Issues

  • Are Muslims mere pawns on political chessboard?

    By Sumit Paul
    Nov 16, 2013

    While browsing through several news portals on the Internet, I stopped at Rediff’s portal and chanced upon the sight of an old Muslim man with a caption “2014-This guy may hold the key to power” (November 2). This had me t...

  • Patna Blasts: Can IM be an ally of anti-Muslim forces?

    By Dr. Javed Jamil
    Nov 16, 2013

    In my article on the Patna blasts, written in the night of the disaster, I had written the following: “The Patna blasts raise several questions. Why did these low-intensity blasts coincide with the timing of Modi rally? Why even the n...

  • Casteism: Hinduism’s Ineradicable Legacy

    By Sumit Paul
    Nov 12, 2013

    The news in Indian Express “Converted to Buddhism for haircut and shave, says Gujarat villager” (IE, 21 October) is just shocking. Barbers in a village of Gujarat don’t shave or give a haircut to a Dalit because upper caste pe...

  • Why I want to watch ‘Shahid’?

    By Sumit Paul
    Nov 12, 2013

    Call me prejudiced, monomaniac, monolithic, even a liar and what not but let me tell you honestly that I’ve not seen any movie that hit the marquee after 1980! Neither did I hear any song after the demise of Muhammad Rafi in the same year...

  • Is “Allah” different to “God”?

    By Sumit Paul
    Nov 12, 2013

    In a landmark judgement, a Malaysian court on 14 October ruled that non-Muslims cannot use the  word ‘Allah’ to refer to God and prohibited a Christian newspaper from using it in the  Muslim-majority nation. Didn’t t...

  • Lord Desai, BJP & Congress: the Muslim Question

    By Dr. Javed Jamil
    Nov 12, 2013

    Lord Meghnad Desai, in his Sunday Indian Express article, “The Muslim Question” (http://m.indianexpress.com/news/the-muslim-question/1184879/), has discussed the Muslim part of the coming Lok Sabha elections. While he has admired my...

  • Let Justice Palok Basu convince VHP to abide by verdict

    By Syed Shahabuddin
    Oct 26, 2013

    Of late I have been reading articles by Mr. Manzar Mehdi Faizabadi on Justice Palok Basu’s efforts to settle the Babari Masjid-Ram Janambhoomi Dispute through discussions between the two communities in Ayodhya.  A formula has been de...

  • Knowledge vs. Wisdom

    By Sumit Paul
    Oct 26, 2013

    An enlightened master had three disciples. One was extremely wise and silent while the other two, though very learned, were quarrelsome and noisy. One day they began to fight over each one being superior to the other. The third disciple just di...

  • Measuring Love?

    By Sumit Paul
    Oct 26, 2013

    “Let love measure itself. You had better not try to quantify it................” Khaqani, the great Persian mystic. Here’s a heart-warming story from the Great Persian mystic Khaqani’s repertoire: A lover asked his b...

  • Why, Why, Why

    By Sumit Paul
    Oct 26, 2013

    Having read the blood-curdling accounts of mayhem and bloodshed during the recent riots in UP and when I read in a Bengali newspaper, how a 14-year-old Muslim boy saw his mother, father and sister getting sliced, I imagined what he may have tho...

  • Defeat Modi’s Corporate and Communal Agenda

    By Dr. Javed Jamil
    Oct 26, 2013

    Modi has at last been formally declared prime ministerial candidate for BJP. This has occurred at a time when over 50000 Muslims in Muzaffarnagar have been made refugees in their own district. I have heard stories of how Gujarat has been rehear...

  • Doubting Ram and Ramayana

    By Sumit Paul
    Sep 28, 2013

    This refers to ‘Hindu ‘saint’ offer to give Rs. 5 lakh to anyone who spits on Jethmalani’s face, no media outrage’ (MG, 16-31 December). Just because Ram Jethmalani called Ram ‘a bad husband’, there&rsq...

  • Modi: A Political Sorcerer

    By Sumit Paul
    Sep 28, 2013

    People (read unctuous and grovelling Hindus) of India seem to be blinded and bedazzled by Modi’s so-called charisma. Modi is a religiously polarised leader and if such a monomaniac person becomes the PM of India, the overall state of affa...

  • We’re violent & barbaric

    By Sumit Paul
    Sep 28, 2013

    Are we non-violent? No. Our ostensible non-violence is a hogwash. It’s indeed ironic that this country which gave apostles of peace like Gautam Buddha, Mahavir and Gandhi also witnessed blood-curdling acts of violence. The three Cs: Caste...

  • Politics of Religious Symbols

    Sep 28, 2013

    By Dr. Qutubuddin The 2014 general elections are inching closer. The election fever is slowly  gripping the country.  While political parties are on the lookout for support from every corner to achieve their goals, the time is al...

  • Paralysed Investigating Agencies

    Sep 12, 2013

    By Yasir Bin Taiyab yasirbintaiyab@yahoo.co.in Arushi & Hemraj murder mystery and the shoddy investigation report of elite investigating agency looks more like a Hindi film story. An ideal masala for a commercial film. On television ...

  • Asaram episode: aren’t we also equally responsible?

    Sep 12, 2013

    Choicest abuses and expletives are being heaped these days upon the self-proclaimed “godman” Asaram Bapu for (allegedly) raping a 16-year-old girl in Jodhpur. The man is now cooling his heels in judicial custody. But following this ...

  • Muslim faces of “secular” political parties

    Sep 12, 2013

    Reasons for keeping Muslim stooges When Emergency was clamped by the Indira regime in 1975, among politicians imprisoned were the leaders of the RSS and Jamaat-e-Islami (Hind). Many of them were put in the same jail. The Jamaatis, by their ...

  • Murder of Narendra Dabholkar: muzzling the voice of reason

    By Sumit Paul
    Aug 27, 2013

    The dastardly killing of the rationalist Narendra Dabholkar in Poona on August 20 has stunned all. A rationalist in the mould of Sri Lanka’s legendary Abraham Kovoor and the socialist M N Roy, Dabholkar was in the forefront of a campaign ...

  • Time to introspect about our community institutions

    By Salman Sultan
    Aug 27, 2013

    It is human nature to blame others for our shortcomings. It is not to state that we are perfect and are supposed not to err. We must, however, learn from our mistakes and try not to repeat them in future. Only great men can overcome pretensions...