US activists protest against Modi visit

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in the US on his maiden visit since assuming office in May.

It's a moment of triumph for Modi who was denied a US visa in 2005 for his alleged failure as the state chief minister to control the 2002 religious riots in Gujarat.

His supporters have planned to organise an elaborate welcome ceremony that includes an address by the right-wing leader at the famous Madison Square GARDEN IN New York City. Close to 20,000 people are expected to attend the grand reception.

But there are human rights activists who CONTINUE to oppose his visit to the US. They say that justice has not been served to the riot victims.

Al Jazeera spoke to some of the activists who have planned to protest against the Indian prime minister's visit.

Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, 47, New York

"We are holding a 'Citizens Court' in Washington DC on September 30 in front of the White House. Our purpose of doing it at the precise location and time of the Obama-Modi summit is to remind the world and the American public that just because Modi had to be let into the country as head of a foreign government, the plight of religious minorities in India has not improved, actually it has worsened. Modi, his party BJP and associated groups have launched their onslaught on the religious minorities with renewed zeal. Today, religious minorities in India face existential threat. The Citizens Court that will indict Modi on September 30 is the 'voice of the voiceless'."

Gurpatwant Singh Pannun is a human rights lawyer and LEGAL ADVISER of Sikhs for Justice

Nishrin Jafri, 49, Delaware

"The US visa ban had given me a sense of relief, that within India and outside India, people are aware of the happenings and the atrocities that are being inflicted based on religion and under the banner of democracy."

"I am sad and could not believe that the US government would turn its back on us, but then this did not surprise me. I am not in politics, but I am aware of decades of US international policies and dealings, why should we be expecting something special. But I do know that the US understands the entire situation and what happened in Gujarat…"

"People just do not go out to kill in TRUCKS IN the thousands all over a state unless it is preplanned and organised. In broad daylight on February 28, 2002, a mob of 10,000 people had surrounded 300 people, burning, looting killing children and women with swords and knives, throwing fire bombs and burning them alive. My father was cut into pieces, tortured for hours before and then his head was paraded around."

Nishrin's father, Ahsan Jafri, a former Member of Parliament, was among the 69 people of Gulberg Society, a Muslim neighbourhood in Ahmedabad, who were killed in the 2002 Gujarat riots

Dr Shaik Ubaid, 52, New York

"We are protesting outside Madison Square Garden on Friday. It is to protest against the massacre in Gujarat and how the victims still have not received any justice. We are also protesting against the ongoing atrocities and hate mongering [against minorities] that is going on in India... We will not allow him to destroy India’s secularism and pluralism."

"The first thing he should do is put an end to the propaganda of 'love-jihad' and the re-conversion of Christians and Muslims to Hindus…"

"We want to say to him that abandon the ideology of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh [parent body of BJP]. Stop impeding speedy process of justice."

"He should apologise first and foremost. It is completely unacceptable that he did not apologise."

Dr Shaik Ubaid is a member of Alliance for Justice and Accountability, one of the key organisers of a protest outside Madison Square Garden in New York

Raja Swamy, 43, Arkansas

"We are extremely disappointed that the Obama administration wilfully ignored several years of principled US government policy that denied Mr Modi a visa due to his sordid human rights record. Successive State Department reports identified Modi as a rights violator and cited his role in the 2002 genocide of Muslims in Gujarat. We understand that as the head of government his present visit is facilitated by international protocols. We also recognise that the US approach to policy on the human rights front is invariably subordinated to the perceived economic benefits to US corporations. Last year we supported efforts in the US Congress to place human rights at the centre of the US-India strategic dialogue in order to address this crass and unprincipled practice of ignoring human rights in favour of business…"

Raja Swamy is a member of Ghadar Alliance, an educational/watchdog coalition formed in the wake of the BJP victory in May

Satinath Choudhary, 72, New York

"Modi's elevation to the seat of prime minister of India does not absolve his culpability in the genocide committed in 2002 in Gujarat."

"I am here in New York, I would definitely be going to Madison Square Garden to REGISTER my protest against Narendra Modi."

Satinath Choudhary is associated with Alliance for Social Justice

Kaleem Kawaja, 62, Washington DC

"We felt a blow when he was elected. We don’t have anything against the BJP when [former Prime Minister Atal Bihari] Vajpayee was there, the philosophy was different…"

"It is for Prime Minister Modi to prove everyone wrong. He has an opportunity now, although he has not demonstrated so far. He should get rid of people such as Amit Shah [a close aide of Modi] and Hindu far-right groups. He should be a Vajpayee. He can still be a Hindu nationalist but be a gentle face of Hindu nationalism not an extremist face."

"He has an opportunity to change himself. He thinks for the good of India and if he frees himself from the influence of hardliners then he can do something good. We haven’t totally lost hope in him."

Kaleem Kawaja is a member of Coalition Against Genocide, a group that had successfully lobbied for Narendra Modi’s visa ban in 2005

Follow Priyanka Gupta on Twitter: @priyankagIND

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/09/us-activists-protest-against-modi-visit-2014926193430506158.html

PIO cardholders to get lifetime Indian visa, PM Modi says

NEW YORK: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday told a rapturous crowd of NRIs that Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) cardholders will get lifetime Indian visa and that American tourists will be given visa on arrival. 

Modi, who arrived at the packed Madison Square Garden to a rousing welcome, announced the merger of PIO and Overseas Citizens of India schemes to facilitate hassle-free travel to the Indian diaspora. 

He announced that PIO card holders staying in India on long-term basis will no longer have to report to the local police station.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/PIO-cardholders-to-get-lifetime-Indian-visa-PM-Modi-says/articleshow/43752944.cms

Even today people treat me as an untouchable: Bihar CM

 Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi Sunday revealed that he is still treated as an "untouchable" by some "powerful people" as he is a poor Mahadalit, the most backward among the community.

"Even today, despite my being the chief minister, some powerful people treat me as untouchable because I am a Mahadalit," Manjhi said at a function here.

He said some people washed idols of deities after he performed prayers and rituals in Madhubani district.

"I was specially invited by some people to participate in prayers and offer rituals at a function but a senior leader Ram Lakhan Ram informed me after my return that they washed the idols of the god and goddess and their home as I was an untouchable," he narrated in anguish.

Manjhi, successor to Nitish Kumar who resigned after the Janata Dal-United's lacklustre performance in the Lok Sabha polls, wondered if it was his fault to have been born in a poor scheduled caste family. "People still treat us as if it was a curse to be born in a Mahadalit family," Manjhi said.

He said many people touch his feet to get their work done or take benefit from him but when it comes to social level, they still treat him as an untouchable.

"It is an insult to Mahadalits. It is an example of where we are now and what our mindset is all about," he said.

Manjhi belong to the Musahar community that derives its name from the practice of eating rats after usually hunting for them in paddy fields.

An estimated 2.3 million Musahars live across Bihar in extremely poor condition. Less than five percent of them are literate and most of them make a living as labourers. They are still considered social untouchables despite a law against it.

The Mushahar community was upbeat after 68-year-old Manjhi, who began his life working as a shepherd for an upper caste farmer, became the new chief minister.

Manjhi earned his own livelihood and funded his own education. His father Ramjeet Ram Manjhi was a landless labourer.

He is the third Dalit to become chief minister after Bhola Paswan Shastri and Ram Sundar Das.

http://twocircles.net/2014sep28/1411909792.html

Narendra Modi was banned from entering the United States

Washington DC: Coalition Against Genocide (CAG), a broad alliance dedicated to justice and accountability for the Gujarat pogrom of 2002 and to defending India's secular tradition, has marked the occasion of Prime Minister Modi's arrival in the United States with a call to people of all faiths and ideologies, to work with renewed vigor against the repression of minorities and erosion of civil liberties and to combat inflammatory rhetoric with grassroots efforts to foster harmony between different communities.
Narendra Modi was banned from entering the United States since 2005, up until his election to the Prime Minister's post, under the International Religious Freedom Act, for his "egregious violations of religious freedom." The law continues to be on the statute books, and its application in the case of Mr. Modi was sound. However, Mr. Modi is now able to visit the United States, under exemptions normally accorded to heads of state.
CAG has called for the law to be applied to other officials in the Indian administration, such as Mr. Amit Shah, who was only recently implicated in a case of hate speech that contributed to the sectarian violence in Muzaffarnagar in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
"The first 100 days of Mr. Modi's tenure as PM have shown to the world the grave dangers posed by the Hindutva ideology to pluralism and the rule of law," said Dr. Raja Swamy, a spokesperson for CAG. "Since the national elections that brought Modi's party to power, the northern state of Uttar Pradesh alone has witnessed over 600 incidents against the Muslim minority," added Dr. Swamy.
The fact that the growing intolerance under the new dispensation is tearing apart India's social fabric is evident from the following:
A relentless hate campaign against minorities fanned by Parliamentarians from Mr. Modi's own party includes conspiracy theories of Muslims luring Hindu girls into marriage as a form of "love jihad," and the characterizing of madrassas (Islamic religious schools) as dens of terrorism. This has inflamed sectarian feelings and created a sense of siege among minorities.
In BJP-ruled states, draconian laws have been instituted to specifically target Christians. In 50 villages of Chhattisgarh, practice of Christianity has been banned. Tellingly, the Modi administration has remained silent on the growing atmosphere of repression threatening Christians in India, including the forced "re-conversions" of some Christians to Hinduism.
In August, Mr. Mohan Bhagwat, the chief of the RSS (India's largest Hindu nationalist militia), declared Sikh, Jains and Buddhists, widely recognized as distinct religious communities, as part of Hindu society. He further declared anyone who treated them as distinct religious communities as conspiring against Hinduism. This attack on religious freedom, denying three religious communities even the right of self-identification, went unchallenged by anyone in Mr. Modi's administration.
The Intelligence Bureau of India, which now directly reports to Mr. Modi, has issued a report identifying key human rights, educational and environmental NGOs as anti-national groups hindering the development of India. These groups include Amnesty International, Greenpeace and CORDAID. The Indian government has blocked overseas funding for Amnesty International. Likewise, grants for local NGOs have also been blocked in what can result in a serious erosion of civil rights culture in India.
"Mr. Modi's silence in the face of the hate campaign launched by Yogi Adityanath and Sakshi Maharaj, and the suppression of relgious freedom and civil liberties, is a sign of either his quiet acquiescence or tacit endorsement of such tactics" said Dr. Shaik Ubaid, a spokesperson for CAG. "Either way, it betrays his unwillingness to go beyond the confines of the Hindutva ideology of which he has been a lifelong proponent," said Dr. Ubaid.
CAG is a broad-based coalition representing a diverse cross section of the religious and political spectrum of the Indian diaspora, including Hindu and other faith-based organizations. The coalition is committed to democracy, pluralism and to the preservation of the idea of India.

http://twocircles.net/2014sep27/1411812312.html#.VCdiw1eeKAp

Insertion of Muslim icons in social science text book creates storm in Maharashtra

Mumbai: A controversy has been brewing in Maharashtra over the inclusion of images of Muslim educationists in Urdu text BOOKS FORgovernment run schools used in on replacement with some Marathi icons. This move has brought the wrath of Marathi hardliners, who are describing it as an attack on Marathi pride. Meanwhile state Urdu department and teachers are up in arm calling it a first bold ‘inclusive’ step.

Bal Bharati Maharashtra State Bureau of Text BOOKS, under state education ministry has the monopoly over management of syllabus and publication of primary classes Government text books. In this annual summer vacation as the process goes, Bal Bharati designed the syllabus in Marathi which then has to be translated in English, Urdu, Hindi and Gujarati mediums by respective departments.


Cover page of the text book.
Cover page of the text BOOK.
As the new draft was moved in for publication in the Urdu department, a third standard book titled ‘Mahaul ka Mutalaa’ (Environment Studies) a compilation of several social subjects, caught the attention of Khan Naved Ulhaq, a special officer and in fact the sole staff working in the primary classes’ Urdu department.

This text book has a chapter on personalities who did great work for the promotion of education; it also gave an exercise to pupils to find out with their TEACHERS more about the given icons and their contribution to society.

To Naved ul Haq’s surprise not even a single personality in the text book draft was a Muslim. He decided to include some in Urdu copied translation. He added the images of Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad a freedom fighter and first education minister of India, former President of India Zakir Hussain, an educationist who was awarded Bharat Ratana for his services, Badruddin Tayabji former president of Indian National Congress and first Indian Solicitor and first Indian chief justice of Bombay High Court, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, founder of Aligarh Muslim University, Fatima Sheikh, first Muslim women TEACHER who along with Savitri Phule started first girls school in India, Hakeem Abudl Hameed the founder of Hamdard University.

Special Urdu officer of Bal Bharati facilitated Muslim icons in the text book chapter by removing the images of Maharaja of Baroda Sayyajirao Gaikwad, Shaho Maharaj of Kholapur, women emancipation and education activists Pandita Ramabai, Maharishi Dhundu Karve, Karamveer Bahurao Patil, and Punjabrao Deshmukh.

Somehow this move caught the eye of the history department of MSBT and subsequently passed on to Maharashtra’s leading Marathi news daily Lok Satta. In its 19th July edition Lok Satta carried a front page news report presenting swapping of images as a communal act and made it an issue of Marathi pride.

Speaking with TwoCircles.net, Urdu Special Officer Khan Navedul Haq said his intention was never to create a controversy but to enlighten Muslim children about their community leaders’ contributions. Mr. Khan said, “Primary school is the place where children develop their outlook towards the society. My intention was to acquaint children about the contribution of Muslim icons for Indian society. I knew that if Muslim children can’t learn about their leader’s contribution from at least Urdu text BOOKS then it cannot be done through any other medium.”

“I took a bold step”, Mr. Naved said without any hesitation, even accepted that officially he had no authority to amend the material of text books, and risked his job while doing so, “I took the risk only to wake my community from a reckless sleep,” he assert and adds “but I failed.”

He has complains that even after taking personal risk to do justice with Muslim community in historical perspective, no community leader in Maharashtra is taking up the issue. Even though history committee is giving clear signals of calling back all amended text books from all Urdu schools for reprinting, to remove the images of Muslims educationists earlier inserted.


Amended chapter with images of Muslim educationists.
Amended chapter with images of Muslim educationists.
However pulping of text BOOK FOR republication didn’t go down as easy task as Bal Bharati expected as the Urdu department’s action is now slowly generating support from state Urdu teacher’s organizations and from some corners of Urdu media.

Akhil Maharashtra Urdu Prathamik Shikshat Sangathan an influential Urdu teacher’s organization has already started holding public meetings in support of Urdu department and inclusion of Muslim contributions for country in the Government text BOOKS.

Mr. Asif Iqbal, general secretary of the Sangathan (organization) who himself is a principal in an Urdu school, told TCN, “Those images should have been included long time ago. It’s a welcome step. But not just in Urdu medium books, those Muslim icons should also be included in Hindi and Marathi text books, from Urdu medium there cannot be any question of removing it.”

Explaining the logic behind their contention Mr. Asif said, “Every community and their contributions to the society should be represented, Muslims are completely neglected in Marathi education system. This inclusiveness will help in two ways, first it will create a sense of motivation and belonging to society for Muslim children and second it will bring up secularism among every pupil since childhood.”

Urdu special officer also revealed to TCN that both Academic DIRECTOR and secretary in a meeting with him and history department officials found it improper to completely remove the images of Muslim educationist after they are being published. So they preferred a middle path, they proposed to keep the status quo of text BOOK FOR this academic year and in the next year history committee can take out only some images of Muslims icons inserted by some Marathi icons to make it more balance.

But the history committee was not ready to give the nod; they are in no way conceding insertion of any new images as it wants text books to be published with only original content of Marathi medium. Mr. Naved ul Haq alleged that history committee with its fierce lobbying with bureaucracy and Marathi media is soon close to call back Urdu text book for reprinting.


Lok Satta news.
Lok Satta news
On their part, state Urdu teachers have already made representations to every GOVERNMENT EDUCATION department and even had a one-on-one meeting with education minister Rajendra Drada, who is in fact de facto in charge of Bal Bharati.

M. A. Gaffar state president of Maharashtra Rajya Urdu Shikshat Sanghtan who was also the part of the meeting told TwoCircles.net that education minister though appreciated the move of Urdu department, but he didn’t give any assurance to the delegation on keeping those images intact in text BOOKS, giving clear signs to the delegation that the Marathi lobby working to pull down those images is more powerful than state education minister himself.

Mr. Gaffar said that the state Urdu teachers are willing to take this struggle to next level as he believed they understood the significance of the matter. “If we failed to deter Bal Bharati from recalling text BOOKS FOR reprinting we will not just lose five or six images of Muslims from a history book, but a long cherished hope for secular inclusiveness of text book education will be closed.”

http://twocircles.net/2014sep23/1411483930.html#.VCGNSPmSzzI

Cabinet reviews Haj preparations

The Council of Ministers, chaired by Crown Prince Salman, deputy premier and minister of defense, reviewed the Kingdom’s preparations for the annual pilgrimage, which is likely to start on Oct. 2.
Prince Salman highlighted Saudi Arabia’s efforts in the service of pilgrims, including the expansion of the two holy mosques and the implementation of giant projects in the holy sites for the welfare of the guests of God.
The Kingdom has deployed about 70,000 officers, including traffic POLICE, to ensure the safety and security of pilgrims.
About 900,000 foreign pilgrims have already arrived from different parts of the world.
Culture and Information Minister Abdul Aziz Khoja said the Cabinet expressed its pride on the Kingdom’s 84th National Day, while highlighting the progress it has achieved under the leadership of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah.
The Cabinet also reviewed regional and global efforts to combat terrorism and praised a statement issued by the Council of Senior Islamic Scholars denouncing terrorism as a heinous CRIME and backing the government’s campaign to fight extremists and terrorists.
The Cabinet expressed the Kingdom’s deep regret for events taking place in Yemen, which threaten its security and stability, and welcomed an agreement of peace and national partnership signed by political parties.
Saudi Arabia hopes that this agreement would enable Yemen to overcome the present crisis, pointing out what was expressed by the GCC Ministerial Council following a meeting in New York emphasizing the six-member group’s support for Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to maintain legitimacy and stop bloodshed.
Khoja said the Cabinet approved a defense cooperation agreement with Indonesia, which was signed in Jakarta on 22/03/1435H. It also endorsed another accord with the UN Office for Coordination on Humanitarian Affairs.
The Cabinet renewed the membership of Dr. Fahd bin Abdullah Al-Samari in the Board of Directors of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA). It appointed Dr. Hani Aburas, Dr. Abdulwahid bin Khalid Al-Hamid, Abdullah bin Said Al-Mubti, Mansour bin Saleh Al-Maiman, Abdullah bin Ali Al-Majdouie, and Abdulwahab bin Mohammed Al-Fayez as members of the Board of Directors of SCTA for three years.
The Cabinet reshuffled the board of directors of the Riyadh Development Authority, with the Riyadh governor as its chairman. The 14-member board includes representatives from various government departments.
The Cabinet also reshuffled the INSURANCE Dispute Settlement Committee in Riyadh.
Dr. Mohammed bin Hamad Al-Amoghaiuli is the new chairman, while Dr. Ayedh bin Sultan Al-Buqami and Dr. Miteb bin Saleh Al-Ashaiwi are members.

http://www.arabnews.com/saudi-arabia/news/634396