[sacw] SACW | 26 May 02

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire Dispatch | 26 May 2002
http://www.mnet.fr

For information on Gujarat Carnage and After: http://www.onlinevolunteers.o=
rg/
__________________________

#1. We appeal to the governments of the two countries to show=20
maturity and restraint (PPAD)
#2. Obituary of a culture (Ashis Nandy)
#3. Gandhi To Godhra (M H Jowher)
#4. A 'Riot' was planned, but nobody came (Prem Panicker)
#5. Rally And Public Meeting against communalism, communal violence=20
in Gujarat and for communal
harmony (Bangalore, 27 May)
#6. A Plot From The Devil's Lair
A late-evening meeting convened by Modi on February 27 ensured mobs a=20
free hand the next day
MANU JOSEPH
__________________________

#1.

Dear Sir/Madam

PPAD is a Peace and Alternative Development group which was formed=20
in 1998 by academics, intellectuals and professionals of Pakistani=20
origin to promote peace, tolerance and alternative development in=20
South Asia and elsewhere. Like many other peace loving groups we are=20
shocked at the daily talk of war between India and Pakistan=20
potentially leading to nuclear annihilation of parts of their=20
populations. For the two countries whose people share much of the=20
history, culture and language such frenzy of war and talk of=20
destruction is a sad and shocking state of affairs. The two countries=20
have struggled in their brief history to reduce poverty of their=20
people - some of the poorest on earth. Between them they have the=20
largest mass of poor and illiterate population on earth. The earlier=20
wars and huge expense on defence has meant that the reduction of=20
poverty in these two countries has remained a dream for most of their=20
people. Further wars can only deepen this poverty and suffering that=20
the leaders of both countries should be ashamed of and ought to work=20
to eliminate.

We believe that this will be a war in which there will be NO winners=20
Whatever the short term consequences of the war, history tells us=20
that the hatred and conflict thus developed and perpetuated will only=20
lead to further civil or national wars and destruction in the region.

We appeal to the governments of the two countries to show maturity=20
and restraint and resolve their disputes through negotiations and=20
peaceful means. We also appeal to the people of the two countries to=20
put pressure on their governments to avoid further war and=20
destruction. As wars will not solve their political problems and will=20
only lead to further suffering and deprivation.=20

We strongly feel that peace is vital for the education, development=20
and prosperity of the people in the region and must be supported at=20
all cost. Without peace there is little hope for future.

Dr I A Shibli (PPAD Co-ordinator)
<ias23@h...>
Address:
2 Warwick Gardens, Ashtead
Surrey, UK.

And following other members of PPAD.
2. Dr Ghazala Anwar, Newzealand.
3. Mr Nazeer A Chaudhry, Pennsylvania, USA.
4. Gp/Captn (Rtd.) Cecil Chaudhry, Lahore, Pakistan.
5. Prof. Hassan Gardezi, Canada.
6. Prof. Bilal Hashmi, Washington, USA.
7. Mr Owais Hasin, Karachi, Pakistan.
8. Mr Ayyub Malik, London, UK.
9. Dr Babar Mumtaz, London, UK.
10. Prof A H Nayyar, Islamabad, Pakistan.
11. Dr Saghir Shaikh, California, USA.

_____

#2.

Seminar (New Delhi)
May 2002

Obituary of a culture

ASHIS NANDY

THE massive carnages at Rwanda and Bosnia have taught the students of
genocide that the most venomous, brutal killings and atrocities take place
when the two communities involved are not distant strangers, but close to
each other culturally and socially, and when their lives intersect at many
points. When nearness sours or explodes it releases strange, fearsome demon=
s.

Those shocked by the bestial or barbaric nature of the communal violence in
Gujarat would do well to read some accounts of the carnages in Rwanda and
Bosnia. In both cases, the two communities involved were close to each
other and ethnic cleansing took the forms of a particularly brutal,
self-destructive exorcism. And the same thing happened during the great
Partition killings in 1946-48. The ongoing death dance in West Asia, with
the Arabs and Israelis locked in an embrace of death, is another instance
of the same game.

Gujarat was being prepared for such an exorcism for a very long time. It is
a state that has seen thirty-three years of continuous rioting interrupted
with periods of tense, uncomfortable peace. During these years, a sizeable
section of Gujarat's urban underclass has begun to see communalism and
rioting as means of livelihood, quick profit, choice entertainment, and as
a way of life. Riots have, in addition, ensured temporary status gains for
this underclass; they are considered heroes in their respective communities
during riots and for brief periods afterwards an important reward for
persons at the margins of society.

Rioting everywhere is pre-eminently an urban disease. Demographers of
riots from Gopal Krishna to Asghar Ali Engineer, and from P.R. Rajgopalan
to Ashutosh Varshney have shown repeatedly that it is even more so in
India. The icing on the cake is that the urban middle class in Gujarat is
now the most communalised in the country; it has become an active abetter
and motivator of communal violence. Sections of it participate in the loot
enthusiastically, as we have seen in the course of the recent riots; those
that do not often participate in the violence vicariously.

(For the last hundred years or so, the so-called non-martial races of the
subcontinent Bengali babus, Kashmiri Muslims and Gujarati upper castes,
for instance have had a special fascination for violence, particularly if
someone else was doing the fighting and risking their lives. However, in
recent years, this fascination and the search for redemptive violence,
which bestows heroic stature by being expiation for one's own 'passivity'
and 'effeminacy', have often found direct expression in public life.)

Unlike in places like Uttar Pradesh, cities matter in Gujarat. Urbanity is
a crucial presence in Gujarat's political life. The state has fifty cities,
many of which have already become cauldrons of communal hatred and
paranoia. The result is that Gujarat is now a classic instance of the
urban-industrial vision, decomposing and spitting out in a blatant form the
violence that the vision has always hidden in its belly. The state has not
only been riot-prone but at war with itself. Even after the present riots
die down available data show that riots last longer in Gujarat than in
other states it would be at best a temporary truce. Tension and hatred
will persist and both sides will remain prepared for the next round.
Gujarat is and will continue to be an arena of civil war for years.

This situation has come about not because the Inter-Services Intelligence
or the ISI of Pakistan omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent like God
himself, according to many Indians has planned it that way. Nor because
the minorities have been the main victims in the recent riots. This
situation of civil war has arisen because minorities now know that they
cannot hope to have any protection from the state government. Lower-level
functionaries of the state government have been complicit with rioters many
times and in many states. But this is probably for the first time after the
anti-Sikh riots of 1984 that the entire state machinery, except for some
courageous dissenters among the administrators and in the law-and-order
machinery, has turned against the minorities.1

The minorities of Gujarat are by now aware that, for good or worse, they
will have to prepare to protect themselves. This is a prescription for
disaster. It will underscore the atmosphere of a civil war and create a new
breeding ground for terrorism. More than Operation Blue Star, the anti-Sikh
riots spawned terrorism in Punjab in the 1980s; the two decades of rioting
in Gujarat has by now similarly produced the sense of desperation that
precedes the breakout of terrorism.

In the early 1960s, when I first went to Gujarat as an adolescent student,
it was difficult to believe that Gujarat could ever have a major riot.
People talked of riots that had taken place in the past and the state did
have a history of small riots and skirmishes. Many Ahmedabadi Hindus seemed
afraid and suspicious of the Muslims, but they were afraid and suspicious
mostly of non-Gujarati Muslims, many of them labourers in the huge textile
industry of Ahmedabad. They took the Gujarati Muslims, a large proportion
of them business castes, as a part of Gujarat's landscape, though there was
clear social distance.

In retrospect, the picture was remarkably similar to that of Cochin, which
I studied a few years ago as a city of religious and ethnic harmony.2 The
only difference probably was the more than moderate dislike for the Muslim
as representing a tamasic principle in Ahmedabad's predominant Jain-Bania
culture. That dislike was, however, 'balanced' by a similar dislike for the
westernised outsiders congregating in the new, fashionable institutions
being established in the city. Traditional Ahmedabad kept away both.

The 1969 riots began to change the city radically, though at the time the
changes were not that obvious. Like all riots in South Asia, that one too
was organised, and it was organised with great managerial panache by the
RSS. The violence paid rich dividends. So did the imaginative hate
campaigns unleashed by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the RSS. Together they
gave a kick-start to the process of ghettoisation of the Muslims and the
growth in the power of Mafia-like bodies in both communities, always
itching for a fight and acting like protectors of the Hindus and the
Muslims at times of rioting.

However, the growth of this criminal sector was disproportionately high
among the young, unemployed Muslims. Understandably. The existing social
distance between the communities had already acquired another tone. Facing
discrimination in job situations and housing, many among the unemployed
Muslim youth began to take to professions in which slum youth everywhere in
the world specialise illicit distillation, drug pushing, protection
rackets and petty crime. And they always seemed ready for street violence.
The situation worsened once Ahmedabad's famed textile industry collapsed.
The changing political culture of the city ensured that this collapse, too,
affected the Muslims more.3

The dragon seeds sown by the 1969 riots have sprouted over the years.
Gujarat's regular annual harvest began to include gory communal clashes and
mob violence. We saw the full flowering of this culture during the
Ramjanmabhoomi movement. As the great charioteer Lal Krishna Advani moved
through Gujarat, he left in his wake a series of riots in which, according
to Achyut Yagnik, for the first time, women and children were seen as
legitimate targets of attack and atrocities. Riots were now becoming more
brutal and barbaric.

During the last decade, Gujarat has kept up with that tradition. In the
ongoing riots, women and children have not only been attacked but also
often killed with a sadistic glee that will be inconceivable in a civilised
society. Even in the attack on karsevaks at Godhra, the one that
precipitated the riots, it now transpires that the main victims were women
and children. The following is an extract from a widely circulated
eyewitness account, which some of the readers might not have seen. It is
written by an officer of the Indian Administrative Service:

'Numbed with disgust and horror, I return from Gujarat ten days after the
terror and massacre that convulsed the state. ... As you walk through the
camps of riot survivors in Ahmedabad, in which an estimated 53,000 women,
men, and children are huddled in 29 temporary settlements, displays of
overt grief are unusual. ... But once you sit anywhere in these camps,
people begin to speak and their words are like masses of pus released by
slitting large festering wounds. The horrors that they speak of are so
macabre, that my pen falters... The pitiless brutality against women and
small children by organised bands of armed young men is more savage than
anything witnessed in the riots that have shamed this nation from time to
time during the past century...
'What can you say about a woman eight months pregnant who begged to be
spared. Her assailants instead slit open her stomach, pulled out her foetus
and slaughtered it before her eyes. What can you say about a family of
nineteen being killed by flooding their house with water and then
electrocuting them with high-tension electricity?
'What can you say? A small boy of six in Juhapara camp described how his
mother and six brothers and sisters were battered to death before his eyes.
He survived only because he fell unconscious, and was taken for dead. A
family escaping from Naroda-Patiya, one of the worst-hit settlements in
Ahmedabad, spoke of losing a young woman and her three month old son,
because a police constable directed her to "safety" and she found herself
instead surrounded by a mob which doused her with kerosene and set her and
her baby on fire.
'I have never known a riot which has used the sexual subjugation of women
so widely as an instrument of violence as in the recent mass barbarity in
Gujarat. There are reports every where of gangrape, of young girls and
women, often in the presence of members of their families, followed by
their murder by burning alive, or by bludgeoning with a hammer and in one
case with a screw-driver.'4

Gujarat disowned Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi long ago. The state's political
soul has been won over by his killers. This time they have not only
assassinated him again, they have danced on his dead body, howling with
delight and mouthing obscenities. The Gandhians, in response, took out some
ineffective peace processions, when they should have taken a public
position against the regime and the Nazi Gauleiter ruling Gujarat. One is
not surprised when told by the newspapers that the Sabarmati Ashram,
instead of becoming the city's major sanctuary, closed its gates to protect
its properties.5

Almost nothing reveals the decline and degeneration of Gujarati middle
class culture more than its present Chief Minister, Narendra Modi. Not only
has he shamelessly presided over the riots and acted as the chief patron of
rioting gangs, the vulgarities of his utterances have been a slur on
civilised public life. His justifications of the riots, too, sound
uncannily like that of Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian president and mass
murderer who is now facing trial for his crimes against humanity. I often
wonder these days why those active in human rights groups in India and
abroad have not yet tried to get international summons issued against Modi
for colluding with the murder of hundreds and for attempted ethnic
cleansing. If Modi's behaviour till now is not a crime against humanity,
what is?

More than a decade ago, when Narendra Modi was a nobody, a small-time RSS
pracharak trying to make it as a small-time BJP functionary, I had the
privilege of interviewing him along with Achyut Yagnik, whom Modi could not
fortunately recognise. (Fortunately because he knew Yagnik by name and was
to later make some snide comments about his activities and columns.) It was
a long, rambling interview, but it left me in no doubt that here was a
classic, clinical case of a fascist. I never use the term 'fascist' as a
term of abuse; to me it is a diagnostic category comprising not only one's
ideological posture but also the personality traits and motivational
patterns contextualising the ideology.

Modi, it gives me no pleasure to tell the readers, met virtually all the
criteria that psychiatrists, psycho-analysts and psychologists had set up
after years of empirical work on the authoritarian personality. He had the
same mix of puritanical rigidity, narrowing of emotional life, massive use
of the ego defence of projection, denial and fear of his own passions
combined with fantasies of violence all set within the matrix of clear
paranoid and obsessive personality traits. I still remember the cool,
measured tone in which he elaborated a theory of cosmic conspiracy against
India that painted every Muslim as a suspected traitor and a potential
terrorist. I came out of the interview shaken and told Yagnik that, for the
first time, I had met a textbook case of a fascist and a prospective
killer, perhaps even a future mass murderer.
The very fact that he has wormed his way to the post of the chief minister
of Gujarat tells you something about our political process and the
trajectory our democracy has traversed in the last fifty years. I am afraid
I cannot look at the future of the country with anything but great forebodi=
ng.

The Gujarat riots mark the beginning of a new phase in Indian politics. We
talk of terrorism in Kashmir and the North East and proudly speak of
subduing the terrorism that broke out in Punjab. The total population
involved in these cases, particularly the section that could be considered
sympathetic to militancy, has always been small. Even if we believe that
Pakistan's ISI and the Indian Army between them have persuaded all
Kashmiris in the Valley to support militancy, these Kashmiris add up to
only three million, one-third the size of the city of Delhi.

The forces the Gujarat violence might have released are a different kettle
of fish. They seem to have done what the Partition riots did. Also, given
that they have been arguably the first video riots in India riots taking
place in front of TV cameras their impact will be pan-Indian and
international. The minorities all over the country have seen the
experiments in ethnic cleansing and the attempts to break the economic
backbone of the Muslim community. The sense of desperation brewing among
the Gujarati Muslims is likely to be contagious.

I wonder what we should do with 120 million bitter Muslims, a sizeable
section of them close to desperation. Will it be another case of Palestine
now onwards, at least in Gujarat? Prima facie, Modi has done his job. The
Sangh Parivar's two-nation theory is genuine stuff and has already
initiated the process of a second partition of India, this time of the
mind. We, our children and grandchildren above all, the Gujaratis will
have to learn to live with a state of civil war. The Gujarati middle class
will have to pay heavily culturally, socially and economically for its
collusion with the recent pogrom.

Footnotes:

1. This point has been indirectly made by Tridip Suhrud, 'No Room for
Dialogue', Economic and Political Weekly 47(11), 16 March 2002, pp. 1011-2.
2. Ashis Nandy, 'Time Travel to a Possible Self: Searching for the
Alternative Cosmopolitanism of Cochin', The Japanese Journal of Political
Science 1(2), December 2001, pp. 293-327.
3. The Godhra incident, which precipitated the recent riots, was partly a
product of this larger process, not a conspiracy of the ISI, as the Sangh
Parivar claims. Nor was the incident the result of a provocation by
karsevaks so severe that the Muslim victims of the provocation had to burn
alive scores of train passengers, most of them women and children, as some
politically correct secularists have begun to insist. For the moment, I am
ignoring the even more inane attempts to explain away the Godhra episode as
a non-event. In some ways, the episode is a typical example of the chain of
events that have characterised a huge number of communal riots in recent
times deliberate provocation leading to violent reaction from desperate,
angry youth in slums and ghettos, followed by fully organised, large-scale
attacks on Muslims in general.
4. Harsh Mander, 'Cry, the Beloved Country: Reflections on the Gujarat
Massacre', unpublished report circulated over the Internet, 21 March 2002.
5. Ibid. See also Achyut Yagnik and Suchitra Sheth, 'Whither Gujarat?
Violence and After', Economic and Political Weekly 47(11), 16 March 2002,
pp. 1009-11.

______

#3.

SPRAT
[Society for the Promotion of Rational Thinking]
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 <http://www.riotinfo.com>
e-mail: sprat@r... <mailto:sprat@r...>

GANDHI TO GODHRA
by M H Jowher

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is not exactly a darling of today=92s Gujarati
Hindus. Sardar Vallabbhai Patel is. And lest you think it is the congressma=
n
Sardar, let me hasten to correct this: it is the iron-man Sardar. The
aggressive posturing of Hindutva, the saffron brand of militant Hinduism,
allows no room for the humaneness of Mahatma Gandhi.

Since 1985 aggression of the right wing Hindus has been on continuous
ascendance. In the early 90=92s this resulted in the slaughter of well-know=
n
Muslim-owned brands like Pankaj groundnut oil and franchise networks of
Edward Drycleaners and Italian Bakery. Simultaneously the entire western
city of Ahmedabad was purged of Muslims. Indeed, in the entire city west of
the Sabarmati River, no signboard even remotely resembling Muslim could be
seen years before Godhra.

As it is, in the best of times Gujarat had few linkages between Hindu and
Muslim middle classes except commercial. Profound hatred fanned
systematically by the VHP-Bajrang Dal variety of Hindus reigned supreme.
Muslims on their part did little to remove the prejudices and strengthen
inter-communal bridges.

The state government in Gujarat formed by BJP, a right wing Hindu party,
contributed actively by corroding various organs of the state, including th=
e
police and even segments of the judiciary. L K Advani, the architect of the
Hindutva resurgence and of the Ayodhya temple movement, and the BJP
President Jana Krishnamurty were both elected to the Upper House from
Gujarat. BJP has, however, been rapidly losing political ground throughout
India lately, including here in Gujarat, to the advantage of the Congress.
Other than Gujarat and the small province of Himachal Pradesh BJP doesn=92t
rule in any state. It was manifest that on development agenda this party ha=
d
little to hope for. Hindutva was clearly its last resort.

Two leading vernacular dailies, the Sandesh and the Gujarat Samachar played
very dirty by deliberately fanning communalism. Incidentally the Press
Council of India and the Editors=92 Guild have often condemned their role,
with little benefit.

This was the background in which Sabarmati Express mayhem =96 in which 56 m=
en,
women and children perished =96 took place at Godhra, a little over a 100 =
KMs
from Ahmedabad on the 27th February, 02. The state government actively
promoted all kinds of theories including that this was a diabolical plot of
Pakistan=92s ISI, a pre-planned attack by local Muslims and so on. Enough
evidence has, however, emerged since suggesting that this ghastly act might
actually be a conspiracy of the Hindutva itself.

What followed since the afternoon of 27th Feb is nothing short of carnage o=
f
Muslims. Ethnic cleansing some would say. Thousands of Muslim houses and
commercial establishments have been gutted, looted and destroyed, hundreds
of women raped, nearly 2000 most heinously murdered as the state police
remained a mute spectator and at times actively connived at this genocide.
Nearly 2000 Muslims are said to be still missing. Lakhs of Muslims have bee=
n
displaced and uprooted, some forever.

Hundreds of mosques and dargahs were desecrated, and entire slums vanished
under bull-dozers. A majority of cases shall, however, forever remain
undetected as all the witness have either been killed, burnt and ashes
strewn or buried and drowned deep in the well. Yet, while traumatized Musli=
m
women and men still live in the hiding, those that committed gang rapes and
mass murders walk their roads in style. The police even today doesn=92t
apprehend culprits named by many eye-witnesses.

The establishment worked over time and its various wings raced with one
another to harm, intimidate and humiliate Muslims. Nearly a hundred and
fifty thousand of them have been living in community run make-shift refugee
camps for over 14 weeks now in despicable conditions with very reluctant an=
d
half-hearted support from the government.

In the name of rehabilitation now another mayhem is being perpetrated.
Consider this: the maximum amount paid as relief to someone who lost all hi=
s
household goods is Rs. 1,250/- - a sum that doesn=92t buy a pedestal fan. F=
or
the complete loss of his house it is Rs. 50,000/-, insufficient in most
cities to build a room. Even so, most actually got even less than half thos=
e
sums. And a sham is being put up in the name of justice. Meanwhile the
monsoons are in the offing to complete the destruction left unfinished by
the Hindus. All in all a very grim situation for the Muslims of Gujarat in
particular and of India in general.

This carnage has, however, shocked every secular Indian and shaken every
sensible Hindu. And it is through these humane Hindus =96 and Christians =
=96
that the challenge of rehabilitating the devastated Muslims and earning the=
m
a semblance of dignity are being attempted. A long haul, clearly.

______

#4.

Rediff.com News, May 22, 2002

A 'Riot' was planned, but nobody came

Prem Panicker in New York

A "boisterous protest" was scheduled for this evening. It didn't happen.

And a good thing, too. The voice of fundamentalism, though often=20
short on fact and long on rhetoric, tends to be shrill. The voice of=20
reason, though sane, lucid, eloquent, tends to be soft.

It is in the nature of the second to be drowned, and of the first to drown.

The real triumph of this evening, thus, could well lie in the fact=20
that the voice of reason was heard, and appreciated with frequent=20
bursts of applause, by the audience at the Tischman Auditorium in the=20
main building of The New School, on 12th Street, New York.

Outside the school premises, the middle-aged Narain Kataria of the=20
Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh and his followers - numbering all of 18 -=20
chanted a few slogans, held up assorted placards, and flashed=20
embarrassed grins at passersby wondering what the heck was going on.

Inside, an audience of approximately 500 people, at $ 10 a pop,=20
gathered for a staged reading of author and senior United Nations=20
official Shashi Tharoor's novel, 'Riot'.

For the uninitiated, a staged reading is essentially a dramatised=20
version of a book or part thereof, in multiple voices. In this=20
instance, four characters from the book - Ram Charan Gupta, Mohammad=20
Sarwar, superintendent of police Gurinder Singh and district=20
magistrate Lakshman were chosen. And voiced by, respectively, actress=20
and parliamentarian Shabhana Azmi, actress and director Madhur=20
Jaffrey, Tharoor himself, and Deputy Editorial Features Editor of the=20
Wall Street Journal Tunku Varadarajan.

'Riot' - the novel - is a tale of love and its almost inevitable=20
fictional concomitant, death, set against the backdrop of the Ram=20
Janambhoomi agitation. In it, the author uses 12 different voices to=20
tell his story and, inter-alia, to cast light on the troubled times.

Michael Johnson Chase, International Program Director of the Lark=20
Theatre Company, in tandem with the author adapted the book for the=20
event. That is to say, he gave the central romance the miss in baulk,=20
and made the canvas itself his tale.

Thus on stage we had Shabhana Azmi playing the volatile Hindutva=20
chauvinist Ram Charan Gupta. Ironical bit of casting that, for the=20
handful of protestors outside had in their slogans been=20
characterising her as rabidly anti-Hindu, and a friend to Muslim=20
jehadis and the Taleban.

Tunku Varadarajan, known for his acerbic columns, was another=20
instance of classic miscasting - as the soft-spoken, rational=20
district magistrate trying to do the right thing. Tharoor, with his=20
booming base, played the expletive-spouting, hard-drinking top cop.=20
And Madhur Jaffrey rounded off the ensemble as the sarcastic, witty,=20
yet always sensible Muslim professor making a case for his -- and his=20
community's - essential Indianness.

It was a structured retelling, kicking off with Azmi talking of the=20
historical injustice of Babar's demolition of a Hindu temple to erect=20
a Muslim mosque on the land revered as the birthplace of Lord Ram,=20
and making a case for the land to be reclaimed, and a temple to Ram=20
erected in place of the mosque.

Varadarajan as the middle-of-the-road official followed up with an=20
argument against the increasing climate of intolerance. "The phrase=20
Hindu fundamentalist," he said, "is a contradiction of terms, because=20
Hinduism is a religion without any fundamentals" - a line that, in=20
fact, finds place in Tharoor's earlier work of non-fiction, India:=20
>From Independence to the Millennium and which, like a few others,=20
were transplanted into this performance.

Jaffrey in her turn gently mocked the Hindutva brigade's claims to=20
historical sanction, and rounded off with the eminently quotable:=20
"Build Ram in your hearts because if he is there, it little matters=20
where else he is."

And Tharoor rounded off by talking of his increasing headache - to=20
wit, maintaining the peace.

>From that point on, all four performers blended literature and=20
dramatics into an escalating tale of Hindu belligerence and Muslim=20
angst, mixed with the attempts by Authority in the form of the DM and=20
the cop to restore peace.

The production was full of lines of startling eloquence, with Jaffrey=20
drawing the most laughter, and applause when she defined the temple=20
agitation as "The reclaiming of history by those who believe that at=20
one point they had been written out of the script" or when she=20
pointed out that it was Islam, in a way, that had led to the=20
nationwide resurgence of Ram as an object of veneration, saying, "The=20
role of Islam in the sanctification of Ram is a PhD thesis someone=20
should do - provided he or she is adequately insured."

But Azmi proved the scene-stealer. At one point, as the tension=20
built, Azmi as Ram Charan Gupta told of preparations for the next=20
morning's Ram Shila procession in the town of Zalilgarh, where the=20
action of the novel is set. Of how two youths painting slogans on the=20
wall were set upon by two Muslim youths, attacked with knives and=20
hacked.

As Azmi spoke, her voice trembled with the startled surprise of the=20
two young Hindus, blazed with the anger of the Muslim attackers,=20
turned hoarse and broke in anguish as the attack put the victims down=20
in a pool of their own blood, and throbbed with raw emotion bordering=20
on tears as she spoke of how one of the boys, slated to get married=20
within a month, had his face crudely disfigured.

Sans props, sans makeup, sans a helpful director standing in the=20
wings yelling 'Cut!' till she got it inch perfect, Azmi yet produced=20
a moment of high, gripping drama. And Tharoor acknowledged her=20
virtuosity when, in the question-answer session following the=20
reading, he spoke of how Azmi had performed the role of Hindu=20
fundamentalist, espousing the character's views "with such fervour=20
that for a moment, even I was convinced!"

The performers built up towards the inevitable denouement - the riots=20
and the bloodshed that followed in the wake of the Ram Shila=20
processions. And ended with a retelling of an old Hindu tale relating=20
to one man's quest for truth and his ultimate discovery that Truth=20
is, ultimately, what you make of it.

The evening had begun with a bow to the secular ethos, when Ishita=20
Ganguly sang 'Raghupathi Raghava Raja Ram', segueing immediately into=20
'Allah ho..." It ended with Azmi reading a poem of rare eloquence by=20
her recently departed father, the poet and lyricist Kaifi Azmi.

Inside, people ignored the organisers' repeated pleas to vacate in=20
order that the auditorium could be shut down for the night and queued=20
up to shake hands with the four performers, and with the director.

Outside, where three hours earlier a motley crowd had hung around,=20
brandishing signs reading 'Shabana is a Communist, deport her!' and=20
'Shabana has not condemned the ethnic cleansing of Hindus and Sikhs=20
in Kashmir', there was silence. And peace.

And in between the energized atmosphere inside and the silence=20
outside, you were left with a thought: What if, one day in our=20
country, they threw a riot - and nobody came?

_____

#5.

JANAMATHA invites you to a MASSIVE RALLY and PUBLIC MEETING
against communalism, communal violence in Gujarat and for communal
harmony

On 27th May 2002, Monday

RALLY starts at 12 noon FROM HUDSON CIRCLE

PUBLIC MEETING is from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. AT THE NATIONAL COLLEGE
GROUND, BASAVANAGUDI

PARTICIPANTS include: Sri Shivakumara Swamiji, Sri.
Balagangadharanatha Swamiji, Sri. Sutthooru Desikendra Swamiji, Sr.
thontadha Siddalingeswara Swamiji, Sri. Dilip Kumar, Sri. Kuldeep Nair,
Sri. Raj Babbar, Smt. Saeeda Hameed

PARTICIPATING ORGANISATIONS include: Karnataka Rajya Raitha
Sangha (KRRS), Dalitha Sangharsha Samithi (DSS), Samatha Sainika
Dala (SSD), Karnataka Janandholana Sanghatane, Karnataka State
Kurubara Sangha, Karnataka State Thigalara Sangha, Karnataka State
Madivalara Sangha, Karnataka State Backward Caste Federation,
Gangamatastha Sangha, Karnataka State Yadava (Golla) Sangha, Akila
Bharatha Vishvakarma Mahasabha, Devanga Sangha, Nekarara Sangha,
State Eidigara Sangha, Karnataka State Padmasali Sangha, Karnataka
State Savitha Samaja, Kumbarara Sangha, Ganigara Sangha, DYFI, SFI,
PUCL, Jathi Vinasha Vedike, HRFDL, Mahanagara Palike Guttige Poura
Karmikara Sangha, Kolache Nivasigala Kriya Samithi,
Slum Jagath, Kannada Rakshana Vedike, BPSRO, Karnataka Vimochana
Ranga (KVR), REDS, Dalit Christian Organisation, Samvada, DGWV, Dalit
Jagrutha Samithi, Dalit Mahasabha, Dalit
Sangharsha Samiti (Murthy), Boudha Mahasabha, All India Christian
Council, Swabhimani Karnataka Vedike, Kannada Sangharsha Samithi,
KSRTC Kendra Kannada Kriya Samithi, Kannada Vedike, Ma.
Ramamurthy Kannada Balaga, Shantaveri Gopalagowda Vichara
Samsthe, Kannada Yuvajana Sangha, Savigannada Balaga,
Aa. Na. Kru. Kannada Sangha, BEL Karnataka Employees
Association, Abhivyakthi Swatantra Vedike, Mohammadiyara Kannada
Balaga, PDF, AIDYO, Muslim Student Organisation, Kammavaari
Sangha, SC/ST Employees Association, Chaluvadi Sangha, Janadwani
Yuva Vedike, Agni Balaga, Federation of Muslim Women
Organisations in Bangalore (FEMWOB), Sangama, Manasa,
Vimochana and Other Organisations

CONVENORS OF JANAMATHA include: Prof. Chandrasekhar
Patil, Puttanaiah, Devnoor Mahadeva, Prof. Hasan Mansoor, D. G.
Sagar, Lakshman, Jigini Shankar, M. Venkataswamy, N. Murthy and
=91Agni=92 Sridhar

PARTICIPATE IN THOUSANDS AND MAKE IT A HUGE
SUCCESS

_____

#6.

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=3D20020603&fname=3DGujarat+%28=
F%29&sid=3D1
Outlook Magazine (New Delhi) Jun 03, 2002

EXCLUSIVE
A Plot From The Devil's Lair
A late-evening meeting convened by Modi on February 27 ensured mobs a=20
free hand the next day
MANU JOSEPH
What exactly happened on the night of February 27 in chief minister=20
Narendra Modi's bungalow in Gandhinagar? All along there have been=20
rumours of a late-evening meeting called by Modi on the day of the=20
Godhra carnage in which he instructed senior police officials to=20
allow "people to vent their frustration" over the torching of two=20
coaches of the Sabarmati Express during the VHP bandh the following=20
day.
These rumours have now been confirmed. Information with Outlook shows=20
that a senior minister from his own cabinet has blown the whistle on=20
Modi. Last week, the minister deposed before the Concerned Citizens=20
Tribunal headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Krishna Iyer.

Though the minister was not legally bound to appear before=20
the tribunal, he chose to.
The nine-member tribunal comprising former judges and other eminent=20
citizens was in Gujarat to record evidence on who or what may have=20
caused the Gujarat carnage.
Former Bombay High Court judge Justice Hosbet Suresh, who is on the

Concerned Citizens panel and who also heard the deposition, confirms=20
that the minister did depose before him. He told Outlook: "Yes, a=20
senior minister appeared before us for 35 to 40 minutes and talked to=20
us about a few things that led to the Gujarat carnage. Among other=20
things, the minister spoke about the meeting Modi called on the night=20
of February 27." The minister spoke to the tribunal on the condition=20
that it would not name him in its final report. Another member of the=20
panel has also confirmed the minister's deposition.
The minister told Outlook that in his deposition, he revealed that on=20
the night of February 27, Modi summoned DGP K. Chakravarthy,=20
commissioner of police, Ahmedabad, P.C. Pande, chief secretary G.=20
Subarao, home secretary Ashok Narayan, secretary to the home=20
department K. Nityanand (a serving police officer of IG rank on=20
deputation) and DGP (IB) G.S. Raigar. Also present were officers from=20
the CM's office: P.K. Mishra, Anil Mukhim and A.K. Sharma. The=20
minister also told Outlook that the meeting was held at the CM's=20
bungalow.
The minister told the tribunal that in the two-hour meeting, Modi=20
made it clear there would be justice for Godhra the next day, during=20
the VHP-called bandh. He ordered that the police should not come in=20
the way of "the Hindu backlash". At one point in this briefing,=20
according to the minister's statement to the tribunal, DGP=20
Chakravarthy vehemently protested. But he was harshly told by Modi to=20
shut up and obey. Commissioner Pande, says the minister, would later=20
show remorse in private but at that meeting didn't have the guts to=20
object.
According to the deposition, it was a typical Modi meeting: more=20
orders than discussion. By the end of it, the CM ensured that his top=20
officials-especially the police-would stay out of the way of Sangh=20
parivar men. The word was passed on to the mobs.
(According to a top IB official, on the morning of February 28, VHP=20
and Bajrang Dal activists first visited some parts of Ahmedabad and=20
created minor trouble just to check if the police did in fact look=20
the other way. Once Modi's word was confirmed, the carnage began.)
The minister further told the tribunal that two cabinet ministers=20
were present in the police control room on February 28. They took=20
over the control room and personally supervised the proceedings. (The=20
names of the ministers, Ashok Bhatt and I.K. Jadeja, have very often=20
been taken by police sources but till date there is no FIR registered=20
against them, nor has any police official who was present in the=20
control room then ever confirmed this allegation).
The minister went on to tell the tribunal that Modi was convinced=20
that since he started the riots, he would be able to control the=20
violence within a day or two. But the scale of the violence and the=20
media backlash caught him by surprise. The more shocking aspect of=20
the minister's testimony, says a tribunal member, was: "Scores could=20
have been settled in Godhra itself.Perhaps 100 people may have died=20
there on the whole and that may have been the end of it. But Modi=20
brought the riots to Ahmedabad. He took the riots to rest of the=20
state."
The riots were not born out of any ideology, according to the=20
minister. It had a simple political background. The minister told=20
Outlook, "Modi was never a politician. He was a pracharak, a=20
pracharak whose days were numbered because unlike others of his=20
status, he was a man who liked the good life. He lived like a king.=20
Not many liked him. Then one day, we were shocked by the BJP's defeat=20
in the panchayat elections. And when the BJP lost the Sabarmati=20
assembly seat and Sabarkanta parliamentary seat, we knew we would=20
lose the general elections."
That's when Modi stepped in. According to the minister, Modi told the=20
BJP high command that after all, he was more presentable than=20
Keshubai Patel and he swore that in the next elections he would bring=20
the BJP back to power. The minister added that when five and a half=20
months into the job Modi realised his charm wasn't working, he=20
decided religious polarisation was the only way to survive. As=20
triggers go, Godhra was a strong one. But anything could have served=20
as a trigger. There was talk of making an issue of a cow slaughter=20
video the party had got but that plan was shelved.
Politics was also why the minister decided to squeal. As he himself=20
told Outlook, it was the victimisation of party workers by Modi that=20
upset him the most. Said the minister: "After taking all the credit=20
for Hindu awareness in the state, when pressure mounted on him to=20
cool down, he started balancing the sheet by arresting party workers."
A 70-year-old BJP leader in Kalol taluka has been arrested on rape=20
charges. As many as 3,369 people have been arrested so far, many of=20
them grassroots party workers who are asking their bosses why they=20
are being picked up. In all, 893 FIRs have been filed. One (crime=20
number 195/2002) names VHP leader Jaideep Patel. BJP MLA Dr Maya=20
Kodanani has been named along with other lower-level party workers in=20
FIR 197/2002. Police inspector Rawat, who had terrorised inmates of=20
the Dhariyakhan Gummat refugee camp and was the right hand man of=20
civil supplies minister Bharat Barot, has been suspended, an event=20
nobody would have believed in the pre-K.P.S. Gill era.
Discontent is mounting within Modi's cabinet. Revenue minister Haren=20
Pandya had this to say to Outlook: "No party is just one man. History=20
points that out. We had a meeting recently of top BJP leaders. Modi=20
was not invited but there was a huge crowd. There was not a mention=20
of Modi by the speakers but it was still a very successful BJP meet."
In fact, no one expected the minister to turn up before the tribunal.=20
It is not a constitutional body and it is not binding on anybody it=20
summons to appear before it. But the minister walked into a building=20
called Prashant in Ahmedabad, which houses a human rights=20
organisation. Justices Suresh and P.B. Sawant, senior advocate K.G.=20
Kannabiran and retired police officer K.S. Subramanian were present.
When the tribunal releases its findings in mid-August, there will be=20
many things to make a man who is today called Chhota Sardar feel very=20
small. But as Justice Suresh says, "Our report will only give the=20
public the right to information. They'll know what really happened.=20
But that doesn't mean the guilty will be punished." History agrees.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Manu Joseph In Ahmedabad With S. Anand

--=20
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

SACW is an informal, independent & non-profit citizens wire service run by
South Asia Citizens Web (http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex) since 1996.
To subscribe send a blank message to:
<act-subscribe@yahoogroups.com> / To unsubscribe send a blank
message to: <act-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com>
________________________________________
DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not
necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers.
\\|//\\|//\\|//\\|//\\|//\\|//\\|//\\|//\\|//\\|//|//\\|//|//\\|//|//\\|//|=
//\\|//|//\\|//