Tag: humra quraishi

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With Ved Bhasin’s passing…

We are slowly losing the few voices of dissent in a changing world. Ved Bhasin’s was one of those voices.
Humra Quraishiby Humra Quraishi

When I first heard the news of the passing away of the Jammu-based veteran journalist Ved Bhasin this week, my first reaction was: ‘We have lost a brave man who spoke and wrote so fearlessly…’ Ved will always be remembered for writing with conviction and passion.

He was a soft-spoken man with a core of steel. You could be fooled by the mild serenity on his face, but he could surprise you with his sharp views. Never one to mince his words or dilute details of horrifying tragedies in the Kashmir region, he continued to be fearless in his writing to his last days.

I met him five times in my life, and every time he impressed with his bold insights. I once asked him, “Don’t you fear the backlash that your words can cause? The State machinery does not let anyone get away easily.” He just shook his head and said, “Right from my teenaged days, I never gave up a cause that affected people. I have already detailed the struggles and threats I have faced till date. I have my wife to thank for standing by me all these years – not once did she hold me back from exposing the truths about political corruption.”

Ved was one of the on-ground journalists who was an integral part of the changing landscape of Kashmir. As the region changed and became more vulnerable to attacks and militancy, Ved’s writings became fiercer, more incisive. He was always rooted in the Kashmir soil and very close to its people. For a person who had seen it all in the region, I often urged him to write his autobiography. Such a book, I explained, would trace the development of Kashmir and how the State machinery had always overlooked the upliftment of its masses. He would only smile and say, “Maybe someday I will.”

I wish he had. His autobiography would certainly be an extraordinary work, backed by extraordinary reportage rooted in a place of terrible beauty.

(Picture courtesy www.risingkashmir.com)

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Of intolerance and going against the grain

The question of what ‘others will think’ had surfaced during the Gujarat pogrom days of 2002. It appears again today.
Humra Quraishiby Humra Quraishi

‘What will foreigners think?’ is a recurring motif in our country whenever a political upheaval takes place.

I was attending a governing council meet in a Delhi college when the Gujarat pogrom in 2002 was peaking. Seated next to me was a woman lawyer who later became one of the spokespersons for the BJP. Towards the end of that meet, she asked me what I thought of the news reports on the killings in Gujarat.

I told her exactly what I thought. I said that all the facts should come out, the entire truth should be reported, the murderers must be identified and punished. I spoke against the BJP top brass in Gujarat. She was furious and hissed, “You journalists are writing all this…do you realise what foreigners will think of us?”

To which I hit back, “There is planned butchery on in Gujarat and you expect nobody to write the details? You kill and nobody will voice their anger and anguish about these murders? You are more concerned about what foreigners will think?”

In the autumn of 2015, things have moved far beyond mere outrage. It is good to see that anger is mounting against the Government of the day, that people are no longer content to sit back and let the rulers of the land get away with anything and everything. A silent revolt is on, and it is taking the form of awards being returned. It is heartening to see that the country’s intellectual powers – its writers, poets, authors, scientist, artists, film makers and entrepreneurs – are taking a stand against hooliganism and fascism. This is the class that can exert direct pressure on the Government to mend its ways.

The passing of Shamshad Hussain

Shamshad HussainMF Hussain’s artist son, Shamshad, passed away recently. I have always suspected that he never got his due owing to his illustrious father’s aura. A shy man who spoke less but did not mince his words, he was always to be spotted at demonstrations and gatherings to voice his dissent against divisive forces in the country.

He once told me about his childhood years: “I was admitted to a Gujarati medium school in Mumbai, but I did not fare well at all. I hated school so much that I ran away from home. On one of my run-away trips, I landed in New Delhi. I stayed in Jangpura.

“I had taken Art as a teenager but I never had the financial means to put up an exhibition. I never had enough money even for basic train fare when I was invited to hold my first exhibition in Hyderabad. My Jangpura landlady was a great woman: when she realised I had cancelled my travel plans because I had no money, she paid for my ticket and I could hold my first show!”

That first exhibition helped him establish himself in the art world, but through endless struggle. “Even during those struggling days, I never asked my father for money or favours of any sort. I wanted to struggle and reach my goal by myself…” He was more than pained when his father was bullied and forced to leave the country. I wonder what he would have to say about the situation in the country right now.

Humra Quraishi is a senior political journalist based in Gurgaon. She is the author of several books, including Kashmir: The Untold Story and Dagars and Dhrupad, among others.

(Pictures courtesy indianexpress.com. Image is a recent file picture. Shamshad Hussain picture courtesy www.snipview.com)

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The scary times I live in

Must we now think twice before eating food that ‘looks non-vegetarian’ or listening to music by our favourite Pakistani singers?
Humra Quraishiby Humra Quraishi

I have been on a visit to the Kashmir valley to study the situation at Ground Zero, where floods ravaged the area one year ago. The situation is as grim and heartbreaking as ever, with relief money still not reaching a majority of the intended beneficiaries.

Kashmir is more than furious at recent goings-on: with incidents of Right Wing goons attacking two Kashmiri truckers, Zahid Rasool and Showkat Ahmad and ink and paint thrown on MLA Engineer Rashid and the relatives of the two truckers who held a press meet in Delhi. Anger then gave way to rebellion after Zahid succumbed to this injuries later.

If the rulers of the day think they can get away with throttling voices of dissent, they must think again. Kashmir is on the brink of unprecedented chaos and there will surely come a time when one more incident will be the proverbial last straw.

But through the gloom shines the work of several NGOs and community outreach projects that have sprung up in the valley, trying to help the people in need. One of them deserves special mention: Nighat Shafi Pandit’s H.E.L.P. Foundation. It is doing a tremendous job holding programmes and workshops for women and children here. Also, the community itself is reaching out to each other. At least the floods have broken down the rich-poor divide.

And I returned home to find that the series of blatant, illogical attacks against Muslims – whether Indians or Pakistanis – continues. If it’s not the Shiv Sena trying to upstage a little-known Pakistani who has just released a book, then it is the Right Wing hooliganism at play against what their own countrymen say, eat or believe in. I, an Indian Muslim, am now terrified of being branded a Pakistani if I listen to the music of Ghulam Ali and express my outrage against the way we treated him in Mumbai. I am afraid to eat my soy nuggets lest some nut think I am eating beef and decides to attack me. I love Urdu shayari, but if I am caught humming it somewhere I might be attacked for promoting my mother tongue.

I have never before even thought of these things, but I think of them every day now. This is the state the current Government has reduced me to. If anyone wishes to witness how the 1947 Partition may have come about, I think current circumstances are a good reminder.

Humra Quraishi is a senior political journalist based in Gurgaon. She is the author of several books, including Kashmir: The Untold Story and Dagars and Dhrupad, among others.

(Image is used for representational purpose only)

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The homeless in Kashmir may be homeless forever

A visit to the Kashmir valley shows disturbing truths of how an apathetic Government is disinterested in helping homeless residents.
Humra Quraishiby Humra Quraishi

I have been restless and upset by the goings-on in the country. I decided to escape the news of the maddening incidents in Dadri and elsewhere with a trip to Kashmir. Only…there is no escaping any grim reminder of the present-day Indian realities when one reaches the Valley. For the reminders come brutally fast and thick here. If anything, one is filled with more despair at the plight of marginalised Indians in the country.

I travelled to Kashmir to report on flood victims and their survival in the backdrop of the fact that those rendered homeless by the ghastly floods are still homeless. Even after a year, as autumn paves way for another harsh winter, there has been no Government assistance to these people. Besides a sense of deep gloom, there is also simmering disgust at the PDP joining hands with the BJP. The latter is widely perceived as a dangerous communal force that will only bring ruin to the Valley.

Even as the BJP makes inroads in the region, I was taken aback at how bitter the average Kashmiri is about the state of his or her life in the State. From cab drivers to persons of the elite class, the opinion is unanimous: the PDP made a huge mistake by partnering with the BJP, and there is hope (even at this late hour) if the two were to part ways. The anger stems from the perception that the RSS is guiding the hands of the BJP in Kashmir (as in other places) and this can only lead to destruction of everything that Kashmiris hold dear.

A young gentleman I met there was vocal about the BJP and Modi. “How can Modi sarkar talk of a Common Civil Code while Muslims and Dalits and Christians are treated like third class citizens?” he wondered. “The Government hangs Yaqub Memon and Afzal Guru, but spares Hindu terrorists from Mumbai to Karnataka to Uttar Pradesh to Madhya Pradesh! Even if one does not want to equate terrorism with any religion, these lapses make one think along these lines. Why are Ministers like Mahesh Sharma allowed to speak whatever they please? Will ordinary citizens like myself be allowed to make provocative statements and not get arrested?”

I also write today about Engineer Rasheed, J&K’s only independent MLA, who I met on October 5, a couple of days after he hosted his infamous beef party. He told me he was a qualified engineer but decided to contest elections to save himself from police brutality – he has faced a lot of it in his younger days. “I wasn’t politically inclined, my basic idea in standing for elections was to save myself from police threats and torture.

“I have gone through hell all through my adult years. I have been wrongly imprisoned, tortured in lock-ups…” He is so wary of the police that he has declined police protection even as an MLA! “I am not comfortable with the police and I have declined all forms of security. I have declined escort vehicles, too.”

Such is the State of affairs, then, that even an MLA shies away from contact with the police. Can one imagine what the ordinary Kashmiri goes through?

Humra Quraishi is a senior political journalist based in Gurgaon. She is the author of several books, including Kashmir: The Untold Story and Dagars and Dhrupad, among others.

(Picture courtesy www.ipsnews.net. Image is used for representational purpose only)

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The silence of Narendra Modi

Is the PM waiting to comment on communal killings on one of his foreign jaunts? Nothing else explains his silence.
Humra Quraishiby Humra Quraishi

It is an appalling state of affairs in India at the moment.

The Prime Minister spoke eloquently about cleanliness last year, and even posed for a series of pictures to put himself in the media glare with his Swacch Bharat Abhiyaan. The movement is, since then (ironically enough) gathering dust. Just like everything else – there is no cleanliness left in this country any more. And the onus is on PM Modi to start the drive again.

I refer not to the physical filth in the country, but to the moral rot setting in by degrees against minorities. The PM needs to weed out and clean his own ministers who are accused of playing prominent roles in making light of these serious attacks. Take for instance Dr Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State (Independent charge) for Tourism and Culture. For the last several weeks, this physician-turned-politician has been airing obnoxious views on our TV sets. Last week an innocent man was killed in Dr Sharma’s Greater Noida constituency and he termed the killing as a haadsa (accident).

Is this the next step in communal politics? Brand a communal incident as an accident, so that it dilutes or sabotages the investigations? And who will put a stop to these horrific killings in the name of religious sanctity? When will PM Modi break his silence?

We often discount our own terror at these incidents, and tell ourselves that these are stray incidents. But I have been wondering about tourists coming to our lands. Apart from the regular occurrence of rapes, which tourist will feel safe moving around freely in these same areas? Will these communally-charged mobs be lynched for eating mutton or beef in these same areas where Indians are killed for the same offence?

Mr Modi, when will you start branding these mobs as ‘terrorists’?

This is a militant form of Hindutva that all of us will have to grapple with in the coming days. It started from the killing and terrorising of the Muslim population in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh. The faces of terror in that incident were known well before the actual findings were made public. But these faces continue to be feted in the public arena, nobody has called them out for spreading terror. One of them is now a Minister – Sanjeev Balyan is the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing!

And yet, there is no official statement or even a one-line comment from the PMO. Or is Mr Modi waiting to say something on the matter when he is on one of his many foreign trips?

Break your silence, Mr PM. It is now or never.

Humra Quraishi is a senior political journalist based in Gurgaon. She is the author of Kashmir: The Untold Story and co-author of Simply Khushwant.

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Saudi Arabia’s not doing so well

…in the news, that is. Three separate and grisly incidents have focussed a harsh spotlight on one of the world’s richest countries.
Humra Quraishiby Humra Quraishi

This month has not been a kind one for Saudi Arabia. The country has been thrust into the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

First came the crane tragedy at Mecca that killed hundreds of pilgrims and injured more than 300 people. Such a thing has been unheard of in this country, and it rightly shook Saudi Arabia and the rest of the world when the news first broke. At the moment, an official fact finding mission is on to ascertain the cause of the accident, there are thousands of rumours swirling about the place.

Theories ranging from sabotage to foul play by foreign players are constantly doing the rounds. What really happened out there?

Then the country put its foot firmly in its mouth with its ‘offer’ to build mosques in Germany if the latter takes in Syrian refugees. Not only is this offer bizarre but it borders on the idiotic. Firstly, why would Germany need this country’s intervention to build mosques on its land? Why would it need to build mosques in the first place? And second, what stops Saudi Arabia from taking in the Syrian refugees themselves? This is a country with more money and land than it knows what to do with. It can easily offer help and refuge while it sets up schools, hospitals, food canteens and camps for the Syrian refugees.

But no, it contends itself with making strange proposals to other countries after asking them to help those in need. What is the Government thinking, and why the studied silence on the issue of accepting refugees through its own borders?

And then there was the news of the Saudi diplomat accused of raping and torturing his Nepalese domestic help and her daughter in New Delhi. There is no concrete conclusion in the case yet and the man himself remains out of the public eye owing to his diplomatic immunity. How long does it take to complete such an investigation? Or are there wheels within wheels, due to which the investigation is taking so much time?

Questions that nobody is willing to answer…

Humra Quraishi is a senior political journalist based in Gurgaon. She is the author of Kashmir: The Untold Story and co-author of Simply Khushwant. Her latest book Dagars and Dhrupad is out now.

(Picture courtesy www.ndtv.com)

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