled her to sit for the exam and she fared very well with the merits in all the exams right from written exams to Personal Interview. With the experience of nearly 20 years she is now serving the most crowded railways in the world the Mumbai Local.Born and brought up in Mumbai, Mumtaz has seen many ups and downs in the life but it’s the family support that kept her moving.

Mumtaz is not just successful in her profession but a very typical Indian woman. She is helpful, supportive and sacrificing for her family.

A.I. Kathawala called up when he came to know that a journalist is doing an interview with his daughter to tell about her contribution to his family. A.I. Kathawala said, “I am really proud of my daughter because she is not only successful in her profession but also because she changed the life of my family.”

A.I. Kathawala continued to praise her courageous daughter. He said it’s because of her support he was able to buy a home in Mumbai and was able to educate his two sons Imtiyaz and Feroz, both are engineer and now settled in Canada.

Rehan Ansari in Two circles. More Here

"Amma doesn't consult anybody" : Badr(Bader) Sayeed

Badr Sayeed is the last remaining Muslim face in AIADMK. Surprisingly she has been left out of the list of AIADMK canditates. As a true diehard fan(don't call slave, she is a Muslim) of Amma, she still praises her leader and hopes that she will do "something good" for her. She is bitter. But she has swallowed the bitter pill.

But she is candid and bold enough to complain that “I was not consulted at all. Ideally, I would have liked, had Amma (Jayalalithaa) called me up and said that, “Bader, you have worked hard, well done, but there are certain compulsions of coalition politics, so I am allotting Triplicane-Chepauk seat to MMK.” This was how Bader Sayeed reacted when Md. Ali of TwoCircles.net interviewed her regarding the denial of ticket to her who is also a sitting MLA from the Triplicane-Chepauk Assembly constituency.

But her apparent discontented reaction is accompanied by a realistic approach which every AIADMK politician has, “Well, in this party there is no such thing as consultation because Amma doesn’t consult any body.”





From a report of Muhammad Ali in Two circles. More Here.

Should Ulema be held responsible for all the shortcomings of the society?

A dangerous tendency: At the age of research work, quality education and divine power that had been empowering Muslims to face the challenges of every era moved out from them all over the world, another tendency has grown very rapidly among Muslims. It is the tendency to push the blame on the Ulema, holding them accountable for every failure, pointing fingers towards some specific Islamic laws, declaring the syllabus being taught in Madrasas and religious institutions as outdated and terming Madrasas as a symbol of old age – which is seen especially in the Muslim community in India.

4% Vs the rest: The Sachar Commission report makes the air clear about Madrasas - the percentage of Muslims who approach Madrasas for education is only 4, even the financial condition of Madrasas, teachers and students who study there is not much better. As it is known to all Muslims, Madrasas, except for some, have no good infrastructure due to very bad financial conditions as they are run solely by donations from Muslims. In such an atmosphere, is it just to expect the 4% to solve all the problems of Muslims, the problems being plenty?

Hide your failure: Laziness, dullness, distancing themselves from hard work, selecting short-cut ways to make money, wasting time in watching films and TV programs, or taking part in unnecessary works and making themselves busy in nonsense subjects, or trying to get awards and fame by making comments against the Ulema – indeed all these paved the way for majority of Muslims to put the Ulema on target so that the latter can cover their failure and no one would blame them for the deteriorating situation of Muslims in India.

Blame Ulema for everything. Pushing the blame on Ulema and pointing the finger towards Madrasas is a very easy task, but conceding our own faults and mistakes is very hard work for most of us. Do we forget what our behavior with the Ulema and Madrasas are? How do the Madrasa people get donations and how do they collect it from every Muslim so that they can arrange a free education to poor Muslims in Madrasas?

Is collecting donations an easy work? When the representatives of Madrasas knock the doors of Muslim homes and ask some donation for Madrasas, during the month of Ramzan or in normal days, what do most of us do? Why do we misbehave with them? Why do we treat them as if they were beggars? Even my own personal experience is very harsh; very few people treat them with respect and dignity, most of us close the door before them, some of us make excuses. Some of us ask them to come after two hours and when the representatives come after two hours, they are said there is nobody in the home and asked to come the next day. When these representatives come again, we do not open the door, or they are told from the window to go away and never to come. Some of us tell them we are against Madrasas, hence we will not give any donation. And if some agree to pay the donation, they give just 10 rupees or 5 rupees or 20 or 30 rupees.

And these representatives of Madrasas, despite this misbehavior, go from door to door, room to room, house to house, knock every door to collect 5 or 10 or 20 or 50 rupees. Some of us drive them off, some of us use abusive language against them, some advise them to leave the Madrasas, some of us say to them “you cheat the people” but no one asks them, ‘please come in my home, have a tea, have some cold water’, or ‘please have lunch with us today or tomorrow’. Most of us throw hundreds of questions on them for giving just 10 or 20 rupees, such as ‘where are you from?’ ‘Who are you?’ ‘Give details of the madrasa,’ etc. And at last, unwillingly, grudgingly and resentfully we agree to give a mere 10 or 20 rupees; while thousands rupees are being spent in purchasing an item just because our children like it.

This is the harsh reality of Muslims’ behavior with the representatives of Madrasas. We feel hesitation in donating just 10 or 20 rupees, while a particular class in the Muslim community always blames the Ulema, targets Madrasas and its education system. This class always demands computer education to be taught there.

Can anyone let me know how much the cost of one computer is? Can anyone let me know how much the cost of one computer is? How many people have gifted even one computer to any Madrasa? If anyone gives computer or funds to Madrasas, in return he wants to be listed as one among the members of the Madrasa and wants to interfere in the Madrasa’s education system. I ask the common Muslim how much he pays for the education of his one child in an English school. It may be Rs 5000 or Rs 6000 per month; however, the cost of education of a Madrasa student for one year exceeds no more than Rs 5000. Madrasas themselves bear the cost of books, breakfast, dinner and lunch and so on; no one goes there to ask the officials of Madrasas how they arrange meals every day for hundreds and thousands of their students.

We want high-class and well-rounded graduates to come out from the Madrasas. We, however, face trouble in giving a mere 10 or 20 rupees as donation. A family can spend thousands rupees just for the happiness of their children; a family can purchase puppets, video games, CD players, and so on and on but when donating a few rupees they think these Madrasa people have made them bankrupt and penniless.

Same is the situation of Imams in our country. An Imam is paid Rs 2000 or Rs 3000 normally, and it may come to Rs 5000 if the Masjid is big. Most of the Masjids are being run by donations and with the help of Muslims. Sometimes, the Masjid administration faces difficulties in giving even this salary to the Imam; how do we expect the Imam to sustain his family with such a small amount?

No doubt, there are hundreds and thousands of Muslims whose donation, help and sacrifices are helping the owners of Madrasas to run these institutions without a hope of prize or award.

I would like to say, the Ulema have besieged themselves within the boundaries of Madrasas and religious education only. Rest of the field is left free for the entire Muslim community. Why are they not trying their luck in these fields? The Muslim community is in need of good doctors, engineers, scientists, architects and so on.

When it has been made clear that only 4% or less than 4% go to Madarasas for education, what about the rest 96%?

There are many rich Muslims, and there are hundreds of scholars, professors and others whose salary and monthly income is more than one lakh and who have great respect, relations and sources within and outside the community. Why are they not trying to build another university? Why can’t a network of schools and universities be deployed across the country?

In these 63 years, the Ulema established a network of Madrasas throughout the country, collecting one rupee and two rupees and suffering a lot of difficulties. Then why can’t these powerful leaders gift any new university to Indian Muslims?

First we have to change our attitude, our behavior and our manner. Change our minds and be ready to make sacrifices; nothing will change if we continue to blame the Ulema and madrasas.
Differences and oppositions have a place in every community, but in the Muslim community it is being used as a tool to escape from discharging the responsibilities.

If every Muslim does his own work, I think no one can stop them from arriving at a higher position in the world. If every professional Muslim does his work in his field well he will see the result in just a few years. The society will be changed and Muslims will shine, if only they do this.


Many times, we saw in Delhi, non-Muslim boys and girls from very poor families reading, studying and finishing their home work sitting on small broken beds beside the road, where there were noises and crowds of rikshaw-pullers and passersby. In spite of all this, and under the heat of the sun, these boys and girls were busy studying. Can Muslims take a lesson from them instead of blaming the Ulema and Madrasas?

I would like to say to all Indian Muslims that their problems could be put to an end within just a few years if every Muslim decided to play a pivotal role in building the community and the country.

Abdul Hannan Siwani Nadwi in Two circles. More Here

The success story of Twocircles.net

It’s a news website that runs on insufficient funds. It has no ads, no office and a handful of reporters, many of whom are not trained. It’s not a competitive news organisation, and shares content and ideas with other news organisations for free. Yet twocircles.net (TCN) attracts 10,000 unique visitors daily, and is read by politicians, policy planners, journalists of major newspapers and television channels, and, rumour has it, investigators too. For something located on as clamorous a place as the internet, TCN has managed to make its voice heard — in the most unlikely places.

In June last year, TCN’s news editor spotted a picture he had taken of Muslim students in Azamgarh, UP, which the BJP was attempting to pass off in an ad campaign as an image of progressive Muslims in Gujarat. He alerted the mainstream media, and the BJP was roundly panned. About a year ago, in response to the website’s comprehensive performance report of Muslim MPs, one of the MPs called the TCN office to inform them that they had missed two questions he had asked in the Parliament. 

When Kashif ul-Huda began twocircles.net from his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, in 2007, he would have hardly expected it to make such an impact. For the 36-year-old biotechnologist from Muzaffarpur, Bihar, what ended up as a website that reports on news about Indian Muslims, from their perspective, began as just a feeling of “needing to do something” in 2002, when riots broke out in Gujarat.

As someone who’d witnessed riots as a child in Jamshedpur in 1979, and later in Lucknow in 1992, he thought he had left such traumas behind when he moved to the US in 2001. But he couldn’t sit silent as “uninformed and hateful comments about Muslims” spread across the internet, such as those which claimed “their population growth was so rapid that they’d take over India in 2050”.

To help put out “the real facts”, in 2005, Huda launched IndianMuslims.info. A near-comprehensive website on socio-economic data related to Muslims, it included information on riots, family planning, bank borrowings, which Huda collected over three years from books and reports.

The launch of IndianMuslims.info coincided with the infamous Imrana rape case, in which a young girl was allegedly raped by her father-in-law in Muzaffarnagar, UP, after which the local elders declared her marriage null under Sharia law. Huda was appalled at “how Indian Muslims became a spectacle, a drama, a tamasha”. “I realised that Muslims could either not articulate their opinion or were not being given space by the mainstream media. It was important to get the Muslim perspective — not regulated by major media gatekeepers —out there as soon as possible,” he says. So, a year later, he started a news section on IndianMuslims.info.

In July 2006, a series of bomb blasts hit Mumbai trains, after which he says the website “got many statements from Muslim organisations and individuals, which we combined in one news story. It was read and shared by many”. None of these opinions were sought out, Huda says; they all came from Muslims who wished to speak for themselves. With this, came the realisation that there was a need and a market for Muslim news through a Muslim perspective. So, in 2007, the news section became a distinct domain, twocircles.net.

Speaking for themselves helps put out Muslim realities more diverse and representative than those that make it to mainstream newspapers and TV channels, “which only talk of Muslims in the context of terrorism, communal riots, and some weird fatwa.” Huda seeks to redress the balance by producing stories “that are not in such negative context.” While they find nothing to inspire them in the “mainstream English-Hindi media”, neither do they take any cues from the Urdu press. Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TCN’s Patna-based news editor, says, “Urdu newspapers are only busy flattering leaders of the community. They give little or no space to news about the socio-economic condition of Muslims, or even information about the Union ministry of minority affairs. An Urdu paper in Patna recently carried a huge picture of Nitish Kumar at a mazaar. We ask, why don't they find out why the Bihar government hasn't released the Central Government's scholarship funds for pre-high school Muslim students in the state?”

Questioning the establishmentarian stance towards Muslims is at the heart of most TCN stories, including those on people accused in terror-related cases. For instance, TCN had interviewed Rayeesuddin, a 2007 Mecca Masjid blast suspect in Hyderabad, who was later acquitted, and who recounted the torture inflicted on him, and the social ostracism and police harassment he continues to face. They had also brought attention to the case of Muhammad Haneef, a Noida tailor who was detained and allegedly tortured by police in 2005 for being a suspected ISI agent. TCN reporters sometimes feel that their boldly contrarian stance might risk leaving them vulnerable to threats or scrutiny. “Whenever you go against the mainstream, you are isolated and watched,” agrees Falahi.

Yet that’s the direction which TCN wants to soldier on in, because, Huda says, the “major media is either afraid of covering Muslim issues or doesn’t know how to do it properly”. Describing a meeting with the editor of a national Hindi daily, he says, “I asked him what sort of Muslim stories he did. He said, ‘We’re scared to go beyond Ramzan and Eid.’ I was shocked that we’re 15 per cent of the population, and have been living in India for a thousand years, and yet people have no idea what Muslims are.” So TCN, he says, aims to “help journalists report on a complex socio-religious community that is as diverse as India itself”.

They also try to lead by example, in representing diversity; focussing not just on Muslim Victims, but Muslim Achievers. On the site, there is a series of articles on three young Muslim techie entrepreneurs, and stories on Muslim candidates who cleared the civil service exams. The TCN also, on occasion, questions the credentials of Muslim institutions, such as their series of reports which exposed corruption within the Maharashtra Wakf Board in its land deals with builders, or a story detailing AMU’s high-handed treatment of students protesting against the dissolution of the students’ union. Or a comprehensive performance report of Muslim MPs in both Houses across three sessions.

TCN isn’t an Islamic website; it has no section which discusses religion. Huda says that the site has deliberately kept away from religious discourse “so that it is accessible to all Indians — Muslims or not-Muslims.” Neither is it based on a profit-driven model, says Huda, whose only source of income is his day job as a biotechnologist. The Indian American Muslim community funds the website — a challenge, says Huda, “because Muslims easily donate for a masjid or a madarsa but not for a website”. The only ads the website gets are those by Google.

Currently, there are 15 staffers across India — full-time, part-time and freelancing — and have varied backgrounds. Muhammad Ali, who wrote the Haneef story, has an MA in English Literature and worked with an English-language television news channel before he “quit to do more meaningful stories for a lesser salary”, and Falahi is a madrasa graduate, who “never applied to a mainstream media organisation because he would not have been able to adjust to their working environment”.

The one thing all his staffers do have in common, says Huda, is a “dedication and passion related to Muslim issues”, not to justify or assert, but help non-Muslims “see beyond the stereotype”. “We only want to invite you over to hear our side of the story,” says Huda. 

Irena Akbar in Indian Express. More Here.

Egypt uprising: Is it internet driven?

The western and the Indian media, have blown the role of Facebook and Twitter so much out of proportion as if there would have been no revolution without them. What they tend to forget is that the ideology, the leadership, the zeal and motivating factors are more important than means.

There seems to be a grand design to undermine the very message of the revolution. There is a need to explode the myth of internet in bringing about the revolution. It is true it played its role, but attributing the revolution just to internet is simply unacceptable. Egypt still has a big number of computer illiterates, who took to streets on their own.

Much less is being actually written about the ideology, which motivated Tunisians and Egyptians to take to streets for so many days till they ultimately succeeded in getting rid of Ben Ali and Mubarak respectively. Yes, the movements were against the dictators and Tunisians and Egyptians eagerly wanted to have government which enjoyed people’s mandate. But they wanted more than that, which the media didn’t highlight.

There is strong element of anti-Americanism and anti-Westernism in these big upsurges, but this aspect is deliberately being ignored or underplayed. In case of Egypt the Muslim Brotherhood factor is being highlighted but sometimes with the element of doubt. The West once again wants to project that the revolutionaries are impressed by democracy in Europe and the United States and so, one way or the other, want to adopt their version of Democracy.

The truth is that the concept of government based on people’s mandate is much older in Islam than the West, which partially introduced it with hardly any success for the first time after the French Revolution of 1789. In fact what they now call as liberal democracy is fairly a recent development with countries like France, the so-called nursery of democratic change, permitting its women to vote for the first time in 1945. Even in the United States and several other countries this total democracy is a recent phenomenon, in which all its citizens, including Blacks and women were allowed to vote. In fact in Australia hunting of aboriginals was legal till only half a century back, not to speak of giving voting right to them. In fact India gave voting rights to all its citizens much before several western countries––Spain, Portugal are a few examples.

So when they talk of Muslim Brotherhood, it needs to be highlighted that its concept of government having people’s mandate, has its roots in the immediate aftermath of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) and not that of the western democracy of 20th or 21st centuries. The Brotherhood was formed in 1928, much before many western countries became democratic. From its founder Hasan-al-Bannah to Sayed Qutub and Mohammad Qutub––all of them are no more alive––have dealt in great details about Islam as a way of life in their writings.
The emergence and subsequent electoral victory of Hamas in Gaza has more to do with this idea rather than of the western democracy. In fact the champion of modern democracy, the United States, has always been opposed to the election victory of Hamas in 2006 and the West never gave it legitimacy.

The western writers, journalists, and other public opinion-makers are trying to take some credit for whatever is happening in Egypt or in other Arab countries, but there is no scope for it. Had the Communist ideology been powerful as in the past, they would have some satisfaction as after all it is also a western idea. Now that they have made no contribution they are repeatedly playing up the internet theory.

True Egypt is yet to see the emergence of leader like Erbakan in Turkey or Ayotullah Khomeini in Iran, but the ideology of Islam has played a big role in bringing the people to the streets. With large number of woman-marchers clad in burqa and demonstrators offering namaz (prayer) give fair amount of idea that the revolution has Islamic color.

But the problem with the western media is that over the years, they have distorted the image of Islam so much that it has become a sort of synonym to terrorism. How can they now say that Islam believes in peaceful political change like the one which is happening now?

So if the revolutionaries refused to resort to violence in spite of provocation by Mubarak’s agents, the West was quick to conclude that those who were protesting were modern-minded liberals who wanted a western democracy.

In spite of so much information explosion, the world perhaps knows more about the role of the Google executive Wael Ghonim in bringing people to the streets than about the Supreme Guide of Muslim Brotherhood Mohammad Badie––not to confuse it with Nobel Prize winner Mohammad El-Baradei.
Badie, 68, is himself a professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Beni Suef and was named by the Egyptian State Information Service in its annual listing as one of the top one hundred Arab scientists. He is also the founder of the Higher Veterinary Institute of the Arab Republic of Yemen. Yet the name of this great scholar is hardly visible in the western media as he does not fit in the western scheme of thing.

Soroor Ahmed in Two circles. More Here.

Indian Media is soft on Hindutva Terror

“When Abdul Kaleem of Hyderabad and Imam of Haj House, Mumbai were arrested then it’s a national news and when they were released no one bothered in the media to make it news. This attitude of Media must change.”

- Maulana Burhanuddin Qasmi, Markazul Ma’arif

L-R: Nazar Mohammed Madu, President Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Maharashtra, Abu Asim Azmi, President Samajwadi Party, Maharashtra, Maulana Azhari, Kul Jamaati Tanzeem, Malegaon and others

“Hemant Karkare has proved that Military camps and Ashrams are the breeding ground of Terror and not the Madarsas.”

- Maulana Abdul Hamid Azhari, president of Kul Jamati Tanzeem

''It’s a deadly combination of Brahmanical fascism and Zionist communalism which is not only dangerous for Muslims but for the nation. He reminded, “It’s not only Muslims but they are the first target of Brahmanism the rest, who are not Brahmin, will follow.”

-Nazar Mohammed Madu, President of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Maharashtra

"Media also played very communal role in profiling Muslims"

-Rashid Azeem from Movement for Peace and Justice MPJ.

Hyderabad youth Abdul Kaleem, already acquitted in the Mecca Masjid blast case and released on bail on Monday in another case, and whose good conduct and torture story moved Swami Aseemanad, also participated in the agitation. He told the media that he and many other Muslim youths were picked up after the 2007 Mecca Masjid blast not for investigation but to get their confession. He said, “I was brutally tortured by the police to get my confession. Even Swami Aseemanad ji had tears in his eyes when he heard that I was asked to sleep naked on ice, electric shocks were applied on secret parts of my body, and was hanged naked for hours, abused and beaten like an animal.”

Abdul Kaleem wants to pursue LLB to help the poor innocents who are unable to pay fees to advocate. He also shared his meetings with Swami and said, “I was behaving as a normal Muslim and practicing what is taught to me by my mother i.e. to respect elders.” He thanked God that he was released but is worried about his elder brother who is still in jail in some other case. He demanded the government that arrest must not be allowed before investigation.




Sheikh Abdul Kaleem (with a shawl) of Hyderabad at the Mumbai rally







Corrective and immediate legal actions must be taken to get these boys released, Amjedullah Khan, Lawyer of Abdul Kalim from Hyderabad suggested to the Mumbaities.
Advocate Zubair Azmi, Urdu Markaz termed Anti-Terrorist Squad as Anti-Muslim Terrorist Squad and demanded the resignation of RR Patel, home minister of Maharashtra for his anti-Muslim behavior.





The NGOs have given ultimatum to the Central and State Governments to take the corrective steps before the budget sessions of Parliament and Assemblies. Otherwise, they will gherao the assemblies and Parliament and will lie down in front of the vehicles of Ministers to press their demands.

From a report of Rehan Ansari in Two circles. More Here.

Babri Masjid, B R Ambedkar, Hindutva Terror and Injustice!

The Ayodhya Verdict was a judicial demolition and justification of the destruction of the Babri Masjid. The verdict stands in utter contempt of the Indian constitution, as was the demolition. The verdict is an affront to the very vision of an India that is rooted in its secular and plural values.

The judgment has set an unprecedented precedent by giving precedence to belief or aastha over law. A civil title suit was reduced to a theological verdict.

This is the process whereby the Brahmanic Manusmriti increasingly gains precedence over the Ambedkarite Constitution.

The verdict, far from ensuring a respectful closure, has opened up a Pandoras box, whereby every place of religious worship will be under threat from the RSS and its myriad militant affiliates, who have proved their prowess at conducting pogroms and destruction of mosques in Gujarat.

Thus this verdict has actually created new grave problems, instead of solving the old.

Clearly the verdict is less of a legal pronouncement and more of a political settlement sought by the Congress, RSS and the BJP. This has in turn only compounded the imbroglio.

What is also missing from the entire discourse is the fact that the mobilization and demolition of the Babri Masjid on the 6th of December, was the Brahmanical counter to the Punyatithi or death anniversary celebration of Dr. Ambedkar, wherein lakhs of Dalits, OBC's and other oppressed masses go to the Chaitya Bhoomi to pay their respects.

This was the revenge of the RSS, as Dr. Ambedkar had converted to Buddhism with lakhs of his followers on the last day of Dussehra in 1956.

Also the fact is that Advani's Rath Yatra was a counter to the announcement of the Mandal commission by VP Singh. Thus the focal point of the entire Ram Mandir movement has been to target the Muslim community and the co-option of the Dalit, OBC masses into the Brahmanic fold.

Thus at the core lies the ideological struggle between the emancipatory, egalitarian and humanitarian principles as enunciated by Mahata Phule, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar and Brahmanism on the other.
Thus the design is to build a grand or Bhavya Ram Temple as a counter to the Chaitya Bhoomi.

It is also a religio-cultural counter-revolution against the fast spreading Buddhism across all of North India, especially amongst certain sections of the empowered Dalits.

The most dangerous and offensive part of this judgment is the fact that it has justified the ravings and rantings of L. K. Advani, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar, Kalyan Singh and their entire ilk.

For the judgment to mention that Bhagwan Ram was born under the central dome of the Babri Masjid, is an incredible leap of aastha. Even the findings of the ASI report that could not be determined even by the best of historians and archeologists, was used as conclusive evidence.

Most incredible of this all is that one of the parties to the dispute is Ram Lalla Virajman himself. This is again unprecedented. A deity is a participant in a legal dispute, who is then granted a judicial status with a birth certificate.

Do we need the courts to go into this terrain of beliefs, where tomorrow the very status of God or Eshwar or Allah or Ahura Mazda will be decided?? Ridiculous and preposterous!!

ven though the Court agrees that the idols were placed there in 1949, itstill does not find it a criminal act, even though an FIR had been lodged.

So the entire criminal act, leading to the very demolition is then justified and the precedent thus set, that can be replicated with little cause for worry for the RSS and it’s fanatic hordes.

Though the Congress is shouting from the rooftops, that the Civil suite will have no bearings on the criminal case, the glaring delays over the Liberhan Commission (extended 49 times!!) report is proof of the collusion between the Congress and the RSS-BJP.

LK Advani has taken all precautions to differentiate between the leadership that stood at the frontline directing the crazed mobs and those of the thousands who were indulging in the violence and destruction.

Actually the matter could have been resolved in a different and far more sensible manner that would have given a respectful closure to all of Indian society.

We are amongst the world's most ancient civilizations and if we start digging up, every little plot of land will throw up a religious dispute.

And even though there is no evidence that a Temple was destroyed to build a mosque, yet judge Sharma behaved like he was writing a pamphlet for the RSS.

The very Ramcharitramanas of Tulsidas never mentioned even the possibility of this dispute, even though he was around 30 years old when the Babri mosque was built in 1528 and was functioning till 1949.

The Nirmohi Akhada were staking their claim to the property, but never raised the issue of Bhagwan Ram's birthplace.

The ASI report also mentions Buddhist and Jain remains, but very little public debate on this aspect, as clearly Ayodhya was and is an important centre for these two religions as well.

Thus a number of legal luminaries have been astonished at the judgment & have debunked it as a mere panchayati faisla.

This judgment actually proves that the judges had no aastha or faith in the Indian constitution and thus the Brahmanical sham.

From an article by Feroze Mithiborwala in Two Circles. More Here

Babri Masjid case: It is Emotions Vs Evidence: Hashim Ansari

Hashim Ansari is ninety years old. He is the resident of Ayodhya and has been attached with the Babri Masjid for many decades. 
In an interview to Mumtaz Alam Falahi of Two circle.net he has summed up the Babri Masjid crisis in a single sentence : "Ek taraf bhavna hai. aur ek taraf suboot hai" (On one side we have emotions and on the other is pile of evidence")
He has also said, "We have evidence of more than 550 years". He blames Congress and the Muslim leaders of secular parties more than the frenzy fringe groups of Sangh Parivar. "Jaffer Shariff was the Railway Minister then. He organised special trains to Ayodhya."he laments.


Listen him in youtube:

Jazakallah Mumtaz Bhai!

Source : Twocircle.