Opinion Change you can believe in?

But there is some confusion and deep suspicion in sections of the Urdu world. On January 30,Delhi-based daily Hamara Samaj writes: “The fact cannot be denied that there are many forces at the international level who want to destroy the Muslim countries. It is quite possible that there is an international conspiracy here.” Jamaat-e-Islami’s Daawat is more specific. In a front-page piece on January 25,the paper writes: “The people’s consciousness (awami bedari) is not behind the noise of the slogan of democracy and free elections. It is the conspiratorial mindset of the West that is at work,to create a situation of political turmoil and civil war in almost all Muslim countries and using democracy,and its wherewithal,to keep them trapped in domestic problems. The people of those countries are being very easily misled.” The paper says that “if one looks at the demonstrations for six months after the presidential election in Iran,and how America and Britain controlled the opposition’s agitation from behind,much of the truth of the events in Tunisia,Lebanon and Sudan is revealed.”

Congress MP Maulana Asrar ul Haque Qasimi writes that with the return of the Islamic leader Rachid Ghanouchi to Tunisia,“the US might have apprehended…that Arab countries might start being dominated by Islamists… it is quite possible that the US itself might have prompted the agitation in a big Arab African country like Egypt”. He points out that the “US’s blue-eyed boy,Mohammed ElBaradei,has comfortably reached Egypt,and is provoking and leading the protests.”

Scooting with the loot

Hyderabad-based daily Siasat writes in an editorial on January 22: “Now that details of Swiss bank accounts have been given to WikiLeaks,the possibility of exposing the Indians who have deposited illegally collected wealth in foreign banks cannot be ruled out. It is the government’s responsibility to take all possible steps to bring this money back.” Lucknow-based daily Qaumi Khabrein writes in its editorial on January 17: “No one is clean,and this is the reason that… various political parties have been fighting fixed bouts (noora kushti). But no one wants a cure for this ailment,because it is the flowing Ganga,and it is hard to tell who,at what time,has got a chance to wash his hands with its waters.” Bangalore-based daily Saalar in its editorial on January 20 targets the BJP,asking “why no effort was made to expose the lakhs of crores of rupees

deposited in foreign banks during NDA rule.”

Flagging convictions

Describing the BJP’s policy on Kashmir as “separatist,” Hyderabad’s Etemaad Daily (the mouthpiece of Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslemeen) writes in its January 25 editorial: “What message does the BJP want to give to the people of Kashmir by unfurling the Tricolour at Lal Chowk on January 26 when the Tricolour is unfurled by the state’s governor on that day? It means that Kashmir is a part of India. But the BJP repeats the same act. This will be taken to mean that the party has the same kinds of doubt about Kashmir being part of India that the Kashmiri separatists have.”

The paper adds: “After the confessions of former RSS pracharak Swami Aseemanand,the Sangh Parivar thinks that its nationalism and patriotism have become dubious. Making use of the peaceful atmosphere of the valley,the Sangh Parivar wants to unfurl the Tricolour at Lal Chowk so that,in its view,the blot put on its nationalism and patriotism by Swami Aseemanand might be removed. But the history of the Sangh Parivar’s terrorism is full of such crimes. How many such blots can it remove?”

Delhi-based daily Jadeed Khabar,in its editorial on January 26,describes the campaign to unfurl the Tricolour at Lal Chowk as a part of the attempt to worsen the sensitive situation in Jammu and Kashmir. The “disturbance created by BJP workers at Jammu following the arrest of the party’s leaders was tragic and painful. Tricolours were scattered all over on the road,and it was difficult to imagine a greater insult to the national flag than this,” the paper says.

Compiled by Seema Chishti