SACW #2 | 20 March 2004

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire  #2 |  20 March,  2004
via:  www.sacw.net

[1] Pakistan: SDPI report and Jama'at's accusation (Editorial, The Daily Times)
[2] India: Shining delusions (Praful Bidwai)
[3] Call for Participation: 2nd International 
Conference on Sexualities, Masculinities, and 
Cultures in South Asia
[4] India: An  Open  Letter To  UP (I.K.Shukla)
[5] India: Statement - Women increasingly 'unsafe' from the law
[6] India / Dam on the Narmada: Press Release by activists of Gujarat
[7] India / Dam on the Narmada: Decision to raise 
the Sardar Sarovar height inhuman and 
undemocratic.
[8] India: Hindutva's growing sway on the Police 
- Uma's top cop brass hold, attend yagna to 
'boost force morale' (Hartosh Singh Bal)

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

[1]

The Daily Times [Pakistan]
March 19, 2004
Editorial

SDPI report and Jama'at's accusation

The ruckus created by the government's decision 
to purge the Biology textbook of Quranic verses 
on jihad is refusing to die. We editorialised the 
issue on 16th March ("Qazi Hussain Ahmed's 
choice") pointing to the dangers inherent in 
taking a religious approach to such issues. That 
advice has predictably fallen on deaf ears. The 
Jama'at-e Islami is not about to nuance its 
political stand and is bent on making mischief. 
But our immediate concern relates to the fact 
that one of its MNAs, Farid Paracha, has added 
another dimension to the debate. Mr Paracha, on a 
call-attention notice in the House on 17th March 
is reported to have said that the government has 
effected the changes on the basis of a report 
published last year by the Sustainable Policy 
Development Institute, an Islamabad-based think 
tank. The SDPI report, The Subtle Subversion: the 
State of Curricula and Textbooks in Pakistan, has 
been dragged into the issue to prove the point 
that the government is purging the syllabi of 
Islamic references because of external (read, US) 
pressure. Mr Paracha thinks the SDPI, like all 
think tanks and non-governmental organisations, 
is funded from outside and therefore published a 
report on textbooks at the behest of foreign 
vested interests.
At this point, the two issues become confused. 
But this confusion is caused deliberately. Does 
the issue relate to change of syllabi or pertain 
to such a change being effected on the basis of 
foreign interests? The rightwing in Pakistan has 
always suspected the liberal social agenda of the 
NGOs and other such organisations. In its 
enthusiasm to put them down, the Right has 
consistently branded the NGOs as pro-America. The 
fact is that most such organisations comprise 
left-liberal individuals who are opposed to the 
US policies and also to globalisation. But the 
complexity of the situation does not sit well 
with the black and white categories the rightwing 
loves to throw up to push its ideas of a 
civilisational clash along defined boundaries. In 
fact, while intellectuals in the West have tried 
to rubbish the thesis of clash of civilisations, 
here the rightwing has deemed fit to swallow it 
hook, line and sinker. It will perhaps be 
instructive for the Jama'at and Mr Paracha to 
know that one of the authors of the SDPI report 
under attack for being foreign-sponsored was in 
the forefront of the boycott of American products 
in the run-up to, and during, the Iraq war.
But the real issue relates to the subversion of 
textbooks. In 2002, SDPI put together a group of 
scholars to examine class one-to-twelve textbooks 
in the subjects of social sciences/Pakistan 
Studies, Urdu and English. All these books were 
prepared on the basis of the curriculum set by 
the federal education ministry's curriculum wing. 
Since the days of General Zia-ul Haq, the entire 
exercise has been geared towards creating a grand 
narrative which mixes religion and nationalism 
freely. No one has ever tried to reform the 
syllabi because it would have meant clashing with 
the guardians of Pakistan ideology, a concept 
that has, for a long time now, been appropriated 
by the rightwing. The ironic aspect of this 
nationalism is that it has ended up eroding the 
very idea of the nation-state. The Right's 
attempt, in collusion with the state, has been to 
put down dissent to this nationalism by 
sacralising it. But in the process of doing this, 
it has allowed a certain concept of religion to 
run down the very idea of the internal 
sovereignty of the state.
It is no coincidence that while Mr Paracha and 
others in the Jama'at and the MMA choose to 
fulminate at expunging references to jihad, they 
conveniently eschew talking about the context in 
which these verses were revealed to the Prophet 
(pbuh). Clearly, it is also not part of their 
agenda to talk about those aspects of Islam that 
are essential to promoting it as the religion of 
peace. It is scandalous that we now have either 
those who cannot think of Islam as anything 
beyond a few verses on qitaal and those who would 
want the world to believe that Islam is a 
pacifist religion. Both extremes are uncalled for 
and misinterpret the religion.
The SDPI report is a remarkable study in what we 
have done to our education system, point as it 
does to the crudity of indoctrination we have 
subjected our youth to. It clearly illustrates, 
with examples, what kind of students our schools 
and colleges teaching these textbooks can 
produce. Indeed, we wish the government could be 
influenced by the SDPI report. But that is not 
the case. The truth is that the education 
ministry is not interested in the SDPI report 
because it goes against the grain of what the 
state has been doing. Chances are that education 
minister Zubaida Jalal has not even read the 
report. She is reported to have said in the House 
that the government has rejected the contents of 
the report. This is believable because the 
education ministry is swarming with ideologues 
who are loath to change course and concede that 
the guidelines they have followed so far have led 
to major distortions in the syllabi.
The criticism of the report from the rightwing 
and from some other 'nationalist' quarters shows 
that we are still unprepared to look at ourselves 
with any degree of objectivity. The vision 
General Musharraf has been talking about cannot 
be realised until the state changes its spots. 
What is emanating from the Right is predictable; 
but the inertia of the education ministry as well 
as its apologetic tone in relation to a good step 
is unacceptable. This situation must change. It 
will in fact be good if the government gives a 
deep thought to what the SDPI report has 
highlighted. *

_____


[2]

The Hindustan Times [India]
March 20, 2004
  	 
Shining delusions
By Praful Bidwai

  Is the BJP leadership allowing its own 
concoction, the 'feel good' rhetoric, to get the 
better of its political judgment?

Going by what L.K. Advani said in Shimoga 
(Karnataka) last Sunday, this would certainly 
seem to be the case: he took "strong objection to 
India being bracketed with developing countries" 
and declared that India's achievements are 
"comparable" with those of developed countries 
like the US and Britain.

This claim sounds so utterly and ludicrously 
implausible for a country whose rank in the UNDP 
Human Development Index has slipped from 124 to 
127 (of the 175 covered) that it deserves no 
further comment. Unless Advani is talking about 
individual achievements of some Indian writers, 
activists, historians, economists or scientists, 
the claim makes no sense whatever. India firmly 
belongs among the bottom fourth of the world's 
societies.

India fails the development criterion in health, 
longevity and freedom from bondage and 
deprivation; in equality of social opportunity 
and gender equity; the general cultural and 
intellectual level of the population; or, equally 
important, in liberty, rule of law and 
enforcement of citizens' rights.

It's altogether astounding that fatuous 
assertions to the contrary are made after the 
devastating demolition-jobs on the 'India 
Shining' campaign performed by economists of all 
stripes from Left to Right. Most 'Shining' claims 
now stand exposed as based upon the selective use 
of figures, invalid comparisons, fallacious 
extrapolations, doctored charts and outright 
cheating - in respect of employment, health, 
primary education and rural living standards, or 
agriculture, electricity, roads and 
telecommunications.

Even the commonest contention, with wide currency 
in the upper middle-class, that India moved to 
higher growth path during the NDA's six-year 
tenure, is blatantly false. Analysis of official 
statistics shows that real GDP (at factor cost) 
annually rose post-April 1998 by 5.3 per cent - 
down significantly from 6.9 per cent during the 
preceding six years. The trend rate of growth in 
agriculture declined from 2.1 per cent to (?)1 
per cent. Industrial growth decelerated from 8.6 
to 4.5 per cent. Growth in gross domestic capital 
formation slowed from 9.8 to 5.3 per cent - 
weakening future growth potential.

What of the BJP's claim that India will become an 
'economic superpower' in 15 to 20 years? This too 
is hopelessly hyperbolic. According to UNDP, 
India's per capita GDP in 2001 was a minuscule $ 
462, less than one-tenth the world average ($ 
5,133) and a fraction of the US's $ 35,277 or the 
OECD average of $ 22,149. This compares poorly 
even with Third World countries like Mexico ($ 
6,214), Malaysia ($ 3,695) or South Africa ($ 
2,620). It is 64 per cent lower than the 
developing countries' average ($ 1,270).

If India's per capita GDP grows at the same rate 
as it did in the past half-century (2.1 per 
cent), it will reach a mere $ 844 in 30 years. 
But assume that the average Indian's income 
somehow grows at the 'dream' rate of 8 per cent 
(GDP growth of almost 10 per cent). Even after 30 
years (NB: not 20), that would only raise our per 
capita GDP to $ 4,305 - just one-eighth the US's 
present level.

The BJP's exuberant and euphoric 'superpower' 
claims speak of a pathological combination of 
recklessness, readiness to fudge the truth, 
boundless hubris and irrational faith in India's 
'manifest destiny'. The assumption is that this 
wretchedly poor, unequal and hierarchical society 
can achieve prosperity, (global) power and glory 
without addressing the basic needs of the 
majority, without involving people in growth, 
without creating social opportunity or empowering 
the underprivileged to develop their elementary 
human potential.

'India Shining' policies will keep half our 
children undernourished and stunted, as they are 
today, and half our women anaemic. (Government 
expenditure on health has declined from 1.3 per 
cent of GDP in the mid-Nineties to a measly 0.9 
per cent, as against the 5 per cent WHO norm, 
putting India in the same league as Burundi, 
Cambodia and Sudan). These policies will ensure 
falling consumption levels for 80 per cent of the 
rural population and abysmally low per capita 
food availability, thousands of starvation deaths 
and farmers' suicides - as in the last six years. 
The NDA's contribution to growing regional 
disparities is equally noteworthy.

The NDA campaign of lies can only be sustained by 
cynics who refuse to understand that what matters 
to flesh-and-blood people is not GDP 
'achievements', but jobs, wages and access to 
public services.

The BJP has infused a level of dishonesty and 
hatred into our politics which can only turn 
India into a hub of deception and a cesspool of 
injustice and discontent. The NDA years are 
notable for two other things: deterioration in 
the quality of democracy and promotion of a 
dangerous 'national security' obsession, with 
grievous assaults on human rights.

The NDA adopted an abrasive, confrontationist 
style of politics to stonewall serious debate. 
The 13th Lok Sabha witnessed several important 
developments following the Kargil war, including 
the 'coffin scam' and the Tehelka exposé. There 
were, besides, the stock market scam and the UTI 
meltdown, which wiped out 50 million 
householders' savings. Then came the Gujarat 
carnage. After that the world's greatest (but 
futile) military mobilisation since World War-II.

All these issues deserved to be honestly debated. 
But the NDA sabotaged debate. Shamefully, 
Gujarat, a crime against humanity, wasn't 
investigated by a Joint Parliamentary Committee. 
Nor was the Kargil war, in which more Indian 
soldiers died than during the 1962 China war. 
JPCs were formed on only two issues: securities 
scam and pesticides-in-cola bottles.

The JPC's report on the first was unanimous and 
indicted the finance minister on 52 counts. The 
government has no answers to these and took no 
action. The cola report isn't formally tabled, 
but no heads will roll for this menace to public 
health. The NDA mocked Parliament by reinducting 
George Fernandes into the cabinet before he was 
cleared of Tehelka-related charges. It violated 
the sanctity of the budget process through its 
month-long 'rolling' tax-breaks for the rich, and 
the 'interim budget'.

The NDA has insulted statutory authorities too. 
It has viciously attacked former President 
Naraya-nan, the Comptroller & Auditor General, 
the Election Commission and the National Human 
Rights Commission. The NDA tried to bypass 
Parliament on the HPCL-BPCL sell-off - until 
restrained by the Supreme Court. If it could rule 
by ordinances alone, it would, as happened with 
the Prasar Bharati amendment. The NDA has 
comprehensively degraded our democracy.

Of no lesser importance is the NDA's drumming up 
of a paranoid 'national security' syndrome in the 
name of fighting 'terrorism'. That resulted in 
the utterly condemnable passing of POTA through a 
joint session of Parliament - bulldozing all 
opposition and violating democratic norms.

POTA is a gory story of brutalisation of little 
children, social activists and political 
opponents through arbitrary arrest, physical 
assault, planting of incriminating evidence and 
arms, unlawful detention and, above all, torture. 
Thus, 12-year-old children have been branded 
'terrorists' and jailed. Leaders like Vaiko and 
Nedumaran have been silenced. In Gujarat, the 
police routinely pick up dozens of innocents 
under four 'open-ended' FIRs centred on vague 
charges like 'conspiracy' to assassinate BJP/VHP 
leaders - even in the absence of specific 
incidents.

In Delhi, a POTA court sentenced S.A.R. Geelani 
to death and Afsan Guru to prolonged imprisonment 
in the Parliament attack case - on the flimsiest 
of evidence. (The high court later acquitted 
both.) None of this, nor numerous fake 
'encounters', would have become possible without 
the climate created by the 'national security' 
syndrome, and a communalised equation of Muslims 
with Pakistan, and Islam itself with terror.

That's the hideous legacy of hatred and paranoia 
the NDA leaves behind. It must be politically 
punished for it.
_____


[3]

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION:

2nd International Conference on Sexualities, 
Masculinities, and Cultures in South Asia
9 -- 12 June 2004, Bangalore [India].
developing discourses and discourses of development

   The South Asian context of debates around 
sexuality reveals wide-ranging concerns that have 
emerged through a whole range of complex 
movements in history. The patriarchal systems in 
the region are seen to add to the diverse 
constructions, narratives, and performances of 
sexualities, including masculinities and 
femininities. These are areas of significant 
interest not only to researchers but also to many 
engaged in the field of social change and human 
development work.

   More recently, questions of 'alternative' 
sexuality and development debates on trafficking, 
sex work, and HIV/AIDS have also brought 
sexuality discourses to the forefront of 
contestations. This conference follows the first 
conference held in Melbourne, Australia in 1999. 
The papers presented there have appeared in a 
special issue of South Asia: Journal of South 
Asian Studies, Volume XXIV, 'Sexual Sites, 
Seminal Attitudes: Sexualities, Masculinities and 
Cultures in South Asia' (Ed.: Sanjay Srivastava).

   This 3-day conference will bring together an 
array of scholars, activists, artists, 
organisations, and approaches under a common 
aegis. It will provide space for non-traditional 
presentations and also presentations in Hindi and 
Kannada, in an effort to stimulate wider 
discussions and dialogue.

   For further details such as themes, formats, 
fees, and online registration, please visit 
www.dharanitrust.org/

If you have any questions, please contact the 
organizers at: conf2004 at dharanitrust.org

We hope you will participate in this conference 
and contribute to furthering open and 
constructive dialogues on these topics in the 
South Asian context.

*********************
Dr. Chandra Shekhar Balachandran
Vinay Chandran
Dr. Sanjay Srivastava
(Conference Co-Chairs)

Contact information:
2nd International Conference on Sexualities, Masculinities, and
Cultures in South Asia (2004)
c/o The Dharani Trust
1, Shanthi Road
Shanthinagar
Bangalore 560027 (India)
<>www.dharanitrust.org

_____

[4]

AN  OPEN  LETTER TO  UP
By I.K.Shukla

This election season the fate of Indian democracy 
hinges very substantially on the 85 Lok Sabha 
seats of UP. Other variables, in terms of the 
vote tally, may not mean significantly much. 
Since Praful Bidwai’s article of March 15: 
"Vajpayee for Façade, Advani for PM: BJP's 
Con-trick" lays it all out, apportioning both 
seats and their beneficiaries in various states, 
comparing these to the previous record, this is 
no place for a repetition of the same. But what 
is terribly disturbing as an ill omen, as far as 
democratic assertion is concerned, is the wobbly 
and dangerous tilt that UP may ruinously 
perpetrate.

Hence this appeal to all conscientious parties 
and formations, swearing by freedom and 
democracy, egalitarian pluralism, and composite 
nationalism. This may be the last ditch stand for 
them to make in the cause of Indian sovereignty, 
Indian security, Indian ethos, and an Indian 
future. Let not their ego or personal 
aggrandizement stand in the way of a proper 
response to the threat posed by the BJP-NDA to 
our cherished values as a nation.
Lest they should forget, it would be apposite to 
remind them that it is not just UP of their small 
and scattered fiefs of casteist and tribal 
stripes that they have to cater for and be 
entrenched in, it is India, a much larger entity, 
that they are enjoined to be answerable for.
Any lapse on their part can unsettle India, irreversibly, and unforgivably.

They have to recall the historic UP: Awadh  that 
valiantly staked its all in 1857  against the 
British invaders and stood as the indivisible, 
indomitable bulwark of freedom at a horribly 
heavy price in blood and fire, imperial 
repression and colonial rampage; UP of 
revolutionary resistance to the foreign 
interlopers in Merath and Kakori; UP of 1942 
Ballia which became an independent enclave in the 
wake of Quit India movement; UP of historic 
resonances like Kanpur, Bithur, Lucknow, and 
Banaras; UP as the paradigm of Indo-Persian 
culture fashioning and assimilating it as its own 
over centuries; UP of Lucknow and Banaras, two 
cities singled out for soulful celebration by 
Ghalib; UP which gave us the national song Jhanda 
Uncha Rahe Hamara (by Shyamlal Gupta 'Parshad', 
Kanpur, 1925) and the revolutionist song of 
defiance  Sar faroshi ki Tamanna ab Hamare Dil 
men Hai reverberating all over and giving the 
Brits creeps (by Ram Prasd 'Bismil'), etc., etc.

It is this fiercely independent-spirited UP, 
zealously proud of its historical inheritance, 
that is both threatened with subjugation and 
extinction by the diabolical forces of death and 
darkness, and which, in turn, is on the brink of 
threatening and tearing apart the spirit and 
substance of India. UP, unwittingly and 
involuntarily, seems poised at the centre of a 
national tragedy or historic triumph. It would be 
up to the citizens of UP to face this historic 
and crucial challenge as manfully and masterfully 
as they can. No sloth, no superciliousness, no 
shallowness, no sloppiness on their part would be 
too small to be forgotten or forgiven if they 
help win by their inaction and default the 
communal predators and known enemies of the 
nation.

If the Congress cannot see reason for the demand 
of Telengana and Vidarbha, it can at least start 
giving this burning question of separate states 
serious thinking. These are not new demands by a 
few hair-brained politicos. Nor have they been 
articulated on election eve. There was much less 
justification for Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and 
Uttaranchal which came into being without its 
blessings, for the benefit of a political party 
that is cynically pledged to aggression and 
anomic attrition.

Telengana has had a raw deal, and severely 
suffered from long bloodletting and neglect as a 
matter of policy. This cannot go on for ever, 
this must not require a low-intensity warfare by 
Hyderabad on a permanent basis. Alienating the 
populace of Telengana is to abandon them to the 
mercies of their traditionally privileged 
enemies. The same goes for Vidarbha. Realpolitk 
and its exigencies, the interests of a few, 
cannot be allowed to hold a people to ransom in 
perpetuity. Congress has to do hard thinking, not 
just in the case of UP.

Is it an exaggeration to say that BJP and its 
various synonyms never reconciled to a free 
India, that they were since inception, and have 
been ever since, opposed to a sovereign India, 
nobody’s surrogate or satellite? Their historical 
record itself is tell- tale.  That they 
overturned India’s non-aligned policy, aligned 
wholly with a foreign imperialist power to serve 
its interests in South Asia through enslavement 
and impoverishment of other nations, is not just 
a straw in the wind.

Domestically too they entered a compact of 
comprador peonage with Washington, sacrificing 
national interests and despoiling its future, all 
for kickbacks that would boost the Party’s power 
at the risk of the nation’s interests. The secret 
sale of ONGC shares, without reference to the 
parliament, without any debate, is just one of 
the umpteen cases of massive malfeasance Hindutva 
has blackened itself with. Joint military 
exercises with imperialist alien warlords, now 
globally on the rampage, agreed to by India, do 
not promote our interests, nor add to our 
prestige or security. They do exactly the 
opposite: arousing suspicion and fear, sowing 
hatred and isolation in the neighborhood and 
beyond.

Violation of electoral ethics by the BJP has been 
poignantly pointed out by Sukla Sen in his letter 
to the EC a few days ago. Grossly blatant misuse 
of government machinery and administrative assets 
for the political fortunes of a party is against 
the basic norms of justice in a functioning 
democracy. That the caretaker government has the 
gall to indulge this open flouting of rules 
bespeaks its beastly character of irresponsible, 
secretive, and illicit behavior. If BJP is 
returned to power such crimes and such 
corruptions would never cease, they would be the 
norm.

Advani has helped clear the air: the Mandir issue 
is part of the BJP agenda. Even if cleverly 
worded, it cannot conceal the intent of the 
putative Loh Purush [Iron (in the soul) Man]. NDA 
is already stamped as of no consequence, since it 
would agree to be ruled. And over ruled. His 
arithmetic is clear and straight: it was 1990 
holocaust in the wake of his Somnath-Ayodhya 
Triumphal that soaked India in blood for months 
on end, and brought dividends to BJP in the Lok 
Sabha seat strength. Why should the enterprise 
not be repeated now, since EC too has sort of 
sanctioned it?

Harsh Mander’s piece on the continuing tragedy 
and trauma of Jhabua in MP, with Christians as 
victims, Uma Bharati presiding on the death and 
devastation there, in The Hindustan Times, 23 
Feb.04, "Dark Clouds Without Silver Linings", 
must be read not as an "isolated" incident. It is 
a marker, well timed. Tribals cannot be permitted 
to choose their religion. They have to remain the 
slaves of the ruling minority of the elite. Any 
aspiration or assertion to the contrary will be 
crushed brutally, swiftly. That Judeo is a hero 
among these primitive hegemons is as it should 
be. Every cowardly, criminal, and corrupt cretin 
has always been a hero in the fascist annals.  It 
is a matter of "principle".

Lest this appeal end on a despondent note, here 
is piece of news item to cheer us all. Whether it 
can be strengthened and may achieve its goal is 
moot at the moment.

Ayodhya Ki Awaz, an institutional framework 
inspired by Prof. Sandeep Pandey, recently held a 
Sadbhawana Sammelan (Goodwill Conclave) in 
Ayodhya for three days. Those participating in it 
are eminent persons in their respective fields. 
They are appalled at the economic plight of the 
majority community in Ayodhya following the 
depredations of the saffron brigade. They want 
Ayodhya people to decide for Ayodhya, outsiders 
excluded.They plan a Youth Yatra for 
disseminating their message of amity and 
fraternity, with several important sants and 
savants in the lead.

But for it to be a success the citizenry of UP 
will have to come out in the streets. Whether it 
will be allowed remains an open question. To be 
optimistic may not be very realistic. And, for 
that, people will have to be ready for a face off.

Snip clip: Gopinath Munde seeks a ban on 
Discovery of India. It is nothing luny. BJP has 
subverted and sabotaged the Constitution (Review 
Commission), disgraced the Parliament (Savarkar’s 
portrait), and divested the nation of its 
sovereignty and resources. It is freedom of the 
people that scares them. It is democracy that 
threatens them. They would destroy both.

Before they do, let UP play a decent hand, 
redeeming itself. Long ago should have fascistic 
formations like BJP (Hindu Mahasabha, Jan Sangh, 
Vishwa H Parishad, Bajrang Dal, etc.) been 
banned. This one laxity cost the nation dear.

Do we afford another? Wake up, UP.

19 March 04.

_____


[5]

19 Mar 2004

Women increasingly 'unsafe' from the law

Two sub-inspectors at Tilak Marg PS, Jaipal 
Sharma and RS Sharma accused in a custodial rape 
case in New Delhi, have just been acquitted by a 
sessions court alongwith the employer of the 
accused, Umesh Pant, on the grounds that there 
was 'inadequate evidence' of rape. In a case 
where the victim was in custody while the crime 
took place, where she is fighting the very 
establishment that meted violence upon her, and 
struggled for two years just to get her complaint 
registered, what did the court expect? 
Implicating medical evidence? Witnesses? Damning 
testimonies of colleagues?

The facts is that case after case is making 
evident that the manner in which rape trials are 
conducted and evidence is considered needs to be 
re-examined. Be it custodial rapes like this one, 
or mass rapes as in Gujarat where women's bodies 
where butchered and burnt in order to 
systematically destroy the 'evidence of rape'.

Only then can we hope to stem the tide of the 
increasing crimes against women Or else the 
conviction rates in cases of rape and sexual 
assault shall remain abysmally low, and the 
guilty will continue to roam free.

Vani Subramanian and Sadhna Arya,
Saheli Women's Resource Centre
Above Shop Nos. 105-108
Under Defence Colony Flyover Market (South Side)
New Delhi 110 024
Phone: +91 (011) 2461 6485
E-mail: saheliwomen at hotmail.com


_____


[6]

PRESS RELEASE

DATE: 19TH MARCH 2004

·	The 2004 monsoon will submerge the entire 
tribal belt in the SSP reservoir in violation of 
Supreme Court order.
  ·	Even rehabilitation done so far 
constitutes only 1/4th of the total people 
affected by the SSP reservoir.
  ·	Mr. Modi is BOLD enough to state that 
people who are opposing the SSP are not only 
anti-dam or anti-development but are enemies of 
humanity. We agree with Mr. Modi if the meaning 
of humanity in his dictionary is "violation and 
violence".

According to the 18 October 2000 Supreme Court 
order, the height of Sardar Sarovar Dam can be 
raised to 110.64 m only if every person affected 
by submergence in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya 
Pradesh at this height has been rehabilitated.

There is a claim that all Project Affected 
Families (PAFs) up to 110.64 m will be 
rehabilitated before 30 June 2004. But much of it 
is mere rhetoric and promises only on paper, 
considering past tract records of the governments.

The 2004 monsoon will submerge the entire tribal 
belt in Gujarat. The clearance by Narmada Control 
Authority (with obvious political pressure from 
PM office) stands in obvious violation of the 
rights of the Project Affected Families ensured 
by the Supreme Court Order as well as the Narmada 
Water Disputes Tribunal Award.

The continuously changing number for the PAFs 
raises doubt about the claim of the Government. 
Gujarat  from 4600 to 4728, Maharashtra  from 
3113 to 3221 and now 3300+. In the last two years 
Maharashtra GRA has declared new 400 more PAFs. 
The Official Task Force (September 2002) did 
thorough resurvey and brought out another 2200 
genuine families yet to be declared affected. 
Madhya Pradesh  from 33014 to 35716 and keeps on 
increasing while the government is trying 
desperately to play and bring down the numbers by 
manipulation. A few thousands more await 
declaration as PAFs. When this is the ground 
reality, how can one say that rehabilitation is 
complete at a particular height? Even 
rehabilitation done so far constitutes only 1/4th 
of the total people affected by the reservoir. 
What about the 23,540 families loosing 1/4th of 
the land in the canal system? What about the 900 
families affected by the Kevadia Colony? What 
about the 103 tribal villages of the Sulpaneshwar 
Sanctuary? What about thousands of families 
affected down stream of the Narmada River?

The Modi government is already taking electoral 
advantage of this by declaring a Narmada Pujan 
Yatra from Ahmedabad to Kevadia on 19th March, 
culminating with a 'Pooja' offered at the Narmada 
river in violation of the Model Code of Conduct. 
He is BOLD enough to state that people who are 
opposing the SSP are not only anti-dam or 
anti-development but are enemies of humanity. We 
agree with him if the meaning of humanity in his 
dictionary is "violation and violence".

Rohit Prajapati
Swati Desai
Anand Mazgaonkar
Rajnibhai Dave

Activists of Gujarat [India]

_____


[7]

NARMADA BACHAO ANDOLAN
58 Mahatma Gandhi Marg, Badwani MP 451 551
(Tel: 07290 222464 <badwani at narmada.org> )
B13 Shivam Flats Ellora Park Baroda, Gujarat 390007
(0265 2282232<baroda at narmad.org> )

Press Note:  March 17, 2004

Decision to raise the Sardar Sarovar height inhuman and undemocratic.

Modi’s effort to win votes through Narmada: 
Violation of Code of Conduct.Valley will fce the 
flood:  Will the secular forces challenge Modi?

The decision by the Narmada Control Authority (NCA) to raise the height
of the Sardar Sarovar Dam (SSP) to 110.64 metres 
with immediate effect and  approval granted by 
Election Commission is yet another blow to the 
Indian  democracy.  The gigantic dam which is a 
violence against the adivasis and farmers of the 
Narmada valley has always been pushed ahead for 
political reasons and interests and never for the 
real solution to the thirst and drought in 
Gujarat.  The 40,000 families still in the 
reservoir area, out of whom at least 12000 
families – their houses and fields, temples and 
mosques, markets – thrown into the ‘likely to be 
affected zone, if the dam height is raised to 110 
mts, have always taken us the challenge to expose 
the power-players and will continue to do so.

After assessing the ground reality when it was obvious that thousands
of families in the villages (Nandurbar district, Maharashtra, Dhar and
Badwani in M.P. and Narmada in Gujarat) are yet to receive land-based
rehabilitation, the Narmada Control Authority had not permitted the
raising of height in spite of two meetings held 
on January 29th and February 12th.  However, as 
is obvious from the reports from within and 
outside the Authority, it was a clear pressure 
from the PMO and Modi to seek clearance before 
the elections, to influence the voters in Gujarat 
that worked to cull out the NCA decision 
announced yesterday.  With water made to be the 
main electoral agenda, and claims of 'water 
revolution' in Gujarat advertised through out the 
country, Modi is trying all means including 
announcement of new schemes with no detailed 
planning  and parts of beneficiary areas 
overlapping with that of Sardar Sarovar, only to 
bring in a flood of votes.  The most crucial 
device for Modi and NDA, along with BJP in MP, 
however, was clearance to raise the SS dam 
height. Once the BJP came to power in MP and 
Rajasthan together with NDA, they decided to 
clear the path for this even when it meant 
another homicide of people in the valley.

The Congress government in Maharashtra did take a decision time and
again using NBA’s struggle on the streets but 
failed to give a strong fights, which it could. 
A strong representation of the fact that 
thousands of adivasi familes in Maharashtra 
remain to be rehabilitated that adequate land is 
yet to be identified and the allocation of land 
as well as shifting
will take a few years, if done, would have made a difference. However,
the Maharashtra’s underestimation and unrealistic 
claim that 177 families would be rehabilitated 
within 4 months was used by the BJP governments 
to push the dam ahead, sidelining its weak 
oppositiobn with no challenge.  The Congress 
might have done this to gain a double advantage, 
avoiding conflict with the people’s movements and 
secular forces in the state of Maharshtra and 
gaining support to Gujarat Congress. This however 
boomeranged and the Modi as well as BJP has used 
the Project, as done by many a government before, 
to ensure victory in the upcoming elections .

The Project which is not to bring a drop of water to either Maharashtra
or Madhya Pradesh, can produce only about 30 to 
40 MW of electricity at the proposed height of 
110 metres, that too mainly during monsoon and 
hence, compared to the cost – human and financial 
(with Gujarat compelling Maharashtra and MP to 
share crores of Rupees interest on the debt) – 10 
MW to Maharashtra and 20 MW to MP is no benefit 
to justify the decision.

For Uma Bharati, again this is however a poll-agenda in line with BJP’s
propoganda Sadak, Pani, Bijli since the last assembly election.
Election Commission of India Deliberately Misinformed
While it’s very clear within 24 hours since the EC cleared the decision
that Modi and his party has made and announced all plans to reap the
votes, the EC seems to have been cheated. 
Beginning with Ahmedabad – Kevadia Yatra andthat 
the advertisements in the past to the propaganda 
throughout would help these violent politicians 
to influence the voting in Gujarat, even without 
ceremonial outfits, the mere decision would help 
them in a major way.  Confusing the EC by 
claiming this decision to be in compliance with 
the Supreme Court judgement, NCA with the NDA 
government and bureaucrats, Gujarat and MP 
governments as members, have misled the EC and 
violated the Model Code of Conduct.  No new 
decision or work as the old decision can be taken 
up if it is to influence the voters, the rules as 
a part of the code of conduct state.  The 
exceptions made with regard to action for 
genuinely public good too can’t be applicable to 
SSP since the raising of the height is not a must 
even for Gujarat’s water crisis as much of water 
already drawn through by pass tunnel (lower 
canal) by Gujarat is yet to be fully and fairly 
used with its canal network incomplete and not to 
be ready for next 10 years.  NBA has written to 
the election commissioner of India appealing him 
to stay the decision with immediate effect as a 
move to save the country from the power hungry 
politicians.

Whether or not the Congress raises a question in this regards to save
Gujarat and itself from the electoral massacre, planned by Modi remains
to be seen.


  Medha Patkar

_____


[8]

The Indian Express
March 19 2004

Uma's top cop brass hold, attend yagna to 'boost force morale'
HARTOSH SINGH BAL

BHOPAL, MARCH 18: The Madhya Pradesh police, 
already in the dock for failing to act 
evenhandedly ever since the Uma Bharti government 
has come to power, has now courted further 
controversy by holding a five-day Mahamrityunjya 
yagna in Bhopal.

The yagna that ended today was organized by the 
Bhopal district police and attended by DGP S K 
Das, the Bhopal IG and SP, besides several other 
senior officials and members of their families.

The yagna invokes Shiva for the purpose of warding of untimely death.

According to Bhopal SP Vipin Maheshwari the 
purpose of this yagna is "entirely spiritual and 
for the purpose of boosting morale. There have 
been several recent incidents of unnatural early 
deaths in the force and this had aroused such a 
feeling in the lower ranks. There is no question 
of favouring one particular religion. It is only 
that the matter has come to the notice of the 
press."

But others are not so easily convinced. While 
several serving officers have expressed serious 
reservations in private, retired officials are 
outraged. Former DGP of Punjab and retired MP 
cadre IPS officer K S Dhillon said: "This is 
highly obscurantist. Such a thing is just not 
done by the police and it is certainly 
unprecedented in MP. The Indian police has always 
taken pride in being an a-religious and 
apolitical organization otherwise there is the 
danger of going the Gujarat way. Lately, the 
signs aren't good and this yagna takes away from 
the neutral character of the force. Moreover, 
it's very silly to admit that some supernatural 
power is working against the police force."

There is good reason for the fears being 
expressed by Dhillon. It may be a coincidence but 
the yagna happens to coincide with the observance 
of the Uma Bharti government’s 100th day in 
power. And this period has seen the neutrality of 
the MP police take an unprecedented battering.

The police force have stood and watched as Sangh 
activists have attacked Christians in Jhabua and 
have forced the arrest of a Muslim youth for 
eloping with a Hindu girl in Indore.



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Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on 
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