SACW | 7-8 May 2005

[sacw]

South Asia Citizens Wire  | 7-8 May,  2005

[1]   Pakistan - India:
-  Indians, Pakistanis to join hands against missiles
- Pak-India Peace March delegation arrives in Lahore
[2] India: Rajasthan: Women's groups concerned over "growing communalisation"
[3] India: 'Defeat the anti-democratic 'draft 
communal violence suppression bill 2005' (INSAF)
[4] India: Publish, and punish - Why delay the 
Nanavati report? (Editorial, The Tribune)
[5] India:  Victims of 'Development' and 'Nation Building':
-  Re: Investigation into the Impact on People 
due to Alumina Projects in South Orissa (PUDR)
- Narmada: Where terror and hope collide (Angana Chatterji)
- Demolitions of a Positive Kind ? - Can India 
'Emulate' The 'Other Bombay' ! (Subhash Gatade)
[6] Announcements:
(i) Convention on FASCISM AND DECEMBER 13 (New Delhi - May 8, 2005)
(ii) "Un Sapnon Ki Khatir"  - Anhad's Hindi Video CDs are available for sale
(iii) IFJ Launches Third Annual South Asia Press Freedom Report


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


[1]


The Times of India - May 5, 2005

INDIANS, PAKISTANIS TO JOIN HANDS AGAINST MISSILES
IANS

NEW DELHI: Say no to missiles and war and yes to 
peace and prosperity - that is the message of a 
mass signature campaign to be launched by the 
people of India and Pakistan from May 11.

Entitled 'No! No! campaign', it will urge the 
governments of both countries to immediately stop 
all missile testing as well as negotiations with 
the US for the purchase of F-16 and F-18 fighter 
jets.

The campaign, which is sure to expand the 
burgeoning constituency of peace, will start on 
May 11 (to coincide with the day India conducted 
nuclear tests at Pokhran in 1998) and end on May 
30 (the day Pakistan conducted nuclear tests at 
Chagai hills).

Nearly 10 million people on both sides of the 
border are expected to endorse the appeal, which 
will be submitted to Prime Minister Manmohan 
Singh and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf by 
mid-June.

"The idea is to make more funds available for 
poverty alleviation, health and literacy. 
Military spending dwarfs government spending on 
the two main social sectors of health and 
education," said Kamal Mitra Chenoy of the 
Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace 
(CNDP).

Outlining the ideology behind the campaign, Swami 
Agnivesh, a crusader against child labour, said: 
"The idea is to get the governments to spend less 
on defence equipment to create a peaceful South 
Asia.
"If India and Pakistan will engage in an arms 
race, it will only benefit the 
industrial-military complex of the US. The US is 
out to make bonded labour of both India and 
Pakistan."

"Instead, both countries should focus on trade, 
cultural relations, and the relaxation of the 
visa regime between the two countries," he 
emphasised.

Confederation of Voluntary Associations (COVA), 
based in Hyderabad, will act as the facilitating 
organisation, which will collect signatures from 
all over India. Pakistan Peace Coalition, based 
in Islamabad, will be the nodal organisation for 
the signature campaign in that country.


o o o o

Daily Times - May 08, 2005
PAK-INDIA PEACE MARCH DELEGATION ARRIVES IN LAHORE

Staff Report
LAHORE: Twelve Indian peace activists crossed the 
Wagah border into Lahore on Saturday to visit the 
shrine of Saint Bahauddin Zikiriya in Multan.
The delegation is part of a peace march, which 
started in March 2005 from the shrine of Saint 
Nizamuddin Auliya in New Delhi. The peace march 
has been organised by civil society groups and 
non-government organisations (NGOs) under the 
banner of Pakistan Peace Coalition and National 
Alliance of Peoples' Movement, India.
The Joint Action Committee (JAC) for Peoples' 
Rights and an alliance of 30 NGOs received the 
delegation at the border.
The delegation emphasised the need for peace and 
bilateral cooperation between the two countries. 
JAC, South Asia Free Media Association, World 
Punjabi Conference, Punjab Union of Journalists 
(PUJ) and other NGOs will hold receptions for the 
visitors.


_______


[2]


The Hindu - May 08, 2005

Rajasthan: Women's groups meet Vasundhara

Special Correspondent

CONCERN OVER "GROWING COMMUNALISATION"

JAIPUR: Various women's organisations in 
Rajasthan which met the Chief Minister, 
Vasundhara Raje, earlier this week complained to 
her about growing communalisation of the 
administration and the increasing instances of 
assertion by dominant caste groups. The 
re-activation of the traditional caste panchayats 
in various parts of the State was resulting in an 
atmosphere against Dalits and women, they said.

The women's groups which submitted a memorandum 
to Ms.Raje during their one-hour meeting could 
elicit an assurance from her on setting up a task 
force for deprived women -- single/displaced 
among poor women -- headed by her and on the 
introduction of more stringent laws to prevent 
sex determination tests and female foeticide. 
Ms.Raje accepted the suggestion on setting up of 
a committee to ensure the implementation of the 
PC&PNDT Act.

The women's groups, 13 in number, which included, 
Rajasthan University Women's Association, Ekal 
Naari Shakti Sangathan, All India Democratic 
Women's Association, National Federation for 
Indian Women and All India Progressive Women's 
Association, had their breakthrough on Tuesday in 
getting an appointment with Ms.Raje for the first 
time since she took over in December 2003.

Ms.Raje had received flak last month in the State 
Assembly for not giving time to the women's 
groups and activist bodies. Perhaps the groups' 
real breakthrough was in making Ms.Raje agree to 
meet them at least once in two months to review 
the issues related to women. The Secretary, Child 
Development, has been asked to coordinate with 
the groups. The women's representatives however 
raised hackles over the State Government's stand 
on `sati', especially the way it let go 20 
persons who were acquitted by a lower court from 
the charges of glorification of `sati' in the 
wake of the Deorala incident in 1987. Ms.Raje 
reportedly chose not to respond on this matter.

"By not going in appeal to the Rajasthan High 
Court against the acquittal in the glorification 
cases, the Government has reaffirmed the ideology 
of sati,'' the groups charged. It was not yet 
late for the Government to challenge the Sessions 
Court orders in this regard, they told Ms.Raje. 
They also brought to her notice the incident at 
Sumel in Pali district where a frenzied crowd 
tried to motivate a women to commit sati on March 
19 this year.

The women's delegation which comprised Ladkumari 
Jain, Sumitra Chopra, Nishant Hussein, Asha 
Kalra, Manjula Joshi, Lali Bhai, Mewa Bharti, 
Usha and Kavita Srivastava conveyed its concern 
to Ms.Raje about the present state of the 
Rajasthan Human Rights Commission which had only 
one member. The Commission had no chairperson and 
none of the District Human Rights Courts, as 
specified in the Protection of Human Rights Act 
1993, was in place, they pointed out.

The situation in the State Women's Commission was 
no better with the body not having a member 
secretary and a police officer of the rank of 
Deputy Inspector General to run an investigation 
cell. Moreover, the past recommendations of the 
Women's Commission have not been tabled neither 
in the State Assembly nor with the various 
departments were orders are to be implemented.


_______


[3]

Date: Sat, 07 May 2005 16:53:42 +0500

INSAF: DEFEAT THE ANTI-DEMOCRATIC 'DRAFT COMMUNAL 
VIOLENCE SUPPRESSION BILL 2005'

In the name of 'suppressing' communal violence, 
the UPA Government has drafted a Bill that not 
only gives the Central Government unprecedented 
powers over states but also equips the armed 
forces with draconian powers of arrest, search 
and seizure. It calls for special courts to try 
cases and empowers them with the power to order 
externment of people "likely to commit a 
scheduled offence."
According to the preface of Communal Violence 
(Suppression) Bill 2005 "a promise made by the 
UPA in its CMP (Common Minimum Programme)" the 
above mentioned draft Bill exercises the 
constitutional "duty of the Union to protect 
States against external aggression and internal 
disturbance."
Once the area is declared 'communally disturbed,' 
as per the Bill, the Centre can deploy armed 
forces and nominate one or more Central Officers, 
not below the rank of Additional Secretary, to 
'coordinate steps taken for dealing with the 
situation.'
It's Clause 7 to Clause 10 reads like a virtual 
reprint of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 
an act that, ironically, the Centre after the 
Manipur protests, has committed to reviewing.
Under the Bill, "any commissioned officer, 
warrant officer, non-commissioned officer or any 
person of equivalent rank in the armed forces" 
can:
- Fire, even cause death, after ??giving such due 
warning as he may consider necessary.??
- Arrest, without warrant?and use ??such force as 
may be necessary???any one who has committed a 
cognizable offence or ??against whom a reasonable 
suspicion exists that he has committed or is 
about to commit a cognizable offence.??
- Enter and search without warrant any premises 
to make any such arrest or to recover property, 
reasonably suspected, to be stolen property
-  Stop, search, seize any vehicle suspected of 
carrying any person who is believed to have or 
has committed or is 'about to commit' a 
non-cognizable offence.
- Power to break open any door, almirah, safe, 
cupboard, drawer or other thing, if the key 
thereof is withheld.
There would be no legal action, unless the Centre 
sanctions it, against any person in respect of 
anything done under the Act.
The Bill also provides for setting up special 
courts either in 'the judicial zone' within the 
state or outside to try riot cases. This court 
shall be presided over by a judge appointed by 
the government in agreement with the Chief 
Justice of the High Court.
Clause 21 of the Bill gives the special court an 
extraordinary power to direct, on being satisfied 
with a complaint or a police report, those likely 
to commit an offence to 'remove himself beyond 
the limit of such area not exceeding six months, 
as may be specified in that order.' Failing 
which, people may be 'removed in police custody.'
Under Clause 28 of the Bill, if it is proved that 
an accused has given any money to a person 
accused or 'reasonably suspected' of a scheduled 
offence, the 'special court shall presume, unless 
the contrary is proved, that such person has 
abetted the offence.' Clause 29 says that if 
fingerprints of the accused were found at the 
site of the offence, the special court 'shall 
draw adverse inference against the accused.'
On the issue of relief and rehabilitation as 
well, a subject that has so far been the 
responsibility of a state government, the Centre, 
under the Bill, will nominate six of the 10 
members of a Relief and Rehabilitation Council.
The state has the powers to take all measures 
envisaged in the draft bill, but the dilemma was, 
and is, as experienced in communal conflagrations 
of the past, the governments were reluctant to 
exercise their power for the safety and 
protection of minorities and in favour of 
justice. it was experienced that the governments 
exercised  their power, in case of victimisation 
of minorities in communal voilence, malignantly 
and vindictively.
The draft bill is irrelevant and dangerous both 
because it has been noticed that many of the 
Special Powers were used against minorities as 
Narendra Modi and his government misused the 
powers of POTA.
The law as proposed is at best irrelevant to the 
challenges of communal governance and, at worst, 
dangerous, because many of the special powers 
such as of search and arrest can be used against 
minorities in the same way as Narendra Modi and 
his government consistently misused the powers 
under POTA.
The need of the hour is greater moral and legal 
accountability to be shown, not the grater power 
to be exercised, by the governments. The state 
must go ahead to take legal action against all 
half-truths and hatred propaganda, written and 
spoken both. The state must go for its fullest, 
including deployment of the armed forces, in the 
shortest time to control over the communal 
violence when it takes place. The colossal crime 
against humanity must be strictly condemnable and 
ruthlessly punishable as it is a proven truth 
that no communal violence or riot could sustain 
beyond few hours without the supportive 
involvement and active participation of the state 
and/or state authorities.
The law, if at all needed, should concentrate on 
sources of communal hatred instead of its 
manifestation.
INSAF calls upon all its member organisations and 
all fraternal secular democratic groups to 
mobilise public opinion and pressurise the UPA 
government to desist from such draconian 
adventures out to throttle democracy.

INSAF
A124/6 Katwaria Sarai
New Delhi 110016

______


[4]

The Tribune - May 7, 2005 | Editorial

PUBLISH, AND PUNISH - WHY DELAY THE NANAVATI REPORT?

PARLIAMENTS sessions come and go. Inquiry 
commissions too come and go. But justice 
continues to elude the victims of 1984 anti-Sikh 
riots which claimed some 3,000 innocent lives. 
The Nanavati Commission submitted its report two 
months ago. Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Law 
Minister H.R. Bhardwaj individually promised to 
publish the report and even mentioned dates when 
this would be done. But the government has yet 
again decided against tabling the report during 
the ongoing Budget session. According to rules, 
the government has six months to table it and it 
is now being promised that this would be done 
during the monsoon session that begins in July. 
It will be a very gullible person who will take 
the promise seriously. It seems that the 
expression "justice delayed is justice denied" is 
just not there in the government lexicon or 
thinking.

Many facetious arguments have been given to 
defend the indefensible. After two decades of 
constant efforts, the officials have even run out 
of excuses for the never-ending delay. Why this 
is happening is no state secret. The entire 
exercise is aimed at shielding some powerful men 
and women who are once again in power. The entire 
charade of conducting inquiries seems to be aimed 
at buying time. Why should the state exchequer 
pay for this game of hide and don't seek?

The failure of the state to bring the guilty to 
book takes a heavy toll on the credibility of the 
government. The impotent rage of seeing the 
perpetrators of the killings moving about freely 
spawns extreme hatred and violence. The nation 
has witnessed a naked display of this alienation. 
It should not be made to lose face to keep the 
real faces of a few politicians behind a veil.



______


[5]  [ India -  Victims of 'Development' and 'Nation Building' ]

People's Union for Democratic Rights

PRESS RELEASE
23 April 2005, Bhubaneshwar

Re: Investigation into the Impact on People due 
to Alumina Projects in South Orissa

A five-member team from the People's Union for 
Democratic Rights, Delhi (PUDR), which had just 
returned from a visit to nine villages and a 
rehabilitation site in Rayagada and Kalahandi 
districts to examine the impact of three mining 
projects on people in the region, released its 
preliminary findings to the press here today.
The team drew attention to the unwarranted 
deployment of the police and Indian Reserve 
Battalion forces and the atmosphere of terror 
across villages in the area. Police personnel 
routinely raid village haats in search of people 
from protesting villages. Ordinary people and 
activists have been picked up and arbitrarily 
implicated in one criminal case after another. 
Four people are still in custody in Rayagada Jail 
many weeks after their arrest.
It also drew attention to the fraudulent ways in 
which people's 'consent' to the three projects - 
UAIL, Aditya Alumina and Vedanta Alumina - is 
being generated. For one, no clear information is 
provided to them about the projects and their 
impact. Enquiring villagers are not told of the 
purpose of initial surveys; palli sabha (village 
hamlet) and gram sabha meetings are held in the 
presence of 2-3 platoons of police. Villagers are 
not asked what they want, instead vague and 
sometimes exaggerated promises of jobs and 
salaries are made. In one case, villagers were 
made to sign blank sheets of paper.
The rehabilitation policy in these projects, a 
spokesperson of the team argued, is inherently 
flawed. The Chief Secretary, Govt. of Orissa, and 
other senior government officials confirmed, in a 
meeting with the team this morning, that merely 
compensation but no job is being offered to those 
who lose their lands, despite the fact that they 
lose their basic means of livelihood. And those 
who lose their homes may get jobs, subject to 
availability and skills. Nothing is being offered 
to those landless labourers who cultivate dangar 
lands, dependent on the forest produce, nor those 
who will be affected by the drying up of streams 
in the region. In short, the lives and 
livelihoods of tens of thousands of people will 
be adversely affected by these three projects, 
with little assured alternative of a life of 
dignity.
The PUDR team finally placed the following demands:
1. that the police and forces of the Indian 
Reserve Battalion be withdrawn from Kashipur 
immediately;
2. false cases foisted against those opposing 
these projects be withdrawn, and the hunt for 
activists of movements in the area by the police 
be stopped forthwith;
3. an enquiry be conducted into the death of Sukru Majhi in Lanjigarha;
4. action be taken against those responsible for 
the three deaths in the Maikanch firing of 16 
December 2000;
5. the 'consent' taken from the people through 
coercive gram sabha and palli sabha meetings be 
scratched. Detailed survey reports, environmental 
impact studies, technical feasibility studies be 
made available in an accessible form to people 
and their organizations;
6. and finally, given the seeming impossibility 
of just rehabilitation and compensation, that the 
three projects be comprehensively reviewed, and, 
if necessary, scrapped.
c/o Sharmila Purkayastha, 5, Miranda House 
Teachers Flats, Chhatra Marg, Delhi University, 
Delhi - 110007


o o o o


Asian Age -  23 April, 2005 | Op-ed.

NARMADA: WHERE TERROR AND HOPE COLLIDE
by Angana Chatterji


At least 65 people died in Dharaji village, near 
Bhopal, and many remain missing from flash floods 
as waters were released on April 7 from the 
Indira Sagar mega-dam on the Narmada river.

Through Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Gujarat, 
30 large, 135 medium, and 3,000 small dams are 
being built by the state, asphyxiating 1,312 
kilometres of the Narmada into a series of lakes, 
devastating the lives and livelihood of 20 
million people. Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) is 
the other massive dam on the Narmada, costing 
about $10 billion, almost half the irrigation 
budget in postcolonial India. The 133-mile-long 
reservoir will drown 91,000 acres of land, the 
canal network will damage 200,000 acres. The 
reservoir will displace 200,000 people, affect 
another 200,000. More than 1 million lives will 
be destroyed, 56 per cent of whom are adivasis. 
Peasants and adivasis disproportionately suffer 
the injustice of damming the Narmada. 15.4 
million adivasis live in Madhya Pradesh alone, 
from over 40 tribes. Adivasis are 8.2 per cent of 
India's population, and more than 40 per cent of 
the nation's displaced.

Relief and rehabilitation have failed the 
multiple constituencies in need. The ministry of 
environment and forests gave provisional 
environmental clearance to the SSP in 1987 as 
construction began. The Narmada Water Disputes 
Tribunal Award (NWDTA) in 1979 had mandated the 
rehabilitation of all impacted families at least 
one year prior to submergence, directing 
land-for-land resettlement for land owning 
families that stand to lose 25+ per cent of their 
property. The government of Madhya Pradesh 
ratified its rehabilitation policy in November 
1987. Premised on the NWDTA, this policy failed 
to ensure land compensation for all landless 
persons, or the eligibility and assured access of 
all cultivators, including landless workers, to 
housing and cultivable agricultural land, or the 
opportunity for all oustees to find re-employment 
in their traditional vocations post-resettlement. 
It failed to include married women as co-title 
holders to new land, single women, married women 
staying in their natal villages, divorcees, 
widows, the elderly and disabled, deserted 
persons, families living on what the state 
defines as forest and/or revenue encroachments, 
sex workers, and other marginalised genders and 
groups.

The dam has proceeded, often at gunpoint, without 
voluntary consent or ethical rehabilitation. The 
Supreme Court of India, petitioned by the Narmada 
Bachao Andolan (NBA) in 1995, restricted the SSP 
to 80.3 metres. Since 1999, the court has 
sanctioned successive increases in dam height 
against its own injunctions that resettlement be 
completed in all respects at least six months in 
advance of any likely submergence. The dam towers 
at 110.64 metres today, as resettlement and 
rehabilitation remain incomplete at 85 metres. In 
spite of this, the environment subgroup of the 
monitoring agency, Narmada Control Authority 
(NCA), has given permission to raise the height 
of the SSP to 121.92 metres in 2005, while the 
resettlement and rehabilitation subgroup is yet 
to decide. As the dam rises, the reservoir swells 
to submerge more and more villages. The people, 
without reparations, are exiled to neglect.

Madhya Pradesh houses the largest numbers of SSP 
affected, while Maharashtra and Gujarat are also 
yet to rehabilitate their displaced. Adequate 
land for rehabilitation has not been identified 
or purchased in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra or 
Gujarat. Cash compensation is being given in 
violation of the NWDTA. In Madhya Pradesh, the 
state has refused to buy private land. Many have 
written to the grievance redressal authority, 
asking to replace the uncultivable or 
insufficient land allotted to oustees, as records 
are falsified and evidence manipulated. The 
Madhya Pradesh government notes that the total 
number of affected families in the state has 
increased from 33,000 to 40,000. Over 10,000 
families live in the submergence zone impacted 
below 110.64 metres. In August 2004, the Madhya 
Pradesh government listed 12,681 families as 
affected between 110 and 121 metres while the 
Andolan places the number at 20,000. Few have 
been rehabilitated since, and thousands have lost 
homes, fields, livelihoods. With the exception of 
some petitioners in the below-mentioned case, no 
family not wanting to relocate to Gujarat has 
been given cultivable land in Madhya Pradesh. The 
state forcibly displaces people to Gujarat. Their 
histories do not reverberate there, the ghosts of 
their ancestors do not walk those lands. In 
Gujarat, Narendra Modi, the fascistic architect 
of the Gujarat genocide of 2002, continues to 
rule, championing maldevelopment foisted on skin 
and bone of adivasis and peasants. What 
opportunities for justice there? For cultural 
survival?

The Supreme Court of India, on March 15, 2005, 
offered a historic judgement in the case of NBA 
versus the Union of India and others (Civil Writ 
Jurisdiction, Petition No. 328 of 2002). Justices 
Sabharwal, Balakrishnan, and Sinha delivered a 
ruling on applications filed by project affected 
persons from Picchodi village, Badwani district, 
and Jalsindhi, Jhabua district, in Madhya 
Pradesh, affected at 95 and 100 metres, within 
the petition filed by the NBA. The judgement 
stated that every displaced family losing 25+ per 
cent of their lands be entitled to irrigated land 
and allotted a house/plot free of cost; that the 
affected be resettled as a village unit per the 
NWDTA. Further, the court adjudicated that 
families have been resettled in Gujarat without 
consent, in violation of their rights. 
Importantly, the court stipulated that 
submergence must occur pari passu with settlement 
and rehabilitation, and determined that oustees 
be provided basic civic amenities and benefits as 
specified in the Award. The court refuted the 
distinction between permanently and temporarily 
affected persons made by the Madhya Pradesh 
government to de-emphasise displacement and state 
responsibilities to impacted peoples. The court 
ordered that adult sons be allocated two hectares 
of land, rendering eligible thousands previously 
denied resettlement, while attesting to the 
patriarchal structure of the law.

The same justices had acknowledged the serious 
deficiencies in rehabilitation and directed the 
Madhya Pradesh government to comply with the 
NWDTA in April 2004. Yet the court refused to 
halt the construction of the SSP de facto 
supporting illegal submergence and its 
concomitant displacement. Through the March 2005 
ruling, the Supreme Court has confirmed its 
earlier decisions of 2000 and 2002, affirmative 
of the NWDTA, noting that an increase in dam 
height will further displacement, and that 
construction may proceed only after every 
affected person is rehabilitated. The NCA has 
expressed support for this decree. Will action 
follow intentionality?

In dam-flooded Narmada Valley, across cultures, 
castes/tribes, classes and genders, reality is 
Kafkaesque. In December 2004 and February 2005 
respectively, two farmers in Madhya Pradesh 
committed suicide. In an organised fraud 
involving state officials, in January 2005, Rs 17 
lakhs were drained from the Sardar Sarovar 
Punarvashat Agency. In April, in Gujarat, four 
houses in the Tauvavi resettlement burned from 
faulty electrical wires. Kantibhai Rumal, from 
Savli, demanded rehabilitation, stating in a 
letter to Narendra Modi that his family would 
otherwise commit suicide, and was incarcerated.

In the amnesia of nation-building, development 
remakes worlds through violent dreams of 
progress. The Andolan's dissent safeguards 
conscience in an increasingly authoritarian 
state, aided by the brutality of its hegemonic 
institutions. State apparatuses in Maharashtra, 
Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, successive Central 
governments, in the construction of dams have 
committed indefensible human rights abuses on the 
affected people of the Narmada Valley. Party 
politics (BJP, Congress), and its attendant 
nationalism, determines the structure of violence 
perpetrated on the disenfranchised. The dynamics 
of nation building include the assimilation of 
some differences, the annihilation of others, as 
homogenisation of populations mobilises human 
beings as resources for state productivity. India 
as a biopolitical state functions to regulate and 
police lives in manufacturing "normal," docile, 
producing, and consuming subjects, where 
governance necessitates cycles of violence.

The monsoons approach, as people await the raging 
waters where terror and hope collide.

Angana Chatterji is associate professor of Social 
and Cultural Anthropology at the California 
Institute of Integral Studies.


o o o o

DEMOLITIONS OF A POSITIVE KIND ?
CAN INDIA 'EMULATE' THE 'OTHER BOMBAY' !

by Subhash Gatade

The demolitions in Bombay which have led to the 
displacement of lakhs of people and the 
continuing hostile attitude of the state 
government towards the displaced has caused a lot 
of uproar all over the country. One can say that 
the callous attitude displayed by the 
administration towards the slumdwellers was 
rather a marker of the neoliberal changes in the 
economy which has acclerated the process of the 
cities metamorphosing themselves into showcases 
for investors rather than conducive living spaces 
for citizens. And it is rightly said that this 
'B'bay plan' of a different kind would be 
replicated in different parts of the country if 
united resistance is not put up to the 
machinations of the ruling classes who are hand 
in glove with the building mafias.

The only silver lining in this attempts to 
transform B’bay into a new Shanghai at tremendous 
human costs was the role of the media and civil 
society organisations which kept the issue alive 
compelling even the high command of the party in 
power to intervene to stop the onward march of 
the bulldozers.

While media's role as a watchdog was commendable 
in this case, it is puzzling to note that the 
demolitions of a different kind which visited the 
same city at the fag end of the year 2003 did not 
receive the attention they deserved. The local 
media might have covered it but the national 
media rather glossed over it despite the 
tremendous import they carried at national level. 
And it related to the knocking down of more than 
a thousand roadside illegal shrines belonging to 
various faiths by the Brihanmumbai Municipal 
Corporation (BMC) as part of a judicial 
directive. Interestingly the B’bay high court had 
intervened in these illegal construction on roads 
in response to a public interest litigation filed 
by a social crusader Mr. Bhagwan Raiyani who had 
moved the court in 2002 after the knowing the 
extent of illegal shrines in Mumbai which were an 
obstruction to the public in various ways. One 
year later, the high court ordered that all 
illegal shrines-temples, mosques or churches - 
should be demolished.

As expected the attempts by the BMC to comply 
with the high court order, which was also asked 
to submit an action taken report by 12 Nov 2003, 
were resisted by a motley combination of 
political formations and religious groups which 
tried to give different pleas. The custodians and 
/or owners of such religious shrines also tried 
to raise lot of hue and cry over this drive but 
ultimately everyone had to comply with the orders.

Ofcourse it cannot be said with guarantee that 
for now the phenomenon of illegal religious 
shrines has been done away with in Mumbai 
completely. Looking at the presence of sectarian 
forces of different hues in the city it would be 
unbelievable if one says so. But a major 
achievement of the whole drive is that a step 
forward in this direction has ultimately been 
taken in a city which was the scene of lot of 
intercommunal killings merely 12 years ago during 
which such structures had played an important 
role.

Any sane person can understand that it is an 
arduous task which demands efforts at various 
levels. It urgently needs that suitable 
mechanisms are put in place where the concerned 
authorities are also held responsible for the 
proliferation of such shrines. It is also 
important that ordinary people are taught that 
they abstain from providing any legitimacy to 
such 'illegal shrines' by their active 
participation. Every person needs to learn that 
s/he may have her/his religious beliefs and has a 
right to practice it but that does not mean one 
should go for public display of the same and also 
turn be a mute participant in the breaking of 
laws supposedly to quench her/his spiritual quest.

Well, when the financial capital of the country 
was cleansed of illegal religious shrines nobody 
would have imagined that a faraway city in 
Tamilnadu which has a special place for itself in 
the ancient Tamil literature would carry the 
baton forward. All those people who daily face 
nightmares on the streets because of the public 
display of religiosity centring around illegal 
structures would feel delighted to know that 
Madurai, the city of historic temples, has in its 
own manner taken over the mantle to cleanse this 
beautiful city.

News has come in from the city that the municipal 
corporation of the city took an unprecedented 
step of demolition of more than 250 temples, two 
churches and a Dargah which were built on 
unauthorised land and were causing lot of 
inconvenience to the wider populace. It need be 
added that these demolitions were part of a wider 
drive undertaken by the corporation to demolish 
six hundred other illegal structures which had 
sprang up in the city.
Ofcourse this is not to say that the people who 
matter in the functioning of the city had 
overnight metamorphosed themselves into 
overenthusiastic atheists or nastikas. Here also 
they were compelled by the judgement of the high 
court (3rd February 2005) in which it directed 
the concerned authorities to remove all such 
impendiments on the road which were disturbing 
the smooth flow of traffic.

Definitely it did not prove to be a cakewalk for 
the administrators to implement this decision. A 
few fanatics even raised the issue of the 
'injustice' being done to Hindus for targetting 
only temples. There were also attempts to 
mobilise the devotees at different places who 
organised a sit-ins inside the temples and dared 
the police to touch them.

But nobody can deny that the people in charge of 
the drive took careful steps to defuse the 
situation. The most significant point was that 
they convinced the general public that the move 
was not meant to 'insult' any particular 
community. By citing examples of churches as well 
as dargahs which were to be targeted in the drive 
they were able to communicate their point 
forcefully. They had even formed secret teams to 
talk to those people who were the key persons in 
this illegal encroachment of government land. 
Today if you visit Madurai, you will discover a 
different city. No doubt you can come across a 
few disgruntled elements who were minting lakhs 
of Rs. every year through this purely 'temporal 
exercise.'

One may have different opinions over it but it 
needs emphasis that the experiments undertaken by 
the municipal corporation in Madurai or by the 
BMC in Bombay have national ramifications. All of 
us are witness to the phenomenon of such illegal 
shrines coming up all over our city spaces. 
Within a span of mere five years during my stay 
in this part of northwest Delhi one can see how 
more than two dozen temples or religious 
structures have come up with the civic 
authorities turning a blind eye. The methodology 
followed in the 'emergence' of such 'ancient' 
shrines which slowly eat into vital spaces on the 
streets or government land is widely known 
concerned and does not need repetition. Everybody 
knows that the transformation of the spot covered 
by a simple photograph or a vermillon coloured 
stone to a proper shrine does not take much time 
if the people are also made a participant in this 
process. Looking at the money which these shrines 
start generating, the number of people for whom 
these places find 'employement' and the 
'ancillary industry' of flowers and other 
necessary things which comes up alongwith these 
shrines, involvement of organised groups in 
running of such places cannot be denied.

One does not know of any such nationwide survey 
undertaken by any researcher which can divulge 
the actual status of the 'illegal shrines' in the 
country. But even a cursory glance at our 
surroundings would make it clear that the total 
number must be running in a few hundred thousands 
all over the country. One can just imagine the 
amount of money which such exercises of a 
'temporal' nature must be generating and the role 
such places can play in aggravating the tenuous 
social fabric of our society comprising of people 
from different communities and following 
different faiths. All of us have been witness to 
the organisation of maha artis all over Mumbai in 
roadside temples way back in 1993 and the 
consequent mayhem organised by fanatic elements, 
the scars of which are still visible on the 
social fabric of the city.
Is not it time that all of us with differing 
religious identities or who have opted out to be 
an atheist like me but who yearn for a more 
civilized and more just society see to it that 
public thoroughfares are not transformed into 
places of religious congregations.  Is it not our 
duty to see that serpentine queues on special 
occasions at such shrines do not choke the cities 
further and further. Is not it time that all of 
us strive hard so that democracy - which implies 
participation of everyone in the running of the 
society - does not get substituted by 
majoritarianism

It would be opportune if one could listen to 
Bhagwan Raiyani, the social crusader who also 
happens to be atheist, who had filed the historic 
petition in the Bombay high court which led to 
the unprecedented order. In an interview to 
rediff.com (11 Nov 2003) this builder by 
profession explained the purpose behind the 
petition in simple words "..Suppose, I am a Hindu 
and construct an illegal temple then this will 
affect other passers-by from different religions. 
The same is true with other co-religionists, if 
they construct an illegal mosque or church it 
creates problems for people from other religions.

One more point is that they create unhygienic 
conditions around that area. They go on to build 
communication centres or sometimes people play 
cards near those places. So to clean all these 
things from society, I took this step. This is to 
help the society. ..".

Simple words, so difficult to achieve !



______


[6]     [Announcements: ]

(i)

Convention on FASCISM AND DECEMBER 13

Sunday, 8 May, 5.00 PM

Gandhi Peace Foundation

Organized by: Committee for Inquiry on December 
13, All India People's Resistance Forum, Lok Raj 
Sangathan, People's Front, Samajik Nyaya Morcha, 
Bahujan Vaam Shakti, AISA, and others

Kindly attend with friends



Resist communal-fascism

Demand inquiry on December 13

Communal fascism in India

Emergence of fascism in a political order is 
characterized by the following features, among 
others:

1.	growing concentration of wealth and the 
accompanying impoverishment of masses,

2.	growing attack on the democratic and economic rights of working people,

3.	promotion of fear and hatred in the 
general population targetting minority 
communities as the source of a phantom enemy to 
win mass support for the propertied classes,

4.	aggressive promotion of a fundamentalist view of history and culture,

5.	constructing external enemies to unite people under the threat of war.

Nazi Germany is the most extreme example of this 
phenomena in which millions of people were 
murdered in cold blood. On this 60th anniversary 
of the victory over Nazi Germany by democratic 
forces, we must remember that the danger of 
fascism is still alive in India and in other 
countries.

The economic basis for fascism was growing in 
India in the 1990s with the advent of what 
President Narayanan termed 'the fast lanes of 
globalization, privatization and liberalization.' 
Although the GDP grew at about 6.7%, employment 
growth fell from 2% in mid-eighties to 0.98% in 
2000. By 1999, a total of 60.84 lakh subscribers 
have ceased their memberships to the PF scheme, 
and the off-take of food grains from the public 
distribution system fell to an all time low. 
During the same period, MNCs increased their 
sales by 322% and gross profit by 369%, and the 
Indian corporates garnered an increase in gross 
profit of 336% and net sales by 303%.

Accelerating the pace of neoliberalism, the 
BJP-led government aggressively implemented all 
the features of fascism during 1999-2004. The 
state-sponsored pogrom of Muslims in Gujarat 
during February-March 2002 exposed the real face 
of this regime. Over 2000 Muslims lost their 
lives, hundreds of Muslim women were brutally 
raped and dismembered, several hundred thousand 
were forced to take shelter in ill-equipped 
refugee camps for years.

More importantly, after the carnage, BJP won 
handsomely in several state elections; even in 
Gujarat, it won the elections with overwhelming 
majority. What explains these electoral responses?

There is no doubt that the inculcated fear of 
'Islamic terrorism' consolidated effectively the 
votes of the majority community. This fear was 
utilized by the regime by first promulgating the 
draconian POTA and then using it with great 
precision so that out of 287 persons booked under 
POTA in Gujarat one is a Sikh and the rest 286 
are Muslims.

Attack on Parliament

It was possible for the regime to promote and 
take advantage of this fear of 'Islamic 
terrorism' because of the attack on Indian 
Parliament on 13 December 2001. The attack shook 
the psyche of the country. The government cited 
'evidence of overwhelming credibility' that 
terrorists operating from Pakistan had organized 
the attack. Four people were arrested for their 
alleged role in the conspiracy, and the 
government took the country to the brink of a 
nuclear war. Several thousand crores of rupees 
were spent and hundreds of soldiers died in the 
war mobilization.

What was that evidence? Why did an eminent 
lawyer, intimately connected with the case, 
suggest that 'the police failed to crack the case 
Š hence they framed people?'

The only 'evidence' before the Indian people 
concerning the attack on Parliament is the story 
supplied by Delhi Police, based on the confession 
of the principal accused, Mohd. Afzal. The story 
has serious problems: Afzal had virtually no 
legal representation in the POTA court; the trial 
judge was openly biased and prejudiced; although 
one of the accused, SAR Geelani, was awarded 
death sentences by the POTA Court, the High Court 
acquitted him of all charges; each arrest memo 
was fabricated; every disclosure and confessional 
statement was likely to have been secured under 
torture, etc. The police story gives the 
impression of an elaborate scheme of fabrication 
and concoction.

The people of India had not been told who attacked Parliament

We demand a comprehensive Parliamentary inquiry on December 13

PUBILIC MEETING ON "Fascism and December 13"

MAY 8, 5.00 PM, Gandhi Peace Foundation

(ii)

Hindi Video CDs are available for sale

Anhad has released the following package of Video CDs in Hindi.
The package called "Un Sapnon Ki Khatir" is produced by Gauhar Raza
& would have 16 docu-lectures and 3 documentary films

Docu-lectures
Prabhash Joshi                                  Hindutva: Ek Rajneetik Akhada
Amit Sengupta                                  Media ka Sampradayikaran
Dr. K.M. Shrimali                               Ayodhya
Pralay Kanungo                                Sangh Parivar Ka Itihaas
Dr. Ram Punyani 
Sachchai Ya Brahm: Sampradayikta Ek Drishtikon
Sohail Hashmi                                    Pahchan ka Prashan
Kuldeep Nayyar                                Bharat- Pak Sambandh
Harsh Mander 
Samaj Aur Shasan: Gujarat Ek Sabak
Dr. Tulsiram 
Daliton ka Mudda aur Sampradayikta
Anand Pradhan             Vaishvikaran aur Sampradayikta
Shubha Mudgal 
Hindustani Sangeet ki Samanvyavadi Parampara
& Sohail Hashmi
Nivedita Menon 
Nari Aandolan aur Sampradayik Rajniti
Amar Farooqui                                  Swatantrata Aandolan Ki
  Virasat
Prashant Bhushan 
Samvaidhanik Adhikar Ke Roop Main Dharmnirpekshta
Swami Agnivesh                               Dharm Ka Apharan
Achyut Yagnik                                  Maujooda Rajnaitik Haalat

Documentaries
Rakesh Sharma                                  Final Solution
Gauhar Raza                                       Zulmaton ke Daur Main &
Junoon ke Badhte Qadam
The cost of the package is Rs. 600 + actual courier charges.
To get a copy of this package, please send drafts in favour of
"Anhad" to Anhad  4, Windsor Place, New Delhi-110001
PLEASE NOTE: A large number of people have been put in voluntary
time to make the above package possible and Anhad is charging only
the exact production cost. We would be in no  position to offer any discounts.
PS: We have a few more sets of the English package
“ In Defence of Our Dreams” . Price Rs. 1000 + courier charges


o o o o


(iii)

MEDIA RELEASE 
3 May 2005

IFJ Launches Third Annual South Asia Press Freedom Report:
Courage and Censorship - Journalists and Press Freedom in South Asia 2004-2005

South Asia continues its well-deserved reputation 
as one of most unsafe places in the world for 
journalists to work. Daily attacks on media 
workers, a culture of impunity for those that 
target journalists, and a profoundly undemocratic 
and hostile media environment in many countries 
mean journalists who seek out and report truth do 
so in a climate of fear and intimidation.

"The past year saw governments continue the crack 
down on democratic rights and press freedom in 
the name of tackling terrorism. And corrupt 
officials, insurgents, fundamentalists of all 
religions and gangsters with their own violent 
methods of silencing truth tellers, continue with 
impunity," said Jacqueline Park, director, IFJ 
Asia-Pacific.

On World Press Freedom Day, May 3, the IFJ 
releases its Third Annual Press Freedom Report 
for South Asia: Courage and Censorship – 
Journalists and Press Freedom in South Asia 
2004-2005 to highlight the professionalism of 
journalists working in adverse circumstances to 
protect press freedoms and keep the public 
informed.

The report sets out to tell the full story of 
press freedom, democratic rights and journalists’ 
safety in South Asia. Sadly, it details the 
deaths of too many journalists and records the 
unspeakable treatment of many others. In a 
terrible and shocking toll, 19 media workers were 
killed in targeted attacks for their efforts to 
ensure the voice of the free press in South Asia 
is heard. The report also documents the declining 
media freedoms so important for media 
independence and vital to democracy.

"In this report we recognise the amazing courage 
and professionalism of our colleagues across the 
region, many of whom work in the most difficult 
situations," said Park.

The report tells how journalists in Nepal have 
been at the forefront of the opposition to the 
Royal coup and clampdown on press freedom and 
democratic rights there; of the courage of 
Bangladeshi journalists who, despite daily 
attacks of the most horrific proportions, 
continue to expose the corruption that pervades 
the country; and of how journalists, while 
counting their own losses, were quick to tell the 
world and their own communities of the 
devastation caused by the tsunami.

The report has been co-ordinated by the 
International Federation of Journalists on behalf 
of the South Asia Media Solidarity Network 
(SAMSN), a unique coalition of journalists’ 
unions and press freedom organisations in the 
region. The SAMSN, bringing together more than 
25,000 journalists across the region, is 
dedicated to building solidarity among 
journalists’ organisations and other groups in 
the region working to promote a safer working 
environment and greater respect for the work of 
journalists.

The IFJ called upon governments to respect 
democratic rights, investigate and follow up 
every attack and be held accountable when there 
is official indifference, negligence or, as in 
some cases, official complicity in attacks on 
media.

“Spotlighting the cases of violence against 
journalists and press freedom violations plays a 
valuable role in not only raising awareness of 
these issues but also in applying pressure to 
ensure that the perpetrators of these assaults 
are brought to justice,” said Park.

For the full report (part 1) click here: 
<http://www.ifj-asia.org/files/ifj_sa_press_freedom_report_overview.pdf>http://www.ifj-asia.org/files/ifj_sa_press_freedom_report_overview.pdf

For the full report (part 2) click here: 
<http://www.ifj-asia.org/files/ifj_sa_press_freedom_report_violations.pdf>http://www.ifj-asia.org/files/ifj_sa_press_freedom_report_violations.pdf

For a text version of the report click here: 
<http://www.ifj-asia.org/files/ifj_sa_press_freedom_report.pdf>http://www.ifj-asia.org/files/ifj_sa_press_freedom_report.pdf


o o o




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

Sister initiatives :
South Asia Counter Information Project :  snipurl.com/sacip
South Asians Against Nukes: www.s-asians-against-nukes.org
Communalism Watch: communalism.blogspot.com/

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