Thursday, July 14, 2005

From one pocket to another - Wah Taj!



The Taj Mahal was today declared Sunni Wakf property on the ground that it is the grave of a woman whose emperor husband was a Sunni.

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), the monument’s custodian since 1920 has at least said that it would challenge the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Wakf Board’s verdict in the high court.

I remember the old story about owner trying to slaughter the hen that laid golden eggs but only once a day!

The ASI earns Rs 15 crore a year in Taj revenues; and I wonder if it even spends Rs 1.05 crore. on it's maintenance and upkeep. It's a Jizya that Shahjhan left for Govt. of India to be repaid for a hundred years though he never took it anyways.

The Taj will now be “like a house owned by two warring brothers, no one keen on its proper maintenance”, said the assistant director of ASI, Agra, S.K. Sharma. “The order is not against the ASI, it is against the Taj Mahal.”

I agree.

Sunni Wakf Board. Corrupted to the core. Revelling and eating out on the money left by those who crossed the borders during partition or those who leave a sare of their property to be devoted to social charitable causes of uplifting poor amongst the Muslims. Their pockets are so fill..I wonder where they intend to keep the money they would recieve out of owning the Taj. Taj would be very fortunate if would survive another 50 years if it gets into Wakf hands from ASI. At least, ASI did undertake some maintenance work on it occasionally.

No limit to WAKF greediness I must say!! One look at the delipidated conditions of most of the mosques that are already under Wakf jurisdiction in India, and one could imagine the fate of the Taj in near future.

Thursday, July 07, 2005

Manufacturing Terror - 5000th episode

It seems that the longest running soap on Ayodhya, has finally entered into it's last season. With the latest climactic episode getting over,some of the questions about it's weak storyline remain unanswered.

1. An eyewitness told the Zee news media that the attacker performed puja before they entered the complex. Why?

2. The attackers on the disputed site were earlier termed as ‘karsevaks’, whereas now the new official terminology is changed to ‘terrorist’. Why?

3. Earlier, the state and central government failed to stop the demolition of the structure, whereas, this time they saved the makeshift temporary structure very pro-actively. How?

4. It has been noticed that the attack was similar to the attack on Parliament, Akshardham Temple and other places, where all attackers were killed and no clues found. Why do intelligence fail on all occasions of similar attacks instead embarking upon a wild goose chase and implicating innocents in it's aftermath?

I find a methodological weakness in all the episodes, whoever scripted them.
The attack on Indian Parliament!! Why would someone want to do that? A heavily guarded place that is and would not bring any benefit to kashmir or lashkar's cause (if they have a cause to start with, whatsoever). The only ones to benefit would be Hindu right wing and they almost did but for America's priorities in aligning with Musharraf during the year long, India's threatening standoff at the borders with Pakistan, initialted by BJP government then. The fanatics amongst hindus, albeit not being able to launch an attack on Pakistan, did manage to quench their blood thirst by sucking up the blood of 2000 odd Muslims of their own country by in the garb of retaliation, in Gujrat.

And then...It had all seemed so convincing when the terror attack happened in our own Ansal Plaza at Delhi in Nov 2002. So, when the two "terrorists" arrived on at Delhi's most upmarket shopping centre, our super policewallahs were already waiting for them. As soon as the men parked their car in the underground basement and got out they were challenged by a poliwallah and they (the terrorists) allegedly opened fire. In the ensuing 15-minute "encounter" both militants were shot dead. An eyewitness who happened to be a doctor by profession, Dr. H Krishna, later gave a dramatic testimony. He claimed that both men were unarmed when police shot them. He also said that "the men stumbled out of their car and appeared either drugged or suffering from lack of sleep. They were empty-handed and walking with difficulty.
The police opened fire a minute later, killing the "terrorists" instantly".

When Dr Krishna tried to explain this to reporters, officers escorted him away. He later gave his account to India's Asian Age newspaper, and then wisely disappeared off to Australia when police questioned his personal credibility. He must have been on Lashkar's payroll.

Usually, many arrests follow when a suicide attack or even any attack happens in such mysterious circumstances. Remember, that Delhi college lecturer, Geelani, who spent two years in prison after being wrongly convicted of helping plan an attack on the Indian parliament, had also said he was framed by the police. After being freed, he was again attacked in Feb 2005. Our police says, he had gobbled up ISI money and they are getting even. Wow!!The impunity with which ISI carries it's 'getting even' activities on our soil, is amazing. The laxity with which our police is under no hurry to investigate the attack on Mr. Geelani by ISI goons is even more astonishing.

But no such wild goose chase followed the Ansal shootout. Delhi Police probably heaved a sigh of relief by just having gotten away after doing a blunder and got caught like a novice thief. So it was better to forget the usual melodrama enactment post suicide attacks. Thanks to a sympathetic government at the centre.

Anyways...Seems like Ayodhya soap is in it's final moments. India is calm. Share markets are calm except a few lumpen elements trying to whip up passions but failing miserably. Good for India but bad for all those who sucked and cherished on innocent blood of both sides.

And not to forget, Ishrat Jahan Raza, who was shot dead in the company of three Lashkar terrorists in July 2004. Her friends and family members still insist that she was not involved with terrorism. The damning evidence of her involvement with Lashkar appeared in the form of a claim by a Pakistani daily affiliated to Lashkar-e-Tayiba , that she was indeed one of them. The other evidence, was her e-mail ID: ishhateseverybody@hotmail.com. Additional CP, Ahmedabad, Mr. D G Vanzara had wondered, "if she was not a criminal, why did she not keep her ID 'ishloveseverybody'?" The case was closed.


I mean, I always wonder, Why the hell these Muslim self proclaimed 'militant' outfits fall over each other to hurriedly claim all their misadventures and failures? They are yet to, at least in India, claim a target worth taking and have almost always claimed innocent civilian lives. At least, they should learn lessons from their presumed enemies. The mission of Ishrat, if it was to purge Modi from the scene, had failed. Indian Human Rights agencies were condemning Modi and the whole police establishment wa under scrutiny to prove the involvement of Ishrat in the alleged Modi's assasination. Modi himself was under great political pressure within his constituency at the time. Second, the newspapers and television channels had been filing stories about Ishrat Jahan's college-mates, her teachers, and her neighbours telling the world what a good girl she was. She was, they all insisted, the last woman who could be suspected of 'fundamentalist' tendencies. One might argue that if you were a terrorist, would you actually go around announcing to the world that you intended to shoot Narendra Modi? Or would you keep quiet until the time came to act? Persumably the latter. But that was the order before lashker gallantly owned up to to it's failure.

Even if the mission of Ishrat failed, it could have been easier to kill Modi when he was removed from office or Police get's it's power curtailed if it was proven as a fake encounter. It doesn't take a genius to strategise this much.

Instead, the geniuses that inhabit Lashkar-e-taiba, chose to claim responsibility for a failed and callously implemented terror act? Why? A weak script, as always. But who cares...!! Lashker proved to the world, once again, every seemingly innocent looking Muslim boy or girl, should be treated as guilty of aiding and abetting 'Islamic terror' and never proven innocent throughtout his lifespan.

To maintain sanity, I end up linking you to a nice article on the same issue of Ayodhya's latest episode.

Why Ayodhya isn’t an issue any more - By Zafar