SACW | 7 Oct. 2003
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at mnet.fr
Tue Oct 7 16:27:47 CDT 2003
South Asia Citizens Wire | 7 October, 2003
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o o o
[1] Pakistan - India: Back to the barricades? (M.B. Naqvi)
[2] For families that fear dishonour, there is
only one remedy... murder (Anushka Asthana ,
Ushma Mistry)
[3] India: The echo of Gujarat's anguish
[4] What is The Connection Between Atal Bihari
Vajpayee and Anti-Minority Violence In India?
[5] India: Ayodhya's Voice (Asghar Ali Engineer)
[6] Indian communalism makes good business sense (Jawed Naqvi)
[7] India: Online petition by doctors seeks
action against leader of Hindu far right
[8] India: Newspapers in Goa: Fighting Fascism !
[9] India: Desi 'flash mob's' happening | see
websites: mumbaimobs.org ; delhimobs.com
--------------
[1.]
[6 October, 2003, Karachi]
Back to the barricades?
By M.B. Naqvi
Foreign Minister Kasuri has said that an armed
clash with India is still possible ---- and one
says it may even be likely. Trend of official
comment in both the countries points to this
conclusion. The peace initiative of the Indian
Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee of last April
appears to have run into sand. If the
normalisation process started by it can still be
regarded as alive, its pulse is extraordinarily
slow. Not even rail and air services could be
restored. The two bureaucracies by their visa
policies have choked all chances of the common
people on both sides contributing to the
normalisation that matters most. Besides, what
President Pervez Musharraf and Premier Vajpayee
said last month in the UN General Assembly was
standard cold war rhetoric to which the world has
long been accustomed. There is no doubt, the
official normalisation processes remain
subordinated to the vigorous pursuit of
competitive national security (i.e. arms race)
--- with India inducting missiles in its armed
forces and Pakistan test firing more missiles.
Hearty verbal denunciations of each other create
growing bitterness.
Indeed, the war Kasuri talked about is constantly
being postponed since 1980's Brasstacks exercise
by international effort, mainly American. That
American policies have more than one dimension of
peacemaking is perhaps not fully realized in
either Pakistan or India. They aim at managing
both Pakistan and India through a policy of
balance of power. While many would thank the US
for trying to keep peace on the Subcontinent, its
design of appearing to be close to India in one
context and favouring Pakistan in another is
unmistakable. That intensifies an arms race
between the two South Asian powers --- directly
as a result of that US design --- to the ultimate
benefit of not only the war industrialists but
also to the US strategic purposes.
The question is why are India and Pakistan
perpetually on the very brink of a clash of arms
for all these decades? The fundamental reason,
accepted on all sides, is the Kashmir dispute.
However, the Kashmir policies of both countries
are actually an enigma. It is hard to comprehend
Pakistan's Kashmir policy: It began being
actually aimed at making Kashmir a part of
Pakistan since 1947. But its current stance is
that the Kashmiri people have risen in revolt
against India and are carrying on an armed
resistance on their own. Pakistan merely gives
them moral and political support and no more. As
for the consequences of India's Kashmir policy,
it had better be left to the good sense of the
Indians.
But India's current stance has to be noted. The
Indian government, for its part, refuses to
accept the existence of any international problem
about Kashmir, except one: Pakistan-supported
terrorism in their controlled Kashmir Valley and
parts of Jammu. India considers Kashmir to be a
part of India. For the rest, India intends to
retain all parts of Kashmir it controls by doing
whatever it takes. Its response to the emergent
situation is to suppress the uprising and seek a
solution through the recently-elected state
government for whatever internal problems there
may be in Kashmir.
There is no meeting point between the two
stances. Both have repeated their stances many
times in innumerable conferences and have reached
nowhere. Unless one or both sides change their
line, there is no hope of peace in future also.
One hopes there are Indians out there who take a
different tack. One can only focus on a possible
change in Pakistan because the maintenance of
peace overrides everything, especially face.
What are the nut and bolts of Pakistan's Kashmir
policy in terms of its consequences? Pakistani
establishment is happy that the Indians are
forced to bleed by insurgents in Kashmir. The
operational part of the policy is encouragement
and support to these insurgents that can scarcely
remain confined to words only. But nobody takes
its claim of not facilitating the insurgency
seriously. The policy in place has two main
prongs: Pakistan is enabled to carry on
propaganda round the globe for gross abuses of
the Kashmiris' human rights by India's soldiery
and secondly it has kept up for 55 years an arms
race with India to be able to tackle the latter,
if it turned around and started fighting. What is
the net result of this policy?
The Indians have proved by consistent action that
they would retain their possessions in the old
Jammu and Kashmir State at all costs. India is
said to have 700,000 armed men in Kashmir to cope
with the insurgency. An armed revolt by a small
unarmed populace against such a huge force does
not promise victory of the Kashmiris, aided or
unaided by Pakistan. Already a lot of Kashmiri
youths --- a good proportion of a whole
generation in the Valley --- have been killed.
Still, the insurgent side is not an inch closer
to their objective. Can Pakistan really help them
secure victory? Not very likely. The experiences
of the year 2002 and the alarm they caused in the
rest of the world combines to ensure that Kashmir
problem has now no military solution whatever.
Pakistani leadership has acknowledged it in so
many words.
If no reliance is to be placed on Pakistan's
serious military involvement for getting Kashmir
Valley added to Pakistan, why then all this arms
race and such a big military establishment that
Pakistan economy cannot bear its true cost?
What's the point? And why should Kashmiris go on
fighting with guns a hopelessly unequal war?
Isn't a change of strategy indicated?
The recent events --- Americans have promised an
aid of $ 600 million a year and permission to buy
military equipment up to $ 9 billion --- have
raised the morale of Pakistan's ruling
establishment and it would merrily spend $ 11
billion in the next few years. That is, actually
most of the much boasted Monetary Reserves.
Everyone can be sure that the Indians would, in
their turn, ratchet up their defence spending by
4 to 10 times this figure. If this is true, there
can be no war between the two nuclear-armed
rivals, thanks to the nature of nuclear weapons
and international diplomacy. What, then, is the
point of all these build ups if they only result
in the enrichment of the few, including the
merchants of death --- and penury of most of the
Indians and Pakistanis. It looks uncommonly like
not so much a foreign policy as a folly.
Kashmir problem cannot be left in the air,
however. Something has go to be done. If it has
no solution by military means, it has to be
sought through other means: i.e. through amicable
negotiations. But you cannot have amicable
negotiations when a furious arms race is going
on. It simply means that when and if there is to
be any serious solution-seeking of the Kashmir
problem, it has to come through negotiations with
India in which both sides will have to engage in
some give and some take. For that genuine
friendship, based on grassroots rapprochement, is
needed. It so happens that the Indians, being a
satisfied status quo power, are not pushed about
the Kashmir solution and is willing to let the
problem drag on. Can Pakistan go on with its old
attitudes, stances and actions without care?
Factually, it has continued the old policy
orientation despite knowing that it takes us
nowhere.
If the Pakistan establishment is prepared to let
Kashmiri youth go on being killed on an
escalating scale by letting the socalled Jihad go
on with no realistic hope of a solution, it is
being grossly unfair to the Kashmiris. Is it
fighting India to the last Kashmiri? Pakistan
state has to see facts as they are. It has to
engage India peaceably and conditions of trust
have to be created for that. That the Indians are
not talking today is due to Pakistan's own
political immobility and perhaps also a political
ploy for other reasons. Should Pakistan be ready
to seek an amicable and workable solution of the
Kashmir problem, without one- upmanship, the
Indians will be only too ready to talk.
Pakistan establishment has great influence with
Kashmiri insurgents. Pakistan's main purpose
should not simply be to go on acquiring arms to
reach the elusive goal of bettering the power
balance with India and keeping the military
tensions high. It had better advise the Kashmiri
youth to adopt a more appropriate political
strategy. They can and should conduct a local
version of Palestinians' original Intefada, the
non-violent one. That will cause some problems.
But that will be a small price to pay which can
be recompensed by a new Kashmiri satyagraha with
more promise. That would be a genuine effort to
create conditions of trust and real friendship
with India with no mischief in Kashmir ---
combined with appropriate trade and cooperation
policies --- so that negotiations on Kashmir can
be held and the problem, hopefully, resolved over
time. That will take a lot of doing. But the
Kashmiri young men's choice of non-violent
agitation would greatly help both the chances of
the negotiations and a possible eventual
resolution of the Kashmir problem.
______
[2.]
The Observer [UK] October 5, 2003
FOR FAMILIES THAT FEAR DISHONOUR, THERE IS ONLY ONE REMEDY... MURDER
The slaughter of 16-year-old Heshu is only one
case among hundreds in Britain this year of
violence against young women and girls whose
relatives accuse them of shaming their families
Anushka Asthana and Ushma Mistry
Abdalla Yones was calm as he was led down to his
cell. He showed no emotion and no remorse.
Minutes earlier, the 48-year-old had been
sentenced to life imprisonment for brutally
murdering his bubbly and outgoing daughter. She
was 16.
Detective Constable Bob Lister, an officer in the
Specialist Crime Directorate investigating
homicide, had removed Heshu's body from the
bloodstained bathroom where she was killed. He
was in the cell with Yones after the sentencing.
'He told me he had been forced to do it,' Lister
told The Observer. 'That he had been put into a
position that made him do it. He was so
expressionless you would think he had been
convicted of shoplifting and given probation.'
On 12 October last year Yones stabbed Heshu 11
times after receiving an anonymous letter in
Kurdish that said his daughter was behaving like
a 'slut' and sleeping with her boyfriend on a
daily basis. She had brought shame on his family.
The attack was so violent that Heshu had multiple
stab wounds on her back, breast and chest. He had
cut her throat and there were marks on her hands
and forearms showing that she had desperately
tried to stop him. Police were called to the
estate in Acton, west London, after reports of a
man falling from a balcony. After the attack,
Yones had slit his own throat and jumped in a
suicide attempt.
They found keys on him and went up to the
third-floor flat. When they found Heshu's body, a
bent kitchen knife was protruding from her neck.
The sharp tip had been broken off when it had hit
her bone. Detective Inspector Brent Hyatt of the
Serious Crime Unit said he had never seen such a
horrific murder scene.
Yones asked the judge to have him executed for
the 'honour' killing. After the sentencing last
Monday, one of the teenager's friends said she
was glad he was not dead - she wanted him to
suffer for what he had done.
It was only days before the trial that Yones
changed his plea to guilty. He had earlier
claimed that members of al-Qaeda had broken into
his house, knocked him out and then killed his
daughter.
The case was difficult because the police believe
that a number of people were afraid to come
forward. They are carrying out further
investigations into possible intimidation. When
such crimes occur in tight-knit communities
people often do not want to talk about it.
One of Heshu's childhood friends who now lives
abroad was going to spend last Christmas with her
in London. She was told about the break-in and
murder and was not allowed to ask questions.
'I knew it was something to do with her father
and it was just some kind of cover-up, because I
knew what he was like,' she said yesterday,
asking for her name not to be published for fear
of retribution.
'My dad is really strict, but he's not as bad as
Heshu's dad. Parents shouldn't listen to other
Kurdish parents because they are always saying
nasty things about other people's daughters. They
still live in the Stone Age.'
Honour crimes and killings are not rare. The
Independent Women's Organisation in Kurdistan
reported that since 1991 up to 9,000 women had
been killed or had committed suicide because of
'shaming' the family.
The concept of punishment for dishonouring the
family exists within many cultures, including
countries such as Bangladesh, India and Pakistan
as well as Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Palestine and the
former USSR. It spreads across faiths from
Muslims and Sikhs to Christians. Bounty killers
are often hired to commit the crime, usually for
only a small sum of money or simply to help to
restore the lost honour.
A woman, or occasionally a man, can do a number
of things to disgrace the family, such as having
sex before marriage, requesting a divorce or
refusing to marry a chosen partner. Thousands of
British Asian women are forced into unwanted
marriages in Britain, Europe, Pakistan and India
each year.
Many take drastic measures to avoid such unions,
fleeing their family with nothing more than the
clothes they are wearing. Many others are
subjected to violence or virtual imprisonment to
prevent them 'shaming' their family. Some of the
victims are as young as 11.
In the past year alone, more than 400 women have
approached the Southall Black Sisters, an Asian
women's support group in London, for help against
violence. The vast majority had an element of
'honour'. The Asian Women's Outreach project in
Manchester dealt with 50 people last year. One
specialist police unit in another city in the
north of England dealt with 400.
Police and campaigners both say that as few as
one in ten victims comes forward. Heshu Yones had
been beaten for months before the murder. Days
before her death she had been planning to run
away and had given a farewell note to her father.
It read: 'Me and you will probably never
understand each other, but I'm sorry I wasn't
what you wanted, but there's some things you
can't change. Hey, for an older man you have a
good strong punch and kick. I hope you enjoyed
testing your strength on me, it was fun being on
the receiving end. Well done.'
Dara, 42, a close family friend of the Yoneses
and also from Kurdistan, said: 'In the Islamic
culture the honour of the family is in the sexual
organs. If someone is known to be a "bad boy or
girl", then the family honour is scratched. You
might say to your child, "If you continue like
this you will lose me", but there is no excuse
for taking a life.' He also points to families
rejecting Arab partners because of long-term
hostility between Arabs and Kurds.
Heshu's case has opened eyes to the true extent
of honour crimes in the UK. Scotland Yard has set
up a task force and signed a bilateral agreement
with Sweden - which has pioneered support for
targeted women - to find ways to prevent such
horrific crimes.
'There is absolutely no honour in murdering
someone,' says Andy Baker, head of the
Metropolitan Police's Serious Crime Directorate.
'I am passionate about saving lives, and if there
can be any good to come out of this tragedy then
in the name of Heshu let's try and do something
about this. If any woman comes to us and says she
has dishonoured her family, we will wrap her up.'
In the past year alone there have been 12 known
killings in the UK and many more women are
missing from their homes, with friends fearing
that they have been taken back to their country
of origin and killed.
When women go missing abroad it is often
impossible to find out what has happened to them.
Surjit Kaur Athwal went to Punjab with her
mother-in-law in December 1998, soon after she
had said she wanted to divorce her husband. She
never returned and her family have been
campaigning ever since to prove that she was
murdered.
Jagdeesh Singh, her brother, says: 'There is
absolutely no way she would go away and not call,
she had no cause to leave. She was commencing
with the divorce, she had a good job and friends.'
Jack Straw has agreed to meet the family next
month to discuss ways to pursue the case in
India. The family say they have been approached
by people who claim to know more about Surjit's
disappearance, but who refuse to go to the police.
'We have to denounce arguments that allow culture
as a justification,' says Aisha Gill, a lecturer
in criminology at the University of Surrey. 'Men
can afford such sexual freedom in society, and
believe they need to be strong and control their
women. I have looked at cases in Pakistan where
people are proud of what they have done and
publicly show how they have restored honour to
silence the women and let them know what will
happen to them.'
The Southall Black Sisters have also faced the
difficulties of dealing with people in some
communities who refuse to provide any information
about such crimes.
The police hope that Heshu's case may be a call
to people to wake up to the reality of these
crimes. 'This was her father,' said Hyatt. 'He is
supposed to protect her. He twisted, turned and
lied to avoid responsibility. She was a
well-behaved 16-year-old - if it can happen to
her, then we can only guess the extent of the
problem.'
Till death us do part
Yasmin Akhtar, 35, was kidnapped, strangled to
death and then set on fire in March 2002 after
she filed for a divorce from her husband,
Mohammed Jamil. Her stepson hired three men to
track her down and they strangled her with parcel
tape in Surrey when they decided she needed to be
silenced. The four men were jailed for life
earlier this year.
When Badshu Miah suspected that his estranged
wife was having numerous affairs, including with
white women, he visited her east London flat in
September 2002. He used a machete and a kitchen
knife to kill Nurjahan Khatun, her four-year-old
daughter and her disabled brother. He was given
three life sentences.
In February 2002 Faqir Mohammed, from Manchester,
was sent to prison for murder after stabbing his
24-year-old daughter 20 times when he found her
with a boyfriend at their family home.
______
[3]
Hindustan Times, New Delhi
September 28, 2003
THE ECHO OF GUJARAT'S ANGUISH
By Harsh Mander
The unprecedented outrage of the Supreme Court of
India at the brazen subversion of all civilised
principles of justice by the elected state
government of Gujarat, echoed the collective
anguish of large sections of the Indian people at
the open partisanship and utter impunity of the
state machinery.
The damning observations of the highest court in
the land were made in the context of the Best
Bakery case, which has justly captured national
attention. However, this is only one of
literally thousands of cases in which justice has
been cynically and efficiently subverted by state
authorities in Gujarat, in the aftermath of the
carnage of 2002. Of the 4252 cases registered in
connection with the mass violence, as many as
2107 have been closed without even the issue of a
chargesheet to the courts. In 36 cases, the
accused have been acquitted after trial. In no
case have the accused been punished.
The closure or cases or acquittal of the accused
in more than half the cases registered after the
massacre, in the short space of around one and a
half years, is all the more extraordinary, given
the uiversally sluggish pace of criminal justice
in our country. This is the outcome of
systematic planned subversion of justice in a
manner not unlike the planning of the massacre
itself. 19 year old Bilkis of Randikpur village,
who was 5 months pregnant at that time, was gang
raped, and escaped murder by her assaulters only
because she fell unconscious, and was assumed to
be dead. She is the lone surviving witness to 14
murders and 8 gang rapes including herself. She
told her story to the police, who merely took her
thumb impression on a blank sheet of paper. They
then wrote an FIR which did not mention rape and
referred only to violence by an unknown mob. The
men she named walked away free, and the police
characterised her a mentally 'unstable'.
Thorough the intervention of human rights
lawyers, a medical examination was ordered but
only after the lapse of 15 days and no evidence
of rape was detected. The case stands closed as
far as the police are concerned.
Many of the cases that have been closed were
deliberately destroyed in this way at the stage
of the filing of the FIR itself. The accused
were not named, and instead the violence was
attributed to anonymous mobs. In many cases,
omnibus FIRs were filed in advance by the police,
in which often the victims were accused of
instigating the mobs. Subsequent complaints by
victims were then subsumed under the police FIRs
as in the Naroda Patiya case, and the names of
many of the main accused eliminated.
In Panchmahal district, for instance, two tempos
carrying refugees from Kidiyad village in
Sabarkantha were burned en route, killing 73
persons. The case was closed six months ago. Not
a single person was named in the chargesheets as
the accused, although witnesses had given the
police the names of the culprits. All the accused
have been acquitted and this is more glaring
because the witnesses had identified the accused.
The witnesses named the real accused in the court
but the public prosecutor did not apply to the
courts asking for suitable direction to the
investigation authorities. The court while
passing the order of acquittal had made some
observation as regards the shoddy investigation
that had carried out by them. 13 people were
killed in Ambika Society, Kalol, Panchmahals.
The FIR has been clubbed with 3 other incidents
which had happened at 3 different places Kalol,
Boru and Vejalpur.
Investigation in many cases, of which the Best
Bakery case is only one example, was assigned to
tainted police officers accused of abetting or
even participating in the massacre. Witnesses to
Ahmedabad's Chamanpura massacre are asking for a
re-investigation into the case. They allege that
the police did not take down their testimonies
properly, deliberately omitting details and the
names of the accused. Around 67 people, including
former MP Ehsan Jaffrey, were burned alive in the
massacre.
Once trial begins, prosecution is frequently
deliberately shoddy and partisan. In the case
relating to the violence in Sardarpura village in
Mehsana district, where 33 people were burned
alive, and Dipta Darwaja in Vishnagar, the
witnesses have asked for a Special Public
Prosecutor. The current District Public
Prosecutor is Dilip Trivedi, the general
secretary of the VHP. He filed a no objection to
bail being granted to the Sardarpura accused.
Other public prosecutors with known Sangh links
include Piyush Gandhi, President of the VHP in
Panchmahals, PS Dhora in Anand, Sanjay Bhatt in
Vadodara and Chetan Shah in Ahmedabad.
The accused are frequently not arrested, under
the specious claim that they are 'absconding',
whereas they openly threaten and intimidate the
witnesses. In Anjanwa, Panchamahals, a total of
11 people were killed. There are about 47 accused
out of which only 32 were arrested and 15 are
'absconding'. The witnesses here are demanding in
vain that the properties of those accused who
have been absconding should be attached in a
similar fashion as had happened in the case of
Godhra. In Eral, the main witnesses is a mother
whose daughter was raped and killed by the mob.
She has asked for the 'absconding' accused to be
arrested and their names included in the
chargesheet. But the judge in this case has
refused to begin the trial unless all the
witnesses are present at the same time in the
court room.
With such shoddy investigation and deliberately
subversive prosecution, it is not surprising that
cases are falling like a house of cards. In the
Limbdia Chowkdi case, 12 people were arrested for
setting on fire and killing 15 persons while they
were escaping from an attack on their village.
The court acquitted all of them. A fast-track
court in Gandhinagar acquitted all 22 persons
accused of looting a farmhouse in Pimplaj. The
verdict came on the same day as the Best Bakery
judgment was passed. In this case too, the
victim, Mohammad Noor Fakir Mohammad, turned
hostile. In the Panderwada village massacre, in
which 32 people were murdered, all 15 accused
were acquitted but there are over 60 others who
have not been arrested due to shoddy
investigation.
The injustice is further compounded by the
large-scale arrest of people of the minority
community, and the strenuous resistance by the
police to their applications for bail. In
Jalkukdi, near Pandarwada innocent 8 people
were arrested and then kept in jail for 8 months.
When the police claimed later that there was no
case against and that the case against them
should be dropped, the judge did so but the
victims by then had suffered psychologically,
socially and incurred huge losses as they had
hired a private lawyer for their defence.
The brazenly partisan exercise of state authority
is most evident in the unapologetically
discriminatory application of the draconian POTA
exclusively against minorities. All 240 cases of
POTA in Gujarat have been filed against
minorities, and all but one of these has been
filed against Muslims. Most of the POTA accused
have languished for well over a year in prison
without bail. By contrast, despite the brutal
carnage which took more than 2000 lives, not one
of the accused have been booked by the state
government under POTA.
For the first time in independent India, the
state government refused to set up relief camps
for the survivors of the brutal massacre. Relief
camps set up by the battered community had
sub-human conditions, but even these were
forcefully disbanded by the state government but
many survivors of the carnage are still too
terrified to return to their homes in the face of
a social and economic blockage. Compensation was
arbitrary, discriminatory and a pittance, and
again for the first time so soft loans were
extended by any bank to assist people to rebuild
their devastated homes.
There has been injustice and partisanship by
state authorities in India in the past. But never
in independent India have state authorities
treated a segment of its citizens with such open
consistent and elaborate discrimination, in
defiance of every civilised principle of justice
and the rule of law. The collective failure, of
democratic institutions and citizens, to resist,
diminishes and enslaves us all.
_____
[4]
[See,flyer distributed at Columbia university
campus in New York on the occasion of the recent
visit by Vajpayee to a newly created Earth
Institute.]
WHAT IS THE CONNECTION BETWEEN ATAL BIHARI
VAJPAYEE AND ANTI-MINORITY VIOLENCE IN INDIA?
http://www.insaf.net/foil/vajpayeeflier.htm
______
[5]
Secular Perspective, October 1-15, 2003
AYODHYA'S VOICE
Asghar Ali Engineer
I visited Ayodhya recently along with the
Magasaysay awardee Mr. Sandeep Panday who has
been working here for quite sometime to bring
peace to this strife torn town. It is so
interesting to talk to people of this place. I
had to hold a workshop on communal harmony for
Ayodhya and Faizabad towns and Sandeep was
helping us in this connection. We met a cross
section of people to hear their voice.
The country hears only the voice of Sangh Parivar
and their most aggressive members like Singhal
and Togadia. The media also has no time to
project the voice of people of Ayodhya. Perhaps
it does not sell. What sells is the powerful
voice of Sangh Parivar and this Parivar has
convinced the world that it is most authentic
voice of 800 million Hindus of this country.
The communal forces always tend to homogenise the
whole community as if millions of people
belonging to a community speak one voice and
surrender their minds and bodies to one
individual or one party or one clique of persons.
It is this one individual or party or group which
takes all decisions and others simply endorse it.
No dissent is ever tolerated. It is violently
suppressed if it ever raises its voice. Before
partition Jinnah also projected himself as the
sole representative of Indian Muslims. All others
had to endorse his decisions.
The Sangh Parivar always maintains that all
Hindus want to build the Ram temple at Ayodhya
and that it is historical fact that a temple
stood there and Babar demolished it and build a
mosque in its place. It is a 'proven fact' and no
one can question it. And the one who does, is an
'enemy of Hinduism'. The communalists have sole
right to understand and interpret history.
It is miracle of modern day propaganda through
media that has converted a non-existent problem
into the most potent problem. What did not exist
has not only become a powerful problem but has
also become the cause of killing of thousands of
innocent people across India. It was on account
of Ramjanambhoomi-Babri Masjid problem that 59
people were set afire in Sabarmati Express in
Godhra on 27 February 2001 and more than one
thousand people killed most cruelly in
retaliatory act in Gujarat from 28th February
onwards and continued for more than six months.
And it was on account of this non-existent
problem that BJP rode to power though it had
repeatedly failed to do so before. Shri L.K.
Advani's rath yatra in 1990 failed to lead to
Ayodhya as planned but did lead to Delhi as
intended. The rath may not reach Ayodhya in near
future but it does help retaining Delhi. The
raths in medieval period helped win wars so the
modern Toyota rath led the BJP to power in Delhi.
The people of Ayodhya know this better than
anyone else. They have paid heavy price for it
and still continue to pay. And they have been as
helpless so far as other people of India have
been. They have silently borne the brunt of Sangh
Parivar's aggression for years. They are, it
seems, no longer prepared to do so. Every time
the VHP leaders announce their programme of 'kar
seva' or sant yatra or Ram Lalla darshan the
people of Ayodhya have to shut their shops. Lakhs
invade the town disturbing their normalcy and
often inviting prolonged curfews. Every citizen
of Ayodhya shudders to think of VHP programmes in
their town.
Now again the VHP has announced its programme in
Ayodhya on 17th October. Lakhs of 'Rambhakts'
once again will march to that town for 'Ram Lalla
Darshan'. Everyone I met in Ayodhya told me that
every time election is announced the VHP tries to
organise its show in Ayodhya as if this is the
only way for BJP to win elections. It is people
of Ayodhya who pay price for the election
anywhere in India. The BJP perhaps knows no other
way of winning the election.
We met Mahant Gyandas who is chief Mahant of
Hanuman Garhi temple which is one of the most
significant shrines of Ayodhya. The Mahant was
sitting surrounded by his followers. It is
important to note that the land for Hanuman Garhi
temple was donated by the Nawab of Avadh and the
temple was built by one of his Nawab's Hindu
courtier.
I asked the Mahant whether he would like
Ramjanambhoomi temple to be built at the site of
Babri Masjid. Gyandas told me the temple can be
built only when Hindus and Muslims come together
to build the temple. Hindu-Muslim unity is more
important than the temple. If they cannot agree
to build the temple let us wait for court's
verdict. It cannot be built by shedding human
blood.
When Gynadasji was saying this I was reminded of
Maulana Azad's presidential address at the
Ramgarh session of AICC. Maulana had said in his
presidential address that even if an angel
descended from heaven and declared that I have
brought the gift of India's freedom from heaven,
I would refuse to accept it until Hindu-Muslim
unity is achieved. For, if India does not get
freedom it is India's loss but if Hindu-Muslim
unity is not achieved, it is humanity's loss.
The Hanuman Garhi's Mahant was also making almost
similar point. If the temple is to built it is
Sangh Parivar's loss but if Hindu-Muslim unity is
disturbed it is entire country's loss as well as
loss for whole humanity. But who cares if
humanity suffers as long as the Sangh Parivar can
come to power. Mahant Gyandasji is against VHP
and considers it as anti-Hindu. VHP, he tells me,
has no right to talk in the name of Hindus.
Hindus have not elected them to represent them or
to build Ramjanambhoomi temple in their name. He
also said that those who tore open the stomach of
a pregnant woman and threw the foetus into the
fire cannot even qualify as Hindus, let alone
building a temple in the sacred city of Ayodhya
in their name.
Sandeep had also convened the meeting of many
other Mahants and some citizens of Ayodhya who
have constituted an organisation called Ayodhya
ki Awaz (Voice of Ayodhya). The Mahants and other
people of Ayodhya have floated this organisation
in order to fight the VHP plan to convert Ayodhya
into a battle ground for their war for power.
They have suffered silently so far but can bear
it no longer and have decided to fight it out
peacefully and democratically. Ayodhya ki Awaz
has now become voice of all peace loving people
of Ayodhya.
The meeting was attended by some important
Mahants of Ayodhya like Mahant Bhawnath Das who
was also Sarpanch of Hanuman Garhi and is
president of Samajwadi Sant Sabha. He presided
over the meeting. Jugal Kishore Shashtri also
took part in the meeting who is convenor of
Ayodhya ki Awaz and also edits the weekly paper
Ramjanambhoomi. He counters the VHP propaganda
through his paper. Shri Shashtri is quite vocal
and committed to maintaining peace in Ayodhya.
Another Mahant Madhuwan Das, a Mahant associated
with Hanuman Garhi and who is also a corporator
from Ramjanambhoomi ward was also present in the
meeting. Mahant Girish Tripathi who has done his
M.A. in political science from JNU also took part
in the meeting. Badal Acharya who is son of Chief
Mahant of Dant Dhawan Kund and is preparing to
take over as Mahant himself and Rangesh Achari
son of Rajsabha Mandir too came for the meeting.
One Sadiq Ali, an activist who repeatedly
suffered in Ayodhya is also actively associated
with this organisation and was present in the
meeting.
In his introductory remarks Bhawnath Das said
that it was high time that we fought against
those who go to the extent of setting fire to the
Sabarmati compartment killing scores of innocent
Hindus in order to organise carnage of Muslims so
that they can win the elections in Gujarat. They
would like to convert whole India into Gujarat,
if they could. Now we must show courage and fight
the VHP menace.
A concrete programme was chalked out for facing
the situation on 17th October when the VHP is
again trying to bring lakhs of its supporters to
Ayodhya. All Mahants present in the meeting felt
that since elections have been announced in the
four states the VHP is again staging this drama
and it should not get away with it every time.
Everyone present felt that this committee should
demand ban on the entry of outsiders like Singhal
and Togadia and a memorandum to be submitted to
the chief minister of U.P. to this effect. There
was some difference of opinion whether they
should demand ban on entry of so-called
Rambhaktas. It was suggested that those who want
to come for genuine Ram Lalla darshan should come
in groups of four or five. However, Jugalkishore
Shashtri was of the opinion that those brought by
VHP should not be allowed to enter Ayodhya at all
on 17th October.
It was also decided to stage a peaceful dharna at
the Gandhi statue in Ayodhya on 2nd October to
highlight these demands. The members of working
committee and some others should take part in
this dharna. It was also decided that citizens of
Ayodhya should resist entry of VHP supporters on
17th October and one person from every house in
Ayodhya should take part in it. Suitable
pamphlets and stickers would be published for
mobilising the people of Ayodhya.
It is indeed heartening that many Mahants and
other people of Ayodhya are girding up their
lions to fight the VHP campaign, which has
nothing to do with building Ramjanambhoomi temple
but only to keep alive this controversy for
political purposes. The voiceless people of
Ayodhya who have suffered for so long are now
giving themselves an effective voice. The Mahants
have also decided not to sit it out silently.
They are preparing to throw gauntlet to the VHP
at last.
(Centre for Study of Society and Secularism Mumbai
www.csss-isla.com )
______
[6]
Dawn, October 6, 2003
Indian communalism makes good business sense
By Jawed Naqvi
Contrary to the belief that the recent religious
carnage in Gujarat has harmed the state's
economy, we could be seeing proof of a smart
turnaround.
The economic damage may have been a short-term
price paid for happier days that look set to
follow for business and industry alike in India's
most prosperous state. Indeed, in several crucial
ways, communalism has proved to be a profitable
venture in India.
Let's look at a few recent events to assess how
religious mayhem works and how it has become a
vital tool in driving India's massive economic
agenda, an agenda that many regard as a euphemism
for reckless dismemberment of the state sector
and for scandal-marked attempts to woo foreign
investors by hook or by crook.
Now it is not a huge secret that the Ayodhya
temple movement, which triggered the by now
familiar communal eruptions across much of the
country, had in fact begun precisely at a time
when India's economic reforms were launched under
the Congress party dispensation of Prime Minister
P.V. Narasimha Rao.
Roughly a year before Mr Rao's elevation as prime
minister in a minority government, Mr Lal Krishan
Advani had embarked on his notorious rath yatra,
or chariot trip, in a cross-country campaign for
a Hindu temple in Ayodhya.
It may have been a minor corollary to the main
theme, but Mr Advani's journey in a locally
assembled Toyota truck was symbolic of how
India's economic liberalization would ride on the
back of a regressive agenda of religious
fundamentalism in a decade of volatile politics.
So while Dr Manmohan Singh, Mr Rao's genial
finance minister, basked in the hosannas from
home and abroad for setting in motion the
country's first sweeping reforms, it was Mr
Advani's Hindutva campaign on the Ayodhya temple
that preoccupied parliament right through its
five-year term.
On February 29, 1992, Dr Singh presented his
first budget. On December 6 that year the Babri
Mosque was demolished. The next year's budget was
overshadowed by the Mumbai carnage and bomb
blasts. Take any yearafter that and look up the
parliamentary discussions on the budget, and you
will always see one or the other communal agenda
diverting MPs from the issue at hand.
Economic reforms in India do not have a popular
mandate. No elections are ever fought on the
management of fiscal deficits and interest rates.
That's because the consuming class is estimated
to be no more than 200 million. Even if we factor
in an another 100 million wannabes we are looking
at a figure of around 300 million who make up the
middle class. That's nearly as large as the EU
market but it leaves more than 700 million
Indians out of the market as it were.
In a one-man one-vote situation, the 700 million
rather than 300 million should be calling the
shots. But that's not how it goes. In the
volatile politics of the country, democracy works
on two tracks: one to garner votes on religious
and caste issues, the other to push the agenda of
the minority stakeholders or the 300-million who
make up the market.
It was a highly dubious coincidence that the
entire Indian parliament sat with rapt attention
for at least one full hour on February 28, 2002,
to hear the budget speech at precisely the time
when bloody massacres were peaking in Gujarat.
The budget of course would soon be forgotten.
After doling out all the goodies to the minority
stakeholders, the discussion, as always, did turn
to how badly riven society was. There was much
hand-wringing and accusations and countercharges
about communalism but no discussion on the
budget's real agenda.
Communalism in India not only takes the focus
away from the common man's issues of bread and
livelihood, it also thwarts organized attempts to
resist what is a grossly inequitable system.
Thus, in Mumbai, the financial hub of India,
where the organized left once controlled powerful
trade unions, rightwing Hindu groups have taken
charge of the working classes' agenda.
Similarly, the rightwing communal upsurge in
Gujarat has deftly used Muslims and Christians as
targets to implement a more subtle agenda - to
cleanse the region of organized trade unions. It
is not a coincidence that one of the well-known
victims of the pogroms in Ahmedabad was Ehsaan
Jaffri, who was more a left-leaning leader with a
strong trade union background than just a leading
Muslim personality. He was cut to pieces before
he was set on fire while the police turned a
blind eye to a day-long siege of his building by
fanatic mobs.
It is in this background that we should view last
week's business jamboree in Ahmedabad, Gujarat's
prosperous capital and site of the gut-wrenching
massacre of Muslims barely 18 months ago. It was
an impressive line-up of the movers and shakers
of corporate India who lined up under the
approving smile of Deputy Prime Minister Advani
to commit massive investments in the state.
Indeed, the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors'
Summit was launched to a flying start with the
announcement by the state's homegrown Reliance
group of a Rs 100-billion investment in the state
over the next three years.
Similarly, the Federation of Indian Chambers of
Commerce and Industry announced an advisory
council to be headed by Chief Minister Narendra
Modi "to prepare a strategy document for the
growth of Gujarat."
Over five days, sessions on infrastructure, ports
and roads, oil and gas sector, tourism,
bio-technology and pharmaceuticals, minerals and
mining, agro-processing and education, were held
in Ahmedabad and Surat. There were conferences on
textiles and garments and gems and jewellery too.
This time though there was no breast beating
about the 'dark side' of society. It was strictly
business, and everyone was in a rush to prove
they were on the right side.
* * * * *
We are told that the much-hyped deal between the
ministry of defence and Boeing for the supply of
three Air Force One-type aircraft, fitted with a
hi-tech missile defence system and special
communication package for Indian leaders, has run
into rough weather.
The Boeing 737-700s were meant to replace the
ageing aircraft of the Indian Air Force that
carry the prime minister and president abroad.
The defence ministry had floated a tender for
these business jets. Boeing had won the order
with its offer of $154 million against Airbus'
$171 million for the three aircraft.
Apparently the Boeing deal was withheld because
the US company had refused to transfer the
technology used in the aircraft's security
system. After the Chinese experience, the Indian
Air Force insisted on having full transfer of
technical know-how of all the gadgets that Boeing
planned to load in the aircraft. No one has
forgotten that Boeing had supplied a completely
bugged aircraft to China which the Chinese
managed to detect, creating an uproar around the
world.
______
[7]
[Online Petition to be submitted to the Indian
Medical Council, seeking action against the
leader of the Vishva Hindu Parishad for
incitement and hateful propaganda. The VHP played
an influential role in triggering the recent
pogroms of Gujarat. Please take few minutes to
sign the petition ]
Deregister Dr. Pravin Togadia for Professional Misconduct
http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/Togadia/
______
[8.]
[ Newspapers in Goa: Fighting Fascism !]
rajannarayan.com
WE HAVE TO ACT NOW
THE NEED for all of us to come together to start
a multimedia organization. Owned by the people,
run by professionals under the supervision of
trustees with an impeachable reputation,
uncompromisingly committed to the public interest
has acquired an even greater sense of urgency.
It has acquired an even greater sense of urgency
because the freedom of the press in Goa has never
been threatened so seriously ever before. On
Wednesday, the Chief Minister of Goa incredibly
and unprecedentedly had the temerity and the
impertinence to actually issue a legal notice to
the editor and publisher of every newspaper
published from the state of Goa.
A legal notice which demanded that the entire
local media including The Navhind Times, the
Gomantak group, Tarun Bharat, and of course, the
Herald, should refrain “from, in anyway
publishing any further or other defamatory pieces
or statements made by any person including Mr.
Luizinho Faleiro (president of the Goa Pradesh
Congress Committee) against my client (Chief
Minister, Manohar Parrikar), failing which
Manohar Parrikar will proceed to file an
appropriate complaint as well as a suit for
injunction as well as for recovery of damages
solely at your cost and consequences as to the
risk involved in the same.”
Translated into English, this means in plain and
simple terms, that while the media is welcome and
in fact, is obliged to publish any and every
charge made by the Chief Minister, Manohar
Parrikar, against the Opposition, the media is
forbidden from carrying any charges made by the
opposition against Manohar Parrikar. Except
during the brief obscenity called the emergency
in 1975, no Prime Minister or Chief Minister –
not even the Chief Monster of Gujarat, Narendra
Modi – has made such a blatant attempt to stifle
the voice of freedom.
Why is the Chief Minister and the Param Sanchalak
of the Sangh Parivar in the State of Goa so
incensed? Why is the Chief Minister of Goa acting
even more megalomaniacally than he has been in
the historical past? The answer to this is
simple. The Chief Minister can dish it out. He
cannot take it. The Chief Minister has started
believing that he is the font of all wisdom. That
he is the epitome of good governance. That he is
God. And of course, no one, let alone the little
voice in the media, dare point out that the
emperor is actually naked.
It is necessary to understand the context in
which the Chief Minister has issued this
preposterous legal notice to the entire local
media. It has been the fashion of the Chief
Minister to intimidate the Opposition through
blackmail. When Nirmala Sawant was the President
of the Goa Pradesh Congress, and was
inconsiderate enough to point out the pimples and
the warts on the face of the Bharatiya Janata
Party, Manohar Parrikar accused her of attempting
to bribe one of his legislators into defecting.
Ever since the incumbent President of the Goa
Pradesh Congress Committee, Luizinho Faleiro,
came out of sanyas and started getting a little
too vocal, and a little too vociferous, Manohar
Parrikar had been plotting and planning and
scheming to compel him to get back to sanyas.
So, Manohar Hitler Parrikar recently came out
with a white paper which he himself, described as
a black or yellow paper, charging the President
of the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee with having
defrauded the Economic Development Corporation,
the principal financing agency in the State.
Unfortunately for Manohar Devious Parrikar, the
kettle starting flinging back charges at the pot.
And it really hurt when Luizinho Faleiro made the
allegation that the Economic Development
Corporation had violated the rules in being
extraordinarily indulgent to the defaulting
brother-in-law of the Chief Minister. And
Parrikar, who is very loyal to his family,
clearly flipped his lid. And presumably in the
belief that not only the king, but no members of
his family or his courtiers can ever be guilty of
any wrong doing, the Chief Minister decided to
hammer the message home that he was beyond any
criticism.
Beyond any criticism by any leader of the
Opposition. And beyond any criticism by the
lowly, pestilent, vermin, that go by the name of
journalists. How dare the media criticize the man
who sees himself as the symbol of good
governance. The Harishchandra who is above
reproach. The Rama who is incapable of evil or
misdemeanors even in thought, leave alone word.
So, megalomaniacally petulant Manohar Parrikar
like some roadside goonda decided to threaten the
Opposition and the media.
We are not surprised at Manohar Parrikar’s act of
dadagiri against the media. He has done it in the
past on a retail scale. What is different this
time, is that he is done it wholesale. What we
are appalled by, is the manner in which the media
barons and editors (with the exception of the
editor of the Herald) reacted to this outrage.
In any other state in the country or indeed, in
any other part of the world, such an act of
executive arrogance would have led at the least,
to a total boycott of the Chief Minister. But not
in Goa, adjudged the best state in the country by
India Today. Presumably India Today did not
evaluate Manohar Parrikar on the Moditva scale.
Unbelievably, incredibly, unprecedentedly, except
for the Herald, none of the newspaper in Goa,
even reported the fact that the Chief Minister
Manohar Parrikar had threatened the entire media
in the state. The section of the press which
claims it is the repository of truth was totally
silent. The vernacular newspapers also displayed
abject servility. It did not occur to either the
owners or the managements or the editors of
newspapers in Goa that they would all be reduced
to the level of a government gazette if they did
not stand up to the bullying tactics of Manohar
Idi Amin Parrikar.
Which is why the need to create a multimedia
organization, owned by the people, run by
professionals with a sturdy backbone has acquired
a great urgency. And that is why I am now asking
you to tangibly express support for the new media
organization, which will set us all free.
Set us all free from the despotism of
megalomaniac politicians. Set us all free from
cringing, crawling owners of newspapers. Set us
all free from those who put private profit before
public interest. Set us all free from those who
wish to stifle your right to information. Set us
all free from the bondage and the servitude of
little, petty men, who have no respect for either
other people’s rights or the fundamental right to
freedom of speech, guaranteed to all of us in the
Constitution. Freedom has a price tag. Are you
willing to pay it? If so, the time has come for
you to make tangible financial commitments to the
multimedia organization, which will be owned by
you, run by professionals and will never
compromise on your right to know. A media
organization which will lead kindly light in the
encircling gloom, and illuminate your lives.
WHY MUST YOU GET INVOLVED?
· Because there is no effective Opposition
group to fight the Saffron Agenda of the BJP.
· Because all Opposition leaders have
either been bought over by the BJP or have been
blackmailed into silenced
· Because the media which could have served
as a check on the abuse and misuse of power is
being intimidated into silence.
· Because the existing pattern of ownership
of the media cannot guarantee that public
interest will not be sacrificed at the altar of
private greed.
The people need an independent voice which will
genuinely reflect the hopes, fears dreams and
aspirations as well as redress their grievances.
How can we ensure a truly independent media
organization wholly committed to the public
interest?
· By creating together a newspaper which
will be wholly owned by the readers, managed by
professionals, and function under the supervision
of a Board of Trustees.
· By supplementing and reinforcing the
written word with a dedicated Konkancentric
Television Channel.
· By extending it’s reach worldwide through
a constantly updated online reportage & analysis
of events as they happen
· By bridging vital information gaps to
give resident & non-resident Goans that vital
competitive edge they need in a globalised world.
WHAT CAN WE DO?
· Come together to set up an independent
analytical in depth Sunday newspaper which would
grow into a daily.
· Come together to use the existing
infrastructure in the electronic media to debate,
discuss and illuminate current issues of public
concern.
· Come together to meet a wide and deeply
felt need for specific user-friendly information
on subjects of everyday concern.
WHAT ARE WE DOING?
· We are in the process of setting up
appropriate corporate structures which will
ensure the widest participation, total
uncompromising commitment and accountability to
the public interest.
· We are working very hard to ensure that,
with your benediction,the Independent Goan
Observer (IGO) in print form will be available to
you by November 15, 2003.
· We are setting up the infrastructure to
produce Video CDs on current affairs modeled on
“We the people” which will be telecast through
the Cable Channels beginning the 1st Sunday of
November, 2003.
· We are in the process of preparing
authenticated user-friendly informative guides,
to begin with, one on how to ensure that your
dream home does not become a nightmare.
WHAT DO WE NEED FROM YOU?
· We need your moral and financial support.
· We need to know from you what safeguards
we can build to ensure that your interests are
never compromised.
· We need your active enthusiastic
involvement as investors, business associates and
subscribers.
The sooner you get involved, the faster we can reach our goal.
A conservatively optimistic profit and loss and
cash flow is given below for the benefit of
sentimental but hardheaded businessmen. We must
warn you that there will be a long gestation
period and no quick returns. However, all those
willing to invest will be given incentives like
advertising space either heavily discounted or
free to the equivalent of the value of the
investment. We would also be willing to help
investors with their problems with regards to the
bureaucracy particularly in respect of property
matters.
Please confirm your willingness to be a part of
this venture, and how and to what measure you can
contribute. This projection is for the initial
phase only.
We are waiting, wanting and eager for your
immediate response on email:
editor at rajannarayan.com
You can log on to our website rajannarayan.com
for continued updated information on the progress
on all these fronts.
MOG ASSUM RAJAN NARAYAN
______
[9]
The Hindustan Times, October 5, 2003
Desi version of 'flash mob' unleashed in Mumbai
Saurabh Azad and Agencies
New Delhi, October 4
A two-minute drama brought shoppers at one of the
swankiest shopping malls in Mumbai to a
standstill on Saturday evening.
At exactly 5.02 pm, 68 people -- many of whom had
met just 20 minutes before -- gathered at the
Crossroads shopping complex. What happened in the
next two minutes left people zapped for hours.
They first created a stock market-like situation
at the mall, and suddenly began shouting
"Reliance Khareedo Paanch Sau", "Infosys Becho Ek
Hazaar" and waving around instructions like
stockbrokers.
But even before onlookers could react, the scene
transformed into a Garba dance sequence and the
mobbers started swinging and dancing without any
music. And then, in another few seconds, they
turned into mannequins, opened umbrellas and
walked away, leaving behind a horde of dazed and
confused Mumbaikers.
The event, organised by 25-year-old Rohit
Tikmany, was a desi version of the latest global
fad called "flash mob" (FM) -- an
Internet-inspired affair where large groups of
people gather at a moment's notice, perform an
bizarre activity and then disperse.
The trend, which began in New York in June, has
spread quickly across the world.
Similar outbreaks have hit streets in various
cities around the world in recent months as the
phenomenon crossed the United States to Japan and
Europe.
Europe's first "flash mob" hit Rome last month,
when a group thronged at a bookshop and peppered
staff with queries about non-existent books.
Last week, a few dozen people marched onto a busy
Berlin street, whipped out their mobile phones
shouting "Yes, yes" in unison, stopping
passers-by in their tracks.
So, how does a flash mob work?
Arranged via websites and e-mails, flash mobbers
voluntarily and simultaneously converge at an
agreed venue and follow pre-determined
instructions for the event. They partake in a
silly and harmless activity and then disperse at
a given time.
When asked about security, Tikmany says,
"Everything has to be very meticulously planned.
We had taken care of all possible eventualities.
As far as the legal angle is concerned, I don't
think anyone should object to such an event."
Supporting Tikmany's view, Atul Kumar, an
advocate at the Delhi High Court, says, "Not much
can be done against them because they are not
doing anything illegal. At most, police can take
some pre-emptive measures."
What's next? Similar bizarrely-themed events are
planned for Dublin, Amsterdam Paris and even
Delhi. A Delhi-based flash mob site,
www.delhimobs.com, was launched on Friday night.
So, get ready to be zapped.
o o o
See: www.mumbaimobs.org/
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
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). [Please
note the SACW web site has gone down, you will
have to for the time being search google cache
for materials]
The complete SACW archive is available at: http://sacw.insaf.net
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necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers.
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