SACW | 12 June, 2003

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire   | 12 June,  2003

#1. No Indo-Pak troops for Iraq! (Praful Bidwai)
#2. Sri Lanka: Swansong of unity - Sinhala nationalism in Namo Namo 
Matha (Sanjana Hattotuwa)
#3. Book Announcement: Displaced within homelands: The IDPs of 
Bangladesh and the Region
edited by Chowdhury R Abrar and Mahendra P Lama
#4. Press Release (Coalition to Support Democracy and Pluralism in India)
[Related Newsreport]  Gujarat's spectre follows Advani to Washington 
(Pradeep Kaushal)
#5. AIDS Begins to Widen Its Reach in India  (John Lancaster)
#6.  India: Hearing on violence against Christians
#7. India: An encounter with a judge (Manoj Mitta)
#8. India:  Hindutva at work!
- [Bombay] Now, NCP wants Gateway [of India] to be named after Shivaji
- [Poona] Sons-of-the-soil theory taking shape in Pune
- [Ayodhya] Lack of archaeological evidence irrelevant: VHP

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

#1.

The News International
June 12, 2003

No Indo-Pak troops for Iraq!

Praful Bidwai

One does not have to be a crazed conspiracy theorist to note the link 
between the repeated bursting of doctored and hyped-up Anglo-American 
claims about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD), on the one 
hand, and the mounting pressure from the United States on a number of 
countries to despatch troops to Iraq, on the other. It is no 
coincidence that India and Pakistan figure prominently among them.

The reason for American pressure is fairly straightforward. Three 
weeks after the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1483-after 90 
amendments and much haggling-the Pentagon has failed to get 
commitments for the tens of thousands of soldiers it wants deployed 
to "stabilise" Iraq. So far, they have only got promises of 13,000 
troops from two dozen countries-to partially relieve the US's 150,000 
soldiers and Britain's 15,000 troops present in Iraq. Most of 
America's strategic allies, which differed with it over the Iraq war, 
won't send troops, risk casualties and bestow legitimacy on the 
occupying powers.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi situation is turning messier by the day even as 
US-UK casualties mount to something like one soldier a day. The US 
and Britain now need to put other countries' troops in the firing 
line. Early this month they abandoned a plan to organise a national 
conference of Iraqis to select an interim government. Instead, they 
adopted a quick-fix formula that gives them a direct role in choosing 
"representative" Iraqis!

Even more important, the US is anxious to obfuscate and erase the 
circumstances in which the war on Iraq was waged-without a casus 
belli or rationale. There is no better way of obliterating the 
grossly immoral, illegal character of the war than to emphasise 
"stabilisation" and "reconstruction", including lucrative corporate 
contracts at the expense of the Iraqi people.

The US has approached both Pakistan and India with "requests" for 
despatching division-size forces to Iraq. Since May, the discussion 
has been pursued both at the diplomatic and political levels. 
President Bush raised that issue in his brief meetings with Prime 
Minister Vajpayee in St Petersburg and Evian. It is now being 
negotiated with Deputy Prime Minister Advani during his current visit 
to the US and Britain.

Sending troops to Iraq was the dominant issue discussed between 
Advani and Secretary of Defence Rumsfeld last Sunday. According to an 
informed report in "The Indian Express", Rumsfeld "listed three 
advantages" which could accrue to India. "One, India [would] become 
an active partner in the global war against terror and become the 
third important player in the exercise... Two, it would boost India's 
overall standing in the Gulf region. Three, India would be able to 
join the reconstruction programme, [with] economic gains."

Advani apparently made no formal commitment to Rumsfeld. But he told 
him India is not averse to the US proposal, but it has concerns about 
who would command its troops, and how long they would have to stay, 
etc. These must be addressed first. It was agreed that a team of 
senior Pentagon officials would visit India to discuss the 
nitty-gritty. Pakistan too is reportedly under pressure to commit 
troops to Iraq.

India and Pakistan would commit a blunder of historic proportions if 
they succumb to US pressure, however "sweetened" it might be by 
offers of a "close" or "exclusive" relationship, or "special" 
treatment in reconstruction contracts and military sales. They would 
violate the overwhelming domestic sentiment against the war on and 
occupation of Iraq. They would be grievously wrong-morally and 
politically. Consider this:

* Iraq's invasion breached all criteria of "just wars", including 
military necessity, proportionality in use of force, non-combatant 
immunity, etc. It was irredeemably illegal.

* The Anglo-American coalition waged war in violation of the UN 
Charter and without authorisation of the Security Council, which 
alone can sanction use of armed force under Chapter VII-except in 
self-defence. Indeed, the US and UK acted against the explicit 
intention of the Council, which was set to reject the so-called 
"second" resolution tabled by the US and the UK.

* Even if Iraq had limited WMD stocks, they posed no credible threat 
to its neighbours, leave alone the US, in the absence of delivery 
vehicles. But no WMD have been found-fully two months after US troops 
took Baghdad.

* Anglo-American culpability in invading Iraq stands greatly 
magnified because Washington and London deliberately "sexed up", 
distorted and greatly exaggerated intelligence reports on Iraq's WMD. 
This has embarrassed the Defence Intelligence Agency, the CIA and 
MI-6. Even Richard Butler, an unabashed supporter of the war, and 
former UN weapons inspector says: "Clearly, a decision had been taken 
to pump up the case against Iraq."

* Britain's "Sunday Herald" (June 8) reports that the Blair 
government ran a covert "dirty tricks" operation "designed 
specifically to produce misleading intelligence that Saddam had 
weapons of mass destruction to give the UK a justifiable excuse to 
wage war". Operation Rockingham was set up to "cherry-pick" 
intelligence proving an "active Iraqi WMD programme" and to "ignore 
and quash intelligence which indicated that Saddam's stockpiles had 
been destroyed or wound down".

The Washington Post reports that Vice-President Dick Cheney and aide 
Lewis 'Scooter' Libby paid multiple visits to CIA headquarters to 
influence and pressure analysts on Saddam Hussein's WMD and links 
with al-Qaeda.

* "The New York Times" Judith Miller too filed dubious stories on 
Iraq's WMD capabilities. Her principal source was none other than the 
super-controversial Ahmed Chalabi. There has been a serious debate 
among NYT reporters on the ethics of such reports.

* Colin Powell was so angry at the lack of adequate sourcing in the 
dossiers supplied to him that he exclaimed: "I'm not reading this. 
This is bulls**t."

* Since then, Blair's office has admitted that a dossier it put out 
on Iraq in February to justify an attack was flawed and did not meet 
the "required standards of accuracy".

It is totally unjustifiable to join military operations with 
occupying powers which have used such nauseatingly unethical methods. 
India and Pakistan are not being asked to keep the peace, as the 
media claims. Their role is euphemistically called 
"stabilisation"-involving heavy-handed policing and confrontation 
with civilians.

The pertinent issue isn't whether the request for troops comes from 
the UN. Even if it did, it would still deserve to be rejected. If the 
war on Iraq was unjust and illegal, the military occupation it 
produced is also illegitimate. Nobody should recognise or cooperate 
with the occupying powers or their puppets.

India and Pakistan must and can say no. The "incentives" they have 
been offered are calculated to yoke them to the US and function as 
mercenaries. Their conservative governments are predisposed to 
supporting the US. Both want to send troops as a means of building an 
"exclusive" or "special" relationship with Washington. In fact, they 
will intensify their own mutual rivalry by doing so.

Surely, South Asia deserves better-at least when a long-overdue thaw 
in their relations is on the horizon. The young peace movements in 
both India and Pakistan should campaign jointly against sending 
troops to Iraq.

______


#2.

Himal, June 2003

Swansong of unity
Sinhala nationalism in Namo Namo Matha
by Sanjana Hattotuwa

Anthems have truly only one purpose - to instil patriotism and 
national ism in citizens at a time of need. This time of need can 
range anywhere from a cricket match to a rallying cry to support 
troops fighting for the territorial integrity of a country (which in 
Sri Lanka has rarely coincided with the former). In Sri Lanka, the 
flip side of a national lethargy where for instance, deadlines are 
pass=E9 and only upheld by social pariahs who value time, is the 
militant fervour with which symbols of Sinhala hegemony are 
protected. The flag, the national anthem, the constitution wherein 
the status of Buddhism is enshrined - all three are inextricably 
entwined in a complex dynamic that has influenced polity and society 
since independence in 1948. This has led to tragicomic situations, 
where even the seemingly benign news of an official re-recording of 
the national anthem can result in presidential decrees and political 
acrimony.

Breaking away from colonial rule in the late 1940s, the people of Sri 
Lanka were kindled with patriotic fervour. Of course, one of the 
first steps of any new nation-state in the postcolonial world was to 
find a lyric expression of its status of independence. After a 
competition, Ananda Samarakoon's composition Namo Namo Matha was 
chosen as the national anthem on 22 November 1951. The first public 
rendering of the national anthem was made on Independence Day, 4 
=46ebruary 1952, by a group of 500 students from Museus College, 
Colombo, and was broadcast over the radio. History does not record 
how many people listened.

A national anthem is predicated on the existence of one pivotal 
element, the nation. A nation is commonly considered to be a group of 
people bound together by language, culture, or some other common 
heritage and is usually recognised as a political entity. Ordinarily 
the word nation is used synonymously with country or state; however, 
it does imply more than just a territory delineated by boundaries. A 
nation could also signify a group consciousness of a shared history, 
race, language or system of values. Sri Lanka thinks not - its 
history has been coloured by the systematic and calculated repression 
of the aspirations of minority communities and groups, something that 
rabid chauvinists neglect to remember.
State symbols often
celebrate and
commemorate a history of cruelty, injustice, and exclusion

State symbols often celebrate and commemorate a history of cruelty, 
injustice, and exclusion. Strangely missing from the history of the 
national anthem in Sri Lanka is any recognition of a shared destiny. 
Although a national anthem should ideally stand for national unity, 
in Sri Lanka, it embodies the perverse tragedies of the past - every 
time it is sung it is an inadvertent recognition of the politics that 
have plagued the country for over half a century. This profoundly 
regrettable legacy of suffering and discrimination is couched in 
lyrics which stand aloof from the need to find unity in diversity - a 
key element of a pluralistic society that Sri Lanka has not been able 
to establish. More than amnesia in verse, Namo Namo Matha is a 
harmonious perpetuation of partisan politics that has left the 
country grappling with the after-effects of a protracted civil war.

Also hiding in the seemingly innocuous national ardour of the anthem 
is the pernicious evil of majoritarianism - a singular plague which 
in the guise of democracy has ravaged this nation's polity and 
society after independence in 1948. It is in Sinhala, the language of 
the majority. It sings hosannas about the bounty of Sri Lanka, its 
beauty, its rich harvests and a host of other peripheral and 
idealised qualities, but not about its peoples.
 
	Sri Lanka Matha,
Apa Sri Lanka
Namo Namo Namo Namo Matha.
Sundara siri bharini,
Surandi athi sobhamana Lanka
Dhanya dhanaya neka mal pala thuru piri jaya bhoomiya ramya
Apa hata sapa siri setha sadhana,
Jee vanaye Matha!

And so on=8A In the second stanza, the prayer to the mother nation is 
(in translation):

In wisdom and strength renewed,
Ill-will, hatred, strife all ended,
In love enfolded, a mighty nation,
Marching onward, all as children of one mother,
Leads us, Mother, to fullest freedom.

There is not a single reference to the multiple ethnicities in the 
island. No hint of the complex socio-political matrix that has 
coloured communal relations, the richness of religions or the 
multiplicity languages, a shared past. Listening to the 'national' 
anthem, you could be forgiven if you believed that Sri Lanka was a 
mono-ethnic, Sinhala Buddhist nation-state.
In Sri Lanka, the anthem embodies the perverse
tragedies of the past - every time it is sung it is an inadvertent 
recognition of the politics that have
plagued the country for over half a century

What nation?
However, one must also place the anthem in the context of 
post-independence politics in Sri Lanka. As they did throughout their 
empire, the British ruled Ceylon by creating an English-speaking 
elite from amongst the Sinhala and the Tamils. Their favouritism 
engendered an opposition which took racial and religious overtones. 
The majority of those who had been left out of the elite spoke 
Sinhala and were Buddhists, and they began to promote a racist notion 
of Sinhala superiority as an 'Aryan race'. After independence it was 
this Sinhala-speaking group that gained control of the new state, and 
began to exclude Tamils from higher education, jobs and land mainly 
by making Sinhala the only official language. Not surprisingly, 
Tamils resented this discrimination. As the anthropologist Stanley 
Tambiah has argued, the island's violence is a late-20th century 
response to colonial and postcolonial policies that relied on a 
hardened and artificial notion of ethnic boundaries.

In the 30 years from the mid-1940s, successive governments took 
measures to reduce the number of Tamils in the professions and the 
public sector. These measures interacted in diverse and complex ways 
with a potent Sinhala Buddhist exclusivism, which gradually became 
the animating ideology of the Sri Lankan state. Particularly among 
the arrivist, lower caste Sinhala, the spread of anti-Tamil 
chauvinism was soon perceived as a promising means of increasing 
economic opportunity. As time passed, the electoral promise of 
pandering to this chauvinism tempted even the most cosmopolitan of 
Sinhala politicians.

The statues of Polonnaruwa: Symbol of the 'true', Buddhist, nation.

It must be remembered that Sinhala Buddhists strongly believe that 
they have a duty to protect and uphold their faith in Sri Lanka. From 
the political leaders who, in the name of preserving the supremacy of 
Buddhism in Sri Lanka have deferred to the Sangha (the Buddhist 
clergy, that seemingly benevolent institution so much a part of 
politics in Sri Lanka) and much as they have manipulated it, to the 
attitude of the Buddhist clergy, the primacy given to Buddhism has 
proved inimical to the interests of Tamils in Sri Lanka. This 
Sinhala-Buddhist mentality, which has informed and shaped 
post-independence politics in Sri Lanka, has engendered intolerance 
in polity and society and carries a large burden of responsibility 
for the ethno-political conflict.

Sri Lanka's national anthem is a lens for this history of complex 
socio-political interactions. In 2003, the farce continues. News of a 
formal re-recording of the national anthem in December 2002 raised 
the heckles of the ancienne regime - after all, how on earth could 
Sri Lanka even contemplate a re-recording without expecting a 
political imbroglio? The minister in charge pleaded ignorance, the 
president warned the prime minister against hasty decisions, the 
singers said they had faithfully kept to the original tune and lyrics 
and the general public was wondering what on earth the fuss was about.
The farce continues. News of a re-recording of the national anthem in 
2002 raised the heckles of the ancienne regime - how on earth could 
Sri Lanka even
contemplate it without
expecting a political
imbroglio?

The United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan in 1999, reporting on 
complex humanitarian emergencies, cited a study by the United Nations 
University that found a positive relationship between war and 
inequality among domestic social groups. More than simple poverty, it 
is this inequality, which the weak state is unable or unwilling to 
manage, that breeds conflict. Although not all poor states with high 
levels of inequality have experienced civil war, in those that have, 
such as Sri Lanka, inequality corresponding to ethnicity proves an 
especially potent destabilising force.

This observation holds valuable lessons for Sri Lanka, for it is a 
country of multiple identities and multiple ethnicities. This ethnic 
diversity is something to be celebrated, not shunned or repressed. 
State institutions should reflect it and encourage it along with the 
need to cohabit peacefully and to appreciate the concerns and 
aspirations of each community.

Sri Lanka has much to lose if the present peace process breaks down. 
An indifference to historical antecedents, the international context 
and the legitimate aspirations of all communities could irrevocably 
plunge Sri Lanka into a vortex of bitterness, mistrust, mutual 
acrimony and violence. A negotiated agreement or a peace process that 
addresses the symptoms of violent conflict must include provisions 
for future processes towards institution-building and societal 
transformation if they are to be sustainable. A true expression of 
the volksgeist of a nation not only depends on a celebration of its 
linguistic diversity, but also an acknowledgement of its multiethnic 
fabric.

A commitment by both the government and the Liberation Tigers of 
Tamil Eelam to the creation of a federal Sri Lanka was welcomed 
amidst great fanfare late last year. A culture of rights, respect and 
the honourable accommodation of differences is crucial to the federal 
idea and to its realisation. It has to be a new social contract, a 
covenant - the Latin word from which the term federalism is coined - 
if it is to have lasting legitimacy. A truly national anthem of Sri 
Lanka must recognise this fundamental reality.


______


#3.

Book Announcement:

Displaced within homelands: The IDPs of Bangladesh and the Region
edited by Chowdhury R Abrar and Mahendra P Lama
Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit [University of Dhaka], 
Dhaka, 2003
pp 213, BDT 300/USD 20

During the last two decades, approximately 25 million people have 
become internally displaced persons (IDPs) in 40 countries, often as 
a consequence of development projects, conditions of violence, or 
environmental disasters. A large number of these IDPs live in South 
Asia, where they are denied special legal status as refugees, despite 
the fact that they have many special needs arising from migration 
under duress. With contributions from 15 researchers, this volume, 
edited by Chowdhury R Abrara of the Refugee and Migratory Movements 
Research Unit and Mahendra P Lama of Jawaharlal Nehru University, 
Delhi, focuses principally on IDP issues in Bangladesh, though cases 
studies are also drawn from Burma and Sri Lanka, and several essays 
explore legal, political and theoretical dimensions of coerced 
migration.

[ For further information contact:
Migratory Movements Research Unit, Rm
No 4019, Arts Building, University of
Dhaka, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh.
Tel: +880 2 9661900.
=46ax: +880 2 817962.  ]

______


#4.


Coalition to Support Democracy and Pluralism in India
C/O 110 Maryland Ave, NE Suite 510
Washington DC 20002
202 547 4700


  PRESS RELEASE
   Washington, DC
   June 10, 2003

The Peace Vigil organized by coalition partners at 
the Gandhi Statue in Washington DC today was peaceful and successful. 
Many  individuals from the Indian community took part in the vigil. 
The participants included people from several religious backgrounds: 
Hindus, Christians and Muslims.  The vigil started at 3 PM.  Many 
family members of the victims of Gujarat riots took part in the 
vigil.  Zuber Jafri, son of the slain former member of Parliament Mr. 
Ahsan Jafri and others wanted to ask Mr. Advani, why he uses violence 
and terrorist tactics to gain political power in India.

The Peace Vigil was organized to protect the interest of the people 
of India from dangerous politics of RSS and BJP.  Indian Americans 
have utmost concern for the political developments in India since it 
directly affects the members of their family who live in India. The 
Coalition also presented copies of the letters sent to the President, 
the Vice President, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State, 
Secretary of Homeland Security, The Attorney General, and the 
National Security Advisor to the President.

Prof. Mohan Bhagat, one of the participants in the vigil, mentioned 
that 'not having a token protest against the representative of the 
BJP lead government would be construed as acceptance of their 
policies among all Indian Americans'.  He stressed the importance of 
having the people to come and express their feelings in a peaceful 
manor. A petition signed by over 150 individuals was presented to Mr. 
Advani through an official of the Indian  Embassy.

Prof. Ashwini Tambe said that the military collaboration between 
right wing forces in India and the US in the name of fighting 
terrorism does not bode well since the BJP has condoned terrorizing 
of Muslims and Christians in India.  She also said, 'it is 
particularly  symbolic to have the vigil at the Gandhi statue as Mr. 
Advani's policies directly contradict the principles and heritage of 
non-violence in India'.

John Prabhudoss, one of the organizers of the Coalition said, 
he received positive responses from various US Administration 
officials.  He expressed concerns over the short sighted policies and 
urged the US Administration to think how today's policies would 
affect the interest of the civil society and human values in the long 
term.

Correction: Many members of the Association for India's Development 
and the California Institute of Integral Studies personally 
endorsed the letter  but not on behalf of their organizations.  The 
error is deeply regretted for any inconvenience it may have caused. 
=46or final list of signatories to the letter please refer to the June 
10th (final) version.

o o o

[ Related News report]

The Indian Express, June 12, 2003
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=3D25619

Gujarat's spectre follows Advani to Washington
Pradeep Kaushal

Washington, June 11: The ghost of Gujarat came here to haunt Deputy 
Prime Minister L.K. Advani here today. As Advani came to the Indian 
embassy to address the media, a group of people holding placards 
stood near the statue of Mahatma Gandhi across the road to register 
their protest against the Gujarat violence.

The protestors, including women, represented nearly two-dozen 
organisations, most of them Christian and Muslim. Some of the 
organisations were Ahsan Jafri Foundation, Federation of Indian 
Christians, Indian Muslim Council and Indian American Catholic 
Association.

The protestors distributed copies of their memorandum addressed to 
the President and other US officials, which said that the BJP and 
Advani had publicly lauded Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, 
''who has been indicted by a range of Indian and international human 
rights groups for conniving with and supporting the mobs who attacked 
the religious minorities in Gujarat.''

They also alleged that Advani had spread hatred against India's 
religious communities, particularly Muslims and Christians, organised 
rallies across India that had led to riots and deaths and had had 
demolished a 16th-century mosque. These activities, according to 
them, had been highlighted by the United States Commission on 
International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). They appealed to the 
President to take ''full cognizance'' of this report.

Through with this condemnation, the demonstrators also released a 
memorandum addressed to Avani, which called upon him to ''invest'' 
his ''political capital behind the Prime Minister's effort'' to 
secure peace in the Indian sub-continent.

They said: ''Your endorsement of this effort and active support in 
the process of finding peace is necessary. We encourage you to lend 
the political authority of your office and the energy of your 
supporters to this end.'' They said that even though the growing 
friendship of India and the US was welcome, it should not be largely 
limited to arms deals and investment dollars. Rather, US ''traditions 
of public finance for education and health may hold far more for 
Indian than any amount of expenditure on military matters.''
 
_____


#5.

The Washington Post
June 11, 2003; Page A01

AIDS Begins to Widen Its Reach in India
Disease Spreading Beyond High-Risk Groups to General Population

By John Lancaster
Washington Post Foreign Service

PEDDAPURAM, India -- On a packed-earth lane known as Bangaraman 
Temple Street, a resident leads a macabre house tour, ticking off the 
names of the dead and the doomed.

Here is the tiny concrete hovel where Beeraka, the tea seller, died 
of AIDS last Saturday, leaving behind an 8-year-old son and a wife 
who almost certainly is infected with the disease. Three doors down, 
on the opposite side, is Budavarthi, 40, a mother with HIV who lost 
her truck-driver husband to AIDS three years ago. Around the corner 
is Rekha, 28, who was infected by her late husband and transmitted 
the virus to her son, now 6 years old.

And coming up an alley in the arms of her aunt is Devi, a solemn 
3-year-old in a patterned cotton shift. She lost both her parents to 
AIDS -- her mother died in April -- and is infected with the virus. 
Her aunt says the disease has prevented Devi from learning to walk.

"So many people are sick in any neighborhood," said the tour guide, 
Bhavani Senapathi, 25, who works as a nurse in a nearby support 
center for AIDS victims. Her husband is bedridden with the disease, 
and she has HIV. "We have people dying every day."

Such scenes are increasingly common in parts of India, signaling the 
start of the long-awaited breakout of the disease from traditional 
high-risk groups such as prostitutes and drug users into the general 
population. Infection rates still pale compared to those of 
sub-Saharan Africa. But AIDS experts say that is changing.

Blood-test data from pregnancy clinics, considered a reliable 
cross-section of society, show infection rates as high as 5 to 8 
percent in some localities in southern India, according to state AIDS 
control agencies and independent researchers. A September 2002 report 
by the CIA's National Intelligence Council predicted 20 million to 25 
million AIDS cases in India by 2010, more than any other country.

"In some parts of India, particularly the states that are reporting 
the higher prevalence, the tipping point is long past," Richard 
=46eachem, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, 
Tuberculosis and Malaria, said in a telephone interview from Geneva. 
"I think there is absolutely no doubt that the virus is moving into 
the general population."

Despite efforts by private charities and some government health 
agencies, particularly at the state level, the national response to 
the disease has been spotty at best, according to AIDS specialists 
from international donors as well as Indian and foreign nonprofit 
groups. They cite, among other things, resource constraints, cultural 
barriers to AIDS-prevention campaigns -- including resistance to 
discussing condom use -- and bureaucratic obstacles such as a federal 
budget rule that caps the amount foreign donors can contribute to 
fighting AIDS.

"There is a fairly widespread view among educated people and opinion 
leaders in India that HIV-AIDS is primarily an African problem and 
that Hindu and Muslim culture will protect India from the most 
serious consequences of the virus," Feachem said.

As in other countries, "there has been a resort to the mythology of 
cultural immunity -- it can't happen to us because we're different," 
added Feachem, who toured the country this year on behalf of the 
fund, a quasi-U.N. agency that acts as a conduit for public and 
private funds. "I found on my visit a persistent tendency to minimize 
the current scale of the epidemic and the potential future growth."

Officials from India's Health Ministry and the National AIDS Control 
Organization, which coordinates federal and state prevention efforts, 
did not respond to repeated telephone messages and faxes seeking 
comment for this article.

By most reckonings, the AIDS epidemic in India is still at a 
relatively early stage, with an overall infection rate among adults 
estimated at 0.9 to 1.4 percent; the adult infection rate in the 
southern African nation of Botswana, by comparison, is about 35 
percent. AIDS experts warn, however, that unless more is done to 
arrest the spread of the disease, the window of opportunity could 
soon slam shut, creating a far bigger problem down the road.

The disease is already exacting a high toll. As always in India, the 
problem is sheer numbers: In a country with a billion people, even a 
1 percent prevalence rate among adults translates into 4 million 
infected people, according to U.N. statistics, which means that India 
has more HIV carriers than any country except South Africa. Many of 
those lives could be prolonged with antiretroviral drugs, which cost 
just $350 per year in India, far less than in the West. But even that 
is well beyond the reach of all but a tiny fraction of patients.

India can hardly be accused of turning a blind eye to the disease. 
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has delivered several speeches on 
the topic, and the government has orchestrated multiple ad campaigns 
promoting awareness and prevention. Here in the southeastern state of 
Andhra Pradesh, one of the hardest-hit areas, the state AIDS agency 
has been especially forthright, once inflating a giant condom outside 
the state legislature to dramatize its campaign.

In general, however, Indian officials have played down the threat.

=46or example, India's Planning Commission, a government body that sets 
spending priorities for the country, says in its 2002-2007 economic 
plan that the disease is likely to "plateau" in 2010 and has caused 
"only a small reduction in expected improvement in longevity." 
Government spending on AIDS has remained flat for the last several 
years. And government officials have reacted angrily to suggestions 
by outside experts that the disease is getting out of hand.

The National Intelligence Council prediction, for example, was 
denounced as "completely inaccurate" by Shatrughan Sinha, then the 
health minister. He subsequently accused Microsoft Chairman Bill 
Gates of "spreading panic" when Gates warned during a trip to India 
last fall of the potential for an AIDS explosion in the country; 
Gates had traveled to India to announce a $100 million grant for 
fighting the disease.

As in any country, cultural attitudes have shaped the national 
response. Last December, the communications minister, Sushma Swaraj 
-- a senior leader of the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party 
that heads India's governing coalition -- pulled the plug on a 
television campaign stressing the protective benefits of condoms; 
conservatives had complained that the ads encouraged promiscuity.

The ads have since been retooled to emphasize abstinence and 
faithfulness, in some cases avoiding any mention of condoms. One 
recent spot, for example, shows a village councilwoman warning other 
women about the dangers of AIDS and urging them to be faithful -- but 
says nothing about how they should protect themselves if their 
husbands fail to follow the same advice. Swaraj, who is now the 
health minister, told the Times of India this month that she favors a 
"holistic" approach to AIDS prevention.

One significant constraint on India's ability to marshal resources 
against the disease is bureaucratic.

=46or the most part, the government insists that money contributed by 
foreign donors flow through its coffers, rather than directly to 
private groups (it made an exception for Gates). The problem, 
according to officials with donor agencies, is that the Planning 
Commission sets annual ceilings on the amount of money -- government 
or otherwise -- that can be spent on various programs, including 
those related to AIDS.

That puts India in the seemingly bizarre position of refusing some of 
the money that donors are eager to give.

"Donor commitment and available resources are greater than the plan 
ceilings allow," said Tim Martineau, the senior health adviser for 
Britain's foreign aid agency in New Delhi. "I believe that some 
states could absorb more resources and that ideally resource 
allocations should reflect the epidemiology of the disease."

Indian officials defend the system. They say it is up to them and not 
foreign donors to set the health care agenda in a country where AIDS 
is one of a number of chronic diseases -- such as malaria and 
tuberculosis -- that claim thousands of lives each year. "If the 
government gives free rope to one sector, then the other sectors will 
suffer," said N.N. Kaul, a Planning Commission spokesman. "What is 
the priority of the central government? What is the priority of the 
state government?"

AIDS is clearly a priority in Andhra Pradesh, a coastal state where 
the rate of infection among prostitutes in some cities approaches 50 
percent, according to a 2001 study funded by the British government. 
Many prostitutes have passed on the disease to their clients, who 
infected their wives, who infected their children. By all accounts, 
the state has moved aggressively to combat the disease, both through 
public education and more practical initiatives such as distributing 
free condoms to prostitutes.

"I don't go anywhere without them," said Mani Devaradi, 25, pulling a 
foil package from her sari as she waited for customers at a busy 
intersection in the coastal city of Kakinada recently.

Kasaraneni Damayanthi, who directs the state program, said in a phone 
interview from the state capital, Hyderabad, that as a result of such 
efforts, infection rates have begun to stabilize in some areas. But 
she added: "We need much more than what we've been getting, because 
the problem is really massive. It has very much gone into the general 
population."

That much is clear from a visit to this sweltering farming town 
roughly 700 miles southeast of New Delhi.

Parvathi Vorra, a somber, slender woman in a blue sari, got the virus 
from her husband and then passed it on to her son, 3-year-old Sunil. 
She knows nothing of antiretrovirals and couldn't afford them anyway. 
Now her husband is too ill to work, and she has taken over his job as 
a sweeper in a local cinema, despite fevers that sometimes last for 
days.

"I don't have any fear for myself," Vorra, 20, said during an 
interview at St. Paul's Trust, a local charity that provides her with 
food and medicine to treat secondary infections associated with the 
disease. "I only want my husband and child to be happy."


_____


#6.

The Hindu, June 12, 2003

Hearing on violence against Christians
By Our Special Correspondent

Bangalore June 11. The All-India Christian Council is holding a 
public hearing on violence against Christians in Karnataka, at the 
Institute of Agricultural Technologists Hall, Queen's Road, from 10 
a.m. on Thursday.

The former Judge of the Karnataka High Court, H.G. Balakrishna, the 
diplomat-parliamentarian, L.C. Jain, the legal expert, S.V. Joga Rao, 
the Secretary of the Komavaru Virodhi Andolona, R. Parthasarathy, the 
trustee of Civic Bangalore, Karthiyayini Chamaraj, and the President 
of Indian Muslims for Peace and Harmony, Sayed Safiulla, will be on 
the panel hearing evidence from victims of violence.

The Secretary-General of the council, John Dayal, told presspersons 
here on Wednesday that he was shocked to learn there were 50 
incidents of violence against the Christian community in various 
parts of Karnataka in 2002. There were instances of clergy and lay 
workers being manhandled, places of worship damaged, and hamlets of 
dalit Christians being terrorised, he said. "If not checked, such 
violence can be directed against any community in future,'' Mr. 
Justice Balakrishna said.

Mr. Dayal said: "Attacks on Christians appear to have increased over 
the past five years, and the anti-conversion laws in certain States 
and the militant attitude of the Sangh Parivar are to blame for many 
incidents.

"In several cases, those in the police and administration had ignored 
complaints, or did not act on them, and this encouraged those 
indulging in violence.''

_____


#7.

The Indian Express, June 12, 2003
LETTER & SPIRIT

An encounter with a judge
Manoj Mitta

The inquiry into the Gujarat riots is yet to cover Ahmedabad and 
Vadodara, where most of the killings took place. Obviously, this is 
no stage for anybody, least of all the head of the inquiry 
commission, Justice G.T. Nanavati, to say anything that tends to 
prejudge the communal violence. So, what on earth could have made 
Nanavati, a former Supreme Court judge, make the gratuitous assertion 
that the evidence recorded so far did not indicate ''any serious 
lapse'' on the part of the police or administration? How could he be 
so unmindful of the adverse effect his statement would have had on 
the victims intending to depose before him on the horrors they 
suffered in Ahmedabad and Vadodara? Self-inflicted as it is, the 
damage to the credibility of the inquiry has caused much 
consternation.

But to me, this premature clean chit to the Gujarat police does not 
come as a surprise. Nanavati did something similar not so long ago on 
more than one occasion with regard to the Delhi police while probing 
the 1984 massacre of Sikhs. I was personally involved in one instance 
as he called me about two years ago to appear before his Commission 
in connection with a story I did then on the 1984 carnage. The 
article shed new light on a gallantry medal given by the Rajiv Gandhi 
government to a high-profile police officer, Amod Kanth, for 
recovering ''deadly weapons'' and arresting ''indiscriminate 
shooters'' from a house at Paharganj in central Delhi. The shooters 
referred to in the citation were in fact a Sikh family which fired at 
a mob attacking its house. But the police, which intervened in the 
shootout, booked all the family members, including women, on the 
charge of murder as a member of the mob and a soldier were killed 
along with the head of the family. Knocking the bottom out of Kanth's 
gallantry medal, my story revealed that the entire family has since 
been exonerated by the court as a forensic study established that 
none of the bullets recovered from the bodies of the rioter and 
soldier matched the weapons recovered from the family. The Carnage 
Justice Committee (CJC), appearing for victims, requested the 
Commission to recommend that Kanth be immediately stripped of his 
medal. Declining to give any interim report to the government, 
Nanavati said he would deal with the CJC's application only at the 
end of the proceedings.

When I appeared before the Commission, Nanavati did not fault any of 
the facts contained in the report. All he did was to take umbrage at 
the headline which described Kanth's gallantry medal as a ''badge of 
shame''. I said the matter was indeed shameful because if any police 
officer was rewarded in that context, one would expect it to be for 
acting against mobs that attacked Sikhs. Instead, Kanth was rewarded 
for rounding up a Sikh family which was so clearly acting in self 
defence from its own home. But Nanavati showed no sign of 
appreciating that incongruity.

Worse, he continued to quibble about the ''badge of shame'' headline 
in that hearing even after Kanth inadvertently disclosed a serious 
illegality committed by his men right inside the Commission. While 
making all sorts of allegations against me, Kanth accused me of doing 
the story on the basis of a ''non-existent'' affidavit. It turned out 
that an affidavit filed by one of the affected family members, Trilok 
Singh, was no more on the records of the Commission. That was totally 
contrary to the law because no document can be physically taken out 
of the Commission's records for any reason whatsoever without 
Nanavati's orders. Much to his discredit, Nanavati desisted from 
uncovering the complicity of his staff with the efforts to shield 
Kanth.

Nanavati's reluctance to hold the police to account was even more 
evident on another occasion while he was dealing with a Delhi colony 
called Trilokpuri, which saw the massacre of over 300 Sikhs. Having 
recorded the highest concentration of killings in a single locality, 
Trilokpuri was the 1984 equivalent of Naroda Patia in Ahmedabad, 
where about 80 Muslims were killed last year. The CJC alleged that 
the police contributed to the massacre in Trilokpuri by seizing all 
arms from Sikhs and making them all the more vulnerable to attacks. 
Nanavati answered that he did not find anything wrong with the 
seizure of arms from Sikhs as a pre-emptive measure. The CJC pointed 
out that it would have been alright if the police had by the same 
token disarmed Hindus as well. A combative Nanavati challenged the 
CJC to give evidence revealing that Hindus also had arms.

Each of these instances shows that Nanavati has a certain mindset 
which makes him give the benefit of the doubt to the police in the 
face of all indications to the contrary. More importantly, Nanavati 
shares this mindset with a lot of others in judicial circles. He 
perhaps imbibed this attitude as he worked for several years as a 
government lawyer in Ahmedabad. Regrettably, a majority of the judges 
are recruited from among government lawyers. The bias is in-built. 
Nanavati is a typical product of the system. And that is why he does 
not even seem conscious of the bias he displays.

_____


#8.

Hindutva at work !

(Mumbai Newsline | Indian Express)
Now, NCP wants Gateway to be named after Shivaji
http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=3D54432

o o o

(The Times of India)
Sons-of-the-soil theory taking shape in Pune
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com:80/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=
=3D18356

o o o

(The Hindu)
Lack of archaeological evidence irrelevant: VHP
http://www.hinduonnet.com/stories/2003061203591100.htm


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