SACW | 14 May 2004 [US Christian Right / Muslim Right in
Bangladesh / India Elections 2004]
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at mnet.fr
Thu May 13 21:17:53 CDT 2004
South Asia Citizens Wire | 14 May, 2004
via: www.sacw.net
[1] USA: Spare me that old time religion (Edmund Zimmerman)
[2] Bangladesh: Playing with fire (Zafar Sobhan)
India: 2004 elections - Comment, Analysis and reactions
[3] Reaction of people from some civil society groups in Pakistan -
"Congress Victory Will Help Peace Process" (Waqar Gillani)
[4] "India rejects religion-based politics" Editorial in the
Prominent Bangladesh Daily
[5] India: Vajpayee trampled by bullock cart economy (Edward Luce)
[6] India: Mass media vs mass reality (P. Sainath)
[7] India: Revenge of The People (Ashok Mitra)
[8] India: Joint Press Statement by Communalism Combat & SAHMAT
[9] Upcoming Event: Secular Activists get together, celebration,
exchange of ideas (May 14, 2004 , New Delhi)
[10] Upcoming Event: South Asian Progressive Conference (San
Francisco, May 23, 2004)
--------------
[1]
SPARE ME THAT OLD TIME RELIGION
(Unintelligent Design)
By Edmund Zimmerman
[May 13, 2004]
Christianity's current "crusade" in the Holy Land, like those of its
medieval predecessors, is bogged down. The
religious-political-territorial-civil war among the Sunni, Shiite,
and Kurdish factions in Iraq is, as predicted, spinning out of
control. Christian forces are caught in a "cross"-fire of their own
making. Their enemies' numbers are increasing and not even their
enemies' enemies are their friends. Thousands are dead on all sides
of the conflict, each one a certifiable martyr. Bible studies in the
Bush White House have apparently steeled US leaders for just this
eventuality. The Rev. Franklin Graham who spoke at Bush's
inauguration has since called Islam "a very evil and wicked
religion," saying, "It wasn't Methodists flying into those buildings,
and it wasn't Lutherans." Presumably Iraqis can be sure that it
wasn't Sunnis launching those cruise missiles and it isn't Shiites
stealing their oil.
Radical Christian jihad is hardly limited to its traditional
medieval-era nemesis however. Age-old Christian antagonism toward the
physical and social sciences has experienced a sort of renaissance
under the Bush administration as well. As always, any science that
threatens the taxes and tithes extracted by the princes of mercantile
Euro-American Judeo-Christianity is fair game. Scientific opinion
emanating from governmental watchdog groups like the Environmental
Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers
for Disease Control has been suppressed or compromised by their
current overseers. In the community of serious academic science, the
planets revolve around the sun and species on Earth have evolved
through natural selection. Yet, today, Charles Darwin's theories are
under attack by Christian fundamentalists in four state legislatures,
four state education departments, and countless local school boards.
(For a serious response to the absurdist theorists of "intelligent
design," check out the University of California's new website at
<www.evolution.berkeley.edu/> )
Weird religious alliances are forming throughout the world. The Pope
has teamed up with Bush's religious right wing, led by Attorney
General John Ashcroft, to attack, not just women's choice on
abortion, but every aspect of birth control- down to the humble
condom. US based Christian fundamentalists are supporting Zionist
Jews in Israel to fulfill obtuse biblical prophesies related to a
return of the Jews to control over their historical lands- an odd
alliance indeed considering that the next step in this "Revelations"
fantasy as the total elimination of the Jews (along with all other
non-Christians on the planet). Baptists, black and white, are teaming
up with fundamentalist Moslems and Roman Catholics to lead the global
war on gay marriage. Since all public money in the US is being
diverted to the military and resource (oil) extraction elements of
Bush's crusade, the care, feeding, and educating of the non-rich is
in the process of being re-negotiated. Education is coming
increasingly under the care of Microsoft, Coke, the Gap, McDonalds,
and Disney while healthcare and social assistance will be handled by
an imaginary social structure called "Faith Based Initiatives."
Since the business community can't rationalize commonwealth without
profit, tithes are the only source left to fund the pursuit of
happiness, a roof on a cold night, a warm bowl of soup. Religion may
be as keen to feed the hungry as McDonalds, to clothe the naked as
the Gap, and to shelter the homeless as Bechtel, but the sacred
safety net, being outside the purview of public policy and
regulation, is subject to structural change, displacement, or even
closure with a minimum of public input or political fallout. Wouldn't
the burger chains die for the kinds of lines of hungry customers that
form outside every soup kitchen in America these days? A little
proselytizing, or brand imprinting, with the chicken broth is just
the cost of doing business.
God is back with a vengeance
Claims of His death, (made primarily by the French), were grossly
exaggerated. In his latest incarnation he is as ubiquitous as ever,
nosing his way into every conflict on the planet as well as every
conflict resolution. He's behind terrorism and leading the fight
against it. He's betting both sides in the Middle East, South Asia,
Eastern Europe, and the US, leading ever more powerful forces toward
conflagration, holocaust, and annihilation. Israel/Palestine is just
the most obvious of dozens of intractable religious horror stories
around the globe and as long as the writings and texts of the Bible
and Koran are considered as part of the accord or formula or road
map, there will never be peace in the Middle East.
History is rife with examples of the lengths to which the Lord's name
can be taken to confirm, assert, or impose power over others within
and without a particular faith. With its caste system, Hinduism gives
a name to the hierarchical and exclusive structures infecting many
faiths. The illogic that bolsters this bigotry by necessity becomes
an article of faith itself. Somehow it's better to have the saliva of
a dahlit sliming up the floor of a Brahmin's house than the
footprints he's been forced to lick up. White Christians all over the
US traditionally have dark skinned people preparing their food and
nurturing their children while rarely allowing them a place across
the table. It took some very adroit faith-leaping for Jewish Israelis
to acknowledge that the Christians who'd tried for millennia to
annihilate them were somehow less dangerous and worthy of contempt
than the distant progeny of pharaoh. A quite similar leap keeps lower
caste Muslim hatred and suspicion focused on Jews while their fat
kings and princes focus on the blonde starlet across the roulette
table in Monte Carlo.
At this point the most believable creation story is the one told by
the ancient Greeks, a thuggish gang of petty, squabbling deities on a
mountaintop launching lightening bolts at the befuddled mortals below.
Battling for the hearts and minds of the faithful citizenry, US
lawmakers and judges are gleefully defending the words, "under God"
in the Pledge of Allegiance; words added in 1954 by red-baiting,
god-fearing congressmen to spite godless communists in Russia. After
the attacks on the US on September 11th, many Americans apparently
found that the "Star Spangled Banner" was not sufficiently
monotheistic and began a steroid-fueled campaign to replace it with
"God Bless America." This in spite of the fact that "God Bless"
sounds downright defeatist when compared to the defiant, militaristic
tone of the "Banner." The SSB has lasted through Woodstock as well as
Fort Sumter and Woody Guthrie reportedly hated "God Bless America" so
much he felt compelled to write "This Land Is Your Land" as a direct
response. "God Bless" was an Irving Berlin megaphone instrument for
Kate Smith- something that endured these long decades in noisy
Broadway revivals or strip-mall piano bars- red formica, white
cigarette smoke, blue cocktails- red leatherette, white fishnet
thighs, blue eye shadow. It's been written that whenever Richard
Nixon tied one on in the white house (often), he would spank the
ivories and wail GBA for Pat or Henry or "Haldeman und Erlichman"- or
sometimes serenade the portraits of his predecessors on the White
House walls. I think I remember seeing him in grainy black and white
footage doing a duet on TV with despotic Philippine party animal
Ferdinand Marcos- "God Blesh Amereekah".
Free spirits
This is just not the time to be inserting the creator into any of
those places in our governments and public institutions that have
somehow managed to become or remain "spirit free". (Anyone in
government who wants to practice their religion can do it on the fire
escape with the smokers.)
Everybody out! God, Buddha, Allah, Ganesh, everybody - out of here!
The corn god or the herring god or the rice god- out! And take your
virgin mothers with you, and your ascetic seekers lined up at ferry
crossings, your holy plants and animals and ancestors, your kneelers
and proners, your shakers and sawyers, your tearful aisle walkers,
your leapers and wailers, your chanters and jailers, your banners
unfurling, your dervishes whirling, your pontiffs prostrating, your
crosses and crescents and crossed legged clowns, your elephant heads
and donkey rides and charmed snakes and sacred cows and sacred pigs
and filthy cows and filthy pigs, your fishes on Friday, your fasts
and your feasts, your atonements and begging- get off your knees.
I'm not trying to argue the usefulness of religion here. Nobody, but
nobody, does death and immortality like religion- whether it's
eternity on the 19th hole of the Billy Graham Memorial Golf Club or
eternity with 72 virgins; whether it's peaceful reunion with departed
loved ones or another go-round as a dung beetle. The new leases on
life offered by the best surgeons or dieticians or cosmetologists are
decidedly short term in comparison. But despite the best efforts of
His minions on Earth, God can't make men better than women or give
husbands power over wives, nor can He bestow upon you and your
neighbors braminical powers over the less fortunate. If your god
tells you to love everyone, to ease suffering, to work tirelessly for
peace and justice, then your god may be keeping pace with the
advancement of civilization. But when he/she/it starts whispering
about hate and revenge and bombs and how righteous and exclusive you
are, it's time to tell him/her/it to go to hell.
The human brain is possessed of mystery and complexity beyond its own
comprehension. Contemplation of purpose and mortality is inevitable
and immutable. But the desire to extend this to the external world,
to impose our beliefs upon our neighbors, to use the spiritual as a
competitive edge- in the nuclear age - is to court mankind's end. We
must learn to control our gods, because these religions, in seeking
to destroy one another, plant their seeds---like a plague virus
strain in some permafrost corpse---in that most dangerous dwelling
place of all - the human heart.
(Zimmerman is co-founder and Political Editor of Tongue Magazine and
Director of the La Romita Art School outside Rome.)
_____
[2]
The Daily Star [ Bangladesh]
May 14, 2004
Editorial
PLAYING WITH FIRE
by Zafar Sobhan
There is a long-held and deeply cherished conviction among
Bangladeshi Muslims that we are a tolerant and moderate people. We
tell ourselves again and again that there is no history of religious
extremism in Bangladesh, that we have lived side by side with our
Hindu, Christian, and Buddhist neighbours for generations without
incident, and that there is no fear of the emergence of a Bangladeshi
Taliban any time soon.
We are not concerned when religious extremists gain in power and
popularity around the world from Iran to Indonesia. We tell ourselves
that this kind of thing could never happen here, and dismiss out of
hand suggestions that there are al Qaeda cells operating in the
country or that we are a haven for international terror.
There have been any number of atrocities perpetrated over the years
that can credibly be attributed to religious extremists. But we are
slow to rush to judgment and even-handed in our condemnation.
If guilt cannot be determined -- as in the case of the recent attack
on Humayun Azad -- we shrug our shoulders and say that it wouldn't be
right to point fingers and affix blame to a certain party when the
facts remain unclear.
In cases where the culpability of extremists has been determined or
is openly admitted by them, we comfort ourselves by saying these are
merely the actions of a marginalised and unpopular minority with no
support among the general public.
Sure, religious parties now hold seventeen seats in parliament, up
from two in 1996, and indeed control important cabinet positions and
ministries due to their partnership in the ruling alliance.
But these people are democrats, we tell ourselves. They respect the
rule of law and contest elections. They do not wish to turn
Bangladesh into a theocracy, but merely to bring much-needed morality
back into the public sphere.
Sure, extremists are campaigning around the country for the passage
of a blasphemy law and to have the government declare Ahmadiyyas
non-Muslims.
Sure, they have recently succeeded in convincing the government to
ban Ahmadiyya books, and the persecution of Ahmadiyyas around the
country is on the increase.
But this is nothing to worry about, we tell ourselves. We are a
tolerant and moderate people and the more extreme strains of Islam
will never take root here.
There may be reason now, however, to begin to doubt this conventional
wisdom that has held sway for so long.
The first indication that perhaps we are not quite as moderate and
tolerant as we like to believe is the recent ban on Ahmadiyya books.
If we are so moderate and tolerant, how come there has not been more
of an outcry? If the extremists are such a minority, how is it that
they have succeeded in getting their way?
The banning of Ahmadiyya publications shows us that numbers are not
everything. Even a small minority can get their way if they make
enough noise and if they are have the tacit backing of the government
and are not opposed forcefully by the public.
But surely the most ominous sign in Bangladeshi politics in recent
months is the emergence of the underground group Jagrata Muslim
Janata Bangladesh that is intent on enforcing its own brand of
militant Islam.
The JMJB, which has been active for the past six years, came to
public attention in April, with its vigilante campaign in the
northwest.
The four districts in which the vigilante campaign is being conducted
-- Rajshahi, Naogaon, Natore, and Bogra -- have long been the
stomping grounds for the outlaw Purbo Bangla Communist Party, and the
campaign that the JMJB is undertaking is to combat PBCP cadres, or
Sarbaharas, as they are popularly known.
The JMJB are operating with the support of the local police and have
reportedly killed seven people and assaulted hundreds of others in
their drive against the Sarbaharas that began on April 1 this year.
Not only is the group accused of operating a detention centre where
suspected Sarbahara men are tortured with impunity, but locals speak
of a reign of terror under which anyone who opposes the group is
accused of being an outlaw and dealt with accordingly.
In addition to kicking off a movement to rid the region of those it
deems outlaws, the JMJB is also intent on establishing its own brand
of Islam. To this end, JMJB operatives are reportedly forcing men to
grow beards and women to wear burkhas, and have painted women with
their navels exposed with black.
The group, which is headquartered in Dhaka and has bases all across
the country, claims that 4,000 Sarbahara men have surrendered to it
since the start of their operation, and that the group's nationwide
membership numbers 300,000 and is growing every day.
Could the JMJB be the future of Bangladesh?
It is telling that the JMJB is operating with the full support of the
authorities in the northwest. The divisional inspector general of
police in Rajshahi division confirms that he has asked local police
to work together with the JMJB, and the state minister for home
affairs has said that he encourages such collaboration.
Both the DIG and the minister stressed that no one would be permitted
to take the law into their own hands and that the police were keeping
an eye open to ensure that there no excesses are committed.
But this is a dangerous game that the government is playing. Its
collaboration with the JMJB is encouraging and validating both
vigilante justice and religious extremism. The alliances of
convenience that it has entered into will only make the extremists
stronger and give them more legitimacy.
The banning of Ahmadiyya books has provided a real boost to the
extremists, who have used the ban to drum up hatred and intolerance,
and have seen their numbers swell as a result. Since the enactment of
the ban, the movement against the Ahmadiyyas now has the imprimatur
of official respectability.
And the official backing for the JMJB's campaign in the northwest can
only serve to further consolidate their power and prestige.
Make no mistake about it -- the extremists are in the ascendancy and
it is the government that is enabling this.
In the long run, the end result of this alignment with extremists
will be to empower them to such an extent that in the not too distant
future they might be the ones calling the shots.
But that could never happen in Bangladesh, right?
Right.
(Zafar Sobhan is an Assistant Editor of The Daily Star.)
_____
INDIA: 2004 LOK SABHA ELECTIONS - COMMENT, ANALYSIS AND REACTIONS
Lok Sabha Elections 2004
Results: 539/539 [Seats]
Positions: Partywise Statewise
1999 2004
NDA 298 188
CONG + 135 219
OTHERS 110 132
o o o
[3]
The Daily Times [Pakistan]
May 14, 2004
CONGRESS VICTORY WILL HELP PEACE PROCESS
By Waqar Gillani
LAHORE Civil society groups, Indo-Pak peace forums, human rights
activists and politicians believe the victory of the Congress Party
in India will strengthen bilateral relations between India and
Pakistan.
Talking to Daily Times on Thursday, they claimed that India had
witnessed the success of democracy. They appreciated the way Bharatia
Junta Party conceded defeat, applauding Mr Vajpayee's decision to
tender his resignation in.
Director Human Rights Commission of Pakistan I A Rehman said it was
good that the people of India had brought secular forces to power.
"Pakistan should welcome the outcome of the Indian elections," he
said.
Talking about the Indo-Pak peace talks, Mr Rehman said all parties
should continue the process and that the peace process could not be
stopped.
He said the groups conducting surveys in India had neglected the
areas where Congress had its vote bank. That explained why they were
so off the mark while analysing the outcome of the elections in India.
The president of the South Asian Free Media Association in Pakistan,
M Ziauddin, said the Indian election upset was an internal matter for
that country. "The have used their right to vote according to their
will," he said, adding: "We believe the peace process between the two
countries will continue."
Shahtaj Qazilbash, convener of an alliance of non-government
organisations and civil society groups, said she was happy with the
results of the Indian polls. "We understand that Congress is a
secular party, and we always feel happy when secular forces prevail
in a political arena." She said the failure of Hindutva was a good
sign, adding if the government of Pakistan was sincere in modernising
the state it should strengthen ties with the new government in India.
Ms Qazilbash said the peace process would go on because the Congress
had already backed the BJP move of normalising relations with
Pakistan.
A secular government in India would pursue this goal more vigorously,
she added.
Pakistan Peoples Party leader Khalid Ahmad Kharl said India had
turned out to be a very strong democracy, "unlike Pakistan". "I am
sure new the government will continue the peace process and there
will be no change in India's policy of a peaceful resolution of all
issues with Pakistan."
Kamran Islam, a spokesman of the Pakistan-India Peoples Forum for
Peace and Democracy, appreciated Sonia Gandhi's claims that peace
process between India and Pakistan would not stop.
Nusrat Jamil, a prominent peace activist, said she was happy that a
secular party had won the elections. But she thought Mr Vajpaye also
wanted to make a positive contribution to the region by normalising
ties with Pakistan. She hoped the Congress would stay the course
since it already had "wished to strengthen the Pakistan-India
relationship".
Ms Jamil said the outcome of the Indian elections had even surprised
the Congress Party, adding that it contained several lessons for
Pakistani democracy.
She appreciated Mr Vajpayee's resignation without making any
allegations against the rival party.
o o o o
[See Also:
HOW WILL A CHANGE OF GOVT IN INDIA AFFECT INDO-PAK RELATIONS?
By Najam Sethi (The Daily Times, May 14, 2004)
URL: www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_14-5-2004_pg1_2
_____
[4]
The Daily Star [Bangladesh]
May 14, 2004
Editorial
The majesty of democracy
INDIA REJECTS RELIGION-BASED POLITICS
In a stunning reversal of fortunes, the BJP-led NDA coalition
government in India has been voted out of power. It has conceded
defeat to the opposition Congress and the transition looks like being
a matter of formality. The Congress is well-poised to form the next
government with the express support of the Left which has bagged
around fifty seats. Together they have moved within the striking
range of mustering the magic figure of 273 in a 545-seat strong Lok
Sabha.
The Congress victory from the rear has been a stunner. It has proved
wrong the forecasts of exit pollsters, media projections of likely
scenarios, and even the trading of claims and counter-claims between
major political parties in the fray. The arm-chair urbane
calculations missed out on the typically low profile internally
heaving rural psyche of anti-incumbency. The benefits of the new boom
economy didn't reach the poor masses who felt left out in the
so-called near double-digit growth figure. Thus, despite the slogans
of "shining India," the Razzmatazz India, by BJP, it is the real
India living in its villages that has spoken. The BJP's "slightly
saffronised" electoral campaign strategy didn't pay the desired
dividend, because it didn't match with its playing of the Hindutva
card during its actual incumbency. The unsettling effect of the
Gujarat carnage on Hindu-Muslim equation, the BJP's position on the
highly sensitive Ayodhya mosque-temple tangle, the party's failure to
distance itself from the extremist philosophy of RSS, Bajrang Dal and
Shiv Sena, and the changes made in the history text books impacted
negatively on the BJP's fortunes beyond its hard core vote banks.
It is thus as much a triumph of the rural poor as a victory of the
secularist forces. The Congress and the Left have registered a strong
showing, something that eluded them in the previous elections.
Ever since BJP came to power, secularism was on the wane in India,
feeding fundamentalist forces in the region. Through this election,
the Indian masses can be said to have rejected religion-based
politics and dealt, hopefully, a fatal blow to religious
fundamentalism, prejudice, and the culture of intolerance.
We pay a tribute to the leadership of Sonia Gandhi and the intrepid
campaigning by Congress leaders. It is a true measure of Sonia's
success that despite the controversy over her foreign origin and the
virtual writing of her political obituaries by many, her leadership
has received such resounding public acceptance.
We congratulate the people of India on their speaking out in such a
decisive fashion, the election commission for conducting such a
gigantic election with the least of violence, the maturity of the
political parties, especially the BJP-led alliance, for accepting the
defeat gracefully.
Let's not forget, BJP remains a strong factor in Indian politics with
its tally of seats in parliament as a single party. Its providing a
stable government in India for nearly five years, its push to
economic growth next only to that of China, and Vajpayee's
ground-breaking initiative in improving ties with Pakistan remain the
hallmarks of the past government, which the new government should
build on.
We welcome the new Indian government in advance, and look forward to
closer and rewarding relations with the new leadership.
______
[5]
Financial Times [UK]
May 13 2004
VAJPAYEE TRAMPLED BY BULLOCK CART ECONOMY
By Edward Luce in New Delhi
The world's largest democracy on Thursday delivered one of the
biggest electoral shocks in Indian history. Almost everybody in
India, most notably Atal Behari Vajpayee, its outgoing prime minister
- who brought the elections forward by six months to capitalise on
booming economic growth - failed to detect the warnings.
Most of India's pollsters forecast either a narrow victory for the
BJP-led multi-party coalition or a hung parliament tilted in Mr
Vajpayee's favour. Even the exit polls by New Delhi Television,
consistently the least inaccurate of forecasters throughout the
election, predicted the ruling coalition would only fall short by 20
to 40 seats.
In the event, the BJP-led coalition fell more than 80 seats short of
the half way mark of 272.
How could everybody be so wrong? "If you look at how journalists and
even pollsters operate, they go to the small towns and think they've
landed in the real India," said Mala Singh, editor of Seminar
magazine in Delhi, one of the few people to predict the outcome. "But
even the smallest, most out-of-the-way town, is a long way from the
villages where most of India lives."
Yesterday, India's impoverished villages - and large swathes of its
cities, where urban slum dwellers also came out in droves - gave
educated and metropolitan India a reminder of the country's vibrant
democratic undercurrents.
The verdict, which has put India's ruling Nehru-Gandhi dynasty back
in the driving seat two decades after its last electoral victory, is
likely to have profound effects.
"The first priority of the new government and of any government in
India must be to tackle rural poverty and backward agriculture," said
Manmohan Singh, a Congress leader seen by some as a possible
consensus prime minister if, as seems decreasingly likely, Congress
allies object to Sonia Gandhi's leadership. "This is the inescapable
lesson of the election."
With 149 seats, Congress will dominate the new coalition. But the
outcome is not a ringing endorsement. Yesterday the Congress-led
government of the southern state of Karnataka - of which Bangalore,
the booming software city, is capital - was swept out of power by the
opposition BJP in an assembly election.
Most Congress members of parliament from Kerala, another southern
state also ruled by Congress, were yesterday defeated by their main
state-level opponents in the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
India's voters are dismissing governments wherever they find them.
"Congress should be aware of the fact that the Indian voters have not
voted for anybody - they are rejecting everything in sight," said
Sundeep Waslekar, an analyst. "This is a cry of impatience for
corrupt and self-serving politicians to finally start delivering the
goods."
In a recent survey, Mr Waslekar estimated that more than 80 per cent
of India's 1.05bn people lived in the "bullock cart economy" -
without even the means to afford a bicycle. Another 15 per cent lived
in the "two-wheeler" economy. They could afford scooters and
televisions. And only two per cent - about 25m people - inhabited the
"business class" economy, those who can afford to fly and to dine in
restaurants.
"The BJP's whole election campaign of 'India Shining' was targeted at
the booming urban elites," said Dilip Cherian, head of
PerfectRelations, an agency that worked for Congress. "We chose to
ignore it altogether and disseminate low-key material in 48 rural
areas that we had previously identified as important." Mr Cherian
said the BJP outspent Congress by a multiple of five with an
estimated $100m campaign budget.
But much of the BJP's glitzy advertising either failed to reach
inhabitants of the bullock cart economy, or if it did, simply
galvanised their rebellion in the privacy of the polling booth.
"Today - for the first and last time - I am grateful so much of India
is illiterate," said a prominent social activist who did not want her
name published. "It was the literate middle classes that fell victim
to the BJP's propaganda. And it is the poor who have corrected their
misperceptions."
But there is another lesson that many are drawing. In its manifesto,
Congress described the contest as one between a party that saw India
as a pluralist and modern nation and the BJP that stood for "the
forces of obscurantism and bigotry".
In the BJP's campaign, leaders such as Mr Vajpayee and L.K. Advani,
the hardline deputy prime minister, played down the BJP's Hindu
nationalist ideology. Both men were photographed wearing Muslim
headgear and talked frequently of Hindu-Muslim unity. Muslim voters,
almost 14 per cent of India's electorate, are disproportionately poor
and illiterate. But electoral analysts said they had voted in a
consistently pragmatic way. "Wherever the BJP candidate looked like
winning, Muslims voted tactically for the strongest opponent," said
Yogendra Yadav, a leading analyst. "They were voting for their own
security."
______
[6]
The Hindu [India]
May 14, 2004
MASS MEDIA VS MASS REALITY
By P. Sainath
Elections 2004 brought back to the agenda the issues of ordinary Indians.
THE FIRST thing the election results drive home is the sheer
disconnect between the Indian elite and the Indian people. Here was a
leadership that thought the `India Shining' campaign would bring it
success. A part of the elite - even those with the Congress party -
went further than that. They believed the claims of `India Shining'
itself were valid and true. The dispute was over the patent rights on
the shine. Did those belong to the Bharatiya Janata Party or to the
Congress?
The Indian voters had very different issues on their mind. They were
rejecting the National Democratic Alliance Government, which, as one
poll slogan had it, stood for the "National Disinvestment Agency."
The intensity of this electoral quake rates an 8 on the political
Richter scale.
At this point, the `feel good' factor seems so pathetic as to require
no ridicule. The ruling party even tried to co-opt the thrill of a
great cricket tour of Pakistan. It didn't work. Yet while the spin
doctors have been sacked, the age of spin doctoring has arrived.
Also rubbed in yet again was, of course, that second huge disconnect.
That between mass media and mass reality. Little in the media output
of these past five years had prepared audiences for anything like
this outcome. The polls succeeded where journalism failed. They
brought back to the agenda the issues of ordinary Indians. Deeper
analysis must await more data. However, some broad contours seem
clear.
There is almost no government in the country that has ill-treated its
farmers and not paid the price. That has hurt agriculture and not
been punished. India has never seen so many farmers' suicides as in
the past six to eight years. For some, the urge to blame it all on
nature is overwhelming. And yes, droughts have badly hurt people in
parts of the country. But that would be missing the wood for the
trees. Countless millions of Indians have seen their livelihoods
crippled by policies hostile to them. Many of these applied to
agriculture, on which two-thirds of the people depend. Any incoming
government that fails to see this writes its own exit policy.
The politics of divisiveness and intolerance also stand rejected. In
no other period post-Independence have the minorities felt so
insecure. And with good reason. From Graham Staines to Gujarat, the
record is a grisly one. The basic fabric of a secular society came
under assault. Co-opting a few figureheads from the minorities failed
to work for the BJP-NDA. People went by their lived experience, not
by the lure of poll-eve lucre. And amongst all communities, people
have shown they want a secular polity. Even in Gujarat, the Congress
party seems to have made its gains in the areas worst hit by the
bloodshed of 2002. It suggests that many Hindus, too, have counted
the costs of the past few years.
Under no other national government has there been the kind of
intolerance towards dissent as in the past six years. The Tehelka
episode and the hyper-activism of the Censor Board are just two of
many examples. The rewriting of history - often with a bizarre
content - was also part of this. So too the vilification of some of
this nation's great historians. Years from now, the country will
still be assessing the damage done to some of our best-known
educational institutions. It's worth remembering that much of this
happened with elite consent. Until, of course, Murli Manohar Joshi
got carried away. It was when he trampled on the Indian Institutes of
Management, the elite's pet institutions, that the squeals of protest
began.
Dr. Joshi has been defeated. So too have been the Ram Naiks, the
Yashwant Sinhas, the V.C. Shuklas and the Sharad Yadavs. The
electorate has shown little respect for those we call `heavyweights.'
The polls also seem to show India 2004 to be a far more federal
nation than before. There will be many different forces vying for
political space. And that reflects the nation's diversity. Those
yearning for a simple `two-party' system have a long wait ahead. One
vital feature of this election was the partial recognition of this by
the Congress party. Wherever it struck alliances and accommodated
other forces, it gained. Now this can be termed electoral arithmetic.
Even opportunistic. And indeed it is. Like it or not, it is also a
negotiating of political space in a vast and diverse nation.
The poll campaign of the ruling formation was also marked by sharp
hypocrisy. Appeals at press conferences and on television for decorum
were followed on the ground by crude personal attacks. Indeed, this
seems to have backfired in Tamil Nadu. Even apart from the crushing
strength of the DMK-led alliance, the foreigner diatribe against
Sonia Gandhi did not go down well. Not in a State that knows her
husband - also an Indian and a Prime Minister - lost his life on its
soil. A victim of mindless hatred.
At one level, elections in the past year have followed a simple
pattern. With a few exceptions, the Congress has gained greatly where
the BJP or its allies have been in power for some time. And vice
versa. People in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are still
voting against the policies of their former Congress Governments.
Even the massive numerical strength of the Congress-NCP tie-up in
Maharashtra did not bring them the gains it should have.
The electorate has put the new Government on notice. "Business as
usual. More of the same," won't do. Already one Congress leader at
the Centre has promised exactly that. Far from rejecting the
Chandrababu Naidu model, he suggests the Congress will give the
people of Andhra Pradesh "Naidu Plus." In which case the people of
Andhra Pradesh will surely give his party the treatment they gave Mr.
Naidu - Plus.
Simply put, the term "reforms" is much like the words patriotism,
motherhood and apple pie. Who could possibly be against any of those?
It's when you get down to defining these terms that the gaps show up.
(Mahatma Gandhi was a patriot. The BJP thinks Narendra Modi is one,
too.)
At the height of India Shining, our rank on the Human Development
Index of the UNDP made sad reading. It is better to be a poor person
in Botswana or the Occupied Territories of the Palestine than one in
India. If the "reforms" mean policies that better the lives of
hundreds of millions, then surely people want them. That means,
amongst other things, addressing people's rights to resources such as
land, water and forests. It means making more jobs, not depriving
millions of the ones they have. For some, the "reforms" simply mean
mindless privatisation. The transfer of public wealth and resources
to private hands. The new government needs to know that this was also
a mandate against such an assault on people's lives and rights. A
glance at the fate of the so-called `reform-minded' State Governments
shows us this.
As long as the most basic needs of the Indian people are not met, the
elite will never find the `stability' they so long for. Often, this
is confused with continuity. The Modi Government continuing in
Gujarat does not make that State stable in any positive way. And it's
worth remembering that before Mr. Modi gave Gujarat his brand of
stability, the BJP ran through four Chief Ministers in almost as many
years. It even managed to bring down its own Government despite
having a two-thirds majority in the Assembly.
Meanwhile the markets have been shaky for some days. It's a mystery
how the expensive analysts of Dalal Street function. If they could
not factor in these outcomes into their `possible scenarios,' they
must be poorly informed and connected. I was assured by some in the
fraternity a few days ago that Chandrababu might face `a little
anti-incumbency' but "let's not forget there's real achievement here
and people reward governments for that." Maybe we can talk to them
again when they're rescued from under the rubble.
The street analysts of Andhra Pradesh were a little better with their
dark humour. "Bill Gates, Bill Clinton and Dollar Bill. Naidu has
saddled us with a lot of Bills to pay," was one wisecrack making the
rounds. The reference was to the incredible borrowings of the State
under Mr. Naidu. Something that never seemed to worry the well-paid
analysts. Maybe the world of such analysts is driven by the fact that
(as the CII once reported) only 1.15 per cent of Indian households
invest in stocks.
As for the media, there is a great and urgent need for introspection.
The failure of journalism was far more predictable than the poll
results. For years now, the media have stopped talking to ordinary
people. How on earth can they tell their readers and viewers what is
going on? There are 400-plus journalists to cover Lakme India Fashion
Week. Almost none to cover the agricultural crisis in any informed
way. The labour and agriculture beats in newspapers are almost
extinct. The media have decided that 70 per cent of the population
does not make news. The electorate has decided otherwise.
______
[7]
The Telegraph [India]
May 14, 2004
REVENGE OF THE PEOPLE
- The Indian electorate has told the wild ones that enough is enough
Ashok Mitra
A resolute coalition
Opinion and exit polls have made asses of themselves. A sort of
sheepish apologia could be on offer: they did, in fact, hint at the
possibility of a hung Lok Sabha. That hardly matters. The
prognostications by pollsters provided not a hint of the cataclysmic
political changes thought up by India's electors.
Perhaps the fact that the principal news media are based in New Delhi
and Mumbai, respectively the nation's political and financial
capital, explains the haughty absentmindedness of the sample designs
which do not bother to reach down to the humble and weak multitudes
strewn across town and country. The latter, the implicit assumption
has been, are of no consequence: as long as the nation's top decile
shines, the rest of the countrymen should better get along. In that
sense, the poll outcome is the response of the nation's base to the
goings-on at the level of the superstructure.
The elections have rendered a near knock-out blow to the Information
Technology lobby. The state chief minister whom India Incorporated
had held up as role model for the globalization process - who used to
take pride to describe himself as CEO of his state - has been sent
packing. The other chief minister who was wont to remind all and
sundry that the seat of his government was also the preferred habitat
of the IT industry, has suffered an almost equal humiliation.
Appropriate lessons ought to be drawn for their own good by chief
ministers elsewhere in the country. IT is glamour, IT is
World-Bank-friendly, by embracing IT, one coaxes kudos from the US
administration. But what about its other adverse effects? It diverts
funds away from essential tasks for ameliorating the plight of poor,
hapless people across the country to enable them to reach up to a
marginally better existence. The poor know where their priorities
lie. They want drinking water. They want irrigation water. They seek
subsidized power. They want a going public distribution system to
provide them with essential consumer goods at prices they can afford;
they want protection on the crops they raise, such as wheat, cotton
or sugarcane, posed by uncontrolled imports from rich foreign
countries. They do not want plants and factories, built assiduously
over the decades with the nation's own resources, to be closed down
or sold off to shady operators. And all because an imported economic
philosophy is trying to convince official minds that economic
efficiency is coterminous with a labour-economizing technology.
It is necessary to be fair. The kind of national economy sought to be
built in the recent period and which has immiserized a vast majority
of the population had its genesis during the earlier Congress
government. The argument that they are not the original sinners have
not saved the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership. It has been a silent
resolute coalition of ordinary men and women who have marched to the
polling stations to express their wrath. They include, apart from the
vast army of the unemployed and other scrounging for livelihood which
the crumbs of outsourcing are unable to ensure, the hungry and
emaciated peasant masses too. They also include a cross-section of
old and middle-aged people who have experienced a shrinkage in their
savings because domestic interest rates have been brought down since
the Federal Reserve Board has also done so.
These millions have now taken their revenge. It is almost a Brechtian
situation. Reforms-struck politicians, gloating over the several
misdoings they have committed since 1991, were on the point of
dissolving the people; the people, grabbing the opportunity that came
their way, decided to dissolve their ruling politicians instead.
The share market is in a state of shock. India Incorporated too has
been overtaken by panic. Perhaps as a variant of auto-suggestion, the
tycoons have come out with a pompous statement. Like-minded citizens,
take heart, notwithstanding the poll results, the economic reforms
will continue. It is cheek they demonstrate, and they are not the
only ones. As the share prices started to stumble, a note issued on
behalf of the Congress sang the same tune: everything is under
control, once the party of the Nehru-Gandhis returned to power, it
would not deviate from the reforms agenda.
The Congress should have better sense. The Lok Sabha seats they have
won are because they were the party in opposition to the ruling
alliance, who got identified with the perpetrators of the misery
countrymen have been experiencing. To have a viable majority for the
new government they will have to depend very substantially on other
parties and groups who are fiercely opposed to the insensate reforms
that do not contribute to real growth, and shift income and job
opportunities from the poorer classes to the rich.
That apart, the nervousness over the convulsions in the share market
is altogether misplac- ed. For consider the following possibility: if
share prices decline, investors will move on a wide front away from
speculative activity and concentrate on direct physical investment,
thereby adding to productive capacity. The current stock exchange
mess is therefore a good omen for the economy; the new government
that is about to be installed must, for dear life, comprehend this
home truth.
The Bharatiya Janata Party will enter a season for ruing in leisure.
Its leaders should also have the humility to reflect on the
officiousness of their vicious bigotry. Merely because their party
makes the assertion, Hindutva does not become identical with
Bharatiyatva. The vulgar racket that the party had created in the
country in order to construct a Ram temple on the ground where the
demolished Babri mosque had once stood has done immense damage to
India's international credibility, even as it has engineered medieval
savagery within the land. The Indian electorate has over this past
fortnight told the wild ones that enough is enough.
Perhaps the biggest significance of the 2004 Lok sabha polls lies
elsewhere. Neither of the two major political parties will be very
keen to point out the fact, but the total number of members elected
to the 14th Lok Sabha do not add up to even one-half of its aggregate
strength. It is the assorted regional parties, into which belong a
handful of recognized "national" parties too, who now command a
majority in the lower house of parliament.
The relevance of these regional parties is going to increase
henceforth to an inordinate degree. They will be increasingly more
assertive and claim their pound of flesh from the system. That need
not be regarded as catastrophy. Who knows, with growing pressure
mounted by the regional parties, the Indian polity could well turn
into a genuinely federal arrangement with progressively greater
devolution of power and resources.
A cluster of regional parties will control state administrations
across the country; without their support, no government will survive
in New Delhi. The Centre will therefore be forced to cede to these
regional entities more and more funds and administrative
prerogatives. The political centre of gravity will, as a result,
shift gradually from New Delhi to the state capitals. It is worth
speculating what other developments might eventuate. For example, a
drastic reordering of national priorities could be on the cards,
fulfilment of the basic needs of the people in such arenas as health,
housing, education, employment and food security could eclipse
concern - false or genuine - over such issues as national security
and defence.
While machine politicians engage in New Delhi over the next few days
in their government-formation pastime, should not political analysts
too do some introspection? Given their specific location, they think
in a lazy mould and endeavour to explain all electoral shifts in
terms of either the "honeymoon effect" or "anti-incumbency". They owe
it to themselves to do a deeper exercise, otherwise they run the risk
of committing more faux pas in the manner of the exit and opinion
polls. Or is it their argument that, in the case of West Bengal, the
anti-incumbency factor still holds; the revolt of the voters is
against the incumbency in the state over long years of a thoroughly
worthless opposition.
______
[8]
Communalism Combat
(Mumbai )
&
SAHMAT
(8, Vithalbhai Patel House, Rafi Marg,New
Delhi-110001
Telephone- 3711276/ 3351424
e-mail: sahmat@ vsnl.com)
PRESS STATEMENT
May 13, 2004
The resounding and clear verdict of the people of
India, epitomized by the verdict in Gujarat is clearly
against the politics of hatred and division and a plea
for humane and just governance. The Gujarat genocide
of 2002 repulsed and horrified both the people of
Gujarat and India, even two years ago. In December
2002 also 49 per cent of Gujaratis voted against the
political peddling of hatred despite state
intimidation and terror. Yet the ruling NDA and the
BJP government in Gujarat shamefully did not accept
moral and physical responsibility for the carnage and
gloated over their electoral victory which came after
the violence.
Now, two years later, the stand of all right thinking
Indians, regardless of caste and creed, stands
vindicated. The people of India have now decisively
shown that the divisive politics of communalism has no
lasting space in India. What all Indians want is a
life of dignity and peace, a harmony that has deep and
civilizational roots in this land. While welcoming
this verdict, we urge the next government to
re-dedicate itself to the politics of fairplay and
non-discrimination and work towards eradication of
poverty, hunger, hatred and division.
M.K.Raina
Rajendra Prasad
Javed Anand
Teesta Setalvad
Ram Rahman
Vivan Sundaram
______
[9]
Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 18:26:36 +0000
To Celebrate and acknowledge the contribution of thousands of
ordinary people and activists across India as well as the Secular
political parties leading to the defeat of the fascist forces, we are
organising a get together on May 14, 2004 at 6.30 pm at Anhad, 4
Windsor Place, New Delhi-110001 (On Ashoka Road, Opp Kanishka Hotel,
tel - 23327366/ 67) .
We will also discuss the future action plan as we feel that the Sangh
Parivar has now been removed from the govt but their ideology of hate
has deeper roots. We have got 5 years to root that out too.
But it is defintely not a formal meeting but exchange of ideas and a
lot of singing and celebration.
All Are Welcome to Attend.
shabnam hashmi
on behalf of the Anhad collective
______
[10]
SOUTH ASIAN PROGRESSIVE CONFERENCE
Sunday, May 23, 2004, 9:00am-5:00pm
California Institute for Integral Studies 1453 Mission St. (@ 10th),
San Francisco (downtown -- near BART, MUNI, parking)
Just $10, including lunch (nobody turned away)
Directions, information, details at: www.SouthAsianProgressive.org/2004/Hear
speakers on the World Social Forum in Bombay, post-9/11civil rights challenges,
and more. Join open forums onissues like art & activism, men in
feminist movements,
laborrights, queer visibility, desi environmentalism, youthmovements,
building more effective organizations, etc.Come meet, network, and
strategize with over a hundreddiverse South Asians.
A flexible format will ensure that youget to talk about the issues
that matter to you.
Conference organized by: 3rd I Films, Alliance of South Asians Taking Action,
American Muslim Voice, Association for India's Development (Bay Area),
Association of South Asian Political Activists, Coalition Against Communalism,
Ekta, Friends of South Asia, Maitri, Narika, Organizing Youth, South Asian
Development Alternatives Network, South Asian Sisters, Trikone, and
other volunteers
DETAILS, PRE-REGISTRATION, QUESTIONS
====================================
More details (e.g. directions, pre-registration) online:
www.SouthAsianProgressive.org/2004/
You can also email us at: 2004 at SouthAsianProgressive.org
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
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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a partial back -up and archive for SACW: snipurl.com/sacip
See also associated site: www.s-asians-against-nukes.org
DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not
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