[sacw] sacw dispatch #1 (26 June 00)

[aiindex@mnet.fr]

South Asia Citizens Web - Dispatch #1.
26 June 2000
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex

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#1. Pakistan: NGOs pledge to fight fundamentalist forces
#2. India: Shooting training to right-wing activists in Ayodhya
#3. India: Popular culture, India is totally secular
#4. India: army orders villagers in Kashmir, 'Photograph yourself'
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#1.

Pak NGOs pledge to fight fundamentalist forces

by Muhammad Najeeb, India Abroad News Service

Islamabad, June 25 - In a major development, a large gathering of some
3,500 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from across Pakistan have
resolved to resist the onslaught of fundamentalist and extremist elements
in the society.

After two days of deliberations at Islamabad's Sustainable Development
Policy Institute, the representatives of the NGOs decided to launch a
concerted campaign to counter retrogressive and obscurantist elements, who,
they said, were virtually holding the entire Pakistani society hostage.

The NGOs said that for the past few weeks, particularly after the
government's decision to withdraw procedural amendments to the blasphemy
law, these fundamentalist forces had been on the offensive and had been
making threats against organisations working for social development and
enlightenment of people.

"Some NGO workers are even receiving death threats," Anis Haroon, an
activist from Karachi, told journalists.

"You just see the language used at the recent public meetings of the Milli
Yakjehti Council in Sialkot and Lahore, and diligently reported in the Urdu
press," Mohammad Tashin, a social worker from Lahore said when asked to
identify the parties issuing threats to the NGOs. "It is not the question
of an organisation or one group, it is a particular mindset," he added.

The NGOs working on women and minorities issues were particularly targetted
by the religious organisations, said Amjad Rasheed of the Baluchistan NGOs
=46ederation.

An activist from the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) said some
religious organisations had declared that they would not allow any NGO in
Malakand after July 1. He said the fundamentalists, in their sermons at
religious congregations, were inciting people to boycott the NGOs.

In a communique unanimously adopted at the meeting, the NGOs said: "We, the
representatives of civil society organisations and networks from all over
the country, have come together today to share and express our grave
concern over the campaign launched by certain reactionary forces against
the progressive development agenda in Pakistan."

Expressing reservations over the "compromising attitude" of the government
towards such organisations, the NGOs put forward seven demands, calling for
protection to be provided to all civil society groups working for the
social, economic and democratic rights of people against the excesses of
extremist groups and state functionaries.

"We exclusively demand the state stop all forms of harassment and
vilification against NGOs from government departments," they said. The NGOs
demanded strict action against all those responsible for the growing
harassment of and violence against women and activists working for their
rights.

Their statement said the curriculum in religious schools should be
subjected to scrutiny, the violence and malpractices in the treatment of
students at these institutions and the forced recruitment of youths for
'jehad' (Islamic holy war) should be immediately stopped and action taken
against the perpetrators.

It said the state must adhere to its publicly announced human rights
agenda, particularly its commitment to equal representation of women at the
union council level.

Sabira Qureshi, who represented NGOs in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, said
activists were also concerned about the "noncommittal and ambiguous" policy
of the government. On the one hand, she said, the government held a human
rights convention and, on the other, it had adopted a compromising attitude.

--India Abroad News Service

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#2.

Shooting training to right-wing activists in Ayodhya

by Sharat Pradhan, India Abroad News Service

Lucknow, June 25 - Radical Hindu outfits have organised a 10-day training
camp to impart shooting lessons to their cadres in Ayodhya.

The camp, organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and its militant
affiliate, the Bajrang Dal, is currently imparting training with air guns,
but the real thing is not far away. "This is the induction stage, later on
we will train our boys in shooting real guns and rifles. This is part of
our drill to ensure the protection of Hindus," Bajrang Dal state unit chief
Ved Prakash Sachan said.

The ancient Hindu temple town of Ayodhya has been in the international
spotlight since the demolition of the Babri mosque by fanatical Hindu mobs
on December 6, 1992.

The training camp at Karsewakpuram, being supervised by Sachan, is not the
first to be conducted in the state. "Similar camps have been held in
Varanasi, Mathura and Meerut. Those who prove their shooting skills will be
picked for advanced courses," Sachan said.

Some residents of Ayodhya suspect that the cadres are being clandestinely
trained to fire real guns. However, the VHP and the Bajrang Dal deny this.
"Why should we hide anything? When we start training with real guns we will
make an announcement," a VHP activist at the Lucknow office said.

VHP state president Purshottam, he said, "is in touch with some of our
supporters who were in the army and they have promised to conduct the
advanced training camps."

Sachan said it was necessary to train its cadres in view of the "increasing
Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) activity on the Indo-Nepal border".
Referring to the "mushrooming growth" of 'madrasas' (seminaries) and
mosques along the border in Uttar Pradesh, Sachan said "our sole objective
is to provide protection to Hindus who are feeling threatened because of
the ISI infiltration."

Opposition parties have described the training camps as a "major threat to
communal harmony in the state". The Samajwadi party's state chief, Ram
Saran Das, sees in the camps a "sinister design in which the ruling BJP is
also neck deep".

Congress spokesman Ram Kumar Bhargava demanded an immediate ban on such
camps. "The ruling party first unleashed terror on Christians. Now, this
training camp too is an alarming development and should not be taken
lightly," he said.

-- India Abroad News Service

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#3.

The Hindustan Times
23 June 2000

RSS goes to Bollywood: When it comes to popular culture, India is totally
secular

SOMETIMES IT is hard to speak up for secularism in India.

Only a few days after nearly everybody - including much of the Muslim
community - condemned Mohammad Azharuddin for suggesting that he was being
victimised because of his religion, Hindu communalists have got into the
act. The reason Mr Azharuddin found few takers for his claims was because
most people recognise that when it comes to sport and popular culture,
India is totally secular. This is especially true of the film industry
where the days when Yusuf Khan had to change his name to Dilip Kumar are
now a distant memory. Bombay's top stars are called Khan: Shahrukh Khan,
Aamir Khan and Salman Khan. And nobody regards their religion of being of
any consequence - or rather nobody did till the RSS and the Shiv Sena got
involved.
The RSS journal Panchjanya features a bizarre cover story this week in
which the Khans are portrayed as henchmen of Dawood Ibrahim who comprise a
gang which dominates Bollywood (or 'Khanwood' as the wits at Panchjanya
would have us call it). This domination is achieved through intimidation
because producers are hounded into signing up the Khans (so far at least,
Panchjanya has not suggested that audiences are forced to see their movies
- but give it time) while Hindu actors are blocked by an 'international
conspiracy'. Only brave Hindu Hrithik Roshan dares fight for the rights of
his community. Not to be undone, Bombay's fading senapati, Bal Thackeray,
has also contributed to this comical campaign by calling the three Khans
'puppets of the underworld' and urging his demoralised and defeated Shiv
Sainiks to "wake up and do something".
If Panchjanya is to be believed then even soft-drink mulitnationals are
part of this "pre-meditated communal mindset" and Muslims (code-named "a
particular section") drink only Pepsi because Shahrukh advertises it and
not Coke which is pushed by Hrithik. (What do they do with Thums Up which
is sponsored by both Salman Khan and Sunil Shetty? Drink only half the
bottle and then throw it away? The mind boggles.) As for Mr Thackeray, his
credentials as a film groupie are well known. He is so crazy about movie
stars that not only will he attend every film premiere to which he is
invited, but he will even attend the opening of an envelope if he is told
that Govinda will be there. So what accounts for this diatribe? Perhaps
Salman didn't give him an autograph.
More seriously though, the behaviour of the RSS and the Shiv Sena
demonstrates how communalists - on both sides - cannot bear the success of
Indian secularism. In the RSS's world view, Hindus and Muslims must be
enemies. So, there can be no greater setback to its agenda than the
discovery that millions of Hindus adore the Khans. The only way it can
reconcile this fact with its world view is to conclude that the phenomenon
must be the result of a criminal conspiracy. Fortunately, the vast majority
of Indians laugh at these views. Even within the film industry, nobody
takes this kind of communalism seriously. Both Aamir and Shahrukh Khan are
married to Hindu girls. And as for Panchjanya's golden boy, Hrithik Roshan,
guess what his fianc=E9's surname is? Yes, it is Khan!

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#4.

Photograph yourself, army orders villagers

from India Abroad News Service

Baramulla (Jammu and Kashmir), June 21 - The army views it as a method to
curb terrorism, but the villagers see it otherwise.

The upshot? Panic has gripped some 40 villages in the northern region of
the Kashmir valley after the Rashtriya Rifles, a paramilitary force that is
assisting the Indian Army in anti-terrorist operations, asked residents to
take group photographs of their families and hand them over to the nearest
army camp, The Indian Express reported.

=46rightened residents say they have been told that it is "mandatory" for
them to deposit the photographs within the "shortest time." They say the
decision has come as a surprise since this is the first time in the
11-year-old struggle against terrorism in the valley that the people have
been asked to identify themselves.

A.Q. Manhas, senior superintendent of police, said some villagers had
complained to him about the army directive and he was investigating the issu=
e.

Admitting that photographs had been sought, an army spokesman claimed this
was necessary to check foreign mercenaries. "It is compulsory as otherwise
we will not be able to differentiate between the villagers and the
outsiders," the spokesman said.

Mushtaq Ahmad Lone, Jammu and Kashmir's Minister of State for Home, said he
was unaware of the directive. If "such a practice is continuing, I will ask
to put an end to it," he said.

The Rashtriya Rifles has also informed the villagers that they need to
inform the army in case a guest drops in at their houses.

The Rashtriya Rifles has engaged local photographers for the exercise. Not
surprisingly, this has set off a race among the photographers, who are
charging Rs. 20 (45 cents at Rs. 44 to a dollar) per copy, to get as many
pictures as possible.

Villagers fear that the photos will identify the female population, "who
can also become targets in case an encounter breaks out in the area and the
army launches house-to-house searches."

Says Mukta, a mother of four daughters: "Parents like me are spending
sleepless nights. I myself am sending my daughters away for their safety."

--India Abroad News Service

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