The Similarities Between Naidu And Modi

Once Chandrababu Naidu discovered the mouse in 1995, he would hold forth on how far it would take the world. Give him a mike and he would speak only about how technology transformed life. He blushed self-consciously when corporate honchos called him the CEO of Andhra Pradesh Inc. who he wooed with cheap land around Hyderabad and ‘Hyderabadi hospitality, Hyderabadi biryani and yes, Hyderabadi pearls for your wife’. He often spoke of how Hyderabad will be the bridge between Europe and China, how the only ‘ism’ of relevance in the 21st century was ‘tourism’ and took credit for the telecom revolution, claiming that he had told the then prime minister A B Vajpayee to open up the sector. There was a mini-clamour among the progressive sections in the pre-Twitter era about how he would make a great Prime Minister.

Listening last night to Narendra Modi, my Twitter timeline’s prime minister-in-waiting, there was therefore a sense of deja vu. Like Naidu, Modi was obsessed with the ‘I’ and the NaMo mantra was a 2013 upgraded version of Babuspeak. He also claimed that he secretly advised the PM who, he mockingly revealed, was a enthusiastic listener but a poor doer. His tone throughout was ‘If only India followed what I have done in Gujarat but alas …’ The pregnant pauses were cues for the audience to clap at the India Today conclave.

I have absolutely no quarrel with Modi’s ‘Gujarat Shining’ slogan. After all a chief minister is also like the chief marketing manager and full credit to Modi (and Naidu before him) for having raised the profile of his patch with his aggressive pitch. With a heavy-on-statistics, 12-minute film screened at the gathering, he aimed to stump everyone in the numbers game but as his party colleague, Navyot Singh Sidhu told us many matches ago, ‘Statistics are like miniskirts, what they reveal is tantalizing, but what they hide is crucial’.

To Modi’s credit, he has picked up several of Naidu’s success stories (like the women self-help groups, the use of IT to introduce transparency in government functioning) but more importantly, learnt from Naidu’s mistakes. The Andhra Pradesh chief minister behaved like the Mayor of Hyderabad and paid the price for his urban-centric approach. Modi claims he has focussed on agriculture and irrigation and now his mind is working on developing 50 towns all over Gujarat.

The question then is whether India will buy into the Gujarat story. Last night, one hour into hearing Modi’s spiel, my nine-and-a-half-year-old daughter said, ‘Appa, doesn’t he talk of change just like Obama. Why not we move to Ahmedabad?’ Amused at this neo-convert, I knew who she would have voted for if she was already 18.

That is proving to be Modi’s biggest strength. He is a fantastic communicator and his anecdotal style of speaking (as opposed to Naidu’s oratory) connects. He is like a dream merchant who is asking the non-Gujaratis of India to dream of Utopia, which he claims is already existing in ‘mere Gujarat mein’.

In February, when Modi was addressing the gathering of students at the Shri Ram College of Commerce in Delhi, I was with a couple of acquaintances at a friend’s place. At one point, I exclaimed, ‘the students are cheering for every word he says’ to invite this terse remark from one of the gentlemen present. ‘Don’t they see the blood on his hands?’

Indeed, for all of Modi’s stress on governance, the ‘blood on his hands’ makes many in India see red. Point this out and the Modi fan club goes ballistic. Why I wonder. If a person aspires to lead India, the country has a right to ask questions and seek answers.

At the same time, I find this obsession to extract a ‘sorry’ from Modi meaningless. What purpose would it serve now? If Modi had indeed expressed regret in 2002 or even before the 2004 elections, it would have still made sense. `Sorry’ as a balm has passed its expiry date and wouldn’t heal any wounds. The thing to do is to pursue the judicial process to its logical end and if indeed Modi is found guilty, punish him as per law.

The Congress has no leg to stand on to question Modi on 2002, given its own track record vis-a-vis communal riots. Jagdish Tytler, one of those accused in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots is still a senior Congress functionary in charge of Odisha and the only reason why the likes of Sajjan Kumar are persona non grata in the Congress is because they have become electorally irrelevant and not because of the 1984 taint.

Modi presents India with a difficult choice. Do we continue with the Mai-baap culture’s condescending tone or give this man a chance? Despite his divisive image and the past history and DNA of the party he belongs to, Modi does not project himself as a macho Hindu. Instead, in a very American manner, he harps continuously on inculcating the pride of being an Indian. For the average middle class Indian, obsessed with putting heroes on a pedestal, this is Modi’s sex appeal.

'Gujarat Eateries Plan To Name Snacks After UPA Scams'

By Deevan Patel / Gandhinagar

The Gujarat hotel federation has decided to extend its support for the owner of the Mumbai eatery, Aditi Restaurant, which was targetted by Congress workers earlier this week for criticising the UPA government's policy in its food bill receipts. The receipts had the following words printed on them: "As per UPA govt eating money (2G, coal, CWG scam) is a necessity and eating food in AC restaurants is a luxury". 

Members of the federation, Gujarat Rajya Hotel Federation (GRHF) are even planning to name some of their dishes after scams that have been exposed during the regime of the UPA government.

THE 'SIDDHIS' OF JUNAGADH, 'A LOST TRIBE OF AFRICA'

By CJ Purvi Shah in Junagadh

Their faces are painted in shades of red, blue and green with designs symbolising traditional African body art, they wear bright orange tiger print skirts, straw caps and breathe fire. We are not talking about a circus troop, but of the Siddi tribe who don different avatars at different times of the day.

African by origin, Indian by nationality with Gujarati as their lingua franca – the Siddi tribe lives in a village called Jambur in the heart of Gujarat. Just like any other village, Jambur has red mud by lanes, houses with thatched rooftops and a few small local shops. Located approximately hundred kilometres from Junagadh, the village is surrounded by the forest of Gir, which is home to the last of the remaining Asiatic lions.

“We have completed 300 years in Gujarat and this is our fourth generation in Jambur,” said 60- year-old Siddique, speaking in heavily accented Afro-English.

This settlement did not happen out of choice but by force. According to the tribals, there is a long history to their presence in India. “The Nawab of Junagadh had once visited Africa where he fell in love with an African woman. They got married and she moved to India with him,” said Siddique. “She came to India with a hundred slaves and since then we have been based in Gujarat only,” he added.

About 4 lakh Children Malnourished In Gujarat

About four lakh children are malnourished across ten districts of Gujarat, while 26,871 children fall under the ‘extremely malnourished’ category, Women and Child Development Minister Ganpat Vasava informed the state Assembly.

Tribal district of Panchmahal in central Gujarat has the highest number of 69,961 malnourished children, while Vadodara, which has a sizable tribal population, has 6,676 children in the extremely malnourished category, she said in a written reply.

In Ahmedabad district, ten talukas in rural areas have 31,966 malnourished children and 2,314 extremely malnourished children. Daskroi taluka has the highest number of malnourished children in the district at 5,336.

In central Gujarat, Vadodara has 65,723 malnourished children while figures for Kheda and Anand are 36,291 and 24,273 respectively.

In south Gujarat, the number of malnourished children is 36,968 in Bharuch, while in coastal Valsad, it is 27,330. In Tapi and Navsari, it is 18,170 and 13,472 respectively.

Junagadh in Saurashtra has 22,016 malnourished children, the House was informed.

Bharuch (3,167) and Navsari (3,862) have recorded high number of extremely malnourished children.

To a question on steps being taken by the state government, Vasava said under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), children between six months and three years are provided food, while girls, pregnant women and children between 3 and 6 years are provided food for 300 days a year.

Navjot Singh Sidhu: A Strokeless Wonder In Politics, Now Suffering From 'Political Hazards'

What has happened to Navjot Singh Sidhu? The man never stops grinning and joking whenever we see him on television channels and is always ready to tackle life as it comes, thanks to the power of Sidhuism. 

How come such a man always full of positive energy has suddenly started feeling suffocated in his party and that too a year before the country goes to the next Lok Sabha election? Is he an lion-hearted personality suffocated by the intricacies of the system or a weak-hearted politician who is afraid to face the electoral backlash for he knows that he doesn't deserve to be there? 

The way the cricketer-turned-politician's wife is batting for him, it doesn't look like Sidhu is facing the prick of conscience. There is more to it and the Amritsar MP knows very clearly that he doesn't have much run to defend before the next poll arrives.

The Big Story: Are Indian Christians Against Narendra Modi

By Devisri Pandya | INNLIVE

The media has conveniently forgotten it, even as the left-liberals were confused on whether to support overtly the reverend so-and-so, the principal of a Jesuit institution in Mumbai, who had sent an email to his students, warning against “communal forces coming to power.”

Implicit in this email is the underlying message: don’t vote for the BJP and don’t make Mr. Narendra Modi, the PM. The BJP made the right noises, condemning the email. I, for one, welcome the reverend’s statement. Why, because he had the guts to say openly what the clergy—most of them, at any rate—have been doing slyly, away from the glare of publicity.

Rural India and media: Emerging permutations

By Vinod Mathew

It is all about the dialectics of change in the Indian media. The novelty is that for once this change is not being triggered by anything that is happening in the urban pockets of the country. On the contrary, it is the emerging rural reality that is making this happen, leading to a virtual urban-rural stand off.

Just as the burgeoning numbers of business enterprises in the country are eyeing the rural market to sell their merchandise, the media, too, is following suit. This has led to a bit of an upheaval in the media business, per se, with various permutations and combinations being tried out by some of the leading players.

Though it is early days yet, if there is a single noteworthy fallout from this churning, it is the birth of a new genre of communication that could be labelled the `alternative media' till a better term is coined by the pundits.

Media is all about people, as altruism goes. And in India, with over 70 per cent of its 1,043 million population living in the rural regions, media, to a large extent ought to be catering to the rural mass. Unfortunately, that is far from the truth as media in India, as in most parts of the world, caters to the urban masses.

Here, we are talking about media of the urban, by the urban and very much for the urban people, with occasional forays into the rural world. And largely, these rural forays take place at instances of disasters and human tragedies as happened in the case of the 2001 Gujarat earthquake, when hordes of media, both national and international, made it their mission to hotfoot it to the remotest corners of rural Gujarat. And one has not heard of those villagers ever since.

Rural India is worth looking at as a case study because of its sheer size and spread, and its variety of culture, language, polity, religion and customs. Imagine the clubbing together of some of the major European countries, on the one side, and India, on the other, for the sake of comparison. One is talking about the plight of nearly 700 million people living in nearly 600,000 villages spanning over 150 million households.

The rural reportage by the Indian media, as and when it happens, is conceptualised and executed with the urban reader /viewer in mind. This can easily be labelled as a `Zoo Story' syndrome, where the media looks at its rural constituents as case studies and objects of analysis within a larger picture, its fulcrum being quite urban-centric.

Meanwhile, Rural India, has come into its own as a potential market for the big business houses. True, the per capita income here still hovers in the $240-300 range as against the great Indian Middle Class of some 50 million that is already in the $3,000-5,000 category. But the latter pales into insignificance as sheer numbers advocate the merchant princes to concentrate on the rural expanse for volumes.

Thus you find many a manufacturer, both the made-in-India variety and the MNCs, squeezed by thinning margins and falling demand, turning to the hitherto untapped market called Rural India to sell their wares. Therefore, the new buzz heard in the headquarters of many corporate giants in the cities is rural marketing and e-connectivity to the villages as tools for deeper market penetration.

There are a few e-initiatives that are already successful like the e-Choupal of Indian Tobacco Company (ITC) that has already hooked up one million farmers and traded till date over 1,20,000 tonnes of products and done business worth $100 million.

The company, seeing the business sense in this communication model mounted on local language platforms, is looking at raising its present reach of 9,000 villages to 1,00,000 villages and some 1,500 kiosks to 20,000 kiosks over the next 10 years. Then there is the much-documented Amul model, the marketing initiative of the rural farmers of India, that has today grown to be the single largest food company in the country.

The Indian farmers have built a Rs 30-billion company that has put to shame some of the global giants such as Nestle and Levers in product-specific categories.

However, not all can afford to build such dedicated marketing tools for themselves as vehicles to sell their wares in the rural world. It is in this context that the relevance of a common use, multiple access entry tool for the marketing of products in rural India gains importance. And it is precisely for these reasons that an alternative media is lumbering itself into a state of wakefulness.

Thus, it is as per the script penned as a response to the marketing needs of the great Indian bazaar called Rural India, more than anything else, that this new media variant has dared to grow.

Significantly, this process of change is beginning at the grassroots level, where the merchant princes are using the local reach of cable TV to sell their wares in small hick-towns and overgrown villages that are today connected by the television. And catalysing this change will be the optic fibre cable (OFC) network that is soon going to connect the remotest corners of the country.

Clearly, what began primarily as a movie channel with religious discourses in the morning and a smattering of song and dance sequences, again from the movies, as fillers, is now threatening to metamorphose itself into a new genre of communication.

Here, one is not talking of some futuristic model as it has already been tried out successfully during the December 2002 Gujarat Assembly elections. If anything, the Gujarat experiment with alternative media has proven beyond doubt how potent a communication vehicle it can turn out to be.

It is now history that almost the entire mainstream media, both national and international, had as good as written the epitaph of the ruling party following the communal carnage and the build-up to the polls that followed in Gujarat. There was a great schism between the local and the national media as the latter had predicted a rout of the ruling party in the election a few months later but was found to be badly out of sync with the ground reality.

The fact of the matter is that the ruling party, having comprehended that it had an invaluable vehicle to reach out to the rural masses in the form of cable TV, used it to the hilt. It was a clear case of an urban-rural divide, with the media caught in the crossfire and the Indian mainstream media, per se, failing to feel the pulse of the rural masses.

Thus, the Gujarat elections of 2002 must have been the first documented instance of the emergence of an alternative media in India.

Clearly, the alternative media, with the business houses keen on building marketing links to the rural world, on the one hand, and the telecommunications explosion allowing cable TV access to some of the remotest corners of the country, on the other, is ready for launch. While it is still at a nascent stage and it is only in bits and pieces that it has been utilised by market forces, it is merely a matter of time before its immense potential becomes evident to one and all.

The present model has the cable TV being run on a subscription base, often at astronomical rates for the customers that seems to be climbing rather than coming down.

However, it may not take long before the big business houses see the wisdom of pushing for a new model that could be significantly cheaper for the customer but ensures deeper market penetration for their products.

The sheer scale of economy inherent in such a mechanism may soon give birth to an option that no one in the Indian media business be able to ignore any longer. Simply put, it may be too big a business opportunity for the mainstream media houses to ignore as one is talking of a definite reach into the rural India's households.

Summing up, the media, as far as rural India is concerned, has been hitherto conspicuous by its absence in a meaningful way. This was true in the case of the print media of yore as it is in the case of the audio-visual media of today, barring a few exceptions where space was diligently dedicated to the rural world on a consistent basis.

On the other hand, even as the mainstream media has chosen to be urban-centric and left the rural masses to fend for itself by way of a comprehensive media vehicle, the rural world may have found a communication tool that suits its needs.

It is not that the Indian publication industry has not tried to make inroads into the rural world. Many have started out with regional supplements and later consolidated these into full-fledged regional editions. Some have even donated dish antennae in areas where they had their reach with the printed word, the next step being the launch of local language news coverage through the cable TV. Thus, the next phase could see the print media forging alliances of various hues and colours with local TV channels in a bid to stay in touch at the grassroots level.

At the end of the day, there are no readymade answers as to how the mainstream media can face up to this challenge as each entity would have to fashion a response tailor-made to suit one's peculiar market compulsions.

What is true is that much of this response would depend on the degree of preparedness with which each entity faces up to these challenges. And a big step forward would come from researching this new phenomenon, rather turning a blind eye to the development.

In Focus: The Moral Hysteria Of The Modi-Hitler Analogy

By Sandip Roy | INNLIVE

Every country is confronted with certain choices when it goes to the polls. But India it seems is poised on the brink of something far more cataclysmic. Narendra Modi is not just a politician. 

He is now a “moral line of no return”. “It seems that, in the race towards higher GDP, the majority of India is willing to inject itself with the steroids of bigotry and ruthlessness. Ethics be damned,” writes Thane Richard in an opinion piece for Quartz.com called “India crosses the moral line of no return if Narendra Modi becomes prime minister.” 

Critical Expose - Chilling Confession

By M H Ahssan

The Gujarat Police took quick credit for arresting the masterminds behind the July 2008 blasts in Ahmedabad. HNN tracks the police’s star witness to find he has been tortured into falsely implicating the ‘masterminds’. An exclusive report.

He has a name, but lets just call him ‘Witness’. He had a life too — like yours and mine — till 26 July 2008, when serial blasts shook Ahmedabad. Between 6.45 and 7.55 that evening, 16 bombs exploded in various parts of the city, including in a hospital where the injured were being rushed to. As the death toll reached 56, Witness had only one thought – he could have been responsible for the bloodletting, the mayhem, the death of innocents.

He almost was. Witness was in on the plot. He knew bicycles were being bought. He knew low-intensity explosive devices were being assembled. He knew they would be concealed in tiffin boxes and the boxes placed in the bicycles. But Witness withdrew at the last minute — barely 24 hours before 6.45 in the evening — when he learnt that the target areas had changed. As the plot was being hatched in meetings Witness attended before July 26, he was given to believe that RSS and Bajrang Dal offices would be targeted. But the script changed. Witness withdrew when he realised that innocent people in crowded places would be slaughtered.

The Gujarat Police was quick to blame the blasts on the Indian Mujahideen (IM), the same group held responsible for the blasts in Jaipur on 13 May 2008. But when different states paraded different faces, all proclaiming their catches as the IM’s mastermind, HNN started an investigation that led it to Witness.

The testimony of Witness is important — and credible — for several reasons. First and foremost, because he indicts himself, openly admitting he was part of the plot till the last moment. This gives his words credence. His words gain even more credence because he has given more or less the same narrative to the Gujarat Police. The narrative changes at one crucial place – when he reels off the names of the men behind the Gujarat blasts. But wait. Witness has told HNN that he was physically tortured by the police into naming innocents, that he could not bear the physical and mental torture he was subjected to. They were not responsible for the serial bombings, he swears.

HNN special correspondent, landed up at his house in Juhapura, accompanied by the wife and daughter of an accused in the case. Witness’ sister opens the door. Her brother is not home, she says. As I speak to her, a male voice asks from inside, “Who’s there?” When she does not answer, a man comes to the door. He is around 22, dressed in kurta and jeans, just like any college student. The lady with me says, “He is the one.” Yes, this is the Gujarat police’s star witness. The police arrested people on the basis of Witness’ statements. The police said its claim that the Gujarat blasts was the work of the Indian Mujahideen, a reincarnation of the Student’s Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) was proven by Witness’ statements. It is on the basis of Witness’ statement that the police have named the masterminds in the case – Mufti Abu Bashar and Sajid Mansuri.

At first, Witness is unwilling to talk. He is preparing for exams, he says. He sees the lady accompanying me and asks her what she is doing with me. I have smuggled myself in, wearing a head scarf, trying to pass off as one of them. He lifts up the lady’s child in his arms and allows us in, looking around to see if we have been spotted. After keeping in him detention for twelve days and beating the confession out of him, the police now keep an eye on their ‘approver’

Witness bursts into tears when I ask him questions. “Don’t make me narrate everything again. My family and I have gone through hell all because of me. It was all a big mistake,” he says between sobs.

His mother, an ailing lady in her late 50s enters. She wants to know if we too are from the police. “How many questions do you want to ask him? He has told you everything he knows. Now leave him alone!” she says. Witness ushers her out and bolts the door.

“I wouldn’t be talking had it not been for this girl,” he says, gesturing at the girl now sleeping snugly in her mother’s arms. “Her father is innocent". They are all innocent. If what I say to you can do anything, then please get them freed. They are in jail for no fault of theirs.”

Witness was detained days after the blasts in Ahmedabad took place in July last year. He was part of the plot until he learnt the targets included hospitals and not those responsible for the 2002 Gujarat riots. Until he learnt that they were not going to kill the ‘Bajrangis’ or those who had admitted to having slit open the stomachs of pregnant women during the riots.

They (THE conspirators) had told us that they wanted to avenge the atrocities committed against Muslims but what they were doing would also kill Muslims,” says Witness. Although he was never told who the top bosses were, he carried out the orders of his fellow plotters.

Witness also reveals troubling truths – he denies ever being a part of SIMI. He denies the involvement of SIMI in the plot and says he knows the Indian Mujahideen only as a phrase seen in newspapers. Witness says he was tortured into implicating the men he met during Friday prayers. “The police forced me to name those they had arrested.” Our long conversation was occasionally interrupted by his mother’s knocks on the door. She was both scared and curious but Witness wanted to talk. He wanted to unburden himself and reveal everything; all in the hope that it would help free those innocent people languishing in jail.

The words came in a torrent and he spoke, initially without much prodding. “My friend Alamzeb Afridi [absconding, involved along with Witness in the blasts] introduced me to Yakub bhai [earlier detained, now a witness], Arif Kagzi, Yunus Mansuri and Sajid Mansuri [all accused in the July 2008 Ahmedabad blasts and all ex-SIMI members who spoke to HNN in Sabarmati jail]. They told me that they used to be SIMI members. I knew Alamzeb from college. We used to meet in the evenings for religious discourses. We would discuss the Quran and often attended various programs at Yaqub bhai’s place. These guys would only teach us about the hadees [the Prophet’s statements and actions] and would tell us about the life of the Prophet. I was told that after SIMI was banned, they would hold educational programmes to explain the true meaning of Islam to youngsters who were disillusioned. People like Abdul Subhan Qureishi [one of the masterminds of the plot, now absconding] and Safdar Nagori [General Secretary, SIMI] used to come there. I was told that Subhan worked with Wipro and that he had been absconding ever since his name came up connection with the July 2006 Mumbai train blasts. He said that he was not involved in the blasts. He said that the group hated the hardliners and wanted to work against the propaganda put out by the VHP and the RSS. This was in 2007.

In the meetings we were told how Muslims were being tortured in Afghanistan, America and Palestine. Subhan Qureishi used to tell us that these were the real people who were against Islam. Of all the people who attended, Abu Bashar Siddiqui was perhaps the most reserved of all. He had tremendous knowledge about the Quran and the hadees and used to speak about the true essence of Islam. Those meetings were not conspiracy sessions. In them, no one ever spoke about the plot. Subhan used to bring Abu Bashar Siddiqui for the religious gatherings and it was very clear that he did not discuss anything else with him.

There was an annual meeting of SIMI every year. In 2007, it took place in Indore. They just wanted the ban on SIMI to be lifted. It was there that Safdar Nagori and others were arrested. Subhan and Qayamuddin Kapadia [recently arrested, named by Witness as being involved in the blasts] were also to reach there but they said they had missed their train. They returned to Ahmedabad two weeks later. Alamzeb, Mujeeb [another ex-SIMI member, now in jail], Tauseef [a localite accused in the case, now in jail] and I had continued to meet after namaz.

After the Indore arrests of SIMI cadres, Subhan Qureishi met Mujeeb, Alamzeb, and me and told us that we had to do something to avenge the Gujarat riots. Subhan first approached the SIMI guys. They told him outright that they did not wish to be a part of anything and that they were struggling to lead a normal life as had been tortured enough by the Gujarat police for being SIMI members. These people could not even carry on their normal jobs. Qayamuddin was also absconding then as the police was after him. The first time Subhan and Qayamuddin met us was at a shop at the Dani Limda area in Ahmedabad. We were told not to involve the SIMI people and also to take in new people with no records. Arif and the others told Subhan not to do anything destructive.

Subhan then gave us Rs 3,000 to enrol in some physical fitness courses like swimming. We did that for a month. Only the three of us — Mujeeb, Alamzeb and me — knew about it. Qayamuddin was our leader. We were asked to stay away from SIMI members, as they would have stopped us. We did not meet any SIMI member. Subhan and Qayamuddin had tried to gauge who could do the task and had told just the three of us.

Qayamuddin got a CD just a month before the blasts. The CD was shown to Mufti Abu Bashar as he was the only one who could understand Arabic. A few days afterwards, Qayamuddin came to us and told us that some boys had come from outside who were well trained and who wanted to do something. None of us knew them. Nobody knew them. We were only given orders. When Qayamuddin mentioned bombs, I said that the original plan was to attack the VHP headquarters and not kill common people. He retorted that even if we didn’t help them, the boys from outside would set off the bombs. He said they wouldn’t wait for us and told us that if we helped them, they would be able to place the explosives at the right places and would be able to take revenge against the right people.

We then agreed to the plan. Qayamuddin then gave us Rs 5,000 and asked us to buy 10 cycles. At that time my exams were on. Alamzeb bought six bicycles and gave me three. I parked them at places where no one would touch them and Alamzeb parked his cycles too. Later, Qayamuddin called us. We asked him about the bombs and how many casualties they would cause. Initially, they said the bombs would be kept in buses and we were asked to identify the right buses. We then confronted them, saying that people in buses were not our targets. We said we should set off the bombs in places were Hindus dominate and where it is difficult for Muslims even to enter. The places they had chosen were areas like Paldi, which also had a large number of Muslims.

The targets were then changed to areas like Maninagar and Satellite. Qayamuddin later took me with him and showed me places like Naroda [one of the worst hit during the Gujarat 2002 riots] and told me that these were the places were we needed to plant the bombs. I was told to just look at the areas. After we came back from Naroda, we met Mujeeb who was waiting for us near the Vadodara express highway. Qayamuddin then told me that I did not appreciate what we were doing and that I was too busy with college. I retorted that that was because they were not keeping their promise to attack the VHP. I told them I did not want to be a part of the plan.

Did you know Sadiq Israr Ahmed? [in custody with the Mumbai police, named as one of the IM masterminds and accused in the Ahmedabad blasts. Recently cleared by a Mumbai court of involvement in the 2006 Mumbai train blasts] Was he ever a part of the plan?
No. I’ve never heard of him. If the SIMI members found out about our plan, they would never have let us go ahead with it.

Did any of you go to Pakistan or any other country?
No, never. The names I have read in the chargesheet are just names to us. We only heard about them on TV. SIMI was just a small organisation. Poor Abu Bashar had no idea what was going on. Whenever he was around, we never spoke about the plot. In fact we were told never to discuss anything with SIMI. The only reason Abu Bashar has been implicated in the case is because he used to attend tableeghi jamaats [religious conferences] across the country and was also very keen that the ban on SIMI be lifted. He was perhaps the only one who would speak to us about the true meaning of Islam.

After I said I wouldn’t be a part of the plot, I was removed from the group. It was only on the morning of the blasts when Alamzeb came in to get the cycles that I felt something was about to happen. I told him where the bicycles were parked and then went to college. It was only after I returned that I realised that the blasts had taken place. After the blasts, the group avoided me. Even when they met me they asked me not to discuss the plot.

The only fault of Zahid Sheikh [a friend of Witness arrested by the police and accused in the case. Also accused of attending terror camps in Ahmedabad] and others who have been arrested is that someone told him that the blasts were done by this group. I met Alamzeb five days after the blasts and asked him about the boys from outside. Were they like us – kurta-pyjama clad and bearded? Alamzeb replied that on the contrary, they didn’t look like us. They were welleducated, wore jeans and T-shirts and smoked a lot.

Did you know their identity?
No. They never divulged these things. Alamzeb only told me that they had rented a room and that they were extremely well-trained in making bombs. They were not like one of us. There was another person who kept the bombs. There is a stark difference between us and those people. They were like none of our group or any SIMI members we had seen.

You have been named a witness in the case. Your statement says that those named in the chargesheet including Arif, Tauseef, Zahid and the others played an active part in the blasts. Why did you say that? Did they torture you mentally or physically?
They first took me to Ashish Bhatia’s office [Joint Commissioner of Police heading the investigations]. They strip you completely. One person sits on one leg and another on the other. They kept me twisted over in a 180 degree position. Like they did to poor Zahid. They trick you. They told him that everyone had named him and that he should take responsibility for the blasts. They did the same to me. I could not stand the pain, so I did what they told me to.

Are those named in the chargesheet involved?
How could they be? We knew exactly what was happening from Day One. The people named had no inkling. Naved Kadri, one of them, is from Juhapura, like me. He would get frightened at the thought of blood. His only fault was that he was a friend from Juhapura. He has been chargesheeted as a conspirator. I have seen him being tortured in custody. He is still inside.

Do you see the role of a SIMI insider?
The third party with the bombs only came into the picture after the SIMI guys were all inside. How could they do it?

Did you know about the Indian Mujahideen?
No. SIMI was banned in 2001. All of them — Safdar Nagori and the rest — were still free. If they had actually received training they would have done the blasts way back. Why would they wait? The blasts happened only after they were arrested. In my lie detector test, they asked me about the IM but I’ve seen this term only in the newspapers.

But you were still a part of the plot. Why did you join it?
You know what happened in Gujarat. What happened in Godhra was wrong. The guilty should have been punished. But you know what they did to us. We saw the videos of Babu Bajrangi on TV and the VHP guys talking about slitting the stomachs of pregnant women. Politicians knew that what happened was wrong. The Hindus here knew exactly that it was wrong but they still support Narendra Modi. We just wanted to show them how it feels when your own people are killed.

You were a part of the plot till almost a day before the blasts and you have been let off. But others who don’t even know about the blasts are in jail. Why did this happen?
I only know how the plan was hatched and that the cycles were bought. The policemen told me that Yunus Mansuri said I had planted the bomb. I said that in that case, call him; I will face him because I know I have not done so. They told me this before they had even arrested him. Two days later, they arrested him, saying that I had named him. I told them whatever I knew. I know that uninvolved people were suffering, and I told the crime branch that those people were innocent. But they implicated them. There is no such thing as justice. Sub Inspector Bharvad took me out in a vehicle and said, as he took out his revolver, “You bastard, run! We don’t want to investigate you people. Run!” He later took me to the police station and I was tortured. They abused Muslims and kept on torturing me. I knew that I could not take it anymore and I gave in. I said whatever they told me to. They made me say that I had planted the bombs. When I met Police Inspector Tarun Barot, I told him I couldn’t take the pain. I said I would kill myself. Barot told me, “Don’t worry, I have spoken to Ashish Bhatia. We will make you a witness in the case.” I told them the truth so they would free the innocents, but they made a false statement from what I said. They warned me against speakingout and told me that they could implicate me and that there was scope for supplementary chargesheets. I am speaking out now because I am disgusted, because innocent God-fearing men are in jail.

How can you be so sure that the others were not involved?
It was all done secretly. We were told strictly to keep away from SIMI men like Arif, Sajid and the rest. If Mufti Abu Bashar and the others knew about it wouldn’t they have spoken to us about it? Only Subhan, Qayamuddin, Alamzeb and I knew about the plot.

What about Abu Bashar?
Subhan brought Abu Basher into the group in Ahmedabad only for his knowledge of Arabic and the hadees. They said Abu Bashar had asked us to wage jihad, which is absolutely false. Subhan categorically asked us to keep our mouths shut in front of Abu Bashar because he was quite educated and was a God-fearing man. Subhan and Qayamuddin were always on the run. They kept saying that they need people to help carry out attacks.

Did the Gujarat Police ever lure you?
They keep telling me, “Listen to us. You are a state witness. We will take care of you. Just don’t talk about this outside.”

When was the last time you met Subhan Qureishi?
Around 30 days before the blasts.

Unknown to the police, Witness has given us a full account in which he also damns himself. We also spoke to police officers without letting them know that we had had a long meeting with their star witness. The police maintain that they have a strong case. Says Joint Commissioner of Police Abhay Chudasama who is in charge of the case, “Even a child would know how important a witness would be in this case. And we do believe that whatever statements we have got from them and from the accused corroborate the evidence and will be enough to strengthen our case and nail the accused”.

When asked specifically why the alleged mastermind in the case would keep changing and asked about Abu Bashar Siddiqui, Sajid Mansuri and Yunus Mansuri [whose involvement in the case Witness has denied], Chudasama maintained that they were the key conspirators. While Chudasama was not as forthcoming when it came to the status of the witnesses, Ashish Bhatia, IG, Law and Order, who was the Joint Commissioner of Police in charge of the investigations maintained that some people who had backed out of committing the blasts were made witnesses and that their confessions would be crucial. When asked if the statements were voluntary, Bhatia said that all the statements were voluntary and in case the witnesses retracted their statements — even though they were recorded before a magistrate and therefore couldn’t be retracted —the Police would have the right to file a case against them. When asked if the witnesses had been tortured, both Chudasama and Bhatia replied that the matter was sub judice.

One year into the blasts, the trial is still to begin. Perhaps in the case of the Ahmedabad blasts there may not be no such thing called justice.

Special Report: Jammu Is A Barometer Of Modi’s Fortunes

By Ashraf Jani / Srinagar

To gauge the success of Hindutva politics across India, this is the region to watch. Jammu & Kashmir may be India’s only Muslim-majority state but Jammu, the state’s winter capital, was one of the fountainheads of Hindu nationalist politics in the country. It was here that Balraj Madhok formed the Praja Parishad Party in 1949 and later merged it with the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, founded by Syama Prasad Mookerjee in 1951 and the forerunner of the BJP. Mookerjee died in a Kashmir jail while protesting the special status given to the state under Article 370 of the Constitution. In fact, the Jana Sangh’s slogan of Ek Vidhan, Ek Nishan, Ek Pradhan (One Law, One Symbol, One Leader) emerged from its opposition to J&K’s special status.

Is Modi-RSS Partnership BJP’s Only Resort To Survive?

By M H Ahssan / INN Bureau

With the Bharatiya Janata Party appearing to have run out of ideas to woo voters, it is the RSS that has made a quiet but assertive entry into mainstream party affairs. And if the Hindutva conglomerate’s hand-holding of BJP’s internal businesses is indeed successful, then Narendra Modi could be declared the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2014 polls sooner than expected.

According to a report in The Economic Times, party leaders Sushma Swaraj and LK Advani have been told by the RSS top brass that the party must lose no time in declaring Narendra Modi as its Prime Ministerial candidate.

Exclusive: Why Advani Has Overplayed His Hand With BJP?

By Sanjay Singh / Delhi

Lal Krishna Advani has always been a charioteer for his party. As he traversed through the cities and villages, populated and barren patches during his various yatras through the decades, set the national agenda with Ram Rath Yatra in 1990s and unleashed a debate on secularism, he would often say that through his journeys he got to feel pulse of the people and accordingly set his own discourse. But in his last blog, written a day before he resigned from all positions in the BJP, he talked of Vishwaroop and Bhishma Pitamah on his bed of arrows. The symbolism of it was significant. After all the views and decisions, he has taken a U-turn and announced a comeback in the party with all his positions. Just amazing, isn't it?

ISLAMIC HERITAGE - PHOTO FEATURE

By M H Ahssan

From Kerala to Kashmir and from Tripura to Gujarat, India has a vast and rich heritage of Islamic architecture.



Taj Mahal, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, 17th century.

India is an enchanting land watered by the streams of compassionate philosophies since ancient times. Flourishing communities of the Islamic, Christian, Zoroastrian and Jewish faiths exist here. The Hindu, Buddhist, Jaina and Sikh faiths were born here. It has a great cosmopolitan heritage of culture and art.



The best-recognised monument in the Indian subcontinent is the Taj Mahal, the tomb of Arjumand Banu Begum (also known as Mumtaz Mahal), wife of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. He was also later laid to rest here. The pearly clarity of the white marble structure acquires different hues with the changing colour of light, from sunrise to sunset.

Although Mughal architecture of north India is famous, the fascinating richness of Islamic architectural heritage in other parts of the country is not so well known. The vastness of India's Islamic architectural heritage is unbelievable. India has more beautiful medieval Islamic architectural heritage than any other country. This is a fact which neither Indians nor the rest of the world is fully aware of.



QUTB MINAR, DELHI, early 13th century. In 1206, Mohammed Ghori was assassinated and his realm was divided among his slaves. One of them, Qutbuddin Aibak, assumed control over Delhi. He built the Qutb Minar near the Quwwat-ul-Islam ("might of Islam") mosque. One of the world's tallest minarets, it is 72.5 metres high.

It is a known fact that the most famous Islamic monument of the world, the Taj Mahal, is in India. But what is not equally well known is that one of the oldest mosques in the world is also in India, in Kerala. In fact, India has a vast and rich Islamic architectural heritage, from Kerala in the south to Kashmir in the north, from Tripura in the east to Gujarat in the west.



AGRA FORT, UTTAR Pradesh, 16th-17th century. Akbar, one of the greatest Mughal emperors (reign 1556-1605), was a brilliant intellectual and ruler. A remarkable monarch whose empire rivalled that of Asoka, he built a network of fortresses and palaces between 1565 and 1571. The first of these was the fort at Agra. His successors Jahangir and Shah Jahan added many sections within the fort. Here is a part of the white marble section of Agra Fort, which was built during the reign of Shah Jahan.

Islamic architecture is characterised by a few visible symbols. One is the arch, which frames the space; the second symbol is the dome, which looms over the skyscape; and the third is the minaret, which pierces the skies. Minarets were actually symbols in the middle of deserts. They represented fire, which was lit atop them to guide travellers. The dome represents the infinite and also the sky. As tomb architecture represents both the finite and the infinite, the dome has a very important role to play.



GATEWAY OF AKBAR'S Tomb, Sikandra, near Agra, Uttar Pradesh, 17th century. The impressive structure was built by his son Jahangir, who closely supervised the work, which was completed in 1613. Akbar did not impose his faith on his subjects. He forged matrimonial ties with Rajput rulers. Some of his closest confidants and advisers followed faiths other than his own.

Islam did not come to India from the north as is commonly believed. It came through Arab traders to the Malabar region in Kerala, and Muslims flourished as a trading community there. You can still see traces of that community amongst the Moplas of Kerala, who trace their ancestry to the Arabs.



ZIARAT OF SHAH Hamadan, Srinagar, Kashmir. In the mountainous kingdom of Kashmir, Islamic architecture was heavily influenced by ancient Hindu and Buddhist stone architecture. Wood was used extensively in the mosques and tombs of the Kashmir Valley. Shah Hamadan from Persia is known to have laid the foundations of Islam in the Kashmir Valley. The saint is deeply revered by the people. Built on the bank of the river Jhelum in Srinagar, the ziarat is a beautiful example of Kashmiri wooden architecture. It is in the ziarats of the saints of Kashmir that the people of the valley worship. Over the centuries, both Hindus and Muslims have equally revered the ziarats.

Since ancient times, India has had considerable trade contact with the Arab world. In the 1st century A.D., the Roman historian Pliny the Elder wrote about the existing routes to India and the July monsoon winds that traders used to catch to reach the Indian coast. He spoke about a ship that left the coast of Arabia and took 40 days to reach Muziris, which was then the name of present-day Kodungalloor.



GOL GUMBAZ, BIJAPUR, Karnataka, 17th century. The Gol Gumbaz, literally meaning "Round Dome", is one of the most impressive monuments in India. Built during the reign of Muhammad Adil Shah in the mid-17th century, it is the mausoleum of the ruler. It is one of the largest domes ever made in the world.

With the advent of Islam, Arab traders became the carriers of the new faith. The first mosque in India was built at Kodungalloor by the Chera King Cheraman Perumal in A.D. 629, within the lifetime of the Prophet. This is one of the oldest mosques in the world.



TOMB OF SHER Shah Suri, Sasaram, Bihar, 16th century. Sher Shah Suri (1486-1545) defeated the Mughal emperor Humayun in 1537 and created an empire. Even though he reigned only for five years, he laid the foundations of an Indian empire for later Mughal emperors. His lasting legacy is the Grand Trunk Road that he laid from Sonagarh in Bangladesh to Peshawar in Pakistan. Of Afghan origin, Sher Shah was born in Sasaram. His tomb is situated at the centre of an artificial lake. The location of the tomb in the middle of the water is a reference to Paradise with its plentiful waters, as described in the Quran.

Kayalpattnam is an ancient town about a kilometre from the mouth of the Tamiraparani river. Arab traders built the Kodiakarai Mosque here as early as Hijri 12, or A.D. 633. It is the first mosque to be built in Tamil Nadu and ranks among the oldest mosques in the world. Kayalpattnam has many other early mosques. In fact, Kerala on the west coast of India and Tamil Nadu on the east coast have numerous mosques, made through the ages. At Nagore, on the east coast, is one of the grandest dargahs ever made.



HUMAYUN'S TOMB, DELHI. It was built in the 16th century by Haji Begum, the emperor's eldest widow. It is closely related to the previous architecture of Delhi, of the 14th and 15th centuries.

Islam came to the north of India through different invasions, starting with the invasion of Mahmud of Ghazni, who came as far as Gujarat. Thereafter, there was the peaceful contribution of different Sufi saints, traders and other individuals who moved to the northern region of India because of political instability or dynastic changes that were taking place in and around Central Asia and Afghanistan at that time. Gradually, a small community developed and increased its strength once Turkish rule was established in north India.


JAMI MASJID, CHAMPANER, Gujarat, 15th century. A new capital was built at Champaner by Sultan Mahmud Begarha towards the end of the 15th century. The Jami Masjid is one of the most striking buildings here. The symmetrical appearance of the whole is enhanced by the exquisite details of its parts. The surface is profusely decorated with fine carvings. It is one of the most exquisite monuments of Gujarat.

The Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque was the first mosque built in north India, in A.D. 1193. A number of Quranic verses are beautifully etched on the mosque. Some medieval writers say they are so beautifully carved that it looks as if they are written on wax.

MAHMUD GAWAN MADARSA, Bidar, Karnataka, 15th century. Founded in 1472 by Mahmud Gawan, the Persian minister of Muhammad Shah III, it was built by engineers and craftsmen from Gilan on the Caspian Sea. The structure closely resembles the madrassas of Persia and Uzbekistan.

The most impressive monument in the Qutb complex in present-day Delhi is the Qutb Minar itself. It was made in the early 13th century by Qutbuddin Aibak, the sultan of Delhi. At 72.5 metres, it is one of the tallest minarets in the world. The traveller Ibn Batuta, who came to India after journeying all over the Islamic empire, starting from Africa and covering Samarkand and Damascus, has recorded that nowhere in the world has there been a minaret as impressive as the Qutb Minar.



STONE JAALI, MOSQUE of Sidi Saiyyad, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, 16th century. One of the unique features of Islamic architecture in Gujarat is the use of intricate stone jaalis with exquisite carving. Naturalistic carvings of foliated designs with delicate leaves and shoots derive directly from earlier indigenous traditions.

Close to the Qutb complex is the tomb of Ghiyasuddin Balban, another 13th century ruler of Delhi. Balban ruled from 1266 to 1286. His tomb marks a very important development in the field of architecture. Before this tomb was built, a number of arches had been made in Indian Islamic buildings, but these were not “true arches”. In Balban's tomb, for the first time in India, a keystone, which is fundamental to the true load-bearing arch, was used at the top of the arch. Subsequently, the “true arch” began to be used in numerous structures across the country.



BIBI KA MAQBARA, Aurangabad, 17th century. The mausoleum of Emperor Aurangzeb's wife Rabia ul Daurani was built by her son Prince Azam Shah between 1651 and 1661. Set at the centre of a charbagh enclosure, the white marble mausoleum was inspired by the Taj Mahal. It is known as the `Taj Mahal of the Deccan'.

The Alai Darwaja was built by Allauddin Khilji as part of the extension of the Qutb complex in 1305. It is very fascinating from the point of view of architecture. In the 13th century, owing to Mongol attacks in West Asia and Central Asia, a large number of craftsmen had to flee from their lands. Many of them were given refuge in this part of India and were very fruitfully employed in the making of the Alai Darwaja. We see here the introduction of the horseshoe arch in Indian monuments.

The Deccan
Meanwhile, Islamic influence continued to grow further south, in the Deccan. The end of the 15th century saw the establishment of five sultanates in the Deccan: Ahmadnagar, Bijapur, Golconda, Bidar and Berar. The sultan of Bijapur was a descendant of the Ottoman dynasty of Istanbul. The sultan of Golconda was a Turkman prince who had taken refuge in India. The sultans were followers of the Shia sect of Islam and were close allies of the Safavid rulers of Iran. A distinct culture thus developed in the cosmopolitan community of the Deccan.


JAMA MASJID, JUNAGARH, Sourashtra, Gujarat, originally built in the 13th century. Junagarh is located at the foothills of the Girnar hills. The name literally means "old fort". The plan of this is in the Arab style, which was not repeated in Gujarat after its subsequent conquest by the Delhi Sultanate.
The streets of the Deccani sultanates were filled with Turks, Persians, Arabs and Africans. In India, the Deccan became the greatest centre of Arabic learning and literature. In fact, Iran and Central Asia only had single courts. If you were a soldier, a religious figure, an intellectual or an artistic person and you could not find a sponsor in what is now Iran or Uzbekistan, chances were that you could find some sort of patronage in the Deccan. Thus there was a continuous migration of people, ideas and artistic devices from the Near East to the Deccan.

A remarkable example of an architectural transplant from Central Asia is the madrassa of Mahmud Gawan, in Bidar, built at the end of the 15th century. It would be very hard to tell the difference between this and the madrassas of Uzbekistan or eastern Iran. The similarities between the two are not only in form or in other architectural elements such as corner minarets, the square courtyard in the middle and four great arched portals, but also in the decorations of the exterior with blue-and-white tiles.

Sultan Ibrahim Adil Shah II ruled Bijapur from 1580 to 1627. He was a contemporary of the Mughal emperor Akbar. A visit to his rauza, or tomb, is a pilgrimage for someone deeply interested in Indian art, for some of the finest miniature paintings ever made in India were made during his rule.



IBRAHIM RAUZA COMPLEX, Bijapur, Karnataka, 17th century. The monumental heritage of the Deccan is distinctive and quite different from that of the Mughals. The architectural styles that are seen in Bijapur, Bidar, Gulbarga and Hyderabad are closely related to those of Persia and Turkey. Ibrahim Adil Shah II ruled the kingdom of Bijapur from 1580 to 1627. He was one of the most humane and cosmopolitan kings in history. He was a magnanimous patron of the arts. Painting, poetry and music flourished during his reign. In his autobiography, the great sultan calls himself the "son of Ganesa", a Hindu deity.
The Gol Gumbaz in Bijapur is the tomb of Sultan Muhammad Adil Shah, who ruled from A.D. 1627 to 1657. This is the largest dome ever built in the Islamic world. It is the second largest dome in the world, after the one at Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome. It measures 37.92 metres on the inside.

The massive Bidar fort was built in the 14th and 15th centuries. It is one of the most formidable forts in the country. It has walls that run for 5.5 km around. Inside, it has beautiful palaces, two mosques, a madrassa, ornamental gardens and hamams.



TURKISH MAHAL, BIDAR Fort, Karnataka, 15th-16th century.
Timur, when he came to India, was struck by the beauty of its historical cities. In his autobiography, Malfujaate Taimoori, he says, “I ordered that all the artisans and clever mechanics who are masters of their respective crafts should be picked out from among the prisoners and set aside. And accordingly some thousands of craftsmen were selected to await my command. I had determined to build a Masjid-e-Jami in Samarkand, the seat of my empire, which should be without rival in any country. So I ordered that all the builders and stonemasons of India should be set apart for my own special service.” In some other records it is said that he took about 3,000 artisans from India and employed them in the construction of the Jami Masjid at Samarkand.

Mughal architecture
The dynasty founded by Babur became one of the greatest the world had seen. It ruled a vast empire whose fame spread far and wide. The culture and the art it created helped shape future developments in all spheres of life in the Indian subcontinent.

Humayun's Tomb, which might be considered the first great masterpiece of the Mughals, is very much related to the previous architecture of Delhi. It is closely linked to the Lodhi and Tuglaq architectures of the 14th and 15th centuries. Mughal architecture presents us with a fusion of local elements, building techniques, styles and traditions with imported traditions and styles. The genius of Mughal architecture is that it sustained this incredibly rich mingling of different traditions throughout its history.

Agra was the imperial capital of Akbar in the mid-16th century. The fort here was one of the most powerful in north India. In 1565, Emperor Akbar ordered the reconstruction of the fort. The fort has palaces of Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan. The most prominent among all the structures are the white marble buildings of Shah Jahan. The Khas Mahal, made of pure marble, is one of these elegant buildings. It is flanked by the palaces of Shah Jahan's daughters Roshanara and Jahanara.



THE BIDAR FORT is one of the most impressive forts in the country. Completed in 1532, it was the largest architectural undertaking of the Bahamanid dynasty. It has palaces, two mosques, a madrassa and many royal tombs inside.

In 1571, Emperor Akbar decided to build a new capital city. And a magnificent city was built at a site not very far from Agra. It was called Fatehpur Sikri. This was Akbar's most ambitious architectural project. By the end of the 16th century, there were a quarter of a million people living in the new city.

In the building of Fatehpur Sikri, no cost was too much, no effort too great, for Akbar. He wished to build the city true to his conception. As a matter of fact, miniature paintings of that period show the emperor amidst the workers, supervising the construction of the city himself. Fatehpur Sikri is one of the best ordered and symmetrically laid-out cities of the entire medieval world.

The world's best-known tomb stands testimony to a timeless love story. The Taj Mahal was built in 1648 by the Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his beloved wife Arjumand Banu Begum, known to the world as Mumtaz Mahal. The construction of the Taj Mahal was a stupendous engineering feat. It is built of marble and is finely inlaid with semi-precious stones. As many as 20,000 workers and master craftsmen laboured for 17 years to erect this magnificent edifice. Several hundreds of mosques and Islamic tombs of great beauty are spread throughout India.

Coming to the west of the country, in Gujarat is the World Heritage Site of Champaner of the 15th century. In the east there is the impressive Nakhoda Masjid and several others in Kolkata. There are famous dargahs in Hajo and other places in Assam. In the north-eastern region of India, in Agartala in Tripura is the beautiful Gedu Mia Ki Masjid.

In the mountainous State of Kashmir, Islamic architecture was influenced by ancient Hindu and Buddhist traditions. The resultant form was combined with influences from Persia and Turkistan. Wood was used extensively in the mosques and tombs of Kashmir.

India has a vast, living heritage of Islamic architecture. These monuments are a great treasure of India's culture and many of them are recognised as World Heritage Monuments. We see in these the confluence of local talent and inspiration from Iran, Arabia and Central Asia. These mosques, tombs, madrassas, palaces and fortresses are a unique heritage of Islamic architecture.

Cow Calculus: What Modi Stood To Lose By Keeping Silent On 'Gau Rakshaks'

By AJAZ ASHRAF | INNLIVE

The prime minister deserves praise for criticising cow-protection vigilantes. Now he must walk the talk.

Regardless of whether you endorse the Bharatiya Janata Party’s ideology, one cannot but appreciate Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to belatedly emerge from the cocoon of silence to condemn cow-protection groups.

Fake Federalism: How 'National Parties' Turned The Concept Of 'Rajya' In Rajya Sabha Into A Farce?

By NEWSCOP | INNLIVE 

The upper House of Parliament, literally a Council of States, was meant to be a federal chamber to look out for the interests of the states.

The continued abuse of the idea of the Rajya Sabha – or the Council of States – by the so-called national parties continues with the upcoming round of Rajya Sabha elections.

Environment: Industrial Safety Thrown Norms To The Winds

By Sirajuddin Shaik | INNLIVE

In view of the violation of the norms for the health and safety of workers in thermal plants, the Supreme Court directs the High Courts to examine whether adequate health delivery systems are in place. 

The Supreme Court judgment in Occupational Health and Safety Association vs Union of India, delivered by Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan on January 31, has brought to the fore the serious health hazards faced by workers in coal-based thermal power plants across the country. 

A protracted legal struggle that began in 2005 has only culminated in the apex court giving directions to the High Courts to examine whether there are adequate and effective health delivery systems in place and to evaluate the occupational health status of workers in thermal power plants.

Bumps in the Road: India's Industrial Growth Seeks Solid Ground

By M H Ahssan

For a small car, the Nano has traveled quite a bit. Just in October it has moved from Singur, in West Bengal -- where Tata Motors abandoned a production facility two years in the making and gearing for start-up -- to Sanand, in Gujarat. En route, Tata surveyed other sites for the production of its Rs100,000 ($2,000) automobile.

It hasn't been an easy ride. In Andhra Pradesh, the villagers of Seetarampuram, one of the sites offered by the state government, staged a protest, blockading the Bangalore-Mumbai highway for several hours. Like the farmers of Singur whose tactics eventually forced out the Nano, they resisted the industrial project. In Maharashtra, a senior politician publicly declared that the Nano was not wanted because the state was facing an electricity crisis.

The going has been smoother at Sanand, although bumps in the road still exist. The state government thought it was playing safe by allotting the Tatas 1,100 acres belonging to the Anand Agricultural University. But farmers have already petitioned the Gujarat High Court to stop the deal. They say that the British government acquired the land from them in 1902 on a 90-year lease, and that it should have been returned in 1992, but was not. Now that the land's value has risen sharply, they are demanding compensation. Land prices in neighboring areas have gone up from around Rs400,000 (US$8,000) per bigha (an Indian land unit equivalent to about 25,000 square feet) to Rs1.2 million (US$24,000) per bigha.

The Congress opposition in Gujarat, a state ruled by the rightist Bharatiya Janata Party, has hinted at a Singur-style agitation. But the agitation's purpose would not be to drive out the Tatas. It would aim to secure compensation for farmers deprived of their land a century ago.

The farmers, meanwhile, are organizing themselves under banners such as the Rashtriya Kisan Dal. Maharana JaiShiv Sinh Vaghela, the scion of the royal family of Sanand, an erstwhile princely state, has led a delegation of farmers to the state chief minister, Narendra Modi, to demand their share. Meanwhile, Anand Agricultural University has asked for equivalent land in other districts of Gujarat as compensation for the 1,100 acres it has surrendered for the Nano.

"The real debate is about the correct compensation price," says Rajesh Chakrabarti, assistant professor of finance at the Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business (ISB). "Once land is acquired, the value of the entire area goes up several times and the people who benefit the most are those who own land just outside the area of the acquired lands." Those initially dispossessed -- no matter how handsomely they may have been compensated -- are invariably left feeling they have been given a raw deal.

Soaring Land Prices
According to estimates by the business magazine Business Today, land prices in Singur rose from US$24,000 per acre to US$120,000 per acre. (They have dropped sharply since the Tata pullout.) Land prices associated with other projects and special economic zones (SEZs) have shown similar increases. Among them: the Reliance Haryana SEZ (from US$45,000 to US$200,000 per acre); the Reliance Mumbai SEZ (US$20,000 to US$100,000); the Reliance Maha Mumbai SEZ (US$10,000 to US$100,000); Tata Steel's Kalinganagar project in Orissa (US$6,500 to US$10,000); and the Renault Nissan plant at Oragadam in Tamil Nadu (US$40,000 to US$160,000).

"We follow an 1890s act for land acquisition," Chakrabarti explains. The huge projects that change neighboring lands' value by such huge multiples didn't exist back then. "So there is definitely need to change the laws in such a way that the people who are being evicted get compensated in a fair manner," Chakrabarti says.

The Nano's woes may have grabbed headlines, but land acquisition problems spread across sectors and the entire nation. The government of Uttar Pradesh, led by Bahujan Samaj Party president Kumari Mayawati, recently canceled a deal allotting 190 acres for a railway coach factory in Sonia Gandhi's parliamentary constituency Rai Bareli. Gandhi is the powerful chairwoman of the ruling United Progressive Alliance in Delhi. Mayawati gave in after Gandhi threatened to stage a protest and court arrest. But land has clearly become the currency of political vendetta, too.

Here's a rundown of some other projects running into acquisition problems, for a variety of reasons:

Sterlite Industries, the Indian arm of the London-based metals and natural resources conglomerate Vedanta, has the go-ahead from the Supreme Court to mine bauxite in the Niyamgiri hills in the Kalahandi district of Orissa. But the indigenous tribal community treats the area as a shrine. Kumuti Majhi, a tribal leader, has visited London to explain to Vedanta shareholders that digging up Niyamgiri would be equivalent to demolishing St. Paul's Cathedral.

Navi Mumbai airport, the much-needed lifeline for India's business capital, has stayed on the drawing board for years. The latest objection is from a government department. The Union environment ministry has refused to clear the project because mangrove forests occupy part of the area. The public-sector agency overseeing the project has offered to replant the mangroves -- which occupy just 7.3% of the total area -- elsewhere. But the Delhi bureaucrats are unmoved.

Close to the proposed Navi Mumbai airport, at the Raigad SEZ, villagers and farmers have voted in a symbolic referendum. Activists claim that the referendum has produced a 95% vote against the project being set up by India's richest industrialist, Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani. The farmers in Raigad, in Maharashtra, simply want a better deal. The project is being delayed while its promoters consider their next steps. Reliance, meanwhile, had appealed to the Bombay High Court opposing the Maharashtra government's decision to hold the referendum. While that judgment is pending, the Maharashtra government has announced that the Raigad referendum was unique and will not be repeated elsewhere in the state.

In Jharkhand, the world's largest steel company, ArcelorMittal, is facing tribal opposition against a proposed 12-million-ton steel plant. The project needs 11,000 acres, including 2,400 acres for a township. The protests have been building since mid-October, when ArcelorMittal met villagers to hard-sell the plan. (The 700MW Koel-Karo hydroelectric project, which was proposed some 35 years ago in the same areas, battled opposition from villagers for decades before it was abandoned.)

In West Bengal, the locals of the Chakchaka area in Cooch Behar district have launched an agitation against expansion of the local airport. The airport is critical because Chakchaka (part of a designated backward district) is being projected as a growth center by the West Bengal Industrial Infrastructure Development Corp. The Trinamool Congress, which spearheaded the Singur agitation, has been active here too, accusing the government of forcible land acquisition. (Meanwhile, things are moving smoothly at the Madurai airport in Tamil Nadu, where 614 acres are required for expansion.)

Large-scale Controversy
All projects can pose problems. But the SEZ arena is likely to witness the most controversy because the zones need large amounts of land. The Raigad SEZ, for instance, proposes to cover 25,000 acres; the Nano production facility needs just 1,100. Before the passage of the SEZ Act of 2005, just 19 SEZs functioned in the country. Many of them were barely limping along. Since the act's passage, some 260 new SEZs have been established. Prior to the act, state and central governments and private companies had invested some Rs7,745 crore (US$1.56 billion) in SEZs. From February 2006 to June 2008, an additional Rs73,348 crore (US$14.74 billion) was pumped in, according to Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry data. Some 100,000 jobs have been created. But land issues still bog down many of the zones.

This is proving expensive. According to a recent estimate by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), a Mumbai-based data agglomerator and think tank, projects worth a whopping Rs250,000 crore (US$50.23 billion) are encountering hurdles in acquiring land.

"We should not expect the government to allot us land," says Irfan Razack, chairman and managing director of the Bangalore-based Prestige Group, which has interests in real estate and infrastructure. "That's where the controversy comes in. Either the government must auction the land at market prices or the developer must have the capacity to buy the land and then go to the government for approvals. The heartburn comes when the government buys land at a subsidized price and allots it to the developer who then goes on to make big money."

Razack is talking principally about SEZs. But what he says applies to large industrial projects as well. An additional catch is that the government may well subsidize the land it gives to a project like the Nano because such projects are expected to act as catalysts for further investment in the region or state. Tata Motors was supposed to pay US$200,000 a year for the first five years for the Singur land. This was to rise to US$2 million a year in the next 10 years, and $4 million a year after that. The government, meanwhile, paid US$24 million to the farmers as compensation. In the short term, the Tatas were required to pay peanuts. This lends itself to accusations of corporate houses profiteering.

Industry appears to be able to pay more. CMIE data show that in the five years ended March 2008, large-market-cap companies spent US$3.33 billion in land acquisition costs. These companies' total fixed capital expenditures were $113.97 billion. Land is just 2.9% of that total, leaving room for growth in what the companies can pay for land. Industrialists privately confess that they are prepared to pay more for land acquisition. But it has the danger of becoming a never-ending spiral.

No model has proved problem-free. Where the state has acquired land, farmers have cried foul over the rates. Where the private sector has tried to go it alone, accusations of intimidation have arisen. Landowners have realized the advantages of holding out. It often boils down to who blinks first. Says Chakrabarti of ISB: "There is the issue of sorting out 'hold-up' lands," where the landowner has asked for an exorbitant price because he knows that the project cannot proceed without his land.

Chakrabarti has a suggestion. "The government should definitely not do the entire acquisition on its own because, as soon as the government gets into the act, a lot of political forces come into play. On the other hand, the private sector cannot do it completely on its own because of the hold-up problem. One model is that the private partner acquires around 70%-80% of the total land required by paying a fair compensation. The remaining [including the hold-ups] can be acquired by the government by paying the same rate as what the private party has paid.

"There are other ways. Let us say the SEZ needs 1,000 acres. But the consortium [of private players and the government] can acquire 1,500 acres and then ration out the extra 500 on a pro-rata basis to those from whom the land has been acquired. That will mean that instead of giving just cash compensation, everyone will have some real estate holding in the developed area, which will enable them to get the appreciation benefits of that land. This, of course, requires multiparty negotiations, and I don't think it is in practice in India." And Chakrabarti points out a catch. "Being agriculturists, the landowners are not trained for anything else," he says. "They need to be provided with training so that their future is protected."

Comprehensive Ground Rules
What is needed is a comprehensive set of ground rules. They may be in the works, albeit belatedly. The government has been working on a replacement for the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 for a couple of years now. The prime minister's office has written to the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs asking that the processing of bills related to land acquisition be expedited. Three bills are involved: the Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2007; the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill, 2008; and the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, 2007.

The Land Acquisition Bill has just been vetted by the parliamentary standing committee concerned. The prime minister's office wants all this speeded up to get these bills on the statute books before it demits office next year. Sonia Gandhi told a farmers' rally at the end of September that the bills would be piloted through parliament soon.

The standing committee on the Land Acquisition Bill, which submitted its report on October 21, recommended that:

- States should be allowed to acquire 100% of the land required.
- The definition of "public purpose," which allows the state to take over land, should be expanded.
- States should be given more power to decide on use of agricultural land.
- The compensation benchmark should be the highest price paid in the last three years plus 50%.

The report's submission doesn't necessarily mean that the Land Acquisition Act is on the fast track. "We have to examine the report," Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, the Union minister for rural development, told the Delhi-headquartered business daily Business Standard. "But it is not necessary that all the recommendations of the standing committee have to be accepted."

Political analysts in Delhi say the bills may not be passed this parliamentary session. Compensation is a contentious issue. The definition of "public purpose" is another. In Singapore, "public purpose" can mean residential buildings. Not so in India. The Nanos of the future may have some distance to travel to find a home.