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ASP.NET - Use HtmlDecode method
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ASP.NET - Use HtmlDecode method
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ASP.NET - Use HtmlDecode method
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Draft Minutes of Markazi Majlis-e-Mushawarat, 12 Feb., 2005

The 3rd meeting of the Markazi Majlis-e-Mushawarat (MMM) was held in the Central Office of the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat at 10 AM on Saturday, 12 February, 2005 with the President in Chair.

The following members were present:

1.         Mr. Syed Shahabuddin, President

2.         Maulana Mohd. Shafi Moonis, Vice-President

3.         Dr. Zafarul Islam Khan, General Secretary

4.         Maulana Ejaz Ahmed Aslam, General Secretary

5.         Dr. Abdul Haque Ansari

6.         Maulana Asghar Imam Mehdi-us Salfi

7.         Dr. S.Q.R. Ilyas         

8.         Mr. Mohd. Naeem Khan      

9.         Mr. Obaid Iqbal Asim           

10.       Dr. Syed Farooq       

11.             Mr. Syed Mahmood Ali

12.             Mr. S.M.Y. Nadeem

13.       Dr. Neyaz Rasool Siddiqui

14.       Maulana S. Rahat Hashmi

15.       Mr. Navaid Hamid

1.   Agenda Item No. 1: The meeting opened with recitation from the Holy Quran.

2.   Agenda Item No. 2: The meeting expressed its grief at the demise of the following eminent personalities, conveyed its sincere condolences to the next-of-kin and offered Fateha for their ‘Maghferat’.

1.   Maulana Ghulam Ahmad Ahrar, Kashmir

2.   Dr. Maqbool Ahmad, Vice President of the AIMMM

3.   Justice K.M. Yusuf, Calcutta

4.   Mr. Ali Jawad Zaidi, Lucknow

5.   Prof. Atiq Ahmad Siddiqui, Member of the MMM

6.   Mr. Mohd. Hasnain Syed, Darbhanga

7.   Prof. Nisar Ahmad Farooqui, Delhi

8.   Maulana Faizur Rahman Faiz, Mhow

3.   Agenda Item No. 3: The Minutes of the 2nd Meeting held on 11 September, 2004 were confirmed and adopted with the following addition to Para 3: “The meeting also decided that while forwarding the ballot papers for referendum, the members may be cautioned that those who do not return the ballots by the due date shall be presumed to be in favour of the proposed amendments and shall be counted as such.”

4.   Agenda Item No. 4: The President submitted the Action Taken Report on the earlier minutes and the organisational and financial question as summarized below:

1.   Purchase of Central Office Building: The final instalment of consideration was paid on 7 February, 2005.  Restructuring, repair and maintenance works were in progress since early January, 2005, with the permission of the owners and are likely to be completed by 20 February.  Thereafter the Central Office shall shift to the new premises.  The MMM thanked the Donors and the Lenders who had made the purchase possible and thanked Allah for blessing AIMMM with the first office of its own in its 40 years.

2.   Sale of Plot E-35:  The plot had been sold; first instalment had been paid on 7 January, 2005 and the balance is payable by 26 May, 2005. This will enable the AIMMM to repay the outstanding payable as well as the loans taken for purchase of the Central Office Building.

3.   Financial Situation: The MMM approved the Draft Budget Estimates presented by the President.

The MMM expressed its concern at the fall in Donations from Friends of the Mushawarat and asked the President to collect the arrears of membership fee as well as request the Friends to make their contribution for 2004 and 2005 at their earliest convenience.  The MMM also called upon the Members to contact potential donors and raise the members of the Circle of the Friends of the Mushawarat to at least 100.

The MMM also advised that for its long-term financing, the MMM should create a corpus of at least Rs. 50 lakhs.  It gave its approval that the surplus in the sale proceeds of the Plot E-35, after meeting all liabilities as well as expenditure of a non-recurring nature on the building, serve as the core of the proposed corpus.  The MMM was informed about the progress towards finalization of the draft Trust Deed for the proposed Mushawarat Trust.

4.   Organizational Matters: The President reported that since the last meeting in September, 2004, the following eminent personalities had joined the AIMMM:

1.   Hakim Mohd. Irfan Al-Husaini, Calcutta

2.   Mr. Mohd. Arif Khan, Lucknow

3.   Mr. Bashiruddin Babukhan, Hyderabad

4.   Mr. P.A. Inamdar, Pune

5.   Dr. Mumtaz A. Owaisi, Delhi

The MMM welcomed the new members and advised intensified efforts to enroll more personalities of national eminence as members.

The President reported that Reyasati Majalis-e-Mushawarat had not been formed in several States and even the working of the existing Majalis was not satisfactory.  The MMM decided that the existing Reyasati Majalis-e-Mushawarat be reconstituted in accordance with the Dastoor, if necessary and efforts to establish the Reyasati Majalis in other States of Muslim concentration be redoubled.

The MMM also decided that the 3 posts of Vice-Presidents be filled in at the earliest.

The MMM decided that the President, in consultation with the office bearers, should enroll Associate Members and appoint Executive Secretaries for making the Central Office more effective.

The MMM endorsed the President’s view that the Central Office 2 or 3 additional salaried staff on a part-time or whole-time basis to deal with increased work load.

5.   Agenda Item No. 5 - Amendments to the Constitution: The Returning Officer, Mr. S. Mahmood Ali presented his Report on the Referendum on proposed amendments to the Constitution.  He noted while only 32 members had responded, 59 others who had not responded to repeated reminders had been counted in and he had declared all amendments as adopted.

The MMM endorsed the Report.

6.   Agenda Item No. 6 - Annual Report for 2004 and Programme of Activities for 2005: The President presented the Annual Report which was generally endorsed.  However, it was felt that the Report should mention the donation of Rs,. 100,000 for the relief of the Tsunami Waves in Tamil Nadu and Andaman and Nicobar.

The MMM approved the Programme of Activities proposed by the President, subject to availability of funds, including:

1.   Holding or Co-sponosoring a National Conference or Seminar on Reservation for Muslims in Public Employment.

2.   Revival of Parliament Forum of Muslim Parliamentarians

3.   Establishment of Weekly Round Table of Muslim Journalists

4.   Establishment of Advisory Committee of Muslim Advocates

5.   Initiative by the AIMMM to hold consultations among Muslim Bodies on Common Question of Concern for the Muslim Community like Declaration  of Sighting of the Moon.

6.   Maintenance of Regular Contact with the Prime Minister and Other Ministers, Muslim Organizations, Institutions of National Eminence.

7.   Publication Programme.

7.   Agenda Item No. 7: The MMM adopted the following Resolutions on the following subjects:

1.   On Contact by the Government and Political Parties with Muslim Representatives

2.   On Revival of National Integration Council

3.   On Reconstitution of Official Bodies of Interest to Muslims

4.   On Fulfillment of the Electoral Promise of Reservation

5.   On Implementation of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in Muslim Concentration Areas

6.   On Amendment to the National Commission for Minorities Educational Institutions Act, 2005 and for Removal of Obstacles in Establishment, Affiliation, Recognition and Admission.

7.   On Publication of Language Census, 2001

8.   On Proliferation of ‘Muslim Personal Law Board’

9.   On Higher Allocation for Maulana Azad Education Foundation and NMFDC

10. On Restoration of Jamia Urdu, Aligarh

11. On Developments in Palestine and Iraq

12. On Observance of Foundation Day of Mushawarat on 7 August, 2005.

      The meeting closed with Doa and thanks to the Chair.

                                                                  Sd/-

New Delhi,            SYED SHAHABUDDIN

14 February, 2005                                                                                                    PRESIDENT

New Composition of Markazi Majlis-e-Amla

16 March, 2005

The President has reconstituted the Markazi Majlis-e-Amla as follows:

Among the elected members, Mr. Mohd. Sulaiman, General Secretary, Indian National League, has substituted the President Mr. Ebrahim Sulaiman Sait and Mr. Justice Abdul Hadi who has resigned has been replaced by Mr. S. Mahmood Ali.

The President has nominated 5 new members to replace 5 members nominated in January 2004 as the latter were unable to attend any meeting.

The composition shall be as follows:

Elected Members in January, 2004:

1.      Mr. Syed Shahabuddin

2.      Mr. Saiyid Hamid

3.      Mr. Mohd. Hamid Ansari

4.      Dr. A.K.M. Naik

5.      Mr. Khurshid Alam Khan

6.      Mr. Moosa Raza

7.      Dr. S.Q.R. Ilyas

8.      Dr. Zafarul Islam Khan

9.      Mr. K.M. Arifuddin

10. Mr. Mohd. Sulaiman (vice) Mr. Sulaiman Sait

11. M’lna Ejaz Ahmed Aslam

12. Dr. Syed Farooq

13. Mr. Ahmad R. Shervani

14. M’lna Md. Shafi Moonis

15. Mr. Amanullah Khan

16. Mr. S. Mahmood Ali (vice) Jus. Abdul Hadi (Resigned)

17. Mr. Navaid Hamid

18. Mr. M. Afzal

19. Dr. Abdul Haque Ansari

20. Mr. Salman Khurshid

21. Maulana F.R. Mujaddidi

Nominated:

22. Mr. Justice P.K. Shamsuddin

23. Mr. Bashiruddin Babukhan

24. Mr. Akbar H. Jung, IAS (Rtd.)

25. Mr. S.M.Y. Nadeem, IAS (Rtd.)

26. Mr. A. Imam Mehdius Salfi

27. Prof. Shakeel Ahmad

28. Prof. Humayun Murad

29. Dr. Abusaleh Shariff

30. Mr. Shariful Hasan Naqvi

31. M’lna Zeeshan Hedayati

Nomination of Vice-Presidents

I - Notification, 21 March, 2005

In accordance with the Dastoor of the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat, I have nominated Mr. Bashiruddin Babukhan, a member of the Markazi Majlis-e-Mushawarat, as a Vice-President of the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat with immediate effect.

II - Notification, 29 March, 2005

In accordance with the Dastoor of the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat, I have nominated Mr. Justice P.K. Shamsuddin, a member of the Markazi Majlis-e-Mushawarat as a Vice-President of the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat with immediate effect.

Reconstitution of Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat, Bihar

28 January, 2005

By virtue of power vested in him by the Dastoor, the President has dissolved the existing Adhoc Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat, Bihar and has reconstituted it as follows:

I - Markazi Jamaat’s Representatives:

1.   A.I. Momin Conference: Dr. K.R. Saba, President, Bihar

2.   Jamaat-e-Islami Hind: Maulana Qamrul Huda, Amir Halqa-e-Bihar

3.   Markazi Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith: Dr. Syed Abdul Haleem, Amir, Bihar.

4.   MOEMIN: Prof. M. Mohiuddin, President, Bihar

5.   A.I. Shia Conference: Prof. Moosi Raza, President, Bihar

6.   Imarat-e-Sharia, Bihar and Orissa: Maulana Anisur Rahman Qasmi. Nazim

II - Reyasati Jamaat’s Representatives:

1.   Idara-e-Sharia: Maulana S.M. Sanaullah

2.   Bihar Rabita Committee: Mr. Afzal Husain

III - Eminent Individuals:

1.      Mr. Syed Nizamuddin

2.      Dr. Kalim Ajiz

3.      Mr. Matiur Rahman

4.      Prof. M.O. Siddiqui

5.      Principal Nargis Jahan Barwi

6.      Mr. Raghib Ahsan

7.      Maulana Sami Jafri

8.      Prof. Ziauddin Ahmad

9.      Prof. Abuzar Kamaluddin

IV - Ex-Officio Members (as Members of the Markazi MMM):

1.   Mr. Syed Shahabuddin 

2.   Maulana Syed Nizamuddin

3.   Prof. Alauddin Ahmad

4.   Prof. Shakil Ahmed      

5.   Mr. Anwarul Huda, IAS (Retd.)

6.   Mr. Anwar Karim, IAS (Retd.)

7.   Maj. Gen. (Retd.) Waseem M. Khairwi

8.   Dr. Mumtaz A. Owaisi

V - Permanent Invitee:

1.   Mr. Aftab Ahmad

The President has nominted Prof. Alauddin Ahmad as President, Mr. Syed Nezamuddin as Vice-President, Maj. Gen. Waseem M. Khairwi as General Secretary and Mr. Aftab Ahmad as Executive Secretary of the Adhoc Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat, Bihar, in consultation with the General Secretary, to assist him.

On Draft Political Resolution for CPI(M) Cong.

I-Letter to Prakash Karat, CPM Leader, 29 Jan., 05

I have read the Draft Political Resolution for the 18th Congress of the CPI(M).

I would like to draw your attention to paras 2.42, 2.37 and 2.35, which touch upon interests of Muslim community.

Para 2.42 speaks of ‘legitimate rights of the minorities’; what is the test of legitimacy? What are the rights? It is vague. Similarly, it speaks of ‘democratic and progressive reforms within the minorities’. The Resolution should spell out the reforms which are desirable in its view. It opposes ‘minority communalism’ on ground of ghettoization and intolerance. Ghettoization is the inevitable consequence of rampant physical and religious insecurity. As for intolerance, we are yet to see any manifestation of intolerance in the Muslim community towards the other religious groups.

Minority communalism does not manifest itself it vocal or physical violence against other religious groups, or discrimination against them in distribution of benefits of development or public employment or encroaching upon their sacred spaces or structures. Obviously self-defence or protest against majoritarian excesses or demand for equality and justice cannot be seen as communalism. So why this red herring? Is it only to secure a ‘secular’ balance?

Fundamentalism in terms of quest of power as a religious group does not exist in the Indian Muslim community. There is of course a growing aspiration for political empowerment e.g. reasonable representation in the power structure.

The Muslim workers and the Muslim poor cannot and should not be approached as Muslims but as part of the working class. Their needs and rights are not different from others.

In para 2.37, the Resolution supports reservation for Dalit Christians. Why not Dalit Muslims? But this entire approach is wrong. There should be no religious qualification for ‘Dalits’ or SC status, just as there is not for ST status. Similarly, the Resolution limits Reservation in Private Sector to SC and ST. It should be on purely economic basis, say, extended to all persons, with the requisite qualifications, from the economically backward families, say, those whose total annual income is below the national average or who are living Below the Poverty Line.

Para 2.35 endorses Reservation for Women in Legislatures. We are not opposed to it but the women’s quota should have separate sub-quotas for OBC’s and the under-represented minorities like Muslims. We fear that in the absence of separate sub-quota for Muslim women, the Muslim representation in legislatures may further go down from the present level of 50%.

I am making these points as a friend. So I hope you would give them some thought.

II - CPI(M)’s Reply, 2 February, 2005

Received your comment on our Draft Political Resolution.

I am willing to accept your suggestion while finalizing it at the Party Congress.

On Draft Political Resolution for CPI Congress

Letter to A.B. Bardhan, GS, CPI, 31 January, 2005

I have been reading the Draft Political Resolution for the coming Congress of the CPI. In Part XII, the document deals with the Minorities.

As in the past documents, the CPI supports their ‘genuine demands’ without dilating on them. This is too cryptic and vague.

Similarly, the CPI shall take up implementation of various government schemes. As far as I know there are only 3 or 4 which together are incapable of making any impact on their distressing situation.

1.   Maulana Azad Education Foundation

2.   Development of Wakf Properties

3.   National Minorities Finance and Development Corporation

4.   Area Intensive and Madrasa Modernization Programme

The least the CPI should do is to propose that the benefits of all welfare programmes should be equitably distributed so as to reach all identifiable groups in the operational area (Panchayat, block, district) more or less in proportion to their eligible population.

As far as I can see the Document is silent on glaring and persistent under-representation of Muslims in public employment and in legislatures. Why?

We support reservation for women in legislatures (as in party organizations and candidate lists) but we would like to have a sub-quota for Muslim women on par with SC and ST, otherwise the Muslim under-representation in legislatures will increase. There should be similar safeguards for OBC’s (other than Muslims) and any other minority which is under-represented.

I have not been able to spot any reference to Uniform Civil Code. The Party should urge progressive codification of the personal laws of all communities in the first instance, as in the case of the Hindu community.

I am writing this as a friend, not as a critics, and request you to give due consideration to these ideas.

On Inclusion of Hindore as Minister in Maharashtra

Letter to INC President, 10 January, 2005

In my letter 7 December, 2004, I had communicated to you the unhappiness of the Muslim community of Maharashtra at the inclusion of Shri C.K. Hindore in the Council of Ministers. It has now been reported that he has given shelter in his house to some of the RPI workers who attacked Muslim houses in Ambedkar Jhopadpati in Sayandri Nagar, Mumbai on 2 January, 2004 causing loss of at least one life and widespread injuries to other men and women on 2 January, 2004. In this connection, some local Muslim organizations staged a black flag demonstration against the PM on his visit to Mumbai on 6-7 January, 2005.

We reiterate our request that you may kindly advise the Chief Minister of Maharashtra to drop Shri Hindore and to direct the Mumbai Police to detain and prosecute all the culprits and refrain from registering false cases against the victims themselves.

Muslim Representation by Secular Parties

Letter to All Secular Parties, 31 December, 2004

The Assembly Election in Bihar is to be held in February, 2005. Muslims constitute 16.53% of the State population and aspire to see at least 40 Muslim MLAs in the next Assembly. In 1999, 25 Muslims won and 24 were runners-up.

We have made a district-wise and constituency-wise analysis, as in the Charts attached.

Politically, Muslim electorate would like to see the UPA parties to contest the election as an alliance. In Bihar the UPA is represented largely by RJD, INC and LJP, apart from CPI and CPM. The All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (AIMMM), therefore, suggests that every possible effort be made to field a common UPA slate before the people and thus to ensure that the secular vote is not divided to the advantage of BJP or the NDA.

Secondly, the Muslim community would like to have winnable Muslim candidates who enjoy their confidence fielded by the party to which one or more of the Muslim concentration constituencies are allotted in the division of seats.

Thirdly, unfortunately there is no agreement among secular parties and in the constituencies of interest to the Muslim community, there are more than one Muslim candidates of different secular parties, this would lead to the possibility of Muslim votes being divided. However, in such a situation, the AIMMM would advise the Muslim voters to vote unitedly for the most winnable secular candidate.

Fourthly, there may be Muslim winnable constituencies in which no UPA-party fields a Muslim candidate but there are other Muslim candidates in the field. In that case, the AIMMM would try to identify the winnable Muslim candidate, if any, and advise the secular voters to vote massively for him.

We request you once again that in order to ensure due representation of the Muslim community in the Assembly, all secular parties should at least agree to support a common Muslim candidate, belonging to one of them, in Muslim concentration seats.

We also feel that as far as possible, at least one Muslim candidate may be fielded in each district, if the total Muslim population in the district comes to the average population of a constituency in the State. This would enthusize the Muslim electorate in the entire district to achieve maximum turnout in favour of the winning secular candidate, apart from other Muslim-concentration constituencies in several districts.

For Due Representation to Muslims in Bihar

Statement, 4 January, 2005

"The AIMMM has communicated to all secular parties, active in Bihar, that in accordance with its population the Muslim community aspires to see at least 40 Muslim MLAs in the next Assembly.

The Muslim community, as a community, desires the defeat of the BJP and the parties associated with it and will, therefore, vote massively and unitedly for secular parties. But in order to avoid the division of secular votes, it would like the major secular parties namely, RJD, INC, LJP, CPI, CPI(M) and CPI(ML)(L) in Bihar to form an electoral alliance and failing that come to electoral understanding and make seat adjustments to ensure one-to-one contest against the communal forces.

The AIMMM has informed all secular parties of the break up of 40 seats, district-wise (chart attached). It is strongly of the view that if the Muslim population of any district is at least more than half the average population per constituency, the secular parties should jointly field at least one Muslim candidate in that district in the constituency with the highest Muslim concentration. This would help to mobilize the Muslim voters in all constituencies of the district in favour of secular parties.

The AIMMM has also noted that in 1999, 25 Muslims were elected to the Assembly and 24 more were the runner-up, including a few on anti-secular tickets. This makes a total of 49 constituencies which are winnable by Muslims. A chart giving the party-wise and district-wise break up of these seats is being prepared.

The AIMMM emphasizes that the secular parties should put up Muslim candidate who command the confidence of the community from Muslim concentration and, therefore, winnable constituencies.

The AIMMM advises the secular voters in Muslim concentration constituencies:

a)         In case only the Muslim candidate of one secular party is in the field, they should massively vote for him

b)         If there are more than one Muslim candidates of various secular parties, they should vote for the strongest and, therefore, the most winnable among them.

c)         If no secular party has put up a Muslim candidate in a Muslim concentration constituency but there is an independent Muslim candidate who is winnable, they should support him.

d)         In all other constituencies the secular voters must vote for the strongest candidate of the secular party to defeat the BJP or its associated parties.

For Muslim-winnable constituencies in which more than one secular parties contest against each other and/or no Muslim candidate has been fielded by any secular party, the AIMMM shall publish a list of candidates to be supported, for the guidance of the secular voters at the appropriate time.

In the meantime, the AIMMM urges the politically conscious and active members of the community to apply to the secular parties of their choice for their tickets.

The AIMMM looks forward to the formation in Bihar of a secular government committed to the progress and development of the people."

Charter of Aspirations of Muslim Community

Letter to INC President, 10 January, 2005

I attach a note on the aspirations and expectations of the Muslim Community of Bihar for inclusion in the Party Manifesto for the coming Assembly Elections.

These have been formulated in the light of discussion I had with the Muslim elite and intelligentsia in Bihar and Jharkhand.

Due representation in the list of party candidates and inclusion of these aspirations in the Manifesto will go a long way to ensure their full mobilization in support of the party.

Suggestions for Inclusion in Party Manifesto for Bihar Assembly Elections, 2005

1.         Universalization of Welfare Schemes, Central, Centrally-sponsored or State, for all Individuals who meet objective criteria.

2.         Equitable Distribution of Benefits under all Economic Development Schemes, Central, Centrally-sponsored or State, to all Social Groups in accordance with their eligible population in the unit area, for distribution (Panchayat, Block, District or State).

3.         Establishment of a State Commission for Minorities Educational Institutions to facilitate application of Article 30 of the Constitution at all levels.

4.         Reservation in public employment for all identifiable sub-communities/social sub-groups which constitute more than 1% of the population in the recruitment area, according to their population and level of backwardness.

5.         a)         Establishment of government primary, middle and high schools of Minimum acceptable quality in all deprived rural and urban areas, in accordance with national norms, under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.

            b)         Introduction of Urdu as medium of primary instruction in government schools situated in Urdu-concentration areas for students whose mother tongue is Urdu.

            c)         Introduction of Urdu as Compulsory First Language in all Middle and High Schools and of Hindi as Compulsory Second Language, for students whose Mother Tongue is Urdu.

6.         Grant of Statutory Status to Bihar Minorities Commission.

7.         Revival of Bihar State Minorities Development and Finance Corporation.

8.         a)         Declaration of Public Wakfs as Public Premises.

            b)         Exemption of Public Wakfs from Rent Control and Land Ceiling Act.

            c)         Delimitation of Qabristans with reference to oldest available survey records and construction of boundary walls.

9.         a)         Review of Major Communal Incidents since 1990. Implementation of Recommendations of Judicial Commissions.

            b)         Payment of Uniform Compensation for Loss of Life and Property to all victims of communal and caste violence.

10.       Rural Employment Guarantee for at least ONE person in each nuclear family at minimum statutory wages.

Nomination of qualified Muslims to the High Courts, the Public Services Commissions, Universities, Educational Bodies and Government Boards and Corporations.

Establishment of State Commission of Human Rights.

Suggestions on Manifesto to Secular Parties

Letter to RJD/JMM/LJS/CPI/CPI(M), 11 Jan., 2005

The All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat has formulated the expectations and aspirations of the Muslim community for the next government in Bihar and Jharkhand.

It shall work wholeheartedly for, and welcome, the formation of a secular government which can fulfill their modest aspirations.

I am, therefore, sending you a copy of this document which you may kindly consider with sympathy and in case your party is issuing a Manifesto of its own, or in alliance with any other secular party, transmit this document to the Manifesto Committee.

We shall be grateful for a line in acknowledgement.

On Muslim Charter of Aspirations

Letter to Governor of Bihar, 16 March, 2005

I very much wanted to call on you during my brief visit to Patna on 14 March, 2005 but I was told that our request for an appointment had elicited no response, presumably because you have been preoccupied with setting up the new machinery.

Before the Assembly election, the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat had submitted a Charter of Aspirations of the Muslims of Bihar to the leadership of all secular parties in the fray. I take this opportunity to place a copy before you for your kind information and suitable action, alongwith a copy of our general appeal to the secular voters.

I hope to see you when I come to Patna next. In the meantime, I wish you every success in lifting Bihar from the depths to which it has fallen.

Selection of Muslim Candidates of INC in Bihar

Letter to INC, 8 January, 2005

I had earlier compiled a district list of Assembly seats due to Muslims in Bihar and sent it to Soniaji. We have now compiled a list of Muslim winnable seats in various districts. I attach both lists for your kind information and consideration.

By their population Muslims deserve 40 seats in Bihar Assembly. This is only possible if major parties like RJD and INC field winnable Muslim candidates from Muslim concentration seats and at least one from each district.

The heart of Muslims in Bihar is today with the INC but they also realize the compulsion of politics. But they are apprehensive that as in the case of General Election, the Congress may agree to Laloo`s terms. However, whatever the number of seats Congress accepts, it should field Muslim candidates in at least 1/6 of them.

Secondly, it should try to get as many Muslim winnable seats as possible in the division.

There is another danger: SP, BSP and JSP may field large number of Muslim candidates and thus divide Muslim votes to erode the chances of RJD-INC winning Muslim winnable seats. We have cautioned Muslim voters not to fall in their trap and vote for the INC-RJD candidates.

At the appropriate time the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat shall issue constituency-wise lists of strongest candidates of secular alliance for the guidance of the secular/Muslim voters.

Inclusion of Muslims in INC List

Letter to INC, 18 January, 2005

I understand the Congress leadership has decided to contest 80 seats in Bihar. I request you that to attract Muslim voters in all the 80 seats the INC must field Muslim candidates in at least 14-15 Muslim concentration constituencies.

Secondly, the Congress should also identify and contest Bhumihar/Rajput concentration seats.

Thirdly, the Congress should contest MBC concentration seats i.e. seats which are dominated by backward castes, other than Yadav, Kurmi or Koeri.

In Bisfi (Madhubani), Simi Bakhtiarpur (Saharsa), Amour (Purnea), Thakurganj (Kishanganj) and Bahadurganj (Kishanganj), the Congress had sitting Muslim MLA`s. Of them Bisfi MLA Dr. Shakil Ahmad is now an MP.

In Raxaul (E. Champaran), Mirganj (Gopalganj) and Araria (Araria) the Congress Muslim candidates had come in second position. That takes care of 8 seats.

For the other 6-7 seats, for fielding Muslim candidates, I would suggest Bihar (Nalanda), Jale (Darbhanga), Pupri (Sitamarhi), Barsoi (Katihar), Gaya Town (Gaya), Sikta ( W. Champaran), Siwan (Siwan). Thus the Congress would have a Muslim candidate in 15 districts.

If you permit me to suggest only one young candidate with future potential, I would suggest Hasib Anwar for Jale (Darbhanga) whom you know personally.

MMM Bihar`s Appeal to Voters

Vote Unitedly/Massively for Secular Parties

I - Statement, 29 January, 2005

"The Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (MMM), Bihar generally supports the candidate of RJD or INC or LJP or NCP or CPI, if only one of them is in the field. But in constituencies where more than one of them are contesting, the MMM, Bihar advises the secular voters to vote for the strongest winnable candidate from among them.

The MMM, Bihar, has noted that in the Election of 2000,only 5 Muslims were elected from the 64 Constituencies which are going to polls in the first phase on 3 February, 2005. However, it has identified 10-12 Constituencies in which Muslim candidates had either won or come out second in 1995 and/or 2000. The MMM, Bihar has also noted that in this election, some Muslim candidates have been fielded by some parties only to divide Muslim votes and thus jeopardize the victory of secular parties.

The secular objective is both to defeat the NDA and assure the victory of the UPA, and also to increase Muslim representation in the Legislature. With this view, the MMM, Bihar, has selected 9 Constituencies which have Muslim concentration and endorsed the RJD/CPI candidates as per list below:

Phase I - List of Muslim Candidates Endorsed

S.No.   Constituency Candidate (Party)

1.         149 Nathnagar, Bhagalpur  Pervez Khan-RJD

2.         153 Banka, Banka    Javed Jamal Ansari-RJD

3.         160 Jhajha, Jamui    Rashid Ahmad-RJD

4.         198 Arrah, Bhojpur   Nawaz Alam-RJD

5.         208 Bikramganj, Rohtas      Akhlaq Ahmad-RJD

6.         217 Dehri, Rohtas     Mohd. Ilyas Hasan-RJD

7.         221 Rafiganj, Aurangabad  Md. Nehaluddin-RJD

8.         232 Gaya Town, Gaya         Masud Manzar-CPI

9.         234 Gurua     Shakil Ahmad Khan-RJD

Phase II -  Statement, 10 February, 2005

"The MMM, Bihar has also noted that in this election, some Muslim candidates have been fielded by some parties only to divide Muslim votes and thus jeopardize the victory of secular parties.

The secular objective is both to defeat the NDA and assure the victory of the UPA, and also to increase Muslim representation in the Legislature.

Phase II - List of Muslim Candidates Endorsed

S.No.   Constituency Candidate (Party)

1.         74 Bisfi            Mohd. Ahmar Hasan-INC

2.         79 Pandaul    Nayyar Azam (RJD)

3.         82 Laukaha   Anis Ahmad (RJD)

4.         85 Bahera      Abdul Bari Siddiqui-RJD

5.         86 Ghanshyampur   Izhar Ahmd (LJP)

6.         89 Darbhanga           Md. Mumtaz Alam (RJD)

7.         90 Keoti          Mohd. Mohsin (RJD)

8.         91 Jale           Mohd. Slam (CPI)

9.         92 Hayaghat  Ambar I. Hashmi-INC

10.       95 Samastipur           Shahid Ahmad (RJD)

11.       103 Balia        CPI/LJP

12.       118 Mahishi   Dr. Abdul Ghafoor (RJD)

13.       119 Simri Bakhtiarpur           Ch. M. A. Kaiser INC

14.       129 Forbesganj         Zakir Husain Khan (RJD)

15.       130 Araria      Moidur Rahman (INC)

16.       131 Sikti         Jamal Akhtar (NCP)

17.       132 Jokihat    Nasimur Rahman (LJP)

18.       133 Bahadurganj      Zahidur Rahman (INC)

19.       134 Thakurganj         Dr. Mohd. Jawaid (INC)

20.       135 Kishanganj         Akhtarul Iman (RJD)

21.       136 Amour     Abdul Jalil Mastan(INC)

22.       137 Baisi        Abdus Subhan (RJD)

23.       141 Barari      Mansoor Alam (RJD)

24.       143 Kadwa    Zakir Husain (RJD)

25.       144 Barsoi     Ahamad A. Karim (INC)

26.       146 Manihari Mubarak Hussain (INC)

Phase III - List of Muslim Candidates Endorsed

Statement, 16 February, 2005

S.No.   Constituency Candidate (Party)

1.         3 Ramnagar  Mohd. Salauddin (NCP)

2.         5 Sikta            Shafiuddin (RJD) or

                        Khurshid Alam [INC]

3.         8 Bettiah         Strong Muslim-Independent

4.         10 Raxaul      Saghir Ahmad (INC)

5.         23 Mirganj      Babuddin Khan (INC)

6.         25 Barauli       M. Nametullah (RJD)

7.         29 Siwan        Asghar Ali (LJP)

8.         32 Ziradei       Azaul Haque (RJD)

9.         40 Jalalpur     Balagul Mobin (RJD)

10.       56 Kanti          Mohd. Jamal (RJD)

11.       67 Sitamarhi  Mohammad Tahir (RJD)

12.       70 Sonbarsa  Md. Anwarul Haque (LJP)

13.       71 Sursand    Md. Ekramul Haque (INC)

14.       176 Bihar       Syed Naushadun Nabi (RJD)

15.       189 Patna Central     Aquil Haider (NCP)

AIMMM`s Policy for Jharkhand: Correspondence with MMM, Jharkhand for Election, 2005

I - Letter to President, INC, 8 January, 2005

The All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (AIMMM) welcomes the formation of electoral alliance between the INC and the JMM for the coming Assembly election in Jharkhand.

The Muslim community of Jharkhand, which forms 14% of the population looks forward to due representation in the Assembly. The AIMMM has already communicated the district-wise distribution of Muslim-concentration seats in Jharkhand, which are winnable by Muslim candidates fielded by the secular alliance.

The AIMMM has already made an appeal to the secular voters to vote for the secular alliance and look forward to at least 11 Muslim candidates being fielded by either the INC or the JMM in the Muslim concentration constituencies.

For facility of reference, a chart showing the district-wise constituencies, in which Muslim candidates have come out as winner or runner-up in 1995 and 2001 election is attached.

We would like to add that the Muslims of Jharkhand place their faith and confidence in the INC and nurse some reservation about the JMM. So, in the distribution of seats between INC, JMM and other secular parties, the INC may, as far as possible, claim the Muslim concentration seats.

II - Letter to Dr. Ahmad Sajjad, 17 January, 2005

Your email of 12 January makes a fascinating analysis of Muslim situation in rural Bihar. The long story of their continued deprivation, economic and social, arising out of transfer of political power from the higher caste to the Shudras is not unusual. However, the immediate question is whom do they vote for. After all they are not in a position to make their choice prevail, even if they could make a free choice. You should go into caste demography of the constituency as a whole including the MBC`s and see whether Muslims +MBC`s make a winning combination against high caste and Yadav groups. Incidentally even the CPI candidates in Bihar, bank on the caste vote. If the Muslim % is more than 20%, a Muslim candidate may win with Left + MBC support.

Do you have any data on the last Panchayat election?

III - Letter Prof. Ahmad Sajjad, 27 January, 2005

We cannot support JD(U) or BJP candidates anywhere. Also Muslim candidate have been put up as independents or on SP/BSP tickets to divide Muslim votes and ensure BJP-JD(U) victory. As you are aware Muslims are entitled to only 11-12 seats, though we had identified nearly 17-18 Muslim concentration seats.

As for the Muslim concentration seats or where Muslims are sitting MLAs, you should immediately announce Support List for Phase I only, by name.

            They are:        1. Ramgarh – Nadra Begum (CPI)

                        2.         Godwa – Sarfaraz Ahmad (RJD)

                        3.         Raj Dhanwa – Nizamuddin Ansari (JMM)

                        4.         Bhavnathpur – Dr. Mohd. Yasin Ansari (RJD)

                        5.         Mandu – Shahid Siddiqui (RJD)

I suggest that for other seats, the MMM, Jharkhand should support INC-JMM candidates.

Please let me know separately about Phase II Muslim seats where non-Muslim candidates have been announced and the names of the rejected Muslim candidates. You have mentioned Hatia and Jameshpur West and the name of Mr. Manzoor Ahmad Ansari. Did he apply? If so, from where? Raj Mahal choice is indeed deplorable. Who is the possible Muslim candidate? I shall try for both.

IV - Letter Prof. Ahmad Sajjad, 31 January, 2005

I presume that Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (MMM), Jharkhand, has issued its Appeal for Phase I. Please send me a copy. Secondly, please send me the list of all Muslim candidates of secular parties in Muslim concentration constituencies for Phase II and the MMM, Jharkhand recommendation. We shall immediately send you our approved list for issue of your second Appeal.

If there are any key contests for other seats in which the MMM, Jharkhand would like to extend its support by name, do please inform me. Otherwise it should stick to our formulation of support to the strongest winnable candidate of a secular party, who has a good reputation among Muslims of the Constituency and support JMM-INC against BJP-JD(U), if there is no other candidate e.g. from LJP or RJD or NCP.

V - Letter to MMM, Jharkhand, 7 February, 2005

Your letter of 6 February, 2005 regarding endorsement of candidates from Muslim concentration seats by the MMM, Jharkhand. I feel that to guide the Muslim and other Secular voters in Muslim concentration constituencies, the MMM, Jharkhand should endorse candidates by name.

In the other constituencies, it may give only the names of the parties but it should as far as possible, confine itself to INC,JMM, RJD, LJP, CPI and CPM. Separate statements may be issued for the 2nd and the 3rd phase. A copy of the Statement for the 1st phase may please be sent to us for record.

I have sent a draft statement on 27 January, 2005 which MMM, Jharkhand, may consider for adoption as a model.

VI - Letter to MMM, Jharkhand, 14 February, 2005

I have just received your letter of 13 February, 2005 gives the names of 29 candidates endorsed by the MMM, Jharkhand in Phase II. The MMM, Jharkhand should have confined itself to Muslim concentration seats only, when endorsing candidates by name and their parties.

In other seats, it should have advised the electorate to vote generally for the INC-JMM candidate or the strongest candidate of another secular party, if the INC/JMM candidate was considered weak. However, what is done is done.

I request you immediately to consider endorsement for III Phase for a) Muslim concentration seats and b) Other Seats separately. For (a) please let me have the names/parties of Muslim candidates in Muslim concentration seats MMM, Jharkhand proposes to endorse.

I request you to send me copies of the Press Releases issued by the MMM, Jharkhand in respect of Phase I and Phase II giving the names of constituencies, candidates and parties for our record.

Appeal to Secular Parties to Form Secular Governments in Bihar and Jharkhand, Statement, 28 February, 2005

“The All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (AIMMM) has noted that although Bihar and Jharkhand elections have produced hung Assemblies, the secular parties, including those belonging to the UPA, command an overall majority in both the Houses in accordance with the desire and aspirations of the people.

The AIMMM sees the results as a clear mandate for secularism and, therefore, appeals to all secular parties including members of the UPA, particularly to the Congress, the RJD the LJP and the JMM, to rise above tactical differences and join hands for the formation of UPA Governments in Bihar as well as in Jharkhand, and thus to fulfill the wishes of the people of these States, and of the country as a whole.  This will go a long way to diminish the operational space for the communal forces in the country.

The AIMMM hopes that the weaker sections shall be equitably represented in the State Government in proportion to their population in the State.

Appeal for Unity

Letter to Secular Parties, 2 March, 2005

The parties belonging to the UPA or supporting its government at the Centre have, all said and done, secured a majority of votes as well as of seats in the Assembly in the recent election.

The mandate is for the formation of a secular government in the State but the communal forces, represented by BJP-JD(U) are on the prowl, looking for an opportunity to sneak their way into power.

The All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (AIMMM) feels that whatever their tactical differences during the election, all secular parties must come together to assert their mandate and form a secular government in which all parties, which decide to join the government, should be equitably represented and those which do not, should extend their support.

We think that an equitable formula can be evolved to fulfill the minimum interest of all constituent parties and to protect their dignity, in the larger interest of the State and the people.

The AIMMM has issued a public appeal. A copy is enclosed for your information.

Appeal to LJP

Letter to Ram Vilas Paswan, 2 March, 2005

The All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (AIMMM) offers its sincere felicitations to you on the remarkable performance of Lok Janshakti Party under your leadership in the Bihar Assembly Elections.

Your party, we believe, has acted as the catalytic agent for Change which Bihar is crying for. But we also feel that above all Bihar needs social harmony and we urge you to ensure that the communal forces, which are waiting for an opportunity to sneak into power, do not take advantage of the disunity of the secular forces. With due representation of all secular parties which together command a majority, they can and should be kept at bay. This is the wish and aspiration of the substantial section of the Muslim voters who have voted for your party.

The AIMMM would like to call on you at your earliest convenience to present its views to you for your consideration.

AIMMM Supports INC in Haryana

Statement, 17 January, 2005

“Haryana is going to poll on 3 February, 2005 to elect 90 members of the Assembly. As the situation stands, the INC, the INLD and the BJP are contesting all the seats.

The All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (AIMMM) advises the Muslim and other secular voters to vote massively and unitedly generally for the INC candidates, as the INLD, in the present context, will only cut into secular votes and thus help the BJP to win in some constituencies.

Due representation of minorities in the legislature is a hallmark of democracy. It should be one of the political objectives of the secular parties to ensure such representation.   The Muslims, the biggest minority, in Haryana with 5.8% of the population, are entitled to 5 seats. There are only about half a dozen seats in Haryana with high Muslim concentration.  The INC has fielded 5 Muslim candidates from Chhachharwali, Kaithal, Ferozepur, Jhirka, Nuh and Taoro. Therefore, in Muslim concentration constituencies, the AIMMM advises the secular voters, including the Muslims, to ensure the victory of the Muslim candidates of the INC and not to divide their votes if more than one Muslim candidates are in the fray.

Letter of Felicitations to CM Haryana, 5 March, 05

We offer you my sincere felicitations on your assumption of office as the Chief Minister of Haryana and wish you every success in taking Haryana to greater heights of development and prosperity.

However, we regret to note that no Muslim figures in the Congress Legislature Party. By my count, at least 3 INC Muslim candidates lost by small margin. However, it is my sincere advice that you may include a prominent Muslim leader, a Congress supporter who enjoys the confidence of the community, so that the Muslims of Haryana do not feel marginalized.

On Dalit-Muslim Unity

Letter to Dalit Voice, 18 March, 2005

Your email of 18 March, 2005.

Muslim Indians are not converts but descendants of converts from Hinduism. But that is not relevant. However I take it that by Dalits you mean SC’s and ST’s.

I am not the last man in history. If the cause of Dalit-Muslim Unity is the call of history, it will come about but not through electoral exploitation of Muslims by OBC or SC leaders.

On Regular Contact and Consultation with Muslim Representatives

MMM Resolution, 12, February, 2005

The Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (MMM) reiterates is proposal to the UPA Government and major secular parties to establish regular and systematic consultation with the Muslim community as well establish an institutional mechanism to monitor their grievances and to take remedial measures.

In particular, the MMM suggest to the secular parties to charge one of their National General Secretaries with the task of monitoring the Muslim situation and to keep in constant touch with Muslim organizations of national eminence.

The MMM respectfully points out that the lack of contact between the NDA Government in general and the Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, in particular and the Muslim organizations and public figures had generated loss of faith and trust and urges that every effort should be made, in the interest of the Government and the second largest community of the country, to maintain the high hopes and expectations with which the Muslims contributed to the formation of the UPA Government and the enthusiasm with which they welcomed it.

The MMM specifically reiterates its proposal to the UPA Government to take the initiative for the establishment of the Joint Parliamentary Committee for the Welfare of the Minorities as well as to create a Deptt. of Minority Affairs, with a MOS as its head, directly under the Prime Minister.

The MMM requests the Prime Minister to make it convenient to meet the representatives of Muslim organizations of national eminence once a month to monitor the progress and development of the Muslim community and the pending issues and problems, alongwith the Minister of Home Affairs, the Minister of Human Resource Development, the Minister of Social Empowerment and Welfare, the Minister of Information and Broadcasting, the Minister of Law, or advise them to have similar meetings separately.

Letter to PM, 14 Feb., 2005

I have the honour to place before you the Resolution adopted by the Markazi Majlis of the AIMMM at its meeting on 12 February, 2005 on the need for sustained attention to and contact with Muslim organizations of national eminence on the part of the Union Government. We are glad to note that you have included “to address the problems of the minorities” in the Priority List of the Ministries and assigned it to the PMO. But the PMO cannot address the problem of the minorities without continuous interaction with their recognized organizations which have a national outreach.

This Resolution, therefore, requests you to set apart just one hour every month from your busy schedule to meet their representatives collectively.

As you are aware, there are 5 or 6 such organizations, which may be invited to bring 2 representatives each. You may also like to invite some other eminent individuals and concerned Ministers. To save time, an agenda, can be prepared by the PMO, in consultation of the organizations and circulated in advance.

On White Paper and 15-Point Programme

Letter to PM Dr. Manmohan Singh, 10 March, 2005

We are glad to note that the President’s Address commits the Government to issue a White Paper on the Status of the Minorities and the to revive the PM’s 15-Point Programme for the Welfare of the Minorities. It is silent on the two major proposals that we have been reiterating: to establish a Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Welfare of the Minorities and to create a Deptt. of Minority Affairs under the Prime Minister.

However, this letter arises out of the reported constitution by you of the Committee of Ministers for the Welfare of the Dalits. In case the above two suggestions are not in the realm of the politically possible, we would urge you to form a Committee of Ministers on Minority Affairs with yourself as the Chairman and the Ministers of HRD, Home, Law and Justice, Small Scale Industries, Social Justice and Empowerment, Labour and Employment, Information and Broadcasting, and Culture, as members.

This is for your kind consideration.

On UPA’s Report to People-I

Letter to UPA Chairperson, 11 March, 2005

I have gone through the Report to the People-I on the Implementation of the National Common Minimum Programme and Other Initiatives of the UPA Government during May, 2004 – February, 2005. But I am surprised that the Report almost completely omits the progress on various elements of the NCMP relating to the minorities.

We have noted that the last paragraph XIV does end with the commitment to the welfare of the ‘weaker sections and minorities’. Since the minorities form one of the ‘weaker sections’, a better phrase should have been ‘weaker sections including minorities’. Indeed, the revival and reinforcement of the Secular Order and the sense of relief it has generated in the mind of the religious minorities and the atmosphere of social harmony that is beginning to develop in the country is the greatest achievement of the UPA Government. This will also give an impetus to the undisturbed attention of the nation as a whole to economic progress.

In view of the NCMP’s Six Principles of Governance, we feel that in the next Report, there should be a Chapter on Promoting Social Harmony and Justice to Weaker Sections.

On Protest Against Slum Clearance

Letter to M.I. Ansari, 14 February, 2005

Your statement of 14 February, 2005.

There are 2 issues: Clearance of slums without providing alternative accommodation in resettlement areas and whether the clearance is communally motivated and designed to dislodge the Muslim community. The civil society should raise its voice against slum clearance programme without resettlement plan. The Muslim spokesmen and civil leaders should join. However, if indeed the Muslims are being targeted, why can’t the Muslim organizations in Mumbai/Maharashtra stand up and raise their voice. They should organize protest meetings and Dharnas outside the houses of Muslim Ministers, Muslim Legislators and Muslim Municipal Commissioners.

On Progress of Delimitation

Letter to Delimitation Commission, 21 March, 2005

We would be grateful to be informed of the progress in the delimitation of the Assembly Constituencies of Assam, Kerala and West Bengal which shall be going to polls in 2006 as well of Bihar, UP, AP, Karnataka and Maharashtra and their present status specially whether the final draft, as approved by the competent authority, has been published to elicit public objection.

Nomination of MLA’s to Delimitation Commission

Letter to Governor of Bihar, 22 March, 2005

As you are aware, delimitation process came to a halt in Bihar.

I am orally advised by the Delimitation Commission that it is waiting for nomination by you of representative of the Assembly, in proportion to the strength of different parties in the Legislature, for the process to be resumed.

Our main concern is two fold which I would like to place before you for your kind consideration:

1)   Existing Muslim concentration constituencies, with, say, above 20% Muslim electorate should not be disturbed in a manner so as to detach or break up Muslim areas and reduce Muslim percentage to less than 20%.

2)   Reserved constituencies which have been reserved since the last delimitation should be dereserved and other constituencies with equal, and preferably higher, SC proportion in the electorate should be reserved, without reducing the number of reserved seats in a district or in the state as a whole.

In general, since the Muslims are under-represented in the legislature, no constituency with a higher proportion of Muslims than of SC’s should be reserved.

I request you to include these provisions in your direction to the representatives of the State Government before the Commission.

Delimitation in Assam, Kerala, TN & W. Bengal

Letter to RMM’s, Assam, Kerala, TN, W. Bengal, 22 Mar. 05

You must have taken note of the Statement of the Chief Election Commissioner that next year’s Assembly elections in the above mentioned States shall be based on fresh delimitation now in progress.

We are not aware of the progress or present status of fresh delimitation in your State. In case draft Delimitation Proposals have been published, it should be examined whether Muslim concentration constituencies have been adversely affected and objections should be raised through Muslim-friendly political parties and other eligible objectors.

In case the proposed delimitation has been already finalized and published, there is nothing you can do at this stage. You should try to collect the estimated % of Muslim voters in the revised Constituencies and advise the local community on remedial measures to maintain their electoral presence in the Constituencies which have been adversely affected.

Proposal for Development Oriented Delimitation

Letter to Brinda Karat, CPI(M), 22 Feb., 2005

I have seen your Statement (19 February, 2005) that delimitation of constituencies should be development-oriented in the backward regions of the country.

The development aspects should be kept in view in the territorial management of the State but electoral delimitation hinges on the constant democratic principle of ‘one man, one vote’ which implies that more or less the population covered by various constituencies should be equal, within the statutory total. If this produces constituencies with large areas (say, more than 50% above the average area per constituency in the State), the State Government should attend to the development aspect by creating more districts and more sub-districts, sub-divisions, Tehsils, Blocks or Panchayats. But delimitation should not be used to widen variation in representation beyond reasonable limits.

On Changing NCW’s Agenda

Letter to Chairperson, NCW, 16 February, 2005

Having failed to reach you by phone, I offer you my sincere felicitations on your well-deserved appointment as the Chairperson of the National Commission for Women.

I wish you every success in your new responsibility.

I would like to see you at your convenience because in our view, the NCW has been diverted from its real work of protecting the general and common interests of women of India into focusing hostile attention to a particular community to the point of denigration. Every community faces social problem. Some are specific and some are common across the board.

I am certain that under your Chairpersonship the Commission shall take up universal problems of women, in education, employment, property rights and even its activity in the field of social reform, shall take up issues like polygamy and breakdown of marriage or non-maintenance by husbands and sons which cut across all community lives.

On Implementing of FCRA

Letter to HM Shivraj Patil, 18 March, 2005

We welcome the initiative taken by you for monitoring the utilization of foreign contributions, received by the NGO’s. For long, we have been hearing about reinforcing the FCRA but so far without any progress. Even the regular publication of the Annual Report on FCRA has been given up.

We are writing this to draw your attention to the misutilisation of massive grants-in-aid by various Ministries and Departments of the Government of India to the NGO’s, many of whom exist on paper or have dubious connections.

We think that the objective should be to monitor both foreign contributions as well as grants-in-aid and donations from within the country in the interest of transparency and public accountability.

On Delay in Publication of Language Census

MMM Resolution, 12, February, 2005

The Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (MMM) deplores the delay in the publication of Census 2001 Report on Languages which has assumed great importance in view of the decision of the Government to implement Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in order to universalize primary education which has to be imparted through the medium of the mother tongue. Only on the basis of the Census, the areas of concentration of linguistic minorities like those of Urdu-speaking community, particularly in UP, Bihar, Maharashtra, AP and Karnataka, can be determined and the establishment of the needed number of primary schools with the minority languages of the State as their medium of instruction in those areas can be targetted.

Letter to Census Commissioner, 14 Feb., 2005

I have the honour to transmit the Resolution adopted by the Markazi Majlis of the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat at its meeting held on 12 February, 2005 on delay in publication of the Language Report of Census 2001.

Without the language data, the linguistic minorities in various States, feel handicapped as they are unable to press the authorities to establish more primary schools, with appropriate languages as medium of instruction, in the deprived areas inhabited by them.

We request you to expedite the publication of the Language Report of Census 2001.

Need for Religious and Caste Census

Letter to The New Age, 8 February, 2005

Apropos the unsigned article in the New Age of January 23-29, 2005 on Census 2001, I am unable to make out whether you would like religious census to be stopped, just as caste census has been. Exploitation of census data by the Hindutva parivar should not blind us to the need for census-based data for the development of backward communities. I am using the word ‘community’ in the widest possible sense, as any social group which is identifiable and self-conscious, within the broad categories of SC’s, ST’s, OBC’s, High Castes and Religious Minorities, Census data helps to review not only their demographic growth but more than that the change in their educational and economic status over 10 years, so that appropriate government policies and programmes as well as self-driven initiatives can be devised or there can be course correction for bridging the widening gulf of disparity.

In any case religions and sects, castes and sub-castes, pre-existed the British rule. The British did not invent the categories. And even today level of social, political, economic and educational empowerment distinguishes one sub-group from another and one group from another. Should the State and the civil society which make a conscious endeavour to remove or reduce the disparities, where shall they begin and how they shall measure their success or failure without knowing where the various groups and sub-groups stand at a given point in time and after reasonable intervals? The Census provides this essential statistical base for comparison.

On Analysis of Religious Data, 2001

I - Letter to Ashish Bose, 7 March, 2005

Your article on Hindu-Muslim Growth Rate in Census 2001 in Economic and Political Weekly (29 Jan., 2005) adds a new dimension with Tables 7 and 8, although these are not community-wise. One approach would be to compare the assets data with Literacy and EPR data of Census 2001 to answer the question you have raised whether the Muslims are at the same economic level as the rest of the people or a higher or lower level in those districts or compare these data to the picture of the State as a whole or with the remaining low Muslim concentration districts of the State.

I do not see why ‘collection of data on income in the Census will ruin it’. Though they may not be very exact, they would prove to be extremely useful.

I am glad that you see no malafide design in the somewhat higher rate of growth of Muslims (except in J&K).

II - Reply from Ashish Bose, 26 March, 2005

Thank you for your letter. I am sorry I could not reply to you earlier as I was away on tour. I am still working on the statistical analysis of census data on Muslims. I will certainly send you a copy along with the notes of fellow-members of my Committee. We will miss you on April 30.

On Demand for Telengana State

Letter to Sitaram Yechury, CPM Leader, 31 Jan., 05

I thank you for your letter of 20 January, 2005. I am grateful to you for your positive response on the aspiration and expectation of the Muslim community for secular governments they help install.

I am not as satisfied about your response to the demand for a separate Telengana State. I have read through the material sent by you. I find there is some confusion. The question of Smaller States is to be seen as distinct from that of Centre-State relation or the quantum of Autonomy generally available to the States of the Union. Also Linguistic States did not mean one State for one language. We have in any case 6 States with Hindi-speaking majority and there we find a persistent demand for further break-up in Bihar and UP and even in Rajasthan and MP. There are also similar demands in Maharashtra as well as Karnataka. One cannot brush aside these demands but sympathetically analyze their social, political and economic reasons as well as examine them from administrative angle.

I shall try to see you, once the elections are over.

On Naga Demand for Greater Nagaland

Letter to HM Shivraj Patil, 1 March, 2005

One may argue for integration of contiguous Naga-majority areas along the borders of Nagaland with the three States.  But there can be no acceptance of a claim based on history or on mere presence of some Nagas in the border areas of neighbouring states.

Any such concession will set a wrong precedent (as in the case of Bodoland) and prove to be against the long-term interest of the nation.

On the question of ‘Naga Sovereignty’, obviously what can be offered is ‘maximum autonomy’ but surely there is no question of recognizing Naga sovereignty over Nagaland or Naga-inhabited areas.

On Immigration of Bangladeshis since 1971

I - Letter to The Milli Gazette, 18 January, 2005

I read with interest Mr. M.H. Rahman’s article on Illegal Immigrants in Assam in your issue of 16-31 January, 2005. He dilates on pre-1971 movement between Assam and East Pakistan which was largely Hindu. He also estimates that the vast majority of persons who entered India during the Bangladesh Liberation War and settled down in this country were Hindus. So he concludes that an overwhelming number of foreign immigrants in Assam are non-Muslims.

The issues today are not the persons who entered Assam in or before 1971 but those who entered India thereafter. The IM(DT) Act, 1983 applies to this category only. The statistics relating to post-1971 Census are relevant.

The anti-Muslim forces want IM(DT) Act, 1983 to be repealed. The All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (AIMMM) has successfully prevented its repeal, though the matter is still before the Supreme Court. Our stand is that no one can be declared to be a foreigner by the fiat of the executive or at the instance of a private individual or party or organization but only by a Tribunal, in accordance with law, after a prima facie is made out after due investigation by the police.

But the population statistics go against the Muslims. Between 1971 and 2001 the rate of increase of Muslim population is much higher than of Assam as a whole or of any other religious group as indicted below:

Assam: Population Increase during 1971-2001 (in Millions)

How does Mr. Rahman explain it?

No doubt the Muslim rate of growth is higher in most States, primarily because of their educational, economic and social backwardness. But it is nowhere double the Hindu rate over a 30 year period. There is, therefore, a prima facie case for a hypothesis that at least half the increase is due to immigration. This means that roughly ½ the increase (8.25 – 3.60/2) i.e. 2.25 million) are illegal immigrants or their descendents.

II - Letter to The Milli Gazette, 31 March, 2005

In his rejoinder on the rate of growth of Muslim population in Assam, Mr. Mohd. Hasibur Rahman has made a valiant case but it is not convincing to maintain all growth as natural increase.  Indeed Mr. Rahman himself admits the presence of some Bangladeshis. 

The sudden rise and fall in decadal growth which can be due to extraneous factors can be ignored by taking a longer span as I have.

Let us not, therefore, take the untenable position that there has been no illegal immigration from East Pakistan/Bangladesh.  We should take the position that the off-spring of the illegal migrant have a right to citizenship, that no one, only because he is a Muslim and speaks Bengali can be dubbed as Bangladeshi and deported, that identification must be in accordance with a judicial or quasi-judicial process; that there should be no discrimination against Muslims vis-à-vis Hindu migrants and that all illegal migrants should go back.

More importantly Mr. Rahman has wrongly advised the  Bengali-speaking Muslims to adopt Urdu as their language.  They should remain what they are, Bengali-speaking Muslims.  The mistake they did after the 60’s of declaring Assamese as their language should not be repeated.  Adoption of Assamese did not save them from terrorization.  Nor will adoption of Urdu.

On Stay of Deportation of Illegal Immigrants

Letter to CM Orissa, 11 February, 2005

We thank you for suspending the proposed deportation of Bengali-speaking persons living in Orissa on suspicion of their being illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

This group of ‘deportees’ includes 128 Muslims from Pradeep who have represented to us that they are sons of the soil.

We request that the nationality of persons suspected of being illegal immigrant should be established in accordance with law, and not just at the discretion of the administration, before they are deported.

We, therefore, suggest that in case a massive post-1971 influx of Bangladeshis is suspected by the State Government, it should notify the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act for application in Orissa and establish Tribunals for determining the nationality of suspected persons in accordance with law.

On Application of IM(DT) Act in Delhi

Letter to Gopal Subramanian, Sr. Adv. 31 Mar., 05

This is with reference to our conversation on 30 March, 2005 on deportation of illegal immigrants.

You have been appearing on behalf of the Union before the Delhi High Court in the case relating to identification, detection and deportation of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

I have been personally involved in the Assam situation since the beginning of the Anti-foreigner Movement in the early 80’s.

This led to the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act.  This Act applies to the whole country but it needs a notification by the State government concerned.

Since the large-scale presence of Bangladeshi immigrants was discovered in Delhi, I have been urging the Government in the Parliament when I was there and outside  that the Government of Delhi should notify the Act, establish Tribunals thereunder to process the cases relating to the status of persons suspected to be Bangladesh nationals.

Identification by the executive i.e. the police has caused a lot of harassment to Bengali-speaking citizens, particularly those who are Muslims.  But more than that Bangladesh will not accept a deportee, (if at all as there is no bilateral agreement) unless the deportation is under a judicial or quasi-judicial order.  In any case, from human rights angle also a quasi-judicial approach would be more acceptable than executive fiat.

This is, to my mind, at the root of the inability of the Union Government or Delhi Police’s inability to satisfy the High Court and meet the targets set by it.

I appreciate that an advocate is bound by his brief but sometimes he is also in a position to suggest improvements in the brief.

That is why I am burdening you with this letter.  I hope you will be kind enough to consider this alternative approach.

On Expansion of Muslim Welfare Schemes

MMM Resolution, 12, February, 2005

The Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (MMM) has noted that the two schemes of special interest to the Muslim continue to be limited by inadequate resources and, therefore, urges the UPA to raise the corpus of the National Minorities Finance and Development Corporation to the original figure of Rs. 500 crores and also the level of grant-in-aid for the Maulana Azad Education Foundation to at least Rs. 100 crores during 2005-06.

The MMM also requests the government that since the Muslims are as educationally deprived and backward as the SC and the ST, all schemes for the educational development of the SC and ST should be instituted for the Muslim community also and implemented through the Maulana Azad Education Foundation.

I - Letter to M/Social Justice, 14 February, 2005

I have the honour to place before you for your sympathetic and urgent action the Resolution adopted by the Markazi Majlis of the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat at its meeting held on 12 February, 2005.

The second Resolution relates to Expansion of Welfare Programmes through the NMFDC and Maulana Azad Education Foundation.

We request you to kindly expedite necessary action.

II- M/Social Justice’s Reply, 25 Feb., 05

I am in receipt of your letter dated 14 February, 2005 regarding expansion of welfare programmes through NMDFC and MAEF.

On Funding the NMDFC

M/Social Justice’s Reply, 19 Jan., 2005

Your kind attention is drawn to your letter of 14th October, 2004* on the functioning of the National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation (NMDFC)

The present Government is committed to provide adequate funds to NMDFC to ensure its effective functioning.  Authorized share capital of the Corporation has therefore been enhanced from Rs. 500 crores to Rs. 650 crores.  The equity support to the Corporation has also been enhanced from Rs.21.29 crores to Rs. 71.29 crores.

The annual report for the period 2003-04 has been laid in the Parliament.  A copy is being enclosed for your reference.

The Ministry has been taking steps to make the Corporation more responsive to the needs of the target group and other points raised by you have been noted for future reference.

*Already published in Bulletin 18 at Page 6.

Universal Subsidy for Shelterless & Unemployed

Letter to P. Chidambaram, 11 February, 2005

The NIPFP Study on Subsidies, according to the press report, has classified sectors of Elementary Education, Primary Health Care, Disease Control and Nutrition, Soil and Water Conservation and Environment as appropriate targets for high priority in State subsidy (Merit I). The next priority (Merit II), according to the Study, covers, inter alia, Urban and Rural Development which may or may not cover Urban and Rural Housing. We suggest that considering that there is increasing demand for including Right to Shelter in the Fundamental Rights and considering that millions of people are absolutely homeless and have shelters which defy imagination, in degrading condition, Elementary Shelter for Urban and Rural Homeless should receive high priority on par with Education and Health.

Secondly, endemic employment – rural and urban, among the unlettered and the educated is a national problem. Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is a step in the right direction, provided the subsidy reaches the really unemployed for organized work which creates permanent assets and contributes to the services provided by the State under Merit I and Merit II priority lists. For example, all unemployed graduates can be absorbed as Primary School Teachers under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.

I, therefore, request you to subsidize Shelters for the Rural and Urban Homeless as Merit I and also to subsidize the maximum employment of our valuable asset — manpower in meeting the targets of Merit I and Merit II.

Distribution of Surplus Land to All Landless

Letter to Dy. Chairman, Planning Commission, 10 March, 05

Land Reform has been on the national agenda from Day-1. Yet it has not been fully implemented primarily because of the resistance of the landed class taking advantage of the flaws in the legislation and administrative complicity in implementation.

On the other hand, in Bihar and UP, the Muslim middle class which had long been dependant on Zamindari and which, on its abolition, could not or did not take to cultivation has been economically ruined, as it lost the income from land holding and did not find alternative means of generating income. Also due to communal environment in the wake of the Partition, there was much Muslim migration from rural to urban areas and the Muslim families (including widows and orphans) sold their land at throw-away prices. But there are still landless Muslims in the rural areas but they are excluded from the benefits of distribution of surplus land.

We fully support the national slogan of land to the tiller. But we request that the landless Muslims in rural areas should be treated on an equal footing as the landless dalits. So in case land reform is seriously implemented, the surplus land should be made available to all the landless in the village/Panchayat without any distinction.

We have seen it happens that the Muslim landless in the village/Panchayat are totally ignored and dalit landless are ‘imported’ from even outside the district for distribution of surplus land. This needs to be corrected.

We request the Planning Commission to recommend revision of the State policy on surplus land distribution and to treat all landless alike.

On Muslim Welfare Package in UP

Letter to The Milli Gazette, 8 March, 2005

In your issue of 1-15 March, 2005, Mr. Masood Hasan has written on the UP Government’s package for Muslims in the State Budget for 2005-06. The package is a modest one (Rs. 72.4 million) covering several schemes.

                                                                        (in Millions

The above list, which may be incomplete, raises several questions:

1.   How can the non-Muslim students of equal and higher merit be excluded from item 1. Same applies to No. 2

2.   Similarly, how can the non-Muslim rickshaw pullers be excluded forms. No. 8

3.   Schemes at Sr. 3 and 4 relate to Rampur. But Rampur is not the whole of UP.

4.   Provision of park (Sr. No. 5) is a municipal project open to all citizens. Why should it be put in the Muslim account?

5.   Sr. No. 6 and 7 are both related to modernization of Madrasas while many Madrasas may not welcome as unnecessary interference by the State in religious instruction and their academic and administrative freedom.

On the other hand, one wishes the Government of UP had offered the same educational facilities to Muslim students (either on ground of merit or on economic ground) as are available to the SC students at all levels from the primary to the university stage. One also wishes that the State Government would undertake an officially conducted Socio-Economic Survey of the Muslim community in UP as in Karnataka or at least through a research institution as in Bihar.

Above all, one wishes that the Government of UP shall amend the Education Code to allow Urdu as a medium of instruction and establish Urdu-medium primary schools in all areas of Urdu-concentration in accordance with the national norm of one school for a population unit of 300, and allow Urdu-speaking students to offer Urdu at least as Second, if not as the First Language in all government middle and high schools.

One also wishes that the State Government had announced that the benefits of all welfare and development programme whose beneficiaries are individuals and which are implemented at Panchayat, Block and District levels, shall be distributed to various social groups in proportion to local population.

On Progress of Relief & Rehabilitation

Letter to Director, Cabinet Secretariat, 31 Mar., 05

This is to acknowledge receipt of your letter No. 281/1/2/2002-TS dated 29 March, 2005 regarding the progress of relief and rehabilitation in Gujarat during 2002-2005.  I have noted the ‘explanation’ of the State Government. 

We shall like to have the statement of accounts submitted by the Government of Gujarat looked into in terms of spot and random check on the ground by our relief and rehabilitation teams.  Then we shall revert to the subject.

In the meantime, I would like to make a preliminary comment on Item 7 - Expenditure on Free Distribution of Foodgrains rose from 34.62 to 100.45 crores, between 1.6.2003 and 31.1.2005.  As you may be aware the relief camps were all closed in June, 2002.  The State Government may be asked to explain the mechanism, quantum  and progress of distribution of free foodgrain, district-wise, during the intervening period.

On Constitutional Status of NCM

I - Letter to Chairperson, UPA, 1 January, 2005

We are glad to see that the Government has introduced a Constitutional Amendment Bill to grant constitutional status to the National Commission for Minorities (NCM).

However, this Bill does not even provide as much power to the NCM as enjoyed by the National Human Rights Commission, which is only a statutory body.

On a second point of comparison, it has less power than the National Commission for SC which also enjoys constitutional status. For example, it has no investigation machinery as provided to both the NHRC and the NCSC.

The Bill provides no objective criteria for the membership of the Commission, except belonging or not belonging to a recognized minority. In other words, the Government can appoint anyone without any qualification whatsoever as a Member. If the Commission has to command prestige and acceptance, the membership criteria must be spelt out, as national eminence in the field of law, education, development economics, public life, journalism, civil service etc. In the absence of such criteria, a hostile government could pack the Commission with non-entities and render it totally ineffective.

The Bill, for some reasons, provides that 2 members may be from the majority community. Frankly, we fail to see the reason. Why shouldn’t the Government trust its own nominees from the minorities? Also since the Muslims constitute 2/3 of all religious minorities in the country and all said and done, 90% of the problems that reach the Commission concern the Muslims, at least 5 out of 7 members should be Muslims. But that may not be spelt out in the Bill.

As you are aware, I had addressed the Prime Minister on 6 December, 2004, when it first came out that the Government was working on a draft. As usual, we were kept totally in the dark and now an inadequate Bill has been introduced. A copy was endorsed to you. I am attaching another copy for ready reference.

I request you to advise the Prime Minister to consult the leader of the minority communities during the current parliamentary interregnum with a view to evolve a more satisfactory and acceptable Bill which will command the gratitude of the minorities.

II - Letter to Dr. Tahir Mahmood, 31 Dec., 2004

As promised, I am sending you Lok Sabha Bill No. 104/2004 introduced at the fag end of the Winter Session to amend the Constitution to ‘re-invent’ the National Commission for Minorities as a constitutional body. The proposed NCM is as teethless as the statutory one which exists.

I shall be grateful if you would go through the Bill and suggest suitable amendments. We can then sit down and formulate them.

Reconstitution of Official Bodies of Muslim Interest

MMM Resolution, 12, February, 2005

The Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (MMM) deplores that the major official bodies of interest to the Muslim community and important for their development have not been reconstituted, even 9 months after the formation of the UPA Government. This includes the Minorities Commission, the Central Haj Committee, the Central Wakf Council, the National Minorities Finance and Development Corporation and Maulana Azad Education Foundation.

The MMM urges the Government to reconstitute them urgently with inclusion of representative figures from the Muslim community who command credibility and respect and are known for their knowledge and advocacy of their problems.

Letter to UPA Chairperson, 14 February, 2005

I have the honour to place before you the Resolution adopted by the Markazi Majlis of the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat at its meeting held on 12 February, 2005 on the lack of progress towards the reconstitution of official bodies of special concern to the Muslim community which has dampened the enthusiasm with which the Muslim community greeted the formation of the UPA Government.

We request you as the Chairperson of the UPA to advise the Government to undertake a spring cleaning of these bodies and infuse them with fresh blood and new sense of purpose.

On Revival of National Integration Council

MMM Resolution, 12 February, 2005

The Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (MMM) of the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat appreciates the revival of the National Integration Council but notes the non-representation of major Muslim organizations and institutions therein.

However, the MMM expresses the hope that the Council shall meet at least twice a year and invite representatives of Muslim organizations of national eminence to participate in its deliberations and that the Central and State Governments shall take its recommendations seriously and implement them.

Letter to Minister of Home, 14 February, 2005

I have the honour to place before you the Resolution adopted by the Markazi Majlis of the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat at its meeting held on 12 February, 2005 on Revival of the National Integration Council.

We hope that the National Integration Council shall actively pursue its object and purpose and follow up its recommendations for implementation by the Ministries/Departments concerned.

On Tasks before MP Minorities Commission

Letter to MP Minorities Commission, 2 March, 2005

We are very glad to note that the Madhya Pradesh Minorities Commission is keeping a tab on the increase in the frequency of communal violence in the State and that it has demanded the reconstruction of religious places destroyed or damaged in the course of the violence.

We would be grateful if you would kindly prepare a tentative list of such Masjids, Dargahs and Mazars and send a copy to us.

If your Commission has published its Annual Reports, we would be grateful for a copy of its latest Report.

Memorandum of Proposed Amendments to NCMEI

Letter to Minister of HRD, 11 January, 2005

As discussed, we have, in the light of suggestions received from our members as well as other organizations, formulated some amendments to the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act, 2004, as in the attached note, which would substantially meet the expectations of the minority communities.

We would be happy to discuss them with the senior officials of your Ministry. At a later stage we may trouble you on substantive as well as procedural aspects of these amendments

1.   The Preamble should be amended to specify the purpose of the Act in terms of aims and objects of the Commission e.g. by adding `to operationalize and facilitate the application of Article 30 of the Constitution`.

2.   Section 2(a): Definition of `application` should be indexed to cover all educational establishment and administered by the minorities and Section 2(a) may be amended to read as follow:

      "(a) `Affiliation`, together with its grammatical variations, includes, in relation to minority educational institutions, recognition by, association with, and admission to the privileges of appropriate Universities and Examination Boards as well as approval and recognition by competent national or State Councils of professional education."

3.   Section 2(d): Definition of `degree` may be widened to include certificates and diplomas. Section 2(d) may be amended to read:

      "(d) `Degree`, including certificates or diplomas, which the competent university, board or institution may grant in accordance with its regulations."

4.   Section 2(f): Existence of `minority` does not depend on notification by the Central Government but is a question of fact determined by the Census. So Section 2(f) may be amended to read:

      "(f) `minority` means a community which, under the latest decennial Census, constitutes a minority in the population of the country or of a State or a Union Territory."

5.   Section 2(g):  (i) The phrase `other than a minority` may be deleted; and (ii) the phrase `the minorities` may be substituted by `a minority`.

6.   Sub-section 2(i): `University` may be substituted by `a competent educational authority`.

7.   Section 10 may be rephrased as:

      "Notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force, a Minority Educational Institution may seek recognition by and affiliation to an appropriate University or educational Council or Board of its choice."

8.   Section 11 (a): The words "that may be referred to it" may be deleted.

9.   Section 11 (b): The phrase "and any dispute relating to affiliation to a Scheduled University" may be deleted.

10. Section 12(1): The word "Scheduled" may be substituted by `Central`.

Sd/-  

New Delhi                                                                            SYED SHAHABUDDIN

11 January,     2005                                                              President, AIMMM

Letter to Secular Parties, 17 January, 2005

As you are aware the recently enacted National Commission for Minorities Educational Institutions Act, 2004, though well-intentioned suffers from inbuilt limitations and fails to satisfy the Muslim minority which has not so far derived full benefits from Article 30 of the Constitution.

There is an upsurge in the community for education from the primary to the professional level. This is a good sign and I assume that it will become a wave, if the rights under Article 30 were operationalized and functionalized by legislative and executive support.

I attach a copy of our Statement of 8 December, 2004, bringing out the inadequacies of the Act.

In a discussion with our Delegation, as also on the floor of the Parliament, Shri Arjun Singh, the Minister for Human Resource Development welcomed suggestions for amending the Act to make it more effective in resolving the problems faced by the Community in establishing and administrating its educational institutions.

We have submitted some amendments to Shri Arjun Singh on 11 January, 2005, as in the Annexure to this letter. We request you to be kind enough to support them.

MMM Resolution, 12, February, 2005

The Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat notes that the Central Office has already expressed its views on the inadequacies of the National Commission for Minorities Educational Institutions, Act, 2005 , discussed them with the Minister of Human Resource Development and in response to his invitation, submitted desirable amendments for his consideration.

The MMM takes this opportunity to request the Union Government not to tinker with the serious problems faced by the Muslim community in availing of its rights under Article 30(1) and (2) of the Constitution but to take necessary steps to establish an empowered and effective mechanism which shall help to remove the obstacles which the minorities persistently face in establishment, affiliation, recognition and admission of their institutions and which limit their own contribution to their educational advancement.

On Regular Reporting by NCMEI

Letter to NCMEI, 28 February, 2005

We are glad to learn that the Vice-Chancellors of the Scheduled Universities have assured the Commission to deal expeditiously with applications for affiliation received from degree level minority educational institutions all over the country, which face any difficulty in securing affiliation or recognition by local universities.

The next academic year begins in July, 2005. We imagine that applications for affiliation should reach the Scheduled Universities by 31 March, 2005 to enable them to process such applications.

We would request the Commission to keep a tab on the progress of the applications received by each Scheduled University and also look into the difficulties faced by these MEI`s in securing affiliation to and recognition by local universities which compels them to sense the privileges of distant universities for possible remedial action.

We would be grateful if the Commission would kindly keep the minority communities regularly informed of the affiliation cases taken up by the Scheduled Universities, say, every quarter and their progress.

Maha Aartis and Pujas for Rajasthan Day Violate Secular Character of State

Statement, 8 February, 2005

“The AIMMM condemns the inclusion by the Government of Rajasthan of Maha Aartis and Pujas in the 10-day Official Programme for the Celebration of the Formation of the State of Rajasthan beginning from 21 March and culminating on 30 March, 2005. The Maha Aartis are being organized in major temples of the State to pray for the prosperity of the State.  Chief Minister and her Cabinet colleagues are to participate in special Puja with the assistance of 31 priests in different temples.

The AIMMM is of the view that such religious ceremonies held under official auspices do not accord with the secular character of the Indian State and the secular principles enshrined in the Constitution.

The AIMMM, therefore, requests the Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje not to give a religious colour to a state celebration and to revise the Programme.

The AIMMM also requests the Prime Minister and the Home Minister of India to suitably advise the Chief Minister.”

On Bhoomi Pujan for Govt. Projects

Letter to CM Delhi, 3 February, 2005

You are reported to have performed Bhoomi Pujan for the 8th Bridge over the Yamuna. Bhoomi Pujan is essentially a Hindu religious ceremony. For a private construction, a religious ceremony depends on the religion of the owner.

How do you justify it for a State project, since the Indian State has no religion?

On Official Guest Status to Evangelist

Letter to CM Karnataka, 22 February, 2005

It has been reported that the evangelist Benny Hinn on his visit to Bangalore for the Festival of Blessings was treated as a Guest of Honour by the Government of Karnataka. While the secular State has to assure freedom of religion which includes freedom to propagate religion, there is no reason for the State to take any special notice or extend special treatment to a religious activity which is essentially private, unless it transgresses the law of the land, or burden itself beyond the normal administrative bandobust.

I think such gestures by the State only serve the anti-secular forces to caste doubt on the secular order which is under continuous siege.

On Proposed Anti-Conversion Law in Rajasthan

Letter to CM Rajasthan, 28 February, 2005

The Rajasthan Home Minister Shri Gulab Chand Kataria has announced that the Government of Rajasthan proposes to enact an anti-conversion law to check evangelization by Christian missionaries.

Apart from the constitutional issues involved, I would request you to have the results of similar legislations in MP, Orissa and Tamil Nadu studied with regard to their effectiveness in preventing change of religion.

All that such legislations do is to provide a power in the hands of a politically motivated bureaucracy to use it at its discretion, against a targetted community, while ignoring programme of conversion organized by the favoured groups.

Change of religion is a fundamental freedom of any individual and should be left to him, and law should intervene only when the object of conversion reports use of force or fraud.

On Inclusion of Mohajirs in PIO

Letter to PM Dr. Manmohan Singh, 22 March, 2005

At the inauguration of the third Pravasi Bharatiya Divas at Mumbai on 7 January, 2005 you extended dual citizenship to all Indians who left the country after 26 January 1950, subject to the laws of the country of their residence. However, persons of Indian origin (PIO) who have been at any time a citizen of Pakistan, Bangladesh, or any other country that the Government of India may notify in future, are not entitled to dual citizenship.

Perhaps you may not be aware that several studies of emigration pattern from Pakistan has shown that the percentage of the PIO’s among the emigrants is much higher compared to other Pakistanis, for the simple reason that the ‘Mohajirs’ (migrants from India) did not easily strike roots in the alien soil, faced cultural hostility and discrimination in higher education and employment.

Many such Pakistanis of Indian Origin, settled in third countries, have secured permanent residence and finally their citizenship. There is no reason why they should be treated as if they were still Pakistani nationals.

I, therefore, request you to consider revision so as to bring such Pakistanis of Indian origin who are nationals of third countries within the purview of the Dual Citizenship Scheme.

On Withdrawal of Film on Hegdewar

Letter to M/Information & Broadcasting, 23 Mar., 05

We are glad to learn that the Films Division has decided to withdraw the film on Hegdewar, the founder of the RSS.

I would suggest that your Ministry should review all the documentary films, commissioned or produced by the Films Division during 1998-2004 as well as the feature films it funded, albeit partially. It may discover a systematic attempt to promote the Hindutva ideology and Anti-secularism.

On Special Welcome to Shankaracharya at NPA

Letter to M/Home Affairs, 18 January, 2005

On June 29, 2004, the Kanchi Shankaracharya, Shri Jayendra Saraswati was invited to address the IPS probationers and faculty and other staff members of the National Police Academy, Hyderabad, as part of a Seminar on ‘Inter-faith Harmony – Ethics and Values”. But special and separate arrangements were made for him. The Shankaracharya did not join the other 3 speakers. He delivered his address separately in a bigger auditorium specially decorated for the occasion and perfumed with Dhoop and Agarbatti!

The Shankaracharya was received as a VIP. He delivered which was essentially a religious sermon. After the sermon, the Director of the Academy went up to the stage and touched his feet with his forehead, followed by several faculty members, staff members and probationers and invitees.

On Vilification of Muslim Indians

Letter to Shri Balbir K. Punj, MP, 11 Feb., 2005

I thank you for your letter of 2 February, 2005.

As for Urdu, the fact is that 50% of the Muslim Indians have another language as the Mother Tongue. So Urdu is not the language of all Muslims of India. I dare to differ with you and would like to state that many non-Muslims love Urdu, wish to learn it and in fact learn it! A language has no religion and should and can be learnt by anybody.

Your letter has given me an insight into the working of the anti-Muslim mind. Whenever it considers any question about the Muslim Indians today, or their rights under the Constitution, the anti-Muslim mind immediately makes a comparison leaping across space and across time! For me, the only legitimate test is the Constitution of India. But I dare say you do not have faith or even true allegiance to the Constitution. Otherwise, you would not make far-fetched comparisons.

Arabic and Persian have been parts of Indian life and culture and contributed richly to the making of the civilization of India, as it is today, for a thousand years, and cannot today be regarded as foreign languages. You should not question their legitimacy. You may say that Sanskrit and Pali have played a greater role.

‘Living space’ does not depend on population but on enjoyment of political, educational, economic and social rights, as granted under the Constitution, in peace and free from harassment, fear or tension. Even physically, if the Muslims are ghettoized, they occupy less ‘living space’, even after their population increases.

In the history of human civilization, all political developments have affected religions and cultures. Wasn’t Latin America Christianized by the Europeans? Hasn’t the world been westernized before our very eyes? So I do not see anything unique in the Arabisation by the Arabs. The British imposed English and the Hindus were the first to embrace it and they benefitted from it. If the Hindi-speaking group (though not a majority in the country) seeks today to impose Hindi on non-Hindi-speaking people, how can you, a Hindu Rashtravadi object to Persian being the court language during the medieval period? Incidentally the public administration in the medieval period, except at the very top, was mostly manned by non-Muslims who had acquired due proficiency in Persian!

On Secularism, BJP Style

Letter to The Asian Age, 28 March, 2005

Apropos Shri Balbir K. Punj’s article ‘Questioning Communalism’ (Asian Age, 15 March, 2005) one finds nothing wrong with the question which has a simple answer. Punj’s long-winding answer would have earned him a negative mark, had he been an examinee. Why does the BJP shy away from answering a simple question? Is it a guilty conscience which impels them to claim to be a ‘secular’ party? 

Muslims are not the only voters who vote for genuine secular parties. What really angers Punj is the fact that the Muslim voters do make the difference between the fake and the real even though they tend to be divided among secular parties when they contest against each other. But all efforts of the BJP to entice the Muslim voters have failed. The Muslim rejection of the BJP of course proves to Punj that they are really communal!  He forgets that the Muslims see the BJP and its Hindutva ideology as a threat not only to their survival in dignity but to the nation and its Constitution and that, as such, they support any winnable candidate of a party which promises them security and dignity under a secular order.

On No Difference between Hindu Nationalism and Hindu Communalism

Letter to Prof. P.B. Mehta, 29 March, 2005

This is a belated comment on your article “The Future of an Illusion” (Indian Express, 24 November, 2004).  To distinguish between Hindu ‘nationalism’ and Hindu communalism is a fatuous exercise, a distinction without a difference.  You can travel to the ends of India and cannot find a ‘Hindu nationalist’ who is not a Hindu communalist.  A real distinction lies between Hindu nationalism and Indian Nationalism.  Hindu Nationalism, like Muslim Nationalism and Sikh Nationalism and Christian Nationalism, to name only the biggest religious groups in the country, cannot be and is never defined in terms of the Indian people as a whole but in terms of one religious group, which, whatever its size or national population, represents only a fraction and never the whole.  If the Hindus by virtue of their numbers are entitled to equate themselves with the whole country, this would be a negation of the principle of equal citizenship and reduction of the polity to a majoritarian democracy.

 There is a growing sense of Pan-Hinduism and also Pan-Sikhism to match the existing Umma-consciousness among the Muslim and Christian consciousness cutting across national borders.  These may be innocuous and emotional sentiments but to define group-consciousness within the nation-state as nationalism is a dangerous exercise, which is, by definition, divisive.  Religious consolidation apart, any projection of Hinduism as the basis of nationhood (Hindutva) in the Indian context, detracts from the universality of Indian nationalism. 

For BJP, armed with its militant ideology and its anti-minority record, to articulate a Hindu nationalism without Hindu communalism, even if it wants to, will be nothing short of an exercise in hypocrisy, unconvincing to the masses and the elite alike, doomed to fail and to be washed away like mounds of sand on a sea-shore.

However, in a cultural sense, the core of Indian culture is and will remain the Hindu culture.  So in the final analysis, Indianness will always have a flavour of Hinduness.  This inevitability should be accepted gracefully by the non-Hindus but it will be, only if the dividing line between integration and assimilation is not crossed and the natural tendency towards cultural synthesis is not artificially or coercively accelerated.

I have just received your kind invitation.  I would love to have an exchange of ideas with you at the Centre at your convenience with a sandwich and coffee, thrown in.

On Follow-up of Report on Nellie Massacre

Letter to INC President, 1 February, 2005

While the Anti-Sikh Riots, 1984, Bhagalpur Riots, 1983 and the Gujarat Genocide 2002, continue to occupy the headlines, everyone seems to have forgotten about the Nellie Massacre, 1983 which took a toll of 3,300 in a single day in simultaneous attacks on Bengali-speaking Muslims in half a dozen villages of Nagaon district in Assam, coming under Jagi Road P.S., not far from Guwahati.

*     As in Gujarat, of the 688 cases, 378 were closed for lack of evidence, 310 were dropped when AGP came to power.

*     The Report of the Tewari Commission submitted in May, 1984 has not been published. Saikia Government decided not to do so. All successor governments have kept it under wraps.

*     The Central Government had made a special grant of Rs. 40 crores (if I remember correctly) for relief and rehabilitation. But the affected families received just a cash dole of Rs.2,000 and 2 bundles of tin-sheets!

What is politically important is to recall that they were all killed because they dared to defy the AGP boycott call and voted for the Congress. It is also rumoured that the tribals were incited and organized by the Sangh Parivar, just as in Gujarat.

We request you to instruct the State Government:

a)   to publish the findings and recommendations of the Tewari Commission;

b)   to invite claims from the affected families for loss of life and announce a modest ex-gratia grant of Rs. 1,00,000/- for each life lost; and

c)   to set up a SIT to review at least the 310 cases which were dropped and to reopen the cases, if deemed fit.

After all, more than 3,000 human beings were butchered in the most barbaric way imaginable and not ONE culprit has been punished. To me, this is the blackest spot on our face.

On Removal of PA System from Masjids in UP

Letter to Mr. Md. Azam Khan, 25 March, 2005

The threat of Hindu Vahini in Pratapgarh as reported in Rashtriya Sahara (Urdu) of 24 March, 2005  to forcibly remove PA System from the Masjids is in fact a threat against the administration to take the law in its own hands.

But since any rash action on the part of the Vahini which has been founded by Raja Uday Pratap Singh, the father of Shri Raghu Raj Pratap Singh who is an MLA and is a Minister in UP, can lead to tension and violence, we request you to take necessary steps for the protection of the sanctity of the Masjids in the area.

We suggest that you write to the Home Minister of UP or the Chief Secretary to take immediate steps to control the Hindu Vahini and consider declaring it a terrorist organization, as it is trying to terrorize the Muslims and to overawe the administration.

On Hashimpur Massacre, 1987

Letter to The Indian Express, 17 March, 2005

We thank you for taking notice of the inordinate delay in the prosecution of the culprits of the Hashimpura Massacre.

But there is a misperception. The Hashimpura Massacre occurred on 22 May, 1987, while the Maliana Massacre occurred on 23 May, 1987. They are several kilometers apart, though both incidents formed part of the Meerut Disturbances. It would be accurate to describe the event as the Hashimpura Massacre during the Meerut Disturbances, 1987.

Justice has been denied, firstly because the State Government took years to grant permission for the prosecution of the PAC personnel; secondly, it accorded permission in respect of only 19 out of 66 indicted in the CID inquiry. Thirdly, the State filed the case in Ghaziabad rather than in Meerut where the outrage was committed and the next-of-kind lived. Fourthly, the PAC personnel continued to serve in post after post and court notices kept chasing them without effecting their presence. Finally, when the case was transferred to Delhi by the Supreme Court, the State Government, despite many requests, both at administrative and political levels, failed to appoint a suitable Special Public Prosecutor and when it did, it appointed persons who had no experience of criminal trial or had no interest. May be they were in league with the defendants!

It is obvious that the State Government, once again with Shri Mulayam Singh Yadav in the saddle, wants to scuttle the case, for reasons best known to itself.

We request you to urge the State Government editorially to appoint an eminent criminal lawyer preferably residing in Delhi as the SSP. The life of 40 youth in the prime of their life, has some value, after all.

On Threat Perception by Geelani

Letter to HM Shivraj Patil, 11 February, 2005

I would like to draw your attention to the fear expressed of Dr. S.A.R. Geelani in September, 2004 (Times of India, 11 February, 2005) of being killed in a police encounter or a shootout.

This adds a new dimension to the attack. This answers the question as to why Dr. Geelani never asked for police protection.

I am writing this to request you that he be provided with security by CRFF or NSG and the case be immediately handed over to the CBI for investigation.

On Retrospective Repeal of POTA

Letter to HM Shivraj Patil, 15 February, 2005

As you are aware POTA has been repealed but the POTA cases under prosecution continue. Though the POTA cases are under review, the pace of review is very slow.

One of the most objectionable features of POTA, 2002 was Section 32 which provided that a confession made by a person before a police officer in writing or any mechanical or electronic device shall be admissible in evidence to be used against that person or any co-accused.

The new Act has dropped this provision. This has laid to an anomaly. The person now alleged to be a terrorist does not have to face this legal liability which those accused earlier of the same criminal acts under POTA face. This appears to be discriminatory.

Banerjee Report on Godhra Fire Welcomed

Statement, 19 January, 2005

“The AIMMM appreciates and welcomes the Interim Report on the Godhra Train Fire submitted by Justice U.C. Banerjee to the Railway as the first judicial pronouncement on the tragic event.

The finding that the Fire was not the result of any conspiracy has at least served to dissipate the clouds of suspicion hovering over the heads of innocent citizens of Godhra.  We hope that the Commission of Inquiry shall take due note of the Banerjee Report.

Considering the action of the Modi Government immediately after the Godhra Fire, e.g. needless transportation of all dead bodies to Ahmedabad and their perfunctory post-mortem, considering that the identities of all those killed have not been verified and even the actual number of Karsevaks has not been declared, the AIMMM requests the Central Government that in view of the motivated line of inquiry followed by the Gujarat Police SIT, the CBI be inducted for in-depth investigation into the true cause of the Fire.

The AIMMM urges the government to explore all possible theories about the origin of the Fire, including the theory that it was diabolically stage-managed by vested interests to provide the spark which would set the prairie on fire, an excuse for the Gujarat Genocide, 2002, for which all preparations had been completed. The AIMMM takes the opportunity to reiterate its sorrow over the loss of human life.”

On Review of POTA Cases against Accused

Letter to M/Home Affairs, 1 February, 2005

I would like to draw your attention to two recent developments regarding Godhra Train Fire.

The first is that following Justice Banerjee’s Interim Report, 75 eminent personalities have made a public appeal to the Government under the banner of ANHAD, New Delhi, for the immediate release of those detained by the Gujarat Police for allegedly being party to a conspiracy to set fire to the ill-fated coach and thus causing the death of 58 persons. About 200 of them, they are all held under POTA which ironically stands repealed.

The second is that the POTA cases of Gujarat (278 detainees in all) have not been reviewed so far, as announced by the Government. And yesterday the Gujarat High Court has barred the Review Committee from performing its work. In view of the above, we request you to consider advising (or instructing) the Govt. of Gujarat to withdraw the POTA charge from the Godhra accused, while it may continue to prosecute them under the IPC charges, if prima facie established by police investigation.

We would also request the Union Government to approach the Gujarat High Court for a review of its order so that the commitment made by the UPA is fulfilled.

Third Anniversary of the Gujarat Genocide

Letter to PM Dr. Manmohan Singh, 28 Feb., 2005

Today is the third anniversary of the beginning of the Gujarat Genocide which remains both politically and legally, unpunished. Evidence has been mounting on the role of the Modi Government in setting Gujarat on fire, and protecting the culprits during and after the pogrom.

We request you to make a statement in the Parliament on the resolve and determination of the Union Government to identify the guilty and to bring them to book and to compensate the victims.

We hope and pray that in the land of Buddha and Gandhi 1984 and 2002 pogroms shall never be repeated.

Release of POTA Detenees of Godhra Fire

Letter to HM Shivraj Patil, 29 March, 2005

The UPA had decided to review the cases of POTA detenees.  As far as we see, there has not been any progress in the case of Gujarat. The S.I.T. had arrested over 100 persons including eminent Muslim citizens on the basis of the ‘confession’ before a Magistrate of an accused Jabbir bin Yamin Behera, a history sheeter, who has subsequently retracted his confession.  The SIT has not been able to collect any evidence to back the ‘confession’ and its ‘conspiracy’ theory and has not been able to submit a charge sheet.

Some detainees have been released for lack of evidence, 13 are out on bail but 52 are still in detention.

As you are aware, Justice Banerjee’s report has, in the meantime, debunked the conspiracy theory.

In view of the above facts, we request you to instruct the Review Committee expeditiously to deal with the cases of 52 detainees who are languishing in jail for the last 3 years without a charge sheet.

On K.R. Narayanan’s Statement

Letter to Shri Mukul Sinha, Advocate, 10 Mar., 05

Please refer to the former President Shri K.R. Narayanan’s disclosure charging the then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee with ignoring his advice and doing nothing effective to contain and control the Gujarat Genocide, 2002.

We feel that the Jan Sangharsh Manch which is assisting the Nanavati-Shah Commission of Inquiry should formally petition the Commission to summon Shri Narayanan for examination as a witness, since his evidence would be relevant to prove the deliberate inaction of the State Government to stop the violence even when the Army was at its disposal and perhaps its complicity.

On Jan Andolan Agitation

Letter to Amir, JIH, Gujarat, 22 March, 2005

May I draw your attention to the article ‘Dismembering Truth’ by Jyotirmaya Sharma in the Hindu of 10 March, 2005 commenting on the suggestions made by the ‘Janandolan’ which staged a dharna in Ahmedabad on 28 February, 2005?

The suggestions, if accepted, will exonerate the leaders and activists of the BJP and the VHP who systematically engineered and organized the Genocide 2002 as well as absolve the Gujarat Government of all its complicity in the collapse of the Rule of Law. As Mr. Sharma says, it is an attempt to build peace and reconciliation without truth and justice.

I wonder at the antecedents of the persons who constitute the Janandolan and organized the dharna. I shall be grateful for any information that you can provide.

In the meantime, I would like the Muslim community and the secular activists to be wary of such moves which are designed to assist the guilty and to restore their public face.

On Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

MMM Resolution, 12, February, 2005

The Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (MMM) regrets to note the farcical implementation of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in Muslim concentration areas by offering one or two teachers or para-teachers for existing Maktabs and Madrasas.

The MMM requests the Central Government to map the Muslim concentration areas i.e. villages and Mahallas with more than 20% Muslim population, determine the level of educational deprivation in terms of schools and establish, to begin with, normal government primary schools in these areas in accordance with national norm of 1 primary school for 300 children.

More Govt. Schools in Muslim Areas

Letter to Minister of HRD, 31 January, 2005

The All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (AIMMM) Delegation had discussed the question of establishment of primary schools in Muslim concentration areas in accordance with the national norm of 1 primary school for a population unit of 300.

It appears that in Uttar Pradesh, instead of establishing mainstream schools in deprived Muslim areas, the State is picking up some traditional Madrasas and offering them Hindi teachers. This will not expand the reach of mainstream education in the Muslim community. Urgently needed in the deprived areas are additional and alternative institutions, and not ‘upgradation’ of existing Madrasas and Pathshalas!

I would request you to issue a general directive under the SVA that all administrative units like Panchayats, Blocks and Mahallas (in urban areas) be mapped for existing primary schools, leaving out the Madrasas and Pathshalas in this exercise, in order to work out the school deficit which should be made up in a phased manner, with priority for deprived areas and annual targets.

May I also point out that in some States, like Kerala and Gujarat, Madrasa education supplements school education and the same children attend both institutions, during the primary years.

On Religious Census in Gujarat Schools

Letter to Minister of HRD, 26 February, 2005

It has been reported that primary school students in all 18,000 villages of Gujarat are being asked to fill in 4-page questionnaire about the villages which amounts to a religious Census e.g. number of persons belonging to various religions. In village, the number of their religious places and the festivals they celebrate. Out of 27 columns in the questionnaire, only 2 are related to education.

The Gujarat PCC leader Arjun Modhvadia has dubbed this Census as a preparation ‘for disturbing communal harmony’ and that the Education Department was implementing the agenda of the VHP to create a religion-based data-bank for rural areas. You may recall that the VHP had prepared a similar data bank for the urban areas before the Genocide 2002. A similar exercise was undertaken by the Gujarat Police in the Dangs before the attacks on the Christian community in 1998.

Shri Madhvadia’s objection had no impact on the Gujarat Government.

Since primary education is largely financed under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, we request your urgent intervention.

Regularization of Pvt. Self-Financing Institutions

I - Letter to Ministry of HRD, 24 January, 2005

According to a press report, a Bill to regulate admission to and fees in self-financing private professional colleges is under drafting for possible introduction in the Parliament during the coming Budget Session.

We hope that the Bill shall make special provisions for such institutions established by the minorities under Article 30 of the Constitution.

We also hope that in order to restrain rampant commercialization the Bill shall prescribe reasonable norms for relating the number and admission capacity of such colleges in a given state to its population and maximum projection of internal demand in the foreseeable future. However, the number of institutions for post-graduate education and those established by the minorities may be related to the overall national deficit.

I request you to consider these suggestions.

II - Letter to Edu. Secretary, M/HRD, 12 Feb., 05

I thank you for your letter No. Secy[S&HE]/2005/950 dated 8 February, 2005 regarding the regulation of admission and fees in self-financing professional colleges.

I agree that it is a very difficult task you are addressing but since the number of private professional colleges established by the minorities is very small compared to their total number, I suggest that we should not worry about their receiving sustainable investment with success. That is their own look out. Our views is that by all means, the Government or the UGC should ensure standards and transparency but without detracting in any sense from their rights and privileges as minority institutions as constitutionally ordained and judicially confirmed.

On Modalities for Students Unions Elections

Letter to UP CM, 31 March, 2005

We heartily welcome the decision of your Government to make it mandatory for universities and degree colleges to have elected students unions.

However, I suggest that the Rules framed under the Act should provide a model Constitution for the Unions which would, inter alia, ensure that the Union does not become the monopoly of student leaders who manage to hope from one course to another and this become a permanent fixture of the university or colleges campus.

Secondly, it should also be ensured that voting for the Union elections is on the basis of proportional representation, so that all sections of the student community are represented.

On Grant of Visa to Foreign Students of Madrasas

Letter to M/External Affairs, 7 March, 2005

You may be aware that for centuries Muslim religious seminaries in India attracted students from the Muslim world, particularly from Afghanistan, Central Asia and South East Asia. This continued under colonial rule when seminaries like Darul Uloom, Deoband and Nadwatul Ulema, Lucknow emerged. Naturally there were many students from the territories, which now constitute Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Over the years, this tradition has been broken, perhaps because they developed their own Madrasas and also because we were reluctant to grant visa to foreign students for admission to religious seminaries.

I do not know about the demand in Pakistan but even now many Madrasa students from Bangladesh would like to join seminaries in India, at least for specialization.

In my view, it is in the larger interest of the country as well as the Muslim community to permit foreign Muslim students to avail of educational facilities in such seminaries of national level, on par with admission to the universities. In this category visa may be restricted to those who possess Madrasa certificates equivalent to secondary or higher secondary level.

I request you to consider this suggestion in consultation with the Ministry of Home Affairs.

On Association of Darul-ul-Uloom with Terrorism

Letter to CM of UP, 18 March, 2005

This is to draw your attention to the Question in a paper of the recently held examination held by Madhyamik Teachers’ Selection Board, UP. The Question reads as follow:

“Q: Who do you think Darul Uloom, Deoband is linked with?

A: (a) Terrorism (b) Khadi movement (c) Parsi movement (d) social reforms in Parsi community”

Few examiners would have associated the Darul Uloom with the Khadi Movement or the Parsi Movement or Social reforms in Parsi Community. But many, influenced by the current propaganda about ‘Islamic’ terrorism, would immediately opt for Terrorism. So this was a Leading Question.

One option should normally be the correct option, namely Teaching of Islam or Islamic Scholarship.

So whosoever formulated the question had clearly the motive of denigrating not only the Darul Uloom but Islam.

We, therefore, demand that the paper setter, the moderator should be black listed as well as the Secretary and the Chairman of the Board be sacked immediately.

On Revival of Madrasa Alia, Rampur as Arabic University

Letter CM, UP, 31 March, 2005

The All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat appreciates your decision to revive the Madrasa Alia, Rampur, whose decline began nearly 50 years ago with the accession of the State of Rampur to the Union and the transformation of the State into a district of the State of UP.

We understand that at present the Madrasa Alia, once a nationally and internationally recognized institution, has nothing left but its name and its building; it has no teachers and no students!

We do not know whether its maintenance figured in the instrument of accession of the State but whatever it be, it is indeed a happy augury that the Government of UP has decided to revive it and to restore it.

We suggest that it should be reconstructed as the U.P. University of Arabic, Persian and Islamic Studies, on the pattern of Sanskrit Universities and Kendriya Sanskrit Sansthan.  It should be both a post-graduate residential university with research facilities and an affiliating university to affiliate all Madrasas of the level of Colleges in the State and all existing Departments of Arabic or Persian or Islamic Studies in various Universities of the State.  The Madrasa Alia should not be a High Madrasa, even a run-of-the-mill University.  It should aim at becoming a Centre of Islamic Studies as in Europe and the USA.

On Allocation for Promotion of Urdu in Budget

Letter to Finance Minister, 15 March, 2005

On behalf of the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (AIMMM), I thank you for making some allocation for Minorities in the Budget for 2005-06.

In your budget speech, you have also spoken of locating some educational institutions in areas with a substantial minority population. If Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is for universalization of primary education, we urge that the Government should establish primary schools in all deprived and deficient areas in accordance with national norm of one primary school for a population unit of 300. To phase the programme, the deprivation level may be measured by having a primary school for a population of 600, to begin with, then for 450 and then for 300. All deprived areas need priority, irrespective of social demography.

Secondly, you have promised to provide assistance for recruitment of Urdu Language teachers in primary and upper primary schools. We urge that the scheme should provide both Urdu Language and Urdu-medium teachers for primary and upper primary schools, as well as Urdu Language teachers for high schools. The Constitution as well as international norms demand Urdu should be the medium of primary instruction at the primary level for the students whose Mother Tongue is Urdu and Urdu should be taught as a Compulsory First or Second Language to them in high schools, irrespective of their numbers in the school or in a class. We presume that the assistance shall be provided to or through State Governments.

You have also promised pre-examination coaching. So far the half-hearted coaching schemes for minorities, run through selected universities/colleges failed to produce any results. We presume that now the Government shall finance coaching of individual students, selected on merit and potential in reputed coaching institutions. This would be a welcome step.

Generally, we request the government to have not only similar but same educational schemes for meritorious students from all sections of the people (SC, ST, OBC, Minorities, Higher castes) who are not in a position to pursue education or have coaching because of financial handicap.

On Urdu Staff

Letter to Lt. Governor, Delhi, 25 March, 2005

There is a public grievance that although Urdu is the Second Office Language of Delhi, your office has no one who can read Urdu.  This creates the impression that the government is not sincere about giving Urdu its due status.

I suggest that you ask the State Government to create 2 posts of Urdu translator and Urdu typist in your office and fill them immediately.

[On 4 March, 2005, Lt. Governor informed me that he had taken necessary action.  I suggested that every important office including Ministers, Secretaries, Commissioners, Deputy Commissioners, Tahsildars and Police Stations should have Urdu staff.]

On Teaching of Urdu

Letter to ATU, Jharkhand, 7 February, 2005

I have seen your article on the Teaching of Mother Tongue in Jharkhand in Hamari Zuban of 8-14 February, 2005.

I would be grateful for a copy of the Notification (with translation in English or Urdu) under which non-Hindi-speaking students may offer, instead of Hindi, a composite paper of Hindi and their mother tongue with 50 marks each.

This is a welcome development but unless the Urdu students have studied Urdu in high school (IX and X), how will they offer this composite course at XI and XII level?

I think the ATU, Jharkhand, should continue its struggle for

a)    Urdu-medium primary schools;

b)    The adoption of Three-Language Formula of 1. Mother Tongue, 2. Principal Language of the State or any other Indian Language, 3. English, in high schools.

c)      Mapping of Urdu-speaking areas (villages and mahallas) and establishment of adequate number of Urdu-medium primary schools.

On Problem of Urdu Community

Letter to ATU, Jharkhand, 31 March, 2005

I thank you for sending me a copy of your Memorandum to the Governor on the problem of the Urdu community.

To my mind the root of the problem lies in limited use of Urdu in school education.  We must make our point for Urdu-medium primary schools and for introduction of Urdu as First or Second Compulsory Language in the high schools under Three Language Formula. 

We need to have the data, Panchayat  by Panchayat and block by block about Urdu-speaking primary students to prove our deprivation of a constitutional mandate and support our demand.

Only then the ATUJ can demand how many posts of Urdu and Urdu-language teachers in primary and secondary schools should be sanctioned and how the deficit should be met, by opening more government schools in Urdu-concentration areas.

To fight our battle, we should adopt a scientific approach.

Secondly, I feel that Urdu should make common cause with all tribal languages because each of them is a minority language like Urdu in its area and equally threatened by Hindi dominance.

Thirdly, we should define the concept of Additional Official Language at District, Block and Panchayat levels.   All minority languages with 5% population at a given level should enjoy that status.

On other secondary matters like vacancies in sanctioned posts, filling of Urdu posts by Hindi or representation in University bodies, the ATUJ should take them up on a case-by-case basis, while emphasizing the three basic aspects I have mentioned and the recognition of Urdu as Second Official Language.

On Jamia Urdu’s Moallim Urdu Certificates

Letter to Chief Minister of UP, 1 January, 2005

It has been reported that 35,000 posts of Urdu and Urdu-medium teachers are lying vacant in Uttar Pradesh. Those who have obtained the Certificates of Moallim Urdu from Jamia Urdu, Aligarh are exerting pressure on your Government to ensure their employment against these vacancies.

During the last few years, the Certificates of Jamia Urdu have lost their academic value and credibility because of massive corruption at every stage from enrollment for the courses, to establishment of examination centres, admission to examination halls, conduct of examination, valuation of answer books and announcement of results, even without valuation. Jamia Urdu itself has become a one man show, with no Chancellor, Pro-Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor or Pro-Vice-Chancellor or proper General Body or Executive or Academic Council. Jamia Urdu has become a private estate and a money-minting machine.

The Urdu community has no faith in the Certificates awarded by it. Many certificate holders simply do not know Urdu well enough to teach it. Their appointments as teachers would be a step against the interest of our Urdu-speaking children.

We, therefore, request that Urdu teachers be appointed through a competitive test conducted by a Selection Committee, consisting of Heads of the Departments of Urdu in AMU, JNU, Delhi, Jamia Millia Islamia and Allahabad and Lucknow Universities and holders of BA and BA (Hons.) degrees and the Moallim Urdu Certificates as well as ‘Kamils’ of Senior Madrasas be admitted to the examination.

On Modalities for Selection of Urdu Teachers

Letter to Education Secretary, 2 March, 2005

The State Government’s announcement for the recruitment of 3,000 Urdu teachers has been received with satisfaction.

There are 3 streams of potential teachers: 1) those with Board/University qualification; 2) those with Madrasa certificates; and 3) those with certificates of Moallim-e-Urdu from Jamia Urdu, Aligarh.

We suggest for your consideration that the Urdu teacher should be a university graduate, with Urdu as a Principal subject or the equivalent holding Kamil certificate from a well-known Madrasa. As for Jamia Urdu, only pre-1997 certificates should be recognized because of its mismanagement during the last 8 years and its loss of all academic credibility.

We also suggest that the State Government should hold a common examination to test proficiency of the candidates in Urdu and to establish equality of opportunity. The Urdu-speaking community would not like its children to be taught Urdu or through Urdu by teachers who do not have command over the language.

However, we would like the Urdu teachers to be exempted from the requirement of holding C.T. or B.Ed. because of the paucity of such personnel. They can all be trained, after recruitment, in suitable batches.

We request you to consider the suggestion.

On Promotion of Urdu in UP

Letter to Minister of Education, 25 January, 2005

We have noted with appreciation your recent statements expressing the determination of your government to promote Urdu in UP in School Education.

We request you to consider the following essential steps in this connection:

1.   To amend the UP Education Code to allow Urdu as the medium of instruction in schools and of examination by the School Examination Board.

2.   To open government Urdu medium primary schools in village and Panchayats in rural areas and in municipal wards in urban areas with concentration of Urdu-speaking population, in accordance with national norms of 1 primary school for a population unit of 300, under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.

3.   To modify the Three Language Formula as applied in your State, to teach Urdu as First Language as Mother Tongue, with Hindi as Compulsory Second Language to all students whose Mother Tongue is declared by their parents as Urdu in all Government Junior and High Schools.

4.   To open one or more Urdu-medium High School in every Tehsil/town for a Urdu-speaking population of 100,000.

5.   To sanction Urdu and Urdu-medium teachers according to the requirements and not on an adhoc basis.

6.   To recruit

      1) Urdu teachers for primary and secondary schools from among University graduates who have done B.A. with Urdu or B.A. with Hon. in Urdu respectively or obtained equivalent certificates from well-known Madrasas

      2) Urdu medium teachers for other subjects from among University graduate who have studied Urdu as a compulsory subject in High School and then taken B.A. or B.Sc. with Honours in the subject.

7.   To ensure timely availability of all school textbooks in Urdu.

It would indeed be a great service to the Urdu-speaking population of the State and to the cause of Urdu.

On Maulana Mohd. Ali University in Rampur

Letter to The Milli Gazette, 31 March, 2005

In your issue of 1-15 April, 2005 you have published two reports on the passage of Mohammad Ali Jauhar University Bill, 2004 by the UP Assembly for the establishment of the proposed University as a private University by the Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar Trust, which is headed by Mr. Mohd. Azam Khan.

A private university normally runs with private resources including its earnings; it is not entitled to State support.  However, some private universities which have been recognized as Deemed Universities by the UGC get some grants from the UGC but, having been statutorily established, this option is now closed to this University.

As for the word ‘Maulana’, it was obviously dropped by the mover of the Bill because of a technical hitch, not because anyone was opposed to it.  The Government of India has established the Central Urdu University and also an educational foundation in the name of Maulana Azad.  Indeed the great freedom fighter is known universally as Maulana Mohammad Ali, and not so much as Mohammad Ali Jauhar.

But those who want a Urdu University in the State, which has indeed the largest Urdu-speaking population in the country, have not yet responded to two questions.

• Why don’t they agitate for acceptance of Urdu as a medium of primary instruction and as the First and Compulsory Language at the Secondary stage for those students whose Mother Tongue is Urdu.

• Why don’t they produce statistics regarding the average number of students who annually pass B.A. with Urdu, B.A. with Honours in Urdu and M.A. in Urdu from various Universities in UP, alongwith their respective sanctioned admission capacity, in order to prove that the existing facilities are inadequate?

Similarly, the need for teaching of Arabic and Persian can be met by providing facilities for these languages also as optional subjects in high school curriculum and by fully utilizing the post-graduate Departments of Arabic and Persian in various Universities, apart from several Madrasas, Jamias and Darul Ulooms of high standard in the State, which may be affiliated to a separate University of Arabic, Persian and Islamic Studies.

There is indeed obvious room for another Muslim Technical University in Rampur like the pioneer Integral University, Lucknow, which would enjoy Article 30 status and serve the community.

On Politics of Urdu

Letter to G.M. Siddiqui, 31 March, 2005

On Recruitment of 3,000 Constables in UP

Letter to UP CM, 22 February, 2005

It has been reported that the Government of Uttar Pradesh has recruited 5,000 constables to the UP Police and the PAC during the last six months.

It has been alleged that the Yadavas have taken the cake both in the reserved and general categories.

Since Muslim presence in the police and the armed constabulary is a matter of public importance and of concern to the Muslim community, we would be grateful to be informed of the number of Muslims among those recruited, both in the OBC and the non-OBC categories, and also whether the Selection Board(s) included a Muslim Officer as laid down in the PM’s 15-Point Programme for the Welfare of the Minorities.

We would also like to have, if possible, the current percentage of Muslims in the UP Police and the PAC at each non-gazetted level, namely Constables, Head Constables, Asstt. Sub-Inspectors, Sub-Inspectors and Inspectors.

We would be grateful for an early reply.

On Recruitment of 5,000 Constables in Assam

Letter to UMF (Assam), 22 February, 2005

There is some complaint about the recent recruitment of over 5,000 constables by the Government of Assam. The Guwahati High Court has stayed the appointment and asked the State Government to produce the selection records.

I would like to know whether the vacancies were announced and/or filled district-wise and whether there was any domicile requirement in respect of district or state, or any educational or linguistic requirement.

I am of the view that the recruitment should be made district-wise and the selection should match the linguistic and religious composition of the population of the district. Of course the person selected has to be an Indian national. The Bengali-speaking persons who are on the voter list can claim citizenship, having gone through the exercise many times.

I would be grateful for your reply so that I may take it up with Mrs. Gandhi as well as with Tarun Gogoi.

On Recruitment Plan of CPMF’s for 2005

Letter to CRPF/BSF/CISF, 7 January, 2005

The All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (AIMMM) desires to be informed of your Plan of Recruitment of Jawans for the current year with the names of Recruitment Centres and the last dates for submission of application.

We would be grateful for a copy of your notices, as and when issued.

On Appointment of Indicted IPS Officer as DGP

Letter to CM Kerala, 16 March, 2005

The All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (AIMMM) strongly protests against the appointment of Mr. Raman Srivastava, IPS, as the DG of Police, Kerala.

Our protest is based on the killing by the police of a Muslim girl Sirajunissa on 15 December 1991, at Mepparambu near Palakkad, in the course of an operation which was personally directed by Mr. Srivastava, then a DIG.

There are eyewitness reports that when Mr. Srivastava was informed by the ASP, Shornur that the atmosphere was peaceful and people were inside their homes, he shouted back ordering her to fire at the ‘Muslim bastards’. When he was told that there was no one but two girls playing and one man watching them, he ordered ‘shoot them down if no one else is around. Let them die like dogs’. He then told Dy.S.P. Chandran ‘I want the dead bodies of some Muslim bastards’. Sirajunissa was then shot through her head and died on the spot.

To cover the crime, the police filed an FIR in which they accused Sirajunissa, a 11-year-old girl, of leading hundreds of Muslims to attack Hindus! The Yohannan Commission of Inquiry rejected the police story but held that the bullet had inadvertently hit the girl but it exonerated the police officers on the spot and the DIG concerned.

An independent Inquiry Commission, however, held that there was no reason for police firing and for killing the innocent girl.

The criminal case reached the Supreme Court which in 1998 ordered the State Government to investigate the role of 8 policemen including Mr. Raman Srivastava.

Unfortunately successive governments have protected Mr. Srivastava. The party and the witnesses were coerced to be content with group insurance, though the Sirajunissa case figured since 1991 in all election propaganda by the LDF and the UDF.

But instead of being punished for his shockingly communal and criminal order, Mr. Raman has been elevated to the rank of DGP.

We request you to consider its adverse impact on the professionalism of the police and the communal situation in Kerala, when a police officer known as a Muslim-hater is elevated to direct the entire police force.

We, therefore, request you to reconsider the appointment.

On Promotions in Kerala Cadre

Letter to Career Guidance, 17 January, 2005

Your email of 17 January, 2005.

On Fulfillment of Promise of Reservation

MMM Resolution, 12, February, 2005

The Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (MMM) regrets the total lack of progress in the fulfillment of the electoral pledge of the UPA and its MCP for reservation for Muslim community in public employment and higher education.

The MMM notes that even the initial step of appointing a Commission to determine the fact and level of economic, educational and social backwardness of the Muslim community, as a community, on a national basis, has not been taken so far.

The MMM requests the Central Government to give due priority to this vital commitment; and set the ball rolling because the Muslim youth is showing signs of restlessness at their continued deprivation.

I - Letter to M/Social Justice, 14 February, 2005

I have the honour to place before you for your sympathetic and urgent action the Resolution adopted by the Markazi Majlis of the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat at its meeting held on 12 February, 2005.

This first relates to the delay in establishing a National Commission to undertake a Study of the Level of Backwardness of the Muslim Community and of other minorities, which is the first step towards any serious consideration of the proposal for the provision of reservation in public employment and higher education for them.

We request you to kindly expedite necessary action.

II - M/Social Justice’s Reply, 25 Feb., 05

I am in receipt of your letter dated 14 Feb., 2005 regarding establishment of a National Commission to undertake a study of the level of backwardness of the Muslim community.

On Reservation for Women in Legislatures

Letter to HM Shivraj Patil, 22 February, 2005

You have suggested increasing the strength of the Legislatures by 33% to provide for reservation of women. It is not clear whether the additional seats will be filled by nomination/election by the Legislatures themselves or whether there shall be fresh delimitation to carve out the additional constituencies, reserved for women. However, this additional strength will also be subject to the constitutional mandate of SC/ST quota and for the balance, the OBC’s and the under-represented minorities will also stake a claim in proportion to their population, under the apprehension that this reservation for women shall largely benefit the high castes and the elite.

We think that whatever the draft scheme, it should be placed in the public domain for eliciting opinion before finalization.

We still do not see why the political parties are not bound by law to field at least 1/3 among their candidates for elections.

On Inclusion of Muslims in Pvt. Sector Reservation

Letter to M/Social Justice, 31 March, 2005

May I draw your attention to our letter of 13 December, 2004 regarding inclusion of Muslims in the Scheme of Reservation in the Private Sector.

We regret to find that the minorities have again been left out in the formulation of the idea in the President’s Address in February, 2005.

However, the government has constituted a Group of Ministers to engage in dialogue with the industry on the subject.

You must be a member of the Group of Ministers.  Through you, we request the Group of Ministers, to reconsider the ambit of the Scheme to include the deprived minorities like the Muslims.

On Terms of Reference of NC for BC

Letter to PM Dr. Manmohan Singh, 10 March, 2005

By its Resolution dated 29 October, 2004, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has announced the constitution of a National Commission ‘to recommend measures for the welfare of socially and economically backward sections among religious and linguistic minorities’.

Its terms of reference are:

1.   to suggest the criteria for identification of such sections;

2.   to recommend measures for their welfare, including reservation in education and public employment;

3.   to suggest constitutional, legal and administrative modalities required for implementation of the recommendations.

The All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (AIMMM) is not happy with the Resolution as it stands, because:

a)   The Resolution ignores the fact that the entire Muslim community, the biggest religious minority, as a community, is educationally, economically and socially backward

b)   The Resolution ignores the fact that in Karnataka under Congress rule, the Muslim community, as a community, has been recognized as a Backward Class and granted reservation quota.

c)   The Muslim community was assured and expected that the Karnataka and Kerala model would be extended to the entire country at the national level. Indeed this was mentioned in the Congress Manifesto.

d)   The Muslim community is today just above, if at all, the SC’s, economically, educationally and socially, and that in any scheme of reservation the exclusion of the creamy layer will take care of the marginal sections which are not backward.

e)   The Resolution formally divides the Muslim community, which is a minority, into sections and thus weakens it, As a minority of 12% it cannot be divided on par with the majority of over 80%.

f)    The Resolution provides no mechanism for collection of educational, economic and social nation-wide data on the minorities which are necessary for the determination of their backwardness as compared to the SC’s, ST’s and OBC’s.

As far as linguistic minorities, only Urdu and Sindhi are deprived among the National Languages, all over the country as all other linguistic groups have a home-base consisting of one or more States. The problem faced by the linguistic minorities in various States are different from those faced by religious minorities both in nature and intercede and the remedial measures will naturally be different. Perhaps it would have been better to assign this task to the Commissioner of Linguistic Minorities who regularly collects and has all the data.

The AIMMM, therefore, requests the Government to amend this Resolution by eliminating reference to linguistic minorities and to ‘backward sections’ of the religious minorities, thus widening the scope of the Commission to consider the status of such religious minorities in their entirety.

On Quota for Muslim ‘Dalits’

I - Letter to President, AIMPLB, 29 March, 2005

Many papers have reported, and some have commented upon, your message as President of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board to the Conference on Reservation for Muslims organized at Azamgarh on 27 February, 2005, by a rather unknown organization Pasmandah Qaumi Tanzeem.

At the time when the Muslim community is poised to claim and struggle unitedly for reservation, many divisive forces are at work to break the solidarity of the community on the basis of ‘caste’ and to weaken it.

I would be grateful for the text of your message.

II - Letter to The Milli Gazette, 29 March, 2005

With reference to the report in your esteemed paper (1-15 April, 2005) regarding the Conference on Reservation for Muslim organized by the Pasmandah Qaumi Tanzeem (PQT) at Azamgarh on 27 February, 2005, there is no doubt a growing consensus that the Constitution (SC) Order, 1950 should be further amended to eliminate altogether the religious condition in defining SC’s and thus to include all social groups, irrespective of religion of birth or of choice, engaged in the same or analogous occupations as the Hindu SC’s.

Yet, such ‘SC-like’ groups which profess Islam have so far been included in the State lists of OBC’s. But there is no data available on their population but they are very small groups by all indications.

It is not clear from the report whether the PQT would like the entire Muslim community to be included in the list of SC’s. If so, this would be preposterous, unacceptable to both the Muslims and the SC’s. Moreover, it is not established whether the Muslim groups, which are analogous to the SC’s, would like to shift from the OBC list to the SC list and whether they will benefit from such shift.

It would have been useful for your correspondent to quote the Resolution adopted at the Conference and also the Message of the President of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board.

Not much is known about the Tanzeem. As far as I know it is a breakaway group from the A.I. Backward Muslim Morcha, Patna led by Dr. Ejaz Ali.

It may be kept in mind that many forces are at work to divide the Muslim community on the basis of ‘castes’ particularly when the entire community is poised to claim and struggle for reservation as a Backward Class and thus weaken it.

On Reservation Movement in UP

Letter to Mr. Zafaryab Jilani, 20 January, 2005

I have not seen any document which states the demand of the Movement for Reservation for Muslims but according to a press report you have defined it as:

1.   Inclusion of Muslim Dalits in the SC quota

2.   Separate quota of 9% for OBC Muslims

3.   Consideration for Reservation for Other Muslims

In 1994, the National Convention for Muslim Reservation held in New Delhi demanded separate quota in proportion to population and level of backwardness for the Muslims as a community but conceded that the preferential beneficiaries should be the Muslims who belong to the Sub-communities notified as OBC’s.

Secondly, under the Mandal dispensation OBC Muslims are conceptually entitled to only 4.2% out of the 27%.

Thirdly, I support the view that the religious qualification for ST status should go. But I do not think that ‘Dalit’ Muslims, now clubbed with OBC’s, would fare any better as part of the SC’s. They are so few and so scattered.

I would, therefore, request you to reconsider the stand of the Movement.

On Formation of High Power Sachar Committee

I - Letter to Jus. Rajinder Sachar, 21 March, 2005

We are glad to learn that the Government of India has formed a 7-member Committee under your Chairmanship to prepare a comprehensive report on the socio-economic and educational status of the Muslim community.

We hope and pray that the Report of this Committee does not meet the same fate as the Report of the High Power Panel headed by the late Dr. Gopal Singh, appointed by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1983.

However, man lives on hope. Our best wishes are with you and your colleagues.

We offer you our wholehearted cooperation in the fulfillment of the important task assigned to your Committee.

II - Letter to Dr. Abusaleh Shariff, 21 March, 2005

Thank you for drawing my attention to the Notification on the Constitution of the Higher Level Committee to prepare a report on the Backwardness of the Muslim community.

In Para 3 (2)(b) there is an element of vagueness. The word ‘to’ before ‘identify’ causes confusion on whether the Report shall identify the area of intervention by the Government.

I think this ‘to’ should be replaced by ‘and’ as well as the phrase ‘and modes’ may be added after the word ‘areas’.

Secondly there is some vagueness in para 2(a), while the Committee may survey all published literature, it should be free to generate data to fill the gaps on relevant areas of concern with the assistance of the consultants, if necessary. Perhaps para 2(a) could have been more precisely drafted.

On Formation of NCSEBRLM

Letter to Dr. Tahir Mahmood, 18 March, 2005

I do not know whether to felicitate you on your appointment as a member of the National Commission for the Socially and Economically Backward Sections of the Religious and Linguistic Minorities. It is a tough assignment.

Personally I do not regard the appointment of this Commission as a sincere step towards the implementation of the promise to provide reservation for the Muslims on the Karnataka and Kerala model. If such was the interest, the Government should undertake a Socio-economic Survey as in Karnataka to see whether religious minorities, particularly those which are prima facie deprived, come under the purview of Article 15(5) and Article 16(5) of the Constitution. The collected data would have been placed before the National Commission on Backward Classes for necessary action under the mandate of the Supreme Court. As it is, it will be a long drawn out process.

There are other infirmities in the terms of reference with which I would not like to burden you but, at the end of the day, you are our last hope and I wish you every success in safeguarding the interests of the major religious and linguistic minorities – namely, the Muslims (2/3 of all religious minorities) and the Urdu-speaking community (nearly 100% with minority status).

On Reservation Movement in UP

Letter to Zafaryab Jilani, 20 January, 2005

I have not seen any document which states the demand of the Movement for Reservation for Muslims but according to a press report you have defined it as:

1.   Inclusion of Muslim Dalits in the SC quota

2.   Separate quota of 9% for OBC Muslims

3.   Consideration for Reservation for Other Muslims

In 1994, the National Convention for Muslim Reservation held in New Delhi demanded separate quota in proportion to population and level of backwardness for the Muslims as a community but conceded that the preferential beneficiaries should be the Muslims who belong to the Sub-communities notified as OBC’s.

Secondly, under the Mandal dispensation OBC Muslims are conceptually entitled to only 4.2% out of the 27%.

Thirdly, I support the view that the religious qualification for ST status should go. But I do not think that ‘Dalit’ Muslims, now clubbed with OBC’s, would fare any better as part of the SC’s. They are so few and so scattered.

I would, therefore, request you to reconsider the stand of the Movement.

On 26th December, 2004 I tried to see you but you were not at home. This question was also on my agenda.

On Implementation of Narendran Report in Kerala

Letter to GS, IUML, 5 March, 2005

The Chandy Government also appears to be delaying the measures required to remedy the inadequate representation of the minorities, particularly the Muslims, in general as brought out by the Narendran Commission by waiting for a ‘consensus’ to emerge.

The Muslims are under-represented not only in terms of population but also in terms of their existing quota. Any upgradation of the representation of the deprived section will always be resisted by those sections which are over-represented as they stand to loose their privilege.

On Govt. Support to Conference of Pro-RSS Muslims

I - Letter to CM Rajasthan, 11 February, 2005

The Rajasthan Madrasa Board is organizing an All India Conference in Jaipur to preach the ideology of Cultural Nationalism to the Muslims of the country. Top RSS leaders and RSS-attached ‘Muslim’ intellectuals have been invited to address the Conference.

We strongly protest against the use of Madrasa Board and the services of Madrasa teachers/managers for propagating the principles of Hindutva – the core ideology of the ruling party.

Moreover, this Conference goes beyond the statutory function and responsibilities of the Rajasthan Madrasa Board. If the Board becomes an instrument in the hands of the Sangh Parivar, we would be forced to advise the Madrasas of Rajasthan to delink themselves totally from the Board.

We request you to intervene immediately and cancel this ‘cultural’ show.

II - Letter to the Hindu, 14 February, 2005

We are surprised by the misleading headline your paper has given to the report on “Nationalist Muslim Conclave”, sponsored/organized by the RSS in Jaipur on 13 February, 2005.

The enclave was not representative of the Muslim community, in any sense of the term. On the other hand, it led to protest demonstration by the Muslim community of Jaipur, spearheaded, as your paper has reported, by Rajasthan Muslim Forum which includes representatives of all leading Muslim organizations or institutions in Rajasthan, because a government institution the Rajasthan Madrasa Board was used to promote RSS ideology.

One would like to know the State-wise break up of Muslim delegations, their association with Muslim institutions/organizations and their profession and occupation, before accepting the RSS claim.

On Recognition of Shudras as Kshatriyas

Letter to Giriraj Kishore, Sr. VP, VHP 14 Feb., 05

The Dharam Sansad held at Rohtak recently by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad has taken a revolutionary decision to recognize the Shudras as Kshatriyas. This is indeed a step towards the progressive elimination of the Caste System.

We would be grateful for the text of the resolution on the subject.

We would also like to be informed of the steps contemplated by the VHP to have this re-designation recognized by all sects and denominations of the Hindu society and its acceptance in practice though inter-dining and inter-marriage.

On RSS University in Jaipur

Letter to Madrasa Jamia-tul Hidaya, 10 Mar., 2005

You must have been informed that the RSS is setting up a Hindutva University in Rajasthan. It shall be a private university. Either a Society registered by the RSS will set it up and then seek legislative support from the State Government.

It will be a private University and it may not be possible for the government to treat it, in the matter of grant-in-aid on par with other universities set up by the Government. But, if its courses are recognized by the University Grants Commission, its degrees shall be recognized and then its graduates can compete with other eligible candidates for public and private employment.

I am writing this letter to request you to prepare the blue print of an Islamic University in Rajasthan to teach undergraduate and post-graduate courses in Islamic Studies and Social Sciences, to begin with. As soon as possible, a Society should be registered with this objective.

There is no other Muslim organization in Rajasthan that can take up such a project.

On Communal Harmony in Ayodhya

Letter to Mahant Shri Gyan Das, 1 January, 2005

I and my colleagues thank you for making it convenient to receive us and to discuss the current situation in Ayodhya on 26 December, 2004. As I told the press, the credit for changing the social environment in Ayodhya goes entirely to you. I hope that all citizens of Ayodhya, irrespective of religion, shall continue to cooperate with you in maintaining peace and harmony in the ‘City of Peace’.

In this environment, whatever be the final judicial verdict, both Hindus and Muslims all over the country, shall accept it and the consequent plan of the Union Government for implementing the Supreme Court directive of 1994 on the utilization of the acquired area.

I take this opportunity to request you to extend your moral support to Mr. Hashim Ansari and Khaliq Ahmad Khan in preserving the Islamic monuments such as Masjids, dargahs and Qabristans within Ayodhya. Ayodhya must remain a sacred city for both communities.

On Narasimha Rao’s Role in Demolition

Letter to Khushwant Singh, 8 January, 2005

I have just read your obituary note on P.V. Narasimha Rao. He died relatively ‘unwept, unhonoured and unsung’. I attribute it to his insensitivity which he showed as Home Minister during Anti-Sikh Riots and as Prime Minister during the Demolition. But I do not know if he was basically incompetent, psychologically indecisive or simply cunning!

I am glad you have pricked the balloon of his linguistic and literary attainments. But in his pronouncements on foreign policy, I found him to be excellent in his choice of words.

There is a minor error of fact in your note. Advani began and ended the Yatra when V.P. Singh was the Prime Minister, not Rao.

On Mobilization Drive by VHP

Letter to M/Home Affairs, 20 January, 2005

May I draw your attention to the India-wide programme of Ram Mahotsav announced by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad to mobilize the Hindu masses to defy the Court Judgement if it goes against the VHP’s stand?

The VHP proposes to install idols of Shri Ram Chandraji in Ram Temples in all 600,000 villages in the country in the next 3 years and to introduce the celebration of Ram Mahotsav everywhere like Durga Puja and Ganesh Puja.

It is for the sants to decide on religiosity of the new festival but keeping in view the religious diversity in the country, the installation anywhere, against the will of the people of the locality, may led to friction, tension and even violence. However, the VHP Programme has a political implication which cannot be ignored. It may also provoke a law and order situation.

I request you to consider the Programme in all its aspects and take preventive measures wherever necessary.

Summon Vajpayee for Examination

AIMMM & BMMCC Statement, 22 Feb., 2005

“The transcript of the speech by the BJP leader Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee on 5 December, 1992 in Lucknow, on the eve of the Demolition, does not come as a surprise to the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (AIMMM) or to the Babari Masjid Movement Coordination Committee (BMMCC).

Since 6 December, 1992, the leadership of the Babari Masjid Movement has never entertained any doubt about the complicity of the entire top leadership of the Sangh Parivar, including Shri Vajpayee, in the Demolition.  The theory of spontaneous reaction of the Karsevaks, because of their frustration and anger with the delay in the pronouncement of the Allahabad High Court ruling on the extent of the disputed area and its legal status never had any credibility.

When Shri Kalyan Singh publicly accused Shri Vajpayee, the Liberhan Commission of Inquiry was requested to summon Shri Vajpayee for recording his evidence but the Commission did not agree.  Now that the CD is in the hands of the Commission and contains, according to a legal expert, “transparent, clear and obvious evidence of complicity”, the AIMMM requests the Liberhan Commission immediately to summon Shri Vajpayee, before it finalizes its Report.

Among those who participated in the planning the Demolition, Shri Advani, Shri Joshi, Shri Singhal, Shri Giriraj Kishore, apart from Shri Narasimha Rao, have already been examined.  There is every reason to apply the same yardstick to Shri Vajpayee.”

Letter to Ayodhya Commission of Inquiry, 28 Feb., 05

I am forwarding herewith the text of the joint Statement issued by the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat and the Babari Masjid Movement Coordination Committee requesting that Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee, former Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition in 1992 may be summoned for examination by the Ayodhya Commission of Inquiry.

I would be grateful if you would kindly bring it to the attention of the Hon’ble Chairman of the Commission.

Security of the Acquired Area in Ayodhya

Letter to HM Shivraj Patil, 18 March, 2005

On 13 March 2005, the security of the Acquired Area in Ayodhya, with special reference to the Excavated Site, was inspected by the Commissioner, Faizabad, who is the Custodian of the Acquired Area, alongwith our representative.

Our representative pointed out to him the following lapses:

1.   CRPF Morcha No. 6 – 4 iron bars of railing found missing.

2.   CRPF Morcha No.2 – big gap at the ground level.

3.   Gates – Locks missing or not in working in Duty Gate, Channel Gate, Emergency Gate and VIP Gate.

We request you to instruct the Custodian to do the needful.

On Minimum Age of Marriage

Letter to AIMPLB, 10 January, 2005

On 20 December, 2004, the Minister of Law introduced the Prevention of Child Marriage Bill, 2004 which is universally applicable. It also defines ‘minor’ universally in terms of the Majority Act, 1875.

The substance of the Bill is Section 3 which lays down that child marriage shall be voidable at the option of the party who was a child at the time of marriage within 2 years of attaining majority. It also empowers a Judicial Magistrate (Section 13) to issue an injunction against a child marriage which has been arranged or is to be solemnized.

I request you that the Board should not adopt a negative stand against the Bill in view of the growing social consensus against early marriage.

On Exclusion of Muslim Trusts from Wakf Act

Letter to President, AIMPLB, 22 March, 2005

I have been informed that the Dawoodi Bohras have obtained a stay from the Bombay High Court on the application of the Wakf Act, 1995 to their properties which shall continue to be administered by the Charities Commissioner. This is the first cleavage and it is possible that some other groups may also demand similar exemptions from the purview of the State Wakf Boards constituted under the Act of 1995. The object of the Wakf legislation was to have a common regime for all wakf properties in the country, irrespective of the sect or sub-sect of the Wakif or the beneficiary. This unity has been broken.

The Bohra community has always been in the forefront in the movement for the defence of Muslim Personal Law and against a Common Civil Code. How can they seek voluntarily to separate themselves from the other Muslims and take to a common law, I do not understand.

You may like to speak to Mr. Muchhala in this case.

On Formation of Parallel Boards

Letter to Dr. Tahir Mahmood, 17 January, 2005

I have just gone through your article on the growing fissures in the All India Muslim Personal Law Board.

I have been repeatedly raising in the Board and in the Working Committee the question of due representation of all sects. No sect shall any longer be satisfied with token representation nor can the Board be projected as a representative body of the Muslim community unless it has due representation of all major sects and of all major States. The trouble is that the leadership of the Board is not prepared to listen to advice or make the process of selection/nomination transparent. At present the Board is overwhelmingly dominated not only Hanafis but by the Deoband and Nadvi schools. I have suggested that inactive members be retired and the vacancies filled through due representation of under-represented ‘Mazhabs’ and States.

In your article you have referred to your excellent suggestion/offer for producing a ‘zamima’ to the Majmua’ Qawaneen Islam or a book on non-Hanafi Personal Law. But this is something for which you do not need the permission of the Board. I would suggest that you should write a commentary on the Majmua to bring out the differences between the Hanafi school and other 3 schools Shafai, Salfi and Asna-Ashri, which also prevail in India. That would be a great step towards codification of Muslim Personal Law, if and when it is taken up.

On Mixed Gender Congregation for Namaz

Letter to President, AIMPLB, 3 March, 2005

Dr. Amina Wadud, Professor of Islamic Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University in the USA and author of the book ‘Quran and Woman’, is to lead a Friday congregation in New York on 18 March, 2005. The publicity says that “research from the Quran and the customs of Prophet Muhammad demonstrate that there is no prohibition precluding women from leading mixed-gender prayer and, further, that Prophet Muhammad approved the practice of women leading mixed-gender prayer”.

I would be grateful for the examination of the above statement by your experts in the light of the Quran and the Hadith and for the communication of their conclusions.

On Gender Equality in Namaz

Letter to Prof. Zeenat Shaukat Ali, 10 Feb., 2005

I have seen your article which has been given, presumably by the Editor, an inaccurate title “God Knows No Gender”. God, the Creator, knows Gender but in matters of piety, worship and salvation, there is no discrimination in Islam on ground of gender. You have brought out this aspect beautifully.

There is a little inaccuracy. In Mecca, people offer prayer not in the Kaaba but in the Haram Sharif built around it.

Also the real issue is not whether women may also join congregations in Masjids but whether they can stand shoulder to shoulder with men. This is not permissible in Islam. Also my daughters feel that they should not stand in prayer behind men but in their own enclosure or reserved space.

On Status of New Meat Processing Complex under Shariat

Letter to Lt. Governor, Delhi, 31 March, 2005

As you are aware the Delhi Government is actively engaged in establishing a Meat Processing Complex at Ghazipur to replace, in accordance with the judicial order, the Idgah Slaughter House.

Recently, Shri Ramesh Mehta, the MCD Commissioner, revealed it in a press conference that the Complex shall not be limited to production of Halal meat, as the Idgah facility is, but that the animals would be slaughtered together by Zabah and Jhatka modes and hinted that even animals which are Haram for Muslims like pigs, may be slaughtered and processed. In effect, the ‘Halal’ character of the output cannot be guaranteed.

This report has caused much concern in the Muslim community.

I request your immediate attention for clarification.

I suggest:

a)   The details of the Scheme of the Complex be placed before the people including the training course for the Qasabs, being organized by the Department concerned.

b)   A group of Muslim Ulema be taken to the site and explained the process as well as the proposed system for separating Zabah from Jhatka and Halal animals from others.

c)   You should meet the Ulema, after they have visited the plant and listen to their doubts, if any, so that necessary changes may be made in the processing scheme in time.

On Family as Key to Gender Relations in Islam

Letter to The Nation and World, 1 February, 2005

Mr. Asghar Ali Engineer’s article on “Islam, Islamic World and Gender Justice” (Nation and the World, 16 December, 2004) needs to be read with caution.

No doubt a wind of change is sweeping through the Muslim world. Cultural globalization is making an impact on established customs and traditions. Democracy and human rights are fuelling aspirations for gender equality. There is growing feeling that the Muslim world, to bridge the scientific, technological and economic gap created by centuries of stagnation, has to exploit the creative potential of all its men and women. Also Islam, having spread to all corners of the world, the Muslim community has to come to grips with local social and cultural milieu.

Yet, the core of Islam lies in the belief that Islam is universal, that Allah’s last Message to mankind revealed through the Holy Prophet is valid for all societies and all times, that the Holy Quran has a divine origin and is ‘immutable’. So when Mr. Engineer pleads for social reform in Muslim societies, he has to carefully draw a clear line of demarcation between the ‘reform’ of Islam and reform of the ‘laws and customs’ of a given Muslim society. In this process of reform, the theologians and at the same time the intelligentsia and the jurists have to go back to the Quranic roots and study the requirements of the age, define the problems faced by the Muslim society and search for solutions which do not deviate by an iota from the mandatory injunctions of the Quran, as explained and clarified in the authentic Tradition of the Holy Prophet.

It goes without saying that no Muslim scholar can rewrite or ‘edit’ the Quran or make any change, addition or deletion in its text in the name of ‘modernization’ or ‘westernization’ or ‘progress’.

Coming specifically to family laws, gender relations in Islam are based on the concept of family, as the social unit. Man and woman are equal in worship; they have equal place in society; equal right to education; to earn, to hold and to dispose of property, to marry and raise a family. Yet, within the family, at the end of the day, the husband, on whom Islam places the responsibility for maintenance has the last word on important decisions. This is in the interest of stability and harmony. If the husband and the wife had absolutely equal rights, decision-making would face a deadlock!

So while regulating social institutions like polygamy or divorce, which demand urgent reform, the Muslim society should not ape the ways of the Western society which commercializes woman and permits promiscuity and disruption of family in the name of equality.

Human society has been historically patriarchal, primarily because of physical differences between man and woman which defines division of work and economic activity and largely leaves physical defence of the community and the family to man.

Proposal for Coordination of Moonsighting

Open Letter to Chairmen of the Ruyat-e-Hilal Committees, 27 January, 2005

On behalf of the Muslims of India, the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (AIMMM) expresses their appreciation and gratitude to the 4 Ruyat-e-Hilal Committees which confirmed, although separately, sighting of the moon of 1st Zilhaj and announced that Namaz of Id-ul-Adha shall be performed on 21 January, 2005. Thus the confusion, as on the occasion of the last Id-ul-Fitr was avoided.

Our request to all of you is that you should form a Coordination Committee, consisting of the heads of the 4 Committees, which should make a joint pronouncement by ‘Isha prayer on such occasions after sharing with each other and considering the information in the hands of each of them.

On Qaradawi’s Silence on ‘Tabarra’

Letter to Yoginder Sikand, 5 March, 2005

Your article on Yusuf al-Qaradawi’s Approach to Shia-Sunni Dialogues. In India to Shia-Sunni differences come to the surface only on the occasion of Moharram due to Sunni objection to ‘Tabarra’. The Sheikh’s fatwas are silent on this point. Tabarra is public damnation of the first three Caliphs. Perhaps it is a peculiarly Indian or even Lucknow phenomenon.

On Shia-Sunni Clash in Lucknow

Letter to Milli Gazette/Radiance/A.H. Lari, 7 Mar., 05

The recent Shia-Sunni riot in Lucknow is not only deplorable but a signal to the Muslim community about the game of the vested interests. But before we apportion blame we should know

1.   Whether a definite route was fixed by the local authorities with the knowledge of the Sunni and Shia leaders in advance.

2.   Whether the Shia procession did in fact deviate from the announced route.

3.   Whether the processionists, or at least some of them, shouted offensive slogans or engaged in objectionable recitations, before and after and while passing through the deviation.

4.   Whether the Sunni residents pelted stones on the procession.

5.   Whether fire-arms were used by one side or both sides.

6.   Whether the persons killed and injured and the shops and other articles torched belonged to both sects and if so, their number.

May I request you to kindly let us know the factual position?

On Collection of Donations by Khuddam

Letter to Advocate Tahir Siddiqui, 30 Dec, 2004

I have seen your letter in the Qaumi Awaz of 29 December, 2004. I have not seen the Order of the Delhi High Court of 20.11.2004 and I would request you to send me a copy.

In the meantime, the real problem of breaking the traditional linkage between the Zaireen and the Khuddam/Sajjadanashins persists. How can any officer/authority monitor the money that is voluntarily offered and gratefully accepted in private?

To my mind there is no way to collect the money offered by the Zaireen, except that deposited in the sealed boxes, and, in that too, I am certain that the High Court has conceded a share for the Khuddam/Sajjadanashins.

When I see the Order, I may suggest some way for breaking this stalemate.

On Proposal for ASI Control on Jama Masjid

I - Letter to Delhi Wakf Board, 24 February, 2005

The Delhi High Court has now ordered the Delhi Wakf Board to consider the proposal of the ASI for a Memorandum of Understanding to permit the continuance of the religious rites, rituals and practices in the Jama Masjid after it is declared a Protected Monument.

I think your Counsel has been trapped by his inadequate logic that the only objection of the Board is the fear of the Namaz being prohibited in the Jama Masjid. Had he studied the Act of 1958, he would have seen that no living monument can be taken under protection without a Memorandum of Understanding with the owner, in this case, the Delhi Wakf Board (and not the Bukhari family) and the law provides for continuity as on date of declaration.

I suggest that the Delhi Wakf Board instruct the Counsel to request the High Court for a survey of all Protected Masjids in the Delhi Circle, in order to substantiate the objection of the Muslim community that once under protection, the Protected Masjids receive very low priority from the ASI and negligible attention to physical protection, repair and maintenance, conservation and removal of encroachment in the ‘protected zone’ and prohibited zone around the monuments.

The Counsel should also give details of the grants made by the Union Government for the repair and conservation of the Jama Masjid since independence, though in some cases the Wakf Board was bypassed. Your Counsel should point out that the MCD/DDA have not fulfilled their duty of keep the surroundings of the Jama Masjid neat and clean and removing the encroachments, under the law of the land and argue that what was needed was not an illusory protection by the ASI but a regular grant by the Government to the DWB for repair and conservation and performance of their statutory duties by the MCD and the DDA.

II - Letter to Delhi Wakf Board, 18 March, 2005

Thank you for your letter No. 2/CEO/Misc./DWB/05/101 dated 15.3.2005 regarding the proposed take over of the Jama Masjid by the ASI.

The question of a Memorandum of Understanding arises only when the owner/manager of the Wakf property which the ASI wishes to take over as a historic monument agrees to the proposal of the ASI in principle. In my view the Delhi Wakf Board should reject the idea ab initio.

I strongly urge the Delhi Wakf Board a) to assert its legal authority on and responsibility for the Jama Masjid; and b) to refuse to consider any change in its legal status or any interference in its management by the ASI.

To support this stand, the Wakf Board should request the High Court for a report on the physical condition and expenditure on conservation and protection of all the historic Masjids in Delhi which have been with the ASI for many decades.

The Wakf Board should also ask for a list of historic monuments in India like the Golden Temple which have been proposed/accepted by the UNESCO for World Heritage Status, without take over by the ASI.

On Maintenance of Ancient Masjids by DWB

Letter to Min. of Tourism, Delhi, 28 January, 2005

I am glad to know that the Government of Delhi has decided to introduce Bhagidari Scheme in the conservation and protection of historical elements in the Territory, apart from those which are under the protection of the ASI.

Ancient monuments include Masjids and Dargahs which constitute the Wakfs in law. We would suggest for your consideration that the Delhi Wakf Board be treated on par with RWA’s and other NGO’s for the maintenance of such monuments of religious significance for Muslims.

You may like to consult the Minister-in-charge as well as the Chairman of the Delhi Wakf Board in this connection.

On Priorities for Utilization of Wakf Income

I - Letter to Chairman, DWB, 22 March, 2005

The Delhi Wakf Board is the de facto and dejure Mutawalli of most Wakf properties in Delhi, except those which have successor Mutawallis under their Wakfnamas.

We appreciate your effort to raise the income from the Wakf estates and your interest to use it for promotion of education and welfare of the Muslim community. However, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that many Wakf properties need urgent repairs, even reconstruction and maintenance, and the income of their wakf estates is not adequate for the purpose. In my view, there should be a clear order of priorities for the utilization of recurring income of a Wakf estate in the following manner:

1.   Fulfillment of the intention of the Waqif and repair and maintenance of the Wakf properties included in the Wakf Estate.

2.   Contribution to a common Fund for the Repair and Maintenance of other Wakf Properties under those Wakf estates which do not have adequate income to do the needful.

3.   Contribution to a common Education and Welfare Fund for Education of indigent children and Welfare of Indigent Persons of the Community in Delhi.

4.   Establishment of educational, and particularly technical training institutions, for Muslim boys and girls.

No part of income from Wakf estates should be utilized for the administration of the Wakf Board. But what is important is to ensure that the accounts of each Wakf estate is maintained separately and any diversion of surplus income to other purposes is done in a transparent manner.

We request you to consider these suggestions.

II - Letter to Chairman, DWB, 11 February, 2005

The Delhi Wakf Board has raised the salaries payable to Imams and Muezzins of the Masjids managed it, directly or through its appointed Managing Committees. We would like to have a copy of the Notification at your earliest convenience.

To meet this additional expenditure, I am sure you are making every effort to raise the income from Wakf properties. The question is not only to realize the rent from defaulters or force unlawful occupation out but to have the wakf properties exempted from the urban rent laws which protect the tenants and also to have wakf properties recognized by law as Public Premises.

I am sure you are making all possible effort to persuade the Chief Minister to agree to the necessary statutory changes.

On Demolition of Masjids during Slum Clearance

I - Letter to Lt. Governor of Delhi, 1 January, 2005

May I draw your attention to the demolition of more than 12 Masjids and some 6 Mandirs in the Yamuna Pushta on 29 December, 2004?

However, Pagal Baba Mandir, Sanskrit Vidyalaya, Dhobi Ghat Mandir and Kele Wala Mandir were, for some unknown reasons, left untouched.

All these places of worship were equally unauthorized constructions on public land. Therefore the exceptions smack of discrimination.

I also feel that the religious functionaries should have been given time to remove sacred books and objects before the demolition squad went into operation.

To abate public agitation I suggest that the DDA should publicly explain why exceptions were made and why no time was given to the religious functionaries to remove their sacred books and objects.

[Note: Lt. Governor informed me on 4 April, 2005 that he has issued due instructions]

II - Letter to CM Delhi, 25 January, 2005

The All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (AIMMM) has taken note of the recent demolition of some Masjids, and other places of worship, in the Yamuna Pushta by the DDA following the earlier demolition of all Jhuggis in the area under its Slum Clearance Programme. The AIMMM deems it unfortunate that several individuals and organizations have tried to politicize the case.

A Masjid cannot be constructed on an usurped site whose ownership does not vest in a Muslim or a Muslim Jamaat. Also a Masjid can be constructed on such a site only after it has been dedicated by the owner as Wakf-al-Allah for the purpose. So far, the AIMMM has no evidence to establish that these conditions have been fulfilled. It is, therefore, of the view that these places used for Namaz are not Masjids in the proper sense of the term.

However, the Masjid functionaries, if available on the site, should have been given written notice and adequate time to remove all articles of religious significance before demolition, so that no religious books or objects were desecrated which is an offence under law.

The AIMMM strongly urges you to advise the DDA to allot a suitable plot for the construction of a Masjid-cum-Maktab in the area of resettlement of the families removed under the Slum Clearance Programme.

On Relocation of Masjid in Calcutta Airport

Letter to MOS for Civil Aviation, 17 January, 2005

You may be aware of the ‘Masjid problem’ in constructing the secondary runway to upgrade the Calcutta airport.

Your predecessor Shri Shahnawaz Husain on 30 January, 2003 reportedly assured the Muslim community that the Masjid will stay where it is.

I have been involved in the controversy for many years but I can apply my mind, only if I have a site plan before me showing the Masjid, the outer perimeter of the airport and the outline of the proposed runway in its vicinity.

I would request you to advise the AAI, Calcutta, to have a discussion with us in order to endeavour jointly to find a solution.

On Exemption from Rent Control Act

I - Letter to UP Sunni Wakf Board, 10 Jan., 2005

I am glad to know that the Government of Uttar Pradesh has exempted the Wakf properties from the operation of the Rent Control Act. If so, I would be grateful for a copy of the Notification in this regard.

I suggest that the UP Wakf Board should advise the Mutawallis to refix the rent of their banned properties at the market rate.

On Need to Amend UP Urban Bldgs. Act

Letter to Sunni Central Wakf Board, UP, 7 Feb., 05

Thank you for your letter No. 15723/Chairman-2005 dated 2 February, 2005 and for sending me a copy of the UP Urban Buildings (Regulation of Letting etc.) (Amendment) Act, 1995.

On Negotiation with J&K Parties on Autonomy

Letter to M/Home Affairs, 18 January, 2005

I felicitate you on re-opening negotiations with the National Conference on the Resolution on Autonomy, passed by the J&K Assembly. But I hope the Vohra Committee would talk to all political parties and groups in J&K which see autonomy as a substitute for secession.

On Model Polity for J&K

Letter to Balraj Puri, 18 January, 2005

I have just read your “Blueprint of Federal and Decentralized Polity for J&K”.

In your Blueprint you have introduced an additional level of ‘Regional Government’ between the State Government and the Zila Sarkar or Panchayat. This additional level will either add to the distance between the State and the people or become redundant just as the administrative level of ‘Commissioner’ has become. There is yet another problem. Armed with ‘subordinate’ regional governments, the State of J&K shall see itself not as being ‘under’ the Central Government but ‘on par’ with it. This will militate against harmony.

I can anticipate your reply; the Central Government is supreme in its own sphere; the State Government is supreme in its own. But this has not worked in practice, since Central grants/loans, in terms of plan outlay, far exceed State’s own resources. So the Centre dominates the States.

What I am suggesting that you should reconsider your model. My own preference will be for the State Government dealing directly with the District administration or Zila Sarkars or Zila Parishads, which the districts, in a region form a Regional Council for consultations on matters of common concern.

Secondly, your Blueprint does not elaborate safeguards for the interest of cultural, linguistic and ethnic minorities embedded within a region or a district. Their rights have to be safeguarded on a uniform basis in all regions/zilas, in terms of an agreed charter at the State level.

My own overview, as you are aware, is for breaking up the State on geographical basis, integrating Jammu and Ladakh and considering them like other States/UT’s of the Union and giving Kashmir full (‘maximum’) autonomy and devising a separate, nay , unique scheme of governance in terms of the provision of the instrument of accession and the State Constitution.

I endorse your view that reorganization of the State on the basis of autonomy should not be deferred for reaching a settlement with Pakistan. The two issues should be delinked. In fact, the grant of autonomy with decentralization shall catalyze a democratic upsurge in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, even in Gilgit and Baltistan which have been integrated in Pakistan.

On Auland Model

Letter to Ambassador of Finland, 20 January, 2005

Your Excellency may kindly recall that on 15 March, 2001, Your Government and Provincial Government of the Aalands had organized a Seminar at the UN Hqrs. in New York to discuss the applicability of the Auland Case to other conflict situations throughout the world. The report of the Seminar was published under the title ‘Autonomy – Alternative to Secession’.

We would be grateful for a copy of the Report or for guidance for obtaining it.

Suggestions and Advice on Haj Problems 9.2.2005

1.   Private Tour Operators:  There should be an annual post-Haj check on the performance of the P.T.Os. by the Haj Committee on the basis of complaints received from pilgrims and the violation of guidelines of instructions that come to notice. The Rules should provide for review of registration and de-registration, if deemed necessary.

2.   Central Haj Fund:  Section 30 should be amended to add: to 30(a): ‘(iii) for construction and maintenance of Haj Houses at various exit points and state capitals’.

3.   Role of State Haj Committees:  Section 4(ii) does not mandate election of 9 State representatives through State Haj Committee and, therefore, the election should be delinked from formation of State Haj Committee.

An electoral college consisting of Muslim MP’s/MLA’s/MLC’s from the states falling in each Zone, plus 5 representatives of Muslim institutions/organizations of State eminence in the field of public administration, finance, education, culture and social welfare from each state plus 3 Ulema (including one Shia, if necessary), plus the Chairpersons of the Wakf Boards and the State Haj Committees, if not already included should be constituted for the purpose.

4.   Ex-officio Members:  The ex-officio Members should be empowered to depute an officer from their Division, not less than Deputy Secretary in rank, to represent them.

5.   Nominees of the Central Government:  It is obvious that Section 4(ii) has been blatantly violated. The Union should admit the violation, cancel their nomination and substitute them by eminent persons with transparent suitability and then request the Delhi High Court to dispose of the writ petition.

6.   Terms of Committee and its Members:  The terms should be co-terminus. The term of the Committee should begin on the date of notification. A vacancy arising out of death, insolvency, resignation etc. may be filled for the balance of the term of the Committee. The term of the office-bearers should also statutorily cease, when the Committee ceases to exist or completes its term. With a permanent Executive Officer, the Committee shall continue to perform routine duties or the Government should nominate the Joint Secretary (Haj) in Ministry of External Affairs to perform the functional duties of the Chairman till the new Committee is constituted.

7.   Status of Central/State Ministers:  The Act should be amended to provide that the Chairperson of the State Haj Committee shall not be a member of the State Council of Ministers.

On Formation of Inter-State Haj Committee

Letter to MOS/External Affairs, 12 Feb., 2005

As you must have noted, Haj pilgrims largely originate from 16 States of high Muslim concentration. The number of pilgrims from the other States/UT’s are of the order of a few hundreds, some even below 100. I suggest that the Ministry of External Affairs should not press all States/UT’s to form their own Haj Committees but, just as Sikkim has done, promote the idea of Inter-State Haj Committee for small States/UT’s to attach themselves to a neighbouring major State with large Muslim concentration as they neither need nor can afford the large infra-structure for a separate Committee.

On Haj Subsidy

I - Letter to A.R. Mookhi, 18 January, 2005

With reference to your correspondence with Mr. G.M. Siddiqui, I do not have the time to comment on his letter to the Pioneer which, in my view, only helps the Hindu chauvinists.

Mr. Siddiqui is wrong to assert that Haj sailings were subsidized by the Government. I was on the Board of Directors of the Mogul Line which had the monopoly and I know that they were not. The fares were calculated on a no-profit, no-loss basis. Indeed the first class passengers were subsidized at the cost of deck passengers!

Haj flights were introduced originally in the 60’s in anticipation of the inevitable substitution of ships by planes. Also, in view of the non-availability of ships suitable for Haj traffic, the ageing ships could not be replaced. In the world market ships available are at prices which would have raised sea fare to above the air fare. Also, pilgrims from other Muslim countries took to Haj flights.

The Haj subsidy was introduced in the early 70’s when due to oil crisis, the airfare went up, worldwide, to cushion the Haj pilgrims against sudden shock. It was intended that the charter fare would rise gradually to its normal level in a few years.

For purely political reasons, Haj fare after 1980 was frozen at 12,000. Why should it remain frozen when every other element of Haj expenditure, including travel in India costs more compared to 1980?

Haj is a conditional religious duty for those who can afford it. That is why Pakistan has stopped all subsidies. I am not aware of any Muslim country which subsidizes Haj.

Mr. Siddiqui’s argument about Muslim share in public funds is totally out-of-place.

Doesn’t the Muslim community share the benefit of government expenditure on welfare and development, long-term and short-term. Yes, there is discrimination in practice. So I have been fighting for equal attention to Muslim localities and for equal flow of welfare and development benefits to Muslims, including more facilities for Muslim pilgrimages within the country, more attention to Muslim monuments, including Masjids and Dargahs. But why insist on Haj subsidy?

I am fully aware of the irrational logic of the Muslim-baiters but I do not agree with GM Siddiqui that irrationality should be responded to by irrationality. Indeed the strength of the minority case lies in rationality. Moreover, as a Muslim I reject the ‘Roman’ argument. I am bound by Islamic ethics.

Mr. Siddiqui asks why the NDA Government continued the subsidy. The answer is simple. It did so because it sought Muslim votes and did not want to appear anti-Muslim!

The NDA Government was absolutely right in denying subsidy to I.T. payers and to second-timers, since they were rich enough to for the Haj in full. However, it was wrong to link subsidy to stay in Rubats. Also the change was introduced without adequate notice and the procedure was cumbersome, which could have been simplified.

Mr. Siddiqui does not realize that if the charter fare is negotiated honestly and if the Haj fare in dollars is raised to its present rupee value, there would be no need for any subsidy. In my view, the Haj Committee should be mandated to arrange air charter through open international tender and to fix it at 2/3 to 3/4 of the current return IATA fare in dollars. I think the Haj pilgrims should be rational and Islamic enough to pay the rupee equivalent.

II - Letter to A.R. Mookhi, 20 January, 2005

GM’s rejoinder of 19 January on Haj Subsidy. His protestation will not convert Haj subsidy into a secular welfare measure! There is a basic difference between his approach and mine. He treats the secular order as a fraud on Muslims. I regard it is the only political panacea for them. He regards all parties as communal. I do not, and, certainly not on all issues, at all times. Also we need to strengthen those parties who are in active combat against the Hindutva forces. He has a deep phobia against the Congress, for reasons unknown to me. For 25 years in politics I was critical of the Congress. Yet I developed no irrational phobia. Today I see Congress as the only defence against BJP.

He has stated that I was not able to make my ‘view on Haj Subsidy stick’ At least it was unanimously adopted by the Parliamentary Committee on External Affairs as national policy. However, what governments do is always politically motivated. I have never been in government and I have never taken repeal of subsidy on an issue to fight for. Please let me know only if the Pioneer published GMS’ letter.

This is my last communication to you on the subject.

MMM, W. Bengal’s Memorandum to Governor, 11 March, 2005

The Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (MMM), West Bengal, thanks you for your kind appointment on the occasion of the visit of its National President Mr. Syed Shahabuddin and has the honour to present a Memorandum on Remedial Measures to Solve the Problems of the Muslim Community, which, though it constitutes nearly 25% of the population of the State, is one of the most educationally, economically and socially deprived and backward communities.

The MMM, West Bengal, expresses its concern at the continuing under-representation of the Muslims in the Executive, particularly in administration and police at all levels, the Judiciary and above all, the Legislature.  Indeed the Muslim community of West Bengal which is the second biggest of all States in the country and constitutes about 15% of the total Muslim population of the country is, by all indications, the most backward Muslim community of the country.

The MMM, West Bengal, regrets to note that the Government of West Bengal has not paid the attention that this community deserves.  It has been largely left to fester in its bustees and villages and has consequently made little progress during the last 50 years and shared only marginally in the progress and development of the State.

To take stock of the present political, economic and educational status of the Muslim community, the MMM, West Bengal suggests a comprehensive Socio-economic Survey, as undertaken in Karnataka and in some other States, with the direct participation of the administrative machinery.  The Survey Report shall enable the State Government and, subsequently, the West Bengal Backward Classes Commission to consider the longstanding Muslim demand for the declaration of the Community, as a Backward Class, as a Community, within the meaning of Articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution and to make necessary provisions for reservation in higher education and public employment, in distribution of welfare and development benefits and the flow of bank credit.

The MMM, West Bengal, also proposes that the Department of Minorities Affairs be galvanized to monitor the distribution of benefits of welfare and development to the Muslim Community, in the implementation of all Government Programme and Schemes, Central, Centrally-sponsored and State, and to oversee the working of all Schemes for the Welfare of the Minorities.

The MMM, West Bengal, emphasizes that the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan should be directed to reach the Muslim concentration areas, villages and blocks, wards and towns, for the establishment of government primary schools and high schools, in accordance with the national norm.

The MMM, West Bengal, urges the government to introduce the Mother Tongue as the medium of primary instruction in schools which are located in Urdu-speaking areas as well as to ensure in high schools the teaching of Urdu as the First Language, with Bengali as the Compulsory Second Language, to the students whose mother tongue is Urdu, in accordance with the original Three Language Formula, without any numerical limitation, in accordance with the letter and spirit of the Constitution of the UN Declaration on Rights of Minorities, 1992..

The MMM, West Bengal, also requests that the Government of West Bengal to establish a Minority Education Board for facilitating expeditious recognition by and affiliation to the competent authorities, as well as sanction of grant-in-aid, to the extent possible to the minority educational institutions established under Article 30 of the Constitution.

The MMM, West Bengal, demands that the Government should nominate Muslims equitably to the Government Boards, Corporation and PSUs.

The MMM, West Bengal, request you, Sir, to convey the Memorandum, with your recommendation to the Hon’ble Chief Minister of West Bengal for sympathetic consideration.

II - Reply of Governor of W. Bengal, 22 Mar., 05

You will recall our discussions in Kolkata on 12 March, 2005.

I have sent the Memorandum from the Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (West Bengal) to the Hon’ble Chief Minister, West Bengal. I am sure he will engage with the points made therein.

I have had occasion to refer to some of the issues raised, at a couple of public events in the city, without specific reference to the persons who met me or the institution concerned.  I enclose the text of my Convocation Address at the Indian Statistical Institute on 18 March, 2005, and a clipping of the Urdu daily Akbar-e-Mashriq.

III - Reply to Governor of W. Bengal, 2 April, 05

I thank you for your gracious letter of 22 March 2005 but more than that for incorporating the basic point I made to you in your public discourse and thus bringing  the question of providing equal opportunity to the educationally deprived Muslims of Bengal on the open public agenda.  I am reminded of Roosevelt’s dictum that ‘there is no better disinfectant than sunlight’.

I have no doubt that education is the key and the day the enrollment rate of the Muslim children goes up and their drop out rate between Class I and X goes down, and matches the state average, the doors would be wide open for their progress into various sections of civic life.

I had promised to send you a note based on statistical comparison of West Bengal with the country as a whole and the Muslims of West Bengal with the Muslims in the country as a whole.  I am preparing it and shall send it soon.

Once again I thank you.  I am sure your personal concern will produce results.

On Treatment of Religious Minorities in Assam

Letter Mr. H.R.A. Choudhary, 17 January, 2005

I have seen your statement on the treatment of religious and linguistic minorities in Assam by the present government.

You have also stated that the 20 Muslim MLAs belonging to the INC pay no attention to the grievances of the Muslim community.

It is for organizations like the UMF and the MMM, Assam, to place the facts before the people so that they are refused tickets by their parties and are not re-elected.

On Police Encounter in Delhi

Letter to Lt. Governor of Delhi, 24 Feb., 2005

May I draw your attention to the report in the Hindustan Times about yet another ‘encounter’ on 6 February, 2005 by the Delhi Police in which someone by the name Faisal Siddiqui, apparently an innocent person from Meerut, was killed.

We request you to order a magisterial inquiry and announce an ex-gratia payment and order prosecution of the police personnel concerned.

On Starvation in Rural Murshidabad

Letter to Pranab Babu/Prakash Karat, 8 March, 05

The Asian Human Rights Commission has reported on the basis of information received from Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha in West Bengal that some people in Murshidabad district are dying of starvation and the authorities have taken no effective action to stop starvation death and that the entire area is under threat of insufficient nutrition.

We request you to draw the attention of the Government of West Bengal to this situation, so that it deals with it effectively before it acquires the dimensions of a human disaster.

On Custodial Killing in Greater Noida

Letter to NHRC, 10 March, 2005

We draw your attention to the custodial killing of 3 boys, Asif, Meherban and Arshad, in Kasana P.S., Greater Noida, Gautam Budh Nagar, UP, by the personnel on duty reported in the Indian Express, 10 March, 2005.

We request you to take suo moto notice of the case in order to ensure prosecution of the culprits and compensation to the next-of-kin of those killed.

No Compulsion in Population Control

M/Health’s Reply, 31 December, 2004