Ban Road Namaz

Sir Humphrey: If you want to be really sure that the Minister doesn't accept it, you must say the decision is "courageous".

Bernard: And that's worse than "controversial"?

Sir Humphrey: Oh, yes! "Controversial" only means "this will lose you votes". "Courageous" means "this will lose you the election"!

The political wisdom of Sir Humphrey Appleby from “Yes, Minister” seems profoundly eternal. That’s the way Babus make decisions for ministers. Recently, the GOI decided to recruit some non-IAS professionals directly as Joint Secretaries. The IAS officers revolted and so did some in the Opposition and media. The govt must have asked the Chief Secy what to do and he would have advised: “Look, this decision may get you some applause but not any votes. But you may lose some 100000 votes of IAS officers for this controversial decision”. WITHDRAWN! Ditto the decision on ceasefire in Kashmir during Ramzan. The Home Secy would have told the GOI “It will be a controversial decision but you will not lose any votes. However, you will get applause from all your enemies and the media”. DONE! Ceasefire announced.

So, as you can see, most govt decisions are not based on conviction or what is right but on whether it will impact votes or popularity. One such decision that is now appalling is the “official approval” of Namaz on the streets when it clearly violates written laws in this country. Recently on Eid in Mumbai, the govt not only allowed Eid on the roads but even bragged about being a great unifier. This “Road Namaz” didn’t exist earlier but started sometime in the early 1990s as Muslims started asserting their religion with various symbols – Mouche-less beard, long kurtas and baggy pyjamas, skull caps and Namaz on the streets. The Namaz on streets has progressively gotten worse and has now become a “Right” for the community. Roads apart, even railway tracks are now owned by them:

 

In some cities, this road-Namaz is not merely an Eid feature, this is now a regular Friday feature that creates nuisance for commuters and halts traffic, especially in narrow streets. Sometimes, this Friday feature also leads to clashes and violence. In the first week of May 2018, some vigilantes stopped Namaz in some public place in Gurugram and the govt also stated that they should do prayers in the mosque or in private places. Naturally, the Sickulars were quickly up in arms. Saba Naqvi grandly screamed the right to pray was being snatched and Shekhar Gupta parroted groups that demand space for Namaz:

 

Does it occur to the moron Naqvi that praying on the streets meant for vehicles is not a “Right”? How does a govt stopping occupation of streets for prayers amount to snatching the “Right to pray”? This is nothing but Jihadi logic that seeks to assert and impose Islam on everyone. The other Dalal-street champion, Shekhar Gupta, parrots some groups demanding govt should provide space. Why? Is the govt some Mullah charity organisation that should provide space? The Muslim Wakf board is one of the biggest land occupiers in India. They don’t want to provide space but want govt to dole them space. Appeasement leads to “begging” becoming a natural “Right” and “Entitlement”. And there is CB Naidu of Andhra, in his fancy dress with a goatee, who grandly announces that his govt has built thousands of mosques. This is the same NCBN who wants special status and more money for AP. For what? To build mosques?

There is another thing that is bothersome. I have often wondered why everyone wishes “Peaceful Eid” in all their messages on Eid. We are used to “Happy Diwali” or “Happy Christmas” or “Merry Christmas”. Why the “peaceful” in Eid messages? Are they always expecting some incident that should be avoided? In fact, it does seem that every Eid there are violent clashes at some places just like violence erupts in some places after Friday Namaz. These reports from the recent Eid celebrations don’t even shock people anymore:

On the left, there were Muslims celebrating Eid with Jihadi songs and abuse of India and shouting pro-Pakistan slogans. On the right is a report on Dalit-Muslim clashes in UP on Eid day. Elsewhere in Karnataka, a Mullah called Tanvir Hashmi in his speech claimed the “Muslim community” is above all in this country, including the PM and President. Just what exactly are these people trying to assert? That no law is applicable to them and they will do exactly as they please because govts are cowards that refuse to act against them? The BJP even goes to that Imam Bukhari of Delhi for “Sampark” nonsense when that man has multiple warrants on his head. Once this Bukhari’s lawyer grandly told the Delhi HC that there will be riots if he is arrested, along with his other arrogant, nonchalant threats to the State.

The ModiSarkar was elected to put an end to lawlessness in any form. If PM Modi grandly slams Cow vigilantes, he also owes it to the nation to stop the road Namaz and also arrest those Mullahs who covertly wage war against India through their speeches. “Sabka saath, Sabka vikas” certainly doesn’t mean a license to lawlessness for one community or the other. ModiSarkar was also elected to bring India back to her original cultural values and road Namaz and threatening speeches aren’t some of those. Former President Pranab Mukherjee clearly said Mughals are invaders at his RSS speech and the current Islamic community is “invading” streets with Namaz in the same assertion of those Mughals.

Everyone has a right to pray, nobody has a right to pray on the streets or roads. Muslim women do Namaz at home, if their men don’t have space in mosques they can do so at home. There is no rule in Islam that Muslims have to take to the streets for mass prayers. This is not even allowed in Islamic countries. And stupidos who defend this nonsense, like Saba or some Rehman, claim this is only for a few minutes:

This is an absolute LIE that these people peddle. In 5-7 minutes, the Namazis don’t even settle down to pray. The whole exercise takes nothing less than 45 minutes to an hour and on Eid it might take longer. These people compare wedding processions or Kawariyas to the road Namaz. This is bogus equation. Wedding processions keep moving as do Kawariyas and Ganesh processions. They don’t squat and occupy the street for long periods. Of course, the other nuisance of loudspeakers is not even being touched upon despite so many complaints. And because BJP govts are afraid to deal with this and are unwilling to enforce the law, they grandly allow the practice and claim it as a great virtue of society:

This is outright nonsense when the govt itself becomes an accomplice in violating laws and obstructing the movement of citizens and then mocking the citizens by bragging about it as a great act of integrity. Shame on such govts. Yesterday, June 21, Yoga Day was celebrated in many parts of the world. Yoga takes much longer than Namaz for one celebratory session. But nowhere in the world was Yoga conducted on the streets. All over, Yoga was celebrated in private grounds, lawns, public squares meant for assembly or open spaces where traffic is not affected. Even near the Eiffel tower, no traffic was obstructed nor at the United Nations:

Therefore, even the mass Namaz on Eid can be done at municipal grounds, stadiums and other institutions with prior permission. If some places cost a bit of rent, I am sure they would give discounts or even waive that for a special occasion. But that is not what these Muslims want. It is not that they cannot get spaces to pray. It is not that their mass crowd for Namaz cannot be accommodated in ground or stadium. It definitely can. What they want is obstruction of roads to assert their authority, assert their religion over others and assert that they will not be subject to ordinary law like others. I am sure, ModiSarkar does not have the guts to stop this nonsense in its current avatar. I can only hope PM Modi finds the courage to ban this road-Namaz business once and for all in a second term.

Yesterday (June 21), a woman at a passport office in Lucknow threw a massive fit over some documents required over her married name or the name being different in her application. Being Muslim, she instantly played victim, the media bigots lapped it up. Then Sushma Swaraj intervened immediately because of media reports, passport done over an hour and the RPO transferred. Over and over again, ModiSarkar is proving to be scared and afraid of following the law and procedures when it comes to Muslims. If the Congress was brazenly Chrislamist and anti-Hindu, the BJP is proportionately cowardly in its Dhimmitude.

Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas DOES NOT mean one community can be allowed to be lawless all the time, while others are punished for flimsy reason. Sabka Saath also means the law should be uniform for all and occupying roads for Namaz is not equality. Even open defecation on rail tracks on the edge of roads or railway tracks does not stop traffic. If that is offensive, then occupying roads in mass numbers and obstructing traffic is a worse crime that needs to be ended.

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Rambo-II: The Lies Of India

In his book of ‘7 Habits’ the late Stephen Covey discusses the principle of “Measure twice, cut once”. It’s a principle that tailors and carpenters have followed religiously for ages as a professional practice. Once cut, cannot be reversed. The same should be true for those claiming to be journalists. Before shooting off something they need to fact-check, they need to double-check. As ordinary folks, you and I can believe events and pics from anywhere but why should paid journalists be fooled by those? But even ordinary people are now measuring twice. In the previous post I had talked about the dubious and frivolous nature of IBN editors’ comments. That IBN is a communal channel that hates anything in saffron is not a big secret. Here’s another one from the channel who shot off her fingers:

Her name is Rituparna Chatterjee and she does something with movies in CNN-IBN and her Twitter handle is appropriately named “Masalabai”. On August 6 she tweeted pics claiming Baba Ramdev was “gettin’ jiggy” with it. Someone points out the pics are not real BRD. She insists “it is”. Turns out the guy was Sunil Talwar (some alleged actor) portraying BRD and dancing around. Masalabai then says “In all likelihood a morphed picture or a lookalike. I take no responsibility”. Fact: The pics she tweeted were from the same pages that reported Sunil Talwar in BRD garb that is shown above. So she deliberately and mischievously tweeted the pics. That’s right; if alleged journalists took some ‘responsibility’ there wouldn’t be so much contempt for our media.

So when a mall in Ahmedabad, Himalaya Mall, decided to charge Rs.20 as entry fee on Eid weekend beginning Friday, August 9 the Times Of India screamed this was being charged only from Muslims. Welcome to Rambo-II: The lies of India. The TOI from being a respected journal now has many names. It’s called the TOI-let paper. If that sounds offensive some call it a more respectable “Slimes of India”. Here’s how they screamed:

The report claimed discrimination against Muslims in “Narendra Modi’s Gujarat”. Some people pointed out that anti-India violence, LeT flags hoisted and shops and houses burnt at Kishtwar (in J&K) is not in “Omar Abdullah’s J&K” but some mall charging an entry fee in Ahmedabad becomes associated with Modi. That’s why TOI is known “slimes” and they’re not alone in this hate-Modi campaign. But like that bimbo Masalabai there’s that other bimbo of IBN who shoots off his mouth. Here’s Ashutosh, again first off the block with mindless hatred:

So he falls for the story, doesn’t measure twice and shoots off his prejudiced, hate-filled head and even says that India will not breathe if we don’t heed these warning signs. My response? Breathe in a bit of Gujarat! YES. Inhale crap from IBN, NO! Even Rajdeep Sardesai couldn’t resist the temptation.

But in this case let’s give Rajdeep the benefit of doubt. After all, with a “Suprabhat” he was merely tweeting headlines as they appeared in media. Not only that, he also had his local reporter double-check on the situation and offered a clarification while slamming the “Slimes of India”. So where does that leave the “Liars of India”? This Himalaya Mall in Ahmedabad is located in a predominantly Hindu area in Ahmedabad. There might be just a minor sprinkling of Muslim households in a radius of 5 kms of this mall. Of course, on a festive holiday Muslims can turn up from far-off places too, especially when you consider new movies release on Friday. This time the rush must have been for SRK-Deepika’s ‘Chennai Express’. Let’s first look at all the reports of August 10:

TOI Ahmedabad Mirror reports “Mall charges visitors Eidi”. Then TOI main edition carries the story as “On Eid, Ahmedabad mall charges entry fee from Muslims”. The latter edition clearly reports discrimination against Muslims. Following the outrage on SM and Twitter TOI stated they stand by the story: “Profiling on Eid indeed took place at Ahmedabad mall”. Here are two pics that were included in the Ahmedabad Mirror report.

Observe closely that unless you’re wearing a skullcap or the traditional (Pathani?) Muslim dress it is hard to tell if you’re a Muslim. If the US profiles Muslims at its immigration checks it’s by the names in the passports and other IDs. Even Kamal Haasan was held up because his name sounds like a Muslim one although he claims to be an atheist. That would be “profiling”. How in the world can you tell if a man is Muslim (other than the caps, long beard or garb). Most Muslim men dress the same way as a Hindu or a Christian. One can mostly tell a Sikh by the turban, although there are Sikhs who don’t wear one. So this crap from TOI is merely based on loose-talk and rumours. In the top pic, most of the people in the queue and getting in are not in any Muslim garb. Or to rephrase AK Antony “they were dressed up as Hindus”? Women at the mall were anyway allowed in free so thankfully that hasn’t become an issue.

I visit this Himalaya Mall quite frequently and know for a fact that the open floor at the mall can hold no more than 200-300 people comfortably at one time. The management claims a footfall of 10000 on a normal day which goes up to 30000 on holidays/festival days. So one can imagine the rush and the security threats it poses. Even in the rush it is impossible that a majority of visitors are Muslims. In that location, it is always Hindus in a huge majority. So the TOI group has done nothing more than a “whack-job” (to use a mafia term). People who have visited the mall on Friday (including my friends) have laughed at the idea of discrimination against Muslims. The entire reporting is either based on loose-talk and hearsay or a pure unadulterated filth. If there had indeed been discrimination the entire media, along with TOI, would have feasted on the incident. The TOI seems to be motivated as reflected in their “view” appended at the end of the TOI edition:

Now what exactly does the action of private business units like malls have to do with Narendra Modi? Well, that is precisely the motive behind the TOI’s whack-job. The mall is just a nail to hammer Modi with. TOI seems sworn to a policy of tarring Modi no matter what. Even with fake stories. I call this entire episode of “discrimination against Muslims” by TOI a fraudulent piece of reporting. TOI has a tradition of spewing nonsense and standing by its stories. It carried that fraudulent piece of “Rambo Act” by Modi during the Uttarakhand floods. It stood by the fake story till the entire media had milked it dry. Then 15 or 21 days later the paper made a small retraction in small corner on page 8 or 9. Lie BIG, retract SMALL. That’s the rule with news media and TOI is the leader.

The Himalaya Mall is reported to have issued a circular (image above) to its store owners that such an entry fee will be charged due to expected rush. Their notice informs the stores to redeem the Rs.20 fee against purchases made by the visitor. So practically, a visitor paying the fee gets a refund if he purchases something, which most Mall visitors do. Here’s a tweet from someone in Kochi mentioning a mall charges Rs.100 entry fee which can be redeemed against purchases. It is neither a strange nor an unusual practice that would call for discrimination against any community.

Business units neither like such adverse publicity nor the associated controversies. They prefer to get out of these. The Himalaya Mall has since dropped the entry fee since these reports which TOI’s Ahmedabad Mirror proclaims is because of its reports. Load of rubbish! Business units know newspapers and media blackmail them with the threat of more adverse reports if they are challenged. Himalaya Mall just took the simple way out and dropped the entry fee. The criminal here is TOI. Look the URL below:

“http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/index.aspx?page=article&sectid=3&contentid=” (Report)

The first time on August 10, the URL report was “Mall charges visitors Eidi”. Now the same URL says “Mall scraps ‘unfair’ entry fee” (The link I posted earlier with the pics is a snapshot I retained of the first headlined article. Yeah, people have to keep snapshots owing to the deception of media). If what TOI reported was true, why did they delete their original report and replace it with the new headline? This is a fraud on the readers. This is nothing but Rambo-II: The Lies of India. Lesson for news consumers: Never trust the media or the reporters at the first instance, except for live visuals that you see. Wait for a double-check and confirmation on social media or from your own references.