SACW | 6 Nov. 2003

[Harsh Kapoor]

SOUTH ASIA CITIZENS WIRE   |  6 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 is no longer 
valid; Google cache may be used to trace pages 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] Pakistani Religious Minority Leaders Protest Travel Ban
[2]  In Solidarity with Malika Sarabhai the 
prominent danseuse and outspoken voice for 
secular space
- Downloadable documents in defence of Malika Sarabhai
- Political vindictiveness (M V Ramana)
[3] Police and Minorities (Asghar Ali Engineer)
[4] The Strange Cowardice of RSS Leaders (Vinod Mubayi)
[5] Gayatri keeps knocking on justice's doors - 
The story of one rape survivor (Laxmi Murthy)
[6] Madhya Pradesh : Ballot babas: Political 
sanyasis shine on election eve (Deepak Tiwari)
[7] Madhya Pradesh : Sangh eyes Bhojshala poll plank (Hartosh Singh Bal)
[8] Call for Entries - Film Festival for the World Social Forum (Bombay)
[9] Full Text of Amartya Sen's speech to the Commonwealth education conference


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

[1]

Voice of America | 05 Nov 2003, 16:06 UTC

PAKISTANI RELIGIOUS MINORITY LEADERS PROTEST TRAVEL BAN
Michael Kitchen
Islamabad

An alliance of Pakistani religious-minority 
leaders is appealing a government order barring 
their chairman from traveling, a move the group 
says was designed to silence its voice overseas.

All Pakistan Minorities Alliance Chairman Shahbaz 
Bhatti says the government has not said why it 
banned him from traveling abroad, but says the 
alliance plans to take the issue to court.

He speculates that the ban may have something to 
do with his recent U.S. and European speaking 
tours, in which he highlighted the plight of the 
country's Christians, Sikhs, and other non-Muslim 
groups.

Mr. Bhatti says the ban is unfair, as he and 
other leaders of the alliance never criticize 
Pakistan as a nation during their speeches 
overseas.

"We always spoke on the issue of minorities 
within the parameter of Pakistan and as a loyal 
citizen of our country," he said.

Mr. Bhatti says the travel ban only reinforces 
the sense of discrimination felt by many 
non-Muslims, who account for about three percent 
of Pakistan's population. He says a number of 
Pakistan's laws favor Muslims over members of 
other religions. He cites laws that make 
blasphemy against Islam a crime, as well as the 
controversial Christian marriage act, which he 
says allows courts to dissolve a marriage if one 
of the parties converts to Islam.

Mr. Bhatti says the marriage act has been used to 
subvert justice when Muslim men perpetrate crimes 
against non-Muslim women.

"Due to this law, our Christian and other 
minority women have been abducted, tortured, 
kidnapped, and their culprit then declares that 
they accepted Islam, and then their parents and 
husbands cannot pursue [justice] for them," said 
Shahbaz Bhatti.

Pakistan Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat, 
whose ministry imposed the Bhatti travel ban last 
month, says he cannot discuss the case.

But Mr. Hayat says the alliance's protests are 
exaggerated and should be dealt with through the 
Parliament.

"There are members of the Christian community and 
other minority communities sitting in the 
Parliament," he said. "None of them have as yet 
raised their concerns regarding the blasphemy law 
or Christian marriage act."

A spokesman for Mr. Bhatti's group, Asher 
Chaudhry, says the alliance includes several 
members of Parliament, and that they have 
attempted several times to repeal the marriage 
act. He says another attempt is planned for the 
current legislative session.


_____



[2]

[ IN SOLIDARITY WITH MALIKA SARABHAI

* In the past issues of SACW a series of news 
items, letters and online petitions have been 
circulated on in defence of Malika Sarabhai. Two 
documents, fact sheet and FAQs, put together by 
Shrikumar Poddar (one of the prime movers in 
gathering support for Dr.Sarabhai world wide) 
after verification by Malika Sarabhai's 
colleagues and lawyers provide full background on 
this move to target Malika Sarabhai, are 
downloadable from the SACW web site | The ULS are:
http://sacw.insaf.net/Alerts/MalikaSarabhai/FAQ2%2004.10.2003.doc
http://sacw.insaf.net/Alerts/MalikaSarabhai/Fact%20Sheet%20Mallika%20Sarabhai.doc

These word formatted documents can be made 
available via e-mail to anyone interested. Should 
you require a copy drop a note to 
<aiindex at mnet.fr>

**
An article by peace activist MV Ramana in defence 
of  Malika Sarabhai and other victims of 
political witch hunts  of the BJP government in 
India ]


o o o

The Daily Times (Lahore)
Thursday, November 06, 2003

POLITICAL VINDICTIVENESS

M V Ramana

In her essay The End of Imagination, which expresses her strong
opposition to the Indian nuclear tests of May 1998, Arundhati Roy says,
"When I told my friends that I was writing this piece, they cautioned
me. 'Go ahead,' they said, 'but first make sure you're not vulnerable.
Make sure your papers are in order. Make sure your taxes are paid.' My
papers are in order. My taxes are paid. But how can one not be
vulnerable in a climate like this? Everyone is vulnerable."

A recent illustration of such vulnerability is Mallika Sarabhai. A
celebrated danseuse and social activist, Mallika has been accused of
cheating and running an immigration racket by a student, Manushi Shah.
According to the accuser, she and a number of other students had paid Rs
330,000 for a six month training period and a subsequent tour of the US
and Brazil. The tour had to be cancelled because the US consulate denied
them visas. Manushi Shah's claim is that she was refunded only Rs
310,000 and is owed Rs 20,000.

Mallika does not disagree. Only she points out that the original
contract stipulated that participants in the tour would have to pay Rs
20,000 for the intensive six month training that was imparted to the
students. All this seems fairly straightforward and can presumably be
easily checked and settled. Nevertheless, there is now a criminal case
against Mallika Sarabhai. She has had to take anticipatory bail; the
court has seized her passport and ordered her not to leave the country.

To make sense of all this, one has to look at the larger context.
Mallika Sarabhai lives and works in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. In April 2002,
she and others petitioned the Indian Supreme Court to make the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) and other organisations belonging to the Sangh
Parivar liable for the 2002 riots (i.e., the pogrom that killed over
2000 people, mostly Muslims) in Gujarat. What is happening to Mallika
now does suggest vindictiveness on the part of the BJP and the Sangh
Parivar.

One front organisation for the Sangh Parivar, the National Council of
Civil Liberties (NCCL), is reported to be involved in the case against
Mallika. Its president, VK Saxena, is said to have accompanied the
accuser to the police station when the case was lodged. Manushi's father
even told the Hindustan Times that "Saxena was the leader of the
movement (against Sarabhai)."

NCCL has a history of harassing other groups that oppose the Sangh
Parivar and its activities. In November 2000 NCCL published a series of
advertisements defaming the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), later calling
on the government to ban the organisation. The NBA has been spearheading
opposition to the series of large dams being built on the Narmada River.

Mallika Sarabhai also represents the kind of person that the Sangh
Parivar loves to hate. A highly educated and talented artiste, Mallika
has been an outspoken feminist and committed to various progressive
causes. In her own words, "For me a feminist is somebody who fights for
the rights and equal opportunities for women and everybody else around.
It's just that 55 per cent of the people who are exploited happen to be
women." Even in her dance and theatrical work, she has sought to
interject political content. Her justification: "Performance art is the
only thing today that does not turn people off. How else do you get
people to re-evaluate fundamental issues? We can't separate politics
from life."

During last year's pogrom, Mallika was involved in various efforts to
stop the violence. Along with others like Medha Patkar, she had
organised a meeting at the Sabarmati Ashram built by Mahatma Gandhi,
which ended up being violently disrupted by a contingent of lumpen
elements associated with the Sangh Parivar. Later she was part of a
Concerned Citizens Tribunal that investigated the violence in Gujarat.
More recently she compiled a music album entitled Peace Works; money
from the sales of this album are to go to rehabilitation of the victims
of the pogrom. None of these endeared her to the ruling BJP government,
giving one a basis to suspect foul play in the recent cases against her.

Mallika Sarabhai is not the only victim of such political
vindictiveness. Earlier this year Nafisa Ali, a social worker, had cases
slapped on her for her remarks during a press conference where she
pointed out parallels between Gujarat's chief minister Narinder Modi,
and Adolf Hitler and Osama bin Laden. Two newspapers, Indian Express and
the Gujarati newspaper Divya Bhaskar, were charged with reporting her
remarks.

This adds to the BJP government's earlier record of harassing the press.
The most relentless harassment has been that of Tehelka.com, which was
responsible for the notorious sting operation that revealed massive
corruption in the Indian defence and political establishment. For this
outstanding piece of public service, the government and its lawyers have
deliberately gone into 'all aspects relating to the making and
publication of the allegations', essentially forcing Tehelka and its
owners into bankruptcy by trying to deal with this. (Details of this
witch-hunt are at http://www.tehelka.com) It is to the credit of the
core Tehelka team that it is restarting as a weekly newspaper.

Other newspapers and journalists have been attacked or otherwise
harassed by the BJP government. Examples of such actions are: income tax
raids on Outlook magazine; the imprisonment of Iftikhar Gilani of
Kashmir Times; threatening to deport Time magazine's Alex Perry for
painting an unflattering picture of Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee and his
ill-health; and asking Naseer Shadeed, a correspondent for Al Jazeera
channel, to leave India because of his critical reports on the violence
in Gujarat.

If there is one thing that is fairly common to the many victims of the
varieties of political vindictiveness and vendetta described here, it is
that they are not likely to cow down and give up. For this and for the
larger cause that they serve, they deserve our support.

_____


[3]

POLICE AND MINORITIES

  Asghar Ali Engineer

  (Secular Perspective November 1-15, 2003)

  Recently few trainee police officers in U.K. 
were suspended for their racial remarks against 
Asians. The BBC had made a secret film on these 
trainees officers and they were passing racist 
remarks against Asians. It came as a shock to the 
authorities and immediate action was taken 
against the concerned officers. According to the 
newspaper reports four British police officers 
have been suspended following allegations of 
racism prompted by undercover reporting in a BBC 
documentary.

These officers three from Manchester in 
north-west England and one from North Wales, were 
suspended after police chiefs viewed the 
programme "The Secret Policeman". According to 
the documentary a police officer was dressed in a 
Ku Klux Klan mask at a training centre in 
north-west England. According to the undercover 
BBC reporter he also recorded some racist 
comments by some officers.

The Police department took action against these 
officers even though the BBC had not supplied 
them the copy of the programme. These accused 
were suspended immediately as they heard about it 
from other sources. A thorough inquiry will be 
conducted against these officers. The Home 
Secretary David Blunkett called on the forces "to 
take decisive action", a spokesperson of the Home 
office said.

This was the biggest survey of the forces ever 
undertaken. Nearly 13000 officers were scanned 
for sexual and racist attitude among the police. 
The study led by Prof. Gus John, a key adviser to 
Home Secretary David Blunkett on race, found 
evidence that at virtually every stage of the 
prosecution process Asian and black people 
appeared to suffer discrimination.

The Britain is becoming a pluralistic society and 
the authorities are worried that police may not 
have right attitudes to handle law and order in 
the new pluralistic set up. A couple of years ago 
the Home Secretary had visited Mumbai along with 
few members of House of Lords to study how a city 
like Mumbai with its tremendous plurality is 
managed and how law and order is maintained. A 
few prominent citizens of Mumbai with experience 
with the police were invited and I was one among 
them, to find out how the police handled the 
situation.

The fact that such secret survey was done with 
the help of the BBC undercover reporter speaks 
volumes about the concern the British authorities 
have towards law and order problem in the growing 
multi-religious society in Britain. It is also 
interesting to note that the authorities took 
immediate action against the officers involved 
even without seeing the undercover BBC programme.

It is in sharp contrast with the behaviour of 
authorities towards those policemen who publicly 
display their anti-minority bias. No action has 
ever been taken by any erroneous police officer. 
Every communal riot has its own story of police 
behaviour towards minorities. The PAC in U.P. 
displays crude anti-Muslim sentiments and 
deliberately kills innocent Muslims and yet no 
action has ever been taken against these guilty 
policemen despite all available evidence. The 
classical case is that of PAC commandant Tripathi 
who ordered killing of 23 Muslim boys pulled out 
of their houses in Hashimpura in Meerut on 23rd 
May 1987 and their bodies thrown in the nearby 
canal after shooting them dead. Only two boys 
survived to tell the story.

These officers have not been brought to book 
until today, no case has been filed against them, 
let alone suspend them or remove them from 
service. In U.K. the guilty officers were 
suspended immediately just for passing racial 
remarks.

In 1970 riots in Jalgaon a police sub-inspector 
Kadam led the mob and set fire to the house of a 
Muslim widow in which her children were burnt 
alive. Hajra Begum whose children were burnt had 
to meet Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to get the 
concerned sub inspector suspended. Madon 
Commission of inquiry also passed severe remarks 
against the police behaviour during 
Bhivandi-Jalgaon riots. The police even tampered 
with the daily diaries and Madon Commission was 
very upset about it. It arrested Ibrahim Maddu 
and others falsely implicating them in 
'conspiracy' to engineer riots without any iota 
of evidence against them.

No action was taken against any officer; on the 
contrary many of them were promoted and enjoyed 
high status. The strictures by Madon Commission 
also did not move the authorities to take any 
action. The story is no different as far as 
Mumbai riots of 1992-93 are concerned. The 
Srikrishna Commission too, like the Madon 
Commission, passed severe strictures against the 
then Additional Commissioner of Police Mr. Tyagi 
and 31 other officers and yet hardly any action 
was taken. After long agitation by some NGOs and 
filing of PIL in the Supreme Court Tyagi was 
nominally arrested and immediately released on 
bail. After the riots he was promoted as 
Commissioner of Police, Mumbai and he retired 
'honourably' and nothing happened to him. He was 
accused of ordering killing of 9 bakery workers 
near Minara Masjid.

In Bhagalpur riots of 1989 a police officer 
dumped the bodies of several riot victims in a 
village well and then buried them in the field 
and began to cultivate cauliflower to hide his 
crime. Another officer was suspended in Bhagalpur 
City and had to be reinstated by Rajiv Gandhi, 
the then Prime Minister, as he was gheraoed by 
the policemen demanding his reinstatement. And 
Rajiv Gandhi obliged them.

What is happening in Gujarat need not be repeated 
here. A large section of the Gujarat police was 
part of the mob, burning, killing and lynching 
poor and helpless Muslims. It displayed open bias 
even in launching prosecution. It even refused to 
take down FIRs or even openly changed the FIRs 
and did not record the names of the culprits 
given by the victims.

And just see what happened to the accused for 
killing a Sikh in New York mistaking him for 
Muslim after the attack on New York trade towers 
on 9/11, 2001. He was sentenced to death though 
he was white male. And see the contrasting 
behaviour of the authorities in Gujarat after the 
Godhra incident? More than 1000 persons were done 
to death most brutally and yet not a single 
culprit has been brought to book. In the Best 
Bakery case in which 14 persons were burnt alive 
all the culprits were let off by the fast track 
court. It is only the Supreme Court, which came 
to the rescue of the victims.

There are several such stories of police bias 
against minorities, which I do not want to repeat 
here. It is quite clear from what is stated above 
that the Indian police is, in general, with some 
honourable exceptions at higher echelons, is 
strongly biased against minorities. So is the 
U.K. and USA police. But there is stark 
difference between how authorities behave in U.K. 
and USA and how they behave in India. The Home 
Ministry took immediate action against the guilty 
police officers only for passing a racial remark 
whereas in India the police men can get away even 
if they shoot a number of people belonging to 
minority community.

What is needed is to sensitise the police to 
communal and racist situations in a multi-racial 
and multi-religious society. India is 
bewilderingly diverse and a police officer should 
be thoroughly aware of this social situation. His 
thinking should be purged of all majoritarian 
ethos or a mjoritarian arrogance. A qualitative 
democracy should ensure equal rights for all, 
whether belonging to majority or minority.

However, there is no such training, sensitising 
the police is imparted and authorities themselves 
display such prejudices and even election 
campaigns in India are based on caste and 
communal basis. The BJP openly indulged in 
anti-minority propaganda in its election 
campaigns. The policemen also listen to these 
speeches and acquire these prejudices.

At least to neutralise the police a thorough 
training is needed. But there is no such effort 
and the training module for the police does not 
include any such material. I have been conducting 
workshops on communal harmony for the police 
regularly and the police trainees display very 
raw prejudices during discussion. In one such 
workshop when I asked police constables what 
comes to your mind when I utter the word 
'Muslim', one of the constables said 'criminal' 
and the other constable said 'violent person' and 
others clapped indicating support for the two 
constables.

If the policemen at lower levels display such 
crude prejudices how can they be expected to be 
impartial while handling a riot situation? It 
would be in the interest of our multi-religious 
and multi-cultural society to train policemen to 
appreciate diversity and respect it. Such 
training would ensure much better law and order 
in the society. We do have multi-religious and 
multi-caste society but we have still to develop 
a multi-religious cultural ethos. Such bloodshed 
would not have taken place in our country in 
post-independence era if we had developed such 
culture.

We are unfortunately still quite reluctant to 
develop such culture. Our politicians 
aggressively promote majoritarian ethos and thus 
put up comfortably with such police attitude. The 
whole culture has to change if we want India to 
become one of the leading democracies in the 
world.

The police has often been accused of having 
anti-minorities attitude in general and 
anti-Muslim attitude in particular. Various 
inquiry commissions like Madon Commission and 
Srikrishna Commission have also passed strictures 
against the police. Enough has been written on 
this by many scholars and others.


_____



[4]

insaf Bulletin [19]  | November 1, 2003

[International South Asia Forum
Postal address: Box 272, Westmount Stn., QC, Canada H3Z 2T2 (Tel. 514 346-9477)
(e-mail; insaf at insaf.net or visit our website http://www.insaf.net) ]


The Strange Cowardice of RSS Leaders
Vinod Mubayi

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or the RSS as it 
is familiarly known is the nerve center of the 
Sangh Parivar the family of organizations that is 
ruling India today.  The RSS since its inception 
has been a highly militaristic organization 
patterned on the European fascist groups that 
grew and came to power in Germany and Italy in 
the first half of the 20th century.  RSS members 
who are recruited at an early age are provided 
with both ideological training and military style 
drills; the uniforms they wear are also patterned 
on the military.  All of the top political 
leaders of the BJP are members of the RSS and 
proudly swear by its rules, training, and 
ideology.

The recent trial of L.K. Advani, India's Deputy 
Prime Minister, and other leaders such as Murli 
Manohar Joshi in the case arising from the 
demolition of the Babri mosque on December 6, 
1992 reminds us, however, of another strange 
characteristic of the RSS leadership.  Despite 
all of the militaristic training and 
paraphernalia, cowardly behavior seems to be 
their defining motif.  Take the case of Advani. 
Every person in India and abroad who has ever 
watched TV or read the newspaper knows that for 
three long years he led the Ramjanambhumi 
movement, including the blood-drenched rathyatra, 
that ultimately culminated in the demolition of 
the Babri mosque and widespread riots that led to 
thousands of more deaths.  Yet for the last 
several years, before the courts and commissions 
of inquiry who were charged with investigating 
the crime of demolition and the fixing of 
responsibility and punishment, he has continued 
to deny, evade and absolve himself of all 
responsibility for the events that occurred.  In 
fact he went so far as to claim that the day of 
the demolition of the mosque was "the saddest day 
of my life".  Come again?  When TV images show 
him hugging the other Hindutva leaders in sheer 
glee as the domes of the mosque crumble under the 
hammers of the fanatics, how could he later 
assert that he was trying to stop instead of 
speeding up what happened?  Is this not 
mendacious and cowardly behavior?

Yet, it turns out strangely enough, that Advani 
is only the latest in a long line of RSS leaders 
who manifested duplicitous and cowardly behavior 
at crucial points in their lives when faced with 
serious consequences to their own person or their 
political careers.  The first was none other than 
the founding father of the very concept of 
Hindutva; Veer (brave) Savarkar whose portrait 
now rests on the walls of India's Parliament hall 
in New Delhi.  At the onset of his political life 
in the first decade of the 20th century, Savarkar 
was undoubtedly a "Veer" who believed, along with 
many others, that violent revolution was the only 
means to drive the British colonialists out of 
India.  His first book written in Marathi on the 
great uprising of 1857 even praised and advocated 
Hindu-Muslim unity against the colonial power. 
Imprisoned by the British Raj in the remote penal 
colony in the Andaman Islands, he broke down and 
recanted and wrote cringing apologetic letters to 
the British authorities begging to be released 
from prison, renouncing all his beliefs  and 
vowing fealty to the Crown.  Clearly Savarkar was 
not cut from the same mold as his contemporaries 
like Bhagat Singh, Ashfaqullah Khan, and 
Chandrasekhar Azad who also believed in an armed 
uprising against the colonial power and went to 
the gallows rather than beg for pardons from the 
Viceroy and his henchmen who ruled India.  Yet it 
is Savarkar's portrait that is now installed in 
Parliament not Bhagat Singh's.
The assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in January 
1948 by a member of the RSS led to a ban on the 
organization by the government of newly 
independent India.  To circumvent the ban, the 
RSS and its then leader Golwalkar tried to evade 
responsibility by claiming that the assassin 
Nathuram Godse (who was subsequently tried, 
convicted, and executed for the murder of Gandhi) 
was a "former" member who had left the 
organization.  In fact, more recently, L.K. 
Advani went as far as to say that Nathuram Godse 
had "nothing to do with the RSS".  Nathuram's 
brother Gopal Godse nailed this lie in a later 
interview when he stated: " All the brothers were 
in RSS. Nathu Ram, Dattatreya, Govind, and 
myself.  It was like a family to usŠHe [Nathuram] 
said in his statement that he left the RSS.  He 
said this because Golwalkar and the RSS were in a 
lot of trouble after the murder of Gandhi.  But 
he did not leave the RSS."  In response to 
Advani's claim, Gopal Godse said that "I have 
countered him, saying it is cowardice to say 
that."

When Mrs. Gandhi declared Emergency in 1975, the 
RSS was banned and a number of its leaders and 
members were jailed.  The RSS chief at the time, 
Balasaheb Deoras, wrote what have been described 
as "cringing letters" to Mrs. Gandhi, Maharashtra 
chief minister S.B. Chavan and Vinoba Bhave 
begging to be released and pleading not for 
lifting of the Emergency and release of all of 
the illegally jailed political prisoners but just 
for lifting the ban on the RSS and the release of 
his cronies.  He went so far as to express the 
willingness of the RSS to "participate in the 
Šprogram of actionŠunder the leadership of the 
Prime Minister".  Given that RSS cadres were 
actively taking part in the movement led by 
Jayaprakash Narayan against the Congress led by 
Mrs. Gandhi was this not moral cowardice on the 
part of Deoras?

Some commentators have termed this behavior as 
"duplicity", characteristic of politicians, 
rather than as sheer cowardice when the time 
comes to own up to and face the consequences of 
their actions.  Both descriptions are probably 
correct and serve to unmask the noble, selfless, 
patriotic, "veer" (brave) image the RSS 
leadership likes to project of itself in the 
media and the world at large.  

_____


[5]

Indian Express, November 06, 2003

Gayatri keeps knocking on justice's doors
The story of one rape survivor
LAXMI MURTHY

When does the trauma of a rape survivor end? When 
she gets justice, you would say? If this were to 
be the principle, the ordeal would never end for 
the majority of women raped in India. Far from 
getting justice, seeking it becomes an extension 
of the harrowing experiences that have already 
visited her. Take the case of Gayatri Sharma, 32, 
an activist from Shivpuri district, Madhya 
Pradesh. In December 1999, she and several 
members of her family were taken into police 
custody after an altercation on the highway.

Gayatri alleged that she was held in illegal 
confinement, assaulted, and raped in police 
custody by the district collector and SDO. 
Subsequently, Gayatri was imprisoned on charges 
like attempt to murder and dacoity. On being 
released on bail four months later in April 2000, 
Gayatri filed a complaint and the judicial 
magistrate took cognisance of the crime of rape 
as well as "outraging the modesty of a woman". 
However, one judicial level higher, the sessions 
judge concluded that there was no prima facie 
basis for rape but took cognisance of causing 
hurt and criminal intimidation. In her pursuit of 
justice, Gayatri reached the high court, which in 
its March 2003 order doubted the veracity of the 
complaint because the complainant had maintained 
a "long silence for four months" without 
considering that Gayatri was in jail for that 
entire period, or taking cognisance of the fact 
that Gayatri's silence had been extracted through 
threats to family members. Is it any wonder that 
she waited to get out of jail before embarking on 
her long journey for justice?


In a classic display of class prejudice, the high 
court order declared that "no educated person 
could have behaved in such a manner". This 
statement displays an unfortunate class bias. 
With the highest number of rape cases in 2002 
(2,256) being reported from Madhya Pradesh, as 
per the National Crimes Records Bureau, rape 
survivors have to gird themselves to tackle the 
judicial system in the state.

Disposing the allegation of rape to be "absurd, 
imaginary and false", the high court also states, 
"it is necessary to protect public servants in 
discharge of their duties". Is giving a fair 
trial to a complaint of rape "unnecessary"? Have 
we come full circle from the nation-wide campaign 
almost 25 years ago following the custodial rape 
of Mathura, a young Adivasi girl, which resulted 
in changes in the rape law? Rather than moving 
towards more enlightened jurisprudence in cases 
of violence against women, women's groups are 
being forced to fight to retain hard-won gains of 
the women's movement.

Sample, for instance, last month's (October 16) 
Supreme Court ruling that it was not mandatory 
for a woman constable to be present while 
arresting a woman at any time of day or night. In 
high profile cases, such as the alleged rape of 
the Swiss diplomat, the Delhi police are under 
pressure to bring the culprits to book. The woman 
having left the country has obliged the police to 
be flexible about rules and is sent, for 
instance, photos by e-mail to help identification.

While this sensitivity to the woman's situation 
is welcome, one wishes that similar empathy is 
forthcoming when it comes to thousands of 
ordinary Indian women battling not only sexual 
violence, but police apathy, lengthy procedures 
and judicial prejudice.

In such an atmosphere, it is not surprising that 
the Supreme Court on October 6 dismissed 
Gayatri's petition to review the decision of the 
high court. Is this gutsy young woman, knuckles 
sore with knocking on the doors of justice, 
asking for too much: a fair trial?


_____


[6]

The Week
November 9 2003

Madhya Pradesh
Ballot babas: Political sanyasis shine on election eve

By Deepak Tiwari

It is the season of sanyasis in Madhya Pradesh. 
Politicians playing for high stakes want all the 
help they can get on election-eve. And these 
"holy men" are ready to offer divine assistance, 
reportedly in return for temporal favours. If 
politicians can exploit religion, why can't 
religious leaders exploit politicians, their 
chelas ask in private. Fair question.

There is nothing otherworldly about these 
sanyasis. Leaders are prostrating before them 
seeking blessings and, in some instances, party 
tickets. Some have emerged from ashrams to lobby 
for their dear disciples. They can ensure 
victory, and at times, defeat.

Rawatpura Sarkar, the 35-year-old baba from Bhind 
in Chambal valley, has openly asked his followers 
to defeat Govind Singh, a minister in Digvijay 
Singh's cabinet who has earned his displeasure. 
Digvijay's efforts to broker peace between them 
have failed.

The baba can sure afford to take on the minister. 
He has no dearth of disciples. Ratnesh Rawat, his 
follower, said that over two dozen legislators 
and ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh 
were his staunch followers. In fact, meeting him 
is more difficult than meeting a VIP politician. 
Common folk have to be content with a darshan 
from afar.

Disciples cited a reason for this. Since the baba 
was concerned with the welfare of mankind, he 
preferred to spend time with those who were 
determining its destinyÑnamely, politicians. 
"Maharaj wants to change their soul by bringing 
them under his holy influence," said one of them.

Draped in white robes, Sarkar travels in an 
air-conditioned coach and flaunts a mobile phone. 
In fact, the modern style is catching on fast 
among sanyasis. Uday Singh Desmukh alias Bhayyu 
Maharaj of Indore is another hi-tech baba who 
usually roams around in kurta-pyjamas. He usually 
speaks on nation building, rural economy, 
education and the need to worship Bharat Mata. He 
has a fasci-nation for trendy cars and electronic 
gadgets. His ashram in Indore has close-circuit 
cameras and electronic security systems. 
"Maharaj's disciples are mainly from Maharatstra 
and include Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde 
and former chief ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh and 
Narayan Rane," said a disciple.

Bhayyu Maharaj, however, denied that he had a yen 
for VIP politicians. "I don't do any tantra 
mantra," he said. "Thousands of common people 
come here every day with their problems. The 
media does not see them."

But enquiries revealed that he is very busy. 
Disciples say that he has "no dates" for the next 
two months.

In Malwa resides Kamal Kishore Nagar, a sanyasi 
who is close to Digvijay. Nagar wields tremendous 
influence and got a superintendent of police 
transferred because he did not provide him 
(Nagar) with adequate security. Recently BJP 
leader Uma Bharati visited his ashram.

Devprabhakar Shastri alias Kuda Wale Daddaji also 
boasts of disciples from the world of politics 
and films. He is popular as the guru of actor 
Ashutosh Rana. Shastri holds sway over 
Bundelkhand and Bhopal and has openly stated that 
his main task in the coming months would be to 
ensure the victory of Digvijay.

It is the BJP which is usually credited with 
having the largest number of saints and babas in 
tow. But in Madhya Pradesh, the impor-tance of 
political sanyasis has grown exponentially during 
Digvijay's tenure.

He pays obeisance to them whenever he gets an 
opportunity. And they shower blessings on him. 
Sant Kripal Singh of Gwalior openly praises 
Digvijay. Lal Baba (he wears red), who was gifted 
a car by the chief minister, has prophesied that 
he will sweep the coming elections. Probably, 
soft Hindutva in action.

With the saints pitching in with their spiritual 
might, chances are that the Madhya Pradesh polls 
would not be fought on terra firma alone.


_____


[7]

Indian Express
Wednesday, November 05, 2003
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=34746

Sangh eyes Bhojshala poll plank
HARTOSH SINGH BAL
BHOPAL, NOVEMBER 4: As Polls approach, it was 
anticipated the BJP would attempt to reap the 
benefits of the hardcore Hindutva platform along 
with the anti- incumbency factor working against 
the Digvijay Singh government.

But the latest attempt by the Hindu Jagran Manch 
(HJM) ahead of the polls is a blatantly crude 
political campaign centred around the hurt to 
'Hindu sentiments'.

The focal point of the campaign is the 
Bhojshala/Kamal Maula masjid issue, for which the 
Manch was set up to carry out an agitation for 
the monument's 'liberation' in early 2003. The 
agitation had peaked in February and had seen a 
solution, still unacceptable to the Muslim 
community in Dhar, enforced by the

Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Under this, 
Muslims continued to exercise rights to namaz 
every Friday while Hindus gained access every 
Tuesday.

A jan jagran being organised by the HJM began on 
November 1 and will continue till November 15. 
During the event - apart from a dharam samagam 
planned in Dhar tomorrow which happens to be a 
Tuesday - pamphlets are being distributed to 
voters in the state. HJM state chief Radheshyam 
Yadav said: ''Each district will see its own 
version of the handbill. This is part of our 
attempt to ensure the voter makes the right 
choice.''

When asked why this was being done along with BJP 
workers checking voter lists, he said: ''In some 
places, there may have been an overlap but these 
are separate programmes. Of course, people 
carrying out our distribution are from the Sangh, 
since we are a Sangh outfit.'' And then he adds: 
''We are opposing this Hindu virodhi sarkar now 
in power in the state. Our workers have been 
harassed by this government that is responsible 
for Muslim tushtikaran.''

But it is no secret that even Radheshyam Yadav is 
just a RSS puppet. He does not even know the name 
of his Bhopal chief coordinating distribution in 
the city, but it is being done by RSS workers. 
The pamphlets distributed in Bhopal leave no 
doubts about the campaign's aim.

The cover page has a picture of a semi-automatic 
wielding man with the statement 'Madhya Pradesh 
mein jehadi atankvaad kab tak? (How long will 
jehadi terror continue in MP?)' printed across. 
The pamphlet is titled, ''Gau hathyaron ko 
puraskar, Hinduwon par atyachar (Cow slaughterers 
are rewarded, Hindus tortured)'' and adds 'vote 
aur note ke lalach mein Hinduwon par chot kab tak 
(how long will Hindus be victims of the greed for 
notes and votes)'.

Under the banner - 'yeh kaisa shashan .... yeh 
kaisa nyay (what kind of administration is this 
.... what kind of justice is this)?' are 
photographs of the Bhojshala/Kamal Maula masjid 
monument, one titled 'mandir mein namaz (namaz in 
a temple)' and the other showing police clashing 
with HJM activists inside the temple titled 
'Hinduwon pe atyachar (atrocities on Hindus)'.

The pamphlet also carries charges which have been 
raised earlier by the BJP and never substantiated.

o o o

[For More such news see 'Hindutva at work' blog
http://haw.blogspot.com/  ]

_____


[8]

[CALL FOR ENTRIES]

Dear Friends,
Magic Lantern Foundation is organising a Film Festival for the World Social
Forum, that will be held in Mumbai during 16 to 21 January, 2004. You can
enter one or more of your films in the following categories:
1. Imperialist globalisation
2. Patriarchy
3. Militarism and peace
4. Communalism (religious sectarianism and fundamentalism)
5. Casteism & racism (oppression, exclusion and discrimination based on
descent and work).

The WSF 2004 Film Festival is a non-competitive event. The deadline for
entries is November 30, 2003.

Please write to magiclf at vsnl.com for entry form, regulations and
information. You may also log onto http://www.wsfindia.org for more
information.


With best wishes,
Gargi Sen/Ranjan De
Magic Lantern Foundation
572 Dakshinayan, Plot 19, Sector 4, Dwarka Phase I, New Delhi 110045
Ph: + 91 11 2509 6815, 56062359

_____


[9]

FULL TEXT OF AMARTYA SEN'S SPEECH TO THE 
COMMONWEALTH EDUCATION CONFERENCE, Edinburgh, 
October 28, 2003 is available for all interested
Should your require a copy drop a note to < aiindex at mnet.fr>


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

Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on 
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Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit 
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South Asia Counter Information Project a sister 
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DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not
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