[sacw] SACW Dispatch | 27 Aug. 00

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch
27 August 2000
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex

#1. 'Women in S. Asia most vulnerable' (Asma Jahangir)
#2. Women's Initiative for Peace in South Asia visit to Kashmir (Part 1)
#3. India's Tolerance lost
#4. India: Booklets for Sale
#5. Stephen Cohen Interview @ Rediff.com (part 2)
#6. Canada: India Forces Delay Of Conference
#7. India: Just blaming the ISI for Church bombings wont do
#8. India: Minorities panel tells Gujarat to ensure peace
--------------------------------------------

#1.

The Hindustan Times
26 August 2000
City=20
=20
'WOMEN IN S. ASIA MOST VULNERABLE'

UNI
(New Delhi, August 26)
Nuclearisation, militarisation and terrorism were the major threats to
security of South Asia, which makes the women of the region most
vulnerable, according to renowned lawyer and human rights activist from
Pakistan Asma Jahangir.

Delivering the valedictory address on 'Engendering security' at the
conclusion of the five-day symposium on 'Human security in the new
millennium' here last evening, the Magsaysay Award winner said that
security could be achieved by changing the attitude of the people as it
lies in the state of mind. "If one feels secure, one is secure".

However, Ms Jahangir stressed the need for "humanisation of security and
creating an army of integrity". She said "before starting firing the
Army must ask itself, 'Am I justified in opening a battle or killing'."

The UN special report on extra-judicial and summary executions said that
instead of perpetuating the 'enemy syndrome' among their people, the
governments of India and Pakistan should play a more enabling and
responsible role by inculcating the values of peace and human rights
among them. She urged the leadership, the think tanks, intellectuals and
all those associated with decision-making process in the two countries
to take the business of peace more seriously.

"In the past one decade the unreasonableness among the people of the two
countries have grown.

"While referring to Kashmir, Indians always talk about cross-border
terrorism, while Pakistanis talk of human rights of Kashmiris and duty
and loyalty to Kashmir and in the process both forget the basic reason
for the prevailing situation," she said.

"To bring security in the region, the concept of governance should be
changed as a leadership that brings peace is far more courageous than
the one which opens fire and goes for war," the former chairperson of
the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan stated.

The whole masculine concept of honour, which gets satisfied by waging
wars, needed to be changed and people should be involved in the peace
process to bring security to the region, he stated.

______

#2.

Tehelka.com
25 August 2000

THE PLIGHT OF THE STATELESS FOLK

Illustration by :Uzma

In the first of the three-part series, tehelka.com reproduces Syeda
Saiyidain Hameed's Women's Initiative for Peace in South Asia (WIPSA)
report, which records the voices of the people from different sections
of society in Jammu and Kashmir

At the end of our visit which lasted 10 days, someone recited to us two
lines from Lal Ded or Lalleshwari, the 14th century Shaiva Vedanta
poetess of Kashmir, the first woman who launched the `women's initiative
for peace', one in whose footsteps we now walked.
I am like a shop in the middle of the marketplace without a lock At the
mercy of carpenters who cannot even fashion a lock.
Women's Initiative for Peace in South Asia (WIPSA) visited Jammu and
Kashmir from June 24 to July 3, 2000. We had chalked out a programme for
ourselves as the second step in our effort to create women's
intervention for peace in the region. The first step of the initiative
was the bus journey for peace undertaken by Indian women to Pakistan in
March, 2000 and the return journey by Pakistani women to India, one
month later, from May 2 to May 9, 2000. At the conclusion of the visit
we had decided that the Indian and Pakistani women would plan to visit
their respective Kashmirs.
On the train ride from Delhi to Jammu we turned over in our minds the
words of friends who had cautioned us against trying to undertake a
journey for peace in this troubled land. Similar warning bells had been
sounded at the time when we were preparing for the journey to Pakistan.
But the peace imperative was such that both journeys had to be
undertaken without any delay. The Women's Initiative for Peace in South
Asia (WIPSA) group for Kashmir consisted of Nirmala Deshpande, Mohini
Giri, Syeda Saiyidain Hameed, Suman Gupta. Kumkum Chadha, senior
journalist of Hindustan Times. Ram Mohan Roy, an advocate from Panipat
accompanied the delegation.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Since my childhood
I had always been told that Kashmir
was the bedrock
of harmony between different religions, classes, creeds
and castes

------------------------------------------------------------------------

On the train, I recalled that since my childhood I had always been
told
that Kashmir was the bedrock of harmony between different religions,
classes, creeds and castes.
As a child I remember being tutored on the stories of the great Sufi,
Shaikh Nuruddin Wali, or Nuruddin Rishi as he is popularly known in
Kashmir,
and listening to the poetry of the Sufi poetess Lal Ded or Lalla.
I was born in Kashmir in the forties where my father served the state as
Director Education. Although in the eyes of the State I do not qualify
as a subject, no one can take away my Kashmiriyat. It goes further and
deeper than anything that is signed and sealed on stamp paper. For me,
therefore, the visit was a homecoming. For several of my companions it
was a trip to their Karmabhoomi.
Our first stop was Jammu. At the railway station we were greeted by
friends from the Akhil Bharat Rachnatmak Samaj, who had come to express
their solidarity with our mission. A cavalcade of cars then drove from
the station to the centre of the city in a `rally for peace'.

The first thing we did was to establish a new chapter of WIPSA in Jammu.
Women and men in the meeting urged WIPSA to apply the healing touch to
this region. The women told us that it is difficult for them to explain
the devastation that had occurred in Jammu and Kashmir and survival had
become difficult. Hindu women longed for the Kashmir that they had left
behind. `We were born and brought up there; we had to leave everything.
We still meet our friends and cry on each other's shoulders. We want to
go back.
'Hindu women lamented for their Kashmiri Muslim sisters, saying that
they with their children were soft targets. Some of them had been going
to the Line of Control and could bear witness. They claimed that in
Jammu there was no family which had remained unaffected by the violence
of the security forces and the militants. When we narrated the
experience of our Bus of Peace, they asked, `How can we offer our
consolation to women on both sides of the border?'

During the three days spent in Jammu we interacted with many people. We
visited Muralia Village in Tehsil in Ranbirsinghpura near Jammu. This
40-household village consists of Gujjars and Bakarwals (nomadic tribes),
who spend six months of the year in higher altitudes such as Kukernag,
Pahalgam, Aishmaqam, Bhadarwah and Sanasar. They told us that mines
often hit people who live in the nearby Jora Farm. When there is firing
from across the border their animals are shot, sometimes the women and
children get hit.

They gave us names of women who have been hurt, of families who have
lost their animals and hence their livelihood. Alamdin described how a
bullet in the stomach hit his thirteen-year-old niece Shakoora Bibi.
While we were listening to the elders, a bunch of six to thirteen year
old Gujjar girls started singing their geets.
We watched the innocent faces of Khalida, Haleema, Saleema, Zareena,
Khalifa, Irshad, Maroofa and Razia, singing as if nothing mattered in
the world but their music. The dusty fields of Muralia were open targets
for oppressor's bullets.
An interesting personality of the village of Bhatindi is an old Gujjar-
Chaudhari Ahmed Din who narrates with pride that he had walked with
Vinoba Bhave, who had also visited his house in 1959. In this village
thousands welcomed the WIPSA delegation.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
The tragedy of the Kashmiri Pandits who
had to leave their land
of birth, their property
and homes is poignant. When they left Kashmir, they severed the past
but also destroyed
hopes for the future

------------------------------------------------------------------------
The tragedy of the Kashmiri Pandits who had to leave their land of
birth, their property and homes is poignant. When they left Kashmir,
they severed the past but also destroyed hopes for the future. The jobs
they left behind have now gone to someone else. The government of J & K
had filled 60,000 new posts but hardly a dozen Pandits had got jobs. No
employment opportunities and no educational avenues open for their
children- The future if any, is bleak for them.
Constantly they reiterated that their Muslim brethren were very
cooperative. They as Hindus had to leave Kashmir due to the threat from
the militants, to safeguard their life and honour of their womenfolk.
The Sikhs who left the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) in 1947 are
stateless at the moment. Neglected, their fate undecided, they seem to
be having no recourse to communicate their tragedy of statelessness to
the world.
In Nagrota we saw the refugee camps. The heat was blistering and the sun
was beating mercilessly on the tin roofs of the tenements. Small,
cramped and dilapidated, the dwellings huddled together with humans
living in sub-human conditions.
Inside the homes there was hardly any ventilation. Bhushanlal Dhar and
his family of six received Rs.2400 from the Government, now living in a
suffocating, one-room windowless quarter, but dreaming of the saffron
fields he had left behind in Pampore. These people, torn away from the
land they were born and bred in and dumped in a festering basti, were a
sad lot.
The next day we left for Srinagar.

(Continued)
______

#3.

The Hindu
26 august 2000
Op-Ed.

TOLERANCE LOST

By Kuldip Nayar

MANY YEARS ago, Jawaharlal Nehru drew the attention of Chief Ministers
to the use of violence by agitators to press their demands. He quoted
from an article by Yehudi Menuhin, the violin maestro, who wrote: ``When
I myself think of India, I think of a quality specifically Indian which
in my imagination holds something of the innocence of the fabled and
symbolic Garden of Eden. To me, India means the villages, the noble
bearing of their people, the aesthetic harmony of their life. I think of
Gandhi, of Buddha, of the temples, of gentleness combined with power, of
patience matched by persistence, of innocence allied to wisdom, of the
luxuriance of life from the oxen and the monkeys to the flame trees and
the mangoes. I think of the innate dignity and tolerance of the Hindu
and his tradition. The capacity of experiencing the full depth and
breadth of life's pleasures and pains without losing a nobler
resignation, of knowing intimately the exalted satisfaction of creation
while remaining deeply humble, are characteristics peculiar to these
villages.''

Over the years, the image of that India has got rubbed off. Today, more
than ever before, people try to settle issues in the streets. Violence
is bordering on anarchy. By and large, all segments of society -
workers, students, teachers and Government employees - have come to
believe that they can gain nothing until they resort to violence and, at
the slightest provocation, they are up in arms. ``Crime and violence and
the links between criminals, politicians and important people in
society,'' said the President, Mr. K. R. Narayanan, in his Independence
Day address to the nation, ``has become almost an unholy alliance.''
Human rights are the first casualty in such an atmosphere. The voice in
favour of the weak is choked straightaway. Those who preach peace or pe
aceful methods are run down. Activists talking about people's rights are
characterised as anti- national. Non- governmental organisations,
working at the grassroots, are a target. An atmosphere of intolerance
has come to develop. Somehow, belief gains ground that a principle can
be defended by indulging in violence or by attacking the opponents to
silence them. I was pained when the Union Minister, Mr. Arun Shourie,
was attacked in Mumbai. I do not relish his type of politics. Nor have I
liked the venom he has spewed against Muslims, Christians and Dalits in
his books. But how will goondaism make him realise his mistakes? The
Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad were equally guilty when they
destroyed the sets of the proposed film, ``Water'', in Varanasi.

By smothering dissent you are only strengthening defiance. Freedom of
expression is what differentiates democracy from mobocracy. Such
incidents indicate the determination to suppress the right of others to
speak, their inalienable right. India, to recall Menuhin's words, has
nourished the value system where divergent viewpoints live side by side.
Bludgeoning anyone to silence him is not the approach of tolerance, of
feeling that perhaps others might have also a different point of view.
For many people, there is only black and white, there are no shades.
This attitude is wholly unreasonable and uncivilised. It is the old
approach of the bigoted aspects of some religions. It amounts to denying
human rights.

Take the recent killings at Pahalgam and Srinagar. Only the jehadi-type
of fundamentalists are capable of doing so because the incidents reflect
the kind of barbarism which even the fanatics hesitate to commit. No
religion condones the murder of the innocent. Strange that Muslim
leaders in the country should evince little interest in the happenings
in Kashmir. The Sangh Parivar is exploiting the silence. A selected
group among them should go to Srinagar to discuss the communal
atmosphere which is beginning to prevail in the Valley and engulfing
several other parts of the State. The intervention by Muslims will
strengthen secular forces in the country. It is relevant to recall a
memo by Dr. Zakir Husain, who later became President of India, along
with 13 other distinguished Muslim leaders, including members of
Parliament, judges and Vice-Chancellors, sent to Frank P. Graham, the
then U.N. Representative.

The memo said that ``no lasting solution for the problem can be found
unless the position of Muslims of Indian society is clearly understood.
Pakistan claims Kashmir first, on the ground of the majority of the
State's people being Muslims and, second, on the ground of the State
being essential to its economy and defence in its oft-proclaimed anxiety
to rescue the three (now four) million Muslims from what it describes as
the tyranny of a handful of Hindus in the State. Pakistan evidently is
prepared to sacrifice the interests of 70 million (now 120 million)
Muslims in India - a strange exhibition of concern for the welfare of
fellow- Muslims. Persistent propaganda about `jehadi' is, indeed, among
other things, to inflame religious passions in this country. For it
would, of course, be in Pakistan's interests to promote communal rioting
in India to show to Kashmir Muslims how they can find security only in
Pakistan. Such a policy, however, can bring untold misery and suffering
to India and Pakistan generally, and to Indian Muslims particularly.
Pakistan's policy in general and her attitude towards Kashmir in
particular thus tends to create conditions in this country which, in the
long run, can only bring to us, Muslims, widespread suffering and
destruction.''

The 12-year-old militancy in the Valley, particularly the
Pakistan-backed attack on Kargil, has changed the mood of the public.
Never before has there been so much anti-Pakistani feeling in India.
Indeed, Islamabad is winning in its game of cultivating hatred in the
minds of Hindus. It is trying to prove the two-nation theory, the basis
on which the Indian subcontinent was divided. Unfortunately, some areas
are getting contaminated and forcing the Muslims to ventilate their
anger. Gujarat is a typical example. Yes, this is the same State which
wanted to permit Government employees to join the RSS. The systematic
propaganda by the Sangh Parivar against Muslims is having its effect.
The National Commission for Minorities, which toured the State recently,
has expressed in a report its horror over the anti-Muslim bias, which
has taken roots. The Commission has asked the Centre to take steps to
stall the virus from spreading.

The extremists, who have the backing of the BJP Government, are
harassing the minorities. For example, they are employing all methods to
confine Muslims to their old areas. They are being stopped from shifting
to new colonies coming up in the suburbs of Ahmedabad. Paldi is one such
area. The Muslims who have even paid between Rs. 8 lakhs and Rs. 10
lakhs for flats in the multi- storey buildings have not been allowed to
occupy them on the argument that ``the Hindus do not want them''. What
it means is that the Sangh Parivar does not want mixed colonies.

Some Muslims have appealed to the National Human Rights Commission. In
their petition, they have said: ``Activists of VHP and its fraternal
organisations have been pursuing a vicious campaign to persecute
minorities in Ahmedabad and, more particularly, Muslims. As a part of
their persecution of Muslims, they have been trying to prevent Muslims
families from residing in certain areas of Ahmedabad, which they think,
should be exclusively meant for Hindus only. Paldi is one of such
areas.'' The Commission has been tardy in having justice meted out to
the dispossessed Muslims.

It is ironical that Gujarat, which should know what pain is because of
the delay in water supply from the Narmada project, is oblivious to the
indignities heaped on the Muslims. One can visualise the hardships which
the people in Saurashtra and Rajkot are undergoing because of the
scarcity of even drinking water. They should have got it long ago. But
they, like the rest of the Gujaratis, should know what suffering
actually means. There can be different reasons for it. But the hurt of
pain cannot be denied.

______

#4.

25 August 2000

Dear Friend,
I have published the following booklets which may be of interest to you:
1. Building Bridges of Harmony: A Speech by Maulana Anwar Shah Kashmiri
2. Islam and the Kashmiri Liberation Struggle: The Writings of Sayyed Ali
Shah Gilani
3. The Islamic Movement and the Political Challenge
4. Sufism and the Inter-Faith encounter: The Contribution of Dara Shikoh
5. Religion, Dialogue and Justice
6. Inter-Religious Dialogue and Liberation Theology
7. The Baba Budhangiri Dargah Dispute

Each of these booklets is priced at Rs. 10 [Indian], or, for overseas order=
s
, at 50 pence/ 75 cents [postage and packing included]. If you would like t=
o
copies, please do contact me by email. Cheques could be sent to me at the
following address:
Dr. Y. Sikand
4304 Oakwood Apts. IV
8th Main, 1st Cross
Koramangala-III
Bangalore-560034
India

Thanking you,
Yours sincerely,
Y. Sikand

______

#5.

Rediff.com
August 2000
Broadband Section

STEPHEN COHEN INTERVIEW II

'The Pakistan army does not want to lose Pakistan for the sake of
Kashmir'

During the first part of his conversation with rediff.com
Editor-in-Chief Nikhil Lakshman, Professor Stephen Cohen explained why
he felt the situation in South Asia was far more tense than anything
that had ever occurred during the Cold War.

In this, the second segment of a four-part Real Audio conversation,
Professor Cohen, America's leading expert on South Asia, discusses why
he believes peace still has a chance in the region.
But Russia never interfered with America's domestic policies, it did
not indulge in crossborder terrorism the way Pakistan has done in India.
Click here :
http://play.rbn.com/?url=3Drediff/rediff/g2demand/steve07.rm&proto=3Dpnm
Don't you think there is too much of hate on both sides -- at the
people to people level -- for peace ever to be achieved?
Click here :
http://play.rbn.com/?url=3Drediff/rediff/g2demand/steve08.rm&proto=3Dpnm
I cannot agree with you when you say that only some Indians hate
Pakistan and vice versa. I think an entire generation is anti-India in
Pakistan, just as there is a generation in India that is anti-Pakistan.
Click here:
http://play.rbn.com/?url=3Drediff/rediff/g2demand/steve09.rm&proto=3Dpnm
Do you really believe the Pervez Musharraf regime in Pakistan
genuinely wants peace?
Click here:
http://play.rbn.com/?url=3Drediff/rediff/g2demand/steve10.rm&proto=3Dpnm
Would Lahore not have been a step in the direction of peace?
Click here:
http://play.rbn.com/?url=3Drediff/rediff/g2demand/steve11.rm&proto=3Dpnm
Who sabotaged the Lahore process in India?
Click here:
http://play.rbn.com/?url=3Drediff/rediff/g2demand/steve12.rm&proto=3Dpnm

______

#6.

The Globe and Mail, Toronto

INDIA FORCES DELAY OF CONFERENCE
CRITICS CONDEMN NEW DELHI FOR POLITICAL MEDDLING IN CANADIAN PROJECTS

by JAMES ADAMS

Just weeks after denouncing a Toronto art show as a "vicious attack" on
its policies, the Indian government has forced the delay of an
international conference on cultural and racial diversity in Canada.

The New Delhi government is being condemned for its heavy -handed tactics
and meddling.

It said it had no choice, that it was forced to revoke funding for both
projects because the political values the projects represent undermine its
own.

India's high commissioner to Canada argues that the government's actions
shouldn't be viewed as sinister.

"We do not think it is the best way of using the funds we have," said
Rajanikanta Verma, explaining why the funds were withdrawn through the
Shastri Indo-Canadian institute. "It did not fall within the scope and
mandate of the institution . . .. Why would any government want to fund
anything that it doesn't approve?"

The University of Waterloo was to play host to an international conference
on cultural and racial diversity later this month. The meeting,
Accommodating Diversity: Learning from the Indian and Canadian Experience,
hasn't been rescheduled.

The Indian government has cut support for both the art show and the
conference through the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute, a bilateral
academic and cultural funding organization founded in 1968. The institute
current1y receives $1-million of its $1.4-million annual budget from the
federal Department of' Foreign Affairs and International Trade. The
remainder comes from the Indian government.

One Canadian academic has repudiated the Indian government in a widely
circulated letter. He says the Shastri Institute is the victim of India's
governing right wing, Bharatiya Janata Party.

In the letter, Hari Sharma, Professor emeritus of sociology at Simon
Fraser University, said he was "severing his ties" with the Shastri
Institute to protest against, "how the present Hindutava government is
systematically destroying all the basic tenets of acadernic pursuit and
intellectual discourse," while homogenizing India as Hindu theocracy.

In June, the Indian government had moved to shut down an art exhibit,
which it denounced as being overtly political. Works in the Dust Oil the
Road show include paintings, posters and photographs depicting the rising
tide of religious fundamentalism in India.

Those who attended the opening of the exhibition said 'Toronto's Consul
General for India showed up with a video camera, charging that the works
were a political campaign in the garb of an art show.

Mr. Verma said the fact that Consul C. M. Bhandari turned tip with a video
camera should not be seen as an act of surveillance." He's just a keen
photographer."

Yesterday, those who attended the exhibit - which runs until Sept. 4 at
Harbourfront's York Quay Gallery - also heaped scorn on the Indian
government.

Jay Dulabh said the controversy has undoubtedly sparked more interest in
the show.

By pulling funds, they are creating a form of censorship on Canadian soil.
I think that is a violation of our rights and freedoms."

Critics say that it wasn't always that way. They insist the Shastri
Institute has always functioned at arm's length, particularly in academic
proceedings.

Dr. Manjunath Pendakur, a member of the Shastri board and former dean of
information at media Studies at the University of Western Ontario in
London, Ont., said the Shastri board had already agreed to fund both the
Toronto show and the Waterloo conference before pulling out.

Prof. Sharma, a 1011g-tiLTIC participant in Shastri affairs, said he
believes the board caved into the Indian government's demands because of'
contracts with government sponsors.

A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said it has nothing to
do with the controversy. It funds the Shastri Institute for a Canadian
cultural program in India, Patrick Riel said.

The art exhibit is still scheduled to be shown at the MacIntosh Gallery at
UWO and at galleries Montreal and Vancouver.

______

#7.

( Thanks to John Dayal for the document below)

[To be published soon, Authors name unknown]

BLAMING ISI FOR CHURCH BOMBINGS

CORRECT INTERNAL ANOMALIES FIRST

As the arrests of the Deendar Anjuman (DA) sect members responsible for t=
he
bombing of churches continue, the [Indian] government and the sangh
parivar have
repeatedly been blaming the ISI for masterminding the bombings, citing
muslim names and Pakistani addresses, firearms, explosives and 'confession=
s'
obtained by the police from them as evidence of the ISI hand.
Even if the ISI is involved, though, there is very little we can do about
it because it is beyond our control. However, the bombings are also the
result of exploitation of internal anomalies --- anomalies that we can
rectify, and it is these that have to be first corrected if the targetting
of Christians has to be prevented.
During the last two and a half years, there have been over 300 cases of
atrocities against Christians, including burning of churches, murder of
clergy and lay workers, rape of nuns and assault and, despite the blame fo=
r
the larger violence against Christians being shifted by the parivar to the
DA after a chance explosion in Bangalore exposed the sect's role in the
bombings, the fact remains that the larger violence has been perpetrated b=
y
the parivar.
The Wadhwa commission report, for example, may have failed to implicate th=
e
Bajrang Dal for unknown reasons, but it does contain many affidavits
pointing that Dara Singh, the prime accused in the killing of Australian
missionary Graham Staines and his two sons in Orissa, is a Bajrang Dal
activist, while the FIR filed in the near fatal attack on catholic clergy =
in
Saundatti, Karnataka, in June cites 8 RSS and Bajrang Dal activists as the
culprits responsbile for it.
Likewise, just as the investigation ordered by the Maharashtra government
into the attack on a girls hostel in Nagpur a few months ago has concluded
it was a case of communal violence precipitated by hate literature the
parivar is circulating in the area, the inquiry conducted into the murder =
of
Bro George in Mathura too has affirmed that it was communally motivated.
What's more is, it is not just the militant wings of the parivar that are
active against Christians as parivar men in the government have also been
manipulating government machinery to victimise Christians. This, for
instance, is demonstrated by the denial by law and order enforcing agenci=
es
in various states that atrocities against Christians are taking place, whi=
le
various parivar state governments have either passed or are making efforts
to pass anti-conversion laws which, taking into account the bogie of
conversion being perpetrated by the parivar, are specifically directed
against Christians.
In a similar vein, subversive amendments have been made to the Foreign
Currency Regulation Act (FCRA) which, unlike earlier, now requires Christi=
an
organisations receiving foreign funds to divulge the 'religion' of the
contributors, and to seek permission every time funds enter the country,
just as, following questions raised by sangh parivar MPs in parliament
(question no 4367 of 1/8/2000), government's in states such as Gujarat and
Goa have been forced to send inherrently harassive circulars to Christian
institutions asking them to divulge the source of their fundings and the
'country' to which the institutions belong.
Even Prime Minister Vajpayee, although it is his duty to protect the
fundamental rights of citizens, himself side-tracked the issue of torching
of churches in Gujarat by calling for a national debate on conversions eve=
n
though article 25 of the constituion is very clear about the matter, while
Union Home minister Advani gave the parivar a clean chit for the Gujarat
violence.
Such unbridled violence, poor redressal of the atrocities against
Christians, manipulation of government machinery, hijacking of parliamenta=
ry
preveleges and outright collusion by parivar men within and without the
government who are pursuing their well known agenda of turning democratic
and pluralistic India into a theocratic and a one nation, one people, one
culture state, has created a climate in the country in which, every one
ranging from a corrupt government official wanting to make a fast buck to
every fringe group and lunatic, is presented with the opportunity to targe=
t
Christians with impunity.
One of the questions repeatedly being asked is, in case the ISI is not
involved, and since the DA has no anti-Christian agenda, is there a pariva=
r
hand in the bombings? One may not be able to answer this question
conclusively, but the fact remains that, through their association with
parivar or parivar connected outfits, DA and other semi-Hindu groups like i=
t
are pre-disposed to target the Christian community.
Take the DA itself as an example. As such, the sect's complete name is
'Deendar Siddiqui Channbasaveshwara Anjuman.' The 'Chennabasaveshwara' he=
re
is a Hindu diety worshipped by the lingayats of Karnataka and the founder =
of
the sect, Hussein Siddiqui, claiming he was the reincarnation of
Chennabasaweshwara, attempted to forge Hindu-Muslim harmony by equating
'Allah' with 'Brahma.'
Such equating of 'Allah' and 'Brahma' may have got the sect expelled and
ostracized in 1927 by the Muslim Council of India, (and also banned by 52
Islamic who labelled it as a sect of 'kafirs,)' but others have had no
reservations about the sect's theology and its members get invited to
religious occassions and meets including, among other major and minor ones=
,
the Kumbh Mela, the inter-faith meeting held in Delhi last September and t=
he
Andhra Sant Samagam held in Hyderabad on Feb, 20, this year.
More importantly, such mingling by the DA also includes exposure to
anti-Christian VHP men who invariably figure in religious occassions and
meets and, hence, its DA members are bound to have imbibed a measure of
hostility against Christians from these men, with the end result being that=
,
when they are approached by someone like the ISI (if they really did) to
bomb churches, they are found willing.
If this is not the case, considering that the mission of the DA is to
promote communal harmony, and that it has no ideological bone of contentio=
n
with Christians, how does one account for the willingness of DA members to
committ outrageous and sacrelegious acts of bombing places of worship?
Of course, one may contend with this proposition, citing that DA members
have also bombed mosques in AP, but the fact remains that vindicitive sect
members ( the kind of which you always find in every religion and sect) wi=
ll
have no love lost for muslims because of the religious ostracism the sect
faces from them.
Consequently, immaterial of whether there is an ISI hand in the church
bombings or not, in the first place, the anti-Christian climate created in
the country by the sangh parivar as well as its influence on other
semi-Hindu groups are the larger anomalies that have set the stage for
directing violence against the Christian community and there is no point in
carrying on a prolonged crucifixion of the DA members and in harping about
the ISI hand as anyone can exploit the situtation with Christians in the
country.
Fortunately, unlike the inability to do anything about external agencies
that may have exploited these anomalies, something certainly can be done t=
o
expunge such anomalies so that the Christian community is protected from
being targeted for violence.
Few years ago, the ban on the sangh parivar was lifted despite its
demonstrated religious extremism and violent ways and the parivar now
invariably figures in the propaganda, hate campaign and violence against t=
he
Christian community. In addition, beside shedding innocent minority blood
to actualise its fundamentalist agenda, the parivar has now assumed the ro=
le
of an extra-constituional authority and is now attempting to, if not alrea=
dy
dictating economic and social policies on theocratic lines, making
re-imposition of a ban on it is a must not only for protecting the interes=
ts
of Christians, but also for preserving the democratic, secular and
pluralistic character of the nation.
At the same time, the activities of semi-Hindu groups associated with the
parivar will also have to be watched closely as the investigating agencies=
'
lack of prior knowledge about the activities and involvement of the DA
indicates that such groups are not being taken seriously as sources of
violence.
The sooner this is done, the better. Or else, it could very well be a
matter of time before the country goes entirely fascist.(end)

______

#8.

MINORITIES PANEL TELLS GUJARAT TO ENSURE PEACE

by Pradeep Mallik, India Abroad News Service

Gandhinagar, Aug 10 - The National Commission for Minorities (NCM) has told
the Gujarat government to establish harmony among various communities and
ensure peace in the state.

Commission chairman Justice Mohammad Shamim and deputy chairman Sardar
Tarlochan Singh made the observations during a meeting with Chief Minister
Keshubhai Patel and senior state officials. Patel assured the commission
that his government would take steps to remove bitterness among the people
and establish communal harmony.

The NCM also decided to send a one-man fact-finding team to Surat to inquir=
e
into the communal disturbances that claimed five lives last week, Justice
Shamim said. Shamim Qazim, the commission representative, will reach Surat,
278 km south of here, on Friday.

Communal disturbances had flared up in this textile city last week followin=
g
a bandh (general strike) call by the right-wing Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP)
to protest the massacre of nearly 100 people in Jammu and Kashmir. Five
persons were killed and several injured in the week-long clashes.

Earlier, a delegation of Christians met the commission and claimed that the
government had not taken adequate steps to prevent violence against
minorities. They called for a ban on the VHP, Bajrang Dal, Akhil Bharatiya
Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the Hindu Jagran Manch (HJM), alleging that
these right-wing outfits were involved in violence again minority
communities.

Representatives of Muslims also met the commission. They demanded
examination of the police's role in atrocities against minorities. They
alleged that the syllabus in schools was being communalised and Muslims wer=
e
exploited economically. They called for abolition of the Disturbed Area Act
as it added to tension in a community pocket.

The Sikhs wanted the ownership of a building transferred to the community.
The community carries out its philanthropic activities from this building.
The Parsis spoke about the problems related to burial grounds.

-- India Abroad News Service
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