[sacw] India: 'Hindutva' at work & resistance to it

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web - Dispatch #2.
22 December 1999
=3D> [ Dont remain deaf & dumb to 'Jang' Parivar's project in India;
Shock troops of fascism will soon at be your doorstep.
Stay Tuned..... ]
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#1. Anger in India over dropping of riots case
#2. Memory loss in Meerut, India
#3. [BJP Govt in] Gujarat & Hindutva hot heads. . .
#4. Labourers Seize Mines [owned by BJP leader] In Revolt
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#1.
BBC News Online: World: South Asia
Tuesday, 21 December, 1999, 18:18 GMT

ANGER OVER DROPPING OF RIOTS CASE
By Ram Dutt Tripathi in Lucknow

Victims of a communal riot in 1991 in the city of Meerut in the northern
state of Uttar Pradesh have expressed deep concern and anger over the
withdrawal of a criminal case relating to the incident.

Eight members of the Bharatiya Janata party accused of being involved in
the riot have been let off by a court which said that it was acting on the
basis of a government decision.

Officials of the Justice Department say that the previous Chief Minister,
Kalyan Singh, decided to withdraw the 1991 Meerut riots case last month,
even though the department had advised against such a decision.

A brief order was made by Mr Singh in early November in which he said he
was acting in the public interest.

Mr Singh took the decision a few days before he was removed by the BJP
high command earlier this month.

Twenty deaths
The case relates to riots in Meerut on 20 May 1991 during the general
election.

A clash between supporters of the Hindu nationalist BJP and their rivals
turned into serious communal riots in which 20 people were killed.

Charges against the accused were filed in January last year.

Officials say no witnesses turned up, despite the fact that several
summonses had been issued by the court.

A local BJP member of the state legislature, Laxmi Kant Vajpayee,
requested the then Chief Minister, Kalyan Singh, to withdraw the case.

Applications were also filed by all those accused in the case. These were
even supported by several prosecution witnesses.

Relatives not consulted
In addition, affidavits filed by several witnesses termed the case false,
prompting some commentators to suggest that the witnesses were influenced
by the accused.

All the officials concerned, including the public prosecutor, district
magistrate, home secretary and justice secretary opposed the demand, but
Mr Singh overruled them.

Indian law says that criminal cases may be withdrawn by the prosecutor
only in the interests of the administration of justice.

Relatives of those who were killed in the riots have told newspapers that
they were not consulted before the withdrawal, which they and local
opposition parties say was a politically-motivated decision.

The matter is likely to be raised by the opposition in the coming session
of the state legislature later this month.

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#2.

The Indian Express
22 December 1999
Editorial

MEMORY LOSS IN MEERUT

Time is expected to heal all wounds. After the bout of communal blood
letting that Meerut witnessed eight and a half years ago, the state of
Uttar Pradesh, in its magnanimity, has decided to acquit those accused in
engineering the riots. Incredible as this sounds, it has justified the
move ``in larger public interest and communal harmony''. This is a bit
like saying that the murderer of Priyadarshini Mattoo must not be brought
to book because it would stir up too many unhappy memories and cause
needless trauma. In the eyes of the law, a murder remains a murder, even
one committed in the distant past. In the eyes of the law, the murder of
one person in an individual attack, or of several people in a riot, remain
heinous crimes that deserves to be punished and so cially condemned in the
strongest possible terms.

Bringing justice to riot victims is a social imperative. It is a token of
the nation's determination not to countenance the evil of communal
blood-letting. It is also a token of society's determination to correct a
situation in which the authority of a democratic state was found wanting,
if not missing all together. Yet, in riot after riot, in inquiry after
inquiry, justice has remained elusive. The cavalier fashion in which the
the BJP-Shiv Sena government treated the Srikrishna Report on the Bombay
riots of 1992-93 is too well-known to need repeating here. So politicised
had this inquiry process become that even after the BJP-Shiv Sena
coalition was defeated electorally, the new Congress-Nationalist Congress
Party team presently in power in Maharashtra finds it almost impossible to
ensure that the legal process is taken to its logical conclusion. In case
after case, whether it is the Bhagalpur riots of 1989 or the Maliana riots
involving the Public Armed Constabulary, the authorities have preferred to
adoptthe posture of the ostrich in dealing with them.

Inquiries are instituted often merely to buy time-certainly not with the
view to get to the facts of the case. If a scrupulous judge takes such an
inquiry with far more seriousness than the political and bureaucratic
authorities do, and a credible report emerges from his labours, it may
just be consigned forever in some musty almirah and forgotten. Very few
state governments have bothered to even table such reports before the
Assembly as convention requires them to do.

But the Uttar Pradesh government has gone one step further. By withdrawing
from the case, it has in effect actually pardoned those behind the riots
before the trials could even begin. What makes the action even more
suspect is the fact that some of the accused were close to the BJP or are
BJP functionaries themselves. This newspaper reported on Tuesday how one
of the accused men went on record to state that he is a sincere party
worker and was particularly close to the former UP chief minister. The
state government, by withdrawing from the case, presented the judiciary
with a fait accompli. It had no choice but to acquit the accused and close
the case. Meanwhile, the grievous harm that the riot caused to the
families of the victims lives on as mothers grieve for sons, wives for
husbands and families struggle on without their breadwinners.
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#2.
The Asian Age
21 December 1999

[BJP GOVT IN] GUJARAT ALLOWS SHILANYAS NEAR CHURCH

Tension in Dangs, Christians fear repeat of last Christmas' attacks
Ahmedabad: The Gujarat government gave in to the pressure from its Parivar
members on Tuesday and withdrew a circular that banned a Hindu rally on
Christmas Day. The administration averted a showdown hours before an
extremist Sangh Parivar offshoot, the Hindu Jagran Manch, vowed to ignore
prohibitory orders and perform shilanyas for a Ram temple at Halmodi
village in Surat's Vyaara taluka. The shilanyas land belongs to one
Ukadiabhai, a tribal who "reconverted" to Hinduism only last year. The
village is predominantly Christian and the shilanyas venue lies close to a
church. The government gave official permission to perform the shilanyas in
return for a pledge that the Manch postpones its dharma sabha and
Christmas Day rallies against conversions in Dangs, the flashpoint of last
Christmas's anti-Christian violence. Though south Gujarat Christians are
relieved at the last-minute patchup, tension prevails in the region as
they fear the permission for shilanyas may boomerang and upbeat extremist
elements may unleash more terror on the Christian minority. The state
government had been asserting all this week that the circular, banning
rallies and meetings by one community on festival days of another, stands
no matter what the cost. The Gujarat high court on Monday directed the
state government to maintain law and order and protect all, including
minorities, between December 21 and 26 in view of the proposed agitations
by the Hindu Jagran Manch and VHP in south Gujarat. The nondescript
district of Dangs in South Gujarat shot into infamy around this time last
year due to a series of attacks on Christians and churches. The victims,
mostly tribals, faced the wrath of the the Hindu Jagran Manch, backed by
the Sangh Parivar's Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal. Last year's men
are at it again but find that the situation has changed. This time the BJP
government in Gujarat was not ready to swallow the embarrassment its
Parivar members had forced on it last year. The state government got
tough, banned rallies on Christmas Day, enforced prohibitory orders to
prevent the shilanyas and kept saying it would not allow a few
"communal-minded anti-socials" to take the law into their hands. Now, the
administration has given the HJM permission to perform the shilanyas.
Trouble has been brewing since a new leaflet war was launched in south
Gujarat claiming that Christian missionaries planned to convert a large
number of Hindus on Christmas Day. The pamphlet contains provocative
details on how Jesuit priests use "dirty tactics" to lure adivasi Hindus
into the Christian fold. Sensing trouble, the state home department,
through a circular, banned all rallies by people of a community on
religious festival days of another community. The adamant saffron brigade
flinched and vowed to continue with its Christmas Day rally. The
administration has also enforced Section 144 in the region till December
31. "We will go ahead even if we are pierced with bullets," Dangs district
VHP secretary Pradeep Patil had been quoted as saying. State minister of
home Haren Pandya toured south Gujarat and held meetings with the Hindu
leaders. His requests for postponing the rally and the shilanyas were all
rejected. Then Gujarat chief minister Keshubhai Patel met hawkish
international secretary of the VHP Pravin Togadia, and other leaders and
paved the way for a compromise. Mr Togadia told the chief minister that
Hindus have all the right to propagate their religion. The chief minister
got the logic but asked why on earth it must be done on Christmas Day. The
VHP leader accepted but on a rider: Allow Wednesday's shilanyas and
withdraw the circular banning Christmas Day rallies.
[...] .
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#4.
The Telegraph
21 December 1999

LABOURERS SEIZE MINES IN REVOLT=20
=20
=46ROM SUJAY GUPTA
=20
Shankergarh (Allahabad), Dec. 20=20
=46or years, Suraj Kali's wails were lost in the cavernous quarries. On
December 10, she took it upon herself to "change history". Spurred by
Suraj Kali, around 50,000 landless Kol labourers rose in rebellion and
"captured" 15 stone and silica mines.

The tribals, who live in this village about 60 km from Allahabad, have
been demanding mining contracts from Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh, an
influential landlord. The raja, whose mother, Maharani Rajendra Kumari Ba,
received the mining lease for 46 villages in 1947, has sublet his mines to
contractors. The Kols are hired by these contractors.

''No one will shape our destiny. Our names are not on voters' lists. We
are tortured by contractors and the raja, despite his promises, has not
given us mining contracts,'' says Nankali, an articulate Kol woman of
Garwaha village.

After pleading with the raja for about a year, the tribals lost patience.
Egged on by Suraj Kali, who, with other women labourers, has formed a
''self-help'' group, they decided to capture the mines.

''Operation Kabja'' took off on the intervening night of December 9 and
10. Kol groups led by representatives of Sankalp, an NGO, stormed the
mines with pickaxes, shovels and spades (some even carried bows and
arrows) and started digging and cutting stones. The operation was,
however, confined to 15 of the 46 villages.

In a counter-attack early next day, the raja's men ousted the rebels from
eight mines.

Careful not to let the situation snowball, the administration held talks
with the Kols instead of trying to force them out. District magistrate
Alok Tandon said that after ''pleading'' with the Kol leaders, the tribals
stopped work in 10 of the 15 mines. But they are still holding on to five,
he added.

Jhallar, a tribal leader from Garwaha, said: "We wanted to set ourselves
free from centuries of bondage. We have been deprived of minimum wages and
are steeped in debt. All we asked for is that instead of being slaves of
contractors, we should get direct contracts from the maharaja. Even that
was denied.''

He described the uprising as historic because this was, arguably, the
first time that landless tribals of Uttar Pradesh had rebelled against a
landlord.

A Kol family of five earns around Rs 250 for mining one tractor-trolley of
silica for a contractor. If they had their own contract, it would fetch Rs
650. Similarly, for cutting one lorry of stone chips, a family gets Rs 300
from a contractor. They would get Rs 1,200 if they had a direct contract.

Some families are not even paid according to these rates and get a paltry
Rs 20-35 per day for men and Rs 15-25 for women, way below the minimum
daily wage of Rs 60 for both men and women.

The Allahabad administration woke up to the appalling working conditions
after Amar Saran, an advocate who has formed a Bonded Labour Vigilance
Committee, filed a petition in August 1998. Cases were registered against
the raja and a few contractors who retaliated by forcing some tribals out
of their villages.

Mahendra Pratap Singh, however, dismissed the charges as ''hogwash''.
Sitting in his sprawling bungalow in the heart of Allahabad, the raja, a
former BJP member, said: ''The tribals are at the mercy of certain vested
interests. In any case, it is for me to decide what to do with my lease.''

The raja said it was ''unfortunate'' that the Kols had stormed the mines
as he had given out contracts to a few tribals. Claiming that he has the
tribals' well-being on his mind, he said: ''If I were the typical feudal
landlord, as I am made out to be, my men would have gone and forcibly
evicted the tribals.'' =20

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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.