SACW | 22 Aug. 2003
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at mnet.fr
Fri Aug 22 05:06:51 CDT 2003
South Asia Citizens Wire | 22 August, 2003
[1.] Clifton beach was a symbol of all that is good about Pakistan
(Kamila Shamsie)
[2.] U.K.: Press Release: Legal Action To Arrest Narendra Modi For
Torture (Awaaz)
[3.] Press Release re Kashmir (Council of Advocates international)
[4.] Sri Lanka: Our Ethnic Imbroglio (Izeth Hussain)
[5.] India: Hindutva Fascists at Work: The disruption of Habib Tanvir's Plays
- Press Statements by Sahmat and Theatre groups, Progressive Writers,
Cultural and Peace groups
[6.] India: Journalists as Janitors (I.K.Shukla)
[7.] [Ariel Sharon's upcoming trip to India] Blood red carpet (Praful Bidwai)
[8.] India will keep wading in asymmetry (Ashok Mitra)
--------------
[1.]
The Guardian [UK]
August 21, 2003
Clifton beach was a symbol of all that is good about Pakistan. Then
along came a 10,000-tonne oil spill
Kamila Shamsie
In the mid-80s, my father and I used to go walking along Clifton
beach in Karachi every evening. There was a regular group of walkers
who I grew to recognise - though the only one I clearly remember now
is the stout man who wore a T-shirt one size too small with the words
"It's My Body You're After" emblazoned across it.
As we walked, my father told me that there used to be a time when the
coarse, dark sand beneath our feet was fine and white, and the water
clear blue. That was before Karachi became a major port and Clifton
beach suffered the impact of proximity to the harbour (not to mention
Karachi's ineffective sewage system which disposes of waste in ways
we would all rather not think about). I used to look at the sand and
try to imagine it white, try to imagine a magic formula that could
reverse the spills and waste of cargo ships.
I mention this because it only seems fair to say that it has been a
long time since Clifton beach has been a picture-perfect stretch of
sand and sea. But of all Karachi's beaches it is the one most
connected to the heart of the city, so it is the first place I go
when I want to feel Karachi's pulse.
Those walks with my father stopped in the latter half of the 80s as
violence spread through the city and even the beaches didn't seem
safe; for some years thereafter, the beach was comparatively unused,
with groups of men rather than families making up the bulk of its
visitors. But in the past few years, as Karachi has started to limp
out of its cyclical violence, Clifton beach has become more vibrant
and festive than I recall even from my childhood. There are halogen
lights along the sea wall now, attracting thousands of visitors well
after the sun has gone down, and late at night you can go on camel
rides, see snake-and-mongoose fights, buy snacks from roadside
vendors, eat roasted corn-on-the-cob just off the flame. They are all
here, all Karachi's ethnicities and economic levels and layers of
conservatism (girls in jeans walk happily alongside women in burkas),
and this is where you have to look to remind yourself that the mix
doesn't have to be incendiary.
Since the Greek cargo ship Tasman Spirit broke in two last week,
while transporting 67,000 tons of oil from Iran to Karachi, and
spilled at least 10,000 tonnes of its cargo into the sea, Clifton
beach and the area around it has been closed. More than 15km of the
coast has been affected by the spill. The ironic shrug with which
Karachiites greet most evidence of negligence and betrayal by the
authorities is starkly absent from their responses to the disaster.
Just after the ship broke up, a friend of mine who worked for a time
in Karachi at a mangrove conservation project emailed me to say:
"Those bastards. Bloody Iftikhar bloody whoever minister of bloody
whatever shouldn't go around pretending they did all that was
possible to avert this." Her anger is shared by all Karachiites I
have spoken to, and much of it stems from the fact that the
24-year-old, single-hull ship ran aground on July 27, and for more
than two weeks the Karachi port trust insisted everything was under
control, even as the layer of oil surrounding the vessel became
increasingly dense and dead marine life started to float to shore.
This insistence continued until the moment when the officials had to
admit that the ship was about to break in two.
At the time of writing, more than 35,000 tonnes of oil remain on
board and though we are told it is secure, no one is inclined to
believe this, as the people who say so are the same ones who insist
that the 10,000 tonnes already spilled pose no harm to human or
marine life.
There is no word yet on the extent of ecological damage, but experts
says it is potentially "a major disaster", particularly if a change
in wind direction sends the oil drifting towards the mangroves. The
fishing villages along the coast could see their primary source of
income go, literally, belly-up. The long-term effects of toxins on
residents along the coast is unknown.
So the devastation of Clifton beach itself is fairly low down the
list of "disastrous consequences" of the spill - but as a metaphor
for the failure of officialdom there can be nothing starker than
thousands of Karachiites rushing to Clifton on August 14, Pakistan's
independence day, to celebrate the birth of the nation, only to find
paramilitary forces blocking the way and dead creatures thrown by
black waters on to sludge that was once sand.
· Kamila Shamsie is the author of Kartography (Bloomsbury, £6.99)
_____
[2.]
PRESS RELEASE
Date: 21 August 2003, 17.30PM
From: Awaaz - South Asia Watch (www.awaazsaw.org)
LEGAL ACTION TO ARREST NARENDRA MODI FOR TORTURE
Lawyers pursing a warrant for the arrest of Chief Minister of Gujarat,
Narenda Modi under Article 1 of the International Convention Against Torture
and Section 134 of the UK Criminal Justice Act of 1988 have been allowed a
period of two weeks to collect relevant information and evidence that
relates to direct complicity between Modi and the killings of Muslim
citizens of India which took place after February 27 2002.
Yesterday, the complainant in the case was informed that Narendra Modi would
be represented by lawyers appointed by the Government of India, though the
latter is not party to the action. Representatives of the Indian High
Commission in the UK also attended the hearings yesterday.
Awaaz is supporting an action in which the complainant is Suresh Grover,
represented by civil rights lawyer Imran Khan.
The process of laying down criminal charges against Narendra Modi has begun.
It is intended to show that the Chief Minister, members of his cabinet, and
those under his authority by act or omission were instrumental in the
pogroms that engulfed the state of Gujarat and in which 2,000 Muslims were
killed and 200,000 displaced.
This is the start of an important attempt outside India to bring to justice
the perpetrators of the Gujarat pogroms in 2002. Similar opportunities will
arise if Narendra Modi is travelling in other European cities, the US,
Canada, Australia and elsewhere. The action started by supporters of Awaaz
will not prevent others to take, nor will it affect, similar or related
actions in other parts of the world. Awaaz strongly encourages others to
begin to collect information and evidence in preparation for the possibility
that Modi comes to their part of the world.
Awaaz will continue supporting this legal action and strongly encourages
other organisations to take action regarding the complicity of the State of
Gujarat in the 2002 pogroms. If you have any directly relevant information
or evidence, please send, in strictest confidence, to:
contact at awaazsaw.org
or
imrank at imrankhanandpartners.co.uk
tel: +44 (0)207 636 6314
fax: +44 (0)207 636 6315
Updates will be posted regularly at www.awaazsaw.org
_____
[3.]
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2003 17:04:35 -0700 (PDT)
From: Hamid Bashani <bashani2000 at yahoo.com>
Subject: press release
Council OF Advocates international
==================================
Ottawa, Press Release
The fundamentalist forces are using the Kashmir issue
to sabotage the peace process in the sub-continent.
The government of India and Pakistan can no longer
disregard the movement for peace in the region. The
both governments need to change their basic approach
towards the question of peace. The Kashmir issue has
become a dangerous tool in the hands of the extremist
forces from the both side of the divide and needs to
be addressed to tackle the growing extremism. This
was stated by Hamid Bashani, secretary general of the
Council of Advocates International in a panel
discussion held by South Asian left and democratic
Alliance in Toronto. Tapan Kumar Bose, secretary
general South Asian Forum for Human Rights, Teesta
Setalvad, a human rights activist from Mumbai and
Tarek Fetah, a Journalist and host of ìThe Muslim
Chronicleî also addressed the penal. Hamid Bashani
said that process of peace cannot be made conditional
to the resolution of Kashmir issue, but the disputed
status of Kashmir would remain a threat for peace. The
reactionary and fundamentalist forces use Kashmir
issue to create further divide and hatred among the
people of subcontinent. The People of Kashmir are not
separatists; they are only against the partition and
fighting for the reunification of their motherland. He
said that fundamentalist militants are not the freedom
fighters and like security forces they are responsible
for human rights violations and senseless killings in
Kashmir. No group are party has right to claim the
leadership without going into the democratic process
and proving its representative character. The people
who claim to fight for freedom democracy and social
justice must respect these principles themselves. The
divided people of the Jummu and Kashmir have been
suffering from suppression and rights violations for
last 50 years. The people in the three parts of
Kashmir must be allowed to chose their leadership
through fair democratic process and reunite the state.
The Reunification of the state of Jammu and Kashmir
would start economic, social and political cooperation
and integration between India and Pakistan.He said
that there would be no peace without justice and
people of the sub-continent would not accept balance
of terror on the name of peace.
_____
[4.]
The Island [Sri Lanka]
August 20, 2003
Our Ethnic Imbroglio
by Izeth Hussain
We Sri Lankans have been caught up in an ethnic imbroglio, from which
we cannot extricate ourselves unless we recognise and take corrective
action over the core problem behind it. In the alternative, the de
facto Eelam which the LTTE has been busily establishing will almost
certainly lead to the permanent breakup of Sri Lanka.
In arguing the case stated in the preceding paragraph, I will begin
by explaining what I mean by "imbroglio" and then situate it in an
international perspective. "Imbroglio" is defined in the dictionary
as a confused heap, and as applying to complicated situations,
particularly political or dramatic situations. In other words, an
imbroglio is not just another ordinary problem. A multitude of ethnic
problems have been solved, without too much difficulty, right across
the globe. But a few have defied solution over many decades and led
to costly and protracted civil wars, as in Sri Lanka. It is
appropriate to refer to these as ethnic imbroglios rather than ethnic
problems. [...].
http://www.island.lk/2003/08/20/midwee03.html
_____
[5.]
SAHMAT
8, Vithalbhai Patel House
Rafi Marg, New Delhi-110001
Tel-23711276/ 23351424
e-mail: sahmat at vsnl.com
19.8.2003
PRESS STATEMENT
SAHMAT strongly condemns the disruption sought to be created by the
Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha activists during the performance of a
play by noted theatre personality Habib Tanvir on the morning of
August 15 at Gwalior, The play Ponga Pandit being performed since
1958 which critiques the regressive caste ideology emphasises that
'equality of man is through deed not birth'. The play was also
attacked ten years ago when it was performed in Gwalior
This is yet another instance of the intolerance displayed by the
Sangh Parivar outfits to any talk of reform in the Hindu society.
It may be recalled that a couple of years ago Deepa Mehta was made
to abondon the shooting of the film 'Water' by the Sangh Parivar
because it had dared to discuss the plight of widows under Hindu
orthodoxy. It is ironical to witness the Sangh Parivar defending the
most backward of practices among Hindus-like Sati and
untouchability - while demanding a uniform civil code.
SAHMAT appeals to the Madhya Pradesh administration to take
stringent action under the law against the disruptors. SAHMAT calls
upon the artistic community, particularly in Madhya Pradesh where
Habib Tanvir is currently touring, to express solidarity with him
and foil the designs of the Parivar outfits through united action.
Rajen Prasad
for
SAHMAT
o o o
Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2003 10:39:55 +0530
From: Sudhanva Deshpande
THE SANGH PARIVAR ATTACKS HABIB TANVIR'S PLAYS
It has been reported in the press that the goons of the Sangh Parivar
have physically attacked and tried to disrupt the performances of
internationally acclaimed director Habib Tanvir's plays at some
places in Madhya Pradesh.
Intervening in the debate on the no confidence motion on Tuesday,
Uma Bharati charged the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and Habib
Tanvir with spreading communalism through certain stage
productions. She did not name Tanvir nor did she name the plays in
question. She failed to mention that her party has been
systematically targeting Tanvir and his plays where he goes in M.P
and that, in Gwalior and Hoshangabad, the goon squad of the Sangh
Parivar physically attacked the artistes and indulged in vandalism
in their effort to disrupt the show. She also did not mention that
goons of the Sangh Parivar have targeted Tanvir and his plays for
well over a decade now all over India and even in England.
Here are the facts: Sponsored by the dept. of culture of the M.P.
government, Tanvir has been presenting a double bill of two of his
well-known and well-loved productions Ponga Pundit and Jis Lahore
Nai Dekhya.
Ponga Pandit
The play, originally titled Jamadarin, was first composed in the
1930s by two Chhattisgarhi folk playwrights, Sukhram and Sitaram.
Four or five generations of folk players of Chhattisgarh have been
performing the play for the last seventy years. The play which was
created and traditionally performed by Hindu artists has been seen
and enjoyed by literally hundreds of thousands of Hindus all over
India. Some of these actors joined Habib Tanvir's Naya Theatre at
its inception. It is then that Naya Theatre inherited the play.
Ever since then, the play has been a part of the Naya Theatre's
repertoire. The troupe has been staging the play since the 1960s for
diverse audiences all over the country. All those years no one found
it objectionable or called it anti-Hindu. Significantly, it was only
in 1992 following the demolition of Babri Masjid, that the play
first came under attack from the BJP-RSS-VHP cadre. Since then it
has been systematically targeted by these forces who have spread
all kinds of lies and disinformation about it. The authorship of
the play is mischievously attributed to Habib Tanivir whose Muslim
name immediately invites the label of anti Hindu from these forces.
Ponga Pandit is an excellent example of folk creativity in which
there is a robust intermingling of the sacred and the profane, of
pure fun and social incisiveness. The play does not ridicule
Hinduism or the Hindu faith. When asked by the Brahmin not to bring
his shoes inside God's dwelling, the village simpleton retorts "Can
you tell me a place where God does not reside?" Even the jamadarin,
the play's protagonist believes in offering puja. When she takes
away various objects including the idol, she does so, as she does
in her last speech, to offer her own puja without the greedy and
hypocritical pundit. So what she rejects is casteist discrimination
and Brahminic oppressive practices in the name of religion. As such
the play is part of our 150 year history of the social reform
movement which informs the vision of modern India enshrined in our
Constitution. Since the play attacks untouchability, hypocrisy, and
priestcraft, it can hurt only those who believe in these practices
and not all Hindus. It is also telling that the Sangh Parivar, for
long a defender of brahmanism and Manuvaad, finds the play
objectionable.
Jis Lahore Nai Dekhya Wo Jamya i Nai
The secular credentials of Habib Tanvir cannot be doubted. In his
plays as well as in his utterances he has consistently opposed
fanaticism and bigotry in all its forms and variation. Habib Tanvir
has also produced Asghar Wajahat's play JisLahore Naai Dekhya which
attacked the forces of Muslim communalism and bigotry in no
uncertain terms. The play is based on a true story of a Punjabi
Hindu old woman who is left behind in a big haveli in Lahore as her
family fled from home during the communal madness that accompanied
the Partition. It shows both the blood thirsty fanaticism of some
vested interests as well as the ability of others to reach out with
love and compassion to fellow beings regardless of his or her
creed. In visualizing Asghar Wajahat's script for the stage, Habib
Tanvir has given an added appeal and interest by incorporating, by
way of the chorus, a whole selection of anti communal and
anti-Partition poetry from Rahi Masoom Raza to Amrita Pritam.
It is obvious that main message or thrust of these two plays is
social amity and harmony. And yet, in their warped and mischievous
way of thinking, the Hindutva brigade are targeting in Madhya
Pradesh today as communal and anti-Hindu. It will be clear to all
secular-minded people that those spreading communal tensions are
not Habib Tanvir and his actors, but the forces of Hindutva who are
attacking them. We appeal to artists, intellectuals and the
secular masses to reject this politics of hatred and defend Habib
Tanvir and his actors' right to the freedom of expression enshrined
in the Constitution.
Statement issued by:
Jana Natya Manch, Aman Ekta Manch, Janawadi Lekhak
Sangh, IPTA, Progressive Writers' Association, Sahmat, Jan
Sanskriti, Delhi University Forum for Democracy, Delhi Science Forum,
Jan Sanskriti Manch
_____
[6.]
August 21, 2003
JOURNALISTS AS JANITORS
I.K.Shukla
The irrepressibly impudent Grim Reaper of Gujarat, the Gory Grocer,
who gleefuly wallows in his horrific ethnic cleansing of Muslims and
holds the same as the surefire way to the Hindu Rashtra (Hindu
nation) that he and his caboodle are pledged to degrade India into,
has delivered a word of advice to journalists, as a "friend".
The advice, unwittingly, unmasks him and proves less of a salve for
his crime-cluttered brain than he would have it.
He believes he should be allowed without let or hindrance, scrutiny
or probe, not only absolution for his beastly crimes against humanity
that he committed in Gujarat 2002, but also the unbridled freedom to
continue the same with impunity in the future too so that Gujarat
becomes the Hindutva Abattoir.
It is for this that he played the aesthete in the realm of journalism
in his advice: don't see my crimes since they are naked, ugly,
massive, and persistent; instead, see something beautiful to engage
your pen and entertain your readers, and leave me alone to do my
bloody bit for Hindutva. While I do my
service to HinduTalibanism, you journalists, should go into a
drug-induced long stupor, and when intermittently you stir into
flimsy wakefulness, divert the readers by flaky writing on beauty
pageants and bucolic idylls. There is no dearth of such riveting
themes to keep your pens busy perenniallly. You keep writing as I
keep cleansing Bharat of "foreigners".
He has reason to be sensitive to dung heap, garbage pile, and the
fetid and putrid gaseous stench emanating from it, flies buzzing
bhajans in his praise. First as a Canteen Manager (CM), having to
watch scraps and crumbs and slosh from leftovers or rotten food. Next
as Chief Minister (CM), smelling and overseeing the burning flesh of
Muslim men, women, and children for over 60 days in relentless
succession. The smell and sight was OK, as it showcased Hindutva's
RamRajya that all of India would become under the saffronazis not
too distantly. The only thing that Modi seemed uncomfortable with
were the flies droning bhajans, again, in his praise. Not that he
disliked these. His cavil is that these paeans to his glorious
achievement were intelligible only to him, he having metamorphosed
into a flea or a bug. With human shape gone, he was insensitive to
and innocent of human sensations, and human sensibilities as well.
Another reason that he felt so close to and cozy with flies was that
he had turned the mercenary hacks and hired hucksters of the
vernacular press into his flea flacks. With their help he managed to
carry on the butchery and savagery that brought India closer to his
Ram Rajya.
That is why he badly wants journos trailing him as scavengers and
sweepers chlorinating the dead bodies and burning flesh, leaving him
free to carry on his committed cleansing.
It is out of modesty that he would persist in what he does naturally
best: butchery. He wants no other job. He cannot handle any other
skill.
Butchery invites flies. But he wants them to be honey bees! Impossible?
No, he believes the only real Hindus are rapists, arsonists,
assassins, brigands, liars and thieves.
Thus can real honey bees be flies too.
Thumbs up for Modi logic.END.
_____
[7.]
The Hindustan Times [India]
August 22, 2003
Blood red carpet
Praful Bidwai
If puerility were the sole criterion of even-handedness, then India
has scored high by inviting Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil
Sha'ath to this country to 'balance' the earlier, infinitely more
important, invitation to Israeli PM Ariel Sharon. This combination of
clumsy afterthought and pure tokenism should not obscure the enormous
policy shift that the government has affected on Palestine-Israel.
India is rolling out the red carpet for Sharon precisely when Israeli
repression of the Palestinian struggle against occupation has reached
new heights, the PLO and the Palestinian Authority are in grave
crisis and the US-brokered road map teeters on the brink of collapse.
Sharon has embarked on a grotesque project of building another, but
bigger, Berlin wall - 8 metre-high and 650 km-long, compared to the
3.6 metre-high, 155 km-long original. This 'apartheid wall'
(officially, 'Separation Barrier') will isolate Israel from the West
Bank, and also cut off the biggest Palestinian inhabitation from
historic East Jerusalem, where 200,000 Palestinians live, and which
is set to be the new Palestine's capital. A joint Israeli
government/settler council even wants to modify the wall's route to
isolate as many as 400,000 Palestinians.
The heavy-concrete wall is being built on confiscated territory on
the West Bank side. In places, it is as wide as 30-150 metres. It
will include electrified fencing, sniper towers, two-metre-deep
trenches, roads for patrol vehicles, electronic sensors, thermal
imaging, video cameras and unmanned aerial vehicles, besides razor
wire. Its function goes way beyond preventing the entry of illegal
immigrants or 'terrorists'.
As if the wall weren't apartheid enough, Israel's Parliament has just
passed a rabidly racist law which forces Palestinians marrying
Israelis to live separate lives or leave Israel. It also bars West
Bank and Gaza Palestinians who marry Israeli Arabs from obtaining
Israeli residence-permits.
It's hard to think of many countries which will countenance such
egregious legislation. But it's equally hard to count the number of
countries (including most OECD States) that would officially dignify
Sharon at this juncture. Sharon recently visited the US and Britain,
but there he was publicly reprimanded for his extreme actions.
The significance of Sharon's presence in India on September 11 is too
'in-your-face' to bear analysis. But such unsubtle, omnibus,
unqualified 'solidarity' based on 'fighting terrorism' fails to
distinguish between State and non-State terrorism, and between
indiscriminate violence against civilians and the right to resist
foreign military occupation, including through the use of arms
against military targets recognised under international law.
The 'solidarity' idea is equally blind to the qualitative difference
between stones and rifles, on the one hand, and tanks,
helicopter-gunships, wire-guided missiles and F-16s dropping
2,000-pound bombs on refugee camps and apartment buildings, on the
other. A mere glance at Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and
Doctors Without Borders reports documenting heavy ammunition attacks
on unarmed demonstrators, medical personnel and children should
clinch the issue.
Israel's Shin Bet security agency has admitted to detaining
Palestinian prisoners incommunicado for weeks at a secret centre in
violation of international law. The blindfolded prisoners are kept in
windowless cells. When they ask where they are, they are told: "On
the moon."
Sharon's Israel and Vajpayee's India have a lot in common as regards
Sept 11. Their officials could scarcely conceal their glee at the
highlighting of 'terrorism' by the twin towers tragedy. September is
an important month for Sharon in two other ways. In September 2000,
he staged his provocative walk at the holy Haram al-Sharif site in
East Jerusalem and ignited the second intifada, followed by
calculated, gratuitous, mind-boggling repression. West Asia has never
been the same since.
Even worse, in September 1982, Sharon, then defence minister,
allowed, or rather conspired with, the fierce Phalangist militia in
Lebanon - then under Israeli occupation following an unprovoked war -
to enter the Sabra and Chatilla refugee camps near Beirut, and
massacred 2,000-3,000 Palestinian civilians over three days. Israeli
soldiers, who had lit flares to show the butchers their way, knew
exactly what was going on, but ignored even the US ambassador's
entreaties: "You must stop the massacres. They are obscene... They
are killing children. You are in absolute control of the area and
therefore responsible..."
A high-level inquiry headed by Israel's chief justice held that
Sharon failed to take basic precautions to protect innocent
civilians: "These blunders constitute the non-fulfilment of a duty."
There is as strong a case to try Sharon for war crimes and crimes
against humanity as to prosecute Chilean dictator Pinochet. Take
Sharon's recent role. He delayed the publication of the US-brokered,
Israel-friendly, road map and has raised 14 objections to it. He pays
lip service to it because George Bush ordered him to. But he is loath
to support its deadline for a Palestinian State by 2005 and refugees'
right to return. He is doing everything possible to sabotage a
two-State solution, while splitting the PA's leadership, undermining
the PLO and terrorising and impoverishing the Palestinian population.
Indian leaders will welcome this very man and his extreme-Zionist
Likud Party, which has vehemently opposed Palestinian statehood and
the Oslo accords although these favoured Israel. Likud defends the
occupation in the name of Biblical-era 'Greater Israel'. It's the
biggest obstacle to peace and to rectifying the wrongs done to the
Palestinian people when Israel was established on 78 per cent of the
territory of former British Mandate Palestine, and again in 1967 when
Israel occupied even the remaining 22 per cent land.
'Solidarity' with Sharon totally reverses India's historical support
for decolonisation and creation of a Palestinian State. South Block
rationalises this in the name of overcoming the "handicap" of a
"one-sided relationship" and having "a greater say" and "greater
relevance" in West Asia. The larger agenda was highlighted in
National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra's address to the 97th annual
meeting of the Zionist American Jewish Committee on May 8. Mishra
called for a unique India-US-Israel axis to fight the menace of
'global terrorism' primarily by military means (read, fight terror
with terror).
It's not hard to see the three inspirations behind this special
alliance of 'democracies': a communal perception of the 'common
enemy' (Islam in a demonised interpretation); admiration for the
super-militarised nature of Israeli society and its willingness to
use the most brutal of methods, unlike 'soft State' India's; and a
craving for an exclusive 'partnership' with Washington at Pakistan's
expense, through which to isolate it.
This profoundly misguided approach militates against an independent
foreign policy, commitment to multilateralism and a rational strategy
to combat terrorism not just militarily but by redressing the
injustices and iniquities at its root. It entails collusion with
Empire and perpetration of grave injustice upon the Palestinian
people.
New Delhi has no moral or political mandate to inflict such a
perversion upon Indian policy. It must be prevailed upon through
political action to call off Sharon's visit. This demand has nothing
to do with the repulsive agenda of anti-Semitism or rejecting
balanced relations with entire West Asia, including Israel - leave
alone rationalising the indiscriminate killing of Israeli civilians
by groups like Hamas. It only follows the elementary requirements of
justice and democracy, and of a consistent single standard in dealing
with Israel/Palestine and, above all, with terrorism. Indians should
clearly tell Sharon he is not welcome.
______
[8.]
The Telegraph
Friday, August 22, 2003
Cutting Corners
MESSIAH IN RESIDENCE
- The law being what it is, the nation will keep wading in asymmetry
Ashok Mitra
An acquaintance with Victorian literature helps. The Charles Dickens
character had summed it up neatly: the law is "a ass". The much
discussed judgment of the nation's highest judiciary is
comprehensively asinine: it is awfully lacking in symmetry. Strikes,
it asserts, are morally, legally and constitutionally impermissible;
it does not however say the same thing about lock-outs and closures.
What is involved is not just one, but several, fundamental rights,
including the apparent infringement of Article 14 of the Indian
Constitution. The judgment betrays a reluctance to maintain a balance
between the rights and prerogatives of one group of citizens and
those of another.
Consider, for example, the predicament faced by a group of farm
workers, who are paid less than subsistent wages by their landlords:
according to the Supreme Court dictum, they do not have the right to
organize themselves into a union and go on strike demanding living
wages. The landlords will be justified, the judgment says, to dismiss
them. Once they are dismissed and circumstances are such that they
are unable to find alternative employment, they will perish. Here we,
however, run into the other fundamental right defined by Article 21:
"No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except
according to procedure established by law." This is a tough nut to
crack but it can be cracked. The farm workers will be dismissed and
refused the right to live as per the judgment of the nation's highest
judiciary; therefore their deaths eventuate in a manner which
satisfies the proviso of Article 21: "according to procedure
established by law."
Unfortunately, a couple of years ago, the Supreme Court itself had
decided that saving the lives of starving villagers in Orissa was a
responsibility of the state: some irony, in this instance too, the
guiding principle must have been the fundamental right to live
spelled in the Constitution. Even a country lawyer with rubbishy
credentials will be entitled to approach the judiciary on behalf of
the dismissed agricultural workers and pray that the lordships might
kindly issue a directive to the authorities concerned so that their
clients are saved from starvation and death. He will cite the
precedent of the Orissa episode and seek equal treatment for the
dismissed strikers.
The implications are obvious: any band of workmen going on strike and
thereby forfeiting their livelihood will henceforth be the charge of
the state. But it will seem somewhat unfair for the judiciary not to
suggest how the wherewithal for feeding the huge army of dismissed
workers is to be raised. The judgment in regard to the Tamil Nadu
government employees, read together with the Orissa directive, should
mean that Madam Jayalalithaa will now have to feed indefinitely out
of state funds the dismissed employees whom she refuses to take back.
Also take into account another interesting issue. The workers are
prohibited to go on collective action to raise their wages. But those
whom journalists love to describe as India Incorporated will not be
prevented from taking a collective decision to raise their profits by
hiking prices. It is the liberal hour, and tenets of market economy
disapprove of any attempt to restrain the animal spirit of corporate
entreprenuers. The upshot will be a palpable lack of symmetry in the
system: the working class and the salariat will be deprived of the
right to agitate for higher wages and emoluments.
Prices will however be raised freely every now and then by landlords,
industrial employers and businessmen. Real wages will, as a result,
decline continuously and could even dip below the level of
subsistence for all and sundry. Given these developments, the
nation's highest judiciary will perhaps issue an order asking the
state to make arrangements so that the entire flock of all and sundry
are saved from starvation. It could then be an impossible situation:
having obeyed the injunction of the nation's highest judiciary, the
authorities might find themselves without sufficient funds to cover
George Fernandes's defence budget and Lal Krishna Advani's security
requirements.
The state will hence face the sternest choice: either deliver the
people from hunger, or protect the country against external threats
and internal subversions. For the government of the day, it will pose
a dilemma, compelling it to refer the matter once more to the Supreme
Court under Article 143 of the Constitution: let the judiciary decide
whether the nation should live while and the country is destroyed, or
is it to be this other way round.
One can express sympathy with the nation's highest judiciary which
lands itself in such a predicament. Give or take an interval of time,
the number of such predicaments can only multiply. They will multiply
not just for the judiciary, but for the nation's administration at
different levels. For instance, the bottling plant units set up by
Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola have been shut down in Mumbai by order of
the state government, which has not bothered to wait for the decision
of New Delhi; these bottling plants are however still functioning in
Calcutta, again as per decision of the state government. Whose lead
should the rest of the nation follow? Stalwarts of the Vishwa Hindu
Parishad are caught by the scruff of their necks and ejected from
Bihar; they are allowed to graze in the neighbouring states. A
reference could land very soon on the lap of the Supreme Court for
arbitrating on which state has been treading the straight and narrow
path.
Examples of lack of symmetry are strewn all over. The United
Liberation Front of Asom insurgents and other rebel groups have
allegedly established training camps in Bhutan as well as in
Bangladesh. The Union government, along with some state governments,
are vocal about the supposed lack of cooperation on the part of the
Bangladesh authorities in dismantling those camps. In contrast,
Bhutan, nominally an independent country but in effect little more
than New Delhi's vassal state, is equally remiss in the matter, but
hardly any admonitions have been addressed to it. Or take Kashmir; it
has been granted cellular telephones, but not civil liberties.
Read further on. From time to time, home ministry officials from New
Delhi travel south and travel east to advise the state governments on
how to crush the nefarious activities of neo-Maoist groups. No such
concerted action is noticeable, except on specific occasions, to nab
or restrain Comrade Veerappan, the noble ivory robber straddling the
Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border. Conceivably, at the root of the
differential treatment is the snare of an irresistible syllogism:
gentlemen prefer blondes; ivory is blond; gentlemen accordingly
nurture an affection for the ivory bandit.
The simpleminded may be befuddled by instances of such and similar
anomalies in the public domain. There is however little reason to
burden oneself with too much worrying. It is a divided system,
divided into classes, castes, clans, sects, ethnic factions,
linguistic groups - and groups divided by time-frames, some flaunting
the dazzle of the 21st century, some ensconced in the medieval age,
some others proud of their pre-puranic loyalties. It is a frightful
mess, and it can only get messier tomorrow and the day after. But
that is what the great democratic sovereign socialist republic of
India is all about. We all belong to it, we all rebel against it. The
nation's judiciary, the Messiah in residence, will be always at work,
and it will continue to wade in asymmetry.
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on matters of peace
and democratisation in South Asia. SACW is an independent &
non-profit citizens wire service run since 1998 by South Asia
Citizens Web (www.mnet.fr/aiindex).
The complete SACW archive is available at: http://sacw.insaf.net
DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not
necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers.
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