Akhbaar-e-Mashriq has described the Maoist victory as a red dawn (surkh sawera). “The road to solid and active democracy would be long, after 240 years of king’s rule and all sections would have to be taken along”, the paper says.

OBC judgment

The Supreme Court’s judgment about reservations for Other Backward Classes in admission to Central educational institutions has invited comment. Hyderabad-based Rahnuma-e-Deccan in its editorial (April 13) has described it as expected but belated (Mutawaqqa faisla lekin badbakhtana taakhir ke saath). It has emphasised that Muslim backward classes too can gain from the judgment if, following the Andhra example, they are classified as Backward Classes and provided reservation. But this would depend on what the court decides in this respect, the paper says.

P.S.: Mussalman ke liye thodi si sharaab jaayez (a little alcohol is permitted for Muslims). This is the fatwa of a “world renowned scholar of Islam” of Egypt, Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qarzawi, as reported by Sahafat (April 13) in a front-page report from Qatar. According to the scholar, use of 0.5 per cent quantity of alcohol (sharaab) is not against the tenets of Islam. His fatwa has given rise to a controversy as many Muslims consider alcohol haram in any quantity. According to the report, Al-Qarzawi had tried to visit Britain recently but he was denied entry.