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Malegaon & Bhiwandi electorate dump Congress
2007-06-03 21:18:00
The rout of Congress in the civic elections in Malegaon and Bhiwandi, the two Muslim-majority towns of Maharashtra, comes just in wake of Congress' dismal performance in UP where for the first time not a single Muslim MLA of the party could win.Didn't Congress have enough indications or they were just not bothered? For years they kept the Sri Krishna commission report under the carpet though they pledged to implement it before elections. The indifference of the then Congress Chief Minister late Sudhakar Rao Naik towards the riots (before blasts) is well known.And though convictions have begun in the serial blast case, justice eludes the victims of the two rounds of rioting that had killed over a thousand people in Mumbai in 1992-93. There is hardly any action against the tainted police officers. And Vilas Rao Deshmukh government has shown a contemptuous disregard to the demand for CBI inquiry in Malegaon blasts.However, the emergence of a new party Indian Muslim Congress which won...
More About: Rate , Elector

'Hindu-Muslim can be best friends' community at Orkut
2007-06-02 12:39:00
There exist innumerable communities on the social networking site, Orkut but here I am writing about the community 'Hindu-Muslim can b best friends'. If you are on Orkut member, you can reach there straight by clicking here.It's a beautiful community that seems growing fast. I must congratulate the owner, GG, and the moderators SAA and Abdullah, for the effort. Already it has 531 members and I wish the membership here would grow.http://www.orkut.com/Community .aspx? cmm=16602368Each and every day one comes across articles/messages on sites and blogs that only talk about Hindu-Muslim differences but when you come across such a sweet community, one feels delighted. I believe that millions of Hindus and Muslims have their best friends belonging to the other faith. But the micro-minuscule lumpen lot on both sides, which works with a missionary zeal and hate, to post venomous posts/comments on blogs and sites, are mistakenly construed as representative voices of Hindus and Muslims.Such ...
More About: Friends , Best friends

Reliance to open barber shops, pan kiosks & shamshaans!
2007-05-30 17:42:00
Reliance's future foray in opening cobbler shops, barber shops, tea kiosks, bangler salons, pan corners and construction of 'shamshaans', that's what says an innovative poster in Indore.Did you notice that 'kharabpati' has been deliberately missplet as 'kharaabpati'. It is put up at the historic Rajwada in Indore.Taking a dig at India's first ever trillionaire Mukesh Ambani and his company's entry in small business including opening of Reliance Fresh (Sabzi ki Dukaan).The vegetable vendors are opposing it and there have been attacks on Fresh shops in several places like Ranchi (Jharkhand).Farmers and small businessmen are anxious about the prospects. Upper-Class and Upper-Middle class people are not sure, many feel buying vegetables in AC would be a good idea. They are not worried about 'kunjra' and the castes traditionally associated with vegetable business.Consumer ban kar sochna theek har jagah theek nahin, kabhi to insaan ban kar bhi socho, says somebody.Urdu Muslim...
More About: Open , Reliance , Kiosk , Shops , Sham

'Blasphemic' couplets or lack of tolerance
2007-05-28 19:16:00
dair-o-haram meN mil na sakaa hai agar Khudaahogaa vahaan zaruur chalo maikada chaleNdil ko sukuuN milegaa kahaaN soch lijiyemasjid hai ghar se duur chalo maikadaa chaleNThese are two of the few couplets of Urdu poet Afzal Manglori that have caused a controversy in Western UP. Voices of Manglori's boycott are growing shriller apart from little-known organisations issuing statements that term his poetry as un-Islamic.There are charges that in his ghazals he has mocked at Ulema. First of all, there is nothing objectionable about these couplets. Such thoughts abound in Urdu poetry and he is no exceptionally good poet either. In fact, Urdu poetry has been historically liberal and only those with no understanding of literature can make such a hue and cry over these couplets.Meer, Ghalib and other greats took much greater liberty with religion. Had they been in our times they would have been labelled as 'mushrik/mulhid' innumerable times and God knows what would have happened to them....
More About: Poetry , Tolerance , Controversy , Lack

Is he a Hindu or Muslim?
2007-05-27 18:21:00
Saffron is generally associated with the Hindu ism these days but it is the traditional colour of Muslim Sufi robes as well, at least in the Indian sub-continent.Here is a Muslim Baba in the pix on the left. I gather that this is the pose in 'haal' (when a man gets spiritually possessed due to devotion) at the shrine of 17th century Sufi Saint in Islamabad (Pakistan).The shrine of Shah Latif Bari Qadri, known as Bari Imam, during the five-day annual Urs, attracts thousands of devotees from all over the Pakistan and even outside.I have no photographs of an 'Azaad' sufis, whom I have seen at many hospices and shrines. With their long conical 'topis' and style attracted me from childhood. Lately I haven't seen them. At an Urs sometime ago I saw a group of Azaads standing near the 'mehfil-e-qual'. They would loudly say 'Ya Haq' but before I could get my camera, they had vanished.Urdu Muslim India Islam Poetry Religion Hindu Shairi Ghalib Literature Ada Lucknow Meer Faiz India...

Great Urdu poets: Behzad Lakhnavi
2007-05-24 00:08:00
Behzad Lakhnavi is one of my favourite poets. I fell in love with his poetry after watching Merchant Ivory's film Muhafiz, when I was in my early teens. Apart from Faiz, the film had Bahzad's ghazals.hameN kis tarah bhuul paayegii duniyaaki DhuunDhe se hamsaa na paayegii duniyaaqayaamat kii duniyaa meN hai dil-farebiiqayaamat meN bhii yaad aayegii duniyaaWhat is the purpose of life? It intrigues all of us. So much effort man makes on this earth but isn't it all futile in a way. The poets and writers leave behind their works and wonder what will happen to them? Will their writings help the future generations in understanding the world. The writer derives satisfaction in the fact that words written by them would guide and inspire the coming generations and immortalise the writer.Click to read the ghazal in Urdu , Hindi and Roman scripts.I especially like his ghazal, which I have earlier posted on this blog.aye jazba-e-dil gar main chahuuN har chiiz muqaabil aa jayemanzil ke liye do ...
More About: Great , Poets

Firing on Muslims: The ugly pattern from Delhi to Hyderabad
2007-05-21 18:37:00
Already a lot has been written about the police firing in Hyderabad but I could feel the sense of dejection among Muslims elsewhere. In hotels and eateries in Muslim dominated areas in two cities, I could hear angry voices.The pattern is similar. Protesting Muslims or gathering of Muslims where there is a trouble of any sort, are fired at readily compared to gatherings of other communities with much more unrest, said people in chai-khanas. (Apart from Muslims, the gatherings of Dalits and tribals have also seen similar police excesses)In July last year, this happened in Bhiwandi where Muslims were killed in police firing (Click to read). The story was similar at Vadodara where cops were seen on television set, aiming at Muslims (Click to read). The bullets invariably hit Muslims in chests.And just a few months back the same treatment was meted out to Muslims in Seelampur locality on ceiling issue. Nowhere else bullets were fired though Delhi remained on boil for several days and the...
More About: Pattern , Ugly

Why exit polls failed & Most Muslim MLAs ever in UP but not a single Congre
2007-05-13 14:11:00
The psephologists and the exit polls have once against lost credibility. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati emerged victorious on her own. Time and again it has been proved that exist polls can't read the mind of Indian voter, who considers vote as his secret weapon and may not always disclose it to the pollster that for whom he has pressed the EVM button. A Dalit who returns from the booth after voting for BSP may claim that he voted for BJP because he doesn't want to be identified as 'Dalit' and a Muslim might say that he voted for Congress though he hasn't voted for the party in decades. It is not as easy as UK or USA where there are at the most 2-3 parties and electorate are quite frank about their choice. Here often the swing starts just a few hours before polling and entire 'biradiris' decide to vote en-bloc at the eleventh hour. And as I have humbly maintained again and again on this blog that psephologists have always been heavily biased against both SP and BS...
More About: Polls , Single , Exit polls

Don't make it a Hindu-Muslim issue: Gujarat, Vanzara and Sohrabuddin
2007-05-04 00:11:00
We are an emotional nation and most of us are so prompt in taking sides! On websites and blogs, the jingoists are already defending Vanzara and of course there are others blaming the entire police force of Gujarat .Vanzara is a rogue cop. Not courageous but an allegedly corrupt officer. And also there are police officers like Geeta Johari (and Rajneesh Rai) who must be saluted for their courage. Yes, Geeta was instrumental in arresting dreaded underworld don Latif as per law and not Vanzara, who had to hatch a conspracy to kill just a goon.That's (Geeta) the sort of police officers we need, for whom law is sacrosanct. Geetha Jauhari had the guts to bring to books Latif and also the moral authority to catch the corrupt officers who bring a bad name to the Indian police and amass property worth hundreds of crores. And their supporters then cry that there is no way to teach these militants but 'encounters'!It is people like us, emotional people, who are quick to take sides, who are r...
More About: Muslim , Make , Hindu , Issue