SACW | 21 Jan 2005 [ Godhra Fire | POTA | RSS & Tsunami ...]

[sacw]

South Asia Citizens Wire   | 21 Jan.,  2005 [ 
Godhra  Fire | POTA |  RSS & Tsunami etc]
via:  www.sacw.net

[1] India:  Dousing the Godhra fire (J Sri Raman)
[2] India:  Godhra's Truth - Manufacturing 
Explanations for Communal Agenda (Ram Puniyani)
[3] India: A Promise Kept (Mukul Dube)
[4] India: The Gujarat Genocide, Media, and the Congress (Nalini Taneja)
[5] India: Taking advantage of public generosity 
RSS tries to enter South with aid (Ashish Kumar 
Sen)
[6] India: Publications announcement by Three Essays Press
[7] India - Upcoming events : Pervez Hoodbhoy speaking, (Bombay, 22nd january)

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

[1]


The Daily Times
January 20, 2005

DOUSING THE GODHRA FIRE
by J Sri Raman

The point, however, was about the veracity of the 
'parivar' version of the Godhra incident itself. 
Doubts have been voiced about this before, but 
dismissed as a "pseudo-secular" defence of a 
minority and its violence. The then Modi 
government in Gujarat and Atal Bihari Vajpayee 
regime in New Delhi were in no hurry to get at 
the truth
The charred remains of a train compartment have 
been lying on an abandoned railway track of a 
wayside station in Gujarat for nearly three years 
now. After a long gap, the relic of recent 
history of a tragic kind reappeared on Indian 
television channels on January 17. The day saw 
the release of an official report, at last, on an 
incident that proved the prelude to an 
anti-minority pogrom of unprecedented scale and 
savagery.
The infamous incident of February 27, 2002, in 
which coach S6 of the Sabarmati Express was burnt 
down along with 59 passengers in Godhra, needs no 
detailed recapitulation. It led to the 
extensively chronicled Gujarat carnage (perhaps 
the most televised massacre of this kind) over 
the next three months that shook India and the 
world.
Godhra, said those who presided over the pogrom, 
justified Gujarat. The until then obscure town 
thus became the symbol of an allegedly monstrous 
minority-ism, and the home-state of Mahatma 
Gandhi an ironical synonym for horrendous 
violence.
Godhra, of course, did not justify Gujarat. It 
did not, even if the far-right parivar (family) 
was not propagating falsehoods about it as it 
does about most other matters. The carnage 
claimed a toll of nearly 3,000 lives and involved 
unspeakable bestialities perpetrated under a 
benign state government's protection. Thus, it 
was not "an equal and opposite reaction", as 
chief minister Narendra Modi, a better fascist 
than a physicist, proclaimed.
The point, however, was about the veracity of the 
parivar version of the Godhra incident itself. 
Doubts have been voiced about this before, but 
dismissed as a "pseudo-secular" defence of a 
minority and its violence. The then Modi 
government in Gujarat and Atal Bihari Vajpayee 
regime in New Delhi were in no hurry to get at 
the truth. A commission of inquiry into the 
incident was set up - but only for cosmetic 
purposes. Modi and Vajpayee made this clear by 
continuing to claim that, without Godhra, there 
would have been no Gujarat. They made the message 
louder and clearer by the way they sought to 
delay and deny justice to the victims of the 
state-abetted violence.
Little wonder that the truth about Godhra seemed 
to have been lost forever in the fire of that 
fateful February day. A general election later, 
the cause of justice in this case does not appear 
so hopelessly lost. It is not as though the full 
truth has finally been revealed now. The interim 
report of the Justice UC Bannerjee Committee, 
however, has done enough to expose the 
ungodliness of the gospel on Godhra according to 
the parivar and its political front, the 
Bharatiya Janata Party.
The main finding of the committee so far is that 
the fire was caused not by any "external input" 
but by an "accident" inside the train. This, at 
one stroke, erases the passion-rousing picture of 
a baying Muslim mob torching a closed compartment 
full of Ram bhaktas (devotees of Ram) on their 
return journey from Ayodhya. The parivar may 
accept a compromise on Ayodhya but must preserve 
this picture, painted in grisly colours by its 
propagandists, at any cost. Is not communal hate 
the cultural heritage it values most?
Others might commend the committee's concern over 
completing its work in time. (Set up last August, 
it was given an extension in late November and is 
expected to submit its final report next month.) 
The parivar, however, is highly perturbed over 
the timing of the report.
Behind the report, of course, looms the bete 
noire of the parivar and the BJP. True, the 
committee is the creation of railway minister 
Lalu Prasad Yadav. True, too, that the interim 
report has been released on the eve of an 
important state assembly election in Lalu's 
Bihar. The report does indict former railway 
minister Nitish Kumar, one of Lalu's chief 
adversaries in the state.
Far be it for me to claim political innocence for 
a player of such a long and successful innings as 
Lalu. I won't even remind readers about the 
electoral advantage Modi took of Godhra and 
Gujarat. But the questions raised by the report 
still remain. It has ruled out an "external 
input" and "conspiracy" on technical grounds, and 
its arguments have received more expert 
endorsements than I expected. It has pointed to 
the fact that the former railway minister and 
government did not order a departmental inquiry 
into the incident - a statutory requirement - and 
to Nitish Kumar's notable non-visit to the site.
I have two non-technical objections, not to the 
report, but to many non-parivar and even 
anti-parivar reactions to it. These applaud the 
committee's rejection of a minority "conspiracy" 
as a cause of the Godhra fire, but what about the 
signs of a conspiracy that took advantage of the 
incident to light wider flames in Gujarat?
Questions raised in Harsh Mander's poignant 
report remain unanswered. How were the miscreants 
prepared - with lists of victims' addresses, 
liquefied petroleum gas cylinders and several 
other tools of a terrible trade - to act on the 
incident with a methodical madness, a rehearsed 
rabidity? Maybe, Godhra and Gujarat can be 
meaningfully probed only together.
My other and more basic objection is to what 
quite a few appear to draw, amazingly, as the 
main conclusion from the report: the need for 
better railway security. The first and foremost 
lesson of both Godhra and Gujarat is to protect 
the internal security of the nation from fascist 
forces.
The writer is a journalist and peace activist based in Chennai, India



______


[2]

Issues in Secular Politics Dec. III-2005

GODHRA'S TRUTH
Manufacturing Explanations for Communal Agenda

by Ram Puniyani

Half an hour after the burning of Sabaramti Express's
S-6 coach on 27th Feb. 2002, Gujarat Chief Minister
Narendra Modi made a definitive statement that the
burning of the coach has been the handiwork of local
Muslims in collaboration with the Pakistan's ISI and
the International terrorism. This was followed by a
prompted 'reaction' to the 'action' (Every action has
equal and opposite reaction, Newton quoted by Modi),
the massive Gujarat carnage in which apart from the
loss of property two thousand Muslims lost their
lives. Now around 2and a half years after the tragic
incident, Justice U.C. Bannerjee comes out with the
truth of Godhra. According the interim report of this
commission this tragedy was a mere accident and was
not a preplanned one as claimed by Narendra Modi and
the RSS and its progeny.

Immediately after the release of this report BJP
spokesperson Arun Jaitley stated that this report is
meant to cover up the criminals behind this crime, it
is a appease the Muslim community. As such one can
expect such a reaction from Hindu right. How else they
cover up their own acts of commission. It is nothing
new to come out with such distractions from the
content and analysis of the reports of riots. One
knows that most of the inquiry commission reports have
indicted RSS progeny for being the main players in
these riots, it is not for nothing that a close cousin
of this progeny Shiv Sena, which as per the
meticulously investigated Shrikrshna report, was the
major player in the anti Muslim pogrom in Mumbai riots
in 92-93, came out with a defense by saying that this
report is 'Anti Hindu'. There is no analysis and no
rebutting of the charges. Just a rhetorical diversion
from the crux of the matter. Mr. Jaitley operating on
the same wavelength, rather then analyzing the
weakness of the report comes out with a subtle self
defense of his party.

Immediately after the train burning Jayanti Ravi, the
collector of Godhra, who knew better, said that there
is no evidence of the pre-planned conspiracy, but was
overruled by Modi, who calculated in a shrew way to
how to use this incident as a pretext to unleash anti
Muslim carnage to consolidate his hold on the levers
of power, to march towards 'Hindu nation in one
state-Gujarat.' All the norms which were needed to be
done were thrown overboard and here the NDA ally of
BJP played the as per the script of RSS. As per the
Railways Act all major accidents have to be
investigated. Sidetracking this norm the question of
investigating the accident was totally ignored, the
evidences contrary to 'Modi Expalnation' were put
under the carpet.

Haren Pandya, the then Home minister of Gujarat, for
reasons best known to him spilled the beans by telling
the Citizens Tribunal that Modi in a meeting of top
officials of the state on the same day told all
involved with controlling law and order that the
revenge of Godhra will be taken by Hindus and we
should sit back and let the things take their own
course, democratic laws can be put in the deep freeze.
What followed was beyond the worst fears, loss of
lives; violation of women; loss of property and to cap
it all the semi-permanent divide between the Hindu and
Muslim communities, the intensification of the process
of Ghettoisation of minorities.

Modi was thoroughly backed up and defended through and
through by other swayamsevaks who were supposed to
ensure that states behave as per the Indian
Constitution. The Central home minister Advani
certified that Modi's handling of the riots is
exemplary and the Prime Minister Vajpayee, while
shedding the crocodile tears went on to say 'but who
lit the fire?' Citizen's tribunal did come to the
conclusion that there was no preplanned conspiracy.
Two and a half years down the line no definitive
evidence of involvement of Muslims, Muslim
organizations, of ISI and International terrorirism
could be produced by Modi. He took just half and hour
to come to the conclusion, but despite the lag of
years he has not been able to produce any evidence. He
hid behind the opaqueness of POTA and imprisoned over
two hundered Muslim, without any evidence.

The aggressive propaganda of RSS progeny made a large
section of civil society to believe what was being
dished out by them was the truth. A large section of
social workers doubted this but in the din of hysteria
produced they remained a marginal voice. Since Modi
had adorned the cloak of national security those put
behind the bars were left unattended with total
violation of their democratic rights and civic rights.
How does one go about in the society in such
situations? The garb of national security is a
convenient ploy to suppress the voice of reason. BJP
used the bogey terrorism to the hilt, it showed the
burnt coach of Sabarmati express while fishing for
votes in the rivers of blood to come back to power
with a huge majority due to the polarization created
by the violence and the way propaganda was dished out
by the section of media.

The argument that the report is just for electoral
purposes will not wash. No doubt a politician like
Lalu may try to get benefit out of this, but the real
point is the defense of truth, the suffering of those
who have been jailed under POTA, those who have lost
their lives in the Gujarat carnage! How long will the
society give sanction to the imprisonment of the
innocents one's who have supposed to have burnt the
coach, will they be released immediately? Will they be
compensated for the false implication which they have
suffered for last over two and half years? That's the
real question for the large number of citizens of
India?

______


[3]

A PROMISE KEPT
Mukul Dube
[Material provided by Zakia Jowher
To appear in *Mainstream*, 29 January 2005 (Republic Day Special) ]


South Africa abolished apartheid many years ago, and blacks and
whites became equal citizens. How would black people react if they
were now prevented from entering particular areas unless they had
passes which are no longer issued because the rules which required
them have been scrapped?

During the British Raj, there were several places - clubs and so on -
in our towns and cities where people congregated: but only the
rulers, since notices were displayed which read "Indians Not
Allowed". Today all Indians are free to go anywhere - though only
in theory, since the unwritten exclusion of Dalits persists. How
would an Indian citizen, for example a non-Dalit such as N.D. Modi or
L.K. Advani, react on being denied entry to a club which no longer
displayed a notice debarring them on grounds of skin colour?

What if a woman of today were compelled by her husband - an Ideal
Man, for instance - to prove her innocence by walking on burning coals
because people had cast aspersions on her chastity?

In Gujarat, still ruled by the Vedic Taliban, what would be the
height of ridiculous injustice anywhere else remains the harshest
possible reality.

POTA was repealed by an ordinance on 27 October 2004. It was removed
from the statute books, it ceased to exist. Yet, in a land in which
so many laws are toothless, a law which has been done away with still
has lethal fangs - fangs already dripping blood and which daily come
to have fresh blood on them.

On 23 November two lawyers - H.N. Jhala and his junior, Mustak Ahmed
(also called Mushtaq Ali Saiyed by some newspapers) - were arrested
by the Crime Branch of the Gujarat Police, at dead of night, under
this law which had supposedly been relegated to history. Mr. Jhala is
a respected advocate who has practised for over five decades. His
recent work had included the defence of many persons accused in such
POTA cases as the Haren Pandya case, the Tiffin Bomb case and what is
popularly known as the ISI Conspiracy case. Mr. Jhala had in fact
sought anticipatory bail in view of a land transaction matter which
involved a person described as a POTA absconder but had withdrawn his
application on being assured by the Gujarat Police that they did not
plan to take any action. This would appear to have been unwise, since
earlier in the year the Crime Branch had harassed Mr. Jhala through
surveillance, had threatened him, and had detained two of his
juniors. Mr. Jhala had then filed a case against the Crime Branch
which is still pending.

It is well known that in the violence in Gujarat in 2002, of the
thousands who were killed, raped and maimed, who had their property
destroyed, who were rendered homeless and whose means of livelihood
were snatched away from them, all but a handful were Muslims. It is
also well known that in Gujarat, POTA has been used exclusively
against Muslims. What is perhaps not so well known is that even the
families of persons arrested under POTA have been systematically
terrorised by arms of the State. Since almost all of those arrested
were the main or sole bread-winners of their families, the economic
hardship that has resulted is incalculable.

POTA, thus, has not been used only against those who have been
arrested under it - but whose trials, even after two years and more,
have still not begun. It has been used against the entire Muslim
community, not just against those of its members are in custody and
against whom there are charges. In Gujarat, proudly proclaimed to be
a Hindu Rajya by the Sangh Parivar, to be innocent is to invite
retribution. The Muslims of Gujarat are being punished for having had
so many of their number butchered.

We must never forget that it is the State which is responsible for
seeing to the welfare of its citizens and to the punishment of the
wrong-doers among them. But it is a fact of history that in Gujarat,
the State not only did nothing for the tens of thousands of Muslims -
citizens in exactly the same way as Pravin Togadia and Maya Kodnani
are citizens - who had to seek shelter in squalid, crowded camps, it
actively obstructed those who sought to provide relief. And it is
also a fact of history that the State in Gujarat has consistently
sought to protect those whom it was duty bound to have brought to
book - those who were responsible for the deaths of two thousand and
more Muslims and for the rape of uncounted Muslim women and girls. And
it is also a fact that the State has been responsible for the torture
of those in custody and for compelling them to sign
"confessions" which were prepared for them. And it is also a
fact that the economic hardship to which their families were and are
subjected is the creation of the State, which in theory should have
been looking to their well-being.

In Modi's Gujarat, the very bases of democracy and of justice have
been turned on their heads. Those who should have been protectors
have been, and remain, predators. While the BJP ruled in New Delhi, it
did nothing to set things right - although there are specific
provisions in the Constitution which authorise the Centre to act when
something does badly wrong in a state. The "soft" Prime
Minister and his "iron" deputy (who was also the Home Minister)
sat back and, from time to time, made statements which were at once
mealy-mouthed and self-contradictory. The one thing for which they
can be praised is that they did not applaud Modi's butchery
publicly: but neither did they take action against those of their
Parivar who did hail the successful "experiment", people like
Togadia and Ashok Singhal being the loudest, though many others who
were quieter were no less venomous. The RSS was seldom heard. The
nervous systems of all living creatures, even the lowest, carry the
brain's orders in silence.

The State in Gujarat has been held guilty of, at the very least,
complicity in the genocide of 2002. More and more evidence has been
coming to light of the way in which the administration and the police
either looked the other way when the soldiers of Hindutva were on the
rampage - or else actively assisted those fine warriors. There is
also a growing body of indications that what were and are described as
riots were not riots at all but a carefully planned and orchestrated
pogrom. Printed lists of Muslims' homes and businesses,
efficiently organised motor transport for large numbers of marauders,
an unending supply of gas cylinders to be used for destruction - and,
above all, continuous communication via cellular phones between
functionaries of the VHP and the BJP on the one hand, and the higher
reaches of the administration and the police on the other - these are
not hall-marks of sudden, uncontrollable fury.

It is against this background that we must look at how POTA has been
used in Gujarat. POTA never was the defence against terrorists that
it was described as being. Instead, it was a powerful weapon to be
used against the Muslim minority - with its use for this purpose being
justified by the labelling of all Muslims as "terrorists" and
"agents of Miyan Musharraf". The State in Gujarat has presented
no evidence to show that these labels have any truth in them. Why
should it bother? It is answerable to no one, not even to the
Constitution of India under whose provisions it came to wield power.

The foundation of the legal systems of the civilised world is that a
person accused of having committed a crime must be presumed to be
innocent until proven guilty. Such a person must also have certain
rights, starting with the right to legal defence. These principles
are clearly laid out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to
which India is a signatory. Our Constitution and our laws explicitly
give rights to persons charged with wrong-doing and place curbs on
the powers of functionaries of the State.

Possibly the most dangerous weakness of this system is that it relies
almost entirely on those very functionaries of the State not to
exceed the powers given to them and to ensure that all accused
individuals may freely exercise their statutory rights. This weakness
has revealed itself time and again where ordinary laws have been
involved - but extraordinary laws such as POTA can bring about the
unbridled use of power by the police and the denial of any rights
whatsoever even to persons whose alleged crimes are complete
fabrications. I have named the police because that is the arm which
holds the stick and the gun: but we all know that limbs do not act of
their own accord, without orders from higher organs.

There is overwhelming evidence that POTA has been misused in Gujarat
and that it continues to be misused there. Ours is a federal republic
in which individual states have considerable autonomy. But the nation
is held together by the Centre, which has not only the authority but
also a duty to ensure that everything in it functions smoothly - and,
above all, that no one treats the Constitution as waste paper.

Before the general election, the Congress party and the rest of the
UPA had promised to repeal POTA. This, they said, was because POTA
was a draconian law which was amenable to misuse. After the Congress
came to head the coalition at the Centre, it kept its promise. POTA
was repealed by an ordinance not too long before it was to lapse, and
on 9 December a Bill was passed by Parliament. But while the letter
of the law has been waved about with much fanfare, its spirit has been
thrown into the sewer.

In order to have had any meaning, the repeal of POTA should have been
retrospective. It has been repealed only on paper: its victims have
been given no relief. Citizens' groups offered an alternative:
that confessions made to the police should be inadmissible as
evidence, that Special Courts should be abolished, that all trials
should be conducted by Sessions in the normal manner, that the
provisions for bail should be those set out in the Criminal Procedure
Code, and that Review Committees should have only judicial members
appointed by the Central Government. But the Central Government paid
no heed to this, just as the vague promises made on 5 July to a
delegation by the Prime Minister and the Home Minister were pushed
under the carpet.

And what of the stated reason for the promise to repeal POTA? Was
POTA misused during the years over which it was in force? Did the
Congress party look into this, as reason demanded that it should have
done? Had it done that, it cannot but have identified those who
misused POTA and those who suffered on account of that misuse. But
this is meaningless rhetoric.

The fact is that everyone in Gujarat knows that POTA was misused
there and that it continues to be misused there. A good many people
outside Gujarat also know this. The Congress party is neither blind
nor deaf. It sees and it hears. Since it is a long-established, major
political party with a network of members, supporters and
sympathisers, many of them in positions which give them access to
information which is not available to ordinary people, it must know
in great detail what has been going on.

But the Congress party, neither blind nor deaf, has chosen to play
dumb. It does not speak and it does not act. Should we not conclude
that it did not really give a damn about POTA, that it wanted only to
promise to repeal it? Having ruled the country for decades, the
Congress knows that votes are what count in elections, while
principles can go to hell after they have been printed in manifestos
to keep up the charade.

The organised denial of justice to the victims of the Gujarat
genocide of 2002 goes on. Offenders were not booked because the
complaints sought to be filed by victims were not accepted or were
watered down, witnesses in the few cases which are in progress have
throughout been intimidated, and those lawyers who took up the cases
of the victims have been living through a nightmare. The arrests of
Mr. Jhala and Mr. Mustak Ahmed only show that a rifle whose barrel
has been destroyed, if we are to believe the high and mighty, can go
on firing lethal bullets.

But who can deny that the Congress party and its partners in the UPA
have kept the promise they had made in the Common Minimum Programme?
Those who support it from without have also shown themselves to be
civilised people who like peace and quiet.


______


[4]

ON VICTIMS AND PERPETRATORS:
The Gujarat Genocide, Media, and the Congress

Nalini Taneja

Perhaps one needs to justify why one is still 
going on about the 'turn around' by Zahira 
Sheikh. One would not, if it were recognised as a 
matter of one witness changing stance and turning 
hostile-an eventuality not unknown to our 
judicial system, and one which it must take into 
account in the matter of justice. In this case 
the media and many secular activists have 
responded differently from their usual cynicism 
about justice being impossible. It almost appears 
justice for Gujarat victims was within reach had 
Zahira not betrayed the cause; and stories of 
money changing hands in the Best Bakery Case have 
already achieved their first purpose.

Today it is Zahira Sheikh who stands trial. The 
media is still willing to recognise that Teesta 
Setalvaad, a staunch and brave fighter for those 
killed in Gujarat, is perhaps a victim, but the 
status of Zahira has undergone a change in media 
discourse.

Even while making a plea that Zahira's latest 
testimony be not allowed to stem the course of 
justice, it is being said that "Ms Zahira Sheikh 
has come to represent almost everything that is 
wrong with India's polityŠThe 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" (Telegraph, December 27, 2004).

"As we have argued in these columns, she should 
be tried for perjury. Zahira has failed all those 
fighting for justice in Gujarat, and more so, 
victims like her. It is worse if she, as alleged, 
has sold her victimhood for cash to absolve 
perpetrators of the gruesome murders at Best 
Bakery" says a Times of India editorial, 
(December 24, 2004).

It is Zahira who now represents what is wrong 
with our system. It is Zahira who must ensure 
justice. The helpless and the powerless are asked 
to achieve what those with the whole might of 
State behind them will not.

There is a refusal to recognise that Zahira is 
still a victim-a victim not very different from 
thousands of others-unprotected by the State.

While the lion remains uncaged, we expect its 
prey not to run or try escape; we expect its prey 
to fight without having any teeth. Even the 
Tehelka expose toys with the idea that Zahira 
perhaps "holds the key to the Gujarat 
government's complicity in the carnage?"

It is a media created myth in the first place 
that Zahira holds the key to the Gujarat 
government's complicity in the carnage. If any 
one agency holds the key to the Gujarat 
government's complicity, it is the present 
government at the centre. With all the resources 
at its command, with all access to information 
and a popular mandate to back its legitimacy in 
office, why does this government not spare the 
victims of Gujarat the burden of also bringing 
the guilty to book?

We ask ourselves yet again: What will happen to 
the various cases now that Zahira has changed her 
version? Is this a signal towards what might 
happen with regard to other witnesses as well?

We refuse to ask ourselves: Why are Modi and the 
likes of them still there to buy her out, or 
whatever? Would Zahira have changed her testimony 
if Modi had been removed from the office from 
which he presided over the genocide of thousands? 
By its inaction the government at the centre has 
ensured that Zahira changes her testimony. It 
should not have allowed her to do so.

It tells something about the nature of our State. 
Zahira has not defied the State in changing her 
testimony; she has in fact complied with its 
demands. Nobody has, to date, been punished for 
communal crimes in independent India. The 
Congress government has never once proclaimed its 
desire to ensure punishment for those guilty of 
Gujarat genocide.

A lot has been written on the matter and those 
guilty of communal killings have always got away. 
More specifically, it has been asserted that if 
the guilty of 1984 had been punished, Gujarat 
could not have been managed by the Hindutva 
forces with such impunity. There is a truth in 
that-if we also recognise that had Moradabad, 
Meerut, Jamshedpur, Bhagalpur, Nellie and many 
other such massacres not been allowed to remain 
unpunished, the Indian State would have had 
better control over its constitutional 
obligations. But that is only part of the story.

In many senses Gujarat is a watershed and a test 
case like no other. The complicity of the police 
forces and Hindu communal organisations is not a 
new factor as we know very well. But the State, 
in the more specific sense of the government in 
power, was actively involved only in the 1984 
planned massacre of Sikhs and of Muslims in 
Gujarat 2002. And while all killings have been 
heinous, and 1984 saw involvement of the 
political party in power, for the first time we 
have a political party that refuses to back track 
or be chastened.

The Congress would think twice about repeating 
1984, which was effected, we must not forget, 
with the help of RSS cadres. It cannot gain 
politically from an escalation of communal 
violence today, and it can win support of the 
ruling classes better through its anti-people 
economic policies. It is clear that the Congress 
has chosen the second option to remain in power, 
at least for the next five years.

The BJP has proudly announced its determination 
to continue with hate filled politics, and 
Narendra Modi has the pride of place next to LK 
Advani, the BJP president, when he announces this 
from the dais, at a public meeting. That this can 
continue along the same time that video cameras 
establish the truth of BJP members threatening 
and paying money to Zahira Sheikh shows how 
little the Hindutva forces care about the 
Congress being in power. If anything is holding 
Hindutva forces back today it is the electoral 
mandate against them, and their failure to evoke 
any response despite their best efforts to 
continue mobilising on divisive and sectarian 
issues.

In this context, if some witnesses---like so many 
others of our country men and women-choose, what 
seems to them, an easier way out, to rebuild 
their lives or to better their lot, who should we 
blame? The media, except for one or two 
columnists, has chosen to remain silent on the 
matter. It fails to bring to hold the new 
government at the Centre responsible for what is 
happening in Gujarat under its rule.

(Source: Peoples Democracy)

______



[5]

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2005/20050119/edit.htm#6

The Tribune
January 19, 2005

TAKING ADVANTAGE OF PUBLIC GENEROSITY
RSS TRIES TO ENTER SOUTH WITH AID

by Ashish Kumar Sen

AS non-resident Indians dig deep into their 
pockets to help the tsunami victims, there is a 
heightened concern that sectarian groups are 
exploiting the tragedy for their own divisive 
goals.

Secular groups across the United States and 
Britain are specifically apprehensive about the 
US-based India Development and Relief Fund; and 
overseas chapters of the RSS, Sewa International 
and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.

Mr Chetan Bhatt, a reader in sociology at 
Goldsmiths College, University of London, has 
studied the proliferation of Rashtriya 
Swayamsevak Sangh affiliates in the NRI 
community. He says in India the RSS is trying to 
"penetrate the southern states" under the guise 
of providing tsunami relief.

"The RSS has had little success in South India 
and it hopes to spread its influence like it did 
in Orissa after the cyclone (in 1999) and in 
Gujarat following the earthquake (in 2001)," he 
said, adding that, "There is a pattern where you 
have a natural tragedy, the RSS launches an 
appeal and this is followed by a dramatic 
expansion of Sangh activities in the area. This 
expansion has invariably been accompanied by 
violence."

Established in 1925, the RSS advocates Hindu 
nationalism and seeks to convert India into a 
"Hindu Rashtra (Nation)." The RSS has been banned 
thrice in India, most recently in 1992 after the 
demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.

The RSS is not permitted by the Government of 
India to accept funds from abroad. Instead, US 
affiliates, which include IDRF and HSS, serve as 
fronts for organisations like Sewa Bharati, Jana 
Sankshema Samiti and Vivekananda Kendra in India, 
all of which are intrinsic parts of the RSS 
operations and subscribe to its anti-minority 
ideology.

An ex-employee at the World Bank and a former 
member of the RSS, Maryland-based IDRF founder 
Vinod Prakash has in the past said IDRF has given 
"absolutely no money to the RSS."

In 2002, the US-based Campaign to Stop Funding 
Hate (CSFH) documented links between IDRF and RSS 
affiliates in India. Biju Mathew, a professor of 
business at Rider University and a member of the 
campaign, says of the long list of organisations 
that IDRF claims to support, only Sewa Bharati 
(Tamil Nadu and Kerala), Jana Sankshema Samiti 
(Andhra Pradesh) and Vivekananda Kendra (Tamil 
Nadu) are clearly identified as RSS affiliates.

"Sewa Bharati [in Tamil Nadu] is housed in the 
same office as the Southern Region branch of the 
RSS," said Mr. Mathew.

In London, the Charity Commission is 
investigating Sewa International (U.K.) and the 
Vishwa Hindu Parishad following a number of 
complaints, including one from Lord Adam Patel of 
Britain's House of Lords.

"Lord Adam Patel claimed that not all the funds 
raised by the Gujarat Earthquake appeal (by Sewa 
International and the VHP) were applied in 
accordance with the appeal," said Sush Amar, 
public relations manager at the Charity 
Commission. She said the commission has not 
placed any restrictions on fund-raising campaigns 
by these groups during the course of the 
investigation.

Mr James Bishop, director of humanitarian policy 
and practice at Washington-based InterAction - 
the largest alliance of US-based international 
and humanitarian non-governmental organisations, 
acknowledges a precedent in which humanitarian 
tragedies have been exploited by "certain 
individuals and groups that posed as legitimate 
charities and engaged in fraud."

Mindful of these incidents, the Chicago-based 
American Institute of Philanthropy, a non-profit 
charity watchdog, has instructed Americans to 
send tsunami aid "to only those charities with an 
established track record of helping people in 
this region."

"During a highly publicised crisis, it is common 
for disreputable, fly-by-night 'charities' to 
take advantage of the public's generosity," the 
institute cautioned.

Complaints about unequal distribution of aid in 
the tsunami-hit regions in India have started to 
pour in to human rights organisations. Brad 
Adams, Asia Director of Human Rights Watch, says 
the New York-based group has received reports of 
discrimination against Dalit communities in India 
by the authorities as well as by some aid groups 
and local communities.

Noting the presence of a significant Dalit 
Christian population among the affected 
communities, Mr Mathew said the RSS, through its 
Tamil Nadu front - the Hindu Munnani - "has been 
trying to divide that community along religious 
lines for the last decade."

"The Hindu Munnani is most active in Tamil Nadu 
amongst the fisher folk communities," he said 
"With an influx of funds, the Munnani will be 
able to launch an aggressive campaign against the 
Dalits. The region is prone to a fairly bad 
communal situation."

The emergence of Sewa International (US) and its 
role in tsunami relief efforts, Mr Mathew said, 
"is a matter of concern but also shows that IDRF 
has been affected by negative publicity and the 
Sangh felt the need to float a new front."

Secular groups have, in the past, been criticised 
for focusing on the activities of the RSS and its 
affiliates.

After IDRF's links to the RSS were exposed in 
2002, a group calling itself Friends of India put 
together "A Factual Response to the Hate Attack 
on the India Development and Relief Fund."

Defending IDRF from charges of being 
discriminatory, sectarian and deceptive the 
Friends of India report said: "If indeed IDRF 
wanted to be deceptive, would it put up all the 
details of funds received and distributed for 
everyone to see on the Internet?"

The group also noted that accusations that the 
RSS' accounts are never audited publicly "does 
not have any meaning because audits are conducted 
of individual organisations that handle money. A 
group of people sharing common ideals has no need 
of any 'audit' except in communist or Islamic 
dictatorships."

In defence of its work, CSFH said: "While it is 
important to oppose all sectarian organisations, 
including fundamentalist Christian and Muslim 
groups, who wait in the wings to pounce whenever 
tragedy strikes, it is far more important to 
confront and expose the RSS in India because it 
is exponentially more powerful than any other 
such exclusionist organisation."




________


[6]

Three Essays Collective has recently brought out a new title:

Remapping Knowledge:
The Making of South Asian Studies in India, 
Europe and America (19th-20th centuries)

Edited by Jackie Assayag and Véronique Bénéï

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centuries (19th-20th), by providing a genealogy 
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construction of South Asia in the American 
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South Asia, "Made in the USA" : Cultural 
Transfers, Universities and the Intellectual 
Diaspora
By Jackie Assayag

Nations, Diaspora and Area Studies: South Asia, 
from Great Britain to the United States
By Véronique Bénéï

Subaltern Studies as Post-Colonial Critique of Modernity
by Jacques Pouchepadass


Jackie Assayag is an anthropologist and a 
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the Maison Française, Oxford (UK). Véronique 
Bénéï is an anthropologist and a Senior Research 
Fellow at the CNRS, affiliated to the Laboratoire 
d'Anthropologie des Institutions et des 
Organisations Sociales (LAIOS), Paris, and 
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P.O. Box 6, Palam Vihar
Gurgaon (Haryana) 122 017
India

www.threeessays.com

_______


[7]

Date:	Thu, 20 Jan 2005 05:25:02 +0000 (GMT)
From:	"Jatin Desai"  

friends,

pipfpd has organised a meeting with pervez 
hoodbhoy on saturday, 22nd january at Press Club 
[Bombay], at 4.00 pm. i feel hoodbhoy needs no 
introduction as he is well known physicist from 
pakistan involved with peace movements and social 
political issues. he is also UNESCO Kalinga award 
winner for popularising science.

we will also screen his two films viz. 1, 
'crossing the lines-kashmir, pakistan, india' (47 
mts., 2004) and 2, ' pakistan and india under the 
nuclear shadow' (32 mts., 2002).

do attend it and also pass word to other friends, colleagues.

jatin

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

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