It is not without reason that Karnataka has come to symbolize the new India in the information and knowledge era. One just has to browse the mushrooming sources of online news from the second tier of urban centers of Karnataka to appreciate how the information revolution is touching the heartland.
Offstumped has been routinely reviewing 3 news sources one from Mangalore and 2 from Bhatkal to find a high degree of local news being reported online. Sahil and Bhatkallys from Bhatkal are unique in the sense that they are english language sites setup by Muslim organisations.
Sahil had this story yesterday on a rally in Mangalore in support of Madrassas. The reporting on this rally leaves no one in doubt on its political objectives.
A protest rally against the demand of Sangh parivar’s communal outfit for locking-up of Madrasas and Rally against terrorism and communalism was organized here in Mangalore by the Muslim Central Committee from the Central Jama Masjid of Mangalore to the Deputy Commissioner’s office yesterday in Mangalore.
It is interesting to note how the issue has been framed “demand of sangh parivar for locking up madrasas”. No mention is made of who made this demand of whom and when. But no such niceties for this rally.
Presiding over the function, Mr. KM Mohammed Maswood, the president of the Central Muslim Committee, said that the BJP leaders are violating constitution of India by demanding the lock up of Madrasa. Their attitude was against the constitution of the country.
One can see from the reporting on this rally the power of the information age to misinform and indoctrinate. It would be interesting to know if the Congress and the JD-S had anything to do with this rally.
Offstumped Bottomline: As Karnataka heads for the?polls, the recent arrests in Bangalore and Indore are bound to result in radical Islamic Terrorism and the SIMI factor becoming poll issues. Ideally there should be no room for partisan politics on these issues with the only point of debate being the approach to deal with them. Rallies of this kind that deliberately seek to mobilise the Muslim community on the basis of false issues will?inject partisanship into the political debate and end up hurting the Muslim community to its detriment.
Filed under: Karnataka Polls 2008
[...] Offstumped Bottomline: As Karnataka heads for the polls, the recent arrests in Bangalore and Indore are bound to result in radical Islamic Terrorism and the SIMI factor becoming poll issues. Ideally there should be no room for partisan politics on these issues with the only point of debate being the approach to deal with them. Rallies of this kind that deliberately seek to mobilise the Muslim community on the basis of false issues will inject partisanship into the political debate and end up hurting the Muslim community to its detriment. [...]
Madarsas should be used to enlighten ones mind….but off late these are used as outlets by jihadi ultras in spreading there tentacles….
Every Muslim and Hindu should get these so called madarsas closed…..
Maybe madarsas can be converted into sunday schools, where children are taught normal education weekdays, and then on the weekends get their dose of relegion. This is standard practice for Indians of all relegions in Western countries to ensure their children hang on to their eastern heritage.
Even poor muslims should realize that there are only so many maulvi jobs to be filled, which is the only thing one is qualified for after graduating from a madarsa.
This system would be better then rot learning of the Quran, which is bound to produce radicalized muslims. It’s not the perfect solution, and would need stringent enforcement, but it’s worth an idea considering.
[...] the rest of this great post here Author: Time: Friday, April 4th, 2008 at 7:24 am Category: karnataka Comments: You can [...]
Basically education ,agriculture are state subjects.but political unstability with opportunizam is so common now that all states are now without Planning and consistent continuity.Leaders turn by turn are in power without accountability.Power is enjoyed by any mean and who is ruling is not known. govts come and go with money only.Same at centre.till 1991,we had consistent planning and with Public sectors 20 indian Large Houses grew 50 times since independance . but now be it agriculture or indian enterprenurs,one generation is killed without Govt. Support.Instesd of enjoying global markets,we are loosing local markets too.
What we saw in karnataka and the same will be repeted as indian leaders knowin intalligent Indian voters are not ready to follw rajdharma and bad governance has become good politics now.
Bhatkal is one the areas thro’ which arms and ammunition for Mumbai blasts came to India. Its a known jehadi nerve center. Even a Congress MLA was killed brutally here in early 1990s.
Many BJP leaders have been killed in these areas in last 10-15 years.
There are many intelligence report that these areas are being used by Jehadis to smuggle arms, ammunition.
After 6 by 6 in uttar Pradesh with jumbo 100 ministers cabinet of Mayawati and BJP,it was 20 by 20 in karnataka and in both cases it did not last.Same in Maharashtra. NCP seperated from congress on foreigner issue but joined hands with congress back desperately at centre too and now again on way to be out.And surpluse states,key states like U. P. and Maharashtra now are in debt traps and heavily weaponised too.
On such backgrounds who is with whom is not known. overt and covert alliances and opportunistic cross voting and free for all post polls is not interest of any states and regimes come and go with money but states HRD,Law and order and progress is badly affected. This is serious problem for unity and integrity of country too as several are pushing states in several directions and not in forward direction is real mockary of state governance now.
Indian voters are intelligent but they too are now confused is not good sign for democracy.
Hi,
I found this other website reporting on a press conf by one of the chief guests in this rally, called K S M Masood who was the former head of Minorities Commission in Karnataka (http://mangalorean.com/news.php?newstype=local&newsid=72696)
That report says:
“Mr. Masood said the allegations were lies and inflammatory and has been uttered with an intention of dividing Hindus and Muslims into hostile groups. He said former BJP MLAs Sunil Kumar and C.T. Ravi who were fundamentalists had made these caustic remarks against Islam and its shrines”
I couldn’t find those remarks in any online English site though. I doubt he’d lie to that extent? If it’s true those BJP MLA’s deserve to be condemned strongly. It doesn’t really matter if Congress is behind this rally or not. In any case, it’s a political issue..so
I did a Google search for “mangalore bjp sunil kumar” and came cross this report by Deccan Herald News Service (http://www.mangalorean.com/news.php?newsid=67212&newstype=local) datelined Feb 14.
A rally was organised by the BJP Yuva Morcha and a demand was made to ban “Karnataka Forum for Dignity” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karnataka_Forum_for_Dignity), some “socio-cultural organization” for minorites and downtrodden. The BJP ex-MLA said it has close connections with SIMI and supports terrorism. I imagine the rally in support of Madrassas might have been in response to this?
Pramod – more on KFD’s SIMI links
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:TSXhTEKZ5LoJ:www.hindu.com/2008/02/07/stories/2008020754420500.htm+Karnataka+Forum+for+Dignity&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=19&gl=us
Not directly related but a different protest by KFD
http://www.hindu.com/2008/04/07/stories/2008040758240300.htm
more back and forth between KFD and the BJP
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:VS8GogutjzgJ:mangalorean.com/news.php%3Fnewsid%3D68083%26newstype%3Dlocal+Karnataka+Forum+for+Dignity&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=28&gl=us
[...] reasons. It has ignored the mobilization of muslim vote bank on the phony issue of Madrassas that Offstumped highlighted on 4th April 2008. The CNN-IBN article also makes no mention of the repudiation of Muslim vote bank politics by a [...]
[...] reasons. It has ignored the mobilization of muslim vote bank on the phony issue of Madrassas that Offstumped highlighted on 4th April 2008. The CNN-IBN article also makes no mention of the repudiation of Muslim vote bank politics by a [...]