MONTH-IN-PERSPECTIVE

New Delhi: It’s been close to six months, since the launching of STARTUP INDIA. But it has not been able to register its success, despite being talked about by all and sundry starting from PM Modi, the architect himself. According to media report it’s not even 1%.

While it is true that there have been some over 200 aspiring entrepreneurs who had applied for permission to set up new ventures, but only one project has been cleared so far, by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, the nodal ministry for approval of these STARTUPs.

Clearing the grey area, when it comes to approval of these STARTUP applications, it looks as if the innovative promoters and proposers of these projects have submitted incomplete details required to avail all the benefits available under the scheme, the ministry had claimed. Surely, the ministry is not expected to do the spade work for the projects, like project report with technical papers, financial feasibility, marketing potential etc. were certainly needed to be submitted by the enterprising youths desirous of starting their own enterprises. There cannot be spoon feeding by the government. However the lone application which has been approved by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry appears to be path-breaking and very promising. Reportedly, the Hyderabad based Cygne Energy Pvt. Ltd. had come out with the most innovative power back-up solution replacing the traditional invertors used in houses and small offices, generally to cope with power shutdowns.

The project report for this innovative idea was wetted by IIT Chennai, and hence had its professional intervention which clearly indicated the possible 50% saving in the electricity bills. And reportedly ministry approved the project almost instantly and recommended it for bank funding. As is known, the Union government has allotted Rs 2500 crores per annum to SIDBI for the next 4 years to finance the STARTUPs. Enterprising young men and women must take some professional help from institutions like IIM and IIT to make their projects look economically worthy and viable to take advantage of this innovative scheme of PM Narendra Modi.

This man called Arvind Kejriwal is increasingly reducing himself to a joker. These days he makes news for all wrong reasons. The Delhi governments ‘Delhi Members of Legislative Assembly Removal & Disqualification Act’ was returned by the President of India Pranab Mukharjee, having refused to give assent. The act was with the intention to protect with retrospective effect 21 AAP MLAs appointed as Parliamentary Secretaries, from being disqualified under ‘office of profit’ provisions of the constitution.

Bugged by the rejection of the legislation by the President, Kejriwal was in his hyper best. And whom does he attack? Not President Mukharjee nor Lt. Governor Jung, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He suffers from a sense of paranoia that PM Modi is there only to create trouble for his government.

Having seen Modi’s style of functioning, although he gets not more than 70% marks for his two years, in office, he must be least interested in destabilizing AAP government in Delhi. But Kejriwal is already in the market crying hoarse, ‘Modi’s strategy is not work himself and not let others work. Modi is scared of the AAP,’ accusing Modi of using the Union Home Ministry. But since when Kejriwal became thick headed? President Mukharjee is not a BJP nominee, he was appointed by the UPA government and he has his own way of thinking and therefore very unlikely he will take Modi’s call, if any, to harm AAP and its Chief Minister’s government.

Whatever the antics of Arvind Kejriwal, the AAP Chief Minister of Delhi, his government needs to be congratulated for the action initiated on private super specialty hospitals for failing to meet the conditions of land allotment in Delhi for building their hospitals. According to report, some Rs. 600 crores has been demanded as fine from some of the hospitals of Delhi.

Reportedly from 1960 to 1990, some 43 private hospitals have been allotted land at concessional rates on the condition that they will keep 10% of the inpatient department capacity and 25% of OPD capacity to treat economically weaker sections’ patients free of cost. Pursuant to a PIL, demanding implementation of these free provisions, Delhi High Court had passed an order in 2007 imposing fine, obviously indicating that these private hospitals were really not doing what is truly a quid-pro-quo for the concessional land. Such behaviour and treatment of poor by most of the private hospitals is not new, it is a mindset of these owner class against the poor and vulnerable section of our society. Besides, most super specialty hospitals are corporate owned where patient is only a commodity. The entire gamut of activity of these hospitals is revenue driven.

Under the circumstances, action initiated by AAP government needs to be commended. Two cheers to AAP government of Arvind Kejriwal. 

BIHAR: Besides alleged ‘jungleraj’ prevailing in Bihar, it can make news for using a mundane a term as ‘dear’ to a lady, who is not necessarily your friend. 

Indeed, Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani can get into unintended controversies. A minister in Bihar Ashok Chaudhary, reportedly a doctorate and can be seen as qualified to be the State Education Minister, had reportedly tweeted the Union Minister with salutation ‘Dear Smriti Irani Ji…..’. He is a Minister of Education of the State, where Union Minister Smriti Irani is on a visit. It is perfectly in order for state education minister to address his observation to the union minister in charge of higher education and national education policy etc.. If he has used the word ‘Dear’ while writing his communication in Hindi, she does not have to take its meaning literally in Hindi. It appeared to be a straight forward observation on the twitter.

Unfortunately, it’s not the observation that she took umbrage to, it’s the word ‘Dear’. It looks, since she was a senior lady honourable union minister, ‘how dare’ a state minister, who is a man, address her as ‘Dear’, is what piqued her.

Dear Smriti Iraniji, keep smiling, it will only improve your profile among your critics. Smile only conceals your real reaction while angry response only exposes us.

   KOLKATA: There was this report in the media some days ago “Triple Talaq raked up to defame Islam says AIMPLB member” & another report “Triple Talaq will stay: AIMPLB”. While the issue is completely an internal issue within the Muslim Community of India, it is very relevant to many of its own faithfuls, who are probably in a minority and therefore need public support.

The question here is, if it is an issue raised by its own members, then the community members are expected to take the call.

All homosapians need to understand and appreciate that religious dogmas and practices are legitimized over a period only by humans who are by nature imperfect. And these were started at a time when some of the practices may have been relevant and therefore need to change with the changing times.

Fortunately among major religions of India, Hinduism, Islam and Christianity, both Hindus and Christians have an open approach to the problems within its ranks, which may not be so with the practitioners of Islam.

There is this book by one Irshad Manji “Trouble with Islam today”, which advocates IJTIHAD. Surely all Indian Muslims would know what IJTIHAD means. For the uninitiated, it simply means- Freedom to Question. Irshad Manji talks about her book as an open letter, and she says “By writing this open letter, I am not implying that other religions are problem free. Hardly. The difference is, libraries abound in books about the trouble with Christianity and others. There is no shortage of books about the trouble with Judaism. We Muslims have a lot of catching up to do in the dissent department. 

Whose permission are we waiting for?”

Isn’t it a very relevant question, which should ignite a debate among the Indian Islamic faithfuls?!

A member of AIMPLB, Dr Asma Zehra is reported to have said in Lacknow “Islam has given equal rights to women and men. Muslims are happy with their personal laws”. While addressing an All Muslim Women Conference in Lucknow. Dr. Azma Zehra had her face covered. Whom is she afraid of, to conceal her identity? She and her ilk like the Imam Maulana Khalid Rasheed Farangi Mahli, who justified the “triple talaq in one go”, should read this book by Irshad Manji.

Here it is pertinent to reproduce the foreword by Dr. Khaleel Mohammed, a Saudi national, who is a Professor at San Diego State University in the U.S and we quote,

“Let us face a simple fact: I should hate Irshad Manji. If Muslims listen to her, they will stop listening to people like me, an imam who spent years at traditional Islamic university.

She threatens my male authority and says things about Islam that I wish were not true. She has a big mouth, and fact upon fact to corroborate her analysis. She doesn’t fear death, except the kind that comes from shutting down one’s brain. She is a lesbian, and my madressa training has instilled, almost into my DNA, that Allah hates gays and lesbians. I really should hate this woman.

But then I look into my heart and engage my mind, and I come to a discomfiting conclusion: Irshad is telling the truth. And my God commands me to uphold the truth-which means that I have to side with her.

However, that is not why I write this prologue. I do so because I need to atone for acting like a hypocrite.

I am often commended for my bravery in opposing extremist Islam and terrorism. I can’t downplay the accolades because it does demand a certain amount of courage to do what I do. It should therefore not have required a colossal sacrifice of testosterone to defend Irshad when she needed it.

Recently, I had that opportunity, and I failed to take it. I’d just come home from a conference, where I’d stirred a flap by urging Muslims to move beyond anti-Semitism. Some Muslims decided to do the right thing: They met with me to determine exactly what I’d said. In the course of the discussion, someone brought up Irshad’s name. The group derided her as a little lesbian troublemaker. And there I sat like a gutted chicken, mute and unmoving, not wanting to take on yet another issue. I, the man, the “upholder and protector” of women, deemed to be so by divine mandate in a seventh-century document that the madrassa teachers told me is for all time, I could not utter a word.

That is when I realized that all this nonsense had to stop. Am I a Muslim or am I not? Do I care for truth or do I not? This is why I now declare, not just for those Muslims who met with me, but for all Muslims everywhere: I support Irshad Manji. She wants us to do what our Holy Book wants us to do: End the tribal posturing, open our eyes, and stand up to oppression, even if it’s rationalized by our vaunted imams, sheikhs, mullahs, professors, and whatever other titles the packagers of Islam give themselves.

Rarely, if ever, has a Muslim stated publicly what so many of us know but dare not confirm. Irshad pulls no punches as she expose Jew-bashing, as well as the urge to lay the responsibility for all of Islam’s ills on Western colonization, while neglecting Islam’s own history of imperialism and continued human rights abuses in the name of Allah. Throughout her book, Irshad remains obedient to the Divine Imperative: “O you who believe! Be upholders of justice, witnesses for God, even if it be against yourselves, or your parents and kin…” (Quran, 4:135)

While obeying Allah, Irshad beats the mullahs at their own game. One of the most onerous prerequisites of ijtihad, Islam’s tradition of independent reasoning, is that one be familiar with all the latest thinkers in Islam. On this score, Irshad is way ahead of many clerics. In fact, her book can serve as a primer on the views of modern Muslim intellectuals. Where else can one find such an astute analysis of Sa’d el-Din Ibrahim, Mahmoud Taha, Khaled Abou El-Fadl, Nasr Abu Zayd, and several others?

To be sure, Irshad has opened herself up to criticism by choosing a defiantly democratic form of expression-the book as an open letter. This approach dents the egos of the elite because she refuses to write strictly for us and our clubby constituents. Irshad’s work does not fall into the typology of academic theories couched in almost incomprehensible ivory-tower jargon. Nor does it represent the usual romantic ode to Islam that holds meaning only to a follower. Instead, Irshad’s honesty, style, and clarity catapult the book into a class by itself.

You, the reader, may not agree with all of Irshad’s conclusions. I certainly don’t. But this is precisely her goal. To expect any different would be to defeat the very freedom of thought that she seeks to reintroduce in Islam.", unquote.

MAHARASHTRA: Maharashtra strong man Sharad Pawar, despite strong ambition and some attempts couldn’t reach his target of becoming the Prime Minister of India.

This is probably the reason he ends up targeting incumbent prime ministers. His current target is naturally Narendra Modi.

Pawar is much older than Modi. His interest is varied and involved in different areas, including cricket, without being a cricketer he became the BCCI president, so also ICC president. Even now, he defeated a cricketer to become the president of Maharashtra Cricket Association.

Everywhere it was money and power that attracted Pawar. He is also accused of being in contact with Dawood Ibrahim, the criminal fugitive. There are many scams he is involved in. But somehow managed to remain reasonably unscathed. His political contact and media connection has helped him in this regard.

But Narendra Modi is a diametrically different personality. As clean as anybody else can be. In many respect a model, workaholic, no attraction of wine or women, personally incorruptible, and a powerful speaker. Of course, he has his share of negatives and controversies.

His recent visit and his address to the joint session of U.S Congress has been an unqualified success. But Pawar, not very comfortable with his success, like any Indian opposition politician had reportedly remarked “Modi is PM of India, but is visiting foreign countries frequently. His meeting with the U.S President Obama is… a futile exercise”. Reacting to his remark, the Deccan Herald, the Bangaluru based daily had quoted, Marshal McLuhan, as “A point of view is a dangerous luxury when substituted for understanding.” It appears in this quote that Pawar has failed to understand what Modi is saying and doing, hence this remark. Probably Deccan Herald is not far off the mark. Is Narendra Modi, the man and the prime minister is beyond the comprehension of opposition politicians in India?! 

Some weeks ago hacker Manish Bhangale had disclosed the stunning information of this Maharashtra minister Eknath Khadse being in touch with crime chieftain fugitive Dawood Ibrahim, besides other disclosures. Ministers involved in land scams, money laundering, and bribery etc. is all passé. Most ministers have been doing these evil deeds for all the 70 years of free India, and have enjoyed it too with their friends, relatives and cronies. But what really hit the minister like a ton of brick is the ‘D’ connection.

But, if that is the causa proxima of his ouster, why is Sharad Pawar, the closest Indian politician to ‘D’, is roaming free? Nobody is talking about it, including the media! Indeed, it’s the political party that mattered. In NCP, Sharad Pawar is the boss and it’s ‘King Can Do No Wrong’. But BJP now has Narendra Modi’s eyes & ears. It is unfortunate that Khadse is in the wrong party. In NCP, he would be passé too, like Pawar.  

   

    KARNATAKA: Karnataka was recently in the news for an avoidable wrong reason. Karnataka’s policemen had planned to go on strike, but strike was withdrawn in the last minute. But one of them silently protested, and all that he wanted to do was to submit a memorandum on the problems constabulary in Karnataka faces. Karnataka government reportedly suspended constable Ramakrishna for the alleged indiscipline.

It is an open secret that lower order policemen suffer from all kinds of problems. This is not only in Karnataka, but an all India phenomenon. We all know they do not have a fixed time of duty and therefore they have erratic lunch/dinner time, so also erratic food habits, on ‘as is where is’ basis. Rests and rest rooms, accommodation, behaviour of seniors, interference and rudeness of politicians have all influenced their behaviour towards the general public. After all they too are humans, they take it out on general public, especially poor and those without any influence in the corridors of power. Thus most people are very unhappy approaching the police for any help.

The recent issue of protest by the Karnataka police also threw up issue of age old orderly system, where constables were being used. Home ministry appears to have finally decided about this stupid practice of colonial era to be phased out. It is a fact that seniors, starting from Inspector to DGP, all have these orderlies, with DGP & ADGP having 8 of them. The number, reportedly, goes down as the rank goes down, with Inspector getting the privilege of just one orderly. The government initiative, as and when it happens, can take its own time. However let’s hope, its GRBR i.e, ‘Good Riddance of the Bad Rubbish.’

While we are about it, it is interesting to note that, the Home Ministry appears to be helpless in eradicating this orderly practices. Instead of constables, they are planning to recruit group D employees. So the obnoxious practice of orderlies will continue in some form or the other. Here it is interesting to note what a former DGP had to say on the issue. Writing in the press he appears to be fully in favour of abolishing the orderly system. He quotes how in the past, the government had started paying extra allowances to the senior police officers to appoint their own helping hands instead of the constabulary. But he writes “It later turned out that not only the officers received the allowance but continued to employ constables in the name of visitor screening, security duty etc.”. Thus, for police higher-ups its ‘have the cake and eat it too’. The best solution, according to him “is to outsource orderlies from private manpower supply agencies. They pay the minimum wages fixed by the government and their bill would be less than the cost incurred in employing constables. Besides there will be no problem of promotion, seniority etc. for the department. This will relieve thousands of police personnel from doing menial jobs at the residence of senior offices”.

This is a feudal mindset, most Indians suffer from, where like George Orwell had famously said in his epochal work of proletarian thoughts ANIMAL FARM, “All animals are equal but some are more equal than others”. This confirms a truth that ‘India is not a fair society’, where marginalized get used and exploited interminably. This is Yeh Mera India.

T.H. Altaf Hussain, was an unknown person, beyond his place of dwelling and his immediate friends circle. But some years ago, he became suddenly famous. Deservedly at that. The reason, he made a film, at a cost of some Rs. 55 Lakhs or so, which among other awards, went on to win the national SWARNA KAMALA. For a debutant, it was a huge success.

Altaf is from Mangalooru. It was a matter of pride for whole of Mangalooru. But did Mangalooru celebrate his success which had the potential for international name and fame? His film was screened in Mangalooru in some theatres. But not many have seen it. Some even said, it’s been boycotted by some groups. The undersigned had the opportunity to see this film at a private screening in Ravindra Kala Mandira of University College Mangalooru.

Why the film was not welcomed or even received positively by the society at least in and around Mangalooru?

It was a movie cleared fully by Censer Board for Universal Viewing. It won the top national award. Yet…..?

Was it too uncomfortable to a section of Mangalooru society? Was Altaf talking about some uncomfortable truths about the society around him?

Some answer may be found in a possible ruling by the Supreme Court, in the application made by petitioners Zakia Soman and Noorjehan Safia Niaz. They approached the court last week.

Altaf Hussain, is obviously far ahead of his time to highlight an issue of injustice and unfairness to women in some of the social practices around him. His movie is bold and courageous. The name of the film which won the SWARNA KAMALA is ‘BYARI’ in Beary language.

Issues taken up by Altaf in his film are exactly the same as the issues before the Supreme Court to-day, courtesy these two ladies of Muslim Mahila Andolan. According to these petitioners “Muslim women in India have continued to suffer injustice through Talaq-ul-Bidaat (triple talaq) and Nikah Halala (ban against remarriage with divorced husband without an intervening marriage with another man). Clearly it is an issue of women’s human rights.

Film ‘Byari’ was an honest attempt, but alas the great public and its intellectuals kept quiet, when they should have spoken.

Martin Luther King had observed long ago “Our life begins to end the day we become silent about things that matter”. Isn’t he right?

           

WORLD: In recent days, nothing occupies the public space in Europe and the U.K is the possibility or otherwise of U.K remaining within the European Union. There is a fierce debate raging across the United Kingdom on the issue, of course by the time, you are reading this, the referendum could have been over and the decision taken. While there is strong lobby in both Conservative as well as Labour to continue to remain with the larger European Union there is equally a strong group in all political groups to say good bye to the Union.

Those who want to have the EU has many point like the acute pressure on National Health Services due to the migration from EU countries. The presence of these migrants from Spain, Portugal, Greece and some of the newly joined members of East European Countries has truly stretched the NHS and has been a big drain on the national resources of U.K. For most migrants U.K has been a preferred destination for its welfare measure and U.K being in the EU has only worsened the situation. But is leaving the EU is an option for the U.K? Not really, think many intellectuals besides of course those in politics.

According to reports, more than 300 historians have said that a vote to leave the European Union will condemn Britain to irrelevance. “As historians, we believe that Britain has had in the past and will have in the future, an irreplaceable role to play in Europe”, their letter to the press in U.K reported to have mentioned.

There is also fear exposed in public that “if we have European Union, the economy will be thrown into recession and some 800,000 jobs will be lost”. This is not untrue.

Indeed both sides have its own strong point, while there is relentless pressure on the U.K government resources especially from the EU migrants, it is also true that EU offers the U.K a huge European market for its products and services, which keeps the teller machine ringing. Clearly for U.K dice is in favour of remaining within the EU than outside it. Hope wisdom prevails in preference to a sense of national pride.  

London has a new mayor. An Asian and a Muslim. As it was unthinkable some 8 years ago that a coloured person would have occupied the whites only territory of WHITE HOUSE, the presidential mansion of the U.S, Similar was the case of London mayoralty. But then we are living in an evolving world. Like the Americans in the first instance, it was the graciousness of Londoners, Whites, Blacks and Browns, that catapulted Mr. Sadiq Khan as the Mayor of London.

A lawyer by profession, a human rights activist by commitment and an M.P. representing Labour party in the British Parliament, Sadiq Khan represented a new breed of Muslims. Hope his new political office, provides him an exallent opportunity to bring freshness of approach to some of the issues bothering British Society. However, in a milieu where a Muslim worker has refused to touch Bible in the past, Mr. Khan has an unenviable task of bridging bridges. How is he going to address, delicate social issues has to be seen, especially when there were instance when Englishmen complaining in the Middle East about the early morning Aazaan were summarily deported out of the country they were in. 

We only hope that the maturity that voters in London have shown in electing an Asian Muslim from Pakistan shall show the way forward.

In a recent survey The Guardian from London had this story titled “Christians now in minority as U.K becomes less religious”. There are two aspects to the above report. One may cause a concern to the Vatican or Church of England and there are so many who are concerned about the minority status of Christian in the U.K. Thoughts on the concerns of this group is best left to them to articulate. But the later part of the report is more interesting.

It is true that The Guardian had this story on the front cover for the importance the news paper thought that it deserved.

One of the most important reasons according to the survey is the stark increase in the number of those who identified themselves as “nones”, which meant, that they have no religion. It was true that they were born to Christian parents, Anglican, Catholic or other denomination. According to the report “The main driver is people who were brought up with some religion now saying they have no religion. What we are seeing is acceleration in the numbers of people not only not practicing their faith on a regular basis, but not even ticking the box. The reason for that is the big question in the sociology of religion”.

The report of Stephen Bullivant, a senior lecturer in theology at St. Mary’s Catholic University, was presented to the House of Commons of the British Parliament recently. It informed that “both the Anglican and Catholic churches are struggling to retain people brought up as Christian. Four out of Ten adults who were raised as Anglicans define themselves as having no religion, and almost as many ‘cradle Catholics’ have abandoned their family faith to become ‘nones’.”

Purely at an individual level, this development augurs well for the humanity. We have seen ever since the polarization of humanity on religious lines since the birth of these religions, world has been at daggers drawn. It is true over a period of time, the civility and acceptance of others within the social milieu, the tension has been on the wane. But in recent times, there has been some heightened assertion of these religious leanings which have led to discomfort, unease and have disturbed the even pace of life in general. Without naming any religion, it can be safely admitted that Karl Marx was not wrong at all when he said that ‘Religion is the opium of the people”.

Hence, the development in the United Kingdom may after all be the precursor, the harbinger of a world of sanity, peace and tranquility. Or is it too much to ask?

Post mass shooting in the Orlando night club by an American Muslim of Afghan origin, Omar Mateen where he killed some 50 or so has sparked a nationwide debate about the loyalty American Muslims have for their chosen land.

Donold Trump, the Republican nominee for the ensuing U.S Presidential race, as his wont, has been rather quick in branding them, something like unpatriotic. Talking to CNN, Trump was reported to have stated, referring to the Orlando killer, that “For some reason, the Muslim Community does not report on people like this”. Of course that was rather a blanket statement, especially for a country like United States. That was how FBI has come out to set the record straight.

Contrary to the claims of Trump, law enforcing authorities in the United States have gone on record. Referring to responsible Muslims, FBI director, James Lemay was reported to have stated that “they do not want people committing violence, either in their community or in the name of their faith, and so some of our most productive relationships are with people who see things and tell us things who happen to be Muslims”. Thus, it did emerge into the public space that Muslim Americans have reportedly informed authorities about fellow Muslims whom they fear might be turning to extremism. This is something Muslims all over the world need to recognize and understand; especially in those countries which are officially not Islamic countries and Muslims are in minority. The attitude of American Muslims, who are law abiding and responsible can only make the life of average Muslims so much better, when the country is ruled by non-Muslims.