By TwoCircles.net news desk,
The All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat (AIMMM), the umbrella body of Indian Muslim organizations, has appealed to Muslims to vote for strong secular candidates in their respective constituencies and shun candidates of parties which reject reservation for Muslims on the lines of Ranganath Mishra Commission or have communal and divisive agendas.
The AIMMM has advised Indian voters, especially Muslims, other minorities and all right-thinking people, to realise the importance of their votes and use this democratic power in order to bring in good and positive change.
While welcoming the emergence of some serious Muslim political parties, AIMMM has cautioned against the mushrooming of “Muslim” parties which will only split Muslim votes and harm the Muslim cause.
The Working Committee of AIMMM met here in New Delhi yesterday to deliberate on the coming Lok Sabha elections and other milli, national and international issues. The meeting chaired by AIMMM national president Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan was attended by the following members: Maulana Syed Jalaluddin Umari (President, Jamaat-e Islami Hind), Mr. Mohammad Jafar (Vice President, Jamaat-e Islami Hind), Mr. Amanullah Khan (General Secretary, AIMMM), Mr. Nusrat Ali (General Secretary, Jamaat-e Islami Hind), Mr. Hafiz Rashid Ahmad Chaudhry (Vice President, AIMMM), Mr. S.M.Y. Nadeem, Prof. Shakeel Ahmad, Hakim Syed Zillur Rahman, Dr. N. Rasul Siddiqui, Prof. Humayun Murad, Dr. Syed Farooq, Prof. S. M. Yahya, Ahmad Rasheed Shervani (General Secretary, AIMMM), Mrs. Nusrat Shervani, Dr. M. Farooq, and Dr. S.Q. R. Ilyas.
The meeting offered condolences to the millat and families of prominent leaders and friends of the community who passed away recently and prayed for their souls, especially the prominent Urdu poet Abul Mujahid Zahid, Haji Ajmal, businessman and philanthropist from Assam who established Ajmal Perfumes business (He was father of Badruddin Ajmal Qasmi, leader of AUDF), Ashfaq Husain Ansari, ex-MP, Habiba Kidwai, an active social, educational and political personality who ran a centre for boys at Matia Mahal in Delhi, Ghulam Muhammad Shah, former CM of Kashmir, Maulana Fuzail Ahmad Qasmi, General Secy., Markazi Jamiat Ulama-e Hind, Khan Abdul Wadood Khan, former MLC, UP.
The full text of the resolutions passed at the AIMMM Working Committee meeting is as follows:
GENERAL ELECTIONS: AIMMM discussed the forthcoming general elections and advised Indian voters, especially Muslims, other minorities and all right-thinking people, to realise the importance of their votes and use this democratic power in order to bring in good and positive change. Muslim voters should vote for strong secular candidates in their respective constituencies and should shun candidates of parties which reject reservation for Muslims on the lines of Mishra Commission or have communal and divisive agendas. While welcoming the emergence of some serious Muslim political parties, AIMMM cautioned against the mushrooming of “Muslim” parties which will only split Muslim votes and harm the Muslim cause.
NATIONAL MOVEMENT FOR MUSLIM RESERVATION: The AIMMM felicitates the Joint Committee of Muslim Organisations for Empowerment (JCMOE) on successfully holding the National Convention on Reservation on 1 February, 2009. While fully endorsing the Resolution adopted by Convention which launched the National Movement for Muslim Reservation, the AIMMM directs all its state units and members to associate actively and take a leading role in organizing the National Movement at every level. The AIMMM realises that the Muslim struggle for Reservation has only begun, that it should gather momentum in the General Elections, with the support of the political parties and their candidates to reservation for Muslims and the demand for the publication, acceptance and implementation of the Report of the Mishra Commission. The MMA calls upon the Muslim Community to persevere with determination till the goal is achieved. AIMMM also assures the backward Muslim communities that they will be the first beneficiaries of reservation for Muslims.
WAQFS: The illegal occupations, encroachments and embezzlement of waqf properties is a daily story. A Joint Parliamentary Committee on Waqf has been studying this problem and the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs is reported to have prepared a bill which will place waqf boards under the direct control of the Central government and encroachment of the waqf land would be made a criminal offence. It is the need of the hour that waqf properties are saved, utilised and developed for the purposes for which those properties were originally earmarked. Properties under the control of government departments should be released and returned to the waqf boards. Waqf properties should be exempted from the rent control act and genuine representatives drawn from well-known Islamic organisations and Islamic scholars must be included in the waqf boards on both central and state levels. If real and perceptible change is not seen in the near future, agitation should be started to reclaim all waqf properties so that the same are run by the Muslims of India.
GUJARAT POGROMS: AIMMM is relieved that as a result of the Supreme Court intervention there is some movement to punish the criminals behind the Gujarat pogrom of 2002 and offer some solace to the victims. Recently 228 more names have been added to the official list of the victims of the pogrom raising it to 1180 persons killed. AIMMM registers with pain that the Gujarat state chief minister is yet to drop a minister in his cabinet who has been found responsible for leading mobs and firing at innocent people during the 2002 carnage. AIMMM also registers its anguish that seven Arab and Muslim ambassadors participated in a recent Vibrant Gujarat programme of the Modi government. Such relations with the engineer of Gujarat riots must be avoided as he has shown no remorse and has made no attempts to make amends for his own and his government’s crimes.
TERRORISM: While AIMMM unreservedly condemns all acts of terrorism committed on the Indian soil, it notes that security agencies, especially the STFs and Special Cells, still operate with impunity arresting, rather kidnapping, Muslims youths and continuing harassment of Muslims in certain pockets like Azamgarh which started in the wake of the Batla House encounter of last September. AIMMM also notes that despite CBI’s clean chit, Moarif Qamar and Irshad Ali, both IB informers who were framed by the Delhi Police Special Cell as “terrorists”, continue to rot in jail. AIMMM notes that a positive change has been observed in the Union home ministry since the arrival of Mr Chidambram but the authorities have to work hard to win back the confidence of the Muslim community which has been shaken by the previous two incumbents of the home ministry. AIMMM also feels that both India and Pakistan should cooperate against a common enemy which is working to destablise South Asia.
Last January 21 Muslim youths were acquitted after spending a long time in prison. They were arrested in the aftermath of the Makkah Masjid blast. They have been paid meagre sums as “compensation”. AIMMM demands that all such Muslim youths incarcerated on mere suspicion should be set free forthwith and be paid adequately and rehabilitated. AIMMM also observes that despite the Congress Party’s specific commitment in its manifesto before the last general elections, it has introduced Pota Mark 3 under the guise of “UAPA” which will be a sure prescription for misuse against minorities and weaker sections as has been seen earlier in the cases of TADA and POTA. AIMMM registers its regret at the Delhi Lt Governor’s unfortunate decision against a magisterial enquiry into the Batla House encounter although a magisterial enquiry is mandatory according to NHRC guidelines regarding any killing by the police.
HINDU TERRORISM: AIMMM observes that the investigations into the Hindutva terrorists have slackened since the martyrdom of Maharashtra ATS chief Karkare. This calls for the immediate removal of the current ATS chief. AIMMM notes that there is no investigation whatsoever in the claim of one of the main accused that two RSS leaders have taken huge amounts of money from Pakistan’s ISI. Shiv Sena supremo, among others, has openly supported the alleged Hindu terrorists and offered them legal and monetary help. There is no action against Ram Sene’s chief, who is facing dozens of criminal cases and has been openly committing violence against members of the minority community and has said openly that if he was alive at the time, he would have killed both Gandhi and Nehru. AIMMM observes that Karnataka under BJP is being turned into another Gujarat. Hindu fascists have free reign to terrorise minorities yet the central government finds itself helpless to intervene or event to send a strong warning to the state government.
BLACK MONEY: Recently a sum of 2.5 crore rupees was stolen from the central office of the BJP in Delhi but the party preferred not to report the same to the police. Media has reported that Mr LK Advani’s personal campaign to become the next prime minister has a budget of Rs 250 crores and yet there is no enquiry into this serious matter and the source of this black money. Media has also reported that $ 1500 billion of Indian money is deposited in secret Swiss bank accounts belonging to corrupt politicians, industrialists, businessmen and bureaucrats. This has been known since 2006. While the American government has forced the Swiss banks to disclose the identities of its nationals stashing away huge sums in secret Swiss bank accounts, our government seems to be blissfully unaware of these developments. If the government is serious in its resolve to fight corruption and black money which is more serious than any other problem faced by our country. A serious attempt must be made to find out the individuals and who have smuggled out such large sums out of the country or acquired it abroad illegally.
VHP DEMANDS: AIMMM takes note of the demands of certain VHP leaders and Hindutva outfits that Muslim leaders must clearly condemn terrorism and clarify their stand if India is darul amn. While reiterating that Islam and Indian Muslims are totally against terrorism anywhere including India which is a darul amn where Muslims are bound to live in peace, AIMMM demands Hindu leaders to condemn Hindutva terrorism and disown people who are facing serious charges of terrorism. Unless and until Hindu leaders come clean on this issue they have no moral right to demand the same from others.
SHARIAH-COMPLIANT INVESTMENT SCHEMES: AIMMM welcomes the belated decision by SEBI to allow a Shariah-cocmpliant investment scheme and hopes that more such decisions will be taken in the near future in order to allow Indians, especially Muslims, to get genuine options for moral investments compatible with their beliefs. AIMMM would like to remind the government that it is yet to deliver on the promise of the prime minister to allow Islamic banks in India.
REHABILITATION OF MOSQUES IN PUNJAB: The Sikh community in Punjab has voluntarily returned a number of mosques to the Muslim community in recent years and this process continues. These mosques had gone into adverse occupation after Partition in 1947 in all parts of the undivided Punjab which included Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. One such mosque is under the occupation of the Dalai Lama administration in Dharamshala and is used as a passport office. While AIMMM appreciates the gesture of Sikh brothers, it hopes that others too will follow suit and soon all adversely occupied mosques will be returned to the Muslim community or to the state waqf boards.
GAZA AGGRESSION: AIMMM condemns in most strong terms the 22-day-long Israeli aggression against the impoverished, disarmed, blockaded and occupied Gaza Strip. The wanton destruction of lives and properties has raised voices all over the world for the trial of Israeli politicians and army war criminals responsible for the loss of life and wholesale destruction. AIMMM supports the demands the trial of the Israeli war criminals and imposition of reparations on Israel for the damages inflicted on Gaza Strip. This is the only way to stop any future repetition of such war crimes.
SUDAN: AIMMM has noted with alarm the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague against the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for alleged and unproven war crimes in Darfur. AIMMM notes that this unprecedented warrant against a head of a state represents a serious precedent which should be avoided for the sake of world peace and stability. AIMMM has failed to understand why the ICC has not yet issued arrest warrants against well-known war criminals like George Bush, Dick Cheney, Ronald Rumsfeld and Ehud Olmert.