By TCN News,

Banglore: The alumni of Maulana Azad National Urdu University Polytechnic, Bangalore has urged the unviersity admisntration to restart the admission for the Banglore centre so that students can benefit.

The MANUU Polytechnic, Bangalore alumni has responded to the TCN exclusive story that broke the news of closing down of the Banglore centre and said that that they were “very shocked to know that the polytechnic has withheld the admissions in this academic year.”

The MANUU adminstration, however, clarified later that no courses have been withdrawn from the Polytechnic Bangalore centre and added, “MANUU is moving fast towards getting AICTE affiliation for Bangalore & Darbhanga Polytechnics as soon as possible. Both these colleges will also be provided all the necessary infrastructure as required by the AICTE. University is pursuing the matter on priority basis & hopes to get the affiliation very soon.”””

The AMNUU alumni have written that they were shcoked at the response of the university that the students of Maulana Azad National Urdu University are not getting good opportunities as the polytechnic does not yet have AICTE approval.

They have written that most of the students who passed out from the Polytechnic Banglore centre are placed in good companies including MNCs like Wipro, HP, L&T, BOSCH, JOHNSON, ACC Cement, etc; and that several other stdunets have also gone to gulf countries and are earning well.

The MANUU alumni said that they also wanted to send a message to the principal and the university authority that they have done lot of work for the uplifting the Urdu Community till date. “It is also expected that the university will do the same thing in the future by providing good quality education to the students. The alumni feel that there should be a proper placement cell such that the students can be placed at the college itself.”

They have thus urged the unveirsity admisntration to restart the admission process for the Banglore centre.

Related:

Students in lurch as technical courses withdrawn at MANUU’s Bangalore College

MANUU clarifies: No withdrawal of courses at Polytechnic Bangalore

PFI handed over a cheque of ten lakh rupees to the chief minister.

By TCN News,

New Delhi: A delegation led by Popular Front of India chairman K.M Shareef, who was visiting the flood hit areas of Uttarakhand, offered Front’s support to the ongoing relief activities in the state.

The group visited the flood hit parts of Dehradun and Rishikesh. The delegation which included P Abdunnasar (national president Campus Front of India), Safarullah Khan Khasimi(Program manager Rehab India Foundation) and Ansarul Haq (Popular Front Delhi state president) met with chief minister Sri Vijay Bahuguna at the secretariat.

Chairman K. M Shareef giving cheque to Uttarakand CM

Chairman handed over a cheque of ten lakh rupees to the chief minister and discussed the progress of the situation in the state. The group also had a brief meeting with Peeyush Rothala, the executive director of Disaster Management and expressed willingness to cooperate with activities of the Disaster Management.

AP High Court wants to know under which provision compensation was granted.

By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,

Hyderabad: A division bench of Andhra Pradesh High Court comprising of Chief Justice, Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and Justice G. Rohini ordered state Government to file a counter affidavit that under which rule and provision of law it has allotted compensation to the acquitted Muslim youths in Mecca Masjid bomb blast conspiracy case.

The division bench passed this order while hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by S. Venkatesh Goud, who earlier rose to fame by filing criminal complaints against Akabruddin Owaisi in January for his alleged hate speeches.

Akbaruddin Owaisi handing check to the victim

Venkatesh Goud, in his PIL before court, alleged that in the initial investigation of the blast some Muslim youths were arrested and shown as accused; SIT which was investigating the blast even charge sheeted them after ‘thorough investigation’. He alleged that after new agency (CBI) took up the case, those Muslim youths got bail and later acquitted, new set of accused (right wing Hindutva activists) were arrested and case is still going on with NIA probing the matter. Mr. Venkatesh alleged that state government, without waiting for the closure of the case and final decision of the court, allotted compensation to the acquitted Muslim youths.

Division bench of chief justice has inquired from the state government that under which provision of law or legal precedent that compensation was allotted to the acquitted Muslim youths, and whether it was the sole discretionary act of the state government or the compensation was ordered by any court of law.

High court has given two weeks period to the Government to file counter affidavit on the matter, and till the litigation is settled, court given restrain order to the Government from disbursing any fresh compensation to acquitted Muslim youths. There are some acquitted Muslim youths whose compensation was delayed because of the some other pending cases against them.

During Mecca Masjid blasts investigation by infamous SIT more than 100 Muslim youths were detained illegally, out of them 30 youths were booked under concocted terror conspiracy case, later all were acquitted by the court.

Many of those Muslim youths were tortured in police illegal custody detention centers, after hue and cry from Muslim community State Minorities Commission formed one member commission of Advocate Ravichander to look into the allegation of torture, in its final report (which was never been released, but leaked in the media) commission submitted that Muslim youths were tortured with third degree in the custody and recommended compensation for those youths, and action against the errant cops.

Later when all the arrested Muslim youths were acquitted, National Minorities Commission on the representation of human rights organizations recommended to the state Govt. compensation for all those acquitted Muslim youths, for their rehabilitation.

A year after he took the reins of the state present chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy apologized to the Muslim community in the state assembly after MIM created ruckus in the legislature.

Minority affairs minister Ahmedullah allotting compensation check to terror acquitted Muslim youth

A year later in Jan 2012 Government issued a G.O. and ordered compensation to all those affected Muslim youths on the recommendation of the National Minorities Commission, Government in its G.O. called it a ‘confidence building measure’.

But that ‘confidence building measure’ turned out to be a halfhearted affair, where only 16 Muslim youths out of 30 arrested in terror conspiracy case were allotted compensation of Rs.3 lakh, and those who spent nearly 7 days in police torture were given mere Rs.20,000.

State congress Government since the beginning of the compensation drama tried to keep it low profile or restrict to a particular community it wanted to target, to avoid any controversy from the right wing hard liners from other community. This was made clear by the absence of chief minister and other five state ministers who were scheduled to allot the compensation in the program, in turn in a low key affair minority’s minister and MIM leaders were brought in for distribution of compensation.

Speaking with TwoCircles.net, Advocate Ravichander whose report on police torture and brutality on arrested Muslim youths became the base for the NCM recommendation for compensation said there are many Supreme Court orders for reparation on human rights violations, “branding some one terrorist and using third degree torture is nothing less than a custodial death,” he said.

Govt compensation banner

“In the floods when people get killed, dose Govt. need provision of law or court order to allot them compensation”, explains Adv. Ravichander that government doesn’t required any provision of law or wait for court order to grant compensation to the victims, it’s the duty of the Govt.

According to him it’s too early to start perceiving the ramification of any future high court order on this PIL, but he believes that compensation granted to those terror acquittals was fair, and High Court will not revoke the Governments measure, even if it does in rare possibility it won’t affect the youths who got the compensation.

Related reports:

Hyderabad youths to get compensation, character certificate on Friday

Serious flaws in AP Govt. compensation list of Muslim youths

Khaki terror compensation: Saga of mistakes ends on error

By TCN News,

New Delhi: Following is the text of a letter that was initially written by some of us and subsequently endorsed by the undersigned. This letter is a rejoinder to the article written by Chetan Bhagat titled , ‘Letter from an Indian Muslim Youth’ published in The Times of India on 30th of June 13.

The letter was sent to The Times of India for publication with 166 signatures yesterday afternoon but we are yet to receive any response, or even an acknowledgment. Hence, we are left with no option but to make it public with additional signatures which we have received in the course of time.

In the letter sent to The Times of India, we included only ‘Muslim names’ since Mr. Bhagat, in his letter pretended to be an Indian Muslim Youth. However, here we are including all the endorsements we received (at activist.journalist@gmail.com ) because a large number of the emails read, ‘I am not a Muslim but I am equally disgusted by Chetan Bhagat’s letter’.

Given below is the text of letter followed by more than 200 signatures:

3rd JULY 2013

Dear Mr. Bhagat,

At the very outset, let us make it clear that we are not fans of your regressive fiction. Therefore, we write to you not as crazy fans but as Indian Muslim youth, who felt utterly patronized, insulted and hurt after reading your article, ‘Letter from an Indian Muslim Youth’
. You might have not realized this, but in pretending to render “a strong modern Indian Muslim voice’’ to the youth and the Muslim community at large, you have ripped them of their agency. You have reaffirmed stereotypes that many in the community have been fighting against. Heard of the Muslim god and his flock?

Sir, one does not need a name like Ahmed or Saeed or Mirza, or even be a Muslim to show one’s genuine concern for the community. One just needs to see beyond one’s own prejudice and biases. Believe us, this disgusting piece of your writing made us more nauseous than any of your (or Madhu Kishwar’s) love-verses to Modi. Your article is nothing but an extension of the thought process that anything Muslim is backward and regressive. Since you have assigned to yourself the task of bearing the moral burden of the community, would you care to explain what a ‘Muslim cap’ is?

We agree with you when you say political leaders make promises that go empty post elections. And that there are Muslims who have achieved much without any ‘’cap-wearing politician’’ helping them. But who is this leader that you are suggesting; one who would understand ‘’the desire’’ of the Muslim youth ‘’to come up in life’’ and ‘’inspire us to do better’’? Is it by any chance the mass murderer, Narendra Modi?

You know what hurts? That people pretend to care for you when they don’t. When in fact they use you to grind their own axe. How cleverly you turn everything that the Muslim youth face today – “being frisked with greater attentiveness, denied renting an apartment” – into a product of the community’s inherent backwardness, as if it bears no relation to the increasing communalization of our polity and society.

What makes you think that the ‘cap’ wallahs exercise a great deal of influence within the community? Interestingly, one particular party has been lately seeking a lot of photo-ops with precisely these kinds of community leaders. Make no mistake Mr. Writer. They don’t.

“Because of you”, you write castigating an imagined Muslim leadership, “people feel we vote in a herd.” Now, isn't that really clever, Mr. Bhagat. People feel we vote in a herd because certain parties never tire of screaming hoarse about ‘minority appeasement’ and ‘vote banks’, even though, any psephologist or political scientist, or even an ordinary Muslim youth at Chai dukaan will tell you that Muslims vote just like any other community does: according to a mix of factors: local, national but above all, keeping in mind who will preserve their interests best. And their interests do tend to include the safety of life and livelihood.

We are sorry, Mr. Bhagat, but the ‘’democratic republic’’ you talk of is not so democratic. If it were so, Afzal Guru wouldn’t have been executed to ‘’satisfy the collective conscience of the nation’’. Muslim youth would not have fallen prey to minority witch-hunting, and their killers not decorated with gallantry awards. Adivasis in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa would not have been ripped of their fundamental rights to live with dignity. Dalit poets would not have been falsely charged under sedition laws.

Loving one’s nation is well and good, but being blinded by patriotism is not. Why do Indian Muslims always have to prove their allegiance to India? Why can’t they also be critical of their country?

The party whose path you are treading has had Indian Muslims pass through too many Sita-like ordeals of fire, Agni Pariksha. You may have the privilege to turn a blind eye to the post-Babri Masjid Demolition violence, the Gujarat pogrom, but many others don’t. How then do you think a leader who doesn’t even have the integrity to apologize for his complicity in the Gujarat pogrom represent Muslim youth’s aspirations for ‘’scientific way of thinking, entrepreneurship, empowerment, progress’’ and above all, ‘’personal freedoms’’? And just by the way, have you heard of the word, ‘Justice’?

Sd/-

Name----- Profession---- City (State)

Rafiul Alom Rahman, Student, Delhi University, Delhi
Mahtab Alam, Civil Rights Activist and Journalist, Delhi
Javid Parsa, Student, Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad
Zulaikha Jabeen, Researcher and Activist, Raipur, Chhattisgarh
Shahnawaz Malik, Journalist, Delhi
Abdullah A Rahman, Student, TISS Tuljapur
Abu Zafar, Journalist, Delhi
Sadika Saiyed, Law Student, Surat
Omar Rashid, Journalist, Allahabad
Imran Ali, Filmmaker, Delhi
Rashid Hussain, Software Engineer, Jaipur
Mahtab Azad, Development Consultant, Araria (Bihar)
Ali Amir, Student, TISS Mumbai
Gauhar Iqbal, Entrepreneur, Delhi
Bilal Kagzi, Advocate, Surat
Imran Khan, Journalist, Bangalore
Nesar Ahmad, Researcher, Jaipur
Aasiya Aslam, Architect, Chennai
Saif Khan, Student, IIT Kharagpur
Ejaz Ahmad, Student IIT Delhi
Mohd Tanveer Iqbal, Civil Rights Activist, Chennai
Mohammad Noor Alam, Medical Student, Bagalkot
Khan Rashid Ayyub, Legal Translator, Azamgarh
Tariq Shabibi, Software Engineer, Hyderabad
Naim Siddiqui, Marketing Professional, Gurgaon
Shahid Parwez Saiyyad, Entrepreneur, Mumbai
Yuman Hussain, Social Activist, Kishanganj (Bihar)
Mansoor Ali, Network Administrator, Vellor, Tamilnadu
Mohammad Altamash, Operation Manager, Gurgaon
Naveed Hasan, Software Engineer, Bangalore
Syed Hassan Kazim, Journalist, New Delhi
Shehla Rashid, Policy Analyst, J & K
Abul Kalam Azad, Student, TISS Guwahati
Tasneem Khan, Assistant Professor, Galgotias University, Noida
Najmul Huda, Research Scholar, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
Dayam Anwar, Accountant, New Delhi
Shahrukh Hameed, Asst Bank Manager, Lucknow
Mohammad Rafiq Mulla, Web Developer, New Delhi
Ershad Ahmad, Development Consultant, New Delhi
Shoaib Mohammad, Student, Bangalore University
Faraz Ahmad, Business Executive, Mumbai
Sikandar Azam, Journalist, Delhi
Tarique Shafeeq, Activist, Azamgarh
Rabab Iman, Social Worker, Delhi
Najid Hussain, Scientist, Indian based in USA
Sana Maryam, Writer, New Delhi
Sadiq Naqvi, Journalist, New Delhi
Md. Zaurez Danish, Mechanical Engineer, Manipal
Ovais Sultan Khan, Social Worker, Delhi
Saleha Tahseen, Corporate Trainer, Bangalore
Syed Zameer Hasan, Software Engineer, Mumbai
Mohd. Jalauddin, Executive with Coal India, Maharashtra
Malik Abid Rasool, Student, Amar Singh College, Sri Nagar
Mohd. Imran, Real Estate Appraiser, Indian based in New Jersey
Sahil Rafiq, Student, Kashmir University
Younis Altaf, Student, Hyderabad
Javed Iqbal, Corporate Employee, Hyderabad
Zoha Khan, Student, Dehradun
Irfan Hashmee, Student, Hyderabad
Md. Ali, Journalist, Delhi
Saira Manzoor, Homemaker, Kolkata
Shafaque alam, Journalist, Delhi
Afreen Khan, Student, Dehradun
Afroz Alam, Journalist, Delhi
Mazin Khan, Publisher, New Delhi
Mohd. Reyaz, Journalist, Delhi
S M Fasihullah, Freelance Journalist, Hyderabad
Zoha Abdul, Student, DU
Tarique Anwar, Journalist, Delhi
Mohammad Muneeb, Private Employee, Kohir, AP
Areeb Rizvi, Student, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
Ufaq Paiker, Research Scholar, JNU
Sania Mariam, Student, Kolkata
Ayesha Farooq, Student, DU
Falak Khan, Student, Bangalore
Sarah Jameel, Student, Doon University, Uttarakhand
Talha Hussain, Software Engineer , Gulbarga Karnataka
Maheboob Shahana , Student ,Jamia Millia Islamia Delhi
Abdul Haadi, MA Sociology , Kottayam Kerala
Waseem Ahmed , Circulation Executive, Hapur (U.P)
Atiya Firdaus, Student Activist, Kota Rajasthan.
Abdul Raheem, Procurement Manager, Bangalore Karnataka.
Imran Ahmed, Real-Estate Developer, Kota Rajasthan
Inam ur Rehman , student ,Delhi University ,Delhi
Md Khalid , Ph.D Scholar Jamia Milliya Islamia, Delhi
Ubaidurrehman, Ph.D Student ,JNU Delhi
Shuaib PV , Student activist ,Kerala
Ts Amanullah , Engineering Student Chennai Tamilnadu
Riaz Ahmed, Law Student Chennai TamilNadu
Aminulislam , Political Activist Murshidabad West Bengal
Danish Raza, Journalist, Delhi
Sharib Zeya, Research Fellow, Delhi School of Economics
Nizamuddin Ajmeri , Social Worker , Bundi Rajasthan
Jeelani Basha, Software Engineer Poona.
Kosar Jahan , Student Activist , Kota Rajasthan
Lukhmanul Hakeem , Student Activist , Edappal Kerala
Abdul Raheem Mulla, Corporator GCC, Gulbarga Karnataka.
P.Abdulnazar , Student activist , Vengara Kerala
P Niyaz , Photo Journalist , Chennai TamilNadu
Naveed Parsa, Engineering Student, Chandigarh
Haseena Khatoon , Teacher Chennai Tamil Nadu
Anjumand Ara, Teacher, Delhi University
Ziyaullah , Political Activist Chennai Tamil Nadu
Umer Farooq, Engineer, Punjab
Saquib Ahmed, Advocate, Ahmadabad
Mohammad Syeduddin, Student, Patna
Parvez Bari, Journalist, Bhopal
Shayed Sayeed, Software Engineer, Ahmadabad
Zafar Mohammed, Business Executive, Mumbai
Mohammad Saif, Journalist, Cuttack, Orissa
Tauseef Ahmad, Technocrat, Delhi
Mohd. Zakaria Siddiqui, Researcher, Indian currently in Australia
Haseeb Mustafa Alvi, Engineer, Delhi
Mohd Aarif Khan, Systems Engineer, Mumbai
Fazal Ahmad, Advocate, New Delhi
Qazi Sadaff Rehan, Student, Bhadrak, Orissa
Aarif Khan, Assistant Professor, Indian currently in Riyadh
Faisal Iqbal, Electronics Engineer, New Delhi
Pervez Chaudhary, Student, AMU, Aligarh
Fehmeena Ahmad, Activist, Delhi
Mohd. Yousuf, Student, Chennai
Mohd Abdul Rasheed, IT Manager, Hyderabad
Moosa Azmi, Activist, Varanasi
Saman Roohi, Phd Candidate, Indian currently at Amsterdam
Dr. Uzma, Medical Practitioner, Mysore
Dr. Zaheer Ahmed, Neurologist, Chennai
Adnan Farooqui, Academic, Delhi
Farhatullah Khan, Research Scholar, University of Madras
Munawwar Kavungal, Trichur, Kerala
Muneebuudin, Advocate, Hyderabad
Samiullah Khan, Quality Control Manager, Bangalore
Mohd Saif, IT Engineer, Kareem Nagar, AP
K T Hafis, Student, Jamia Millia Islamia
Fawaz Shaeen, Law Student, AMU, Aligarh
Shihab Khan, Civil Engineer, Bhopal
Abdul Raheem Kaiser, Student, BITS Hyderabad
Salima Aarif, Blogger, New Delhi
Abdullah, Teacher, West Bengal
Azhar Khan, Advocate, Jalgaon, Maharashtra
Syed Salman Ali, Law Student, AMU
Waseem Siddiqi, Entrepreneur, Delhi
Parvin Sultana, Research Scholar, JNU
Kashif Ilyas, Student, Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh
Riad Azam, Student, Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh
Imran Kichloo, Student, Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh
Ameen Ahmed, Student, Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh
Roshan U. Alam, Civil Services aspirant, Delhi
Shaheen Ahmed, Performance Artist, Delhi
Mohd Arif Dagia, LIC Agent, Raipu, CG
S M Zaki Ahmad, Development Professional, Delhi
Ahmar Afaq, Law Student, Saharanpur, UP
Muhammed Imtiyaz Ahmed, IT Consultant, Delhi
Memon Junaid, Dentist, Ahmedabad
Omair Anas, Researcher, JNU
Mukkaram Niyaz, Web Developer, Hyderabad
Imran Khan, Journalist, Noida
Zaheer Hussain, Journalist, Bangalore
S. Mohd Saim, Advocate, Rampur, UP
Md Iqbal, Engineer, Ranchi
Mohd Sajjad Hussain, Student, Delhi School of Economics
Syed Humayoun Shabir, Research Scholar, AMU
Fairoz Ahmed, Software Engineer, Bangalore
Moinuddin Ahmad, Journalist, Delhi
Yasir Iqbal, Engineering Student, AMU
Faheem Ahmad, Planning Engineer, Vellore
Abbas Hasan, Marketing Professional, Delhi
Sadiq Umar, Young Scientist, Delhi
Sarfaraz Nawaz, Consultant, Bangalore
Shahnawaz Akhtar, Journalist, Delhi
Rabia Khan, Marketing Consultant, Lucknow
Rasshad Khan, Technology Entrepreneur, Noida
Abdullah Azzam, Law Student, Faculty of Law, AMU
Meher Jahan, Law Student, Faculty of Law, AMU
Sarah Hashim, Law Student, Faculty of Law, AMU
Anam Khan, Law Student, Faculty of Law, A M U
Sheeba Aslam Fehmi, Writer-Activist, Delhi
John Dayal, Member, National Integration Council, GoI
Anuradha Bhasin, Journalist, Jammu
Preeti Sampat, Researcher, Delhi
Sukla Sen, Activist, Mumbai
Brijesh Kalappa, Advocate, Delhi
Archana VB, Software Professional
Smita Charbarty, Phd Scholar, Kolkata
Himanshu Kumar, Activist, Delhi
Faisal Ahmed Khan, Assistant Professor, Kerala
Brinda Bose, Teacher, Delhi University
Neha Misra, Student, IMT Ghaziabad
Shehba George, Activist, Ahmadabad
Imran Khan, Educator, Aligarh
Faisal Khan, Advocate, Meerut
191. Clifton D' Rozario, Advocate, Banglore

Masihuddin, Pharmacist, Betiah, Bihar
Aftab Fazil, Educationist, Delhi
Nandini Rao, Activist, Delhi
Dr. Aurobindo Ghose, Advocate, Delhi
Asgar Hussain, Bank PO, Delhi
Dr. Aslam Rizvi, Medical Practitioner, Delhi
Naaz Khair, development consultant, Delhi
Garga Chatarjee, Columnist, Kolkata
Menu Seshu, Activist, Shangli
Nitya Vasudevan, Research Scholar, Bangalore
Rukmini Sen, Journalist, Mumbai
Vimochana, Women Rights Activist, Bangalore
Shraddha Chickerur, Delhi
Girish Pannikkar, Accounts Manager, Kerala
Aruna Ganadason, Christian Feminist, Kerala
Ms Jarjum Ete, activist, Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh
Navneet Shrivastava, Mumbai
Dr. Shelly Dahiya, New Delhi
Himadri Sekhar Mistri, Research Scholar, Delhi School of Economics
Soma Marik, Visiting Professor, School of Women's Studies, Jadavpur University
Sudipto Muhri, Assistant Professor, Pune University
Kalyani Menon, Feminist, Gurgaon

By IANS,

Bangalore : The BJP Wednesday accused Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh of raising the communal riot bogey to garner votes of a particular community in the Lok Sabha election due next year.

"His statement yesterday (Tuesday) that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) planned communal riots to gain in the Lok Sabha election is a clear indication that the Congress was hatching plans for riots to blame the BJP," Karnataka BJP spokesperson C.T. Ravi told reporters here.

Singh had said at a meeting of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee here Tuesday that BJP planned communal riots in all Congress-ruled states to gain in the Lok Sabha election.

Charging that it was Congress' habit to organise communal riots, Ravi listed communal incidents that had taken place in Karnataka when that party was in power.

The BJP was in power in Karnataka for the first time in 2008-13. It lost to the Congress in the assembly polls held May 5.

By IANS,

Ahmedabad : Nine years after Ishrat Jahan was shot dead by Gujarat Police in an alleged shootout, the CBI Wednesday filed a chargesheet here naming at least six policemen as accused.

While indicating that Ishrat, 19, who lived in Thane, was not a terrorist as alleged, the chargesheet named policemen P.P. Pande, A. Choudhary, D.G. Vanzare, Tarun Barot, J.R. Parmar, Bharat Patel and N.K. Amin among the accused.

They were charged with murder, abduction, conspiracy and destruction of evidence and other charges as per the chargesheet filed by Assistant Commissioner of Police P. Rathod before the Special POTA Court.

Declaring that the encounter was 'fake', the 1,500-plus page chargesheet stated that three others killed in the same gun battle of June 15, 2004 allegedly harboured terror links.

Welcoming the chargesheet, Ishrat's family said in Mumbai that they have been "vindicated" after struggling for justice for nine years.

"We have got justice after so many years. All allegations against Ishrat have been proved false. We are happy that the CBI states she was not a terrorist. Now we demand the severest punishment to all the accused, this is our appeal. We have suffered a lot all these years," said a composed Musharat, sister of the late Ishrat.

Petitioner and Ishrat's mother Shamima Kauser said in an emotional voice that she had been insisting for the past nine years that her daughter was innocent and killed in cold blood.

Extending sympathy to the family was Nationalist Congress Party state working president Jitendra Awhad, who hails from Thane.

Ahwad said: "People don't know how the entire family was destroyed in the wake of the allegations against Ishrat.

"Her sister could not complete her education, her brother could not get a job anywhere, the family was ostracized and had to make monumental efforts just to survive," he said.

The CBI chargesheet added that Pranesh Pillai alias Javed Shaikh, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were allegedly planning terror attacks in Ahmedabad.

The CBI said Pillai was allegedly using Ishrat, a college student in Mumbai, as a shield for his activities.

Her family's breadwinner, Ishrat hailed from the middle-class Muslim-dominated Mumbra town of Thane, barely 30 km north of Mumbai.

Contrary to expectations, no politician has been named in the chargesheet. The CBI plans to file a supplementary document (chargesheet) within a month.

In New Delhi, Congress spokesperson Meem Afzal told reporters: "If the CBI chargesheet says the encounter was fake, it shows it. We want the law to take its own course and the culprits should be brought to book."

The Bharatiya Janata Party accused the CBI of underplaying the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba's role and accused the central government of playing with the nation's security.

"The CBI chargesheet underplays the role of LeT, and certainly indicts the Indian security apparatus," BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters.

By IANS,

New Delhi : Soon after the CBI Wednesday formally filed charges in a Gujarat court in the Ishrat Jahan alleged shootout case, the Congress said the culprits should be brought to book.

"The murder of an innocent person leaves a trail to the accused. The CBI charge sheet says the encounter was fake. We want the law to take its own course and the culprits should be brought to book," Congress spokesperson Meem Afzal told reporters here.

A Mumbai college girl Ishrat Jahan, Pranesh Pillai alias Javed Shaikh, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed by Gujarat Police in a shootout in 2004 in Ahmedabad.

Police said the four were part of a plot to assassinate Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Congress leader from Gujarat Madhusudan Mistry targeted Modi, who was then holding the home portfolio and had his confidante Amit Shah as junior home minister.

"Criminal cases should be filed against those in power then. The truth is coming out. The question is, who ordered the fake shoot out?" Mistry told reporters.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, which rules Gujarat, said the Ishrat Jahan shootout was not "fake" and was conducted on the basis of information received from the Intelligence Bureau.

By IANS,

New Delhi : On a day when the CBI said the Ishrat Jahan shootout in Gujarat was staged, the BJP Wednesday blamed the agency for underplaying terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba's (LeT) role and accused the central government of playing with the nation's security.

"The CBI charge sheet underplays the role of LeT, and certainly indicts the Indian security apparatus," said Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman.

"The CBI's silence on the background and nature of activities in which these people were involved raises more questions than answers. The CBI could not even describe who these people were who were accompanying Ishrat Jahan," she said.

"They were people with terrorist links, more than 20 odd calls had been made through satellite phone to terrorists," Sitharaman added.

The BJP alleged that the central government had influenced the CBI report.

"It is a matter of the safety of the country and the centre should not play politics on terrorism," she said.

The CBI has filed its first charge sheet on the alleged shootout in which Ishrat Jahan and three others were killed by Gujarat Police nine years ago.

Declaring that Ishrat was not a terrorist, the CBI said that three others killed in the same alleged shootout June 15, 2004 were suspected of terror links.

Pranesh Pillai alias Javed Shaikh, Amjad ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar, who were killed in the incident in addition to Ishrat, were allegedly planning terror attacks in Ahmedabad.

In its chargesheet, the agency named policemen P.P. Pande, A. Choudhary, D.G. Vanzare, Tarun Barot, J.R. Parmar and N.K. Amin among the accused.

By Irfan Engineer,

The communal oganizations often propound that there is peace as there are no riots, at least major riots in the country. They further propound that there being peace, there was no need for the proposed “Communal and Target Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill” or any other special law to deal with communal riots. That such a legislation would in fact deepen the communal divide and wounds that were healing. We are not going into the merits and demerits of the proposed draft of the legislation, which has been dealt with separately. However, it is an obvious fact that Gujarat 2002 type riots have not repeated after that. But this was true even after the 1969 major riots in Ahmedabad in which according to unofficial estimates over 2,000 people had been killed and 1970 Bhiwandi Jalgaon Mahad riots, equally devastating, only until 1984 when again there were riots in Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bhiwandi and Mumbai! Throughout 1980s there were localized riots, including Godhra, Meerut, Maliana, Moradabad, Aligarh, Bhagalpur etc. of various intensities. These riots in step with the campaign to mobilize for demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya and construction of Ram Temple on one hand and opposition to the judgment of the Supreme Court in the Shahbano Case on the other hand. The mobilization to demolish Babri Masjid finally culminated in communal riots in 1992-93 in many cities across the length and breadth of the country, mainly in the Northern and Western Regions, including Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Surat.

One explanation of the pattern of violence, given the political mobilization of various castes and communities to claim their share in the pie of the opportunities and fruits, could be that communal violence is cyclical and periodical. The period of the cycle may more or less vary, but the intensity of violence escalates. Therefore, the present period is more of a lull before the storm. But lull itself is not so peaceful with series of communal riots on low scale 8 riots in UP, in Dhule in Maharashtra, etc. The other observation regarding the pattern of violence could be that the communal organizations are now less dependent on riots as a tool for communalization and communal mobilization.

Communal organizations would like to spread a myth that communal riots are a natural and popular reaction to certain appalling incident like assassination of Indira Gandhi, killing of Swami Laxmanand or burning of a coach of Sabarmati Express, Communal violence is orchestrated to achieve certain objectives. Paul Brass suggests that an institutionalized riot systems have been created since independence in certain regions, particularly in north and western states in India, which can be activated during periods of political mobilization or at the time of elections. Communal violence is far from being spontaneous occurrences. The production of a riot, Brass argues, involves calculated and deliberate actions by key individuals, like recruitment of participants, provocative activities and conveying of messages, spreading of rumours, amongst other specific activities. There are frequent rehearsals until the time is ripe and the context is felicitous and there are no serious obstructions in carrying out the performance.

The objective behind communal riots in India is to deepen communal consciousness and marginalise all other primordial identities like linguistic, ethnic, gender; and ascribed identities like profession or occupation based, club/sports or that of animal lovers or art lovers etc. It also seeks to make the dalits and adivasis ignore the fact that they are oppressed and discriminated by caste based hierarchical structures on one hand and embrace the communal identity as informed by the interest of the upper caste on the other hand without questioning the caste based hierarchical structures.

Communal violence heightens an individual’s communal consciousness as based on his/her communal identity she/he could be killed. The fear of “other” is highest during violence and every person belonging to one’s community is perceived as comrade and persons not belonging to one’s community are perceived as a source of potential violent threat. Therefore during riots one is desperate to know every strangers identity. The communal consciousness acquired during riots due to heightened state of fear does not entirely wane after the riots. The communal forces build on the communal consciousness through constant propaganda popularizing many myths, stereo types and negative attitudes about the “other” community which sustains image of the “other” as a potential threat to their collective social interest. Thus communal violence leads to communal consciousness and discriminatory approach towards the “other” and preference for members of one’s own community in social, political and economic affairs. This process in turn pushes the society towards ghettoization of social space. Communal consciousness leads to acceptance of communal nationalism as a natural political order rather than secular and inclusive nationalism with democracy and its principles of liberty, equality and fraternity. Communal riots therefore play an integral part in communalizing the society.

New Strategy:

The old strategy of spectacular and catastrophic riots was inevitable as the communal forces did not have sufficient following and critical mass to doctor consciousness of the nation without resorting to riots. Producing riots, as Paul Brass would put it, enabled the communal organizations to get increased coverage in a section of media and attract attention of the nation. The strategy was to use riots and the media together for constructing communal consciousness. However, of late, the communal organizations seem to have adopted an alternate strategy to achieve the objective of constructing communal consciousness and are less dependent on spectacular and catastrophic communal riots to communalize the consciousness of the society. Nay, they also face difficulties with catastrophic communal riots inflicting heavy casualty e.g. a section of media may cover the incident adversely, or they may run into problems with international human rights organizations and at times with national institutions like the higher judiciary and at times being accepted as a leader at national level, particularly, if one has prime ministerial ambitions.

Instead of heightened fear during communal riots, the communal forces are now disguising and morphing themselves as “Islamic terrorists” and executing terror attacks targeting Muslims as well as Hindus. The terrorists motivated by Hindutva ideology were first detected trying to manufacture a bomb, which exploded in the process on 6th April 2006. Two Bajrang Dal activists – who were manufacturing the bomb were killed, including one Rajkondwar. Maps of mosques, attire usually worn by Muslims was found by the police during their investigations. Rahul Pande, one of the person who sustained injury when the bomb exploded, confessed that they had made series of bombs earlier too. In January 2008, Hindu Munani activists were arrested by the police for placing bombs near RSS office and ST bus stand in Tenkasi in TN. They thought that the blame would naturally be on Muslim groups leading to communalization of the Hindus. On 24th August 2008, two Bajrang Dal activists died in Kanpur trying to assemble bombs. The group was planning massive explosions all over the state.

On 30th April 2010, Devendra Gupta, Vishnu Prasad and Chandrashekkar Patidar, long associated with RSS was arrested for placing bomb in one of the most popular Muslim shrine – Ajmer Sharif in October 2007. They are also believed to have placed bombs in Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad for which scores of Muslim youth were arrested and tortured during police custody.

Six members of Sanatan Sanstha were arrested for planting bombs outside of an auditorium in Thane, Vashi in 2008. On 30 August 2011, Ramesh Gadkari and Vikram Bhave belonging to Sanatan Sanstha were found guilty in sessions court of the Thane blasts and received the maximum sentence of ten years rigorous imprisonment. NIA officers raided the organization’s headquarters in October 2011. The investigations are ongoing.

Two persons were killed in the Margao blast on 16th October 2009. The NIA has accused Prashant Juvekar (Ratnagiri), Sarang Kulkarni (Pune), Jayprakash alias Anna (Mangalore) and an unidentified person. The two men identified as Malgondi Patil and Yogesh Naik, who were carrying the bagful of country made explosives were reportedly riding a scooter when the blast occurred. The blast took place when a religious event was being held during which effigies of a mythical demon, Narkasur, were brunt to celebrate the victory of good over evil. Police linked the blast to a right-wing Hindu organisation named Sanatan Sanstha, which has its headquarters in the temple town of Ramnathi in Ponda region of Goa. In both the above incidents, the target was not Muslims. Naturally the blame was expected to be laid at the door of Muslims.

Communalization of section of IB and ATS:

While resorting to terrorist methods and using bombs to achieve their objective of constructing communal consciousness and fear of Muslims was one of the methods adopted by the communal organizations, the other strategy was placing persons indoctrinated with communal ideologies in key places within the security forces. The key individuals within the security forces would then misuse their positions and illegally arrest and murder innocent Muslim youth declaring them to be “terrorists who infiltrated from across the border with the intention to kill Narendra Modi or target some key individuals / installations and who were killed in encounter with the police.” Innocent Muslim youth were regularly targeted in this fashion until the brother of Sohrabuddin decided to wage a long legal battle against all odds and might of the individuals involved in the murder and those protecting them. Ishrat Jehan, Javed Sheikh and two others with her, one Sadiq Jamal and others were also similarly eliminated. CBI investigations of the murder of Israt Jehan points to the involvement of P P Pandey who retired as DGP of Gujarat and still investigating the involvement of Rajendra Kumar, officer of IB who not only provided the intelligence which enabled the murder to pass off as encounter, but also allegedly arranged for AK47 guns that were placed on the bodies of Ishrat Jehan and others to ensure that the murder passes off as an encounter for the media. Amit Shah, State Home Minister and Narendra Modi’s right hand person was arrested in the Sohrabuddin, Kausar Bano and Tulsiram Prajapati murder case.

The periodical murders of Muslim individuals would be followed by nationwide coverage of the police version by the uncritical media millions of avid news hungry consumers would have no option but to gulp the news as 24 carat truth. Repeated coverage of such periodical murders by unsuspecting and uncritical media, prime time debates around the incidents for days together made the consumers of news to accept the doctrine propounded by Narendra Modi and L K Advani that all terrorists are Muslims. The fear of Muslims after riots is replaced by fear of Muslims being terrorists and achieving the same objective of constructing communal consciousness. The murder episodes which were passed off as encounters also helped make individuals who were to be targeted as heroes of “Hindu community” and construct their image as iron persons.

Conclusion:

The alternate strategy now increasingly resorted to by communal forces is to use a section of intelligence and Anti Terrorism Squads (ATS) coupled with media coverage to stigmatize the minorities as posing threat to the nation. The communal forces have succeeded in getting its ideologically trained cadres placed in security forces and use them as a vehicle in communalization project. The new strategy can now work as communal forces have succeeded in systematically infiltrating the security forces to carry out its objectives. While a section of the IB provides cooked intelligence, the ATS pretends to immediately swoops into action arresting or killing innocent Muslim youth and claiming to protecting the nation against threat of terrorist attack. Nimesh Commission in UP has pointed out list of number of Muslims who were falsely charged by UP Govt. even during ‘secular’ Mayawati regime as terrorists. Khalid Mujahid was one such person according to Nimesh Commission on basis of evidence. Khalid Mujahid was eliminated under police custody. Minds have been so communalized that advocates defending the Muslim accused of terror charges are being beaten up within court premises by fellow advocates and the society / judiciary does not seem to be appalled! At least there are no strong signals sent by high courts or the Apex Court against such incidents within court premises! Qateel Siddiqui was killed in Yerwada jail as he could have testified to innocence of Himayat Baig, facing gallows for the German Bakery blast. The new strategy seems to be working, but it remains to be seen how long it will work? When will the citizens who respect democracy and institutions of democracy rise to question such blatant violence? Will they before we have a fascist state at our doors?

By TCN News,

Ahmedabad: Giving a comprehensive overview of arguments for “Conspiracy to commit mass murder” against Narendra Modi and 59 Others, counsel for Zakia Ahsan Jafri, Mihir Desai argued in court on Wednesday that the issue before the Court is whether the events after the Godhra carnage that included mass reprisal attacks where thousands of innocents members of the minority were massacred, raped and killed were “spontenous,” as the state government has argued, which could not have been anticipated, prevented or controlled; or was it part of the larger conspiracy, where entire state machinery “aided and abated the events.”

The court is hearing Jafri's petition against closure report of Special Investigation Team which gave a clean chit to Modi and others in the face of the charge of complicity in the riots as levelled by Jafri in her complaint in 2008 before the Supreme Court. The entire team of advocates with Citizens for Justice & Peace along with its Secretary, Teesta Setalvad were present before the Metropolitan Magistrate 11th Court during the hearing.

File photo of Zakia Jafri talking to newsmen in March 2010. Teesta Setalvad is standing.

Desai further argued that the political head of the state, home ministry and administration were in full knowledge of and allowed the build up of aggressive and communal sentiments, violent mobilisations including carrying of arms and a general outpouring against the Minority Community before 27.2.2002.

Based on the SIT findings, Zakia Jafri’s counsel there was a “conspiracy amongst the persons named or some of them to generate hatred towards the minority community either by an active participation in this generation or by an omission to act against the perpetrators.” He added that such a conspiracy was not just to generate hatred towards the minority community but also to commit targeted violence against the person, property and religious places of the minority community.

Mihir Desai also referred to the sting operation done by the journalsit Ashish Khetan for the Tehhelka magazine in Ocotber, 2007. Khetan, who recorded the extra judicial confessions, was made a prosecution witness in the Naroda Patiya Case, Gulberg case and Naroda Gaam case. The Naroda Patiya judgement delivered on 29.8.2012 used the Tehelka Tapes authenticated by the CBI has strong and reliable corroboratory evidence.

“How could this evidence be relied upon by the SIT in one set of investigations and be summarily discarded by the SIT in the Zakia Jafri case; simply was it because the accused was Narendra Modi?” Desai wondered.

Related:
Zakia Jafri files protest petition

By Kaleem Kawaja,

In recent weeks some Muslim activists have made statements requesting Narendra Modi to consider the plight and backwardness of Indian Muslims and do something about it. That is very insulting to the 150 million Indian Muslims who have faced continual brutalities for 30 + years at the hands of BJP. It is insulting for the entire Muslim community of Gujarat that has faced brutal deaths of 2000 Muslims, police and govt brutalities for 11 years in various aspects of life.

Some other Muslim activists are saying that if Modi apologizes to Muslims and retires from public life Muslims will pardon him and let him rehabilitate himself in society. Why are these Muslim activists making such statements and on whose behalf are they speaking?

Modi has committed horrible crimes against humanity; he must be brought to trial before a court in India and given appropriate punishment according to the laws of India. Why should Modi not be tried and punished like his henchmen Maya Kodani and Babu Bajrangi? His crimes are more severe than those of these two criminals.

All over the world many oppressor rulers have been tried and punished. Hitler, Mussolini, top Nazi generals and leaders were tried in Nurenberg at the end of WW II and punished. Saddam Hussain was tried and punished. President Gen Pinochet of Chile was tried and punished. Milosevic of Yugoslavia did not get a safe exit. Why should Modi be given a safe exit and pardon, why not tried and punished like other murderers like him.

The people of India did not give safe exit to Afzal Guru or Dawood Ibrahim or Tiger Memon. Sikhs did not give safe exit to those who masterminded the murderers of the 1984 genocide of Sikhs. Why should we give safe exit to Modi?

The answer is that Indian Muslims and the large number of secular Hindus and Indians will not give safe exit to Modi. We will wait and keep on banging on the doors of India's justice system until Modi is tried in an Indian court and punished appropriately.

(The writer is a Muslim community activist. He can be reached at: kaleemkawaja@gmail.com)

The Inaugural Session of the International Summer School (ISS) is currently underway at Jamia Millia Islamia.

By TCN News,

New Delhi: Jamia Millia Islamia in collaboration with the International Summer School (ISS) Education Initiative and Ministry of Tourism through its Incredible India campaign has established the International Summer School at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi for the purpose of promoting international goodwill and cultural understanding at the level of young minds as they learn about India and its role in the twenty first century.

The ISS is Jamia’s six-week academic programme which is taking place under the banner of the Ministry of Tourism’s acclaimed Incredible India campaign. The International Summer School has an intensive academic programme that will bring together students from all over the world as they study and interact with one another over the course of a summer in New Delhi, India.

Jamia Millia Islamia Vice-Chancellor, Najeeb Jung, taught an ISS Political Science class on the topic Governance in India, on Wednesday

After screening over 500 applications, 20 students from ten different countries were selected to attend this year’s ISS. A desire to better understand the diverse socio-political perspectives of the region encouraged Omar Achy to attend the ISS this year. From Morocco, Achy is the South Asia Bureau Chief with the Agence Maghreb Arab Presse. Like him, other students from India, Japan, Iraq, Syria, Australia, South Africa, Bhutan, Turkmenistan and the US are attending the summer school to engage with India through a unique and intensive academic experience.

Ryosuke Takaya, a Japanese national says, “My stay is turning out to be very interesting. The programme is quite informative and the lectures and teachers are very intelligent. We have students from across the world studying with us. It is a great experience.”

Class in Session - 19 June 2013

The institutions being represented at this year’s ISS are also quite impressive. Leading universities such as the University of Tokyo, Royal University of Bhutan, University of Oxford, University of Queensland and the University of Witswatersand, among others have sent their students to attend the inaugural sessions and moreover, the ISS has also partnered with the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of South Asia to carry out various aspects of the programme.

Apart from their lectures, the students have a packed schedule which will allow them to witness first-hand the various facets of contemporary India. They have already toured the various monuments of Delhi including the Red Fort, Qutub Minar and Humayun’s Tomb and have had interactions with eminent persons such as Dr. Waiel Awwad who is the President of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of South Asia, Hon’ble Justice Madan B. Lokur of the Supreme Court of India, Mr. Venu Rajamony who is the Press Secretary to the Hon’ble President of India which took place at the Rashtrapathi Bhavan. Further sessions have been scheduled with leading intellectuals and Government officials.

Presidents House - 29 June 2013

The students are now into their third week of classes which cover numerous topics in Indian Politics, the Indian Economy, Indian Sociology and Indian History. At the end of week four of the programme, the students will travel to Rajasthan for a volunteer experience with Ritinjali which will also comprise of the Fieldwork component of the academic course and during this experience, the student will have to make linkages between the various topics they have learned about in class and their real world implications.

“Among other aspects, the aim of the programme is to foster goodwill on behalf of India at a youth level,” says Amjad Ali Khan, the ISS Director who has also conceptualised the initiative. “The programme is a unique opportunity to help students understand contemporary India and refine their understanding of our country so that when they take up leadership roles in the future and engage with India, they will know what to expect and how to formulate strategies,” adds Khan.

Website: www.issnewdelhi.in

Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/InternationalSummerSchoolNewDelhi

Twitter feed: @issnewdelhi

By Shaik Zakeer Ussain, TwoCircles.net,

Banglore: Shamshul Huda, a social activist and editor of the Urdu literary monthly Makhzan, was brutally murdered on Wednesday morning at his office in Devara Jeevanahalli, Tannery Road.

63 year old Huda, a resident of Bamboo Bazaar in Shivajinagar, had left home at around 7.30 a.m. to his office. According to the police, the murder came to light, when the office computer operator, who arrived at around 10.45 a.m. found Huda lying in a pool of blood with a deep injury on his neck in his cabin.

Shamshul Huda

The unidentified assailants had attacked Huda by strangulating him before slitting his throat, said the police.

Kamal Pant, additional commissioner (law & order), said the motive for the murder was unclear. He said a small safe in the office was broken and money kept in it missing.

Shamsul Huda, apart from being an editor of Makhzan was also a lifelong social activist. Shivajinagar MLA, R Roshan Baig, who arrived at the murder spot, said that Huda in his youth had founded Muslim Naujawan Committee as a reactionary response to the RSS and during the Emergency in 1975 was incarcerated for 18 months in Bangalore and Bellary prisons.

After Emergency, he launched the Urdu weekly Al-Quds.

He also ran Al-Quds Minorities Credit Co-Operative Society, a financial institution which gave Interest-free loans to the poor of the community.

Huda had recently published some articles attacking city’s Amanath Cooperative Bank, for misappropriating funds and had also lead protests against the bank, which has freezed operations under the directions of RBI due to financial irregularities. According to close friends and relatives, he had received threat calls to stay away from the protest.

Huda is survived by his bedridden wife Razia Begum. The couple had no children.

A case of murder has been registered at the D J Halli police station. The post-mortem was conducted at the Bowring Hospital before handing over the body to the family in the evening. The funeral prayer was held late night.

By IANS,

Guwahati : Targeting the government over the CBI charge sheet in the Ishrat Jahan staged shootout case, BJP president Rajnath Singh Thursday said the government should disclose "her terror links".

The CBI Wednesday filed a charge sheet in which it claimed that Ishrat Jahan had no terrorist links. Seven police officers were charge-sheeted for the staged shootout of 2004.

The Bharatiya Janata Party president claimed that the case was being hyped for political purposes. He also took the government to task over its handling of the economy.

Talking to reporters here, Rajnath Singh said the government should disclose which terrorist outfit Ishrat Jahan was associated with. "What was her track record? With which terror outfit was she linked? There should be a disclosure from the government on this," he said.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP )president said over 3,000 staged shootouts had taken place before 2002, but hype was being created only around the Ishrat Jahan case. "Hype is being created on the issue for political purposes," he said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) charge sheet in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case said that she and other three persons were killed in cold blood, in an operation jointly conducted by Gujarat Police and the Intelligence Bureau.

Talking on other political developments, Rajnath Singh told reporters that the government must first discuss the food security bill in parliament, not bring in an ordinance. The union cabinet Wednesday gave its nod to an ordinance for the introduction of the food security bill.

The government could not get the bill passed in over four years of the UPA-II being in power, Rajnath Singh said, adding: "Why is it in a hurry now?"

"We want to pass the bill with some amendments," he said, adding that his party was not opposed to the legislation.

The BJP leader said India was heading towards the situation it faced in 1991, when it had to mortgage gold to the IMF for seeking a loan. He criticised the UPA government's handling of the economy.

He said GDP growth rate was down to about five percent, and the rupee had weakened considerably against the dollar.

"The country is facing conditions it faced in 1991," Rajnath Singh said.

He said foreign investors were not willing to put their money in India and Indian investors were looking for opportunities abroad.

The BJP chief said the depreciation of the rupee should have led to an increase in exports, but that has not happened.

"Imports are increasing, and so is the pressure on the economy," he said.

The BJP president arrived here Wednesday and met top leaders of Assam BJP to discuss the strategy and agenda for the next Lok Sabha elections. Rajnath Singh, who is currently touring various states ahead of kick-starting the party's campaigning for next year's Lok Sabha elections, also addressed grassroots members from different parts of the state at a meeting here.

By Shilpa Raina, IANS,

New Delhi : He's edited a literary magazine for 40 years. Now, to reach a wider audience, Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, considered the T.S. Eliot of Urdu critics, has come out with "The Mirror of Beauty", an English translation of his Urdu novel "Kai Chand the Sar-e-Aasman" that recreates the era of the late 19th century, with Wazir Khanam as the protagonist.

In times when women would abide by the purdah, Khanam comes across as an assertive and intelligent woman who was aware of her beauty and used this to her advantage. But the bold personal choices she made reflect the strength of her character.

"Women like Wazir Khanam were unusual at that time, but not entirely rare and difficult to find," the 78-year-old Faruqi, who is based in Allahabad, told IANS in an e-mail interview.

The fictional novel is woven around the real-life character of Khanam and this helped the author in staying true to the chronology of her life.

"It was history which solved my problem, because she is a real character, and all that she did, or all that happened to her, are strictly true, except for the details," he added.

The intriguing journey takes off when, as a teenager Khanam elopes with an Englishman, Marston Blake. But after he is murdered she comes back to Delhi with their two children. She then marries the handsome Nawab Shamsuddin Ahmad Khan, and there are many alliances and affairs thereafter. But none of them ends on a happy note.

The Urdu original was published in 2006 and while in translation there is always the fear of misinterpretation, Faruqi, being the author, has taken a few liberties.

"I had to sacrifice things absolutely specific to the Urdu language and culture: women's language. That is, words and expressions used by none but women in those times; words, though common in themselves, but having special connotation in literature," he said.

"I can say that except for the instance of a modern narrator, or a modern person through whose eyes the events are seen, I have consistently used the Urdu, or the English, of the early 19th century," he added.

It is not just the heavyweight characters that we get acquainted with while reading the book; the detailed description of characters, the ambience and even the embroidered, rich shawls or bejewelled clothes that they wear build a fine imagery of a bygone era.

A delight for those interested in history, Faruqi is clear about the readers whom he had in mind while he decided to translate his book and reach out to a wider audience.

"I wrote the book keeping three things in mind: I Shamsur Rahman Faruqi; anyone interested enough in the Indo-Muslim literary and social culture of the 18th and 19th century to take the trouble to read the book; and my immediate family," he explained.

A recipient of the prestigious Saraswati Samman literary award, Faruqi was also the editor of Urdu literary magazine "Shabkhoon" for 40 years.

While the translation part was easy for the author, selecting an apt title wasn't that easy.

"The question of the English title bothered all of us: family, publisher, friends in foreign countries, among them those who didn't know enough Urdu to have read the original but who are people of good taste in English," Faruqi said.

"The title was more or less discovered by my younger daughter Baran in a translation from Hafiz that I made long ago. The actual line was: My eyes are the mirror for her beauty," he said, adding that everyone liked it and "The Mirror of Beauty" became the title.

"My working title was Wazir Khanam, actually," he concluded.

Published by Penguin, the 1,000-page book is a treat for those interested in history. It is priced at Rs. 699.

(Shilpa Raina can be contacted at shilpa.r@sians.in)

By IANS,

New Delhi : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) parliamentary board, which meets here later Thursday, is expected to discuss the party's strategy and core team for the 2014 general elections, a senior BJP leader said.

"A sharp strategy for the 2014 polls would be the main focus of the meet," BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said ahead of the meet.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who was last month anointed as the chief of BJP's poll campaign committee, is likely to decide his team for the polls.

Modi, who arrived in the national capital for the meeting Thursday morning, will also hold discussions with the general secretaries of the party.

The meet comes a day after the Central Bureau of Investigation filed its first charge sheet on the encounter in which Ishrat Jahan and three others were killed by Gujarat Police nine years ago.

Though Modi or any of his key ministers were not named in the charge sheet, the Gujarat government has been blamed for backing the encounter.

By TCN News,

Aligarh: Forum for Muslim Studies and Analysis (FMSA) Aligarh has urged the CBI to probe the role of the Gujart Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his close associate Mr. Amit Shah in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case.

Secretary General of FMSA, Jasim Mohammad added that the policemen who killed Ishrat Jahan should be punished and such trend must be immediately discontinued but the criticism of Intelligence Bureau (IB) due to involvement of one or two persons is not right as that will lower the morale of the agency which is responsible for the security of nation.

FMSA also passed a resolution demanding that the Batala House encounter should be inquired on the lines of Ishrat Jahan fake encounter to clear public mind.

AMU VC had sanctioned a sum of Rs. 2.5 lakh for his treatment but the amount proved insufficient due to prlonged treatment.

By TCN News,

Aligarh: A PhD student of Department of Botany, Aligarh Muslim University is fighting for life at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi.

Abdul Raoof KM, a resident of Mohammad Habib Hall, who received serious head injuries in an accident near his hall on July 27 last, was referred to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital after initial treatment at the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College. He is lying unconscious and on ventilator in the ICU of Sir Ganga Ram hospital for a week now.

Belonging to a financially weak background, it is impossible for the family of Abdul Raoof KM to meet the high treatment bills of the hospital, which runs into an average of Rs. 35-40 thousand per day.

Prof. Mahmood S. Khan, Provost, Mohammad Habib Hall said that the Vice Chancellor had sanctioned a sum of Rs. 2.5 lakh for his treatment but the amount proved insufficient in view of his prolonged stay in the hospital. He said that a serious head surgery has been conducted on Abdul Raoof and he would need about Rs. 8-10 lakh to meet out the hospital expenses.

Prof. Khan has urged all the members of AMU fraternity to donate generously to help Abdul Raoof. The donations may be made through direct money transfer in the name of the patient to the Syndicate Bank and HDFC Bank account numbers of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.

The Syndicate Bank account number is 91112010000014 and the Swift code is SYNBINBBA126 (IFS Code SYNB0009111) while the HDFC bank account number is 00261000043401 and swift code is HDFCINBBDEL (IFS Code HDFC0000026).

By IANS,

Patna : The Janata Dal-United (JD-U) Thursday targeted friend-turned-foe BJP over Ishrat Jahan, who hailed from Bihar, after the CBI said she was killed in cold blood by Gujarat Police.

Nine years after Ishrat Jahan was gunned down in an alleged shootout, the Central Bureau of Investigation Wednesday filed a chargesheet in a court naming at least six policemen as accused.

"Ishrat Jahan was a daughter of Bihar and she was killed in Gujarat. What crime did she committ? Why are BJP leaders in Bihar silent over the killing?" asked JD-U spokesperson Neeraj Kumar.

Ishrat Jahan's grandfather Wali Mohammad belonged to Khagaul area near Patna. Her father Mohammad Shamim had married Shamima Qausar of Jamalpur in Bihar. They later moved to Maharashtra.

Ishrat's maternal uncle Muzibbur Rehman is a teacher at the Patna-based National Institute of Technology.

"Ishrat Jahan's fake encounter in Gujarat has exposed the horrible ground reality in Gujarat," Neeraj Kumar said.

"A particular community is not safe and several of its youths were being killed in fake encounters" he said.

"We plant a tree after a girl child is born in Bihar and celebrate but one of our daughters was murdered in cold blood. It is shameful for BJP-ruled Gujarat," he said.

The JD-U dumped the BJP last month over the growing clout of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the BJP.

By Abdul Gani, TwoCircles.net,

Guwahati: Bharatia Janata Party (BJP) national president Rajnath Singh who is on Assam tour said his party has always believed in secularism unlike Congress. Rajnath Singh who is making his maiden trip to Assam after becoming the national president for the second time, said that they never wanted any division between Hindus and Muslims.

He also cited the example of Maqbul Ali, a minority leader of Barak Valley who formally joined the saffron party in a rally in Guwahati. “Leaders like Ali have realized that BJP is a safer place for the minority as well unlike the Congress so he decided to be in our party and a part for the developmental works in the region. We believe if India has to prosper as a country every community and religion has to be looked after equally,” said an elated Singh.

BJP president Rajnath Singh addressing a public rally in Guwahati. [Photo credit: Surajit Sharma].

He told reporters that Congress is a communal party and has always used the Muslims and other minorities for the sake of their votes only. “The Muslims votes in BJP are genuine while in Congress they are forced to vote,” he added.

Maqbul Ali said that BJP is the party which can do welfare for the people of the state and the country barring religion, caste and creed. “I have realized the importance of BJP and joining the party with a great hope for doing welfare for Minority community in our region,” Ali said after formally joining the party.

Minority leader Maqbul Ali formally joining BJP

This was also a part the party’s campaign for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls in Assam. Such a statement is a bit surprising from the senior BJP leader at a time when its oldest ally Janata Dal (United), parted ways with it fearing their move to project Gujrat chief minister Narendra Modi might not go well with the minorities.

“Unlike Congress BJP has never used minority or Muslims for the sake of votes only. BJP is committed for all round development of all the indigenous Muslims in Assam or elsewhere without any hidden agenda,” said Syed Mominul Awwal, state president of Minority Morcha of BJP.