Quoting Patel - my birthday mate

Swapan Das Gupta brings forth a very interesting quote from Patel, in
http://www.newindpress.com/sunday/colItems.asp?ID=SEC20061116074405

And here is the full debate from the Parliament of India website
http://parliamentofindia.nic.in/ls/debates/vol5p9a.htm

and I quote

(To the Muslims on the issue of reservation for "minorities") You have got what you wanted. You have got a separate State and remember, you are the people who were responsible for it, and not those who remain in Pakistan. You led the agitation. You got.it. What is it that you want now ? I don't understand. In the majority Hindu provinces YOU, the minorities, you led the agitation. You got the partition and now again you tell me and ask me to say for the purpose of Securing the affection of the younger brother that I must agree to the same thing again, to divide the country again in the divided part. For God's sake, understand that we have also got some sense. Let us understand the thing clearly. Therefore when I say we must forget the past, I say it sincerely. There will be no injustice done to you. There will be generosity towards you, but there must be reciprocity. If it is absent, then you take it from me that no soft words can conceal what is behind your words. Therefore, I plainly once more appeal to you strongly that let us forget and let us be one nation.

To the Scheduled Caste friends, I also appeal: "Let us forget what Dr. Ambedkar or Ms group have done. Let us forget what you did. You have very nearly escaped partition of the country again on your lines. You have seen the result of separate electorates in Bombay, that when the greatest benefactor of your community came to Bombay to stay in bhangi quarters it was your people who tried to stone his quarters. What was it ? It was again the result of this poison, and therefore I resist this only because I feel that the vast majority of the Hindu population wish you well.. Without them where will you he ? Therefore, secure their confidence and forget that you are a Scheduled Caste. I do not understand how Mr. Khandekar is a Scheduled Caste man. If he and I were to go outside India, nobody will find out whether he is a Scheduled Caste man or I am a Scheduled Caste man. There is no Scheduled Caste between us. So those representatives of the Scheduled Caste must know that the Scheduled Caste has to be effaced altogether from our society, and if it is to be effaced, those who have ceased to be untouchables and sit amongst us have to forget that they are untouchables or else if they carry this inferiority complex, they will not be able to serve their community. They will only be able to serve their community by feeling now that they are with us They are no more Scheduled Castes and therefore they must change their manners and I appeal to them also to have no breach between them and the other group of Scheduled Castes. There are groups amongst themselves, but everyone tries according to his own light. We are now to begin again. So let us forget these sections and cross-sections and let us stand as one, and together.

Vishu Aashamsakal

Its April 15th this year in Kerala.... but 14th here in US (NY Panchangam ??) . For the sixth straight year, I miss my favorite Malayalam festival.... of padakkam and Kani and Virunnu...

imagination or....... ?

call it too much of imagination or tiredness ...

but then....

read this sequence of events once,

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* Rajiv Gandhi "meets" an italian woman - sonia

* marries her, she is accepted into India "most powerful family"

* soon, sanjay gandhi dies

* maneka gandhi gets thrown out of the family

* indira gandhi dies

* sonia's hubby is now indias PM ... but soon he loses his popularity.. its no more a unipolar party politics in india..

* sonia's husband gets killed ... in an event where she did not accompany him

* Two of the parties, young and dynamic leaders die in "accidents" - madhavrao scindia and rajesh pilot

* and finally, the complete control of the party as well as the "most powerful family" is in her hands ...

* and the saga continues...... the (erstwhile) young turk of of kaangress, pranab, gets injured in an "accident" ..

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Ummmmmmm, now assume that Sonia is indeed, a well trained, self motivated , mole , plotted into the indian system by some agency... and reread the above sequence.... is it just my fancy ?

And now, Rahul Gandhi, "meets" a Columbian girl ... deja vu, all over again ?

Kerala makes a stronger case !

Cannot stop wondering why I can't find much details about the grounds on which the Allahabad High Court gave the "historic" judgement on the status of Muslims as minorities in UP.

http://www.centralchronicle.com/20070406/0604001.htm

This news item does mention about the population data, and quotes a figure of 18.5% Muslims in UP (even though I tend to believe that the actual percentage is far above this official figure)

A) Let us assume that population data was indeed a major judging factor

The "National Commission for Minorities Chairman, made a comment that even if its 49 against 51, it should be considered a religious minority... in other words, heads I win, tails you lose.. That indeed is stupid, eventhough the question remains as to what is an agreeable percentage ? In the absence of such a number, if we go by comparison, Kerala stands a stronger case where christians and muslims be denied the minority status and thereby all the privileges "given" and "given by interpretation" under articles 29 and 30 of indian constitution (quoted at the end of this writing) . For here are the figures for Kerala

Hindus constitute 56.20 per cent, Muslims 24.7 per cent and Christians 19 per cent of the total population as per Census 2001 of the State

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B) Now let us assume the other way around.

In fact, even though written by a Muslim author, i found some of the following arguments from an article on the net, quite reasonable

Majority’ and ‘Minority’ are classifications non-numerical in character, based on the criteria of dominance or non-dominance in a given society or nation-state....... Definition equates dominance with the majority and non-dominance with minority groups. A non-dominant minority at times may outnumber a dominant majority and conversely a dominant majority can outnumber a non-dominant minority as well.

Hindus are in fact a "non-dominat minority" outnumbering a "dominant majority" in the whole of India, and in particular in Kerala. Doubts ? lets refer to a study conducted by the communist "shastra sahitya parishad" . http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/825415.cms

While a privileged Hindu family owns only an average of 0.69 acres, a Muslim family owns 0.77 acre and a Christian family, 1.264 acre. The report published in September this year says only 80.1% of Hindu houses are in a livable condition, less than that of Muslims (89.7%) and Christians (83.6%)

Would be interesting if this judgement can have any effect in Kerala (a PIL ??) and how the communist govt would react to it !!

Addentum 1:

from Indian constitution

Article 29 Protection of interests of minorities(1) Any section of the citizens residing in the territory of India or any part thereof having a distinct language, script or culture of its own shall have the right to conserve the same.(2) No citizen shall be denied admission into any educational institution maintained by the State or receiving aid out of State funds on grounds only of religion, race, caste, language or any of them.

Article 30 Right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions(1) All minorities, whether based on religion or language, shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.(1A) In making any law providing for the compulsory acquisition of any property of an educational institution established and administered by a minority, referred to in clause (1), the State shall ensure that the amount fixed by or determined under such law for the acquisition of such propertyis such as would not restrict or abrogate the right guaranteed under that clause.(2) The State shall not, in granting aid to educational institutions, discriminate against any educational institution on the ground that it is under the management of a minority, whether based on religion or language.

Addentum 2 :

Some of my friends asked me if this is good news or not.. Of course, from the fact that Imam Bukhari has already decided to challange it in SC, one can easily judge that its a good one.. But indeed, I guess they were refering to the fact that the population has indeed come to a no: where Muslims are no more a minority.. my reaction - well, truth has to come out, at some point

Another point raised was that if the SC also approves the judgement, whether the govt will go for a Shah Bano kind of legislation ? well, nothing can be ruled out with the MMS govt ( no it does not stand for Man Mohan Singh, it stands for , as I have mentioned previously Madama Maino Sonia )

The Bangladesh situation

Nope, I am not talking about world cup cricket !

For background information on recent developments, read the following

1) The take over of the interim caretaker government(s) , oct 06 to jan 07 and jan 07 to present

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006%E2%80%932007_Bangladeshi_political_crisis

2) The execution of the six militants recently

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6509163.stm

3) The most recent ( google news says 5 hour old news) statement by the army

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6517887.stm

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A few observations

a) Both the "fallen" out nations from the old india - pakistan and bangladesh, now have military govts. not democratically elected ones ..

b) is the failure of democracy to be attributed to the fundamental islamic character of these states ?

c) from the army heads statement, it appears that like pakistan, this one also may continue for a long time to come.. unless of course, a pro-jihadi revolt happens either within the country ( and a possible civil war) or, who knows, may be within the army

d) why hasn't such a revolt happened within pakistan and its army yet for so long ? is it because of external pressure/influence ( US), or is it that fact that at some level the establishment continues to support things which the jihadis like to see ? like sheltering taliban/osama, and to continue to bleed india ...

e) if point d) is valid, then would the new bangladeshi regime and the now-influential army also go the same way at some point (and if so what will that imply for India) ? Or will they continue to take a tough stance against the jihadis as they have seemingly done in executing the six militants ?

mmm.... lets wait and watch .. meantime, interesting to read the way al jazeera covered the news

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/55BB8885-E916-4C42-9B65-1820E1EFC761.htm

comments / thoughts welcome.. me not a bangladesh expert, just a casual reader