[sacw] sacw dispatch #2 (20 April 00)

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch #2
20 April 2000
__________________________
#1. Kashmir comes to Birmingham
#2. A time to talk?
#3. Opening borders, welcoming peace
#4. Working for Peace - Continuing Reflections & Questions
#5. 25th Anniversary of 'Emergency' in India (June 25, 2000)
__________________________

#1.

The Economist
April 22nd - 28th 2000

BRITAIN: Local elections

Kashmir comes to Birmingham

B I R M I N G H A M=20
The council elections in Birmingham on May 4th could mark a significant
advance for ethnically-based political parties in Britain=20

=20
=46ROM the outside, Allah Ditta's hall, across the road from the
Birmingham City football ground, looks like nothing much. In keeping
with the surrounding area, one of Birmingham's poorest, the fa=E7ade is
perfunctory and dilapidated. A sign invites bookings for weddings and
parties. But the hall is also the base for the leadership of the JFK, a
political party which has already started to nibble away at the power
base of the Labour Party in Britain's second city. Its leaders are now
plotting their tactics for the council elections on May 4th.

The JFK-which stands (roughly) for Justice for the Kashmiri Community-is
a new political phenomenon. The party is the creation of Birmingham's
Muslims of Kashmiri origin, who number over 100,000 in a city of around
a million people. It has won three local council seats since making its
breakthrough in 1998, and it has another councillor who defected from
Labour. Labour still holds a healthy majority on the council with 77 of
117 seats.

But the rise of the JFK should still cause concern for Labour. In both
London and Birmingham blacks and Asians now make up more than 20% of the
population, and they have traditionally voted Labour. Quite apart from
the cost in votes involved in the rise of ethnic parties, the Labour
Party will be worried by signs that it is failing in its aim to be an
"inclusive" party that reaches out to racial minorities and the poor.

In the forthcoming local elections in Birmingham, the JFK are contesting
seven more seats. They are also helping a Tory and a Liberal in two
other seats. They hope to win five or six new seats this time round,
taking their total number almost into double figures. If Labour does
poorly across the city, the JFK might even end up holding the balance of
power on the new council.

The JFK is already Britain's most successful ethnically-based party,
outside Northern Ireland. Party officials claim that communities in
other British cities are already crying out for their own JFK
candidates. Forays into Bradford, Leicester and Leeds are under
consideration.

The JFK was originally founded purely as a protest against the
continuing imprisonment in Britain of two Kashmiri separatists jailed
for their killing of an Indian diplomat. The party reflected the
frustration of many of Birmingham's Muslims that the Labour government
was, in their view, not pushing India hard enough over
self-determination for Kashmir.

But the JFK quickly found that it had tapped into years of frustration
with the Labour Party at a local level as well. All of Birmingham's
Labour MPs are white. Councillor Amir Khan, the new party's most voluble
spokesman, speaks of Labour's neglect of the aspirations and living
conditions of the local Kashmiri. He argues that Labour "couldn't care a
shit about us." He accuses the party of racism, and of giving urban
renewal grants to white-dominated areas at the expense of
immigrant-dominated ones. The parts of Birmingham where the JFK has won
seats, such as Small Heath, are among the poorest inner-city areas in
the country. Mr Khan claims that in some places, 70% of young Kashmiris
are unemployed. It is "either taxi-driving or nothing."

Dani=E8le Joly, director of the Centre for Research into Ethnic Relations
at the nearby University of Warwick, agrees. She says that although the
Asian communities have traditionally had a strong allegiance to the
Labour Party, "it has not met their aspirations." The party has for too
long taken their support for granted, but "the new generation expects a
lot more."

Labour has already taken note. Last month, the city council passed a
resolution supporting the self-determination of Kashmir. But this may
not be enough to win back voters from the JFK. At the moment, in
American parlance, they have the "big mo". If they meet their targets on
May 4th, their momentum will fuel their grandiose plans for the future.
They want to change their name to the "Justice" or "Alliance" party, to
attract more broad-based, multi-ethnic support. That could be tricky
since one of Birmingham's other significant minorities, the Indians, has
diametrically opposed views on Kashmir. There have also been tensions
between blacks and Asians.

Still the JFK is on a roll. It talks of dispatching a "battle-bus" to
drum up support in other inner-city areas. There are grand plans for
fielding 200 candidates at the next general election. They will
certainly stand in a couple of seats in Birmingham.

All this sounds hopelessly over-ambitious. So far, the party's success
has been based on very low turn-outs in local elections. The JFK will
struggle to expand beyond the protest vote. But a seat in Parliament is
certainly imaginable. And the mainstream political parties should
already be thinking about the implications of the rise of ethnic
politics in Britain.
_______

#2.

The Hindu
Thursday, April 06, 2000
A TIME TO TALK?
By Radha Kumar

GENERAL MUSHARRAF'S recent offer of talks with the Indian
Government merits more careful consideration than it has thus far been
given. Coming, as it does, on the heels of his statement in an interview
to the Financial Times, that he would be prepared to push the Kashmir
militant groups to de-escalate the conflict, it could - if the Indian
Government were to respond positively - begin to pave the ground for
a step back from the current hostilities on the Line of Control, in
the Valley and Jammu. These, most analysts agree, are at such a
disturbing high that war psychosis is rife in Pakistan, while several
Indian officials have spoken fatalistically, and to many ears
fantastically, of the possibility of a ``limited war''.
In itself, General Musharraf's statement acknowledges that
Pakistan not only has leverage over the militant groups which are fighting
in Kashmir - an issue which he had until now tried to clumsily sidestep
- but also that he is willing to use that leverage in the interests
of peace. For a man who has spent the past couple of months oscillating
madly between averring that Pakistan has little to do with militancy
in the Valley and arguing that jehad in Kashmir is a noble cause for
all Muslims, this is a radical departure.
When looked at in relation to other recent moves, it would also appear
that his offer is not merely a rhetorical gesture. It follows
cautious moves to curb support for some of the fundamentalist
madrassas; and a ban on the public display of weapons which, while
domestically directed, might have an indirect effect on the Kashmir
conflict if it were to lead to further measures to curb the illegal
flow of arms. In this context, his offer brings to light the missing
piece, of the Kashmir militant groups based in Pakistan and
Afghanistan, and indicates that the Pakistan authorities might be
willing to return to the immediate pre-Lahore context of seeking a
peaceful solution through bilateral negotiations. And now the Pakistani
Interior Minister, General Moin Haidar, has said Pakistan will hold an
inquiry into Kargil.
The Indian Government is of course right that Pakistan does not need
talks in order to halt support for the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba or the Hizbul
Mujahideen. Their mistrust is also understandable: if a Kargil could
happen in the much more propitious climate of the Lahore process, then
what might not happen in the highly acrimonious climate of today?
Yet it is this very question that makes de-escalation a priority. The
daily toll of lives which the post-Kargil intensification of the Kashmir
conflict takes has now lasted almost a year. In the first three months
of this year alone, between 1,500 and 2,000 people have died.
Civilians, militants and security forces are dying in almost
equal proportions. Nor, as the massacre of Sikhs shows, is any group
immune. Public and official opinion are united in believing that this is
an unendurable toll, but both are divided and confused over how to
control it.
Basically, there are three available strategies under
consideration. The first, to combine counter-insurgency with the
isolation of Pakistan, has been tried over the past six months and has
failed to curb the rising scale of death in the valley and Jammu;
instead, it has contributed to a renewed alienation of the valley, and
a dangerous sense of humiliation amongst Pakistanis which is
feeding the war psychosis in that country. The second, which the Indian
Government has until now opposed but has reaped the benefit of, is for
other countries - most notably, the United States - to do the talking. The
results of these talks can be seen in General Musharraf's, changed
stand. They are likely to be followed during the FBI director, Mr. Louis
=46reeh's ongoing visit to the sub- continent. But third party pressure can
only go so far if the space it opens is not made use of. This space
can either be extended through international mediation, or through
bilateral negotiations.
The Indian Government has long argued for a bilateral solution to its
disputes with Pakistan, but it has rarely been able to take negotiations
from procedural wrangling to matters of substance. Yet if bilateral
negotiations are to be a viable strategy, they have to be
comprehensive and substantive, which can only be achieved step by
laborious step.
Since Kargil and the military coup, the Indian Government has refused
all negotiations, whether bilateral or track two, on the grounds that
Pakistan must first tender evidence of its good faith by ending
training, material, arms and fire cover for cross-border militancy in
Kashmir. This demand has been pooh- poohed by many Pakistanis as a naive
ignorance of realpolitik and as intransigence. As a matter of fact, some
tender of good faith is generally a prerequisite of all engagement,
whether between equals or not. The question is, is the Indian Government
placing its premiums too high?
It is an oft-repeated but little understood truism that the
fortunes of Pakistan and Kashmir are inter-related. If Pakistan's Kashmir
policy has brought Pakistan to the brink of disaster, there is little
room for Indian chauvinists or hawks to celebrate because it is also
bringing Kashmir to the brink of disaster. In other words, neither
Kashmir nor Pakistan can stabilise if the other does not. The Pakistani
authorities are beginning to show some appreciation of this point, but
it is not clear if the Indian Government does.
At the moment, General Musharraf has, again under international
pressure, asked for bilateral talks. In accepting his offer, the Indian
Government could, for example, ask him to take immediate notice of the
Lashkar-e-Tayyaba's threat to intensify attacks on Indian security forces
and Kashmiri Government infrastructure. It could also acknowledge what
its officials have long known, that the task facing the Pakistani
authorities is a formidable one and they will need both international and
domestic support if they are to grapple with it. If talks will help
Pakistan reform its Kashmir policy and prepare domestic ground for a
commitment to peaceful negotiations, then why not begin them at the
earliest possible moment?
Arguably, this is as good a moment to begin talks as any before. The
international community and the Pakistani authorities are both moving
to a position that can help to stabilise Kashmir: that a solution can
only be found through peaceful means, and with a respect for human
rights. After the Anantnag massacre, this must surely be as pressing a
concern for the Indian and Kashmir Governments as for the rest of the
world. The appointment of a police inquiry into the massacre is welcome,
but rumours that the Indian Government has refused to exhume the bodies
of the four alleged militants killed in a shootout after the
massacre even before the inquiry had determined whether or not to ask for
them are disturbing. So is the crackdown on civilian protest and the
preventive detention of Kashmiri leaders.
However much the army or the security forces might resent
protest, the use of draconian or extra-judicial measures cannot be
allowed to go unpunished indefinitely. It took sixteen far too long years
and a handful of determined activists for a judicially ordered inquiry
into deaths in Punjab to recommend the punishment of some 300 officers.
That should have taught the Indian Government that the task is
easier on a case- by-case basis at the time itself. It is also likely
to arouse less resentment amongst the security forces if done
case-by-case rather than en masse and long after the event (as it does
not allow the feeling, oh we did their dirty work and now they are safe
they want to punish us, which is rather how the British army feels
about the Bloody Sunday inquiry in Northern Ireland). And it ought
to revive morale: every security force needs to believe it is
legitimate if it is to be effective.
Again, this is as good a moment as any to try to begin to restore what
few human rights are possible in the current situation in Kashmir. The
intensification of militancy in the Valley over the past year had built
a fund of international sympathy for the Indian Government's problems
in the region. If Pakistan can be nudged to produce a ``tangible''
tender of good faith - by, for example, persuading militants to
deescalate - perhaps it is time for the Indian Government to show the
Kashmiris some good faith too?
(The writer is Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations, New York.)
Copyrights =A9 2000 The Hindu & Tribeca Internet Initiatives Inc
_______

#3.

The Hindu
Sunday, April 09, 2000

OPENING BORDERS, WELCOMING PEACE
by Kalpana Sharma

Just when the press was writing about "The Big Chill" in the
relations between India and Pakistan, a group of women have broken
the ice. Led by a strong believer in people-to-people contact, the
Gandhian Nirmala Deshpande, a busload of Indian women spent a week in
Pakistan. They represented different ages, professions and political
views. Their common concern was opening up the path to dialogue. Coming
as it did at a time when the Indian Government turned down Pakistan's
suggestion for talks, the journey was significant.
The group came back with tales not unfamiliar to those of us who have
visited that country - of the warmth and hospitality you encounter
from friends and strangers, of the deep desire for peace that
expresses itself in a myriad ways when you speak to ordinary people,
of the ease with which you, an Indian, are accepted wherever you go in
Pakistan.
Yet, each time a group of civilians from India travels to
Pakistan and returns with such stories, we are surprised because we have
been led to believe that "Pakistan" hates India and wants to destroy it.
Rarely are we made to realise that "the nation" and "the people" are not
the same, regardless of whether we live in a democracy or a military
dictatorship.
Sadly, within days of the return of the busload of women, India turned
back over a 100 Pakistani peace activists from the Wagah border as they
attempted to bridge a few feet of no-man's land separating our
countries on foot. Security reasons were cited. The Indian authorities
insisted that the Pakistanis must travel by "accepted" modes of
transport - bus, train or plane. Despite earlier precedents - one as
recent as last year when a group of retired Pakistani military men, led
by General Shabbir Shah, had crossed the Wagah border on foot to attend
the reunion of the Ludhiana College - the authorities on our side would
not change their ruling. The men and women who had attempted this
crossing were from all walks of life; they were part of the Pakistan-India
People's Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD) which met in
Bangalore this last week. They were people coming with a message of
peace. Yet, they were asked to go back and cross the border in ways
acceptable to the Government.
Fortunately, all of them had visas unlike many others who have been
refused visas. Recently, the Government seems to have become even tougher
at issuing visas to Pakistanis than before. As a result, last month,
Pakistani scientists were refused visas to attend a conference on rice
cultivation and 16 delegates from five trade unions in Pakistan were
not permitted to attend the 14th World Trade Union Congress held
recently in New Delhi. A constant appeal by groups on both sides of the
border has been for an easing of the visa regime.
The director of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Mr. I. A.
Rehman, who has been a leading figure in the peace efforts between our
two countries, told The News in Lahore, "Both Governments have
created such a problem, that they are now scared to do anything rational
which may risk a public backlash. So public opinion has to come to
the point and in fact create a pressure for the Governments to move
towards peace."
Indeed, the only ray of hope has been the different efforts made by
citizens on both sides to bridge the divide created by politics.
"Goli nahin, boli (Use words, not bullets") is the slogan the women
carried with them to Pakistan. But words also have to be carefully
chosen. Otherwise, they can be like poison arrows that lay the ground
for the bullets. This is the sad reality that we have learned in both
our countries.
The media has played no mean role in consolidating the prejudices that
already exist with the tone and the words that it uses. As one of the
women on the bus to Pakistan aptly stated, "Our minds have been poisoned
by those in power and a rather hawkish media. Only people-to-people
contact will demolish the myths created by 50 years of hostility."
The media on both sides has not just been hawkish, but has
generally failed to recognise that there is "news" apart from issues
concerning security or politics. How, for instance, are ordinary
Pakistanis managing in the wake of the economic crisis that has
confronted their country in the aftermath of the nuclear tests? How has
daily existence changed for them with the military in power? Why have
some leading activists from non-governmental organisations joined the
Government of General Pervez Musharraf while others have refused to
do so because they will not compromise with a military dictatorship?
There are scores of such issues that go beyond the narrow
interests of the political leadership on both sides that require coverage
in our media. Such reporting would give us insight into Pakistan that
would reveal that the choices are not so different for people on that
side of the border as they are over here.
Fortunately, some of this negativism is being corrected by steps taken
by civil society groups. But these steps cannot go far if the media
does not carry the message that they bring to our countries.
Essentially, what all peace-loving people on both sides of the border
have been saying is: "Enough! Over 50 years of hate is enough. Over 50
years of wasting precious resources in maintaining war machines is
enough. Over 50 years of throwing poisoned darts at each other is
enough. It is time to grow up, to move on, to find avenues for peaceful
coexistence."

Copyrights =A9 2000 The Hindu & Tribeca Internet Initiatives Inc
_______

#4.

[20 April 2000]

WORKING FOR PEACE:
CONTINUING REFLECTIONS AND QUESTIONS

- Lalita Ramdas from LARA

It is high summer here in most parts of the Indian sub-continent. Except
for those fortunate to live up in the mountains, or those privileged to
live and work in air conditioned spaces, the others swelter in
temperatures ranging from 35 to 45 degrees Centigrade. In most areas
there is a perennial shortage of water - and the situation becomes acute
especially in the two months before the advent of the monsoon in the
month of June. In the coastal area of Konkan where I live, a small group
of us work in about 100 villages as part of an effort to achieve
universal elementary education =96 a critical part of any peace and human
rights agenda . This year for the first time we planned a series of
events to coincide with International Womens Day. But already by March
8, summer was upon us, and in village after village, we heard the same
refrain - that women could not come because there was no water and they
were queuing up around the well or the solitary tap just to be able to
fill up their precious pots . We were also told that the maximum number
of fights took place around the question of water - women fighting women
for their place in the queue - because someone spilt her potful - or
barged ahead in the line.

We quickly amended our agenda on Global Peace, anti-nuclear and anti-war
messages, to one more immediately relevant - how to access, manage and
conserve this scarce commodity =96 peacefully, locally! Such a discussion
often leads us into the whole developmental debate - of priorities and
privatisation, of mindless industrialisation and relentless assaults on
the natural resource base especially of water and fuel which affects
women most.

Those of us who work with the most marginalised and poorest sections,
especially in large parts of the developing world, continue to be faced
with the constant dilemma of how to interpret what we readily
categorise as `Peace Education=92. Increasingly we realise that it is
necessary to enlarge the definition and scope of the word Peace so as to
integrate an understanding of some of the underlying causes of conflict
and lack of peace - rooted as they are in the complex and universal
problems of economic and social injustice; of militarisation and
industrialisation; of patriarchy and feudalism; of historical factors
such as colonisation and neo-colonialism. These have today reached a
level of sophistication which is manifested in the pressures to
privatise, liberalise and globalise - seemingly harmless words of a
liberal nature which mask a level of brutal, ruthless control over the
natural and human resources of the world by the wealthy and powerful.

In the ultimate analysis Peace Education must put people first and help
create conditions where human beings are guaranteed access to their
fundamental human rights. It is these issues that must be addressed and
provide content and direction to our efforts in bringing about enduring
peace, including an end to war and conflict.

In the past eleven months since we met at the historic meeting of the
Hague Appeal for Peace one has seen the truth and validity of this in
different corners of the globe. Allow me to share a few glimpses of how
different communities are working for peace - in an infinite variety of
ways, and without necessarily using the label of Peace Education. Each
of these is a living demonstration of Peace Education at work.

=46rom May to July 1999, soon after our return from the Hague, we were
part of a series of marches and meetings across the length and breadth
of the burning hot plains of India , reaching out to people along the
route in an effort to educate the public about the risk and dangers of
taking the Nuclear path. The Pokhran to Sarnath Peace March ended with a
gathering in Sarnath, [where Buddha preached his first sermon thousands
of years ago], on August 6 Hiroshima Day and a cumulative resolve to
continue to work on this in addition to the ongoing programmes and
projects..

In September 1999, on a visit to New Zealand, I was struck by the
visible influence of the Maoris on mainstream policy and the advocacy
work for recognition of immigrant and minority rights by a range of
adult community education groups. Meetings with anti nuclear activists
served to deepen my own belief in the cross cutting and varied nature of
educating for Peace.

In October 1999 =96 Vancouver and a meeting at the Simons Foundation
enabled linkages with other peace and anti-nuke activists working in
different parts of the world.

In mid-November 1999, we sat with school children and women and elders
in Khetolai, the village closest to the nuclear test site in Pokhran,
Rajasthan, and listened to them recount the terror of that day - May 11
1998, when the earth shook and the sky turned dark, and their fears as
to what it would do to their homes, their fields and their
health......=94we dont need bombs, we need water, schools, jobs...=94 was
their common refrain.

December 1999 saw us travel to the middle east where we were part of a
three day meeting in Beirut, Lebanon with scholars ,academicians and
activists from across the Arab Region and other parts of the world,
discussing how best to build and restore democracy - how to deal with
the scars of hatred, the injustice done to millions of Palestinians,
refugees in their own lands. We met with students , visited refugee
camps, and families who could not easily forgive the colonial powers for
the havoc they had wrought in a once peaceful land, and yet were clear
that peace had to be created sooner or later..

March 2000, sitting in an auditorium in a small colony in the city of
Hyderabad, (and which recently hit the headlines because Bill Clinton
visited there!) listening to children from an `alternate=92 school drawn
from the neighbourhood and cutting across all class and liguistic
barriers singing lustily songs of Peace, of Understanding, and against
war and violence in English, Hindi, Telugu and other languages of this
land.........yes there is hope as they sing `we are children walking
down the freedom road=92 and harmonise about `last night they dreamed that
men had all agreed to put an end to war=92

And last week =96 from April 6-8 2000 - over four hundred persons between
the ages of seven and seventy, two hundred Indians and two hundred
Pakistanis, met in the S. Indian city of Bangalore in the fifth Joint
Convention of the Pakisatn-India Peoples Forum for Peace and Democracy.
Some had travelled over five days from Peshawar on the North West
=46rontier, to this city in the deep south of India, to exchange their
hopes and joys, their pain and their fears, ideas, strategies, dance,
music and song in an effort to further people to people contact and to
build peace, love and democracy between peoples forcibly partitioned on
the basis of religion. These so-called `enemies=92 whose countries have
fought three and a half bitter wars, but still yearn for a time when
they will not require visas to move freely across borders. We leave
determined that we must talk sense to our leaders

So, peace initiatives are alive and kicking - they are small, often
unsung, and do not feature in the world press and media, where war,
violence and terrorism are better ingredients to increase newspaper
sales and viewership - But pathways are made when you start walking - so
walk with us in our diverse paths - leading to the same goal =96 a world
where human beings can live without fear and in dignity. Hopefully the
synergies and positive energies generated by these zillions of micro
experiments will one day find the solutions which we are searching for
today.
______

#5.

A CALL TO OBSERVE THE DARK DAYS OF EMERGENCY ON ITS 25TH ANNIVERSARY (June
25, 2000): INDIAN NATIONAL SOCIAL ACTION FORUM (INSAF)

The imposition of Emergency Rule on 25th June, 1975 by Late Smt. Indira
Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India, under the Congress (I) rule, was one
of the darkest period in India's post-independence history. The democratic
and civil rights of the people were suspended and vast numbers of our
people terrorised , jailed and hounded by the autocratic Indira regime to
further the interests of a select elites. Large scale demolitions of
bustees and slums , forcible family planning, censorship of the media and
mass detentions of all kinds of political opponents, activists. Public
figures, trade union leaders and even innocent citizens marked the
emergency. The rule of a few over many, the terror, destabilisation and
anarchy of these dark days are still fresh in the memory of the people. It
was the people's resistance to this authoritarianism and not to forget the
restoration of the democratic process that brought an end to the Emergency
Rule in 1977.

Today, we face a situation that represents a return the emergency
days of the past. If it was the violation of individual rights of the
people during the Emergency rule, today it is an systematic attack both by
the State and related forces on the economic, political and cultural
rights of the people . As the country entered the new century the founding
principles of the Indian Constitution namely democracy, secularism,
socialism and liberty are sought to be undermined. Vast numbers of out
peoples are once again displaced, devastated and marginalised.

The BJP and the Sangh Parivar are in the process of carrying
fundamental changes that will result in the emergence of a majoritarian
regime that is intolerant towards the minorities, progressive ideologies
and democratic political dissent. It thus seeks to destroy the fundamental
underpinning of political democracy - the concept of an Indian citizenship
irrespective of religion, race, language, gender, etc. It is thus this
undermining of democracy that poses the greatest threat to the nation, as
we know.

Similarly, the BJP's/ Sangh Parivar's assault on secularism and the
secular state it also sought to be carried out through appropriation of
concepts like secularism and nationalism. From then the progression is
towards an easy step towards advocating a Hindu "Rashtra". The same method
of definition applies to nationalism. Sections of people who do not belong
to majority religion are made to feel that they do not belong to India.

Under the regime of globalisation, liberalisation and open marker
policies at the behest of and for the benefit of global capital and for the
benefit of small group of elites. Indian people are fast losing their
Right to Life & Livelihood. Economically, the country, as if with a
vengeance, moved faster into free-market economy and globalization and
into the trap of Multi-National Corporations, even making the Congress (I)
governments look like a dwarf during whose regime the New Economic Policy
was inaugurated. We now realize that the BJPs Swadeshi slogan had no
meaning, and it has plunged the domestic economy into recession. The
jingoistic mod of the ruling BJP took the country to nuclear mis-adventure
and even today India is paying the price of it on all fronts. INSAF has
consistently held that communalism and globalization have always fed one
another. The sins of the Congress (I) in pushing through globalization have
only fed the forces of communalism. In turn, the widen!
ing of the communal agenda by the Sangh Parivar has been a great boon to
the forces of globalization in entrenching themselves in India society.

Drawing lessons from the Emergency Rule (1975-77), and people's
resistance to it, INSAF has called upon all democratic and secular forces
in the country to observe its 25th Anniversary, and unitedly work towards
defeating the draconian designs of the forces of fascism and globalization.
This is the task for now and for some time to come, till the un-democratic,
anti-people fascist and anti-democratic forces are finally defeated and
buried. INSAF calls upon all democratic and secular forces to remember the
dark days of Emergency Rule in India on 25th June 2000, on the 25th
Anniversary of its Declaration.

OUTLINE OF THE PROGRAMME:-

INSAF State Units, alongwith other secular-democratic forces, will
organize a programme at the State Capitals and other important cities in
the States all over India. A national-level programme in New Delhi will
bring together leading activists and intellectuals (from different parts of
the country) who struggled against the Emergency and continue to resist
fascist forces.

The Programmes would comprise of :

1. Two-day Consultation from 24th afternoon to 25th evening (ending with a
Public Meeting);

2. An all-night cultural action and vigil at the important political places
of the concerned cities, where people assembled would burn torches, light
lamps as a mark of defeating the darkness of dictatorial fascist rule.

More details from:
Wilfred (Secretary, INSAF): willy@v...
or INSAF National secretariat: insaf@v...
____________________________________________
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