By TCN News,

Aligarh: Two MBBS First Year students, Sumit Suryant and Mohd. Ahsan Faizi Shamim, JN Medical College, Aligarh Muslim University have been suspended from the rolls of the University for misconduct and indiscipline with immediate effect pending inquiry.

Dr. Jamshed Siddiqui, Proctor, Aligarh Muslim University said that it was reported and alleged vide report of Deputy Controller of examination duly approved by the Controller of Examination that aforementioned students were required to appear in person before a duly constituted committee for Bio-Metric Data acquisition on January 21, 2013 and February 7, 2013 in the R&D Cell of the Faculty of Engineering and Technology for verification of their authenticity and identity for admission to MBBS/BDS Course 2012-2013. He said that these students willfully ignored the notice under reference and failed to appear in person before the committee on its scheduled date and time for Bio Metric Data acquisition.

Dr. Jamshed Siddiqui said that it was also reported that the aforementioned students went missing from the Hadi Hasan Hall without any information to the competent authority of the Hall and, therefore, an FIR to this affect was lodged with the Police Station Civil Lines, Dodhpur, Aligarh.

Dr. Siddiqui said that in view of the above facts and circumstances, it is prima facie established that these students committed acts of gross misconduct and indiscipline as provided under Part-II, Rule-4 of AMU Students’ Conduct and Discipline Rules, 1985. He said that they are required to submit their reply on the charge specified hereinabove within 15 days, failing which it shall be presumed as if they have nothing to say in their defense and an ex-parte action will follow against them.

By TCN News,

Hyderabad: Popular Front of India observed ‘Anti-Torture Day’ on June 26 on the occasion of United Nations International Day in support of Victims of Torture. Andhra Pradesh state unit had organized a protest in front of Hyderabad District Collector office today at 11:00 a.m.

Popular Front’s cadres and other rights activists joined the protest to “expose various forms of torture against helpless innocents, those accused in crimes and under trail prisoners.”

PFI has also demanded abolition of death penalty in India.

It also highlighted the extra judicial killing of Qatheel Siddiqui in Maharashtra jail and Khalid Mujahid in the custody of UP police, calling these “indications of this condemnable trend.”

The courts are now more inclined to giving death penalties which, in fact, should be confined to rarest of rare cases, added PFI. Later a memorandum was submitted to the Hyderabad district collector in his chamber.

Jamiat Ulama i Hind also donated 2 lakh rupees to Utrakhand CM Fund.

By TCN News,

New Delhi: Jamiat Ulama-i- Hind, the largest Indian Muslism organization, shocked by the calamitous flash flood and landslides in Uttrakhand that killed a large number of people and swept away property worth crores of rupees, is busy providing quick relief and humanitarian aids to the evacuated victims since the day one.

JUH first organized camp at Haridwar railway station where the victims were given food materials and medical help.

At present, JUH state Unit at the directive of Maulana Mahmood Madani general secretary Jamiat Ulama-i- Hind is holding relief camp at Jolly Grant airport where the victims are being served packed food, biscuits, mineral waters etc.

Jamiat relief team including Dr. Islamuddin president JUH Uttrakhand Unit, Maulana Altaf general secretary state unit, etc are working all through the day and night for providing relief and other necessary materials to those who visit the camp.

Besides that he JUH Uttrakhand unit has donated to the Chief Minister Flood relief fund through district Magistrate of Haridwar. Jamiat is planning to provide relief and rehabilitation for the affected villages of the hillside whose homeland, animals have been lost in rain fury and are among the worst affected. Once the permission is granted, JUH relief team will start relief work among them.

Jamiat Ulama –i- Hind general secretary Maulana Mahmood Madani while reiterating that JUH is standing with all those who are going with harrowing time has asked especially philanthropists within the Muslim community for donation to the PM Fund to support the victims who have suffered “widespread devastation’.

By IANS,

New Delhi : Senior BJP leader L.K. Advani Friday advised Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah not to use words like "cheating" and "deceiving" for his party's stance over the constitution's Article 370, terming it "offensive" and "improper".

He also contended that almost the entire Congress was also against the provision - granting special status to Jammu and Kashmir - when it was sought to be incorporated in the constitution. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been long seeking its abrogation.

Advani's remarks came after Abdullah, at a rally in his state, sought to tell the BJP that it is not possible to withdraw Article 370 and "any attempt by anyone will be over our dead bodies".

In the latest posting on his blog, Advani said BJP's predecessor Jana Sangh was not even born when Article 370 was sought to be approved in the Constituent Assembly and if there was any provision in the draft constitution which had almost the entire Congress up in arms against it, it was this provision.

He cited from a biography of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel to state how the the then home minister was also against Article 370 and how the provision came about in the constitution.

"Omar Abdullah, chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir state, has every right to disagree with the BJP on matters relating to J&K. But I would advise him never to use offensive language and words like 'cheating' and 'deceiving' in that context," Advani said.

He said it was highly improper for anyone to use offensive words like "cheating" in the context of BJP's stand on Jammu and Kashmir.

"It is an issue on which we have not only been unequivocal, forthright and consistent from the time Jana Sangh was born in 1951 till today, but it is an issue for which the party's founder - president laid down his own life, and for which tens of thousands of party activists have courted arrest and suffered in many other ways," he said.

By Saeed Naqvi, IANS,

Nelson Mandela striding out of the Victor Vorester prison, outside Cape Town, on a sultry Feb 11, 1990 will remain etched on my mind as the everlasting image of "Freedom" in the 20th century. "Your piece to camera; your piece to camera," screamed Akhtar Ali Khan, my cameraman. I came back with a start, so absorbed was I in the moment of history I was witnessing.

Later, it took me years of travel as a journalist to fix that historic moment in a broader perspective, both South African as well as global.

The role of the last white South African President, F.W. de Klerk, in unbanning the African National Congress (ANC) and taking a decision to release Mandela cannot be overlooked. The release was preceded by secret Mandela-de Klerk meetings in 1989.

White opposition to de Klerk came to a head when Andries Treurnicht addressed 60,000 ultra rightists at the Voortrekker Monument outside Pretoria. Afrikaans would resort to armed conflict to defend their right to a "White Fatherland", he thundered.

This, soon after the massacre of black protesters at Thabong, near the gold mining town of Welkom, in the Orange Free State. Mandela threatened to call off negotiations unless the police, raised on generations of prejudice, were brought under control. History of the negotiations which preceded Mandela's release must be accessed to find out so much. For instance, what was the position of Pretoria, Washington and Moscow on South Africa's nuclear arsenal which, in the event, the ANC did not make an issue of?

It is elementary that the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan in 1989 and the beginning of the secret Mandela-de Klerk dialogue was not just a coincidence. It had become clear that the Soviet Union was doomed but any post Soviet gameplan could not be contemplated so long as the grotesque image of Apartheid dangled from the Western neck like an albatross. But the West continued to drag its feet.

When Rajiv Gandhi led six Commonwealth leaders into a conference in London in 1986 with Margaret Thatcher for concerted action against the Apartheid regime, she shrugged her shoulders. "Constructive Engagement" was the Western incantation those days to avert total isolation of the racist superstructure in Pretoria.

Had Mikhail Gorbachev not facilitated the demise of the Soviet Union, would Mandela have been set free when he was set free?

The years 1988-90 leading up to Mandela's release offered a mixed fare for the world. In Somalia, President Siyad Barre and the opposition Somali National Movement had, between them, killed 50,000 civilians.

The reverberations of the post-Cold War tectonic shifts were felt even on the remote Gruinard Island off the North-West coast of Scotland. In 1942, the British government had embarked on a top secret biological warfare experiment and produced large quantities of Anthrax. In other words, Britain had planned to use Anthrax against Germany at least three years before Hiroshima was nuked. Well, in the aftermath of the events of 1990, Gruinard was opened up again for sheep grazing.

In India, Punjab was destabilized. The Sri Lankan conflict was casting its shadow on Tamil Nadu where a 100,000 Sri Lankan Tamils had crossed over as refugees. The Indian Army, after having lost over 1,000 soldiers in Sri Lanka, was returning home, heads bowed.

In West Asia, preparations were underway for Operation Desert Storm after Iraq's president obliged by occupying Kuwait. That sequence is still playing itself out in the region. A pity, Mandela will not be around to give us his perspective of the march of global events since his release. A South African journalist asked his hosts quite mischievously the other night: "Supposing in his last will and testament, Mandela recommends 'Constructive Engagement' with President Hasan Rouhani, President Bashar al Assad and Hasan Nasrallah, would the international community oblige or would it consider these gents worse than the Apartheid regime?"

I was quite precisely the first Indian to travel to South Africa on an Indian passport, specially prepared to cover Mandela's release. I can therefore report with some certainty that New Delhi at that stage had no clear profile of the million strong Indian diaspora concentrated mostly in the Durban region. There was an overhyped, romantic link with Gandhiji's long innings in South Africa but no serious cataloguing of his 21 years in that country. Nice of Mandela that he agreed to re-enact the scene at Pietermaritzburg railway station where Gandhi was thrown out from a compartment meant for whites only.

It is indeed a dramatic event bringing out the harsh reality of prejudice that Indians faced and on whose behalf Gandhi led his struggle. Gandhi's struggle, let us be clear, was for Indians, not for black South Africans. A social profile of Indians who invited the young Gujarati barrister from Britain to represent them in the Apartheid courts is missing from this narrative. Gandhi was invited by Gujarati Muslim traders, led by Dada Abdullah, and it is among them that he spent most of his years not just in South Africa but even in Mauritius, where he stopped while travelling to India. In a letter Gandhi writes: "I stayed in Mauritius for about 10 days when my boat was lying at anchor. I stayed in the house of some Muslim friends." I have not seen any research on who these "Muslim friends" were.

When Mandela's first team of officials, including cabinet ministers, was announced in 1994, there were nine important slots taken up by descendents of Gujarati traders. Only Mac Maharaj and Jay Naidoo were of non Gujarati origin. The second most important man in Pretoria, in Mandela's team, was Ahmad Kathrada. Later, in Thabo Mbeki's cabinet, the minister in the presidency was Essop Pahad.

South Block may have had no knowledge of the two but both knew where Ajoy Bhavan, headquarters of the Communist Party of India, was because they had probably spent some of their "underground" days in this building. As members of the South African Communist party in their years of anti apartheid struggle, some comrades in the Mandela and Mbeki cabinets had personally known stalwarts of the Indian communist movement.

(A senior commenator on political and diplomatic affairs, Saeed Naqvi can be reached on saeed.naqvi@hotmail.com)

By Sheikh Qayoom, IANS,

Srinagar : Few ever believed there could be an all-weather surface link between the Kashmir Valley and the rest of the country. Even fewer believed there would be one in their lifetime.

When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi dedicated the Banihal-Qazigund Pir Panjal railway tunnel to the nation on Monday, they also travelled across the tunnel with a group of local children.

The message was both subliminal and subtle. Future generations of Kashmiris would henceforth not experience the huge inconvenience their elders have been through for decades.

The landlocked Valley's only link with the outside World till now through the Jawahar Tunnel on the Srinagar-Jammu highway would remain closed for days on end because of heavy snowfall in the Banihal sector of the highway during the winter.

Ali Muhammad, a local contractor, still remembers the horrifying experience in 2004 when he was stranded in Nowgam village near Banihal town for seven days.

"The snow simply did not stop falling. We were stranded on the highway in Nowgam village. The villagers gave us shelter for seven days but when all their firewood was exhausted because of the large number of stranded passengers, they tore down the wooden ceiling of their rooms to light fires to cook food and keep us warm.

"That is an experience I would never be able to forget. It snowed for five days and the level of accumulated snow rose to the first floor of the house in which I was sheltered", Muhammad recalled.

Rightly then, did Sonia Gandhi tell Kashmiris on the inaugural run of the 8-coach train that it would now run five times across the Pir Panjal Mountain even during the heaviest snowfall on the mountain top.

"That experience is now a thing of the past," Muhammad added.

The visit of the prime minister and the Congress president, which remained mostly focused on the developmental agenda, also witnessed many other landmarks in that direction.

Kashmir has become the first state in the country to get lavish financial assistance of Rs.710 crore for land compensation under the Pradan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY). Till now, the ambitious rural road laying flagship programme had no provision for land compensation anywhere.

The prime minister also laid the foundation of a 850 MW hydro power project on the Chenab river in the Kishtwar district of the Jammu region. The project is being constructed by a private firm that competed through a global tender. It is being built at a cost of Rs.5,517 crores on the BOOT (Build, Own, Operate, Transfer) pattern.

Manmohan Singh also announced an additional 150 MW of power to the state daily that would help tide over the electricity crisis to some extent.

The prime minister and the Congress president started their visit to the Valley from the army's base hospital in the Badami Bagh cantonment area of summer capital Srinagar, where the troops injured in a deadly guerrilla ambush on Monday are being treated. Eight soldiers were killed in the ambush.

"The country would not allow the nefarious designs of the terrorists to succeed. I salute the morale and the bravery of our jawans. The country is united to defeat the designs of the terrorists," Manmohan Singh told the people during a public rally.

Besides co-chairing a meeting of the state's council of ministers to review the implementation of the Rs.37,000 crore prime minister's reconstruction package for the state, Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi met a number of delegations of political parties, social organizations and representatives from the local trade and industry in Srinagar.

For the Kashmiri separatist leaders, the prime minister's message was curt and clear. "Our doors are always open for those who abjure violence and want to work for peace and development in the state,".

This has fallen short of the expectations of some separatists, who believed the prime minister would invite them for a dialogue.

In a nutshell, the visit has sent out a clear message: The sky is the limit for New Delhi when it comes to development, employment and prosperity of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. But, if anybody expected Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi to step outside protocol to meet any separatist leader, they wouldn't do so as the country gears up for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Sheikh Qayoom can be contacted at sheikh.abdul@ians.in)

By Faraz Ahmad

While CBI Director Ranjit Sinha is pursuing relentlessly the numerous Gujarat fake encounter cases against Intelligence Bureau (IB) Special Director Rajendra Kumar and his IB subordinates as well any number of Gujarat Police officers, some absconding like former Joint Commissioner of Ahmedabad Police P P Pandey, Arun Jaitley must be laughing in his sleeve, telling Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi,”I told you so.”

Remember, when the Government decided to appoint Sinha as the Director of the premier investigating agency of the country last November, as Leaders of Opposition in Parliament Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj wrote a joint letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on November 23 objecting to Sinha’s appointment. The letter read, “The appointment should not have been done when the Rajya Sabha Select Committee on the Lokpal Bill had recommended that such appointments should be made through the collegium system.” Immediately the next day the now expelled BJP MP Ram Jethmalani challenged the BJP contention sending a strongly worded letter to the then BJP president Nitin Gadkari praising the UPA government decision to appoint Ranjit Sinha and in turn attacking the BJP for backing “the most undesirable rival (read Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar). In his letter leaked to the media, Jethmalani said, “...I was astonished to read that the BJP has attacked the Prime Minister and the Congress party for what the party calls the fast-tracked appointment of Mr Ranjit Sinha as Director of the CBI.”

Modi, Jaitley, and Gadkari. [TCN file photo]

Jethmalani castigated the two Leaders of Opposition Sushma and Jaitley further saying, “I regret that this criticism is a result of a complete ignorance of relevant facts and has been instigated by a most undesirable rival, who had to withdraw his petition before the CAT yesterday as a result of the appointment.” Jethmalani included, everyone in the legal circles knew that Neeraj Kumar had petitioned the Central Administrative Tribunal to block Ranjit Sinha’s promotion and Arun Jaitley’s juniors were pleading his case in the CAT. Jethmalani who was backed till then by a whole lot of BJP leaders including Jaitley, Modi and naturally Advani in his campaign to prevent Gadkari getting a second term, had to bear the heat of targeting his onetime junior and now his leader in the Upper House, Jaitley. The BJP Parliamentary Board immediately suspended Ram Jethmalani also issuing him the very next day a show cause notice asking him to reply within ten days why he should not be expelled from the primary membership of the party. It is another thing though that soon thereafter, perhaps because of the intervention of his old friend and mentor LK Advani, Gadkari forgot all about it and the matter was revived only by his successor Rajnath Singh six months later also as a reaction to Jethmalani’s insinuations against Jaitely and Sushma in the parliamentary party meeting during the last Budget session of the Parliament.

In effect Narendra Modi and Advani succeeded in reinducting Jethmalani, a founder member of the party, into the BJP and even persuading Vasundhara Raje to back him for Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan in spite of Jaitley notwithstanding the fact that Raje is generally disdainful of Modi. But Modi pushed for Ram because he banked upon Jethmalani to successfully defend his then Minister of State for Home Amit Shah accused of complicity in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.

Eventually Jehtmalani arrived in the Rajya Sabha with the BJP backing, thumbing his nose at Jaitley. Once inside he did not restrict his tirade against Jaitely alone for they share a love hate relationship for long, he did not spare Gadkari, Sushma and Rajnath either. The only two holy cows for him in this two and half year brief stint with the BJP were Lalkishanji and Narendrabhai. When the party was getting ready to expel Ram a Jaitley camp follower remarked in good humour to another BJP leader, “So when will you take him back for the fourth time?” highlighting the BJP’s ability to repeat the same mistake N number of times. Be that as it may, had it not been for Jethmalani none even in the Government would have dared to highlight the conflict of interest of the Leader of Opposition in objecting to Ranjit Sinha’s appointment and even if some Congress leader like Kapil Sibal may have raised the issue, it would have fallen flat on the ears of tweeting, SMSing NAMO enthusiasts, dismissing this as one more canard from the “corrupt Congress.” But Jethmalani literally silenced Jaitely and left all the NAMO howlers too confused to react.

In the process Sinha managed to consolidate his position in the CBI and in spite of being riled and humiliated by the Supreme Court on the Coalgate issue, doggedly pursued the case of Ishrat Jehan fake encounter in Gujarat in 2004 and the 2003 Sadiq Jamal fake encounter case also of Gujarat. He is now breaking at the leash to expose the nexus between a section of the IB and the Gujarat government. Mind you we are talking of a period when LK Advani was the country’s Home Minster and in charge of the IB and when he was backing Narendra Modi to the hilt. The then Director of IB Ajit Doval is currently heading the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) created by Advani and therefore it is not beyond the pale of imagination to believe that IB and Gujarat Police were working in tandem in all these fake encounters also because each time the victims of fake encounters were purportedly coming at the instance of some Pakistan based terrorist outfit like Lashkar-e-Taiba of Harkatul Mujhaideen (HuJ) to kill either Modi or Advani or both simultaneously but none other! In effect the exercise aimed primarily at pushing these two great leaders up the pedestal as Lauh Purush I and II respectively.

Ravi Shankar Prasad who led the campaign against Lalu Prasad will bear me out that the BJP has had a problem with Ranjit Sinha investigating the fodder scam even then and it banked on U N Biswas, the man who called up the Army to arrest Lalu Prasad, in Bihar and the then CBI Director Joginder Singh (intimately associated with the saffron brigade ever since) in Delhi, to fix Lalu Prasad. Had Jethmalani not punctured Jaitley’s attack against Sinha, by now the BJP would have successfully forced Sinha to retreat in the fake encounter case. But Jethmalani pulled the rug from under the BJP feet and strengthened Ranjit Sinha’s position, in turn firming up his resolve to nail the Gujarat Police-IB nexus and woebegone Modi and his apologists including Jaitely have been silenced. Had Modi consulted Jaitely and refrained from pushing for Jethmalani’s reinstatement in the BJP, it would not have weakened Jaitely’s case against the CBI. And the ultimate sufferers in this case are Modi and Advani. This would have left a smirk on Jaitely’s face.
--
Faraz Ahmad a senior Delhi-based journalist, with leading English daily He can be contacted at faraz1951@gmail.com

By IANS,

New Delhi : With around 3,600 Indians having returned from Kuwait this year, India Friday said it has asked the Gulf country's government to "provide time and space" to expatriates overstaying or on irregular visas to return on their own or to regularise their stay as per its law.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said here at a briefing that 3,600 Indians have returned home since the beginning of the year. These include 1,000 who had been issued Emergency Certificates and 2,600 who had their passports.

Following some instances of Indians complaining of harassment by the Kuwaiti authorities, the Indian embassy has set up round-the-clock help desks and also provided an email where Indians could convey their problems, he said.

While the embassy has received 600 telephone calls and 100 emails till now, Akbaruddin clarified that none of them related to complaints of harassment.

"None of them related to any specific case of harassment," he said, adding that the messages from the Indians were about their fears and apprehensions.

He said that "any case of harassment will be taken up (with the Kuwaiti authorities) and taken to its logical conclusion".

He also said that the Indian embassy and Indian envoy Satish C. Mehta were in touch with the local Indian organisations as well as with "large employers " employing more than 5,000 people to find out if any Indians had any problems.

Akbaruddin said India has also taken up the issue with the Kuwaiti authorities, in New Delhi and in Kuwait, "and our view is should they want to crack down.. they should provide space and time to expatriates to leave of their own.. Provide time or regularise their stay in accordance with Kuwaiti law".

There are 700,000 Indians in Kuwait, an increase of 25,000 over last year, he informed.

Kuwait has announced a policy ro reduce the number of its expatriate workers over a 10-year period, under which it is targetting expatriates who overstayed or have irregular visas.

In neighbouring Saudi Arabia, where 2.8 million Indians work, the kingdom's Nitaqat work policy has also affected Indian workers and thousands of them have returned home.

By TCN News

New Delhi: The Vice President of India, Hamid Ansari released a book entitled “Ziauddin Barni’s Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi” brought out by Rampur Raza Library, Rampur (UP) under Ministry of Culture at a function here today.

Addressing on the occasion, Hamid Ansari lauded the efforts of Rampur Raza Library for bringing out such a valuable historical publication and hoped that the students and researchers will benefit with this publication. He said that throughout the length and breadth of India, there are vast collection of such books and manuscripts.

Ziauddin Barni(1285-1357) was a historian in fourteenth century Delhi. He was able to achieve the status of Secretary (Nadeem) to Sultan Mohammad Bin Tuglaq (1325-51 AD).

He wrote Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi which covers the reign of Ghiyasuddin Balban and Firoz Shah Tughlaq. There are two versions of Tarikh, the first version apprared in the fifth year of Firoz Shah Tuglaq, the second revised edition in the seventh year.

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan edited and published the second version of it in 1866. Rampur Raza Library has published the first version of Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi in 2013.

by IANS,

Srinagar : N.N Vohra was sworn-in as the governor of Jammu and Kashmir for a second term at a ceremony held on the Raj Bhavan lawns here Friday evening, an official release said.

"N.N. Vohra was administered the oath of office by Justice M. M. Kumar, chief justice of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court," the release said.

The governor was presented a guard of honour by a contingent of Jammu and Kashmir Police, it said, adding Chief Secretary Mohammad Iqbal Khandey then read out in Urdu and English the warrant of appointment of the governor issued by President Pranab Mukherjee on May 1.

Vohra's wife Usha Vohra, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand, assembly Speaker Mubarak Gul, legislative council Chairman Amrit Malhotra, ministers, state Congress chief Saifuddin Soz, MPs, legislators, state high court justices, vice vhancellors of state universities, senior civil, police and other security forces officers, political and social activists and prominent citizens were among those present on the occasion.

By IANS,

New Delhi: The home ministry's prior sanction was required by the CBI for prosecution of senior IB official Rajinder Kumar in the Ishrat Jahan shootout case, ministry sources said Friday, and expressed doubts over evidence with the agency against him.

"There is not enough evidence against the senior IB officer," said a home ministry official, who did not want to be named. He said that passing on intelligence input could not be a basis of prosecution as the input did not talk of follow up action.

The official said sanction was required by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for any prosecution of the senior IB official.

There has been speculation that CBI would file a chargesheet next week in which Rajinder Kumar could be be named for allegedly playing a role in generating the intelligence input that led to the alleged staged shootout.

Mumbai college girl Ishrat Jahan, Pranesh Gopinath Pilai, Amjad Ali and Jishan Johar were killed by Gujarat Police in a shootout in 2004 in Ahmedabad.

The CBI has questioned Rajinder Kumar, who was with the IB in Gujarat when the incident took place.

Home ministry sources said if CBI proceeds without taking sanction from the government, Rajinder Kumar was free to move the court challenging the charge sheet.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which rules Gujarat, contends that the Ishrat Jahan shootout was not "fake" and was conducted on the basis of information received from IB. It has also raised questions over the manner in which the CBI was probing the case.

Federation of Aligarh Alumni Association is commemorating the XII Annual Convention in Houston, USA (June 28-30).

By Kaleem Kawaja,

Houston, USA: The XII Annual Convention of the Federation of Aligarh Alumni Associations (FAAA) in USA is being held at the Crowne Plaza – Houston River Oaks hotel in Houston, on June 28-30, 2013. The convention seeks to bring together a diverse cross-section of Aligarh Muslim University Alumni, various alumni associations and well-wishers of AMU to discuss issues related to educational, literary and social needs of the Indian Muslim and AMU community.

The theme of the 2013 convention is "New Generation Alumni & Aligarh Movement" and will be addressed by eminent personalities. Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Zameer Uddin Shah (Vice Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University) will be the Chief Guest and Hon. P. Harish, Consul General of India (Houston) will be the Guest of Honor on this occasion.

On this occasion it is pertinent to reminisce AMU’s growth over more than a century from the small Mohammadan Anglo Oriental School to one of India’s premier universities. The modern history of the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent after the end of the 600-year-long Muslim ruling era in 1857, and their emancipation by acquiring modern education starting in late 19th Century represents a very courageous turning point for the Indian nation.

The widespread British suppression and degrading of Muslims of all classes following the failure of the 1857 revolution was savage and impacted all classes of Muslims. However, in the late 19th Century a few Muslim leaders across the country embarked on a path to emancipate the Muslim community through modern education by building modern Muslim educational institutions. One of them who succeeded brilliantly is Sir Syed Ahmad Khan of Aligarh Muslim University.

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan built the Mohammadan Anglo Oriental School and College in Aligarh in 1874, where he introduced curriculum from the prominent universities of Britain like Oxford and Cambridge and employed British teachers to teach at the school. Today over a hundred years later the initiative in Aligarh has blossomed into the large and internationally renowned Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).

After 1947 AMU suffered grievous discrimination for about a quarter century. Thus in post-independence India AMU became much more than a Muslim university; it became a symbol of the middleclass Muslims and a beacon of hope for the emancipation of the community.

Gradually over the years as the political parties and forces have realized the importance of Muslims as an integral part of India, AMU is again being looked upon by successive governments and parties in power as one of the major avenues through whom the Muslim community should be approached.

In the last several decades the educational backwardness of Indian Muslims and its contribution to the overall socioeconomic backwardness of the community has become an open gnawing wound. The 2007 Justice Sachar Committee report on this subject has put the government's responsibility to bring educational empowerment of the Muslim community on the front burner. It is this realization that led the government to plan the building of several higher educational colleges for Muslims in various Muslim concentration districts in the country that could grow in due course of time into Muslim universities, as recommended by the Sachar Committee.

However, the government faced a major problem that the Indian constitution prohibits building such facilities for only one religious community. That is when they thought of expanding an existing Muslim university by building its remote centers across the country. They had only two universities to choose from; AMU and Jamia Milia Islamia. AMU being far more well established with a well established system of instruction, curriculum, research, academic management, residential facilities for students, large colleges of Medicine, Engineering, Law, Business Management, Science etc. became the natural choice.

With the planned establishment of five AMU centers of higher education in places far away from Aligarh, two of which are now operating in Murshidabad (West Bengal) and Mallapuram (Kerala), and the third Center is in development in Kishanganj (Bihar), AMU is being transformed from being a single university for Muslims into a university system for Indian Muslims.

While AMU does not have a reservation for Muslim students it does have a reservation for "internal students". That means preferential admission of AMU's own students to its professional and higher science colleges. Since the dominant culture and ethos of AMU is Muslim-centric most students at higher secondary level where students are relatively young tend to be Muslims. That makes the internal student reservation an indirect reservation for Muslims.

This system of "internal student’s quota" has been upheld by the Courts as being legal, as under Article 30 of the Indian Constitution minorities are allowed to set up their own systems of management. Also this is not a reservation for Muslims as anyone is allowed to become an internal student at AMU. By virtue of being centers of AMU, the internal student reservation system can be easily extended to its remote Centers without infringing any laws of the nation. Thus the government is able to directly fund the establishment of the AMU remote centers.

The plan includes for the five AMU Centers to grow under the administration at AMU, Aligarh, transferring academic management knowhow, management of teaching and student bodies, curriculum etc from AMU to its remote centers. The plan at this time is to make the remote AMU centers soon become their own Muslim universities with assistance from the Government’s Minorities Ministry. Since all AMU remote centers are being built in heavy Muslim concentration districts it is natural that it will spread higher education in the educationally backward Muslim community. That will bring empowerment and socioeconomic growth to the backward Muslim community all over the country in due course of time.

Just as in the pre-1947 era AMU was a leader of higher education for Muslims in the Indian subcontinent and Muslims came from all over the country to study there, today AMU is again becoming the leader, leading the resurgence of higher education in the backward Muslim community all over the country, from West Bengal to Kerala. In the process AMU is also on the path to lead the socioeconomic emancipation of the depressed Muslim community on an all-India basis.

Indian Muslims and alumnus of AMU have enthusiastically welcomed this initiative. More than anything AMU is responding to the challenge that the extraordinary educational backwardness of the Indian Muslim community represents, and is leading the path forward to the uplift of the entire Indian Muslim community.

The expansion of the AMU umbrella over the entire country also represents the fulfillment of the vision of the century old Aligarh Movement and of the founders of AMU who saw AMU's future not just as one college but as a catalyst for the establishment of clones of AMU in Muslim communities throughout the country that will emancipate the entire community. Just as the AMU anthem says, “The cloud that emanates from AMU; that cloud will shower its blessings over the entire community”.

(The writer, a community activist, can be reached on: kaleemkawaja@gmail.com)

NCM Chairperson also said that he is in touch with all concerned parties and is trying for some negotiated solution to the dispute over road.

By M Reyaz, TwoCircles.net,

New Delhi: Wajahat Habibullah, the chairperson of the National commission on minorities said that he is personally looking in to the Forbesganj police firing case and that he is hopeful for negotiated solution acceptable to all concerned parties, on the dispute over road cutting across the proposed factory site.

“I am personally looking into the Forbesganj case. I am also in touch with the Bihar CM Nitish Kumar,” he told TCN.

When asked on the dragging of cases and failure of the state government in giving compensation to the victims, he reminded that any compensation could not be provided as the appointed judicial commission has not yet submitted its report.

NCM Chairperson Wajahat Habibullah at his office in New Delhi.

He, however, said that he has urged the state government and the judicial commission to speed up the process, and added, “I have offered to the Bihar government to mediate for some negotiated solution to the dispute over road.”

It’s been over two years to the brutal police firing at the unarmed protesters in Forbesganj as they were demonstrating against the blockade of the only connecting road to their village Bhajanpur with the block office, market and Idgah on June 3, 2011.

TwoCircles.net was the first to report the police firing and it was largely because of our sustained reporting that the state and civil society had taken cognizance and several political leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, Lalu Prasad Yadav and National Minority Commission Chairman Wajahat Habibullah had made visits to this hamlet.

L-R: Congress leader Shakeel Ahmad Khan,Member, NCM,Syeda Bilgrami Imam, NCM chief Wajahat Habibullah and Araria MLA Zakir Hussain at Bhajanpur village in Forbesganj on 21st June 2011

NCM Chairperson had visited the Bhajanpur village on June 21, 2011, accompanied by Syeda Bilgrami Imam, NCM member and met with the family members of the victims and assured them of all kinds of support. He had also met the visiting family members of victims in Delhi.

Wajahat Habibullah also told TCN that the factory owners have built an alternative road, only few hundred meters further from the present route, and has assured to employ villagers in the factory as well as develop infrastructure for the village, including building school and road.

He said that he is hopeful of a settlement to the road dispute in near future.

However, when TCN correspondent visited the Bhajanpur hamlet, villagers clearly seem divided over the bone of contention that has already taken four lives. They do not appear to flinch from their position over using the same road, they have been using for decades.

Related:

‘Bloody’ road of Forbesganj: No settlement in site?

TCN Special series and in-depth coverage on the Forbesganj Police firing

By Rehan Ansari, TwoCircles.net,

Mumbai: The banner of absconding accused by the Anti Terrorsit Squad Maharashtra caused resentments among Muslim activists in Mumbai. Poster containing Photographs and name of the accused, all Muslims are placed in hotels, corners and busy signals are put and distributed by the Police.

It’s nothing but the profiling of Muslims and presenting them in bad light. Why the photographs and banner of other right wing absconding accused in Malegaon Blast case is not issued, asked M A Khalid, General Secretary, All India Milli Council.

Khalid has now written to the Mahrashtra Chief Minister against what he called the "malafide intentions" of the ATS "evidently shows the ill motivated, offensive and biased attitude of the ATS officials," who are targeting the Muslim community.

Stating Malegaon blast- 2006, investigation where NIA filed different chargesheet with right wing Hindu group the press release doubted the credentials of the Maharashtra ATS and condemn its “biased and controversial way of functioning.”

Clearing the air the ATS Maharashtra Chief Rakesh Maria reportedly said, “It’s issued with the permission of court. It’s in the public interest so that people must recognized them and do not let their home to these accused.”

The other case of Malegaon blast 2006 is investigated by the NIA and they will take the action if they will feel so, he added.

MA Khalid added that no matter how good may be the intention of the Maharashtra ATS, but the way in which the matter of the banner has been projected and presented is objectionable and also it has been displayed at the sensitive occasion of the festivals of the Muslims which send wrong and inflammatory message among various occasions of the festivals of the Muslims which sends wrong and inflammatory message among various communities that may tarnish the communal fabric of the nation.

Khalid has hence urged the Maharashtra CM to "direct the concerned the police officials to eradicate the inflammatory style and matter of the disputed Maharashtra ATS banners," and to further refrain from such biased actions in future.

By Amulya Ganguli, IANS,

Under a new and as yet untested leadership, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) is trying to formulate a fresh ideological framework for itself.

In doing so, the party seems to have juxtaposed its standard pro-Hindu agenda with an attempt to reach out to Muslims with a "vision document" for their empowerment. The endeavour may, however, lead to the party being caught in a situation where it will confuse and even alienate its core base of support - the communal Hindus - without being able to win over the minorities.

Even if the Hindu supremacist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the BJP's mentor, reserves its judgment for the time being about this electoral gimmick in the belief that it may fetch some votes, militant outfits like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bajrang Dal are unlikely to look kindly at the BJP's version of Muslim "appeasement".

For years, the BJP, the RSS and other members of the saffron brotherhood have lambasted the Congress for its supposedly pro-minority policies for the sake of cultivating the Muslim vote bank. Their latest target of attack was the Rajinder Sachar committee set up by the Manmohan Singh government in 2005 to look into Muslims' socio-economic conditions.

But, now, the BJP has decided to follow a similar path. Its reason for trying to reach out to the Muslims is obvious. With the general election due in less than a year, the BJP cannot afford to let the Congress walk away with nearly 40 percent of the Muslim vote when the BJP secures barely five or six percent. The party is evidently trying to deny the Congress this huge advantage.

However, the BJP's problem is that its own history is against this opportunistic manoeuvre. Even if the anti-Muslim diatribes of its guiding lights like Golwalkar and Savarkar are ignored for the moment, the party will find it difficult to explain its relentless anti-Muslim propaganda during the Ramjanmabhoomi movement in the 1990s.

Apart from the targeting of mosques like the Babri Masjid, which was demolished by saffron storm-troopers Dec 6, 1992, and the ones in Varanasi and Mathura, the Hindutva brigade had some chilling anti-Muslim slogans.

It wasn't Muslims alone who were demonised; the Christians, too, were portrayed as essentially anti-national as the anti-Christian riots in Gujarat's Dangs area in the late 1990s and the burning of churches in Odisha in 2008 showed.

Both the communities were accused of conspiring to reduce the Hindus to a minority in their only country in the world, as the Sangh Parivar proclaimed, via conversions by Christian missionaries or by the Muslims with their four wives ignoring family planning - hum panch, hamare pachis, as Narendra Modi said.

Against the backdrop of such hate-mongering, which initially paid considerable political dividends by raising the tally of the BJP's Lok Sabha seats from two in 1984 to 182 in 1998, it will be a herculean task for the party to woo Muslims. Even if the BJP has moderated its attitude to some extent in view of the realization that a community which makes up 14 percent of the India's population cannot be ignored, the RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal remain as virulent as ever. Their objective is still to establish a Hindu rashtra (nation) where the minorities will be second class citizens.

It is perhaps as a sop to these groups that the BJP has revived the call for scrapping Article 370 of the constitution, which confers a special status on Kashmir, and for introducing a uniform civil code for all religions. It has to be remembered that these issues, along with the construction of the Ram temple, were put on the backburner by the BJP in 1996 when it realized during Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government of 13 days that it could not attract any other party to support it.

The shelving of this pro-Hindu agenda helped Vajpayee to form an alliance of 24 parties in 1998 which began to fall apart after the Gujarat riots of 2002 and has now been reduced to a group of three members. However, the return of two of the three points of the agenda means the BJP may play the Hindutva card again.

But riding two horses at the same time - Hindutva and Muslim "empowerment" - will require the skills of a circus artiste. Since the political acumen of Modi, Rajnath Singh and Co hasn't been tested in an electoral contest at the national level, the chances of their success in carrying out the balancing act do not seem particularly high.

(29-06-2013-Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst. He can be reached at amulyaganguli@gmail.com)

By TCN News

Chennai: People living around Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project(KKNPP)in Tamil Nadu has been opposing the proposed power plant because of safety concerns. Frustrated by government response now they have written an open letter to God.

Full text

An Open Letter to God:
God Almighty! Please Save Us from Nuclear Disaster!!
Dear God Almighty:

We bow to You in prayer and meditation! This is a frantic, desperate and despondent cry to save us, the people of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, from an impending nuclear disaster at the Koodankulam nuclear power project (KKNPP).

We feel so sad and sorry when we see our brothers and sisters suffer so much in Uttarakhand due to the Nature’s fury and our governments’ sheer lack of efficiency. We get so sacred and are deeply worried how our government leaders, politicians, bureaucrats and others would help us in the wake of a nuclear disaster at Koodankulam or elsewhere.

Our Honorable Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, addressed the first session of National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in Delhi on May 13, 2013 on the theme of “making risk reduction an intrinsic part of our development processes” and made the following confession: “I believe that while we have made encouraging progress in recent years in putting in place institutions and mechanisms for disaster prevention and mitigation, we have still a large distance to travel.”

Our Prime Minister, who is mostly silent and secreted like You, has chosen to speak, and that too the Plain Truth about our disaster unpreparedness. Oh, Our Creator! You know very well that we, Indians, have a long way to go towards effective and efficient disaster management and mitigation. The Uttarkhand tragedy is the latest proof for our lackadaisical attitude toward Nature, People, and Future; our corruption and immorality; and for our disaster management inadequacies and unpreparedness.

It took 58 long years for our Nation to pass the Disaster Management Act and it was legislated only in 2005 after suffering the huge tsunami disaster in December 2004. The National Disaster Management Authority, National Disaster Response Force, National Disaster Response Fund and their state counterparts have all been set up only recently and all of them continue to be mere paper exercises.

“The Performance Audit of Disaster Preparedness in India,” a report (Report No. 5 of 2013) of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, has established that the Tamil Nadu State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) constituted in September 2008, and the District Disaster Management Authorities (DDMAs) constituted in 2012, “did not meet even once” (pages 150-151). In our Tirunelveli district, “interest earning of Rs. 22.85 lakh on unspent balance of relief for natural calamities during June 2008 to December 2011 was not remitted back into government account.”

Our Good Lord, we have been crying hoarse for the past two years that the Koodankulam nuclear power project (KKNPP) is dangerous and unsafe for the people of Tamil Nadu and Kerala because of the usage of substandard equipment and parts from corrupt Russian companies such as Zio-Podolsk, Informteck, and Izhorskiye Zavody etc. Most of the components, the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) and cables have come with no quality or guarantee. There has been rampant corruption in the Koodankulam project. But our governments, their departments, bureaucrats, politicians, scientists and all the rest of them have turned a deaf ear to our appeals and requests for stringent scrutiny and shutting down of the plant.

When we ask the Kanyakumari District Collector if there are any villages within the 16 km radius from the Koodankulam plant, he says in his reply (dated May 20, 2013) that “the information sought for is not available in this office records.” And the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. (NPCIL) has claimed (in its letter of June 21, 2013) that there are “NO” Kanyakumari villages and hamlets within the 16 km radius from the Koodankulam nuclear power project. As the Creator, You must know that Kanakappapuram, Kanimadam and Anjugramam villages are at a distance of 14.4, 15 and 15.9 kms respectively from the Koodankulam plant. The Site Evaluation Report of the KKNPP 3-6 establishes (in Annexure 1.1-4) that 13% of the 16 km population lives in Kanyakumari district villages.

The site selection mechanisms and processes followed by the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) have been a disaster. In its May 31, 2013 reply to Adv. M. Vetriselvan’s RTI petition, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) has said that they are investigating if there is any under-sea volcano near the Kalpakkam nuclear power plant. But NPCIL has claimed now that the Smithsonian Institute’s reporting of a submarine eruption near Pondicherry off the eastern coast of India in 1757 is wrong and there is no volcano in the area (Daily Thanthi, June 27, 2013, p. 24). It is in this controversial site, the DAE is building two more Prototype Fast Breeder Reactors (PFBR).

The Koodankulam site is also quite problematic with ‘karst’ holes and sub-volcanic intrusions all over the place, two huge slumps in the Bay of Bengal, and frequent tremors and geysers in the vicinity. Similarly, the Mithi Virdi site (in Bhavnagar district in Gujarat) for an American nuclear power park is also another site selection disaster. Independent studies have revealed that the site is geologically, geographically and strategically unfit to house high-risk facilities such as nuclear power plants.

As the Indian ruling class is embarking upon an ambitious nuclear power program with the unscrupulous American, Russian, French and other nuclear industries, we, Indians, are getting nervous and fidgety about our and our families’ safety and well-being. This looming nuclear threat on our highly and densely populated country is very unsettling and disquieting.

God, our Lord, our sisters and brothers in Bhopal have not got compensation, medical assistance or any kind of help from the state and central governments even after almost 30 years. Even the deadly waste has not been removed yet by the scores of Prime Ministers and Chief Ministers we have had since 1984.

Oh, God, please show mercy on us and save us from our governments, political leaders, bureaucrats, nuclear scientists and other powerful people who are NOT used to any plain-speaking, or truth-telling. Oh, God, most of our political parties and leaders are bribed by the nuclear estate, most of our scientists receive their funding for their research projects, and many of our mediahouses are ready to kill for their advertisement money. When the international nuclear profiteers throng our country and start working with these selfish and unscrupulous elements, our future and well-being will be doomed forever.

We, the ordinary people of India, are left high and dry. Please, Oh, God, grant us a Future with an independent nuclear regulatory commission, a phase-out plan for the existing nuclear plants, a renewables-based energy policy, a Corporate-free economy and clean politics. Grant us the Day when we all can jump in joy and scream Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s powerful words: “Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last.”

Yours truthfully,

The People of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

By IANS,

Kolkata: With the West Bengal panchayat polls slated to be held during Ramadan starting mid-July, the ruling Trinamool Congress Saturday said it may move the Supreme Court to end the exercise before the Muslim holy month. The opposition parties blamed the government for the "inconvenience" that may be caused to the minorities.

The State Election Commission (SEC) refused to be drawn into the matter.

"With the polls slated to be conducted during the month of Ramzan (Ramadan), we are planning to appeal before the Supreme Court seeking an order for the conclusion of the elections before the holy month sets it," Trinamool MP Kalyan Banerjee said here.

Banerjee, who appeared as a counsel for the Bengal government in the legal battle against SEC over the panchayat polls, said if the polls were conducted during Ramadan, it would inconvenience Muslims.

"We always wanted the panchayat polls to be concluded before Ramzan sets in, but because of the SEC, all our efforts have gone in vain," said Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim.

The apex court Friday directed the panchayat elections be held July 11, 15, 19, 22 and 25. The polls were earlier scheduled to be held in three phases from July 2. The Muslim holy month begins in the second week of July.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee expressed discontent with the court ordering the polls be held during Ramadan.

"We did not want it. But sometimes, we have to accept under compulsion when there is a court order," Banerjee said.

State Election Commissioner Mira Pandey said the panel had no comment to offer on the issue.

She said the poll process would have to be completed by following all directives of the Supreme Court. "The verdict is very clear."

"Don't offices remain open during the month of Ramzan?" asked Pandey.

The opposition Left Front and the Congress alleged that the state government had adopted time-wasting tactics to hold the elections without proper security.

"We have been repeatedly asking the government to ensure the polls are not held during Ramzan, but it chose not to pay heed to our requests. They should have raised the matter before the Supreme Court, but inexplicably they did not," said Leader of Opposition Surjya Kanta Mishra.

Left Front spearhead CPI-M's state secretary Biman Bose said: "The current regime had created uncertainty over the polls by repeatedly ignoring the SEC's recommendations."

"They delayed matters so as to hold the elections without arranging for proper security. The SEC finally went to the Supreme Court which intervened to announce the schedule," he said.

"The Trinamool government is solely responsible for the inconvenience that the minorities will face," said Bose.

State Congress president Pradip Bhattacharya echoed Mishra's views and blamed the state government.

By TCN News

Toronto: Last Sunday a Muslims- Jews interfaith dialogues took place at the Lawrence Height Community Center, North York, Toronto. It was organized by Jews-Muslims Dialogue (MJD). Approximately Twenty members from both communities took part in this dialogue. It was round table discussions held at two different tables. It was unique in the sense that no speeches and no questions and answers took place. Simple discussions in a friendly and very cordial manner. The discussions were slated to be held to discuss what are the three values that Jews and Muslims share/ What proportion of attendees in your circle are secular versus religious? What things can we do to enhance harmony in Canada and abroad? What are Muslims and Jews attitudes toward pictures of the prophets and God? And what stereo types Muslims have of Jews and vice versa?

In one group in which Firoz Khan, Afzal Khan, Zameer Patil, Abdul Hai Patel, Tariq Khan, Co-chair o MJD and Qasim Abbas represented Muslim side and on the other hand Simon, David, Tanya, Lyla and others represented Jews side. It was observed that many participants were to acquire the knowledge of the other religion. Firoz said that the teachings of Islam, Christianity, Judaism and for that matter all religions are similar. Both religions teach respect to elders, not speak the untruth, not to indulge in adultery and not to kill. Unfortunately members of both religions in actuality deviate from the real teachings in their day to day life. Qasim Abbas supported the views expressed and said that name of Moses is mentioned in holy Quran more than prophet Muhammed. Muslims also consider and treat Moses as one of the messengers sent by God. He said in Islam there is no compulsion. One participant wanted to know why Muslims convert others to Islam. She was replied that no one is converted to Islam by force. Those who come to the fold of Islam do so of their free will and choice.

Abbas said that some Muslims deny the Holocaust but the majority believe it has happened and Jews suffered a lot. He said that Muslims are divided into many sects and groups and wanted to know whether the same is there in Jews too. He was told by a participant that yes the same thing is prevalent among Jews too.

There was no moderator and everyone felt strongly that there should be moderators to conduct the discussion so that the time is not lost in discussing other unrelated and unspecified matters. Despite the absence of any moderator the dialogue took place in a very disciplined and cordial manner.

At the end David and Firoz thanked participants and appeal to bring more people to the next dialogue to be held after summer. Firoz Khan said that this kind of dialogues should be held frequently as they help to understand each other and help enhance harmony.

By IANS,

Mumbai: Unable to secure admission for poor children under the Right to Education (RTE) law, a Mumbai NGO Saturday launched an institution exclusively for those denied entry to regular schools.

Christened "RTE School India", it was launched by a few like-minded people led by non-profit organisation Desh Seva Samiti (DSS) director Avisha Kulkarni, at her home in Goregaon in north Mumbai.

"These children are from the most economically weaker sections like rag-pickers, or from families of domestic workers, autorickshaw drivers and hawkers and we shall impart them the best of pre-primary education under the RTE," Kulkarni told IANS.

She said the children - aged three-five - have been given uniforms, schoolbags, books and other articles and they shall proudly attend school like regular children from Monday.

"We were compelled to take this step since no Maharashtra education department official was ready to help in any manner to implement the provisions of the RTE law, and arrange admissions for them in neighbourhood schools," Kulkarni claimed.

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, popularly known as RTE law, came into force April 1, 2010 and accorded a legal right to every child aged 6-14 years that he would be provided eight years of elementary education in an age appropriate classroom in the vicinity of his neighbourhood.

Kulkarni said despite efforts by the DSS and her own NGO, Women and Child Empowerment, most private schools shut the doors on deserving and eligible underprivileged kids under the RTE. Her NGO assists the DSS financially.

She also approached the state education department officials, but they proved more helpful to the school managements than the kids seeking admission.

"Only the unaided minority schools are exempt from the RTE law's provisions. When we visited various schools, I was shocked to see government officials actually advising them to get an unaided minority school certificate from the government," Kulkarni said.

The situation today is that reputed schools which have been working for decades are now making a beeline to get this certificate and circumvent the RTE law - an issue which she plans to challenge in the Supreme Court.

Even her meeting with Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan March 26 did not help change the bureaucratic mindset, she said.

"Chavan issued strict instructions to the education department officials to ensure admission for all such children under RTE law. Sadly, even the chief minister's orders have been flouted by the bureaucracy and I have been compelled to take donations and start my own small school with 40 students, 20 in two batches owing to space constraints," she said.

Kulkarni assured that after the pre-primary education, these children would be prepared to take admission to any of the top schools in the city.

Her bigger worry is that there are another 60 children in the queue but she has no space or resources to accommodate them and help them achieve their dream of securing education, as envisioned in the RTE law.

By IANS,

Guwahati: More areas were flooded in Assam Saturday due to surging waters of Brahmaputra river and its tributaries, which continued to swell due to incessant rains in Arunachal Pradesh, officials said. There was no report of casualties.

Several villages in Assam's river island Majuli were submerged under waters since Friday night. Officials of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) said that fresh areas in Tinsukia district have been inundated by flood waters since Friday.

More areas of Dhemaji district have also been inundated by floods forcing the district administration to open three relief camps for the flood-hit people, the ASDMA officials said adding that over 700 people are taking shelter in the camps.

More than 8,000 people have been affected by floods in Dhemaji and Tinsukia district taking the number of total flood-affected people in five districts of Assam to over 19,000, ASDMA officials said.

Although floods have damaged roads and houses at many places and breached embankments at several places, yet there is no human causality in the floods so far this year, the officials said.

However, the flood situation might turn worst as water level in major rivers like Brahmaputra and Jia Bharali are still showing a rising trend at many places in the flood-hit districts.

The waters in the Brahmaputra river have already been flowing over the danger mark in some areas and are showing a rising trend.

"Standing crops have been affected in over 1,200 hectares across the state since last few weeks," the flood bulletin released by the ASDMA said Saturday, adding that the floods have also affected over 10,000 animals and poultry.

Officials at the CWC said the Brahmaputra was flowing over the danger mark in Nimatighat in Jorhat and in Dibrugarh, and the Jia Bharali river was flowing over the danger mark in Sonitpur district.

The floods have damaged six roads and a bridge in Golaghat district, the ASDMA official said, adding that embankments were breached at two places in Karimganj district.