SACW | 11-19 Jan 2005

[sacw]

South Asia Citizens Wire   | 11-19 Jan.,  2005
via:  www.sacw.net

[1] State of the religious minorities: Interview 
with Asma Jehangir (Inam Ahmed and Ashfaq Wares 
Khan)
[2] India:  Anxieties Of Control - Sex, 
technology and the Great Indian Value System 
(Nivedita Menon)
[3] India: Godhra train fire was an accident: 
Justice Banerjee report : Edits, reports, letter 
to the editor
[4] India: The Upcoming Bangalore Circus by American evangelist Benny Hinn
[5] India - Hindutva at Work ! :
1 RSS's vitriolic hoardings in Bhopal
2 Rajasthan tribals under Sangh's attention
[6] Campaign to Stop Funding Hate releases FAQ on Tsunami Disaster Relief


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

[1]

The Daily Star
January 18, 2005

STATE OF THE RELIGIOUS MINORITIES: INTERVIEW WITH ASMA JEHANGIR
Declaring Ahmadiyyas non-Muslim in Pakistan has 
serious repurcussion on civil liberty
The famous Pakistani human rights lawyer and UN 
Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion and 
Belief, Asma Jehangir, during her recent visit to 
Dhaka, was interviewed by Inam Ahmed and Ashfaq 
Wares Khan of The Daily Star on the state of the 
religious minorities, specially Ahmadiyyas 
vis-a-vis human rights. The exerpts follow:


The Daily Star (DS): What is your assessment 
about the situation of the Ahmadiyyas in 
Bangladesh?
Asma Jehangir (AJ): Since freedom of religion is 
my UN mandate, when I came here and shared my 
observations with the government and the 
government sent me a reply saying that there are 
no forms of repression against any religious 
minorities here and the freedom of religion is 
ensured by the Bangladesh constitution.

But this time, I am here in my individual 
capacity, so I am not at liberty to make any 
comments or observations.

DS: How did Pakistan deal with the repression of Ahmadiyyas?
AJ: In Pakistan, the issue was used by religious 
parties to use the emotion of the people to 
enrage them and build new constituencies. It 
became the foothold for the religious parties to 
gain entry into parliament and government 
institutions.

DS: How did it unfold?
AJ: During the rule of President Zia-ul Haq, the 
military dictator, in 1984 Ordinance 20 was 
passed, for which the penal code was amended so 
any Ahmadiyyas who pretend to be a Muslim would 
be punished. For example, we had a number of what 
came to be known as "Assalamalaikum Cases" where 
Ahmadiyyas would be arrested for greeting another 
Pakistani by saying Assalamalaikum. The arrests 
ran into hundreds, if not thousands.

There were numerous cases like this, where 
Ahmadiyyas were not allowed to recite the 
Kalimas, they were not allowed to call their 
places of worship as Mosques. When it came to 
getting passports, members of the Ahmadiyya 
community had to sign a document declaring 
themselves as non-Muslims and their religion as a 
fake one. Everybody signed, of course, but the 
ones who refused to sign were arrested. The 
situation really degraded Ahmadiyyas in the 
society, and members of the community kept 
leaving the country.

DS: What really made the situation so degrading for the Ahmadiyyas?
AJ: The situation kept worsening, and it really 
became derogatory for the Ahmadiyyas, when 
government high officials and even politicians 
were dubbed as Ahmadiyyas to harass them 
politically and socially. When the current Prime 
Minister of Pakistan Shaukat Aziz was called an 
Ahmadiyya he had to make a public announcement 
saying he is not one but a Muslim. The previous 
Chief Justice had to go to a Mosque and denounce 
his father who was an Ahmadiyya.

When such high officials go out in public and 
denounce Ahmadiyyas, it is quite derogatory for 
the members of the Ahmediyya community. Such an 
attitude extended itself to institutions and 
hostility grew there, they became untouchables 
and still are.

DS: What is the current state of the Ahmadiyyas in Pakistan?
AJ: Well, as I said they are still treated as 
untouchables, people do not want to marry their 
children into Ahmadiyya families, there are 
widespread discriminations against them in the 
workplace. They are boxed in to their own 
isolated communities, in their own 'ghettos'.

But now, a very strong demand is out there in 
Pakistan to announce the Zikris non-Muslims and 
recently they have also turned against the Aga 
Khan community and are demanding that they be 
denounced as non-Muslims.

DS: You have said in other forums that the civil 
society in Pakistan did not do enough and are not 
doing enough to prevent these atrocities against 
the Ahmadiyya community. But was the repression 
under Zia's regime so severe that perhaps the 
civil society could not do anything?
AJ: No, that is not the case. The movement 
against Zia-ul Haq was very strong, and not just 
by women who were fighting for their rights, but 
lawyers and journalists were being flogged for 
taking to the streets. But when it came to 
protesting against the minority repression, 
especially the Ahmadiyyas, there was an eerie and 
awkward silence. And I believe the civil society 
failed.

DS: Why would the religious parties turn their 
focus to labelling groups as non-Muslims, what 
did they stand to gain?
AJ: It was a very, very good political gimmick 
for the religious parties in Pakistan. They 
wanted to make it an issue to show to the people 
that they have power and they can make the 
government do it. More importantly, they wanted 
to create new constituencies by fomenting these 
claims of non-Muslims and enraging the general 
people.

DS: Do you see any parallels to what has been happening in Bangladesh?
AJ: Since I am not here in my capacity as the UN 
Rappoteur, I can't really say much about it. 
Otherwise, people here are aware of what has been 
happening through the media, I personally do not 
know what has been happening in Bangladesh.

My UN report on religious freedoms here came out 
in October last year and its a public report 
available on the website.

DS: How can we in Bangladesh protect religious freedoms?
AJ: Guarantees by the government to protect their 
freedoms should be put in place. The freedom to 
practice and manifestations of their belief 
should be practiced as long as one group does not 
take away the rights from anyone else.

DS: How do you see the situation in South Asia?
AJ: It was always sad for me when I got reports 
from South Asia. For countries such as Bhutan and 
Maldives, it was hard to figure out what's 
happening since the societies were so closed. But 
overall the patterns are similar, custodial 
deaths, 'crossfire' encounters, no proper 
inquiries and so on.

The governments, all stand up to defend these 
measures without investigations or without 
trials. In that case, what is the point of the 
judiciary? They were put there to make those 
inquiries and to hold trials. Even the person who 
is accused of being the worst criminal deserves a 
trial.

We have to change the entire legal system in 
South Asia. The conflict of interest in the 
attorney-general representing both the state and 
the government must be changed.

While independent public prosecutors should be 
properly trained and independent prosecutors must 
be trained and put into operation at every tier 
of the judiciary.

Specialised independent investigating agencies 
should be introduced as the nature of crime is 
changing and that is why the introduction of 
modern technology in forensics is vital. Sealing 
crime sites off limits, modernisation of the 
process, and overall send the message out that 
you cannot lie in court.

DS: How is that change possible, who do you think 
should make that change? Are not lawyers and 
judges open to corruption and political 
inclinations?
AJ: Simply, it cannot be done only by the 
lawyers, but the effort also has to come from the 
political parties. People have to be committed to 
the law where the separation of judiciary and the 
rules of appointment of judges are key and very 
important.

DS: In Bangladesh, there is a big move to 
separate the judiciary from the legislature, what 
are your thoughts on that? Do you think it can 
really bring about change?
AJ: It is not going to work piecemeal, but has to 
take place holistically. It is not going to work 
if you have an extra-legal government which 
throws the constitution into the dustbin.

But the package has to be put together piece by pieces and in phases.

DS: What do you think about the civil society here in Bangladesh?
AJ: I think it is a much more vibrant civil 
society here than the one we have in Pakistan. 
You are lucky you do not have the military here. 
But democracy here is a transitional one, and it 
started off at the same time as the transitional 
democracies in Nepal and Pakistan between the 
years 1988 and 1991. However, look what has 
happened there, their democracies have been 
reversed while yours still exist. What I say is 
to strengthen that democracy through independent 
judiciary, effective parliament, free media and a 
vibrant civil society. You cannot let democracy 
stagnate.


______


[2]


The Telegraph
January 13, 2005

ANXIETIES OF CONTROL
- Sex, technology and the Great Indian Value System
Nivedita Menon


So once again the Great Indian Value System has 
triumphed over sex, mobile phones, the internet 
and any or all possible combinations of the 
three. Almost everyone involved even tangentially 
in the MMS-pornographic-image story has been 
arrested, the concerned students suspended, and 
hopefully, a total ban is on the way - on mobile 
phones, CDs, floppy disks and the internet in 
schools.

Mobile phones. Keep track of the real issue here.

Susan Sontag wrote recently about a public debate 
in the United States of America over the iconic 
image of a young American soldier in the rubble 
that was Fallujah, face etched with fatigue, 
smoking a reflective cigarette. The outrage, the 
anguish that poured into the newspapers had to do 
with - the devastation of innocent lives, the 
horrors of war? The cigarette. It was the 
cigarette, stupid. Do we want our children 
associating heroism with the killer weed? What if 
they die of cancer before they can destroy a 
single town?

Cigarettes, mobile phones - yes, stay focused.

What is involved in the MMS incident? Two things. 
Control of sexuality and control of technology.

The first really does put our knickers in a twist 
(so to speak...) Sex only at the right time, in 
the right way, in the right place, with the right 
gender and species, in the right relationship. 
The network of controls this entails - it's never 
going to work. That's why the anxiety, of course, 
the continual gnawing anxiety manifested in 
rules, laws, the relentless infantilization of 
young adults.

The hypocrisy of the youth-criterion when it 
comes to sex is appalling. For instance, under 
existing laws on rape, if a man has sex with his 
wife, provided she is not below 15 years of age, 
her lack of consent is immaterial. This, despite 
the fact that the legal age of consent for women 
is 18. So a young woman of 15-18 is a child who 
cannot have even consensual sex outside marriage, 
but within marriage she is perpetually a 
consenting adult who can never claim rape by her 
husband.

The students in the MMS incident are constantly 
referred to as "school-children" though they are 
both almost 18, at least. They may have had 
"sex-education" in school - thanks to AIDS, at 
least it's possible to talk openly about sex 
today. (What is the health of a society in which 
one can say "Thanks to AIDS..."?) But the problem 
is not that they did not know about sex. The 
problem is that they did. We are simply unable to 
deal with the fact that sexual desire is part 
(albeit only one part) of being human. When we 
cannot discuss sex at all with our children 
except at best, in unrealistic, moralistic or 
euphemistic terms, then talking about what 
constitutes responsible behaviour in sexual 
relations is impossible. For certainly, in this 
incident, the circulation of the pictures, 
presumably without the consent of the girl, is 
seriously irresponsible.

Just as children learn, as they grow, to eat 
judiciously and healthily, they have to learn how 
to enjoy sex responsibly and without guilt. 
That's not simply "sex education". That's 
rethinking entirely what we understand by 
"society". And it can lead to the fundamental 
restructuring of institutions like marriage and 
property. Because notions of lineage and descent, 
on which property arrangements rest, will not 
survive rule-breaking sex. But surely, at least 
some of us believe that existing institutions of 
marriage and property can do with some 
restructuring?

The moral panic generated in school 
administrations by this incident has led to a 
harsh policing of the most innocent of physical 
contact between friends of whatever sex. A stern 
public announcement recently at the Sports Day of 
a Delhi school decreed, "No hugging".

Just for the record, I am not advocating public 
fornication all day long. All I am saying (though 
I know it is a lot to say) is that sex should be 
governed by minimal rules of etiquette that make 
social interaction possible, following the same 
kind of logic that underlies traffic rules, for 
example. Although I am also sympathetic to an 
argument along the lines that traffic rules are 
made necessary by particular urbanization 
patterns that are ultimately unsustainable. In a 
world that is radically restructured so that it 
is both ecologically sustainable as well as 
equitable, perhaps traffic rules would be fewer, 
non-existent, unrecognizably different?

As to control of technology, you may think that 
the question is - how much? The short answer is - 
it doesn't matter, because you really can't. Yes, 
India is scurrying to meet WTO requirements and 
has in place an Information Technology Act to 
regulate cyberspace. Section 80 of this act, 
which was widely protested against at the time, 
allows a police officer to enter a public place 
and search and arrest, without warrant, a person 
suspected of "being about to commit any offence". 
The police raids of cyber-cafes in Aligarh in the 
wake of the MMS incident, where they "caught" 
girls using the internet (kalyug indeed) is thus 
perfectly within the law. All manner of offences 
could have been "about to be committed" in those 
dens of vice. The government is also actively 
pushing intellectual property rights regulations, 
leading to tragically absurd situations like 
police raids on medical students' hostels to root 
out photocopies of expensive books! (Ironically, 
Eric Hobsbawm, whose life has spanned most of the 
20th century, notes with optimism in his 
autobiography the emergence of photocopying 
technology that enriched the lives of scholars by 
making accessible books they could not afford to 
buy.)

No new technology emerges that is not, within a 
short period, caught between the desire for 
limitless profit on the one hand and the desire 
for absolute control on the other. But the point 
is, human ingenuity and human need are such that 
the potential of new technologies to improve 
lives, in however small a way, always does 
escape. It filters creatively through the 
interstices and gaps of the control networks of 
both capital and state, into the grey zones of 
pirate economies, into the virtual spaces of the 
web. Remember that the internet was invented by 
the US defence systems to facilitate American 
Cold-War designs. Today, the internet may be the 
only space which the Americans cannot control.

The point at which both these anxieties of 
control - of sex and of technology - converge is 
pornography. Feminists have long debated 
pornography - is it simply "violence against 
women" that must be stopped? Or is pornography 
produced by context, so that for instance, 
sexually explicit material for sex education can 
appear pornographic in another context? Since an 
exact definition of pornography can never be 
reached, anything and everything can fall into 
its legal definition, curbing creative and 
political expression, even curiosity itself.

We need to be suspicious of the fact that the 
most patriarchal of societies and the most 
oppressive of states would agree on this issue. 
Indeed, prevailing anti-pornography positions are 
largely patriarchal, anti-feminist, and deny 
female desire. These notions are as oppressive as 
some kinds of pornography and the coercion of 
women into the pornography industry undoubtedly 
are.

A final thought. In the MMS incident, a parade of 
male actors has emerged - the student, his 
possible accomplices, the man who put the CD on 
the web, the CEO of baazee.com. Visible in the 
clip, unlike the boy, but voiceless in the whole 
series of narratives, is the female student 
involved. Who is she? Victim? Desiring subject? 
It seems the plot of the story can proceed 
without our ever hearing what she has to say. 
What a surprise!

______


[3]   [Godhra train fire was an accident: Justice Banerjee report ]

The Hindu  Jan 19, 2005
Editorials

SEEKING THE TRUTH ON GODHRA

THE INTERIM REPORT of the Justice U.C. Banerjee 
committee represents the first time that some 
light has been shed on the "riddle wrapped in a 
mystery inside an enigma" that is the Godhra 
train tragedy. A total of 59 passengers, mostly 
Vishwa Hindu Parishad supporters and including 
women and children, died in the poisonous smoke 
and horrific fire that engulfed coach S-6 of the 
Sabarmati Express on February 27, 2002. Chief 
Minister Narendra Modi and other senior Bharatiya 
Janata Party leaders blamed the incident on a 
pre-planned "jihadi" conspiracy. In the days and 
weeks that followed, as many as 2,000 innocent 
people, most of them Muslims, were killed in 
"retaliatory" riots across Gujarat that had the 
clear sanction of the State authorities. In the 
Hindu Right's highly divisive, morally corroded 
world view, the killings were an understandable 
and even justified response to what happened at 
Godhra. Even Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee 
could not resist the pull of this twisted logic. 
"If a conspiracy had not been hatched to burn 
alive the innocent passengers of the Sabarmati 
Express," he told a party conclave in Goa on 
April 12, 2002, "the subsequent tragedy in 
Gujarat could have been averted. But this did not 
happen." The developments that followed were 
condemnable, he said, "But who lit the fire?"

So certain was the BJP and its leadership of a 
well-planned conspiracy that it never occurred to 
them to consider the possibility that the fire 
could have been caused accidentally. The idea of 
a conspiracy was politically convenient, because 
it could serve as a cover for the genocidal 
violence that was unleashed almost immediately. 
Thus, from day one, neither the police nor the 
Railways paid any attention to investigating the 
case in as comprehensive a manner as the gravity 
of the tragedy warranted. Depositions of 
passengers and witnesses were not collected in a 
systematic way, the post-mortem of the victims 
was conducted hastily and the site of the tragedy 
was not quarantined. Finally, forensic samples 
were not lifted in a timely or schematically 
rational fashion. While the Gujarat police cannot 
be faulted for initially pursuing the conspiracy 
angle, it is shocking that virtually no attention 
was paid by the Railways to probing the cause of 
the fire and the dynamics of its spread. More 
than a million Indians travel by train across the 
country every day. Even if the fire were not 
accidental, a timely technical probe would have 
yielded valuable suggestions for improving the 
safety of railway coaches. The Central Government 
of the day erred in not conducting such an 
investigation. By objecting to the work of the 
Banerjee committee and politicising its interim 
findings, the BJP and its National Democratic 
Alliance partners are today only compounding 
their original sin.

Although the substantive logic of the Banerjee 
report can be commented upon only when it is made 
public, its suggestion that the fire was not the 
result of flammable liquid thrown on the floor by 
miscreants who entered the coach forcibly squares 
with the technical findings of an independent 
panel of engineers released on Monday. The 
similarity between the burn patterns on S-6 and 
other coaches that have accidentally caught fire 
is interesting, as is the fact that none of the 
survivors had burn injuries below the waist. It 
is also well established that the toxic smoke 
appeared first, well before flames engulfed the 
coach - a sequence that is inconsistent with the 
police's petrol theory. While a murderous 
conspiracy cannot still be ruled out, it does 
seem, on the basis of what we know so far, that 
the Gujarat Government is barking up the wrong 
tree.

o o o o

http://www.ndtv.com/template/template.asp?template=Gujaratviolence&from=newsletter&id=16101&callid=0
	GODHRA WAS AN ACCIDENT: JUSTICE BANERJEE REPORT

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/992700.cms

	NO CONSPIRACY IN GODHRA CARNAGE: PROBE PANEL


o o o

http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=40846

	GODHRA WAS AN ACCIDENT, NOT A CONSPIRACY: PANEL REPORT
The high-level inquiry into the blaze in a train 
in Godhra in which 59 persons were burnt to death 
that led to subsequent violence in Gujarat in 
2002 has found that it was an 'accidental fire'.


o o o

http://www.hindu.com/2005/01/18/stories/2005011808360100.htm

             The Hindu January 18, 2005

             GODHRA FIRE ACCIDENTAL, SAYS BANERJEE PANEL
             By Vinay Kumar

NEW DELHI, JAN. 17. Debunking the previous National
Democratic Alliance regime's "conspiracy theory" behind the fire
incident in the Ahmedabad-bound Sabarmati Express at Godhra on
February 27, 2002, in which 59 people died, the Justice U.C.
Banerjee Committee today said the fire in the S-6 coach was purely
"accidental."

"With the elimination of the ``petrol theory'', the ``miscreant activity
theory'' and the ruling out of any possibility of ``electrical fire'', the
fire in the S-6 coach can at this stage be ascribed as an `accidental
fire'," the Committee said in its interim report. It noted that there
was a preponderance of evidence that the fire originated in the
coach S-6 itself without any external input.

               Sequence of fire

"Moreover, the possibility of an inflammable liquid having been
used is completely ruled out as there was first a smell of burning,
followed by dense smoke and flames thereafter. This sequence is
not possible in case the fire is caused by an inflammable liquid
thrown on the floor of the coach or an inflammable object thrown
from outside the coach. The `inflammable liquid theory' also gets
negated by the statement of some of the passengers who suffered
injuries on the upper portion of the body and not the lower body and
who crawled towards the door on elbows and could get out without
much injury," the Committee concluded

The report is not without political significance. The "Godhra
incident" — as per the then Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition
Government at the Centre and the party's Government in Gujarat
— was caused by a fire ignited by miscreants at the Godhra railway
station , killing `kar sevaks' returning from Ayodhya. It triggered
widespread communal riots in Gujarat in February-March 2002, in
which thousands lost their lives and a large number were rendered
homeless.

            `Unpalatable comments'

The report, running into two volumes, was presented by Mr. Justice
Banerjee to the Railway Board Chairman, R.K. Singh. Mr. Justice
Banerjee said that many comments would "not be palatable to the
Railways." The high-level committee was appointed by the Railway
Minister, Lalu Prasad, on September 4, 2004, about three months
after the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance came to power
at the Centre. The initial term of the Committee was for three
months but it was granted extension for three more months.

A statutory inquiry by the Commissioner of Railway Safety was
abandoned within days of the Godhra incident on the plea that the
State Government had already appointed the Nanavati-Shah
Inquiry Commission . Even the Divisional Railway Manager of
Vadodara had described the fire as having been caused by
miscreants. "Higher-ups in the railway administration have failed to
inculcate a sense of safety among the passengers. All is not well
with railway safety. The entire approach of the Railways has been
very casual and it is unfortunate that the Western Railway did not
adhere to any norms of the accident manual," Mr. Justice Banerjee
said in his brief opening remarks.

Incidentally, the expert committee was the first such panel to have
been appointed by the Railway Ministry, nearly three years after the
incident took place. Mr. Justice Banerjee refused to reply to
questions either on railway safety or the timing of the interim report
on the eve of Assembly elections in Bihar, Haryana and Jharkhand.

             The Hindu January 18, 2005

             ENGINEERING EXPERTS QUESTION POLICE THEORY ON GODHRA FIRE

             By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JAN. 17. In another blow to the Modi Government's
official account of the Godhra train incident, an independent panel
of engineers probing the technical aspects of the tragedy has
concluded that it is "highly unlikely" that the fire which engulfed
coach S-6 of the Sabarmati Express on February 28, 2002, "could
have started on the floor of the passage or the floor outside the
toilets by throwing of flammable liquid."

The findings of the report — prepared by a multi-disciplinary group
of experts on the basis of a scientific review of the physical
evidence, testimony and medical records of the victims — broadly
support those of the Justice U.C. Banerjee committee, whose
interim report on Godhra was handed over to the Railway Board
today.

The Gujarat police, however, will draw little comfort from the report
as it undermines their claim that the fire was started by miscreants
forcibly entering S-6 and pouring petrol on the floor.

               Burn patterns studied

A key part of the Godhra puzzle, the engineers say, can be
resolved when the burn patterns on coach S-6 are compared with
those on a number of rail coaches that have caught fire recently. In
particular, they found a striking similarity between the damage
sustained by S-6 and coach 16526, which caught fire accidentally
at a railway siding in Jagadhri near Delhi in November 2003. It is
possible, they conclude, that the fire originated from luggage below
the seat, and started by burning the lower berth first. "The resultant
dense and high temperature smoke spread to the top of the
carriage and then moved along the ceiling and between the ceiling
and the roof through the length of the coach. The radiative and
convective heat generated eventually resulted in a flash over which
the fire engulfed the entire coach towards the top."

The engineers involved in the study, conducted under the aegis of
the Hazards Centre, include A.K. Roy, a chemical engineer with
expertise in hazards and safety, Prof. Dinesh Mohan, a Delhi IIT
biomedical engineer with expertise in human tolerance to injuries,
Prof. Sunil Kale, a mechanical engineer from IIT Delhi with
expertise in thermodynamics and fluidisation, and S.N.
Chakravarty, a mechanical engineer with more than 10 years
experience in the coaching section of the Railways.

Fifty-eight passengers, many of them activists of the Vishwa Hindu
Parishad, died in the tragedy, which the Gujarat Government and
police say was the result of a pre-planned conspiracy involving
dozens of people. At present, more than 100 individuals from
Godhra have been arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act
and charged with involvement in the case.

             Source of fire

The engineers' report observes that the most flammable material in
a railway coach is the latex foam in the seats. Though the foam is
protected by a plywood base and vinyl cover, "these materials can
be set on fire by cigarettes, matchsticks or lighters that are still
burning. If there is any cooking equipment with fuel stored below
the seat, this can worsen matters." While a burning rag thrown by
the mob outside could have been an ignition source, it "would have
to first penetrate between the bars on the window before landing on
people and luggage to initiate a fire."

If the fire had indeed started on the floor near the toilets, as the
Gujarat police claims, "inflammable plywood and foam in three tiers
of seats would not be available for the fire to burn in this area." And
if the fire was started by an inflammable fluid on the floor, "the
flames would have been noticed right away in a very crowded
carriage, precluding the possibility of a long smouldering source."

Stating that the most probable origin point for the fire was in the
region between the last two cabins, the engineers say, "The
initiation is unlikely to have been noticed until the dense
asphyxiating smoke emerged from the burning latex foam."
Passengers in cabins 8 and 9 would have tried to escape from the
exits near seat 72 while passengers in the other cabins would have
run in the opposite direction, towards seat 1. Given the
overcrowding, "150 or more people must have gathered trying to
escape, and been subjected to dense and toxic fumes emanating
from the roof and upper levels," leading to many passengers
asphyxiating or falling unconscious and being burnt by the fire.

The report attacks the slipshod manner in which the testimony of
passengers and vital forensic material was gathered by the
investigating agencies. Calling for computer and experimental
simulations to conclusively understand the process of accidental
combustion inside railway coaches, the experts say that serious
thought needs to be given to the design of doors and exits and
emergency escape routes.

             The Hindu January 18, 2005

             BANERJEE LISTS REASONS AGAINST SABOTAGE THEORY

             By Vinay Kumar

NEW DELHI, JAN. 17. The Justice U.C. Banerjee Committee —
which, in its Interim Report, today said the fire in a coach of the
Sabarmati Express at Godhra on February 27, 2002 was purely
"accidental" — enumerated some reasons for reaching the
conclusion.

On the basis of available evidence, the Committee found it
unbelievable that `kar sevaks' (to the extent of 90 per cent of the
total occupants) armed with `trishuls', would allow to get
themselves burnt without a murmur by miscreant activity — like a
person entering the S-6 coach from outside and setting it on fire.

It also noted the forensic laboratory's experiment and verified its
conclusion that it was impossible to set fire to the train from outside.
Some evidence of cooking inside the coach by `kar sevaks' was
also presented before the Committee.

It noted that the train left the platform at 7.48 a.m. and stopped on
account of vacuum failure in some coaches. The train started again
at 8 a.m.

Relying on the Survey of India mapping of distances and given the
speed of the train at that time, the Committee noted that the engine
ought to take about five minutes to be near the post at 468/19 and
the Guard's coach at 468/45.

"It is at this juncture that the smoke was not only noticed but also
had been reported to the GRP, the RPF and the Vadodara Control.
There was thus no scope for any miscreant activity from any
external agency during this period," it said.

              Nitish rapped

Rapping the Nitish Kumar-led railway administration and the
Commissioner of Railway Safety for their failure to conduct a
statutory inquiry into the accident, the Committee noted that it was
they who were in breach of the Railway Act as well as the Accident
Manual of the Zonal Railway.

The Railway administration also did not make any concerted effort
to preserve clues to the incident.

In particular, the Committee criticised the onward travel to
Ahmedabad of the S-7 coach despite some damage to it and
despite it being a crucial piece of evidence and later being disposed
of as scrap.

It severely criticised the entire hierarchy of the Western Railways in
pre-judging the issue by describing the incident of fire as a
miscreant activity without conducting even a preliminary inquiry.

The Committee noted that neither the then Railway Minister nor
Members of the Railway Board had visited the site of the accident
or the injured passengers.

It observed that the response of the Godhra Fire Brigade too was
most unsatisfactory not only in terms of delayed arrival but also in
terms of a high percentage of ineffective fire engines and non-
functioning of the motor pumps of the fire tenders. A fire that could
have been doused in four to six minutes took much longer time
resulting in heavy loss of lives, it said.

The Committee took the assistance of K. Balakesari and S.K.
Khanna, both retired Railway Board members, and S.K. Dheri,
former chief of Delhi Fire Service.

             The Hindu January 18, 2005

             `REPORT PUNCHED HOLES IN THEORY'

             By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JAN. 17. Political parties have come out with their
reaction to the interim report of the Justice U.C. Banerjee
committee on the February 2002 Godhra tragedy. While the
Communist Party of India (Marxist) said the report punched holes in
the theory that "inflammable liquid" was thrown at passengers from
outside the burnt coach of the Sabarmati Express, the Bharatiya
Janata Party said it was an attempt to influence the course of
justice and trivialise a heinous crime.

The Congress said it was mysterious why the previous
Government did not share information available with it on the
incident as the interim report was based on the available material.
The party spokesperson, Anand Sharma, said had this information
been made public soon after the incident, perhaps the situation that
followed could have been avoided. He alleged that the incident was
used to organise pre-meditated violence, which was a shameful
stigma and a painful scar on the country's liberal and secular
democracy.

The CPI(M) said the interim report "nailed the lie of the Narendra
Modi administration and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh/Bharatiya Janata Party outfits." The report had negated the
theory, extensively propagated by the Narendra Modi
administration and the Sangh Parivar that inflammable liquid had
been thrown into the S-6 coach from outside. This was then used to
unleash the most barbaric State-sponsored communal genocide in
Gujarat with the express purpose of sharpening communal
polarisation to make electoral gains. "Such sinister cynical recourse
to vitiate communal harmony for political and electoral benefits by
the RSS/BJP is further exposed," the party's Polit Bureau said in a
statement.

            `Charge confirmed'

The national secretary of the Communist Party of India, D. Raja,
said the interim report confirmed the party's charge that Godhra
was used by the Sangh Parivar and the Narendra Modi
Government to "whip up hatred and violence against minorities that
resulted in the post-Godhra genocide that took lives of hundreds of
people."

           `No legal status'

The BJP general secretary, Arun Jaitley, said the Banerjee
committee was "extra-constitutional" and had no legal status. The
criminal trial in the case was proceeding and the work of the inquiry
commission was also on. At most, railways could have ordered an
inquiry into loss of property or the neglect of duty by its staff.

Mr. Jaitley said the timing of the report showed that it was intended
to influence the Bihar elections. "Our worst fears have come true,"
he said, pointing out that when the committee was set up, the BJP
feared it was "an attempt to help the accused." He described the
report as "an extra-constitutional effort to influence the course of
justice" and "an unfortunate attempt to trivialise the heinous crime."

At the same time Mr. Jaitley said he trusted the legal system and
hoped there would be a fair and unbiased trial of the Godhra-
related cases.


o o o o

Letter to the Editor: Jaitley on Godhra
Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 19:58:24 +0530


D-504 Purvasha
Mayur Vihar 1
Delhi 110091

17 January 2005

Arun Jaitley's reaction to the interim report submitted by the
U.C. Banerjee Committee, which ascribes the Godhra rail coach fire
to an accident, is a typical expulsion of hot air. To him it is "a
disgraceful and unfortunate attempt to trivialise one of the worst
offences and crimes...". An offence? A crime? Does Jaitley know of
things which the Banerjee Committee overlooked and which no one at
all has been able to establish? He said he could not understand why
another inquiry was ordered when one "was already being conducted
by two Supreme court judges." But right away he showed the clearest
possible understanding: "It's a political campaign." He had not read
the report, he said, presumably meaning that when he does get around
to doing that, he will tear it to pieces. We quake in terror, Jaitley.
No more wind, please.

Mukul Dube

______


[4]

Deccan Herald
January 16, 2005
CM'S ATTENDING RELIGIOUS MEET FLAYED
BANGALORE, JAN 16 (UNI)

Eminent Kannada literature U R Ananthmurthy today 
expressed strong reservation over Chief Minister 
N Dharam Singh attending religious prayer meeting 
of Christian leader Benny Hinn to be held here on 
January 21.

In a statement here, he said that Mr Singh should 
uphold his secular credentials and keep away from 
such meetings.

He said that practice of religion is an 
individual personnel act and it should be only an 
internal affair instead of being organised as an 
open show. Even Christians have expressed 
displeasure over Hinn's meeting, he added.

Mr Ananthmurthy said that just as the 
Ayodhya-Babri Masjid issue and Bababudangiri row 
being dubbed as anti-national by some section of 
the people even such meetings are anti-national.

o o o

Hindustan Times
AUTHOR CAUTIONS DHARAM AGAINST ATTENDING HINN'S PRAYER
Press Trust of India
Bangalore, January 16, 2005|19:38 IST


Renowned Kannada litterateur and Jnanpeeth award 
winner UR Ananthamurthy on Sunday cautioned Chief 
Minister N Dharam Singh against associating 
himself with the three-day prayer meeting of 
American evangelist Benny Hinn in Bangalore from 
January 21.

Expressing concern over reports that Singh was 
expected to attend the 'Prayer for India' 
meeting, he said in a statement that the chief 
minister should not identify himself with what he 
called the "mass hysteria". "We should not 
encourage this (mass hysteria)," he said.

Ananthamurthy said just as casteism and 
communalism was against the spirit of Hinduism, 
"this is also against the spirit of Christianity."

"He (Singh) should not do that (attend the meet). 
Otherwise, it will appear as minority appeasement 
and vote bank politics," he said.

The Florida-based pastor, who claims to have the 
power to heal the sick and dying, is slated to 
attend the prayer meet at Jakkur airfield in 
Bangalore, which has been touted by the 
organisers as a big show, saying lakhs of people 
from across the country are expected to attend it.

The event has drawn strong opposition from the 
BJP, Bajrang Dal and Hindu Jagarana Vedike, who 
see it as an event intended to promote religious 
conversion.


o o o o

Deccan Herald
January 19, 2005
Editorial

FAITH HEALING?
DUBIOUS CLAIMS OF THE HINN KIND SHOULD NOT BE ENCOURAGED

The miracle healer from God channel, Benny Hinn, 
is not going to have an easy 'crusade' in 
Bangalore when he arrives on a three-day trip on 
January 21. His "Prayer for India" has already 
attracted widespread protests across the board, 
from fundamentalists, traditionalists and 
rationalists. The protestors range from Hindu 
seers from various mutts and groups like the 
Bajrang Dal to Christian groups to intellectuals 
and others. Many suspect that the pastor's agenda 
is religious conversion, especially as pamphlets 
criticising idol worship have surfaced, forcing 
the organisers to go on the backfoot and issue an 
apology. A petition in the Karnataka high court 
has also been filed against him. Demands have 
been made that the state Chief Minister, Mr N 
Dharam Singh, refrain from gracing the pastor's 
platform. The chief minister of Kerala, Mr Oomen 
Chandy, has already announced that he would not 
attend. However several other celebrities are 
likely to grace the prayer meeting which is 
expected to be attended by tens of thousands of 
people from India and neighbouring countries.

But this is not the first time that the 
tele-evangelist is facing opposition. He has 
faced criticism from the orthodox church and 
rationalists for his alleged heretical theology, 
prophecies and claims. The most public criticism 
of Hinn's teachings has come from the Christian 
Research Institute and an HBO television special 
on miracles, which investigated five persons for 
a year, names that were produced by the Benny 
Hinn ministries from the 76 miracles performed by 
him at a public programme. They found that his 
claims were not true and rationalists found that 
Hinn resorted to mass hypnosis and worked on auto 
suggestion, leading his patients to believe that 
they had been cured, when they had not. Doctors 
have expressed the danger of people believing 
themselves cured and refusing to take medicine 
any more.

India has its own share of quacks and godmen who 
constantly dupe the gullible with stories of 
miracle cures, playing on their faith. 
Rationalists have had an uphill task convincing 
people that these claims by the godmen were not 
true, even explaining the methods employed 
scientifically. Accepted that in a secular 
democracy, everyone is welcome to expound his 
views and beliefs, but the state should not be 
seen to be associating with a pastor with dubious 
claims of miracle cures.

_______


[5]

[Hindutva at Work !]

(1)

RSS PUTS UP VITRIOLIC HOARDINGS IN BHOPAL

Publish Date : 1/15/2005 1:12:00 PM   Source : 
South Asia News ExpressNewsline.com

Alarmed over the hoardings that could spark 
communal tension, 17 prominent personalities of 
Bhopal, including theatre personality Habib 
Tanvir, have submitted to the state government a 
memorandum asking that they be removed 
immediately.

Hoardings spewing vitriol against minorities have 
come up in the city as part of a drive to 
mobilise people for a march by the Rashtriya 
Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), ideological mentor of 
Madhya Pradesh's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party 
(BJP).

The opposition Congress is also perturbed over 
messages of hate in the hoardings, ahead of the 
RSS march called 'path sanchalan' on Jan 23.

Said state party president Subhash Yadav: "A 
deliberate attempt has been made to disturb the 
peace of the city. This is a BJP-ruled state and 
the RSS is being patronised."

One of hoardings on the busy Link Road, for 
instance, asks provocatively: "Aap ke nati pote 
Hindu reh sakenge kya? (Will your grandchildren 
be able to remain Hindus?)".

Another refers to the tsunami, saying that 
disasters have struck the country whenever the 
feelings of Hindus have been hurt.

There are many who feel that the RSS march, which 
will pass through several Muslim dominated areas, 
could create tension.

Messages in the hoardings state that the march 
past would pass through areas near the Central 
Library and Shah Jahani Park near the walled city 
dominated by Muslims.

The RSS, however, says they have done nothing 
wrong. "We have been reiterating that the Hindus 
should organise themselves and unite. This is not 
the first time that we have put hoardings with 
such messages," said Vilas Goley, RSS chief of 
Bhopal district.

Said Sanjay Shukla, the collector of Bhopal: "If 
somebody has any objection, he or she should file 
a complaint with the police. Action will be taken 
accordingly." (IANS)

o o o o

(2)

NDTV.com
RAJASTHAN TRIBALS GET SANGH'S ATTENTION

Harsha Kumari Singh
Sunday, January 16, 2005 (Banswara ):
The spread of Sangh Parivar-sponsored Hindutva 
into Rajasthan's tribal belt has already had a 
profound political impact.
Some sections view it as a noble mission while 
others feel it is an attempt to polarise an 
extremely vulnerable tribal community.
Now there are also concerns that it may reinforce 
the divide between Hindus and other minority 
groups.
Political activity
Panchayat elections are to be held in the first week of February in Rajasthan.
As political activity gathers steam in the tribal 
belt of Rajasthan, a subtle change in political 
alignments is taking shape in the Udaipur and 
Banswara districts.
Once considered a traditional Congress bastion, 
this area swung heavily towards the BJP in the 
assembly elections of December 2003.
The BJP won nine out the 16 Scheduled Tribe 
assembly seats in Salumbar and Banswara.
Tinged with Saffron
Extensive work done by the Sangh Parivar among 
the tribals since the early 1980's has drawn more 
and more adivasis into the Hindu fold.
Schools run by the Vanwasi Kalyan Parishad and 
bhajan mandalis organised among the tribals of 
this area are an attempt to subsume them into a 
larger Saffron identity.
But at the same time, communities here are slowly 
getting polarised. With the panchayat elections 
approaching, the divide is becoming apparent.
Thirty-two-year-old Maqbool Masi runs a hardware 
shop in a small town on the Gujarat-Rajasthan 
border.
Two and a-half years back, Masi witnessed mobs 
burn down his neighbours' homes in Ahmedabad.
Leaving everything behind, Masi fled with his 
family to Rajasthan. But here as he tries to 
piece his life together, he is unable to shake 
off a growing sense of unease.
"There is peace here but it is an uneasy calm, as 
if one were sitting on a time bomb. You can see 
that here too it would be easy to use some people 
as tools for a communal flare up," said Maqbool 
Masi, a victim of Gujarat riots.
Concerted effort
Like in Gujarat where the Sangh Parivar began a 
concerted educational and social campaign among 
the adivasis in the mid 1980's, Rajasthan's 65 
lakh tribals have also been the focus of a 
saffron conversion over the past decade.
In the tribal belts of Udaipur and Banswara, the 
process of giving tribals a pan Hindu identity 
begins at schools run for adivasi children by the 
RSS backed NGO Vanwasi Kalyan Parishad.
Over the last 10 years, the number of such 
schools has grown five times increasing from 
barely 50 to over 300 now.
Each year, the organisation spends Rs 1 crore on 
its activities, which include running schools, 
orphanages and hostels for tribal children.
"The RSS saw that a lot of tribals were being 
converted to Christianity and that is the reason 
why we started this school here. Now people also 
come to us and our numbers are growing," said 
Shantilal Singada, teacher, Sri Ram School, 
Mokampura.
Polarisation
While this region has so far escaped major 
communal flareups, there is a growing sense of 
polarisation.
At Sewa Sadan, one of the first schools started 
by the missionaries in this remote area almost a 
100 years ago, the number of students has 
declined sharply.
Teachers at this school carry out their 
activities with a sense of apprehension.
"There is a sense of fear here, when slogans are 
raised against us saying Popes and priests run 
away, it does make us uneasy," said Santosh 
Rawat, teacher, Sewa Sadan.
Traditionally nature worshippers, the Bhils of 
this area are now being offered a larger Hindu 
identity.
Bhajan Mandalis and festivals like Ganpati 
Visarjan are organised in almost every village as 
part of the Vanwasi Kalyan Parishad's tribal 
upliftment programme.
This programme includes education schemes, 
agricultural development and even sports.
Out of the mainstream
Forty per cent of the people in this backward 
tribal belt still live below poverty line while 
the literacy rate here is among the lowest in 
Rajasthan.
Little wonder that tribes here have always been 
vulnerable to all kinds of propaganda.
Not surprisingly in the last election this 
groundwork done by the Sangh paid rich dividends.
The BJP was able to make massive inroads into the 
tribal vote once considered a Congress bastion. 
They won from nine of the 16 reserved assembly 
seats in this area.
Sanjay Lodha, professor of political science at 
Udaipur's Mohan Lal Sukhadia University, says the 
lack of development is a striking feature in this 
region.
"In such a situation where avenues for 
development are scarce, if you have a powerful 
organisational network which is out there and 
promises people something in the name of 
development whether it is education or income 
generation, it becomes easier to ensnare these 
people in your ideology," Lodha said.
And with the Congress unable to match the Sangh's 
grass roots network in this area, political 
equations in this corner of Rajasthan seem set 
for a complete realignment.
Which way the tribal vote swings will be crucial 
in the state's upcoming panchayat elections.

______


[6]

CAMPAIGN TO STOP FUNDING HATE RELEASES FAQ ON TSUNAMI DISASTER RELIEF

Campaign to Stop Funding Hate (CSFH) put out an 
alert last week, advising people to donate 
responsibly for tsunami relief in South Asia, and 
actively ensure that their money isn't being used 
to further violent, sectarian agendas. This alert 
can be viewed at our website: 
<http://stopfundinghate.org>http://stopfundinghate.org

We have received numerous queries in response to 
our alert, some of which we attempt to answer 
below. A more detailed version of our FAQ is 
available at 
<http://stopfundinghate.org/resources/atdfaq.htm>http://stopfundinghate.org/resources/atdfaq.htm 
and we request you to take a look at it. If you 
have any other questions or concerns that you 
would like to share with us, please write to us 
at 
<mailto:info at stopfundinghate.org>info at stopfundinghate.org

Some of the questions answered in this FAQ are:

1.Why are you trying to prevent IDRF, HSS, VHPA 
and Sewa International from raising money for 
Tsunami relief?
2. Are ALL the organizations recommended by the IDRF affiliated to the RSS?
3. What is wrong with the Sewa Bharati?
4. The IDRF is part of the Sangh and the Sangh is 
violent at times. But they also do good work 
during crises such as this tsunami, so why should 
I not support them in their good work?

<http://stopfundinghate.org/resources/atdfaq.htm>http://stopfundinghate.org/resources/atdfaq.htm

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

Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on 
matters of peace and democratisation in South 
Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit 
citizens wire service run since 1998 by South 
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