SACW | Oct. 24, 2006 | Pakistan: 7 year itch and disappearances; India: Muslims at the bottom; death sentence; books as crime; Mirco loan myth; Secular UN; UK: No faith in faith schools

Harsh Kapoor aiindex at mnet.fr
Mon Oct 23 20:00:03 CDT 2006


South Asia Citizens Wire | October 24, 2006 | Dispatch No. 2310 - Year 8

[1]  Pakistan: 'The Seven-Year Itch' (Irfan Husain)
[2]  Pakistan:  Challenging disappearances (Asma Jahangir)
[3]  A Nobel Peace Prize for Neoliberalism?: The 
Myth of Microloans (Alexander Cockburn)
[4]  Secular India's Muslims: Trapped in a blind alley (Syeda Hameed)
[5]  India: Books As Crime (Subhash Gatade)
[6]  A death sentence in India (Shubh Mathur)
[7]  [ Keep room for reason ! Keep The UN secular ! ]
      - You gotta have faith at the UN (Azza Karam and Matthew Weiner)
[8]  UK: Let us pray we have an end to faith schools (Minette Marrin)
[9]  Indian women march to fight rampant attacks (Palash Kumar)

____


[1] 

Dawn
21 October 2006	.

'THE SEVEN-YEAR ITCH'
by Irfan Husain

IN the mid-1950s, 'The Seven-Year Itch' was a 
huge hit. Starring the unforgettably delectable 
Marilyn Monroe, the film revolved around the 
theme of marital infidelity. The title comes from 
the idea that after seven years of marriage, the 
eye wanders, and partners get bored of seeing the 
same face on the pillow next to each other every 
morning.

Perhaps we do not see Musharraf quite so 
intimately, but for many Pakistanis, the TV 
screen is close enough. The big mistake people in 
power make is that they develop a taste for the 
limelight, and soon this hunger for publicity 
becomes an addiction that has to be fed by daily 
newspaper headlines, TV interviews, and in 
Musharraf's case, book launches. But while they 
revel in this hype and hoopla, pity their poor 
audiences: blitzed by this self-serving 
propaganda, who can blame them for getting fed up 
after a time? And the Lord knows seven years is 
time enough for even Musharraf's most ardent fans 
to feel bored.

Although I oppose military takeovers on 
principle, I must admit that I cautiously 
welcomed Musharraf's coup seven years ago. My 
reason was simple: had he not overthrown Nawaz 
Sharif, the ruling Muslim League would have 
secured a majority in the Senate elections due 
the following March. Once the upper house had 
been won, Nawaz Sharif was determined to carry 
out his avowed threat of making Shariah the law 
of the land.

A number of Pakistanis, including this one, were 
concerned that given the different schools of 
Islamic thought active in the country, this 
legislation would be divisive to the point of 
civil war. Hence I considered a short military 
intervention to be the lesser of the two evils.

But as I should have known, military 
interventions in Pakistan are never short. The 
pattern has been for coup-makers to convince 
themselves that they are indispensable, and then 
bend all their energies and resources to hang on 
in power in the belief that their departure would 
spell disaster for the country. But ultimately, 
they all leave, one way or another, and the 
nation staggers on, weaker for their extended 
presence. Another thing we have learned is that 
generals last longer in power than politicians. 
Not because of their superior performance, but 
because they have the army behind them. And 
lending them a fig- leaf are the motley crew of 
political hacks who could not get into power 
through elections.

Beyond the obvious weakening of political 
institutions, what else do Musharraf's seven 
years in power teach us? For starters, even for a 
military dictator, there are strict limits to 
power. As we have seen time and again, Musharraf 
has been forced to retreat where a politician 
might well have succeeded. So although I have few 
doubts about his good intentions on a number of 
issues, his ability to follow through is 
decidedly shaky.

Take his praiseworthy desire to dilute the more 
vicious aspects of the Hudood Ordinance. Like any 
decent person, he was motivated by the shocking 
injustice of this Zia-inspired, anti- woman law. 
Indeed, most of the civilised world is appalled 
by this unique piece of legislation. Although he 
was supported by the PPP and the MQM in his 
effort to amend the law through a bill in 
parliament, he was thwarted by both the MMA and 
ultimately, by his own faction of the PML. While 
the opposition from the clerics was expected, the 
stab in the back from his own creation must have 
penetrated even his Kevlar flak jacket. But he 
has had to put up with this double-cross because 
he has no alternatives, and the opportunistic 
Muslim League members know it.

Or take his oft-repeated decision to build the 
controversial Kalabagh dam. Here, after a major 
campaign on every front, he simply could not 
force the smaller provinces to go along with 
Punjab on the issue. This is despite the fact 
that Sindh is being run by a coalition that 
reached power only thanks to Musharraf. 
Nevertheless, they said 'no' when it came to this 
highly divisive issue because it would have been 
political suicide for them to have agreed. So 
when push came to shove, Musharraf was unable to 
convince the smaller provinces to drop their deep 
mistrust of Punjab.

His loudly proclaimed concept of 'enlightened 
moderation' lies in tatters, hacked to bits by 
the mullahs of the MMA whose support he has 
courted so assiduously. Part of this stillborn 
policy was the registration of madressahs, and 
the introduction of modern subjects there. One 
growl from the mullahs was enough to lay this 
ambition to rest. Then there was the debacle over 
the decision to drop the religion column from the 
new machine- readable passports. Even this 
innocuous step to bring our travel documents in 
line with international norms was blocked by our 
religious parties, and Musharraf had to back down 
yet again.

On the international front, Musharraf has had 
limited success, despite his enhanced profile 
after 9/11. Although he made a U-turn on 
Pakistan's pro-Taliban policy, he continues to be 
pressed to do more on the Afghan border. And more 
than ever, he is under pressure to rein in the 
ISI. In spite of his efforts to present a 
progressive view of Pakistan to the rest of the 
world, he is frequently frustrated by his own 
party, courts and intelligence agencies.

The problem he faces is a common one for military 
dictators around the world. Lacking legitimacy, 
they make deals with groups and parties to 
broaden their base beyond GHQ. But as they face 
resistance from legitimate political forces, they 
squander their time, energy and the little moral 
authority they possess to hang on to power. In 
Musharraf's case, he has had to curry favour with 
fundamentalists to win their support. He cannot 
then take on their militant wings with any 
conviction or credibility. It is this politics of 
expediency that neuters the most well-meaning 
dictator.

One major aspect of the seven-year itch is the 
intractable nature of problems faced by 
developing countries like Pakistan. Leaders, 
whether elected or not, simply cannot meet the 
rising aspirations of a growing population. So 
they are forced to repeat promises they cannot 
keep, and the rest of us can only sit back and 
yawn each time they appear on TV to offer us pie 
in the sky tomorrow.


____


[2]

The Daily Times
October 24, 2006	.

CHALLENGING DISAPPEARANCES
by Asma Jahangir

In the coming months the HRCP will translate the 
Convention text and post it on its website. Other 
relevant information contained in the Convention 
will also be disseminated to relevant 
institutions and bodies

The United Nations Human Rights Council in its 
first session in June this year adopted the 
International Convention for the Protection of 
All persons from Enforced Disappearances and 
recommended that the General Assembly adopt it 
too. It will subsequently be opened for 
signature, ratification and accession at a 
signing ceremony in Paris.

The story of the passage of this Convention has 
many lessons for us. Foremost, that we must not 
succumb to pressures and continue to recall that 
repression cannot succeed for long. More 
importantly, that the protection of human rights 
is no longer a domestic issue. It concerns the 
finer values of the global human community.

The human rights community has a tough challenge 
to meet. It is their obligation to document all 
cases of disappearances. They must reach out to 
the families and acquaintances of those who have 
disappeared. All facts must be verified and it is 
crucial that all reports containing allegations 
of disappearances must contain credible 
information.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) 
hopes to fulfil this responsibility in Pakistan. 
There are many routes, domestic and international 
that we can follow in seeking relief and, 
ultimately, justice. At the international level, 
the Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary 
Disappearances (WGEID) considers all cases that 
are fairly well documented.

In order for a person to be considered 
'disappeared', three conditions must be 
fulfilled: the deprivation of liberty against the 
will of the person concerned; involvement of 
government officials, at least indirectly by 
acquiescence; and the refusal to disclose the 
fate and whereabouts of the person concerned.

The crime of disappearance is a continuous one 
and therefore WGEID keeps cases under 
consideration until the fate or whereabouts of 
the disappeared person become known. The WGEID 
does not establish criminal liability nor does it 
declare state responsibility. Its primary goal is 
to assist families in determining the fate and 
whereabouts of their relatives who, having 
disappeared, are placed outside the protection of 
the law.

The WGEID endeavours to establish a channel of 
communication between the complainants and the 
governments concerned to ensure investigation 
with the objective of clarifying the whereabouts 
of disappeared persons.

While the WGEID is not a substitute for domestic 
judicial remedy, nor does it declare criminal 
responsibility, it can exert pressure on 
governments to discontinue such heinous 
practices. Eventually, national governments and 
institutions, particularly the judiciary, bear 
the responsibility of guaranteeing protection to 
individuals.

Pakistan has been recently elected to the newly 
formed Human Rights Council and should be obliged 
to respond to allegations against it for having 
violated human rights. The WGEID should make a 
formal request to the government of Pakistan to 
invite it to conduct a fact-finding mission.

The Declaration on the Protection of All Persons 
from Enforced Disappearances obliges governments 
to take "effective legislative, administrative, 
judicial, or other measures to prevent and 
terminate acts of enforced disappearance in any 
territory under its jurisdiction." It stipulates 
that all acts of enforced disappearances shall be 
offences under criminal law and that there be no 
impunity or amnesty for perpetrators of this 
crime. It is important to note that the 
Convention denies impunity for anyone engaged in 
the crime of disappearances even if it is carried 
out under official instructions.

Anyone involved in the crime of disappearances, 
regardless of their position, bears an individual 
responsibility. However, "mitigating 
circumstances may be established for those who, 
having participated in enforced disappearances, 
are instrumental in bringing the victims forward 
alive or in providing voluntary information which 
would contribute to clarifying cases of enforced 
disappearance". In addition, domestic legislation 
should not place any limitation of time for 
seeking redress in cases of disappearances.

In the coming months the HRCP will translate the 
Convention text and post it on its website. Other 
relevant information contained in the Convention 
will also be disseminated to relevant 
institutions and bodies. It will also be involved 
in raising awareness on the issue. The media can 
play a pivotal role in this campaign and they 
ought to be commended for the positive 
contribution they have made so far. Indeed a 
number of working journalists have themselves 
been victims of this abhorrent practice.

Incidents of involuntary disappearances have been 
reported from all parts of the country - 
Balochistan, Sindh, NWFP and Punjab. The HRCP has 
received reports of over 600 incidents of 
disappearances during the last three years. Our 
sources include media reports, complaints from 
victims' families, information received from 
human rights defenders, lawyers, political 
parties, trade unions and other individuals. The 
HRCP has not been able to verify all the cases 
brought to its notice, partly because of lack of 
capacity but mostly because of the 
inaccessibility of those close to the victims.

Witnesses, in a number of cases, do not come 
forward or are threatened by offenders. An 
important number of incidents have occurred in 
places which remain inaccessible for activists in 
carrying out their work satisfactorily. Verifying 
cases of disappearances requires special skills. 
The HRCP has so far been able to verify 170 cases 
in the last two years but will continue to carry 
out its obligation so that it can verify all 
cases brought to its notice. It is our belief 
that the figures represented here do not indicate 
the full extent of the numbers of disappearances 
taking place in the country.

There are several cases where victims have 
requested confidentiality as they have been 
released on assurances of maintaining their 
silence. The actual number of disappearances 
cannot therefore, be estimated but some patterns 
do emerge from the available information.

Broadly speaking, there are five categories of 
people who are picked up by plainclothes men in 
Pakistan. A category of reports received by the 
HRCP indicates that at least 50 journalists have 
been picked up by members of intelligence 
agencies during the last two years. They are 
usually warned of dire consequences and released 
after a few days. Their family members receive 
phone calls threatening them and asking them to 
remain silent. They are told that if they alert 
the press, the victim will be dealt with harshly. 
There is a constant turnover of journalists, 
mostly from remoter areas of the country, who are 
picked up, threatened and then released - a 
revolving-door policy of involuntary 
disappearances.

The second category is of a large number of 
Baloch nationalists. A large number remains 
missing but some have since been released. In the 
third category are people from Sindh belonging to 
groups opposing the government. Members of the 
Jeay Sindh Mutahidda Mahaz party are among the 
disappeared persons.

The fourth category is of people who are picked 
up on suspicion of being terrorists. Among them 
are people belonging to religious minorities and 
women. Some returnees from Guantanamo Bay prison 
disclosed that they were initially picked up by 
Pakistan's intelligence agencies and kept in 
illegal custody. They were interrogated in 
Pakistan and later handed over to the US 
authorities. They disclosed that money changed 
hands at each transfer of illegal custody.

The last category comprises people who are picked 
up by either the law enforcement or the 
intelligence agencies for settling scores. They 
act either on their own or at the behest of 
well-placed individuals. In such situations, the 
victim's family simply gives in to the demands 
made on them.

The families of a number of victims of 
disappearances have filed habeas corpus 
petitions. Our courts dismiss many such petitions 
following a statement by government agents that 
the 'detainee' is not in their custody. This 
practice is followed despite eyewitness accounts 
of evidence indicating involvement of state 
functionaries.

The issue of disappearances in Pakistan is 
closely linked to the 'war on terror'. A number 
of individuals who have vanished were ostensibly 
picked up on suspicion of being affiliated with 
militant groups. Moreover, the new methodology of 
interrogation - by administrating injections - 
has evolved during the war on terror.

Most shockingly, such grave human rights 
violations are being carried out on a daily basis 
while the international community looks away. The 
HRCP's report on Balochistan, its annual report, 
media reports, press releases and conferences on 
this issue as well as protests by families of 
victims have not received any response from the 
government.

The law enforcement and more importantly the 
intelligence agencies remain unaccountable. The 
callous lack of concern by the government 
strongly indicates that they tolerate, if not 
approve, of this crime. A few recommendations put 
forward by the HRCP include urging the judiciary 
of Pakistan to act in an independent manner and 
to effectively use its authority in recovering 
all disappeared individuals. The HRCP also calls 
upon WGEID to request for a mission to Pakistan 
and demand that the government invites them.

Pakistan should sign and ratify the ICCPR and the 
Convention for the Protection of All Persons from 
Enforced Disappearance and parliamentarians to 
urgently set up a Working Group to document cases 
of disappearances and use their authority to 
investigate these cases so that the perpetrators 
are brought to justice. Finally, all human rights 
organisations should work in partnership in 
advancing the campaign against involuntary 
disappearances.

This article is based on a lecture given by Asma 
Jahangir, the chairperson of the Human Rights 
Commission of Pakistan at a Workshop on Enforced 
Disappearances held during September 30-October 
1, 2006

____


[3]

counterpunch.org	.
  October 20 / 22, 2006

A NOBEL PEACE PRIZE FOR NEOLIBERALISM?: THE MYTH OF MICROLOANS

by Alexander Cockburn

The committee that gave Henry Kissinger the Nobel 
peace prize has given it this year to Mohammed 
Younus, the economist who put the word 
"microloan" on the map with the Grameen Bank in 
his native land of Bangladesh. That's progress of 
a sort. But in terms of hot air, any sentences 
linking "peace" with "Henry Kissinger" aren't 
immeasurably more vacuous than the notion that 
microloans can help--to use the language of the 
Nobel Committee's citation "large population 
groups find ways in which to break out of 
poverty."

Throughout the late Eighties and Nineties, in the 
verbal currency of first-world do-gooders, 
"microloans" became one of those magically 
fungible words, embedded in a thousand Foundation 
and NGO annual reports, like "sustainable". What 
could be more virtuous in terms of prudent 
philanthropy than giving very small loans to very 
poor women? Microloans breath healthful uplift, 
as divorced from the sordid world of mega-loans 
(though not, it turns out, mega interest rates), 
as are micro-brews from Budweiser.

The trouble is that microloans don't make any 
sort of a macro-difference. They have helped some 
poor women, no doubt about it. But in their own 
way they're a register of defeat. Back in the 
early 1970s there were huge plans afoot to change 
the entire relationship of the Third to the First 
World, to speed Third World economies towards 
decent living standards for the many, not just 
the few. At the United Nations radical economists 
were hard at work drafting plans for a New World 
Economic Order. All that went out the window and 
here are the caring classes thirty years later, 
hailing microloans.
[. . .].
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn10202006.html


____


[4]

Indian Express
October 23, 2006

TRAPPED IN A BLIND ALLEY
by Syeda Hameed

Sachar Committee's findings on Muslims will soon 
be made public. Don't be optimistic


  I stood facing a crowd, mostly young boys. A 
pair of bright eyes caught mine. "Your name?" I 
asked, choking on the stench from the open drains 
around the slum. "Saddam," the voice was 
confident. He was wearing a dirt-streaked black 
shirt bearing the words 'Lost Boys'. The scrawny, 
malnourished, grimy bunch epitomised the epithet 
on Saddam's shirt. Muslims of Malegaon, a 
forgotten people of a forgotten town in 
Maharashtra. A town of seven lakh people, 75 per 
cent of them Muslim, which gained recognition in 
September because of the bomb blasts.

For me, Malegaon captures the Indian Muslim 
predicament. I have also walked in other Muslim 
ghettos, the gallis, mohallas and chalis of 
post-carnage Gujarat and resettlement slums such 
as Bombay Hotel and Madani Colony in and around 
Ahmedabad. While Malegaon is a snapshot of the 
slow decline, Gujarat is the long shot of sudden 
penury and sub-human existence of an erstwhile 
prosperous people.

I recall the early post-Partition days in Delhi 
where we relocated from our watan, Panipat. By 
mutual agreement of the governments of India and 
Pakistan, Panipat's Muslim majority was herded in 
trucks and sent across the border, while Hindus 
from Punjab were brought in. Thus I lost my 
entire family. As a child, I had a nameless fear 
that I was somehow responsible for the massacre 
of Hindus and Sikhs. I had read Saadat Hasan 
Manto's short stories. One such story was 
'Mishtake' in which a Hindu was killed in 
Amritsar and when his corpse was stripped, the 
hoodlums realised their "mishtake".

I recall my early school days when slowly, in a 
Gandhian setting, my fear was expunged. With my 
peers I took bold strides into the future, proud 
of being Indian, stirred by the ideas of 
Panchsheel, Non-alignment, and Ganga-Jamni 
tehzeeb. The optimism was best seen in the 
mushaira at Delhi's Red Fort with the prime 
minister as Mir-e-Mehfil. It was a euphoric era 
for Muslims who were proud of wearing khadi and 
celebrating Hindu festivals.

Today after five decades, even as a member of the 
Planning Commission, I suddenly feel my Muslim 
identity thrust into my face. Post-Babri, 
post-9/11, the world seems to have split into two 
camps: Muslim and non-Muslim. As I struggle with 
my sudden painful consciousness of my Muslimness, 
I think that my country, perhaps, is the only one 
in the world which can turn the tide and negate 
the theory of the clash of civilisations.

And then I look around me in Malegaon. In a town 
of seven lakh, there is no health facility, 85 
per cent of the population is crammed into slums. 
There are open drains, flies and mosquitoes 
abound, chikunguniya and dengue, detected and 
undetected, take their toll. Children are 
everywhere, but where are the schools? Most of 
the older ones are dropouts who work on 
powerlooms. A survey revealed that 33 per cent of 
primary school students are hearing-impaired 
because of the deafening din of the powerlooms.

In 1983 a high-powered panel for minorities was 
appointed by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and 
headed by Dr Gopal Singh. Its report revealed a 
gloomy picture of Muslim backwardness, especially 
in education. In the same year, the prime 
minister's 15-point programme was proclaimed. It 
stated, "India of our dreams can survive only if 
Muslims and other minorities can live in absolute 
safety and confidence." The 15 points covered all 
factors which resulted in backwardness, such as 
communal riots, lack of representation in state 
and Central services and nil access to the 
20-point development programme. Under this 
programme, 41 districts were identified for close 
monitoring of economic development. Nothing 
happened.

A committee of governors on the welfare of 
minorities submitted its report in 1998, 
lamenting the dismal implementation of the 
15-point programme. It said: "The very purpose of 
the 15-point programme seems to have been 
defeated as a result of negligence on the part of 
the authorities who have failed to implement the 
programme."

In a few days, the Sachar Committee's findings 
will be placed before the nation. It will be 
interesting to see whether this induces a sense 
of deja vu for those familiar with Gopal Singh's 
findings more than 20 years ago. From early 
reports, it seems that the meticulous work of Dr 
Abusaleh Sherriff and Azra Razzak may actually 
prove a slide.

Indian Muslims from being mishal-e-raah 
(pathfinders) have, over the last 60 years, 
become raah ke pathar (stones on the path). The 
slide has been unrelenting, and neither the 
community itself nor its leaders have made any 
move to arrest this. Nor has the media. The 
Gudiyas and Imranas have hogged headlines. Images 
of veiled women appear with or without reason, to 
titillate readers. An aggregate of the two 
confirms stereotypes of "retrograde Islam". But 
very few scribes and producers have bothered to 
highlight the Malegaons. They are present in 
every one of our 600 districts and yet they 
remain invisible to all. How many people have 
bothered to flag the conditions of the Muslim 
artisans, the weavers of Benaras and Bhadohi, all 
skilled workers, many of them women, who create 
works of art in dark cottages, starved of 
livelihoods?

But awareness is growing that the present state 
of denial for 150 million is against the national 
interest. This has resulted in the Approach Paper 
to the 11th Five Year Plan containing specific 
provisions for Muslims, the highest priority 
being accorded to education, especially for the 
Muslim girl child. We have a new programme: the 
Prime Minister's 15-Point Programme 2006. The 
Approach Paper demands its implementation.

The onus is equally on the Muslims. What are they 
going to do to better their circumstances? Today 
the only bright spot in a dismal picture is their 
above-average female sex ratio. In pre-Islamic 
Arabia, the girl child was buried at birth. One 
of the first injunctions of Islam was respect for 
the girl child's right to life. This lesson the 
Muslims have learnt; but there are many other 
lessons. The first word of the Quran is 'Igra' 
which means 'read'. It seems that the time for 
that has at last arrived.

The writer is a member of the Planning Commission


_____


[5]

BOOKS AS CRIME

by Subhash Gatade

'So you are the little woman who wrote the book 
that made this great (American) civil war' 
 
-Abraham Lincoln to Harriet Beecher Stowe,
author of Uncle Tom's Cabin

Bruno Fulgini, a non descript employee at the 
French Parliament, would not have imagined in his 
wildest dreams that his tedious and boring job at 
the Parliament library, would lead him to 
treasure hunt of another kind.

Today he finds himself metamorphosed into an 
author and editor, thanks to the sudden discovery 
of old files of the Paris police, which provided 
details of its surveillance work done way back in 
18 th century. In a report filed by AFP, Mr 
Fulgini tells us that 'Beyond criminals and 
political figures, there are files on writers and 
artists. In some cases, they go far in their 
indiscretions.'( The Statesman and The Hindustan 
Times, New Delhi, 26 th September 2006).

An edited version of these old files, focussing 
themselves on the writers of those times, has 
recently come out and is making waves. The said 
book 'Writers' Police' gives details of the way 
in which greatest writers of late 18 th century 
who were living in Paris at that time were kept 
under surveillance.

Definitely even a layperson can understand that 
the whole exercise was not part of wreaking of 
vengeance by a frustrated writer who had joined 
the police force as some senior officer. Neither 
the police was keen to understand the impact of 
the actual lifestyles of the writers  on societal 
mindset nor did it cared how a particular author 
would help unleash a new hairstyle on the block.

In fact the Parisian police had a very specific agenda.

It was clear to these protectors of internal 
security of a tottering regime that the renowned 
literati then viz. Victor Hugo, Balzac or Charles 
Dickens, might be writing fiction, but their 
sharp focus on the hypocrisy of the aristocrats 
or the livelihood issues of ordinary people is 
adding to the growing turmoil in the country. 
They knew very well that they might be writing 
fiction for the masses but it is turning out to 
be a sharp political edge that hit the right 
target and is becoming a catalyst for change.

While the Parisian police was engaged in tracking 
down the daily movements of the writers, its 
present day counterparts in Maharashtra 
especially from the Chandrapur-Nagpur region have 
rather devised some 'easier' and 'shortcut 
routes' to curb the flow of ideas.And for them it 
is also immaterial whether the writer in question 
was alive or dead.

The recent happenings at a book stall put in by a 
well known publisher 'Daanish Books' at the 
Deeksha Bhoomi of Dr Ambedkar in Nagpur are a 
case in point.A random list of books which the 
police perceived to be 'dangerous' and which it 
duly confiscated from their book stall makes 
intersting reading. According to a widely 
circulated email :

"The books seized by the police for containing 
dangerous , anti state material include books 
like Marathi translation of the Thoughts of 
Bhagat Singh, Ramdeen Ka Sapna by B.D. Sharma, 
Jati Vyavastha- Bhartiya Kranti Ki Khasiyat by 
Vaskar Nandy, Monarchy Vs Democracy by Baburam 
Bhattarai, Nepali Samargaatha: Maowadi Janyuddha 
ka Aankhon Dekha Vivaran (The Hindi edition of 
eminent American Journalist Li Onesto’s 
celebrated book Dispatches from the People’s War 
in Nepal, Translated by Anand Swarup Varma), 
Daliton par Badhati Jyadatiya aur Unka Krantikari 
Jawab, Chhapamar Yudhha by Che Guevara and books 
on Marxism and Leninism and people’s struggles. "

One gathers that if by their sixth sense these 
police personnel perceived that the writers 
scribblings may lead or add to 'social anarchy', 
they had no compunction in even confiscating such 
books even though such books are freely available 
in the market and have not been banned or 
declared offensive by any state agencies.

The Chandrapur-Nagpur police did not remain 
content with mere confiscation of legally 
available books but saw to it that the owner of 
the publication Ms Sunita was put to three days 
of intense questioning by the Anti--Naxalite 
Special Task Force. It is clear that if friends 
around the world had not put in tireless efforts 
and pressure would not have been exerted by 
international community on the Maharashtra State 
Government, Ms Sunita would been sent behind bars 
under some draconian provisions of the 'Unlawful 
Activities Prevention Act'.

As the email further adds, the whole incident 
raises pertinent questions about .".. [o]ur 
rights vis a vis the State, as an individual 
citizen of a ‘free country’, as publishers and 
finally as readers? "

Ofcourse as an aside it may be told that while 
the Maharashtra Police considers selling of books 
as 'crime' it has no qualms in protecting 
perpetrators of communal elements or for that 
matter quite a few 'dirty Harrys' in its midst. 
It is the same Maharashtra police which preferred 
to look the other way when RSS-Bajrang Dal 
activists were killed in a bomb blast in Nanded 
and a well knit conspiracy to instigate communal 
riots was exposed.

Coming back to the 'Writers Police' , it is clear 
to everyone how all those meticulous efforts put 
in by the police to curtail the free flow of 
ideas proved futile.And how French revolution of 
those times emerged as a beacon of hope for 
thinking people across the world. Rather it could 
be said that all those efforts at surveillance 
became a precursor to the storming of the 
Bastille.

Can it then be said that India is on the verge of 
similar transformatory changes and the 
Maharashtra polices' efforts at 'criminalising 
writing' are an indication that ruling elite of 
our times is fast losing ground.


_____


[6] 

www.opendemocracy.net
23  October 2006

A DEATH SENTENCE IN INDIA
by Shubh Mathur

The case of a Kashmiri Muslim convicted for 
terrorism raises serious questions about the 
operation of Indian democracy, says Shubh Mathur.
http://www.opendemocracy.net/conflict-india_pakistan/death_sentence_4020.jsp

_____


[7]  KEEP THE UN SECULAR !

[The UN better keep safe distance from the 
peddlers of faith. The 'Holy See' <aka Vatican or 
catholic church> which has for decades enjoyed a 
special state like status inside the UN has used 
every occasion to oppose family panning, 
contraception, women's rights to control their 
own sexuality. What ever credibility remains of 
the UN will go down the drain if religion speak 
further enters its corridors in an 
institutionalised manner; The UN institution 
already faces huge pressures from the powers that 
be from nation states and from the corporate 
world, getting religion inside is the straight 
path for trouble. The authors of the article 
below represent this dangerous strand of 
thinking, where the world seems incomplete till 
you paint everyone with some religion or the 
other. We hope that a future UN Secretary General 
will have the courage to do official review of 
the Holy See's status at the UN and give them a 
boot. Treating religions as countries is a mad 
idea, and can only add fuel to the already 
charged atmosphere of these times. An unduly 
large number of faith based NGO's enjoy observer 
status at the UN, and are having a ball in the 
booming inter-faith market. Keep the UN secular ! 
-- Harsh Kapoor for SACW.]

o o o

International Herald Tribune
October 23, 2006

YOU GOTTA HAVE FAITH AT THE UN
by Azza Karam and Matthew Weiner

NEW YORK The United Nations lacks a comprehensive 
strategy for understanding and engaging religion.
[. . .].
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/10/23/opinion/edweiner.php

_____


[8]  [ How about secular schooling ?  ]

The Sunday Times
October 22, 2006

LET US PRAY WE HAVE AN END TO FAITH SCHOOLS

by Minette Marrin

An alarming image dominated the front pages of 
Friday's newspapers. It was a photograph of a 
slim British woman shrouded in black except for a 
flash of her skilfully painted eyes, and naked 
toes. She was Aishah Azmi, the young Muslim 
teaching assistant in the now notorious veil 
dispute, on the day she won £1,100 for her hurt 
feelings. She might have been one of the 
emblematic figures of a medieval morality play, 
medieval as she looks. In contemporary Britain, 
she represents cultural chaos.

I'm not only thinking of the disjunction between 
the total veiling of extreme Islamic modesty, and 
the provocation of her eyes and toes. And I'm not 
questioning the woman's freedom in a free country 
to wear what she chooses, any more than I 
question other people's freedom to say how 
offensive they find it or their freedom to 
question her motives. What concerns me is her 
role as a teacher, and with faith schools in 
general.

Mrs Azmi was demanding the right as a Muslim to 
be fully veiled while working as an assistant in 
a Church of England junior school. One can hardly 
blame her, given the way that for decades 
multicultural orthodoxy has encouraged minorities 
to emphasise their cultural differences. All the 
same, it is quite absurd that a Muslim has been 
confidently attempting to impose a controversial 
Islamic convention in a Christian state school. 
It's true that Mrs Azmi has just lost her 
discrimination case - mainstream culture has not 
yet entirely lost its nerve - but her lawyers are 
ready to take it to the European Court of Justice.

What Mrs Azmi stands for, so to speak, is what 
many people fear about Muslims, no matter how 
tolerant they would like to feel. A woman 
shrouded in veils represents deliberate cultural 
separation, voluntary apartheid, a 
pre-Enlightenment religion and a view of 
relations between the sexes that the mainstream 
culture in this country can no longer accept and 
rejects in law. Such a woman is teaching and 
setting an example to young children in a 
Christian school. Her image points up with 
extreme urgency the problem of faith schools.

State-funded faith schools never used to be much 
of a problem, if only because people in this 
country tend to wear their faith lightly. Even 
the education department's definition of a 
religious school is faith-lite; it is merely a 
school with a religious character. Even those who 
would much prefer a secular system, as I would, 
still feel they owe a lot to the great ethical 
and aesthetic traditions of faith schools. And 
there's some evidence that religious state 
schools are better than others, both academically 
and pastorally.

But faith schools are a British anomaly. It can't 
be right that in a state education system there 
are some schools that are not open to everyone; 
that is divisive. However, the real reason for 
alarm now is the growth of Muslim schools.

There are more than 100 private Muslim schools 
and eight state-funded Muslim schools. Yet as 
David Bell, the then chief inspector of schools, 
said in January last year, the growth of Muslim 
faith schools runs the risk of undermining the 
coherence of British society. He worried that 
"many young people were being educated with 
little appreciation of their wider 
responsibilities and obligations to British 
society". We "must not allow our recognition of 
diversity to become apathy in the face of any 
challenge to our coherence as a nation", he added.

That would strike most people as blindingly 
obvious, although it must have taken considerable 
courage to say it before the impact of the July 
bombs changed everything. Now it seems ministers 
are so aware of the dangers of sleepwalking to 
apartheid, in Trevor Phillips's phrase, that they 
can hardly stop talking about it. Yet what was 
Tony Blair's response last year, after the July 
bombings, to David Bell's cautious advice? It was 
not to put an end to new faith schools of any 
kind, as an anomaly which was no longer 
tolerable: it was to expand the numbers hugely.

He decided the government would offer voluntary 
aided status to 120-150 independent Muslim 
schools, bringing them in line with the existing 
6,850 Christian and Jewish schools - in other 
words it will create masses of Muslim state 
schools. The heart sinks. How, in the name of 
integration, familiarity and trust, can it 
possibly be a good idea to have lots of state 
schools that are exclusively Muslim, with Muslim 
teachers, Muslim traditions and intense Islamic 
education?

Presumably realising that this might segregate 
Muslims more than ever, Alan Johnson announced 
that all new faith schools (for which read 
Muslim) would have to make a quarter of their 
places available to those outside their faith. At 
least they will sort of have to, by agreement or 
on demand. Then, almost immediately, Johnson 
hinted that all faith schools would have to do 
the same - to be fair to new Muslim schools.

Misguided tinkering leads to more misguided 
tinkering, and to glaring new injustices. It is 
plainly unjust to permit faith schools, and then 
exclude some of the children of the faithful, so 
as to shoehorn in some reluctant unbelievers. 
Quota is a dirty word. Jews and Christians will 
resent this just as much as Muslims. Do ministers 
seriously think they could make this work? No, 
clearly they don't, because in an amendment to 
the education bill before parliament, they are 
passing the buck for dealing with it to education 
authorities, empowering them to impose the 25% 
quota where necessary on new faith schools.

Nice one. Education authorities will also be 
responsible for urging schools to get together, 
arrange "twinning", exchange teachers and 
"promote community cohesion" - in other words for 
endless fuss, bother, travel and jobsworthy 
bureaucracy rather than education proper.

There is an alternative to all this meddling. It 
should be possible to agree that for various 
reasons, many of which are politically 
embarrassing, the time of state-funded faith 
schools is past. Faith is no better a criterion 
for attending or running a state school than 
race. No new ones should be created; the old ones 
should gradually lose their religious identity as 
many have done already and as they probably will 
do naturally. Religious indoctrination and 
observance don't belong in state schools, in a 
multifaith society, not any more.


____


[9]

Toronto Star
Oct. 14, 2006

INDIAN WOMEN MARCH TO FIGHT RAMPANT ATTACKS
Harassment and assaults prompt late-night protest

by Palash Kumar
Reuters News Agency

NEW DELHI-Late at night, a posse of young Indian 
women walk down a dark city street wearing 
spaghetti-strap tops and body-hugging outfits, 
defying the stares of onlookers in a country 
where a woman is raped every 29 minutes.

Around two dozen women are taking part in the 
demonstration to highlight the dangers for women 
walking on Indian streets by heeding organizers 
instructions to wear "something they always 
wanted to (wear) but could not" during their 
late-night protest.

"If I was not in a group, God only knows what 
would have happened," Amrita Nandy Joshi, a 
31-year-old Oxford graduate says as the group 
makes its way down a dimly-lit New Delhi road 
after 10 p.m., a walk normally done only with a 
male escort, if at all.

"We call this direct public intervention against 
street sexual harassment," says Jasmeen Patheja, 
a gutsy 26-year-old photographer working in the 
southern IT hub of Bangalore who brought the 
novel protest to the capital.

"I was fed up with being teased every day. One 
day I reached a threshold and decided to take 
action," she says.

Patheja formed Blank Noise, a movement that 
rallies for safer streets for Indian women.

Since setting up Blank Noise about three years 
ago, Patheja has organized "night actions" in 
four other cities, inviting women through her 
blog (http://www.blanknoiseproject.blogspot.com) 
to meet at a designated place at night and then 
set out on a walk.

Along the route, they spray messages on the road 
that describe the abuse that many young Indian 
women encounter daily in the hope that they will 
be read the next morning by pedestrians and 
create awareness.

"Mansi, 14, 4.45 p.m. - A stranger whispered 
continuously into my ear, asking me to sleep with 
him."

"Pinki, 11, 8 a.m. - A hand touch my behind. I was scared."

"Mohini, 19, 9 a.m. - A stranger rubbed his private parts against me."

Patheja says that while the names had been 
changed, the incidents were real and reported by 
people through her blog.

According to the latest official figures, a woman 
is raped every half-hour in India. Last year, 
there were more than 18,000 rapes in the country, 
and these are only the reported cases.

Activists suspect the number is much higher but 
women are afraid to report attacks.

The actual figure (for rapes last year) would be 
around 30,000. The situation is even worse in the 
rural and semi-urban areas where police refuse to 
lodge cases, says Aparna Bhat, a lawyer running a 
government Rape Crisis programme.

New Delhi is one of India's most dangerous cities 
for women, according to the figures. Last year, 
more than 30 per cent of the rape cases reported 
in India's 35 major cities took place in New 
Delhi.

Less violent forms of sexual harassment - verbal 
taunts, groping at women in anonymous crowded 
markets or on public transport - occur all the 
time.

Most of the women taking part in the protest say 
they had repeatedly been at the receiving end of 
what the Indian media often refers to as 
"Eve-teasing," a term the female protesters say 
fails to describe the trauma suffered by the 
female victims.

"One day I was walking with a friend near my 
college in the evening when a man on a scooter 
stopped near us," says Joshi.

"We turned into another street but he chased us. 
He finally managed to grab us and groped us all 
over before running away. He left us numb," she 
says.

Saumya Agarwal, in her early 20s, says her experience traumatized her for days.

"I was walking back from college when this man 
came next to me, unzipped his trousers and 
started masturbating," she says. "He kept walking 
with me and masturbating. I was scared and I 
randomly kept calling all the numbers on my 
mobile."

Patheja knows her short night walk is merely 
symbolic because of poor policing in India's main 
cities and chauvinistic attitudes that run deep 
through conservative Indian society and which, 
some say, are reinforced by popular culture.

But she is unfazed.

"Slowly things will change," she said. "I 
remember when we started off in 2003, there was 
this street railing which had become a sort of a 
`lech point' where men would hang out and make 
lewd comments at women passing by.

"One day we took over the railing. A bunch of us 
girls just took over the railing and stood there 
for hours, chatting and having fun," she says, 
referring to one of the first Blank Noise 
protests in Bangalore.

The southern city is home to thousands of young 
women away from home for the first time to work 
in its booming technology industries.

As part of her campaign, Patheja is collecting 
clothes worn by women on occasions when they were 
harassed.

"We are collecting 1,000 such clothes and we will 
exhibit them at public places with the slogan: `I 
didn't ask for it.'"




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

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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