सोमवार, जुलाई 23, 2012

Land Mafia Thrives on Graveyards


Firdaus Khan
Muslims in Haryana are under immense pressure not from outside but from the Waqf officials themselves. The Waqf Board of Haryana has been making all-out efforts to sell Waqf property clandestinely in collusion with the land mafia. And this time not even graveyards have been spared. For a few fast bucks, officials have been desecrating graves so that graveyards can be deleted from official records and maps, facilitating their sale in the open land market. As a result, the Muslims of Haryana are finding it hard to find places for burying their dead and are deeply hurt and peeved at the ‘afterlife’ of their dead.

Take the case of late Manohar, a devout but poor Muslim from village Parnala in Jhajjar, Haryana. The 60-year-old died but the villagers denied him a place in the village graveyard. The reason? Some musclemen of the village have laid claim over the graveyard: Bhagwana, Uday, Naththu and Phool Singh have illegally captured the whole land. Jeevan Malik of the Haryana Muslim Khidmat Sabha revealed that when a complaint was lodged with Rifaqatullah, the Estate Officer of Waqf Board in Jhajjar, he told the people that it was none of his business to have their dead buried. The people then turned to the District Administration and the dead body could receive its last rites only after administrative intervention.

Manohar was a very unfortunate man. His wife Raziya, who passed away before him, got the same treatment on her death. While people were grieving over the dead body, strongmen were busy establishing their claims over the graveyard in a bid to deny the departed soul her rightful place in the womb of mother earth.

Biruddin, son of late Abdul Gafoor, who buried his father in the Chand Sarai graveyard which is spread over 21 bighas in Karnal, Haryana, alleges that the Waqf officials are hand in glove with the land grabbers and prevent any action from being taken against the encroachers. He says that the musclemen of late built a boundary wall around the graveyard overnight. Seventeen people have different sorts of claims over the land. It is noteworthy that the Punjab and Haryana High Court had given a verdict in the favour of the graveyard on 19 September 2008. The Court had strictly said that plotting of the graveyard land was illegal and goes against the past strictures of the Court. Desecration of graves was termed as a criminal act punishable by a jail term. When the local Muslim organisations in association with the Minorities Commission pressurised the Waqf Board, the lease to this land was abrogated, but the latest report is that land mafia has again encroached upon the graveyard.

In the last 7 years, the revenue of the Waqf Board has gone up by 273 per cent. In 2004-05, the Waqf Board earned 5.23 crores while in 2011-12, this increased to 17.62 crores. Recently, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda announced a re-evaluation of Waqf properties and ordered that action be taken against the encroachers. But the same government had also come up with advertisements in newspapers where it had lauded the Waqf Board.

Colonies and shops built over graveyards
After independence, the Government of India enacted the Waqf Act in 1954. In 1995 some far-reaching amendments were made in the Act. Under Article 13 (1) of the Act, the Chandigarh Waqf Board was constituted which was to be responsible for the upkeep of religious places in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and the Union Territory of Chandigarh. But as per a notice issued by the Central Government on 29 July 2003, this Board was scrapped. Subsequently, on 1 August 2003, Haryana Waqf Board was constituted. This Board abrogated all principles and practices that it was constituted to uphold and Muslim religious properties began to be sold. The Board officials started leasing Waqf properties. Colonies and shops were built over graveyards.

Famous Chand Sarai graveyard leased to land mafia
As per a gazette notification issued by the Government of India, the Haryana Waqf Board holds 12,494 properties including 20,908 acres of land. Earlier this was under the Punjab Waqf Board. First, the Punjab Waqf Board officials misappropriated or sold these properties and later the practice continued under the Haryana Waqf Board. The officials of Haryana Waqf Board sold the Waqf properties in nexus with the land mafia. Recently a case of selling a graveyard came to light in Karnal. Mohammad Yaqub Sarawali, the estate officer in Karnal office of Waqf Board, and the Lease and Acquisition Officer in Ambala Headquarters, Imtiaz Khizar, colluded with the Chief Administrative Officer Dr. Parwez Ahmad and leased the famous Chand Sarai graveyard which occupies 21 bighas to the land mafia. This graveyard was leased by Ashok Kumar, a resident of Urban Estate, and Sunil Kumar, a resident of Sector 4, for agricultural purposes but they have planned a colony over the land and carved out plots for selling to private owners. These two desecrated the graveyard and destroyed the graves to making way for an approach road to the proposed colony. On a complaint by the Muslims of the area, the administration stopped the construction work while Waqf officials tried to mislead them.

Graveyard converted into a slum
In Bahadurgarh of Jhajjar,  two Waqf Bord properties of 52 and 3 bighas have been converted into colonies. In Shershah village of Sonepat, 10 bighas of  Waqf property has been encroached upon and private houses been built. Karnal has a graveyard but that has also been occupied illegally for housing purposes. In Terawadi, in Karnal, the workers of this industrial area have encroached upon the graveyard and converted it into a slum.

Graveyard yields hefty profit
Some of the cases show that private parties took Waqf land on lease and then sold it to some other party for a hefty price. In Karnal itself, a graveyard in Indri area has been sold. In 1987-88, the graveyard was leased to one Shamsuddin and Mughaluddin (sons of Mohammad Sadiq), and one Nayaz Din (son of Maula Bukhsh) for Rs. 225 per month (vide administrative letter 24/lease urban-file no. H-5-9/87-88/19538, dated 1-04-1988). Later, Shamsuddin’s son, Jamil, made two shops over the land and sold them to one Shanti Devi, wife of Chandra Lal, resident of Ward No. 1, Karnal, for Rs. 80,000 each.

Guru Granth Sahib’s translator’s grave missing
Along side the Ambala-Jagadhari highway is another graveyard of historical significance. Here too graves have vanished into thin air. Due to theft of epitaphs, the presence of graves cannot be made out. When retired Justice Mahendra Singh, member of the State  Minority Commission, visited the graveyard responding to a complaint in this respect, it came to light that the grave of J.P. Collingham, the person who translated the Guru Granth Sahib into English and who was buried in 1849, has also gone missing.

Revenue of Waqf Board up by 273 per cent
The Chief Co-ordinator of the Haryana Muslim Khidmat Sabha, Advocate Mohammad Rafiq Chauhan, opines that the number of Muslims in Haryana is minuscule and at the same time ill-educated, and this is the reason why Waqf Board officials have been misleading and exploiting them and their religious endowments. He has appealed to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Chairperson, Sonia Gandhi, to intervene in this matter but there is no response from her side so far. He has also written letters to Rahul Gandhi.


मंगलवार, मई 08, 2012

Autumn



Sometimes
the autumn fascinates
while our walking gently        
on the dry out brown leaves 
in the garden    
and on the land 
covered by the brown leaves…

sometimes
the whole scenery of autumn 
becomes romantic 
with the desolated branches of trees
and the pleasing soft and sweet 
sounds of the birds…

sometimes
in the row of plants 
with the wetting smell nearby
of ever growing flowers 
such as marigold and roses  
and on the older wall 
raising calmly the sun shine
fascinates...

yes, the autumn itself has 
its own glory
like spring and monsoon…
-Firdaus Khan

शनिवार, अप्रैल 21, 2012

Two seasons of life...


Oh ! my love,
to have you and to lose you
are like the two seasons
of the life...

as like the thirst and ocean
or  may perhaps be 
like the death and life...

the tradition has been prevailed
since the beginning of this universe
that on the palm of the life 
there are the lines of death
and always on the verge of the colourful  dreams
there is an existence of  darkness...

Oh ! my love
to have you and to lose you
are like the two seasons  
of the life...
-Firdaus Khan

Courtesy : Image from google

मंगलवार, अप्रैल 10, 2012

Fragrance of closeness…


In my book of life
there are so many pages of my past memories
being preserved
very carefully
as of date…


Some pages are endowed with
the fragrance of closeness
as if adorned on the palms
with soaked henna smells slowly...


More so
some pages engrossed by the dark night
of aloofness
sink into the fog of cool winter
like an apathetic calm evening…


Even today I have preserved
with utmost care
all those of my old memories
like someone keeps the holy books
at holy place in the home...
-Firdaus Khan




Courtesy : Image from google

शनिवार, मार्च 17, 2012

Why you go away...



Oh' Friend
Why you go away
Far, far from me
Often, that time
When
I need you
Very much...
Oh' Dear
Why you go away...
-Firdaus Khan


Courtesy : Image from google

शुक्रवार, मार्च 16, 2012

Eternal and Immortal love...

"It was a very emotional discovery, From 5,000 years ago we feel the strength of this love. Yes, we must call it love."...

Buried between 5,000 and 6,000 years ago, the prehistoric pair are believed to have been a man and a woman and are thought to have died young, because their teeth were found intact.
"An initial examination of the couple - dubbed the Lovers of Valdaro - revealed that the man (on the left in the picture) has an arrow in his spinal column while the woman has an arrow head in her side."
"They are face to face and their arms and legs are entwined and they are really hugging."
One theory being examined is that the man was killed and the woman then sacrificed so that his soul would be accompanied in the after life...

It makes me wonder who they were, what happened to them, and what they loved so much about each other.
lets seee how many like... "ETERNAL and IMMORTAL LOVE"

शनिवार, फ़रवरी 04, 2012

Rahul Gandhi...The Prince of India



A young man with a vision and one of the India's new ray of hope in the world of Indian politics. He is Rahul Gandhi. Rahul Gandhi is the Congress General Secretary of the Indian National Congress. He is also a Member of Parliament representing the Amethi constituency.


Childhood and Study
Rahul Gandhi was born on 19 June 1970 in Delhi, the first amongst 2 children of Rajiv Gandhi, former Prime Minister of India and Sonia Gandhi, the present Congress President. His grandmother was former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and his great-grandfather was Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister.

He attended Modern School, New Delhi before entering the The Doon School. Starting university at Harvard, he got his B.A. from Rollins College, Florida in 1994 due to interruptions in his studies caused by security concerns after his father's assassination. He received an M.Phil. in Development Studies in 1995 from Trinity College, Cambridge. Rahul Gandhi, after graduating worked with management guru, Michael Porter's Management consulting firm, Monitor Group for three years. He returned to India in late 2002.


His vision
Rahul Gandhi’s vision of ‘Internal Democracy’ in the Congress party’s Youth and the Students’ wings has resulted in reforms and transformations never seen before. From open memberships to internal elections under impartial observers, the young Gandhi aims to infuse transparency and the concept of talent management and performance measurement in the organisation, a huge effort to herald a positive change in one of India’s oldest political parties.


Public life
He appeared with his mother and Congress President Sonia Gandhi at public events and Congress meetings. He also traveled to Pakistan on a goodwill visit to watch the first cricket series between the countries in 14 years in a One Day International with his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. As a matured politician he formulates his tactics very carefully.  In March 2004, he announced his entry into politics by contesting the May 2004 elections from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh for the Lok Sabha. In his first interview with media, he condemned "divisive" politics in India, saying that he would try to reduce caste and religious tensions. His candidacy was greeted with excitement by locals, who had a long standing affinity with the family's presence in the area. He won with a landslide majority, retaining the family stronghold with a margin of over 100,000 as the Congress unexpectedly defeated the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. His campaign was directed by his younger sister, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

In January 2006, at a convention of the Indian National Congress in Hyderabad, thousands of party members asked for Gandhi to take a more prominent leadership role in the party and demanded that he address the delegates. He said "I appreciate and I am grateful for your feelings and support. I assure you I will not let you down", but asked for patience and declined to immediately seek a high profile role.
Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra managed their mother's election campaign in Raebareli in 2006, which was won easily with a margin greater than 400,000 votes. He was a prominent figure in a high profile Congress campaign for the 2007 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.


As Congress General Secretary
Rahul Gandhi was appointed a General Secretary of the All India Congress Committee on 24 September 2007 in a reshuffle of the party secretariat. In the same reshuffle, he was also given charge of the Youth Congress and the National Students Union of India. Rahul Gandhi implemented some innovative methodologies in the process of choosing leadership in Youth Congress. Rahul Gandhi toured the country with a mission to strengthen the Youth Congress and NSUI. He held interaction sessions with the young buds in various colleges and universities. This new approach helped create a fresh enthusiasm among the young party workers and sympathizers. Rahul Gandhi always believed that unless the youth of this country become active in Indian politics and be a part in the process of development, India cannot prosper further.



Strengthening Youth Congress
It is a scene of a sea-change in the rank and file of the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) and the National Students Union of India (NSUI), the youth and students’ wings, respectively, of the Indian National Congress. The reason is the implementation of the vision of ‘Internal democratisation of Rahul Gandhi, current General Secretary of the All India Congress Committee (AICC).  Along with the strengthening of internal democracy in the youth and student’s wings of the party, Rahul Gandhi has not lost sight of the long term vision of political empowerment of youth of the country. In the Parliamentary and Assembly elections held recently, a large number of IYC and NSUI members were given opportunity to contest elections and a majority of them have been successful. This has ensured a two pronged rejuvenation and reformation in the IYC. By sending new talent into the parliament and State Assemblies Shri Rahul Gandhi has ensured that the young generation gets a firsthand exposure in the giant laboratory of Indian Democracy.


His mission to promote youth
Rahul Gandhi focussed on the twin systems of open membership and internal elections as the major drivers of this organisational transformation. His method of open membership ensures that people interested in becoming members are inducted directly into the organisation. The aim is to increase the cadre-base and to empower the youth of the country by helping them enter the political sphere. As a pilot, a month-long membership drive was undertaken in Punjab in August-December 2008. The result saw memberships exceed 350,000, a ten-fold increase vis-à-vis the previous membership drive which yielded approximately 30,000 memberships.

A greater arduous task that has been driven by Rahul Gandhi is the process of conducting elections within the organisation, across the country. This was a step never before undertaken in the organisation, and is seen as a bold and decisive move to bring in transparency across the ranks and to give a fair chance to all members. The membership drive in the states was followed by elections at block, district and state levels in the organisation. The election also ensures that all sections of society are adequately represented within a committee. The result, according to the party, has been a younger, fresh lot of people from all sections of society, many amongst them, first-timers in politics. Rahul Gandhi’s drive and vision has, according to the party, succeeded in its primary mission of opening the doors of politics to all who are interested, and ushering in organisational democracy, setting a benchmark across all political organisations.


As a Congress campaigner
In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, he retained his Amethi constutuency by a victory margin of over 333,000 votes. Rahul Gandhi also played a pivatol role in reviving Congress in U.P during this election by winning 21 out of the total 80 Lok Sabha seats. He spoke at 125 rallies across the country in six weeks. Rahul Gandhi, at present concentrates mainly on constituency issues and the politics of Uttar Pradesh.

"If the country is to be changed, it cannot be changed from the top, it can be changed from the ground level. Policies can be from the top, ideas can come from the top, thoughts can come from the top, but their implementation has to be at the level of municipalities, panchayats and wards".  These words of Rahul Gandhi prove that he understands the actual value and strength of democracy and also underlines the importance of a visionary young leader like him.

Future leader
It is the future which will prove the effectiveness of the endeavour of the young Congress leader. But his push at reforms, addressing rallies, conferences and meetings and interaction with young people of varied professions and socio-economic backgrounds across states to spread the awareness of his organisational reforms is an indication of his seriousness to bring in and to establish a direct contact with the grassroots, an endeavour to inject vital life into the party and the youth of this country.

Courtesy : pressbrief

Detailed Profile: Rahul Gandhi



NameShri Rahul Gandhi
Constituency from which I am electedAmethi
Father's NameLate Shri Rajiv Gandhi
Mother's NameSmt. Sonia Gandhi
Date of Birth19 Jun 1970
Birth PlaceDelhi
Maritial StatusUnmarried
Date of Marriage-NA-
No. of ChildrenNo.of Sons:0   No.of Daughters:0
State NameUttar Pradesh
Party NameIndian National Congress
Permanent Address12, Tughlak Lane,New Delhi - 110 011Tels. (011) 23795161 Fax. (011) 23012410
Present Address12, Tughlak Lane,New Delhi - 110 011Tels. (011) 23795161 Fax. (011) 23012410


Educational QualificationsM.Phil. (Development Economics) Educated at Trinity College, Cambridge University, U.K.
Profession
Positions Held 
2004Elected, to 14th Lok Sabha
Member, Committee on Home Affairs
5 Aug. 2006Member, Committee on Home Affairs
5 Aug. 2007 onwardsMember, Committee on Human Resource Development
2009Re-elected to 15th Lok Sabha (2nd term)
31 Aug. 2009Member, Committee on Human Resource Development
Social and Cultural ActivitiesAssociated with Rajiv Gandhi Foundation; Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund; Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Trust; Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust
Special InterestsPromotion of primary education; issues related to the empowerment of the dalits and other oppressed sections of society; preservation of marine environment; international affairs
Sports and ClubsScuba diving, swimming, cycling, playing squash
Favourite Pastimes and RecreationReading (History, Sociology, International Relations, Development, Management, Biographies), playing chess and flying
Countries VisitedWidely travelled