SACW | 25 June 2005

[sacw]

South Asia Citizens Wire  | 25 June,  2005

[1] Pakistan: Losing the war on tarnished image  (Miranda Husain)
[2] Pakistan - India - Kashmir: The Peace Process 
- View from Srinagar (Prabhu Ghate)
[3] India: Gujarat Genocide victims - Waiting for Justice (Teesta Setalvad)
[4] That Long Night of Knives - When India's 
democratic structure was shaken to its roots
(Ashok Mitra)
[5]  Announcements - Upcoming Events:
(i) Public Discussion 'Emergency, State & Civil 
Liberties Today': (New Delhi, 26 June)
(ii) Ethical Challenges in Health Care: Global 
Context, Indian Reality (Bombay, 25-27 November)
(iii) The Kashmir Dispute and Building a Peaceful 
South Asia (Washington,  14 July)

______


[1]

Daily Times
June 25, 2005

LOSING THE WAR ON TARNISHED IMAGE
by Miranda Husain

Rozan has been accused of distributing 'obscene' 
material in schools. But what exactly did the 
guardians of our moral fibre find so 
reprehensible? Did the NGO distribute 
pornographic material at fair trade prices? Did 
it urge children to join the lucrative sexual 
exploitation trade?
General Pervez Musharraf needs new 'enlightened 
moderation' spin doctors. For while he seems to 
understand that "public relations is the most 
important thing in the world", his 
image-protection team could not be doing a worse 
job.
First there was the Mukhtar Mai house arrest 
debacle, which served to further consolidate 
Pakistan's image as a country where women's 
rights are not only routinely violated, they are 
not even to be discussed abroad for fear that the 
international community will be blinded by "poor 
perceptions" of the country. As if the world does 
not already know that a woman is raped here every 
two hours while 'honour'-related crimes take the 
lives of two women everyday.
Yet the state's policy of preserving its public 
modesty by shrouding such 'vulgar' issues in 
enforced silence, lest they deter tourists from 
coming here, shows no sign of letting up.
The latest victim of Islamabad's war on tarnished 
image is a non-government organisation, Rozan. 
The NGO has been blacklisted by those in the know 
for distributing 'obscene' material in schools.
But what exactly did the guardians of our moral 
fibre find so reprehensible that they ordered the 
organisation to abandon all ongoing projects? Did 
the NGO distribute pornographic material at fair 
trade prices? Did it urge children to join the 
lucrative sexual exploitation trade and ask them 
to sign on the dotted line?
No. As an organisation dedicated to, among other 
things, addressing the emotional health of 
children in general and child sexual abuse in 
particular, Rozan distributed questionnaires 
asking pupils if they had ever been victims of 
sexual abuse.
By blacklisting Rozan, those charged with 
projecting the soft face of Pakistan on the 
global stage have unwittingly acknowledged that 
they just don't fear those 'foreign element' NGOs 
so hell bent on badmouthing the country abroad 
that they are akin to Islamic extremists. They 
fear equally the home-grown threat posed by 
Pakistani 'extremist' NGOs.
This NGO-Muslim fundamentalist equation is 
interesting, coming as it does from the pioneer 
of enlightened moderation himself. When he first 
put forward his thesis a year ago, President 
Musharraf acknowledged that Muslims were probably 
the "most uneducated, most powerless and most 
disunited people in the world". Indeed, his heart 
wept at the thought of how the modern world had 
left Muslims lagging behind socially, morally and 
economically.
It is therefore interesting to note that the 
first study into child sexual abuse and sexual 
exploitation in Pakistan was carried out in the 
pre-enlightened moderation era. In 1998, the UN 
Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the 
Pacific (ESCAP) initiated a project entitled 
"Elimination of Sexual Abuse and Sexual 
Exploitation of Children and Youth through Human 
Resource Development" in South Asia and the 
Philippines. ESCAP published its findings in 2001.
It concluded that child sexual abuse was one of 
the least explored forms of child abuse in 
Pakistan. Children and adults had not been 
educated about the prevalence of this malaise and 
were thus ill-prepared to take preventive 
measures.
But since the ESCAP report, things had appeared 
to be moving on in Pakistan. In 2003, again 
pre-enlightened moderation, UNICEF and its 
partners supported a Community Model School in 
Rawalpindi that offered a community-led 
rehabilitation programme for working children, 
most of whom had been victims of sexual abuse at 
one time or another. The school encouraged 
children to talk openly about their experiences 
and gave them access to professionally trained 
counsellors to help them deal with the 
psychological scars of their traumas.
As head teacher and architect of the project, 
Mussarai Sherwani, pointed out: "Unless we speak 
about these issues in a way that everybody knows 
and understands, we shall never be able to 
protect these children and young people."
But then came the era of enlightened moderation 
and the ensuing war on tarnished image. The 
principle objective of this war of choice was to 
present Pakistan abroad in a favourable light. 
And this meant turning a blind eye to sexual 
abuse, unless of course, it was used as a weapon 
against women to punish them for male crimes. 
Thus there was no way the establishment was going 
to acknowledge the sexual subjugation of 
children. For if it did, it would deny itself an 
exit strategy from the tarnished image war and 
instead find itself plunged deep into a quagmire 
of its own making.
After all, it is a bitter enough pill to swallow 
when a grown woman does not simply fade into the 
shadows after enduring a barbaric 
panchayat-sanctioned gang rape. But it is quite 
another when 'fundos' at local NGOs start 
recruiting children to talk about their 
experiences of sexual abuse. Left unattended, 
such practices, the administration fears, would 
certainly lead to a full-blown insurgency against 
the liberators of Pakistan's misunderstood image.
And so we have it that the government does not 
take body counts for the victims of the tarnished 
image war. They are, after all, nothing more than 
unfortunate collateral damage. But let us hope 
that the Musharraf administration wastes no time 
in manoeuvring a flamboyant U-turn and recognise 
that it can, in fact, do nation building. What is 
at stake is the future of the Pakistani state. 
For a country that does not protect the most 
vulnerable members of its society risks its place 
at the table of civilised and peace-loving 
nations.
But as the war on tarnished image shows no sign 
of relenting any time soon, let us nonetheless 
hope that Pakistan's key ally shows the necessary 
courage to stand up and denounce the entire 
enterprise as compromising its domestic 
interests. By supporting a war president, the US 
has placed itself in an awkward position at home. 
It still continues to pride itself as the 
self-proclaimed custodian of global human rights.
But by siding with Islamabad, Washington has 
found itself engaged in an increasingly delicate 
balancing act. Its public support of the 
Musharraf regime has unleashed much anti-Pakistan 
sentiment at home, as the American people 
increasingly feel that Washington has sacrificed 
their interests in order to support an ally in an 
unjust war that does not even have the backing of 
the Pakistani people.
Until this happens, the war on tarnished image 
may continue with no exit strategy in sight.


______



[2]


The Economic and Political Weekly
June 18, 2005

THE PEACE PROCESS
VIEW FROM SRINAGAR

The India-Pakistan peace process may have made 
several encouraging moves in recent weeks, but in 
the state of Jammu and Kashmir, old suspicions 
and fears still linger. For too long, militarism 
has been the preferred political solution. The 
people in divided Kashmir, separated by 
decades-old animosity, are now looking to both 
governments to take proactive steps in the shape 
of soft borders, open up trade links between the 
two regions and to ensure a transparent 
government.

Prabhu Ghate

Outwardly at least, Srinagar is limp- ing back to 
normalcy. The once ubiquitous sandbagged bunkers 
have thinned out, and there are fewer 
armour-plated vehicles tearing around with 
machine gunners peering out of turrets on top. 
The few one sees are often parked at 
intersections, their occupants standing around 
enjoying the sunshine. The army chief's 
instructions not to point guns at people are 
being followed, and the forces are talking about 
the need to maintain 'traffic etiquette'. The Dal 
boulevard is clogged with buses offloading tour 
groups massed around shikara stations, waiting to 
be taken to their houseboats. Further along the 
lakeside, the up-market hotels seem pretty full, 
with tourists and conventioneers. After a long 
lull, though bomb incidents have resumed, and 
perhaps more can be expected from spoilers, but 
they have not affected the influx of tourists. 
There is enough support for the peace bus to make 
it highly unlikely that it will be attacked, the 
bizarre incident, the day before it was first 
scheduled to start, notwithstanding.

However, it is hard to discern a corresponding 
change in mood, at least among the Srinagar 
intelligentsia, which is so influential in 
shaping opinion. The sense of alienation 
continues to be fed by the petty humiliations and 
inconveniences of constant searches (security if 
anything has been tightened in the wake of the 
bus and renewed bomb incidents) and by the mere 
sight of olive green, even if less obstrusive 
than before. Human rights abuses are widely 
acknowledged to have declined, but what people 
emphasise is that they continue to be 
unacceptably high. Militancy is on the decline, 
and is confined to a few pockets mostly in south 
Kashmir, while security forces claim that the 
first and second rung of leadership have been 
largely 'eliminated'. A source in one of the 
security forces put the number of militants at 
only 750, down from 950 last year, and from 1,400 
in 2003, a little more than half being 
foreigners, with new infiltration down to a 
trickle, whether because of the fence, or action 
by Pakistan. These armed militants are provided 
logistical support by perhaps a couple of 
thousand locals. Others point out that the 
seeming precision of such estimates is bound to 
be spurious. Kashmiris sympathetic to the 
separatist cause estimate the numbers to be 
considerably higher, and point to the fact that 
the militants have become more effective in 
targeting officers, with more lives being lost in 
the last two years than in the previous 14. 
Despite this, the security forces seem confident 
that they have the upper hand, and see themselves 
as now 'going for the kill'. At a recent high 
level meeting of the joint command, the minutes 
of which were leaked to a national daily, 
participants urged that the focus now shift from 
the militant underground, to OGWs, or 'overground 
workers', and monthly quotas be set for 
eliminating or incarcerating them. Thousands of 
such persons are said to be languishing in jails. 
The pressure to 'eliminate' every last militant 
or OGW, leads to a continuation of human rights 
abuses such as fake encounters. While I was in 
Srinagar there were demonstrations and 
stone-throwing for three days in the Maisuma 
neighbourhood where a youth who was claimed to 
have been killed crossing the LoC on a Wednesday 
night was seen later, leaving his home on a 
Thursday morning. As many Kashmiris claim about 
the peace process, 'nothing has changed on the 
ground'.

An example of the constant insecurity and 
vulnerability experienced by even non-violent and 
peaceful proponents of the right to 
self-determination (which is not the same thing 
as calling for 'azadi', since self-determination 
includes maintaining the status quo as well as 
the new option of soft borders) is the latest 
attempt to intimidate Parvez Imroz, a lawyer and 
human rights activist. Imroz organises the 
Coalition for Civil Society, which puts together 
joint teams of volunteers from the plains and 
from Kashmir to monitor elections in the valley. 
A memorial meeting was held on April 20 to 
remember Aasia Jeelani, who was killed in a mine 
blast last April while monitoring the 
parliamentary elections. Ironically, and 
tragically, she fell victim to a human rights 
abuse, one committed by the militants in this 
case, since IEDs (landmines) do not discriminate 
between combatants and civilians. The event 
concluded the next day with the inauguration of a 
monument a few miles out of town on the Baramula 
road, put up by the Association of Parents of 
Disappeared Persons. The impact of a 
disappearance on a victim's family is recognised 
internationally as a form of torture, denying 
relatives the right to come to terms with their 
bereavement. The small monument stands in what 
was once a paddy field, overlooked by snow-capped 
peaks, and says "Never again ŠThe justice we seek 
lies not in forgetting the past but in 
remembering those who should never be forgottenŠ" 
There are over 500 graveyards scattered around 
Srinagar, with some of the graves holding two 
bodies. The parents, spouses and children of the 
disappeared now have the small solace of having a 
'graveyard' of their own.

Imroz has been calling for an official commission 
to investigate the disappearances, which have 
been one of the uglier abuses of the conflict, 
one committed by both sides. The APDP's latest 
estimate of the number of the 'involuntary 
disappeared' is 8,000 to 10,000, while the 
government puts the figure of those 'missing' to 
be about 4,000, but says most of them joined the 
insurgency voluntarily, and got killed, or are 
living on the other side of the LoC. The APDP 
says it excludes all such known cases, and has 
produced a list, with details, of (only) 10 
youths who have 'reappeared' or whose bodies have 
been found. It is now engaged in a village by 
village survey in Baramula district, to be 
extended to other districts later, to prepare 
lists of those known to have been died at the 
hands of the forces, or of the militants, or in 
cross-fire, or in custody, as well as of widows, 
orphans, and of the involuntary disappeared. It 
took a team six days in one village in Bandipur 
tehsil to document 240 deaths. For all his pains, 
Imroz was woken up by someone banging at his door 
a few nights after the function, demanding he be 
let in as a prospective client. Imroz suspects he 
was one of the 'renegades' who now work for the 
security forces, sent to intimidate him, or 
worse. A lawyer was assassinated in similar 
circumstances last year. Imroz's senior partner, 
H N Wanchoo, was assassinated in the early 1990s, 
and another human rights lawyer, Jalil Andrabi 
was murdered in custody in 1966. Imroz and others 
like him are determined to carry on.

The 'Bus' and Other Peace Measures

Happiness about the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus was 
negated, temporarily at least, by what was seen 
as an attempt to steal the show, the credit for 
which rightfully belonged to the 'people of 
Kashmir' and their struggle. While universally 
welcomed as a step in the right direction, what 
is regarded as more important is how easy it will 
be for people to use the bus, and the other 
routes that will hopefully be opened up. (The 
vast majority of divided families live in the 
Poonch-Rajauri sector.) The security forces are 
already concerned about the risk of the bus being 
used by OGWs to cross over from the other side. 
As one of them said "one overground worker is 
more dangerous than 10 militants". If anyone who 
publicly but peacefully espouses 
self-determination is regarded as 'anti-national' 
and is denied a permit, the bus runs the risk of 
engendering more resentment than it alleviates. 
There is already considerable unhappiness about 
the difficulties and delays in getting passports. 
The valley has one of the lowest ratios of 
passports granted in the country. Clearly if the 
bus is to yield the benefits envisaged, the 
stranglehold of security considerations over all 
else will have to yield to a mindset at the 
working level that is more in keeping with the 
spirit of the changing relationship at the 
national level.

There is need to follow up the bus with a series 
of other 'Kashmir specific' CBMs to reduce 
alienation as well as create and sustain a sense 
of ownership in the peace process. To enable 
widespread debate and consultation between 
different parts of the old undivided state of 
Jammu and Kashmir, including those across the 
LoC, freedom of speech and travel needs to be 
respected, restrictions such as S144 used only 
sparingly, and detenus not wanted for specific 
acts of violence released. The withdrawal of the 
army from the urban areas and a phased thinning 
out in the rural areas is near the top of 
everyone's list of CBMs which would have an 
immediate impact. Security duties would be taken 
over by the J and K police (minus the hated 
Special Operation Group which has been partially 
integrated with the regular police but not 
entirely dismantled), who could be assisted for 
the time being by the CRPF. The army and the BSF 
are not averse to a redeployment to the LoC and 
borders, but implementation has been held up by 
the illusion that militancy can be completely 
eradicated by anything other than a political 
solution, as well as the lack of preparedness of 
the CRPF in the face of continuing sporadic bomb 
and grenade incidents and assassinations. The 
best hope of reducing these, and isolating the 
jehadi groups is to push ahead with further CBMs 
and the peace process. A ceasefire would be a 
strong reinforcing element. The home ministry has 
been making prevaricating offers for one, but its 
last word was that it was waiting to see what is 
on offer in the talks. The forces too seem to be 
in no hurry to enter into a ceasefire in the 
mistaken belief that they can solve the problem 
militarily. A ceasefire would have to have the 
strong support of Pakistan to have the chance of 
carrying along the jehadi groups. Demonstrations 
against human rights abuses are much more 
tolerated under the Mufti regime, but 
effective and visible action continues to lag far 
behind of what is required. Imroz's group has 
documented about 140 involuntary disappearances 
since the Mufti government took over in November 
2002, indicating the agency responsible, 
including in many cases, the militants. However 
of the 70 or so magisterial inquiries set up, 
only about five have led to reports being 
submitted to government, and reportedly only one 
SHO has been suspended. As peace returns the need 
to continue imposing the Armed Forces Special 
Powers Act and other legislation should be 
reviewed. The toothless state human rights 
commission needs to be urgently empowered.

Perhaps one of the most effective CBMs will turn 
out to be the intention to allow trucks on the 
Jhelum Valley Roadway (JVR) and presumably on 
other routes. The lion's share of J and K's 
horticultural production of about Rs 1,500 crore 
consists of about one million tonnes of apples, 
two-thirds of which are sent to the plains. 
Rawalpindi on the other hand, is located in the 
state, is in the backyard compared to Delhi, and 
will greatly enhance the bargaining power of 
valley producers. Apples might even be 
re-exportable through Karachi to west Asia. 
Cherries and strawberries are highly perishable 
items that need to be sent to the plains in 
refrigerated trucks. These will no longer be 
necessary on the JVR. The benefits of an 
expansion of horticultural production are 
potentially extremely broad-based. For all this 
to happen though, apart from strengthening the 
bridges on the JVR, Pakistan and India will have 
to carry out the necessary trade policy changes. 
One hopes that the story currently doing the 
rounds in Srinagar of Musharraf having told 
Gilani that he wants to see 4,00,000 tonnes of 
Kashmiri apples in Pakistan is not just 
apocryphal. Unlike horticultural products, with 
the exception of walnuts, Kashmiri handicrafts 
such as wood carvings and paper mache are largely 
exported, but with considerable 'bunching' to 
meet Christmas time deliveries. This is precisely 
when the Jammu road is often blocked by snow. 
Moreover, because of the tunnel and bends along 
JVR, it cannot take containers above a certain 
size. Exports through Karachi will obviate this 
difficulty. Rauf Panjabi, the president of the 
Kashmir Chamber of Commerce, told me that given 
suitable financing and other facilities, 
Kashmir's handicraft exports of about Rs 500 
crore could quickly double. If one adds to this 
the prospects of Pakistani tourists being allowed 
to visit, the potential economic impact of the 
opening up is considerable.

For the moment however the valley is not brimming 
over with ideas on cross-border cooperation. On 
the contrary, one sensed a distinct lack of 
enthusiasm even for the more radical and 
ambitious version spelt out by Mubashir Hasan in 
a recent article in the Dawn, which sets out in 
draft treaty form an agreement between India and 
Pakistan to set up a fully autonomous, 
demilitarised, and reunified Jammu and Kashmir, 
which would be 'almost independent' and an 
autonomous member of SAARC, but with sovereignty 
continuing to vest with India and Pakistan along 
the LoC, with minor adjustments. The article was 
reproduced in two local papers but attracted no 
immediate editiorial comment. The proposal must 
feel like a bitter let down to those with long 
cherished dreams of 'azadi'. Most people are 
realistic and pragmatic enough to understand and 
accept the constraints that are leading the two 
countries to the soft borders approach, but 
whatever their private thoughts, it was still 
politically incorrect while I was there to 
discuss anything less than azadi. The 
reluctance to do so will no doubt dissipate, but 
only if the government enters into a genuinely 
broad-based and participatory search for 
solutions. It may take a little time before the 
existing and new leadership takes advantage of 
the totally unexpected new space that has been 
created since the Musharraf visit, but it is a 
reasonable bet that new and creative 
interpretations of azadi will be thrown up, and 
find substantial acceptance, although it could be 
a slow and messy process. Musharraf is probably 
right when he says the two leaders will have to 
provide strong leadership and remain proactive, 
but it will be essential to carry the people of 
Jammu and Kashmir along if any settlement is not 
to unravel in the future.





______


[3]


Communalism Combat
April-May  2005

Gujarat Genocide victims
Waiting for Justice

By Teesta Setalvad

"Aaj bhi ham hamare mukkam par nahi ja ke rah 
sakte (Even today we cannot go back to where we 
belong)."

- Aiyubmiya, eye-witness to the massacre where 33 
persons from Sardarpura village, Mehsana were 
killed in 2002. The village his family had lived 
in for decades is no more their home.


"Jab ham bach ke nikle, aath ghante ke baad, aur 
laash aur laash hamare ghar ke chabootre par giri 
hui thi; jakar kaanpte kaanpte ham police van me 
baithe, toh policewale ne kaha, 'kya itne log 
bach gaye hai, kya? Hamne socha sab khatm hue!' 
(When we escaped with our lives after eight hours 
of brutal targeting, there was a row of corpses 
outside our house. Trembling, we got into the 
waiting police van when a policeman in uniform 
said, 'What! So many saved! We thought all would 
be finished!')."

- Zakiabehn Jaffri, wife of former parliamentarian Ahsan Jaffri.


"Mere bees saal ke bacche ko police ne nanga kar 
ke bithaya, peeth mod kar, goliyan mar mar kar 
police ne khatm kiyaŠ Maine socha tha ki badle 
mein bandook uthaoon magar phir socha ke nirdosh 
ko maar kar kya phayda? Aaj bhi hamara case waise 
hee pada hai, sessions court mein. (My 
20-year-old boy was made to strip. The police 
bent him over and then pumped bullets into himŠ I 
thought of picking up the gun in revenge but then 
I thought what good would killing innocents 
bring? My case still drags on in the sessions 
court)."

- Zahid Kadri, a father.

(Survivors' Speak, meeting organised by 
Communalism Combat, Citizens for Justice and 
Peace and SAHMAT, New Delhi, April 16, 2005).


The criminal trial in six major massacres were 
stayed by the Supreme Court on November 21, 2003 
after about 60 victims who are also eye-witnesses 
filed affidavits in the apex court of India 
detailing how the investigation into this 
massacre was being consciously subverted by the 
Gujarat police and witnesses continually 
threatened. Though 18 months have passed since 
the stay and several dates of hearing come and 
gone, the plea for reinvestigation and transfer 
is still pending before the apex court.

On May 2, 2002, Citizens for Justice and Peace 
(CJP) filed a petition through citizens of 
Gujarat in the Supreme Court of India requesting 
that the CBI, not the Gujarat police, investigate 
the major massacres. This was also a key 
recommendation made by the National Human Rights 
Commission (NHRC) in its reports, March-July 
2002, on the genocide. Three years later, this 
petition too is pending disposal before the apex 
court. With due respect, the three major 
acquittals - including the Best Bakery (in 
Vadodara), the Kidiad (where 61 persons were 
burnt alive in two tempos at Limbadiya Chowki in 
Sabarkantha district), and Pandharwada (where 
over 45 persons were massacred in two separate 
incidents in a village in Panchmahal district) 
massacre cases - may not have resulted if key 
recommendations made by the NHRC, which included 
investigation by the CBI into major carnage cases 
and trials by special courts, had been followed 
in these cases.

A detailed report, 'Gujarat -Three Years Later' 
is currently being compiled by Communalism 
Combat. Our preliminary investigations reveal 
that on a rough estimate about 61,000 persons 
continue to be internally displaced within the 
state.

Included among them are key witnesses of the 
major massacres, who even today cannot go back to 
their villages or localities simply because they 
have chosen to fight for justice. Many are both 
victims of the massacre and key eye-witnesses.

The large majority of the internally displaced 
were small minority groups scattered across many 
of Gujarat's 18,000 villages. They have had to 
surrender their homes and petty landholdings in 
return for a life of penury-struck refugees. This 
is the stark and shameful reality of Gujarat, 
where even the political Opposition has stopped 
addressing issues arising out of a 
State-sponsored pogrom and where the perpetrators 
continue in seats of power and influence.

Eye-witnesses who are also victims include 
survivors of the Gulberg massacre (February 28, 
2002) where 68 persons were slaughtered including 
former MP Ahsan Jaffri and 10-15 girls and women 
subjected to brutal sexual violence; Naroda Gaon 
and Patiya (February 28, 2002) where over 120 
persons were similarly ravaged while a complicit 
police and elected representatives watched and 
led mobs respectively; Sardarpura (March 1-3, 
2002) where 33 persons were brutally killed in 
one incident while 14 were burnt alive in the 
second); and the Ode killings in Anand district 
(March 1-3, 2002) in which a total of 27 persons 
were killed. All of them continue to suffer and 
sacrifice for their decision to struggle for 
justice. Many eye-witnesses, like a key witness 
from Naroda Gaon and his family members, have 
been penalised three or four times with false 
criminal cases being slapped against them. The 
attempt is clearly to intimidate all those who 
stand for the struggle for justice. Recent 
reports highlighting attempts to target citizens 
and human rights defenders who support the 
struggle only underline the state of affairs in 
Gujarat today.

If there is one thing that the onerous struggle 
for justice has shown, it is this: For justice to 
be finally ensured at least in case of the major 
incidents of carnage let alone the hundreds of 
crimes that took place in Gujarat in 2002, the 
struggle for justice needs strong support from 
State agencies. But in reality, three years after 
the horrors in which they lost their near and 
dear ones, key witnesses of the major incidents 
of violence cannot even step into their villages 
or localities simply because they have chosen the 
path of justice.

Further, the conduct of the state of Gujarat 
through the ongoing Best Bakery re-trial being 
conducted in Mumbai (see accompanying story) is 
far removed from that of a prosecutor state 
committed to ensuring justice. Apart from the 
questionable role of the Gujarat state in the 
Best Bakery case, the sheer brazenness of its 
conduct can be gauged from its decision to 
reappoint the controversial public prosecutor in 
the Best Bakery case, Raghuvir Pandya, allegedly 
a VHP sympathiser, as Vadodara's district 
government pleader. Pandya, who was indicted by 
the Supreme Court for acting "more as a defence 
counsel than a public prosecutor" in its historic 
verdict transferring the Best Bakery case to 
Maharashtra on April 12, 2003 (see Communalism 
Combat, April 2005), is now back as state counsel 
and will again plead the government's case if any 
of the communal riot cases are reopened!

Clearly undeterred by the spotlight of the apex 
court, the Gujarat government has appointed 
another allegedly active BJP member, MD Pandya, 
as special public prosecutor in a case related to 
Radhanpur town of Patan district where many BJP 
heavyweights like Radhanpur BJP MLA Shankar 
Chaudhary, former president of Radhanpur 
municipal council Pravin Thakkar, president of 
Radhanpur municipal borough Prakash Kumar Thakkar 
and member of the district BJP medical cell Dr. 
Jyotindra Raval were all implicated as accused in 
the case.

The attitude of the Gujarat state headed by chief 
minister Narendra Modi who was re-elected by 51 
per cent of the Gujarati electorate in December 
2002, nine months after masterminding the pogrom, 
has been understood and absorbed nationwide. What 
escapes public attention is the realisation that 
even three years later there is absolutely no 
remorse or regret for what had been orchestrated 
in February/March-May 2002. If Modi is relatively 
silent today, it is only because of the legal 
battles in which his state is embroiled despite 
his best efforts.

At the ground level his brigands carry on 
unashamed. At Desar village of Vadodara district 
on April 10, 2005, as hundreds of villagers 
watched in the presence of BJP MP Jayaben 
Thakkar, local MLA Upendrasinh Gohil and VHP 
leaders, two Swaminarayan sadhus unveiled the 
bust of Vakhatsinh Ramansinh Parmar. The 
inscription on the marble plaque under the bust 
read: "This memorial is to honour Ram Sevak 
Vakhatsinh Ramansinh Parmar who laid down his 
life in the attacks in retaliation to the killing 
of 58 karsevaks on the Sabarmati Express in 
Godhra on February 27, 2002. Parmar was killed in 
police firing on March 1, 2002, third Friday, 
Vikram Samvat, 2058". Parmar was, according to 
police records, part of a mob that torched Muslim 
properties and attacked the police when the 
police was trying to save properties from being 
torched. He was named as an accused in the case. 
This is the first time that a riot accused has 
been publicly felicitated in Gujarat albeit 
posthumously. The function was organised by the 
VHP. The local MLA and MP did not find anything 
wrong in erecting a memorial for a mob leader in 
a village where Muslims form 30 per cent of the 
population. "This is a fitting tribute to the 
youth for his sacrifices for the cause of 
Hindutva," Thakkar told The Deccan Herald. Asked 
about the incident, minister of state for Home 
Amit Shah said: "One is always innocent till he 
is convicted."

An apt illustration of the perversion of values 
within the political class in Gujarat.


Political campaign

If justice is to prevail, a necessary condition 
for this must be created through the dismissal of 
the Modi government under Article 356 of the 
Constitution, say constitutional experts like 
Shanti Bhushan.

There is legitimate apprehension among many about 
the use of Article 356, lest it set a precedent 
for the Centre to get rid of governments in 
Opposition-ruled states. But the Gujarat case is 
an exceptional one in so much as the state 
government has been seriously implicated by the 
NHRC and even the Supreme Court, in what are 
perhaps the most inhuman, horrendous and 
unconstitutional acts in the history of 
post-Independence India. In the past few months, 
courageous statements by serving police officers 
have echoed the outrage earlier expressed by 
these apex institutions and hundreds of groups 
and individuals. Statements by serving policemen 
that have been made public clearly show that 
orders were issued by none less than the present 
chief minister Narendra Modi that minorities who 
resist or protest be exterminated. Put together, 
the imposition of Article 356 in Gujarat is 
warranted not only on grounds of humanity and 
constitutional propriety, but also for the 
maintenance of the country's unity, integrity and 
secular fabric.


_______


[4]


The Telegraph
June 24, 2005

THAT LONG NIGHT OF KNIVES
- When India's democratic structure was shaken to its roots
cutting corners ashok mitra

A Congress working committee meeting, July 14, 1975
Thirty years almost to the day since the 
proclamation of Indira Gandhi's Emergency. That 
event had, at that moment, shaken to its roots 
the country's democratic structure. But 
apparently not a ripple is now left in the 
nation's memory. In any case, more than one half 
of those who constitute the nation today were yet 
to be born in June, 1975; several others were in 
their hazy infancy. Even for those who were then 
adult Indian citizens, the travails of daily 
living over the decades have extracted a price - 
an incapability, or even reluctance, to indulge 
in introspection.

And yet, at least for some people, the sequence 
of happenings in that distant turbulent week are 
not easily cast aside from the stockpile of 
recollection. The verdict of the Allahabad high 
court, a stunned Congress unsure of what to do 
next, an even more unsure Indira Gandhi listening 
- or perhaps not actually listening - to the 
outpourings of counsel and advice from her 
acolytes during those raucous hours.

One of her trusted confidantes, Durga Prasad 
Dhar, dies of cancer the very day the court 
judgement is delivered. Another éminence grise, 
once considered closest to her, but now a 
somewhat remote figure, Parameshwar Narain 
Haksar, dutifully turns up and does not bother to 
conceal his opinion: the prime minister should of 
course appeal to the Supreme Court, but, before 
she did so, she must vacate her office. The 
suggestion is received in hostile silence. At 
that juncture, the bounders take over. They help 
Indira Gandhi make up her mind. Why is Part XVIII 
there in the Constitution? Use it, arrange to 
declare an Emergency. Was not the evidence as 
glaring as it could be? The nation's judiciary 
were in cahoots with a bigoted opposition, the 
nation was in gravest peril.

Besides, has not one of her sycophants-in-waiting 
already clinched the issue - the prime minister 
is the nation and vice versa? The goons move 
centre-stage. The arrests begin soon after dusk 
on June 25, power is cut off from the 
Indraprastha Estate area to shut out the press, a 
near-senile Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed is rooted out of 
his bed in Rashtrapati Bhavan to sign the 
proclamation; members of the cabinet are 
assembled in the early hours of the morning to 
put post facto seal of approval on the Emergency 
that was already on.

That long night of knives marked a watershed of a 
sort. All political parties in democratic India 
had all along felt the necessity of keeping a 
clutch of musclemen under their command. But this 
species was scrupulously kept under wraps; they 
asserted their presence only on particular 
occasions, such as in the election season, for 
purposes of booth-capturing. Indira Gandhi's 
Emergency changed all that; the goons openly took 
charge. The important point was established: 
constitutional proprieties are sheer bunkum, the 
country's administration, including the direction 
of its polity and economy, would henceforth be 
determined by a coterie of hoodlums. Few had the 
moral courage to protest. Once thousands were 
picked up and thrown into prison; ruthless 
destruction of poor people's slums, accompanied 
by round-the-clock festivals of vasectomy and 
tubectomy, added lustre to the ceremonies.

It is always debatable whether, if Indira Gandhi 
had not revoked the Emergency on the eve of the 
1977 Lok Sabha poll, she would have experienced 
enormous hurdles to carry on. Indians, as a 
community, tend to get used to situations; they 
might not have felt any different about the 
Emergency. Perhaps this cynical statement will 
not have many takers. A second suggestion is, 
however, bound to have a wide measure of 
agreement: at this distance of thirty years, it 
is awesomely difficult to distinguish between the 
heroes of the Emergency and its anti-heroes.

The sickening display of feuding and factionalism 
by elements within the Janata Party was enough to 
ensure the triumphal return to power, by public 
acclaim, of Indira Gandhi within thirty months of 
her supposed eclipse for ever. One erstwhile 
godfather of the anti-Emergency campaign, 
Chaudhuri Charan Singh, fulfilled his life's 
desire to be the country's prime minister, even 
if for a brief six months, by cringingly seeking 
the support of Indira Gandhi. Some sort of a 
repeat took place barely a decade later when 
another pretender-hero of the Emergency, Chandra 
Shekhar, fulfilled his ambition to be prime 
minister leaning on the support extended by 
Indira Gandhi's son; the rug was pulled from 
under him within three months.

Yet another of the heroes, George Fernandes, has 
been hard at work ever since to reduce his 
once-held socialist beliefs to a joke. He is now 
every inch a hack politician, prepared to break 
bread with all and sundry, as long as that last 
hallmark of Lohiaism - a pathological hatred of 
the Nehrus - is not put under strain. The person 
whose company he mostly keeps these days, Atal 
Bihari Vajpayee, has however wobbly credentials 
in this matter. Vajpayee's anti-Emergency 
credentials are always somewhat suspect; he had 
described Indira Gandhi as Durga Bhagavati; he 
realized a little bit late that this particular 
goddess is not only the creator but also the 
destroyer, the Emergency merely put on show her 
virtuosity in the latter role.

The individual who had brought these disparate 
characters together to fight what he considered a 
magnificent moral war, Jayaprakash Narayan, would 
have found the post-1977 developments bizarre 
beyond description. Good for him, he died soon 
enough and was spared the spectacle of the 
disintegration, like a house of cards, of the 
anti-Emergency coalition. Perhaps one should 
allot a morsel of respect for the long-departed 
fogey, Morarji Desai, too. Morarji was not an 
attractive person. His views on social and 
economic issues were hard to stomach, but there 
was conceivably a core of basic honesty in him. 
He faded away without compromising with his 
dignity.

That leaves only those belonging to the left. But 
they were never a part of the formal network of 
resistance stitched by Jayaprakash Narayan, just 
as they are not today a part of the Untied 
Progressive Alliance. They applauded from the 
sidelines JP's efforts to build an effective 
opposition to Indira Gandhi's excesses. They 
were, after all, direct victims of her penchant 
for applying Article 356 at the drop of a hat; 
they were equally worried over her relentless use 
of the Central Reserve Police and the Central 
Industrial Security Force to overrun their 
citadels in West Bengal and Kerala.

Their views on these issues have undergone some 
transformations because of the exigencies of 
circumstances. Even so, they will readily admit 
that, had not Indira Gandhi's authoritarian reign 
come to an abrupt interruption in the first 
quarter of 1977, the tenancy of the Left Front in 
West Bengal might have experienced both a 
different kind of commencement and a different 
span of longevity.

At this point, please inscribe a couple of 
sentences for Jyotirmoy Bosu. Thirty years have 
elapsed since the revocation of the Emergency; 
poor Bosu has been dead for 27 of these years. 
Nobody remembers him anymore, nobody remembers 
that, at least for over three years before the 
Emergency was clamped upon the country, Jyotirmoy 
Bosu had run a relentless one-person campaign 
against Indira Gandhi's waywardness, bringing 
into the open, inside parliament and outside, 
instances of her financial and other shenanigans. 
History is a cruel arbiter. It takes a dim view 
of one-person campaigns, even if these turn out 
to be reasonably successful in the short run. 
Besides, Bosu had no business to die when he did.

Finally, if you think that the consequence of the 
Emergency was a wake-up call for the Congress, 
you are sadly mistaken. The Congress is like the 
avyaya in Sanskrit grammar, it never changes. For 
Congressmen, the chant was "Indira is India and 
India is Indira" in 1975. Thirty years later, all 
that is needed is to substitute a six-letter name 
by a five-letter one, the rest is stet. The 
conviction that the entire terrestrial system 
revolves round the dynasty is unshakeable; the 
party's losing its security deposit in each of 
the recently-held by-elections for four assembly 
seats in Uttar Pradesh, the sanctum sanctorum of 
the dynasty, has left it unfazed.


_______


[5]   ANNOUNCEMENTS

(i)

      26TH JUNE- THE ANTI-EMERGENCY DAY

  P.U.C.L.(Delhi),  JAN HASTKSHEP, CHAMPA- The 
Amiya & B.G.Rao Foundation, and Forum For 
Democracy  and Communal Amity will observe 
Anti-Emergency Day on 26th June as per following 
programme : 

Subject:  EMERGENCY, STATE & CIVIL LIBERTIES TODAY 

Time    : 4.30 PM, Sunday,  June 26, 2005

Venue  : Dy. Speaker Hall, Constitution Club, Rafi Marg, New Delhi-02

                   All are invited to participate. 

                                                            N.D.Pancholi


(ii)

Dear Friends,

Greetings from Mumbai.

20 institutions/organisations from different parts of the country have come
togehter to organise the first National Bioethics Conference of the Indian
Journal of Medical Ethics published from here for last 13 years. The dates
of the Conference are November 25, 26 and 27, 2005; and the venue is YMCA
International House, Mumbai Central, Mumbai.

The organisations that have come together for this include NGOs (8 out of
20), national biomedical and public health institutions (AIIMS, New Delhi;
Sree Chitra, Trivandrum; NARI, Pune), medical colleges (CMC, Vellore; KEM/GS
Medical College, Mumbai; LTMC/Sion Hospital, Mumbai), national social
science institutions (CWDS, Delhi; TISS, Mumbai; GIDR, Ahmedabad), some well
known hospitals (Jaslok hospital) etc.

I am attaching a brochure and application form for the registration for the
conference for your information.

Conference Theme is: "Ethical Challenges in Health Care: Global Context,
Indian Reality"
It has four Focus Sub-themes: (a) Ethical challenges in HIV/AIDS, (b) Ethics
of life and death in the era of hi-tech health care, (c) Ethical
responsibilities in violence, conflict and religious strife, (d) Ethics and
equity in clinical trials

For more information please visit: www.issuesinmedicalethics.org

We expect about 250 persons to participate (of them, 120 will be from the 20
Collaborating Organisers). Representatives from several international
bioethics institutions have also confirmed their participation. The
conference will have parallel academic sessions for paper presentation,
group sessions for organising workshops, lectures, sharing current work,
etc, and it will have sessions for bioethics training - case study
discussions, demonstrations of functioning of ethics committees, viewing and
discussion on bioethics films etc.

Abstracts for paper presentation and concept-notes/outlines for
workshops/panel-discussions etc are invited from all interested scholars and
health acivists. Given in your interest in the subject, we hope you will
submit abstracts/concept notes, and share this email and its attachments
with your friends and colleagues. The last date for submission of the
abstracts/conceptnotes/outlines has been extended from June-end to July-end,
2005.

Thanking you.

Sincerely

Amar Jesani
(Conference Coordinator)

CSER (Centre for Studies in Ethics and Rights),
4th Floor, Candelar, 26 St. John Baptist Road,
Bandra West, Mumbai 400050, India. Email: jesani at vsnl.com

(iii)

Association of Humanitarian Lawyers &
Kashmiri American Council

Invite you to the

Fifth International Kashmir Peace Conference

'The Kashmir Dispute and Building a Peaceful South Asia'

At the

Cannon House Office Building
Cannon Caucus Room(345) [Washington]
(Independence Avenue and New Jersey Avenue)
(Nearest Metro: Capitol South, Orange/Blue Lines)

Thursday July 14, 2005.Ý Registration: 8:00 a.m.

Speakers
Prof. K. Mitra Chenoy, School of International 
Studies, Jawahar Lal Nehru University, New Delhi; 
Mr. Gautam Navlakha, Economic and Political 
Weekly, New Delhi; Mr. Riaz Khokher, Former 
Foreign Secretary; Mr. Nasir H. Chattha; Amb. 
Jehangir Karamat, Pakistan Amb. to the US; Dr. 
Robert G. Wirsing, Professor, Department of 
Regional Studies, Honolulu; Prof. Stanley 
Wolpert, UCLA; Ms. Karen Parker, Esq., Dr. 
Douglas Johnston, President, International Center 
for Religion & Diplomacy; Mr. T. Kumar, Amnesty 
International; Dr. Hameeda Banu, Kashmir 
University; Dr. Vijay Sazawal, President, 
Indo-American Kashmir Forum; Amb. Yusuf Buch, 
former Advisor to the UN Secretary General; Dr. 
Ghulam N. Mir, President, World Kashmir Freedom 
Movement; Sardar Sikender Hayat Khan, Prime 
Minister Azad Kashmir; Sheikh Tajamul Ul Islam, 
Kashmir Media Service; Mr. Lars Rise, Member of 
Norwegian Parliament; Barrister Majeed Tramboo, 
Kashmir Center, Brussels; Mr. Farooq Siddiqi, 
JKLF; Prof. Nazir Shawl, Kashmir Center, London, 
Ali S. Khan, Kashmiri Scandinavian Council; etc.

Call Misbah at KAC Tel: 202- 628- 6789 or fax at 703-295-8683
Or E-mail: kashmirconference at yahoo.com


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