[sacw] SACW Dispatch | 19 Aug. 00

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch
19 August 2000
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex

#1. Pakistan: HRCP Demands Publication of Hamoodur Rahman Commission Report
#2. Pakistan: Minorities' anger over 'separate electorate'
#3. Chicago's Pakistanis Celebrate Their Homeland, & Kashmir Is Not A World
Away

#4. Pakistan: The Ismailis of the Hunza Valley
#5. Sri Lankan Peoples Alliance regime turns to Sinhala chauvinists
#6. India/U.S.A.: Top VHP Men To Keep Eye On Yogis In NY
#7. Before Freedom: Nehru's Letters To His Sister 1909-1947

_____________________

#1.

DAWN
17 August 2000

HRCP DEMANDS IMMEDIATE PUBLICATION OF HAMOODUR RAHMAN COMMISSION REPORT
By Our Staff Reporter

LAHORE, Aug 16: Calling for immediate publication and implementation of
the Hamoodur Rahman Commission report, the Human Rights Commission of
Pakistan chief has demanded that all the conflicts the country has been
involved in, directly or indirectly, must be probed and the findings
shared with people.
A statement issued by Afrasiab Khattak said the disclosure of the
commission's report had shocked all conscientious people of Pakistan.
"That they have learnt something of the truth about the ghastly events
of 1971 through a publication in another country cannot be overly
regretted. Even though what has come out is only a part of the probe, it
contains material sufficient to bring unmitigated shame and anguish to
the people," the statement said.
"While it is significant that the disclosure has gone unchallenged by
official spokespersons, it is obvious that no peremptory denial of the
contents of the excerpts from the commission's supplementary report will
carry weight until the whole report is made public," it added.
The HRCP has drawn attention of all parties concerned to the following
findings of the Hamoodur Rahman Commission:
1) The commission concluded "that the involvement of the Pakistan army
in martial law duties and civil administration had a highly corrupting
influence, seriously detracting from the professional duties of the army
and affecting the quality of training which the officers could impart to
their units and formations, for the obvious reasons that they did not
have enough time available for this purpose, and many of them also lost
the inclination to do so."
2) That the wanton killings of innocent civilians and raping of women
were considered acts worth gloating about and that high army officers
were guilty of glaring moral lapses.
3) That the permission granted to the troops to live off the land during
the operations in East Pakistan was turned into a license to plunder
fellow citizens and grab their valuable articles, and that no action was
taken even against officers and men who had looted a national bank.
4) That the defence of East Pakistan was conducted without any plan
worth the name, that the local commander was fed on fiction about
external support, that many commanding officers cowardly gave up their
posts, that directives to deny arms and ammunition to the aggressor were
blatantly ignored and that many sick and wounded troops were callously
abandoned.
The statement said these findings reveal serious crimes not only against
the state and the people of Pakistan but also against humanity. All
those named in these horror stories must be brought to book in the
manner suggested by the commission.
Therefore, the statement said, immediate publication of the whole report
and complete implementation of its recommendations was necessary.
"The suppression of this report has caused immense harm to the defence
forces and the state. In order to avoid similar damage in future, it is
necessary that all conflicts in which the country has ever been involved
should be probed and the findings made public. This will not weaken the
defence forces; on the contrary it will make them stronger," it said.
The statement quoted former Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
chairperson, Asma Jehangir, as saying that the report was relevant in
the present critical days. Impunity granted members of the armed forces
had led the country to disaster, she added.
Punjab PPP (Shaheed Bhutto) president Dr Mubashir Hasan, who was finance
minister in the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's cabinet when the commission
prepared its report, has strongly urged an immediate trial of all those
identified by the commission for culpable offences.
"Any reasonable Pakistani ought to be bewildered - it is revolting to
realize that all of us bear responsibility for such inhuman acts," said
HRCP director I.A. Rehman.

______

#2.

BBC News
Tuesday, 15 August, 2000, 17:55 GMT 18:55 UK

MINORITIES' ANGER OVER 'SEPARATE ELECTORATE'
Religious minorities can elect their representatives only

By Zafar Abbas in Islamabad

Several prominent members of Pakistan's religious minorities have reacted
sharply to General Pervez Musharraf's decision to allow the next elections
of the local governments to be held on the basis of the controversial
system of "separate electorate".

Under this system, the religious minorities are only allowed to elect
representatives of their respective communities.

While unveiling his new local government plan on Monday, General Musharraf
defended the system of separate elections on the basis of religion.

He said it was the only way to guarantee some seats for the religious
minorities.

But several prominent members of the Christian communities said such a
system discriminates against the religious minorities and that it was
unacceptable to them.

'Discriminatory'

In a signed statement, four prominent Roman Catholic bishops and several
human rights activists in the Punjab province denounced the government's
decision and asked General Musharraf to treat the members of the religious
minorities as equal citizens of the country.

The religious minorities in the country have often complained of being
discriminated against.

The controversial electoral system where members of the minorities can
only vote for the candidate belonging to their own respective communities,
was introduced in the 1980s on the demand of conservative Islamic groups.

Since then successive governments have failed to reverse the decision and
now even the present military administration has decided to retain the
controversial system in order to avoid any confrontation with the
conservative Islamic lobby in the country.
______

#3.

Chicago Tribune

PAKISTANI POLITICS, PRIDE FUEL PARADE
AS CHICAGO'S PAKISTANIS CELEBRATE THEIR HOMELAND, THE SUBJECT OF KASHMIR IS
NOT A WORLD AWAY.

By Evan Osnos
Tribune Staff Writer

August 14, 2000

With an old garbage can, some green plastic wrap and a bright red
cardboard cone to represent an atomic warhead, Pakistani college student
Syed Ahmed brought one gust of a geo-political squall to West Rogers Park
on Sunday.

Half a world from the political fault lines separating Pakistan and
India--but just hours after the latest bloody clash between militants in
the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir--Ahmed arrived at Chicago's
Pakistan Independence Day Parade with the mock missile strapped to the roof
of his car.

"It's just saying that we're powerful too," said Ahmed, 22, of
Lincolnwood, not an official member of the parade but one of at least two
revelers who mounted cardboard bombs on their cars and cruised, horns
blaring, through the North Side's Indian and Pakistani neighborhoods.
"We're not making a fight here, but the world needs to be aware."

Watching from across Devon Avenue, though, Mehdi Khan fumed.

"That has no place here. No good," said Khan, 32, who emigrated from
India five years ago. "That's for nothing but to make conflict."

More than two years after their two countries added nuclear arms to
their decades-old territorial feud, Chicago's Indian and Pakistani
communities still thrive together happily, working and living side by side
with little visible friction. As in past years, Sunday's parade to
celebrate the 1947 partition of the two countries drew supporters from both
sides.

But amid a summer of mounting global tension over long-disputed
Kashmir, which has been racked by separatist violence since 1989, some in
Chicago's Pakistani community took Sunday's festival as a chance to voice
their politics.

"The [model] missiles are not to scare anybody, but to tell everybody
that we are now a nuclear power," said Razah Don, 32, a Pakistani cabdriver
who wrapped himself in a flag proclaiming, "Allah is great."

Parade organizers said they intended no political message this year but
understood if residents used the celebration to express theirviews.

"Here we are, thousands of miles away, but our hearts still beat with
Pakistan," said Javid Khan of the parade committee.

Above the festival bandstand at Warren Park, where people gathered
after snaking along Devon and Western Avenues, a single new portrait had
been added this year to the pantheon of Pakistani leaders showcased in
years past. Between portraits of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the nation's founder,
and celebrated poet Muhammad Iqbal, sat the picture of A.Q. Khan,
Pakistan's chief scientist credited with producing its nuclear arms.

"For us, he is as much a national hero as the other two," said the
parade committee's Khan. "It is not about politics."

In the parade itself, there were only scattered flashes of
international politics between the waving politicians and floats.

Looking little different than the adjoining floats for a
gastroenterologist and a travel agent, the brightly festooned entry from
the Kashmir Solidarity Front was covered with smiling children and their
parents.

They waved and passed out fliers: "Kashmir--Happy Valley, Valley of Dea=
th."

"This is a free country. We are making our voices known to the world on
this important issue," said Nazir Mirza, 60, as he distributed a flier
urging Muslims to boycott Indian merchants.

Just up the road, though, many younger revelers scoffed at the
politics. That's nothing but the grist of old hatreds, they said.

"It's doesn't matter to us--here we're all mixed together," said
Indian-American A.J. Khan, 17. Kahn and four Indian friends hooted joyously
and pulled their car onto Devon Avenue, with Pakistani flags in hand
overhead.

______

#4.

Neue Z=FCrcher Zeitung (Switzerland)
12/13 August 2000

THE ISMAILIS OF THE HUNZA
ALONG THE KARAKORUM HIGHWAY TO A DIFFERENT PAKISTAN

by Philipp Hufschmid*

Situated in the mountainous world of northern Pakistan, the predominantly
Ismaili inhabitants of the Hunza Valley earn their modest livelihood from
laborious farming of the terraced Himalayan land. Much has changed since
the 1978 completion of the Karakorum Highway, one of the purposes of which
was to link the previously inaccessible Northern Areas more closely to the
rest of Pakistan. But the people of the Hunza have managed to maintain
their individual way of life.

In Gilgit, the administrative center of Pakistan's Northern Areas province,
the bazaars are busy and lively. The city has an airport and, more
recently, even public Internet access, the northernmost along the Karakorum
Highway. Strolling through the city, I encounter many friendly people,
admire the artistically embellished trucks (not a square inch of which has
escaped the decorator's busy brush), finger the fine Pashmeena shawls, and
in a bake shop I even stumble on a large photograph of the Pfingstegg
Railway in Grindelwald, back home in the far-off Bernese Oberland.
Ubiquitous Conflict with India
You also run into some things here which may seem odd to a Western visitor,
but are quite characteristic of Pakistan: for example, a plaque beneath
somebody's windscreen accusing India of state terrorism, or the huge mockup
of a missile in the middle of the city, aimed toward India, and, not far
from there, the office of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front. They are
all reminders that the controversial Line of Control (which separates the
Indian- and Pakistani-controlled parts of Kashmir) is not very far away.
And finally, near the old polo field, I come on some Shiite propaganda
posters. One shows Ayatollah Khomeini surrounded by flags of the Islamic
countries; the other depicts a globe which, on closer inspection, turns out
to consist of soldiers in battle, and the Arab-language caption to which is
unmistakable in its meaning: "Every day is ashura, every day is Kerbela" -
in other words, a Muslim must be ready every day to suffer martyrdom, and
to follow the example of al-Hussain at Kerbela.

The years 1992-94 brought several violent clashes between Sunni and Shia
Muslims in Gilgit, which demonstrated that those words are more than empty
phrases. The only thing missing from this panorama of contemporary
political propaganda in Pakistan is the kind of memorial to the explosion
of the first Islamic atomic bomb that can be found in Islamabad or Peshawar=
.
Breathtaking Terraced Landscape
Gilgit is also the gateway to the Hunza, a valley that is home to a
somewhat different Pakistan. The trip through the wild and often barren
landscape of the Indus Valley along the Karakorum Highway, which winds
along the steep slopes high above the light-brown water of the river,
heightens your sensitivity to the splendid terraced landscape of the Hunza.
In the sunshine, the leaves of countless birch trees glimmer an almost
incredible light green. High above the valley runs a network of life-giving
irrigation ditches, which collect water from the glaciers up above and
distribute it to the fields. On every side rise ice- and snow-covered
mountain peaks, most prominent among them the Rakaposhi, the highest (7,790
meters, or 25,550 foot) and most perfectly shaped in the immediate
vicinity.

The earliest written reports of the Hunza Valley, all of which praise its
beauty and purity, evoke images of Paradise. The route of the legendary
Silk Road, along which Buddhism once made its way to China, also
contributed to the region's somewhat mystical aura. During the 1970s, the
linguistic and social characteristics of the valley aroused the interest of
many scientists. Back then, a joke made the rounds that the average family
in the Hunza consisted of grandparents, mother, father and two children,
one cow, three goats - and an anthropologist.

These days, the term "Hunza" is used to designate the entire valley.
Historically, though, that is not quite correct. Traditionally, the Hunza
River divided the valley into two kingdoms, the Hunza to the north of the
river and the Nagar to the south; only the villages north of the river were
part of the Hunza. But for the sake of simplicity, the geographic
imprecision is generally accepted today.
Aga Khan in High Regard
The names of the valley's towns leave no room for doubt that this is a
Shiite area. As you travel northward, you come on such places as
Hussainabad, Hassanabad and, finally, Aliabad. The Prophet Muhammad's
son-in-law, Ali, and his two sons, are venerated by all Shiites as the
first three imams (the lawful heads of the Muslim community). But one is
surprised to notice that very few villages here are topped by minarets, and
a muezzin's call to prayer is seldom heard. These are just two of the
peculiarities of Ismaili society to which one can gain insight by a visit
to the Hunza. For example, in contrast to the Shiites of Iran, the Ismailis
recognize only the first seven of the traditional 12 imams. From the
seventh onward, they developed an independent line of imams, at the end of
which stands the present head of the Ismaili community, the 49th imam,
Prince Karim Aga Khan. When the first Aga Khan was forced to flee Persia
and then settled in Bombay in 1845, he found himself compelled to fight a
legal battle there for his authority to be recognized. The Ismailis of the
Hunza, who belong to the Nizari branch of the community (which resulted
from an internal schism during the Fatimid era), are thought to have
converted to Ismailiya early in the 19th century, but it is unclear exactly
when they accepted the Aga Khan as the leader of their community.

At any rate, the fourth Aga Khan, the present Prince Karim, has no problems
of acceptance today. His position is uncontested, and he enjoys a very high
regard among the populace. This is partly because the Aga Khan Foundation
(AKF) has been strongly engaged in agriculture here since 1982, through its
Aga Khan Rural Support Program. Even earlier, the AKF had begun creating a
health-care infrastructure and had built a number of schools in the region.
There are a great many green plaques on buildings here bearing the
abbreviations of various AKF programs. The area's relative prosperity, its
high literacy rate (by Pakistani standards) and dense network of
health-care facilities are largely due to the efforts of this organization,
which incidentally also provides support to other religious groups.
A Different Society
In conversations with locals, it generally does not take long before talk
turns to the Aga Khan. And it is evident that his social ideas - prominent
among which are good education for everyone, equality for women, family
planning, protection of the environment, and tolerance toward people of
differing beliefs - enjoy a high degree of acceptance here. There are also
frequent proud references to the education gap between the people of the
Hunza Valley and the rest of Pakistan, or to the unveiled women who work
alongside the men in the Hunza fields.

Sometimes you even hear people say that the Hunza is not really Pakistan.
This is a two-pronged allusion. In the first place, it underscores the
differentness of this society, which is based largely on religious
affiliation and historical factors. Indeed, religious fanatics find the
Ismailis, with their moderate practices, to be an irritant. The hajj (the
pilgrimage to Mecca) and fasting during Ramadan, for example, are not taken
as seriously among the Ismailis, who also observe different prayer rituals,
which are carried out not in a mosque but in a "jaamat khanat," a community
house. The other aspect of the statement that the Hunza is "not Pakistan"
is a reflection of resentment against the Islamabad regime, which does not
always grant this region equality with others, as well as of
dissatisfaction with social and political realities in the rest of the
country. No one here, for example, conceals his disgruntlement at the
widespread corruption under the governments of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz
Sharif, and the coup by General Musharraf is grudgingly welcomed with the
observation that it can only make matters better. With reference to the
practice in the rest of Pakistan of keeping women completely veiled, the
people of the Hunza remark that they see no reason to hide their womenfolk.
One effect of all these differences is to generate a diffuse anxiety that
migration from other parts of the country to the Hunza could gradually
force the people here to adapt to the ways of Pakistan as a whole.
Economic Development
Pakistan and China put great effort into linking their two countries by
means of the Karakorum Highway. Work on the road is ongoing, however,
because rock slides in the mountainous terrain often create roadblocks. The
opening of the highway in 1978 created entirely new economic opportunities.
Initially, hopes were vested mainly in an intensive exchange of goods with
China, but later the highway was also made accessible to tourism. As a
result, the past 22 years have brought many changes. In Aliabad, where the
only thing you could purchase 20 years ago was apples, numerous shops now
line the Karakorum Highway, which cuts right through the village. In
Karimabad - the historic capital of the region, which used to be known as
Baltit before being renamed in honor of Prince Karim - there are now a good
many hotels and souvenir shops. Even the mir of Hunza, the ruler of the
kingdom until he was formally deposed in 1974, now owns a hotel, which is,
appropriately, the best one in town. The venerable Baltit Fort, the mir's
former residence, underwent a six-year restoration and was reopened in
1996. The carefully executed and very successful restoration of the
residence was supervised and financed by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture.

In Gulmit, a village somewhat farther to the north, it is once again the
breathtaking landscape of this region that captivates the visitor. The
evening sun plays over the many rocky spurs of Tupopdan (height 6,106
meters), a natural spectacle which commands reverence. The English name for
the peak, Cathedral Mountain, is most appropriate, since the jagged rock
formations are indeed reminiscent of a Gothic cathedral. Every May,
blossoming apricot trees signal the end of the cold season; the region is
famous for its delicious fruit. No brandy is brewed from it however - not
because Pakistan is a "dry" state, but because the people of the Hunza
prefer to brew their brandy from mulberries. On festive occasions, the
locals are by no means averse to a few swigs of "Hunza water."

Partially financed with Swiss funds, an undertaking called Project Thread
Net aims at preserving the Hunza's cultural identity and at the same time
boosting its economic development. The sale of traditionally embroidered
articles, marketed to an international clientele, is intended to help women
earn an income of their own and to safeguard an old handcraft. In the
middle of the 20th century the Hunza was still one of the most isolated
areas in Asia; it was not until the early 1960s that the road connecting
Karimabad and Gilgit was made passable for Jeeps. The region's swift but
controlled development is a success story worthy of acknowledgement. And
the Hunza Valley seems well equipped to meet a phenomenon which is often
predicted with high hopes in this part of the world: the resurrection of
the Silk Road.

* The author of this article is studying history, Arab culture and
philosophy at the University of Zurich. He has traveled widely in the
region he describes.

16 August 2000 / Neue Z=FCrcher Zeitung, 12/13 August 2000

______

#5.

World Socialist Web Site:News & Analysis : Sri Lanka

SRI LANKAN PEOPLES ALLIANCE REGIME TURNS TO SINHALA CHAUVINISTS

By Sarath Kumara and K. Ratnayake
18 August 2000

The Peoples Alliance (PA) regime of Sri Lankan president Chandrika
Kumaratunga is pursuing a two-track policy following the withdrawal earlier
this month of its devolution package, aimed at ending the 17-year civil war
in the Tamil-populated North and East of the country.

On the one hand, it is trying to placate the racist Buddhist clergy and
Sinhala chauvinist groups, whose campaign forced the withdrawal of the
constitutional changes. On the other, it seeks to assure India and the
western powers that it will meet their demands to end the war with the
introduction of a new set of proposals.

In a major step towards the Sinhala chauvinists, Kumaratunga secured the
removal of her 84-year-old ailing mother, Sirima Bandaranaike, from the
post of prime minister, replacing her with a long-time associate Ratnasiri
Wickramanayake. The official version of events is that Bandaranaike went
voluntarily, but according to Kumaratunga's estranged younger brother,
Anura, a member of the opposition United National Party (UNP), she was
pressured into resigning.

Whatever the precise nature of the manoeuvres behind the change,
Wickramanayake has been brought into the post because of his close ties
with the Buddhist clergy and Sinhala organisations. He is a key figure in
the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP)=97the main party in the PA coalition. In
1994 he was one of the forces behind Kumaratunga as she forced the removal
of her mother from the leadership of the SLFP and forged the new alliance
which replaced the UNP in the elections of that year.

In his first speech as prime minister, Wickramanayake declared that the war
against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who are demanding a
separate state in the North and East, would continue. "Democracy and
terrorism cannot go hand in hand," he stated. "Therefore war is the only
means to eliminate terrorism. However, if the minorities have any
grievances we should fund solutions to them."

One of the new PM's first acts was to visit the leading Buddhist prelates.
He had no trouble gaining an audience, despite the fact that the Buddhist
clergy had refused to meet Kumaratunga herself at the height of their
agitation against the constitutional package.

Calling on the clergy to submit their amendments to the bill, he declared:
"We will seek the views of the Mahanayake Theras (chief prelates) on each
and every paragraph, clause and line of the draft constitution so that they
can correct us where we have gone wrong." In addition Wickramanayake
appointed a cabinet sub-committee, chaired by himself, to "review the
controversial sections" in the reform proposals.

In taking up the post of prime minister, Wickramanayake brings with him a
history of involvement in Sinhala chauvinist politics stretching back over
four decades.

He entered national politics in March 1960, contesting a seat as a leading
member of the Mahajana Eskath Peramuna (People's United Front=97MEP), a par=
ty
which claimed to represent Sinhala Buddhist interests. In 1962 he joined
the SLFP and held deputy ministerial and ministerial posts in the 1970-1977
coalition regime, becoming SLFP general secretary in 1977.

When the SLFP was reduced to a rump of only eight members following the
1977 general election, and with its then parliamentary leader Anura
Bandaranaike tilting towards the UNP, Kumaratunga and her husband assumed a
radical posture, calling for the organisation of trade unions and an
agitation against the UNP. Wickramanayake broke from the SLFP to form the
SLMP. He joined Kumaratunga and returned with her to the SLFP in 1993.

He is known to have had reservations about the proposed land policy in the
devolution package=97one of the main concerns of the Sinhala chauvinists=97=
but
supported the plan when the policy was changed to ensure that the central
government would retain control of land.

While Kumaratunga has been taking measures to mend relations with the
Sinhala-Buddhist forces, they have warned her not to re-introduce the
package, declaring they would launch an all-out campaign against it.
Buddhist prelates from four chapters have issued a letter to all MPs
insisting that they vote against the bill, on the grounds that it extends
privileges to the Tamil minority.

But Kumaratunga is also faced with demands from the major western powers,
together with India, that she find a solution to the war. These pressures
were reflected in a special one and a half hour interview on national
television on August 11, in which she insisted that the constitutional
reform would go ahead.

Kumaratunga denounced "racists like Sihala Urumaya (Sinhala Heritage Party)
[who] were on the street uttering filth against me", and challenged the
"racists and bikkhus (clergy)" instead to "better utilise their labour by
enrolling the 20,000 recruits needed to meet the shortfall in army numbers"=
.

"These bikkhus should come with me and our ministers to campaign to cut
wages by half, halt all development work, cease any new employment for the
next two and a half years and divert all money to the war and finish the
job," she declared. She warned that there "will be another Prabhakaran
[LTTE leader] in a few years time" and "we need a solution."

Some of the Sinhala Buddhist organisations have already indicated their
readiness to take up the president's challenge. While attacking the
chauvinist forces, Kumaratunga took pains to remind her audience that she
was a "Sinhala Buddhist to the core."

During the interview, the president admitted that her failure to pass the
bill was a setback for the government. She said the UNP had cheated the PA
in the face of demands from the western powers and local business interests
that the two parties end their rivalry and bring about a "consensus".
Kumaratunga then committed herself to pressing ahead with the
constitutional reforms if her government were returned in the general
elections due in late October or early November.

If the PA could not win the necessary two-thirds majority in parliament for
the constitutional change, but only a simple majority, then it would
convert the parliament into a "constituent assembly", where only a simple
majority was needed, and in that way push the changes through.

This type of anti-democratic manoeuvering has been seen in Sri Lanka
before. In 1972, the then coalition regime=97which was led by the SLFP and
included the two main working class parties, the Lanka Sama Samaja Party
(LSSP) and the Communist Party=97met outside parliament as a "constituent
assembly", ramming through a racist constitution making Sinhala the state
language and enshrining Buddhism as the state religion.

While Kumaratunga is seeking to boost her election prospects with appeals
to the Sinhala forces, the UNP is also looking to ride back into power on a
Sinhala chauvinist wave. Although it participated in 18 weeks of discussion
with the PA on the reform package, the UNP has disclaimed any authorship of
the proposals and is calling for a united agitation with Buddhist and
Sinhala extremist organizations, such as the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna
(JVP), the Organization for the Protection of the Mother Land and the
Sihala Urumaya Party.

In an effort to outflank this campaign, the PA regime is stepping up its
military attacks to try to regain at least some of the areas lost to the
LTTE in the Jaffna peninsula since the end of April. Last week the
parliament passed a 28 billion rupee ($356 million) supplementary
allocation for defence expenditure, bringing the total budget to 103
billion rupees, double the original allocation of 52 billion rupees. In the
coming two weeks the government will boost the armed forces with an
additional half a dozen Israeli Kafir jets, 10 Mi-24 helicopter gun ships,
and surface-to-surface guns fitted to fast craft and offshore patrol
vessels.

In order to finance this expenditure the government must make further
inroads into the living standards and wages of the working class, already
being hit with rising prices in basic commodities.

The Indian government is another factor in the political crisis. India,
along with the major Western powers, has opposed the establishment of a
separate Tamil state because of the destabilising effect it would have on
the entire sub-continent. The Indian media has published supportive reports
and editorials on the PA devolution package and according to reports
published in Colombo, the Indian High Commission "requested" the Tamil
United Liberation Front, the main Tamil bourgeois parliamentary party, to
vote for the devolution package.

The package itself, however, does nothing to resolve the conflict. Rather
it institutionalises ethnic divisions by establishing Tamil, Tamil Muslim
and Sinhala administrative areas. Such a structure will only be used by the
ruling classes to further ethnic tensions and pursue their "divide and
rule" policy in another form.

Moreover, as her appointment of Wickramanayake demonstrates, Kumaratunga is
working to strengthen the Sinhala chauvinist and racist Buddhist forces in
the lead-up to the election.

The entire devolution debacle serves to illustrate the lesson which emerges
from the whole post-colonial history of Sri Lanka: that the bourgeoisie and
its parties, together with the major capitalist powers, are organically
incapable of resolving racial and ethnic divisions. Instead, they work at
every turn to exacerbate them.

The solution will only come when the working class begins to fight on its
own independent program based on policies to meet the needs and democratic
aspirations of the broad masses=97Sinhala and Tamil alike.

Copyright 1998-2000 World Socialist Web Site

______

#6.

The Asian Age
18 August 2000

TOP VHP MEN TO KEEP EYE ON YOGIS IN NY

By Seema Mustafa and Gautam Datt
New Delhi, Aug. 17
Preachers, spirtualists, yogis, ayurvedic experts and Sanskrit scholars
will descend on New York from India to participate in the first-ever
Millennium World Peace Summit being sponsored by the United Nations in
its 54-year history. The summit begins on August 28.

Keeping a close watch on them as delegated observers will be Vishwa
Hindu Parishad top brass Vishnu Hari Dalmia, Ashok Singhal and Giriraj
Kishore. The four-day summit, to be inaugurated by UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan, will be attended by a congolomeration of religious leaders
from India.

The sponsors include organisations like the Modi Foundation and the
Hinduja Foundation. One Mr Bawa Jain is the New York-based coordinator
and bears the august title of secretary-general of the peace summit. The
Indian coordinator is the Modi Foundation with B.K. Modi prominent in
the observers' list where he is described as the person looking after
the external operations of the VHP.

His list of achievements listed in the official data include working
with the Hindu diaspora and authoring a book, Hinduism: The Universal
Truth. There is a sprinkling of little known Muslim religious leaders
with a couple of Christians and a few Sikhs thrown in for good measure.

Sadhvi Rithambara, who had played a key role before and after the
destruction of the Babri mosque in 1992, will be speaking on peace in
the world as a prominent delegate. The pretense of accomodating the
minorities has been given up altogether in the list of 66 observers who
will be participating in the summit.

VHP leaders, businessmen, chartered accountants, printers, newspaper
proprietors, electronic or cloth shop owners are the observers who will
be representing India at the summit. The list does not include a single
person qualified to talk on peace, or representative of the minority
religions that form pluralistic India.

Of course the preparations have not been without a hitch. For instance,
the four Shankaracharyas have refused to participate in the summit as
their faith does not allow them to cross the seas. The Jain Munis too
have backed out as their religion does not allow them to fly. The Indian
coordinators claim that the Dalai Lama was invited but decided not to
attend because of protests lodged by the Chinese.

The advisory board of this summit comprises Dr Karan Singh, Dr L.M.
Singhvi, and the man of all seasons, Mr Abid Husain. The United Nations
spokesperson here was not willing to take full responsibility for the
peace-turned-spiritual summit, saying the UN was merely a sponsor. The
summit will be held at the UN Headquarters and the literature prepared
by the coordinators and others has no hesitation in describing this as
the "first ever" UN summit of the kind.

The delegates include Sant Asaram, Swami Agnivesh, Amrender Muni, Sawami
Chidanand Saraswati, Satguru Jagjit Singh Maharaj, Dr Manjit Singh,
Maulana Tauseef Raza Khan, Khwaja Hasan Nizami and Reverend Valson
Thampur amongst others.

The observers include the Modi family, UP government official Rakesh
Kumar Mittal and state Planning Commission member Mahesh Kumar Ramanlal
Patel, Managing Director of Janta Ayurvedic Aushadhi Pratisthan Hari Om,
and additional professor at AIIMS Chandrakant S. Pandav.

______

#7.

Tehelka.com

BEFORE FREEDOM: NEHRU'S LETTERS TO HIS SISTER 1909-1947
EDITED BY NAYANTARA SAHGAL

ANTHOLOGY

HARPERCOLLINS
Rs 395

Jawaharlal Nehru was an inveterate letter-writer. He wrote to his
father, Motilal Nehru from Harrow and then from Cambdridge, to daughter
Indira from the prison, and to the chief ministers when he became prime
minister. Now we get a different set of letters, written to his sister,
Vijayalakshmi Pandit. Nehru was immensely fond of his sister, who was 11
years younger to him, and who was affectionately known as Nan.
Vijayalakshmi's daughter, novelist Nayantara Sahgal, has edited this
rare, intimate correspondence between brother and sister, which reveals
Nehru in a new light: the great man worried about the need to buy
shirts, asking for chopsticks from prison, and talking frankly about
money matters that every middle class family faces.

------------------------------
"In India, nudity is the badge of
our tribe and nothing much is thought about it."
------------------------------

Chemin de laRoseraie 25
Geneve 13 May, 1926
Nan darling,
Your letter of the 7th. I am glad you education is proceeding apace! New
experience and sensations are apt to be embarrassing at times but one
gets used to them soon enough. We are all creatures of habit and custom
and everything novel appears odd and sometimes disconcerting. A nude
model is in her place in a studio, but suppose she appeared in her
ungarbed state in a drawing room! For the matter of that every seaside
place swarms with people in diminutive and insignificant bathing
dresses; but a woman in a bathing dress at dinner would create a
sensation. I remember long ago some English people-women I think-telling
me that the Indian pyjamas (the churidar variety) were not quite decent
as they showed the man's legs! And yet they would never think of this at
the seaside or when athletic sports are being practised. And now of
course is the age of short and shorter skirts and the Braun sisters and
the reversion to the Greek style. Poor churidar pyjamas have to sink
into puritanical insignificance.
In India nudity is the badge of our tribe and nothing much is thought of
it, but the greatest horror is felt and expressed at the Western
attempts at the nude. The reason I think is that the former is almost a
continuation of the natural and primitive simple state, whilst the
latter is an intentional and thought out affair. Gradually of course the
practice of nudity makes that too natural but in this sophisticated age
every attempt is made to avoid this contingency.
We talk of a return to nature but there is nothing that is dreaded so
much as a real return. For what is sought after is neither nature nor
nudity but sensation. And when nudity becomes common and fully natural
and sensationless what remains in it to attract? Of course the only
thing to be done then is to revert to clothes.
And the change brings about a fresh sensation and then imagination which
was not tickled any more by the obvious again becomes active in the
presence of the mysterious and that which is hidden. And so backwards
and forwards we go.
That has been the history of human progress in some respects at any
rate=8ABut enough of this essay on the nude! I wonder if you are sending
graphic descriptions of your tour to people in India. The naked lady
might cause some people convulsions! And at the same time a secret and
furtive desire might appear in the remote recesses of their minds to
view the lady themselves=8A.

---------------------------
"Indu grows up into a
languid languishing girl. I feel she requires a course of field or
factory work."
-----------------------------

Dehradun Jail
6 March, 1933
Nan dear,
=8A.You told me once about Indu being trained for writing. There can be no
question of writing before one knows what to write. It is a method of
expression. But to express what? It is desirable to walk gracefully as
it is to write well, but again to walk where to? Or is it merely the
drawing room variety of walking that is to be taught, and the drawing
room variety of writing? It is about time we got rid of these
mid-Victorian ideas. The world has outgrown them. But in spite of my
dislike of them, Indu grows up into a languid, languishing type of girl!
You should not be surprised if this gets on my nerves. Instead of
teaching her writing and the like I feel she requires a course of field
or factory work to bring her down from the clouds. Indeed I am more
convinced than ever that children's education must be closely associated
with such manual work.
On purpose I wrote to Indu and asked her what she wanted to be - a
doctor, engineer or what else? It was a very prosaic question meant to
draw her down from the clouds. Of course I received no answer. There
could be no definite answer. She cannot and none of us can at this stage
say what she can or will do. But I am quite clear that nothing that is
worthwhile can be done in the clouds! She will have to come down and if
she does not do so early she will do so late and then the process is
more painful.

______________________________
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