Lucknow: The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR)’s recommendation to trace non-Muslim children studying in all government-funded/recognised madrasas and shifting them to other educational institutes along with mapping all unmapped madrasas has triggered a fresh controversy in the state. The UP Madrasa Education Board (UPMEB) has unanimously rejected the NCPCR recommendations.

With the move sparking fierce criticism from Muslim organisations and Opposition parties, the Board chairman Iftikhar Ahmed Javed, while opposing the NCPCR recommendation, said it was “discriminatory” and goes against the tenets of the Madrasa Education Board. The students taking education can not be differentiated on the basis of religion, it added.

“We follow the ideology of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ and will never remove the students of non-Muslim faith from madrasa, shifting them to other institutions. This kind of practice should not be implemented in the education sector. If parents are sending their children to our madrasas, they will continue to study there,” Javed told the media.

He went on to add that “the madrasa education board has unanimously rejected the NCPCR recommendations.”

Speaking with NewsClick, Javed said: “PM Modi wants children studying at madrasas to hold the Quran in one hand and a computer in the other. Allowing a survey of children in madrasas of Uttar Pradesh is not right; it will encourage discrimination among children on religious grounds. Non-Muslim children are studying in madrasas and non-Hindu children are studying in Sanskrit schools. Children of every religion are also studying in missionary schools. I myself studied at Banaras Hindu University (BHU). The NCPCR should reconsider their letter.”

He added, “We will not allow a divide to be created between Muslims and non-Muslim communities as this goes against the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) principle of Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas.”

Seeking that the Commission reconsiders its recommendation, Javed had stated that “we are providing modern education to children under NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) syllabus. Only religious education is not being imparted in madrasas.”

“If the NCPCR head has any evidence of forced religious conversion of any student or forceful admission of non-Muslim students in a madrasa, then he must share inputs and lodge an FIR,” Javed said.

THE ISSUE

The controversy started in December last year after a notification was issued to the UP Minority Affairs and Waqf Department wherein the NCPCR said that giving Islamic education to non-Muslim students was a violation of Article 28(3) and sought a reply within three days.

The Commission had also recommended all non-Muslim children studying in madrasas be admitted to other schools after the inquiry.

The decision was conveyed in a letter written by the NCPCR Chairperson Priyank Kanoongo, on December 8, 2022, to all Chief Secretaries, who had noted that children belonging to non-Muslim communities were attending government-funded or recognised madrasas. “It is also learnt by the commission that some States and Union Territories are providing them with scholarships too. “It is a clear-cut violation and contravention of Article 28(3) of the Constitution of India that prohibits educational institutions from obligating the children to take part in any religious instruction, without the consent of the parent,” the letter stated.

Madrasas, as institutions, are primarily responsible for imparting religious education to children, the commission said, adding it was learnt that those madrasas funded or recognised by the government were imparting both religious and to some extent formal education to children.

Meanwhile, soon after the UPMEB unanimously rejected the recommendations of NCPCR to inspect recognised madrasas in order to trace non-Muslim students and shift them to other educational institutes, the commission served a notice to the state government seeking a compliance report within three days.

Shuchita Chaturvedi, a member of the Uttar Pradesh State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, attacked the madrasas and termed it unfair for non-Muslim children to study in madrasas.

MADRASA BODY WRITES TO PM MODI, PRESIDENT

The All India Teachers Association Madaris Arabiya — a teachers’ body has also written to the President and Prime Minister stating that NCPCR recommendations were violative of the Right to Education and go against the spirit of the Constitution of India.

Wahidullah Khan Sayeedi, the national general secretary of the organisation, stressed in the letter that such recommendations create “hatred and animosity” in society while also creating a sense of “suspicion and ill-will” toward madrasas.

Sayeedi said the issuance of such letters and directions for educational institutions “on the basis of mere complaints and imaginations” and “without any concrete proof or evidence” only harms their image. He also insisted that dividing educational institutions on the basis of religion, community or caste and creating a sense of animosity towards them on these lines was not right.

Saying that no student is given admission in any madrasa without the consent of their parents, Sayeedi has urged the President and the Prime Minister to take appropriate action on the letter of NCPCR’s chairperson.

MODI’S MADRASA MODERNISATION PUSH?

The Uttar Pradesh madrasa body and teachers’ association has expressed doubts over the Narendra Modi-led Union government’s intention that claims it wants to ‘modernise’ the syllabus of madrasas in Uttar Pradesh so that the students are also taught subjects like Math, English, Computer Science and Hindi.

The teachers’ associations alleged that for more than three years they have not been paid salary despite several protests in the state.

Badre Alam, a teacher in Gorakhpur told NewsClick: “Out of a hundred, four-five are Hindus in general, that too not enrolled in every madrasa. They come as they do not have a school nearby their house, we don’t bring non-Muslim children to the madrasa forcefully, they come with the consent of their parents. However, we don’t teach them Urdu and Arabic. If their parents ask us to teach Urdu, then we teach them.”

Muslim Khan, a madrasa teacher in Ghazipur told NewsClick: “Education should not be painted in two colours – Hindu and Muslim. For a teacher, students coming to a madrasa, missionary or any other school are only students. We don’t view children through the lens of religion. Though it is an Arabic word, which means an educational institution, we no longer work on the old traditional patterns of teaching. Every subject including Maths, Science, English etc apart from Urdu, Arabic and the Quran is taught. We also teach Sanskrit to non-Hindu students,”

Khan who teaches at Khwaja Gharib Nawaz Madrasa in Ghazipur where nearly 25-to 30% of students are non-Muslims in every class, believes that the madrasas are being targeted for political mileage ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.  

“I have studied in a minority school and when I was in class 6, I was asked to write an essay on Bhishma Pitamah and had written it so well that my teacher was surprised, Therefore, we should not differentiate between students on religious grounds,” he said.

Doubting PM Modi’s madrasa modernisation plan, Khan alleged: “Madrasa teachers in the state have not been paid their salary for the last three-four years. The government claims they want to modernise madrasas which lack basic facilities, including teacher’s training, but they have a very low budget. During the Congress regime, the budget for madrasas was around Rs 200 crore when teachers used to be few, now the budget has come down to Rs 10 crore. Neither the teachers’ salary can be given in Rs 10 crore nor the previous dues can be cleared, leave alone modernisation. The government is giving slow poison to madrasa teachers. When the budget is low, then the payment will not be received and when the payment is not received then the teacher will not teach on an empty stomach. The government is waiting for everything to end slowly so that they don’t have to take the onus.” 

Notably, the UP government’s recent directive to all the district magistrates to begin a survey to identify “unrecognised madrasas” has also kicked up a political storm as many minority organisations see it as an attempt to target the community.

Courtesy: Newsclick

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Citizens for Justice and Peace has in a complaint to Times Now, raised concerns over the contents of the debate show titled “Madrasa Jihad’ पर बड़ा खुल़ास़ा, मजहबी त़ालीम क़ा ‘491 तंत्र‘”. This show aired on November 11 on Times Now Navbharat and was based on a survey carried out by the UP government on Madrassas in certain districts of the State. Reportedly, the survey found that   Bahraich city, which is close to the Nepal border, has 792 madrassas out of which 491 were found to be running “without license”.  Over this news, the channel held a debate and declared that something called “madrassa Jihad” was taking place in Bahraich.

The segment starts with a large display in the background which reads “Bahraich me Madrassa Jihad” (Madrassa Jihad in Bahraich). The following text is repeatedly displayed throughout the debate which suggests that the intention of the channel was to spread stigma, even hatred against the Muslim community.

• UP me Madarsa Jihad par bada khulasa (00:05)
• Jaha Owaisi gaye waha awaidh madarse ugg aaye? (00:53)
• Bahraich ka M Factor (04:32)
• Bharat-Nepal Sarhad … Kisne banaya ‘gadh’ (00:30)
• Bahraich me 34% Muslim aabadi (04:27)
• Akramankari Mahmood ghaznavi ka bhanja tha Masood (05:30)
• Bahraich me Salar Masood Ghazi ki dargah (28:50)

The host, Nanina Yadav questioned how these madrassas are being funded, the speaker, a Muslim scholar, said that Muslims all over the country themselves fund the madrassas to which she questioned “akhir aisa kya hota hai madarso me ki itna bada dil dikhate hai” (How is it that they display such ‘generosity’ only when it comes to Madrassas?”)

The complaint states that this persistent stigmatization and attack on the minority community to drive home the point that Muslims are always up to sinister activities by terming everything they into “jihad” is harmful to the social fabric of this country. It further states that using terms like “Madrassa jihad” is both denigrating and demeaning towards the Muslim community, besides perpetuating stereotypes that can create attitudes and actions therefore which can cause harm and mischief.

The complaint may be read here:

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The first salvo was fired by the Jamiat Ulema e Hind, which thinks of itself as the custodian of everything remotely Islamic in India. It filed a defamation suit against the person concerned for spoiling the reputation of Islam in India with an added intent of creating religious misunderstanding between Hindus and Muslims. There were other groups which went to Court charging the statement as a hate speech designed to create enmity between Hindus and Muslims. Why such a reaction? This is not for the first time that a person, Hindu or Muslim, has levelled such charges against madrasas. Hindu groups and their leaders like Shakshi Maharaj have been saying pretty much the same thing for decades now. No one thought of moving the Court against him. And certainly, this is not about Hindu groups alone. Not so much in the distant past, it was the Left Front government’s own Chief Minister in West Bengal who proclaimed publicly that madrasas produced terrorists. Not one Muslim organization thought it fit to go to Court against him or to charge him as promoting enmity between Hindus and Muslims. What is so different about Waseem Rizwi?

Part of the reason why there is such a vehemence against him is because he is a Shia. Social media platforms like twitter and Facebook are littered with voices pointing out that his statements against madrasas are only because he is a Shia. As a Shia, he is deemed to be less of a Muslim and more of an enemy of Islam. He is doing the work of the devil in trying to defame Islam. Posts on these platforms have delved into Sunni theology to support their arguments and all of them share the consensus that Shias must be considered beyond the pale of Islam.

One can only wonder where this amount of hate is coming from and how much our own Islamic theology is responsible for this. Rather than debating on the merits of the argument, it is very convenient to call out the minority identity of the person to proclaim that his arguments have no merit at all. This is the kind of laziness which has characterised many a so called Islamic scholarship. In reality this strategy tells us about the hollowness of the Sunni argument itself.

There cannot be any debate that much needs to be changed about the present state of madrasa education. But the allegation that madrasas produce terrorists is quite baseless and bogus and is borne out of sheer ignorance of this institution. Despite historic suspicion about madrasas, there has been very little on the table to show that madrasas teach or promote terrorism.

During the time when Advani was the home minister, he instituted a special inquiry into the linkages of madrasa education with extremism and terrorism. Despite the best efforts of the state, they could not come up with anything concrete and thus the inquiry was buried quietly. Hindu nationalism has always been suspicious of madrasas and such thinking about madrasas have informed their public discourse for long.

History of these institutions points to something quite the opposite. If nationalism is the benchmark against which any individual or institution has to be judged today, then there cannot be any debate that madrasas were nationalist. They participated in the national movement and were at the fore-front of struggle against the British rule, giving a call for total freedom even as most radical organizations were still toying with the idea of ‘home rule’.

Madrasas today are synonymous with conservatism and its outmoded ideology. What happens in these institutions in the name of learning is nothing but rote memorization of certain texts which have lost all relevance in the present time. In order that they remain relevant, radical changes are certainly required in the pedagogical structure of these institutions. They have to introduce modern texts and even interpret the old ones in new light.

Those who speak of reforming the system are very conveniently dubbed as opposed to Muslims and Islam. There are people within the Muslim community who have vested interests in linking madrasas with Muslim identity. Thus, any criticism of madrasa is automatically read as an attack on Muslim identity and cries of Islam in danger start doing the rounds in Muslim circles. This has to stop.

It is not that Muslims themselves are too happy with the institution. Time and again, there have been Muslims who have voiced the need to reform the system. These Muslims have been both liberals as well as those who have come out of the madrasa system themselves. Yet there concerns have been not been paid attention to. Orthodoxies within the Muslims have been successfully able to put pressure on various governments to keep the system as it is. Various governments have conceded to their demands in the fallacious belief that these good for nothing Ulema are the true representative of Indian Muslims.

There is a need to debate about the present relevance of madrasa education for Muslims in India. Part of the problem is that the social class of Muslims who access madrasa education. They come from the poorest of the poor Muslim families who come to these madrasas in the hope of some education and assured meals. Elite Muslims have never considered this section as Muslim enough and therefore have never paid attention to the problems faced by this section.

Added to this is also the fact that it is primarily low caste Muslims who acquire madrasa education. The dominant narrative of Indian Muslim politics which has been decidedly upper caste, has never paid attention to the requirements of the majority of low caste Indian Muslims. There is a need to have a dispassionate debate on madrasa education. Instead what we get is a polarised debate between a section who think that everything is wrong about madrasas and a section of Muslims who think that madrasas need to be defended at all costs. The tragedy is that no one is thinking about the Lakhs of Muslim children who are studying in these madrasas.

Arshad Alam is a NewAgeIslam.com columnist

Courtesy: New Age Islam
 

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Image Courtesy: David Sillitoe for the Guardian

It is well known that Islamic civilization had seen phenomenal advancement of knowledge during the Abbasid Period (roughly mid-8th to mid-13thcentury) – known as its Golden era. The Muslims drew on the resources that came to their hands – the Greco-Roman heritage and the scholars of other religions who were either native citizens or gravitated to Baghdad from different parts of the world to study universal sciences and fields of knowledge that were forbidden in their lands. Thus, they inaugurated and sustained an intellectual revolution that is captured in these words by two of the most eminent scholars of this era:

“Islam, which is only half a dozen centuries younger than Christianity, created a long and brilliant civilization, which is responsible for much of the way we are today. … When a few medieval monks were desperately trying to preserve what little they knew of Greco-Roman civilization, academies and universities flourished in the splendid cities of the Muslim lands”– Jonathan Bloom and Sheila Blair, Islam, Empire of Faith, BBC Series, UK 2001, p. 11.

“Science is the most momentous contribution of Arab [Muslim] civilization to the modern world; but its fruits were slow in ripening. Not until long after Moorish [Islamic] culture had sunk back into darkness did the giant to which it had given birth, rise to its might. – Robert Briffault (1867-1948), Making of Humanity, p. 202.

With this summary introduction to Islam’s role in the advancement of universal knowledge, we come to the caption of this article that speaks for itself.

What has happened in the intellectual realm of Islam over the last few centuries is just the reverse of what Islam saw during the half a millennium of the Abbasid period. The historical background to this retrogression can be summed up as follows:

The surrender of Baghdad (1258 AD), the capital of the pan-Islamic Caliphate to the Mongol forces saw, apart from the gruesome massacre of its inhabitants, total eradication of its intellectual resources. The vast Abbasid libraries were burnt to ashes and the House of Wisdom -the unrivalled international center of learning of the era was destroyed. The ensuing centuries (14th – 17th) saw an explosive outburst of intellectual activity and free thinking in Europe that was driven by use of reason and thirst for Enlightenment and knowledge – known as ‘renaissance.’ This resulted in phenomenal growth in literary, artistic, philosophical, intellectual, commercial and military fields. This, in the ensuing centuries (18th-20th) ushered Europe into an era of great inventions and discoveries, proliferation of experimental research; exploitation of the forces of nature, and conversion of raw materials into an endless array of products in increasingly efficient and automated plants culminating in the modern urbanized industrialized world that is light-years ahead of the medieval ages.

As Europe was availing the fruits of its advancement and transforming its cold, dark and ramshackle villages into shining imageries of paradise (in the words of poet Laureate Muhammad Iqbal) and dotting its towns and cities with splendid museums, libraries, hospitals, universities, and rows upon rows of picturesque residential houses complete with all amenities – gardens, parks, shopping arcades, pharmacies, community centers – among other things, the orthodox Ulema remained in a state of denial and declared all scientific and civilisational advancement of Europe as the handiwork of Shaytan.

Accordingly, they divided the domain of knowledge between worldly and religious, forbade the learning of all European languages and abhorred all scientific and technological knowledge and advancement. Their hostility against the so called European knowledge was so intense that among other things, they burnt down an observatory in Turkey in 1580 – just a year after its erection, and closed down the first printing press in the Islamic world in the same city in 1745. Even as recently as the later part of the nineteenth century, the Ulema in British India fought tooth and nail against the establishment of a modern university by Syed Ahmed. Ironically, to this day Muslims are bogged down with a religious education curriculum that is centered round the secondary sources of Islam rooted and stagnated in the medieval ages and often treat universal sciences in the sidelines.

This division of knowledge between Scientific/ secular and religious is nothing short of a denial to probe the ‘Signs of God’ as repeatedly invoked in the Qur’an. There are verses that speak about the movement of heavenly bodies in their orbits (21:33, 31:29, 39:5), water cycle (2:164), embryonic development in a woman’s womb (23:12-14), immiscibility of soft and saline streams of water (25:53, 27:61, 55:19), reduction in oxygen content of air at higher altitudes (6:125), graduated darkness in ocean depth (24:40) for example – that simply cannot be understood without scientific knowledge.

Besides, God alone is the source of all knowledge and it was in this very spirit that the Muslims explored and advanced all prevalent branches of knowledge during their golden era (Abbasid period) drawing freely on non-Muslim sources. So dismissing scientific or secular knowledge in later centuries was a suicidal retrogression that gradually eroded the foundations of Islamic civilization, conduced to its colonization, and in the post-colonial era, rendered it politically weak, turbulent and unstable, and educationally and industrially backward – and with turn of events in this era, a potential breeding ground of terror, violent sectarianism and extremism. In the words of Altaf Hussain Hali, the famous poet and thinker of British India – ‘If one has to see a nation’s downfall exceeding all limits – it is Islam’s incapability to rise after its fall,” (translated from Urdu).

Hence, to stem the tide of Islam’s continuing decline, there is an urgent need to treat the pursuit of all universal sciences and knowledge as part of God’s trust to humanity This is to be accomplished by incorporating all branches of universal, secular and scientific knowledge in the Islamic religious schools (madrasas), so that those graduating from these schools should qualify to join the secular academic world and become doctors, engineers, lawyers, accountants, scientists and professionals in other fields and thus reinvigorate the foundations of Islamic civilization. The vast theological content of madrasa curriculum that is rooted in the medieval ages can be reduced to one core ‘religious’ subject covering the universal dimensions of Qur’anic message and some social works (community service) –  for, to be a good Muslim, a growing school student does not need any knowledge of the secondary sources of Islam as taught in the madrasas – other than familiarity with the Pillars of Faith that he acquires at home or in the local mosque even without going to any school. However, as Islam’s secondary sources, notably the hadith is of highly technical – having evolved more than a thousand years ago, “it should be reserved for enlightened specialists who have attained sufficient maturity, knowledge, and training to distinguish between weak and reliable Hadith, and not to confuse them with the Word of God.” – Essential Message of Islam, p. 363

Let this short article be an eye opener for the Custodians of Islamic Faith who play a decisive role in deciding the curriculum of the madrasas world-wide.

Muhammad Yunus, a Chemical Engineering graduate from Indian Institute of Technology, and a retired corporate executive has been engaged in an in-depth study of the Qur’an since early 90’s, focusing on its core message. He has co-authored the referred exegetic work, which received the approval of al-Azhar al-Sharif, Cairo in 2002, and following restructuring and refinement was endorsed and authenticated by Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl of UCLA, and published by Amana Publications, Maryland, USA, 2009.

Courtesy: New Age Islam
 

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यह क्लीपिंग यहां पढ़ी जा सकती। भाषण का वीडियो भी यहां देखा जा सकता है। यह वीडियो शिकायत के साथ नत्थी किया गया है। इसकी एक कॉपी सबरंगइंडिया के पास है।

1 अक्टूबर को शिकायत दर्ज कराने में नाकाम रहने के बाद लतीफ ने 3 अक्टूबर को एक बार फिर कोशिश की। इस बार भी नाकाम रहे। पुलिस कमिश्नर शिवानंद झा के दफ्तर में वंजारा के खिलाफ शिकायत दर्ज कराने की उनकी कोशिश बेकार गई। वंजारा के खिलाफ भारतीय दंड संहिता की धारा 153 (सी) और धारा 295 (सी) के तहत जो शिकायत तैयार की गई है। उसे यहां पढ़ा जा सकता है।

शिकायत में कहा गया है कि मदरसे पैगंबर की शरीयत के मुताबिक चलाए जाते हैं और ये इस्लाम की शिक्षा देते हैं। इस्लाम शांति का धर्म है। फर्जी मुठभेड़ों के आरोपी रहे वंजारा ने जानबूझ कर अपने भाषण मे ऐसे लफ्जों का इस्तेमाल किया है, जो मुस्लिमों के खिलाफ हिंसा भड़काए और नफरत पैदा करे।

लतीफ कहते हैं कि पिछले शनिवार को जब वह वंजारा की शिकायत करने वेजलपुर थाने पहुंचे तो उन्हें डराया-धमकाया गया और कहा गया कि पूर्व डीआईजी के खिलाफ शिकायत दर्ज कराने की उनकी हिम्मत कैसे हुई। इस पर लतीफ ने दलील दी कि सुप्रीम कोर्ट के निर्देश के मुताबिक अगर किसी लोकसेवक (पब्लिक सर्वेंट) ने कोई अपराध किया है तो किसी भी नागरिक को उसके खिलाफ शिकायत दर्ज कराने का अधिकार है। भले ही वंजारा लोकसेवक के पद से रिटायर क्यों न हो चुके हों। लतीफ शिकायत दर्ज कराने पर अड़े रहे लेकिन उन्हें थाने से निकाल दिया गया।

वंजारा के खिलाफ कम से तीन आपराधिक मामलों में चार्जशीट दाखिल हो चुके हैं। पिछले सप्ताह उन्होंने जो भड़काऊ और नफरत भरा भाषण दिया था उसका वीडियो यहां देखा जा सकता है।

इस वीडियो में वंजारा जो कह रहे हैं वह इस तरह है-

हमारे लिए पाकिस्तान से आए आतंकवादियों के गिरेबान तक ही पहुंचना काफी नहीं है। हमें अलगाववादियों के गिरेबानों तक भी पहुंचना होगा। हमें हुर्रियत कांफ्रेंस के लोगों को भी पकड़ना होगा। उनके लिए जेल ही मुफीद जगह है।

आतंकवादी और अलगाववादियों के अलावा यहां अतिवादी भी हैं। ये अतिवादी मदरसों में पैदा किए जाते हैं। मदरसे ऐसे नर्क हैं जहां राष्ट्रविरोधी और आतंकवादी गतिविधियां चलाई जाती हैं। ये मदरसे आतंकवादी पैदा करने की फैक्टिरयां हैं। ये धोखेबाजों और राष्ट्रविरोधी ताकतों के अड्डे हैं और अरब साम्राज्य का ढांचा तैयार कर रहे हैं।

जब तक मोहम्मद बिन कासिम ने हमला नहीं किया था तब तक अफगानिस्तान से इंडोनेशिया तक सिर्फ हिंदू थे। अब कश्मीर में एक भी हिंदू (हिंदू मुक्त कश्मीर) नहीं है।

पाकिस्तान के खिलाफ तत्काल युद्ध घोषित कर दिया जाना चाहिए। साथ ही भारत की जमीन खासकर मदरसों में पलने वाले अलगाववादियों और आतंकियों को मिटा  डालना चाहिए।

वंजारा को फर्जी मुठभेड़ के मामलों में 2007 को गिरफ्तार किया गया था और वह आठ साल तक जेल में रहा। (इसमें से एक दिन उसने मुंबई की जेल में बिताया था)। इस साल फरवरी में उसे जमानत मिल गई थी। जिस दिन उसे जमानत पर रिहा किया गया उस दिन उसने नरेंद्र मोदी के नारे अच्छे दिन आएंगे की तर्ज पर कहा अच्छे दिन आ गए। गुजरात का यह पूर्व डीआईजी गुजरात में 2002 से चले आए फर्जी पुलिस मुठभेड़ कांडों का प्रमुख आरोपी रहा है।

बहरहाल, इस साल 6 जुलाई को वंजारा के बेटे अर्जुन को गुजरात के एंटी करप्शन ब्यूरो ने 75000 रुपये की रिश्वत लेते गिरफ्तार कर लिया था। उसे सस्पेंड कर दिया गया था। अर्जुन वड़ोदरा ग्रामीण इलाके में मामलातदार (एक्जीक्यूटिव मजिस्ट्रेट) था। उसने अपने मातहत मामलातदार जसवंतसिन्ह दशरथसिन्ह हजूरी की साथ मिलकर जमीन के एक मामले में मनमाफिक फैसला सुनाने के लिए एक लाख रुपये की रिश्वत की मांग की थी।  

इस साल मार्च में वंजारा ने एक के बाद एक कई विवादास्पद ट्वीट किए। और मुगलों की संतानों को भारत छोड़ने को कहा। सबरंगइंडिया ने इस पर दाह्याजी गोबरजी वंजारा (डीजी वंजारा) शीर्षक से एक स्टोरी की थी। उसने अपने ट्वीट में कहा कि न सिर्फ किताबों से मुगलों को हटाया जाए और जो उनके वंशज होने का नकली दावा करतें उन्हें भी भारत से भगा दिया जाए।

गुजरात में वंजारा का सिक्का अब भी किस तरह से चल रहा है इसका अंदाजा पीपी पांडे के डीजीपी की नियुक्ति से चल जाता है। पीपी पांडे पर 15 अप्रैल को सीबीआई जांच (हाई कोर्ट की निगरानी में चल रहे मुकदमे के तहत)  के तहत आर्म्स एक्ट, अपहरण, गलत ढंग से गिरफ्तारी कर रखने और चार लोगों की पूर्व नियोजित हत्याके के मामले में चार्जशीट दाखिल किया गया है। अब यही पीपी पांडे गुजरात का डीजीपी बन चुका है। इस पद पर नियुक्ति से पहले वह गुजरात में एक दशक बाद घुस रहे वंजारा के स्वागत समारोह में शामिल हुए थे। शोहराबुद्दीन शेख और इशरत जहां फर्जी मुठभेड़ कांड के आरोपी वंजारा को हाल ही में सीबीआई के स्पेशल कोर्ट में गुजरात प्रवेश की अनुमति दी है। नरेंद्र मोदी में सत्ता में आने के बाद इस तरह की कई दागी पुलिस अफसरों को अचानक छोड़े जाने पर चौतरफा सवाल उठे हैं।  

वंजारा के खिलाफ सबसे कड़ी टिप्पणी अक्षरधाम मामले में सुप्रीम कोर्ट के फैसले में की गई है। यह फैसला 16 मई 2014 में सुनाया गया था। कोर्ट ने अक्षरधाम हमले के मामले में गलत लोगों को बतौर आरोपी बनाने के खिलाफ डी जी वंजारा को कड़ी फटकार लगाई थी। सुप्रीम कोर्ट ने कहा था मामले में डी जी वंजारा कभी भी अभियोजन के पक्ष में गवाह के तौर पर पेश नहीं हुआ। सुप्रीम कोर्ट ने मामले में जो लापरवाही की थी, उसे नजरअंदाज करने वाली निचली अदालतों के रवैये पर भी टिप्पणी की थी। हमले के आरोपी करार दिए गए लोगों के वकीलों का कहना था कि उनका बयान इसके एक साल बाद लिए गए। सुप्रीम कोर्ट ने कहा कि साफ लापरवाही हुई है। सर्वोच्च अदालत ने कहा- इस मामले में जांच शुरू करने के आदेश से लेकर राज्य की ओर से इनकी अनुमति देने तक लापरवाही की गई है। जब नागरिकों के अधिकारों का इस पैमाने पर उल्लंघन हो रहा हो तो हम हाथ पर हाथ धरे बैठे नहीं रह सकते। हमले के असली अभियुक्तों के पकड़ने के बजाय पुलिस ने निर्दोष लोगों पकड़ कर सजा दिलवाई।

( आदमभाई, सुलेमान भाई अजमेरी और अन्य बनाम गुजरात राज्य के मुकदमे में सुप्रीम कोर्ट का फैसले का अंश)

The post मदरसों और आतंकवाद पर भड़काऊ भाषण के आरोप में वंजारा के खिलाफ शिकायत appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Image: Indian Express / India Today

Thereafter, Latif tried yesterday, on October 3, again unsuccessfully, to register the FIR at the office of the police commissioner, Shivanand Jha in Ahmedabad. A copy of the complaint registered under sections 153 (c) and 295 (c) of the Indian Penal Code may be read here. The complainant has stated that Madrassahs are run according to the Shariah of the Prophet and are involved in teaching of Islam, which is a religion of peace.Vanzara, who is an accused in fake encounter cases, has deliberately uttered such words so that it incites violence against Muslims and engenders hatred towards Muslims, says the complaint.

Latif says that when he went to the Vejalpur station to register the complaint on Saturday, the local officer and inspector sought to intimidate and terrorise him asking how he dared register a complaint against a police officer! When he held his ground and said that the Supreme Court had ruled that a citizen had a right to lodge a case against a public servant if an offence was committed–and here was one who had retired anyway—they shunted him out of the police station.

A video of the inciteful and controversial speech made by a former senior police officer, charge sheeted in at least three criminal cases can be heard here.

In this video, the police officer, former DIC DG Vanzara, controversially says,

“It is not enough to get at the terrorists from Pakistan (antankwadi)…":DG Vanzara

"We must get at the separatists (alagwadi) also. The Hurriyat Conference. Their place is not outside but in jail”: DG Vanzara
 
“Apart from the terrorists and separatists, there are the antimwadis (extremists). These ‘antimwadis’ are bred in Madrassahs. Madrassahs are dens of hell where anti-national and terrorist activities are carried out”: DG Vanzara
 
“These Madrassahs are factories that breed/manufacture terrosim”: DG Vanzara
 
“These Madrassahs that are centres of traitors and anti-nationals and terrorists are furthering the designs of the Arab Empire”: DG Vanzara
 
“Until Mohammad Bin Qasim invaded India, from Afghanistan to Indonesia there were only Hindus. Now there is not a single Hindu in Kashmir (Hindu mukt Kashmir): DG Vanzara
 
“War must be declared against Pakistan and war must be declared now. At the same time, the separatists and extremists on Indian soil—especially those bred in Madrassahs must also be acted upon and eliminated”: DG Vanzara
 
Vanzara who was arrested in 2007 and was in jail for eight years (out of which he spent one day in Mumbai jail) until he got bail on February 2016. Notoriously, the day he was released on bail in 2016 he echoed Narendra Modi’s election campaign slogan “Acche Din Ayenge” The former DIG was prime accused in the police encounter cases in Gujarat since 2002. On release on bail, he had said “… acche din aa gaye (good days have arrived),” referring to his release in Ahmedabad while addressing the press before flying to Mumbai, where he is to be based, as part of the court’s bail conditions
 
Just day before yesterday, the Gujarat police had finally suspended his son, Arjun who had been arrested by the Anti-Corruption Bureau, on July 6 this year for accepting a bribe of Rs. 75,000. Arjun Vanzara was a mamlatdar (executive magistrate) posted in Vadodara rural. He along with his deputy mamlatdar Jashvantsinh Dashrathsinh Hajuri had allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs1 lakh from the complainant “to order in favour of complainant’s land matter.”
 
On March 6 this year, Vanzara had in a series of controversial tweets, asked the ‘sons of Mughals to quit India. Sabrangindia had carried the story that read, "Dahyaji Gobarji Vanzara  (DG Vanzara) former Deputy Inspector General, Gujarat, jailed from 2007 until 2015 on charges of having conducted a series of extra-judicial murders (encounters) while heading the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), has done it again. In a tweet a few days ago (screen shot below) he has said that not only should Mughals be removed from Books, endorsing the twitter hashtag #removemughalsfrombooks but he has gone several steps further. He says not only Mughals from books, but “those who fictitiously claim to be their descendants should be removed from India.”

That he is a man favoured by the entire regime in Gujarat is clear from the fact that on April 15, director general of police, PP Pandey, himself, charge-sheeted by the CBI in a High Court monitored investigation, for offences under the Arms Act and for offences of abduction, wrongful confinement, and premeditated murder of four persons, was –in utter disregard for due process of law—appointed as acting DGP, Gujarat. Before his appointment to a powerful post, Pandey had attended the “"welcome ceremony" for DG Vanzara, re-entering Gujarat after close to a decade. The retired DIG accused in both the Ishrat Jahan and Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter killings was recently allowed by a special CBI court to enter Gujarat. Vanzara’s prejudicial outlook that, under law, constitutes hate speech was recently visible on social media when he asked “Sons of Mughals to Quit India.”

The sudden discharge of several senior policemen after the Modi regime came to power in Delhi has generated question and criticism.

The worst possible indictment of DG Vanzara was, however in the judgement of the Supreme Court in the Akshardham case (judgement delivered on May 16, 2014.

Para 65: It was contended by the learned senior counsel that PW-126 stated that his senior officer D.G Vanzara, had orally told him that PW-50 was aware of ³² (2002) 1 SCC 351³³ (2002) 2 SCC 426³⁴ (2000) 4 SCC 515 the details of the conspiracy, but D.G. Vanzara was never produced as a prosecution witness. The case is the same with Brig. Raj Sitapati, who was also a witness to the recovery of the two Urdu letters, and this material witness had also been conveniently brushed aside both by the police and the prosecution. Reliance was placed by the learned senior counsel in this regard on Tulsiram Kanu v. The State³⁵, Ram Prasad & Ors. v. State of U.P.³⁶ and State of U.P. v. Punni & Ors.³⁷
 
Para 96: But, apart from all these aspects on the statements of the accomplices, we fear that the story against the accused persons and its corroboration through the statements of accomplices is an act of concoction to make up a case against them. It was recorded in the statement of PW-126 that the information regarding PW-50 was given to him by D.G. Vanzara. However, D.G. Vanzara had not even been examined in this case and there is no information as to how he came to know about PW-50 after almost a year of the attack on Akshardham. This very important aspect of the lapse in investigation had been ignored by the courts below. The learned senior counsel for the accused persons have contended that there has been a delay of around a year from the time of the attack on Akshardham in recording the statements of the accomplices which shrouds the case of the prosecution.

 Page No. 265:  The statement of PW-50 was taken at 8 p.m, on the same night of 28.08.2003, after receiving verbal instruction from higher officer-D.G. Vanzara in the morning.

The following quotes are poignant and tell their own story:
Para. 131: " ….. take note of the perversity in considering this case at various stages, right from investigation level to the granting of sanction by the State Government ….. We being the apex court cannot afford to sit with folded hands when such gross violation of fundamental rights and basic human Rights of the citizens of this country were presented before us.”

Para 136: "Before parting with the judgment, we intend t express our anguish about the incompetence with which the investigating agencies conducted the investigation of the case of such a grievous nature, involving the integrity and security of the Nation. Instead of booking the real culprits responsible for taking so many precious lives, the police caught innocent people and got imposed the grievous charges against them which is resulted in their conviction and subsequent sentencing".

Such verdicts no doubt reaffirm each citizen’s faith in the judiciary. The tale of trauma and injustice deserves fair recompense and prosecution of the perpetrators.

(Excerpts from judgement in Criminal Appeal Nos 2295-2296 of 2010, Adambhai Sulemanbhai Ajmeri & Ors. …Appellants Versus State of Gujarat with Criminal Appeal Nos 45 of 2011)
 

The post Criminal Complaint Against Former Gujarat Cop Vanzara for ‘Madrassahs Manufacture Terrorism’ Speech appeared first on SabrangIndia.