SACW #1 | 15 Aug 2004

[sacw]

South Asia Citizens Wire  - Dispatch #1  |  15 August,  2004
via:  www.sacw.net

[1]  Pakistan: Campaign against Hudood Ordinance (Waqar Gillani)
[2]  Nepal: Release Sexual Rights Defenders (Human Rights Watch)
[3]  Sectarian tension in India: It still hurts (The Economist)
[4]  India: UPA's unaddressed agendas (Praful Bidwai)
[5]  India: Anhad Workshop (Ahmedabad, August 20, 2004)
[6]  India: New Construction in Bhopal : A comment (Mukul Dube)
[7]  India: Workshop on Culture and Everyday Life (Mumbai, January 2005)
[8]  Informal account by Aruna Roy and Jean Dreze 
of the meeting of India's National Advisory 
Council held on 14 August 2004


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

[1]


The Daily Times
11 August 2004

CAMPAIGN AGAINST HUDOOD ORDINANCE: HR groups, NGOs want 'black laws' repealed

* Demand govt repeal bill in assembly
* JAC plans more rallies in major cities
by Waqar Gillani

LAHORE: The Joint Action Committee (JAC) and the 
Women's Action Forum (WAF) held a demonstration 
on Tuesday demanding the government repeal all 
discriminatory laws, especially the Hudood 
Ordinance.
The demonstrators carried placards inscribed with 
slogans 'Black laws should go', 'Repeal Hudood 
Ordinance' and 'Mullah-ism Murdabad'. They 
marched from Lakshmi Chowk and dispersed 
peacefully near The Mall.
JAC leaders Hina Jilani, Tahseen Ahmed and Farooq 
Tariq addressed the demonstration. They said the 
unjustice being done in the name of the Hudood 
Ordinance was unbearable. They said that the law 
had badly affected society. "The Hudood Ordinance 
and other discriminatory laws have not only given 
a bad name to our religion, but defamed Pakistan 
in the world," they said, declaring Hudood laws 
"purely un-Islamic". They also demanded the 
abolition of Qisas and Diat laws, the blasphemy 
law and other discriminatory laws against women 
and minorities. They said the JAC, the WAF and 
other liberal and secular forums would not give 
up these demands.
Ms Jilani told Daily Times that the JAC had 
started a signature campaign against the laws. 
"The government should not try to hide itself 
behind the curtain of the Council of Islamic 
Ideology and should move a Hudood Ordinance 
repeal bill in the National Assembly 
immediately," she said.
Ms Jilani said that 18 of 22 sections of the law 
were complicated and vague. She said there was no 
need to amend the law; it should be repealed. She 
said that opposition and treasury 
parliamentarians had admitted that the law should 
go but their political ties were not allowing 
them to say so openly. She said their struggle 
would continue until the laws were repealed. She 
said the Council of Islamic Ideology could not 
decide the issue because the repeal of the laws 
had become a public issue. "This law is so wrong 
that no council can make it right."
Asma Jahangir, human rights activist and special 
rapporteur of the UN Commission on Human Rights, 
predicted that the government would not keep its 
word and debate the laws in the National 
Assembly. "The person who believes General Pervez 
Musharraf's words is a fool or mad," she said.
Ms Jahangir said their protest campaign would 
continue until the repeal of the laws. She said 
that the abuse of the Hudood Ordinance and its 
negative points were being discussed openly in 
society.
JAC Convener Shah Taj Qizilbash said many women 
parliamentarians supported the JAC's cause. She 
urged civil society and people to support the 
empowerment of women by asking the government to 
repeal the law. Peter Jacob of the National 
Commission for Justice and Peace said the Hudood 
and Blasphemy laws were harming minorities 
because the laws were part of criminal laws.
Mr Jacob said that no minority judge, lawyer or 
witness was eligible to hear, plead and speak 
respectively for a person being tired under the 
Hudood Ordinance. "The best solution according to 
our opinion is to repeal the law altogether," he 
said. He demanded a marriage law allowing people 
of all religions to marry according to their will.
Neelam Hussain of Simorgh, an NGO, also called the Hudood Ordinance a bad law.
The JAC and the WAF also announced rallies and 
demonstrations 18 Punjab districts in this month 
to raise their demand of repealing the 
discriminatory laws.




______



[2]


Human Rights Watch Release

NEPAL: RELEASE SEXUAL RIGHTS DEFENDERS

(New York, August 12, 2004) -- Nepalese authorities should
release 39 members of a group defending sexual rights who were
arbitrarily detained on Sunday, Human Rights Watch said today.
Human Rights Watch called on the Nepalese government to end
harassment of sexual minorities, including men who have sex with
men and transgender people, and launch full investigations into
allegations of violence against them.

On the evening of August 7, police in the capital Kathmandu
carried out raids on restaurants, bars, and streets frequented by
¡°metis,¡± or transgender people. Thirty-nine people were arrested.
All were members of the Blue Diamond Society, a
nongovernmental organization that provides HIV-prevention
services and engages in advocacy for the rights of sexual
minorities. Those arrested have been detained at Hanuman Dhoka
police station in the capital. While no charges have yet been filed,
officers reportedly told a Blue Diamond Society representative that
homosexuals are ¡°disturbing society.¡±

¡°The Blue Diamond Society has faced harassment from the
Nepalese government as they defend the rights of some of the most
vulnerable members of society,¡± said Scott Long, director of the
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Project at Human
Rights Watch. ¡°The Supreme Court¡¯s recent threat to close down
the group¡¯s activities has now been followed by direct police
action. Nepal¡¯s government must decide whether it wants to
enforce homophobia or protect basic human rights.¡±

On July 12, a Nepalese Supreme Court judge ordered the Ministry
of Home Affairs to show cause why the Blue Diamond Society
should not be banned for advocating ¡°open homosexual activities.¡±
The Ministry has still not responded to the court order. In a July 23
letter to the Ministry, Human Rights Watch urged Nepalese
authorities to respect basic freedoms of expression and association.
¡°In a context of an escalating civil war, respect for the rule of law
is steadily eroding in Nepal,¡± said Long. ¡°Nepalese authorities
must show their commitment to ensuring basic rights for all people
without discrimination.¡±

The Blue Diamond Society has documented a string of incidents in
which ¡°metis¡± and men suspected of homosexual conduct have
been violently attacked by police or other assailants. Most recently,
early in the morning of August 7 in Kathmandu, three unidentified
men reportedly attacked Jayaram, a ¡°meti,¡± and cut his throat and
nearly severed his finger. Jayaram remains hospitalized.
The Blue Diamond Society claims that police fail to investigate
allegations of violent attacks on metis and men who have sex with
men, and often participate in the violence.




______



[3]


The Economist
Aug 12th 2004

SECTARIAN TENSION IN INDIA
It still hurts

AHMEDABAD

Truth and justice, like reconciliation, prove elusive in Gujarat


THE scar left by the pogrom directed at the 
Muslim minority in the Indian state of Gujarat in 
February and March 2002 has yet to heal. That is 
partly because not a single murderer has been 
convicted, although perhaps 2,000 people died. 
The state government is under pressure from local 
activists, human-rights groups and India's 
staunchly interventionist Supreme Court to see 
that justice is at last done. But it continues to 
act less like a scourge of illegal violence than 
its sponsor.

This week, the Supreme Court rebuked the state 
government's prosecutor for his failure to secure 
the arrest of ten of 21 Hindus accused in an 
infamous court case arising from the violence: 
the burning to death of 14 Muslims in a bakery. 
The accused have already been acquitted once, 
after witnesses withdrew their evidence. 
Prosecutors appealed, but in April the Supreme 
Court ruled that a fair retrial was impossible in 
Gujarat and moved the case to the neighbouring 
state of Maharashtra.

The state government may have reasons for 
subverting the judicial process. Led by Narendra 
Modi, a charismatic but demagogic hardliner from 
the Hindu-Nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party 
(BJP), it is accused of having done little to 
prevent the slaughter. Many think it was 
complicit.

The government has, however, acted against those 
accused of the horrific "crime" that sparked the 
carnage. Using the controversial Prevention of 
Terrorism Act (POTA), it has charged 123 Muslims 
and detained nearly 100 over a fire in a train 
compartment, which took place in the town of 
Godhra. Of the 58 people asphyxiated or burned to 
death, many were Hindu devotees, returning from a 
gathering at the contested site of a temple in 
the holy town of Ayodhya. A Muslim mob was 
alleged to have doused the carriage with petrol, 
ignited it and locked the doors.

Revenge for this massacre was the BJP's 
explanation for the slaughter that followed. Even 
Atal Behari Vajpayee, the BJP's leader and, at 
the time, prime minister, seen as a moderate, 
asked "Who lit the fire first?". That foreigners 
and the liberal English-language press in Delhi 
largely ignored the Godhra massacre, 
concentrating on the killings of Muslims-some 
9-10% of Gujarat's 50m population-heightened the 
sense of grievance. It helped Mr Modi lead the 
BJP to a landslide victory in state elections in 
December 2002.

Yet forensic analysis and eyewitnesses have cast 
doubt on the government's theory of a preplanned 
arson attack. A hideous accident seems more 
likely. Last month, the railway minister in the 
government that came to power in Delhi in May, 
Laloo Prasad Yadav, announced an enquiry into the 
Godhra incident.

Mr Modi's critics were encouraged by the BJP's 
surprise defeat in the general elections and by 
its relatively poor showing in Gujarat itself, 
which they like to interpret as a repudiation of 
the BJP's communal politics. Local human-rights 
and social-welfare groups have had a renewed 
burst of energy, compiling lists of demands of 
the new central government led by the Congress 
party. The government this week agreed to one, 
revoking POTA, but not, as petitioners had hoped, 
with retrospective effect.

Harsh Mander, an activist and writer, says that 
if the government fails to do more it risks 
"missing a moment in history", when it has a 
chance "to make amends for past injustices". It 
may already be too late, however, to rebuild 
trust between Hindus and Muslims. The killing 
accelerated their segregation-a process, says 
Hanif Lakdawala, a prominent social worker, that 
is now 90% complete.

An example is the expanding ghetto behind the 
Bombay Hotel in Ahmedabad, Gujarat's main city. A 
warren of crude redbrick houses-much of it, 
during the present monsoon, under water-it is now 
home to some 4,000 Muslim families, mostly 
fugitives from the 2002 violence.

One of them, Yusuf, drives an autorickshaw, a 
three-wheel taxi. He is still too scared to 
return to his old home. Just last month, 
depositing passengers in a Hindu district, he was 
recognised as a Muslim and locals threw stones at 
him. Two weeks ago, fresh clashes erupted in 
Veraval, 320km (200 miles) south-west of 
Ahmedabad. But in the Bombay Hotel settlement, 
surrounded by 4km in either direction of 
exclusively Muslim slum, he feels safe. Muslims 
complain of a tacit economic boycott; employers 
put job applications bearing Muslim names to one 
side. In response, conservative Muslim 
organisations are gaining influence.

Communal relations in Gujarat raise concerns far 
beyond the state. This month, India's film 
censors refused a certificate to "Final 
Solution", a documentary on the 2002 pogrom and 
its aftermath, which has won prizes at film 
festivals from Berlin to Zanzibar. The censors 
accused the film of promoting "communal 
disharmony". Its maker, Rakesh Sharma, says they 
have become politically partisan.

The BJP itself has been in some disarray since 
its election defeat. Some members partly blame 
the setback on the stigma of the Gujarat pogrom. 
But the BJP's more fervent supporters-who idolise 
Mr Modi-accuse the party of having compromised 
its core "Hindu" principles to court moderate 
support. In Gujarat itself, Mr Modi has survived, 
for now, a rebellion from within the local party. 
His job was in jeopardy not because of his 
hardline views but because his high-handed manner 
has alienated many state legislators. For this 
reason, many in Ahmedabad still expect him to go 
later this year. The debate in the BJP over how 
to assess his rule, however, will go on much 
longer. So, sadly, will its effects on Gujarat's 
communal relations.


______



[4]

Frontline
Volume 21 - Issue 17, Aug. 14 - 27, 2004

UPA's UNADDRESSED AGENDAS

Praful Bidwai

The Centre's apathy towards the aftermath of the 
Gujarat carnage and its victims' plight is 
incomprehensible. It must rehabilitate and secure 
justice for them and address social policy 
issues, including repeal of POTA and the Armed 
Forces Special Powers Act.

A GLARING absence in Manmohan Singh's first-ever 
address to the nation as Prime Minister - 
otherwise remarkable for its passionate appeal 
for distributive justice and equity - was the 
total elision of any reference to secularism and 
recent assaults on it. The absence was all the 
more perturbing because this was his first 
attempt to explain the meaning of the popular 
vote that brought his government to power, and to 
outline its priorities.

One of the strongest messages the electorate 
delivered was that it opposes the Bharatiya 
Janata Party's Machiavellian politics of 
manipulation of identities; it reaffirms 
pluralism and equal rights for citizens 
regardless of religion. That was the true 
significance of the National Democratic 
Alliance's defeat in 23 out of 28 States and its 
poor performance in Uttar Pradesh, and above all, 
Gujarat.

Manmohan Singh's is the first government to take 
power in New Delhi after the Gujarat pogrom. 
Millions of people looked to him for some 
acknowledgement of the uniquely horrifying nature 
of the butchery of 2,000 Muslims carried out with 
state collusion, and above all, its genocidal 
nature. Gujarat was not just another case of 
communal rioting. It was, and remains, very 
special - a marker of India's descent into an 
abyss, and of the failure of its state and 
society to remedy the terrible wrongs inflicted 
upon innocent citizens.

Manmohan Singh disappointed those who expected 
such acknowledgement. All he talked about was 
"the security and welfare of all minorities". But 
secularism is much more than that - it is about 
separating religion from politics and refusing to 
privilege one religious group with a special, 
primary claim to represent India and its culture.

In the weeks that have passed since Manmohan 
Singh's June 24 speech, there has been no 
energetic attempt by his government to remedy 
this lapse and address the social agendas 
outlined in the United Progressive Alliance's 
National Common Minimum Programme, barring the 
"detoxification" drive in education, the inquiry 
announced by Laloo Prasad into the Godhra 
episode, and some desultory action in 
Doordarshan. In particular, the promise "to 
preserve, protect and promote social harmony and 
to enforce the law... to deal with all 
obscurantist and fundamentalist elements who seek 
to disturb social amity and peace" remains 
unfulfilled.

The UPA cannot possibly promote "social harmony" 
or deal with "fundamentalist elements" unless it 
acts purposively on Ayodhya and Gujarat. On 
Ayodhya, the agenda is simple and clear. The 
Centre must rectify the charge-sheets against the 
accused by restoring the conspiracy charge, and 
ensure speedy trial. The hearing of all 
associated litigation, including the land-title 
dispute, should be expedited. The compromised 
excavation report of the Archaeological Survey of 
India, produced under political pressure, must be 
withdrawn. And there must be a fresh, clean 
approach to settling the mosque-temple issue 
through consensus, without the involvement of 
dubious elements.

ON Gujarat, the government will have to take 
tough decisions and act boldly and with despatch. 
It must begin by recognising that the situation 
there remains abnormal. The minorities continue 
to be menaced, harassed and discriminated against 
in varied ways. The authorities, hostile to 
Muslims, have no will to provide a modicum of 
relief and rehabilitation. Prosecution of and 
punishment for the culprits of even the goriest 
episodes of violence remains a mirage. A majority 
of those who suffered dislocation have not been 
fully rehabilitated - economically or 
psychologically. Many are in desperate need of 
survival assistance. Segregation has become a 
fact of life in Gujarat's cities. The 
perpetrators of the carnage and all the concerned 
institutions remain in denial mode - breaking out 
of which is a precondition for reaffirming 
justice and returning to security.

This has been amply documented. Many speakers 
corroborated all this at an excellent conference 
on July 29 in New Delhi, organised by groups 
working among the victims of the carnage. A broad 
consensus has emerged among them on a Citizens' 
Charter of Demands after their deliberations on 
June 1 and 2. The demands fall into three 
categories: compensation and rehabilitation; 
accountability and preventive measures; and legal 
justice. They deserve respect because they are 
based on the actual experience of the victims of 
the Gujarat pogrom over two years.

Of the victims, some 3,000 families (or over 
20,000 people) are destitute and in need of food 
aid on a daily basis. Altogether, about one lakh 
people need economic support. A majority of 
families which suffered death, injury and loss of 
property and fled their homes received less than 
an abysmal Rs.10,000. One estimate of the loss 
caused by the anti-Muslim violence is Rs.5-7,000 
crores. The government has not even spent 3 per 
cent of this on relief - cumulatively.

The Citizens' Charter demands relief based on 
"the most progressive features" of recent 
"compensation packages" like those for the 
survivors of the Cauvery riots. Close attention 
must be paid to those who were forced into Muslim 
ghettos like Juhapura (renamed "mini-Pakistan" by 
Narendra Modi & Co.) and separated from their 
means of livelihood in the mixed localities where 
they lived earlier. They must be given soft loans.

Many rehabilitation colonies have not been 
recognised by the State government, which long 
ago abandoned its duty to look after the victims 
and closed down relief camps. They must be 
"regularised" to make them "eligible for land 
title, electricity, water supply, approach roads, 
primary schools, etc." The government must 
establish new settlements, especially in rural 
areas, for about 1,000 families which are unable 
(although willing) to return to their villages 
for fear that they will be attacked. Many have 
been warned by their Bharatiya Janata 
Party-Vishwa Hindu Parishad-Bajrang Dal 
tormentors that they cannot return unless they 
withdraw the criminal complaints they filed.

The government must rebuild the 700 places of 
worship and cultural importance destroyed in the 
post-Godhra carnage. "Particularly important is 
the rebuilding of the symbols of Gujarat's 
syncretic culture like the mazar of Wali 
Gujarati" (an Urdu pioneer), in Ahmedabad, and of 
the great singer Ustad Fayaz Khan in Baroda.

On accountability, the Centre must set up a 
high-level commission of inquiry into the 
post-Godhra violence. A.G. Noorani (The Hindustan 
Times, July 27) has made a powerful argument as 
to why the Nanavati Commission cannot be trusted. 
(The judge in interviews to the media on May 16 
and May 20, 2003, exonerated the State as well as 
the Bajrang Dal and VHP leaders.) Its terms of 
reference are flawed. A new Commission is in 
order with more comprehensive terms, including 
the "causes and course" of the violence, the role 
of the kar sevaks in Godhra, and the culpability 
of the Modi Cabinet and state bureaucrats and 
police officials. The Commission should determine 
how hatred against the minorities was 
systematically generated through posters and 
leaflets, as well as textbooks.

The UPA must set up a mechanism to prosecute 
Modi, his colleagues and their officers, who 
planned, instigated or abetted the carnage or 
failed to prevent and control the violence, 
protect the victims, and extend relief. It should 
reward the (few) officers who performed their 
duties with exemplary fairness and courage. Also 
necessary is an inquiry into Modi's partisan 
appointments of public prosecutors and judges in 
the post-Godhra cases.

As the first necessary step towards legal 
justice, the Centre must re-examine the 
2,000-plus cases (of a total of 4,200 registered 
in respect of the post-Godhra violence), which 
were closed or in which the accused were 
acquitted. This is in keeping with the 
recommendation of the amicus curiae in a Supreme 
Court writ petition (No. 109 of 2003).

It is of the utmost importance that this 
government revise the NDA's plea against 
transferring major cases pertaining to gross 
episodes of violence like the attack on Best 
Bakery out of Gujarat. Unless that State's 
judiciary and police are thoroughly revamped - 
which will not happen in a hurry - there can be 
no justice in Gujarat. The Citizens' Charter also 
demands that special courts must hear cases of 
rape and violence against women. These should 
have only women judges, public prosecutors and 
lawyers, and should conduct in-camera hearings.

However, this agenda will not be complete unless 
the Prevention of Terrorism Act is repealed with 
retrospective effect, and all POTA charges in 
Gujarat cancelled, "in recognition of the painful 
fact that the State government openly misused 
this draconian Act to victimise exclusively 
members of the minority community". Only one of 
the 280-plus people arrested under POTA is a 
non-Muslim (a Sikh). Relatives of suspects have 
been picked up, detained and tortured, on the 
flimsiest of evidence. The use of POTA in Gujarat 
has been entirely communal in motivation, 
character and effect.

The argument against POTA is overwhelmingly 
powerful - like that against its predecessor, the 
Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) 
Act, or TADA, a story of lawlessness and 
persecution of innocent people: 72,000 cases with 
a conviction rate of under 2 per cent. The case 
against POTA is strengthened by the damning 
evidence that has emerged in the course of 
hearings by the People's Tribunal on POTA in 
March, of which I was a member.

The Human Rights Law Network has published a 
600-page report: The Terror of POTA and Other 
Security Legislation (available from 65, Masjid 
Road, Jangpura, New Delhi 110 014, and at 
hrlndel at vsnl.net). Study after case study in this 
volume speaks of police excesses, bypassing of 
procedures, torture, concoction of evidence, 
planting of weapons, and victimisation of 
political opponents or social activists, 
sometimes even schoolboys.

UPA constituents and their supporters had all 
opposed POTA. They must translate this into 
repeal of this vile law. Regrettably, the UPA 
seems to be hesitant. It reportedly wants to 
replace POTA with another law, retaining key 
provisions (definitions of "terrorism" and 
"terrorist organisations", preventive detention, 
confession as evidence, etc.). This would be the 
height of duplicity. As the National Human Rights 
Commission has said, laws like POTA are not 
needed to combat terrorism. They encourage the 
police to look for shortcuts to gathering 
evidence and to act lawlessly, while giving them 
immunity.

Even more draconian than POTA is the Armed Forces 
(Special Powers) Act in force in the Northeast 
and Jammu and Kashmir. This has a terrible 
pedigree, which should embarrass the Congress, 
the UPA's leading constituent. The AFSPA is 
modelled on the colonial Armed Forces Special 
Powers Ordinance, 1942, which was enacted to 
neutralise the Quit India Movement. The 
Ordinance's fundamental provisions remain 
unaltered in the Act of 1958. Under it, the 
government can declare any area, district, or a 
whole State, "disturbed", conferring upon the 
military extraordinary powers - without 
accountability. An officer of any rank in a 
"disturbed" area can "enter and search any 
premises without warrant", destroy it, and carry 
out an arrest on "reasonable suspicion" that a 
person has committed or is about to commit a 
cognisable offence.

If the officer "is of opinion that it is 
necessary to do so", he may kill any person who 
violates or may violate prohibitory orders, 
including trivial ones like Section 144. The 
Act's most obnoxious part is Section 6 which 
grants immunity to the armed forces - "no 
prosecution... or other legal proceeding shall be 
instituted, except with the previous sanction of 
the Central Government, against any person in 
respect of anything done or purported to be done" 
under the Act. "Purported to be done" takes the 
cake. So the Army is the judge, the jury, the 
prosecutor - and the executioner!

The use of the AFSPA to kill innocent people or 
mere suspects has enraged the public in Manipur, 
which seethes today with righteous anger after 
the alleged abduction, torture, rape and murder 
of Thangjam Manorama, a 32-year-old Manipuri 
woman, while under the custody of Assam Rifles.

The AFSPA makes a mockery of many principles: the 
right to fair trial, rights to defence and 
appeal, freedom of association, freedom of 
speech, and equality before the law. It violates 
the right to life guaranteed under Article 21 by 
allowing a military officer to kill people - on 
mere suspicion, so long he "purports" to be 
acting under this terrible law.

There can no place for a law like this in a 
civilised society, even one threatened by the 
worst forms of terrorism. The state, or its armed 
representatives, cannot take a person's life - at 
least not without a fair trial, with adequate 
opportunity for defence, and proper conviction. 
The UPA will do grave damage to its credibility - 
and to its own popular mandate - if it retains 
the AFSPA in whatever form. The Act must go lock, 
stock and barrel.




______



[5]


Dear Friends,

I am sending you the final schedule for the 
August 20-21st workshop in Ahmedabad. The venue 
is Prayer Hall, 2nd floor, St Xaviers College, 
Ahmedabad.

In case you want to send a few participants for 
the workshop, please let us know immediately. We 
have 60 participants so far and can accomodate 
about 15 more.

We had also requested a contribution of Rs 300 
towards books and food for two days, which the 
participants can bring when they come for the 
workshop.

Sincerely
Shabnam Hashmi


AHMEDABAD WORKSHOP
AUGUST 20, 2004

8.00-9.00- Registration and tea, snacks
9.00am- Welcome & Introduction about Anhad- Manan Trivedi and Shabnam Hashmi
9.30-11.00am 
Formation of Indian Identity and Legacy of the 
Freedom Movement - Gauhar Raza
11.00-11.30am                                        Tea Break
11.30-1.30pm 
Continued with question and answers
1.30-2.30pm                                           Lunch Break
2.30- 4.00pm 
Zulmaton ke Daur Main- a 16 mnts documentary
 
Fascism- A threat to Indian Nation- Gauhar Raza
4.00-4.30pm                                           Tea Break
4.30-6.00pm 
Truth about Godhra and the politics behind it- 
Mukul Sinha
6.00-7.00pm                                            tea break
7.00pm                                                    Film


AUGUST 21, 2004

8.30-9.00am                                            Tea and snacks
9.00pm-6.00pm with tea breaks ( 11.30, 4.00)  and lunch break (1.30-2.30)

RESOURCE PERSON - Dr. RAM PUNIYANI
Myth and Reality
·         History of Communalism
·         History of Demolition of Temples and Mosques
·         History of Freedom Movement
·         History of Congress
·         Appeasement of Minorities
·         Anti Nationalism of Minorities
·         Demography of the nation [population of the minorities]
·         Conversion and Christian Missionaries
·         Kashmir – the facts and falsities
·         Ayodhya

______



[6]

From: Mukul Dube
Subject: New Construction in Bhopal

At the concluding session of the seminar on 
"Alternative Strategies for Development", held in 
Bhopal, Ms. U. Bharti, concurrently Chief 
Minister of Madhya Pradesh and sannyasin of no 
fixed abode, said that earlier governments had 
failed to achieve anything because they did not 
invite the participation of "sadhus and saints".

A multi-storeyed Saints' House is to be 
constructed in Bhopal, complete with a large 
enclosure for the cattle of the seers. While it 
is certain that the Saints' House will be 
centrally air conditioned, there is some doubt 
about the Holy Cattle Enclosure because no 
existing company is known to have units specially 
adapted to the needs of bovines. Perhaps a 
factory to manufacture Cow Conditioners will have 
to be set up outside Bhopal.

13 August 2004

Mukul Dube
D-504 Purvasha Anand Lok .. Mayur Vihar 1 .. Delhi 110091


______


[7]


WORKSHOP ON CULTURE AND EVERYDAY LIFE, Mumbai, January 2005

Culture has today become a central arena of 
contestation in the social and political life of 
India. Forces of globalisation and communalism 
have entered the sphere of culture as never 
before and seek to alter it to suit their own 
ends. The communal forces in particular attempt 
to transform every day to day cultural practice 
into a religious one and further change it into a 
communal practice. This is also part of a design 
to create a homogenous communal culture that 
would deny and destroy pluralities as well as 
syncretic practices.
Vikas Adhyayan Kendra therefore plans to organise 
a workshop on Culture and Everyday Life in 
January 2005 for young scholars and activists 
active in the field of culture. The workshop will 
aim to understand the contestations in the field 
of culture, the ëcultural interventionsí 
attempted by the reactionary forces, and develop 
democratic and secular counters to these 
interventions. 

The seven day workshop will deal with the topics 
of Concept of Culture; Popular Culture; Cultural 
Processes; Culture, State and Market; and Towards 
Resistance. The workshop will consist of 
lectures, readings, discussions, writings, and 
discussions with activists. 

Applications are invited from young scholars and 
activists actively engaged in study and practice 
in the field of culture. Only thirty (30) persons 
can participate in the workshop. The interested 
persons should write to Vikas Adhyayan Kendra 
with their detailed bio-data, detailing 
particularly their involvement in the field of 
culture, and the reasons for their interest in 
the workshop. 
Brochures about the workshop and formal 
application forms will be sent to the 
short-listed participants. 

The course fee is Rs. 500/-. 
Accommodation and food as well as all course 
material will be provided by the organisers. 
Travel grants may be considered for a few 
exceptional deserving candidates. 
The course will be coordinated by Prof. R. M. 
Bapat. Advisor to the course is Prof. K. N. 
Panikkar. 

Vikas Adhyayan Kendra is a secular 
non-governmental organisation with its main 
office in Mumbai. 

Write to:

Ajit Muricken,
Director,
Vikas Adhyayan Kendra,
D-1, Shivdham, 62, Link Road,
Malad (West), Mumbai 400 064, INDIA
Telephones: (022) 28822850/ 28898662
Fax No.: (022) 28898941
Website: www.vakindia.org

______


[8]

[ Informal account by Aruna Roy and Jean Dreze of 
the meeting of India's National Advisory Council 
held on 14 August 2004 is posted below. *]


o o o o


National Advisory Council
14th August 2004

The National Advisory Council sent its first set 
of recommendations to the government of India 
today. These include significant amendments to 
the Freedom of Information Act 2002 (renamed 
Right to Information Act in its amended version), 
and also a Draft National Employment Guarantee 
Act .

The basic aim of the right to information act is 
to give all citizens the fullest possible access 
to public documents. In keeping with the 
principle of maximum disclosure and minimum 
exemptions, the council recommended a significant 
reduction in the scope and number of exemptions 
to be allowed under the act, consistent with 
constitutional provisions.

Even those agencies who were covered by a blanket 
exemption, will be required under the amended 
provisions to provide information on matters of 
human rights and corruption.

The council unanimously recommended provisions of 
strong penalties for non compliance with the 
provisions of the Act. Public servants who 
deliberately withhold, or delay the furnishing of 
information will be liable to pay penalties 
deductible from their salaries, and in case of 
providing false information will be liable to 
financial penalties, departmental action, and 
criminal prosecution.

The amended act provides for two levels of 
appeal- the first within the department, and the 
second level of appeal to an independent 
appellate authority- information commissioners at 
the State and National level.

The Council also completed a draft National Rural 
Employment Guarantee Act [*] and endorsed it to 
be sent to Government for further action.  This 
draft Act entitles every rural household to at 
least 100 days of guaranteed employment at the 
statutory minimum wage every year, as promised in 
the UPA’s Common Minimum Programme.  Anyone who 
applies for work will have to be provided work 
within 15 days, failing which he or she will be 
entitled to an unemployment allowance of one 
third of the minimum wage.  All areas of rural 
India are to be covered within five years of the 
enactment of the Act.  The Act also makes 
provision for raising the work entitlement beyond 
100 days per year in due course, and for 
extending the guarantee from households to 
individuals.

o o o o

[* Full Text of the draft National Rural 
Employment Guarantee Act would be available to 
all on the SACW web site on the 16th of August, 
and electronic version would be available to 
those interested. ]


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