Religious terror on the world stage

It is unbelievable that any religious ideology, stretched to any extent of extremism, could motivate the kind of massacre of children carried out by Taliban within the precinct of education.  While Islamic religious leaders from around the world have expressed dismay at this, there remains an unanswered question as to why it is only the extremists of one religious direction that resort to this kind of absolutely obnoxious  behavior.   Nowhere in the history of mankind such brutal and inhuman behavior was exhibited by the extremists of one particular community, so widely around the world.

The world was just waking up this week to the criminal hostage taking of one lone extremist in Sydney, when the massacre in Peshawar took away everyone's sleep.  Each incident of this nature in the world is outdoing the earlier in magnitude and effect.  Over 90 girls in northern Nigeria, abducted by Boko Haram are yet to be traced and may possibly have been sold into slavery.  The young girls, women and children abducted and raped by ISIS are being sold like livestock in the Middle East every day. Taliban from the borderlands of Afghanistan and Pakistan has undermined the meanest crimes by donning this crown of blood dipped in the blood river of innocent children they killed for no reason.  In Kashmir, Laskar e Taiba has continued its cowardice of terrorizing those who want peace in the valley and hills. 

 In all, extremists have all exhibited incomprehensible enthusiasm to kidnap, rape, torture, maim and kill women, children and men indiscriminately.  The right minded Muslim communities around the world have been greatly constrained to do more towards establishing confidence and trust in them among the cautious civilizations.

India teeters precariously on the risk of extremism and terrorism.  All religions live in harmony in India but those who pursue the small lane politics of communalism use ingenious methods of tipping the balance of secularism.  And events such as the ones we have witnessed this week are exploited by those who thrive on the opportunities of baying for blood.

It is time that Islamic leadership from around the world come together to cleanse the bad image being created by the extremists of their community.  

V K SAXENA
PRESIDENT
National Council for Civil Liberties,
Ahmedabad

Web: www.ncclindia.org,

Twiter:@VKSaxena26

NCCL to mordenise tribal village VANAJ in North Gujarat

NCCL has on 21.11.2014 launched its new Project “Rainbow Hills” from village VANAJ, in Taluka Vijayanagar, District: Sabarkantha in North Gujarat.

In a simple Ceremony, Taluka Mamlatdar,  Mr Prajapati, in the presence of villagers & NCCL Volunteers started the work of re-constructions and modernization of houses in the picturesque Vanaj village which is situated on a small hillock facing a huge lake.

After necessary survey, NCCL has selected 10 houses in village: Vanaj, for reconstruction and repair.  The selected houses are constructed by the Adivasis using mud for walls and local wood for ceiling.  Adivasis in  Vijaynagar Taluka are living in dilapidated  dusty houses  in an unhealthy conditions and uncontrolled element of their routine misery.

Under the scheme  the NCCL will do  Repair of walls, floor, roof, Varendas , Plastering of mud walls & floor with Cement , Laying Cement Sheet on the roof for protection from rains, heat etc and putting tiles (Nadiya) on it for long lasting roof protection ,Colouring of roof top and Construction of toilets.   

NCCL will arrange Cleaning of surrounding area with the help of local Adivasis of the selected houses and will guide them to maintain clean & hygienic surroundings and also to stop using plastic products, causing maximum damage to the Environment. The entire cost of repair/reconstruction etc will be borne by the NCCL.

The aim of this scheme is to provide basic amenities to the poor Adivasis, without disturbing their lifestyle, traditions and surroundings. Further, these Adivasis will also be guided to rent out one room in these neatly Re-constructed houses to the tourists interested in eco-tourism, which will generate income for them.

NCCL in the past successfully implemented Mission ENDURE, in Ahmedabad City to reduce dust pollution by constructing footpaths from pre-cast Cement Concrete blocks, which was a unique practical, positive and participatory project  implemented in association with Ahmedabad Muncipal Corporation (AMC).

Newslink, the Pioneer, New Delhi dated 24.11.2014 below:

http://www.dailypioneer.com/nation/nccl-to-modernise-north-gujarat-tribal-village.html

V K Saxena

President

NCCL

Ahmedabad

Palace loyalties do public dis-service

We often want to believe that India is changing.  We take great pride in diving deep into the images of our society and sift through them to find those hints of change - that we don't hang from the trees our forefathers grew. We pride in our sense of maturity and impartial judgment to say that we form our opinions on the basis of context.  We want the world to believe that India is neither personality centric nor is a society of irrational old loyalties.  And when we try to paint the picture of change, we present proudly the agents of change like the media.

But a careful observation defies this bold projection of ourselves as an impartial, impersonal and ingenuous society that implicitly falls in line with the imperative change.

This phenomenon is more evident in the way the old guard of Press and some stalwarts of the media have behaved in the post May 16 Parliamentary Elections and Oct 19, Maharastra & Haryana Assembly  electoral results.  The whole world has noticed and accepted that the royalty of India, exemplified by the heir to the throne and his mother regent have been thrown into the dust bin of history and their palatial political party has been disregarded as irrelevant by the people of India.  But yet, there are senior journalists in the country, mainly based in Delhi and few in Mumbai, who have not shaken off their palace loyalties.  They refuse to recognize the change.  They fall deaf to the voice of people.  They continue to eulogize and empathize with the Congress Party which brought the Nation to its lowest low, its sublime masters and the glory of that old era. During result day debate, they were looking totally shattered, not ready to believe that People of India have voted for the change. These journalists use all powers in their disposal, the television channels they own, the newspapers they print and the platforms they coordinate to keep alive the glory or Congress that only exists now in their distant memory.

By all means, this is betrayal of the public desire for change.  This mindset of old faithfulness is an insult to the voices of democracy and in defiance to the popular will.  At a time when the vehicle of nation is trying to roll smooth on the boulevard of time, these irrational old loyalties are an irritant spoke in the wheel of progress.

V K SAXENA
PRESIDENT
National Council for Civil Liberties,
 Ahmedabad.

Twiter:@VKSaxena26

Project Rainbow Hills under clean India initiative

One of the prime concerns of NCCL is to provide an expression to the potential strength of environment to rejuvenate itself and present it to the people at large as a new dimension of civil liberty to realize harmonious and sustainable development of nature with respect to man. 

We have followed this principle in many of our earlier Missions, a visible example of which has come to be known in Ahmedabad as Mission ENDURE (ENsuring DUst REduction).  Through Mission ENDURE, we established a culture of presenting to people a clean city endowed with good air quality.  It also epitomized our resolve to bring into play the simple principles that are otherwise shrouded in ignorance and callousness. More importantly, we strived to restore popular civil liberty to expect betterment of contemporary life. 

On the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, another simple principle has been emerging in our minds to develop  dilapidated houses on small hillocks in the vicinity of Shamlaji (Gujarat). These hills 

comes  both the sides on National Highway No-8 while driving from Ahmedabad to Udaipur. We recognize that the potential of this plan may hold the key to a series of eco-development drives in India . 

To Support Prime Minister Mr Modi’s initiative of Clean India, I along with NCCL team, visited beautiful Shamlaji Hill’s area on 2^nd October-2014 and selected 6 dilapidated houses of village Odhapadia. NCCL will reconstruct these houses and will handover it to the poor residents with toilets and other amenities in few months time as a part of its small contribution to the Nation. We are hopeful that the place will turn into a beautiful landscape worthy of emulation and appreciation.

V K Saxena

President

NCCL

Ahmedabad.

Pictures of Odhapadia:

An affable PM and his affectionate subjects‏

Prime Minister Narendra Modi  is on a high pedestal of people's love.  From Maharani Bagh to Madison Square Gardens, people are lining up the street to see this face of India's future.  In spite of riding the high tide of approval ratings, Mr.Modi remains the man he is - humble and affable, easily hand-shakable. In New York City, In a rare gesture, Mr Modi came out of his huge convoy to greet a large number of Indians who had gathered outside his hotel,  shook hands with  them and walked almost one entire block distance before going back to the hotel.

Let me recall that on 17 September, I attended the MOU signing ceremony at Hotel Hyatt, Ahemdabad, which was witnessed by only selected gathering of Gujarat. Fortunately, I was one of them.  MOUs were signed in the presence of PM Narendra Modi and Chinese Presedent Ji Zingping. Mr Modi arrived 15 minutes before the arrival of Chinese President. He interacted with the people and went upto the last row. People were wishing him Happy Birthday. I was sitting behind the Chinese Dignitaries.  

 On return from the last row, lots of Chinese and Indian guests almost gheraod him and started taking pictures from all sides from their cell phones. The most surprising thing was that Mr Modi called few Chinese Delegates by name and spoke to them in Gujarati and these Chinese officials also responded in Gujarati. There was much warmth and excitement in the Chinese Delegation.

One lady Chinese official who was standing near me asked me "I want to Shake hands with Mr Modi". I asked her to request him directly and as a result, Mr Modi obliged her with shaking hands with her. The woman after shaking hands was totally zapped and could not believe that she shook hands with the Indian Prime Minister and for a few moments, she remained ecstatic. After that she started speaking some thing in Chinese with her fellow delegates in great excitement . After a few minutes, she asked me if I could take her picture with Mr Modi from her Cell Phone. I said why not and asked her to stand near Mr Modi and took the picture from her Cell Phone. 

 What I have written above is just one episode of the ease of approach with the New Prime Minister and how much he loves to make people around him comfortable. We witnessed this euphoria in Japan and are seeing it again in New York and Washington  

Here is a Prime Minister who loves his people.  And at last, people have found a Prime Minister whom they love.  In shaking hands with him, people find the sati.sfaction of shaking hands with their future. The handshake means being in safe hands.  

Nothing stops people from falling in love with an affable Prime Minister - at home and abroad.

 VK Saxena

President ,

NCCL

Ahmedabad

Flood in J&K - an opportunity to drown the differences‏

On one side, the debate on J&K was taking on a new dimension. Sociologists were discussing on the possibility of return of Kashmiri Pandits to the valley. Defence analysts were talking of the need to check mate Hurriyat.  Political commentators were wondering how National Conference has become irrelevant to the J&K context and how Abdullahs have overstayed their presence in the history of the land. ISI was ranting how Kashmir should be liberated from the so called Indian occupation. Nawaz Sharif had gone huddled in a closet with his coterie to think if he can bring up the issue of Kashmir this 'n'th time to safeguard his own shaking seat in the Govt. As always - the communal, political, social and regional difference were rife.

Then came the sudden, incessant and unending downpour of rains into the State.  The torrents submerged nearly half of Srinagar, killed over 160 people, displaced tens of thousands of people, destroyed homes and farmlands, tore down the flanks of the hills in landslides, broke up roads and bridges and within the blink of an eye - caused an unprecedented national disaster of sorts.  In one sweeping moment of nature, all the clamour of civilization, militarization, communalism and extremism was drowned till the nostrils to the shock and dismay of people, parties and Govts. J&K on both sides of the border and across the several man-made borders, came to remain under the fury of nature, the almighty.

There is a lesson in this disaster, which is loud and clear.

Divided community, divided ideology, divided nation, divided region, divided polity and a manipulated state of existence do not provide you the strength of cooperation, mutual tolerance and mutual help that are needed to prosper and keep the nostrils in the air of existence.  If we are already half drowned under the divisive forces, it only takes very little for us to fully drown under the reality of our planetary survival.

This flood is a lesson.  This flood is an opportunity to drown our differences and stick our heads above the rising water. The Indian Prime Minister has already reached out to his Pakistani counterpart, offering assistance in flood relief operations in the areas "across the Line of Control", which is certainly a good initiative.

V K Saxena

NCCL 

Ahmedabad

Triangular world of three Muslim Spheres‏

On 11^th July, I was at Ahmedabad international airport, waiting for a flight to Istanbul ( Turkey ).  Twitter was abuzz with arguments on whether we need a uniform civil code in the country.  The sharp divide in opinions was evident and I wondered if we can ever have a meaningful consensus on the subject.  An image of Indian Muslims being enamored by political parties for them being a minority but vocal, was quite evident.  Generally impoverished and requiring to be emancipated through education and economic terms, Indian muslims appeared to be a community struggling to hold on to a viable identity and mainstream harmony.  It appeared to be a community, not free from its own internal social forcings as well as the boundaries it had built around itself.  To an average Indian, it appeared to be in a state of uncertain stress trying to free itself from its self bindings in a free State.

I landed in Istanbul some hours later, with an apprehension that I may not have made the right choice of a country to travel in Ramadan.  Being a Muslim State, I thought Turkey would flummox me with an extreme exhibition of faith and alienate me in spirit and reality.  I was also apprehensive of a possible disadvantage being a non-Muslim in a Muslim neighbourhood, that too in their holiest of seasons.  But I was in for a great surprise.  There were smiling faces all around.  In spite of being Ramadan, every eatery in town was open to non-muslim  like me and everyone made it a point to see that I felt comfortable.  The country was clean, posh and highly sophisticated in comparison to mine, in spite of some neighborhoods being poorer than the rest.  There was no sense of discrimination or separated identity between muslims and non-muslims and every one enjoyed the company of the other like the religion did not matter in this world at all.  It was an extremely tolerant world of mutual respect and mutual restraint.

From there, I landed in Dubai some days later.  The usually bubbling megapolis of modernity was shrouded with the enormity of Ramadan silence, frequently torn by the high voice of calls for prayer from the mosques.  Eateries were closed, people had fear in their eyes even to sip a drop of water in the battering heat and humidity of the land.  There was no ambiguity of identity in the air that thickly descended as an islamic shroud on everyone, regardless of what religion you belonged to.  There was this air of intolerance to what you believed in and a commanding demand that you better follow the religious dictat of the land if you cared not to end up in a jail.  People clandestinely ate and drank inside the closed public toilets and threw the wrappers and food waste in the sink.  

When I returned to India, I wondered about the diversity of Muslim spheres in this world that we live in.  From not so affluent populace striving to preserve its identity in India to the one that shares free joy with everyone in Turkey to an authoritative society that imposes its will on others in UAE, I had seen three different worlds in one small world.

Islamic 'loko bhinna ruchi'.

V K Saxena

President

National Council for Civil Liberties

Ahmedabad

India