SACW | 28-30 Oct. 2005
sacw
aiindex at mnet.fr
Sat Oct 29 21:01:05 CDT 2005
South Asia Citizens Wire | 28-30 October, 2005
[1] '8/10' and after - Amidst Kashmir's tragedy,
we must prepare for the next big quake in the
Himalaya-Hindukush (Kanak Mani Dixit)
[2] The adamantine matrix of Indo-Pak diplomacy
is disaster proof (Pamela Philipose)
[3] Statement from Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace [India]
[4] Kashmir Needs Your Help (Anhad)
[5] Bangladesh Fatwa against Women: 'An
outrageous edict' (Editorial, Daily Star)
[6] India: Down The Slippery Nuclear Slope (Praful Bidwai)
[7] India: Gujarat Muslims await justice (Kuldip Nayar)
[8] India: Communal Riot in Mau: A Report (Roop
Rekha Verma and Nasiruddin Haider Khan)
______
[1]
Nepali Times
28 October - 3 Nov 2005
'8/10' AND AFTER
AMIDST KASHMIR'S TRAGEDY, WE MUST PREPARE FOR THE
NEXT BIG QUAKE IN THE HIMALAYA-HINDUKUSH
by Kanak Mani Dixit
Why has the Kashmir Earthquake of 8 October been
termed the 'Southasia Quake' by the international
media, including the all-powerful, real-time
satellite television networks? Southasia is a
vast region and the ground trembled beneath one
corner of it, well known to the world as Kashmir,
on two sides of the 'line of control'. Somehow,
it does injustice to the suffering of the living
and memory of the dead to call the disaster by
the name of the larger region when a local name
is available.
Meanwhile, the UN has declared the Kashmir
catastrophe more devastating than last year's
tsunami. Three to four million people are
suddenly without homes on the edge of winter. The
result of an underground quake, the tsunami of
12/26/04 struck the southern beaches of
Southasia, while the earthquake of 8/10/05 hit
the northwestern mountain fastness. Because it
was such an unusual event and also because many
holidaying westerners died tragically, the
coverage of the tsunami attracted emergency
support on a massive scale. Not so with the
Kashmir quake of 8/10. To date the world is not
even close to matching the $11 billion gathered
for post-tsunami relief.
In the face of an earthquake that knows neither
borders nor LoCs, of course we must utilise the
opportunity of the disaster to ease Kashmir
tensions between India and Pakistan. But
geopolitical certitude in the two capitals will
surely require something more than a shifting of
geological plates to undo. What we need is for
national establishments in both countries to
learn to take the Kashmiris themselves into
confidence, as well as find a way to fuzz the
frontiers and sanction dual identities. For that,
we need a shake-up of the mind, not the ground.
The immediate challenge in Muzaffarabad, in Uri,
in Hazara, in Tangdhar, is to help those without
shelter and means of livelihood to make it
through the winter of 2005-06. But thereafter, we
are looking at many years of rehabilitation.
Given the sharp drop that we can expect in
humanitarian concerns as soon as the television
cameras stop broadcasting live, the
intelligentsia of Pakistan, India and Southasia
as a whole have a responsibility not to turn
their backs on this quake and its living victims.
They have to stay with the Kashmiris for the long
haul and keep the governments on their toes.
This year, nature chose Kashmir to sound a
warning to the rest of Southasia-most
importantly, to those who live along the
Himalayan-Hindukush rimland. The geologists are
not sitting easy and neither should the rest of
us. The prospect looms of a horrendous earth
shaking in what is known as the Central Himalayan
Gap, which covers all of Nepal and more. There
has not necessarily been enough release of
'cumulative elastic energy' in the rubbing of
plates beneath Nepal and the nearby regions to
the north, west and south. A huge swath of
territory is therefore dramatically overdue for a
devastating quake. The suffering of Kashmiris
must at least inform those who are in a position
to save lives when the earthquake hits the
Central Himalaya.
The newly adopted building material all over the
Himalaya-Hindukush is concrete. Heavy-set
buildings were the death traps of Kashmir as
testified by numerous pictures of the tragedy.
Kathmandu, the largest urban concentration in the
Himalaya, will become a 'valley of death' when
the Big One comes, for its buildings are now
nearly all of concrete using 'pillar system'
construction. And what of rescue? In Kathmandu
and elsewhere, there will not be the military
helicopters and ground transport available in
militarised Kashmir.
To die under rubble while awaiting a rescue that
never comes is a gruesome way to go, as happened
to many on and after 8/10. Kashmir will have to
be helped back on its feet, while we look ahead
to the next Big One-and prepare.
______
[2]
Indian Express
October 29, 2005
AN EARTHQUAKE CAN'T SHAKE IT
THE ADAMANTINE MATRIX OF INDO-PAK DIPLOMACY IS DISASTER PROOF
by Pamela Philipose
This is a disaster that comes with the sting of
winter in its tail; a disaster that has no early
closure. The projections are dire and compelling.
Some 8,00,000 are without shelter in the high
mountains and are extremely unlikely to have an
effective roof over their heads before snow cuts
off the area. The fate of these millions -
babies, women, the elderly, the seriously injured
and handicapped - are at best tenuous; at worst,
sealed.
We cannot of course choose where a disaster
should strike. But there cannot be any dispute
that the October 8 earthquake - said to cover
20,000 square kilometers, stretching from
Afghanistan to India -- marked one of the worst
sites on the face of the earth to manifest
itself. Much of the affected region is ensconced
within the treacherous folds of the
Hindukush-Karakoram ranges. Unlike the December
26 tsunami, which hit tourist-friendly regions
and therefore rang alarm bells in every capital
of the world, these are inhospitable heights
inaccessible to all but the most intrepid
journalist and relief organisation.
But greatly more unfortunate than its geographic
location is its location on the political map of
the region. Large swathes of the affected area
comprise one of the most bitterly contested
regions in the world, the site of bloody wars and
unrelenting militancy. It is a terrain that best
resembles a freezing tundra. Nothing grows on
these icy wastes of supposed national interest
but a constantly renewable harvest of outdated
policy formulations, static posturing, and
television soundbites which carry the ubiquitous
stench of mutual hostility.
In the first flush of the surprise and horror
engendered by the earthquake, there were some
words exchanged between India and Pakistan which
gave rise to the hope that the unfortunate
calamity would perhaps have some mitigating
consequences. That it would actually forge a
shared bond of cooperation, a shared sense of
purpose; that there would be an escape for at
least a short spell from the prison house of the
past. Those expectations were quickly belied, as
each side reverted to type and official lips
unleashed words like "sensitivities" and
"realities". There are sensitivities to consider,
observes Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf; it
is a question of reality, no room for
romanticism, pronounces Indian Defence Minister
Pranab Mukherjee, even as both natter on in the
same breath about the need to provide "urgent
help" to the "hapless victims". Every move that
each side proposes is carefully weighed in the
scales of precedent, scrupulously jotted down in
the debit and credit columns of each nation's
balance sheet.
Indian helicopters are welcomed by Pakistan but
without Indian army personnel piloting them; or
Pakistan's proposal for five relief centres along
the LoC must necessarily be pared down to three
by India. Meanwhile we continue to turn the
screws, each on the other. Rhetoric over F-16s,
A.Q. Khan, Gilgit, lace the air and is in
imminent threat of degenerating into
confrontationist positions. Our army bunkers may
not be quake proof. Not so the adamantine matrix
of Indo-Pak diplomacy. It is built to withstand
the shifts and eddies of the passing decades,
reinforced brick by verbal brick, on an
58-year-old blueprint based on mistrust and
equivalence. At its centre, lies the unfortunate
region of Kashmir.
There is another aspect to this exchange that
Smruti S. Pattanaik, a scholar in international
relations, highlighted in her study, /Elite
Perceptions in Foreign Policy/ - that is, the
essentially elitist nature of the official
Indo-Pak discourse. As Pattanaik observed:
"Policy arises out of elite discourse.
Perceptional biases have created a stereotype
image of each other, within which the expectation
of each other are formulated. This has rendered a
certain rigidity to the articulated stands of
both countries on various issues. Each concession
weighted purely in terms of 'gains' and 'losses'
within the prism of the two-nation theory. In a
relationship characterised by emotionalism, gains
tend to get interpreted as strength, and
compromise is equated with weakness." Pattanaik's
book deals with the period between 1989 and 1999,
but nothing has changed in essentials despite the
much bruited "peace talks". Indeed, if the "peace
talks" were a living thing, it would have been
reflected in an animated joint response of both
countries to the horrific natural calamity in
their respective backyards. The sterile response
to the earthquake can only be read as a
reflection of the innate sterility of the
on-going peace process.
International codes of conduct during times of
human suffering on a mass scale are based on the
imperative that the right to receive humanitarian
assistance and to offer it is a fundamental
humanitarian principle. Such offers cannot,
should not, be framed or presented as partisan
acts, or denied to people on the basis of race,
class, religion or nationality. Further, the
nature and extent of this assistance is based on
one criterion alone -- the actual requirements of
the affected population. This also means that the
need to reach the affected populations is
paramount. The process cannot be allowed to be
impeded by political or other extraneous -- and
often erroneous -- considerations, like national
pride and prestige. In fact, as some have argued,
it behooves a nation to privilege humanity and
concern, rather than false pride and prestige in
situations when its people are facing a great
distress that demands an urgent response.
Hurricane Katrina highlighted what had been
suspected all along -- that Black America has
fallen off Washington's radar, that the American
establishment neither cared about nor understood
its plight in its darkest hour. Will the October
8 earthquake hold a similar lesson for the
subcontinent? Will it reveal that neither India
nor Pakistan really cares about the Kashmiri,
only about a territory called Kashmir?
The clock is ticking. India and Pakistan do not
have much time left to choose whether they want
to be recorded by history as nations that could
rise above their situation and respond with
efficacy and magnanimity to the earthquake, or as
nations that allowed their narrow conceptions of
self-esteem to blind them and strap them into a
criminal lack of adequate and effective action.
______
[3]
STATEMENT FROM COALITION FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT AND PEACE [INDIA]
The National Coordination Committee (NCC) of the CNDP
expresses its deep shock and concern at the horrific
consequences of the earthquake which has ravaged large
parts of Kashmir and Pakistan. Our common sense of
human decency, concern and solidarity naturally
transcends all political and territorial boundaries.
We wish to express that we are at one with the people
who have suffered from this tragedy and that our
hearts go out to them. The CNDP pledges itself to help
the process of rehabilitation in whatever way it can.
In this regard CNDP Rajasthan has organised a
collection drive among school children to provide aid
and express solidarity with the suffering people of
Kashmir and Pakistan.It is the belief of the CNDP that
the youth of today in both countries through mutual
empathy and concern can help shape a truly fraternal
future for India and Pakistan.
Anil Chaudhury
On behalf of the NCC,
Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace [India]
______
[4]
KASHMIR NEEDS YOUR HELP
Dear Friends,
This is a very quick update on our visit.
10 of us from Movement for Empowerment of Indians
and Anhad / Youth For Peace visited Kashmir.
We went to Tangdhar and visited/ distributed
relief material in more than 14 villages where
other teams except the army had not reached.
Tangdhar has approx 7000 households. 5178 houses
are fully damaged, 600 partially, 1000 shops are
affected.
To reach Tangdhar one has to cross the Sadhna
Peak 10,400 feet. The road to Tangdhar had a
large number of landslides which were all removed
before we went there but the road was still
narrow and in many places still muddy. The
villages that we visited were all beyond Tangdhar
and the roads still narrower and would become
absolutely unapproachable once it starts to snow.
From the villages we could see the LOC .
Almost all school buildings have been fully
damaged except for two schools in Tangdhar. The
children are not going to schools right now.
To reach Badwan both Navaid Hamid and I had to
use our National Integration Council member
status as the J & K rifles post was very
reluctant to let anyone go there. But using all
our persuasive techniques we did manage to reach
the villagers and realised that they desparately
needed the relief that we were carrying ( mainly
tents, blankets, jackets, caps, sweaters, inners,
socks etc- major portion of which was
organised by Navaid's group and rest by Anhad).
The villages where the relief reached from our
team include- Amroi, Tad, hajitra, dhanni, gabra,
gundigujra, dhringla, gabdori, nyaygabra, kundla,
madanpura, haftana gabra, khawaspara, badwanj,
bakhaiyan malda ( not sure about spellings +
there were a few more villages - i can't remember
the names).
The initial govt. team which was sent for damage
assessment had the patwari but no engineer and
many cases of partiality were reported. We were
hosted by a local teacher Mohd. Maqbool- his
ground floor house had many cracks and was badly
damaged but the first floor room where we stayed
was wooden, so was intact. The few nights that we
spent in his house we were continuously woken up
at night by tremors. The house next to him was
intact but was assessed as fully damaged.
But the representation had its affect and the
Relief Commissioner himself was seen doing the
rounds to reassess the houses from where
complaints were received.
We heard from villagers that the army helicopters
had reached within 2 hours of the earthquake and
airlifted the injured.
We also saw a large number of trucks carrying
relief material. It might not still be enough but
the efforts are there.
It is a major natural disaster and a challenge
because of specially the difficult terrain.
The major challenge right now is to provide
shelters to people. The govt had announced 1 lakh
for every destroyed house out of which 40,000
advance is being given but had not reached
everyone so far. The money is not enough to build
the shelters. The tents would be useless very
soon once it starts snowing. People immediately
need shelters.
Unfortunately the response from the civil society
is like warm- as industrial houses, newspapers
responded to Gujarat earthquake and tsunami they
are not responding to the Kashmir earthquake
crises.
The organisations whom we saw in Tangdhar
include- Janvikas, COVA, Action Aid , United
Economic Forum and some other religious
organisations. There must have been some others
too working there.
Anhad is sending its Youth For Peace team of 10
young volunteers tomorrow night for a week to
Kashmir. I would be accompanying the team. Anhad
and Youth for Peace have so far mobilsed approx 6
lakh rupees. We are sending GI zinc sheets for
temporary shelters to Tangdhar.
We appeal to you to send donations to Anhad or
Youth For Peace (Anhad). We take only Indian
money. Both organisations have 80-g tax exemption.
Our address: 4, windsor place, new delhi-110001. Tel - 23327366/ 23327367
Sincerely
Shabnam Hashmi
______
[5]
Daily Star
October 30, 2005
Editorial
AN OUTRAGEOUS EDICT
THOSE WHO GAVE IT MUST BE PUNISHED
A direct assault on women's rights through
issuance of an edict took place at a village
bazaar in Sylhet district when some local
influential people and religious leaders decided
to declare a ban on shopping by women and selling
of commodities to them. This is the height of
obscurantism grossly undermining women's position
in society.
It is no doubt the worst form of gender
discrimination. Though women are yet to have all
their rights established, it is really surprising
that some religious fanatics could go to the
extent of making an attempt to deny them a right
to buy things for themselves.
Who has given them the authority to impose that
kind of a ban? How could they have the temerity
to act as the self-appointed guardian of the
society? They are reported to have cited
prevention of 'anti-social activities' as the
reason for their edict. Well, it is the duty of
the law enforcers to protect women from indecent
behaviour by any quarters whatsoever. It is the
police who are entrusted with the job of keeping
anti-social elements at bay. So, who are they to
obstruct free movement of women? They are not
only undermining the status of women but also
taking the law into their own hands. They are
also defying the local authority. Without
question, the obscurantists now feel confident
enough to impose their tyrannical interpretation
of religion on others.
We are happy to learn that the local police are
now investigating the matter. They should bring
the culprits to book and take stern action
against them. The point that must not be missed
here is that the tentacles of religious bigotry
will grow longer and longer, unless any new
dimension to it is nipped in the bud. This is a
form of extremism that must be severely dealt
with.
______
[6]
The News International
October 29, 2005
DOWN THE SLIPPERY NUCLEAR SLOPE
by Praful Bidwai
Last Monday, India's Foreign Secretary Shyam
Saran made an important speech on nuclear weapons
and world security to the Institute for Defence
Studies and Analyses. The salient point of the
lecture was not, as emphasised in much of the
Pakistani media, a hardening of India's stance on
Iran's nuclear activities, nor even the demand
for a 'clarification' of the role of 'the
Pakistan-based A.Q. Khan network' in it. It was
the enunciation of a doctrinal shift in India's
nuclear posture.
Put simply, Saran announced a decisive departure
from India's traditional advocacy of global
nuclear disarmament. Instead, India has embraced
the one-sided agenda of selective nuclear
non-proliferation favoured by the nuclear
weapons-states (NWSs). From now on, India, long
an apostle of peace and nuclear weapons-free
world, will behave like a 'responsible' NWS,
which will prevent other countries from acquiring
nuclear weapons, while keeping and expanding its
own atomic arsenal.
Saran's speech, made just two days after the
India visit of US under-secretary Nicholas Burns,
marks the end of a 60 year-long era, in much of
which India took the moral high ground in
promoting international peace and arguing against
bloc rivalry and the use of force to resolve
conflicts.
This is a shameful break not just with India's
long-standing policy, but also the solemn pledge,
made last year in the United Progressive
Alliance's National Common Minimum Programme, to
take 'leadership' in fighting for a nuclear
weapons-free world.
Precisely because this policy shift is so radical
and massive, India wants to deny it. Saran claims
"continuity and consistency" in India's approach.
He rationalises this by falsifying India's record
on nuclear disarmament and the lead it took since
the 1950s in demanding a nuclear weapons-free
world. Thus, Saran says, India "can truly claim
to be among the founding fathers" of
non-proliferation. He invokes Nehru as its
apostle. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Nehru campaigned for nuclear disarmament, not
non-proliferation.
There's a sharp, clear difference between the two
terms. Non-proliferation is about preventing the
spread of nuclear weapons, both horizontally (to
countries other than the NWSs), and vertically
(through the expansion and refinement of existing
arsenals). Disarmament is about eliminating all
nuclear bombs from the world.
Non-proliferation accepts the legitimacy of the
possession of these weapons of mass annihilation
by a handful of states, while denying it to
others. The disarmament perspective regards them
as an unmitigated evil, which must be abolished
everywhere. That's because nuclear weapons don't
give security. They aren't legitimate instruments
of war. They are the ultimate instruments of
terror.
Nuclear weapons are often regarded as a sign of
strength. But their possession doesn't ensure
strategic superiority or military victory. Or
else, the US wouldn't have lost in Vietnam and
the USSR wouldn't have had to quit Afghanistan in
ignominy. Nor would threats by powerful NWSs to
weaker states have repeatedly failed.
There is of course a link between the complete
elimination of nuclear weapons and their
step-by-step reduction. It's in that spirit that
Nehru proposed a 'standstill' agreement or a
Comprehensive Test Ban in 1954, while renouncing
nuclear weapons. India continued to link nuclear
restraint to disarmament until recently. Now,
that link has snapped. This is a betrayal of the
Nehruvian legacy and India's traditional advocacy
of nuclear abolition.
This advocacy was in evidence even in the 1990s,
until the CTBT debate vitiated the climate. Only
a decade ago, India pleaded before the
International Court of Justice that nuclear
weapons be declared incompatible with
international law.
In 1996, India's Foreign Secretary (Salman
Haider) told the Conference on Disarmament at
Geneva: "We don't believe that the acquisition of
nuclear weapons is essential for national
securityŠ We are also convinced that the
existence of nuclear weapons diminishes
international security. We, therefore, seek their
complete elimination. These are fundamental
preceptsŠ"
The ICJ, the world's highest authority on
international law, ruled in 1996 that the use or
threat of use of nuclear weapons is generally
illegal and contravenes international law.
Two years later, India exploded five bombs and
joined the very global order, which it had
condemned as "Atomic Apartheid". There was no
security rationale for this shift. The Vajpayee
government didn't conduct the strategic defence
review it had promised. It merely fulfilled the
nuclear obsession of the Hindutva current. The
decision was hidden even from the Defence
Minister. The Cabinet was not party to it. But
the RSS was.
Pakistan's blasts duly followed India's. A year
after the tests, the two fought the world's most
serious conventional conflict ever between any
two NWSs. Today, millions of their citizens have
become vulnerable to attacks by nuclear missiles
which take only minutes to hit each other's
cities.
India's military spending has more than doubled
since 1998. And Pakistan's has ballooned too. The
consequences are potentially ruinous for our
economies and societies, including the rise of
bellicose nuclear nationalism.
India made a great blunder in initiating nuclear
rivalry in South Asia. Pakistan has followed
India's lead in a knee-jerk manner. Now, India is
compounding its blunder by joining the US as a
junior nuclear partner. Pakistan shouldn't be
tempted to emulate India's bad bargain.
India has put such high stakes on the July
nuclear deal that it can be blackmailed into
making all kinds of compromises to save it --
including pressures on energy policy, Iran, on
trade negotiations on agriculture and services,
on patents, on anything.
Saran's speech has already prepared the ground
for the next Iran vote at the IAEA by saying
India won't accept "pursuit of clandestine
activities in respect to WMD-related
technologies". This sounds tough, but it reflects
caving in to US pressure.
By jumping on the non-proliferation bandwagon,
India risks becoming the laughing stock of the
world. India has moved from being a force for
peace to a force for hegemony. India's
capitulation to the US even while it pays lip
service to a multi-polar world will earn it
ridicule.
Powerful states don't respect client-nations.
Even weak states don't. Why should the King of
Nepal talk seriously to India if New Delhi's
Nepal policy is determined in "coordination" with
Washington? India's nuclear posturing lacks
credibility given its miserable rank of 127 in
the UN Human Development Index, which places it
squarely among the bottom one-fourth of the
world's nations.
India earned the world's respect when it was
poorer -- because of its democracy, its moral
clarity on certain issues, its secularist ideals,
and its effort at making the world a better
place. The new policy turn robs India of all this.
In his speech, Saran cites a version of the
"Third Class Railway Compartment" syndrome. This
means that when you are outside the coach, you
try to barge your way in. Once you are inside,
you forcibly keep all potential entrants out.
This is what Saran had in mind when he said "the
international community also needs to ask whether
the global non-proliferation regime is better
with India inside the tent or outside"
This statement is marked by double standards and
blatant inconsistency. It demeans India's stature
while sacrificing her policy independence. One
can only hope Pakistan doesn't follow India's
lead here.
(The writer, a former newspaper editor, is a
researcher and peace and human-rights activist
based in Delhi)
______
[7]
Dawn
29 October 2005
GUJARAT MUSLIMS AWAIT JUSTICE
By Kuldip Nayar
ONE more court case failed this week at Baroda,
Gujarat, to award punishment to rioters. Once
again the judge questioned the role of the police
and indicted them for failing to prevent the
violence. Lack of evidence has been the cause for
the failure of cases in Gujarat where the BJP-led
government had instigated the killing and looting
of Muslim residents as a reprisal to the Godhara
train burning incident.
Roughly 45,000 cases were filed nearly three
years ago after the carnage. Half of them were
closed within days of filing owing to lack of
evidence. Many have been dismissed since like the
one in Baroda. In fact, only 75 cases are being
pursued vigorously. There are no funds or
volunteers to take them up. Hindu lawyers are
reluctant while most Muslim lawyers charge hefty
fees. It is, therefore, difficult to imagine that
the guilty in the Gujarat carnage will get the
punishment they deserve. It may well be a repeat
of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots where a couple of
persons had been convicted after 21 years.
There is, however, one glaring difference: the
Sikh victims have been given Rs 300,000 per
family for rehabilitation but the Muslims have
not received even a penny from the government. In
the first case, the New Delhi government took no
time to pay. In the case of Gujarat, the state
government refuses to pay anything at all. Muslim
victims await the generosity of individuals or
non-governmental organizations. Both are fewer
than before.
As a matter of fact, no aid is coming to Muslim
victims. The government is hostile and the local
population biased. The international agencies
wound up their last office some months ago. The
200,000 Muslims, ousted nearly three years ago
from their homes during the carnage, blink on
nobody's radar. A saffronized state
administration has turned its back on them.
Over 100,000 people have migrated to other
places. But the rest live in Ahmedabad on a strip
of land, along the road, stretching into
graveyards. They want to return to their places
of residence but cannot do so. One of them,
Ibrahim, went back to his village Marghi, near
Anand. He even fulfilled the conditions laid down
and withdrew the FIR and other statements. Still,
the youth there made his life so miserable that
he had to quit. They did not want a Muslim in
their midst.
Hundreds of villages in the state proudly display
a board: Hindu village in the Hindu Rashtra.
There is hardly any protest against it. The
social and economic boycott of Muslims continues.
No Gujarati hires them. Bureaucrats are tainted,
the police one-sided and liberals indifferent.
The worst is that the intelligentsia has no time
to debate the communal segregation. It does not
even talk about Muslims, as if they don't exist.
It appears as if Chief Minister Narendra Modi has
changed the people. This has happened in
dictatorships but he has done it in a democratic
system. "We have to get on with life," is the
rationale given. The fact is that nobody wants to
recall the carnage because it probably weighs on
the conscience one way or the other. Abnormal
economic growth in Gujarat should give a message
of peace. But the reality is different.
Muslims have been written off. It is growth for
the Hindus and by the Hindus. Since the rest of
India measures success on the scales of
economics, it believes that things are alright.
That the Modi government is hostile is
understandable. But the centre's ambivalence is
beyond comprehension. The Atal Behari Vajpayee
government had its political compulsions because
Gujarat was ruled by the BJP. But why has the
Congress government led by Manmohan Singh
remained distant? True, law and order is a state
subject. But the relief and rehabilitation of
Indian citizens is New Delhi's responsibility.
Since the Gujarat government has refused to pay
anything for rehabilitation, the centre has to
bear the burden. Either it should bring a law to
force the state to accept the responsibility of
rehabilitation or it should foot the bill.
Anger against the Congress is the reason why the
Muslims have voted for the BJP in the civic
polls, not because they have turned towards the
party as BJP chief L.K. Advani has claimed in a
public statement. The Congress put up those
candidates who had led Muslims at the time of the
carnage. The Muslims' reasoning was that a known
communalist was far better than a secularist who
was a communalist at heart.
The biggest disappointment for Muslims in Gujarat
is that secular forces have caved in. They recall
how even the tallest among them did not stand up
to defend them. The founder of the Amul
Cooperative movement, Verghese Kurien, issued
orders to his employees not to take part in the
rehabilitation work. One senior employee, a
Muslim, who had toiled for Amul for years,
resigned in protest.
A leading social activist and chairperson of the
voluntary organization SEWA, Ila Bhat, did not
raise a finger to help the carnage victims. In
fact, she accepted the chairmanship of the
Modi-constituted rehabilitation committee which
is now in the midst of controversy. True, she has
resigned now but she has hurt Muslim
sensitivities beyond redemption.
What do the Muslims of Gujarat do? To whom do
they turn? Fear stalks the land. An average
Gujarati wants reconciliation and feels sorry for
the wrongs done to the Muslim community. But he
is afraid to speak because of the
"repercussions." Leaders of civil society, the
RSS and the BJP followers continue to preach
separation as if Gujarat is a laboratory that
will help them experiment with methods which they
can apply elsewhere in the country.
The left and its trade unions are conspicuous by
their silence. The Gandhians who were initially
afraid have come in the field. But they are only
a handful and have very few resources to
disburse. However, a ray of hope has emerged in
an otherwise sombre environment. A few people,
mostly Hindus, have constituted themselves into a
group. Harish Mandir, a former IAS, is one of
them. They have drafted a one-year plan to help
Muslims regain their confidence, if not property.
Unfortunately, the Muslims in the state are
entrapped in a situation from which they see no
escape. The 1984 anti-Sikh riots have not faded
into oblivion despite the efforts of the
Congress. India is a secular country. This is the
reason why people defeated the BJP in the last
general election and returned the Congress to
power. They have pinned their hopes on the party
to rescue the nation from the creeping shadows of
communalism. The failure of the Congress will be
the biggest betrayal.
(The writer is a leading columnist based in New Delhi.)
______
[8]
Date: 28 Oct 2005 09:27:42 -0000
COMMUNAL RIOT IN MAU: A REPORT
by Roop Rekha Verma, Nasiruddin Haider Khan
On behalf of 'Saajhi Duniya' the undersigned
tried to understand the reality of riot-hit Mau
and visit this city on October 20, 2005. We saw
those areas in Mau which were affected by
violence; we talked to some people who had
witnessed the violence. We also looked into the
local news papers. We tried to know what the
immediate cause of the riot was ; what the role
of Mukhtar Ansari (identified as the main culprit
by all variety of the media) was ; whether there
was any role of any other individual or
organization in the riots; whether Hindus had
really been massacred en mass and they have lost
everything; what the role of the administration
was and whether this riot could have been averted.
After having returned to Lucknow we
thought it necessary to share the facts collected
by us with wider public, and prepared this
report. But it should not be taken as the report
of an inquiry. It is only an effort to connect
scattered facts and an attempt to make a passage
to find out further facts.
Moreover we have given community -based
analysis despite the fact that for us dividing
the statistics of loot and murder on the basis of
religion is inhuman, because the media has mostly
presented religion-based statistics and we did
not find the one -sided picture given by media as
correct. The account of what we saw, heard,
understood and felt, is given below.
Beginning of Tension
In Mau Bharat Milap (enactment of a scene
from Ramayan) has always been very important and
sensitive occasion. The traditional cite of
Bharat Milap is adjacent to the Shahi Katra
Mosque. For a long time Bharat Milap ceremony is
held on this cite. Some years ago during the
renovation of the mosque a controversy arose that
a gate of the mosque had occupied about one foot
more space than it should have. This controversy
reached the court. Later the prominent persons of
both the communities reached an agreement that
the gate of the mosque may remain as such and
when the chariot in Bharat Milap turns around
near this gate, the chariot can touch the gate
thrice. Now it has become part of the ritual that
during Bharat Milap the chariot strike at the
mosque gate thrice. This practice does not cause
any tension now. The Bharat Milap event has, for
a long time, been treated as very sensitive by
the administration and they have been deploying
heavy police force around this occasion.
This year Bharat Milap coincided with
Ramzan. On the 13th October 2005 when the
loudspeakers were blowing on the Bharat Milap
cite, it was time for Taravih in the mosque and
people in the mosque objected to the blowing of
the loudspeakers. When an elderly person
objected, loudspeakers stopped blowing but after
a short while they again started blowing. On
this, it is reported, some young boys snatched
away the wires of the loudspeakers. The police
beat them up and locked them up in the police
thana. Later the boys were released under
pressure. This angered the Ramlila Committee.
During all this episode the administrative and
police arrangement at the cite was not as it used
to be the previous years ; it was much lesser
this year. After some time members of Ramlila
Committee, BJP MLC Ramji Singh, other leaders of
BJP and people in administration reached Shahi
Katra. After discussion it was decided to
postpone Bharat Milap to October, 29, 2005. This
seemed to be the end of the whole controversy.
But this was not to be. The next
day morning the workers of Hindu Yuva Vahini and
Hindu Mahasabha, under the leadership of Ajit
Singh Chandel, Punit Singh Chandel, Sujit Kumar
Singh & others, jammed the traffic at Mata Pokhra
and at the Sanskrit Pathshala Trisection near
Shahi Katra Mosque in protest against the
postponement of Bharat Milap. The residence of
Chandel is also situated on this spot. This place
is supposed to be very sensitive. The space
around the trisection is very narrow too. The
demonstrators were raising provocative slogans.
They were also against Ramlila Committee and
local BJP leaders. The demonstrators alleged that
these leaders and committee-members had shown
cowardice by postponing Bharat Milap. On this
occasion too the police presence was meager and
the administration was lax. During the
demonstration chaos prevailed. Police warned of
firing, stone-throwing started and Ajit Singh
Chandel started firing from his rifle, injuring
several persons who are
still in hospital. In fact, violence started from this incident.
People with whom we talked belonged to
both Hindu and Muslim community and they said
that Mukhtar Ansari was seen on the streets some
hours after violence had started. Although none
of the persons we talked to could quote any
provocative pronouncement by him, they all
maintained that his mere presence was sufficient
to encourage lumpen elements.
Violence and Loot
After the above mentioned incident near
Sanskrit Pathshala about a dozen shops at Sadar
Chowk, Rauza, Kaudi Building and Sindhi Colony
were looted. Among these shops were Jaiswal
Vastralaya, Sindhi Bidi, Metro Sareewala,
Deenanath Agarwal Cloth shop, saree shop of
Ramgopal, Jugal Prsad Vishwanath Prasad Saree
wholesale, Gopal Traders of electronic goods,
Barnwal stores etc. All the shops looted in this
area belonged to Hindus. Some of these shops were
quite big and old. The estimated loss runs in
lakhs. Three of the looted shops looked entirely
burnt and destroyed. Dozen other shops of Hindus
near these looted shops were safe and intact.
Some damaged shops, people say, had long-standing
tenancy disputes. It is likely that taking
advantage of chaos and violence some people
adopted this method of resolving the disputes. As
per the information gathered till now maximum
damage to Hindu population was done in this area.
In this area a godown of soaps belonging to a
Muslim and hou
sed in Goenka Bhavan behind Mr. Chandelís hose
was looted. Further ahead in Bal Niketan area
which is inhabited mainly by Hindus, everything
looked safe and intact excepting burning down of
a kiosk of a Muslim.
In Sahadatpur area the Muslim-owned shops
in Ali Building were looted and burnt. The damage
is estimated in crores. The adjacent shops of
Hindus were intact. Two purely vegetarian
restaurants owned by Muslims, Girhast Plaza and
Paris Plaza on the Ghazipur Trisection were
victims of heavy damage and loot. Further up on
the bypass road Habib Hospital of Dr. Asghar Ali
Ansari was damaged and his new Scorpio Jeep and
motorcycle were completely burnt down. Dr. Ali
escaped to Ghazipur. Further on the same road in
Brahmsthan area a big trading complex housing
Ahmad Beej Bhandar was totally looted and burnt.
Even after 5 days we saw smoke still blowing from
this building. On Salahbad turning Shimla Saree,
a famous factory owned by a muslim, was looted.
The estimate is that about 16 thousand sarees, 3
electronic machines and computer were looted.
After this loot a big crowd of Muslims from a
nearby place indulged in rampage and loot for
two-three hours and no administrative intervent
ion was visible. Here, people say, Mukhtar
Ansari was called by some persons to intervene
and in his presence firing was done by someone,
killing one person.
As a reaction to this, it is said, the
colony of Muslim weavers in Alinagar was attacked
and about 100 houses were looted and then burnt.
All the power looms were destroyed in the arson.
Due to rains, absence of proper road and late
night we could not go to this place despite our
strong desire. People told us that nothing was
left in this colony; it was totally deserted.
Some other establishments which suffered loot
and/or arson were mobile oil shop and junk
dealers store on bypass, Kanpur Machinery Store
( engine, motor, thrasher, etc.) , Airlite
machinery near old government hospital, dying
factory in Ranvirpura, retail sellers on Bhiti
and Azamgarh Trisection, school of municipal
chairman in Matlupur, some shops in Ratanpura.
They all belonged to Muslims. These
establishments included the tent-house which used
to provide tents, etc. free of cost for Durga
puja every year. Some of the adjacent villagers
like Faidullapur and Kurthi Jafarpur also
suffered violence.
Casualties
According to the administration nine
persons were killed in this riot whereas the
newspapers have reported the number as fourteen
to seventeen. Among these five Hindus have been
identified. Mehtab, a Muslim, died in police
firing. Five charred bodies were found in the
burnt colony of Alinagar. Since this colony was
inhabited by Muslim weavers only, the surmise is
that five burnt bodies were of Muslims.
Shining examples of humanity in the midst of Barbarism.
Mau has not one but several exceptional
persons who helped restore our faith in humanity
in the midst of brutality and violence. On the
one hand there were Haji Vakil, Abdul Sattar,
Abdul Samad who challenged rioters in Sindhi
colony or Salim Ansari, Kamaruzzaman and Haji
Irfan who stopped the fanatic elements from
indulging in violence. On the other hand there
were Ashok Singh who saved the plaza from arson,
Anil Rai who stopped rioters from looting a
furniture shop, Ramchandra Singh who saved
Noorkamal near Ali Building, Dr. Udai Narain
Singh who saved two lives or Ashok Gupta who
sheltered nine Muslims. In Indaara a Muslim
sheltered some Hindus to save them from a
frenzied mob and had his fingers chopped off
while he was closing the doors of his house.
Comments :
i) It is clear that the picture presented by
most of the media, that the aggressors were
mainly Muslims and mainly Hindus were the
sufferers is not correct. Muslims have heavily
suffered in terms of life and property.
ii) The role of Hindu Yuva Vahini and Hindu
Mahasabha has been almost missing in the media
whereas they played crucial role in the beginning
of the riots and in worsening the situation.
iii) The statements of exaggerated and
exclusive losses of Hindus, by some BJP leaders
and leaders of Hindu Yuva Vahini like Yogi
Adityanath have been partial and provocative.
Roop Rekha Verma Nasiruddin Haider Khan
Secretary Saajhi Duniya
M-1/14, Sector- B,
Aliganj,
Lucknow - 226 024 [India].
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
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