SACW | 4 July, 2003

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire   |  4 July,  2003

Announcements:
[1.] Please note, SACW dispatches are being interrupted for the 
period July 5-10, 2003.
[2.] Please Sign the on-line Petition !
Trial of the murderers of Gujarat. Letter to NHRC re. the Best Bakery Case
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/NHRCbbc/petition.html

[In the last 48 hours or the NHRC has swung into action but we must 
keep the pressure on and throw our weight behind it and write as many 
letters as possible.]

o o o

#1. Pakistan: The minorities in our midst (Hafizur Rahman)
#2. Silencing the Music in Pakistan - Campaign targets 'un-Islamic' 
culture (Dan Morrison)
#3. India: Blah, blah, blood (Rajmohan Gandhi)
#4. India: 'Seeking Truth' in Hindu Rashtra laboratory (Ram Puniyani)
#5. India: Sangh Parivar targets the historian K. N. Panikkar
#6. Pakistan - India: The song of the Sufi - Track II diplomacy is 
far too mushy: Let's get real (Sagarika Ghose)
#7. Imperial history repeats itself - Once again, Indians are being 
asked to fight Iraqis for empire's sake (Randeep Ramesh)
#8. India: Don't send Indian troops to Iraq (Edit, The Hindu)
#9. India: Indira Jaisingh on shortcomings of Domestic Violence Bill

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

#1.


Dawn (Pakistan) 2 July 2003

The minorities in our midst
By Hafizur Rahman

A NEWS report quotes the decision of a minorities' organisation of 
Rawalpindi to launch a campaign to oppose the adoption of the Shariat 
in the Frontier and its likely follow-up elsewhere in the country. I 
must say it is brave of them to do so in face of an overwhelming and 
rather intolerant majority.
While in a truly Islamic state, which Pakistan is not (nor is it 
likely to be with so much hypocrisy around) the ummah is supposed to 
be the protector of non-Muslims, one is heartened by the courage 
shown by the Christian minority. I warn them that this is not going 
to be taken lightly by the ultra-religious elements among the Muslims 
and might involve a recoil.
As for the other significant minority, the Ahmedis, they don't count. 
They are not even second class citizens but something much lower, yet 
to be properly categorised. Quite apart from the blasphemy law which 
covers everyone, Christians in Pakistan do not appreciate how much we 
love them. For example, if a Christian pins the Muslim kalima on his 
breast, we'll make much of him and exhibit him as "an honorary 
Muslim." But if a Qadiani has the temerity to do that, we trot him 
off to jail for a year or two.
Similarly all Christians use the salutation Assalam-o-alaikum even 
among themselves, but if a Qadiani does so it is a crime in the eyes 
of General Zia's law and duly punishable. He can say Namaste or Sat 
Siri Akal but never the Salam which only means "Peace be upon you," 
and is hardly a religious expression. That is why I say that our 
Christians don't count their blessings which they are exhorted to do 
by their faith. Qadianis have been prosecuted for writing Bismillah 
on a wedding card.
And that is why, when talking to foreigners, the Pakistan government 
always swears by the Constitution that there is no discrimination 
against the minorities. A study of press statements of government 
leaders reveals that Pakistan and its Muslim population have given 
unprecedented concessions and allowances to the minorities. Though if 
you ask those leaders to enumerate even one of these concessions they 
are at a loss to do so. As for our religious gentry, they think it is 
more than a generosity to let the minorities live in peace in the 
Muslim homeland. So what more do they want?
The whole atmosphere in the country as regards the attitude towards 
non-Muslims, as also the attitude of the adherents of one sect 
towards the followers of other sects, is so vitiated with intolerance 
that one now really marvels at what the Quaid-i- Azam did on Sunday, 
17th August 1947. Readers may recall Ardeshir Cowasjee's column 
describing how on that day the Quaid and Miss Fatima Jinnah attended 
a special service in Karachi's Saint Patrick's Church.
After the religious service, which was dedicated to the strength and 
welfare of the new state, Mr Jinnah reiterated his resolve that there 
would be absolutely no discrimination between Muslims and non-Muslims 
in Pakistan. Elderly Christians and Parsis of Karachi recall his 
words fondly and remember how he assured them that Pakistan was as 
much their country as a new homeland for Muslims. Today they must be 
wondering which Pakistan the Quaid was talking about.
Can you imagine a prime minister of Pakistan attending a Christian 
religious service in a church today? Even General Pervez Musharraf 
with all his bravado wouldn't dare. The maulvis would tear such 
leaders to shreds, and they would have to spend the rest of their 
life in Makkah and Madina trying to prove that they were genuine 
Muslims.
The masses are exhorted by these leaders on every occasion to follow 
in the footsteps of the Quaid? Are there different sets of footsteps, 
one for the people and one for the leaders? Why don't they emulate 
his example and attend a special service in a church to instil 
confidence among the Christians? It would do more to assure them of 
the government's good faith and the state's impartiality than empty 
rhetoric and hollow slogans.
In the present state of affairs which, without doubt, has been 
brought about over the years by our own political and religious 
leaders, the most important requirement is that the minorities should 
feel safe, protected and even privileged. Of course there is no 
defence against stray cases of fanaticism, but the government and the 
nation as a whole should never allow themselves to fall below a 
certain level of civilized behaviour. Unfortunately the steps taken 
to reinforce society through Islamic principles have tended towards 
making fanatics of the entire Muslim population.
Six years ago there was Shantinagar, the Christian village in 
southern Punjab, which was raided by Muslim zealots fed on false 
rumours set afloat by certain fanatics. They behaved like the Huns 
and laid the village waste. I have kept a tab on the matter and can 
say without fear of contradiction that nothing was done by Mian Nawaz 
Sharif's government to either restore the confidence of the victims 
or bring the culprits to book. What price civilised behaviour 
inspired by the tenets of Islam and our much-vaunted tolerance of 
other faiths?
That apart, the abduction of Hindu girls in Sindh is going on all the 
time. When a hue and cry is raised the girl is made to state in a 
court of law that she went away of her own accord, that she married a 
Muslim of her own accord and that she embraced Islam of her own 
accord. Then, a few years ago, there was the kidnapping of about a 
hundred Hindu haris, men, women and children, in a part of the 
province.
If minority leaders, and a few good Muslims, had not raised the 
alarm, nothing would have been heard of the affair. On the strength 
of these events it can be safely averred that today the most 
privileged individual in Pakistan whom no one can touch is the Sindhi 
wadera. I refuse to believe that he is afraid of God.
I sometimes wonder if our minorities truly consider themselves 100 
per cent Pakistanis, though I have never been gauche enough to ask 
this from the dearest of my non-Muslim friends. In fact the question 
should be, "Do we, the Muslims, make them feel by our attitude that 
they are Pakistanis?" The question is not irrelevant. The atmosphere 
pervading the entire country is so completely Muslim in its spirit 
and impact that a non-Muslim appears to be something alien and out of 
place.
Two years ago I had quoted from a letter written by a Christian woman 
to an Urdu newspaper columnist. I shall not recount her complaints 
against Muslim bias but I do want to repeat just one sentence from 
it. She had said, "Brother, let me share a private thought with you. 
I honestly feel that it is the prayers of us Christians that are 
sustaining Pakistan, otherwise you people would have finished it long 
ago by killing one another and anyone else who disagrees with you." 
Ominous words, I must say.

_____


#2.

Newsday (USA) July 1, 2003

Silencing the Music in Pakistan
Campaign targets 'un-Islamic' culture

By Dan Morrison
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Peshawar, Pakistan - There was a time when Maulana Mahaz Khan liked 
nothing better than to weave his young voice into the tapestry of 
melodies that floated from the windows of his neighborhood, the 
musicians' bazaar of Peshawar.
Drawn to the bands of Pashtun folk singers who have entertained 
wedding parties and road-weary travelers for more than 200 years, the 
boy risked the wrath of his father, a cleric, to sit with the 
musicians. "I liked singing with them," says Khan, who says he is 35 
but appears much older. "It was a good feeling."
Now, Khan counts the days before he can shutter the bazaar and 
silence its 2,000 troubadours because of a widely held belief in this 
conservative region that music and dancing are an affront to God. "I 
don't want to give this dirty example to the next generation," said 
Khan, who is a ward leader for the Muttahida Majlis-e-Ammal, an 
alliance of Islamic religious parties that took control of Pakistan's 
North-West Frontier Province after a landslide election victory in 
October.
Emboldened by its new political might - the alliance is the leading 
opposition bloc in Pakistan's parliament - the movement aims to 
remake Pakistan as a radical Islamic state. Its growing strength has 
raised alarm among civil rights advocates and security officials. The 
religious parties oppose President Pervez Musharraf for his 
cooperation with the U.S. war on terrorism, and they sided with the 
Taliban against U.S. forces during the 2001 war there.
To erase signs of "un-Islamic" culture in this border province, 
police and religious students have arrested, threatened and beaten 
musicians and music shop owners, defaced billboards and trashed 
merchandise. The campaign has spread to other cities, from 
conservative Quetta to cosmopolitan Lahore.
On June 4, the assembly here approved making Sharia, or Islamic law, 
the writ of the province. Public employees are required to pray five 
times a day, spectators have been banned from girls' sporting events 
and boys at public schools are barred from wearing Western clothes.
Those with more moderate views of Islam fear that the radicalization 
of civic life is only beginning. They note a legislative proposal for 
a new public body "to advocate virtue." A copy of the bill, which has 
not been made public, called for the creation of an office to 
investigate and prosecute claims of un-Islamic behavior.
"It is more or less like the Taliban," said Salma Anwar, chairwoman 
of the International Women's Organization in Peshawar. "They want to 
separate the sexes. How is that going to bring jobs and clean 
drinking water?"
Musharraf recently assailed attempts to "Talibanize" Pakistan, and 
replaced the North-West Frontier Province's top police official and 
chief secretary for failing to quell vandalism in Peshawar.
But fear lingers in the musician's bazaar; Khayal Gul worked the keys 
of his harmonium, a valise-sized hand-organ, and sang a defiant reply 
to Khan and the other mullahs.
"Oh sheik, oh bearded man,
"You are a fool.
"My lord is my God.
"I will ask of him and not of you."
"A year ago, we were without fear," Gul said. "Now, we are in fear. 
We are under stress."
Abdul Raouf, who owns a record company and music shop nearby, said 
the inspector general of police had ordered him to remove a poster of 
a female singer.
"Twenty days ago they arrested more than 100 shopkeepers and charged 
them with obscenity," Raouf said. Since Musharraf's June 10 speech 
decrying "backward and intolerant" interpretations of Islam, the 
police stop by only once a week, he said.
The province's chief minister, Akram Durrani, said such claims are 
meant to provoke Musharraf into dismissing the provincial government. 
"There is no ban" on music, Durrani said. Rather, he said, his 
opponents had "bribed the musicians to say these things."
Sounding more like a Western liberal than a member of Pakistan's 
leading Islamic religious party, he said his government's priorities 
are health, education and welfare. "We are more in favor of women's 
rights than anyone," Durrani said, describing plans to build a 
women-only medical college and primary schools for girls, and to 
oppose traditions such as exorbitant marriage dowries and "honor 
killings" of women accused of transgressing social mores.
Durrani, a veteran politician who had to grow a beard before party 
leaders would allow his appointment as chief minister, rejected 
comparisons of his agenda with that of Afghanistan's deposed Taliban. 
"We have won through the ballot," Durrani said. "The Taliban assumed 
power through bullets."
He said the legislative bill for an agency to promote virtue would 
not create a religious police force but rather a system to arbitrate 
local disputes, bringing "cheap and easy access to justice for the 
poor."
Back at the musician's bazaar, Khan said his childhood love for music 
ended when "I got the feeling that this was a very dirty thing." Now, 
he said, he will soon close the music bazaar for good.
"I will do jihad against them," Khan said of the musicians. "All the 
street is with me. Because of the political situation - the 
government is having some problems at the moment - I will do it at 
the right time. Just watch."

Copyright =A9 2003, Newsday, Inc.

_____


#3.

The Hindustan Times (India)  July 4, 2003  

Blah, blah, blood
by Rajmohan Gandhi

  The following is an account, gathered from eyewitnesses and 
published in Communalism Combat of a VHP meeting held on April 16 in 
Roha in the Konkan region of western Maharashtra, attended by about 
1,500-2,000 young men and women at the grounds of a college:

"The backdrop was a huge picture of the projected Ram mandir at 
Ayodhya flanked by a larger-than-life poster of the encounter between 
Shivaji and Afzal Khan in all its gory detail with steel claws, 
daggers and blood=8A Smaller colour posters of the Shivaji-Afzal 
encounter were distributed free to all those who attended.

"The primary message of speeches by Acharya Dharmendra and his 
colleagues was that the holy duty of Hindu youths was to kill and 
finish off the Muslims scattered across the Konkan region and 
elsewhere, 'the offspring of the traitor Afzal Khan'.

"Muslims breed like rabbits and their population would soon overtake 
that of the Hindus. Until now, we Hindus had been moderate in our 
demands but now we will be demanding all the 30,000 masjids."

Acharya Dharmendra said: "Muslims can continue to live here only 
provided they all become Hindus=8A In this land of Shivaji, we should 
all follow Shivaji's example and finish off all the descendants of 
Afzal Khan just as Shivaji did."

It was in January that I had first read in Navbharat Times of the 
VHP's plan to use the Shivaji-Afzal Khan picture as a weapon. One of 
its UP organisers, Mr Sachan, had declared that the colour picture 
would be distributed in lakhs at VHP rallies in the state, especially 
in areas where Muslims lived in large numbers. Obviously, the plan is 
not only to hold up the Afzal Khan killing as an inspiring example of 
what Hindus should be doing, but also to provoke Muslim violence 
which would serve as a pretext for a pogrom of the post-Godhra kind.

Also billed as a speaker for the Roha rally was Praveen Togadia. 
Though he did not turn up, this is what he had said in Mumbai on 
March 16: "Remember Bhagwan Krishna. He told Arjuna to kill Karna 
[unfairly]. Did anyone till Krishna that he had followed a path of 
adharma?" Togadia added: "Do you know how we even killed Bheeshma, 
using tricks, how we killed Duryodhana? I remember all that with my 
proud Hindu heart. This is my proud Hindu heritage=8A"

One symbol can sometimes capture the essence of a large enterprise. 
The Shivaji-Afzal Khan picture and the words that precede and follow 
it tell us everything about the VHP's strategy. Portray the Muslim as 
a traitor. Ask for his blood. Glorify trickery as the means to get 
it. Frighten Muslims. Provoke them into violence. At an apt moment, 
unleash a pogrom.

The ennobling of trickery is most revealing. When it becomes safe to 
do so, the demolition of the Babri masjid will be publicly claimed as 
a historic example of successful deception. Today, of course, the 
demolition is explained as a spontaneous and even 'unfortunate' 
eruption.

=46looding India with the gory picture defames Shivaji even as it 
pretends to glorify him. One debatable incident from his life, 
occurring when he was young, is selected; the essence of a remarkable 
hero is reduced to a single act of successful deception. Left out are 
all his exhortations for equality and for the good treatment of 
Muslim women. Left out are the Muslims who soldiered for him and the 
Hindus who fought against him. Left out is his challenging word to 
Aurangzeb that god was the god of all, Hindus and Muslims.

But the reputation of Shivaji is the last thing on the VHP's mind. 
When what you want to see is blood and fire on the Indian landscape, 
you care a whit for Shivaji, or Asoka, or the Taj Mahal. Or for 
temples.

Let us note some other elements in Togadia's March 16 speech. 
(Communalism Combat, May 2003, carries the full text). For a start, 
he called for the silencing of secularists: "The secular madrasa's 
name is the Jawaharlal Nehru University. Lock it up, close it down."

Next, he asked Hindus to nurse a persecution complex: "In this 
country, there are human rights for dogs, for donkeys, for cats, for 
Muslims, but no human rights for Hindus.

We have no right to live=8A My mother, travelling in a local train in 
Mumbai, she has no rights to return safely, alive.

"Imagine that a Bin Laden emerges. What will happen to us? To our 
women? 'Accept Islam or we will cut you up.' And Hindu women will be 
distributed among them. There is a real danger of this happening."

=46inally, he sought to terrify - terrorise - Muslims: "Oh my Muslim 
brothers, remember Narasimha Rao could not save Babri masjid. He 
promised to rebuild it. Has he done it? He has not. He could not do 
it. Sonia Gandhi is your beloved. If she were to promise rebuilding 
of the masjid, will she do it? Is Mulayam Singh promising this to 
you? Oh Muslims, name one leader to me who can promise this to you? 
Is anyone promising this?

"Muslims, you are orphans, you are alone=8A I challenged Sonia Gandhi: 
Name a single village in Gujarat where during communal violence a 
Congress worker has saved the life of Muslims. In Karnavati 
[Ahmedabad], there must be at least 10,000 Congress workers. Ahsan 
Jaffrey was phoning all Congress workers desperately. How many 
Congress workers came to protect him? Not even one.

"Who will come to protect you? Babur and Ghazni? If Ghazni comes, we 
will crush him beneath our feet. The politics of reconciliation 
embodied in Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru no longer survives. 
We dictate the politics in this land now. This is the land of the 
pure Ganga and Yamuna.

"And you place bombs here and there? If I can perform the last rites 
for my father as a Hindu son, and cremate him by the flames of agni, 
I can set fire to this entire dharti." As another example of what 
Hindus were capable of, Togadia spoke of the burning of Lanka by 
Hanuman.

More conscious of the children, women and men living around them, 
others are less enamoured of blood and flames. Long ago, in May 1947, 
three months before Partition and shortly after several Hindus and 
Sikhs had been killed in his beloved Frontier province, Khan Abdul 
Ghaffar Khan spoke in the village of Shabqadar, not far from his 
Charsadda home:

"We are passing through critical times=8A Some people mislead you in 
the name of Islam. I feel it is my duty to warn you against future 
dangers so that I may justify myself before man and god on the Day of 
Judgment=8A

"What gains will Islam and the Muslims reap from these riots and the 
slaughter of children, women and the aged? And how are the Pakhtuns 
going to be benefited? These happenings are against the tenets of the 
Holy Koran and the sayings of the Prophet. To lay hands on an 
innocent poor man goes also against Pakhtun tradition.

"The other day an old Sikh pedlar was murdered on the road in spite 
of his willingness to embrace Islam. Is it done for the sake of 
Islam? I warn the Muslim League brethren that the fire they kindle 
will spread in wild blaze and consume everything in its way."

A similar warning is in order today in India. And profound concern, 
too, for Messrs Vajpayee and Advani have shown no inclination to put 
out of business, or even to rebuke, allies of theirs calling for 
blood and fire across the land. Competing with Messrs Togadia and 
Dharmendra are people like Vinay Katiyar of the BJP and the Bajrang 
Dal, who hurtles across UP to identify one mosque after another that 
should be 'handed over'. There are others.

Vajpayee has given indications of some interest in what history may 
say of him. We must assume that Advani too would like to justify 
himself to posterity. Can they credibly ask Musharraf and Jamali to 
eliminate terrorism from Pakistan if they are unwilling to put down 
its Indian version?

_____


#4.

=46rom Milligazette (India)  July 1-15

'Seeking Truth' in Hindu Rashtra laboratory

Ram Puniyani

Lately Justice Nanavati Commission and the official
inquiry commission of Gujarat are very much in the
news. Initially Justice Nanavati went onto state that
there was no serious lapse in controlling the communal
clashes. He went on to state that there is no evidence
against the Bajarang Dal and VHP workers in
participating and instigating riots. There were news
items that Best bakery core witnesses have turned
hostile, some poor Muslims were made to depose in
camera and also in heavy presence of police officials
praising the role of police in protecting them, of
PUCL-Vadodara Shanti Abhiyan boycotting the commission
and a delegation led by senior Gujarat journalist and
Human Rights activist Digant Oza submitting a
memorandum drawing the attention of NHRC to the gross
violation of Human rights of minorities in Gujarat and
of the need to restrain the Gujarat Govt. in its acts
of commission and omission in the violations of the
very elementary democratic rights of minority
communities.

Why is one trying to ensure that truth comes out
through the official inquiry commission? We already
know of the many a well-done citizen=EDs inquiries,
which have brought out the truth about the Gujarat
carnage. Also we know the fate of inquiry commissions.
By and large so far most of the inquiry commissions
have been kept in the cold storage and different
Governments have found the ways to put a lid on them.
In post independent India many a serious riots have
broken out and many a path breaking inquiry
commissions have established the role of Sangh Parivar
in spreading communal venom, in coordinating the
process of violence. Some of this has been well summed
up in =EBWho Casts the First Stone?=ED by Teesta Setalvad
(Communalism Combat, March 1998). The inquiry
commissions of Jagmohan Reddy, Madon, Vythyathil,
Bhaglpur have brought the truth behind the riots and
these commissions also give an indication about the
anatomy of the communal violence. Contrary to the
popular notion that it is Muslims who start the riots
and than Hindus retaliate most of the inquiry
commissions have brought forward the fact that the
organizations linked to RSS generally create a
situation in which minorities are cornered to throw
the first stone. The Shrikrishna commission report,
which probably is one amongst the best of the inquiry
commission reports brings forward the role of Shiv
Sena an BJP ally, another outfit operating in the name
of Hindutva. Shiv Sena not only initiated the riot but
also coordinated the ongoing violence, which went on
and on till the bomb blasts took place.

Shrikrishna Commission indisputably showed that the
incidents began with the victory procession by Shiv
Sena even as the demolition was going on, was the
first provocative act. These were followed by the
murder of Mathadi workers and later burning of Bane
family. Following the burning of Bane family Mr.
Thackeray gave call to Hindus to be aggressive. Later
investigations showed that the Muslim youth who were
implicated in the burning case were exonerated by the
court as the evidence was neither sufficient neither
fool proof. In a way it was a cooked up case, it was a
pretext to unleash the violence.
Gujarat is different cup of poison by now. The Godhra
incident, there is no evidence what so ever as to who
did it, was used as a pretext to unleash the
anti-Muslim pogrom. Multiple factors contributed to
Modi=EDs project of butchery. The communalization of
state apparatus being done by BJP govt and the
communalization of society being done by VHP, Bajrang
Dal, Vanvasi Kalyan ashram is by and large total by
now. The hatred for minorities is complete, and their
ghettoisation and intimidation has crossed the
boundaries of comfortable survival in a civic society.
It is nobody=EDs case that a proper investigation would
solve the problem. But the whole process of
investigation shows the deep fascisisation of society
in Gujarat. Immediately after the riots, and even
during the riots, the police refused to act as per the
norms of democracy and administration. It refused to
file the FIRs. In Gujarat we saw for the first time
that riot could go to the abominable levels, as there
was not a single check on the state machinery. Right
from the state home Minister to state Chief Minister
to the state Governor to the central home minister to
the Prime Minister all were trained swayamsevaks of
RSS. Each was doing their own bit in ensuring that the
polarization needed for BJP to win the next elections
is supported and that=EDs how this became the worst ever
riot in Independent India. Than came the role of
police in general, which participated in the process
abandoning all the norms of decency and duty.

After the riots the local people put the condition to
the Muslims that they will be allowed to return to
their homes if they withdrew the FIRs in case they
have been filed and with an undertaking not to file
the FIRs. The civic groups and citizens tribunal
showed without any doubt about the role of state
machinery and police in aiding and abetting the riots.
It was a state sponsored riot so to say. As the state
is totally in the grip of Sangh Parivar, the wall of
hatred is sealing the borders between the two
communities and boycott of Muslims in employment and
trade is being close to total. It is in this situation
that police finds it easy to tutor the witnesses. Best
Bakery witness turning back on their earlier statement
may be a result of multiple factors. To begin with a
simple realization that in such a ghettoized
atmosphere it may not be possible to socially survive
while giving the witness against the authorities and
the political elements. Second may be a more direct
threat from different sources to keep shut. The
Vadodra episode where police has taken the witnesses
to depose needs no explanation. The ultimate reality
is that of survival. Compromising with hostile forces
is the compulsion of the socially weak and deprived
sections. Modi Govt. is taking full advantage of its
grip on the mechanisms of civic society to ensure the
suppression of truth. So far at least truth used to
come out after the riots. Now even the unearthing,
rather recording of truth has also become
impossibility.

Can the boycott of this commission help the matters?
One realizes boycott of the commission is an act of
frustration and an act of helplessness. Can something
more proactive be undertaken to ensure that the first
step of =EBpunish the guilty=ED, the unearthing of truth
is accomplished? National Human Rights commission can
intervene probably. Also since Justice Nanavati is
acting more as a handmaiden of the butchers of
Gujarat, it may be better to dissolve this commission
and appoint another one with the advice of NHRC? This
is again a utopian thought. The central Govt., which
can provide check and balance, itself is fully backing
Modi and his administration in burning the truth. Can
we look forward to the President to provide some sane
step in this direction? Can the Supreme Court step in
response to Public Interest Litigation or Suo motto to
ensure that the present commission, which is a blot on
the judicial process is suspended and more objective
judges put in the commission.

But what about the restraint on the police and Sangh
Parivar ? Can they be restrained? It is close to
unthinkable at least in Gujarat, which is the First
Laboratory of Hindu Rashtra. This Laboratory has a
furnace to burn the concept of Human Rights to the
ashes! Here can one think of civic intervention, legal
intervention at social level? Legal activism to
protect the very existence of weaker sections of
society is as much needed as the intervention from the
top to set the things right. But it is a tall order.
Can legal brains pool together their energies to
protect the civilians? Does the concept make sense? In
the bleak and dismal scenario the hope may come from
the social movements and protests from all over the
country and the globe to bring in the process of law
and civic sense in the state where communal divide is
threatening the very existence of democratic norms.
Along with short-term measures we also have to think
of long-term measures to overcome the stifling hold of
sectarian political ideology, which has been at the
root of social discord.

_____


#5.

The Hindu July 04, 2003
	   
Sangh Parivar targets K. N. Panikkar

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM July 3. As the battle for secularism is being 
fought at different levels at the national level, K. N. Panikkar, 
renowned historian and staunch campaigner for secular values, is 
fighting his own battle against the Sangh Parivar in Kerala.

The Vice-Chancellor of the Sri Sankaracharya Sanskrit University, Dr. 
Panikkar, is being accused by the Parivar of having led the 
university to a doom, as proof for which they cite the University 
Grants Commission's denial of aid to the university for the second 
time. The UGC has not so far sent any formal communication to the 
university regarding denial of aid, but one of the members of the 
three-member UGC committee has been quoted by the local media as 
having stated that the panel had found the Sanskrit University 
ineligible for assistance under Section 12-B of the UGC Act.

The three-member panel, comprising Prof. S. P. Gadre of the Jawharlal 
Nehru University, Prof. Kudumb Sastry, Vice-Chancellor, National 
Sanskrit University, New Delhi, and Mr. T. R. Kem, Additional 
Secretary, UGC, had visited the university on May 2. The committee is 
reported to have found the university ineligible for funding on 
account of the ``relative insignificance'' of Sanskrit in its 
curriculum, non-appointment of nine Deans of faculties and a Chief 
Academic Counsellor as envisaged in the University Act, 
``insignificant representation'' for Sanskrit in the Academic Council 
and non-establishment of a Department of Indology.

The non-appointment of the Chief Counsellor has been taken particular 
note of as appointment of a ``Sanskrit scholar of international 
repute'' to the post to advise the university on academic matters is 
a statutory provision.

The ``report'' also notes that though the objective of the university 
is promotion of Sanskrit, Indology, Indian philosophy and 
Sanskrit-related Indian languages, the Faculty of Sanskrit has only 
one department as against the 12 departments under the Faculty of 
Arts and Social Sciences and that though the university is supposed 
to promote study of Indian languages interlinked to Sanskrit, it now 
has only Malayalam, Hindi and Urdu departments. The panel has also 
``found'' that little effort is being made for publication of ancient 
books and manuscripts.

The Parivar had all along held Dr. Panikkar ineligible to be the 
Vice-Chancellor as he did not belong to a Sanskrit discipline. The 
UGC ``report'' has, therefore, been welcomed by them. In an editorial 
page article in a prominent Malayalam daily, the RSS ideologue in 
Kerala, P. Parameswaran, has used the UGC ``report'' to question the 
``wisdom'' of allowing Dr. Panikkar to continue in the post and 
predicted ``certain doom'' for the university if the present 
situation was allowed to continue, a warning clearly aimed at the 
State Government.

However, the Parivar appears to have ignored several important 
academic and infrastructural initiatives that Dr. Panikkar 
successfully launched at the university and the gaping holes in the 
purported findings of the UGC panel. The first thing that Dr. 
Panikkar did on assuming office was to streamline the examination 
calendar. Earlier, university examinations were held six to eight 
months late and as a result students lost one to two years. With the 
introduction of a strict academic regime, examinations are now being 
held at the end of every semester.

The admission procedure has also been completely revamped. The 
university now conducts an admission test in May every year which is 
open to even those who are appearing for their qualifying examination.

As a result, the number of applicants for all post-graduate courses 
has increased considerably. Admission to M.Phil. and Ph.D is also 
based on a test. An important innovation that Dr. Panikkar brought 
into the Ph.D programme was the compulsory residential qualification 
for all students. While doing the residential programme, the students 
are required to do course work. It is only after the completion of 
the course work that students are confirmed to the Ph.D programme.

The university has introduced a credit and grading system for all 
post-graduate and research courses, the first university in Kerala to 
do so. It has also introduced several new courses during the last two 
years such as Comparative Literature, Theatre and Music at the 
post-graduate level and Translation Studies and Manuscriptology at 
the M.Phil. level. Contrary to what is being alleged by the Parivar 
spokespersons, it has taken the initial steps to start courses in 
Sankhyayoga, Poorvamimamsa and Cultural Studies.

The university had earlier taken up recording of Sama Veda chanting 
and this work has now been completed. The university is part of the 
UNESCO project on Koodiyattom for which it has been receiving grant.

The university has undertaken, with assistance from the Central 
Government, a documentary on Koodiyattom, the purest form of Sanskrit 
dance drama, and done documentation of various aspects of Koodiyattom 
in collaboration with the Kerala State Film Development Corporation. 
Work on the Koothambalam at the university headquarters at Kalady was 
completed using the internal resources of the university. An academic 
block, an activity centre and a hostel for boys are all in the making.

The university has one of the best library in the State. It is fully 
computerised and subscribes to about 200 journals on language, 
literature, culture, fine arts and social sciences.

Commenting on the UGC panel's reported findings, Dr. Panikkar told 
The Hindu that the university had not just one Sanskrit department, 
as found by the UGC panel, but five. Four of these were departments 
of Sahitya, Vedanta, Nyaya and Vyakarana, the fifth being a 
department dealing with ``Other Studies'' covering such areas as 
Vastuvidya and Ayurveda. Besides, the university also had a School of 
Vedic Studies. ``This should show that the committee's reported 
observations are extraneous to the eligibility criteria,'' he said.

The university, he said, was yet to receive any query from the UGC 
about the ``findings'' of its panel.

``This is actually an impropriety. If the panel had any specific 
finding on which it needed clarification, it should have informed the 
university. For instance, the question of appointing a Chief Academic 
Counsellor. It is for the Government to appointment a person to the 
post. The post is ceremonial and everybody knows why it was created. 
If it was so essential, why was no appointment made to the post at 
the time of the university's formation in 1993 or later,'' he asked 
and added that the UGC panel should have actually recommended 
scrapping of the provision from the Act.

On the panel's views on the absence of a Department of Indology, Dr. 
Panikkar said that such a department had no relevance as Indology as 
a discipline was a colonial legacy. As for the non-appointment of 
Deans, he said the university had invited applications to these posts 
two years ago, but could not proceed further on account of a 
Government ban on fresh recruitment. Unlike in other universities, 
the post of Dean was not honorary but a full-time paid one, he 
pointed out.

``There is absolutely no basis for the charge that there has been a 
dilution of the objectives of the university. We have gone by the Act 
to the best of our ability and a UGC grant would have helped us 
achieve whatever we lack today. But, what can one do when the 
criteria for evaluating the university ceases to be objective,'' Dr. 
Panikkar asked.

Dr. Panikkar is not first to become the target of the Sangh Parivar 
in Kerala. Writers Madhavikkutty (Kamala Das), Paul Zacharia and 
Sachidanandan have at various points of time found themselves at the 
receiving end of vitriolic attack from the Parivar.

_____


#6.

The Indian Express (India) July 2003
The song of the Sufi
Track II diplomacy is far too mushy: Let's get real
Sagarika Ghose
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=3D26920

_____


#7.

The Guardian (UK) July 3, 2003
Comment

Imperial history repeats itself
Once again, Indians are being asked to fight Iraqis for empire's sake

Randeep Ramesh

The blood has barely dried on the British empire than it has already 
begun to seep over its American successor. The US occupation of Iraq 
is proving a messier task than Washington had hoped or planned for. 
On average, US troops have been dying at a rate of one a day since 
George Bush proclaimed "mission accomplished". Bodybags are tangible 
proof that the war has not finished: it has only just started.

The six British military policemen shot dead at Majar al-Kabir last 
week, and the grenades pounding the US military in Fallujah, signal a 
deep unease that much of the killing is organised, and coalition 
forces are too thinly spread to stop it. This saps the imperial 
strength of America and highlights its greatest weakness: despite 
overwhelming military might, US troops in Iraq - like the British 
empire's before them - are vulnerable in a war fought among the 
shadows of a people chafing under foreign rule.

The answer for Washington in the first years of the 21st century is 
the same as London's at the beginning of the 20th: call for 
reinforcements from those content to fulfil the role of loyal 
provider of brave soldiers for a war not of their making. Seventy 
countries have been asked to supply troops - from as far afield as 
Mongolia, whose forces were last seen in the Middle East more than 
seven centuries ago when they sacked Baghdad. So far, President 
Bush's request has been answered by 5,000 troops, mostly from new 
Europe and the new world.

This is not enough. What Washington needs is a "reserve of military 
strength [capable of] ... supplying an army always in a high state of 
efficiency and capable of being hurled at a moment's notice upon any 
point". These words are not those of an American neo-conservative in 
2003, but were articulated by the British viceroy of India, Lord 
Curzon, in 1909. A century later, the subcontinent's role as a source 
of auxiliary cohorts for the expansion of empire is being reprised by 
President Bush. New Delhi and Islamabad are considering American 
requests for a total of 30,000 soldiers to be sent to Iraq.

India and Pakistan, historic rivals who have fought three wars in 50 
years, would not meet in Iraq. Dangled in front of both, instead, is 
the command of sizeable parts of Iraq, and a warming of the Bush 
administration's new strategic relationship with the subcontinent. 
However tempting the offer of aid, arms and a new engagement with 
Washington may be to both nations, both are acutely aware of the 
lessons of imperial history.

During the days of the British Raj, Indian soldiers were used to put 
down nationalist rebellions, at home and abroad. Blood was spilt all 
across the empire - much of it in Iraq.

During the first world war, what was then the Ottoman province of 
Mesopotamia became a battleground between Turkish and British 
empires. The low point of Britain's Middle East campaign came when 
12,000 soldiers - more than half composed of Indian divisions - 
surrendered the garrison to Turkish forces in May 1916 after a siege 
which lasted 147 days. Of the troops who left Kut with their captors, 
more than 4,000 died either on their way to captivity or in 
prisoner-of-war camps. In four years of fighting, 31,000 British and 
Indian lives were lost, pockmarking the country with graves and pyres.

The birth of what would become modern-day Iraq was a painful one. 
Mesopotamia was Britain's prize after the first world war - and like 
today, its peoples struggled against the occupying forces. Indian 
troops were used to suppress the country's nationalist uprising in 
the summer of 1920. Like today's American forces, the 60,000 British 
and Indian troops securing Mesopotamia were never engaged in battle, 
facing instead hit-and-run raids from the desert. More than 1,000 
Indian soldiers and 8,000 Arab fighters were either killed or 
captured in a few weeks. Despite Britain's military prowess, Iraq 
slowly slipped from its grasp.

But Washington appears indifferent to the lessons of history. The 
subtle shift from hegemony to empire could again see troops from the 
subcontinent becoming the tools of a great power's foreign policy. 
America refuses to believe in the empirical evidence of its own 
empire. Its people are suspicious of foreign entanglements - witness 
the declining support for the Iraqi occupation. Sizeable numbers of 
Pakistani and Indian troops would enable thousands of American 
soldiers to return home.

Left to face the growing anger engendered by the chaos that has 
replaced the power vacuum brought about by the fall of Saddam, troops 
from India and Pakistan - countries that opposed the war - will be 
left to secure the peace in the face of guerrilla attacks and 
organised resistance. If it looks, sounds and feels like empire 
redux, that is because it is.

=B7 Randeep Ramesh edited The War We Could Not Stop: The Real Story of 
the Battle for Iraq, published by Guardian Books

_____


#8.

The Hindu (India)  July 04, 2003
Editorial    

Don't send Indian troops to Iraq

THE VAJPAYEE GOVERNMENT appears to be considering a course of 
dangerous adventurism that would surrender the nation's long 
cherished independence in foreign policy, ignoring in the process the 
national interest, a categorical parliamentary resolution, the 
overwhelming national mood and the disastrous consequences of a 
precedent setting decision. After the Government's failure to 
construct a political consensus, any decision to agree to the 
American request to send Indian soldiers to serve on the so-called 
stabilisation force in occupied Iraq will be illegal and unacceptable 
- as illegitimate as the Bush administration's unprecedented invasion 
of a sovereign nation. The unilateral military campaign founded on 
the dangerous Bush "doctrine of pre-emption" and on blatant falsehood 
and deceit - the hearings in the committees of the American Congress 
and the House of Commons were a revelation - is sought to be 
legitimised post facto through the induction of soldiers from willing 
or bendable nations around the globe. Faced with the hazards of 
occupation and perhaps surprised by the intensity of opposition and 
unprepared for it, Washington is desperately searching for partners 
to bail it out. Donald Rumsfeld, the voice of the ultra right group 
that has taken a stranglehold at the White House, has wondered with 
unconcealed exasperation what else Washington can do besides asking 
20 nations through threats and offers of bounties to help "stabilise" 
the occupation. The face of unilateralism stands exposed.

India should immediately declare that it will not join this unjust 
venture and that Indian soldiers are not mercenaries but part of a 
professional force, which is not ready to give up its blemishless 
record of performing peace-keeping operations under the United 
Nations for more than half a century. The apparent vacillation raises 
the suspicion that the Government is persisting with its clandestine 
efforts to strike a deal with the U.S. It is time the Government 
ended this dangerous exercise and told the U.S. that it is unable to 
participate. It needs to put into practice the commitment it made in 
the recently concluded Joint Declaration with China to "strengthen 
multipolarity at the international level." New Delhi's dilemma is no 
doubt understandable. A Government that deludes itself with visions 
of great power status and rushes to Washington at the drop of a 
militant bomb must find the American pressure quite unsettling. Its 
ideological affinity with the leading lights of this Republican 
administration and its inexplicable obsession with regional 
competitive diplomacy - the recent Advani visit to the U.S. coincided 
with the tragi-comic talk of an Asian NATO - have reduced its options 
and constrained its independence of action, with little room for 
manoeuvre. But it will be abdicating its national responsibility if 
it pledges the country's resources and the lives of Indian soldiers 
to American empire building. That some sections in the Government are 
inclined to go along with the American strategy has been evident for 
quite some time. The Deputy Prime Minister's high decibel campaign in 
the U.S., the effort to persuade the Congress party to get on board, 
American spokesmen's unashamed expositions on the benefits that can 
accrue to India through oil deals and reconstruction contracts, the 
Pentagon team's well-publicised visit to Delhi to offer 
"clarifications" and the Foreign Secretary's just-concluded visit to 
Washington are all part of this campaign to secure legitimacy for an 
apparently imminent decision to fall in line behind the U.S and play 
junior partner to it.

With the legitimacy and acceptance of the American-British occupation 
being challenged every day on the streets of Baghdad and other 
populated centres, any Government sensitive to the national interest 
should have seen through the high pressure sales campaign to get 
India to send troops. The unilateralist U.S. is eager to share the 
burdens of occupation. In this big business of war, there is nothing 
that India stands to gain through its participation in the 
occupation. Nothing that has been dangled before the BJP Government 
is worth the heavy price in terms of loss of goodwill that the 
country will pay in the long run by supporting the U.S. Government. 
Spin-doctors have ceaselessly cited the offer of oil and contracts. 
But India does not require the back door to enter Iraq with which it 
has had a fruitful, longstanding bilateral political, economic and 
trade relationship, without American patronage. It will be ready to 
deal with a free and democratic Iraq, the ties founded on equality 
and shared experiences. Among the other "benefits" on the table is a 
permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council. This, again, is India's 
due and can be no superpower's gift, considering its unstinted 
support to the world body and its Charter and its participation in 
the U.N.'s wide-ranging activities. The same evasion and 
prevarication on the part of the Government is evident over the very 
real concerns that have been expressed over command and control, the 
fears being sought to be skirted through vague talk of "independent" 
sectors of operation parcelled out by the U.S. as it retains control 
of the overall strategy and pulls out its men. Again, as the Congress 
party has pointed out, this will be another unacceptable departure 
from the fundamental principle that Indian soldiers on global duty 
will operate only under the U.N. flag and U.N. command. The U.N. 
Security Council resolution 1483, which recognises the reality of the 
occupation, leaves no scope for dual military command.

The nation will also reject the disingenuous argument of Government 
spokesmen that India will send troops if the Iraqis want them. Such 
obfuscation cannot hide the hard reality that it will be a long time 
before the free Iraqi voice is heard. The trigger-happy American 
actions in the past month carry a clear message: the U.S., in no 
hurry to look for those weapons of mass destruction whose presumed 
existence brought it to Iraq, has come to stay as it consolidates its 
hold and sets up its own political-military arrangement with 
assistance from willing, subservient nations. There is one more 
combined message from the streets of Iraq: a widening, deepening 
resistance that seeks an end to the occupation and early return of a 
semblance of normality under free conditions. In fact, all the debate 
on the post-Saddam Hussein Iraq has unfortunately pushed to the 
sidelines the one issue that demands immediate international 
attention: the very urgent requirements of the Iraqi people whose 
lives have been traumatised by the indiscriminate, hi-tech bombing 
campaign of the U.S. and the U.K. India is eminently suited to answer 
this call from the Iraqi people. It should move to bring the U.N. and 
its agencies back into the reconstruction and rehabilitation effort. 
The world body has experience and expertise in nation-building as 
evidenced in East Timor and more recently in Afghanistan where it is 
an effort in progress. Instead of seeking to play proxy to the 
superpower, New Delhi should work in coordination with countries such 
as Russia, China, France, Germany and Iran to empower the U.N. to 
take over and restore Iraq to the Iraqis.

_____


#9.

The Times of India (India) July 1, 2003
Interview
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com:80/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=
=3D52328

Indira's Ire

She is arguably India's best known practising woman lawyer. But 
Indira Jaisingh is also a passionate advocate of women's issues. A 
founding member of Lawyers' Collective, she was actively involved in 
lobbying the government on the Domestic Violence Bill. With 
Parliament failing to take up the Bill in its last sitting, Ms 
Jaisingh lays bare its shortcomings to Malini Ghose:

Why do we need a new law on domestic violence? Aren't the existing 
laws adequate?

This isn't a new law but the only comprehensive law on domestic 
violence. As of today, there are certain criminal laws that address 
domestic violence against the wife but none that address violence 
against sisters, daughters, mothers and mothers- in-law. The existing 
criminal law does not address a woman's needs for residence or 
maintenance, for instance. The proposed law allows women in domestic 
relations with the aggressor to seek a whole range of civil remedies 
under a single-window clearance system. Sending the husband to jail 
might not be the solution that a woman facing domestic violence needs.

Where did the impetus to formulate a law on domestic violence come 
from? How long has the process taken?

The impetus came from increasing domestic violence against women and 
the absence of effective civil remedies to deal with it. The process 
has taken over 10 years. In 1992, the Lawyers' Collective, inspired 
by laws in other countries on the issue, drafted and circulated a 
model law on domestic violence. In 1994, a committee set up by the 
National Commission for Women came up with a draft proposal. Four 
years later, the Lawyers' Collective, in consultation with various 
women's groups, proposed an alternative Bill in accordance with the 
UN Framework for Model Legislation on Domestic Violence. Under 
pressure from women's groups, the Central government introduced a 
Bill on domestic violence in the Lok Sabha in 2001. This was 
re-presented in Parliament on March 8, 2002 and referred to a 
standing committee.

Is this Bill supported by women's groups?

No, because the Bill ignores many of the demands of women's groups, 
as enunciated in the alternative Bill.

What are the points of disagreement?

There are many  ranging from the definition of domestic violence to 
the fact that the aggressor has been granted a right to self defence 
under the proposed law. Then there are questions about the reliefs 
allowed to aggrieved women and the fact that they can be sent for 
mandatory joint counselling along with the aggressor. All these and 
many other provisions have dangerous implications for women.

What was the response of women's groups?

They protested in different ways and were ultimately successful in 
getting the Bill referred to the parliamentary standing committee 
attached to the ministry of human resource development. This 
committee, after countrywide consultation, submitted its 
re-commendations to the Rajya Sabha in December 2002. These 
recommendations accept most of the demands of the women's groups 
except the definition of domestic violence.

What is the problem with the definition?

Basically, it fails to define domestic violence and leaves it to the 
judges to decide. It gives too little to the aggrieved and leaves too 
much to the judges. While the definition does include both physical 
and mental violence, it includes under domestic violence only acts 
that amount to 'habitual'  assault and those that make the life of a 
woman 'miserable'. The usage of such words as 'miserable' also 
renders the law very subjective.

Anyone who's argued cases on behalf of women in abusive situations 
will know how difficult it's to convince the judges about the 
existence of violence in all its manifestations. Judges tend to think 
that their role is to 'preserve the marriage' by condoning violence 
and asking the woman to 'forgive and forget'. But condoning violence 
can in fact lead to further violence and, in some cases, even death.

Much has been said about the so-called misuse of Section 498A IPC, 
which deals with mental cruelty. Will this increase under the new law?

Any and every law is capable of being misused and that in itself is 
no argument for not enacting a law. As far as Section 498A is 
concerned, there is no data on its misuse. While it's true that many 
of the cases under this provision are later withdrawn by women, 
that's not because they were misusing it in the first place. They are 
often coerced to withdraw the cases.

We should be more concerned with protecting women from being beaten 
and killed in their homes rather than with how we can protect men 
from any alleged misuse of the law. Moreover, this is a civil law 
that does not involve imprisonment of the aggressor. It merely 
restrains men from committing acts of violence.

Are you hopeful that the Bill will be passed?

Most governments in this country verba-lise their commitment to 
women's issues. India also happens to be a signatory to many 
international covenants. All this, along with the committee's report, 
makes one hope that this Bill might see the light of day. But it's up 
to the government to live up to the expectations of half its 
citizenry. We also hope the government will consider the definition 
of domestic violence as provided in the UN framework I mentioned 
earlier.


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