ANNA HAZARE STEALS OPPOSITION BJP'S THUNDER - Ghulam Muhammed | Hazare's win is Opposition's loss By Anita Saluja

ANNA HAZARE STEALS OPPOSITION BJP'S THUNDER AND ROBS BJP'S LEVERAGE TO SETTLE WITH CONGRESS ON THE SLY!!!
Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai

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http://expressbuzz.com/nation/hazare%E2%80%99s-win-is-opposition%E2%80%99s-loss/264538.html

EXPRESSBUZ.COM

Hazare’s win is Opposition’s loss

Anita Saluja

First Published :

11 Apr 2011 02:43:42 AM IST

Last Updated :

NEW DELHI: Even as the Congress-led UPA government is trying to turn its defeat into victory after conceding the demands of social activist Anna Hazare, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promising that the Lok Pal Bill would be brought in the monsoon session of Parliament, it is the BJP-led Opposition that is shell-shocked.

The BJP-led the campaign against corruption on CWG, Adarsh Housing and 2G spectrum scams and forced the ouster of A Raja from the Union Cabinet, besides compelling the government to concede its demand for JPC. But this time round, it is Anna Hazare, who has hijacked the graft issue from them. Ironically, at the time when the BJP has announced an agitational programme against corruption from April 6 to June 15, staging nationwide rallies, it is Anna Hazare and his band of supporters, who walked-away with the credit.

While the government has buckled under pressure, the image of the Opposition has also taken a beating. What the Opposition could not achieve, the NGOs have accomplished, with the support of the media and the upsurge of the people.

“Hazare has been the catalyst of the campaign against corruption. He has supplemented our cause in a successful way,” remarked BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy. When asked whether Hazare can be another Jai Prakash Narayan to become the rallying point for the Opposition to launch another agitational movement, Rudy was unsure. “He has refused to be political,” he remarked. The Opposition, during the entire episode, was keeping a watch on the developments on the Anna Hazare front, with leaders like Uma Bharati appealing to him to allow political leaders with clean image to associate with the movement.

It is Anna Hazare and his band of social activists, who will now be known as crusaders against corruption, rather than the Opposition, which, on earlier occasions like JP Movement and during Bofors campaign led by V P Singh, had taken the lead to topple the Congress governments, during 1970s and late 1980s.

In fact, the Opposition, including the BJP and the JD (U), failed to take the initiative when Hazare’s representatives knocked at their doors. The NDA top-brass that included NDA working chairman L K Advani, NDA convener Sharad Yadav and Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj were approached on the Jan Lok Pal Bill.

At the meeting on February 10, Advani was very appreciative of the Bill and said that he would definitely take up this matter within the party. During their meeting on February 5, Sharad Yadav said that he would study the Jan Lok Pal Bill and revert. Similarly, when Sushma Swaraj was approached, she was very forthcoming and assured them that the party would explore the possibility of implementing it in the states in which BJP is in power. The BJP, she indicated, may also discuss Jan Lok Pal Bill in JPC and in Parliament. However, the BJP failed to raise the issue at all during the just-concluded Budget Session of Parliament, missing out an opportunity.

In fact, a senior NDA leader had his reservations over including Prime Minister in the ambit of Lok Pal. Prime Minister is a high institution that needs to be safeguarded. Otherwise, it would become vulnerable and open to vexatious litigation, he argued. He admitted that Jan Lok Pal Bill has some good features, which could be incorporated and he agreed on the need for an autonomous institution, just like the Supreme Court and the Election Commission.

With Hazare emerging victorious, the Opposition is left with little option but to hail him. The Lok Pal Bill has a history of 42 years. For the first time, it was presented during the Fourth Lok Sabha in 1968 and passed in 1969. However, with the dissolution of Lok Sabha, the Bill died a natural death. Again, it was revived in 1971, 1977, 1985, 1989, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2005 and 2008. The Lok Pal Bill, 2010, is pending with Select Committee.

Credit for bringing focus back on the Lok Pal Bill goes to Hazare, instead of the Opposition.

With Hazare succeeding to make the govt bow down to his demand, the Opposition, which was earlier hoping to encash the issue, is perplexed, not knowing how to react to the agreement reached out between the civil society and the government. They can only congratulate Anna Hazare.

Anna Hazare's Fast Track Democracy -

Saturday, April 09, 2011

Letter to the Editor

A wider perspective over Anna Hazare's movement could have Congress's Parliamentary Democracy pitting against Anna Hazare's 'FAST-TRACK' democracy; to achieve the same drastically positive results that liberalization has brought to Indian economy.

Now it is the turn of a paradigm change in India's political infrastructure so that fruits of liberalization could be distributed to the entire one billion people of India, rather than to the monopoly of a handful of politicians, bureaucrats and corporate giants, a new cabal of greedy oligarchs that with their rampant corruption have inflicted a permanent stranglehold on the future of India.

Anna Hazare, taking a cue from the people's revolutions raging in the Middle East, has chosen a very opportunate moment in India's history to initiate India's own people's revolution, focusing on the big ticket corruption that has deeply damaged the credibility of the ruling class to extract itself from the rut and give the people their due share in the future of India.

Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai

ghulammuhammed3@gmail.com

http://ghulammuhammed.blogspot.com  

Anna Hazare's fast against corruption strikes huge chord - NDTV.com

Tuesday, April 05, 2011

Anna Hazare could be the new V.P. Singh, out to force corruption charges against the Congress. People around the nation are waiting for a Messiah to deliver them from the corrupt oligarchy that is milking the nation in a most audacious way, complacent in the belief that nobody can touch them. This Age of Impunity has to end. Anna Hazare, who has been fighting state corruption all his life, could be the most acceptable public figure to take on the tin-pot politicians that have lost all credibility with the masses.

Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai

ghulammuhammed3@gmail.com

http://ghulammuhammed.blogspot.com  

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/anna-hazares-fast-against-corruption-strikes-huge-chord-96593

Anna Hazare's fast against corruption strikes huge chord

NDTV Correspondent, Updated: April 05, 2011 17:29 IST

New Delhi:  In cities across India, people are gathering to support activist Anna Hazare, who has begun a hunger strike in Delhi against corruption.

Young students, housewives and office executives grouped in cities like Mumbai and Hyderabad. Mr Hazare in Delhi first visited Mahatma Gandhi's memorial at Rajghat and then marched to Jantar Mantar accompanied by hundreds of supporters. School children waved the tricolour as he went by in an open jeep.

The Prime Minister had appealed to Mr Hazare to skip his fast. A press release from the Prime Minister's Office last night said the PM has tremendous respect for Mr Hazare and his mission.

What Mr Hazare is campaigning for is a comprehensive Lok Pal Bill. "The Prime Minister says we trust you (Hazare), we respect you. But, then why did the PM not sit with us even once after the meeting last month," Mr Hazare said.

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Story first published:

April 05, 2011 17:19 IST

The Other Side of The Divide - By Pragya Singh - Outlook Magazine | Muslim areas in Surat turn into insecurity zone, ghettoization continues - By Abdul Hafiz Lakhani - indianmuslimobserver.com

The spate of articles on Gujarat Muslims is a slap on the face of L.K. Advani, who in his Press Conference in Mumbai, with a panel of newspaper world's seniors like N. Ram and Kumar Ketkar attending, was able to parrot his lies with a straight face. He boasted about credibility and tolerance that was his supposed hallmark. Both were missing from his and his party's actions on the ground. Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?271161 gujarat: muslims One Side Of The Divide An Outlook investigation finds ‘Vibrant Gujarat’ has left the state’s Muslims in an economic ghetto By Pragya Singh Apoorva Salkade “I studied till Class 10 but had to quit as my family is poor.” Tehzeeb, Vendor, Ahmedabad “My father has allowed me to study, but I have been told I can only plan for marriage...a job is out of the question.” Asma Bano, student, Chhala village, Gandhinagar distt “Only I work among the family’s women. A Rs 10 annual wage hike is too little.” Sophia, home-based worker, Ahmedabad “I came from Patna two years ago. I’ve been here long enough to guide the new arrivals.” Mohd Naiyaz Alam, Mill worker, Surat Medina Warsi’s ageing husband isn’t employed, and for want of any other job, keeps accounts at the tea stall she runs in ‘Bombay Hotel’, a sprawling slum on Ahmedabad’s outskirts. You walk to this area through refuse and rubble. Only Muslims live here, in dwellings bereft of municipal attention. His dubious sinecure keeps Mr Warsi busy for perhaps half an hour a day—the tea stall makes slim profits, Rs 250 on a good day. Yet, visiting neighbours openly gawk at the sum—they earn much less stitching nighties for Re 1 apiece, embroidering shirt collars or rolling bidis. The Warsis’ income, though, isn’t enough to fix the man’s unknown ailment, the one that keeps him unemployed. Bombay Hotel is 25 minutes from the city’s upmarket western districts, dotted with thousands of ATMs, business centres and multiplexes, criss-crossed by the best metalled roads in the country. Originally built to house 20,000 people, it now accommodates 90,000 or more, swelling with the 2002 riot-affected and others who arrive looking for work. What they get though is denial. It took multiple years, petitions and court cases to get a primary school approved for the area. Residents wrote letters to authorities demanding a school. One was built, but too far for little children to walk to. Then it was demolished to build a new metro line. More petitions somehow got it rebuilt. There is still no bank or health clinic. Data Source: Sachar Report, 2006. Data Source: NSSO, 61st round Data Source: Likelihood of Muslim employment from multivariate analysis by Abusaleh Shariff, 2011 Data Sources: Abusaleh Shariff for IFPRI, 2010; Sachar Report, 2006 Data Source: IHDS survey, 2004-05. Data Source: RTIs filed in Gujarat; via JS Bandukwala Meanwhile, not too far away, shopping malls, markets, modern housing, factory and office buildings are thriving on entrepreneurship, said to be innate to the Gujaratis. Jobs are in abundance in ‘Vibrant Gujarat’, prompting the likes of the BJP’s L.K. Advani to say that Muslims are partaking in the state’s prosperity. This view is endorsed by big business’s support for Gujarat CM Narendra Modi. Successful Muslims are highlighted by the state’s ruling BJP. Why, some Muslim leaders have given a clarion cry, “Forget and move on”. This has led to much recrimination among the community. As Outlook’s on-ground reportage on the state of Muslims in Gujarat reveals, a climate of fear, segregation and neglect has taken root. Habib Mev, member of the municipal school board, Ahmedabad, lives half an hour from the Warsis in the ‘old city’. Here, Hindu and non-Hindu homes are strictly segregated. Nothing new, say locals, just set in stone post-2002. It’s the same in Juhapura, Ahmedabad’s other urban sprawl, home to 4,50,000 Muslims. It’s a place the Ahmedabadis openly describe as a “Muslim ghetto” or “mini-Pakistan”, a “dangerous place”. Mev is one of the people who helped Bombay Hotel get its first school. “Hurt by refused visas and with an eye on national politics, Modi is projecting himself as minority-friendly. People know better.” Dr J.S. Bandukwala, Retired professor “There are beautiful malls, bridges and flyovers —happiness is everywhere, but not in Gomti Nagar, not in Juhapura.” Hanif Lakdawala, Director, Sanchetan “Some say Muslims must move on, but what choice did they have? People accept their fate though they didn’t get justice.” Mallika Sarabhai, Danseuse, Theatre personality “Gujarat’s pseudo-religious sects are flourishing, industrial sops are snowballing and anti-Muslim sentiments spiralling.” Dr Sudarshan Iyengar, V-C, Gujarat Vidyapeeth “Gujarati businessmen are not guided by religion. There’s a huge labour shortage, and all hands need to be on deck.” Dinesh Awasthi, Director, EDI “The economic and social life of Gujarati Muslims is worse than in some least developed states. The reason is discrimination.” Abusaleh Sharif, Chief economist, NCAER After his other visitors leave, Mev says, “In Gujarat’s universities and schools, it is difficult to get Muslim children admitted.” Mev himself is educated, and appears successful. His office has a picture of him marching next to Sonia Gandhi at a rally.  But he is agitated by suggestions that his success is a sign that Gujarat is coming to terms with its communal past and embracing all—Hindus, Muslims, Christians—in the path to development. Two years ago, he says, he brought a nephew to a reputed school for admission and was told, “Ladka hai, Musalman hai, nahin milega.” Children enrol in primary school only to drop out soon. State figures reveal that while few Hindus finish school (41 per cent) even fewer Muslims and SC/STs reach matriculation—just 26 per cent. Data can conceal as much as reveal: a February speech by governor Kamla Beniwal highlighted the high ‘literacy’ among Muslims. True, but drop-out rates are also the highest, the same numbers show. Which makes one wonder, aren’t Muslims such as Mev an excellent foil to the squalor of Bombay Hotel or Juhapura? For a state growing at over 9 per cent, wouldn’t poorer Muslims naturally move up and out of poverty? Mev pulls out piles of documents from an almirah and displays his struggle—and eventual failure—to get a bank loan for a two-wheeler. “I purchased a scooter by borrowing from family and friends. This is how most non-Hindus get by, without state support,” he says. Across Ahmedabad, college girls and boys own demat accounts, living up to the famed dhando-mindedness of Gujaratis. Scores of cafes line roads, upmarket housing and business locations are ambitiously named ‘New York Trade Tower’, ‘Springdale Residency’, ‘Pacifica Companies’. Yet, many fear that despite the obvious successes—good road connectivity, near 100 per cent electrification, high economic growth, interested investors—Gujarat’s government has been picking low-hanging fruit, simply riding historical trends of high economic growth at the cost of the poor. Says Dr Sudarshan Iyengar, economist and vice-chancellor of Gujarat Vidyapeeth, one of the state’s oldest universities, run along Gandhian principles, “There is marginalisation, lack of equity...we are enjoying today at the cost of tomorrow.” It’s a contrast all too common across India: non-Hindus tend to live in relative deprivation; the poorer a state, the more pronounced is this trend. But in Gujarat, a wealthy state, the inconsistency is all the more baffling. Overall levels of hunger are on par with Bihar and Orissa (between 0.57-0.74 on the 0-1 Hunger Index). For Muslims, doubly deprived, the situation is worse. Urban poverty in Gujarat is 800 per cent higher among them than high-caste Hindus, and 50 per cent higher than among OBCs. Sure, Gujarat’s Muslims have higher income per head than many others in India, but it’s the wide gap between them and non-Muslims within the state that needs attention, say experts. Hanif Lakdawala, whose NGO Sanchetana runs community health programmes, says the state’s ‘Vibrant Gujarat’ propaganda has made things worse.  Development isn’t being equally distributed, and self-congratulation has dulled the weapons needed to deal with discrimination—like state intervention to support education, nutrition and employment. For instance, a scheme for minorities that would sponsor the education of around 60,000 minority students every year (including Christians, Sikhs and Parsis) has been turned down by the state government for three years now. Chained in A Muslim cycle shop in the Jamalpur area of Ahmedabad. (Photograph by Siddharaj) The issue is serious because Muslims clearly note events like Ahmedabad’s new rapid transport system bypassing Juhapura. They resent having to rely on interstate buses and the lack of schools or hospitals (though there are several police stations). It’s also serious because of how Gujarat’s economy works. While Hindu businessmen, for example, tend to be entrepreneurs, responsible for marketing their wares, Muslims tend to work as skilled or unskilled employees for them. Non-Muslims mostly work in higher-value-added industries—foundries, textile units etc. Muslims businesses tend to be home-based—making kites, brooms, bidis, agarbattis, rakhis, embroidery, zari work, apart from skilled work in manufacturing, rickshaw-pulling. It forms a pattern. “Across the state, to find work, Muslims have to step out of ‘their’ areas into Hindu settlements, but Hindus rarely need to go where the Muslims live. The social isolation implies an ultimate breakdown in business relations,” says Dr Shakeel Ahmad, general secretary, Forum for Democracy and Communal Amity (Gujarat). Some warn against an overly negative view of Gujarat’s development. The Gujarati penchant for success means he’s always short of workers in factories, foundries, farms and offices. “There is no caste, community or religion to the Gujarati business interests,” says Dinesh Awasthi, who heads EDI, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, located at Bhat in Gandhinagar, a 30-minute highway zip from Ahmedabad. After the 2011 ‘Vibrant Gujarat’ exposition, Modi announced MoUs worth $450 billion with global investors. Says Awasthi, “We expect a shortfall of 45 lakh workers if the current planned investments come to anything. Where is the room for ostracising non-Hindus in a state desperate for a skilled workforce?” But in a recent study, Dr Abusaleh Shariff, chief economist at ncaer in Delhi, also identified a less attractive change in employment patterns across the state. Fewer Muslims are working in manufacturing and organised industry—exactly the opposite of several other large states. “Gujarati Muslims are involved in informal trade or they are self-employed—running food stalls etc, or they pull rickshaws, do manual labour. What other than active discrimination explains this trend in a state that signs MoUs worth billions for modern industrial projects? The rich-poor disparity is, relatively speaking, far greater here,” says Dr Shariff. In Baroda, a two-and-a-half hour drive from Ahmedabad, Dr J.S. Bandukwala says the idea that Muslims will prosper through Gujarat’s industrial development is a myth—“high-end industries rarely employ poor, lesser-educated people”.  Bandukwala belongs to a prominent Muslim community of Gujarat: the one-million-strong Bohras are scattered across the globe and are highly educated and well-to-do. The Bohras, Khojas and Memons are among the Muslims who have always done well in business and education in Gujarat. There is a high degree of acceptance for these entrepreneurs in Gujarat. But, says Bandukwala, that’s because Gujarat’s successful Muslims have typically remained apolitical and supported whatever ruling class that happens to be in the lead in the state. For 50 years, Gujarat has employed a high percentage of Muslims in government. In his report, Dr Shariff stresses that public records of more recent jobs haven’t been released. EDI’s local contact in Baroda introduces this reporter to a few businessmen in the city, working out of the 2,000-unit Makarpura industrial belt. Dhaval Patel seems anxious and concerned about our search for Muslim workers and entrepreneurs, but he locates several with relative ease considering the few units open on Saturdays. Vijay Electroplaters employs Lalu, a 19-year-old who never went to school, and did “nothing” until he got this job. He spends eight hours a day churning tiny metal parts in a barrel-like mixer, adding chemicals and keeping an eye on the progress. A wave of mechanisation and modernisation is sweeping through Gujarat’s industrial belts, transforming the traditional crafts—cotton mills, zari weaving—as well as introducing modern industries in electronics, software, petroleum and shipping. EDI assists the smaller units across the state in modernising. Several of the factory owners Outlook spoke to say they couldn’t care less about the religion or caste of workers—they just want the job to get done. But Dr Shariff’s research clearly points to a reverse trend. The likelihood of Muslims being employed in regular wage jobs is diminishing as fast as is statistically possible. Chances of work as agricultural labour are also low—less, in fact, than for SC/STs or OBCs. Self-employment and non-agricultural work (which are the most low-paying and least upwardly-mobile) are decidedly more open to Muslims. Some of this truth emerges in Surat, a textile hub reeling under a worker shortage. Raja, 21, and Imtiaz, 20, took the same train to Surat from Dhanbad, and their labour contractor deposited them at a textile factory owned by a Hindu, where a dozen other Muslims already work. They’re keen to bring their friends over, but with NREGA coming to Jharkhand, fewer Rajas and Imtiazes are available to move cross-country, exacerbating the shortage of hands. Dr Bandukwala feels living conditions of immigrant workers are enough of a management crisis for Gujarat already. Few of the companies interviewed seemed to follow a standard wage rate. Healthcare or living conditions are not their concern either. To top it, mechanisation in industries such as ‘artificial’ zari and hand-embroidery replaced by machines have all but obliterated the need for the traditional Muslim artisan. Why, with these changes coming in, the state government has among the lowest spendings on NREGA is hard to explain. These events add up to become part of what Dr Shariff describes as the unprotected drift of non-Hindus towards ‘self-employment’, and which Dr Iyengar says amounts to “making the poor pay for the cost of development”. Mallika Sarabhai, the noted theatre person, says residents who seem never free of fear pay the other price of development, Gujarat-style. They will not live near Muslims, or give them homes or offices to rent. “In this climate, what does it mean when people are asked to ‘move on’?” Sarabhai asks. “Is it that they should forget that there is a Constitution and rights?” While the camps build up for and against “forgetting”, all the Gujarati Muslim wants is for Modi to apologise for 2002. Of course, that could amount to the government also “moving on” along with its entire people. -------------------------- http://www.indianmuslimobserver.com/2011/04/muslim-areas-in-surat-turn-into.html Muslim areas in Surat turn into insecurity zone, ghettoization continues [Recently India’s premier weekly OUTLOOK carried a story ‘One Side Of The Divide’ written by Pragya Singh about Gujarat Muslims. Following up on the well-potrayed investigative story, our senior colleague Abdul Hafiz Lakhani, Bureau Chief (Gujarat) of IndianMuslimObserver.com has highlighted the current situation being faced by the Muslim community in Surat, the largest city in south Gujarat. In his story, Mr. Lakhani talks about the prevailing sense of insecurity and the continued ghettoisation of Muslim areas in Surat. – Danish Ahmad Khan, Executive Editor, IndianMuslimObserver.com] By Abdul Hafiz Lakhani Surat: A sense of insecurity among the Muslims in Gujarat has manifested itself even in the realty rates in Surat, with property prices in Muslim-dominated areas being much higher than in other similar localities of the city. Social analysts feel that continuance of communal violence in other parts of the state would also affect the locals here as deepening social divide and loss of lives on both sides have left many with a sense of insecurity. Sociologist Vidyut Joshi says, "Ethno-centric attitude is emerging here as well. Earlier, liberal social ethos prevailed but with time, community-specific pockets, too, have developed here. With the change in attitude, due to many social factors, the divide among the communities is more visible than ever before." Different social identities based on the community are on the rise, Joshi adds. Govind Ram, a realtor associated with Adajan real estate firm, feels that liberal attitude does nothing to quell the feeling of insecurity and there is a nagging fear that friends from the other community might betray them if a communal flare-up occurs. He even goes to the extent of saying that it to be on the safer side, one should not have blind faith even on friends from one's won community as people are using the prevalent communal tension to settle personal scores. Defending their move not to do business with Muslims in Surat, New Adajan Rander Road real estate agent Amit Tailor said, “We do business for a fixed rate. I have contacts with 150 estate brokers and we are all interlinked.” Naresh Patel, also an Adajan real estate agent, says, “We will convince owners who have rented out shops to Muslims to get them vacated. If they don’t do it, they will be responsible if anything happens. We want to control the percentage of Muslims with properties and shops in our areas. All real estate agents and brokers are with us, they have all taken an oath not do business with Muslims.” Sources in the city’s realty sector say that even the rents of residential property in Muslim areas are higher than elsewhere in Surat. Newly developed minority localities are costlier than old minority areas. The sources said property in Muslim-dominated areas like Shahpore, Zampha Bazaar, Rani Talao, (Kopchiwad), Salabatpura, Mughlisara and Rander are beyond the reach of middle-class Muslim families. Officially, the rate in these areas is between Rs 1,800 and Rs 2,500 per sq ft but buyers usually have to pay between Rs 3,000-4,000 per sq ft. Moreover, even to buy at these rates, customers have to pay more than 45 per cent (in some cases 60 per cent) of the total price in cash. Even in posh areas such as City Light, LP Sawani, Honey-Park Road, and Bhatar Road (non-Muslim areas), the rate is around Rs 2,500-3,000 per sq ft. “Some builders purchase two adjoining old houses in these areas and then build an apartment building there,” said Rashid Pathan, a real estate broker in Surat. Now, the rent of a 1-BHK flat in these areas can be anywhere between Rs 3,500 and Rs 5,000. The price of old one-floor houses on 12 x 30 sq ft of land is Rs 25 lakh per house. In contrast, similar property in non-Muslim areas would be in the range of Rs 15-20 lakh while the rent for a 1-BHK flat is less than Rs 2,500. “As members of the minority community prefer to live in areas which they know well, they are willing to pay the high prices demanded by the developers. Many developers even reduce the size of the flat for greater profit but the customers seldom complain.” Pathan added that prices in newly-developed Muslim areas are much higher than in old minority-dominated localities. For example, a 1-BHK flat at Rander-Gorat road with all the necessary facilities can cost between Rs 25 lakh and Rs 35 lakh, he said. Again, the rent of a similar flat can be anywhere from Rs 9,000 to Rs 13,000. Recently, work on a row-house project (Alvi Row Houses) has started in the locality and the cost of each row-house is Rs 80 lakh, he added. “The reason is simple,” said Kartik Patel, a city-based enveloper. “Muslims won’t shift to non-Muslim areas due to a sense of insecurity, and because of cultural and religious considerations. Moreover, they prefer to live in close-knit communities rather than independently in luxury apartments in other areas.” The high property prices in minority-dominated areas have forced middle-class Muslim families to look for houses in less developed areas such as Limbayat, Dumbhal, Umarwada, Anjana and Unn. Many spots in these localities lack even basic facilities such as water, drainage and roads. Yet, people are buying properties here. “My monthly income is Rs 20,000, yet I cannot even think of buying property in one of the better Muslim localities of the city,” said Akram Memon, a resident of Sahil Nagar in Unn. “I purchased this house (11 x 25 sq ft) for Rs 7 lakh, just 18 months back. People are now ready to pay Rs 12 lakh for the same house.” Meanwhile in Ahmedabad, two months ago, Mohamad Sheikh (name changed) tried to rent an office in Paldi. He met several builders and property owners there, but no one was ready to offer him space. This forced him to buy an office in an illegally constructed building in the walled part of the city. Sheikh is not the only one. There are many like him, mostly Muslims, who go for illegal residential or commercial property in the old city after failing to find space in posh areas. In some cases, high realty rates act as a deterrent, whereas in some, developers’ bias against a community poses hurdles. Real estate experts say ‘ghettoisation’ of certain communities is driving unauthorised construction in areas such as Kalupur, Shahpur and Dariapur. They say that until this problem is addressed by the city administration and society, illegal buildings will continue to pop up. “I tried to find an office in Paldi for two months. Even though I was ready to pay Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000 as rent every month, no one was willing to offer me space,” Sheikh said. Minhaz Rangwala, who runs a company, said that many families were forced to settle for unauthorised and poorly built homes in the walled city because of steep prices elsewhere. “Commercial and residential buildings in Paldi, Navrangpura and Khanpur are considered good. But property owners in these areas rarely show interest in selling space. Even if they agree, they quote exorbitant rates,” he said. “These are the reasons why people compromise on quality and go for dubious property schemes in the old city.” “Not all developers and property owners have reservations about a community. There are some who let out space without considering a person’s faith or religious beliefs,” Noman Siddiqui, a resident of Raikhad said. “However, things get tricky when it comes to buying a property. I know some people who have bought houses in posh areas, but they have not been given title clearance.” [Abdul Hafiz Lakhani is a senior Journalist based at Ahmedabad, Gujarat. He is associated with IndianMuslimObserver.com as Bureau Chief (Gujarat). He can be reached at lakhani63@yahoo.com or on his cell 09228746770]

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In the name of democracy, surrender By Ghulam Muhammed

Monday, April 04, 2011

In the name of democracy, surrender

By Ghulam Muhammed

One of the more intractable questions that is engaging a vast multitude of fence sitters, genuinely skeptics about why the West could or should be ready to throw out a loyal poodle like Hosni Mubarak and call for a change in the name of democracy.

People have little time to take in the wider perspective of how American Jewry has been manipulating American power and resources to fight the demons of insecurities that has been their destiny over the millenniums. They have never found peace and are not disposed to give peace to others.

After the defeat of Hitler’s fascism, they found a new menace in the emerging global expansion of Communism of the Soviet Russia. From day one, the Zionists, who were thrown out by Stalin from their coveted perch in Soviet hierarchy in Russia, Zionists in US, UK and Israel have had to mount tremendous efforts to first demonize the Communists and then get the American people to channel their national goal and national resources to fight the ‘Evil Empire’. Thanks to US President Ronald Reagan’s astute and determined leadership, the two pronged attack, one the military one from Afghanistan and the other media and people’s revolution organized efforts in Poland, the Soviet Union was dismantled in the 90’s.

The Zionists were now looking for another demon to fight, to keep America’s defense industry churning and to see its banks minting money for the Zionist gnomes of Wall Street. Bernard Lewis, the British Jewish historian and Zionist theorist, first came out with the theory of ‘Clash of Civilization’ and fingering out Islam and Islamic World as the next demon to be slayed. Samuel Huntington in fact, took over from Bernard Lewis, to give the idea a mainstream American face, thus keeping the Zionist their strategic cover. The entire aftermath of 9/11 and the subsequent invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, have failed to get any net advantage to the US and the West, the Zionists of the US, UK, France and Israel, have now picked up the remaining business from the demise of Soviet Union.

Immediately after the disbanding of the Soviet Union, its satellite got the full force of the democratizing treatment to throw out the old communist system of governance in the newly ‘liberated’ Eastern Europe. There so many revolutions and elections, that the media marketers of the Western conspirators ran out of the names of colors and flower to go with their organized ‘Regime Change’ projects.

The strategies and tactical know-how that was available to the US Zionist operators, came out handy, when the mood in American public sagged after getting thorough beatings in Iraq and Afghanistan and it was decided to use ‘peaceful people’s protest movements’ to mount the next stage of overthrowing all the Arab countries that had been de-colonized Arab countries after the Second World War and had on necessity chosen to side with the emerging Soviet power and acquire its patronage and import its governance systems --- one party rule, 99 percent election results, most inhuman security and intelligence practices and its defence armory. Zionists figured out that unless all such Left oriented rulers who had been ensconced on their perches, for decades now, are overthrown, America’s, EU’s and Israel’s security as well as economic recovery will not be achieved. All of them have Arab and Muslim faces, but had been deriving their power from the old Soviet Union connections that had populated their entire governance systems. In the name of bringing in genuine ‘democracy’ with new Constitutions especially crafted to bind them to the West, Zionist reasoned, the world will not be fully amenable to their exploitative demands over territories, trade negotiation, defence rearmaments, cultural inroads. Their entire agenda of re-colonization of the de-colonized Arab and Muslim World was now to be managed through people’s revolution and revolts and new agents with greater public mandate through organized elections, monitored by the Western observers, with the their hand-maiden, the UN dutifully endorsing their every move, every demand.

All the Arab/Muslim, nay the entire membership of NON-ALIGNEMENT movement is target of the new Zionist conspiracies.

A country like India, one of the 3 prominent leaders of the Non-Alignment movement was smoothly taken over with the assassination of Indian Congress leaders, Rajiv Gandhi. Tito’s Yugoslavia was disintegrated and dismantled. Sukarno’s Indonesia was smoothly taken over. The American Zionists, who have a publicly open monopoly of jobs in US State Department and its embassies and consulates around the world as well as in US Defense Department, are running the USA without the rest of the American public being even slightly aware of their exploitation by the Zionists of America.

A black American Obama was supported by the Zionists, to give the US a new face of a nation working for the ‘peace’ of the world. However, that new face was hardly meant to make any paradigm shift to America’s Zionist given policies of ‘perpetual war for perpetual peace’. The people’s revolutions all around the Middle East and Africa are activated through sleeper cells that the US has been nurturing over the years. As in crimes like murders where the beneficiary of the crime is the most obvious suspect, all new rulers so subverted by the Zionist conspirators entrenched in US administration, will first and last will be American stooges. Observe how US officially promotes people like Baradie in Egypt, another US resident Libyan in Libya. The list will be as long as the list of the newly colonized Arab/Muslim nations.

Oil is just the icing on the cake. There are so many other assets that the new Imperial power, the US and its Grand Vizier, the Jewish advisor, will be exploiting to keep their New World Order in full working shape. This is the new coming of the Western colonizer and its sweep will be much more overpowering, much more exploitative and much more dehumanizing. All Non-Aligned Nations of the world beware of the revenge of the departed colonizer. Even China’s superpower pretenses will not save it from the Zionist conspirators who are ruling USA.

Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai

ghulammuhammed3@gmail.com

http://ghulammuhammed.blogspot.com

Indian Population Census 2011: Muslims stand strong at 29 %, up from 18 Percent video

Indian Population Census 2011: Muslims stand strong at 29 %, up from 18 Percent video

Hijacking the Arab revolution - By AIJAZ ZAKA SYED | ARAB NEWS

http://arabnews.com/opinion/columns/article338090.ece

 

 

By AIJAZ ZAKA SYED | ARAB NEWS

Hijacking the Arab revolution

SO it has come down to this. After Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, Libya now finds itself in the line of fire of the Coalition of the Willing.

Of course, unlike Afghanistan and Iraq, the West is not fighting “Islamist terrorism” in Libya or is on the quest of the holy grail called Weapons of Mass Destruction. The mission now is to “save lives” and take out the monster that just refuses to fade away like the other friendly, neighborhood dictators in Tunisia and Egypt.

He must hang on in there like a bad dream, an evil spell over Libya. Those who thought Muammar Qaddafi would soon follow his fellow travelers into the sunset were clearly mistaken. The demented author of the Green Book seems to sincerely believe he’s God’s gift not just to the people of Libya but to the whole of humankind. But then Col. Qaddafi, distinctly delusional that he is, isn’t the only one to live in this make-believe world.

There are many out there who have persuaded themselves their leadership is crucial to the survival of their people and their departure would bring on the end of the world. Such is the power of delusions of grandeur. You tend to believe you are at the center of universe.

Those larger than life statues, from Baghdad to Benghazi, are not the celebration of a monstrous ego but the manifestation of a perennial insecurity of the powerful. They have to constantly reassure themselves about their own power.

Some of the biggest and most obscene tributes to human vanity are found in Muslim lands. Islam came to banish all man-made idols and we have replaced them with men who view themselves as divine. They worship themselves and expect their people to do so. Qaddafi is not the only one to believe in his immortality and his right to rule Libya forever. He must kill his people, if need be as he has been doing all these years, to govern them.

There are others out there who have convinced themselves that if they deprive their people of their noble leadership, they will all perish and go to hell. Après moi le déluge, After me the deluge!

After four decades of absolute power, Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen believes his people are not still “ready” to govern themselves or determine what’s good or bad for them. ‘I am prepared to step down,’ he reasons, ‘provided people of Yemen prove they have a capable leadership to take over from me.’ Touche!

Bashar Assad of Syria, who and his father between themselves have ruled Syria for nearly half a century, doesn’t fit the description of a tyrant. He insists he and his people are “on the same page.” There’s no problem whatsoever.

What about those angry demonstrations? And why are the Syrian troops firing on peaceful protesters?

Of course, it’s the doing of “conspirators and outsiders,” you know. There’s no trouble in the Baathist paradise of Syria. In fact, a Syrian government spokesperson told CNN’s Hala Gorani with a straight face, President Assad himself has wanted to introduce “reforms” since he took over from his father 11 years ago. Then why hasn’t he? What are we waiting for? End times or another crusader coalition?

Truth be told, whether it is Libya or Syria or numerous other Arab republics, they have all suppressed, abused and persecuted their people for decades — or the lifetime of a tyrant. In addition to perpetual abuse of power and all-pervasive corruption, they all have one thing in common. They’ve all repressed popular democratic movements that turn to Islam for guidance and inspiration, rather than dance to the tunes of London and Washington. And they have all done this with the blessings of Western champions of democracy and freedom.

In Egypt, both Hasan Al Banna, the legendary founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, and his successor Sayyid Qutb were assassinated by the powers that be, not to mention the thousands of its activists who were incarcerated and tortured for years for believing in a better world. From Gamal Nasser to Anwar Sadat to Hosni Mubarak, the most admired grass-roots movement in the Arab world has remained banned and suppressed for half a century.

This is the same story all across the Arab world. From Egypt and Yemen to Syria and from Algeria and Tunisia to Libya, the Islamists have been hunted like animals for decades. In 1982, Syrian forces massacred thousands in the city of Hama in a crackdown on Ikhwan. The memories of Hama massacre are still fresh.

And who could forget how Algeria’s veteran revolutionaries dealt with the Islamic Salvation Front when it swept the first ever multi-party democratic elections in 1991-‘92? The regime not just annulled the historic vote and the verdict it threw up, it unleashed a reign of terror against the Islamists for daring to take the democratic path to change. Nearly 300,000 lives perished in the subsequent civil war whose wounds are yet to heal.

History repeated itself when Hamas wrested power from the corrupt and clueless elites of Fatah in 2006. The Palestinians are still paying the price for this cardinal sin, locked away as they are in the largest prison on the planet.

All this of course wouldn’t have been possible without the active support and cooperation of our Western masters. Even as they have endlessly sung hosannas to the deity of democracy, they have aided and abetted their ever obliging allies to crush and destroy those foolish enough to believe in their rhetoric. Indeed, if the Middle East is still stuck with tyranny in 21st century and men in khaki rule forever, you know who to thank for.

So it’s rather touching to see Uncle Sam and his cohorts come around cheering on the juggernaut of change that is on the march in the Middle East. The folks who are still working with a racist and terrorist regime to wipe out an entire nation in its own land have no shame in pontificating about a people’s right to choose their destiny.

Those who have protected and pampered the Mubaraks and Ben Alis all these years see no irony in coming forward to claim credit for the tide that has turned the Arab world around. Talk of hunting with hares and running with hounds! Some Western pundits even have the cheek to thank the “Cowboy Crusader,” who gave us Afghanistan and Iraq and sent more than a million people to their death, for the Arab revolt.

Is there no limit to Western hypocrisy and duplicity? Why do they think they can fool all the people all the time? Don’t they see the writing on the wall? The tide has turned in the Middle East and Western powers will ignore it at their own peril. For those who have the courage to throw out their corrupt despots are capable of confronting their masters too.

A whopping majority in the Muslim world has no sympathy for Qaddafi whatsoever. They are waiting for his imminent fall and will celebrate his exit — and of others like him — just as they rejoiced over the departure of Ben Ali and Mubarak. But they aren’t going to welcome Janus-faced friends of their tormentors either. So expect no roses in Tripoli Mr. Obama and Mr. Sarkozy and Mr. Cameron!

— Aijaz Zaka Syed is a widely published columnist based in the Gulf. Write to him at aijaz.syed@hotmail.com

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