[sacw] SACW | 4 April. 02

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire - Dispatch | 4 April 2002
http://www.mnet.fr

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#1. What we worry? (Praful Bidwai)
#2. Women's perspectives on the violence in Gujarat
#3. Statement by Maitree on the Gujarat Communal Violence

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#1.

The Hindustan Times
4 March 2002

What we worry?
Praful Bidwai

When Atal Bihari Vajpayee makes his long-overdue visit to Gujarat 
today, the very minimum one expects from him is three things: 
acknowledge the exceptional character of Gujarat's five weeks long 
carnage as independent India's worst pogrom (i.e. organised massacre) 
of Muslims; solemnly vow to identify and punish those guilty of 
barbaric crimes committed there; and send Narendra Milosevic Modi 
packing - at once, unceremoniously.

The National Human Rights Commission's 'preliminary' report removes 
the last vestiges of any doubt that Modi has lost his sanction to 
rule. A government which repeatedly fails to defend its citizens' 
most fundamental right - that to life - has no business to remain in 
power. Worse, a government which connives at snatching away that 
right, or becomes complicit in its systematic violation, deserves to 
be put on trial.

Vajpayee should have promised to do that long ago - after credible 
evidence emerged of planned official inaction in the face of the 
butchery that began on February 28, with a discreet nod from Modi & 
Co. Since then, the media have exposed ministerial and police 
sponsorship of the carnage, which has gutted India's claim to secular 
pluralism and tolerance.

When he addressed the nation more than a month ago, the public 
expected Vajpayee to go beyond platitudes about tolerant 'traditions' 
and declare, as any worthy national leader would, that his government 
won't allow innocent citizens to be butchered, irrespective of their 
religion; it is duty-bound to protect the vulnerable minorities 
against a majoritarian onslaught.

Vajpayee let us down. Like any other petty politician in the Hindutva 
mould, he showed he implicitly buys the theory that the ghastly 
Godhra carnage was the result of a large-scale organised conspiracy 
involving the ISI; that the post-February 27 violence was "natural 
and spontaneous"; further, that there is nothing outrageous about a 
democratic government turning a blind eye to organised atrocities.

No wonder Vajpayee is silent on the RSS's deeply offensive Bangalore 
resolution, which rationalises the pogrom, and menacingly threatens 
Muslims by telling them their 'safety' depends not on 
constitutional-democratic legality, but on Hindu 'goodwill'. In 
spirit, this isn't very different from Vajpayee's February 19 speech 
contemptuously telling Muslims the BJP doesn't need their votes to 
come to power.

To return to Gujarat, the idea of an eye-for-eye revenge or barbaric 
retribution has always been morally odious. It now turns out that the 
Godhra-ISI 'conspiracy' may be a bit of a cock-and-bull story too. 
Independent investigations, in a report soon to be released, suggest 
the train attack was a condemnable, but largely spontaneous, if 
cumulative, reaction to the harassment of Muslims, especially Muslim 
women, by kar sewaks travelling to/from Ayodhya for several days.

However, Vajpayee's government seems rather partial to cock-and-bull 
stories. Take the arrest of JKLF leader Yasin Malik under POTO, which 
some states are zealously implementing without making the requisite 
legal notification. It defies comprehension how Malik could be 
charged with 'terrorism' - the JKLF voluntarily abandoned violent 
means in 1994 - for ostensibly receiving $ 100,000, which should 
logically attract the Foreign Exchange Management Act.

Even the money transfer story is full of holes. It's hard to 
understand how the co-accused could carry one thousand $ 100 notes in 
her underclothes without being stopped anywhere on a long highway. 
Her testimony is at odds with that of the JKLF functionary accused of 
having used her as a courier.

But then, Kashmir is full of cock-and-bull stories. Exactly two days 
ago, forensic specialists literally exhumed one - namely, five bodies 
of the 'terrorists' held officially responsible for the 
Chittisinghpora massacre of March 2000, and killed in cold-blood. 
This is a particularly obnoxious, proven, case of fudging and fraud: 
mixing tissue samples sent for DNA tests.

It is on such shaky foundations that Vajpayee is building his Kashmir 
policy and his forthcoming visit to the state. The policy lacks 
coherence and consistency. His government callously refused even to 
discuss the J&K assembly's unanimous demand for autonomy within the 
Constitution. It won't find it easy to persuade elements in the 
Constitution non-abiding Hurriyat Conference to do a deal to 
participate in the coming elections, nor claim much legitimacy for 
these - in the absence of independent observers.

The government may bring little to the deal table. What its right 
hand offers, the left hand may take away.

The political gains possible in Kashmir - after the Taliban's 
collapse and the puncturing of jehad's legitimacy - are in danger of 
being lost under the pursuit of myopic, devious and parochial 
agendas. Not least of these is the three-month long, ruinously 
expensive, but counter-productive and extremely dangerous border 
build-up with a million men staring eyeball-to-eyeball.

This has failed to make Pakistan blink. But it has probably cost more 
than the entire central elementary education budget (Rs 4,900 crore), 
or combined central spending on secondary and tertiary education.

It is high time India corrected course - in countless areas. But can 
the exhausted, discredited BJP leadership do so as the NDA itself 
begins to unravel under the unpopular stewardship of a party which 
has lost every major election since 1999 and antagonised its own 
supporters through massive misgovernance and rank communalism?

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#2.

Women's perspectives on the violence in Gujarat
An interim report of women's experiences and perspectives related to 
the communal violence following the Godhra incident. The report has 
been put together after intensive and repeated visits to the affected 
bastis, camps run by the jamaats, discussions with a wide spectrum of 
women.

http://www.pucl.org

____

#3.

03 Apr 2002

Dear friends,
This is the Maitree statement on Gujarat. A further meeting on 6th 
April will discuss future programmes. Maitree has already taken out a 
silent demonstration on 6th march and a demonstration on 8th March.
Soma Marik

Statement by Maitree on the Gujarat Communal Violence

Maitree, a network of women's rights groups, NGOs and individual 
activists functioning in West Bengal, is registering its protest 
against the large-scale devastations and communal violence in 
Gujarat. The developments in Gujarat and in Ayodhya for the last one 
month make it clear that this violence is not a riot in the 
traditional sense, but an extremely planned, systematic, state 
sponsored, and one-sided pogrom.

We deeply condemn the Godhra massacre and the systematic and brutal 
violence inflicted on members of the Muslim community in Gujarat 
subsequently. The Hindutva forces had been seeking to communalise 
civil society, polity and administration and educational 
institutions, and the preparation for the pogrom and economic war 
along communal lines was going on for a long time. Godhra was merely 
an opportune incident utilized by the extreme communalist forces to 
unleash a pogrom. We emphasize that the Gujarat State Government has 
no moral right to continue in office as it has not only actively 
encouraged and supported those who have planned and perpetrated the 
violence, it has also justified these acts of terror as "spontaneous 
outbursts" by citizens, and has failed miserably to punish the 
criminals and bring back normalcy to the State. The Home Minister 
also commended the role of the Narendra Modi government, for having 
allegedly created a record of sorts by controlling the violence 
within '72 hours'. The theory of a spontaneous outburst of popular 
Hindu anger contrasted to the pre-planned massacre of VHP 'pilgrims' 
by ISI funded Islamic fundamentalists, lies at the core of the overt 
and covert justifications of the pogroms, put forward by the 
RSS-VHP-BD-BJP. However, this has now been thoroughly deflated, along 
with the role of the Modi government. The National Human Rights 
Commission, as well as independent civil liberties groups like the 
PUCL and SAHMAT's investigating team, have indicted the government, 
while even the police has failed to provide any proof of ISI 
involvement in Godhra.

The lack of will on the part of the State Government is encouraging 
communal flames to spread further and it is the biggest offender of 
our constitution which guarantees secularism and denounces 
discrimination on grounds of religion. The most glaring instance of 
such discrimination is evident from the differential compensation 
package provided to the victims of communal violence; while the kin 
of the Godhra incident is entitled to Rs 2,00,000/-, only half the 
amount has been granted to those whose relatives fell prey to Gujarat 
violence. Needless to say that Hindus constituted the former group 
while the latter mostly comprised Muslims.

The consequence of this government-backed communal terrorism has been 
unimaginably violent. People have been murdered most brutally. 
Children have been butchered. A great many women have been raped. 
Reports from everywhere attest to the excessive brutalities including 
sexual violence against women and children and burning alive of 
helpless people. An additional fall-out has been the economic 
paralysis due to curfews and the utter helplessness of people 
belonging to the unorganised sectors, who are getting no work and no 
pay, leading to suicides in some case.

As citizens of a 'sovereign, secular, socialist, democratic republic' 
we feel that there has been a gross violation of civil rights and the 
security of our civil society stands endangered today. The communal 
carnage, systematically carried out, is part of a wider RSS -VHP 
strategy of forcing minorities to become second-class citizens in 
India. This open violation of our constitutional laws continues to 
this day and no appropriate measures have been taken as yet to punish 
these offenders of law. We strongly protest against such atrocities 
and demand punishment for all- individuals, religious or political 
groups, institutions and even governments, who directly or indirectly 
participated or supported such criminal activities.

As peace-loving citizens of India we want your immediate intervention 
to ensure that the mandate, principles and spirit of our secular 
constitution are upheld.

We demand:

* The immediate dismissal of the Gujarat Government; the 
resignation of L.K. Advani for giving a clean chit to the Modi 
government;

* Relief, rehabilitation and compensation equally to all those in 
the relief camps and those affected by the violence

* Special protection for new-born babies and their nursing mothers 
in the relief camps;

* Immediate steps for the poorest layers, for example the daily 
wage-earners who have not been getting wages for close to a month

* The setting up of a time-bound judicial commission of 
investigation under one or more serving Supreme Court judges;

* The registering of cases under criminal law against every 
minister, official and police personnel mentioned by 
survivors/eyewitnesses;

* Immediate action under existing criminal laws against the VHP 
and BD and any other organisations that propagate and practice 
communalism and violence.