A step towards controlling the radical Iranian Baha’is in India!
Election rigging is an act of dishonestly organizing an election to get a particular result. It is an electoral fraud and an interference with the election process. In the Baha'i Faith, the elections are not rigged because there are no elections in the first place. The whole election process is an orchestra, in which the elected members are pre-decided, and the ballots are not even counted.
Like every previous International Convention, this year, it was pre-decided to induct Praveen Kumar Mallik as the new UHJ member.
To justify the result of the selection process, desired member, Praveen Mallik was inducted into the ITC. This gave Baha'is the idea that such a person is on the waiting list.
It was expected that very soon the UHJ will elevate the Indian ITC member from Bihar a very politically sensitive state of India to the UHJ. For a common Baha'i this has come as a shocker because Praveen Mallik has no Baha'i credentials to get elected to UHJ. It is not possible that the members of NSA of US and Europe will vote for him. It is unimaginable that any of the Indian NSA members would have voted for Praveen. There are many sincere and knowledgeable Baha'is worldwide to take up this position, but the UHJ has always been denying them for the reason known only to them.
THE BIG QUESTION IS - WHY DID THE UHJ ELEVATE HIM?
1 - To stop the downward trend of the Baha'i Faith in India
UHJ is trying hard to uphold the ever decreasing trend of the Baha'i faith in India, where the last census data, conducted by the Government of India had just shown 4572 Baha'is in the country. The emerging of various Baha'i sects worldwide and particularly in India has shaken the beliefs of the ordinary Baha'is. These new and upcoming sects amongst the Baha'is i.e. Orthodox Baha'i Faith, Baha'is Under the Provision of Covenant, Reform Baha'is, and the Free Baha'i Faith are giving sleepless nights to the Baha'i Administration.
2 - To have a check on activities of the Persian Baha'is in India
Persian Baha'is like Mr. B. Afshin, Mr. Jabbar, Dr. Ahmed Ansari and Lesan Azadi are active in teaching and spreading the faith. Brilliant reports are submitted of their work although the official statistics prove otherwise. In short, Praveen will carry out the responsibility of harassment, which earlier used to carried out by R. N. Shah against the Persian Bahais.
It is a trend in India that once a counselor is relieved of his responsibility, he will be elected/elevated to the position of being the NSA of India. Mr. Rasheed Lateef, Mr. Bhaskaran, and Mrs. Zeena Sorabjee were ones a Counselor and now are the members of the NSA; except Borhan Afshin who was also a counselor, but was never selected for the NSA. He was even humiliated and banned from visiting places. Even his wife was denied permission for attending any conferences despite her remarkable service in India.
Similarly, Dr. Ahmed Ansari was removed from NSA, just for being a Persian Baha'i. Even his delegate election was manipulated and the UHJ instructed that if he gets elected as a delegate, he will be asked to resign.
Some years back, Mrs. Farida Vahedi, another sincere Persian Baha'i was asked to resign from the NSA of India. Mr. Sohail Muhajir, brother of a UHJ member Payman Mohajir, was booted out of the NSA.
Another example is Lesan Azadi who was removed from the post of ABM and was never appointed for any administrative post, even though other ABMs were given the opportunity of holding some position in the faith.
3 - Cleansing of the UHJ from the Persian Baha'is
Selecting Praveen Malik will help in cleansing the UHJ from the Persian Baha'is. After the retirement of Mr. Arbab, there was no replacement of a Persian member, and very similarly after the retirement of Faridoon (Javaheri) there was no Persian member elevated to the UHJ. The Iranian membership in the UHJ has fallen from 5 to 3. Next member to retire would be Payman Muhajir, followed by Shehriyar Razvi, and then Ayman Rouhani.
This stroke of UHJ will have a reverse output, because the Persian Baha'is will be further isolated from the Baha'i Faith, and we should further expect an 'exit by troops' of the Indian Baha'is in the future.
- Former NSA Member of India
