SACW | Dec. 22-23, 2006 | Pakistan: journalists intimidated; Sri Lanka - conflict; Bangladesh - 1971 goal was secular democracy ; India: Hitler, Hindutva and Gujarat

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire  | December 22-23, 2006 | Dispatch No. 2337 - Year 8

[1]  Pakistan: New York Times reporter and 
photographer harassed and detained (CPJ)
[2]  Sri Lanka: Press Releases by the National Peace Council
       - Assault on National Peace Council Staff at Hingurakgoda
       - Bold Political Initiative Only Way To Halt Widening Conflict
[3]  Bangladesh: In 1971, the goal was secular democracy (Syed Badrul Ahsan)
[4]  National Interest: A Flawed Notion - Indian 
Foreign Policy since 1991 (Achin Vanaik)
[5]  India - Madhya Pradesh: Govt and Sangh 
parivar blocking inter-faith marriages (Rasheed 
Kidwai)
[6]  India: German dictator no pariah to some in India (Kim Barker)
[7]  India: Nanded Blast: The Hindutva Hand  (Shashwat Gupta Ray)
[8] Think Again [Say no to segregation or 
communal exclusivity] (Edit, The Telegraph)
[9]  India -Gujarat:
  (i) Gujarat Genocide 2002 - Five Years Later (Sabrang)
  (ii) Interview with Cedric Prakash about the dangers of communalism
  (iii) Gujarat Horror Tales Revisited (Parul Sharma)
____


[1]

Committee to Protect Journalists
330 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001 USA 
Phone: (212) 465-1004     Fax: (212) 465-9568 
Web: www.cpj.org     E-Mail: media at cpj.org
Contact:  Bob Dietz
Telephone:  (212) 465-1004 ext 140
<http://www.cpj.org/>http://www.cpj.org

e-mail: <mailto:bdietz at cpj.org>bdietz at cpj.org


PAKISTAN: New York Times reporter and photographer harassed and detained

New York, December 22, 2006-The Committee to 
Protect Journalists called today for a full 
investigation into the detention of New York 
Times photographer Akhtar Soomro and the beating 
of reporter Carlotta Gall in Pakistan on December 
19.

Gall, who covers Pakistan and Afghanistan for the 
Times, told CPJ that men who said they were from 
the special branch of Pakistan's police, detained 
Soomro, a Pakistani national, in his hotel around 
8pm, and seized his computer and camera.

Four men later broke into her room in a separate 
hotel, hit her and took away some of her 
belongings. Gall said she had bruises on her 
arms, temple, and cheekbone, swelling on her left 
eye and a sprained knee.

"They were extremely aggressive and abusive. The 
leader, who spoke English, refused to show any 
ID," Gall said. The men accused of her of being 
in Quetta, the restive capital of Baluchistan 
province near the Afghan border, without 
permission. They said she had been interviewing 
Taliban members in Pashtunabad, a section of 
Quetta. Pakistan prides itself on not restricting 
journalists' travel to areas other than the 
Federally Administered Tribal Areas in the 
Northwest Frontier Province.

When Gall tried to stop them from taking the 
photographer Soomro, she was told, "He is 
Pakistani, we can do whatever we want with him." 
He was released the next day, unharmed.

"We condemn the beating of our colleague Carlotta 
Gall and the detention of Akhtar Soomro. The 
Pakistani authorities must investigate this 
incident immediately and ensure that journalists 
are allowed to work freely," said CPJ Executive 
Director Joel Simon. "We are alarmed by the use 
of government security services to harass 
journalists who are reporting in Pakistan on 
issues of global significance."



______


[2]

National Peace Council
of Sri Lanka
12/14 Purana Vihara Road
Colombo 6
Tel:  2818344, 2854127, 2819064
Tel/Fax:2819064
E Mail:  peace2 at sri.lanka.net
Internet:  
<http://www.peace-srilanka.org/>www.peace-srilanka.<http://www.peace-srilanka.org/>org


20.12.06


Media Release 1

ASSAULT ON NATIONAL PEACE COUNCIL STAFF AT HINGURAKGODA

The National Peace Council wishes to highlight a 
dangerous situation that arose on December 15, 
2006 when four of our staff members had gone to 
Hingurakgoda in the Polonnaruwa district to 
conduct a training workshop on peace and a 
political solution to the ethnic conflict.  The 
trainers belonged to a network on federalism 
promoted by the Centre for Policy Alternatives. 
When they reached the location, they were 
physically attacked by some elements in a large 
crowd who claimed that our staff members were 
anti war and working for the LTTE and for 
separation.   The attack appeared to be 
politically instigated and pre-meditated as local 
politicians and supporters from a nationalist 
alliance were present on the scene.

The National Peace Council is committed to a 
negotiated political solution to the ethnic 
conflict.  On many occasions politicians from the 
ruling SLFP and other political parties have 
contributed generously of their time and 
knowledge to enrich the quality of our 
educational programmes.  Over the past eleven 
years we have conducted peace education 
programmes in different parts of the country, 
including the north and east, but have never 
encountered a violent attack of this nature.  On 
this occasion, our staff was physically assaulted 
and the vehicle in which they were travelling was 
badly damaged.

As ruling party members were involved in the 
attack, and also had led the attackers, we urge 
the government to inquire into the incident and 
take suitable action against them.  We have made 
a complaint regarding this incident at the Police 
Headquarters and will be taking legal action 
against those who assaulted our staff and 
prevented our educational programme.  We call on 
the government to ensure that its party members 
do not act in this undemocratic manner and resort 
to violence against organizations like ours.  We 
also trust that the government will protect our 
right, and the right of others, to peacefully 
advocate their views on the ethnic conflict 
without violence being inflicted on them.




Media Release 2

BOLD POLITICAL INITIATIVE ONLY WAY TO HALT WIDENING CONFLICT

The lack of consideration for the well being of 
the civilian population and their use as tools of 
war has been one of the most brutal features of 
the ongoing ethnic conflict. The National Peace 
Council condemns the use of political and 
military strategies that penalise the civilian 
population and cause injury to them. The exodus 
of Sinhalese civilians from parts of the 
Trincomalee district indicates that the conflict 
has entered a wider and deeper phase. Earlier in 
the year Muslim and Tamil civilians had been 
forced to flee their homes due to the fighting 
between government forces and LTTE that had 
endangered their lives. Continuing large scale 
displacement of Tamil civilians in extremely 
cruel circumstances is taking place due to 
fighting in the Batticaloa district.

We deeply regret the failure of the government 
and LTTE to make use of opportunities to jointly 
ensure the well being of the civilian population, 
such as in providing humanitarian relief to the 
people of the north east. We do not believe that 
the reliance on harsh security measures alone 
will lead to a beneficial outcome to the people. 
Accordingly, we are concerned about the 
government’s re-imposition of the provisions of 
the Prevention of Terrorism Act to deal with the 
security threats posed by the LTTE.  The 
re-imposition of the PTA can lead to human rights 
abuses by the security forces that distance the 
Tamil people from the government and stand in the 
way of the resumption of the peace process. It 
will also not stop human rights abuses by the 
LTTE.  The recent abduction of children sitting 
for their Ordinary level examination by the LTTE 
highlights the need for a new approach without 
war if the true interests of the people are to be 
met.

In this context we welcome the proposal on a 
constitutional framework to resolve the ethnic 
conflict put forward by the Experts Panel of the 
All Party Conference. This proposal was made 
after the Expert Panel considered more than 700 
submissions made to it by political and civic 
organisations and the general public.  The report 
of the Expert Panel calls for genuine power 
sharing between the different ethnic and 
religious communities, and for provincial 
institutions and local authorities to be set up 
and all communities to share power in the central 
government. While it would not go so far as to 
explicitly propose a federal solution, the report 
made it clear that the political solution had to 
go beyond the confines of the present unitary 
constitutional framework.  This has been a long 
standing demand of the ethnic minorities who seek 
a power sharing solution to the ethnic conflict. 
We call on the government and LTTE to take the 
opportunity presented by this constitutional 
proposal to re-start a process of dialogue.

Unfortunately, the signs at present are in the 
direction of a continued resort to military 
strategies and to confrontation, rather than to 
an opening of new pathways to a negotiated peace 
settlement. When faced with political 
intransigence of this nature, it is easier to 
advocate the cause of war than of negotiations. 
As a result those who continue to call for an end 
to the fighting and for a re-commencement of 
negotiations find themselves vilified and 
intimidated by the nationalists from a range of 
political parties who have the effective backing 
of the state apparatus.  In these circumstances, 
what can be expected is a further aggravation of 
conflict between the government and LTTE, and 
accompanying human rights abuses, unless there is 
bold political decision making by both the 
leaderships of the government and LTTE.


Executive Director
On behalf of the Governing Council

______


[3]


New Age
December 16, 2005

IN 1971, THE GOAL WAS SECULAR DEMOCRACY

by Syed Badrul Ahsan

The rise of Bengali nationalism throughout the 
decade of the 1960s, precipitated as it had been 
by the language movement of 1952 and again by the 
clear attempts to strip away at the majority 
status of Bengalis in the Pakistan state 
structure, was clearly based on the principle of 
secularism. It was felt, as much in those early 
days as in later times, that the ethos upon which 
Bengali politics shaped itself was all founded on 
the heritage from which the culture of the land 
and its people had taken root. One can argue, of 
course, that the conscious move on the part of 
the people of East Bengal to align themselves 
with the patently communal movement for Pakistan 
quite belied their secular background. The 
argument would be right, up to a point. What 
matters is the way history for Pakistan's 
Bengalis shaped up in the days immediately after 
the creation of Pakistan in August 1947. Mohammad 
Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan revered as 
the Quaid-e-Azam, for the first time in his long 
political career encountered vociferous 
opposition to his policies when he peremptorily 
suggested that only Urdu would be the language of 
the state he had built. The fact that he was 
Pakistan's undisputed leader did not matter at 
all when a band of young men quickly and even as 
Jinnah spoke at Curzon Hall of Dhaka University 
in March 1948 raised their voices in protest. It 
was the earliest indication of a resurgence of 
secular Bengali nationalism, even if the reality 
was that East Bengal had turned into, and would 
remain, part of Pakistan for the foreseeable 
future.
    The essential spirit upon which Bengali 
politics was to develop would become increasingly 
more manifest in the years after Jinnah's death. 
His successor Khwaja Nazimuddin and Prime 
Minister Liaquat Ali Khan tried giving the 
Bengalis more of what the country's founding 
father had tried doing. The result was badly 
counterproductive. Indeed, it remains to the 
credit of the people of East Bengal that the 
first post-1947 banner of resistance to the rule 
of the Muslim League was raised in a Bengali 
ambience when Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy and 
Moulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani moved to give 
shape to the Awami Muslim League in June 1949. 
There was, despite the qualification of the term 
'Muslim' in the name of the organisation, little 
mistaking the fact that it was unfettered 
democracy of the Westminster sort the new party 
aimed at. And that surely was pluralism as it 
came wrapped in all the brilliance of secularism. 
The 1952 upheaval over the place of Bengali in 
the Pakistani scheme of things only added a 
little more of substance to the struggle for a 
democratic polity. In subsequent years, it would 
be made clear to the West Pakistan-based 
political classes that while they continued to 
harp on what was becoming a worn-out theme of 
Muslim nationalism for Pakistan, the Bengalis in 
the country's eastern province were moving in the 
opposite direction. The triumph of the United 
Front over the Nurul Amin-led Muslim League 
government in the East Bengal provincial 
elections of 1954 was fundamentally a victory of 
secular forces over a communalistic cabal. 
Sher-e-Bangla AK Fazlul Huq, while visiting 
Calcutta as the new chief minister of East 
Bengal, basically gave out the right message 
about East Bengali feelings when he reminisced 
about the old days in pre-partition India. It was 
behaviour that would soon lead to trouble for Huq 
and the United Front ministry, but the point had 
been made -- that East Bengal, a mere seven years 
into Pakistan, was not willing to be lumped with 
the provinces forming West Pakistan into a 
communal body politic. This theme of secular 
democratic politics was carried a dramatic step 
further when Moulana Bhashani made his 
'assalam-o-alaikum' address to West Pakistan at 
the Kagmari conference of 1957.
    The concept of secular Bengali politics, with 
the ground thus prepared in the 1950s, was a 
theme that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was to build on. 
An important catalyst to the rise of Bengali 
nationalism was the conscious move by the Bengali 
cultural elite to go for an observance of 
Rabindranath Tagore's centenary of birth in 1961. 
The association of such influential men as 
Justice S.M. Murshed with the celebrations sent 
out a very potent message of the Bengali being a 
culturally and politically distinct entity within 
Pakistan. It was a message that Sheikh Mujibur 
Rahman, even at that relatively early stage of 
what would ultimately be a momentous political 
career, heard loud and clear. There are reasons 
to believe that it was in 1961 that his 
disillusionment with Pakistan set in. The 
commandeering of the state by the army in 1958 
had only reinforced Bengali feeling that 
democracy, rather than being the wave of the 
future, was in sad retreat in Pakistan. Men like 
Suhrawardy had grown unhappy with the decline of 
the state. For Suhrawardy, who believed that the 
country could have a future if it embraced 
secular politics, the arrival of the Ayub Khan 
military regime was a disaster. He was not 
prepared, physically or psychologically, to put 
up resistance to the dictatorship. His death in 
December 1963 released men like Sheikh Mujibur 
Rahman from any obligation to adhere to the 
Pakistan ideology in the form it existed in at 
the time.
    By far the clearest and most powerful 
expression of secular Bengali sentiment came 
through the Six Point programme for regional 
autonomy that Mujib presented at the Lahore 
conference of Pakistan's opposition parties in 
February 1966. There was hardly any question that 
the reforms which the Six Points aimed at were 
underpinned by a very strong base of secularism 
and were therefore a strategic way of presenting 
the argument for Pakistan, especially its eastern 
wing, to move away from the two-nation theory 
that had midwifed its birth in 1947. In the years 
between 1966 and the fall of the Ayub regime in 
early 1969, the resurgence of Bengali secular 
nationalism was complete. It would only be a 
matter of time before the political class which 
had initiated the movement would roll to 
preponderance on an all-Pakistan stage. That 
triumph came through the Awami League's coming by 
an absolute majority of seats in the national 
assembly elections of December 1970. With East 
Pakistan already being referred to as Bangladesh, 
with the religious and communal political groups 
like the Muslim League and the Jamaat-e-Islami 
having been thoroughly marginalised by the 
electorate, the moment appeared right for 
Bangladesh to consider moving out of Pakistan 
altogether. Had the military junta led by General 
Yahya Khan not made a mess of things, it is 
reasonable to suppose that Bengalis would have 
eventually, through a democratic, confederal 
process gone for the creation of their own 
independent and necessarily secular state. The 
genocidal action of the Pakistan army only 
accelerated the path to separation. What happened 
through the War of Liberation in 1971 was a 
massive rejection of the communal state of 
Pakistan and the establishment of a proper, fully 
defined democratic and sovereign state for 
Bengalis. Naming the country the People's 
Republic of Bangladesh and vesting all powers in 
the people was the final embodiment of a secular 
spirit that had been developed and improved upon 
in all the twenty four years that Bengalis had 
spent within the Pakistan framework.
    Close to three and a half decades into 
freedom, Bangladesh faces perhaps the biggest 
challenge to its existence and survival as a 
secular democracy. The carefully laid-out 
strategy that has gone into a rehabilitation of 
the communal forces defeated in 1971, first 
through a failure of the first Awami League 
government to hold such forces to account for 
their complicity with Pakistan in the genocide of 
three million Bengalis and then the insensitivity 
with which all collaborators were pardoned by 
Mujib, followed naturally by the return of the 
communalists to the political centre per courtesy 
of the military regimes of General Ziaur Rahman 
and General Hussein Muhammad Ershad now has 
Bangladesh up against a wall. The rise of Islamic 
extremists, all of whom have been peddling ideas 
that go against the very grain of Bengali 
political belief, is a bad and heavy assault on 
the civilised principles upon which Bangladesh's 
sovereignty rests. The Jamaat-e-Islami, which 
clearly relishes the troubles secular democracy 
is faced with today, cannot but look forward to a 
time when the country reverts to a form of 
theocratic rule. The murderous elements of the 
Jama'atul Mujahideen clearly expect something 
more radical, which is a state that will be ready 
and willing to take the long, difficult path back 
to religious medievalism. The suicide killings 
and the threats constantly being held out against 
any and all manifestations of secular power are 
essentially a repeat, after a thirty four-year 
interregnum, of the desperation that went into 
the job of trying to save Pakistan in this 
country back in 1971. The men who cheerfully 
helped the Pakistani occupation army in shaping 
such murder squads as al-Badr and al-Shams are 
today safely and securely ensconced in political 
power, thanks to men and women whose 
understanding of Bengali history has been as 
parochial as it has been outrageous.
    As the nation recaptures the spirit of 1971 on 
Victory Day this year, it is the goal of 
secularism that takes fresh new meaning for 
Bengalis once more. The raison d'etre for 
Bangladesh has been its secular foundations, 
which is why it is important that the old 
principles be reasserted by the national 
leadership and, more specifically, by those 
forces which shaped the secular democratic basis 
of the nation in the years leading to the War of 
Liberation. The biggest lesson for the country, 
in these fraught times, is that it can fulfil its 
destiny through a determined adherence to its 
original ethos of a modern democratic order. The 
Islamic militants with the bombs out there are 
therefore a warning to all Bengalis that should 
secular politics falter, there will not be much 
of a state of Bangladesh left to speak of. The 
bottomline should be obvious: the People's 
Republic of Bangladesh and communal bigotry do 
not go together. In the present murderous 
struggle for survival into which the religious 
medievalists have pushed the state, it is the 
secular republic that must emerge, even if 
bloodied and wounded, triumphant.

------


[4]

Economic and Political Weekly
9 December 2006

NATIONAL INTEREST: A FLAWED NOTION
INDIAN FOREIGN POLICY SINCE 1991

National interest, as this article contends, does 
not determine foreign policy. The belief that a 
state can, does and should pursue the national 
interest presupposes that the state in some way 
or the other represents all sections of the 
national society; after all, modern states are 
nation states legitimised in the name of peoples 
constituted, however, as separate nations. It is, 
in fact, the political and therefore moral 
character (which changes over time as well) of 
the leadership strata that makes and shapes 
foreign policy decisions.  Itis against this 
background that this article makes an analysis of 
Indian foreign policy and the shifts seen in 
policy since 1991.

by Achin Vanaik
http://www.epw.org.in/showArticles.php?root=2006&leaf=12&filename=10842&filetype=pdf

______


[5]

The Telegraph
December 22, 2006

FAITH CRY TO BLOCK POLIO GIRL'S MARRIAGE
Rasheed Kidwai

Bhopal, Dec. 21: Rickshaw-puller Peter Abraham 
had offered polio-affected Meena Gond, 36, a 
chance at a new life. Government officials and 
Sangh parivar activists are working together to 
block the marriage on the ground that the 
orphaned tribal woman is likely to convert after 
the union.

Abraham, 38, has handed the mandatory 40-day 
notice to the Jabalpur marriage officer, the lone 
marriage registrar in the district. The notice 
period ended on November 13, but the official, 
Deepak Singh, is refusing to register the 
marriage.

"We have received complaints and objections," 
Singh said without revealing the objectors' names.

An official of the Vishwa Hindu 
Parishad-affiliated Dharma Sena owned up to being 
an objector.

"Peter is a Christian. We suspect he has lured 
the innocent tribal girl offering her money. 
Meena will later be forced to change her 
religion," said Sudhir Aggarwal, Dharma Sena 
convener in the Mahakaushal region.

"We have definite knowledge that some Christian 
missionaries are doling out money to men like 
Peter to convert tribals."

Meena's brother Radhey Gond denied the charge, 
saying he was touched by Peter's offer to marry 
his sister. "She can barely walk. We had all 
along thought that nobody would marry her."

Radhey scoffed at the claim that Peter had 
offered money to the family. "He has been a daily 
wage earner for years. How can a poor 
rickshaw-puller lure a woman with money?"

Jabalpur city Congress chief Naresh Saraf said 
his party would ensure that inter-faith marriages 
take place without hindrance.

"We have told district collector Sanjay Dubey 
that a massive protest would be launched if the 
couple is not allowed to marry before the New 
Year."

The Sangh parivar is blocking the marriage at a 
time the Madhya Pradesh BJP government is 
offering a cash incentive of Rs 50,000 to any 
non-tribal marrying a tribal.

Peter and Meena should be getting it in addition 
to the Rs 10,000 that the chief minister's pet 
Deendayal Antoday scheme offers to every couple 
from below the poverty line. Shivraj Singh 
Chauhan, who has blessed over 5,000 brides and 
grooms under this scheme, has earmarked Rs 5 
crore for it in the current financial year.

In Bhopal, tribal welfare commissioner K.K. Singh 
admitted that the state offered a cash incentive 
to anyone marrying a tribal, but provided a twist 
saying he was "not sure" if Christians and 
Muslims were entitled to it.

"You see, the broad objective of the scheme is to 
end social discrimination and untouchability. How 
can societies that do not have untouchability be 
eligible for the incentive?".

Saraf said the scheme's provisions make no reference to religion.

"I have looked it up. It says anyone marrying a 
tribal is entitled to the award."

_____


[6]

Chicago Tribune
December 21, 2006

LETTER FROM KHARGHAR
Hitler the trendy tyrant
German dictator no pariah to some in India, the Tribune's Kim Barker reports

By Kim Barker
Tribune's South Asia correspondent

KHARGHAR, India -- When an Adolf Hitler-themed 
restaurant opened its doors in a suburb of 
cosmopolitan Mumbai in August, many were 
horrified. The restaurant, Hitlers' Cross, 
changed its name a week later to Cross Cafe, but 
it is hardly the only example of how some Indians 
view Hitler and his legacy.

Hindu fundamentalist groups praise Hitler's 
leadership skills. A college poll a few years ago 
showed he was perceived as an ideal leader. Books 
and videos of him are top sellers. Most patrons 
prefer to call Cross Cafe by its previous name. 
Plates and cups still bear the Hitlers' Cross 
logo, with a Nazi swastika in place of the "O."

"We call it `Hitler' only," said Ashish Anant, 
18, an aeronautics college student who likes to 
come to the cafe with friends. "We say, `Let's go 
to Hitler.' It's a trendy name. It's different."

It's not clear why Hitler is popular in some 
circles. Some experts say it's because of a 
belief that Indians were the original Aryan race. 
Others say it's because Hitler used the 
traditional Hindu good-luck symbol of the 
swastika, rotating it slightly. Those who believe 
strongly in the caste system of India also may 
like Hitler's eugenics and race beliefs.

Any praise for Hitler is not reflected in 
national policy. India has strong ties with 
Israel and views it as an ally in the war on 
terror. And Jewish and non-Jewish Indians were 
horrified by Hitlers' Cross. Daniel Zohar 
Zonshine, the Israel consul general in Mumbai, 
looked visibly upset when talking about the 
portrayal of Hitler in India, especially Hitlers' 
Cross. He said he thinks the owners wanted the 
free publicity that comes with such controversy.

Educating the public

The consulate has tried to educate Indians about 
Hitler, sending a Holocaust photograph exhibit 
and education materials last year to the western 
state of Gujarat, where government textbooks have 
praised Hitler. The Israeli Consulate will bring 
a Holocaust survivor and artist to Mumbai to talk 
to Indian audiences next month.

"It's not an Israeli issue," said Zonshine, 
adding that World War II was not ingrained in the 
DNA of India as it was in that of Europe or 
Israel. "It's not a Jewish issue. It's a 
humanitarian issue."

Joshua Reuben, 29, who belongs to India's small 
Jewish community, said he was offended by the 
restaurant but did not blame the owners.

"They probably haven't thought about hurting anybody's feelings," he said.

Interviews with many young Indians indicated that 
they had little idea of what Hitler actually did 
and that it did not really matter. They described 
Hitler as "cool" or "trendy." They did not know 
details of the Holocaust.

"I don't know much," admitted Puneet Sabhlok, 22, 
one of the co-founders of Hitlers' Cross, which 
serves only one marginally German item, German 
chocolate cake.

"He was a dictator," added co-founder Shakir 
Siddiqui, 27. "Gas chambers and all."

Hitler is glorified in other ways. A poll of 400 
students from the country's most prestigious 
colleges by a leading Indian newspaper in 2002 
found that Hitler was their third most requested 
ideal leader of India, behind independence leader 
Mahatma Gandhi and the country's then-Prime 
Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

A pizza and cake chain in New Delhi, A Slice of 
Italy, sells a cake called "one for the Hitler," 
featuring Hitler's face. Last year the cake was 
sold with a swastika on the cap and was described 
as a children's cake over the phone. Last month 
there was no swastika.

"It's not common, but it's exciting, madam," a 
worker at the pizza chain told one woman who 
asked about the cake in November. "Order it."

`Hitler, the Supremo'

In Gujarat, textbooks have praised Hitler's 
leadership abilities, fascism and the Nazi 
movement. Until recently, state social studies 
textbooks have featured chapters on "Hitler, the 
Supremo" and "Internal Achievements of Nazism." 
The textbooks have been changed slightly this 
year but still barely mention the Holocaust.

This is the same state where Hindu-led riots led 
to the deaths of more than 1,000 Muslims in the 
spring of 2002. Several investigations blamed the 
state government, led by a Hindu-right political 
party, for permitting the riots.

Bal Thackeray, the founder of Shiv Sena, a Hindu 
fundamentalist party based in Mumbai, has openly 
praised Hitler and said he was willing to wipe 
out troublemaking Muslims. Shiv Sena's secretary, 
Anil Desai, said Thackeray liked Hitler's 
leadership abilities, not his attempts to 
exterminate the Jews.

Thackeray likes "the way Hitler pushed the things in his time," Desai said.

Hitler's autobiography, "Mein Kampf," flies off 
the shelves of many bookstores. The Bandra branch 
of Crossword, a major bookstore chain in the 
Mumbai area, sells 35 copies a week.

At the Rhythm House in downtown Mumbai, one of 
the city's oldest and most popular video stores, 
the documentary "Hitler a Career" is sold in the 
video section for children.

"Why are people buying it? Because they like 
him," store clerk Maqbool Sayed said. "If it was 
up to me, I would hide these. I wouldn't put them 
out at all."



_____


[7]

NANDED BLAST: THE HINDUTVA HAND
Narco-analysis and brain-mapping reports of the 
accused and the Maharashtra Police ATS's findings 
on the Nanded blast add up to reveal an alarming 
trend: local Sangh Parivar members are raising 
their own terror networks.
by Shashwat Gupta Ray
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2006/12/nanded-blast-hindutva-hand.html

_____


[8] 

(The Telegraph
December 22, 2006)

Editorial

THINK AGAIN

The Sachar committee's "grave concern" about the 
educational status of Indian Muslims is prompted 
entirely by integrative, rather than divisive, 
principles. It is, therefore, ironic (and 
ominous) that Muslim members of parliament and 
some NGOs want the ministry of human resource 
development to create exclusive schools for 
Muslim children in Muslim-dominated areas. This 
is certainly not what the Sachar committee report 
has recommended anywhere, and is actually 
inimical to the spirit of it. Besides, as the 
report amply documents, this is not what most 
Muslims want. One of the myths about the 
'minority mindset' which the report breaks is 
that most Muslim parents want to send their 
children to madrassahs or exclusively Muslim, 
Urdu-medium schools where the children would 
receive a traditional, religion-driven education. 
There is a growing number of urban and rural 
Muslims who want to send their sons and daughters 
to 'mainstream' schools so that they are 
adequately equipped to enter and prosper in 
'mainstream' Indian professional life. The report 
reveals that only about four per cent of Muslim 
children actually receive a madrassah education, 
and there too it is often the case that such an 
education only supplements the one provided by a 
secular school.

It is important for Indian schools, especially 
the government or government-aided ones, to 
provide a range of choices which Muslim students 
could avail themselves of. Properly trained Urdu 
teachers should certainly be an important 
priority here, as should be a whole set of 
conditions that a substantial number of Muslim 
parents usually look for when sending their girls 
to school. This includes trained female teachers 
and, in some cases, girls' hostels. In all this, 
segregation or communal exclusivity is usually 
the last thing on their minds. Hence, politicians 
and certain social workers should be careful not 
to misrepresent the communities they want to 
serve.

_____


[9] 

(i)

Sabrang Alternative News Network
December 20, 2006

Backgrounder

GUJARAT GENOCIDE 2002 - FIVE YEARS LATER

Press Release

Victim survivors of the Gujarat Genocide, 
especially those committed to their struggle for 
justice have been reduced to a life of every day 
terror and harrasment. Five years later, Shaikh 
Mohalla in Sardarpura village of Mehsana 
district, Gulberg society in Ahmedabad, Ode 
village in Anand district and other areas live as 
internally displaced refugees without bare civic 
rights like ration cards, BPL cards, electricity 
and water. Victims of the Ode massacre still look 
in vain for the lost ones missing bodies and 
repeated inquiries with the police face a cold 
response.

Discriminatory justice and development. While 
criminals responsible for mass crimes have been 
granted bail by the high and low judiciary in 
Gujarat, 84 accused of the Godhra mass arson wilt 
in jail having been refused bail for four years.

Victim survivors of the Pandharwada massacre who 
located the mass grave are in vain trying to get 
a CBI probe into the scandalous dumping of the 
remains of Pandharwada and other massacres in the 
Paanam river off Lunawada town (despite the 
existence of a large graveyard) but instead face 
intimidation and threat of arrest from the 
police. Of the 413 officially declared misisng 
persons, bodies of 228 are still not discovered 
pointing to largescale illegal dumping of bodies. 
The NHRC has been appealed to to contact an 
all-Gujarat inquiry into this.

The Modi government is trying to use fraudulent 
BPL card holdings (ostensibly given to minority 
victims of the genocide) as a pre-election sop to 
grant cheap housing. In fact the BPL lists need 
to be scrutinised and examined. Ghettoisation and 
segregation in Gujarat has reached unprecedented 
levels with even the jails being communalised in 
the state.

The bitter reality of Gujarat is not simply the 
functioning of the Gujarat government but the 
ambivalent position of the opposition in the 
state, the dominant partner in the UPA coalition 
in the Centre. The promise of CBI inquiry into 
the major carnage cases was pre-lection hype that 
has not materialised into a real promise. Even 
today while the state government continues with a 
regime of low intensity terror all over the 
state, the centre's UPA is a mute opposition and 
spectator.

Compensation

In 2002 then NDA government had given Rs 200 
crores rehab package to Gujarat. In March 2003, 
one year later, the cynical and callous state of 
Gujarat returned about Rs 116 croes claiming that 
no more relief needed to be done.

The state of Gujarat has paid compensation of 
only Rs. 1.5 lakhs ( Rs. 90,000 in cash & 
Rs.60,000 in Narmada Bonds) as compensation to 
the next of kin of those killed in the rioting. 
This amount is totally inadequate and arbitrary 
and amounts to a failure on the part of the State 
to fulfil its constitutional obligation of 
compensation. Significantly the Hon'ble Delhi 
High Court has in 1996 (six years earlier) 
directed the payment of compensation of Rs. 2 
lakhs & interest from 1984 (aggregating to Rs. 
3.5 lakhs) to those killed in the 1984 anti Sikh 
riots. On that basis and allowing even for a 7% 
annual rate of inflation from 1996 to 2002, the 
amount of compensation would be required to be 
approximately 3.00 lakhs (40% increase on 2 
lakhs) and interest on this amount from 2002 to 
2007 at 8% per annum: an additional Rs. 1 lakh = 
4.00 lakhs !. Compensation for injuries/ 
disabilities sustained should be pro rata to this 
amount that is Rs 7 lakhs per loss of life.

Let Down by the Centre: After announcing a Rehab 
Package of Rs 7 lakh per loss of life in 2002, 
the Centre appears to have had a re-think. The 
same man, MOS (Home) Sriprakash Jaiswal who made 
the initial announcement of the package, in a 
reply to an unstarred question (number 2486) in 
the Lok Sabha on December 12, surprised everyone 
by saying that "the centre has not taken a final 
decision" on the package.

Regarding Destruction of houses/homes: The 
position re compensation of houses is even worse. 
The state of Gujarat had fixed an arbitrary and 
irrational ceiling of Rs. 50,000 as compensation 
for destruction of houses and in most cases has 
paid only a pittance. The Womens Parliamentary 
Committee in its Aug 2002 Report had recorded 
that it had been informed that 18924 houses had 
been partially damaged (11,199 urban & 7095 
rural) and for which Rs. 15.55 crores had been 
paid as compensation. This works out to an 
average of only Rs. 870 per house !! In fact the 
Committee noted that a number of persons / 
recipients had shown them cheques of as little as 
Rs. 40 to Rs. 200!!

Amounts paid so far (i) to relatives of those 
killed (ii) to those whose houses were destroyed 
and damaged - is totally inadequate , and at 
times even illusory. Moreover no compensation has 
been provided to women who were raped / molested/ 
attacked although the Respondents Home Dept had 
informed the Women's Parliamentary Committee in 
Aug 2002 that there had been 185 attacks on women 
& at least 11 cases of rape. In fact rape / 
molestation was far more pervasive - but a number 
of the victims were killed / burnt and others 
have been unwilling to file complaints with the 
police having regard to their partisan and 
callous responses. I reiterate that 
constitutional obligations require that atleast a 
compensation of Rs 3 lakhs & interest from 2002 ( 
Rs. 1.5 lakhs) be paid to the relatives of those 
killed. That amounts pro rata be paid for 
disabilities & serious injuries. Women who were 
raped & molested should be given compensation 
equal to that awarded for persons who were 
killed. The ceiling amount for house compensation 
should be raised to 1.5 lakhs in the rural area 
and 3 lakhs in the urban areas and compensation 
based on fair assessment of data and records, 
including the Panchnamas contemporaneously 
recorded be paid alongwith interest from 2002.

The National Human Rights Commission after 
considering the responses of the Government of 
Gujarat to its preliminary Reports/findings 
concluded in its Report/ Proceedings of 31st May 
2002, " there was a comprehensive failure of the 
State to protect the Constitutional rights of the 
people of Gujarat".

o o o


(ii)

INTERVIEW WITH CEDRIC PRAKASH
- ABOUT THE DANGERS OF COMMUNALISM
23 Dec, 2006)
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2006/12/interview-with-cedric-prakash-about.html

o o o

(iii)

The Hindu
Dec 22, 2006

GUJARAT HORROR TALES REVISITED

Parul Sharma

Survivors seek CBI probe into riots; shift of cases outside Gujarat

# CPI (M) leader Sitaram Yechury assures 
survivors of all support in their fight for 
justice
# Survivors say they had lost all faith in the State authorities

NEW DELHI : Shabana Bondubhai turned emotional as 
she recounted the events of the day when her 
mother and younger sister were burnt alive by a 
mob during the Gujarat riots in 2002.

"It was a huge mob. They were brandishing swords, 
and attacked our village in Naoda-Gam-Patiya. We 
complained to the police but to no avail. They 
did not protect us when we needed them the most. 
We were trying to escape when the mob trapped us 
in an alley and set some of us afire," she said 
amid tears at a programme organised by Safdar 
Hashmi Memorial Trust (SAHMAT) here on Wednesday.

Ms. Shabana was among the survivors of the 2002 
Gujarat communal violence who gathered in the 
Capital to share their tales of horror.

Saeed Khan Ahmed Khan Pathan from Gulbarg Society 
in Ahmedabad narrated how rioters entered their 
complex and set it afire.

"Ten members of my family and 68 locals were 
killed as police kept watching. They did not stop 
anyone. Our entire complex was gutted in the 
fire. The place is in a shambles today. We had 
our own houses earlier and today we live in 
rented accommodation," he said.

"During the riots, we took refuge in a former 
Congress MP's house. He telephoned practically 
everyone he knew and all the authorities, but to 
no avail. He was killed in front of us."

Jannat Bi from Naroda Patia - whose nephew was 
killed during in the Gujarat violence - alleged 
that the perpetrators of the violence were 
"roaming free."

"I had named many people in First Information 
Report . Some of them were political leaders too. 
But no one was punished. We have suffered so much 
because of them and they are enjoying themselves 
while we try to pick up pieces of our lives."

She said the State Government's relief measures as were "inadequate."

"They have given us new houses on the outskirts 
of the city, which is far away from where we 
work. It is not feasible for us to go and stay 
there," Ms. Jannat Bi said.

Johra Bi from Pandharwada told reporters how 
police threatened her family members when they 
began exhuming bodies that had been allegedly 
dumped in a riverbed.

"Someone told us that the remains of the 
Pandharwada and other massacres have been dumped 
in the Paanam river bank off Lunawada town. When 
the families began to dig up the area, the police 
officials began harassing us accusing us of 
exhuming bodies "illegally."

Missing persons

All the riot survivors demanded a CBI probe into 
the cases of rioting and missing persons. They 
also appealed to the Supreme Court to shift the 
hearing of their cases to some other State as 
they had "lost all faith in the State 
authorities."

Political leaders like such as CPI (M) Politburo 
Bureau member Sitaram Yechury and Congress MP 
Madhusudan Mistry who were present during the 
event expressed their support in the to the 
survivors' fight for justice.

"We will press the UPA Government to do more than 
they are doing presently for the victims of the 
Gujarat communal riots. We will do whatever we 
can to demand for a CBI probe in the issue," Mr. 
Yechury said.


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Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on
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