Amplifying Advani Logic

By M H Ahssan

A leader is one who leads by example and does not follow in the footsteps of his followers and disciples but Lal Krishna Advani, country’s eager Prime Minister-in-waiting, is an exceptional political entity. He used to lead by example in his infamous Rath Yatra days but the addictive taste of Delhi’s political power has changed his mindset. No wonder he is blindly advocating a theory originally propagated by a small fish in the dirty pond of India’s communalism – the notorious Narendra Modi.

Modi had recently said, “Attacks like 26/11 couldn’t have happened without local support… The UPA Government is quiet on this aspect because of vote-bank politics.” In other words, it simply means that the attack could not have taken place without the active help of Indian Muslims. Modi’s statement was much appreciated within the BJP and Sangh Parivar. Advani, whose eyesight is fixed on 7 Race Course Road (Prime Minster’s residence), realized that it was time that he broke his dignified silence to please saffron souls lest they think Modi is their natural leader! It is in this context Advani raised the issue that local angle “could not be ruled out”, and demanded a “thorough” judicial inquiry covering “this aspect of the conspiracy as well.”

Winston Churchill once said, “The nation will find it very hard to look up to the leaders who are keeping their ears to the ground.” Had Advani kept his ears to the ground, he would have certainly broadened his approach but he didn’t. A man who desperately wants to be India’s next Prime Minister should have demanded a “thorough” judicial inquiry of Batla House, Mecca Masjid, Samjhauta blast and Malegaon blasts etc. That would have made him a man of all seasons but alas he is a man of saffron reason!

If Advani’s eyes are on the 7 Race Course Road, his ears are paying attention across the border. He is desperately seeking votes in Pakistan! The ad featuring on many Pakistani websites reads, ‘It’s possible, Advani for Prime Minister.’ Does Advani want to become Prime Minister of Pakistan? Advani’s adventurous ambition will bring much needed relief to Iftikhar Yusuf Raza Gilani, Pakistan’s current Prime Minister!

For a change we must give Advani benefit of doubt. If his “local angle” concern is indeed genuine, let’s try to apply this logic in totality. What would be the reaction of government and politicians if any political leader of Malegaon tries to raise the “local angle” involvement in September 29 2008 blast? What if he repeats the exact words of L.K. Advani only replacing 26/11 with Malegaon blast? He would be branded as a “communalist”, an “anti-national”. The police department will sing a song of law and order problem. It is quite possible that he would be booked under some sections of Indian Penal Code for making provocative statement of the communal nature.

This classic Indian duplicity is not a gift of British Raj but it’s a product of hate-preachers who still see Indian Muslims as “outsiders” and “invaders”. This tendency emanates from none other than the right-wing ideologue Golwalkar who put it quite bluntly, “Ever since the evil day, when Muslims just landed in Hindustan, right up to the present moment, the Hindu nation has been gallantly fighting on to shake off the despoilers.”

It is altogether a different matter that this kind of rabid rhetoric has been replaced by soft Hindutva because in an era of coalition politics, BJP can not form government on its own. Adopting the same kind of language will cut short Advani’s Prime Ministerial dream.

The duplicity and hypocrisy of L.K. Advani is nothing new. He has been accused of a criminal conspiracy to demolish Babri Masjid. Advani first blamed Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao and, next, acclaimed the event as a historic one. In front of Liberhan Commission, he has repeatedly said that December 6, 1992 was the saddest day of his life although Advani had said in Ayodhya that, “Aaj (December 6) kar seva ka akhiri din hai, kar sevak aaj akhiri kar seva karenge.” (It is the final day for the kar seva today. The kar sevaks will be doing the final kar seva today). And when the demolition of the mosque was in progress, he also told that the Central forces were moving from Faizabad towards Ayodhya, but they were not afraid of it and instructed the public to block the national highway straightway so that forces do not reach Ram Janam Bhoomi. This was reported by Indian Express and later documented by noted lawyer and commentator A.G. Noorani. Jaswant Singh said that the demolition should not have happened in the sense that the BJP was one of the participants and BJP has direct responsibility. Ashok Singhal was more blunt. He told a gathering in London that “Kar sevaks had removed a stigma attached to the Hindu community. This was a matter of pride for Hindus the world over. It was like Hanuman setting fire to Lanka.”

A.G. Noorani has beautifully described BJP’s confession and denial thus, “The BJP wants to run with the hares and hunt with the hounds. It simultaneously acknowledges as well as denies its involvement in the crime.”

Advani’s autobiography (My Country, My Life) is full of lies and contradictions and there is ample evidence of his “Muslim phobia” in it. It is an attempt to portray Advani as a “nationalist” leader and pave way for his Prime Ministerial dream. Perhaps the last word must be left to Noorani: “If Advani succeeds in fulfilling his 20-year-old ambition, this book will rank as the Fuhrer’s Mein Kampf. If he is defeated in 2009, it will be remembered for ever as the swansong of a man who wanted to be Prime Minister of India too badly.”

THE FIGHT FOR PAKISTAN'S POLITICAL SOUL, Part 2

By Syed Saleem Shahzad & M H Ahssan

PART 1: Deal with militants emboldens opposition

A new face for militants emerges
In the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States, Washington forced Pakistan to make a major policy reversal and break its alliance with its natural allies, Islamic forces.

Pakistan provided logistical support for the US forces that invaded Afghanistan to oust the Taliban and hunt for al-Qaeda, and Islamabad assisted in the apprehension of al-Qaeda members.

Yet Pakistan, the only Muslim country in the world to have come into being on the basis of Islamic ideology, managed to maintain its alliance with the Islamic parties, militants and the jihadi establishment and orchestrated a war theater in which Islamic forces were largely under its control.

The Pakistani military establishment nurtured an anti-Western opposition religious alliance of six parties - the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal - which was in fact friendly to the government of president General Pervez Musharraf. This allowed Musharraf to have the constitution amended to give him maximum powers. Peace agreements were also signed with militants and the leaders of the jihadi organizations, many of whom were convinced to sit back in comfortable villas until their next orders came.

Everything was under control and by 2007 the situation was heading towards the alienation of al-Qaeda elements.

A dialogue process was initiated in Kabul through a grand jirga (council) after which jirgagais (small jirgas ) were to have started a dialogue process leading to an "honorable" exit for coalition troops from Afghanistan.

However, ultra-radical forces, which were slowly nurturing a new generation of the Taliban, grew in strength, which led to Pakistan's security forces cracking down on the radical Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) in Islamabad in July 2007.

Following this operation, the radicals gained more and more ground in the tribal areas, to the point that today Pakistan has virtually lost control of North-West Frontier Province. And the Islamists, the once natural allies, have become sworn enemies.

However, in the largest province of Punjab and in urban centers such as Karachi, Rawalpindi and Lahore, the situation is still under control.

The largest jihadi network in Punjab, the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), was infiltrated by army officers after their retirement which led to an immoral relationship between the LET and the military establishment.

The premier Islamic party, the Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan (JI), was set up by its ideologue Syed Abul Ala Maududi in such a way that it could not deviate from the democratic path and it had to work within the confines of the laws of the land.

However, as the war theater in the Pakistani tribal areas and Afghanistan heated up under the influence of ultra-radical ideologues, many veteran LET commanders left the organization and joined forces with al-Qaeda. A very small number of JI members also joined forces with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

That small group then started an effective campaign within the rank and file of the JI against the status-quo policies of the party, which in essence stress loyalty towards Pakistan and its security forces.

Unprecedented pressure was mounted on the JI leadership to be vocal in favor of al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and this could have a vital influence on the selection of a new party president next month.

This is happening at a time that Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kiani is visiting Washington on an extraordinary trip that could lead either to Kiani being sidelined or his empowerment and a major political change in the country.

The reason for the uncertain outcome is that the American establishment is confused over who is actually pulling the strings. In this context, the JI's elections are being closely monitored by all quarters as they could turn this powerful pro-establishment party in the other direction, eventually leading it down the path of radical Islam.

Jamaat-e-Islami at the crossroads The Jamaat-i-Islami Pakistan is the country's only party to hold genuine elections for its president, every four years. All other parties, whether religious or secular, are the personal fiefdoms of family politics.

The chief of the Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam (JUI) Fazlur Rahman is the son of the previous party chief, Mufti Mehmood. The JUI's another faction is led by Maulana Samiul Haq, who is the son of the previous chief of the faction, Maulana Abdul Haq.

The Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz group is led by the Sharif family (brothers and now sons and sons-in-law). The Pakistan People's Party was led by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, then his wife Nusrat Bhutto, then his daughter Benazir Bhutto and it is now co-chaired by Benazir's son Bilawal and her widower Asif Zardari.

The Awami National Party (ANP) has been led by Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan's family members - his son Wali Khan, then his wife Naseem Wali Khan and now his grandson, Asfandyar Wali Khan.

The incumbent president of the JI, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, has indicated that due to his age - 71 - and deteriorating health, he will not stand for re-election. Three candidates have now been nominated - no one is allowed to nomninate themselves.

The three are all former student leaders: the party's secretary general Syed Munawar Hasan, central vice president Liaquat Baloch and the president of North-West Frontier province Sirajul Haq.

Despite its current pro-establishment stance, the JI has a history of confrontation with the state. Its founder, Syed Abul Ala Maududi, was arrested only a year after Pakistan came into being, in 1948, for demanding Islamization in Pakistan.

In 1953 he was arrested again for writing an article which declared Qadyanis as non-Muslims. (Qadyanis - a movement that harbors some controversial Muslim beliefs - were declared non-Muslims in 1973 by the Pakistani parliament.) Maududi was sentenced to death, but due to nation-wide protests and extraordinary pressure from Saudi Arabia he was released.

The JI was banned by then-president General Ayub Khan in the early 1960s and its entire leadership was arrested. The party filed a case against the ban and eventually had it reversed. However, being the main opposition leader, Maududi was kept behind bars.

The JI was the main engine behind the movement of combined opposition parties in late 1960 which laid the foundation for Ayub Khan's departure from the power. But the movement was later hijacked by a young Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and his newly founded Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and its slogan of socialist revolution.

In 1969, Maududi stepped down as party president and Mian Tufail Mohammad was elected. This was the beginning of the JI's alliance with the Pakistani military establishment.

In 1970 elections, the Awami League emerged as the majority party, drawing all its support from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). The second-largest party, by a long way, was the PPP, scoring well in West Pakistan (now Pakistan).

Neither the PPP nor the military establishment was in favor of transferring power to the Awami League, which was demanding complete provincial autonomy. This resulted in an insurgency in East Pakistan, where the Bengali population was hostile towards the state of Pakistan.

The province's administration, comprising Bengalis, rebelled and openly supported the insurgents. The Pakistan army was desperate for local support and hit on the JI, which which believed in the state of Pakistan.

The military armed the JI's student wing (which had won student union elections at Dhaka University and Rajshahi University) and pitched it against the insurgents. Pakistan lost the war and Bangladesh was born in 1971, but the JI was by now reckoned as the most trusted ally of the military establishment.

In 1977, the JI's dedicated workers changed the dynamics of street agitation and crippled Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's government, which had just swept elections. The military intervened and General Zia ul-Haq imposed martial law.

The new cabinet comprised JI leaders such as Professor Ghaffour Ahmad (minister of Railways), Professor Khurshid Ahmad (minister for the Planning Commission) and former student leader of the JI, Javed Hashmi (minister for Youth Affairs). The latter is now the central leader of the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz group.

The then-leader of the PPP, Kausar Niazi, has documented that Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto went to the residence of JI founder Maududi and asked him to fight against the martial law and save him (Bhutto) from court trails. Maududi did issue statements against martial law, but JI president Mian Tufail strongly supported Haq and the decision to execute Bhutto over charges of the murder of a political opponent. (Bhutto was hanged on April 4, 1979 - aged 51- in Rawalpindi jail.)

These experiences helped the military establishment understand the value of the JI, which is why it takes a special interest in its president.

When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979 an Afghan Islamic resistance sprung up. This proved to be another major turning point in relations between the Pakistan military and the JI, which at that time was the only political and religious party which supported the Afghan resistance.

All the big parties, including the PPP and the National Awami Party (NAP - now the Awami National Party), claimed to be Marxists and therefore supported the invasion. The NAP openly supported a "red revolution" in Pakistan and even wanted to welcome Soviet tanks into Pakistan.

Half of the NAP leadership fled to Russia and Afghanistan, including Afrasiab Khattak (now the provincial president of the ANP in North-West Frontier Province) and Ajmal Khattack. Two other major religious parties, the Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam led by Fazlur Rahman (now pro-Taliban) and the Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Pakistan, were close to pro-Russian Muslim countries like Iraq and Libya, therefore they declared the Afghan resistance merely a civil war.

Pakistan was concerned of a Soviet threat on its western borders, while the Soviet presence emboldened pro-Russian India against Pakistan.

The JI supported the Afghan resistance as some of its leaders, such as Ahmad Shah Massoud, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Professor Abdul Rab Rasool Sayyaf and Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani, were ideologically close to the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood.

JI leader Qazi (now the president) was sent by party founder Maududi in the mid-1960s to Kabul University to lay the foundations of an Islamist student union, which further strengthened the JI's ties to the resistance leaders.

Washington was sponsoring the Afghan resistance through Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and the JI was its field force. When Mian Tufail stepped down as chief of the JI, the ISI for the first time exerted influence over the JI's elections and helped have Qazi elected as president in 1986.

The ISI wanted to use the JI not only in Afghanistan but also for newly planned operations in disputed Kashmir, which started in 1988-89. The JI had to fuel these operations woth supplies and human resources.

After 2001, a personality clash between Qazi and Musharraf created some distance between the JI and the military establishment, but the JI did not turn hostile, rather remained neutral and inactive.

Qazi has written articles critical of the Taliban's policies, their vision and their brand of Islam - he was inspired by the Iranian Islamic revolution of 1979 and is against the Taliban.

When the administration of US president Bill Clinton adopted a policy of engagement with democratic forces in the Muslim world and encouraged engagement with the Muslim Brotherhood, the US State Department invited Qazi to the US under its International Visitor's leadership program. Qazi became a regular guest at an influential think-tank close to the Democrats.

However, some JI workers who had fought against the Soviets became active and hosted some of their old Arab friends, including Khalid Shiekh Mohammad of September 11 infamy and others.

At least four important al-Qaeda members were arrested from the houses of JI workers, including Khalid. Washington put intense pressure on Pakistan to ban the JI and Interior minister Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat issued a statement on the possibility of doing this.

Within days, the ISI sprang into action and Hayat was removed and the government clarified the JI's position - it would not be banned. Qazi sent out instructions for JI members to stay away from the Taliban and al-Qaeda and made it clear that any person found harboring such people would be disowned.

At this point, party secretary general Syed Munawar Hasan publicly adopted a separate line and proclaimed that the JI did not have any problem with the "Arab mujahideen".

"We don't know what al-Qaeda is all about. We heard this name from the Americans only. We know our Arab mujahideen who fought with our people against the Soviets. If today a world superpower is after them and they ask their Muslim brothers to support them, we don't have any problem helping them," Hasan said.

"Nevertheless, we would never support any sort of terrorism, neither would we allow them any operations from Pakistan."

These words stunned everybody, including the JI's leadership, but Hasan immediately became a hero figure within militant circles disgruntled with the behavior of Islamic parties. Hasan was approached by the military establishment for negotiations, but his refusal in bitter language caused alarm.

Hasan was a student leader at Karachi University and did his masters in sociology in the late 1960s, then emerging as a popular English- and Urdu-language orator.

The socialist-turned-Islamist known for his criticism of the military establishment gradually climbed up the ladder of the JI to become its powerful secretary general. The establishment is clearly concerned that he will become the JI's next president - a landslide victory is predicted.

The timing is not good for Pakistan for this to happen. The military has been forced to back off from operations against militants in the Swat Valley following the government negotiating a ceasefire and the Islamists aim to gain from this in urban centers.

Militants sitting in the mountains are convinced that Hasan will provide them with a political front to fight for their cause - something they have not had before.

THE FIGHT FOR PAKISTAN'S POLITICAL SOUL, Part 2

By Syed Saleem Shahzad & M H Ahssan

PART 1: Deal with militants emboldens opposition

A new face for militants emerges
In the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States, Washington forced Pakistan to make a major policy reversal and break its alliance with its natural allies, Islamic forces.

Pakistan provided logistical support for the US forces that invaded Afghanistan to oust the Taliban and hunt for al-Qaeda, and Islamabad assisted in the apprehension of al-Qaeda members.

Yet Pakistan, the only Muslim country in the world to have come into being on the basis of Islamic ideology, managed to maintain its alliance with the Islamic parties, militants and the jihadi establishment and orchestrated a war theater in which Islamic forces were largely under its control.

The Pakistani military establishment nurtured an anti-Western opposition religious alliance of six parties - the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal - which was in fact friendly to the government of president General Pervez Musharraf. This allowed Musharraf to have the constitution amended to give him maximum powers. Peace agreements were also signed with militants and the leaders of the jihadi organizations, many of whom were convinced to sit back in comfortable villas until their next orders came.

Everything was under control and by 2007 the situation was heading towards the alienation of al-Qaeda elements.

A dialogue process was initiated in Kabul through a grand jirga (council) after which jirgagais (small jirgas ) were to have started a dialogue process leading to an "honorable" exit for coalition troops from Afghanistan.

However, ultra-radical forces, which were slowly nurturing a new generation of the Taliban, grew in strength, which led to Pakistan's security forces cracking down on the radical Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) in Islamabad in July 2007.

Following this operation, the radicals gained more and more ground in the tribal areas, to the point that today Pakistan has virtually lost control of North-West Frontier Province. And the Islamists, the once natural allies, have become sworn enemies.

However, in the largest province of Punjab and in urban centers such as Karachi, Rawalpindi and Lahore, the situation is still under control.

The largest jihadi network in Punjab, the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), was infiltrated by army officers after their retirement which led to an immoral relationship between the LET and the military establishment.

The premier Islamic party, the Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan (JI), was set up by its ideologue Syed Abul Ala Maududi in such a way that it could not deviate from the democratic path and it had to work within the confines of the laws of the land.

However, as the war theater in the Pakistani tribal areas and Afghanistan heated up under the influence of ultra-radical ideologues, many veteran LET commanders left the organization and joined forces with al-Qaeda. A very small number of JI members also joined forces with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

That small group then started an effective campaign within the rank and file of the JI against the status-quo policies of the party, which in essence stress loyalty towards Pakistan and its security forces.

Unprecedented pressure was mounted on the JI leadership to be vocal in favor of al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and this could have a vital influence on the selection of a new party president next month.

This is happening at a time that Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kiani is visiting Washington on an extraordinary trip that could lead either to Kiani being sidelined or his empowerment and a major political change in the country.

The reason for the uncertain outcome is that the American establishment is confused over who is actually pulling the strings. In this context, the JI's elections are being closely monitored by all quarters as they could turn this powerful pro-establishment party in the other direction, eventually leading it down the path of radical Islam.

Jamaat-e-Islami at the crossroads The Jamaat-i-Islami Pakistan is the country's only party to hold genuine elections for its president, every four years. All other parties, whether religious or secular, are the personal fiefdoms of family politics.

The chief of the Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam (JUI) Fazlur Rahman is the son of the previous party chief, Mufti Mehmood. The JUI's another faction is led by Maulana Samiul Haq, who is the son of the previous chief of the faction, Maulana Abdul Haq.

The Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz group is led by the Sharif family (brothers and now sons and sons-in-law). The Pakistan People's Party was led by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, then his wife Nusrat Bhutto, then his daughter Benazir Bhutto and it is now co-chaired by Benazir's son Bilawal and her widower Asif Zardari.

The Awami National Party (ANP) has been led by Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan's family members - his son Wali Khan, then his wife Naseem Wali Khan and now his grandson, Asfandyar Wali Khan.

The incumbent president of the JI, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, has indicated that due to his age - 71 - and deteriorating health, he will not stand for re-election. Three candidates have now been nominated - no one is allowed to nomninate themselves.

The three are all former student leaders: the party's secretary general Syed Munawar Hasan, central vice president Liaquat Baloch and the president of North-West Frontier province Sirajul Haq.

Despite its current pro-establishment stance, the JI has a history of confrontation with the state. Its founder, Syed Abul Ala Maududi, was arrested only a year after Pakistan came into being, in 1948, for demanding Islamization in Pakistan.

In 1953 he was arrested again for writing an article which declared Qadyanis as non-Muslims. (Qadyanis - a movement that harbors some controversial Muslim beliefs - were declared non-Muslims in 1973 by the Pakistani parliament.) Maududi was sentenced to death, but due to nation-wide protests and extraordinary pressure from Saudi Arabia he was released.

The JI was banned by then-president General Ayub Khan in the early 1960s and its entire leadership was arrested. The party filed a case against the ban and eventually had it reversed. However, being the main opposition leader, Maududi was kept behind bars.

The JI was the main engine behind the movement of combined opposition parties in late 1960 which laid the foundation for Ayub Khan's departure from the power. But the movement was later hijacked by a young Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and his newly founded Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and its slogan of socialist revolution.

In 1969, Maududi stepped down as party president and Mian Tufail Mohammad was elected. This was the beginning of the JI's alliance with the Pakistani military establishment.

In 1970 elections, the Awami League emerged as the majority party, drawing all its support from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). The second-largest party, by a long way, was the PPP, scoring well in West Pakistan (now Pakistan).

Neither the PPP nor the military establishment was in favor of transferring power to the Awami League, which was demanding complete provincial autonomy. This resulted in an insurgency in East Pakistan, where the Bengali population was hostile towards the state of Pakistan.

The province's administration, comprising Bengalis, rebelled and openly supported the insurgents. The Pakistan army was desperate for local support and hit on the JI, which which believed in the state of Pakistan.

The military armed the JI's student wing (which had won student union elections at Dhaka University and Rajshahi University) and pitched it against the insurgents. Pakistan lost the war and Bangladesh was born in 1971, but the JI was by now reckoned as the most trusted ally of the military establishment.

In 1977, the JI's dedicated workers changed the dynamics of street agitation and crippled Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's government, which had just swept elections. The military intervened and General Zia ul-Haq imposed martial law.

The new cabinet comprised JI leaders such as Professor Ghaffour Ahmad (minister of Railways), Professor Khurshid Ahmad (minister for the Planning Commission) and former student leader of the JI, Javed Hashmi (minister for Youth Affairs). The latter is now the central leader of the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz group.

The then-leader of the PPP, Kausar Niazi, has documented that Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto went to the residence of JI founder Maududi and asked him to fight against the martial law and save him (Bhutto) from court trails. Maududi did issue statements against martial law, but JI president Mian Tufail strongly supported Haq and the decision to execute Bhutto over charges of the murder of a political opponent. (Bhutto was hanged on April 4, 1979 - aged 51- in Rawalpindi jail.)

These experiences helped the military establishment understand the value of the JI, which is why it takes a special interest in its president.

When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979 an Afghan Islamic resistance sprung up. This proved to be another major turning point in relations between the Pakistan military and the JI, which at that time was the only political and religious party which supported the Afghan resistance.

All the big parties, including the PPP and the National Awami Party (NAP - now the Awami National Party), claimed to be Marxists and therefore supported the invasion. The NAP openly supported a "red revolution" in Pakistan and even wanted to welcome Soviet tanks into Pakistan.

Half of the NAP leadership fled to Russia and Afghanistan, including Afrasiab Khattak (now the provincial president of the ANP in North-West Frontier Province) and Ajmal Khattack. Two other major religious parties, the Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam led by Fazlur Rahman (now pro-Taliban) and the Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Pakistan, were close to pro-Russian Muslim countries like Iraq and Libya, therefore they declared the Afghan resistance merely a civil war.

Pakistan was concerned of a Soviet threat on its western borders, while the Soviet presence emboldened pro-Russian India against Pakistan.

The JI supported the Afghan resistance as some of its leaders, such as Ahmad Shah Massoud, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Professor Abdul Rab Rasool Sayyaf and Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani, were ideologically close to the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood.

JI leader Qazi (now the president) was sent by party founder Maududi in the mid-1960s to Kabul University to lay the foundations of an Islamist student union, which further strengthened the JI's ties to the resistance leaders.

Washington was sponsoring the Afghan resistance through Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and the JI was its field force. When Mian Tufail stepped down as chief of the JI, the ISI for the first time exerted influence over the JI's elections and helped have Qazi elected as president in 1986.

The ISI wanted to use the JI not only in Afghanistan but also for newly planned operations in disputed Kashmir, which started in 1988-89. The JI had to fuel these operations woth supplies and human resources.

After 2001, a personality clash between Qazi and Musharraf created some distance between the JI and the military establishment, but the JI did not turn hostile, rather remained neutral and inactive.

Qazi has written articles critical of the Taliban's policies, their vision and their brand of Islam - he was inspired by the Iranian Islamic revolution of 1979 and is against the Taliban.

When the administration of US president Bill Clinton adopted a policy of engagement with democratic forces in the Muslim world and encouraged engagement with the Muslim Brotherhood, the US State Department invited Qazi to the US under its International Visitor's leadership program. Qazi became a regular guest at an influential think-tank close to the Democrats.

However, some JI workers who had fought against the Soviets became active and hosted some of their old Arab friends, including Khalid Shiekh Mohammad of September 11 infamy and others.

At least four important al-Qaeda members were arrested from the houses of JI workers, including Khalid. Washington put intense pressure on Pakistan to ban the JI and Interior minister Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat issued a statement on the possibility of doing this.

Within days, the ISI sprang into action and Hayat was removed and the government clarified the JI's position - it would not be banned. Qazi sent out instructions for JI members to stay away from the Taliban and al-Qaeda and made it clear that any person found harboring such people would be disowned.

At this point, party secretary general Syed Munawar Hasan publicly adopted a separate line and proclaimed that the JI did not have any problem with the "Arab mujahideen".

"We don't know what al-Qaeda is all about. We heard this name from the Americans only. We know our Arab mujahideen who fought with our people against the Soviets. If today a world superpower is after them and they ask their Muslim brothers to support them, we don't have any problem helping them," Hasan said.

"Nevertheless, we would never support any sort of terrorism, neither would we allow them any operations from Pakistan."

These words stunned everybody, including the JI's leadership, but Hasan immediately became a hero figure within militant circles disgruntled with the behavior of Islamic parties. Hasan was approached by the military establishment for negotiations, but his refusal in bitter language caused alarm.

Hasan was a student leader at Karachi University and did his masters in sociology in the late 1960s, then emerging as a popular English- and Urdu-language orator.

The socialist-turned-Islamist known for his criticism of the military establishment gradually climbed up the ladder of the JI to become its powerful secretary general. The establishment is clearly concerned that he will become the JI's next president - a landslide victory is predicted.

The timing is not good for Pakistan for this to happen. The military has been forced to back off from operations against militants in the Swat Valley following the government negotiating a ceasefire and the Islamists aim to gain from this in urban centers.

Militants sitting in the mountains are convinced that Hasan will provide them with a political front to fight for their cause - something they have not had before.

::: ADVERT ::: GOVERNMENT OF INDIA - CORPORATE SECTOR

With rate cuts, govt hopes to keep urban voters content

By M H Ahssan

Concern over a sullen mood gripping urban India in the wake of a slowing economy and rising job losses and a clamour for a dose of populism from within the ruling coalition saw finance minister Pranab Mukherjee abandon propriety to announce duty and service tax cuts.

Keeping an eye on the rapidly approaching elections, the government not only bent its resolve not to offer any specific economy pills, but Mukherjee made it clear that the stimulus to the economy will continue to roll. Pointing out that the excise and service tax cuts had not needed amendments, he said more succour would be offered if needed.

Though the government claims that it can still offer more relief, the imposition of the model code of conduct could be a serious impediment — the motivation for 70-odd decisions taken by the Union Cabinet at its marathon meeting on Monday.

Sources confirmed fear of loss of jobs was the trigger for “second thoughts”. Explaining the imperatives, home minister P Chidambaram said, “We feel demand in rural areas is strong. But the mood is cautious in urban centres. We don’t want job losses. These measures should spur consumption as we hope cuts are passed on to the consumer.” It was evident that politics drove the change of heart.

Mukherjee said his concessions were “like a third stimulus” and he expected export sectors with high levels of employment would be benefited despite the government accepting revenue loss to the tune of Rs 30,000 crore. Following Rs 40,000 crore already surrendered by Chidambaram earlier, the revenue now written off is a kick in the stomach. But the government is ready to grin and bear for the political imperative.

The re-think came after a prod from the Congress high command as well with party chief Sonia Gandhi besieged with pleas of tax and excise relief in order to ease the pressure on consumers and jobs. In particular, the leadership was wary of possibility of a souring popular mood which could end up targeting the government. If NDA erred in falling for its own India Shining hype, UPA clearly does not want to fall afoul of the aam aadmi gripped by uncertainty and gloom. Government had pointed to the strong financial commitments to rural-oriented flagship schemes to defend its decision not to tweak tax rates and announce any major relief packages in the interim budget. The reasoning was that the rural vote would swing UPA’s way as massive spending on schemes like Bharat Nirman and NREGA along with higher MSP for wheat and rice kept the village economy afloat.

The switch on Tuesday is the result of the belated recognition that urban constituencies are not only large but also have a sizeable percentage of the poor, many who are in the unorganised sector. As in the case of inflation, the slowdown in sectors like construction hit urban labour immediately.

The government scrambled to reassure the voter who is being wooed aggressively by BJP. The calculation may see the government being pressured into exploring more populist moves like a reduction in prices of products before the EC enforces its code.

Baby sold to pay hospital bill back with mom

By Arun Kumar

Tears of joy ran across the cheeks of Tagarapu Rajitha as she held the baby boy close to her at the government area hospital here. Three days after the infant was sold to an auto driver, the child was reunited with the mother whose happiness knew no bounds.

The young single mother (20) sold her two-day-old baby boy to the auto driver, Mada Ishwar (36) for Rs 6,500 on February 22 to clear the medical bill as demanded by the hospital staff for ensuring a ‘safe’ delivery. Rajitha gave birth to the baby by a caesarean section on February 20.

Both Ishwar and Rajitha’s aunt Dattam Sunitha, who was a mediator for the sale, were arrested on Tuesday evening. The incident came as a major embarrassment to Union minister of state for women and child development Renuka Chowdary, state Vaidya Vidhana Parishad and hospital services minister Vanama Venkateswara Rao. While Kothagudem is represented by Vanama in the Assembly, the segment comes under the Union minister’s Khammam Lok Sabhaconstituency.

District SP Mahesh Bhagwat told TOI that after the baby boy was born, Sunitha advised her to sell the baby to a childless couple. “She had also arranged for the buyer. We have arrested them under sections 317 (abandoning the child) and 372, 373 (selling/purchasing of babies) of IPC and registered a case,” Bhagawat said.

Rajitha of Manchiryal in Adilabad district was abandoned by her husband Rammurthy, a lorry driver, and moved to her aunt’s house in Kothagudem for delivery as she was unable to bear the medical expenses. The SP said the baby was traced and reunited with the mother after the police team nabbed Ishwar. He said Rajitha would also face charges for selling the baby. “We will file a case against her too,” he said.

Rajitha told the police, who interrogated her on Tuesday, that she had no means to support herself and the baby and hence, resorted to selling the baby. Rajitha married Rammurthy against her family’s wishes, but the couple developed serious differences when Rajitha came to know that Rammurthy was already married.

“Her financial condition was such that she could not afford to pay Rs 2,000 to the hospital staff. So, she sold her infant,” a relative said. Police said they would enquire and take action against the hospital staff for demanding money.

Kothagudem revenue divisional officer P Rajaram said a case would be booked against the erring staff. “We are also probing whether the doctor had asked for money from the woman,” he said. Sources said the doctor, who engaged an anaesthetist, had demanded bribe from Rajitha. Welfare department officials said they would shift the mother and the infant to a staterun facility.

HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL

By M H Ahssan

At the risk of romanticising the hardships faced by street children, a child rights activist shares her favourite story about a 12-year-old, pint-sized boy named Rajan (his street name) who dreams big. Living off the streets of Hyderabad for the last three years, he may not know where he would get his day’s meal from but is sure that he has perfected his dance steps well enough to become a choreographer some day. That he was abused physically and sexually on the streets of the city or that he was tortured by his alcoholic father and abusive stepmother for years forcing him to leave his home did not scar his dream. He continues to watch dance shows on the telly, hoping he would be there one day himself.

There are an estimated 45,000 street children in Hyderabad, who sleep under the stars every night but dream of that one big dramatic moment that could change their lives, much like the crorepati moment of Jamaal in Slumdog Millionaire. And that hope keeps them going, making them survivors on mean streets.

“They have a bindaas attitude and a great hope that something will happen that would change their lives,’’ says Mohd Rafiuddin, director of Hyderabad Council of Human Welfare, who goes on to share the story of a nineyear-old who fled from home after his parents’ death and went through every possible drill of a ‘new’ street child. From being abused to getting addicted to drugs, the child was soon a veteran in the ways of street life only to wean away from it all to realise his dream of doing something good. While an NGO intervention helped in this case, Rafiuddin says that in many cases children who do not get much help are still able to get their lives back on track themselves.

Activists share that from nursing ambitions of becoming a pilot to finally making it as waiters in pizza outlets or as office boys, children of the streets never really lose hope. “Their main ambition in most cases is to go back home with money to improve the lives of their families,’’ shares an activist.

Some turn exploitative situations to their advantage. Take the case of a boy working at a tea stall for many years who realised that he must explore cooking beyond brewing tea. Fortunately for him, there was a dramatic moment indeed when as part of a Corporate Social Responsibility initiative, he got a chance to learn cooking and is now on his way to assist a senior chef in a star hotel in Mumbai. “There is this emotional resilience, an inner strength and an inherent capacity to strive through stress and storm. They always look at the positive side of life,’’ says child rights activist Dr Nilima Mehta, who shares the tea stall boy’s story as a case in point.

Isidore Phillips, director Divya Disha, notes that the most amazing part of street children is their ability to learn, fast. “A boy came to Hyderabad, was raped on the streets, fled the city only to return later. He knows the boy who had abused him but he is now surviving on the street,’’ Phillips says, adding that children on the streets learn how to fend for themselves.

He goes on to share the story of a boy who spent his childhood on railway platforms and went on to become a police constable. “They are smart and have the instinct to achieve. They have the go-getter attitude,” he says.Well, they don’t call them street smart for nothing.

GUTS AND GRIT AMIDST GRIME

By M H Ahssan

A positive, never-say-die attitude helps slum children survive and emerge victorious despite, and not because of, government moves to rehabilitate them. HNN takes a look at what life in the slums of Hyderabad involves.

Relocation: A flawed concept
Even as the world wakes up to the living condition of slum dwellers in India, courtesy ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, and agencies flock Dharavi in Mumbai to develop it, the plight of slum residents in Hyderabad is only deteriorating, rue activists. They say that the “proactive” attempts made by the Andhra Pradesh government towards “altering” the lives of these people have only proved detrimental to slum dwellers, as the government is successfully alienating them from the rest of the city.

There are 1,210 notified slums in the city, of which an estimated 100 are under threat of relocation, while a few have already been shown the door, locked out of the city in a suburb with no nearby school or job options for slum dwellers.

The central government’s Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) was started to remove slums in the state and rehabilitate slum dwellers, but most social workers say that the programme has done more harm than good. On the pretext of rehabilitation, the powerful “real-estate lobby”, in order to grab land in the city, packs off slum-dwellers to far-flung corners of the city. The impact of such moves is the most serious on children, they say.

Relocation, as Rajesh Prabhakar, state manager of CRY, Andhra Pradesh notes, is not only a demolition of dwellings, but also of lives and the worst affected are children who are driven into child labour due to lack of other opportunities.

“This scheme that is meant to provide better conditions for the underprivileged has only accelerated the drop-out rate amongst slum children. The drive for relocation has led to slum dwellers being forcibly evicted from their homes to obscure areas which have neither basic facilities like schools for children nor transport facilities which allow them to travel to schools in other areas. Under such conditions, most children who earlier went to school have no choice but to drop-out,” explains RTI activist Umesh Varma giving an example of a relocation site in Afzalnagar where a number of children have stopped going to school due to lack of transport facilities.

Activists also say that with relocation done in a haphazard manner, the inhabitants of slums are suddenly uprooted and relocated to unfamiliar places. Children are forced to leave their schools midterm, with no one responsible for getting the slum children admitted to other schools.

The lack of job opportunities for parents in these new locations is also a major concern, as they are often thrust into extreme situations where they have no option but to send their children to look for work elsewhere instead of educating them, says Prabhakar. “Work is difficult to come by in these remote areas so the parents obviously need extra pairs of hands to earn their livelihood. At times like these, they cannot afford to think about education,” he says.

The whole idea of relocation, activists say is a sugar-coated term to cover up a crime of the “land-mafia”. If incidents of eviction of this class to the periphery of the city in the name of rehabilitation continue, the dropout rate amongst slum children will soon reach 100 per cent and the kids will be exposed not only to child labour but also to other physical and social abuse, say activists.

OUR REAL HEROES
Watching Jamal hop into speeding trains, land in unknown cities and take up odd jobs to earn a meal, in ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, was like revisiting his own days as a child for Oddepally Rajaiah. Though unlike Jamal, Rajaiah opted to run away from home in Warangal at the age of 10 years, driven by his desire to travel around the world, the rest of his story is much the same. Today with a Masters in Social Work, Rajaiah claims that his success is as sweet as his ‘brother’ Jamal’s and equally hardearned.

There are several rags-to-riches stories that Hyderabad is teeming with. Stories like that of Rajaiah who did not became a crorepati overnight, but landed a job that now earns him a princely sum of Rs 13,000 every month. Or that of a domestic child worker R Sridevi who was rescued and later went on to become a national handball player. Then there are more success stories of other deprived children who lived their dream of becoming an “officer” when they landed a government job.

While R Sridevi of Warangal was forced to take up a job as domestic help at an early age to support her old parents and younger brother and give up her love for the game of handball, Rajaiah left home driven by his love for travel. “I would hop into trains randomly, pose as a garbage boy as I never had money for tickets, and get down anywhere I wanted. I have been to Vijaywada, Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai and finally Hyderabad where my life changed completely,” says the 26-yearold street boy turned social worker.

Having spent much of his childhood washing dishes at roadside eateries or begging at temple steps and sleeping on railway platforms, Rajaiah finally found an NGO-run shelter in the city, wherein he was also encouraged to resume education. A class V dropout, Rajaiah went on to clear his class X and XII, securing 84 per cent in the latter. He then opted for social work as his subject for graduation.

While Rajaiah was able to pursue his dream, for others such as Sridevi, juggling time between domestic work and handball practice was a daily challenge. She would practice in the evenings, after working all day. Her talent was soon noticed and the maid servant later went on to become a national handball champion with aid from various organisations. Sridevi is now reportedly flooded with job offers from different places and is a poster girl of sorts among the underprivileged girls in AP.

Born nearly two decades before Rajaiah or Sridevi, S Israel’s story is no different. Taking the first train out of his slum in Nellore district, the seven-year-old landed on the streets of Kolkata with no money or education. Israel was a rag picker, but with the help of kind soul who took notice of the child, was given both work and education. The 44-year-old now works with the Geological Survey of India.

But each of these success stories are riddled with various hurdles. In the case of Rajaiah, the used clothes that he wore (from the local resource management programme of the NGO) and the broken English that he spoke in was enough to alienate him from the rest of his class in college. At one time, he had even decided to run away from there, but stuck on realising that there were more serious issues in life than bad clothes. Predictably, he is proud of that he stayed on. “It’s been almost two years since I started working and I am greatly satisfied,” he says, adding that working for people from deprived backgrounds like his gives him immense satisfaction.