[sacw] [ACT] sacw dispatch 25 January 00

Harsh Kapoor act@egroups.com
Tue, 25 Jan 2000 12:08:33 +0100


South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch
25 January 2000
(http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex)
___________________
#1. Appeal from Sri Lanka - Please write Letters
#2. Tigers Hold Sri Lanka by the Tail
#3. Bombay Textile Workers action on 26 January 00
#4. Gujarat High Court notice to state on letting its staff join RSS
___________________

#1.

APPEAL FROM SRI LANKA

25 January 2000

Dear Friends,
Well known Sri Lankan actress Anoja Weerasinghe has been the under attack
by anti democratic forces who have burnt down her house. Recently she
played the lead role in the Sinhala anti-war play "The Trojan Women". Anoja
Weerasinghe is currently in India, Many Sri Lankan artists are trying to
Please circulate to concerned artists and individuals for statements of
support to Anoja Weerasinghe who is a world acclaimed actress and has
received many
international awards. It would also help to write to Sri Lanka's President,
the Minister
for Cultural Affairs and the Deputy Minister for Justice, Finance and
Planning whose contact addresses are given below.
Thanks for your support.
[Senders name withheld] (Colombo)
=46orwarded by - South Asia Citizens Web
----

1. Her Excellency President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaranatunge
President's House, Colombo 3, Sri Lanka. Fax No 00 94 1 333703

2. Honourable Lakshman Jayakody, Minister of Cultural and Religious Affairs,
8th Floor, Sethsiripaya, Battaramulla.Sri Lanka. Fax No 00 94 1 872035

3. Prof G.L Pieris, Honorable Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affair=
s,
37, Kirula Place, Colombo 5. Sri Lanka. Fax No 00 94 1 437680

4. Prime Minister Honorable Sirimavo Bandaranaike.
58, Sir Earnest de Silva Mawatha, Colombo 7. Sri Lanka. Fax No 00 94 1 57545=
4

07. 01. 2000

[The below letter has been translated from Sinhala ]

THE LETTER WRITTEN BY ANOJA WEERASINGHE TO SRI LANKAN ARTISTS.
Anoja Weerasinghe
140/15, Kalapura,
Templers Road
Mount Lavinia
Colombo
Sri Lanka.

Dear Artists,

I do not know from where to begin or end this letter. I dont
think I should write in detail about what happened to me and my
house as you may know more about what has happened. As you know,
I came here to Luknow before the polling day and heard about the incidents,
only from telephone and fax messages. What I heard was that my home where I
grew up and everything that was in it had been burnt down and destroyed by
political thugs.

It was a furnished house with five rooms and was worth about three million
rupees. But it is not this loss that has made my heart heavy. I do not want
to cry over the loss of things which I can buy back with money. I am a
woman who went to the city from a village and built up my life step by
step. I am no stranger to the hut as well as the mansion and I am capable
of living in either. In my country and abroad I do have many who are fond
of me and I can easily rebuild my life with their kind assistance. But,
what really broken my heart is that the flames that engulfed my dear home
has destroyed what I can never again buy with money. This was the legacy of
my talent and the record of life career in art that I have painstakingly
collected over a period of 22 years as an actress and a producer. All that
I saved for future generations to know about me has been burnt into ashes
by cruel forces. They are what I collected as my legacy for the future art
loving generations not living in our time. It is futile to write about this
to those who are not artists. Only another artist like me can know and feel
the sorrow in my heart. This is why I write these words to you.

I came to Colombo from my village to continue my studies. I then obtained a
job in the Insurance Corporation and settled down in Colombo. I got
married. I became an actress. But a dream remained in me. That was to
return to live in my village. I wanted to go back to the quiet and lovely
village and live there. But I delayed the return till my daughter got
married. As she was preparing for her marriage, I was, for my part, making
preparations for my return. During the past five years, I improved the
land with assistance from friends and institutions In the recent past,
which was a period where other artists had to face big problems, my small
income from this farm stood me in good stead to help me to keep my head
erect. During the past six months, I have transfered all my possessions
back into this house. I had plans to shift this year. Among them were
copies of films in which I acted. There were also copies of films produced
by me, such as 1. "Kele Mal" 2. Obata Rahasak Kiyannam" 3. Obata Diura
Kiyannam" 4. Keli Madala" 5. "Juliatge Bhumikawa".

In the past few years, there were Retrospective Film Festivals for me in
some International Film Festivals had organised Restrospective Film
=46estival and among the things I lost were subtitled copies of films I made
for these festivals : 1. Sirimedura 2. Kelimadala 3. Gurugedera 4.
Surabithena 5. Juliatge Bhumikawa. It was with great difficulty that I had
to find sponsors for this. The producers of these films were kind enough to
let me keep these copies on permanent loan for me to send them to
festivals. Among these films were The Film Island by Paul Cox which gave
wide coverage to my art. The flames did not spare any of these films. I
don't know when I will be able to make copies of them.

When I was in England, doing advanced studies, I was fortunate to do a
special training course with Royal Shakspeare Company. Every time I walked
to the Shakespeare Village for these studies, I always had a constant
dream. That was to build up a small museum in my home in Hindikivula in
Monaragala. I had collected in my home items for this museum, beginning
with my first film, " Monarathenne", I had collected the costumes I had
worn in these films, shoes and other things, and a large collection of
photographs. My first photograph appeared in one of the news papers, in
1977 : a photo of a scene from the Drama "Prashnaya" including me and
Ananda Wickremage which appeared on the first page of Sunday Silumina. The
collection of paper cuttings which I began had gone into a few books. Among
them were all the known foreign reviews of my reviews and press items
relating to my work.. Among them were thousands of loving reviews including
those of Sheela Benson of Los Angeles. Derrick Malcolm of England, Coulse
Either from Germany, Aruna Vasudev from India and the best and most popular
reviewers and journalists from Sri Lanka who wrote appreciatively about me.

Everything that was collected for the museum including all newspaper
cuttings and books have been irrevocably turned into ash not leaving even
a single piece of paper to remind that such an actress had lived in Sri
Lanka.

What now remains with me is only the talent with which I was born and what
I learned afterwards. About my life too, there is only uncertainty now.

They destroyed everything that I had and what will they do now ? I have
this question before me now.

I have now a question now, to ask you and to ask myself:: what wrong did I
do, to bring about this destruction. In my life of 22 years as an artist, I
have never before appeared in a political platform. But it was the
condition into which the country and the artist had fallen into,which made
me speak in seven political meetings (on three days) supporting the United
National Party. I appeared in two news conferences and at Veyangoda, I
participated in the picketing held to protest against physical attacks
against actors and actresses. This constituted my political activity in
full, but have I not got a right to do this? Right or Wrong ,have I not got
the right to do what I feel and what I think is correct? I am only a one
person from a multitude constituting 42% out of the total voters who cast
their vote for the UNP. Do we have democratic rights in our country? What
human rights do I enjoy? Should this happen to us? And should we accept
this despicable and dirty politics existing in our country ? Should we
keep quiet about our fate and allow them to destroy our country, suck its
blood and fatten on its flesh, or shouldn't we get together to raise a cry
to save our country. Do we need political parties to do this. Cant we unite
as artists : why should we run away, allowing these things to happen?.
Shouldn't we ask these questions from our own hearts?

So this was the punishment I received for getting involved in politics.
Aren't there artists supporting various political parties for years and
years who did not even get a single stone thrown into their houses. No. It
shouldn't happen to any of them. Forget the artists: no person belonging to
a political party should be harassed this way. But then, why was I
harassed? It was because I am a woman. It was because they knew that I was
a single woman living alone. They are cowards. In this cowardly act, they
exhibited their thuggery to an unarmed innocent woman artist. In my
speeches on platforms, I talked of how unarmed innocent women are harassed.
I pleaded for a society that gives them protection and a system of laws to
ensure this protection. But is this the result of all this ? but I shall
not be isolated. There are women as well as men, who regard me with
affection and love and I shall declare the truth to them. That is why I
decided to write this letter to you today. Is writing to politicians of any
use?. Their hearts are incapable of feeling the warmth of human feelings.
Nor do I feel like writing to the media. There are lots of people in the
state media, who have shown kindness towards me. Along with those in
private media, they were with me in the past but today, their hands have
been tied. When even owners of private media channels receive threats, of
what use is writing to them. I know that they are staring at me with
bleeding hearts, and I am not angry with them.

=2E If you cant raise a cry on my behalf that is because all of us without
exception have become victims of these wretched politicians. But the cry I
cannot make in my country I will make through foreign media.

The Drama, Trojan Women, which I acted after working painfully for five
months, comes to my mind now. What a fortune it was for me to be able to
act in that great creation? Will this be my last role. During that five
months, at every moment I saw before me my country which is burning. Isaw
it even in my dreams. My country has given me a lot of things. Have I
given back to her enough in return ?. If I was at Would I be able at least
to express the havoc wreaked by this destructive war? I learned a lot from
this drama. When the only Tamil actor among us, the small child acting as
Astyanax, the son of Hector, who was sentences to death, hugged us with
love, my heart cried a thousands times. When I was kissing him I only felt
the same fragrance which I felt when I was kissing the young ones of my
brothers. I did not feel any smell of Tamil blood nor did I feel a smell of
Tamil sweat, I only felt the smell of a human child and the warmth of human
blood. With what warm affection did the Tamil brothers and sisters who
came to the Lionel Wendt Theatre all the way from the war-torn Baticaloa to
see the Drama embraced me and kissed me? Did they see me as a Sinhalese
woman ? No. For them on that day, I was a human being who belonged to them.
There were many occasions where I realised how far we artists have
transcended and moved beyond petty things like racial religious and caste
differences. When Juliatge Bhumikawa was screened in Sweden I came to know
that some members from Tamil groups had come to see the film. I felt
somewhat afraid, but after the show, Sinhalese, Swedish and Tamil well
wishers embraced me and greeted me, treating me as one of them. The Tamil
youth addressed me as Akka, (Sister) to express their greetings. Even those
who are branded as terrorists treat artists with respect. But what can we
say about the the politicians of our country who pose as democrats ? ,
about those politicians who maintain that terror has been eradicated from
our country.? This is how they have treated an unarmed artist, an artist
who had brought unprecedented honour and fame to this small Island.

In its fullest meaning, I have now become the Hecube of Trojan Women. My
country, is already burning : everything that I possessed has already
turned into ash.. What Irony of history is this? But I think Gods have now
further tempered me as an artist. Just as Hecube rose from ashes and dust,
Anoja Weerasinghe shall rise from ashes and dust. To the best of my
ability, I shall make the world see the truth about this power hungry and
despicable politicians. Nationally and Internationally, I will enlighten
people about this. I will make my plight known to the Embassies, Foreign
Media=8A=8A.

In the midst of all this devastation I am now studying music.
Saraswathy(god of music) is a great comfort to my mind. Now, when I do
exercises and sing, my memory works better. s My voice gives a better
rendition of my feelings today, and more than all this, today I keep
learning what life is all about. On January 21st, I will be 45. Now I have
to begin all over again; start a new life again.

The last scene of "Maldeniye Simion " which brought international fame to
me comes to my mind now. I sit on the floor with my sister (Swarna) in
front of the house which has been burnt to the ground.

Me.. We went out to to find happiness : but all our steps fell on
pit-falls=8Ayes, pitfalls dug to destroy us.

Sister.. What shall we do now?

Me.. I do not know

But now let me tell you this: let us get together to fill up these pits dug
to destroy us.

I wish you peace and happiness

Your loving sister, Anoja Weerasinghe 07/01/2000

--
Below is the statement by Sri-Lankan women's groups sent to the press by
the Social Scientists Association. The statement has also been signed by a
number of Human Rights Groups (24 January 2000)

WOMEN'S GROUPS CONDEMN ATTACK ON ANOJA WEERASINGHE

We strongly condemn the recent politically motivated attack on award-
winning film and stage actor Ms. Anoja Weerasinghe. Such attacks have been
witnessed in the past under all governments and fit into a history of
attempts to control culture and the free expression of artists. The recent
attack and burning of the contents of the house of Anoja Weerasinghe, is one
example of a criminal act of vandalism and arson.
Anoja Weerasinghe was playing the role of Hecube, in the Sinhala
anti-war
play "The Trojan Women". In this context, the destruction of Anoja
Weerasinghe's house and 22 year cultural archive at her home in Moneragala,
seems a particularly malicious act. Moreover, the archive was in the process
of being turned into a museum, so its destruction is a great public loss.
This attack impinges on the democratic rights of artists and their
right to
free participation in oppositional politics. Given the implications for
democratic rights, all concerned parties should unite - to protest against
such violence and demand a full, fair and impartial inquiry into this
vicious attack.

___________________

#2.

The Washington Post
Tuesday, January 25, 2000; Page A12

Tigers Hold Sri Lanka by the Tail

Photo: Children play under campaign posters for Sri Lankan President
Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, who was reelected after a Dec. 18
assassination attempt. (Pamela Constable - The Washington Post)

By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka =96 When President Chandrika Kumaratunga addressed the
nation after winning reelection last month, her right eye swollen from a
suicide bomber's assassination attempt, she appeared the epitome of a
courageous democratic leader determined to bring peace to her
violence-wracked island nation.

"To all those who have ever doubted my resolve to lift the curse of hatred
and death that has fallen upon our land, I offer the challenge to look into
my face now," she said. "The very wounds I bear will answer them that there
is no individual on this earth more determined than I am to end this
country's wretched and mindless bloodshed."

But to many Sri Lankans, Kumaratunga's words rang depressingly hollow.
After five years of effort, her government had come no closer to defeating
Sri Lanka's Tamil insurgents on the battlefield or coaxing them to the
negotiating table. And her near assassination Dec. 18 on the campaign
trail, by a teenage girl strapped with explosives, seemed to mock the
elections, the stalled peace process and the army's ineptitude.

Moreover, despite the president's narrow victory over opposition leader
Ranil Wickremesinghe, there seemed little for the government to celebrate.
Analysts said many voters were disillusioned with the petty politicking and
faltering peace initiatives of her first term, and she began the new one on
a sour and paranoid note, accusing the press, the business community and
other critics of a conspiracy against her.

"The bomb crystallized all her feelings of being under siege, that everyone
is her enemy," said Wanuna Karunatilake, a founder of the national Free
Media Movement, a civil rights group. "She started out with massive support
in 1994, but since then she has lost a lot of credibility and people became
disillusioned. Right now she should be on top of the world, but instead she
wants revenge."

Sri Lanka is rife with such ironies. It is a lush tropical paradise of 18
million people beset by one of the bloodiest insurgencies the modern world
has known, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE, which has been
fighting since 1983 to create an autonomous Tamil homeland in the
northeastern part of the country.

It is a society overwhelmingly dominated by one ethnic group, the Sinhalese
Buddhists, who make up 75 percent of the population yet see themselves
victimized by the Tamil Hindus, who are 13 percent of the population. It is
a small democracy that gained independence from Britain peacefully in 1948
and seemed ideally positioned for peaceful rule, yet has been torn apart by
ethnic violence for 16 years.

Perhaps the saddest irony of all is the ruthlessly "successful" military
campaign by the LTTE, a reclusive and dictatorial movement that initially
brought self-respect to Sri Lankan Tamils but has since managed only to
make life miserable for many of them. At least 60,000 people have died in
the fighting, and the LTTE has executed scores of moderate Tamil leaders
seen as competitors or sellouts for trying to work within the system.

Moreover, hundreds of thousands of Tamils have had their lives torn apart
by years of fighting and abuse during alternating periods of army and LTTE
rule in the north, especially the city of Jaffna. Many fled to the capital
Colombo, where they support themselves as menial workers living in rented
rooms, viewed with suspicion by the authorities, constantly frisked and
questioned. Each time the LTTE detonates another bomb in the city, the army
and police crack down harder on the Tamils.

"In the past several years, serious violations of human rights have
decreased, but the harassment of the Tamil community as a whole has gotten
worse," said Maheswary Velautham, who heads a legal aid group called the
=46orum for Human Dignity. "Under the current government there is space for
groups like ours to shout, but people are still scared. Some Tamil women
have stopped wearing their potoos [traditional Hindu forehead dots] for
fear of being identified at checkpoints."

Interviewed at urban "lodgings," or cheap rental dormitories in Tamil
neighborhoods, many young men said they were afraid to return to their
homes in the north but equally afraid to venture out at night in Colombo.
Almost all said they had been detained by the army at least once on
suspicion of being guerrillas.

One woman from Jaffna, Mahindra Rani, 57, recounted 13 years of loss,
violence and uprooting: her house destroyed by bombs, one son shot dead by
the army, a second son arrested and tortured until he vomited blood, and a
third, a 27-year-old math tutor and telephone operator, reportedly picked
up by security forces last Dec. 15.

Despite such tactics, Sri Lanka's security forces have made little headway
against the LTTE, a small but highly trained and indoctrinated force of
several thousand fighters. Last November the rebels captured large portions
of jungle. In the past year, they have detonated bombs in Colombo,
culminating in the attack on Kumaratunga.

"The LTTE are hellbent on the pursuit of power and they are still calling
the shots," said Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, director of the Center for
Policy Alternatives, a research institute. "They are in no hurry to
negotiate, and their logic is simple and brutal: either you are with them
or you are the enemy. They simply eliminate anyone they think is trying to
find a solution that will deal them out of the game."

Critics said the government also has failed to make a credible effort at
negotiating peace. When Kumaratunga was elected in 1994, she made peace and
ethnic reconciliation her top priorities, and proposed a package of
constitutional reforms that would give Tamils political autonomy. But the
package bogged down in parliament, and the peace talks never got beyond an
exchange of letters with the LTTE leaders.

Officials blamed the recalcitrance of the political opposition in
parliament, and the cynicism of the LTTE. They said Kumaratunga, far more
than her predecessors in office, has tried to solve the country's ethnic
divisions as well as bring an end to the war, and that she has suffered far
more than she deserves as a result.

"She has gone much further than any other leader in Sri Lanka," said
Lakshman Kiriella the deputy foreign minister. "She has offered repeatedly
to sit down with the LTTE and talk about anything except [giving them] a
separate state, but they don't want to talk." As for Kumaratunga's business
and media critics, he said, they are mostly "crony capitalists" whose
agenda is to try to get access to government contracts and favors.

To a growing extent, the government is pinning its hopes for peace on
outside nations and organizations. Kumaratunga has asked Norway about
"facilitating" talks with the LTTE, and her aides said they hope a new U.N.
convention that bans fund-raising for terrorist groups will help choke the
LTTE's financial lifeline from Tamil emigres, just as the rebels' violent
reputation has begun eroding their once romantic image as ethnic freedom
fighters.

But many Sri Lankans, numbed by years of ethnic violence and disappointed
by a succession of governments that have failed to curb it, seem to have
lost hope. Meanwhile, say refugees biding their time in Colombo, the Tamils
remain trapped between two forces that purport to protect their interests.

"I want to go home to my wife and children, but I am afraid," said Anton
Singayaga, 28, a laborer from Jaffna living in a rented cubicle. "If the
army doesn't arrest me, the LTTE might think I am trying to be friendly to
them, and they will threaten me too." Like many Tamils here, Singayaga said
his only hope was to go abroad, perhaps to live with a relative in Europe.
"I have a passport, but there is no way to leave," he said. "All I can do
is hope and wait."

___________________

#3.

Girni Kamgar Sangharsh Samiti
Republic Day Dharna, 26th January 2000
Opposite Mafatlal Mills, Delisle Road (N M Joshi Marg), Lower Parel, Mumbai
(Bombay)
=46rom 10 am to 6pm

The fiftieth anniversary of the Indian Constitution is a time to reflect on
that most elusive concept of modern politics - democracy. It is not
something that can be institutionalised - whether in elections, ballot
boxes, or grand declarations of liberty. It is something that is a concrete
process, revolutionising every aspect of our lives through the simple, but
powerful, idea of equality. And when the democratic revolution starts - as
it did for our nation in the struggle against British rule - it is
impossible to stop it touching every other part of our lives, as it has
since Independence.

In Mumbai, the textile mill workers have always been in the forefront of
democratic movements - they led the first political strike in modern India,
against the arrest of Lokmanya Tilak by the British in 1908. Their
sacrifices for the cause of national Independence, and for a United
Maharashtra are well-known. Of the 105 martyrs who died in the Samyukta
Maharashtra Movement, thirty-three hailed from the mill areas of Mumbai.
However, recent years have seen these vocal and militant workers being
throttled by a city that has forgotten its own history, as the mills are
being closed and redeveloped into office and entertainment complexes for
corporate elite, the lives of their workers sacrificed not to the causes of
freedom or greater equality, but to a future of destitution.

In Phoenix Mills the mill workers were denied their wages for months on end
and were pressured to resign their jobs to make way for advertising firms,
discos, and bowling alleys. In Piramal Mills, the owners have signed an
agreement with the recognised union to retire their workers, an agreement
which the Bombay High Court has ruled is illegal, and the Court has issued
a stay on the removal of machinery from the mill. In Matulya Mills, wages
were withheld for nine months until workers moved the court, and the
management refuses to run the mill and is looking for ways to pressure the
workers to leave their jobs. Khatau Mills has not paid wages due for the
past two years. And in Raghuvanshi Mills, the workers have taken over the
mill, but the owner has so far evaded signing the papers which would allows
the mill to be run as a workers' co-operative. The story is similar in
other mills. The State Government has agreed to investigate the massive
financial frauds in the sale and redevelopment of the mill lands under the
1991 Development Control Rules: the diversion of money meant for the
revival of the flagging industry into the mill owners' pockets; the illegal
removal of machinery; the pressurising and expulsion of workers; and
fraudulent claims made to Central Government authorities for tax
concessions in the name of revival of the textile mills. But the Government
has done little more than make promises to investigate this massive
scandal, an issue which goes to the heart of Mumbai's urban community.

In the meantime workers continue to bear the brunt of a real estate market
that sees their land as more valuable than their livelihood. And as the
mill workers' hard-won achievements for the protection of democratic rights
are dismantled, and their history and culture crushed by the barons of a
city built through their labours, our legacy of democracy has become
further impoverished. Historically, democratic movements in other parts of
the world have often been led by groups whose narrow aspirations soon came
to betray the larger promises of equality for all. However, in India,
different ideas of freedom were articulated by groups who previously had
little control over their fates -- minorities and outcastes, workers and
peasants, women and the poor - and all of whose rights were embraced in the
overall constitutional design of our Founding Fathers. And unlike previous
declarations of democratic intent in Europe and America, at the heart of
the Indian Constitution was not simply the stated idea of equality of all,
but concrete assurances of social and economic democracy. The Fundamental
Rights of equality of wages, of work and employment, were part of the
extraordinary foresight of the authors of our Constitution - who, through
the colonial experience, were already well aware of the ravages of modern
industrial society. Fifty years later, we have forgotten their wisdom, have
turned back the clock on the achievements of the freedom struggle, the
trade union and labour movements. Today, the mill workers and their
children can only choose between working as peons and servants to the rich,
eking out a living as vegetable sellers or sweatshop labourers, or joining
the underworld. An entire generation of productive workers has been lost.

The founding of the Indian Republic fifty years ago today was a moment
equal to, and perhaps even more important, than India's Independence from
foreign rule, for it represented not only a determined break with past
servitude, but enshrined the aspiration for a radically new society, free
>from domination. The working classes of Mumbai's textile mills, the
backbone of India's largest organised industry and the mainstay of this
city's political and cultural landscape, have kept this dream alive for
almost a century. Now they are being rendered voiceless. As multinational
corporations in alliance with Indian business groups and the Government
continue to exploit cheap, unorganised labour in garment sweatshops, as
they brutally eject workers from their livelihoods in order to make more
office and commercial space in Central Mumbai, all our dreams of economic
and social democracy are being shattered.

Today, as the inflated rhetoric of democracy masks the growing inequalities
of our newly globalised economy, as a violent and corrupt state betrays the
struggle for freedom on which our new society was founded, our nation has
slowly lost its imagination. The struggle of Mumbai's mill workers goes
beyond saving what many see as a moribund industry, murdered by
unscrupulous politicians, industrialists, gangsters and businessmen. It is
also an effort to enliven and extend our democratic imagination -- of our
city, our nation, and our sense of ourselves -- fifty years onwards.

We therefore ask you to join us in protesting the scandalous annexation and
redevelopment of the mill lands, and the destruction of the locality and
the hopes of its youth for productive employment. This is the only way to
focus public attention on these issues so that the Government is forced to
act.

Shekhar Krishnan
58/58A, Anand Bhavan
201, Lady Hardinge Road
Mahim, Bombay 16
India
___________________

#4.
The Asian Age, Ahmedabad, 25 January 2000, p.9

HIGH COURT NOTICE TO STATE ON LETTING ITS STAFF JOIN RSS
by Satyendra Shrivastava

Ahmedabad Jan.24:
The state government decision that revoked the ban on the participation of
government employees in the tashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh actitivies has
entered the legal arena now.

On Monday, two public interest litigations were filed in the Gujarat high
court, seeking its appraisal on the controversial decision. The division
bench of acting Chief Justice C. K. Thakker and P.B. Majumdar on Monday
served notice to the general administration department of the state
government and the department of home affairs, the Union Government, after
two different public interest litigations, challenging the decision, were
filed in the court. the next hearing is on February 8.

The Ahmedabad Rationalist Association and the Lokadhikar Sangh, along
with Saurashtra Shramik Parishad, in two separate public interest
litigations, challenged the government decision on the basis of history,
aims, objectives and policies of the RSS, as an organisation committed to
Hindu ideology.

The government amended the Gujarat Civil Servants Conduct Rules, 1971,
that barred the government employees from participating in the activities of
"listed organisations," which included the RSS. The 14-year-old ban was
lifted by the decision taken on January 3, 2000.

The decision came in the backdrop of a statewide RSS Sankalp Shibir
(pledge camp) which was held from January 7 to January 9 in Ahmedabad.
Several state ministers and senior Union ministers attended the camp.

Reports said the state government made the amendment after seeking a
clarification from the Centre, which in turn was based on report of the
Unlawful Activities Prevention Tribunal.

Senior advocate Haroobhai Mehta, appearing for the Ahmedabad Rationalist
Association, submitted that the decision is a violation of the Rule 24 of
the Civil services conduct rules that forbids government employees to
participate in the activities of communal organisations. The petition
alleges that RSS is a political organisation with definite political
objectives and working through various affiliates like the BJP, Bajrang Dal,
VHP and ABVP.

The petition says that the RSS controls all these organisations by
appointing pracharaks and swayamsevaks in these organisations to key
positions to control the decision-making process.

Senior lawyer and eminent social activist Girish Patel contended that the
government circular is unconstitutional as it violates the principle of
neutrality, independence and apolitical character of the vicil services,
which must act in a fair and objective manner. The second principle of
secularism stipulates that the state does not communalise the
administration, Mr. Patel said, fearing that people who do not subscribe to
the ideology of the RSS will feel insecure in such an atmosphere.

__________________________________________
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.