SACW | 03 Dec. 2005

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire | 03 Dec, 2005 | Dispatch No. 2183


[1] Quake & after :
(i) Imperatives of reconstruction  (Kamal Munir)
(ii)Former Indo-Pak army officers meet (Ali Waqar)
[2] Governments, Guns Cannot Prevent Another Gujarat (J. Sri Raman)
[3] Religious Tolerance and Secularism (Ram Puniyani)
[4] India: Gate keepers of sexuality and 'culture':
  - Revealing Fears (Edit, The Telegraph)
  - One hurdle too many (Edit,Hindustan Times)
[5] Statement by India's Campaign for Right to Information
[6] Exhibits:
(i)Photo expo on gas tragedy (Bhopal)
(ii) Opening of exhibition "in defence of democracy" (Delhi, 6 Dec., 2005)
[7] Film Review: Amu and Beyond: Women's Narratives Disrupting History
(Kamal Arora, Usamah Ahmad, Saydia Gulrukh Kamal)
[8] INSAF Bulletin 44 - December 2005


___


[1]

Dawn
3 December 2005

(i)

Imperatives of reconstruction

By Dr Kamal Munir

Nearly eight weeks after the most devastating earthquake in the history
of the subcontinent, Islamabad is rife with talk of reconstruction. The
thousands of selfless volunteers who performed operations, arranged tent
villages, provided food and medicines and simply held hands with
survivors in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, are quickly fading
out of the news. Taking their place are officials of the civil
government, conspicuous so far by their complete absence through this
calamity, along with the UN, World Bank, Pakistan army and a host of
high-level experts from international as well as local organizations.

The discussions revolve around issues of damage assessment,
compensation, urban planning, construction materials and technologies,
drafting new building codes and seismic design. The challenge is to
rebuild the affected area. The intentions are noble and the concern is
real. And yet, the reconstruction effort is already beginning to miss
its mark.

The problem lies in the delineation of scope of this massive project.
The narrative on which the post-quake reconstruction strategy is based
is careful in quietly placing the fundamental causes of the destruction
outside its scope. Nature has been identified as the primary culprit,
with all leaders, from Musharraf to Bush emphasizing the ‘natural’
aspect of this catastrophe. Further emphasis is placed on the
unfortunate timing of the disaster, with the Himalayan winter fast
approaching.

Such a narrative immediately absolves the state of any blame. Rather
than revealing the actual causes of the devastation, it obscures them.
By giving an air of inevitability to the ensuing damage and casualties,
it shifts the focus away from the political dynamics and economic
policies that have been making the Pakistani population increasingly
vulnerable to any disaster, ‘natural’ or man-made. And by portraying the
victims as an inherently hapless lot, it seeks to objectify rather than
question the nature of their fate.

The fact is that natural disasters almost always take a greater toll on
more vulnerable populations. Weaker or illegitimate states, where
endemic corruption prevents stringent, pro-people regulation from being
enacted or implemented, are often in a poor position to protect their
populations from external shocks or normalize their lives after the
disaster. This is confirmed by several studies done by organizations
that have long been providing relief in numerous countries.

The UNDP, the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) and
Oxfam, for instance have repeatedly singled out Cuba as an (admittedly
unfashionable) example for other countries to emulate. Between 1996 and
2002, six major hurricanes hit Cuba, yet a total of only 16 people died.
In other countries, hurricanes of similar intensity have typically
resulted in death tolls that are several times higher than those
experienced by Cuba. Take Katrina, for example, which killed thousands
of people in US, a country much more highly developed and resourceful.

How is Cuba, a poor country by all accounts, able to mitigate disasters
where other countries fail? According to Oxfam, Cuba’s socio-economic
model which is based on investment in social capital through universal
access to public services, and promotion of social equity, reduces the
vulnerability of its population. Moreover, the high levels of literacy,
developed infrastructure in rural areas and access to a world-class
health care system function as highly effective shock absorbers. Cuba’s
equitable socio-economic model has prevented polarization in society and
led to the development of a high degree of social cohesion and trust
among its population as well as with the government. This solidarity is
what makes possible speedy and complete evacuations of entire cities or
the effective distribution of relief supplies.

The contrast between Cuba and Pakistan could not be starker. Compared to
Cuba’s 96 per cent literacy, Pakistan’s is exactly half at 48 per cent —
and this is based on probably the broadest definition of literacy that
has ever existed. Illiteracy leads to low levels of general knowledge,
inability to collect and process important information and a lack of
self-confidence or capability. In everyday life, these characteristics
are reflected in general safety hazards that people expose themselves
to. And in the event of an earthquake, and the resulting injuries,
sanitation or hygiene problems, they engender inappropriate responses
which amplify the human and physical damage.

Compared to Cuba’s reliable and highly efficient healthcare system,
which has long inspired several western countries, Pakistan’s public
healthcare is chronically under-funded and in the process of being
rapidly privatized. The present crisis exposed the sorry state of most
hospitals in the neighbourhood of the quake hit area. And bigger public
hospitals elsewhere have had to rely predominantly on donations provided
by ordinary citizens of the country.

Training imparted to doctors around the country is not uniform either,
and several eminent doctors have raised serious concerns about the
flawed diagnoses and substandard wound management, which resulted in
unnecessary amputations.

Similarly, infrastructure in rural areas remains poor, with many small
towns cut off from cities during winter. Even in normal times, these
towns lack ready access to public services. Now, with inhabitants of
those towns unable to protect themselves from the elements, or treat the
wounded, and the poor roads destroyed, relief operations in the area are
proving to be extremely difficult. Indeed, in parts of Neelum Valley in
Kashmir, thousands were starving even a month after the earthquake.

Finally, deeply entrenched feudalism, which various dictatorial
governments have exploited and promoted for their own advantages, has
effectively suppressed all efforts to form grass-root level political
structures. For decades, Pakistani citizens have relied on patronage
from their feudal masters rather than any community-based organization.
These feudal lords have in turn, served the votes of their subjects up
to their own political patrons. This exploitative system has long served
the elite nicely and community-based organization is not welcomed. This
has resulted in complete lack of empowerment of the people. That means
graft and embezzlement can go on and the governments can make policies
to suite a small elite without any fear of accountability. No wonder
nearly hundred per cent government buildings collapsed including the
schools and colleges killing thousands of children. By not equipping the
Civil Defence department and providing civil defence rescue and
first-aid training to the population, we again made them vulnerable. It
is wrong to blame nature when our own policies built in vulnerability
for the population.

It is perhaps not surprising that little if any trust exists between the
people and the government in this set up. Rather than serving the
people, public services such as the police have become essential
instruments for running this patronage-based system.

The devastation in the October 8 earthquake and the pitiable performance
of the state in relief provision were manifestations of socio-economic
dynamics that have been gathering strength for years, making the
population increasingly vulnerable to shocks. The state’s pro-market
policies combined with a feudal political system have wiped out social
safety nets and diluted the glue which held people together.

The devastation was amplified by flawed development that has occurred in
the absence of effective governance. Lack of building regulations and
physical planning codes, widespread lack of compliance with them, and/or
uncontrolled market forces as the only arbitrator of economic
development all contributed to the sheer scale of the disaster.

Were it not for the thousands of volunteers and private donors, who
showed overwhelming generosity and courage, the devastation would have
been even greater. But in the absence of effective and functional
community-based political and social structures, social cohesion, and
trust, their efficacy was also limited.

Now long-term rehabilitation is likely to be hampered by the same
political dynamics and flawed development that have been steadily
increasing the vulnerability of the masses. In all likelihood,
reconstruction efforts will skirt all the issues discussed here, and
focus on rebuilding the hit cities ceteris paribus.

What actually needs to be reconstructed in the aftermath of this
calamity is a crucial question. How widely we debate the causes of the
devastation and how willing we are to scrutinize the political and
economic policies which engendered much of it will determine how
successful we are in building the mechanisms that are necessary to avoid
such tragedies in the future. The scope of discussions in Islamabad so
far does not offer much hope in this regard.

The writer teaches Strategy and Policy at the University of Cambridge.

o o o

(ii)

The Daily Times
December 03, 2005 	

Former Indo-Pak army officers meet

By Ali Waqar

LAHORE: Retired army officers from India and Pakistan met on the Wagah
border on Friday and stressed the need for peace. The Indian Chapter of
India Pakistan Soldiers Initiative (IPSI) sent two relief trucks for
earthquake victims.

The officers gathered on the Wagah border’s zero point and spent about
one hour together, discussing various issues in a candid environment.
They were nostalgic about their years in service. The Pakistani officers
hosted a tea on the occasion. Indian soldiers told Daily Times that they
wanted a change in education to change the youth’s way of thinking. They
said Indian and Pakistani officers born in each other’s countries before
Partition should be allowed dual nationality and they would initiate
serious efforts for the purpose. They stressed the need for peace and
said they supported the ongoing confidence building measures and
welcomed the recent agreements between India and Pakistan on a number of
key issues like the opening of the Line of Control, bus services,
consulates in Karachi and Mumbai and the Khokhropar-Monabao railway track.

IPSI Pakistan President Lt Gen (r) Nasir Akhtar and Coordinator
Brigadier Rao Abid Hameed received the relief goods, which were handed
over to Pakistan Army at Fortress stadium on the same day. Brig (r) CB
Khandhari, Col (r) Harbajan Singh, Mrs Usha Kullah, Col (r) VS Verma,
Col (r) VS Verma and Col (r) AR Khan participated from India and Lt Gen
(r) Nasir Akhtar, Brig (r) Abid Hamid, Col (r) Tahir Hussain represented
the Pakistan chapter.


___


[2]

www.truthout.org
02 December 2005

Governments, Guns Cannot Prevent Another Gujarat
by J. Sri Raman

     Can a pogrom, a state-aided carnage, be prevented by arming the
police and other uniformed forces with more powers? The government of
India proposes precisely such a method to prevent another Gujarat.

     Nearly four years after the massacre of the minority community of
Muslims in India's State of Gujarat, survivors in the thousands still
await simple justice and secure rehabilitation. Hopes were held out to
them after the Indian people voted the far right out and put Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh's coalition in federal power a year and a half
ago. The Singh government now, however, only plans a new law that can
actually pave the way for more Gujarats.

     The role of the state apparatus in the "riots" (the misleading
official description of the massacre) is so well recorded that no one
even in the redoubtable parivar (the far-right "family") questions it
seriously. Chief minister Narendra Modi presided over the pogrom and
defended it with pride, even as his police participated in it - even to
the extent, in reported instances, of misdirecting victims to murderous
mobs. Then-Prime Minister Atal Bihar Vajpayee, of the same Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) as Modi, agonized much in public, but refused to rush
any assistance to the minority under brutal and, in cases of women, even
bestial attacks.

     Gujarat, which galvanized public opinion in many other parts of
India against the BJP in the general election of last year, had to find
a place in the Common Minimum Program (CMP) of the victorious United
Progressive Alliance (UPA), headed by Singh's Congress Party. The CMP
skirted the subject of justice and relief to the victims of Gujarat, but
promised a "comprehensive model law" to deal with religious-communal
violence.

     The Communal Disturbances (Suppression) Bill of 2005, presented now
to the nation, however, is far from a glittering model, especially in
Gujarat-type situations in which fascism has friends in the state
apparatus, where Modi is still the monarch. The Bill empowers the
federal or the state government to notify any area as "communally
disturbed" for a month, on grounds that satisfy it and armed forces to
act in a virtually unrestrained manner to restore law and order. The
forces will then be free to arrest suspects without a warrant, to search
premises at will, and to shoot at sight on mere suspicion. The
notification can be extended for further one-month periods indefinitely,
and citizens-turned-suspects cannot seek legal remedy without a
large-hearted nod from the federal government.

     Human rights organizations have pointed out that the Bill brings
back through the back door provisions of the infamous Prevention of
Terrorism Act (POTA). The Singh government had earlier scrapped the
POTA, denounced as a draconian law, and the Patriot Act of India,
enacted by the previous regime under post-9/11 pressure from Washington.
The proposed enactment also includes many obnoxious provisions of the
Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which had provoked fierce popular
opposition in India's northeast (covered in detail these columns before).

     A single question would suffice to expose the irrelevance of the
legislative exercise. Had such a law been on the statute book during the
Gujarat pogrom, would it have afforded any protection to the victims?
Obviously not, as long as the political masters in New Delhi and Gujarat
preferred to protect the culprits.

     Human rights activists point again to the Bill's presumption that
people turn violent, while governments want religious-communal peace.
The reality, in almost all cases, has been quite the reverse. The Bill,
if enacted, will be a boon to the far right in the not unlikely event of
its return to power. People's courts, which a section of activists have
demanded, may constitute an unacceptable parallel judiciary. The Bill,
however, would have served better purpose had it provided for popular
participation or representation in the combat against or control of
"communal disturbances."

     While the legal advisors of the government have been drafting the
Bill over all these months, the surviving victims of Gujarat have been
waiting without hope. The cases have made very little progress, with
even the public prosecutors of Gujarat showing no interest in pursuing
them. The Supreme Court of India, not long ago, had to order a review of
over 4,000 such cases, about a half of which had been declared "closed."
Stories continue to surface in the media about witnesses in such cases
facing intimidation even now from criminals "roaming freely" over rural
Gujarat, as one of the victims has openly alleged.

     Meanwhile, by all accounts, a process of ghettoization has made the
predicament of the Gujarat Muslims much worse than before. The days of
Hindu-Muslim coexistence in residential colonies have departed in
several towns. Unreported, too, has gone the uprooting of sections of
Muslims through a post-2002 campaign to pressure them into selling their
land.

     If Gujarat was a political laboratory for India's fascists, as they
proudly proclaimed, the cruel experiments continue. It is through
popular mobilization that Gujarats can be prevented, not through
anti-people enactments.

     A freelance journalist and a peace activist of India, J. Sri Raman
is the author of Flashpoint (Common Courage Press, USA).

___



[3]

Issues in Secular Politics
December 2005 I

Religious Tolerance and Secularism

by Ram Puniyani

In the ongoing debate on secularism, one of the
formulations being put forward is related to the
relationship between Hindu tolerance and secularism.
India is secular because it is Hindu. You can talk
about secularism because majority of people are
Hindus. A point similar to this was made by Mr. Lal
Krishna Advani recently (Hindustan Times Lecture
Series, Nov 2005) when he said that secularism
disappeared from many of our neighboring countries,
while it continues to be here in India. According to
him the survival of secularism in India is due to the
Hindu ethos, its tolerant values. His hint towards
Islamic Pakistan and Bangla desh was too obvious;
Islam and secularism donít go together in this hidden
message. Current times are the oneís ideology of
Samuel Huntingtonís ìClash of Civilizationî, as per
which it is the backward Islamic civilization which is
the threat to the Western values of democracy and
freedom. These sweeping generalizations are far from
the truth and a closer look at the state of politics
all over the World and more so in South Asia itself
will tell a different tale.

In the neighboring countries like Pakistan and Bangla
desh (Muslim majority), democracy has been an elusive
beloved, generally eloquent by its silence, present by
its absence. The reasons are to be looked at in the
social processes of abolition of feudalism rather than
in Islam. There are many a Muslim majority countries
where democracy flourishes, Indonesia, Turkey being
some of those examples. Myanmar, a predominantly
Buddhist country, has been in the grip of military
dictatorship, Sri Lanka another Buddhist majority
country has been a democracy to a good extent. Nepal,
the Hindu Rashtra has not been able to sustain
democracy and the ruling dynasty there has seen the
bloodiest feuds for the sake of Royal power. Even in
this microcosm of the World it is not possible to link
religion and democracy. World over different
countries, with diverse religious majorities have
different systems of governance and the reasons behind
that are again historical and social oneís. The oneís
related to democratization, secularization (doing away
with the hold of clergy on the affairs of the state)
land reforms and not to the prevalent religion of that
part of the World.

The Hindu tolerance is glorified to sow the seeds of
intolerance and to attack secularism itself. The point
made is that, look Galileo and other scientists had to
suffer at the hands of the clergy when they went
against the ideas propounded by the Church, but here
even people like Charvak, who opposed the dominant
ideas held by Brahmins, has been called Rishi (sage)
Charvak. See this is the example of Hindu tolerance.
There is a good bit of distortion here. Even Charvak
has been deified much later in the typical Brahminical
style, which goes on to co-opt the people while
rejecting their ideas. This is done by upholding the
name of the thinker and at the same time by burying
his ideas. Currently thatís what is being done by
Hindutva to people like Gautam Buddha and Dr.
Ambedkar. Coming back to Charvak, Lokayat tradition,
it was suppressed and wiped out totally. Today we do
not have access to the writings of this tradition,
what is inferred about it is from the writings of
those who opposed it, who criticized it and physically
eliminated it. The ideas of that tradition have been
recovered from this criticism. Great tolerance! Lord
Buddha also talked of ethos, which opposed the caste
system and the hierarchical notions of society.
Buddhism was wiped out by the Brahmanical
counterrevolution, Shashank and Pushyamitra Shung
massacred monks and Buddhism was banished from this
country till Dr. Ambedkar, through his studies chose
it as the religion of his choice and himself converted
in to it.  Many a saints, who came from low castes and
were the vehicle of opposition to Brahminical system
were done to death, Tukaram may not be the sole one
for whom the plane came from to take him to heaven.

Dr. Ambedkar upheld the ideology of democratic
secularism and put it forward in several of his
writings and enshrined it in the Indian constitution.
These ideas are being attacked openly by saying that
this constitution is based on Western values so should
be done away with. At the same time he is being called
ëA Great Hinduí son. Mahatma Gandhi, who took along
most of the people for national movement, was also
done to death by a votary of Hindutva.

Even in the West where great intolerance was shown to
the scientists by the clergy, the democratic process
came to be firmly established and these are amongst
the places where secularism has got rooted in a much
firmer fashion. As such in the pre industrial feudal
societies the intolerance is imposed by the ruling
clique of landlord and clergy. Most of the traditions
in the World, within most of the religions can be
broadly put in these two categories. The one related
to the ëinstitutioní of religion, which goes hand in
hand with the powers that be and the second one of
saints, who in turn are associated with the poor and
deprived masses, bound in the ideological chains
imposed by religious clergy and in the social and
political chains imposed by the feudal powers, system
of kingdoms. All religions have tolerant and
intolerant traditions. To glorify oneís religion as
tolerant and to compare them with other religions
intoreant oneís is a clever deceit to glorify onesí
own religion.

Democratization in its core is constituted by doing
away of the feudal lords, kings and their associates,
the clergy. It is also asserted that Hindus did not
have a church like the one in West. As such the clergy
is there in all religions only its pattern of
organization is different. In Christianity it has come
up as the most well organized system, the Church. In
Hinduism it is scattered, it is best expressed in the
Marathi word, shetji-bhatji (landlord-priest).Kings
used to have their Rajgurus (Royal Priest, teacher) In
Islam as such there is no place for a separate group
of clerical elements, but Shahi Imams do come up. In
practice the matters are the same and a section of
Mullahs and Maulavis do play the same role as that
played by any other clergy in other religions.

The pattern is not uniform. The secularization, the
reduction in the hold of clergy on social-political
affairs, runs parallel with the extent if democratic
process. More the democratization process, lesser is
the influence; dominance of clergy. At places clergy
has also changed its social role depending on the
social situation. People like Swami Agnivesh; though
in saffron robes are closer to the deprived and
destitute, addressing their problems. Ramakrishna
Mission was Swami Vivekanandaís contribution for a
similar purpose. The whole trend of liberation
theology works in the same direction. A sincere
implementation of Zakat is aimed at the same.

The rooting of secularism in countries is not due to
any particular religion. It is there due to the
elimination/diminution of the powers of
landlords/clergy. When it is claimed that Hinduism is
tolerant so we have secularism, it has nothing to do
with the truth. Secularism stands not only for equal
citizenship rights of people of all religions, it also
stands for the abolition of caste/class and gender
hierarchy. None of the institutions of religion
tolerate this equality of caste, class and gender.
These values of hierarchy, in the post colonial phase
have also assumed the form of politics in the name of
religion, fundamentalism of different hues. Most of
the fundamentalist movements emerging from different
religions are opposed to the process of transformation
of caste and gender equations towards equality.
Talking of the things closer at home, India, one can
see that Hindutva, the politics based on Brahiminical
tradition of Hinduism, is cleverer. It does oppose the
democracy and is trying to impose Hindu rashtra. It
perpetuates intolerance, while claiming to be
tolerant. Mahtama Gandhiís murder maybe half a century
ago, this act of intolerance was not a flash in the
pan. Just a few years ago Pastor Stains was done to
death along with two innocent sons for the sin of
working amongst leprosy patients. The projection that
our religion is in danger is again a common
denominator of all religion based politics. The
political goals of elite projected as the interests of
that religion. So Muslim League representing the
interests of Muslim elite will call for Islam in
danger and so the call for violence. The empowerment
of Adivasis through education, by the Christian
missionaries, is a threat to the interests of Hindu
elite so Hinduism in danger and so the burning of
Pastor Stains. Proud acts of tolerance!

India became secular through a struggle for democracy.
India became secular through the efforts for caste and
gender equality. It became secular through the efforts
of those who participated in the freedom movement
irrespective of their religion. Those opposed to
democracy and the values of Liberty, Equality and
Fraternity stood by the side, Muslim League and Hindu
Mahasabha; RSS, the embodiments the politics based on
the intolerant traditions of those religions. The
Hindu-ethos of saint tradition is tolerant and is the
base of democracy like their counterparts in other
religions. The intolerant traditions of those
religions are represented by the politics which calls
either for Hindu Rashtra, Christian state or Islamic
state.


____


[4]

(i)

The Telegraph
December 03, 2005

Editorial

REVEALING FEARS

Old women can have all the fun. Women in Pushkar in Rajasthan, whether
of the soil or from overseas, cannot be touched by men, even their
husbands, in public unless they are old or infirm. Good manners are
prohibited — no man is to help a woman get out of a car. Perhaps divine
forces will take care of women when they fall. In this thriving and
beautiful centre for tourists from within and outside the country, women
apparently will be ticked off if they talk to strangers on the street,
and hugging, kissing or embracing between men and women in public places
is obviously unthinkable. The Ajmer Authority, which has brought out a
20-page booklet with a series of priceless guidelines “to educate
foreign tourists about local culture and sensibilities”, has kindly
informed the ignorant that in Indian culture, men socialize with men and
women with women.

All this could have been seen as a lunatic reaction to complaints about
Israeli tourists dancing naked around a fire and a nude Finnish woman
walking from her hotel for a dip in the sacred lake. But the symptoms of
the disease had been visible earlier too, when an Israeli couple were
fined for kissing after being married the Hindu way. So virulent is this
form of allergy to the body that the Ajmer Authority is unconscious of
the irony of its guidelines. Pushkar may welcome old women, but will it
— given its authorities’ puritanical ague — publicly welcome homosexuals
from all over the world too? There should be all-round satisfaction when
men socialize with men and women with women.

A certain imbalance in cultural encounters is only to be expected in
tourist spots. Visitors are supposed to abide by the law of the land
they are visiting, and public nudity is against the law in India. For
people who are from cultures which require less restraint regarding the
display of the body, sensitiveness to the law of the host culture can be
expected. But the Ajmer Authority, which, ironically again, seems bent
on annihilating the tourist revenue of Pushkar, is not talking about
law. Or, rather, it may be pushing the law against indecency to
invisible limits. The court there can fine people, wherever they are
from, for embracing after getting married. That is astonishing enough,
and the booklet takes amazement further when it talks about local
culture and sensibilities. In effect, the guidelines are an insult to
local inhabitants: they are projected as unnatural, bad-mannered,
immature to the point of being moronic, easily led and primeval in their
outlook. It is silly enough talking about local sensibilities and
culture in a country that has among its tourist spots Khajuraho and
Konarak and the Kamasutra — not to mention far more erotic texts — in
its literature. But the silliest thing is to be terrorized into giving
ludicrous orders at the thought of nude foreign bodies.


o o o

(ii)

HindustanTimes.com

Editorial

One hurdle too many

December 3, 2005

The home Ministry’s response to a petition filed in the Supreme Court
for removing homosexuality as an ‘offence’ is myopic in its approach.
The ministry has trashed the NGO, Naz Foundation’s request, claiming
there was no evidence that the inclusion of homosexuality as a sexual
offence hampered its work for the Aids affected. It is ironic that the
petition was returned even as the PM exhorted the nation to shed
inhibitions in talking about sexuality issues. That the Planning
Commission and the Law Commission have recommended legalising
prostitution and homosexuality has been ignored by ministry officials.

In being dismissive of the issue, officials have highlighted the urgent
need to re-engineer the paradigm on which we view the Aids scourge. To
understand the linkages, one can also look at similar constraints faced
by NGOs funded by the US for Aids work with prostitutes — sex work being
illegal and closely linked with crimes of trafficking. We are not
drawing parallels between prostitution and alternative sexuality on the
basis of their vulnerability to HIV. But like the US, we are struggling
to meet urgent healthcare needs without endorsing practices that may
lead to increased vulnerability to HIV. A human being cannot be denied
healthcare on the basis of his work or sexual orientation. The
government should not be allowed to be held hostage to dogmatic beliefs.

Let’s not hold sexual orientation against a citizen’s rights to testing
and treatment. Privacy issues aside (a person’s preferences is none of
our business), it is a duty to treat the ailment, not victimise the
patient. The virus is spreading at an alarming rate among heterosexual
populations too. Discriminatory policies will only be self-defeating.

___


[5]

National Campaign for People’s Right to Information

2 December 2005
PRESS STATEMENT

The National Campaign for People’s Right to Information strongly
condemns the effort of the government to limit the scope of the Right to
Information Act by attempting to further restrict access to various
types of file notings. This is clearly a retrograde step, which, if it
succeeds, will encourage unscrupulous government functionaries to
continue dispensing patronage and exercising arbitrary power.
Without access to notings, there is no real transparency as the decision
that a government takes cannot be evaluated unless one knows the basis
on which that decision was taken and the options that were considered
and rejected. Surely, in a democracy, all decisions of the government
must be able to stand up to public scrutiny. Besides, sensitive
information, including file notings, that it is in public interest to
exempt from disclosure, are already protected under section 8 of the Act.
The oft-repeated argument that public access to file notings would
pressurise officials against expressing their views frankly, is a
seriously flawed one. The pressure to give dishonest or wrong advice, or
advice that is not in keeping with public interest or the law, comes not
from the public but from bureaucratic and political bosses, who already
have access to file notings without needing the RTI act. In fact, public
accessibility of notings would help ensure that officers are not
pressurised into recording notes that are not in public interest, and
that decisions are based on reasonable grounds and are not arbitrary or
self serving. This would strengthen the hands of the honest and
conscientious officers and expose the dishonest and self serving ones.
The exclusion of notings from the purview of the RTI Act would also be
contrary to the recommendation of the National Advisory Council, which
has clearly taken the position that file notings are an integral part of
a file and of the decision making process, and should therefore be as
much in the public domain as any other information covered by the RTI law.
It any case, the government cannot restrict access to notings just by
suitably drafting rules for the RTI Act. As the definition of
information, which includes “any material in any form, including .…
advices, opinions…” is contained in the Act and not in any rule, it
cannot be amended through the rules. Similarly, as exemptions and
exclusions are also listed in the Act and not in any rule, they cannot
be added to through the rules.
The NCPRI is also distressed at the prevailing tendency of various
security agencies to seek to be excluded from the RTI Act. This is
despite that fact that all information the disclosure of which would
prejudicially affect the security of India has already been exempted
from disclosure in section 8(1) (a). We are firmly of the view that
making security agencies more accountable is essential to the
improvement of their functioning. We, therefore, strongly oppose the
inclusion of any other agencies under schedule two of the Act and, in
fact, believe that it will be in the interest of the country to remove
from the schedule some of the agencies that are currently listed there.
We, therefore, urge the government to desist from any move that will
weaken the RTI law and be contrary to the resolve of the people of India
to move towards a transparent and accountable government and a
participatory democracy.


Aruna Roy               Shekhar Singh
On behalf of the Working Committee of the NCPRI


Working Committee: Ajit Bhattacharjea, Anjali Bhardwaj, Aruna Roy,
Arvind Kejriwal,
Bharat Dogra, Harsh Mander, Maja Daruwala, Nikhil Dey, Prabhash Joshi,
Prakash Kardaley, Prashant Bhushan, Shailesh Gandhi, Suman Sahai,
Vishaish Uppal, Shekhar Singh  (Convenor)

___


[6] EXHIBITS

(i)

The Hindu
Dec 03, 2005 	

Madhya Pradesh: Photo expo on Bhopal gas tragedy

Staff Correspondent

A survivor, who lost his parents and 5 siblings 21 years ago in the
disaster, opens it

Photo: A.M. Faruqui

REMEMBERING THEIR LOVED ONES: Visitors at the museum of `Yaad-e-Haadsaa'
on the eve of 21st anniversary of Bhopal gas disaster in Bhopal on Friday.

BHOPAL: A collection of photographs, souvenirs and notes from friends
and families of those killed by the 1984 poisonous gas leak here was
inaugurated on Friday by Sunil Kumar, a survivor, who lost his parents
and five siblings in the colossal disaster 21 years ago.

The collection named Yaad-e-Haadsaa (in the memory of the disaster), is
an initiative of seven support organisations working for the cause of
the victims. Housed in a small building close to the now abandoned Union
Carbide plant, it has 40 photographs, souvenirs and notes. There are
also photographs and literature relating to Dow Chemical, Union Carbide
Corporation and on the contamination of groundwater in the vicinity of
the factory. Photographs depicting different aspects of the victims'
struggle and the fight for justice and dignity over the last 21 years
have also been displayed. The organisations behind the expo are Bhopal
Gas Peedit Mahila Stationary Karmachari Sangh, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila
Purush Sangharsh Morcha, Bhopal Ki Awaaz, Bhopal Group for Information
and Action, Chirag Trust and Sambhavna Trust.

o o o

(ii)

Anhad & Peace

Invite you to the opening of the exhibition

"in defence of democracy"

On 6th December, 2005 at 5pm at Arpana Art Gallery
Academy of Fine Arts & Literature
4/6, Siri Fort Institutional Area
Khel Gaon Marg, New Delhi-110049

Mr.Javed Akhtar

Will be the guest of honour

The Exhibition will remain open from 11am to 7pm till December 9, 2005

In Defence of Democracy: An Exhibition

When the secular forces and civil society were engaged in building the
nation and grappling with the questions of development such as
eradication of illiteracy, poverty, epidemic, floods and famines, the
communal formations both Hindu and Muslim, abetting each other, were
busy creating a communal mindset. Drawing strength from the fabricated
history and fictitious present day realities, the hate campaigns,
unleashed by them, gradually corroded the secular and democratic fabric
of the country. In the past decade, especially after their successful
demolition of an obscure mosque, the communal-fascists have increased
their divisive crusades. They are no more on the periphery of Indian
social engineering project. Through covert and overt operat ions they
today occupy fairly large spaces particularly in northern parts of India.

The urgency to intervene in defence of democracy, secularism and justice
has never been more pressing than in the conditions prevailing in the
country today. There is a recognizable change in the general tenor of
public discourse; unlike in the past, it is informed more by the
communal than by secular ethos. The prejudices against minorities are
widely shared as a result of motivated and sustained propaganda. In the
face of concerted social mobilization mounted by commu nal organizations
by invoking religious symbols and sentiments, liberal civil society has
come under a siege. Nevertheless, it is evident from the large number of
secular democratic initiatives by political parties, voluntary
organizations and individuals that society is seized of the need for
sustained and constructive action for strengthening secularism and
democracy and for realising justice and peace. Their numbers and
strength are not inconsequential. Yet, there are moments when the
communal ideologies and social and political organisations appear to be
poised to conquer. The resounding defeat by the mass of ordinary people
of the BJP led political alliance is a significant but not decisive
victory for secular democracy. The fountainhead of the BJP, the RSS can
never be voted out of power. While it regroups, the secular parties
remain weak-kneed, defensive and indecisive.

There are thousands of small groups across India who are working for a
secular, democratic country and resisting the onslaught of the communal
fascist forces but they do not have access to authentic facts which they
can use to propagate secular values and to counter prejudices or wrong
facts which are spread by the communal forces.

This exhibition is a small attempt in the struggle against the communal
forces. The exhibition highlights those aspects from the Indian history
and culture which talk of pluralism. Exhibition is broadly divided into
the following sections: the legacy of the freedom movement, the vision
of a secular India as enshrined in our constitution, the threat to the
secular fabric by the communal and fundamentalist forces, the process of
communalization of the Indian society, the myth of minority appeasement
and the reality behind conversions, the status of minorities, the attack
on minorities, our composite cultural heritage and the need to preserv e it.

The exhibition has 60 panels 2.5 x 4 feet size. It‚s printed on flex.
There would be 20 sets of the exhibition: English and Hindi five each
and one each in Urdu, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam,
Oriya, Kannada, Punjabi, and Bengali. The exhibition is ready in English
and is being translated into other languages.

Dissemination: The exhibition would be inaugurated in a number of cities
over the next six months. After the opening it will travel within
different states. Over the coming six months the exhibition is expected
to be seen by thousands of people across India (Delhi and Jaipur
December 6th, Ahmedabad, Nagpur-December 10th).

The exhibition has been conceived, researched and executed by Shabnam
Hashmi, designed by Pervez, Subject experts: Harsh Mander and Ram
Puniyani. Those who have contributed to the text (apart from a large
number of resource material and books): Harsh Mander, Ram Puniyani,
Sohail Hashmi, Shabnam Hashmi. Produced by Anhad and Peace (Popular
Education and Action Centre), Printed at Pullshoppe.



____


[8]

[A review of the film 'Amu', written by SANSAD board members and supporters.
sansad.org ]

o o o

Amu and Beyond: Women's Narratives Disrupting History

By: Kamal Arora, Usamah Ahmad, Saydia Gulrukh Kamal

Amu (2005), directed by Shonali Bose, recently screened at the
Vancouver International Film Festival and is currently screening at
various festival venues across North America. The film follows a young
Indian-American named Kaju (Konkona Sensharma) who, while visiting her
family in Delhi, begins to trace her biological parents.  During this
process she inadvertently uncovers Delhi's shame around the 1984
bloodbath of Sikhs after Indira Gandhi's assassination on October 31st.
The film's narrative is at first framed through her camera lens ˆ it
negotiates the relationship between her position as a returning
Indian-American and the nation she has long since been distant from. As
she learns the deep connection between her history and 1984, the camera
becomes less visible and her relationship to the events becomes more
intimate. Women dominate the landscape of the film, and it is their
narratives that unravel the lived experiences of 1984.

Despite the fact that the conventional political history of India
emphasized its communal and factional nature, the relationship between
the Sikh and Hindu communities remains largely unattended. Often
communalism in Indian history is referred as the tension between Hindu
and Muslim communities alone. Inevitably, this convention ignored the
complex relationships between different communities in India, while also
obscuring the similarities between religious discord and conflict along
other social divides. The silencing of 1984 follows this tradition. Amu
opens up avenues to reexamine this history and suggests that the 1984
carnage was not merely a communal event. Though the Punjab crisis has
its roots before India's partition in 1947, this event added to the
conditions that would eventually lead to the events of 1984. As a
consequence of partition, Sikhs who were before scattered across what is
now Pakistani and Indian Punjab were unwillingly forced to migrate into
the eastern third of historic Punjab. During the years that followed,
the government failed to meet the demands of Punjab to have more
autonomous control over its resources.  This is related to problems in
how the Indian Constitution organizes the relationship between
individual provinces and the central government through federalism. On
November 1 1966, as a result of the Punjabi Subah movement, a separate
state for Punjabi speaking people was created.

This movement was led by the Akali Dal, a regional Punjabi political
party. Due to growing unease around State control of Punjabi resources,
and desires for greater Sikh visibility within the context of growing
Hindu influence over Indian political culture, the non-violent militant
Akali Dal movement formulated the 1973 Anandpur Sahib Resolution that
demanded such things as greater allocation of water for irrigation,
recognition of Amritsar as a holy city, release of political prisoners
who were thought to be terrorists, and generally more provincial control
of resources.

In January 1980, national parliamentary elections brought Indira Gandhi
back into power. In February 1980, President's Rule was declared by
Gandhi in Punjab and eight other states, which dissolved these states'
legislatures and forced new elections.  This led to increased
politicization of segments of Punjabi society and increased interest in
re-emphasizing the demands made by the Akali Dal in the 1970's. In 1981,
the Akali Dal submitted a list of 45 grievances and demands to the
Indian government. Indira Gandhi's Congress party was threatened by the
popularity of the Akali Dal and initiated strategic alliances with the
more radical and militant Sikh leader Jarnail Singh Bindhranwale.  This
relationship fell apart when Bindranwale's faction became increasingly
militant in their demands.  The Bhindranwale supporters became known for
their demands for a Khalistan, a separate Sikh state.

On June 5th, 1984, the Indian army began an extensive military invasion
in Punjab centred around the Golden Temple.  The stated rationale for
this action was an attempt to specifically capture Bhindranwale and his
supporters who were residing inside at that time. Simultaneous actions
were taken throughout Punjab, including the military occupation of
various gurdwaras, extensive curfews and a total censorship of the
press. Due to this censorship, casualties are difficult to estimate
though  numbers range from one thousand to eight thousand deaths in the
Golden Temple complex alone. This operation was not an isolated event
but continued to impact daily life for Punjabis afterwards through daily
dawn-to-dusk curfews, censorship and dissolution of Punjabi state
legislative authority.  On October 31st, 1984, Indira Gandhi was
assassinated by two Sikh bodyguards.

Violence, that was clearly supported and facilitated by state
officials' action and inaction, broke out in Delhi immediately
thereafter. The media decontextualized Gandhi's assassination,
constructing it as a communal event -  a Hindu prime minister being
brutally murdered by Sikh fanatics. Though its irresponsible actions
influenced the violence, the media did not orchestrate the carnage.
National and local government administrators and elected officials were
either directly involved or implicated in the violence. For example,
Congress administrators recruited hoodlums from villages outside of
Delhi to carry out systematic looting, killing and raping of Sikh
residents.  Congress officials and police were seen supervising the
atrocities, providing kerosene to the perpetrators and identifying Sikh
homes and shops. For three days, the government did
nothing to stop the bloodbath. Estimates of the killings range from
three thousand to more than twenty thousand.

These events were merely not statistical additions to add to the
numbers killed by communal violence in Indian history. Beyond numbers,
the lived experiences of 1984 - the effects of which continue to this
day - are silenced. Women's narratives are specifically and
systematically excluded from the public discourse on1984. In February of
2005, one of us traveled to Amritsar on a pilgrimage. A family member
told Kamal of a female friend who had been living in a gurdwara and
urged her to visit the woman. Kamal knew little about her and did not
have an exact address or telephone number. After asking many temple
volunteers, Kamal and her friend finally located her home. The woman was
very welcoming and for the next hour discussed her experiences of 1984.
Her husband was killed years ago during a government incursion, and they
had no children. During Operation Blue Star, she was falsely accused of
insurgency, arrested and sent to jail for six months. She has been
living in the temple for the past twenty years and continues to do
community work in the temple as well as with local children. Women's
lives, thus, continue to be affected by 1984 and women continue to enact
strategies of struggle and to speak out. Hearing her speak influenced
Kamal's own identity and personal relationship with the genocide.

Amu's highlighting of women's narratives, similar to the one
experienced above, surrounding the events ˆ and its aftermath ˆ disrupt
  dominant historiography.  As the  story progresses and Kaju's search
for answers around her family's relationship to 1984 evolves, we learn
how the main character, Kaju, is intricately tied to the carnage through
multiple layers. Firstly, the events of 1984 are revealed through Kaju's
adopted mother's narration about her work in relief camps for Sikhs
affected by the bloodshed.  This exemplifies how women were active in
addressing the human costs of violence.  Secondly, Kaju herself searches
for the silenced narratives of 1984. Through her rigorous and steadfast
search for truth, the audience becomes responsible witnesses for, and
of, the events.
Thirdly, Kaju's birth-mother directly engages in resistance as she
confronts members of the Indian administration and their lack of action.
These narratives, then, do not construct women as mere victims of
violence but highlight that though people's lives are greatly affected,
women never cease to struggle and enact strategies of resistance.

On another level, Amu's characters illustrate how carnage is not
limited to the violence of killing but that other forms of violence
sprung up from the events of 1984 ˆ the long-lasting and
intergenerational scars of losing parents, children, and community. The
circumstances that lead to Kaju's adoption, for example, are a glaring
example of this.  It is revealed that the orchestrated killings
shattered her family's existence and fractured her sense of self and
location. Moreover, Kaju's narration reveals how violence, though
effecting everyone, clearly impacts the lives of women in ways not
experienced by men.  It is aspects of these gendered experiences that
are usually silenced in the historiography of violence.

These narratives, then, disrupt how 1984 is usually understood; that
is, through the analysis of Œcommunal violence' and discussions on
Œelectoral gains' that emphasize statistics on casualties, property
costs and the particulars of policy, rather than how the events affected
the people who experienced the violence ˆ their stories remain largely
undocumented. Communalism, which itself is a colonial construct, has
become a way of understanding South Asian history, specifically
producing certain types of religious subjectivities, then constructing
them as naturally conflictual. Moreover, communalism only identifies
religious difference as sources for strife and subsequently obscures
other structural inequalities such as gender and uneven political
economics.  The women speaking in Amu disrupt this trend by
problematizing the notion of coherent communal subjects. Indeed Kaju's
adopted family is Hindu-Bengali, her birth-parents are Sikh-Punjabi and
her love interest is Hindi-speaking Hindu; furthermore, these positions
are shown as fractured along class and gender lines. The result is a
representation of characters whose ethnic and religious subjectivites
are fluid ˆ indeed by the end of the movie, Kaju puts on a kara, a
symbol of Sikh identity.  This further complicates the simplistic binary
notion of factional 'communal' relationships.

Ultimately then, the film, through approaching the complexities of the
classed and gendered experiences of 1984, facilitates a new
understanding of violence - violence as lived experience rather than
mere statistics, violence as affecting all aspects of existence
including identity, and how these narratives of 1984 continue on in the
experiences of Sikh women today.



_____

[9]

INSAF Bulletin 44 - December 2005


International South Asia Forum  Bulletin
December 2005
http://www.insaf.net

Editors, Daya Varma (Montreal) and Vinod Mubayi (New York). Proof and
editing: Yumna Siddiqi (Middlebury); circulation/website: Ramya
Chellappa (New York).

1.	Patna today, Delhi tomorrow (Daya Varma)

2. Disenfranchising people, a deplorable move by LTTE (Daya Varma)

3.  Natwar singh should be commended and not criticized for his role in
OFFP (Daya Varma)

4.  Mau riots: who instigated and why? (CPI-ML investigation; Y Sikand
interviews MA Afzal)

5. News briefs:  (5.1) Montreal earthquake relief concert
(5.2)Association of Indian Muslims of America condemns Delhi bomb blast
(5.3) Unorganised workers campaign for  socialism and people's rule
(5.4) Punjab cops convicted in 1995 murder of Khalra (5.5)Doctors take
up the issue of health for all

6. NEPAL Update: (6.1). Nepal Maoists display political wisdom (Daya
Varma), (6.2). The seven parliamentary parties and the CPN (Maoist)
reach an understanding (Press release),  6.3. US  a roadblock to peace
and democracy (6.4). CHINA offers military aid to monarchy, (6.5). Nepal
Maoists set peace terms (Sudeshna Sarkar, The Statesman, November 21
2005)

7. Obituary: 7.1. K.R. Narayanan  by Kaleem Kawaja  (7.2)  Amrita Pritam
by Ishtiaq  Ahmed


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

Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on
matters of peace and democratisation in South
Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit
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SACW archive is available at: bridget.jatol.com/pipermail/sacw_insaf.net/

DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not
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