[sacw] SACW #2 | 25 May 02

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire Dispatch #2 | 25 May 2002
http://www.mnet.fr
__________________________

#1. Appeal to citizens and to corporate bodies for Building Materials=20
for Gujarat victims (SPRAT)
#2. Urgent Appeal for Volunteers for month for work in Ahmedabad=20
(Shabnam Hashmi)
#3. Poetry reading to reaffirm our human concerns in the light of=20
terrible events in Gujarat (28 May, Bombay)
#4. Oxford Seminar - Conceptualising the Indian Variant of 'Facism' (30 May=
)
#5. Lecture : Human Rights & the Crisis of Governance: A case study=20
from Gujurat (28 May, Uppsalla)
#6. Book review : India and world concern on Gujarat (A. G. Noorani)
#7. Who Lit The Fire ? (I.K.Shukla)
#8. An Open Letter to Jaya Jaitly from Aman Ekta Manch posted to Indian Exp=
ress
#9. Gujarat CDs spin hate as riots pause (Ayesha Khan)

__________________________

#1.

Appeal to citizens and to corporate bodies for Building Materials for=20
Gujarat victims

Monsoons and closure of relief camps leave little time to rebuild the=20
destroyed houses of the devastated poor.

SPRAT - supported by distinguished persons and run professionally -=20
appeals for generous donations of building material [cement, roofing=20
sheets / tiles, tadpatri, bricks, beams / bamboos, water /electrical=20
& other fittings]

Reconstruct - to restore normalcy

Best regards
M H Jowher
SPRAT
[Society for the Promotion of Rational Thinking]
Adm. Office:
Rajnagar Complex, Narayan Nagar Road
Paldi, AHMEDABAD 380 007
Regd Office:
A-1, Moonbaker Duplex, Rajnagar Complex, Vishwakunj,
Paldi, AHMEDABAD 380 007 INDIA
Tel: +79-663 46 55 /66 /77 [1000-1800 Hrs]
Tel: +79-661 40 95 / 20 45 [2000-2100 Hrs]
Fax: +79-661 20 49
Web: www.riotinfo.com
e-mail: sprat@r...

_____

#2.

From: "shabnam hashmi" <shabhashmi@h...>
Date: Fri, 24 May 2002 16:28:46 +0000

Urgent Appeal

Volunteers who can spare at least a month and are ready to put in=20
hard work in Ahmedabad please contact me urgently.

1. A group of 10 students/ activists/ volunteers to conduct=20
immediately a survey to assess the actual damage to persons and=20
properties.Volunteers required to go to areas and fill the=20
questionnaires.

2. Volunteers with editorial skills-English/ Hindi if possible=20
Gujarati knowing. Writing of reports, documentation etc.

3. camerapersons with cameras.

4. Computer experts- PHP/CGI-Prl/ data management SPSS,

5. Volunteer teachers to teach 10 and 12 th students.

Shabnam Hashmi <shabhashmi@h...>

9810633765

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#3

> Dear friends,
> We invite you to a multi lingual poetry reading to reaffirm our
> human concerns in the light of the terrible events in Gujarat.
> Please understand that though the voice of poetry is small in volume
> compared to the deafening din of the mass media, the slogans shouted at
> political rallies, and populist yells and shrieks, it is the refined voi=
ce
> of civilization against barbarism.
> We use the word "himsa" in our thematization because it reminds us of
> "ahimsa" that Mohandas Gandhi considered the supreme criterion of the
human
> right practice. We used the language "saakshi" because conscience is the
> only witness in human affairs. A poet's language is, among other things,=
a
> voice of conscience.
>
> Tuesday 28-5-2002
> Time: 6:00 - 8:30 pm
> Venue: Committee Room, SNDT university bldg.
> Ground Floor, near Patkar hall, Church gate, Mumbai-20.
>
> We expect some twenty poets from five Indian Languages
> (English-Marathi-urdu-hindi and gujarati) to be reading their poems.
> We request you to forward this invitation to all those concerned
>

_____

#4.

Queen Elizabeth House, 21 St Giles, Oxford OX1 3LA [UK]
Contemporary South Asia Seminar

Title: Conceptualising the Indian Variant of 'Facism'
Speaker: Gilbert Sebastian (Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi)

30 May 2002 - 14:00 - Venue: Blackhall Seminar Room

Organisers: Dr Nandini Gooptu, Prof Barbara Harriss-White

_____

#5.

Human Rights and the Crisis of Governance: A case study from Gujurat, India
Professor H.C Shukul, Department of Political Science, M.S.=20
University of Baroda, India.

Time: Tuesday, May 28, 13.15-15.00
Place: International Training Centre, =D6vre Slottsgatan 5, room 4.=20
Uppsala University , Uppsala , Sweden

______

#6.
Frontline
Volume 19 - Issue 11, May 25 - June 07, 2002

BOOKS
India and world concern on Gujarat

A. G. NOORANI

Accountability for Human Rights Atrocities in International Law:=20
Beyond the Nuremberg Legacy by Steven R. Ratner and Jason S. Abrams;=20
Oxford University Press; pages 435, =A316.99.

International Law and the Rights of Minorities by Peter Thornberry;=20
Clarendon Press, OUP; pages 451, =A325.

International Law by Antonio Cassese; Oxford University Press; pages=20
469, Rs.645 (in India).
http://www.flonnet.com/fl1911/19110720.htm

______

#7.

WHO LIT THE FIRE ?

I.K.Shukla

This is the rhetorical question asked by Vajpayee in respect of=20
Gujarat. On the face of it, it is brutally banal and stunningly=20
bathetic in the extreme. He, however, believes it is a trump.=20
Honestly speaking, it is sheer trumpery or non sequitur. Either he=20
knows the answer and is voluntarily sinking into the mode of delusory=20
denial, or he has convinced himself that such an elocutionary device=20
is impressive theatre prompting and ensuring in abundance the=20
plaudits of his claque. Never mind if others =96 the nation and the=20
international community - find it pitiably infantile or rank=20
demagoguery at its damnedest worst. I will ask him: Is nudity a mask?

For, were he seeking an answer to this question in earnest, he would=20
not have to go far. And, since he knows full well who lit the fire,=20
he is duty bound as a black-capped and knicker-clad swayamsewak=20
(serving himself) to dodge the answer by drawing red herrings across=20
the unending trail of blood and fire that is Gujarat, courtesy his=20
cohorts, who have never stinted in flaunting their outrageous=20
achievement in the =93laboratory of Hindutva=94, and who have speedily=20
and insanely christened it =93Gujarat Shaurya=94. In Hindutva diction,=20
arsonists, assassins, robbers, and rapists are warriors. In Hindutva=20
discourse, the scum are the salt of the earth of Bharat Mata.

To Vajpayee and Hindutva gangsters Gujarat may be Valhalla, but to=20
others Gujarat is a stinking charnel house and vultures its vault, a=20
labyrinthine mortuary, an open abattoir, and a fenceless graveyard,=20
not only of the minorities, but of all that the civilizational India=20
enshrined and exemplified over several millennia, and of all that the=20
Indian state aspired and pledged itself to: an egalitarian identity,=20
a pluralistic community, a secular society, and a democratic polity.

The incipient Hindu Rashtra of Vajpayee=92s dreams has materialized as=20
Gujarat which he would like to extend to all of India. Since he has=20
justified, rationalized, and complimented the crimes of Hindutva=20
criminals in Gujarat whether against Christians or Muslims, he does=20
not want to know who lit the fire. But nudity is not a mask. Has=20
never been, can never be. Nor lies can be worn as camouflage fatigues=20
by the HinduTaliban horde of marauders and murderers rampaging in and=20
laying waste to Gujarat.

It was a conspiracy long in preparation and hatched insidiously over=20
decades that culminated at an opportune time into the Gujarat=20
holocaust, apparently to =93fit=94 Godhra. Golwalkar, the =93guru=94 of th=
e=20
assassins, rapists, and pyromaniacs of the Sangh syndicate, had=20
detailed his plan (that nurtured the likes of Vajpayee and Advani) on=20
how purity of Bharat can be achieved by purging it of =93foreigners=94=20
and communists. That Bharat of Hindutva dream Vajpayee pledged to=20
realize, in Statten Island, New York. That Bharat, at the micro=20
level, or in the first instalment, was realized in Gujarat. Vajpayee=20
has every reason to be jubilant as a black-cap swayamsewak in=20
knickers, with the right hand across the chest, the Heil Hitler=20
salute. Who lit the fire?

To refresh his memory, if he has still one functioning and not=20
susceptible to frequent lapses into swoons, let him recall Vinayak=20
Damodar Savarkar=92s speeches and writings which sowed the seeds of=20
communal secessionism. Savarkar beat Jinnah by three years in his=20
campaign for two Indias. It was not Jinnah who was a traitor, or the=20
first traitor, to the cause of an undivided India; it was Savarkar,=20
and Hindu Mahasabha in its several sessions. To hail him, a=20
pro-British collaborator, as a freedom fighter is an insult to truth,=20
a travesty of history, and an egregiously warped ethics. Vajpayee=92s=20
pantheon is made up of those who poisoned the Indian nationhood,=20
splintered it into communal shards, and violated and vandalized the=20
Indian ethos. The wound inflicted on India by the Sangh Parivar is=20
too deep for tears.

It is not ancient history that Vajpayee has to delve into. Pamphlets=20
in thousands were distributed in Gujarat by RSS-VHP over the years=20
past on how to commit arson, assassination, mass slaughter, and=20
selective robbery against Christians and Muslims, and not get caught=20
in the web of law. Anti-social lumpens, anti-national criminals, and=20
communal subversives were enlisted, trained, funded, and armed by=20
the Sangh Brigade over the years past, and not only in Gujarat.

If he as Prime Minister did not know of it, he chose not to know. The=20
pretence of plausible deniability would not serve him because he was=20
a partisan and an accessory to this diabolical blueprint of Hindu=20
Rashtra. This is the Raj Dharma he enjoined upon the Gujarat CM, who=20
aptly retorted that he, ever alert as a RSS robot, needed no=20
reminders or exhortations. Both played their allotted roles in a=20
murderous masquerade superbly, correct to a T.

What the CM of Gujarat has seemingly single-handedly achieved and=20
been acclaimed for by the Vajpayee-Advani-led Hindutva juggernaut,=20
has had contributory input, long and lethal, of the entire Sanghi=20
grid awash in a grisly ideology and sustained by a ghoulish code of=20
conduct. Before the holocaust began, Modi instructed the police to=20
desist from functioning and play cunningly deaf if not dead. After=20
the pogrom tapered off he punished those officers who had forgotten=20
their puppet roles in the charade.

These are the ingredients, all too palpable and pernicious, of a=20
feral conspiracy which was both meticulously thorough and=20
systemically planned. The state in Gandhinagar and New Delhi both=20
acted in ruthless concert and also capsized voluntarily. Who lit the=20
fire?

If it were possible to cure Vajpayee of his reflexive slide into=20
trances he could be made to hear the Puri Shankaracharya (The Deccan=20
Chronicle, Hyderabad, 14 April):

Squarely blaming Vajpayee for the murder of Muslims and destruction of =
=20
their property in Gujarat, he said what happened in Gujarat was not a=20
spontaneous reaction but the outcome of a well-planned move by the=20
RSS,VHP and other communal forces with the able support of the=20
government machinery.

Addressing a large gathering at a national-level Convention on=20
Communal Harmony=85he said instead of taking stern action against=20
Gujarat CM and initiating steps to rehabilitate the victims and gain=20
confidence of the minorities, Vajpayee was shamelessly backing the=20
Gujarat government.

=93Vajpayee sabse bada papi hai. Woh girgit ki tarah rang badalta hai Sangh
Parivar ka agenda implement karne ke liye=85[Vajpayee is the greatest=20
sinner, changes color like a chameleon in order to implement Sangh=20
family agenda.]

Leaders like Vajpayee and those from the RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal should=20
stop indulging in communal-based politics.

Those who mislead the citizens in the name of religion should be=20
driven out of the country=85They are trying to divide the nation by=20
destroying the lives and properties of the nation in the name of=20
religion=85In fact, they are the number one deshdrohis [traitors].=94

I will ask the =93number one deshdrohis [traitors]=94 if they did not,=20
then who else lit the fire?

Let them honestly admit it in unreserved and earnest contrition and=20
in atonement for their crimes against humanity, against Hinduism,=20
against fellow citizens, and against India. Let them be honest and=20
apologize for their heinous savagery and horrid brutality to Muslims,=20
to India, and to the international humanity at large. Let them beg=20
mercy and forgiveness from the murdered, the raped, the burnt, the=20
looted, the destroyed, the devastated, and the dead of the violated=20
Bharat Mata.

If they don=92t, then that would only confirm what we all have known=20
from day one that it is they who lit the fire, beginning with the=20
Christian, Staines family, in Orissa, and concluding with the Muslim=20
holocaust in Gujarat. It will also confirm that they intend to=20
continue on this ignominious path of death and destruction, darkness=20
and degeneracy, terrorism and treason. As such they have no place in=20
India. And, pace Puri Shankaracharya, they must be driven out of=20
India. Out of existence.

For, despite their propaganda drums thundering unceasingly, nudity=20
could not mask them in the past nor will it now. The arsonists,=20
rapists, and assassins stand exposed =96 as beasts and brutes, as=20
subhuman freaks, as worms and vermin. Hindutva proved to be flimsier=20
than a fig leaf to cover up their crimes.

In avenging Ayodhya and the humiliating poll reverses in four state=20
assemblies, they went berserk. Gujarat as the staging area for=20
settling scores came handy. It had been dressed up long ago for the=20
bloody sacrifice that began on 28 Feb. 2002. That it was determined=20
far in advance could be gauged from the swift and voluminous resource=20
mobilization, the scale, the savagery, the venality, and the vicious=20
violence of staggering magnitude. They lit the fire. They=20
commandeered nudity to be their mask.

Nothing can exculpate the Reprobates=92 Syndicate of Sin except=20
expiation for their maha paap, the mega sin in Gujarat. Vajpayee, the=20
Maha Brahman, should lead the atonement. Customarily though, Maha=20
Brahmans have been presiding over death and obsequies for a fee.

Words have radically changed their connotations in the Hindutva=20
discourse. Now Maha Aarati launches violence. It is redundant to ask=20
who lit the fire.

20 May 02

______

#8.

1) An Open Letter to Jaya Jaitly from Aman Ekta Manch posted to Indian Expr=
ess

An Open Letter to Jaya Jaitly
Dear Ms. Jaya Jaitly,
While we have noted with increasing shock your reactionary comments=20
to peoples' concerns over the carnage in Gujarat, your op-ed in the=20
Indian Express on Thursday May 16 2002 'Secular Parivar: The new=20
fundamentalists' comes as the final straw. We are shocked and enraged=20
by your pathetic nationalist posturing and defense of both a=20
government that has failed its people, and an alliance driven by=20
shallow political self-interest.
Firstly the parallels you have drawn between the 'Sangh Parivar' and=20
the 'Secular Parivar' are really stretching your defense to the=20
limit; to even suggest that concerned citizens, anti communalism=20
movements, civil society groups and the writers you have noted in=20
your article are in any way part of an ideology and 'plan of action'=20
- or even have implications - in any way similar to the Sangh Parivar=20
is ludicrous. Over and above that you have gone so far as to term=20
these persons 'the new fundamentalists' reflecting a serious lack of=20
conceptual understanding on your part regarding their role in a=20
constitutionally democratic, secular nation and to the term=20
'fundamentalists'.
The term 'secularism' has been tossed to and fro, flung around and=20
critiqued for a while now. As a debate, it has outlived its utility.=20
The need of the hour is not a circus on semantics, but to address the=20
issues of continuing violence, ensuring justice, pulling up a non=20
responsive government, ameliorating horrific conditions of relief=20
camps and concerted efforts to rebuild confidence in affected areas=20
and communities. How long, we wonder, can one defend the=20
indefensible, by skipping around the terrain of a word?
As for giving 'the NDA Govt - and the nation - a bad name', let us=20
not credit these 'few 'secular' men and women' for this achievement.=20
Surely the government and yourself have the faculties to understand=20
that it has taken more than that. From your statement we are led to=20
believe that the NDA and the 'nation' as you see it, is living in a=20
glass bubble or an ivory tower; it seriously needs to take a moment=20
and reflect on this. Who has given it a bad name - a few people who=20
have in different ways defended what they perceive as secularism? Or=20
could it be the hypocrisy of the Prime Minister, the repugnant=20
comments of the Defence Minister, the murderous arrogance of the=20
Gujarat Chief Minister, the absolute disregard for justice and=20
principles exhibited by members of the alliance, the innumerable=20
indictments of fact finding reports, whether of independent groups or=20
the National Human Rights Commission, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty=20
International and so on, and finally the unrepentant and criminal=20
actions of the VHP/Bajrang Dal/RSS?
You mention that these secularists had 'been screaming ever since=20
this Government came to power and declared its aim of building a=20
strong, resurgent and confident India'. It is at this point that you=20
perhaps stoop lower than ever. There were many more people who=20
opposed the creation of this Government - often, with extremely good=20
reason. By posing them as hysterical, anti-national, fame-seeking,=20
paranoid voices, you are only doing a grave injustice to democracy.=20
Fearing a long term outcome of having a party in power driven by a=20
Hindutva masculine ideology, and being able to analyse the effects=20
and meaning of Ayodhya are concerns which were valid at the time, and=20
have over the years unfortunately magnified. The 'blind hatred of a=20
government' that you speak of is actually criticism founded in fact,=20
reason and evidence of the BJP's political history and ideology, and=20
contextualized in an environment of democratic resistance. To call=20
those who criticize you 'blind' smacks of a superior attitude and=20
intolerance of political and democratic dissent.
It is unclear what exactly you are attempting to justify. Your=20
defense of the tests at Pokhran on the grounds of the 'ominous and=20
precarious security environment in the neighbourhood', and your=20
proclamation that it is because of the tests that we are suddenly=20
doing so well for ourselves in the WTO and with other countries, is a=20
further shock. Now that we are all secure after Pokhran, we should=20
let the women survivors of unmentionable acts of bestiality and=20
violence in the relief camps know of all that the government has=20
done. You go on to show Arundhati Roy, Tarun Tejpal and Madhu Kishwar=20
as anti nationals (and thereby yourself as a true nationalist) who=20
are propagating pessimism and a loss of hope in the nation. Whether=20
or not this sentiment is shared by the rest of the country or not,=20
your intent in highlighting these three persons is suspect. Such=20
nationalist posturing on your part is offensive, particularly for=20
some of us who as women's groups know only too well the violent and=20
dangerous implications of such systems of belief on women's lives and=20
their bodies. This is also more than evident in the testimonies of=20
the hundreds of women who have been raped and burned alive, or left=20
to die, because for the rapists - this was an expression of their=20
nationalism.
Finally, your despair that such writers are doing what they are in a=20
'bid to play petulant politics or perhaps for a slice of momentary=20
fame' is objectionable, and brings the dialogue down to the level of=20
mudslinging, and only ends up trivialising serious concerns. Any=20
attempts towards justice must begin with the government and members=20
of the alliance facing up to the criticism they have received, and=20
understanding that these are made in the interest of the people and=20
the nation they so cockily claim ownership over. Perhaps it is time=20
for you and your colleagues to interrogate your notion of nationalism.
Aman Ekta Manch
Aman Ekta Manch is a coalition of over 200 civil society=20
organizations and individuals who are committed to democracy and non=20
violence, and who are working to strengthen the people=92s movement=20
against the politics of hate and communalism.

____

#9.

Indian Express, May 23, 2002

Gujarat CDs spin hate as riots pause
Ayesha Khan
http://www.indian-express.com/full_story.php?content_id=3D3167

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