Muslim empowerment: Justice Sachar urges Karnataka govt to form EOC

[email protected] (CD Network)
November 28, 2016

Bengaluru, Nov 27: “All state governments should set up the Equal Opportunity Commission and public sector also should come under the preview of this commission. Then only, the Other Backward Classes including Muslims can get equal opportunities in education and employment,” said Justice Rajinder Sachar.

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He was delivering a talk on Muslim Empowerment at the launching ceremony of Karnataka Muslim Coordination Committee (KMCC), a social organisation intended to work for communal harmony and empowerment of Muslim community through democratic means, at Town Hall, here on Sunday.

He said that if Karnataka government has real commitment toward OBCs then it should form Equal Opportunity Commission immediately in the state.

“The Sachar committee report is not just related to Muslims, It is related to all other communities. In a democratic country all communities should get equal opportunities. But Muslims in India are deprived from equal opportunities in education, employment and political appointments. Muslims are undivided part of India and any kind of apathy against them is against constitutional aspires,” he said adding that if a government fails to protect the interest of any minorities it will lose the moral right to rule the state.

Stating that Muslims are part of Indian culture and have contributed immensely to attain freedom, Justice Sachar endorsed the Karnataka government's decision to honour Tipu Sultan, who sacrificed his life fighting against British imperialists.

He emphasized that his report on the social, economical and educational status of the minorities was based on facts and it was the collective responsibility of all the people to see that the report is implemented to strike a balance in rendering social justice. He made it clear that there is nothing wrong to fight for right and lamented that even Karnataka government ruled by Conges has not implemented his suggestions to constitute an 'equal opportunity commission' to look into discrimination among different sections of people in employment other fields even at private sector.

B M Farooq, CMD of Fiza group of industries, and treasurer KMCC, in his key note address explained the objectives of the newly formed NGO and the need to coordinate the minority communities and other marginalized section of people for a common cause in the face of various threats faced by it.

He pointed out that state governments in India have failed to implement the recommendations of Sachar Committee report. “Many argue that implementation of the recommendations of the Sachar Committee Report would virtually divide the society. The plight of Muslims in India remains to be pathetic while many other communities with political and administrative influence snatch away all liberties to the detriment of the community. Muslims were accused of being not loyal to the Indian state, of being terrorists, and politicians who tried to help them risked being accused of "appeasing" them,” he lamented.

The launch of Karnataka Muslim Coordination Committee (KMCC) is an earnest endeavor to unite all sections of the underprivileged and oppressed in the society for a collective bargain for the rights and liberties they are entitled to, he said.

The Muslims, Dalits and other minorities should be united and there should be a social awareness created to fight for their rights in a democratic manner. The political parties have treated the minority community, especially the Muslim community as a vote bank and the community is ill treated and neglected. Poverty, illiteracy and backwardness are rampant and the government does nothing to improve the standard of the community, he complained.

The members of the Muslim community are targeted by the police and false cases are filed against them without affording them any opportunity to even get the legal assistance. Those who take up the cause have been branded astraitors'. Though Muslims are staunch patriots and are ready to sacrifice anything for the nation, they are very often described as anti national. The situation should be changed. Launch of KMCC is only a small step in the right direction.

Muslim community does not have a constructive leadership to enable it to achieve the rights, liberties and privileges to which the community is entitled to and the first and foremost objective of KMCC will be to achieve a constructive leadership and platform for the community from which, the community may be guided in the right direction.

Muslim Community is deprived of education, jobs and government services for want of proper guidance. Our endeavor will be held the youth in the community to acquire knowledge, education in the best school and colleges so that they would be able to stand on their own leg to achieve the goal of securing positions in the legislative, executive and judicial appointments with dignity.

Muslim community is targeted falsely accused of terrorism and other disruptive activities for no fault of them for political gains. KMCC would like to form a squad of professionals to act as awatchdog' against such atrocities against the members of the community and also to alleviate any such tendencies shown by any group of the community by properly educating and creating awareness amongst them.

To protect the interest of the community against the atrocities committed by the administrative or law enforcing agencies without any cogent evidence and to provide legal and financial assistance to them if they are falsely implicated or targeted in the opinion of the expert level committee of the Organization.

“We are for a strong India. We condemn any form of cross border terrorism targeting our nation and we are ready to sacrifice our lives for the sake of this great nation. At the same time, we demand a decent living and equal opportunity to serve the nation with dignity. Let us fight for our right. Let might be not right,” he said.

Mr. Amithabh Khundu, the Chairman of the Sachar Commission Evaluation Committee, presented the statistics and stressed the need to act on the report submitted showing the backwardness of the minorities in many fronts on account of discrimination of the community. He hoped that central govt would take appropriate step to alleviate the disparities. Justice H N Nagmohan Das also spoke.

The function was inaugurated by Moulana Mufti Muhammed Ashraf Ali, Amir-e-Shariat, Karnataka. Syed Zameer Pasha, IAS (retired) welcomed the gatherings. Haris and Hanif Mohammed compered the programme. Mirza Mehadi proposed vote of thanks.

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Comments

Mr ABDULGAFFAR GHORI
 - 
Saturday, 17 Dec 2016

Free training of different courses for OBC under the aegis of Min of Minorities, Govt of India. Free hostel, boarding and with stipend. The duration is for 3-4 months. . There is placement assistance given after successful completion of the courses. NTTF has undertaken to train people from our community.. For more details pl visit www.nttftrg.com. Pl help to spread this message among the needy thro' email, phone, whatsup etc. Similar vocational courses under the same/similar schemes, all over the country, different agencies are doing this.

yaseer arfath
 - 
Monday, 28 Nov 2016

Great committee nd superb speech I agreed about your all rules it's awesome sir I hope so you became greatest nd big name full committee in future

yaseer arfath
 - 
Monday, 28 Nov 2016

Great committee nd superb speech i agreed about your all committee's rules it's awesome sir i hope your committee become more then name full in future .....

yaseer arfath
 - 
Monday, 28 Nov 2016

Great function nd speech was superb awesome..... i hope this committee make big name in future..... thank you....

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Wafa Sultana
April 4,2020

Over the last couple of days when the world was occupied with unifying efforts to fight the deadly Covid19 pandemic, sections of Indian media provided viewers a familiar scapegoat – the Indian Muslims – who are often stereotyped as a community being constantly at loggerheads with the citizenry and the State. Biased media channels were quick to resort to blaming the entire Muslim community for the spread of the disease in the country, thanks to an ill-timed Tablighi Jamaat gathering at its international headquarters in Delhi’s Nizamuddin. Unsurprisingly, the opprobrium was also marked by a sudden spike in WhatsApp forwards of videos with people wearing skullcaps licking spoons and performing Sufi breathing rituals, suggesting some sort of wild conspiracy on the part of the community to spread the virus.  Some media channels were quick to formulate, hypothesize and provide loose definitions of a newly discovered form of Jihad i.e. ‘Corona Jihad ’ thereby vilifying the Islamic faith and its followers.

While the investigation on the culpability of the organizers of the Nizamuddin event is still ongoing, there is enough information to suggest that the meeting was held before any lockdown was in force, and the problem began when there was no way of getting people out once the curfew was announced. Be that as it may, there is little doubt that organizing a meet of such a scale when there is a global pandemic smacks of gross misjudgment, and definitely the organizers should be held accountable if laws or public orders were defied. Attendees who attempt to defy quarantine measures must be dealt with strictly. However, what is alarming is that the focus and narrative have now shifted from the unfortunate event at Nizamuddin to the Tablighi Jamaat itself.

For those not familiar with the Tablighi Jamaat, the organization was founded in 1926 in Mewat by scholar Maulana Mohammad Ilyas. The Jamaat’s main objective was to get Muslim youth to learn and practice pristine Islam shorn of external influences. This is achieved through individuals dedicating time for moral and spiritual upliftment secluded from the rest of the world for a brief period of time. There is no formal membership process. More senior and experienced participants typically travel from one mosque to other delivering talks on religious topics, inviting local youth to attend and then volunteer for a spiritual retreat for a fixed number of days to a mosque in a nearby town or village to present the message to their co-religionists. Contrary to ongoing Islamophobic rhetoric, the movement does not actively proselytize. The focus is rather on getting Muslims to learn the teachings and practices of Islam.  This grassroots India-based movement has now grown to almost all countries with substantial Muslim populations. Its annual meets, or ‘ijtemas’ are among the largest Islamic congregations in the world after the annual Haj. One of the reasons for its popularity and wide network in the subcontinent and wordwide is the fact that it has eschewed the need for scholarly intervention, focusing on peer learning of fundamental beliefs and practice rather than high-falutin ideological debates. The Tablighi Jamaat also distinguishes itself from other Islamic movements through its strictly apolitical nature, with a focus on individual self-improvement rather than political mobilization. Hardships and difficulty in the world are expected to be face through ‘sabr’ (patience) and ‘dua’ (supplication),  than through quest for political power or influence. In terms of ideology, it is very much based on mainstream Sunni Islamic principles derived from the Deobandi school.

So, why is all this background important in the current context? While biased media entities have expectedly brought out their Islamophobic paraphernalia out for full display, more neutral commentators have tried to paint the Tablighi Jamaat as a fringe group and have tried to distance it from 'mainstream Muslims'. While the intent is no doubt innocent, this is a trap we must not fall into. This narrative, unfortunately, is also gaining ground due to apathy some Muslims have for the group, accusing it of being “disconnected from the realities of the world”. Unlike other Muslim organizations and movements, the Tablighi Jamat, by virtue of its political indifference, does not boast of high-profile advocates and savvy spokespersons who can defend it in mainstream or social media.  The use of adjectives such as 'outdated' and 'orthodox' by liberal columnists to describe the Jamaat feeds into the malignant attempt to change the narrative from the control of the spread of the pandemic due to the Nizamuddin gathering to 'raison d'etre' of the organization itself.

A large mainstream religious group like the Tablighi Jamaat with nearly a hundred-year history, normally considered to be peaceful, apolitical and minding its own business is now suddenly being villainized owing to unfortunate circumstances. Biased media reactions filled with disgust and hate seem to feed the Indian public conscience with a danngerous misconception - to be a nominal Muslim is okay but being a practicing one is not.  For those committed to the truth and fighting the spread of Islamophobia, the temptation to throw the entire Tablighi Jamaat under the bus must be resisted.

The writer is a lawyer and research scholar at Qatar University. Her research interests include Islamic law and politics.

Comments

zahoorahmed
 - 
Saturday, 4 Apr 2020

great article! provides a great perspective on tableeg jamat

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News Network
April 29,2020

New Delhi, Apr 29: WhatsApp on Tuesday said it will now allow up to eight people to connect on a group video call as an increasing number of people turn to digital platforms to connect with friends and family amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Facebook-owned company said over the last month, people on average are spending over 15 billion minutes talking each day on WhatsApp calls, well above a typical day before the pandemic.

"...we see that people all over the world are turning to voice and video calling on WhatsApp more than ever before. Group calling has been particularly useful and our users have asked to connect with more people at once," WhatsApp said in a blogpost.

Starting Tuesday, the company is doubling the number of participants one can have on a WhatsApp video or voice call from 4 to 8 people at a time, it added.

WhatsApp emphasised that like written messages, all calls on its platform are protected with end-to-end encryption.

"We have built group calling in a way that makes it available for as many users as possible, including people on lower-end devices and slow network conditions," it added.

Also Read: Coronavirus India update: State-wise total number of confirmed cases, deaths

WhatsApp said that to access the new, higher participant limit on WhatsApp calls, all participants in a call need to update to the latest version of WhatsApp available on iPhone or Android.

Video calling tools like Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Zoom and others have also seen a significant jump in userbase and traffic as people connect while maintaining social distancing amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Last week, Facebook had introduced Messenger Rooms that will soon hold up to 50 people with no time limit.

It had added that the company will also add ways to create rooms from Instagram Direct, WhatsApp and Portal.

Noting that between WhatsApp and Messenger, more than 700 million accounts participate in calls every day, Facebook had said, adding that video calling on Messenger and WhatsApp more than doubled in many countries.

Also, views of Facebook Live and Instagram Live videos have also increased significantly in March, it said.

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coastaldigest.com news network
July 16,2020

Udupi, Jul 16: With two deaths in a single day, and receiving coronavirus positive report of a person who died two days ago, Udupi district’s covid-19 death toll today mounted to eight. 

A-49-year-old resident of Udupi, was admitted to Ajjarkad government hospital for other ailments. He was suffering from multiple health issues like diabetes and respiratory problems.

Last night he was tested positive for coronavirus and hence he was shifted to Dr TMA Pai COVID hospital in Udupi where he breathed his last today. 

A 54-year-old man from Maravanthe in Byndoor taluk, who was suffering from asthma, today died while being taken from one hospital to the other.

He was admitted to a private hospital in Kundapur on the evening of Wednesday. Today he was being shifted to Manipal hospital. However he breathed his last half way through.  

His body was taken back to Kundapur and throat swab of the deceased was sent for testing. As the sample of the deceased person was taken using rapid test kit, his report was available within half an hour and it showed positive for covid-19. 

Meanwhile, throat swabs of a man from Ankola in Uttar Kannada district, who passed away in Manipal Hospital on July 14, were tested positive today. His funeral was held at the Beedinagudde crematorium as per the COVID norms.

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