On March 16, in the ongoing budget session of the Parliament, Lok Sabha member Shri Asaduddin Owaisi (AIMIM) had put forth a question regarding the representation of minorities in public sector institutions. Responding to the same, the minister of minority affairs, Srimati Smriti Zubin Irani, informed the Lok Sabha that the Department of Public Enterprises does not maintain data about religion-wise distribution of jobs for minority communities in Public Sector Institutions. In addition to this, the Minister provided the staple answer wherein they highlighted that the Ministry of Minority Affairs has adopted multi-pronged strategy so as to enhance the employability, including in Public Sector Institutions, of notified minorities (Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Parsis and Jains) by way of implementation of schemes which aim at their educational empowerment, employment-oriented skill development, infrastructure support, etc.

The full answer can be read here:

This poor representation of various sections of India’s marginalised, make it almost impossible for the social issues and crimes most plaguing the country today, to be taken seriously. The schemes that are in place, mostly initiated by the previous governments, are used as a gag whenever statistics on actual representation in various sectors are demanded. It is further important to note that public sector institutes are the only sectors that do not have any data on the number of religious minorities employed there, and since 2013, the National Crimes Records Bureau annual report has ceased reporting the level of Muslim representation in the police.

A deeper analysis on lack of representation of Muslim in police force and de-sensitized police force can be read here.

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Review of 2022: A year of discrimination & violence experienced by India’s religious minorities

Uttar Pradesh has highest number of cases “closed by the NHRC without reason”: NHRC data

The post No data maintained on religion-wise distribution of jobs for minority communities in Public Sector Institutions: MoMA appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Sachin Pandit, one of the two men arrested for firing on Member of Parliament and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi’s convoy in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh has claimed to be a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). To prove his claim, Sachin Pandit’s ‘Membership slip’ was posted on social media.

He has been identified as ‘Deshbhakt Sachin Hindu’ on the slip. Multiple photos of Sachin Pandit posing with BJP leaders, including UP Chief Minister Adityanath, Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, MP Mahesh Sharma, and others are viral on social media.

https://www.facebook.com/sachin.pandit.52438174

According to news reports, Pandit is a law student who hails from Durai village in the Badalpur area of Greater Noida. Police state that Pandit, had been previously booked in an attempt-to-murder case as well. The Greater Noida Police have reportedly been interrogating Pandit’s relatives as well. His father Vinod Pandit told the police that he provides labourers to 20-25 private companies on contract companies and that Sachin works with him, reported India Today. He recalled the events leading up to the shooting saying, “Around 8:00 am yesterday [Thursday], Sachin went out saying he was going to talk to discuss something with the management of one of the companies. He had been a little upset for the last two-three days.”

The two men had reportedly told the police that they “were planning to attack the leader for some time,” reported India Today. The accused, Sachin and Shubham, were regularly attending “almost every public rally by Owaisi and were also present at the site of his poll rally in Meerut on Thursday” , stated news reports. The accused were tracking Owaisi and attacked when the vehicle stopped at the toll gate. The men have reportedly told the police that they were “hurt by the anti-Hindu comments”. 

Sachin’s photos now going viral reveal he has been a BJP worker and is especially close to Mahesh Sharma, BJP MP from Gautam Buddh Nagar. As social media user Kaushik Raj recalled, Mahesh Sharma had visited Mohd Akhlaq’s alleged lyncher Ravi Sisodia’s village when the latter had died. He is also known to UP’s Deputy CM Dinesh Sharma and BJP MP Satyapal Singh, as well as Nitesh Tomar.

Sachin Pandit, who has been arrested for allegedly firing upon AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi, has close connections with the BJP. A thread:

He is close to Nitesh Tomar who was awarded by Yogi Adityanath. And he can be seen close to the stage from where Amit Shah is speaking. pic.twitter.com/u4VBLvcG8U

— Kaushik Raj (@kaushikrj6) February 4, 2022

Shubham, the second accused hails from Saharanpur and has only studied upto class ten. Police told the media that Shubham is a farmer and a criminal case against him has been found so far. A country-made pistol was recovered from the accused, who have reportedly “revealed the names of the people from whom they had bought the weapon.”

According to police the two men were ‘angry’ at Asaduddin Owaisi and his brother Akbaruddin Owaisi, and “watched videos of Owaisi’s speeches on Facebook and Twitter.”

Asaduddin Owaisi rejects Z category security

Meanwhile, Asaduddin Owaisi told the Lok Sabha in an impassioned speech, that he does not want Z category security. “I am not going to sit quietly out of fear of the assailants. They have been radicalised. You are repeating the errors of NDA 1. I want to ask the government – should they not impose UAPA on those responsible for such radicalisation? I am not scared of death, but see the IB reports. Look at what has been said [against me]. I do not want Z category security, I live free. I am ready to accept the bullet. I believe that Owaisi’s life is not bigger than Akhlaq, Pehlu. Please end this hatred. End this hatred, make me an A category citizen so that you and I are equal. Radicalisation will harm you and right wing terror will harm you. Right wing terrorism will rise. Take action, charge them under UAPA.”

He recalled that he was the one who spoke up raising concerns when the Prime Minister’s security was breached in Punjab, “People of Uttar Pradesh will reply to hate with love.”

सांसद पर हमला करने पर आरोपियों पर UAPA क्यों नहीं लग रहा है?

मुझे नहीं चाहिए Z कैटेगरी की सुरक्षा: @asadowaisi @aimim_national pic.twitter.com/ly1qprR3VE

— News24 (@news24tvchannel) February 4, 2022

A day after his convoy was fired at, Asaduddin Owaisi was provided with Z category security by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). He will now be guarded by at least 22 CRPF men. The security has been put in place after the massive uproar over the attack on a member of parliament, in election-bound UP. According to news reports the government allotted the security detail “after reviewing the threat level in the light of last night’s attack.”

This attack comes in the wake of calls given to “behead” Asaduddin Owaisi, by repeat hate offender Bhupinder Tomar alias Pinky Chaudhary, who had said, “As long as the warriors and volunteers of Hindu Raksha Dal work together as a unit and follow the path of Hindutva, they will behead you (Owaisi.)” and, “Teri Gardan kaat kar mera naam badhaenge, (They will make my brand/name grow once they behead you).” Pinky’s hate speech and direct call for violence was met with cheering from his Hindutva soaked audience. 

Related

Men who fired at Owaisi’s car tell cops they had been tracking him 
Will Bulandshahr gangrape-murder case take the Hathras route?
Is Prayagraj’s ‘Sant Sammelan’ just another edition of Haridwar’s infamous Dharma Sansad?
Uttar Pradesh: Why were communal slogans raised in Ghaziabad?
Is hatemonger Pinky Chaudhary hoping for a political debut?

The post BJP yet to deny if the man who shot at Asaduddin Owaisi was a member appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Two people have been arrested for firing at Member of Parliament and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi’s convoy in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh. Owaisi had shared in public when his convoy was shot at on Thursday when it was near the Chhajarsi toll plaza. Owaisi shared images of three bullet marks on his car, and highlighted the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh for “the well-planned attack.” Asaduddin Owaisi has also sought time to meet the Lok Sabha Speaker today, Friday, February 4 to discuss the attack.

कुछ देर पहले छिजारसी टोल गेट पर मेरी गाड़ी पर गोलियाँ चलाई गयी। 4 राउंड फ़ायर हुए। 3-4 लोग थे, सब के सब भाग गए और हथियार वहीं छोड़ गए। मेरी गाड़ी पंक्चर हो गयी, लेकिन मैं दूसरी गाड़ी में बैठ कर वहाँ से निकल गया। हम सब महफ़ूज़ हैं। अलहमदु’लिलाह। pic.twitter.com/Q55qJbYRih

— Asaduddin Owaisi (@asadowaisi) February 3, 2022

The two persons arrested and accused of targeting Owaisi’s car told the police that “were planning to attack the leader for some time,” reported India Today. The accused, Sachin and Shubham, were planning the attack “for some time” and were regularly attending “almost every public rally by Owaisi and were also present at the site of his poll rally in Meerut on Thursday.” reported IT. The accused were tracking Owaisi and attacked when the vehicle stopped at the toll gate.

The men arrested have reportedly told the police that they were “hurt by the anti-Hindu comments”. An illegal 9mm pistol was recovered from one of them. Owaisi stated that he was attacked when returning from Meerut. He said, “I had a roadshow in Meerut and Kithau. When I was returning, bullets were fired at my car. Somehow my car managed to escape. I have seen two people. One was wearing a red hoodie while the other was wearing a white jacket. The tyre of my car punctured and after 2-3 km, I changed the car. I talked to the additional SP who said one is arrested and arms were recovered. There are three bullet marks on my car. The SP said the forensic team will investigate.”

He further told mediapersons, “It is the responsibility of the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government as well as the central government to look into the matter. I will also meet the Lok Sabha Speaker on this matter. Attack on a sitting MP is a very serious matter. I believe it is a well-planned attempt to hurt me. The incident took place near the toll plaza, which means the attackers were already doing recce. It is not the first time that there is an attack on me. The Election Commission should take notice of it since I was campaigning for the polls,”. 

According to news reports, AIMIM leader Imtiaz Jaleel, when speaking on the motion of thanks to the President’s address in Lok Sabha, raised the issue of firing on Owaisi’s car on Thursday. He took to social media to announce that units of AIMIM across the country will hold peaceful protests on Friday against the incident.

All AIMIM units across the country will be registering a peaceful protest on Friday and will be submitting memorandum to respective DMs/Commissioners seeking thorough investigation into attacks on Asad Owaisi. Also seeking highest security at his public meetings in UP.

— Imtiaz Jaleel (@imtiaz_jaleel) February 3, 2022

While his critiques have been active since yesterday to dismiss this open attack on Owaisi in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh as a ‘stunt’ or not serious enough, it is crucial to note that this attack comes in the wake of calls given to “behead” Asaduddin Owaisi, by repeat hate offender Bhupinder Tomar alias Pinky Chaudhary, who had said, “As long as the warriors and volunteers of Hindu Raksha Dal work together as a unit and follow the path of Hindutva, they will behead you (Owaisi),” and, “Teri Gardan kaat kar mera naam badhaenge, (They will make my brand/name grow once they behead you).” Chaudhary’s hate speech and direct call for violence was met with cheering from his Hindutva soaked audience. 

Prayagraj ‘Sant Sammelan’ called for “Hindu rashtra” 

Days ago, a finale ‘Sant Sammelan’ was held in Prayagraj and calls were given to declare India a “Hindu rashtra” as well as hate speeches against Muslims flew free. This ‘Sant Sammelan’, was reportedly organised by those who organised Dharma Sansad. This too was to bear a similar name, but was changed to ‘Sant Sammelan’ after protests and the fact that calling it Dharma Sansad will raise multiple concerns and maybe hamper the event itself. The seers’ apart from demanding that India be declared “Hindu nation” claimed “patriotic Muslims” were to be ‘brought back home’ to the Hindu fold.

Recently Union Home Minister Amit Shah claimed “goonda raj” will return to Uttar Pradesh if the Akhilesh Yadav led  Samajwadi Party (SP) comes to power in the Assembly polls. Referring to the SP government of the past, Shah asked, “Wasn’t there a goonda raj? Didn’t the bahubalis (strongmen) trouble people? Weren’t the sisters and daughters humiliated?”

However, it is in Adityanath’s Uttar Pradesh where anti-Muslim, anti-Christian, anti-Dalit, and anti-women attacks are being reported regularly. On Thursday, January 3, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister also claimed, “Since 2017, no riots or terrorist activities have taken place in the state.” And yet the government is investing even more in security. “We are building an Anti-Terrorism Squad Centre at sensitive places in view of national security,” he said. He attacked his opponents and appeared to be accusing them of Muslim appeasement when he said, “They only indulged in ‘Bandar baat’ in the name of development and the Akhilesh Yadav government’s development was seen only in the boundary walls of ‘kabristan’.” Adityanath also ‘compared’ his inclumbent regime to that of the SP in 2016-2017 with BJP and claimed that “NCRB data showed cases of ‘dacoity’ came down by 58 per cent, loot by 64 per cent, murder by 23 per cent, kidnapping by 53 per cent, dowry killing by 8 per cent, and rape by 43 per cent,” adding, “We introduced the anti-conversion law and the Uttar Pradesh Recovery of Damages to Public and Private Property law.” He also said “155 hardcore criminals were killed in encounters,” and, “As many as 48,038 people were arrested under the Gangster Act, while the National Security Act was invoked against 694 criminals.” 

However a recent People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) draft listing all human rights violations  in Uttar Pradesh shows that 40 percent of India’s human rights abuses in 2021 occurred in Uttar Pradesh. The PUCL said, “UP is at the forefront of violence against women. In the case of Dalit atrocities, 25.8 percent of all Dalit atrocities in India are from Uttar Pradesh, which is the highest. During the current rule of the BJP’s ‘Yogi government’, cases of fake encounters increased unexpectedly, which raised deep concern amongst human rights organisations all over the world.”

Related:

Will Bulandshahr gangrape-murder case take the Hathras route?
Is Prayagraj’s ‘Sant Sammelan’ just another edition of Haridwar’s infamous Dharma Sansad?
Uttar Pradesh: Why were communal slogans raised in Ghaziabad?
Is hatemonger Pinky Chaudhary hoping for a political debut?

The post Men who fired at Owaisi’s car tell cops they had been tracking him appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Last week top BJP leaders from the Christian-predominant states of Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland issued statements claiming that a ban on cow slaughter is not on the party’s agenda in the three north-eastern states where Assembly polls are due next year.

During the Atal Behari Vajpayee-led NDA government’s rule at the Centre, BJP leaders from Nagaland had threatened to walk out of the party if any attempt was made to ban cow slaughter in the state.

PTI has reported Owaisi as saying that the BJP's hypocrisy is that in Uttar Pradesh cow is revered as a mother but in the Northeast the animal's meat is part of the normal diet.

In the past week, following in the footsteps of UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath, the BJP-ruled states in Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand have targeted slaughter houses and even retail shops selling mutton and chicken

On Friday, the Gujarat government amended an existing law, making cow slaughter punishable with a life sentence. In Maharashtra, the VHP and the Bajrang Dal have demanded that the BJP-led government replicates the new Gujarat law in the state.
 

The post Owaisi to BJP: How is cow ‘Mummy’ in UP but ‘yummy’ in Northeast? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Image: PTI

So we know now, in case we did not know it already: Bollywood celebrity and outgoing Rajya Sabha MP, Javed Akhtar is a “Good Muslim”, and so are the Sufis who invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to grace the World Sufi Forum in Delhi. Asaduddin Owaisi of the Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) on the other hand, as all of us always knew, is a “Bad Muslim”.

Actor and Modi-bhakt Anupam Kher says it just like it is: “Bharat Mata ki jai!” is the “only real test” of who is a desh premi and who is not. Self-proclaimed atheist Akhtar and the Sufis have passed the test with flying colours. In his last speech in the Rajya Sabha, Akhtar theatrically recited the magic mantra not once but thrice. At the World Sufi Conference, Modi’s elaborate “Islam means peace” homily was greeted with repeated chants of “Bharat Mata ki Jai”. (Thankfully, no one offered a “Muslim cap” to Modi, a man otherwise known to don every other head gear when it suits him).

Video: Rajyasabha TV

Owaisi, on the other hand, has declared in a speech that while he has no issues with “Jai Hind”, he will not put himself through Hindutva’s nationalism-test even if someone held a knife to his throat. Taking a cue from his party chief, on March 16 an MIM MLA, Waris Pathan, refused to say “Bharat Mata ki jai!” in the Maharashtra Assembly. The refusal created a huge furore wherein along with the ruling BJP-Shiv Sena coalition, the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) joined the chorus against Pathan. He was suspended from the Assembly for the entire budget session.

Video: ANI

No one however seemed in the least concerned over Shiv Sena MLA Gulabrao Patil hurling the following at Pathan: “Is desh mein rehna hai, kutto, to Vande Mataram bolna hoga” (If you want to stay in this country, dogs, you will have to sing Vande Mataram). Having spoken in the plural, it is anybody’s guess whether Patil was referring to the MIM in particular or Indian Muslims in general. As an afterthought a day later, on the demand raised by the Congress party’s leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, the Speaker agreed to delete the Sena MLA’s obnoxious remark from the Assembly’ record.

Everyone must be patriotic, and patriotism will be defined by the bully, those who can shout the loudest, have their way. You will be tested on not just the slogans you raise but on those you do not raise. Patriotism will be forced by the BJP and its parivar, but not just by them. If you are deemed to be not patriotic enough, be very afraid, also, of the Congress. (Indian Express, lead editorial)

The Sufis assembled at the Delhi meet will no doubt maintain, as many other Muslims do, that “Bharat Mata ki jai!” has nothing to do with religion; it’s about love for the nation. They argue moreover that Muslims who oppose the slogan are falling into a trap set by the sangh parivar. The Congress general secretary, Digvijay Singh, has expressed the same opinion. Such reasoning is problematic as it skirts several critical questions.

From the Hyderabad Central University, to Jawaharlal Nehru University, to everywhere else, the sanghis who to their eternal shame had nothing to do with India’s freedom struggle, have now delegated to themselves the sole supreme authority to judge who is a patriot and who is not using a simple 4-word-test.

Why is “Jai Hind”, “Jai Bharat” or “Hindustan Zindabad” not enough? Why is the singing of the national anthem not enough? Which Constitutional principle, which law of the land is violated if some Muslims genuinely believe that saying “Bharat Mata ki Jai” is against the teachings of Islam? Why is it that Muslims who have no difficulty in saying the same words, at a Kejriwal rally for example, have a problem with Hindutva’s diktat?  Is the nationalism bogey not simply an insidious ploy to push secular-democratic India towards Hindu Rashtra?

Why can’t the Congress Party, the NCP see what’s amply clear not only to the Left parties (“A single slogan cannot ever become the sole patriotism test of citizens”: CPI-M general secretary, Sitaram Yechuri) but also sections of the media?

Take, for example, the lead editorial in the March 18 edition of The Indian Express under the headline:  “Hand of the bully: Congress must take responsibility for its role in the disgraceful suspension from the Maharashtra Assembly of Paris Pathan”: And the copy starts with: “Everyone must be patriotic, and patriotism will be defined by the bully, those who can shout the loudest, have their way. You will be tested on not just the slogans you raise but on those you do not raise. Patriotism will be forced by the BJP and its parivar, but not just by them. If you are deemed to be not patriotic enough, be very afraid, also, of the Congress.”

And the lead editorial in The Asian Age warns: “Were the Maharashtra Assembly mood to gain force… we would be going astray as a people and bringing upon ourselves every curse that wakes in the wake of the wilful distortion of the historical record.”

Through their unsolicited ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’ chant in Parliament and at the Sufi Forum, Javed Akhtar and the Sufis have built their distance not only from “Bad Muslims” but also from millions of Hindus who refuse to endorse the claim of Hindu Nationalists that this, and this slogan alone, is the real test of every Indians’ love for and loyalty to his country.

At an informal gathering of Kanhaiya Kumar and a few JNU students on the campus about a week ago, one of them asked: we students at JNU, Hyderabad University and elsewhere have been fighting Hindutva’s  fascist menace; why are Muslim leaders and organisations so silent when they too should be concerned about the same thing?

About Owaisi and his party with a blatantly Muslim-communal agenda, the less said the better. If anything, the MIM’s politics is rich material for a case study on how not to combat Hindutva’s designs. For many Muslims across the country, it is an article of faith that the MIM is in cahoots with the BJP-RSS as both benefit from spreading the poison of communalism. Some even talk of crores changing hands.

But what might Javed Akhtar and the Sufis have to say in response to the query by the JNU student?

If not as a Muslim, what stopped Akhtar from speaking out against the growing witch-hunt, doctored videos by TV channels, takeover of not just educational campuses but even court premises by lynch mobs with state connivance? Not earlier, when academics, writers and artists (many of them atheists, though not communists) returned awards in protest, nor in his speech in the Rajya Sabha?

His speech said nothing more than what could be expected from a detached sage having descended from some ashram in the Himalayas for a brief glance at the state of the nation. Words of wisdom totally bereft of any reference, except obliquely, to the ugly climate being built up in the country with active encouragement from the RSS-directed, Modi-led, BJP-dominated, NDA government at the Centre.

As for the Sufis who took pains to ingratiate themselves with the prime minister, here’s some interesting bit of history. Among the main players in the All India Ulama and Mashaikh Board (AIUMB) who organised the World Sufi Forum are the management and direct beneficiaries of the dargahs of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya (Delhi) and Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti (Ajmer). Anyone familiar with the life and times of these saints will tell you that keeping a distance, never cosying up or currying favours, from the powers that be was almost an obsession with the Sufis.

During his lifetime, Hazrat Nizamuddin was witness to the rise and fall of eight different sultans who occupied the throne. It is well-known that the saint strongly disapproved of, actively discouraged, any of these sultans even from paying a royal visit to his abode. Amir Khusro, the most renowned disciple of the saint was also an officer in the court of Jalaluddin Khilji. Khusro came to know that eager to somehow seek the Hazrat Nizamuddin’s blessings, the sultan was planning on visiting the saint in disguise. Khusro leaked the news to Hazrat Nizamuddin who promptly left the city to foil the sultan’s surreptitious plan.      

Furious with such “treachery” and “disclosure of state secret”, Khilji demanded an explanation from Khusro. This is what the latter said in his defense: “I had to choose between betraying my peer and betraying you. In betraying my peer I would have lost my imaan (faith); in betraying you I stand to lose only my jaan (life). I would sooner lose my jaan than my imaan”. An impressed Khilji forgave Khusro his great betrayal.

Recounting this incident from history, a devout Sufi practitioner told SabrangIndia: “You could say that in hosting the prime minister, the organisers of the World Sufi Forum have betrayed their Chisti tradition (the silsala to which most of the Sufis in India belonged), if not their imaan.

Among the many Sufi silsilas (orders) there were some who stood aloof from power, even spoke truth to power. Others provided legitimacy to the ruler of the day. While Hazrat Nizamuddin and Khwaja Moinuddin belonged to the former category, the organisers of the Delhi meet who otherwise swear by these very saints have chosen a contrary path.

Through their unsolicited ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’ chant in Parliament and at the Sufi Forum, Javed Akhtar and the Sufis have built their distance not only from “Bad Muslims” but also from millions of Hindus who refuse to endorse the claim of Hindu Nationalists that this, and this slogan alone, is the real test of every Indians’ love for and loyalty to his country.

The growing influence of Saudi Arabia-fuelled rigid and intolerant version of Islam should be a matter of concern for all Indians, Muslims particularly. The AIUMB could have played a very positive role in preserving India’s syncretic tradition, stemming the Wahhabi tide. But from the brand of Sufism on display at the Delhi meet, it is seems that the answer for Indian Muslims lies elsewhere.
Perhaps they should give some thought to what Omid Safi, an American professor of Islamic studies wrote some years ago in the American context, but which is equally relevant in our present context: “If our public discourse about religion and politics is to evolve to a more subtle, and accurate, space, it must get to the point where religious voices that speak from the depths and heights of all spiritual traditions can do more than simply acquiesce in the face of the Empire. They can, and should, speak for the weak, and give voice to the voiceless”.

Or, closer home, they could pay heed to two liberation theologists from Pakistan, Junaid S Ahmed and Sania Sufi: “Muslims must dig through the Islamic canon for a discourse far more liberating than merely the negation of beheadings or senseless violence or intolerance”.
 

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