Letters to the Editor: Ban on Tablighi Jamaat

The Islamic movement Tablighi Jamaat, founded in 1927 by Muhammad Ilyas Al-Kandlawi, was recently banned by Islamic nation Saudi Arabia citing the reason that it is one of the 'gates of terrorism and danger to society. The organization claims to practice and follow Islamic behaviour and cultural practices espoused during the lifetime of the Great Prophet Muhammad. In a tweet on 6th December, the middle eastern country's Ministry of Islamic Affairs Dr Abdullatif Al_Alsheikh directed the mosque's preachers and the mosques that organize Friday prayers to summon the citizens of the misguidance, deviation and danger of the Tablighi Jamaat in the country. The Jamaat's interpretation of 'Jihad' as personal purification rather than holy war has also been denounced by the Saudi clerics in many past instances. The famous Pew Research Centre has noted that Tablighi's Islamic missionary activities are taken advantage of by the radical elements to spread violence around the world. In India, though there is no direct link or contribution of the Tablighis in terror activities what has been found is that some people who were part of it end up in the folds of Islamic terror groups which are waging a proxy war with India with the support of Pakistan's ISI module.

Last year, when the Coronavirus spread its tentacles on Indian soil, Tablighi Jamaat activities were of concern to the Union government. The followers of Tablighi Jamaat did not cooperate with the government in getting themselves tested for the virus. In fact, the disciples ran away and later on it was proved that Tablighi Jamaat members were the super spreader of the virus. In Assam, many Tablighis was found hiding in some mosques even after repeated appeals by the government to come out for medical examination. Till today, many Tablighis are absconding. Going by the Saudi Arabia ban, the Indian government should also keep a close tab on their activities because our country has many past records of terror activities by radical Islamic terrorist organizations and most of these radicals' groups like ISIS, JEM, Indian Mujaheddin have many home-grown activists who are brainwashed by radical elements to wage war against the country.

Julie Bhuyan,

Gaurisagar.

Revolutionary changes in election process

The Cabinet has cleared the bill on electoral reforms including the allowing of voluntary Aadhaar-Voter ID linking. The Election Commission had proposed amendments to curb multiple enrollments of the same individual at different places and now the Election Commission will seed the Aadhaar number with electoral rolls on a voluntary basis. According to the bill cleared by the cabinet, the electoral law will be made "gender-neutral" for service voters. Another provision of the bill will allow new voters to enrol on four different dates every year. As of now, those turning 18 on or before January 1 of every year are only allowed to register as voters and according to this clause is a person completes 18 on January 2 then the same person has to wait for one year to register as a voter. An army man's wife is entitled to be enrolled as a service voter but a woman army officer's husband is not according to the existing provisions. The ECI had asked the Law Ministry to replace the term 'wife' with 'spouse' in the provision in the Representation of the People's Act related to the service voters. The linking of this proposal is long pending. EC launched the National Electoral Law Purification and Authentication Programme to link the Aadhaar number with the voter ID number, the programme was stalled after the Supreme Court ordered that the use of the Aadhaar would be optional for availing of welfare schemes. The bill on these reforms cleared by the government is likely to be introduced in the ongoing winter session but as the ruckus is already going on in parliament on different matters so the fate of these bills is uncertain whether these bills can be placed before parliament during this ongoing Winter session? I have been nominated district Icon for PwDs for the Assembly elections to be held in February-March 2022 so I appeal to all eligible voters to cast their votes positively so that target of hundred per cent polling may be achieved and in this way we shall strengthen the Indian democracy and make India a more matured democratic country.

Yash Pal Ralhan,

Jalandhar 144003

COVID-19 and air pollution

Air pollution has been a widespread and visible concern that has increased significantly over the last decade across many parts of India with several consequences for human health and well being. The novel Coronavirus termed COVID-19 by World Health Organization (WHO) first emerged in late December 2019 in Wuhan, China. In early March 2020, due to its rapid spread, the WHO declared COVID-19 as a pandemic. As COVID-19 is highly transmissible along with a high mortality rate, countries worldwide have taken various precautionary measures, such as large-scale COVID-19 screening tests, quarantine, social distancing, wearing of masks, sanitization of hand etc. India took unprecedented measures to contain the infection from across borders and within its territory. International travel and non-essential travel visas were suspended on March 13, 2020. The Indian Railways shut down its operations on March 23, 2020, for the first time in history spanning over 167 years. On 24 March 2020, the Government of India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered a 21-day nationwide lockdown phase-1 enforced from March 25 to April 14, which was extended further until May 31, 2021. Divided into different phases the lockdown has its own impact on the environment. Recent studies have reported improvement in air quality due to restrictions placed upon industrial activities during the lockdown. Climate scientists have indicated that greenhouse gases (GHGs) concentrations could drop to levels not seen since World War II. Highly industrialized cities located in cold climate zones observed a higher reduction in air pollution. Gujarat, which is the industrial state in Western India, observed a significant reduction in major air pollutions during the lockdown period, mainly due to restrictions on traffic and slowdown of production in factories. The COVID-19 has affected people's lives in many ways. However, it has a good impact on the environment.

Parilina Das,

Mirza.