Why is the thespian angry? By Vir Sanghvi - Rediff.com

Why is the thespian angry?

Dilip Kumar. Click for bigger pic!

http://www.rediff.com/entertai/1999/jul/27dil.htm

Vir Sanghvi

If you seek a measure of the success or failure of Indian secularism, then you could do worse than look at the career of Yusuf Khan aka Dilip Kumar. Almost anybody who has any acquaintance with Hindi cinema will tell you that Dilip Kumar is one of the all-time greats
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Moreover, his record in public life has been exemplary. Despite close friendships with a series of politicians, he has never been involved in any corruption scandal. Nor has there been any suggestion that he is at all dishonest or money-minded. In fact, he is probably one of the poorer stars in Bollywood; Shah Rukh Khan's annual income exceeds Dilip Kumar's net worth.

In the fifties, he was one of the first stars to use his celebrity for the greater good of society. He offered his services to Jawarlal Nehru who used him to popularise a variety of causes. In the sixties, he raised money for jawans during the China war and the 1965 conflict with Pakistan. Successive prime ministers of India have hailed his contribution to society and each time he has been given a responsibility (he was sheriff of Bombay 20 years ago, for instance), he has always risen to the occasion.

If you want an example of the success of Indian secularism, Dilip Kumar should fit the bill. He has been a truly patriotic Muslim. And India, in turn, has honoured him by treating him as a legend in his own lifetime.
But of course, things are not that simple. No matter how successful he has been, Dilip Kumar has never been allowed to forget that he is a Muslim.

It started with his name. Through he has always denied that the studio chose a Hindu name for him to conceal his Muslim origins ("I very nearly became Jehangir -- it was just that I preferred Dilip," he maintains), it can be no accident that so many stars of that period played down their Muslim parentage. The studios believed that in the India of that era, it helped if people thought you were a Hindu.

With wife Saira Banu. Click for bigger pic!

For most of the fifties, most of India had no idea that Dilip Kumar was really Yusuf Khan. Newspapers didn't write much about movie stars, there was only one gossip magazine (Film India, long since deceased) and there was of course, no television with its diet of film based programming. All that fans had were the performances. And these were enough to ensure Dilip became Bombay's top star.
  Then, in the sixties, the problems began. His film, Ganga Jamuna, ran into unprecedented censor trouble. The censor board made it clear it would not allow the film to be released unless he agreed to over 50 cuts. Not only would these cuts have destroyed the movie, most of them were also absurd. For instance, a scene where dacoits swooped down on a train was found objectionable on the grounds that it might provide tips to would be dacoits.

But the censors gave the game away when they objected to Dilip Kumar's last words in the movie. Just before his character died, he said, "Hey Ram". That had to go, said the censors. Why, asked Dilip Kumar. Because those were Gandhiji's last words.

But surely, any Hindu would think of Ram when he was dying.

Yes, said the censors, any Hindu would.

Only the threat of legal action forced the censors to pass Ganga Jamuna,which is now regarded as one of the classics of Indian cinema. Some people suggested that Raj Kapoor -- whose Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai was in the cinemas -- paid off the censors to delay the release of the competition. But there is no doubt that Dilip Kumar believes his religion had something to do with it.

Worse was to follow. One day, a police party from Calcutta landed up in Bombay and raided Dilip Kumar's house. He was a Pakistani spy, the police said, and they were about to arrest him. Dilip Kumar a spy? How could that make sense? And, anyway, what secret information was he in a position to communicate to the Pakistanis? The vital statistics of Vyjayantimala?

With Vyjayantimala. Click for bigger pic!

 
It turned out that the Calcutta police had arrested a suspected Pakistani spy. In his diary, they had found the names of many well-known people. In the finest traditions of the Indian police, they promptly concluded that all the Hindus listed in the diary were contacts while the Muslims were enemy agents. One such Muslim was Dilip Kumar. It is a measure of how deep prejudice runs in our society that India's top star -- a friend of Nehru who was then still prime minister -- was accused of espionage on the basis of such flimsy evidence only because he was a Muslim. If Dev Anand's name had been in the diary, it is extremely unlikely that anyone would have bothered to raid him.

After several traumatic months, the police gave up for lack of evidence. But rumours swept the city. Dilip Kumar had confessed. The police had recovered a radio transmitter under his floorboards. He was a leader of a gang of Muslim spies within the film industry. And so on.

It is to Dilip Kumar's credit that he bore no bitterness or ill-will despite such appalling mistreatment. Instead he was there, as always, ready to support our troops in the war against Pakistan in 1965.

I mention all this lest you think -- as many people with short memories or of a certain age do -- that Dilip Kumar is being absurdly sensitive about Bal Thackeray's campaign against him. To understand why Dilip Kumar has reacted with such passion and force, you need to understand that he feels that no matter what he does to prove his patriotism, there will always be those who believe that it is not enough.

The problem with Thackeray has a historical origin. In 1967 when Dilip Kumar was campaigning for V K Krishna Menon in North Bombay, Thackeray was busy founding the Shiv Sena in its first avatar as a gang of Congress stooges who beat up Malayalis who dared vote for Menon.

Later, Thackeray revealed himself to be India's filmi groupie number one. Movie stars flocked to the Senapati's residence and told him he was their Fan-apati while the old boy stared goggle-eyed. Only Dilip Kumar had the dignity to remain aloof.

With Madhubala.Click for bigger pic!

 
Thackeray never forgave him and by the time he had launched the Shiv Sena's Muslim-hating avatar, he seized on Dilip Kumar as a representative of all that he loathed -- a successful secular Muslim who saw no reason to pay court to fascism, even when it was dressed up as groupiedom.
This explains why the Shiv Sena picks on Dilip Kumar again and again. During the Bombay riots, it criticised him for daring to help resettle some of those it had made homeless. When he said that he did not find the movie Fire obscene, it sent a contingent of thugs who stripped down to their underwear outside his house. A Shiv Sena MP even said in Parliament that he thought Dilip Kumar was a traitor. And now, Thackeray wants him to return the Nishan-e-Imtiaz, the highest civilian honour in Pakistan.

From Dilip Kumar's perspective, enough is enough. He is in his late seventies. He has proved his patriotism enough times. He is too old and too tired to wage a solitary battle against Thackeray's persecution, particularly when it is backed by the might of the Maharashtra state government.

What does it say about Indian secularism that our country's most famous Muslim should find, in the twilight of his life, that he is still regarded with suspicion by an important section of our country? What must it be like for a dignified Muslims of the old school who bought Nehru's dream of a secular, progressive India to live in a Bombay that is now run by the goondas of the Shiv Sena? And how humiliating must it be for Dilip Kumar to go to Atal Bihari Vajpayee and say, "Sir, I will do whatever you want."?

It is to Vajpayee's credit that he has told Dilip Kumar to ignore Thackeray and to follow his own conscience. But the episode -- as indeed, the manner in which Dilip Kumar has been made to pay for being a Muslim throughout his life -- shames us all as Indians.

If this is how we treat Dilip Kumar, who in the world will believe us when we say that we treat our Muslims well?
--

2.5 million join Bangladesh Muslim festival - AFP

2.5 million join Bangladesh Muslim festival

(AFP) – 5 hours ago

TONGI, Bangladesh — At least 2.5 million Muslims joined prayers on Sunday near the Bangladeshi capital as part of the second largest annual Islamic festival after the Hajj to Mecca, officials said.

The normally congested streets of Dhaka were empty as devotees left work to gather on the banks of the river Turag for the end of the first phase of the Biswa Ijtema, or World Muslim Congregation.

The gathering, at which Muslims pray and listen to religious scholars, was first held in the 1960s at Tongi, some 30 kilometres (18 miles) north of Dhaka.

Dressed in traditional Islamic robes and caps, devotees set up prayer mats beneath a canopy stretching more than a kilometre while hundreds of thousands of people filled the open space available for the final prayer.

District police chief Mahfuzul Haq Nuruzzaman said at least 2.5 million devotees including thousands of foreigners attended a last prayer session lasting 20 minutes and led by a cleric from New Delhi.

"Devotees have filled up every space found on the roads, rooftops, boats and buses," Nuruzzaman said, adding the Bangladesh president and the prime minister joined prayers capping the three-day long first phase of the festival.

Bangladesh is the world's third-largest Muslim-majority nation, with Muslims making up nearly 90 percent of its 146 million population.

Launched by Tablig Jamaat, a non-political group that urges people to follow the tenets of Islam in their daily lives, the event is second biggest global gathering of Muslims.

Gazi Mohammad Sanaullah, who edits a special bulletin on the congregation, said the organisers are holding the prayer meeting in two phases to accomodate more devotees some of whom travel from remote villages.

The three-day long second phase will start on January 28.

Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved. More »

Of a massacre untold By A. G. Noorani - Frontline Magazine -India

http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1805/18051130.htm

Volume 18 - Issue 05, Mar. 03 - 16, 2001

Frontline: India's National Magazine
From the publishers of The Hindu

 

ANALYSIS

 

Of a massacre untold 

 
A revealing account surfaces of happenings in Hyderabad state in the wake of the Indian Army's 'Police Action' there in 1948.

A. G. NOORANI

"AT times one has to close his (sic) eyes in national interest." The "senior police officer" who made this confession to The Indian Express, in Srinagar on February 17, provided a truthful explanation for the compromises which sections of the media and academia tend to make in the "national interest".

The officer was speaking of the volte-face his chief, A.K. Suri, had performed with regard to the disclosure of the arrest by the police of a man from Military Intelligence, in plain clothes, for firing wantonly on a group of youngsters in Maisuma, in Srinagar. But, let alone matters of immediate occurrence or issues of current interest such as Kashmir and the border dispute with China, even on historical events one finds a practice of economising with truth.

That K.M. Munshi, India's Agent-General in the erstwhile state of Hyderabad, did not mention in his memoirs The End of an Era (1957) the massacre of Muslims in many areas in the wake of the Indian Army's "Police Action" in September 1948 -- itself a compromise with the truth -- was but to be expected in view of his outlook. Not so its omission in standard works by writers who aspired to scholarly values and who were not communal; only "patriotic" in a perverted but familiar manner. A rare exception was the book by Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader P. Sundarayya, Telengana People's Struggle and its Lessons (1972). He wrote of the "untold miseries" that were inflicted on "the ordinary Muslim people" (pages 88-89).

Suppression of records is not only unethical but futile. More often than not, the foreign scholar will unearth it from archives in London or Washington, or in India itself. A German scholar has done just that. Margrit Pernau records in her book The Pa ssing of Patrimonalism that "while the occupation by the Indian army had been quick and had caused only relatively few casualties, the following communal carnage was all the more terrible. The Razakars had sown wind and reaped not only storm but a hu rricane which in a few days cost the lives of one-tenth to one-fifth of the male Muslim populationprimarily in the countryside and provincial towers". (page 336, emphasis added, throughout. See review on page 75).

Professor Wilfred Cantwell Smith, a scholar on Islam and a critic of Jinnah's politics, wrote a seminal article in the periodical The Middle East Journal in 1950 (Volume 4) titled Hyderabad: A Muslim Tragedy. He was Lecturer in Islamic History at the University of the Punjab and at the Forman Christian College, Lahore (1940-1946) and visited Hyderabad in 1949. In a critique of the Nizam's policies and of Qasim Razvi, the leader of the Razakars, he also fairly described the aftermath.

"Off the battlefield, however, the Muslim community fell before a massive and brutal blow, the devastation of which left those who did survive reeling in bewildered fear. Thousands upon thousands were slaughtered; many hundreds of thousands uprooted. The instrument of their disaster was, of course, vengeance. Particularly in the Marathwara section of the state, and to a less but still terrible extent in most other areas, the story of the days after 'police action' is grim.

"The only careful report on what happened in this period was made a few months later by investigators - including a Congress Muslim and a sympathetic and admired Hindu -- commissioned by the Indian Government to study the situation. The report was submitted but has not been published; presumably it makes unpleasant reading. It is widely held that the figure mentioned therein for the number of Muslims massacred is 50,000. Other estimates by responsible observers run as high as 200,000, and by some of the Muslims themselves still higher. The lowest estimates, even those offered privately by apologists of the military government, came to at least ten times the number of murders with which previously the Razakars were officially accused... In some areas, all the men were stood in a line, and done to death. Of the total Muslim community in Hyderabad, it would seem that somewhere betweenone in ten and one in five of the adult males may have lost their lives in those few days. In addition to killing, there was widespread rape, arson, looting, and expropriation. A very large percentage of the entire Muslim population of the Districts fled in destitution to the capital or other cities; and later efforts to repatriate them met with scant s uccess." He was referring to a report by Pandit Sundarlal (1886-1980) and Kazi Muhammad Abdul Ghaffar (1889-1956).

In 1988, Omar Khalidi, a devoted chronicler of Hyderabad, published what he claimed were extracts from their Report in his compilation of essays,Hyderabad: After the Fall (Hyderabad Historical Society; Wichita, Kansas; U.S.). His introduction to the extracts, though informative, is marred by inaccuracies and intemperate language. He had relied, somewhat uncritically, on an interview with Yunus Salim who claimed inaccurately, that he was a member of the team led by Sundarlal which toured Hyderaba d in November-December 1948. 

A 32-year-old State attorney then, he was dismissed from the post for having helped the team.

Yunus Salim was a Deputy Minister for Railways in Indira Gandhi's government (1969) and a Governor of Bihar in 1991. Garbled versions of the Report appeared in Pakistan. Khalidi writes: "In addition to the copy in the Union Home Ministry, Srinivas Lahoti , a Communist Party of India leader in Hyderabad, owned a copy. In an interview in February 1988 he claims to have deposited it with the National Archives of India, New Delhi upon his party's instruction. The present writer obtained fragments of the Report (which is partly in English and partly in Urdu) from owners who wish to remain anonymous. The portion in English is being reproduced without any alteration. The Urdu portion is translated into English."

Khalidi was misled. The entire document is in English and the "fragments" he reproduces should have put him on notice that it is not safe to rely on them. The brief Introductory portion is intrinsically unreliable. The rest is a village-wise and d istrict-wise account.

Union Home Minister Vallabhbhai Patel reacted angrily to the Report in a letter to Abdul Ghaffar dated January 4, 1949:

"I notice that in your report you mentioned that you were asked by the Government of India to proceed to Hyderabad State on a goodwill mission. At least I am not aware of any such mission having been entrusted to you by the Government of India. As far as I know, you wanted to go there and it was arranged that you should go there at Government expense. There could have been no question of Government of India sending any goodwill mission to Hyderabad State.

"I notice that your report is and your activities were, restricted to making inquiries about what happened during and after the police action. There is nothing in it about the extent and consequences of Razakar atrocities. Probably that was out of the terms of reference which you had set for yourselves. At the same time, you have covered in your reports matters which could by no stretch of imagination, have formed the purview of your enquiry. I should also like to say at once that the detailed inquiries which have been made by the local administration over a fairly long period as opposed to the roving enquiries which you have made during such a short period show that your estimate and your appreciation of the position lack balance and proportion . Finally you have rushed into a sphere which might have been more appropriately left to be covered by experienced statesmanship and administrative ability."

The assertions were simply untrue and the aspersions were unworthy of Sardar Patel. In those days nobody could have toured the State without official approval. That the team went there admittedly "at government expense" revealed a lot. And, as we know "experienced statesmanship and administrative ability" do not guarantee impartiality in inquiries. The report censured the Razakars and was balanced.

Kazi Abdul Ghaffar was a bitter critic of Razvi's Majlis-e Ittihadul-Muslimin and was trusted by the State Congress. He was editor of Firangi Mahal's Khilafatist paper Akhuwat (1919-20) and of Payam (1934-46) and was respected as a scholar- journalist. He visited Hyderabad in October along with Padmaja Naidu and alerted Maulana Abul Kalam Azad to the happenings there. Pandit Sundarlal was vice-president of the United Provinces Congress (1931-36) and as president of the All-India Peace Council (1959-63), urged rapprochement with China against the majority view of the times.

His magnum opus, The Gita and The Quran, is a neglected work. An English translation was published in 1957 by the Institute of Indo-Middle East Cultural Studies, Hyderabad. Neglected also is Volume 8 (second series) of Selected Works of Jawahar lal Nehru (1990) (pages 102-113).

In a Note to Sardar Patel's Ministry of States, dated November 14, 1948, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, while denying Pakistan's propaganda, wrote: "I have recently had talks with Kazi Abdul Ghaffar and Miss Padmaja Naidu, who have just returned from Hyderabad. They are both reliable observers... The impression I have gathered from these talks is that while our army is generally believed to have functioned well and to have protected the people, there is little doubt that a very large number of outbreaks took place in the small towns and villages resulting in the massacre of possibly some thousands of Muslims by Hindus, as well as a great deal of looting, etc... This information is contrary to what I had believed and I should like it to be verified through our military and civil authorities in Hyderabad. We must know the truth, or else we shall be caught saying things which are proved to be false later." It is unlikely that those reports did not reach the ears of the Minister concerned, Vallabhbhai Patel.

Even men like Dr. Zakir Hussain's brother, the academic Dr. Yusuf Husain Khan, and Dr. M. A. Ansari's nephew, M.A. Ansari, a High Court Judge, were "removed from their post", Nehru complained. He added: "One of the persistent charges made is that we intend to kill what is called Muslim culture. Hyderabad is known all over the Middle East as a city of Muslim culture. The Osmania University is well known and even better known is the publication department and the translation bureau of the State."

With a letter to V.P. Menon, the secretary of the Ministry, dated November 26, 1946, Nehru enclosed a note on the situation in Hyderabad and remarked: "If possible, some good non-officials should go there to help the administration and to try to produce a better frame of mind both among the Muslims and the Hindus."

The editor to the volume recorded: "A four-man goodwill mission, consisting of Kazi Abdul Ghaffar, Pandit Sundarlal, Moulana Abdulla Misri and Furrukh Sayer Shakeri, was sent to Hyderabad at the personal instance of Nehru to study existing conditions and to help in the establishments of communal harmony. After a brief visit to Bidar and Osmanabad districts by Major-General Chaudhury, Pandit Sundarlal, Akbar Ali Khan and Fareed Mirza, two teams, one consisting of Pandit Sundarlal, Kazi Abdul Ghaffar, Mulla Abdul Basith and Mohammed Yunus Saleem had toured Bidar, Osmanabad and Nanded while the other consisting of Moulana Abdulla Misri, Furrukh Sayer and Fareed Mirza visited Aurangabad, Bhir and Gulbarga. They took stock of the information collected and s ent a report to Vallabhbhai Patel."

All of which shows Sardar Patel's repudiation of the officially sponsored team to be less than honest. Nehru's note cited "additional reports from Hyderabad" about the killing and looting. It said: "If there is even a fraction of truth in these reports, then the situation in Hyderabad was much worse than we had been led to believe. It is important that the exact facts should be placed before us. We want no optimistic account and no suppression of unsavoury episodes. That would lead us to form incorrect judgments... A sense of fear seems to pervade the Muslims of Hyderabad. That is perhaps natural after all that has happened. But unless we can lessen this fear, the situation will become worse."

Dr. Charan Sandhilya, Director of Pandit Sundarlal Institute of Asian Studies at Ghaziabad obtained for this writer a copy of the full text of the Sundarlal Report from the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi (excerpts on facing page). It records official sponsorship and reflects their objectivity in denouncing the Razakars' murderous attacks on Hindus, in praising officials where praise was due, yet never flinching from telling the terrible truth about the massacre of Muslims. This is a truth which hardly any Indian scholar has deigned to admit this day.

The Sundarlal Report is of more than historical importance; it is of current relevance, for the massacres, coupled with the national indifference to them, have left scars in the minds of Muslims in the State, Hyderabad city in particular. And some Muslim communal parties have not been slow to exploit these scars.

Copyrights © 2001, Frontline.

Bombay Stock Exchange's Sharia Index - 'The ethical investor' - By Supriya Nair - WWW.Livemint.com

http://www.livemint.com/2011/01/21202611/The-ethical-investor.html

WWW.livemint.com

• Posted: Fri, Jan 21 2011. 8:26 PM IST

The ethical investor

Will BSE’s Shariah index attract more observant and curious investors? We met the people behind the index to find out

Supriya Nair

On Mumbai’s bustling Cadell Road you could walk past the office of Taqwaa Advisory and Shariah Investment Solutions (P) Ltd (Tasis) without noticing it. A low-key signboard in a row of other businesses, typical of old-fashioned office blocks all over the island city, is all that announces their existence.

Money speaks: The Bombay Stock Exchange;Photo by Kuni Takahashi/Bloomberg

 

It’s a far cry from the behemoth of Dalal Street, but Tasis’ subdued presence belies the significance of its recent collaboration with the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). In December, they launched the BSE TASIS Shariah 50 Index, which lists the largest Shariah-compliant stocks within the BSE 500.

 It isn’t the first such index in the country. The National Stock Exchange already compiles a list of Shariah-compliant stocks. But it is the first that is based on the stipulations of a wholly India-based Shariah board. The architects of the BSE Shariah 50 are counting on a new wave of attention that they hope will transform the landscape for observant Muslims, as well as investors concerned with social responsibility.

“The notion of Shariah compliance has been around for 1,400 years,” says Jamil Ahmed Shaikh, director of Tasis. “In India, you could date the practice of Islamic banking to the late 1970s when small groups of Muslims in north India and in Mumbai started cooperative societies and chit funds.” But the effects were marginal, he says, and remained so until recently. “Over the last decade, people started to look at it as a way of alternate finance, and there’s more enthusiasm than ever after the subprime crisis (of 2008).” He smiles, “Once you get stuck in one area, you start to look for others.”

So what does a Shariah index do? Broadly speaking, it offers you the chance to invest only in companies that comply with the ethical practices mandated by Islamic law. This means that investing in certain entertainment companies, the hotel and food industries, and companies related to liquor, tobacco and weapons, is prohibited. So is banking, because charging interest is not permissible in Shariah practice, and neither is the accumulation of debt.

But screening out businesses is just one half of the job. The financial equations involved are more complex. To put the index together, Tasis gathered data on Indian market patterns for a decade. They put these forward to their Shariah board, whose muftis considered the data and decided on the nitty-gritty of permissible financial limits. These parameters include debt-to-equity ratio (25%) and interest-to-total-income (3%).

“We look at what average industry rates are, and based on that we ask what our rates should be,” Shaikh explains. “Essentially, these are compromises with the zero-interest requirement, but the rationale was to come to a consensus about these rates.”

In the absence of a consensus, investors and advisers have often set their own parameters. This has always meant factoring in geographical and cultural differences. BSE and Tasis say that having a domestic, India-based Shariah advisory board factors in unprecedented local expertise, as well as a reliable authority, whose guidelines will be well-recognized.

“What works for Saudi Arabia or Dubai does not necessarily apply in India,” Shaikh says. “The market here is different—and potentially big. Even with our conservative screening, we are left with about 1,100 Shariah-compliant scrips in India. That’s more than all the scrips—including non-compliant ones—available in all the Arab world put together.”

Given the strictness of their screening, the BSE TASIS Shariah 50 has conservative standards compared with other Shariah advisory boards in the world, says Shaikh. But the BSE says it’s exactly what the country needs to encourage inclusive growth. “Islamic investors in India and abroad have been hesitant to invest in the market,” says James Shapiro, head, market development, BSE. “But this index provides investors, regardless of faith, with what is, in a broader sense, a socially responsible index.”

There is an interesting clause there. Ashraf Mohamedy, of Mumbai-based Idafa Investments, says non-Muslims have traditionally been responsible for the biggest chunk of Shariah-compliant investments. “The biggest investors in Taurus Ethical Fund and Tata Select Equity Fund (both equity funds that take Shariah compliance into account) are Jains who look for ethical avenues of investment. The fund managers have left out processed food and leather industries, which makes it compliant for observant Jains. It’s social engineering at its best.” Idafa’s own non-Muslim clients “have no problem” with eliminating tobacco, alcohol and banking stocks from their portfolios, he says.

BSE thinks the Shariah index will encourage first-time investors unsure about how their investments tally with their religious beliefs. Three weeks in, the response has been “overwhelmingly positive”, Shapiro says. People from around India and the world “approach us asking for information and instructions on how to use the index. We expect that investment vehicles like exchange-traded funds and mutual funds will be available in the market soon, given the strong demand we’ve seen for these.”

“The news of the Shariah index itself should attract curious investors,” Mohamedy says. “With the BSE’s history and visibility, it means a much increased level of confidence.”

Forty-year-old Sikandar Munshi, who owns a medical store on the Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road, says he began to invest in the market three years ago. “The market’s ups and downs made me think, and after I asked around, I decided to invest as per the Islamic ways,” he says. Strict requirements for debt freedom and sustainable growth reduce risks significantly in Shariah-compliant investment. “There are probably other people who may not even be aware that it’s possible to do so. The Shariah index will give them a chance to think about it.”

Number Game

The BSE TASIS Shariah 50 at a glance:

•The Shariah norms utilized by Tasis are more conservative than those of other Shariah advisory boards

• The Shariah 50 employs stock-level capping as an embedded risk-management feature, ensuring that no constituent has more than 10% weight in the index at any time

• It is the only Shariah index in India to be disseminated in real time to investors with values publicly available on the BSE website during the day

• The Shariah 50 is reviewed monthly, and non-compliant stocks eliminated from the index. Reconsideration for the index is reviewed on a quarterly basis.

supriya.n@livemint.com

Blast accused helped Swami soften stand By Mohammed Wajihuddin, TNN, - THE TIMES OF INDIA, Mumbai

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Blast-accused-helped-Swami-soften-stand/articleshow/7330067.cms

Blast accused helped Swami soften stand

Mohammed Wajihuddin, TNN,

Jan 21, 2011, 03.04am IST

MUMBAI: The credit for RSS activist Swami Aseemanand's change of heart, according to his confession, goes to 21-year-old Sheikh Mohammed Kaleem, an accused in the May 18, 2007, Hyderabad's Mecca Masjid blast. Kaleem, who is out on bail, addressed a rally against "sanghi (saffron)" terror at Azad Maidan on Thursday.

The swarthy, bespectacled boy, who was showered with praise and hailed as a model by members of over a dozen Muslim NGOs attending the rally, kept his speech short.

Speaking in typical Hyderabadi Urdu, he recalled many meetings with Aseemanand in Hyderaba's Chanchalguda jail. " One day the jail warden told Aseemanandji that I had already spent 18 months in jail for the Mecca Masjid blast. Aseemanandji, for whom I brought water and food, would ask me questions about Islam."

Among the several teachings of Prophet Mohammed, according to Kaleem, the one which touched Assemanand was the spirit of tolerance the Prophet had showed at Taif, a place near Mecca. Legend has it that when the Prophet reached Taif with the message of monotheism, he was stoned by the pre-Islamic pagan tribe living there. As the Prophet started bleeding profusely, angel Jibreel (Gabriel) came and told Mohammed that, if the Prophet said yes, God would crush the people who had stoned him between two mountains. But the Prophet forgave his tormentors, prayed for them, hoping that truth would prevail one day. "This story had a great impact on Aseemanandji," said Kaleem who also recounted his torture in police custody.

Hyderabad-based advocate Ahmadullah Khan who had fought the case of several accused of the Mecca Masjid blast, including Kaleem, was all praise for the boy: "His good conduct changed the heart of Aseemanand. I know how his family has suffered over the last many years. Now the agencies should admit their mistakes and release all those, including the accused in Malegaon blasts of 2006, currently in prison," demanded Khan who, like most speakers at the rally, alleged persecution of Muslims by the investigating agencies. Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Asim Azmi threatened that Muslims would launch a jail bharo andolan if their boys languishing jails on "false" charges of terror were not let off.

Read more: Blast accused helped Swami soften stand - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Blast-accused-helped-Swami-soften-stand/articleshow/7330067.cms#ixzz1Be779b97

Plea to increase welfare budget, scholarships for Muslims in 12th Plan - By Pervez Bari, ummid.com

http://www.ummid.com/news/2011/January/20.01.2011/plea_to_increase_muslim_funds.htm

Plea to increase welfare budget, scholarships for Muslims in 12th Plan

Thursday January 20, 2011 04:05:16 PM,

By Pervez Bari, ummid.com

Maulana Mohammad Fazlurrahim Mujaddidi making presentation in the Planning Commission. Ms Syeda Hameed, member Planning Commission January 14. Related Article Consultation meet on 12th five year plan stresses on expectations of Muslims The disparity in the allocation of funds for Muslims in the next Five Year Plan should go. The priority should be on   » ‘Give the Indian Muslims ten years of peace’ Inquilab 1857 to Sacchar Report: Nothing changed for the Indian Muslims New Delhi: The pathetic plight of Indian Muslims and their woes were narrated, discussed and debated before the Planning Commission members by more than two dozen community leaders, grass root activists, academicians, intellectuals and journalists drawn from all over the country to impress upon them the need to analyze the present condition of the community and suggested multi-level measures to improve it. The National Consultation was held under ”Aspirations and Expectations of the Muslim Community from the Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012-2017)” at Yojana Bhavan, the headquarters of the Planning Commission of India in New Delhi, on Friday last.   Led by the Planning Commission member Dr. (Ms) Syeda Saiyidain Hameed along with other members heard with rapt attention to the delegates who pin-pointed the shortcomings and lacunae in the government’s policies and schemes coupled with discrimination and biases towards the Muslims resulting in the socio-economic conditions of the community tumbling down and getting buried fathom deep. The other members of the Planning Commission who attended the consultation included: Mr. B. K. Chaturvedi, IAS (Rtd.); Mr. Saumitra Chaudhuri and Prof. Abhijit Sen. Other officials present on the occasion were Ms. Vandana Jena, Sr. Adviser (WC/VAC/HH) and Mr. A. Joshi, Director Finance Planning in Ministry of Minority Affairs. While giving specific suggestions the delegates highlighted Muslims’ feeling of insecurity, lack of education, inadequate health services & civic amenities, lack of women empowerment, non-grant of bank loans & financial assistance, lack of scientific temper, profiling, monitoring of government schemes etc. Jamea-tul-Hidaya, Jaipur, and ANHAD, (Act Now for Harmony and Democracy), did all the spade work to hold the said consultation with the Planning Commission. Ms Shabnam Hashmi of ANHAD conducted the proceedings with aplomb. In the end responding to the day-long deliberations Ms Syeda Hameed said her endeavour would be, along with other members of the Planning Commission, to see that the schemes formulated to uplift Muslim community from the morass of illiteracy and poverty get the maximum thrust. She said that the Planning Commission would try to ensure that the schemes are designed in a such manner that they are not derailed by the government of any “colour” that may come to power at the Centre later on. Dr. (Ms) Syeda said that there was a wide spectrum of issues touched during the day which shall be encapsulated into action with schemes that are efficacious and serve the Muslim community. She moaned that Muslims at present feel alienated, besieged and marginalized. First the Approach Paper of the 12th Plan would be prepared which would reflect whatever has been discussed throughout the day, she added. Dr. M. Hamidullah Bhat, Director, NCPUL, (National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language), under the Ministry of Human Resource Development, said that the Approach Paper to be prepared by the Planning Commission should have: (i) Non-clubbing of Muslims data with other Minorities. It should say openly Muslim aggregated data; (ii) Not say Minority but Muslim Concentrated District and (iii) the funding of schemes should be 100 per cent by the Central Govt. – Not 2/3rd by the Centre and 1/3rd by the states. Dr. Bhat wanted that every Muslim artisan should be transformed into an entrepreneur so as to stand on his feet economically. He expressed grave concern over the shrinking base of Urdu language which is a colossal cultural loss. He wanted the state governments to be told to remain committed to three-language formula in school education. Maulana Mohammed Fazlurrahim Mujaddidi, Rector of Jamea-tul-Hidaya, who was the main spirit behind the said consultation along with Ms Shabnam Hashmi, initiated the discussion with his Power Point presentation on the plight of Muslims vis-à-vis SC/ST and the Central Government’s dispensation towards it. He said the issues involved are: Backwardness of Muslims is area based; No infrastructural development in Ghettos; when Muslim Concentration increases, their performance decreases and Educational Backwardness the 2nd top most issue. Maulana Mujaddidi, who is also a member of the Consultative Group for Empowerment of Minorities, Planning Commission of India, said after the sense of insecurity the community is frustrated and does not know when, how and whom to approach for redressal of their long unending grievances. The Government knows nothing about the community issues, requirements, priorities and temperament etc. The welfare schemes are creating further confusion and frustration in the community. The examples are Scholarship Scheme and MCDDP (Minority Concentrated District Development Plan). The Maulana lamented that the 11th Five Year Plan has been a mixed reaction of expectations & set-backs. There were two flagship Welfare Schemes that were introduced in the 11th Plan viz. Scholarship and MCD (Minority Concentrated District Development Plan). He said the requirement of Pre-Matric and Post-Matric Scholarships were: MMA (Ministry of Minority Affairs) target (2010-11) Total = 17,50,200 of which Pre-Matric = 14,58,500 and Post-Matric = 2,91,700. While estimated (2010) Muslim children under 6-14 years are 1.73 crores, which falls under the norms of MMA and 1.08 Crores falling under Poverty Line. In the MCD (Minority Concentrated District) Development Plan the funds were utilized for district development of the selected districts (not to be focused on minorities). The major funds were utilized for IAY (Indira Awas Yojna), he pointed out. With the help of graphs Maulana Mujaddidi, who is associated with a host of organizations in various capacity, exhibited the disparity in community development between Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes and Muslims. The allocation of budget to the communities’ development and subsequent increase in the years 2009 and 2010 are shown in the graphs as under :-   Seeing the graph it can be grasped easily that even the increase in the budget allocations of SCs & STs is much more than that of the actual budget of the Minorities, he asserted. As regards the expectations from the 12th Plan, the Maulana made a passionate plea to Increase the Welfare Budget at least 10 times. In the 11th Plan it was Rs. 7,000 crores which should now be enhanced to at least Rs. 70,000 crores. He pleaded to give top most priority to education with 75 per cent of total allocated budget. All Scholarship Scheme norms should be at par with SCs/STs Scholarship norms, he demanded. The Minority Ministry should concentrate on schemes related to minorities only, he urged. He further demanded that in the next Plan the domain of New 15-point programme be increased with inclusion of urban welfare schemes also. He urged to ensure Minority Community participation in PPP projects; take-up MCT, (Minorities Concentrated Towns), in the 12th Plan; Cut-off population percentage should be reduced to 15 per cent from the present 25 per cent; to build two residential Schools in each MCT along with Hostel and involve the Muslim community at every level. Meanwhile, the Maulana at the conclusion of the consultation while thanking the Planning Commission members for giving a patient hearing to the Muslims’ problems and their solutions broke down and in a choking voice said: ” I have not been able to sleep for three nights pondering over the community’s state to which it has been reduced in the last six decades after Independence”. The emotional words of the Maulana made tears well up in the eyes of many who were present on the occasion. Continuing further the Maulana said: ” I humbly request you all to formulate welfare schemes with guidelines in such a manner that forces hostile to Muslims are not able to subvert these in any way in times to come”. Noted social activist Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer, who is chairman, Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, Mumbai, moaned that Equal Opportunity Commission which was envisaged in the Sachchar Committee Report has not seen the light of the day yet as no discussion on it has been held. He demanded constitution of the Commission soon as it will benefit Muslims and other marginalized communities too. He said that mostly Muslims are self-employed and are artisans in different trades. These artisans should be helped financially and provided trainings in newly opened ITIs and polytechnics to hone their skills. He emphasized that three reports viz. Gopal Singh, Justice Sachchar Committee and that of Justice Ranganath Mishra should been seen together in totality to frame policies and schemes for the betterment of the Muslim community. Another noted social activist Prof. Ram Puniyani, an outspoken intellectual against communalism, said that delivery system is not very sensitive due to some deep-rooted misconception about Muslims with the result that the community is isolated and insulated from the mainstream. He wanted that the official machinery should be sensitized so that the underline current of biases which continue against Muslims do not come up at crunch time. Mr. Gagan Sethi, a Human Rights activist, said the mind set of Muslims should be changed from the Minority community to the second largest Majority community. At the ethos level the Planning Commission should work for this. With reference to 2002 carnage, he pointed out that Gujarat is happening in every state, though it may not be violent at that scale but arm-twisting is going on away from the glare of media, government and others. If the Planning Commission does not intervene and save the situation then Muslims would be doomed, Mr. Sethi bemoaned. Mr. Zaheeruddin Ali Khan, a social activist and Managing Editor of “Siasat” newspaper which is published simultaneously from Hyderabad and Bangalore, made a Power Point presentation highlighting the power of media in bring about a social change in Muslims in Hyderabad and its surroundings. He said “Siasat” was launched on 15th August 1949 – the third Independence Day with the primary objective of promoting nationalist spirit among the people and lessening the social, communal and political tensions, so as to rebuild a healthy atmosphere enabling the people of Hyderabad to join the national mainstream and strive for national development. Quoting a proverb “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”, he said: “ We did more than 30 different projects for the community development in a span of 13 years because we believe it’s our duty to give back something to the community, society & the nation. He said the simple process involved were :Identifying the needs; Creating awareness through our newspaper; Pooling of resources; Personal involvement; Making all arrangements; Voluntary participation and Feedback. Mr. Zaheer said: “The difference we experienced for better life style was communal harmony, high earnings, more exposure, higher qualification, women empowerment, self-sufficiency, financially sound, positive mindset, better employment and last but not the least increase in confidence level. He questioned what does it all mean? This means Media is the biggest social change agent while yet a lot of change is needed; making Media mightier than money! Mr. Azam Khan, another social activist from Hyderabad, made a fervent appeal that there should be no cap on the number of scholarships granted to minorities, especially Muslims by the Central Government. He said the Minority Scholarship Scheme will only be effective and result oriented, when its norms are at par with the scholarships for students belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, which are Centrally-sponsored and available throughout the year. Meanwhile, at the outset Ms Shabnam Hashmi, while welcoming the delegates, she stressed the need to think much deeper and engage deeper with Muslims so that they do not feel besieged and second class citizens. The need of the hour is to reach out to the Muslim community so that they do not feel alienated and thereby they change their mind set to contribute their mite in the development of the country. Ms Hashmi also emphasized that the government and other agencies dealing with Muslim affairs should not interact only with the conservative elements in the Muslim community, as has been the practice so far, but try to know the point of view of other sections of the community too as the community is not monolithic. Ms Farah Naqvi, a social activist and National Advisory Council, (NAC), member, strongly pleaded for an anti-discriminatory legislation to help out not only Muslims but Dalits, OBCs and other marginalized people who are victims of discrimination and bias of the bureaucracy sitting in the government of the day apart from untouchability by certain political outfits. She was of the view that just constituting the Equal Opportunity Commission is not going to solve the problems of all the deprived people who stand on the same side. Ms Naqvi said there is a yawning gap between the government and the Muslims due to hostile and biased system in the last 60 years of utter neglect. In the last four years, when Sachchar Committee Report came in 2006 and the same year the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs was formed, an effort is being made to undo the neglect and harm perpetrated on Muslims. This cannot be achieved in the traditional manner but there is an immediate need to move in “Fast Forward” mode and bridge the gap by officially having Muslims in the monitoring bodies for government welfare schemes. Mr. S. M. Hilal, a social activist, questioned as to why Census 2001 report, the best available authentic data, was ignored and why then Baseline survey, which is just a sample survey, was conducted to implement the recommendations of the Sachchar Committee report. He suggested establishment of monitoring cell in every ministry. He opined that Information System is directly proportional to Monitoring System. If the data is correct and monitoring is proper then any deviation coming into play at the time of implementation of schemes is immediately checked and the interests of the intended beneficiaries are not hurt, he remarked. Mr. Hilal pleaded for creating National Data Bank to collect data on various aspects through surveys on education, health, access to government, access to justice, situation of girls and women etc. He charged that the minority concentrated area are deliberately neglected by the implementing agencies. He said right from planning to implementation bureaucrats are involved. He alleged the community’s view-points and suggestions of Sachchar Committee were not taken into consideration before chalking out the MCD guidelines. Due to absence of minority community in the mechanism from planning to implementation, the community is helpless. In fact a strong political will at the top level is required for effective development of the schemes for Muslims. Therefore, the district development parameters of MCDs will never improve unless Muslim Minority concentrated areas under MCD are targeted for development, he maintained. Mr. Gauhar Raza, a Delhi-based noted scientist, leading Urdu poet, social activist and documentary film maker, emphatically talked about developing scientific temperament in Muslim students who have the aptitude to excel provided they are given a chance with financial support. He lamented that Muslims being repeatedly abused by the media and the government leads to a situation where scientific temperament cannot germinate in them. He said that there is an intense desire among Muslim students for science education in order to come into the mainstream but scientific temper is pushed away at the national level. He moaned that at the cost of Muslims other communities like Jains, Sikhs, Buddhists and Christians are thriving. He cautioned that if not checked then unemployed Muslim youths would be the highest by 2020 which would lead to all types of problems and violence cannot be ruled out. He suggested that there is an urgent need to stem the rot by just not providing financial help but special efforts made to inculcate scientific temperament in Muslim students and inspire them so that they are able to realize their dreams. In this government’s big institutions pursuing scientific studies can play a stellar role which would go a long way in nation building, he quipped.Ms. Tazaiyun Oomer, Member, Karnataka State Waqf Women’s Foundation, and Mrs. Ayesha Masood, Trustee of Isra Trust running Oasis International School, from Bangalore jointly made a Power Point presentation highlighting the woes of the Muslim community with many suggestions. They said low levels of education is impeding community development. However, there is a surge of interest in education within the community, especially in girls, by the women of the community. The community needs more schools/ colleges to progress. There is lot of interest to build schools/ colleges also within the community for which two types of assistance is required: (i) Land is not available near minority concentration areas, and/ or is hugely expensive. So, the Government must support to provide land in minority concentrated areas at subsidized rates or grants to credible educational institutions trust to build schools and (ii) Moreover, a scheme supporting minority institutions providing policy level support, easy processes and specific concessions to cater to educational development needs of the community. Another problem of the community, they pointed out, is the boarding & lodging of children from extremely poor families. Currently, many children from minority communities live in hostels, Madrasas & orphanages. The financial support from government is meagre and the process is very difficult. The Planning Commission, they said, can initiate a scheme whereby a fixed amount, say Rs. 650 per month can be paid as partial subsidy towards the boarding and lodging of children living in these institutions. The payment can be made directly to body managing lodging facility based on number of beneficiaries. On Women Empowerment front Ms. Tazaiyun Oomer and Mrs. Ayesha Masood suggested that Microfinance helps reaching credit for household and micro industry. “To help the poor escape from money lenders, through our NGO, we are providing interest free micro-credit loans to help more than 250 self-employed women following “Grameen” model. The corpus has been raised through donations while no support from the government.   They emphasized that the Government can partner with credible NGOs to provide grants for capacity building of NGOs & Beneficiaries, provide interest free long-term loans to on-lend through micro-credit and the Government can start Women’s Minorities Federation of SHGs to help women mobilize, give training & be a channel of funds. They emphatically stressed to stop giving sewing machines to women and urged instead to distribute computers to them to make them self-reliant. Ms Mantasha Bin Rashid from J & K, who is associated with ANHAD, explained through a Power Point presentation the current scenario in her state which is heart rending due to the ongoing conflict in the state. In the last two decades more than one lakh youth in the age group of 22-35 have been killed while the government accepts only 30-40,000 violent deaths have occurred. The conflict-related issues include rehabilitation of widows, half widows (whose husbands are missing) and orphans which are: a. Under NFBS (National Family Benefit Scheme) only a one-time grant of Rs. 10,000; b. Widow pension; c. There are no existing livelihood programmes for conflict victims, no programs for education of orphans and d. No monitoring programme. Ms Mantasha said that due to an unending violence in the state there are high prevalence of mental ailments with just one un-upgraded government psychiatric hospital in the valley. There are no counseling centers in the state and there is high tendency of suicides (especially in females) and thousands of PSTD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) cases. She said that there is no local Self-Government and as such : a. No Panchayati Raj elections for more than a decade now; b. The 73rd and 74th amendment are not incorporated in the state PRI Act; c. The superseding of Panchayat Bill (2005); d. There are no elected representatives in the District Planning and Development Boards and e. There is acute shortage of funds for development works at district and village level. They stressed that there is immediate need of funds along with evaluation and accountability as there are huge losses in corporations like a. Small Scale Industries; b. Industrial Development Corporation; c. Road transport; d. Handicraft; e. Agro-based industries and f. JK Minerals Corporation. There is very high prevalence of unemployment in the state as there are: (i) No industries/Service sector; No Tourism promotion; (ii). No entrepreneurship plans and small unit set-ups and (iii) There is total lack of awareness about the government’s existing schemes and their high manipulation. The duo said that in order to uplift Kashmiri Muslims, who are plagued by despondency due to ongoing conflict in the region, there is a tremendous need for: a. Awareness; b. Capacity building; c. Strengthening SWC and SHRC; d. Expedite implementation of RTI; e. Surveys, data collection for conflict-hit victims f. Mobile schools for nomadic ST’S; g. Camps for legal literacy, right entitlement and h. Accountability in the grants spend under special package and PM’s plan. Dr. Manzoor Ahmad from Lucknow, while emphasizing to tag education with employment, suggested to build separate hostels for boys and girls on the lines of Ambedkar Hostels in every city of the country. He said that it is an open secret that Muslims are not given rooms and houses on rent in cities in the prevailing vitiated atmosphere or due to exorbitant rents poor Muslim students are unable to afford it. The hostels, which may be named as Maulana Azad Hostels, will help poor Muslim students, especially those coming from the rural areas to cities to study. The hostels may be managed by local NGOs, he added. Mr. Ali Shareef & Mr. Mohammed Yousuf Kanni from Karnataka also presented a Power Point presentation putting their views and suggestions based on facts and figures. They pleaded for interest-free loans to the economically disadvantaged Muslims. They pointed out that the Planning Commission Report of the High Level Committee on Financial Sector Reforms headed by Mr. Raghuram Rajan which submitted in 2009 had recommended (page 72): – “measures be taken to permit the delivery of interest-free finance on a larger scale, including through the banking system”. The duo said that the Sachchar Committee report had stated that self-employed categories constituted about 61 per cent of the total Muslim workforce (73 per cent among women only). However, access to funds for the self-employed is a huge challenge. The plethora of loan-grant schemes available to enable financial access to minorities, however, actual implementation is far from satisfactory. They suggested that to overcome this the National and State Minority Development Corporations need to be financially strengthened. They also suggested to hold an annual competition at state/ central level wherein NGOs can be asked to submit proposals for minority development. After evaluation, the best initiatives can be chosen and partly funded by the government as a grant. The Maulana Azad Foundation can be made responsible for this, they added. Dr. Mohammad Iqbal Siddiqui from Rajasthan suggested to develop system of accountability for the police force and administration, reforms in the working of police force, transparency in recruitment and immediate compensation to victims for loss in communal riots. Mr. Navaid Hamid, General Secretary, Movement for Empowerment for Muslim Indians, (MOEMIN), and Member, National Integration Council based at Delhi, said if in three months time any state government fails to implement Central Government’s welfare schemes for minorities then NGOs should be given opportunity to fulfill the task. He said the development plans for areas of minorities concentration should be blocks and not districts. He wanted that 2000 primary schools be opened adjacent to Madarsas in Muslim dominated blocks and not districts.   While Mr. Anis Karim from Gujarat too suggested that if any state government does not implement Central Government’s welfare schemes for minorities then it should be penalized. As a punishment the state’s share from the revenues earned by the Central Government be cut from the Central taxes wherever applicable. This Bhopal-based journalist/writer who was also part of the discussions and sole representative from Madhya Pradesh said that there should be strict monitoring of the Government schemes with an element of reward and punishment for those responsible of implementing these.   As such those who implement the schemes in letter and spirit should be rewarded while others indulging in dereliction of duty must be taken to task and punished accordingly. It should be borne in mind that uplifting the Muslims will not only benefit the community but would be good for the country as it would gain to create a cadre of good citizens, he quipped. The funds should be granted to Minorities-run institutions only wherein 50 per cent students of minorities are enrolled. This will ensure Muslim-managed minorities educational institutions to come at par with others educationally. The grants should, however, include funds for purchasing land lands also as Muslims being poor usually lag behind on this front and, thus, are unable to derive benefits from various Central Government schemes. The agencies of these Central Government schemes as a pre-requisite demand ownership of land from the Muslims who apply for financial grants, then only the grants are sanctioned for building construction purposes and other infra structure development. This provision of having land ownership should be waived, he demanded. In the Central Government Scholarship schemes for Pre-Matric, Post-Matric and Merit-cum-Means for the Minorities the Application Forms should be simplified and reduced to 1-2 pages only; Domicile Certificate submission for students from Std. I to X be waived; submission of Minority Certificate also be waived etc. The authorities in the Central Government’s National Rural Health Mission, (NRHM), should see to it that there is no bias against the Unani doctors, who are mostly Muslims, appointed under AYUSH scheme. It should be ensured that the Unani doctors are appointed at par with the Ayurvedic and Homeopathy doctors, he urged. Others who put forth their views during the consultation included: Ms Nasreen Chaudhry (West Bengal), Ms Naghma Khaleeque (New Delhi), Prof. Biju Mathews (USA), Mr. Zakir Hussain (Mewat), Mr. Irshad Mirza Baig (Gujarat), Ms Naish Hasan (Bharat Muslim Mahila Andolan) and Ms Mubeshirah Qayoom Mir (J & K).  (pervezbari@eth.net)