Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi said that Islam is the ‘real home’ of all religions in the world and hence the real ‘home coming’ will be when people of other religions embrace it. The MP from Hyderabad said that every child is born as a Muslim but his parents convert him to other religions. “The real home coming will be when people of other religions embrace Islam,” he said, addressing a public meeting on the eve of ‘Milad-un-Nabi’ on 3 January.
The MIM leader said the Sangh Parivar was running a campaign in the name of ‘home coming’. “Muslims are being allured with Rs.5 lakh and Christians with Rs.2 lakh to convert. Only five lakh? What a joke. Muslims can’t leave Islam even if you give them the wealth of the world,” he said, amid loud cheers from thousands of people at Darussalam, the MIM headquarters. He invited people of all faiths to accept Islam but made it clear that there is no compulsion. “You come back. We can’t give money but we guarantee you success in this world and thereafter,” said the MP.
JIH CHIEF HANDS OVER HOUSE KEYS TO ASSAM RIOT VICTIMS
Maulana Syed Jalaluddin Omari, Amir Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, on 9 January handed over house keys to people who were rendered homeless during the bloody riots in Assam two years ago. Jamaat has constructed 376 houses and 23 mosques in Kokrajhar, Chirang and Gosaigaon – three worst affected districts of BTAD area. Of them, 90 houses and four mosques were constructed by Jamaat in Chirang and 126 houses and 2 mosques in Gosaigaon. The Jamaat constructed houses for 15 Bodo families also.
Besides, about 1100 houses and 40 mosques were also repaired in the area. Some 115 makatib are also being run by Jamaat where about 7000 students are getting receiving education.
Maulana Umari handed over the keys to the victim families at a program which was also attended by Jamaat’s national secretaries Mohammad Ahmed and Mohammad Shafi Madani. Later, the JIH chief addressed public meetings at three different places in Kokrajhar and Chirang districts. He also visited Kamarpara village in Gosaigaon district where Jamaat constructed 126 houses and 2 mosques.
CCIM OPENS HELPLINE TO TACKLE SURYA NAMASKAR ‘DIKTAT’
The Madhya Pradesh government’s recent directive of getting students in educational institutions to perform Surya Namaskar on the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda on 12 January has met with strong objection from a section of the Muslim community. A Muslim group has also introduced a helpline where students who are compelled to perform Surya Namaskar can get in touch with legal experts.
Masood Khan, coordinator of the MP chapter of Coordination Committee for Indian Muslim (CCIM) said Bhopal had a large population of Muslims and several schools in Old City area comprised of more than 90% Muslim students. Reports from last year stated that students from these schools were compelled to perform Surya Namaskar, in violation of the High Court order. CCIM has started an awareness campaign and has printed pamphlets, which are being distributed to Muslim students and their parents to create awareness.
DELHI HAS OVER 3 LAKH BOGUS VOTERS, CLAIMS AAP
Alleging that more than 3 lakh voters in the capital had more than one voter ID card, the Aam Aadmi Party on 6 January approached the Election Commission and urged the body to check the electoral rolls for any discrepancies. Submitting data about 3,96,914 “suspected cases” of bogus voters, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, in a letter to the Election Commission, said, “We request that the list of names added and deleted be put on the website on a daily basis so that we can also get it physically verified and get back to you in time.”
Raising concerns about the conduct of upcoming Assembly polls, the party chief said, “The most important question is – is free and fair election possible with such large scale discrepancies in voters’ lists? We urge the Election Commission to thoroughly correct the voters’ lists before announcing elections.”
SC DIRECTS CENTRE TO DECIDE ON JAIN COMMUNITY’S PLEA FOR EQUAL STATUS AT PAR WITH MUSLIMS
Aggrieved by the Centre and a majority of the states not extending any benefit to Jains as a minority community, the Akhil Bhartiya Jain Mahasabha moved the Supreme Court for a direction to the Centre and states to treat them on par with Muslims in granting benefits. The Supreme Court on 7 January asked the Centre to consider and decide the representation seeking various reliefs, including adequate representation of members of the Jain community in national and state minority panels. The petitioner claimed that all these years the Centre had ignored the interest of the Jain Minority Community and had not given equal treatment to them.
UP POLICE DETAIN HINDU MAHASABHA CHIEF FOR TAKING OUT GODSE RALLY
The city police on 8 January detained Hindu Mahasabha national working president Kamlesh Tiwari along with state vice-president Priyanshu Joshi and others when they came out of the office to take out a motorcycle rally in a bid to spread awareness about Nathuram Godse’s ideology and why he killed Mahatama Gandhi.
However, a dozen of youths waiting for Tiwari and others managed to take out the rally holding saffron flags with Hindu Mahasabha written on it and shouting slogans like ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Hindu Mahasabha zindabad’. The youths also distributed pamphlets which mentioned five reasons why Godse assassinated Gandhi.
BAPU ‘NAKED’ STATUE TRIGGERS CONTROVERSY
Mahatma Gandhi’s naked statue installed in the centre of the museum at Gadhinagar inaugurated during the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas celebrations to mark the centenary of Bapu’s return to India in 1915, has triggered controversy, a report said on 10 January. The statue freezes a moment of the historic Dandi March of 1930 and shows Gandhiji bending to pick up some salt and break the unfair ‘salt tax’ law of the British. The sculptors of this statue have discarded even the dhoti he used to wear, so much so that the sculpture appears to be that of a naked man.
A concerned citizen, Ranip resident Roshan Shah, has mailed an application to the state DGP and Gandhinagar police to register an FIR against the state government, the chief minister, Vibrant Gujarat organisers and the sculptor for installing a naked statue of the Mahatma. In his complaint, Shah has said that the ‘offensive’ statue of a great man like the Mahatma had hurt his sentiments. “The statue is in Mahatma Mandir and shows him during the salt satyagrah. It also directly targets Father of the Nation,” Shah stated.
GANDHI VS GODSE DEBATE IRRELEVANT, SAYS GANDHI’S FORMER SECRETARY
Mahatma Gandhi’s former secretary V. Kalyanam on 8 January condemned the ongoing ‘Gandhi vs Godse’ debate by Hindutva groups in the country. He also said that the proposal to install a statue of Godse was unacceptable, especially when Godse himself had accepted that what he did was wrong. “Godse said he was forced to kill Gandhi. But he admitted that he had committed a mistake. So arguments in favour of Godse cannot be justified,” Kalyanam told reporters at the release of two stamps at the head post office in Chennai to commemorate the centenary year of Mahatma Gandhi’s return to India in 1915. He bemoaned the fact that the Congress government forgot Gandhi’s name after Independence. “Gandhi’s aim was to develop villages in India. But the Congress government did not focus on that but named roads after him and erected statues which he didn’t want,” Kalyanam said.