SACW | 31 May -1 June 2004

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire   |  31 May - 1 June,  2004
via:  www.sacw.net

[1] Pakistan: Sectarianism strikes at the top (Editorial, The Daily Times)
[2] Pakistan's inner battle for education reform (Juliette Terzieff)
[3] India: Celebrating the BJP's departure - Only 
two cheers for UPA (Praful Bidwai)
[4] India: McMedia & market jihad (P. Sainath)
[5] India: They  Made  Saffron  Scarlet (I.K.Shukla)
[6] Upcoming Event: Towards Anti War  Assembly 
Preparatory Meeting (Delhi, June 5-6)
[7] Upcoming Event: National Convention On The 
Right To Food and Work (Bhopal, June 11-13)
[8] Resources Available:
- [Sri Lanka] "Hegemony and Rebellion: The 
Sangari and Karuna Rebellions by  Ahilan 
Kadirgamar"
-  [India] " A Text without Author - Locating 
Constituent Assembly as Event by Aditya Nigam"

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

[1]


The Daily Times
May 31, 2004
Editorial

SECTARIANISM STRIKES AT THE TOP

Someone has killed Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, 
chief of the great Deobandi madrassah in Karachi, 
clearly in revenge for the suicide-bombing of 
city's Haideri Masjid where 18 Shias died earlier 
in the month. The police in Karachi, one of whose 
constables blew up the Haideri Masjid, is silent 
about the motivation of the killing, but that is 
quite 'normal' with a department whose personnel 
have been involved in assassination attempts on 
General Pervez Musharraf himself. Mufti Shamzai 
was going from his Banuri seminary to his house 
right across the road when killers on a motorbike 
shot him dead. His son, nephew and a driver were 
injured. Two police guards, which he did not 
think much of, were nowhere around. Everyone knew 
that he was a target, yet nothing could be done 
to save him.
Deobandi students of the Banuri Masjid came out 
on the roads in many parts of Karachi and 
indulged in angry vandalism, once again making a 
show of strength in a city already harassed by 
violence. They destroyed the police station in 
Banuri Town, making the police force run for 
their lives, and torched a number of vehicles. 
The violence recalls the anarchy witnessed when a 
few years ago another Banuri Town religious 
personality, Maulana Yusuf Ludhianvi, was done to 
death after his sectarian campaigns. The office 
of the newspaper 'Business Recorder' was gutted 
among other acts of destruction of property. No 
one knows who killed Mufti Shamzai but one can 
recall an earlier sequence of violence. Last 
year, massacres occurred in quick succession in 
Quetta and Karachi, targeting the Shias. When the 
government as usual was unable to apprehend the 
culprits, the killers struck in Islamabad and 
shot dead Maulana Azam Tariq, leader of the 
banned-for-terrorism Sipah Sahaba, along with his 
official bodyguards.
Mufti Shamzai was head of the Banuri complex in 
Karachi. He was rated the most powerful man in 
Pakistan during the Taliban rule of Mullah Umar 
in Afghanistan. One investigator of jihad wrote 
in the 1999s that Mullah Umar and Osama bin Laden 
met for the first time in Banuri mosque under the 
tutelage of Mufti Shamzai. Among his 2,000 fatwas 
the most well known was the one he gave against 
America in October 2001 declaring jihad after the 
Americans decided to attack Afghanistan. He had 
earlier in 1999 already deemed it within the 
rights of the Muslims to kill Americans on sight. 
(The fatwa was later modified in explanation.) He 
was patron of the foremost Deobandi jihadi outfit 
Harkat-ul Mujahideen. In 1999, after his release 
from an Indian jail, Maulana Masood Azhar, a top 
pupil of Mufti Sahib, walked out of Harkat and 
formed his own organisation (now 
banned-for-terrorism) Jaish-e Muhammad. Shamzai 
was clearly inclined to favour Masood Azhar and 
became a member of the Jaish 'shura' (governing 
council). He was already a member of the 'shura' 
of Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) of Maulana Fazlur 
Rehman.
His contacts with Mullah Umar during the period 
of Talibanisation of Pakistan made him powerful. 
When the Pakistan military was constrained to 
make Mullah Umar heed the American warnings it 
sent a delegation of ulema, including Mufti 
Shamzai, to Kandahar in late 2001. This was the 
famous delegation that shockingly turned 
pro-Mullah Umar instead of putting forward the 
point of view of Islamabad. After the invasion of 
Afghanistan in 2001 a new situation arose. A 
five-member 'coalition' of the jihadi 
organisations was launched to avenge the American 
invasion. The coalition was called Brigade 313 
(the number of warriors in the battle of Badr in 
the times of the Prophet (PBUH) and comprised 
Lashkar-e Tayba, Jaish-e Muhammad, Harkat-ul 
Jihad al-Islami, Harkat-ul Mujahideen al-Alami 
and Lashkar-e Jhangvi. The coalition was said to 
be responsible for the killings of Christians in 
Murree, Islamabad and Taxila as revenge against 
America.
The grand Deobandi consensus born out of jihad in 
Afghanistan and Kashmir has a sectarian creed 
which can't be hidden any more. It has links with 
Al Qaeda and has been responsible for the killing 
of Christians in Pakistan too. Among the 
above-mentioned Brigade, three outfits are the 
backbone of the Kashmir jihad and will become 
critical for Islamabad if General Musharraf 
exercises the option of jihad in Kashmir once 
again. That is probably why the leader of the 
banned Jaish-e Muhammad, Maulana Masood Azhar, 
'disappeared' from Bahawalpur before activists of 
the Jaish and Harkat al-Jihad al-Islami allegedly 
carried out the December 2003 attacks on General 
Musharraf in Rawalpindi. This was revealed by the 
captured leader of Lashkar-e Jhangvi, Akram 
Lahori, and widely publicised in the national 
press. The leader of the Harkat al-Jihad 
al-Islami, Qari Saifullah, a graduate of the 
Banuri seminary, was likewise allowed to flee to 
the Middle East.
Out of the five Brigade members two (Lashkar-e 
Jhangvi and Harkat-ul Mujahideen al-Alami) are 
the melting-pot Deobandi outfits patronised by Al 
Qaeda. Their activists freely float within the 
Deobandi jihad. Ahmad Umar Sheikh, who had his 
beginning in England with the 
now-banned-in-Pakistan Hizb al Tahrir, was 
released by India together with Masood Azhar in 
1999 after the hijack of an Indian airliner. 
After his release, Umar Shaikh tracked Daniel 
Pearl and got him kidnapped in Karachi with the 
help of Jaish activists. The man who planned the 
abortive attempt at assassinating General 
Musharraf, Amjad Farooqi, was Umar Sheikh's 
associate in the kidnapping of Daniel Pearl. 
Mufti Shamzai happened to be the spiritual head 
of the terrorist organisations banded together in 
Brigade 313. Before his death, Mufti Shamzai went 
on record as condemning the policy of the MMA 
which forced it to agree to a deal with General 
Musharraf under the 17th Amendment.
The Banuri seminary has lost a powerful leader. 
The power of the Karachi seminary was first 
assured when General Zia-ul Haq got its founder 
Maulana Yusuf Banuri to become chairman of 
Council of Islamic Ideology in 1979. Needless to 
say, his death will be laid at the door of the 
United States. *

_____



[2]


San Francisco Chronicle
May 30, 2004
Page E - 2

PAKISTAN'S INNER BATTLE FOR EDUCATION REFORM
Fight pits as rivals progressive forces and old-school religious factions

by Juliette Terzieff

Islamabad , Pakistan -- Progressive forces in 
Pakistan, a country often derided in the 
international press as an impoverished backwater 
overrun with gun-toting wackos, are fighting hard 
for changes in the education curriculum here that 
have the potential to bring Pakistan more in line 
with Western secularized modern education systems 
and make it a role model for other Islamic 
countries struggling to progress in the 21st 
century.

But the battle, which speaks directly to the base 
identity of Pakistanis, is fierce.

On one side, there are the progressive forces 
that want a modern Islamic homeland where 
religion is an individual choice, such as in 
Malaysia, a developed world player. On the other 
side, there are conservative forces that seek a 
narrow interpretation of Islam that determines an 
individual's life, such as in Saudi Arabia, where 
thousands of frustrated unemployed youth have few 
places to turn for relief.

Two years ago, Pakistani President Pervez 
Musharraf became the first -- and so far the only 
-- Muslim leader since the Sept. 11 terror 
attacks to acknowledge the damage done by 
extremist tenets concealed in the education and 
ruling systems, and, more importantly, vowed to 
do something about it.

Frustrated in the ensuing period by the 
resistance to reform put up by many of the 
country's madrassa (religious seminaries) 
administrators, and his reliance on clerics for 
political legitimacy, Musharraf made a tactical 
decision late last year to pull back, regroup and 
tackle government-run schools first.

But this battle is proving just as hard.

Just over a month ago, Pakistan's education 
minister, Zubaida Jalal, was shouted out of 
parliament for suggesting changes to the current 
syllabus -- changes including the removal of some 
Koranic verses and substituting words that might 
be contributing to making Pakistan a 
less-tolerant, militant-minded society.

For example, in the eighth class social studies 
book in Sindh province, authors swapped the word 
"martyrdom" for "demolition" when describing the 
1992 destruction of the 16th century Babri mosque 
at the hands of a million Hindu nationalists. The 
Urdu language book for the seventh class changed 
the description of the deaths of the Prophet 
Mohammed's companions from "martyrdom" to 
"murder."

Other changes would have eased the vilification 
of Hindus and foreigners prevalent in many of the 
historical lessons.

Jalal's explanation that the changes did not 
reflect an assault on Islamic ideology went 
unheard.

Conservative clerics and members of the 
mainstream Pakistan Muslim League stormed out of 
the session, decrying the effort as part of 
Musharraf's plan to "Westernize" the country at 
the behest of Washington.

"We will resist any and all attempts to turn this 
country into a secular state," vowed Liaqat 
Baloch, deputy parliamentary leader for the 
six-party religious alliance United Action Forum.

Student groups affiliated with the forum took to 
the streets in protest, circulated petitions, and 
called for criminal charges against those 
involved in the changes. Clerics lambasted the 
changes in their mosques, in the media and in the 
streets.

The result?

Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali spent days 
talking to every form of media in the country, 
promising nothing contrary to Islam or Pakistan 
would be in the syllabus and that the proposed 
changes would not happen.

In other words, pro-modern, tolerant, worldly 
forces found themselves on the run as the 
government backed down.

"This is all about tactics," said physics 
Professor A.H. Nayyar, who co- authored a report 
last year for Islamabad's Sustainable Development 
Policy Institute that heavily criticized the 
current syllabi for containing historical 
inaccuracies and lessons designed to impart 
intolerance toward non- Muslims and the glory of 
jihad (holy war).

Many of the textbooks used in government schools 
are based on a syllabus created 10 to 15 years 
ago -- before the end of the Cold War and the 
advent of the Internet. All are infused with 
dictates of former military dictator Gen. Zia 
ul-Haq, who embarked on an Islamization program 
that spawned thousands of willing recruits for 
military campaigns in neighboring Afghanistan and 
Kashmir and fomented serious divisions inside 
Pakistan.

"Musharraf would like to see these changes 
happen, but he is facing a lot of problems right 
now," Nayyar said, "and implementation is not 
going to happen in the face of severe pressure -- 
and the mullahs know this."

But this is one of those rare cases where what 
appears to be bad news, is actually pretty good.

For its many -- many, many, many -- problems, 
Pakistan has a relatively open society when 
compared to other Muslim countries -- such as 
Syria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Dissent is, 
largely, tolerated. The press is, mostly, free. 
The national pastime -- arguing, shouting, 
crying, lamenting - - is alive and well. And 
there is no other issue more important for 
Pakistan in a post-Sept. 11 world than to decide 
if its future will be better than the past or 
whether its past will determine its future -- a 
debate sadly quashed by autocratic rulers in most 
Muslim countries.

"This battle goes right to the heart of what we 
Pakistanis want Pakistan to be," said Nayyar. 
"It's not about going against Islam. It is a 
question of whether we want to be Muslims of the 
21st century or the 16th."

Should Musharraf lose this particular battle, the 
war is not lost, for the debate will surely go on 
-- and that is a lesson political rulers across 
the globe would do well to learn.

Juliette Terzieff, a member of the Chronicle 
Foreign Service, is based in Pakistan.



_____


[3]

Kashmir Times
31 May 2004

CELEBRATING THE BJP'S DEPARTURE
ONLY TWO CHEERS FOR UPA
by Praful Bidwai

After a historic election that sent the sectarian 
Bharatiya Janata Party packing, Mr Manmohan Singh 
has put together a Council of Ministers which 
reflects India's immense regional diversity and 
cultural plurality. The composition of the new 
United Progressive Alliance government is 
particularly reassuring and indeed empowering for 
India's religious and ethnic minorities, 
consisting of over 250 million people, who 
experienced a sense of insecurity and 
marginalisation, if not outright victimisation, 
under the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. 
But it is no less satisfying for the religious 
majority, itself highly diverse and 
differentiated, most of whose members have never 
had an iota of sympathy for the retrograde and 
communal politics of the BJP.
Even the name of the new ruling coalition, with 
its felicitous reference to progress or people's 
empowerment and unity or social cohesion, is a 
pleasant departure from the viciously divisive 
policies of the NDA. More important, the UPA's 
self-appellation is a reminder of its mandate, 
itself an act of self-assertion by India's poor. 
Broadly speaking, the Indian voter has put the 
issues of equity and distributive justice firmly 
on the agenda. She has pronounced a clear, 
unambiguous, verdict against managerial-style 
politics based upon economic elitism, a corporate 
takeover of policy and pitiless disdain for the 
underprivileged. And she has delivered a powerful 
rebuff to communalists and inciters of hatred.
The UPA's mandate is not just for growth or 
development. It is for equitable growth and for 
development which has people right at its centre. 
It is not just for "detoxification" or the 
cleansing of the many institutions that the BJP 
corrupted and communalised. It is for healing and 
repairing the secular fabric of India, which has 
been severely damaged by the NDA over the past 
six years. It is for reintegrating the values of 
humanity and decency into the very core of Indian 
politics and for reasserting the centrality of 
the principle of popular sovereignty.
This is a highly positive, forward-looking and 
broad-ranging mandate from the people. 
Regrettably, the selection of personnel and 
allocation of portfolios by Mr Singh does not 
adequately reflect its progressive nature. This 
is not because the Congress party has kept all 
the prestigious high-profile portfolios for 
itself-including, Finance, Home, Foreign Affairs 
and Defence. Rather, it is because its choice of 
ministers is mixed and in many ways conservative. 
It falls short of what is needed.
To be fair, we must first look at the upside. The 
appointment of Mr Natwar Singh as Foreign 
Minister and the allocation of Human Resource 
Development to Mr Arjun Singh, of Agriculture and 
Food to Mr Sharad Pawar, Information and 
Broadcasting to Mr S. Jaipal Reddy, and Petroleum 
and Panchayati Raj to Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar are 
all very welcome. Mr Natwar Singh will hopefully 
bring his strongly non-aligned perspective and 
his experience in multilateral diplomacy to bear 
upon our foreign policy. Under the NDA, this 
became obsessively pro-US to the point that India 
almost sent troops to Iraq. A year ago, Mr Advani 
made a commitment to this effect during his US 
visit. In the absence of popular protests against 
that unjust war and occupation, the NDA would 
certainly have despatched Indian troops. Under Mr 
Singh, we can expect some progress in 
normalisation of relations with China, Pakistan 
and other neighbours.
Mr Pawar, an able administrator, faces a massive 
challenge in revitalising India's crisis-ridden 
agriculture and, even more important, beefing up 
our collapsing food security. Mr Reddy can be 
trusted to make a sincere, purposive effort to 
establish Prasar Bharati as a genuinely 
autonomous corporation and to regulate the media 
fairly. And Mr Arjun Singh will doubtless try to 
purge the education system, the NCERT's textbooks 
and the national research councils system of 
toxic Hindutva influence. This is a subject close 
to his heart. Throughout his career, Mr Singh has 
never wavered on secularism. Mr Aiyar will 
undoubtedly put an end to pernicious attempts to 
sell off India's cash-rich public sector oil 
companies, although he must take unpleasant 
decisions like raising the retail prices of 
diesel, kerosene and petrol very, very soon 
because of the high world prices of crude.
Equally significant are second-rung appointments 
such as those of Mr Dayanidhi Maran (IT & 
Communications), the Northeast's P.R. Kyndiah 
(Tribal Affairs), Mr Shibu Soren (Coal; Mines & 
Minerals), the Dalit leaders Ms Meira Kumar and 
Ms Selja (respectively Social Justice and 
Empowerment, and Urban Employment & Poverty 
Alleviation) and Mr Prithviraj Chavan (Minister 
of State in the PMO). Mr Chavan is one of the 
Congress's most serious young leaders.
However, one does get the impression that 
individuals like Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav and Mr 
Kabil Sibal have been given lighter portfolios 
than they deserve. By contrast, a relatively 
poorly known leader like Mr A Ramdoss (PMK) has 
been given a weighty ministry like Health & 
Family Welfare and Mr Kamal Nath has been 
rewarded with both Commerce and Industry. Mr Nath 
didn't distinguish himself as Environment 
Minister in the 1990s. He diverted a whole river 
in order to enhance the value of a hotel he owns 
in Himachal.
The Commerce Minister will be called upon to play 
a crucial role in the coming round of WTO 
negotiations in which India's stand, like that of 
Brazil and South Africa, as well as the least 
developed countries', will matter a great deal. 
At stake is unrestricted trade in services. 
Successful negotiations will need high integrity, 
acute comprehension and a global perspective, as 
well as an understanding of the national interest.
Consider the real downside. Messrs P. 
Chidambaram, Pranab Mukherjee and Shivraj Patil 
raise even more disturbing questions given their 
past record. Mr Chidambaram is an 
ideologically-driven neoliberal, who like many 
other Harvard Business School (N.B: not Harvard 
University) graduates, especially in Latin 
America, remains dedicated to "free-market" 
dogmas. These are the very same policies which 
increased poverty and income disparities in India 
and which were resoundingly rejected by the 
electorate.
There is a difference in the "reforms" adsorbed 
by Mr Chidambaram and Mr Manmohan Singh. Mr Singh 
triggered India's neoliberal turn in 1991 because 
he then believed there was no alternative to this 
after the collapse of the Soviet Union. But he is 
not a "free-market" zealot. He opposes the 
privatisation of the public sector or its 
dismantling "for ideological reasons"; he says it 
should be "allowed to grow if [it] can compete on 
an equal footing with [the] private sector". 
Today, Mr Singh would be far more cautious and 
more responsive to people's needs. It would have 
been preferable if he had kept Finance himself. 
Mr Chidambaram's appointment seems to be a panic 
response to the recent stockmarket crisis, which 
was in part deliberately rigged to solicit 
pro-business signals from the government.
Neither Mr Mukherjee nor Mr Patil can even 
remotely be accused of being imaginative and 
boldly innovative or of firmness in adhering to 
principle. That's precisely what's needed today 
in Defence, which cries out for streamlining, 
deep cuts in wasteful budgets and action against 
extensive corruption. Similarly, Home holds the 
key to resolving the Ayodhya dispute through an 
equitable formula, to abolishing POTA and other 
draconian laws, and to outlawing Togadia-style 
hate-speech and VHP-Bajrang Dal-style hate-acts. 
Mr Patil does not exude much hope in this regard. 
Mr Mukherjee has been very close to certain 
manipulative business houses. In the past, he 
adopted hawkish positions on the nuclear issue 
and on Pakistan.
The present moment offers a unique opportunity 
for historic reconciliation with Pakistan. 
Islamabad has invested great energy-and hope-in 
the peace process. The regional and international 
circumstances are also ripe for a major 
breakthrough. Mr Manmohan Singh himself will have 
to take the initiative here and push through bold 
new proposals. Peace with Pakistan will be a huge 
gain. It will qualitatively improve India's 
security and free resources for investment in 
public services and in development.
Equally important, it will remove a major plank 
from the communalists' demonology, which blames 
Pakistan and the ISI for all of India's domestic 
problems as well as terrorism, and which vilifies 
Indian Muslims as Pakistan's Fifth Column. Peace 
with Pakistan is a precondition for India's 
realisation of its true potential globally, 
regionally, and domestically.
Mr Manmohan Singh has a huge challenge on his 
hands. His government's policy orientation and 
performance will determine to a large extent the 
direction of India's own evolution in the coming 
years: Will India become a subordinate, passive 
component or camp-follower of an unequal, unjust 
global order in politics and finance and will it 
further enlarge its domestic cesspools of 
grievances and discontents while keeping the poor 
insecure and wretchedly unhappy? Or will India 
move towards liberating its people from poverty, 
ill-health, illiteracy and the multiplicity of 
injustices they suffer so that it can contribute 
to making the world a better place?
Mr Singh can turn the challenge into 
opportunity-but only if he resolutely and 
consistently favours high principle and the 
public good over pragmatic and parochial 
considerations. But as of now, we must say two 
cheers, perhaps two and a half cheers, to him.


_____


[4]

The Hindu
June 01, 2004
Opinion - Leader Page Articles

MCMEDIA & MARKET JIHAD

By P. Sainath

Whose interests do we give priority to? Voters? Or `The Market'?

SO MAYBE it's safe now to speak about the market 
without its leaping off a cliff, screaming. (Or 
maybe not quite. By close on Monday, share prices 
recovered nearly half the losses they logged soon 
after opening.)

The hysteria around the May 17 `meltdown' was 
more scary. The Times of India front page 
recalled 9/11. It splashed the figure 
2340000000000 across the page, just beneath its 
masthead. A strap shrieked that 2.34 lakh crore 
of "investor wealth" had been "wiped out." The 
loss of this paper wealth was declared in eight 
column headlines as "Ground Zero." The 
accompanying graphic mimicked the attack on the 
WTC in New York. An image of the stock exchange 
building in Dalal Street exploding in flames. 
And, yes, the hijacked aircraft ploughing into it 
had the Communist hammer and sickle on its tail.)

Within two days, the Sensex showed what The Times 
now called "instant recovery." A response to the 
`good news.' No Sonia Gandhi. As the extent of 
the irrational behaviour sank in, there was a 
sheepish plea to the markets to behave. This time 
the paper warned: "That markets should play such 
a role, by design or default, in the formation of 
government bodes ill both for our democracy and 
the future of free enterprise." (They're still at 
it, though. Friday's Sensex wrote us an editorial 
on the Common Minimum Programme of the United 
Progressive Alliance.)

Actually, some in the financial world were 
slightly more balanced than the media. Through 
the chaos, they stressed that there were several 
reasons, external and internal, behind the 
`meltdown.' Other markets too, had been affected. 
Hot money had a role. But complexity confuses a 
media that needs a simple plot. A villain, a hero 
and a happy ending. In the Left, Manmohan Singh 
and a partial bounce-back, it found two and a 
half of these three.

Dr. Singh seems a reluctant hero. Take his 
gentlemanly defence of the villains: "I believe 
the members of the Left Front are just as 
patriotic as anybody else... "

Unless I got it wrong, this is new. Will 
patriotism now be measured by your allegiance to 
the markets? Maybe its time for a new anthem as 
well. (The Abba hit from the `70s, for choice: 
"Money, Money, Money. Think it's funny. It's a 
rich man's world.")

Here's a useful exercise: Check out the 
newspapers for three days after the polls. And 
for three days after the `meltdown.' Compare the 
coverage and, importantly, the passion. You'll 
know which mandate the media see as more 
important. That of the masses - or the one from 
the market.

In three days, the big media gave the `suffering' 
in the stock market more space than they had to 
thousands of farmers' suicides in the past few 
years. Never mind that two-thirds of our people 
depend on agriculture. Or that just 1.15 per cent 
of India's 180 million households invest in 
stocks.

Some economists point to the puffed up role 
ascribed to the market. As Prof. Jayati Ghosh 
writes: "In the Indian stock market... a few 
large investors such as the financial 
institutions, big corporates and foreign 
institutional investors dominate. Only a small 
proportion of the stocks are available for 
trading. All the gains and losses are simply on 
paper and do not imply any erosion of the 
country's real wealth... It has been clear for 
some time now that the markets are very poor 
pointers to real economic performance."

Behind the stock market is the larger notion of 
`The Market,' a much wider political concept. And 
the conflict between that and democracy is very 
real.

The Wall Street Journal knows this. "Democracy is 
perverse," it whined about the poll results on 
May 19. "Although it is natural for the U.S. to 
suggest that all countries should embrace 
democracy, the lesson from India is that Western 
countries cannot be dogmatic about elections."

"As India's election will testify, democracy is 
not always supportive of coherent economic policy 
and prosperity." (Read: the voters are too dumb 
to know what's good for them.) On countries not 
yet at India's level, the Journal has some 
advice. The West "should be more hesitant about 
promoting political competition... " For alas, 
that "could destroy the leadership" that pursues 
vital economic change.

Maybe the Journal worries about post-June 
Baghdad? An elected government that might grumble 
when Dick Cheney's cabal plunders Iraq's oil? The 
Journal's dilemma is a classic one. Market 
fundamentalism versus mass democracy.

It's a dilemma that has our own market jihadis 
seeking martyrdom. They go a step ahead of the 
Journal. With them, it's death to the infidels. 
"In 2004," writes a leading editor, "no 
government that the markets see as hostile can 
survive." The rhetoric of the rabble "has to be 
tempered to provide for the sensitivities of 
Dalal Street."

"The markets have spoken," declared another top 
Indian newspaper. But God is a bit edgy. "The 
markets are jittery," explained one business 
editor on television. "We need to soothe their 
nerves." (Hush now, the markets are asleep. Don't 
start off something by speaking aloud).

So, did 400 million citizens and voters queue in 
blistering heat of 40-plus to soothe the fretful 
nerves of the market? Some of us thought they 
were asserting their sovereignty. To demand the 
reforms they really needed. And to pass judgment 
on the market-driven reforms governments have 
followed. So what happens when poll verdict 
clashes with market edict?

The Wall Street Journal's answer: Don't waste 
time on the electorate. "The lesson of the past 
week is that if India truly wants to become an 
economic power it has to pay heed to the global 
voters known as investors, in addition to its own 
voters at home." We can listen to our people, 
says the Journal (gee, thanks guys) so long as 
they vote the way the investors want them to.

Surely, this is a regression? For years, the WSJ 
and others have argued that not only are markets 
intrinsic to democracy, they are democracy.

There is no miracle The Market cannot perform. 
Market forces, as Swaminathan Aiyer argued long 
ago, are great for the environment. Time 
magazine's Charles Krauthammer sees the market as 
the lifeline for `previously starving Third World 
peasants.'

Hunger is a function of anti-market systems. Want 
more jobs? Free the market. The crisis in 
agriculture is best dealt with by not dealing 
with it at all. Leave it to the market. Given its 
all-knowing wisdom, maybe the `The Market' ought 
to go out and seek a popular mandate.

One result of the `meltdown' was the return of 
the small investor to media limelight. It's hard 
for people to weep over some nasty Croesus losing 
a couple of million. The Little Guy jerks the 
tears better. In the United States, this little 
guy is the mythical small farmer. In his name, 
tens of billions of dollars are doled out each 
year by Congress to huge agribusiness 
corporations. Not to the Little Guy.

No citizen wants to make Rockefeller richer than 
he is. But if you get the public heart to bleed 
for the small farmer, you get the public purse to 
bleed for giant farm corporations. In India's 
corporate media, the Little Guy is the Small 
Investor.

Small investors are to markets at crunch time 
what the giant shoals of sardines are to the sea 
at lunchtime. A floating restaurant. Marauding 
sharks and dolphins corral the sardines into 
tight herds from which they can eat them in their 
millions. But the seas of the Indian stock 
market, though turbulent, are shallow. The shoals 
have been stagnant for a decade.

When that other, real small investor suffered due 
to an interest rate crash, many in the media 
applauded. When retired people saw their 
lifetime's savings crumble. When those with fixed 
deposits in banks or with NSC certificates took a 
beating, there were few teary pictures in the 
media.

There is, though, yet another kind of small guy 
who can get hurt. The volatility now structured 
into the market can, at some point, affect the 
real economy. Then it would hit, as Prof. C. P. 
Chandrashekhar writes, poor people. Even though 
"they do not participate in, or often are not 
even conscious of the workings of financial 
markets."

Meanwhile, the media assured us all these years 
that the Indian Left is irrelevant. Unless it can 
learn from China. (China's CEO is our CEO?) Yet, 
the same pundits tell us that a couple of 
sentences from the irrelevant Left was enough to 
trigger "Bloody Monday." There you are. Revealed 
- the secret of how to make the markets dance up 
and down in a frenzy.

Maybe the markets will settle down as they 
realise that even if they dance the Swan Lake on 
one toe, the BJP isn't coming back. Not just now 
anyway.

Market-worship is not novel. But the insane 
primacy it now gets is relatively new. Among 
other things, it reflects the ever-growing 
corporate links of the media. Links that spur 
them to mislead the public for their own profit.

"Markets are all about sentiment and confidence," 
gushed one TV anchor. "We must give them the 
confidence that governments will listen, that 
their interests will be honoured."

Voters, too have sentiments. Often very 
anti-market ones. They too wish to have 
confidence that governments will honour their 
interests. Whose interests do we give priority 
to? Voters? Or `The Market'? The corporate media 
have given their response to that question. The 
new Government still has time to find its answer.

_____



[5]


THEY  MADE  SAFFRON  SCARLET
by I.K.Shukla

Some of the refractory moves threatened and 
planned by the BJP and its cohort, after its rout 
in the Lok Sabha elections, prove that it is 
peeved at having been hoist with its own petard. 
In its cynical disregard of parliamentary norms, 
it had greedily advanced the polls. Instead of 
getting extended tenure, it was unceremoniously 
dragged down. But disregarding its popular 
rejection, it decided to supersede and nullify 
the people’s mandate. All the statements 
emanating from the wounded hubris of a terrorist 
nest attest the fact that it will not be deterred 
by societal norms of civility or democracy. One 
again it bears repeating that RSS, with its 
progenitor and progeny, has been, right from 
inception, a terrorist outfit. Unless it is 
treated as such, it will make mincemeat of the 
law and order regimen; and for this defiant 
deviance, it will gain thuggish adherents and 
foot soldiers in larger numbers, all the while 
swearing raucously by democracy.

It cannot get reconciled to defeat. It refuses to 
abide by the people’s verdict against it. It 
would not let governance proceed, as is the case 
in democracies, but would engage in mobster 
electioneering on the streets speedily to get 
back into power. This is the fascist turpitude it 
is prone to, and the terroristic temptation it 
cannot wean itself from. As is its wont, it being 
in the minority does not faze it, it claims both 
to be majoritarian and national , more faith than 
fact. It cannot be dissuaded from this delusion. 
In consequence, it resorts to the violence of 
blood and fire repeatedly. Force is integral to 
the fascist project, impelled by its political 
status as a minority.

Its slogans underscore its deceptions. Collective 
memory being short, who today remembers that 
Atal,  in his Jan Sangh avatar, had declared 
Gandhian Socialism to be its creed. He knew, as 
did everyone, that he of the RSS was farthest 
from, and truculently opposed to anything even 
dimly Gandhian or decrepitly Socialist. The art 
of deception was only refined down the years by 
the BJP and its caboodle.  The pre-poll 
meretricious slogans - India Shining and Feel 
Good - came out of this mint of terribly 
expensive mendacity. Recall how Advani was sore 
that Congress was pooh-poohing it, that Congress 
was out to “demoralize the people” by scoffing at 
it. Now, he admits that these slogans proved 
their undoing at the hustings! Advani has not yet 
admitted that advancing the elections was far 
more untenable and damaging, and morally totally 
indefensible.  It was greed for power that had 
guided the wishful certainty of victory in the 
wake of four state elections in its favor.

Its modus operandi must be analyzed from the 
nationalistic point of view. It sought to fit 
everything to elections and its victory. Kargil 
remains a rancid example. We lost over a thousand 
of our men and officers in that war. The fact of 
intrusion by the Pak army was kept secret from 
the nation for eight months, and the intruders 
were not encountered and pushed back. Those 
whistle-blowers who exposed this perfidy were 
penalized. Just like Tehelka being destroyed 
after it exposed Bangaru Laxman taking a hefty 
bribe, and the coffin scam involving the Defence 
Ministry. In the BJP book of corruption and 
sleaze, crimes were conspicuous by their absence, 
only their exposure was a crime! Pakistan’s 
domestic counterpart, in the Hindu Rashtra 
mindset, were the Gujarati Muslims, subjected to 
genocide, which too had brought it total 
electoral win. The Gujarat genocide also did a 
remarkable thing for the Varna system. It showed 
the Tribals and Dalits their station. They would 
be tolerated only as butchers and scavengers in 
the permanent service of Hindu Taliban. Not only 
Muslims, but also these minorities, were taught a 
lesson they would never forget.

The BJP licking its wounds of rejection and rout 
in peace does not seem to be a rational 
possibility. It has resorted to permanent 
electioneering, a variant of permanent war. How 
else to keep its hirelings frenzied and in 
fettle? Agitation and commotion, turbulence and 
turmoil – these are blessed weapons of the 
fascist armory. Hence, temple in Ayodhya, not 
India’s development nor alleviation of misery and 
poverty, illiteracy or malnutrition, i.e., 
people-oriented programs, would remain its 
predatory and parasitic planks in the service of 
the iniquitous status quo, facilitating its 
humongous theft and ceaseless simony.

What has to be guarded against in this extremist 
overdrive of the Sangh and its coffle are the 
twin major threats: the big business which has 
been funding its various schemes, and 
historically has been the first to welcome 
foreign invaders, and the foreign powers which 
have traditionally supported treason in every way 
possible. Jagat Seth had loaned money to East 
India Company to fight its battles against Indian 
rulers and enslave India. He, as a decent 
creditor, loaned money also to Indian princes and 
nawabs for the same noble enterprise. A few lines 
from A History of Modern India, edited by Claude 
Markovits, Anthem Press, 2002, bear quoting as 
pertinent to the issue here:
“In fact, in medieval India there existed 
powerful trade networks through which circulated 
not only merchandise and credit
, but also men, 
techniques and ideas. These networks functioned 
in symbiosis with the dominant Brahmin and 
warrior castes, but they were open to contacts 
with the outside. Though we do not know the role 
that these networks played in the establishment 
and expansion of the Mogul supremacy, we do know 
that they were invaluable allies for the British 
penetration, as made clear by the role of the 
great family of Marwari bankers, the Jagat Seths, 
in the East India Company’s conquest of Bengal.” 
– p.7.

The clamor for continuing the “economic reforms” 
that have devastated several countries, and 
destroyed several communities in India, must be 
understood in terms of the dark corporatist 
fundamentalism that is ravaging the world with no 
accountability and no transparency. Political 
sovereignty without economic sovereignty is a 
useless shell. Political freedom without economic 
justice is a big negation. When the survival of 
millions is relegated to neglect and apathy, and 
the interests of the alien MNCs are allowed to 
override massive human deprivation and disaster 
resulting from their diktats, it is only by 
bloody repression and hegemonic militarism that 
such  “reforms” can be enforced. Is India to buy 
into this lethal ignominy and inhuman loot? Of 
course, the aliens will certainly have their 
local touts and toadies, well heeled and well 
greased. Does the CMP not spell as Compromised 
Minimum Program?

Advani has declared that Congress or its alliance 
was not given the popular mandate. So, it should 
consult the BJP-NDA to run the country. It is 
just like Advani. Was BJP given the mandate? NO. 
And yet it ruled anarchically without ever 
blinking, without ever consulting the Congress or 
deferring to the Constitution. The idea, 
presently being vociferously aired, of consensual 
governance, and continuity in policies, is a 
subterfuge that serves to mollify and crown the 
defeated BJP-NDA and invest it with bullying 
power if not authority. It would repudiate the 
people’s mandate to keep it away from power. It 
would do Congress immense harm were it to appease 
and placate a discredited extremist gaggle.

Congress owes it to people radically to distance 
itself from anything smacking of saffron.

31May04

______


[6]


TOWARDS ANTI WAR  ASSEMBLY Preparatory Meeting At Delhi On June 5-6,
2004 Venue: Deputy Speaker  Hall, Constitution Club V.P. House, Rafi  Marg,
New Delhi Time: June  5th: 10.00 A.M. to 05.30 P.M. June  6th: 10.00 A.M.
to 02.00 P.M.
Tentative  Agenda:
June  5th: Session I:  Overview and
Updates on war situation and peace movement  (Iraq, West Asia,  South Asia)
& dates;  participation and division of responsibilities; finances.
June 6th: Finalisation and  adoption of statements on: New Governmentís
Priorities in the light of CMP Indo-Pak  Talks South Asian  Context Global
Context

RSVP: anil at cndpindia.org; peaceact at vsnl.com; insaf at vsnl.com.


______



[7]


NATIONAL CONVENTION ON THE RIGHT TO FOOD AND WORK

Preparations are in full swing for the national 
convention on the right to food and work, to be 
held in Bhopal on 11-13 June.  For details of the 
convention, including the programme, see the 
"Convention" page of the campaign website 
(www.righttofood.com).  Summary details are given 
below for those who are short of time.

VENUE: Gandhi Bhavan, Bhopal (for directions see website).

PARTICIPATION: About 400-500 activists working on 
the right to food and work are expected from all 
over the country.

PROGRAMME: The convention will start at 10 am on 
11 June with an opening "plenary".  This will be 
followed by three sessions of 4-5 parallel 
workshops and a closing plenary.  A cultural 
programme is scheduled for the evening of 12 
June, and a public rally for 13 June (starting at 
10 am).

THEMES: Twelve broad themes have been identified 
for the parallel workshops: (1) The right to work 
and livelihood; (2) The public distribution 
system; (3) Legal action for the right to food 
and work; (4) Social security and marginalised 
communities; (5) Children's right to food; (6) 
Dalit perspectives; (7) Perspectives of 
indigenous communities; (8) Women's perspectives; 
(9) Land rights and food sovereignty; (10) 
Agriculture and trade; (11) Right to food and 
right to information; (12) Drought and Survival.

COSTS: The workshop is being organized on a 
shoestring budget, without institutional funding. 
All participants are expected to bear their own 
travel costs. Subsistence costs will be met from 
a "registration fee" of Rs 100 per person for 
three days (with exemption for those who can't 
afford the fee). Simple accommodation will be 
provided at Gandhi Bhavan itself.

REMINDER: Because of the shortage of space, all 
participants are expected to liaise with the 
logistics committee in advance.  You can do this 
by sending a line to right2food at yahoo.co.in or 
contacting any member of the logistics committee. 
The members are: Asha Mishra 
(asham_200 at yahoo.com, tel 9826379553), Kavita 
Srivastava (kavisriv at yahoo.com, tel 0141-2706 
483), Vivek S. (vivekdse at vsnl.net, tel 011-3091 
7116) and Rajeev Singh (rajeevsonline at yahoo.com, 
tel 9811185846).

3. FOOD ISSUES IN THE "COMMON MINIMUM PROGRAMME"

The new government's "common mimimum programme" 
(CMP) includes some important items relating to 
the right to food.  Selected excerpts follow:

(1) EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE: "The UPA Government 
will immediately enact a National Employment 
Guarantee Act. This will provide a legal 
guarantee for at least 100 days of employment, to 
begin with, on asset-creating public works 
programmes every year at minimum wages for at 
least one able-bodied person in every rural, 
urban poor and lower-middle class household. In 
the interim, a massive food-for-work programme 
will be started."

(2) MID-DAY MEALS: "A national cooked nutritious 
mid-day meal scheme, funded mainly by the Central 
Government, will be introduced in primary and 
secondary schools. An appropriate mechanism for 
quality checks will also be set up."

(3) ICDS: "The UPA will also universalise the 
Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) 
scheme to provide a functional anganwadi in every 
settlement and ensure full coverage for all 
children."

(4) PDS: "The UPA Government will strengthen the 
Public Distribution System (PDS), particularly in 
the poorest and backward blocks of the country, 
and also involve women's and ex-servicemen's 
cooperatives in its management. Special schemes 
to reach foodgrains to the most destitute and 
infirm will be launched. Grain banks in 
chronically food-scarce areas will be 
established. Antyodaya cards for all households 
at risk of hunger will be introduced."

It remains to persuade the government to put 
these good intentions (and more) into practice...


______


[8]


(i)

Lines Magazine
May 2004

HEGEMONY AND REBELLION: THE SANGARI AND KARUNA REBELLIONS
by  Ahilan Kadirgamar

In November when the President and Prime Minister 
got entangled in a power struggle, the LTTE 
leadership boasted about the unity and strength 
of the Tamil leadership. It was Colonel Karuna 
himself that said in November 7th a few days 
after the take over of ministries, "We can remain 
patient as long as we are strong." That is the 
self proclaimed 'sole representatives' of the 
Tamils, were so confident of their hold over the 
Tamil community, that they ridiculed the South 
for the differences within the Southern 
leadership. That any democracy would have 
differences did not figure into their thinking. 
But more interestingly the international 
community in their neo-liberal and neo-colonial 
garb, so used to dealing with Third World chiefs 
also seemed to think with the same logic. After 
all, democracy could not be a consideration for 
the Third World, were they not promoting and 
supporting the bombing of Iraq into 'democratic' 
submission. And particularly where their soldiers 
were not at risk as in Sri Lanka, why would 
democracy or pluralism ever become a question. It 
has always been easier to deal with one chief per 
community at a time. The LTTE's ridicule of the 
South did not miss others; it had to say the same 
thing to the Muslim leadership and the Upcountry 
Tamil leadership. Who are your sole 
representatives? And no point in talking to you 
without your sole representatives!

[FULL TEXT OF THE ABOVE ARTICLE IS AVAILABLE TO 
ALL INTERESTED. Should you require a copy send a 
note to : <aiindex at mnet.fr>; Please remember to 
mention the required title ]

o o o

(ii)

Economic and Political Weekly
May 22, 2004

A TEXT WITHOUT AUTHOR
LOCATING CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY AS EVENT

Constitutions are rarely about change; they are 
codes that legitimise the new dispensation that 
arises out of historical conflicts and struggles. 
They provide a quasi-permanent shape to the new 
regime. In this sense, constitutions are already 
in existence even before they come to be formally 
written. The Indian Constitution too can be 
looked at in a similar light if it is 'disclosed' 
from the authorised location that brought it into 
existence, i e, the constituent assembly. This 
paper looks at the constituent assembly as an 
'event' in the hope of understanding how 
different currents and polyphonic voices came 
together in the forming of the conjuncture within 
which the assembly took shape - as demanded by 
the imperatives of a common territory, tradition 
and history.

by Aditya Nigam

[FULL TEXT OF THE ABOVE ARTICLE IS AVAILABLE TO 
ALL INTERESTED. Should you require a copy send a 
note to : <aiindex at mnet.fr>; Please remember to 
mention the required title ]


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

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 
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