[sacw] sacw dispatch #2 (3 June 00)

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web - Dispatch #2
3 June 2000

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#1. India: Umbergaon Day 5th June 2000
#2. Pakistan surrenders its conscience inch by inch to reach zero
#3. India: Buddhadev Dasgupta's film on Staines killing
#4. USA: On Belonging: Writings of Pakistani Women

__________________________

#1.

UMBERGAON DAY 5th JUNE 2000 Umbergaon is a fishing village in Gujarat
situated at the border of Maharashtra of India. This is a natural harbor.
About 100000 fisher men and women have been fishing here for centuries and
it is a very sustainable fishery as well. There is a proposal to construct
a large commercial port in this area. Looking at the fragile and important
ecology of the area, a port very close to the present site falling in
Maharashtra State was cancelled recently. It was established through a
comprehensive assessment of the port traffic at present and the future
estimates, that with the existing and ongoing port development this port
was not needed for years to come. The documents showed that UNOCAL, a
North American Multinational and BSES, another Power Company were pushing
the project for their profit, without considering the social and
environmental cost. KINARA BACHAO SANGHARSH SAMITI of the people to
protect rights of the people of UMBERGAON oppose this project because the
proposed project violate the basic right to life and livelihood. The
recent Judgement of the Supreme Court of India by a division bench of
Justice S. Sighir Ahmed and Justice Doraiswamy Raju categorically said "
the apex court had, in a series of judgements, widened the scope of right
to life under the Constitution. Any disturbance to the air, water, and
soil come under right to life". Against the people's perspective and
position, without any dialogue and consultation, Government of Gujarat
used extensive police force to survey the project area. Instead of
protecting the democratic rights of the local community of Umbergaon, the
so called elected government has been trying to use the police force=20
against the very people who elected them, to help the Multinational
Companies to make more profit under the guise of DEVELOPMENT. The=20
Government of Gujarat and their yes men police cheated the local fishing
community by arresting all the leaders on 7th April midnight to help the
surveyors of the Multinational Companies from the USA to complete their
survey. 47 persons both men and women including Col. Pratap Save were
beaten up mercilessly and Save's head was banged against the wall several
times and immediately he went into coma and he was hospitalised. He
underwent two neuro surgeries. On 20th April he died in the Hinduja
hospital Mumbai. All this cruelty and state oppression was done under the
leadership of Dy. S. P. Narendra Amin. Inspite of giving written
complaint against him for murder charge, the police officer is going around
scot free. In this context the local people of Umbergaon protested
against the brutality of the police twice. But the Government of Gujarat
has taken no action against the Murderers. In this context KINARA BACHAO
SANGARSH SAMITI, NATIONAL FISHWORKERS FORUM OF INDIA AND NATIONAL
ALLIANCE OF PEOPLE'S MOVEMENTS OF INDIA decided to have a special
programme on 5th June, to observe it as UMBERGAON DAY and request on
democratic, human rights-defender citizens and organisations across the
world to do the same. On that day we have to express through different
action, protests and call for the arrest of all the persons responsible
for the Murder of Col. Save and the State Oppression upon the people of
Umbergaon. We also call for the immediate stop of all the activities
concerning the Umbergaon port. Please send fax of protest and calling for
action to the following persons:- President of India Dr.
K.R.Narayanan Rashtrapathi Bhawan, New Delhi-110001 =20
=46ax:91-11-3014570 Prime Minister of India Mr. A.B.Vajpayee =
=20
South Block New Delhi-110004 Fax:91-11-3016857 Chief Minister of
Gujarat Mr.Keshubhai Patel Nava Sachivalaya, Gandjinagar, Gujarat-382010
=46ax:91-2712- 22101 Please send a copy of your protest fax or letter
or email to nff@v... medhapatkar@v... admin@s...
________

#2.

The Asian Age
3 June 2000
Op-Ed.

PAKISTAN SURRENDERS ITS CONSCIENCE INCH BY INCH TO REACH ZERO

By A.B.S. Jafri
Karachi

At a time when the government of Chief Executive General Pervez Musharraf
needed an image booster, the people have witnessed it beat two quick
retreats.
First, unsolicited testimonials of merit and credit for the Deeni madaris.
Soon after, the more embarrassing submission on the blasphemy non-issue.A
harmless procedural straightening out of the drill was reversed.
Sober citizens, the vast silent majority, have watched these two
developments with profound unease. They had believed that this government
was with a difference =97 rational, forward looking, with enlightened
inclinations and commitments.
Even now there is no compelling reason to hastily change that perception,
although there has been a jolt.A number of factors may have prevailed upon
the government not to open at this moment yet another front.
As it is, the government is having to fight a coalition of reaction and
obscurantism. Also on the war path are gangs of political discards. Nawaz
Sharif & Co., Benazir brigade, Grand Democratic Alliance, feudals, PONAM,
PAT and what have you.
Their frustrations have brought them together into an opportunistic
marriage of unabashed convenience.Of late the traders and bazaar merchants
have made a nuisance of themselves to blackmail the government in a bid to
reverse its reform measures.
They refuse to pay taxes. They reject any idea of the market survey which
is only a sort of census. As they go on strikes or talk of street
agitation, the self-appointed religious leaders are quick to join.
This nation has the misfortune now to see the rise of exactly the forces
that had opposed the very idea of Pakistan. This element was never given
any recognition by the people. Most of the religious parties and similar
elements have been rejected at the polls.
At the last election, the Jamaat-i-Islami chief could not get elected from
his home constituency. So much for public support.We continue to be the
victims of the shattering Zia-ul-Haq interlude.
The dictator imposed fanaticism on all state controlled media, including a
section of the print media controlled or financed by obscurantist agencies.
Another Zia legacy, with the compliments of the United States, is the Deeni
madaris.
Nobody has cared to define what exactly these are supposed to teach, to
what purpose, except to produce recruits for the sectarian forces, now
openly called "armies" and operating as such.In a civilised state there can
be only one army.
Is there any room for other private armies who are seen in action,
disposing of their opponents?Today we have more than 80 groups who call
themselves religious parties.They form alliances among themselves and also
engage in warfare among themselves.
Most of these =93religious parties=94 have their respective and exclusive
bastions of power =97 madaris, mosques, khanqahs and who knows what else,
under cover.The whole nation is horrified over the recent rioting that
followed the assassination of a religious personality.It was the worst
incident of its kind in Karachi's living memory.
We are supposed to believe that the people who had burst upon the streets
were the faithful out only to register their sorrow over the murder. Fair
enough.
But those in mourning would owe it to the departed divine that they be a
model of forbearance as taught by the late preacher.How is one to relate
Islamic virtues to the looting of banks, ransacking of shops, arson,
burning of vehicles, the attack and vandalism in a newspaper office?
Doesn=92t all this ring an alarm? Recall 1952 and the agitation worked up b=
y
the same brand of activists in Lahore, spreading to the whole of Punjab,
leading to our first martial law.
To this day experience shows that a public demonstration engineered by
religious groups would soon turn into serious disturbance of peace,
violation of law, disruption of civil order, anarchy, ending up in loss of
life, property, loot, plunder and a variety of crimes.
How is one to explain why all, or most, public gestures of the zealots in
the name of religion must turn into street violence, war fare, carnage? Of
late the interior minister has been offering unsolicited bouquets of praise
and compliments to the Deeni madaris.
Has he or anyone serving in his ministry tried to see what kind of
education and mental development are these madaris imparting? What kind of
a career are they preparing their alumni for? What is the inspiration that
has led the founders to engage in this "service to Islam?"
Now we have 6,000 Deeni madaris. In 1947 the number was 200 =97 a 300 per
cent rise. Is there a comparable growth in government schools? With that we
return to the two quick retreats staged by the present government, perhaps
to avoid a possible tiff with the religious holy crusaders.
=46rom the days of Zia-ul-Haq the government apparatus has been subjected to
massive injections of obscurantism.Every government apparently feels the
heat of its presence around and tends to opt for the line of least
resistance.
The present government had better realise it is only a case of surrender
by inches.One day there will be nothing left to surrender except a
lacerated conscience.There must be a point for the government to make bold
to say: no further.
How can anyone fail to see that the tragedy of Z.A. Bhutto's surrender is
written on every wall in this country. Also on the forehead of this nation.
Instead of falling into the footprints of ZAB, we ought to start a national
initiative to recover the ground lost to obscurantism over these years.
We must ring the end of this thoughtless retreat, this spineless surrender.
We have already drawn dangerously close to the zero point.This government
may be our last chance to recover our sanity and self-respect.
( By arrangement with Dawn )
_______

#3.

Source: indya.com

BUDDHADEV DASGUPTA'S CAMERA PANS STAINES KILLING

Calcutta, June 3
Renowned director Buddhadeb Dasgupta Saturday said he had completed the
shooting of his film Uttara, based on the killing of Australian missionary
Graham Staines and his two sons last January.
The high priest of parallel cinema has taken a critical look at the Staines
killing and the jingoistic national reaction to it.
Dasgupta said, "The film is based on a contemporary subject. But far from
highlighting intolerance and brutality, it is more a story of innocence and
simplicity."

In Dasgupta's celluloid village, two men endlessly pursue their favourite
passtime wrestling, to beat their overwhelming loneliness.
The tribal dominated village has a Christian pastor who ministers his small
group of converts and attends to patients in a nearby leprosy colony.
A group of dwarfs pass through the village every morning and a troupe of
traditional folk dancers show up every now and then, lending a blend of
music and variety to the otherwise quaint world of dormant violence.
Chinks appear in this serene world when one of the friends, Balaram
(Shankar Chakrabarty) marries beautiful Uttara (Assamese actress Jaya Sil)
destroying the hitherto exalted relationship with friend Nemai(Tapas Paul).
The two naive friends' joyous grappling on the mudbed turns into a violent
fight over the woman.
The tension between the two friends becomes a metaphor of the ugliness in
the outer world as a group of Hindu fundamentalists set out to exterminate
the padree baba (priest).
The film culminates with the diabolic murder of the pastor, torching of the
church and the rape and murder of Uttara (the only private eye and voice of
protest) by the zealots, as the two men callously wrestle for the woman
oblivious to the destruction around them.
Dasgupta remarkably captures an undercurrent of hatred in the film.
=46undamental to the film, Dasgupta says, is the remoteness of the setting.
"While in the big Indian cities and the west, people talk of globalisation
and the world becoming increasingly smaller, in many parts of this
developing world illiterate, ignorant and superstitious people live a
vibrant life with the capacity to love and suffer despite their
shortcomings as modern man," he said.
Dasgupta further cites intolerance as the catalyst in precipitating the
degeneration from peace to destruction.
He however, signs off on a positive note with Matthew the little boy
adopted by the priest turning away from the wrestlers he so admired and
joining the dance troupe.
"I made this film in response to the present day realities and also to warn
against impending dangers. In this world of eternal tension between beauty
and ugliness, we must strive to preserve the former."
"The optimistic ending is thus not only artistically appropriate but also a
statement of faith," he said.
Dasgupta, a three-time national award winner, however, found it difficult
to get the film rolling.
With producers reluctant to finance a film treading on dangerous grounds,
he got the film produced with Swiss assistance.
- UNI
______

#4.

SAPF/NYU & Asia Society Present

ON BELONGING: WRITINGS OF PAKISTANI WOMEN

Saturday, June 3, 2000, 1:30 p.m.
Schwartz Hall, Lecture hall F
NYU Medical Center
30th Street and 1st Ave.

Three generations of Pakistani women grapple with the issues of belonging,
exile and self discovery in their literary writings. Tahira Naqvi, Maniza
Naqvi and Sabreena Salim will read from their works. The psychological
dimensions of their writings will be reflected upon by Dr. Aisha Abbasi.
Presented by The South Asian Psychoanalytic Forum (SAPF) of the NYU
Psychoanalytic Institute in collaboration with the Asia Society. Q&A, book
signing and reception to follow.

$7 for the general public; $5 for Asia Society members and students; free
for SAPF

=46or more information and tickets: 212-724-3751; anbereen@h...

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