Najma Heptulla-the Minority affairs minister sparks Hot Debate on Minority Status For Muslims

(FirstPost)



Najma Heptulla, the new minority affairs minister in the Modi government, surely kicked up a hornets' nest when she said it would not be right to term Muslims as minorities. She said her ministry was not a Muslim affairs ministry. Her exact quote runs thus, according to Mint: “This is not a ministry for Muslim affairs, but ministry of minority affairs. Muslims are not a minority. In fact, the Parsis are a minority and their number is dwindling. They need help so that do not diminish.” What she said was right, but politically unwise, for it left people wondering whether she was trying to align her views with that of the BJP and whether the new government has a hidden agenda on Muslims. At the outset, let us be clear that what Heptulla said was on the same lines as her grand uncle Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Education Minister in Nehru's cabinet. He stoutly opposed partition and saw Indian Muslims as the country's second majority. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, founder of the Aligarh Muslim University and father of the Muslim modernity project, called Hindus and Muslims "two eyes" of the nation - that is, equal and second to none. Heptulla was unwise to say what she did because as part of a BJP-led NDA ministry she will be seen as representing the regime's views rather than her own personal ones. In the context of deep Muslim suspicions about a Modi government, the statement is unlikely to set perceptional issues about the BJP at rest. Najma Heptulla taking charge of her office. PIB The right time to bring up the definition of minorities would have been when Modi's policy of treating all Indians as equal citizens has had some time to play out and its impact recognised as genuine and non-discriminatory. That time is not yet. However, we do need to have this debate, and since Heptulla has already raked it up, there is no reason to pretend it is irrelevant. I believe that the concept of minority is the most abused one in the Indian context. Currently, a minority is only defined by arithmetic: if your population is less than 50 percent you are a minority. It doesn’t matter what the actual size of your population is. Look at the absurdity of it all in the Muslim context. First, with a population of around 180 million, Muslims in India are too large to be called a minority. India has the second-largest Muslim population in the world after Indonesia, though Pakistan, with runaway population growth after the break-up with Bangladesh, bids fair to overtake us in the next decade or two. If India's Muslims were put into a geographically contiguous place, they would be the sixth or seventh largest country in the world. Second, if a religious group is defined as people professing belief in one god, then Hindus should be classified as several minority religions since every sub-segment has its own gods and belief systems. It is only culturally that Hindus can be defined as one entity, but this definition cannot exclude those who worship Allah or Jesus either. Hindus are hardly a majority if we use the Abrahamic definition of religion and god. Third, minorities ought to be classified based on their innate ability (or inability) to safeguard their culture or numbers. In the Indian subcontinent, Muslims have grown their numbers everywhere – and faster. So, clearly, there is nothing artificially curbing their growth, their culture and share of the population. If any community is going down in numbers across India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, it is various groups of Hindus - and Heptulla’s Parsis. Muslims may need economic support, education and jobs because they have fallen behind, but not because they are minorities. Maybe their sense of victimhood is what is holding them back. Fourth, in large, populous countries, minorities cannot be defined only in proportional terms. The actual size of the minority also matters. In a country of one million, 200,000 can be a minority, since the other 800,000 can look threatening. This also makes sense if the 800,000 and 200,000 are both internally homogenous groups. But, in a country of 1.2 billion, to talk of 180 million as a minority is silly. The one billion so-called Hindus are not only not a monolith, but their sheer regional, linguistic, caste, class and ethnic diversities militates against organised oppression as a combined majority. This does not mean oppression does not take place, but the oppressive majority that matters here is the local one – in cities and villages - not the national one. Fifth, all majorities and minorities are contextual – and cannot be defined only on the basis of religion and language, as we do in India. Within the Muslim community, there are many more minorities – like the Shias, the Ahmaddiyas, etc. Then there can be minorities based on class. Then there are minorities based on sexual orientation – gays and lesbians face huge discrimination in all communities, but particularly in Muslim society religious injunctions are used against gays. Sixth, a smaller relative number should not automatically constitute a minority. Take Brahmins. They constitute a very small minority caste within the larger Hindu whole. But their clout is out of proportion to their numbers. The same goes for Jews in the US. The point is: relative numbers alone do not constitute a minority that needs official protection. Seventh, minorities can become majorities and vice-versa depending on the geography you use to work out their population numbers. Hindus are a minority in large parts of the north-east and Kashmir. Muslims are a majority (or near majority) in many districts of India, especially in Kerala and some parts of Bihar, UP, West Bengal and Assam. In Kerala, over the next two censuses, the Hindu population could well fall below 50 percent. Even Christians in Kerala worry about their declining proportions and many Kerala churches want their members to have more kids. The point: it is illogical to work out minorities in large territories like India. There can be numerous local and regional minorities. What I am driving at is this: if a minority in one social or geographical context can become a majority in another, the only logical way to ensure protection to all minorities is to use the citizen as the fundamental unit to confer rights on. The individual citizen is the minority to worry about. The individual citizen is the one who needs protection against discrimination, who needs to be the unit for defining poverty and well-being. The remaining minorities are fictional – and serve only a political purpose. Muslims in India will be better served as individual citizens rather than as a huge minority of 180 million. That number alone makes nonsense of the term minority.

Rahul Gandhi 'joker'-Congress leader in Kerala said

(TOI)

KOCHI: Blaming Rahul Gandhi for the party's electoral reverses in the Lok Sabha election, a senior leader in Kerala on Wednesday termed the Congress vice-president a "joker" and demanded he be removed from his posts if he does not step down voluntarily.
T H Mustafa, a former minister, also demanded Gandhi's sister Priyanka Gandhi be made the new party chief.

 Addressing reporters here, Mustafa said that Gandhi should quit from his post and if he does not, he should be removed.
"Rahul behaved like a joker and that's the reason why the Congress suffered a major reversal in the Lok Sabha polls. The role of a prime minister is not child's play and the people knew it and handed out the worst defeat to the Congress party.

"He should take responsibility and quit and if not he should be removed and Priyanka Gandhi should be made the new president of the party," he said.
"His (Rahul's) mad style of working using computer and internet and in the company of a group of CWC members who only praise whatever he does has caused this defeat. It's unfortunate that even A K Antony belongs to this group," said Mustafa, a former minister in the K Karunakaran cabinet (1991-95) and five-time legislator, known for openly attacking top leaders of his party.

Modi government orders ministers not to handpick personal staff

(DNA)



The Modi government in its very first order, issued on the day he was sworn in prime minister, has barred ministers from handpicking "personal staff". This is unprecedented and shows Modi's intent to ensure that none of his ministers fancies a "hidden agenda". It also proves that prime minister Narendra Modi runs a tight ship.

No one, not even Indira Gandhi, went to this extent to keep a check on ministers from overstepping their briefs. It also brings to an end the "appointment" of family members as personal staff, which has been a practice with many a minister over the years.

Modi, say sources in the government, has taken a leaf out of his "Gujarat Model" while issuing the order. Issued by the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions department of personnel & training on Monday, it outlines rules and lays down instructions for the appointment of personal staff attached to ministers. Foremost of them is that ministers will henceforth appoint secretaries and other personal staff only from the "general pool".

Till now, there has been rank disregard of rules in the appointment of personal staff of ministers. Many ministers flouted them and appointed family members including sons and daughters, nephews and nieces, brothers and sisters to key posts in the ministries they ran. Some also opted to give "jobs" to cronies in their parties.

One recent example has been Union railway minister in the UPA-II government Pawan Kumar Bansal. He appointed his son-in-law Vitul Kumar as his OSD and his sister's son-in-law, Rahul Bhandari, as his personal secretary. Not satisfied with that, he gave his nephew, Vijay Singla, the run of the railway ministry. He paid the price for that when Singla was held for allegedly seeking cash-for-postings in the railways.

In another case that came to light in recent years, this one involving a state, two sons of then Goa home minister Ravi Naik were found taking salaries from the state government, one of them was "employed" as his "personal assistant", the other as his "private secretary".

But with this order, ministers will not be able to run ministries as fiefdoms. All appointments will be made by the appointments committee of cabinet of the department of personnel & training, which is part of the Prime Minister's Office. With this, prime minister Narendra Modi has also made it clear that he is committed to run a clean government.

More Muslims voted for BJP this time: Naqvi

(TCN)


New Delhi : The BJP increased its vote share among the Muslims in the Lok Sabha election this year, party spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said here Sunday.

"According to our reports, the BJP received 14-15 percent of Muslim votes in the Lok Sabha election," Naqvi said after a meeting held to review the Bharatiya Janata Party's performance in garnering Muslim votes.

Muslims constitute 13 percent of the total population of India, according to the 2001 census.

Mohammad Afzal, national convener of the Muslim Rashtriya Manch, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-backed organisation, said the BJP earlier got "two to three percent" of Muslim votes in previous elections.

Naqvi said around 20,000 Muslim volunteers and 10,000 Hindu volunteers worked in areas inhabited by Muslims to "remove misconceptions" about the RSS and the BJP's policy towards Muslims.

Indresh Kumar, who heads the Muslim Rashtriya Manch, and senior BJP leader Nazma Heptullah were also present at the meeting attended by BJP Minority Morcha leaders.

Election Results 2014- Muslim Vote Bank Became Obsolete In Indian Politics

   The sequence of the events which made Muslim vote bank obsolete in Indian Politics

Results of India Elections 2014 are important with respect to Muslim vote bank in India. The reason behind this assumption is as follows.

1) Narendra Modi who has been under relentless fire of Muslim community for 2002 Gujrat riots has decided the agenda of the election 2014, other parties in opposition only reacted to him and his theories.
2) Modi's assumption that Congress will not cross double digit figure in any state proved true.
3) Modi's forecast, that Congress will hit lowest seat mark of it's history proved fatally right, with Congress finishing the tally of just 46 seats.
4) Modi's forecast that BJP will secure the largest majority after 1984 proved very correct with BJP securing single handed majority in Loksabha with 284+ seats.
5) As Priyanka Gandhi became active in UP campaign, after coming under continuous fire from Modi  for her husband's dubious role in Haryana Land Scam, URDU media hailed her for directly taking on Narendra Modi and Muslims seen ray of hope in her personality to counter Modi,  few analysts predicted that Congress will eat up Muslims vote share from SP and BSP, which will increase BJP tally in UP by more than 15 seats. This calculation also proved very much correct and BJP+ secured 73 seats out of 80 seats of UP.
6) By and Large, Muslims in India was confused throughout elections and couldn't decided whom to vote to counter Modi juggernaut. During March month's 1st fortnight URDU media campaigned hard to vote for AAP and Kejriwal as he was directly challenging Gujarat model of Narendra Modi, by directly entering in to Gujarat and launching scathing attacks on Modi. In UP Mulayam was seen by half of the Muslims as the only person who can counter Modi and by half of the Muslims as the person who let the blood of Muslims to flow loosely in Muzaffaranagar. even after that majority of the Muslims in UP seen Mulayam as formidable figure who could challenge Modi wave. Which made Muslim votes badly fractured, paving the way for BJP landslide in UP.
   After the 1st 4 phases of elections are over and Modi started launching attacks on Jamai Babu-Robert Vadra for his land scam in Haryana and Rajasthan, Priyanka reverted back with aggressive stance and started hitting Modi for his role in Gujarat riots and his attacks on Sonia and Rahul. In the mean time BJP released the film Damad Shri describing Vadra's land scams, powered by WSJ's revelation on Vadra's exponential growth in wealth. These sequence of events fooled Muslims. The URDU media launched campaign to vote for Congress en mass to counter Modi onslaught, which proved suicidal for SP and BSP. As at least 20 seats which was going to SP and BSP shifted in favour of BJP, as Muslims votes shifted to Congress from these two regional parties, converting worst ever political scenario for regional champions.
   As a result of confusion in Muslim voters; their choice changed shifting from AAP to SP to Congress and badly dispersed voting pattern among Muslims made very bad impact on Muslim votes and not a single Muslim won from Uttar Pradesh. This is for the first time since independence that not a single Muslim MP could secure the berth in Loksabha from UP.

Cartoons Post-Voting

Statement of Gen.(Retd) V K Singh on Appointment of Lt Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag as New Army Chief

In light of the various insinuations and counter charges by the UPA Government, I wish to make my position clear on what I have said on the appointment of the new army Chief.

First, the process of appointing the next chief is a three to four month process and the designated officer that takes over the job of the COAS is according to convention announced two months before. The only violation of this was in the case of my successor where the UPA Government had announced his name three months in advance to further their own agenda. The selection process itself is an ongoing business and it should continue, with the final clearance being made by the new Cabinet. However, there are clear indications that the out going UPA Government is deliberately speeding up the process in order to abrogate the decision to itself. This is morally and ethically incorrect.

I am being accused of 'raking' up the issue by the UPA to favour a certain officer who would be next in line should the current senior most candidate be 'sidelined'. The DV ban issued by me against Lt Gen Dalbir Suhag, revoked by the present COAS immediately on taking over, is similarly being dismissed as being 'motivated'.

The DV ban was issued on specific grounds and was not an act of petulant vindictiveness as is being made out. Though the DV ban was revoked by my successor arbitrarily, the resultant Court Martial has found all the accused guilty. This by itself vindicates the DV ban. The MOD, however, is trying to give a spin to the Jorhat case where it is downplaying the incident, claiming it only involves an NCO and the theft of a cell phone.

The fact that the DV ban imposed by me should have resulted in Lt Gen Ravi Dastane's elevation to Eastern Army Commander in the natural course of things makes the charge of 'favouritism' on my part laughable and ought to be treated with disdain. The interest of the organization and the Institutional Integrity of the Armed Forces and the country must come first, every time and always. Who is married to whom is and never was a consideration.

The UPA, along with certain elements both within and outside the Government, have done enormous damage to the country and to our Armed Forces, who have always fought to the last man with what they have. Unless and until, we as a nation do not create the right conditions, our boys and girls will be sacrificial lambs. Our officers and men do not join the Army, Navy and Air Force to die for their country, but to make our enemies die for theirs.

The appointment of the Naval Chief is a case in point. The UPA, by ditching established norms which it religiously followed in 2006, have opened itself to suspicion. I have no axe to grind with Admiral Robin Dhowan and as the CNS, I wish him well and am sure he will perform his duties to the best of his ability. However, as far as the UPA goes, the appointment in this manner is yet another example of how callously they have treated the Armed Forces.

Given the sensitivity of our border areas and our people who reside there, it is imperative that neither the Jorhat case nor the killing of the three Manipuri boys be swept under the carpet. The DV ban was imposed after careful deliberation, and it is my belief that we cannot cover up incidents and protect rogue units under AFSPA. The Act offers our boys protection from being falsely charged, and towards that end the line has to be clearly drawn. A fair and free assessment of the events, especially in the light of the Court Martial's findings, is vital. It is up to the next Government to then take an informed decision.

The UPA's last ditch attempt to tamper with established norms in the selection of the next Chief of Army Staff must be resisted by all parties, regardless if they are left, right or in the center. For the MoD to try and dismiss the Jorhat incident as a theft of a cell phone by a NCO is a travesty of justice. To cover up and shield the guilty parties endlessly so as to push their own agenda through will be yet another act of betrayal on the people of India.

Cartoons of Modi,Kejriwal, Sonia and Priyanka

Fill in The Blanks In Bengal-BJP May Fill The Opposition Party Vaccuum

(HT)

In West Bengal, this is the time of Kal Baishakhi, thunderstorms that punctuate the passage from spring to a pitiless summer.
What is happening politically in the state is not much different. The last few days have been stormy, but underneath the noise lies the portent of a more profound, long-term change.

For the first time, the state is witnessing serious rise of the BJP, which has been a fringe force. The party’s PM candidate Narendra Modi has sensed a great opportunity.

Ruling Trinamool Congress’ (TMC) fiery leader Mamata Banerjee has decimated rivals. If the Left, which ruled for 34 years, is hobbling, the Congress is on its knees. There is a huge vacuum in the opposition space.

The BJP, propelled by Modi’s popularity, wants to fill it. It may not win too many seats in the Lok Sabha polls, but it has bigger ambitions: To become Bengal’s biggest opposition party before the municipal polls and 2016 assembly elections.

Not for nothing has Modi, 2014 elections’ busiest campaigner, held eight packed rallies here. Wherever you travel, he is the centre of conversation…at ‘addas’, wedding receptions, offices.

The organisation is spreading like duckweed. Primary membership has increased from 90,000 in 2010 to more than 4 lakh now. There has been a 74,000 jump in youth membership in May.

Highest jumps have been in Kolkata, Nadia, Burdwan, Birbhum, Hooghly, South 24 Paraganas, Medinipur and Barasat. Even in tribal-dominated Jangalmahal comprising three districts (Bankura, West Medinipur and Purulia), 19 new party offices have come up and membership has increased three-fold this year.

Modi seems to have found five hot buttons in Bengal.

First, the state’s thirst for the elusive ‘progoti’, or progress, after ‘poriborton’, Mamata’s now-legendary call for change.

Second, a series of brutal and highly publicised rapes like the ones in
Park Street and Kamduni, and Mamata’s verbal attacks, not on the rapists but those alleging rape, has shaken many.

Third, Mamata Banerjee is facing corruption charges for the first time in her otherwise remarkably clean political career, and not facing them well. As a senior Kolkata journalist puts it: “Her attacking play is outstanding. But on the defensive, she is trying to hit every ball, not leaving any.”

Fourth, the growing perception that Mamata has appeased Muslims with R2,500 allowance for imams, putting larger-than-life billboards of praying with her head covered, or freely allowing illegal Bangladeshi immigrants to settle here and using them as votebank.

Five, Modi has found in Mamata’s emotive, reactive politics a great opportunity. He taunts, she or her party reacts with “shaitaan”, “Butcher of Gujarat”, “donkey”. Modi has perfected the art of turning personal attacks on him into his strength.

From all this, the party is significantly gaining.

“BJP was known here as the party of non-Bengalis. But the Modi wave has taken it far beyond that, especially among the youth. The response to our campaigns is overwhelming,” says Siddharth Nath Singh, the party’s in-charge for Bengal and grandson of India’s second PM Lal Bahadur Shastri. “Mamata had not accounted for the Modi factor.”

Singh looks the party’s long-term future in a state with 42 LS seats — third highest after UP and Maharashtra — with much optimism. He says there has been a near-hysterical response to every Modi rally in the state.

Also, when you speak to people from different sections, you notice an interesting pattern. They are making a crucial distinction this time between voting for a government at the Centre and electing a state government. Many feel Mamata, despite her formidable popularity in the state, may have a much smaller dog in the fight at the Centre and so their vote may be wasted on the TMC.

The BJP, however, wants to convert the Modi mania to get a stronger foothold in state politics.

“While BJP nationwide has been stronger in urban areas, in Bengal, paradoxically, it had presence in rural panchayats but was weak in the cities. This election has changed that,” says BJP state secretary Ritesh Tiwari.

Even TMC spokesperson Derek O’Brien says the difference of vote share between CPM and BJP will be in single digit this time. “But TMC isn’t worried because BJP has no organisation in Bengal, no block-level presence.”

The challenges before the BJP are enormous. Its state organisation has been rickety. Even a rapid membership drive may not give it control over most villages. Six or eight people who control each village, says O’Brien, and it is not easy to build a parallel structure, village after village.

Moreover, most in Bengal feel deeply thankful to Mamata and love her for ending more than three decades of Left rule. It will be very difficult to wean them from her.

Modi may bring in votes in LS, but to make a mark in panchayat, municipal or assembly elections, it needs a strong Bengali state leader, one who will not be swept under Mamata’s towering presence. It will also help the party shed the ‘non-Bengali party’ tag.

Among the new crop of Bengali ex-officers and celebrities the BJP has fielded, insiders praise Babul Supriyo as a hard field worker, amiable but aggressive organisation man. But will he match up to Mamata? Right now, he is not even close.

Also, although early Hindu nationalism can be traced to Bengal — Bankimchandra chronicled it, Aurobindo Ghosh and other were ideologues and took part, Shyamaprasad Mukherjee exported — its people view BJP-RSS’s ‘Hindu, Hindi, Hindustan’ heartland nationalism with suspicion, even disdain. Interestingly, Modi, in his north Kolkata speech on May 7, invoked Aurobindo and his arrest by the British from a Maniktala hideout.

Mamata came to power breaking the CPM’s mighty village-level organisation with two fierce movements — Singur and Nandigram. Village after village fell to her for fear of losing land.

The BJP and RSS are spreading. Modi, not a man to say things loosely, has asked Bangladeshis to leave after May 16. A communal flare-up may pose the biggest challenge yet to Mamata’s hold over rural and semi-urban Bengal, where there is resentment over measures like the imam-bhata and fears about the allegedly growing Bangladeshi population.

In five districts the Muslim population ranges from 33% to 63%.

On the other side, alarm over the organisation-building by BJP and RSS has already triggered the inflow of money, people and arms from across the border in places like Sunderbans, say political insiders.

Just behind the current storm in Bengal politics may lie darker clouds.

Freedom Of Expression Denied-AMU VC Zamiruddin Shah criticized for Expressing Opinion on Modi

(TCN)

AMU VC Lt Gen Zamiruddin Shah

Aligarh: Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) Vice Chancellor
Lt. General (retd.) Zamiruddin Shah has come under criticism for his comments on Narendra Modi published in the Times of India on May 7, 2014.

Responding to a question, Lt. Gen. Shah said that even though riots of 2002 happened during Modi’s rule adding “when people are entrusted with the responsibility of serving the nation, they change. They carry the pressure of taking the whole country forward.”

“Responsibilities bring a transformation, no matter what someone's past was,” said Shah.

A group of professors from AMU, JNU, and Delhi University have reacted strongly to this comment. In a statement issued today these eminent professors said “we are surprised at the General’s remarks on Mr. Narendra Modi.”

Lt. Gen Shah “foresees much improvement in the latter when he assumes responsibilities of power as Prime Minister, as if he did not have power enough when as Chief Minister he presided over the communal slaughter in Gujarat. We are perplexed as to why the General needed to go out of his way to commend Mr Modi in this fashion.”

Statement was signed by:

Irfan Habib, Professor Emeritus, AMU

D.N. Jha, Professor of History (Retd.), Delhi University

P.K. Shukla, Formerly, Member Secretary, Indian Council of Historical Research

I.A. Khan, Professor of History (Retd.), AMU

Shireen Moosvi, Professor of History (Retd.), AMU

Mridula Mukherjee, Professor of History, J.N.U.

Ramesh Rawat, Professor of Hindi, AMU

S.A. Nadeem Rezavi, Associate Professor, AMU

Aditya Mukherjee, Professor of History, J.N.U.

Farhat Hasan, Professor of History, Delhi University

S.Zaheer Husain Jafri, Professor of History, Delhi University

Ishrat Alam, Associate Professor of History, AMU

Shalin Jain, Associate Professor, Delhi University

Plea For NIA Investigation of Education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, forest minister Rakibul Hussain and border areas development minister Siddique Ahmed in Bodoland Massacre

(Telegraph)

Bodo Sahitya Sabha general secretary Kamala Kanta Muchahary in Guwahati on Sunday

Guwahati, May 11: The Bodo Sahitya Sabha today demanded three cabinet ministers of Assam be brought under the NIA probe while the investigating agency inquires into the recent killings in the Bodoland Territorial Areas District (BTAD).

The Sabha said to know the truth about the killings in the BTAD, the NIA should probe education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, forest minister Rakibul Hussain and border areas development minister Siddique Ahmed for allegedly making inciting and controversial comments on the situation in the BTAD.

Sabha’s general secretary Kamala Kanta Muchahary told the media here today that there had already been demands that BTC chief Hagrama Mohilary, deputy chief Kampa Borgoyary, minister Chandan Brahma, MLA Pramila Rani Brahma and Rajya Sabha member Biswajit Daimary be brought under the NIA investigation.

“Probing only the Bodo leaders will not reveal the truth. For it, Sarma, Hussain and Ahmed should also be brought under NIA’s probe,” Muchahary said. He added former MLA Abdul Khaleque, Lok Sabha member Badruddin Ajmal and leaders of the All Assam Muslim Students’ Union, All Bodoland Minority Students’ Union, Muslim Students’ Union of Assam and the Oboro Surakshya Samiti should also be probed.

The Sabha welcomed the state government’s decision to hand over the responsibility of investigating the killings in the BTAD to the NIA, but demanded that the CBI should also be given responsibility to probe the incident.

It opposed the demand for dissolution of the Bodoland Territorial Council by several organisations saying that those who have raised the demand are not investigating agencies and their demand is one-sided.

“There has been a conspiracy to dissolve the BTC. We oppose any demand of dissolution of the council. Such demands are an attempt to create misunderstanding between different communities in the BTAD,” Muchahary said.

The Sabha also opposed Dispur’s reported move to provide arms to villagers as self-protection measures. Chief minister Tarun Gagoi, however, denied any such move by the state government. “When there are demands to seize all illegal arms in the state, the decision of giving arms to villagers is nothing but suicidal,” Muchahary said.

Muchahary said illegal arms are found not only in the BTAD but across the state.

“Illegal arms will be there in Assam till there are militant groups like Ulfa, NDFB, KLO and other outfits. Various Bodo organisations have been demanding seizure of illegal arms for long. As part of it, efforts are on to bring all factions of the NDFB to negotiation table,” he said.

The Sabha appealed to the police and the NIA not to harass innocent Bodos in the name of seizing illegal arms.

The Sabha called governor J.B. Patnaik’s reported assurance to a minority community and non-Bodo organisations to hold panchayat elections in the BTAD as “unconstitutional” and violation of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution.

Arms recovered

Police intercepted a car at Chapaguri in Chirang district and recovered a M-16 rifle with silencer, a 303 rifle and 140 rounds of ammunition today. Police said the arms were being brought from Dimapur for NDFB-S cadres. One person has been apprehended.

Complexity and conflict in Assam's 'Bodoland'

(Al-Jazeera)

Indian political pundits and election officials are probably extremely dismayed with the violence in Assam state, in the country's northeast, which has blotted efforts for a peaceful national election.

More than 40 persons have died in the attacks, almost all of them being Bengali-origin Muslims, in a sudden, ugly burst of killings in one of the eastern most states of the country and perpetrated on some of the poorest and most vulnerable communities in the state.

There are a range of complex factors behind the eruption of violence in this slice of western Assam, part of an extremely diverse geographical and ethnographic region which abuts on four nations - Myanmar, Tibet/China, Bhutan and Bangladesh; barely four percent of its borders are with the Indian mainland.

The communities comprise not less than 220 ethnic groups - large and small - and are barely three percent of India's population of one billion plus. Many of these groups have roots in other parts of Southeast Asia and are the descendants of old migrations.

Crucible of revolts

The northeast region has been the crucible of revolts against the Indian state for more than 60 years, challenging the limits of democracy; governments have resorted to extreme measures to suppress uprisings.

Ethnic relations between competing groups have been fragile with clashes over space and identity. There were several armed groups seeking various forms of autonomy or independence in Assam alone of which most are in a ceasefire mode or in negotiations to settle their grievances.

Indeed, the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) in Assam, that wedge of land which has been at the heart of the recent violence and that of 2012, exemplifies the complexity of the issues, the challenges in handling them and how explosive such constellations over land, identity and mobilization can be.

The area has seen a series of riots, gun battles and killings over the past 20 years involving Bodos, local Muslims and other resident ethnic groups. Yet, till 1993, when the first attacks by rebels on civilian groups took place, there were hardly any communal riots. In the 2012 riots, police linked members of the Bodo ruling party to the extensive violence.
The Bodos, the largest tribe in the plains of Assam, control this area and their leaders won special powers and privileges after a 2003 agreement with the federal government closed campaigns of armed and non-violent campaigns for separation. The Sixth Schedule of the constitution was invoked here, an affirmative set of laws asserting the primacy of local tribes over non-tribe groups in different parts of the northeast. That agreement rewarded the Bodoland Tigers Force, an armed group, with political power, which it has held for over 10 years, while also becoming a coalition partner to the Congress Party in Assam state.

Fragile peace

However, the 2003 agreement did not bring the anticipated peace; the conflict was sustained by another group wanting "independence" but was later brought into a peace process. A third faction has played spoiler and is accused by government of being directly involved in the recent killings. Throughout this period, the victims have largely been from what Indian officials euphemistically call the "minority" community - or Muslims.

Another phrase is often used to target the Muslim groups here - they are described as "Bangladeshis", playing into a deep fear in Assam and the northeast that illegal migration from neighboring Bangladesh is swamping the region and changing its demographic profile.

Independent scholars and researchers say that there has been migration from Bangladesh in the past and some still continues. However, they say that these figures are exaggerated to play up right-wing assertions and local apprehensions. Assam saw a powerful anti-immigrant movement in the 1980s that exploded into communal clashes, which left thousands dead. Muslims are over one third of the state's population and play a key role in deciding the fate of more than 30 state assembly constituencies out of 126.

However, the current parliamentary elections have created concern among Bodos that, for the first time in 20 years, a Bodo may not win the local seat. This could have triggered part of the backlash, apart from the involvement of supporters of the ruling elite and an armed faction.

It is necessary to understand the origins of these concerns: the BTC districts throw up a contradiction to the concept and practice of democracy where majorities win elections and rule areas. Here, the physical majority is non-Bodo - including Muslims, Assamese, Bengali Hindus and tribal groups such as the Adivasis and Koch-Rajbongshis. However, under the Bodo accord, the levers of political power, including representation in the local council or assembly, access to funds and the force of weapons (the place is awash with illegal small arms which have never been surrendered by various "accordist" armed bands), are with the Bodos.



As a result, the non-Bodo majority has increasingly felt marginalised and vulnerable. There have been not less than four major campaigns of bloodletting in the last 20 years (1993, 2008, 2012 and now) and tens of thousands remained unsettled and fearful in camps for the displaced.

Way forward

The assaults in 2012 saw perhaps the largest internal displacement in post-independence India with nearly half a million persons fleeing their homes after Bodo armed men attacked and burned villages; counter attacks by Muslims followed. Most victims of the riots of two years ago have reluctantly returned home, but some of them have been displaced again.

While May 16 will decide the fate of India's next government, the results in the Bodo areas may indicate if a majority there has peacefully decided to express their opposition to the politics of discrimination and violence. For long, there has been growing public displeasure at the politics of expediency and lack of accountability about the way governments have rushed through accords with armed groups. These factions have often waged brutal campaigns and yet been rewarded with greater power.

A way forward can emerge only by bringing all political, ethnic and religious groups together in a dialogue that asserts peace and mutual respect. The sharing of power is crucial especially at the village level so that funds and political patronage are not limited to one group alone. A third would be to ensure controls on further encroachment on tribal lands. Finally, a relentless campaign is needed against the armed groups and the killers as well as a crackdown against the circulation of small arms. This is a difficult road to take but there are few alternatives. Otherwise, radicalization could grow.

In the heat and dust of the Indian elections, the issue is already vanishing from media headlines. If the approach outlined above is not taken, the problem is likely to be buried before being tragically resurrected.

Sanjoy Hazarika is Director of the Centre for North East Studies and Policy Research at Jamiia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. He is a columnist, author, documentary filmmaker and activist.

Urdu Times Cartoon On Rahul Gandhi

Rahul- Mummy !! JIs tarah BCCI ne Lalit Modi ko Muattal (Suspend) kar diya, kay hum Narendra Modi ke saath kar sakate hai??

Assam Cm Gogoi warned BPF's Hagrama Mohilary to snap ties over Killing Muslims

Assam CM Tarun Gogoi warned BPF chief Hagrama Mohilary to snap the ties if its involvement in killing Muslims proves true.


Five more bodies were recovered on Wednesday morning from two trouble-torn districts of Assam, taking the toll in the violence unleashed by Bodo militants to 41.

Rattled by the large-scale violence, chief minister Tarun Gogoi threatened to snap ties with the Bodoland People's Front (BPF) if allegations of the Hagrama Mohilary-led party's involvement in killing Muslims are found to be true.

The bodies, which were recovered from Beki river that flows from Baksa district, are yet to be identified. The bodies include that of a 10-year-old girl bearing bullet injuries on her head.

"Officially, we have not identified the bodies yet but the families have identified them to be from the affected areas," Baksa deputy commissioner Vinod Seshan said.

"However, identification has to be done to ascertain whether these are the victims of the attack in Narayanguri and Hagrabari villages," Seshan told PTI.

A team of 40 NDRF personnel, which reached the spot on Tuesday, started their operation from this morning to fish out more bodies from the Beki river.

Suspected NDFB(S) militants had unleashed violence in the two districts of Baksa and Kokrajhar on May 2.

Gogoi visited violence-hit Baksa and Kokrajhar districts and assured the people that his government would provide them security.

Official sources said Gogoi visited the victims in some of the relief camps, including Balapara.
"I will sever all ties with BPF if they are actually involved in the killing of Muslims. It will not take even 5 minutes for me," Gogoi told reporters.

He added that the National Investigating Agency (NIA) is probing the incidents while the state government is also separately enquiring the massacre, he added.

On the demand for dissolving the BTAD, Gogoi said, "I cannot comment on that as it was created by the Centre and is a constitutional issue."

People lodged in relief camps told him that the surrendered BLT militants were involved in the attack on them with the alleged help of forest guards, sources said.

Although the state government has put the blame for the twin attack on the banned NDFB(S), the affected people claimed it was an act of revenge by Congress' alliance partner BPF, which governs Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD).

The wailing victims also wanted the villages to be provided with licensed arms for their protection and demanded that their areas be separated from the autonomous BTAD administered by former BLT leaders who have now formed the BPF, sources said.

With no fresh incident reported, the administration has relaxed the indefinite curfew in worst-hit Baksa district for eight hours from 8 am, in Kokrajhar district for seven hours from 10 am and the prohibitory order as a preventive measure in Chirang district for 13 hours from 5 am.

Clin Chit to Amit Shah in Ishrat Jahan case

(IANS)

 The CBI told a special court Wednesday that sufficient evidence has not been found against BJP leader Amit Shah in the killing of Ishrat Jahan in a fake gun battle case.

An application was filed earlier by Gopinath Pillai, the father of one of the three men killed along with Ishrat Jahan in a fake gun battle in Gujarat June 15, 2004.

"In a response to an application filed by Pillai about two months ago, the CBI said that evidence collected for the case is in the court. Amit Shah's name has not been mentioned in the charge sheet. Now it is up to the court to decide," said a Central Bureau of Investigation official.

The agency has not given name of any political leader in the charge sheet filed in June 2013 followed by a supplementary charge sheet in February 2014. But it has charged police and intelligence bureau officers for murder of the four and criminal conspiracy, among other crimes.

The CBI has charged 11 policemen, including four officers of the central Intelligence Bureau, for killing the four people in the case.

Shah, a close aide of BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and the party's election-in-charge in Uttar Pradesh, is facing murder and conspiracy charges in two other fake gun battle and killing cases related to Sohrabuddin Shaikh and Tulsiram Prajapati.

Wide Eye Opener For Those Weeping For Bodoland Muslims

Read The first lines of the article carefully
More than 20 million Muselmaniacs have invaded India from Banglatrash after secession. The fast breeding soldiers of allah need ‘Lebensraum’. And infidels to kill.

http://sheikyermami.com/bangla-muslim-invaders-meet-blowback-in-assam/

by SHEIKYER MAMI on MAY 4, 2014

Death toll rises in ethnic violence India’s Assam

.

More than 20 million Muselmaniacs have invaded India from Banglatrash after secession. The fast breeding soldiers of allah need ‘Lebensraum’. And infidels to kill.

File Photo

The number of dead has risen to 32 in Assam, northeastern India, as ethinc violence sprials out of control in the wake of the country’s national elections.

World Bulletin/News Desk

The death toll in the Baksa district of Assam, India, rose to 32 Saturday after the  recovery of nine more people as violence continues in the area, Indian media reported.

The nine dead included four children and two women in the Khagrabari village near the Manas National Park. The two children were identified as Ilina Khatun and Ariful Islam.

Indian authorities say that the suspected Bodo militants belonging to the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland are behind the massacre.

Badruddin Ajmal, member of Indian Parliament and perfume magnate, from adjoining Dhubri area where thousands of Muslims have taken shelter in relief camps, told Anadolu Agency that the Congress party-led state government must be dissolved.

“We demand imposition of President’s rule in the state as the government has failed in its constitutional duty to protect Indian minorities,” Ajmal said, adding that the autonomy of the Bodoland Territorial Council must be rescinded as it has failed in its commitment to safeguard the non-Bodo population.

The affected area of Baksa and Kokrajhar districts, where the ethnic violence started on Thursday night, fall under Bodoland Territorial Administration Districts administered by the council.

Mumbai-based, Burhanuddin Qasmi, editor of monthly English magazine ‘Easter Crescent’, who hails from Assam, told Anadolu Agency that a large number of Muslims are still missing in Baksa district.

“The death toll is likely to rise as many Muslims who fled from Baksa and other villages are still missing,” he said.

Qasmi claimed one regional Bodo leader had threatened Muslims three days ago in the affected area as the leader believed Muslims did not vote for the Bodo candidate of choice in the voting in India’s national elections in Assam.

Since Thursday, more than 50 houses belonging to members of the Muslim community have been set ablaze and the Indian police have arrested 12 people from the Baksa area in connection with four attacks that singled out Bengali-speaking Muslims.

The Indian Army and paramilitary forces marched through the affected area Saturday morning and an indefinite curfew is in force in Baksa and neighboring villages.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condemned the “terrorist attacks” terming it as “cowardly attempts to spread fear and terror among” the citizens.

Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi dismissed calls by opposition parties and civil rights activists for his resignation.

“I will not step down as a chief minister. I am not a coward….I will not run away from battlefield, I will fight the terrorists,” Gogoi said after chairing a meeting demanding a probe by federal National Investigation Agency.

The ethnic violence which began Thursday night when Bodo militants armed with automatic assault rifles fired indiscriminately at a group of people in Baksa district followed by a second attack in the Kokrajhar district. A third attack took place Friday evening when 10 bodies sprayed with bullets were recovered from the Baksa district.

The rebels, an ethnic minority, have been fighting for a separate homeland for the region’s Bodo people against India.

Friday’s killings are the second biggest ethnic attack since 2012 when riots between Bodos and Bengali-speaking Muslims left over 80 people dead and displaced 400,000.

Interesting cartoon on Priyanka-Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi

Australian Jihad Mummy Arrested with 4 kids,while heading for Syria Jihad

(DailyMail)

Australian jihad mummy

An Australian mother has been arrested boarding a plane with her four young children bound for war-torn Syria in an alleged bid to become involved in the bloody civil conflict.
Police in Sydney arrested the 29-year-woman allegedly carrying cash and camouflage clothing for her husband who was already in Syria fighting in the country's bloody civil war.
Detectives from the New South Wales Joint Counter Terrorism Team arrested the woman at Sydney Airport shortly before she was due to board the international flight.
Police targeting  Australians engaged in 'foreign incursion' and 'recruitment' offences arrested the woman and took her to Mascot Police Station, near Sydney Airport, where a group of Muslim protestors gathered outsides.
The woman was granted conditional bail to appear in court on June 2 after police executed search warrants on properties in Sydney and Brisbane.
The Sydney-based al-Risalah Facebook page has claimed the woman's passport was confiscated.
'As per the sister who was stopped at the airport last night, she and her kids are now safe with family but passport has been taken," the Facebook post said.
As many as 200 Australians, and hundreds of other foreign nationals including UK passport holders,  are believed to have travelled to Syria during the country's civil war to fight with rebel forces engaged in civil warfare with the the army of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
  Last year, Australian couple Amira Karroum and her husband Yousef Ali, from Granville in western Sydney, died in a mortar attack near the city of Aleppo.
Ms Karroum, who attended a private Christian girls' school on the Gold Coast and graduated from university in graphic design, became radicalised after meeting Mr Ali, an American.
She wrote of who wrote of dying and going to heaven to meet Allah on her Facebook page, and listed her occupation as 'Slave of Allah'. Her title photo had a picture of a garden with the saying, 'Jannah [heaven] is the motive'.
She and Mr Ali died when government forces attacked rebel insurgents, killing dozens of people.
Last year, Australia recorded its first known suicide bomber in Syria when allegedly a jihadist from Brisbane blew himself near a military airport in the country's east.
The man, known as Abu Asma al Australi drove a truck loaded with 12 tonnes of explosives into a checkpoint close to the Deir Al Zour military airport. A video of the incident was later posted on YouTube.
Australian Muslim activist Zaky Mallah told the MailOnline Iraq and Syria was 'deceitfully recruiting vulnerable' people as jihadists.
'I am happy this woman is still in Australia,' he said, 'I would hate to see her caught up in a country that has lost the true meaning of revolution and no longer has a true jihad.'
More than 100,000 people have died in Syria's bloody internal strife, including more than 700 foreigners.

Hard Slap on Congress- Woman in Narendra Modi's Snooping scandal approaches Supreme Court

(DNA)

Amit Shah-Narendra Modi

In a fresh twist to the 'snoopgate' episode, the woman who was tailed by Gujarat police allegedly on the orders of Chief Minister Narendra Modi, today moved the Supreme Court along with her father for restraining the Centre and state government from going ahead with their Commissions of inquiry.

The joint-petition, filed by them, was mentioned before a bench comprising Justices Ranjana Prakash Desai and N V Ramana, which said it cannot pass an interim order for staying proceedings without hearing the parties.
The bench issued notices to the Centre and the Gujarat Government seeking their replies for hearing on Friday. The petition has also sought protection of their fundamental right to privacy and right to live with dignity.

The apex court also requested the media not to make public the name of the woman.

A controversy broke out last year when two news portals released CDs of purported telephonic conversations between Narendra Modi aide Amit Shah, who was then state Home Minister, and two top state police officials relating to snooping on a woman architect in 2009.

The conversations, purportedly between August and September 2009, do not specifically mention Modi by name but refers to a 'saheb', which the portals claimed was the Gujarat Chief Minister at whose instance the snooping was done, a charge denied by Shah.

While the Gujarat government constituted an inquiry commission in November last year, the Union Cabinet also decided to follow suit. However, a major controversy broke out when last week, senior ministers announced that the name of the judge to head the commission would be announced.

Yesterday, the central government beat a retreat after two allies of the Congress objected to such a move in the "dying days" of UPA II.

In the petition the woman and her father have also sought a direction for restraining media from publishing and airing news about the controversy that arose after the news portals --Cobra Post and Gulail.com--released CDs of telephonic conversation on snooping.

Senior advocate Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the two, submitted that despite no complaint filed by them their rights are invaded by various persons for extraneous reasons. "I was satisfied with the safety measures taken by the Gujarat Government when my lives were under threat and when I am not complaining what happened in 2009 there is a sinister campaign to target my reputation and of my family," Kumar submitted on behalf of them.

In the petition, they also took objection to the raking up of the snooping controversy by suspended Gujarat cadre IAS officer Pradeep Sharma seeking a CBI probe based on the unverified and unauthenticated contents brought by the web portals. They also expressed surprise that both the state government and the Centre went ahead with decision to set up Commissions of Inquiry even after knowing that the woman, who is now happily married, had approached the National Commission for Women and Gujarat State Commission for Women.

In view of the development before the two women's commissions, they sought direction to the Centre not to proceed with the constitution of the Commission of Enquiry or a body of like nature to go into the questions arising from the snooping controversy which was brought into public domain by the web portals

The petitioners also pleaded that the state government be asked not to proceed with the proceedings of the commission constituted by it on November 26, 2013. "The constitution of commission by the state government is wholly unwarranted and unjustified. The attempt being made by the central government to constitute a similar commission which would necessarily infringe upon and encroach upon right to privacy of the petitioners and their family which would clearly be unwarranted and unjustified and would be violative of the fundamental rights of the petitioners and their family members as guaranteed under Article 21 of the constitution," the petition said.

It said "on the basis of the said unauthorised and unverified contents posted in the aforesaid two web post, the authenticity of which is not guaranteed even by the said two posts, a sinister and defamatory campaign has started in electronic and print media by certain vested interest groups (with whom none of the petitioners are concerned) ostensibly on the ground of protecting the petitioners' right to privacy.

"Such sinister campaign by vested groups under the guise protecting the privacy of petitioners has resulted into tarnishing the reputation and infringing upon the petitioners and their family members right to privacy, causing them immense anguish and suffering."

They submitted the malicious campaign has led them to change their residential accommodation four times in few months and their e-mail accounts are hacked and indecent calls are being made to them.