SACW | 18 Oct. 2003

[Harsh Kapoor]

SOUTH ASIA CITIZENS WIRE   |  18 October,  2003

Announcements:
a)  The South Asia Citizens Web web site is down, 
users are invited to use Google cache till 
further notice. The web site is being redesigned 
and will be up soon on a new server.
b) 'South Asia Counter Information Project' a 
back-up, archive area and sister site of SACW can 
be accessed at: http://perso.wanadoo.fr/sacw/
c) All  SACW and associated list members in India 
wanting to consult web sites being blocked at 
groups.yahoo.com   may try to bypass the 'ban' 
via:
http://www.proxify.com
http://www.multiproxy.org/multiproxy.htm

+++++

[1] [The Islamic Summit] Mahathir's Fear of A Jewish Planet (Naeem Mohaiemen)
[2]  Pakistan: Campaigning Needed for repeal of 
the Hudood Ordinances (Zofeen T. Ebrahim)
India: The BJP's long record of extremism & 
duplicity sits ill with its feigned moderation 
(Praful Bidwai)
[3] India: Devil's workshop (Jan Breman)
[4] India: Mayhem In Ayodhya & After
- Ayodhya Dairy: Desperate Attempts at the End (Raghuvanshmani)
- Nipped in the Bud (Editorial, The Hindustan Times)
[5] India: Hindutva's Advance in Goa: Experiments 
In Truth (editorial, in Herald)
[6] Promise of India peace initiative
[7]

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

[1.]

http://www.altmuslim.com/headlines_more.php?id=1099_0_24_0_M

MAHATHIR STRIKES OUT: FEAR OF A JEWISH PLANET
By Naeem Mohaiemen

  The OIC (Organization of Islamic Countries) is
starting its meeting in Malaysia this week under a
cloud.  Instead of being a dynamic world body, it is
in danger of becoming an ineffective and dysfunctional
organization.  Take, first of all, the fact that the
OIC conference in Malaysia is their first meeting
since 9/11.  Therefore the  invasions of Afghanistan
and Iraq, civil liberties violations against Muslims,
and the continuing expansion of neo-Empire have gone
unopposed by this body.  On top of this comes the
unbelievable news that the OIC is seriously
considering Bangladesh's nomination of  Salahuddin
Quader Chowdhury as Secretary General.  An alleged war
criminal who has been accused of assisting the
Pakistan army's genocidal actions during Bangladesh's
1971 liberation war, Chowdhury is a symbol of
rehabilitation of war criminals in South Asia.  To now
appoint this man SG of the OIC would reduce the
organization to a global laughing stock.

  As the OIC began its meeting this week, Malaysia's
Mahathir Mohammed grabbed headlines and dragged the
organization further into the mud.  Sounding like a
fresh convert to propaganda tracts like "Protocols of
the Elders of Zion," Mohammed let loose an onslaught
of anti-semitic polemic at the opening ceremonies of
the OIC.  In his fiery speech, he told leaders of the
Islamic world that 1.3 billion Muslims could not be
"defeated by a few million Jews" who "rule the world
by proxy."  For good measure he then added, "This tiny
[Jewish] community has become a world power. We cannot
fight them through brawn alone. We must use our brains
as well."  This is not Mahathir's first flirtation
with anti-semitic invective.  In 1970, he resurrected
Shakespeare's "hook-nosed Jew" ("Certainly the Jew is
the very devil incarnal"; Act II, Sc 2) in "The Malay
Dilemma": "The Jews for example are not merely
hook-nosed, but understand money instinctively." In
1997, when speculators drove down the value of the
Malaysian currency, an angry Mahathir said, "We are
Muslims and the Jews are not happy to see Muslims'
progress. We may suspect that they have an agenda but
we do not want to accuse them."

  Of course, criticizing the Israeli government is not
the same as anti-semitism.  When Mahathir condemns
Israeli aggression against Palestinians and
neighboring countries, he repeats a critique that many
progressive Jewish commentators will agree with
(recall, some of the strongest critique of Ariel
Sharon's "Apartheid Wall" comes from the Israeli
newspaper Ha'aretz).  But by expanding that critique
to include the entire Jewish community, and to talk
about "the Jewish race" and their "tendencies",
Mahathir has crossed over into anti-semitism.
Moreover, his comments come at a fragile time for the
Muslim ummah.  Liberal Muslims are trying to push
their countries to embrace human rights in places like
Iran and Nigeria.  Others are trying to stem the tide
of converts to fanatical organizations preaching
violence and the murder of civilians.  In a time like
this, Mahathir's ill-thought comments will only
enflame radical Muslims further and strengthen the
hand of the right-wing elements within political
Islam. 

  Mahathir's sentiments are a perfect example of why
the OIC has been completely irrelevant in performing
its stated goal: to improve the condition of the
worldwide Muslim community.  By making simple-minded
comments that shift blame for the Muslim world's ills,
Mahathir backtracks on his otherwise good strategy of
confronting the problems of the Muslim world and
concentrating on what we can change within, rather
than complaining about "outside forces" we have no
control over.  Indeed, even when the OIC can agree on
some sort of "action," it is usually in the form of a
joint statement that is immediately tossed into the
diplomacy dustbin.  The trouble with Mahathir in
particular is that he had the chance to be remembered
as a visionary leader - someone who brought his
country to prosperity and spoke boldly on behalf of
the Global South.  Instead, he will be remembered for
stupid acts like jailing his Deputy Prime Minister
Anwar Ibrahim on sodomy charges and making blanket
statements against "the Jews."

  Next week, Mahathir will retire as Malaysia's Prime
Minister after 22 years in office.  What a shameful
swansong for a man who had the potential to unite, not
divide.

  Naeem Mohaiemen is associate editor of alt.muslim.
*
____


[2.]

Dawn, 16 October 2003

IN NEED OF A FRESH START
By Zofeen T. Ebrahim

Given the current political climate, in which the 
MMA yields a considerable amount of power, is a 
repeal of the Hudood Ordinances possible?Zofeen 
T. Ebrahim reports.
"I hereby convict and sentence the accused Zafran 
Bibi to stoning to death," wrote Judge Anwar Ali 
Khan, "and that she be stoned to death at a 
public place." The harm caused by the Hudood 
Ordinances was blatantly highlighted when a 
Pakistani rape victim, Zafran Bibi, was charged 
with adultery last year. Yet once again, 
Pakistani women's rights groups rallied around 
the case and the Federal Shariat Court of 
Pakistan overturned the sentence and acquitted 
Bibi on a technicality, in June 2002.
Later in the year, a tribal council in southern 
Punjab ordered the gang rape of 30-year-old 
Mukhtaran Mai, in the presence of a large number 
of villagers. It was not until the incident was 
reported in the media that an official 
investigation began under the orders of the 
Supreme Court. The guilty were sentenced to death 
by hanging, but are appealing their sentences.
The infamous Hudood Ordinances (which also apply 
to non-Muslims)are a series of decrees that are 
enforced in tandem with the country's secular 
legal system. They were passed in 1979 under the 
rule of General Ziaul Haq and cover a range of 
crimes. One of the most controversial provisions 
states that a woman must have four male witnesses 
to prove rape, or face a charge of adultery 
herself.
"Where and how is a woman who is raped going to 
be able to find four male witnesses? Why should 
she be punished and the criminal go scot-free?" 
asks Sheema Kermani, founder and director of 
Tehrik-i-Niswan, a women's organization.
The men and women found guilty of adultery face 
stoning to death or 100 lashes. Zohra Yusuf, 
council member, Human Rights Commission of 
Pakistan, feels there are far "too many" 
shortcomings, the primary one being "bringing 
religion into laws that should be secular," she 
says.
According to Sadiqa Salahuddin, executive 
director, Indus Resource Centre, an NGO working 
with the poorest of the poor, "It has created an 
issue that was a non-issue before its 
promulgation. There is a need for people to know 
why they are for or against it. In this 
controversy emotions have become more important 
than reasons. There is a need to inform people 
that being against the Hudood Ordinances does not 
mean that one is against Islam. It is the selfish 
interpretation of Islam." She strongly suspects 
that, "people in general, are against it, but in 
this country there is no way to find out the 
reality. Referendums have lost all credibility."
Asked how he would define the Ordinances, Justice 
Nasir Aslam Zahid, a well respected retired judge 
of the Supreme Court says, "These were 
misconceived attempts by an unelected ruler to 
Islamize criminal laws with the object of 
transforming Pakistan into an Islamic welfare 
state free from crime. There are no two opinions 
on this issue on whether these attempts, instead 
of guiding society in the aforesaid direction, 
turned out to be disastrous."
According to Rabia Khan, an independent 
consultant, the law is, "a mischievous one that 
continues to be used/abused for purposes of 
exploitation," and has led to the conviction of 
numerous Mukhtarans and Zafrans of Pakistan.
"There is nothing wrong with the law, it's the 
implementation that is weak," argues Kaneez 
Ayesha Munawwar, member of the National Assembly. 
"What about those countries that don't have this 
law, and where the judiciary is effective? Have 
they been able to give their women complete 
protection from domestic violence, rape, 
adultery, etc.?"
The furor against and in favour for the repeal of 
the Hudood Ordinances was initiated with 
recommendations made last month by the government 
appointed National Commission on the Status of 
Women, an independent statutory body set up in 
July 2000, for the repeal of the Hudood 
Ordinances. The report was followed by 
demonstrations in favour of repeal by citizen 
organizations outside the National Assembly, and 
then counter demonstrations by some women 
parliamentarians in the Peshawar Assembly.
According to Munawwar, who is against the repeal, 
"it's these very laws that will make our society 
a moral one. Nations that are on the true path 
don't just give a free rein to their citizens, 
but set certain parameters for them to conduct 
their daily lives within. I think the Hudood Laws 
give the Pakistani woman this protection. If 
these laws are implemented with all honesty, they 
will actually empower her. And that is possible 
only if our legislative bodies, our police, and 
judicial system are free from corruption - but if 
the present state of affairs remains unchanged, 
then the law will lose its efficacy."
This is not the first time that the call for 
repealing these ordinances has been made. "In 
spite of innumerable cases that have clearly 
established the miscarriage of justice under 
these laws, and their propensity for exploitation 
- and in spite of campaigns by rights groups for 
over two decades - they continue to exist," says 
Yusuf.
And what if the laws are repealed? "The rights 
and status of women will be adversely affected," 
warns Asadullah Bhutto, an MNA and president of 
the Jamaat-i-Islami, Sindh. "The Hudood 
Ordinances are a hindrance in the way of honour 
killings. These should not be criticized with 
Western notions."
Kulsoom Nizamani, member of the Sindh Provincial 
Assembly, who is also against the repeal, adds, 
"With the graph of violence against women going 
up at such an alarming rate, it is imperative 
that these laws stay."
In 1997, the famous report of the Commission of 
Inquiry for Women, also recommended the 
Ordinances' repeal. Justice Zahid, the author of 
the report, said, "These recommendations are 
based on the fact that the ordinances cannot 
bring about any decrease at all in the rate of 
crimes in the concerned fields, and on the 
contrary, more and more poor and disadvantaged 
individuals will be prosecuted and their lives 
totally destroyed. Comparative figures of 
registered crimes in these fields before and 
after enactment of the Zina Ordinance confirmed 
our basis."
Of the NCSW's 18-member special committee, two 
members, Dr S. M. Zaman and Dr Fareeda, opposed 
the proposal. Justice Majida Rizvi, the 
chairperson of the commission, has also 
recommended reversion to the original clauses of 
the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), prevailing before 
the promulgation of the Hudood Ordinance, to deal 
with Hudood-related cases as well as to conduct a 
public and parliamentary debate before passing 
new laws.
Why has there not been much agitation against 
such laws at the national level? Even now when 
recommendations for their repeal are being 
tabled, it's women parliamentarians who are 
vociferously against it. "The main body of 
victims comprises the most vulnerable sections of 
our society, mostly girls and women. It is very 
difficult for them to initiate and sustain 
agitation against these black laws," explains 
Justice Zahid.
"With the current political environment, and the 
forthcoming 'marriage of convenience' between 
PML-Q and MMA, there is every likelihood of the 
Q-League agreeing to the demand of the MMA that 
the Hudood Ordinances should not be touched. And 
in such a case, all Q-League female 
parliamentarians will go back on their earlier 
commitment for repeal of such laws," he says. "It 
requires strong leadership in the parliament, 
which is missing unfortunately," comments Rabia 
Khan dryly.
According to Danish Zuberi, a lawyer and a 
women's rights activist, "While acquittal rates 
for women charged under the Hudood cases are 
estimated at over 30 per cent, by the time a 
woman has been vindicated she will have spent a 
few years in prison. In most cases, she will have 
been subjected to police abuse while in custody."
Justice Zahid adds, "I would say that in the 
process, the lives of all these women, are 
totally destroyed, as a result of being labeled 
zanias (adulterers)." He recalls that a former 
chief justice of Pakistan, Justice Afzal Zullah, 
had gone on record with the statement that 95 per 
cent of the women charged under the Zina 
Ordinance were ultimately acquitted.
Human rights activists believe that as many as 
half of all women imprisoned in Pakistan are 
falsely charged with the crime of adultery. Are 
these really bad laws or is it the issue of their 
implementation?
"The Ordinances, especially the Zina (adultery) 
Ordinance, are bad laws promulgated without any 
public or parliamentary debate. In their 
implementation, these are cruel tools in the 
hands of law enforcing agencies, and those who 
are powerful and have vested interests, against 
mostly the poorest of the poor sections of our 
society, mainly young girls and women," says 
Justice Zahid.
While these laws have long been opposed by 
political parties, and civil rights and women's 
groups, who argue that rape and violence against 
women have soared since they were passed, 
successive governments have failed to change the 
laws because of stiff opposition from powerful 
conservative groups, who have traditionally been 
close allies of the military in Pakistan.
Anis Haroon, resident director of the NGO Aurat 
Foundation, observes,"It is a question of who 
will bell the cat." Campaigners charge that no 
government in Pakistan has been willing to 
confront the religious establishment and 
right-wing political parties.
What is it about these ordinances that they 
cannot be repealed, amended, abolished, or 
scrapped completely? The twice-elected female 
Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto promised but failed 
to address this unjust legislation as she seemed 
unwilling to antagonize religious leaders. 
General Musharraf had boldly pledged that his 
government will review the Hudood Ordinances on 
Women's Day 2000, but he has still not found time 
to confront the issue.
"These are extra constitutional laws which need 
to be scrapped out completely, to ensure the rule 
of law, and relegate responsibility of the 
legislature for law making," says Khan. 
"Absolutely," endorses Salahuddin. But can this 
be done?
"Yes, if the will is there. The president had 
promulgated during 1999 to 2002 about 200 laws in 
the form of ordinances. One or four ordinances 
then could have repealed these laws. Now it has 
to be done throughparliament i.e., by enacting 
acts of parliament," says Justice Zahid and adds, 
"I do not foresee the present parliament passing 
such acts."
Yusuf is not too optimistic either. "I don't 
think a repeal is on the cards. The laws affect 
the most marginalized sections (women and 
minorities). While, the present government has 
taken action against religious groups, under US 
pressure, it is unlikely to risk a backlash when 
it comes to securing the rights of women."
Khan disagrees by having the last word: "The time 
is always right to repeal and start the debate 
afresh."
*
____


[3.]

The Hindustan Times, New Delhi, October 17, 2003

The BJP's long record of extremism & duplicity 
sits ill with its feigned moderation

WHY WE CAN'T TRUST THEM
By Praful Bidwai

Whatever happens in Ayodhya today, it is plain 
that the sangh parivar, including the BJP, has 
decided to milk the Ram temple issue brazenly for 
political gains. The way the latest, hysterical, 
mobilisation was launched, led by Central 
minister Swami Chinmayanand, no less, and the 
manner in which the RSS-BJP have misinterpreted 
the Archaeological Survey report on the Ayodhya 
excavation as if it vindicated 'revenge against 
history', and decisively established the case for 
building only a temple and not a mosque, permit 
no other conclusion.

The BJP and its associates are playing with fire. 
The last time they sent karsevaks in significant 
numbers to Ayodhya was February last year. The 
result—via the Ramsevaks’ roguish behaviour on 
their return journeys, and repeated minor 
altercations with Muslim vendors in Godhra—was 
the barbaric burning alive of 59 people and the 
reign of terror that followed, with the butchery 
of 2,000 Muslims with state complicity.

One can only (anxiously) speculate about the 
consequences of unleashing the same extremist 
forces once again. But it's clear that VHP and 
Shiv Sena fanatics cannot be trusted to behave 
moderately and peacefully.

Their entire agenda is inflammatory and 
provocative in the first place. It's to compound 
a horrible wrong—the Babri demolition—by visiting 
yet more vengeance upon the religious minorities, 
further humiliating them, and disenfranchising 
them politically and out of public life.

Yet, we have Prime Minister Vajpayee urging us to 
'trust' the VHP. This is so counter-intuitive and 
so violently contradicted by experience and by 
the VHP's abusive descriptions of him, that it 
raises another question: can we trust Vajpayee 
and other 'moderate' BJP leaders?

The short answer, after the 11 year-long charade 
of investigation and prosecution in the Babri 
demolition case, is a resounding no. To start 
with, the government rigged the chargesheet, 
illegitimately splitting it and dropping the 
conspiracy charge from that assigned to the Rae 
Bareli ‘special court’. Thus, those guilty of 
planning, instigating and supervising a crime 
against the Constitution, would be tried for 
minor offences—akin to booking a murderer for a 
parking offence.

Now it turns out that the Rae Bareli judge's 
verdict discharging L.K. Advani was based on 
flagrant misreading and distortion of a key 
eyewitness—Anju Gupta, an IPS officer charged 
with Advani's security on D-Day. According to an 
Indian Express story, based on the judge's order, 
Gupta testified that Advani and other leaders 
provoked the mob with inflammatory speeches and 
made no effort to stop the demolition. 'Advani 
was sad only about the fact that people were 
falling off the domes and dying'.

According to Gupta, Advani appealed to the 
karsevaks to descend from the domes, but only 
because the mosque was being demolished from the 
inside. He fully participated in the celebrations 
that followed the fall of three domes. Uma 
Bharati and Ritambhara hugged him in ecstasy.

Gupta's account is fully corroborated not just by 
countless other eyewitnesses, including TV crew 
and print journalists, but above all, by the 
highly reliable, accurate reports of the 
Citizens’ Commission on Ayodhya, comprised of 
Justices O. Chinappa Reddy, D.A. Desai and D.S. 
Tewatia, themselves based on the examination of 
90 witnesses and cross-checking of numerous 
accounts.

Advani, say the reports, was pivotal to the 
well-planned conspiracy that led to the Babri 
demolition—right through periodic mobilisations 
of the mid-1980s (he became BJP president in 
1986), his Toyota rath-yatra of 1990, which left 
a bloody trail, to the nuts-and-bolts planning 
for December 6, which took place at a crucial 
closed-door meeting at Vinay Katiyar's Faizabad 
house the previous day, attended by, among 
others, the RSS's H.V. Seshadri and K.S. 
Sudarshan, VHP's Ashok Singhal and Vinay Katiyar, 
Shiv Sena's Moreshwar Save, and BJP's Pramod 
Mahajan.

Advani was the star speaker on December 6. At 
11:45 a.m. he announced: "'We don't need 
bulldozers to pull down the mosque; [we can do it 
manually]" The assault on the mosque began. 
Advani ensured it would be completed without 
interruption by Central paramilitary forces whose 
entry he urged the karsevaks to block. (3:15 p.m.)

It's not so much VHP, but BJP leaders, who are 
being egregiously, disgracefully, duplicitous 
about the demolition—to evade fair trial for a 
grievous crime against Indian democracy, and the 
wave of violence that followed it in 1993. The 
same Advani now declares that the Babri 
demolition, like the Gujarat pogrom, was an 
'aberration'.

Even more disingenuously, Advani says there is 
nothing wrong in VHP and RSS members being 
appointed public prosecutors to try Gujarat's 
Hindutva culprits—as part of a massive plan to 
shield them and subvert justice.

It is our collective shame that we have a Home 
Minister who has not heard of conflict of 
interest and who blithely ignores the appointment 
of countless VHP office-bearers, including 
general secretary Dilip Trivedi and Chetan Shah 
(who was asked to handle the Naroda-Patiya 
massacre, of a hundred people). He is equally 
blind to the filing of defective First 
Information Reports, in which the accused are 
unnamed, which are calculated to exonerate the 
guilty. Half the culprits in the Gujarat violence 
have already been acquitted.

To erase the truth from public memory, Advani 
resorts to blaming 'the system' and to mystifying 
the human/social agencies at work, and making 
them disappear! Thus, says Advani, the Gujarat 
pogrom 'should not have happened, but at the same 
time, the government or the ruling party cannot 
be blamed'. The pogrom could not have happened 
without Narendra Milosevic Modi's planning, 
coordination, encouragement and execution!

The psychopathology at work here suggests a huge 
disconnect from reality, now a Hindutva 
trademark. Take the series of self-congratulatory 
half- and full-page advertisements issued daily 
by the government since September 9 at public 
expense: 'ringing in the good times’ about the 
economy (read, stockmarkets) being 'on a roll', 
when the 'flowers are blooming', 'expenses are 
settling', 'our country is prospering', 'our 
lives are changing', 'our tomorrow is promising', 
'India Shining'!

These slogans are outrageously partisan and based 
on purely elite upper-class perceptions. They 
have nothing to do with the many problems that 
plague India: rising joblessness, acute power and 
drinking water shortages, collapse of public 
services (especially healthcare and primary 
education), increasing casualisation of labour, 
persistent deprivation, growing social 
discontent, rising personal insecurity, and 
disempowerment of vast numbers.

Nothing illustrates this better than three recent 
developments/events: the self-immolation in 
Mumbai by a long-unemployed former Tata contract 
employee; starvation deaths in Maharashtra, 
Karnataka, Bihar and above all in Jharkhand, now 
being reported and seriously investigated by Jean 
Dreze, Ramesh Sharan and the PUCL; and the rape 
of a Swiss diplomat in Delhi. These all reflect 
the iron in our soul, the rot and the sickness in 
our disgustingly hierarchical society, with its 
apathetic elite.

Rather than hysterically call for the death 
penalty for rape, as our loh-purush Home Minister 
is prone to do after the third incident, we 
should reflect soberly on what's going wrong: the 
coarsening of our public discourse; spread of 
Rambo-style Mera-Bharat-Mahan hypernationalism 
and viciously male-supremacist ideas; growing 
xenophobia, demonisation of 'the Other', and an 
obsession to 'get even' with them through 
violence; rampant corruption in the police which 
makes it complicit in crime; and a culture of 
impunity for the gravest of human rights 
violations. This is visible in Ayodhya, Mumbai, 
Delhi and Gujarat.

After all, was it a mere 'aberration' that 
Gujarat's Hindu nationalists used horrendous 
sexual violence and mass rape against Muslim 
women as instruments of vengeance and genocidal 
warfare? Was it only a joke that after 
Pokharan-II, the VHP wanted India declared a 
Hindu state, which had globally 'arrived'? Can 
Hindutva's malign, violent content and its 
contribution to social pathologies vanish merely 
by calling it 'cultural nationalism'?—
*
____


[4]

The Hindustan Times, October 18, 2003   | Op-Ed.

DEVIL'S WORKSHOP
Jan Breman

In a recent study on the socio-political context 
of communal violence in India, Ashutosh Varshney 
has focused on the importance of civic networks 
for binding Hindus and Muslims together.

He argues that in the case of Ahmedabad, a truly 
impressive level of civic activity was built up 
during the national movement, to a large extent 
initiated by Gandhi.

The main pillars of civil engagement that emerged 
were the Congress Party, which brought people of 
all communities together; a wide variety of 
social and educational agencies, set up by Gandhi 
and his associates, which later became known as 
non-governmental organisations; business 
associations, which had a long tradition of 
inter-communal interaction in the framework of 
artisan and mercantile guilds; and the Textile 
Labour Association (TLA) as a working class 
organisation which had both Hindu and Muslim mill 
hands in its fold and a programme that preached 
unity.

In Varshney's opinion, these institutions were 
together crucial for producing a social climate 
characterised by harmony. Once these pillars 
started to crumble, and the collapse of the 
textile industry happened to be a major turning 
point, communal violence became ferocious. The 
author himself modifies his thesis of a strong 
Hindu-Muslim engagement which prevailed until a 
few decades ago. Congress leaders were never 
able, nor did they aim to, mobilise a large 
number of Muslims in the city during the 
anti-colonial struggle; only few Gandhian 
institutions reached out to either urban or rural 
segments of the main religious minority, the 
business associations in the city had an in-group 
character and did not promote civic interaction.

As for the TLA, Varshney concedes that a large 
proportion of Muslim mill workers decided to stay 
away from this union. I beg to differ from his 
main argument suggesting that political Hinduism 
is an altogether new phenomenon in Ahmedabad 
which has brought to an end the climate of 
tolerance and harmony built up by Gandhi and his 
disciples. A.M. Shah, among others, has 
critically questioned the suggestion that 
Gandhi's message of non-violence had penetrated 
deeply in Gujarati society and culture during his 
lifetime. Whatever social relevance it then had, 
it certainly did not survive him.

My own opinion is that the communal divide which 
already existed in the past was strengthened by 
the segmentary, though not confrontational, 
politics adopted by the Congress before and after 
Independence. This parochial strategy, the KHAM 
coalition consisting of Kshatriyas, Harijans, 
Adivasis and Muslims, contained the underclasses 
in their own and separate identities as 
convenient vote banks. This electoral design was 
successful for a short span of time only because 
it provoked a vigorous and vicious backlash from 
those higher up in society. Their pent-up 
resentment was the momentum which the Hindutva 
forces capitalised to come to power...

...The recurrent riots in Ahmedabad towards the 
end of the 20th century cannot be understood 
merely as an upsurge of Hindu nationalism under 
high-caste leadership, planned and organised from 
a Hindutva perspective. The high tide of 
communalism is engineered by the promotion of a 
political economy which seeks to keep the working 
classes fragmented and in a state of dependency 
in order to reduce the price of their labour to 
the lowest possible level. At the end of February 
and in early March 2002, violence once again 
erupted in Ahmedabad - on a scale and intensity 
that far surpassed that of previous years. It is 
much too facile to suggest a direct causation 
between the looting, burning, a kill, which 
reached its climax in the industrial localities 
of the city, and massive impoverishment due to 
the collapse of the textile mills in the 
preceding quarter of a century.

A major difference with the earlier communal 
riots was that this time the search and destroy 
operation was not a spontaneous outburst of 
discontent and rivalry among people living at the 
bottom of the urban economy but well planned in 
advance and carried out with brutal precision...

...The residents of the slum localities were not 
only the victims of communal rage and hatred, but 
also responded en masse to the call to eliminate 
the members of the opposing group. The main 
targets of the violence were Muslims, many 
hundred of whom - men, women and children - were 
killed, often

in the most horrific ways. The pogrom made it 
clear that the Sangh parivar organisations had 
succeeded in inciting the lumpen army of 
unemployed and semi-unemployed youth in the 
industrial district to murder, looting and arson. 
In an early report on these events, I made a link 
between the mass redundancies that accompanied 
the closure of the mills, the impoverishment and 
degradation of the industrial neighbourhoods and 
the pogroms which took place largely in this 
milieu. The social cohesion that once existed has 
gone...

...This close-knit community feeling which used 
to exist, lives on in the narratives about what 
has been lost. They are memories of visits to 
one's neighbour, to take part in the joys and 
sorrows of family life, to pay their respects or 
to show each other hospitality on festive 
occasions, to share the burden of everyday 
problems. This mesh of social cohesion that 
transcended the separate identify niches broke 
down once the mill had closed, the TLA started to 
fade away, and municipal agencies, due to lack of 
funding, ceased or drastically curtailed their 
welfare activities, which were also meeting 
points.

The climate of Social Darwinism that replaced it 
not only established the right of the survival of 
the fittest, but meant that the weakest

at the base of society are forced to compete with 
each other as hunter and hunted. In the course of 
my own stay in Ahmedabad during these fateful 
days in March 2002, I met with the secretary 
general of the TLA. He told me about his despair 
when he failed to get through to the police 
commissioner or to politicians of the ruling 
party once the pogrom had started. The lack of 
response to his incessant calls from his office 
on February 28, 2002, made him realise that the 
State machinery deliberately refused to end the 
rampage and that his union now really had become 
a spent force...

...When I left Ahmedabad at the end of March, 
order and peace had not yet been restored. The 
curfew was lifted in some parts of the city, only 
to be re-imposed the next day in the same or 
other localities because of few incidents. There 
has been hardly any discussion of what all this 
meant for the large number of working class 
households who fully depend on the erratic and 
meagre yield of their labour power.

Even under so-called normal circumstances, steady 
employment is difficult to come by, but for more 
than three weeks at a stretch they had not able 
to move around in their cumbersome search for 
gainful work. For many of them, the regular state 
of deprivation in which they live has further 
deteriorated into destitution. Without any food 
left and bereft of all creditworthiness, they 
have to survive on whatever private charities are 
willing to dole out to them. What does deserve 
attention is that, with a few exceptions, the 
institutions that represent civil society took no 
action at all when the communal riots and the 
horrific violence that accompanied them broke out.

Ahmedabad is proud of the large number of 
non-governmental agencies located in the city. In 
the past, commentators have widely praised their 
role in tackling poverty. This generated a hugely 
exaggerated picture, which included the 
glorification of NGO initiatives to which the 
private sector and the local government also 
contributed. These efforts have, however, reaped 
few benefits for the poorer sections of the 
population, and for the large number of Muslims 
among them in particular. For collective action, 
the city's excluded minority has always been, and 
remain, dependent on charity from their own 
community. In the pauperised industrial districts 
of Ahmedabad 'the righteous struggle', which did 
succeed in generating a certain amount of 
inter-communal solidarity, lives on only in the 
memory of a better past.

The writer is Professor of Comparative Sociology, University of Amsterdam.

This is an edited extract from the book, The 
Making and Unmaking of An Industrial Working 
Class, Oxford University Press
*

_____

[5]

  [ MAYHEM IN AYODHYA & AFTER  ]

Date: Fri, 17 Oct 2003

AYODHYA DAIRY

Desperate Attempts at the End

Karsevaks throng Ayodhya in the late evening

At the final day [17/10/2003] the plan of the VHP 
to hold Sankalp Sabha, a part of the temple 
building program, was foiled and the 
Administration remained adamant in its typical 
low profile and avoided the use of force despite 
the provocative slogans and stone pelting from 
the karsevaks. The desperate attempt of the 
Hinduttva forces to reach the vow making site was 
foiled successfully by the administration after 
some resistance by the karsevaks reaching from 
the near by places. The place was cleared of the 
karsevaks before the scheduled time of the 
proposed congregation .In another desperate move 
the VHP called for a chakkajam [jamming of the 
transport] in the state. Hundreds of the 
Karsevaks reached the Hanumangarhi temple with 
the intention of attacking Mahant Gyandas to 
teach him a lesson for his anti VHP role and 
attempts of bringing back peace and harmony.

On the previous day Ashok Singhal appeared in 
Ayodhya but he was taken into custody by the 
administration today. Ram Vilas Das Vedanti was 
also arrested along with his supporters. But the 
previous claim of the VHP to bring lakhs of 
karsevaks to the place of vow making, 
Ramsevakpuram, seemed nothing but an empty boast 
in the face of the action taken by the 
administration.

The VHP people started coming from the very night 
from the nearby places to Ayodhya. Some of them 
came along the railway lines to escape the 
police.  They were politically prepared for the 
purpose. They told the police and media that they 
wanted to visit the Ramjanam Bhumi and nothing 
else. They were allowed to go ahead as the 
government had promised not to stop karsevaks 
from the visit [darshan] of the place. But they 
started running to the Ramsevakpuram only to get 
arrested by the police force already present 
there. But it resulted into clashes between the 
karsevaks and police. Plastic bullets and tear 
gas was used to disperse them. The karsevaks 
turned violent and their stone pelting broke a 
bus. This very clearly shows that the karsevaks 
tried to reach the place of vow making [sankalp 
sabha] according to some plan already chalked out 
by the VHP.

    As a part of strategy the VHP used their women 
activists to create problems for police. Strangly 
enough there was no arrangement of lady 
constables and their absence created some 
problems for the authorities. There were clear 
orders for the police not to resort to any stern 
action, which made the karsevsks bold enough to 
clash with the police. At last the attempt of VHP 
to organize the sabha was foiled but they could 
make a symbolic oath near the Rampairy.It seemed 
as if the administration wanted things to pass 
peacefully and turned milder today, allowing the 
karsevaks to move near the site of oath making. 
It is remarkable that there is no long distance 
between Ramsevakpuram and makeshift temple of 
Ramjanmbumi.There are some who sense a hidden 
understanding between the state and center 
governments and that has given the drama the 
final twist.

The episode of the Sankalp program has clearly 
underlined the diminishing support of the public 
to the Ram temple issue. Compared to the previous 
Shilapujan drama this one has proved a poor show. 
In an almost face saving and desperate gesture 
VHP has given a call of Bharat bandh on the 19th 
of the month. But the Hinduttva Brigade may be 
more violent and dangerous in its desperation on 
the day. Therefore, the decision of the 
Administration to leave all the karsevaks today 
may be troublesome on the very next day if they 
prefer to come to Ayodhya instead of going to 
their places.

The hundred dollar question is how many vow 
makings and for what purpose? What is the use of 
such programs? Every year such programs are 
organized in Ayodhya just for political gains. 
The life of general people is disturbed again and 
again for no reason. Here, the peace loving 
people take a sigh of relief on the passing of 
the troublesome time. They thank the 
administration and expect the next day to be a 
normal one when they would resume the normal 
course of life with the rising of the sun. Amen.

  PS.    Near about 06.00 pm the karsevaks 
released from different cities started to throng 
Ayodhya. They are reaching here by trains to 
Ayodhya ,Acharya Narendra Dev Nagar and Faizabad 
stations. This has proved that the administration 
has committed a blunder in releasing all the 
karsevaks at a time and allowing them to reach 
Ayodhya.The number of the karsevaks in Ayodhya 
has already reached thousands and may increase in 
the night. The RSS cadres in Fiazabad and Ayodhya 
are leading them to Karsevakpuram.

These karsevaks have come from different states 
on the direction of the Hinduttva forces. Most of 
them are very young and belong to the Bajrang 
Dal.They also consist of young girls and 
ladies.They are shouting objectionable slogans . 
The leaders of the VHP have already declared a 
program on the next day in the morning at 8 
o’clock. In desperation the mob may do anything 
and any untoward happening may take place. 
Strangely enough there is no action taken by the 
administration up to this time.

It is clear that Ayodhya will remain uncertain up to 11th of the month.


Raghuvanshmani/17.10.2003/Faizabad/11.00pm
*

o o o

Editorial in The Hindustan Times, October 18, 2003

Nipped in the bud
  The VHP's attempt to raise the communal pitch by 
holding a well-publicised congregation in Ayodhya 
in violation of prohibitory orders on Friday has 
been foiled by the Uttar Pradesh government.

If the day passed off peacefully on the whole, no 
thanks are due to the trouble-making Hindutva 
outfit. The credit goes to deft management by the 
authorities. The state government did well not to 
take at face value assurances of peaceful conduct 
advanced on the VHP's behalf by the prime 
minister and the Union home minister.

In fact, the unruly crowd mobilised to descend on 
Ayodhya in the garb of being 'Rambhakt' by the 
VHP made its intentions clear when it burned a 
government bus and engaged in stone-throwing in 
its desperate effort to march to the site where 
the Babri mosque once stood. Fortunately, mob 
control devices of the police such as 
tear-gassing and the firing of rubber bullets did 
not lead to any serious injuries. Were this not 
the case, the 'Rambhakts' could well have been 
egged on by their leaders to run amok. Indeed, 
there is likely to be a correlation between the 
early arrest of VHP leader Ashok Singhal and the 
dissipation of the crowd's initial enthusiasm to 
hold the VHP's much tom-tommed 'sankalp sabha', a 
meeting to renew its resolve to build a Ram 
temple where the razed mosque was situated. Goes 
to show what a no-nonsense attitude toward 
maintaining law and order can do.

However, in view of the VHP's bandh call for 
Sunday to protest the foiling of its moves, the 
authorities in UP and in other states will need 
to keep an eye out for trouble. We need to 
remember that by keeping the mob at bay, the UP 
government only upheld a Supreme Court directive 
of 1994. That order places a curb on all activity 
on the land acquired by the Centre in Ayodhya, 
including in the undisputed parts, until the 
title suit has been disposed of. The VHP's 
'sankalp sabha' plan was clearly out of order.
*
_____


[6]

[The author of this editorial has been forced out of the paper now . . .]

o o o

Editorial in Herald, Panjim, Goa 2/10/2003

EXPERIMENTS IN TRUTH

Today is Gandhi Jayanti. The anniversary of the 
birth of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. The father 
of the freedom struggle. Which liberated the 
country from the British colonial rule. The 
anniversary of a man who hated authoritarianism 
and fascism in any form. The anniversary of the 
man who hated any form of tyranny and any form of 
oppression. The anniversary of a man who fought 
the oppressive caste system and declared that the 
lowest caste were the children of God. Harijans. 
Literally children of Hari. Above all Mahatma 
Gandhi was a man who was totally committed to 
freedom in every sense of the word. And 
vehemently opposed to sectarianism in any form 
and of any variety. A man who proclaimed "let the 
winds from all directions blow into your house 
but do not let them blow you off your feet". The 
man who was assassinated by fundamentalists who 
believed that only their path was the right one. 
The path of militant insular intolerant Hindutva.

A Hindutva which has been acquiring menacing 
proportions in the country and in Goa. A saffron 
brigade which is steadily if stealthily creeping 
over the land which is famed all over the country 
and all over the world for being the jewel in the 
crown of Indian secularism. A land where communal 
harmony and indeed communal fusion is deeply 
imprinted in the psyche of every man, woman and 
child. A land which is the finest example of the 
most harmonious blend of the east and west. A 
land which is unique in that both Santeri and 
Saibin are held in equal reverence. A land which 
celebrates difference. A land which epitomises 
the spirit of love, compassion and charity which 
were so dear to the Mahatma's heart.

In this garden of Eden, serpent of fundamentalism 
and fascism has now uncoiled itself and is all 
set to spew its venom into the minds and hearts 
of the people. The process is already underway. 
The communal polarisation of Goa has already 
begun. The saffron hordes are on their triumphant 
march. As was dramatised on Sunday, when the 
Bharatiya Janata Party held a mammoth convention 
in the Economic Development Corporation promoted 
Patto complex. The marginalisation of the 
minorities has already begun. It has been 
acknowledged by the Chief Minister himself that 
there are very few members of the minority 
community among the new recruits to the police 
force. This is not because members of the 
minority community look down disdainfully on the 
job of policemen but because their candidatures 
were systematically and cynically rejected. This 
is further reinforced by the fact that among the 
three hundred drivers who were recruited under 
the Pre-employment Training Scheme less than ten 
are from the minority community. In the case of 
the 70 odd recruits for linesmen and wiremen from 
the Electricity Department there is just one 
member of the minority community. This kind of 
discrimination is true of recruitment in the 
ranks of teachers also. Don't take our word for 
it. Just look at the statistics and the names 
provided in answer to questions in the ongoing 
legislative assembly.

The Bharatiya Janata Party and the saffron 
brigade in the country have always been 
intolerant of any kind of criticism. We have seen 
this in Gujarat when Narendra Modi and the 
fanatical lunatic fringe maligned the NDTV news 
channel. We have seen this in other parts of the 
country where the Sangh Parivar has attacked, 
threatened and abused media persons for being 
critical of their pernicious brand of Hinduism. 
We are all too familiar with the saffron 
brigade's attempt to censor films which told the 
truth about the communal riots in Gujarat and 
other parts of the country. We are all too 
familiar with the saffron brigade's attempts to 
rewrite history.
Now this fascistic, fundamentalist plague has Goa 
in its grip. It is not unfortunately widely known 
that the Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has been 
systematically seeking to subvert the bedrock of 
democracy in the State. It is not widely known 
that he has been intimidating the media as 
blatantly as he has been trying to blackmail and 
persecute the Opposition into submission.

It is not widely known that Manohar Parrikar has 
been engaging in the most insidious form of media 
management. He has been offering carrots to those 
who will tow his line. He has been brandishing 
the big stick at managements and individual media 
persons who have the impertinence and audacity to 
criticise. Because in the perception of Manohar 
Parrikar, the IITian cannot do any wrong. He is 
always right. And anyone who questions any of his 
actions is not just insubordinate or impertinent 
but is guilty of any act of treachery.At least 
till recently Manohar Parrikar cloaked the 
trishul which he has been carrying ever since he 
entered politics in a velvet case. Apparently now 
he feels so confident of himself that he does not 
feel any need to pass his megalomaniacal 
tendencies any longer. You are all aware that 
ever since the EDC war broke out, the Chief 
Minister, Manohar Parrikar has been making all 
kinds of allegations against Luizinho Faleiro. 
Like in the past he has made allegations against 
other Congress leaders like Nirmala Sawant and 
Jitendra Deshprabhu. We all know his constant 
threats against dissident legislators in his own 
camp and senior Opposition leaders. We all know 
why he raised the bogey of the Miramar sex 
scandal. We all know why he keeps dropping hints 
that the misdeeds of all the senior Congress 
leaders and indeed of everyone in the Opposition 
would be exposed. And presumably all the Congress 
leaders and some of his own colleagues in the 
Cabinet have so many skeletons in the cupboard 
that they dare not speak out.

If the Chief Minister makes charges against 
Opposition leaders, the natural principles of 
justice demand that they have a right to reply. 
The law of the land is that nobody is guilty till 
the guilt is proved beyond all shadow of 
reasonable doubt. If the Chief Minister Manohar 
Parrikar makes charges against Opposition 
leaders, it is logical to presume that they will 
in turn make charges against him. It is not the 
job of the media to play judge, jury and hangman. 
It is the obligation of the media to report both 
sides of the controversy. Manohar Parrikar has 
been holding Press conferences everyday making 
charges against Opposition leaders. Apparently he 
can dish it out but he cannot take it. Manohar 
Parrikar expects the media to give whatever he 
says the greatest prominence. In fact very 
recently he pulled up a owner of a section of the 
Press which in his view did not give the BJP 
convention on Sunday the importance it deserved.

Manohar Parrikar has now crossed the Laxman 
Rekha. The fundamental root that governs 
journalism. That news is free. That news 
particularly when it comes in the form of 
statements made in a Press conference or a Press 
note by a political party or its representative 
on the official letterhead of the party has to be 
carried. It is not for the Press to sit in 
judgement over the validity of the charges. Just 
as the media does not sit in judgement on the 
validity or otherwise of the charges made by 
Manohar Parrikar against his political rivals. 
Parrikar's tolerance of criticism has always been 
very low. We know that from personal bitter 
experience. But now he has crossed the Laxman 
Rekha.

In an unprecedented action in the annals of the 
history of the country, Manohar Parrikar has 
sought to muffle and silence and intimidate the 
entire local media. Manohar Parrikar has sent all 
the local newspapers both in English and the 
vernacular languages a legal notice. A legal 
notice which calls upon all the editors and the 
publishers and owners of newspapers in Goa to 
refrain from publishing any statements made by 
the President of the Goa Pradesh Congress 
Committee or any other spokesperson of the 
Opposition. Manohar Parrikar has threatened media 
organisations who ignore his fiat with 
appropriate complaints which will presumably be 
criminal complaints of defamation. Manohar 
Parrikar has further threatened to claim damages. 
The curious part of curse is that the legal 
notice issued on behalf of Manohar Parrikar does 
not enclose a single sample of a single newspaper 
or a single news item or a single comment which 
he considers defamatory. In any case just because 
Manohar Parrikar believes that a statement is 
defamatory it does not become defamatory. That is 
a matter which the courts will decide.

Clearly Manohar Parrikar believes that the media 
in Goa is so spineless and has been so subjugated 
that it will takes his threats seriously. Clearly 
Manohar Parrikar believes that he has not just 
tamed but emasculated the media in Goa. Manohar 
Parrikar may have emasculated the managements of 
newspapers who have their own agendas and put 
their commercial interest before the public 
interest. But Manohar Parrikar will never succeed 
in bullying and browbeating and intimidating, and 
coercing and silencing the voice of professional 
journalists. The Goa Union Of Journalist and the 
Goa Editors Guild both professional bodies will 
not let this happen. At least we hope so. And a 
word of advice to newspaper owners and 
managements who are so anxious to crawl when 
merely asked to bend. The extent to which you can 
be suppressed is directly in proportion to the 
extent to which you are suppressed. And the more 
servile you are the more oppression you will 
invite. Stand up to the bully and watch him beat 
a retreat.

And if you want to hear the voice of the free 
Press and experience at first hand the anger, the 
anguish and the consternation among all 
professional journalists on this unprecedently 
blatant and brutal effort to silence the voice of 
freedom, you must attend the panel discussion 
being held at the Goa Chamber auditorium at 
Panjim at 6.30 p.m. Where the Chief Minister 
Manohar Parrikar's experiments with untruth will 
be exposed.
*

______


[7]

Date: Fri, 17 Oct 2003 06:14:28 -0700

Friends,

I am writing to let you know about an 
important new global initiative for peace 
and communal harmony in India, Promise of India, 
which was launched in the heart of Silicon 
Valley, California, USA on October 4th, 2003, in 
celebration of Mahatma Gandhi's 134th 
birthday. The prime movers behind this 
unprecedented initiative were NRI organizations 
representing diverse interests--e.g. The IndUS 
entrepreneurs worldwide (TiE), GOPIO Chicagoland, 
etc., representing business and 
entrepreneurial interests; Asha for Education, 
Association for India's Development (AID), 
Indians for Collective Action (ICA), American 
India Foundation (AIF), etc., representing grass 
roots development and education; and Coalition 
Against Communalism (CAC), Praja Net, etc., 
representing support for other Indian causes such 
as political transparency, peace and justice 
issues.

Promise of India (POI) starts out with a 
community appeal and a pledge to rededicate 
ourselves to a Democratic, Secular, Pluralistic, 
and United India, and hopes to garner the 
endorsements of thousands of Indians world-wide 
in the coming months, including support 
from prominent Indians from India and the 
Diaspora--since launch, over 60 secular and 
religious organizations from the U.S. and India 
have already endorsed the appeal. We hope to mark 
the initial phase of the initiative with a 
conference in Delhi on January 7-8, 2004, to be 
jointly hosted by NRIs and Indian organizations, 
highlighting the vital linkages between Peace and 
Development. As this conference happens to be 
just prior to the second Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 
(PBD), we also hope to attract many of the PBD 
attendees who are interested in developmental 
issues. Following the conference, we hope to 
develop a long-term plan for ways in which 
Diaspora Indians could partner with Indian 
counterparts to address the various aspects of 
our appeal. We also hope to take the opportunity 
to meet with representatives of the Government of 
India to share our hopes and concerns.

I am writing to you at this time to seek your 
personal endorsement of the Promise of India 
Appeal, and to seek your support for our 
endeavors in the coming months. You may do so by 
visiting our web site at www.PromiseOfIndia.Org 
and clicking on Urgent Appeal. If you represent 
an organization, whether in India or overseas, we 
would welcome a formal endorsement of the POI 
Appeal from your organization.

It is our earnest hope that Promise of India can 
truly become a world-wide movement of 
Indians speaking up for enduring peace in our 
homeland and for prosperity for all. You can help 
us meet this objective by taking a moment 
to forward this e-mail to your friends, 
family and business colleagues.

Please do write to us if you have any thoughts or 
questions, as we at Promise of India await your 
support for this important cause.

Sincerely,

Raju Rajagopal

for the Promise of India Team
A Global Community of Indians Rededicating 
Themselves to a Democratic, Secular, Pluralistic, 
and United India
*

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

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
South Asia Counter Information Project a sister 
initiative provides a partial back -up and 
archive for SACW. http://perso.wanadoo.fr/sacw/

DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not
necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers.

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