[sacw] SACW Dispatch | 28 Sept. 00

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch
28 September 2000
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex

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#1. New South Asia Human rights body meets in Lahore
#2. India: Naseem (a film by Saeed Mirza)
#3. India needs more than muscle to attain greatness
#4. Breaking Indo-Pak barriers with fashion
#5. India: Secular is As Secular Does=20=20
#6. India: VHP scraps controversial yatra
#7. A website run by Muslim fanatics
#8. Indian Cyber Resources for Journalists

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#1.

The News International
28 September 2000

New body on human rights formed=20

LAHORE: South Asians for Human Rights Organisation on Wednesday gave a
concrete shape towards making itself a viable body to promote and protect
rights of the people of the region.

The details of the structure of the body and other issues were announced at
a press conference at the Lahore Press Club on Wednesday, which was
addressed by Indian columnist Kuldip Nayyar, Justice (retd) Naeemuddin of
Bangladesh, Indian artist Nandita Das, Vijay Kumar Singh and Meena Achariya
from Nepal, Balakrishnan from Sri Lanka and Dr Mubashir Hasan, Asma
Jahangir and IA Rehman from Pakistan.

IA Rehman in his introductory remarks, said the human rights activists from
the five Saarc countries had been meeting in Lahore for the past two days
to establish South Asians for Human Rights Organisation on solid grounds as
a follow-up of their earlier meeting at Neemrana, India, in July this year,
where a declaration was also adopted.

Justice (retd) Naeemuddin explained that Central Secretariat will be
temporarily based in Lahore until the members take a decision about a
permanent location for establishing the secretariat.

Kuldip Nayyar said the new organisation will work as a watchdog on the
human right violations South Asia, besides, it would synchronise the
activities of the respective national human rights organisations of the
Saarc countries.

He added the delegates would meet in New Delhi in the first week of
November this year to formally establish a bureau.

Asma Jahangir stated that the eventual aim of the South Asians for Human
Rights Organisation was to transform it into a movement, which would
spearhead a campaign to fight against persistent poverty, deprivation,
illiteracy, inequality, caste and social hierarchy, discrimination against
women and exploitation of children.

______

#2.

Naseem

1995/120 mins/Col/Hindi/EST=20
Director: Saeed Mirza=20
Principal Cast: Kaifi Azmi, Surekha Sikri, Mayoori Kango

Naseem means the morning breeze. It's the name of a young girl who lives
with her family in Bombay. The year is 1992. This was a year when India, as
a nation, went through traumatic times. A mosque was demolished and the
riots, slaughter and savagery that followered have left wounds that will
take years to heal. Naseem is the private story of a young girl and her
grandfather in those terrible times

Available from:=20
National Film Development Corporation (NFDC)
6th Floor, Discovery of India Bldg., Nehru Centre, Dr. A.B. Road, Worli,
Mumbai - 400 018. India.

Tel: 91 (22) 494 9856, 494 9858 Fax: 91 (22) 495 1455, 495 0591=20
Email: nfdc@n... Web: http://www.nfdcindia.com

_____

#3.

The Houston Chronicle
September 20, 2000, Wednesday=20
Editorial Opinion
SECTION: A; Pg. 37

India needs more than muscle to attain greatness

BY PANKAJ MISHRA
(Mishra, based iin New Delhi, is the author of "The Romantics.")

IN the last two years, the Indian government, dominated by the Hindu
nationalist party, Bharatiya Janata, has tried to establish an exalted
position in the world for India. It has conducted nuclear tests, lobbied
hard for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council and played up the
West's high demand for India's skilled information-technology workers. Atal
Behari Vajpayee, the Indian prime minister, who met with President Clinton
in Washington and addressed the Congress last week, hopes to achieve, among
other things, an American endorsement of India's claim to superpower
status. For all these aspirations to 21st century greatness, however, the
Hindu nationalists remain attached to a stern 19th-century idea of
nationalism, which dilutes traditional social and cultural diversity and
replaces it with one people, one culture and one language. The intolerant
climate can be seen in the growing incidents of violence against
minorities, particularly Christian missionaries, the steady takeover of
government research institutions by Hindu ideologues and the introduction
of Hindu-oriented syllabuses in schools and universities. In neighboring
Pakistan, which was created as a homeland for Muslims in 1947, a similar
attempt at building a monolithic national identity, through Islam, has
produced disastrous results. Since Islam has failed to bind the country's
many ethnic and linguistic minorities, the job of holding the country
together has fallen to the Pakistani army. It has tried to pacify the
minorities through brutal, and sometimes counterproductive, methods. For
instance, in 1971, the terrorized Bengali Muslim population of East
Pakistan seceded to form, with India's assistance, the new nation of
Bangladesh. Despite that loss, the power of the Pakistani army grew and
grew. Ruled by a military dictator, Pakistan became the overeager host, in
1979, of the CIA's proxy war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. The
arms received from the United States and Saudi Arabia found their way to
the black market. Civil war broke out as competing Islamic outfits fought
each other with their deadly new weapons. And a flourishing drug trade led
to an estimated 5 million Pakistanis becoming heroin addicts. In the last
20 years, drug smugglers, Islamic fundamentalists and army intelligence
officers have come to dominate Pakistan's political life. Jihad, now
exported to the disputed territory of Kashmir and the Central Asian
republics, is the semi-official creed of many in the ruling elite. Pakistan
is now even further away from being a multi-ethnic democracy. India looks
more stable, but its political culture has changed drastically in the last
two decades. The central government, as distrustful of federal autonomy as
Pakistan's ruling elite, has used brute force in Punjab, the northeastern
states, and now in Kashmir to suppress disaffected minorities. In the
process, India's awkward but worthy experiment with secular democracy has
been replaced by a vague, but aggressive, ideology of a unitary Hindu
nationalism. The new upper-caste Hindu middle class, created by India's
freshly globalized economy, is among this nationalism's most fervent
supporters. It greeted India's nuclear tests in 1998 euphorically. But this
middle class is also apolitical and a bit unsure of itself. Its
preoccupations are best reflected in the revamped news media, which now
focuses more on fashion designers and beauty queens instead of the dark
realities of a poor and violent country. Popular patriotism brings
temporary clarity to the confused self-image of the new middle class and
helps veil some of the more questionable actions of the government. For
instance, in Kashmir, the government's failure to accommodate the
aspirations of the mostly Muslim population led to a popular armed uprising
against Indian rule. The Hindu nationalists describe the uprising as an
attack on the very idea of India and have diverted an enormous amount of
national energy and resources - including some 400,000 soldiers - toward
fighting the insurgents and their Pakistani supporters. Since the invisible
majority of India's billion-strong population - its destitute masses -
couldn't care less about Kashmir, it is the affluent Hindu middle class
that enforces the domestic consensus on the subject. It blames Pakistan for
everything, ignoring the harshness of Indian rule and the near-total
collapse of civil liberties in Kashmir. Supporters of Hindu nationalism
assume that a country with a strong military can absorb any amount of
conflict and anomie within its borders. But the preference for force over
dialogue could end up undermining India's fragile democracy and growing
economy - just as the excessive reliance on military solutions to political
problems has blighted Pakistan.

GRAPHIC: Photo: Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee addressing
the U.S. Congress last week.; Associated
Press

Copyright 2000 The Houston Chronicle Publishing Company

______

#4.

The Hindustan Times
28 September 2000

Breaking Indo-Pak barriers with fashion=20
Asmita Aggarwal (New Delhi, September 27)

POLITICAL BARRIERS may have prevented Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee
and General Pervez Musharraf from breaking the ice in New York, but Sehyr
Saigol of Libas doesn't let the sub-continental politics come in the way of
fashion diplomacy.

"India is omnipresent in my subconscious," says the creator of the
international fashion brand who left Srinagar 25 years ago to join her
industrialist husband, Miya Naseem Saigol, and raise a family in Lahore.

"It's there in my motifs and in the rich colours, like those of Rajasthan."

Wearing a turmeric yellow short kurta complemented by a flowing salwar, the
Srinagar University MA (English) graduate emphasised the ties that bind the
people of the two nations. "There could be political barriers, but
culturally we share a lot in common," she says.

"The beauty of Kashmir is still fresh in my mind and it transcends to my
outfits as well. I can say with conviction that the traditional part of me
is the outcome of the Indian influence; the contemporary bit is Pakistan's
contribution."

She was 20 when she left for Pakistan. Having had the advantage of being on
both sides of the border, she doesn't need to be convinced that the appeal
of fashion, films, art and music cuts across national boundaries.

"India and Pakistan influence each other all the time," says Sehyr, who
visits India two or three times a year to visit her father, a retired
bureaucrat, in Srinagar.

"Here you have lehngas, in Pakistan we have gararas, but the wedding dress
is the same, only a bit modified."

With the Pakistani media showing much interest in 'Bridal Asia' and her
clothes gaining quite a following out here over the years, Sehyr came here
to "experience the response myself".

Says she: "Buyers don't distinguish between a Pakistani or an Indian
designer. They go for what appeals to them. My participation in 'Bridal
Asia' is an attempt to communicate. That's the only way barriers between
the two countries can be broken down."
______

#5.

The Telegraph
28 September 2000
Op-Ed.

SECULAR IS AS SECULAR DOES=20=20
=
=20
BY DIPANKAR LAHIRI

The concept of secularism has been worrying both India=92s politicians and
its general populace. When a virtually closed, stagnating economy suddenly
wakes up to the compulsions of a global economy, the problem of resolving
the contradictions bound to bedevil such social systems is formidable
indeed. Predictably, we are witness today to secular ideals being touted in
shapes and forms that are as varied as they are weird. Yet even Western
liberal democracies have not fully succeeded in providing a realistic
framework to enable an individual to pursue a social ethic without the
interference of formal religion.

In not a single one of the liberal democracies is an individual accorded
the right to exercise his franchise and elect his political representatives
before attaining the prescribed statutory age, which normally is 18 years.
This logically implies that an individual is incapable of exercising his
mature judgment till such time as he officially becomes an adult. Given
this premise, an individual should equally be deemed without the maturity
to decide which organized religion he should belong to, if any at all,
before he turns 18. But this is seldom the case.

In order to pursue a religion other than the one a person is born into,
conversion is mandatory. This is true even if a 17 year old born into a
Hindu family decides, say, to be a follower of Islam on becoming an adult.
But should one need to convert to another religion if one had not
voluntarily accorded one=92s mature consent to be a follower of the initial
one in the first place?

Naturally religious

The rights guaranteed by the Constitution in a democracy enable one to
change one=92s religion; but on what basis does one become a follower of th=
e
religion he is allowed to change his allegiance from?

The manner in which even a secular state assumes the religious commitment
of minors is akin to the question of citizenship. Thus a person born to
parents of a certain nationality is automatically assumed to be a citizen
of that particular country. Such citizens are called natural born citizens.
Only natural born citizens, for example, are entitled to contest for the
post of president in the United States. Recently, there was a move to
incorporate some such provision in our Constitution for the post of prime
minister to prevent Sonia Gandhi from taking that chair.

This is an integral part of the socio-legal system as it now prevails. The
question being raised, however, is whether an alternative method of
initiation into a religious order can effectively be evolved to give more
meaning and scope to the concept and practice of secularism. In the absence
of any such arrangement, not only is a person=92s faith decided by birth, b=
ut
his caste and sub-caste too.

Sense and sensibility

The practice of a person being born into an organized religion makes a
mockery of the essential prerequisites of a secular social order at a very
primordial level. This issue has probably not been considered in any debate
on secularism since it entails a radical restructuring of the social system
and a negation of the accepted moral standards sanctifying family
relationships.

The anomaly is more manifest in countries like India which, while claiming
to be secular, have marriage and family ties governed in terms of laws
deriving their sanction from organized religions. It is bewildering that a
secular state should have such acts as the Hindu Marriage Act, the
Christian Marriage Act, the Parsi Marriage Act and the Muslim Women
(Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act.

It is not comprehensible as to why the nature and scope of marital
relations should be different for different people in a secular state
depending on which religion they belong to. Why has the non-religious
Special Marriage Act not been made applicable to all citizens irrespective
of caste, creed and religion? Social institutions in a secular state are
being governed by blatantly non-secular laws, some of which are out of tune
with the dominant convention of the religion after which they are named.

Secular principles can never be nurtured by the state legalizing religious
precepts =97 often anachronistic =97 and incorporating them into its laws. =
It
can only be achieved by a system of jurisprudence divested of religious
trappings and sensitive to the emerging needs of a transformational society=
.
=20=20=20=20
______

#6.

Tehelka.com

VHP scraps controversial yatra
=20
=20
During his US trip, Vajpayee conveyed to VHP that
his govt should be given some breathing space,=20
reports Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay=20
New Delhi, September 27=20
=20
It was a decision taken quietly last week. And Prime Minister Atal Behari
Vajpayee seems to have won this round with the Hindutva hardliners. Without
any of=20
the fanfare usually associated with its programme announcements, the
Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP)=20
has reworked its plan to march from Jaipur to=20
Ayodhya with a model of the proposed Ram temple=20
on September 28. Says VHP vice president Acharya Giriraj Kishore: "There
was no need to call a Press conference to announce the change in our plan
because this was not a major programme."
=20
However, the programme would have precipitated another crisis for the
Centre. And Vajpayee has managed to thwart it.
=20
>From the time of its inception on Janmashtami day in 1964, the VHP has
frequently made decisions at the behest of its supporters living abroad.
This dependence has increased in the past two decades. Whether it needed
money for carting large urns carrying water from the 'Holy Rivers' in the
early 1980s during the Ekatmata Yatra programme or whether resources were
needed for various stages of the Ram Janambhoomi agitation, the VHP leaders
have always been sensitive to the wishes of its cadres living abroad.
=20
It is thus of little surprise that the latest VHP climbdown in its Ram
temple agitation has come days after the controversial meeting at Staten
Island where Vajpayee displayed his penchant for controversy yet again.
Says a VHP source: "The message that came from the US was that the Prime
Minister has expressed his helplessness at not being able to help in
building the Ayodhya temple. We should thus give him the breathing space
that he requested."=20
=20
----------
It was anticipated that the programme would evoke the same kind=20
of response as the=20
Ram Shila Yatras evoked in 1989=20
=20
----------
=20=20=20
Hence, the VHP has decided to discontinue its ambitious Jaipur to Ayodhya
yatra.=20
The march intended to raise passions to a feverish pitch once again was to
start from Jaipur on the first day of=20
=20=20=20=20

Devipaksha September 28 and reach Ayodhya on
Diwali., The VHP planned to carry a model of the proposed temple at the
head of the yatra. It was anticipated that the programme would evoke the
same kind of response as the Ram Shila Yatras evoked in 1989 when specially
consecrated bricks were taken in processions through the country. It led to
a large number of north Indian towns erupting in communal frenzy and within
months, the BJP secured the most decisive electoral thrusts in its history.
=20
Though it had not been given any ritualistic name, the intended yatra was
to serve a similar purpose for the BJP in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly
elections due next year. VHP sources said that Vajpayee raised the issue
during his meetings with important Hindu leaders like Acharya Dharmendra
and Sadhu Vaswani who have been involved with various VHP agitations.

The sources said that the Prime Minister made it clear that the government
was in no position to expedite the construction of the temple. "This was
followed by Vajpayeeji's declaration that the true agenda of the Sangh
Parivar could be implemented only if the BJP secured a two thirds
majority," added the VHP source.
=20
For the record, the VHP maintains that the yatra has not been abandoned
but has been modified. Acharya Giriraj Kishore says, "The Intelligence
Bureau (IB) informed us that the ISI planned attacks on the yatra."=20
=20
----------
What's clear, despite the climbdown, is that the VHP will not take the
back seat for long. It has several leaders like Ashok Singhal=20
and Praveenbhai Togadia who are openly siding with Vajpayee detractors
=20
----------
=20=20=20
Behind the obvious climbown are the twin issues of the current standoff
within the Sangh Parivar between Vajpayee and his detractors, and the
growing sense of dismay at government policies among the cadres of the RSS
and its affiliates. Says a young BJP activist: "

A large number of party workers are beginning to believe that
nothing can be done as long as this government is in power. The question is
just how to make it less damaging to the future prospects of the party."
=20
Says a VHP leader: "We had a lot of hope when the BJP formed the
government in 1998 but nothing has been done since then. Whenever we have
gone to Atalji, he says his government will fall if we do something."
=20
What's clear, despite the climbdown, is that the VHP will not take the
back seat for long. Within its ranks
it has several leaders like Ashok Singhal and Praveenbhai Togadia who are
openly siding with Vajpayee detractors. What makes matters difficult for
Vajpayee is the fact that the main steel of the VHP is provided by the
neo-converts who are led by Lok Sabha member from Faizabad - Vinay Katiyar.
They are difficult to rein in.=20
=20
There is a word of finality when Acharya Giriraj Kishore says that "mandir
to waheen banega. Sawal sirf yeh hai ki kab banega aur us samay pradhan
mantri kaun hoga. (The temple will be constructed. The only question is
when it will be constructed and who will be the prime minister at that time=
)."
=20
Clearly, the latest VHP climbdown cannot be interpreted in simplistic
terms. Since 1984, the organisation has chosen to do whatever it has
wished. Within the Sangh Parivar there is a bigger struggle that is
underway and the VHP cannot stay out of it. However, of all RSS affiliates,
Vajpayee's hold within the VHP is minimal and he can only hope to influence
its actions through supporters living abroad. It remains to be seen how
long this strategy is successful.=20

______

#7.

A website run by Muslim fanatics:

http://www.megasonic.co.uk/

______

#8.

Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2000 15:26:37 +1100
To: asia-www-monitor@c...
From: "T.Matthew Ciolek" <tmciolek@c...>
Subject: [****] Indian Cyber Resources for Journalists
Sender: owner-asia-www-monitor@c...

The Asian Studies WWW Monitor: late Sep 2000, Vol. 7, No. 123
------------------------------------------------------------
26 Sep 2000=20
=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20
Indian Cyber Resources for Journalists: Technology, Tools and Ethics=20

vsnl.com, Mumbai, India=20

Supplied note: "Tips for Computer Assisted Reporting: How to find owners of
domains, paper on Technology Advances in Journalism, Manisana Wage Board
(tentative proposal), Report of the Press Council of India on 'favours' to
journalists and links to more than 600 Government Departments, agencies,
research institutions and banks in India."=20

[R. Mathew works as a Special Correspondent, "The Hindu"
(www.the-hindu.com), Kerala, India - ed.]=20

URL http://education.vsnl.com/journalist/=20

Link suggested by: Roy Mathew (roymathew@v...)
=20
* Resource type [news - documents - study - corporate info. - online guide]=
:
Online Guide=20
* Scholarly usefulness [essential - v.useful - useful - interesting -
marginal]:
V.Useful=20
------------------------------------------------------------
Src: The Asian Studies WWW Monitor ISSN 1329-9778
URL http://coombs.anu.edu.au/asia-www-monitor.html
Announce your new/improved Asian Studies' Web sites via
http://coombs.anu.edu.au/regasia.html

______

#9.

India Pakistan Arms Race and Militarisation Watch #23
(29 September 2000) will be available at:
http://www.egroups.com/group/IPARMW
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South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch (SACW) is an
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[Disclaimer : Opinions carried in the dispatches
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