Srinagar: As the Indian Constitution is committed to the
equality of citizens and prohibits discrimination on grounds of
religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. It is the responsibility
of the state to preserve, protect and assure the rights of minorities.
The United Nations Declaration on the Human Rights of persons belonging
to National, Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities enjoins states
to protect the identity of such minorities within their respective
territories and also to encourage conditions for the promotion of that
identity. Appropriate emphasis is therefore required to be given to
protect the interests of minorities and ensure that they do not lag
behind in the progress and development of the society.
On
23-10-1993 Government has notified Muslims, Sikhs, Christians,
Buddhists, Zorastrians (Parsis) as “the minority communities” under
clause [C] of Section 2 of the NCM Act, 1992. The International
Information Resource Centre has just released Database of Government
Funding Schemes for NGOs/Institutions in CD-Rom/Print/e-mail edition.
This
is a first database of its kind which covers all Government Financial
Schemes in all the sectors including the policies, guidelines,
Notifications, Circulars & Press Releases, Application Forms,
Declarations, Specimens, and hundreds of schemes of Government of India.
The
database of Government of India Schemes is a outcome of a survey of all
Government Institutions and Departments during the last five years.
Editor Sheikh Gulzaar from International Information Resource Centre and
his colleagues have collected details of Government Funding Schemes.
Government
at both Central and State levels encourages particulars of the NGO's in
developmental and welfare activities. Certain approved programmes are
implemented through NGO's. International Information Resource Centre has
published 850 pages of e-book on the Government of India schemes and
centrally sponsored schemes. The database of Government of India Schemes
is an outcome of a survey of all Government Institutions and
Departments during the last 3 years. More details:
International
Information Resource Centre
Ist Street, Nambalbal, Pampore PPR
J&K 192121, Contact person:
Ed. Sheikh Gulzaar, (Programme
Incharge)
Ph: 09858986794, 01933-223705
E-mail:
iirc@rediffmail.com
web : http://ngoinindia.blogspot.com
(Announcement)
GREETINGS from far away Pampore.I’d like to tell readers about a very special man I have met here. His name is Ed. Sheikh GULZAAR.He is a plant breeder who collects rare and vanishing species of plants, herbs and spices. For the past 20 years he has devoted himself to developing many varieties of plants that can survive in difficult conditions. His one wish is to share his seeds of wild herbs and flowers with plant lovers elsewhere. He is happy to send seeds to all friends readers living in colder climates. Please write to:
Mr. Sheikh GULZAAR
PO Box 667 GPO Srinagar SGR JK 190001
THE STATE OF KASHMIR
(Via New Delhi-India)
e.mail: cikashmir@gmail.com
http://www.chenabindustries.blogspot.com
Srinagar: Feb, 08: More than a dozen NGOs from India in association with their Pakistani counterparts are planning a march in May this year to promote peace and harmony in the region.
According to Feroze Mithiborwala - President of Awami Bharat, the March that would be a combination of a Rath-cum-Padyatra would begin from Mumbai and follow the route from Dahanu (Maharashtra), Surat, Baroda, Ahmedabad, Mehsana - (Gujarat), Udaipur, Chittorgarh, Ajmer, Jaipur (Rajasthan), Agra, Mathura - (Uttar Pradesh), Delhi, Panipat - (Haryana), Chandigargh (Haryana-Punjab), Ludhiana, Amristsar (Punjab), Wagah (India-Pakistan border) before entering Pakistan and culminating in Karachi.
The march is expected to travel over 2000 kilometers in India and around 1000 kilometers in Pakistan by May 31, 2010.
Stating that a consensus is building for India and Pakistan peace and a vast majority of people in both the countries are in favor of peace, Feroze Mithiborwala said, "At the time when both the governments are now conducting discussions, we would only be adding to the climate & creating a larger space within the people of the two countries, as well as the powers that be."
Titled as India-Pakistan pilgrimage for peace and harmony, the march has been borrowed from Mahatma Gandhi's Salt Satyagraha launched during the British rule in the Indian subcontinent.
"Considering the religio-cultural history of South Asia, that has a deep devotion to Sufi & Bhakti Saints & for where Pilgrimages, either to Amarnath or Ajmer, are a holy & spiritually purifying act, we chose the name for our peace march", added Feroze.
"Throughout the course of our journey for peace, we would appeal to people to contribute a Mutthi bhar mitti - fist full of soil, that would then be collected from every city, town & village along the way. By this, people would feel that they are a part of the larger process of peace & unity", he said.
Noting that Peepal is the tree under which Buddha received his enlightenment and South Asia currently needs a generous dose of the same kind of enlightenment, he said, "We will also carry saplings - preferably Peepal from each of these places & plant them in the "GARDEN OF PEACE" that we will create along with a "PILLAR OF PEACE" or Bharat-Pakistan Shanti Stambh. This could then be made in all the cities towns & villages across the two countries."
"We do need a lot of emotional markers on our cultural landscape - We will create the same with the soil of the two countries", he noted. (Writer-South Asia)
Srinagar:
Feb 5th : Since 1991, Pakistanis from around the world,
observe the 5th of February as a day to express solidarity with the people of
Kashmir, who have been the victims of the worst Indian state terrorism for
struggling and rendering unparalleled sacrifices to achieve their birth right,
the right to self-determination, for the past six decades. There are several
reasons why Pakistan
and its people express solidarity with Kashmiris. The most striking is the
strong cultural, religious and geographical bond which for centuries has tied
the people of both areas into one unity. Moreover, the people of Pakistan rightly feel that Kashmir
is the unfinished business of the partition of the subcontinent.
To understand the importance of the observance of
Kashmir Solidarity Day, one needs to understand the history of India’s occupation of Kashmir,
which dates back to the partition of the subcontinent in 1947 after a century
of British rule. According to the Partition Plan of June 3, 1947, the
subcontinent was to be divided into two sovereign states. The Hindu-majority
areas were to form India and
the Muslim-majority areas were to be included in the state of Pakistan.
Under the criterion of partition, the princely
states had to accede either to Pakistan
or to India,
keeping in consideration the geographical situation and communal demography.
Being a Muslim-majority state, with an 87% Muslim population, Kashmir had a
natural tendency to accede to Pakistan,
but the evil designs of its then Hindu ruler and the Indian National Congress
paved the way to destroy the future of millions of people of Kashmir.
India
occupied the state by deploying its army there on October 27, 1947, in total
disregard to the spirit of the partition plan and against the Kashmiris’
aspirations.
The people of Kashmir
did not accept the illegal Indian occupation from day one and have been
conducting their liberation struggle ever since. They started an armed struggle
supported by a public uprising. On January 1, 1948, realizing that its troops
could be defeated by the Kashmiri Mujahedeen (freedom fighters), India
approached the United Nations Security Council, which in its successive
resolutions, accepted by both Pakistan and India, approved a ceasefire,
demarcation of a ceasefire line, and demilitarization of the state and called
for a free and impartial plebiscite to be conducted under the supervision of
the UN. The demarcation of ceasefire resulted in dividing Kashmir into two
parts, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Indian
Occupied Kashmir. Phase one of the UN resolutions — the ceasefire — was
implemented while demilitarization of the territory and the holding of a
plebiscite under the UN umbrella remains unimplemented till this day. One of
India’s founding fathers and its first prime minister, Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru,
whose government took the Kashmir issue to the United Nations, told the Indian
Constituent Assembly on November 25, 1947: ‘In order to establish our
bonafides, we have suggested that, when the people (of Kashmir) are given the
chance to decide their future, this should be done under the supervision of an
impartial tribunal such as the United Nations. ‘On June 26, 1952, Nehru told
Indian parliament, ‘If … the people of Kashmir
do not wish to remain with us, let them go by all means; we will not keep them
against their will, however painful it may [be] for us.’
The most deplorable aspect of the Kashmir dispute
is that India itself had
taken the issue to the United Nations but later backed away from the promises
it had made in front of the international community regarding the settlement of
the dispute and allowing the people of Kashmir
the right to self-determination.
India
has committed numerous human rights violations in Kashmir.
And still it tries to project itself as a secular and peaceful democracy. If India is so confident that the people of Kashmir have full faith in the Indian Constitution and
that the overwhelming participation of Kashmiris in recent elections is proof
of that, and then let it hold a plebiscite in line with the decades-old UN
resolutions. What is India
afraid of? All we are asking is to grant Kashmiris the right to decide for
themselves.
Freedom of thought and expression is the most
fundamental of human rights. There are a few countries in the world that claim
to be democratic but are actually barbaric. They hide their war crimes by using
their official and private media as a war machine. India is one of these countries, which
has used all types of brutal force against Kashmiris but has been evading
criticism because of the worst press censorship. To die is poignantly bitter,
but the idea of having to die without having lived is unbearable.
Despite committing grave human rights violations,
India
tries to deceive the world by presenting itself as a “secular and the largest”
democracy. For how long will the world stand by and allow this genocide to
continue? UN should wake up to the blatant violations of the Geneva Conventions
and the UN Charter by the Indian troops. These troops have been given a free
hand to kill, detain and torture any person irrespective of their age and
gender under the draconian and black laws, such as the Armed Forces (Special
Powers) Act - 1958, Public Safety Act (PSA) - 1978 and the Jammu And Kashmir
Disturbed Areas Act - 1992. Indian forces have killed nearly one hundred
thousand innocent Kashmiris. Youth have suffered the most as the Indian troops
suspect them to be freedom fighters. Fake encounters, custodial deaths and
enforced disappearances are common in the Indian-occupied Kashmir.
However, the steadfast Kashmiris are, in fact writing an inspiring golden
chapter in their epic history by making supreme sacrifices with the advent of
every sunup. Nowhere in the world, has such a ghastly state terrorism existed.
On the other hand Pakistan
is very sincere in solving the Kashmir issue. Pakistan has always invited India for starting the peace dialogue again
after the 26/11 attacks but India
has always run away from it. Pakistan
has repeatedly emphasized that it would never accept any option for the
resolution of the core issue between Pakistan
and India,
which goes against Kashmiris’ aspirations. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari
and Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani have repeatedly said that Kashmir belongs to the Kashmiris and they are the
arbiters of their fate.
The core issue of Kashmir, between India and Pakistan,
has led Pakistan
to face three wars and have devoted a major portion of their national incomes
to defense budgets. World leaders have stressed the need to resolve the Kashmir
dispute between India and Pakistan to
avoid an eventuality that may cause a catastrophe in the region. Kashmir is the
nuclear flash point of Asia, surrounded by three
nuclear powers. It is incumbent on the international community in general and
governing world bodies in particular to intervene and force India to stop
shedding innocent Kashmiri blood. Kashmiris should have the right to decide
their fate according to the UN resolutions, which were adopted to resolve the
issue. Without any doubt, Kashmir is jugular vein of Pakistan and it cannot evidently
abandon it under any conditions. With both the South Asian neighbours armed
with nuclear weapons, another conventional war on Kashmir has the potential to
turn into a nuclear exchange that could be disastrous not only for South Asia
but for the world at large. September 11, 2001 changed the course of history.
The formation of the US led alliance to combat terrorism provided the Indians
the perfect excuse to turn back on their promise of finding a just and lasting
solution to the Kashmir issue based on the
wishes of the Kashmiris. They tried to confuse world opinion by pinning the
blame on Pakistan
for aiding the ‘militants’ through ‘cross-border terrorism’. The observance of
the Kashmir Solidarity Day is, thus an unambiguous manifestation of Pakistan’s
commitment to the veracity. Thus the 5th of February is a day to acknowledge
Kashmiris’ struggle for justice, peace, truth, and fundamental human rights. (Writer-South
Asia)
