SACW #1 | 22 Dec2004

[sacw]

South Asia Citizens Wire  - Dispatch #1  | 22 Dec.,  2004
via:  www.sacw.net

[1] Bangladesh:   Ban on Ahmadiyya books stayed
[2] Pakistan: A retreat to tribal society [Legal-illegal 'jirgas'] 
(Nafisa Shah)
[3] India-Pakistan 'Flashpoint' Has Not Faded Away (J. Sri Raman)
[4] India: Rehana's fight for the struggle of her life (V.B.Rawat)
[5] India: Press Release " Programmes organized by communal groups in 
Dangs of Gujarat state on
Christmas day :  Possibility of communal riots" (AICU)
[6] India - Upcoming event :
ACHA and CSSS to hold a felicitation for Prof. Ram Puniyani (Bombay, 
26 Jan 2005)


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

[1]

The Daily Star
December 22, 2004
  	 
BAN ON AHMADIYYA BOOKS STAYED
Staff Correspondent
The High Court yesterday stayed the government ban on Ahmadiyya 
publications and proscribed any gazette notification on it until the 
regular bench of the High Court returns from winter vacation on 
January 2.

The High Court's (HC) vacation bench of Justice ABM Khairul Haque 
issued the order responding to a writ petition by six civil society 
groups and a member of Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat, Bangladesh (AMJB).

The writ filed on Monday by Dr Kamal Hossain on behalf of Odhikar, 
Sammilito Samajik Andolon, Ain o Salish Kendra, Karmojibi Nari, 
Jatiyo Ainjibi Parishad and Nijera Kori and AK Rezaul Karim, an AMJB 
member, challenged the ban and sought a rule on it. The same day the 
court fixed yesterday for hearing on the matter.

Meanwhile, anti-Ahmadiyya campaigner International Khatme Nabuwat 
Movement Bangladesh (IKNMB) yesterday announced that they would lay 
siege to Ahmadiyya Complex on Bakshibazar on December 23 next year.

In protest at the HC order, IKNMB brought out a procession from Rahim 
Metal Mosque in Tejgaon after the Asr prayers yesterday. While 
marching towards Ahmadiyya Mosque in Nakhalpara they chanted slogans 
demanding government move to declare the sect non-Muslims. Police 
intercepted the procession at Nabisco Crossing.

The government, on January 8, banned Ahmadiyya publications in the 
face of agitation by religious bigots spearheaded by some leaders of 
Islamic Oikya Jote, a constituent of ruling BNP-led alliance.

The attorney general did not turn up to the court yesterday although 
Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Helal Uddin Mollah on Monday told the 
court that Attorney General Hassan Ariff would make submission on the 
matter.

Dr Kamal Hossain, Dr M Zahir and Barrister Tanjib-ul Alam moved for 
the petitioners while the DAG for the state.

Meanwhile, the court turned down Advocate ABM Nurul Islam's plea to 
appoint him amicus curiae (somebody who assists court).

The petitioners asked the court to issue a rule on the home 
secretary, senior assistant secretary of home ministry, inspector 
general of police and deputy controller of Bangladesh Press to reply 
as to why the ban would not be declared illegal and stay the 
operation of the ban order.

______



[2]

Dawn
3 December 2004

A RETREAT TO TRIBAL SOCIETY
By Nafisa Shah

Two recent but paradoxical developments have turned the national 
focus on jirgas. The proposal of legalizing jirgas has been put forth 
by the treasury benches in the Sindh Assembly, while a High Court 
judge, earlier this year, gave a ruling outlawing these tribal 
councils.
It should be noted however, that there is already a legal space for 
jirgas to operate within the law of Qisas and Diyat, an ordinance 
that legalizes private mediation in murder cases through the legal 
instrument of 'razinama,' a settlement out of court. The jirgas today 
are not illegal even if they are not legal.
Jirgas are popular in upper Sindh, largely because of the total 
failure of the criminal justice system, a strong collusive culture 
within the police, and weak and contradictory criminal laws.
A blood feud between Solangis and Jagiranis in my district killed at 
least 19 people between July and October, among them two women, and 
seven people from one family. Several houses were ransacked, burned. 
Agricultural products were left to rot. Water courses were diverted, 
transformers blasted and rockets fired. Public property worth 
millions was left in a shambles.
The whole area between Khairpur and Kingri remained a no-go area for 
more than three months. The Sindh Rangers came in, and at least 300 
to 500 district police personnel were deployed.
Because of the conflict, hardened criminals had been brought in from 
the riverine belt to assist each side. Rockets, automatic weapons, 
kalashnikovs and other weapons had been stockpiled to the extent that 
the police and the law enforcement agencies found themselves 
completely helpless.
The Solangis and the Jagiranis have their property and houses, 
villages in close proximity interspersed with each other. They serve 
as clients and patrons -- the Jagiranis as clients, contractors and 
lessees to the property of the Solangis, who are often absentee 
farmers.
The Solangis have jobs in the government, and are economically more 
prosperous than the Jagiranis. The Solangis have also, over the 
years, by making strategic alliances, been able to gain access to 
government services like schools, water, and electricity more 
effectively than the Jagiranis, who are in large measure deprived of 
many basic services.
The present conflict emerged over an unsettled issue of eight years 
ago. The Jagiranis had suspected the Solangis of sponsoring the 
murder of a fellow member. When recently, they asked the Solangis on 
oath the latter confirmed their suspension.
However, they agreed to settle the matter with the mediation of the 
chief Jagirani Sardar. Before that could be settled, a grenade 
mysteriously exploded in a Jagirani house killing one man, and 
injuring two women. The latter, attributing the act to the Solangis, 
killed seven members of a poor, unrelated family, and hence the feud 
broke out.
Relief came only after a traditional jirga. Opposed to the jirga 
system, I nevertheless participated as an observer. Minister Manzur 
Panwar was the amin from one side. Others, the DPO and DIG Sukkur, 
did not appear on the day for fear of the courts, although they had 
deputed the lower police who organized the whole affair.
For nearly three months as district nazim, I had argued with the 
police to take action against the culprits. The police concluded that 
this was a "qaumi jehro", which could only be resolved though a jirga.
One killing after another was perceived as a part of the feuding 
game, and not in terms of human loss. The most heinous activity 
during the feud, in which at least 20 rockets were fired and several 
houses burned, was carried out at a time when there were more than 
300 police and paramilitary officials posted in the district.
The communities also knew that eventually the matter would be settled 
though the private justice system, so they went about killing each 
other, in their quest to maintain a balance in this war for honour.
As district nazim, I tried to convince the police to take action, but 
nothing happened. The only option was that of mediation. The 
settlement was a mathematical game, a cold calculation like the kind 
presented in a balance sheet which was something to this effect.
"Solangis: nine killings - male - adds up to 27 lakh, one killing - 
female adds up to six lakh, Injured, total fine 35 lakh..." 
"Jagiranis, eight killings male, 24 lakh, one killing female six lakh 
... Total cost 45 lakhs..." The Solangis, it was calculated, owed the 
Jagiranis Rs 10 lakh, since they had inflicted more losses. The 
Solangis would have to pay Jagiranis for the two groups to be equal 
again.
Until then the Solangis would be in debt. The settlement system is a 
system of account of human life and losses as opposed to a system of 
crime, punishment and atonement. In fact, the Solangis pleaded 
innocent saying that the matter that catapulted the conflict was the 
grenade incident, that they denied on oath. The onus of initiating 
the conflict would then be with the Jagiranis.
The Jagiranis cleverly offset the blame by saying that they would 
only believe the oath of innocence if the best among them took it in 
a shrine in the desert of Nara! So no one was eventually responsible 
for the feud.
With this settlement, the Solangis and Jagiranis forgave each other 
their sins, their feuds, their violence, and within minutes, life was 
back to normal although in a corner somewhere the lone survivor of a 
family that lost seven members asked "what about me".
A progessive like me, to save the area from havoc, had to succumb to 
the farce of settlement of feud through fines, condoning all 
killings, etc., knowing very well, that it would resolve nothing.
It would only give a momentary peace. But somewhere else, sometime 
later another violent spasm of feuding will bring turmoil and 
destruction in its wake, reinforcing the culture of private 
retribution.
A jirga is collective justice, and collective retribution instead of 
individual justice and individual retribution. Collections of fine 
ensures collectivity and unity of the group. In the aforementioned 
case, it was not relevant who the accused and killers were. Seven 
FIRs were lodged against a total of more than 600 people.
I now realised that I am operating in a tribal zone, under the tribal 
value system, created and pampered with a collusion among the state, 
bureaucracy, judges, and that the entire substance of this ugly 
ordeal has been provided by the laws.
The moral of this sad state of affairs is that the legal mess, 
compounded by bad governance, has to be sorted out if we are to put 
an end to the tribal system that has grown out of laws like the Qisas 
and Diyat and Hudood ordinances, A verdict of the High Court 
outlawing jirgas is not enough.
The criminal justice system has to be strengthened, and made more 
effective. In fact, it may be noted that jirgas have been increasing 
ever since. The killings in the wake of Shaista and Balakh Sher saga 
was also settled by a jirga, and not a court of law.
The recent move to legalize jirgas, therefore will further strengthen 
the tribal character of law, justice and state in Pakistan. Right 
now, when a bill to legalize jirgas, has been proposed, conflicts 
between tribes, clans, communities and people, over land, water and 
women, are erupting everywhere.
The problem with legalizing jirgas is that it would further 
strengthen a private justice system. Graver still is the apprehension 
that it would legitimize a tribal society that makes jirgas possible.
If jirgas resolve conflicts they also give us a system based on the 
tribal values of revenge, blood feuds, of killing and dying in the 
name of honour. If jirgas are legitimized, the ideology of feuding 
will be justified.
It will be deemed all right to kill and die for honour, to blow up 
houses, burn villages, kidnap women. Unfortunately, in Upper Sindh 
since the law enforcement agencies have historically patronized 
jirgas for the settlement of feuds, the tribal retributive self-help 
system is much stronger here than elsewhere in the province.
The same goes for lower Punjab, in the districts of Rajanpur and Dera 
Ghazi Khan. Honour killings are most often an internal matter for 
families and tribes. The state has over the years given families the 
authority to settle this issue as they please.
The police would often say: "We do not interfere in such cases. It is 
an issue of ghairat - honour. It is their own private issue." In such 
cases, complaints are not lodged where such murders are condoned.
The police, in fact, act as agents of the particular system in which 
they operate. On a more personal front, there have been several cases 
where I have battled with the police to register cases against 
families implicated in karo-kari cases but the intense collusive 
networks have always defeated me in my efforts.
Some murderers have come up to me to tell me how despite my best 
efforts, I have not been able to catch them. There have been 
countless cases when family victims of murder come to me, asking for 
assistance to arrest the accused.
I fight tooth and nail to get the culprits in police custody, and 
then, I find out that I have been left alone in the battle as the 
victims and the perpetrators are already distributing sweetmeat for 
they have signed the razimana, and the murderer has been forgiven.
Our lawmakers have to fight to amend the existing laws. The legal 
space for jirgas has to be done away with by sealing the compound 
ability provisions of the Qisas and Diyat Ordinance, and by 
completely abolishing the private space created for mediation in the 
case of homicide and other heinous offences. And this has to be 
matched with efforts to make the existing criminal justice system 
effective, and law enforcement more forceful.
The writer is zila nazim of Khairpur district.


______


[3]

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/122104I.shtml
truthout | Perspective
21 December 2004

INDIA-PAKISTAN 'FLASHPOINT' HAS NOT FADED AWAY

  J. Sri Raman

     South Asians may now relax and rejoice. South Asia has ceased to 
be a nuclear flashpoint. Declarations to this effect by the rulers of 
both India and Pakistan should leave no one in doubt in the matter.
     Or, should they? Must not the pious proclamations, on the 
contrary, provoke suspicions about the motives behind them?
     The first declaration came from India. On December 4, addressing 
a group of Indian businessmen, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said: 
"No one now talks of South Asia as a nuclear flashpoint." He 
explained: "Our political and diplomatic initiatives have begun to 
improve the regional security environment - and no travel advisories 
are being issued, apprehending war."
     The last reference was to the India-Pakistan standoff of early 
2002, which created worldwide fears of an imminent nuclear war in 
South Asia. True, unlike then, foreign governments are not today 
asking their nationals to take the first flight out of the country. 
Has the much-hyped India-Pakistan "peace process," however, turned 
the fears into mere fantasies?
     An emphatic endorsement of Singh's statement followed - from 
Pakistan. It came at the end of yet another round of official-level 
India-Pakistan talks held in Islamabad. On December 15, Tariq Osman 
Hyder, head of the Pakistani delegation, told a joint media 
conference: "South Asia is no longer a nuclear flashpoint." According 
to him, the flashpoint had faded away because India and Pakistan had 
entered "a dialogue mode" and made "progress on important issues 
related to nuclear CBMs" (confidence-building measures). Has the 
"progress" made the peril that South Asia survived in 2002 a thing of 
the dim, distant past?
     The questions, really, are rhetorical. Hyder was talking after 
the failure of the two-day Islamabad talks. The main item on the 
agenda of the meeting was the draft of an agreement on prior 
notification of missile tests. The agreement remained unsigned at the 
end of the talks. And no advance on the subject is expected until the 
next round on nuclear CBMs, for which the date is to be decided by 
December's end.
     The non-progress is the more remarkable because of the fact that 
the agreement was only supposed to formalize an already established 
practice and procedure. Since 1999, India and Pakistan have been 
notifying each other ahead of their missile tests. A formal agreement 
once seemed the simplest of CBMs for the two countries to produce as 
proof of their nuclear "responsibility" without cutting back or 
compromising on their nuclear weapons programs. The agreement has 
still not been arrived at because of insuperable differences over 
details like information on the missile's trajectory as part of a 
prescribed notification.
     An agreement, in any case, would not have meant fewer missile 
tests, or any slowing down of the nuclear-capable missile race. It 
would only have represented an attempt by both to tell the world that 
their missile race posed no serious risk to South Asia. It would, in 
other words, have been yet another attempt by both India and Pakistan 
to legitimize the Bomb-driven race.
     The only CBM on which the two nuke-rattling neighbors have agreed 
since the start of the "process" is the establishment of a 'hotline" 
between Directors-General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of the two 
countries. This step, too, has only served as an argument in support 
of the sense of "responsibility" of the two nuclear states and their 
resolve to minimize the chances of nuclear conflicts and accidents. 
It has thus been yet another unconvincing attempt by both to sanitize 
and legitimize their nuclear weapons and programs.
     In the course of their talks on CBMs and Nuclear Risk Reduction 
Measures or NRRMs (the "process" having produced more fashionable 
acronyms than the faintest advances towards "peace"), the rulers of 
India and Pakistan have agreed to undertake yet another initiative. 
New Delhi and Islamabad have agreed to seek "parity" with nuclear 
powers (P5), "consultations" with them "on matters of common 
concern," and development of a "common nuclear doctrine." They have 
agreed, in other words, to knock on the door of the "nuclear club."
     An improvement on this proposal (worryingly, with the support of 
some hitherto anti-nuclear activists) calls for an India-convened 
conference of nuclear powers and "nuclear-capable states" for the 
same objectives.
     All this may make strange allies of the implacable adversaries 
that India and Pakistan stay despite their intermittent "dialogue 
process." Just as their uneasy coexistence in the U.S.-headed 
"alliance against global terror" does. None of this, however, makes 
the "nuclear flashpoint" a fading memory.
     The flashpoint will not fade away so long as nuclear-capable 
missiles of India and Pakistan remain deployed against each other. It 
will not, so long as missiles of the two countries stay on 
hair-trigger alert. It will not, so long as nuclear warheads are not 
separated from delivery systems.
     South Asia stays a flashpoint when Pakistan's President General 
Pervez Musharraf sneers that "only a madman" can expect his country's 
nuclear weapons program to be weakened under him. The danger remains 
dire, when India's Prime Minister talks, in characteristically soft 
tones but unexpectedly undemocratic terms, of the need for 
"continuity and consensus" in the country's nuclear policy. The 
flashpoint cannot fade away while his government thus affirms its 
commitment to the policy of nuclear militarism that his far-right 
predecessors imposed on India.

  A freelance journalist and a peace activist of India, J. Sri Raman 
is the author of Flashpoint (Common Courage Press, USA). He is a 
regular contributor to t r u t h o u t.

______


[4]

SACW - 22 December 2004

REHANA'S FIGHT FOR THE STRUGGLE OF HER LIFE
By V.B.Rawat

Rehana Khan, a 37 years old social activist in the Gangoh block of
Saharanpur district in Uttar-Pradesh, face one of the toughest battle of her
life. Her social battles against orthodoxy were not less then what has been
the battle for her own rights in a family governed by married brothers and
sisters. Saharanpur, is one of the most fertile land in Western
Uttar-Pradesh where the dominating communities comes from the backward
Gujjar community equally strong in Hindus and Muslim religion. The region is
also known for Ms Mayawati who became chief minister and opted for a little
known Harora constituency of the Uttar-Pradesh assembly. Dalits in Sahranpur
became quite aggressive but soon have to face the brunt of powerful backward
as well as Muslim community. Despite all good things, Saharanpur has a share
of shocking news including violence on Dalits as well as women. Purdah
system is still prevalent in this border district of Uttar-Pradesh, which on
the one side is bordering with Hardwar and Dehradun and other side Harayana'
s Yamunanagar district. Though women do a lot of work and particularly those
from the marginalized sections, the upper backward caste women remain in
purdah.

Rehana was born in 1967 to a policeman father who was an Inspector in the
Uttar-Pradesh police. The family was quite liberal in practice and ideas
though stick to Islamic traditions. She graduated from Meerut University and
found a job in Delhi police. Her three brothers and four sisters were
married and running their own families while her father stayed with her
mother. Rehana would go to take care of her father. The family had 31 bighas
of land in Thota Fatehpur, Gangoh. In 1993 her father died of a severe heart
attack and that changed the entire life of Rehana. A shocked mother needed
someone close to her heart to console and take care of. Though she was
living with her eldest son and his wife, the mother and other sisters forced
Rehana to leave her job in Delhi and shift back to Gangoh to look after her
mother as well as their ancestral property, which was lying useless, as
every one among the brothers and sisters were busy in their own work.

Growing in a small conservative town of Gangoh with her head high after the
demise of her father was a difficult task for Rehana. A society where women'
s are not considered beyond rearing child and looking after them, Rehana,
though still conservative in all terms, never really became a woman of too
much isolated from others. Though she still have deeper faith in Islam, read
Quran and observe Namaz, yet nothing could prohibit her to work in a very
secular environ. She would go the villages, meet women, educate them about
their basic rights and even teach them how to cook, go to hospitals, meet
the bank clerks or police officials. These small things mattered a lot.

And in just over five years when she also worked on the field for her
livelihood, as she was not really working anywhere in any NGO or other so
called Social revolutionary organizations. She had by then and created a
space for herself, which would find very few equals in the area. She would
go on bullock cart to reach the villages and then switched to tractor. She
would drive the tractor and do all the related work herself to make her
ancestral land a success. Her brothers and sisters were not very keen on
this property in the village till Rehana by dent of her hard work made
herself a successful farmer. Her brothers were not equipped enough to go and
do things. Rehana has been a very promising mind and she advised her brother
in the village to opt for family planning in lieu of which the government
was offering some land. Both her brother and his wife decided for it and
were allotted 6 bighas of land, each, in their name.

Rehana's social activities were making her popular in the region while she
was also being targeted. Being an unmarried woman and that too from a
minority community was a tough task. Her mother wanted her to marry but
Rehana decided against it. She wanted to devote her time to the villagers
and is happy in serving the people. May be there are other reasons which she
does not want to discuss with us, yet her spirit to work for the women of
her community is unquestionable. A happy Rehana got a boost sooner when the
Sub District Magistrate of Gangoh Tehsil decided to honor her in 2001 with
about 9-1/2 bigha of land for plantation in a village. This was a lease
granted to her for 30 years so that she can plant the area and make it
environment friendly and increase environmental awareness among the village
folks. Some people of the village, obviously, unable to digest such a
revolting step of awarding some land to a Muslim woman, objected and went to
the SDM against the same, who refused to budge. The villager contested her
claim on the ground that she was not the member of Madhaupur Panchayat,
Thola, Fatehpur,Gangoh. Later, the politicians of the villages decided to
make the case more curious by asking a self styled Dalit to file case
against Rehana at the higher authorities. Remember, the land she was given
did not belong to any one but a village land but the landed mafia of the
village brought a Dalit into picture who is already a land grabber of the
area and is alleged to have sold a large number of its track to many people.
The powerful Thakurs and Muslims joined hand with a few Dalit leaders and
decided that they must oppose this land be given for plantation to an
'outsider', but the fact is that they were opposed in their common interest,
to deny land to a woman. Interestingly, Rehana had contested from this
village as a member of Village Panchayat and withdrew in favor of a local
youth. She says, how could I have contested the elections without being a
member of the village.

Rehana's pain is not what she found that none of the villagers came for her
rescue. Her pain is more visible then ever when she cried at a programme
organized by Social Development Foundation and honored her for her strong
convictions and fight for her own right. She found that all those 'brothers'
who used to be with her and make tall claims about women's empowerment
disappeared fearing community retaliation. None of them would come to go
along with her to the police station and block offices. In fact, she was
once mercilessly beaten by the goons of the village and when she tried to
contact the police officer, he asked her to visit him ' late' in the evening
at his house. Tragically, this police officer was a Dalit. So one must also
remember from these facts that mere caste and religious identities do not
make a person great and honest. A social activist who used to work with her
complained that she is too 'individualistic' and does not seek 'their'
cooperation. Most of them left her in lurch thus making themselves available
to 'other' bigger forums. She was used for their own purposes of 'social'
work while they enjoyed a 'little' interaction with their 'national' and '
international' human rights masters. Rehana was also a member of an
organization claiming to work for the landless on right to food but none of
them had time to see whether she should be supported or not. Some of the big
wigs who still use her name for their programmes in the name of a 'minority'
woman, said usual that ' we don't take up the individual cases'. They don't
take up the individual cases by denying their own activist a space for
fight, by persistently keeping away from the individual issue where your
support is more vital and focused.

Rehana has now started working for the poor village girls belonging to
Muslim community. It was village Badi Majri where a majority of villagers
belong to Gujjar community who might have economic resources and big land
holding but culturally still living in pre-medieval society. Women are
illiterate and even not wanted to be outside their house. It was a village
where more than 19 children died during the rains earlier in June-July 2004
due to strange fever but mostly due to dirt and filth. The unhygienic
conditions make the children prone to such diseases.  Rehana is now changing
the village. She started a sewing center for the village girls and involved
them in other social activities including educating them in English, Hindi
and Urdu as well as bringing them to the national mainstream. Some of them
have now started participation in workshops outside their homes, which was a
near impossibility.

The girls are stronger enough to venture out now. Rehana also helped her own
niece and nephews to study and go for professional courses even when her
elder brother is a simple mechanic. With her persistence for education, her
niece scored over 80% marks in 12th standard this year. She is a Sanskrit
veteran and could recite Sanskrit verses more than any other Hindu boy of
her town.

But all this had never pained Rehana that much which she has now feeling
from her own family, a feeling of alienation by her own family who threw her
out. Her mother, for whom she left her well fetched job in Delhi, now want
her to stay inside the house, though not necessarily wear burqua. The
brother and sister in law feel uncomfortable with her because of her social
commitments and every-time she comes back there is a tense peace at home.
The mother who wanted to give one portion of the ancestral property of her
house to Rehana now keeps quiet. Her father had left a will in which he
wished that his daughter be given equal share in his property because it is
she who served him the most. Rehana knows well that her mother does not want
her to share the property with her brothers. She often says, "why does she
want property. For whom? " Once when I visited their house, the mother's
often request to me was to curtail Rehana's movement and ask her to remain
inside the house. " Jamana kharab hai', she would say. Rehana does all her
work at home and knows well that the 'Bhaiya-bhabhi' don't want her to
remain there though their children would like her to be yet she is
determined to fight. She still feel that why does my mother not realize that
I need a private space for myself. May be I will start a hostel for the
girls of my community who are unwanted in the family. I wish my mother had
realized my sentiments for working for the poor. These rewards give me
recognition. It gives me satisfaction to work for the people.

Rehana's struggle for her dignity and right continue even as the government
brings an amendments to the Hindu Succession Law, the Hindu fanatics will be
up in arm soon if cases like Rehana are not resolved properly. It is time
for the Muslims also to go for an aggressive social engineering so that any
effort to communalise the situation is foiled. Rehana and the women like her
need social security as on their commitment rest the work of the rural women
who are looking for some one to hear their concern, problems and issues. It
is time to repay the small but important work of one of the unknown woman
who is fighting a battle of her dignity and right. It is a right to have a
space for herself, a right to privacy and a right to live independently.
Hopefully, we will realize it soon before it blows the society.

______


[4]


19 December 2004

Urgent Press -  Release

Programmes  organized by communal groups in Dangs of Gujarat state on
Christmas day :  Possibility of communal riots : Strong demand of 
intermediation of
state govt.  to cancel other programmes by the organization.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

National Executive Member & Joint Secretary of   All India Christian Council,
Mr.  Samson C. Christian states in a Press - Release that the communal groups
  organize religious progammes with a view to disturbing Christmas (Natal) 
celebration of Christmas only festival of a year since last four years in the 
district of Dangs and Maharashtra in a systematic pattern. Under the shadow of 
religious programmes the communal groups preach against Christians and utter 
slogans and create anti-Christian atmosphere among common people so the 
Christians celebrate Christmas in fear. And Christmas is celebrated 
without  free -
  atmosphere in the presence of police with guns. In the current year,  the
active communal worker and the chief leader of the anti-Christian riots of 
Dangs in the past Mr. Janubhai A. Pawar as a organizer of  ' Adivasi Sanskruti
Jatan  Samittee'  has organized ' Dutt  Jayanti Pran Pratishtha Mahotsav' at
Naldadev (Mithadev) on Christmas 25-12-04  during church service form 
9.00 am to
12.00 pm and 10.00 am to 12.pm. On  25-12-04 and on 26-12-04 on both the days,
  in the presence of popular leaders of  Hindu community ' Akhand Harinam
Saptah' will be celebtrated and on 23-12-04  on Gujarat - Maharashtra border at
Salher village of Bagban taluka, 'Vishal  Hindu Mela' will be organized. If
these programmes are organized in true  meaning they are welcome, but they are
organized by communal groups and  organization on only festival of Christmas
and the communal leaders give anti  - Christian speech and the poor, illiterate
adivasis minds are filled with  anti-Christian poison so the atmosphere
become tensed and sensitive. The  Christians celebrate their only 
yearly festival
in the fear of last four years  such programmes are organized in December with
a view to harassing Christian  community.
The notable thing is that our organization filed S.C.A. 214/1999,  S.C.A.
13199/2000, S.C.A. 12035/2001 and S.C.A. 17880/2003 in Honourable 
High  Court of
Gujarat to give protection to the Christians in the month of December  in
south Gujarat, since four years continuously. The Hon'ble High Court 
of  Gujarat
has ordered to maintain law and order firmly to the officers of south  Gujarat
and pay attention to such programmes. In current year, All India  Christian
Council has written to the Chief secretary on 18-12-04 and urged to  inform in
written within five days, failing which the AICC will take again 
shelter of Hon
'ble High Court of Gujarat.
AICC also states that the education department has compelled the  students of
P.T.C. and C.P Ed to take part in ' Shaksharta Abhiyan ' during  Christmas.
This drive will start from 13-12-04 and last till 24-12-04. This  drive is
conducted in late evenings and no any transportation is provided by  Government
in this winter So it is very difficult to return home from the  remote village.
During this drive the students of P.T.C., C.P. Ed have to  teach how to read
and write to five students in the remote villages and it is  compulsory.
Moreover, the routine teaching work is must so the Christian  members 
are facing
difficulties which will last till Christmas Eve. So the  organization has
written to the Chief secretary of the state to keep this  teaching 
drive on other
dates. In the year 2005 the central government has  given holiday on 
Good Friday
but the state Govt. has not declared Good Friday  as a holiday, so the AICC
has demanded this holiday firmly. 
Yours  Sincerly,               
Samson C. Christian
National Executive Member
& Joint Secretary
All India Christian  Council
Place:  Ahmedabad
Date:  19-12-04.


______


[6]   [UPCOMING EVENT]

ACHA AWARD 2004

Association for Communal Harmony in Asia (ACHA) and Centre for Study 
of Society and Secularism (CSSS) will hold a felicitation for Prof. 
Ram Puniyani on 26th January 2005 at the Press Club, Azad Maidan, 
Mumbai at 4 p.m


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