[sacw] SACW | 15 April 03

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire  |  15 April,  2003

#1. Ballad of the soldier's wife: War and the widow (Amitava Kumar)
#2. Donning war paint? (Bharat Bhushan)
#3. Taming a brutal society (Anwer Mooraj)
#4. Hawks in a cage (Amulya Ganguli)
#5. Whose Raj is it anyway? (Shamsul Islam)
#6. Three Pronged (an Editorial from the Telegraph)
#7. Letter from 50 Indians across the US to Chief Minister of 
Maharashtra re the Sardar Sarovar Dam.
#8. Open letter to the To the Editor, Times of India re article on Beggars


--------------


#1.

Himal
April 2003

REFLECTIONS
Ballad of the soldier's wife: War and the widow

by Amitava Kumar

BBC
Baghdad is bombed, 20 March 2003.

The news on the television is of the bombing in Baghdad. I came out 
of the bedroom this morning and saw my wife watching the news with 
tears in her eyes. My wife is five months pregnant and, in ways that 
I can only imagine, she is aware of just how much life is precious 
and also vulnerable. And yet, I know that she and I, sitting in a 
suburban house in America, are shielded from the real news of the war 
that is being waged in our name. There was a retired colonel of the 
US Marine Corps on CNN last night; he smiled, and even chuckled, as 
he described the bombs falling on Iraq. A brave woman called in - the 
show was Larry King Live - and said that she found the colonel's 
behaviour obscene. We are watching the bared fangs of the killers. 
Not one of the reports have described what has happened so far to the 
innocent men and women and children who deserved neither Saddam 
Hussein nor George W Bush.

There is much that is hidden from us, and it makes us feel isolated 
and helpless.

I would like to see the Iraqi women on television. We should know 
what a pregnant woman in Baghdad was feeling when the bombs were 
dropping around her. That must have been the thought, I decided for 
myself, that was making my wife cry. Once I started thinking of that, 
it occurred to me that I would like to know what the thoughts were of 
the wives and girlfriends of the American and British soldiers who 
have died.

I have no experience of war but I have met many widows. Today, as I 
watch the strangely disembodied spectacle of war on my screen, smoke 
rising in surreal shades in a landscape devoid of all human presence, 
I return to the memories of my meetings.

News
In a village called Kukurwar, about three hours' drive from my 
hometown Patna, I met Munni Devi, the widow of Sepoy Hardeo Prasad 
who was killed in Batalik during the Kargil war. Hardeo was a soldier 
in the 1 Bihar Regiment and his wife showed me his large, framed 
picture taken when he was a part of the United Nations Peacekeeping 
=46orce in Somalia. He was a tall, well-built man with dark skin and a 
light moustache, and in the photograph he wore the blue UN cap and a 
blue turtleneck under his camouflage jacket. Behind him was the 
Somalian photo studio's painted backdrop. It showed a garden and a 
house with a TV aerial and, further in the distance, a row of 
mountain peaks on which the artist had added a layer of white snow. 
Next to this picture was another glass frame with a one dollar bill 
pasted inside it. Hardeo had brought the dollar note back with him 
from Somalia in 1994.
Women would comment that she had got a house and a television after 
her husband died

Munni and I were sitting in the small brick house that was built with 
the compensation money that the government had given her. The room 
was not very large, it had just enough space for four chairs. There 
was a doorway to my right and we could hear Hindi songs being played 
on a loudspeaker in the distance. Now and then, I could glimpse a hen 
walking outside with five or six tiny chicks that had been coloured a 
bright green by the owner.

It was a winter morning and Munni, slight and barefoot, with only a 
thick shawl wrapped over her sari, continued to shiver as she spoke 
to me. When her hand shook, I would look away, concentrating my gaze 
at the picture of a smiling child in the Magadh Automobile calendar 
hanging on the wall behind her head.

Munni was 28 years old. She had three children, two daughters and a 
little son who was six months old when his father died. Her education 
had stopped at high school. At my request, Munni began to tell me 
about the different places where her husband had served with the 
army. First it was northeast India, mostly Assam, and then Somalia, 
before he was sent to Kashmir from where he had returned with some 
saffron and dreamed of trading in it. (Hardeo had begun to say to 
Munni, "Money is the only VIP". Munni looked up at me when she used 
the English term 'VIP'.) Hardeo left home for Kargil on 21 May 1999 
at the conclusion of a two-month leave.

He was dead less than a month later. While he had been home, Munni 
said, he did not do much. She said, "He would listen to the radio". I 
suddenly remembered that the 1 Bihar Regiment had been involved in 
the war from the start: the first army casualty on the Indian side 
had been Major Saravanan who had been killed on 29 May at Point 4268 
- and his body was among the last to be recovered in the war when his 
regiment captured the hill, on the night of 6 July, where he had died 
months earlier. While Munni and I talked, Hardeo's old father came 
and sat in the room. He did not say anything to me, and several 
minutes later, when I looked at him, I could not decide if his eyes 
were old and watery or indeed he was crying.

Munni said that they would listen to the radio all the time to get 
news of the war going on in Kargil, and it was through the news 
bulletin that they first heard of Hardeo's death. There was some 
confusion, however, because the radio had mentioned the wrong 
village, even though it had got the name and the regiment right. 
Then, the sub-divisional magistrate came and gave her the news in 
person. Munni had been sitting outside her hut. The brick house, she 
reminded me, had not yet been built. The officer said, "Is this 
Hardeo Prasad's house? He has been martyred".

Munni said, "I had been unhappy for the previous day or two. I had 
been crying for an hour. I was not surprised when the man came. I did 
not move from where I had been sitting outside the house".

At night, at two in the morning, soldiers in an army truck brought 
Hardeo's body wrapped in the national flag. The body, Munni said, had 
turned completely black, and, as if putting a half-question to me, 
she said, "The enemy had used some poisonous substance, perhaps". 
Munni said that the district officials had said to her that they 
would have to wait till Bihar's chief minister, Rabri Devi, came to 
the funeral with her husband.

The dignitaries arrived by helicopter and the chief minister offered 
a few words of support to Munni. She also gave her a cheque. Months 
later, Munni said, women in the village would comment that she had 
got a house and a television after her husband died. This hurt her, 
Munni said. She would rather have her husband back.

I asked Munni if she knew how her husband was killed. He was hiding 
near a hill with an officer, she said. They were being shot at and he 
was hurt in the right arm. The officer said to him that they should 
get medical aid but Hardeo said that he was okay. Munni said, "After 
two-three hours, he began to suffer a bit".

=46our men from his regiment carried Hardeo to the place where medical 
aid was available. He asked for a drink of water. He told them about 
his family and then he said that he would not live.

Correspondents
When Munni had finished speaking, I stayed silent. She had kept her 
head bent and hardly ever looked at me when she spoke. I had noticed 
that the parting in her hair was bare. As is customary for a widow, 
there was no sindoor in the parting. When I asked her what was it 
that Hardeo wrote most often to her in his letters, she quietly got 
up and walked out of the room. When she came back, she had a few 
letters in her hand.

The first letter I read was actually written not by Hardeo but by 
Munni herself. It was in broken Hindi, and began "My dear husband 
=2E.." The other two letters had been written by Hardeo and they were 
dated about eight-nine months before his death. They inquired about 
Munni's health and then instructed her to take care of the children. 
Both were addressed "Dear mother of Manisha ...". Manisha was their 
elder daughter.

Hardeo signed his name in English with some flourish. That signature 
and the address were the only words he wrote in English. I reopened 
Munni's letter. I was embarrassed to read it in front of her, but I 
went ahead anyway. I thought that her way of addressing Hardeo was 
much more playful. "Priya Patiji, Namaste, Namaste". (Dear Husband, 
my greetings, my greetings.)

Her letter mentioned that Hardeo had been a more regular 
correspondent; she had simply not had the time to write to him more 
frequently. Manisha was staying at her maternal uncle's house; she 
was attending school in Jehanabad town. Munni wanted Hardeo to come 
home for the chatth festival, and if he got leave, he was to inform 
her in advance.

Munni had also written, "What else can I write? You know what a 
family is like. And for a wife it is the husband who gives happiness. 
The wife's happiness is not there without you. What can I do when 
this is written in my fate?" Then there was mention of the potatoes 
that had been harvested, and the rice that had been threshed. There 
was mention of loneliness here but also a hint about some tension in 
the wider family. I thought of one of Hardeo's letter, in which he 
had scribbled in the postscript, "Do not fret too much and whatever 
people might say or do in the house, you should not utter a word in 
response. Okay. Ta-ta".
"You have taught young men that it is not only Kargil but also Lahore 
where the Indian tricolour will fly"

Hardeo's younger brother, Vinod, a pleasant, unemployed man, had come 
and sat down on the ground near me. He was holding a yellow sheet of 
paper in his hand. When he gave it to me, I saw that it was a rather 
bombastically worded tribute to Hardeo on his first death anniversary 
observed only a few months earlier. The tribute ended with a 
declaration in Hindi: "By being a soldier and by assuming command, 
you have taught the young men of your village that it is not only 
Kargil and Kashmir but also Lahore and Islamabad where the Indian 
tricolour will fly. For the peace of your soul, the District 
Development Forum takes this solemn oath".

Tea and sweets had been brought for me on a small stainless steel 
tray. I said to Munni that I would quickly drink the tea and leave. 
She brought me an album of photographs. There were only a handful of 
pictures in the book. A few of them showed Hardeo in Somalia, and in 
one picture he was standing in front of a temple in Bhutan.

There were photographs from the funeral, including one of Hardeo's 
body washed and laid out on the ground with a brown cloth wrapped 
around the torso. The hands of the villagers were propping up the 
head and shoulders for the photograph.

There was one picture of Hardeo and Munni together. It had been taken 
during their happier days. It said "Prabhat Studio" in the bottom 
corner. Munni was difficult to recognise in the photograph: she wore 
her hair open on the side, and her clothes were new and bright. She 
appeared amused as she looked at the camera. I asked Munni if I could 
take a picture of her. She solemnly took down the framed photograph 
of Hardeo in Somalia, and then posed for me with her eyes fixed on 
the ground between us.

I wanted to ask Munni something before I left. I asked her if 
she would have anything to say to a woman in Pakistan who was also a 
war widow like her. Munni said, "Why should I say anything to the one 
who took away my husband?"

"But the women, the widows, they were not fighting. They did not take 
away Hardeo", I said. But Munni shook her head. She would not relent. 
Maybe she was right, maybe she was not.

Maybe the fault lay in my fantasies. I was dreaming of a dialogue 
between all those who had suffered from war's injustice. I still hold 
on to that dream. I cannot help feeling that Munni was the war's 
double victim. She had lost her husband, and she had lost a link to 
the broader world which shared her suffering.

As I look at the television screen today - from where all signs of 
life have been banished, as if there were no human beings in Iraq - I 
wonder whether a woman sitting afraid in Baghdad knows that there is 
another woman, in a small town in suburban America, shedding tears 
for her. It is not much, but it would take away, for a moment, the 
horrible isolation we all feel amidst this violence.


______


#2.

The Daily Times
April 15, 2003 

Donning war paint?

Bharat Bhushan

Yashwant Sinha, the Minister for External Affairs, is normally 
economical with words. Yet one might be forgiven for wondering what 
on earth he was doing giving one interview a day the whole of last 
week saying that Pakistan was a fit case for pre-emptive strikes. 
Sinha knows as well as anyone else that wars are not fought through 
speeches.
If New Delhi thought that it had no option but to initiate 
pre-emptive strikes against Pakistan, it could have done so by now. 
So why is New Delhi becoming strident now? Perhaps the belligerence 
is for the consumption of a domestic audience after the massacre of 
Kashmiri Pundits at Nadimarg in Pulwama on March 24. But then what 
would New Delhi do at the next provocation in Jammu & Kashmir?
Some strategic experts are convinced that if there is one more 
terrorist incident like that at Nadimarg, the Indian reaction should 
be to administer a short sharp shock to Pakistan through surgical air 
strikes across the LoC. It does not matter what targets are hit, they 
argue as New Delhi can always claim that it has hit Pakistan's 
"terrorist" infrastructure.
The basic purpose would have been served. The Indian public would see 
that the Vajpayee government is finally showing determination to take 
on Pakistan. This would go down well in a year when four important 
Hindi heartland states (Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Rajasthan and 
Delhi) are going to polls. Pakistan would also know that henceforth 
there would be a cost to pay for encouraging the jihadis. Would 
Islamabad escalate this into something bigger? Those who speculate 
about such a scenario do not think so.
More than voices in India, however, the US seems convinced that there 
could be a major Indo-Pak military conflagration this summer. As 
recently as March 26, US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia 
Christina Rocca appearing before the Senate Foreign Relations 
Committee voiced fears of another Indo-Pak crisis in the making. 
While condemning the Nadimarg massacre she said, "...Continued 
terrorism like Sunday's (March 24) attack threaten to provoke yet 
another crisis in the coming months."
Unofficially also, those close to the Bush administration as well as 
some outside it have been suggesting that since there may not be a 
let up in the activities of the jihadis in Pakistan, there could be a 
war around June this year. By then the snows would have melted, 
cross-border infiltration would be in full swing and a major strike 
by the Kashmiri militants could provide the trigger.
It is not beyond the establishments in India and Pakistan to go with 
eyes wide open into a military misadventure. The Western powers 
recognise this and seem to be working to a plan - what that plan is 
only they know - to settle the Kashmir issue in a manner which 
neither destabilises General Pervez Musharraf nor Atal Bihari 
Vajpayee. Both of them are seen as dependable allies who are amenable 
to listening to the international community - especially to the US - 
albeit within their domestic political constraints.
The international concern about an India-Pakistan conflict is now 
more evident than ever before. Consider, for example, the increased 
concern shown by the US, Britain, France and even the biggest 
regional player, China, about the simmering crisis in South Asia even 
when the Iraq war is on.
Immediately after the Nadimarg incident, the US State Department 
stated categorically that "violence will not solve Kashmir's 
problems" and emphasised the need for an India-Pakistan dialogue. 
Three days later, on March 27, Christina Rocca underlined the need 
for the two countries to re-engage with each other. The same day, US 
Secretary of State Colin Powell and the British Foreign Secretary 
Jack Straw, in a joint statement, called for a "ceasefire" along the 
LoC.
Around the same time, in an interview to the New York Times, US 
Secretary of State Colin Powell said that after the Iraq war was 
over, the US would spend more time addressing the strains in the 
India-Pakistan relations. On March 29, the French Foreign Minister 
Dominique de Villipin called his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid 
Mahmood Kasuri and reminded him of Pakistan's commitment to stop 
cross-border terrorism and urged a respect for the LoC.
On March 31, Jack Straw in his first telephonic conversation with his 
Chinese counterpart Li Zhaoxing, sought China's help to end 
Pakistan's support for cross-border terrorism in India and to bring 
about peace and stability in South Asia. And on April 7, China 
indicated its displeasure with the notion of pre-emptive strikes in 
its neighbourhood by emphasising that India and Pakistan should 
engage in a dialogue to resolve their differences.
Meanwhile, there are also reports that in one of his telephone 
conversations with Prime Minister Vajpayee last month, US President 
George W Bush had apparently said that the US was "looking at the 
LoC" (as a possible solution to the Kashmir dispute). At the same 
time, France and Britain have come down heavily on Pakistan for its 
attempts to tinker with the draft of the Proposed International 
Convention on Suppression of Terrorist Bombings to justify the 
Kashmir militancy - Pakistan wanted a clause in the convention saying 
that it would not apply to armed struggles for self-determination.
All these developments started in February and the activity has 
intensified, as the Iraq War seems to be ebbing. This is pretty 
hectic diplomatic activity at a time when the world ought to be 
focused on West Asia and should have little time for India and 
Pakistan. Yet what we are witnessing is increased concern about the 
developments in South Asia.
These are not international alerts about an impending military 
conflagration. They are more like expressions of intent - that the 
world would not allow a military conflict to take place. All the key 
players seem to be on board on this. Even those in Europe who have 
not gone along with the US on Iraq will not shy away from an 
initiative to prevent an India-Pakistan conflict. The local big 
player, China, has also been brought in. The concern of the 
international community seems to be to find a permanent solution to 
the India-Pakistan tensions so that the two neighbours can neither 
blackmail and threaten each other nor destabilise the region.
Kashmir is, therefore, on the international agenda. Settling Kashmir 
would help Pakistan stabilise politically by taking away the rallying 
cause for the jihadi groups. It would also help it economically - its 
loans are already being written off or rescheduled and its balance of 
payments and credit rating are already showing signs of improvement.
=46or India too there are distinct benefits. For a country that has 
global ambitions, being tied down in Kashmir with continuous 
deployment of security forces and the abuses that go with it cannot 
be of any long-term advantage. There is a peace dividend for both 
India and Pakistan if they stop extracting pain out of the past and 
do not let Kashmir fester. Does India recognise this? Perhaps it 
does. In that case, Yashwant Sinha's strident statements may not be 
threats of war but a signal to the global community to invite its 
attention so that a permanent settlement with Pakistan can be reached.
Bharat Bhushan is Editor of The Telegraph newspaper in Delhi

______

#3.

DAWN
14 April 2003
http://www.dawn.com/2003/04/14/op.htm#3

Taming a brutal society

By Anwer Mooraj

This is going to be an extremely unpleasant piece. But it has to be 
written. Readers have a right to know just what goes on in the name 
of law and order in a republic that calls itself Islamic, and which 
claims to protect the rights of the minorities.
Ten days ago the denizens of the garden city of Lahore learned of a 
horrendous incident which took place in the Islampura police station. 
The police , while investigating a theft, arrested a government 
sanitary worker named Rehmat Masih. In spite of calls for mercy they 
beat him so severely with iron bars and other metallic instruments 
that he died within half an hour.
A relative of the poor fellow joined a protest rally outside the 
civil secretariat. Under the guise of enforcing and ensuring 
discipline, the relative was singled out by the police and bludgeoned 
to death while bewildered passers-by watched the sadistic display in 
stunned silence. And so, in one fell swoop the law enforcement agency 
plunged a small, insignificant Christian family into deep tragedy.
Some of the jails of Lahore with their dreamy, druggy delirium of 
fin-de-siecle decadence are full of coughing consumptives, drunken 
vagabonds, pimps, pick-pockets, burglars, obsessive gamblers and con 
men. Fortunately, the suicide bomber, who is the new icon, the 
ultimate in logical negativism, who sends his enemy to hell because 
he believes it will get him to paradise, has not yet made an 
appearance in Lahore.
But the miserable sweeper who cleans roads and government buildings, 
and whose church is desecrated at regular intervals, appears to have 
a season ticket, for he is frequently in and out of the local jail on 
one charge or the other. Thrashing suspected felons is nothing new in 
this country. But the ferocity and calculated mendacity with which 
the jailers dealt with poor Rehmat Masih was enough to make one's 
stomach churn.
What have the Punjab governor and the chief minister done about this 
latest example of police brutality ? Nothing. The fact is, in spite 
of an article in the 1973 Constitution which states that all citizens 
are equal in the eyes of the law, a poor denizen of this republic who 
has neither money nor connections, has no rights whatsoever. If he is 
arrested for an alleged offence, he is assumed to be guilty before he 
is proven innocent. And poor people don't find too many lawyers 
willing to take up cases for free.
The poor are dispensable. They form miserable statistics in a 
politician's vote bank. Zia Awan told this writer that he once met a 
prisoner who had spent 18 years in jail. Neither the superintendent 
nor the jailers knew just what his offence was. On investigation Zia 
Awan discovered that a magistrate had fined him for ten rupees for 
some minor offence. The poor fellow did not have the required amount 
to pay the fine. And as he belonged to Swat and did not know anybody 
in the city, he languished in jail until the human rights activist 
secured his release.
That is the way the legal system works. An ancient Greek put it 
rather nicely in The Republic when philosopher Plato, through the 
lips of Socrates, posed the question to his group of disciples, 'What 
is justice ?' Thrasymacus, the first pragmatist in recorded history, 
said, 'Justice is the interest of the stronger.' In today's world can 
anybody really argue with this definition?
The Islampura incident is just one in a series of crimes committed by 
the police against citizens. During the country's first martial law, 
there was evidence to suggest that the police were more people 
friendly. But in recent times, they appear to have developed a 
heightened awareness of human transience, and crime statistics are 
littered with examples of police brutality.
Some of the 'executions' involving members of the faceless multitude, 
are euphemistically called 'encounters' - which suggest that 
criminals are given some sort of a sporting chance to defend 
themselves against a police posse. But invariably, the method used by 
the upholders of the law, involves the monstrous practice of 
obtaining confessions by attempting to break a suspect's arm or leg.
The more sensational examples of police violence alone are reported 
in newspapers. Like the case of Amir Mushtaq, a third year student, 
who was shot down at a police picket in McLeod Road in Lahore. Or 
Shahid Chandio, a victim of an 'encounter' death in Muzaffargardh . 
Or the case of the mother of six who lived in a small street in 
Gujranwala, who was killed by the men in uniform because she 
protested against the house-to-house search for a proclaimed offender.
Karachi has also had its share of police brutality. Scores of cases 
of beating and false imprisonment have been recorded during the last 
decade, often to settle political scores or vendettas. Occasionally, 
the people were informed that after members of the public had made 
sufficient noise and a series of protest hunger strikes and sit-ins 
at the Karachi Press Club had taken place, certain policemen were 
transferred or suspended, as if this was sufficient punishment for 
inflicting torture on some poor wretch suspected of a crime.
On very rare occasions a terse message is received that certain 
policemen have been dismissed from service, as happened on the 
morning of April 11. Newspaper readers learned that the TPO of 
Shahrah-e-Faisal police station in Karachi had sacked three 
constables who had sodomized a teenage boy, who later committed 
suicide.
Is this sufficient punishment? an opposition MPA asked this writer at 
a conference. We are often told that certain upholders of the law 
have been suspended and discover, a few weeks later, that they have 
resurfaced in another area. Should not the policemen in the Islampura 
and Shahrah-e-Faisal police stations be tried and punished so that an 
example can be set once and for all?
What about the members of the minority Christian community in Lahore, 
who on a regular basis catch sightings of cruelty, agony and 
desperation? They will certainly interpret the murder of the two 
masihs, as an example of the growing intolerance and uncertainty 
which is prevailing in the country. This brutal event will be duly 
noted by the human rights activists, who are already alarmed at the 
rising incidence of crimes against women.
"What can one do in a country," one of the lawyers representing the 
victim of an honour killing asked this writer with a note of 
desperation in his voice, "when an anti-terrorist court condemns to 
death six men for raping a woman on the orders of a panchayat, 
another court allows the men bail, and the rapists are once again 
terrorizing the poor woman by offering her money to drop the case?"
Many of the incidents that continue to tarnish the name of the 
country have been brought to the attention of the authorities. The 
latter have repeatedly promised that inquiries would be held and 
strict action taken against recalcitrant policemen or those who had 
used excessive force in the discharge of their duties. But so far 
there has been no sign that anything of the sort has taken place, and 
nobody seems to know what has happened to the much trumpeted police 
reforms which were mentioned in President Musharraf's 'Three Years at 
a Glance' as a major achievement.
The reluctance of the government to tame the police has sent a strong 
message to the latter that they are free to indulge in acts of 
highhandedness and brutality without worrying about disciplinary 
action. If only the president could summon some of the courage had 
displayed when he first took over the reins of government, a great 
deal can be done. So far there is not a single scandal or financial 
impropriety attached to his name. It is time he moved to set things 
right.


______

#4

The Hindustan Times
Monday, April 14, 2003  
	 
Hawks in a cage
Amulya Ganguli

The audience in the TV programme, Khula Manch, was voicing its usual 
pro-BJP views. One person described Narendra Modi as the new 
'Maharana Pratap' and wondered when he would lead his all-conquering 
hordes into Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, etc. Another maintained 
that the Congress comprised traitors and endorsed Modi's view that a 
Congress victory in Gujarat would have been celebrated in Pakistan.

But there was a third. He asked the BJP's representative, Shahnawaz 
Hussain, whether Modi, too, will betray his Hindu supporters like 
other BJP leaders have done. Hussain, to his credit, was prompt in 
his reply. The BJP, he asserted, did not stand for Hindus only, but 
for all communities.

It is not known whether the reply satisfied the interrogator. After 
all, Hussain is a Muslim - the first of the three 'internal enemies', 
Muslims, Christians and communists, identified by Golwalkar. The 
questioner would have probably liked a Hindu BJP representative to 
settle his doubts. But the answer would have, in all likelihood, been 
the same. The BJP's 'official' line at the moment is that it does not 
distinguish between the various communities. It's 'justice for all 
and appeasement of none', whatever the ground realities.

But it is exactly this line which is bothering the questioner. He 
believes that the BJP is not serving what he perceives as the Hindu 
cause well enough. It is a feeling which is expressed occasionally by 
the VHP, sometimes with extra vehemence which compels the BJP to 
request the RSS for mediation.

It is not known whether the BJP gave any thought in 1990 to the 
possibility of the chariot, which L.K. Advani mounted, running wild. 
At that time, the party did not have much time for reflection. 
Hustled by V.P. Singh's Mandal card, the BJP felt it had no option 
but to play the 'kamandal' card to whip up communal passion to 
counter the casteist fervour. Now, more than a decade later, the time 
has come to calculate the gains and losses.

The gains are obvious. From a party of two MPs in 1984, the BJP today 
is in power at the Centre and, at the moment, the first in the list 
of all parties - ahead of the Congress. The problem is with the 
'chariot' or the ideology which is the party's engine. One of the 
defining features of fascism, according to R.S. Alexander, Associate 
Professor of History in Victoria University, Canada, is extreme 
nationalism.

"In international relations, this could make them (the fascists) 
extremely aggressive. In domestic politics, fascism was guided by an 
extremely narrow concept of what constituted the true or integral 
character of the nation. Integral nationalism fostered scapegoating 
of allegedly foreign groups, practices or cultures, and this served 
to eliminate critics while channeling discontent away from the 
regime".

Modi's campaign in Gujarat exemplified some of the points underlined 
by Prof. Alexander. First, the 'Miyan Musharraf' diatribe denoted an 
aggressive foreign policy. But that's not all. Modi was not India's 
foreign minister or (god forbid!) prime minister who was explaining 
the country's stance towards a hostile neighbour. He had no business 
to do so, certainly not as a permanent feature of his campaign.

What he was doing, however, was "channeling discontent away from the 
regime". Since he had nothing to show in the field of development, he 
had to focus on Miyan Musharraf. But this Miyan was not only the 
Pakistan dictator. It was a code name for Indian Muslims. What Modi 
was hinting at was that all Muslims, including those living in India, 
are Pakistanis in their hearts and, ipso facto, terrorists.

This is an example of the "scapegoating of allegedly foreign groups, 
practices or cultures", which is central to the BJP's 'cultural 
nationalism'. Both Savarkar's and Golwalkar's outlook is based on 
this concept of the alien nature of the minorities in India. They are 
not true sons of the soil because their holy lands (punyabhu) are not 
in India (Savarkar) or they are 'internal enemies' (Golwalkar) 
because of their external links. Here we see what Prof. Alexander 
means by saying that fascism is "guided by an extremely narrow 
concept of what constituted the true or integral character of the 
nation".

What the questioner in the TV programme was bothered about was the 
BJP's supposed deviation from this 'narrow concept'. When the BJP 
says "justice for all...", it is actually mouthing a secular slogan. 
Even bleeding heart liberals won't object to it. The latter may know 
that the BJP doesn't mean it, that the party has to say it because it 
has sworn allegiance to the secular Indian Constitution. But it is 
bound to create doubts in the minds of some of the BJP's followers.

To them, it is Modi and his childhood friend, Praveen Togadia, who 
are articulating the real Hindutva line. But the troubling question 
will remain: will Modi, too, backtrack ? It is presumably to reassure 
them that the BJP occasionally says that it will secure a majority of 
its own in the next general election. Then, as Prime Minister 
Vajpayee told an audience of sadhus in the US a couple of years ago, 
the BJP will build an India of their dreams - which may well be a 
Gujarat-style nightmare for minorities.

But these assurances will never be enough because the promised Hindu 
Rashtra is still not here. Togadia is among those who are quite 
forthright about pursuing a hard line to establish the Hindu Rashtra 
where Muslims will live more or less like Hindus do in Pakistan.

But such are the constraints of a secular State that even his peers 
in the BJP and VHP are uneasy about him.

The BJP has been eminently successful in reviving the incipient 
anti-Muslim sentiment among sections of Hindus which was on the 
decline from the Fifties to the Eighties. It is necessary to remember 
that Pakistan's first cricket tour of India was in 1952, within five 
years of Partition. A part of the BJP's success in arousing communal 
feelings is the result of Pakistan's unending hostility, the 
appearance of Islamic fundamentalism worldwide and the tarnishing of 
the ideal of secularism by the Congress's degeneration.

But 'extreme nationalism' or xenophobia, as noted by Prof. Alexander, 
has its limitations in a democratic framework. So, the party cannot 
reap much political benefit from the animosity of a section of Hindus 
towards the Muslims. Because of the BJP's formal, if unwilling, 
commitment to, say, the judicial verdict on Ayodhya, it cannot go 
beyond a point in satisfying the hawks.

Hence, Ashok Singhal's lament not only about Vajpayee's moderation, 
but also about Advani's rath yatra. "By taking out a rath yatra, he 
(Advani) made it partisan and our movement more difficult...

Parties should keep themselves out of this matter and let us get on 
with the construction of the temple." If revolution devours its own 
children, extremism creates enemies in its own ranks.

_____


#5.

The Hindustan Times
Tuesday, April 15, 2003  

Whose Raj is it anyway?
Shamsul Islam
  The flag-bearers of Hindutva, in their task of manufacturing 
history, have now picked on B.R. Ambedkar as the subject. The RSS has 
presented him as a leader in league with Hedgewar and Golwalkar and 
as a defender for the cause of the Hindu Rashtra.

Vinay Katiyar, the BJP head in Uttar Pradesh - a state ruled by a 
Dalit chief minister - has been touring the state declaring that 
Ambedkar was a supporter of Hindutva and the Hindu Rashtra, thus 
echoing Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's rhetoric. This is 
nothing but injustice to a man who'd renounced Hinduism because of 
its repressive elements and converted to Buddhism.

Throughout his life, Ambedkar opposed the communal politics of both 
the Muslim League and the Hindutva forces. His book, Pakistan or The 
Partition of India (1940), stands testimony to his opposition to the 
nefarious designs of communal elements. In fact, his ideas and 
warnings about Hindutva, as contained in the book, can even now work 
as bulwark in checking the resurgence of communal forces.

Ambedkar writes, "If Hindu Raj does become a fact, it will, no doubt, 
be the greatest calamity for this country. No matter what the Hindus 
say, Hinduism is a menace to liberty, equality and fraternity. On 
that account, it is incompatible with democracy. Hindu Raj must be 
prevented at any cost." According to him, the idea of "Hindustan for 
Hindus=8A is not merely arrogant but is arrant nonsense". (p. 358)

Ambedkar was of the firm opinion that Hindutva was nothing but a ploy 
by upper caste Hindus to maintain control over society and its 
resources. He wrote: "They have a trait of character which often 
leads the Hindus to disaster. This trait is formed by their 
acquisitive instinct and aversion to share with others the good 
things of life. They have a monopoly of education and wealth, and 
with wealth and education they have captured the State. To keep this 
monopoly to themselves has been the ambition and goal of their life. 
Charged with this selfish idea of class domination, they take every 
move to exclude the lower classes of Hindus from wealth, education 
and power=8A This attitude of keeping education, wealth and power as a 
close preserve for themselves and refusing to share it, which the 
high caste Hindus have developed in their relation with the lower 
classes of Hindus, is sought to be extended by them to the Muslims. 
They want to exclude the Muslims from place and power, as they have 
done to the lower class Hindus. This trait of the high caste Hindus 
is the key to the understanding of their politics." (p. 123)

Ambedkar, in his struggle to establish a secular State, did not 
differentiate between flag-bearers of Hindutva and the Muslim League. 
He treated them as two faces of the same coin, which is bent on 
destroying India. He wrote: "Strange as it may appear, Mr Savarkar 
and Mr Jinnah, instead of being opposed to each other on the one 
nation versus two nations issue, are in complete agreement about it. 
Both not only agree but insist that there are two nations in India - 
one the Muslim nation and the other the Hindu nation." (p. 142)

Ambedkar did not mince words when he wrote, "It must be said that Mr 
Savarkar's attitude is illogical, if not queer. Mr Savarkar admits 
that the Muslims are a separate nation. He concedes that they have a 
right to cultural autonomy. He allows them to have a national flag. 
Yet he opposes the demand of the Muslim nation for a separate 
national home. If he claims a national home for the Hindu nation, how 
can he refuse the claim of the Muslim nation for a national home?" 
(p. 143)

Ambedkar, as a true secularist, stood for "forming mixed political 
parties based on an agreed programme of social and economic 
regeneration, and thereby avoiding the danger of both Hindu Raj or 
Muslim Raj becoming a fact. Nor should the formation of a mixed party 
of Hindus and Muslims be difficult in India. There are many lower 
orders in the Hindu society whose economic, political and social 
needs are the same as those of the majority of the Muslims and they 
would be far more ready to make a common cause with the Muslims for 
achieving common ends than they would with the high caste of Hindus 
who have denied and deprived them of ordinary human rights for 
centuries." (p. 359)

Why is it that despite such strong anti-Hindutva ideas, the RSS is 
spreading white lies about Ambedkar's legacy? The problem with the 
RSS is that it played absolutely no role in the country's freedom 
struggle. Moreover, with its present political ascendancy, it is 
under great pressure to show that it was part of that great struggle. 
It hopes that by appropriating the legacies of Gandhiji, Sardar 
Patel, Subhas Chandra Bose and Ambedkar, it may be able to put a 
nationalist face to the organisation.


______


#6.

The Telegraph
April 15, 2003 | Editorial

THREE PRONGED

Religious extremism, like political extremism, borders on the 
bizarre, but such is its zeal that it stops at nothing. The leader of 
the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Mr Praveen Togadia, is a good example of 
this generalization. After the pogrom of Muslims in Gujarat, he 
threatened to replicate it in other states. On Sunday, in Rajasthan 
he carried out another kind of experiment. He carried out a trishul 
diksha ceremony in Ajmer despite a government ban on the distribution 
of tridents. Mr Togadia defied a prohibitory order by leading a 
procession of 3000 Bajrang Dal activists. He was subsequently 
arrested under the Arms Act but not before he had distributed 
trishuls to over 600 members of the Bajrang Dal. While his arrest is 
to be welcomed, the fact that he was not stopped from doing what he 
had set out to do suggests a certain weakness on the part of the 
state administration. Mr Togadia was deliberately trying to provoke 
the administration and to spark off a confrontation. A confrontation 
with Mr Togadia and his cohorts would provide them with an excuse to 
precipitate violence. The state administration decided not to take 
any risks. With assembly elections looming large, the Congress 
government in Rajasthan cannot afford to ignore Hindu opinion. This 
is Mr Togadia's politics of blackmail.

Mr Togadia's defiance of the law shows that he considers himself 
either to be above the law or beyond the pale of civil society. This 
point needs to be underlined for those who claim Mr Togadia to be a 
participant in the practice of democratic politics. Mr Togadia's 
religious credentials are equally dubious. Nowhere in the traditions 
and the rituals of Hinduism is there anything like trishul diksha, Mr 
Togadia's new-fangled celebration of violence. The whole exercise is 
aimed at building up greater militancy among the faithful so that 
they are in a position to strike terror among the minorities. Mr 
Togadia has no other agenda. He has no respect either for the 
Constitution or for the traditions of the religion that he claims to 
uphold. Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the prime minister, has spoken more 
than once against religious and political extremism. But in most 
parts of north India, extremism is a threat that emerges from the 
wider political formation to which Mr Vajpayee pledges allegiance. 
Beyond words, Mr Vajpayee has taken no steps to quell this kind of 
extremism. This has indirectly encouraged men like Mr Togadia. A few 
days as the state's guest in judicial custody is no guarantee that he 
will be reformed when he is set free. Fanatics seldom, if ever, 
change their spots.


______


#7.

=46rom approximately 50 Indians across the US.

April 6, 2003.

To,
Shri Sushilkumar Shinde
Chief Minister of Maharashtra
Mantralaya,
Mumbai 400001, India

Honorable Chief Minister Shinde:

We are shocked to read as reported in the Times of India (dated April 3,
2003) that the Gujarat Minister for Narmada, Mr. Chudasama is confident that
the Maharashtra government will give permission to raise the height of
Sardar Sarovar dam from current 95 meters to 100 meters.

We are aware about the progressive steps taken by your government in
Maharashtra over the years to see that the tribal communities are not left
high and dry in the process of building the dam. The Maharashtra government
has insisted on a land-for-land policy to make sure that the history of
destitution is not repeated in Sardar Sarovar.

We have applauded the appointment of a Task Force by the Maharashtra
government and the joint resurveying of the affected villages, with the
Narmada Bachao Andolan as a bold and confident step of a government that
actually means to stand by and for the people. As you are well aware,
according to the Task Force report, in Maharashtra alone there are over 1300
families without rehabilitation, affected at the current height of 95
meters. Also, at least 500 families who were shifted to the resettlement
sites way back in 1993/95 are yet to be given due land entitlements and 267
of them are yet to be resettled. Further, the claims of 3500 families,
affected by compensatory afforestation, catchment area treatment for the
status of Project Affected Persons are still pending.

These are unambiguous facts, which nobody can ignore. In this context, any
permission for further construction should not happen by distributing cash,
in lieu of the land submerged. Such a move would clearly be against the
Tribunal Award and an inhuman act. We hope that your government will not
resort to it.

We request you not to succumb to any pressure of the government of Gujarat
to raise the dam height. Agreeing with such anti-people policies mooted by
Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh governments that attempt to raise the height of
the dam without fair and just resettlement and rehabilitation of affected
persons and in violation of due processes and will mean your endorsement of
such policies as well. As NRIs, we look upon the Maharashtra government
fulfill all its legal and humanitarian obligations, and to take bold steps
to protect and uphold the interests of the people.

Sincerely,

Signed and endorsed by nearly 50 conscientious NRIs whose names and relevant
details follow.
(Name, Profession / University, Place)

1. Dr. Vinay Kumar, Cognitive Scientist, New York, NY, USA
2. Dr. Sreelaxmi Ganesan, Electrical Engineer, Sturbridge, MA, USA
3. Shrinaath Chidambaram, MBA, Sturbridge, MA, USA
4. Dr. Om P. Damani, Computer Scientist, Boston, MA, USA
5. Dr. Rajesh Kasturirangan, Cognitive Scientist, Massachusetts Inst. of
Technology
6. Mokshay Madiman, Mathematician, Brown University, RI, USA
7. Seema Damani, Computer Engineer, Boston, MA, USA
8. Dr. Sivarao Diggavalli, Pharmacologist, CT, USA
9. Neeta Mehrotra, MBA, CT, USA
10. Dr. Manojkumar Saranathan, Washington DC
11. Dr. Vinod John, Electrical Engineer, Montpelier, VT
12. Srinivas Savaram
13. Kiran Kumar Vissa, Rockville, MD
14. Priyaranjan, College Park, MD
15. Joe Athialy, Worchester, MA
16. Amrita Patwardhan, Wochester, MA
17. Neerja Bhatt, Redwood Shores, CA
18. Dr. Aniruddha Vaidya, Computer Engineer, Santa Clara, CA
19. Rajesh Veeraraghavan, Software Engineer, Saratoga, CA
20. Srividhya Venkataraman, Hardware Engineer, Saratoga, CA
21. Ajitkumar Natrajan, Software Engineer, Campbell, CA
22. Prashant Jawalikar, Computer Engineer, Fremont, CA
23. Kaustubh Desai, Computer Engineer, Santa Clara, CA
24. Karuna Muthiah, Computer Engineer, Redwood City, CA
25. Ramani Arunachalam, Computer Engineer, San Jose, CA
26. Priya, San Jose, CA
27. Jayashree Rajagopalan, Software Engineer, Fremont, CA
28. Ashok, Software Engineer, Redwood Shores, CA
29. Madhuri Yechuri, Software Engineer, Foster City, CA
30. Mathirajan Manoharan, Computer Engineer, Santa Clara, CA
31. Aparna Venkataramani, Hardware Engineer, Sunnyvale, CA
32. Radhika Rammohan, Housewife, Alpharetta, GA
33. Uday Shankar, Engineer, Alpharetta, GA
34. Supriya Kumar, Student, Pittsburgh, PA
35. Gayathri Anand, Austin, TX
36. Harish Sharma, Austin, TX
37. Srikant Samavedam, Austin, TX
38. Kavita Karandikar, Austin, TX
39. Gauri Karve, Austin, TX
40. Madhulika Yalamanchi, Austin, TX
41. Shailja Pathania, Austin, TX
42. Balakrishnan KJ, Austin, TX
43. Nishant Jain, Austin, TX
44. Chandrika Ramanujam, Austin, TX
45. Vennila Thirumavalavan, Austin, TX
46. Sastry Vadlamani, Austin, TX
47. Anand Ramachandran, Austin, TX

Copy to:
Ms. Sonia Gandhi, Leader of Opposition - Lok Sabha
Mr. Digvijay Singh, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh
Mr. Vilas Rao Patil, Minister for Rehabilitation, Government of Maharashtra
Mr. C. Gopal Reddy, Chairman, R&R Sub-Group of NCA,  and Secretary, Ministry
of Social Justice and Empowerment

_____


#8.


Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2003

Open letter to the To the Editor,
Times of India

Dear Sir,

When I read the article 'A Revenue Model for Mumbai Beggars' by Omar
Qureshi, in the Thursday April 10, 2003 Times of India Entertainment 
Section [ 
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=3D42=
950711 
] ,
the words of two people came to mind ; Mahatma Gandhi's words ,"It has alway=
s
been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation
of the fellow beings" and Samuel Johnson who said, " A decent provision for
the poor is the truest test of civilization".
I was appalled and ashamed that a society not only chooses to allow fellow
human beings to lead such lives of impoverishment and humiliation, but allow=
s
itself to become so emotionally immune to the suffering of others that it
makes them the butt of jokes and a source of "entertainment". If the more
fortunate members of society draw humour from analogies of deprived human
beings and animal species showcased on Animal Planet, ( I quote "they have
clearly demarcated area--marking of territories by hyenas", "like the buzzar=
ds
we see on Animal Planet,--zoom in for the day's--), one can only mourn at th=
e
deterioration of civil society and any sense of compassion.
I understand the professional pressure journalists face to churn out light
and readable material to keep their jobs, but my only concern is that the
handling of such serious matters which impact the lives of thousands of peop=
le
in such a frivolous manner reflects a worrying warning sign of a rotting
society.
I don't know how many people read the article and laughed; my condolences to
them too.

Leena V. Gangolli
Harvard School of Public Health

Dr. Satchit Balsari MBBS, MPH
Research Associate, Program on Humanitarian Crises
Harvard School of Public Health
Tel. 617-432-2969





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DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not
necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers.