[sacw] SACW | 11 August 02

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire | 11 August 2002

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#1. Pakistan : The ugly State terror in rural Punjab (South Asia Tribune)
#2. India: An Open Letter to Gujarat CM Narendra Modi (M.N. Buch)
#3. India: The Plot Thickens - Modi jettisons one minister he lost 
faith in but how many more can he sacrifice? (Manu Joseph)
#4. India: Scribes decry bid to gag press +
-Kafka, karma and dharma (Tarun Tejpal)
- Tehelka Reporter Stripped In Jail
#5. India - Pakistan: The trial of Mountbatten : Kuldip Nayar
#6. India: Aman Ekta Manch Workshop (17th Aug., New Delhi)
#7. India: Crafty Modi (The Economist)
#8. India Pakistan Arms Race & Militarisation Watch (IPARMW) # 86 | 
11 August 2002

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#1.

South Asia Tribune
Issue No 4, Aug 10-16, 2002

The ugly State terror in rural Punjab

Special SAT Report

ISLAMABAD: On August 14, the Independence Day of Pakistan, the 
Capital Islamabad is poised to witness and hear one of the most 
tragic stories of recent times, one which is a tragedy of gross human 
rights violations, rape, State brutality, torture, injuries and even 
deaths.

Hundreds of thousands of poor, landless farm workers and peasants 
from the heartland of Pakistan's fertile Punjab Province, will march 
on the capital to protest a dirty campaign of repression and violence 
by feudal landlords and Pakistan Army, the biggest land holder, 
against one million landless tenants who have been working on these 
lands for over a century.

President Pervez Musharraf promised these tenants ownership rights in 
his campaign for his referendum but after it was over, the most 
brutal campaign of terror has been unleashed by the military and 
civil authorities to uproot and evict them. In the process dozens of 
women have been raped, hundreds of protestors have been arrested, 
over 1,000 criminal cases have been registered and five persons have 
lost their lives in clashes with the authorities.

Crushed to the bones, these tenants have arisen in revolt and formed 
groups, including those of sticks carrying women, to resist the Army 
takeover of their lands. Surprisingly no political or 
religiouspartyhas come to their support, as most of the parties are 
stuffed with feudal landlords who want to protect the unjust division 
of land in their areas and want to exploit the poor tenants.

Their story is straightforward. Forcibly migrated from East Punjab to 
districts such as Okara, Khanewal, and Sargodha at the turn of the 
century by the British, they were promised ownership rights of land 
that was covered by forests. The British were constructing a 
comprehensive canal irrigation system and needed manual labour to 
make it operational. The tenants proceeded to transform huge forested 
areas into productive estates. From the beginning, the tenure 
arrangement has been sharecropping, with the authorities claiming at 
least half of any harvest share. More than twenty farms spread out 
across 68,000 acres of land have been in existence now for almost a 
century.

The land is owned by the government of Punjab. However, it is 
controlled by a variety of government agencies, most falling under 
the overall umbrella of the Agriculture department such as the Punjab 
Seed Corporation, Livestock Department, and a variety of research 
farms. Land that is not controlled by agricultural-related agencies 
is in the possession of the military. The largest farm spread out 
over 17,000 acres in Okara is controlled by the military. Some of the 
agencies that control that land initially leased it from the 
government of Punjab. However, not one single farm administration now 
has a valid lease. They are, in essence, illegal occupants. Yet still 
they have claimed harvest shares from the tenants for decades.

In June 2000, the administration of Okara military dairy farm 
approached the 150,000 tenants tilling the land, demanding that they 
sign contracts to alter their tenancy arrangement. One hundred years 
of tenancy and the rights that such status ensures were suddenly 
threatened. In retrospect, the announcement of corporate farming 
initiatives explain the need for tenants to be replaced by contract 
workers with minimal rights. Nevertheless, the only important issue 
for the tenants was that relinquishing their tenancy status would 
mean that they could be evicted. And so the resistance began in 
earnest.

The movement has been quite remarkable in its unity and commitment, 
with its basic slogan from early on being 'malki ya maut' (ownership 
rights or death). Women have been considerably more active than men, 
especially in terms of resisting police actions. Symbolically, women 
activists have created a thappa force, which undertakes the 
responsibility of being the first line of defence. A thappa is a 
wooden stick used to wash clothes. Beyond the thappa force, there is 
a coordinated response mechanism that has been employed through which 
a hooter is sounded if an action is anticipated. When this hooter 
sounds, virtually every man, woman, and child emerge from their homes 
to defend themselves through non-violent means. Another very 
compelling fact is that a large proportion of the tenants are 
Christian. In a country where religious and sectarian tensions have 
worsened over time, the fact that such a large number of people from 
different faiths are engaged as a collective in a movement such as 
this is very significant.

The movement is very organic with all decisions and interactions with 
the government conducted entirely by the tenants themselves. There is 
good representation of women and Christians within the leadership, 
and the leadership is ultimately accountable to the general public - 
the spirit of democracy that runs through the movement is something 
that many so-called democrats could learn from. Till now, hundreds of 
activists have been thrown in jail, many of whom have not been 
released. Thousands have been charged under various draconian 
criminal laws, including an anti-terrorist legislation.

In the farm in Khanewal, phone, electricity and water connections 
have been severed for an extended period of time. The lack of water 
meant that the latest cotton crop was almost completely destroyed. 
Smaller farms where there are fewer tenants in Kala Shah Kaku and 
Multan have faced even stiffer harassment from the authorities. There 
have been numerous police actions in which tenants have faced direct 
firing and shelling. Yet, despite the hardship, the tenants stand 
firm and the state is running out of ideas.

The current spate of actions against the tenants started immediately 
after the referendum, primarily because the tenants refused to 
surrender their traditional share of the wheat harvest. In an 
expression of almost complete revolt, the movement was transformed 
into a national movement, and not soon after, got international 
support, although limited. The local vernacular press in Pirowal 
provided support as have certain English dailies which are read by 
the ruling elite. Other social movements have also directly supported 
the movement, and in Lahore and Islamabad, there has been support 
from a variety of organizations, including a confederation of social 
movements called the People's Rights Movement (PRM). PRM and other 
groups have networked with the tenants organization, Anjuman Mazarain 
Punjab, internationally through the BBC and the print press, and also 
through international farmers unions and human rights organizations

Local politicians have been careful not to support the movement 
outright for fear of agitating the government. It is a sad reality 
that politics is still manipulated by the army. New local councilors 
and mayors have also provided stop-gap support at best. Being part of 
the government set-up, it is difficult for them to stand with the 
tenants. In the final analysis, it is important to remember that the 
land is actually owned by the provincial government and that the 
military and other departments are illegally occupying it.

The tenants leadership accuses the secret agencies of threatening to 
eliminate them physically in case they raise their hue and cry 
against the persecution of tenants in Khanewal, Okara and other 10 
state farms owned by the Punjab government. The leaders have given 
graphic details with names of officials who have sexually abused 
women. One leader, The AMP chairman, Anwar Dogar claimed that all the 
women who were subjected to sexual abuse by the government 
functionaries had told him in person about the barbarity. "It has now 
almost become an established ritual. Farm owners and officials even 
invite their friends to join their ugly abuse of poor farm women."

Explaining the nature of threats to the lives of thousands of tenants 
in Khanewal and other parts of Punjuab, Anwar Dogar said the Punjab 
Seed Corporation MD Brigadier Amanullah Niazi had done a huge damage 
not only to their crops by stopping the canal water, but he had also 
damaged the 70 pct land cultivated by the Punjab seed corporation. 
The tenants approached the Lahore High court (Multan bench) which 
ordered the authorities to open water for irrigation, but court 
orders were flouted by the concerned irrigation authorities as the 
army officials were pressurising the officials not to not allow the 
water flow.

The tenants told the press men that now a Ranger Brigadier General 
Hussain Mehdi was leading the persecution of tenants in Khanewal and 
other places and he had threatened them with dire consequences in 
case they did not surrender to his demands. General Mehdi had already 
called the leadership of the tenants at Ranger Headquarters and had 
told them in clear words that if they do not put an end to their 
movement, "he will kill all of them after dragging them to the Indian 
border."

The one question the tenants asked was: How could Pakistan army issue 
such threats to their own citizens. There are no answers but a long 
and arduous struggle is already underway.

Rauf Klasra and Assim Sajjad Akhtar contributed for this report from Islamabad.

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#2.

Mainstream
Volume No. XL
August 11th 2002

An Open Letter to Gujarat CM Narendra Modi
M.N. Buch

Dear Shri Modi,
In the aftermath of the 1992 post-Ayodhya riots, a number of temples 
still in use in Pakistan, especially Sind, were destroyed. It is to 
the credit of Nawaz Sharif, the then Prime Minister of Pakistan, that 
he ordered the repair of each one of these temples and ensured that 
they were restored. Here at home we have the recent example of Guru 
Ki Maseed in Gurdaspur district of Punjab. Guru Hargobind, the Sixth 
Guru, built this mosque for his Muslim followers in the seventeenth 
century. After the partition in 1947 this mosque was taken over by 
the Sikhs and consecrated as a Gurudwara. Fiftyfive years later 
Gurmeet Rai, a distinguished Sikh conservationist, with funds made 
available by the Sikh community, restored the building as a mosque, 
the Sikhs voluntarily removed the Guru Granth Saheb to a nearby 
Gurudwara and restored the building to the Muslims to be used as a 
mosque. I quote this as an example of how Hindus and those whose 
faith owes its origin to the Sanatan Dharma should behave. That is 
the Hindu way, the only true Hindutva.

In contrast we have what has happened in Gujarat recently, where it 
is alleged that more than two hundred and sixtyseven mosques, 
dargahs, idgahs, khanqas and other Muslim sacred places have either 
been destroyed or converted into temples. The Isanpur Masjid at 
Paladi in Ahmedabad, the Noorani Mosque in Naroda Patia, the Saraspur 
Mazaar at Paladi, the Zafar Row House Masjid at Vatva, the Peer 
Hazrat Shamsuddin Dargah and the mosque at Mehndikua in Dudheshwar, 
the Idgah at Kankaria, the Mariambibi Mosque, the Hassan Shaheed 
Mosque, etc., are some examples of historical and religious buildings 
being desecrated.

Whether or not the Muslims believe that Ram resides everywhere, we 
Hindus certainly believe that Parmeshwar is to be found at every 
place of religious worship. When we desecrate a mosque we, in effect, 
desecrate a temple. Let me tell you a true story based on my own 
experience. In 1968 I was the Director, Tribal Welfare of Madhya 
Pradesh and I had a pious, illiterate, Muslim driver called Gulshad. 
I was on tour to Bastar and when we climbed the steep Keskal Ghat my 
driver stopped at a little roadside temple of Devi of the type one 
finds at the top of every ghat section of every road in India. 
Excusing himself he went into the temple-he who was a pious Muslim 
who offered Namaaz five times a day and kept the Roza faithfully 
during Ramzan. When he emerged a few minutes later, he had a tilak on 
his forehead and some prasad in his right hand. When questioned 
Gulshad told me that he had gone into the temple to offer his thanks 
to God for the safe journey. When I asked him why he went to the Devi 
temple he said that as far as he was concerned it was an "ibadatgha", 
or place of worship. In his eyes he saw Allah rather than Devi and he 
recited the Kalima and the Fateha. As for the tilak and prasad, he 
saw nothing wrong with those as they were of holy origin. I narrate 
this to you because my illiterate driver that day taught me the true 
value of religion.

It is not enough for the Chief Minister of Gujarat to state that he 
would hand over the damaged shrines to the NGOs to rebuild. It is the 
duty of the Chief Minister of Gujarat and his government that they 
help to restore each one of these mosques, idgahs and shrines and to 
hand them back with respect and veneration to the Muslims as a sign 
to them that India is as much their country as it is of the Modis and 
the Buchs. I could write volumes on my inner feeling about what has 
happened in Gujarat, especially because I am the son of the man who 
took over Junagadh from the Nawab early in 1948 and who, as one of 
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's officers, was substantially responsible 
for the formation of the Part B State of Saurashtra. In Junagadh, 
though the wounds of partition were very fresh indeed, not one hair 
of any Muslim's head was harmed, despite the fact that my father was 
an ICS Officer of the Punjab cadre and had witnessed the horrors of 
partition at first hand. His heart was full of compassion and not 
revenge. Can we expect less from the man elected by our people to be 
the Chief Minister of a State of the importance of Gujarat? Surely 
you will not allow a civil servant to appear to be more concerned 
about his people than you, their elected representative.

If you want to really bring normalcy back to the State, if you want 
to show that this is still the State and the nation of the great 
Mahatma, if you want to prove that you know your Rajdharma, please 
restore holiness to that which is holy because, I repeat again, if an 
illiterate Muslim driver could consider a temple to be a place of 
worship, we Hindus, brought up in a spirit of tolerance and 
acceptance of all religions, must surely consider these desecrated 
religious places of the Muslims also to be sacrosanct. If you have 
any perception that this will be resented to by the Hindus, I can 
assure you that Hindus will applaud you for doing your duty rather 
than berate you for restoring the Muslim houses of worship.
With warm regards,

Yours sincerely,
M.N. Buch

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#3.

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20020819&fname=Haren+Pandya+%28F%29&sid=1
Outlookindia.com
Magazine | Aug 19, 2002 
EXCLUSIVE

The Plot Thickens
Modi jettisons one minister he lost faith in but how many more can he 
sacrifice?
MANU JOSEPH

Narendra Modi may now wish that on the night of February 27 he had 
just watched television and gone to sleep. All along, he had thought 
that only one minister from his cabinet had told the Concerned 
Citizens Tribunal, headed by a former Supreme Court judge, Justice 
Krishna Iyer, about a meeting late that night. This was following an 
Outlook story on how a senior minister from Modi's own cabinet had 
revealed to the tribunal that on the very night of the Godhra 
tragedy, just hours before VHP-called bandh was to begin, the Gujarat 
chief minister had gathered his top men-including Ahmedabad's then 
police commissioner P. C. Pande and the state's dgp K. 
Chakravarthy-and instructed them not to interfere with the 
"spontaneous" Hindu reaction to Godhra that would soon unfold.
Modi's pet theory was that the man who went to the tribunal was his 
then revenue minister Haren Pandya. He even asked his intelligence 
officials to get proof to nail Pandya. But the intelligence wing, 
Outlook learns, gave no conclusive proof to Modi.
Yet, he sent Pandya a show-cause notice through the state BJP 
president asking him to explain if and why and with whose permission 
he went to the tribunal. Pandya, in his sharp reply that unmistakably 
ridiculed Modi, denied he went to the tribunal. But, in what could be 
the first indicators of emerging political fault-lines in this 
disaster-prone state, Pandya surprised everyone by suddenly resigning 
from the cabinet.
Just when Modi was murmuring about how one man who tried to defy him 
had been suitably harassed, Outlook has information that not one but 
several key people from his government have told the tribunal about 
the late-night meeting. Another noted member of the tribunal, a 
former Supreme Court judge and former chairman of the Press Council 
of India, Justice P.B. Sawant, who heard a cross-section of people 
recount the causative factors of the riots, told Outlook: "Several 
politicians, police and administrative officials who currently hold 
high posts in the government told the tribunal about the late-night 
meeting on the 27th that Modi held.
I would say we have good information from credible people that in 
that meeting Mr Modi asked his officials not to come in the way of 
what will occur in the next few days.
"In my opinion, there were two kinds of people who spoke to us-those 
who swam with the tide before and during the riots but felt repentant 
now, and those who supported the backlash but in hindsight felt the 
CM had gone too far. The implication of what he had said in the 
meeting is without any doubt a causative factor of what happened the 
next day. I do not want to be more specific about the kind of people 
who spoke to us because I can't risk even a small chance of letting 
their identities be known. But I can say that it was not just a 
single minister. There were other politicians, top police and 
administrative officials."
According to Justice Sawant, the tribunal has collected enough to 
prove that the police turned a blind eye to the pogrom."There is 
enough in what we have gathered to prove dereliction of duty on the 
part of those police and government officials who were present at the 
(February 27) meeting. But to prove the direct involvement of 
Narendra Modi, the officials who knew about the late-night meeting 
have to be cross-examined in court. That may be difficult for, while 
they chose to speak to the tribunal, they may not risk their careers 
by willing to be cross-examined in court. Also, to prove the contents 
of a meeting of this nature, it's important to get the statements of 
those who were physically present."
A former Bombay High Court judge, Justice Hosbet Suresh, who was also 
part of the tribunal, has also reconfirmed the meeting to Outlook. 
"Yes, a senior minister appeared before us for 35 to 40 minutes and 
talked to us about a few things that led to the Gujarat carnage.Among 
other things, the minister spoke about the meeting Modi called on the 
night of February 27." The minister spoke to the tribunal under the 
condition of anonymity, which was preserved in the Outlook story.
Father Cedric Prakash, who was among the people who organised the 
exhaustive people's tribunal, further confirms, "There was more than 
one senior BJP politician who spoke about the late-night meeting on 
February 27."

Now, who will Modi suspect next? Valuable details of what transpired 
in this late-night meeting came from a top public servant who spoke 
to retired police officer K.S. Subramanian, one of the nine members 
in the tribunal that comprised retired judges and prominent citizens.
The public servant told Subramanian that around seven in the morning 
of February 28, the day when the VHP called its fateful bandh, the 
public servant
called up dgp K. Chakravarthy. Recalled the public servant: "He 
(Chakravarthy) told me he had got home very late after the meeting 
with the chief minister. I told him, 'Looks like there will be 
trouble today.' I was not very surprised when he said, 'Yes there 
will be trouble.' He said the CM had given a lecture on Hindutva the 
previous night and how there will be a response as a reaction to 
Godhra. The police was clearly asked not to come in the way. 
Chakravarthy didn't feel good about it but I got the feeling he felt 
he had no choice but to comply."
By February 28, many government officials came to know of the 
meeting. There was a party hosted by a local newspaper late in the 
evening, on the 27th. Some of the top police and government officials 
were briefly present at this do but hurried away to be present at the 
CM's meeting. Modi doesn't deny that there was a meeting on the night 
of the 27th. What he denies is that any unholy instructions were 
given to the police and other important officials.
This claim will be slammed time and again in the tribunal's report, 
which will be made public in a fortnight's time.
Father Prakash further says that there is a "good possibility" of 
seeking justice for the late-night meeting, in a court of law. 
According to him, if by some miracle there is evidence that 
points to Modi's involvement in the riots, he can be charged. But 
legal experts point out that for matters to reach that stage, much 
depends on whether any official who sat with Modi on that night will 
have the courage and conscience to come out in the open and make it 
clear once and for all what exactly transpired behind the closed 
doors. According to one of Modi's detractors, if in fact the 
late-night meeting was a routine one held by an honourable chief 
minister with his most important men, then it should go down in the 
history of such noble meetings as the least effective one, for 
everybody knows what happened in the days that followed.
Meanwhile, the BJP's state unit formally declared the Pandya chapter 
as closed on August 8. But the dissent brewing there could seriously 
impact the BJP's chances in the coming assembly elections. Talk 
within the BJP suggests that a below-the-surface confrontation 
between Modi and former CM Keshubhai Patel is already on. Pandya is 
said to be a Keshubhai man. When contacted, Pandya wouldn't comment 
either on his resignation or problems in the party.
Many human rights activists are eagerly awaiting the tribunal's 
report. But it is not in a tearing hurry to release it. According to 
a retired judge on the panel, every effort was being made to 
cross-check facts before releasing the report to ensure that it could 
stand up to any scrutiny. Says the judge: "We have cross-examined 
those who deposed before the tribunal in great detail. We have 
cross-checked what each one of them has deposed. We have taken great 
pains over it so that it becomes a valuable document that will be of 
use to those investigating the riots."
A confirmation of the February 27 meeting will up the clamour for Modi's head.

_____

#4.

The Hindustan Times
Sunday, August 11, 2002

Scribes decry bid to gag press
HT Correspondent
(New Delhi, August 10)
Editors and senior journalists on Saturday strongly criticised the 
government for harassing journalists, calling it an affront to 
democracy.

Taking part in a discussion on 'Press freedom, media and the State' 
on Saturday, they were of the view that harassment of journalists, 
including Tehelka's Aniruddha Bahal, were signs of a government 
desperate to silence the press. They also voiced concern over the 
rights and safety of journalists operating in small centres.

Among those who spoke were Vinod Mehta, Vir Sanghvi, Mrinal Pande, 
B.G. Verghese, Tarun Tejpal, Rajdeep Sardesai, Alok Mehta, Swapan 
Dasgupta, Siddharth Vardarjan, Bharat Bhushan and Coomi Kapoor.

Outlook magazine editor, Vinod Mehta, related instances of police 
surveillance on his office. He said the BJP's view of the 
journalistic community was very simplistic. "For them, a journalist 
is either a friend or an enemy. But we must not be cowed down by 
this. How we function under pressure is very important," Mehta said.

Hindustan Times editor Vir Sanghvi said: "Even if we assume, for the 
sake of argument, that some of the methods Tehelka used to get the 
story were not right, there is no justification for the way Tehelka's 
journalists have been treated." He said if allowed to go unchecked, 
the worst sufferers of the establishment's strong-arm tactics would 
be muffosil journalists.

"We should stop thinking as political animals. We must recognise that 
the entire profession is under attack," Sanghvi remarked.

Veteran journalist B.G. Verghese said press freedom is the first 
freedom and if that is violated, all other freedoms are violated. "It 
seems the CBI is conducting a parallel enquiry into the Tehelka 
expose even though a commission of enquiry is already looking into 
it. This has given the chain of events a sinister hue," he said.

However, India Today's Swapan Dasgupta, felt journalists' reaction to 
certain 'stupid' decisions of the government was exaggerated. Some 
isolated incidents cannot be projected as a threat to free speech and 
democracy, he said.

Tehelka editor Tarun Tejpal dismissed allegations of professional 
misconduct by its reporters, saying it was a "propaganda campaign." 
He emphasised that none of the Tehelka reporters had tampered with 
any of the evidence.

Deputy bureau chief of The Times of India Siddharth Vardarajan said: 
"We are living in a Kafkaesque world. From the symptoms, it is quite 
clear that the rule of law has eroded. The media is feeling the 
impact of it."

He added that it was difficult to expect anything from a government 
so blatantly involved in the Gujarat carnage. "It is hardly a wonder 
that this government is reluctant to tolerate a free press," 
Vardarajan said. He castigated the government for the treatment of 
Kashmir Times correspondent, Ifthikar Geelani.

Hindustan editor Mrinal Pande remarked that it was not the first 
occasion when the government has harassed journalists. She said even 
the Congress government had started a witchunt after the Bofors 
scandal in the mid '80s.

NDTV's Rajdeep Sardesai said it was apparent that the tolerance level 
of the government had gone down. "The polarisation within the media 
has compressed the middle ground, helping the government to harass 
journalists," he said.

Sardesai, however, was confident that the government would find it 
difficult to muzzle the media because of its increasing plurality and 
reach.

Delhi editor of The Telegraph Bharat Bhushan said it was also time 
for newspapers to decide on how they should protect their reporters. 
While the government's inability to take criticism is amazing, it is 
also important that newspapers do some introspection, he added.

o o o

[ Related Artilces ]

The Hindustan Times
11 Aug 2002
Kafka, karma and dharma
Tarun Tejpal
I read all of Franz Kafka when I was 19, but I only understand him 
now. For twenty years I cited him in private conversations as a 
favourite writer because I could see he had configured elusive 
truths. One-and-a-half year after Tehelka broke Operation West-End - 
Aniruddha Bahal and Samuel Mathew's stunning investigation - I have 
become fully seized of Kafka's brilliance. He knew what he was 
talking about.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/printedition/110802/fea.shtml

o

The Telegraph
11 Aug 2002
TEHELKA REPORTER STRIPPED IN JAIL
http://www.telegraphindia.com/front_pa.htm#head4

_____

#5.

Rediff.com
August 9, 2002

The trial of Mountbatten : Kuldip Nayar

http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/aug/09kuldip.htm

_____

#6.

AMAN EKTA MANCH WORKSHOP
DATE: 17th August 2002 (Saturday)
TIME: 9.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m.
VENUE: Vidya Jyoti, 4-A, Rajniwas Marg, Delhi-110054

This workshop of AEM is being held as per the decision taken in the 
strategy meeting. It is meant basically to broaden our own 
understanding. The programme, as approved in the meeting of AEM on 
2nd August 2002 is as follows:
***Morning Session: 9.30 to 1.00 p.m.: General Discussion on Broad Themes
I) 9.30 -11.00: 
(i) Anti-communal campaigns and their scope
(ii) Question of religious identity
(iii) Use of religious symbols in mass campaigns
Discussant: Uma Chakravarty/Abha/Kamla
II) 11.00 -12.00: Globalisation, and its links with communal 
politics: To what extent?
Discussant: Dunu Roy
III) 12.00 -1.00: Relationship of AEM to Political Parties: How broad 
are we willing to get?
Discussant: Aditya Nigam
Lunch: 1.00 - 2.00
***Afternoon Session: 2.00 to 5.30 p.m.: Addressing Questions Raised 
In and By Our Campaigns
I) 2.00 - 2.15: General Discussants: Nandita Narayan, Kirti: posing 
broad questions
II) 2.15 - 3.15: Kashmir
Discussants: M. K. Raina and Sehba Hussain (historical background)
III) 3.15 - 4.45: Gujarat
Discussant: Khursheed (Questions like Godhra, politics of 
retaliation, democracy and majoritarianism, how to talk of 'minority 
rights' on the road/in schools, action-reaction, the question of 
history etc.)
IV) 4.45 - 5.15: Our Demands
Discussant: Charu (Always in reaction to? Too much state centred? How 
successful?)
V) 5.15 - 5.30: Broad Conclusions: The Way Ahead
Friends, all discussants will be given 10-15 minutes to pose the 
problem and the questions, and discussion would follow. Please come 
prepared with persistent questions, dilemmas, and ideas on various 
themes. See the 19th July minutes for questions compiled by Dunu.
Looking forward to seeing most of you on the 17th. Please see below 
for a message from the Youth Reach community.
Warm Regards,
Aman Ekta Manch 
<mailto:peopleforpeace@r...>peopleforpeace@r...

_____

#7.

>From The Economist print edition
Jul 25th 2002 | DELHI

India
Crafty Modi

Gujarat's chief minister aims to make political hay from mayhem
AP
But will they?

ONE of India's most ambitious Hindu-nationalist leaders has caused 
outrage by preparing to hold early elections in the western state of 
Gujarat, even though the state has yet to recover from the trauma of 
Hindu-Muslim riots earlier this year when more than 2,000 people are 
believed to have been killed, almost all of them Muslims.

Narendra Modi, the state's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief 
minister, thinks his party has more chance of being returned to power 
in Gujarat while memories of the carnage are still fresh in the 
majority Hindu community's minds than it might in a few months' time. 
If he is proved right, it will be seen by the BJP as an endorsement 
of its Hindutva (Hinduness) policy.

Criticised for appearing to stoke the riots up instead of damping 
them down, Mr Modi has been hankering after elections since April, 
when the killings, rapes and burning of homes were in full spate. He 
was persuaded by the BJP's national leadership to wait for calm. The 
violence now is only sporadic, so on July 19th Mr Modi arranged for 
the state's governor to dissolve the state assembly, six months 
early. He then asked India's election commission to authorise an 
early election, probably in October.

These manoeuvres have been widely criticised. Might not an early 
election stir up communal tensions at a time when there are still 
sensitive issues to resolve, such as who started the fire on a train 
that killed 58 Hindu pilgrims and triggered more than two months of 
violence? Quite so. It is precisely such tensions, Mr Modi presumably 
calculates, that will inspire the more militant Hindus to cast their 
votes for him.

At least 12,000 Muslims who lost their homes in the violence are 
still in refugee camps. Aid agencies say that thousands of others 
have not returned to their homes, and so will not be able to vote. 
Critics also allege, probably with some justification, that the Modi 
administration will not run fair elections. Some even claim it may 
deliberately stir up new fighting.

These concerns led to quarrels and walkouts in India's parliament 
this week. The opposition, backed by some parties in the coalition 
government, demanded that the state be put under "president's rule" 
(rule from Delhi through the state governor) until elections are held 
next year. Echoing the views of many, a Marxist MP said that, under 
Mr Modi, Gujarat had become "a laboratory of Hindutva where the 
entire state administration participated in looting, murder and 
rape." There had, he said, been "state-sponsored carnage, mayhem and 
ethnic cleansing."

Mr Modi has powerful backing from zealous BJP national leaders, 
including L.K. Advani, the hardline home minister who was recently 
promoted to deputy prime minister, and Arun Jaitley, a friend and 
former law minister who is now the BJP's national spokesman and a 
general secretary with special responsibility for Gujarat. Privately, 
many BJP supporters are relying on anti-Muslim feeling in the state 
to carry the party back to power; though their public line is of 
course that elections are needed to enable Gujarat to move on from 
the horrors of the violence. "Democracy is a great leveller and 
elections are a constitutional imperative that will reduce the 
current tensions," says Mr Jaitley.

The BJP was doing badly in local elections before the violence and 
cannot afford to lose control of the state, which has become the 
heartland of its Hindu-nationalist movement. Defeat would set a 
negative precedent for a series of other state elections in the 
coming year, ahead of a general election due by 2004. Mr Modi made 
his move after the rival Congress Party appointed a new Gujarat 
chief. He is Shankersinh Vaghela, a former top BJP politician. The 
BJP fears that, if he were given enough time, Mr Vaghela could 
attract a significant number of voters. That is another reason why Mr 
Modi is so keen on holding an early election, whatever the potential 
price in blood.

_____

#8.

India Pakistan Arms Race & Militarisation Watch (IPARMW) # 86
11 August 2002

[information & news for peace activists on arms sales to the region,
defence budget figures, acquisitions & updgrades of weapons systems,
development and deployment of new weapons, implications of militarisation
(of the state, of non-state actors and wider civil society); the 
developments on the
Nuclearisation front and the doings of the 'intelligence' agencies.
Bringing such information to wide public knowledge is our goal here. No to
secretive & exclusive control of this information by technocrats, planners
who plot national security hidden from public scrutiny or by self proclaimed
defenders of nation space whether jihadi or hindtwawadi etc.. Please help us in
the information gathering work for wide public dissemination in South Asia.
Send Information via e-mail for IPARMW series to: aiindex@m... for
inclusion in the Emailings.]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IPARMW/message/97

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