SACW | 24 Aug. 2003

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire  |  24 August,  2003

[1.] India - Pakistan Compilation:
- Animosity between neighbors may blow out candles of hope (Kuldip Nayar)
- The goodwill bonus (edit. Dawn)
- Upcoming Public Forum India and Pakistan: Fascism, Fundamentalism, 
and the U.S. Agenda (New Westminster, BC, Canada)
- BBC World India-Pakistan Season

[2.] Sri Lanka: Tamil Democracy Follow-up Letter on Political Killings
[3.] Religious Merger Creates 900 Million Hinjews
[4.] India: Need for new politics (S.P. Udayakumar)
[5.] India: A New Emergency  (Githa Hariharan)
[6.] India: Online Petition to Rehabilitate "Constitutional Rule Of 
Law" at Marad [in Kerala]
[7.] India: Complaint regarding police harassment by Gujarat Police 
(Richard Shapiro)
[8.] India: Everyday Politico-Religious Politics :
- Serving beef at Ayodhya
- Digvijay U-turn on cow kill ban
- Holy Cow back in politics
- [Politicisation of Religious Festivals] Ganesh up for grabs
- VHP singing Ram dhun in rural UP

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

[1.]

Gulf News [U.A.E.] , August 23 2003

Kuldip Nayar: ANIMOSITY BETWEEN NEIGHBOURS MAY BLOW OUT CANDLES OF HOPE

Will people-to-people contact succeed when it has yielded little 
result in the past? This is the question which is increasingly being 
asked both in India and Pakistan. The answer depends on what the 
posers of the question are seeking. No, Kashmir may not be solved. 
The contact will help evolve a solution.

People-to-people contact is, however, a misnomer. Visits of some 
parliamentary members, journalists or their conclaves do not mean 
that this kind of contact has taken place. There should be meetings 
between different members of the society - lawyers, doctors, 
academicians, entrepreneurs, industrialists and students - involving 
the common man as well. Only then will the process become meaningful.

The wider the contact the lesser will be the mistrust - the mistrust 
of the past 55 years. People will begin to realise how much they have 
in common. They will come to develop a strong desire to accommodate 
one another to live peacefully. Even obdurate governments will then 
seek a compromise.

We have missed many opportunities. During the 1962 India-China war, 
the Shah of Iran wrote to General Ayub Khan to send his forces to 
fight by the side of India. The Shah sent the letter's copy to the 
then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru who, in turn, marked it to Home 
Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri. I was then Shastri's press officer and 
read the letter.

Long after the 1962 war, Shastri recalled the letter. If General Ayub 
had sent his forces to fight by the side of Indian forces, he said, 
the scenario would have changed. Shastri said had the blood of Indian 
and Pakistani soldiers flowed together on the battlefield, it would 
have been difficult to say "no" even if Pakistan had just asked for 
Kashmir.

Shastri's observation was probably true. Instead, we have had three 
wars and the Kargil engagements. They have increased the distance 
further. The basic thing is to remove the animosity which has been 
fostered and nurtured on both sides since day one after partition. It 
means changing the thinking in the two countries. But fighting 
religious prejudice, a legacy of hundreds of years, is not an easy 
thing to do.

First the British and then some leaders pandered to communal elements 
to keep the two communities apart. The bias they have planted is 
deep. To uproot it, the idea of a pluralistic society would have to 
be re-sown.

Straightaway, the official propaganda by one against another country 
must stop. This was the agreement reached between Nehru and Liaquat 
Ali when mistrust on both sides took the shape of killings.

There is no bar on the sale of newspapers and books of one country to 
the other. But cussed bureaucrats have managed things in such a way 
that no newspaper or book can cross the border. The Pakistan 
government has now disallowed even the viewing of Indian TV channels.

Even after a modicum of contact, things are not moving because of the 
cloistered thinking in the governments which do not look beyond 
scoring points. How can there be people-to-people contact when visas 
are not issued and police harassment continues?

Six months after Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee spoke at 
Srinagar for a dialogue and Pakistan Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan 
Jamali's telephone call to congratulate him, there has been only one 
bus plying daily each way carrying 37 passengers.

Islamabad may be blamed for not allowing more busses and air and 
train contacts. It seems as if Islamabad is holding contacts hostage 
to the Kashmir solution. But why doesn't New Delhi unilaterally open 
its borders and set up a post at the Wagah border itself to issue 
visas? Terrorists do not use this way to come in, if that is what 
bothers the Indian government.

The media on both sides can help. But it is jingoistic in thinking 
and cynical in approach. It looks for negative stories all the time. 
No wonder, they scoff at the "candle wallahs" because they challenge 
their biased views. What can you do about the bigoted writers who 
distort the partition perspective and say that it was necessary for 
"interrupting the old Islamisation process running across the 
subcontinent?"

Because of their mindset, the media gave very little attention to the 
history made at the Wagah border a few days ago. For the first time 
since independence, 12 members of the National Assembly and Senate of 
Pakistan crossed into India to join the candle-lighting ceremony at 
the border on the August 14-15 midnight, the hour when India and 
Pakistan became free.

By participating in the ceremony, the Pakistan MPs defied the 
dictates of the military and the mullahs not to have any truck with 
Indians. MPs did more than that. Aitizaz Hasan, one of Pakistan's 
best minds, was their leader. He said: "Open the borders to let 
people meet who are determined not to go to war ever."

Fawzia Wahab urged women on both sides to have a vested interest in 
peace so that "the hatred and bitterness of the past is not forced 
upon the future generations of Indians and Pakistanis". She said she 
could see the mood of people in Pakistan changing after the recent 
contacts. They should not stop.

MPs were not alone to project the message of amity. People were 
behind them. When I went to the other side of the Wagah border to 
bring the MPs to India, I found a milling crowd of at least 25,000 
with white flags aloft, to see them off. Asma Jehangir, I.A. Rehman, 
Jugnu Sethi and many more human rights activists were in the crowd. 
Theirs has been an untiring effort to span the distance between the 
two countries.

Not long ago the government had banned their visits to the Indian 
border. The religious bodies had threatened to attack them. But the 
mood seems to have changed. Officials were co-operative and followers 
of religious bodies waved the Pakistan flags to express their 
support. Indeed, a favourable wind is blowing in Pakistan. When I led 
a parliamentary delegation to that country two months ago, even 
religious formations said they wanted peace.

I wish I could say the same thing about India. Most 'experts' on this 
side have a mindset. They do not want to believe that people in 
Pakistan can change. However, the public in India is beginning to 
distance itself from such people. There were at least a hundred and 
fifty thousand people at Wagah to applaud the MPs from Pakistan. 
Celebrations and songs to extol friendship between the two countries 
continued till three in the morning.

How different was the scene this time from the one in 1995! That was 
when only a few of us - former chief justice of the Delhi High Court 
Rajinder Sacher, Outlook editor Vinod Mehta, former vice-chancellor 
Amrik Singh, human rights activist Sayeeda, Sikh leader Manjit Singh 
Calcutta, the late Nikhil Chakravarty of the Mainstream and myself - 
lighted candles at the Wagah border. What was a small initiative then 
is turning into a people's movement. Let it spread.

o o o

Dawn [Pakistan] August 24, 2003 | Editorial
http://www.dawn.com/2003/08/24/ed.htm#1

THE GOODWILL BONUS

It is unfortunate that while the people of Pakistan and India will 
like to believe that the climate between the two countries has 
improved somewhat in recent weeks, officials on both sides continue 
to be oppressively belligerent in their statements. The old ding-dong 
continues, as if the past six months since the Indian prime 
minister's Srinagar speech and the Pakistani premier's warm response 
to it had never happened. In a letter sent to the presidents of the 
General Assembly and Security Council the other day by Pakistan's 
permanent UN representative, a number of charges have been levelled 
against India for dragging its feet on opening serious negotiations. 
Indian foreign office spokesmen have talked in similarly negative 
terms while commenting on proposals for re-establishing air and rail 
links and the reported US sale of some C-130 aircraft to Pakistan. It 
is perhaps not so much what is said during these bureaucratic 
exchanges that is important as the tone, which continues to reflect a 
mindset that many will now wish was changed or moderated.
Political leaders saying one thing and sounding extremely positive 
and their officials striking an altogether different posture may be 
considered sound strategy to keep options open and maintain pressure. 
Its fallout at the public level, however, has a disconcerting effect, 
and people are left guessing as to whom and what to believe. It is, 
of course, impossible that habits formed over five decades of 
intermittent hostility and bickering should disappear overnight. But 
a conscious effort should, nevertheless, be made on both sides to 
promote the atmosphere of popular goodwill that is slowly beginning 
to take hold and to whose creation a number of peace delegations have 
made a significant contribution. This would mean softening some of 
the official rhetoric and commentaries on state-run media. We have 
played to the gallery for far too long to continue to delude 
ourselves that this has either a serious vote-catching potential or 
helps promote patriotism and national solidarity. These attributes 
are more constructively stimulated by following domestic policies 
that increase popular participation in governance and further 
people's welfare.
The governments of Pakistan and India should realize that the longer 
steps essential to normalization are delayed, the greater the danger 
both for disillusionment to set in and for hard-crust ideologues on 
either side to again try to seize centrestage, making compromises 
difficult. Islamabad at least has repeatedly said that it is prepared 
to enter into an immediate bilateral dialogue with New Delhi. India 
appears to hesitate and to link talks with a number of stipulations. 
But to discuss these stipulations, it is also necessary that these 
should be taken up at some level. It is not necessary that Mr Jamali 
and Mr Vajpayee should rush into each other's arms, but contacts at 
various official levels can at least be started without further loss 
of time. The question of air and rail links and visa facilities, for 
instance, should not be the subject of daily statements from either 
side but form the agenda of a proper and structured negotiating 
process. President Pervez Musharraf felt confident enough to go up to 
shake Mr Vajpayee's hand at a Saarc summit despite the Agra debacle; 
Mr Vajpayee should not fear a loss of face at home if he meets the 
general when the two are in New York for the General Assembly session 
next month. Even an exchange of pleasantries should help. The crucial 
thing is that the present momentum for a rapprochement should not be 
permitted to dissipate.

o o o

SANSAD

invites you to a Public Forum

INDIA AND PAKISTAN: FASCISM, FUNDAMENTALISM, AND THE U.S. AGENDA

Sunday, August 24, 2003
1:30 p.m.
Justice Institute of BC
715 McBride Blvd., New Westminster
(corner of 8th Ave., and McBride)

India and Pakistan are at a crossroads. India has been moving rapidly 
toward fascism, with a Hindu chauvinist ideology dominating both the 
state and civil society. Genocidal violence against Muslims and 
atrocities against Christians take place without state intervention 
and even with state support, while the voices of secularism and 
minority rights are increasingly suppressed. In Pakistan a military 
regime, wearing the costume of parliamentary democracy, continues its 
attack on civil liberties, while an Islamist fundamentalism 
increasingly suppresses democratic rights and the rights of women in 
particular. Armed with nuclear weapons both countries are frequently 
on the brink of war. Yet both countries are currently caught in the 
U. S. agenda of global domination, Pakistan providing military bases, 
India performing joint military exercises, and both being solicited 
to act as America's colonial policemen in Iraq. Can this bring about 
a genuine peace on the subcontinent? Will it consolidate the regimes 
of repression?

SANSAD invites you to discuss these issues with

Ms. Teesta Setalvad, editor of Communalism Combat (published from 
Bombay) and a recipient of many national and international awards for 
journalism and for defending human rights.
Topic: Confronting the Two-headed Monster -  Fascism and Imperialism in India

Mr. Tapan Bose, Secretary, South Asian Forum for Human Rights, 
Kathmandu, author of many books, and publisher of the recently 
released book: Reduced to Ashes : Insurgency and Human Rights in 
Punjab.
Topic: Indo-Pak Relations and Imperialism in South Asia

Dr. Bilal Hashmi,  Professor Emeritus, Eastern Washington University.
Topic: Fundamentalism in Pakistan - Causes and Consequences
*****************************************************
poetry recitals by well known poets in the Indo-Pak community
K.S. Parmar Nadeem, Zahid Laeeq, Narendra Bhagi, Mohammad Rafiq, Acharya Diwedi
*****************************************************
SANSAD
South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy
For further information contact:
Chin Banerjee 421-6752, Nissar Dalal 431-6237, Harjap Grewal 852-8665,
Abid Pittalwala 325-5092, Abi Sharma 980-1365, Hari Sharma 420-2972

The Forum is supported by
Institute for the Humanities, Simon Fraser University
Chetna Association of Canada
Nepalis Abroad for a Just and Democratic Nepal
Pakistani Canada Association
Pakistani-Canadian Cultural Association
Public Awareness and Welfare Society
South Asian Cultural Association
Thamil Community Association of BC


o o o

BBC WORLD INDIA-PAKISTAN SEASON

Mullah Power
Friday 22nd August at 1930 GMT
Saturday 23rd August at 1030 GMT
Sunday 24th August at 0630 & 2030 GMT
Monday 25th August at 1330 GMT
Tuesday 26th August at 1630 GMT
Wednesday 27th August at 0030 & 0730 GMT

Last year in Pakistan, radical Islamic parties won major political
victories, bringing the country a step closer to government by the mullahs.
Presenter Zubeida Malek traces the way the influence of Islam and the
mullahs has grown over the past half-century.  She examines how the
religious coalition that controls Northwest Frontier Province will now use
its power and asks whether the West should be concerned that Islamic parties
are now the second largest block in the national assembly.

Hindu Nation
Saturday 23rd August at 1410 & 2110 GMT
Sunday 24th August at 0910 & 1810 GMT

Sir Mark Tully investigates the rising tide of Hindu nationalism in India.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is adopting such a stance and its leaders
believe that, in a violently polarized election, they will gain the votes of
the vast majority of Hindus and leave their secular rivals behind.  However,
the prospect of India becoming a Hindu state terrifies the country's
Muslims.  Tully visits Gujarat, the state where the BJP's new policies of
Hindutva yielded good electoral results.

Pervez Musharraf: Profile
Friday 29th August at 1930 GMT
Saturday 30th August at 1030 GMT
Sunday 31st August at 0630 & 2030 GMT
Monday 1st September at 1330 GMT
Tuesday 2nd September at 1630 GMT
Wednesday 3rd September at 0030 & 0730 GMT

General Pervez Musharraf's role as the President of Pakistan has recently
faced serious international scrutiny.  He has repeatedly pushed India to the
brink of nuclear war over the disputed territory of Kashmir, to the point
where each country now has a million soldiers massed on the mutual border.
Profile talks to friends, enemies and the man himself, examining the
contradiction that is Pervez Musharraf: democrat or dictator, peacemaker or
warmonger.

India & Pakistan: Partners or Rivals?
Saturday 30th August at 0810, 1210 & 1910 GMT
Sunday 31st August at 1510 GMT

Kirsty Lang presents a special debate involving five leading thinkers
including Benazir Bhutto, twice Prime Minister of Pakistan, and Krishnan
Srinivasan, the former head of India's diplomatic service.  They discuss
politics, business and the arts in the two countries.  Also on the panel are
the Pakistani human rights lawyer Asma Jehangir; Gurcharan Das, the author
of the economic book India Unbound; and the former US Ambassador and South
Asia expert in the State Department, Dennis Kux.

Kashmir: Paradise Lost
Saturday 30th August at 1410 & 2110 GMT
Sunday 31st August at 0910 & 1810 GMT

India and Pakistan have already fought two wars in the mountains of Kashmir,
a regional dispute until the two nations developed nuclear capabilities.
Now it's a global concern.  Sir Mark Tully, who believes Kashmir has "become
the most dangerous flashpoint threatening humanity", looks at the
unsuccessful attempts at peace and asks why political leaders appear to be
at a standoff.  He also hears from local people, many of whom tell him that
they are fed up and want some kind of resolution.


_____


[2.]


Date of Release: August 23, 2003
TAMIL DEMOCRACY FOLLOW-UP LETTER ON POLITICAL KILLINGS

We write to express our thanks for your support of Tamil Democracy's 
Statement on the murder of T. Subathiran on June 14, 2003, which many 
of you signed. This is a follow-up to what has happened since.

Within days of Subathiran's assassination, over one hundred people 
signed the statement, in time for Subathiranís funeral on June 19th. 
Many of you also wrote to Tamil Democracy expressing your outrage at 
the ongoing political killings.

Since then, Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) 
have released three documents addressing the ongoing political 
killings. While these documents were late in coming, they are useful 
tools in continuing our campaign against the political killings.

A) The joint press release by AI and HRW released on August 7th.
  Sri Lanka: Rights groups say LTTE-linked killings continue with impunity
<http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGASA370032003?open&of=ENG-LKA>http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGASA370032003?open&of=ENG-LKA

B) The Briefing by HRW released on August 7th.
  Sri Lanka: Political Killings During the Ceasefire
<http://hrw.org/backgrounder/asia/srilanka080603.htm>http://hrw.org/backgrounder/asia/srilanka080603.htm

C) The Open Letter by AI released on August 12th.

Open letter to Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Sri Lanka 
Monitoring Mission (SLMM) and Sri Lankan Police concerning recent 
politically motivated killings and abductions in Sri Lanka.

<http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGASA370042003>http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGASA370042003

However, political killings have continued with impunity despite 
these documents.  We must remain vigilant in organizing our 
communities and sustaining the pressure on the LTTE, the Sri Lanka 
government, the Norwegians, international governments and human 
rights organizations to bring about a real peace to the North and 
East based on human rights, democracy, pluralism and economic justice.

As a way to focus our efforts, here are four points we should 
emphasize and campaign for:

1.	The creation of an International Human Rights Monitoring 
Mission, which was dropped at the last peace talks. The continued 
killings and the lack of action by the SLMM reflect the need for an 
International Human Rights Monitoring Mission.

2.	The necessity of a political solution to the ethnic conflict 
based on devolution of power before the implementation of an Interim 
Administration. Without a political solution based on principles of 
democracy, minority rights and inter-ethnic justice, an Interim 
Administration will not have any direction. It would only serve to 
maintain the LTTEís hegemony, rather than build a new democratic 
culture in the North and East.

3.	Any Interim Administration should adhere to international 
standards of human rights. This is in order to protect human rights 
during the interim period and also to create a culture of respect for 
human rights, so essential for our democratic future.

4.	The democratic participation of all Tamils, Muslims and other 
minorities living in the North and East within any Interim 
Administration. This means all groups and parties, not just the LTTE. 
This is all the more essential in the context of the political 
killings, designed to kill democratic participation and dissent.

We must not be silent.  Our efforts are essential to contributing to 
the creation of a truly democratic future, the encouragement of 
spaces for dissent and ending the culture of fear.  It is the task of 
the people of the North and East to ensure democracy.

Tamil Democracy
Contact: tamildemocracy at yahoo.com

_____


[3.]

http://www.satirewire.com/news/may02/hinjews.shtml

RELIGIOUS MERGER CREATES 900 MILLION HINJEWS
Attainment of Nirvana Still Goal, But Not So Important
That You Should Miss Cousin Vijay's Bar Mitzvah

New Delhi, India (SatireWire.com) - Hinjew leaders today conceded the merger
of Hinduism and Judaism has not worked out as planned, as instead of forming
a super-religion to fight off the common Islamic enemy, they have instead
created a race of 900 million people who, no matter how many times they are
reincarnated, can never please their mothers.

"On paper, this was a textbook alliance - two smaller competitors join
forces to take on a larger adversary," said New Delhi resident Chandra
Gopan. "But the synergies are just not there. For instance, I still believe
I must pursue my own dharmic path to ultimate happiness, but when I get
there, I just know my mother will find something wrong with it."

Military officers, in particular, have found assimilation difficult. "We
were all excited at first, especially about the Kama Sutra parts, but it's
not going to work," Israeli Col. Benyamin Telluk said at a joint press
conference with Indian officers. "I mean, just this morning, I was showing
Col. Bhadrak here pictures of my family, and he said my wife was a cow."

"I said his wife reminds me of a cow," Bhadrak explained.

"Oh, you've said it again!" screamed Telluk.

"It's a compliment!" answered Bhadrak.

Hinjews across the world, meanwhile, said they also were too busy dealing
with integration to worry about Pakistanis, Palestinians, or any other
opponents.

"Surprisingly, it's not the big issues, like is there one God or are there
many? It's the little things," said New York City Hinjew Nathan Feldman.
"Like my Hindu half acknowledges that this world is full of suffering, but
my Jewish half just goes on and on about it."

SO, WHAT'S WRONG WITH A NICE HINJEW GIRL?

However, most agreed that even if other issues could be overcome, maternal
obstacles to Hinjuism would always exist.

"Yesterday, my former self was killed in a car accident," said the late Gori
Bhupendra of Madras. "But I had good karma, so I was reincarnated this
morning into the Vaisya caste. To me, this is a step up, right?"

But then Bhupendra's former Sudras mother tracked him down.

"She says, 'Oh, Vaisya now, is it? Very nice. Of course, your former brother
is a Ksatriya, but he was always an overachiever.'"

Meanwhile, Muslim nations, citing the difficult Hinjew merger, said they
have discontinued talks with the world's largest religion to form Chrislam.

"It wouldn't have worked anyway," said Imam Satra Mohammed of Damascus. "The
first time we drank the communion wine, we would have all had to kill
ourselves."

Copyright © 2002, SatireWire.


_____


[4.]

Open Page @ The Hindu, Aug 19, 2003
http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/op/2003/08/19/stories/2003081900030200.htm

Need for new politics

Scores of `East India Companies' are flooding our economic life. The 
old-fashioned communalism and hatred is taking over our identity 
politics and undermining social harmony. Worst of all, the 
India-Pakistan nuclear arms race is hanging over our heads like the 
sword of Damocles. In this situation, run-of-the-mill politics is not 
going to help us get to our desired destinations.

WHAT DO you do when "all roads lead to doom" and not travelling is 
not an option? The answer is, of course, pave a new road! A road that 
avoids the pitfalls of the existing roads, a road that takes us to 
bloom instead of doom!

This is how many Indians feel about the contemporary Indian politics 
that comprises three major forces and a fourth offshoot: rightists, 
leftists, centrists and opportunists. The communal elements with 
their "back to the (medieval) future" politics have managed to occupy 
the centre stage in Indian politics for the first time. Quite 
thankfully, however, the future of the rightist politics in India is 
not so bright.

Rendered clueless

On the other end of the spectrum are the Communists. Progressive and 
well meaning as they may be, Indian Communists have been rendered 
clueless by today's complex politics. Ever since the grand scheme of 
Communist globalisation fell by the wayside, the Communists have 
offered neither an alternative to the cut-throat global market nor a 
credible programme to resist it forcefully. Their socioeconomic 
salvation scheme is quite identical to the Western `Holy Trinity' 
paradigm of nation-statism, scientism and developmentalism. Bereft of 
the revolutionary fire and passion for justice, they try to survive 
by "press release" politics.

The centrists, as their name suggests, are neither here nor there. 
They are anything but centred. The major actor, Congress party, has 
done enough damage to the secular fabric of our nation, its 
governance, and its credibility as a world leader. With no vision or 
mission, they are still wallowing in their dynastic buffoonery. While 
the Congress scrapes along with occasional bouts of hopes here and 
there, other centrists such as the Janata Dals, Lok Shakti, Samata 
Party have little life in them.

The TDPs, the DMKs, the AIADMKs and the like bend leftwards or 
rightwards depending on the political winds of the day. Even worse, 
they adjust their principles and politics depending upon what their 
arch-rival does.

When all is said and done, the bottom line of Indian politics today 
is this: none of the existing political parties and leaders seems to 
have a coherent vision and a credible programme for the 
socioeconomic-political salvation of the country. None of them seems 
to have the political will or moral strength to challenge the status 
quo and change the nature of our polity.

The irony of the matter is that we cannot continue like this for too 
long. Scores of "East India Companies" are flooding our economic 
life. We still have some 400 million poor people among us who are 
further oppressed by casteism, sexism, child servitude and so forth. 
The unresolved partition as much as the protracted conflict in 
Kashmir is taking a heavy toll on our scarce resources and creative 
energies. The old-fashioned communalism and hatred is taking over our 
identity politics and undermining social harmony. Worst of all, the 
India-Pakistan nuclear arms race is hanging over our heads like the 
sword of Damocles. Consequently, all our individual and collective 
futures stand threatened. In this situation, run-of-the-mill politics 
is not going to help us get to our desired destinations.

What is new?

When the political going gets tough, the politically tough go 
shopping. For new roadmaps, new vehicles, new drivers, new dreams! To 
travel the new roads and reach the new destinations! We, as a nation, 
need new politics for the next century!

This "new" does not necessarily mean that we need to invent something 
that has been unknown to us. All it means is that new people should 
come together, dream new dreams, identify new ideology, assert new 
morality, and assume new roles.

Even a cursory look beyond the ugly mainstream political façade that 
we have erected at the national level would reveal a marvellous group 
of individuals and organisations working tirelessly on their own 
choice socioeconomic-political issues with such commitment and 
results. They are injecting the much-needed hopes and dreams into the 
minds and hearts of millions of Indians around the country. These 
leaders are fighting out there for the greater common good and not 
for personal aggrandisement, power, or popularity.

Some engage the global market, its development paradigms, its 
discriminatory practices, and its future-blind attitude. Others fight 
against communalism, hatred, casteism, sexism, and other human rights 
violations. Yet others oppose destructive dams, other such 
anti-environmental "development" projects, nuclear weapons, nuclear 
power and so forth. There are women's groups, Dalit organisations, 
student movements, employees' associations, Gandhians, journalists, 
physicians, scientists and others who subscribe to similar political 
causes and engage in serious struggles.

Despite their shared values, similar visions and programmes, and same 
kind of will and commitment, most of them remain disjointed. They do 
highly political work in their own respective spheres and localities 
but carefully avoid the political hot seat. By doing so, they not 
only fail to fill the huge political vacuum that exists out there in 
the Indian society but aggravate it by squandering their own creative 
political work and energies.

They want to play shy of electoral politics even though that often 
neutralises all their good work. It is not hard to see why they scorn 
electoral politics. But running away from decision-making roles and 
responsibilities make their struggles harder, fulfil their missions 
only partially, leave their constituencies politically helpless, and 
render their own good work vulnerable to the vagaries of self-centred 
politicos. It is high time these groups and leaders knitted their 
struggles, achievements, failures, fears, frustrations, dreams and 
hopes together and provided a national political alternative.

Such a national political alternative should be a platform for 
environmental concerns, sustainable development, human rights issues, 
subaltern struggles, coexistence ethos, good governance, and moral 
high ground in public life. It has to be both peace-oriented and 
futuristic. It should be guided by norms and values and not by 
mindless dogmas and doctrines. That national political alternative 
should be an intellectual movement directed by head and heart and 
hand for the wellbeing of all Indians. It is all the more useful if 
such a national political alternative can identify itself with 
like-minded people in the neighbouring countries and also be part of 
a global movement for peace and justice.

S.P. UDAYAKUMAR

Managing Trustee of South Asian Community Centre for Education and 
Research Trust, Nagercoil, India.

_____


[5.]

The Telegraph [India]  August 24, 2003

A NEW EMERGENCY - Increasing the burden of the already vulnerable
SECOND THOUGHTS GITHA HARIHARAN

In unequal measure
Remember the Emergency? Not just the arrests, or "the trains running 
on time", but the sterilization and vasectomy targets, the use of 
brute force, the reduction of people from citizens with rights to 
cattle that must breed less? If we thought the "family planning" 
fiasco of the Emergency was a grim but receding memory, we obviously 
thought wrong. A recent report on the Andhra Pradesh state population 
policy (The Hindu, July 27, 2003), described how a Dalit sarpanch in 
a village has been disqualified from contesting panchayati raj 
elections because he has more than two children. The sarpanch's case 
is in the Andhra Pradesh high court. But meanwhile, all his children 
are out of school because the state's population policy recommends 
that government facilities for education be withheld from the third 
child onward. What remains unanswered is how the man's having more 
than two children disqualifies his children from their right to 
education. Or how it disqualifies him from his citizen's right to be 
a panchayat member.

As if to prove that this report fell on wilfully deaf ears, soon 
after, the Supreme Court upheld a Haryana law prohibiting anyone who 
has more than two children from contesting for, or holding, the post 
of sarpanch or panch. The court declared: "Disqualification on the 
right to contest an election for having more than two children does 
not contravene any fundamental right, nor does it cross the limits of 
reasonability. Rather, it is a disqualification conceptually devised 
in the national interest."

Who are the people most affected by these developments? In a country 
where women can hardly be said to be in control of their lives, to 
penalize them for the age at which they were married, or the number 
of children they have, is clearly to be grossly out of touch with 
reality. In a country where we continue to have large numbers of 
people - women, Dalits, adivasis, the poor - peripheral to the 
mainstream of citizens with life choices, it must be a very peculiar 
sort of "national interest" that devises new ways of keeping the 
marginalized out of political participation, or the state benefits 
supposedly devised for them. [...]
FULL TEXT AT: 
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1030824/asp/opinion/story_2246349.asp

_____


[6.]

CHRO News, August 23, 2003, Saturday
http://www.petitiononline.com/chro0803/petition.html


To:  Kerala Chief Minister and Opposition Leader

REHABILITATE "CONSTITUTIONAL RULE OF LAW" AT MARAD

After the widely condemned May 2, 2003, murder of nine persons at 
Marad beach in Kozhicode district of Kerala, more than 1000 Muslims 
belonging to about 250 families remain as refugees in three camps for 
the past three-and-half months. All of them fled from their homes 
fearing RSS retaliation soon after the May 2 criminal act of 
vengeance against those involved in the January 3-4, 2002, communal 
clash in which a total of five persons were killed. As admitted by 
Chief Minister A. K. Antony, charge-sheets against the accused of the 
2002 January killings, vast majority of whom belonging to RSS, were 
NOT filed till the 2003 May 2 revenge killings took place.

The Special Investigation Team of Police Crime Branch had booked 
about 150 persons as accused for the May 2, 2003, killings and 
already filed charge-sheets. Denied bail, all of them still remain in 
jail. The Kerala High Court also expressed satisfaction on the 
progress of investigation conducted by the Crime Branch SIT. The 
Crime Branch also informed the High Court that no organization, let 
alone a terrorist body, is behind the killing, and there was no 
inter-State link behind the plot.

However, Sangh Parivar affiliates have launched an orchestrated 
campaign demanding CBI probe into the 2003 Marad killings. All the 
attempts of authorities to rehabilitate the refugees were thwarted by 
Sangh Parivar, especially its women's wing "Durga Vahini", by 
wielding threats, extending unabashed use of muscle power and by 
indulging in violence for days together in front of a mute police 
force. Demanding CBI probe, the Sangh Parivar also boycotted the 
peace meetings repeatedly called by the authorities, especially by 
the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Marad.

Over the past three-and-half months, the Sangh Parivar had literally 
converted Marad beach into their "liberated zone" and "a Muslim free 
area", to where none can enter without their permission. Chief 
Minister A. K. Antony had to take Sangh Parivar "permission" to visit 
Marad soon after the May 2 killing, while a CPI-M delegation led by 
its State Secretary, Pinarayi Vijayan, made a hasty retreat from 
there due to stiff resistance from the Sangh Parivar.

Kerala Government is controlled by the Congress-led UDF coalition, 
and the CPI(M)-led LDF remains the lone opposition. The Sangh Parivar 
political outfit, BJP, nor its fore-runner Jan Sangh, has won a 
single seat to Kerala Assembly so far. The BJP also does not control 
any Panchayat in Kerala. Marad is a ward in Beypore Panchayat which 
is controlled by CPI(M)-led LDF after winning the Panchayat elections 
in October 2000 by raising the catchy slogan "Power To The People". 
Yet, the Sangh Parivar is allowed to control Marad largely due to the 
abetment and connivance of both the Congress-led State Government and 
the CPI(M)-led Beypore Panchayat. This is a clear example as to how 
the extra-constitutional Sangh Parivarites govern Kerala without any 
democratic sanction whatsoever. Compared to Gujarat, where Narendra 
Modi's fascist government at least enjoys the semblance of 
Constitutional and democratic sanctity, such a situation in Kerala 
deserves far wider condemnation.

The thousand odd inmates in the refugee camps presently lead a 
miserable life of bare existence and meager survival. On the 
contrary, their own houses at Marad, majority of which were looted 
after they fled, still remain vacant since the past three-and-half 
months. Living in one's own house is a fundamental right, and not out 
of anybody's charity or benevolence. The State and all its wings are 
duty-bound to safeguard and protect this Constitutional right of all 
citizens. As far as the hapless refugees are concerned, Marad cries 
for the rehabilitation of the already collapsed Constitutional Rule 
of Law there. This petition demands only that.

Besides appending signature here, those who want to write directly to 
the Chief Minister Mr. A. K. Antony and Opposition Leader Mr. V. S. 
Achuthanandan in support of this petition can E-Mail and Fax to :

chiefminister at kerala.gov.in,cmkerala at vsnl.net (Fax : Fax 0471 - 
2333489) ; vsachuthanandan at rediffmail.com (Fax : 0471-2315625)

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

http://www.petitiononline.com/chro0803/petition.html

______


[7.]

Richard Shapiro
Chair, Social and Cultural Anthropology Program
California Institute of Integral Studies
1453 Mission Street
San Francisco, California, 94103

To

The United States Embassy,
New Delhi

August 16, 2003

Dear Madam\Sir,

I am writing to inform you of my recent experiences with the Gujarat police
during a solidarity visit to the Narmada Valley. I chair a graduate
anthropology program in the United States and am a U.S. citizen. I went to
the Narmada Valley with three citizens of India to speak with people about
the current situation and see first hand the effects of the Sardar Sarovar
dam on the adivasi (indigenous) people of the Valley. I accompanied
Meenakshi Ganguly, journalist for Time magazine, Sanjay Kapoor,
cinematographer and photographer, and Dr. Angana Chatterji, professor and
Board Member of The International Rivers Network (IRN). IRN has been
involved in the struggle for justice in the Narmada Valley since the late
1980's.

Allow me to describe the events of the day. On our way out of the Valley on
August 9th, we got off the boat near Kadipani (about 4 hours from Baroda,
Gujarat), and were stopped by the police. The police had already threatened
our driver with bodily harm if he did not tell them who we were, what we
were doing, and where we were. To get us to come to the sub-police station
in Panvad near Chhota Udaipur, several miles out of our way, they had
already taken custody of the car papers of our driver, and instructed a
police constable to "escort" us to the police station. Mr. Bimrao Anandrao,
the constable at Kadipani outpost, accompanied us to the sub-police
station. At the station, sub-inspector, Mr. S. J. Vagashia, and his aid,
Mr. D. G. Parikh, questioned us. The drive to the station and the
questioning by the police at the station constituted illegal detention of
three Indian nationals and one U.S. citizen.  The police justified their
actions by saying, among other things, that "as a foreigner, he [me] could
be a terrorist."  They also justified the detainment by stating that we had
visited "restricted areas".  In fact, as we had been informed, there are no
restrictions, and we were not in violation of any law.

Ironically, we would have uneventfully left Gujarat that evening had the
police not violated our rights. As we challenged their justifications, they
made clear their reasons for detaining and questioning us. On three
occasions they referred to Medha Patkar as "a problem for Gujarat". As you
know, Medha Patkar is internationally acclaimed for her ethical, committed
leadership to bring justice to dam affected people in the Narmada Valley.
Because we had come to visit Medha Patkar and the Narmada Bachao Andolan
(Save the Narmada Movement), the police alleged that our presence was
"suspicious" and that we had come to create "disturbances" in the Valley.
We were also categorically told that in "Modi's Gujarat" there were new
rules and that the police had the authority to detain and question anyone
they think is suspicious. Before we left, the police sub-inspector also
stated that they were taking our names down for the record and would
compile a report and forward it to the 'government'.

The police violated our rights as part of their allegiance to their state's
opposition to the Narmada Bachao Andolan and Medha Patkar. That the police
are used to harass people exercising their legal rights indicates the
dangerous liaison between government, the judiciary, and police that is
currently the norm in Gujarat.  The National Human Rights Commission and
Supreme Court have recently recognized the impossibility for justice in
Gujarat in relation to the massacre of Muslim minorities in February-March
of 2002, through their intervention in the Best Bakery murder trial. The
current government of Gujarat is mobilizing and consolidating the resources
of the state to target minorities, activists, adivasis, powerful women, and
citizens seeking to redress injustice through peaceful means. The actions
of the Gujarat police on that day reflect the larger problematic of the
Gujarat government's mistreatment of the Narmada Andolan, and their
disregard of human rights, the rights of minorities to equal treatment
under the law, and the democratic rights in India to legally express
opposition.

It is my hope that by communicating to you my experiences with the Gujarat
police you will write to the Gujarat and Indian Government, as well as
inform U.S. citizens and international human rights organizations of the
intimidation and harassment that is practiced by the Gujarat police against
those they define as "suspicious." It is also my hope that the United
States Government and press will understand the injustices systematically
practiced by the government of Gujarat against the people of the Narmada
Valley, under the rule of Chief Minister Narendra Modi, and use diplomatic
and educational processes to request compliance with the constitution of
India and demand adherence to international human rights.

The people of the Narmada Valley have struggled to be heard by a government
intent on ignoring them. They have sought to maintain their culture and
continue to live sustainably on the land without obstruction from the
state.  They have sought forms of resettlement and rehabilitation that
respect their rights to cultural survival and human dignity through
receiving arable land in exchange for the land they must vacate as their
homes and fields are submerged.  Their just demands have been denied.

The quest for justice is always difficult and the history of cultural and
physical genocide of indigenous people must not be repeated in India.
India is home to diverse indigenous cultures and the fate of such peoples
in our world will be significantly determined by what happens in India. We
need to educate ourselves to the long term costs of destroying indigenous
cultures and the ecosystems that these cultures sustain. The continued
existence of cultural and biological diversity is a concern we all must
share. Global security is served by supporting the right to existance of
peoples and cultures being displaced and destroyed in the name of progress.
To impoverish people and destroy the identities and local knowledge that
allow their worlds to be, is to diminish the human imagination and create
conditions that promote cycles of despair and violence. The commitment to
cultural survival and ecological sustainability demands solidarity with the
struggle for justice in the Narmada Valley. The Narmada Bachao Andolan
deserves the support of people of conscience everywhere. The people of the
Narmada Valley continue to exhibit the spirit of life and care that tells
those of us who are listening that we must do what we can to support their
survival. I hope the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi will support the Narmada
Bachao Andolan in its fight to insure that the governments of Gujarat,
Maharashtra, and Madya Pradesh provide justice for the dam affected people
of the Narmada.

It is my greatest hope that all people wanting peace, security, and well
being will be attentive to the lessons of history so that the atrocities of
the past will not repeat themselves. It is in the spirit of faith in the
(ever deferred) promise of peace and justice that I write to you now.


Sincerely yours,

Richard Shapiro

Phone: 415.575.6275 (Work)
Fax: 415.575.1264 (Work)
E-mail: rshapiro at ciis.edu
______________________________
Cc: Narmada Bachao Andolan

_____


[8.]  INDIA: Communal Politics Watch

The Times of India,  August 24, 2003
SERVING BEEF AT AYODHYA (Swaminomics/Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar)
Although the BJP and Congress Party both seem keen on banning cow 
slaughter throughout India, it looks as though dissent from other 
parties has blocked the move for the time being. Some critics protest 
that cow worship is a strictly Hindu idea that must not be imposed on 
others in a secular state. I agree.[...]
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com:80/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=144132

o o o

The Telegraph [India] August 24, 2003
Digvijay U-turn on cow kill ban (Rasheed Kidwai)
Bhopal, Aug. 23: A temple-hopping Digvijay Singh today sought to 
underplay his love for cows, saying he had never advocated a 
nation-wide ban on slaughtering the bovines.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1030824/asp/nation/story_2294198.asp

o o o

Deccan Herald, August 24, 2003
Holy Cow back in politics
http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/aug24/sl3.asp

o o o

The Indian Express, August  24, 2003
Ganesh up for grabs: Ganeshotsav, Maharashtra's biggest festival, 
becomes a political carnival
(Haima Deshpande)
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=30169

o o o

The Times of India,  August 22, 2003
VHP singing Ram dhun in rural UP (Ambikanand Sahay)
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com:80/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=141616


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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
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