Muslims cannot digest the idea of honouring womanhood and can't sing Vande Mataram

Vande Mataram. Why the clergy crib?

The fatwa brigade is out again. This round in the company of the redoubtable Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, who has displayed an exceptional expertise in blowing hot and cold in the face of mounting pressure on national security.

That the Deoband intellectuals could not find anything more significant and meaningful for the community, it claims to represent, than raising the bogey of Vande Mataram, to raise before the Home Minister underlines the crisis facing the Muslim clergy. It is in a time warp. It has no sense of timing or priority. If a Muslim should or should not sing Vande Mataram can be debated endlessly. There are people like AR Rahman and Arif Mohammad Khan, in modern times who find it elevating to sing the soul-stirring song. Post-independent India has seen social reformers and intellectuals like MC Chagla, Hamid Delvi, etc, pleading tirelessly to their community to join the national mainstream. The liberal leadership of Indian Muslims has often found it difficult to carry the Muslim masses with it, as the more orthodox held sway over their political decision-making. This helped cynical political bargain by the self-appointed champions of minority rights like Congress and Communist parties, which keep Muslims in perpetual bondage of vote-bank politics even as this game damaged and undermined the community-economically, educationally and even socially.

The mullahs, however, found the gamble rewarding because it helped them tighten their stranglehold. Out of this bargain developed the penchant of the Muslim clergy to issue fatwas on all and sundry issues, of late, making it a matter of general ridicule. The growing criticism from within the community against the fatwa regime had in recent years made the clergy a little wary, especially on issuing fatwas on social issues. The latest one on Vande Mataram for this reason sounded more a pre-meditated publicity stunt than a matter of real concern.

Muslims were in any case not hotly debating if they should sing or chant, worship or pray on Vande Mataram. The Muslims, who joined hand in hand singing the great national song in their fight against the British, early 20th century in their desire to rescind Bengal Partition, were not less religious than the present-day mullahs.

The real problem with the mullah is his medieval attitude towards woman. He cannot digest the idea of honouring womanhood, her dignity, in the form of a goddess, mother or motherland. It seems more a pathological deformity than religious rigidity. It has more to do with treating woman as an object, a chattel than a source of inspiration, grace and creativity. This is his anathema with the concept of motherland also.

It is surprising that he is not able to salute the land that gave him birth, that continues to give him succour and sustenance. This is in other words called gratitude or patriotism. It is a non-negotiable paradigm, Vande Mataram is only a literal translation of an Indian's feelings, attitude and attachment to this land on whose abode he finds his fulfilment and meaning in life. To deny this is to deny ones own identity, ones claim to be its citizen and an equal partner to its growth and prosperity.

By issuing a fatwa barring its followers singing Vande Mataram, the mullah is chopping off his community away from its own ancestral right. Thankfully, the members of the community have better sense. These mullahs no more represent or call the shot in the community. It is time for them to realise their irrelevance or for the community to show them their place. A Muslim becomes a better Muslim when he owns and belongs to the land of his birth.

Shri YS Jagan - last Chief Minister from the Congress party in the history of Andhra Pradesh

Congressmen worried over the increasing
Christian influence in the party
Andhra Chief Ministership tussle brings to fore the cleavage
By Anjoli Prahlad Roy (http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=316&page=19)

The CSHF has already informed the Congress high command that it will not tolerate another Christian Chief Minister in Andhra Pradesh any more. If the Congress high command ignores its protests, Shri YS Jagan will prove to be the last Chief Minister from the Congress party in the history of Andhra Pradesh.

The CSHF has alleged that the wayward activities of the YS Jagan group have the blessings of Shri Veerapa Moily and Prof PJ Kurien. It demanded immediate removal of these persons from the responsibilities of Andhra Pradesh Congress party.

The Hindu religious followers in Andhra Pradesh were expressing happiness and confidence after a five-and-half-year-long period when evengalists had a field-day in Andhra Pradesh. A Hindu segment within the state unit is putting pressure on the Congress high command to confirm K Rosaiah as Chief Minister even as the Christian lobby is actively canvassing for Jagan Reddy. An unofficial ginger group in the party, Congress Secular Hindu Forum (CSHF) had rejected the idea that another Christian religious follower will once again occupy the Chief Minister's office. The Hindu followers in the Congress high command has taken a stand off, with the Congress president Smt Sonia Gandhi on this issue. A section of Hindu-minded leaders in the AICC is backing the Hindu Forum within, say sources.

The CSHF has alleged that the wayward activities of the YS Jagan group have the blessings of Shri Veerapa Moily and Prof PJ Kurien. It demanded immediate removal of these persons from the responsibilities of Andhra Pradesh Congress party. Now-a-days there is hardly any respect for the strong fundamentals of the party. The defectors with large money bags from other parties have become the backbone of the Congress Party, who captured the MLA, MP posts with their money power. They are dictating terms with the leadership. These bunch of people with the MLA, MP tag are not conscious about the party history and are least bothered about the party discipline. They are most vociferous with the YS Jagan cause. CSHF alleged that Shri Veerapa Moily and Prof PJ Kurien are providing wrong and exaggerated information about the Andhra Pradesh situation to Smt Sonia Gandhi. The party has not accepted the emergence of CSHF officially.

The CSHF demanded the re-constitution of the Andhra Pradesh State Ministry and the expulsion of certain ministers, who were not ready to cooperate with the Chief Minister. They also demanded a change in the post of Speaker, Deputy Speaker and the Chief Whip. They are demanding the removal of PCC president D Sreenivas from the post and the appointment of a senior Congress leader with more interest in the party discipline and caring about the unity of the party as PCC president.

They allege that the Christian block in the AICC leadership consisting the Congress president Smt Sonia Gandhi. Shri Rahul Gandhi, Shri Oscar Fernandes, Shri Ajit Jogi and Shri AK Antony has nurtured a hidden agenda to anoint Shri YS Jagan Mohan Reddy as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. Shri M Veerappa Moily or the Congress Party affairs in Andhra Pradesh who acted as the middleman between the AICC leadership and the late YS Rajasekhara Reddy and the AP Congress co-ordinator Prof PJ Kurien, have also made their best for the ambitious cause. The Congress Secular Hindu Forum insists that YS Rajasekhara was a staunch believer in Christianity. He had the dubious distinction of a dual personality that secretly encouraged each and every illegal activity of the Christian missionaries wearing a secular mask. There is around two per cent Christian population in this state. And the more than 90 per cent Hindu population became the victim of this British model of rule in Andhra Pradesh. The Congress Secular Hindu Forum informed the Organiser that it protested many times before the Congress high command against this anomaly. Shri Anil Kumar, the son-in-law of the late Chief Minister, has used all the government machinery at his disposal for his virulent and illegal communal and activities. There was a highly secret conclave of around 500 top-level Christian missionaries, who are actively participating in the conversion activities in Andhra Pradesh. The conclave was held in a church at Masab Tank in Hyderabad on August 24 and 25, 2009. Andhra Pradesh State Government advisor Shri Stanley Babu and the then Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy's son-in-law Shri Anil Kumar also participated in that high-profile meeting and presented statistics about the current status of the Christian population in the state. They claimed that after the five-year rule of YS Rajasekhara Reddy the Christian population in Andhra State has phenomenally increased enjoying a 16 per cent share among the general public. In reality, there is only two per cent Christian population in Andhra Pradesh. There is a well thought-out plan behind this exaggerated figure. They want to nudge this figure to bargain with the government, and with the political parties for a substantial share in power and positions. They have created an impression that the newly converted believers played a crucial role in the victory of the Congress in the general elections. Stanley Babu had assured the gathering that an all-out government patronage with material help was available to the missionaries for their insatiable hunger to convert 50 per cent of the state population to Christianity before the next general election due in 2014.

The above two persons, according to the Hindu Forum, had invented a hawkish idea to percolate among the masses, with the objective to YS Rajasekhara Reddy as an incarnation of 'Jesus Christ', who took the form of the Chief Minister to alleviate the sufferings of the poor and is destitute. To achieve their nefarious designs, they can go to any extent. They are also planning for a pernicious propaganda that Congress president Smt Sonia Gandhi and her son Shri Rahul Gandhi are staunch followers of the Roman Catholics Church, and they shall only consider the true Christian followers for the vacancies in the party and the government. This secret meeting also decided to find out a suitable property for the construction of a church in Tirumala-Tirupati Devasthanams and to speed up the process of conversion. Reddy had personally attended so many similar meetings which were held at Hotel Kakatheeya in Hyderabad on several occasions on the election eve.

Some of the regional Congress leaders in Andhra Pradesh informed the Congress Secular Hindu Forum central leadership about this secret meeting. CSHF leadership then met the Congress central leadership and demanded a change of guard in Andhra Pradesh Government on this basis. The Hindu religious followers in this nation will never tolerate the construction of a Christian church anywhere near in Tirumala-Tirupati. The Congress Secular Hindu Forum warned the Congress high command that they were well prepared to fight the evil designs of the Christian missionaries to convert a majority of Hindu followers, and would start a movement to liberate the Congress Party from the Christian stranglehold.

The Congress leadership was well aware that a division in the party on religious lines-Hindu and Christian-will inflict the immense damage on the leadership of Smt Sonia Gandhi and Shri Rahul Gandhi. There is 90 per cent Christian population in Nagaland. The post of Governor vacated by Shri K Sankara Narayanan, who was transferred to Jharkhand, was kept vacant for a along time, with a secret plan.

CSHF general secretary K Ravi Kumar in this connection visited the revered Sringeri Mathadhipati Vishveshwara Tirtha Swami on July 16 and informed him about the pernicious attempt by the government to appoint Smt Margaret Alwa the Uttarakhand Governor on July 18, 2009, and requested his guidance and blessing for the CSHF for its relentless fight against the anti-Hindu tirade of the Congress leadership. The Swamiji, according to Ravi Kumar, expressed his happiness and said that the Hindu followers in the Congress Party had finally found their identity and assured his full support and blessing for their struggle. Ravi Kumar also visited or more other twenty Mathadhipatis in Karnataka and paid his obeisance. After that the CSHF leaders met Shri AK Antony and presented a memorandum on July 27, which demanded the removal of Smt Margaret Alwa from the post of Uttarakhand Governor.

The high decibel demand from the Kadappa MP, Shri Jaganmohan Reddy for the chair of the Chief Minister, which fell vacant after the death of his father, has rippled the conscience of the rank and file of the Congress party. The senior leaders in the Congress party are critical about this fleeced situation and are aware that the young MP has appeared in the political arena just before the general elections, with a pocket organisation called 'Jagan Yuva Sena', which is not affiliated or related with any one of the Congress party frontal organisations. The senior Congress leaders believe the MP post bestowed to an inexperienced person like Shri YS Jagan, under the influence of his father, is already an excess.

The CSHF has already informed the Congress high command that it will not tolerate another Christian Chief Minister in Andhra Pradesh any more. If the Congress high command ignores its protests, it warned that Shri YS Jagan would prove to be the last Chief Minister from the Congress party in the history of Andhra Pradesh.