The Central Advisory Council of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH-CAC) held its session in Chennai from January 14 to 17, 2017. It adopted the following resolutions on national and international issues. We reproduce the text of the Resolutions here for the benefit of our readers:
- SHRINKING OF DEMOCRATIC SPACE IN THE COUNTRY
The JIH-CAC expresses its grave concern and anguish over the rapid shrinkage of democratic space, sporadic incidents of violations of human rights, deprivation of autonomy of democratic institutions, unjustified hegemony of the corporate over the national economy, and the nexus between the liberal market forces and Hindutva pushing the nation towards a despotic and tyrannical regime in the country.
The Constitution of the nation envisages a heterogeneous, plural democracy wherein equal and ample scope and opportunities are provided for each and every citizen to grow, develop and flourish, keeping his individual identity of religion, caste, sex, creed and language intact. The Constitution of the nation has given each and every citizen and social group the right to profess, practise and preach any ideology, creed or religion and the right to adhere to any language, culture, civilization and has accorded all of them the status of basic rights. Apart from the Judiciary and the media, a large number of civil society movements and a vast network of social organisations have always stood and raised their voice for the protection of basic and human rights of each and every sect and social group of the country.
The JIH-CAC perceives that these basic values enshrined in the Constitution of the nation are being systematically trampled upon in well-orchestrated and detrimental ways and means. Unhealthy and baneful changes are being made in the economic policies of the nation to accommodate the vested interests of the corporate. These have imbalanced the economy of the nation and have made it lopsided. The shortcut of passing ordinance is being employed to implement their own ideas and policies, bypassing the Parliament. The Government has passed over 23 ordinances in the short span of 30 months in power. Efforts are being made to usurp the freedom of expression, freedom of food habits, freedom of conducting religious affairs and all other freedoms and rights through compulsion, coercion and force. It is regrettable that those who indulge in such manoeuvring enjoy the backing of higher echelons of power and authorities. Human rights activists are eliminated. Democratic fabric of the society is torn apart; minorities are facing discrimination; atrocities on women, children, Dalits and Adivasis have become routine and day-to-day affairs of the nation.
The JIH-CAC comprehends that fear, panic and hatred-filled atmosphere is being created deliberately in a systematic and organised way on roads, chowks, public spaces and through social media to stifle freedom of expression, differences in opinion and diversity. Whenever some anti-government material is posted in social media it is often greeted with threats, abuses, insults, offensive diatribes with an intimidating tone and tenor depicting the same unhealthy, undemocratic trend. On the other hand, in the name of curbing terrorism, draconian laws are being employed to arrest innocent Muslim youths in a number of cases. Scores of judgments delivered in various courts have vindicated their innocence. Now a sinister design is being employed against these innocent Muslim youths. When it is realised that the case foisted against the Muslim youth does not hold water, these youth are eliminated in fake encounters.
The JIH-CAC likes to remind the ruling alliance that it is the basic and Constitutional duty of the Government of India to ensure that human rights are given high regard and consideration; to safeguard the rights enshrined in the Constitution of the nation; to protect the rights of various cultural and linguistic identities; to guarantee the protection of rights of minorities, Dalits, Adivasis and downtrodden sections of the society; to protect the dignity and chastity of women; to ensure the rightful autonomy of constitutional bodies and institutions. Only then peace, progress and perpetual development of the nation would be realised.
The JIH-CAC would like to remind the Government of India that our nation is a welfare state. Hence one of the important duties of the Government is providing basic necessities for each and every citizen of the country. The Jamaat would also like to remind that the realisation of a welfare state depends on proper and effective functioning of all the constitutional institutions, including legislature, judiciary and bureaucracy.
- DEMONETISATION
The JIH-CAC agrees to eradicate black money, evasion of taxes and financial irregularities and scams in the nation. In the same breath JIH-CAC feels that the move taken by the Indian Government to demonetise the economy has not only failed to realise the purported objectives, but also caused huge loss to the economy of the nation besides to millions and millions of innocent, hapless citizens of this nation who faced insurmountable difficulties.
The whole nation is aware that black money of the nation is not stored in hot cash. Rather it is hoarded more in the form of assets, properties, gold, foreign currencies and stashed away as assets in factious bank accounts in faraway foreign lands. Even though there are effective alternate ways available to tackle the meagre fake currencies in circulation, it is simply unfathomable to realise the sudden need to abruptly nullify eighty-five per cent of the currency in circulation at a single stroke.
The JIH-CAC feels that the hapless common men of the nation, the poor, the kisans, the petty traders and the rural folk have borne the brunt of this ill-advised move and they are the worst sufferers. Besides, it has inflicted severe and inexorable damage to the fast declining rural economy. Various indices and estimates point to the grim reality that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the nation has suffered distinct setbacks. And the major portion of this decline pertains to petty trades, small scale industries and agriculture. This has increased the pain and agony of the poor and hapless citizens’ manifold and has led to job losses and dwindling employment opportunities in all sectors. The council is of the view that holding cash accounts of the citizens and enforcing limits on amounts one could withdraw from his own account is tantamount to gross violation of basic human rights of the citizens. It also defiles and desecrates the right of the citizen to own property as enshrined in the Constitution of India.
It is apparent that this move by the Government was hastily taken, hurriedly implemented without any kind of preparation and without even consulting with experts in the field. The unassailable fact that the Government was forced to change the rules 62 times in 50 days is an ample proof for this fiasco on the part of the government.
It is felt that one of the motives behind this move by the Government is to weaken the trades and industries in the unorganised sector and consolidate the trade and industries in the organised sector. This is a very dangerous trend and seems to have been taken reeling under the pressure of the capitalist and imperialist forces. This will invariably inflict heavy losses to a poor country like ours and to our own crores and crores of fellow citizens.
Besides it is also felt that one of the motives behind this move is to compel the poor to deposit their meagre savings in banks, thereby facilitating the bankers to pave way for big capitalists. The JIH-CAC condemns both these motives unequivocally.
The move to demonetise the currency has paved way to new forms and avenues of corruption. Banks and other financial institutions have indulged blatantly in black marketing hordes and hordes of new currencies in a big way. Consequently corrupt people succeeded in legalising their black money very easily. This grim scenario has rendered this whole operation non-beneficial and illogical. Nothing fruitful has come out of it. It has merely inflicted irreparable damage to the economy of the nation.
The JIH-CAC condemns the way the autonomy of the Reserve Bank of India was eroded with this move of demonetisation, and the way its professional functioning was encroached upon with all kinds of political interventions. The CAC also appeals to the Central Government to restrain from transforming the economy of the nation from cash economy to cashless economy. Besides it appeals to the Government to retrace its steps and restrain itself from weakening the unorganised sector. Moreover, it appeals to the Government to expedite the process of releasing new currency and ensuring that it reaches common people so that the situation may be normalised.
At the end the JIH-CAC reiterates its stand that the evils like black money, corruption, evasion of taxes, etc. would never be solved through superficial measures like demonetisation nor could they be eradicated with stringent measures. This is a moral issue. And the basic thing to do is to groom the moral character of the nation on solid grounds and to inculcate God-fearing mindset and nourishing lofty moral values in the society.
- SYRIAN TURMOIL
The JIH-CAC expresses its grave concern and anguish over the heart-rending civil war and the chilling accounts of atrocities and gross violation of human rights being committed in some Muslim countries, particularly in Syria. The news, tell-tale photographs, graphic video clips emanating from Halb and other places from Syria depict a dreadful and devastating spectacle. It appears as if the hapless, helpless and oppressed masses of Syria are being pulverised between the warring forces mercilessly. Lakhs of people have been either forced to desert their homes, forsake their country and seek refuge in other countries or compelled to face the disastrous consequences of losing everything, viz. lives, properties and dignity.
The JIH-CAC feels that even though regional prejudices and wrangles are the core factors for this burgeoning war in the region, the vested interests of the USA and Russia have played a major role in escalating the crisis into major turmoil. The role of USA in launching ISIS in the region, arming it with the latest war gadgets and gizmo is distinctly apparent and obvious. Besides the way it soft-pedalled the genocides committed by ISIS is glaring. Taking a cue, Russia and its allies (some Gulf forces) have plunged in the fray in support of the draconian regime of Oppressor Bashar Al Asad of Syria. The hapless and oppressed masses of Syria have got entangled between these two warring forces.
The JIH-CAC firmly believes that the real motives behind this war are the imperialist designs of super powers i.e. capturing and taking possession of the vast natural resources and weakening and dividing Muslim nations.
Russia incurred heavy losses when there was steep fall in the prices of oil last year. Hence it has got involved directly in this war. It doesn’t want to allow USA going away with all the bounties resulting from the war. Apart from these two super powers, Israel too has got involved in this war with its own vested interests. It should be borne in mind that Iraq and parts of Syria form the bulk area in the map of greater Israel. As ongoing civil war would weaken Syria and other Muslim countries internally, Israel craves and yearns for internally weakened Syria and other Gulf countries so as to expand and consolidate its position there. The role being played by some Muslim rulers in this dirty game is distressing and deplorable.
The JIH-CAC lauds the efforts made by Turkey and other countries in rehabilitating Syrian refugees in the region.
The JIH-CAC appeals to and urges the Muslim nations, Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), United Nations (UN) and other international forums and institutions to take urgent steps and all possible measures to put an end to this civil war. Even the virtually weakened Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and our own nation India too should exert its influence to put an end to this civil war.
The JIH-CAC appeals to and urges the Muslim countries not to succumb to their trivial, jurisprudential and regional differences and become pawns of the warring imperialist nations. Rather they should display the bonding and camaraderie of Islamic brotherhood as if they are a solid wall cemented with molten lead. The CAC is of the view that the need of the hour is that everything should be taken care of to put an end to the war; all the foreign forces should move out of the region immediately; all the Syrian refugees languishing in other countries should return to their homeland and efforts should be made to make the atmosphere conducive to establish democracy there. Ultimately all these steps would assist the masses of the region particularly the citizens of Syria to elect their own representative government. The rulers of Muslim countries should strive for the wholesome independence of the people in the region, thereby stifling out the scope for any kind of foreign intervention in the region.