Indian volunteers form largest group to serve Haj pilgrims

Jeddah: Over 2,000 Indians have provided selfless services to millions of Haj pilgrims from all over the world who have gathered in the holy city of Mecca, forming the largest expatriate volunteer group.
Wearing blue T-shirts and the saffron-coloured jackets, these volunteers from different Indian social, cultural and religious forums were seen in action at the holy sites of Mina and Arafat during the first four days of Haj.
The volunteers belonged to forums such as the Jeddah Haj Welfare Forum, India Fraternity Forum, the Indian Pilgrim Welfare Forum, Haj Cells of the Kerala Muslim Cultural Center, Risala Study Circle and the Indian Dawa Center.
"The credit for fielding the largest number of volunteers goes to India Fraternity Forum, which has been serving the pilgrims since eight years. Tipped as the most organised among the groups, IFF fielded a total of 1,200 volunteers, including 32 women and 24 students," the Saudi Gazette newspaper said.
"These expatriate volunteers, who belong to different states of India, come from various corners of Saudi Arabia after getting the best ever training in field voluntary work.
"Some 72 teams have been assigned for field work while 34 teams served elderly and sick pilgrims in their tents, in addition to 40-member special team deployed at Mashair train stations," the paper said.
"We are getting full support from the Indian Haj Mission... This serves as a big boost to the morale of our dedicated volunteers," said Ahmad Kutty, media coordinator of IFF Haj Service, which began with 30 volunteers in 2005.
Jeddah IFF President Ashraf Morayur said the timely action on the part of one of their volunteers saved one pilgrim who almost got stuck in between a train and its automatic door. KMCC Haj Cell has mobilised more than 1,000 volunteers.
Ahmed Palayatt, President of KMCC Jeddah Central Committee and General Convener of the Haj Cell, said their volunteers distributed rice soup for nearly 1,00,000 pilgrims during the last four days of Haj.
The annual Haj pilgrimage this year was incident-free. 41 Indian pilgrims were reported missing as compared to 300 last year, the Indian Consulate in Jeddah said.
"Five pilgrims died on Tuesday (October 15). One has been buried while four cases are under burial process," it added.
The Haj pilgrimage is one of the five pillars of Islam that should be performed at least once in lifetime by every Muslim who is financially and physically capable. This year, the pilgrimage started on Sunday and ends on Friday (tomorrow). About 1.5 million pilgrims, including over 136,000 Indians, are performing the Haj this year.
Many expatriates from hyderabad karnataka region were part of this Volunteer group 

Love Jihad: From illusory slogan to potent weapon

By Ram Puniyani, (www.Twocircles.net)


The country is yet to recover from the aftermath of Muzaffranagar violence (October 2013). This violence was engineered over a period of time in the areas of Western UP, where Jats and Muslims had thick social interaction, despite belonging to different economic strata. Communal violence has been instigated, engineered earlier on various issues like Cow slaughter, Babri demolition, ‘sexual assault on ‘our women’ amongst others. The primary weapon used to communalize this region was the community honor. ‘Muslim youth teasing and luring Hindu girls’ was made the central part of propaganda. While other factors like role of Sangh Parivar components in uploading the video clip, in mobilizing the Hindus in the name of Bahu-Beti Bachao, have been discussed, one needs also to look at the way this ‘saving our daughters’, Love Jihad, from the Muslims had been operated in the area.
For couple of years the deliberate teasing of the girls was planned in the area in and around Muzaffarnagar. Rumors abounded and the word Love Jihad was propagated. (Evil stalks the land: Anhad Report on Muzaffanagar violence). The falsehood of Muslim boy talking to Hindu girls to lure them to marry and so to convert to Islam was heavily publicized. The major concoction around which the riot was engineered also related to the Hindu girl being teased by Muslim boys.


Anti Love Jihad Front
The word “love Jihad’ which played a major role in mobilizing the Hindu community for violence, has a strange history. As such the two components of this word Love Jihad, who so ever manufactured it, have a very different meaning. Since 9/11 2001 the word Jihad has been employed in the popular media and has also become part of the ‘social common sense’. Contrary to the meaning of the word Jihad in Koran, which means striving, it came be projected as killing of non-Muslims. The word Love Jihad must be a creation of an evil genius and it has come to be used to further demonize the Muslim community. The propaganda has been that some Muslim organizations are funding Muslim youth, to lure the non Muslim girls, to marry them and to increase the Muslim population. These youth are given money to buy motorbike, mobile etc and lure the non Muslim girls.
While doing Google search, if you type, ‘why Hindu Girls are’, the other sentence which pops up on the search engine is ‘are attracted to Muslim boys”! Recently in Maharashtra, a group “Hindu Rakshak Samiti has been claiming to save Hindu religion by breaking up the Hindu Muslim couples, if the girl happens to be a Hindu girl. Not that there are too many such couples, just a suspicion and these self appointed guardians of Hinduism pounce on the boy. A booklet in Marathi on Love Jihad shows a Muslim boy riding the Motor bike, with Hindu girl riding pillion. The word has been so popularized that even a Christian group in Kerala allied with the Sangh progeny, VHP to stop this non existing phenomenon.
In India the word began to be used in coastal Karnataka, Mangalore, and in parts of Kerala. It was Sri Ram Sene founded by RSS trained Swayam Sevak, Pramod Mutalik, which started attack on Hindu girl-Muslim boy couples. The marriages of such combinations started being looked at with suspicion and if parents were opposed to the marriage, Sri Ram Sene would help to take the matter to the court also. The pretext was that the girl has been forced to marry the Muslim boy. Funnily in the case of Sijalraj and Azghar the judge of Karnatak High Court, went on to give the ruling, that the facts (Love Jihad) had “national ramifications… concern security, besides the question of unlawful trafficking of women,”! So it ordered the Director-General and Inspector-General of Police to hold a thorough investigation into to ‘love jihad’. Pending that, the girl was asked to stay with her parents. The case was that of a simple Hindu Muslim marriage and the girl stood to her version and refused to bow to the social pressures. The police investigation showed that the ‘love Jihad’ is a cooked up one with no substance whatsoever.
In a similar case earlier the Kerala High court while hearing the appeal from two parents passed a similar order. Two Hindu girls had eloped and got converted to Islam and planned to get married. Kerala court also ordered the police authorities to investigate this phenomenon. The police investigation again showed that there is no such phenomenon as Love Jihad. The organizational promotion of such marriages is a hoax but has become part of social understanding.
Shri Ram Sene propaganda stated that over 4000 Hindu girls have been lured into conversions. This concoction was aggressively put across through various mechanisms. This laughable, figment of imagination spread like wild fire and frightened the parents. The trajectory of many of these girls who initially state about their love for the boy and voluntary conversion, changes many a times after they are forced to stay with their parents. Under a sort of emotional blackmail, some girls give in and later say that they were brain washed, shown a Jihadi CD and what not.
We have witnessed such acts in the form of propaganda in Gujarat in the wake of carnage, that ‘Muslim boys are luring Adivasi girls’. There Babu Bajarangi, who was also a major participant in carnage and is currently in jail undergoing life imprisonment, formed a goon-gang. This gang attacked couples and forced them to separate if they belonged to different religions. All this is presented as defense of religion! At another level inter-caste, inter-religious marriages are a normal natural part of a plural society. With rise of the communal politics, these inter-religious marriages are being opposed very dangerously. We have the case of Rijwan Ur Rehman married to Priyanka Todi, daughter of an affluent and powerful business magnate of Kolkata. She was forced to turn around under emotional blackmail from parents and relatives. The details were not known, what is known is that later Rijwan Ur Rehman was forced to commit suicide. In all such cases the role of police, state machinery, has been totally against the spirit and provisions of law, the protectors of law acting to support the things totally against the law.
Such campaigns against inter-religion, inter-caste marriages are not only against the spirit of national integration they also aim to control the lives of girls in the patriarchal mode. In addition the bogey against a minority is whipped up to aid the divisive politics. It is a double bonus for divisive politics. Since in patriarchal norms women are regarded as property of man and are made to live under the control structure defined by men, such an issue rouses high emotions. The agenda of communal politics targets minorities, Muslims at one level and promotes patriarchal norms at another.
Over a period of time, from being just a mechanism to control the lives of Hindu girls, a tool to ensure that girls don’t have the right to choose their own life partners, this phrase has been used to instigate violence as witnessed in Muzaffarnagar. Most of the pretexts of communal violence are cooked up, gradually manufactured. This Love Jihad has by now become a dangerous weapon. On one side it demonizes the Muslim youth in the negative light and on the other it has the aim to curb the freedom of women. The politics in the name of religion, the politics of Sangh Parivar here in India or that of Taliban’s in Afghanistan, Islamic fundamentalists, or even Christian fundamentalists all operate on the same wavelength as far as crushing the rights of women is concerned. In line with this starting from Sri Ram Sene, to Babu Bajrangi to those orchestrating violence in Muzzafarnager, they all operate on the premise, that women are the property of men and their lives have to be controlled.
The truth is not the issue here; the myth has been drilled in to the thinking of society. This phrase has double edged nature, which is something we need to register and combat. This phrase has tragically become a powerful concoction in the hands of communal forces.

Cane farmers threaten to disrupt Hampi Utsav

Sugarcane farmers burn tyres in protest, on the roads leading to Hampi — DC

Bellary: Sugarcane farmers from the villages surrounding world heritage site Hampi on Saturday laid siege to road leading to Hampi at Kamalapur town. They want the government to allow them to sell their cane to a sugar factory of their choice.
The farmers protest has caused inconvenience to tourists bound to Hampi till noon as they blocked road burning tyres and parking bullock carts and tractors on the road.
Farmers withdrew pro­test only after assurances from Assistant Com­missioner P Sunil Kumar and Hospet Tahsildar Ramesh Konareddy that their grievances will be conveyed to the higher ups in the government.
Farmer leaders Sami­ullah and Prashanth Sin­gh said the farmers will not allow the conduct of g Hampi Utsav if their demands are not fulfilled.
Farmers alleged the procurement price offered by the I.S.R. Sugar Factory, Hospet is lower than other sugar factories and the minimum support price fixed by the government.
They also alleged that I.S.R factory owes them Rs 9 crore and had not paid till date, even after the Karnataka High Court, Dharwad passed an order favouring farmers.
They alleged that by declaring ISR factory as a ‘sick industry’, the proprietors are availing all the benefits from the government and are continuing to exploit farmers.
Farmers here have been demanding that they be allowed to sell their cane to a sugar factory of their choice, where better price is offered. However, citing the Sugarcane (Control) Order 1966, farmers are compelled to sell cane to a factory which has got a stipulated reserved area of sugarcane farm.

‘Selective leaks’ meant to damn me: Santhosh Lad

DC

Santhosh Lad

Bengaluru: Dismissing allegations of his involvement in illegal mining of iron ore, infrastructure and information minister, Santhosh Lad, on Thursday said documents are being leaked selective as part of a politically motivated campaign.
“Hiremath (president of Samaj Parivartan Samudaya) is making three allegations against me. All I want him to do is place all the documents in front of the media instead of selectively leaking those (documents) which are convenient to him. If all the documents are made public, one will realise that it is politically motivated,” he told Deccan Chronicle in an interview.
In response to Hiremath’s allegations, Lad said based on satellite imageries, the Lokayukta filed a FIR against 56 companies, including a state-owned company.
When all these companies appealed in the high court, the court directed that boundaries be fixed through a joint survey and permitted VS Lad & Sons to continue mining in undisputed areas. The survey, however, was not carried till date, he added. Besides, Lad said his company was not involved in illegal transportation of iron ore.
An officer, who was under pressure to register cases against Congress leaders following their padayatra from Bengaluru to Bellary, filed a FIR against VS Lad Sons. The officer in question, range forest officer (RFO) Mahesh Patil, was arrested by sleuths of CBI for facilitating illegal mining.
The minister said VS Lad & Sons was listed in “C” category of mining leases by the Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) merely on grounds of encroachment by a dump of ore and not for encroachment of a mining pit.
“As a matter of fact, the CEC itself has placed the matter of upgrading the lease of Messrs VS Lad & Sons from Category ‘C’ to Category ‘B’ before the court in view of marginal perce­­nta­ge (encroachment of 0.17%), which was due to the least count error of the instrument used by joint survey team,” Lad said, adding “If some one keeps talking that cases were filed against the company, the cases have progressed a long way. If they place the latest position on each allegation, the real facts will be out in public.”

Literacy among Muslims has improved: Minister

New Delhi, Oct 11: The literacy among Muslims has improved from 1999-2000 to 2007-08, Minority Affairs Minister K. Rahman Khan said Thursday.

"Literacy among Muslims increased from 52.1 percent in 1999-2000 to 63.5 percent in 2007-08 in rural areas and from 69.8 percent to 75.1 percent in urban areas," Khan said while addressing a meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) here.

According to him, the literacy rate of Muslims as a ratio of the national average has also gone up from 0.93 in 1999-2000 to 0.95 in 2007-08 for rural areas and from 0.87 in 1999-2000 to 0.89 in 2007-08 for urban areas, he said.

Khan said as per the District Information System for Education (DISE) reports, the percentage of enrolment of Muslim children to total enrolment at the primary level which was 10.49 percent in 2007-08, has now gone up to 12.56 percent for rural areas and to 15.98 percent for urban areas.

Similarly, the percentage of enrolment of Muslim children to total enrolment at upper primary level which was 8.54 percent in 2007-08, has now gone up to 10.9 percent for rural areas and to 13.76 percent for urban areas, the minister said.

But he noted that as per the 2001 census, the minority community's literacy was 59.1 percent, much below the national average of 64.8 percent.

"As per the 2001 census, the literacy rate among Muslims was 59.1 percent, much below the national average of 64.8 percent," he said.

Khan said his ministry launched three scholarship schemes: pre-matric, post-matric and merit-cum-means based covering eligible  minority students from class 1 to Ph.D. level, including professional and technical courses.

Bidar only place in south India to figure in latest World Monuments Fund list

Bidar Fort is among the three national monuments in Bidar. According to the World Monuments Fund, the sites in the list are crying for immediate attention for preservation, protection, and adaptive reuse.

The historic city of Bidar figures in the 2014 World Monuments Watch list released by the World Monuments Fund (WMF), a New York-based NGO working for the protection of monuments.

WMF president Bonnie Burnham announced the list in New York on October 8, according to P.C. Jaffer, Deputy Commissioner of Bidar. The WMF had received 741 proposals from 166 countries. But the final list contains 67 sites from 41 countries.

The three sites in India to figure in the list are the house of Sheikh Salim Chisti in Fatehpur Sikri, Juna Mahal in Rajasthan and “the historic city of Bidar”. These, according to the list, are sites crying for immediate attention for preservation, protection, and adaptive reuse.

Benefits

Mr. Jaffer said the announcement would benefit the city in many ways. It would attract worldwide attention, leading to increased tourist footfalls. It would also help the government get technical advice and support from institutions specialised in the preservation of monuments.

“It could also help us raise funds from the government or donor agencies for protection and preservation of monuments,” Dr. Jaffer said. Bidar has three national monuments — Bidar Fort, Ashtur tombs and the Madrasa of Mahmud Gawan. The city also has 20 sites recognised by the State Department of Archaeology and Heritage and over 40 unrecognised sites of the medieval periods.

“We will upload the WMF recommendations on the district website. We will also open a Facebook page on Bidar on the WMF watch list and raise awareness about the issue,” the Deputy Commissioner said.

Two interpretations centres would be set up in the Bidar Fort and at Ashtur at a total cost of Rs. 80 lakh. This would provide information to tourists on the architectural and cultural aspects of monuments. In this background, an international seminar on Bidar’s heritage would be organised in January.

According to a release issued by Ms. Burnham, a copy of which was sent to the district administration, the list contains sites that are facing several preservation challenges like climate change, armed violence, neglect by authorities, lack of resources or even increased tourism activity that can damage monuments. An independent panel of international experts on archaeology, culture and preservation had prepared the list, Ms. Burnham said.

Over 150 sites have been preserved and protected by the WMF and its associate organisations in several countries since 1996.

Merajuddin Patel : One of Most Successful and Cherished Son of Hyderabad Karnataka

Today is 5th anniversary of Merajuddin Patel (State prez JDS and Former Minister ) one of most successful Leaders from Hyderabad karnataka region.

A two-time MLA from Humnabad Assembly constituency in 1994 and 2004, Mr. Patel was known for his amiable nature and secular credentials. He served as Minister for Municipal Affairs in the H.D. Deve Gowda Ministry and as Animal Husbandry and Wakf Minister in the Dharam Singh Cabinet. 

He started his political career in 1980’s by becoming a local panchayat member in Humnabad in Bidar. He later rose to become Minister in the then Governments headed by Deve Gowda in 1994 (Minister for Municipal Administration) and N Dharam Singh in 2004 (Animal Husbandry). He was one of the close-confidents of JD(S) supremo Deve Gowda, who made him State party President in 2007.

He died of a massive cardiac arrest in Gulbarga on Tuesday, Oct 7 2008. He was 52 and is survived by his wife and five daughters. His body was taken to his native Humnabad in Bidar district for last rites on Wednesday, Oct 8. Patel (52), who was there to participate in the function at which the newly appointed district President of the party, Shankaranna Vonekyal, took charge, had heart attack at the Government Guesthouse where he was staying. Patel was immediately shifted to Surya Urocare Centre and later shifted to Basavalingappa Nisty Memorial Heart Hospital here. Patel, who slipped into a coma immediately after being shifted to urocare centre, breathed his last at the heart hospital, while a team of doctors was conducting an angioplasty on him.

he was arguably one most successful politicians in Hyderabad karnataka region and was one of very few leaders who was equally popular among people of all religions and castes .