JK PANORAMA VOL 4 ISSUE 5 MAY

Verdict
?
is out

02 May 2019

05
VOL 4 ISSUE 5 MAY 2019
06
Verdict is out
17
Why Rahul Gandhi Failed?
08 How Hinduism Became
a Political Weapon in India
18
Who was Zakir Musa?
11
Pak downplays Imran Khan
not being invited for Modi's inauguration
19
Rape of Minor in Kashmir:
Allegation Which Sparked Protests
Negated by Medical Report
12
Governance, not Politics!
14
Quran in Dogri
20
The Battle of Badr
22
Five, six and seven
03 May 2019

95.000 +
04
May 2019

05 May 2019

Verdict is out
This is the time to ponder
BY: BINOO JOSHI
The BJP has won national
elections with an
overwhelming majority- it has
300 of them on its own and combined
strength of the National Democratic
Alliance is veering around in the Lok
Sabha that has a total of 543 seats .
Prime Minister Narendra
?
Modi is all
set to begin his new
innings in not so
ideal times for the
country despite the
fact that he has made
the world to change
its ways of looking
at India. The country
is in the major
international
discourse. There is a
grudging feeling
about its economic
progress and the
resoluteness with
which it has stayed
06 May 2019

democratic course against all odd has not
gone without appreciation. This is what
many prefer to call Modi's India. There are
fault lines staring at every step within the
nation, and the verdict while having shown
complete saffron colour in most parts of the
country, it has also shown political.
Ideological and economic divisions.
How it plays out in Jammu and Kashmir
where voters have given a split verdict. The
Bhartiya Janta Party has reigned supreme in
the Hindu plains and the cold desert region
of Ladakh. That the victory margins of the
BJP candidates this time were huge is rooted
in the fact that a volcano was waiting to
erupt, and it erupted. There was so much of
anger amongst the people who voted more
than 70 per cent in the two constituencies of
Jammu that they gave vent to it in their
votes. Their choice of Modi in the elections
was deliberate. Since Modi is the iconic
figure of the saffron party, it won. There is
no other reason. In Jammu region the BJP
sought votes in the name of Prime Minister
Narendra Modi in Municipal polls too. That
means that, unless or until they feature Modi
in their campaign, Jammu cannot hope to
win even the Municipal polls.
This has a great advantage that Jammu
stands solidly behind one leader as it trusts
his abilities to deliver on the promises. No
doubt muscular narrative formed core of the
campaign that swept the minds of the voters
who believed that Pakistan that has flashed
almost permanently on their radar as their
tormentor has been taught a lesson by Modi,
but there was something more than that too.
It was that Jammu wanted to avenge its
assumed humiliation in all sectors, and
simultaneously make a point that it has
linked its future with the rising political
power of the country.
The flip side however is that such an attitude
in the elections makes the political party that
swamped all other rivals to take the voters
for granted. Jammu has had an experience of
it, quite a bitter one. This is also a way of
not taking the past into calculations and
blind faith in the future. How far the voters
were correct in doing so would be known in
the days, weeks and months to come. For
the time being Jammu plains have turned
saffron.
Jammu's hilly areas have not been that
unanimous in going with the saffron party.
For two reasons – one the demography of
the hills where Muslims dominate, and the
Hindus who have their own problem of
identity crisis, voted differently. Their task
was made easier by the National Conference
and PDP in the elections. This absence made
the people to look forward to the divisions
as a solution rather than bridging the same.
Congress, in any case, fought these elections
half-heartedly. This has serious
repercussions in the future elections,
especially when the Assembly polls would
be announced and held in the state.
Congress is nearing its burial site because of
its divisions and groupism. When NC and
PDP and Congress, though quite decimated
in the aftermath of the general elections, will
fight Assembly elections on their respective
symbols, they would be staring at the repeat
of the 2014 in hills of Jammu, where if they
fight jointly can win at least 10 seats out of
13 in Chenab Valley and Pir panjal region.
Kashmir has voted for National Conference
in the parliamentary elections. The initial
review of the segment wise voting has given
a clear edge to the party of Abdullah's.
Maintaining that picture is not sufficient for
National Conference to form government on
its own. The voting patterns and the public
mood would be different in the Assembly
elections. And by the time the state goes to
Assembly polls, much of the anger that the
voters, howsoever small their number was in
the parliamentary polls, would have faded ,
if not gone altogether. Then, there are
forces with their individual following and
political experience that sided with National
Conference or its rivals, particularly in
north Kashmir, that will also take their share
of votes. Where does it place the Kashmir
politics? It is time to ponder.
07 May 2019

How Hinduism Became a Political Weapon in India
India The seven pandits draped in cloth of
gold are clearly competing against the five
in saffron. In front of thousands of
assembled pilgrims, each bevy of priests
furiously recites Sanskrit chants, deftly
swinging pyramids of flaming oil lamps,
banging on bells and blowing on conch shells,
wafting thick clouds of incense over the
moonlit waters of the limpid, unlistening
Ganges. The celebration of Ganga Aarti has
taken place daily at this spot for hundreds, or
perhaps thousands, of years.
This is Hinduism. But it is not Hindutva, the
creed of the governing Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP). And the difference between them
between the practices of faith and
politics—may determine the future of what
will soon be the largest nation on Earth.
Here in Varanasi, posters of Prime Minister
Narendra Modi are slapped on crumbly
ancient walls, splintery doorjambs, a tangle of
electrical wires draped perilously over a traffic
circle. Orange-and-green flags bearing the
lotus leaf of the BJP flutter on bicycle
rickshaws, rooftops, and rowboats plowing
their way along the holy Ganges. In much of
the city, these are the only election signs one
can see: You generally have to dive into the
twisty alleyways near a mosque to find a few
timid banners for the Indian National Congress
or any other BJP rival.
The city of Varanasi is the holiest site in the
Hindu faith. It is also, not coincidentally, the
parliamentary constituency of Modi, who has
just won a second five-year term. He did it, in
large measure, by emphasizing Hindutva, an
ideology that seeks to reformulate Hinduism
into something that most practitioners'
grandparents would barely understand.
BY: JONAH BLANK
Religions change—that's as timeless as time.
But the transformation currently under way in
Hinduism is among the most significant in
modern history. It has much in common with
similar changes taking place in Islam,
Buddhism, and Christianity: Why are so many
radical Islamists poorly versed in the Koran?
How can Buddhist monks sworn to
nonviolence lead pogroms in Myanmar and Sri
Lanka? Why do evangelical Christians care so
much about issues never mentioned by Jesus,
such as abortion and homosexuality? The
answer is not always hypocrisy. For many
today, religion is less a matter of what you
believe, or even what you do, than of who you
are.
The term Hindutva can be (sort of) translated
as “Hindu-ness,” and that gets (sort of) at what
it's all about: Hinduism not a theology, but an
identity. The movement's intellectual father,
Veer Savarkar, wrote its foundational text
(helpfully titled Hindutva) a century ago. At
the time, the notion of a unified faith or
doctrine, let alone a shared identity, would
08 May 2019

have left most Hindus simply confused:
Identity was determined by a person's family,
village, caste. The very term Hindu is merely a
loanword (most likely from Persian), referring
to “the people who live across the Indus
River.” Until the 20th century, most Hindus
had never felt the need to describe themselves
in any comprehensive way.
It was the colonial experience that created
Hindutva: Why, Savarkar and his comrades
wondered, had India been dominated for
centuries by a relatively small number of
Muslim Mughals and Christian British? Was
Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS—the primary
vehicle for Hindutva mobilization) are both
described as having been atheists or agnostics.
The point wasn't doctrine, but branding.
The only figure who did more to reshape
Hinduism than the Hindutva founders was
Mahatma Gandhi. His vision of the faith was,
in many ways, the absolute inverse of
Hindutva: He cared nothing about branding,
and a great deal about belief. It was an ideal so
familiar today that one can easily forget what a
break from the past it represented. Gandhi's
radical embrace of nonviolence drew not only
monotheism simply better suited for ruling? If
so, what did that mean for a faith with more
deities than days in the year? During the
founding decades of the Hindutva movement,
much effort revolved around making
Hinduism more like its rivals: building a single
shared identity to unite everyone for whom
India was, in Savarkar's words, “his Fatherland
as well as his Holy-land.” This definition
c o n v e n i e n t l y r o p e d i n S i k h s ( a
disproportionate number of whom served in
the army), Buddhists (whose spiritual cachet
helped give the movement credibility), and
Jains (who tended, then and now, to be quite
rich).
What it pointedly did not do was dictate what
this newly lumped-together group of people
should believe. Indeed, very few of Hindutva's
leading lights have been holy men, or even
particularly devout; Savarkar and K. B.
Hedgewar (the founder of the Rashtriya
from Hindu tradition, but, as he famously said,
also from the Sermon on the Mount, from
Buddhist texts, and even from Leo Tolstoy.
After a member of Savarkar's group
assassinated Gandhi in 1948, the entire
Hindutva movement was discredited for a
generation.
Fast-forward to 2019: Gandhi's murderer has
been praised as a “patriot” by a candidate
running on Narendra Modi's ticket, and while
the prime minister has said he disagrees with
the remark, he did not withdraw his party's
backing. (The candidate won.)
Varanasi was not always a Hindutva
stronghold. Instead, it was long held by
Congress, the party of Gandhi and India's first
prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. When Modi
ran for the seat five years ago, he hedged his
bets by simultaneously contesting from a safer
constituency in his native state of Gujarat (you
can do that in India's parliamentary system).
09 May 2019

Although he was a lifelong RSS member,
Modi explicitly refrained from running on a
Hindutva platform, using the slogan “Toilets,
not temples” to emphasize his commitment to
an earnest, technocratic, getting-things-done
attitude.
But getting things done requires … getting
things done. Modi has instituted some
economic reforms, but after an initial spurt, the
economy's growth rate has slowed. New
investments have fallen since Modi took
office, and his promise of extensive job
creation remains largely unfulfilled. His
signature demonetization effort (taking the
vast majority of banknotes out of circulation)
made many families' life savings valueless and
caused hardship to almost everyone.
To compensate, Modi and his followers
ramped up the Hindutva pitch. First came the
“love jihad”—false accusations that Muslim
men were wooing and impregnating Hindu
women to change India's demographic balance
(Muslims make up about 14 percent of the
population, Hindus about 80 percent). Next
came the “cow protection” lynchings in BJPcontrolled
states such as Uttar Pradesh (UP):
Gangs of Hindu men killed Muslims whom
they falsely accused of eating beef. Cow
slaughter has been banned in several Indian
states by non-BJP governments, but it had
never led to widespread attacks egged on by
government officials.
Perhaps most ominously, in 2017 Modi
appointed the radical priest Yogi Adityanath as
chief minister of UP, India's largest state.
Adityanath's militancy makes Modi seem
almost moderate—and Adityanath openly
covets his patron's office. To top it all off, over
the past half year, Modi has engaged in the
most serious armed combat with Muslimmajority
Pakistan in two decades. Pakistan
prompted the action, but Modi's changing his
Twitter handle to Chowkidar(“Watchman”),
and encouraging his supporters to do likewise,
was purely his own choice.
This is Hindutva. But it is not Hinduism. The
stakes here are not faith or practice—nobody is
threatening to stop Varanasi's pandits from
making their Ganga Aarti. Instead, the issues
are those of identity: We're being outbred by
minorities. We're being laughed at by the
world. We're overrun with immigrants—and
you know what kind. We're second-class
citizens in our own nation. Make India Great
Again.
From the distance of Delhi, it can look as if
Hindutva was the determining factor in this
election—and perhaps the driving force in
India's political future. But so many things in
India resemble Schrödinger's cat: They
simultaneously are and are not. Yes, Hindutva
dominated the national debate. Yes, Modi ran
on Hindutva themes. And, yes, voters
responded to them in a way that strengthens the
power of Hindutva as a political and social
creed. But to a large degree, the success of
Hindutva today lies less in its ideology than in
its rebranding of prosaic, everyday concerns as
matters of personal identity: When Modi
speaks, many voters feel, he's speaking for me.
In more than a dozen interviews on polling day,
not one voter in Varanasi raised issues such as
the “love jihad” or the cow slaughter as a
reason for either supporting Modi or opposing
him. The rationales that both his fans (the large
majority here) and his foes (a not-insignificant
minority) gave were remarkably similar: He
had, or had not, gotten things done. None of
them knew whether the GDP per capita had
gone up or down, and none of them cared.
Modi's most ardent admirers spoke of vikas
(“development”) and swasti (“success”). Said
a shop assistant named Yogis Dubey outside
the polling station at Gurudham Chauraha:
“Kashi ko saaf benaiya!” (“He made Varanasi
clean!”).
The streets of India's holiest city are, in fact,
still thick with the excrement of goats, sheep,
dogs, pigs, water buffalo, and herds of
auspicious cattle. But that's not really the
point: Hindutva is not about what your eyes tell
you; it's about what your heart tells you. It's not
about what you see; it's about how you see
yourself. How you see your identity, your
brand, your place in the world. Understand
this, and you can better understand the changes
under way in India. ( The Atlantic )
10
May 2019

Pak downplays Imran Khan
not being invited for Modi's inauguration
Pakistan has tried to downplay India's
decision not to invite Imran Khan for
Narendra Modi's swearing-in, claiming
that the Indian Prime Minister's “internal
politics” do not permit him to extend an
invitation to his Pakistani counterpart.
The government announced in New Delhi that
it has invited leaders from BIMSTEC countries
to Prime Minister Modi's inauguration, leaving
out Pakistan, which is not a part of the seven
member regional grouping. The BIMSTEC
(Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral
Technical and Economic Cooperation)
comprises Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri
Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal.
Reacting to reports that India has not invited
Prime Minister Khan to Prime Minister Modi's
inauguration, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood
Qureshi said a meeting for the sake of dialogue
to find a solution to the Kashmir issue, as well
as Siachen and Sir Creek disputes, would have
been a significant measure instead of attending
the swearing-in ceremony. “His (Prime
Minister Modi's) entire focus (during the
election campaign) was on Pakistan-bashing. It
was unwise to expect that he can get rid of this
narrative (soon),” Qureshi was quoted as saying
by Dawn news. “India's internal politics did not
permit him to extend an invitation,” he said.
Modi and Khan are scheduled to attend the
Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)
summit in Kyrgyzstan next month. In 2014,
then Pakistan premier Nawaz Sharif had
attended Prime Minister Modi's swearing-in
held on May 26 in New Delhi when the leaders
of SAARC countries were invited. Speaking to
Geo News on Monday, Qureshi said Modi had
congratulated Khan after he won the general
election last year and wrote a letter as well.
Prime Minister Khan, breaking the ice in
bilateral ties, spoke to his Indian counterpart
Modi on Sunday and expressed his desire to
work together for the betterment of their
peoples. “Relations between the countries were
based on reciprocity and PM Khan had
congratulated Mr Modi as a goodwill gesture,”
the Pakistani foreign minister said.
“Finding a new way (to resume dialogue) is also
essential for them (India). If he (Modi) wants
development of this region… the only way is to
sit with Pakistan to find a solution. “It is in the
interest of Pakistan to defuse tensions…
Pakistan did not create tension,” Qureshi said.
Prime Minister Modi on Thursday led his
Bharatiya Janata Party to a landmark victory for
a second five-year term in office, winning 303
seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha. Tensions
flared up between India and Pakistan after a
suicide bomber of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-
Muhammed (JeM) killed over 40 CRPF
personnel in Kashmir's Pulwama district on
February 14. Amid mounting outrage, the
Indian Air Force (IAF) carried out a strike on
what it termed as the JeM training camp in
Balakot on February 26. The next day, Pakistan
Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 in an
aerial combat and captured an IAF pilot, who
was handed over to India.
11
May 2019

Governance, not Politics!
By: Muhammad Ashraf Bukhari
12
May 2019

13
May 2019

Quran in Dogri
Azra Choudhary, translating Quran in Dogri
Azra replies with message of peace to a region
where her mother-daughter suffers horrors of 1947
By: Haroon Mirani
In 2014 when Azra Choudhary, 62, former
chief editor Dictionary section at Jammu
Kashmir Academy of Art Culture and
Languages (JKAACL) was approached by
Rajouri based Shah Hamdan Trust to translate
the Holy Quran in Dogri language, she was
reluctant. It was a huge responsibility as she
was not confident enough to accomplish it.
Abdul Qayoom Nadvi, principal of a
school in Rajouri, who had
contacted Azra for the job, knew that
if anybody could do justice with this
work, it was Azra. Qayoom had once
asked his wife Shamima who was
working as Additional Secretary
JKAACL too about the right person
who can translate Quran in Dogri.
Shamima without any hesitation
said that Azra was the right person to
do the job. Both Qayoom and
Shamima are members of Shah
Hamdan Society which is a religious
and social work
As Dogri was included in the eighth
schedule and it had good number of
speakers in Jammu and Himachal
Pradesh, the society felt that it is the
need of the hour to translate Quran in
Dogri language so that its message
of peace, love, brotherhood reaches
a larger population. As of now Quran
is translated in all major languages
of the world numbering more than
100 but Dogri translation was
14
May 2019

missing.
Azra was indeed the best choice for the job.
Not only was she a talented editor but she had
a Masters in both Hindi and Dogri. Her work
on Hindi-Dogri dictionary project and Dogri
translation of various stories in Sheeraza were
already well received.
As Azra was yet to make her mind, Qayoom
philosophically told her, “Ye aap hi ne karna
hai.” (It is only you who has to do this work.”
“The words touched my heart and I thought if
this was my destiny why am I resisting. And I
took up the job” said Azra. She politely
refused any remuneration and assured
Qayoom that she will take care of everything
herself. Thus started a journey that saw Azra
immersing in the holy scripture.
“It was not any ordinary book. I had to do
ablutions before starting the work. At my
office my job was hectic as I had to almost
single handedly take out the Hindi version of
Sheeraza magazine. So whenever I got time
like on mornings, evenings, Sundays and on
holidays I would do the translation work,”
said Azra.
Qayoom had asked her to start with the last
section, 30th Para, of the Quran, as it had
small surahs. The first draft was to be
evaluated to check whether the translation
was going in right direction. The verification
and counter checks indicated all was going
well and Azra was given green signal for the
entire Quran.
The 30th para was published separately and
released by Maulana Wahiduddin Khan in
Delhi. Thereafter started the work that
required almost five years of disciplined
work. “In translating a religious book, one has
to take care of every single word, otherwise a
single mistake, even a smaller one, can harm
the entire exercise. So I had to check, recheck
and proofread my translation four times to
ensure there was no mistake,” said Azra. “I
would take the translation back and forth to
Qayoom, where we would compare it with the
original and other translated text to ensure
accuracy.”
She also consulted Wahidudin's Tazkeerul
Quran for making translation as accurate as
possible.
After Azra retired as Chief Editor, Dictionary
Section from JKAACL in 2017, the
translation became her full time job.
Azra feels that everything that she had done
and experienced in her life combined to help
her in the better translation. Being a religious
minded person Azra had a chance to look at
the words of Quran at an altogether new level.
“During this course of time I could see Quran
in a new light. There are so many things which
became clear and I could understand them in a
better way. It was a spiritual kind of
experience,” said Azra. “During Ramadhans I
wouldn't do the separate tilawat but just
worked on the project as I felt it was one and
same.”
Azra feels that it was her destiny to do the
translation. After her MA (Hindi) in 1978, B
Ed in 1985 and MA (Dogri) in 1987, she was
appointed as a government teacher. She
worked for seven years before she came upon
an advertisement from JKAACL inviting
candidates for a post of research Assistant in
Dogri Dictionary section. The eligibility was
that the candidate should have MA in both
Hindi and Dogri, which Azra possessed. She
easily qualified the interview, started the
work, enriched her vocabulary and gained
experience, which ultimately took her to
become part of elite group of Quran
translators.
During the education, it was her mother Razia
Choudhary that was her support. She was
keen to get her children, especially girls
educated. She never stopped her two daughter
from education and also extra curricular
activities. “She was of the opinion that it is
extremely important for girls to experience
the world. If they remain ignorant, they will
suffer. She would let us go to picnics, NCC
camps, do sports and other activities. She
would just advise that do all the activities only
take care of our dignity,” said Azra. “Her goal
was to make every girl self dependent.”
It was after experiencing the hard lessons of
life that Razia knew how important education
was for girls. She herself was educated till
fifth grade, but she felt that had she been
15
May 2019

educated more, her life story would have been
different.
Razia was the daughter of a landlord
Choudhary Abdullah Khan of RS Pora in
Jammu. In 1946 Razia was married to
Choudhary Ghulam Ahmad of Miran Sahib.
In 1947 when the communal riots broke in
Jammu, Ahmad and other Muslims shifted
women folk to a Hindu friend's glass factory
for safety. However, during November riots
the area was run over by Hindu mobs, who
killed, looted and raped at ease. After the men
were killed, the mob distributed the women
among themselves like a war booty. Razia was
taken by one Balwan Singh of Thub Village
Jammu after she was told her entire family has
been killed.
A young innocent girl who knew nothing of
the world found herself helplessly chained
with Balwan Singh who took her to Punjab.
She gave birth to a son Karan Singh and two
daughter Reva Rani and Anju. In 1965
Balwan, an alcoholic, died and his family in
Jammu disowned his family. However a
patwari friend of Balwan gave Razia and her
children a room to stay in New Plot, Jammu.
Though poor, Razia took small time jobs, did
stitching and tailoring only to ensure
education to her children. She never
compromised on it.
Their life took another unexpected twist when
in December 1974, during a visit to Tehsil
office Jammu, Razia crossed paths with her
ex-husband's sister, also her cousin, who had
survived and had been living in Dalpatian,
Jammu. It was an emotional reunion and both
cried bitterly.
With regular contact now established, Razia
came to know that many of her close relatives
including husband, mother in law, mother and
eight sisters had miraculously survived and
are living in different locations in Jammu and
Pakistan.
Few months later Razia and her family bid
farewell to the old nightmares and shifted to
Dalpatian. She came to know that her exhusband
after surviving had crossed over to
Sialkot. He returned few years later and
unable to find her husband married another
woman.
In the communally charged atmosphere of
1974, Razia and her family took a bold step to
convert back to Islam. Karan Singh remained
Karan Singh but Anju became Zarina and
teenage Reva Rani became Azra Choudhary.
A local Molvi taught Azra, nimaz and Quran.
Razia along with Zarina shifted to Pakistan in
1979 to be with her mother and eight sisters.
Azra couldn't accompany as she didn't get a
passport as her school records still showed her
name as Reva. As destiny had other plans for
Azra, she stayed in Jammu, got education,
married and got employed and ultimately was
chosen for the first ever translator of Quran in
Dogri.
The tumultous life of Razia and Azra was also
detailed by former IGP Kashmir Javid
Mukhdoomi in one of his write-ups.
Last month when Maulana Wahiduddin
released the Dogri Translation of Quran, it
was an accomplishment worth celebrating
and a culmination of a long struggle to inner
peace.
The translation was by a daughter who was
born Hindu to a Muslim mother and whose
life was nothing short of a nightmare. “I give
credit to my mother whose fearlessness made
me what I am today. She would often say had I
been educated more, had I seen the world
outside of my Purdah and had I not been such
an innocent that I believed whatever others
said, I would not had suffered so much,” said
Azra. Her mother died in 1999 in Sialkot and
sister Zarina lives in USA.
As every one asks Azra what are her future
plans in writing, she says that she has now
dedicated her life to Islamic work only.
Maulana Wahiduddin was so impressed with
her work that he gave her a book of Hadith in
Urdu to be translated to Hindi and a Seerat
book in Hindi to be translated into Dogri.
Azra feels that the translated version will have
a greater outreach among people and they will
come to know about the message of peace
and love contained in it.
16
May 2019

Why Rahul Gandhi Failed?
By : VINOD CHANDRASHEKHAR DIXIT
The decline and fall of the Congress is
an arresting story written time and
again; but this time the party is at the
nadir of its influence in politics. The results
are a lesson for the Congress Party; it is on a
steady decline in the country's political
arena. The Congress' revival pivots on its
ability to address its crisis of credibility,
encouraging state leaders, and functioning as
a vigorous Opposition in Parliament.
Recently , TIME magazine stated that the
Congress party has “little to offer other than
the dynastic principle, yet another member
of the Nehru-Gandhi family” and that the
party lacks “political imagination”,
something that demonstrated by the
Congress choosing to bring Priyanka
Gandhi-Vadra — Rahul Gandhi's sister —
into the Indian political arena. Priyanka's
entry in to active politics was a long-term
wish of many Congress workers. She
reminds them of Indira Gandhi's attractive
pleasing personality and is a new face for
the Congress. It is also observed that such
personalities sometimes increase the vote
share by 5 to 7 per cent but that also did not
happen. She brought with her the grace of
Gandhi Nehru lineage and her immense
personal charm. But she has mostly stayed
in the shadow of her brother Rahul, heirapparent
of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.
One would have observed that the decline
and fall of the Congress is an arresting story
written time and again; but this time the
party is at the nadir of its influence in
politics. Rahul Gandhi by wearing his Hindu
identity on his sleeves is taking the 'Bull' by
its horns. . Though Rahul's elevation to
Congress President is imminent, the
challenges before him are immense. Many
years of congress party rule of India has
passed with poverty still keeping hold of the
farmers and
other poor
people, dirt and
squalor in the
environment
and corruption
and black
money
laundering
persisting in
Indian society.
This has
naturally
become a cause
of concern for
Congress cadres
who feel that
Rahul Gandhi's
inability to
learn on the job
even after more
than 12 years in
Parliament has
put a serious
question mark on the party's future and their
own political survival. Rahul had promised
that farmers' entire loan will be waived in 10
days of the government's formation in the
state but failed. They took vote on promising
entire loan waiver but the government failed
to deliver
It is clear that Rahul Gandhi's hurdles in
congress are his inexperience and his
inaccessibility. His image is also an aloof
one. He doesn't feel he has to have his own
mouthpiece website and mobile application
to make himself more accessible to people.
Rahul Gandhi has different plans in mind
but it does not work. Why ? He may seem
extremely well intentioned but does that
translate to an effectual administrator and
visionary leader.
17
May 2019

P News
Who was Zakir Musa?
Zakir Musa succeeded Burhan Wani as
the Amir of Hizbul Mujahideen (HM)
for a while before quitting it to form his
own group, owing to ideological differences.
On May 23 2019, a joint operation by Indian
Army's 42 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) and a Special
Operations Group (SOG of JKAP) of the
Jammu and Kashmir Police successfully
eliminated one of the most-dreaded terrorists of
the Valley.
Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind Chief Zakir Musa was
holed up inside the house of a chemist in
Dadsara village of Kashmir's Tral region, when
he died in an encounter with the forces.
The owner of the house where he was hiding
was sent in for negotiation. However, Musa
refused to surrender, reported Defence News.
Zakir Musa has been on the most-wanted list of
the forces for years. Two years ago, he was
almost captured by the Indian Army but
managed to flee as some stone-pelters gave him
cover.
Who is Zakir Musa?
Zakir Rashid Bhat alias Zakir Musa hailed from
a humble background, 28-year-old belonged to
an educated, middle-class family in Noorpora;
his father is a senior engineer with the state
government, and one of his brothers is a doctor
in Tral.
Musa himself was a civil engineering student
from a Chandigarh College. He was recruited to
Hizbul Mujahideen in 2013 during one of the
recruitment drives by then-Chief Burhan Wani.
It happened while he was on a visit to his village
for a vacation. The two remained close
associates until 2016 when Indian security
forces gunned down Wani.
Musa succeeded Wani as the Emir of the
militant outfit for a while before quitting it to
form his own group, owing to ideological
differences. The rift started developing with
him repudiating a merger with Pakistan as the
objective of his “jihad”.
He openly announced his ambition to establish
an Islamic Caliphate in Kashmir. He even
issued death-threats to Hurriyat leaders for
calling the Kashmiri struggle political and not
Islamic. At this point, Hizb refused to back his
statement, leading him to break away from its
ranks.
He soon came to symbolize a new generation of
Islamist Jihadi operating in Kashmir. They
were far more radical, violent, and actively
using social media to profess their belief
system. They were also typically slightly more
educated than the militants of the past.
Musa was also held in high regard in the
Islamist militant circuit because of his
association with the al-Qaeda. Since the time he
launched the Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, several
youths in the Valley were seen brandishing al-
Qaeda and ISIS flags.
Last year, his group released a video where
Musa could be seen exhorting Indian Muslims
to attack Indian Army personnel and employees
of companies looking at investing in India.
They also published material that urged the
Muslim youth to carry out lone wolf attacks
across India.
Paying tributes to Zakir Moosa, All Parties
Hurriyat Conference chairman, Syed Ali
Geelani said that whosoever strives for
implementation of divine law in His land, with
his conviction and dedication are the real heros
of the movement and nation is indebted to hail
their precious sacrifices.
18
May 2019

Rape of Minor in Kashmir:
Allegation Which Sparked Protests Negated by Medical Report
Photo Nasir Khan
P News
Two weeks after the incident, the medical
report by SKIMS medical college,
Bemina, has found insufficient
evidence to confirm that the three-year-old was
sexual assaulted.
On the evening of May 12 in Kashmir's
Bandipora area, when the news about the
alleged rape of three-year-old girl broke, locals
took to the streets in protest.
On May 13, protests and clashes erupted across
the Valley as people marched and demanded a
death sentence for the accused. Dozens of
youth were injured.
However, two weeks after the incident, the
medical report by SKIMS medical college,
Bemina, has found insufficient evidence to
confirm that the child was sexual assaulted.
SKIMS, in its report submitted to Jammu and
Kashmir Police, has stated that there were no
marks of injury on any part of the body, thus
contradicting the claims of the girl's mother.
Making the case murkier, last week, the police
said that the allegations of rape in the case had
been proven and that a charge sheet would be
filed soon.
The accused, Tahir Mir, has already been
booked under Protection of Children from
Sexual Offences (POCSO) Section 3 and 5 and
376 A, B and 342 RPC.
The rape accused, as per the victim's family,
allegedly committed the crime during iftar,
when most of the villagers were at home or at
the mosque.
The mother, who found her daughter bleeding
vaginally in a bathroom, said that she had
handed over the blood drenched clothes of the
girl to the Jammu and Kashmir Police at the
time when the accused was arrested.
The medical report, which is with The Wire,
states that the actual source of bleeding could
not be determined as there was no evidence of
any injury around the vaginal orifice.
“The blood stains were not dry blood but faint
stains only and could not be scraped and sent
for examinations,” the report reads.
“It is very difficult to cause full penetration into
the vagina without causing any major injury/
tear/bleeding in a three-year-old child,” the
report adds.
The case has had a greater impact on the locals
in the area, reportedly deepening the Shia
Sunni divide, so much so that the family of the
accused has left their village.
Since the allegation surfaced, the Shia-Sunni
coordination committee of religious scholars
also appealed to the people to maintain calm
and end protests as “police had nabbed the
culprit”.
As many as 12 people were injured in the
massive protests. One person, Arshid Ahmad
Dar, who was critically injured, later
succumbed to his injuries at a Srinagar hospital.
19
May 2019

The Defensive War That
Decisively Changed the World
By: Adil Rashid Bhatt
One of the grandest and profoundly
immortal achievements of humanity
has been the dramatic rise of
magnificent Islamic civilization, on the
blemished horizon of the forlorn world; it was
purely founded on unshakable and integral
faith and godly justice, inter alia natural
longing to worship one true God. Islam rose as
an enduring spiritual revolution that shook
cultures, and nations cum echelons of power
across the three continents within a short span
of time of its ascendency, after the departure of
Prophet Muhammed (SAW); and firmly
established an empire, the Islamic Imperium.
For the people of other faiths from Asia to
Europe much of the history of Islam has been
obscured behind the veil of fear, concoction,
false propaganda and misunderstanding; still
Islam' s forgotten history is intricately woven
with civilizations across the nations; it has left
deep imprints of its profound and magnificent
culture and architectures across the world it
ruled for a number of centuries. At a time when
Europe languished in dark ages and reading
science was penalized with excommunication (
banishment) by the church Muslim scholars not
only translated earlier works of Greek, Persian
,and Indian scholars but , in fact, made great
strides in different fields of science and arts that
ultimately culminated in the transfer of
knowledge to Europe and European
renaissance.
The rise of Islam was a revolution par
excellence the like of which have had never
been witnessed by the world. But all of this
began with the life of single blessed man, and
the profound message he proclaimed which
changed the world for all times to come .This
man was none other than the magnanimous
“Prophet Muhammed”(PBUH) who was born
in around 570AD in the sun blasted Arabian
peninsula, a land of severe water famine whose
unruly Bedouin tribes were locked in perennial
state of bloody animosity, a violent people who
even killed neighbors camel if that trespassed
into their de facto territory, rivalry over the
control of a single water well, that made
difference between life and death, could
provoke a bloody feud that would run into
generations, and culminate in recurrent blood
splashed skirmishes.
There were myriad factions across the
peninsula, each guarding its own territories
,trade routes, and wells. These tribes would
attack each other enroute, and plunder precious
valuables that they later sold in markets. In
Mecca, pagans had perched almost three
hundred idols of different demigods into the
Qaba, the sacred house built by Prophet
Ibrahim (PBUH). Each clan worshipped their
own god; in fact these God's were attributed to
be harbingers of fortunes of many a kind and
scale; some God's were supposed to be
harbingers of rain ,and some were supposed to
bring profit in trade and so on.
The Holy Prophet(PBUH) preached against
worshipping demi gods, and called people
towards the powerful message of Islamic
20
May 2019

monotheism on the order of Allah-the Merciful.
This raised feathers in the city of Mecca, and
divided families, albeit for the time being, as
people mostly youngsters keenly listened to
Prophet Muhammed's message. The message
from the most high God was in turn revealed to
Prophet Muhammad(PBUH) by Angel
Gabriel( Jibrail alaihisalaam). After the
successive deaths of Prophets'(PBUH) uncle
Abu Talib, and wife Hajirah(pbuh) pagan
chieftains intimidated prophet to the core. And
after failing to convince him to abandon
preaching Islam in Mecca the pagan chieftains
hatched a conspiracy to assassinate the Prophet
Muhammad (PBUH) in which they miserably
failed. (He was the chosen one who could not be
killed). Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) had
overnight migrated to Medina,after evacuating
his followers to the same blessed place, along
with Abu Bakr(RA) on the invitation of
generous people of tribes of Medina who had
sought the Prophet's(PBUH) leadership and
guidance in amelioration of disputes cum in
fighting, once for all.
This landmark migration marks the beginning
of Hegirah Calendar of Muslims. Many
Muslims after being inflicted torture of
indescribable pain by the pagan chieftains had
already migrated to Abysinia ( modern day
Ethiopia)on the orders of the Prophet(PBUH)
to seek refugee under the Christian king. The
pagan chieftains got infuriated after the king of
Abysinia refused to return Muslims who had
sought his refugee in time of need, and would
knit the brow on coming to know about the
prophet's(PBUH) leadership skills ,and kind
treatment of him by the benevolent people of
Yathrib(Medina), so much so that they
plundered everything that Muslims had left
behind in Mecca; and decided to trade that in
Damascus, the ancient city.
Initially, the prophet(PBUH) refused to fight
because Allah had not ordered him to do so, but
then Allah revealed “to fight against those who
fight against you, and banish those from homes
who banished you”. Thus Muslims numbering
313 under the supreme leadership of Prophet
Muhammad(PBUH),with meagre resources,
reached to the field of Badr , a strategic trade
route 70 miles away on the western side of
Medina, where they captured all small and big
water wells. All Meccan pagan chieftains
assembled and decided to nip Muslims in the
bud, once for all ,but their war mongering fell
flat on the day, 17th Ramzan 2AH, they met
Muslims face to face on the battle field. This
was due to their obsessive stubbornness, that
they were living in fool's paradise. While as
pagans feasted throughout the night prior to the
battle Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)
worshipped to his guardian Lord. This
remarkable quality of impeccable virtue set him
aside from the pagans.
Abu Sufiyan, who until then was outside the
fold of Islam , schemed against Muslims and
inflicted mammoth torture and pain upon
them(before he entered Islam) played truant on
the day of fighting. The outcome of the war was
that almost all haughty pagan chieftains, like
“Utbah”, “Umaiah”, “Abu Jahal”, elder son of
Utbah Waleed( Utbahs younger son Huzaifa
was Muslim and fought against Meccan
pagans) , who issued incendiary statements
against Prophet Muhammad(PBUH) ,and
compelled him to migrate from Mecca were
killed on the battlefield.
The Prophet's(PBUH) close companions
except Usman (RA) fought this battle. The
victory was from Allah-the mighty, as alluded
by Quran(3:123,3:124,3:125,3:126). A poorly
equipped but spiritually and morally strong
people ,313 in number, defeated a strength of
more than 950 adequately resourced and well
endowed force of the Quraysh. It is this battle
that actually set the precedent for the success of
other battles fought by Muslims against their
adversaries in following years, and changed the
face of the world. The prisoners of the battle
were treated at par with other Muslims, and any
prisoner who could teach ten Muslims would be
freed, as ordered by the Prophet of wisdom
(PBUH). Jabir relates: The most important
thing that one must take cognizance of is that all
the battles fought by Muslims under the
supreme leadership of Prophet Muhammad
(PBUH) were defensive in nature like the battle
of Badr.
21
May 2019

5
6 &
7
Five, six and seven
Shantiveer Kaul
The Pali Canon of Buddhism talks of a
'sixth' element. For students of
Orientalism this may be a tad amusing.
After all, the whole of Orient has been brought
up on the diet of five elements – air, fire, water,
earth and ether. Wu Xing of China may not
correspond exactly with the Godai of Japan,
but the latter is very much like the concept of
tattvas in Indian traditions. Chinese, Japanese
and Indian philosophies have dwelt at length
on the number 'five'. Many other articles of
other faiths and their religious practice revolve
around this number. According to the Greek
mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras,
five was the number of man, because of the
fivefold division of the body, and the ancient
Greek division of the soul. According to
Pythagoras, the five points of the pentagram
each represent one of the five elements that
make up man: fire, water, air, earth, and
psyche. But the 'psyche' of Pythagoras, which
replaces the 'ether' of the Oriental traditions
gets transformed into 'consciousness' and
becomes the sixth element of the Pali canon
alluded to above.
When five becomes six where does it leave the
five and what becomes of the sixth? Long
before Panchayati Raj was the subject matter
of any legislation and even longer before it got
onto paper to remain on paper as it does now in
Jammu and Kashmir, long ago – when another
freshly minted dream called Naya Kashmir
was in the process of similarly getting
marooned on paper, we witnessed the rise and
rise of the sixth element – the khadpanch. The
word khadpanch literally means the sixth
Panch, 'khad' being the derivative prefix used
for number six in the plains of Indian
subcontinent from where the term, and the
phenomenon, both were imported. Now a
panchayat of yore would only have a
committee of five, four Panches and a
Sarpanch, dispense village level community
justice. A khadpanch was thus extra-legal. By
implied usage he was also less than savoury as
far as his morals and methods were concerned
but more than savvy in the matter of his street
smartness. The khadpanch would classically
have some distinguishing features – first of all,
the swagger. One could easily make out who
the village khadpanch was by the manner of his
carriage. Secondly, he would have this
expertise of positioning himself in a manner
that can best be described as 'solus next to
prime' or separate and alone while being next
to the VIP. This positioning would give the
khadpanch a unique aura. No fawning acolyte
was he, but almost a peer. The third thing that
characterized a khadpanch was his speech.
Without his actually using the royal pronoun it
would sound as if he did. He would also sound
as a plenipotentiary or sole spokesman of the
Power Centre he would give the impression of
representing at that particular moment. 'At that
particular moment' because the Power Centre
would change every day as surely as the March
weather, and that would be the other defining
attribute of a true khadpanch.
The institution of khadpanch or khadpanchil, if
one might call it, lost its sheen for some years
as institutionalization happened in this sector
too. Instead of soldiers of fortune, one began
approaching PA's to Ministers or Section
Officers in service sector departments or that
22
May 2019

surefire avenue – the spouse of Sahib. As those
who held purse strings began themselves
watching their own apron strings the
khadpanch could hardly play the invisible
arbiter or knight in the invisible armour. One
would have rued the passing of this colourful
institution into history had not the
circumstances that made such an institution
possible in the first place – namely power
without responsibility and influence without
morals – not staged a comeback.
The past couple of decades have seen the rise of
the latter day khadpanch. He should actually be
called a haftpanch now because he is more of a
seventh level adventurer in his second coming.
This new Marvel Comic has certain added
powers. From being the lone plenipotentiary
he has graduated to the level of the member of
the central politburo. This gives him greater
credibility, greater plausible deniability, greater
leg room, greater elbow room and generally
greater room. He can now orate and perorate on
behalf of the Power Centre in exactly the same
manner as the latter does without having to be
seen with the latter. With greater devolution of
power comes greater power to the devolved.
One can regularly encounter very many
haftpanches now. They are everywhere – all
over the social media, in mainstream media and
also in seminars and colloquiums. The dead
giveaway is that one opening word with which
they begin their speech, intervention,
peroration, editorial or seminar paper. That one
word is “We”! It is not used as a royal pronoun
but used to represent whoever the haftpanch is
representing in his mind that day – without
leave, of course. So our worthy haftpanch can
be talking on behalf of a group of people,
ideology, Power Centre or the whole
population. Whatever power he arrogates to
himself and whatever license he grants himself
is purely up to him.
There is just one endearing structural oddity.
The politburo is not simply horizontal like most
politburos or committees of wise men are. It is
both horizontal and vertical, which makes it
diagonal and dynamic. In effect, this great
politburo has many overlapping politburos
arranged in a hierarchical manner.
23
May 2019

تحریر:‏
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پی نیوز/کے این ایس
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٥ مئی
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May 2019

VOL 4 ISSUE 5 MAY 2019