SACW | 3-17 May 2006 | Sri Lanka Near War; Nepal People Power; India: Violent and Divided

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire | 3-17 May, 2006 | Dispatch No. 2246

[1]  Sri Lanka on a Thin Edge:
         Report of the Fact Finding Mission to Trincomalee
         Sri Lanka Between War and Peace (Alan Keenan)
         Sri Lanka at a crossroads (Jehan Perera)
[2]  People Power In Nepal (Kanak Mani Dixit)
[3]  Peace Process, Kashmir and India: Of 
belligerence and bullets (Edit, Kashmir Times))
[4]  India: Communal Business as Usual in Gujarat
         There's a Taliban in Gujarat (Javed Anand)
         Wages of Hate (Harsh Mander)
         Vadodara: Violence on Gujarat's "Gaurav" Day (PUCL)
         Gujarat on Fire Again (Asghar Ali Engineer)
[5]  India: The Noise Against Affirmative Action
         To Bridge The Great Divide  (Achin Vanaik)
         Insult to Scheduled Castes and Tribes: Petition
[6]  India: Call for 26 May as a Day of National 
Action against violence, injustice (Medha Patkar 
and others)

___


[1] Sri Lanka on a Thin Edge:

REPORT OF THE FACT FINDING MISSION TO TRINCOMALEE (Eastern Province) Sri Lanka
April-16-17, 2006
http://www.sacw.net/peace/Trinco_Report-2.pdf

o o o

SRI LANKA BETWEEN WAR AND PEACE
Alan Keenan (May 5, 2006)
http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-protest/srilanka_3544.jsp

o o o

New Age
April 28 2006

SRI LANKA AT A CROSSROADS
The ceasefire still holds in a technical sense. 
But escalating acts of war make it akin to a dead 
letter. The likely scenario at the present time 
is a period of war before a new Ceasefire 
Agreement or new peace process can be obtained, 
writes Jehan Perera

The suicide bomb attack at the army headquarters 
in Colombo is the latest in a series of major 
blows to the peace process. This attack seriously 
injured the army commander, General Sarath 
Fonseka, killed 10 and injured 28 others. It has 
also expanded the theatre of hostilities to 
Colombo. The National Peace Council condemns this 
suspected LTTE attack. It is especially 
deplorable as it comes at a time when the 
Norwegian facilitators were making a special 
effort to bring the government and LTTE back to 
the negotiating table.
    The ceasefire still holds in a technical 
sense. But escalating acts of war make it akin to 
a dead letter. It is reported that Sri Lankan 
airforce and naval craft have been bombarding 
LTTE-held areas in the east in the aftermath of 
the assassination attempt on the army commander. 
Many civilians have been killed and thousands are 
fleeing those areas as a result and are becoming 
refugees.
    The peace process, as it has evolved since 
2002, is near its terminus point. The end stage 
began during the Presidential election of 2005. 
During the election campaign, President Mahinda 
Rajapakse and his nationalist allies sought to 
distance themselves from the fundamentals of the 
existing peace process. They spoke about getting 
rid of the Norwegian facilitators and about a new 
ceasefire agreement that would replace the 
existing one. Upon winning the presidency, 
however, the government adopted a more reasonable 
approach to the peace process. But it is evident 
that the change of heart is not complete.
    The inability of the Norwegian special envoy 
to the peace process, Jon Hanssen Bauer, to 
obtain a second meeting with the LTTE's political 
wing leader, S P Tamilselvan, was the latest blow 
to the peace process. Hanssen Bauer had taken a 
revised proposal of the government for the 
consideration of the LTTE. The LTTE's snub was 
perhaps more directed to the government than to 
the Norwegian special envoy. However, his 
inability to meet with either President Mahinda 
Rajapakse or with LTTE leader Velupillai 
Pirapaharan was an even worse setback. It 
demonstrates a lack of commitment on the part of 
these two leaders to do everything in their power 
to avert a human and national catastrophe.
    While the top leaders of the government and 
LTTE strived to show that they were above the 
fray, at the ground level an unsustainable 
situation has arisen. There are multiple 
incidents of violence being reported from the 
north-east that could soon lead to full-scale 
fighting. Most of those who are dying are 
government soldiers who are being ambushed on a 
regular basis. The latest development is the 
killing of Sinhalese civilians. The justification 
that the LTTE would be seeking to give is that 
any retaliation against Tamil civilians will be 
met with their own reprisal killings. There have 
been incidents of mob violence and military 
retaliation against Tamil civilians after LTTE 
attacks against the Sri Lankan military and home 
guards.
    Looming large in the disaster that is 
befalling the country is one of the LTTE's former 
commanders, Colonel Karuna Amman. Only now are 
the fearful repercussions of the great split that 
occurred within the LTTE in March 2004 becoming 
apparent. When the split occurred it seemed to 
herald a major weakening of the LTTE. Karuna 
challenged the two most important claims of the 
LTTE, that it was the sole representative of the 
Tamil people, and that the north and east were 
one. Claiming that he had 6000 cadre backing him, 
Karuna claimed the east for his group. At that 
time there were scenes of open public support for 
Karuna in the east.
   
    Karuna's revival
    In the months that followed, however, the 
eastern rebellion seemed to fade away and the 
LTTE seemed to have re-established the status 
quo. The LTTE warned the government that the 
Karuna split was an internal one that they would 
deal with and they would brook no interference. 
The breakaway Karuna group sought to invoke the 
safeguards of the Ceasefire Agreement to preserve 
themselves and be an entity separate from the 
LTTE. But neither the government nor Norwegian 
facilitators stepped into to secure a negotiated 
settlement between the LTTE and its rebel faction 
in terms of the Ceasefire Agreement. An LTTE 
military attack outside of the limits established 
by the Ceasefire Agreement saw top Karuna cadres 
killed, in the east and in safe houses in Colombo.
    But throughout the past two years the Karuna 
group has been active in the east, and now it is 
said to be strong as well. Independent sources 
report that hundreds of Karuna cadres are present 
in the Batticaloa district and a few hundred are 
also present in the Trincomalee district. The 
LTTE's dilemma is that the longer they wait, tbe 
stronger the Karuna group is likely to get, both 
militarily and politically. Earlier this month 
they opened a political office in Batticaloa. The 
LTTE's interest would be to eliminate the Karuna 
group as a military and political force as soon 
as possible. Unlike in April 2004, however, it is 
not possible for the LTTE to launch a military 
offensive against the Karuna group. They are no 
longer protecting territory as they are in the 
government-controlled areas and operate as a 
guerrilla force from there.
    Therefore, for the LTTE to eliminate the 
Karuna group they need to get the government to 
perform this task. Or else they need to get the 
Ceasefire Agreement abrogated so that they can 
engage in hot pursuit within 
government-controlled areas. At the first round 
of Geneva talks in February, the LTTE made no 
secret that their sole concern was to have the 
government disarm and eliminate the Karuna group. 
But unfortunately, the discussions on the Karuna 
group at the Geneva talks were not based on truth 
but on falsehood. The LTTE insisted that the 
government was providing assistance to the Karuna 
group, which the government denied.
   
    Acknowledge truth
    Tragically, there is a growing impression that 
those at the highest levels of the government are 
preparing themselves for an inevitable war. 
Certainly the LTTE is giving them every reason 
for resorting to war. But the sufferings of war 
will be immense to the people who will be its 
first victims. Even now it is the poor villagers 
of the north-east who are suffering the brunt of 
the undeclared war that is expanding its 
tentacles. The moment that large numbers of 
people become the victims of war, they will 
withdraw their support to the leaders who led 
them into war. Obviously the government will be 
more vulnerable on this score as it has to face 
elections sooner or later, unlike the LTTE.
    A wise political leadership would do 
everything in its power to avoid a war, whether 
it takes the form of a high intensity or low 
intensity war. This does not mean destroying the 
Karuna group or acceding to the LTTE's agenda. 
The break-up of the LTTE in March 2004 and the 
existence of an eastern Tamil identity are 
realities that the government has no reason to 
try and reverse. So far the LTTE has sought to 
ignore the existence of the Karuna group as an 
autonomous entity, and instead refers to them as 
paramilitaries who are creatures of the Sri 
Lankan military. But the LTTE cannot reasonably 
expect the government to join it in suppressing 
this eastern Tamil identity and the group that 
stands for it, merely because this is 
disadvantageous to the LTTE and to its cause.
    On the other hand, the government needs to 
stop denying its relationship with the Karuna 
group.
    The international monitors and other 
independent observers have pointed to the 
existence of Karuna group camps in 
government-controlled areas. They have also seen 
Karuna cadre in uniform and with arms in close 
proximity to military camps. The government needs 
to consider formalising its relationship with the 
Karuna group, perhaps by entering into a 
bilateral agreement with them that outlaws the 
use of force, just as the Ceasefire Agreement 
with the LTTE does. These are realities that the 
government should be prepared to discuss with the 
LTTE instead of denying them.
    But the main question today is whether the 
peace process as it has existed can survive. The 
lack of commitment of the government and LTTE 
leaderships to the peace process is manifest in 
their reluctance to meet with the Norwegian 
special envoy. The peace process that commenced 
in 2002 was based on the primacy of the 
government and LTTE, with the Norwegian 
facilitators playing a subordinate role of acting 
at their behest, and not doing anything that they 
did not approve. This system can only work on the 
basis of the genuine will and commitment of the 
government and LTTE to compromise with each other 
and reach a settlement. This system is no longer 
working because the basic premise of mutual 
commitment is lacking.
    Therefore, the likely scenario at the present 
time is a period of war before a new Ceasefire 
Agreement or new peace process can be obtained. 
Or there needs to be a change of heart, prior to 
the tragedy of war. A new peace process would 
require the inclusion of more parties, including 
the Muslims and also the Karuna group, and the 
elevation of the facilitator to the status of a 
mediator and even arbitrator. This requires a 
change of heart or of ground realities. Let us 
hope it is a change of heart.
    Jehan Perera is media director of the National 
Peace Council in Colombo, Sri Lanka. A graduate 
of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, he has 
worked for the past ten years as a journalist in 
Sri Lanka

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[2]

The Nation
May 5, 2006 (web only)

PEOPLE POWER IN NEPAL

Kanak Mani Dixit


Rise from the villages
Rise from the shanties
Rise, to transform this nation

These translated lines became the lusty anthem of 
the People's Movement of Nepal, which has just 
vanquished a despot-king. The victory has made it 
possible for democratic politicians to open up 
dialogue with Maoist rebels, and with a bilateral 
ceasefire in place as of May 4 it now seems 
certain that the destructive, decade-long 
insurgency will be wrapped up in the coming 
months.

Before dialogue could begin, it was important to 
bring down the contemptuous regime of King 
Gyanendra. And the people rose to the task, 
coming in from the mountain trails, emerging from 
city lanes, to challenge a king whose malevolent 
idea of governance harked back to the medieval 
era of the seventeenth century, when his twelfth 
ancestor subjugated everyone within sight to 
create the Nepali kingdom.

Gyanendra used the excuse of fighting the Maoist 
insurgency to seize power on February 1, 2005, 
with the help of an army loyal to him rather than 
to the civilian government. This was a ploy 
specifically designed to appeal to the Bush 
Administration, with its antiterror agenda, and 
US Ambassador James Moriarty proved more than 
willing to take the bait. Over the past year, the 
ambassador drummed up a red scare and sought to 
prop up the royal regime with graphic predictions 
of rebels streaming into Kathmandu to slash and 
burn.

Moriarty was to prove very much an American 
cowboy in a Nepali china shop. Fortunately, the 
local politicians decided to trust their own 
instincts and information, that the Communist 
Party of Nepal (Maoists) were ready to abandon 
their "people's war." In an August 2005 meeting, 
the rebel outfit's central leadership decided 
unanimously to enter "competitive multiparty 
politics," and thereafter started dialogue with 
the political parties in Kathmandu.

The Maoist change of heart was credible because 
they were acting under duress--they could not 
take over the state after a decade of insurgency, 
nor could they expect international recognition 
from any direction as long as they carried the 
carbine. The Maoist movement had become bigger 
than their wildest expectations, and yet to 
protect their achievements it was now important 
to seek a "safe landing."

The United States has no geostrategic stake in 
Kathmandu and has been a benign source of 
development assistance for more than five 
decades, providing support for education, malaria 
eradication and family planning, and placing 
Peace Corps volunteers in the far corners. It was 
incongruous, therefore, for an ambassador to try 
to foist upon people who knew better a dogmatic 
mix of rhetoric from the cold war and the "war on 
terror."

The political parties of Nepal were in no mood to 
buy the argument. Neither were the people, who 
joined the agitations of mid-April in their 
millions. This was "people power" of a kind that 
neither Asia nor the rest of the world had seen 
for a long time. This was the sudden release of 
bottled-up feelings of a people seeking peace and 
harboring resentment against the wayward King 
Gyanendra.

The People's Movement was difficult to spark 
before this spring because the conflict had 
evolved into a three-way tussle, between king, 
rebels and the political parties. Things remained 
in limbo throughout 2005, until the rebels and 
parties achieved a twelve-point understanding 
over the winter to challenge the king in 
parallel. The agreement made it possible for the 
political parties to agitate credibly not only 
for democracy but also for peace, which was the 
trigger the populace was waiting for.

The upwelling of street power has given the 
citizens of Nepal--totaling 26 million and not at 
all a small country--a newfound unity and 
national self-confidence. For a people that has 
been historically divided by ethnicity, caste, 
faith and geography, the entire population came 
together to fight for pluralism. This has 
provided the energy for reinstating a Parliament 
disbanded four years ago and emplacing an interim 
government that, having sidelined Gyanendra, is 
now all set to bring the Maoists in from the cold 
and re-engage in the task of nation-building.

The task of the octogenarian democrat Prime 
Minister Girija Prasad Koirala is now to organize 
a constitutent assembly, which will write a new 
Constitution. That is for tomorrow. For now, 
Nepalis will be forgiven their deep sense of 
achievement for having defeated an autocrat's 
agenda and simultaneously creating the conditions 
for peace. Tomorrow's democratic Nepal may be 
loud and raucous, but we have every reason to 
believe the gun has been silenced and there will 
be political stability and economic recovery.

_____


[3]

Kashmir Times
May 11, 2006
Editorial

OF BELLIGERENCE AND BULLETS
Demilitarization needs to be considered in totality

Belligerence is at its best. Union defence 
minister Pranab Mukherjee's assertion that there 
can be no question of demilitarization but 
instead there was need to enhance the presence of 
security forces is a case in point. While it has 
been a sigh of relief that the government has 
decided to go ahead with the dialogue process 
despite the step up in killings, especially after 
the massacres in Kulhand and Basantgarh in Doda 
and Udhampur respectively, the decision against 
considering any kind of reduction in troops is 
not so welcome. The government's commitment to 
peace process is encouraging but this needs to be 
guided by some scientific logic as well. It is 
argued that mere silence of guns cannot be 
construed as peace. But equally true is the fact 
that peace is unthinkable with no measures to 
treat the violence. Peace process and armed 
battles cannot go hand in hand. They send 
confusing messages. Ever since the peace process 
started, the long pending demand of reducing 
troops presence in Jammu and Kashmir has been 
lying in cold storage. Some attempts were made a 
little less than two years ago when some 
battalions of army were removed from certain 
pockets of the Valley and replaced with an equal 
number of troops of central reserve police force. 
The government, which claims to be making serious 
efforts for bringing peace and normalcy to Jammu 
and Kashmir cannot ignore the fact that a large 
presence of troops not only cause fear, panic, 
humiliation and alienation; it also often 
encourages a step up in graph of militancy. Most 
of the militancy related attacks take place where 
there is a massive presence of troops. Therefore, 
replacing army by BSF or CRPF will not suffice 
the genuine demands of demilitarization, which 
does not in any way mean offering concessions to 
militant organizations. In fact, this is the best 
manner in which the latter can be engaged and 
asked to giving up the gun in place of 
negotiating table. When leaders and human rights 
activists in Kashmir raise the demand of 
demilitarization, it simply does not mean 
withdrawal of forces, it also means a gradual 
enforcement of ceasefire from all sides which 
needs consistent efforts and patience. The 
defence minister's assertion that there is no 
militarization of any zone in Jammu and Kashmir 
in the sense of international law is itself 
misleading. The massive presence of troops 
including army accounting for about 5 to six 
lakhs in a state with a population of simply 10 
million is a big number as per international 
standards. Statistics are disputed but any rough 
estimate would not put army presence below the 
five lakh mark, which would mean there is one 
army personnel for every 20 persons of the state. 
If the bullet for bullet policy can be a solution 
to normality and ending violence, which has a 
political genesis, then militancy should have 
been long over. Apart from the army, there are 
other para-military forces including the state's 
own cadre of police force. The enhancement in 
troops thus cannot be justified on merits of 
carnages like Kulhand and Basantgarh. Mukherjee 
may be quite naive in believing that this is no 
violation of international norms and rules. 
Perhaps, he needs to be reminded that apart from 
the massive troops build-up, there has been 
attempt to militarise most parts of Jammu and 
Kashmir, especially the remote, rural militancy 
infested areas, where surrendered ultras, village 
defence committees and SPOs are given official 
patronage and used not only in counter insurgency 
operations but also to unleash a reign of terror 
against common masses. Even where the VDCs and 
other informers recruited by the forces have 
proved crucial in counter insurgency operations, 
there are reports that the armed civilians are 
often used as human shields, which the learned 
minister needs to be informed is against the 
principles of international law, justice and 
human rights. The union defence minister is 
requested to do his home work properly, rather 
than relying on one or two incidents, to give his 
recommendations about troops cut. The entire 
process of demilitarization, its need, its 
practicability and its prospective gains need to 
be studied in totality before resorting to the 
easy course of belligerence that enables the 
political leadership to hide their follies behind 
the might of the gun.


_____


[4]   Communal Business as Usual in Gujarat

Communalism Watch
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2006/05/theres-taliban-in-gujarat.html

The Hindustan Times
May 6, 2006

THERE'S A TALIBAN IN GUJARAT

Javed Anand

Hate politics has claimed too many innocent lives 
in the last seven days. It's victims could have 
been you or me, Hindu or Muslim, had we found 
ourselves in the wrong place, at the wrong time 
and belonging to the 'wrong' religion. Who got 
killed and who are the murderers?

On Sunday, the Taliban in Afghanistan butchered K 
Suryanarayana, an engineer from Hyderabad, who 
risked working in dangerous territory abroad only 
to earn some extra money for his family. The 
Taliban fanatics best remembered for the 
merciless massacre of their adversaries, fellow 
Muslims torture of those captured in barbaric 
ways, demolition of the Bayiman Buddhas despite 
the pleas and protests from Muslims worldwide, 
and barring women from educational institutions 
and workplaces. As a result a large number of 
widows in Afghanistan were forced into 
prostitution to feed their children.

Within hours of the killing of Suryanarayana, 
thirty muftis and muftias of Dar-ul-Iftah, 
Jamiat-ul-Mominath, Hyderabad, issued a fatwa 
condemning both the kidnapping act and subsequent 
killing of an innocent person as "inhuman" and 
"un-Islamic". They charged the Taliban with 
having committed a "Gunaah-e-Kabira" 
(unforgiveable sin). "It seems the TalibanŠ have 
just gone mad," said an outraged Moulana Mufti 
Abdul Mughni Mazaahiri, director of another 
Hyderabad-based institution, Sabeel-al-Falah.

Late night the same Sunday, a group of the 
Pakistani Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists stormed 
inside homes of Hindu families living in 
scattered hamlets in Doda district of Jammu and 
Kashmir and massacred 32 men, women and children. 
This is not the first time that terrorist outfits 
trained and armed by the Pakistani establishment 
have committed such an outrage on Indian soil. 
And Hindus are not their only targets. In the 
pursuit of their ugly design, they have never 
shown any qualm in killing or maiming Muslims 
either.

With Spain's Muslims having taken the lead last 
year, there has been a spate of fatwas from 
religious leaders across the world condemning 
Osama bin Laden, the Al Qaeda and other terrorist 
outfits in unequivocal words for their "inhuman" 
and "un-Islamic" misdeeds. In India, the 
terrorist attack on the Sankat Mochan temple in 
Varanasi in February was greeted with fatwas from 
muftis in Varanasi, Lucknow, Hyderabad as 
elsewhere.

In short, the Taliban, Osama Bin Laden and their 
kind are human abominations masquerading as 
"Allah's army". But what does one say, or do, 
when an administration sworn to uphold 
constitutional values and the rule of law act in 
criminal fashion?

If the dastardly deeds of the Taliban and the 
terrorists in Doda were naked in their design, 
the civic administration and the police that 
targeted Vadodara's Muslims last Monday were 
insidious in their shameless bid to couch their 
blatant communal conduct as an "even-handed" 
civic anti-encroachment drive.

For the crusaders of Hindutva in Vadodara, the 
Dargah of Hazrat Rashiduddin that was bulldozed 
to oblivion last Monday was obviously a huge 
"embarrassment", a constant "eyesore". The shrine 
has been on the sanghi hit list since 1969, never 
mind the fact that the dargah, as most others in 
the country, was the common meeting place for 
Hindus and Muslims. Or, all the more reason 
perhaps why it had to go.

Along with mass killings, loot and gangrape, as 
many as 270 places of religious and cultural 
importance to Muslims were desecrated or 
destroyed all over Gujarat in a single week 
following the Godhra carnage in 2002. Among them 
was the mazaar of the renowned poet Wali Dakhani 
just outside the office of the police 
commissioner of Ahmedabad. The façade of the tomb 
of Ustad Faiz Khan in Vadodara was also 
vandalised. How embarrassing, in this background, 
for a Vadodara sanghi to see the Dargah Hazrat 
Rashiduddin intact, a constant reminder of the 
unfinished agenda of 2002. Who'll wait for the 
next full-blown carnage to provide the pretext? 
The "development" of Vadodara was good enough 
cover for the destruction of a 300-year-old 
monument. If a few makeshift roadside temples 
also need to be knocked down for pretence of even 
handedness, that's fair barter.

For those who think that the genocide in Gujarat 
in 2002 is a thing of the past, last week's ugly 
incidents in Vadodara are a reminder, albeit on a 
miniscule scale, that in the land of the Mahatma, 
many of the ingredients and the official 
instruments that made the earlier conflagration 
possible are still intact.

A "compromise" formula - local Muslims to hand 
over two-and-a-half feet of the dargah space that 
the civic administration wants for road widening 
- is unilaterally rejected. Civic bulldozers with 
the city's BJP mayor, Sushil Solanki, BJP leaders 
including Nalin Bhatt descend on the dargah, 
servile policemen in tow. In no time, the entire 
dargah is turned to rubble and the road is 
tarred, amidst provocative slogans by 
cheerleaders from the BJP, VHP and Bajrang Dal: 
"Destroy the mini-Babri masjid", "If the 
corporation fails, the VHP and Bajrang Dal will". 
As Muslims protest, the police shoot to kill, 
claiming three victims.

Later that night, a mob blocks the car of 
38-year-old Rafiq Abdul Ghani Vora on a main road 
while he is returning home from work. In the two 
hours during which time the mob swells to around 
1,000 (under curfew) and finally burns Vora 
alive. The police is nowhere in sight. Local 
Muslims claim they made nearly 200 phone calls in 
their frantic bid for help. Vadodara's police 
commissioner, Deepak Swaroop, they claim, kept 
cutting off their calls while all they got from 
the police control room was advice: "Go to 
Pakistan!"

The timing of the eruption in Vadodara may be 
politically very inconvenient to chief minister 
Narendra Modi. But it is he alone who bears the 
responsibility for hounding or sidelining honest 
police officers, while PC Pandey, the then police 
commissioner of Ahmedabad who oversaw the killing 
of nearly 500 Muslims in his city is elevated to 
the post of Gujarat's director general of police. 
When you turn the police force into a servile 
tool force and nurture mass murderers what else 
can you expect?

(The author is the co-editor of Communalism Combat)

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www.sacw.net > Communalism Repository
May 8, 2006

WAGES OF HATE

by Harsh Mander

(Published earlier in The Hindustan Times, May 8, 2005)

A numbing spiral of violence has once again 
gripped Vadodara in Gujarat, a city that was 
brutally torn apart by the mass murder of 
segments of its citizens in 2002. Large parts of 
the city are engulfed by the tense unquiet of 
curfew. The streets are emptied of people, except 
clutches of homeless families to whom no curfew 
can apply. Instead convoys of security forces 
manoeuvre the roads, and bleary eyed policemen 
have established pickets in a belated claim to 
guard the people of the beleaguered city.

Yet the faith of many citizens in the will and 
capacity of the state administration to protect 
them and to restore peace and secure justice is 
completely decimated, more so because the 
violence was provoked and stoked directly by the 
openly sectarian and provocative actions of the 
municipal and police administration.

The dispute was over the declared resolve of the 
local government to demolish a dargah of Sufi 
saint Hazrat Rasiuddin Chisthi. The newly elected 
city council with an overwhelming BJP membership 
voted for its removal, claiming that it was an 
'encroachment' and obstructed traffic.

The worried leaders of the Muslim community tried 
to negotiate with the Mayor and councillors. 
Realising that they were adamant, they agreed to 
themselves demolish substantial parts of the 
structure and canopy of the dargah, and retain 
only a small structure over the actual grave. 
However, their conciliatory offer of compromise 
was rejected and the council decided that it 
would settle for nothing less than a full 
demolition.

Immediately thereafter,  the Mayor, accompanied 
by BJP leaders notorious for their role in the 
2002 massacre, municipal authorities, and a large 
contingent of armed policemen both in uniform and 
civilian clothes, descended at the dargah with 
bulldozers. Local Muslim youth quickly mobilised 
peaceful resistance by a sit-in around the site. 
The Mayor and the mob raised inflammatory 
slogans. The crowd of Muslim men soon found 
themselves pelted by stones, and the police 
started to shoot at them.

Television cameras recorded how policemen shot at 
the retreating crowd at point-blank range, aiming 
at their heads rather than their feet. Two men 
died of bullet injuries in their heads, and many 
were injured. All rules that regulate the use of 
force against civilian populations were 
disregarded: there was no advance warning, no 
cane charge, no water cannons, no rubber bullets, 
no shooting at the feet. There was only firing to 
kill. We later inspected the site and found 
bullet marks on walls more than five feet above 
the ground, and deep inside the lane where they 
were chased as they fled.

The municipal administration and mob then 
demolished the Sufi shrine, and immediately built 
a tar road drive over it. Their triumphant mood 
revived memories of the Babri Masjid demolition 
and that of the razing of the Wali Gujarati 
dargah in Ahmedabad in 2002, except that this 
operation was openly planned and executed by the 
state administration itself. 
[ . . . ].
http://www.sacw.net/DC/CommunalismCollection/ArticlesArchive/harshMander8May06.html

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VADODARA: VIOLENCE ON GUJARAT'S "GAURAV" DAY
- A PUCL Interim Report, May 1-13, 2006
Full text is available at  :
http://tinyurl.com/k63ef

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Communalism Watch

GUJARAT ON FIRE AGAIN

Asghar Ali Engineer
(Secular Perspective May 16-31, 2006)

Baroda has witnessed riots in last three to four 
days on scale reminiscent of Gujarat carnage in 
2002. The rioting started on the question of 
demolition of 200-year-old dargah of Chishti 
Rashduddin in the name of demolition of 
unauthorised structures. The dargah was 
demolished on 1st May and rioting began 
immediately thereafter. The Muslims had offered 
as a compromise that 2.5 feet space from dargah 
(mausoleum) be taken and the rest not be touched. 
The Municipal commissioner of Baroda, it seems 
had almost agreed but went back later on under 
pressure from BJP leaders.
[ . . . ]
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2006/05/gujarat-on-fire-again.html


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[5]  

The Telegraph
May 17, 2006

TO BRIDGE THE GREAT DIVIDE
It is now time to think about how to use 
different means to deepen and widen social and 
economic equality in India, writes Achin Vanaik 
The author is professor of international 
relations and global politics, Delhi University
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060517/asp/opinion/story_6123053.asp

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Subject: [indiathinkersnet] Insult to Scheduled Castes and Tribes: Petition
Date: Wed, 03 May 2006 08:33:03 -0000

The Times of India and Mumbai Mirror, like much of the media has taken a
very strong anti-reservation stance and in the process is broadcasting
rabidly discriminatory, demeaning, and insulting reports regarding
Scheduled Castes and Tribes.

Please read and if you wish to do so, sign the petition regarding this
issue, online at:

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/toimm506/petition.html

The petition recommends that the Atrocities Act be applied to the people
responsible for humiliating dalits and adivasis through the Times of
India and Mumbai Mirror.

Regards



D.Parthasarathy


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[6]


We have decided to declare 26 May as a DAY OF 
NATIONAL ACTION against violence, injustice, 
displacement and forced evictions in the name of 
development. Wherever you are, please mobilise, 
strategise, and organise a local action - either 
outside the court, the Mantralaya, local 
government offices - wherever you feel that 
pressure is needed. Suggested actions include 
signature campaigns (against the Supreme Court 
decision) outside local courts, demonstrations 
outside Congress party offices, rallies calling 
for immediate halt of construction of the dam and 
an end to displacement, slum demolitions, and 
forced evictions around the country. Please 
inform us about the events that you organise. We 
have to speak up against the persistent injustice 
and question the responsible authorities for 
inflicting destruction on the people. Let us 
unite and rally together to raise a strong voice 
on May 26!  NO MORE VIOLENCE AGAINST THE POOR! 
NO MORE DISPLACEMENT! NO MORE FORCED EVICTIONS! 
NO MORE STATE-SPONSORED MURDER!

15 May 2006

Dear friend,

You have been with us during this critical stage 
of our struggle to save the Narmada Valley from 
devastation. We greatly appreciate your concern 
for and solidarity with the Sardar Sarovar dam 
affected adivasis and farmers during their dharna 
and indefinite fast in Delhi. Your support - 
ideological, strategic and political - has been 
invaluable for us. During the last 20 years of 
our struggle, your participation at various 
points, including in the last year has greatly 
strengthened the movement. What has been 
especially significant is how you have worked 
together with us to make this your movement as 
well.

This is indeed a time for us to form one movement 
against the forces that promote centralisation 
and globalisation, that work against democracy, 
that favour unjust and inhuman development 
paradigms while displacing people from their 
homes, lands, and livelihoods, and that spell 
destruction. These forces have set forth a great 
challenge before us. In this struggle, it is 
critical for us to stay together and combine our 
energies to fight against every form of injustice.

The Narmada struggle is a prime example of this, 
and your participation in the movement has been 
very significant. From diverse programmes and 
events in Delhi to local events around the 
country, such as relay fasts, protests, artistic 
expressions, writings, and films, every action 
has been important. From adivasis, dalits, slum 
dwellers, and farmers, to eminent persons, 
students, teachers, and politicians, people from 
across the country have raised their voices 
against this dominant paradigm of unjust 
development and begun a historic mission to fight 
for the truth.

Despite a tough month-long struggle and despite 
enough substantial field evidence (including from 
the "pol khol yatra") in support of our claims, 
we still cannot rest nor can we celebrate. The 
construction of the Sardar Sarovar dam still 
continues unabated. The killer dam, which will 
destroy and drown thousands of families, hundreds 
of villages, especially adivasi villages, is not 
just illegal but inhuman. Several agencies, 
including state and central government bodies 
have visited the Valley, and the group of three 
ministers, including the Prime Minister, know 
that the construction of the dam is against the 
orders of the Supreme Court, yet neither the 
Prime Minister (PM) nor the Central government 
has intervened or taken a firm stand against it.

The new committee constituted by the PM with Mr. 
V.K. Shunglu and two other government bureaucrats 
has been asked to conduct a survey through the 
NSSO from 19 May to 19 June. The committee has 
been assigned the task of surveying the number of 
displaced people, the land available, and the 
area to be submerged through a sample survey, and 
has been asked to aim to complete rehabilitation 
within 3 months. Can the rehabilitation of 35,000 
families be completed in 3 months? When the law 
and policies clearly call for allocation of land 
and house plots one year before submergence and 
for rehabilitation to be completed 6 months 
before submergence, why is a central government 
committee that violates these legal provisions 
being set up?

You must understand the political games involved 
in this, where the BJP government has joined 
hands with the Congress in Gujarat, and the 
Central government continues to evade all 
responsibility.

The Supreme Court, after asking for affidavits 
from all affected parties was to make a decision 
on the dam in February, which it delayed. Even 
after the 8 March decision of the Narmada Control 
Authority to raise the dam height to 121.92 
metres, 2 months have lapsed without any order to 
halt the illegal construction of the dam. At the 
1st May hearing, the Court postponed its 
judgement to 8th May, when again despite glaring 
evidence of failed rehabilitation, it refused to 
halt construction on the dam and decided to hear 
the matter on 7th July after the report of the 
Shunglu Committee is submitted to the Prime 
Minister on June 30. This decision reflects a 
complete denial of justice by the country's 
highest judicial institution. Despite evidence 
that the Court is violating its own orders, the 
construction on the dam continues incessantly. 
This will result in the evident submergence of 
adivasi villages, houses and fields, especially 
with the monsoons approaching soon. Given the 
circumstances, the report of the Shunglu 
Committee seems to have little purpose other than 
to conduct a post-mortem on the matter.

Across the country, the tide is against the rural 
and urban poor, farmers, and labourers. With 
large-scale infrastructure, development and city 
beautification projects displacing more and more 
people, the challenge before us is enormous. The 
struggle against the Sardar Sarovar dam is one 
example of this. Neither you nor us can therefore 
sit quiet nor bear silent witness to this 
injustice.

Please write to, speak with, lobby, the PM, Sonia 
Gandhi, the Congress Party, your local political 
representatives and others about the urgent need 
to immediately stop this murderous and violent 
development paradigm that is prevalent across the 
country. Please put pressure wherever you can to 
ensure that construction of the Sardar Sarovar 
dam stops immediately.

We have decided to declare 26 May as a DAY OF 
NATIONAL ACTION against violence, injustice, 
displacement and forced evictions in the name of 
development. Wherever you are, please mobilise, 
strategise, and organise a local action - either 
outside the court, the Mantralaya, local 
government offices - wherever you feel that 
pressure is needed. Suggested actions include 
signature campaigns (against the Supreme Court 
decision) outside local courts, demonstrations 
outside Congress party offices, rallies calling 
for immediate halt of construction of the dam and 
an end to displacement, slum demolitions, and 
forced evictions around the country. Please 
inform us about the events that you organise. We 
have to speak up against the persistent injustice 
and question the responsible authorities for 
inflicting destruction on the people. Let us 
unite and rally together to raise a strong voice 
on May 26!  NO MORE VIOLENCE AGAINST THE POOR! 
NO MORE DISPLACEMENT! NO MORE FORCED EVICTIONS! 
NO MORE STATE-SPONSORED MURDER!

We would also like to take this opportunity to 
invite you to the Convention of the National 
Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) that will 
be held in Bangalore from 30 May to 1 June, 2006. 
Please attend this meeting to discuss the 
critical issues facing us all across the country, 
to build greater solidarity across movements, and 
to develop more focused and long-term strategies. 
The need of the hour is for us to unite and take 
our movement to a stronger yet different level. 
For more details on the NAPM Convention, please 
write to: mukta at riseup.net or call

(0) 98694 00508 / (0) 98206 36335.


We look forward to working together and uniting our struggles.

In gratitude, and in solidarity,


Medha Patkar, Dipti Bhatnagar, Kamala Yadav, 
Pinjaribai, Om Prakash, Jankibai, Clifton 
Rozario, Ashish Mandloi, Yogini Khanolkar, 
Kailash Awasya, Noorjibhai, Banabhai, Chetan, 
Mohanbhai


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