By Imran Khan

Patna: A women's panchayat in a Bihar village has ordered women to punish with brooms people found consuming and selling liquor, while imposing a ban on liquor consumption, an official said on Friday.

It has also imposed a fine on consuming and selling liquor.

The move by the panchayat of Ramzanpur village in Shekhpura district, about 125 km from here, is aimed at checking the increasing liquor business in rural Bihar.

"We have not only banned liquor, but have also decided to impose a fine on those found consuming liquor and those found selling it," Shama Devi, one of the leaders of the panchayat, said.

She said posters were put up on walls across the village informing people about their decisions.

Kalo Devi said that women are hit hard by the liquor business. "Liquor is like a curse for us. We have now decided to fight against it," she said.

According to them, the panchayat has decided to impose a fine of Rs.2,500 on those found consuming liquor and Rs.19,000 on those found selling it.

The decision was finalised after a gathering of village elders who were concerned with disturbances during marriage celebrations due to liquor consumption.

Sensing growing anger among women against liquor and in a bid to woo voters, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has said that prohibition would be imposed in the state if he retains power after the upcoming assembly polls.

By Saeed Naqvi

In the night of the tyrants,

Who calls my name from afar?

I must climb the scaffolding of the gallows to see beyond the prison parapets.

Have they waylaid the caravan of the new dawn?

"Majrooh Sultanpuri"

I had turned up in Mumbai to cover the aftermath of the 1993 bomb blasts. On my way to meet Rusi Karanjia editor of Blitz and journalist Olga Tellis, at the US Club in Cuff Parade, I tried to engage with my Muslim taxi driver. "How were Muslims reacting to the blasts."

He was abrupt to the point of being rude. He said he was a hard working man who did not have time to concern himself "with riots and blasts". He asked me if I was a Muslim. "Recite the Kalma", he demanded. Then, reluctantly, he pulled the taxi by the side of the road.

"Dekho, sab barabar ho gaya."(Look, it is even now). "Ab train mein enter karo aur kaho 'Assalamalaikum', sub raaste dete hain." (Now, enter the train and greet them like a Muslim and they make way for you.)

This precisely, was the sentiment that had to be crushed, Karanjia said, after I told him the story. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Karanjia had shed all left wing pretensions. He now spoke the language of the extreme right.

The way he juxtaposed the Mumbai riots of January-February against the blasts of March took my breath away. According to him, the state had sided with the rioters during the riots. That is why there was no reprieve for the victims. The blasts were an assault on the Indian State. This would not be tolerated. His brazen endorsement of majoritarianism planted the first doubts in my mind that towards the end, Rusi Karanjia did not always know what he was saying.

Since the blasts had taken place under the watch of then new chief minister, Sharad Pawar, Maratha pride had been challenged too.

The Babri Masjid was demolished on December 6, 1992, leading to agitations across the country which was attacked by mobs, with the police standing by or giving the mobs a hand, by a helpful round of firing. On January 5, 1993 riots erupted in Mumbai in similar fashion. An orgy of arson, loot, murder of Muslims by Shiv Sainiks, abetted by the police crossed the borders of the macabre. This was not dissimilar to the Gujarat riots of 1969 where I found myself in my capacity as Press Officer to the Frontier Gandhi, Abdul Ghaffar Khan, then on a year long visit to India. The Congress chief minister was Hitendra Desai. Over 500 people, mostly Muslims were murdered. The great singer Rasoolan Bai's house was gutted.

It is a fallacy that the Gujarat pogrom of 2002 were worse than the one sided massacre in the January-February Mumbai mayhem supervised by Bal Thackeray and overseen by the Congress Chief Minister, Sudhakar Naik. He, alas, was not in the good books of Pawar who, at that crucial stage, was defence minister in Delhi, smarting under the fact that P.V. Narasimha Rao had bypassed Pranab Mukherjee and him to the top job.

As Mumbai burnt, Sharad Pawar and Sudhakar Naik locked themselves into a hopeless stalemate. Pawar, as defence minister, would not send sufficient troops. He was content that the scale of the pogrom would expose Sudhakar Naik's incompetence. Also, the troops would come directly into conflict with the Maratha lumpins on a rampage. Carrying the banner of Maratha pride, he did not wish that to happen.

Naik was sacked. Pawar took over as chief minister. Just then the blasts happened. Atal Behari Vajpayee, who is generally believed to have been critical of the Gujarat pogrom, did, nevertheless, describe it as a "reaction" to the Godhara train burning. Surely, the Mumbai pogrom and the blasts can be likewise equated.

The hanging of Yaqub Memon has divided India. There is the largely Hindu establishment seeking revenge in the guise of justice. In competition is the softer, compassionate Hinduism taking the battle for justice almost to the moment of Yaqub Memon's hanging.

This is the India that has held the country together. Former judges, lawyers, bureaucrats, social workers, teachers, journalists, students, other professionals who spoke on TV channels and congregated at the Jantar Mantar, and held meeting across the nation - this is the India that Muslims in their current phase of alienation would naturally gravitate towards, the clergy willing, ofcourse. But this precisely is the large swathe of India without an identifiable platform or a party. The BJP, and the Congress too, increasingly, are an anathema to these groups and the minorities.

In this situation, almost by default, the man on the white charger happens to be Asaduddin Owaisi. He pulls no punches, and is more articulate than most political leaders and TV panellists. For his opponents he is flawed because he holds his ground firmly with expert references to the Constitution. How this Sole Spokesman phenomena plays itself out has to be watched.

While there was no mercy for Memon despite the gaping holes in the case, the open and shut case of Rajiv Gandhi's murderer, was considered worthy of a pardon. Likewise, Devinder Singh Bhullar, convicted for the Delhi blasts, has escaped being hanged.

There is a straightforward political angle. Karunanidhi and Parkash Singh Badal can pull strings with the centre for individuals from their respective states because of their participation in national coalitions.

While regional leaders can protect their murderers, the 180 million Muslim, the second largest Muslim population in the world, ironically have no comparable pull. How Owaisi harvests this incrementally ghettoised anger has to be monitored. He can cast a spell on Muslim youth but he cannot have this translated into votes by playing solo in a crowded field. He will have to select coalition partners. These will not be the Congress nor the BJP.

By Amulya Ganguli

Notwithstanding the efforts made by the saffron lobby to pretend that Yakub Memon's religion had nothing to do with his hanging, the belief that the two are inextricably linked will not fade away. As a matter of fact, Tripura Governor Tathagata Roy, who was a member of the BJP before being chosen for the Raj Bhavan post, can be said to have let the cat out of the bag by saying that those who opposed Memon's hanging were potential terrorists.

The governor's "insight" underlines two points. One is an inability of the follower of a semi-fascist ideology to understand the norms of a democracy, where it is allowed to hold views contrary not only to what the government says but even what the judiciary may pronounce.

Moreover, the governor seems to believe that it is only Memon's co-religionists who were against the punishment meted out to him. But, there were many others, including Hindus, who petitioned the president against the execution. Surely, as a true saffronite, the governor would not like to categorize these Hindus as potential terrorists.

His target, therefore, was obviously the Muslims, which is in keeping with the standard Hindutva view that although not all Muslims are terrorists, all terrorists are Muslims. It is but one step to go from identifying only a particularly community with terrorism to insinuate that all its members are potential terrorists.

Incidentally, this blinkered outlook ignores the role of Hindu terrorists during the anti-foreigner agitation in Assam in the 1980s with which the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) was associated, and in Sri Lanka, one of whom belonging to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) killed former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.

The involvement of Hindutva supporters has also been seen in acts of terrorism such as the blasts in 2007 in the Samjhauta Express running between India and Pakistan. The train was travelling to Lahore, which was why there were many Muslims aboard. There were 68 deaths. There are other such cases of Hindu terrorism as well about which a public prosecutor has said that she has been asked by those in authority to go slow on them.

The controversy over Memon related less to his culpability than to the belief that he may have surrendered to the Indian police and, as such, should be seen as an approver and, therefore, not sentenced to death. A newspaper article quoting a former Indian intelligence official fuelled this speculation, but since no definite conclusion was reached about whether Memon had surrendered or had been caught by the Nepal police and handed over to the Indian authorities, the execution went ahead as planned.

What was remarkable about the episode was the protracted judicial process which preceded the 7.35 a.m. hanging. The fact that the Supreme Court was in session till only about two hours before the death sentence was carried out would long be a matter of judicial and political history.

Not surprisingly, Memon's fate had revived the debate about whether India should follow other "civilized" countries in banning capital punishment. There has been a large measure of support for such an initiative. But, two factors have made its implementation difficult.

One is the continuing threat of terrorism from Pakistan and the fact that suicide bombers sneak in from across the border from time to time, as in Gurdaspur in Punjab recently, to kill at random. One such killer, Ajmal Kasab, was caught alive during the November 26-29, 2008, Mumbai murder and mayhem by Pakistani terrorists. He was hanged in 2012. It is obvious that as long as these acts of terror continue, it will be extremely difficult for any Indian government to ban capital punishment.

The other deterrent is the continuing incidents of rape. As may be expected, there is widespread fear as well as revulsion about these incidents, which were seen at its most intense following the gang rape of a young medical student in Delhi in 2012.

As long as these two factors vitiate the Indian scene, judicial executions will continue even if the Supreme Court has said that it will be exercised in the rarest or rare cases. It is possible, however, that while rapists may escape the maximum punishment, the Pakistani terrorists will not. Nor will home-grown ones like Afzal Guru, who was hanged in 2013.

The BJP is making a mistake, however, by allegedly going slow on suspected Hindu terrorists and by insinuating that they were arrested by the former Congress-led government at the centre to curry favour with the Muslims.

By articulating this line, Home Minister Rajnath Singh is bringing the question of religious affinity back into these criminal cases, which can make the BJP's detractors say that Memon's execution was at least partly due to his being a Muslim.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have succeeded to a considerable extent in curbing the Hindutva hotheads who are longer indulging in their provocative ghar wapsi (home coming) and love jehad antics to urge Muslims to return to their "original" faith of Hinduism and accusing Muslim youths of wooing and marrying Hindu girls in order to convert them to Islam.

But the prime minister is yet to ensure that people like Rajnath Singh and Tathagata Roy do not revive memories of RSS supremo Guru Golwalkar's (1906-73) categorization of Muslims as "internal enemies".

Yet another post graduate militant falls to security forces’ bullets

By: Raqib Hameed Naik, TwoCircles.net

Kakpora (Pulwama): Talib Afzal Shah, a terrorist for Indian security forces and a rebel for Kashmiris, was killed by forces in Kakpora area of South Kashmir’s Pulwama district.

Talib, a youth in his 20s, held double post-graduate degrees but frequent summons to police stations and night raids left Talib’s dream of getting a job and normal life short lived as he joined militant ranks in 2014.

According to reports, Talib along with another accomplice, on Thursday afternoon had gone to meet his family in Astan Mohallah, Kakpora. With inputs about presence of alledged militants, police and army zeroed on the house and laid a siege, which ensued an encounter between the two sides killing Talib, whereas other militant managed to give slip to the security forces.

Talib Afzal Shah was born to Shamas udin Shah and Jawhara Begum in a highly educated middle class Kashmiri family. His mother is working as a government teacher and father as an employee in roads and building department. Talib’s brother works as a doctor while sister is studying nursing.

One Friday, the day had started much earlier in Kakpora town than usual. The town was quiet with a dead silence surrounding the lush green meadows, which encircle Kakapora, one of the tehsils of the Pulwama district in J&K.

As one entered the town, it became quite visible from the shutter-downed shops and the pale turned faces of people that a deep antagonism is running in the town against the killing of Talib by Indian security forces. Huge gathering in the form of processions from nearby villages are entering the playground of Government Higher Secondary School, Kakpora, where Talib’s body has been kept.

Speeches of local religious leaders rent the air. They explain how youths are being killed by Indian security forces while fighting for which they call a “noble cause of freedom of Kashmir from clutches of India.” On the other side of ground, women, amid wails and sobs wait to catch a glimpse of Talib, whom they refer as “the hero of motherland – Kashmir.”

Suddenly, some women stood up and started sloganeering: “Hum Kya Chahate, Azadi! Hum Cheen ke lenge, Azadi!” and all women started marching towards the railway bridge. It was followed by a huge processions of youths. The police resorted to intense tear gas shelling, pellet guns and aerial firing to stop the protesting people which led to minor and major injuries to at least 20 people. Two injured persons, hit by bullets, were referred to SKIMS at Srinagar for specialized treatment.

Amid protests, people went back to the ground where funeral of the slain militant was going to take place. As the funeral got over, the elders of Talib’s locality started discussing how Talib, once a university going youth with bright career, was forced to pick up the gun.

“During mass uprising of 2008 and 2010, like everyone in the town, Talib used to join the protest demonstrations. Later police registered FIR against him for which he was frequently summoned to nearest police stations and SOG camps where he was humiliated. For successive two years post 2010, Talib was harassed and a reign of terror was put on him. Even if I had met with such enormous harassment, I too would have ended up being a militant, despite my old age. Then one day, Talib disappeared from his home and joined the militant organistaion LeT,” Ghulam Hassan, 50, a social activist, who is one of Talib’s neighbour in Astan Mohallah Kakpora told TwoCircles.net

After continuous harassment, Talib had made his mind that why not die once instead of dying every day, recalled Asif Ahmed, who was once Talib’s close friend. “He had studied outside the state. And had two post graduate degrees – in Physical Education and History – to his credit but continued police harassment ended up Talib joining the militancy rank. As he was dying every day so he decided to choose the path of martyrdom,” Ahmed told TwoCircle.net.

Another local Tanveer Ahmed, 28, a private school teacher, appealed the people outside Kashmir to desist from using word terrorist for Kashmiri youths joining militancy. “It’s not terrorism. It is a war for freedom. So these youths should be called as martyrs. Our basic rights are being violated every day here in Kashmir. We don’t want India development agenda here in Kashmir, we just want our land back which was falsely taken from us in 1947,” Tanveer said and added that Talib was tortured inside police stations and “police usually used to take jibes at him by calling him a terrorist so he ended up one not as terrorist but a mujahid, who died fighting for his people.”

Talib’s mothers was inconsolable and repeatedly blamed police harassment as the reason for his son joining militant ranks. “In between 2011 to 2014, Talib was arrested several times on charges of stone-pelting and even after his release, the security forces used to raid our house sometimes in day and sometimes at nights, always looking for him. He finally decided to join Lashkar-e-Toiba to emancipate himself from this continuous oppressive measures of police,” said Jawhara, his mother.

Related

Educated youths taking up arms in Kashmir; a big no to govt jobs

By Jaspal Singh

Recently Shashi Tharoor, a Congress party Member of Parliament, participated in a debate on reparations for colonial rule by Britain in Oxford university. Those who were opposed to the reparations argued that it is very difficult to quantify the colonial plunder and that the British brought railways, telegraph and other modern amenities to the colonies such as India and on top of it all, the colonialists brought rule of law and democracy to the colonies. They also argued that British colonialists also had local collaborators as well who benefited tremendously from colonial rule.

Screen grab from Shashi Tharoor's Oxford Union speech.

There were several speakers from Africa and, the Caribbean who argued for reparations. Shashi Tharoor argued the case for reparations for India. He eloquently demolished the arguments of the opposite side. He pointed out that it is very easy to quantify the plunder. Just during the First World War alone close to 8 billion pounds worth of goods were extracted by Britain from India, more than a million soldiers from India were used as cannon fodder .During the Second World War close to two and a half million Indians were pressed into service of the colonial army. More than one and a half billion pounds were also extracted from India by the British. He pointed out that more than 20 million people died in the man-made famines by the British, biggest among them was the Bengal famine and during which Churchill deliberately diverted food from starving Indians to other parts the world. As far as railways and telegraph is concerned, many countries have developed them without being colonized. He pointed out that the British deindustrialized India and it was the plunder from India which paid for the industrialization of Britain. He gave the famous example of Dacca Muslin workers whose thumbs were cut off by the British. All this plundered enriched a small ruling elite in Britain.

The Oxford Union overwhelmingly voted in favour of reparations. Shashi Tharoor's speech has become very popular in India and abroad. Even the prime minister praised it. All the media has also been praising it.

All the arguments that Shashi Tharoor gave about the British colonialism are also completely applicable to internal colonialism and plunder that the rulers of India have been engaged in since 1947.From Nehru to Modi this plunder by Brown Sahibs has been going unabated using all the colonial laws and apparatus. People from different parts of India have been rising up against this plunder. For example Punjabis have pointed out time and again about the loot of grain, water and other natural and human resources by the Center. People from Northeast, Jharkhand , Chhatisgarh, Kashmir and many other areas have raised the banner of revolt against this internal colonialism.

According to three reports published recently,928 families in India have more wealth than 25 percent of the population of India and 10 percent of population owns 90 percent of wealth of the country. It has also revealed that close to 50 percent of Indians do not have enough food to eat. More than 30 percent of the country is occupied by the army at any given time. More than 4 million children die every year because the government refuses to provide clean drinking water.

This internal colonial plunder has greatly benefitted those who collaborated with the British and are now at the helm of affairs. For instance, Gujarat government gave Tata, one of the collaborators of the Britiish, one thousand acres of land for one rupee an acre per year on lease. It also gave Tata a loan of Rs.33,000 crores on 0.015 percent interest, payments for which will start after 20 years. Other places have the same story. This internal colonialism of Brown Sahib is doing exactly same what the British colonialism was doing.

There is a growing body of literature in India about internal colonialism. Scholars, activists, theorists are reflecting on this state of affairs. Some are also asking for reparations from the central government for death and destruction rained on them and loot and plunder of their resources. Some have raised the banner of autonomy and self-determination.

A friend asked me whether a debate on internal colonialism and reparations can take place in Delhi and whether Shashi Tharoor and the Prime minister will argue the case for reparations. My hunch is in the negative.

......

Jaspal Singh is a Cambridge-based philosopher.

By Sandeep Sharma

New Delhi : Of the many freedom fighters who liberated India from the 200-year-long British rule, one was Gour Hari Das, whose struggle didn't end even after independence. He says his 32 years of struggle to prove his status as a freedom fighter, "speaks for the fault line in our governance" where because of misuse of political power, the India of our "dreams" seems far "beyond reach".

"It is indeed ironical that I fought the British for four or five years and then took on our government for over 30 years. It (my struggle) speaks for the fault line in our governance and the dire need to correct our systems. Sadly in those days, we never thought it would come to this," Das, who fought the British in the pre-independence era as a member of Mahatma Gandhi’s Vanar Sena, told IANS in an email interview from Mumbai.

“We fought the British on the strong belief that India shouldn't be ruled by invaders. India had to be free to govern itself. But probably not one of us, in our wildest dreams, would have thought that the country would be weighed down so much under political misrule, corruption and the fall of a social system.

"A new cultural revolution is the need of the hour before it gets out of hand,” added the 84-year-old, who is the inspiration behind a newly released Hindi film titled "Gour Hari Dastaan - The Freedom File", which came out a day before the country's 69th Independence Day.

Dissatisfied with the governance in India today, Das -- who currently works as a Special Executive Officer and is also a member of NGO National Anti-Corruption and Crime Prevention Council (NACCPC) -- has certain questions for the country's youth.

“It’s got a long way to go. The India of our dreams now seems beyond our reach. Only a miracle can save us. Will politicians start governing and stop ruling?

"Will we see each one of us getting socially responsible and join hands to make self-governance a habit? Will it all fall together like we envisaged when we fought for freedom... all million dollar questions,” he said.

How will he differentiate the situation in India today in comparison to the pre-Independence era?

Das said: “Times were different then. Then the enemy was obvious. Today we can't make out who is an enemy or who is a friend. As youth, we fought in Gandhiji's Vanar Sena and delivered secret messages and sabotaged several British plans.

“The youth of today seem to be fighting some vague demons in their mind. They blow up trains and public spaces with no cause to fight for. Rather, they are being misled into fanatic missions. Today all fights have become meaningless. The real mission is being overlooked in the face of ruthless political greed.”

Das's over three decade long battle for identity is showcased by actor Vinay Pathak in "Gour Hari Dastaan - The Freedom File", directed by Anant Mahadevan.

Will the film inspire the new generation?

Das feels "hopefully it's a story that will disseminate a lot of information and inspire the youth to change their attitude and approach towards society and the nation at large".

Even as India celebrated the 69th Independence Day on Saturday, there are many people in the country who have strive hard to understand even the meaning of independence.

Abdul Gani of TwoCircles.net visited a remote area in Assam’s Baksa district which falls under Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD) along the India-Bhutan border to witness their way of ‘freedom’ on the 69th Independence Day.

They are the victims of violence which took place on May 2 in 2014 when armed militants opened fired in their villages killing at least 41 persons including children and women. Though some of them returned to their homes, they are yet to make their way back to normalcy, consequently living in relief camps for over 18 months.

Khagrabari Camp: A view of the camps from the middle of river Beki.

A woman sittings with her two children in front of their makeshift camp.

Halima Khatun, with her young son at the makeshift camp on the bank of river Beki, says they want to move out of the camp at the earliest. “I want to have a secured future for my kids and we want to breathe fresh air out of this camp.”

A child living in the camp peeps out of his worn out tent. Children living in the camps are most vulnerable as there are no proper sanitation system. Right to Education is also a dream for most of the kids out of 25 who are below 13 years of age.

A girl manages her room in the camp.

16 year old Joynal Ali readies for lunch. Ali who left school ‘long back’ lost his mother when militants opened fire indiscriminately at the villagers. With his father is separated even before the death of his mother, Ali heads for an uncertain future.

Rupsana Begum plays with her seven month old son Rustam Ali at their shanty in the makeshift camp. Life is most difficult for mothers and such infant babies who are born after the people have been shifted to these camps. Rupsana is hopeful that they will have better days coming soon as her husband and relatives have started to re-build the burnt houses in their villages. “Once our houses are completed, we can move out from here. We don’t want anything but peace so that everybody can live and think of our better future. We pray so that our children do not have to face the same fate,” she says.

Abdul Hamid is one of the senior most inmates of the camp who is respected and everybody obeys his words. Hamid says that independence means nothing to them as they are still living under the shadow of fear of uncertainty. “The villagers were killed without their faults. We do not even have the basic facilities in the camps. Our women and men have to go to the nearby jungles for defecation,” he says, adding thoughtfully, “We have got some assistance from the government but the basic thing is that we want to live like nother Indian citizen with pride. I hope our prayers will be heard someday.”

Little Ramajoddin (left) his who sustained bullet injury as a four year old during the violence takes a walk with his father Ibrahim Ali. Ibrahim says that his son is still to get rid of the shock of that horrific moment. “He is normal but sometimes, he tends to behave in a different way. Sometimes in the middle of the night he would wake up shouting,” says Ibrahim.

Ashma Khatun (right) has lost as many as four members of her family including her mother-in-law, sister-in-law and two nephews. She prays so that such days never repeat. “Hardship has been a part of our lives. But we do not want to live like this,” she says.

Few inmates of the camp sit on the bank of river Beki in the afternoon of Saturday to pass their leisure time.

In the midst of all the troubles, there is some sort of relief to see such smiling innocent faces in the camp premises.

(Photos and Texts by Abdul Gani)

By Tarun Basu

At a recent international conference organised by the Assilah Forum Foundation in the eponymous picture postcard-pretty town in northern Morocco, speakers highlighted the importance of India as a key player in the American "rebalance" in the Asia-Pacific, especially with the worrying rise of China, politically, militarily and economically. At a lecture in New Delhi to mark 10 years of the Indo-US nuclear deal, then foreign secretary and key negotiator Shyam Saran disclosed that many of the foot-draggers among the powerful Nuclear Supplier Group (NSG) cartel fell in line with the waiver for New Delhi, despite it not being a signatory to the NPT, because, as some of them confided, the exceptionalism happened all "because it was India".

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for his 26th country visit in just 15 months in power, the question being asked is: Is India set to play a larger role in global affairs? Will India be a "balancing power" or a "leading player"? Will India step in to play a peacemaker role in global hotspots as many countries keep demanding? These and many other questions are sought to be answered by well known strategic analyst and columnist C. Raja Mohan in his latest offering "Modi's World: Expanding India's Sphere of Inlfuence" (HarperCollins).

Raja Mohan says Modi's practice of foreign policy, much to everyone's surprise since he had no previous experience in it, has been "purposeful and consequential" and it was more than just imparting energy - he made 18 foreign visits in the first year of power - but was also about following continuity with some subtle changes in orientation that appeared to lend the policy a more defined and a sharper edge.

According to him, Modi put his personal stamp on four issues:

- discarding defensiveness on global issues, shedding some past certitudes on multilateralism and beginning to alter the way that India looks at global problems;

- overruled long-standing political objections in Delhi to expanding economic cooperation with China, going so far as to to compel the security establishment to liberalise visa rules;

- Bypassing Pakistan to endorse sub-regional cooperation by signing the significant BBIN treaty between India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh;

- and, overruling opposition within his own party to go ahead with the contentious land boundary agreement with Bangladesh that the previous government lacked the political capital to conclude.

What is Modi's foreign policy vision? Although he himself is yet to articulate it in parliament or elsewhere, two recent policy addresses, one by National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, and the other by Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar, provide some interesting insights to his and the government's thinking.

Doval made two interesting observations that reflect in many ways the changed thinking of the Indian establishment. One, weak states invite trouble and hence, to demonstrate one is a strong state, one must not hesitate to exercise power. Two, there is little place for morality in international affairs. Nations must take recourse to any means to protect itself, including having to take recourse to capital punishment (in allusion to the debate on the hanging of Yakub Memon) and cannot subjugate the state’s interest to "individual morality" in the larger interest of society.

He also said India was punching below its weight and India should now "improve our weight and punch proportionately".

Jaishanker's speech at Singapore was even more revealing. He talked about changes in India's foreign policy being the "sharpest in the last year" and that "energetic diiplomacy" (by the prime minister) has resulted in India leaving "leaving larger and deeper footprints in the world" and being ready to shoulder "greater global responsibilities".

He made another interesting observation - that India's future lay in being a human resources power, rather than a military or an economic power, and it should be seen by the rest of the world, including the US and China, as an opportunity rather than an investment-risky country. He said the deepening and broadening of ties with the US were among the "key elements of a changing Asian calculus", a point that has been belaboured by the US in recent times.

In a major policy speech at Perth, Australia, in 2012, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described India as an important player in the Indo-Pacific region and urged New Delhi to play a larger role in the region's affairs, a suggestion that only got lukewarm response in New Delhi by the government of the day.

At an interaction with editors, then external affairs minister Salman Khurshid in the government of Manmohan Singh made light of these remarks, saying India never saw itself as a "power" in any sense as its foreign policy was largely an instrument to promote national development goals and not for projecting itself to the world in any muscular manner.

That then, as Raja Mohan points out, is where Modi undertook a "definitive reframing of India's foreign policy" in defining a new international identity for India as a "leading power" and has overrulled the "reluctance of its political class to think about the world in strategic terms" and assume "a leadership role".

Modi, true to this character, has dreamed of a Big Power role for India, but the question that remains is India ready yet to play that role, institutionally and structurally, whether it has a political consensus for that strategic leap and whether its forces can be deployed beyond the borders if required to match the expectations of such a role. Some in India may yet be skeptical that things may not have been too well thought out and the delivery may not be able to match such vaunting ambitions.

Ram Puniyani,

A video of Shashi Tharoor speaking at Oxford on a debate related to the colonial period has been ‘viral’ on the social circuit for a while. In this video Tharoor makes a passionate plea to the British that they make reparations for the losses to Indian economy during the British rule. He puts the blame of India’s economic decline on the British and also recounts Jalianwala Bag, Bengal famine as the major highlight of British rule which reflected the attitude of British towards this colony of theirs’. Tharoor points out that resources from India were used by British to build their economic prosperity and to fund their Industrial revolution.

However, Dr. Manmohan Singh (2005), the previous prime minister, had made a very different kind of argument. In this Dr. Singh as a guest of British Government extols the virtue of British rule and gives them the credit for rule of law, constitutional government, and free press as the contributions which India benefitted from.

So where does the truth lie? Not only the context and tone of the speeches by these two Congressmen is totally different, the content is also totally on different tracks. Dr. Singh as the guest of the British Government is soft and behaving as an ideal guest and points out the contributions of the British rule and there is some truth in that. Tharoor as an Indian citizen with memory of the past; is narrating the plunder which this country suffered due to the British rule. He is also on the dot. These are two aspects of the same canvass. What Tharoor is saying is the primary goal of British and what Dr. Sigh is stating is an incidental offshoot.

British (East India Company) did come here looking for markets for their industrial products, gradually went on defeating one after another king, ruling in different areas and brought the whole subcontinent under a single rule, which became one of the ‘Jewel in the Crown’ for British as the whole wealth, raw material, resources from India were pumped out to Britain. In order to achieve this goal they did go on to introduce railways, communication network-postal, telegraph-telephone and modern administrative system and modern education to create the assistants for their officers ruling here.

The lacuna in our systems were primarily because the primary goal of British was to plunder the country and as an incidental thing; as by product; the new institutions, rule of law and later some reforms against ghastly social practices also began (like abolition of Sati). Perceptions do matter while Singh and Tharoor are talking of the same phenomenon from two different angles. The third angle is the one that was articulated by British themselves. British presented their rule as part of “Civilizing mission of the East”! There is very little truth in this, but it can be said that British also did help in the process of social reforms at times.

The major point which is unseen in these perceptions is one which had dangerous consequence on the social-political scenario and that was- British planted the seeds of divisive politics. As such broadly speaking the colonial-imperialist rule sows the seeds of ‘divide and rule’ and in this subcontinent they did it with gay abandon. In the wake of 1857 revolt, when the British East India Company’s rule was shaken, British identified existence of two major religious communities where the wedge could be driven. This is where they introduced communal historiography as a part of ‘divide and rule’ policy. James Mill with his ‘History of British India’ periodized the history on communal lines (Ancient Hindu Period, medieval Muslim period and modern British period). Supplementing this were Elliot and Dawson with ‘History of India as told by her historians’, which reduced the history to the eulogizing account of the courtiers of the kings. These played a major role in deepening the communal understanding of the past.

At social level we see emergence of modern classes, industrialists-workers and modern educated classes while the old classes of feudal lords and kings survive though with some reduced influence. The modern classes came forward to build up anti colonial movement; this movement led by Gandhi with people from all regions, religions, men and women both is what built modern India on the infrastructure of industrialization-modern education. This movement tied the people together in the bond of ‘Indian-ness’ and had imbibed the values of the central pillars of transformations of caste and gender relations. The latter aspects most highlighted by Jotirao Phule, Bhimrao Ambedkar and Periyar Ramasamy Niacker on one side and introduction of girls education with Savitribai Phule opening the girls school on the other. This group underlined that ‘India is a nation in the making’.

On the other hand the declining sections of landlords-kings, both Hindu and Muslim, threatened by the modern changes and seeing the rise of their vassals who were escaping from their grip, shouted that their religion is in danger. They upheld the communal historiography introduced by British. Muslim elite gradually came to form Muslim League. For them the raison d’être of their coming together was Islam being in danger. They held that here the Muslim Nation had been there since the time Muhammad bin Kasim had won over Sindh from Hindu Daher in eighth century and so they have to work for creation of a Muslim nation. That’s how they remained aloof from the freedom movement, which was aiming at the Secular democratic India.

The Hindu landlords Kings in due course came to form Hindu Mahasabha and then RSS. For them this had been a Hindu nation from times immemorial and Muslims and Christians are the alien invaders. They also remained aloof from freedom movement and harped on building Hindu nation in contrast to the goal set by National movement, that of secular democratic India. They constructed their own history of a glorious past of the Hindu rulers and its corruption by the Muslim invaders. Gradually they came to construct the ideology that all the ills of Hindu society are due to the Muslim invaders.

While the national movement brought together the people of all the regions, religions, castes: women and men both, the communal streams nurtured the seeds of divisiveness sown by British, and this is what led to communal violence and later the tragic partition of the country. Here also what is generally analyzed mostly is the fault of leader A or B for partition while overlooking the fact that partition was the part of continuing British policy, to have their interests preserved in the sub continent and that’s how they played their cards well enough to create a situation where partition became an inevitable calamity.

If one has to point the major problem which the British rule introduced; apart from the impact on the socio economic life of the sub continent; it is undeniably letting the feudal classes-kingdoms to continue in the face of changing scenario of industrialization-modern education. So in the sub continent on one side we see the emergence of the values of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity as an ideology of the emerging classes, while the feudal ideology of ‘caste and gender hierarchy’ persists as the flag-mast of declining sections of society which came to be represented in the communal organizations, Muslim League, Hindu Mahasabha and RSS. These declining groups construct the ideology of ‘Religion based Nation state’ which is a unique synthesis of feudal values with the modern concept of nation state, their communal politics is a modern phenomena but derives its identity from as ancient as time as possible.

As neither Hindu nor Muslim nor Christian Kings were ‘religious nationalist’ so to say; as actually they presided over on the empires based on taxation of the toiling peasants in their kingdoms. Their goals of power-wealth were written on their sleeves; sometimes they adorned the masks of Dharmyudh, Jihad or Crusade for their ambitions of expanding power.
So during freedom movement we see those working for anti colonial movement are saying, ‘India as a nation in the making’ the concept which runs parallel to modernization in transport, industrialization, education and administration in particular. Muslim League said we have been a Muslim nation from eight century and Hindu Mahasabha-RSS asserting that we are a Hindu nation from times immemorial Muslim league derives identity from the Kings’ rule while Hindu Mahasbha-RSS project the concept of nation to times when people were having pastoral pattern and later made a transition to settled agriculture. For the communalists the major transition of industrialization and modern education is of no consequence.

While the declining classes do eulogize the kings of their religions, it is interesting that none of the kings in the history set out to spread his religion, they set out to expand their empires. To make this rule grounded there of course is an exception, Emperor Ashok who did spread his religion.

Today we cannot say what might have been the course of History had India not been colonized, what patterns of Industrialization-modernization would have taken place, but one thing can be hypothesized that this communal politics, abuse of religions’ identity for political goals might not have been here to torment us, to kill and maim the innocents, may not have been ruling our streets and asserting for authoritarian structures right within the democratic institutions which the country has nourished from last six decades.

So while Tharoor and earlier Manmohan Singh are pointing to two supplementary aspects of British rule, we also need to delve deeper and see the result of their policies which gave rise to communal politics, the politics which is tormenting South Asia as a whole and India is witnessing the worst in the form of Hindu Nationalism, Hindutva which is dominating the political ideology.
…….
Ram Puniyani is a former IIT Professor, Mumbai-based author and peace activist.)

By Arul Louis

United Nations: Pakistan launched a thinly veiled criticism of India over the functioning of SAARC as it tried to involve the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) in the Kashmir dispute at a meeting of the Security Council Tuesday.

Islamabad's Permanent Representative Maleeha Lodhi told the Council that the OIC "collectively, and in cooperation with the UN" can address the Kashmir dispute, which she bracketed with the Palestine and other Middle East problems.

"The UN should actively promote cooperation with the OIC in areas such as: mediation and conciliation of disputes; peacekeeping and peace building," Lodhi said.

"Its members are involved-directly or indirectly-in the numerous security challenges, which bedevil the Middle East, Africa and beyond," she said. "Collectively, and in cooperation with the UN, it has the capabilities to address and overcome these challenges-including Palestine and other Middle East conflicts as well as the Jammu and Kashmir dispute."

India has ruled out a role for any third party in the Kashmir dispute and points to the 1972 Simla Agreement signed by Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi of India and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan which says the dispute is to the handled bilaterally.

Speaking at the Council session earlier in the day, India's Acting Permanent Representative Bhagwant S. Bishnoi ruled out any role for organisations like the OIC under the UN Charter.

He did not name the OIC, but warned against extending to organisations based on religion, language or history the role that the UN Charter envisages for regional organisations because the criterion was based on geography. "Any overly liberal interpretation of terminology would be violative of the Charter besides also being counter productive," he said.

On the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Lodhi asserted that it had not been able to reach its potential because of what she said were attempts at "regional domination." She did not mention India by name, but in the context and with Pakistan's history of interaction with SAARC the barb was directed at India

Lodhi compared SAARC to organisations like the European Union, African Union, Arab League, and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which, she said "have proved their worth and made valuable contributions."

On the other hand, SAARC "much potential but have yet to fulfill that promise," she said. "SAARC has been constrained because of the deep differences among its members and attempts to utilize it for regional domination."

Pakistan has rejected proposals for road, rail and energy connectivity across SAARC, and India has being pursuing these links with other members. Recently India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal signed agreement on motor transport.-all crucial prerequisites for an economically integrated South Asia.

In what is seen as criticism directed against Islamabad, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said during his visit to the United Arab Emirates that "some people" had problems with SAARC interconnectivity,

"Should we stop because some people had problem," he asked. "Let them stay where they are. We are moving ahead. India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh have signed a pact for building connectivity.It is a major decision which will have implication in the long run."

By Shilpi Suneja for TwoCircles.net

A few days before I watched the much hyped Bajrangi Bhaijan the Supreme Court of India upheld its decision to hang Yakub Memon, a key suspect held for the 1993 Mumbai blasts that occurred following the communal riots after Hindu fanatics demolished the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.

Memon’s hanging was widely regarded as a “miscarriage of justice,” and intellectuals began to wonder if there is really any justice for Muslims in India. Many also wondered about the consequence of this hanging for India (read Hindus). Memon’s hanging forced us (or should have forced us) to collectively wonder about the fate of Hindu-Muslim relations going forward.

At such a dismal time Salman Khan’s Bajrangi Bhaijan, a film about a mute Pakistani girl lost in India finding her way back home through the help of an Indian man attempts an alternate narrative on the India-Pakistan/Hindu-Muslim issue. Granted, we least expect Bollywood of all entities to be a vehicle for change. But this time Bollywood proved us all wrong. More than merely coming at us as a vehicle for change, the film came at us as a giant fishing net to catch our failing faith in humanity and bring it on board its ship of brotherhood.

Perhaps I was an easy catch — I am a woman and I cry easily. But many of my hardened intellectual friends (read men) also unashamedly confessed to having “reached for the rumaal” right from Bajrangi Bhaijan's opening scene.

To open with a shot of a Pakistani village community watching TV somewhere in the mountains of Kashmir, cheering their nation’s cricket team, is to grant precedence to Shahida’s story. And boy are we caught hook, line and sinker as we watch this incomparably innocent little girl nearly fall off a cliff. By the time she gets separated from her mother (the train takes her mother back to Pakistan and leaves Shahida somewhere in the no man’s land between the two “enemy nations”) we are at the edge of our seats, nay, nearly kneeling in prayer.

Only after we are entrenched in Shahida’s point of view do we see the Indian side of the story. It is only through Shahida’s scared, tear-stained eyes that we see Salman Khan. Our mega-star has to wait in the wings for his grand entry. But this “entry” goes far beyond the run-off-the-mill grand entries of Bollywood. Because it isn’t the mega-star we are celebrating. We are celebrating his potential only as seen through the eyes of this lost child — we see Salman Khan through Shahida’s eyes. This othering of the self — seeing ourselves reflected in the eyes of the other — is a humble and a productive way of understanding the India-Pakistan situation. Here Salman Khan’s bravado, his might, his muscle, his Chulbul-Pandey suave is only worth its mettle if our little Shahida finds them useful. She is the touchstone of our mega-star’s mega powers. And for Shahida, from under whose train bogie emerge boys dressed up as Hanuman, witnessing Salman’s devotion to a giant statue of a Hindu God produced as much fear as hope. Will this Hanuman fanatic help our dear Shahida, we ask.

That Salman’s character is a devout Bajrang bali bhakt is a stroke of genius, and the film’s unique contribution to the India-Pakistan dialog. Every few years since India’s inception religion earns a bad name in progressive circles. Take the anti-Sikh and anti-Muslim pogroms of 1984 and 2002 for example.Bajrangi Bhaijan sets out to cure the secularists of their blindness toward the way a majority of Indians actually live.

It is important to note that Bajrangi is neither secular nor an atheist. He is also not blindly religious. It is made quite clear that Bajrangi is physically, mentally, even emotionally unable to unquestioningly follow any ritual put before him, whether it is wrestling at his father’s akhara or learning rules at the RSS shakha of which his father is the leader (the entire shakha is reduced to a boy’s club with very bad fashion sense — the boy Bajrangi can barely keep his too big shakha shorts from slipping off). Our hero can’t even pass the tenth grade in ten tries. All this earns our hero the title of “jeero” (zero/zilch) from his father.

What’s more he is unable to even make overtures in matters of the heart! Even as he has ample proof of having secured the girl’s heart, he fails to make his move. It is she (Kareena Kapoor) who claims him in front of her family and that of another suitor. To put it simply: our hero Pavan Kumar Chaturvedi is unassuming until the end, pure of heart and more than simply being zero, he is analytical and self-reflective, patient and not unquestioning of the rules and norms put before him. That he is a Hanuman bhakt who can go to a dargah and listen to the prophet’s praise only to reunite a Muslim child with her mother is the true heartbeat of the Indian nation. This is our true offering to the world— not simply religious tolerance which can imply a “don’t ask don’t tell” / “live and let live” policy with its lack of dialog and curiosity about each other — but syncretism that involves plenty of curiosity, lots of dialog and argumentation and all the frustrations that come with it.

It is in dialog with Shahida that Bajrangi realizes just how much humanity he is capable of. What a clever use of her speechlessness, for if she could speak we would know her immediately and the story would be over before it began! In these carefully crafted scenes Bajrangi discovers Shahida’s true identity/belonging. He learns that this flower petal of a girl (who risks her own life to rescue little lambs) prefers animal flesh over watery daal! That she raises her open palms at a dargah rather than joining her palms at a temple, and jumps for joy at Team Pakistan’s victory. These same scenes also chart the spiritual/moral growth of our beloved Bajrangi Bhaijan. He goes from being a devout vegetarian to singing a ditty to chicken dishes just to cheer up a glum Shahida!

Such is the power of the encounter between the self and the other. And especially when the other in the story takes the form of a child. At first I was apprehensive of this assignation — the self is a well-built man but the other is little mute girl. But I was very quickly disabused of this notion when I realized little Shahida far from simply representing our neighbor, represented humanity itself, or human beauty or innocence or love or human kindness, whichever phrase you use to understand the thing of truth and beauty we need to guard/preserve/promote. When Shahida can represent all these higher things then why limit ourselves to seeing her as just a Pakistani?

Another vital gain in having Shahida be a child is that this infuses a child’s innocence on all other adults and adult relationships around her. Shahida represents the childlike curiosity with which the self ought to examine the other. In the presence of a child even a hardened reporter’s heart can melt, giving rise to the beautiful moment when Bajrangi (who has finally crossed into the Pakistani border visa-less, even passport-less!) teases the friendly, bumbling reporter Chand Nawab with: “Haven’t you seen the Mahabharat?” And Chand Nawab, so guilelessly responds with: “Is it a film? (Insert a perfectly timed Nawazuddin Siddiqui pause) Is it a new film?” How apt that we see our greatest literature go unrecognized just a few miles across the border! How liberating to have us humbled so that we can open our minds and hearts to dialog with our neighbors.

By the end of the film my theory was confirmed: Shahida is Pavan and Pavan is Shahida. The same innocence shines in their eyes, the same heart beats in their body. If at all the two were separate, their fusion is complete in the last shot of the film as the song “I am heart, you are the heartbeat,” plays in the background and Shahida is finally home. Indian and Pakistani denizens storm the military gates that divide our nations, and miracle of all miracles, Shahida utters her first words. Her words are ironically (another reach-for-rumal moment) “Jai Shri Raam!” What fondness, what love can the other feel for us! Indeed, there is no greater tribute, and indeed all the blows Salman Khan has suffered on his body are redeemed by these, Shahida’s guttural almost primal-sounding words! These are the first syllables uttered by the paak, pure Shahida.

Her words are her offering, a verbal recognition of the self by the other. These words are not what we have in common with Pakistan. Nowhere in Pakistan would you hear a shout of Jai Shri Raam. But still, see how how easily these words were translatable, repeatable, teachable. They carried no violence, no political agendas. As such they became a mirror reflecting Shahida and Pavan’s mutual pain and joy, of meeting one another and separating, of losing and finding home.

If at any point my mind, my body despised Raam or the words Jai Shri Raam (I lived through the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition as a child and heard these words used as a battlecry), then Shahida rid these words of their negative associations. My nation’s greeting on the lips of a Pakistani girl returned me my Raam.

(Shilpi Suneja is a writer living in Boston. She is finishing a novel about the long shadow of the Punjab Partition.)

By Pramod Kumar for TwoCircles.net

The media is indeed the Fourth Pillar of democracy and is, therefore, by implication and extension, as relevant as the other three pillars in terms of “checks and balances” aspect of the separation of powers envisaged by the Constitution. The level of transparency and accountability expected of the other pillars devolves on media too.

However, Dr. B.R.Ambedkar, while introducing draft Constitution in the Constituent Assembly in November 1948 had warned “Democracy in India is only a top-dressing on Indian soil which is undemocratic”. We have been and remain a feudal and patriarchal society where institutionalised discrimination against lower castes is a fact of life. The privileged section of the society, the upper castes, has created this unjust system (rebirth and karma-phall theory) since many millennia, and has contrived to inflict an immutable division of people into hierarchical castes. Our media professionals, both on the management and editorial side, hail from the privileged section.

The history too is witness to the fact that the democratic process is often manipulated by various sections for their selfish ends and media happily plays along. Noam Chomsky has also sought to drive home the point that mass media serves as a form of “thought control” in a democracy/society with major organisations systematically bending the truth to serve their vested interests. (Manufacturing Consent – Political Economy of Mass Media).

The importance, relevance and criticality of media have drastically changed over the last two decades because of its unprecedented growth. The new aggrandising media market is a product of economic reforms under the auspices of neo-liberalism. It has also a far greater reach now as the electronic media is able to pull in even semi-literates and illiterates too. However, it is doubtful if the media recognises a universe, beyond the Corporate, its allies, the advertisers and people with the purchasing power, where a majority of the oppressed and marginalised wage a war of survival daily. The proliferation, the extended reach has resulted in “messenger becoming the message”. It is claimed “We are a powerful presence now and when we disseminate information, we create perceptions we need. The perceptions can be discussed and assessed as you will – but we will again – “manufacture” another perception or strengthen that already exists. Bur we now have the wherewithal to create, manufacture, raise and tailor perceptions we want and we do it often”.

Our complexities, contradictions and diversities provide us with the multiplicity of perspectives. The perspective engaging the political discourse currently is that of progress and development through “growth only” in a neo-liberal economic framework and that its “trickle down effect” will eventually reach the last person. Our Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi and the Corporate strongly support it. However, our own empirical experience of the “growth” and the finds of economist Thomas Piketty and Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz, tell us that this premise is illusory. The “growth” only deepens the inequalities and inequities and makes rich richer and poor poorer.

The media`s ownership pattern has been re-worked. The terms of employment (contract system) have also changed. This has introduced an element of insecurity in service conditions affecting the balance and objectivity of the profession. A caveat is needed. While the mainstream media, both print and electronic, has aligned with the forces supporting “growth at any cost”, there are a few exceptions in print like the Hindu, Indian Express and niche sites on web which provide space and time for different perspectives and all shades of opinion.

The other media houses or the “neo-media” has broken its compact with the people. It is no longer transparent, responsible or accountable as the Fourth Pillar. Ordinarily, the media is expected to destroy the smoke screens of perceptions and hidden agendas but the “new media’ has excelled in providing a smoke-screen to Mr. Modi`s past baggage and creating a larger than life perception of him. The “neo-media” has downplayed his lifelong association with Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh and its political wing Bhartiya Janta Party. The RSS`s ideology “cultural nationalism or Hindutva” is inspired by “national socialism” which held sway in the first half of 20th Century in Europe. RSS, like the “national socialism”, believes in parallel narratives: one of supremacy and pride and other of subordination and contempt – supremacy of Hindus and subordination of non-Hindus – pride in Civilisational (Vedic) past and contempt for minorities.

The “new media” has, through disproportionate and extremely adulatory portrayal of Mr. Modi, since 2013, promoted him as a “beacon of hope”. He has, we are asked to believe, “moved on” from 2002. The ‘neo-media” claims that Mr. Modi secured the mandate because of his overarching appeal, cutting across social, economic and religious divides. It adds that Mr. Modi has brought new energy and hope and under him, India is now poised to realize its enormous potential. India will, once again, be land of milk and honey, with jobs aplenty and a resplendent technology-driven life style. Mr. Modi has changed the narrative dramatically from policy paralysis and cynicism to arrival of “better days” soon. Many old schemes started during earlier NDA and UPA regimes have been renamed, re-packaged and re-launched along with new schemes like “Make In India, Smart Cities, Skill and Digital India” to transform the lives of Indian people. Mr. Modi`s spiel of better times, in near future, has sounded more like what Sudipta Sen of Kolkata and Bernie Madoff of USA promised to their investors. Hope it does not meet the fate of Sen`s and Madoff`s investors?

The reality, however, is quite different. Mr. Modi has, to this day, not said that he has “moved on from 2002”. The majoritarian prejudices often resurfaced during the Lok Sabha Elections and shattered hurriedly built perception and facade of a leader wedded to “idea of India”. Mr. Modi used loaded terms like “Burqa secularism, pink revolution and 1000 years` slavery” in his speeches and even as Prime Minister, he has granted citizenship to refugees from Pakistan and Bangladesh on the basis of religion and not circumstance. Mr. Modi, his Sarkar and RSS/BJP have been trying, at a subliminal level, to allow “culturally nationalistic” overtones reverberate, at almost all functions, events and programmes by using terms like ‘BHARAT MATA KI JAI” or “VANDE MATRAM” instead of “Hindustan Zindabad” and “Jai Hind” which have had universal acceptance so far. The chant of “HAR HAR MODI” also mimics Hindus` war cry “HAR HAR MAHADEV”.

The “neo-media” has also downplayed the role played by RSS in elections to 16th Lok Sabha. RSS unleashed thousands of its swayamsewaks who left their homes to do door-to-door canvassing in the Hindi heartland. They used the standard divisive discourse, hate speech, love-jihad and spectre of extinction of Hindus as the persuasive arguments. They succeeded, as in Babri Masjid and Gujarat riots cases, to convince the subaltern section of the society also to subsume their problems, hardships and suffering at the hands of Upper Castes, for the greater cause of establishing “Hindu Rashtra, the promised land of Vedic wisdom and purity” and remove the threat of extinction once for all. The swayamsewaks have not given off their sweat for bullet trains, smart cities but to settle scores or avenge the real or imaginary past persecution. The RSS and BJP stalwarts have repeatedly taken up the divisive issues and this has been met with innocuous homilies from Mr. Modi. RSS also tends to keep small fires/issues burning or alive and at election times fans them into conflagration or confrontation to polarise the people. It happened in UP last year and is happening again in Bihar and Karnataka.

Mr. Modi`s foreign visits have also received the usual hysterical response. Ram Madhav of RSS/BJP had worked hard for days and incurring huge expenditure to organise spectacular events, with lots of glitz and razzmatazz. These have been extensively covered by “neo-media”. Its reporters/editors also contributed to hype and hoopla by concentrating only on the already converted Diasporas and studiously ignoring lack of enthusiasm in foreign media and demonstrations against Mr. Modi for his alleged indifference to or contempt for human rights. Is Diasporas conflating returns on invested dollars with a sense of guilt for deserting India after receiving education, largely at the State`s expense, from prestigious Institutions? In any case, sartorial elegance, playing of drums, playfulness of pulling a child`s ears and pious palliatives of co-operation and fight against terror notwithstanding, tangible outcomes are still to materialize.

The “neo-media” has also hailed the slogan “Maximum Governance – Minimum Government”. However, the situation on the ground is quite different. There is a trust deficit amongst the various sections of administration which has resulted in a sort of paranoia. Mr. Modi has not helped the matters by allowing the Secretaries to bypass their Ministers and access him directly as and when required (Hindustan Times-5/11/14). Also, insidious stratagems used to prevent elevation of independent minded persons (Gopal Subramaniam) to Supreme Court, tarring of inconvenient NGOs (P. Pillai of Greenpeace and Christine Mehta of Amnesty International) through leaks and planting of stories and rendering RTI, CVC dysfunctional by keeping the posts vacant for a prolonged period do not fit in with the transparency standards Mr. Modi was so eloquent about during his campaign. Even the judiciary has been “advised” by PM to be wary of 5-Star Activists. In fact, there is a fear that an intricate web of political and professionals informers has become a permanent part of governance and is supposed to help PMO retain, tighten and enhance its control. Also media`s access to Bureaucrats/Ministers has been restricted drying up flow of information from primary sources. Mr. Modi himself has kept the media at bay. He has not forgiven media for doing its job in 2002.

The “neo-media” has not raised queries about the expenditure incurred on Mr. Modi`s high-tech, high-voltage campaign which included video raths, holograms, freebies like T-shirts, Cap and, Sarees. The professional agencies recorded Mr. Modi`s rallies through cameras mounted on drones and cranes and “neo-media” used the same live feeds without even acknowledging the source. It has not questioned the avalanche of advertisements promoting various “renewed” and other schemes, released by Modi Sarkar. The number and the frequency of advertisements is mind-boggling. The “neo-media’ has been berating Delhi`s AAP Govt. for earmarking 526 crores for promotional advertisements but has not, so far, raised any questions about NDA`s advertisements which focus almost entirely on Mr. Modi and his exhortations. Is it because Modi Sarkar`s generosity is a source of revenue for “neo-media” and it is used to “grease” the persuasion indulged in by the Govt. to prevent media from straying? Or is it for diverting attention from substantive issues like job creation and black money?

The “neo-media” also helped the Corporate and BJP in preparing the ground for Mr. Modi`s victory. Of course, the pusillanimity, lack of conviction, arrogance about 2nd term, coalitional pitfalls and perception of endemic corruption did contribute to UPA`s fall. But the Corporate, BJP led by Mr. Modi and a section of bureaucracy not only obstructed but vitiated the political discourse. The “new-media” now accuses the opposition of harming “national interest” by disrupting Rajya Sabha and blocking Mr. Modi`s economic reforms. It suppresses or ignores the fac that it was Mr. Modi himself who stymied FDIs, GST and even Land Border Agreement with Bangla Desh. Arun Jaitly has defined disruptions as legitimate Parliamentary tactics. If so, it is kosher for all. Also, the Corporate was upset with UPA because of its shift from patronage to politics of rights and entitlements and imposition of Corporate Social Responsibility. It turned its back on it despite having received huge benefits through “revenue foregone”. Instead of investing in India, it rushed abroad and created jobs there. India is the third largest investor in U.K. now. The Corporate has now been assured of better days and Modi Sarker has already cut corporate tax by 1% and has drastically reduced allocations for social sector.

The CAG, Vinod Rai, the bureaucrat with a “mission” sensationalised its draft reports by leaking them to media. He discovered huge “presumptive” losses because of corruption in implementing the “existing” policies about allocation of spectrum/coal. The alleged scams are sub judice now. But Rai`s address to young Police Officers of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy, Hyderabad on 11/10/13, reveals, that he felt “called” upon to set the systems right by himself. He spoke like an activist and said “I wish to make three propositions today and seek your reactions on whether you agree and whether you are in a position to be a participant in ensuring that All India Services retain their past glory. First: that governance is at its lowest ebb; that morale of Civil Service is low; that credibility of Govt., is at its lowest; that decision making has become a casualty; Second: that this situation is deleterious to the nation; that too much is at stake for many in such a situation. Third: that on you and on officers of All India Services among others rests the ONUS to remedy the situation.” (From Frontline – 17.10.14 – A.G.Noorani`s article). Now Arun Jaitly tells us “CAG SHOULD NOT SENSATIONALIZE FINDINGS, WE LIVEIN A SOCIETY THAT HAS BECOME OVER-SUSPICIOUS. THEREFORE OUR JOB IS NOT TO CONVERT THE PUBLIC OPINION INTO A KIND OF LYNCH MOB”. (Times of India – 30/10/14).

The “neo-media” has displayed a tendency to either downplay or brush aside important issue/news which is likely to have an adverse impact and cause harm to strenuously built personality cult around Mr. Modi. Following are a few instances:-

Nitish Kumar, once a development hero has become a zero now for the media because he changed his stand and parted ways with NDA.. The “neo-media”, displaying exemplary journalistic zeal, ferreted out a CD circa 2003 wherein he had praised Gujarat Govt. But such probing is missing in the case of Mr. Modi who from 2002 to 2012 followed the divisive politics; in 2002, it was the sequence of “action-reaction” and crude and toxic jibes like “HUM PAANCH – HAMARE PACHEES”. In 2007, passions were roused by Mr. Modi by asking “what should I do with Sohrabuddins?” at the election rallies and in 2012 Gujarat, Govt. resisted funding repairs, restoration of Muslim religious places destroyed or damaged in 2002 Gujarat riots and Supreme Court had to intervene. There has been no follow-up however.

The verdict in Akshardham Terror case delivered by Supreme Court on 16/5/14 acquitted six persons, three of them on death row and other three facing life-term has been ignored. The SC even made scathing observations about Gujarat Police “instead of booking the real culprits responsible for taking so many precious lives, police imposed grievous charges against them”. The SC also pulled up the then Home Minister, Mr. Modi, for “non-application of mind”.

Prof. of History, Salil Misra, says “Culture, art and cinema are the instruments to homogenise the society”. RSS also subscribes to this dictum. Modi Sarkar has allowed its followers or associates to infiltrate (Y. Sudarshan Rao – ICHR / G. Chauhan - FTII) into or carry out purge (Amartya Sen – Nalanda University / G. Ravindran - ICHR) in established, autonomous Institutions dealing with education, art and science. Now, NCERT has been asked to review and rewrite History books for schools in a way that will emphasise the role of “cultural nationalism” in Freedom Struggle. The avowed aim is to inculcate a feeling for nationalism. However, for RSS, nationalism is a curious combination of xenophobia and humongous conceit of being superior and of triumphalism.

The CBI had charge-sheeted many Police Officers for fake encounters in Gujarat and had resisted their bail. Now, with the change of Govt. at the Centre, the same CBI has refused to contest the grant of bail to these officers. The Gujarat Govt. has not only lifted their suspension but has promoted some of them. Again, NIA`s Prosecutors in Malegaon and Ajmer cases where Hindu groups stand arraigned have protested that pressure is being brought on them to go slow. Also, the witnesses too have begun to turn hostile. One of them has been made a Minister in BJP Govt. of Jharkhand. In Gujarat,

Like Emergency of 1975, the 16th Lok Sabha Elections is a watershed moment for media. Earlier, it chose to crawl. Now, it has turned into a watch-dog for the Executive. The personality oriented governance has been hailed. In 1975, it was Lathi, now it is self-interest, lucre, net-working and not so concealed persuasive and coercive pressure. India`s intelligentsia had rationalized the tyranny of Emergency and once again, it is rationalizing Modi cult through over-emphasising “growth” and Hashimpura, Atali, Laxmanpur Bathe, Bhagana, Khairlanji and the mal-nourished millions hardly feature in this discourse.

What is happening is not conventional pull and push of power of politics but is a Machiavellian undermining of democratic process itself. It is time to recall Dr. Ambedkar`s words about the democracy. He said on January 26, 1950, the day India became Republic, “we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. In politics, we will have equality and in social and economic life, we will have inequality. In politics, we will be recognising the principle of one-man-one-vote and one-vote-one- value. In our social and economic life, we shall, by reason of our social and economic structure, deny the principle of one-vote-one-value. How long shall we continue to live the life of contradictions? How long shall we continue to deny equality in our social and economic life? If we continue to deny it for long, we shall be putting our political democracy in peril”?

One should also remember that Nuremburg War Crime Trial in 1946 confirmed the existence of a nexus built by the political power with the Corporate and the Media. Then also, the political power was accessed through democratic process.

P.S. There has been turmoil in the media of late caused perhaps by the latest developments like Lalitgate. Modi Sarkar, for a change, is being asked questions. The “new-media” has been displaying its “tabloidish” expertise in dealing with its unsavoury aspects. Is the Corporate apprehensive about the new developments which have the potential of delaying the economic reforms? Has the media now realized that its creation, invention, promotion and selling of Mr. Modi remains a hollow narrative, like holograms?

(Pramod Kumar is a commentator based in Goa.)

सिद्धांत मोहन, TwoCircles.net

वाराणसी: दिन भर पीठ पर एक बैकपैक टांगे, पुराने मैले कपड़े पहने, एक साइकिल के सहारे बनारस के मंडलीय अस्पतालों के चक्कर काटते अमन को बनारस में कम लोग ही जानते हैं. अमन यादव, यही नाम है बनारस में रहने वाले इस शख्स का.

उम्र बीस साल और समाजशास्त्र से बी.ए. में सेकण्ड ईयर का छात्र अमन एक बड़ी मुहिम पर निकला है. पहले की बात और थी लेकिन अब सड़क पर कोई भी गरीब, घायल, चोटिल या बीमार यूं ही लावारिस पड़ा नहीं दिखता है. जिसके पास पैसे नहीं हैं, अब उसे भी इलाज मुहैया होने लगा है. उन्हें इलाज मुहैया कराते हैं, अमन यादव.

सरकारी स्वास्थ्य सुविधाओं का अपना ही एक हाल है. वे सस्ती हैं लेकिन फिर भी आमजन की पहुंच से काफी दूर हैं. सरकारी स्वास्थ्य कर्मचारियों के रवैये और उनकी कार्यप्रणाली किसी मरीज के मन में और भी रोष भर देती है. महात्मा गांधी ने भले ही छुआछूत के उन्मूलन और जातीय बराबरी के लिए लड़ाई लड़ी थी, लेकिन इसे मानने में हरगिज़ संदेह नहीं करना होगा कि यह अभी भी अपने समाज में बने हुए हैं. ऐसे में सरकारी स्वास्थ्य सेवाओं से दूर जो अछूत मरीज हैं, जिन्हें अस्पतालों में बिस्तर तक नहीं मिलता, अमन उनकी देखभाल करता है.

अमन अपनी कहानी खुद बताते हुए कहते हैं, ‘अब मुझे यह काम करते-करते चार साल से ऊपर हो गए हैं. जब बनारस में कचहरी में आतंकी बम विस्फोट हुआ था उस समय मेरे इस काम की नींव पड़ी. धमाके के बाद घायलों को इधर-उधर ले जाया जा रहा था. मंडलीय अस्पताल में भी घायल आए, लेकिन मैंने देखा कि अस्पताल में काम करने वाले कंपाउंडर तक मानव अंगों को उठाने में उबका रहे थे. वकीलों को छोड़ दें तो उस धमाके में घायल हुए चाय वालों और फेरी वालों की ओर कोई ध्यान नहीं दे रहा था. वे अलग पड़े कराह रहे थे. मैंने उनकी मदद की. मरीजों के गिरे-पड़े अंग उठाए. उस दिन यह सब काम करने के लिए घर पर बहुत मार पड़ी थी, लेकिन तब तक यह सफ़र शुरू हो चुका था.’

लावारिस रोगियों की मदद के लिए महज़ 20 साल के लड़के का जुनून देखना बड़ी बात है. अमन यादव अभी भी एक किशोर ही है. उसे अपनी राह बनाने में जितना संघर्ष करना पड़ रहा है, वह संघर्ष काफी ज्यादा है. उस संघर्ष के बरअक्स अमन की उपलब्धि काफी ज्यादा है. बकौल अमन, यह काम शुरू करने के बाद उसे घर में बहुत बार मार पड़ी थी. एक दफा उसके पिता ने लगभग 25 दिनों तक उसके पैर में जंजीर बांधकर उसे घर में कैद रखा था, यह सोचकर कि शायद इसी तरीके से अमन का दिमाग पढ़ाई की ओर लौट आए. लेकिन अमन का दिमाग नहीं लौटना था तो नहीं लौटा. 25 दिनों बाद बेड़ियां खुलते ही अमन यादव फिर से फरार हो गया. ऐसे में अमन यादव के पिता का भी कोई दोष नहीं है. अमन एक निम्न मध्यमवर्गीय परिवार से आता है. ऐसे परिवारों में यदि रोज़ पैसे न मिलें तो एक वक़्त का चूल्हा न जलने तक की नौबत आ जाती है. अमन के पिता को मुंह का कैंसर है. अमन कहते हैं, ‘पापा का कहना भी सही है. घर में बहुत सारी चीजें हैं, बातें हैं.

मुझे पढ़ाई के साथ-साथ थोड़ा बहुत कमाने के बारे में सोचना चाहिए. लेकिन अब मुझे खुद इसका उत्तर नहीं पता कि मैं इतना बेहाथ क्यों हूं? एक दिन भी किसी मरीज की सेवा करने का अवसर नहीं मिलता तो मैं परेशान हो जाता हूं. मुझे लगता कुछ दिमागी है.’

अमन की पहचान सिर्फ इतनी नहीं है कि वे कम उम्र लेकिन बड़े कद के समाजसेवक हैं, अमन को ‘गंगा-पुत्र’ या ‘गंगा सेवक’ के नाम से भी जाना जाता है. तीन साल पहले शंकराचार्य स्वामी स्वरूपानंद सरस्वती के मार्गदर्शन में स्वामी अविमुक्तेश्वरानंद ने गंगा को लेकर एक मुहिम चलाई थी. उद्देश्य था कि गंगा के नाम पर योजनाएं चलाने वाली केंद्र सरकार को गंगा के यथार्थ से परिचित कराना. बड़ी संख्या में जनता ने भी इस मुहिम को समर्थन दिया था. इसी वक़्त अमन यादव स्वामी अविमुक्तेश्वरानंद के सम्पर्क में आया. गंगा अभियान में अमन की भागीदारी से खुश होकर स्वामी अविमुक्तेश्वरानंद ने अमन को एक साइकिल दिलाई, एक दफ़ा साइकिल चोरी हो जाने के बाद अमन को फिर से साइकिल मिली. अविमुक्तेश्वरानंद के साथ अमन ने बनारस से दिल्ली के जंतर-मंतर व राजघाट तक की यात्रा की. गंगा के मसलों को समझने में श्रम किया और गंगा अभियान से जुड़ गया.

अमन बताते हैं, ‘मुझे गरीब लोगों की सेवा करने वाले की तरह बेहद कम लोग जानते हैं. अधिकतर लोग अभी भी मुझे गंगा सेवक ही मानते हैं. स्वामीजी के साथ रहता हूं तो लोगों को भ्रम होता है कि मैं किसी पार्टी का आदमी हूं. लेकिन अपने काम में मैं राजनीति के दखल से बिलकुल दूर रहता हूं.’

अब रोजनामचा ही इन रोगियों के लिए ही नहीं, लगभग अपना पूरा समय इस मुहिम में अमन ने दे दिया है. कुछ ही दिनों पहले बीते अपने जन्मदिन के दिन अमन ने कुछेक लोगों को अस्पताल में बुलाकर उनसे मरीजों में बिस्कुट, कपड़े व दूसरे ज़रूरी सामान बंटवाए. नगर के तमाम रंगकर्मियों को बुलाकर स्वतंत्रता दिवस के दिन अमन ने मरीजों के बीच मिठाईयां बंटवाई.

अमन के पिट्ठू बैग में एक बेटाडीन की बोतल, सर्जिकल रूई, बैंडेज पट्टी, मास्क, दस्ताने, डिटौल और ऐसी कई सारी ज़रूरी चीज़ें पड़ी रहती हैं. अमन कहते हैं, ‘बस पिछले चार सालों के दौरान मैंने इतने तरीके के घाव देख लिए हैं, मुझे नहीं लगता कि किसी डॉक्टर ने भी देखा होगा. क्योंकि ऐसे गरीब और गंभीर मरीज अस्पतालों में नहीं आ पाते.’ बनारस में दवा व्यवसायी जितेन्द्र तिवारी कहते हैं, ‘हमने अमन को ऐसे मरीजों का इलाज करते हुए देखा है, जिन्हें डॉक्टर भी छूने से बचता है. जिन्हें अस्पतालों के अन्दर तक नहीं लिया जाता, वे अमन के भरोसे हैं.’

यह काम करने की अपनी दिक्कतें हैं. दवाइयां और सर्जरी के मामूली सामान खास तौर पर महंगे होते हैं. यह खर्च उठाना एक 20 साल के बेरोजगार लड़के के लिए मुश्किल है. अमन कहते हैं, ‘जब पहले स्वामीजी से महीने में कुछ दो-तीन हजार रूपए मिल जाते थे. उससे कुछ खर्च निकल आता था. फिर इस काम के कारण मैंने स्वामीजी के यहां समय देना कम कर दिया. अब भी मैं स्वामीजी के यहां जाता हूं लेकिन अब उनसे पैसे नहीं लेता क्योंकि अभी मेरा योगदान उतना नहीं है.’ अमन आगे कहते हैं, ‘शुरू में दिक्कत होती थी. लेकिन यह काम करते-करते अधिकतर दवा व्यवसाइयों को दोस्त बना लिया. पैसे तो नहीं ही लेता हूं लेकिन व्यवसायी रूई, कॉटन और दूसरी जरूरी चीजों का बण्डल बिना पैसे के दे देते हैं, उनसे काम चल जाता है. कुछ लोग हैं जो दूसरे जरूरी सामान - जैसे बिस्कुट, नमकीन, ग्लूकोज़ – दे देते हैं. लोगों से उनके पुराने कपड़े मांग लेता हूं. वह भी मरीजों के बीच बांटने में इस्तेमाल हो जाता है. लेकिन इधर-उधर से इंतजाम करके कोशिश करता हूं कि मेरी गाड़ी न रुके.’

इस ख़ास मुहिम को कहीं समर्थन नहीं मिलता है. मंडलीय अस्पताल के निरीह मरीजों के लिए यदि अमन कोई फ़रिश्ता हैं तो अस्पताल के कर्मचारियों और डॉक्टरों के आंखों में अमन चुभता है. हो भी क्यों न, अस्पतालों के अहातों से लेकर सड़क के किनारों तक अमन एक पैरलल स्वास्थ्य सेवा मुहैया करा रहा है, वह भी निःशुल्क. कई बार चीफ मेडिकल सुपरीटेंडेंट से लेकर नर्स व वार्ड ब्वाय तक से अमन मरीजों के अधिकारों के लिए भीड़ चुका है. इस बारे में बात करते हुए अमन कहते हैं, ‘अस्पताल के गलियारे में कोई मरीज पड़ा है तो नर्स के लिए उसका कोई महत्त्व नहीं है. उसकी मरहम-पट्टी करने या ड्रिप बदलने के लिए जब मैं उन्हें टोक देता हूं तो कई बार वे मेरे ऊपर भड़क जाते हैं. नर्सें मुझसे पूछती हैं कि क्या मैंने इन मरीजों का ठेका लेकर रखा है? मैं कई बार ‘हां’ कहना चाहता हूं.’

स्थानीय स्तर पर अमन का राजनीतिक इस्तेमाल करने की भयानक कोशिशें हो रही हैं. भाजपा, सपा, आम आदमी पार्टी और कांग्रेस ने अमन का प्रचार के रूप इस्तेमाल करने की कोई कसर नहीं छोड़ी है. अमन एक घटना का ज़िक्र करते हैं, ‘एक बार छात्र नेताओं पर पुलिस ने लाठीचार्ज किया था. उन्हें देखने के लिए भाजपा के तत्कालीन नगर अध्यक्ष और महानगर अध्यक्ष आए थे. मैं उन्हें अन्य रोगियों के वार्ड में स्थिति दिखाने ले गया और कहा कि साहब, कुछ करिए कि इनकी व्यवस्था में सुधार हो. उन्हें उलटी आने लगी. बाहर आए और कहा कि कुछ करते हैं. साल भर हो गया है लेकिन उन्होंने कुछ नहीं किया. सभी यही करते हैं, मेरे साथ दौरे करते हैं. फोटो खिंचाते हैं और आश्वासन देकर अपने-अपने रास्तों की ओर निकल जाते हैं.’

मुलाक़ात के बीच एक दिन अमन ने हंसते हुए कहा, ‘आज पापा हमको घर से निकाल दिए हैं. रात में वापस ले लेंगे. यह रोज़ का हो गया है.’ अमन यादव बचपन में ही पोलियो का शिकार हो गया था. आज भी उसकी चाल में थोड़ा पोलियो बचा हुआ है. अमन की ज़िद ने उसका बचपन काफी पहले ही यौवन में बदल दिया है नहीं तो बीस साल की उम्र में बड़े घरों के बच्चे टीवी सेट के सामने बैठकर प्ले-स्टेशन सरीखी आरामतलबी किया करते हैं. अमन से जब हमने पूछा कि उनके इस काम का भविष्य क्या है? अमन ने परेशान होते हुए कहा, ‘भविष्य के बारे में तो कभी सोचा नहीं. लेकिन शायद जब हर तबके के लोग सरकारी अस्पताल में मुफ्त इलाज पा सकेंगे, यही भविष्य होगा.’

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By Shaheer Khan for TwoCircles.net

Eminent Urdu writer Hamida Salim passed away on Sunday, August 16th at the age of 93 at her house in Delhi. She was laid to rest at Jamia Millia Islamia graveyard on Monday. She is survived by her husband Abu Salim, son Irfan Salim who lives San Francisco Bay area, and daughter Sumbul Salim. Born in 1922 in a Zamindar family of Rudauli in Barabanki district of Uttar Pradesh, she did her B.A. from I.T. College, Lucknow, and M.A. in Economics from the Aligarh Muslim University in 1947. She took her diploma and Masters in Economics from the University of London. She taught both in the Women's College and Economics Department at Aligarh Muslim University in the early 1960s before moving to Delhi where she taught at Jamia Millia Islamia.

Hamida Salim signing her book

Hamida Salim’s death (Hamida Aapa as we used to call her) has come as shock to literary world in general and Aligarh fraternity in particular.

My interactions with Hamid Apa began about 10 years ago during one of her annual summer visits to the Bay area to see her son, Irfan Salim. After our first meeting, she called me on her subsequent summer visits and left a message in her very sweet voice, “Shaheer Mian, Mai Bay Area May Aa Gai Hun. Aap Say Aur Humaira Say Mulaqat Kub Hogi”. We tried to visit her couple of times at her son’s house, depending on her availability, on every visit. During our last meeting some 3 years ago she mentioned that she may not come back here due to their old age and poor health (hers as well as Salim Sahab). She always appreciated that her son will make sure that his parents travel in comfort by business class with a stopover in Europe for several days but still the long journey to San Francisco was too much for them at this age.

From L to R Abu Salim, Sumbul Salim, Irfan Salim and Hamida Salim

It’s hard to explain our feeling every time when we met her. Amazing human being, she was more than just Majaz's sister. Highly sophisticated and extremely hospitable and very loving person. We enjoyed every minute of her company and always learned something new about the Aligarh, Lucknow and of course Rudauli (her home town and birth place) of her days. It was an honor to be with her. Our conversations will always include Asrarul Haq Majaz (renowned Urdu Poet), SafiaAkhtar (Urdu litterateur, wife of Jan Nisar Akhtar and Javed Akhtar’s mother) and Ansar Harvani (veteran freedom fighter, parliamentarian and Congressman).

She had an amazing memory. Her autobiography “Shorish-e-Dauran” (Troubulent Times) published in 1995 covers her Aligarh days. Her second book “Ham Saath The”(We were Together) consists of her write-ups about her siblings, and has not received the attention it deserves as noted by Naved Masood Sahab. Several people whose opinion is respected in Urdu world feel that Hamida Apa’s article on Majaz, titles “Jaggan Bhaia” is possibility the best tribute from a sister to her brother they have seen. Majaz was known within the family as Jaggan because he would go to sleep very late. Her other two books, “Hardam Rawan Hai Zindagi” (Life is constantly on the move) and “Parchhaiyon Ke Ujale” (Lights of Shadows) are novels. I am privileged to have all four book signed by her. She gave us the latter two as gift. According to published reports she was working on two other books ‘Ab aur Tab' (Now and Then, collection of short stories and a few articles, will compare the times gone by with the present) and ‘Beeti Huee Yaaden' (Remembrance of the Things Past, Memoir).

Standing Irfan Salim, Sitting L-R Hamida Salim, Mrs. Irfan Salim, Abu Salim and Shaheer Khan

Over the years I convinced her to write articles for our Aligarh Magazine. Despite her old age and poor health she agreed to my request. At the end she will say, “Shaheer Mian Aap Ki Zid Nay Majboor Kar Dia LikhNay Kay Liye”. I also requested her to read one of her articles on Majaz, that she wrote at my request, for video recording.

She was an accomplished author in her own right, had her own identity and enjoyed her own place in Urdu literature but for us, the Aligarians, who are so passionate about ‘Tarana-e-Aligarh’ and our love for Majaz; she was our link to Majaz and source of firsthand information about his life and work. That link is broken and gone forever. We will miss you Hamida Apa.

(Shaheer Khan is the founder and co-moderator of AMUNetwork, a prominent mailing list of AMU alumni.)

Abdul Gani, TwoCircles.net

Guwahati: Asma Khatun (25) has been struggling with life under extreme circumstances where she has very slim chance of seeing her husband again though he is still alive. Asma got married to Moinal Mollah, of Barpeta district’s Bohri village, few years back and the couple also have two kids but the kids. But Mollah, now 30, was separated from his family two years ago.

Though Mollah’s parents and forefathers are Indians – they have all the valid documents - he has been kept in the detention camp since 2013 after he was pronounced as an ‘illegal or doubtful citizen’. What is worse that there is little hope of his coming out of the detention camp unless the Supreme Court intervenes.

“What do I do? We have been running here and there without any result. We are poor people and nobody wants to help us. How would we accept that my husband is a doubtful citizen when all his ancestors have been casting votes in the elections and have the land documents prior to even India’s independence,” a dejected Asma told TwoCircles.net.

How was Moinal Mollah declared a Foreigner?

In 1998 the Superintendent of Police, Barpeta made three reference cases namely Case No. 8225/1998, Case No. 8626/98 and Case no. 8627/98 to the then Illegal Migrants (Determination) Tribunals, Barpeta. On 06.11.03 the IMDT Tribunal, Barpeta declared that father and mother of Moinal Mollah are Indian citizens, based on the land deeds, NRC and other documents required to prove his citizenship.

The IMDT Tribunal did not take up Moinal Mollah’s case then. After IMDT Act got scrapped the reference case was automatically transferred to Foreigners Tribunal (2nd Tribunal) Barpeta.

Moinal Mollah duly appeared before the Tribunal on several occasions but was wrongly advised by his lawyer that as his parents have already been declared Indian citizen by earlier Tribunal, he need not worry and consequently he is not required to appear before the Foreign Tribunal’.

Owing to illiteracy and ignorance the petitioner never appeared before the Tribunal thereafter.

The Foreigners’ Tribunal, Barpeta, by its ex-parte Judgment and order dated February 16, 2010 held that the petitioner is a foreigner within the meaning of Sec (2) of the Foreigners Act, 1946. The petitioner filed a complaint against his counsel with the Bar Council and also made him a party in the High Court.

Subsequently, the petitioner filed a writ petition in Gauhati High Court, but the High Court on August 1, 2013 dismissed the writ petition ordering to deport Moinal Mollah.

On September 5, 2013 Molla was arrested by Police and since then he is at the Goalpara detention camp. The petitioner being aggrieved by the final order of aforesaid writ petition preferred a writ appeal before the division bench of Gauhati High Court.

But the court again dismissed the appeal on March 21, 2014. Moinal Mollah then filed a Revision Petition which too was dismissed on May 16, 2015 saying that it is time barred without going to the merit of the case.

The fact that Moinal Mollah’s parents and ancestors were citizens of India was ignored. His great grandfather, grandfather and father have voted since independence and their name feature in all voter lists made after the election. However, all these facts were ignored for no known reasons.

Asma says that Moinal Mollah’s grandfather had land documents in his name before independence; annual kheraj patta was issued in his grandfather’s name in the year 1938. Mollah’s grandfather and father’s names also feature in 1951 National Registration Certificate (NRC).

Is there any hope for Moinal Mollah

“Under these circumstances, Mollah has only one option to go to the Supreme Court and seek justice, otherwise he may have to spend his entire life in detention camp,” says Guwahati based advocate and civil rights activist Aman Wadud.

However, Mollah belongs to a very poor family and it’s almost impossible for the family to arrange the required fund to seek judicial remedy from the Apex Court.

Is this an isolated case?

What is more worrying that this is not a new or isolated incident in Assam where there are hundred others who face the similar fate. In spite of being born in India, some people are tagged as doubtful or illegal citizen and across their names in the voter’s list ‘D’ is marked.

Assam government has formed 500 state police units for detection of illegal immigrants in the state.

Besides, there are some other reasons as well, a section of advocates in the rural areas take advantage of the illiterate people and demand money assuring them to solve the problem.

This is the reason why many people do not appear in the Foreigners Tribunal.

According to the government data there are altogether 1,41,733 doubtful voters present in Assam, out of which, 33,944 have been declared as Indian citizens; while the fate of many still hang in balance.

Assam government recently created over 500 special police units to detain these people and has also been working on to increase the number of detention camp. The higher authority in police has already instructed those units to carry out their operations

A white paper published by Assam government in October, 2012 says that more than 92 percent of the resolved cases of ‘D’ Voters have been declared as genuine Indian nationals.

“Out of the remaining 8 percent cases, in most of those cases, the decree was awarded ex-parte or the doubtful citizen didn’t get the opportunity to prove their citizenship due to multiple reasons such as poverty, illiteracy, lack of access to proper judicial services, communication and transportation among others,” says Abdul Kalam Azad, a community worker.

By A Mirsab, TwoCircles.net,

Central government is spending crores of rupees to eradicate illiteracy through scores of schemes such as Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (The Education for All Movement) and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (National Mission for Secondary Education). But still there are many in the country that is deprived of such schemes due to various reasons.

To find such pupils is a cumbersome task and is more tedious when no one is paid to do that. But despite of this there is a high school teacher who searches for such kind of pupils who are disadvantaged of these schemes and provides them fund through his own pocket in order them to continue their schooling.

Mirza Aejaz Baig

Mirza Aejaz Baig, 46, a teacher of Zilla Parishad High School (Urdu medium) from Beed district of Maharashtra is an educator of exceptional zeal and enthusiasm that urged him to recently take up educational responsibilities of 40 students from Beed city.

Baig is teaching in government school since last 27 years and after closely studying the reasons behind leaving of schooling by pupils he has found that poor financial condition of their parents is restricting them from study, no matter how much less money is required for them to pursue education.

Therefore starting this year he initiated a project to search poor pupils who left schooling after their standard VII or VIII and provides all items required to them to complete their matriculation.

“It’s not my first time that I have started to help poor in completing their education and earlier I used to help few students on a smaller scale but this time I have decided to adopt 40 students and take up their responsibility of two years in completing their matriculation”, Baig told on his adoption of 40 pupils.

He joined in 1988 as a Primary teacher in Zilla Parishad School and now he is teaching to high school classes. He was on deputation for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan between 2005 to 2011 as Assistant program officer for Beed district.

He also served as District Manager between August 2011 to September 2012 under Maulana Azad Corporation for three districts – Parbhani, Beed and Hingoli.

Talking about the instigation he received for such project, he says,” While in Maulana Azad Corporation I used to visit different areas and that is when I minutely observed the conditions of poor and how their priorities switches from education to immediate earning for daily bread and butter”

In summer when all government teachers were vacationing, Baig had decided to carry a survey in four different areas of Beed and identified 40 pupils who were willing to continue their schooling but their poor financial condition at home was forcing them to leave behind their educational aspirations.

“I did not only talk with young pupils but also asked teenagers whether they want to continue schooling if they are provided with all required items and facilities. Fortunately, I could identify and convince 35 girls and 5 boys”, he says with a smiling face.

He says there are some teenagers who have decided to attend school in the morning and to work at shops and hotels in the afternoon to earn and support their families.

Baig admitted all in the same school where he teaches. He will now provide to these 40 students all the basic necessities - uniform, books, notebooks, compass, school bag, practical books, lunch box, pencils, pens and Shoes.

When asked how he could admit and teach 5 boys in a high school of girls, he replied, ”True, this is a girls’ school but when I found that 5 boys are willing to pursue their schooling and fit in my criteria then I requested district education officer to allow their admission and the officer happily agreed”.

His quest did not stop him there but he is also in a process of acquiring a building on rent where he could start sewing classes for girls after their school and another computer lab where he could impart computer knowledge to them.

“I am a teacher and have financial restrictions due to family so I cannot spend all of my salary into this work. But I am trying to reach out to other people to support me in my struggle and to at least provide me a building where I can engage sewing and computer classes after school”, he explains.

Despite of family obligations Baig desires to adopt deserving pupils every year for completion of their schooling till his retirement in 2027.

Baig has two sons; Aseem is studying in final year of Mechanical Engineering at Aurangabad whereas Zeeshan is preparing for Pre Medical Test to become a doctor.

One should continue his work than spending energy in finding help from people, he believes and says,” That diverts the focus from cause and once cause is lost then there is no meaning of number of people you have as a supporter”.

This is indeed a great spending in terms of time and money by a government teacher who are otherwise found mostly to be happy with their own life and enjoy summer vacation with full pay!

People willing to support Baig in his endeavor may talk to him on his personal mobile number 09403268080

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काशिफ़ उल हुदा, TwoCircles.net

बीते कुछ दिनों से समाचार चैनलों की सुर्खियां आंकड़ों के मुकाबिले ज्यादा बातें कर रही हैं. हाल में ही भारत सरकार ने 2011 में की गयी जनगणना के धर्माधारित आंकड़े सार्वजनिक किए हैं. इसके बाद से समाज में एक ख़ास और जाने-पहचाने किस्म का भय पसरा हुआ है, जिसे हवा देने में न्यूज़ चैनल कोई कोर-कसर बाकी नहीं छोड़ रहे हैं. ऐसे में जिस सबसे अधिक सनसनीखेज हेडलाइन से सामना हुआ, वह थी ‘हिन्दुओं की जनसंख्या में गिरावट’, जो सचाई से हर हाल में दूर है. किसी भी नतीजे पर पहुँचने से पहले यह ज़रूरी है कि हम जनसंख्या के इन आंकड़ों और हिन्दू-मुस्लिम समुदाय के असल आंकलन कर लें, ताकि अफ़वाह फैलाने को हमेशा एक साज़िश करार दिया जा सके.

आंकड़ों की ज़ुबान में बात करें तो 2011 की जनगणना के अनुसार भारत की आबादी 1.2 अरब के ऊपर है. यानी, साल 2001 की जनगणना के बाद से लेकर अब तक हमारी कुल जनसंख्या में 18 करोड़ 20 लाख की बढ़ोतरी हो चुकी है. यानी पिछली जनगणना से अब तक हमारी आबादी में 17.7 प्रतिशत की बढ़त हुई है. यह बात भी जानने योग्य है कि साल 1961 से लेकर अब तक के वक़्त में पहली बार हमारी जनसंख्या वृद्धिदर 20 प्रतिशत से भी कम है. इसे जनसंख्या को संतुलित करने की दिशा में एक बड़ा कदम माना जाना चाहिए. लिंगानुपात के सन्दर्भ में बात करें तो साल 2011 की जनगणना खुश होने के और भी मौके देती है. साल 2011 के मुताबिक प्रति 1000 पुरुषों पर 942 स्त्रियां हैं. यह आंकड़ा हमारे अभीष्ट के करीब नहीं है लेकिन 1951 के बाद से पहली बार लिंगानुपात में कोई सुधार हुआ है, जिससे यह सोचा जा सकता है कि हम सही दिशा में बढ़ रहे हैं.

अखबारों और टीवी चैनलों पर प्रायोजित-अप्रायोजित खबरें चलाई जाने लगीं. इन खबरों की भाषा और कहन का एक ही मकसद निकलता मालूम हो रहा था कि यदि हिन्दू नहीं चेते तो आने वाले समय में अल्पसंख्यक और मुसलमान बहुसंख्यक हो जाएंगे. ऐसे में प्रश्न उठना लाज़िम है कि मुस्लिम समुदाय भारत में कब तक बहुसंख्यक बन पाएगा?

अब तक सभी जान चुके हैं कि देश की जनसंख्या में हिन्दुओं का प्रतिशत 79.8 तो वहीँ मुस्लिमों का प्रतिशत 14.23 है. 2001 के बाद से हिन्दू समुदाय की जनसंख्या में 13.8 करोड़ की वृद्धि हुई है, यह बढ़त लगभग उतनी ही है जितनी साल 2001 में मुस्लिम समुदाय की कुल आबादी थी. इसे दूसरी तरह से देखने पर एक रोचक दृश्य सामने आता है. 13.8 करोड़ की जनसंख्या को प्राप्त करने में जहां मुस्लिम समुदाय को 1400 साल लग गए, वहीँ हिन्दू समुदाय को इस आंकड़े को छूने में महज़ 10 साल लगे. यहां भारत-पाकिस्तान बंटवारे को भी याद रखना चाहिए. पिछले दस सालों में 3.4 करोड़ – जो उत्तर प्रदेश की कुल मुस्लिम आबादी है - की बढ़ोतरी करने के बाद मौजूदा वक़्त में मुस्लिम आबादी 17.2 करोड़ है.

लिंगानुपात

96.6 करोड़ की हिन्दू आबादी में 51.6 प्रतिशत पुरुष तो 48.4 प्रतिशत महिलाएं शामिल हैं. वहीँ दूसरी ओर 17.2 करोड़ की मुस्लिम आबादी में 51.2 प्रतिशत पुरुष तो 48.8 प्रतिशत महिलाएं शामिल हैं. यानी स्त्री बनाम पुरुष के आंकड़ों के परिप्रेक्ष्य में मुस्लिम समुदाय में लिंगानुपात ज्यादा बेहतर है.

2001 के बाद से हुई जनसंख्या वृद्धि में लड़कियों के आंकड़ों में लड़कों के मुकाबिले ज्यादा बेहतरी हुई है. साल 2001 के बाद से मुस्लिम समुदाय में 1000 लड़कों पर 1015 लड़कियों की बढ़ोतरी हुई है, वहीँ हिन्दू समुदाय में यह संख्या 1000 लड़कों पर 991 लड़कियों की ही है. इससे भी तस्दीक न हो तो, आगे देखें.

यदि एक करोड़ से ऊपर की जनसंख्या वाले राज्यों को देखें तो पता चलता है कि इन 20 में से 13 राज्यों में मुस्लिम समुदाय में लिंगानुपात बेहतर है. आंध्र प्रदेश, असम, कर्नाटक, पंजाब, उत्तराखंड और दिल्ली राज्यों में हिन्दू समुदाय में लिंगानुपात मुस्लिम समुदाय के मुकाबिले बेहतर है.

लेकिन भारत को एक सम्पूर्ण निकाय के रूप में देखते हुए बात करें तो आंकड़ों के बीच पसरे धार्मिक अंतर गायब हो जाते हैं. यदि राज्यवार जनसंख्या के आंकड़ों को देखें तो पता चलता है कि जिन राज्यों की जनसंख्या सबसे अधिक है, उन राज्यों के मज़हबी आंकड़ों में अंतर साफ़ हैं.

ऊपर दिए गए चार्ट में इस बात को दिखाने की कोशिश की गयी है. काले रंग के स्तंभ कुल जनसंख्या, नारंगी रंग के स्तंभ हिन्दू जनसख्या व हरे रंग के स्तंभ मुस्लिम जनसंख्या दिखा रहे हैं. पाठक यहां साफ़ तौर पर देख सकते हैं कि उत्तर प्रदेश, महाराष्ट्र, बिहार, पश्चिम बंगाल और आंध्र प्रदेश में जनसंख्या का घनत्व सबसे अधिक है. यहां यह भी साफ़ पता चलता है कि हिन्दू समुदाय की जनसंख्या के मुक़ाबिले मुस्लिम जनसंख्या की क्या स्थिति है, ऐसे ‘मुस्लिमों द्वारा अपनी संख्या के बल पर हिन्दुओं पर विजय’ प्राप्त करने की प्रचलित थ्योरी का भी खंडन होता है.

2001 के बाद से आई जनसंख्या में बढ़ोतरी को देखने से पता चलता है कि केरल और असम को छोड़कर किसी भी राज्य में मुस्लिम जनसंख्या हिन्दू जनसंख्या के आसपास भी नहीं फटकती है. उत्तर प्रदेश, बिहार, महाराष्ट्र, राजस्थान और मध्य प्रदेश में मुस्लिम आबादी में बढ़ोतरी हिन्दू आबादी में बढ़ोतरी के एक-तिहाई से भी कम है. केवल पश्चिम बंगाल भारत का ऐसा राज्य है, जहां मुस्लिम और हिन्दू आबादी लगभग बराबर है लेकिन जनसंख्या के पायदान पर पश्चिम बंगाल छठवें स्थान पर खड़ा है.

कमज़ोर कड़ियां

यदि राज्यों में मुस्लिम आबादी की हिस्सेदारी की बात करें तो उत्तर प्रदेश(22.3%), पश्चिम बंगाल(14.3%), बिहार(10.2%), महाराष्ट्र(7.5%) और असम(6.2%) की मुस्लिम आबादी देश की कुल मुस्लिम आबादी का 60 फीसद हिस्सा बनाती हैं. और इन पांच राज्यों में असल, बिहार और पश्चिम बंगाल सभी समुदायों के लिए सबसे गरीब राज्य साबित हो चुके हैं.

यह साबित हो जाता है कि इन राज्यों की स्थिति में सुधार, नीति-नियामकों की सुविधा और हर समुदाय की बेहतरी के लिए मुस्लिम संगठनों को आगे आना होगा. मीडिया के तमाम इंटरप्रिटेशन पर भरोसा करने से स्थिति और धूमिल हो जाती है और समाज व धर्म की असल सचाई से सामना नहीं हो पाता है.

आंकड़ों को समझने का दावा करने वाले लोगों का बड़ा हिस्सा ऐसा है जो ‘जनसंख्या’ और ‘जनसंख्या की वृद्धि-दर’ में अंतर नहीं जानता है. उसके लिए वृद्धि दर का गिरना जनसंख्या का गिरना है. बहरहाल, सभी आंकड़ों और ज़मीनी तथ्यों को सामने रखते हुए, जहां तक बात है कि क्या मुस्लिम कभी बहुसंख्यक होंगे? तथ्य कहते हैं ‘कभी नहीं.’

अफ़रोज़ आलम साहिल, Twocircles.net,

By Shamshad Ali

Srinagar: After her wake-up knocks at Mohsin's (name changed) door in the morning got no response, the worried mother called her husband. The door, locked from inside, was then broken open and the 19-year-old was found dead in the room.

The autopsy showed Mohsin had chosen the easy way out of a frustrating life he could not handle due to depression - he had committed suicide. An empty bottle of sleeping pills and strips of anti-depressant drugs found in the room proved that Mohsin had for long been suffering from a mental condition that he could neither reveal nor handle.

Mohsin was not the first and, unfortunately perhaps, not the last Kashmiri teen to end his life in a way that shatters his parents' dreams about their children and also ends what should be otherwise joyful lives and futures of teens.

In the predominantly Muslim majority Kashmir Valley, suicide is not only a social and moral taboo, it is an unpardonable religious sin.

Muslims are forbidden from offering the funeral prayers of anybody who ends his life by committing suicide.

Ironically, because of this social, moral and religious stigma, not many people driven to the wall by depression are able to either disclose their mental condition to the family or seek psychiatric help.

According to Dr. Akash, a psychiatrist, teenagers living in the Valley are more susceptible to psychiatric problems than those living in other parts of the state - because of the pressures under which they live.

"We are living in a conflict environment and here the pressures are multi-faceted - failure in examinations, unsuccessful love affairs, unhappy married and family life, frustration because of unemployment - but
a special reason for suicide in Kashmir is the uncertain political situation," Akash told IANS.

"In such uncertain conditions, healthy psychological and mental growth is not possible and people resort to an extreme act like suicide to get away from this scenario" he added.

Jammu and Kashmir has seen a bruising Islamist militancy since 1989 that has claimed over 70,000 lives, the majority of them civilians.

"Suicidal tendency is an ailment and it should be treated as such, but in Kashmir it is a very complex phenomenon; seemingly happy youths may be a total wreck from the inside, our social structure is such that it inhibits us from expressing our feelings to our elders and this has disastrous results on the psyche of a person, especially the youth and ultimately lead to suicides" Akash observed.

According to sociologists, the shift from the joint family to the nuclear family system is another major reason for youth suicides in the Valley.

"We have become disconnected. Today, parents don't have enough time for their children, they buy them expensive electronic gadgets and motor vehicles but don't spend enough time with them or listen to their problems and concerns," said a local sociologist.

"In a joint family, we had elders who would counsel children and act as role models for them, but that trend has declined drastically and teens in a small family feel alone as there is nobody who would listen to their
problems or cater to their spiritual needs," he added.

A sociological survey has shown that among those who committed suicide, most were between 17 and 26 years of age and sadly enough, as many as 62 percent of them were women and girls.

The surveys revealed many of the young boys and girls who had committed suicide had crossed the their marriageable age while their parents found it difficult to arrange matches for them. This has stressed girls
more than boys among the lot that took the extreme step.

More than 300,000 youths with degrees in medicine, engineering and other professions are unemployed in Kashmir.

According to a survey, the incidents of suicide were almost negligible before the advent of the militancy, but over the years, because of the lingering violence, Kashmiris have become victims of post-traumatic stress
disorders.

This is evident from the number of patients registered in the state's sole mental healthcare facility, where about 150,000 patients are registered as of December 2014 - compared to a meagre 1,200 in the late 1980s.

A majority of doctors believe the number of those suffering from such mental ailments could be much higher but aren't on the records as a majority of people do not go to a hospital for treatment for varied reasons.

The survey also indicated that 77.4 percent of those attempting suicide were women. Of them, 11 percent opted to end their lives during pregnancy.

The ratio of suicide in rural and urban areas, as per the survey is 85:15. The proportion of illiterate and literate victims is 40:60 respectively.

Alarmingly, 76.92 percent of people committing suicide were in the 16-25 age bracket.

New Delhi: Drawing parallels between the cold blooded killings of bloggers in Bangladesh and the murder of M.M. Kalburgi, a writer and rationalist from Karnataka, Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasrin said the incident showed the growing intolerance of religious fanatics in both India and Bangladesh.

"Is there no freedom of expression in India? It is supposed to be the largest democratic country and a secular one. In that case, why are rationalists being killed," asked Nasrin.

In an interview to IANS, the exiled author said it seems that Indian fanatics are taking a cue from Bangladeshi extremists. "Are Indian extremists learning from Bangladeshi extremists? Bangladeshi extremists kill writers who criticise religion. Indian extremists do the same," Nasrin said.

Expressing hope that the Indian government would rein in Kalburgi killers, Nasrin said that she was concerned about the earlier killings of the Indian rationalists Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare.

"I was disturbed when I read about the killings of rationalists Dabholkar and Pansare, even if I don't know them personally. I live in India and I found it much safer than Bangladesh. I hope the Indian government will take action against the murderers. Let's have free speech in the subcontinent," she said.

The writer was vocal in social media and in her writings about the recent slaying of four secular bloggers. "(Bangladesh Prime Minister) Sheikh Hasina has been silent and she has not taken any action against the killers," said Nasrin.

Bangladesh has witnessed the murder of four bloggers this year. "The secular bloggers Avijit, Ananta, Babu and Neel were killed in Bangladesh because they spoke against religion and they were atheists. The Sheikh Hasina government was silent. In fact, they work hand in hand with the extremists," alleged Nasrin.

Ruing that Bangladesh was soon going to be "another Pakistan", Nasrin said that free thinkers and atheists were already fleeing the country. "Bangladesh is going to be another Pakistan. There is no democracy and there are many Islamic fundamentalists in the government and in the ruling party," added Nasrin.

Maintaining that Islamic fundamentalism was a bigger threat, Nasrin blamed Islam for the violence. "Islam tells people to kill non-believers. However, Hindu religious texts like the (Bhagwad) Gita call for peace," she said.

Nasrin fled Bangladesh in 1994 after death threats by Islamic fundamentalists for her views on Islam. Although she took shelter in Kolkata in 2004, she had to leave after protests in 2007.

While Nasrin always maintained that India was home to her, it was only in 2011 that she got permission to live in Delhi. Last week, the Indian government extended the visa for her stay in India for another year. She then returned to India.

Nasrin is also happy about the newly-released film "Nirbashito", a story based on her life. Directed by Churni Ganguly, the movie is being released in the capital. "I am happy about the way it is made. Although it has not going into the details, it has done justice to my story," Nasrin said.