Nasihat dene wala bhi nahi....

Aaj do hafte ho gaye
Yaqeen to abb bhi ata nahi
Ki app chale gaye,
Sadiq Manzil, Jo abad thi apse
Jiski raunak that app
Aaj khali hai,
Ek ek kar sab chale gaye
Main, Abba, Aisha o Sohaib

Door yahan Emarat mein,
Zindagi apne raftar pe
Main daftar mein
Bache school mein
Kabhi to aisa lagta hai
Jaise kuch hua hi nahi
Aap gaye hi nahi...

Par raatein,
Lambi aur mushkil hain
Apki yaad dilateen hai
Kabhi apki nasihatein
Kabhi apka Lehja,
kabhi andaaz,
Kuch khoya khoya sa lagta hai...

Jaise kari thay koi app
Jure thay sab apse
Apki batein hoti thi sabse
Mulaqatein hoti thi sabse
Sochta hoon kya baat karoon
Kaise yaad karoon
Ronay na lagoon
Kamzor na dikhoon...

Mujhe yaad hai ab-bhi
Apne kaha tha mujhse
Kamzor ka zamana hai
Isliye main roya to nahi
Par kamzor to kar gaye app
Chale to gaye app...

Janaze mein bahut log aye
Bahuton ka phone aya
Hazaroon to pehle hi bhool gaye thay
Unhe usse din bhi yaad na ayi
Humne shikayat bhi na ki
Apko jaldi jo thi
Ap unke liye kya rukte
Jab humare liye na ruke

Khair, Allah se dua hai
Apko Jannat naseeb kare
Aur humein himmat
Kamzor ka zamana jo nahi
Aur nasihat dene wala bhi nahi

Yasir

Muzaffarnagar Riots - Victims of Political War

Muzaffarnagar riots, handling of riot's victims and statements of its leaders were irresponsible and shameful. It has becomes even more grotesque when bestowed by the so called secular government of Samajwadi party. Justice and aid delivery both have been riding sloths in reign of Mulla Mulayam's son.

Management of rehabilitation work for the victims is not a rocket science and it could have been handled better. From the political point of view, especially when union elections are round the corner, there was no chance of lapses. I fail to understand why would any government not expedite the same more efficiently as it makes both political and governance sense.

Mulayam's USP has been his understanding of the mathematics of UP's caste politics.  He has mastered this art since late 80s. He may not have been the mascot of governance but his caste permutation and combination has kept him on center stage of UP politics. I am sure that he very well understands that a good majority of 18% Muslims of UP have been voting of his party.

This makes me think why would a seasoned politician like him handle Muzzaffarnagar riots in an unpopular and unsympathetic way. Why is he and his leaders using such language against the victims, how could he allow the riots to be manhandled to a such level. Why is he complicating the situation when he knows what is solution to the problem.

I do not wish to buy this argument that it is a simple case of mismanagement of relief work for riots victims. I have always believed that most of the time the final beneficiary of any event has some role in the event either frontal or in background. Thus it could also be inferred as a conspiracy to churn the caste alignments in Uttar Pradesh. As any shift of 2-3% votes from Mulayam will boost the fortune of both BSP or BJP.

I am in no way trying to justify or take favour of Mulayam Singh Yadav but some where I believe the entire saga is not as simple as it is being portrayed in media (which certainly has a sweetheart). The build-up to riots and the polarisation started long before riots. Those who express their sympathy with victims are no sympathizers either. 

Mulayam needs to take better control over the affairs and sort this out. Otherwise the way his sons has handled the law and order, it might well be the last government of the first time chief minister.

Some shameful political ironies....

Today I heard in the news that Babubhai Bokhiriya sitting water resource minister  convicted for illegal mining in one of the India's most water scare state. Belonging to the cabinet of Mr Clean & solution to every problem in India. It becomes more contrasting when he is sentenced in Porbandar, a place where MK Gandhi started Dandi march, his first successful mass movement. A land that once gave  'ahimsa', the concept of non-violence agitation to the world. 

Sabarmati was the place where MK Gandhi established his first ashram to preach non-violent and selfless human values. Ironically Sabarmati was the name of the ill fated train that was burnt in Godhra that let to state wide pogrom. 

Gujarat again, Amit Shah ex-home minister who controlled the police and intelligence in the state allegedly conspired with police to kill its opponents in fake encounter. 'Jab rakshak hi bhakshak ban jae, to janta kahan jae'.
  
For some reasons political ironies are more common in Gujarat. Maya Kodani ex-minster for child and women welfare was convicted for conspiring to murder of women and children during riots of 2002. Her shameless master who appointed her as minister, filed affidavit against her to save himself.

From Gujarat to UP, where Raja Bhaiya minister of Jail was allegedly involved in murder of two village pardhan and when a brave investigating officer was about to corner his goons was also eliminated.  Isn't it an irony that minster of Jail is in Jail.

One parlance if not irony, Khalid Mujahid died in mysterious circumstance in UP police custody recently. Human rights activists are claiming it a murder by police and are agitating for the arrest of involved police officers and labeling deceased as a martyr. Same Jab rakshak hi bhakshak ban jae, to janta kahan jae'  scene here too. But irony lies in name itself as the word 'Khalid' in Arabic means Glorious and 'Mujahid' means Martyr. Only time will tell if he was one or not but literally his the name does.

Why we will never vote for Modi

Modi, perhaps the idol of governance and development for a majority of urban India. Although some are trying to challenge the very notion and dump it as his propaganda to claims the top job. No matter which side of the rift we belong, we have to agree that Modi is a phenomenon which is the most common subject for discussion in our air conditioned Television studios and living rooms. With Modi almost certain as BJP's PM candidate, this polarisation will continue till the final voting of next election. These elections will be the most polarised elections in the history of Independent India and the results of this election will decide the future course of Indian secularism and diversity.

Myself as a Muslim Indian has been encountered with questions about our continuous opposition to Modi and his aspiration; they believe that Muslims wrap themselves in victim-hood and hide. It would better for you guys to understand our perspective and our preferences for voting, which might be contrary to those asking the question. The choice can never be based on the speeches and manifestos written by paid advisers but on the challenges that we face in our daily life. Our first and foremost concern is security of our families and community, followed by the popular 'roti kapra aur makan', then governance and development while the corruption is good fourth sometimes even lower in the list. This might sound weird to new genre TV anchor, their experts and viewers as the corruption cacophony every night are the best steroids for TRPs.

Before you eliminate the corruption, we wish to eliminate the fear. Fear of our sons returning home in the night, fear of our women's womb being slit, fear of our shops being arson, safety of our religious places and the list continues. This fear psychosis has pushed us to live in ugly ghettos and avoid reaching out to other communities.  We also know that scions of Gandhis, Mulayams or Lalus, the so called saviors of our community have only used our votes for their political mileages. We know that the 'pseudo-secular' league has not delivered on the promises to implement sachar recommendations, reservations etc. We also know that there is huge leadership deficits in our community. But friends you don't know that all these 'Don'ts' have not seized our rights to exit, our rights to wear burqas, our rights to build mosques and pray.

If a candidate passes the first stage and we feel that we can manage to live under his reign. Then only we can think about 'Roti Kapra aur Makan'. For a community where majority of population is self employed, government has limited role to play. Of course, the power shedding will be more in the ghettos where artisans live and work, thankfully these guys are still using the technologies developed before electricity was invented. We definitely hope that one day our legislators will reduce our dependence on self employment. But for now we simply thank god that we are living.

You guys would have been watching American election debate and would have thought why Indian elections can't be fought on these Financial Policy, Foreign Policy, Healthcare Policy etc debates. These governance and development issues shall be debated in public and voters shall consider it before voting. But dear friends in mainland India we debate unaccountability, racial and gender discrimination, caste atrocities, rapes, feticide, injustice in thousands every day. In our country respectable survival issue is so pertinent that policy debates have become irrelevant when we queue to cast our franchise.

Hey, where did the corruption go? Don’t worry friends it comes. First, ask yourselves which corruption we are discussing and planning to eliminate - Theirs or Ours. Also think of a working class from Army to Judiciary, Religious Bodies to Charities, Media Houses to Corporate houses that can claim high moral ground of being non-corrupt (Surely there will be miniscule percentage that are still immune). It is the most ubiquitous menace in India so why blame any party or class. My choice before vote is between less and more corrupt, so why should I worry about the prefix when the word corruption is common amongst all parties. Where is the choice then?

My argument may not sooth your sentiments, if it doesn't then you can argue that irrespective of my claims the clamor of Modi is rising every day. Even certain sections of tribal and backward are joining his bandwagon. For us it is unfortunate that the Indian political centre is moving towards right. We are aware of this transition and will try our best to vote against any person, ideology or party that aims seize our rights. We would continue to vote for leaders who can defeat the rightist. Leaders like Maya, Lalu, Mulayam etc who symbolise the uprising of downtrodden, which are living under upper cast suppression for thousands of years. We believe that the survival of Indian democracy lies in the unity of neglected communities. And you know guys, these ugly looking lads understands the real beauty of Indian diversity and coexistence.

edited version was published in Muslim Mirror

Irrelevant Azaadi

Myself and my Kashmiri wife, both of us love to read about politics but our views are often different and sometimes opposite. Initially we used to have never ending arguments over politics but we started avoiding such discussions for larger peace of our family. However, this weekend me and my wife were discussing something and it was becoming an inconclusively long discussion like politics. The subject wasn't important enough to swallow our precious time over the weekend. Me realising that discussions is going nowhere I restlessly said, 'this why the Kashmir issues is not finding any solution' and in a quick reflex she replied, 'Yes, but we know that we are fighting for our azaadi and with fully honesty'.

I was so amused with the response that my insatiable mind started to dissect the ir/relevance of the two sentences in relation to public psyche in the valley against others like myself. I said so because I was trying to compare our failure to conclude in our discussions with dispute in Kashmir. Where there are so many leaders with so diverse opinions that every leader is now a party.  Later they decided to form a party of parties called Hurriyat Conference which later got split into two. Today, if you ask a Kashmiri who is your leader, he will most probably name none. In a small region like Kashmir when you have so many voices, all claiming to be true representative. It is a chaos which leads only to cacophony and little concludes to solution. Which I thought was relevant comparison.



I thought how can she talk about the honesty of Kashmiri struggle, when the failure to find solution or voice is questioned. It appeared to me as an irrelevant response and I decided to quit the discussion, as we avoid debating politics. Although we discontinued the discussion but I continued to think about relevance of her response as the spontaneity with which it was said certainly had some depth. I feel the failure of leader ship to conclude any solution with Indian and Pakistani accession has led to disbelieve in the leadership. 

During this period of 60 years, while both the political and militant struggles were failing; the atrocities were continuing. This led to an environment of disbelieve and frustration. In this supercharged and chaotic environment, the vengeance towards the aggressors kept on accumulating. Lack of convergence towards a solution has led to lost of hope for the Solution itself. Now when the aspirations of youth are not being channelised, all they want is to keep their spirit of struggle alive. I believe this would be the reason behind sprouting stone pelters every summers. In this long history of struggle all is lost except the spirit of freedom which is becoming younger every year.

Now the response of my wife appears to be a little relevant as all she care is continued chant for azaadi.

Quranic Centre in AMU

The Quranic Centre built in the Sir Syed House compound of Aligarh Muslim University always pinches me and reminds me of an incident. About 10 years ago, I got a chance to meet Mr Naseem Ahmed the vice chancellor of AMU with my uncle Dr Abdullah (of Maryland, USA). Beside discussing various he spent good fraction of time praising the idea Mr Nizami of New York Islamic Centre, who proposed to build the Quranic center in the Sir Syed compound. Mr Nizami wanted the structure to resemble the old architecture of AMU and was very particular about the appearance. The VC went on to praise efforts of the team working on the project, as how they brought the bricks from far away places and various other details of the construction.

Hearing his praises, as a student I gather myself to asked the VC 'if he really thinks its a good idea'. He said why, and I replied. First of all any aesthetically superior structure in the compound is bound to draw more attention than the founder's house. Thus undermining the significance of Sir Syed House and the Aligarh Movement. Also the Aligarh Movement primarily promoted modern education among Indian Muslim and not the Islamic education. I certainly don't wish ignore or dwarf the importance of Islamic education but it certainly was not the objective of the founder's movement.

Today when I see pictures like the one above I feel sadden that the architecturally superior building has started to eclipse the historically far superior one.

Ek barhman ne kaha mujhse...

Kuch baras pehle ki baat hai

Ek barhman ne kaha mujhse

Karta hai jo tu mohabat usse

Par kya janta hai tu yeh

Woh bani nahi tere liye

Muskura kar maine kaha use

Zaat bari hai bahut uski

Jisne tujhe yeh illm diya

Bharosa hai mujhe uss par

Bara hai darbaar jiska

Khataon ko maaf kar

Mere Bharose ke dum par

Meri mohabat se mila kar

Sabit kiya usne zor apna

Par Na jane kyon aaj

Uss barhman ka khayal aya

Uski baton se khauf sa laga

Maine dil ko samjhaya

Allah ki taqat ko dohraya

Phir bhi Maine socha

Iman aur shirk ki yeh larayi

Kyon cheri hai akhir dil mein

Barhman ki yaad ka ana

Mera Allah taqat ka dohrana

Kahin Koi Ishara to nahi

Ki Shadi ki khushi mein

Bacho ki Hansi mein

Zindagi ki masroofiyat mein

Pakar meri taqwe par

Kamzor ho rahi thi shayd

Yeh bhi khoob mojza hai uska

Jo bahano se yaad dilata hai

Ki wahi malik hai

Uski hi raza hai
Behtar hoga Yasir

Dor yeh thame raho
Usse yaad karte raho...

Lack of Statesmanship

In recent times political mismanagement, corruption, protests are the only news coming out of India. It seems that the political chaos is fading the shinning India story. A couple of years back when UPA-2 cabinet was announced, there was buzz about the competency of the majority of union cabinet. It was further strengthen by the intellectual capital arranged at the National Advisory Council. Which was considered to be conscience of the government; and Sonia Gandhi as the head NAC gave tooth to the council. The intent was to build consensus among various stakeholders on the key challenges through better consultation. If all was so good the where did this plethora of great policy makers and advisors failed.

How did somebody like Anna Hazare, an ex-peon with a few successful water harvesting projects under his belt went on to take such a government, ironically headed by the father of economic liberalisation in India. Anna with his clean and simple image has been successful in building significant middle class support against the government. He is often compared to Gandhi, contrary to the fact that Gandhi was a barrister with mass appeal ranging from the harijans to the elites.

Anna has surely been successful amongst those who have access to internet as they read his blogs, also with those who have motorbikes and cars to participate in his rallies. Majority of these people often don’t go to vote as they are so busy on internet or watching television in their homes. The majority among these honest Anna supporters are from the missed opportunity class. They are honest because they could not get a chance to participate in the corrupt league. I will not paint every one with the same brush, as I understand there are some white dots but in the population of 1.2 billion it is almost impossible to find them.

To these 10 million internet users, corruption might appear to be the biggest challenge in India. But for the forgotten sections of India there lies various other challenges before corruption. For Schedule Caste their self respect in society is more important than corruption. It is considered to be more honourable to sleep without food than been thrown out of a temple. For tribals, the foremost priority is to save their forests than fight. For Muslims, it is safer to live with corruption than to be slaughtered for a reason ever unknown. These three along with other backward classes constitutes silent but large majority, which  considers political corruption as a given.  

I certainly don’t wish to down play the importance of a strong anti corruption law but 'my way highway' approach is unacceptable. It is easy to taste the mass support but not to digest; congress however has mastered the art after several years in power. I believe that the a strong political will and experience of bringing path breaking laws like NREGA, RTI, RTE will help the government to pass a strong and effective Anti corruption bill. Thereafter Food Security, Anti Communal Riots and Land Reform bills are waiting for its turn to be shouted by opposition. 

The current vacuum in the government is not due political or intellectual incompetency but  due to lack of statesmanship and leadership. To head a nation as diverse as India, one needs  strong statesmanship than wisdom. It becomes even more important if it is a coalition government. Thus the current state of the government can easily be strengthen if PM portrays better political will than his economic and logical wisdom. It would be better if congress takes some lesson from Nehru, Indira or even Vaypayee before it is too late and the fading India Shinning story becomes irreversible.

Basel Convention and UAE

In the recent times the environment protection is a buzzword here in UAE and government is drafting stringent laws to protect the environment.

UAE signed the Basel Convention* in November 1992 and established a legislation called ‘Regulation for Handling Hazardous Materials, Hazardous Wastes and Medical Waste (Law 24 of 1999)’. Article 12 of the law states ‘Transportation and disposal of locally produced hazardous waste through land borders, marine environment limit and air space shall be controlled in accordance with the rules, procedure and controls mentioned and specified in Basel Agreement and in coordination with Federal Environmental Agency’.

UAE is not yet a signatory to Basel BAN amendments of Sep 1995 thus there is no mention of the Basel BAN amendments in the current federal legislation.

At emirates level various legislation were passed to organise the waste management sector in each emirates. Abu Dhabi passed the Law 21 of 2005 concerning Waste Management in emirate of Abu Dhabi. The clauses listed below are related to transportation of hazardous waste, which permits the Centre of Waste Management (CWM which is the Competent Authority) to monitor and manage the transportation of hazardous waste.

Chapter 4 – Responsibilities of Waste Generator

Article 5.6.c ‘Medical or Hazardous waste must not be delivered to any party interested in contracting unless such parties specify the means that they shall apply on such waste and provide the approval of the competent authority’

Chapter 5 – Responsibilities of Storage, Treatment and Disposal Facilities

Article 6.3 ‘Storage, treatment and/or disposal facilities must not receive any hazardous waste shipments except after obtaining the approval of the competent authority on the sites and methods to be used’

Article 6.4 ‘The Competent authority may issue an annual approval for the disposal of recurrent shipments of the same kind of hazardous waste through regulations laid down for such purpose’

Shipment of such waste coming into UAE has been well monitored and controlled. In recent past only a single incident of mixed plastic waste was reported in media. The waste was imported through Dubai ports to be treated at a facility in Ajman (another Emirate in UAE). The Dubai government objected to import and the issue was raised at Environment Agency-UK. As a result, the transporting company was fined about GBP 75,000.

Major waste stream of hazardous waste in UAE are Petrochemical waste, Medical Waste, e-Waste and nuclear waste will join the list soon. To avoid hazardous waste export the cash rich government owned petrochemical companies have established centralised treatment facility. CWM has established treatment facilities for Medical Waste Incineration, Engine Oil treatment, Tyre Shredding through PPP model.

Government is encouraging private companies for e-waste recycling. A few major electronic distributors have established collection centres and they transfer the waste to established facilities. However, good fraction e-waste is still collected in an unorganised manner and exported to South and South-East Asian countries. The exports of such substance are not widely reported.

Unlike my home country India and majority of the third world countries, UAE has efficient law enforcement machinery. Thus after the establishment of CWM in 2008, there has been significant improvement in waste management in general and hazardous waste transportation in particular. Further impetus is required by the government to invest into the better treatment/storage facilities for e-waste, nuclear waste and other such waste. The legislations shall also be made more illustrative to check the aberrations regarding trans-boundary movement of hazardous waste.

References

*The Basel Convention is an UNEP convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal is the most comprehensive global environmental agreement on hazardous and other wastes. The Convention has 175 Parties and aims to protect human health and the environment against the adverse effects resulting from the generation, management, transboundary movements and disposal of hazardous and other wastes. The Basel Convention came into force in 1992. 

Click here to know more about Basel Convention

Hazardous Waste Laws in UAE
Centre of Waste Management - Abu Dhabi

State of Environment in UAE

Dubai Hazardous Waste

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/news/107603.aspx?lang=_e

http://www.slideshare.net/zarounee/hazardous-waste

Published in CleantechSolution

LIVE ALIGARH MOVEMENT

While I was writing this note date turned to 17 Oct, the Sir Syed Day. I am reading messages coming for Aligarian across the world. The social media sites and other networks are flooded with wishes. In the university student as well as alumni associations will celebrate it with beautiful nostalgic poetry, Tarana followed by dinner which will end yet another founder’s day. I have just received the invitation from the Alumni Association of UAE that it is organising the dinner on 21 October as it is the first weekend after 17 October 2011.

First thought that shook my senses after the getting the invitation was if I shall attend it or not. I don’t want to be disrespectful to the founder and the history his movement igintied. But I thought if Sir Syed would have been alive today how he would have felt after visiting any of these functions. In last year’s function organisers in UAE were not even able to speak proper Urdu or English, the minimum that was expected from university graduates. The organisers were more interested to showcase themselves as the key organisers. Majority of the senior alumnis preferred to stay away from it. In short the event demeant the meaning of celebrating Sir Syed day.

I am neither a student of history nor very close observers of Sir Syed’s life, I am writing this with my limited knowledge that I have gained through my stay at the university and my readings on his life. In this capacity I would like to share a few observation with my seniors and concerned Aligarians. If we try to generalise the programs organised around the world to celebrate the day then we can easily conclude towards Popular Mushairas in West, Gala Dinners in Middle East and chaotic dinner in AMU as well as other parts of India. As a deep admirer of Sir Syed, I have always been searching for his messages, his essence, his persona, his movement on the day. Surely there would be some who would be trying to resurrect the movement and work on the expected lines but they are heavily out-numbered by the ‘BOTI & ROTI’ crowd who merely gather on the day to enjoy their dinner.

Sir Syed's writing like Ain-e-Akbari, Asaar-us-sanadeed etc. were embedded in our rich history, he higlighted our past glory. After the revolt of 1857 his writings like Asbaad Baghawate Hind enlightened the community about the reasons behind failure against the mighty British. Later he tried to take us forward through his works such as Scientific Society, Tahzeeb-Ul Akhlaq and ultimately founding the MAO college. Conclusively he followed history to dig the shortcomings and find way forward to meet the trajectory of future. I strongly believe that we Aligarians have failed to live the Aligarh Movement. We have reduce the day to mere remembrance of our university days, no matter how we performed in our studies during our stay, no matter if we ever read his writings…..(no reason to stretch the list).

I am a recent pass out from the university so I definitely cannot compare the past glory of the university with present but I would request the seniors and elders who have seen the history and are aware about the present to rejuvenating the essence of Aligarh. Let us not succumb Sir Syed Day to tarana and dinner but use the occasion to revisit his vision, mission and the movement that he is a great symbol of.

LET US LIVE THE ALIGARH MOVEMENT ONCE AGAIN…

Published in AMUNETWORK.

Nationalism or Fascism ???

Recent attacks on noted lawyer Mr Prashant Bushan by the Rama Sena in his chamber in the Supreme Court of India describes the grips of these fascist forces over our nation. The venue as well as the follow up insult of Bushan’s supportors next day in the court portrays the depth of the problem. It was indeed a shame for our democracy but for these hooligans it was a proud moment as they took pride in their act and projected themselves as the saviour of India. This is not the first time these incidents have occured. In recent times self appointed saviours of India have carried out several similar attacks. These saviours are often used by the politicians to solve their political purposes thus the political will to crack the menace is nominal.

Criticism in media was quite visible but the queue of admirers can be counted in millions. Facebook, twitter, news website etc are loaded with support for these bigots. I am not writing this note to criticise these bigots or their ideological feedstock but through my blog I wish reinvent the ideological difference of two icons of pre-independent India and discuss the exploitation of nationalism  for mass mobilization and its sensitivities.

Nehru writes about the discussions between Gandhi and Tagore in his memoirs ....point of discussion was Nationalism, which Gandhi defended. He said that one must go through nationalism to reach internationalism, in the same way that one must go through nationalism to reach internationalism in the same way that one mist go through war to reach peace.

Although Tagore greatly admired Gandhi but he had many disagreements with him on a variety of subjects including nationalism and patriotism, the importance of cultural exchange, the role of rationality and of science and the nature of economic and social development. These differences, I shall argue have a clear and consistent pattern, with Tagore pressing for more room for reasoning and for a less traditionalist view, a greater interest in the rest of world and more respect for science and for objectivity generally. (Argumentative Indians – Amratya Sen)

In daily life we might have forgotten Gandhi, but these acts of arrogance and non violence rejuvenates his legacy. The above debates between Gandhi and Tagore in some way helps us to understand the possible causes of this growing arrogance in the name of false patriotism.

Tagore goes on to write in his novel Ghare Baire ‘Patriotism cannot be our final spiritual diamonds and I will never allow patriotism to triumph over humanity as long as I live’. In his novel Nikhil, Tagore writes ‘I am willing to serve my country; but my worship I reserve for right which is far greater than my country. To worship my country as a god is to bring a curse upon it’

Tagore was a great admirer of Gandhi and it was he who for the first called him Mahatma Gandhi. However, Tagore had several ideological disagreements with Gandhi on variety of subjects like hyper usage of Nationalism and Patriotism; undermining the importance of the Cultural Exchange, Role of Rationality, Science, Economic and Social Development etc. Through his writings Tagore gave strong warnings to leadership of his time about the corruptibility of Nationalism. He said that hatred of one group can lead to hatred of others, no matter how far such feeling may be from the minds of humane nationalist leaders like Gandhi.

We are definitely aware about Gandhi’s lessons on Ahimsa but we don't realise that he was amongst the first political leaders who excessively used the nationalism for the mass mobilisation and created a precedent for others to use or misuse it. His intention would not have been the one we are experincing in modern India but his predecessors had their own agendas.

Gandhi’s assassination was also a result of hyper-nationalism. Where nationalism was galvanised with religion to make it even more venomous. In the name of two all your ills becomes the will of the nation or the god. Patriotism as the will of god became the biggest weapon for these demagogues in their political struggle. They used it to polarise the society at their will which created blindness against the cultural rationality and social reasoning.

In this is culture of bigotry and irrationality we somewhere forgot Tagore and started to believe that we are incorrigible. Our history and culture never had any shades of grey or black. We seem to deny all the caste atrocities; we wish dalits have forgotten all that they have suffered for generations. We seems to believe that Kashmir will forget the illegal accession of their nation and not to mention million such ill believes.

So, what is a nation, is it boundary or people within the boundary? If it is the citizen then why we don’t consider Kashmiri’s as Indians and if we do then we don’t feel hurt when they are hurt or why we don’t feel humiliated when they are humiliated? Why we ignore the truth in the name of nationalism? Why do we kill the nationals for nationalism? Why we criticise a national for criticising the nationalism?

Why can’t we simply start acknowledging the facts and rectify it through Tagore’s ideas? Why can’t we develop a people centric nationalism where we as nation can discuss and resolve the problem of nationals and not the inverse...?

Originally published in Rozmarra.com

Eliza's Second Birthday

No matter how fast u run now,

No matter how tall u r now,

You'll always be my little angle...

No matter how tough the life be,

No matter how fair it is with ye,

You'll never cry for me...
 
No matter when birthdays come and go,

No matter if I am beside u or no,

You`ll always fill my life with yo...

     

No matter if they wish u or no, 

No matter if u cut the cake or no,

You will always smile for me...

No matter if you are away,

No matter if I can kiss u or no,

You know that I miss u...

You know that I love u...

Happy Birthday Eliza

May Allah shower Peace and Joy on YOU...AMEN!!

Naked Truths

Spencer Tunick famous environment activists organized a naked shoot at the Dead Sea in Israel. Idea was to raise awareness about the depleting levels of Dead Sea. Full article can be read on Green Prophet.

 

The protest might be a genuine environmental effort but unfortunately it is great irony to a nation built on the dead bodies for thousands of Palestinians.  The Israelis are protesting for the plight of the saline sea which has no life but have always been ignoring the real killings. 

There are millions of untold and heart breaking stories that needs to be said and heard. There are hundreds such incidents that needs protest if not a naked one. I know a few from Gaza working here in UAE and have not visited their homes for years bcoz of Israel restrictions. Israeli atrocities were always there and Media of both sides have always been telling the stories their way. But this recent Palestinian surge which is spurning out of geopolitical development in the region may take them beyond the levels of protest.

Egypt and Turkey two powerhouses and major allies to US in the region are observing important political shift in its ideology. These are among the few countries in Muslim world that recognizes Israel as a state. This is threatening the Israeli supremacy and its political balance in Middle East. Adding to this problem is America’s failure in recent wars and economic crisis in Europe.

Considering the scenario Palestinian would have chosen this as Ideal time to take the risk that Yasser Arafat once took. They also understand that the US and West will veto their statehood in UN but if some OIC countries accept it, as expected. Then it will be Achilles heals for Israel and certain win for the ruined state.

Appeasment Politics

While Modi was fasting, India was busy either in praising governance skills or criticizing his ideological bent. Adding to the buzz were the events like Muslim skull cap controversy or Mehbooba Mufti’s being misquoted. It gave his opponents opportunity to disgust him further. We may be on any side of the divide but it is established that Modi is the most polarizing political figure in current political class. It is also clear that the aim of this event was not to appease Muslim votes,  as Modi understands that they are not his constituency. 

Similarly, it is not going to bring any change in Muslims' position. Thus idea was to develop wider acceptability among the allies of NDA who might oppose his candidature during the next parliamentary election. As the kind politics Modi does may hurt the likes of Nitish, Chandrababu and Biju. These allies are also feeding their constituencies as they understand the risk of aligning with Modi. My take on Sadbhavna Mission has already being published so without digging further into the event, I would like to raise other aspects of these fake fasts and appeasement politics. 

Imitating Modi congress’s Shankar Singh Vaghela also announced a fast. Vaghela himself was BJP’s chief minister and followed the same ideology. When he was dumped by his BJP and adopted by Congress he had an overnite change of heart. We will never know if it was a genuine or compulsion of vote bank politics. Although Vaghela’s fast received nominal response but it gave Congress an opportunity to try and appeasement some more Muslim votes.

These appeasements of the Congress are superficial and most of the times has failed to transform the fate of the minorities. When Digvijay Singh visited Shanjarpur village of Azamgarh, the home to the two victims of Batla House Encounter case. He met their parents and parents of those whose kids are arrested in the case. Families of these students requested Digvijay Singh to initiate an independent inquiry on the encounter and to start a fast track court for the trail of the arrested students. Two years of have passed since he visited, no action has been taken from him or his party. Three key years of these students have passed in jail and they have not yet been charged by agencies.

In the recent Bharatpur communal riots the police are being accused of favouring one community. As soon as this news broke out, Rajasthan Chief Minister announced compensation. Like BJP the congress also does not understands that money can never compensate injustice. Beside these recent cases there are hundreds such cases like forgotten Sri Krishna Commission report on Mumbai riots, Bhagalpur riots, Meerut riots. The list of forgotten but not forgiven cases in Congress's regime is definitely many folds longer than BJP's.

Far from Gujarat, shivers of fast was also observed in Bihar where Nitish Kumar avoided to comment on the Narendra Modi’s fast. But forgot that he very recently missed to apologies on the Kishanganj atrocities by police in Bihar. My intend is not to revisit these unfortunate events but to highlight how these fasts and statements has started to appears more theatrical that real. These tricks have become so predictable that schools kids have also started guessing it right. This is the reason why youth has started hating our politicians across the party line.

Neither I support Narendra Modi nor his style of hard line politics, especially in as diverse country as ours. But at the same time we as Muslims also need to understand that so called secular parties have used our votes but have not delivered what was expected from them. In this time of high drama and audacity, BJP surely gets the credit of using this appeasement politics at the least. They have mobilized their votes through their vast networks and of course through fake propaganda.

Published in Rozmarra.com

Javed Akhtar's Fasad ke Baad 

The Communal Harmony Drama

Three day Sadbhavna Mission Fast observed by Narender Modi ended this evening. The entire event was full with high drama and debate allover the country so much so that Sikkim earthquake also became minor issue. For his supporters it was Modi getting ready for next big job as the head of the nation in 2014 while for the critics it is fictitious makeover to guile the nations.

I believe that there is no change of heart but it was simply a PR exercise to build consensus through this brand building to make him more acceptable candidate for NDA allies in next parliamentary elections. The economic development and firm governance were the two main USP used in developing this marketing event.

With million benefits of capitalism the main lacuna lies in its assumption of unlimited demands and profit behind every activity. This is where it fails to read the human psychology of love, hatred and self respect.British also built the Railways, Sea Ports, Universities, Roads and arguably India under them observed less corruption; but Gandhi and folks still sent them back.The rationale behind the Quit India movement was to regain the self respect of the nation. To live in an impoverished but independent country was considered far better than a prosperous but colonized nation.

Thus first priority of the Muslim community would be to live safe and practice their religion with full freedom. Second would be to live with dignity and self respect, third would be to get justice in the riot cases.Next priority would be to educate their kids, as their prosperity will define the future stride of the community and last would be their income or economic empowerment. With RTE and NAREGA, many would argue that all these are our rights guaranteed under the constitution but what is written in books and how it is being practiced are unfortunately very different in India of our times.

Therefore instead of arguing if the economic success of Gujarat is inclusive or not and if the great success is also shared by the Muslim community or not; I would like argue that economic success lies on the bottom of our priorities. Moreover, as per Sachar committee's report majority of the Muslims are self employed which further demeans the very USP of the Modi government. Therefore a community living under the shadow of fear and injustice; feeling dishonored and betrayed can not live in harmony, no matter how great the economy does.

Firm governance was another USP and through which he is being compared with the original Iron Man of India - Sardar Patel. The firmness of the Chief + Home minister is such that fake encounters, false arrest, evidence mishandling, activist killings etc were among the highest in the nation. If the Nazi admirers was to be admired so much in India then we as a nation need serious reconciliation. He may or may not like 170 Million of us but the fact is, at partition he had no choice but India while we had other choices but we believed in the idea of India and stayed here. Thus we will never allow these hate mongers to ruins our believes...

The article was originally written for Rozmarra.com

Million lies do not make a truth...

Panchayat polls in Kashmir: Yes, we did - is the title of the an article first written by a retired Lt Col of the Indian Army who has served in J&K on multiple occasions. He is presently pursuing a Masters degree programme in International Security Policy Studies at George Washington University, Washington DC.

Click the link below to view the article
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/panchayat-polls-in-kashmir-yes-we-did/166663-61.html



The above is written by a military officer who served in the valley. He might have his own understanding and definition of Peace and Participation in the Valley. He might be correct, as a man with Kalashnikov seldom gets people disagreeing with his views. And if the Kalashnikov is backed by Special Power act then disagreement becomes rare.

As a common Indian citizen I have visited the valley a few times, have several Kashmiri friends and relatives. I have never met a single Kashmiri who has ever voted or wishes to participate in Indian establishment organised elections. It indeed does not sound pleasant but it is a hard fact of the valley.

I met one Election officer in Delhi, who has been the part of the elections in J&K for more than a decade. He said it is military which threatens people to vote. He told me that he once saw only women coming to vote, after inquiring he came to know that the army went their houses and told the women to vote otherwise they will kill male members of the family. After the women returned they send the men.

In another incident he said that one old man was requesting him to give some ink to him, he asked why he needs it as he has already voted. After asking for several times he came to know that military will visit their houses in the evening to check if they voted or not. He said his son is ill and could not come to vote, so he will place the ink on the index finger to save his life. These are only a few of the hundred such incidents that goes unreported or the voices are suppressed. Apart from this there are various cases of rigged elections and other malpractices.

I also wish that Kashmir shall stay with India but not with force. If we feel that Kashmir is an integral part of India then we shall also provide a fare and just system in the valley. So that Kashmiris can some day vote freely and elect government that represents all the sections of the state.