[sacw] SACW Dispatch | 10 Oct. 00

Harsh Kapoor aiindex@mnet.fr
Tue, 10 Oct 2000 01:23:18 +0200


South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch
10 October 2000
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex

*********************************
#1. London Picket For Democracy in Pakistan
#2. The future I dream of for India and Pakistan
#3. Desis in the US: Net Cowboys and Red Indians
#4. India : The dangerous agenda of the Hindu Far Right
#5. India: BJP & 'Om' made touble ["...left knee, right knee, & Advani"]
#6. India: Young couples give =91moral police=92 the slip

*********************************

#1.

For Immediate Release

For more information:
Arif Azad 020 7813 4508, aajkaynaam@y...

PICKET FOR DEMOCRACY
CAMPAIGN AGAINST MILITARY RULE IN PAKISTAN

Aaj Kay Naam (In the Name of Today), a London-based human rights=20
organisation campaigning for social justice and democracy in Pakistan, will=
=20
be picketing outside the Pakistan High Commission (36-Lowndes Sq SW1) on=20
Thursday 12th October 2000 between 5 and 7.30pm. Nearest tube Knightsbridge=
.
The picket will demand
=B7 The return of the military to the barracks.
=B7 The handover of power to civilians through party-based national electio=
ns.
=B7 The end of the military regime=92s campaign to depoliticise political &=
=20
constitutional processes.

On 12th October 1999, General Pervaiz Musharraf overthrew the elected=20
government of Nawaz Sharif and seized power in a military coup. The deposed=
=20
Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, has since been sentenced to life in prison=20
and found guilty of hijacking, under the Anti-Terrorism Act after a=20
controversial trial presided over by judges whose impartiality had been=20
compromised.

In January this year, all the serving judges were required to pledge a new=
=20
oath of loyalty to the new constitution drafted by General Musharraf. The=20
oath prohibits them from making any order against the General, providing=20
immunity for the officers of the military regime and undermining the=20
independence of the judiciary.

Local government elections have banned political parties from putting=20
forward candidates, and all political activity has been suppressed in what=
=20
amounts to a witch-hunt of politicians. The military regime has backtracked=
=20
from its initial commitments of procedural reform of much-abused blasphemy=
=20
law and regulation of religious seminaries engaged in training=20
Tabliban-style militants.
In September a team of military monitors made an intrusive inspection of=20
the leading English daily Dawn and vandalized the premises. Reports of=20
crackdown on critical journalists are on the rise.
On the external front General Musharaaf- author of flawed Kargil campaign-=
=20
is busily engaged in upping the low-intensity warfare manifest in regular=20
border clashes along the line of control between regular troops. These=20
border hostilities may lead to full-blown war between two nuclear-armed=20
neigbours under the loose-cannon military regime led by General Musharraf.

Aaj Kay Naam believes that the only answer to Pakistan=92s long-standing=20
economic and social problems is demilitarised democracy. The military are=20
the cause, and not the cure, as some have claimed, of the ills besetting=20
Pakistan today.

______

#2.

Outlook
16 October 2000

Siamese Twins Never Embrace

Mohsin Hamid

The future I dream of for India and Pakistan is in some
ways more like our pre-Partition past than like our
present. But Partition is itself the key to getting there,
and our Partition is not yet done. Imagine what India can
be: a secure and prosperous land where the prosperity
is shared across more diversity than exists in one nation
anywhere else in the world; a global leader in thought
and personal freedom, in the development of new technologies, in the
export of film and music and novels; a great power distinguished from ot=
her
great powers by its mix of cultures and its colonial experience and
therefore more tolerant and just, more strongly opposed to expansionism
and hegemony. I would like to live to see such an India.

I believe in neighbourhoods. I believe a successful India is a good=20
thing for
the subcontinent. And I also believe that a successful subcontinent is a
good thing for India, because I cannot imagine the land of prosperity an=
d
tolerance I hope to see surrounded by impoverished, desperate,
nuclear-armed enemies. No, our future is a shared one, like it or not, a=
nd
the sooner we begin, as Europe is doing, to combine our strength for our
common benefit, the better off all of us will be.

It is not impossible. A free-trading subcontinent where the commute from
Lahore to Amritsar took 45 minutes and required no visa was something
we managed in this part of the world at the time my parents were born.
Surely we can manage it again.

(Yes, we also had well laid out cities with underground sewage 4,000
years ago. But let us not be pessimists.)

The problem we face in coming closer is that we are not yet done pushing
each other away. Pakistan and India are like Siamese twins cut messily
from hip to armpit and left connected at the shoulder. The most dangerou=
s
part of the surgery is done, its wounds healed into grotesque scars, but=
in
the decades since then our relationship has been defined by violent conf=
lict
over how we tear the piece of flesh that still ties us together.

The time has come to finish the job. Nuclear weapons and self-destructiv=
e
chauvinism on both sides make it highly likely that any defeat in our st=
ale
and senseless competition will become mutual. Kargil and Siachen stand
as reminders that the line of control is just that: a front on a battle-=
map,
determined not by law or by principle but by strength. India, with a lar=
ger
military, controls a bigger chunk of the province. Pakistan, under the g=
reat
equalising umbrella of the mushroom cloud, is challenging that control. =
The
Kashmiris themselves have yet to be consulted; people who inhabit
battlefields rarely are.

Despite all this, the prevailing attitude on both sides (forgetting, as=
=20
is the
custom, the fact that there is a third side) remains what it has always
been: "To hell with them. We'll stay our course and take our chances." B=
ut
in the end, any just solution to the conflict over Kashmir must involve
asking the people who live there what they want.

In theory, most Pakistanis I know like this idea, thinking (perhaps
incorrectly) that Kashmir would choose to come to Pakistan. But there ar=
e
other possible outcomes: Kashmir could become independent, or could be
partitioned between the two countries based on district majorities, or c=
ould
become a joint protectorate with open borders on either side. Kashmir
could even, if the Kashmiris so choose, go in its entirety to India.

The particulars of the settlement matter far less than the fact that=20
there is
a settlement, that Partition is completed with mutually accepted borders
and that the people of Kashmir are spared the violence they endure.

Those who believe that letting the Kashmiris have a say in deciding thei=
r
own fate opens the door to a stampede of other defections underestimate
the strength of Indian democracy and mistake the source of its legitimac=
y.
It seems to me that the vast majority of people who inhabit the states o=
f
India are not kept together by the fighting men of some Delhi-based
Empire. They have chosen to be part of an enormous experiment, an
attempt to create the largest country in the world that is ruled by the=
=20
will of
its citizens. They are, by and large, proud of what that experiment has
achieved and optimistic of what it will yet do. It is this consent and=20
shared
hope that is India's reason for being. Democracy cannot exist without it=
.

Nor does a compromise over Kashmir undermine India's secular status.
More than a hundred million Muslims live willingly in India, as do many
Sikhs, Christians, and others. But the fight over Kashmir strengthens
chauvinists on both sides. Those of us who oppose this trend ought to
realise that our shared goal stretches across our borders. As do so many
things: markets, rivers, languages, poems, history. Separate nations nee=
d
not preclude shared dreams.

Let Kashmir complete partition with a choice. For all of us, it is the f=
irst
step to regaining the entire subcontinent.

(The author grew up in Lahore and currently lives in New York. He's
recently written a novel called Mothsmoke.)

______

#3.

Outlook
16 October

Net Cowboys and Red Indians

Vijay Prashad

In 1995, Dinesh D'Souza, an NRI, published a
controversial book, The End of Racism. This transplant
from Mumbai argued that poverty among African
Americans was a result not so much of racism but of
their own failure. D'Souza was the first desi to make
such an egregious argument in print, though many
among the over one million desis in the US make similar
comments in the privacy of the home. Ensconced within a conservative
institution, D'Souza joined an onrush of authors who made a similar but
untutored claim. Being an NRI, D'Souza was able to take the argument
further. "Why can't an African American," he asked, "be more like an
Asian?"

Asians, we're told, succeed in the US by their own initiative, bolstered=
by
family values and an urgency to learn new technologies. The exemplary
NRIs seem almost always to be dotcom millionaires or technical
functionaries at big firms. Bill Gates, Bill Clinton and, lest one=20
forget, the
Dollar Bill acclaim the brilliance of the NRI. And we NRIs, keen to find=
a
way to accommodate ourselves to the disdain we sometimes feel as
immigrants, seize onto this and, in parody, applaud ourselves. We're the
good immigrants, who work hard, are obedient and don't complain about
racism. We're the model minority.

Two sets of NRIs love to be called the model minority: those dotcom type=
s
whose kin in India disdain reservations even if they have benefited from
affirmative action based on class; and those Yankee Hindutva types who
say 'we' are the 'model' not only since we have skills but also because =
of
our great Vedic-type culture. Both are misguided. The 'model' minority
argument assumes that 'we' are great because of our genes and our
genius, in other words because of some kind of Darwinian Natural
Selection process. Those in India know most desis aren't doctors,
engineers and dotcommers but day labourers, farmers, factory workers
and the unemployed. Desis in the US form an anomalous community
because of the scrupulousness of the US Immigration and Naturalization
Service (ins) which, between 1965 and 1977, mainly welcomed desis with
advanced degrees. Desis in the US succeed, then, by principles of State
Selection, by the good grace of the iits and then the ins, not by Dharma
and Karma.

Migrants in a racist land try to find any avenue to mollify the wrath of=
the
powerful. To be a model minority is far better than being a target of
resentment. And then there are other desis who take refuge in Yankee
Hindutva, whose chequebook activism, by my count, has helped the
growth of Hindutva in India. Immoral actions, indeed, but from the
perspective of a beleaguered minority, these acts are certainly not
impractical or irrational. Even this rather pathetic standing as a model=
=20
is of
little protection from the dark shadow of racist violence. So many desis
killed in racist attacks, some burned to death in their college rooms,
others beaten ruthlessly on the streets. Then there are desis scarred by
verbal assaults, the ethnic slurs. But, being the model minority, most o=
f us
smile, go along with the 'joke' and walk away. This isn't a Gandhian
response. It's cowardice.

Meanwhile, we participate both actively and passively in anti-Black raci=
sm.
We're the 'model minority', who make 'failed' minorities look bad. Given=
our
place as technocrats, we don't, like African Americans or Latinos, suffe=
r
widespread poverty and police violence. The US economy's structural
adjustment meant its working-class was abandoned to its wits, with
resources for the poor in education, social welfare and medicare slashed=
.
Minus the means to succeed, working-class African Americans and
Latinos struggle to survive. To compare their destiny to those of
freshly-minted iit grads is a moral travesty. But this is the kind of
shallowness purveyed by D'Souza, by any number of NRIs and, in
mimicry, by the Indian press.

In 1986, Indian Americans Kaushal Sharan and Navroz Mody died at the
hands of the Dotbusters, a racist outfit in New Jersey. Named for the bi=
ndi
or pottu, the Dotbusters provoked some desis to reassess our lives in th=
e
US. As we forged our radical outfits, our feminist centres, our gay and
lesbian fora, our trade unions and our youth networks, the Dot went from
distasteful to chic. Some years ago, chameleon Madonna wore that very
Dot to inaugurate a revision of the place of 'India' in the American med=
ia.
But after three centuries of colonialism, a half-century of neglect and =
the
double-edged sword of the model minority, it is unlikely Madonna with a
bindi offers the path to our future. Progressive desis, whom critic Amit=
ava
Kumar calls 'Red Indians', ask for a fuller engagement of desi lives=20
with the
complex place called America. Many of us may escape the vicissitudes of
everyday racism and several of us even allow ourselves to be used in a
racist game against African Americans. But there're many energetic
anti-racist desis on the frontlines for the widest notion of justice. Th=
e
dotcomrades may be better role models, after all, than the dotcoms. l

(Vijay Prashad is director, international studies, Trinity College,=20
Hartford,
and author of Karma of Brown Folk (Minnesota) and Untouchable Freedom
(Oxford).)

______

#4.

The Hindu
10 October 2000
Opinion

A dangerous agenda

THE UNSOLICITED `ADVICE' the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief, Mr. K. S.=20
Sudarshan, has profferred to the Christian community in India - that it=20
should establish a `swadeshi church' - indicates both superciliousness and=
=20
patronage. Behind the clean `patriotic' chit he gave rather condescendingly=
=20
to a ``majority'' of Christians in the country is the Sangh Parivar's=20
presumption of a self-ordained `inalienable right' to pronounce on what=20
makes for patriotism and its exclusivist ideological plank that equates=20
patriotism with religion. The fundamental freedom to practise and propagate=
=20
one's religion also encompasses the right of the members of a particular=20
faith to organise and run their religious institutions in the way they want=
=20
to, subject of course to the law of the land. This is to say, it is for the=
=20
Christian community in India, not for the likes of Mr. Sudarshan - or for=20
that matter anyone outside that community - to decide whether it should=20
have links with churches abroad. Any reform or change in the institutional=
=20
arrangement has to come from within the faith.

The advent of Mr. Sudarshan as the RSS chief some six months ago was seen=20
as heralding an aggressive pursuit of the Hindutva agenda, a rollback to=20
the late 1980s and early 1990s, what with his talk of an ``epic war between=
=20
Hindu and anti-Hindu forces''. In a strategic shift, after the Babri Masjid=
=20
demolition, the RSS and its siblings trained their guns on the Christian=20
community by running an insidious hate campaign against its missionaries=20
and rationalising the physical attacks on priests and vandalisation of=20
churches that had been occurring across the country; it was even sharply=20
critical of the Centre for being ``apologetic'' about such incidents. The=20
`justification' for its anti-Christian campaign was based on the charge of=
=20
coerced and enticed conversion resorted to by the missionaries. In a subtle=
=20
change of tack, the RSS chief has brought in the `swadeshi' concept and=20
sought to portray the ``foreign churches'' as the villain since they=20
involved themselves in ``disruptive and divisive activities''. Nothing=20
could be more sweeping and irresponsible an allegation than this, given the=
=20
irrefutable fact that the Christian missionaries have over the decades done=
=20
a commendable social service in the areas of education and health, for=20
instance.

The enthusiastic endorsement Mr. Sudarshan's articulation has received from=
=20
the BJP general secretary, Mr. Narendra Modi, should dispel any notion that=
=20
the BJP under Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee was moving away from the RSS line.=20
If anything, the two seem to be reaching a new accommodation with each=20
other. Witness for instance, the RSS chief's approval of the BJP president,=
=20
Mr. Bangaru Laxman's calculatedly `soft' approach to the Islamic community=
=20
exemplified in his famous declaration of the Muslims being ``flesh of our=20
(Hindus') flesh'' and ``blood of our (Hindus') blood''. In fact, the BJP=20
(as the leading constituent of the ruling coalition) and its affiliates=20
would appear to be working to a new gameplan to advance their Hindutva=20
agenda, and the perceived change in accent and the alternating of targets=20
(Muslims and Christians) are but a part of the calibrated strategy. And the=
=20
`instruments' they have chosen - such as systematic violence and virulent=20
cultural nationalism - may well prove to be more dangerous and harmful than=
=20
the three specific ones the BJP has shelved (not jettisoned) - namely the=20
building of a Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, abrogation of Article 370 and=20
enactment of a uniform civil code - to the essentially secular and=20
pluralistic Indian society. The fact that the lack of numbers for the BJP=20
in Parliament is what really stands in the way of the party pursuing its=20
fundamentalist goal has been reiterated in unambiguous terms by the party=20
leadership.

______

#5.

The Daily Star
10 October 2000

'Rollback' Over 'Rollback' The Return of Instability

Praful Bidwai writes from New Del=
hi

One year after the 24-party National Democratic Alliance was sworn in and=20
declared stable, the coalition is suddenly looking vulnerable and shaky. It=
=20
is a coincidence that this should have happened so soon after the BJP's=20
upbeat Nagpur national council meeting, and Prime Minister Vajpayee's U.S.=
=20
visit, which the BJP in a special resolution describes as a "defining event=
."

What is not a coincidence is that the NDA has been thrown off balance by=20
"internal" developments. Three of these are important: Ms Mamata Banerjee's=
=20
"resignation" blackmail over petroleum prices, the BJP's rout in Gujarat=20
local elections, and new uncertainties about Mr Vajpayee's health and his=20
leadership.

This happens just when Mr Vajpayee is supposed to have emerged pre-eminent.

Whatever view one takes of Ms Banerjee's politics and the government's ad=20
hoc decision to raise oil prices, she undeniably made a shrewd judgment=20
about the issue's appeal. The bulk of the urban population is affected by=20
higher kerosene and cooking gas prices.

She seriously toyed with the idea of distancing herself from the BJP with=20
an eye on West Bengal's 25 per cent-strong Muslim vote. She was also piqued=
=20
at not being consulted on the induction of another Bengal BJP MP into the=20
Central ministry.

Ms Banerjee's gamble may not succeed. As things stand, she may back down or=
=20
face isolation. But she did succeed in frightening Mr Vajpayee. She=20
extracted a partial roll back promise, on which he reneged. She even=20
bargained for higher ministerial representation for TMC.

Ms Banerjee is no Jayalalitha. But she too could send Mr Vajpayee into=20
panic with only half the AIADMK's 1998 seats tally. She has proved that the=
=20
Vajpayee leadership is weak, and the ragtag NDA is fragile.

Two other important BJP allies, Telegu Desam and DMK, have sent identical=20
messages. Mr Chandrababu Naidu interfered with the choice of the new=20
Cabinet Secretaryperhaps the first chief minister to do so in history. He=20
also forced the Finance Commission to rewrite its final report by creating=
=20
a special fund for better-off states.

Mr M. Karunanidhi has protested against the shifting the (Central)=20
portfolio of a DMK junior minister. He also put Mr Vajpayee on notice over=
=20
the BJP's moves to exploit the growing DMK-PMK rift.

This is all part of normal sparring within alliances. But things could=20
change dramatically if the economy deteriorates, the BJP's electoral=20
performance plummets, or Mr Vajpayee stops really leading the NDA. All=20
three are distinct possibilities.

Take Gujarat, Hindutva's stronghold and India's only state where the BJP=20
rules on its own. The BJP enjoys a two-thirds majority in the assembly. It=
=20
won 53 per cent of the vote in 1999.

Today, it stands mauled, having lost elections in 22 out of 23 districts,=20
including 15-year-old bastions like Rajkot. It won't do to attribute this=20
to the absence of the two individuals who built the BJP from=20
scratchShankersingh Vaghela and Narendra Modi.

The truth is that the Keshubhai Patel ministry pursued an anti-poor policy.=
=20
And the voter punished it. That is the result you reap when you bulldoze=20
poor people's bustees to build shopping malls, ignore near-famine=20
conditions, and substitute rank communalism for thoughtful social policy.

The BJP suffers particularly badly from the "anti-incumbency" factorwitness=
=20
Delhi, Rajasthan, M.P. and Maharashtra. It makes taller claims than any=20
other party of being "principled", "disciplined" and "idealistic".

Next in line, almost certainly, is Uttar Pradesh with a horrible mess in=20
everything from the civil service to primary education, tax collection to=20
road maintenance, law-and-order to health.

Mr Ram Prakash Gupta has spent more time building his palatial house than=20
in Cabinet meetings. He presides over an empire of corruption. In some=20
ways, his misgovernance is worse than Mr Laloo Yadav's.

If U.P. becomes the BJP's Waterloo, Mr Vajpayee will be directly=20
responsible. It is he who brought Mr Gupta out of the woodwork. Mr=20
Vajpayee's leadership problem goes beyond U.P. It is comprehensive.

One aspect of it is summed up by a joke that's especially popular in BJP=20
circles: "What knee problems does Mr Vajpayee have?" "He has three: left=20
knee, right knee, and Advani-knee". That's how low his stock has fallen in=
=20
the parivar.

Why? Mr Vajpayee's interference in party matters has produced more=20
dissonance than consensus. He has promoted loyalists everywhere. But he=20
couldn't outmanoeuvre his rivals. He didn't want to reshuffle the Cabinet=20
before his surgery, but did so under Mr Advani's pressure.

Mr Vajpayee has mocked at swadeshi with globalisation. If he wanted to=20
marginalise the RSS, he has scarcely succeeded. In New York, he prostrated=
=20
himself before the sangh. The RSS is now back attacking western=20
corporations, and demanding that foreign Christian missions be expelled. Mr=
=20
K.S. Sudarshan even wants India to dismember Pakistan, no less.

Within the parivar, Mr Vajpayee can't assert himself consistently. His lack=
=20
of self-confidence at the Cabinet level is signified by the paranoid moving=
=20
of the core of the PMO to Beach Candy in Mumbai, rather than entrusting=20
work to his Number Two. He simply doesn't want any Number Two!

Personally, Mr Vajpayee shows signs of exhaustion, despair and depression.=
=20
He has told confidants he wants to quit it all. It's hard to say if this is=
=20
a pressure tactic, or an honest urge. Mr Vajpayee may not last long=20
physically and emotionally.

Should uncertainty arise over his continuation, the NDA will be hard put to=
=20
find a successor. A vicious power struggle could wreck it.

The NDA's next big crisis could arise from an acute tension. Its=20
acceptability among the elite, even the media, depends on agendas relevant=
=20
to the top five per cent of the people. But for electoral-political=20
survival, it needs the bulk of the people. The tension has grown greatly.=20
The era of instability seems to be returning.

______

#6.

The Hindustan Times
10 October 2000

Young couples give =91moral police=92 the slip

Rathin Das
(Ahmedabad, October 9)

IN THE end, it was the triumph of the free spirit as young couples, thumbed=
=20
their noses at the =93moral police=94 and drove away.

About a fortnight before the Navratri celebrations began on Sept 27, local=
=20
VHP and Bajrang Dal units distributed 'circulars' asking elders to rein in=
=20
youngsters after a session of Garba dancing.

Pregnancies out of wedlock among young women after Navratri had been the=20
source of concern for quite some time.

The environment during Garba dancing is permissive and young couples are=20
known to head for hotels once the dancing session is over. In several cases=
=20
women have had to undergo abortions.

The circular from the =93Citizens' Security Council=94 said that such incid=
ents=20
after Garba sullied the image of Gujarat in particular and that of Hindu=20
society in general.

By trying to restrict revelry to homes they hoped couples would be kept in=
=20
check. Plans had been drawn up to discourage the young from setting out on=
=20
a long night of fun.

The circular =93authorised=94 Bajrang Dal men to stop couples trying to sli=
nk=20
away after midnight.

The issues of sexual permissiveness during Garba dancing came out in the=20
open last year State Minister for Education Anandiben Patel spoke about it=
=20
and asked women to resist the trend by keeping a watch on their daughters.

Now every young woman going out for a night of Garba dancing was viewed=20
with suspicion. This year VHP and Bajrang Dal activists started out with=20
gusto and were seen at traffic intersections.

But that was only on the first two nights. As the results of the local and=
=20
panchayat elections started coming in, demoralised activists quietly=20
disappeared.
_____________________________________________

South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch (SACW) is an informal, independent &=20
non-profit citizens wire service run by South Asia Citizens Web=20
(http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex) since 1996. Dispatch archive from 1998 can be=
=20
accessed by joining the ACT list run by SACW. To subscribe send a blank=20
message to <act-subscribe@egroups.com>
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[Disclaimer : Opinions carried in the dispatches are not necessarily=20
representative of views of SACW compilers]