SACW #2 | 15 March 2004

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire #2  |  15 March,  2004
via:  www.sacw.net

[1] India | Book Review:  Hindutva and history (A.G. Noorani)
[2] India: The millions who cannot vote (P. Sainath)
[3] India: Elections 2004-Protents for Future (Ram Puniyani)
[4] India: Letter to the Editor (Mukul Dube)
[5] India: Citizens Letter to the Election 
Commission - Fourteenth Lok Sabha Elections - 
Violations of
Model Code of Conduct (Uday Mehta and Sukla Sen for EKTA)

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

[1]


Frontline
March 13 - March 26, 2004
BOOKS
Hindutva and history

A.G. NOORANI


Somanatha: The Many Voices of a History by Romila 
Thapar; Viking; pages 260, Rs.375.

IN 1989 when Lal Krishna Advani, as the Bharatiya 
Janata Party's president, took over the Ayodhya 
movement launched by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad 
two decades earlier, he did so admittedly with an 
eye on the general elections. He hoped, as he put 
it, that the decision would "translate into 
votes". While doing so, he also took over the 
false history on Ayodhya written by British 
historians and kept citing the "precedent" of the 
Somanatha temple as having been rebuilt by the 
Nehru government in 1951. This claim was palpably 
false as this writer pointed out on the basis of 
authentic material ("Of Somanatha and Ayodhya", 
Frontline, January 2, 2001).

What one of India's foremost historians Romila 
Thapar does in this erudite work is to demolish 
comprehensively a whole set of myths fostered by 
Muslim, Hindu and British writers on the issue. 
Despite a basic difference, the Babri Masjid 
parallel is very apt. There is not a shred of 
evidence to prove that Babar ordered the 
demolition of a temple at Ayodhya to build a 
mosque on its site in 1528 or that his Governor 
at the place, Mir Baqi Tashqbandhi, did so of his 
own accord. There is, however, incontestable 
evidence of the fact that in 1026 Mahmud of 
Ghazni raided the temple of Somanatha, plundered 
its wealth and broke the idol. Now comes the 
parallel. On Ayodhya, British officials gave 
currency to the falsehood of the demolition of 
the temple citing no proof but that "it is 
locally affirmed" in the 19th century. In that 
century also, British historians led by James 
Mill periodised Indian history on communal lines 
("the Muslim era", "the Hindu era") and depicted 
Mahmud's raid as having created a trauma among 
Hindus, whose effects lasted over eight 
centuries. The motive for fabricating the myth 
was to show that the British had liberated India 
from Muslim "oppression".

Romila Thapar's work is an excellent study in 
historiography. She writes: "My intention in this 
study is not an attempt at a detailed 
reconstruction of what happened, but rather to 
see the sources as presenting various 
perspectives, either directly or by implication, 
and to search for clues as to how the event was 
perceived. Such an assessment results in a 
different reading of the event from that which 
has been current so far. It emphasises a number 
of significant questions: who were the groups 
actually involved and affected, if the temple did 
in fact continuously alternate between rebuilding 
and destruction? What were the relations between 
these groups and did these change after each such 
activity? Was it a matter of Muslims desecrating 
Hindu temples, or were there other motives?" It 
is interesting to see how interpretations changed 
over the years.

She draws on six broad categories of sources - 
narratives and chronicles in Persian and a few in 
Arabic written largely in the context of 
Turko-Persian politics; Sanskrit inscriptions 
from Somanatha and its vicinity; Jaina chronicles 
and Rajput epics; perceptions about Mahmud in the 
oral tradition; the British intervention; and 
recent Indian reconstruction. On the history 
Persian sources predominate - and created myths.

The British and Hindu revivalist themes coincide. 
"The Hindus had suffered a trauma through the 
raid of Mahmud on Somanatha, and that the earlier 
subservience of India to Afghanistan and to 
Muslim rule had to be avenged. The raid of 1026 
was a defining moment, "a foundational event", 
which created lasting hostility between Hindus 
and Muslims. Persian "epics of conquest" and 
Hindi "epics of resistance" supported this theme 
as did colonial interpretation of history. 
Nationalist historians rejected it. But the 
nationalist movement had to reckon with 
revivalists in both communities. Jawaharlal Nehru 
noted in his Autobiography that "many a 
Congressman was a communalist under his national 
cloak" (page 136). The author notes the same 
trait. "There were some among the Indian 
nationalists who endorsed the colonial readings 
of Indian civilisation and culture and their 
application to historical events. They claimed to 
be anti-colonial yet many aspects of their 
interpretations of the past were founded on the 
theories of colonial historians."

Historical research was never too intensive, and 
analyses never too rigorous. The historian of the 
Chalukya period, A.K. Majumdar, pinpointed the 
initial problem when he stated: "But, as is well 
known, Hindu sources do not give any information 
regarding the raids of Sultan Mahmud, so that 
what follows is based solely on the testimony of 
Muslim authors" - the braggarts (emphasis added, 
throughout).


The Somnath temple.

In fact, the raids were a multi-purpose project 
in which greed for money was mixed with 
iconoclasm, as was the practice of the times. 
"What is striking is the resilience with which 
these areas, such as Somanatha, bounced back to a 
vibrant economy in a short while. Also, despite 
hostile sentiments, there were Indians of 
standing from these areas who were willing to 
support the ventures of Mahmud and to fight in 
Mahmud's army not merely as mercenary soldiers 
but also as commanders. Evidently, these 
relationships were far more complex than we have 
assumed and range beyond the concerns of 
religions and conversions."

Romila Thapar takes the reader through each of 
the six sources in a fascinating journey. The 
Turko-Persian accounts are rich in myth and 
fantasy. The great Persian poet Sa'di even 
claimed in his Bustan that he had visited the 
Somantha temple. There is no record of this. 
There is a basic contradiction in these accounts: 
"Had the temple been converted to a mosque 
subsequent to each attack, then logically (and 
logic is not at a premium in these accounts), 
apart from the first attack and conversion of the 
temple into a mosque by Ulugh Khan, the later 
attackers were each attacking a mosque. Clearly, 
various people were muscling in on the narrative 
of the act to get the benefit of claiming to be 
the destroyers of the Somanatha temple and its 
conversion into a mosque, irrespective of whether 
the destruction or the conversion into a mosque, 
irrespective of whether the destruction or the 
conversion was actually carried out. To that 
extent, it could well have been hyperbole in most 
cases. These claims are not reflected in Jaina 
narratives, or the Sanskrit inscriptions, and are 
contradicted by the excavation of the site... ."

Somanatha, however, remained a functioning 
temple. In the 16th century, "Akbar permitted the 
worship of the linga in the Somanatha temple and 
appointed desais/officers to administer it. Abu'l 
Fazl refers to the raids of Mahmud and makes an 
interesting comment. ... `fanatical bigots 
representing India as a country of unbelievers at 
war with Islam, incited his unsuspecting nature 
to the wreck of honour and the shedding of blood 
and the plunder of the virtuous.' This is, at one 
level, a condoning of the actions of Mahmud but 
at another, an indictment. Significantly, he does 
not mention Mahmud laying the foundations of 
Muslim rule in India. This legitimation was not 
required by Mughal rulers who were well 
integrated into the Indian polity."

In the 17th century, Ferishta wrote his fanciful 
account with an abundance of detail that 
testified to a fertile imagination. How could 
Mahmud have struck at the nose and pierced the 
belly of a lingam? But it is on Ferishta that 
British accounts drew liberally.

Romila Thapar renders high service in proving to 
the hilt that no trauma ensured from the raid. 
"The Jaina chronicles, the Rajput epics and other 
texts of the period subsequent to the raid on 
Somanatha, would have been the likely ones 
recording a Hindu trauma. However, what remains 
enigmatic is that there is little reference to 
nor reflection of a trauma. The Jaina texts 
confidently insist that Turkish raids on their 
sacred centres have failed to dishonour their 
images. Sources from Shaiva authors appear not to 
record an upheaval resulting from the raid on 
Somanatha by Mahmud. There is a hint in accounts 
referring to merchants, of reconciliation and 
negotiation being a way of reacting to Turkish 
attacks."

Another Ayodhya parallel. Tulsidas' 
Ramcharitmamas does not mention demolition of a 
Ram temple at Ayodhya. He was a devotee of Ram.

The historian Prof. Sushil Srivastava has ably 
documented the British contribution to a false 
account of the building of the Babri mosque (vide 
his essay "How the British Saw the Issue" in 
Anatomy of a Confrontation: The Babri Masjid-Ram 
Janmabhoomi Issue; edited by Sarvepalli Gopal). 
Romila Thapar recalls that "[Alexander] Dow 
published his History of Hindostan in 1767-72 in 
which he retold the account as given by Ferishta. 
Dow was widely read and the story was repeated by 
Gibbon, Mill, and many nineteenth century 
historians. Ferishta's version then becomes the 
hegemonic version... . The court chronicles in 
Persian were taken as historically accurate by 
British historians since they had a familiar 
format of a clear chronology and sequential 
narrative. Historiography in the nineteenth 
century did not require enquiring into the 
intention of the author or the chronicle. Even 
the contradictions in the sources tended to be 
glossed over."

The author cites a glaring instance of how 
religious bigotry was frequently read into the 
texts translated in the 19th century, which 
coloured the reading of the Turko-Persian texts. 
For example, where Utbi says, "He (Mahmud) made 
it obligatory on himself to undertake every year 
an expedition to Hind," the translation of this 
passage in Elliot and Dowson's work reads: "the 
Sultan vowed to undertake a holy war to Hind 
every year".

In short the theory of "a Hindu trauma" is a 
motivated myth. "There is little evidence of an 
overwhelming desire for revenge that had been 
smouldering for the last few centuries, and which 
is now the explanation for what is perceived as 
the current Hindu-Muslim antagonism."

Enters the Governor-General of India, Lord 
Ellenborough into the fray. In 1842 he issued 
"The Proclamation of the Gates". He alleged that 
the sandalwood gates of the Somanatha temple had 
been taken to Ghazni by Mahmud and had been 
placed at the entrance to his mausoleum. He 
ordered General Nott, in charge of the British 
army in Afghanistan, to bring back the gates. 
There was no mention of the gates in any of the 
chronicles or records.

"Ellenborough's Proclamation addressed to the 
Chiefs and Princes of northern and western India 
speaks of the insult of 800 years finally being 
avenged, and the gates that were once the 
memorial of the humiliation (of Hindus) have 
become the record of Indian superiority in arms 
over nations beyond the Indus. However, there was 
little reaction from the Princes and still less 
from the Hindus" - itself a fact of great 
significance.

As on the Babri mosque, so on the Somanatha 
temple, the Sangh Parivar fostered communal hate 
drawing on falsehoods. Romila Thapar exposes them 
devastatingly. Recalling the demolition of the 
mosque and "the genocide in Gujarat", she 
remarks: "The driving force of this, as of much 
that the Hindutva ideology reads into Indian 
history, is the theory - current since the 
nineteen century and derived from colonial 
historiography - of antagonism being the 
dominating relationship between Hindus and 
Muslims, a theory fanned by and giving support to 
the communal politics of the last century."

Curiously, the Sangh Parivar studiously ignores 
another important fact of our history. "The 
interesting counterpoint in the case of Somanatha 
is that the construction of the social memory of 
a Hindu trauma over Mahmud's raid and the 
destruction of other temples by Muslim rulers is 
a selection of a `memory' that at the same time 
annuls the memory of Hindu kings raiding Hindu 
temples. That there might have been a memory of 
Mahmud's raid prior to the construction of the 
one put forward by Ellenborough and in the debate 
in the House of Commons is not reflected in 
Sanskrit sources. The amnesia regarding Hindu 
Kings destroying Hindu temples is of a different 
order since such attacks are recorded and 
commented upon in `Hindu' sources. Kalhana for 
one, does not suppress the fact or the memory of 
Hindu kings of Kashmir destroying Hindu temples. 
But this information has been the subject of 
amnesia among modern historians. The necessity 
for both the constructed memory in the one case 
of Muslims alone destroying temples and the 
amnesia in the other was to give cohesion to a 
presumed Hindu community in modern times. And 
further, that the politics of modern times did 
not require that the amnesia be revoked, thus 
maintaining that only Muslims destroy temples. 
This precluded discussion of why in the past, 
temples were destroyed for reasons other than 
religious bigotry."

This is a definitive work on the subject. It is 
written in a lucid style with incontestable 
documentation.


_____


[2]

The Hindu
March 15, 2004
	  
The millions who cannot vote

By P. Sainath

By having elections in April when millions of the 
poor migrate in search of work, we are simply 
excluding an ever-growing number of citizens from 
the vote.


MILLIONS OF Indians who really want to vote in 
this election will not. The rural poor, far more 
than the chattering classes, are the pillars of 
our electoral system. The vote is the one 
instrument of democracy they get to exercise. And 
they do that with telling effect, often using it 
to go out and change governments. This time, many 
of them cannot vote. The timing of the polls 
ensures that. It is in April-May that quite a few 
distressed regions see their largest exodus of 
migrant labour.

Millions will be out of their constituencies, 
seeking work to survive. These are not people who 
can send in postal ballots. Most cannot afford to 
return for the polls. If you are a worker from 
Orissa at a construction site in Mumbai, it is 
hard for you to vote in this season. (Someone 
else might vote for you while you are away - 
though not for the party of your choice). This is 
one result of early Lok Sabha polls.

Sure, migrations are not new. That's all the more 
reason we should take them into account. They 
have been around long enough for us to know 
better. It's important, though, that distress 
migrations have risen since the early 1990s. And 
exploded since the late 1990s, with the collapse 
of rural employment.

Long before the migrations swelled to an exodus, 
the National Commission on Rural Labour found 
(1991) there were "more than 10 million circular 
migrants in the rural areas alone. These include 
an estimated 4.5 million inter-State migrants and 
six million intra-State migrants." And the NCRL 
report is outdated. It was in the 1990s that the 
numbers began to grow as never before.

Both the Census and the National Sample Survey 
Organisation grossly underestimate short-term 
migration. (Ironically, in 2001, such migration 
was so high in western Orissa, it distorted even 
the main Census headcount in some parts.)

NSS data have drawn on a strange definition of 
`last usual place of residence' of a migrant. 
That is: "the village where the person has stayed 
continuously for at least six months immediately 
prior to moving to the present village/town," 
where the person is counted. (NSS 43rd round.)

This excludes millions locked into endless 
step-by-step migrations. People who may not be 
anywhere for six months. Footloose migrants who 
are almost always on the move, from place to 
place, just to survive. But the Census and the 
NSSO see migration as a single-shot event. Not as 
a process. So the many moves the migrants make 
are never captured.

Take the months of April-May last year. Close to 
two million Oriyas were out of their State 
looking for work. An underestimate, but it still 
gives you an idea. Very few, though, were off for 
six months at a stretch. Barely any were home for 
six months at a stretch. Lakhs of people from 
just the three districts of Nuapada, Kalahandi 
and Bolangir were out. Just for the season. 
Pulling rickshaws in Raipur. Slaving at brick 
kilns in Vizianagaram. Working at great risk on 
high-rise buildings in Mumbai. The same migrants 
could be elsewhere at another stage of the same 
season. The way we define them gives us no clear 
idea of their numbers. Nor of how many of them 
are denied the vote as a result. We do know the 
figures are in millions. And rising.

The devastation of agriculture in the last decade 
makes the problem more acute. Zero investment, 
collapse of employment, a rise in debt - all are 
factors that have pushed millions more into the 
footloose army. At the same time, the towns and 
cities can absorb far fewer of them. There is 
much less work there, too. So the pressure on the 
migrants to keep moving only gets worse. Which 
means they go in for more and more short-term, 
footloose journeys in search of work.

Meanwhile, this year, we already have The Hindu 
(Feb. 28) reporting thousands of adivasis in 
Bolangir leaving their homes "for survival." 
That's in February. What could it be like by 
April-May? Can these people vote?

In that season last year, I boarded a bus for 
Mumbai from Mahbubnagar in Telangana. The idea 
was to join the migrants leaving the district in 
despair and hunger. Whole villages had seen more 
than two-thirds of their residents leave, looking 
for work. Only the very old and some young 
remained. Every traveller on that bus was a 
migrant wanting work - or a child of such 
migrants. Every bus on the route (with 58 seats), 
carried up to 100 passengers or more. The season 
brought record revenues for the Andhra Pradesh 
State Roadways and Transport Corporation there - 
on one-way tickets (most went back in under six 
months, though. Only to move out again in their 
quest for survival.)

Buses plying that route went up from one a week 
11 years ago - to close to 40 a week last year. 
At the same time, all three trains from the 
region ferried out tens of thousands more. The 
biggest group leaving were Lambada adivasis deep 
in debt. Followed by poor Dalits. (The Hindu 
Sunday Magazine, June 1, 2003.) This was just the 
Mumbai route. People from here go to 30 other 
destinations ranging from Gujarat to Rajasthan. 
In one estimate, over eight lakh people from 
Mahbubnagar were outside the district by April. 
Could they vote in such a season?

This year, one estimate looks at just Kurnool 
district. "Over three lakh agricultural labourers 
have migrated to Guntur, Cuddapah, Hyderabad and 
other places of the State in search of work 
during the lean season." (Frontline Feb. 28-March 
12.) Again, that is a February figure. What will 
it be by April? What's more - it is migration 
within the State. That too prevents many from 
voting. People from, say, Ramanathapuram, move to 
other parts of Tamil Nadu during April-May. Many 
leave the State as well. Either way, they mostly 
cannot vote.

In late April, there will be Biharis still in 
Punjab or Assam. Oriyas in Andhra Pradesh, 
Gujarat and Chhattisgarh. People from Tamil Nadu 
on the road crews of Mumbai. Workers from 
Rajasthan struggling in Gujarat. Those from north 
Karnataka scouring Maharashtra. Adivasis from 
Madhya Pradesh in the brick kilns of Haryana. 
That's an incomplete list. In April-May, there 
will be countless millions of them. Forced to 
scrape out a living away from home.

Yet those at the bottom do want to vote. Malari 
village in Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh, rubbed that 
in during the 1998 polls. All communities had 
their voting booths within a few minutes of their 
homes. Except the Dalits of Malari. For them, the 
officials had set up a booth four km away. All 
vehicular traffic was banned on election day. 
Even cycles. No transport - and a booth so far 
away? This was meant to discourage them. But it 
didn't work.

Of Malari's 219 Dalit voters listed at this 
booth, nearly all turned out. The young assisted 
the old. A few in their Seventies made that 
four-km trek across the fields to vote. On 
arrival, some found they had "already voted." The 
upper castes had saved them the trouble. Yet the 
rest voted and the basti rejoiced - a triumph of 
the human spirit and democracy. That was in 
mid-February.

But how many can make that trip in late-April 
2004? Will the young be around to assist the old? 
How many would have left the district, searching 
for work during the lean months? How many of 
their votes will be cast by others? In some 
places, there has been `heavy voting' when no one 
is around.

Migrant workers tend to be concentrated in some 
clusters of villages within certain districts. So 
their absence in large numbers can strongly 
affect some seats. In a closely-fought election, 
they could make a crucial difference. Besides, 
they want to vote. Many have strong political 
opinions and clear ideas on whom they would vote 
for. But too often, they will tell you with 
regret, they were away and could not cast that 
ballot.

How can this be resolved?

We do take school exam schedules into account 
while planning election dates. And rightly so. 
(Even though those schedules are still based more 
on a British school calendar than on the Indian 
agriculture season.) Shouldn't we, likewise, take 
the survival schedules of millions of poor 
Indians into account?

The time every rural Indian is most likely to be 
in his or her village is during the harvest 
season. That is their best chance of being 
present to vote. So, maybe, we need to weave 
election schedules with regional harvest 
schedules. Claims that people "are too busy" in 
this period help the landlords, not the workers. 
We are simply excluding an ever-growing number of 
citizens from the vote.

Millions of poor Indians have already voted - 
with their feet. They've left their homes in 
despair. Forced by a system that causes them such 
distress. One that tries, at every turn, to 
disable them and curb their democratic rights. In 
the process, they lose the vote. The one tool 
they treasure in fighting that system. By denying 
them that, we undermine them, ourselves, and 
democracy too.

_____

[3]


(from Milligazette)


Elections 2004-Protents for Future

Ram Puniyani

The state assembly elections (2003) in MP Rajasthan and Chattisgarh have
been followed by an unprecendented confidence in the BJP camp. It
immediately led to the BJP calling for a Loksabha elections, one is also
witness to the by a state sponsored Shining India campaign. Simultaneously
all the central ministries and even the planning commission are coming out
with the advertisement blitzkrieg showing the achievement of BJP led NDA
coalition. BJP has started projecting that its win in the forthcoming
Loksabha elections is a foregone conclusion. The recent survey conducted
by India Today has predicted a comfortable win for the BJP and its allies.

This electoral child of RSS has come far from its Gandhian Socialism days.
After the dual membership issue rocked the boat of Janata Government in
late seventies the ex Jan sangh component refused to leave their RSS
loyalty and broke the party to form Bharatiya Janata Party. That was the
time when Gandhis image and the respectability of Socialism were high and
thats how this Hindutva party picked up this plank. Unfortunately for BJP,
its parent RSS decided to back the Congress in the 1984 elections, mainly
because Congress was suppressing the Khalistani movement with iron hand.
In due course BJPs associates started intensifying its Yatras and religion
based mobilization of upper castes, the Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram entered the
Adivasi belt to Hinduise the Adivasis. These outfits discovered the magic
of Ram. Ram temple issue came in handy to promote the mass hysteria for
Hindutva.  After Mandal commission implementation, the BJP intensified its
ongoing Ram temple movement leading to Babri demolition, and the post
demolition Anti-Muslim pogrom, and the consequent polarization of society
leading to the increase in the electoral strengthening of BJP.

The fractured mandate of next few elections did lead to ultimately BJP
crossing the Rubicon and coming to power on its own first for 13 days,
than in alliance for 13 months and than leading to the formation of
National Democratic Alliance which came to power in 1999. NDA agenda
avoided the core Hindutva issues, Ram Temple, articlec370, Uniform civil
code etc. Having come to power BJP ensured various steps to strengthen
Hindutvas deeper hold. Its major actions included, explosion of nuclear
device, communalization of education, naked subservience to US in foreign
policy, the outright sale of public sectors, and economic polices aimed to
please middle class. While these were bad in themselves some other issues
which came up, were promoted and took place under the patronage of this
government give a real inkling of shape of things to come.

It appointed a commission to review the constitution. Though it kept
saying that the basic structure of constitution will not be disturbed, it
patriarch RSS chief K. Sudarshan did go on record to say that the present
Indian constitution is based on western values and needs to be replaced by
the one based on the Hindu(! Indian, Holy Dharma Granths, Holy Hindu
books, by inference Manu Smiriti, as that is the book giving the laws of
society) The dalits opposed this move tooth and nail for two basic
reasons. One an emotional one, that it is document whose drafting was done
under the chairmanship of Dr. Bhimraio Babsaheb Ambedkar. And two, that it
is the document which gives the values of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity
(i.e. community). Large sections of intelligentsia and other political
streams also came up to oppose the move of the Government. Any how, the
commission to review was formed, the report completed and nothing much
came out as the commission was aware of the total opposition to the RSS
designs by the large sections of population. The matter has been deferred
so to say by the RSS/BJP for the time being. The sword of Damocles is
hanging on the democratic values. BJP was able to undertake the first step
towards the long term agenda of sangh Parivar, the goal of Hindu Rashtra.
And surely if BJP returns to power with majority this may be the first
move on the cards.

Gujarat carnage was amongst the worst shames to the Nation. It could
assume such horrendous proportions mainly because of the fact that RSS
pracharak Narendra Modi, who was supervising the pogrom was aware that the
line of control over him will totally back him up and there is no check on
his designs to achieve the social polarization in the society. Above
Narendra Modi, were the all RSS swayamsevaks and pracharks-Gujarat
Governor Sundersing Bhandari. Union Home minister Lal Krishna Advani and
the Prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee himself. This carnage totally
polarized the society and the declining electoral forunes of BJP were
reversed due to the massive violence which was presented to be a defensive
act against the international terrorirism, Pakistans ISI and by
implication, the Indian Muslims. Prior to the carnage BJP was loosing
elections all over in the assembly elections of UP and four other states,
in the Gujarat elections. Post Godhra Gujarat the story seems to be
different and now the electoral fortunes swung in its favor. BJP could
achieve a victory of sorts through this violence. Also this firmly
established Gujarat as a Laboratory of Hindu Rashtra, with the human
Rights of minorities being put on the hold for good.

Gujarat violence and later elections in Gujarat and four assemblies-MP,
Chattisgarh, and Rajasthan brought to fore another phenomenon, the
phenomenon of social engineering amongst Adivasi and dalits. It became
known that under the quiet patronage of the BJP govt. many a NGOs have
been floated by RSS affiliates which are working in various villages and
remote places. With the help of these and the funding from NRIs VHP and
Vanvasi Kalyan Ashrams have recruited a huge army of paid volunteers which
s engaged in spreading hate, working for polarization in the society. Some
of these processes may be irreversible s well.

If BJP could achieve so much for Sangh Parivar due to its being in power
in the Center, if it returns to power the same phenomenon will get an
immense boost all over the country. The new areas which are coming under
the influence of RSS in a substantial way are Karalla (Marad incidence)
Karanatka (Baba Budan Giri) and Orrisa, to name the few.
Over a period of last few years BJP has succeeded in selling its image of
a democratic party while tied to the apron strings of RSS the progenitor
of the goal of Hindu Rashtra. It is of its clever deceit that the other so
called socialist and democratic parties have entered a coalition with this
party which clearly has no faith in democracy and secularism. It is
capable of talking in different languages to suit the purpose and
depending on its electoral strength. Its ploy is to use the plank of
development if it is strong enough and to revert to Hindutva agenda when
not strong enough to feel that development mantra can get it enough votes.
Also it can also combine the two with simple maneuvers. People tend to
believe that its mascot Vajpayee is a genuine democrat and people
likeTogadia are fringe elements of this outfit. As a matter of fact
Vajpayee and Togdia have drunk the same ideological milk in the shakhas
where they were trained to be swayamsevaks. It is a clever division of
labor as far as RSS is concerned. Vajpayee and Togadia are mere two faces
of the spectrum. Interestingly with India Shining Togadia has been sent on
a sabbatical. But he is very much on the rolls of the Hindutva to be
unleashed as and when needed. A victory for BJP, with or without allies
will push the country more towards the goal desired by RSS. The creeping
fascism in the society can be transformed into an aggressive Moditva as
and when planned.


_____


[4]

D-504 Purvasha
Mayur Vihar 1
Delhi 110091

14 March 2004

Dear Editor,

Mr. Lal Kishenchand Advani says in Ghaziabad last week that the
"unfortunate" religious violence in Gujarat in 2002 was an
"aberration" and a "blot" on the tenure of the NDA government.
Five days later, in Bangalore, he says that he and the Prime
Minister and their party believe that that violence would not
have taken place but for the burning of a railway carriage in
Godhra by a Muslim mob -- from which he concludes that Muslims
themselves were responsible for the killing and rape of so many
of their number.

Just what were the "riots", then? Were they a "natural reaction"
or an "aberration"? They cannot have been both -- unless
aberrations are what come naturally to Mr. Advani and his kind.
Was not the inaction of the then Home Minister, which permitted
them to take place, the real blot? Finally, when will he get
around to answering the accusation that they were not riots but a
systematic and well planned pogrom? Surely he can dig some more
out of his inexhaustible supply of the stuff and name the demons
who brought the misfortune to our land. Was he not quick to
identify the divinity who saved Mr. Chandrababu Naidu's life some
while back?

Mukul Dube

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[5]


To
The Election Commission of India
Nirvachan Sadan
New Delhi
<feedback at eci.gov.in>

Sub : Fourteenth Lok Sabha Elections - Violations of
Model Code of Conduct

Sirs,

With the formal announcement of the fourteenth lok
sabha elections the model code of conduct has come
into force, and it is a matter of great satisfaction
to the fair minded and right thinking citizens of
India that you are taking all the pains to ensure its
strictest possible implementation in a transparent and
unbiased manner.
Consequently the ëIndia Shiningíand ëBharat Udayí ad
blitz in the print and electronic media, which had
been launched by the central government at public
expenses on the eve of the last round of the assembly
elections and which reached its crescendo in the
recent days after the ruling coalition finally made
its mind to prematurely dissolve the thirteenth lok
sabha and go in for an early election to take
advantage of the favourable momentum created by their
unanticipated and rather stunning success in the three
of the five states where elections had been held
giving rise to a ubiquitous ëfeel good factorí within
the ruling circles, had to come to an abrupt end. Also
ended the barrage of similar ads put out by various
other central ministries, the planning commission, and
also a couple of state governments ruled by the major
opposition party.
It goes without saying that it was highly unethical to
spend public money to promote partisan prospects in
the forthcoming elections. But ethics being nowhere on
the agenda, even the express dissatisfaction of the
CEC could not deter them from squandering public money
for private good. Nevertheless, with the code of
conduct having come into force they had no other go
but to beat a reluctant retreat.

It is in this specific context, we as concerned
citizens of India want to draw your kind attention to
two specific instances of violation. One, recently the
DD channels have started showing a video clip
sponsored by the ministry of rural development urging
all the panchayat bodies to meet regularly, and
unfailingly on a set of specific dates, to make use of
the development funds made available to them by the
central government. Evidently the thrust is on the
implied claim that the central government has made
large sums available to the local bodies for the
benefit of the rural populace. The second one relates
to an ad put out in the print media (e.g. p.12 of The
Indian Express, Mumbai, March 9, 2004). This has been
issued by the ministry of health and family welfare
(GoI). This covers half the page with ëVande Mataram
Yojanaí - the caption, having been displayed in extra
large font accompanied by a snapshot of a posse of
expectant mothers, apparently of modest means, being
attended to by an ever attentive female medical
practitioner. The ad in fact uses the same format,
with no change in the caption and the visual - only
the written text suitably modified, which was being
bombarded earlier. The ostensible purpose is to alert
the womenfolk to the facilities available under the
scheme including a free ante and post natal medical
check up on the 9th of every month since its launch
just a month back. The information provided is,
however, of general nature and does not throw any
light either on the specific places where one is to go
to and precisely when, except that it is sometime the
same day, even while it announces that such facilities
are available "in almost all districts of the
country". Evidently again in this case the real
purpose is not to help out the women in need of free
pre and post natal medical care but to keep harping on
the munificent nature of the government to influence
the outcome of the forthcoming elections.

We do hereby earnestly request you to immediately look
into our complaint and do the needful to stop
forthwith crafty dodging of the provisions of the
model code of conduct - use public money for partisan
gains, and thereby defeat its very purpose.

Thanking you,

Sincerely yours,
Dr Uday Mehta
Sukla Sen
for EKTA (Committee for Communal Amity) 
5,  Santacruz (W)
Mumbai


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