SACW | 27-28 Dec2004

[sacw]

South Asia Citizens Wire  | 27-28 Dec.,  2004
via:  www.sacw.net

[1] Bangladesh: Salma Sobhan Fellowship Programme
[2] India:  Seers and Scoundrels (Ashok Mitra)
[3] India: Civil society, not state, to bring 
about change (Asghar Ali Engineer)
[4] India: 2 articles on the developments in the Best Bakery Case from Gujarat
(i) But What Is Not (Editorial, The Telegraph)
(ii) The Victim (Seema Mustafa)
[5] Donate For Tsunami Relief In South Asia Via The Following Organisations
- some organisations within India
- Organisations Outside South Asia Collecting 
Money For Relief and Rehabilitation

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[1]


The Daily Star
December 28, 2004 	 

Salma Sobhan Fellowship Programme
Proper enforcement of laws a must to protect HR: Prof Amartya Sen
Staff Correspondent
Noble laureate Professor Amartya Sen has stressed 
the need for proper use and application of laws 
to protect human rights.

"Only law is not enough, we have to see how much 
effective it is in the society," he said while 
addressing a certificate award ceremony in the 
city yesterday as chief guest.

The protection of human rights also depends on 
education, social condition and other related 
issues in a society or a country, he added.

Describing the relations between the law and the 
rights, Prof Sen also said human rights cannot be 
protected without the existence of laws.

Prof Sen came to Dhaka yesterday morning to 
attend the certificate award ceremony of a 
training programme for women journalists from 
rural areas. Thirty-two trainee journalists 
received certificates at the ceremony.

Pratichi Trust, founded by Prof Sen, arranged the 
training programme in cooperation with the Brac, 
a leading NGO, and The Prothom Alo, a Bangla 
daily.

The journalism training is being provided under 
Salma Sobhan Fellowship Programme. Salma Sobhan 
was a prominent lawyer and wife of prominent 
economist Professor Rehman Sobhan.

Prof Rehman Sobhan, president of Pratichi Trust, 
chaired the function at Spectra Convention Centre 
in Gulshan. Fazle Hasan Abed, founder and 
chairperson of Brac, Motiur Rahman, editor of the 
Prothom Alo, and Minhaz Anwar of Pratichi Trust, 
also spoke.

In his brief speech, Prof Amartya Sen recalled 
the memory of late Salma Sobhan whom he met first 
around 50 years ago in the UK.

He paid tribute to her for her ideals, depth of 
thinking, strong intention and simplicity in 
expression.

A pioneer in the promotion of human rights, Salma 
expressed the complexity of human rights law in 
simple terms that the poor and common people 
could easily understand, Prof Sen said.

He called on the women journalists to see the 
society from their own perspective and do 
something positive for the people and the country.

Prof Rehman Sobhan said the main objective of the 
fellowship was to create opportunity for the 
underprivileged women.

They will bring a new dimension to journalism by 
looking into the problems from a different angle, 
he said.

Appreciating the initiative, Motiur Rahman said 
the Prothom Alo would provide all necessary help 
for the trainees to enhance their professionalism.

Fazle Hasan Abed said they have a plan to provide 
training to at least 200 women in rural areas 
under the fellowship programme.

_____


[2]


The Telegraph
December 27, 2004

SEERS AND SCOUNDRELS
- Godmen's influence on society is not uniquely Indian
Ashok Mitra
Why cavil at the phenomenon of their existence - 
godmen and godwomen are an integral part of the 
landscape. They are our heritage; they define the 
current milieu too.

Delve into a bit of pre-history. In both the 
Ramayana and the Mahabharata, seers, who were 
half-gods, were an integral part of the state 
apparat: always available on tap, they would 
counsel the king on the mystique of 
administration, they would advise him on military 
strategy, they would arrange marriages between 
warring dynasties, on occassion, they would even 
step on to ensure the longevity of a royal 
dynasty by contributing their semen. And they had 
their idiosyncrasies the populace were expected 
to put up with. Many of them did not bother to 
distance themselves from the standard weaknesses 
of the human flesh either.

Admittedly, most of this is mythology. But, as 
the Ram Janmabhoomi business has demonstrated, 
myths lead the way to objective reality. So much 
so that seers - current version of the 
mythological saints - turn into role models for 
the innocent multitude. They are holy, and, lo 
and behold, are at the same time prey to the 
temptations we ordinary folk are victims of. They 
thereby stop being a remote category; it is as if 
they genuinely belong to us; we are accordingly 
justified to confide in them. They assume the 
status of household personage, admonish us, offer 
us succour too. They are next to god, and yet, so 
human, subject to follies and foibles of the 
ordinary kind. This is precisely what makes them 
darlings of the masses. Since the seers of 
mythology are beyond their reach, today's 
householders have to be happy with the godmen and 
godwomen who are put on the pedestal and 
worshipped: their seediness, so to say, enhances 
their charm.

These godly people will occasionally indulge 
themselves and go on to commit indiscretions, 
including venal ones. Notwithstanding their 
departure from societal norms, their dignity 
remains unsullied. It was so in the Puranic 
tales, it is so even in the relatively modern 
times. Remember the Bengali couplet, which, in 
free translation, reads as follows, "He frequents 
bars and brothels. All that is true./ So what, 
Nityananda Roy still stays as my guru"? The 
individual referred to was the dearest disciple 
of the 16th-century "people's" saint, Shri 
Chaitanya. That man was obviously a charmer.

Actually, in all civilizations, godmen have been 
an integral part of civil society and, often, of 
governance. England could flaunt, fairly early, a 
Thomas à Becket, and, a few centuries later, 
Thomas Wolsey: Christiandom was, in any event, 
for a considerable while ambivalent on the issue 
of the separation of church from state. Cesare 
Borgia, the illegitimate son of Pope Alexander 
VI, no less, was himself a cardinal; that did not 
stop him from being a military commander. But his 
greater fame was as a philanderer. His 
half-sister, the pope's daughter, Lucrezia 
Borgia, achieved even greater notoriety as a 
libertine, changing husbands and sleeping 
partners in a manner emulated by Hollywood stars 
four centuries later; the suspicion long lingered 
that she must have poisoned one or two of her 
husbands. Quite honestly, religiosity and 
venality have gone together over major stretches 
of European history. It is barely a century from 
the days of Gregori Yeflimovich Rasputin, a 
charlatan, whom the mesmerized Czars accorded 
laissez passer to commit with impunity the most 
dastardly crimes even as he donned the role of 
principal spiritual-cum-political adviser to the 
Russian emperor.

Those visiting from other cultures may therefore 
disapprove of the influence exercised by seers 
and demi-seers over the Indian political system, 
but they have no business to act superior. Fake 
religiosity is the legacy of practically all 
civilizations. Given the level of illiteracy and 
the general backwardness, it is surprising that 
the forces of darkness - which these seers 
admittedly represent - are not even more 
entrenched than they in fact are. Some of the 
skunks masquerading as holy men still fulfil a 
social purpose. They help average men and women 
to rationalize their own lapse from the course of 
rectitude. The syllogism perhaps runs in the 
following sequence. We are ordinary mortals. It 
is unfortunate that we cannot stay away from the 
temptations of life. But, then, look at these 
noble religious souls. They are so high-minded, 
they are so close to god, and yet, they off and 
on commit the same sins as we do. The almighty 
not only forgives them, the almighty has even 
despatched them as his emissary to us. The seers 
disgrace themselves, and yet remain as seers. So 
there is nothing wrong if we, the lesser 
elements, stray from the straight and narrow path 
every now and then.

At some stage, however, the almighty becomes 
irrelevant and bread-and-butter political 
sociology takes over. Godmen acquire a public 
following just as film stars and cricketers do. 
Keeping company of cricketers and film stars 
supposedly strengthens the vote bank of 
politicians. Film artistes and sportspersons too 
in their turn gain a few concrete advantages 
because of their proximity to politicians. Once 
godmen and godwomen enter the picture, they too 
become equally capable of providing satisfaction 
to politicians; politicians return the 
compliments and satisfy the godmen.

It is fine as long as things remain on the plane 
of commercial transactions. Complications arise 
when seers, following the fashion set by 
cricketers and film stars, want to proceed a 
further step forward, that is, when they develop 
political ambitions of their own. Again, it is 
not a unique Indian phenomenon. As we have seen, 
the papacy in the Middle Ages was obsessed by an 
identical ambition; it was for it a chequered 
experience. India, yet to step out of the 
medieval period despite the briskness of the call 
centres, will have to go through the tortuous 
process the juxtaposition of statecraft and 
religiosity gives rise to. But a kind of a stable 
arrangement will be reached sooner or later.

Meanwhile, though, there will be reverberations 
caused by shifting equations and non-equations in 
the political arena. There will be the 
accompanying puzzle of identity: are the crooks 
seers, or is it the other way round, the seers 
are really crooks? Not surprisingly, godmen will 
be, for a time, a fast growing tribe. With an eye 
on the main chance, masseurs will declare 
themselves godmen, so will retired rail clerks 
and bank tellers and failed Sanskrit scholars. 
Here and there, a maulvi will aspire to be, 
overnight, an Ayatollah Khomeini. These specimens 
will build their clientele of admirers and 
acolytes, which will include politicians and 
judges and civil servants and businessmen. The 
intermediation of seers will be used for striking 
deals between ruling politicians and scheming 
civil servants or between politicians and judges, 
or between judges and shady industrial tycoons.

Every now and then, clandestine deals struck 
between godmen, civil servants, businessmen and 
members of the judiciary in assorted permutations 
and combinations will face a hitch. Once that 
happens, rumour mills will be at work. Since 
someone's misfortune is someone else's 
opportunity, from a small beginning, the rumours 
will assume awesome dimensions. Some people will 
find the emerging situation conducive to making 
yet more money. And old seers will fade away, 
yielding place to the new, exactly what happens 
with defunct politicians and ageing film stars. 
Change is a part of life, just as venality 
seemingly is.

Society, civil or uncivil, its creamy layer in 
particular, is corrupt to the core, and deserves 
death: did you say? This is idle patter. The evil 
streak is not for dying. It is the only constant 
factor in the society handed down to us. It will 
be a different matter if a great catharsis, 
either by miracle or by painstaking device, takes 
place. But pipedreams are pipedreams.

______


[3]

Dawn
December 25, 2004

CIVIL SOCIETY, NOT STATE, TO BRING ABOUT CHANGE
By Asghar Ali Engineer

Secular governance in a modern society throws up 
many challenges, particularly in developing 
societies. These societies can be divided into 
two categories: those which were colonized and 
those that were not directly colonized but were 
impacted by modern western societies. Those 
colonized were directly influenced by western 
legal concepts and practices.
When these countries became free the process of 
decolonization began but it was almost impossible 
to completely reorganize all the legal and 
administrative practices. At best some 
compromises could be worked out.
Also, the impact of modern legal and sociological 
concepts was also very deep and no developing 
society could escape these influences. Such a 
deep impact of modern legal institutions created 
tensions between traditionalism and modernism in 
countries like India.
The British colonial rulers promulgated their own 
laws and legal institutions on the country. They 
abolished certain legal institutions but 
continued with some of them to avoid aggravation 
of social tensions.
For example, they abolished the traditional 
criminal law and imposed the western criminal 
procedure code while retaining personal laws of 
different communities. All communities of India 
including the Muslims accepted this arrangement.
Even the Muslim ulema did not protest against 
imposition of modern western criminal law. Not 
only this Maulvi Nazir Ahmad translated it into 
Urdu and was bestowed the title of Shamsul Ulema 
by the Britishers for his services.
The colonial rulers avoided imposing secular laws 
in the domain of personal laws as they were very 
well aware of the sensitivity of the issue. In 
matters of marriage, divorce and inheritance no 
community would have accepted modern secular laws.
Any imposition of such laws would have created 
unmanageable conflict in the society. The British 
rulers did not want to take that risk. However, 
even for personal laws they introduced modern 
legal procedure and it was British judges who 
decided these cases. The traditional qazi and 
other courts were abolished.
After independence, India of course decided to 
become a modern secular country. Its leaders like 
Jawaharlal Nehru were greatly influenced by 
western secularism and modernism.
Nehru in particular was a great modernist and 
committed to the political philosophy of 
secularism and secular governance. Thus 
secularism became the sheet-anchor of Indian 
polity. However, even a secularist like Nehru 
could not abolish personal laws in India.
It was not only Muslims, as often claimed by 
many, who opposed imposition of modern secular 
laws known as common civil code. Traditional 
Hindus were equally, if not more vigorously, 
opposed to a change in their personal laws.
In fact the Hindu Code Bill was introduced in 
parliament even before independence, i.e., in the 
early forties but it could not be passed due to 
vehement opposition from traditional Hindus.
Nehru again tried after independence to reform 
the Hindu personal law and requested Dr.B.R. 
Ambedkar to draw up a Hindu Code Bill and 
introduce it in the parliament. The Congress 
ministers themselves opposed the bill introduced 
by Dr. Ambedkar and parliament was gheraoed by 
Sadhus and Hindu religious leaders. The bill had 
to be withdrawn and Ambedkar resigned as law 
minister.
It was only a watered-down version of the bill 
that was passed in three different acts. It is 
important to note that such reform was urgently 
needed as traditional Hindu laws did not give nay 
rights to women in matters of marriage, divorce 
and inheritance.
These rights, however, were available to Muslim 
women in traditional Shari'ah law. Some 
modernists tried to make uniform civil code as 
part of the Constitution as the Constitutional 
Assembly debates clearly indicate.
However, there was great deal of opposition from 
leaders of various communities and it was for 
this reason that a compromise was worked out and 
personal laws were allowed to continue while the 
uniform civil code was made part of Directive 
Principles, not enforceable but desirable.
It was hoped by the modernists that in the near 
future the uniform civil code would become 
acceptable to Indian people. However, it was not 
to be for a variety of reasons. First of all 
religion very much remains an integral part of 
our lives.
It could not be wished away as many modernists 
thought. Rationalism and humanism could not 
replace religion. Rationalism is an intellectual 
process and does help in critical inquiry but 
fails to produce any sense of ultimate Reality 
and relationship with that higher Reality.
Also, religion appeals to our emotions and 
becomes part of our culture and cultural 
traditions. It is so difficult to separate the 
two. We cannot live in cultural void. Even 
western culture is influenced by Christian 
traditions and beliefs.
It is after all not totally secular as some would 
like to believe. Western culture was considerably 
secularised over a period of two centuries. But 
our cultures are far more under the influence of 
religious beliefs, customs and traditions though 
the process of secularisation is having its 
impact on our cultures too.
But our cultural institutions remain far more 
complex. Even rationalists and atheists cannot 
escape the vicelike grip of traditional cultures. 
Thus in developing countries like India secular 
governance poses many complex problems, 
particularly in the field of law.
This causes many anomalies, which is very 
difficult to remove. On one hand, it is difficult 
to enact changes in the law and, on the other, 
women are fast becoming aware of their rights and 
demand changes in the law.
Even the courts, more often than not, become 
helpless as they have to operate within the given 
legal structure. The Shah Bano case is an 
important example of such anomalies.
The Shah Bano case, besides illustrating such 
anomalies, also throws light on the identity 
problems in a multi-religious but modern secular 
countries. The competitive religious identities 
pose serious political problems and gender 
justice takes a back seat.
Religion, in a developing and multi-religious but 
democratic country, becomes part of power 
struggle between various religious groups. 
Democracy is supposed to ensure minority rights 
be they religious, cultural or linguistic. 
However, democracy is often reduced to 
majoritarian ethos and minorities suffer 
discrimination.
The Shah Bano case was not so much a fight for 
Shari'ah as for minority rights. The Muslim 
responded to the call for agitation by Muslim 
leaders fearing their Muslim identity is in 
danger.
The fear was that if they did not fight against 
the Supreme Court judgment Islam may be wiped out 
from India. The judgment unfortunately 
pontificated that Islam is unfair to women and 
that government should enforce uniform civil code.
The majority communal forces, on the other hand, 
though hardly prepared for justice to their own 
women, began to demand enforcement of uniform 
civil code and accused the ruling Congress of not 
implementing UCC as it appeases the Muslim 
minority for its votes and condemned its 
secularism as pseudo-secularism.
Thus a purely legal issue was politicised and was 
used to intimidate the minorities. The role of 
Muslim leaders was far from desirable but due to 
BJP's anti-minority politics their role at that 
time was seen by Muslims as that of saviour of 
minority identity.
Thus the modern secular but multi-religious 
democracies have their own problems. The 
competitive struggle for power between different 
religious communities deflects the country from 
its ideal secular course. It will be too much to 
expect that ideal secular course will prevail in 
multi-religious set up. In fact power interests 
are more basic than the secular ideals.
The media, both print and electronic, plays no 
mean role. It also falls victim to majoritarian 
attitude with some honourable exceptions. Some 
newspapers display almost chauvinistic attitude 
and condemn minorities outright without 
appreciating their problems.
This further aggravates the situation and 
ultimately helps the reactionary minority 
leadership. And in all this the cause of women 
suffers. Gender justice becomes increasingly 
difficult to realise. Any progressive change in 
laws in favour of women is seen as interfering 
with religious matters and becomes danger to 
existence of religion.
Thus at the level of the state any change in 
personal laws is becoming increasingly difficult. 
However, it does not mean that situation remains 
static. Modernisation and secularisation is 
bringing sometimes perceptible and sometimes 
imperceptible changes and these incremental 
changes become qualitative changes in the status 
of women. Increasing degree of education among 
women is creating new awareness about gender 
justice and is creating more and more pressure 
for change in traditional laws.
The state has some obvious limitations in 
enacting gender-just laws but it is civil society 
in general and women as part of that in 
particular, which will be a catalytic agent in 
ushering in needed changes.
The role of NGOs in promoting gender justice has 
also been quite remarkable. These NGOs promote 
awareness among women for sexual equality. Equal 
democratic rights enshrined in the Constitution 
for both sexes and ever deepening democratic 
processes also sharpen awareness among women for 
sexual equality.
In the given circumstances our best hope is not 
state but civil society, which is getting 
increasingly modernised and secularised. No 
political interests can stop this process. Not 
state but the civil society should be the leader. 
And in the modern civil society women will play 
more actively than ever before.
The writer is chairman of the Centre for Study of 
Society and Secularism, Mumbai.


_____

[4]   [2 articles on the developments in the Best 
Bakery Case from Gujarat, India]

o o o

(i)

The Telegraph
  December 27, 2004 |	Editorial

BUT WHAT IS NOT

Ms Zahira Sheikh has come to represent almost 
everything that is wrong with India's polity. The 
courtroom drama manifests barely a fraction of 
the conflicting and destructive forces - much 
greater than the physical presence of any 
individual can evoke - that are eating away at 
the base of the democracy. Ms Sheikh's family 
business was destroyed in the Gujarat genocide, 
and the surviving members of the family have 
lived through not just the loss of their Best 
Bakery but also a massacre. She is one of the 
unforgettable faces of the Gujarat violence, 
which is the most recent and one of the most 
hideous enactments of communal hatred in India. 
Religious identity remains one of the more 
intractable dimensions of existence in the 
secular republic, and is acutely relevant when 
the religion is a minority one. It is a serious 
failure, yet one that is used as capital by 
politicians. This aspect of Ms Sheikh's identity 
has been reinforced by her excommunication: the 
All India Muslim Personal Law Board has 
pronounced her a shame to Islam because of her 
rapidly changing stories under oath.

Two other institutions are also playing out their 
conflicts around and through Ms Sheikh. From the 
very beginning, Ms Sheikh and some other 
witnesses communicated a sense of serious threat, 
and the judiciary moved the cases out of Gujarat 
in the interests of justice as well as of 
witness-protection. Threatening or bribing 
witnesses, particularly those associated with 
crimes pointing at politicians or mafia from any 
sphere, be it religion or trade, has become so 
common that the entire fabric of the justice 
system is now endangered. The truth in Ms 
Sheikh's case, and in many others, is no longer 
merely a technical matter of investigation. This 
is not new. The vested interests working, often 
at cross-purposes, behind any investigation of 
importance have long been the subject of public 
lament and criticism. Ms Sheikh's wildly 
differing stories dramatize the tremendous 
pressures at work behind the scenes. The alleged 
involvement of politicians in her changing story 
is merely one thread in an immensely complicated 
and rather ugly fabric.

The sordidness that has come to encompass the 
tragic Best Bakery story is best exemplified in 
Ms Sheikh's accusations against the activist who 
had appeared to be the most helpful. Political 
and social corruption has reached a point where a 
professed search for justice for victims of 
communal violence can actually be made to look 
like another form of violence - and get takers. 
Perhaps changes will only begin when every 
institution in India, civil and otherwise, 
recognizes its responsibility in Ms Sheikh's 
story.


o o o o

(ii)

Asian Age
25 Dec 2004

THE VICTIM
By Seema Mustafa

It is amazing how the terrible violence in 
Gujarat that took a toll of over 2,000 human 
lives has come to be centred around one case, and 
two personalities. The Ugly Indian Narendra Modi 
is no longer on trial. Victim Zahira Sheikh and 
activist Teesta Setalvad are. If the first is 
right in saying she did not speak the truth 
before, and is speaking it now, then Best Bakery 
where 14 persons were killed did not happen. If 
the second is right in saying she did not coerce 
the first, then Best Bakery happened.

And wait, it goes further. If Best Bakery 
happened, then perhaps the rest of the violence 
in Gujarat happened as well. And if the courts 
rule that there were no 14 persons to be killed 
in Best Bakery, then Narendra Modi and his goons 
get a clean chit for then Gujarat did not happen. 
This is how recent developments on the Best 
Bakery case have placed the larger issue of 
state-sponsored violence, where the one issue has 
managed to eclipse the larger horrors that have 
permanently scarred the face of secular India. 
The secularists have fallen into the trap laid by 
the Ugly Indian to a point where the one case has 
been allowed to overshadow all others in a manner 
that could have disastrous results for the cause 
that is larger than personalities, and where 
truth cannot be confined to the versions of a 
couple of protagonists.

This one time the media cannot be blamed. The key 
players in the Best Bakery case are seeking out 
the media for their statements. And equal play is 
being given by most newspapers to both sides, 
with the result that Gujarat has been effectively 
reduced to the one case, and the hundreds of 
victims seeking justice and hoping for some 
semblance of normalcy in their daily lives two 
years after the event have just become faceless 
citizens whose story is no longer being heard. 
The activists who have been struggling, without 
pomp and fame, to rehabilitate them and to bring 
Modi and those responsible for the heinous crimes 
to justice remain faceless. In fact many of them 
have been trying to point out that Best Bakery is 
just one case in a myriad of cases, and sight 
should not be lost of the fact that all are 
equally important in the search for justice in 
Gujarat.

No matter what has been said or not said, Zahira 
Sheikh is a victim. She is the victim of the 
riots. She is the victim of the worst kind of 
manipulative politics after the riots at the 
hands of those who perpetrated the riots. She is 
one of the hundreds of victims who has held her 
personal safety and that of her family over and 
above the cause. Some can say she had been paid. 
Maybe, maybe not. And even if she has, that is 
immaterial because there is enough in her so 
called flip flops to show that she is a 
frightened, traumatised woman who does not know 
which way to turn. Unfortunately she is now being 
pilloried, by all sides, in a manner that defies 
belief.

Letís look not at Zahira Sheikh but the plight of 
any woman who has witnessed the worst kind of 
violence in Gujarat. She tries to speak the truth 
on occasions but retreats into denials. Why? The 
answer is fairly simple. The choice before her is 
the social activists who are at best individuals 
without the power of the state, or a political 
party, behind them. So while her first choice is 
the social activists, her second choice becomes 
the state and the ruling party. Because she is 
taught by the system that her well being and her 
security can only be provided by the party in 
power, that the social activists are at best good 
individuals who have her well being at heart but 
can do little more, and that the courts and the 
law are powerless in front of the all powerful 
state. She fears for her life, for her familyís 
life, more so because she has seen that the party 
in power can kill with impunity, and can still 
continue to rule. She cannot bear another trauma, 
and she deadens her spirits,
  dies a death, and decides to do what she 
believes is the only thing in her power. Save 
herself and her family.

She would have been a different witness had there 
been a strong Opposition in Gujarat. That would 
have reassured her and the other witnesses in the 
state, that the party in power was not 
omnipotent, that its rule was being effectively 
challenged on the ground, and that there was 
another powerful force that could protect her and 
ensure the victims true justice. But there is no 
other force. The Congress party has decided to 
play the role of an ostrich waiting for better 
times in the state. It has no state leaders to 
speak of, it has refused to activate the few 
cadres it has left, and while Prime Minister 
Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia 
Gandhi have been visiting "troubled" areas and 
other states, Gujarat and its victims stand alone 
in the continuing hours of trial.

Social activists tried to plug the hole created 
by a Congress party in withdrawal. But as the 
woman victim, and if you want to give her a name 
Zahira Sheikh, knows that Modi can be countered 
only by a major political offensive. And in the 
absence of this, while some might still hug the 
hope of justice, she has seen more to know 
better. And has decided to save herself by 
allying with the criminals. This is not unknown 
in situations of trauma as even a cursory study 
of psychology will tell those who are pillorying 
Zahira Sheikh to save "secularism." It is tragic 
how quickly she has been deserted by those who 
are supposed to be more compassionate, and how 
the secular industry has joined hands to "expose" 
her for accepting money. The expose has done more 
damage to the Victim, than to the perpetrators of 
the violence who are laughing their way to the 
courts.

The secularists are walking into Narendra Modiís 
trap. Wilfully and voluntarily. Cashing in on the 
publicity that the secularists themselves gave to 
Zahira Sheikh and the Best Bakery case, over and 
above the other equally and even more traumatic 
incidents of violence in Gujarat, he has sought 
to turn the tables through every dirty and 
devious trick in his book. But there is no point 
in accusing the man of being dirty and devious, 
he demonstrated this more than amply during the 
state-sponsored pogrom in Gujarat. Best Bakery 
became the focus and witnesses started turning 
hostile. The media publicity, the open war 
between activists and the victims, have turned 
this particular case into the pivot around which 
the public perception over Gujarat is being very 
cleverly made to revolve.

Is Zahira right? Or is Teesta right? The targets 
are not the BJP supporters and the secularists 
who will have no hesitation today in answering 
these questions. The target is the common man, 
and very cleverly the Ugly Indian has succeeded 
in clouding common perception on what was such a 
clear cut case till yesterday. Public opinion had 
been horrified by the Best Bakery case, and had 
embraced Zahira Sheikh. The undue publicity given 
by secular lobbies to this one case over and 
above all others, is now being misused by Modi 
for his own ends. It is as if not the death of 14 
persons but the murder of 2,000 others is on 
trial here. And it is imperative now to ensure 
that this does not happen, and that the focus is 
shifted to the hundreds of victims huddled in 
fear in their tenements in Gujarat waiting for 
justice.

The activists have worked hard, at the risk of 
their own lives, to bring justice to Gujarat. The 
fact that many of the cases are in court today is 
testimony to the kind of work persons like 
Shabnam Hashmi, Cedric Prakash, Hanif Lakhdavala, 
Sheba George, Teesta Setalvad and the hundreds of 
others have done in the field. While we sat and 
shed tears in the safety of our homes for the 
victims of Gujarat, they were out there fighting 
the battle for secularism and justice. No one can 
take away from their contribution, not even the 
Ugly Indian who will pay, if not today then 
tomorrow, for what he has done. They fought and 
succeeded at a time when the other political 
parties had gone underground, and if it was not 
for their efforts the victims would not have been 
rehabilitated and the cases would not have 
reached the courts. But I am sure that they will 
be the first to agree that the strategy should 
lie in collective and not individual action, in 
projecting the picture in its entirety and
  not through isolated cases. Zahira Sheikh should 
not be turned into a spokesperson for either 
communalism or secularism. She is the Victim and 
deserving of our sympathy and compassion.


_____


[5]

YOU MAY DONATE FOR TSUNAMI RELIEF IN SOUTH ASIA 
VIA THE FOLLOWING ORGANISATIONS:

India:

Tamil Nadu Science Forum
Balaji Sampath,
C2 Ratna Apts.
AH 250, Shanti Colony, Annanagar
Chennai, Tamil Nadu  600040
India
Tel: (044) 6213638


Bhoomika Trust
Tamilnadu Earthquake-Tsunami Fund
No 32 First Street, Karpagam Ave
R.A. Puram, Chennai
TN 600 028
India
(80(G) Registration Number DIT(E) No.2(406)/2000-01)


"The Hindu Relief Fund"
Kasturi Buildings
859 Anna Salai
Chennai 600 002
India
pay.hindu.com/thrfpay/thrfpay.jsp


[ORGANISATIONS OUTSIDE SOUTH ASIA COLLECTING 
MONEY FOR RELIEF AND REHABILITATION]

[For Medical relief in Sri Lanka]
I-FREED a registered charity in USA.
"Tsunami Relief Fund" (or to I-FREED Account)
Bank Address: U.S. BANK, 1015 West Saint Germain Street, St. Cloud, MN 56301;
Tel: (320) 251-7110 "Tsunami Relief Fund" - 
Checking account number: 104757749288 ;
Routing Number: 091000022
OR,
Write checks to "Tsunami Relief Fund", and Mail your checks to:
2716 Edward Drive, St. Cloud. MN 56301; tel: (320) 308-2189


o o o

Association for India's Development, Inc.
Contributions to AID can be made through secure on-line credit-card
deductions from AID's website: 
http://survivors.aidindia.org where further 
details
and updates will also  be made available. Please indicate that your
contribution is for the "Relief and 
Rehabilitation Fund". Contributions can also be
sent by check made payable to "AID" mailed to:
AID,
P.O. Box F
College Park, MD-20741, USA.
(Please indicate "Relief and Rehabilitation Fund" in the check memo)
For additional information call: 1-888-TALK-2-AID or (301) 422-4441
or email: info at aidindia.org


o o o

Association of Indian Muslims of America (AIM)
PO Box 10654, Silver Spring, MD 20914, USA
Phone: 410 730 5456
(special relief fund for the victims of the 
tsunami disaster, in the states of Andhra, Tamil
Nadu, Kerala. )


o o o

Oxfam
Has distributed water tanks to worst-hit areas in 
Sri Lanka and is preparing food parcels.
Donations can be made by calling 0870 333 2700 or at www.oxfam.org.uk

o o o

MSF International
www.msf.org/donations/index.cfm


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

Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on 
matters of peace and democratisation in South 
Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit 
citizens wire service run since 1998 by South 
Asia Citizens Web: www.sacw.net/
SACW archive is available at:  bridget.jatol.com/pipermail/sacw_insaf.net/

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South Asia Counter Information Project :  snipurl.com/sacip
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Communalism Watch: communalism.blogspot.com/

DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not
necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers.