मजदूर का अहसास

August 25^th, 2013, Jaipur

वो जबतक उनके खेत-खान का मजदूर था

उनकी हुंकार और शिकार में हमेशा शरीक था

सब कहते थे बहूत मजबूत और मशहूर था

जब एक दिन उसने कहा

मेरे पांव का कांटा मेहरबान निकाल दें

सबको अखरा, लगा  बहुत बेशऊर, बेवकूफ था

गरीब और मजबूर होने के नाते

वो उनके बस खेत-खान का मजदूर था 

उससे ज्यादा वो न कोई चीज था

केवल अपनी गरीबी और मजबूरी के करीब था

क्रिकेट पिच

क्रिकेट पिच

मई २३, २०१३ जयपुर 

कभी कभी निकलता हूँ
करने लम्बी मार्निंग वाक
बशर्ते बीबी साथ हो
और मौसम भी हो साफ़।

अहो भाग्य था आज मेरा

मिले  साधू महाराज  
लिए हाथ पे हाथ वे

बैठे थे पीपल छाँव .

थे बैठे हुए थे पास में

मौलाना, बेहद उदास

और रखा हुआ था पास में

उखडा हुआ अखबार।

किया अदब से दोनों को

विधिवत, नमस्कार सलाम

फिर पूछा उनसे अदब से

मंदिर-मस्जिद समाचार.

बोले, मंदिर मस्जिद ठीक है

बस हमीं बहूत परेशान।   

देखा मैंने ध्यान से
थे मोबाइल उनके हाथ 
बोंले अपने आप से   
ये सब आज बेकार

थी लोडशेडिंग आज भी

मंदिर-मस्जिद इक साथ

ये भी है हम जैसे ही 

फुज्ड़ और डिसचार्ज्ड! .

क्रिकेट प्रेमी दोनों थे

सबको था ये ज्ञान

और मंदिर-मस्जिद रोड पे

बहूत चर्चित था

उनका याराना व्यवहार. 

व्यग्रता से बोले साधू
क्या आईपीएल के हाल?
पूछा मैंने बाबा से
होकर बहूत हैरान
साधू को क्या गरज है
क्या आईपीएल और बाज़ार?

कुछ बात पलट के बोले वो 

मंदिर  में तो मंगल है 

कर रहे श्रीनाथ आराम

मस्जिद में भी होरही

बाअमन,  पाँच वक्त नमाज.

उजडे तो हम दोनों हैं 

नहीं किस्मत का साथ!

सुन साधू संवाद ये

हम मिंया-बीबी हैरान.

पूछा मैंने बाबा से

आखिर है क्या ऐसी बात

दोनों साधू मौलाना परेशान ?

फिर क्या था ज्ञानियों

टूटा उनके सब्र का बांध.  

साहिब,

पूजा-पाठ प्रवचन में 

की कड़ी मेहनत दिनरात

मौलाना ने भी देदी थी

बिन ब्याज आधी रकम उधार

ऐसे हमने जुटाई थी

यूँ पूंजी कुल दस लाख।

फिर साधू रोने लगा

हो बहुत बदहवास

और मौलाना भी रो दिया

देख साथी साधू हाल।.

साहिब

हम तो लुट गए

आज बेहिसाब

पूंजी सारी डूब गयी 

आज एक ही साथ!

अचानक बोले गुस्से में 

मौलाना साधू साथ.

बेड़ा गर्क इस सरकार का

और उदंडी, सत्यानासी अखबार

पकड़े गए श्रीसंथ जी

संग आईपील  बदमाश

बैंक, बल्ले और गेंद के 

सब पहुँच गए हवालात

कर साधू की पिच खराब!!

CBI AND GOPALGARH KILLINGS

A DUBIOUS CBI INQUIRY

REPRESENTATION TO THE NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR MINORITIES AGAINST THE DUBIOUS INQUIRY ON THE INFAMOUS GOPALGARH MASJID KILLINGS IN RAJATHAN, INDIAE CBI INQUIRY

Mr. Wajahat Habibullah

Chairman

National Commission for Minorities

Lok Nayak Bhawan, New Delhi

May 7, 2013

It was very kind of you to give us appointment to meet you, and for a  patient and sympathetic hearing.

The most agonizing experience for civil society groups and Muslims is the gruesome incident of Gopalgarh Masjid Massacre in which ten Muslim Meos were killed in police firing and mob violence (hacking and burning and drowning of the dead) in police presence. The incident occurred because of the dereliction and collusion of district officers like the DM and SP, who were suspended by the government but reinstated without as for six months no department inquiry was initiated to justify their suspensions. The CBI investigation and Judicial Inquiry are moving with snail pace and in a lackluster manner raising several doubts in public perception.

We bring to your kind notice grossness, communal bias and unprofessional approach by the CBI’s IO and his team, in addition to delaying the investigation and thus stalling the process of justice to the poor innocent Muslims, arrested by deception (invited to discuss compensation assessment of looting and arson in their houses and shops).

The partisan role of the CBI should be evident from the following facts:

1.                CBI  filed statements of 94 persons recorded U/S-161 of the Cr. P.C. Most of these witnesses are government servants and doctors. There are no mention of statement from public witnesses who saw the violence, except three injured Muslims, namely, Junaid, Farid and Umar, who were mentioned as accused in the FIR 119 lodged by the SHO of the Gopalgarh Police Station at 9.30 PM on 14^th September 2011.

2.                While Farid and Umar were admittedly taken away by police as injured from the Masjid  to government hospital, Bharatpur, leaving behind Junaid  in Masjid in grievously injured condition. The SHO named several other injured as accused in the aforesaid FIR.

3.                The CBI hasn’t yet completed investigations on the two FIRs lodged by Abdul Rashed, the Imam of the Masjid who was thrashed by mob, about the incident which took place on September 13^th and 14^th  2011. Neither other 11 FIRs lodged by ten eye witnesses of the murders of ten Muslims and 39 injured were investigated nor statements of the informants (with their witnesses mentioned in the FIRs) recorded.

4.                The CBI has also not so prepared the site plan of the place of the incident, a basic requirement in any criminal case of this magnitude. The site plan will expose wrong facts concocted by police and CBI.

5.                The CBI has not done investigation on the FIR No. 138 by Abdul Gani, chairman of the Masjid Management Committee, who was pursuing the case of encroachment on the graveyard land of Gopalgarh. To humiliate, silence and intimidate him and his family, Abdul Gani remains arrested for the last more than 16 months.

6.                In FIR No. 119 lodged by Adhyatam Gautam, SHO Gopalgarh, mentioned that in order “ to disperse the crowd after warning  8 rounds of tear gas shells were fired by STF HC.”

7.                As if in cahoots with police, the CBI also repeats the same assertions verbatim that the above “tear gas shells were fired to disperse the crowd after mandatory warnings.” These statements are NOT TRUE, according to the Fire Arm Examination Report No. CFSL-2011/F-1172, dated 30/01/2012, of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CBI), New Delhi, shown below (8-10).

8.                “The eight (08) Tear-gas shell cases (marked C/67 to C/74) contained in Parcel No. 13 had NOT been fired from the Tear-gas Gun (marked W/10) of parcel No. 10. These eight (08) gas shell cases had been fired from a Single Tear-Gas Gun other than the Tear-gas Gun contained in parcel No. 10.” (Para vi, page 6, NABL)

9.                “The five (05) Tear-gas shells (marked C/108 to C/112) contained in Parcel 15 had NOT been fired from one of the Fire-Arms contained in Parcel No. 1 to 9 as Tear Shell can not be possible to fire from the Rifles contained in these parcels.

10.           Further the five (05) Tear-gas Shells (marked C/108 to C/112) can not be chambered into and fire from the Tear-gas Gun contained in Parcel No. 10.”(Para (vii, page 6, NABL) (Emphasis added in 9-10 above.)

11.           If there was firings, as claimed by police/CBI by both the Meos (from Masjid) and Gujjars (from outside and within the compound of the Masjid), then there would have been some deaths and grievous injuries to the Gujjars and policemen also. Meos must be knowing how to shoot to kill and hurt in such confrontations! No Gujjar or policemen was killed, showing one sided firing by police and mobs of Gujjars. Only Muslims were killed, hacked and burnt alive and then some were thrown in the well of the graveyard. These assertions by the CBI and police are partisan with open communal motives, namely, holding Muslim Meo responsible for the violence, provocative speeches and often repeated allegations of terms like ‘jehad,’ revenge, etc., often habitually inserted by police in FIRs against minority Muslims.

12.           When a delegation of families of the victims, local community leaders and social workers met the CBI team  of three senior officers (Joint Director, DIG and SP) in Delhi. The CBI officers assured the anxious delegation that “within ten days or so you all will see the results,” indirectly alluding that responsible officers of the district would be arraigned/arrested. (Soon after we had met the NCM and Rahul Gandhi, an anxious and angry  IG of Bharatpur Range maintained in before me in the CM office in presence of senior officers—anxious to placate our delegate--that the SP Hinglaj Dan was squarely responsible for such massacre and violence.)  Even after ten months, the CBI assurance has turned out to be illusive. Innocent five Muslims (four from one family) are in jail without bail so far. This is intimidation.

13.           During discussions with the CBI, the CBI officers alleged that the CBI team recovered a country gun from the Masjid!! The delegation members  present promptly pointed out that before the CBI the masjid, already senior politicians and bureaucrats, including Rahul Gandhi, central and state home ministers, CM and CS, DGP of Rajasthan, had inspected the site (Masjid). Wasn’t the Masjid routinely combed and sanitized for security reasons before these dignitaries visited the place? The embarrassed officers, thus exposed, kept  silence. Such concoctions undermines credibility of the CBI in public eyes. Muslims do expect justice and fair play from this apex investigation body.

14.           Ironically, if not farcical, after more than one year of the incident and beginning of the CBI inquiry, suddenly the CBI published an advertisement in Dainik Bhaskar to award Rs. 50,000/- to any one who can “find the missing CD” of the incident of 14^th September 2011 for investigation purposes!” Rather than shooting in the dark (perhaps a ploy to further delay or digress the investigation), why the CBI didn’t or doesn’t “arrest the SDM of Pahadi Mr. BL Jaiman and the photographer to produce the CD for which order and payment were made by the SDM?” It is learnt that rather than confront the aforesaid SDM and photographer, the police and CBI is reportedly trying to implicate the then SDM Kamrudin for the CD who had nothing to do with the photography as he was called by the DM for “help’ to persuade Meos to disperse. Kamruddin was not officially responsible for the photography of the incident as it was not in his jurisdiction. Our understanding is the local police/CBI is trying to destroy evidences of violence. This must be closely examined by the highest authorities in the CBI.

15.           If a Muslim officer from Deeg was asked to “mediate” with Meos persuading them disperse from the Masjid, which they did,  why not  the SDM of nearby Sikari, who is a Meo Muslim, asked by the DM to do the needful who understands Meo mood and culture better? Could the Meo SDM have exposed the conspiracy of killing his brothers Meo Muslims? Why was he avoided? Why Kamruddin was invited? These patterns indicate how the district administration and CBI are working in tandem to implicate the victims who lost ten lives and their 39 persons got injured and houses of many were looted and burnt down.

16.           The CBI, apparently under the influence and guidance of the state police has successful divided the Muslims: the Majority Meo who are politically and numerically large in numbers and the Non-Meo (Kasai or Butchers) who are numerically and politically weaker. The CBI arrested only Non-Meo Kasais, not the Meos fearing political implications. This strongly reinforces the perception that communalized and politicized bureaucrats tend to divide Muslims for petty purposes, namely, as in this case, to protect political interests and the officers who colluded in violence and committed dereliction of duty.

Sir, a former peaceful state Rajasthan has become hotspot because of a failed governance due to communalization of bureaucracy. It has ruined its traditional image hurting us all. We wish to live in peace and communal amity with brothers of all communities. We believe communal violence is unproductive in national interest. We believe it is duty of the state to provide right to life and property (if not education and employment) to all minorities. We also believe and urge that elite professionals like IAS and IPS should be secular and abide by professional mandate given to them by the Indian constitution for which taxpayers pay money from their sweat.  We also believe that if a DM and SP decide, there can be no communal violence and, if at all it occurs, it can be contained/controlled in time with minimum loss of life and property. The DM and SP of Bharatpur miserably failed in their professional duty, tarnishing the image of their cadre and state.

        If you think it appropriate and necessary, this representation may please we sent to the CBI Director for necessary action. (We had already submitted a detailed representation last year in July to the CBI pointing at partisan role of the IO of the CBI.) We shall be grateful if this is representation is acknowledged. Once again thanking you,

With high regards,

Yours sincerely,

1.    Prof. M Hasan, Ph.D. (Syracuse, NY). Former Professor, HCM Rajasthan State Institute of Public Administration, universities of Jodhpur and Nairobi, and former Member AMU Academic Council. Presently, President Initiative for Research and Affirmative Action (IRADA) Society, Jaipur.

2.    Advocate Sayed Shahid Hasan Naqvi, Rajasthan High Court, Jaipur.

3.    Shabbir Khan, Member, IRADA and a well known social philanthropist and social worker.

,

It Happens

It happens.

Day by day, year by year

Translucence of dreaming eyes

Trickle down drop by drop

With memories of husband and son.

One left half way

When the moon was full.

Another withered

Before becoming young.

She searches

In all corners of her being

Their indelible footprints.

Steel nails  pierced in walls

Holding blessings and springs of smiles

In the luminous  wedding hall.

Toddler’s wavy arty paintings

Hanging skewed on the inner wall

Of her broken bleeding heart.

It happens and happens very hard.

M Hasan

Sad, but Rajasthan is turning into academic wasteland

A NEEDLESS CONTROVERSY IN A WASTELAND

By Prof. M. Hasan*

(An abridge version published in the Hindustan Times, Jaipur Edition, on March 12, 2013)

Risking being labeled as an old fashioned academic, I believe that the recent sprouting of several universities/technical colleges in Rajasthan hasn’t added to the quality of our green stock, ensuring saleability of products. Their enrollments merely show a ‘best fit’ between mediocrity and cash flow! Not outputs and quality employments. The focus is on exploitative intensive contractual labor, land and buildings, the golden stocks, insuring droughts of pure profits. This endemic pure profit has spread in a dubious environment of private public partnership, initiated and hawked by  powerful caucuses patronized by politicians and powered by resources generated by liquor barons, land sharks, and builders’ lobbies. Quality and cost of education are the victims.  

On the other hand, sadly, our old bullion is being converted into brass and clay. Universities which used to attract and nurture towering international economists, philosophers, historians and scientists have been turned into academic dungeons, hotspots of hooliganism, with focus on elections and dance parties for political and ethnic  visibility.  Criminals craft our political, social and economic conscience! I happen to meet recently some vice-chancellors of Rajasthan University. It was disappointing. They reflected the myopic visions, convictions and characters of individuals under whose shadows their selections materialized. Do we want more weeds without shades and substance? Ignoring the need for cleansing academic cesspools, one set of politicians are busy in inventing unwholesome emotive controversies and other set caving in lacking clarity of purpose and courage of  convictions.

These concerns emerge from an unnecessary political  controversy about the land allotment for the first, much needed, Journalism and Mass Communication University from the unused large chunk of land (more than 300 bigha) of the Sanskrit University, both in Jaipur. In the land allotment letter to the Sanskrit  University, it was clearly stipulated that from its unused land any other academic institution can be allotted a parcel of land for maximization of output. Any sensible politician, committed to the cause of education and welfare of the state and aware of scarcity of land in Rajasthan, would appreciate such qualifier. However, politicians are politicians, hell bent upon creating ruckus with eye on election.  

Denied of cherished political turf within the party (every time this ‘implosion’ takes place with new inputs before Rajasthan assembly elections), a priestly BJP leader vociferously raised a hue and cry in the assembly, protesting against allotment of land to journalism university  from the unused land allotted to the  language university. An apparent inference is that the self-claimed ‘poor brahmin’ is acquiring political clouts raising this ruckus. All angles are culturally emotive. No one from the treasury bench stood up and clarify the matter with courage of conviction in larger interest.

Both universities are important. In public interest if lands are acquired displacing poor farmers, home and shop owners, why can’t the superfluous land of a government university campus be taken for another university? It doesn’t displace the Sanskrit University. Predictably, the shaken Sanskrit education minister caved in with the first salvo of the attack,  saying ‘not even an inch of land would be parted from the Sanskrit university!’ Or, is there only one worldview within a caste behemoth, across political beliefs, when it comes to  Sanskrit? When would we would understand that languages aren’t identifiable with, or proprietary rights of, religion or caste. They are regional attributes. This is ominous if a minister functions so timorously facing an election year. If the education minister failed, then the Chief Minister should justify this land allotment for maximization of land use for economy of scale.

In a secular democracy one may ask how exclusive language universities (Hindi, Sanskrit, Urdu and  Hindi)  are adding to wider knowledge stock and employment opportunities, namely, their tenability, in India. With a modest experience of having studied and taught in and visited western and African universities, I haven’t come across a language university per se. Except the Hebrew University, which is a full fledged university with all faculties in sciences, humanities and engineering.  I have seen centers/schools of excellence in Oriental, Latin and African languages in leading universities as hubs of scholarships. Delhi School of Economics and Jamia Millia University’s Communication Center, are examples of how universities care for quality of education and innovations. My Alma mater, University of Jodhpur (rechristened Jainarain Vyas University), during its legendary vice-chancellor VV John, used to have a galaxy of engineers, scientists, economists, historians and Hindi litterateurs. VV John had persuaded even legendary Ageya from Berkeley to join Jodhpur University. Chief minister Ashok Gehlot was student then.  

Visionary vice-chancellors and politicians know that in an age of meritocracy, without focusing on quality of education and research (quality teachers), mere numbers add to an unproductive burden on scarce resources. Two education ministers, both teachers (!), one each from BJP and Congress, ruined academic peace, liberal thoughts and quality of university education in Rajasthan. Aren’t we to worry about the murky goings on in private campuses and the terminal plight of state universities like the JNV and Rajasthan University, located in CM’s hometown and the state capital, respectively? Or, are today’s myopic politicians just locked in horns in public fights for institutional lands and unproductive emotive issues making Rajasthan an academic wasteland?

*Prof. Hasan was faculty in HCM Rajasthan State Institute of Public Administration and universities of Jodhpur and Nairobi. Email: mhasan23@rediffmail.com

Add. 54 Kidwai Nagar, Jaipur. Cell: 09784678786

Tribute to 'Damini'

Tribute to 'Damini'
(Some Thoughts on Horrific Delhi Gang Rape
on December 16, 2012)

इन अंधियारों के लोगो को कुछ दिखता नहीं
यारों इनको अब सूरज दिखाना ही चाहिए।
इन गैर जिम्मेदरान गैर-जमाने के लोगों को
कुछ समझ आता नहीं
वक्त आगया है अब इनको
कुछ तो पढ़ाना और समझाना चाहिए।
 गुफाओं और कंदराओं के प्राचीन लोग
खुदगर्जी के मक्कड़जालों में उलझे सब  
इनको अब गंगा मैं तैराना
और शहरी सड़क पर घुमाना ही चाहिए।
 धर्म के इन ठेकेदारों को
अब भी न दिखता है न सुनता है
इनको हर गली और चौक में लाकर
नए जमाने की शक्ल और अक्ल
का नजारा दिखाना और बराबरी का  तराना
सुनाना ही चाहिए। 
जमाना आगया है बेटी, बहन और बहू
के हक़ और उम्मिदों के लिए
हर नेक इंसान को
जमीं हिन्द पे जंग छेडना ही चाहिए।