Tag: enough said

Does anybody remember the Sachar Committee Report?

Post author By The Metrognome
Post date July 5, 2014
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Has anything changed for the country’s largest minority group? Meanwhile, the word ‘rape’ has achieved disturbing dimensions among the country’s politicians.

by Humra Quraishi

Maharashtra is currently rocked by the news of reservations for Muslims and Marathas. The issue brought to my mind another incident, specifically a report, that created more than its fair share of ripples seven years ago – the Sachar Committee Report.

Headed by Justice Rajinder Sachar and his team, the Report focussed on the current situation of the largest minority community in the country – the Mussalmaans of Hindustan. I still recall the words of the well-known economist and one of the prominent members of this fact-finding team, Dr Abu Saleh Sharief, who had said that in many urban and rural locales, the Muslims are in a more disadvantaged and discriminated position that even the SC and ST communities.

The Report had highlighted the dismal living conditions of Indian Muslims, their issues of housing, drinking water and electricity connections, primary and higher education, Government and private jobs, small industrial ventures, farming and agriculture status, etc.

The question is: what did the Government of the time do? Did it take note of these findings, did it act upon them? More to the point, has anything changed?

Meanwhile, the word ‘rape’ is being bandied about those in power in the most shameless ways possible. Whether it is Goa’s Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar (in pic on right) dismissing the enormity of rape as against setting up one’s own enterprise, or a key member of the Mamata Banerjee Government, who seems to prefer rape as a weapon of choice against those who cross him, the word ‘rape’ is being used by these men as if it is an everyday affair!

And these men get away with spewing as much venom as they can, as long as they tender a nicely-worded apology. Since there is no real punishment, what is to stop these men, and several more, from using the word ‘rape’ in the crudest of ways imaginable?

And for those who are not in the know, the Kashmir Valley has been rocked with a new form of violence – from street dogs.

It turns out that dog bite cases now account for 1 per cent of all trauma cases in the Valley’s only tertiary hospital. As per a study conducted by the Department of Plastic Reconstructive Surgery, Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Soura, “People fom rural areas were attacked more by the dogs than urban people as 65.5 per cent of patients were from the rural background.

“Also, the face was the most commonly affected part of the body, especially among children. In older age groups, limbs were the mostly attacked part. Most of these dog bite cases have been unprovoked. As many as 96.1 per cent of the patients had between one and five injuries all over their body.”

Humra Quraishi is a senior political journalist based in Gurgaon. She is the author of Kashmir: The Untold Story and co-author of Simply Khushwant.

Tags enough said, humra quraishi, mamata banerjee, manohar parriker, reservations for muslims, sachar committee report, street dogs attacking in kashmir

Still waiting for ‘achche din’

Post author By The Metrognome
Post date June 28, 2014
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It is now 39 years since the 1975 Emergency, but how different is life today than in those strife-ridden times?

by Humra Quraishi

39 whole years have passed by since India declared an Emergency. But till date, June 25-26 stand out as the darkest day in our country’s democracy, in our recent history.

Just like every year, several groups such as the PUCL, CFD, Janhastakshep, the AMIYA and BG Rao Foundation, are observing the Anti Emergency Day in the country. They do this to “remember those dark days when internal Emergency was imposed in the country on the midnight of 25^th/25^th June 1975, which continued for 19 months. Fundamental rights were suspended, the Press was gagged, voices of dissent were throttled and more than one lakh opposition leaders and critics were detained without trial.”

Today, several activists comment that though the present day situation is not Emergency-like, the ground realities in the country are still horrifying, with signs of dictatorship very much alive. Midnight knocks on the door and encounter killings are still a big reality. Innocents are thrown into jail. Non-violent protests are crushed. People’s anger over Government apathy is throttled. Watchdog groups and NGOs are slowly coming under State scrutiny. There seems to be a definite trend to crush critics and their criticism, to silence any rebellious voice.

With these human rights violations are other confusing matters. Currently, Delhi University cannot decide on whether there should be a three or four year course. How can it, when there seems to be little coordinator between the HRD Ministry and the UGC?

This confusion also seems to stretch into foreign policy decisions. Though Right Wing politicians have always been against Bangladeshi refugees in the country, Sushma Swaraj is now taking her first trip to Bangladesh, as Minister for External Affairs. We’re waiting to see what she will have to say in Dhaka vis-à-vis Bangla refugees.

But before this trip, shouldn’t she have flown East, towards Iraq, and seen what is really happening there? After all, hundreds of Indians are stranded in and around Iraq and they need immediate help. Are press briefings on this state of affairs enough? Will they substitute for firm ministerial-level intervention?

Perhaps the only area where there is absolutely no confusion is the area of price rise. Apart from the prices of everyday food items zooming upwards almost daily, there is now a price rise expected in gas, oil and electricity. In the coming months, it is going to difficult to sleep and commute.

Happy days or the supposed ‘achche din’ seem like a distant dream at this point. Frankly, how can we expect achche din when high costs of living come in the way of everyday survival?

Humra Quraishi is a senior political journalist based in Gurgaon. She is the author of Kashmir: The Untold Story and co-author of Simply Khushwant.

(Pictures courtesy theviewspaper.net, www.mtholyoke.edu)

Tags achche din aanewale hain, emergency 1975, emergency india, enough said, humra quraishi, indira gandhi

Enough said

Time to pack a Punch?

Is it time to go back to the Avadh Punch days, when natives used ‘safe’ ways to lampoon British rulers?

by Humra Quraishi

Today, June 21, is World Humanist Day, and I am tempted to deliberate on the recent trend of arresting young students and others for their comments or posts on prominent personalities in India.

Lawyer and activist ND Pancholi says that according to the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), World Humanist Day is a day of spreading awareness of Humanism as a philosophical life stance and means to effect change in the world. It is also seen as a time for Humanists to gather socially and promote the positive values of Humanism.”

So back to where I started this column from – should our young college students be arrested for their posts or comments or other writings?

A simple way out could be to rebuke or counsel these youngsters if they post or write something crude or obscene about somebody. But arresting them? Isn’t that taking things a bit too far?

Even as I write this column, I am reminded of Professor Mushirul Hasan’s volume, The Avadh Punch: Wit and Humour In Colonial India, where he writes of the days of the Raj and how we hapless Indians could criticise the British only through the most discreet ways – mostly through cartoons and verse. The idea was to lampoon the British through safe ways.

The idea of the Avadh Punch caught on fairly quickly – in a short span, over 70 such Punches were established in several cities of the country.

It might seem a bit far-fetched to believe that in this day and age, our youngsters might have to resort to following the Avadh Punch days. There could be a Kerala Punch, a Bangalore Punch, a Maharashtra Punch and certainly a Delhi Punch!

That is not to say that angry or upset citizens must use third class language or obscenity in illustrations to voice their disgust or anger. Free speech does not entail vulgarity. Anger should always be vented in a civilized manner. And if anybody is angry enough to resort to obscenity or inflammatory language, he or she should be counseled and talked to. A healthy discussion would contain the anger and maybe even help to dissipate it.

Needless to say, arresting such persons only helps to compound their anger and disgust. Arrests are to be reserved as the last resort of punishment, not the first. In many cases, arresting before doing anything else to prevent the crime from recurring will only ensure that the crime occurs again, and in a more severe format.

Humra Quraishi is a senior journalist based in Gurgaon. She is the author of Kasmir: The Untold Story and co-author of Simply Khushwant.

(Pictures courtesy www.tribuneindia.com, wodumedia.com)

Tags awadh punch, enough said, facebook arrest, facebook post, humra quraishi, protesting against the government

Enough said

Another ‘victim’, another time

Post author By The Metrognome
Post date June 14, 2014
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This is the story of Jyotirmaya Sharma, a professor attacked by Right Wing goons in 1993 because he ‘looked Muslim’.

by Humra Quraishi

As the details of the daylight murder of the Pune-based techie Mohsin Shaikh (in pic on left) by a Right Wing brigade came in, I was reminded of another such incident that had taken place in Mumbai earlier – only it ended with the victim surviving death.

The victim, professor Jyotirmaya Sharma (in pic above), had been brutally attacked, allegedly by a group of Shiv Sainiks, simply because he ‘looked like a Muslim’!

Jyotirmaya had told me about the incident on a previous occasion, but after Mohsin’s killing in Pune, I got in touch with him again to know all the details. He is a well-known academic and author, the Professor of Political Science at the University of Hyderabad and has authored three books on Hindutva, the RSS and the making of a Hindu rashtra.

This is what Jyotirmaya had to say: “I had returned from London and had joined the New Delhi-based CSDS as a Research Fellow. Though the rest of my bags and suitcases had arrived, those containing my books were stuck at the shipping company’s office in Mumbai. So I had to travel from Delhi to Mumbai to get them back.

“I landed in Mumbai and hired a taxi to reach the shipping company’s office. It was on January 10, 1993, and riots were erupting in Mumbai. Soon, my taxi was stopped by a bunch of Shiv Sainiks. While the taxi driver fled, these goons caught hold of me – because of my beard, they thought I was a Muslim. I kept telling them my name and showing them my passport, but they kept beating me, saying my passport was fake and so was my name.

“They were so certain I was a Muslim…when I told them I could recite the Gayatri Mantra, they said even Muslims had learnt the Mantra. Finally, one of them told me to recite the Gita. I did and they let me off. By then, I was badly thrashed and my shoulder was dislocated.”

He never complained to the cops, even as the city burned and a Canadian Sikh was killed on the street because somebody thought he was a Muslim. But Jyotirmaya continues to keep his beard to this day. “One can’t give in,” he says. One has to keep on resisting. You cannot be bullied by these Right Wing fanatics. Today they say, ‘Don’t look like a Muslim’. Tomorrow they will say, ‘Wear only saffron robes’. Where will this end?” he asks.

I have been to Mumbai just once, in the winter of 2006. While commuting in the city, I saw several young women, many of them college students, moving about in hijabs or burqas. I asked some of them if it was okay for them to ‘stand out’ as Muslims. One girl, Hasina Khan, said, “I am without a veil, but my college going sister insists on wearing a hijab. She says wearing a hijab makes her feel protected…”

I also learnt that more middle class Muslim women in Mumbai wear veils and burqas. As Rehana Mubeen Khan and Safia Khatoon Abdul Khaliq told me, they cover their heads because they feel it’s the way a dignified woman ought to look. “What’s wrong in us showing our identity? We keep to ourselves, to our own community people. It’s safer that way,” they said.

Humra Quraishi is a senior political journalist based in Gurgaon. She is the author of Kashmir: The Untold Story and co-author of Simply Khushwant.

(Pictures courtesy timesofap.com, www.cbc.ca)

Tags enough said, jyotirmaya sharma, looking like a muslim, mohsin shaikh, shiv sena

Enough said

When protectors turn rapists

Post author By The Metrognome
Post date June 7, 2014
No Comments on When protectors turn rapists

Where are we supposed to go for help, if cops themselves are involved in rapes, or in covering up crimes?

by Humra Quraishi

Rapes and gang rapes. Sexual maniacs on the prowl. Perversion from all quarters.

This has been the story of our country for a good while now.

But what shocks one is this truth: in the Badaun gang rape and murder of two minor girls, cops were involved. There are increasing cases of protectors turning rapists, or helping to shield the accused. To top it all, ugly politics enters into an ugly situation.

And to all those who are currently claiming that women outside UP are safer, let me say this: stop deluding yourself. Even when we were recovering from the Badaun news, came the news of a young female bus conductor in Mumbai who was beaten up and her clothes torn by an irate commuter. There have been a few other rapes in other parts of the country too.

While we try to grapple with these facts, with the almost illogical desire of rapists to hurt, to wrest power over a woman by any means possible, it is becoming clear once again, that it is not about being a young woman or old, or being scantily dressed or covered from head to toe. It is not about her perceived ‘boldness’ or demureness, about her social standing or her education. Perverts and rapists don’t see all these factors.

I suppose some strict rule of law will be brought into place only when the powers that be are directly impacted in some way. Let any of our women ministers or top women cops walk alone, unescorted on the country’s streets, especially after dark, and let’s see how many make their way back home unmolested and left in one piece. And with riots breaking out sporadically in the country, the security of women and children is further jeopardised, because these two groups are targeted first.

And why won’t this perversion go unchecked, and indeed, permitted to rise? Our cops are busy shielding most of the accused, especially if they are influential persons. If not cops, some accused are shielded by politicians, who may even reward them in the future with positions of power.

And yet, our ideas of ‘progress’ and ‘development’ continue to be confined by our notions of how many skyscrapers our cities build or how many highways. Is there any sense in talking about development when our police force is so desensitised to the needs of the people it is meant to serve? Can we speak of progress when children are subjected to sexual assaults, and there’s no avenue of help for them? What gives us the right to look optimistically at our future when we pretend we can’t see beggars on the street, or hear the cries of a woman beaten on the road?

When are we going to stand up and demand that our cops protect the innocent?

Humra Quraishi is a senior political journalist based in Gurgaon. She is the author of Kashmir: The Untold Story and co-author of Simply Khushwant.

(Pictures courtesy centreright.in, www.deccanchronicle.com)

Tags badaun rapes, enough said, humra quraishi, UP

Enough said

Remembering Nehru after all this time

Post author By The Metrognome
Post date May 31, 2014
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What was the mood of the nation when Jawaharlal Nehru passed away? Humra Quraishi remembers the man in today’s times.

I was about eight years old when Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru passed away, but to this day, I remember the gloom and sorrow that spread in and around my home.

My maternal grandmother, Amna Rahman, sobbed and cried as the news was announced on radio. Nehru was not related to our clan in any way, but he was still seen as a ‘protector’ or ‘saviour’ of the minorities of the land. He was truly secular in his views and active about implementing them.

Naturally, his passing away was a blow to all segments of society, more so because he was above religious or regional politics and was determined to save this land from communal outfits.

Today, more than 50 years after Nehru’s demise, the very fabric of secularism he stood for is challenged with the rise of the new Government at the Centre. The outfit that Nehru had then banned – the RSS – will slowly and surely rule this land. The bigger irony is that riot accused have been sworn in as Ministers in the Union Cabinet. It took me a while to digest the news that Muzaffarnagar MP, Dr Sanjeev Kumar Balyan, one of the accused in the area’s riots of 2013, is a Minister today.

Then there is Uma Bharati, one of the accused in the Babri Masjid demolition, also with a Ministerial berth now. The list is long.

And just when you thought there would be some noise from the Opposition, the Congress and the Left have adopted an ‘All quiet’ stance. Why? To add to the situation, there are provocative statements being made – MoS in the PMO, Dr Jitendra Singh statement that this Government could repeal Article 370 can be termed not just mischievous but a means to deflect attention away from the ground realities in the Valley.

It remains to be seen if the new Government would impose any curbs on freedom of expression. The arrests of two young men from Goa and Karnataka for their anti-Modi comments on networking sites, however, do not fill me with optimism on this front.

There is an interesting ‘battle’ raging in the corridors of the New Delhi-situated India Islamic Cultural Centre, where Chairperson Sirajuddin Qureishi (in pic on right, one of the biggest meat exporters in North India) is set to host a reception for PM Narendra Modi. Members of the Centre are furious with this move – many have been openly revolting against Qureishi and voicing the opinion that he is doing this just to promote his business interests, and using the Centre as his personal space for the same.

Who will host a reception for the six innocent men who were wrongly implicated in the terror attack on the Akshardham Temple in Gujarat? These men have accused the Gujarat Government and then CM Narendra Modi (who headed the Home Department) and demanded that they be adequately compensated for the long periods of incarceration that they have wrongly suffered. They are consulting lawyers to file cases in the Gujarat courts seeking compensation as well as punishment for all the cops who not only slapped false cases on them, but also tortured them in jail.