SACW | 28 Dec. 2005 | Food insecurity / Sri Lanka Violence / Indo-Pak Peace March / India: Communal Violence Bill / Repression in Narmada

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire | 28 Dec, 2005 | Dispatch No. 2192


[1] Food insecurity in South Asia (Jayati Ghosh)
[2] Sri Lanka: Life after Tsunami and a War in the Making
(i) Challenges of Post-disaster Development of Coastal Areas in Sri
Lanka (N. Shanmugaratnam)
(ii) Wider Significance of the Incidents in Pesalai and the University
of Jaffna (UTHR)
(iii) Political Engagement Only Way To Curb Extremism, Intolerance And
Violence (National Peace Council)
[3] Citizens Mobilisation for Peace on the Pakistan India Border
(i) Peace mela at Khokrapar (Letters to the Editor, Dawn)
(ii) Indian, Pak families march for peace (Harsha Kumari Singh)
[4] India: Fighting political corruption (Praful Bidwai)
[5] India: Combating communal violence (Siddharth Narrain)
[6] India: Excessive use of force against peaceful demonstrators in
Narmada river valley (Amnesty International)
[7] India: RSS - Living up to its name (I.K.Shukla)
[8] India: Rajasthan MLAs to fund RSS schools (Rajan Mahan)
[9] Film Review: Polluted Waters [on sexual exploitation of
widows](Namrata Joshi)

___


[1]

The Asian Age

FOOD INSECURITY IN SOUTH ASIA
by Jayati Ghosh

Across South Asia, food insecurity remains a major policy challenge.
This is despite the fact the food production has increased in all the
countries of South Asia (albeit at a declining rate) so that at a macro
level, these countries do not face aggregate shortage.

The table below reveals that all countries in the South Asian region
have even been exporting some amount of food grain, and the balance is
positive in all countries except Bangladesh for 2002.

These countries have transformed themselves from food deficit countries
in the Sixties and Seventies to food surplus countries in the Eighties
and Nineties. However, increased food production has not been
accompanied by greater household and individual food security for
significant sections of the population.

Across the region, there is evidence of inadequate nutrition and food
insecurity, reflected most starkly in declining per capita calorie
consumption even among the poorest quartile of the population.

In India, per capita food grain consumption declined from 476 grams per
day in 1990 to only 418 grams per day in 2001, and even aggregate
calorific consumption per capita declined from just over 2,200 calories
per day in 1987-1988 to around 2,150 in 1999-2000. This decline was
marked even among the bottom 40 per cent of the population, where it was
unlikely to reflect Engels curve type shifts in consumer choice, but
rather relative prices and the inability to consume enough food due to
income constraints.

Nutritional deficiencies remain huge — at least half the children in
India (and possibly more in Pakistan) are born with protein deficiency,
and anaemia and iron deficiency are also widespread and severe problems.

World Bank estimates reveal that

around 35 per cent of the population is chronically undernourished in
Bangladesh, followed by 25 per cent in India, 20 per cent in Nepal and
Pakistan, and 25 per cent in Sri Lanka.

What is worse is that there has been little change in the prevalence of
under-nutrition in South Asian countries from the early Nineties through
the late Nineties, and if anything, level of food insecurity has
worsened slightly during the Nineties. This is unlike other parts of the
developing world — such as China, Indonesia, Malawi and Kenya, all of
which have made more than a 25 per cent reduction in the level of
undernourishment during the last decade.

Two policy related forces have played substantial indirect roles in
declining food security: the agrarian crisis and inadequate employment
generation, both of which have meant that patterns of changes in
purchasing power have not encouraged better food security. But there are
also direct effects of misguided policies which have directly damaged
food security — as in the case of India since the mid Nineties, when
attempts to reduce the Central government's food subsidy by increasing
the price of food in the public distribution system led to declining
sales and excess holding of food stocks.

These meant more losses, and therefore a larger level of food subsidy,
even as more people within the country went hungry, and ultimately
several million tons of food grain were exported at ridiculously low
prices despite widespread hunger and malnutrition within the country.

Even without these extreme cases, the general tendency to run down
public distribution systems for food has been evident across South Asia,
even in countries like Sri Lanka where this was earlier an integral part
of the overall development strategy. This obviously has an impact on
poor households in general, but it also has a very specific gender
dimension, as women and girl children in poor households get
disproportionately deprived.

Loss of livelihood is typically the key shock factor that then generates
a process that culminates in greater hunger and malnourishment.

This has certainly been the case in most of South Asia, and explains the
apparent conundrum of the coexistence of higher production and lower
prices of food with continued, widespread and even increasing incidence
of hunger. As world trade prices of food have fallen, incomes of the
poor (especially the rural poor) in most parts of South Asia have fallen
even further, reflecting the general stagnation of productive employment
opportunities and worsening of livelihood conditions.

The irony is that cultivators are suffering from this — and from related
increases in food insecurity — just as much or even more than other
groups. And this is probably the most significant single conjectural
cause of the continued prevalence of widespread malnourishment.

The macroeconomic causes for livelihood insecurity come dominantly from
the effects of market deregulation and reduction of state expenditure
that have marked the last decade and a half across South Asia.

This means that, just as land reforms and more equal property
distribution remain the key to solving the structural problem of hunger,
the more transient or temporary evidence of hunger must be dealt with
through macroeconomic policies that firmly commit government to much
greater degrees of involvement, investment and regulation.

http://www.asianage.com/?INA=2:175:175:199781
© 2005 The Asian Age


____



[2]

(i)

www.sacw.net - December 26, 2005

CHALLENGES OF POST-DISASTER DEVELOPMENT OF COASTAL AREAS IN SRI LANKA
by N. Shanmugaratnam
http://www.sacw.net/peace/ChallengesPostdisasterShanNovember20051.pdf

o o o

(ii)

The University Teachers For Human Rights, Jaffna
UTHR(Jaffna) Sri Lanka

Briefing No.5

Date of Release :  27th December 2005

WIDER SIGNIFICANCE OF THE INCIDENTS IN PESALAI AND THE UNIVERSITY OF JAFFNA

1.Murder in the Cathedral
2.In the North: A Menacing Speech
3.Murder in Pungudutivu
4.Pesalai Incident
5.The child soldier
6.University of Jaffna
7.Incidents on 20th December 2005
8.Terror at Home and Deception Abroad
9.Mishandling of an Explosive Situation

http://www.uthr.org/Briefings/Briefing5.htm


o o o

(iii)

26.12.05

Media Release

POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT ONLY WAY TO CURB EXTREMISM, INTOLERANCE AND VIOLENCE

The serious and tragic acts of violence in the north east in gross
violation of the Ceasefire Agreement continue to take the country closer
to disaster and to the resumption of a war that the people do not want.
The National Peace Council condemns the assassination of Hon. Joseph
Pararajasingham, MP who was shot dead at Christmas Mass being celebrated
by the Bishop of Batticaloa. Mr Pararajasingham was associated with the
pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance. Those who planned this assassination
and carried it out in front of families at worship on a day of peace and
goodwill demonstrated no respect for religion and culture.  This gross
act of violence deprives the country of a voice of moderation and
decency that sought to straddle the imperatives of Tamil nationalism and
of Sri Lankan unity.

The National Peace Council also condemns the landmine attack on a bus
carrying naval personnel by suspected LTTE cadre that has resulted in
the loss of at least 13 lives and other attacks on security forces
personnel taking place elsewhere in the north east. Whether those who
are killed in this brutal manner are civilian or military they are all
precious lives that must not be taken away, especially in a time of
ceasefire. In the face of these grave provocations, we call on the
government to ensure that its security forces practice maximum
restraint, especially with regard to the civilian population, in
countering and preventing such attacks.

The National Peace Council believes that it is only through political
engagement that problems of ceasefire violations, extremism and
intolerance can be addressed.The prospects of an end to the current
spate of violence will improve the sooner that the government and LTTE
meet together at the negotiating table. There is no military solution to
the ethnic conflict. We appeal that the resumption of talks should not
be delayed by the disagreement over the venue. A continued delay will
only see more killings as the violence is escalated and those who can
give leadership to moderate views from within the political system
are silenced.

Executive Director
On behalf of the Governing Council


____


[3] CITIZENS MOBILISATION FOR PEACE ON THE PAKISTAN INDIA BORDER

(i)

Letters to the Editor - Dawn
28 December 2005

PEACE MELA AT KHOKRAPAR

ABOUT three months ago the Indo-Pakistan Forum for Peace and Democracy
(both Pakistani and Indian chapters) had decided to hold a mela (you may
call it a 'demonstration') of goodwill at the Khokrapar border on Dec
23. It was decided that members of the forum from throughout Pakistan
will assemble at Mirpurkhas on Dec 22 and in the morning of Dec 23 all
of them will leave for the border via Umerkot and Khokrapar where they
will sing songs of peace and amity with India, fly kites and light
candles at sunset and, if possible, present a bouquet of flowers to the
members of Indian side. Members of Indian chapter would likewise
converge on the border on their side and do the same.

Permission had been taken from the director-general of Rangers to visit
the border.

The members of the forum duly reached Mirpurkhas by the evening of Dec
22 and in the morning of Dec 23 they left on their mission in a convoy
of cars and four-wheel drive vehicles. None of them had the foggiest
idea that someone in authority would block their way and would try to
prevent them from proceeding up to the border, specially in view of the
on-going talks to normalize the relations with India. They were in for a
shock.

When the caravan, consisting of about 40 vehicles and 250 persons,
including about 30 women, reached Umerkot at 11am, it was found that the
district administration was in no mood to permit them to proceed even up
to Khokrapar; the district Nazim and the DPO escorted us to the
rest-house in the Fort and tried to persuade us to go back. They said
they had received no intimation from the relevant quarters to allow us
to proceed further.

We pointed out that Khokrapar was a town well within the country and no
permission of any authority should be required to move within the
country but they said it was a sensitive area and, therefore, free
movement was not permitted. This tussle continued till 2.15pm. In the
meantime it was revealed that a lot of people had reached Umerkot from
the interior of Sindh much before us but the district administration
told them that the rally had been cancelled and they, therefore,
returned disappointed before we reached the place. Eventually, the
district administration allowed the caravan to proceed after delaying it
for nearly three hours.

It is difficult to fathom whose interests the district nazim and the DPO
were serving in thus trying to thwart the peaceful demonstration of
goodwill. Surely, the two officers were acting contrary to the policy of
the federal government which is trying to normalize relations between
Pakistan and India. Their negative approach needs to be condemned.

A participant
Karachi


o o o o


(ii)


NDTV.COM
http://www.ndtv.com/template/template.asp?category=National&template=Indopakfaceoff&slug=Indian%2C+Pak+families+march+for+peace&id=82896&callid=1

INDIAN, PAK FAMILIES MARCH FOR PEACE

Harsha Kumari Singh

Sunday, December 25, 2005 (Munabao):

The border checkpost between Munabao and Khokrapar has been closed ever
since the 1965 war with Pakistan.

Families living on both sides of the border were divided after the only
rail link in this region between Munabao and Khokrapar was closed post 1965.

But while the border may have been sealed, hearts and minds across
political divisions are still one.

It was with a powerful expression of solidarity that people from both
India and Pakistan marched to point zero.

Unique march

What made this march unique was that it took place in a region that has
had little influence on setting Indo-Pak agendas. So far the focus on
border issues between the two countries has been dominated by Punjab and
Kashmir.

"Relations between the two countries should not be between governments,
but between people. That is the only way to have permanent contact,"
said Munawar Rahi, People's Forum for Peace & Democracy.

But the divided families are now hoping that the rail link between
Munabao and Khokrapar will open sometime in the new year, giving them a
chance to reunite.

It was 40 years ago that the last train from Pakistan crossed into
Munabao. After a series of confidence building measures between the two
countries, there is once again hope that families divided by the border
will be reunited.

Visa issue

But even when the train comes into India, border areas like Barmer will
not be open for visas, which for the moment are likely to be issued only
for Jodhpur.

"Along with the rail, Barmer should also be open to Pakistani visitors.
The train should stop at Barmer. Jodhpur is too far for us. We are poor
and uneducated people," said Haji Shaqoor, a Pak citizen.

"We want to request the government to allow our relatives from across
the border into Jaisalmer and Barmer. Most of the people here have
families across the border," said Khudadad Khailfa, another Pak citizen.

It has taken 40 years to reopen the border checkpost and it may take
another few years to sort tricky visa issues.

But for those from both India and Pakistan, who stood at point zero for
peace, it was with the belief that it is better to light one candle than
curse the darkness.


____


[4]

The News International
December 24, 2005

FIGHTING POLITICAL CORRUPTION

by Praful Bidwai

The writer, a former newspaper editor, is a researcher and peace and
human-rights activist based in Delhi

A common problem all South Asians have faced for more than
half-a-century is how to bring corrupt and irresponsible politicians to
book. The problem has proved persistent despite differences in degrees
of democratisation of our societies and the divergent political
conventions we follow.

One solution the public has devised is to give our elections a
plebiscitary character. We punish errant politicians by rejecting or
voting them out. But this leaves a fundamental gap unaddressed --
namely, the absence of a real choice based on clearly demarcated
policies and programmes between our political parties.

  Here, the media has sometimes played a helpful role in acting as the
public's watchdog or whistle-blower and exposing our lawmakers'
wrong-doing. In India, media representatives have over the past five
years conducted 'sting' operations by posing as potential bribe-givers
and catching politicians in the act of taking or agreeing to take bribes.

The first such big operation was the Tehelka cash-on-camera expose,
staged in 2001 by a web portal, which has since turned into a weekly
print magazine. Tehelka stung a number of politicians and their
accomplices by sending people posing as defence contractors' agents
looking for clinching or expediting deals, in particular for the
purchase of night-vision glasses. Among those caught red-handed were the
then Bharatiya Janata Party president Bangaru Laxman and officer-bears
of Defence Minister George Fernandes's party.

Last fortnight, two television channels exposed 18 members of
parliament. The Aaj Tak channel's 'Operation Duryodhana' showed 11 MPs
accepting cash to raise parliament questions. And Star News did a
"sting"-based story, which showed MPs accepting kickbacks for
sanctioning funds from the Rs2 crores annually available under the MP
Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS).

MPLADS is meant to finance small capital works in an MP's constituency
at his/her discretion. In reality, it has long been used to distribute
illegitimate patronage. It was launched by Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha
Rao in 1993 with dubious motives -- as part of a 'package' to buy
support for his minority government, which included bribing MPs from a
small regional party.

Cumulatively, Rs12,800 crores have been spent under MPLADS so far -- a
sum higher than the Union government's elementary education budget! It's
widely believed that MPLADS funds are channelled to favoured contractors
who will give kickbacks to MPs. Many fictitious, irrelevant, or me-too
projects have been sanctioned under the scheme.

It's tempting for MPs to exploit a scheme that's totally 'above board'
to buy support from key groups. Some Northeastern states have also
adopted similar schemes where each MLAs can spend/sanction a substantial
Rs1 crore! This is a recipe for wasting public funds. Under India's
Constitution, MPs have no executive power, which MPLADS illegitimately
bestows upon them. The scheme should be scrapped.

The cash-for-questions scam corrodes an important democratic device, the
parliament question. MPs can ask questions to extract official
information and rationale behind government policies so they can
scrutinise these. Even cynical government officials take parliament
questions seriously because they can be punished for lying.

It's outrageous that MPs should ask parliament questions at the behest
of vested interests, which want to embarrass their competitors or
influence policy. The Indian pharmaceuticals industry has long been
notorious for this. Even if a question is genuine, it's wrong to accept
a bribe for asking it. If it's not authentic, the offence is doubly
deplorable.

The two exposes highlight the need to make India's political system more
participatory and accountable.

It's noteworthy that 6 of the 11 MPs caught in 'Operation Duryodhana'
belong to the Bharatiya Janata Party, as do 4 of the 7 in MPLADS. This
demolishes the BJP's claim to be a "party with a difference" -- composed
of people with integrity and convictions (however wrong). Over the
years, the BJP's supposedly 'austere' political worker has been edged
out by carpet-baggers, or bitten by the corruption bug himself. Four of
the 7 BJP MPs trapped in 'Duryodhan' are RSS activists!

The sting exposes have generated anger, and strengthened the view that
politicians are uniquely corrupt. Some reactions are clearly excessive.
A small-sample opinion poll found that 76 per cent of people think the
tainted MPs shouldn't only lose their seats. Forty-nine per cent think
they should be barred from elections for life, and 26 per cent that they
should be jailed. One percent would like to hang them! Two-thirds say
less than 10 percent of politicians are 'honest'.

This expresses an upper-class anti-politics prejudice. Politicians are
certainly no more corrupt than the businessmen who bribe them.
Corruption is rampant in India. A Transparency International survey
finds that Indians annually pay more than Rs21,000 crores in bribes to
secure public services. Fully 80 per cent bribe the police -- 14 per
cent just to file a First Information Report and seven per cent to avoid
false arrests!

Among India's most corrupt institutions are schools and hospitals.
Schools alone make Rs4,000 crores in bribes.

The upper class can be extremely hypocritical about corruption. Take its
remarkably hostile reaction to the current drive launched under court
orders to demolish 18,000 blatantly illegal constructions in Delhi.
These thieves of public space are protesting the demolition with almost
righteous anger: had they not paid municipal officials Rs5 lakhs to
start unauthorised building, and then Rs1 lakh a month during construction?

Such protests show the rich have internalised the culture of corruption.
They have no right to condemn others for doing the same -- and even less
to single out politicians. Many politicians are corrupt but other groups
are equally, if not more, so. The 'Duryodhana' MPs took a maximum of
Rs1.1 lakh. But Indian businessmen have under- and over-invoiced exports
and imports to transfer an estimated Rs90,000 crores to 450,000 crores
abroad!

We should judge political leaders by strict criteria because they
represent us. But other groups shouldn't be let off the hook. All
holders of public office, and beneficiaries of government actions, must
be accountable. That's a fundamental requirement of democracy. This
means applying the rule of law universally and bringing the bureaucracy
effectively within the ambit of the Right to Information Act, which
India has just passed.

However, how do we make lawmakers accountable? Four measures are
necessary. First, the sting operations warrant exemplary punishment,
such as the tainted MPs' disqualification from elections for six years.
This will help deter political wrong-doing.

Second, we must establish the right to recall MPs for incompetence or
corruption. Third, our MPs or MNAs must evolve a code of conduct. This
was first proposed in India in 1951, but fell through. It was revived in
1993, and led to the creation of Ethics Committees in Parliament's two
Houses. Under the code, MPs must truthfully record their assets and
interests, especially in government contracts. All their actions which
have a bearing on policy or monetary gain should be scrutinised under
the Right to Information Act.

Finally, there must be a focused effort to reverse the deterioration in
the quality and duration of Parliamentary debate. Equally necessary is
reform of ultra-conservative conventions which exempt government from
debating policy and from seeking Parliamentary ratification for
international agreements.

If things are to change, we must not stop at expressing anger with
corruption. We must push for real, focused, reform.

         	
____


[5]

The Hindu
December 27, 2005 	

COMBATING COMMUNAL VIOLENCE

by Siddharth Narrain

Any law specifically to deal with situations of communal violence must
be followed up by reforming the police and the criminal justice system.

THE MANMOHAN Singh Government has introduced the Communal Violence
(Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation) Bill to fulfil the United
Progressive Alliance's commitment in its National Common Minimum
Programme to "enact a model comprehensive law to deal with communal
violence." Does it fit the bill?

The demand for such a law arose following criticism of the role played
by several State Governments during communal violence. The Justice
Nanavati Commission of Inquiry into allegations of organised violence
against Sikhs in Delhi in 1984 found the attacks "were made in a
systematic manner and without much fear of the police." In an indictment
of the Government's role in the riots, the report said what initially
started as an angry outburst became "organised carnage."

The Nanavati panel report's reference to the Government's complicity in
the violence is similar to the findings of the Justice Srikrishna
Commission that probed the Mumbai riots of 1993, and the numerous
fact-finding reports on the Gujarat pogrom of 2002.

The Communal Violence Bill does little to address these concerns. It
says State Government can declare an area "communally disturbed" if the
manner and scale of violence involves the use of criminal force against
a group, caste or community that results in death or destruction of
property. The violence should be committed with a view to creating
"disharmony or feelings of enmity, hatred, or illwill" among different
groups, castes or communities. The bill also requires that for an area
to be declared "communally disturbed," there should be a danger to the
"secular fabric, integrity, unity, or internal security" of India
"unless immediate steps are taken."

The bill says that in a situation where the Centre is not satisfied with
a State Government's actions, it can "draw the attention" of the latter
to the situation and direct it to suppress the violence. If the State
does not comply, the Central Government can declare the area "communally
disturbed." However, the problem during the Gujarat pogrom was that the
Vajpayee Government at the Centre refused to invoke its existing powers
under the Constitution. Article 355 obliges the Central Government to
ensure that "the Government of every State is carried on in accordance
with the provisions of the Constitution."

This provision has to be read with Entry 2A of the Central List in the
Seventh Schedule, which empowers the Centre to deploy armed forces in a
State in aid of `civil power' — that is, in aid of State
instrumentalities responsible for maintenance of law and order. Though
these provisions are a matter of interpretation, experts are of the
opinion that they should be invoked in a Gujarat-like situation.

Besides, the bill does not ensure that public officials are made
accountable for their actions during communal violence. Though the bill
defines acts of omission and commission by public officials, it persists
with the existing requirement of sanction from the State Government
before prosecuting them. A public servant can be punished with
imprisonment of up to one year if he or she "exercises his lawful
authority in a mala fide manner, which causes or is likely to cause harm
or injury to any person or property." Under the bill, a public servant
can also be punished if he or she "wilfully omits to exercise lawful
authority vested in him" and thereby "fails to prevent the commission of
any communal violence, breach of public order or disruption in the
maintenance of service and supplies essential to the community."

The bill specifies that acts of omission by police officers include
refusal to register first information reports (FIRs), failure to
investigate and prosecute offences, and failure to provide protection to
victims. The bill says requests for grant of sanction under this Section
must be disposed of by the State Government within 30 days. But these
provisions will serve no purpose if the State Government refuses to
grant sanction to prosecute.

International obligations

The proposed bill is at variance with India's international obligations.
India has signed and ratified the Convention on the Prevention and
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide that makes it mandatory to punish
persons who commit genocide, whether they are "constitutionally
responsible rulers," public officials or private individuals.

An important suggestion by civil society groups has been to define the
crime of `genocide' and to make it applicable to all people without
exception. This means immunities attached to the official capacity of a
person both under national and international law would not apply, and
claims of sovereign immunity and privilege would not be entertained.
Crucially, under this definition, public officers would, following a
line of command, be criminally responsible for crimes committed by
forces or officers under their control.

The bill does not come anywhere near addressing the larger issues
related to the country's justice system including partisan nature of the
prosecutor, defects in the process of investigation, and a lack of fair
trial. The National Police Commission, appointed in 1977 to look at the
issue of police reforms, produced eight reports between 1979 and 1981.

These suggested measures to minimise political interference in the
functioning of the police, reduce the incidence of torture in police
custody, and make the police accountable by withdrawing the immunity
they enjoy against prosecution. The Home Ministry, instead of
implementing these suggestions, appointed another Review Committee.

There are also suggestions by the Law Commission and the National Human
Rights Commission to reform the criminal justice system that remain
unimplemented. Any attempt to enact a law specifically to deal with
situations of communal violence can, at best be a selective measure —
one that has to be followed up by addressing the desperate need for
reform of the police and the justice criminal system in the country.

o o o o

[See Also]

BOMBAY CITIZEN's INITIATIVE ON THE COMMUNAL VIOLENCE BILL 2005
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2005/12/bombay-initiative-on-communal-violence.html

____


[6]

AI Index: ASA 20/039/2005	      	

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Public Statement
23 December 2005

INDIA: EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE AGAINST PEACEFUL DEMONSTRATORS IN NARMADA
RIVER VALLEY

Amnesty International is gravely concerned by reports of excessive use
of force by police officials during a peaceful demonstration on 17
December 2005 in Badwani, Madhya Pradesh state, central India, and calls
on the Madhya Pradesh government to immediately set up an independent
inquiry into this incident.

Hundreds of people from Madhya Pradesh and the neighbouring state of
Gujarat were demonstrating in relation to the ongoing Sardar Sarovar dam
project across Narmada river. The demonstrators were concerned that
their right to compensation in the form of land following their recent
displacement was not going to be upheld. According to orders by the
Supreme Court in October 2000 and March 2005, the displaced farmers
should be provided with cultivable land in lieu of their former land.
There were fears, however, that those displaced would be provided only
with financial compensation.

Following calls by the demonstrators to meet with the state District
Collector, Mr Viswa Mohan Upadhyaya, members of the police forces
reportedly used baton sticks against the demonstrators. It is reported
that twenty people, including five women, were injured and brought to
the hospital for treatment following the incident. A 13-year-old boy,
Suren Jagan, from Avalda village, Madhya Pradesh state, sustained
multiple fracture injuries in his hand.

Amnesty International is concerned by this incident and urges the Madhya
Pradesh government to ensure that the right to peaceful assembly is
upheld and that the police, when fulfilling their public order duties,
respect human rights and use force only when strictly necessary and in a
proportionate manner. The organization also calls on the government to
ensure that the Supreme Court orders are respected and that the rights
of those displaced are upheld in full.

Background

The demonstrators were affiliated to Narmada Bachao Andolan, an
environmental social movement, who has campaigned for the last two
decades against the social and environmental consequences of large scale
dams which have been developed as part of the Narmada River Valley
Development plan.

Narmada is the fifth largest river in India and flows west over a length
of 1,312 km before draining into the Gulf of Cambay in Gujarat. The
Narmada River Valley Development plan is a twenty year multipurpose
power and irrigation project, consisting of 30 dams including two large
scale dams, which has been implemented by the states of Madhya Pradesh,
Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.


____


[7]

RSS: LIVING UP TO ITS NAME
by I.K.Shukla (17Dec.05)

Moral corruption and hardcore crime are nothing new to RSS, they are
intrinsic to it. It has filled its ethical vacuum - symbolized with its
historical treason and communal terrorism - with amazingly ardent super
venality. This is real Hindutva, - it tried to preach and propagate with
genocidal violence justifying its name: (Anti-) National Horde of
Self-seekers.

A close study of the Deccan Herald piece GLAD HANDS BJP MPS ARE ALL RSS
MEN/Dec.17, on RSS-BJP MPs caught red-handed taking bribes is
worthwhile. The bribe-takers, starkly guilty of simony, are no less than
Jesus! They are "poor", hence they are entiled to get rich (by cheating
the citizens). They are "backbenchers", hence entitled to less rigorous
standards of ethics (let them become fat cats first, then you may, more
likely may not judge them so harshly). There may be bribe- taking MPs in
other parties, so what is wrong if RSS guys join the gang?  corollary:
let others stop taking bribes first, only then RSS may considerwhether
it is a crime.

They all are required to fill the coffers of the party - this is both a
candid confession and policy statement. In essence it says: no apology
is needed (they served the party, let the nation go to hell), no
contrition is required since this is party diktat: bring money, no
face-saving is needed because biggies have not been touched. It is quite
a stunning slew of arguments in favor of criminality and on behalf of
corruption. More ominously, there is the hidden resolve to continue the
blessed bribery, only with more discretion.

A strange argument against the sting operation has raised its ugly head.
It falls flat on its face. It boils down to the plea that that is
ungentlemanly, illegal, and immoral to probe sleaze and scam unless it
is done with advance beating of drums, announcing its approach. That is,
whatever is systemic and anciently acceptable need not be exposed and
excoriated. Let it continue, for it benefits every party. Thus, it is a
kind of social service, a version of protection money, or speed moola.

This kind of understanding singularly distinguishes a party as steeped
in lies and soaked in violence as RSS (National Self-seekers' Gang).
This party is crying why it has not many more Bangaru Laxmans and Ju
Deos. Its lament has been heard by the gods. The tribe is increasing
fast, numerically, in answer to its needs and desires.

I wonder, why the writer of the Deccan Herald piece said the BJP MPs
"were" all RSS men? Do they denu being members of RSS? It recalls to
mind a deadlier denial of Jan. 30, 1948. Gandhi's assassin Nathuam had
denied his membershipof the RSS. It was a flat lie.


____


[8]

NDTV.COM

RAJASTHAN MLAS TO FUND RSS SCHOOLS

by Rajan Mahan

Tuesday, December 27, 2005 (Jaipur):

The Rajasthan government has allowed MLAs in the state to give Rs 10
lakh from their development funds for RSS schools in the state.

These schools are being run under the banner of the Vidya Bharati Society.

But the Congress claims these schools promote a communal ideology and
this decision implies wasting public funds to push a saffron agenda.

"Trying to get Rs 10 lakh from MLA funds is a tactic to promote
saffronisation and the Congress will not tolerate this," said Raghu
Sharma, Congress Vice President, Rajasthan.

Rules changed

So far, MLAs were allowed to donate a fixed amount of their development
funds to a registered society.

But by changing rules to treat Vidya Bharati schools as separate units,
the Vasundhara government will now be able to give Rs 10 lakhs to each
of the 50 schools of this society.

The government however denies the saffronisation charge. "These schools
do not teach any communal courses. Muslim Madarsas get government funds
so why can't these schools get some money?" says KL Goojar, Rural
Development Minister, Rajasthan.

Under pressure from the Sangha lobby, the Vasundhara government has
lifted the ban on trishuls and withdrawn over a 150 communal cases in
the past two years.

And with RSS schools now set to receive MLA funds, the debate over
saffronizing education is likely to get shriller in Rajasthan.


____


[9]

Outlook
December 26, 2005

POLLUTED WATERS
'Water' is a film about the sexual exploitation of widows with a dose of
shastras thrown in. But it fails to drive the point home.
by Namrata Joshi

Five years ago, vociferous Sangh parivar demonstrations had aborted the
filming of Deepa Mehta's Water in Varanasi. No wonder she was anxious
and apprehensive at its first screening in India, as the opening film of
the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), 2005. "I was hoping no
one would protest or stall it midway," she says, visibly relieved that
the show went off peacefully. Thiruvananthapuram wasn't disapproving at
all. However, unlike the overwhelming response at the Toronto Film
Festival, the reaction to Water here was palpably lukewarm.

Set in colonial India in 1938, Water explores the plight of widows
through the eyes of the eight-year-old Chuiya (newcomer Sarala) who is
sent off to a widows' home after the death of her aged husband.
	
	The head widow Madhumati (yesteryear's Hindi comedienne Manorama)
supplies young inmates of the ashram to local landlords and rules the
place like the Big Mama of a brothel. Shakuntala (Seema Biswas) is the
quiet observer who counters this exploitation by making the beautiful
young Kalyani (Lisa Ray) escape the ghetto.
But Kalyani's freedom is short-lived—she commits suicide on realising
that the Gandhian idealist she is in love with (John Abraham) is the son
of the man she's been supplied to for years. In the end, when Chuiya too
is slyly initiated into the trade, Shakuntala decides to free the child
by handing her over to Gandhi's reformist supporters.

Water has already had a successful commercial run in Canada, grossing
almost $1.5 million in four weeks after its release—the highest
collections for any independent Canadian film this year. It is also the
first Canadian film to have been bought by Fox Searchlight for a North
American release in March 2006. It has even had a tough-to-please Salman
Rushdie raving. "The film has serious, challenging things to say about
the crushing of women by atrophied religious and social dogmas but, to
its great credit, it tells its story from inside its characters,
rounding out the human drama of their lives and unforgettably touching
the heart," he says.

The right-wing objections to the film, fuelled by the supposed leakage
of a distorted script, were to do with this running down of tradition
and religion. That the film didn't just talk about the sexual
exploitation of widows but held Hinduism and the shastras responsible
for it. That it tried to equate Hindu widows with prostitutes. For a
film dealing with such contentious, volatile issues, Mehta carefully
chose the Kerala film festival as a viable launch platform. Obviously,
because Kerala is perceived as the liberal, progressive state which is
not prone to mixing religion and culture with politics. For Mehta, it
represents progressive cinema as well. "Of late, a lot of Malayalam
films have been about women's issues," she says. Nine years ago, her
other contentious film, Fire, too had its premiere at the festival.

The first to have been thought out but the last to have been shot in the
Deepa Mehta trilogy, Water deals with the politics of religion while the
other two, Fire and Earth looked at the politics of sexuality and
nationalism, respectively. Mehta had initially set the film in
Varanasi's Assi Ghat, and later thought of shooting it by the banks of
Narmada in Madhya Pradesh. But the Sangh was adamant that they wouldn't
let her shoot anywhere in India. In the process, Mehta lost a lot of
time and about a million dollars. "It was disturbing and dispiriting to
not be able to do what you want to do. But with that kind of hatred, it
was impossible to have a dialogue. We were up against a huge and
well-oiled machinery," she says.

It was much later that Mehta quietly completed the film in Sri Lanka.
Varanasi then had to get transmuted into the fictional town of
Rahulpuri, somewhere between Bengal and Bihar.

In retrospect, Mehta thinks it happened for the best. "Varanasi would
have become too strong a presence, it would have been a character in
itself," she says. But this enforced lack of locational specificity also
weakens the film considerably. It prevents the characters from getting
grounded within any regional or social framework. Where are they, where
do they come from, you keep wondering through the film. All you know is
that the river flowing along is the Ganga.

The palm-fronded waterways of Sri Lanka, that pass off for the Ganga, do
provide the film with a lush visual elegance. The film is shot
beautifully, each frame painstakingly composed. But this ravishing
beauty and picturesqueness also lighten the plight of the widows—the
ugliness inherent in their brutalisation gets totally side-stepped. In
the end, the film doesn't move you, it doesn't create any sense of
sympathy in the viewers, it just leaves you enjoying the beauty. The
fluidity of the camera is not able to compensate for the lack of
emotional depth. However, Mehta says the spareseness in dialogues and
expression was a deliberate tool. "I did not want to explain
everything," she says.

The shift in location apart, Mehta also had to work with a new set of
actors. So Shabana Azmi, Nandita Das and Akshay Kumar got replaced by
Seema Biswas, Lisa Ray and John Abraham. Also, the name of the young
widow was changed from Janaki to Kalyani to avoid any references to
Sita. It also made it possible for Mehta to weave in a reference to her
own favourite film, Bimal Roy's Bandini, where the lead character is
also called Kalyani. "I wanted to do a film about women in enclosed
spaces. In Bandini it was a prison, here it is a widows' home," she says.

What's interesting about the film is its attempt, however half-baked and
unsuccessful, to see the plight of the widows in the context of the rise
of Gandhi and his nationalist, reformist struggle. "As a sub-text Gandhi
is the true hero of the film," says Mehta. He is the beacon of hope, the
one who will relieve the widows of their miseries. However, much of the
strong critique comes from the innocent questions and arguments of the
child. Like when she wonders if there's a widows' home for men as well.
Or when she slyly brings a ladoo for the old widow who is fond of sweets
but can't have them.

Mehta has extracted a strong performance from Manorama as the feisty and
domineering head of the ashram who is villainous in turning the home
into a brothel, yet utterly helpless in not finding any other means to
keep the place running. "I have worked in the industry for 60 years but
never got a role like this," says Manorama. Seema Biswas is flawlessly
low key as the introspective Shakuntala, and the child Sarala tugs at
the heart-strings. Mehta found the girl in Galle in Sri Lanka. She
doesn't know English or Hindi; she learnt her dialogues phonetically and
Mehta had to give her directions in sign language or by using an
interpreter. The weakest links in the film are Lisa and John. They are
hopelessly miscast as the young lovers. Lisa, with her bee-stung lips,
and John, with his designer glasses, look incongruously pretty when they
should be looking traumatised; they are totally unable to shed their
contemporary look to fit into the period setting.

Water is likely to generate debates of other sorts as well. Is the
film's attempt to portray the shastras as the repository of evil too
simplistic and pat an interpretation? Is it sensationalist in dwelling
on the sexual exploitation of widows rather than talking of their real
problem, ie, poverty? Is it portraying a negative image of India for
active consumption by the West? "Why are we so insecure about how we are
perceived in the West? We need to critique ourselves and look into our
backyards first," counters Mehta.For now, all she wants is for her Water
to flow across India.


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Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on
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