The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), monitoring monthly unemployment in India, has put Jammu Kashmir’s employment rate at 23.1 percent in the month of March against 17.1 in February. The unemployment rate in Jammu Kashmir has recorded a spike of cover 6 percent for the month of March against February, which is the third highest in states UTs across India. Recently, the JKNC criticized the IIOJK administration over the growing unemployment stating IIOJK is beset with unemployment, development deficit and administrative apathy. Contrary to this Indian government, has been harping on the tune of peace, prosperity and development, maintaining its stance that jobs are on all-time. Moreover, the Kashmiri leadership and masses believe that India is accommodating non-Kashmiris in various government organizations, thus depriving the Kashmiris of their right. Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industries (KCCI) in its report highlighting that at least 5000 salesmen in the tourism and mobile services business were not paid salaries, while 4.96 lakh people lost their jobs in last three years. With the rising rate of unemployment rate in IIOJK, several scholars have taken to alternative forms of employment. Recently The Kashmiriyat reported that two scholars, one Ph.D., and one M.Phil had opened a tea stall to earn their livelihood. In 2021, the Directorate of Employment witnessed three lakh registrations by postgraduates and PhD degree holders for jobs. In the same year, Jammu Kashmir Service Selection Board advertised 8000 class IV posts, and more than 5.4 lakh aspirants applied for these posts. The visible discrepancies in ground situation and data provided by different government agencies/ administration indicate that India resort to falsehood as statecraft. At a time when Kashmiris are suffering the worst economic strangulation, Indian government is planning to hold a controversial tourism event (G-20) to further its settler colonialism agenda. It is evident that India is planning to subdue the peaceful freedom struggle of Kashmiris through economic exploitation and concurrently misleading the international community and HRs Organizations.
All posts by Minhaaj Rehman
GUJARAT RIOTS 2002
Gujarat riots took place after 60 Hindus died in a train fire on 27 February 2002. Hindu groups alleged that the fire was started by Muslim protesters, but an inquiry diverged that blaze was an accident. Blaming Muslims for the blaze, extremist Hindu mobs stormed through Muslim neighbourhood in several cities seeking reprisals during three days of bloodshed. According to official data, 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus were killed, while 223 people went missing and 2,500 others injured.
Narendra Modi, the then Chief Minister of Gujarat was accused of condoning the violence, as were Police and government officials who directed the rioters and gave lists of Muslim-owned properties to them. Sanjiv Bhatt, Intelligence Bureau officer Gujarat, in 2002 also alleged that, in a meeting in the night before the riots, Mr Modi told officials that Muslim community needed to be taught a lesson following an attack on a train carrying Hindu pilgrims.
However, the bloody riots tarred Modi’s international image, leading him to be blacklisted for a decade by the United States and the European Union. Recently, India has banned a BBC documentary titled “India: The Modi Question” which links his role in 2002 anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat that left over two thousand dead. Official probes also absolved the state Police and government of any collusion in the violence, which left 200,000 people homeless. Many Muslims never returned home, more than 100 people have been convicted over the riots in a series of trials over the past 14 years. An Indian court in 2011 found 31 Hindus guilty of murdering 33 Muslims who were seeking shelter in a single house. In 2012, a former minister in Modi’s state government was handed a life sentence for her role.
Labour MP Kim Leadbeater also emphasized to public any unpublished report on 2002 communal violence during a debate to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 2002 communal violence in the Indian state. Amanda Milling, Minister of State for Asia said, UK will condemn any religious discrimination around the world regardless of country or faith involved. UK looks to India to uphold all freedoms and rights guaranteed in its constitution.” Gujarat riots and their subsequent handling have shown that India’s crumbling democratic multi-cultural societal structure is in the danger of total collapse.
LADAKH IS THE NEXT VICTIM OF INDIAN COLONIAL DESIGNS
The people of Ladakh believe that the division of IIOJK into two Union territories has been a deceitful step of the Indian government to usurp the resources of the region.
Indian government has failed to fulfil its promises made to the people of Ladakh even after almost three and half years in 2019. Masses in Ladakh say that they have been fooled in the name of the union territory, the Indian government has scammed the people of Ladakh with mere cosmetic actions comprising MoUs and developmental plans. When the Indian government revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s special status under Article 370 of the constitution and split the state into two Union Territories in august 2019, the news was “met with celebration” in Ladakhi.
Three years later, however, there is a disappointment. Ladakh’s demand for its own legislature has been met, nor has it been given the status of a Sixth Schedule area. Instead, Indian government has initiated a series of projects beneficial to the mainland, completely neglecting the people of Ladakh.
The same is causing a sense of insecurity, and a feeling of being betrayed, especially among the youth in the region. The Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, which is currently applicable in parts of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura, and Meghalaya, outlines the administration of tribal areas in these states. According to the Sixth Schedule, district and regional councils whose 26 members are elected and four are nominated by the governor can make laws about land, management of forests, irrigation, shifting cultivation, and grazing, other than that for marriage, social customs, and public health. In 2019, the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes recommended that the Sixth Schedule be implemented in Ladakh. With a tribal population of more than 97% Ladakh meets the criteria for Sixth Schedule status. Moreover, BJP promised to implement the Sixth Scheduled if it was voted to power in the 2020 Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council elections, but after the BJP won the elections, the Indian government practically backtracked. The anger has been fuelled by Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announcement in the Union Budget speech on February 1 that provision of Rs 8,300 crore had been made for an “inter-state transmission system” to transmit solar power-generated electricity from Ladakh to Haryana. The solar energy project that the Indian Finance Minister, is one of the many development projects in Ladakh that have sparked social and environmental concerns. Eastern Ladakh, which is where this 13 GW (gigawatt) solar project is proposed to be built, is mostly grazing lands for nomadic pastoralists who believe that it will be completely taken away by India. The solar grid will require 20,000 acres of land in the cold desert, there have been rumours are there that Indian officials have been trying to convince pastoralists to take up employment at the proposed solar grid. An important member of Ladakh leadership said, “We all know that at most they will be employed as labour, their lives would be completely destroyed.” People of Ladakh have strong apprehensions that such large-scale solar projects will have long-term effects such as changing the land use of the region as well as the problem of disposing of solar panel debris. This region is also home to the Tibetan gazelle, which is on the “brink of local extinction” in Ladakh and such a massive land-use change will make their existence more precarious. The grazing lands are also integral to the pashmina or cashmere goats whose wool is used to make the farmed pashmina shawls. In Puga valley, where work on the geothermal project is underway, there has already been instances of geothermal liquid leaking into the Puga stream and polluting it. Unregulated tourism in the sensitive region is another grave threat, four lakh tourists visited Ladakh in year 2020 season. “Ladakh’s population itself is about three lakh the ecology of the region does not have the carrying capacity to manage this unregulated tourism. For many Ladakhis, the main concern are the nature of the projects being introduced by the Indian government and that they have been kept out of the decision making process. Since 2019, the limited autonomy of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council have reduced further with the Union Territory’s administration “interfering a lot more” in the Council’s work.There are also growing concerns about the control the Indian administration has on Ladakh’s land. People’s worry is understandable when the devastating experience of Jammu and Kashmir post-abrogation is already visible. Amed the discontent, the demand for statehood for Ladakh is growing, alone with constitutions safeguards under the Sixth Schedule. Protesters are chanting slogans during the meetings and protests – hum apna hak maangte, nahi kisi se bheek mangte. We are not begging, but demanding our right.”
The Stranger
Perhaps one of the greatest inventions of mankind is the invention of Gutenberg printing press. Not only has it preserved many of the classics and traditional wisdom that was on the verge of extinction, it has given people the tools to create and disseminate knowledge.
What used to take thousands of scribes to compile, the press could do it in an instant. It was in the hands of the intellectuals, academics, and publishers in the beginning until the technology became too big for even that. The era of web 3.0 came along where not only anyone could publish, people could interact with them instantly.
The Stranger by Albert Camus is one of the classic French novels that many categorize as a blatant defense of existentialism. Novel’s hero is an Algerian French. Islamic Spain was long ago in history and French morals were imposed on the new colonized Algeria. Along with that, it brought the indifference and apathy that is part of European social fiber.
The story begins with the news of the demise of hero’s mother in another province. Man doesn’t show reactions to the calamity as if it was just another cadaver wrapped in coffin put into the casket. He smokes and drinks coffee and sits in front of it the whole night denying the offer to see the face.
The story goes onto to explain his coming back to work and starting an illicit relationship with a former colleague to mistakenly killing someone and denying the appeal. Finally, he denies the cleric’s plea to convert to Christianity in utter contentment with his destiny, death sentence in this case. Meursalt, the hero is portrayed as hardened, cold character for whom the progression of life comes so natural that peer pressure or public reaction seem to be of comical and childish impulse.
For him, this comes as a huge surprise that people would find his personal life and reactions so immensely aggravating that they would make a point by letting him know. His consistent inability to understand how people around him live seems to be very relevant today when one compares it with the occidental societies and literature. Gloom and doom seem to be an acceptable way of life and when it does talk about happiness, it is always bacchanalia of sin and avarice.
This complacency or apathy by any standards of literary style or decency has no precedent in Islamic literature or even eastern heritage. Ironically this has made its way into Le Monde’s top 10 0books. Jean Paul Sartre’s last-minute explanation of the book made it stand out from the rest, perhaps in his self-glorifying attempt of finding an ally for existentialism. Book has since been translated into many languages.
Eulogizing the worst of the society as erudite scholars and intelligentsia is just one of the ways web 3.0 has brought havoc on moral values and religious injunctions. To the point where Sartre himself in his book Existentialism and Humanism had to talk about so-called intellectuals who could rant nonsense in the name of existentialism. Pandora box was wide open, too late to close and French society too corrupt to fix.
One by one they buttered all demented writers the likes of which we have never seen. Some of the most obnoxious include Foucault and Flaubert etc. It is through them vile movements like feminism, heterosexuality, pornography and pedophilia became the norm in a society already heading south. This smearing of lipstick over stinking dead pig has now brought these very people to their own destruction. Le Pen is going neck to neck with other moderate candidates and if she gets elected, time of King Louis isn’t far again. Muslims would be new Jews.
The ability to feel, acknowledge and think is what characterize a human soul. Having a purpose and goals in life make human journey different from animals whose routine lives don’t follow the vicissitudes we humans go through. Pseudo-scholars and phony clerics make the ends of the societal spectrum a suffocating sandwich to live in for people who seek the truth. Navigating these waters without a mentor is bound to fail. Luckily one of the noblest traits of our faith is hope. The quest for truth with sincerity always brings people to other people who have successfully navigated the same dark forests.
The gems aren’t too rare to find. Prophet SA’s hadith should be enough for all of us wayward, looking for solace and peace.
The Prophet (peace be upon him) was reportedly asked: “Which of our companions are best?” He replied: “One whose appearance reminds you of God, and whose speech increases you in knowledge, and whose actions remind you of the hereafter.”
The Pied Piper of the Dreams
It is often said the most learned and wisest of the people are like stars that on the sky from which many seek guidance in the wilderness and dark thus becoming the saviors for the wayward. Much comes on the path of knowledge and its perseverance, effort, and blessings of Allah that makes a man source of hope and knowledge for others. What can be done when this very light becomes the torch for the abodes?
Prophet SAWS foretold the state of such chameleons for people like us to save us from the calamities of wisdom that was meant to be the solace for the souls. Recently a British turncoat imam with the name of Hafiz Ahmed urged Muslims in the UK to join the British army and fight against their own faith group. This by no chance is a coincidence anymore. Traitors with the turbans and beards are breeding like maggots. It has been a consensus for centuries that anyone fighting with non-Muslim troops against Muslims is not a Muslim in any degree.
It is these times when this hadith sounds most pertinent.
“Such a time will come to people that only the name of Islam and the image of the Quran will remain. Mosques will be prosperous on the outside but will have no salvation in them. Their scholars will be the evilest under the sky. Corruption emerged from them and will return to them.” (Al Bayhaqi).
“Wolves will give readings in the end of time. Let those who come to those times seek shelter from their evil in Allah. They will be very corrupt people. Hypocrisy will prevail, and nobody will be ashamed of it and it’s manifestations.”(Tirmidhi)
The tragedy is the state of the countries that have a Muslim majority in it. Mostly under dictatorship and in some instances under pseudo democracy the abject and heart-shattering situation of healthcare, education, and religiosity is appalling. Religion is being used for nothing but self-glorification, justice is being served to protect the felons and the most wretched has risen to the top echelons of the state.
Quran narrates the tale of Pharoah how he walked through the red sea and lead his nation to ruin and destruction for the life and the hereafter. For some reason, the simile isn’t irrelevant today.
It was known originally with its German name Rattenfänger von Hameln. The story from the middle ages of a man with special powers. He helped people until they did him wrong and he would finally avenge it with the brutality that most would remember and tell the tales about it. People in the English-speaking world now know the story as The Pied Piper.
Our leaders are a mirror of our depraved selves and state of our corrupt hearts. They are the very ugly self that reflects itself. These Pied Pipers are our own creations when we wrong them by teaching them as children that inexorable killing, corruption, indulgence, lying and cheating is not only okay but somewhat applauded. That riches is the end for which all means are legal. Have they not sat on the same benches in the same schools where we went? Do they not song speak the same language, breath the same air, bask in the same sun and buried in the same soil as we do? Yet our blood is on their hands.
Hamelin might be an old town in lower Saxony that existed or not, yet Allah the living, has his laws etched in the stone. No matter where we live, this karma will watch us. If the parables in the Quran aren’t enough, we’re not better than rats that followed the pied piper into extinction.
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