SACW | 29 June 2004

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire   |  29 June,  2004
via:  www.sacw.net

[1]  Bangladesh: A threat from militant Islam  (Haroon Habib)
[2]  Bangladesh: Fundamentalists issue death warrant to 3 Dhaka U professors
[3]  India: Education: beyond review (K.N. Panikkar)
[4]  India: Bollywood's take on the Hindu-Muslim 
question (Edit., Times of India)
[5]  The skull beneath the skin	  (Antara Dev Sen)
[6]  India: God's own episodes - Spiritual 
airwaves flood the Indian sky  (Kinjal Dagli)
[7]  India - Gujarat: Encounter or Murder? (Sukla Sen)


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

[1]

Frontline
Volume 21 - Issue 13, Jun. 19 - Jul. 02, 2004

[Bangladesh] A threat from militant Islam

HAROON HABIB
in Dhaka

Bangladesh appears to be overtaken by religious 
extremism as the coalition that rules the country 
adopts a policy of appeasement of Islamists. 
[...].
URL: www.flonnet.com/fl2113/stories/20040702000506000.htm

_____



[2]

The Daily Star
June 29, 2004
  	 
Fundamentalists issue death warrant to 3 DU professors
Staff Correspondent
Islamist zealots have issued death sentence to 
three noted professors of Dhaka University (DU) 
accusing them of running anti-Islamic propaganda 
in the country.

The three receiving death sentences are Prof 
Muntasir Mamun of history department, Prof 
Humayun Azad of Bangla department and Prof MM 
Akash of economics department.

The Nastik Murtad Resistance Committee and Muslim 
Millat Shariah Council yesterday in a faxed 
message sent their "verdict" to different print 
media offices in the city. The organisations 
claimed the decision was made at a meeting at the 
DU Arts Building at 10:00am Saturday.

Maulana Zakaria, Maulana Ekaedullah, Maulana 
Keramat Ali, Maulana Abdul Jabbar, Mufti Saleh 
Ahmed and Maulana Mufti Kudrat-e-Elahi were 
present, the message said.

"If the three professors don't redeem themselves 
by September this year, they will be killed," the 
massage said.

Prof Azad yesterday said, "I'm concerned not only 
for myself but also for the country as 
fundamentalism is spreading its wing."

"The government should take stern action against 
the fundamentalists. If it fails to do so, it 
will come out one day that the government is 
harbouring Islamist bigots," he added.

"Most probably the al-Qaeda has set up its den in 
Bangladesh," Azad said, adding, "if so, then the 
country's image will be tainted."

South Asian People's Union against Fundamentalism 
and Communalism and Ekattarer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul 
Committee yesterday in a statement condemned the 
death threat and accused the government of 
spreading fundamentalism in the country.

"The prime minister will be held responsible if 
the three professors are attacked," the statement 
read.

They also urged the progressive political parties 
and common people to be united against the 
communal forces.

The signatories to the statement included Prof 
Kabir Chowdhury, Hena Das, poet Samsur Rahman, 
writer Shahrier Kabir, Prof Hasan Azizul Haq and 
journalist Kamal Lohani.


_____



[3]

The Hindu
June 29, 2004
Opinion - Leader Page Articles

Education: beyond review

By K.N. Panikkar

Even if the NCERT books are withdrawn, there is 
still a large space in which communal ideas have 
a free play.

IF THE Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were to list 
its achievements during its five-year rule, the 
communalisation of education is likely to figure 
at the top. It is much more extensive and intense 
than what is apparent. Understandably, 
intellectuals and educationists have demanded 
that the damage done by the manoeuvres of the 
BJP-led Government be immediately repaired. How 
best this could be achieved is likely to engage 
the attention of the new United Progressive 
Alliance (UPA) Government as well as of the 
secular forces outside it. The initial response 
justifiably focusses on corrective steps, both in 
administration and policy. They are necessary, 
but not sufficient. For, the BJP and the agencies 
it promoted had set in motion a process aimed at 
altering the intellectual climate in educational 
institutions in favour of the communal. As a 
result, the sense of values, anti-humanist and 
anti-democratic, is likely to exercise abiding 
influence on future social consciousness.

The detoxification should, therefore, go much 
beyond rectification; it should involve a 
strategy to reverse the process itself. Given 
that the communal penetration is deep and 
pervasive it has intruded into almost all levels 
of institutional functioning, both in structure 
and ideology. The changes sought or implemented 
without taking into account this grim reality 
would at best touch only the tip of the iceberg. 
In the field of education, therefore, the new 
Government faces the task not of review and 
reform but of a reordering of the system in order 
to retrieve the earlier secular ethos, even when 
issues, which need urgent solution, are 
immediately attended to.

Restoring the secular ethos in education calls 
for a long, sustained and continuous effort. 
Inevitably, the communal distortions and 
misrepresentations in curriculum and content 
consciously incorporated by the BJP-led 
Government have to be addressed as a priority 
issue. The steps initiated by the UPA Government 
to address this task without delay by appointing 
a review committee to examine the history 
textbooks, which were at the centre of 
controversy during the last few years, is most 
appropriate. Yet it is necessary to take into 
account two important dimensions. First, the main 
objection to these books is not the factual 
errors they contain as many historians have tried 
to project. The factual errors are indeed 
deplorable. What is more disconcerting is the 
sense of values and the political and social 
vision they project. Secondly, the National 
Council for Educational Research and Training 
(NCERT) textbooks are prescribed only in a small 
number of schools. Being a government agency, its 
efforts to communalise the curriculum have 
attracted national attention and they are likely 
to be rectified through administrative 
intervention as the Ministry of Human Resource 
Development (MHRD) is currently engaged in. But a 
greater danger exists. Even if the NCERT books 
are withdrawn, there is still a large space in 
which communal ideas have a free play.

Let me give an example. A textbook prescribed for 
class six students in an ICSE school in Kerala is 
a biography of V.D. Savarkar written by an 
activist of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. It 
contains a quotation from Savarkar, prominently 
displayed in a full page, on Hindu rashtra as the 
ideal to strive for. In the same school, the 
biography of Vivekananda for students of eighth 
class is also written by an RSS activist. Similar 
examples are aplenty, particularly in the schools 
run by private foundations affiliated to the 
Sangh Parivar. A study of the textbooks 
prescribed in the schools run by Vidhya Bharati 
in Rajasthan would reveal how the free space 
permitted in the system is used for 
communalisation. What enables these schools to 
introduce communal reading material is the 
freedom they enjoy for choosing texts for 
specific areas, particularly for the study of 
regional languages. Through these manoeuvres, 
most of which have made great strides, unnoticed 
and undocumented, communalism has managed to 
strike deep roots in the educational system.

After all the NCERT textbooks are used only in a 
small number of schools. While exorcising the 
communal content from the NCERT textbooks is an 
urgent need, the space outside can hardly be left 
free for communalism to colonise. Just like the 
NCERT textbooks, these too not only distort and 
misrepresent or eliminate historical facts but 
also promote a communal conception of state and 
society. In the process, they foster in young 
minds a sense of values that contributes to the 
legitimacy of communal ideology.

The reputation of Government agencies such as the 
Indian Council of Social Science Research, Indian 
Council of Historical Research, NCERT, the 
University Grants Commission and so on were based 
earlier on their professional competence and the 
academic stature of those who headed them. In 
their roll call were some of the outstanding 
intellectuals of the country. G. Parthasarathy, 
Sukumoy Chakravarthy, D.S. Kothari, S. Gopal, 
Ravider Kumar and Nihar Ranjan Ray to mention a 
few from the distinguished list of people who are 
not with us today. Under the dispensation of the 
BJP, academic excellence was given the go-by in 
favour of allegiance to the Sangh Parivar. As a 
result, almost all of them came to be controlled 
either by those with a communal past or those who 
were willing to carry out the wishes of a 
Minister who relentlessly pursued his 
obscurantist and irrational convictions. In the 
bargain, these institutions have been deprived of 
their professional competence and character. The 
whims of the Minister and his political biases 
came to be writ large on almost all decisions of 
these institutions.

The communal influence was not limited to the 
upper echelons of these institutions. In almost 
all of them, a substantial section of the 
official hierarchy, either through intimidation 
or allurements, were recruited to the communal 
cause. This has happened across the board from 
research institutions in the cities to Ekal 
Vidhyalayas in tribal villages. As a result, 
these institutions as such have assumed a 
communal outlook and character. Like the fascist 
mentality persisting in society even after its 
overthrow the communal virus will continue to be 
present in them, even if a change is effected at 
the top. What is necessary is to flush out the 
communal poison from the body of these 
institutions.

The defeat of the BJP in the election of 2004 is 
not the end of communal ideology or the efforts 
to inculcate it in society. On the other hand, if 
the reports are true, communalisation through 
education is likely to intensify. The joint 
secretary-general of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, 
Shyam Gupta, recently stated that a project is on 
the anvil to reach out to 100,000 tribal villages 
through a four-point programme of education, 
health, economic progress and self-respect. As a 
part of this agenda, about 1.5 lakh 
single-teacher schools are being set up in tribal 
villages, with RSS cadres employed as teachers. 
Since there would be no government control over 
these schools, it is certain that they would 
indulge in the Hindutva's pedagogy of hate. It is 
no secret that the Sangh Parivar has already 
organised a parallel system of education through 
the schools controlled or managed by it. The 
addition of these new schools would further 
extend its reach as well as reinforce it.

Today the nation stands forewarned. Under the 
BJP-led Government the education system of the 
country had almost slipped into the darkness. 
Immediate steps are, therefore, called for from 
the Government to ensure that the past does not 
recur. At least three steps are urgently 
required. First, structural changes in the 
constitution of Government-funded institutions to 
ensure that their fundamental character and 
objectives are not subverted through 
administrative interventions. Secondly, 
introduction of academic control over all 
educational institutions so that the students are 
not subjected to the communal influence which 
militates against the fundamental principles of 
the nation such as democracy and secularism. 
Thirdly, a thorough review of the reading 
materials used in all existing schools and 
elimination of all that promotes communal 
consciousness.

The political commentators may quibble over the 
meaning of the mandate of 2004. Yet there cannot 
be any doubt that the outmoded and obscurantist 
educational policy of the BJP-led Government has 
made a substantial contribution to its debacle. 
The defeat of Murli Manohar Joshi, in fact, can 
be read as the popular verdict against the 
attempt to deprive education of its modern and 
progressive character and to impart communal and 
irrational content to it. That also underlines 
the responsibility of the UPA Government to 
restore and further the secular-democratic system 
of education.

(The author, historian, is Vice-Chancellor, Sree 
Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady, 
Kerala. [..].)

_____


[4]



The Times of India
VIEW
Bollywood's take on the Hindu-Muslim question
[ MONDAY, JUNE 28, 2004 12:00:00 AM ]
Cinema need not be slave to communal stereotype

Hindi films in the 90s have, by and large, not 
done justice to the communal question. Their 
thematic messages correspond to the chauvinistic 
political and social vision of the day. Never in 
Indian cinema had Muslims been as 'otherised' as 
in 90s, when the Sangh Parivar came into 
prominence as a dominant political force. There 
have been a number of conservative films on 
Hindu-Muslim relations, such as Bombay , Gadar , 
Hey Ram and the latest of them all, Dev . Mr and 
Mrs Iyer and Zakhm are among the few films to 
have steered clear of adopting a majority-centric 
point of view. The films, Bombay and Dev , based 
on the Mumbai and Gujarat pogroms of 1993 and 
2002, exhort Muslims to shed their errant ways as 
terrorists and deviants to feel secure in 
Hindu-majority India. The underlying stereotype 
is that the minority community is trigger-happy, 
while the majority is intrinsically peace-loving, 
except when provoked by 'anti-nationals'. This is 
pretty much how the BJP looks at the 
nation-building project - peace, but on the terms 
of the majority. This dominates every aspect of 
cinema including image, language and symbolism, 
all of which are distinctly non-syncretic 
compared to films of the 50s and 60s.

It is facile to argue that cinema is shackled by 
the mores of the day. By that logic, we would 
never have had the syncretism of the earlier 
cinema. Bollywood was dominated by stalwarts from 
Punjab and Bengal, two states which experienced 
the Partition in all its savagery. Yet, they made 
films that were not even remotely hateful. The 
music and setting valorised the underdog, meshed 
Hindu and Muslim like they had never been 
anything but brothers. This was no 
'pseudo-secularist' construct, because the movies 
tugged at people's hearts and drew crowds. If 
films worked then without resorting to the lowest 
common denominator, why should we blame bad 
cinema on so-called mass perception?



_____



[5]

Little Magazine
Ghosts
Vol IV : issue 4

The skull beneath the skin	 
  
by Antara Dev Sen
Oil on canvas by PROKASH KARMAKAR

For decades the Indian subcontinent has been 
haunted by mass fratricide in the name of 
religion. Whether in India or in Pakistan, in 
Bangladesh or in Sri Lanka, every now and then we 
rise in ugly fury to kill, maim and burn our 
friends, neighbours and countrymen. These could 
be spontaneous sectarian riots or pre-planned 
attacks on minority communities for political 
gain. But the basic fact remains the same: 
ordinary people are slaughtered in a frenzy of 
violence by other ordinary people who owe no 
explanation to those they kill, except that they 
have decided to make certain innocents pay for 
the real or imagined crimes of others. The 
tragedy of riots lies as much in the destruction 
of life and property as in the destruction of our 
fundamental beliefs - in justice, in reason, in 
humanity.

One way of guarding against this suspension of 
humanity, reason and the laws of the land would 
be to learn from our experiences, punish the 
guilty, strengthen civil society and put in 
checks and balances that can counter such ghastly 
outbursts. Unfortunately, distracted by political 
ambition and material aspirations, we have not 
been able to do that. It's so much easier to lose 
your sense of truth and justice than to lose your 
clout or your votebank. So more than half a 
century after India became a secular democratic 
republic promising justice and equality to all 
under the law, we continue to murder and mutilate 
each other in the name of religion, caste, creed 
or gender. And while a single murder can see you 
behind bars for life, the murder of hundreds, 
especially if done en masse, can usually 
guarantee your safety. At least, that seems to be 
the message we are sending out. As is evident 
from our past, those who start riots, those who 
slaughter and rape and pillage and carry out the 
most gruesome acts of violence against humanity, 
are seldom brought to justice.

In keeping with the rest of our social and 
political lives, there is little or no 
accountability. How else could Chief Minister 
Narendra Modi, widely believed to be the 
architect of the horrifying violence that ripped 
Gujarat apart in 2002, reclaim his throne in a 
resounding electoral victory soon after thousands 
had been killed, and still be projected as a 
valid leader? Modi and several of his ministers, 
Vishwa Hindu Parishad general secretary Praveen 
Togadia, as well as several members of the police 
and administrative services - those who enjoy 
privileges because they are supposed to protect 
the common man - have been named in reports for 
their complicity in this frenzy of sectarian 
violence. That is, when the victim is allowed to 
lodge a formal complaint. We are not always 
allowed to take even that first step to justice.

CALCUTTA, 1947 - Photo courtesy Dilip Banerjee

Take the Best Bakery case - probably the most 
meticulously documented event in last year's 
violence in Gujarat - where 14 people were burned 
alive and the 21 accused, publicly named by the 
survivors, swiftly acquitted. Because the 
National Human Rights Commission stepped in 
following that - with NHRC chairman Justice A.S. 
Anand declaring that this was a miscarriage of 
justice - there is still some hope. But a 
successful prosecution is based on accurate 
records and an impartial investigation into the 
crime. Every cog in the machine needs to work - 
from that first step of recording the crime, 
through the faithful presentation of evidence and 
eyewitness accounts, to the process of analysing 
the available data under free and unbiased 
conditions so as to reach justified conclusions 
of guilt or innocence. The main witness in the 
Best Bakery case, Zahira Sheikh, daughter of the 
murdered bakery owner, and her mother went on 
record saying that they were threatened by Madhu 
Srivastava, BJP member of the Legislative 
Assembly, and were forced to change their 
statements and bear false witness. This 
intimidation of witnesses and distorting 
evidence, practised frequently by defendants with 
political clout, severely undermines the process 
of justice and breeds cynicism among citizens 
that can undermine the very foundations of civil 
society. We need to allow the prosecution, the 
investigating agency, the accused and the victim 
to carry out their own roles, in their own 
designated spaces, as equals in the eyes of the 
law. Without that, the mechanism of justice 
delivery would become dysfunctional.

Remember the Delhi riots of 1984, where Sikhs 
were massacred following the assassination of 
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh 
bodyguards? They left close to 3,000 dead, 
countless wounded and ruined as their homes and 
businesses were destroyed. Several Congress 
politicians were accused by eyewitnesses and 
surviving victims of complicity, ranging from 
leading the mob to identifying Sikh families from 
voters' lists they carried with them to rewarding 
each member of the murderous mob with a bottle of 
liquor and Rs 100, to finally pulling them out of 
police stations if apprehended by the law. The 
accused included then Union minister HKL Bhagat, 
members of Parliament Sajjan Kumar, Jagdish 
Tytler, Dharam Das Shastry, and metropolitan 
councillor Lalit Makan. Even after almost twenty 
years of trials, not one of them has been 
reprimanded by law.

Or take the Bombay riots in the aftermath of the 
Babri Masjid demolition on December 6, 1992. They 
left at least 1,000 dead and almost 3,000 wounded 
in two phases of bloodshed. Then the retaliatory 
bomb blasts in March 1993 killed another 300, and 
left about 1,000 wounded. Along with some public 
figures, numerous policemen were accused of 
complicity and of severe atrocities during the 
violence. We do not have much to show by way of 
punishing the guilty.

Like in Bombay in 1992-93, or in Gujarat in 2002, 
the police of Delhi in 1984 were also accused of 
complicity in the riots, from Assistant 
Commissioners down to sub-inspectors and 
constables. The charges against the police were 
similar in all these cases: protecting and 
supplying weapons to the mob, pulling out 
policemen who were trying to contain the riots, 
disarming the marked victims, refusing to protect 
targeted communities and abetting the violence 
against them in various ways, including, as in 
Bombay, shooting them dead. Not much has been 
done to bring them to book either.

BOMBAY, 1992 - Photo by Netphotograph.com

Of course, all these allegations may be 
incorrect. All of these policemen and politicians 
may be falsely accused, they may be completely 
innocent, the victims of killer mobs in Delhi, 
Bombay and Ahmedabad may have been repeatedly 
mistaken. We may never know.

What we do know is that the riot accused 
routinely go free. And that doesn't inspire 
confidence in human justice. All the direct 
victims of such riots that the TLM team spoke to 
simmer with helpless anger and bitterness. "No 
matter what courts and commissions say, we know 
they are killers, and will bring them to 
justice," vows Kuldeep Singh, who survived the 
Delhi riots but is still traumatised. "Indira 
Gandhi's killers were quickly put to death.," 
says Sarabjeet Singh, who lost his father and 
other relatives. "What about my father's 
murderers?"

The gulf between the powerful and powerless is 
never as stark as in riot situations. Riots 
usually don't affect the upper classes, they 
merely destroy those who are already wounded by 
poverty and lack of basic rights. "Only the poor 
people died," points out Sumat Bai, 80, who saw 
her entire family butchered in 1984. "The rich 
escaped before the rioting began." And it has 
been the same pattern for half a century. As the 
poet Samarendra Sengupta says about the Partition 
riots, "Riots were never started by the really 
poor of any community, and no one from the upper 
class or upper middle class was killed in the 
violence." Gujarat 2002 was an exception.

And a deeper suspicion clots in the hearts of 
those wounded by civil society as well as the 
administration. "If Indira Gandhi could control 
riots in three days, why did it take this 
government six months?" asks an elderly resident 
of Naroda Patiya, Gujarat, who has escaped with 
his life but lost all else in last year's 
violence. "Who do you think is behind all this?" 
In Bombay, a resident of riot-ravaged Behrampada 
recalls how they went hungry for days during the 
riots: "Because nobody dared to go to Kherwadi, a 
Shiv Sena-dominated area. Besides, if the police 
saw us even at our own doorstep they would 
threaten to shoot us." Noting the failure of the 
administration to control the Bombay riots, the 
Justice Srikrishna Commission Report says: "Even 
after it became apparent that the leaders of Shiv 
Sena were active in stoking the fires of communal 
riots, the police dragged their feet on the 
facile and exaggerated assumption that if such 
leaders were arrested the communal situation 
would further flare upŠ"

DELHI, 1984 - Photo by Pablo Bartholomew

For many, labelling these flares of sectarian 
fury as 'riots' is itself an act of denial, since 
these should be looked at as massacres supported 
by government or political parties. "The 1984 
riots were not conventional communal riots. There 
was no fighting," says Harbans Kaur, who was 
newly married and pregnant when the riots 
shattered her family. "It was a 
government-sponsored attack on innocent people 
who were just sitting at home. Thousands were 
murdered in broad daylight. My husband and six 
other men of our family were killed."

And much has been written about why the violence 
in Gujarat in 2002 is more like a state-sponsored 
pogrom to cleanse the land of Muslims. In effect, 
we need to see things a little more clearly, and 
not hide behind convenient words, if we are to 
repair civil society and our tools of delivering 
human justice.

For the process of redressal has too many hurdles 
blocking out the underprivileged and traumatised, 
and only the very fortunate can hope to walk the 
path to justice. Through decades of practice, we 
have learnt to kill justice by striking at its 
roots, by dismembering and burying the body of 
evidence. And wracked by hunger, illiteracy, lack 
of health care and basic necessities, or 
smothered by our own middle class crises and 
ambitions, dwarfed by the futility of fighting a 
system that showcases corruption as an art form, 
we are only too willing to forget and move on.

So, too bad that your parents were slaughtered by 
the neighbours. Tough if your daughter was raped 
by the killers. You are about to be killed too, 
you say? How curious! What, you have attracted a 
mob to my doorstep? Out - this minute! I have 
problems of my own.

We move on.

Here's a reminder of the people we leave behind. 
It's just a quick look - pressed as we all are 
for time. Excepting those who have been left with 
broken bodies and a shattered world. They have 
all the time in the world to wait for justice.

 
Antara Dev Sen is Editor of The Little Magazine

 	 

_____



[6]

The Week
27 June 2004
TELEVISION
God's own episodes
Spiritual airwaves flood the Indian sky

By Kinjal Dagli

Aarti Shah, 48, would like to attend satsangs. 
But work, as proprietor of Cyberstation, a Web 
designing company in Mumbai, leaves her with 
little time for religious pursuits. So she turns 
to the plethora of religious channels on her TV 
to offer her "the daily dose of wisdom". "What 
could be more convenient than gaining knowledge 
from watching television?" asks Aarti. "The 
swamis talk about the scriptures and their 
application in daily life so it doesn't even 
sound remote. I especially like watching the yoga 
show where a live audience practises pranayama. 
They are bringing yoga right into your living 
room." Aastha, Sanskar, Maharishi, Om Shanti, Maa 
TV, GOD, Quran TV, Sadhna, Jagran... the list of 
religious channels beamed from all over the 
country and abroad is long and growing. With a 
sizeable number of people like Aarti actually 
watching them, and hopefully, benefiting, these 
channels are here to stay, despite racy soaps and 
limited advertisements.

Most religious channels count on revenue from 
advertisements but also make sure that they are 
not in contradiction with the profile of a 
socio-spiritual channel.

Says Kirit Mehta, managing director of 
Mumbai-based Aastha TV, which was launched four 
years ago, "Aastha, positioned as The Faith 
Channel, has garnered loyal viewership, which is 
above 35 years of age." It airs discussions, 
meditation techniques, documentaries and dramas, 
music, talk shows and festival coverage, besides 
astrology. The popular time slots are early 
morning and late evening, featuring Jaya Row and 
Sukhbodhanandji.

Targeting a common audience couldn't have been 
more challenging for these channels, what with 
most of them having to invite the same spiritual 
leaders. "There are some 10 big preachers whom no 
channel can do without," says Anil Anand, channel 
head of Zee TV's Jagran. The most popular faces 
on Aastha, Sanskar, Sadhna and Jagran, targeting 
the Hindus, are Sant Morari Bapu, Guru Maa, 
Sukhbodhanandji, Sudhanshu Maharaj and Asaram 
Bapu.

Despite the apparent competition among 'Hindu' 
channels, each claims a distinct identity. "We do 
not consider others competitors since they are 
also trying to do some good work," says Mehta. 
"Sanskar is more focused on bhakti (devotion) and 
less on adhyatma (spiritua-lism) while Sadhna has 
a mix of both. Aastha focuses on the universal 
values of life, cutting across caste, creed and 
age. We are socio-spiritual and apolitical; 
movies and poli-ticians are never there on our 
channel."

Sadhna, on the other hand, covers current affairs 
and entertainment as well. "We have a 
responsibility towards the present generation, to 
introduce them to the customs and values of 
India," says Barkha Arora, vice-president of 
Sadhna. "Besides devotional music, discourses, 
astrology, spiritual tourism and festi-val 
celebrations, we also feature artistes and NGOs. 
These interactive shows, while helping to raise 
funds for their projects, also allow viewers to 
contribute by raising new social issues."

Jagran, which was launched early this year, is 
the latest and the 19th from the Zee stable. 
"Jagran was primarily positioned as a religious 
enter-tainment channel as opposed to a generic 
religious channel," says Anand. "We broadened the 
base from a conventional target audience [55 
years and above] to rope in the 30-plus segment 
as well as children. Apart from our regular prime 
time discourses we have a mix of mythological 
movies, religious programmes on organic living, 
and interactive astro-solutions in English and 
Hindi. We have select gurus like Satya Sai Baba, 
Guru Ma, Sudhanshuji Maharaj, Morari Bapu and 
Brahmakumari."

Jagran's USP is religious entertainment. "It is 
difficult for people to watch discourse after 
discourse without break," says Anand. "That's why 
we have Ramayana, Mahabharata and Jai Santoshi 
Maa. Moreover, religion and comedy, have a very 
high repeat value." The other reason for the 
model, he says, was obviously to woo advertisers.

Religion as entertainment: Jagran's channel head Anil Anand

While Jagran's religious entertainment model may 
have notched a sizeable 1.2 TRP, Yatra, a 
religious show on Star TV, scales to a whopping 
3.5. "In this pilgrimage-based show, we feature 
old and historic temples, churches, gurdwaras and 
masjids," says Deepti Bhatnagar, who hosts Yatra. 
"The show is almost two years old now, and from 
one show every week, we have grown to 18 shows in 
a month. Such shows give viewers a break from 
pure entertainment."

While TRPs alone may not indicate the popularity 
of a show, advertisers certainly do. Says Anand 
of Jagran, "Right now, we have half a dozen 
advertisers like MDH, Night Queen and Ashok 
Masalas coming in but soon we will have more 
clients in the fast moving commercial goods 
category. Telecom players and makers of 
specialised health products and gem stones are 
also interested in advertising."

Most religious channels count on advertising 
revenue but also make sure the ads are in tune 
with the image of the channel. "The channel runs 
on the revenue from the slots booked by the 
spiritual leaders," says Mehta of Aastha. "We are 
open to ads but they should not be in 
contradiction with the profile of a 
socio-spiritual channel." Anand is more specific. 
"Anything that is to do with paan and gutkhas is 
not welcome," he says. "We have no problem as 
long as there is no sex or violence in the ads."

Spiritual and the mundane: Sadhna offers 
religion, current affairs and entertainment

However, GOD TV, the Jerusalem-based Christian 
channel that set up office in Chennai two years 
ago, does not consider advertisements and TRPs as 
the benchmark of their popularity. "We gauge our 
popularity from the increasing number of viewer 
responses from Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and 
Hyderabad, and the northeast," says Christellda 
Jennifer, special pro-gramme coordinator of GOD 
TV India. "Most of our revenue is generated 
through donations and airtime. We do not 
encourage commercial advertisements but prefer 
events, charity and educational ads. Our channels 
are promoted through churches. In today's world 
which is full of pain, GOD channel brings hope by 
encouraging the viewers to pray and await the 
best from God." Bringing the message are speakers 
like Benny Hinn, Creflo Dollar, Joyce Meyer, T.D. 
Jakes and Kay Arthur, and Indians like Dr D.G.S. 
Dhinakaran and Dr Paul Dhinakaran of Jesus Calls 
Ministries, Dr K.P. Yohanan, Mohan C. Lazarus and 
Sam P. Chelladurai.

Viewers, at least some of them, seem to be 
drawing comfort from the discourses. "For the 
elderly who watch it regularly, it means a lot," 
says Sharon D'souza, 32, who is a social worker 
in Mumbai. "When you're feeling low, it can prove 
quite uplifting. I would not consider their 
religious teachings a substitute for a mass but 
it can enhance one's spiritual life."

However, there are nonconformists like Abu, a 
24-year-old Mumbaikar, who does not care about 
watching religion on TV. "I was appalled at the 
kind of stuff the clerics speak on Quran TV," 
says Abu. "With due respect, I hate to say that 
religious leaders are using these channels to 
voice their narrow perspectives on religion to 
misguide the youth and increase their ranks." 
Rifat, 22, is a devout Muslim but does not feel 
the need to watch religious channels for 
spiritual growth.

Jayshree Brahmachari of Mumbai is not so devout. 
But she swears by the power of these programmes 
to facilitate positive thinking. "I like watching 
some programmes on Aastha," says Jayshree, 57, 
who retired as analyst in a pharma company and is 
now a volunteer at the Home for the Aged in the 
city. "I prefer those programmes that can be 
related to the realities of modern life." There 
is no denying that religion sells.




______



[7]


Date: Mon, 28 Jun 2004

Encounter or Murder?

by Sukla Sen

Four bodies, four blood stained motionless bodies 
- fully stretched, lying side by side on their 
backs close to the central divider of the road, 
only part of which is visible, perhaps wide 
enough to allow the traffic to flow, perhaps with 
speed somewhat lowered down. In the foreground 
lies a girl, with hands on her sides, calm and 
serene - even if looking a bit helpless, clad in 
a striped matching kurta-pyjama - in soft orange. 
While one foot is clad, the other one is bare - 
the helplessness is somewhat accentuated. An 
Indica in contrasting blue forms the backdrop. 
The number plate is clearly visible : 
MH-02-JA-4786.

This is a visual that has assaulted us too many 
times over the last three weeks. Thanks to the 
electronic, and print, media. No, itís not a shot 
from a promo for a soon-to-be-released Bollywood 
film. Itís real.

On 15th June, the Ahmedabd police claimed to have 
killed the four ëterroristsí in Indica car, at a 
desolate location near Kotarpur on the outskirts 
of Ahmedabad, on their way to the city, after a 
thrilling chase in a pre-dawn ëencounterí, on a 
deadly mission to assassinate Narendra Modi, the 
Chief Minister of Gujarat. The bullet ridden 
bodies were neatly arranged on the road on 
display before the clicking and roving cameras 
for the benefit of millions of (voyeuristic?) 
viewers. The terrorists, it has been claimed, are 
from the Pakistan based Lashkar-e Toiba. Two are 
from Pakistan, and the other two, including the 
nineteen year girl, are Indians. The lifeless 
bodies were prized trophies, on display, won in a 
hardly fought battle in an ongoing war - war 
against ëterrorismí, led by the ubiquitous 
ëenemyí.

But the expected applaud got severely marred. 
Cynics and sceptics raised uncomfortable 
questions, found serious flaws with the script. 
How come in an ëencounterí - fire having been 
exchanged between the police force and the 
ëterroristsí carrying AK-56, no one from the 
police suffered even a minor scratch? While the 
bullets killing the ëterroristsí pierced through 
the rear glass, why there was no sign of the car 
coming to a sudden halt (with punctured tyres) or 
having gone out of control?

Then the timing was evidently suspect. Modi was 
facing perhaps the most serious crisis in his 
political career having been under attack from 
the foremost national leader of his own party, 
and also rebels from the state party unit. And no 
proof whatsoever, except for the claim of an 
advance tip off, was provided to substantiate the 
story that the deceased were out to kill Modi. 
Amarsinh Chaudhary, the opposition leader from 
the Congress - and an ex-CM himself, openly 
alleged that the ëencounterí was fake and the 
ëstoryí was concocted to generate sympathy and 
support for the cornered Modi.

Till date the Gujarat, and Maharashtra, police 
have failed to produce any evidence that the 
nineteen year old girl, Ishrat Jahan Shaikh - a 
resident of Mumbra, some 35 km north of Mumbai, 
and second year BSc student in a city college, 
had any criminal antecedents. Faced with a 
barrage of criticism, particularly on account the 
perceived innocence of Ishrat, Ahmedabad police 
belatedly produced a hand-written diary, 
purportedly of hers, showing receipts and 
transactions of large sums of money. Not only the 
diary remains to be checked by handwriting 
expert(s) to verify the claim as regards its 
authorship, the fact that the rent for the meagre 
single room flat, where her rather largish family 
resides, remains to be paid for the last seven 
months flies in the face of such hypothesis.

The other one identified as Indian is Javed Gulam 
Mohammed Shaikh, who had earlier been Pranesh 
Kumar Pillai, is a married man of 32 years - a 
Malayalee and a resident of Pune. Javed, the 
father of three, appears to be a shady character. 
But nothing goes to show that he was a terrorist 
- at least as yet.

The other two were identified as Pakistanis. The 
Ahmedabad police claimed to have full details of 
their names and residences in Pakistan. But when 
the external affairs ministry was approached for 
handing over their bodies to the Pakistan high 
commission, the ministry asked for further 
clarification and confirmation.

Many questions remain unanswered. There is also a 
report that the deceased had been in the custody 
of Surat police, in Gujarat, before the incident. 
The post mortem reports, if honestly done, can 
throw some light on how these four were killed. 
But there is no word in the media as yet on 
these. What is of central importance here is to 
find the precise nature of the ëencounterí. It is 
even more important than verifying the veracity 
of the seemingly fantastic claim that the 
deceased were out to kill Modi. In a civilised 
society even the proven criminals are treated as 
per the provisions of law. In fact that is a 
principal marker how civilised a state and 
society is. Unbridled state terrorism is 
definitely no answer to non-state terrorism. 
Innocent citizens, most often, have to pay the 
price in terms of their lives as the victims of 
the both varieties of terrorism.

The National Human Rights Commission, three days 
after the incident, sought a report from Gujarat 
police. Taking suo moto cognisance of media 
reports, the NHRC has directed the Gujarat 
Director General of Police and Ahmedabad Senior 
Superintendent of Police to ensure the probe is 
undertaken as per the guidelines of the 
Commission and furnish a report within six weeks.

But given the seriousness of the allegations and 
counter-allegations made, and grave implications 
of either, a full-scale judicial enquiry headed 
by a serving supreme court judge, assisted by a 
team of dedicated professional investigators, is 
very much the need of the hour. The government of 
India must move in that direction without any 
further loss of time.


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

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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necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers.

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