SACW | 14 June 2005

[sacw]

South Asia Citizens Wire  | 14 June,  2005

[1] Advani conquered many rightwing hearts in Pakistan (MB Naqvi)
[2] Advani's political doosra gets called (P. Sainath)
[3] India: Riot-affected families file civil suit in Gujarat
[4] Vajpayee and The Gujarat Carnage (Asghar Ali Engineer)
[5] India to deport US missionaries following mob attack by 'locals'
[6] India: Violent Students To be Punished! Who Will Punish the Violent
administration and Government? (Kunal Chattopadhyay)
[7] Zubaan project on history of the feminist poster in India

______


[1]

[Karachi June 7, 2005]

ADVANI CONQUERED MANY RIGHTWING HEARTS IN PAKISTAN
by MB Naqvi

Lal Krishna Advani, President of the Bharatya 
Janata Party, came to Pakistan, saw a lot of 
people and conquered many stalwart rightwing 
hearts. On his arrival in India he said that he 
cannot forget this week that he spent in 
Pakistan. It was a very special experience for 
him. He certainly made waves here. One of his 
undoubted contributions can be that he tried to 
strengthen the peace process between India and 
Pakistan.

But Advani is not an ordinary Indian. He had an 
image of a Strongman of the Hindu Nationalists. 
He has been presiding over the party of what was 
called Hindu Nationalism. Here was of a person 
whose Rath Yatra in early 1990s paved the way for 
the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Many hold him 
directly responsible for it in India. Advani 
expressed sorrow over the Babri Masjid incident 
and has said that it was a very sad day for him. 
He not only virtually disassociated himself from 
the demotion of the Babri Masjid, he also had 
many other things to say. He not merely visited 
Jinnah's mausoleum but called him a secular 
leader who wanted Pakistan to be a secular state. 
Jinnah was above communalism and at one time he 
was the Ambassador of Hindu Muslim unity. He also 
said that the concept of Akhand Bharat no longer 
exists. He was all for Peace Process between 
India and Pakistan, claiming the credit for 
having started it.

What impact his observations in Pakistan will 
make in India was not wholly clear until Mr. 
Advani tendered his resignation from the 
Presidentship of BJP on his return. What he did 
say here was out of character from his previous 
image and record. But he is also a consummate 
politician, not given to being carried away by 
transient emotions. Many did wonder how will his 
erstwhile supporters in RSS, Shiv Sena, VHP, 
Bajrang Dal et al will react. Some had already 
criticized him and asked for his resignation from 
BJP.  It remains to be seen how deep seated is 
this opposition from BJP's hardliners. But the 
matter deserves speculation: Why did he make such 
startling statements in Pakistan, occupying the 
position he did and the image he had.

It may bode a significant change in Indian 
politics. Was he trying to reorient BJP? Was he 
out to win back the Muslim vote in India? As a 
practical politician, he must know that the base 
of his power cannot be strengthened unless BJP 
wins back UP and Bihar. It so happens that Muslim 
votes in these provinces plus the vote of 
enlightened Hindu liberals can make a difference. 
Doubtless, the hard Hindu vote remains with the 
BJP. But that is no longer a majority in the 
socalled Hindi belt itself. New lower caste 
parties, mainly the middle ones, have deserted 
the BJP. The middle and lower castes plus the 
Muslims paint the Hindi belt into an entirely 
different political colour. Mulayam Singh and 
Laloo Prashad are the new politicians who have 
sent Congress as well as BJP packing. Was Advani 
manoeuvring to steal the political clothes of 
Mulayam Singh and Laloo Prashad?

A word here about a curious phenomenon in 
Pakistan. And it is not new. When Mr. Atal Behari 
Vajpyee, Foreign Minister in Morarji Desai 
government, he visited Islamabad, he too saw and 
conquered many rightwing hearts. After that there 
has been an eventful flirtation between the 
Islamic ideology-spewing politicians and the 
Hindu Nationalist leadership. At one stage, 
Pakistan Foreign Minister Agha Shahi did not 
pointedly attend a reception given by Mrs. Indira 
Gandhi and spent that time with Mr. Vajpayee. Mr. 
Advani was lionized and feted with effusive 
verbiage to an extent that he felt overwhelmed. 
This coming together of two extremes is an 
interesting phenomenon. Given half a chance, the 
establishment in Pakistan would somehow prefer a 
hardline Hindu regime in Delhi. This preference 
can be seen by that one has scratching the 
surface.

Coming back to Mr. Advani he has apparently 
disturbed a hornet's nest on the Indian 
rightwing. Does he wish to become another Atal 
Behari Vapayee who had won the confidence of 
Pakistani hardliners? That may help in domestic 
politics. Speculation is also in order over the 
future of the BJP. Can it move out of the shadows 
of RSS Parivar? Can it in fact adopt a 
quasi-Nehruvian Indian nationalism that gives a 
somewhat more definite place to Indian Muslims? 
For, without assuming that concept this departure 
from earlier ideology cannot be explained.

One thing is certain. Advani has no suicidal 
tendencies; he would not utter a word that would, 
in his opinion, not be in the long-term interest 
of his party. How precisely would he tackle the 
strong ideological prepossessions of the Sangh 
Parivar? It is a matter that Sangh Parivar has 
also to solve. Either the Parivar will have to 
accept another Atal Behari-like BJP President or, 
if it wants to stay wholly unchanged. In the 
latter case, it will disown Advani.

Whether or not the turmoil in BJP will actually 
promote the Peace Process between India and 
Pakistan, the Advani gamble would long be 
remembered. Its consequences are sure to start 
flowing immediately. Here in Pakistan, most of 
those who lionized Advani would carefully watch 
how things develop in India. There is no doubt 
that most Muslim Leaguers and the other right 
wingers did go out of their way to shower 
affection and respect on Advani. On the whole, 
the calculation of the establishment probably has 
been that it will impact favourably on the Peace 
Process. One hopes it is right.

_______


[2]


The Hindu
June 14, 2005

ADVANI'S POLITICAL DOOSRA GETS CALLED

P. Sainath

L.K. Advani's troubles are not all about Jinnah. 
Nor are they over with his return as president of 
the Bharatiya Janata Party.

L.K. ADVANI is back. But on terms approved by the 
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. The 
"remarks-were-taken-out-of-context" campaign is 
in full swing. And, ahem, Jinnah led a communal 
movement that resulted in Pakistan. And whatever 
may have been his vision, Pakistan is now 
anti-secular. So if this much was agreed on, what 
was all the fuss about?

One favoured theory is that some deep and 
well-thought-out strategy underlay Mr. Advani's 
statements on Jinnah in Pakistan. His remarks 
were in pursuit of a subtle patriotic plan the 
rest of us fail to perceive.

Note that the BJP now trumpets a temple angle 
(How clever of him to have made his remarks while 
he took part in a function to restore old Hindu 
temples in Muslim Pakistan.) Some columnists have 
focussed on the same point but differently. Here, 
they contend, was the scourge of Babri Masjid 
reviving temples in Pakistan. It was a big push 
for the peace process. More hidden aspects of 
this grand design have begun to surface. The BJP 
now calls Mr. Advani's Pakistan trip a success. 
He raised the far more important issue of 
terrorism. Jinnah can rest in pieces.

This notion of Mr. Advani having pushed a shrewd 
strategy conflicts a wee bit with reports of the 
leader's deeply wounded feelings. A result of his 
party's failure to stand by him. But perhaps that 
is part of the plan, too. Obviously the strategy 
has to be a complex one. Asking the Sangh Parivar 
to re-assess Jinnah is urging Tyrannosaurus Rex 
to go vegan. Both roads lead to the same end 
result. Extinction. However, an evolutionary 
compromise seems to have been arrived at.

Perhaps the most candid - and profound - 
assessment of what happened comes from BJP leader 
Kalraj Mishra. Advaniji, he points out 
innocently, was speaking to a Pakistani audience 
after all. For Mr. Mishra, that explains 
everything. He was selling in another market. 
Different audiences, different propaganda.

The truth is that Mr. Advani and his old 
colleague, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, have done this 
for decades. Both often say the opposite of what 
they did just days earlier. Editorial writers 
have often termed this `statesmanship.' The less 
charitable call it doublespeak. (Jyoti Basu, for 
instance, says Mr. Advani reminds him of Jinnah. 
The deeds of both, he feels, suggest they were 
men who lacked firm convictions. He must feels 
vindicated by Mr. Advani's latest volte face. In 
the late 1980s, Mr. Basu pleaded in vain with 
today's peacemaker to spare the country the 
savagery of the Ayodhya stir.)

Old story

For the street, Mr. Advani presented the rath 
yatra, its blood, guts and gore. Put him before 
another class of audience and December 6, 1992, 
becomes "the saddest day of my life." He's done 
it all before. Mr. Vajpayee shed copious tears on 
that date. But calmly expressed very different 
sentiments when speaking to his storm troopers at 
other times.

Both have been bowling political doosras for 
years. The doosra is the `second' or `other' 
delivery. It looks like a regular off-break. But 
just when you think it's spinning towards the 
bat, it goes the other way, like a leg-break. 
Just when you think Mr. Advani is turning one 
way, he spins the other. And here he is doing it 
once again. No wonder the party's second line 
leadership consists of so many spin doctors. 
They've spent years at the nets, training at the 
feet of the master.

The wrecked yatra to Pakistan was very important. 
But Mr. Advani's troubles are not all about 
Jinnah. Nor are they over with his return as BJP 
president. The present farce takes away in some 
sense from the internal - non-Jinnah - turmoil of 
the BJP and the Sangh Parivar. The resignation 
show may be over. The larger drama isn't. Take 
the sacking of Venkaiah Naidu. Or the Uma Bharati 
soap opera (episode 3). Or the ritual humiliation 
of Mr. Vajpayee (denounced by the RSS as one of 
the "weakest" leaders of the country).

The party's growing crisis has been on display 
for a while. More frustrating, no external 
`conspiracies' can be found to explain it. The 
rout of the BJP in the recent by-elections adds 
another dimension to this. In by-polls to 16 
Assembly and two Lok Sabha seats across the 
country, it won just one. In only two did its 
vote cross 25 per cent. In seven Assembly and two 
Lok Sabha seats, it fell below a pathetic five 
per cent.

In Goa, it lost four of the five seats it 
contested. Haryana was a humiliating rout for the 
BJP. Uttar Pradesh an embarrassment. In Kerala, 
it sat out the race. The BJP had made the arrest 
of the Shankaracharya of Kanchi a national issue. 
Yet, it did not dare to contest the Kancheepuram 
seat in Tamil Nadu. The Hindu Mahasabha candidate 
its cadres supported lost his deposit.

If the United Progressive Alliance gets its act 
together in Bihar, it will be a rough ride for 
the National Democratic Alliance in that State. 
In West Bengal and Kerala next year, the BJP 
isn't in the picture. In Tamil Nadu, where it has 
broken with its old ally the All India Anna 
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, it faces total eclipse.

Meanwhile, in Madhya Pradesh where it won the 
last Assembly polls massively, it has been 
plagued by factional feuds. In Gujarat, rival 
groups challenge Narendra Modi openly. Mr. Modi 
himself has been at the centre of one 
embarrassing controversy or another. The UPA's 
first year has been a poor one. Yet, with its 
silly boycott of parliament, the BJP has been 
unable to pin its rival on the back foot. Its 
whiz kids are out of fizz and its spin doctors 
don't like their own medicine. Out of power, its 
leaders find their followers no longer give them 
the deference they got while in office. Another 
time, another era, Mr. Advani's "image makeover" 
might have gone unchallenged. This was not that 
time.

Crucial mistake

One crucial mistake was playing on Pakistani 
soil. A bad pitch. The fans at home didn't like 
it. And Nagpur, home of the political doosra, 
called his action. He has to now work with the 
bio-mechanic experts of the RSS to correct his 
action. When in power, Mr. Advani might have even 
survived making his Jinnah remarks in India. The 
larger public is far more tolerant than the 
saffron mob. And there would have been the 
captive columnists in a largely sycophantic press 
to add spin to his words. This time, even the 
`second-rung' of BJP leaders, never too busy to 
show up at the nearest TV studio to sneer at 
their rivals, have been cameraphobic and 
soundbite shy. Another error was in not 
understanding how much the political situation 
has changed. How demoralised his party is. How 
little it needed to spark off more internal 
political bloodletting. A third problem was in 
thinking that you can just switch off all the 
hatred you have nurtured as the basis of your 
politics. That might work to some degree, and for 
a while, when you're in power. Not so easy when 
you're out.

The doosra is too deeply embedded in the 
parivar's politics to end it. Remember the 
dramatic turnaround on swadeshi, to take just one 
instance. The complete reversal of stand on 
neo-liberal policies. The hypocrisy on the charge 
sheeted ministers' issue is a more recent 
example. Still more striking is the multiple spin 
on Gujarat. Mr. Vajpayee once said it would have 
been better if Mr. Modi had stepped down. Then 
followed a staunch defence of Mr. Modi - by Mr. 
Vajpayee, amongst others. Next, Mr. Advani 
claimed Gujarat was just about the best-run Atate 
in the country. Now Pramod Mahajan `regrets' what 
happened in that State. It all defied the laws of 
political gravity and had to hit the ground at 
some point.

Standard stuff

This is standard stuff with the Sangh Parivar and 
its political arm. Given the right audience, it 
even tries to appropriate Gandhi. Indeed, its 
various arms are set up on that principle. 
Different consumers, different salesmen. The BJP 
is the political arm of the RSS. But it can't 
capture all markets. So you have the VHP, which 
is the BJP on steroids. And the Bajrang Dal, 
which is the VHP on more dangerous banned 
substances.

Even now, a battery of bowlers can be seen 
turning their arms over at the doosra. Mr. 
Togadia calls Mr. Advani a traitor. Another VHP 
hit man denies he said this. The BJP scolds the 
VHP. But remains silent on the rebukes of the 
RSS. Yashwant Sinha says Mr. Advani was wrong in 
what he said about Jinnah. The next day, he 
changes his run up and bowls from wide off the 
crease.

The RSS is more honest. All this is an internal 
matter of the BJP, it says. And since the BJP is 
an internal matter of the RSS, we'll do what we 
need to about it. And they have. The dons of the 
doosra have spun and enforced a new resolution. 
It's business as usual. Until things spin out of 
control again.

_______


[3]


The Hindu
June 14, 2005

Riot-affected families file civil suit in Gujarat
http://www.hindu.com/2005/06/14/stories/2005061406201200.htm



_______


[4]

(Secular Perspective
June 1-15, 2005)

VAJPAYEE AND THE GUJARAT CARNAGE

Asghar Ali Engineer

Gujarat will remain in the news for a long time 
to come thanks to the carnage of innocent persons 
directly or indirectly organised by Narendra Modi 
and his party, the Bhartiya Janta Party. Such 
major events are not easily forgotten. The 
catastrophic massacre of Jews in Germany at the 
hands of Hitler can never be forgotten not only 
by the Jews but by the whole world. The massacre 
of innocent people by Chnagez Khan and Timur have 
not been forgotten even centuries after they took 
place. How then Gujarat massacre can be so easily 
forgotten.

Now BJP leaders themselves keep on issuing 
statements after statements on the issue. 
Recently Pramod Mahajan, general secretary of the 
BJP called the Gujarat carnage as ‘blot’ on the 
name of the Party. Then the former BJP Governor 
of Gujarat Mr. Sunder Singh Bhandari also sought 
probe into ‘failed’ Modi Govt. He alleged that 
Narendra Modi and the Party leadership failed to 
respond to the riot situation firmly and quickly 
and suggested that Modi’s removal could have been 
one of the ways of damage control though later he 
flip flopped and said the ‘riots were neither 
engineered nor a blot’. It is hardly surprising 
politicians making such contradictory statements.

But Vajpayee is a politician of a class by 
himself. The BJP built for him an image of a 
‘moderate’ and a ‘statesman’ so as to make him 
acceptable by people of India to lead the BJP 
government. The Indian people could hardly accept 
hardcore or extremist leaders like L.K.Advani as 
prime minister and hence Vajpayee’s image has 
been deliberately inculcated. But his flip flops 
on ideological front are too well known to be 
counted here. It is because he considers the RSS 
as his ‘soul’ and also wants to be counted among 
secularists in the country. He also wants his 
name to go down in history as statesman like that 
of Jawaharlal Nehru. And hence his flip flops.


When the BJP lost in the last general elections 
he blamed Gujarat riots for the dismal 
performance and the BJP members were aghast at 
this statement. Perhaps he wanted to shift the 
blame from the failure of his government to the 
riots in Gujarat. Whether Mr. Vajpayee is a 
statesman or not can be a debatable question but 
there is no doubt that he is very shrewd 
politician.  He knows how to survive in adverse 
situation. One can say he is a great survivor.


Now that major BJP leaders are blaming Modi for 
the Gujarat carnage Mr. Vajpayee has come to his 
rescue. He is reported to have issued a veiled 
threat to the Central Government from Manali, his 
favourite summer resort, to refrain from taking 
any action against the Modi Government in 
Gujarat. He said, “Those who failed to defeat 
Modi through democratic means were trying tactics 
like appointing a committee to probe the state 
government’s role in the post-Godhra riots.” He 
also said that those who are trying to dislodge 
Modi “through undemocratic means” should know 
that public opinion was with him.

Whether public opinion is with him or not Mr. 
Vajpayee at this juncture is with him to endear 
himself once again with the RSS and mastermind 
his own survival in the face of severe criticism 
by the RSS chief Sudershan of the aged BJP 
leadership. Vajpayee who squarely blamed Gujarat 
riots for NDA’s electoral disaster now changed 
colour and defended Modi. Such flip flops are 
very common as far as Shri Vajpayee is concerned.

Here I want to quote extensively from a letter 
written during the Gujarat carnage by Justice 
J.S.Verma as Chairman of National Human Rights 
Commission. Mr. Vajpayee, Justice Verma told me 
recently, completely ignored this letter and did 
not even acknowledge it. If Shri Vajpayee can 
ignore letter written by Chairman of National 
Human Rights Commission on such an important 
issue like the Gujarat carnage what of ordinary 
mortals like us!


JUSTICE VERMA'S LETTER TO SHRI VAJPAYEE
Written on 3 January 2003

D.O. No. 3/CP/2003

Dear Prime Minister,
Over the past few years, my colleagues and I in 
the National Human Rights Commission have been 
guided by two over-arching principles in the 
discharge of our responsibilities.  The first, to 
promote and protect human rights in our country 
with all of the vigour and integrity that our 
Constitution, laws and treaty obligations 
require.  The second, to do so in a manner that 
enhances respect for our country and faith in its 
institutions of governance, both at home and 
abroad.

As I prepare to lay down the reins of office 
shortly, I would be remiss if I did not convey to 
you my deep and continuing anxiety in respect of 
a situation that has vast implications for the 
well-being and reputation of our country. Its 
people and institutions – implications that far 
transcend political considerations – but which 
impinge directly on the principles that have 
guided the work of this Commission.

I refer to the human rights situation in Gujarat 
resulting from the unconscionable burning of the 
Sabarmati Express in Godhra on 27 February 2002, 
causing the death of innocent men, women and 
children, and the subsequent murder, arson, rape 
and looting that occurred in that State.

These grievous events, that caused great pain and 
shock to you, to the nation and to the world, 
continue to pose disturbing questions from the 
perspective of human rights – quite apart from 
many other perspectives: political, economic, 
social and cultural.

From the point of view of this commission. We 
continue to be profoundly concerned as to whether 
those who perpetrated the outrage in Godhra, and 
those who were subsequently responsible for the 
gross violations of human rights that occurred, 
will be prosecuted and punished to the full 
extent required by our Constitution, laws and 
treaty obligations.  Likewise, we remain 
concerned as to whether the victims and those 
related to them by kinship or community will be 
allowed to avail in full measure of the legal and 
other remedies that should be provided to them 
under these same Statutes and instruments.

As outlined, in particular, in the Proceedings of 
this Commission dated 1 April and 31 May 2002, of 
which I took the liberty of sending copies to you 
earlier, there are a number of steps that can and 
must be taken if justice is to be done.  I will 
not repeat these measures in this letter, as they 
are fully listed in those Proceedings.

I would, however, like to observe, with great 
respect, that if our country should fall short in 
rendering justice, promptly and effectively, to 
the victims, their immediate families, dependents 
and other persons or groups connected with the 
victims, a serious travesty of the law will occur 
with potentially grave consequences, not only to 
those immediately affected, but to the reputation 
of our country and its institutions of 
governance, including the judiciary and the 
National Human Rights Commission.

Regrettably, to date, in spite of the 
recommendations made by this Commission, not 
enough has been done to assure the victims, our 
country and the world at large, that the 
instruments of the State are proceeding with 
adequate integrity and diligence to remedy the 
wrongs that have occurred.

Nor, I am saddened to observe, has the 
appointment of the Justice Nanavati-Shah 
Commission by the State Government allayed fears 
in this respect. In such circumstances, in my 
view, further delay in taking appropriate action 
would compound the tragedy that has occurred.  It 
would also affect the prospects of long-term 
peace and reconciliation and, potentially and 
equally dangerously, render the country 
vulnerable to charges of granting impunity to 
those who have violated the Constitution and laws 
of our land and international human rights 
instruments that our country is in honour bound 
to uphold.

From your experience and knowledge of human 
rights matters Mr. Prime Minister you are, above 
all, fully aware that there has been vast growth 
in the scope and range of human rights 
jurisprudence over the past years. This 
jurisprudence has, in particular, developed in 
two directions.  Firstly, the State has 
increasingly been held responsible not only for 
the acts of its own agents, but also for the acts 
of non-State players acting within its 
jurisdiction when large-scale human rights 
violations have occurred.  Secondly, when the 
institutions of a state have appeared to act 
inadequately to redress certain grave categories 
of human rights violations, or appeared to grant 
impunity to those involved in such violations, 
the emerging jurisprudence has pressed for 
accountability before international forums and 
tribunals.

I need hardly to add that it should never be said 
that the institutions of this country – 
institutions of which we are justly proud and 
which have been developed and strengthened over 
the years with great care – may fail to prove 
equal to the challenge posed by the large-scale 
violation of human rights that occurred in 
Gujarat.

I have been apprehensive in regard to this matter 
for quite some time, particularly because of some 
observations made to me by visitors to the 
Commission, both foreigners and Indians.  On all 
such occasions, I have impressed upon them the 
strength of our national institutions and the 
democratic space available to them for their 
effective and independent functioning.  I have 
also told them that they should not be misled by 
some intemperate and ill informed attacks on the 
Commission by a few, including certain sections 
of the media, as they were not representative of 
the wider public opinion of the country or the 
views of your government.

It appears to me, in such circumstances, that the 
leadership and institutions of our country must 
not rest until justice is done and those 
responsible for the large-scale violations are 
prosecuted and punished: and until the victims 
and those associated with them are granted the 
remedies due to them under the law.

Contemporary human rights jurisprudence requires 
that the victims must have ready access to the 
legal system; that prompt and effective steps are 
taken by the system to ensure that effective 
disciplinary, administrative, civil and criminal 
action is taken against those guilty of acts of 
omission or commission resulting in the violation 
of human rights; that reparation is provided, 
individually or collectively, to those who have 
suffered; that the reparation is proportionate to 
the gravity of the violations and damage that 
occurred, and that it include restitution, 
compensation, rehabilitation satisfaction and 
guarantees of non-repetition.

I turn to you, Mr. Prime Minister, both as Head 
of Government and as a person with a deep and 
abiding understanding of the issues at stake, to 
express my anguish in respect of this matter as I 
prepare to relinquish office.

I should be deeply grateful if you could kindly 
monitor the situation and issue directives to the 
competent authorities, both at the State and 
Central levels, to ensure that justice is done 
along the lines outlined in this letter and 
set-out in greater detail in the earlier 
recommendations of this Commission.  Your 
personal involvement in this essential effort 
would, I am sure, be deeply appreciated by my 
successor and colleagues in the Commission no 
less than by myself. It would also accord, I am 
sure, with the wishes of all who have the best 
interests of our country at heart, whether within 
India or in the wider international community.  I 
have no doubt, the number of such people in our 
country is overwhelming.

The Prime Minister Shri. Vajpayee never replied 
to this letter nor he ever took any action based 
on such an important letter from Chairman, 
National Human Rights Commission. It speaks 
volumes for the BJP “statesman” and his partisan 
politics. It needs no more comments. It is for 
our readers to judge how callously he acted to 
save his party Chief Minister.

(Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, Mumbai)

_______


[5]
BBC News
13 June, 2005, 14:58 GMT 15:58 UK

India to deport US missionaries

By Zubair Ahmed
BBC News, Mumbai

Christians account for around two percent of India's population
Four American missionaries have been asked to 
leave India for what police say is a violation of 
visa regulations.
The missionaries were attacked by a Hindu mob in 
India's western city Mumbai (Bombay) on Saturday 
evening during a Bible reading session.
Police said three of them were treated for bruises and cuts in a hospital.
One of the assailants was released on bail after 
allegedly abducting one of the missionaries who 
are accused of trying to convert local Hindus.


'Stern action'

Police told the BBC that the men entered India on 
tourist visas, but were found preaching religion.
They say two of them have already left Mumbai, 
and the other two are waiting to catch the next 
available flight.
Police say a group of local Hindus beat up the 
missionaries, because they angered over their 
attempts to convert local Hindus.
But the missionaries told the police they were 
only holding a Bible reading session.
Mumbai Christians have condemned the attack, and 
urged the police to take stern action against 
those involved in the attack.
Dolphy D'Souza of the Bombay Catholics Sabha has 
accused the police of being lenient towards those 
involved in the attack.
But police say they have registered a case of 
abduction against one of the assailants who was 
produced in court and released on bail after the 
abducted missionary reappeared on Sunday morning.

  While this kind of attack is rare in Bombay, the 
police must take serious action against those 
responsible

Dolphy D'Souza, Mumbai Roman Catholic spokesman

Christians are often accused of forcibly 
converting the poor in India by bribing them with 
money and jobs.
But this is denied by the Christian community, 
which accounts for about two percent of India's 
one billion population.
Six years ago, a Hindu mob burnt alive an 
Australian missionary and his two young sons in 
the eastern state of Orissa.

The man charged with their murder was sentenced 
to death, but last month his sentence was 
commuted to life imprisonment.


o o o

The Times of India - June 13, 2005

Malad locals beat up US missionaries
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SUNDAY, JUNE 12, 2005 11:58:34 PM ]
MUMBAI: Until recently, all the communal clashes 
that Malad's Malwani village, which became 
infamous during the 1992 Mumbai riots, had ever 
witnessed were to do with Hindu and Muslim 
factions. Then on Saturday night a group of 20 
locals barged into a Bible-reading session 
suspecting a religious conversion and beat up 
three of the eight US missionaries present.

The incident has sent shockwaves through the 
area. However, police and the locals offer 
differing versions. TNN

Local corporator Aslam Sheikh said that one of 
the missionaries was kidnapped by the group and 
released only early on Sunday morning. The police 
maintained that two of the missionaries were 
taken in an autorickshaw by the group and 
released some distance away. The missionaries, 
when contacted, refused to comment. But the 
police have arrested two suspects, identified as 
Bharat Koli (45) and Rajesh Keni (29), who were 
released on bail on Sunday evening. They were 
booked on charges of abduction and assault.

The incident took place at around 8.30 pm on 
Saturday night when a Bible- reading session was 
in progress in a hall near Malwani church. Around 
20 men and women had gathered outside the hall 
near Malwani church where the session was in 
progress. "The group shouted and yelled and told 
the missionaries to come out,"said Jinsi John, a 
local who was attending the session. "The three 
men who came out were roughed up and beaten,"she 
said, adding that one of them, identified only as 
Brother Kirk, was beaten badly and his shirt 
torn. "One of the missionaries had gone to the 
Orlem church in Malad and so people thought he 
was kidnapped,"she said.

The Bible-reading session, held for children and 
adults separately, was started on June 6 by the 
eight US missionaries-five women and three 
men-who had come down early this month. "No one 
was coerced to join the sessions. The few 
non-Christian children who attended it came on 
their own,"said John.

Four of the US missionaries were to leave for the 
US on Sunday night and the rest have moved out of 
Malwani. Sources said that Bible-reading sessions 
were conducted earlier too in Malwani, but it was 
only now that violence had broken out. Sheikh 
alleged that the police had gone easy on the 
culprits. "I will be requesting the DCP to take 
stern action against the accused,"he said. 
Although the police said that no political 
parties were involved in the assault, local 
sources said that the local Shiv Sena unit was 
behind it. "It was a group of local Kolis who 
belong to the Sena who did it,"said a source.




_______


[6]

[13 Jun 2005]


VIOLENT STUDENTS TO BE PUNISHED! WHO WILL PUNISH THE VIOLENT
ADMINISTRATION AND GOVERNMENT?

Kunal Chattopadhyay [N-1]

The improved Left Front government and the multi-starred
University strike again. A terrorist, a communalist and their
followers have been foiled. The Jadavpur University campus
has been saved from terrorism and communalism. The terrorist
is named Amit Chakraborty, General Secretary of the Faculty of
Engineering and Technology Students' Union, out to
terrorise the campus through a Bin Laden-type hunger strike.
The hidden communalist discovered in campus is one Arun
Majumdar, also of the same faculty, also on hunger strike.

Some years back, the Rapid action force or RAF was created
with much fanfare as an organization that would combat
terrorism and communalist violence. Of course, it has not
been used for petty purposes. Thus, praveen togadia could
proudly boast that the Bajrang Dal had given training in arms
use to a huge number of cadres in West Bengal. More recently,
Taslima Nasreen could be prevented by the threat of Muslim
communalists from making a trip to Midnapur town. But when
really vital issues have been at stake, the RAF has been used
to great effect. For example, terrorists posing as illegal
occupants in slums around Tolly's Nullah and
terrocommunalists pretending to be poverty stricken folk in
Beliaghata saw hiw the mighty RAF can move. And now, it was
the turn of latter day Bin Ladens and Saddams, the Amit
Chakrabortys and the Arun Majumdars and their terro-
communalist followers, to feel the wrath of the RAF.

The Whole context:

I am confident that I will at this point be accused of using
pointless jargon, of forgetting the real context, and so on.
To show that this is wrong, I present below the whole
context.  As one who has studied, researched and taught in
Jadavpur University for just under three decades (I joined as
an undergraduate student in August 1976), I would like to jog
our collective memories.

The immediate context was a student agitation two years ago,
which turned violent. There are many students, including in
the Union leadership, as well as colleagues, who are claiming
that there was no violent. To put it simply, this is a
blatant lie. Teachers in particular should stop this lying. Of
course there was violence, regardless of which sentence in
the inquiry report is wrong. There were far too many teachers
present as witnesses to brush this under the carpet with the
falsehood that all talk of violence is a conspiracy by the
administration or by Alimuddin Street. But herein lies the
complication. There have been many far more violent exchanges
in the campus. In 1983, a thug band led by a "youth
leader" entered the campus to beat up DSF students. The
DFSF rallied a much bigger group of students and the thugs
had to take shelter, under protection of a professor whose
partisan alignments were well known. In the late 1980s, when
the Karmachari Samsad was led by pro-Congress elements,
leaders of a prominent left students organization used a
hostel students' agitation to violently beat up many non-
teaching staff, till independent and pro-DSF students rescued
the employees. In the 1990s FET students were attacked. In
none of these cases had any commission of inquiry recommended
stern action. [N-2]

So there is a common pattern. The RAF will not be used
against Muslim fundamentalists in Midnapur. No steps will be
taken against thugs who support the ruling combine for
repeated cases of violence in the campus. But if at last
'we' get a chance to smash the three decade long
domination of a non-Left Front student organization in the
Faculty of Engineering and Technology, why then, inquiries,
expulsions and suspensions, the use of the RAF, anything
goes.

I sympathise with Dr. Pradip Sengupta, our Controller of
Examinations. But I also sympathise with the Karmacvharis of
the University brutally assaulted in the late 1980s. On that
occasion, how many were threatened with expulsion and served
suspension orders? I would also point out that after the
events of the last few days, the talk of punishment becomes
farcical.

Who Will Watch the Watchmen?

The central charge against the students was that in 2003 they
had overstepped all norms of democratic movements and had
behaved in an extremely violent manner towards the controller
and others. This time round, though, the agitation was
reasonably peaceful. The students had displayed a rare
solidarity. To boycott end of Semester examinations is not an
easy thing to do. Especially when the entire faculty did it
for five persons. The hunger strike was also a form of
agitation where the students were taking any pain on
themselves, not putting others in pain. It was the hunger
strike that was broken with extraordinary brutality. That
involved calling in the RAF. That involved arresting women
students at night, something not done according to the police
manual. It involved a flagrant breach of University autonomy.

We all, and not just the students beaten up on that day, need
to know by whose order this happened. Even in colonial
Bengal, a Vice Chancellor had had the guts to proclaim freedom
for the University. Today, are we to only have
administrations that have surrendered all academic freedom? If
the University is to be run by the police, why do we need an
elected  EC. The District magistrate would do.

The reality is, someone high up in the administration must
own up responsibility for calling in the police, and for the
brutal torture of the students that followed. If attacking
just one Controller can lead to five students being
suspended, what will the punishment of such an official be?
Sacking? Suspension for five years? Or, as I suspect, a pat
in the back?

I have heard the logic, if it can be called that, that since
students were carrying on such a long agitation,
"something" had to be done. If that something takes the
form of an 'eye-for-an-eye' type of revenge, there is
no need to talk any more about inquiries and due processes.

"Beware of Tarun Naskar"

At this point, yet another line of argument needs to be
tackled. I call it, in short, the "Beware of Tarun
Naskar" bogey. It says that Tarun Naskar and his allies
are out to stir up trouble in the campus. Now let us concede
that this claim is true. That will save us a lot of time. Yet
what does it prove? Mr. Naskar is known to be a political
element opposed to the ruling front. He has used a statement
signed by many of us in a manner that quite a few found
objectionable, since we had not seen the Report, yet had
signed the statement just to ask for mitigation of
punishment. Then Mr. Naskar wrote a letter to a newspaper
where the report was said to have been rejected by 147
teachers. Mr. Naskar's allies, who collected our
signatures, knew of our reservations, but found it convenient
to lump all of us to reach the magic number.

But what has that to do with the violence? If Mr. Naskar had
not existed, would the violence on the students, including
beating them up in the hospital, have gone away? We cannot
draw an equal sign between Mr. Naskar and police brutality
and steer a middle path.

Where do you stand?

This is what every teacher must now decide. It is always easy
to deride 'ultra-lefts", "papa's boys (and
girls)" and so on. But I would like to refer briefly to
history, as it is after all my profession, I would turn to a
period that is contemporary to the older people among us, but
history to students. In Paris in 1968, University students
came into conflict with the police. My friend Pierre Rousset
still carries a scar on his head, as I did for a long time
one on my back for an expertly wielded baton a decade after
Pierre's head collided with a CRS truncheon. The
University Rector appealed - not to General De Gaulle or to
Pompidou, but to the students - to defuse the tension. Alain
Geismer of the Lecturers' Union called for a nationwide
solidarity strike. Pierre, like the more famous figures,
Alain Krivine, Jacques Sauvegot, or Daniel Cohn-Bendit, was
derided then as an ultra-left. Pierre is still around,
sometimes campaigning in solidarity with the Narmada Bachao
Andolan, sometimes against Le Pen. I do not say that Amit
Chakraborty will do so thirty-five years hence. I do not know
him at all. But I do know that those who urged the RAF onto
him are body and soul for this system, this state, this RAF
Pierre and his friends in May 1968 used to call the CRS, the
Parisian equivalent of the RAF, SS (the Nazi police). They
may have been technically wrong, but in a political sense they
were right. The RAF too has been blooded against slum
dwellers and now University students. We must decide whether
we will stand by and pretend it is no concern of ours, or take
a strong stand.
  Notes

1. Professor, Department of History, JU (for identification
purpose)

2. There are eyewitnesses to the events still around.
Nilanjan Dutta, formerly journalist with the Times of India,
is eyewitness for the first case, Santanu Chacravertti and
Simonti Sen, both Senior Lecturers in History, are witnesses
for the second, and Saurobijoy Sarkar is witness for the
third incident.


______


[7]

POSTER WOMEN

Zubaan announces the launch of an exciting new 
project - Poster Women. It is a project that aims 
to collect, document, publish and archive a 
history of the feminist poster in India

The poster has played a crucial role in the 
history of the feminist movement in India, 
particularly since the early or mid seventies, 
the period that is characterized as giving rise 
to the contemporary movement. Many of the early 
feminist organizations in this current phase of 
the movement were born at that time: they grew 
out of the early left and peasant movements, out 
of the students movements led by Jaiprakash 
Narayan, and out of the politicisation of 
universities that began at the time. Much of this 
history of activism, or organizing and 
mobilizing, of the euphoria of the early days of 
activism, has been lost to the movement because 
organizations, particularly activist ones, are 
not good at documenting their histories. While 
some record exists in written works (Everett 
1993, Gandhi and Shah 1989, Kumar 1993, Basu 
1998, Ray 2000, Forbes 2002) there is very little 
that documents the movement visually.

Some of us have been feeling, for quite a while, 
the need for a visual record of the campaigns 
that have formed so major a part of the movement. 
Virtually every campaign has been marked by the 
production of really interesting, sometimes 
colourful, always eye-catching posters. And yet, 
because the feminist movement has not been very 
good at documenting its history, all of the 
material that was generated in the form of 
posters and pamphlets has been lost, or is lying 
with groups and individuals in personal 
collections. Our idea is to document this rich 
history by putting together a selection of 
posters that were created for particular 
campaigns, and also some that are more general. 
We'd like to scan the posters, put them in 
digital formats, and then to organize a selection 
of them into an exhibition, and also to make a 
book of them, along with brief histories of the 
campaigns they relate to, and the story behind 
that particular poster. If we can find a home for 
them, we'd also like then to place these images, 
in digital format, in an archive, so that there 
is a permanent record of this valuable history. 
We've not yet begun to identify homes for the 
collection, but any suggestions would be welcome. 
The originals of the posters will, of course, 
continue to stay with the original owners –we’re 
only talking of reproducing them.

This project aims to collect feminist posters in 
India, focusing on certain key campaigns in the 
movement as a first step towards documenting the 
history of the movement. Here's our list of 
campaigns, do tell us what you think:

1.	The anti rape campaign
2.	The campaign against dowry
3.	The campaign against sati
4.	The campaign against injectable contraceptives
5.	The campaign against violence against women
6.	The campaign for the environment
7.	The anti alcohol campaign
8.	The campaign for better representation in the media
9.	The literacy campaign
10.	The campaign for sexual rights
11.	The campaign for political participation, 
specifically women in panchayats
12.	The campaign for dalit women's rights
13.	General/miscellaneous posters (and many 
others including Human Rights, Chipko movement 
and the anti-alcohol movement etc.)

The project is important also because it fits in 
with the recent emphasis on visual history: the 
photograph, the visual image, the poster, provide 
at least as important a record of particular 
histories as official documents and oral 
narratives do. Visual history as a discipline is 
still young and among some of the histories which 
have been thus documented are those of the 
Vietnam war, of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, of the 
Students’ Agitation for Democracy in Thailand, of 
the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. 
Women's movements, by and large, have remained 
outside this focus, despite the fact that the 
histories of women's movements are intimately 
linked to other histories, particularly those of 
social exclusion and marginalization.

Would you be willing to help with this? We hope 
you will say yes, for we'd like to spread this 
net as widely as possible. For the moment, we've 
identified the few campaigns mentioned above, but 
nothing is cast in stone, and if there are others 
you can suggest, as well as names of people we 
can contact for images that would be a big help. 
But also, if you have any posters that you think 
can form part of this exhibition and book, would 
you get back to us please, and as soon as 
possible. You could write/email/phone me or my 
colleagues, Jaya Bhattacharji and Preeti Gill at 
the following address:


Zubaan
K-92, First Floor,
Hauz Khas Enclave,
New Delhi -110016
INDIA
Email: <mailto:zubaanwbooks at vsnl.net>zubaanwbooks at vsnl.net
Website: <http://www.zubaanbooks.com/>www.zubaanbooks.com

Any other suggestions would be welcome. But do 
please get back to us and let us know what you 
think of the idea and if there is a way in which 
you can help. For instance, if you can contribute 
to the collection of posters, direct us to 
collections held by individuals, organisations 
and institutions.

Many thanks, and we’re keeping our fingers 
crossed that you will like this idea as much as 
we do.


Urvashi Butalia


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

Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on 
matters of peace and democratisation in South 
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necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers.