Urdu press roundup
By IndianMuslims.info Staff

Since the extracts of Justice Sachar Committee Report leaked through a TV channel and an English newspaper the other day, Urdu writers, journalists and editors have been giving full vent to their feelings of Muslims’ deprivation in education and job opportunities and willing suspension of equity and justice in dealing with Muslim affairs. These writings range right from mere complain against and criticism of government policies affecting the community to vibrant suggestions about how best to bail Muslims out of the quagmire they have been thrown.

The Rashtriya Sahara (November 5) editorially terms the prevailing Muslim predicament as the natural corollary of the jiggery-pokery being practised by political parties since independence. It laments that on one hand the constitutional privilege of reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes has yielded the desired result while on the other Muslims have been continuing as victims of educational and economic backwardness despite the efforts being made to better the situation for over half a century.

“What happens is that no sooner the government announces certain measures to be taken to overcome the educational and economic backwardness of Muslims than hardliner communal Hindu organisations like R.S.S., Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal and B.J.P. start raising much ado the country over about Muslims being appeased to score political ends…. As a result Muslims, who form the second largest chunk of population in the country, have been lying deep into the dark cavern of backwardness for the last 50 years.…�

“The row the communal parties would create on making Sachar Committee recommendations public is a matter of the days to come. But as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced in a meeting of State Minority Commissioners in New Delhi on Thursday that the minority commission would be granted constitutional status and its rights also be increased, these communal parties have become active once again and their intent and object is to put hurdles in the way of any measure being or to be taken by the government for the betterment of Muslims. Though Prime Minister has hoped that the Bill to make National Commission for Minorities a constitutional institution would be passed in the summer session of Parliament and those causing harm to welfare initiative be dealt with firmly yet the bitter experience tells us that the government will not only have to take a very firm stand but to deal with the destructive elements putting obstacles in this noble task with an iron hand so that the present efforts being made by the government may not go the way the efforts made earlier have gone.�

In the same issue of the Sahara Muhammad Nayyar Azam of Department of Islamic Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi informs the reading public that a delegation led by Muhammad Tahir Khan, Member Lok Sabha, recently submitted a memorandum demanding from the Government to shun dual policy while providing job opportunities for Muslims.

Shahidul Islam’s edit-page article entitled “Mr Manmohan! 25 crore Muslims owe a cogent reply� in the Hindustan Express of November 4 (later reproduced in the Inquilab) and Ahmad Javed’s edit-page article entitled “The doors of army closed for Muslims and Dalits?� in the Express of November 5 also present the same feelings of unrest and anger of Muslims on their continued deprivation and discrimination against them.

Unique protest in Malegaon

The Inquilab and the Express of November 11 report a unique protest lodged by Malegaon Muslims against the attitude of investigating agencies towards selective detention of Muslim youth for the Malegaon blasts. During the protest the protesters donned the same type of face cover as the police personnel make Muslim youth wear following their detention. They also tied black badges to their arms. The report says that perhaps they wanted to convey a message thereby to the administration that in the eyes of investigating agencies they all were terrorists. Following the Friday prayers on November 10 the Muslims staged a dharna at Hamidia Masjid and Bada Qabristan. They have also given a call of total strike in Malegaon on November 14.

In his edit-page article entitled “Maharashtra police is telling lies�, Hasan Kamal, in his celebrated column Muhasiba in the Sahara (November 4), reveals the white lies of Maharashtra police in investigating into the September 8 Malegaon blasts.

“Maharashtra police is leaving no stone unturned to prove by hook or by crook that the Malegaon blasts were carried out by Muslims. The police is telling white lies; but it is a surprise that now media is not advancing any arguments nor is ready to entertain any arguments as to how Muslims could explode the bombs as a result of which the majority of casualties is Muslim….

“This out and out biased dealing of police in Malegaon is causing unrest and resentment to the public… The people of Malegaon are feeling, and rightly so, that the police wants to prove anyhow that extremist Hindus can never be involved in these blasts or for that matter in any other destructive activities in the country. This assumption is entirely wrong…. The protest of Malegaon Muslims against these excesses is justified and the way the protest has been launched is very proper and suitable. The Muslims of Malegaon belonging to every section and every sect recently submitted a memorandum to the District Magistrate to express their vent and anger in a democratic manner. Now it is the duty of Maharashtra government to see to it that the undue harassment of Muslims is stopped forthwith. However one positive aspect of these circumstances is that owing at least to these disquieting things a sense of unity is taking roots in the rank and file of Muslims. The police lies have got them united. We take it in the right earnest.�

The Dawat (November 7) reports an Eid Milan programme organised by Jamaat-e-Islami Hind at its headquarters in which Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Christian and Dalit religious leaders as well as a number of dignitaries and diplomats of various countries participated. The report cites Jamaat Ameer Dr. M. Abdul Haq Ansari saying in his presidential speech: “On one hand the Prime Minister and the UPA Chairperson are consistently promising to adopt just and fair attitude towards Muslims and on the other deprivations of Muslims and injustices rather excesses against them are going on even in the States ruled by their own party or UPA. People are boggled at what hurdles are there for the government at the centre to issue directives at least to these States to effect the desired change in their attitude towards the Muslims.�

SC directive on Srikrishna Commission report

Urdu dailies of November 5 report the Supreme Court directive to Maharashtra government to file a statement on implementation of the recommendations of Srikrishna Commission Report on post-Babri Masjid demolition killings of innocent people, mostly Muslims, with some police personnel hand in glove with the rioters.

In a front-page story the Rashtriya Sahara reports: Following the Mumbai High Court indictment of Mumbai police in Khwaja Yunus case, the Supreme Court has told the Maharashtra government to submit its ATR (action taken report) on the biased police action in Sulaiman Osman Bakery, Hari Masjid and Pratibha Nagar areas, on implementation or otherwise of Srikrishna Commission Report, and on the action taken against 30 erring police officials and their present service status. The government has to submit its statement latest by December 5, 2006 when the court is to hear this case next.
The court issued this directive on a petition filed by Advocate Shakeel Ahmed on behalf of an NGO, Nirbhay Bano Andolan in 2002.

The Aurangabad Times, in a UNI report on the development, adds: While talking to presspersons after the apex court order, petitioner Shakeel Ahmed said instead of taking any action against the erring police officials the government has promoted them.

November 11, 2006