Out of court settlement: Shia board proposes temple in Babri land; mosque in Lucknow

Agencies
November 20, 2017

Lucknow, Nov 20: Uttar Pradesh Shia Waqf Board today proposed relinquishing its right over the disputed land in Ayodhya, and building a 'masjid-e-aman" in Lucknow to resolve the Ram janmabhoomi-Babri masjid tangle, a move rejected by the Muslim protagonists involved in the protracted legal feud.

The board, which is the 'mutawalli' (caretaker) of the Babri Mosque, has proposed giving up its right over the land in Ayodhya, and a draft for resolving the issue, prepared by the Shia Waqf Board, has been submitted in the Supreme Court on November 18, its chairman Wasim Rizvi told reporters here.

Claiming that the formula for resolving the matter proposed by the Shia Waqf Board was the best, Rizvi said it is of the view that instead of Ayodhya, a 'masjid-e-aman' (the mosque of peace) be constructed in Lucknow's Hussainabad area.

The Board, he said, has requested the government to provide a one acre plot for it.

The proposal, however, did not go down well with the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB).

"On whose behalf has he brought this draft proposal? He (Rizvi) does not enjoy the confidence or recognition of either the Sunni sect or the Shia sect," AIMPLB counsel in the case and its senior member Zafaryab Jilani said.

Jilani, who is also the convenor of Babri Masjid Action committee, referred to some legal shortcomings in the draft proposal.

"The Shia Board has no authority over the disputed land as the Allahabad High Court, in 2010, had ruled a three-way division of the disputed 2.77-acre area at Ayodhya among Sunni Waqf Board, Nirmohi Akhara and Lord Ram Lalla...the Shia board has no right over any part of the land," he said.

Moreover, Jilani said since the Shia Waqf Board did not appeal against the high court's decision, it meant that the ruling, which was binding on all till the Supreme Court announced its judgement, was acceptable to them.

Rizvi, however, rejected the claim of UP Sunni Central Waqf Board over the disputed site, saying that the Allahabd High court had given the land to Muslims and not to Sunni Waqf Board.

Chairman of the UP Sunni Central Waqf Board Zafar Farooqui said any claim can be accepted or rejected only by the court "...our involvement has been since 1961 and it is being rejected by the Shia Board now...he (Rizvi) does not have the authority to do so..."

Rizvi, he said, has been chairman of the board since 2006-07, and could have spoken on the subject even when the case was being heard by the Lucknow bench, which came up with its verdict in 2010, or in the Supreme Court where the hearing is going on for the last seven years.

"It is absurd. He has been silent on it ever since and has become active only now. The case is going on in the highest court of the country. Whatever he has to say, he should do it in the court. What's the relevance of releasing his formula to the media?" he said.

Jilani alleged that Rizvi was "working overtime to please certain forces in order to serve his personal motives".

Rizvi, who addressed the press conference along with Mahant Narendra Giri, chairman of the All India Akhara Parishad, alleged that the Shia Board's views on the matter were never put forward in a forceful manner because the lawyers deployed for the purpose were "fake".

Referring to the criticism of his recent actions, Rizvi said it was because the board was never given any court copy and that it was not aware that lawyers were pleading on its behalf.

It was only on March 21, 2017, when the apex court said that talks could be initiated for mutual agreement to end the dispute that the Shia Waqf Board looked into the files in detail only to find that though it is a party in the case it never gave 'wakalatnama' to the counsel appearing on its behalf, Rizvi said.

"It is a matter of probe that the case is being pursued by overlooking the actual claimant which is the Shia Board...I have requested the central and state governments to get it enquired as to who had fielded the lawyers on our behalf," he said.

On Rizvi's allegations regarding fake counsel, Jilani said that it should be probed by the Shia board itself.

Jilani, however, said that he had never seen any counsel pleading on behalf of the Shia Board in the court.

On the role of AIMPLB, Rizvi said it (board) should have come forward for a dialogue but since it did not take the initiative, Shia board had to come forward.

Giri said a Ram temple in Ayodhya will be constructed and that an amicable settlement should be reached on the issue by talking to all the parties concerned.

Comments

Fairman
 - 
Tuesday, 21 Nov 2017

Anti Nationals / Terrorist following the devide and rule (same as British done before the Independence) with Sunni Muslims and Shia people for their benefits by giving money one way or other.  But these (Shia) absent minded people is folowing this because of Publicity. 

Mohammed SS
 - 
Tuesday, 21 Nov 2017

First of all Shias are not Muslims they can worship Ram as well, and they can perform their prayer in Ram Mandhir also, they dont have any right to interfere in this issue. This land belongs to Sunni waqf board and it will remain forever to build Mosque or to keep the land vacant it is Sunni Waqf bord choice and Shias nothing to do with this it is  Shia hated world wide and they will became rare to see very soon. 

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News Network
February 5,2020

Bengaluru, Feb 5: Karnataka Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday said that he has demanded a report on the Shaheen School incident after reports emerged that children were allegedly interrogated by the police for hours at a stretch, while not allowing parents to be present.

Terming the incident a very sensitive matter as it involves children, Basavaraj Bommai said, "I have asked for a report on the Shaheen School incident. As it is a very sensitive and serious issue, I have asked the police to handle it carefully."

"I have asked the police to take the help of the women and child protection committee at the district level. However, I have been told that the police had visited the area where the play was done and no interrogation of children in isolation took place. Nevertheless, I have asked the police to handle the issue with care and do everything within the law," Basavaraj added.

The matter pertains to a programme organised as a part of the Republic day celebrations where the children in Shaheen School in Bidar had staged a play against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC).

The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) had protested alleging that the play at Shaheen School in Bidar was derogatory. In the play, the participants were shown staging an anti-CAA sequence where there were dialogues encouraging non-cooperation with anyone asking for documents. A case was registered against the school management.

Meanwhile, CEO of Shaheen Education Institute, Bidar, Tauseef Madikeri had said, "Police have invoked Sections 124A, 505 and 504 of the IPC against the institution, over a play staged against CAA and NRC. It is beyond anyone's imagination. Deputy SP visited the classroom and interrogated the students."

Karnataka police had sealed the offices of the school after its students participated in the play. Meanwhile, the police had questioned students of Shaheen School after a play against the CAA and NRC was staged during the Republic Day celebrations.

The child rights groups, teachers and educationists had issued a statement condemning the police interrogation in the incident.

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News Network
May 28,2020

May 28: Abdul Kareem was forced out of school and into a life of odd jobs like repairing bicycles before he finally managed to pull his family out of abject poverty transporting goods across Delhi in a mini truck.

The job, and the slim financial security that came with it, was the first stepping stone to a better life.

All that is now gone as India reels under the economic impact of its protracted coronavirus lockdown. Mr Kareem's out of a job and stranded in his village in Uttar Pradesh with his wife and two children. Their minuscule savings from his Rs 9,000 a month job have been exhausted, and the money he saved for books and school uniforms is spent.

"I don't know what the job situation will be in Delhi once we go back," Mr Kareem said. "We can't stay hungry so I will do whatever I find."

At least 49 million people across the world are expected to plunge into "extreme poverty" -- those living on less than $1.90 per day -- as a direct result of the pandemic's economic destruction and India leads that projection, with the World Bank estimating some 12 million of its citizens will be pushed to the very margins this year.

Some 122 million Indians were forced out of jobs last month alone, according to estimates from the Center for Monitoring Indian Economy, a private sector think tank. Daily wage workers and those employed by small businesses have taken the worst hit. These include hawkers, roadside vendors, workers employed in the construction industry and many who eke out a living by pushing handcarts and rickshaws.

For Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who came to power in 2014 promising to lift the poorest citizens out of poverty, the fallout from the lockdown brings with it significant political risk. He won an even larger second term majority last year on the strength of his government's popular social programs that directly targeted the poor, such as the provision of cooking gas cylinders, power and public housing. The breadth and depth of this renewed economic pain will only increase the pressure on his government as it works to steer the country's economy back on track.

"Much of the Indian government's efforts to mitigate poverty over the years could be negated in a matter of just a few months," said Ashwajit Singh, managing director of IPE Global, a development sector consultancy that advises several multinational aid agencies. Noting that he did not expect unemployment rates to improve this year, Singh said: "More people could die from hunger than the virus."

Desperate Times

Mr Singh points to a United Nations University study estimating 104 million Indians could fall below the World Bank-determined poverty line of $3.2 a day for lower-middle-income countries. This will take the proportion of people living in poverty from 60% -- or 812 million currently, to 68% or 920 million -- a situation last seen in the country more than a decade ago, he said.

A World Bank report found the country had been making significant progress and was close to losing its status as the country with the most poor citizens. The impact of PM Modi's lockdown risks reversing those gains.

The World Bank and the CMIE estimates were published in late April and early May respectively. Since then the situation has only become grimmer, with harrowing images of people making desperate attempts to reach their villages, on crowded buses, the flatbeds of trucks and even on foot or on bicycles dominating media coverage.

The Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business analyzed the unemployment data from the CMIE, collected through surveys covering about 5,800 homes across 27 states in April.

Researchers found rural areas were the hardest hit, and the economic misery was the result of the lockdown, rather than the spread of infections in the hinterland. More than 80% of households had experienced a drop income and many won't survive much longer without aid, they wrote in a report.

The government has promised cheap credit to farmers, direct transfer of money to the poor and eased access to food security programs -- but these help people who have some documentation, which many of the poorest don't. With millions of impoverished people now in transit across the country, the food security situation is dire -- news reports are emerging of people foraging through piles of rotting fruit or eating leaves.

Shattered Economy

The economy was already growing at its slowest pace in over a decade when the virus struck. The lockdown, which came into effect on March 25, has hammered it, stalling business activity and putting a lid on consumption, pushing the economy to what may be its first full-year contraction in more than four decades.

It's dire enough to warrant the country exiting its lockdown, as it has been doing incrementally since May 4, even as its infections are surging. India is now Asia's virus hotspot with infections crossing 151,000 according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

PM Modi, who has come under criticism for the pain inflicted on the poor, has said his government will spend $265 billion or about 10% of its GDP to help Asia's third-largest economy weather the pandemic's fallout. But experts say only a part of it is direct fiscal stimulus, and probably smaller than the total damage done to the economy during the lockdown period.

"What is especially worrying is the government's response," said Reetika Khera, an economics professor at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi. "The epidemic will magnify existing -- and already high -- inequalities in India."

Still, the economic measures aren't going to kick in for some time and industry will likely struggle to restart because of the flight of labour from industrial hubs.

And as the harsh summer unfolds more pain lies in store in the villages now dealing with returning migrant workers.

"There are no factories or industries here, there are just hills," said Surendra Hadia Damor, who had walked nearly 100 km from Ahmedabad, Gujarat, before a voluntary organisation drove him to his village in the neighboring state of Rajasthan. "We can survive for a month or two and then try and find a job nearby -- we will see what happens."

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News Network
May 26,2020

Bengaluru, May 26: The Karnataka high court has rejected bail to a software engineer who was arrested after his sarcastic Facebook post urged people to spread coronavirus by sneezing in public over two months ago.

Mujeeb Mohammed was sacked by Infosys from the post of senior software engineer after his arrest on March 29.

Justice KS Mudagal observed the investigating officer's report and the case diary prima facie show though Mujeeb was well educated and employed, he uploaded messages which are likely to cause disharmony and panic, and are hostile to humanity at a time when the world is facing the pandemic.

The judge noted that the records indicate Mujeeb has six bank accounts, stayed in Bahrain and Kuwait for some years, was influenced by religious fanatics and anti-national ideas and that he had shared a Pakistan WhatsApp number to someone over information about Islam. The National Investigation Agency is probing his links.

Mujeeb, who is in judicial custody now, has been booked under sections 153A, 505, 270 and 109 of IPC.

His counsel submitted the maximum punishment under 153 A of IPC (causing enmity) would be three years and for other offences, it's even less. He also stated the petitioner would abide by the conditions to be imposed by the court.

However, the government pleader said probe provided leads on the petitioner's links with unorganised terrorist groups and it has to be investigated further.

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