[sacw] sacw dispatch #2 (10 June 00)

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web - Dispatch #2
10 June 2000
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex

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#1. Leading Pakistan journalist does not rule out chances of a India Pak
conflict
#2. How India lost its soul
#3. India: Sindhu [river] Flows Through Leh's Religious Rift
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#1.

India Abroad News Service
June 09, 2000

PAK SCRIBE SAYS WAR LIKELY

by Suman Guha Mozumder

June 09, 2000 17:58 Hrs (IST)

New York: A prominent Pakistani journalist says the chances of an
India-Pakistan
conflict are increasing with recurring clashes across the Line of Control
(LOC) in
Jammu and Kashmir.

"We do not have to subscribe to the view that this is the most dangerous
place in the
world, but having said that, I would not rule out chances of a conflict
with India," Najam
Sethi, chief editor of Friday Times of Lahore, said here.

"When Gen.Pervez Musharraf came, there were great opportunities to lower
tension in
that region as the whole world looked at him," Sethi said. "From my point
of view, while
the previous civilian government was prepared to discuss everything with
India,
including Kashmir, when he (Musharraf) came, Pakistan was not prepared to
discuss
everything unless Kashmir was included," he said. "I think this policy has
not paid
dividend and that needs to be taken into consideration (by the military
rulers)," he
said.

Sethi made these comments while delivering a lecture at the Grolier Club
here on
"Pakistan under the Military: Problems and Prospects 2000-2002," organized
by the
Asia Society.

Sethi noted that India too has put three conditions for talks and has
changed its
position saying it cannot engage in dialogue with a military government,
although, he
said the argument is shallow as New Delhi has done that before. "Both
countries, have
not really moved toward dialogue," he said, adding that the root causes of
the conflict
are very much present. He, however, did not elaborate on the root causes.

Sethi, who made almost an anatomical dissection of the pledges Musharraf
made after
capturing power but failed to keep, said Pakistan's foreign policy
vis-=E0-vis India has
not borne any benefit.

"It has not made any friends, only a lot of enemies," he said, adding,
"its relations with
its neighbors are virtually nonexistent. The national security paradigm,
in which there
is Kashmir and an anti-India stance rules, needs to be reviewed, he said.

India Abroad News Service

_______

#2.

Asianage
10 June 2000
Op-Ed.

HOW INDIA LOST ITS SOUL

by Seema Mustafa

They (the Christians) have provided the poorest of the poor with food,
shelter, clothing and a level of education.

A priest is hacked to death in Uttar Pradesh. Timebombs are set in
churches in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Goa. All within two days. Clearly
the powers that be are determined to terrorise the Christian community in
India are prepared to resort to any means to do so.
And what is more, the almost simultaneous blasts on Thursday mornings in
three states are intended to give an impression of an organised onslaught
by those who have no fear of the Indian state.
There is no real reaction from the worthies in Delhi. Andhra Pradesh chief
minister Chandrababu Naidu has ordered an inquiry into the two blasts in
Andhra Pradesh to convince the minorities that he is, despite his current
preoccupation with Sankhya Vahini and the US, still concerned about their
welfare.
The Uttar Pradesh government has sought to protect the guilty by
insisting, without any proof or verification whatsoever, that the priest in
Mathura was killed by a criminal gang.
Of course chief minister Gupta has not been able to explain why most of
the valuable items were not taken away by the criminal gang who obviously
were more interested in the priest than in the loot.
The timebombs now set a new trend in the systematic violence that has been
unleashed against the Christians for the past two years. It has given
invisibility to the perpetrators of the violence who now do not have to
lead mobs to destroy churches and hack priests.
They can do the same from the sanctuary of their own homes, making it
easier for the law enforcing authorities to protect them. It also extends
their reach, for now places of worship and missionaries can be targeted
even in states where the assailants do not enjoy tremendous support.
>From Gujarat, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh they can now operate in all of India
with a lot of prejudice and no fear.The secular environment of the country
has been totally vitiated.
Hate literature of the worst kind is being openly circulated in the
districts of India by organisations like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the
Bajrang Dal, as well as many others that are floated by the RSS and the BJP
from time to time.
Leaders of these organisations are on record, legitimising the violence
that is killing the citizens of this country for living peacefully and
working with the poor and downtrodden.
What is the ostensible argument of these fanatics, who live off hate and
divisiveness, against the Christian community which has hovered between two
to three per cent of the total population of India? They are converting the
Hindus to Christianity, and should be stopped.
By naked violence that seeks to kill and terrorise? Yes, because they are
converting the dalits, the tribals and others by offering them jobs, giving
them food, and shelter. So are they not forcing them? Of course they are
forcing them, they insist that unless they become Christians they will not
look after them, they are terrorising them, they are converting all our
people.
Christian workers have adopted the poor and very backward areas in some
states like Bihar, Orissa as their own. They have worked amongst the
scheduled castes and tribes with a dedication that is admirable.
They have provided the poorest of the poor with food, shelter, clothing
and a level of education which is now bringing a generation of the tribals
and dalits out of their ghettos into the mainstream.
In the process many have found it convenient to convert to Christianity to
escape the miseries of an oppressive caste system. Many have also been
asked to convert by the missionaries whose religion provides for
conversion, and whose faith believes in it.
So how does this affect India? The people, Hindu, Muslims Christians or
whatever , are still citizens of the country. They are not being taken
away. And if there are other religious groups who are not very happy with
the conversions then what stops them from working with the poor and
downtrodden and influencing them with their doctrines? Nothing, except that
this is hard work require a level of dedication and commitment that these
fanatics do not have.
Nothing, except that they are not interested in bringing these sections up
socially for after all as the Shankaracharya of Puri recently said, the
most that can be done for those who reconvert back to Hinduism is to set up
separate temples where they can pray without polluting the environment for
the higher castes.
But at the same time they are scared of an entire constituency, read vote
bank, slipping away outside their control. So what is the way out? Murder,
time bombs, rape.Terror.In the midst of this the mighty government of India
remains a silent spectator.
As do most of the Opposition parties except for the Left Front which has
shown concern for the plight of this hapless minority which is now at the
receiving end of the goon's gun and the policeman's baton. It is a state
subject, says the government as it wilfully abdicates its responsibility of
the protection and security of the minorities in the country.
The last memorable intervention by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was
last year when he visited Gujarat where the violence against the Christians
was showing no sign of ending at the time, and called for a national debate
on conversions.
Since then there has been silence, except for an occasional statement
dragged out by persistent reporters of an incident being "reprehensible"
and of the "law taking its own course." The Christians are an easy target
for another reason. Taught to turn the other cheek, they are easily
terrorised and are not present in numbers large enough to mount an
effective resistance to those attacking them.
So what would have been a communal riot becomes an "incident" which can
then be coloured any which way by the government of the day. It can become
an attack by a criminal gang, with the argument being given the necessary
endorsement by the hired men of the government who are running the
Minorities Commission these days.
It is because of this one fact that the Muslim minority in the country is
being given a breathing space. For an attack, such as the recent incident
where a prayer house was demolished by the Maharashtra government inside a
Muslim cemetery, can spark off violence which will then tarnish the image
of the NDA government and prevent it from playing its role of a silent
"impartial" (sic) spectator.
And the force required to subdue the Muslim minority which has a more
concentrated presence in the country will be such that it will invite
comment even from the international community which Delhi is presently
trying to placate.
So an ideology which believes in consolidating its constituency by keeping
a hate target alive, also needs to remind its people that they are under
siege by the minorities who are either converting (Christians) or
reproducing (Muslims) at a frenetic pace.
Muslims are not a very pliable or predictable target, but the Christians
obviously are. And are being used by the ideological fascists who have
surrounded the power structure in the country to generate the "them" versus
"us" insecurities on the basis of which the few can continue to rule over
the rest.
One of the proud assertions by the BJP-led government, ever since it has
come to power, has been: there have been no communal riots ever since we
came to power. Its Muslim ministers, kept there for this one singular
purpose, are in the forefront to insist that the government is as secular
as it can possibly be.
A communal riot will destroy this claim, and also put pressure on the
government in Delhi, to act against its own organisations like the VHP and
others. The allies which can turn a blind eye to "incidents" like the
hacking of a priest, and the rape of nuns will then have to recognise that
the covers are off, and raise the expected noise.
For many of them, including Lord Chandrababu and Lady Mamata, are
dependent on the minority vote in many of their constituencies.The Congress
has opted out and cannot even be expected to pay more than occasional lip
service to the cause. The Left is now virtually confined to its states.
Laloo Prasad Yadav has been kept confined to jail and the courts. Mulayam
Singh is too busy with Amar Singh and the cine world to bother about such
mundane issues where a vote bank is not involved.
After all he can win elections with the Muslim vote, but why bother about
the Christians who are hardly a presence in his part of the world? And so
on and so forth.....The Christians have been left on their own by the
political establishment. No tears are being shed for India is the process
of losing its soul. To opportunism and communalism.

_______

#3.

The Telegraph
10 June 2000

=20
SINDHU FLOWS THROUGH LEH'S RELIGIOUS RIFT=20
=20
=46rom Chandan Nandy
=20
Leh, June 9=20
They have begun to shun the middle path and are slowly drifting to the
right.
In a new twist to the politico-religious tangle in north Kashmir,
Buddhists are turning more and more hostile towards their traditional
neighbours - Muslims - who constitute a minority in this town nestling
in the lower reaches of the Karakoram range, but are in a majority in
adjoining Kargil.

The Sangh parivar is encashing on this religious divide and making a
steady penetration into Ladakh. The Hindu Mahasabha has built a temple
in the heart of Leh. Jumborees like the Sindhu Darshan festival of
Wednesday, officially sponsored by the Centre and Jammu and Kashmir
government but spearheaded by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, are
coming in handy for weaning away chunks of the Buddhist population.

Home minister L.K. Advani admitted yesterday that when he first
organised - and solemnised - the Sindhu Darshan festival in 1997, the
"locals (Buddhists) were apprehensive", but "as word spread, people with
emotional links to the Indus and those involved in the country's
cultural resurgence began to flock here".

Elaborating on the theme of national integration, Advani said: "We have
the ability to bring together all those who constitute India's cultural
fabric. And it is precisely with that objective in mind that the Sindhu
Darshan is being organised."

But there is no doubt that the BJP-led government is wooing Buddhists.
Yesterday, tourism and culture minister Ananth Kumar announced the
government's plans to accord deemed-university status to the Central
Institute of Buddhist Studies, a step that will bring it on a par with
Buddhist centres of learning at Sarnath and Nalanda.

Helping the process along, the RSS has already made known that
"trifurcation" of the state into Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh on religious
lines is an alternative solution to the Kashmir problem and could answer
demands for autonomy in the three regions.

Buddhists have suddenly discovered that it is the BJP which could fulfil
its "aspirations" in Ladakh and are even prepared to "come under the
larger umbrella of Hindiusm".

Buddhist leaders have turned vocal against Muslims, with whom they have
lived cheek-by-jowl for centuries, as the gangrene of religious
intolerance spreads to all regions of this wounded state in a fallout of
militant conflict.

Ladakh Buddhist Association president Tsering Samphel said: "We are open
to the Hindus to the extent that we would be able to counter the
Muslims."

Samphel is convinced that Muslims are becoming more and more
fundamentalist in Leh and Kargil which, he says, is part of the "larger
conspiracy" to Islamise Ladakh. "Earlier, they would sound the bell in
the mosques before reading out their prayers. Now they have switched to
loud-speakers. Muslims are converting Buddhists to Islam. As many as 72
boys and girls have been converted. Five new mos-ques have been
constructed at Leh during 1989-99 around Buddhist habitations," alleged
Samphel.

"The percentage of Muslims in Leh district increased from 15.32 per cent
in 1981 to 18.37 per cent in the projected figures for 1991 wh-en no
census was held," he said.

Sheikh Mirza Hussein, till recently president of the Anjuman Imamia, a
Shia organisation, admitted that there was a deep divide between Muslims
and Buddhists. However, he attributed this more to the "baseless
apprehensions" of Buddhists who are being "used as convenient tools" to
widen the hiatus. He is yet to forget the en masse boycott of Muslims by
the majority community a few years ago.

Hussein suspected that "some hidden hand" was engineering the divide. He
did not say as much, but asked what impact Sindhu Darshan would have on
Buddhists and Muslims, Hussein was apprehensive: "If it is misused, it
might give rise to mazhabi (religious) differences. Muslims will then
have to protect their interests. Believe me, Buddhists are more
apprehensive of a likely penetration by Hindutva forces."

The association blamed the Farooq Abdullah government for the
"continuing victimisation of and discrimination" against the Buddhist
community. One of the reasons for the Buddhist "xenophobia" is that, for
the first time, a candidate from Farooq's National Conference was
elected MP from Ladakh. Samphel claimed that the nomination of two
Buddhist monks in Farooq's Cabinet was another ploy to divide Buddhists.

It is apparent that Buddhists are a divided house, a situation which,
observers here feel, might be capitalised on for political purposes. =20

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