SACW | 1 Sep 2004

[sacw]

South Asia Citizens Wire   |  1 September,  2004
via:  www.sacw.net

[1]  Pakistan: Karachi nazim bans music and dance in schools
[2]  Nobel Peace Laureates Demand Release of Bangladesh Landmine Campaigner
[3]  Ideology divides Bangladesh (M B Naqvi)
[4]  India: Crime, Politics & Hypocrisy - The BJP's comeuppance (Praful Bidwai)
[5]  India: Criminals In Saffron (I.K.Shukla)
[6]  India: Press Release + Memo to Maharashtra 
Chief Minister & Home Minister (Prominent 
Citizens from Bombay)
[7]  India: letter to editor (Mukul Dube)
[8]  India: Religious Noise on Bombay trains :
- In God's name: [Shiv] Sena lends voice to Bhajan Mandals
- Nuisance gag on local train singers (Chandrima S. Bhattacharya)
- No more 'qawwalis' on local trains (Saeed Khan)



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

[1]

The Daily Times - September 01, 2004 
KARACHI NAZIM BANS MUSIC AND DANCE IN SCHOOLS

LAHORE: Karachi City Nazim Naimatullah Khan has 
banned schoolchildren's participation in musical 
and dance programmes, according to a news channel 
on Tuesday. "We are Muslims and it is against 
Islamic culture that our children participate in 
musical and dance programs," Mr Khan told the TV 
channel. He said that he had directed all schools 
under the district government to ban their 
students from participating in such programmes. 
"Any violation of these orders will not be 
tolerated," he added. daily times monitor

______



[2]


International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL)
http://www.icbl.org/

NOBEL PEACE LAUREATES DEMAND RELEASE OF BANGLADESH LANDMINE CAMPAIGNER
31 Aug 2004 15:42:00 GMT

The government of Bangladesh should immediately 
release Rafique Al Islam, a campaigner against 
landmines in Bangladesh, said the International 
Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), 1997 Nobel 
Peace Prize co-Laureate. Mr. Al Islam was 
arrested at his home in Cox's Bazaar on 21 August 
by soldiers of the Rapid Action Battalion. He is 
the Coordinator of the ICBL's Treaty 
Implementation and Victim Assistance Working 
Group in Bangladesh, and is also the 
representative of the ICBL in his country.

"We fear for the well-being and even the life of 
our esteemed colleague," said Liz Bernstein, ICBL 
coordinator. "Rafique has worked openly and 
cooperatively with Bangladesh officials on the 
landmine issue for many years, making his arrest 
as inexplicable as it is appalling," said Ms. 
Bernstein. Bangladesh is a State Party to the 
1997 Mine Ban Treaty.

Rafique Al Islam has been detained for nine days 
without charges. A hearing of his case -- 
originally scheduled for Sunday 29 August -- was 
held on Saturday 28 August. His family and lawyer 
were not informed of this change, and thus were 
unable to prepare his defense. On 29 August he 
was remanded into the custody of the Rapid Action 
Battalion for the purpose of interrogation for 
five days. Another hearing is scheduled for later 
this week.

"The continued detention of Rafique without 
charges and without informing his family of where 
he is being held is outrageous," said Yeshua 
Moser-Puangsuwan, Bangkok representative of Non 
Violence International, the international NGO 
represented by Mr. Al Islam in Bangladesh. 
"Rafique Al Islam is committed to his work to 
implement the treaty banning landmines in his 
country. He has devoted himself to ridding the 
country of dangerous, inhumane weapons." Non 
Violence International is registered with the 
government of Bangladesh and helps coordinate the 
work on landmines.

Jody Williams, who received the 1997 Nobel Peace 
Prize along with the ICBL, said, "Bangladesh was 
the first country in South Asia to join the Mine 
Ban Treaty. It is squandering its good image and 
destroying its leadership on this issue by its 
unjust treatment of the most active and respected 
landmine campaigner and researcher in the 
country. He must be released immediately." The 
ICBL has not received a response from the 
Government of Bangladesh to repeated enquiries 
regarding Rafique Al-Islam's arrest and 
detention. For more information, contact:  Yeshua 
Moser-Puangsuwan, Nonviolence International, Tel 
+66 2934 3289 or Mobile: +66 9 124 4900 ; Sue 
Wixley, ICBL Communications Officer, Tel: + 387 
(0) 33 764 481 or Mobile: + 387 (0) 61 347 305; 
Liz Bernstein, ICBL Coordinator, Tel: +1 613 241 
0455 or Mobile: +1 613 262 1969 - Email: media at 
icbl.org

  [Any views expressed in this article are those 
of the writer and not of Reuters. ]


______



[3]

The News International
September 1, 2004

IDEOLOGY DIVIDES BANGLADESH

by M B Naqvi

An Awami League rally in Dhaka on Saturday (Aug 
21) was attacked with hand grenades in which 20 
people were killed and over 200 injured. Shaikh 
Hasina Wajid, the Awami League leader, had just 
finished her speech when the attack took place. 
She narrowly escaped. The rally had been called 
to protest against bomb attacks on AL targets in 
Sylhet earlier. The sketchy reports do not make 
it clear as to who exactly mounted this attack 
and why. But Shaikh Hasina Wajid has accused the 
leadership of the ruling BNP and Jamaate Islami 
for the attack. She believes that these persons 
intended to get her out of the way for the 
elections that are still a couple of years away.

Seen against the background of political violence 
in Bangladesh, the August 21 incident represents 
a notable worsening of the situation. And sure 
enough AL called two successive general strikes 
and clashes took place. Amnesty International has 
taken a particular note of the Aug 21 incident 
and has demanded a thorough and impartial 
inquiry, the findings of which should be made 
public along with its terms of reference. One 
aspect of the incident was especially taken note 
of by AL: it was behaviour of the police. 
According to AL version, the police, instead of 
protecting the protesters, joined the unknown 
attackers and began beating the AL supporters. If 
this is true, it shows the police has been 
politicised. If the inquiry is not manifestly 
above board and actually impartial, preferably by 
an HC or SC judge, it will intensify the partisan 
struggles between AL, on one side, and ruling BNP 
and Jamaat workers, on the other.

The level of tolerance has manifestly plummeted 
in Bangladesh. Islamic zealots' murderous attack 
on Prof Humayun Azad earlier and his subsequent 
mysterious death in Germany testify to a 
dangerous trend. Independent thinking is now 
being directly threatened by religious 
extremists. The threats to the Editor and staff 
of Prothom Alo are known to have been made by 
Islamic zealots for exposing the reality of 
'education' in a certain type of madressas. 
Freedoms of thought, speech and personal safety 
of dissenters are clearly under threat in 
Bangladesh.

The ideological rivalry between the AL and 
BNP-Jamaat combine is, in fact, a continuation of 
Pakistan days. It reflects the political divide 
that had led to 1971 civil war. That divide 
survives; indeed it has grown deeper. This 
polarisation seems to be moving towards a climax. 
It would seem the old Muslim League still has a 
residual emotional support in Bangladesh despite 
what the Army did in 1971. Jamaat also had had a 
support base in religious circles even earlier 
and it became notorious for cooperating with Pak 
Army. The Muslim League's legatee and successor 
is BNP, while the old communalism of Muslims is 
now Muslim nationalism of Bangladesh. Anyway, 
Bengal was always the citadel of Muslim League 
politics since 1906, even if the communal motif 
in the earlier Bengal politics is not taken into 
account.

The Awami League, on the other hand, had broken 
away from the mainstream Pakistani politics as 
far back as the early 1950s. It had become a 
secular party after independence when the 
historic communal divide in India became 
inapplicable. In 1960s it adopted socialistic 
jargon, giving both Muslim League and Jamaate 
Islami much ammunition to attack it as a secular 
and pro-India party. Awami League had questioned 
Islamabad's obsession with India and Kashmir, 
wanting normalisation of relations with India. 
That was anathema to Pakistan's rightwing 
politics. That old bad blood has been inherited 
by BD politics and continues to influence current 
politics.

Awami League in power unwittingly intensified 
this division and its relations with India played 
a role. The sentiments behind the old Muslim 
Leaguers and the Jamaat's post-independence 
propaganda have expanded their support base in 
Bangladesh thanks to wide disillusionment with 
the authoritarian politics of AL. The Jamaat 
support base in both Pakistan and Bangladesh 
remains restricted, though its influence has 
grown in both countries, where it is now junior 
partners of ruling parties. In both countries, 
these custodians of Islamic traditions and 
claiming to be the political face of Islam are 
playing a dubious role. It is no accident that 
the BNP, ML's successor, has chosen a working 
alliance with Jamaat. The sentiments of both in 
1971 were not wholly with the rebels and ML was 
ambivalent vis-a-vis Pak Army. They lay low for 
sometime while Awami League ruled alone. Later, 
as AL began becoming unpopular because of its 
authoritarian tendencies, the BNP and the Jamaat 
began gaining strength, especially after military 
interventions.

Bangladesh's political temperature has been on 
the rise for some time. An old polarisation is 
now deeper still. A few of the issues that divide 
sentiments of Bangladeshis are clear enough: They 
are foreign policy and the new country's 
ideology. The BNP agitation against AL brands 
Shaikh Hasina Wajid and her party to be 
pro-Indian and what is worse their politics is 
secular. Which somehow translates into Awami 
Leaguers being somewhat lesser Muslims and rather 
pro-Hindu. AL, for its part, accuses BNP to be as 
extremist as the Jamaate Islami though, theirs is 
a natural alliance. AL accuses the ruling 
alliance will finally end in obscurantists taking 
over Bangladesh and establishing a theocratic 
regime. It seems to assume that the Jamaat will 
eventually surpass BNP to become the leader of 
the Islamic faction on its way to taking over 
Bangladesh.

It is not that in terms of foreign policy Awami 
League governments have been particularly 
pro-Indian. One knows many in Bangladesh who have 
criticised AL for its fear of being dubbed 
pro-India and insufficient fidelity to secular 
politics. They allege that many an ordinary AL 
worker, when scratched, turns out to be a 
communalist Muslim. Also AL leadership has 
consciously distanced itself from too secular a 
policy. On the other side, BNP has not followed 
any particularly anti-Indian policy. Not that it 
sanely could do that. It has, when necessary, 
accommodated India or stayed distant from it, if 
it rationally could without provoking the big 
neighbour. It is true that Indians have a softer 
corner for AL for historical reasons: because of 
its professed secularism and desire for normal 
friendly relations with India. That is only to be 
expected. The Indians, too, do not seem to have 
gone out of their way to show antipathy towards 
BNP. Foreign policy, after all, is an extension 
of domestic policy, as well as a combined result 
of the demands of geography, economic interests 
and political preferences.

True, the scope for compromise between BNP and AL 
ideologies is rather small. The dynamics of 
politics in Bangladesh is also against compromise 
making. Adopting extreme stances and being 
militant appears to be a collective trait of 
Bangladesh people. Some think that Bangladesh 
people are more volatile and emotional than 
others. This is less than proven. Bangladeshis 
are as capable of opportunistic or unprincipled 
politics as anyone else. It is true that 
political workers work with more passion here. 
But Muslims of anywhere tend to be emotional in 
politics. Which is why it is better to keep 
politics away from religious matters. Christians 
and Jews or even Hindus are not immune from 
emotional excesses that Muslims are accused of.

Anyway, politics in Bangladesh remains 
dangerously polarised. The absence of tolerance, 
moderation and compromise-making habits makes one 
shudder to think what may lie ahead. The issues 
that divide the country are such that can 
de-stabilise the country and result in much 
conflict - a process that can lead eventually to 
a civil war.

A later political development seems more 
promising. Nine out of 11 opposition parties are 
said to have agreed to form a united front 
against the growing threat of religious 
extremists - who look uncommonly like the storm 
troopers of a home grown fascism. But two leftist 
parties have stayed away because of AL's old 
attitudes and record when in office. That is a 
pity. The clear and present danger today, an 
overriding one, comes from the violence being 
spread by religious fanatics. That requires all 
moderate and democratic elements to unite in as 
Popular Front. Left's grievances against AL 
leadership and its confused ideological 
predilections may be genuine. But they can be 
sorted out over time through the political 
processes that democracy provides. Today would 
appear to be the time when all democrats should 
unite to build a dam of people's will to stay 
free in a plural dispensation marked by tolerance 
of all opinions. It will not be impossible for 
Shaikh Hasina and AL to commit themselves to 
preserving democracy.

What foreigners can do is very little, though 
good offices should be offered from outside. 
Organisations like Pakistan-India Peoples Forum 
for Peace and Democracy and similar organisations 
that have Muslims and non-Muslims working hand in 
hand can set up a Group of Elders to recommend 
the decencies of democratic politics and to avoid 
extremism in political matters. This may not be 
enough. The major powers of the world can also 
help. A commission of elder statesmen like Nelson 
Mandela, Jimmy Carter, Helmut Schmidt and similar 
personalities should be persuaded to go to 
Bangladesh and make the two parties to agree on a 
certain code of behaviour and politics that would 
prevent bloody clashes. Above all, parties in 
Bangladesh must accept the verdict of the people. 
This is all the rest of the world can do, while 
more substantial help should come from the 
intelligentsia of Bangladesh itself.


______


[4]

The Praful Bidwai Column
August 30 - 2004

CRIME, POLITICS & HYPOCRISY - THE BJP'S COMEUPPANCE

By Praful Bidwai

There is more than poetic justice in the way in 
which the law caught up with Ms Uma Bharati 
through a Karnataka arrest warrant, forcing her 
resignation as Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister. 
That this should have happened bang in the middle 
of the BJP's high-decibel campaign against 
"tainted" ministers in Dr Manmohan Singh's 
Cabinet only lends a comically ironic edge to the 
unfolding drama. The BJP's campaign is a strained 
attempt to occupy the moral high ground just when 
it had no issues on which to prove its political 
relevance or provide a half-way coherent 
opposition to the UPA.

The BJP should have known better-quite simply 
because many of its top leaders, including Messrs 
L.K. Advani and M. M. Joshi, face serious 
criminal charges. Its own former president was 
caught accepting a bribe on camera in the Tehelka 
"sting" operation. Its campaign against "tainted" 
ministers was likely to boomerang sooner or 
later, whether in Uttar Pradesh (where its ranks 
include proportionally more people with criminal 
charges and convictions than perhaps any other 
party), or elsewhere. Only two years ago, Mr 
Vajpayee re-inducted Mr George Fernandes into his 
Cabinet although he hadn't been cleared of 
Tehelka-related charges of serious corruption in 
defence deals.

The BJP is trying to make light of the criminal 
charges against Ms Bharati, by equating her case 
with that of Coal Minister Shibu Soren's. It also 
claims the charges are politically motivated and 
frivolous. This will not wash. Mr Soren has 
already resigned from the Cabinet. If he exited 
as a villain, Ms Bharati hasn't emerged a martyr. 
The indictment against Ms Bharati is serious: 
rioting, instigating a mob to violence, and 
attempt to murder during a 1994 agitation to 
forcibly dislodge a Muslim organisation 
(Anjuman-i-Islam) from the Idgah maidan in Hubli, 
which it baselessly claimed was a public ground. 
The incident led to 6 deaths.

Ms Bharati chose to ignore more than 100 court 
summons and bailable warrants and as many 18 
non-bailable warrants. The S.M. Krishna 
government in 2002 tried to withdraw the cases 
against her because a "compromise" had been 
reached through former Prime Minister H.D. Deva 
Gowda's intervention. But now, Karnataka's 
Congress-JD(S) government has in its discretion 
decided to restore the cases. It's ludicrous to 
claim that the first discretionary move was right 
but the second one was wrong. In any case, Ms 
Bharati has no right to evade trial which will 
establish her guilt or innocence.

Underpinning the BJP's rhetoric is the 
distinction it makes between "political" and 
"criminal" cases. It says its opponents violate 
laws, or are dacoits, murderers, etc., but its 
own leaders are charged with "political" 
offences-like causing the razing of the Babri 
mosque. This distinction is utterly and 
perniciously spurious. The demolition was a 
horrible act driven by communal hatred, a vile 
crime, whose gravity was compounded by the orgy 
of mass lynchings that followed, causing hundreds 
of deaths, especially in Mumbai. Such hate acts 
are far more reprehensible than individual 
crimes. They must be more severely punished.

Ms Bharati's offence in Hubli falls exactly 
within that category. It was part of the BJP's 
hate campaign, launched to establish a political 
toehold in Karnataka. Hubli and Baba Budhangiri 
in Chikmagalur district were the two planks on 
which it incited anti-Muslim emotions through 
fiery rhetoric. In Hubli, it dangerously 
polarised opinion by trying to forcibly occupy 
the Idgah maidan. In the second case, the BJP-VHP 
tried to "capture" the shrine of a Muslim saint 
also worshipped by the Hindus. In both places, it 
played with fire.

The most despicable part of this political 
mobilisation was the abuse of the National Flag 
as a Hindutva symbol. Hindu communalists 
increasingly use this tactic to falsely equate 
the religious majority with the nation itself. 
They challenge the minorities to prove their 
"loyalty" to the nation-by subordinating 
themselves to the majority. As Sumit and Tanika 
Sarkar and other historians argue in their 
Saffron Flags, Khaki Shorts (Orient Longman, 
1993), this equation is characteristic of 
majoritarianism, itself akin to fascism. It 
distorts the true nature of the national 
community, comprised of equal citizens, by 
privileging one religious group. It is profoundly 
anti-democratic.

So it's abominably dishonest for Ms Bharati to 
claim she's being arrested for hoisting the 
Tricolour, when the Flag served as a mere cover 
or mask for her cynically communal politics. If 
anything, such abuse makes Ms Bharati's offence 
graver. It also bears recalling that the BJP's 
top leaders owe their primary loyalty not to the 
Tricolour but to the RSS's triangular saffron 
flag. For decades, the RSS rejected the National 
Flag, in particular its green (read, "Islamic") 
colour-band and the Ashoka Chakra (a Buddhist 
symbol).

The BJP seems to have cunningly made a threefold 
calculation in asking Ms Bharati to resign and 
launch her Tiranga Yatra from Hubli to 
Jallianwala Bagh. First, it reckons, this will 
help boost its demand that "tainted" RJD leaders 
like Mr Laloo Prasad and Mr Taslimuddin should 
quit. Second, the Yatra may gather momentum and 
strengthen the claim that Ms Bharati is being 
"victimised" for a cause at least as noble as the 
Jharkhand movement. Third, it would help it be 
rid of Ms Bharati herself! She has become a 
source of embarrassment for the BJP because of 
her family's antics. (Her brother went on a 
dharna against tainted ministers in her own 
Cabinet and her nephews have been messing around 
with civil servants.)

The first two stratagems are a big gamble. It's 
unclear that many people will be taken in by the 
"tainted ministers" campaign and the 
"flag-hoisting" argument. They know how to 
demarcate "flag-hoisting" from communal 
incitement. Ironically, the only certainty is Ms 
Bharati's own dislodging from power! 

The law, assuringly, may be catching up with Mr 
Narendra Milosevic Modi too. The Supreme Court 
has ordered Gujarat to reopen 2,100 cases of 
violence-or half the total-which were summarily 
closed on the pretext that the accused could not 
be traced. New evidence is emerging from the 
Nanavati-Shah commission hearings of Mr Modi's 
culpability. Police officers' and senior 
bureaucrats' testimonies confirm that Mr Modi 
personally decided to stir up emotions on 
February 27, 2002 by bringing the Godhra victims' 
bodies to Ahmedabad. Former state police chief K. 
Chakravarthi has revealed that he ordered his 
officers to investigate the "conspiracy angle" to 
the post-Godhra violence-an implicit admission 
that the violence was pre-planned.

A specific allegation was made before the 
Concerned Citizens' Tribunal by a "highly placed 
source" that a meeting was held on the evening of 
Feb 27 by Mr Modi with some other senior 
ministers and police officials. "The meeting had 
a singular purpose: The senior-most police 
officials were told that they should expect a 
Hindu reaction after Godhra. They were told that 
they should not do anything to contain this 
reaction". This source was killed in mysterious 
circumstances. One can only hope his version will 
get further corroborated.

Other evidence is emerging too, especially from 
the Ahmedabad police commissioner P.C. Pande, 
joint commissioner M.K. Tandon, and additional 
director-general (intelligence) R.B. Sreekumar. 
This shows that the police reporting system and 
law-and-order machinery completely broke down 
from February 27 onwards. Thus, top police 
officials got to know about the Naroda-Patia and 
Gulberg Society incidents (where former Congress 
MP Ehsan Jafri was burnt alive) many hours after 
they occurred.

The local policemen were ordered not to report 
these incidents to the headquarters by wireless 
as the communications system might get clogged! 
Even more eloquent is Mr Sreekumar's 172-page 
affidavit, based on intelligence reports, which 
details the complicity of police officials in the 
violence. For instance, it says: "Officers at the 
decisive rung Š ignored the specific instructions 
from the official hierarchy on account of their 
getting direct verbal instructions from the 
senior political leaders of the ruling party."

This evidence should be systematically collated 
and used not just in the Nanavati-Shah 
commission, but also in the trial courts to pin 
down the culprits. The Modi government cannot be 
expected to do this. It is the greatest culprit 
of all. The Centre must step in-by setting up a 
new commission to inquire into the causes of and 
course of the post-Godhra violence and by 
impleading itself as a party in all the relevant 
litigation. The UPA owes this to the people of 
Gujarat and of India, and to our Constitution.

The UPA's Common Minimum Programme promised to 
"to preserve, protect and promote social harmony 
and to enforce the lawŠ to deal with all 
obscurantist and fundamentalist elements who seek 
to disturb social amity and peace". Barring the 
announcement by Railway Minister Laloo Prasad of 
an inquiry into the Godhra incident, it has done 
little to bring justice to the people of Gujarat. 
Gujarat, the greatest state-aided pogrom of a 
religious minority since Independence, did not 
even find a mention in Dr Manmohan Singh's first 
address to the nation. Nor did the word 
"secularism".

This void must be filled without delay. Gujarat 
wasn't just another communal riot. It was a case 
of genocidal violence. No society can even aspire 
to be civilised if it cannot prevent and punish 
genocide of its own citizens.-end- 

______


[5]

30 Aug 2004

CRIMINALS IN SAFFRON
I.K.Shukla

After Advani was "cleared" in the Hawala Scam, 
after Murali M Joshi-Advani-UmAbharti were 
allowed to go scotfree in the Babri Demolition, 
after Thackeray's continual hooliganism went 
unpunished, after all the saffron gangsters 
escaped being charged with perjury (swearing 
allegiance to the Constitution and then savagely 
suborning, sabotaging it), now comes, in the wake 
of the roguish confrontation that outlaw BJP has 
mounted in the parliament, another bonanza has 
fallen in its lap.

Karnataka govt. has withdrawn the cases of 
rioting and disruption of public peace in Hubli 
Aug.15 1994 by UmAbharti who seditiously violated 
the curfew and reached the Idgah Maidan with a 
mob of saffronite goons , to do what (hold your 
breath): to hoist the tricolor. Six people lost 
their lives to prove that Um was not Abharti but 
a patriot, i.e., Bharati. Id[g]ah became another 
"disputed site".
Another site for Hindutva mobilization.

Saffronites had proved their neo-Hinduness and 
similarly sanguinary "patriotism" in Gujarat with 
assassination, arson, gangrape, spearing of 
infants, tearing of wombs, burning alive of 
men-women-children, loot, destruction of 
properties worth crores, desecrating graves,  and 
razing memorials and shrines - all Muslim.

On a smaller scale, but quite horridly, they had 
done the same to Christians, not only in Gujarat, 
aided and abetted not only by the central command 
in Nagpur and New Delhi, but also by such a 
well-known socialist as George Fernandes, to whom 
the furore over the rape of Christian and Muslim 
women was worse than inane. Doesn't India have a 
rape every six minutes? Did not India have rape 
traditionally?

Congress gave the BJP another dramatic victory as 
a steroid boost to its sagging morale and sinking 
fortunes. It had done so before - in the Shah 
Bano case, in the opening of the Masjid doors and 
construction of Chabutara in Ayodhya, and in 
Gujarat by cowardly non-inerference in the 
genocidal orgy of blood and fire under the 
supervision of our Torquemada, N.Modi. Congress 
has thus certified itself as a saffronite party, 
a saviour of Hindutva, espousing filtered fascism.

Could Congress have chosen a moment more 
inappropriate for this ignominy? It is distancing 
itself from Aiyar's remarks on Savarkar. Does 
Congress then endorse as patriotiosm the 
grovelling cowardice, rabidly communal fascism, 
first advocacy of two-nation theory, treasonous 
collaboration with the foreign imperialist enemy, 
pitiable and repeated pleas and petitions for 
mercy that characterised Savarkar's career? Does 
it call this Jai Chand, this Quisling, a hero, a 
freedom fighter? If yes, let it say so openly 
loudly now to let people know that it is the 
obverse of BJP, nothing different.

It is the loss of vision and vigor of Congress 
that encourages people like Karunanidhi, an 
ex-BJP ally well-versed in changing saides, to 
chastise Aiyar for his view of Savarkar.

Veer as an adjective and noun has replaced 
Vinayak in Savarkar's name. Can it coverup his 
cowardice and treason of 1942? He and 
Mahasabha-RSS had been collaborating with the 
Brits for decades. This is an outrageous semantic 
sleight of hand and boldly deviant erasure of 
memory. Why is Congress helping BJP rewrite 
history and nominate cowards and stool pigeons as 
national heroes?

If Congress is determined on political harakiri, 
no tears will be shed for it. But what it is 
doing by its
maladroitness is far more lethal. It is 
legitimating liars and vindicating lies that can 
prove lethal to the existence of India as a 
nation-state.

The cowards and traitors, who always betrayed the 
nation, who instigated and launched blood baths 
in a series promising more of the same, whose 
idols were fascists, whose mentors were 
Manu-Mill-Mussolini, all atavistic and alien 
models of mendacity and mayhem, who made lying a 
winning artifice in the polity - could not have 
expected rewards that Congress showered on it one 
after another and helped make a criminal gang 
acceptable as a mainstream political outfit.

Thus Congress deprived the people of India any 
genuine choice between two parties, it drained 
democracy of all meaning.

Bullying and confrontation has paid BJP-RSS big 
dividends. The saffronazi anti-nationals will 
expand their business - opening new portfolios, 
starting new ventures.

IKS/30Aug04

______



[6]

August 30, 2004


PRESS RELEASE

A delegation comprising of imminent citizens and 
people from 30 different organisations today met 
the Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushil Kumar 
Shinde and Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil to 
protest against the attack on Marathi newspaper 
Mahanagar editor Nikhil Wagle. The Chief Minister 
and Home Minister assured the delegation that

a)      A CID investigation will be ordered in the case
b)     Investigation against local police inaction
c)     Also asked to the delegation to meet the 
Chief Minister and Home Minister after 3 weeks to 
check out the progress in the case.

After the assurance given by the Chief Minister 
and the Home Minister, the delegation pursued 
Nikhil Wagle to end his hunger fast, which he had 
been since Saturday 28, in protest against the 
local police inability to arrest the accused and 
after much persuasion arrested 4 persons and gave 
then bail later.

The delegation comprises of Mahesh Bhatt, Javed 
Akhtar, Rahul Bose, Teesta Setalvad, Javed Anand, 
Meena Wagle, Yuvraj Mohite, Pramod Nigodkar, 
Hemant Desai, Gajanan Khatu, Dolphy D'souza, 
Sumedh Jhadav, and others.

Memorandum to Maharashtra Chief Minister & Home Minister

Dear Sir,

As a journal and group committed to 
inter-community harmony and promoting reason, 
dialogue and the rule of law, we are tremendously 
concerned about the deliberate and systematic 
attempts to whip up communal sentiments and 
increase communal polarisation in the state. The 
absence of adequate response from the police and 
administration in the past week makes the 
situation even more ominous. That this is 
happening as a clear ploy on the eve of the 
elections is something that both the Government 
and administration need to address before the 
situation goes entirely out of control.

We refer to three specific incidents in the past 
week where police inaction at best could be at 
work.

1.  Editor of Aapla Mahanagar, Nikhil Wagle was 
brutally attack today and narrowly escaped being 
burnt alive when a group of Shiv Saniks inspired 
by the Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Mr. 
Narayan Rane assaulted him and two colleagues  at 
Malvan in Konkan-the western cost of Maharashtra 
on August 28, 2004. What was most worrying about 
the incident was the absence of any response from 
the local police (in fact the DYSP       ) 
humiliated Shri Wagle and his colleagues while 
they were at the police station  instead of 
registering FIRs and arresting the guilty who 
were named clearly by eye-witnesses to the 
incident. It was only after interventions by the 
Home secretary's office that action was initiated 
locally. This does not bode well as the situation 
in Malvan had become very volatile on Saturday 
and with the health of Mr Wagle and his 
colleagues fragile (they only took treatment 
after some arrests were made) and could have 
errupted into something uglier. Mr Wagle is still 
on a hunger fast and it is disturbing that even 
in the matter of arrests and registering of FIRs, 
the police have faulted -four persons who were 
arrested were released on bail late on Sunday 
night and critical sections in the FIR like 
sections 307  (attempt to murder) and 109 
(punishment for abetment if the act abeted is 
committed in consequence and where no express 
provision is made for it's punishment) were 
deliberately not applied. This smacks of 
deliberate obfuscation of facts, Sir.

The attack took place at about 8.15 am. Mr. 
Wagle's colleague Mr. Yuvraj Mohite and Mr. 
Pramod Nigudkar were also seriously injured until 
the time we are releasing the statement (2 pm on 
Saturday) No action is been taken on the 
attackers by the Malvan Police. Mr. Wagle and his 
colleague were attack after conducting a workshop 
for local activists yesterday.

Mr. Wagle and his colleague have refused any 
treatment until those responsible for the attack 
have been apprehended.

2. Bombs thrown on Friday worshippers at Mosques in Jalna and Parbhani
(clippings attached). On Friday afternoon, 
two-four motor cycle riders dressed fully in 
black and white respectively drove past Mosques 
where worshippers were offering Friday prayers 
and flung crude bombs resulting in over 18 
persons being injured. While it is clear from 
genuine police and spot reports that -Bombs were 
flung from outside, many media reports especially 
in the Marathi papers have chosen to deliberately 
make out that the Bombs exploded from within the 
Mosque. This is nothing short of a desire to 
spread and create the impression that these bombs 
were kept inside the Mosque. This is far from the 
truth as your own reports will tell you. It also 
attempts to dliberately polarise and communalise 
the ground level atmosphere further. We urge you 
that it is the duty of the government in power to 
sensitise the media about such lapses and for 
you, as Chief Executive of the State to appeal 
for reason and calm. With political outfits 
openly declaring that they would be returning to 
'hardline Hindutva' politics, the administration 
needs to be on its toes.

3. The attack on Mr. Wagle is the second serious 
attempted on the lives of the journalist in 
Maharashtra. Only four days ago, on Tuesday 
August 24 Mr. Sajid Rashid, editor of Hamara 
Mahanagar was brutally attacked  Since early 
July, a notoriously communal Mumbai daily, Urdu 
Times, has been carrying out a hate campaign 
Against Mr. Rashid and repeated representation to 
the Mumbai Police Commission, Mr. A N Roy on July 
20, 2004 and then again on 17/18 August of 2004 
no action is been action has been taken the 
Mumbai Police against those who attack Mr Sajid 
Rashid. Mr. Rashid was stabbed brutally on his 
back by two attackers around 10 p.m. on August 
24, 2004. He is no recuperating in the hospital. 
His attackers have not been apprehended.

On July 20, 2004, a delegation of MSD members, 
journalists-cum-human rights activists like 
Teesta Setalvad and Nikhil Wagle and Maharashtra 
Urdu Writers Association, met the Mumbai police 
commissioner, AN Roy, to demand immediate action 
against Urdu Times for inciting violence.  No 
action has been taken against the paper.

A written memorandum handed over by the 
delegation clearly told the police commissioner 
that we had serious apprehensions of physical 
attack and therefore the police must initiate 
immediate action to restrain the police.

On August 16, 2004 Sajid Rashid filed a personal 
complaint with the Dongri police station, to say 
among other things that he feared he was being 
followed. On August 17, the police commissioner 
was apprised of the latest development and his 
intervention urged.

Its shocking, to say the least, that the Mumbai 
police did nothing to restrain the Urdu Times and 
on the night of August 24, a murderous attack was 
launched on Rashid. Fortunate to have survived, 
Rashid is recuperating at KEM Hospital in Mumbai. 
But the Mumbai police must account for its 
inaction and the license that it has given to the 
Urdu Times to preach murder.

In all the cases mentioned above, the 
administration has not risen to the occasion 
creating apprehensions in the minds of the 
average citizen committed to peace and reason, 
that vicious communal violence may be unleashed 
in the state on the eve of the elections and the 
executive and administration will be found 
wanting.

We urge that you take sternest action in all the 
cases mentioned above and also ensure that the 
climate in Maharashtra is controlled before 
events go out of hand.

Yours Sincerely,

Teesta Setalvad
Co-Editor, Communalism Combat and Director Sabrang

Javed Anand
Co-Editor, Communalism Combat and Director Sabrang


_____


[7]

LETTER TO EDITOR

D-504 Purvasha
Mayur Vihar 1
Delhi 110091

1 September 2004

Bal Thackeray and Manohar Joshi have drawn upon the
cultural talent of their neighbourhood hero Narendra
Modi's five crore subjects to devise what is certain
to take the world by storm, the Maharashtra Garba,
performed while holding footwear rather than sticks.
In all fairness, they should recornise Mani Shankar
Aiyar's contribution by giving him at least a, well,
footnote.

Mukul Dube


______



[8]

Economic Times - August 31, 2004
In God's name: Sena lends voice to Bhajan Mandals

MUMBAI: Lending its voice to local 'Bhajan 
Mandals', the Shiv Sena on Monday resorted to an 
agitation on Western Railway, demanding that 
these mandals be allowed to sing prayer-songs 
while commuting on the suburban trains.

Party workers accompanied 'Bhajan Mandals' on 
local trains on Monday morning to enlist their 
support for these mandals. The police had 
recently issued a circular to these mandals, 
asking them to "refrain from creating nuisance."

Bhajan singing is a common feature on local 
trains, where a group of regular commuters spend 
their journey by singing prayer songs to the 
accompaniment of cymbals and brass bells.

Leading the agitation, Sena leader Subhash Desai 
said, "The party will support the bhajan 
singers." Reciting God's name cannot be construed 
as creating nuisance to fellow commuters, he 
added.

The Sainiks also carried placards with slogans 
saying that the bhajans are being sung in India 
and not in Pakistan. The 'Bhajan' controversy was 
sparked off after a minority group forwarded an 
application seeking permission to sing 
'quawwalis' in suburban trains.
The application was, however, rejected by the 
railway authorities, who subsequently issued a 
circular asking bhajan singers to refrain from 
"creating nuisance" in local trains.

The Sena's support comes weeks before the 
Assembly elections and is being viewed as an 
opportunity by the party to mobilise its cadres. 
Railway commissioner Suresh Khopade refused to 
comment on the Sena's agitation supporting the 
'Bhajan Mandals'.

According to Mr Khopade, the circular that had 
been issued was not new. "It is part of a routine 
procedure," he said.

"As per the rules, if the Railways receive a 
complaint from a commuter, then those creating 
nuisance would be booked under Section 145 of the 
Railway Act and Section 33 of the Bombay Police 
Act, which involves a fine ranging from Rs 50 to 
Rs 500," Mr Khopade said.

o o o

[ Related Material]

Nuisance gag on local train singers
Chandrima S. Bhattacharya (The Telegraph - Aug 29, 2004)
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1040829/asp/nation/story_3690874.asp


http://sify.com/cities/mumbai/fullstory.php?id=13547526
No more 'qawwalis' on local trains
by Saeed Khan
Thursday, 19 August , 2004, 09:31
Mumbai: The Western Railways' verdict is out - no 
qawwali on its locals. Mumbai's longsuffering 
rail commuter had been dreading the introduction 
of qawwali programmes on Central, Western and 
Harbour line trains from August 15.

The proposal had been put forward by Abdul Hameed 
Sahil, president of the Greater Mumbai Muslim 
League, and had been awaiting the go-ahead from 
railway authorities (Mid Day, July 20).

Following the report, the railway commissioner's 
office was flooded with calls and letters against 
the proposal.

According to Western Railway PRO Shailendra 
Kumar, "The public felt very strongly about the 
qawwali proposal. Also, Railway Board directives 
clearly state that bhajans, qawwali or any kind 
of 'gana-bajana' is prohibited on trains. So, 
under no circumstances could we agree to such a 
proposal."

He added that the railways would take drastic 
action against anybody trying to defy the 
directives.

According to Western Railway General Manager M Z 
Ansari, anybody found flouting the directive 
would be fined Rs 500 and could even be jailed 
for six months.

The police have already taken action against 80 
people belonging to bhajan groups on trains.

Shameem Shaikh, general secretary of the Greater 
Mumbai Muslim League, said, "We had gone to the 
railway commissioner's office several times to 
request permission, but were unable to convince 
them."

Sahil said the League had earlier planned to 
counter the bhajan mandalis on trains.

However, when it faced criticism from various 
sections of society, the League decided to change 
tactics and suggested that qawwalis be introduced 
on trains as well.



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