Like Palestinians, Muslims of Muzaffarnagar forego their right to return

[HRK]

...........

 

[DESERT FIGHTER]

RIP........

 

[Areesh]

Like Palestinians, Muslims of Muzaffarnagar forego their right to return (Comment: Special to IANS) | Business Standard

The government of Akhilesh Yadav in UP has asked the battered Muslims of Muzaffarnagar to sign an affidavit:

"Myself and members of my family who have left our village and our homes due to violent incidents in our village, will not now return to our original village and home under any circumstance."

This undertaking, sought by a government which lays a special claim on Muslims, has made Firaq Gorakhpuri's famous couplet stand on its head.

"Palat rahey hain ghareeb ul Watan, palatna tha

Who koocha rookash e jannat ho Ghar hai ghar phri bhi."

(Exile may have been the very picture of paradise, but please let us return because there is no place like home, after all)

In this affidavit, the Samajwadi Party (SP) government is demanding the Muslim refugees of Muzaffarnagar to forego their right to return, rather like the Palestinians. Many refugees worldwide do not return for a variety of reasons. But here the state is complicit in perpetuating the exile.

If the refugees commit themselves not to return home, they will be entitled to a cheque of Rs.5 lakhs, equivalent of about $8000.

There are other conditions for the recipient of the dole:

"The lumpsum financial help being given by the government will be used by me only to rehabilitate my family. With the help of this money, I will live with my family arranging for residence elsewhere (not in my village)." Returning home is taboo once the cheque has been accepted.

A further condition is:

"On receiving the lumpsum financial help amount, neither I nor any member of my family will demand any compensation relating to any damage to any immovable property in my village or elsewhere."

The implication is that any property left behind in the village can be vandalized or occupied by those who have pushed out the Muslims from their respective villages. But these Muslims will forfeit the right to complain about their properties being vandalized or occupied once they have received the Rs.5 Lakh cheque. Brilliant governance.

One would have expected the state government to send the refugees back to the homes they had fled during the riots. True, they have gone through horrible experiences. They have seen their relatives killed, their wives and daughters raped. They are therefore afraid returning to their villages unless the state can ensure their security. In normal times this was supposed to be the duty of the state. But the Samajwadi party appears to be evolving a new pattern of institutionalized apartheid as a means of managing the fallout from communal riots.

Who knows, the UP government may have embarked on an imitable model. If the majority community in a village has grown tired of that profaned term "composite" culture, all it has to do is to riot on a massive scale and drive out the minority into make shift refugee camps. The SP officials will show up cash-in-hand and ensure that the minority never returns to the homes it has abandoned.

The majority will now have a homogenous population in the villages. If the uprooted minority, Rs.5 Lakhs in hand, mutate and become the new banjaras or gypsies, so be it. If they settle in blocs of newly constructed shacks, they will be easy targets for arson as well as for votes.

It is also possible that the state government is not being as cynical as it may appear to be. It possibly has collaborators among the Muslim clergy.

Muzaffarnagar is close to Deoband, the largest Muslim seminary in the subcontinent. Maulana Arshad Madani and his disciples have shouldered a great deal of the responsibility of the riot victims still in the camps. The government in Lucknow has done little to help.

Why should a government which imagines the Muslims are its vote bank, not be energetically helping them in their distress? For two reasons: it would not like to be seen by the majority community to be reaching out to Muslims. In an atmosphere so polarized, supposing mischievous elements scream "appeasement", that word will resonate statewise. It is not totally rational but that is the state of funk in which all parties are fighting these elections, except perhaps the three ladies - Mayawati, Jayalalithaa and Mamata.

Handing Rs.5 lakh to Muslim refugees and encouraging them to take the road, is Mulayam's way of playing both sides:

"Shaikh bhi khush rahey

Shaitan bhi naraaz na ho"

Which means that the "Shaikh should be pleased but Satan should not be displeased either".

Well, the Shaikh of Deoband is actually playing ball with Mulayam. He is advertising the cheque as a boon for the Muslims of nine villages of Shamli and Muzaffarnagar. The political quid pro quo is simple: the clergy gets the credit for having extracted the boon from the SP government and thereby hopes to tighten its grip on the community. A rattled SP expects Deoband to help it win back the Muslim votes.

From the great secular fraternity, the silence on Muzaffarnagar has been deafening. Some weeks ago the CPM organized a Convention against Communalism at Delhi's Talkatora stadium. The hall was full of SP volunteers wearing red caps. No sooner had Mulayam spoken than the red caps left. Only the CPI's A.B. Bardhan urged Mulayam to arrange for the return of the refugees. Mulayam winced.

The only party with friends in Muzaffarnagar and which is campaigning for the refugee's return is an unexpected one: Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist).

Where does the Congress stand on the issue of the return of the refugees?

(15.11.2013 - A senior commentator on political and diplomatic affairs, Saeed Naqvi can be reached on saeed.naqvi@hotmail.com. The views expressed are personal.)

What a shameful incident. We will first push you out of your homes. We will make you a refugee. Then we will give you 5 lakh RS. and you would give up everything that you had for it. And now some clown from India would come forward to justify this sh!t.

 

[HRK]

What a shameful incident. We will first push you out of your homes. We will make you a refugee. Then we will give you 5 lakh RS. and you would give up everything that you had for it. And now some clown from India would come forward to justify this sh!t.

and would claim 'Indian secularism' is best ......

 

[Dubious]

what is wrong with people! They cant tolerate a loss in cricket? What loosers!

Oh wait that was just an excuse this was the real plan all along?!

 

[HRK]

what is wrong with people! They cant tolerate a loss in cricket? What loosers!

Oh wait that was just an excuse this was the real plan all along?!

& the best thing is they are not even bother to hide there motives, but cry crocodile tears against false news about Balochistan .....

 

[Sugarcane]

Few weeks ago an India poster (i guess zakir) posted the plight of Gujrat victims here, If that's the condition of 2002's victims in so called modal state of India than i think these people are still very lucky, at-least they are getting some money.

 

[surya kiran]

Oh really can,t you see muslims are getting abused by hindus in muzaffarnagar and still you ask what it has to do with secularism? Look at the religious violence in your secular country..


Yes after all what,s happening in your HINDUSTAN i think we pakistanis should learn secularism from you
I am a big admirer of secularism but india is the worst example of secularism.

Now here is the joke. This is the government, which the Muslim community in UP voted for. You know what's going to happen now? These same politicians will usurp the land and sell it.

I hope the poor people in UP, irrespective of caste and religion, see this and decide to vote for better candidates who promise betterment, instead of appealing to religion and caste.

 

[livingdead]

what is wrong with people! They cant tolerate a loss in cricket? What loosers!

Oh wait that was just an excuse this was the real plan all along?!

jatt vs muslim cricket match has to turn ugly... jatts are not good losers

 

[Soumitra]

and would claim 'Indian secularism' is best ......

The UP govt is formed by a "Secular" party led by Mullah Mulayam who claims to be more Muslim than Muslims themselves.

All Muslims blindly vote these "secular" politicians and now the result is in front of them.

The Sachar committee report - which all "Secularists", Muslims and Pakistanis keep on referring to clearly states that the conditions of Muslims in "Communal" Gujrat is much better than muslims in "Secular" UP.

The Muslims have to come out of the victim hood mindset and embrace the development politics. What did you get by voting for "Secular" parties? - Poverty, No Electricity, No Jobs, few lolipops to the Mullahs. This time change your destiny. Vote BJP and vote for Development - Like your Gujrati brothers are doing for so long.

 

[Soumitra]

Muslims better off in Gujarat by Narendra Modi's Blog : Narendra Modi's blog-The Times Of India

 

[jarves]

what is wrong with people! They cant tolerate a loss in cricket? What loosers!

Bit rich coming from someone whose nation cant accept someone speaking there regional languages.

Few weeks ago an India poster (i guess zakir) posted the plight of Gujrat victims here, If that's the condition of 2002's victims in so called modal state of India than i think these people are still very lucky, at-least they are getting some money.

They themselves are responsible for these incidents,if they had applied some common sense instead of blindly following mullahs and had voted for a competent party then this would have been avoided.

 

[HRK]

The UP govt is formed by a "Secular" party led by Mullah Mulayam who claims to be more Muslim than Muslims themselves.

All Muslims blindly vote these "secular" politicians and now the result is in front of them.

The Sachar committee report - which all "Secularists", Muslims and Pakistanis keep on referring to clearly states that the conditions of Muslims in "Communal" Gujrat is much better than muslims in "Secular" UP.

The Muslims have to come out of the victim hood mindset and embrace the development politics. What did you get by voting for "Secular" parties? - Poverty, No Electricity, No Jobs, few lolipops to the Mullahs. This time change your destiny. Vote BJP and vote for Development - Like your Gujrati brothers are doing for so long.

as a Pakistani observer of Indian politics, I am quit happy with the failure of secularism in India ........

 

[jarves]

as a Pakistani observer of Indian politics, I am quit happy with the failure of secularism in India ........

It may not be perfect but it is far better than any country in South Asia.

 

[Robinhood Pandey]

as a Pakistani observer of Indian politics, I am quit happy with the failure of secularism in India ........

you are free to feel happy . .

but make sure you are feeling happy about the right thing and right people