Reminder:
Dr. Asghar
Ali Engineer
speaks at the Indo-American Center
at
Devon/California today at 1 PM.
Here is the transcription of
the India Post article on the coverage of
Dr.Asghar Ali Engineer's event in the Bay
Area [manually typed in by me from
the print
copy]:
Jan 30 2004
(On the
front page, on the top right corner, there is a small passport size
photo of
Dr.AAE, below which is written )
"Muslim
Council urges NRIs ro defeat BJP"
(Then on
page 38 is the story:)
IMC urges
NRIs to contribute liberally to defeat BJP
Jagdish Seth
India Post News Service
SANTA
CLARA, CA: The ruling Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) has done a great
damage to
the composite and pluralistic culture of India. The BJP is
systematically
eroding the secular fabric of India. The need of the hour
is
unity among
the 'secular' forces of India against hegemony of National
Democratic Alliance led by the BJP. And
to achieve this, NRIs can play a vital
role by
funding the opposition parties of India.
This was the
underlying theme of the seminar organized by the Indian Muslim
Council -USA (IMC-USA) at Santa
Clara Marriott saturday last on 'Secularism and
Democracy in
India: Challenges Ahead' and 'Minorities as Other: Social
violence
and
Hindutva'.
The tone of
the speeches was quite different from the meeting held here last
year which
was marked by vituperative tenor against the role of the Gujarat
government
in quelling the riots in which 1,000 muslims were reported to have
been killed
and thousands were rendered homeless.
Dr.Asghar Ali Engineer, an eminent scholar-activist,
a reputed author, a
humanist,
and winner of numerous awards took pains to dispel the misconception
that
majority of Muslims in India believed in the two-nation
theory that
culminated
in the partition of India in 1947. Tracing history
right from the
formation of
Indian National Congress in 1855, he cited the examples of Muslims
who fought
for the freedom of India. He agreed that the
establishment of
Pakistan was a negation of
secular philosophy of India. He criticized the
zamindars
and jagirdars among the muslims who were responsible for the
dismemberment
of India. It was merely five percent
population of Muslims
comprising
of the landed aristocracy, government officials, army personnel etc
that sided
with the colonial British government. They had no love for Islam,
said
Engineer.
He reminded
the audience of the great contribution made by Islam in various
fields
notably arts, music and architecture. Barring the Communist Party of
India, no other political
party speaks of the rich composite culture of India.
He
vehemently opposed making unifirm civil code applicable to the Muslims in
India. He, however, took
the Muslim leadership to task for opposing the Supreme
Court ruling
in the Shah Bano case and neglecting social uplift of the masses
and empowerment
of women in the community.
Branding the
BJP and the Sangh Parivar responsible for present negation and
devaluation
of secularism in India, Engineer blamed the BJP
administration for
twisting the
history now being taught in India. He named the BJP as
the party
of Banias,
mainly consisting of the middle class which believes in capitalism
and
globalization. He cautioned the audience of the various faces of the Sangh
Parivar in
the form of Bajrang Dal, VHP, Durga Vahini etc. Their basic
philosophy
of fundamental hinduism is the same. He reminded the audience of the
strength of
the Parivar that runs 32,000 schools throoughout the country. Its
their
large-scale surge in the adivasis areas of Rajasthan, Jharkhand and
Chattisgarh
that helped formation of BJP governments in those states.
The BJP has
financial resources that can last for 50 years. Its therefore
incumbent on
the Indian American community to come forward and help the secular
forces to
defeat the BJP. The funds collected by the various outfits of the
Parivar in
the name of spreading literacy are used to meet their political
ends, said
Dr.Engineer. He appealed to them to apprise the various companies in
the US of their sinister
designs so as to stop them from helping these
organizations.
Dr.Angana Chatterji, a
professor at the California Institute of Integral
Studies
appraised the audience of her experiences in Orissa where the Sangh
Parivar is
systematically imposing the Bramhinical social order on the
minorities
and dalits in the garb of unity. A sense of fear is visibly
prevaliing
among the minorities, she said.
<END>
