Tag: enough said

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Enough said

Africans today, who else tomorrow?

Somnath Bharti’s antics against the Ugandan women spell doom – will this happen with communities in the country as well?
Humra Quraishiby Humra Quraishi

We’ve all heard of the dreaded midnight knocks on doors and raids happening in the Kashmir Valley and in the North East, but to have a similar thing happen in Delhi is unthinkable. Delhi’s Law Minister Somnath Bharti and his men barged into a home of a small group of Ugandan women, and not just abused them but accused them of running prostitution and drug rackets!

Call this intrusion by any term of your choice, barbarism or anarchy or dictatorship, but this act reeks of double standards and racism. Could Bharti and his men have barged into a fellow minister’s home or into a tycoon’s farmhouse or even in the hotel room of a European in this fashion? No, because he would have been thrashed and thrown out!

But his terrorising antics against these Ugandan women have a lot to do with our misconceptions against dark-skinned people and our prejudices against Africans. Bharti merely played on our biases, throwing serious accusations at these hapless women. His language, his thoughts, his tactics – all of these were utterly third class and unworthy of a law minister.

And if this kind of behaviour is not halted in time, it would spell disaster for all of us. For today, this is happening with Africans. Tomorrow, what stops this behaviour from turning inward, towards particular communities or castes or minorities? That’s how ghettos are made – and that’s how so many exist in the country already.

Why speak of ghettos alone? Something like this has already been in operation for so long, in our major cities. Well-to-do Muslims have voluntarily moved to the outskirts of Ahmedabad. Muslims are outright refused houses in upscale localities in Mumbai, and there exist Muslim localities where not a single Hindu family will be found. This has not just broadened the gap between two communities, but has also paved the way for misconceptions about the ‘other’ – and who can blame them? After all, how can children from both communities learn about each other if they are not allowed to mingle with each other, if they are forced to live miles apart?

Coming back to the recent developments in Delhi, I must confess to a definite feeling of dismay. Though I have been writing in support of the AAP all along, I do feel concerned for the future. With little hope in the Congress, one looked at AAP as some sort of a saviour political outfit. But this one incident and its aftermath has paved the way for a re-think.

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.

(Picture courtesy in.news.yahoo.com)

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Enough said

‘People who live without history are no better than animals’

Noted Indian writer Ved Mehta recently launched his newest book in the national capital. Humra Quraishi revisits an old encounter.

This week, I received an invite from Penguin Books for the launch of Ved Mehta’s latest, The Essential Ved Mehta. I marveled at this writer’s determination and his grit to go on – today, he is 80 years old, but he is still writing, and when he is visually impaired.

Five years ago, I had the chance to interview him here in New Delhi, when he was here at the launch of another of his books. He had spoken then of a meningitis attack that had left him visually impaired at the age of four, but that he had never let this setback get in the way of his writing.

His is an inspirational survival story. He received an early education at the Arkansas School for the Blind, Dadar (in Bombay), then moved to the Pomona College, Balliol College and finally to Harvard University. What is amazing is that he managed these major moves, especially one that meant shifting to the West in his early teens. He got American citizenship in 1975 and visits India regularly.

The 80-year-old writer has written 26 books, as also numerous short and long stories. For over three decades, from 1961 to 1994, he was a staff writer at The New Yorker. All along, there were murmurs about his ‘colourful lifestyle’, till the time he decided to marry. Marrying in 1983, at the age of 49, he chose for his life partner a woman much younger than he – probably on the lines of Aristotle’s philosophy, that for a marriage to be happy, a man must marry a much younger woman.

I had the chance to first interview him in 2009, and even today I remember the meeting fondly. This is how it went:

Are you currently working on some new book and what is it going to be about?

I am writing a new novel but I don’t like discussing my work till it is published. As of now all that I can say is that the protagonist is an Indian settled in the US. And no, it isn’t along autobiographical lines.

You are settled in the US and American foreign policies have triggered changes in the world scenario. What do you feel about this?

America should get out of Afghanistan, and Iraq was a total disaster, totally a fantasy of a kind, along the lines of what the US did in Vietnam and in Korea. I’m for non-violence and all for the policy of tolerance and I do believe in Aristotle’s philosophy vis-à-vis democracy, “You can only have democracy if a majority of people belong to the middle class.”

What changes have come in the world of writing and publishing over the years?

We are living in an odd world. In the publishing world the editors are playing musical chairs and as regards writing, I’m from the old school and thoroughly believe in the principles of integrity and honesty to oneself and to one’s readers.

Your wife seems much younger than you. Where did you meet her and how it all happened?

I married late when I was 49 years old and Lill is almost 20 years younger than me…Actually, Lill is a friend’s niece and I had first met her when she was about 11 years old. Years later, I had met her again at a party and this time I was drunk and kissed her. The very next morning, however, I wrote an apology note to her and she told me that from her side, too, there were feelings involved. It was then that we decided to marry. We married in 1983. And today she is my wife and we have two daughters.

Why did you re-launch your earlier books, Daddyji and Mamaji? You wrote these two books years ago, why the re-launch now?

Yes, I wrote these books decades back but I feel our history is important for today’s generation. People who live without history are no better than animals. History is important for today’s generation as it adds a dimension to life, just as children and wife add that extra dimension to a man’s life. Also, I feel that we should realise that our parents are not some authoritative figures but are as human as you and me. My parents – Shanti Devi Mehta and Amolak Ram Mehta were very private people and I wrote these out of affection for them and focussed on the everyday life of a family in the late 19th and early 20th century India.

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 www.thehindu.com)

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Enough said

Back to Muzaffarnagar

How is a pogrom planned and executed? The riots of Muzaffarnagar and other subsequent developments are a recent, ongoing example.
Humra Quraishiby Humra Quraishi

Several people tell me I focus too much on Muzaffarnagar, but I’m in no apologetic mood. I’m trying to focus on and bring attention to what seems to be a genocide.

Yes, that’s blunt. Equally blunt is my belief that today’s politicians are using the age-old strategy of killing in a systematic way. First, riots are made to occur – no riot can start and spread without the knowledge of the police and the State machinery. Provocations are used to ignite an already charged atmosphere. The pogrom is allowed to go on, not stopped. And as research shows, the police play a partisan role.

If recruitment at the police constable level takes place on the basis of caste and community, then it should come as no shock to anyone that the police join the rioters when the riot goes against their own caste. The hapless victims are either killed or made to flee. 

At this stage, the land and political mafia grab the (forcibly) vacated lands and homes and fields. Meanwhile, nobody cares a damn if the affected riot victims die or live like third class citizens. If they dare to point fingers or accuse the wrongdoers, other strategies are used – encounter killings or terror charges are heaped on the victims’ heads and they sit languishing in jails.

In Muzaffarnagar, though, Akhilesh and Mulayam Yadav have gone a step ahead. The riots went uncontrolled, were allowed to spread to the rural belt, and survivors were not allowed to survive. Even those tattered tents sheltering the victims were pulled off, killing most of them in these freezing temperatures.

The father-son duo is now playing a bigger game – first it was rioting, then  the hounding of the survivors, then an overnight removal of relief tents, then the bulldozing of the very muzaffarnagar riotsstretch where the survivors would sit and where the dead lay in fresh graves. Now, relief workers and activists and the media are being kept at a ‘safe distance’, by introducing a new ‘terror angle’! And to complete this picture of apathy and sheer insensitivity, thick-skinned bureaucrats of the Uttar Pradesh sarkar quip, “Nobody dies of cold…people survive in Siberia”!

Can we ask these politicians and bureaucrats to step outside their heated offices, and head to these places in this biting cold, not wearing their sweaters and jackets and mufflers, amidst the fog and the mist and the intermittent drizzles? Will they do it? Can they?

It is with a sense of rage that I say: Shame these politicians! After terrorising a hapless population, they are pushing these people towards death – all out there in the open!

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 www.indianexpress.com)

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Enough said

“If there is a re-election, we will get more votes”

Yogendra Yadav, strategist and one of AAP’s key leaders, talks of getting more Muslim support if Delhi goes into reelection.
by Humra Quraishi

In 30 years of my journalism career, I have had the toughest chase on my hands only lately – I have been trying for the longest time to get an interview with the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Arvind Kejriwal, and also Yogendra Yadav, but the party’s functionaries have been working round the clock. Finally, I managed to get Yadav for an interview, and though the interview happened on the phone and well past midnight, he was his usual affable, forthright self.

I spoke to him after he and other members of the AAP had just finished their crucial meet ahead of Saturday morning’s meeting with the Lt Governor of New Delhi. It now transpires that the AAP has sent the Congress party, which is willing to support it, an 18-point conditional letter prior to deciding on forming a Government with them.

Excerpts from the interview:

Late night TV news informed us that the Congress had decided to offer your party support to form the Government here in New Delhi. Will AAP form the Government?

Even we came to know of this news (of Congress’s support to AAP) through the television! Anyway, you will soon come to know of our decision. As of now, all I can say is that we are not following those old political games, we are not into that type of politics. In fact, our strength lies in the fact that we are not following the usual rules of the game. AAP has already brought about a change.

Yogendra Yadav Comment on this latest spat between Anna Hazare and your AAP colleague, Gopal Rai. It’s said to be one of those distracting strategies by your political rivals.

It could have been an avoidable distraction. Gopalbhai and our other colleagues had gone from here to lend support to Anna’s fast, but after this incident, we advised them to return.

The general perception is that AAP is softer on the BJP than on the Congress…

Where does this perception come from? In fact, because of AAP’s presence, it’s the BJP which has suffered the most in the capital city. They are more angry with us because we have spoilt their game!

Will AAP take on Narendra Modi?

We will. We have been carrying out exposes vis-a-vis Narendra Modi, of his links with certain industrialists of Gujarat. Also, don’t overlook the fact that in these Delhi elections, Modi was not a factor, but let the general elections come…we will bring out more exposes.

If there is a re-election in Delhi, will AAP have an advantage?

AAP will have an advantage on two fronts – lots of people who did not vote for us in these elections would now vote for us and we will get more Muslim votes. Also, we will be able to reduce the Congress to the position that it is reduced to in UP and Bihar and then we, the AAP, will take on the BJP.

Do you think the Muslims of Delhi voted for AAP in a major way?

Earlier, the Muslims of Delhi had no choice but to vote for the Congress but this time, the AAP made inroads. It takes time to make a dent or an inroad in a traditional stronghold, but a lot of the young and educated Muslims voted for the AAP.

(Pictures courtesy www.aninews.in, www.prokerala.com)

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Enough said

Pehle AAP?

What set the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) apart was their fresh approach to campaigning, which the Congress and BJP lacked.
by Humra Quraishi

From Gurgaon I have been travelling to New Delhi on almost all the days of this last week, and on my travels and at my destination, I have been watching and observing the election build up in the national capital. As expected, in the so-called ‘strongholds’ of the Congress and the BJP camps, the mood has been nothing but typical.

When I say ‘typical’, I speak from the experience of past elections, when one saw the same mood and campaigning tactics as those employed in recent times. There have been the same hackneyed slogans and shouting matches between opponents. The same mud-slinging. The same one-liners and cheap shots. Yes, there have been a couple of new inputs concerning Mr Modi, but there has been nothing novel or exciting about the two parties’ campaigning. Which is why the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) came as a breath of fresh air.

I was actually taken aback on seeing the enthusiasm amongst the AAP volunteers and workers, who did not look like they had been ‘bought over’ or ‘paid’ to do their jobs. They looked sincere in their efforts, making it quite obvious that they were out on the streets to campaign because they genuinely wanted to bring about a change in governance at the grassroots level. With brooms in their hands and topis on their heads, they were seen interacting with all people, establishing an instant connect.

Interestingly, while so many of the AAP volunteers walked the streets and campaigned, there was never any need for any police bandobast. I was rather touched on seeing these AAP men and women mingling with the crowds and getting a very positive response from the public. There was also a lot of cheering as the party’s topis were placed on each head. I also received one such topi!

There is no saying what the influence of AAP will be on the future course of politics, but if ever an indication was needed for those currently in power that the country is desperately looking for a change in leadership, the welcome AAP received in Delhi should sound a loud warning bell to all.

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.

(Picture courtesy www.livemint.com)

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Enough said

Why the witchhunt for Tejpal?

In going after journalist Tarun Tejpal, have we forgotten the many other (larger issues) that are currently plaguing the country?
by Humra Quraishi

I’ve been following the entire sordid Tarun Tejpal saga with some dismay. Not dismay at just the fact that the veteran journalist sexually assaulted a young colleague, but dismay at the witch hunt that followed.

For, from the beginning, when the victim’s email to Tehelka Managing Editor Shoma Chaudhary and later, Tejpal’s letter “recusing” himself after admitting to the crime were leaked, haven’t we all been baying for Tejpal’s blood? In my opinion, the hunt for Tejpal was laced not just with a righteous indignation that he did not turn himself over to the cops, but also with stones in our hands and several political prejudices.

tejpalTruth be told, our handling of the matter has been very Talibanish.

No, I’m not debating if he did it, or whether it was a case of rape or molestation. Tejpal himself publicly admitted and acknowledged that the alleged “sexual misconduct” did take place. But when he admitted to the crime, he probably did not realise the levels of hypocrisy he would be dealing with. We are so used to criminals meeting any hint of their alleged crimes with open defiance that we probably would have reacted to the issue differently if Tejpal, like many others, had simply refuted the victim’s charges instead of admitting to them.

It now seems obvious that he didn’t anticipate that the matter would go further, especially after his apology and admittance. It may have not, if all those emails had not been leaked.

Naturally, the Right Wing brigade jumped on to the case with gusto, targeting not just Tejpal but also his magazine, Tehelka. The BJP was at the front of this fracas with Tejpal, considering the party’s history with Tehelka. And why wouldn’t they? Here was an issue that helped them successfully bypass the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah stalking story that has been doing the rounds these last few days.

Besides, when have our politicians ever focussed on the big picture? While there were reports in a national daily of children being bought for Rs 50 on the beaches of Goa, we had the State’s CM Manohar Parrikar smirking on TV while giving details of the Tejpal case. Just a day before this, I was talking to Sister Justine, an outspoken human rights activist from Kandhamal, and she detailed how children were regularly gang raped by the Right Wing brigades in and around the region in Orissa, in a bid to silence the tribal population. On the other hand, inflation and corruption continue to strangle the common man. But despite a dire situation prevailing in the country, on all fronts, all the debates we got to see this week centred on Tarun Tejpal.

I am in no way discounting the young victim’s courage in stepping forward and cornering Tejpal for his crimes against her. However, in the larger scheme of things, this incident probably did not deserve the national attention it got.

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.

(Picture courtesy www.thehindu.com, newsanalysisindia.com)

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