[sacw] SACW #1 | 18 Mar. 02

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire - Dispatch #1 | 18 March 2002

* For daily news updates & citizens initiatives in post riots 
Gujarat Check: http://www.sabrang.com

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#1.Sri Lanka: People's Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL)
#2. Letter expressing concern at the disappearance of 3 Nepali rights 
activists/intellectuals
#3. Two Op-Ed's from the Pakistani Press
#4. Crossing all limits (Kalpana Sharma )
#5. The Grand Conspiracy -- Or How Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee Presumes
It Is Possible To Fool All The People All The Time (John Dayal)
#6. Op-Ed.s from The Hindustan Times
- And the mask falls (Amulya Ganguli)
- Their game is up (Swami Agnivesh and Valson Thampu)
#7. Hate mail to Gandhi's website (Pamela Raghunath)
#8. Book Review: Fallen Angels: The Sex Workers of South Asia, edited 
by John Frederick and Thomas L. Kelly

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# 1.

People's Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL)
93/10, Dutugemunu Street, Colombo 06, SRI LANKA
Tel: (94 1) 824425, 818675, 075 557010-13
Fax: 075 557012, 828597
Web site:www.lankaworld.com/paffrel

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#2.

From: 
Dated : 17 March 2002
Anand Swaroop Verma,
Journalist
Q-63, Sector 12
Noida 201 301

To,
The Commissioner of Police
Delhi.

Sir,
I received a message from my friends-Mr Pramod Kaphley, Mr 
Shyam Shrestha and Dr. Mahesh Maskey through e-mail that they are 
arriving New Delhi from Kathmandu by IC-814 on 16th March 2002 at 3 
:00 P.M.. I went to receive them and waited outside the airport for 
more than one hour but they did not come out from the airport. I 
checked up from Kathmandu that they had boarded the plane. These 
three persons are now missing and their wereabouts are not known. 
Kindly trace these persons and inform me. I suspect a mischief about 
their disapperance. In the Jansatta of today there is a news item 
saying that they have been arrested by the special branch of Delhi 
police. Rashtriya Sahara also published similar story. I made 
enquiry from police authorities but everybody is evasive and telling 
me to contact other agency.
The above mentioned persons are well known intellectuals and 
human rights activists. Mr Shyam Shrestha is a journalist and editor 
of 'Mulyankan'.
Please investigate the matter and take appropriate action.
Sincerely Yours
(Anand Swaroop Verma)
Phone: 91-4524504/4535435

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#3.

Op-Ed's from the Pakistani Press

The News International, 18 March 2002
Politics of temples and mosques
Imtiaz Alam
http://jang.com.pk/thenews/mar2002-daily/18-03-2002/oped/o2.htm

0000

The Frontier Post, 17 March 2002
Ayodhya's fallout
http://www.frontierpost.com.pk/editorials.asp?id=1&date1=3/17/2002

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#4.

The Hindu
Monday, Mar 18, 2002
http://www.hinduonnet.com/stories/2002031800471000.htm

Crossing all limits
By Kalpana Sharma

What is more sinister this time in Gujarat is that the economic 
boycott call has been backed by a systematic attack on Muslim-owned 
businesses.

IF YOU repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth. Once again we 
have seen this in action. The Sangh Parivar and its supporters 
repeatedly accuse the secularists and "pseudo-secularists," including 
the English language press, of being selective in their condemnation 
of violence. They repeatedly state that the Godhra massacre was not 
condemned strongly enough compared to the words of outrage that have 
poured forth against the targeted and planned killing of hundreds of 
Muslims all over Gujarat.

Instead of recognising this age-old tactic for what it is, the 
so-called "pseudo-secularists," tend to walk into the trap and fall 
over backwards to be even-handed. But no matter how often, and how 
strongly, they condemn what happened at Godhra, the tune of the 
Vishwa Hindu Parishad and its cohorts is not going to change. This is 
a typical diversionary tactic. For, it makes people defensive and 
stops them from asking the tough questions that the Sangh Parivar 
must answer. If Gujarat was its laboratory, and this was the level of 
savagery that was the outcome of the experiment, then what can we 
expect in the rest of India if this experiment is allowed to work 
elsewhere?

If the Chief Minister of one of India's most prosperous States, which 
aims to integrate itself into a globalised world, can justify what he 
calls "secular violence" and boast of bringing the situation under 
control in 72 hours while overlooking the fact that in the meantime 
over 700 people lost their lives, then what can we expect from others 
of his ilk who aspire for power? If even after such state-supported 
brutality, the Union Home Minister cannot bring himself to reprimand 
his comrade in Gujarat, leave alone consider dismissing him for gross 
incompetence, then what can we expect in terms of just governance in 
the rest of the country?

We should also ask about the scores of mosques, dargahs and tombs 
that have been systematically destroyed in Gujarat since February 27. 
One of these, the tomb of Vali Gujarati had stood in front of the 
gate of the Ahmedabad Police Commissioner's office until a few days 
ago. Today, there is no trace of it. Demonstrating an efficiency that 
people in Ahmedabad have never before witnessed, the Public Works 
Department not only cleared the rubble in record time but even tarred 
the place where this 17th century Urdu poet's tomb stood.

Thus, the issue is not secularism or secularists; it is what the 
country can expect if the Hindutva ideology is fully implemented and 
if its ideologues are given complete freedom to do as they wish. To 
see the extent to which the Bajrang Dal and the VHP have permeated 
all aspects of life and the confidence they now have with their 
brethren in power in the State and at the Centre, you have to spend 
time in Gujarat.

A few days after the killing spree began in Gujarat, the respected 
peace activist and Gandhian, Nirmala Deshpande, went to Ahmedabad. 
She was waiting at the Circuit House to meet two former Prime 
Ministers, I. K. Gujral and V. P. Singh, who had also come on a peace 
mission. A complete stranger walked up to her and asked her 
officiously who she was and what her business was in the city. Ms. 
Deshpande quietly introduced herself and said she was a Gandhian. To 
this the man reportedly said, with considerable aggression in his 
voice, "remember, this is the land of Sardar Patel. We don't want to 
hear all this talk about Gandhi." And so saying, he walked off 
yelling "Jai Shri Ram."

Around the same time, representatives of the Bajrang Dal approached a 
non-governmental organisation that works on issues of water and 
environmental protection. It was told that the Dal had heard that the 
NGO had a Muslim trustee and that this would not be tolerated. 
Another NGO, working in the area of education, which calls itself 
Taleem, has been told it should change its name.

These instances merely go to illustrate the point that the dividing 
line between the official Government and the non-official 
powerbrokers in Gujarat has been eliminated. This is a process that 
has gone on for some time. And it is because this was already in 
place that the killings, arson and looting of February 28 and 
thereafter could continue for so many days unchecked.

But what has exceeded all limits are the numerous leaflets being 
distributed in different parts of the State which call for an 
economic boycott of Muslims. It is true that this is not new. What is 
more sinister this time in Gujarat is that the economic boycott call 
has been backed by a systematic attack on Muslim-owned businesses. It 
is also evident that the planning for these attacks took place well 
before the Godhra incident. How else can you explain attacks on shops 
with names that would not give even a hint that they belong to 
Muslims, or that Muslims are the majority shareholders? The selective 
and planned arson of these Muslim-owned establishments is chillingly 
reminiscent of what happened in Mumbai in 1992-93 in the second phase 
of the rioting, but it is far more extensive.

Sadly, even the media has played a role in this. It is not the kind 
of role for which Mr. Modi will condemn it even as he lashes out at 
the rest of the media for reporting accurately and extensively what 
was going on in his State. But a leading Gujarati newspaper published 
an article several months ago naming the restaurants in Ahmedabad 
owned by Muslims. These happen to be some of the most popular eating 
places. And today, each one of them is a burnt-out hole.

Any Government, which claims to be committed to the concepts 
enshrined in our Constitution, would track down the people 
circulating such scurrilous and dangerous ideas and put them behind 
bars. But not in Gujarat. This is being done with the kind of 
audacity that is only possible if the Government is on your side. And 
there is no confusion about the side that Mr. Modi's Government is on.

What then can those who passionately oppose this narrow and dangerous 
vision of India dominated by one religion do? One of the tragedies of 
the current situation in Gujarat is the extent to which even civil 
society groups, which played such an important role last year after 
the earthquake, have been unable to respond in the same way. 
Activists who have witnessed the progression of riots and violence in 
the State say they have lost all confidence in the law and order 
machinery. They say that even non-partisan activities such as relief, 
or peace marches, are difficult to organise because of the hostility 
from the State and its vast army of supporters. Some of them also 
acknowledge that in the last decade not enough has been done to 
counter the relentless and planned propaganda of the Sangh Parivar 
amongst all classes of Hindus.

The long-term interventions for the victims of the Gujarat violence 
will require vast amounts of support from the rest of India. Unless 
we ensure that Gujarat is not permanently caught in this communal 
cauldron, we cannot guarantee that the same story will not repeat 
itself in our own backyard.

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#5.

15 march 2002

The Grand Conspiracy -- Or How Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee Presumes
It Is Possible To Fool All The People All The Time

>From John Dayal
(Recently on the road to Ayodhya)

Only a mother can love a man such as Dr Pravin Togadia, even though he is
trained to be a heart surgeon. There is nothing of the finesse, much less of
the compassion, that one would expect in a man who rejuvenates hearts, or at
least gives a new lease of life to those close to death. Quite the reverse.
As a trained member of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, and in fact as the
secretary of its militant and even more aggressive religious wing, the
Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Togadia is more used to giving orders and preaching
hatred which eventually leads to human beings being killed, perhaps
somewhere between 1,500 to 2,000 as this month in Gujarat in anti Muslim
violence.

But Togadia is quite right when he says "Accepting a shila - one of the
carved pillars at Ayodhya -- implies the central government's approval to
its activities. As the Times of India network reported succinctly on 15th
march, 2002, from New Delhi, according to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad the fact
of a senior government official receiving the shila daan at Ayodhya means
that the government has accepted that a mandir will have to be constructed
at the Ramjanamboomi site. "A government representative accepting the shila
daan is a huge achievement," Togadia told reporters who by now have learnt
not to pose him too many counter questions, certainly not ones which may
trap him and embarrass the Sangh Parivar.
Togadia went on to add that the movement for the construction of the temple
will continue and the programme of `puran ahuti' will go on till June 2.
Purna Ahuti is a term not easily translatable into English, but which means
something between saying that the prayerful process, or the full sacrifice
will continue. For the VHP, the meaning of the religious phrase and its
temporal implementation in a violent action programme are indistinguishable
from each other.
Togadia spells out the details -- with the media obliging as ever so he does
not even have to spend any money on printing pamphlets of the agenda for his
minions -- "Next Ram Navami, every Hindu will wave a flag symbolising the
mandir. Till the temple is constructed, every Hindu will perform a Ram
kirtan every week and the VHP is going to initiate a movement to involve
more Hindus in Ram Jap Mala." To do all of these, he naturally calls for the
complete removal of restrictions imposed by the government on kar sevaks
travelling to Ayodhya. And as naturally, we can expect the Central
government of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee , after some obfuscation,
to accept all these demands as reasonable expressions of a natural national
sentiment.
Togadia's words, we have learnt to understand, are law, as are those of his
boss Ashok Singhal, the man with the perpetual scowl, Sant Paramhans, the
saintly man with the matted hair and the direct speech-to-camera, who is the
notional head of the trust that lays claim to own the disputed land where
the Babri Mosque stood for 400 years till the fateful 6th of December 1992,
when its was demolished under the gaze of Lal Krishna Advani, the man now
Union minister for Home affairs, and charged with overseeing the state of
law and order in the country.
But possibly one blames Advani too much because of his so obvious hostility
to the minorities and his so powerfully obnoxious championing of the cause
of Hindutva. What about the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, himself.
The latest evidence of the 14th and 15th March would tend to suggest that
Vajpayee is not just an accessory after the fact, but quite a part of the
grand conspiracy to create the controversy of the Shilapujan (worshipping
the pillars of the future temple), scuttle the judicial process, and
expedite the construction of the controversial temple with its main altar
and holy of holies quite on the disputed site of the Babri Mosque.
He may go blue in the face trying to deny his hand, but Vajpayee, as head of
his government he rules personally, is culpable on three counts.
The first is directing his chief legal officer Soli Sorabjee (ironically a
member of a United Nations commission on Human rights and once a champion of
the rights of religious minorities) to take up a position in the Supreme
Court that was identical to that of the Hindutva Parivar and defied the
common minimum agenda of governance of the national Democratic Alliance
coalition that notionally is in power in New Delhi). The second is in
directing an officer of his own office to fly down to Ayodhya to receive the
flower bedecked slab of carved Rajasthan sand-stone which will be a pillar
of the eventual temple, severely affecting the morale of some honest police
and administrative officers in the state of Uttar Pradesh who had declared,
under the shelter of President's rule, that they would not succumb to the
pressure of the motley group of people who have, on their own, taken on the
responsibility of representing every Hindu in the world in their actions in
Ayodhya. And finally, the Prime Minister has to take the blame for
converting what is essentially a legal issue between the courts and
Government of India, which is sworn to enforce the rule of law, and the
Hindutva Parivar which demolished the Babri Mosque in its frenzy, into a
direct Hindu versus Muslim situation.
The last first.
The issue of the demolition of then Mosque is a matter of legal dispute as
well as subject of judicial enquiries which are still under way. The very
title of the land on which the temple is supposed to be constructed is
pending in the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court, the highest
echelon of the judicial structure in the state of Uttar Pradesh and subject
to eventual review in the Supreme Court. India's convoluted legal process,
and the long time it takes even high courts to adjudicate on these issues,
may have sometimes aggravated tension between Muslims and Hindu
fundamentalists, but on the whole, the slow simmer of the court case in many
ways kept the issue on the public back burner, so to speak, and did not
allow it to come centre stage of strategic public policy till Vajpayee,
possibly egged on and abetted by his home minister, Advani, chose to up the
ante and speed up the process.
It was he who introduced alien elements into the controversy. Chief among
these was to bring in the head of the Hindu theological seat of Kanchipuram,
in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, into the picture for the first time.
Kanchipuram is not one of the four theological centres and religious abbeys
established by Adi Sankara, the 11th century powerful figure who rejuvenated
contemporary Hinduism and helped it supplant the Buddhism which till then
had overtaken the old Brahmanical faith. But the Shankaracharya, who counts
amongst his devotees and acolytes such luminaries of the governance
structures as former President R Venkataraman and former chief election
commissioner T N Sheshan, a one time presidential aspirant, has tremendous
influence on the faithful, and is otherwise a respected figure in the
nation.
The sheer power of his office and his own reputation made his intervention
precipitate big pressure on the Muslim community to be seen as
accommodating, or at least not to seem to be unreasonable. The meant that
the Muslim personal Law Board, presently the only structure which has
representation of the many institutions of the Muslims in India and their
many theological strands ranging from sufism to the several Shia sects to
hard line Wahabi Sunni thesis, was forced to come to the table for talks.
Nothing ever was to be expected from the talks, which essentially wanted to
get the Muslims to gracefully accept the Hindutva agenda. Eventually the
Muslim board had to get out of the talks, but not before they accused the
Shankaracharya of announcing an agreement that never was, and not before the
learned sage's name was dragged into the unseemly controversy followed. The
Shankaracharya will be quite within his right to hold the Prime Minister to
be responsible for tarnishing slightly and for a short while the lustre of
the high office of Kanchipuram.
With the ball right back in the court, where it rightfully belonged in the
first place, Vajpayee played his second ace. The Supreme Court's three
member bench, which included a man who will be Chief Justice of India in a
few months, was sought to be put under popular pressure by senior members of
the government and the party making it clear what they waned the judgement
to be.
"Can the Supreme Court rule against the religious wishes of the Hindus?" was
the constant refrain. The unending anti Muslim violence in Gujarat was also
a constant reminder to the court of the eventual impact its judgement would
have on the ground. And just to add to the confusion, the attorney general,
Soli Sorabjee, in all gravity told the court to allow the Hindutva demand to
hold prayers over the construction material and thereby permit launch of the
construction programme.
Sorabjee has since denied that Vajpayee or the government had to do with his
application before the court, manfully taking the full blame on himself and
his interpretation of a 1994 judgement of the Supreme Court. "On my reading
of the 1994 Supreme Court judgement, the status quo did not apply to the
undisputed land and holding of puja will not be hit by the status quo
order." He submitted that the Centre's stand was the correct interpretation
of the 1994 judgement of the Supreme Court. The status quo direction was
only regarding the disputed structure and hence a symbolic puja with
adequate conditions and restrictions could be allowed at the undisputed
site. Sorabjee has not yet disclosed how, if he took the stand in the court
of his own volition, did he come up with an exact plan of action for the
puja 300 meters away from the ruins of the mosque, right down to the number
of sadhus who would be involved, and the 1,000 kar sevaks, the destroyers of
the mosque, who would be allowed to witness the new puja in batches of 20
each.
The Supreme Court was not impressed by Sorabji. Nor did they believe the
government's promises of keeping the peace. Such guarantees had been given
in 1992 by the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh and yet the mosque was
demolished. "We must learn from the Past," a judge said. The court Bench
comprising B N Kirpal, G B Pattanayak and V N Khare proceeded to reject
plans for a bhoomi pujan near the disputed site at Ayodhya on March 15 and
ordered that no puja or religious activity will be allowed in the acquired
land. "No part of the acquired land shall be handed over to anyone by the
Central Government. The same shall be retained and no part will be allowed
to be used for any other purpose till further orders," said the three-judge
bench of the court after a submission by Attorney General Soli Sorabjee
lasting for nearly 90 minutes.
Expectedly, Parliament was not amused, and neither was civil society. As
public protests were staged across the nation by Human rights and public
groups, including one in which Sonia Gandhi, president of the Congress,
shared for the first time agitational space with the Samajwadi party, the
left parties and with prominent activists, the Lok Sabha saw angry
adjournments with enraged Opposition members storming the well of the House
shouting anti-Government slogans. Similar scenes were witnessed in the Rajya
Sabha, which was also adjourned.
The Centre has submitted to VHP blackmail, a now articulate Sonia Gandhi
roared in a blistering attack on the Government on the Ayodhya issue,
charging it with openly collaborating with the VHP. She said there was no
substitute for firm and resolute action on the issue, the Prime Minister and
his colleagues have "neither the will nor the capacity to deal with the VHP
blackmail". The BJP-led coalition took a "U-turn" in the matter, she said
the explanation for such a somersault lay in the fact that several BJP MPs
threatened the Government with "dire consequences" in a letter to the Prime
Minister on March 7. This, Sonia Gandhi said, resulted in the Attorney
General being asked to intervene in the matter in the Supreme Court.
Th "U-turn" was also reflected in the Government earlier asking state
governments to prevent all volunteers from proceeding to Ayodhya but later
telling them to provide police protection to those going towards the pilgrim
centre. Sonia Gandhi said she has documents with her regarding the sudden
shift in the Government policy, including the letter of BJP MPs. "The
Central Government's acts of omission and commission on Ayodhya are shameful
to say the least," Sonia Gandhi said maintaining that the people of the
country felt that the Prime Minister and his Government were "neutral" to
VHP's plan till the Attorney General pleaded the government plan in court,
exposing the "duplicity of the Government agenda".
Vajpayee's allies were no less sarcastic. Terming Ayodhya as an "irrelevant
issue", key ally Telugu Desam of Andhra Pradesh Chief minister Chandrababu
Naidu, said warned Government that it would face drastic consequences if it
chose "wrong priorities". "Is it not the duty of Government to arrive at a
consensus? Why is there a lack of communication? Why don't you take the
allies into confidence?" TDP leader Ramachandraiah asked in Parliament,
warning "A government which chooses wrong priorities will face drastic
consequences." Mamta Bannerjee of the Trinamool Congress of Bengal, was even
shriller. "We have been sidelined," she said using terminology that befitted
a former railway minister.
The Supreme Court order was unambiguous, and even if the BJP and is allies
sought to take some technical mileage out of it, the judges issued another
order making it clear they would not allow worship on any bit of land
associated with the controversial site.
This left the UP government no choice but to be seen as obeying the order.
Uttar Pradesh Governor Vishnu Kant Shastri said the administration will
abide by the Supreme Court order to maintain status quo in Ayodhya. The
administration virtually sealed Karsevak Puram and Ramsevak Puram, the
places where clandestine activity was going on. The Army was out on alert,
and curfew imposed in the Faizabad district, the local administrative zone.
Accepting the possibility of kar sevaks entering Ayodhya through the
villages, the administration has also deployed security forces in villages
and railway tracks close to the adjoining districts. Patrolling by river
police was intensified in the Saryu River, which is believed to be used by
kar sevaks to infiltrate.
But mischief was still afoot.
Faizabad commissioner A K Gupta had for days maintained that he would obey
the Court and do what the Union government ordered. As the D Day neared, he
said if asked, he would accept as a token one of the stone slabs after the
worship, as the designated official receiver of the property acquired by the
government. But though he was not clear if his acceptance of a foundation
stone implied government acceptance of the fait accompli of the temple at
the disputed site, Gupta was clear he would allow no trouble.
It was time for the Vajpayee government to intervene decisively once again
in favour of the lawbreakers. Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas President Paramhans
Ramchandra Das said he had no faith in Gupta as the receiver. Vajpayee bowed
under once again, and the Centre flew in Shatrughan Singh, former divisional
commissioner of Faizabad, and now in the Prime minister's office's Ayodhya
cell, to Ayodhya as its official representative for the shila daan, or
`donation of the stone slab or pillar." The `shila daan' was done at
Digambar Akhara, a little away from the Babri mosque site amid chanting of
Vedic hymns. Two carved stone pillars were handed over by Paramhans
Ramchandra Das to Shatrughan Singh. Does it mean that the Vajpayee
government endorsees the master plan of the Temple? The plan which firmly
places its pivotal holy spot on the Mosque's ruins?
As Star TV reported, the Shila Daan, marking a symbolic beginning of the
construction of a Ram Temple at Ayodhya, was conducted amidst rising temper
among the 'Ram Sevaks' against the VHP, which they blamed for keeping them
in the dark about the programme. The Additional Director General of Police
said the administration had given the permission to only 16 people for the
Shila Daan at Ramkot but since all the 'Ram Sevaks' participating in the
procession insisted on going to the Shila Daan site, the scheduled plan was
changed. VHP Working President Ashok Singhal and BJP MP Vinay Katiyar were
also present at Digambar Akhara when the 'Shila' was presented. Though the
administration had warned against any slogan shouting, the few hundred 'Ram
Sevaks' appeared prepared to defy the diktat as they moved ahead raising
pro-temple construction slogans. Finally, there were as many as 800
activists at the site.

In the gloom of the conspiracy, there were bright rays of hope in the
spontaneous protests of civil society - most of them members coming from the
majority Hindu community.
As the dubious developments took place in Ayodhya, at a police barrier
outside Barabanki on the highway linking Ayodhya with the state capital of
Lucknow, Nirmala Deshpande, a very short, but lionhearted woman who had
worked fifty years ago in the same area with the land donation programme of
Gandhi disciple Sant Vinoba Bhawe, staged a symbolic protest on behalf of
all secular people. Women in their hundreds from nearby villages anti
Nuclear weapons and Kashmir peace activist Sonia Jabbar, Farah Naqvi,
Chitrakoot's Madhvi Kukreja, Lucknow activist Arundhati, All India Christian
Council members John Dayal, Jose and Sam Paul, and scores of teachers and
students joined Nirmala on the road to Ayodhya, in a day of singing peace
songs and speeches against communalism. The peace protest at the police
barrier was preceded by a peace march through the town of Barabanki, which
has a large Muslim population. One of the most heartening sights was the
response of the people of the small town, otherwise a dot in the map of one
of India's largest states.
To all of us who took part in the walk through three kilometers of the
town's winding lanes to the police barricade, there were signs of hope that
in the hinterland of India which many of us had given up as lost to
Hindutva, there was a raging urge for peace, and harmony.
This was the reason why the Bharatiya Janata party of prime minister Atal
Behari Vajpayee had, in the fist place, lost the battle to retain power in
the State assembly.
This holds out a caution to the government of Vajpayee, too.

______

#6.

Op-Ed.s from The Hindustan Times
Monday, March 18, 2002

And the mask falls
Amulya Ganguli

The next time a senior BJP leader assures an assorted group of Hindu 
holy men that "together we will build a country of our dreams", as 
the prime minister said before such a gathering in the US, the 
horrifying scenes of the carnage in Gujarat may flash before our 
eyes. [...].
http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/180302/detide01.asp

oooo

PLATFORM: Their game is up
Swami Agnivesh and Valson Thampu

The unmistakable message from Ayodhya is that the government can, if 
it wants, control the unruly elements who invade our streets and 
sacred places in blatant disregard for the rule of law. Ayodhya 2002 
puts Ayodhya 1992 in perspective and robs the then players of the 
excuse of helplessness in the face of popular fervour. [...]
http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/180302/detpla01.asp

______

#7.

Gulf News, 18 March 2002

Hate mail to Gandhi's website shocking
Mumbai |By Pamela Raghunath | 18-03-2002
Print friendly format | Email to Friend
Tushar Gandhi, great grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, still does not know 
why he got an e-mail from some people who apparently issued a 'fatwa' 
to Indian Muslim women that they would be punished severely if they 
did not observe a strict dress code.

Gandhi got the e-mail in Arabic which he got translated and found the 
contents indeed disturbing as it directed Muslim girls to wear the 
'burqa' and warned that they would have to face a harsh penalty if 
they wore Western clothes like jeans, skirts or dresses.

At first, the e-mail sent to the website of www.mahatma.org.in came 
as a surprise to Gandhi who says he would have normally ignored it 
"but having read recent press reports that Al Qaida was using the 
Internet to regroup itself, I took it seriously," he told Gulf News.

"With all kinds of happenings in the country, I was perturbed over 
others also trying to create panic among the people. That is why I 
got the Cyber Crime Investigation Cell of the Mumbai Police involved 
in probing into it."

Meanwhile, the engineers in his office running the Mahatma project 
managed to track and locate the service provider. However, the origin 
of the e-mail could also have been camouflaged, he thinks.

He is concerned with religious fanaticism and feels both Hindus and 
Muslims have to be blamed for exploiting the minds of the people.

Talking about his efforts to bring the teachings and spirituality of 
Mahatma Gandhi into the lives of Indians, he says it can be done only 
if the people themselves want a change for the better.

Citing the recent communal violence in Gujarat and those who indulged 
in it, he compares the individual to a drug addict. "Unless he or she 
decides to be cured, the question of detoxification can be difficult. 
The situation in Gujarat is similar. The people have to realise that 
what they are doing is wrong."

Gandhi believes that there is no end to the volatile temple issue 
"since, come what may, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has its own 
agenda.

______

#8.

Far Eastern Economic Review
March 21, 2002
INREVIEW: BOOKS

Asia's Sex Trap
By Bertil Lintner

Fallen Angels: The Sex Workers of South Asia, edited by John 
Frederick and Thomas L. Kelly (photographs). Lustre Press, Roli 
Books, New Delhi. $40 (Contact angels@r...)

SOUTHEAST ASIA'S booming sex industry has been described by numerous 
authors and journalists, but the outside world has paid scant 
attention to the same problem in South Asia, where hundreds of 
thousands of young women and men are trapped in squalid brothels in 
India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

Part of the reason could be that it is mainly an internal problem. 
Apart from paedophiles in Sri Lanka, few Western tourists are 
involved in South Asia's sex industry, unlike Thailand and the 
Philippines where there are many. Also, in countries such as 
Pakistan, official tolerance of prostitution is zero, which means 
that prostitutes are usually well-hidden. Only Mumbai's sleazy 
Falkland Road and Kamathipura and some areas of Calcutta have an open 
commercial sex scene.

This makes the tragedy even worse, and, as the authors of this 
remarkable book point out, the South Asian sex industry involves more 
children than perhaps anywhere else in the world.

In Bangladesh, for instance, bonded female children and the daughters 
of sex workers "often begin work at 11 or 12, and 16 is over the 
hill." In Pakistan, most prostitutes are under-age boys, many of them 
refugees from Afghanistan. The girls usually come from Bangladesh. 
But, as one of the contributors to the book writes, "The provocative 
word 'paedophile' is applied almost solely to pot-bellied foreigners, 
a negligible proportion of consumers in the region."

Lawmakers and non-governmental organizations might be encouraged by 
Fallen Angels, edited by John Frederick, with pictures compiled by 
Thomas Kelly, to rethink their efforts to curb South Asia's sex 
industry.

Fallen Angels may unsettle some readers, with its horrid tales of 
suffering, together with its compelling and sometimes shocking 
pictures. The book quickly gets to the heart of the problem: poverty, 
such as that in the hills of Nepal and in Bangladesh's flood-hit 
plains. But the 14 authors-most of whom are South Asians-do not 
moralize. They describe how some sex workers in Calcutta want to be 
treated with dignity, and protected for their right to work. A doctor 
working with sex workers in Calcutta states quite bluntly that 
"providing Aids awareness and condoms isn't going to be successful 
because sex workers have no power compared to the clients, the pimps 
or the madams. Without strengthening them, you cannot change this 
power equation."

Frederick, who lives in Nepal, caused a stir three years ago with a 
long article in Himal, a local news magazine, in which he argued that 
most young women from the hills of Nepal were not "tricked" into 
prostitution by crafty outsiders, or drugged and kidnapped by Indian 
gangsters only to wake up several days later in a Mumbai brothel. He 
said that many villagers knowingly sold their daughters to 
sex-industry recruiters because they had no other means of survival. 
In other words, prostitution in South Asia is not primarily a 
criminal issue, but a social problem caused by extreme 
under-development and caste discrimination in a strictly hierarchical 
society. Fallen Angels describes, in text as well as pictures, that 
social tragedy brilliantly.

The book is sold through a Nepalese-based non-governmental 
organisation, Ray of Hope Foundation, that helps rehabilitate sex 
workers and works with young villagers in Nepal to teach them about 
the dangers of entering the sex industry.

Bertil Linter is a writer for the REVIEW, based in Chiang Mai

_______

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#4.

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#5.

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#9.

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#10.

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#11.

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The Times of India
SUNDAY, MARCH 17, 2002

Marriage communalised through legal sanction?
RAHEEL DHATTIWALA
TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ SATURDAY, MARCH 16, 2002 11:25:01 PM ]
Love trangresses barriers of caste and religion. That's what we have 
been told since time immemorial. Apparently, Ayaz Ali and Rupa 
Tripathi discovered otherwise.
Both fell in love, decided to get married under The Special Marriage 
Act and consequently had the whole world baying for their blood.
The Special Marriage Act of 1872 (repealed and reintroduced in 1954) 
was formulated with the purpose of sustaining the secular essence of 
the Constitution.
It provides for solemnisation as well as registration of marriage 
between two individuals irrespective of caste and religion. However 
Section 4 of the Act makes the Act conditional.
According to this, the marriage can be declared void in case either 
marrying sides is mentally unfit, is below marriageable age, suffers 
from recurrent attacks of epilepsy, or already has a spouse at the 
time of marriage.
"Some of these conditions are illogical," says a leading city-based 
advocate. He feels that the entire purpose behind a supposedly 
democratic setup like marriage is defeated by clamping conditions 
onto it.
"It's a matter of trust and choice. Being an adult, I should be 
trusted for my actions. That apart, why point fingers at an epileptic 
or a schizophrenic? Choosing my life partner should be entirely my 
prerogative," he asserts.
Another 'condition' that has faced tremendous flak, especially on 
communal grounds, is the necessity for affixing a 30-day public 
notice in the office of the Marriage Officer before the marriage is 
solemnised. The notice is meant to intimate a third person, who can 
object to the marriage in case any of the conditions are contravened.
"Four out of 10 cases that I handled have faced the problem where a 
third party - familial or religious - has interfered on account of an 
inter-religion marriage," says advocate N C Gupta, a problem which 
has tormented Ali and Tripathi themselves.
Last year, the couple decided to opt for a civil marriage under the 
provision of the Act. As per law, the public notice was issued.
"Within the next five days, I got a phone call from a prominent 
fundamentalist Hindu group who warned leave the girl alone or face 
dire consequences," says Ali.
"Since Rupa's parents were opposed to our relationship, we were 
taking the big step without informing them. After the threat call, I 
realised that the notice could have fallen into wrong hands only 
through informers," he adds.
In the next month, the same group intimated the girl's parents as 
well. "They threatened me with disfiguring my face with acid unless I 
stopped seeing Ayaz," says Tripathi.
Evidently the notice is misused for creating strife. Marriage 
Officer, S K Amin disagrees.
"Every year we get about 120 cases of marriages being solemnised 
under the SMA. In my three years as MO, there has never been a single 
case of interference on communal basis," he says.
However, a source at the Ahmedabad Collectorate proves otherwise. 
"Many times parents, who suspect their daughter is about to get 
married to a person from a different religion, request me to inform 
them whenever a notice is put up, and I do it. l feel it's my duty to 
prevent a marriage which is taking place without the consent of 
parents," he states nonchalantly.
Advocate Harin Raval feels that while the right to object makes the 
purpose more transparent "as the inbuilt safeguards help save some 
innocent minor from getting married off forcibly", he does believe 
that amendments are required.
As regards the communal aspect, he says, "You either live with these 
communal elements or work towards a less corrupt law enforcement 
agency."

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