New Delhi: Mayawati may have demanded reservation for the Muslims in proportion to their population, but the community has little to cheer about during her five years' rule in Uttar Pradesh.

An analysis of Muslims' share in employment and education shows how since 2007 the Muslims have fared worse than dalits in UP on the education front. Demolishing the tall claims of the minority concentration districts' programme to smithereens, the study shows that per capita consumption expenditure of the Muslims was the least (Rs 781 against Rs 948 for upper caste Hindus, Rs 846 for Hindu OBCs and Rs 808 for Hindu SCs), where the community's population is above 40%. Economist Abusaleh Shariiff, who conducted the study, has called for revoking the programme.

"We want money from the HRD ministry for the development of education opportunities for our children, not from the ministry of minority affairs. The minority concentration districts programme should be closed down," Shariff said.

Shariff is the chief economist of the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), and was member secretary of the Sachar Committee that was formed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2005 to look into the social, economic and educational status of Indian Muslims. He presented his findings at the Institute of Objective Studies on Saturday.

The study showed that the Muslim participation in the UPA's flagship Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is minimal (8.6%) in Uttar Pradesh, where the community's population is more than 18%. SC/STs' share in the scheme is 53.5%, followed by OBCs (33.9%).

Only 11.3% of workers in the formal sector in urban areas are Muslims, and 30.6% of them are employed in the private sector against just 5.3% in the public sector, turning the very principle behind demands for reservation in the private sector on its head. On the contrary, 17.5% workers in the sector are SC/STs and 19.7% are OBCs.

On the education front, the study showed that literacy among the Muslims on the OBC and general categories has gone up by about 7% in both urban and rural areas of UP over the last five years. Only Hindu STs are worse off at 4%. General category Hindus have shown the highest leap of 17% in rural and 22% in urban areas.

The Muslims' plight worsens as level of education goes up. In matric education, Muslim OBCs showed just a 2% rise, while there was a dip of about 3% for those who belong to the general category. Correspondingly, Hindu STs showed a surge of close to 20% and SCs of about 3% in rural areas and 5% and 8% in urban areas, respectively.

Muslims' share in higher education was the most dismal, with the OBCs registering a fall of 13% in urban and 12% in rural areas. General category Muslims showed a fall of 9% in urban areas and 14% in rural areas.

"Education data shows that the present trend of politics in UP has worked in favour of OBC Muslims and dalits whereas general category Muslims have lagged behind in many cases," Shariff added.

Bhopal: The Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) has vehemently condemned the arbitrary and unconstitutional arrest of Mr. Sanjeev Bhatt, a senior IPS officer of Gujarat, who dared to expose the allegedly blood-stained hands of the state Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his aides in the 2002 post Godhra communal riots in which thousands of Muslims were killed and the murder of former state home minister Haren Pandya.

E. Aboobacker, SDPI national president, in a statement has demanded immediate release of Mr. Sanjeev Bhatt and dismissal of totalitarian regime of Modi now before he subverts justice further. He urged to safeguard the whistleblowers and make a full stop to his harassment following his revelations about Mr. Modi and his aides complexity in 2002 pogrom and their involvement in the assassination of Gujarat’s former home minister Haren Pandya. This action of the Gujarat police under the direct instructions of the Mr. Modi, who also happens to be state’s Home Minister, amounts to tampering with evidence and direct intimidation of a key witness, he added.

Mr. Aboobacker questioned as to why has Mr. Bhatt been arrested three months after Constable K.D. Pant, who had worked under him during the 2002 riots, made his charge for allegedly threatening him? Chronologically the fact that three days ago Bhatt told the Gujarat High Court that Chief Minister Mr. Narendra Modi and former Minister of State for Home Amit Shah had tried to put pressure on him to destroy crucial evidence in the Haren Pandya murder case seems to make more sense.

He stated that those who try to bring Modi to justice seem to end up having charges of one kind or another brought against them! He pointed out that: (1) Constable Pant brings charges against Sanjeev Bhatt; (2) Rais Khan brings charges against Teesta Stelvad and (3) Premchand Tiwari brings charges against Jan Sangharsh Manch’s Mukul Sinha. As such Modi's henchmen seem to have become experts in finding people who would harass those who dare to take on Modi. They also seem to specialize in getting witnesses to change their testimony (e.g. Zaheera Shaikh in the Best Bakery case), the statement added.

[Pervez Bari is a Journalist based at Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. He can be contacted at pervezbari@eth.net]

Danish A. Khan, Founder-Editor, IndianMuslimObserver.com receiving award

New Delhi: The arrest of Gujarat’s DIG rank police officer Sanjeev Bhatt and prime witness in Guajarat carnage has created uproar amongst civil society organizations, civil rights groups and activists. Activists and Civil Rights’ groups have given a nationwide call of protest against Bhatt’s arrest tomorrow (Monday, October 3, 2011). “We strongly condemn the arrest of Sanjeev Bhatt by the Modi government on fabricated charges,” said senior Social Activist Shabnam Hashmi while terming the arrest arbitrarily and unconstitutional.

On a call given by ANHAD, All India Secular Forum and various other organizations, protests are being organized in the of cities of Allahabad, Lucknow, Varanasi, Barabanki, Jhansi, Bhopal, Indore, Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar, Pune, Dehradun, Bangalore, Baroda, Jammu, Srinagar, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Hisar, Rohtak, Gonda and Faizabad.

In Delhi, a citizen’s protest will be held at Gujarat Bhawan on Monday, 3:30 pm onwards. “We demand immediate and unconditional release of Sanjeev Bhatt,” said Mahtab Alam, a Delhi-based Civil Rights’ Activist. “It’s clear case of intimidation of Whistle-blowers and shows totalitarian character of Modi regime,” he alleged. He has appealed to justice and peace loving people in large number.

Sanjeev Bhatt is the only police officer, whistle blower, who has given evidence against Modi and has for the first time put in black and white the fact that Modi was involvement in 2002 Gujarat carnage. Though Modi’s involvement was talked about in under tones all these eight years but no one had the courage to take on Modi knowing his vindictive ways of functioning.

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh, the central state of India, is moving ahead on the path of becoming a developed state and as such concrete initiative should be undertaken to remove hurdles coming in the way of development of industries.

The above view was expressed by Madhya Pradesh’s Principal Secretary Commerce, Industries and Employment Prasanna Kumar Dash. He was speaking at a seminar on “Industrial development and possibilities” which was organised here by the District Trade and Industry Centre.

Mr. Dash said that apart from food processing, mineral processing, pharmaceuticals and engineering industries, there are also strong possibilities in business sector in Bhopal.

The Principal Secretary also threw light on possibilities of engineering, power and pharmaceutical clusters. Mr. Dash lauded the initiative of organising this seminar with the objective of informing industrialists about the facilities being provided by Madhya Pradesh government to industrialists in its industrial policy. He said that such efforts should also be undertaken by industrial and commercial establishments.

President of Madhya Pradesh Laghu Udyog Sangh Dr. Radhasharan Goswami said that credit flow of industries in Bhopal district had registered higher growth in comparison to 2003-04. Govindpura Industries Association Vice-President Mr. Mukesh Sachdeva recalled the development works undertaken in Govindpura Industrial Area. He also gave information about establishment of new industrial areas near Bhopal.

The seminar was informed that proposals regarding establishment of new industrial areas have been sent to the government from time to time keeping possibilities of Bhopal's industrialisation in view. Bhopal district is becoming an education hub. Information technology is fast expanding in the state. Bhopal is an ideal place for setting up IT industries. New places have been identified in Bhopal district for establishment of industrial areas. District Industries Centre General Manager Mr. Mohan Chaturvedi informed about industrial possibilities and development.

Those present on the occasion included BHEL's former Executive Director N. N. Daga, Assistant Manager of Reserve Bank of India, Assistant General Manager of Bank of India, Manager of Railway Coach Factory, Joint Director of Directorate of Industries R. C. Kuriel, Joint Director C. S. Dhurve, Deputy Director S. S. K. Naidu, Manager Vinay Tiwari, Managing Director of Madhya Pradesh Audyogik Vikas Nigam, industrialists of Govindpura Industrial Area, interested entrepreneurs and officers of Industry Department and District Industries Centre.

[Pervez Bari is a Journalist based at Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. He can be contacted at pervezbari@eth.net]

Come elections and all political parties suddenly wake up to the plight of Muslims – their poverty, illiteracy and overall backwardness – and vie each other in promising moon to the community if voted to power. But once the elections are over and government is formed the community is forgotten and left to its fate. This is the story repeated in all elections since Independence and the forthcoming UP Assembly elections are no exception. As the election time draws closer all parties employ various tactics to get the favour of the community. What to say of the so called secular parties — BSP, SP and Congress — even the communal BJP responsible for the demolition of Babri Masjid and genocide of innocent Muslims in Gujarat is organizing Muslim Swabhiman (Self respect) Conference in the state capital on October 3 to convey the message that the party is ready to fight for the cause of the community and is concerned, more than any secular party, for its welfare. The state president of the minority front of the party Shafaat Hussain said that the BJP was the only party faithful to Muslims. All others have used the community only as votebank.

What kind of faithfulness is Mr. Hussain talking about only he can understand. However, the real motive behind the conference as a national leader of the party put it is to soften the attitude of the community towards the saffron party and break their resolve to defeat the party candidate at any cost. The leader said “We know that Muslims do not like us and will not vote for us as they vote for SP, BSP and Congress. Our effort will be to stop the community from resorting to strategic voting in the elections which harms the party most.” The BJP leader said that in the conference the party would give clarification on the cap episode during Modi’s sadbhavna fast that has alienated the community further with it.

The BJP leader, though belongs to an anti-Muslim party, has spoken some truth and has given some food for thought to the Muslim community particularly its leaders. It is true that the so called secular parties have used the community only as vote bank and exploited it by raising the specter of Sangh Parivar to serve their own interests.The Congress which remained in power at the Centre and in states for the longest period and got full support of Muslims gave in return the wounds of Maliana, Bhagalpur and Bombay riots and many more and finally the demolition of Babri Masjid. SP and BSP, specially the former which became the centre of the community’s hopes too gave only unfulfilled promises. Adding insult to injury the two parties did not hesitate in hobnobbing with communal forces throwing all the principles and policies of secularism to the winds while at the same time ignoring the sentiments of the community which supported them. Thus while Mayawati allied with the BJP twice to form government in UP and campaigned for Modi after the Gujarat genocide of Muslims, Mulayam Singh Yadav ditched the community to align with Kalyan Singh, the villain of the demolition of

Babri Masjid.

Feeling cheated and neglected Muslim decided to resort to strategic voting in elections by which they aimed to defeat BJP and in the process vote for any candidate who was in a position to humble the saffron outfit irrespective of his party affiliation. The strategy worked. On the one hand it gave a message to the secular parties that Muslim votes could not be taken for granted while on the other hand it hit the saffron party where it hurt the most as is evident from the statement of the BJP leader.

The strategy, though successful, is defensive and cannot be continued indefinitely without harming the interest of the community. It can ensure the defeat of BJP but not victory for Muslims. The community should contest to win. This requires a positive strategy whereby communal forces are defeated and secular outfits are forced to heed the grievances of the community. For this our leaders will have to sacrifice their self-interests and egos and instead of every one ploughing his own furrow come together and jointly address the issues facing the community. Once this is achieved they will be in a position to bargain with secular parties proportionate representation in assemblies and parliament and at decision making levels. But this is not as easy as said. However, some beginning somewhere will have to be made. Till then strategic polling in the elections can continue.

[Mohammad Shahid Parvez is former News Editor, National Herald, Lucknow. He recently joined IndianMuslimObserver.com as Bureau Chief (Uttar Pradesh). He can be contacted at mshahidparvez@gmail.com]

For years now, the tensed dramas are being enacted, rather successfully, by USA and Pakistan for some concealed geo-political and Silk-route reasons, apart from escalating the NATO war for resources and routes in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. USA allows Pakistani regime and military to make some noise occasionally in order to enable the US regime release some more weapons military and money for the leaders in their foreign accounts.

Pakistan during its existence for decades now has not even once tried to show to either to its own people or to the word that its domestic and foreign polices are not made in Washington but in Islamabad. This historic weakness is genesis of US-Pak tensions because American imperialists, considering Pakistan as one of its trusted puppets in Islamic world, have now gone too far to impose its will plus every policy on Pakistan.

All such US-Pak or US-India make-believe-gimmicks are too old now that none takes it seriously. Global media are of the opinion and the world at large is under the impression that Pakistani military and intelligence cooperate with Pentagon-CIA gang by identifying the areas and persons in Pakistan for the attacks of Obama drones and other weapons. But in order to show Pakistan has no hand in the US terror attacks on Pakistani soil, the regime and military create the gimmicks. US regime and hardcore Congressmen keep asking Pakistani leadership to do "more" for extra favors. Islamabad's latest assertion that it would not kill any more Muslims should be seen from this perspective, unless regime shows credible gamechange in the near future.

More the Pakistan regime bends, crueler the US imperialists would become. Pakistani regime cares a damn to what the locals write about US-Pak relations but goes by what the Neoconservative nuts present as the reality of the relations. Historically, the US-UK strategists write about their relations with Pakistan or Arab world is to make these regimes reset their policies according to perceptions of western terrocracies.

This explains why the core media lords, enjoying the courting of western media lords, do not take pains to twist Islamabad's policy towards the west. Their fear that their writings against US imperialism or NATO fascism would land them into deeper trouble since go out of favor of the "invitees" list of western embassies in Islamabad.

As a result of personal benefits and not of the nation, the core media nuts in Pakistan adopt an irresponsibly ambivalent approach to US arrogance towards Pakistan. They even glorified the torture and massacres of Muslims in Pakistan and Afghanistan as the fate of them because they have to die anyway but let them be killed by Obama drones and NATO arms so that the Pakistani leaders and regime gets some rotten bones from Washington. Today Pakistan media lords have joined hands with Indian counterparts and arms giants to promote NATO terrorism as need of the time to target Islam.

The crux of the issue is Pakistani regime has never, not even as a matter of reference or by mistake, asked occupying forces of US/NATO terror syndicates to quite Pakistani soil.

Readers should know it is because Pakistan has no permission from USA to perform such dirty tricks on USA.

And no change in US arrogant attitude to Pakistan or any other Muslim nation would be possible so long as Islamabad has the privilege- if not the right- to ask the foreign forces to leave both Afghanistan and Pakistan - at least from Pakistani soil. The leaders and "prominent Pakistanis" should have enough courage not only for consuming the liquor supplied by US embassy, but also to ask the NATO state criminals killing Pakistanis to leave right now.

But false alarms and fake talks about lose of sovereignty to USA by the Pak regime or its equally mischievous media have no meaning at all.

Every now and then Pakistani regime and pro-US core media create fake alarms about US misadventures exclusively for securing some benefits. There is popular fairy tale in this part of the globe which tells us how foolishly a village boy cried loud that a tiger has attached him and, of course, falsely called out for help, but people who earlier came running for his rescue found that he was just bluffing, did not even bother about the boy's real cries when actually a tiger came, attacked, killed and consumed his flesh and blood.

Today in the name of "war on terror" which in fact means war on Islam and against oil rich Muslim nations USA has generated enough gimmicks to fool the world. An arrogant India, another strategic partner in terror tacitcs and operations and forcefully occupying Jammu Kashmir and killing the Muslims there also pops up such anti-US gimmicks to fool the world only to let India have some US favors plus. nuclear bones. One gets the impression, that the Indian media, especially the TV channels, are now directly manned by CIA , ignoring the home ministry and its intelligence teams that are busy with fabricating or finding fault with Pakistani cricketers.

Otherwise, the protest by Pakistani against US misadventurism inside Pakistan is yet another pure diplomatic gimmick- nothing more!. Does Pakistan really enjoy sovereignty?

(Don't say I have no right to express myself. I am a freeman and need not to tow the CIA line or seek favor from USA or any other terrocracy!)

There one can see the NATO mad dogs, vultures and other wild animals are inside Pakistan pretending to be the democrats.

Fairy tale can turn to be real as well!

[Dr. Abdul Ruff is Specialist on State Terrorism. He is Chancellor-Founder of Center for International Affairs (CIA). He is former university Teacher, Analyst in International Affairs and an Expert on Middle East. He can be contacted at abdulruff@gmail.com]

New Delhi: The delay by the State Government of Bihar in providing land to establish a special centre of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) at Kishanganj has angered the people of Kishanganj and adjacent districts of Purnea Commissionerate.

To put forth its demand to provide land and to galvanize support to pressurize the government, the AMU Kishanganj Co-ordination Committee convened a national meeting here at India Islamic Cultural Centre, Lodhi Road on 30 September.

The initiative is now taking form of a mass movement that may take the Nitish-led NDA government by surprise.

On the basis of Fatimi Committee’s recommendations during the UPA-I government, Aligarh Muslim University had announced to establish some extension centres which are now called special centres in the minority concentrated areas where literacy rate is very low.

The establishment of two centres at Malappuram in Kerala and Murshidabad in West Bengal is the implementation of the same plan.

Speakers from across social, political, academic and media spectrums addressed the convention and criticized Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s lackadaisical approach in providing land for the proposed centre.

Nitish would be unfortunate if the center is not established during his tenure, said Aziz Burney, group editor of Urdu daily Rashtriya Sahara and its sister Urdu publications. Burney wondered as to why the government was seeing so much problem in providing a small chunk of land to establish an educational institution forgetting the fact that some of the country’s magnificent buildings stood on Muslim Waqf lands.

AMU professor Dr. Saud Alam Qasmi took a strong exception to the government’s intension. He opined that some people had a “genetic problem” to oppose every move taken for the uplift of marginalized communities.

Advocating de-centralization of education, Anuranjan Jha, former CEO of CNEB news channel said that the issue was “very serious”. Pledging to extend his support to the move, Jha said that the issue needed to be seen above caste and religious lines.

The audience had some tickling moments when Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav came to the podium. He questioned whether Nitish was sincere in providing land for the centre. He termed the center’s demand as a legitimate right of the people.

Afzal Hussain, owner of a large private land, who has shown interest to give land for the center, rued that he received telephone calls from everyone when he expressed his desire to give land to the centre. But after his announcement, his name was being dragged into unnecessary controversies and he was being intimidated.

Hussain said that when pushed into an unwarranted trouble, nobody came to his rescue and he was fighting it all alone.

Akhtarul Iman, an MLA from Kishanganj district, who has been closely following developments in the land provision issue, regretted the fact that the people of that northeastern part of Bihar called Seemanchal were forced to migrate to the other parts of the country for livelihood. Not only this, the people of this region are compelled to go to other parts of India even for education and health-related issues as there were no proper academic institutions and hospitals.

Amid echoing claps, the AMU Vice Chancellor Prof. P.K. Abdul Azis received a standing ovation when his name was called over the dais. The VC detailed the chronology of events in the entire process so far.

A thumping standing ovation was given to Maulana Mohammad Asrarul Haque Qasmi, Member of Parliament from Kishanganj who has been trying hard for over one and half years to get the required contiguous plot of land to set up the centre.

In his presidential address, Maulana Qasmi said that he was not fighting against any individual. Our fight is for a cause to change our condition, said he.

[Manzar Imam is Special Correspondent of IndianMuslimObserver.com. He can be reached at manzarimam@rediffmail.com]

New Delhi: Universal Knowledge Trust, a New Delhi based NGO headed by eminent NGO Consultant and community activist, Abdur Rashid Agwan, is organising a seminar on the topic of "Inclusive Education of Minority Girls: Issues and Opportunities” on October 2, 2011 Mughal Banquet Hall, N-42, Abul Fazl Enclave, Jamia Nagar, New Delhi-110025.

The seminar is being co-sponsored by National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI), National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), All India Confederation for Women's Empowerment through Education, An-Noor Women's Welfare Organisation and Jamia Cooperative Bank Ltd.

Justice M.S.A. Siddiqui, Chairperson, National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI), will inaugurate the seminar.

Various issues related to Muslim girls’ education as well as benefits of affiliating NGOs and schools with National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) will the major highlights at the seminar.

Dr. Shabistan Ghaffar, Chairperson, All India Confederation for Women's Empowerment through Education, will be the chairperson at the seminar. Member of Parliament from Kishanganj and educationist, Maulana Asrarul Haq Qasmi, Dr. SS Jena, Chairman, NIOS, Anil Anand, Head, Zee Salam and Mirza M F H Beg, Director, Jamia Cooperative Bank will also be speaking on the occasion.