The Unchecked Reality Of Beef-Ban.

Mohammad Arsalan

________________

The recent Beef-Ban in Uttar Pradesh is one of the biggest frauds that would have been done. Many see it as Muslim bashing and hurting their religious sentiments but in actuality our Hindu brothers are being fooled and their religious sentiments are being fired out for fulfilling the vested interests of the capitalist-owned-government. Now here’s the prove:

India is the largest exporter of beef in the world. India exports more than 2.4 million tons of beef every year around the world and contributes to 23.5% of the total global exports. Before 2014, India stood no. 2^nd in beef export, whereas we surpassed Brazil after BJP coming into power and now we top the list.

India‘s four largest beef export companies are owned by our Hindu brothers, which are as follows:

1 )Al-Kabeer Exports Pvt. Ltd.
Owner name: Mr. Shatish & Mr. Atul Sabharwal
Add: 92, Jolly makers, Chembur Mumbai 400021

2) Arabian Exports Pvt.Ltd.
Owner’s name: Mr.Sunil Kapoor
Add: Russian Mansions, Overseas, Mumbai 400001

3) M.K.R Frozen Food Exports Pvt. Ltd.
Owner’s name Mr. Madan Abott.
Add : MG road, Janpath, New Delhi 110001

4) P.M.L Industries Pvt. Ltd.
Owner’s name: Mr. A.S Bindra
Add : S.C.O 62-63 Sector -34-A, Chandigarh 160022

Now with this we must understand how the government is inciting religious sentiments for mere political gains. The current government is too smart and playing two sides in the game. By banning beef they prima facie appear in working out with their Hindutva agenda, polarization and partisan of the ruling dispensation. The small retailers are being crushed and big corporate exporters are increasing. In actuality more that 3.25 lakh Muslim people in UP has suffered from the negation.

The second most important thing is that the government wants people to engage in foul discourses and be aloof from the ground realities that matters in day-to-day livelihood. For example as per financial express report as many as 287 farmers, including agriculture labourers have committed suicide in Madhya Pradesh during the past three months. Almost none of the promises under the “Vikaas” slogan has been fulfilled yet. Hence, the government is finding refuge in this gutter-game and masses are being used for propaganda. I hope the people understand this and take a better stand in future elections.

I very much care about the sentiments of my Hindu brothers, for that matter I will not let the government fool them. My appeal to the government is that there shouldn’t be a selective rule of law. Let’s make equal laws for all. Ban the beef export. Nor in India we will eat beef, nor we will let the blacks and whites eat beef around the world exported from our country.

#NoSelectiveRuleOfLaw #BanBeefExport

(Positive criticism and views accepted)

A VISIT TO MUKUNDPUR VILLAGE

Mohammad Arsalan
____________________

7^th February’17- After a-two-day international conference on “Media and Sustainable Development: Key Issues and Challenges” organised by the department of Mass Communication, Aligarh Muslim University on 5^th and 6^th February, 2017, a delegation of faculties, students and 25 guests from different countries visited Mukundpur village of Aligarh district where organic farming is done.

The village has an estimated population of 3000 and a thousand people owning lands. Villagers make vermin compost naturally by collecting and nurturing fertilizers from specialised earthworms and husks. Natural gas plants are also installed at many spots used for cooking purpose-cow and buffalo dung is mostly used in producing the same.

“There is a larger space for organic farming but it is not apt in fulfilling the requirement of the poor to feed. Hence, chemical farming is also done for more production. In chemical farming external inputs like urea, DAC etc. are used”, says Pratiyush Varshney, an ISI graduate who works in the village and promulgates the idea of scientific farming. Further he adds that farmers are not well acquainted with scientific farming and are averse to it. They rather prefer traditional techniques, which apparently acts as debacle to the farming output. On asking about the government’s incentives and subsidies on seeds, fertilisers etc. provided to the farmers, Mr. Pratiyush blames corruption and says, “The government plans and initiatives are good, but in reality complicit, the big land owning farmers enjoy all the priorities, leaving others toiling”. Majority of the farmers are landless and suffer the negation.

A major population of Mukundpur is illiterate and those who are educated, most of them have migrated to towns and big cities for earning their bread and butter. The literate families generally have kitchen gardens where they grow crops and vegetables for feeding the family and not for selling it out in the market. The rest of the population is involved in commercial farming.

Despite small huts and seemingly poor condition prevalent in the village, the house of the up-pradhan Sunil Singh looked wealthier than many. Mr. Sunil owned more than 40 buffaloes, cars and motor-bikes. He had a-two-story building along with a lawn in front of his house, where a prerogative salutation was provided to the delegates and the framing technicalities were demonstrated. Ostensibly, Mr. Sunil talked about the village farmers and claimed to have helped most of them in providing government subsidies but prima facie his efforts seemed apathetic.

Organic farming was fostered by the delegation. The purpose of the visit was to practically observe and gather ideas for sustainable development. As farmers by profession delegates from Yemen exchanged their ideas of farming with the locals. A generous reception was given to the team by the villagers and Chaach and Gud were served as beverages. The village was surrounded by wheat fields; the ambient was peaceful and tranquil.

                              ******************************

Why Muslim And Dalit Politics Fail In India? (Falling prey to ‘Vote-Bank’ politics)

Mohammad Arsalan
_________________

Many Muslims intellectuals claim that Muslims don’t have a political stand, some say that Muslims only vote against the BJP, some are talking of Dalit-Muslim alliance in the upcoming UP polls. In my opinion all these things doesn’t fit to the prevailing political unawareness of Muslims in India. All the marginalized communities of India don’t have a political stand that mainly consists of Muslims, Dalits and Tribals (w. r. f.  Justice Sachhar committee report 2006). The reason is that they are educationally, socially and financially backward. They battle only for bread and butter and know nothing of what is going around, hence they easily fall prey in the political system as underdog. That is what commonly called ‘Vote-Bank’.

Every political party requires lobbying for which Brahmins (including Rajput, Bhumihar and Baniya- not all but majority) are the fittest as they have always been socially powerful and financially strong since 2500 BC. Initially they lobbied for Congress and now they have their own fascist Bartiya Janta Party. Amid all that, Brahmanical hegemony is uprising creating more social repression, inequality and injustice in the society; the same that happened after 2500 BC up till the ‘Gora Sahib’ arrived in India followed by ‘Bhura Sahib’ and now by ‘RSS’.

This social inequality was realized by Dr. Ambedkar and he included Article 16 (4) i. e. ‘equality of opportunity in matters of public employment’ in the constitution providing special reservation for the backward class for their social and educational empowerment. At that time also Ambedkar was opposed by many upper caste Hindus. Further deliberate plotting was done against him to defeat in the Loksabha elections of 1952 & 54, later he was nominated in the Upper House or Rajya Sabha. Whereas the Élite Muslims in British India didn’t accepted the due demand in constitution and later majority of them flee to Pakistan leaving back the backward Muslims as orphans.

Now what Muslims and Dalits need to realize is that to take political stand it’s very important to come out of poverty. One is in despair when is in poverty and has no option but to be used as masses for propaganda by the ruling-class. Here I would like to quote Sir Syed, he said ‘Ignorance is the mother of poverty’. Ignorance comes from lack of knowledge and education. This was realized by Sir Syed after the first war of Independence in 1857, where he saw Muslims being brutally butchered by the British. He got to understand that education is the only key which could take these poor marginalized community including Muslims and other backwards from deprivation and vicious circle of poverty. That was the only key they could attain their position in social and political spectrum. Later on he started Aligarh movement and MAO College was formed in 1877.

It’s true that politics decides the fate of individuals and communities especially in an inclusive and diverse country like India. But feudalism and Brahminisation has still influenced the politics of India. To my little knowledge I think that Muslim and Dalit intellectuals fail to understand that it’s poverty, despair and jeopardy that has made marginalized communities aloof from the main stream. Those Muslims who use slangs like ‘rehnumai’, ‘qyadat’, and whatnot are either highly ambitious and are used by different political parties for Muslim appeasement, the others who actually commit themselves for a social change fail to understand the social fabric, problems of poverty, and beat around the bush. At initial level it’s important to eradicate the class-inequality, more and more focus on education should be done for emancipation and demanding rights rather than making hubbub of SP, BSP, Congress, BJP and bla bla. Until social equality and social justice is achieved; democracy will be a mockery in India and marginalized communities will remain a ‘Vote-Bank’.

NO FULL STOPS IN INDIA: BOOK REVIEW

Mohammad Arsalan
_________________
For those who want to know the ground realities of India and the way her culture and traditions are harbored by its inhabitants ‘No full stops in India’ is a must read. Mark Tully, a renowned British reporter and commentator of BBC has pinned up series of events in such a beautiful way that it paints a felicitous picture of India, his understanding of the ‘Idea of India’, its diverse and pluralistic culture makes this a compelling reading.

He has been critical of his own British people in the way they have swept in the westernized narrative of being superior and further creating an élite class in India that endorses the same. Tully accuses the same élite Indians and British for poverty, despair and jeopardy that major population of India face. He quotes renowned economist Amartya Sen who wrote, ‘It’s important to understand the élite nature of India to make sense of India’s policies’. Citing the democracy and the ruling-class culture in India he says, ‘India’s élite have never recovered from their colonial hangover, and so they have not developed the ideology, the attitudes and the institutions which would change the poor from subjects to partners in the government of India. Democracy has failed because the people the poor have elected have ruled- not represented- them. The ballot-box is only the first stage in democracy.’ He promulgates the idea of perpetuating India’s own civilization rather than making a replica of the west. Brazenly he argues that lingua-franca of English among Indians by the English is part of their cultural hegemony or imperialism. For the adaptation of English language and knowing it’s pride among Indians, Mark being a British brutally accepts the way English giggle at the Indians, he says, ‘yet the irony is that we, the British, laugh at India’s zeal for our language, and Indian accent and Indian English have long been a fruitful source of jokes.’

In ten essays Mark has projected ample of de-facto cosmos of India’s life, from Shudra’s life in Badaun district of UP to Kumbh Mela that is held after every 12 years at Allahabad. He gives case studies and first-hand account of data of how extreme liberals and feminists have caused more fundamentalism in India; he has explained that in the whole episode of ‘Deorala Sati’ incident where a teenage girl Roop Kanwar deliberately committed Sati, and how the issue was then politicized and mongered. The historic epic Ramayna’s telecast at Doordarshan and the art culture of South India is all well imbibed in the essays. ‘Operation Black Thunder’, Indira Gandhi’s assassination, tussle among the Congress party, Rajiv Gandhi as PM and his assassination, Hindu radicalization, tribal issues and their vernacular art, rise and downfall of communism in Bengal, and whatnot. The book is a whole lot of realities and perspective that India falls into.

Tully says that intellectuals in India try to find out the solutions of their problem from the west not actually realizing that much of the solutions to Indian problem lies within India. Though written in 1992, the book still holds a lot of relevance in today’s context in India. For this book ‘No full stops in India’, Kushwant Singh in Sunday magazine has commented, ‘What [Tully] has to say makes for compelling reading’. And yes the Swami rightly said in the book, ‘there is always a story behind a story in India’…’There are no full stops in India, only comas.’

Post Script: Though there are certain points of which I am critical of, the stories are impeccable.

POLICE BRUTALITY AND VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

MOHAMMAD ARSALAN

_________________

Police brutality is not something new that has been introduced as an issue of Human Rights Violation rather it goes a way back to the history when India was under the British regime. Almost same conditions have prevailed in many parts of the world. In today’s context too many of the atrocities, torture, extrajudicial killings, fake encounters etc. are tactics used by the police in dealing with the culprits or criminals or under-trials or even the alleged or suspects. Many of the Human Rights activists, public intellectuals, academicians and even the judiciary has taken a keen concern over the misuse of Police power leading to gross Violation of Human Rights.

In the British India, Indian Police Act was introduced in 1861. This was done to give free hand to the police to subdue and repress the freedom fighters. This included arbitrary detention, lathi-charge, torture and so on. Some incidents like Jaliawala Bagh massacre could be cited as examples of lethal ambient police made in the country. Colonel Dyre on 13^th April, 1913 killed more than 380 and injured 1100+ people in a continuous firing of 10 minutes. Likewise, torture of leading freedom fighters are well known like Subhas Chandra Bose who was arbitrary compelled to break his fast, same kind of torture also happened to Bhagat Singh and his pals in jails. 

Bhagalpur Blinding is one of the deadliest incidents of Police brutality. In a series of incidents between 1979 and 1980, Police blinded 31 people by pouring acid into their eyes; in Hashimpura Massacre on May 22^nd, 1987 amid Hindu-Muslim riots in Meerut, PAC jawans rounded up 42 civilians and took them at the outskirts of Ghazaibad, shot them dead and threw their bodies in the Ganga canal. Later the bodies were recovered floating in the river. One of the prosecution witness and survivor Muhammad Usman in 2007 said “We were sorted out on the basis of our strength and physique, while elders and children were picked up and set free. The youth were grouped together and put in a yellow PAC truck.”…”was pulled out of the truck, shot at twice and thrown into the Ganga stream”; in the Muthanga Incident, while Adivasis were protesting under the banner of Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha (AGMS) against the delay of land to be allotted to them Police on 19^th February, 2003 opened fire in which two people were dead; Ishrat Jahan, Kuasar Bi and Sohrabuddin of Gujrat were encountered by the police which raised ample of questions of credibility in the case. In these encounter cases the court also took stern action and even the then Home Minister of the state Amit Shah had to face the trial and went behind bars; on October, 2016 in Hazaribag district of Jharkhand, while Tribals were protesting against the lease of their land to NTPC police gunned down four protestors leaving 40 injured; the recent Bhopal Encounter of the alleged 8 SIMI terrorist has been questioned a lot in lacking clear evidence of truth by many sections of the society.

In Kashmir and North Eastern states of India, Armed Forces Special Power Act is implemented which directly violates the Human Rights giving special powers to police and army to detain and arrest any individual without a warrant. If one is arrested under AFSPA he/she may not be liable to be made present before the magistrate within 24 hours, nor even the relatives may see the prosecute, many of the times the suspect is also kept in a secret prison. No accountability of Policemen or the Army can be questioned under this law. Because of this law many of the innocent civilians have suffered in the Kashmir Valley and North Eastern states of India since decades. This law has been considered draconian and violates basic constitutional rights of a citizen like Right to Equality (Article 14-18), Right To Freedom (Article 19-22) and Right Against Exploitation (Article 23-14). Also this law violates the UDHR prescribed by the United Nations for the security of Human Rights of every citizen globally. AFSPA has been looked upon as a draconian law and numerous activists have been criticizing it. One of the social activists Irom Sharmila of Manipur was on hunger strike against this Act and barbarism held under the garb of this rule; Earlier this year in Kashmir after the encounter of separatist Burhan Wani, military and police used pellet guns against countries own civilian, in that turmoil more than 600 people including children and women were brutally injured and became blind. More than 100 people also got killed in police firing. This incident was strongly criticised by the civil society activists.

Likewise, there have been series of numerous incidents since decades of gross Human Rights violation, repression, suppression and so on where police have played a very crucial role. In general it has been observed that state generally gives free hand to the police, sometimes under pressure from the top hierarchy of the government to coup-up with crucial matters that is politically motivated. For the country’s civilians it’s important to become aware of their rights of arrest and other legalities of detention so that violations in custody may not take place. The supreme court of India in view to the increasing violence and torture in custody (D. K. Basu vs. State of West Bengal, 1997 AIR 1997 SC 610) has laid down 11 basic requirements and procedures that the police and other agencies have to follow for the arrest, detention, and interrogation of any person. In today’s context, different NGO’s, NHRC, social activists are taking up the issues dealing with Human Rights violation under custody. If proper awareness of rights and literacy is propagated among the people such brutalities of Police may be controlled to a greater extent.

                                     

                                     *******************