SACW | 10-11 March 2005

[sacw]

South Asia Citizens Wire   | 10 -11 March,  2005
via:  www.sacw.net

[Interruption Notice: Please note, there will be SACW dispatches 
between 12-14 March 2005]

[1]  Bangladesh: Fresh onslaught on Ahmadiyyas imminent (Editorial, Daily Star)
[2]  Extracts => Declaration - 7th Joint Convention of the Pakistan 
India People's Forum for Peace and Democracy
[3]  India - Gujarat: Dismembering truth (Jyotirmaya Sharma)
[4]  India: Geelani's Guilt: Presumed or Being Fabricated? (Mukul Dube)
[5]  India: Masks Unlimited - Vajpayee, Babri Demolition and Gujarat 
Riots (Ram Puniyani)
[6]  US - India: Get Modi A State Terrorist Visits American Hoteliers 
(Vijay Prashad)
[7]  India: Remembering Kanak Mukherjee (AIDWA)
[8]  India: Hindu mumbo-jumbo made compulsory in Rajasthan hostels


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

[1]

Daily Star - March 10, 2005	 
  	 
Editorial

FRESH ONSLAUGHT ON AHMADIYYAS IMMINENT

Time for the government to back up its words
The anti-Ahmadiyya bigots are once again on the move and March 11 has 
been slated as the day for action. The Rajshahi branch of the 
International Khatme Nabuwat Movement has announced its plans to lay 
siege to Ahmadiyya mosques in Bogra that day, meanwhile the Gaibandha 
branch has declared a similar programme against the Ahmadiyya 
establishments in that locality.

In addition, the anti-Ahmadiyya forces have been holding processions 
and rallies all over the northern districts of Bangladesh for the 
past week, spewing hatred, demanding that the Ahmadiyyas be declared 
non-Muslims, and laying the groundwork for their agitation on Friday.


The government recently announced that it is finally going to take 
the issue of religious extremism seriously. It has banned the 
extremist JMJB and JMB organisations and begun to arrest some of 
their leaders and activists. The government's turn-around on 
extremists was welcome, since it had spent so much time denying that 
there was a problem in the country.

March 11 is a chance for the government to show that it really means 
business when it comes to stamping out religious extremism in any 
form or shape. The government must take a stand on Friday to show 
that there is zero tolerance for religious bigotry and violence. The 
anti-Ahmadiyya movement is fueled by bigotry that makes a mockery of 
our constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion, it has committed 
and continues to threaten violence and disorder, and it has committed 
and continues to threaten to commit serious crimes against both the 
Ahmadiyya community and against the peace.


Standing firm against the extremists and ensuring the safety and 
security of the Ahmadiyya community and their mosques is only the 
first step. The government should take the initiative to reverse its 
ban on Ahmadiyya publications which has only encouraged and 
emboldened the bigots, and it should think about banning the 
anti-Ahmadiyya groups who have been guilty of violent crime and 
continue to show their disregard for the constitution, the law, and 
the principles of democracy.


This would send the message that the government is really serious 
about combating religious extremism and violence and crime committed 
in the name of religion.

______


[2]


EPW Letters to Editor
March 5, 2005

INDIA-PAKISTAN FORUM

The following are extracts from the Declaration of the Seventh Joint 
Convention of the Pakistan India People's Forum for Peace and 
Democracy issued recently in Delhi.

The forum decided to appoint a joint committee to deliberate the 
question of establishing peace and goodwill between the peoples (as 
distinct from the elite) of India and Pakistan on a permanent basis. 
The committee should suggest how the peoples of India and Pakistan 
should jointly and separately mobilise themselves to bring about the 
conditions of permanent peace, participatory democracy and united 
struggle against neo-imperialist forces. The committee should also 
formulate a long-term plan of action for the forum to realise its 
objectives.

We welcome the ongoing dialogue process between India and Pakistan, 
particularly the breakthrough that has been achieved in terms of 
restoring the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road-link. We hope that this will 
be the first step in restoring other cross-border links.

Recommendations adopted by the working group on Kashmir:

We reiterate our long-standing position that Kashmir is not merely a 
territorial dispute between India and Pakistan, but a matter of the 
lives and aspirations of the Kashmiri people. We urge recognition of 
the fact that there is a plurality of views on both sides of divided 
J and K as well as several approaches to the dispute - ranging from 
independence, accession to Pakistan, to de jure recognition of the 
current status quo.

We re-emphasise that the dispute is a political one and must be 
resolved politically. Therefore, we call on all parties, state and 
non-state, to abjure violence. We express our particular concern 
about the use of former militants in counter-insurgency operations by 
different state agencies.

Given the diversity of opinion, it is all the more critical that 
people's voices be heard, their right of self-determination be 
recognised, and no solution imposed. In keeping with this spirit, the 
forum reaffirms its position to not offer any solution as this is a 
right that belongs to the peoples of J and K.

PIPFPD emphasises the right of peoples from both sides of the Line of 
Control to meet and demands that the two governments remove 
restrictions on the exercise of this right.

The forum draws urgent attention to the situation of 'missing' 
persons due to abductions by state agencies and urges the state to 
divulge the whereabouts of the 'disappeared'. PIPFPD notes with 
concern the propensity of the armed forces to disregard the 
directives of the judiciary, particularly in a situation where the 
armed forces mostly administer the state on both sides of the LoC. 
The forum demands the repeal of special laws like the Armed Forces 
Special Powers Act that foster a culture of impunity.

Despite the ceasefire that we welcome, official claims of normalcy 
are belied by the continuance of counter-insurgency operations that 
are causing enormous hardship to the peoples of J and K. The forum 
reiterates its demand for withdrawal of armed forces and armed groups 
on both sides.

PIPFPD condemns the systematic use of rape, sexual abuse, harassment, 
abduction and eviction of women by security forces (who justify it as 
a counter-insurgency measure), as well as similar acts by non-state 
groups.

We draw attention to the economic plight of refugees and internally 
displaced families, a large number of whom comprise women-headed 
households.

The forum directs attention to the particular situation of the 
Kashmiri youth, who are deprived of educational opportunities and 
livelihood due to ongoing violence and misgovernance.

The situation in J and K has resulted in grave health problems, 
particularly mental health risks for the people. We urge the 
government to create appropriate facilities to address this critical 
issue.

The forum calls for the inclusion of the Kashmiris in any discussion 
regarding the water disputes between India and Pakistan, since these 
waters originate in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, but it is the 
peoples of this region who benefit the least.

The forum urges attention to the situation in Gilgit and Baltistan 
that are experiencing the loss of state subject rights, and are also 
more vulnerable to state induced alterations in their demographic 
make up.

Ashok Mitra
Chairperson, India Chapter
Afrasiyab Khattak
Chairperson, India Chapter
Pakistan India People's Forum for Peace and Democracy


________


[3]

The Hindu - March 10, 2005

DISMEMBERING TRUTH

By Jyotirmaya Sharma

A half-hearted attempt at bringing about reconciliation between 
communities based on mendacity and self-deception will not help 
assuage the feelings of the victims of the Gujarat riots.


AMIDST THE excitement and anticipation over the recent Assembly 
election results and the annual budget speech, an event on February 
28 went unnoticed. A group of citizens, under the umbrella of an 
organisation called Janandolan, gathered to stage a dharna at the 
Town Hall in Ahmedabad at 5-30pm. The reason for coming together was 
to "call upon the people to join the struggle for peace and 
reconciliation and build a new relation of communal harmony."

The choice of date for the dharna was not entirely fortuitous. It was 
on this day, three years ago in 2002, that Gujarat witnessed the 
post-Godhra communal carnage (the train massacre in Godhra happened 
on February 27). Neither was the language of the message sent to 
people to join this attempt at peace and reconciliation suspect in 
the first instance. It spoke of "grievous" wounds "refusing to heal." 
It warned of the dangers "festering wounds" could cause to the social 
fabric. The time for "pious thinking" was over, stressed the note, 
and people had to take concrete steps to build confidence among 
communities and remove mistrust.

Just as one begins to bask in the nobility of Janandolan's effort, 
the suggestions made by the organisation as part of the first phase 
of the plan to bring about peace, justice and reconciliation come as 
a shock and jolts one out of any initial illusions about the 
soundness as well as motives of the entire exercise. The operative 
paragraph needs to be quoted in full: "All riot-related cases except 
those which involve murder or rape/molestation, shall be compounded 
by agreement and all accused in such cases should be discharged. Any 
legal hurdle in achieving this goal should be overcome by amending 
the law. POTA charges should be withdrawn from all left-over cases." 
The note goes on to discuss in some detail the modalities of 
riot-related compensation.

If the recommendations made in the paragraph quoted above were to be 
taken seriously, it would, firstly, exonerate hundreds of leaders and 
activists of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad 
who systematically engineered and participated in the riots that 
followed the Godhra carnage. The complicity of the Narendra Modi 
Government in the post-Godhra carnage has been confirmed by 
successive judgments of the Supreme Court. The Janandolan's 
suggestions would conveniently absolve the Gujarat Government of any 
responsibility in compromising the rule of law in the aftermath of 
Godhra.

Even more dangerous is the suggestion that cases be dropped, and if 
this cannot be done under the current framework of the rule of law, 
then, the law itself ought to be amended. This virtually amounts to 
destroying the criminal justice system and also goes against a series 
of judgments passed by the Supreme Court; the apex court went to the 
extent of calling the handling of the post-Godhra cases in Gujarat a 
"travesty of truth and a fraud on the legal process."

It is worth remembering that under pressure from the Supreme Court 
and the National Human Rights Commission, the Government of Gujarat 
had admitted in an affidavit to the Supreme Court that out of the 
4,256 riot cases registered, 2,108 cases were instances where summary 
investigations and closures happened. In its judgment of August 17, 
2004, the Supreme Court had ordered the re-examination of 2,000 cases 
of summary closure of riot cases. Until these cases are re-examined, 
there is no way to determine whether individuals in these cases are 
ultimately to be found guilty of murder and rape. The Janandolan's 
argument ignores these cases and legitimises the wilful compromise of 
the rule of law by the State machinery in Gujarat.

Neither is the argument to drop POTA cases a way to bring about 
justice and reconciliation. In fact, this is a tacit admission on 
behalf of the State Government that POTA might have been misused to 
implicate innocent individuals from the minority community. If the 
rule of law is to stand and be counted, then it should neither pander 
to majority communalism nor to minority communalism. In other words, 
the perpetrators of communal violence and hatred from any community 
ought to be brought to book and punished. Arguments in favour of 
dropping cases in Gujarat are really an admission of the complete 
perversion of the rule of law in that State in favour of promoting 
jihadi Hindutva and its divisive agenda.

If peace, justice and reconciliation were to be built on such a 
flimsy foundation, then, the VHP State general secretary named in a 
first information report for instigating and carrying out arson and 
looting in Naroda Patia would go free. So would two BJP legislators 
named in another FIR filed in Naroda Gam. Why? Because they are 
accused of aiding and abetting collective violence but have not been 
convicted of murder or rape? This is the logical conclusion emerging 
out of the Janandolan's scheme of things.

The Janandolan note has just one line to say about the Government of 
Gujarat. It is in the form of a mild lament about "authorities in the 
State of Gujarat [have] done very little to give justice to the riot 
victims and heal their wounds." As the narrative proceeds, even the 
word "justice" is dropped in favour of just "peace" and 
"reconciliation." The more notable aspect of the document is the 
complete absence of the word "truth." This is where the problem lies. 
It is an attempt to construct peace and reconciliation by giving 
short shrift to truth.

The truth about Godhra and its aftermath have implications for the 
future of the Indian polity and the effectiveness of instruments of 
the State to deliver justice and security to its citizens. No 
half-hearted attempt at bringing about reconciliation between 
communities based on mendacity and self-deception will work. It is 
easy, therefore, to invent a world riddled with well-meaning terms 
such as peace, justice and reconciliation, but difficult to construct 
this world on the foundation of truth. Self-deception helps build a 
less painful but unreal world.

Justice based on truth makes the oppressor accountable and the 
oppressed gain a sense of self-respect and sense of agency. The 
solution suggested by Janandolan frees the oppressor from the burden 
of the past through a sordid compromise on the part of the victims. 
This is not to suggest the way out lies in forever condemning the 
victims to a sense of victimisation. Nor does it lie in promoting the 
self-righteousness of the victims. The first step is to work for an 
effective, formal, and impersonal rule of law to place the truth 
about Godhra and its bloody aftermath before the world. Emotional 
de-escalation can happen only after truth and justice are firmly in 
place.

What is significant about the post-Godhra carnage is that public 
memory tends to consign such genocidal events to distant memory. And 
when such events are recalled, in this instance by the Janandolan 
initiative, they serve a purpose that has little to do with the sense 
of urgency and emotional trauma felt at the time of the incident. 
More often than not, recalling them serves an instrumental purpose. 
Slowly and steadily, people begin to question the enormity and 
intensity of such an unfortunate event. In an age where the fleeting 
images on television screens hardly offer an opportunity to reflect, 
Godhra and the riots that followed become yesterday's news, 
significant only to historians and a handful of "concerned" 
individuals.

This is the greatest strength of the oppressor. Simon Wiesenthal 
recounts instances of SS militiamen in Nazi Germany taunting their 
victims in the following manner: "However this war may end, we have 
won the war against you; none of you will be left to bear witness, 
but even if someone were to survive, the world will not believe him. 
There will perhaps be suspicions, discussions, research by 
historians, but there will be no certainties, because we will destroy 
the evidence together with you. And even if some proof should remain 
and some of you survive, people will say that the events you describe 
are too monstrous to be believed... "(From The Murderers Are Among 
Us, McGraw-Hill [1st edition], 1967).

Peace and reconciliation without truth and justice will only lead 
people to disbelieve that in 2002, State power, in a developmentally 
advanced part of India, backed by ideology and helped by a largely 
pliant bureaucracy and police force, almost succeeded in 
approximating for itself the Nazi ideal.

______


[4]

www.sacw.net | March 10 2005
URL: www.sacw.net/hrights/MDube10032005.html

GEELANI'S GUILT: PRESUMED OR BEING FABRICATED?

Mukul Dube

Ordinarily, a man who is shot and seriously injured by an unknown
assailant is seen by law enforcement agencies as a victim. These
agencies treat him, and those who are close to him, with sympathy.
Many have said, however, that Syed Abdul Rehman Geelani, who was shot
while parking his car near his lawyer Nandita Haksar's house, has
been treated not like a victim but like a suspect or even a proven
offender. This is, they argue, because the Special Cell, having
turned Geelani's acquittal by the High Court into an issue of
prestige, is hell bent on having him declared a criminal by the
Supreme Court so that he may be hanged.

Beginning with Geelani's arrest just after the attack on
Parliament, the police have seemed too impatient to wait for the law
to take its course. In effect, they passed judgment at that time; and
their actions later were aimed at supporting their judgment. Perhaps
I should speak in the present tense.

When it acquitted Geelani, the Delhi High Court said that case
documents had been forged by the police, starting with the arrest
memo itself. This is a strong indication that Geelani had been framed.
For reasons which may never be explained, though, the High Court took
no action against the police for these illegal acts.

The attitude of the police was communal throughout the trial of
Geelani and the others accused in the case. It was also something
more. Geelani has said that he was beaten and tortured, despite which
he refused to sign the "confession" which had been prepared for
him. The trial court's judgment, which is available for public
scrutiny, is loaded with presumptions about Muslims, Kashmiris and
terrorists. This too was not acted upon by the High Court. Had
Geelani been presumed guilty? Or was he to be shown as guilty through
the presentation of a series of fictions as facts? Of course, to a
man who is to be hanged, the difference has no meaning.

The police also whipped up and maintained a high level of hysteria by
using the press, which played along. This has been standard practice
in everything to do with terrorists, whether real or merely so
labelled. Indeed, that none of those called terrorists was ever
captured alive, and that all made a habit of carrying masses of
incriminating evidence, has left no room for the press or anyone else
to ask questions. There are less charitable explanations too.

What of the other side? When those who wanted justice for Geelani and
punitive action against the police tried to make the facts public by
putting up posters, they were prevented from doing that. In the Delhi
University area, for example, the police did not permit them to put
up publicity material. Its face would have been blackened, after all,
and the rod is more effective than reasoned argument based on facts.

The police lived up to its reputation for spreading disinformation
after Geelani was shot. The first claim was that there had been a
delay in reporting the shooting. The reality is that when Nandita
Haksar, having driven Geelani straight to hospital, told the doctors
that he had been wounded by a gun-shot or gun-shots, she was directed
to the police there. This is standard procedure in medico-legal
cases. It is also a fact that the name and address in the records of
the police are those of Nandita Haksar. In sum, there was no delay.

The police also implied that there was something sinister about the
fact that the Geelani's clothes were taken away by his family,
from whom they then had to be "recovered". My understanding is
that the normal and necessary procedure in medico-legal cases is to
remove and seal the victim's clothes. Why Geelani's clothes
were given to his family is not known: but it is known that no one,
not even the police, has said that his family snatched the clothes and
bolted.

Geelani's computer and other things were "seized" from his
home and sent to different places for examination. I am unable to
comprehend how such objects can be called case property unless these
two possibilities are considered: first, that Geelani is not a victim
but a suspect; and second, that the aim was not examination but
harassment.

A senior police functionary was reported in the press as having said
that the assailant's picture could not be prepared because Geelani
did not give an accurate description. There was a distinct
implication that Geelani had hampered police work. Had he deliberately
made himself incapable of clearly seeing a man's face in the dark
in the space of just a few seconds? Should he have gone about wearing
night vision equipment, possibly fitted with a camera?

Other actions of the police also cannot be understood. In a hospital,
doctors have the last word. Yet it was the police who prevented
Geelani's wife from seeing him in the night after he was shot.
When they themselves were permitted to visit him, they questioned him
again and again. Apparently their repeated questioning had little to
do with the shooting: instead, it was about such matters as a recent
trip to Mumbai. If they are working to a plan, they are casting a
wide net indeed.

Was the area of the shooting cordoned off before many people had
walked all over it? How were the five recovered shells handled? Was
any search made for the two bullets (assuming that five had been
fired) which were not in Geelani's body? Why did it take so long
to resolve the discrepancy of five shells and three bullets? A person
with one or more obvious injuries is routinely examined for other
injuries less obvious. Were the two grazes not seen earlier? Or were
they seen but not reported? Or are they an arithmetically convenient
fiction?

An examination of empty shells can only identify the weapon or
weapons from which they were fired: assuming that there are records of
the indentations left by the firing pin or pins involved. An empty
shell can tell us only the calibre of the bullet fired from it: but
there may be thousands of other weapons which fire bullets of the
same calibre. There is thus absolutely no reason to believe that the
bullets which hit Geelani came from the shells found at the site of
the shooting. It is a simple matter to shoot someone with Gun A and
plant at the spot empties from Gun B.

As firing pins leave identifiable marks on shells, so gun barrels
leave identifiable marks on bullets fired through them. The bullets
which hit Geelani are still inside Geelani. According to reports in
the press, the doctors say that taking them out can involve risk. The
police, on the other hand, say that Geelani refuses to allow them to
be taken out.

Given the numerous perforations in Geelani's intestines and the
resultant copious bleeding (seven university students donated blood
for him), in all likelihood the surgeons' over-riding aim will
have been to save his life. The bullets may not have been seen or even
searched for. Often if embedded bullets do no harm, they are left in
place. In certain circumstances - if, for example, a bullet is close
to a haematoma - then disturbing it could be dangerous.

But whose decision is it? There are two sides to the matter: the
medical side and that related to criminal investigation. An
examination of a bullet is the only certain way of identifying the
weapon from which it was fired: assuming, of course, that records are
available of the marks left on bullets by the barrel of that weapon.
I do not know what the law says on the question of extracting bullets
for examination, nor what forensic or general medicine says: but I do
know that the press has not reported the police as having said
anything about it.

Who shot Geelani? Was it just another unshaven man who, either as a
hobby or out of habit, fires bullets at those who visit their
lawyers? Was the shooting a random occurrence or one based on the
knowledge that Geelani was to visit his lawyer or that he was
approaching her house? Who could have had such knowledge? Someone who
tapped one or both telephones, perhaps, or an organised force which
routinely monitored the movements of Geelani and his lawyer?

It happens that I have known Geelani's lawyer for almost thirty-
five years. Being a little older, I habitually call her a silly girl
and similar names; but I know that she is nothing of the sort. If she
tells me that strange people loiter outside her house, seeming to do
nothing in particular, I believe her. If she tells me that other
motor vehicles drive rashly close to her car on the roads, apparently
deliberately, I believe her.

Circumstantial. All circumstantial. But then I do not sentence people
to death by hanging: nor do I shoot people in dark places. That is, I
do not uphold the majesty of the law and I do not demean it. Evidence
which has not been tampered with or fabricated is enough.


______

[5]

sacw.net  | March 10, 2005
URL: 
www.sacw.net/DC/CommunalismCollection/ArticlesArchive/Ram%20Puniyani10032005.html

MASKS UNLIMITED
Vajpayee, Babri Demolition and Gujarat Riots

by Ram Puniyani

Vajpayee had been one of the Unique Selling Points of BJP till the
last elections. It was around his moderate image that it could get
other parties like Samata, JDU and the like to become the part of a
coalition with a party, which till 1996 was untouchable for its overt
communal orientation and its role in Babri demolition. After BJP took
to the Rath Yatra for Ram temple Vajpayee was not in the forefront and
gave the impression as if he is not in total agreement with the
'politics of hate' generated around the temple movement. Just prior to
this he had authored 'Gandhian Socialism' as the credo of his party,
BJP. He did project his moderate image and it was also groomed with
care. Many of his politically moderate statements were used by the
media and also by other sections to project him as one of the Best
Prime Ministers India ever had. His 'poetic nature' and ability to
shed tears in the aftermath of Babri demolition became legendary and
served as the pivot around which many a gullible citizens pinned the
hope for future of India around him. He also became the mascot of
Shining India campaign.

Its not that all believed in this picture which was deliberately built
by his careful stance and the support of the helpful section of media.
There were those who felt that he is merely play-acting as a moderate
while his commitment to Hindu Rashtra i.e. the agenda of demolition of
Indian democracy, is second to none. Amongst those who knew this were
also from amongst his fellow swaymsevaks, the RSS volunteers. And one
of them could not withhold his assessment of this man and called him
as the mask of RSS, of Hindutva politics. This swayamsevak had to pay
the price for speaking the truth and he is cooling his heels outside
the corridors of electoral politics, out of the possibility of the
seats of power. His name is not difficult to guess, the well-known RSS
ideologue, Govindacharya. One really does not know why Gobvindacharya
decided to make public his assessment of Vajapayee and in turn to
invite his wrath. So be it. As the adage goes you cannot fool all the
people all the time so is the parallel understanding that the truth
will triumph and the hidden agendas and goals cannot remain hidden
beyond a point. And that's what happened occasionally during the rule
of BJP led NDA coalition, and that's what came out last week
(March-Feb 2005) when two unrelated things tore off the last
(hopefully) mask from the face of the ex-prime minister Mr. Vajpayee.

In one of the video CDs he is seen expressing his glee and feelings
about the impending Kar Seva of 6th Dec. i.e. the plan of Babri
demolition. It can not be dismissed as being in the lighters vein, he
proclaims that he does not know what will happen tomorrow and also
that he has been instructed not to go to Ayodhya. His body language in
the video is that of a diehard politician who is assertive and seems
to be part of the conspiracy but his role seems to have been to take
care of the fallout rather than being at the site of destruction. One
recalls that it is the same person who shed tears on the razing of the
mosque. Later he went on to say that this is what happens when the
sentiments of majority are not respected by the state. He also bounced
back and demanded the particular type of treatment for Advani and
other demolishers. For some time the rumor was also making rounds that
he is planning to leave the party to float some other outfit.
Brilliant performance!

In one of the interviews to a Malayalam magazine, Manav Samskriti,
Ex-President K.R.Narayanan points out that there was a conspiracy
between the Gujarat Govt. and the central Govt. headed by Vajpayee.
Despite Narayanan's repeated requests through personal communications
Vajpayee stood his ground to let the butchery go on in Gujarat as
planned by another member of his parivar, Narendra Modi. Around this
time he also did call that this Gujarat carnage was a shame for the
Nation, he also stated that what face would he show abroad where he
was due to visit shortly. But surprisingly while at that time he could
have dismissed Modi, instead he just gave a mild rebuke to Modi that
Rajdharma (Kings moral duty) should be followed. Again this was said
in round about way. Interestingly in a convention of the party around
that time he did go on to state that wherever there are Muslim there
is trouble and also hinted that Gujarat carnage was a revenge of the
train burning by Muslims! He postponed his trip to Gujarat during the
carnage on the plea that he was going by the advice of his security
people! Brilliant again!

On the parallel track one sees that around that time there were many
an attacks on Christian missionaries on the ground that they are
converting the gullible Adivasis. On a trip to Gujarat, rather than
assuaging the feelings of the missionaries who were battered he went
on to demand a National debate on the conversions!

In a way it was just the logical extension of his politics right from
the time he started his career in the RSS, in early forties. It was
the time when youth of the country were full of the sentiments of
Indian ness. He came up with his poem Hindu jivan hindu Tan man,
(Hindu life, Hindu body and soul), much acclaimed in the RSS shakhas.
At that time youth of the country was participating in the freedom
movement, boycotting the schools and colleges. Due to closure of his
college he returned to his village Bateshwar where the village youth
participated in the Quit India movement and went and broke the forest
law as a symbol of that. Vajpayee was an onlooker along with his
brother, and was arrested. Soon after his arrest he gave a
confessional statement to get released, " I along with my brother
followed the crowd, I did not cause any damage. I did not render any
assistance in demolishing the government buildings" (From facsimile of
the confession letter). But in order to garner the support for
himself, especially from NRI's, he circulated an article on the net
claiming that he had participated in the freedom struggle! "I also
participated in the Quit India movement in 1942 and was jailed"! This
lie of his was nailed in an article in Frontline (Dube and
Ramkrishanan, Feb. 20 1998) but of course it did not deter this person
in his usual games.

These are things overtly known but not too well known to the public.
It is despite this (or rather because of this) that an aura was
created around him and he did bask in the limelight of self-glory. As
a matter of fact his association with RSS and his loyalty to the
agenda of RSS, the one of Hindu Nation and Hindutva politics remained
the central point of his politics and gave him the craftiness and
ability to pretend moderation and double speak, a role which suited
him perfectly.

______

[6]

counterpunch.org
March 9, 2005

Get Modi
A STATE TERRORIST VISITS AMERICAN HOTELIERS
by Vijay Prashad

For a business sector that likes to call itself the "hospitality 
industry," it is painful that the chief guest at its March 2005 
gathering will be a man who many claim to be a mass murderer. Hardly 
hospitable!

Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of the economically dynamic state 
of Gujarat, will travel to Florida to deliver the keynote address for 
the Asian American Hotel Owner's Association's 2005 Annual Convention 
and Trade Show. The Association (or AAHOA) represents mainly small 
hoteliers and motel owners, rather than the corporate conglomerates. 
Indian Americans, mainly Gujaratis, came into this business by 
happenstance and now have a commanding role in both AAHOA and as 
motel owners. Their success came from superb initiative, from the use 
of family contacts (including capital) and of family labor, and from 
the withdrawal of others from a business that is unrelenting and 
relatively dangerous.

Within AAHOA there is considerable diversity, between the members who 
own a single motel or else those who own what amounts to a chain. 
AAHOA's president from a few years ago, Bakulesh "Buggsi" Patel is 
the chief of Buggsi Hospitality Group that owns at least thirteen 
hotels and is widely integrated in the property markets in 
Washington, Idaho and Oregon states. Patel told a business 
journalist, "Our members own 35 to 40 percent of all lodgings in the 
United States, and when you get into the mid-market to budget range, 
it's more like 55 to 60 percent of the market." Even with this clout, 
Patel continued, Asians faced discrimination, "In the beginning, we 
were stereotyped as bad operators. It was hard to get insurance for 
properties, and we faced discrimination from suppliers." People like 
Patel formed AAHOA to fight against these forms of business 
discrimination, and to gain a higher profile for their work.

In 2000, at the height of his game, Patel told the journalist J. N. 
Shenoy that AAHOA had not "leveraged our strengths for political 
purposes." Patel wanted to hire a full-time lobbyist in DC, who would 
get some respect for AAHOA's over seven thousand members who own over 
$40 billion worth of real estate and dominate the sector used by most 
of us when we're on the road. In early February of 2005, AAHOA went 
on a legislative field trip of Congress, meeting with members to 
ensure either funds or exemptions from the Americans with 
Disabilities Act, to protect access to the Small Business 
Administration's 7(a) start-up funds, and the 504 program for 
long-term financing of fixed assets (along with fixed-rate second 
mortgages). In other words, like other business associations in these 
neo-liberal times, AAHOA wanted as much free money from the 
government and as little regulation as possible. For a group founded 
to fight discrimination, it is a scandal that it will not honor the 
Americans with Disabilities Act without question.

AAHOA realized Patel's hope of having a politician bless the 
organization when newly minted Congressman Bobby Jindal 
(Republican-LA) addressed the field-trip in February 2005. But even 
this is not enough for a group that wants visibility. What better way 
to gain the public eye than welcome the butcher of Gujarat to be the 
chief guest at its next major event?

Narendra Modi is the Chief Minister of Gujarat. He was re-elected to 
his post after the 2002 pogrom against Muslims conducted mainly by 
his political allies and with the complicity of the state apparatus. 
Two thousand people died and several hundred thousand had their homes 
and livelihoods devastated. According to Human Rights Watch, "Mobs 
arrived by the thousands in trucks, chanting slogans of incitement to 
kill, and armed with swords, tridents, sophisticated explosives, and 
gas cylinders. They were guided by computer printouts listing the 
addresses of Muslim families and their properties. While army troops 
had been flown in to quell the violence, state officials refused to 
deploy them until after the worst violence had ended. In the weeks 
that followed the massacres, Hindu homes and places of business were 
also destroyed in retaliatory violence by Muslims."

The pogrom followed the death of several right-wing activists in a 
train car in the town of Godhra. Without an investigation, the 
government, led by Modi, decided that the activists had been killed 
by Muslims who lived in the vicinity of the train tracks. It now 
turns out, according to an official commission chaired by Justice U. 
C. Banerjee and released in early 2005, that the coach may have 
caught fire by "accident." Instead of any inquiry, the Modi 
administration used the pretext to send out its cadre for the pogrom, 
and for political advantage. Human Rights Watch's report noted, "Top 
police officials who had sought to protect Muslims were removed from 
positions of command. Gujarat's Chief Minister Narendra Modi, 
formerly a RSS volunteer and propagandist, came under severe scrutiny 
for his role in the attacks."

The RSS is the core organization of the right-wing Family (the Sangh 
Parivar). It is the ideological center as well as the training ground 
for many of the thugs who then go out to other Family groups set up 
to gain control over Indian social life. Modi is a devout member of 
the RSS, a group whose founders saw inspiration in the genocidal Nazi 
policies. The Indian Supreme Court, in the careful language of 
jurists, found Modi to be party to the carnage of 2002, "Those who 
are responsible for protecting life and properties and ensuring that 
investigation is fair and proper seem to have shown no real anxiety. 
Large number of people lost their lives. The modern day `Neros' were 
looking elsewhere when Best Bakery [one site of the carnage] and 
innocent children and helpless women were burning, and were probably 
deliberating how the perpetrators of the crime can be saved or 
protected" (Zahira Habibullah H. Sheikh vs. State of Gujarat (2004) 4 
Supreme Court Cases 158).

This is the official who is to give AAHOA a higher profile! Activists 
in groups such as the Coalition Against Genocide are trying to get 
the organization to rescind its invitation. They have failed. AAHOA 
is unrepentant. Another speaker at the convention is Chris Mathews of 
Hardball, but even he has so far not succumbed to the pressure. The 
campaign needs help from one and all. Call Chris Mathews' assistant, 
Tina Urbansky (202-737-7901) and let her know what you think. Write 
to AAHOA's current president: Fred Schwartz, AAHOA, 66 Lenox Pointe, 
NE, Atlanta, GA. 30324. If you live in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida or 
thereabouts and want to be involved in the protest against this state 
terrorist, check out the website www.coalitionagainstgenocide.org.

It is unlikely that all the members of AAHOA are happy to host Modi. 
In the past two days I spoke to two motel owners in the region where 
I live and both descried the move, although neither wanted to get 
involved in any way. Progressive political involvement for an 
immigrant who has something to lose is always hard, and in these 
harsh times when many South Asian immigrants are in the dragnet, it 
becomes virtually impossible. AAHOA, on the other hand, is 
aggressively political, and rather than chose the typical bland 
leader who would give it profile but not controversy, the group has 
gone for Modi. This is a puzzle, although it could perhaps be 
explained by the fact that he is the elected leader of Gujarat, from 
where many hotel owners hail. In other words, the hotel owners should 
not earn your ire, for their own social location is fraught. The core 
of the problem is AAHOA's leadership, and Modi himself. They are the 
inverse of hospitality, as Modi is the obverse of genocide.

Vijay Prashad teaches at Trinity College, Hartford, CT. His latest 
book is Keeping Up with the Dow Joneses: Debt, Prison, Workfare 
(Boston: South End Press). His essay, "Capitalism's Warehouses", 
appears in CounterPunch's new book, Dime's Worth of Difference. He 
can be reached at: vijay.prashad at trincoll.edu

_______


[7]

ALL INDIA DEMOCRATIC WOMENS ASSOCIATION
                121 Vithalbhai Patel House, Rafi Marg,
                        New Delhi 110 001

The All India Democratic Womens Association (AIDWA) deeply mourns the 
passing away today of one of its founders, a veteran of the womens' 
movement and the communist movement of our country, Smt. Kanak 
Mukherjee.  Kanak di, as she was affectionately known all over the 
country, died after being seriously ill for several days in Kolkota 
at the age of 83.
Kanak di was born in Jessore, now in Bangladesh, on December 30th , 
l931.  When she was barely 18, she organized a girl students' 
association and became an active member of the Bengal Provincial 
Students Federation.  Because of her involvement in the national 
movement, she was imprisoned soon after and was then externed from 
Calcutta and other districts of Bengal.  She went underground during 
l940-41 during which time she married Com. Saroj Mukherjee, the 
communist leader.
In the terrible years of the Bengal Famine - l942-43 - she plunged 
into relief work as a leader of the Mahila Atmaraksha Samity and 
began her life-long association with the womens movement and, soon 
afterwards, she became one of the leaders of the Ganatantrik Mahila 
Samity which she helped to found.  The Samity was in the forefront of 
not only relief work but was also active in all the struggles of the 
working people and in the struggle for independence.  After 1947 also 
it was in the forefront of the many mass struggles that West Bengal 
witnessed.
When, in l981, many State organizations like the Ganatantrik Mahila 
Samity merged themselves to form the All India Democratic Womens 
Association, Kanak di was one of its founders.  She played an 
important role in preparing the Constitution and also the 
understanding of the new organization.  She had been the leader of 
the largest State womens organization and she continued to lead it 
after the formation of AIDWA also.  The West Bengal state unit of 
AIDWA, its largest unit, has been an inspiration to the organization 
and to the womens movement in the country not only because of its 
strength and the number of issues that it has been taking up but 
because of the tremendous sacrifices made by its members in defence 
of democratic and womens rights and in the struggle against 
semi-fascist oppression.

Kanak di joined the Communist Party in l938 and then the CPI(M) in 
l964.  She went to jail several times and for long periods in l951 
and during the Emergency.  She has served in public life as an 
alderman and also as a Member of the Rajya Sabha.  Her intellectual 
prowess not only ensured a place for her as a University lecturer but 
also made her a lyrical poet and a consummate and compulsive writer. 
She edited the journal of the West Bengal Ganatantrik Mahila Samity, 
Ek Sathe, for decades with dedication.
Kanak di's indomitable spirit and unflinching commitment to the cause 
that she espoused are in inspiration for all of us.  Her poor health 
in the last several years, her difficulty in walking and the fact 
that she could hardly see in the last few years of her life never 
sapped her of her determination to attend meetings and programmes or 
of her sharp and incisive contribution to debates and discussions.
AIDWA condoles the death of a great fighter for womens rights and for 
the rights of the toiling people.  The inspiration that she has 
provided for all of us can never be forgotten.

______

[7]  [Hindutva At Work !]

The Hindu
March 10, 2005

Bhojan mantra made compulsory in Rajasthan hostels

Jaipur, March 10. (PTI): Ignoring all opposition, the recitation of 
vedic mantra before meals 'Bhojan mantra' has been formally 
introduced in all hostels run by the social welfare department of the 
Rajasthan Government.

The recitation of the mantra by the hostel inmates has been made 
compulsory under new rules issued recently by the social welfare 
department, official sources said here today. The rules were issued 
after panchayat polls last month, sources said.

There was a hue and cry when Social Welfare Minister Madan Dilawar 
announced last year that recitation of bhojan mantra would be made 
compulsory for inmates of the hostels run by his department.

Although no formal orders were issued last year, the mantra was made 
compulsory in the hostels informally. Now the mantra has been 
introduced formally, sources said.

Several human rights and Left organisations, including People's Union 
for Civil Liberties had opposed the move on the ground that it 
saffronised the hostel environment.




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