GUWAHATI, May 29 – Priyanuj Bhuyan of Christ-Jyoti School, Nagaon, topped the list of successful candidates in the High School Leaving Certificate (HSLC) examination-2009, conducted by SEBA which recorded a pass percentage of 61.55 (all categories including institutional private and non-institutional private) – an increase of nearly three per cent from last year’s 58.68. It was 54.93 in 2007. Suleman Haque of BAS Madrassa HS School, Saniadi, Kamrup, bagged the first position in the Assam High Madrassa examination with an aggregate of 528 marks and letter in all subjects. He was followed by Aminuzzaman Mondal (514) of Rakhaldubi High Madrassa, Joypur Bazar, Goalpara and Arifa Ahmeda of BAS Madrassa HS School, Saniadi (493). Of the 5,498 candidates that had appeared in the AHM examination, 3,903 came out successful, with the pass percentage being 70.98 – a decline from last year’s 72.34. While 110 candidates secured first division, 815 and 2,978 bagged second and third divisions respectively.
Jyotirmoy Rajbongshi of Axam Jatiya Vidyalaya, Noonmati (Guwahati) and Shruti Chakravartty of Central Girls’ High School, Goalpara emerged
second and third respectively in the HSLC examination. The top three rank-holders secured 568, 567 and 566 aggregate marks respectively besides letter in all subjects.
A total of 63 students captured the top 20 ranks, with many positions shared by several candidates. Of the 2,34,741 students who appeared, 17,137 secured first division, while 29,709 got second division and 97,645 were restricted to third division.
Among the districts, Nalbari recorded the best pass percentage with 76.28, followed by Dhemaji (75.91) and Barpeta (74.34). The worst performers were Karbi Anglong with 36.45, Chirang with 38.76 and Udalguri with 38.95.
A notable trend in the HSLC examination since 1999 has been the steady increase in pass percentage, barring in 2001. From an unimpressive 32.13 in 1999, the pass percentage touched the 40 per cent mark in 2002 (40.87) and shot up beyond the 50 per cent mark in 2005 (53.07).
Among the schools in Guwahati, Axam Jatiya Vidyalaya and St Mary’s English High School bagged the maximum number of rank-holders with six positions apiece.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Prof Islamuddin of Manipur University shot dead inside campus - Manipur
By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter
New Delhi: In a brazen incident that has shocked both academia and the administration in the North-Eastern state of Manipur, Prof Muhammad Islamuddin, former Dean of Students at the Manipur University, was killed on Monday in a broad daylight inside the university campus.
Media reports say four unidentified gunmen who came in two scooters pumped in him three bullets from a point blank range and fled from the scene. The 52-year-old Economics Professor Islamuddin is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.
The Police have cordoned off the area and search operation is on. Meanwhile, University Students Union, Manipur University Tribal Students Union, Democratic Students Alliance of Manipur and All India Students Federation have condemned the incident. Demanding a judicial inquiry into the incident, Pangal Students Union Manipur has called a 12-hour statewide bandh from dawn tomorrow.
Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh visited RIMS hospital mortuary along with his Cabinet colleagues. He strongly condemned the incident and promised that the culprits will be brought to book.
New Delhi: In a brazen incident that has shocked both academia and the administration in the North-Eastern state of Manipur, Prof Muhammad Islamuddin, former Dean of Students at the Manipur University, was killed on Monday in a broad daylight inside the university campus.
Media reports say four unidentified gunmen who came in two scooters pumped in him three bullets from a point blank range and fled from the scene. The 52-year-old Economics Professor Islamuddin is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.
The Police have cordoned off the area and search operation is on. Meanwhile, University Students Union, Manipur University Tribal Students Union, Democratic Students Alliance of Manipur and All India Students Federation have condemned the incident. Demanding a judicial inquiry into the incident, Pangal Students Union Manipur has called a 12-hour statewide bandh from dawn tomorrow.
Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh visited RIMS hospital mortuary along with his Cabinet colleagues. He strongly condemned the incident and promised that the culprits will be brought to book.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
AUDF victory hailed as beginning of a new era for the downtrodden
By Manzar Bilal, TwoCircles.net
New Delhi: The victory of Assam United Democratic Front in the Lok Sabha elections in Assam is being hailed both as the beginning of a new era for healthy and positive politics in the country and a ray of hope for the downtrodden.
Indian Muslim Rabita Council (IMRC) while greeting AUDF chief Maulana Badruddin Ajmal for taking his party to the Parliament described his victory as a new ray of hope for the minorities and neglected and backward classes.
“AUDF’ victory has ushered in a new era of healthy, positive and creative politics in the country, and this will bring a change,” says IMRC General Secretary Maulana Abdur Rahman Abid. “AUDF has reached Delhi but it still has a long way to go to achieve its target,” he avers.
In a meeting held today in New Delhi IMRC has congratulated both Ajmal and Maulana Asrarul Haq Qasmi for their win and expressed hope they will do needful for the country and the community.
The organization has also urged the Congress party to wage an open war against the communalists. The party and the government must not take any excuse in exposing the forces that are continuously conspiring against the minorities. “People have voted for Congress against communalism and thus it is obligatory for the party to take on the communal forces,” IMRC said.
New Delhi: The victory of Assam United Democratic Front in the Lok Sabha elections in Assam is being hailed both as the beginning of a new era for healthy and positive politics in the country and a ray of hope for the downtrodden.
Indian Muslim Rabita Council (IMRC) while greeting AUDF chief Maulana Badruddin Ajmal for taking his party to the Parliament described his victory as a new ray of hope for the minorities and neglected and backward classes.
“AUDF’ victory has ushered in a new era of healthy, positive and creative politics in the country, and this will bring a change,” says IMRC General Secretary Maulana Abdur Rahman Abid. “AUDF has reached Delhi but it still has a long way to go to achieve its target,” he avers.
In a meeting held today in New Delhi IMRC has congratulated both Ajmal and Maulana Asrarul Haq Qasmi for their win and expressed hope they will do needful for the country and the community.
The organization has also urged the Congress party to wage an open war against the communalists. The party and the government must not take any excuse in exposing the forces that are continuously conspiring against the minorities. “People have voted for Congress against communalism and thus it is obligatory for the party to take on the communal forces,” IMRC said.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Back to the future: India chooses the middle path
By Amulya Ganguli, IANS,
The Congress' victory in successive elections, and that too with more seats and higher voting percentage on the second occasion, means that the country has returned to the safe and sound middle path.
Both the earlier lurch to the right and the recent dogmatism of the Left have been negated. Instead, the familiar moderation of the Congress with its emphasis on secularism and modernity has received a vote of confidence from a discerning electorate.
This is not the first time that voters have acted wisely. As their rejection of Indira Gandhi in 1977 for her oppressive Emergency, and their disillusionment with the Congress in the mid-nineties showed, they have always been shrewd judges of politicians and parties.
The Congress lost favour in those periods for two reasons - the taints of authoritarianism and corruption and the inept attempts, first, to please Islamic fundamentalists by overturning the Supreme Court's Shah Bano verdict on alimony for Muslim women and then cozying up to Hindu militants by unlocking the Babri Masjid gates.
These blunders helped in the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with its combative pro-Hindu agenda.
But, as the latest electoral outcome shows, it didn't take long for the fascination with xenophobic politics to wear thin. The ordinary people evidently have no time for the demonisation of the minorities, which is the cornerstone of the BJP's policies.
Similarly, the Left has suffered a precipitous fall from its 60-odd Lok Sabha seats in 2004 to 24 now. What is more, its strongholds in both Kerala and West Bengal have crumbled. The setback in West Bengal is all the more devastating for the comrades because of their 30 years of dominance in the state. Now, there is a distinct possibility of the communists losing the assembly elections as well.
The reason why both the Left and the Right have been rejected so comprehensively is the common man's abhorrence of extremism. As a result, neither the BJP's cynical exploitation of Hindu religious sentiments nor the Left's blind anti-Americanism, as was evident in its opposition to the nuclear deal, secured the voters' approval.
On the question of the nuclear deal, the BJP may have shot itself in the foot by perversely opposing it even while clarifying that it was not anti-American. Evidently, the party was against it only because the Congress was for the measure, thereby demonstrating that national interest had little meaning for the BJP despite all its chest-thumping patriotic rhetoric.
The Left's opposition to the economic reforms showed that its faith in the tax-and-spend, public sector-dominated socialism remains undiminished although the wooing of the private sector by West Bengal's Marxist Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was a sign that at least some of the comrades had woken up to the values of the market forces.
In contrast to these ideologically-driven parties - one hoping to provoke and use Hindu animus against the minorities for its success and the other banking on a dead doctrine - the Congress presented a picture of reasonableness.
Its follies may relate to the misuse of the governor's office and of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for partisan purposes, but these were minor foibles compared to the officially-patronised anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat in 2002, for which BJP Chief Minister Narendra Modi and several of his ministers are facing an inquiry conducted under the Supreme Court's supervision.
The Left's persistent obstructionism on the economic front, which could not but hamper the growth rate, was also apparently a more substantial offence in the eyes of the electorate along with its attempts to scuttle the nuclear deal, which would have pleased India's two inveterate enemies, Pakistan and China, if the comrades had succeeded.
It is worth noting that the latest rejection of the BJP has come after the voters gave the party a chance to rule at the centre for six years from 1998. But the party failed to make any permanent gains because it had no one other than Atal Bihari Vajpayee to pursue a line of moderation, which included his attempts as prime minister to initiate a peace process with Pakistan by undertaking a bus journey to Lahore.
However, as Vajpayee later ruefully pointed out, it was the Gujarat riots which led to the BJP's defeat in 2004. Five years later, and after another more substantive defeat, Yashwant Sinha, who was a minister in Vajpayee's cabinet, regretted that it was the absence of the former prime minister during the BJP's campaign which was responsible for its setback.
Even if this comment was a dig at the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, L.K. Advani's inadequacies as a propagandist, Sinha's point is valid - that only a moderate line can succeed in multicultural, multi-religious, multilingual India.
Since the Congress, as a big tent party, favours neither the domination of one community or the pursuit of a doctrinnaire economic line, it has always been the natural party of governance while the Left and the Right belong to the periphery.
The Congress had lost its way in the nineties because of corruption and the absence of an inspirational leader after Rajiv Gandhi's death. But, now, the leadership vacuum has been filled by the troika of Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi. They also have a fairly competent team comprising, among others, Pranab Mukherjee and P. Chidambaram.
The Congress, therefore, is back in business while its opponents are licking their wounds.
(23.05.2009-Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst. He can be reached at aganguli@mail.com)
The Congress' victory in successive elections, and that too with more seats and higher voting percentage on the second occasion, means that the country has returned to the safe and sound middle path.
Both the earlier lurch to the right and the recent dogmatism of the Left have been negated. Instead, the familiar moderation of the Congress with its emphasis on secularism and modernity has received a vote of confidence from a discerning electorate.
This is not the first time that voters have acted wisely. As their rejection of Indira Gandhi in 1977 for her oppressive Emergency, and their disillusionment with the Congress in the mid-nineties showed, they have always been shrewd judges of politicians and parties.
The Congress lost favour in those periods for two reasons - the taints of authoritarianism and corruption and the inept attempts, first, to please Islamic fundamentalists by overturning the Supreme Court's Shah Bano verdict on alimony for Muslim women and then cozying up to Hindu militants by unlocking the Babri Masjid gates.
These blunders helped in the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with its combative pro-Hindu agenda.
But, as the latest electoral outcome shows, it didn't take long for the fascination with xenophobic politics to wear thin. The ordinary people evidently have no time for the demonisation of the minorities, which is the cornerstone of the BJP's policies.
Similarly, the Left has suffered a precipitous fall from its 60-odd Lok Sabha seats in 2004 to 24 now. What is more, its strongholds in both Kerala and West Bengal have crumbled. The setback in West Bengal is all the more devastating for the comrades because of their 30 years of dominance in the state. Now, there is a distinct possibility of the communists losing the assembly elections as well.
The reason why both the Left and the Right have been rejected so comprehensively is the common man's abhorrence of extremism. As a result, neither the BJP's cynical exploitation of Hindu religious sentiments nor the Left's blind anti-Americanism, as was evident in its opposition to the nuclear deal, secured the voters' approval.
On the question of the nuclear deal, the BJP may have shot itself in the foot by perversely opposing it even while clarifying that it was not anti-American. Evidently, the party was against it only because the Congress was for the measure, thereby demonstrating that national interest had little meaning for the BJP despite all its chest-thumping patriotic rhetoric.
The Left's opposition to the economic reforms showed that its faith in the tax-and-spend, public sector-dominated socialism remains undiminished although the wooing of the private sector by West Bengal's Marxist Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was a sign that at least some of the comrades had woken up to the values of the market forces.
In contrast to these ideologically-driven parties - one hoping to provoke and use Hindu animus against the minorities for its success and the other banking on a dead doctrine - the Congress presented a picture of reasonableness.
Its follies may relate to the misuse of the governor's office and of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for partisan purposes, but these were minor foibles compared to the officially-patronised anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat in 2002, for which BJP Chief Minister Narendra Modi and several of his ministers are facing an inquiry conducted under the Supreme Court's supervision.
The Left's persistent obstructionism on the economic front, which could not but hamper the growth rate, was also apparently a more substantial offence in the eyes of the electorate along with its attempts to scuttle the nuclear deal, which would have pleased India's two inveterate enemies, Pakistan and China, if the comrades had succeeded.
It is worth noting that the latest rejection of the BJP has come after the voters gave the party a chance to rule at the centre for six years from 1998. But the party failed to make any permanent gains because it had no one other than Atal Bihari Vajpayee to pursue a line of moderation, which included his attempts as prime minister to initiate a peace process with Pakistan by undertaking a bus journey to Lahore.
However, as Vajpayee later ruefully pointed out, it was the Gujarat riots which led to the BJP's defeat in 2004. Five years later, and after another more substantive defeat, Yashwant Sinha, who was a minister in Vajpayee's cabinet, regretted that it was the absence of the former prime minister during the BJP's campaign which was responsible for its setback.
Even if this comment was a dig at the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, L.K. Advani's inadequacies as a propagandist, Sinha's point is valid - that only a moderate line can succeed in multicultural, multi-religious, multilingual India.
Since the Congress, as a big tent party, favours neither the domination of one community or the pursuit of a doctrinnaire economic line, it has always been the natural party of governance while the Left and the Right belong to the periphery.
The Congress had lost its way in the nineties because of corruption and the absence of an inspirational leader after Rajiv Gandhi's death. But, now, the leadership vacuum has been filled by the troika of Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi. They also have a fairly competent team comprising, among others, Pranab Mukherjee and P. Chidambaram.
The Congress, therefore, is back in business while its opponents are licking their wounds.
(23.05.2009-Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst. He can be reached at aganguli@mail.com)
Elections 2009: Advani defeated Advani
By Naved Hamid
Now as the dust over the euphoria of the outcome of the General elections of 2009 in India has nearly settled down and the UPA government led by the oldest political party of India under the leadership of Dr. Manmohan Singh, who undoubtedly demonstrated his visionary strength, has created history by not only ensuring to get the confidence of the Indian electorates for the second term as PM only after Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in the history of the democratic India but also by putting cold water on the aspirations of Mr. Lal Krishna Advani, political yatri since last sixty years and the leader of Bharatiya Janata Party.
The day of 16 May 2009 was the day of anti-climax for Mr. Lal Krishna Advani in his political life. It is but natural to aspire for the highest post in the political struggle for a person of Mr. L.K. Advani’s stature but what Mr. Advani has ignored in his political journey is the existence of the pluralistic character of the Indian nation. He became the ‘lauh prush’ or the ‘iron man’ of his political ideology but could not become the pillar of strength for the vast majority of Indians who thoroughly believes in pluralistic character of the nation.
Practically he had ensured the locking of the doors of the PM’s office nearly 18 years back when he started his aggressive anti-Muslim rath yatra to correct the history as per his understanding and vision, which culminated with the demolition of the Babri Mosque of Ayodhya in 1992. Mr. Advani even failed to understand the mindset of the Indian electorates when they rejected his brand of aggressive Hindutva ideology by ensuring the defeat of his party’s candidates in the elections for five state assemblies just after the demolition of one of the oldest mosque of India.
Mr. Advani, along with his colleagues in the Sangh Parivar, had tried to convince Indian masses that the Muslims are of the pampered community in the country. Since mid-nineties, the Muslims of the country were campaigning for the white paper on the socio-economic-educational condition of the community as they had felt the heat of the Sangh’s propaganda of pampering.
Bharatiya Janata Party under the leadership of Mr. L.K. Advani had opposed the announcement of the constitution of Justice Sachar Committee by the UPA government to study the conditions of the Muslim community in India, and the only fear in their mind might be the exposure of the truth. When the study was out, the nation was stunned as Sachar Committee Report placed the factual backwardness of the Muslim community in every field of life before the nation.
For more than three decades, Advani’s brand of politics has made innocent countrymen to ‘believe’ the Sangh’s Goebel propaganda and had created unnecessary hatred, hostility and enmity against the Muslims and confusion in the country. In one stroke the Sachar Committee Report exposed the truth of the pampering propaganda. Enlightened with the factual position, the countrymen took notice of the false propaganda seriously.
After the Sachar Report, when the establishment of the day under the leadership of Dr. Manmohan Singh decided to correct the injustices and announced the launching of the inclusive policies for the empowerment of the backward Muslim community, it was again BJP under Mr. Advani’s leadership that created a ruckus inside and outside the Parliament and strongly opposed the measures without understanding the basic mantra of development for all. Mr. Advani’s colleagues left no stone unturned to convince the innocent countrymen that the launching of the inclusive policies for minorities is nothing but communal budgets and communal awards for the Muslims in the country. The countrymen responded with maturity and ignored the aggressive exclusive agenda of Mr. Advani’s BJP.
Mr. Advani’s another favorite Muslim bashing issue was that of the breeding of Islamic terrorists in the campuses of Islamic Madrasas located along the vulnerable western and northern borders of the country. For more than six years Mr. Lal Krishna Advani was the Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister in Mr. A. B. Vajpayee regime. Even as Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Advani had given public statements about the dangers of cultivations of Jihadis in Islamic Madrasas but failed to put on record any factual position about their anti national activities on the table of the Parliament. Mr. Advani had loudly and rightly promised that NDA government would bring a white paper on the ‘anti-national’ activities of madrasas before the nation but for three years country waited for that until the NDA regime became a part of the Indian history. After losing power in 2004, breeding of Islamic Jihadism in madrasas became, ironically once again, a favorite topic of Mr. Advani’s political sermons and the countrymen were aghast to hear that again.
For more than six years, Mr. Lal Krishna Advani not only had maintained criminal silence on the role of his party leaders in the massacre of the innocent Muslims in the worst ever communal genocide of Muslims in the recent history of South Asia but also supported the continuation of Narendra Modi as the Chief Minister of Gujarat. Who can deny that it was Mr. Lal Krishna Advani’s protégé (a sindhi too) Maya Kodnani who was Social Welfare and Higher Education Minister in the Gujarat Government till she was arrested by the Special Investigation Team after the intervention of the honorable Supreme Court of India, for her role in abetting and instigating mobs against the residents of Naroda Gam and Naroda Patiya in Ahmedabad and massacre of hapless Muslims in Gujarat disturbances of 2002.
Was Maya Kodnani in the State Cabinet because of the patronage of any other leader other than Mr. Advani? The victims of Naroda Gam and Naroda Patiya have boldly and loudly named Maya Kodnani for her notorious role in the violence against them but because of his brand of politics, Mr. Advani had always ignored the crimes of her protégé. How a civilized society can ignore former PM in waiting, Mr. Advani’s silence on the crimes against humanity of his colleagues?
Who can deny that the country has suffered a lot and hundreds of innocents have lost their lives and property because of the foreign abetted terrorism in India? In recent past, the denial of justice to Gujarat victims may also have nurtured a tendency of violence and terrorism amongst the Muslim victims of the state, which cannot be justified in any manner.
The nation, however, was horrified not only with the arrest of Sadhvi Pragyasingh and her colleagues – Major (Retd.) Ramesh Upadhayaya, Col. Srikant Prasad Purohit, Abhinav Bharat Secretary Ajay Rahirkar, Mahant Dayanand Pandey and others – for their role in the bomb blasts in several cities of Muslim concentration including that of Ajmer, Hyderabad and Malegaon to name a few but also with the communalization and politicization of these arrests by Mr. Lal Krishna Advani. He not only raised serious doubts on the integrity against the ATS but also demanded judicial probe into the allegation made by Sadhvi Pragyasingh Thakur against the officials of Maharashtra ATS. The day Mr. Hemant Karkare of Maharashtra ATS died fighting LeT terrorists in Mumbai, Samna, the mouthpiece of BJP’s alliance partner in state of Maharashtra, wrote editorial against Mr. Hemant Karkare and his colleagues. Mr. Advani had not even once criticized and discouraged those who were attacking the officers of Maharashtra ATS for unearthing the terror network of Sadhvi Pragyasingh Thakur and her colleagues. The nation had witnessed with horror Mr. Lal Krishna Advani’s double talks on terror. The brave Mumbaikars rejected the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance when they got a chance in the Parliamentary election thus erecting one more barrier to block Mr. Advani’s march to the office of the Prime Minister.
The only purpose to sensationalise Afzal Guru’s issue in elections was nothing but to communalise the general voters against the Muslim community. Mr. Advani forgets that in the assembly elections of 2008, his attempts had not borne any fruits for his party. The voters had once again taken strong exceptions to his approach towards whole issue and decided to use their vote against his faulty approach.
Varun Gandhi’s much-talked about hate speech in Pilibhit in UP further dimmed Advani’s chances to move closer to the office of the Prime Minister. Mr. Advani deliberately defended Varun for nothing but to garner the Hindutva votes, with the argument that the culprit is denying the contents of his speech. What Mr. Advani forgot was the lame excuse of Mr. Varun Gandhi during his clarification before the electronic and print media that he had visited the place because a number of Hindu women had been sexually molested by Muslims and he had tried to restore the confidence amongst the Hindu population of the area. The clarification of Varun was nothing but a canard as in next two days the Indian Express published an investigating story puncturing the whole argument of Varun Gandhi. The women in Pilibhit were molested not by any Muslim youth but by their own community’s lecherous characters. The youths of the nation not only dismissed Varun’s hate speech against Muslims and the Sikhs but also decided to express their displeasure against Mr. Advani’s approach while deciding for the next Government.
For more than six months the goons of Sangh Parivar were active in Kandhamal in Orissa against the hapless Christian tribals, thousands were forced to take refuge in relief camps in their own country, more than 60 innocent children, women and men were brutally killed and homes of around 5000 families were set afire by them allegedly under the patronage of state ministers who were part of the state government. The nation was horrified when BJP under Mr. Advani’s patronage gave tickets to the culprits for the state Assembly and for the Lok Sabha. The voters of Orissa displayed their wisdom by rejecting most of the BJP’s nominees and his party’s share of votes and strength in State Assembly and in Parliament came down subsequently.
One of the major crisis and communal strife the nation had witnessed was that of Amarnath Yatra row in the state of Jammu & Kashmir. The nomination of Mr. Leela Karan Sharma, the known face who was leading the agitation, as the BJP’s candidate for Jammu Parliamentary constituency undoubtedly exposed the forces behind the strife in the State. Mr. Advani’s gamble of nominating Mr. Sharma did not work and the Jammu voters of the state rejected his party’s choice.
During his entire election campaign, Mr Advani was romancing with non-issues and inventing new theories. What Mr. Advani forgot was that a Sikh can never be a weak when he taunted Dr. Manmohan Singh as the weak Prime Minister of India. With his attack on Dr. Manmohan Singh, the country’s modest voters made up their mind to respond firmly against Mr. Advani’s diatribe by pushing the button against his party.
Thus hardliner Hindutva mascot Advani defeated the political yatri of last sixty years.
Now as the dust over the euphoria of the outcome of the General elections of 2009 in India has nearly settled down and the UPA government led by the oldest political party of India under the leadership of Dr. Manmohan Singh, who undoubtedly demonstrated his visionary strength, has created history by not only ensuring to get the confidence of the Indian electorates for the second term as PM only after Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in the history of the democratic India but also by putting cold water on the aspirations of Mr. Lal Krishna Advani, political yatri since last sixty years and the leader of Bharatiya Janata Party.
The day of 16 May 2009 was the day of anti-climax for Mr. Lal Krishna Advani in his political life. It is but natural to aspire for the highest post in the political struggle for a person of Mr. L.K. Advani’s stature but what Mr. Advani has ignored in his political journey is the existence of the pluralistic character of the Indian nation. He became the ‘lauh prush’ or the ‘iron man’ of his political ideology but could not become the pillar of strength for the vast majority of Indians who thoroughly believes in pluralistic character of the nation.
Practically he had ensured the locking of the doors of the PM’s office nearly 18 years back when he started his aggressive anti-Muslim rath yatra to correct the history as per his understanding and vision, which culminated with the demolition of the Babri Mosque of Ayodhya in 1992. Mr. Advani even failed to understand the mindset of the Indian electorates when they rejected his brand of aggressive Hindutva ideology by ensuring the defeat of his party’s candidates in the elections for five state assemblies just after the demolition of one of the oldest mosque of India.
Mr. Advani, along with his colleagues in the Sangh Parivar, had tried to convince Indian masses that the Muslims are of the pampered community in the country. Since mid-nineties, the Muslims of the country were campaigning for the white paper on the socio-economic-educational condition of the community as they had felt the heat of the Sangh’s propaganda of pampering.
Bharatiya Janata Party under the leadership of Mr. L.K. Advani had opposed the announcement of the constitution of Justice Sachar Committee by the UPA government to study the conditions of the Muslim community in India, and the only fear in their mind might be the exposure of the truth. When the study was out, the nation was stunned as Sachar Committee Report placed the factual backwardness of the Muslim community in every field of life before the nation.
For more than three decades, Advani’s brand of politics has made innocent countrymen to ‘believe’ the Sangh’s Goebel propaganda and had created unnecessary hatred, hostility and enmity against the Muslims and confusion in the country. In one stroke the Sachar Committee Report exposed the truth of the pampering propaganda. Enlightened with the factual position, the countrymen took notice of the false propaganda seriously.
After the Sachar Report, when the establishment of the day under the leadership of Dr. Manmohan Singh decided to correct the injustices and announced the launching of the inclusive policies for the empowerment of the backward Muslim community, it was again BJP under Mr. Advani’s leadership that created a ruckus inside and outside the Parliament and strongly opposed the measures without understanding the basic mantra of development for all. Mr. Advani’s colleagues left no stone unturned to convince the innocent countrymen that the launching of the inclusive policies for minorities is nothing but communal budgets and communal awards for the Muslims in the country. The countrymen responded with maturity and ignored the aggressive exclusive agenda of Mr. Advani’s BJP.
Mr. Advani’s another favorite Muslim bashing issue was that of the breeding of Islamic terrorists in the campuses of Islamic Madrasas located along the vulnerable western and northern borders of the country. For more than six years Mr. Lal Krishna Advani was the Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister in Mr. A. B. Vajpayee regime. Even as Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Advani had given public statements about the dangers of cultivations of Jihadis in Islamic Madrasas but failed to put on record any factual position about their anti national activities on the table of the Parliament. Mr. Advani had loudly and rightly promised that NDA government would bring a white paper on the ‘anti-national’ activities of madrasas before the nation but for three years country waited for that until the NDA regime became a part of the Indian history. After losing power in 2004, breeding of Islamic Jihadism in madrasas became, ironically once again, a favorite topic of Mr. Advani’s political sermons and the countrymen were aghast to hear that again.
For more than six years, Mr. Lal Krishna Advani not only had maintained criminal silence on the role of his party leaders in the massacre of the innocent Muslims in the worst ever communal genocide of Muslims in the recent history of South Asia but also supported the continuation of Narendra Modi as the Chief Minister of Gujarat. Who can deny that it was Mr. Lal Krishna Advani’s protégé (a sindhi too) Maya Kodnani who was Social Welfare and Higher Education Minister in the Gujarat Government till she was arrested by the Special Investigation Team after the intervention of the honorable Supreme Court of India, for her role in abetting and instigating mobs against the residents of Naroda Gam and Naroda Patiya in Ahmedabad and massacre of hapless Muslims in Gujarat disturbances of 2002.
Was Maya Kodnani in the State Cabinet because of the patronage of any other leader other than Mr. Advani? The victims of Naroda Gam and Naroda Patiya have boldly and loudly named Maya Kodnani for her notorious role in the violence against them but because of his brand of politics, Mr. Advani had always ignored the crimes of her protégé. How a civilized society can ignore former PM in waiting, Mr. Advani’s silence on the crimes against humanity of his colleagues?
Who can deny that the country has suffered a lot and hundreds of innocents have lost their lives and property because of the foreign abetted terrorism in India? In recent past, the denial of justice to Gujarat victims may also have nurtured a tendency of violence and terrorism amongst the Muslim victims of the state, which cannot be justified in any manner.
The nation, however, was horrified not only with the arrest of Sadhvi Pragyasingh and her colleagues – Major (Retd.) Ramesh Upadhayaya, Col. Srikant Prasad Purohit, Abhinav Bharat Secretary Ajay Rahirkar, Mahant Dayanand Pandey and others – for their role in the bomb blasts in several cities of Muslim concentration including that of Ajmer, Hyderabad and Malegaon to name a few but also with the communalization and politicization of these arrests by Mr. Lal Krishna Advani. He not only raised serious doubts on the integrity against the ATS but also demanded judicial probe into the allegation made by Sadhvi Pragyasingh Thakur against the officials of Maharashtra ATS. The day Mr. Hemant Karkare of Maharashtra ATS died fighting LeT terrorists in Mumbai, Samna, the mouthpiece of BJP’s alliance partner in state of Maharashtra, wrote editorial against Mr. Hemant Karkare and his colleagues. Mr. Advani had not even once criticized and discouraged those who were attacking the officers of Maharashtra ATS for unearthing the terror network of Sadhvi Pragyasingh Thakur and her colleagues. The nation had witnessed with horror Mr. Lal Krishna Advani’s double talks on terror. The brave Mumbaikars rejected the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance when they got a chance in the Parliamentary election thus erecting one more barrier to block Mr. Advani’s march to the office of the Prime Minister.
The only purpose to sensationalise Afzal Guru’s issue in elections was nothing but to communalise the general voters against the Muslim community. Mr. Advani forgets that in the assembly elections of 2008, his attempts had not borne any fruits for his party. The voters had once again taken strong exceptions to his approach towards whole issue and decided to use their vote against his faulty approach.
Varun Gandhi’s much-talked about hate speech in Pilibhit in UP further dimmed Advani’s chances to move closer to the office of the Prime Minister. Mr. Advani deliberately defended Varun for nothing but to garner the Hindutva votes, with the argument that the culprit is denying the contents of his speech. What Mr. Advani forgot was the lame excuse of Mr. Varun Gandhi during his clarification before the electronic and print media that he had visited the place because a number of Hindu women had been sexually molested by Muslims and he had tried to restore the confidence amongst the Hindu population of the area. The clarification of Varun was nothing but a canard as in next two days the Indian Express published an investigating story puncturing the whole argument of Varun Gandhi. The women in Pilibhit were molested not by any Muslim youth but by their own community’s lecherous characters. The youths of the nation not only dismissed Varun’s hate speech against Muslims and the Sikhs but also decided to express their displeasure against Mr. Advani’s approach while deciding for the next Government.
For more than six months the goons of Sangh Parivar were active in Kandhamal in Orissa against the hapless Christian tribals, thousands were forced to take refuge in relief camps in their own country, more than 60 innocent children, women and men were brutally killed and homes of around 5000 families were set afire by them allegedly under the patronage of state ministers who were part of the state government. The nation was horrified when BJP under Mr. Advani’s patronage gave tickets to the culprits for the state Assembly and for the Lok Sabha. The voters of Orissa displayed their wisdom by rejecting most of the BJP’s nominees and his party’s share of votes and strength in State Assembly and in Parliament came down subsequently.
One of the major crisis and communal strife the nation had witnessed was that of Amarnath Yatra row in the state of Jammu & Kashmir. The nomination of Mr. Leela Karan Sharma, the known face who was leading the agitation, as the BJP’s candidate for Jammu Parliamentary constituency undoubtedly exposed the forces behind the strife in the State. Mr. Advani’s gamble of nominating Mr. Sharma did not work and the Jammu voters of the state rejected his party’s choice.
During his entire election campaign, Mr Advani was romancing with non-issues and inventing new theories. What Mr. Advani forgot was that a Sikh can never be a weak when he taunted Dr. Manmohan Singh as the weak Prime Minister of India. With his attack on Dr. Manmohan Singh, the country’s modest voters made up their mind to respond firmly against Mr. Advani’s diatribe by pushing the button against his party.
Thus hardliner Hindutva mascot Advani defeated the political yatri of last sixty years.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)