[sacw] SACW (04 July 01)

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire=20
04 July 2001
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex

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[1.] The Pakistan-India People's Solidarity Conference - (Draft statement)
[2.] Take the Kashmiris to Agra:Time to change the old script of=20
cat-&-mouse games
[3.] India: The Hindu Supremacists on their " sacred mission"
[4.] India: Petty fascism works through a continual battery of=20
mindless prohibitions
[5.] India: Bajrang Dal stalls play on Krishna

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

#1.

The Pakistan-India People's Solidarity Conference
New Delhi, July 12, 2001
(Draft statement)

I. Preamble:

For over half a century now the people of India and Pakistan have=20
borne the burden of hostilities between the two States. We, the=20
representatives of numerous civil society groups committed to=20
reforming relations between India and Pakistan welcome the Summit=20
between General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Atal Behari=20
Vajpayee and urge that they seriously engage in a sustained dialogue=20
and not in conflict. The resources of the two countries must be=20
transferred from bombs to books, from submarines to schools, from=20
missiles to medicines, from frigates to food, from runways for=20
bombers to railroads for people. The two leaders must also pledge to=20
eliminate the terrifying nuclear menace that threatens the people of=20
the entire South Asia region.

***
II. The Pakistan-India People's Solidarity Conference has identified=20
and arrived at an agreement on three major areas of concern between=20
the two countries, which we feel need to be addressed at the Agra=20
Summit. These are as follows:

Nuclear Weaponisation
The nuclear weaponisation of India and Pakistan has heightened=20
tensions between the two countries and placed the entire South Asian=20
region in grave danger. The two countries must move towards complete=20
dismantlement of their nuclear weapons and associated systems and=20
return to the global agenda for disarmament.

Democracy
We affirm that peace, democracy and justice are indivisible. The=20
continued hostilities between the two countries are fueling religious=20
fundamentalisms and national chauvanisms. The support extended to=20
these forces by the Indian and Pakistani States, seriously undermine=20
democracy, the rights of minorities and women, and threaten=20
intellectual freedom and free speech. We call for the restoration of=20
democracy in Pakistan. We also call for the strengthening of=20
democracy in all parts of India. These acts are crucial for a lasting=20
peace between the two countries. We call on the two leaders to=20
recognise that today's needs and tomorrow's great possibilities are=20
more important than yesterday's sad injuries, and that old mind-sets=20
need to change for new times.

Kashmir
For fifty-four years the governments of India and Pakistan have not=20
only failed to resolve the Kashmir dispute, but have also been=20
responsible for grave Human Rights violations. Let all sides reflect=20
upon the tremendous suffering in Jammu and Kashmir caused by the=20
denial of political, social, economic and human rights by India and=20
Pakistan. The Agra Summit should focus attention on the plight of=20
the widows, the orphans, the bodily wounded, the psychologically=20
traumatized, the socially ostracized, and the physically uprooted,=20
irrespective of religious, ethnic or political background. The=20
Kashmir issue is not only a territorial dispute between the two=20
States but involves the people of Jammu and Kashmir. Therefore, a=20
just and democratic resolution of the Kashmir dispute demands the=20
involvement of the people on both sides of the LoC in a non-sectarian=20
solution. A Kashmir solution can work only in the atmosphere of=20
Pakistan-India friendship, which this Summit must guarantee.

III. We call on the two governments to:

1. Withdraw all draconian laws in both countries that violate Human Rights=
.
2. Allow free movement of people between the two countries, and=20
remove travel and visa restrictions, including police reporting.
3. Withdraw the order for prior Government permission and=20
clearance to hold international meetings, conferences, seminars and=20
workshops.
4. Lift restrictions on exchange of newspapers, magazines and=20
journals, etc.
5. Normalise cultural and trade relations between the two countries.
6. Cease hostilities with immediate effect in Kashmir, initiate=20
the process of disengagement of armed forces, and terminate support=20
to armed groups, both State and non-State.
7. Commit to a nuclear freeze. This would entail no further=20
nuclear testing, no development, deployment and induction of nuclear=20
weapons, and no further efforts towards the setting up of Command and=20
Control systems.
8. Agree to a mutual reduction in the armed forces, and to utilise=20
the freed resources for meeting the people's social and economic=20
needs. Both governments should also commit themselves to a time-bound=20
programme for the systematic reduction of military spending, both=20
direct and indirect.

Programme for July 12, 2001.
Plenary I
9:30- 10:30 am

1 minute audio-visual or slide show
5 min. Welcome to the Pakistani delegates.
10 min. Brief introduction to the People's Summit, its purpose and procedur=
e.
10 min Short remarks by one Pakistani representative.
30 min Groups read out their statements/messages.

10: 30- 10:45 am Coffee break

Working Sessions
10:45 am - 1:15 pm

I Democracy in Danger
II The Kashmir Imbroglio
III The Nuclear Threat

(Participants in the working groups need not strive for unanimity.=20
There should be room to air and discuss a spectrum of opinion during=20
the working sessions, however, individuals and groups should try and=20
respect the spirit of the Solidarity Conference and not attempt to=20
undermine the minimum agenda as articulated in the joint statement. A=20
rapporteur from each working group to report at the afternoon plenary=20
on the morning's discussion, as well as any addition/change to the=20
section of recommendations at the end of the joint statement that=20
pertains to their working group.)

1:15-2:00 pm Lunch

Plenary II
2:15-2:45 pm
Presentation by rapporteurs of the three working groups (10 minutes each)

2:45- 3:15 pm Discussion on the reports

3:15-3:45 pm Discussion on the Draft Statement and Resolution

3: 45- 4:15 pm Closing remarks.

4: 15 Tea Break

4: 30 pm Press Conference.

________

#2.

http://www.indian-express.com/ie20010702/an1.shtml

TAKE THE KASHMIRIS TO AGRA

TIME TO CHANGE THE OLD SCRIPT OF CAT-AND-MOUSE GAMES

Barkha Dutt

RASHTRAPATI BHAVAN is all set to roll out the red carpet for General
Musharraf. Newspaper editors are back in business deconstructing
each word he utters. TV stations have booked every rooftop in Agra for
the perfect moonlit view. In the middle of this blitzkrieg, does anyone
remember the Kashmiris? For years India's foreign policy has been
aggressively and stubbornly guided by the mantra of Kashmir being "our
own internal matter". Even when we seemed orthodox in our refusal to
talk to Islamabad over the last two years, we justified it by saying that
we would talk "directly to our own people". So how come they can
barely be heard?

Make no mistake. I completely support India's decision to talk to
Pakistan. I have indeed long been arguing that the refusal to talk to
Pakistan made us seem rigid. In fact, on a TV show, a well-known
magazine editor asked me, "How can you say talk to Pakistan,
Barkha? You experienced Kargil first hand." But what about
experiencing the rest of Kashmir first hand? Every visit to Srinagar
reinforces the feeling of just how out of sync New Delhi is with the
Valley and its people. Why is it that all our policy makers on Kashmir
happen to be those who have barely spent time there? Why did it take a
funeral to get the prime minister to make his first real visit? Most
importantly, when will Delhi stop treating Kashmir as an extended
laboratory experiment?

Perhaps the single biggest failure of every government has been its
inability =97 or unwillingness =97 to steer public opinion on Kashmir. Afte=
r
hosting countless audience-based shows on Kashmir, it's terrifying to
see the levels of communal hatred that sheer ignorance is able to breed.
The issue of autonomy is a classic example. India's middle class views
the possibility of greater autonomy for the state as an outrage, an anti-
national demand that "only those bloody terrorists can make". It doesn't
seem to matter that this promise has been repeatedly made to the
Kashmiris and then forgotten. Narasimha Rao declared that India could
consider autonomy =91=91short of independence=92=92, Deve Gowda offered
"maximum autonomy" and Farooq Abdullah''s National Conference
contested the last election on the same promise. Yet, how many people
in the rest of India are even aware that very specific conditions were
attached to the accession of Kashmir to India?

Unfortunately, the bureaucrats who have scripted the peace moves in
Kashmir, have revelled in playing a game of divide and rule. Consider the
developments of the past year. First the cobwebs were brushed off the
Hurriyat; its leaders released from jail and propped up as the faces of
the future. Within months though, came a move that seemed to stab
this separatist conglomerate in the back and push it back to the
margins. Intelligence officials made direct contact with Abdul Majid Dar,
the chief commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen, Kashmir's largest
militant group. As the world's media poured into Srinagar's Nehru Guest
house to watch the spectacle of four masked men talk peace, the miffed
Hurriyat Conference was forced to criticise the talks just to keep its own
self respect intact.

Of course, the talks with the Hizbul Mujahideen seemed to be based on
the same divisive philosophy =97 to somehow drive a wedge between the
militant commanders on this side of the border and their boss-men in
Islamabad. Intelligence sources would tell us in a conspiratorial manner,
"Majid Dar is our man=92" indicating that he would soon make a public
farewell to arms and join the mainstream. And what if Dar had stuck to
the promise? Well, as thrilled as the Centre would have been, it would
have done nothing to further genuine peace. For the average Kashmiri,
Dar would have simply become another discredited local leader who had
sold out to New Delhi.

This is what repeated governments have failed to understand.
Weakening the Kashmiri leadership actually weakens the prospect of
lasting peace. What Delhi needs to do is to strengthen the doves
among the hawks, but in a manner that will not compromise them
before their people. Deepening the cracks within a deeply fractured
separatist movement may make for wonderful strategy, but it doesn't
offer the Kashmiris a real political option.

Ironically, even Delhi's man in Srinagar, Farooq Abdullah, has felt the
adverse effects of these cat-and-mouse games. The National
Conference is acutely aware that many of its political opponents =97 both
within the mainstream and in the azaadi camp =97 get covert monetary
and political support from Delhi. As a senior NC leader remarked, "This
is not new. Right from 1953, Delhi has always tried to create a parallel
leadership."=92

As Kashmir gets more and more trapped in this vortex of intrigue and
mutual suspicion, what was once a homespun movement has been
almost completely hijacked by rank outsiders and their ideology of hate.
It is an education to visit one of the many 'martyrs=92 graveyards' in
Srinagar. The tombstones tell their own story. These men and their
fidayeen squads have violently subverted the cultural ethos of the Valley
so that today even 15-year-olds parrot platitudes on jehad. Never before
has it been as important for Delhi to back the handful of azaadiwallahs,
who are willing to speak out against the fundamentalists. Old-timers like
Abdul Ghani Lone who was on Pakistani soil when he condemned the
extremists "on either side"; or young men like Srinagar's progressive
Mirwaiz Omar Farooq, who speaks of 'a global village' in the same
breath as 'self determination'

It is no one's contention that the motley crew of 23 parties in the
Hurriyat Conference are the "real representatives" of the Kashmiri
people. But it is equally true that the people of the state must be made
to feel that they too are part of the Agra summit. Last year, as both
hawks and hacks worried about whether the dialogue with militant
groups would be within the framework of the Indian Constitution, the
prime minister showed imagination by saying "insaniyat" would be the
only parameter. Let's see the same spirit again. The invitation to
Musharraf is a start. But let's bury the bogey of 'tripartite talks', and n=
ot
be scared of them. Call it something else if the term makes the MEA
break into a rash, but let's find some way of giving a voice to the people
of J&K in what is, after all, their future.

The truth is something neither Delhi nor Islamabad wants to confront.
The average Kashmiri wants neither Pakistan nor India. And it's not only
about misgovernance and poor development (as India wants to believe)
or the unifying force of Islam (as Pakistan wants to believe). At its root,
the Kashmir conflict is a complex assertion of identity. We need to win
back not the land, but the people. How about a trip to Srinagar, Mr
Vajpayee?

(The writer is with NDTV. The views expressed here are her own.)

_______

#3.

http://www.timesofindia.com/today/03indi13.htm

RSS WING EMBARKS ON 'SACRED' MISSION

By Meena Mishra

The Times of India News Service
KANPUR: The self-appointed custodians of Hindu culture are at it=20
again. Volunteers of Durga Vahini, a wing of the Rashtriya=20
Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) are all set to embark on a sacred mission -=20
to mobilise public opinion, especially of women belonging to the=20
Hindu community on issues like beauty contests and Valentine's Day.
About 110 volunteers hailing from 22 districts were given training in=20
judo, shooting and firing during a nine-day camp, which concluded=20
here at Shrimuni Inter College on Sunday. The camp, organised by the=20
VHP, aimed at training women for ``self defence'', and more=20
importantly, the ``enlightenment'' of volunteers for the=20
establishment of a Hindu rashtra.
The volunteers, in their respective regions, are now ready to=20
``expose'' the ``commercialisation of physical beauty and degradation=20
of family relations.'' They would also be canvassing for the=20
construction of the Ram temple at Ayodyha.
VHP general secretary Praveen Bhai Togadiya in his speech said=20
concepts of Valentines' Day and marriage anniversary had no place in=20
Hindu society and called upon the volunteers to motivate Hindu women=20
to raise their voice. ``Let Britishers celebrate their marriage=20
anniversaries because their marriages are short-lived. In the Hindu=20
culture, marriages are a result of several births,'' he added.

______

#4.

The Telegraph
4 July 2001
Editorial

DIRTY SINGING

Petty fascism works through a continual battery of mindless=20
prohibitions. The repetitions provoke a sense of outraged hilarity.=20
The mindlessness makes any serious intellectual engagement with the=20
issues quite impossible. This time the fascist fringe - or core - of=20
the Bharatiya Janata Party has decided to purge certain states of the=20
corrupting influence of popular song. In any such instance, Uttar=20
Pradesh comes immediately to mind, and quite rightly so in this case.=20
But following on its heels is another state hitherto known for its=20
robust sense of humour, Punjab. The ideology behind the state's=20
opposition to certain kinds of popular singing is a familiar, but no=20
less infuriating, mix of religious bigotry, sexual policing and a=20
ridiculously misinformed cultural chauvinism. The two protagonists in=20
this farce are the culture ministers of the two states, Messrs Sriram=20
Sonkar and Swarna Ram. Mr Sonkar, in Uttar Pradesh, shudders at the=20
vulgarity of what he calls, in his uncharming lumpenness, "cassette=20
dances", Hindi and English pop-songs used by dancers for their shows.=20
In Punjab, Jasvinder Jassi has been threatened with incarceration by=20
Mr Ram for celebrating in song a young girl's budding sexuality. Mr=20
Ram is being systematic in this, bringing satellite channels and=20
stage shows under his jurisdiction, even suggesting the formation of=20
a censor board for Punjabi songs.

The argument against these songs is not purely moral. There is an=20
attempt, by each minister, to restore his state's musical culture to=20
an original pristine state, and thereby protect its endangered=20
indigenous traditions of song from extinction. It is heartening to=20
see that the civil and secular realms in these states, the practising=20
artists and their audiences, continue to defend their freedoms=20
vigorously and vocally. An Akali minister has even invoked his=20
culture's native irreverence and mirthfulness in assuring people that=20
such excesses "will die a natural death". These are all welcome signs=20
of health, but perhaps this genial man is underestimating the=20
resilience and authority of benightedness.

_______

#5.

Indian Express
2 July 2001

BAJRANG DAL STALLS PLAY ON KRISHNA

Rachna Subir Sen

Amritsar July 1: Protests by the Bajrang Dal led to cancellation of a=20
play on Krishna's life at the conclusion of a month-long NSD workshop=20
at the Guru Nanak Dev University here yesterday.

Rakesh Madaan, president of the local unit of the Bajrang Dal,=20
claimed that their objections to the play Krishna are based on a=20
reading of the script, but went on to add that some students of Kewal=20
Dhaliwal, the play's director, had claimed that Krishna has been=20
shown as a quarrelsome person deriving pleasure from the rift he=20
creates between relatives, friends and even devotees.

''This is ridiculous and we will not tolerate this,'' he said.

Dhaliwal said protests by Bajrang Dal workers were uncalled for and=20
that they had even been asked to view the play. ''We could have=20
arranged a viewing for the Bajrang Dal functionaries but they refused=20
to cooperate.'' The play, written Swarajbir Singh, an IPS officer=20
posted in Delhi, was staged for the first time at the BBK DAV College=20
for Women here in 1998.

The script of the play depicts Krishna in an emotional turmoil,=20
nostalgic for the days spent in the Vrindavan, as he comes to terms=20
with official matters while ruling in Dwarka. ''All this is depicted=20
in relation to life in our times,'' said Swarajbir. Dhaliwal=20
reiterated that the play contains nothing that will hurt religious=20
sentiments, rather, it is a realistic depiction of the era when Lord=20
Krishna was ruling from Dwarka.''The contents have been taken from=20
Mahabharata, Harivansh Vishnu Puran, Shri Mad Bhagvatam.''

Dhaliwal added, ''In wake of the unpleasant situation which has=20
arisen, we withheld the staging of the play yesterday. But we will=20
certainly protest against the illogical and ill-founded objections of=20
the Bajrang Dal,'' said Dhaliwal.

Dhaliwal added that to avoid precipitating matters they decided not=20
to stage Krishna today. However, according to Dhaliwal, ''These=20
people have not read the script of play and they have not even seen=20
the rehearsals.'' The compromise between the two groups was brokered=20
by SDM Jaswant Singh but he refused to comment when approached by The=20
Indian Express.

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