SACW | 9 August 2005
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Mon Aug 8 19:00:27 CDT 2005
South Asia Citizens Wire | 9 August, 2005
[1] No arms race please: India, Pak told
[2] Press Release: Activists from India and
Pakistan stage a historic joint protest
against military programmes (Sandeep Pandey and Karamat Ali)
[3] Visa Free and Peaceful South Asia
Convention & Other Events (6 - 14th August 2005)
[4] Why tolerance is not on the curriculum in Pakistan (Ahmed Rashid)
[5] India - US: Terror Will Come Home (Ashok Mitra)
[6] India: 21 years on another commission of
inquiry hand in its report on 1984 Riots . . . ]
(i) Still haunted by the ghost of 1984 (Mandira Nayar)
(ii) Waiting for closure (Siddhartha Sarma)
(iii) Starting From Scratch (Siddhartha Sarma)
(iv) Questions But no Answers (Siddhartha Sarma)
(v) Life After Death (Neha Sinha)
(vi) Letter to the Editor (Mukul Dube)
[7] "Human Rights Today in Kashmir" - A Meeting
in Memory of Aparna Rao (New Delhi, 10 Aug.)
______
[1]
Indian Express
August 08, 2005
NO ARMS RACE PLEASE: INDIA, PAK TOLD
Press Trust of India
August 07, 2005 at 1750 hours
New Delhi, August 7: Seeking to convince New
Delhi and Islamabad to desist from arms race,
several Pakistani peace activists on Sunday said
it was the common man in both the countries who
was facing the brunt of such policies.
"A hike in military and defence expenditure means
that resources allocated for rural development,
medicine and health care facilities were
channelised for arms production," Karamat Ali,
leader of the Pakistani delegation, said.
The Pakistani peace activists are in New Delhi to
participate in a two-day convention on 'Visa Free
and Peaceful South Asia' organised on 60th
anniversary of Hiroshima bombings.
When both countries were plagued by various
social ills, unemployment and poverty, it was a
'shameful act' that the ruling elite were more
interested in 'spearheading a chain reaction of
arms race', Ali said.
Maintaining that implementation of SAFTA and
emergence of South Asian Economic Block would
bring about more prosperity to the region, Ali
advocated a visa-free South Asia.
"A port of entry system which exists in Sri Lanka
and Nepal could be adopted in India and Pakistan
as well," Ali said adding the system could be
extended to other SAARC nations as well.
However, Delhi University lecturer S.A.R.
Geelani, who was recently acquitted in the
Parliament attack case, believed that the
resolution of Kashmir issue in accordance with
the wishes of its people would help in improving
Indo-Pak ties.
Geelani said the resolution of Kashmir issue
would bring stability to the region.
______
[2]
ACTIVISTS FROM INDIA AND PAKISTAN STAGE A HISTORIC JOINT PROTEST
AGAINST MILITARY PROGRAMMES
For the first time in the history of South Asia, activists
from India and Pakistan will be jointly fasting to protest against
the military programmes of their countries. On the Nagasaki Day, 9th
August, activists from India and Pakistan will observe a one day fast
at the Samadhi of Mahatma Gandhi, Rajghat, to press for their demand
of both countries giving up their nuclear weapons and making South
Asia nuclear free. The arms race which has accelerated after the
nuclear testing by both countries in 1998, has made South Asia one of
the worst epicentres stocking weapons and thereby making the entire
region vulnerable to not only violence and war, but also adversely
impacts development. When on one hand, people of India and Pakistan
both, are struggling with widespread challenges of epidemic
proportions like those of lack of access to primary healthcare,
malnutrition, hunger, rising unemployment amongst the poor as a
fallout of globalisation, rising abusive and exploitative policies at
workplaces, violence against women, unprecedented fall in the girl
child ratio, and other similar issues impacting lives of people on a
daily basis, then on the other hand, the policy makers in both India
and Pakistan have increasingly invested more money and resources in
the defence. For instance presently India's health budget is a tiny
proportion of defence budget.
44 people from Pakistan, hundreds of Indian activists, as
well as activists from Nepal, have participated in two-days
long 'Convention on visa-free and peaceful South Asia' held on August
7-8, 2005, at Constantia Hall, YWCA, Ashoka Road, New Delhi. This was
inaugurated by senior Gandhian activist and Rajya Sabha MP – Ms
Nirmala Deshpande, and many other parliamentarians and activists from
South Asian countries participated in this convention including Rajya
Sabha MP Kuldip Nayyar, Delhi MP Sandeep Dixit, Deoria MP Mohan
Singh, CPI leader Atul Anjan, Pakistan's parliamentarian Professor
Mohammad Saeed Siddiqui, noted human rights activist of Pakistan Mr
Karamat Ali, Magsaysay Awardee and senior activist Sandeep Pandey,
NAPM (National Alliance of People's Movements) leader Arundhati
Dhuru, and committed activists like Shabnam Hashmi, Harsh Mandar,
Achin Vinayak, Kamal Mitra Chenoy, Nandita Das, Lt. Gen. Dar, many of
these people are participating in this one day fast at Rajghat on
August 9, 2005.
This fast is building upon the synergy generated during India
Pakistan Peace March (New Delhi to Multan, March 23-May 11, 2005) and
is a way forward to continue lobbying pressure to demand visa-free
borders between not only India and Pakistan, but also extending it to
other nations in South Asia. During this peace march, the common
people were appalled that their governments' nuclear armament
programmes are risking lives and well being of people from South Asia
and diverting precious funds away from massive issues related to
people's development. That both the governments are keen on
sustaining talks and less reluctant about taking bold initiatives is
apparent by their determination to commence and continue Srinagar -
Muzaffarabad bus service. This is the opportune moment for them to
give a new thrust to the peace process by working towards visa free
borders in the nearest future.
This one-day fast at Rajghat is a symbolic as well as
historic display of shared commitments of people of India and
Pakistan for making visa-free borders a reality at the earliest.
Participation of many parliamentarians from India and Pakistan
significantly demonstrates not only the rising political commitment
for making South Asia borderless but also the growing concern on
wasted investment on defence at the massive cost of people's
development in both nations.
We believe that the idea of "borderless" domain as suggested by Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh himself in the context of Kashmir, should be
extended to the whole of South Asia, making borders and it's whole
paraphernalia redundant. Steps towards this will not only be an
acknowledgement of people's aspirations but will make South Asia a
powerful progressive socio-cultural, political and economic zone
which can dictate globalization on it's own terms.
Sandeep Pandey Karamat Ali
National Alliance of PILER
People's Movements NAPM Pakistan
______
[3]
PEACE, F-93 Katwaria Sarai, New Delhi-110016,
Telephone: 011-26858940,26968121, Mobile: 9811119347
(Anil Chaudhary)
-----------------
INVITATION
VISA FREE AND PEACEFUL SOUTH ASIA CONVENTION
& OTHER EVENTS
6TH - 14TH AUGUST 2005
During the recently concluded India Pakistan
Peace March from Delhi to Multan when we got a chance
to interact with a number of common people of both
sides of the border in meetings as well as on road, we
were overwhelmed by the popular yearning of citizens
of both countries for a more transparent border
between the two countries. 58 years of official enmity
has not been able to weaken the emotional bonding
between people of India and Pakistan, as has been
witnessed in recent times even during the cricket
matches hosted by both the countries, when common
people went out of their way to host their estranged
brethrens & came back with experiences which helped in
healing painful memories & washed away years of
built-up prejudices.
That both the governments are keen on sustaining talks
and less reluctant about taking bold initiatives is
apparent by their determination to commence and
continue the Srinagar -Muzaffarabad bus service. This
is the opportune moment then to galvanise the peace
process by debating & discussing the possibility of a
"Visa Free Borders" in the nearest future. We believe
that the idea of the "borderless" domain as suggested
by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself in the
context of Kashmir, should be extended to the whole of
South Asia, making borders and its whole paraphernalia
redundant. Steps towards this will not only be an
acknowledgement of people's aspirations but will make
South Asia a powerful progressive socio-cultural,
political and economic zone which can dictate
globalisation on its own terms.
We would like this convention to be a space amongst
policy makers and policy drivers, legislators,
academics and activists to dialogue the direction of
the ongoing peace process and the various
possibilities therein.
On 9th August, Nagasaki Day peace activists will hold
a day long joint fast at Mahatma Gandhi's samadhi at
Rajghat, New Delhi to press for a Borderless and
Peaceful South Asia.
On 14th August people of India and Pakistan will light
candles on both sides of the Munabao (Rajasthan) -
Khokrapar (Sind) border.
Coalition for Nulcear Disarmament and Peace, Pakistan
Peace Coalition, National Alliance of People's
Movements, South Asia Partnership (Pakistan), Akhil
Bhartiya Rachnatmak Samaj, Pakistan Social Forum,
Association of People of Asia, Pakistan Institute for
Labour Education and Research (PILER), Hind Pak Dosti
Manch, Anjuman-e-Asia-e-Awam, Insaf, Popular Education
and Action Centre (PEACE), Asha
Contact: Insaf, A-124/6, Katwaria Sarai, New
Delhi-110016. Tel: 91-11-26517814, 91-11- 55663958,
Monica Wahi (91-9312019558), Faisal Khan
(91-9313106745)
ashaashram at yahoo.com, monicawahi at rediffmail.com,
faisalkj2002 at yahoo.co.in
'VISA FREE AND PEACEFUL SOUTH ASIA' CONVENTION
7th - 8th AUGUST 2005, New Delhi
7th August, 2005 - Constantia Hall, YWCA of Delhi,
Ashoka Road, New Delhi – 110001
10:00 am - 11:00 am
Inauguration: Nirmala Deshpande, Karamat Ali
(Pakistan)
11:15 am - 1:30 pm
Session 1: Easing of Travel between India and Pakistan
Syed Nazim Ali Nizami (Gaddi Nashin, Nizamuddin Auliya
Dargah), Senator Prof. Muhammad Saeed Siddiqui
(Pakistan), S.A.G. Geelani
2:00 pm -- 4:00 pm
Session 2: Globalisation and South Asia
Amarjeet Kaur, Achin Vanaik
4:30 pm - 6:00 pm
Session 3: Communalism and State in South Asia
Teesta Setalvad, Ram Puniyani, Kamal Mitra Chenoy,
Harshmander
8th August, 2005 - Constantia Hall, YWCA of Delhi,
Ashoka Road, New Delhi – 110001
9:00 -- 11:00 am
Session 1: Future of Democracy in Nepal
Anand Swaroop Verma, Sushil Pyakurel (Nepal)
11:15 am -- 1:30 pm
Session 2: Nuclear Disarmament in South Asia
Sandeep Dixit (MP, Congress), Mohan Singh (MP,
Samajwadi Party), Hannan Mollah (MP, CPM)
2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Session 3: Visa Free South Asia
Ram Gopal Yadav (MP, Samajwadi Party), Atul Anjan
(CPI), Rajesh Mishra (MP, Congress)
4:30 - 5:30 pm
Resolution
Praful Bidwai, Anil Chaudhary
5:30 pm - 7 pm
Concluding Session: Kuldip Nayar, Shriprakash Jaiswal
(Minister of State for Home Affairs), Mani Shankar
Aiyer (Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas &
Panchayati Raj)
For enquiry and participation contact: Insaf, A-124/6,
Katwaria Sarai, New Delhi-110016.
Tel: 91-11-26517814, 91-11- 55663958,
Monica Wahi (91-9312019558), Faisal Khan
(91-9313106745)
ashaashram at yahoo.com, monicawahi at rediffmail.com,
faisalkj2002 at yahoo.co.in
'VISA FREE AND PEACEFUL SOUTH ASIA' PROGRAMMES
6th to 14th August 2005
COMMEMORATION OF HIROSHIMA DAY;
Bharwan, Hardoi (UP) 6 August, 2005
As some of you may be aware that last year Hiroshima
Day was commemorated in Lucknow by organizing a
cultural programme involving street children and
children from rural areas of Hardoi District at Gandhi
Bhawan. The programme was welcome enthusiastically by
participants and observers alike. Therefore it was
decided that the commemoration would become an annual
event, spreading the message of peace and nuclear
disarmament, through the story of Sadako – a little
girl victim of the A-bomb who had wished to remain
alive by trying to make 1000 paper cranes. She died
after making 644 cranes and her classmates completed
the remaining cranes and she was buried with 1000
cranes. Since then children all over the world make
and offer paper cranes to Sadoka and take a pledge for
nuclear weapons free world. Last year the children had
brought paper cranes and offered it to a portrait of
Sadako in Lucknow.
This year the event has been moved to Bharwan
(District Hardoi) - a village 60 kms from Lucknow,
upon the insistence of activist friends and children
of rural areas of Hardoi. 400 children will be
participating in the event. Children will make,
collect and bring paper cranes and offer them to the
portrait of Sadako specially made for this event - at
Raja Dev Singh Middle School (Gol Bangla), Bharawan. A
Japanese Budhist Monk -Sekuguchi Toyoshige, presently
residing in Ayodhya, will deliver oath to children for
nuclear disarmament and peace. Sekuguchi has been
praying every day for a peaceful resolution of Babri
Masjid - Ram Janambhoomi dispute, for the last three
years. He also fasted for 7 days after the recent
terrorist attack on the disputed site.
The event on 6th August, 2005, will be presided over
by the District Magistrate Hardoi, Abhishek Singh.
For enquiry and participation contact: Arundhati Dhuru
(09415022772), Mahesh (09838546900), Sonia
(09415108393)
JOINT FAST by INDO-PAK ACTIVISTS to demand for a VISA
FREE and PEACEFUL SOUTH ASIA
at Rajghat New Delhi, 9th August
On Nagasaki Day, for the first time in history a joint
fast will be undertaken by Indian and Pakistani
activists and citizens of other South Asian countries
at Gandhiji’s Samadhi to pledge and demand for a
borderless and peaceful South Asia.
For enquiry and participation contact: Faisal Khan
(09313106745), Monica Wahi (9312019558)
CYCLE YATRA and CANDLE LIGHTING AT THE BORDER;
Bilara to Munabao (Rajasthan), 6 August to 14 August
2005
A cycle yatra will commence from Bilara on the 6th of
August spreading the message of peaceful co-existence
and nuclear disarmament. Local groups and activists
from Rajasthan, who understand the implications of
living amidst nuclear tests and nuclear power plants,
are facilitating this yatra. They also want to demand
for easing travel relations between India and Pakistan
and an early opening of the Khokrapar-Munabao border,
because of which many families in the region have been
estranged since the last 58 years. Inspired by the
candle lighting ceremony held every year at the Wagha
border by Kuldeep Nayar ji, we are initiating a
similar exercise at the Khokrapar -Munabao border and
hope that it too becomes an annual event. Peace lovers
from both sides of the border will collect on the
evening of 14th August, and light candles on both
sides.
ROUTE OF CYCLE YATRA
6th August Saturday BILARA
7th August Sunday JODHPUR
8th August Monday SHERGARH
9th August Tuesday PACHPADRA
10th August Wednesday BARMER
11th August Thursday BARMER
12th August Friday RAMSARA
13th August Saturday RAMSARA
14th August Sunday MUNABAO
14th August: 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm Candle Lighting at
Munabao Border
For enquiry and participation contact: Prakash Chandra
Solanki (09829720550), Nar Singh (09829263851)
______
[4]
The Telegraph (UK)
(Filed: 01/08/2005)
WHY TOLERANCE IS NOT ON THE CURRICULUM IN PAKISTAN
By Ahmed Rashid in Lahore
For almost 30 years the most famous words of
Pakistan's founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, have
been absent from school and military college
curricula.
"You are free; you are free to go to your
temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to
any other place of worship in this State of
Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste
or creed - that has nothing to do with the
business of the State," Jinnah told his
countrymen in 1947 as Pakistan won its
independence.
Cleric teaches the Koran in the family village of
suspected London bomber Shehzad Tanweer
He clearly envisaged Pakistan as a democratic,
not a theocratic state, but in the 1970s his
words were blacked out by the military regime
allied to Islamic fundamentalists helping the
Afghans and Americans fight the Soviet Union in
Afghanistan.
Pakistan became an "ideological" Islamic state
whose parameters were determined by the army in a
bid to differentiate the country from secular
India.
Since then the Islamic rather than the democratic
and multi-ethnic character of Pakistan has been
the thrust of the army and its main allies, the
Islamic parties.
Last year Minoo Bandara, a bespectacled
Zoroastrian businessman and member of the
Pakistan national assembly, tried to reinstate
Jinnah's words through a parliamentary resolution.
His attempt failed to win support in parliament,
even though in the post-September 11 era another
military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf was
advocating an enlightened and moderate
interpretation of Islam.
Pakistan has been beset with an identity crisis
since it came into being in 1947. No other
country emerging from the British empire has
faced the dilemma of whether it is secular or
theocratic more acutely than Pakistan.
Although the fundamentalists have always been far
weaker than the democratic forces, the backing
they have received from the army has given them
enormous power. What constitutes an
''ideological'' Islamic state has veered steadily
from identity as Muslims in the 1970s to
extremism and jihad in the 1990s as the pursuit
of wresting control of Kashmir from India became
less of a political struggle and more of a
religious obligation.
The other determining factor for Pakistan has
been its chronic sense of insecurity with India,
with whom it has fought three major wars and
several smaller ones. To counter India's might
the military used the fundamentalists to pursue a
foreign policy based on supporting Islamic
extremists in Kashmir, Afghanistan and Central
Asia.
Pakistan became a national security state where
modern reforms, education and public welfare took
second place to building nuclear weapons and
spending millions of rupees on funding mujahideen
of all shades.
The United States shares a large part of the
blame as it poured billions of dollars into the
Pakistani military in the 1950s and 1960s to
fight the Cold War and again in the 1980s to help
fund the Afghan mujahideen and Arab extremists.
Saudi Arabia has also been a key ally, providing
Pakistan with cheap oil and loans as well as
funding for Pakistani extremist groups who were
fighting in Kashmir and in Taliban-controlled
Afghanistan.
Those groups funded by Saudi Arabia have promoted
Wahhabism - an austere form of Islam practised in
the desert kingdom - and been largely responsible
for the massacres of Shia Muslims in Pakistan.
Gen Musharraf's u-turn after September 11, when
Pakistan dropped support for the Taliban and
allied itself with the West in the war on
terrorism, was considered to be a watershed,
supposedly a historical moment when the army and
the fundamentalists faced the new reality: that
support for Islamic extremism was now considered
a criminal offence by the rest of the world.
Gen Musharraf has cracked down hard on the
foreign elements that constitute terrorism in
Pakistan: Arabs, Central Asians and Afghans, and
last week he promised to expel all foreign
students from the madrassas.
Pakistan has handed over 500 members of al-Qa'eda
to the Americans. But despite periodic crackdowns
on Pakistan's home-grown extremist groups, the
domestic Islamic extremist infrastructure has
remained intact.
The madrassas, or religious colleges controlled
by militant groups, have neither been brought
under government control nor shut down, the
extremist parties have been banned only to
re-emerge under new names and state schools have
continued to teach archaic hate-filled texts.
The London and Egyptian bombings have
demonstrated that extremism is still thriving in
Pakistan.
As more details emerge it is almost certain that
at least two of the four July 7 bombers were in
contact with extremists in Pakistan. Since
September 11 almost every senior al-Qa'eda figure
captured has been seized in Pakistan. For many
counter-terrorism experts Pakistan has now become
''al-Qa'eda central''.
However last week Gen Musharraf said it was
"absolutely and totally baseless" that al-Qa'eda
had its headquarters in Pakistan. The network was
now ''a phenomenon" and "a state of mind" among
Muslims rather than an organisation.
Since September 11 the West has helped Pakistan
broker a peace process with India and poured in
billions of dollars in loans, aid and debt
forgiveness, in the hope that Gen Musharraf will
deliver by curbing extremism and in the fear that
whoever might succeed him would prove less
co-operative.
But there is an irresolvable contradiction.
Despite his personal sincerity and liberal views,
Gen Musharraf is still a military ruler who has
stifled political activity, exiled or ousted
secular political leaders and given the floor to
the military's old allies, the fundamentalists.
He frequently demands that the moderates mobilise
under his banner and launch a jihad against
extremism, but he forgets that in Pakistan a
military ruler has never been able to win mass
support or become a popular leader.
Pakistan's problem is not just extremism, but the
lack of democracy and the failure of its
politicians and military to build democratic
institutions. In the 1990s, the decade-long
experiment with democracy in which one government
was replaced by another, the country's
politicians emerged as rapacious and corrupt
opportunists rather than visionaries.
But they were also beset by an all-powerful
military which never allowed democratic
institutions to take root or an elected
government to be voted out of office.
Most Pakistanis are conservative Muslims, but the
vast majority reject extremism. Many are deeply
confused. America's actions in Iraq, notably at
Baghdad's Abu Ghraib jail, and at Guantanamo Bay
have convinced many that the West is waging a war
against Islam.
Yet the car bombs and terrorist acts Pakistanis
face at home have made them sick of the
extremists. The contradictory statements by
government officials about waging jihad in
Kashmir but also cracking down on extremism only
add to the confusion. For most people the main
issue is not the interpretation of Islam, but
what kind of governance and economic future they
can expect.
Since 1977 no government text book or any of the
20,000 madrassas has taught Jinnah's most famous
words. For Jinnah the creation of Pakistan was a
means to protect Indian Muslims, not a reason to
impose a dictatorship of one religion or a
theocracy.
The majority of Pakistanis are still waiting for
Jinnah's dream to be fulfilled. Only when the
government and military have the courage to
reintroduce Jinnah's words into the education
curricula can Pakistan make a decisive shift out
of its confused state of mind.
* Ahmed Rashid, one of the world's leading
commentators on militant Islam, is the author of
the bestselling books Taliban and Jihad.
______
[5]
The Telegraph
August 05, 2005
TERROR WILL COME HOME
- Delhi's definition of terrorism forms no part of the US agenda
Cutting Corners / Ashok Mitra
Travel broadens the mind. During his recent visit
to the United States of America, our prime
minister had an attack of such broadmindedness.
He was speaking, straight from the heart, to the
American press. It was a remarkable performance,
with beggar-my-neighbour eloquence at its very
best. Don't you know, quite unlike India, where
you will not find a single al-Qaida man, Pakistan
is infested with Osama bin Laden's acolytes. In
any case, because it is a military dictatorship,
Pakistan's administration is highly unstable;
that country could any day come under the control
of the taliban. Bereft of the blessings of a
strong democracy, Pakistan would be putty clay in
the hands of Muslim fundamentalists. It is
frightening to contemplate what might happen
should these species come to possess a stockpile
of nuclear bombs; Western civilization, the prime
minister implied, would be in deep peril; India,
in contrast, always thinks and prays for the
safety, security and prosperity of the Western
world, including the great United States.
The twist, of course, is in the tail. The prime
minister has rushed to sign some sort of a
nuclear agreement with the US. The Americans have
kindly agreed to supply us "heavy water", thereby
making full utilization of the capability of the
Tarapore plant possible. The fuel will be
available for our other nuclear installations
too, including new ones that might be set up. The
price we have to pay is to concede to the
Americans the unfettered right to enter and
inspect our nuclear plants. Such inspection will
hardly be in the nature of innocuous
perambulation though. The US inspectors will
henceforth control our nuclear activities. This
condition is not overtly mentioned in the
agreement signed with the Americans. But, then,
there are more things in heaven and earth than
are written in formal covenants.
Is it the will-o'-the-wisp of a permanent seat in
the United Nations security council - stated to
be an American bounty - or is it a deeper
malaise, a manifestation of the fear of freedom
Erich Fromm wrote about more than sixty years
ago? Whatever it be, our prime minister is
obviously striving to be the number one
drum-beater of the US bandmaster. To give
Pakistan a bloody nose is an equally strong urge:
the Americans should take us in as a nuclear
ally, and, at the same time, deny the same
dispensation to Pakistan.
Suppose the Pakistanis decide to embark on a
riposte, and plaintively warn the US
administration of the pitfalls of an Indian
connection? They could, for instance, make the
following points seriatim. First, India is full
of congenital America-haters, and it would prove
to be a most unreliable ally. Second, unlike
Pakistan, where the military dictatorship works
as a factor of stability, India, as a practising
democracy, suffers from the debility of periodic
elections which lead to frequent changes in
government. There is accordingly always the
danger of an agreement signed with New Delhi
during the tenure of one regime being annulled by
a succeeding one; no such risk exists in
Pakistan. Third, India's main opposition party is
being taken over - lock, stock and barrel - by
the extremist Vishwa Hindu Parishad. In case in
the next election the Congress-led government
loses and the Bharatiya Janata Party takes over,
the Indian bomb could well pass into the hands of
the wild ones in the VHP. These people might then
rain the bomb on Pakistan. The consequences could
be far-reaching.
Fourth, there is a further dire prospect. The
Congress is in power in New Delhi on the
sufferance of the left, some of whom hold far-out
radical notions, and nurture an admiration for
Fidel Castro. The Americans should seriously take
into account the possibility that the left might,
one of these days, enter the portals of
administration in New Delhi and, in due course,
plant their agents in the ministry of defence.
What guarantee is there that these wretched
communists will not pass on to Castro some of the
nuclear secrets the Americans could conceivably
share with the Indians in terms of the agreement
just signed?
It is a depressing scenario. In their desperate
anxiety to curry American favours, the regimes of
both countries might go to the most vulgar length
to present their own case and vilify the rival
country. This frenzy to be a vassal of the US is
particularly intriguing in the context of what is
happening in the United Kingdom. Leave out the
verdict of the former prime minister, John Major,
or of the current London mayor, Jack Livingstone,
or of the opinion polls; even an official
committee set up by the British government has
explicitly suggested that the terrorist outbursts
in London are a direct consequence of Tony
Blair's decision to make the UK an active partner
of the US in the blatant act of aggression in
Iraq. Till as long as the British government does
not agree to withdraw troops from Iraq, life is
likely to continue to be chancy for Londoners.
Neither normal nor special security measures can
really prevent the penetration of ideas.
Let there be no illusion, there are enough
zealots living in Britain who have total sympathy
for the Arab cause. They are not necessarily of
Arab descent nor have Asian or Latin American
roots. Almost every country in each continent now
has enough haters of US foreign policy who are
willing to convert themselves into flaming
activists. Terror will remain a ubiquitous
phenomenon till as long as the American system is
not rid of its imperial ego and its admirers
elsewhere too do not draw their lessons from what
has happened in London and Sharm el-Sheikh.
In his recent pilgrimage to the US, the Indian
prime minister went overboard in praising the
virtues of American democracy. He was equally
stentorian in his pledge to be a fitting partner
of the US in its war against global terror. He
has his problems, in Kashmir, along the
North-east and in those parts of the country's
interior where tribal populations have been
experiencing unspeakable deprivation. It would
however be awesomely difficult to prove that the
troubles in Assam or Manipur are instigated by
Osama bin Laden. Nor can the ubiquitous
landlessness and related underdevelopment in the
tribal belt be attributable to the taliban. In
Kashmir, too, the crucial issue is
self-determination of its people; if one or two
members of al Qaida lend a helping hand to the
militants there, much of the fault perhaps lies,
it can be argued, with those who decided, in the
first place, to move the Indian army into the
valley.
Till now, the record says, Osama bin Laden has
exhibited no enmity towards India. What is then
the rationale of the bravado in claiming to be
the staunchest ally of the US in its war against
terror? The American war has a single focus: the
annihilation of Osama bin Laden and his
followers. Terrorism as defined in the lexicon of
New Delhi forms no part of the American agenda.
To be blunt, in our enthusiasm to join the US
president, we are only advancing the dawn of the
day when Mumbai, Delhi, Calcutta, Chennai,
Hyderabad, Bangalore, each will be the constant
target of so-called terrorist activities.
The prime minister has asked for it, terror will
come home. Our parliament condoles the deaths of
those killed in the London and Sharm el-Sheikh
explosions; it did not bother to commiserate with
the innocent citizens of Afghanistan and Iraq who
were victims of the butchery perpetrated by
Western troops. What if the appropriate
conclusion is drawn by some people somewhere?
______
[6] [21 years on another commission of inquiry
hand in its report on 1984 Riots . . . ]
(i)
The Hindu
August 09, 2005
STILL HAUNTED BY THE GHOST OF 1984
Mandira Nayar
SHADOW OF 1984: Eighty-year-old Jassi Bai at home
in Delhi on Monday with photographs of her
husband and son who were killed during the 1984
riots. PHOTO: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR
NEW DELHI: The only "proof" Nirmal has that she
had a family once is an old faded photograph.
Standing outside her dilapidated flat here in
Tilak Nagar -- a Sikh-dominated area in West
Delhi -- Nirmal is just one of the many victims
of the 1984 Sikh riots who say they have lost all
faith in the Government after the tabling of the
Nanavati Commission report in Parliament on
Monday. With those accused of participation in
the riots virtually being given a clean chit by
the Commission 21 years later, the anger she
feels is palpable.
"My children keep asking me where my family is.
All that I have to show them is a photograph. My
mother and I were the only ones in my family to
survive, but she died last year waiting for
justice. My family never killed Indira Gandhi, so
why should they have been slaughtered? This
Government might not be able to give us justice.
But God will,'' she says, tears welling up in her
eyes.
Living with memories of the riots, the residents
-- who had pinned their hopes on the tenth
inquiry commission that was set up to investigate
the riots -- are now left grappling with a sense
of overpowering rage and frustration. With images
of her son and husband being burnt alive still
vivid in her mind, there is no reassuring
80-year-old Jassi Bai.
"Is this justice? Jagdish Tytler, H.K.L Bhagat
and Sajjan Kumar are all free. The killers of
Indira Gandhi were hanged, so why are they not
punishing those who killed thousands of innocent
people? Manmohan Singh is just a puppet in the
hands of Sonia Gandhi. He is a Sikh. How can he
still head such a Government?'' wails Jassi Bai.
Having walked across from Pakistan during the
1947 Partition "believing in Jawaharlal Nehru's
dream", Jassi Bai now believes that justice will
always be elusive for her in independent India.
"I escaped without a hair singed during
Partition. But here in the Capital, I lost
everything. The whole Commission is eyewash. No
one has heard us for years. I have no hope or
expectations from any Government.''
For Harbans Kaur, who has been a widow longer
than she was married, the Nanavati report "is
just one more reason to be disillusioned with the
system": "It is a conspiracy. It was not a riot
but a massacre of innocent people. I was 18 years
old. I saw my husband tied to a pillar and burnt
alive. These were not riots but killings
supported by the Congress party. Otherwise how is
it that they could drag out innocent people and
brutally kill them the way they did?''
With more questions than answers, the residents
of this colony say the reality of the riots will
always haunt them. "The fire still burns in us.
We are still burning with the memories of the
riots. It is not easy to lose your father, your
grandfather and your brother,'' states young
Gurmeet Kaur who was a little child in 1984.
For the elders, the nightmare is far from over.
"Even after we die, our young ones will continue
this fight. We have not given up,'' says
Paramjeet Kaur.
o o o o
(ii)
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=75794&pn=0
The Indian Express
August 07, 2005
WAITING FOR CLOSURE
21 years after the anti-Sikh riots, will the
Nanavati Commission report make any difference to
a community that refuses to live in the past?
Siddhartha Sarma puts the question to survivors
''IT'S been too long.''
With these four tiny words, Kuldeep Singh, 36,
effectively sums up his community's reaction
towards the proposed tabling of the Nanavati
Commission report in Parliament tomorrow.
Set up in 2000, 16 years after the event it was
investigating, the Commission's findings have
little relevance for the Sikh on the street. If
there's one common emotion centred around it,
it's this: Let it not stir up trouble. We've
lived through enough.
The Nightmare
WHEN Indira Gandhi was assassinated at 9.20 am on
October 31, 1984, by two of her own bodyguards,
Beant and Satwant Singh, no one-let alone the
Sikh community-could have had any inkling of the
repercussions a single group of people would have
to bear.
By 5.30 that same afternoon, tempers had flared
among Congress supporters who massed at AIIMS
where her body was kept, and where Rajiv Gandhi
had arrived after jetting in from West Bengal. In
the late afternoon, the cavalcade of then
President Giani Zail Singh, on his way from
Rashtrapati Bhawan, was stoned. Mobs then fanned
out from the hospital and attacked Sikh
localities, beginning with the neighbouring
constituency of Congress councillor Arjun Das.
Over the next week, mobs systematically targeted
Sikhs and killed nearly 3,000 people in Delhi
before the situation was brought under control
and the survivors rescued. The mobs were
allegedly incited and led by Congressmen, an
allegation based on the fact that Sikh families
were reportedly identified from voters' lists.
Rajiv Gandhi's ''when a big tree falls, the earth
shakes'' did not help either.
In some of independent India's most gruesome
scenes, Sikh men and youths, even children were
beaten, hacked or burnt to death in public. ''We
still remember seeing children being thrown into
trucks, locked up and then set on fire, even as
the children screamed to the mob that they should
be spared,'' recalls Baksheesh Kaur, who lost her
husband and son to the mob.
Neither the police nor other organisations were
of any help, as survivors recount. ''When we ran
from our house, we had one thing only in mind: we
must not approach the police. The mob that killed
my husband and father-in-law was led by local
policemen,'' remembers Gurbaksh Kaur.
Balwinder Singh, says his mother Sanjeet Kaur,
was 10 when he saw his father being hacked to
death near the Yamuna bridge near Seelampur. ''He
was beaten and bruised on the head and neck too,
but he threw sand in the eyes of the attackers
and ran,'' she recalls, the two-decade-old memory
of finding him relatively unharmed in West Delhi
still bringing tears in her eyes.
Yet others sacrificed their most precious
religious belief and cut their hair to blend with
the crowd. Panicked citizens who sought safety in
gurdwaras found their faith misplaced: several
places of worship were desecrated, looted and set
on fire by the mobs, according to survivors.
But there were tales of kindness too, of
strangers giving lifts to young men on the run,
or neighbours sheltering entire families in
cramped little rooms for several days together.
Finally, four days after the most horrific
carnage, the army entered the streets, complete
with armoured vehicles, and quelled the mobs.
Stray incidents, however, continued for several
more days.
The Shortchanging
OF the Rs 10 lakh promised as compensation for
each death in the anti-Sikh riots, some families
have seen less than a quarter. Others claim
receiving interest-claims on supposedly free
compensatory DDA flats. Still others accuse the
Congress of harassment because they refused to
vote for the party again, while yet others allege
police harassment, particularly during the peak
periods of Punjab militancy.
The killings, especially since they came without
warning, destroyed entire families. Established,
prosperous families found themselves on the
streets, usually supported by the women or a
minor son. Compensation packages included
government jobs, but only in Grade IV. Overnight,
the social and economic fabric of the community
came to be in tatters; fissures sprang up, too,
with relatives in Punjab.
In the years after, many families returned to
their roots in that state. Some of them never
came back. Others did, but only after long gaps,
which explains why there were major delays in
filing FIRs. Survivors also accuse the police of
flatly refusing to cooperate in filing FIRs or
taking down eyewitness accounts long after
'peace' had returned to the streets of Delhi.
The Judgments
IN a landmark judgment relating to the matter of
compensation, the Delhi High Court in May this
year directed the government to pay Rs 1.23 lakh
as compensation for each person who suffered
injuries in the riots. Holding the state
responsible for the lives of citizens during mob
violence, Justice Gita Mittal passed the order in
the case of Manjir Singh, who was badly injured
by a mob which killed seven people at Tughlakabad
railway station in November 1984.
The judgment, according to those who have
followed the riots and their aftermath, will
benefit more than 2,800 people who sustained
serious injuries at the hands of the mob.
Apart from the court rulings, the riots have been
covered by inquiry commissions-nine of them. The
first such panel, constituted to study police
conduct during the riots, was led by senior
police official Ved Marwah.
Justice Ranganath Mishra was appointed head of
the next commission in April 1985; its findings,
submitted in 1987, have been criticised as
biased: On its basis, most prominent Congress
leaders were either acquitted or never
chargesheeted.
In particular, Mishra categorically said that H K
L Bhagat had ''no role'' in the riots at all.
''Shocking,'' is how advocate Harvinder Singh
Phoolka, who represented victims at the Mishra
inquiry proceedings, describes the role of the
judiciary so far.
In February 1987, the Jain-Banerjee panel was
appointed to recommend registration of cases,
while the Kapoor-Mittal Committee looked into the
role of the police, and the Ahuja Committee
looked into the number of people killed.
In 1990 came the Potti-Rosha Committee, while the
Jain-Aggarwal commission was set up by the Delhi
government. Thereafter the Narula advisory
committee was formed. Three 'fast-track' courts
were set up during V P Singh's tenure as prime
minister, but hundreds of cases reportedly ended
up being dismissed summarily.
The New Commission
THE Justice G T Nanavati Commission was appointed
to inquire afresh into the riots on May 10, 2000.
It finally submitted its 185-page report to Union
Home Minister Shivraj Patil on February 9 this
year; the six-month deadline for its publication
expires tomorrow.
The victims were represented by the 1985 Carnage
Justice Committee formed by eminent citizens.
Some of the submissions made to the Commission
say that the Congress government at the Centre
deliberately delayed sending in the army. Writer
Patwant Singh deposed before the Commission that
when he personally asked the President to go on
air in November and urge calm, the President said
he had no powers to intervene.
Then Home Minister P V Narasimha Rao too
reportedly told Patwant Singh that the army would
be brought in only on the evening of November 3;
thus ''the murderous mobs were given a free hand
for three days,'' Singh said in his affidavit.
The Tomorrow
MOST survivors, however, care little whether the
commission has levelled any fresh charges or even
indicted prominent Congress leaders such as
Jagdish Tytler, Bhagat or Sajjan Kumar.
''These names mean little to us. We never saw
them, instead we saw our neighbours or friends in
the mob, people we thought we knew well. We might
identify some of them now, but it has been too
long. We must look for better things,'' says
Kuldeep Singh, who was 15 when he lost his father
and grandfather to rampaging mobs.
At the same time, certain community groups have
long emphasised the need for speedier processes.
On November 1 last year, the twentieth
anniversary of the riots, activists and survivors
marched to demand swifter justice.
Sikh militancy was born in the flames of the
Delhi riots, and fed on the sense of insecurity
Sikh youngsters began to acquire after the horror
of the first week of November 1984. Even now,
mention of the riots touches a raw nerve in
Punjab, and Sikh terrorist groups and Khalistan
proponents use it as a handle to recruit cadres.
It remains to be seen whether the Nanavati
Commission report can make a difference.
(iii)
STARTING FROM SCRATCH
HER nine-year-old granddaughter Kuljeet Kaur's
poem shares wallspace with images of the Gurus in
Baksheesh Kaur's two-room apartment, twin
reminders of the faith and optimism that saw her
family through its darkest hours. Dressed in
white, stark in the dingy surroundings, she
listens silently as her son Harpal recounts the
night of October 31, 1984.
''Everybody says I look just like my mother
Everybody says I'm the image of Aunt Bee
Everybody says my nose is like my father's
But I want to look like me.''
''They dragged out my father-he had retired by
then from the army as havildar-major-and killed
him. My 21-year-old brother Harkirat was up on
the terrace, he saw the murder and cried out. So
they went up and killed him too,'' remembers
Harpal, 35. His mother, with the curious
resignation of the very old or the very helpless,
adds in a whisper, ''Teen tukde kar diye.''
The other family members fled in time to escape
the carnage, but were refused shelter by almost
every neighbour in their Laxminagar locality.
Finally, 50 of them found refuge with a washerman
in an adjoining street. ''For three days, we
huddled together in one room, till we were
rescued by the army,'' remembers Baksheesh Kaur.
Apart from the death of his father and brother,
Harpal recalls little of those days. ''But the
image of bodies littering the streets is
something that has stayed with me,'' he says.
Putting behind those memories, burying the
searing grief, Baksheesh then had to lead the
family in the painful task of reconstructing
their lives. They moved in with a son who had
largely escaped the riots in his South Delhi
residence; later, they shifted to the DDA flat in
East of Kailash, where they now reside.
By the time they managed to get their share of
compensation-Rs 3.3 lakh-eight years had passed
by. Harpal had had to give up his studies to
support his family; today, he drives taxis and
does other odd jobs.
Just as life seemed to be coming together,
calamity struck again. In 1992, Baksheesh's son
Harbhajan-Harpal's elder by two years-was shot
dead in an encounter with the police on the
outskirts of Delhi. ''He was with a friend, who
was a militant. Harbhajan was caught in the
crossfire and paid with his life,'' says Harpal.
Forgiveness should not come easily to people like
Baksheesh, but it does. ''I hope the people who
incited the mobs get punished, but I bear no
hatred towards anybody anymore. I just wish no
one has to go through what I went through,'' she
says.
Siddhartha Sarma
o o o o
(iv)
QUESTIONS BUT NO ANSWERS
EVERY afternoon, Vikramjit Singh takes leave from
the computer firm that employs him in Nehru Place
and heads back home to help his mother Gurbaksh
fill up water from a tanker. The street they live
on, unlike the rest of East of Kailash, does not
get piped water. Vikramjit isn't sure why, has
never asked.
The 26-year-old learnt early in life that not all
questions life throws up comes with neatly tagged
answers.
If there were answers to be had, other questions
would be top of the mind. Why, for instance, were
his father and grandfather hacked to death in
1984? Why did his mother have to educate him and
his sister by working as a Grade IV employee in
UCO Bank? Why did relatives cheat them of
compensation? Why did he have to quit studies
after Class XII?
All the questions were born on that terrible
night of 1984, when a mob broke into their
Gandhinagar residence and hacked the two elder
male members of the family. Gurbaksh and her
mother-in-law managed to smuggle out Vikramjit
and his sister through a backdoor and fled to a
relative's house in West Delhi. There they stayed
till the army came in.
''At first I used to string beads for a local
firm for a living,'' remembers Gurbaksh. ''The
UCO Bank job happened only in 1990.''
Simultaneously, the family faced the rigours of
filing FIRs, queuing up for compensation,
acquiring a house, building a home. Unable to
bear seeing his mother trying to make both ends
meet on her meagre earnings, Vikramjit gave up
studies after Class XII, only recently acquiring
a BA (Pass) degree from Delhi University and
subsequently a job with a computer firm.
''If my father had lived, I would not have had to
see my mother addressed in an undignified manner
by her superiors at work. Our relatives would not
have cheated us of more than a lakh of the
compensation money,'' smoulders Vikramjit.
''I do not care what happens to the politicians
when the Commission report comes out. I never saw
them and they do not know of me. The people who
attacked us, my mother says, were our neighbours.
But that was then... Now all I want is my mother
to get some rest after these 20-odd years,''
Vikramjit says.
His mother has always advised him to avoid
nursing hatred towards specific communities. Now,
he says, gussa aata hai, but only when he sees
his mother working even after suffering a stroke.
Politics? Terrorism? Vikramjit has no time for
all that.
Siddhartha Sarma
o o o o
(v)
LIFE AFTER DEATH
GURPAL Singh Kalsi is a worried man. At this
precise moment, there might be other 26-year-olds
who are as worried, but chances are his concerns
are a world away from the romance-career-travel
thought cycle of his contemporaries.
Gurpal has been taking care of his family-his
mother, younger brother and sister-since he was
16. Twenty-one years ago, all four earning
members of Gurpal's family were killed. Worry has
been almost a constant companion since then.
As for myself, there's no time to dream. I'd be
happy if I could get myself a permanent job as a
driver
But money is not the primary of his worries. Nor
is the erratic water supply at the DDA flat his
family has occupied for more than 10 years now.
It is the authorities' habitual harassment of
local youths at the slightest hint of
Sikh-related trouble that worries Gurpal.
''In 1996, the police picked up my uncle Maha
Singh-he was a student of Class X at that time-on
some pretext and beat him senseless,'' alleges
Gurpal.
Protests his mother, ''If we were going to be
following the path of violence and hatred, why
would we be trying to lead this honest
existence?''
Since 1984, Surjit Kaur has been working as a
peon with the New Delhi Municipal Corporation to
support her three children. The youngest of them
was born seven months after her husband was burnt
alive.
Gurpal himself started working as a driver when
he was 16, saving money in his mother's name till
he could buy his own vehicle to drive. In these
10 years, he has sponsored his brother's computer
education and an ongoing college degree.
''I am very busy, I want to secure a job with the
police for my brother,'' he says, standing before
a mirror in a tiny but scrupulously clean room,
tying his turban. ''As for myself, there's no
time to dream. I'd be happy if I could get myself
a permanent job as a driver.''
Neha Sinha
o o o o
(vi)
[LETTER TO THE EDITOR]
D-504 Purvasha
Mayur Vihar 1
Delhi 91
8 August 2005
Over two decades after the anti-Sikh violence of 1984, and months
after it was submitted, the Nanavati Commission's report on that
violence has been released, together with an "Action Taken Report".
Shri Shivraj Patil, Union Minister for Home Affairs, honourable at
least by definition, has played up the finding that only "local
level leaders" of the Congress were found to have been involved in
instigating the violence and in participating in it. Nor does any
high law-enforcement official appear to have been guilty even of
dereliction of duty.
Justice Nanavati has said clearly that he had to go by the evi-
dence which was placed before him; and we all know how common and
easy it is to have statements withdrawn or changed, or simply to
not record them. It is also a fact that political parties and
police forces have chains of command and rules which ensure that
a person low down cannot act without the knowledge, permission or
assistance of a person higher up.
The Hon. Minister, though, stops the buck very low indeed. I
wonder if he would care to explain it all in a "Why Action Is Not
To Be Taken Report": in the public interest, of which he speaks
constantly.
Mukul Dube
______
[7]
Champa –The Amiya & B.G.Rao Foundation,
25, Nizamuddin East, New Delhi-110013
"Human Rights Today in Kashmir"
- A Meeting in Memory of Aparna Rao
Dear friend,
Aparna Rao, the founder trustee of
Champa-The Amiya & B.G.Rao Foundation, after six
months struggle with cancer, passed away at the
age of 55 years on 28th June,2005 in Germany.
This news was received with great shock and pain
by all those who knew her. Her concern for the
oppressed, her commitment for democratic values
and her active involvement in the struggle for
protection and promotion of human rights are
exemplary and unforgettable.
We are holding a meeting in her memory on
Wednesday the 10th August,2005 to pay tributes
to her and to discuss an issue which was dear to
her. 'Human Rights situation in Kashmir', in the
context of recent killings of innocent in
Kupwara, will be discussed. Sh. Siddharth
Varadarajan will initiate the discussion.
Time & Date: 5.30 PM, Wednesday, the 10th August,2005.
Venue : Dy.Chairman's Hall, Constitution Club,Rafi Marg,New
Delh110001
You are cordially invited to attend.
Ashok Panda (M) 9810067899
N.D.Pancholi (M) 9811099532
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
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