New Deoband chief lauds Modi's Gujarat

[notsuperstitious]

Those who shy away from raising voice against massacre of thousands of Muslims at the hands of Modi and Co, No wonder will support him for saving their own lives.

No sane person can admire a killers of thousands of innocent people.

Yes people admire those who called for direct action and murdered thousands and thousands... but you are right no sane person would...

 

[Manas]

I must say barring the few fanatics,overall Indian Muslims have started seeing life beyond religion just like their counter parts living in the west.

This is because living in Democracy and plural society they no longer instinctively whimsical and uncaring about the concerns of people belonging to other religions and see the larger picture where u must give in to tolerance for a peaceful coexistence.

 

[Ignited Mind]

I must say barring the few fanatics,overall Indian Muslims have started seeing life beyond religion just like their counter parts living in the west.

This is because living in Democracy and plural society they no longer instinctively whimsical and uncaring about the concerns of people belonging to other religions and see the larger picture where u must give in to tolerance for a peaceful coexistence.

I don't care even if we don't develop at 10% as long as we keep developing fast enough. A few percentage points here and there do not matter as much as the enlightenment of the people to see things in a different perspective from religion.

Democracy is the most suitable system for India.

 

[greatsequence]

When TwoCircles.net contacted MBA degree holder Maulana Vastanvi to verify his statement in Times of India the Surat (Gujarat)-based cleric said: “Muslims are doing businesses here. They are getting education. There has been no violence in the last eight years. They are living peacefully in Gujarat. Now tell me my son, what should I say? Should I say Muslims are oppressed here, they are facing atrocities. If I say so, Modi will ask me where are the oppressed Muslims, and then how many such Muslims will stand behind me?

“Why should I create a controversy by saying everything is wrong in the state and nothing is good for Muslims?” he asked.

On the Gujarat riots also he reiterated his views: The riots happened eight years ago. It was wrong. It brought bad repute to the state and the country. “But what should we do now? Should we sit and weep or should we move ahead? But it does not mean the guilty should not be punished. Those involved in the riots should be punished and justice should reach the victims,” said Maulana Vastanvi who has been elected rector of Deoband after the death of Maulana Marghoobur Rahman last month.

However, on the issue of relief to riot victims, the Maulana said his complete views were not published by the paper. “As far as relief work riot is concerned, it has been carried out very well by government and people of Gujarat,” the TOI had quoted him as saying.

When TCN asked him how he can say so when several hundreds of riot victims are still reported to be living in relief camps, the Maulana said this was not his complete view. “I had also said that the victims should be rehabilitated. Houses should be built for those whose homes were looted, put on fire and destroyed,” he said.

According to the Maulana, he had also demanded release of innocent Muslim youths who have been put behind bars in terror cases but this also did not get space. There are hundreds of Muslims languishing in Gujarat jails in terror cases.


Deoband Rector Maulana Ghulam Vastanvi talks to TCN on Gujarat | TwoCircles.net

 

[greatsequence]

If people dig up the history as why Brits had established deoband in India they will know the reality.

Both on East and west pakistan the first flags raised on 14th August were by Deobandi ulema.

 

[Soumitra]

This reiterates that Modi's development agenda has reached all the communities. Today no-one wants to be left out of the development front and if they see development they will endorse the people who do the development be it Narendra Modi or Nitish Kumar.

The congressis and pakistanis (sometimes I wonder is there really any difference between the two) try their best to project Shri Modi as a devil incarnate. They fail to see that the corruption free, red tapism free (Nano plant land deal took just 3 days), all inclusive (highest agricultural and industrial growth rate in India) developmental model is the way forward for India's overall development.
I will say again MODI FOR P.M!!!!!!

 

[Rig Vedic]

Go Go Gujarat - WSJ.com


Chief Minister Narendra Modi proves that good governance can be good politics.


By SADANAND DHUME

As the curtain fell last week on India's most visible business jamboree, the clumsily named biennial Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors Summit, you could be forgiven for experiencing a sense of déjà vu.

As they had two years earlier, investors pledged to sink vast sums—upward of $450 billion, or about one-third of India's GDP—in the western Indian state's soaring economy. As in the past, a parade of India's top businessmen—among them Mukesh Ambani, Anil Ambani, Ratan Tata and Anand Mahindra—lavished praise on Gujarat's progress under Narendra Modi, the state's 60-year-old business-friendly chief minister, and a leading figure in the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). And unsurprisingly, going by press reports, Mr. Modi retained his place as India's most polarizing politician: loved and loathed in equal measure.

Nine years after Hindu-Muslim riots killed more than 1,000 people, three-quarters of them Muslim, the violence continues to cast a shadow over how Indians talk about Gujarat. Mr. Modi's critics accuse him of either abetting or failing to control the bloodletting in 2002. His supporters say he is a scapegoat for events largely beyond his control.

To be sure, this larger national conversation, at its heart about morality in public life, will not disappear any time soon. (Mr. Modi says he is innocent; a team appointed by the Supreme Court is investigating the charges against him.) But it ought not to obscure another, equally important, question: What can the rest of India learn from Gujarat's economic success?

Think of Gujarat as a slice of East Asia—say Japan in the 1960s or South Korea in the 1980s—set amidst the dust and drama of the Indian subcontinent. For nearly a decade now, the state on the edge of the Arabian Sea has averaged double-digit growth rates, the only large Indian state to do so. With only 5% of India's 1.1 billion people, Gujarat accounts for almost one-third of the country's stock-market capitalization, more than one-fifth of its exports, and about one-sixth of its industrial production. Per-capita electricity consumption in the state is about twice the national average.

Twenty years ago, before the advent of economic reforms, the average Gujarati was about four-fifths as rich as the average resident of Maharashtra, the neighboring state that has long been India's industrial heartland. In 2008, according to the Reserve Bank of India's most recent figures, per-capita incomes in Gujarat and Maharashtra were virtually identical— just over $1,000 in nominal terms—despite the latter housing Mumbai, the country's business capital.

Under Mr. Modi, Gujarat has acquired a reputation for aggressively wooing both domestic and foreign investors. In 2008, it snagged the Tata Group's flagship Nano car project after political unrest forced the company to flee Communist-ruled West Bengal. The state houses India's two largest oil refineries, and one of the world's largest automated coal terminals. Its roads, ports and power plants are among the best in the country. Among its prominent foreign investors: General Motors, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Canada's Bombardier.

What explains this superior performance? In a nutshell: a fortuitous mix of geography, culture and leadership. Gujarat, which has India's longest coastline, has been a trading culture for centuries. It also houses one of India's most entrepreneurial populations.

In Gujarat, wealth tends to be respected rather than merely envied. The global Gujarati diaspora—with its fingers in everything from real estate in east Africa to diamond trading in Belgium to motels and newspaper kiosks in the United States—fertilizes the state with know-how, ideas and international contacts.

Mr. Modi's supporters tend to exaggerate his contribution to the state's prosperity. Gujarat's culture and geography set it on the path to faster development as soon as New Delhi loosened the dead hand of the federal government with reforms in 1991. Nonetheless—apart from the major blemish of the 2002 riots—the chief minister can be proud of his record of governance.

Unlike much of India, Gujarat has streamlined and rationalized procedures for land allocation and environmental clearances. For instance, the Tata Nano project took just three days to get the green light in 2008. Foreign investors can use a web portal to track paperwork and make complaints.

In the business community, the famously frugal Mr. Modi has earned a reputation for not only being personally honest, but also for setting the tone for his administration. He is also perhaps the only major Indian politician—in a political culture built on government handouts—to espouse the gospel of small government. His motto: "minimum government and maximum governance."

The Gujarat council of ministers has just 20 members, remarkable for a large state. Unlike many Indian politicians, Mr. Modi, a bachelor, has no loutish offspring who expect to inherit political power by right. By appealing to pan-Gujarati pride, he has largely transcended the caste equations that marked Gujarat politics in the 1980s and still define elections—and the flawed policies that flow from them—in much of India.

In the end, most states can't hope to replicate, at least not overnight, Gujarat's entrepreneurial culture and sensible attitudes toward wealth creation. But other elements of the state's model—strong leadership, anti-corruption efforts, a streamlined bureaucracy and a welcoming attitude toward business—can travel without damage across its borders. And Mr. Modi, Gujarat's longest-serving chief minister, is proof that good governance can also be good politics. The sooner more states figure this out, the better it will be for India.

Mr. Dhume is a columnist for WSJ.com and a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC. Follow him on Twitter @dhume01.

Copyright 2011 Dow

 

[ajtr]

Deoband pat to Modi upsets clerics​

New Delhi, Jan. 19: The praise from the chief of Deoband’s Dar-ul-Uloom seminary for Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi has riled Muslim leaders and opinion-makers.

Separately, most of them demanded that the chief of one of the Islam world’s most well-respected seminaries, Maulana Ghulam Mohammed Wastanavi, should either recant his endorsement for Modi or apologise to Muslims.

Wastanavi is from Gujarat and did an MBA in Maharashtra.

His election against two veteran contenders of Deoband was seen to mark a generational shift at the seminary in more ways than one.

Barely four days after taking over, he told an English daily that the Muslims of Gujarat must move forward instead of getting obsessed with the 2002 violence and stated there was no discrimination against Muslims in development in the state.

Maulana Khalid Rasheed, the Nani imam of Lucknow’s Aishbagh Idgah mosque, said: “The statements are highly irresponsible. Modi sponsored one of the most horrific genocides in India for which the US refuses to give him a visa. Secular Hindus are still fighting for justice to the victims. The Deoband Maulana is otherwise a good person. But he has undermined the institution’s prestige.”

Kamal Farooqi, a former minorities commission chairman and a member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, said: “His (Wastanavi’s) job is to issue religious edicts and not give a clean chit to a person no secular Hindu in India will appreciate.”

The Shahi Imam of Delhi’s Jama Masjid, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, said he would explore the possibility of “confronting” him with other clerics if he did not apologise quickly.

The only person to back Wastanavi is Zafar-ul Islam, the editor of an English daily Milli Gazette and former head of the Muslim Musharawat.

“The Modi of 2002 and the Modi of today are different. We don’t expect him to apologise for 2002. Don’t forget that Modi appointed a Muslim police chief which is a big thing for us. He has started a number of schemes in which Muslims have been made stakeholders. He has not uttered a single derogatory word against Muslims. So there’s no reason to react against Wastanavi,” Islam said.

 

[ajtr]

It is easy to close your eyes and believe in stereotypes, especially when they suit your biases. It is also quite easy to discard a differing opinion as propaganda.

However, truth on the ground will not change however much you want it to.

These may be stereotypes for u but those who suffered the loss its reality for them but not the stereotype.

 

[garibnawaz]

A bit offtopic but while deoband chief is hailing Modi, Teesta Setalvad got whipped by SC.

SC snaps at Teesta, won't allow interference in riot cases

SC snaps at Teesta, won't allow interference in riot cases - Hindustan Times

Guj riots: SC pulls up Teesta for letters to UNHRC

SC pulls up Teesta for letters to UN panel

 

[ajtr]

A bit offtopic but while deoband chief is hailing Modi, Teesta Setalvad got whipped by SC.

SC snaps at Teesta, won't allow interference in riot cases

SC snaps at Teesta, won't allow interference in riot cases - Hindustan Times

Guj riots: SC pulls up Teesta for letters to UNHRC

SC pulls up Teesta for letters to UN panel

Well teesta is right in approaching UNHRC.The way case is heading in india i wont think riots victim will get any justice from SC.All gujarat related cases must be probed by UN and modi must be tried in ICJ for gujarat genocide like Milošević

 

[twoplustwoisfour]

These may be stereotypes for u but those who suffered the loss its reality for them but not the stereotype.

Frankly speaking, those who have not suffered 'the loss' should not comment on it's severity or reality. Keyboard warriors sitting behind false flags can assume anything that suits their biases. The reality might be far from your perception but you can't see with your eyes closed

 

[sid1508]

Indian media propaganda.............................

Propaganda is done by the government and not the Indian media because most of it is privately held.

 

[sid1508]

Those who shy away from raising voice against massacre of thousands of Muslims at the hands of Modi and Co, No wonder will support him for saving their own lives.

No sane person can admire a killers of thousands of innocent people.

Is there any proof against Modi? Even his opponent party Congress (pro-Muslim party) which is currently running the Central Government has not been able to present proofs against him. P

 

[ajtr]

Under attack, Deoband head says Allah won’t forgive Modi​

Under strong pressure from within the Shoora — the governing body of Dar-ul-Uloom — which elected him, after reports that he praised the Narendra Modi government in Gujarat, the newly elected Mohtamim (Head) of Dar-ul-Uloom, Ghulam Mohammad Wastanavi, today issued a public apology in some Urdu newspapers and rejected allegations that he gave Modi a clean chit on the 2002 riots.

Calling his remarks “greatly distorted,” the Gujarat-born Wastanavi, who was elected on January 10, told The Sunday Express on his first day in Deoband today: “I cannot forgive Narendra Modi, Allah will not forgive Narendra Modi, the common man will not forgive Narendra Modi. No one can forgive Narendra Modi...We will take revenge on Modi. We will pray to Allah for this.”

“This humble person cannot even think of saying something that is against the dignity and traditions of Dar-ul-Uloom,” he said, adding that if the community was hurt by his statement, “I apologise from the bottom of my heart.”

However, it’s unclear whether this will placate his critics. In fact, anticipating more pressure, Wastanavi was quoted by Twocircles.net, a website that covers Muslim community news and events, as saying: “I am ready to step down if the same Shoora (that elected me) asks me to do so. If one day the Shoora tells me that it has changed its mind and wants to replace me, I will put in my papers.”

Speaking to The Sunday Express, Wastanavi said: “They asked me for my comment on the Gujarat riots. I replied, ‘Why are you asking us after eight years? There were so many Muslims who were tortured, killed and injured.’ I did not give a clean chit to Narendra Modi.” Referring to the remarks attributed to him in The Times of India, he said that he had a copy of the recording in his possession to prove his point.

The 61-year-old Maulana said that he wished that Muslims empowered themselves so that a repeat of Gujarat could be avoided. “Wastanavi is not a person who can forget about what happened eight years ago. At the same time, I wish that Muslims got themselves educated and started businesses. Meanwhile, we should be aware of the many riot cases that are being argued in our courts. I have also been involved in the rehabilitation process, I am the president of a body which does such work. We have spent crores as part of the relief efforts,” he said.

He stood by his remarks on development in the state. “I did not praise Modi but I spoke about the development of Gujarat. I praised the development of Gujarat, which is the result of the work (of) Centre and State Governments,” he said. Asked if he thought Muslims were marginalised in Gujarat’s growth, Wastanavi said: “I do not live in Gujarat, I live outside.”

The controversy comes days after he was elected on January 10. As first reported in The Sunday Express, his choice was seen as a break from tradition: he was the first from outside the Deoband fold (or one who has not been educated and trained in a Deobandi madrasa). He is also known as an education entrepreneur, running a madrasa in Akkalkua in Maharashtra — where he has lived for the past three decades — and several engineering colleges.

Critics were restive over an MBA theologian taking over the traditional and normally conservative seminary. In the days following his election, there were newspaper ads and statements by clerics questioning his credentials. One attacked him for having been associated with a function involving the distribution of idols in Beed in October. In his apology today, Wastanavi said: “Keeping or distributing idols is a great sin in my faith...therefore, there is no question of keeping or distributing any idols.”

Opposition to him has united the two rival factions of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, a Muslim organization of clerics and the largest organization of madrasas in the country. Mahmud Madani, MP and leader of one group said: “I think his remarks have been distorted, but if he said Muslims in Gujarat are OK under Modi, that is unacceptable and absurd. When we are critical of incidents of discrimination in states run by otherwise secular political parties like Maharashtra and West Bengal, it is simply absurd to say that Modi’s state is OK. There are only two ways out for the new Mohtamim now — either punishment or he should apologise.”

When contacted, Maulana Arshad Madani, leader of the other faction and a bitter rival of Mahmud Madani, said: “People are already writing and talking extensively about his appointment. Now there is no point in my joining the debate, one shouldn’t enter all debates and discussions.”