Articles

By Bushra Alvi Razzack for Twocircles.net Delhi: Dilliwalas can never get enough of Urdu poetry. In spite of inclement weather, Urdu lovers converged in...

By फ़हमिना हुसैन, TwoCircles.net दिल्ली: कभी रिक़्शे के तीन पहियों के सहारे 45 वर्षीय रहमत अली के परिवार की क़िस्मत घूमती आ रही थी, लेकिन...

By Claude Arpi, IANS,

By Firoz Bakht Ahmed, IANS With so many voices stating that the religion advocates violence, Islam is today under the scanner. Not all of them can be wrong -- people judge by what they see and today these terrorists speak and act violently in the name of Islam.

By Firoz Bakht Ahmed, IANS, The way to hell, we are told, is paved with good intentions. The Ranganath Mishra Commission report, tabled in the winter session of parliament, recommends 15 percent reservation for all minorities in government jobs, education and welfare schemes, of which 10 percent quota is for Muslims - the largest minority in the country.

By Anayat Ali Shah, Fitoor, released on February 12, an Indian adoption of Dickens’ novel Great Expectations, set amidst in the disputed territory of Kashmir....

By Kashif-ul-Huda, TwoCircles.net Recent terror strikes in Bangalore and Ahmedabad point to the fact that these anti-terrorism conferences, fatwas and community efforts are not working. One reason could be that a vast majority of Muslims of India are not convinced that the terrorists could be one of them. It is not a denial by Indian Muslim's but a failure on the part of the investigating agencies to produce a convincing proof of who is behind these terror acts. The emails sent by the group calling itself “Indian Mujahideen” is our only way to guess who can be behind these attacks.

Kolkata : Describing the CPI-M as a "revolutionary party with a mass line", its general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Saturday said the five-day party...

By Firoz Bakht Ahmed,

By Vatsal Srivastava, Militant insurgency and violence in Iraq have put the brakes on the great Indian rally. Investors are weighing in the potential impact of higher energy prices as the possibility of a supply disruption from the world's sixth biggest oil exporter is priced in global oil benchmarks. Both WTI crude and Brent crude are trading at 10 month highs with the spread between these two benchmarks having widened to $7 per barrel. India is the world's fourth largest importer of oil and imports nearly 75 percent of its demand.

By Mohammad Yousuf Naqash

Armed offensive conflict is not the answer to the problems confronting the world. Islamic principles show us the right path in this regard. As a matter of fact, Islam totally rejects extremism in whatsoever form and manifestation. We need to make a difference and draw a clear line between right and wrong and choose between the Islamic and the non-Islamic. Masked faces with double standards within our community have to be identified, exposed and isolated so as to help stop misinterpretation and misrepresentation of Islam.

By Nadim Nikhat,

By Kul Bhushan, IANS Highly educated and rich, non-resident Indians in the United States are waking up to their clout - and also their flaws. When Indian Americans donate millions of dollars at the presidential hopefuls' fund-raising events, they also think about the returns on their 'investment'. Do they have adequate influence in the American establishment in line with their contributions?

By Amulya Ganguli, IANS

There was yet another twist to the Nandigram affair when a Muslim organisation engaged in running battles with Kolkata police over demands relating to the recent events in Nandigram also called for the expulsion of Taslima Nasreen from India.

This was the first time that the 'attack' by cadres of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) on opposition strongholds in Nandigram was mixed up with the stay of the controversial Bangladeshi writer in India.

By Kulsum Mustafa, TwoCircles.net From making cartoons for some of the leading newspapers in the country to pioneering the concept of introducing political cartoons in electronic media India, to being sentenced to four months imprisonment for making a cartoon on former Chief Justice of India in 2007, life has been both sugar and spice. Irfan has only grown with each episode, his pencil strokes acquiring more depth, more maturity, his wit getting sharper and his serious messages packed with humor getting conveyed with élan to the masses.

By Amulya Ganguli, The imprecations directed at Rahul Gandhi - "joker" - and at his advisers - "rootless wonders and spineless creepers" - by sections of Congressmen and the recent signs of organizational disarray in several states suggest that it is still a far cry for the Congress where recovery is concerned.

By TCN Staff Writer,

By Faisal Thakur, How many times do you come across a group of young, dynamic individuals driven by a dream, noble but yet so radical that you wonder with awe at the sheer effort that may be required to achieve it? Seldom.. But that’s precisely what we came across in a small room in Khar (Mumbai) where we met Mr. Javed Syed, who many know as an entrepreneur running a Graphics and Printing Business in Khar. However very few people know that he is also the Finance Secretary of the Association of Muslim Professionals (AMP) - an organization of socially and intellectually progressive Muslims. Mr Syed said “This room, right here has been the hub of all our administrative and promotional activities since the past 7 years. This is where most of the brainstorming happens whether it is for starting a new project or upgrading the existing ones. It all happens right here….”. Many will be deceived by this humble place in the midst of a busy suburb, however when you are introduced to AMP’s body of work that’s when you are truly surprised and intimidated.

By Arshad Shaikh, The noose of the global financial crisis has slowly begun to throttle the economies of the world with disastrous consequences. The American economy which is at the epicenter of the crisis is failing rapidly, necessitating comparisons with the Great Depression of 1929.

Reviewed by M Naushad Ansari, Book: End of Casteism Author: T.M. Mani (Now T.M. Umar Farooq) Translation from Tamil: M. Ghulam Muhammad Pages: 140 Price: Rs. 50.00

By Asghar Ali Engineer

By N.R. Madhava Menon, IANS, How does one characterise the predicament of the country today with terrorist attacks continuing unremittingly? There has been no proper response that is capable of instilling some sense of fear in terrorists and a degree of security for the people. The nation seems unable to act decisively to control the menace on the ground that the constitution would not allow the centre to take on issues relating to law and order or that a stricter law may be misused by state governments.

By Amit Kapoor, Over the past few years, we have been particularly interested in studying India’s competitiveness. This is because understanding it can yield interesting insights about the country's future trajectory. The productivity with which India has and how it will utilize its resources will ultimately be a determinant of the prosperity level of its people.

By IANS, Beijing: Reform will be "high on the agenda of the new leadership", said an expert as the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) entered its third day Saturday.

By Imran Khan , Purnea (Bihar): It's true. People of this Pakistan want Narendra Modi to become prime minister of India. More than 250 residents,...

By Manish Chand, IANS

Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen has willy-nilly turned into an itinerant minstrel, hounded by commissars and fanatics alike, intoning her outcast song of angst against the lies of religion and the state. Kolkata, the famously liberal cosmopolitan city hospitable to the muse and its patrons, looked on as the apparatchiks decided to send the beleaguered writer to Rajasthan after violent protests by Muslim fundamentalists.

By Shafeeq Mahajir for TwoCircles.net, Today’s newspapers carried two stories. Five under-trial prisoners, handcuffed, are transiting under guard with armed police. Arms carried are INSAS rifles and AK-47 assault rifles. The police van carrying them stops because one of them wants to relieve himself. The group, all five under-trial prisoners, handcuffed, is at the end of their “terrorism” trial, and the expectation the families of the under-trial prisoners have is that they would be acquitted. The man gets down, urinates and returning to the van, “snatches” an AK-47 assault rifle from a policeman and fires twice at an officer in the front seat. The policeman whose weapon is snatched does nothing to snatch it back? The officer however, though in the front seat with his back towards the events unfolding at the rear, is alert, and ducks, evading the two bullets, and saves himself. Good man.

By Maulana Waris Mazhari, (Translated by Yoginder Sikand)

By Paul Scham,

By Arun Kumar, IANS,

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat, India is passing through one of the most crucial phases of its political life. As the exercise of the 'democracy' begins the future of the country would also be locked and will be opened on May 16th only. It is important to understand the dangers of what has happened so far. The results will be out in a month but it is for the first time in our history that 'someone' has already 'declared' himself as the prime minister of the country. Things are not simple. Today, the 'man' is already declared as the 'most powerful' person of the country and every other questioning him has been made as person against 'development' and pseudo secular. It is not easy for a person who is main accuse for instigating violence against Muslims in Gujarat and kept conspicuously silent when people were crying for help such as fellow politician Ehsaan Jafari who was burnt to death by the barbaric anarchists mob which was allowed to do things at their whims by the state administration and who was admonished by his own prime minister, to be 'anointed' as a 'national icon'. Witness the systematic campaign, rumors, fudging of data and then controlling the entire communication through a fictitious army of 'devotees' on social media and enforce 'curfew' in the news rooms which is worse than what Doordarshan and Aakashwani did in 1975. Today the role being played by embedded media is perhaps much disturbing and scornful to opponents and dissenting view point. If one has to see the replica of dirty tricks that Sanjay Gandhi played during emergency, these elections and the campaign management by the likes of Amit Shah are the best example.

By Shekhar Tiwari

India is in the thick of electing a new president and the time could not be more opportune to reflect on the qualities we must look for in the new leader even though the office is more symbolic than executive. It is disheartening to notice that the entire debate on the presidential election ends up focusing on the superfluous, the partisan and the non-essential.