SACW | 2 Nov. 2003

[Harsh Kapoor]

SOUTH ASIA CITIZENS WIRE   |  2 November,  2003

Notice:
The new redesigned South Asia Citizens Web web 
site is now definitively located at 
http://www.sacw.net/
The earlier URL for the South Asia Citizens Web 
web site <www.mnet.fr/aiindex> is no longer 
valid; Google cache may be used to trace pages 
held at the old location. 

_______

[1] India -Pakistan: Press Release (Action group of Physicians of South Asia)
[2] India -Pakistan: Provocation and ignorance (Kuldip Nayar)
[3] Pakistan: ...and jehad goes on (Zulfiqar Shah)
[4] Sri Lanka: Dangers of Sinhala extremism : 
Hiru vs. Hela Urumaya: a draw for now?
(Lakshman Gunasekera)
[5] India: On The JP In The BJP (Kuldip Nayar)
[6] India: Press Statement on Mallika Sarabhai
[7] Book Review  - India:' Small Orange Flags by 
Amit Chaudhuri' (Praful Bidwai)
[8] Film Review - India: 'Mr and Mrs Iyer' (Renuka Viswanathan)

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

[1]

[ DiP (Develop in Peace), U.S. based
non-profit focussing on Peace and
development in South Asia.
http://www.geocities.com/developinpeace/southasia 

APSA (Action group of Physicians
of South Asia) is one of the chapters
of DiP. A group of 40 Indian and Pakistani
physicians are working towards Peace and
Prosperity in South Asia. ]

o o o

DiP (Develop in Peace)

PRESS RELEASE

October 31,2003

Action group of Physicians of South Asia sincerely welcomes
recent resumption of peace process aimed at 
normalizing relations between India and Pakistan. 
Relaxation of the restrictive visa regime and the 
restoration of
air, road and rail links will facilitate 
people-to-people contacts and ease the hardships 
suffered by the peoples of the two countries.

The far-reaching initiatives include
a new bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad,
a ferry between Mumbai and Karachi, the restoration of
Khokhrapar - Munabao link by rail or road, free (by-foot)
crossing of the Wagah border by senior citizens, resumption
of sporting-contacts, a 'hotline between the two coast guards,
non-arrest of fishermen at sea, etc. In addition, willingness
to restart the 'Samjhauta Express' and
to increase the capacity of the Delhi-Lahore Bus
services are also important steps.

While welcoming these fresh proposals, APSA would
like to emphasize that peace and cooperative relations
between the two countries require that both
governments sincerely engage to settle the Kashmir
dispute keeping in mind the wishes of the people of
Jammu and Kashmir as declared on several forums since 1948.
It is obvious that neither Pakistan can force
the solution by supporting terrorism nor India can
keep peace in Kashmir with any force. The Kashmir dispute
has held hostage peace in the subcontinent and 
without a substantive political dialogue that 
addresses the Kashmir dispute no sustainable 
peace can be built.

APSA also believe that strengthening democracy and curtailing
religious extremism is important for long lasting peace and
prosperity in South Asia.

Coordinators:

Amit Shah, MD <developinpeace at yahoo.com>
Zaffar Iqbal, MD <ziqbal at lycos.com>
Gautam Desai <Developinpeace at hotmail.com>
Rizwan Naeem <rnaeem at pol.net>

_____


[2]


Dawn, November 1, 2003

PROVOCATION AND IGNORANCE

By Kuldip Nayar

Unfortunately, the people-to-people contact of 
the Indians and the Pakistanis has got caught 
between the Scylla of provocation and Charybdis 
of arrogance. The military rulers at Islamabad 
believe that the more they rub India on the wrong 
side, the better it would go down with the 
fundamentalists and the chauvinists whose support 
they seek.
The BJP-led government at New Delhi labours under 
the impression that India has the size and 
strength to talk at Pakistan whenever it feels 
like.
The governments in both the countries have never 
allowed a free contact because they are not sure 
whether they can handle the fallout. Pakistan is 
afraid that its creation may come to be 
questioned if its Muslims realize that the 
Muslims in India are more in number and 
articulate their identity openly despite the 
Hindutva onslaught.
India is scared lest its parochial policy behind 
the propaganda of pluralism be exposed or diluted 
by frequent contacts with the Pakistanis, meaning 
thereby the Muslims. The BJP's allies, the Vishwa 
Hindu Parishad and the Shiv Sena, are reflecting 
such a thinking when they are opposing any 
opening with Pakistan.
This does not, however, take away anything from 
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's courage to 
announce the series of steps to improve relations 
with Pakistan. Islamabad may consider them a 
rehash of what its prime minister Jamali said 
some time back. It may run down Delhi otherwise. 
But Vajpayee has caught the imagination of 
foreign countries without conceding anything on 
Kashmir which India is obliged to settle under 
the Shimla agreement. In other words, he has 
differentiated between normalization and 
settlement.
In the face of this, I have not been able to make 
out the logic behind New Delhi's 
switch-on-and-switch-off policy. Vajpayee makes a 
statement on April 16 at Srinagar to offer 
Pakistan talks. Delegations of parliamentarians 
and teams of businessmen from both sides try to 
take Vajpayee's initiative further. There is an 
outpouring of emotions. An effusive atmosphere of 
friendship comes to prevail in the two countries. 
Then New Delhi goes to sleep. Nothing happens 
except a measly bus service between Delhi and 
Lahore once a week.
Nearly six months later, New Delhi wakes up in 
late October, this time to spell out steps for 
better contacts. Even then there is no relaxation 
in terms of visa; it will still be confined to 
three cities with a call on to the nearby police 
station within 24 hours of arrival.
Yet there is no explanation why New Delhi allowed 
the feel-good atmosphere to dissipate between the 
middle of April and the third week of October. 
During the six months when the two are indulging 
in usual rhetoric, Vajpayee does not respond to 
even individual or private effort to sustain the 
momentum of his initiative. It is as if the 
speech at Srinagar was a passing itch. Perhaps he 
wanted the drama enacted by the VHP at Ayodhya on 
the temple's 'darshan' to be over.
Or was there a fresh advice by the Americans who 
never stop saying that they are "in touch" with 
both sides to sustain peace as if India and 
Pakistan would have gone to war but for 
Washington? I do not think that the US has the 
kind of influence it claims to wield. The two 
countries have not gone to war because both of 
them do not know how it will end. That gives all 
the more importance to people-to-people contact. 
It will keep hostilities at bay and normalize the 
situation gradually.
My worry is about the mindset of the bureaucracy 
in both the countries. Take New Delhi first. Only 
a few days ago did its retiring foreign secretary 
Kanwal Sibal pour cold water over the 
conciliatory efforts. At a Rotary meeting in 
Punjab he said that people-to-people contact was 
futile and, as usual, scoffed at those who 
lighted candles on the night of August 14-15 to 
celebrate the birth of the two countries. His 
tone was contemptuous and his approach to any 
rapprochement negative. How do we change the 
attitude of such officials because they 
constitute the implementing machinery?
Not surprisingly the foreign office refused Asma 
Jehangir, a distinguished human rights activist 
and the UN rapporteur, a visa twice within a 
short period. New Delhi was at its worst when it 
recently rejected the visa applications of 
Pakistanis to participate in a workshop on South 
Asian Security in Goa.
The foreign office at Islamabad is a bit better 
in strategy but not in mindset. It stopped the 
retired judges and leading lawyers from crossing 
the Wagah border. Its stand on overflights is 
ridiculous. How can a sovereign country forgo its 
rights to overflights at crucial times?
The bureaucracy which has planted only nettles in 
the way of better relations between India and 
Pakistan cannot be expected to change overnight. 
Pakistan is an obsession for Indian foreign 
office and vice-versa.
This is understandable in a state administered by 
the military for more than four decades. But it 
cannot be defended in India where the foreign 
service officers should have imbibed democratic, 
liberal traditions fostered by Jawaharlal Nehru, 
India's first prime minister. Vajpayee should 
realize that his entire initiative will come a 
cropper unless he opens non-official channels 
away from the bureaucrats.
The biggest disappointment is Pakistan's foreign 
minister Khurshid Kasuri who once worked with 
some of us for people-to-people contact. I did 
not expect him to speak the language of hawks in 
Pakistan. I was amused to hear him saying that 
people-to-people contact had its limitations and 
that the governments on both sides should take 
over things in their own hands.
I wish governments in both countries had allowed 
people-to-people contact a free play. The entire 
atmosphere of mistrust would have disappeared by 
now. So much goodwill would have been generated 
that it would have been easier to tackle even 
Kashmir. Vajpayee has done well to announce the 
talks with the Hurriyat leaders on Kashmir.
I do not know how much deputy prime minister L K 
Advani has changed in his hard line. He has 
already queered the pitch by his statement that 
the talks would be confined to decentralization 
of power. When the state had integrated to India, 
it had given only three subjects to the centre: 
foreign affairs, defence and communications. The 
talks with the Kashmiris should begin from there.
The writer is a freelance columnist based in New Delhi.

_____


[3]


The News on Sunday, November 2, 2003

...AND JEHAD GOES ON

If known exponents of jehad are able to preach 
their beliefs openly, there must be something 
lacking in the government's commitment to curb 
militancy

By Zulfiqar Shah

Maulana Masood Azhar's recent countrywide tour to 
address a number of widely publicised 'jehad 
conferences' surprised many. Particularly those 
who thought that the days of propagating jehad 
were over after General Musharraf had declared a 
ban on militant and jehadi organisations last 
year, are now having second thoughts.

The ban was seen as a major shift in Pakistan's 
decades old policy of supporting jehad in Kashmir 
and Afghanistan. But the recent resurgence of 
jehadi outfits -- even those which were banned -- 
and sudden spurt in their activities has created 
doubts about the Musharraf regime's seriousness 
in taking on the jehadis.

Masood Azhar's tour -- widely considered as a 
major proof of the resurgence of jehadi activity 
-- not only defies President Pervez Musharraf's 
claims made in his speech on January 12, 2002, 
but also raises questions as to whether it could 
have taken place without the government's consent.

"The tour has established that he enjoys the 
state support," says an analyst who wanted not to 
be named.

"It's astonishing that on one hand Musharraf says 
he is against jehadis and on the other hand he 
has given Masood Azhar free hand to hold jehad 
congregations throughout Pakistan," says Iqbal 
Hyder, former minister for law and parliamentary 
affairs and executive council member of Human 
rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP). "Masood has 
been operating under complete patronage of 
government agencies," he claims.

Maulana Azhar, freed from an Indian jail in 
exchange for a hijacked Indian passenger plane 
and the chief of now banned Jaish-e-Muhammad, is 
still considered the most wanted person in India. 
In his home country, he is treated as a jehadi 
hero by a section of the society, particularly by 
those who support jehad in Kashmir and elsewhere 
in the world.

In Karachi, his jehad conference was held on 
October 18, 2003. Followed by wide publicity 
though pamphlets, posters and banners all around 
the city, the conference was able to attract 
thousands of people to come and listen to him.

Even the city government headed by Jamaat 
Islami's Naimatullah Khan, which otherwise is 
very quick in removing unauthorised advertisement 
banners and hoardings, gave the organisers free 
hand for the publicity of the conference.

Though the banners were removed after the 
conference ended, the pamphlets and the posters 
are still there, occupying a large space on the 
walls of private and public buildings in Karachi. 
These pamphlets and posters describe Masood Azhar 
as a jehadi hero and the 'conqueror of Indian 
Jails'.

Contrary to past practice when Jaish's functions 
were closed for many people especially media, 
Masood Azhar's jehad conference in Karachi was an 
open event. The way it was publicised clearly 
showed that the organisers wanted to draw as many 
people as they could.

Masood Azhar, who has renamed his organisation as 
Pyam-e-Islam, has addressed similar conferences 
attended by thousands of people in Hyderabad and 
Nawab Shah in Sindh and Lahore and other cities 
in Punjab. The focus of his speech at all these 
conferences was the 'noble notions of jehad' in 
Kashmir.

Besides addressing the conferences, Masood Azhar 
also held closed door meetings with his party 
cadre on how to make the organisation more 
effective, says a source.

Analysts believe the tour was aimed at 
strengthening Masood Azhar's relationship with 
the Jaish cadre split in two groups some time 
ago. The other group being headed by Abdullah 
Shah Mazhar.

Those who believe that allowing Masood Azhar's 
tour is a manifestation of the government's 
reaffirmation of its undeclared support to jehad 
in Kashmir, also fear that this policy of 'one 
step forward, two steps backwards' will harm 
Pakistan's interest locally as well as globally.

"Free hand to jehadis will damage Pakistan's 
credibility at the international level," says 
Iqbal Hyder. "Pakistan can only succeed in 
establishing its credibility at the international 
level if it changes its policy towards jehad in 
Kashmir," he adds. Iqbal Hyder also asserts that 
Pakistan's claim to being a leading partner in 
the war against terrorism cannot be taken 
seriously unless the country "changes its policy 
of jehad in Kashmir policy."

There are others who think that the government is 
serious in restricting the activities of the 
jehadis but at the same time they point out the 
enormity of the task. "It is not going to be an 
easy task," says Dr Muttahir Ahmed, professor at 
the department of International Relations at 
University of Karachi. "These people (the 
jehadis) have roots in the society. They have 
been active for the last 15-20 years. So it's not 
easy to root them out immediately," he adds.

Muttahir also says that holding of the conference 
by Masood Azhar did not mean that the government 
supported his activities. "Because a section of 
the society supports jehad and the jehadis, the 
holding of a jehad conference should not come as 
a surprise."

Government consent or not, in an international 
scenario which puts Pakistan in a difficult 
position vis-a-vis jehad and the jehadis, the 
resurgence of the jehadi activities is sure to 
create more problems for the country.

It is necessary for the government to come clean 
on the issue. If it is serious in not allowing 
militancy, it has to implement its writ 
throughout the country without sparing anyone. 
It's also important that President Pervez 
Musharraf cannot portray Pakistan as a liberal 
and modern state until public expression of 
jehadi sentiment and honouring of jehadi leaders 
is not checked.



______



[4]

Sunday Observer, 2 November 2003

DANGERS OF SINHALA EXTREMISM : HIRU VS. HELA URUMAYA: A DRAW FOR NOW?

Observations by LAKSHMAN GUNASEKERA

As Sri Lanka moves closer to a re-structuring of 
the State in order to resolve the ethnic 
conflict, the more that Sinhala ultra-nationalist 
blood will begin to boil. In their desperate bid 
to prevent what they perceive to be a complete 
disaster for the Sinhala community and 
nation-state, Sinhala ultra-nationalist groups 
may begin to go beyond civil agitation and resort 
to physical violence.

What happened at the New Town Hall, Colombo, last 
Wednesday is, in my view, symptomatic of such a 
trend. This is a danger that I have warned 
against several times in these columns over the 
past few years - see, for example, my column in 
the Sunday Observer of 16th January, 2000, 
headlined 'Are the Sinhala ultra-nationalists 
arming?'.

On Wednesday and Thursday last, a Sinhala-Tamil 
Arts Festival was conducted by the Colombo-based 
'Hiru' Group. The attack came within an hour of 
the start of the festival, just after the keynote 
addresses, including one by that doyen of Sinhala 
literary scholars and lexicographers, Professor 
Sucharitha Gamalath.

A small crowd of people rose up inside the hall 
and began yelling anti-Tamil, anti-LTTE and other 
hate slogans including accusations that the 
Festival organisers, being Sinhalas, were 
'traitors' to their race, bent on undermining the 
Sri Lankan State in treacherous collaboration 
with the LTTE. According to eyewitnesses, the 
agitators included several known journalists of 
the Divaina newspaper as well as personalities of 
the Sihala Urumaya political party.

The Hiru Group, which organised the Sinhala-Tamil 
Arts Festival, is the name adopted by the circle 
of largely Sinhala social activists, writers, 
poets and other cultural workers gravitated 
around the Hiru Sinhala language fortnightly. 
Hiru is well known for its avant-garde Sinhala 
cultural output and stringent, social-critical 
journalism that focuses on and develops 
fearlessly incisive news coverage of burning 
social and political issues.

Just like many other similar but less creative 
Sinhala and Tamil journals that articulate the 
needs, concerns and aspirations of social sectors 
often left out by the big media, Hiru is a 'poor' 
journal. That is, a low budget one, struggling to 
survive on a low income because it has little 
advertising income given the limited spending 
capacity of its audience and also the probable 
reluctance of conventional commercial advertisers 
to be featured in what is clearly a 'radical' and 
controversial journal.

Its originators and its staff are from the 
Sinhala middle and lower-middle class 
intelligentsia known for their social activism as 
well as their professionalism. Many of its 
leadership would consider themselves as Marxian 
or socialist, while some may have post-modernist 
perspectives.

In fact it is this identity of a 'poor' Sinhala 
journal, for years, actively working for the 
Sinhala poor, in a fearless manner with much 
sacrifice and commitment, that gives Hiru the 
credibility and ethno-national legitimacy that 
enables it to link up with social groups like 
non-Sinhala ethnic communities without the risk 
of being perceived as 'betraying' the Sinhala 
community. In this, Hiru parallels the JVP, but 
the Hiru Group vigorously distances itself from 
the Sinhala hegemonism inherent in the JVP's 
current campaign against a negotiated settlement 
of the ethnic conflict.

Indeed it is the Hiru Group's active support for 
a negotiated settlement, on the basis of its 
acknowledgment of equality of all ethnic and 
social sectors, that prompted it to organise the 
Sinhala-Tamil Arts Festival last week. In its 
stance in support of the peace effort, the Hiru 
Group is no different from numerous small 
Left-wing or social activist groups arising from 
among the less Westernised middle and 
lower-middle class intelligentsia.

There are many such groups, some of them human 
rights groups, others being social action groups 
(many in rural and semi-rural areas) dedicated to 
mobilising specific, marginalised social sectors 
such a rural poor, farmers, village communities 
affected by threats to their ecology, women, 
gays, ethnic minorities etc. There are also 
groups focusing on issues such as environment, 
cultural marginalisation (e.g. Veddahs) as well 
as avant=garde cultural groups.

Most of these groups are unlike the more middle 
class and upper middle class-led urban 'NGOs' 
which, while often doing much good work for 
'beneficiary' sectors or 'target' social sectors, 
are not socially linked to these sectors and are 
not accountable to them directly for their 
credibility or continuity.

However, for those who wish to belittle the 
significance of the radical social action or 
cultural groups, such as the Hiru, it is easy to 
brand them as 'NGOs" and thereby dilute their 
credibility in the eyes of the larger society 
which would not be familiar with their history or 
performance. In the case of a well known critical 
newspaper like Hiru that will not be easy, 
though. Too many Sinhalas, especially those who 
have been following national politics through the 
mass media, know of Hiru's critical and 
democratic journalism to feel immediately 
suspicious of Hiru's intentions.

Indeed, the Hiru Group must be finding it quite 
strange today to be held as heroes by much of the 
mainstream 'elite' or big media which previously 
either ignored it or tended to brand it as either 
'fringe' or as an insincere, 'goody-goody' and 
misled NGO. Of course, the attack by Hela Urumaya 
elements on the Arts Festival was not a surprise 
to Hiru (or, to anyone familiar with the politics 
of the Urumaya constituency).

While the crude propaganda by Urumaya elements as 
well as certain big media newspapers, that the 
Arts Fest was merely an LTTE 'Pongu Thamil' held 
in Colombo, will certainly confuse some Sinhalas, 
there are significant sections who know Hiru well 
enough not to immediately doubt its intentions.

After all, an increasing number of Sinhalas, 
easily a majority, are (a) supportive of a 
negotiated political settlement, (b) impressed 
enough by the militancy and success of the Tamil 
nationalist enterprise to give the Tamil 
community due recognition as a community with 
credentials similar to the Sinhalas and, (c) 
anxious to make amends for past sins (of 
anti-Tamil pogroms) and see the need for 
inter-communal bridge-building.

In fact, it is this very legitimacy of Hiru in 
the eyes of the mass of the people that enables 
it to be upheld today by the mainstream media and 
even receive generous police protection from a 
Government, which is normally cautious of, if not 
hostile to, such radical activist groups.

Furthermore, the action of the Urumaya supporters 
in attacking the Arts Fest could be seen as 
having complex results.

At face value, the Urumaya, prevented from 
completely disrupting the Festival, may claim a 
'draw' and some of them have been heard to mutter 
dark threats hinting at even worse violence 
against all "Sinhala Koti' and 'traitors' to the 
Race (Master Race?).

But the action by Urumaya elements and related 
groups may also be seen as a kind of unconscious 
marginalising of themselves from the 'confused' 
and 'unheroic' mainstream of Sinhala society. 
They are already being branded as 'extremist' not 
just by such esoteric columns as mine or by 
radical critics, but by the staid mainstream 
media and top politicians who, at one time, would 
calmly go along with similar Sinhala hegemonic 
politics and, have indeed done so to the degree 
that they have prolonged and worsened the ethnic 
conflict.

The more they are branded as extremist, the more 
such irrationally behaving elements will feel 
justified in practising extreme behaviour. While 
some actions of political violence (whether by 
State or non-State entities) have some logic and 
justification based on the interests and concerns 
of very large sectors of humanity (e.g. wars of 
independence, social revolutions, wars for 
'regime-change'), there are other instances of 
political violence that may not have that logic 
or justification (e.g. Hitler's Third Reich, the 
Aum sect's gassing of a Tokyo subway station). In 
terms of the ethnic conflict, then, we may see 
normally marginalised radical social activist 
groups being drawn into the mainstream, but 
unfortunately, one time 'mainstream' 
ultra-nationalist elements may now be driven to 
the extremities.

This is dangerous. Last week some of these 
elements engaged in fisticuffs. More extreme 
violence could mean the resort to underground 
armed actions such as the bombing of homes and 
institutions of people they target as 'traitors' 
and even assassinations.

It should be recalled that such armed violence 
has already taken place at a similar significant 
moment when the PA regime was engaged in peace 
talks with Norwegian help. There were two 
instances of hand grenades thrown at offices of 
Western agencies close to or working parallel 
with the peace effort. 'Extremism' can go all the 
way.


_____



[5]

Outlook Magazine | Nov 10, 2003    
OPINION

ON THE JP IN THE BJP
JP gave the BJP legitimacy, and lived to rue it. 
But, even now, they can't let him be.
KULDIP NAYAR
I wasn't surprised to hear the BJP was 
celebrating the birth centenary of Jayaprakash 
Narayan at its Delhi HQ. During the Emergency, 
the RSS, the party's mentor, had even included 
Mahatma Gandhi's name in its prayers. It was 
probably embarrassed that the person whom JP 
literally worshipped didn't figure in its morning 
and evening invocations. Even otherwise, the 
organisation had by then realised that Gandhi 
went down so well with the masses it could ill 
afford to skip him. The RSS move was born out of 
necessity, not conviction. (Till today, 
Gandhiji's portrait finds no place among the 
array of photos displayed at the RSS headquarters 
in Nagpur.)

By now, it's evident the BJP is desperate to 
widen its base as it enters an election year. 
Hence the appropriation of JP, who fits well into 
the RSS line of thought-a tall Hindu enshrined in 
the pantheon of the Sangh parivar. The BJP's 
problem is

that its own icons have lessened in appeal, 
attracting only a particular category of voters. 
Vir Savarkar and Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, the 
BJP's two heroes, don't bring much to the table 
other than the party sentiments of Hindu 
nationalism. This is of little help while 
entering unchartered, yet-to-be-saffronised 
territory. They needed someone whom the liberals 
could relate to. Hence JP. There's also an added 
bonus: the BJP has the vicarious satisfaction of 
rubbing shoulders with those whom it respects in 
its heart of hearts.
JP's clothes of secularism, though, will not fit 
the party. It will look ill-suited on them, as it 
did in the '70s. Then the party was called the 
Jana Sangh. JP had admitted it into the 
Opposition combination fighting the authoritarian 
rule of the then prime minister, Indira Gandhi. 
JP was conscious that the Jana Sangh was a 
political arm of the RSS, but he was given to 
understand that the two would part company. It 
was an undertaking of sorts.
After the birth of the Janata Party, which JP 
constituted, he insisted that the Jana Sangh 
members, who occupied positions in the Janata 
Party and in government, sever links with the 
RSS. He knew the role it had played in Gandhiji's 
assassination. Nathuram Godse, who shot the 
Mahatma, had been an RSS worker. The plot had 
been proved, the RSS banned. In fact, its chief 
M.S. Golwalkar had also been arrested. He was 
released after a year or so on the assurance that 
the RSS would not get into electoral politics. 
(Fifty years on, it's busy selecting BJP 
candidates for the state assembly elections in 
MP, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Delhi.)
The undertaking on the RSS turned out to be just 
a ruse to join the ruling combine. JP's reminders 
to Jana Sangh leaders to make good on the promise 
had no effect. How could they have when the Jana 
Sangh itself was an RSS creation, with the avowed 
aim of creating a Hindu rashtra?
Initially, the Jana Sangh members tried to 
explain to JP that the RSS wasn't what it was 
made out to be. When it came to the crunch, they 
refused point-blank to break ties with the RSS. 
JP felt cheated. But by then he was too sick, and 
could hardly go to the people to expose the Jana 
Sangh. He did make it public, though, that he had 
been let down.
When the Janata Party finally did rake up the 
dual membership issue, the Jana Sangh members 
preferred to walk out. They later morphed into 
the Bharatiya Janata Party. Curiously, by that 
time, they had also acquired the credibility 
which the Jana Sangh, now the BJP, had not 
managed even after 30 years of Gandhi's 
assassination.
The two-year stay in the Janata Party and the 
portfolios they held in the central ministry 
helped the BJP immensely. On the one hand, it got 
an opportunity to saffronise the staff there. The 
information and broadcasting ministry is a prime 
example, with RSS-honed people still running 
it.The BJP also inherited a positive tinge which 
confused the Hindu intelligentsia-what with its 
tallest leader, Atal Behari Vajpayee, doing a 
balancing act riding two horses at the same time. 
Ayodhya, plus all these factors, percolated down 
to the BJP's winning 181 seats in the last 
general elections against the party's usual 
single digit tally. After that, even JP's 
followers found alibis to join hands with the BJP 
in the NDA so as to stay in the driving seat.
Deputy prime minister L.K. Advani, who presided 
over JP's birth centenary celebrations, now rubs 
out the differences between the political BJP and 
the ideological RSS with thoughts like "the 
ideology of the BJP or the RSS has been a 
unifying factor for the nation". Yes, he's done 
everything to "unify" the nation, the most 
significant of which was the rath yatra he led 
through northern India, dividing in its wake 
Hindus and Muslims who had lived together for 
centuries. He is so satisfied with the 
results-never since Partition has there been such 
large-scale rioting as was witnessed then-that he 
equates the rath yatra with Gandhi's Dandi Salt 
march, truly a comparison of the ridiculous with 
the sublime.
Some day, Advani's real role in the destruction 
of the Babri Masjid-a structure which came to 
bear the weight of India's credo of 
coexistence-will come out as clear as daylight. A 
woman Indian Police Service officer, deputed to 
protect Advani those days, has deposed before the 
Liberhan Commission on how he instigated the kar 
sevaks. More would have come out at the Rae 
Bareli court if the CBI had not withdrawn the 
conspiracy charge against him.
It's true the BJP today 'needs' JP's name. But in 
the bargain, is it right for it to-unwittingly or 
not-crucify the person who willy-nilly gave them 
credibility? He had realised even then that he 
had made the biggest mistake of his life in 
trusting them. The least the Sangh parivar can do 
is not drag his name into its communal vitriol 
which is sure to sharpen as the polls approach.


_____


[6]

Date: Sat, 1 Nov 2003 11:54:50 +0000 (GMT)
From: Shabnam Hashmi <anhadinfo at yahoo.co.in>

In a meeting held at IIC annexe the following 
statement was adopted. It was also decided to 
form an Alliance for the Defence of Democracy and 
to organize a Peace Concert in Ahmedabad where 
Mallika Sarabhai, Nafisa Ali and Habib Tanveer , 
( all three of them have been targeted lately) 
would be invited as the Chief Guests.


Released to the press by

Shabnam Hashmi
4, Windsor Place, New Delhi-110001
Tel- 23327367/ 66


Press Statement on Mallika Sarabhai

In the world's largest democracy, Freedom of 
Expression, Freedom of Press and Freedom of 
Speech come at a heavy price.

Relentless harassment of tehelka.com that led to 
its closure, Income Tax raids on Outlook and its 
editor, physical assaults on journalists for 
"making attempts to project Gujarat as a violent 
and disturbed State", cases against 
social-activist Nafisa Ali, The Indian Express 
and Divya Bhaskar for allegedly fomenting 
communal passion and now a fraudulent case 
against Mallika Sarabhai.

The powers-that-be are increasingly using law as 
an instrument of oppression of voices of dissent 
putting at stake the very essence of democracy. 
The harassment of accomplished classical dancer 
Mallika by a regime in Gujarat which has 
committed horrendous crimes of genocide and has 
tried to use every means to prevent justice to 
prevail is yet another incident.

She is being hounded, and also "framed" in 
criminal cases, because she had initiated a 
Public Interest Litigation in the Supreme Court 
of India against Gujarat government for the 
genocide it had committed last year; and has 
persisted in not withdrawing the case.

After the state sponsored carnage in Gujarat in 
February and March 2002 one of the first voices 
to be raised in protest was that of the 
accomplished classical dancer. With rare 
eloquences, courage and passion, she express her 
anguish at the massacre and her words stirred the 
conscience of the nation.

The recent slew of cases that have been filed 
against here are blatant political vendetta by 
the Government of Gujarat. The attempt clearly is 
to try to crush her spirit and silence her voice.

We, the undersigned, strongly condemn the 
partisan and malicious use of state authority 
against Mallika Sarabhai and to express strong 
solidarity and admiration for her fearless 
espousal of the truth.

Abhilasha Kumari, Prof, Delhi
Admiral Ramdas, Retd Admiral Indian Navy, Mumbai
Amit Sengupta, Senior Journalist, Delhi
Anand Patwardhan , Filmmaker, Mumbai
Aniket Alam, Journalist, Hyderabad
Anil Nauriya, Supreme Court Advocate, Delhi
Aniz Azmi, Theatre Director, Delhi
Anjum Rajabali, Journalist, Bombay
Apoorvanand,
Arun Gandhi , Founder and President, M.K.Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence , USA
Arvind Koshal
Ashok Lal, Playwright/Poet
Asad Zaidi, Poet, Delhi
BG Verghese
Bela Bhatia
Bhinish Shakeel
Cedric Prakash, Director, Prashant, Ahmedabad
Deb Mukerji, Ambassador
Digant Oza, Senior Journalist, Ahmadabad
Dilip D'Souza.
Ela Gandhi, Member of Parliament, South Africa, Mahatma Gandhi’s Grand Daughter
George Verghese, Senior Journalist, Delhi
Gita Bharali, Research Associate,North Eastern Social Research Centre, Guwahati
Githa Hariharan Writer, Delhi
Gulammohammed Sheikh, Artist, Baroda
Harsh Mander, Social Activist, Writer, Delhi
Hiren Gandhi, Samvedan Cultural Programme, Ahmedabad
Javed Mir, ActionAid, Kutch
Jerry Almeida, ActionAid, Delhi
Kamal Mitra Chenoy Prof., Delhi
KN Panikkar , 
<http://in.f81.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=knp8@rediffmail.com>Senior 
Historian, Kerala
Kuldeep Nayyar, Senior Journalist, Delhi
Lolita Ramdas, Activist, Mumbai
Loveleen Misra- TV Actress, Mumbai
Madhu Kishwar, Activist, Delhi
Mahesh Bhatt, Filmmaker, Mumbai
Mohd.Azam, Kova, Hyderabad
MK Venu, Senior Editor, Economic Times
MS Sreelekha
Mustafa Qureshi, Photo Journalist
Nafisa Ali, Actress, Activist
Neelabh, Journalist, Delhi
Nilima Sheikh , Artists, Baroda
PC Sen
Poornima Joshi, Journalist, Delhi
Praful Bidwai, Senior Journalist
Prashant Bhushan, Senior Advocate
Prashant Sen
Rajkumar Hans, Professor History, Baroda
Rajneesh Verma
Ranjani Mazumdar, Filmmaker, Delhi
Rasna Bhushan, Artist, Hyderabad
Rev. Valson Thampu, Delhi
Sabeena Gadihoke , Filmmaker, Delhi
Sabina Kidwai, Filmmaker, Delhi
Sanjay Barbora, Research Associate,North Eastern 
Social Research Centre, Guwahati
Saroop Dhruv, DARSHAN, Ahmedabad
Seema Nayyar, Activist, Delhi
Shabnam Hashmi, Activist, Delhi
Shakeel Ahmad, Sadbhawna ke Sipahi
Shohini Ghosh, Filmmaker, Delhi
Shubha Mudgal, Singer, Delhi
SP Udaykumar, Activist, Chennai
Sudhir Chandra, Europe
Suma Josson , Filmmaker, Mumbai
Sunil Dutt, MP
Syeda Hamid, Women Activist, Delhi
T. Jayaraman, Scientist, Chennai
Tarun Tejpal, Senior Journalist, Delhi
Vagish Jha, Sadbhawna ke Sipahi
Vidya Bhushan Rawat, Social Activist
Walter Fernandes , Director, North Eastern Social Research Centre, Guwahati
Wilfred D'Costa, INSAF, Ahmedabad

  o o o

Petition USA

PETITION TO STOP HARRASSMENT OF DR MALLIKA 
SARABHAI STOP HARASSMENT AND INTIMIDATION OF DR 
MALLIKA SARABHAI

To
Hon’ble Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Prime Minister of India
New
  Delhi
India


Dear Hon’ble Shri Vajpayee

You are urged to take immediate steps to stop the 
harassment and intimidation of Dr Mallika 
Sarabhai,who is the Pride of Gujarat. Times of 
India of Tuesday, October 28th 2003 has headlined 
a story entitled “Mallika Sarabhai Is Being 
Framed” and it has put the Government of India 
and the State Government of Gujarat in a very bad 
light.

As you very well know that Dr. Mallika Sarabhai has been very
  outspoken in condemning the massacre of innocent 
human beings in the State of Gujarat after the 
Godhra incident of February 2002.

Dr. Sarabhai has refused to withdraw her case 
against the State Government of Gujarat for lack 
of failure to prosecute the perpetrators of the 
senseless violence and also the failure of the 
State to provide adequate relief and 
rehabilitation of the survivors in the Supreme 
Court.

Dr. Sarabhai has categorically denied any 
wrongdoing and the charges of human trafficking 
against a person of her stature is absurd. 
Despite this she did co-operate fully with all 
the inquiries of the
  authorities.

Efforts of Gujarat Government to deny her bail is 
gross miscarriage of justice. Many prominent 
citizens of India such as Rajmohan Gandhi , 
Kuldeep Nair, Shabana Azmi, Asghar Ali Engineer, 
J B D’souza, Dolly
Thakore Alyque Padamsee B G Verghese have already 
protested this outrageous effort to silence one 
of the few voices of sanity in the State of 
Gujarat.

We respectfully ask you to take immediate steps 
to reverse the misguided effort to force Dr 
Mallika Sarabhai to withdraw her public interest 
litigation, otherwise irreparable harm will be 
done to
  India’s
reputation that got tarnished in all parts of the world.

We the undersigned Non-Resident Indians both 
individuals and organizations are awaiting your 
confirmation that the right steps have been taken 
to set the wrong that has been done to Dr Mallika
Sarabhai.


Sincerely yours,

Individuals:
Shrikumar
  Poddar, USA
Dr K S Sripada Raju, USA
Uma Balakrishnan, USA
Kaleem Kawaja, USA
S.M.Bhagat, USA
Hari Sharma, Canada
Rasheed Ahmed, USA
Ruchira Gupta, USA
Imtiazuddin, USA
Gautam & Urvi Desai, USA
Amit Shah, USA
Zubair Patel, USA
Rajesh Veeraraghavan, USA
Sami Uddin.
  USA
Dr. Chander Balakrishnan, USA
Srividhya Venkataraman ,USA
Dr. Jawaid Quddus, USA
Mayurika Poddar, USA
Dr. Satinath Choudhary
Zafar Iqbal, PhD


Organizations:
International Service Society, USA
Vaishnava Centre for Enlightenment, USA
India Development Society, USA
India Foundation, USA
Seva International, USA
Bharatiya Educational Foundation, USA
Assn of Indian Muslims of America,, USA
Develop in Peace, USA
Gujarati Muslim Assn of America, USA
International South Asia Forum, Canada
Am Fed of Muslims from India, USA
S.Asian Network for Secularism & Democracy, Canada
NRIs for Secular and Harmonious India


CC:
The President of India
The Deputy Prime Minister of India
The Chief Minister of Gujarat
The Speaker of Indian Parliament


____



[7]

Outlook Magazine, Nov 10, 2003    

REVIEW
Stir It Up
Chaudhuri has grasped Hindutva's pathology, seen 
the iron in India's pseudo-spiritual soul. And 
he's saddened and disturbed
PRAFUL BIDWAI


SMALL ORANGE FLAGS
by Amit Chaudhuri
SEAGULL BOOKS
RS 150; PAGES: 79

The "'state of emergency' in which we live", 
wrote Walter Benjamin, "is not the exception, but 
the rule". Amit Chaudhuri quotes Benjamin 
approvingly as he reflects on the Holocaust 
during a recent visit to Berlin's old Jewish 
quarter. That state, he recognises, is integral 
to today's India too: in governance, public life, 
people's private worlds, and the middle class' 
coarsening sensibilities.


In this slender volume, Chaudhuri makes forays 
into many spaces: Manto, a Birla temple, a 
Greyhound bus, 1993 violence-devastated Mumbai, 
and issues of (diverse) identities. His style is 
easy, observant, never declamatory. The prose has 
insights which fiction-writers don't always share.

The booklet should make some of the so-called 
educated minds think, stir up what's left of 
their liberal conscience. It might have been more 
effective had Chaudhuri revisited certain 
familiar social-science debates and developed 
themes outside a strong Bengal-dominated context 
(he reduces the complex foundations of Indian 
secularism to the "liberal humanism of the Bengal 
Renaissance"!). But beyond a point, one can't 
quarrel. Chaudhuri has grasped Hindutva's 
pathology, seen the iron in India's 
pseudo-spiritual soul. And he's saddened and 
disturbed.


____



[8]


Economic and Political Weekly [Bombay, India]
October 25, 2003
Commentary

'Mr and Mrs Iyer'
Such a Long Journey

'Mr and Mrs Iyer' successfully depicts 
stereotyping and prejudice by playing up a 
stereotyped environment and the use of typecast 
characters. Equally important, it is a growing-up 
tale. It traces the movement of a woman's 
consciousness in the course of a single journey, 
the consequences of one decisive and unexpected 
action.

Renuka Viswanathan

The impact of Aparna Sen's award winning film, 
'Mr and Mrs Iyer', on the emotions is direct, 
deep and lasting. Images from the movie dance 
before the eyes for days after the first viewing, 
creating fresh patterns and meanings - an 
experience associated only with early movies seen 
in distant childhood. And this magic web has been 
woven using a stereotyped environment and 
typecast characters. For stereotyping and 
prejudice, which govern social interaction in our 
multireligious, multicultural nation, are in fact 
the core issues around which the entire emotional 
edifice of the movie is built.

The significance of stereotypes is underlined 
from the very beginning of the movie, in its 
title as well as setting. Mr and Mrs Iyer are 
clearly generic names. They indicate that the 
main protagonists should be seen merely as 
representatives of a typical larger national 
group. Hence the choice of a very common south 
Indian family (caste) name that could apply to 
millions of Indians.

The same insistence on stereotyping is seen in 
the setting of the movie. As it opens, a 
narrator's voice sets the stage: we are reminded 
that we are looking at a typical Indian 
experience that every person in the audience has 
undergone. We are about to embark on a longish 
bus journey with travelling companions from 
different regions, religions and cultures, 
speaking different languages. And characters are 
sketched very much in the Bollywoodian tradition 
(remember the erstwhile popular movie - the 
Amitabh Bachchhan-Aruna Irani starrer 'Bombay to 
Goa'?).

We meet many of the expected stereotypes-college 
students going home on vacation singing and 
playing 'antakshari', a casual foursome sitting 
down to a game of cards, the disapproving prim 
matron, an aged Muslim couple. Familiar figures, 
often encountered on screen as well as in real 
life. Among them, the typical young, middle 
class, educated, conservative south Indian 
housewife - Meenakshi Iyer - making the usual 
journey with her son, Santhanam, back to her 
father-in-law's house after a visit to her 
parents. And Raja Choudhry, the helpful, rather 
colourless, Bengali photographer (who will later 
turn out to be somewhat atypical).

Emphasis on the ordinariness and typicality of 
her characters and setting helps Aparna Sen to 
achieve at least one major objective. Viewers are 
lulled into complacence and the director succeeds 
in creating the state of 'willing suspension of 
disbelief' essential for successful 
story telling. It also becomes easier to 
introduce the incident relating to the attack on 
the bus by a menacing group of communal rioters.

Such stoppages are, of course, no longer part of 
fictional life alone. Given the prevalence of 
violent agitations on all kinds of divisive 
issues throughout the country today, most viewers 
will already have direct or hearsay experience of 
similar interruptions to bus journeys. What 
happens to Meenakshi Iyer and her travelling 
companions is just as likely to happen to anyone 
in the theatrical audience. Which is why their 
reactions almost become our reactions, as we too 
search for solutions to the same dilemmas.

Events move inexorably towards the imminent 
unmasking of Raja Choudhry as a Muslim, marking 
him out as the next likely victim of the 
mobsters. At this point of the screenplay, the 
director must have considered a number of 
options. Why not focus on the collective guilt of 
the passengers, who have failed so miserably in 
protecting the innocent old Muslim couple? Or 
play it as an adventure by inventing stratagms 
for Raja Choudhry to avoid discovery and sure 
death. Or, of course, look at how a traditional 
conservative middle class woman copes with the 
possibility of a fellow traveller being lynched 
by a ravaging mob. The third storyline is what 
draws Aparna Sen in the movie. With very moving 
and disturbing results.

In the midst of all the deliberately stereotyped 
characters, there is one jarring note, which 
cannot be ignored - the constant reference to Mrs 
Iyer's son Santhanam by his full 'given' name. It 
is not a typical name in any sense. What is even 
more surprising, however, is her insistence on 
always using it without another endearment or 
nickname. This is certainly unusual. Children are 
everywhere referred to by pet names. A 
traditional Tamilian family would have called the 
child 'Raja', 'Mani,' 'Kuzhanthai', 'Kanne'. But 
not Meenakshi Iyer. For her and for the director 
he is always only 'Santhanam'. The name is used 
ad nauseam as if to drive home its significance. 
And it is significant. For 'santhanam' means 
literally 'child' - in Sanskrit and in all the 
Indian languages derived from it. The centrality 
of the child to the story is evident in the scene 
set in the beautiful forest glade where Meenakshi 
and Raja Choudhry frolic with the mischievous 
boy. In cinematic parlance, we are here looking 
at the typical child - the child of the country, 
the inheritor of India's difficult and disturbing 
heritage. The heritage of diversity in which 
languages, religions, regions, cultures and races 
lie tangled in hopeless confusion. A heritage 
that demands from an Indian citizen a much higher 
degree of tolerance and understanding than from 
citizens of most other countries. The terrible 
heritage too of violent confrontation and rioting 
that has become inseparable from recent history. 
And we are shown how, in the light of this 
heritage, Meenakshi Iyer confronts every Indian's 
dilemma - how far each of us is responsible for 
the life of a fellow Indian, victimised for 
belonging to a different religious, regional or 
cultural group.

Aparna Sen's handling of the scene is masterly in 
its understatement and effectiveness. It comes 
upon us in total unexpectedness. The camera does 
not linger on Raja Choudhry's fear and 
desperation, although we know that he is 
expecting trouble. There is no background music, 
imagery or symbolism of any sort, heralding 
Meenakshi Iyer's impulsive action. We do not know 
(and are not even told at a later date) how and 
why she reached the decision to step out of line 
as a traditional housewife and do the most 
stunning, subversive action possible for a Hindu 
woman - lift up her 'mangalyasutra' and introduce 
her companion and herself with total confidence 
as 'Mr and Mrs Iyer'. And yet her intelligent but 
extremely dangerous action succeeds in saving a 
life, when foolhardy direct, non-violent 
intervention had not saved the lives of the 
innocent old Muslim couple. Meenakshi's dilemma 
belongs to all Indians. And it would be 
interesting to know how acceptable her dramatic 
and shocking solution is to most of us. I suspect 
that even very traditional and conservative 
persons would find it difficult to condemn her 
action. Despite the virulent divisive propaganda 
that is so current today, few of us will betray 
our duty as true Indians to protect fellow 
citizens of different religions. And it is this 
Indianness that the director brings into focus so 
sharply and clearly.

Symbolism of a Journey

From the moment that Meenakshi takes the 
momentous step, her life is transformed. The 
movie is about this transformation too, something 
that the director traces with remarkable finesse 
and delicacy. And it is here that I would like to 
set Aparna Sen off against another favourite 
director - Satyajit Ray. Ray's movies too treat 
women with rare delicacy - my favourites are the 
women of the Apu trilogy - the grandmother and 
sister of 'Pather Panchali', the mother of 
'Aparajito' and the wife of 'Apur Sansar'. All 
seen lovingly - but always through the eyes of 
the man Apu. Aparna Sen, however, sees the world 
through a woman's eyes. In many earlier films and 
once again in 'Mr and Mrs Iyer'.

Which is why I do not see 'Mr and Mrs Iyer' as a 
love story of the 'Brief Encounter' type. It is 
instead a growing up tale, the story of a woman 
waking into adulthood. It could as well have been 
called 'Meenakshi Iyer Grows Up' or 'The 
Education of Mrs Iyer'. It traces the movement of 
a woman's consciousness in the course of a single 
journey, the consequences of one decisive and 
unexpected action. Adulthood does not come easily 
to women in Indian middle class homes even when 
they are married. For marriages are conducted 
within an overwhelming ambience of parental 
involvement that takes much of the autonomy of 
choice of a life partner out of the woman's 
hands. And this is followed by performance of a 
host of traditional roles - as wife, mother, 
daughter-in-law and the rest. But adulthood is 
about making choices and taking the consequences. 
The choices open to a traditional middle class 
woman are limited and so is her experience of 
life within a sheltered household. Meenakshi is 
educated (an MSc in physics) and intelligent (her 
stratagem has saved a life). She makes a choice 
to tell a shocking lie to save a fellow traveller 
and is forced to pick up the pieces - she must 
play out the lie throughout the entire journey. 
And the events that intervene bring her to 
disturbed maturity as an Indian and as a woman.

And so Meenakshi gets her education about the 
hollowness of the stereotypes ingrained in her 
from childhood. With what confidence and facility 
she had concluded at the beginning of the journey 
that by sharing food and drink with Muslims you 
get polluted! But the education extends not only 
to Muslims; it is also about men in general. 
Advice about men has been drilled into her as it 
has been into the minds of all Indian women. You 
don't share a room with men for they take 
advantage of you. Strange men need few comforts; 
they can sleep anywhere and manage anyhow. Events 
at the forest guest house open her eyes to real 
life. They teach her that people are not 
stereotypes. They are not just Muslims and 
Hindus; they are not even just men and women. We 
are all persons; not stereotypes but human 
beings, creative, supporting, helpful and 
protective. Meenakshi learns to look beyond the 
rules and prejudices of her upbringing and 
background. And is left standing on the station 
platform with the new knowledge and value systems 
that her decision has brought her. Her 
transformation is apparent even to others. Raja 
Choudhry has seen it dawning on her face, but he 
is already a mature adult, capable of pursuing 
his profession, travelling around and looking 
after himself and aware of dangers. He has no 
growing up to do. Meenakshi's husband looks at 
her with a new awareness, sensing the change. And 
we wonder how the new woman will cope with her 
autonomy and her experiences (that she cannot 
share with anyone but that we hope will influence 
the manner in which she brings up Santhanam, the 
future Indian citizen).

And with delicate irony, we find that the message 
against stereotyping has been crafted from 
stereotypes themselves - stereotypes lifted out 
of their setting to become individuals in their 
own right. 'Mr and Mrs Iyer' appeals to the 
emotions because it focuses on what it means to 
be an Indian woman today.


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

Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on 
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