SACW | 19-20 March 2004

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire   |  19-20 March,  2004
via:  www.sacw.net

[1] Pakistan: In the name of the law (Ardeshir Cowasjee)
[2] India: Vajpayee For Façade, Advani For PM?: 
BJP's great con-trick (Praful Bidwai)
[3] India: Dark Clouds Without Silver Linings (Harsh Mander)
[4] India: [Another Voice from Ayodhya] (Digant Oza)
[5] In India, there's nothing to be gay about (Siddharth Srivastava)
[6] India: Press Statement by All India Christian Council
[7] India: Dis City/Sexed Up
[8] India:  BJP for ban on Jawaharlal Nehru's  Discovery of India

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

[1]

Dawn [Pakistan]
14 March 2004

In the name of the law

By Ardeshir Cowasjee

In the name of the law, Dr Mohammad Younus Sheikh 
was accused in October 2000 of the crime of 
blasphemy, under Section 295-C of the Pakistan 
Penal Code. In the name of the law, he was tried 
in September 2001, found guilty, sentenced to 
death. In the name of the law, he lived on death 
row in Adiala Jail until, in the name of the law, 
his sentence was overturned in November 2003 and 
he was released, in great secrecy.
His accusers immediately filed an appeal against 
his acquittal and it being impossible for him to 
live a normal life in this country as a free man 
and stay alive, he went into hiding for a few 
weeks so as to be able to meet his family, and on 
the morning of January 19, he boarded a flight to 
Dubai on his way to Geneva. He flew away from his 
homeland to live in comparative safety, and 
freedom.
Such is the state of Pakistan, unwilling or 
unable to provide protection, and such is the 
country's society, and such is law and order, 
that a man once accused of blasphemy can only 
flee his homeland if he is to find freedom and 
safety. Younus Sheikh had no choice but to leave, 
and he did so reluctantly.
The sorry tale of Mohammed Younus Sheikh is 
related on the website of the London-based 
International Humanist and Ethical Union which 
led the campaign to free him 
(www.iheu.org/younus_shaikh_free.htm).
Sheikh was born in Chishtian in 1952. After high 
school, he studied medicine in Multan where he 
qualified as a doctor of medicine, and did 
post-graduate studies in Dublin and London. He 
worked as a trainee surgeon in the United Kingdom 
from 1981 until 1988, when he returned to 
Pakistan to teach at a medical college in 
Islamabad.
As with all human rights activists in Pakistan, 
he attracted the attention of the 
fundamentalists. He took part in the 
Pakistan-India Forum for Peace and Democracy, and 
was a member of the South Asian Fraternity, South 
Asian Union and the Human Rights Commission of 
Pakistan. In 1990, inspired by the ideas of the 
European Enlightenment and Renaissance, he 
founded an organization known as 'The 
Enlightenment'.
At a meeting of the South Asian Union on October 
1, 2000, Younus Sheikh suggested that, in the 
interest of the people of Kashmir, the Line of 
Control between the Indian and Pakistani forces 
should become the international border. This 
clearly offended one of our many dunderheads who 
informed Dr Shaikh: "I will crush the heads of 
those that talk like this." On October 3, without 
any explanation being offered, he was suspended 
by his college.
Later that same evening, one of his students 
(with the backing of several of his fellows), an 
employee of the Pakistani foreign office, made a 
complaint to a religious vigilance group known as 
Majlis-i-Tahaffuz Khatm-i-Nabuwat, the committee 
for the protection of the finality of the 
prophethood. The allegation was that on October 2 
in a lecture between 12 noon and 12-40 the doctor 
had made blasphemous remarks about the Prophet of 
Islam. The vigilantes filed a complaint with the 
police. Younus Sheikh was arrested on the evening 
of October 4 and charged with blasphemy.
Those accused of blasphemy under Article 295-C of 
the Pakistan Penal Code are unable to obtain bail 
and are held in custody awaiting trial. If 
pronounced guilty, they face a mandatory death 
sentence. The trial of Dr Sheikh, held throughout 
the summer of 2001, took place in a hostile 
courtroom packed with religious activists who 
warned the defence lawyers to "think of your 
families and children". The final two sessions 
were held in-camera with armed members of the 
Taliban waiting outside. It was finally 
established during the trial that the alleged 
events had never taken place. Nevertheless, on 
August 18, 2001, he was found guilty and 
sentenced to death. Such injustices are the norm 
in cases of alleged blasphemy.
For the next two years, Sheikh was held in 
solitary confinement in a death cell in the 
central gaol in Rawalpindi. He appealed to the 
Lahore High Court but the two appeal court judges 
failed to agree. On July 15, 2002 the case was 
referred to a senior judge for a final decision.
The case lingered for over a year until the 
reluctant referee judge took up the case on 
October 9, 2003. The judge finally decided that 
the original judgment was unsound but, playing 
safe, as the lives and families of the judges who 
show leniency in blasphemy cases are also at 
risk, rather than acquitting Sheikh he remanded 
the case back to a lower court for retrial.
The retrial was held over three sessions in 
November 2003 at the Session Court, Islamabad. In 
the light of the harassment and intimidation 
suffered by his lawyers at the earlier hearings, 
and much against the advice of the judge, of his 
colleagues, his family and the members of the 
diplomatic community present in the court, Dr 
Sheikh decided this time round to conduct his own 
defence. The prosecuting counsel tried to exploit 
the religious feelings of the court but Sheikh 
confined his defence to legal arguments and was 
finally acquitted on November 21.
The brave judge had accepted his legal arguments, 
and had found the charges to be baseless: his 
accusers, two mullahs and several students, had 
lied. Many victims of the Pakistani blasphemy 
laws have failed to survive prison, and a number 
of those tried and acquitted have been murdered 
following their release. A few recent examples: 
Mohammed Yousaf was shot dead inside the central 
gaol in Lahore in July 2002 while awaiting his 
appeal; in February 2003, Mushtaq Zafar, accused 
of blasphemy, was shot dead on his way back home 
from the high court; in June 2003, 35-year-old 
Naseem Bibi, who had been the victim of a 
gangrape by police, was charged with blasphemy, 
and was murdered in prison before her trial could 
begin.
The legal profession is also not immune from 
attack. Defence lawyers are regularly intimidated 
by religious bigots and fundamentalists, and one 
high court judge was murdered after acquitting an 
accused in a blasphemy case.
As long as the blasphemy laws are on the statute 
book they will continue to be misused. It is 
estimated that over 100 innocent victims of 
Pakistan's mediaeval black laws are currently in 
prison either awaiting trial or already under 
sentence of death, facing an uncertain future. 
These victims may not be as fortunate as Dr 
Sheikh who had a circle of committed friends 
inside and outside the country. These laws, as is 
well known by the leaders and the led, are widely 
abused to make false accusations against both 
Muslims and members of religious minorities, as 
well as innocent business rivals and political 
opponents.
The blasphemy laws have served manifold purposes 
for the ever-changing leadership of Pakistan. The 
present blasphemy statutes were crafted in 1986 
during the regime of General Ziaul Haq, an avowed 
fundamentalist, although earlier laws date to the 
19th century and the time of the British colonial 
system. They defined blasphemy as anything which 
"by any imputation, innuendo or insinuation, 
directly or indirectly" insults Islam and its 
Prophet. In 1992, the law was amended by then 
prime minister Nawaz Sharif to make blasphemy 
punishable only by death. Many saw that as a move 
to placate Pakistan's growing nexus of Islamic 
extremists and religious terrorists.
The military government of Chief Executive 
General Pervez Musharraf in May 2001 attempted to 
modify some of the anti-blasphemy laws, but 
backed down following threats from religious 
leaders. Now President General Pervez Musharraf, 
with all powers firmly in his hands, under great 
international pressure to modify the mindset of 
his country, to drag it out of the dark ages and 
bring it into the world of the 21st century, 
preaches moderation, enlightenment, toleration 
and the like. If he, through fear of a backlash, 
insists on retaining the blasphemy laws, the 
Hudood Ordinances, the Qisas and Diyat laws, and 
all other similar laws that are merely used to 
bludgeon innocent citizens of his country, there 
can be no moderation or enlightenment or 
tolerance.
The parliament he has put in place is riddled 
with the immoderate, the unenlightened and the 
deeply intolerant, so little can be expected of 
it. It is all up to the president. If he so 
wishes, if he still has the will, and if he rids 
himself of his friendly 'advisers' who so 
ill-advise him, he can clean up the statute book 
and free Pakistan of just some of the worldwide 
odium that haunts it.
Bad news: According to a news item of March 10 in 
this newspaper ('Qazi sets terms for 
cooperation'), Qazi Hussain Ahmed has announced 
that Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali has assured 
the MMA that "his government will not repeal the 
Hudood Ordinances or effect any changes in the 
law." What price moderation, enlightenment, 
tolerance?

_____


[2]

Praful Bidwai Column [India]
March 15, 2004

Vajpayee For Façade, Advani For PM?: BJP's great con-trick

By Praful Bidwai

The one thing that the BJP cannot be accused of 
is a weak will or lack of energy. It has been in 
campaign mode almost since the last Assembly 
election results came in. It concocted, and then 
dressed up and bloated, its government's 
"achievements" through a Rs. 450-crore publicity 
blitz targeting every nook and corner of India at 
public expense. It exploited the delayed 
notification of elections to give out Rs. 20,000 
crores to India's upper crust. It artificially 
pumped up capital markets by disinvesting from 
one of the world's most profitable companies--the 
public-sector bluest-of-blue-chips ONGC. And it 
has manufactured a euphoric appearance for itself 
by inducting film stars, sportsmen and other 
glamour-figures (although its only substantial 
catch is the former leftist singer-composer 
Bhupen Hazarika).

After such saturation-level campaigning, one must 
ask why Mr L.K. Advani should launch his Bharat 
Uday rath-yatra, spread over 33 days, 8,000 km 
and 121 Lok Sabha constituencies? If the BJP's 
campaign is already focused on "Shining India" 
and "Resurgent Nationalism", what more will the 
yatra contribute to it? Clearly, the purpose is 
to re-launch not the BJP, but Mr Advani himself!

The yatra has many objectives. It will seek to 
mobilise BJP workers and, more important, RSS 
cadres to help the BJP in 100 constituencies on 
the route, where it's weak. It will allow Mr 
Advani to stress its crucial "conceptual and 
emotional link" (as he puts it) and 
ideological-political continuity with the 
original yatra of 1990, centred on the Ram 
temple. This will remind the sangh parivar that 
it's his Ayodhya campaign which built up the 
BJP's strength from a pathetic two seats to 
100-plus. The first yatra was his career's 
highest point.

This yatra too will project Mr Advani not as a 
secondary campaigner, but an independent one in 
his own right, whose stature isn't derived from 
Mr Vajpayee. It will convey one all-important 
message: if the NDA wins the coming elections, Mr 
Advani will succeed Mr Vajpayee--if not 
immediately, then very, very soon. That's the 
meaning of Mr Advani's reply to Aaj Tak's Prabhu 
Chawla--namely, that he "pities" those who see 
him as a mere camp-follower (barati), not as the 
bridegroom (dullah). 

The yatra represents a partial, calculated, 
departure from the exclusively Vajpayee-centric 
campaign the BJP has so far run. It creates a 
"second mascot" for the BJP, but in such a way 
that Mr Vajpayee's (misleading and deceptive) 
image as a "liberal", "moderate", "soft", and 
acceptable leader will bolster Mr Advani. The 
strategy is to seek votes for Mr Vajpayee--but 
use them to install Mr Advani in power!

This is a big confidence trick. Very few people 
would vote for Mr Advani as a potential Prime 
Minister. His approval ratings are abysmal. 
According to an ORG-MARG poll (India Today, Feb 
9), Mr Advani's score is a pitiable 2 percent, 
less than even Mr Mulayam Singh's 3 percent, and 
incomparably lower than Ms Sonia Gandhi (23) and 
Mr Vajpayee (47). A more recent MDRA-Outlook poll 
says Mr Advani's 2 percent rating is the same as 
Ms Mayawati's!

The BJP wants to convert Mr Vajpayee's popularity 
to put an unelectable leader in India's top job. 
Its calculation is cynical. Mr Vajpayee is old 
and not in good heath. Even if he's re-elected, 
he is unlikely to complete his tenure. The BJP 
would like to pre-empt any successor other than 
the person it's most loyal to and the RSS trusts 
best on. Mr Advani, 78, too seems to be in a 
hurry and under pressure from his core-supporters 
to accelerate the succession.

The BJP is making the transition appear smooth, 
inevitable and irreversible. Should it win 
200-plus seats, it might even make Mr Advani the 
PM after the elections! A BJP which increases its 
1999 tally (182) can ride roughshod over its NDA 
allies. They have shown themselves to be gutless. 
They couldn't even persuade the BJP to apologise 
for the Gujarat massacre or punish the culprits.

Although neat, the BJP's plan may not work. Mr 
Advani faces a tough choice. If he whips up 
Hindutva hysteria and instigates violence--as the 
1990 yatra did, leaving a trail of blood through 
300 riots--he risks antagonising middle class 
voters with no stomach for bloodshed despite 
their communal sympathies. He might also invite 
the Election Commission's intervention. If he 
carefully avoids militant rhetoric, and the yatra 
only projects Mr Vajpayee's "able and capable 
leadership", it could "turn out to be a 
non-event"--in the words of a BJP leader. The 
yatra is organised around Hindu-religious motifs. 
The Swaraj-Mazda rath was flagged off in Delhi 
for Kanyakumari amidst loud chants of "Jai Sri 
Ram". Mr Dilip Singh Judeo, of cash-on-camera 
fame, had used the same vehicle earlier. He 
smashed 101 coconuts and sacrificed a goat to 
bring good luck to Mr Advani!   How far such 
symbolism will be taken remains to be seen.

The yatra is unlikely to make a big difference to 
the BJP's election prospects, but will increase 
its dependence on RSS cadres for door-to-door 
campaigning and voter mobilisation. Yet, the very 
holding of the yatra signifies changed power 
equations inside the NDA and the BJP. The fact 
that the BJP didn't even bother to inform its 
allies about its yatra plans speaks eloquently of 
how domineering it has become and how marginal 
them. The plan, worked out by Mr Pramod Mahajan, 
was kept a close secret even from second-rung BJP 
leaders.

Mr Advani's weight in the party has greatly risen 
over the past couple of years, as has his profile 
in government. In June 2002, he was installed as 
Deputy Prime Minister--an office without 
Constitutional sanction. He was given new 
responsibilities like talking to the All-Party 
Hurriyat Conference on the delicate Kashmir issue 
and inducting Muslim leaders into the party. Mr 
Advani has increasingly, if not vocally, sought 
parity with Mr Vajpayee. He made a bid to be 
allowed to use official aircraft during the 
election campaign--a privilege reserved for the 
PM for security reasons. The attempt failed, but 
the message got across that he is not too far 
from the top job. Mr Advani also entertains 
delusions of grandeur. He recently told The Times 
of India that he would like himself and Mr 
Vajpayee to be remembered as Independent India's 
"new architects and visionaries", no less.

Within the party apparatus, Mr Advani's supremacy 
has been unchallenged since July 2002, when Mr M 
Venkaiah Naidu became president. Mr Vajpayee is 
not always comfortable with this and sometimes 
asserts his self-interest--as he did by 
re-inducting Mr Kalyan Singh into the party. (In 
1999, Mr Singh damaged his campaign in Lucknow 
and caused a 93,000-vote fall in his victory 
margin). Last June, Mr Naidu made his 
vikas-purush and loh-purush formulation, equating 
Mr Advani with Mr Vajpayee.

That produced a sharp, peevish, rebuke. Mr 
Vajpayee said the BJP could march to victory 
under Mr Advani's leadership, if it so chooses. 
This had as electrifying effect. Mr Naidu 
abjectly apologised. However, now, the BJP all 
but accepts the "two mascots".

Nothing--neither "India Shining" nor the 
yatra--can guarantee the BJP/NDA an easy win in 
the elections. They are extremely 
vulnerable--despite their opponents' failings. 
The BJP enjoyed an exceptional 54 percent 
success-rate in the last elections, nearly twice 
higher than national parties' average. Assuming 
the same rate holds--despite the allies' depleted 
number and their reduced strength--, the party 
will only win 188 seats (if it contests 350). To 
notch up a more convincing 220-230 seats, the BJP 
would have to antagonise its allies to the point 
of dismantling the NDA!

The NDA itself seems to have peaked in numerous 
states. It won all the seats in Haryana, Himachal 
Pradesh, Delhi and Goa, 41 out of the 54 seats in 
Bihar, 19 out of 21 in Orissa, 36 out of 42 in 
Andhra, 26 out of 39 in Tamil Nadu, 20 out of 26 
in Gujarat, 16 out of 25 in Rajasthan, 28 out of 
48 in Maharashtra, etc. As many as 170 NDA wins 
came from 223 seats in nine states--an 
unprecedented 76 percent success rate. It would 
be a miracle if the NDA doesn't lose many of 
these seats. The odds are especially heavily 
stacked against it in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, 
Bihar and Andhra, thanks to new anti-BJP 
alliances.

Potentially, the BJP can make gains only in Uttar 
Pradesh and a couple of smaller states like Assam 
and Punjab. UP is all-important. Even Mr Mahajan 
admits that "it will be difficult" for the BJP to 
reach the 200-seat mark nationally without an 
extra 20-25 seats in UP. In a likely three- or 
four-way UP contest, the BJP might come third--as 
happened in the 2002 Assembly elections. Unless 
there is a "wave", it won't reach, leave alone 
exceed, its earlier tally of 25 (corresponding to 
UP's current total of 80 seats). The BJP's 
secular opponents must frontally fight it--by 
providing an alternative vision/programme. That, 
and skilful alliance-building, are the key to 
successfully combating the menace of Hindutva and 
elitist neolibealism. This is a historic 
challenge--and opportunity.-end-- 


_____


[3]

The Hindustan Times [India]
23 February, 2004

Dark Clouds Without Silver Linings

By Harsh Mander

A smouldering unquiet stalks the air in Jhabua. 
The arid undulating fields of this Bhil tribal 
heartland in Western Madhya Pradesh have yielded 
this year a vastly different harvest from the 
past - a harvest of hate.  For the first time in 
the history of the district, Christian homes and 
properties, mainly of tribal converts, were 
targeted and destroyed in many locations.

As I walked through the torched and looted homes 
in Alirajpur - scorched walls, savaged roofs now 
open to a hostile sky, everything contained 
within these homes either looted or destroyed in 
malevolent bonfires, the terrified residents in 
hiding, places of worship desecrated or 
vandalised - it brought back painful memories of 
so many riots that I have been burdened to 
witness in the past in my work.  Except that this 
time, the victims, the manufactured enemies were 
new, and the burning winds of violence had 
traversed virgin territory, sweeping through a 
remote tribal region inhabited by a proud and 
colourful people, that had never witnessed 
sectarian violence in its entire history.  How 
many new frontiers of hatred will the warriors of 
hate open in our land?

On a quiet Sunday evening on 11 January 2004, a 
young nine year old girl was brutally raped and 
strangled in a public toilet within a church 
compound in the town of Jhabua.  Her bloodied and 
savaged little body was discovered the next 
morning.

It did not take the organisations of the Sangh 
Parivar long to allege from the roof-tops that 
the priests in the church had raped and killed 
the child.  Calumnies were heaped on the church 
in meetings and rallies organised across the 
district. It was even alleged that churches are 
bastions not only of anti-national activities but 
even of rape.

The Superintendent (SP) of Police, Mayank Jain, 
responded with exemplary impartiality and 
professionalism.  Within four days, he arrested a 
young Hindu man Mahesh who confessed to the 
crime.  The SP was immediately transferred.

Mahesh, who worked as a peon in an insurance 
office, lived close to the church.  The little 
girl sold vegetables with her 12 year old brother 
on a pavement outside the church. On the fateful 
evening, Mahesh bought vegetables from the 
children, but said he needed to borrow money from 
the church nuns.  It was on this pretext that he 
took the little girl into the church, where he 
raped and killed her.

The Sangh Parivar organisations were furious with 
what they saw as the 'unseemly haste' of the 
police to solve the case.  The next morning, on 
16 January, a Sadhvi from Gujarat, Krishna Bahen, 
arrived with a clutch of her women followers at a 
predominantly Christian tribal village Aamkhut. 
There is an old church campus, where a white 
missionary ran an orphanage, dispensary and 
school hostel for nearly half a century.  After 
her departure, the orphanage closed down but the 
school and dispensary continue.

The Sadhvi and her followers gathered some of the 
non-Christian tribal residents of the village and 
reached the school, where a board examination was 
in progress.  The Sadhvi entered the classes and 
distributed highly inflammable pamphlets to the 
children, describing Christianity as an 
anti-national conspiracy to destroy the Hindu 
faith.  She exhorted the Christian students to 
return to the Hindu faith, and abandon a faith 
that promotes rape and treachery.  Her followers 
pulled off the chains with crosses that the 
children wore, and tore up the examination 
sheets. The teachers pleaded helplessly, then 
finally abandoned the examination and closed the 
school.

After the Sadhvi was finally persuaded to leave 
with her followers, crowds gathered at the police 
outpost to register their complaint.  As the head 
constable insisted on awaiting the orders of his 
seniors, the newly elected Alirajpur MLA Nagar 
Singh Chauhan arrived with an enraged armed mob. 
The local residents also brought out their 
weapons.  Bullets and arrows flew, vehicles were 
set on fire, and a young Seva Bharati volunteer 
succumbed to bullet wounds.

The SDM rescued the MLA and took him in his jeep 
to Alirajpur. There he gathered a large mob, as 
his followers exhorted revenge against the 
Christians on loud-speakers mounted on jeeps. 
The mobs then looted and burnt a number of 
Christian homes, mainly owned by government 
servants.

The subsequent police action has a familiar ring. 
Large numbers of Christian men, and even some 
women, including priests, have been rounded up. 
The Hindu mob-leaders, including the MLA with an 
old criminal record, walk free. The minorities 
are just beginning to learn the lessons of how to 
live with fear, with an openly partisan state.

Of a total population of around 12 lakhs, as many 
as 85 per cent of people in Jhabua are tribal. 
The church was established more than a century 
ago, but the percentage of Christians in the 
district is not more than 4 per cent.  The 
manufacture of fear and hatred against this tiny 
minority is the result of long years of effort by 
several front organisations of the Sangh Parivar, 
especially Seva Bharati.   Their efforts were 
further galvanised five years ago with massive 
mobilisation and recruitment of educated tribal 
youth as RSS workers in virtually every village. 
They were drawn mainly from the Bhagats, tribal 
families converted by the Gayatri Parivar over 
the past two decades to vegetarianism and 
abstinence.  The Bhagats had adopted Hindu gods 
and forms of workshops, like havans and deep 
yagyas.
In a massive mobilisation, tens of thousands of 
pictures of Hanuman were distributed in every 
tribal home, and he was re-invented as a tribal 
king.  Triangular saffron flags were hoisted in 
hutments in every remote tribal hamlet. 
Single-teacher Ekal Vidyalayas were opened by the 
Seva Bharati, and the local teachers 
indoctrinated into the ideology of the Sangh 
Parivar through a series of camps.

Typically both the Congress and the wide network 
of local NGOs watched helplessly.  Even more 
typically, Congress leaders belatedly tried to 
join the bandwagon.  As the Sangh Parivar 
organised huge Ganesh celebrations in which 
thousands of tribal people participated for the 
first time, local Congress leaders responded 
finally by establishing only their own rival 
Ganesh pandals!

On a wayside tribal market, discordantly 
festooned with aggressive saffron banners and 
flags, we stopped for tea at a small stall.  The 
tea stall owner had pasted on his shop window a 
very different slogan from his neighbours:

Har dharam ka gulistan
Hai Hindustan hamara

(Our India is a garden in which every religious flourishes).

Amidst the swirling, steadily building storm of 
hate that is sweeping this remote tribal outpost, 
I wanted to hold the tea stall owner in an 
embrace.


_____


[4]

YEH BHI AYODHYA KI AWAZ HAI

By Digant Oza

  "Ayodhya Ki Awaz" a newly born institute from 
with the inspiration from Megsesse Award Winner 
SANDEEP PANDYE raised a Voice against the use of 
Religion in the Politics, and also the politics 
of HATE. Speakers also focused on the deterioting 
economic conditions of Hindu Community of Ayodhya 
after 6th December 1992 as 75 p.c. of Yatris have 
stopped visiting city due to security reasons.

The institute Ayodhya Ki Awaz organized a three 
day Sadhavana Sammelan in JANKI MAHAL (Ayodhya) 
in which social activists from U.P., Bihar and 
Hariyana Participated. Faizalbhai, who headed the 
Govadh Pratibandh Andolaan in Hariyana and 
representatives from Gandhi Community Action were 
amongst the participants.

As Part of the Sammelan a meeting against the use 
of Religion in politics was organized. The chief 
Priest of RamLakhan Mandir at the disputed 
Janmbhoomi land presided and Vibhuti Narayan 
(V.N.) Ray, IG Lukhnow range was the chief Guest. 
Prof. Ram Puniyani of EKATA (Mumbai), 
writer-cartoonist Abid Surati and journalist turn 
Social Activist from Gujarat Digant Oza along 
with Founder District president (Faizabad) of 
Vishwa HIndu Parishad and Former Pracharak 
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh YUGAL KISHOR Sharan 
Shastri were amongst those who addressed the 
meeting.

THE CHIEF priest of the Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir, 
Acharya Satyendradasji Maharaj, while addressing 
Sadbhavana Samelan organized by Ayodhya Ki Awaz, 
made a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata 
Party, which was once again trying to gain 
political mileage out of the present imbroglio. 
He said the out-siders were trying to create 
problems instead of making honest efforts to 
solve this problem, which was hanging fire for 
the past several decades. He appealed to the 
masses to shun hatred and peacefully settle the 
issue once and for all in national interest.

The chief pujari said the aim behind coming all 
the way to Kanpur was to prevent the spread of 
hatred and bloodshed on the issue of Mandir or 
Masjid. He said the problem could be amicably 
solved in three ways. He appealed to the Hindus 
to ensure that the problem was solved peacefully 
and also appealed to the Muslims not to adopt a 
rigid stance and ensure an amicable solution to 
resolve this issue once and for all.

On being asked if the structure demolished was a 
temple or a mosque, the Acharya said, "When Ram 
Lalla exists there and puja, archana and other 
religious functions are continuing there then 
certainly it is a temple. However the issue is 
sub judice so unless the court decides on it no 
one has the right to say whether it is a mandir 
or a masjid." he said the first solution to this 
problem was through an amicable solution through 
negotiations across the table and the third 
through a special provision to be made by the 
government under which it could decide the case 
as it deemed fit.

The Acharya informed newsmen that he was the 
chief pujari of the Ram Mandir along with nine 
other subordinates and added that his job was to 
perform "aarti" and distribute "prasad" to 
whosoever sought it. He said the issue was in 
fact not that complex but it had been made by the 
BJP and its sister organizations which were 
trying to gain political mileage by putting at 
stake the lakhs of people of India who had 
nothing to do with politics and were eager for an 
amicable solution to this problem. When asked 
what would be his stand if the court decided that 
the disputed structure was a mosque, the chief 
priest said "in case the court gives a verdict 
that it was a mosque then in the capacity of an 
elder brother I will appeal to the younger 
brother (Muslims) to hand it over to the Hindus 
so that this problem could be solved once and for 
all.

He said if the outside interference was stopped, 
this issue could be settled with in no time by 
the people of Ayodhya where both the Hindus and 
Muslims were living together peacefully with a 
feeling of brotherhood and amity displaying 
religious tolerance.

Participants were shocked when they were told 
that out of total 308 booked in Gujarat under 
POTO 307 were Muslims and Solitary exception was 
of a Sikha and that 38 thousand members of 
minority community were still leaving out of 
their homes even after 25 months after Godhra.

On walls, allover Ayodhya, Posters of Poorvanchal 
Sangharsha Samiti are Visible, which raises 
Questions regarding the problems of Ayodhya other 
than Mandir-Masjid.

One of the Posters said that since even after 13 
years of Efforts the Hindu organizations have 
failed to built Ram Temple it is obligatory on 
part of Bhartiya Janta Party to contest Elections 
only after constructing the temple. The Poster 
also questions why V.H.P. has NOT been able to 
rebuilt any of the demolished Temples in the 
country.

Poorvanchal Sangharsh Samiti has raised the 
issues which worries the citizens of Ayodhya and 
Faizabad. The Local irritants include Education, 
Health, Power, Gutter and link Roads.

Samiti also asks if separate states of Punjab, 
Hariyaana, uttaranchal, Zarkhand and chhatisgadh 
could be formed way NOT Poorvanchaal ? A Chanakya 
Parishad was organized by the samiti during last 
weekend.

Abid Surati while suggesting the secular 
literature should be made available at the 
Janmabhoomi site, said, "Yahaan se Jhoodh to 
bahut  Failaya jaa raha hai, Ab kuchh sach bhi 
jane dijiye."

It was also suggested at the meeting that ALL 
INDIA YAATRA of youth under the leadership of 
Acharya Satyendra Prasad, Yugal Kishor Sharan 
Shastri and such others saints should be 
organized so that "Ayodhya Ki Awaz" can be heard 
by the countrymen, Which demands "Ayodhya Ka 
Faisala Ayodhya Ke Haath." Sooniye, yeh bhi 
Ayodhya ki hi Awaz hai.

_____



[5]

Asia Times
March 18, 2003

In India, there's nothing to be gay about
By Siddharth Srivastava

NEW DELHI - While the emotional outbursts for and 
against same-sex marriage rages in the United 
States, in India, gays still live in a time warp. 
Same-gender sexual relations are still punishable 
by state laws. Legal sanction or acceptance of 
such relations or unions are beyond contemplation.
The government stand on homosexuality in India 
has driven a vast community of gays, with 
estimates ranging from 5 million to 50 million, 
further into the fringes of society. The Indian 
government has argued before the New Delhi High 
Court that such homosexual practices cannot be 
legalized in India since "Indian society is 
intolerant to the practice of 
homosexuals/lesbianism".
The government's reply late last year was to a 
petition filed by the New Delhi-based Naz 
Foundation, a nongovernmental organization (NGO), 
working for the welfare of HIV-positive and AIDS 
patients, that had sought to legalize 
homosexuality in India.
The NGO had challenged the constitutionality of 
Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code that makes 
homosexuality illegal. According to the law, 
"whoever voluntarily has sex against the order of 
nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be 
punished with imprisonment for life, or for a 
term that may extend to 10 years".
The NGO had argued that due to fear of police 
action, consenting adult males having sexual 
relations were not coming out of the closet and 
declaring themselves to be gay, thereby hampering 
medical prevention or intervention in cases of 
HIV/AIDS.
Indeed, it has been a tough time for gays in 
India. Police have raided clinics and harassed 
health workers trying to help gays, charging the 
workers with conspiracy to "unnatural sexual 
acts". A few years ago, right-wing protesters 
forced cinemas nationwide to pull a film about 
lesbianism, Fire, by well-known director Deepa 
Mehta and starring leading actresses Nandita Das 
and Shabana Azmi.
In popular culture, Hindi movies have dealt with 
gay characters, as in the blockbuster Sholay or 
in the film Mast Kalandar in which popular actor 
Anupam Kher played the role of a gay man. Usually 
gay characters in cinema have been caricatures to 
be ridiculed.
Ashok Row-Kavi, who launched India's first 
magazine specifically for gays, Bombay Dost 
(Bombay Friend), talks about his own sexual 
orientation, but he has never gone on record to 
say that he has had sex with another man for fear 
of persecution and prosecution.
Sylvie, who runs several high-profile beauty 
salons in Delhi, is voluble on being a woman 
trapped in a man's body, while his cross-dressing 
is a subject for tabloid photographers, but he 
has never admitted to being a practicing gay. In 
numerous interviews, Sylvie has never even gone 
on record to say he's made out with his boyfriend.
The government reaffirmed its support for 
anti-homosexual laws in the New Delhi court at a 
time of tentative moves by gays in the last 
couple of years to venture out of their closet 
existence of meeting secretly in discos, pubs, 
farm houses, parks and even public toilets. In 
June 2003, more than 100 people marched in a gay 
rights parade in Kolkata, in a rare display of 
activism for one of the country's most 
underground cultures.
Braving bemused, unsympathetic, and at times, 
hostile responses from hundreds of bystanders, 
the men - many wearing makeup and jewelry - waved 
banners, including one saying, "Let us love and 
be loved". Others waved the rainbow flag, a 
symbol of the gay rights movement.
Indeed, since the government declared its 
hostility to homosexuality, the Internet has been 
a whirl of activity and several Indian gay groups 
have organized themselves online. However, there 
appears to be consensus that India's gay 
community will surely be pushed further into 
closet and the realms of the taboo.
The gay tolerance arguments question the medieval 
attitudes of authorities and the population at 
large. Many gay rights activists quote a 
well-researched work, Same Sex Love in India, 
which states that before the 19th century, love 
between men and between women was never actively 
persecuted or prosecuted, despite disapproval.
Other activists challenged the government stand 
by emphasizing the changes in attitudes toward 
homosexuality, as well as increasing recognition 
of the rights of gays all over the world. They 
cite the US where a recent USA Today/CNN/Gallup 
poll states that a majority of Americans favor 
legalizing civil unions for gay couples as an 
alternative to same-sex marriage. The poll found 
that 54 percent of those surveyed support civil 
unions.
Gay rights activists in India have been closely 
following the emotional struggle in the US to 
balance various opinions on the issue. On the one 
hand, last month San Francisco and some other 
local governments issued thousands of marriage 
licenses to gay couples in defiance of state 
laws. On the other hand, US President George W 
Bush has endorsed a constitutional amendment 
defining marriage as the union between a man and 
a woman.
However, the most serious criticism from many 
activists and sympathizers is that the Indian 
government's disapproval will further marginalize 
the long-ridiculed and persecuted gay community 
in a tradition-bound society. This will only 
drive homosexuality further underground, leading 
to serious negative consequences in an age when 
HIV/AIDS may well assume pandemic proportions.
Indeed, it has been documented worldwide that any 
attempt to control adult behavior goes against 
liberal definitions that are essential to Indian 
democracy. Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code 
is clearly anachronistic and regressive and 
should have been removed from the statute books 
long ago, activists say.
"At least people should know that we exist," is 
one comment on the Internet. "Even the United 
Nations recognizes that being gay is not a 
disease. We do not want sympathy and we do not 
want support. All we ask for is our right to live 
our life the way we want to without hurting 
others."
Siddharth Srivastava is a New Delhi-based journalist.


_____


[6]

ALL INDIA CHRISTIAN COUNCIL

Regd Office: 1 Amar Jyothi Colony, New 
Bowenpally, Secunderabad 500 011 Andhra Pradesh
Phone No: 27868907  Fax: 27868908
President Dr Joseph D Souza   Secretary General Dr John Dayal

PRESS STATEMENT
Hyderabad, March 15th, 2004

[Statement by All India Christian Council 
President Dr Joseph D Souza and Secretary General 
Dr. John Dayal at the conclusion of the two day 
5th annual meeting of the National leadership of 
the Council. Hyderabad has a special place in the 
annals of the Christian Council. The Council was 
launched soon after the historic mass rally of 
the Christian people at the Nizam College grounds 
in Hyderabad in 1999 in the aftermath of the 
brutal killings of the Australian social worker 
Graham Stuart Staines and his two sons in Orissa. 
In the five years of its existence, the Council 
has grown in size and stature as one of the three 
national ecumenical Christian organisations in 
the country. Internationally, it is accepted as 
the authentic voice of the Christian community in 
India on issues of freedom of faith and human 
right, as also for its global advocacy of the 
aspirations of Dalits and other marginalized 
groups in collaboration with international 
partners including Christian Solidarity 
Worldwide, and Dalit Solidarity networks.]

The National leadership of the All India 
Christian Council, which met in Hyderabad over 
two days on 11th and 12th March 2004, has said 
the coming General Elections mark a watershed in 
the evolution of the democracy Indian state 
rooted in values of truth, unity in plural 
culture, and solidarity between communities, 
specially religious communities. This solidarity 
and unity must be based on mutual respect, 
dialogue, reconciliation and commitment to 
justice.

There is no space in this for ideologies of 
suspicion, hate and divisiveness, of narrow 
nationalism. Nor for economic policies in which 
farmers commit suicide, tribals are robbed of 
their forest birthright, landless labour starves, 
the gap between the rich and the poor grows, and 
those guilty of mass murders of religious 
minorities, escape just punishment, the Council 
said. It is a matter of national grief that while 
on the one hand justice still eludes the victims 
of Gujarat’s violence in 2002, political leaders 
who are guilty of graft and masterminding 
communal violence, remain above the law.

The leadership meeting was also addressed by 
Baroness Caroline Cox, head of Christian 
Solidarity Worldwide and Deputy speaker of the 
British House of Lords, Dalit leader Udit Raj, 
noted Editor V T Rajskehkhar of Dalit Voice, and 
radical political scholar and author Prof Kancha 
Ilaiah. On Friday, the Council organised a 
meeting on National harmony together with a 
community lunch at the Narayanguda YMCA in which 
leaders and representatives of all religious 
communities, apart from dignitaries from the UK, 
US and national Dalit and Civil Society 
organisations took part.

The Press Statement, issued on behalf of the 
Christian Council by its President, Rev Dr. 
Joseph D Souza, and Secretary General Dr. John 
Dayal, called on all political parties to commit 
their election manifestos to a safety net for the 
poor who have become victims of the runaway 
process of globalisation and its partners in 
Indian monopolies. The Council also urged 
political parties and alliances to assure Dalits 
and minorities of not just safety and security, 
but to ensure their full participation in 
national prosperity, including jobs in both the 
public and the private sectors.

The Council said the Christian community must 
play its rightful role in the political life of 
the nation. The Church does not participate in 
electoral politics as it believes that Religion 
and Politics should not mix. But it recognizes 
that Freedom is God’s gifts to humankind, and 
democracy is rooted in the Kingdom values of the 
Holy Bible. The church, of course, does not 
dictate political preferences of the people other 
than saying that informed choices in voting must 
be made on principles of integrity, harmony, 
peace and justice.

Expressing concern at the continuing violence 
against Christians, specially in the Tribal belt 
of India, the Council expressed solidarity with 
the victims and demanded that state and Central 
governments make adequate compensation and 
restitution, and actively pursue the perpetrators 
of violence, even if they were political leaders 
as was the case in Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh. The 
entire tribal belt is serious affected, but even 
here, Rajasthan, MP and Orissa are special focus 
of renewed communal activity. The Council said as 
many as 600 cases had been recorded in 2003 and 
many times more may have gone unreported.

For further information, please contact: Mr. Sam 
Paul, Mobile Number 9848023132 or Dr. John Dayal: 
098110021072

______


[7]

Dis City/Sexed Up

whatever you say s/he is,

s/he is not

And why can't Tina Turner play the role of 
Shakti? Or a player in the Indian cricket team be 
queer? Where does the intersection between 
morality and representation leave us, the queer - 
the voices that are trying to make ourselves 
heard above the din of stereotypes, of repressed, 
marginalized, illegitimated sexuality?

We at the Nigah Media Collective [India] seek to 
recapture the unstable ground of sexuality by 
setting up a multimedia exhibition: an exhibition 
that is not about showcasing "art", but to break 
away from the linear and the singular, the 
"natural" and the "authentic". A space to embrace 
and celebrate diverse, disjointed, multiform 
sexualities - where you can make sense of your 
world without the constraints of morality or 
respectability; aesthetics, rationality or 
political correctness. And, most importantly, a 
space that is about sex.

We're looking for paintings, photographs, 
posters, sculpture, poetry, non-poetry, 
film/video, soundstreams, or anything else you 
can be creative with - give us suggestions to put 
on display. Better still, share your work with 
us. Something that you scribbled in a fit of 
sanguine or intoxicated muse, solitary or 
collaborative, mundane or powerful, camp and 
colorful or abstract and mournful. Stuff you know 
no self-respecting art gallery would show. And if 
you need a camera for a day to shoot some 
radical, earth-shattering, sublime images, just 
ask us, and we shall provide.

We're trying to make a preview exhibition happen 
by the first week of April, and the real show a 
month later. But let that not be your deadline. 
Keep your suggestions and contributions pouring 
in - this could be something big!

Contact us at disourcity at yahoo.com, or call 
Monica Mody at 9811269257 for further exchange.


_____


[8]

The Times of India

Shivaji row: BJP discovers Nehru
DILIP CHAWARE

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, MARCH 19, 2004 01:12:11 AM ]
MUMBAI: Maharashtra 's home minister and state 
NCP president RR Patil has warned that a serious 
law and order situation could develop in the 
state vis-a-vis American scholar James Laine's 
controversial book Shivaji: Hindu king in Islamic 
India.

The Democratic Front government has banned the 
book, alleging that it contains slanderous 
remarks against Shivaji and his mother Jijamata.

The Sambhaji Brigade, an organisation of Maratha 
youths which allegedly enjoys the NCP's 
patronage, had even vandalised the reputed 
Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune in 
January since Laine did his research there.

But much to the embarrassment of the BJP-Shiv 
Sena alliance, Prime Minister AB Vajpayee had 
opposed the ban on the book a few days later, 
when he suggested that the views contained in the 
book should be countered ideologically.

The NCP had protested mildly then, but with 
elections round the corner it has decided to take 
on Mr Vajpayee.

The NCP's gameplan is aimed at embarrassing the 
saffron parties which claim to be the sole 
inheritors of Shivaji's ideology.

Taking on the NCP, state BJP president Gopinath 
Munde has joined the battle and demanded a ban on 
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru's classic Discovery of 
India, saying a 1986 edition of the book contains 
remarks highly derogatory of the Maratha king.

Mr Munde said these remarks were included in the 
first edition of the book but were expunged later.

But the 1986 edition, released by Rajiv Gandhi, 
had repeated these remarks, he said, noting that 
the Congress and the NCP had never objected to 
this edition.

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

Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on 
matters of peace and democratisation in South 
Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit 
citizens wire service run since 1998 by South 
Asia Citizens Web: www.sacw.net/
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bridget.jatol.com/pipermail/sacw_insaf.net/

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

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