[sacw] sacw dispatch (19 Oct.99)

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch
19 October 1999

Contains
#1. Spot the difference: Democracy & Dictatorship
#2. Despite pledge, intelligentsia fears long spell of Army rule
#3. A Saffron Enterprise Courtesy Mamatadi
#4. BJP leader & Sons strip Dalit girls
#5. Christian tribals fear attack, seek security
________________
#1.
The Asian Age (By arrangement with DAWN)
19 October 1999
Op-Ed.

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE: DEMOCRACY & DICTATORSHIP
By Rahul Bedi

As I write this, the generals have been in full control for three days,
and have finally decided to run the show themselves without civilian
intermediaries. Seizing power was the easy bit: deciding what to do with
it is the hard part.
Whatever scenario ultimately plays out, one thing is clear: there are no
easy options available. I have often thought that Pakistan must be one
of the most ungovernable states in the world. Over the years,
institutions have been destroyed by successive rulers to such an extent
that achieving power has now very little to do with governing
effectively. This breakdown in governance began early in Pakistan's
brief and ill-starred history, and has now virtually paralysed the
entire system.
Wherever we look - from the railways to the police; and from the civil
bureaucracy to parliamentary democracy - an unbroken vista of
institutional rubble, broken promises and failed potential meets the
eye. Wherever there has been progress, it has been largely due to
individual initiative and determination. True, roads, schools and
hospitals have been built, but the management skills and institutional
support needed to run the infrastructure have virtually been eradicated
through nepotism and corruption, and public education and health have
entered a state of collapse
As a people, we have been unable to evolve a consensus about most of the
fundamental issues. Even something relatively simple like changing the
very colonial name of the North-West Frontier Province to Pukhtoonistan
caused the collapse of the ruling PML - ANP alliance. While lip-service
is paid to Urdu as a national language, the official language remains
English, and the elite continue to send their children to private
English-medium schools. The resulting two-track system has widened the
gulf between the haves and have-nots. Successive governments have shied
away from defusing the population bomb, and as a result we have one of
the highest growth rates in the world. Having added over a 110 million
Pakistanis to the 35 million counted in the 1951 census, we should not
be surprised to find that rampant unemployment has swollen the ranks of
various ethnic and religious militias that have transformed Pakistan
into a powder keg.
But the most dangerous and pervasive trend to have emerged is the
complete devaluation of the state's writ. In the minds of the people,
there are no longer any checks and balances to curb the power of the
influential. Far too often, the interests of the government of the day
and the personal interests of the rulers are blurred and
interchangeable. If rules are followed and laws obeyed, it is not
because these are perceived to be for the common good, but out of fear
of getting caught. And this fear has evaporated among the well connected
as they know they will not be prosecuted. Thus, people like Nawaz Sharif
and his henchmen default on billions in bank loans and evade taxes on a
massive scale, bringing the economy to the verge of collapse.
In bringing the country to this sorry pass, politicians, generals,
bureaucrats, feudals and industrialists have all contributed and
colluded in varying degrees. Given this dismal backdrop of failure and
disillusionment, one would think it would take a brave man to assume the
helm of this sinking ship of state. Far from it. With scores of
political parties, we have plenty of would-be rulers to choose from.
Indeed, with a military interregnum now staring us in the face, many
unelectable politicians are probably sitting by the phone, waiting for
that call from GHQ to pick up crumbs from the high table.
While I have opposed military rule all my adult life, I must confess
that it is hard to defend the likes of Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto.
Both have frittered away innumerable opportunities to give this
benighted country decent governance, and both have created the void
necessary for the army to retain its central position in Pakistan's
power equation. In nearly 12 years of elected civilian rule, neither has
managed to prove to the average Pakistani that democracy is immeasurably
superior to dictatorship. This is why nobody is shedding a tear for the
sacked Nawaz Sharif government, just as nobody lamented the dismissal of
Benazir Bhutto's government three years ago.
But to be fair to both these incompetent and greedy politicians, even if
they had been models of integrity and good management, the problems
Pakistan faces today are of such a magnitude that I doubt they would
have made much headway in solving them. Equally, the army certainly has
no magic wand. Indeed, our long and painful experience of military rule
indicates that they are even less equipped than our pathetic politicians
to tackle the issues that face us. If past military regimes appear to be
less corrupt and incompetent than elected civilian governments, it is
because they were not subjected to the close media scrutiny political
leaders are. Operating under tight censorship, their crooked deals and
bungling escaped the public gaze.
Perhaps the saddest part of recent events is how little public
resentment there has been against the coup. If there is a consensus over
anything in this deeply divided country, it is on democracy. And yet,
the army chief can today order the takeover of state institutions and
the dismissal of an elected, constitutional government without worrying
about any public outcry or backlash. For this state of apathy, both
Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto share the blame. In their two stints
apiece, they have failed to deliver on a single promise.
It is my guess that the army is extremely reluctant to declare martial
law and abrogate the Constitution. Its high command knows very well that
it has no answers to Pakistan's innumerable problems. The generals would
therefore prefer to stay in the background and have a government of
so-called technocrats in an open-ended caretaker arrangement, even
though it is a contradiction in terms. Elections will be deferred until
both mainstream parties are subjected to thorough accountability.
This arrangement would be no worse than what we have been living through
these past few years. The proclamation declaring the COAS to be the
chief executive reflects the constitutional difficulties in putting this
kind of civilian fig-leaf in place. I have no doubt Pakistan's
imaginative lawyers will find a solution, and our pliable higher
judiciary will swallow these arrangements without gagging.
Alas, the only people who will squeal in protest will be the out-of-work
politicians who will be thrown off the gravy train.

________________
#2.
The Asian Age
0ct19, 1999

DESPITE PLEDGE, INTELLIGENTSIA FEARS LONG SPELL OF ARMY RULE
By Tahir Ikram

Islamabad: Pakistani intellectuals expressed fears on Monday that
military rule could last much longer than expected, despite an Army
pledge to return the country to eventual democratic rule.
"There is no limit on (time)," [read I.A.] Rehman, director at the Human
Rights
Commission of Pakistan, told a seminar held to "make sense of the recent
events of Pakistan".
Army Chief Pervez Musharraf pledged on Sunday that the army would rule
no longer than necessary after toppling Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's
government in a coup last Tuesday.
General. Musharraf listed seven priorities for his new government,
promising to bring real democracy, but did not give a timeframe for
elections to be held.
Mr Rehman, who recalled past statements of three other military rulers,
said Musharraf's "national agenda" was "open-ended" and there was no
time frame for its completion.
Qaisar Bengali, an economist, said the agenda of economic revival alone
could take a long time because of the extent and the complexity of the
economic crisis.
"I just do not know what this government can do...the economy is in such
a bad shape, structurally," Mr Bengali said.
He said the army would either stay for a very long time or fail to
deliver on its plans for economic revival. Another analyst said once any
military ruler took over he found himself in a web that took time to
untangle. Gen. Musharraf's coup was the fourth military interruption of
civilian rule in Pakistan's history. Gen. Musharraf declared a state of
emergency, suspended the constitution and became the chief executive of
Pakistan, which started with a civilian government after its creation in
1947 but has had a total of 24 years of military rule since then.
Political analyst Ataur Rehman said Gen. Musharraf's agenda for
political and economic reform was badly needed but would take years to
fulfill. (Reuter)
________________
#3.
The Times of India
Tuesday 19 October 1999
Posted at 0130 hrs IST

A SAFFRON ENTERPRISE COURTESY MAMATADI
By Sanghamitra Chakraborty

THE entry to Keshav Bhavan, the RSS headquarter in Calcutta, is
restricted. Enter it and you will find sevaks in khaki shorts reading
Bartaman (the paper which made Mamata Banerjee). This sight breaches
credulity for someone who has grown up in Calcutta. But it's true, the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has arrived in Calcutta -- and Bengal --
finally.

Evidence saffron-banded supporters, campaigning for Mamatadi before the
elections, khaki-clad men attending shakhas in city parks early in the
morning and the huge turnouts at RSS workshops held in recent times. The
sangh has entered 1,200 villages in the state; 185 pracharaks are
working for it here. Unheard of even three years back.

Strangely enough, Calcutta's had a role in the birth of the RSS.
Kesavrao Hedgewar, who fathered it, came to Calcutta in the early 1920s
to study medicine. Young Hedgewar was immediately drawn by the
revolutionary credo which was sweeping through Bengal at the time. He
even came in contact with Anushilan Samity, one such underground
revolutionary organisation. But his Hindu soul did not respond to the
leftist ideology. Back in Nagpur, he launched his Hindu revivalist
movement, borrowing the militancy of the Marxists.

Captive Market

Hedgewar did go back to Calcutta to win friends and influence people,
but he was never heard by anybody apart from a handful of shakha
members. `Guruji' Sadashivrao Golwalkar also tried and failed. Even
Shyama Prasad Mukherjee's attempts at mobilising support for his Hindu
Mahasabha remained a non-starter. Somehow -- and it's not easy to say
why -- Bengal evaded the Hindutvavadis. Ms Banerjee, ironically, has
achieved just that.

By joining hands with the BJP, Mamata has put the primer coat for
painting Bengal saffron. This is not to say that Mamata herself believes
in the RSS ideology. Far from it. She would probably blanch if someone
told her that Golwalkar wrote an entire section in an RSS text book
about how Muslims, Christians and Communists were the `internal threats'
for a Hindu Rashtra. Her secular credentials are well known. Even
die-hard Leftists admit this. But Mamata wouldn't even get to know it if
RSS sevaks were making fresh inroads with her name as their password.
Which they are. Mamata is popular, acceptable and identified with
secular ideals. The RSS can't believe that she has happened to them. BJP
workers actively helped the Trinamul Congress during the recent election
campaign and many of their sevak friends were part of the effort. They
helped didi, to help themselves. And will continue to do so.

But Mamata's problem is that she can't see this. Her only agenda is to
demolish the Marxists in Bengal. To achieve this, she would do anything,
join hands with anyone, dance to any tune. In fact, at a pre-election
meeting between the Bengal BJP and Mamata, senior RSS leader V V Papad
was present. Keshav Dixit, a senior functionary of the organisation in
Calcutta, who loves and admires Mamata, vouched for it.

Mamata appears unconcerned with the signals this might be sending out,
obsessed as she is with the Marxists. What she evidently does not
realise is that by lending her aura to the sangh parivar, she's, in
fact, helping them to destroy her : That the moment they are through
with her they will dump her. But, by then they would have won over what
is a captive market waiting to be tapped: the rank and file of the CPM.
If the erosion in that party continues with the steady pace that it has
been, winning over hordes of CPM cadre will not take much.

Growing Arrogance
The growing arrogance of the CPM bosses, which has caused their rank and
file to be considerably alienated, will facilitate this. When a party
grows in size and influence, it attracts masses of people. Known goons
of the Congress Party in Calcutta had flowed into the CPM in the heydays
of the Left party. Today, many CPM workers are switching over to the
Trinamul. How long will it take for the Trinamul worker to change into
saffron garb?

Not very and here's why. Mamata Banerjee exists on an anti-Left plank.
She does not have a distinctive ideology. The moment she wrests power in
her state, she would have lost her platform. But the sangh does have a
firm ideology. A sharp, distinctive, credo which can stand by itself and
win hearts. A manifesto which will not need a Mamata Banerjee to prop it
up. That's the day she will rue it.
________________
#4.
Hindustan Times
19 October 1999

THREE DALIT GIRLS STRIPPED
Kanpur, October 18 (HT Correspondent)

A local BJP leader and his influential sons allegedly stripped three
girls belonging to a backward caste over a trivial issue in Bilhaur,
near here, early on Monday morning.

According to eye-witnesses, the family members of the victims were
brutally beaten up. Those, who tried to rescue, including the elder
brother of the BJP leader, were also thrashed and chased away.

Hundreds of supporters of the leader gheraoed the Bilhaur police station
and mounted pressure on the cops not to register a case.

However, a case was registered following the instructions of SP (Rural
Areas) Satya Bhushan Pathak.

Mr Pathak, on being contacted, confirmed that the stripping took place
and said a case had been registered under relevant sections of the IPC.

Before leaving for Bilhaur, Satya Bhushan Pathak said the culprits would
be dealt with strictly and arrested soon.

Strangely, these BJP activists were taken inside the police station
along with all the accused who were given special treatment by the
police.

As tension was mounting in Bilhaur, additional police force was deployed
in and around Prasad Nagar where the incident took place.

The mother of the victims, Ramlali, has filed a report against the BJP
leader Shiv Dularey Awasthi, his sons Anil, Ashok, Atul and Amit and
several others despite immense pressure on her and the family.

According to reports, the victims reside near the house of Shiv Dularey
Awasthi who had blocked the way to the temple by constructing a wall.

The girl Mamta, 16, wanted to go to the temple for offering prayers as
today is the last day of Navratri season.

Since she had to cover a long distance, Mamta preferred to take a
short-cut.

When she was trying to jump over the wall, Awasthi and his sons
reportedly dragged her down.

According to reports, she was stripped and beaten mercilessly till she
lost consciousness. When the elder brother of the accused, Ram Dularey,
tried to save her, he was beaten up.

The SP (Rural Areas) said that later the BJP leader and his sons barged
into Mamta's house and overpowered her two other sisters, Maya, 20, and
Meena.

Somehow, the police were informed but by then three persons had been
seriously injured. The police said Ramlali and her family had been
beaten up by the Awasthis at least three times in the recent past.

The BJP leaders were pressuring the police to register a case against
Ramlali and her family, Mr Satya Bhushan Pathak said.
__________________
# 5.
Indian Express
Tuesday, October 19, 1999

CHRISTIAN TRIBALS FEAR ATTACK, SEEK SECURITY
By Prakash Dash 

BHUBANESWAR, OCT 18: Christian tribals of Ranalai village of Gajapati
district have sought police protection from Chief Secretary Sudhansu
Bhusan Mishra fearing attack from the Hindu tribals of the village. They
have also urged him to bring peace in the village and reduce tension
between both the tribal communities prevailing in the area since March
16 last following torching of a local Church.

In a memorandum to the chief secretary which was released to the press,
the Christian tribals said that the police have released the miscreants
on bail who had torched their houses and the Church. They alleged that
the police made the provisions less stringent under which the culprits
were booked and let them free on bail. They further alleged that the
culprits were taken in a procession by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and
Rastriya Swamsevak Sangh (RSS) workers after the miscreants were
released and a meeting was held in support of them.

The Christian tribals also said that the miscreants belonging to the
Hindu community have since have indulged in attacks on them while the
local police have kept away or connived with the miscreants.

They informed Mishra that the miscreants had attacked them during the
last Lok Sabha elections. A report in this regard has been submitted by
the Ranalai villagers to Chief Minister Giridhar Gamang, Minister of
State for Home Prasad Harichandan, the director general of police, the
district collector and the superintendent of police of Ganjam.

Fearing that the Hindu fundamentalists may attack them at anytime, the
Christian tribals have urged Mishra to provide them immediate security.
-----
RSS ORCHESTRATING ANTI-CHRISTIAN CAMPAIGN BEFORE POPE VISIT: CPM

NEW DELHI: CPI-M on Monday accused the RSS and its allied outfits of
"orchestrating" an anti-Christian campaign before the forthcoming visit
of Pope John Paul and demanded immediate steps to curb such propaganda.

"The visit of Pope John Paul to New Delhi in the first week of November
is being used as a pretext for a countrywide anti-Christian campaign
orchestrated by the RSS and its allied outfits," CPI-M polit bureau said
in a statement.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has organised a yatra from Goa which
would reach Delhi on the eve of the Pope's visit, it said, adding that
the yatra is being used for anti-Christian propaganda.

"The propaganda material which is being brought out by the VHP and other
RSS outfits spew hatred against the Christian minority," it said.

Asking the Vajpayee government to take immediate steps to curb the
propaganda through activities like the VHP yatra, CPI-M said failure to
do so would further damage the secular image of the country in the eyes
of the world.

Charging the government with being unable to take a firm stand on the
issue as the RSS was involved, it said India is a multi-religious
country and the head of any religion is free to visit the country to
participate in religious functions.

"This has never been questioned before. It is a sign of the changed
circumstances that under the BJP-led government hostile propaganda
against a religious group is freely conducted contravening the laws of
the land," it said.

_________________________________________

South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch is an informal, independent &
non-profit citizens wire service run by South Asia Citizens Web
(http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex) since1996.