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Washington DC -
Brief Overview |
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Washington DC, the magnificent US capital,
was founded on July 16, 1790. The city of Washington was originally
a separate municipality within the territory of Columbia until an
act of Congress in 1871 effectively merged the city and the
territory into a single entity called the District of Columbia.
Located on the north bank of the
Potomac River and bordered by the states of Virginia to the
southwest and Maryland to the other sides, Washington was designed
by a French Architect. A good combination of age-old and
contemporary art, the city has its streets named alphabetically and
roads named after the 50 states of the United States.
Unlike New York where high-rise buildings and towers are common, in
Washington a building cannot be taller than George Washington
Memorial Tower- the 6000 ft tall monument built in the memory of the
first President of United States.
House to the White House - the official residence of the US
President and Capitol Building - the US Parliament, Washington is
among the few cities in America, where a large number of
Afro-Americans reside. |
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I was the last minute inclusion in the 3-member team that was
visiting United States as part of the International Visitor
Leadership Program sponsored by the US Department of State.
Honestly, the only thing that was haunting me ever since I was
informed about my visit to United States beginning March 22, 2010
was to face ‘the Muslim only whole body scanner’ supposedly
installed at every US airport. Hence, I remained totally unperturbed
even when I found the immigration officers at Mumbai’s Sahar
International Airport unable to ‘digest’ a Muslim from Malegaon – a
place predominated by Muslim population and known to them as one of
the breeding grounds for TERRORISTS - going to United States on a
valid visa and as a guest of the US Department of State. It was only
after wasting more than the normal time and few rounds here and
there that they were convinced the documents I had were not forged.
Unlike this - and of course contrary to my apprehensions - the
security-men at the Dallas International Airport, Washington DC in
United States and later at other US airports were friendly and
cordial. The much publicised ‘whole body scanners’ were also nowhere
in sight. It may sound surprising but the fact is that I really
found myself lucky to be spared from meeting with the fate Bollywood
ace Shahrukh Khan recently and a former Union Minister couple of
years before had met.
In the next seven days while criss-crossing Washington DC amid the
claims of ‘the United States has the freedom of this’ and ‘the
United States has the liberty of that’, it soon transpired that
successive governments in the United States howsoever damaging for
the rest of the world they might have been, for the Americans they
have really built a perfect place for living. Commenting anything on
the infrastructure, development and town-planning would be
meaningless. But the way the entire Washington DC is beautifully
decorated with ‘Cherry Blossom’ trees – gifted by the Japanese
government perhaps in return of the bombs that the United States had
dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki – is an art in itself. Combined
with these trees are a chain of memorials, monuments, museums,
cultural centres and religious premises, each having historical
significance to the United States and to the world and wonderfully
built to suite the particular moment. Then there are the buildings
depicting excellent combination of contemporary and hundreds of year
old art, the statues of US veterans and world leaders stalled at
prime locations, including our own Mahatama Gandhi right in front of
the Indian Embassy, and what not. The exemplary US Capital has
everything to attract people not only from various places in the
United States but also from every corner of the world.
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Farha Pandit |
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Farha Pandit - US
President Obama's Special Representative to the Muslim Communities, for the reasons best known to her, could not throw much light
on these issues. She, however, sounded optimistic and relying on
various initiatives taken towards finding solutions of the issues
pertaining to the Muslim World including the crisis in Palestine,
she was hopeful that something positive would come very soon. Yet,
watching Farha, a Muslim lady of Indian origin in the power
corridors and speaking with remarkable command, authority and sense
of power – something the Muslim leaders in India are miserably
lacking in – was a pleasant experience. |
Beyond the beauty of the magnificent US Capital, our program in
Washington DC included meetings with various Non-Government and
Non-Profit Organisations – there are an estimated 1.7 million such
organisations in Washington alone. Some working for inter-faith
programs, some for the issues pertaining to the immigrants and
ethnic minorities, some working for lobbying and other lobby groups,
and some busy in research to generate the required data and survey
reports for the policymakers. Every NGO and Non-Profit Organisation
would have their own agenda – sometimes even secret and hidden – and
own source of funding. Besides these organisations, we also had
meetings with Government agencies and officials. Deliberating with
them on the pre-decided topics relating to their areas of operation
was interesting. But it was the very first meeting that we had at
the Meridian International Centre with an expert on the US Federal
System that set the tone of our upcoming meetings with the US
Government officials.
The man in question was well-versed in his subject. But the moment
the discussion shifted towards the US foreign policy – believed by
many as one of the primary reasons behind most of the evils in the
world - he immediately switched to the back-foot. Be it the
Israeli-Palestinian issue, US invasion of Iraq – that by now a vast
majority even in the US believes as illegitimate, US policy on
Afghanistan, and US double standard and attitudes of the successive
US governments towards regimes and people when they and when they do
not serve the US interests, he tried to defend everything. He was a
man to watch especially when in reply to a question, he began
defending ‘Crusade’ and finally ended in defending ‘Jihad’.
“Crusade has the same significance in Christianity that Jihad has in
Islam. But, like Jihad, Crusade is also a misunderstood word”, he
said in a tone exactly similar to that of the Muslims when they
defend Jihad. “The invasion of Iraq was not a Crusade against Islam
but was a different ‘war-game’ altogether”, he added. Interesting!
In an attempt to defend the US policy, he disclosed, perhaps, more
than he was supposed to. The focus of the meetings was set and it
remained part of the discussions the entire tour.
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Against the Nuclear Arms since 1981... |
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Concepcion
Picciotto - Connie and Conchita to her friends - is protesting
in front of the White House - the official residence of the US
President - against Nuclear Arms and ugly conspiracies of the
Zionist forces against world peace since August 1, 1981.
"Israel! Israel is supplying arms to India - India, the land
of Gandhi, the symbol of Peace... Israel is the enemy of
peace...", she screamed as soon as she was introduced to us. |
During the meeting with the US Department of Homeland Security, it
was surprising to note that the entire effort of the department is
still on the so called MUSLIM TERRORISTS. They could not reply to
the query that at the time when their entire effort is to combat the
terrorism purportedly conspired by ‘Muslim Names’ and those ‘with
beard’, ‘Muslim sculp’ and ‘Muslim look-alikes’, people having the
names like ‘David Coleman Headily’, ‘Col. Prasad Prohit’, ‘Sadhvi
Pragaya Singh Thakur’ and people associated with other militant and
extremist groups could also be involved in the terrorist activities,
and taking advantage of the ‘Muslim Terrorism’ euphoria, they remain
unnoticed, leaving poor Muslims to face the wrath of the ‘War
against Terrorism’.
The question was raised because ever since Barack Hussein Obama has
taken the reins of the United States in his hands, it is widely
publicised that – and this is what we had been informed on several
occasions – he is ready to go an extra mile to engage with the
Muslim World. But nobody had any clarification to the questions that
the ‘War against Terrorism’ almost everywhere in the world had
virtually been transformed into an all-out ‘War against Muslims’.
And unless immediate correction is made, the entire efforts to
engage the Muslim World - if they are really based on honest
intentions - would be fruitless.
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The Rally in front of the Capitol Building ... |
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Incidentally, the
first thing that we encountered after arriving in Washington
DC was the mammoth gathering at the huge ground in front of
the Capitol Building. The rally - attended by more than
100,000 people was organised to press the Obama Administration
for Immigration Reforms. Interestingly, unlike other places in
the world where organisers have to struggle hard to gather the
people, we saw people from all across the United States
voluntarily coming to the rally and raising slogans and
placards in support of the Immigration Reforms. |
While meeting with Farha Anwar Pandith – the high profile lady of
Indian origin in the Obama Administration who has been appointed as
the Special Representative to the Muslim Communities with much fanfare - we
thought the gaps would be filled and we would get satisfactory
clarifications from her at least on some of the burning issues. We
found her worried about the educational backwardness of the Muslim
community throughout the world. We found her very keen to invest in
Scientific Research and other such fields. We also found her eager
to do something urgently to eradicate poverty. The importance of
what Farha Pandith has in her mind – and also the urgency to work on
these issues – no sane individual would disagree with. However, what
she fails to understand is that the Muslim world at the grass-root
level wants to see major changes in the US foreign policy – which
for many is anti-Muslim. The Muslim World wants to see something
concrete to be done urgently on the Palestinian issue. The Muslims
throughout the world want to see
US President Obama delivering on
what he had promised while
addressing the Muslim World from Cairo
University. They want the US Administration – as it has the long
history of doing in the Muslim and other parts of the world – to
interfere when France bans Hijab and Switzerland brings ban on
Minaret. And, they want to see tangible shift in the US War against
Terrorism that has virtually converted the Muslims in different
parts of the world convenient scapegoats at the hands of hostile
regimes.
Farha, for the reasons best known to her, could not throw much light
on these issues. She, however, sounded optimistic and relying on
various initiatives taken towards finding solutions of the issues
pertaining to the Muslim World including the crisis in Palestine,
she was hopeful that something positive would come very soon. Yet,
watching Farha, a Muslim lady of Indian origin in the power
corridors and speaking with remarkable command, authority and sense
of power – something the Muslim leaders in India are miserably
lacking in – was a pleasant experience.
Meanwhile for the people in Washington DC, the only thing other than
the Health Care Bill that was the topic of the discussions was
‘Cherry Blossom’. When we started packing after staying seven days
in the US Capital, the Cherry Blossoms were already blooming and the
entire Washington DC appeared to be under pink and white colors. It
was an indication for the Americans to gear up for the weeklong
annual vista.
PS:
While in Washington DC, we also visited the magnificent Vietnam
Memorial. Written on the black marble wall – the black marble
specially brought to US from India for the purpose - the memorial
has the names of 58,000 American soldiers killed during the infamous
war. We could not stop ourselves asking the officer who was
accompanying us, where does the US Administration plan to build the
memorial for those being killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. The reply
was an angry gaze…
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