Mere condemnation not enough, say Manch representatives

— Photo: PTI/Shirish Shete

Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy interacts with Kanchi Acharya Sri Jayendra Saraswati and others at a meeting of Dharma Raksha Manch in Mumbai on Wednesday.

MUMBAI: The Dharma Raksha Manch, a coalition of Hindu religious institutions and leaders, has urged 13 major Muslim organisations to issue a fatwa against terrorism and jihad.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Swami Dayanand Maharaj and others said that before a terror attack, e-mails were sent quoting the Koran.

The Manch, concerned by religious motivation for terror, planned to send an appeal, signed by several acharyas, to the 13 Islamic institutions individually.

When it was pointed out that many of them had condemned terror, representatives of the Manch said mere condemnation was not enough.

The Muslim groups should issue a fatwa that India was not Dar-ul Harab (India is not a land against which Islamists have to wage a war); and it was Dar-ul Aman (land of peace), where Muslims can practise Islam without any impediment, said a resolution passed at a meeting of the Manch on Wednesday.

The two-day meeting, which will culminate in a public meeting on Thursday, will discuss 11 points of concern.

Madandas Devi of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) said his organisation was fully behind this effort.

The phrase “Hindu terror” was false, insulting and inappropriate.

Ashok Singhal of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) said India had a sacred religious tradition and a spiritual identity.

However, by making it a secular country, that identity was being wiped out.

While seeking a change in leadership at the Centre, the Manch said it was not supporting any political party.

Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy presented a paper on his idea of a Hindu agenda.

He sought unity among Hindus; a unity based on a mindset that was nurtured and fostered on the fundamentals of a renaissance.

He sought the re-writing of history textbooks of educational institutions, besides a commitment of zero tolerance of terrorists, to never negotiate with them, and to retaliate against their political objectives.

Dr. Swamy also advocated a commitment to “re-throne” Sanskrit as Hindustan’s link language.

NEW DELHI: Pointing out that the number of students from the Muslim community availing themselves of higher education is low, Aligarh Muslim University Vice-Chancellor P. K. Abdul Azis on Wednesday said he favoured reservation for Muslims.

“I am in favour of reservation for Muslims in higher education. How can the country become strong if the Muslims are not coming up to the level of all the other communities? In the past 60 years Muslims have not got adequate representation,” he said at a press conference here in the Capital on Wednesday.

“Reservation is a social need. It will address the issues of social backwardness. Reservation will be for students who want to avail themselves of higher education. It will be for educated people who want to move to the higher ladder. There should also be reservation in employment,” he added.

Prof. Azis also spoke of five special centres that AMU plans to open in Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), Katihar (Bihar), Mallapuram (Kerala), Murshidabad (West Bengal) and Pune (Maharashtra)

“These centres will create greater access to higher education to the deprived people in the Southern, Eastern, Western and Central regions of the country. The Centre has asked these State governments to provide us land free of cost. I have written to all of them. As of now, we have got response from the governments of West Bengal and Kerala,” the Vice-Chancellor said.

Once the land is identified, AMU will appoint a consultant to prepare a broad outline of these centres.

NEW DELHI: Aligarh Muslim University is going to draw up a national educational plan for Muslims to extract the community from “ignorance” and set it up on the path of intellectual resurgence.

This and much more will be deliberated during a two-day national seminar on “Minority education in India: Issues of access, equity and inclusion” to be held on the AMU campus in Aligarh beginning this Saturday.

Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh will inaugurate the seminar.

“The aim of the seminar is to spread the gospel of education as envisaged by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and to establish a permanent linkage and a mutually fruitful relationship between AMU and the minority educational institutions of the country,” said Vice-Chancellor P. K. Abdul Azis at a press conference here on Wednesday.

“The seminar will also focus on promotion of voluntary efforts at the grassroots level in 90 minority-dominated districts across the country for educational uplift of the Muslims and to formulate a need-based action plan. It will also discuss the Government’s action plan as envisaged in the Prime Minister’s High Level Committee Report on status of higher education among Muslims,” he added.

A number of non-government organisations -- from Aligarh as well as – are expected to take part in the seminar.

AMU is also embarking upon a plan to improve, motivate and offer practical guidance on launching of educational institutions by NGOs in order to meet the objective of enhancing access, equity and inclusion of educationally deprived classes.

“The seminar is an exercise for revival of the Aligarh Movement launched by Sir Syed. We will also be focusing on other activities like introduction of modern techniques to madrasas, revamping of Wakf Boards and stress on female education,” said AMU faculty member M. S. Ahmad Samdani, who is the convener of the upcoming seminar.

Over 200 people involved in minority education in the country are expected to take part in the seminar.

IN the big, bad world of Indian cricket, where every victory is celebrated with vigour and every failure derided with fervour, hanging on as captain for almost a decade takes the survival instincts of a badger.

The elder statesman of Team India in the ’90s, a time when Sachin Tendulkar had quickly outranked all his peers in terms of stature, Mohammad Azharuddin’s immense talent was matched by the shrewdness that all successful leaders require.

Somehow, Azhar would always manage to ride the crests and troughs of a stormy career with grace, lighting up packed stadiums and countless living rooms with his wristy elegance in the face of adversity and strong criticism.

But at the end of his 16-year journey in international cricket, he was reduced to a lost, forlorn caricature of our times. A physical manifestation of a perennial rags-to-riches story, wherein the greed for more eventually catches up, Azhar was banned from the game in disgrace as a shocking cliché of nouveau-riche India.

On the field, he had started as a teenage prodigy in 1984, humble, simple and gifted. Three centuries in his first three Tests, the fastest one-day hundred by an Indian, an impregnable fielder at point, the safest pair of hands at slip, Azhar had the Midas touch, and maintained most of these attributes until late into his long innings in the dressing room.

Now, as he meets leaders from the Congress, expressing his desire to join the party, with talks of an election ticket hovering in the background, Azhar will be hoping that India remembers him for what he was on the cricket field rather than the fiendish projections of his lavish life after he had been named, and then handed a life of banishment, by the match-fixing probe.

Back then, in 2000, all talk of his trademark flick was replaced by discussions about his Armani suits; the perfect paddle shot became secondary to his Rolls Royce collection; and his majestic raised-collar prowling on the field gave way to jibes about his glamorous second wife Sangeeta Bijlani.

For a couple of years after he was banned — his career stopped at 99 Tests with a century in his last match against South Africa — Azhar fought in court to have the decision overturned. Frequent calls would be made by the media to his lawyers in Hyderabad, but the news was always of a fresh date. While Ajay Jadeja managed to secure a favourable verdict in Delhi against his five-year ban — and even played domestic cricket again — Azhar, who consistently denied any wrongdoing, got nothing to celebrate.

A recluse for almost five years, spending time at home in Banjara Hills and in his state-of-the-art gymnasium, memories of him slowly started to fade. But over the last two years, he’s started to make a reentry into public life, appearing at the odd party with Bijlani, doing a commentary stint in Sri Lanka, and even featuring in official speeches by the BCCI, which had totally cut him out until then.

Though there will always be a rider attached to his name, in the long run Azhar’s record (6,215 Test runs with 22 centuries, 9,374 ODI runs, 221 international matches as captain), and the joy it was to watch him bat, will end up counting for something.

But is it time already to let bygones be bygones? If he does manage to get on a ballot pa per this year, India may get a chance to answer that question.