France’s Endgame in Mali
In a recent report, the United Nations Mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA, concluded that, on January 3, French warplanes had struck a crowd attending a wedding in the remote village of Bounti, killing 22 of the guests. According to the findings, 19 of the guests were unarmed civilians, whose killing constitutes a war crime. Unlike other wars in the region, the French war in Mali receives little media coverage, while French media brand this war as one against ‘Islamic militants’.
Analysts feel that the move is less to do with Islamic militancy and much to do with foreign interventions. Anti-French sentiment in Mali goes back over a century when, in 1892, France colonised that once-thriving African kingdom, exploiting its resources and reordering its territories as a way to weaken its population and to break down its social structures.
Let us expose France’s endgame in Mali to the world.
Rafeeque Alam
Ranchi, Jharkhand
ASI Survey in Gyanvapi Mosque
The order of a civil court in Varanasi that the ASI should conduct a survey to ascertain whether the Gyanvapi mosque was ‘built over a demolished Hindu temple’ amounts to opening the floodgates for another protracted religious dispute. The order seems to stand in gross violation of the explicit legislative prohibition on any litigation over the status of places of worship. It is likely to give a fillip to majoritarian and revanchist forces that earlier carried on the Ram Janmabhoomi movement over a site in Ayodhya.
The civil court order has been issued despite the fact that the Allahabad High Court reserved its order on the maintainability of the suit on March 15 and is yet to pronounce its ruling. I wonder why the civil judge did not wait for the ruling and issued the directive to the ASI.
The Hindu (April 10) has editorially commented that “the attempt to resurrect disputes buried by law is a serious setback to the cause of secularism and peaceful coexistence.” Let us hope that the High Court would reverse this controversial order and thus save the country from falling into another controversy.
Araur Rahman
Meerut, UP
Every Citizen has Right to Choose His Religion
The Supreme Court on April 9 said people are free to choose their own religion. It lashed out at a “very, very harmful kind” of “public interest” petition claiming there is mass religious conversion happening “by hook or by crook” across the country. A Bench led by Justice Rohinton F. Nariman said people have a right under the Constitution to profess, practise and propagate religion.
“Why should a person above 18 years not choose his religion? What kind of a writ petition is this? We will impose heavy costs on you… Withdraw it or argue and risk the consequences,” Justice Nariman asked petitioner-advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay.
Justice Nariman, in the fitness of things, said every person is the final judge of their own choice of religion or who their life partner should be. Courts cannot sit in judgment of a person’s choice of religion or life partner as religious faith is a part of the fundamental right to privacy.
Judicial pronouncements like this can revive and maintain our faith in the judicial system. Let’s not lose hope.
- Zafarullah
Madurai, T.N.