JAN 26: Green absent from Indian ‘flag’

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The Indian flag comprises of three colours; Saffron, White and Green. But here the troops let the ‘green’ disappear from the array.Any answer why?

Baba Umar

No country is complete without its sense of loyalty which comes with symbols like the Country’s flag and it is only fearless who bear the flag’s commitment on their sleeves.
But this commitment seemed to be missing in a group of special troopers as well as their wardrobe selectors. On January 26, when the whole of India was celebrating its 59th Republic Day, in Bakshi stadium a section of troops in three main rows were supposed to wear clothes to form a tri-colour, but it all went haywire. Instead of spotting all the three colours only two colours were visible. There are many who smell a rat in this whole affair. They say troopers donned in saffron and white clothes had deliberately kicked the “green” out of the tri-colour flag.
“Clearly saffron stands for ‘Hinduism’ and green represents ‘Islam’, but they want to make it look something else,” said an elderly person who had come all the way from Islamabad to witness January 26 celebrations in Bakshi Stadium. Bracing snow and chill, he had come early in the winter morning to celebrate the day; however, he said, he was taken aback to see the waywardness of these troopers.
“Does it make any impression of Indian flag when looked from a distance?” he quips, while pointing to the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) contingent that stood on the spectators stand forming a bi-colour flag. “Where is the green?” he asked.
When contacted on the issue, Public Relation Officer (PRO) of CRPF, Prabhakar Tripathi said he has no idea who had made the CRPF personnel to dress up in the two colours only.
“The Department of Information and Divisional Commissioner Kashmir has made all the Republic day arrangements,” he said. “May be they had asked the troops to wear in only two colours.”
However, the Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Mehboob Iqbal, was busy in a meeting when tried to contact several times and the Director Information, Zafar Bhat, was also not available for his comments.

Had to go Hazratbal, landed at Congress Hqts

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It is a story of ten-year-old boy whose father asked him to accompany for Friday prayers at Hazratbal but found himself sloganeering in favour of Sonia Gandhi and ‘some’ Azad at State Congress headquarters.

Baba Umar

As the Minister of State for Power, Babu Singh and the Minister for Social Welfare, Abdul Gani Vakil were addressing the party workers in the Congress headquarter, a little boy of ten-years-old was observing the whole seen from a corner of the lawn where the Congress workers had gathered.
Standing against the wall, the red cheeked, Rouf Ahmad seemed not interested in the affair. He was fetched by his father (a loyal congress worker) from home on the pretext that it was Friday and the duo would offer prayers in Hazratbal Shrine.
“I was conned by my father, and here he wanted me to raise pro-Congress slogans to appease the visiting ministers,” says Rouf, who was in his reading room when father asked him to come alongside him. “Come with me, we will go to Dargah”, my father insisted.
His father is a priest and among the top workers of the Congress party. Though Rouf has no interest in politics, he has been unreasonably, according to him, brought to a place against his wishes. In the crowd he doesn’t wish to join other party workers in sloganeering and clapping before the Congress party leaders. But coming here was against his wishes which he couldn’t resist due to the intense pressure from father.
“I do not know Sonia Ghandi, yet I raised slogans in her favour!” he says. “I even chanted few slogans in some Azad Sahib’s favour, but I have never seen him!”
While the Minister for power speaks at length on the power crisis he is going to overcome during his tenure, the kid keeps on thinking about the line of work and dreams he has knit. Like the Minister he does wish to solve Kashmir’s electricity problems, but he doesn’t want to be a politician. He has thought of becoming something else.
“I want to become an Electric Engineer,” say Rouf. “And then there won’t be any power cuts in my locality.”
Ask about his presence that has made him the youngest sloganeer among the crowd, he says, he wished to do winter homework rather than joining this congregation, where everyone is alien to him.
“Em khute chu gari parun behtar (It is better to study at home),” he says.
And as the party leaders finish their speech; Rouf scuds into the crowd to locate his father who is in the front row near the podium; hoping that his father might take him home before evening so that he can finish his winter work.
“Bye—Do pray for me,” he smiles and waves at me before he finally disappears into the swarm of party loyals’.

Former Mr Kashmir says no scope in Body Building

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Baba Umar

He is a five time Mr. Kashmir title holder, has three national certificates in hand and two Mr. Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) titles under his credit, but he thinks himself at the bottom rung of the ladder. Ask him about his career and the scope of body building in Kashmir; he has a woeful saga to put forth.
Born in a middle class family and nourished at the time when militancy was at its apex, Mudasir Aziz opted to lift iron plates, when other friends of his same age opted for guns.
“It was in 1997 when I started body building as a career,” says Mudasir Aziz. Aziz says it was his father’s continuous support that he finished runner-up in the 1999 Mr. Kashmir championship and the next year he was successful in making it to the Mr. Kashmir title. “My parents were very much supportive,” he says. “In fact they wanted me to make a career out of this activity.Aziz says he would continue his studies besides sticking to his obsession. And the year 2000 turned out to be promising. “I qualified my 12th class examinations and I won Mr. Kashmir title in that year,” recollects the strongly built Aziz.The next year too bore good results as Aziz defended his title and also finished Mr. J&K Junior. He had the two big titles in a single year and that made him feel on the sky.“I received so many best wishes and compliments from my relatives and friends,” says he. And then the quandaries started to bulge. He needed a government job on the basis of his performance. But, he got tangled in the false promises.
Aziz remembers when he was promised civil service by the then ministers for his achievements, but those promises turned out to be a ‘prank’. Aziz says, he would visit the ministers for a job but to of no benefit.
“Body building was proving to be an expensive game for me and what I needed was a job to help continue my passion,” says Aziz. “They (Ministers) did nothing for me when I was representing their state in several events outside the State.”
Even though, Aziz continued with his passion and he again won the title of Mr. Kashmir in 2002 and Mr. J&K senior in the same year. And again he was promised a government job by the high profile people who had come to witness the championship.“I was again guaranteed a government services for my performance by Mangat Ram Sharma who was the chief guest in that competition,” he recalls.
Aziz who played for Mr. India title in 2004 was ranked among the top ten contenders. In the same year he played in North India competition and won the gold medal. And in the same year he was again declared as Mr. Kashmir. However, medals and trophies, he says, did not satisfy him.
“What I needed was a government job,” say he. “The state could have provided me a simple clerk’s post,” asks he.
Aziz says that the then Minister for Youth Service and Sports Haji Nissar sent a letter to Director General of Police (DGP) Gopal Sharma for his appointment who later referred that letter to Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) and Sports Officer, Police. But that too didn’t work in his favour.“I was shocked to learn that there is no sports category quota in police particularly for body builders,” Aziz says. He says he also visited the then Minister of State (MoS) for youth services and sports, Manoj Panth, who only collected his certificates but did nothing substantial.“While playing in North India competition, I was offered jobs by Northern Railway and Air force, they guaranteed me a job, but I opted to represent my state,” says Aziz. “My fault was that I was playing for my sate but at the stake of my career.”
On seeing Aziz’s pathetic situation, his parents, he says, changed their stance and wished him to start doing something else. And he decided to quit playing the game and rather start coaching young people.
“Now I am earning Rs. 1800 a month,” say he. “I am coaching the valley’s budding body builders in the ‘Muscle Free Gym’.”Aziz says some of his friends used to play football and many of them got jobs in The J&K Bank and State Road Transport Corporation (SRTC).Aziz foresees ‘no- career’ in this game if people are not influential or well-off. “I do not want to discourage my juniors, but if they are middle class or poor then there is no scope in this game,” suggests he.

And they started their preparation

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Baba Umar

With January 26 just around the corner, people in the city, mostly who are put up in the vicinity of Bakshi Stadium, where the parade is scheduled to come about, have started their preparation. Even if there won’t be any separatists’ call for the complete shutdown, people won’t be indulging themselves out in the streets at least for the moment when the troops will be manning the roads.
“I will be visiting my uncle at Nishat,” says Sheikh Irfan of Magarmal Bagh. Irfan has been visiting his relatives every year on January 25 because this day has snatched a life of one of his family members.
“My brother was dragged out from house and shot dead next day (Jan 26),” recalls Irfan, whose brother Sheikh Yasir was picked up by Rashtriya Rifles in 1993. And till date, the males in the family have developed a practice of leaving their house empty on every Jan 26. “We cannot afford to lose another member,” Irfan says.
And so is the case with other household who are located in the vicinity of Bakshi Stadium. They fear militants might attack on the troops in the stadium and they could be sandwiched in between.
“Even if there won’t be any Hartal call, I won’t open my shop,” Tariq Ahmad says. Ahmad runs a shop in Solina and has been keeping his shutters down since 1989 on these days. “Let them (troops) celebrate their republic day.”
However, there are others who have planned something unusual on the date.“I have bought a new book and I will try to finish it on Jan 26,” says Asiya Khan (name changed on request). “I have heard people telling that ‘In search of Future’ is a nice book, so I will be busy for the day,” adds she.
Parvaiz Ahmad Bhat, owner of Oriental modern sweets says that it has become a trend in Kashmir not to be visible in markets on this day and he too won’t take any risk. “I will go with the people,” he says. And what will masses do? “They will likely remain in their homes till January 27th morning.”

Caught Off guard

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They say two is company three is crowd and when you are in Iqbal Park never think you are alone. You are being watched and every action of yours is monitored.

Baba Umar

If you are among the couples who visit the city’s Iqbal Park any time of the day, watch out, you are being observed! Your activities are being monitored from a tiny camera, installed by the police years back. “It is sheer interference in our privacy,” says a visibly disappointed boy. “What on the earth are they doing that for?” he questions, while referring to the police’s policy of having Closed Circuit Television cameras (CCTVs).
A middle rung police source, however, backs the intention of the department. He says the park falls in the vicinity of highly guarded Bakshi Stadium, Air Cargo and Indoor stadium and is the strategic location with regards to security of the city.“Yes we can trace any movement in that area and in the Park too,” he confirms. He says that closed circuit TV cameras were installed in the whole of India and these gadgets have helped the police in curbing the anti-social activities. He further says that it is also a new way of ‘moral policing’.But the ‘love birds’ find it hard to gulp down.“I am shocked to see them (Police) maintaining security at the cost of my privacy,” says Ajaz Ahmad. Ajaz studies engineering in a Chandigarh College and had come to Srinagar on a ten day leave. But after coming to know that he and his would-be wife is under scanner he finds himself in a tight spot.“I am engaged to a girl and I have come to meet her here in Iqbal Park,” he says. “But I guess I must change the place and timing,” he says, as he phones his ‘better half’ not to come for the rendezvous.Some even believe that on the name of moral policing, sitting somewhere in the screening department of Police Control Room, the cops might be having their part of entertainment out of it.“You don’t know on what they will be fixing these cameras?” quips Sarwar, a student.Even the park caretakers are coming to the rescue of the visitors. They say the visitors need to be protected and the park is manned by guards who are on the prowl if any thing of ‘such kind’ happens here.“The guards in civvies keep on checking for any trangresional acts,” says Altaf Ahmad, who is the in charge of Iqbal Park. “I guess we don’t need cameras to trace anything.”Most of the visitors, mostly couples, are not happy with the move. They feel such an act would cut the income of the park. Though families throng to Iqbal Park but unfortunately for the last couple of days no one was visible in the park. It would have been interesting to get their reaction on the said issue.

If crime is there where is law!

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BABA UMAR

How many times do we log on to the net and share happily our information with others? Never ever suspecting of any foul play. Even sometimes we casually logout from our email account without checking whether we logged out successfully or not.
Meet Feroze Ahmed, State Project Manager, Confederation of Voluntary Associations (COVA), several months back he got a mail from Google.inc directing him to send his email ID along with the password and other credentials. He mailed the details to the sender without consulting anybody. And he was in for nightmare. His password got hacked and the hacker now had full control over his e-mail ID.Taking advantage from his mail the hacker misinformed his acquaintances that he has gone to Nigeria where he lost his bag and money. The hacker impersonating one Ahmed sought $3,400 from all the friends and pledged to pay them back once he returns to Kashmir.The next day, Ahmed got a call from one of his colleagues from Hyderabad verifying when he had gone to Nigeria. His friend also mailed him the letter seeking money to be deposited in some bank account. Ahmed got suspicious and checked his email. Fortunately he had second email account too and from that mail he mailed to one and all about the fraud and the hacking of his official mail address. He had saved himself and his friends from getting duped, but he didn’t inform police about the incident. “They (Police) don’t have a cyber crime cell here in Kashmir,” he says. “It would have been a futile exercise to report in the police station.”In Kashmir, there has been a sudden increase in the cyber crimes since the escalating use of computers and internet. Cyber sins like making fake certificates, pirated DVD’s, password thefts of credit and debit cards, and pornography were reported several times in the past. Even there has been a case last year when hackers tricked a medico by hacking his password and the state police looked helplessly. Or when some miscreants morphed pictures of an Orkutain and posted the fake profile on the net. “We have a cyber crime cell here but it is not fully functional,” confesses a Srinagar Crime Branch official who wished not to be named as he was not authorised for any attribution. “Every case is inspected by the State Crime Record Bureau (SCRB), Jammu,” the official says.He says that the Jammu Crime Branch has got all the high-tech machinery and softwares and hence they are able to investigate such crimes in the area. Another official who wished not to be named said that the department is lacking the cyber crime related facilities and infrastructure. He said, in the past the higher officials have been making pledges to upgrade the department with latest gadgetry, but so far nothing substantial came forth.“We don’t have the hard disk mappers, recovery softwares and other necessary equipments,” he says.Even experts say that such a cell is essential in Srinagar too as the internet and computer usage has been on surge. They say that every district should have a cyber crime related cell.“Local police doesn’t have the know-how on cyber crimes, so there is obviously an urgent need for a high-tech cyber cops here in Kashmir,” says Muheet Ahmad, a software engineer working in the University of Kashmir. “Cyber crimes are those unlawful acts wherein computer is a tool or target or both. So it is necessary to have techno’s in the police department and total up-gradation of the present cyber crime cell in the city.”Some sections also fear the helplessness of the police due to the non applicability of Indian Penal Code here in the State and the cyber laws that fall under Information Technology ACT 2000 of India. However, Mohammed Ashraf, Additional Secretary Law, says that the IT acts are applicable anywhere in India including the state of Jammu and Kashmir. “Yes all the cyber laws are valid in the State,” the official says.It is unbelievable that valley has got cyber boom but without any law to check the menace and stop the cyber crime. However one thing that remains certain is that till a crime of high magnitude happens via cyber no one will bother to ask the police why they don’t have effective and working cyber law