Why 'secular' Narendra Modi bashers must be ignored

[noksss]

People attack Muslim houses at Sahapur in Ahmedabad in Gujarat state on February 28, 2002. (AFP)

r u from Popular Front Of India

 

[Poison]

We want Narendra Modi as our Prime Minister !!

 

[Swati Shukla]

New Page 3

The narmada canal runs through Kutch. And through this canal, after the earthquake, he rebuilt the entire district from being a desert to the most industrialzed district in India. Many people from all over India come to Kutch for employment..

first of all thanks for being on topic. and yeah, this man has great vision and great determination for his people. the day this canal is completed, gujrats rural economy would be changed completely.

 

[Swati Shukla]

We want Narendra Modi as our Prime Minister !!

we dont want him to be our pm, we desperately need him.

 

[metro]

we dont want him to be our pm, we desperately need him.

Yar i think this thread has passed its expiry date now. I think we should move on now.
Things are being repeated now.

 

[Ajaxpaul]

This is the place i used to live

10 yrs after quake: Kutch stages phoenix-like recovery - The Economic Times

 

[Ajaxpaul]

Kutch quake: blessing in disguise?
Earthquakes deeply affect social and economic development. So I was surprised when journalists and businessmen told me during a recent Gujarat visit that the Kutch earthquake of 2001 was a blessing in disguise. They claimed that the five-year exemption from excise duty and sales tax, announced by the Central and State governments for new industrial investments in Kutch commencing production by July 2003, had sparked massive industrialisation. This, they claimed, had yielded once-unimaginable gains in income and employment.

I was initially skeptical. But I heard so much anecdotal evidence that this thesis clearly merits major research. It suggests a totally new approach—tax breaks for new industries– to combat natural disasters.

The Kutch quake killed perhaps 15,000 people, injured 167,000, caused asset losses of $ 2.1 billion (of which half was housing), destroyed 12,000 schools and 2,000 health clinics, and left huge numbers homeless and unemployed. The Indian public donated massively for relief. Railway Minister Mamata Bannerjee donated six months’ salary. Global aid poured in, and allocations for relief and rehabilitation exceeded $ 1,800 million (of which foreign donors pledged $ 1,147, the government of India $ 146 million, and the state government $ 507 million). Seasoned NGOs like SEWA and Abhiyan moved in quickly.

The media gave much prominence to these conventional responses, but largely ignored the excise and sales tax breaks. The media viewed these as peripheral or irrelevant sops.

Several studies reviewed R&R (relief and rehabilitation) efforts in Kutch. These include studies of the Gujarat State Disaster Management Agency, Gujarat Institute of Development Research, and the World Bank. They depict several problems and flaws in the R&R response. A World Bank study (Beck and Bhatt, 2004) reviewing the first 18 months of R&R found many shortcomings. Affected people had reduced consumption, become indebted, and migrated for work. Rehabilitation and recovery of livelihoods was slow. Dissemination of relief information was weak, especially to the illiterate poor.

Criticism also came from industrial houses that wanted to rehabilitate towns. Reliance had pledged to rehabilitate Anjar, but later withdrew. It said that the state government vacillated and equivocated for so long on the action plan that the company lost interest.

A recent review by the World Bank (Hazards of Nature, Risks to Development, 2006) is much more positive about R&R. It says NGOs persuaded most villagers to opt for rebuilding on the spot instead of relocating (as in the 1993 Maharashtra quake). The Maharashtra rebuilding was government-driven but the Kutch project was owner-driven. House-owners did the rebuilding in accordance with quake-proof norms evolved after the Maharashtra quake by Prof. Anand Arya, National Seismic Advisor. The norms provided simple instructions on steel reinforcement that could be followed by villagers. Owner-driven construction provided better motivation and design flexibility than contractor construction after other quakes. The project failed to quickly rebuild market centres, which were critical for livelihoods. New markets arose spontaneously on the outskirts of towns like Bhuj.

Overall, the Bank rates the project a clear success. The project won the UN Sasakawa Award for Disaster Prevention, and was placed in a list of the 100 best projects by the United Nations Center for Human Settlements.

Strikingly, none of these reviews mentions the impact of tax breaks for Kutch. This reveals a major blind spot. That, anyway, is what local businessmen believe.

The state government initially claimed that the tax breaks could bring in Rs 25,000 crore ($ 5.5 billion) of investment. This was dismissed by the media as propagandist wishful thinking. Yet businessmen say today that fresh investment may indeed have crossed Rs 20,000 crore.

Out of the blue, Anjar has emerged as a global pipeline hub, with five big companies—Welspun Gujarat, Jindal Saw, PSL, Man Industries and Ratnamani– creating pipe capacity of 1.5 million tones/year, now being doubled. Cement plants are coming up, using Kutch’s plentiful limestone and lignite. Steel mills and plate mills are coming up, catering to the pipe industry. Welspun India has built one of the biggest export-oriented home furnishing factories in India. Adani Ports is building a huge Special Economic Zone at Mundra. Caveat: some of this would have come up even without tax breaks.

R&R has sparked a construction boom. Excellent roads have come up. Bhuj finally has a railway station. Mundra and Kandla ports have been linked by broad gauge rail to the Delhi-Mumbai line. The construction boom has brought in hordes of migrant workers, a sign of rising local wage rates. Shops, restaurants and service industries have come up to serve the new industries.

Arid Kutch has a low population and large landholdings. A family of six owning 50 acres can fall below the poverty line whenever the rains fail. But industries are now buying land frantically from peasants. Land prices have shot up from Rs 60,000/acre to Rs 30 lakh/acre in some cases. Once-impoverished sellers of land have become millionaires. Many have invested their new wealth in shops and other services.

Hence, say local businessmen and journalists, the quake have been a blessing in disguise. Kutch has become unimaginably prosperous.

Does this hold lessons for future natural disasters? Tax breaks will not always work: not all areas are primed for an industrial push, as Kutch was before the quake. Economists will tell you that area-specific tax breaks are a bad idea: they are temporary and unsustainable sops, they divert rather than create industry, and lose revenue for state governments that are already in financial straits. Yet Kutch suggests that tax breaks for a disaster-hit district can catalyse a virtuous cycle of investment and growth that is sustainable, that gains rather than loses revenue in the long run, and not only rehabilitates victims but raises them to new heights.

Has industrialisation transformed the whole of Kutch or just a few parts of it? We urgently need research on the full impact on incomes and assets. If this confirms that tax breaks have been a major form of R&R in Kutch, that lesson needs incorporation into future disaster planning.

These people will vote for Modi anytime anyplace

Kutch quake: blessing in disguise? « Swaminomics

 

[Ajaxpaul]

Kutch Goes Global

Kutch Goes Global | Travel Plan Information

 

[Swati Shukla]

This is the place i used to live

10 yrs after quake: Kutch stages phoenix-like recovery - The Economic Times

Wow, amazing.

 

[Swati Shukla]

Yar i think this thread has passed its expiry date now. I think we should move on now.
Things are being repeated now.

yeah, i think u r right metro.

 

[Mech]

An elderly Indian woman tries to balance a table on her head as she salvages belongings from her neighborhood in Ahmedabad, the main city in Gujarat, on March 2. 2002. REUTERS/Kamal Kishore

 

[KS]

For the pseudo-secular/reverse communalism Talibans out here :

On 'Secular' Fatwas​

Human rights activists are not shy about bringing their own prejudices to the table

Madhu Purnima Kishwar


The disdain with which leading lights of the anti-corruption movement – Mallika Sarabhai, Medha Patkar, Kavita Srivastava et al – are publicly threatening to dislodge Anna Hazare from the leadership role because he praised Narendra Modi’s rural development work in Gujarat indicates that the poor man was only being used as a convenient symbol that can be discarded as arbitrarily as he was chosen to lead the ‘movement’.
Human rights activists can retain their credibility only as long as they remain steadfastly non-partisan. To the person killed, it matters little whether the murderous mob was shouting ‘Lal Salaam’, ‘Har Har Mahadev’ or ‘National Unity’ as did the mobs that massacred over 10,000 Sikhs in north India following Indira Gandhi’s assassination. However, the secular brigade shows a consistent soft corner for those who kill under the Maoist or communist banner as well as those who verbally profess secularism.
Narendra Modi’s acts of commission and omission during the 2002 riots deserve the strongest of condemnations. Those crimes need to be impartially investigated and the guilty punished. Just as we are proud that our democratic system ensured a fair trial even for a publicly identified ISI-associated terrorist like Kasab, so also we should let the courts take the Gujarat trials to their logical conclusions.
Those who ask for Modi’s head would do well to remember that hordes of Congressmen in Gujarat gleefully joined the BJP and RSS goons who went around massacring innocent people.
The overall track record of the Congress in this matter is no better, if not much worse, than that of the BJP. In addition to the 1984 massacre of Sikhs in north India, it masterminded numerous other riots through the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. None of the killers of politically engineered riots in Meerut, Malliana, Bhiwandi, Bhagalpur, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Surat and scores of others were ever punished. The Congress also injected terrorism into Punjab by its covert support of Bhindranwale’s Khalistani brigades in order to wrest control of the SGPC that presides over wellendowed gurdwaras. It did incalculable harm to the Sri Lankan Tamils by creating a Frankenstein’s monster like the LTTE. The secessionist movement in Kashmir owes its origins and draws sustenance from the Congress party’s penchant for rigging elections to install puppet chief ministers.
And yet, even those of us who genuinely want to see the guilty among Congress leaders pay for their crimes do recognise that there is a lot more to this premier national party than a legacy of mayhem and massacres. There are times when the Congress party has actually lived up to the highest values of Indian democracy and some of our best contemporary politicians have emerged from the Congress fold.
Due to their ideological predilections and cosy relationship with the Congress high command, most of those attacking Hazare have a history of acting as the fighting arm of the Congress against Modi and the BJP. But to declare Hazare a political untouchable because he is not as ideologically committed to their brand of secularism is to display deadly arrogance. One earns the moral right to criticise only when one has the moral courage to acknowledge the positive aspects or good deeds of those we condemn for specific evil actions. One should be able to condemn Modi for his role in the 2002 massacre and point to his many other blind spots and lapses, without feeling the need to deny his positive role in Gujarat leading the country in many vital areas such as assured power supply to all villages, measures for bringing down the maternal mortality rate by providing financial and other support for safe deliveries to poor women, and a 9.8% growth rate in agriculture while the rest of the country remains stuck at 2-3% growth. It is one of the few states where farmers at large are not at war with industry, where delivery mechanisms for government services have improved dramatically.
The manner in which Maulana Ghulam Mohammad Vastanvi, the vice-chancellor of Darul Uloom of Deoband, was humiliated and asked to resign for stating that the development agenda of Modi is benefiting Muslims in equal measure shows that the ‘secular’ gang has acquired a vested interest in promoting a siege mentality among Muslims. The man they condemn as the ‘maut ka saudagar’ seems to have recognised the folly of promoting communal polarisation. He has not let another riot take place in Gujarat, a state which witnessed numerous caste and communal riots under Congress rule. In recent years, hundreds of Muslims have won municipal elections on BJP tickets. Democracy with its one-person, one-vote principle has tamed Narendra Modi. But those who don’t need to get endorsement for their political posturing from citizens on whose behalf they speak, are not amenable to such self-correcting mechanisms.
The task of cleansing our polity of crime and corruption is not a battle between demons and angels. It requires taking the entire spectrum of political opinion on board including those who support Maoists or vote for Modi. Such a task cannot be done by those who harbour blind prejudice, and partisan agendas. It is best done by people of compassion, and humility; people who remain fair and non-partisan even when dealing with those they hate.

The writer is professor, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi.

An excellent article in ToI highlighting what every one feels about this self-declared secular Human rights brigade that in the words of the author."has acquired a vested interest in promoting a siege mentality among Muslims". Hits the nail smack on the forehead.

 

[KS]

http://www.gujaratplus.com/riots_gal/childbig.jpg
[IMG]http://www.gujaratplus.com/riots_gal/riots8.jpe

Birdie, along with 750 Muslims 310 Hindus were also killed by Muslim mobs -- so its anybody's guess if this old lady/crowd/child are Hindus fleeing from Muslim mobs

Not that either of them are justified. But refrain from posting propaganda/unsubstantiated pictures here. Any facts you have - lets talk..

 

[KS]

The Pioneer :: Home : >> Prime witness was coerced in Best Bakery Case

The prime witness in the Best Bakery case was “manipulated” and “coerced” to give false evidence before the trial court in Mumbai. This startling disclosure has emerged from an affidavit sent to the Chief Justice of Bombay High Court on June 17, 2010 by Sheikh Yasmeen Banu, whose father-in-law Habibulla owned the ill-fated Best Bakery. Yasmeen’s husband Nafitulla was injured when rioters set Best Bakery ablaze. Nafitulla later died due to illness. In all, 14 persons were killed in the blaze.

In her affidavit dated June 17, 2010, Yasmeen, whose eyewitness account of the carnage played a crucial role in the conviction of the alleged accused persons stated that her deposition before the trial court was made under duress and she regretted that the innocent persons have been convicted on the basis of her testimony. She has implicated social activist Teesta Setalvad for her “fabricated deposition.”

Yasmeen stated that after the carnage she went to her parents’ home at Chhotaudepur along with her maternal uncle. After sometime, she went to Baroda along with her daughter and mother and started living in Best Bakery house after getting it repaired.

That is when Yasmeen was approached by Setalvad’s trusted right-hand man Rais Khan. Incidentally, Khan has separately accused Setalvad of fabricating the affidavits of the riot witnesses.

Yasmeen stated that one day, Rais Khan, who is associated with Teesta Setalvad, visited her along with local Muslim leaders and said that there was a danger to her (Yasmeen) life here and she must come to Mumbai where Best Bakery case was contested. “Rais Khan connected me to Teesta Setalvad from his cell phone. Teesta Setalvad also persuaded me to come to Mumbai along with him and promised me to help from every point of view,” Yasmeen said.

Yasmeen said she and her mother were forced and threatened, even assured by Rais Khan that he and Teesta Setalvad will fulfill all her needs throughout her life.

“After getting assurances from Muslim leaders, Rais Khan and Teesta Setalvad, I along with mother and my daughter left for Mumbai with Rais Khan by locking my house and leaving all the household articles there, which I brought from my widow mother’s house from Chhotaudepur.”

In Mumbai, Yasmeen was kept at Ashok Guest House in Bazaar for one month. Yasmeen said Rais Khan daily took her to Setalvad’s house at Nirant Bungalow, Juhu Tara Road, Santacruz (West), Mumbai, which is her office also. “Teesta Setalvad used to explain to me about the case there. From there she used to take me to the office of Public Prosecutor Manjula Rao and thereafter she used to drop me at the guest house,” she points out.

She further added that during this period, she was paid by Teesta through her staff Dhyansingh and Pradip. Yasmeen was kept for 11 months in Room No. 102, at Mariam Apartment, Ismile Katre Road, Bazaar.

Indicating that all the witnesses were kept under Setalvad’s supervision, Yasmeen said when she was shifted there, the same day other witnesses of the Best Bakery case, namely Taufel, Rais, Shezad, Selon, Ashraf, Shahjahan, Zahira Sheikh and her grandmother also came to stay there.

“Rais Khan and Teesta Setalvad kept strict observation on the flat in which we were residing, we were not able to go out and no one was allowed to meet us. Neither were we having mobile nor were we allowed to talk to anybody, even if we requested. We were not permitted to open the window of the room. Dhyansingh or sometimes Pradip, working in the office of Teesta Setalvad, used to stay for 24 hours there. They used to fulfill our requirements as well as keeping watch on us,” Yasmeen states and adds whosoever was called for deposition in the court used to leave the house and did not return.

Yasmeen said the witnesses were kept in a Government guest house during the period of deposition. “They used to get mobile phone from Teesta’s men in which outgoing calls were barred. Teesta used to explain on mobile on what they have to depose,” she said.

She revealed that Public Prosecutor Manjula Rao where Teesta Setalvad used to be present “everybody was tutored what to speak against whom in the court.”

Claiming that the depositions, which she gave against the persons, on the advice of these people, were unknown to her, Yasmeen said Teesta, Manjula Rao and Rais Khan used to take the witnesses to show their (accused) photographs to her on computers to identify them.

“She took my signatures on a few papers about which she (Yasmeen) had no knowledge,” Yasmeen said, adding that Rais Khan and Teesta Setalvad visited them till the trial continued and assured them that they will fulfill all commitments made to them after the completion of the deposition. Yasmeen was sent to Ahmedabad after the trial and was kept in a house for four months in Shaper Mill Compound.

“I was removed from the house the very next day of the pronouncement of judgement. I came to know that in the name of Best Bakery Case and for arranging deposition of persons like us, Teesta has collected lakhs of rupees and nothing was given to us,” she said.

With nowhere to go, Yasmeen returned to her uncle’s house. The Best Bakery was now out of her reach because her husband’s second wife lived there. After her maternal uncle refused to support her, some people took pity and contributed money to buy her a hut. Her misery did not end. She re-married, got pregnant and was then dumped by her husband. Yasmeen now lives with her mother and two children.

Accusing Rais Khan and Teesta Setalvad of cheating her, Yasmeen said, “By giving false deposition in this case, I have not only lost my ancestral property Best Bakery, which was in my possession and where I started leaving and earning my livelihood, but also on the basis of false assurances, so many innocent persons got convicted. Because of this, I am feeling guilty and probably due to this reason I am leading poor and sorrowful life. I always repent why I did the wrong thing on the advice of a person like Teesta.”

She added that since the judgement of the Best Bakery Case has been delivered on the basis of false testimonies, due to this reason her affidavit be treated as a petition, and the case be re-heard so that now no poor person can be bribed and misled by such people and no innocent person is wrongly punished and “the persons like Teesta Setalvad and Rais Khan be tried as per law, who by misleading and bribing poor, weak and unsupported persons like us, are managing false testimonies.”

Yasmeen sent this affidavit by post in June’2010 not only to the Chief Justice of Bombay High Court, but to Chief Justice of India, Chairman NHRC and Director General of Police, Gujarat. But, despite passing of 10 months no action has been taken against Teesta Setalvad and Rais Khan.

 

[Swati Shukla]

Wow, a really nice article. its great that educated people have started realising the importance of this man. its good that they can see beyond the lies of some sickulars, its good that people have started to appericiate and acknoledge his work. india needs namo.