[sacw] SACW #1 | 05 Mar. 02

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire - Dispatch #1 | 05 March 2002 {INDIA SPECIAL=
}

__________________________

#1. Communal riots in India has caused concern here & have=20
concentrated the minds of thinking Pakistanis (M.B Naqvi)
#2. Pakistani media are divided over violence in India (Zahid Hussain)
#3. Godhra: Terrorist Act Stunns India - Gujarat: Lab Of Hindutva=20
Comes Alive (Batuk Vora)
#4. Categorical Poll Verdict The BJP is unhinged (Praful Bidwai)
#5. Indians in Atlanta united in deploring homeland violence -=20
Hindus, Muslims fear for democracy
(Shelia M. Poole)
#6. Hindu-Muslim Violence (Edit., Christian Science Monitor)
#7. The Revenge Cycle Has To Stop (Sundeep Dougal)
#8. Muslims flee to ghettoes as Hindu mobs bring religious cleansing=20
to Gujarat (Luke Harding)
#9. Neighbors Trade Accusations of Orchestrated Violence in India (Paul Wat=
son)
#10. In Wake of Attacks, Indian City's Hindus, Muslims Move Apart=20
(Rajiv Chandrasekaran)
#11. Gandhi's dream turns into a sectarian nightmare (Rahul Bedi)

________________________

#1.

Despatch From Karachi
Date: Mon, 4 Mar 2002 18:45:19 +0500

M.B Naqvi

The current wave of communal riots in India has caused concern here and
have concentrated the minds of thinking Pakistanis. Reactions to these
riots conform, by and large, to the usual pattern. The more chauvinistic
and more self-consciously Muslim sections continue to exhibit the old
communal antipathy of India in general and Hindus in particular; their
reactions can be summed up in a few words: 'didn't we tell you that the
Indian Hindus are at heart the enemies of the Muslims and whenever they get
a chance they fly at the Muslims throat'. There are others, mainly
left-inclined liberals, who repeat their old mantra: the Hindu-Muslim
problem was the creation of the British imperialists and their nefarious
schemes are still unfolding. Thus the concrete issues of today are not
receiving the purposeful attention that they deserve.

If anyone is really interested in resolving this age-old Hindu-Muslim
struggle --- originally for favours, jobs and a share in running the state
apparatus under the British --- they should accept what has happened in
history as given facts. Basic policies for removing old distortions should
be based on facts as well as be informed with values. Thus the hard reality
of the Hindu-Muslim problem in the Subcontinent has to be accepted as the
starting point and a given fact. First, it needs to be analysed with a
view to working out a solution that has eluded so far. A commonly shared
basis for a friendly and cooperative coexistence between these two
communities is to be sought =96 indeed even the term community needs an
inquiry. It is an obviously urgent task for the Indian leaders and
intelligentsia. But Pakistanis too, as successors to what were historically
the Indians, would necessarily have a role in the endeavour.

The earlier Indian nationalists and left-inclined liberals were not wrong
in tracing communalism to the British. The issue actually was created by
the introduction of the term 'community' for political purposes of initial
British administrations. Earlier throughout Indian history, there were no
politically-recongnised differences among the people under any Indian
ruler, Muslim or Hindu; indeed the religion of the ruler was clearly a
matter of historical accident and was automatically accepted by all as
making no difference. In early times, there were no political identities
that corresponded to the Hindu and Muslim terminology. Thus the Hindu and
Muslim communities in today's sense did quite not exist before the arrival
of the British.

The communal identities that underlies the Hindu-Muslim problem actually
came into being during the Colonial period by way of initial measure to
associate the Indians in the governance of their country by way of giving
them jobs and some participation in the political processes in the Colonial
dispensation. Indeed, even the term 'Hindu', as denoting a given community
was an invention for day-to-day use. Historically, it could be said to have
been invented by foreign invaders, beginning with Alexander, to describe
the people living in areas around the river Indus that is Hind. In Persian
usage the word used was Hindi for both Muslim and the socalled Hindus which
was the same Greek Indus and Indic. For political purposes, the Hindu and
Muslim identities indubitably arose during the British period for mainly
political purposes; earlier the people lived together without this clear
distinction, with religion being a strictly private and accidental factor,
though very important to individuals. Its growth in importance clearly owed
itself to the British ways of governing India.

What was the common identity among the inhabitants of historical India? It
was the fact of living safely in the areas denoted by Hindustan and it was
based of course on their common humanity, together with uncountable ethnic
commonalties. The precise question to be asked today is: Can we get back to
those commonalties =96 none of them could have gone away =96 and find a
resolution to the identity problem.

Two separate tasks become relevant. One is to reassess the 1947 Settlement
of the Hindu-Muslim problem through the creation of two nation-states,
India and Pakistan, without this being a plea to undo it. It is a call to
face facts as they are. Secondly there is the proposition that without a
people-to-people reconciliation between the two states=97such as the French
and Germans have effected after the Second World War =96 the larger problem
of the Hindu-Muslim co-existence in peace, friendly cooperation and the
common endeavour of making progress both at inter-state and within each
major state cannot be achieved. That is the way to resolve the
Pakistan-India cold war rivalry as to make all Indians be just good
Indians. Indeed, all states of South Asia, integral parts of historical
India, need effective reconciliation between communities in the domestic
sphere and in their inter-state relationship with their neighbours.

It is not such a new idea, though. There may be superficial reluctance to
include Pakistan in what are certainly India's domestic matters. That is a
formalist objection based on a nation-state being the be all and end all in
itself. The fact of the matter is that religious identities in a personal
sense, per se, are age-old, of course. But they do not coincide with the
India's political Hindu community =96 as a homogenised non-denominational a=
nd
non-caste entity =96 and Muslims as a simple non-sectarian and non-caste
Muslim community. Early social differentiation between nobles and the
others were also politically important for a Millenium and that
differentiation actually overrode religious distinctions. Common Hindus
and common Muslims were regularly lumped together throughout Indian history
except later ---during British administration. Religion in point of fact
was less important than class distinctions in Medieval India. That long
precedent shows it can be done again.=20

Thus the bases for common identities have existed in centuries of happy
co-existence and have continued to exist; the commonalties, cultural,
multiple ethnic and economic, are all there. The precise problem is that
of accommodating the basically political identities of the 'communities'
that have always generated dislike, often descending into hatred as a
result of competition for shares in running the state and seeking its
favours. That applies as much to India's domestic life as to
India-Pakistan cold war rivalry. The recommended idea is primarily
political that gives a lot more importance to the existing commonalties and
downgrades the importance of the differences. It is entirely possible to
reconcile the Hindus and Muslims because the bases for discord and enmity
as well as of understanding, friendship and fraternity simultaneously
exist. A people-to-people reconciliation between Pakistan and India =96 tha=
t
must also include the people of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka =96 can create a
whole new dispensation in which the communal politics can be contained and
countered, both inside each South Asian state and among the states of the
region. Only, it is necessary to see the utility of this approach for first
resolving India's persistent problem and this can go on to resolve inter
state confrontation, which incidentally would resolve many of Pakistan's
domestic problems. Even Bangladesh may thereby be able to evolve a truly
common nationalism for all Bangladeshis to fit the new state.

But the reassessing of 1947 is not the same thing as wanting to undo it, as
noted. What has happened is a given fact of life. History had created
two nation states, now three, with their many vested interests. Undoing
them will be fiercely resisted and trying to do that may not be a workable,
or desirable, policy. That reassessment is necessary as a starting point
for tackling the present day issues. Insofar as it has not worked,
corrective action has to be undertaken with vision, imagination and
courage, avoiding what went wrong. The question whether it has worked as
intended or was hoped is easy to resolve. It was primarily billed to
resolve the old and persistent Hindu-Muslim problem of British Indian
Empire. Does the pattern of events since 1947 suggest that it has solved
that problem? It has not. Ergo, corrective action is necessary. What was
implied in the 1947 settlement was close cooperation between the then two
new states which was a vital ingredient of the scheme. Due to the
heightened communal passions at the time, world's largest-scale communal
killings took place alongwith the biggest ethnic cleansing. That was not a
one off eruption; the problem of communal hatred has persisted.
Pakistan-India confrontations have in fact exacerbated it. There have been
hundreds of "riots" --- killing sprees really --- have taken place in
India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. These developments have killed that
particular ingredient's potential.=20

More so, the dynamics and the pattern of "riots" and the legacies of the
communal flare ups, combined with inter-state disputes, have made India and
Pakistan move in opposite directions. International politics also
intervened to divide them. And yet fundamental bases for India and
Pakistan friendship and cooperation have continued to exist just as they do
for Hindus and Muslim 'communities' inside several states. If only the
divisive politics and conflicting foreign policies can be reversed or at
least contained, the thousand and one commonalties can still be relied upon
to bring the 'communities' closer together. The point is that this can
wonderfully help to counter the purely communal politics in both Pakistan
and India. The only problem is how to go about it? It requires some kind of
a political framework.=20

The SAARC, in combination with France and Germany-like reconciliation
processes between the peoples of India and Pakistan, wold provide an
excellent framework at two levels --- inter-state and domestic within each.
It would obviously include all states of the region. Within this set of
frameworks, the accent will necessarily be on commonalties and the need for
developing them further while differences will naturally be sidelined. The
question is can the current India-Pakistan impasse permit it and how to go
about it.

The word impasse itself suggests that both countries are in a state of
paralysing deadlock. Indo-Pakistan policies collide and without reversing
or changing these policies, there is no peaceful option open to them.
Either they go to war, with all its attendant horrors, or both have to
reverse some and amend other policies. That is about the major policy
orientations in the two largest states of SAARC. If there is an obvious
need to do it, it has to be done quickly. The best course is for both to
revise their policies by themselves in consultation with each other and
begin talking with a view to creating or improving the kind of frameworks
suggested here. Otherwise the only power that can get a hearing in both
capitals will be the US. But then the US will come with its own agenda. The
purely subcontinental agenda might get downgraded, may be distorted.

_____

#2.

The Times (UK)
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,3-225527,00.html
March 04, 2002

Pakistani media are divided over violence in India
from Zahid Hussain in Islamabad

THE latest communal riots in India are yet more proof of what they=20
describe as the "fallacy of Indian secularism", according to the=20
Pakistani media. Most of the local newspapers described the strife as=20
a planned "genocide of Muslims by Hindu extremists".

The local mass circulation Urdu newspapers ran shrieking headlines of=20
"Muslims being burnt alive" and "children being lynched", further=20
fueling anti-Indian sentiment. Although less vitriolic, the more=20
serious English-language newspapers displayed on their front pages=20
photographs of a Hindu mob armed with swords marching through a=20
Muslim neighbourhood and the charred bodies of a Muslim family.

"At the roots of repeated communal flare-ups in India lies the larger=20
issue of alienation among the minorities, despite India's secular=20
fa=E7ade," a leading article in The Nation, one of the main=20
Englishlanguage newspapers, said.

Violence against Muslims in India has provoked a strong reaction from=20
Pakistani authorities in the past, but the military Government, which=20
is locked in a war with religious extremists at home, has resisted=20
holding the Indian authorities responsible for the killings of=20
Muslims. Instead, Islamabad has described the riots as a "law and=20
order problem inside India" and sympathised with "all those who have=20
suffered as a result of the violence".

The statement is a clear departure from traditional official=20
reaction, when only the killing of Muslims was highlighted, and is,=20
to some extent, reflected in the officially controlled electronic=20
media, which has refrained from using the issue to raise tensions=20
between the two nations.

Some commentators, however, continue to accuse India's nationalist=20
Hindu BJP Government of fuelling the communal strife to "serve its=20
vested political interests".

The Nation wrote: "The self-serving Hindutva Policies of the ruling=20
coalition have systematically stoked communal frenzy in multi-ethnic=20
India."

The allegation first made by George Fernandes, the Indian Defence=20
Minister, that the Inter Services Intelligence, Pakistan's military=20
spy agency, might have been involved in instigating the communal=20
riots has provoked intense criticism from Pakistan's private and the=20
official media.

The most respected English language newspaper, Dawn, told the Indian=20
authorities not to "point fingers at Pakistan" for the strife and=20
instead concentrate on controlling the violence.

"When the armies of both nations are depoyed eyeball to eyeball along=20
their borders, a miscalculation on either side could lead to a war,"=20
a leading article in the paper said.

Some commentators cite the heightening of HinduMuslim tension to=20
justify Pakistan's claim on Kashmir, the only Muslim majority state=20
in India. The troubled state has been at the centre of a longstanding=20
conflict between the two nuclear nations.

"Muslims do not have any democratic and human rights in India," Nawai=20
Waqt an influential right-wing Urdu-language newspaper, said.

Some of Pakistan's right-wing newspapers have revived their old theme=20
that the communal divide would ultimately lead to disintegration of=20
India. "This is a beginning of an end of India as a state," a local=20
Urdu newspaper declared.

However, more rational analysts gave warning against such wishful=20
thinking. They said that instability in India would have a direct=20
bearing on Pakistan.

_____

#3.

[4 March 2002]

GODHRA: TERRORIST ACT STUNNS THE NATION GUJARAT: LAB OF HINDUTVA COMES ALIV=
E

by Batuk Vora (from Ahmedabad on the spot)

Situation in Gujarat may change by the time this is published.=20
Meanwhile, uneasy peace prevails in big cities today on March 3, with=20
smoldering fire still roasting human bodies and insecurity looming=20
large in sensitive areas. Communal carnage spreading to many other=20
distant towns and even villages with mounting figure of people burnt=20
to death (some 518 till March 3 morning) and crores worth of their=20
shops and houses torched. Forces of political Hindutva seem to be=20
quite happy at what they think they ensured ? chunks and chunks of=20
votes ? once again in the name of Lord Rama, when their fortune was=20
fading in elections and by-elections throughout the country,=20
particularly in Gujarat.-Editor.

Ahmedabad: This was worse, in respect of its political aspect, than=20
the 1984 ?backlash? killing large number of Sikhs at Delhi following=20
Mrs Indira Gandhi?s assassination. This was also ghastlier than the=20
unprecedented communal riot at this same city in 1969 or several=20
other riots during the last 20 years. People outside Gujarat would=20
find it hard to believe what was and is still happening here and what=20
was the difference.

Home Minister L.K.Advani, Lok Sabha member from Gandhinagar, visited=20
the city only after three days of horrendous killings of more than=20
550 innocent people (till March 3 morning). Was such a visit=20
deliberately delayed just as the army?s dispatch and flag march (not=20
handing over to the army as yet, neither declaring the area as=20
?disturbed?) was too delayed? The government circles talked about=20
using the ?POTO? on Godhra killers, but nobody talked of POTO on some=20
of the hardcore VHP leaders responsible for such a frenzy in the=20
aftermath.

Sangh Parivar inspired ?backlash? against killing of VHP Karsevaks in=20
Sabarmati Express was even more ghastly than the incident itself in=20
many ways. It did not appear to be so spontaneous either. Mobs moved=20
in an organized fashion, targeting only the minority community?s=20
properties and houses, one after another, in city after city, village=20
after village wherever they could reach.

No further information was available till today how and why Godhra=20
incident happened and who was behind it. An enquiry commission was=20
announced but no terms were yet known. A report in the local media=20
mentioned an inner power struggle between two factions of Muslims at=20
Dahod and Godhra mosques (between ?Sufis? and ?Salafis?-moderates and=20
fundamentalists) leading to this murderous act. Nothing more is known=20
to the media or to the government either. It was reported two=20
Kashmiri preachers had come there for few days creating their own=20
wing of terrorists before some time. Nobody opposed a war on=20
terrorists and the pattern of war fought by the US administration=20
within its own land should have been followed and no ?retaliation?=20
should have been allowed first of all on such a scale as that of=20
Gujarat.

The words used afterwards-?eye for eye? or ?tit for tat?-sounded=20
quite mild looking at its practice. All the teaching of Mahatma=20
Gandhi or the noble tenets of great religions were thrown in the=20
garbage bins here. Only cry heard was that of Jai Shri Rama and=20
Bharat Mata ki Jai.

Chief Minister Narendra Modi, in his cool and arrogant fashion,=20
declared at the end of first day?s slaughtering that the ?reaction to=20
Godhra was nothing considering the anger among the 5 crore strong=20
Gujarat population. Only 26 places were put under curfew out of=20
18,000 villages.? Responding to a question about total inaction of=20
the police, Ahmedabad city police commissioner Pande said ?policemen=20
too were like others and were infuriated.?

So called retaliation indulged in by the mobs slaughtering hundreds=20
of innocent people and burning down all their properties, with police=20
on some ?mysteriously instructed? standby position, watching or even=20
encouraging the mobs, was beyond any sane person?s understanding.

Police was not visible at all in distant towns and villages where the=20
killing took place unhindered; not even at a city like Bhavnagar or=20
Mehsana on the second and third day. First time in history, north=20
Gujarat villages ? Sardarpura, Kukarvada, Gavada, Sadra, Prantij etc.=20
saw the miscreants and hoodlums with weapons roaming on the streets=20
looting and roasting alive people in their slums and houses.

?We have no more musalman in our village now.? declared a VHP member=20
from Sardarpur, where the charred remains of a house on Sheikh ni=20
Vadi belonging to 28 Muslim farm labourers was torched together with=20
all of them?No firefighter or police reached there nor will it ever.=20

Army was not yet deployed anywhere, except a half a dozen companies=20
at Ahmedabad and Vadodara. In fact, a number of people adhering to=20
communal harmony and peace demanded such a deployment and imposition=20
of nothing less than the President?s rule. Leading citizens and=20
followers of Gandhi were among them, with no effect on the ruling=20
party or its Chief minister. Congress party?s Dharna in front of=20
Chief Minister?s bungalow at Gandhinagar made the same demand of=20
deployment of the army. But despite all the cool and ?self-confidant?=20
assurances of Narendra Modi, army was just told to hold a ?flag=20
march? and no more. It was under extreme provocation at couple of=20
places that the army had to open fire. Chief Minister even boasted=20
today to a TV channel that ?I am on-tele-line with the Prime Minister=20
at least four times everyday and PM is completely satisfied.? 37=20
people were declared to have been shot dead by the police and army.

No surprise, the BJP at one of its official briefing at New Delhi=20
decided to give a clean chit to VHP and commended Narendra Modi for=20
his ?exemplary behaviour? (for allowing Gujarat to burn).

A police sub-inspector interviewed by a national TV channel in front=20
of the burnt down Gulbarg Housing Society at Meghaninagar in=20
Ahmedabad told next day without winking his eyes that ?this gory=20
incident happened only because Ahsan Jafri threw acid and fired at=20
the crowd ?when this crowd of about 10,000 was surging towards his=20
house.? He was talking about this horrendous act of burning alive the=20
former Congress member of parliament Ahsan Jafri together with his=20
family and 38 other residents of this colony on the first day of=20
Bandh Feb. 28.

Obviously this police officer did not mention the fact that late=20
Jafri had made desperate calls to police commissioner, local police,=20
his party leaders right up to the top to Sonia Gandhi from 9 am=20
onward till he might have no option but to fire shots in the air in=20
self-defence at the menacing mob surging at his house with burning=20
torches, iron rods, swords and stones at around 3 pm. Nobody had come=20
to his rescue for more than six hours, not even congressmen, except=20
one Brahmabhatt. TV did not bother to cross check such an absurd=20
police version. Entire local media told a different story, however.

Prof. Bandookwala. A well known secular minded academician, and his=20
house at Vadodara amidst a Hindu locality, were targeted and his=20
entire house was ransacked and his car was set on fire. His daughter=20
said ?we have at this moment no place to live.? They were saved by=20
his Hindu neighbours, who were attacked on second day for protecting=20
him!

Again, on the next day of second Bandh when the Vishwa Hindu Parishad=20
leader Giriraj Kishor and K.K.Shastri declared Gujarat would not=20
observe Bandh during their ?Bharat Bandh? call next day, they did=20
observe Bandh.

Just across the road in front of the State Reserve Police Force=20
(SRPF) headquarters at Naroda Patiya slum with 18 houses and 7 shops,=20
60 people belonging to the minority community( living on stitching=20
and making mattresses and were torched alive by the same kind of mob=20
in the presence of 10 armed SPRF men.

As if in a well organized manner, the VHP-Bajrang Dal-BJP elements in=20
the crowds installed Hanuman idols (or stones) naming it as ?Hulladia=20
Hanuman? (riotous Hanuman) at several demolished Dargahs, mosques or=20
Muslim shrines, so that the same shrines could not be revived in=20
future. In the same way, scores of truck drivers identified as=20
Muslims from their driving licence, were butchered and their=20
truckloads looted and burnt on several highways of the state,=20
particularly those coming from Godhra to Vadodara ? a 90 km road=20
without any policeman around. Drivers of most other vehicles were=20
stopped rudely asking them to repeat Jai Shri Rama and then only=20
allowed to go. Police did not intervene anywhere on such highways.

An eyewitness told this writer that a police officer offered bangles=20
to some onlookers and told them to enjoy the booty when the C.G.Road=20
Muslim owned shops were not yet targeted. Students from a nearby=20
hostel ran in frenzy and looted all the shoes from Metro Shoes,=20
before it was burnt down! Several other luxury stores were too burnt=20
down. Among those who shared the daylight loot of luxury items were=20
some of the elite women and gentlemen driving their automobiles or=20
scooters?!

Dr Mukul Sinha, an activist working among the workers of east=20
Ahmedabad?s thriving industrial area of Khokhra-Mehmdavad told that=20
he with his colleagues tried to save a Janatanagar slum from 12=20
midnight of first day of Bandh by organizing the slum dwellers and=20
shouting back at the Rama-chanting mob till next day?s 1 pm, when a=20
PSI himself was seen helping the mob with his own diesel from his=20
jeep prodding the mob to dowse the slum and its 60 residents with=20
fire.

In front of this writer?s eyes, three properties ? a posh vegetarian=20
restaurant Bhagyoday, a cleaner?s store Edward and a beauty saloon of=20
Shabnam were ransacked, looted and burnt down within minutes by=20
another ?Jai Shri Rama? chanting crowd, with at least half a dozen=20
policemen watching the scene from the close-by Gurukul corner. Little=20
away on Gujarat University ground, a huge handloom exhibition having=20
three or four stalls of handloom and costly carpets owned by Muslims,=20
among dozens of other Hindus, were targeted and burnt down, affecting=20
the entire tented exhibition?smoke bellowing for two days.

On March 1st, some ?VHP members from Rajkot called Bhavnagar VHP men=20
to wear bangles? as Bhavnagar city had observed complete peace on=20
Bandh day, while Rajkot itself was set on fire, according to a former=20
BJP minister talking to a Ahmedabad based journalist on phone from=20
Bhavnagar. Soon after a few hours on the second day of Bandh, more=20
than 70 houses and shops and hotels belonging to minority community=20
were burnt down in frenzy by a mob and several people murdered.=20
Police played no role here too.

Gujarat?s only film studio at Halol, in Central Gujarat, called=20
?Lucky Studio,? belonging to Sajid Nadiadwala, was turned into ash=20
and several factories too torched on that road. Six plastic factories=20
at Rajkot were also burned down ? together with 20 other shops and=20
garages. Apparently, the ?decision? was to destroy all the economic=20
means of the minority community.

At the end of it all, a number of Gujaratis have started talking of=20
?us? and ?them? ? an India and Pakistan in every city and village. If=20
the Sangh Parivar wanted its theology to succeed, it was here in=20
their laboratory of Gujarat ? thanks to the Muslim fanatics at Godhra=20
and elsewhere. ?Pakistan finally succeeded in removing a part of=20
Indian army from the border,? commented a professor. THE END

_____

#4.

The Praful Bidwai Column for the week beginning March 4

Categorical Poll Verdict The BJP is unhinged

By Praful Bidwai

The people of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttaranchal and Manipur have=20
handed out a searing, coruscating, damning electoral verdict to the=20
Bharatiya Janata Party. So comprehensive and overwhelming is its=20
defeat that it won=EDt be an exaggeration to say the BJP has been=20
unhinged, especially in UP. This watershed verdict will have a=20
far-reaching impact. It is likely to alter the terms of contestation=20
in India=EDs electoral politics, and slow down neo-liberal economic=20
policies, besides accelerating the decline of the influence of=20
Hindutva politics. There could be no stronger indication of a popular=20
wave against the BJP, its policies, or its governance.

Compare today=EDs political map to what India looked like barely four=20
years ago. Then, the BJP straddled almost half the country like a=20
colossus, ruling in states as varied as UP and Gujarat, Punjab and=20
Madhya Pradesh, Assam and Maharashtra. With the Congress in long-term=20
decline, the BJP seemed unstoppable. Today, its rule is reduced to=20
just three states-only two of them mid-sized, Gujarat and Jharkhand.=20
In only Gujarat does the BJP rule on its own. Nationally, it trails=20
behind the now-revived Congress, which is in power in 14 states, or=20
more than half the country, excluding UP for the moment.

The shrinking of the BJP is nowhere more evident than in UP, the core=20
of the Hindi heartland, and India=EDs bellwether state. Since 1991=20
until last week, the BJP was UP=EDs single largest party, with a=20
consistent 30 percent-plus vote, which peaked at 36.5 percent in the=20
1998 Lok Sabha elections. Today, this has shrivelled to just 21=20
percent. In UP=EDs 403-strong Assembly, it is not even Number Two. Its=20
88-seat tally puts it a good 10 seats below the Bahujan Samaj Party,=20
and way, way, behind the Samajwadi Party combine (146 seats).

The BJP=EDs tally in UP has shrunk by half since 1996. More important,=20
the vote-swing against it is as high as 12.5 percent. This=20
constitutes a robust rejection of the party, far more powerful than=20
the infamous defeat of the Congress in the post-Emergency election of=20
1977. By contrast, the SP and the BSP in UP have gained three=20
percent-plus in votes. Even the Congress has picked up one percentage=20
point.

Only slightly less humiliating is the setback the BJP has suffered in=20
the other three states. In Punjab, where it was a junior partner of=20
the Akali Dal, it only won-despite furious campaigning by Mr Vajpayee=20
and Mr Advani-just three seats, as against 17 in 1997. (The Akalis=20
got a respectable 41, and could have done better had they not split).=20
In Uttaranchal, so rapid was popular disillusionment with the BJP due=20
to its misgovernance over the past year that the Congress trounced it=20
with a clear majority. In Manipur, the BJP-Samata alliance trails=20
behind three other rival blocs. The Manipur State Congress Party, BJP=20
ally at the Centre, has deserted it to join a Congress-led government.

Top BJP leaders, including Mr Vajpayee, now strenuously claim that=20
the elections are no referendum on the party, on Hindutva, or the=20
27-party National Democratic Alliance. This is not surprising. The=20
BJP leaders have been shielding themselves this way ever since a=20
series of opinion polls beginning mid-January gave the BJP poor=20
ratings. They had taken exactly the same line in the 1998 and 2001=20
state Assembly elections-most of which the BJP lost.

However, in some ways, the latest elections are a referendum-above=20
all, for NDA constituents, and for the larger public. The BJP=EDs=20
=ECsecular=EE allies are in the NDA largely out of considerations of=20
power, and to an extent out of their antipathy towards the Congress.=20
Now, many of them will conclude that a party reduced to a little rump=20
in just four states cannot provide the fulcrum of a stable national=20
government. They could soon start looking for alternatives.

For the Indian public, the results signify a forceful rejection of=20
Hindutva politics. This politics recently took two forms: revival of=20
the VHP=EDs Ram temple agitation, and a campaign focussed on=20
=ECterrorism=EE and =ECthreats to national security=EE, backed by communall=
y=20
driven war-mongering, and a furious military build-up with over seven=20
lakh men at the border. But the temple issue proved a complete=20
dud-whether in Ayodhya or Lucknow. Equally, the people refused to be=20
swayed by the BJP=EDs hysterical, ultra-nationalist, =ECanti-terrorism=EE=20
campaign, which tarred all Muslims, and Islam itself, with the=20
fanatical/ terrorist brush. Both these =ECtrump cards=EE failed miserably.

The quality of the BJP=EDs defeat cannot be explained by the=20
=ECanti-incumbency=EE burden. The vote-swing against it is much higher=20
than the typical five percent =ECanti-incumbency=EE vote-shift.=20
=ECAnti-incumbency=EE does not work universally, in isolation from a=20
party=EDs record of governance. In recent years, ruling parties have=20
been repeatedly returned to power: e.g. the Congress in Madhya=20
Pradesh, Telegu Desam in Andhra, and the Left Front in West=20
Bengal-this last for the sixth consecutive term. Besides, the BJP=20
tried to counter the incumbency disadvantage by changing leaders in=20
mid-stream in UP and Uttaranchal. If anti-incumbency was the critical=20
issue, then it is hard to explain the differential treatment accorded=20
by the voter to the Akali Dal and the BJP in Punjab.

The plain truth is that the verdict represents a resounding and=20
comprehensive rejection of the BJP. It is a vote against the party=EDs=20
market-fundamentalist neo-liberalism and its conservative social=20
policies, all reflected in its appalling misgovernance: 16 hour-long=20
power cuts and non-payment of salaries to government employees in UP,=20
neglect of people=EDs needs and development issues in Uttaranchal,=20
massive corruption in Punjab, and near-collapse of public services in=20
all four states.

The election results will have a far-reaching impact on national=20
politics though they will not immediately destabilise the Vajpayee=20
government. Most important, they will erode the NDA=EDs-and Mr=20
Vajpayee=EDs-already diminished legitimacy and moral authority. The BJP=20
is turning out to be dysfunctional as the core of a national-level=20
alliance. Mr Vajpayee=EDs so-called =ECstar campaigning=EE has proved=20
hopelessly ineffectual. The BJP has few assets to offer to its=20
allies. Not to be ignored is the verdict=EDs impact on the presidential=20
elections due in July. In today=EDs situation of political turmoil, the=20
President will acquire a large role. After losing the four states=20
(and probably the coming Rajya Sabha elections too), the BJP will be=20
poorly placed to influence that contest.

However, the verdict=EDs biggest impact will be felt in national=20
coalition-making. For instance, if the SP and Congress come together=20
even for limited tactical reasons in UP, and if Mr Ajit Singh=EDs=20
Rashtriya Lok Dal joins them, they will potentially generate a new=20
national alliance. If, on the other hand, the BJP and the BSP=20
coalesce in Lucknow, then the NDA will get a national boost and an=20
extra 14 Lok Sabha seats-although going by past experience, this=20
arrangement won=EDt be durable.

The UP situation is fluid as I write this. Many BJP leaders,=20
especially Messrs Advani, Rajnath Singh and Jana Krishnamurthy, are=20
set against allying with Ms Mayawati. They feel this will further=20
discredit their already directionless party and antagonise what is=20
left of its upper-caste base; the BJP could be wiped out in the 2004=20
Lok Sabha elections. Mr Vajpayee, on the other hand, is unconcerned=20
about the BJP=EDs long-term future, and keen on a BSP-BJP alliance. But=20
Mr Ajit Singh is balking at this. Without his 14 MLAs, the BJP-BSP=20
can=EDt form a government. So some BJP leaders are making a virtue out=20
of necessity by declaring their =ECprincipled=EE choice to sit in=20
opposition.

The SP has thrown its hat in the ring as the single largest party.=20
But to form a government, it needs credible support from the Congress=20
(26 seats) and from the independents and small parties. As it=20
happens, these numbers add up to a simple majority if even only half=20
of Mr Ajit Singh=EDs MLAs join the alliance, of if the BSP splits, as=20
is its wont. There are 32 upper castes and 15 Muslims, compared to 23=20
Dalits, among the BSP=EDs elected MLAs. Many have no loyalty to Ms=20
Mayawati, but are desperate to wield power.

Strictly speaking, Governor Vishnu Kant Shastri should discourage any=20
bid by a party (BJP) which has lost an election, to return to power=20
via an alliance. He should make a fair and dispassionate judgment on=20
the basis of extensive consultations on who can provide a viable=20
government. Today, an SP-Congress-RKP-RLD-Independents coalition=20
seems far better placed to do so than the BJP-BSP. Tragically, Mr=20
Shastri is a hardcore RSS man, who cannot be credited with fairness,=20
moral balance or discrimination. Thus, we might see a mess in UP for=20
the next week or longer. However, no one should miss the writing on=20
the wall.-end-

POSTSCRIPT: Godhra is part of that same wall--except that the writing=20
is in blood. The violence there directly arose from the provocative=20
Ayodhya campaign, aided and abetted by the Gujarat government and the=20
Indian Railways, compounded by fanatical-communal Muslim=20
overreaction. Since then, there have been terrible, calculated,=20
planned, reprisals, claiming more life and property. When will our=20
communalists stop playing with fire?

_____

#5.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution (USA)
SATURDAY * March 2, 2002

INDIA: Indians in Atlanta united in deploring homeland violence
Hindus, Muslims fear for democracy
Shelia M. Poole - Staff
http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/epaper/editions/saturday/news_c308b7fef292=
51bf00bf.html

_____

#6.

The Christian Science Monitor (USA)
Commentary
from the March 04, 2002 edition
http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0304/p10s02-comv.html

Hindu-Muslim Violence
Hindu zealots are on the verge of fanning a religious civil war=20
against India's 130 million Muslims. The world's largest democracy=20
can hardly afford it.

The last time Hindu militants unleashed violence against Muslims was=20
in 1992, when they tore down a mosque in Ayodhya to make way for a=20
temple to the Hindu god Ram. Over 2,000 people were killed then. The=20
attacks of last week, however, occurred while the Hindu nationalist=20
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) holds power.)

The party's weak response to the killings - more than 500 so far -=20
should awaken Indians to the danger of letting ardent advocates of=20
one religion claim any authority over secular government.

Muslim-Hindu clashes, of course, are nothing new to India. The 1947=20
partition of the subcontinent into India and two Muslim states led to=20
immense violence, later wars, and now a nuclear standoff between=20
Pakistan and India.

But this latest violence, centered in the state of Gujarat, provides=20
a warning that India's democracy still needs strong defenders against=20
the nativist tendencies of the dominant religion. India need only=20
look to Iran to see how a nation's progress can be held back by=20
letting religious radicals rule.

Fortunately, democracy itself has a way of reducing communal=20
tensions. Muslims have found respected places in India's government=20
and other centers of power, while the BJP itself has been=20
backpedaling on its pro-Hindu stance in order just to stay in power.=20
Voters are demanding faster economic progress. Hindu-Muslim violence=20
only weakens the nation's ability to win foreign investment.

How well the BJP stands up to Hindu radicals in coming days will set=20
India's course for the near future.

______

#7.

Outlookindia.com
OPINION
The Revenge Cycle Has To Stop
This is a time for reflection not revenge -- and for the writ of the=20
law and order to be restored. Free Speech: Riot After Riot
SUNDEEP DOUGAL
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=3D20020228&fname=3Dgujrat&sid=
=3D4

_____

#8.

The Guardian
Monday March 4, 2002

Burned in bed as Indian violence spirals
Muslims flee to ghettoes as Hindu mobs bring religious cleansing to Gujarat

Luke Harding in Savala
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,661247,00.html

______

#9.

Los Angeles Times March 4, 2002
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-000016313mar04.story?c=
oll=3Dla%2Dnews%2Da%5Fsection=20

Neighbors Trade Accusations of Orchestrated Violence in India
By PAUL WATSON, TIMES STAFF WRITER

______

#10.

The Washington Post | Monday, March 4, 2002; Page A11
In Wake of Attacks, Indian City's Hindus, Muslims Move Apart
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33181-2002Mar3.html

_____

#11.

The Irish Times | March 4, 2002
Gandhi's dream turns into a sectarian nightmare
>From Rahul Bedi, in Ahmadabad
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/world/2002/0304/3445709731FR04RAHULCOLOUR.=
html

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