Calling for genocide
Ever since the BJP government under Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, several radical Islamists and their apologists who claim to be 'secular and liberal' have tried their best to peddle the 'Dara Hua Musalman' narrative. The basic premise of the narrative is that the individual Muslim in India is scared to profess or practise his/her religion in Modi's India and is under attack for no other reason but their religion. While these so-called 'seculars' liberal, Islamists and their cheerleaders in the media go to great lengths to portray our Muslim brothers and sisters as the 'dara hua people', without any evidence or basis but they always turn a blind eye to open calls for jihad, the genocide of Hindus and Kafirs (non-Muslims) and the beheading of those who commit 'blasphemy'. In the past, there have been umpteen numbers of such instances where mainstream Islamic leaders and clerics, Islamists politicians in India have openly called for mass genocide of Hindus.
AIMIM leader Waris Pathan in February 2020 was seen inciting Muslims at an anti-CAA rally in Gulbarga, Karnataka in the presence of AIMIM chief Asauddin Owaisi. In an open threat to Hindus, he said that time has come for Muslims of the country to unite and achieve freedom. He said though Muslims constitute 15 crores in India they can dominate over 100 crore Hindus. AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan in April 2021 incited our Muslim brethren by saying that if Muslims hit the streets, they would wreak havoc. He also called for the open beheading of Swamy Narsinghanand Saraswati. Another controversial AIMIM MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi opined several times in public meetings that if Muslims are given 15 minutes of freehand, with the police forces hands tied, they would wipe out Hindus from India. The same person had earlier said that terrorist Yakub Menon was hanged because he was a Muslim. His elder brother said that those who voted NDA are 'chhakkas', using colloquial derogatory slang for transgender people. One Maulana Jarjis Ansari Hafizullah in a video clip threatened to wage jihad in India if the CAA is not rolled back, claiming the law as anti-Muslim. He proudly said that rioters who had tried to burn down Dispur Secretariat and gheraoed the Assam CM's residence were people of his community. The panic created in Assam was just the teaser. Radical Islamic preacher Zakir Naik, who is facing charges in India of provoking communal disharmony and indulging in unlawful activities, had on several occasions incited our Muslim brothers and sisters against the Hindus. Last year in May, he asked the Islamic countries across the globe to collect data of non-Muslims in India who criticise Islam and arrest them when they land up in their countries and try them under blasphemy laws. His hatred for Hindus is so deep-rooted that he went on to support the torching and destruction of an ancient Hindu temple in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, stating that temples shouldn't be allowed constructed in Islamic countries.
Unfortunately, such statements and acts are always ignored by our leftist brothers and sisters because it might hurt their style of 'secularism'. In their definition of secularism, it is the Hindus who are always on the wrong side come what may.
Julie Bhuyan,
Gaurisagar.
Wanted SOP for picnickers
From mid-December to the last week of January is pleasant for sightseeing or enjoying a picnic trip. The sightseers/holidaymakers take time off their routine life in these sunny wintry days to go out for their chosen destination to tourist spots or picnic sites. On my recent trip to two places of attraction viz. Dirgheswari Mandir at the northern bank of the Brahmaputra in Guwahati and Shillong to Cherrapunji, I returned with a disgusting memory. These sites were littered with empty food packets, filths, plastic waste materials and whatnot. The condition of other preferred places visited by these guzzlers wherever you gaze on is equally despicable. You can hardly stay for moments in such places for taking outlying views and enjoying surrounding landscapes.
A similar dirty picture also is a common scene at important parks and picnic sites in Assam; which especially needs protection and proper maintenance.
Moreover, currently, a countrywide campaign under the aegis of the Government of India against single-use plastic (SUP) is being carried out to weed out SUP materials by December 2022. The respective state governments ought to take up the job wholeheartedly considering the negative impact of SUP on the environment. It is high time the appropriate authorities in the concerned State Governments took strong notice of goings-on of places of revere and attraction and came out with the proper SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) to strictly impose them on the tourists and picnickers. Yours etc;
Pannalal Dey,
Guwahati
Road to peace in Nagaland
It's undeniably the lack of enormous political will and technical deftness of the Indian government that has made the road to peace in Nagaland long and arduous. Eighty rounds of talks have yielded little simply because it has always been satisfied with tackling the violence and taming the rebels in Nagaland without making any effort to address Naga political aspirations. The Central government does not seem to be interested in putting an end to the six-decade-long conflict. Instead of adopting a divide-and-rule policy, it should try to delicately close the gap between the National Naga Political Groups (NNPGs) and the NSCN (IM).
Also, the NSCN (IM) needs to understand that there's no way the government would accept a separate constitution for Nagaland. Besides, it's by no means acceptable to the Indian state to change national borders. Redrawing of internal borders is also appears to be impossible. Unless both the Central government and NSCN (IM) soften their stance, there can never be a peace accord. It is also imperative that a competent interlocutor be roped in, who can handle the Naga peace process deftly.
Dipen Gogoi,
Teok, Jorhat
Guwahati needs cleanliness
Guwahati is attractive though many problems afflict it. According to census 2011, Guwahati's population is about 11 lakh. In the past nine years, this population has increased a lot. So, the city must be healthy for the sake of the safety of this large population. Apart from dirty drainage and river garbage, even the dustbins are also not cleaned on time. In some areas of Maligaon, Adabari, Ulubari garbage is dumped, but rarely cleaned. Many families live in these areas and children play there. Due to municipal's negligence, the people living in these areas have to face a lot of problems. Silpukhuri is one of the most crowded places in Guwahati. This place has a good vibe. But nowadays when we talk about Silpukhuri, three large dustbins of the Silpukhuri bus stop come to our mind first. It is difficult to pass by that bus stop, let alone wait for the bus there. The dustbins are not emptied till noon. However, the authorities and also the residents are somewhere responsible for it. Instead of pressuring the authorities to keep the area clean, many people throw garbage from their vehicles and leave.
In 2017, a budget of Rs 75 crore was allocated to clean the gutters in the city. But the drainage and sewers don't say that the Rs 75 crore was properly used. We don't expect much from the municipality that is trying to decorate the city only when the President and the Prime Minister visit it. We just request them to make dustbins available everywhere and clean them daily at the right time. So, it's a request through this newspaper that instead of making costly footbridges, make the inner appearance of this city beautiful.
Liza Borah,
Department of Communication & Journalism