Tum Bilkul Hum Jaise Nikale

A beautiful poem by Fahmida Riaz, a progressive Pakistani poet on the current situation in India. It was a must share

“Tum bilkul hum jaise nikle
tum bilkul hum jaisey nikley
ab tak kahaN chhupe the bhai
voh moorkhta, voh ghaamarpan
jis mein hum ne sadi ganwai
aakhir pahunchi dwaar tumhaarey
arre badhai bohot badhai

preyt dharam ka naach rahaa hai
qayam Hindu raaj karoge?
saarey ultey kaaj karogay
apna chaman daraaj karogey
tum bhee baithey karogey sochaa
poori hai waisi tayyari
kaun hai Hindu, kaun naheeN hai
tum bhi karogay fatwe jaari
hoga kathin yahaN bhi jeena
raatoN aa jayega paseena
jaisi taisi kata karegi
yahan bhi sabki saans ghutegi
kal dukh se socha karti thi
soch ke bohot hansi aaj aee,
tum bilkul hum jaise nikle
Hum do qaum nahin the bhai!

bhaar mein jaaye shiksha viksha
ab jaahilpan ke gun gaana.
aage gadha hai yeh mat dekho
wapas laao gaya zamana
bhasht karo tum aajayega
ulte paaon chalte jaana
dhyaan na mann mein dooja aaye
bas peeche hi nazar jamana
ek jaap saa kartey jao
vaaram vaar yahi dohrao
kitna veer mahaan tha Bharat
kaisa alishaan tha bharat
phir tum log pohonch jaogay
bas parlok pohonch jaaogay
hum toh hain pehle se wahan par
tum bhi samay nikalte rehna
ab jis nark mein jaao wahan se
chitthi vitthi daalte rehna"

Is Ayodhya Mandir Justified?

6 Dec on my 9th Birthday, there was a Masjid in India that was being demolished. It led to series of riots. It also led to many Mandirs being demolished in our Islamic neighborhood. The year was 1992.

The case is now in now in courts and everytime near the elections the issue always makes a comeback. It is fierselly debated but not much has moved. It surely makes everyone wonder if we will ever have a closure on the issue.

Going into the background, it is alleged that there was a temple in Ayodhya, the birth place of Shri Ram. Then in 1526 the Central Asian Turk Babar invaded India. After failed to defend or establish his rule in central Asia, he tried his luck in India and replaced the Afghan rulers. He never liked India as written in Baburnama where he called it a hot place of Dark ugly people. To show his stamp of rule more due to political reasons he is alleged to have built a Mosque over the sacred place of Mandir. This is the issue.

To start with, critics allege that Ramayana is a mythological story. Then there is a point that there surely was a Masjid that everyone has seen but no Mandir. And there are such many more arguments.

As per my personal opinion, yes Ramayana cannot be taken as a historical document, but it surely represented the essence of India. Centuries of compilations show that contributors were aware of the north south axis of India. The locations in the scripture bear a strong imprint of the geography. In my personal opinion there was a prince in Ayodhya who had a major kingdom (Not over whole of India) and must have been very popular. From his story must have been a starting point of Ramayana.

Overall whatever be the case, Hindus all over India, Nepal and the world have always known what Ayodhya is. It leaves to any doubts that whatever be the history, the location is sacred to Hindu's.

Also the location bears no historical importance to Muslims. However how it is important to Islamists (I am intentionally using Muslim and Islamists differently). As they used it for demanding Pakistan, how they oppose Uniform Civil Code, triple talaq etc, Ayodhya represents notional Islamic domination over India. It represents the feeling we have a Mosque over Ayodhya, while you cannot enter Mecca.

If a Mandir comes up there, people who could not accept democratic rule calling it Hindu rule and then collaborated with British to form Pakistan, see it as a major loss.

Hence while it might be religious for majority, for me Ram Mandir will represent a victory against one of the most regressive mindset of the world and will bring closure to a major issue which forces Hindu's to feel lesser in their majority country.

While I am a secular person, dead against RSS and Stupsanghi supporters, this issue rings a bell in me. It reminds me how I feel at sight of Harmandir Sahib (Not Golden Temple) being shattered by this Hinduist rule of 1984. Let's hope for a rightful closure at the earliest.

Attack on CBI - One more institution

In an early morning coup like attack, the Modi govt attacked the premium investigating agency. Though this is not the first institution that this govt sought to undermine, nor was it surprising, but the effects of it will be long lasting

The CBI director is chosen by a collegium of PM, CJI of Supreme Court and Leader of opposition. He or she has a fixed tenure of 2 years and can be removed by the same collegium. The government tried to bend the rules by sending him on leave on flimsy grounds. If the government is successful, it will have created a path to threaten and intimidate the future director and can easily use CBI as a political tool (Although even now CBI is somewhat used, but in future that discreteness will all be gone)

This is not the first institution government has undermined. Supreme Court is alleged to be soft on Amit Shah via previous CJ. It is alleged to send his case to favourable judges. This along with pressure helped him escape from many cases. When government has taken oath, it did not appoint CVC and CIC. If CIC and other Information Commissioner are not there, it leads to lag in RTI appeals and government can avoid the transparency. It further tried to tone down power of CIC but due to severe opposition, has at present put it on hold.

Similarly, if CVC i.e. the Vigilance Commissioner is not there, then it will affect the probe of corruption. If there is not probe, then all the charges can simply be knocked off

Another notable action is not to appoint anyone in statistical organisation wherein you stop information like employment figure, growth rate of unorganized sector etc. Without such information, you can easily use propaganda to claim that mudra is creating jobs, more pf accounts that can never be accurate reflection.

The list can go on and on. People many times ask me if not Modi then whom. To such Stupsanghis, any answer can never satisfy them. To those who have logic over emotions, I will say a great nation is formed due to its great institutions which are transparent, accountable and work within their defined jobs. A myopia of a strong leader who undermines institutions, is infact strong to safeguard his power and cause permanent damage which people realize after damage has been done

We need to oppose the move. I hope SC saves this institution but we have to remember if this is way this government will keep going, 2019 may be our last chance for course correction. May the right in us help us.