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Archives for November 2018

Sikh farmer inducted into Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame

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A Canadian Sikh farmer, who is the country’s biggest cranberry grower, has made history with his induction into the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame.

The British Columbia-based Peter Dhillon is the first person of visible minority to join the company of great Canadians who have made their mark in agriculture and agro-food business.

Dhillon is also the current chairman of Ocean Spray – a marketing cooperative of cranberry farmers in the US and Canada. Ocean Spray sells its products in over 90 countries, with annual sales of over $2.5 billion.

At Ocean Spray also, Dhillon broke the glass ceiling to become its first non-white chairman in 2014.

Dhillon, whose full name is Peter Povitar Dhillon, runs his cranberry farming operations under the name of Richberry Group of Companies based in Richmond, British Columbia.

Unveiling his portrait at the annual Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Toronto, Dhillon said he was humbled to be inducted into the company of great Canadians.

“It is a great honour for me and I feel humbled because there are so many others who deserve this honour,” he said.

His father Rachpal Singh Dhillon came to Canada in 1950 from Pandori village in Hoshiarpur and became the first Indo-Canadian to join the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP( at the age of 19, rising to the rank of Deputy Sheriff.

In 1981-82, he took early retirement to get into cranberry farming full time.

Peter Dhillon joined the family business in 1993 after finishing his law degree from the UK.

Currently, he has over 2,000 acres, just behind the world’s biggest cranberry farmers in Massachusetts who own about 2,500 acres. His Richberry Group produced over 20 million pounds of cranberries last year.

“We hope to hit the 30 million-mark soon in production,” Peter Dhillon said.

As chairman of Ocean Spray, he said he has been to India to explore the possibilities of entering the Indian market.

“There is a huge potential for cranberry juice and dried products in India as Indians are becoming increasingly health conscious.”

IANS

Fuel prices continue to fall as global crude rates ease

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State-run oil-marketing companies continued to cut the prices of key transport fuels — petrol and diesel — well into the fourth week on Saturday on lower global crude oil prices.

According to the Indian Oil Corp data, petrol was priced at Rs 77.89 per litre in the national capital on Saturday, 17 paise lower from Friday.

Petrol prices fell by 17 to 18 paise to Rs 83.40 per litre in Mumbai, Rs 79.81 in Kolkata and Rs 80.90 in Chennai on Saturday.

As per the daily dynamic pricing regime, domestic fuel prices depend on international fuel prices on a 15-day average, besides the value of the rupee.

Prices vary from region to region due to local taxes, as the products are excluded from the GST regime. Delhi has the lowest tax rate among the four metros.

In tandem with petrol, the cost of diesel declined by 16 to 17 paise on Saturday across the four metros.

The price of diesel in Mumbai was down at Rs 76.05 per litre.

Similarly, prices of diesel in Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai declined to Rs 72.58, Rs 74.44 and Rs 76.72 a litre respectively.

The downward revision also comes on the back of multiple factors such as lower international crude oil cost and a recovery in the rupee against the US dollar.

On Friday, the UK Brent crude traded at around $70 per barrel, from a recent high of over $86.

Earlier last month, the Centre announced a cut in excise duty by Rs 1.50 a litre.

Additionally, the state-owned oil marketing companies had been mandated to reduce the prices of petrol and diesel by Re 1 a litre.

IANS

Union Minister Ananth Kumar dead

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Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ananth Kumar died on Monday at a private hospital here due to multi-organ failure, a party spokesman said. He was 59.

“Kumar passed away at around 3 a.m. at Shankara Cancer Hospital in the city’s southern suburb due to multi-organ failure three weeks after he was admitted on return from the US on October 21,” party’s spokesman S. Shantaram.

The Minister is survived by his widow Tejaswani and two daughters Aishwaraya and Vijayeta.

Kumar, who represented the Bengaluru South Lok Sabha constituency since 1996, had undergone treatment for cancer in the UK and US since August.

“Kumar first went to London after the monsoon session of Parliament in July-August for treatment and was shifted to another hospital in the US. The cancer spread to other parts of the body, resulting in multi-organ failure,” added Shantaram.

IANS

Mining Baron Gali Janardhan Reddy sent to judicial custody

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By : Parmesh S Jain


Gali Janardhan Reddy sent to judicial custody in bribery case: Former BJP leader mining baron Gali Janardhan Reddy was held on Sunday afternoon,November 11,by the Central Crime Branch in connection with an alleged ponzi scam.His arrest comes after Reddy appeared at the Central Crime Branch office for questioning.

Mining baron and former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhan Reddy was arrested on Sunday after marathon questioning by ACP CCB,Venkatesh Prasanna in the presence of Addl CP Crime,Alok Kumar,and DCP Crime,Girish S, in an alleged Rs 18 crore bribery case.

Addl CP Crime,Alok Kumar said,Gali Janardhan Reddy has been arrested today in the morning at 10am, in connection with Ambidant Marketing pvt Ltd alleged bribery case.

Janardhan Reddy is accused of taking a Rs 20-Crore bribe to bail Syed Ahmed Fareed, accused in a Ponzi scheme case, out from the Enforcement Directorate investigation.

The CCB sleuths said that they have arrested Reddy, who had allegedly struck a Rs 20-crore deal with Syed Ahmed Fareed of Ambident Marketing Pvt Ltd.A company accused of involvement in the ponzi scheme to bail him out from the Enforcement Directorate investigation.

After remaining elusive for three days, former Karnataka minister and mining baron G Janardhana Reddy on Saturday appeared before the CCB police in connection with an alleged ponzi scam, and denied the allegations and said it is all political conspiracy against him.

Earlier on Saturday Reddy, who was a minister in the erstwhile Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Karnataka, said he never panicked as neither his name figured in the first information report (FIR) nor was any notice served on him.

Local police were asked to take precautionary measures and with 1 KSRP platoon was deployed to maintain law and order situation outside of the CCB office.

Traffic was disrupted on the busy Cottonpet main road for sometime while Gali Janardhan Reddy appeared before the CCB sleuths Chickpet traffic inspector Sankan Gowda,Cottonpet police inspector Kumaraswamy with his other sub-inspectors and staff was too deployed till late midnight 2am.

Two cameraman and reporters were fell down on the road while following Gali Janardhan Reddy on the Cottonpet main road in a busy traffic the car was stopped suddenly as the driver applied a sudden break in which the reporters and cameraman who were covering his movements were fell down but due to alert reporters picked them up and some suffered Minor injuries.

The intense grilling which began Friday afternoon lasted till around 2 am and continued this morning and Reddy had to sleep in the CCB office, police said.

Before being produced in the court, Reddy was subjected to a medical examination.

Janardhan Reddy, has been remanded to judicial custody by 1st ACMM magistrate, V.Jagadish in the Ambident Ponzi scam case for 14 days.He was shifted to Parappana Agrahara Central Jail in Bengaluru.The Bengaluru 1st ACMM Judge rejected Reddy’s bail plea.The judge Jagadish rejected plea for bail filed by Reddy’s lawyer Chandrashekhar. He asked Reddy to file for bail in the open court. Meanwhile, City Crime Branch police decided not to seek Reddy’s custody.The lawyer will file for bail plea tomorrow November 12 in the city civil court. This is Reddy’s third stay in Parappana Agrahara jail.Reddy will be given facilities of hot water and cot inside the jail. He will be put in the quarantine cell.Reddy’s lawyer will apply for bail in the city civil court tomorrow.

Sources said that Fareed diary has revealed more shocking details to CCB cops in the diary totally 23 names of ministers of Coalition government,Some police officers with some senior journalist names also has been disclosed in the diary and Fareed also revealed the shocking details to CCB cops.

Many victims who invested in the Ambident company came forward to the CCB office as soon as they saw the news about Fareed is being grilled by CCB sleuths one of the victim by name Ziaulla Baig a tailor from Goripalya said he has been cheated by the Ambident company to the tune of Rs.3 lakhs as he has invested in the Ambidant company by signing an MOU Mutual understanding agreement to pay monthly Rs.9000 as commission or profits but he claims that till today from past 7 months I have dint received any amount from him and when he go to ask for his principal amount he gives reason everytime and he even said this fraud culprit along with his son has cheated us and invested the money in Bitcoin to the tune of 500 Crore and as Bitcoin market came down he has lost all his money and with his false promise today I am suffering by pledging my ancestral home and to save it I need to pay interest but as it is struck here i am not able to pay it he added.

Another victim she said she has invested Rs.30 lakhs in the firm by name Ambident company and his owner his Fareed the old lady who runs a orphanage was crying outside the CCB office after she was also got cheated from this fraud she said the multi Crore fraudsters is given bail and here they are blaming Janardhan Reddy in this case he has nothing to do with this case and she said she has even met senior officials seeking help but the senior official dint cooperated with them she added.

Addl CP Crime,Alok Kumar in the presence of DCP Crime,Girish.S,said that after the marathon questioning by us to the former Minister Gali Janardhan Reddy to get more details regarding the alleged Rs.20 Crore rupees deal case we need to arrest him and we have decided and declared him arrested today in the morning at 10am.Has Gali Janardhan Reddy has taken a bribe of Rs.20 Crores from the Ambident company owner Fareed to getting a case closed apparently in the name of Enforcement Directorate ED,it was not in the particular name so there was a criminal conspiracy in this regard and for that he has been charged and we are going to produce him before the court and after that we will try to recover the Amount what the Rs.20 Crore is there amount we will recover and disburse the amount with the permission of court to the investors.He further said we have taken the decision on the basis of credible evidence and witnesses statement and all other materials like legal scrutiny of all the evidences we have done and on that basis we have come to the conclusion that it requires his arrest and so that’s why we will first take him to Victoria hospital for medical check up and then we are going to produce him before Honourable magistrate house and we are going to recover the money and disburse the money to the investors of Ambident company he added.

Gali Janardhan Reddy’s lawyer R.P. Chandrashekar told media persons that,after we appeared before the CCB office in the view of the notice that they have served upon us as to our client Gali Janardhan Reddy day before yesterday asking him to come today but we have appeared on our own illusion we would be co-operating to this investigation team completely.As we have faith in the judiciary when we have not done any mistake and we have Co-operated to the investigating officer to the fullest extent from the past 24 hours we are fully co-operated and in spite of our cooperation also the investigating officer is of the opinion that there are some links which he still wants to establish at the time of investigation he has found it necessary to arrest him,but our basis all the while for 24 hours when we was under investigation we had told the investigating officer that we have nothing to do with this kind of affairs of the Ambident private limited company and Ambident private private limited company entities absolutely different from what the allegations they are attributing to us.The allegations concerning the allegations and the affairs of the Ambident private limited company are totally two different sects we do not fall in that sects and that we have been telling the investigating officer and further we have told that this arrest also so far as we are concerned there is no material or basis to arrest Gali Janardhan Reddy.And while Janardhan reddy last words spoken by him while he was entering the jeep because it came it is a surprise to him he told me that “He has been a fighter he is a born fighter he would fight this things in the court of law.When asked by reporters that it is ok then why did you file the writ petition that too two writ petitions that you are saying their no connection with the Janardhan Reddy with this case another side you filed a 2 writ petition that investigating officers should be changed and this case should be squashed.Chandrashekar replied by telling yes reporters said but now you are telling a different story,Chandrashekar replies by saying no no we are not telling any different story for your kind information do not try to twist and turn facts the facts the facts are as simple as that writ petition and 482 are pending before the High court they have to come for consideration as and when they come for consideration we would be urging those points but when they came writ petition for consideration those points will be urging in the court of law and before the court the writ petition and 482 is in the meanwhile the notice served upon to us so this cannot be connected to WP or the 482.Ali Khan has not been arrested for the simple reason we have Karan him out on interim bail orders still exists and is still valid.This is a fight which we will continue and truth will come and still it is valid hence.This is a fight which we will continue and truth will come out this fight we will continue in the court of law and sooner the truth will come out on our part we are only telling that we are absolutely not connected to this allegations of Rs.20 Crore and to the affairs of Ambidant company he added.

What is the case?

A company named Ambident promised people 40% returns on their investments. When people fell into this trap and never received any returns, based on complaint Enforcement Directorate intervened. The owner of the company was identified as Fareed.

Lured by the promise, thousands of people invested their money in the company, which initially paid good returns, attracting more and more investors.

However, as it failed to pay the promised returns later, cases were registered against it and during January- February ED had also raided it.

Meanwhile, Fareed had allegedly met Reddy through Khan requesting for help in bailing him out of ED the case, and Rs 20 crore was demanded in the form of gold through a jeweller known to them in Ballari, according to police.

Further into the investigation a transaction of Rs 18 crore was traced. This transaction was traced to Ramesh Kothari, owner of Ambika Jewellers. It was further traced to a man named Ramesh who said that money was given to Janardhana Reddy’s personal assistant Ali in the form of gold bars.

Reddy was charged under Sections 420 (cheating),120B (criminal conspiracy), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) and offences under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act,and with various other IPC sections.

Reddy, a powerful minister during the previous BJP rule, had been arrested by the CBI in 2011 over alleged multi-crore illegal mining scam and granted bail three years later.

3rd ODI: South Africa beat Australia by 40 runs, clinch series 2-1

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Hobart South Africa beat Australia by 40 runs in the third One day International match to win the series 2-1 here on Sunday.

“I thought we played our best game of cricket. We challenged ourselves to put in a performance. A high pressure game. (…) we have fantastic memories of Hobart. We’ll remember this place fondly,” said South African captain Faf du Plessis after the game, reports Efe.

Australia won the toss and elected to field first on a batting friendly track. The pace bowlers got to work straight away, dismissing the South African top order cheaply, leaving them reeling at 55/3 by the middle of the 16th over.

What followed was an absolute masterclass by du Plessis and David Miller, who helped stage a recovery by teaming up for a record 255-run partnership, with both batsmen scoring centuries.

Set a target of 321 in 50 overs, Australia could only manage 280/9, with Shaun Marsh and Marcus Stoinis showing some resolve with a century and a half-century, respectively.

Kagiso Rabada and Dale Steyn were the pick of the South African bowlers with three wickets each.

(IANS)

Women’s World T20: Raj scores fifty as India post facile win over Pakistan

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Providence (Guyana) Seasoned batter Mithali Raj cracked a half century to guide India to a facile seven-wicket win over arch-rivals Pakistan in the ICC Women’s World T20 here on Sunday.

Raj held fort from one end to make short work of India’s run chase with a 47-ball 56 which she made with the help of seven fours in the Group B match which was marred by unprecedented docking of 10 penalty runs on Pakistan.

Even before a ball being faced, 10 runs were on India’s scoreboard after Pakistan were docked five-run penalty twice during their innings on account of their batswomen running on the danger area of the pitch during their innings.

India had little difficulty in gunning down the modest target of 134 with six balls to spare, reaching 137 for 3 in 19 overs.

Previous game centurion and captain Harmanpreet Kaur and Veda Krishnamurthy remained not out on 14 and 8 respectively.

Courtesy the victory, India (with four points) now have one foot in the semifinals from the five-team Group B.

Two teams each from the two groups qualify for the semifinals.

India never looked in trouble with openers Raj and Smriti Mandhana (26) finding the boundaries at regular intervals in their 73-run partnership.

Mandhana fell to Bismah Maroof with Omaima Sohail taking a crisp catch at deep square leg.

Jemimah Rodrigues (16) was then caught and bowled by Nida Dar in the 15th over but it hardly matter in the end.

Earlier, Pakistan rode on half-centuries from Bismah Maroof and Nida Dar to post 133/7.

Fresh from a 52-run defeat to title contenders Australia in their opening match, Pakistan struggled to get going in the face of some accurate Indian bowling.

Asked to bat first, Pakistan suffered an early blow when Arundhati Reddy dismissed Ayesha Zafar in the very first over thanks to an excellent catch by Veda Krishnamurthy at first slip.

Omaima Sohail and Javeria Khan virtually gifted away their wickets with rather silly run-outs to leave Pakistan in trouble at 30/3 in the seventh over.

However, Bismah and Nida brought the innings back on track with a 94-run stand. Bismah scored 53 runs off 49 balls while Nida hit a breezy 52 off 35 deliveries which included five boundaries and two hits into the stands.

Nida was the beneficiary of a piece of good luck when Veda dropped an easy catch at long-off off Radha Yadav’s bowling even as the ball slipped through for a boundary.

The Indians continued to struggle with their fielding even as the Pakistanis piled on the runs with some superb strokeplay.

Dayalan Hemalatha brought the Indians back into the game when she sent back both Pakistani batters in the 19th over shortly after they had reached their respective half-centuries.

Maroof was caught by Veda at long-on after she had come down the track to a well-flighted delivery. Nida followed her back to the pavilion a couple of deliveries later when a mistimed cut hand an easy catch to Harmanpreet Kaur at cover.

The rest of the Pakistani batters never really matched up to the Indian bowlers as apart from Javeria Khan, all of them failed to reach double figures.

Brief scores:
India 137/3 in 19 overs (Mithali Raj 56; Diana Baig 1/19) beat Pakistan: 133/7 in 20 overs (Bismah Maroof 53, Nida Dar 52; Poonam Yadav 2/22, Dayalan Hemalatha 2/34) by seven wickets.

(IANS)

3rd T20I: India edge past West Indies in last ball thriller

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Chennai A brilliant batting display from Shikhar Dhawan (92) and Rishabh Pant (58) helped India edge past West Indies by six wickets in a last ball thriller in the final match of the Twenty20 International series here on Sunday.

With this win, India completed a whitewash in the three-match series.

After two quick wickets, Dhawan and Pant batted well and put India on the brink of victory but Pant’s wicket in the penultimate over changed the scenario of the match and the game went to the last over.

Needing five runs in seven balls, Dhawan and Manish Pandey scored four runs in first three balls but then a dot ball and Dhawan’s wicket made the match interesting which could have been finished much earlier.

Needing one run in one ball, Manish, who seemed out of sorts in the middle, somehow managed to steal a run to hand India a victory.

Chasing a challenging score of 182, India started on a bad note, losing opener Rohit Sharma (4) in the third over.

New batsman Lokesh Rahul (17) then came in the middle and displayed some brilliant shots but soon he was also dismissed by Oshane Thomas in the sixth over.

With the scoreboard reading 45/2, Dhawan (92) and Pant (58) took the charge and hammered the Windies’ bowlers all around the park to forge a 130-run partnership. In the process, the duo completed their respective half centuries.

But just when it seemed India will finish off the proceedings in style, Pant was dismissed in the 19th over.

New batsman Pandey then struggled at the crease but at the end, India managed to steal the game in the last ball.

Earlier, a good batting show helped West Indies post a challenging total of 181/3.

The visitors applied themselves perfectly and made sure they did not loose wickets till the end which saw middle-order batsmen Darren Bravo (43 not out) and Nicholas Pooran (53 not out) taking the charge towards the end, helping their team to post a decent score.

Opting to bat, openers Shai Hope (24) and Shimron Hetmyer (26) started the proceedings on a good note, forging a 51-run partnership in six overs.

But while trying to accelerate the score, Hope was dismissed by Yuzvendra Chahal in the seventh over. After adding 11 more runs to the total with Bravo, Hetmyer was also sent packing by Chahal.

Despite two quick wickets, Bravo kept on playing sensibly with Denesh Ramdin (15). Just when things seemed good in the middle, Ramdin played a poor shot and was clean bowled by Washington Sundar in the 13th over when the scoreboard was reading 94/3.

New batsman Pooran then joined Bravo in the middle and started punishing the bad balls. The duo forged a crucial unbeaten 87-run partnership for the fourth wicket and helped West Indies finish their innings in style.

Pooran played 25 balls and slammed four boundaries and as many sixes.

For India, Chahal took two wickets while Sundar scalped one.

Brief scores: West Indies 181/3 (Darren Bravo 43 not out, Nicholas Pooran 53 not out; Yuzvendra Chahal 2/28) against India 182/4 (Shikhar Dhawan 92, Rishabh Pant 58; Keemo Paul 2/32)

(IANS)

‘Mini Taj’ maker dies in UP hit-and-run

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 Faizul Hasan Qadri, who hit headlines for building a ‘mini-Taj Mahal’ in memory of his late wife in Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh, has been killed in a road accident, police said on Saturday.

Qadri sustained serious injuries in the late Thursday hit-and-run incident in Kesar Kalan. The 83-year-old retired Postmaster was admitted in hospital where he died on Friday.

He had begun constructing his mini Taj Mahal in 2012 in memory of Taja Mulli Bibi. The couple was married in 1953.

He could not complete his ‘monument of love’ as he spent all his savings in the basic structure.

After the news of the ‘Taj Mahal’ spread, the then Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav summoned Qadri to Lucknow and offered him funds to complete the structure and get the marble work done.

Qadri politely declined the offer and asked the Samajwadi Party leader to establish a girls inter-college in his village instead.

The college is up and running and even was donated some land by Qadri.

His relatives said the former Postmaster had saved Rs two lakh and was set to purchase marble from Jaipur to end his edifice, but destiny intervened.

His relatives now plan to bury him alongside his wife, just like Mughal emperor Shah Jahan was by his Mumtaz.

They would also complete Qadri’s Taj Mahal in a grand manner. The family has refused post-mortem of his body.

 

IANS

BJP government greedy, wants to take away RBI reserves: Chidambaram  

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Congress leader and former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Friday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP government is greedy and wants to take away the central bank’s reserves.

“This government is greedy. No government in the past has asked for the reserve with the Reserve Bank of India,” said Chidambaram, who was in Guwahati to hold consultations for preparation of the party’s manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

He said that the RBI is not a limited company. “The RBI has a board of directors, but that cannot be compared with any private or public company. It is the central bank. The BJP government is trying to see the RBI as a limited company. They hardly have the understanding of the central Banks’s role and function,” he said.

Chidambaram said that the Centre was eyeing the RBI’s reserves, for it did not get anything out of demonetisation as most of the money came back to the banks.

Asked about the RBI’s board meeting scheduled for November 19, he said that even if the RBI Governor (Urjit Patel) resigns or complies with the government order of giving money from the reserves, the result will be catastrophic, and even worse than demonetisation.

“My information says that the government may force to pass a resolution at the RBI board meeting to transfer a large sum of money from the reserves. Two scenarios can emerge if such a situation happens. Either the RBI gives in or the Governor resigns. Both the situations will be a disaster and will have catastrophic impact on the country’s economy,” he warned.

“The Congress party believes that the RBI has the mandate to maintain monetary stability and nothing should be done to impair its ability to do so. The immediate goal of the government is to lay its hands on the reserves of the RBI and appropriate a sum of at least one lakh crore to meet its fiscal deficit target and to increase spending in an election year,” he added.

Earlier on Friday, the government dismissed reports that it had sought Rs 3.6 lakh crore from the RBI reserves. Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg said that there was no such proposal and that the country’s fiscal deficit target was on track.

“Lot of misinformed speculation is going around in media. Government’s fiscal math is completely on track. There is no proposal to ask RBI to transfer (Rs) 3.6 or (Rs) 1 lakh crore, as speculated,” Garg said in a tweet.

 

IANS

The lesser known Maulana who sought ‘United India’ to the bitter end

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 Happens to be Maulana Abul Kalam Azad’s birth anniversary, forgotten this year as it has been in the past. The Maulana is an inconvenient name to remember at a time when Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel towers above every national leader.

When former Vice President Hamid Ansari released the Hindi, Urdu and Malayalam translations of my book “Being the Other: The Muslim in India”, he quoted from a speech Patel had made on August 11, 1947, four days before Partition. Some TV channels went ballistic. The quote is actually quite well known: “To be United, India would have to be divided.” Patel was tracing how the consensus to “divide” India came about. No, but Ansari should not upturn conventional wisdom that “Jinnah was the culprit”. If it were the evil Jinnah who created Pakistan, it follows that the CWC, the Iron man included, were busting their guts to keep a United India and Jinnah outfoxed them.

Mountbatten’s June 3, 1947, plan sought a division of India largely along religious lines. The Congress Working Committee (CWC) swallowed the plan hook, line and sinker. Of the two Muslim leaders present at the CWC, Frontier Gandhi Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan wailed: “You have thrown us to the wolves.” Maulana Azad smoked a box of cigarettes and said nothing. Supposing the two, vehemently opposed to Partition, had walked out of the meeting in protest, what interpretation would future historians have placed on the remaining CWC composition?

Jawaharlal Nehru valued Azad for his intellect. Some of Nehru’s admiration for Azad comes across even in his intimate letters from Ahmednagar jail to his daughter Indira. “Maulana is an extraordinarily interesting person. The more I know him, and I have known him now for over 21 years, the more I find in him. He has an astonishing memory and his information on a variety of subjects is encyclopedic. He is soaked in the lore of the middle ages… he has Plato and Aristotle on his fingertips and is perfectly at home at Cordoba of Arab Spain… It seems such a pity that with such vast learning and a very unusually keen mind and a powerful style, he should have written so little.”

At one point Nehru reveals he is keen to learn Sanskrit from Acharya Narendra Dev and Persian from Azad. Nehru then gives vent to his afterthought: “But Azad is too erudite.”

The paradox is that despite such admiration for Azad, Nehru still found time to let him down repeatedly. It was a delicate package, that Azad, as Congress President, had negotiated with the Cabinet Mission and Viceroy Lord Wavell to keep India united. Nehru torpedoed it by raising contentious issues at a press conference in Bombay (Mumbai).

Azad was shocked when the entire CWC accepted the Mountbatten plan without fuss. “Partition over my body” kind of sham was instantly abandoned. In fact, Rajendra Prasad came down strongly on a suggestion Mountbatten and Azad had made: That a United Armed Forces for a short period would obviate the massacres which eventually followed. “Not for a day” after August 15, 1947, would the Congress government tolerate a United Army, Prasad thundered. He wanted Partition to be sealed irreversibly. It was no concern of the CWC that an Army, abruptly separated along sectarian lines, would be sucked into the horrendous violence that followed as a partisan force on both sides.

Mahatma Gandhi’s Secretary Mahadev Desai wrote about Azad: “There was no other in the Congress to match Maulana’s insights and wise counsel.” Stalwarts like C.R. Das and Motilal Nehru deferred to him on many issues. On his wisdom and erudition, Sarojini Naidu was at her wittiest, “Maulana was 50 years old when he was born.”

It was this vast reservoir of wisdom that Nehru relied on when Home Minister Kailash Nath Katju decided to bar foreign missionaries in India, “if evangelism is their purpose”. The statement created a furore among Christian missionaries. Nehru singled out Maulana to handle the situation. The letter that Azad wrote to Cardinal Valerian Gracias is reproduced on page 79 of my book, “Being the Other”. It is a masterpiece of reasoning and logic on the question of conversion. Azad had settled the issue over 60 years ago.

He made a distinction between religious conversion, which requires deep reflection on issues of theology and what the constitution calls “mass conversions”. The latter is a response to a social and political provocation.

It is possible that Maulana was not suited to the rough and tumble of politics which demands fickleness generally dressed up as flexibility. Maulana was incapable of deviating from his core principles — Hindu-Muslim unity as the bedrock of Indian nationalism.

Dr. Rajesh Kumar Pruthi, Director General of the National Archives, published a rare collection of the Maulana’s letters in Urdu. The preface by Dr. Pruthi is by itself quite masterly. As evidence of Maulana’s consistency he cites a passage from the Maulana’s address as President of the Congress at a session held in Delhi on 15 December, 1923:

“If an angel came down from heaven and, from the height of the Qutub Minar, announced that if the Congress abandons its platform of Hindu-Muslim Unity, Swaraj or independence would be granted in 24 hours, I would turn my back on that Swaraj. Shunning it for the cost being demanded may delay Swaraj and harm India’s interest for a short period but abandoning our unity for good as a price for freedom will be a blot on all humanity.”

He maintained a decent silence on colleagues who had “blotted humanity”. But he did not cheat history. He kept away in the National Archives 30 pages which expose the men with feet of clay who faltered in the last lap towards freedom. Partition, he wrote in a press note, “would be unadulterated Hindu Raj”. These pages were made public in 1988 when he and all his colleagues had died. He may have had grievances with Nehru but that did not prevent him from dedicating “India Wins Freedom” to “Jawaharlal, Friend and Comrade”.

IANS

 

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