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Friday, May 14, 2010

[ALOCHONA] Re: Curse of Farakka



 
 
On 5/14/10, Isha Khan <bdmailer@gmail.com> wrote:
Curse of Farakka
 
 
 
 



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[ALOCHONA] New York Times on Delhi Metro - Project Mgmt at its best



May 13, 2010

In India, Hitching Hopes on a Subway

By LYDIA POLGREEN

New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/14/world/asia/14delhi.html?pagewanted=print

 

NEW DELHI — The trains arrive with a whisper. The doors slide open and a puff of refrigerated air confronts the city's summertime miasma. A bell dings, the doors close and the train whisks its passengers to the next stop.

 

This sequence of events might seem utterly ordinary on train platforms in Berlin or Bangkok, Stockholm or Singapore. But here in the sweaty heart of India's northernmost megacity, the runaway success of the city's almost complete subway system, known as the Metro, is a feat bordering on miraculous, and it offers new hope that India's perpetually decrepit urban infrastructure can be dragged into the 21st century.

 

The Delhi Metro manages to defy just about every stereotype of urban India. It is scrupulously clean, impeccably maintained and almost unfailingly punctual. Its cars are the latest models, complete with air-conditioning and even power outlets to let commuters charge their mobile phones and laptops. Its signaling and other safety technology is first rate, and the system is among the best in the world, urban transport experts say. Despite cheap fares, less than 20 cents for the shortest ride and about 67 cents for the longest, the system manages to turn an operating profit.

 

In a country where government projects are chronically delayed and budgets are busted, the Metro is on track to finish its 118-mile network by fall, right on schedule and within its $6.55 billion budget.

 

"Metro's performance has been outstanding," said Pronab Sen, India's chief statistician, whose government department keeps track of delays and cost overruns.

 

The Delhi Metro is perhaps the most ambitious urban infrastructure project since India won its independence, and its progress has been closely watched in a country facing a looming urban disaster. Unlike China and other rapidly growing developing countries, India remains predominantly rural.

 

But that is changing as millions of impoverished villagers try to grab a slice of India's rapid but unequally shared economic growth. India has done almost nothing to cope with the influx of villagers into the cities, much less plan for many more, analysts say.

 

A study published last month by the McKinsey Global Institute estimated that by 2030, 590 million Indians would live in cities and 70 percent of India's new jobs would be in cities. India needs $1.2 trillion in infrastructure to accommodate these new arrivals, the report concluded, including 4,600 miles of railways and subways, and real estate equivalent to the entire city of Chicago every year.

 

India's romance with the village, which Mahatma Gandhi believed was the most suitable environment for human development, is partly to blame for the decrepitude of Indian cities.

 

Uniformly, India's cities are a mess. Bangalore, India's high-tech hub, is strangled daily by traffic that has already eroded its image. Mumbai, the commercial capital, is riddled with overcrowded slums.

 

New Delhi, as the capital, is alone among India's largest cities in having control over its own money and destiny. The Metro is the most visible example of that advantage.

 

Much of the credit for its success is usually laid at the feet of one man, Elattuvalapil Sreedharan, a 77-year-old technocrat who serves as the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation's managing director. Mr. Sreedharan has a reputation for fearlessness and incorruptibility. At the Metro he has tried to create the culture of a private start-up business in the most unlikely of petri dishes: the epicenter of India's sprawling bureaucracy.

 

Instead of dry procedural manuals, senior managers are given a copy of the Bhagavad-Gita, one of Hinduism's most important texts. But its significance is not religious, said Anuj Dayal, a spokesman for the Metro.

 

"It is a management text," he said of the book, which is taken from the Mahabharata, an epic poem at the heart of Hindu philosophy. "It is the story of how to motivate an unmotivated person."

 

The Bhagavad-Gita retells a battlefield dialogue between the god Krishna, disguised as a chariot driver, and Arjuna, a brave but demoralized king. Krishna convinces him that he must do his duty against all odds, and fight even what seems to be an unwinnable war.

 

It is a message that resonates with workers, many of whom came from India's railway system, where bureaucratic procedures hampered even the smallest innovations. But in the Metro even the lowliest employees' ideas are taken seriously, said P. K. Pathak, who runs Metro's training institute.

 

When trainees at the institute, which is packed to the gills to try to churn out enough employees to staff its new lines, suggested staggering lunch times in the cafeteria to ease crowding, Mr. Pathak made the change that very day.

 

"In the railway, change was very difficult," Mr. Pathak said. "In Metro, we are open to all ideas."

 

Some of its changes seem simple but are revolutionary by Indian standards. The Metro has contracted out as much of its work as possible, keeping its payrolls slim and its management structure as simple as possible, officials say. They jettisoned the ubiquitous string-tied paper files, emblematic of India's vast bureaucracy, doing as much work as possible electronically.

 

Some critics of the Metro system say that the project ran roughshod over environmental concerns and land-rights issues, two factors that typically cause long delays in infrastructure projects. Others say that it has not integrated fully with the city's vast network of buses, which are much cheaper and cover far more ground. Nor is it clear that it can easily be replicated, since New Delhi is less densely populated than most large Indian cities, making land acquisition easier.

 

No one appreciates the Metro more than riders. Pawan Sharma, a civil servant who commutes from the western suburb of Dwarka, was so impressed with the Metro that he signed up to be a volunteer monitor. With a blue badge affixed to his chest, he patrols the train cars for two hours in the morning and evening, looking for people breaking the rules. He receives no compensation, not even free Metro rides.

 

The Metro's rules are strictly enforced. Spitting, a common habit of Northern Indian men, is forbidden. So is sitting on the floor, a habit from India's often-squalid railways, where passengers without tickets squat on the floor of overcrowded trains. Public urination, another unfortunate habit in a country where there are more cellphones than toilets, is off limits. Eating and drinking are forbidden, too.

 

Such rules chafe against the anything-goes chaos of urban life in India, Mr. Sharma said.

 

"People ask me, 'Why are you bothering me?' " he said on a recent afternoon as he cajoled a young rider to stand up, not squat on the floor. "But I tell them, 'The government has given us this nice facility. Why do you want to spoil it?' "

 

Mr. Sharma said he had to be strict in this crowded, hectic city.

 

"Small things add up to big things," he said. "If you ease up they will start spitting in the trains. They will sit on the floor and play cards. The whole system will become a mess."

 

Indeed, it remains to be seen if the Delhi Metro will remain as well-run as it is today, and whether its lessons can be applied elsewhere. Mr. Sreedharan recently had heart bypass surgery and is on extended medical leave, and he plans to retire once the Metro is completed later this year.

 

Hari Kumar contributed reporting.




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[ALOCHONA] Open Democracy - An east London election: politics and coercion



 

An east London election: politics and coercion

Delwar Hussain,

14 May 2010

Open Democracy

http://www.opendemocracy.net/delwar-hussain/east-london-election-politics-and-coercion

 

The dubious tactics used by some party campaigners in Britain's general election need to be examined as part of a wider fraud inquiry, says Delwar Hussain.

 

Delwar Hussain is a working for a doctorate at Cambridge University

 

There have been extensive reports over the possible misuse of the postal-voting system in Britain's general election of 2010, perhaps amounting to systematic fraud by groups intent on manipulating the choices of voters in particular areas. The issue raises great concern over the integrity of a democracy long regarded (particularly by itself) as one of the world's cleanest; and it is even more embarrassing when Britain is so prominent in earnestly lecturing other countries (not least two it has invaded, Afghanistan and Iraq) on the need for democratic probity.

 

The borough of Tower Hamlets in east London has received especial scrutiny over the issue of postal-ballot fraud. The official Electoral Commission says it is investigating the matter, here and elsewhere (see Mike Brooke, "2010 Election: Police probe 'voting fraud' at Bethnal Green & Bow", East London Advertiser, 24 April 2010).

 

Such investigation is welcome, even more as the concerns are longstanding (see "Police forces across Britain investigate postal vote fraud", Times, 12 May 2005). But another development that should equally be of concern to the democratic process is less discussed: the complaints of some people to the electoral services that they were effectively coerced into voting for candidates other than those they would ordinarily have chosen.

 

The wrong choice

A young woman in Tower Hamlets told me that she and her elderly mother were "bullied" into handing their postal-ballots to a representative of the Respect Party after he knocked on their door seeking support. It was implied that they had to give him their ballots if they wanted to vote at all, as if this was normal procedure.

 

The canvasser initially asked the mother and daughter - who, like him, were of Bengali Muslim background - about which party they were thinking of voting for. The young woman, a first-year university student, said she was going to vote Green or Liberal Democrat. The man replied that the women, as Bengal Muslims, had to vote Respect because the party truly represented the people of the borough.   

 

Tower Hamlets has become an often fractious place. Whilst religious-based politics was once a minority pursuit, today it is no longer a surprise to hear demands for sharia law, or see tiny girls dressed up in hijabs like protective shields. The active promotion of such ideas helps to create a climate where the extreme becomes the norm.

 

The tendency emerged during the period when the Labour Party's Oona King  represented the area in parliament (2001-05). It became even more prominent and visible after her replacement by the Respect Party's George Galloway (who served as MP from 2005-10). King's defeat at the hands of Galloway in the 2005 general election was very largely due to the political use of her support for Britain's participation in the war on Iraq in 2003. It seemed a matter of time before her stance returned to damage her; and the most likely way it would become a political issue was via an Islamist narrative. That is supported by anecdotal evidence from the borough, where local residents attest that in 2005 campaigners went from door to door using all their verbal  powers of persuasion to vote for Galloway's "Islamic party" in the (ultimately successful) effort to secure King's political demise.

 

The right party

The path from there to the doorstep in 2010 was not so far. Iraq had receded as an issue, but the concern to press politics in the area into an "Islamic" mould had not (see "Bangladeshis in east London: from secular politics to Islam", 6 July 2006).

 

The young woman was concerned that the eventual effect of such pressure would be to make her feel she had to wear a hijab when outside her home. She challenged the campaigner and said that she would stick to her original decision, ticking her chosen boxes. "No, you cannot vote for them, that is pointless. You may as well vote for the [extreme-right] BNP", the Respect man replied. He then accused her of being "brainwashed", continued to berate her about why it was her duty to vote for Respect, and moved on to questioning her devotion to Islam and their shared faith. She reports feeling very intimidated.

 

The young woman's mother, unsure about which the "right" party was, was more easily persuaded. She allowed herself to be coerced into voting Respect. The Respect activist took the ballots away with him.

 

The young woman later wrote a letter to Tower Hamlets' electoral-services office office complaining of what had transpired. She says of the Respect man: "[He] abused his position and my lack of knowledge about the electoral system to manipulate me and my mother in various ways….I was so panicked that I was unable to focus on and read the conditions of the ballot paper itself and I am embarrassed to say I believed him that this was normal procedure…..It could be argued that we knowingly allowed this man to take our ballot papers…. Essentially we have been tricked, manipulated, panicked into voting and bullied into voting for the party the man represented. This was not an independent vote and was influenced by this confidence trickster/con-man".

 

When no reply was received, the young woman followed up with a telephone call. A Tower Hamlets official told her that intimidation of this sort had been reported from all over the borough in the run-up to the election, and that she could come to the office to pick up two more postal-ballots. The council official also told her that they may be reporting these charges to the police. The young woman had at the time of writing not heard anything since. 

 

The young woman is concerned I do not name her. The caution seems sensible in view of an unrelated incident in the borough during the campaign, in which a journalist from the Independent newspaper who was investigating claims of electoral fraud was violently assaulted (see Jerome Taylor, "'The first punch came, landing on my nose, sending blood down my face'", Independent, 4 May 2010). There is no suggestion whatsoever that members of any political party were involved in this incident, which is now under investigation.

 

The opportunity to vote twice that seems to have been suggested to the young woman is in itself questionable, and no solution to such a serious matter. Even more so as such incidents occur against the background of increasing allegations of wider political corruption in the borough (see "Dispatches from Tower Hamlets – in the thick of it", Fieldwork in London Network [FiLO], 16 March 2010).

 

"In true democracy, every man and woman has to think for himself or herself", said Mahatma Gandhi. The evidence suggests that in Tower Hamlets  the ability to exercise this freedom has been effectively compromised by intimidatory pressure. When British authorities continue to justify the invasion of other countries with hollow arguments about spreading democracy, it is surely time to sort their own house first.     



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[ALOCHONA] Two Stories - Saudi & Qatar & Migrants



Saudi Arabia is a cruel place if you are not related to the ruling clan. If you are a foreigner, you might be living in the apartheid era in South Africa. If you are a Pakistani or a Bangladeshi, you can live there for three generations and still not get your basic rights as a citizen.

 

 

The Sheikhs of Araby

By Mohammed Hanif

26 October 2009 Newsline, Pakistan

http://www.newslinemagazine.com/2009/10/the-sheikhs-of-araby/

 

Mohammed Hanif was born in Okara, Pakistan. After leaving the Pakistan Air Force Academy to pursue a career in journalism, he worked for Newsline, India Today, and The Washington Post. He has written plays for the stage and screen, including a critically acclaimed BBC drama and the feature film The Long Night. Hanif is a graduate of University of East Anglia's creative writing programme.

 

In an interview given at the height of his power, General Pervez Musharraf tried to make sense of his own good fortune and why he was destined to rule this nation: "I am the only Pakistani for whom not only the door of Khana-e-Kaaba was specially opened but I had the unique honour of saying azaan from the rooftop of Khana-e-Kaaba. Not once, but twice."

 

For people like me who have grown up watching countless images of the Khana-e-Kaaba, the scene was hard to imagine. It sounded disrespectful, even mildly blasphemous. Because of all the images that we have seen of the Kaaba in all its sacred glory, never has one seen a human being on the rooftop of the Kaaba. If it happens, it probably happens off camera and one has to be the head of a nuclear armed state to earn the privilege. Given Pakistan's brotherly ties with Saudi Arabia, or to be more accurate, given successive Pakistani rulers' brotherly ties with the very extended clan of Khadim-e-Haramain al Sharifain, Musharraf might have been granted this extra ordinary if not heretic-sounding privilege.

 

Musharraf was trying to evoke divine sanction by revealing his exalted status. He was appealing to our absolute devotion to the idea that Saudi Arabia is a holy place, its rulers are holy people, and if they accept you as their own, you are a holy person and all your worldly actions are beyond reproach. How can an ordinary human being, who has never seen the inside of Haram Sharif, question the actions of a man who has been handpicked by Allah and then endorsed by his reps in Saudi Arabia? The chant that goes up in a thousand mosques and naat khwani sessions across our land – meray maula, bula le Madinay mujhe – is not just an expression of a vague spiritual yearning, it's a political statement; almost our unofficial national anthem.

 

The Saudi Arabia of our imagination is an ancient place, not much different from the way the second Caliph Omar might have found it on one of his nightly rounds. It's a place where shopkeepers leave their shops open when they go to the mosque to pray. It's a place of zero crime where a lone woman dressed in all her finery can go from one end of the kingdom to the other end, juggling gold coins, and nobody would dare give her a second glance. Here, justice is swift and transparent. The thieves get their hands chopped off in public, large crowds of believers gather to watch spectacular beheadings. Here, even wild camels are well behaved. The Saudis have followed Allah's law in letter and spirit and hence, they have been blessed with unimaginable wealth. Is it not a miracle that desert bedouins are the world's richest people? Is it not true that although hardly anything grows in those deserts but even if a dog goes hungry at night the ruler feels the responsibility?

 

There is enough evidence to suggest that it is all nonsense.

 

Saudi Arabia is a cruel place if you are not related to the ruling clan. If you are a foreigner, you might be living in the apartheid era in South Africa. If you are a Pakistani or a Bangladeshi, you can live there for three generations and still not get your basic rights as a citizen. If you are a girl student you can burn to death as the religious police stops firemen from entering your school. Saudi Arabia might pretend to conform to a 1,400-year-old tribal code, but they are also the world's largest consumers of fast cars, luxury linen and flashy jewellery. They are the prized clients of the world's richest casinos and upmarket brothels. Saudi Arabia keeps the American arms manufacturing industry in business, yet has no capacity to defend itself or any of the dozens of other Muslim countries that are not as blessed with American weaponry as Saudia. Here is a country which provided the most number of men for the 9/11 attacks yet nobody has ever suggested that the bombs that fell on Afghanistan and Iraq should have been directed towards Saudia. It has produced little except senile rulers with more wives than a Mormon could ever dream of. They have exported nothing but doomsday visionaries, who have been preaching and practicing the art of televised throat-slitting, mostly to and on their Muslim brothers.

 

Somewhere between the world of our devout imagination and cruel reality, lives the real Saudi Arabia: the retirement home for world-class despots and a last chance salon for desperate politicians. This is a place where the first-ever co-ed university is seen as a sign of radical change and the opening of a cinema is downright revolutionary. The same western world which makes gender equality and gay rights a litmus test for judging the rest of the world, mumbles cultural sensitivity when it comes to Saudi Arabia. They obviously care more about the welfare of their weapons industry and their casino economy rather than the right of Saudi Arabian women to get behind a wheel, or an ordinary citizen's access to justice.

 

Islam is often cited as the main reason for our fascination with Saudia and Saudis. We do not seem to have the same brotherly love for Palestinians or our brothers in Darfur. Maybe they are not as good Muslims as the Saudis? Or may be they are just not as rich?

 

There was a picture circulating on the internet earlier this year: a number of Saudi young men sprawled in front of a lingerie shop, trying to look up the dresses on mannequins in a window display. Undergarments again made headlines last month when an Al-Qaeda member tried to blow up Prince Muhammed Bin Naif, Saudi Arabia's counter-terrorism czar. The bomber hid the bomb in his underwear. The initial reports suggested that he had hidden the bomb in his rectum. But the Saudi authorities clarified that the bomb was indeed hidden in his underwear. The attacker assumed, correctly, that because of cultural reasons, his underwear would not be searched. And he was right. After a standard search procedure, he was allowed to meet Prince Naif and exploded the bomb after having a long chat with him.

 

In a society where they pretend that underwear doesn't exist, underwear sometimes tends to blow up.

 

 

May 13, 2010

Affluent Qataris Seek What Money Cannot Buy

By MICHAEL SLACKMAN

New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/14/world/middleeast/14qatar.html?pagewanted=print

 

DOHA, Qatar — Citizens of Qatar appear to have it made. They tend to drive big cars, live in big houses and get big loans to pay for big watches and an outsize lifestyle. They have an army of laborers from the developing world to build a sparkling skyline and to work whatever jobs they feel are beneath them. And their nation has enough oil and gas to keep the good times rolling for decades.

 

So why do so many people here seem so angry?

 

The problem, many Qataris say, is that they resent being treated as a minority in their own country, which is what they are. Citizens make up about 15 percent of the nation's 1.6 million people — a demographic oddity that fuels a sense of privilege and victimization.

 

"The priority always goes to the foreigner," said Ali Khaled, 23, who is finishing his government-financed education in London.

 

His cousin, Omar Ali, 24, a high school dropout who works as a technician in an electric company, readily agreed: "They always think the foreigner is better at any job than a Qatari, even if the Qatari is perfect at the job."

 

In many ways, they appear to be right about how they are perceived.

 

"Qataris are very spoiled," said Mohammed Saffarini, a non-Qatari Arab who serves as research director for health science at Qatar's Science and Technology Park. "They are only valuable in this cultural and political context," he added, contending that Qataris often lacked the skills, education and qualifications to be competitive in many other economies.

 

On the surface, Qatar appears to be on a roll. This peninsula of sand jutting into the Persian Gulf has leveraged its oil wealth and unbridled ambition to garner a world-class reputation on many fronts: international relations, art, higher education. But at home, there is tension, anger and frustration between Qataris and foreigners.

 

"It's all a sham; it's all a veneer," said Dr. Momtaz Wassef, who was recruited from the United States to serve as the director of biomedical research for the Supreme Council of Health. Now he says he is disillusioned with Qatar and is planning to leave. "They never admit they make a mistake," he said. "They only say they are the best in the world."

 

Dr. Wassef's wife asked that he not be quoted until he left Qatar, but Dr. Wassef would have none of it. "I don't give a hoot," he said, clapping his hands together for emphasis.

 

Qataris do not see themselves as coddled. Sure, they do not have to pay for electricity, water, education or health care, and they are given land and low-cost loans to build houses when they marry. They are eligible for public assistance if they do not have a job, often receive generous pensions and acknowledge they will not take any jobs they do not consider suitable for them.

 

But they also complain that they do not get paid as much as foreigners, and that foreigners get most of the top jobs in critical industries, like finance, higher education and the media. There is also pervasive frustration that English has become the language of employment, not Arabic, and that local hospitals, restaurants, markets and streets are always crowded with foreigners.

 

"There is a crisis here," said Muhammad al-Mesfer, a political science professor at Qatar University. "The foreigners are crowding us out."

 

The tension in Qatar is similar to what has surfaced in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where local people are also vastly outnumbered by foreigners and are sometimes likened to colonial rulers in their own land.

 

"There are about 300 employees at my work and only 4 or 5 Qataris," said Mr. Ali, the technician at an electric company. "I walk into work and I feel like I am in India."

 

He said that the foreigners were never willing to teach him new skills, so he had lost motivation.

 

"I have been working there for three years, and I still haven't fully grasped the work," he said. "I go to work to drink tea and read the paper."

 

During a seven-day visit to Qatar, conversations with expatriate workers and Qatari citizens almost always turned to the topic of distrust, even during the most mundane of encounters.

 

"I am Qatari, and this country is for me," a driver shouted as he forced his way into a parking space that a Canadian driver had also been trying for. "This is my country."

 

Part of the frustration appears to stem from the lack of an effort to address the differences. People here said that when complaints had been raised, those who spoke up got punished. Foreigners get sent home and local people lose their positions, they said.

 

Qataris and foreigners alike described a social contract that offers material comfort and financial reward in exchange for not challenging the government's choices. Qatar is a constitutional monarchy led by Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and his council of ministers. For many, the bargain is worth taking.

 

"To be honest, I'm comfortable and the salaries are good," said Ibrahim al-Muhairy, 29, a Qatari high school dropout who said he earns about $41,000 a year working for the government as a security guard in a mall. "Everyone is getting what he deserves and more."

 

But there are plenty of others who are unwilling to ride away silently in their Mercedes sedans, like Ahmed J. Abdul-Rahman Abdul-Malik, a former news anchor. He said he was furious that he had not been hired to read the news on Al Jazeera, the popular satellite news channel that broadcasts from here. He has written opinion pieces for a local newspaper complaining that Qataris are now treated as second-class citizens in their own country.

 

"I met with my friends last night, we joked, we are all 'ex,' that means unemployed," he said, as he climbed into the driver's seat of a Mercedes sedan. His diamond-crusted watch glistened beneath the parking lot lights.

 

Moza al-Malki, a family therapist, said she was angry, too. She said that she had lost her teaching position when she complained that an Indian woman was hired to run a counseling center that she said she had set up. "We are all angry for staying at home," she said.

 

A moment earlier, she turned to the Filipino woman walking one step behind her — a servant carrying bags — and told her to go look around the mall they were in while Ms. Malki ordered breakfast. Ms. Malki ordered a croissant with cheese, sent it back because it was too hard, and then settled on an omelet.

 

Mona El-Naggar contributed reporting.

 



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[ALOCHONA] Why we should say no more to MohiUddin Chowdhury this time ?



 
 
Till secodn term there was almost  no objection against Mohi uddin Chowdhury, the mayor of Chitagong city corporation. But just after his election in third term, lots of allegations against him. he is not caring any one .

Even he didn't care to torture councilor of city corporation openly. We all know what he was doing after beinng mayor for the third term.

If he is elected again for the fourth term, he will care nothing and none and his torture and illegal activities will increase beyond limit.

http://www.facebook.com/reqs.php#!/group.php?gid=116863018349928&ref=mf

The test of patriotism is not a one-off event for anyone, let alone the political quarters, that once passed is passed for ever. It is rather a perpetual process, especially for the ruling political quarters that have to pass it every moment- Nurul Kabir , Editor , The NewAge

 

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[ALOCHONA] RE: Deoband fatwa: It's illegal for women to work, support family



RE: Deoband fatwa: It's illegal for women to work, support family

This fatwa is un acceptable and will tarnish the image of Deobond.There is no Qati ( as a technical term it means hundred percent certain )evidence to prohibit women from working outside and support family..

Shah Abdul Hannan

-----------------------------------

From: Isha Khan

Deoband fatwa: It's illegal for women to work, support family

Deoband Seminary

LUCKNOW: Darul Uloom Deoband, the self-appointed guardian for Indian Muslims, in a Talibanesque fatwa that reeked of tribal patriarchy, has decreed that it is "haram" and illegal according to the Sharia for a family to accept a woman's earnings. Clerics at the largest Sunni Muslim seminary after Cairo's Al-Azhar said the decree flowed from the fact that the Sharia prohibited proximity of men and women in the workplace.

"It is unlawful (under the Sharia law) for Muslim women to work in the government or private sector where men and women work together and women have to talk with men frankly and without a veil," said the fatwa issued by a bench of three clerics. The decree was issued over the weekend, but became public late on Monday, seminary sources said.

At a time when there is a rising clamour for job quotas for Muslims in India and a yearning for progress in the community that sees itself as neglected, the fatwa, although unlikely to be heeded, is clearly detrimental.

Even the most conservative Islamic countries, which restrict activities of women, including preventing them from driving, do not bar women from working. At the peak of its power, the Taliban only barred women in professions like medicine from treating men and vice versa. But there was a never a blanket ban on working, although the mullahs made it amply clear that they would like to see the women confined to homes.

The fatwa, however, drew flak among other clerics.

"Men and women in Sharia are entitled to equal rights. If men follow the Sharia, there is no reason why women can't work with them," said Rasheed, the Naib Imam of Lucknow's main Eidgah Mosque in Aishbagh.

Mufti Maulana Khalid Rasheed of Darul Ifta Firangi Meheli -- another radical Islamic body which also issues fatwas -- criticized the Deoband fatwa as a retrograde restriction on Muslim women.

The fatwa was in response to a question whether Muslim women can take up government or private jobs and whether their salary should be termed as `halal' (permissible under the Sharia) or `haram' (forbidden).

Well-known Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawwad, however, justified the fatwa. "Women in Islam are not supposed to go out and earn a living. It's the responsibility of the males in the family," he said. "If a woman has to go for a job, she must make sure that the Sharia restrictions are not compromised," he added, citing the example of Iran, where Muslim women work in offices but have separate seating areas, away from their male counterparts.

In Lucknow, a city with strong secular and progressive traditions, where Muslim families train their daughters to be doctors, engineers and executives, there was a sense of shocked disbelief even in conservative quarters that such a decree could come from those who consider themselves to be advocates of the community.

"I am also a working woman and also ensure that my Sharia is not compromised," said Rukhsana, a lecturer at a girl's college in Lucknow and a member of the executive committee of All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB). "It's not necessary that one would have to go against the Sharia when going to work."

"Name one Islamic country which does not have a national airline and does not hire airhostesses? If I know correctly, even the Saudi Airlines has hostesses and they don't wear a veil," said Shabeena Parveen, a computer professional in the city.



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[ALOCHONA] Why India destroyed Liberation War records?



Why India destroyed Liberation War records?
 
M. I. Ali
 
The Times of India, a widely circulated multi-edition daily of India, reported last week that all records relating to the Freedom Fighters of Bangladesh during the War of Liberation, kept at the Headquarters of the Eastern Command of the Indian Army in Calcutta, have been lost for ever. The newspaper quotes Lt. Gen. Jacob-Farj-Rafael Jacob as saying that when he took over the command of the Eastern Command in 1974, when he had asked for the files relating to the Mukti Bahini during War of Liberation of Bangladesh, he was told that all files and records on the subject had been shredded. Lt. Gen. Jacob refused to comment when he was asked who was responsible for the destruction of those records or why were they destroyed.
   
This is indeed, a stunning news, an unimaginable loss for Bangladesh and its history. This is probably the first time in the world that a victor has destroyed all records of his greatest achievement. It is always the vanquished who destroys his records to avoid any incrimination or to protect the parties who assisted and collaborated with them during their campaign. It is entirely understandable for the aforesaid reason if the Pakistan Army had destroyed their records but the Indian Army destroying their records simply does not stand to reason. It is also abundantly clear now that the matter had become known in 1974 and as such by this time it must have been brought to the notice of officials at the highest level in New Delhi.
   
Was therefore the victory in 1971, as far as the Indians are concerned, incomplete and all records of the Mukti Bahini, even those remotely connected with this subject, had to be permanently destroyed. What information could these files contain that made it absolutely imperative that they must be destroyed? What is more intriguing is that these records are primarily related to the Mukti Bahini camps in India. Did India have a different agenda in these camps than Bangladesh? An Indian agenda that couldn't be followed through and no trace of it could be left behind? Something, if it became public, could cause a permanent damage in its plans regarding its future relations with the new nation?
   
Mukti Bahini camp records could only contain limited information. Most of these would have been routine, dealing with the day to day affairs of the camp, lists of camp inmates, training imparted, lists of weapons, movement records and special instructions that may have been received from time to time. These can hardly be of such grave importance that they required to be destroyed secretly through shredding. However, the matters would be different if different groups within the camps were treated differently and these groups had different agendas.
   
Recalling the post Liberation scenario in 1971, the Indian army had taken over all Pakistani Army assets in the country and large numbers of Indian civil servants were also in the process of moving into this country. This did indicate the possibility of their long term stay and a role in supervising the defence and administration of this newly liberated country. Unfortunately for India, these plans had to be scrapped after Sheikh Mujibur Rahman forced India to withdraw its army and bureaucrats from Bangladesh. India had to quickly redesign its plans and this may have led to the destruction of the Mukti Cahini camp files that were maintained at the Fort Williams in Calcutta.
   
These files may have contained details of a fifth column in the Mukti Bahini whose role would have been to assist the Indian Army occupation of Bangladesh. These specially trained Indian agents in the Mukti Bahini would have been exposed if the destroyed files had become public and their usefulness to India would have been compromised. The nation will forever remain in debt to the brave members of the Mukti Banini and all efforts must be undertaken to ensure that their image is not tarnished by the activities of the fifth columnists, who may still be actively pursuing their old agenda.
 


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RE: [ALOCHONA] Rabindranath:enemy of Bangladesh People n humanity



Dear sirs,
Assalamu alaikum.It is not proper for us to anyway demean noble Laurate poet Rabindranath.He will remain great despite criticism.A  great poet or thinker should not be judged by few political views.This is true of Rabindranath, Iqbal and Shakespeare.
 
At the same time it is not proper to respect him or present him as a god to be worshipped.He is just one of the great poets of the subcontinent.
 
Any extremism is bad.
 
Shah Abdul Hannan


From: alochona@yahoogroups.com [mailto:alochona@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Md. Aminul Islam
Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2010 6:29 AM
To: alochona@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [ALOCHONA] Rabindranath:enemy of Bangladesh People n humanity

 

Mr Muhosin Ali, I have showed how rabindranath is a enemy of Humanity n people of Bangladesh.I presented some facts. These are not created by me.First I came to know about this by Dr Ahmed Sharif  . In one of his article published  in Uttoradhikar , a literary quarterly of Bang la Academy. It is noted that Mr Sharif was one of those who came forward in support of Rabindranath when there was a strong propaganda against Rabindra nath.Dr sarif Showed How Rabindranath oppressed his subjects.   If any body snached ones religious right or copelled one to follow other religion then he is enemy of humanity.If someone stand against establishing university in bangladesh he is enemy of Bangladesh. aminul                --- 

 

  On Sun, 5/9/10, Dr. M. Mohsin Ali wrote: From: Dr. M. Mohsin Ali Subject: [ALOCHONA] Rabindranath:enemy of Bangladesh Peo 

 n humanity To: alochona@yahoogroups.com Date: Sunday, May 9, 2010, 6:26 AM   IT IS A NONSENSE PROPAGANDA LIKE THE AYUB-MONAYEM REGIME OF PAKISTAN DURING 1960'S AGAINST THE BENGALI CULTURE. THEY WERE ALREADY THROWN OUT OF THE HISTORY OF PAKISTAN AND BANGLADESH THE BRAVE PEOPLE OF BANGLADESH. I AM WONDERING HOW ALOCHONA GROUP IS ENCOURAGING SUCH PAKISTANI OLD PROPAGANDA AND TRYING TO DEFAME KOBI GURU. --- 

 

  On Sat, 5/8/10, Md. Aminul Islam wrote: From: Md. Aminul Islam Subject: [ALOCHONA] Rabindranath: enemy of Bangladesh People n humanity To: notun_bangladesh@ yahoogroups. com, history_islam@ yahoogroups. com, dahuk@yahoogroups. com, banglarnari@ yahoogroups. com, khabor@yahoogroups. com, "Bangla Zindabad" , "Sonar Bangladesh" , "bangla vision" , "wideminds" , "vinnomot" , "Dhaka Mails" , "alochona" , ayubi_s786@yahoo. com, faruquealamgir@ gmail.com Date: Saturday, May 8, 2010, 10:44 PM   Rabindranath: enemy of Bangladesh People n humanity   Dear All, Do you know that Poet" Bshakobi " rabindranath   1 )compelled his Muslim subjects Giving Chanda For Puja 2) compelled his Muslim subjects  giving Tax for Bared ( Lari rakharv jonno kor Adai korto) 3)He never established a single school in  his jomidari in Bangladesh( silaidoh , shajatpur or potisosr) 4)He opposed and protested the establishment of Dhaka University 5)oppression on subjects by Rabindranath is a  well established Truth. He was getting Khetabs , as supported the British colonial regime when nazrul was jailed for  his role against the British regime.  But sometimes some so called manobotabadi ask for establish the ideal of This rabindranath.    What kind of "Manobotabadi was Rabindranath n his supporters?              



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