SACW | 11-12 Jan. 2006

Harsh Kapoor aiindex at mnet.fr
Wed Jan 11 20:35:42 CST 2006


South Asia Citizens Wire  | 11-12 January, 2006 | Dispatch No. 2201


[1] Sri Lanka: Anti War Campaign
[2] USA: Stop the Injection of Hindutva Ideology into California History
Text books (FOSA)
[3] India:
     - Stuck in a lotus position (A.G. Noorani)
     - End of a BJP era? (J Sri Raman)
[4] India:
     - Yogi and the Profane Laws Can Secular Rules apply to the God-men?
(Ram Puniyani)
     - The hypocrisy, we’re loving it! (Vijay Prashad)
[5] India: Repeal Colonial-Era Sodomy Law (Human Rights Watch)
[6] India Pakistan Arms Race and Militarisation Watch - No 161

____________________________________


[1]

The Alliance for the protection of National Resources and Human Rights


Dear Friends,

Invitation to join in campaign on January 12, 2006


The cease fire agreement prevented the danger of a direct war. However,
conflict, confrontation and killings continued indirectly and is
continuing even today.

A cease fire agreement should pave the way for a political settlement.
It is not possible to sustain a cease fire agreement for very long. It
should end up in a political settlement as soon as possible.

Both previous Governments have completely failed to stop the war and
bring about peace. There is uncertainty and fear about the direction
that the process of trying to bring in the world powers and India to
unify the country.

The intension of the Alliance for Protection of National Resources and
Human Rights ( ANRHR) is to work towards  unity among the unarmed people
,the  Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim people in the North, and  South and to
compel the Government and the LTTE to begin negotiations immediately,
for a political settlement acceptable to the Sinhala, Tamil and the
Muslim people

A large scale people’s agitation for this purpose will be held at 12.00
noon at the Lipton Circle in Colombo on Thursday 12th January 2006

We would like to invite you to participate in this event  with a group
of your members together with your banners and placards.

Yours sincerely


Sarath Fernando
On behalf of the convening committee

People of North and South Unite, to prevent killings!
Stop war preparations on both sides!
Restart negotiations immediately!
Stop illegal arrests and forced search operations!
Stop media practices instigating war!


People of the North and East displaced and destroyed by the 20 years of
war have not yet found relief and are suffering even today.  The
families of young soldiers in the South who died and were disabled by
the war live in constant fear of the possibility of war  breaking out again.

Those who have been displaced from their land and homes still live in
relief camps under miserable conditions in total uncertainty of their
future. Some of them displaced by the war have lived in such camps for
over 20 years. They have been hit by tsunami and destroyed once more.
People in the South, affected by tsunami, have been pushed to a life of
destitution in such temporary camps and shelter under tragic conditions,
for the first time. In the face of such tragedy, the possibility of
another escalation of war is unthinkable

Therefore, time has come for the “unarmed people” in the North, East and
the South to unite to compel both the Government and the LTTE to put an
end to the war. We can not hand over the task of establishing peace and
uniting the people of the country entirely to the political leaderships.

We demand from the Government and the LTTE, that hostilities should be
avoided and war should be prevented until a permanent settlement is
reached and negotiations to carry forward the Memorandum of
Understanding should be begun immediately.

We, as unarmed people appeal that both sides should stop the killings
carried out under the cover of the present “cease fire agreement” that
was signed without  mutual trust and sincere commitment to stop the war,
that a political solution acceptable to the Tamil and the Muslim people
be worked out in the name of social justice, the search operations
carried out, forcibly by entering into civilian homes be stopped.

War can be prevented only through an honest, peaceful process of
negotiations and respect for co-existence among the Sinhala, Tamil and
Muslim people. We need unity among us to in order to face the process of
plunder carried out by the world economic powers and their international
financial institutions. Therefore, we appeal to you to unite as “unarmed
people, the Sinhala, Tamil and the Muslim, not to be victims of the
powers and rulers who are engaged in their war plans, other social
forces that are led by other interests, in order to create a free
nation, and to build a non-dependent economy with dignity.


Ven. Hanchapola Seelawansa Nayaka Thero,
Ven. Baddegama Samitha Thero
Rev. Fr. Sarath Iddamalgoda
Revd. Norbert Devendra

Movement for Protection of National Resources and Human Rights ( ANRHR)
People to People Dialogue for Peace and sustainable Development ( PPD)
Trade Union Centre for Building the Nation ( TUC)
Savisthri Women’s Network
National Fisheries Solidarity ( NAFSO)
Movement for National Land and Agricultural Reform ( MONLAR)
Government Services Committee for Wage Increases
United Federation of labour ( UFL)
Sri Lanka Government ( Janaraja ) Health Services Union
Provincial Government Clerical Services Union
Government Printers Union
Government United Workers Federation
Kolonnawa Government Factory Workers Union
Media Workers Trade Union Federation
Medical Laboratory Technologists Union
United Lanka Estate Workers Union
United Fisheries and Fish Workers Union
Pragathi Sangamaya
Lanka Railway Trade Union Federation
Railway Services Workers Union
Laboratory Assistants Employees Union
Lake House Workers Union
Free Trade Zone and General Workers Union
Minor Services Administration Officers Union
Up Country and Low Country Plantation Workers Union
Government Office Services Workers Union
Public Health Field Officers Union
Government Dairy Inseminating Officers Union
National Farmers Assembly ( NFA)
Movement for Protection of Indigenous Seeds (MPIS)
Peasant Information Centre (PIC)
Devasarana Development Centre (DDC)
Women’s Development Foundation (WDF)
Satyodaya Centre
Janawaboda Kendra
Shramabhimani Kendraya
Community Education Centre
Vikalpani Women’s Collective
Ruhunu Gemi Kantha Peramuna
Organisation against the Colombo – Kandy Highway
Christian Workers’ Fellowship (CWF)
Muguna Development and Cultural Foundation ( MDCF)
Independent Co-operators Collective
Vidyarthainge Sangamaya
Uva Human Development Foundation


People to People Dialogue on Peace and Sustainable Development
Alliance for Protection of National Resources and Human Rights
1151/58A,4th Lane, Kotte Road,Rajagiriya
e-mail :monlar at sltnet

_____


[2]

ACTION ALERT

STOP THE INJECTION OF HINDUTVA IDEOLOGY INTO CALIFORNIA HISTORY TEXT BOOKS

Dear Friend,

As you may be aware, a major effort is underway in California, in the
guise of multiculturalism and minority rights, to inject narrow
sectarian versions of Hinduism and Ancient India into Grade 6
History-Social Science text books. (For background information and
talking points,  see  http://www.friendsofsouthasia.org). We need your
urgent help to turn back the Hindutva assault on our text books,
before they are adopted by the California State Board of Education
(SBE).

If you are among those who:

     * Believe that school curriculum ought to be based on scholarly
and factual information, and encourage class discussions on links
between history and contemporary social issues;
     * Wish to prevent California from being used as a laboratory for a
Hindutva view of history, which has been rejected by Indian policy
makers (via NCERT books); and
     * Want the SBE to know that a majority of Hindus and Indians DO
NOT subscribe to the supremacist, and often violent, ideologies of
Hindutva groups

Then here is what you can do:

1. Let the SBE know by fax or email or by telephone that:

     * Ancient Indian history belongs to ALL the communities from the
subcontinent, not just to some "practicing Hindus" (as defined by some
sectarian groups) based in the United States.
     * You have serious reservations about the edits submitted by the
Vedic Foundation (VF) and the Hindu Education Foundation (HEF), and
that you would like the SBE to adopt the edits submitted by the
Content Review Panel of scholars appointed by the SBE.
     * You reject the demands of the VF and HEF, who posture as
aggrieved minorities when their cohorts in India make a mockery of
rights for religious minorities, Dalits, Adivasis, and women.

Contacts at the CA Department of Education:

     * President Ruth Green -- (916) 319-0827. Fax: (916) 319-0176.
Email: Jack O'Connell joconnell at cde.ca.gov, Tom Adams
tadams at cde.ca.gov
     * Deputy Supt Sue Stickel, Curriculum & Instruction Branch --
Phone: (916) 319-0806.  Fax: (916) 319- 0103 Email:
sstickel at cde.ca.gov;
     * Assembly member Jackie Goldberg; Chair of the Education
Committee -- Fax: (916) 319-2145 Goldberg at asm.ca.gov;
     * Secretary Alan Bersin -- Fax: (916) 323-3753; kheinrich at ose.ca.gov;
     * Chief Counsel Karen Steentofte -- Fax: (916) 319-0176
ksteento at cde.ca.gov


2. Write to your local South Asian newspaper expressing your views
about this ongoing controversy.

India Abroad: editorial at indiaabroad.com, Fax: 212-727-9730
India West: news at indiawest.com, Fax: (510) 383-1155 24
Indian Express, North America: info at iexpressusa.com Fax. (212) 594-8848

Thank you for caring.

Volunteers at Friends of South Asia (FOSA)



____


[3] BJP in Doldrums ?

Hindustan Times
January 10, 2005

STUCK IN A LOTUS POSITION

A.G. Noorani
	
Pope’s famous line, “Damn with faint praise”, is inapt to characterise
the encomiums showered on the erstwhile BJP president, L.K. Advani, as
he was escorted to the door. More appropriate is Daagh Dehlvi’s couplet:
‘‘Khabar sun kar merey marney ki woh boley raqeebon se/ khuda bakshe
bohat si khoobian thi marney waley mein” (On hearing of my death she
told my rivals, may God bless him. Many were the qualities the dead one
had). He is the third in an inglorious line. Mauli Chandra Sharma was
driven to resign as president of the Jan Sangh on November 3, 1954.
Balraj Madhok, a former president, was expelled by the Jan Sangh’s
president, Advani, on March 13, 1973. All at the behest of the RSS.

In his statement on September 18 in Chennai, Advani complained of ‘‘an
impression that has gained ground that no political part or
organisational decision can be taken without the consent of RSS
functionaries’’. But he said in Mumbai on December 31, ‘‘I am
disappointed with myself for not communicating properly in conveying my
sentiments to the Sangh.” The duty to explain and account to the RSS was
thus explicitly acknowledged. This knocks the bottom out of the Chennai
complaint.

In the Jinnah statement, Advani’s audience was not Pakistan but India.
It was his bid to emerge as a moderate leader. The RSS, as well as
colleagues in the BJP, detected the ideological deviation. The RSS was
restive for sometime at the personality cult in the BJP. It decided to
clamp down. Hence, its marching orders to Advani. Hence, also, its
emphasis on ‘‘collective leadership’’, a principle that Advani’s
successor, Rajnath Singh, loudly accepted the very day he became
president (December 31).

Advani’s Chennai grievance and announcement on September 18 distracted
attention from a far more important statement made on the same day and
at the same place by a personality of equal stature, Atal Bihari
Vajpayee. It exposes the roots of the BJP’s existence and is of grave
consequence to India’s parliamentary democracy. As if in refutation of
Advani’s grievance, Vajpayee declared for all to know that, first, the
Jan Sangh and, then, the BJP was ‘‘established jointly with the RSS’’
that he hailed as ‘‘an exceptional organisation unequal in the world’’.

Vajpayee is absolutely right. The Hindu Mahasabha leader, Shyama Prasad
Mookerjee, an acolyte of Savarkar — on whose behalf he kept pleading
with Home Minister Sardar Patel after Gandhi’s assassination — was ill
at ease in the Nehru cabinet. When he decided to cut loose, he turned
first to the Mahasabha and urged it to open its doors to all, formally.
He had good reason for this stratagem. He was privy to the Constituent
Assembly’s resolution of April 3, 1948, in the wake of that
assassination, urging the government to take steps “to prevent”
activities by any “communal organisation” which “excludes from its
membership persons on grounds of religion, race and caste”. The
Mahasabha refused. The RSS offered a way out; but on its terms. It would
lend its cadres to Mookerjee’s outfit.  This is the fons et orego of the
joint establishment of the Jan Sangh.

The RSS supremo, M.S. Golwalkar, had made no secret of who would hold
the reins. He had bared both the RSS’s ambition and technique as far
back as in 1949. Asked point blank, ‘‘Is it a fact that the Sangh plans
to capture power?’’, he replied, ‘‘We have kept before ourselves the
ideal of Bhagwan Shri Krishna, who held a big empire under his thumb but
refused to become an emperor himself.’’ The ideal can be fully realised
if the Jan Sangh or the BJP, kept under the RSS’s thumb, captured power
as its surrogate.

Deceit was inherent in this strategy in several respects — commitment to
secularism, to democracy and to autonomous functioning. This explains
the BJP’s unique record of volte faces. When the Jan Sangh members of
the Janata Party resigned in April 1980, the honourable course before
them was to revive the Jan Sangh. Instead, they laid claim to the legacy
of Jayaprakash Narayan, whom the RSS had cheated by refusing to open its
doors to all.

At the founding convention on April 5, 1980, Advani asserted that there
was no question of reviving the Jan Sangh, while Vajpayee declared that
the BJP ‘‘is pledged to pursuing his (JP’s) unfinished tasks’’. He told
a Mumbai monthly in August 1980 that the BJP was different from the Jan
Sangh in many ways. Fundamentally, ‘‘having tasted power once, we
realised that unless we became a party of the national mainstream and
enjoyed support from all sections, we could not become a national
alternative.” The BJP must have a different image, he said. ‘‘The Jan
Sangh was functioning more or less as an opposition group with a Hindu
bias.”

This was very much in line with Advani’s interview to the RSS organ
Panchjanya (Deepavali 1980 issue).  He said, ‘‘A party based on ideology
can at the most come to power in a small area. It cannot win the
confidence of the entire country.’’

But given their links to the RSS, people were not convinced of their
sincerity or their capacity to keep this promise. On July 20, 1985,
Vajpayee gave up: ‘‘When did we get away from the Jan Sangh?’’ The BJP
faced one electoral debacle after another. It was revived only by
Advani’s resolve to exploit the Hindutva and Ayodhya issues. Thanks to
the Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling in the Ayodhya case, the solution
he had hitherto promised was no longer practicable —  legislation to
build the temple. The RSS, the VHP and the Bajrang Dal felt cheated.

If electoral defeat in 1984 prompted a communal course in 1986, debacle
in 2004 revived ideas of return to moderation, albeit with chants of
Hindutva. Hence, the Jinnah statement. But, the RSS had had enough and
issued the marching orders. As the BJP’s Mumbai session ended, Organiser
attacked “pundits prescribing the BJP to become a Right-wing tool for
power, discarding all ideological baggage”. The BJP cannot become a
Right-wing secular party. It must remain the RSS’s front with the
Hindutva plank, dooming both the BJP and the RSS to gradual irrelevance.
As a front of a unique body, the RSS, the BJP is a unique political
party. With its brand of politics, India’s parliamentary democracy has
suffered a lot and will continue to suffer more.

Ironically, no one had done more than Advani to hitch the BJP’s wagon to
the RSS’s star. He imagined that this gave him latitude. The RSS
disabused him of this notion as it had both Sharma and Madhok. Having
been disgraced thus, what respect will Advani now command as leader of
the opposition? Ghalib described the fate of such poignantly.  Nikalna
khuld se Adam ka sunte ae they lekin/ Bohat be abroo hokar terey koochay
se ham niklay (One had heard of Adam’s departure from heaven/ But it was
in utter disgrace that I left your quarters).

o o o


The Daily Times
January 07, 2006

END OF A BJP ERA?
by J Sri Raman

Singh, from Uttar Pradesh, may be expected to promote the party’s cause
in India’s most populous state and elsewhere by playing Bihar-type caste
politics. This, however, won’t come in the way of a prodigal BJP’s
return to RSS-run communal fascist politics. The party, under the new
president, has already committed itself anew to its “core issues”

The end of the year, if you believe some media experts, was also the end
of an era for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It was, in fact, nothing
of that sort. Sure, it was the end of Lal Krishna Advani’s term as the
party president; and also of a career in parliamentary and power
politics for Atal Bihari Vajpayee, if his declaration to that effect
deserves more than due credence.

Advani’s exit from the party post and Vajpayee’s from electoral politics
both came at the end of the three-day silver jubilee celebrations of the
BJP on December 31, 2005. To equate the departure from official party
leadership of the two best-known BJP luminaries is to ignore a
distinguishing feature of the party’s politics. It is none of the
individuals, but the parivar, (the far-right ‘family’) that has always
dictated the BJP policies.

The proposition is none the less true for the tactical roles that the
personalities of party titans might have been assigned. The assiduously
built images of Vajpayee as a wise man of consensus and of Advani as the
‘iron man’ of Ayodhya-style Hindutva may have helped the party on its
course to power and to coalition rule. This, however, made little
difference to its ideology or to its organisational loyalty to the
parivar, headed by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Advani’s exit was accompanied in Mumbai by enthronement of Rajnath Singh
as his successor. Permit this columnist to pat himself on the back for
predicting this outcome to the presidential race (‘After Advani, who?’,
October 31, 2005), long before Singh figured as the front-runner in the
Mumbai-eve shortlist. This is, however, no claim of a prophecy of great
political significance.

Singh, from Uttar Pradesh, may be expected to promote the party’s cause
in India’s most populous state and elsewhere by playing Bihar-type caste
politics. This, however, won’t come in the way of a prodigal BJP’s
return to RSS-run communal fascist politics. The party, under the new
president, has already committed itself anew to its “core issues”.

On the top of the list of issues, alarmingly, figures the parivar and
party’s old demand for abolition of the special status Jammu and Kashmir
enjoys under the Indian constitution. While the party’s pursuit of other
issues, like a ban on cow slaughter and a uniform civil code, will help
its divisive politics domestically, its planned campaign on Kashmir will
run directly counter to the India-Pakistan peace process, which Vajpayee
is supposed to have initiated and the RSS has opposed with the utmost
vehemence.

The rhetoric heard in Mumbai did not serve to conceal the fact that the
resignation of Advani was, actually, his removal from the post by the
RSS. The change at the party’s top was its return to its “roots”,
through the ideological path of religious-chauvinist politics charted
out by the RSS as the patriarch of the parivar.

This is the basic and broad reality which ideology-free analyses ignore.
Pundits talk of an erstwhile “party with a difference” turning into “a
party with differences”. It was a party “with a difference”, when it was
seen as different from the Congress. That is, in the days when the
Congress was seen as the natural party of governance and the BJP or its
parent, the Jan Sangh, as doomed to the status of a secondary
opposition. The “difference” was quick to disappear as the party
acquired the status of the main opposition, ascended to power and has
now lost it without being marginalised and lost. Now that the BJP and
the Congress are widely seen as the main players in the brand of bipolar
politics that India did not know before the nineties, the “difference”
is a dim and distant memory.

The “differences”, which are supposed to have replaced the “difference”,
are nothing for the BJP’s opponents to delight over. The “differences”
are a tribute to the fact that factions in the party see it seriously as
a means to power.

The possibility of the party’s return to power in not too far a future
has also apparently prompted Advani’s resignation in response to a
campaign based on the ‘one man, one post’ principle. He has preferred to
retain the post of the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha (the
lower house of Indian parliament), from where his elevation as the prime
minister will be easier. The controversy, created by some of his
statements in Pakistan, has widely been seen as a cunning ploy to lend
him a Vajpayee-like image and qualify him for the leadership of a
coalition including parties that swear by secularism for their
constituencies’ sake.

This won’t be the first time the BJP dons two faces — one for the
parivar and the other for its allies in pursuit of power. It was
precisely such a two-faced policy that the party pursued for over the
past decade and more with Vajpayee as a larger-than-president leader.
No, the far-right extravaganza in Munbai did not mark the end of an era
— only its extension.

The writer is a journalist and peace activist based in Chennai, India

____


[4] When will 'Secular' India get rid of these Con Men - God Men ?

Issues in Secular Politics-January 2006 I


YOGI AND THE PROFANE LAWS
CAN SECULAR RULES APPLY TO THE GOD-MEN?

Ram Puniyani

It is not for the first time that the followers of
God-men rampaged when their Guru was asked questions
or doubts on the grounds of laws of the land. Brinda
Karat, CPI (M) leader and MP pointed out (Jan 04,
2006) that the medicines produced in Baba Ramdeo’s
factory in Haridwar contained animal and human parts.
She stated this on the basis of the version of the
workers sacked from the factory. In response hell was
let loose and the supporters of Ramdeo attacked the
office of CPI (M) leading to the skirmish between the
followers of CPI (M) and Ramdeo.

Ramdeo said that CPI (M) is not nationalist, that it
is a ploy of multinationals and that he is being
defamed. His strong support came from the Sangh
Parivar followers, the hooligans of VHP and Bajarang
dal joined the attack on the office of CPM, while the
BJP leaders came out strongly to condemn CPI (M) for
its insult of India’s culture. One of them went to the
extent of saying that whenever Indian (read Brahminic
Hinduism) culture is gaining prominence CPI (M) feels
threatened. Many leaders from other parties kept quiet
or ‘supported’ Ramdeo.

The story, which has been undermined in the din of
hysteria, began with factory owned by Ramdeo where
many a women employees were exploited heavily and 133
women were sacked for demanding the implementation of
work norms in the factory. That’s how Brinda Karat,
who wanted to defend the rights of women employees,
got to know about the factory and got the samples
analyzed. The issue was raised by her as a citizen and
as an MP. According the prevalent laws the Ayurvedic
medicines cannot put any human or animal extract in
the medicines. The basic issue of workers right and
the ethics of production of Ayurvedic medicines both
have been swamped by the emotions roused because the
owner of the factory has the halo of a God-man,
conducting shows of Yoga on TV.

The cover of Baba-dom is the best to hide the things
or to avoid following the laws relating to business
and industry. It is not too far back in the time that
one Narendra Maharaj was not allowed to violate the
norms of security of air travel, as he was prevented
from carrying his dandam (Holy staff) along with him
while traveling. The whole hell was let loose; his
followers were on the streets, rampage and the usual
venting of ire. It is touted that the God-men teach
religious values of tolerance, peace and non violence!
Most of the occasions these followers go on rampage
when their Guru is not allowed to flout the laws with
impunity, or an uncomfortable question is raised about
their activities. It is no different in other
religions. Once Asghar Ali Engineer, human rights
activist of great repute, questioned the delay in the
flight due to late coming of Bohra High Priest Syedna,
this mild questioning was followed by the ransacking
of his house and office and he himself was beaten up
mercilessly.

While nobody in the political circles is picking up
courage to raise the question regarding Ramdeo, can
one presume that those in the electoral politics
believe that there are two sets of laws, one for the
ordinary mortals and another for the ‘divinely
ordained’. The association of saffron God-men with
Hindu right is close and overt/subtle, both at the
same time. Recently Ramdeo attended the annual
convention of Rashtra Sevika Samiti a subordinate
organistion of RSS (incidentally RSS does not permit
women to be its members). When Shankaracharya was
arrested in the Shankar Raman murder case, Vajpayee
and Aasaram Bapu rubbed shoulders, to protest against
the arrest of the ‘holy seer’. The argument put
forward was that Shankaracharya represents Hindus and
is revered by Hindus, so he should be treated
differently.

One has some general observations about the God-men.
During last several years they have been flourishing
at exponential rate. Most of them have done very well
by the profane standards of accumulation of wealth,
chain of plush Ashrams, lakhs of devotees, infinite
money, foreign junkets and all the luxuries possible.
You renounce the world to get the best of it! Their
prefixes also are very diverse and keep on getting
better and better with time. They do choose their
prefixes and suffixes. While other God men do it in
their own way, Rajneesh had an interesting trajectory
of these. He began as Acharya, went on to become
Bhagwan (God!) and finally gave himself the title of
Osho before he left this planet. All of them have
different strengths (! weaknesses), some one is more
for diamonds, someone likes cars and expensive clothes
and yet another one prefers videos of dubious
distinction.

While many other politicians are bowing to the popular
pressure and defending Ramdeo, Sangh Parivar regards
them as the representatives of Hindu culture. What is
Hindu about their culture needs another investigation.
One has seen the spartan life of Buddha, Kabir, Nanak
and Gandhi. Budhha in fact renounced his palace to
take to jungle and merge with all and sundry in their
deprivations. The many from the current genre, which
in fact is a blot on the humane traditions of saints,
are also close to centers of power, Dhirendra
Brahmachari, Satya Sai Baba, Chandraswami and Jayendra
Saraswati being some notorious examples.

Ayurveda is being linked to Indian Traditions. As such
the development of the Ayurveda was halted, mainly by
Brahminical dictates. Ayurveda has lot of elements,
which can be put on the scientific foundations to make
it more suitable to the human kind. The proper
research where critical reason is employed to make it
better is not employed in the Ayurveda as it is
strongly linked to faith. No doubt multinationals may
have their own axe to grind in the whole story, but we
need to look at the proper investigation of facts and
laws before the medicines produced by any Baba,
Acharya and Mahant, can be put to public use. Karat
has just raised a simple question, why is Ramdeo’s
factory violating eh laws of the land? It is a simple
matter to investigate and set right. But since here
the factory owner has the hallow of God-man, radiating
in the reflected glory of God almighty how dare we the
mortals raise such questions. The God-men are above
the law is the premise of their followers and
supporters, whoever they be! So in a single stroke
Brinda Karat and her party are dubbed anti Hindu (Anti
National, against Hindu Nation) so how is nationalism
defined? If you blindly submit to the self proclaimed
God-men, you are a nationalist else! Is one against
the indigenous system of practices? No way. The only
demand is for ethical and rational implementation of
the therapies to avoid any one coming up and putting
in market medicines or methods which can be injurious
to the health. Social scrutiny of any thing and
everything is called for. The cloak of Holiness does
not exempt one from the laws of the land and being
subject to the critical questioning of peers and
others from raising questions about the composition
and techniques being put forward. The claims related
to the efficacy of the medicines and techniques have
to be evaluated on the basis of the criterion already
developed by rational techniques. Subjecting
traditional systems to these rigorous methods will
only make them more effective, meaningful and will
prune out the grain from the chaff. It will make them
above the subjective claims of those promoting it.

If Ramdeo has done no wrong, why this emotional
outburst and the misuse of label anti National against
Karat? If he has things to hide than this angry
outburst is understandable, as it will harm the
proliferating business built up with such a meticulous
mix of some knowledge sprinkled with generous helping
of emotions and faith which are wonderful smokescreen
for hiding one’s wrongs. This ‘faith’ can surely act
as an opium, the frenzied followers of Baba’s
rampaging shows that time and over again!


o o o

Hindustan Times (Mumbai)
12 January 2006.

THE HYPOCRISY, WE’RE LOVING IT!

Why is it that the Sangh parivar, keen to push McDonald’s out of
business for harbouring animal extracts in its French fries, is
valiantly trying to protect a sanyasi peddling dodgy ayurvedic products?

Vijay Prashad

IN APRIL 2001, India West, the newspaper of Indian Americans based in
California, ran an important story, ‘Where’s the Beef ? It’s in Your
French Fries’. The story followed revelations in Eric Schlosser’s
extraordinary book, Fast Food Nation that “McDonald’s cooked its French
fries in a mix- ture of about 7 per cent cottonseed oil and 93 per cent
beef tallow. The mixture gave the fries their unique flavour”. In 1990,
McDonald’s stopped using beef tal- low, but the taste remained the same.
The magic, Schlosser shows, comes from the addition of ‘natural
flavour’, which, McDonald’s admitted, derives from ‘an animal source’.
Harish Bharti of Seattle read the story, and, be- ing a vegetarian,
filed a lawsuit against McDon- ald’s for false advertising. The
corporation settled for $ 10 million, 60 per cent of which would go to
vegetarian groups. The charge against McDonald’s at the time was led by
vegetarian groups and by or- ganisations affiliated with Hindutva (such
as the Hindu Heritage Endowment).

“Hindus and vegetarians all over the world feel shocked and betrayed by
McDonald’s deception and ultimate greed,” said Bharti as he filed his
lawsuit in May 2001. Not to be left out, the Shiv Sena, the Vishwa Hindu
Parishad and the Bajrang Dal staged protests outside the McDonald’s
office in New Delhi. Some angry people smeared statues of Ronald
McDonald, the fictional image of the firm, with cow dung.

McDonald’s spokesman, Walt Riker, adamantly defended the recipe, “These
are the ways the fries are made in the US, and we don’t have any plans
to change.” Of course, McDonald’s, being a savvy corporation, has kept
up with taste and as people have got smarter about nutrition, it has had
to adapt. Concern about trans-fats moved Riker in 2004 to acknowledge
that since the issue is “impor- tant for our customer, we’ll continue to
test to get it right”.

McDonald’s interest in its customers, however, is pretty much driven by
its investment in the bottom line. The best illustration of this is in
Morgan Spur- lock’s entertaining documentary, Supersize Me: A Film of
Epic Portion (2004). McDonald’s lied, the peo- ple protested, McDonald’s
had to pay (although not very much — its annual sales totals more than $
40 billion from its 30,000 restaurants).

When McDonald’s upset the values of vegetarians and Hindus, Hindutva
activists went on ram- page against it. And quite rightly so, although
the cow dung on a statue is perhaps a bad example to young people. It
bespeaks an immature form of po- litical protest. Nevertheless, the
issue was just: a corporation traffics in lies and should, therefore, be
held accountable.

Hindutva’s reaction in the case of Swami Ramdev and the revelations
about the use of ‘animal parts’ in his herbal medications is, in light
of this history, a puzzle. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
proved conclusively that the telegenic sanyasi had, like the snake oil
salesmen of yore, fraudulently labelled his products.

The reaction of the BJP in this case is similar to its hypocritical
reaction to the television footage of its MPs taking money to ask
questions in Parlia ment. It immediately belittled the allegations and
went on an unprincipled rampage. Activists of the Hindutva organisations
gathered outside the CPI(M) office in Delhi to denounce Rajya Sabha MP
Brinda Karat, who had made the revelations. The BJP’s Prakash Javadekar
said that the campaign by Karat was “a motivated attempt to hurt the
faith of Indians in yoga and ayurveda”. The VHP’s Ashok Singhal ac cused
the Left of “bidding farewell to the ethics of politics and tradition”,
while adding that the Left was working on behalf of MNCs.

Sharad Sharma of the VHP joined the two argu ments, “The world has come
to understand that ayurveda can match allopathy through the works of
Swami Ramdev and the communists are trying to create hurdles in his
growing popularity.” Even the RSS got in on the act, with Ram Madhav
complaining that the Left had hatched a conspiracy “to demean reputed
persons of Bharatiya culture”.

Imagine the VHP, the Shiv Sena, the BJP and the RSS making similar
claims about the revelations of Harish Bharti. Swami Ramdev’s is a case
of a man who has hurt the faith of millions of people who be lieve in
herbal medicines, because he has used animal, and some allege even human
products, in them. He has betrayed the trust people had in him.

And yet, he is not in the dock as far as the organisations of Hindutva
are concerned. They have, instead, decided to indict the messenger. The
credibility of Hindutva, yet again, is on the line.




____


[5]

Human Rights News

INDIA: REPEAL COLONIAL-ERA SODOMY LAW
ENTRAPMENT, ARRESTS HARM AIDS PREVENTION EFFORTS

(Delhi, January 11, 2006) – New arrests of gay men in Lucknow, India—the
scene of a case in 2001 that drew worldwide protests—show that India’s
colonial-era sodomy law continues to threaten human rights and encourage
the spread of HIV, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to Prime
Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.
" Lucknow police have a shameful record of harassing gay men as well as
non-governmental organizations that work with them. They are able to do
so because India’s government clings to the criminalization of
homosexual conduct, which only prevents people from coming forward for
HIV/AIDS testing, information, and services. "
Scott Long, director of Human Rights Watch’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and
Transgender Rights Program.
	
On January 4, Lucknow police arrested four men on charges of operating a
“gay racket” on the Internet, as well as of engaging in “unnatural” sex.
Police claim they seized the men while having a picnic in a public
place, and accused them of belonging to an “international gay club”
centered around the Internet website guys4men.com, on which gay men can
place personals and engage in Internet chat. Reports received by Human
Rights Watch indicate that undercover police, posing as gay on the
website, entrapped one man, then forced him to call others and arrange a
meeting where they were arrested.

“Lucknow police have a shameful record of harassing gay men as well as
non-governmental organizations that work with them,” said Scott Long,
director of Human Rights Watch’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender
Rights Program. “They are able to do so because India’s government
clings to the criminalization of homosexual conduct, which only prevents
people from coming forward for HIV/AIDS testing, information, and
services.”

In July 2001, Lucknow police, apparently spurred by an informer, raided
the local offices of two nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) working on
HIV/AIDS prevention, the Naz Foundation International (NFI) and Bharosa
Trust. Four staff members were jailed for 47 days in deplorable
conditions, accused of running a gay “sex racket.” Police declared the
HIV/AIDS-related information materials seized in the raided offices
“obscene.” They charged the men under India’s sodomy law, criminal
conspiracy, aiding and abetting a crime and the sale of obscene
materials. After international condemnation of the detention of the
“Lucknow Four,” the case was eventually dropped.

In a 2002 report, Epidemic of Abuse, Human Rights Watch documented how
India’s sodomy law has been used to harass HIV/AIDS prevention efforts,
as well as sex workers, men who have sex with men, and other groups at
risk of the disease. Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, titled “Of
Unnatural Offences,” punishes “carnal intercourse against the order of
nature” with up to ten years’ imprisonment. It was introduced by British
rulers in the nineteenth century.

A challenge to section 377’s constitutionality was brought was brought
before the Delhi High Court in 2001 by the Naz Foundation India, asking
the court to declare the law should no longer apply to consenting
adults. In response, the then government stated that “The purpose of
section 377 of IPC is to provide a healthy environment in the society by
criminalising unnatural sexual activities.” The case ended indecisively,
and litigation is still pending.

“Section 377 strikes at the basic right to privacy,” said Long. “This
case shows how it is used against rights to free expression and to
meeting in a public place. It casts a pall over public health efforts.”

Human Rights Watch said that India’s constitution protects the right to
equality, freedoms of speech and assembly and right to personal liberty.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to
which India acceded in 1979, guarantees freedom from discrimination. In
the case of Toonen v. Australia in 1994, the United Nations Human Rights
Committee held these protections against discrimination in all areas of
rights should be understood to include sexual orientation.

____


[6]

INDIA PAKISTAN ARMS RACE AND MILITARISATION WATCH
(January 12,  2006)  Year Seven, No 161

Contents:

1 Kashmir, India, Pakistan:  Time Guns Fall Silent (Edit, Kashmir Times)
2 Pakistan: Worrying words (M B Naqvi)
3 Pakistan: Landmines continue to kill and maim (Ghafar Ali)
4 Pakistan: PHCBA demands 50% cut in defence budget
5 Pakistan: Balochistan:
- Lack of information on Balochistan operation shocking
- Help Stop Massacre in Balochistan
- What, Balochistan again? (M B Naqvi)
- Out of time, out of place (Irfan Husain)
6 Pakistan: Spain offers military training to Pakistan
7 Pakistan: Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum Conference Disrupted
8 Budget deficit exceeds Rs37bn: Domestic borrowing rises (Khaleeq Kiani)
9 Pakistan: Earth Quake and Military expenditure - Letters to the Editor
Daily Times
10 India: Musharraf will not quit as army chief (Ahmed Rashid)
11 Pakistan: Hatemonger clerics lose arms licences
12 Nuclear Clouds Gather Over Asia (Praful Bidwai)
13 India's Hindu nationalist's @ Work: 150 portraits of India's martyrs
drawn in blood
14 US eyes big Pakistan, India arms sales (Aman Sethi)
15 Book review: Subcontinental Nightmares (Robert M. Hathaway)
16 India: IDPD wants society sans nuke power
17 India: When "Security" Looms Larger Than Tsunami (J. Sri Raman)
18 India: What ails ordnance factories (Josy Joseph)
19 India: Assam's paths of violence (Subir Bhaumik)
20 India - Ballistic Missile: 'Dhanush' testfired
21 India: Military and Civilian Telecommunications
- Army won't give spectrum up easily (Joji Thomas Philip)
- Defence Spectrum Zone Mooted (Joji Thomas Philip)
22 India: Defence Establishment and Special Powers
  - No decision taken yet on AFSPA (The Hindu)
- AFSPA - Reddy Panel: Act was to be scrapped, but Army opposed move
(Sudhi Ranjan Sen)
23 Involving and Using Civilians for counter insurgency
- Facts about 'Salwa Judum' (Human rights groups)
24 Arms race in the sub-continent  Letters to the Editor to Indian Magazine
25 Science died in 1965  - Letter to the Editor to a Pakistani Newspaper
26 Book Announcement: Militarising State, Society and Culture in
Asia (ed.) J. Uyangoda & A. Abella
27 Nepal: Janatas and juntas - The Nagarkot massacre was a reminder that
reform in the military is long overdue (CK Lal)
28 Bangladesh: India Celebrates an Illusory 'Victory' (J. Sri Raman)
29 Book Review: India-Pakistan nuclear deterrence ? : Tall Claim, Little
Evidence (M V Ramana)
30 Sadhus hide guns under saffron cloaks (Manjari Mishra)
31 India: Involving the Defence establishment in Film Censorship ?
- Chiefs Say Yes (Edit, The Telegraph)
- IAF objects to some scenes in Aamir Khan's new film
- Indian Air Force clips three scenes from Aamir’s movie (Shaikh Ayaz)
32 India: Centre to constitute 300 battalion strong para-military force
33 India: Report: Indian Products Defective (Vivek Raghuvanshi)
34 India: Kerala to monitor cybercafe users to combat online crime,
terrorism
35 India: Navy leak and defence contractors - Shadow On The Chief
(Saikat Satta)
36 India: Official Secrets Act - Information Limited: Why the RTI Act is
not being allowed to breathe free (Sankarshan Thakur)
37 On Phone tapping in India:
- Curb phone tapping (Rajindar Sachar)
- Bharat Sarkar, all ears (Inder Malhotra)
- The Spy who tracked me (Nikita Doval)
- Tips for a tap - on the how and why of telephonic surveillance (Ritu
Sarin)
38 India Adding Troops on Bangladesh Border
39 Bangladesh: The Telecom law and Surveillance
-  Big Brother is taping you (Naeem Mohaiemen)
-  Your Last Phone Call (Naeem Mohaiemen)

URL: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IPARMW/message/172

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

Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on
matters of peace and democratisation in South
Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit
citizens wire service run since 1998 by South
Asia Citizens Web: www.sacw.net/
SACW archive is available at: bridget.jatol.com/pipermail/sacw_insaf.net/

DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not
necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers.





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