Senate Approves Seat For Hindu Minority

Wednesday December 25, 2013
Kabul (BNA) At the Senate Meeting chaired by its speaker Fazul Hadi Muslimyar, the senate in addition to confirming of three international documents, confirmed the draft amendments at the election law pertaining to allocation of a seat for the Hindu community at the House of People.
Meanwhile, the agreement of friendship and cooperation between Afghanistan and Indonesia, the strategic agreement between Afghanistan and the Royal Government of Denmark and an agreement between Afghanistan and Britain and Northern Ireland with respect to aid to the academy of national army officers were adopted by the Senate meeting.
Meanwhile, the draft amendment and addition to the election law pertaining to allocation of a seat at the House of People for Hindu and Sikh community was adopted with majority vote of the senators.
However, the House of People in its general meeting had rejected it earlier while the senate considering allocation of the ten seats for the Kuchis and considering an empty seat at the House of People justified its confirmation.
It is said that in order to remove the differences of views between the Senate and the House of People a joint commission will be formed so that one of these options are confirmed.
At another part of the meeting, the senate discussed the complaints of the public with respect to electricity shortage in some parts of the Kabul city and it was decided that the head of the Breshna Company should summoned to one of the senate general meeting to provide explanation in this respect.
They also complained over the weak welcome of the protocol department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the International Kabul Airport and the head of the ministry’s protocol department was summoned to a senate meeting.
The senators also raised the issue of highway robberies and abductions on the roads towards Maidan Shahr and Ghourband were irresponsible armed people are behaving inappropriately with the commuters.
They asked the Ministry of Interior Affairs to undertake necessary preventive measures to stop such practices.
They also touched on a report released by the (One TV) that terrorists and abductors and the organizers of suicide bombings are freed with the meddling of the High Peace Council while this council without advancing reasons threatened the TV network for publishing this news.

Courtesy:bakhtarnews dot com dot af

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Hindu school teacher goes missing in Peshawar

PESHAWAR: A Hindu school teacher was allegedly kidnapped by unidentified people while on her way back home from school near the Pakistan Radio Colony on Saturday afternoon.
Faqir Chand, the father of the missing 25-year-old woman Sapna Rani, said his daughter is a teacher at the Peshawar Science Academy near Ayub Flour Mill on GT Road.
While talking to The Express Tribune, he said Rani went to school at around 7:45am on Saturday morning and when she did not return till 4:00pm, the family started to worry.
After trying in vain to locate her, Chand’s nephew Suraish Kumar went to the Paharipura Police Station to lodge a missing report after which ASI Sardar Ali Khan registered a case and launched investigations.
Bindya Rani, the kidnapped woman’s grief-stricken mother, said “We don’t have an enmity with anyone,” and pleaded to the government to do everything in its power to find her daughter.

Courtesy:tribune dot com dot pk

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Our Hopes Were Dashed, Say Pakistani Hindus

The Hindu Hindus from Pakistan demonstrating at Jantar Mantar on Friday. Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar 

A group of 29 Hindus from the Sindh province of Pakistan have been demonstrating at Jantar Mantar here for the past four days to demand that the Indian Government provide them food, shelter and jobs.

On October 5 this year, the group entered India legally, seeking a better future for themselves. However, they were allegedly asked by customs officials at Munabao in Barmer district of Rajasthan to hand over the jewellery they had carried.

According to Panju Mal, who sold off his farm in Hyderabad and bought jewellery with the money, they entered India in the hope that they would be accepted.

“But all our hopes were dashed when the customs officials at Munabao, which borders Pakistan, insisted that the women remove their jewellery items like bangles and earrings. They told us that jewellery was taxable. Since we did not have Rs. 5 lakh to pay, we had to leave them there,” he told The Hindu.

The group went to a local police station and had an FIR filed. “But the FIR was filed on behalf of four women and not all eight whose jewellery is with the officials. The FIR is in Hindi, which we cannot read. We were given phone numbers which nobody picks up,” he said.

He added: “We want the Indian Government to give us jobs so that we can feed our families. Wherever we go people ask to show our identity cards. Our month-long tourist visa has expired and we have no money.”

He is worried about his mother, a senior citizen, whose blood sugar level has increased alarmingly but he cannot buy medicines for her.

At the moment, there are 1,114 Hindus, of which 50 are children and 30 are women, from Sindh at Jantar Mantar who came to India on tourist visas at different days.

Conversant in English, Parthi, who studied Humanities from the Government Girls College in Hyderabad, said the job prospect for Hindus in Pakistan is pretty bleak.

“In Government jobs, 95 per cent are reserved for the majority. And the minorities have only five per cent jobs. We have no future there and this was the reason we have come to India.”

Like others, Narain Das too sold off his shop and used the money earned from it to prepare jewellery.

“Now our deplorable condition has become similar to beggars. We do not have a house to live in and our women and children are braving the inclement cold weather of Delhi. We plead the Indian Government to give us roti, kapra and makan.”

Pointing out that an important reason for abandoning Pakistan was that Islam was taught in schools, Mr. Das said from nursery to Class V it is compulsory for all schools to teach Quran.

“After a three year gap, students are again taught Quran from Class IX to XII. Our children can recite the holy text of Muslims but we do not want our children to convert to another religion.”

He said the Panchayat in Hyderabad had paid Rs.13 lakh to authorities to construct a cremation ground for the Hindus. “But it was not constructed. In 1947,

Hindus in Sindh were living in large numbers but now only 13 lakh are staying. We could not migrate to India because we were working under zamindars.”

He shows a photocopy of his passport to show that he has permission to stay in Delhi, Jodhpur and Mathura.

A burly man, Khemchand was a commission agent at a vegetable market in Karachi but is now living in a hand to mouth condition.

“But we are happy to be in India. The truth is that majority of Hindus in Pakistan want to settle down here. But only a limited number of people get visas.” 

Courtesy:the hindu dot com

 

 

 

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Urban Outfitters forced to pull $8 Ganesh socks from sale after Hindu community accuses it of 'hurting our devotees'

Urban Outfitters has come under fire from the Hindu community over a pair of $8 socks.

Rajan Zed, the president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, says that Urban Outfitters’s socks featuring the ancient deity Lord Ganesh are a misinterpretation of the Hindu religion.

‘Lord Ganesh was highly revered in Hinduism and was meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and not to be wrapped around one's foot,’ Mr Zed said of the socks in a statement aimed at Urban Outfitters executives.

The culprit: Urban Outfitters's $8 Ganesh socks have sparked backlash from the Hindu community

‘Inappropriate usage of Hindu deities or concepts for commercial or other agenda was not okay as it hurts the devotees,’ he added.

Mr Zed’s comments, which addressed UO president Richard Hayne and company CEO Ted Marlow, has prompted the retailer to remove the socks from its website and stores.
‘We appreciate Rajan Zed and the Universal Society of Hinduism for bringing this matter to our attention and for helping us understand the cultural and religious sensitivities this product carries.
We will remove the Ganesh Socks immediately from our website and stores,’ a spokesperson for Urban Outfitters told The Huffington Post.

Removed: Urban Outfitters has since removed the socks from its website and says that the product will also be pulled from store shelves

Statesman: Rajan Zed (pictured above) feels that Ganesh's likeness should not be wrapped around a foot or be used to draw a profit

On their respective e-commerce link, the Ganesh socks’ product’s image has been replaced with a sign that says ‘sold out.’ They are no longer available for online purchase.

Yesterday Mr Zed took to his Twitter account to thank Urban Outfitters for their response.

‘Thanks Urban Outfitters for understanding the concerns of upset Hindus & thus apologizing & removing socks carrying image of Lord Ganesh,’ he dispatched.
Lord Ganesh is a Hindu deity that is portrayed with the head of an elephant and the body of a Siddha (a term for someone who has reached a high degree of physical and mental enlightenment).

In appreciation: Zed in return, took to Twitter to thank Urban Outfitters for its quick response

Ganesh is considered by Hindus to be the remover of obstacles, as well as the patron saint of arts and sciences and the deity of intellect and wisdom. For these reasons, Ganesh figures are often found in yoga studio asana rooms.

Ganesh’s likeliness is also sometimes printed onto clothing produced by small, yoga-centric brands.

 Courtesy:dailymail dot co dot uk

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Hindus Protest Demolition of Temple in Karachi

A large number of Pakistani Hindus today joined a protest outside the Press Club here over the demolition of an 80-year-old temple in the city's Soldier Bazar area.

The Krishna or Rama Peer Mandir at Dholi Khata in Soldier Bazar has become a bone of contention between the minority Hindu community and a powerful builder, who bought the land on which the temple was built from the military estate office through a government auction.

"Religious articles, including pictures and statuettes of our gods, are still lying in the rubble of the demolished temple and families living in the compound on which the temple was built still remain homeless," Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, patron of the Pakistan Hindu Council, told PTI.

Several families displaced by the demolition of the temple participated in the protest. Observers said the issue highlighted the growing insecurity of Pakistan's minorities.

Vankwani, a member of the Sindh chapter of the PML-N party, said authorities had trampled the sentiments of Hindus across the world by razing the historical temple.

"The departments responsible for this gross injustice are the military estate office and the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB), who auctioned off the land to a powerful builder without caring about our sentiments," he said.

An ETPB official, speaking on condition of anonymity, claimed the temple was illegally built on military land that had been auctioned. The temple was legally razed on the orders of a court, he said.

Many Hindu temples in Karachi have in recent years been the subject of disputes involving commercial builders.

The ETPB official said the dispute over the shrine in Soldier Bazar began in 2008, when the Military Estates Officer issued eviction notices to the temple and more than a dozen Hindu families living in houses built around it.

But Vankwani insisted that maps with the ETPB showed the temple was present on the plot even before Partition. "The Hindu families have been living in the compound since Partition and instead of being thrown out, they should have been offered ownership rights for a price," he said.

Mukesh Kumar Jaidia, a resident of Doli Khata, said the government could have spared the temple. "This incident shows that there is no care for Hindus in Pakistan," he said.

The 1998 census - the last official population count - placed Pakistan's Hindu population at 2.5 million.

FILED ON: Dec 16, 2013 21:19 IST
Courtesy:news dot outlookindia dot com

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Hindu group proposes monument at Oklahoma State Capital

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  A statue of Hindu Lord Hanuman, such as this one, is being proposed for a state Capitol monument. AP file
  

Just days after the news broke that a Satanic Temple in New York City is seeking to build a monument to Satan on the grounds of the Oklahoma Capitol, a Hindu organization announced this week that it, too, would like to build a monument there, to one of its chief deities.
Rajan Zed, president of Universal Society of Hinduism, emailed his request to the Oklahoma State Capitol Preservation Commission.

Zed, of Nevada, said in a press release that Hindus want to erect a statue of Lord Hanuman, a Hindu deity "who was greatly revered and worshipped and known for incredible strength and was (a) perfect grammarian."

He said the statue would raise awareness of Oklahomans about Hinduism.

Commission Chairman Trait Thompson, who also is a senior policy adviser for Senate Pro Tem Brian Bingman, said he had received the request from Zed and had referred him to the website, which has all the application forms.

"I suppose when one group gets some publicity, everyone else wants to make their point," he said.

Is there any chance a Hindu statue will be built at the Capitol?

"I can't speak for the commission," Thompson said.

"If they follow through and put forth a good application, it will be voted on. It's hard to say. There are a lot of factors."

The commission was formed in 1982 to oversee the preservation and restoration of the Oklahoma State Capitol building, and later, the Governor's Mansion. As controller of the public display of art objects there, it recently oversaw the installation of a Ten Commandments monument at the Capitol.

Hari Musapeta, spokesman for the Hindu Temple of Greater Tulsa, said he had not heard of Zed or the Universal Society of Hinduism.

He said he would "need to learn about the man and the organization," before commenting on the application.

He was familiar, however, with Lord Hanuman, which he described as "a powerful god, the No. 1 Hindu deity after Lord Rama."

He said Tulsa has some 5,000 to 8,000 Hindu families, many of them professional people from India.

Zed declined an interview, and said everything he was prepared to say was in the press release.

According to his website, he is an Indo-American and Hindu statesman who gave the first Hindu opening prayer in the U.S. Senate, was invited by the president of the European Parliament to a meeting in Brussels to discuss Hindu issues, and has delivered prayers at several state legislatures.

Several Oklahoma lawmakers responded negatively to the request by a Satanic Temple to put a monument to Satan at the Capitol. The request apparently was in response to the recent installation of the Ten Commandments monument.

Bill Sherman 918-581-8398

bill.sherman@tulsaworld.com

courtesy:tulsaworld dot com

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