[sacw] SACW #2 | 12 Dec. 00

Harsh Kapoor aiindex@mnet.fr
Mon, 11 Dec 2000 21:21:22 +0100


SOUTH ASIA CITIZENS WIRE #2. - 12 December 2000
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex)

____________________________

#1. Pakistan: Tacit support for persecution of sect
#2. India: Chikmagalur shrine: another Ayodhya in the making?
#3. India: The Second Coming of Lord RAM
#4. India: Sher Shah Suri mausoleum in Bihar being targeted
#5. India: Hindutva is Moral Terpitude
#6. India: Citizens protest against attempt to convert church to Hindu Temp=
le

____________________________

#1.

South China Morning Post
11 December 2000

Tacit support for persecution of sect

PAKISTAN by RORY McCARTHY in Takht Hazara

Even before you enter the village at the end of the rutted
road in the dusty Punjab plains, you sense the hatred that has overtaken
Takht Hazara.

"If you befriend a Qadiani then you are opposing Islam," reads the red and
black Urdu script on a sign hanging over the first shop. "Qadiani" refers
to the Ahmadis, a small religious sect that was officially declared in
Pakistan un-Islamic in 1974 and has since suffered intense persecution.

Five Ahmadis, including two 15-year-old boys, were hacked to death in
Takht Hazara last month by a mob led by a local cleric. Two of the bodies
were thrown to the ground from the roof of their mosque. A few days
earlier, five Ahmadis in another village were shot dead by four gunmen at a
prayer meeting.

It is illegal for Pakistan's 3.5 million Ahmadis to call themselves
Muslims, to describe their places of worship as mosques, or for the muezzin
to call the faithful to prayer.

Although they believe in the Prophet Mohammed, Ahmadis also believe the
messiah was a man named Mirza Ghulam Ahmad who lived in Qadian, in India,
in the last century.

In Pakistan many Ahmadis are well educated and relatively wealthy, which
particularly in Takht Hazara, where they are in the minority, has aroused
envy. "Ahmadis have the businesses in this village and the land," said
Waseem Ahmad, a 22-year-old student who was beaten in the attack and
watched two of his cousins die.

Ahmadi gravestones in the Takht Hazara have been smashed, and many in the
community, including one of the men killed in last month's attack, had
complained of harassment.

Athar Shah, the local mullah who led the mob that night and was injured in
the attack, ran an anti-Ahmadi organisation from a small office in the
village. "The death of an apostate is better than the deaths of all the
non-Muslims in the world," read a sign on the office door. Shah had tried
to begin court proceedings to have the Ahmadi mosque knocked down. He is
now under arrest.

Mr Waseem said the crowd had used axes on one of the victims, Nasir Ahmad.
"They cut his throat and threw him down on to the road." As he spoke, Nasir
Ahmad's mother sat in the mosque's burnt out prayer hall rocking as she
sobbed into the bloody shawl her son had been wearing that night.

Outside, Riaz Shahid Minhas, a police sub-inspector, sat by the roadside
with his pistol in its holster on a wooden table underneath another
anti-Ahmadi sign. "If we try to take down the sign, maybe the situation
will get out of control," he said. "The people have a spirit of belief and
so they're allowed to do this. I don't think it causes any problems." Many
of the Ahmadis in the village say they no longer notice the signs. But
their resentment is not far below the surface.

"I'm thinking I should kill half of this village," said Afzal Mehmood, a
38-year-old plumber from Karachi whose father and brother died in the
attack. "But our supreme head doesn't allow this." Mirza Tahir Ahmad, the
worldwide head of the Ahmadi community, fled to London in the 1980s when
then dictator Zia-ul Haq began enforcing the anti-Ahmadi laws as a sop to
hardline Muslim leaders.

"My family emigrated from India to Pakistan at the time of Partition
because it was a Muslim state. It was supposed to be our beloved country,"
said Mr Mehmood. "Now India is a better place to be."

Little is said in newspapers about the Ahmadis or the country's other
religious minority, the two million Christians. Both Ahmadis and Christians
are regularly arrested under a blasphemy law introduced by Zia in 1985 that
provided the death penalty for anyone insulting the Prophet.

Copyright =A92000. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights
reserved.

_____

#2.

Tehelka.com

Chikmagalur shrine: another Ayodhya in the making?

Illustration by Uzma

Hindutva activists hint that they will not rest until the sufi shrine is
handed over to Hindus, reports Maron d'Silva

Bangalore, December 10 A strong police presence prevented a march by
Hindutva forces to a disputed sufi shrine near Chikmagalur from getting out
of hand on Sunday. The organisers of the yatra, however, declared their
intent to keep the momentum going year after year till the shrine is
"liberated." One notable participant in today's yatra, on the last day
of the three-day annual Datta Jayanti celebrations at the disputed Baba
Hayat Khalandar dargah, was none other than the fiery and controversial
Faizalabad member of Parliament (MP) Vinay Katiyar. Katiyar shot into
prominence for his role in the campaign for the demolition of the Babri
masjid at Ayodhya. Katiyar and the state Bajrang Dal convenor Pramod
Muthalik said Hindu organisations would not rest till the dispute is
settled. They more than hinted that the issue could turn into an
Ayodhya-like situation. According to them, the shrine is the abode of
lord Dattatreya. Their demands include the appointment of a full-time
Hindu poojari, the removal of the present traditional Muslim priest and
facilitating prayers throughout the year.

Divesting the shrine of Muslim control will send the wrong signals and
may vitiate the communal atmosphere in the state As of now, the
government throws the door open to hindu pilgrims in December for the
annual pooja celebrations. "We want to liberate the Datta Peeta from the
Bababudan Dargah" said Pramod Muthalik. The Hindutava brigade wants the
government to take control of the running of the affairs of the shrine.
The Karnataka government is in a bind over this issue. It does not want
to be seen as giving in to the saffron demand and alienate the crucial
Muslim community, nor does it want trouble from the saffron forces. It has
formed a committee headed by the district deputy commissioner to take care
of the affairs of the shrine but it is reluctant to officially take over.

Divesting the shrine totally of Muslim control will send the wrong signals
and may vitiate the communal atmosphere in the state. Interestingly,
locals in chikmagalur district have been luke-warm in their reaction to the
Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP)-Bajrang Dal campaign. Not many from the town
or nearby villages have turned out to join the march. "Only a few youths
have been swayed by the campaign. Otherwise, it is a non-issue for the
locals," said a senior police official camping in the area to supervise the
security arrangements. Local Muslims say that but for the police presence,
the VHP and Bajrang Dal would have let loose a reign of terror. Over
5,000 policemen stood guard to prevent hotheads from taking the law into
their own hands.

copyright =A9 2000 tehelka.com

_____

#3.

Outlook
December 18, 2000

The Second Coming of Lord RAM: Vajpayee's about-turn delights the cadre and
stuns new-found friends

By Saba Naqvi Bhaumik

At an iftar dinner hosted on December 7 by the bjp=92s sole Muslim minister
Shahnawaz Hussain, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Nirupam wore a big grin. "This is
the PM=92s greatest statement," he exulted soon after Vajpayee suggested th=
at
a "Ram temple could be built at the disputed site in Ayodhya, while a
masjid could be built at an alternative site". This statement was eerily
reminiscent of the vhp/bjp war cries of =91mandir wahin banayenge (we=92ll
build the temple right there)=92. The Shiv Sainik joked: "What a great
example of Indian secularism, a call for the Ram temple at an iftar!"

The PM's Ram temple statements fans communal flames in UP
Earlier in the day, Nirupam had called on the PM to congratulate him on the
Shiv Sena's behalf for his statement that the building of the Ram temple
remained an unfinished task. The PM responded: "Maine kuch naya nahin bola
(I have said nothing new)." To which the MP said: "Naya nahin bola, lekin
aapne pehli bar bola (Nothing new, but you have said it for the first
time).

=94Atal Behari Vajpayee was supposed to have been the liberal in the bjp, t=
he
odd man in, a dove among hawks. A man who never failed to remind the world
that he was sadly out of tune with the agitational politics of
Ramjanmabhhomi.

Party workers recall Vajpayee snapping at kar sevaks: =93Bolte raho Jai Shr=
i
Ram aur karo mat kuch kaam (Keep chanting Jai Shri Ram and don=92t do any
work).=94 It was around anecdotes such as this that the liberal and
reasonable Vajpayee persona was built.

It was a mighty reputation. Some opinion polls even described him as the
most popular Indian prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru. But in one fell
swoop, all pretensions to any kind of Nehruvian liberalism were washed away
when Vajpayee played the Ram card last week and resurrected the spectre of
Ayodhya. He stunned the world when he gave his support to the construction
of a Ram temple at the disputed site on the eighth anniversary of the Babri
Masjid demolition.

The question that=92s on all minds is: why did Vajpayee demolish his
carefully nurtured image by playing an overtly communal card? Deflecting
attention from the three chargesheeted ministers - L.K. Advani, M.M. Joshi
and Uma Bharti - the entire Opposition has now trained its guns on the
prime minister, demanding his resignation. Vajpayee was also destabilising
his government and embarrassing his nda allies into putting up a protest
though none of them would really like to rock the boat now. But should he
persist with the agenda, the allies might reconsider their support to the
government. tdp leader Chandrababu Naidu sharply reminded Vajpayee that his
support is for a national agenda and it is "unwarranted that someone should
exploit a issue which is before the courts for their political ends".
National Conference MP and minister of state for commerce and industries
Omar Abdullah described himself as "let down" by the PM's statements: "For
a Muslim minister, Babri Masjid is certainly an issue." When Trinamul
Congress leader Mamata Banerjee went to meet the PM along with the tdp's
Yerran Naidu, Vajpayee reassured them that the Union government would not
deviate from the nda's national agenda. But according to Banerjee, "He also
explained that there are some issues which the bjp as a party has to raise.=
"

Vajpayee had essentially passed on to Banerjee what the rss leadership had
told him earlier this month. On December 1, the PM had hosted a dinner for
the rss leadership. The entire top rung was there: sarsangchalak K.S.
Sudarshan, general secretary H.V. Sheshadri, general secretary Mohan
Bhagwat and joint general secretary Madandas Devi. The bjp line-up was
limited only to its national presidents, past and present: Bangaru Laxman,
Advani, Joshi and Kushabhau Thakre.

THAT night the rss leaders told the PM that the government should do its
work but should not expect the bjp to act like its secretary. The bjp must
be allowed to raise its issues. The rss also let the PM know that they were
protecting him from the likes of vhp's Ashok Singhal and Giriraj Kishore
and the swadeshi lobby within the Sangh itself. Sudarshan also said that
despite grave reservations of the cadre, for which a hard line on Kashmir
is an article of faith, he had supported the ceasefire as a "well thought
out strategy".

The Sangh leaders also mentioned a national council meet of the Swadeshi
Jagaran Manch at Bhopal in mid-November, where speaker after speaker
attacked the first generation economic reforms. The bjp leaders were warned
that the economic reforms could become the bugbear of the government: many
of the Sangh=92s network of small sector businessmen were adversely affecte=
d
and could turn against the party. The disgruntlement had now spread to the
farming sector.

There was another sub-plot to this drama. The rss was livid over the raw
charges levelled against media baron J.K. Jain, reportedly at the behest of
the prime minister=92s powerful principal secretary Brajesh Mishra. The own=
er
of Jain TV, it=92s been alleged, has links with Pakistan=92s isi. Jain has =
been
an rss/bjp old-timer and has repeatedly put his channel and television
studios at the party's service. How could Mishra have labelled one of "us"
a "deshdrohi", asked the rss leaders. There are also other charges against
Mishra: that his juniors in the pmo talk against other party leaders and
the parivar, and that the principal secretary has been quoted as describing
the rss as "irrelevant". Later, in a separate meeting with Vajpayee, Jain
is rumoured to have detailed some corruption charges against the entire
prime ministerial establishment.

Vajpayee=92s political antenna picked up the signals. The Sangh was demandi=
ng
Mishra's scalp. They were also telling him that the cadre would not work
for the party in Uttar Pradesh - the bjp=92s lifeline - in preparation for
the 2001 assembly elections. Vajpayee understood that things could go
terribly wrong in the party he had nurtured and brought to power unless he
acted fast. The Sangh was telling the PM: "We have given you so much; ab
aapki bari (now it=92s your turn)."

Under pressure the prime minister obviously dug deep into his bag of tricks
and came up with the bjp=92s much-used Ram card. An odd choice for a man wh=
o
built his image on being "different from the pack". That Vajpayee was
willing to destroy his carefully built-up image was itself an indication of
the kind of pressure he was under. He was risking destabilisation of his
government, just to keep his flock together. The 'swayamsevak' knew that
when the sarsangchalak commands, even a prime minister obeys.

In fact, there is not much to speculate about on this. pmo sources say that
since Vajpayee acted as an nda PM rather than a bjp leader on issues like
the economic reforms and the Ramzan ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir, he has
been under pressure from the Sangh hardliners. So, says a bjp leader, "in
order to buy peace from the hawks so that he could implement the nda
agenda, Vajpayee made appeasing noises on the Ayodhya issue. This will keep
the hardliners happy and they will ease the pressure on the Budget,
ceasefire, etc".

Besides, the PM was also under pressure from the Sangh to bridge the divide
between him and Advani. Even Advani was taken aback when Vajpayee came out
so strongly in his defence. Says a bjp minister close to the PM: "The only
thing that has suffered is Vajpayee=92s image. The party comes across as
united. And Vajpayee=92s image can take this beating. No one has asked for
his resignation. The alliance is not in danger. When the tdp and the
Trinamul Congress representatives met him, this was not the only agenda on
their minds."

However, later in the day, after an all-party meeting of the nda convened
by Speaker G.M.C. Balayogi, the Trinamul, tdp and Om Prakash Chautala=92s
inld sought a statement from the PM to "reduce communal tension caused" by
his Ram temple remarks.

Meanwhile, the impact of Vajpayee=92s utterances on the Ram temple on the
rank and file of the parivar has been electrifying. bjp vice-president
Madan Lal Khurana crowed: "Ab party mein raunak aa gayi (Now there=92s
excitement in the party)." Joshi was more circumspect: "I am certainly not
unhappy." Sheshadri Chari, editor of Organiser, the rss mouthpiece, says:
"The cadre was beginning to ask, if Advani can go to a dargah, why can=92t
Rajnath Singh go to Ayodhya?" As an rss strategist explains: "The cadre
need a Hindu issue to mobilise them. Now they will recall the heady days of
the Ram mandir movement." The odd man out was bjp president Bangaru Laxman.
In one stroke, Vajpayee had buried Laxman=92s Nagpur line of moderation and
reaching out to the minorities.

By rekindling the mandir issue, Vajpayee also spelt out his party=92s
electoral strategy for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. Next month, at
the Prayag Kumbh Mela, the vhp will announce a date for building a temple
to Ram. Through the year, as the election campaign for the state hots up, a
wave, that makes the construction of Ram temple look imminent, will be
created. For, this time around, the bjp expects Mulayam Singh Yadav=92s SP =
to
match it in terms of money and muscle. So, the cadre wants Lord Ram on its
side.

bjp secretary in charge of UP Pyarelal Khandelwal says: "In any case, there
is already a mandir at Ayodhya. The masjid is gone. Why do you people get
so excited?" Unless some brakes are put and the Ayodhya genie is put back
into the bottle, Uttar Pradesh in the year 2001 could be eerily similar to
Uttar Pradesh of 1991-92, when the Ramjanmabhoomi agitation rewrote the
political destinies of the state and the nation forever.

The only difference: this time it=92s the so-called moderate Vajpayee who i=
s
willing to risk communal polarisation in the country=92s largest state, jus=
t
to ensure that his party comes up trumps there. But that doesn=92t
satisfactorily explain why Vajpayee did such an about-turn and destroyed
his fine reputation.

When the bjp was formed in Mumbai in 1980, in the wake of the dual
membership controversy that brought down Morarji Desai's Janata government,
Vajpayee=92s presidential address played down the rss and the Jana Sangh
connection and focused instead on Jayaprakash Narayan's legacy. After the
1984 debacle when the party was reduced to just two Lok Sabha seats and
Vajpayee himself suffered a humiliating defeat, the party went back to
basics and built up it=92s Hindu identity. The Hindutva phase peaked with t=
he
Ram Janmabhoomi movement. But it came to an end in 1993 when the bjp was
defeated in the UP elections. At this point, master-strategist Advani
realised that stridency could fetch no further gains. A moderate line was
adopted and the search for allies began. That line proved successful, with
Vajpayee being installed as prime minister in 1998 and the bjp ending the
political isolation which had earlier kept it out of power.

But Vajpayee=92s sudden about-turn at the close of the first year of the n=
ew
century simply makes no sense. While the cadre may love the Ram card, even
bjp leaders admit that Ayodhya is not an issue with the electorate. By
stoking the flames of Ayodhya, Vajpayee will only destroy his reputation,
and again isolate the bjp at a time when efforts are on to revive the third
front. As strategies go, this one is too strident and not one that Vajpayee
would normally author. But last fortnight was not Vajpayee=92s. The Sangh
clearly reiterated that when it comes to the crunch, it dictates the course
which the bjp has to take.

With Priya Sahgal

June 1998
A B Vajpayee
"The events of December 6 were regrettable. They were an accident and would
not be repeated. We are committed to the rule of law in Ayodhya."

11 June, 1998
A B Vajpayee
"We have not kept Ayodhya on our national agenda for governance. Why have
you (the Opposition) kept it in your agenda..."

5 December, 1998
A B Vajpayee
"Tomorrow is December 6. It is a day of introspection, reconciliation and
rededicating ourselves to the ideals of communal harmony."

6 December 2000
A B Vajpayee
"The construction of the Ram temple is an expression of nationalist
sentiment which is yet to be realised. It is, as yet, an unfinished task."

=A9 Copyright Outlook 2000

_____

#4.

Frontline
Volume 17 - Issue 25, Dec. 9 - 22, 2000

Targeting a monument

The Sher Shah Suri mausoleum, a protected national monument at Sasaram in
Bihar, has been a victim of successive encroachments with the connivance of
the local administration, for purposes that include construction of
temples.

DIVYANSHU KUMAR

SHER SHAH SURI was a remarkable ruler of medieval India whose brief reign
- which came as an interregnum during the otherwise uninterrupted rule of
the early Mughals - is considered to have contributed much to the arts and
crafts of administration. Altho ugh his monarchy was short-lived (from 1539
to 1545), Sher Shah (1472-1545) has left a fairly deep imprint in the realm
of architecture. His own mausoleum at Sasaram in Bihar is a five-storeyed
octagonal masterpiece built on a lofty plinth in the midst o f an excavated
lake, approached from the north over a causeway. It is regarded as a
classic example of medieval architecture, stylistically occupying a midway
house between the austerity of the Tughlaqs and the grandeur of the later
Mughals.

DIVYANSHU KUMAR
The temple built on the premises of the mausoleum, a protected area.

Ironically though, the great Afghan warrior of the medieval years is today
fighting a losing battle against encroachers intent on ruining a valuable
part of India's national heritage. Since 1977, several structures have come
up on the premises of the Sher Shah mausoleum and sought post facto
legitimacy as places of worship. These successive intrusions have made a
mockery of the Archaeological Survey of India's (ASI) mandate, which was
extended to the mausoleum in 1938 when it was declared a prote cted
monument. Sixteen complaints have been registered since 1977 by the ASI
against illegal constructions, but no action has been taken so far. The
latest encroachment took place in October, when a concrete roof was cast
for one of the illegal structure s in the compound, in the cause of making
it a vivah mantap (marriage hall).

According to K.K. Mohammed, the ASI's Superintending Archaeologist in
charge of the Patna Circle, "the mastermind" behind all these activities is
Jawahir Prasad, a former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator, who has
been threatening and intimidating local ASI personnel in charge of the
upkeep of the monument. The local police have been rendered impotent in the
face of Prasad's organised enterprise to stamp his writ on the monument.
Ironically, Prasad enjoys the patronage of Sushil Kumar Modi, Leader of
the Opposition in the Bihar Assembly, who claims to be fighting Laloo
Prasad Yadav's "jungle raj" in Bihar.

The latest structural changes in the vicinity of the monument began on
September 30 and were immediately reported to the administration. No action
was taken until October 13. Mohammed then sent urgent communications to
Governor Vinod Chandra Pandey and C hief Secretary V. S. Dubey. Extensive
coverage in the local press also exerted its own pressure on the
administration. On October 19, prohibitory orders were clamped in the area
as a precautionary measure.

DIVYANSHU KUMAR
Former BJP legislator Jawahir Prasad.

Alleging that the local administration has at the minimum been guilty of
connivance, Mohammed states that the construction of the mantap began some
months earlier. Work was stopped when the contribution was brought to the
notice of the administrat ion, but resumed later. Rohtas District
Magistrate Wasimuddin Ahmad Anjum, however, pleads in self-defence that the
administration has taken prompt measures to stop any illegal construction
that has been brought to its notice. As for clearing the encroac hments,
Anjum pleads inability: "It is a matter involving faith and the district
administration cannot act without specific directives from the State
government."

This argument is rejected by Syed Shahabuddin, who had raised the matter
in Parliament as far back as 1982. There is a strong public interest in
maintaining the status of a protected monument, he argues. As such, "any
encroachment, even if in the name of religion, should be summarily vacated
without the benefit of judicial or administrative proceedings." In terms of
jurisdiction, he argues that it is for the Central government to initiate
the process of clearing up the premises and for the State governm ent to
provide all the necessary administrative support.

Jawahir Prasad himself is unmoved by the concerns expressed. "We are
building a vivah mantap in the temple, for the poor", he claims and adds,
"Anybody who wants to stop us will face the consequences." That he is
capable of delivering on this thre at is amply clear. In August 1999 while
he was still a member of the State Assembly, he with a group of supporters
was alleged to have assaulted ASI Conservation Assistant Sarvan Kumar, his
wife and three others, when they sought to remove a saffron flag from the
akhara (wrestling ground) situated south of the monument, beside a mosque
in the protected area. The police, however, registered a First Information
Report (FIR) against the ASI personnel for "provoking communal tension in
the town". Pra sad has now publicly put the administration on notice: if
permission to build the mantap is not given, he will proceed to do so
through kar seva.

Encroachment at the site, especially in the form of temple construction,
began in the 1970s. A gazetteer map of the mausoleum, published on June 6,
1964, does not mention the existence of any temple. Encouraged by the
establishment of a school in the reg ulated area just north of the monument
in 1975, the local land mafia went one step further and built a temple in
1977. This was on the premises of the protected monument itself, in the
southeastern corner of the mausoleum. While the school in the regulat ed
area was dismantled in 1997, the temple, named the "Sarveshwar Mahadev"
temple, still stands.

The matter was immediately reported to the District Magistrate for action
under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act (1958)
and the rules framed under the Act in 1959. The law specifies that no
construction can be undertaken wit hin a radius of 100 metres of a notified
monument, leave alone within the premises of a protected monument. The
District Magistrate, however, declined to take any administrative action
and instead advised the ASI to initiate legal proceedings.

Construction continued despite the strenuous objections of the ASI. A
compound wall was constructed for the temple in 1982, and in the following
year a local mobilisation collected a large sum of money to build a new
structure within the premises. A conf lict situation was precipitated,
which led to simmering tension; in a communal riot that followed, 12
persons were killed.

Over 25 years of unchecked encroachment, temples dedicated to various gods
of the Hindu pantheon have been built on the premises. Moreover, a raised
platform for performing rituals and a marriage hall have also emerged.
Officials of the ASI do not think that the current suspension of
construction will last. In the interest of protecting a valuable part of
the national heritage and ensuring that there is no serious disruption of
communal harmony, they urge an early resolution of the matter.

DIVYANSHU KUMAR
K.K. Mohammed, Superintending Archaeologist, Archaeological Survey of
India, Patna Circle.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), meanwhile, has served notice that it
intends to take up the politics of Islamic monuments once again. On
November 14, a group of 130 activists belonging to the VHP and the Bajrang
Dal attempted to perform a "Dev Mukti Yaj na" at the spot where a Ganesha
idol is placed in the Quwat-ul Islam mosque in the Qutab Minar complex in
Delhi. The police arrested 78 activists, including the media in charge of
the local VHP unit, Ajay Devgun, and members of the All India Margdarshak
Mandal, Mahant Naval Kishore Das and Ram Krishna Gaur.

One of medieval India's most distinctive landmarks is also now part of the
VHP's programme of rewriting history. The VHP claims that the Quwat-ul
Islam mosque, built by the Mumluk (Slave) ruler Qutub-ud-din Aibak in the
late 12th century, stands on the s ite of the ancient Vishnudhwaja temple.
Under the law, no religious activity is permitted at protected monuments.
But the ASI has been rather slack in enforcing this law. If enforcement
fails in the early stages of an incipient conflict over a protected
monument, the outcome could well be administrative paralysis and a Sasaram
kind of fait accompli in the near future.

A chronology

1975: First major encroachment in the regulated area takes place when a
school is opened at the club building north of the mausoleum.
1977: Emboldened thus, some people build a temple called "Sarveshwar
Mehadev" in the protected area south-east of the monument.
January-February 1978: The Super-intending Archaeologist of the ASI's
Patna Circle requests the District Magistrate, Rohtas, to take action.
Instead, the Magistrate advises the ASI to file a case in a court of law.
1982: Syed Shahabuddin raises the issue in the Rajya Sabha.
1982: The construction of a compound wall starts around the temple.
1992: Illegal construction extends.
September 1993: Construction starts once again.
March 1995: After a break, construction begins again.
October 2000: Construction work resumes, this time of a "marriage hall".
October 18: Prohibitory orders clamped.

Copyrights =A9 2000, Frontline & indiaserver.com, Inc.

______

#5.

HINDUTWA IS MORAL TURPITUDE
I K Shukla

Atal has absolved AdVani of any wrong doing in the demolition of the Babri
Mosque in Ayodhya, Dec.6, 1992. Too, he has certified that the criminally
charged ministerial trio of Vani-MMJoshi-Bharati was there "to protect the
mosque" from the demolition squad. It is just like thieves declaring
themselves saints after they are caught in the act. If Atal has no sense of
shame, and no sliver of conscience, that is OK. But, when he uttered this
monstrous lie he should have split his sides with laughter unending, as any
other human would have. But, being a votary of Hindutwa he is beyond the
pale.

In common parlance it is moral turpitude of the grossest kind - both the
crimes the notorious trio committed in organizing , orchestrating, and
exhorting the lumpens brought there as mercenary karsevaks, through the
bloody trail from Somnath down, and the humongous lie that Atal spewed to
cover up their crime and grant them absolution. He had the gall to set
himself above the courts of law by usurping their functions!

The point to consider is: Is this the only time that Atal showed himself
adept at lies? And, is he the only one among the Black Capped initiates and
acolytes of the RSS and the saffron horde who regularly resorts to bold
lies? Too, are the saffronites guilty only of lies? Aren't there other
crimes equally heinous and horrible that they continue committing with
impunity all the time? As if to highlight and proclaim that they are a
criminal outfit out to lay waste to the nation, they destroyed a mosque in
UP and a Church in Gujarat in the same week. Those crying horror at the
planned mayhem and daring mendacity that the Hindutwa hordes have been
indulging in should remember that with the party of Gandhi's assassins at
the helm nothing else could have been expected. What did they do to prevent
this ceaseless nightmare?

The 23 parties in the NDA deserve a scrutiny. Unless they shared the
communal fascist ideology of the BJP they could not have been together
during these painfully long years of violence and vandalism visited upon th=
e
minorities. They neither squeaked disapproval, nor hauled the BJP on the
coals, nor withdrew their support in protest. Let it not be confused with
"coalition politics", the inevitability of which our psephologists and
political pundits have been droning day in and day out. The two dozen
nondescript parties huddled in the NDA are just a putrid symptom of the
culture of crime and immorality that our polity is now mired in, an ugly
reflection of the irreversible damage that the Hindutwa fascism has done t=
o
the social fabric of India. Joining hands with the advocates of Gandhi's
assassination requires a very hardened and inveterate criminality. It is
this quality above all which this coven of thugs possessed that qualified
them for inclusion in the cabinet. That the party of Gandhi's murderers
should be ruling India has been made possible by these gangs masquerading a=
s
political outfits. And they come from a society that is no less tainted.

Any democracy constitutionally installed, any society anciently wedded to
pluralism and egalitarianism, would have found the NDA guilty of sedition,
liable to arrest and internment, and even more severe penalties, for its
brazen infraction of the laws and conventions of the land and its malicious
defiance of the Constitution. Those swearing by a Hindu Rashtra could by no
stretch of imagination be loyal to the Indian Constitution. It was this tha=
t
should have disqualified them and prevented their being sworn into power.

With the zeal and frenzy characteristic of fascist fanatics, this
anti-Indian, anti-democratic, anti-people gang at the centre and in some
states is implementing its agenda quite openly, quite boldly. It is time
people overthrew it. As for the political parties, they are preparing to be
more of the same: Congress is being advised to be a clone of BJP in furthe=
r
communalizing the polity. Congress, with nothing radical in its platform to
woo the masses and wean them away from the communal snakes, is being told t=
o
convert to Hindutwa and compete with it for the vote banks. How can a copy
beat the original on the latter's turf and in the latter's game? Only by
being more openly, more rabidly communal. That is, polluting and putrefying
the political landscape still more. It is this atrophy of mind and morals
that BJP and its kin massively, and with signal success, inculcated in the
nation.

Hindutwa's deficit of mind and morals is monumental. It is a sinister and
malignant cancer. Accommodating it means helping its ascendancy, promoting
its prevalence, and strengthening its hold - in perpetuity. It is no use
producing and narrating a litany of its crimes. This won't stop the crimes =
a
wee bit. Hindutwa's repertoire of lies, governmental and organizational,
pouring in a stream, is geared to drown and wash away all acts of inhumanit=
y
and illegality - raping the nuns, burning the mosques and churches, looting
the minorities, destroying their homes and businesses, stealing their meagr=
e
resources, robbing them at gun point, and thus "Hinduizing" them. If those
who like to remain human, let alone Christian, Muslim or Tribal, reject and
abhor Hindutwa as an abomination and scourge, as a dreary and vast mental
vacuum and a yawning and bottomless moral abyss, who can blame them?

Hindutwa has proved itself to be the indefatigable enemy of reason, the
avowed liquidator of Indian Constitution, the treacherous fifth column
threatening national security and national unity, at loggerheads with
morals and basic human values of a civilized society, foreign in its
ideology and affiliations, committed to destroy India as a nation and
Hinduism as a multiphone culture. Hindutwa has aggressively proved to be a
national tragedy, a politico-social scourge, the bane of freedom and
progress, a den of immorality and inhumanity, and a stinking shame.

It is hands in glove with the alien masters called TNCs, giving away
national resources at throwaway prices. For it is with bribes and materiel
that foreign corporations have supported and subsidized corrupt and despoti=
c
regimes in the Third World, and overthrown the legitimate and democratic
governments elected by people. ITT, and Anaconda in Chile, and United Fruit
in Guatemala, Chevron and Mobil in the Amazon and Nigeria , are just a few
of the Trojan horses that Washington planted to subvert and despoil those
lands. India has been offered by Hindutwa to Uncle Sam on a platter like th=
e
banana republics in Latin America, our dignity and sovereignty as a free
nation seriously compromised and grievously whittled

The "unfinished task" on "national" demand, is not to build a temple in
Ayodhya as Atal conjured out of his vapor-filled doze, but to bottle the
genie of hatred and violence, simony and sellout, viciousness and vandalism=
,
villainy and vice, crime and corruption, arson and rape, murder and robbery=
,
theft and thuggery, terror and turpitude that Hindutwa has perversely made
the norm of both our poltical and social life. It has maimed India and
Hinduism as no foreigner ever could.

9 Dec.2000

_____

#6.

Dr. Ram Puniyani
Sec. Ekta, Committee for Communal Amity
B-64, IIT Qtrs Powai, Mumbai 76, India

The recent news that 80 Christian families of Chhindia village in Vyara
taluka in Gujarat have been forcibly driven out of the village by VHP
activists who have warned them that they would be let into village only if
they embrace Hinduism is extremely distressing, to say the least. Along
with this placing of Hindu deities in the Church after desecrating holy
Christian symbols in connivance with the local police is one more in the
series of events which have plagued the country in general and Gujarat in
particular.
>From last three years or so the local BJP Govt. in Gujarat and from last
two years the BJP led coalition at center are the mute witnesses to the
atrocities on minorities. We are led by a Prime Minister who in the face
of the intense anti-Christian violence in Gujarat went on to call for a
national debate on conversions. We have a home minister who is one of the
prime accused in the Babri demolition. In these circumstances the police
being partisan to the acts of VHP Bajrang Dal etc. is hardly surprising.
We unequivocally condemn those who are on a rampage against minorities. We
call upon our fellow citizens to put pressure on the secular
representatives, and on the Govt. to control this onslaught on the Human
Rights of minorities by the Sangh parivar affiliates, who to distract the
social attention from the real problems of society, bread, butter,
shelter, education, health and employment are deliberately indulging in
these dastardly acts day in and day out.

Sincerely,

Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer (CSSS)
Dr. Ram Puniyani (EKTA)
Anand Patwardhan (Film Maker)
C.K.Leeks (St.Blaise Action Committee)
Darryl D'Monte (Jounalist)
Dilip D'Souza (Journalsit)
Dolphy D'Souza (VOTE, A. I. C.U.)
Hanif Lakdawala (Activist, Human Rights)
Maria Doss (C.A.H.R., Build)
Dr. Maria Emilia Menezes, President AICU
Pervin Jehangir (NAPM)
Ramesh Pimpale (PUCL)
Ruby Nishat
Swatija Manorama (Women's Rights Activist)
Yogesh Kamdar (PUCL)
______________________________________________
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citizens wire service run by South Asia Citizens Web
(http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex) since 1996.
Dispatch archive from 1998 can be accessed
at http://www.egroups.com/messages/act/
////////////////////////////////////

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