SACW | Jan. 13, 2007

Harsh Kapoor aiindex at mnet.fr
Fri Jan 12 19:50:32 CST 2007


South Asia Citizens Wire  | January 13, 2007 | Dispatch No. 2347 - Year 8

[1]  Pakistan: A slide into disaster? (I. A. Rehman)
[2]  Islamism and expediency in Bangladesh (Delwar Hussain)
[3]  India's Second-class Citizens (Akash Bisht)
[4]  India: Hindutva @ work
(i)  Saffron namaskar - Impart education, not 
mumbo-jumbo (editorial, The Tribune)
(ii)  Rewriting Rajasthan's history important: RSS
[5]  India:  Army lands in row over Baba
[6]  Upcoming Events: 
(i) Workshop on Right To Information Act (New Delhi, 13 January)
(ii)  Citizens' Dharna for the release of 
activists and students in West Bengal jails (New 
Delhi, 13 January)
(iii)  Seminar: Social Justice and Reservation: A 
Review of the Findings of the Sachar Commission
(Trissur, 14 January)
(iv) No Death Penalty For Afzal Guru! Picket Of 
The Indian High Commission, (London, 26 January
(v) South Asia at the Crossroads monthly 
discussions by Ceras (Montreal, starting 21 
january 2007)

____


[1]


Dawn
January 11, 2007

A SLIDE INTO DISASTER?
by I. A. Rehman

'FAILURE to elect my supporters will plunge 
Pakistan into darkness,' General Pervez Musharraf 
is reported to have proclaimed the other day. The 
warning seems to be on a par with one of the 
best-known French contributions to the world's 
political thesaurus - "After us, the deluge."

The cynics who are likely to observe that a 
people who have been in darkness for as long as 
they can remember might not pay any heed to this 
warning must be ignored because such a statement 
from the head of an apparently unshakeable regime 
should not be taken lightly.

The followers about whose election President 
Musharraf seemed concerned, however, do not 
appear worried about losing. Indeed they have 
never sounded so confident as now. They are 
gloating over the disarray in the opposition 
ranks. The MMA's climb-down on the question of 
quitting the assemblies in protest against the 
passage of the Protection of Women Act and other 
matters has caused much visible delight in the 
official camp.

Reports of disagreement between the People's 
Party and the PML-N over relationship with 
religio-political groups and participation or 
otherwise in polls if held while General 
Musharraf continues as both president and the 
chief of the army staff have also added to the 
ruling party's confidence. The strong men 
occupying the office of chief minister in the two 
larger provinces of the country are already using 
the many tricks in their bags to queer the 
electoral pitch in favour of their courtiers and 
hangers-on. Why then a note of uncertainty about 
the outcome of the general election?

It is possible that the reference to the king's 
men's failure to get elected is merely a tactical 
move, an insurance against post-election clamour 
about engineered results. A party that goes into 
an election without denying the possibility of 
its defeat can attribute its eventual triumph to 
effective canvassing and its popularity. It will 
also enable the government to dismiss any 
post-election allegations of rigging as a matter 
of opposition's habit of always citing rigging as 
the cause of its electoral defeat.

The president's warning does not make sense in 
the context of declarations made by the regime's 
spokespersons. According to them, nothing can 
prevent General Musharraf from winning a fresh 
five-year term in office and retaining his 
uniform too. If that projection is correct, then 
the regime has nothing to fear. Even if the 
president's followers do not win a majority in 
parliament, the possibility of a repetition of 
2002, when PML-Q won over enough opposition 
parliamentarians to become a majority party in 
the National Assembly, cannot be ruled out.

Further, in the scheme of governance developed 
over the past few years elected representatives 
are unlikely to present a meaningful challenge to 
an all-powerful chief executive.

If the opposition parties do succeed in winning a 
majority or a sizeable number of seats in the 
Parliament - neither possibility can be ruled out 
- that will be wholly to the good of the country. 
Assuming that General Pervez Musharraf would 
still be keen to stay in the Presidency, a new 
formula for sharing power will be unavoidable, 
something that PML-Q has not had the courage so 
far to attempt. It may then not be possible to 
resist the pressure, both domestic and 
international, for open and transparent 
governance and for moving towards civilian 
political stewardship of national affairs.

The most dangerous post-election scenario will be 
a complete success of the PML-Q commandos' 
operation to secure a heavy mandate for their 
party. Such an outcome, howsoever secured, will 
make the post-election government even more 
impervious to the opposition point of view than 
even the present regime. The government will be 
as handicapped in the matter of offering good 
governance to the people as was the Ayub regime 
after the second parliamentary election under the 
system of so-called basic democracy.

In the earlier election, the followers of Field 
Marshal Ayub Khan had not been able to prevent 
the election of a good number of politicians who 
did not see eye to eye with the president. As a 
result, the government was obliged to offer 
accommodation to its critics. Under pressure from 
a dynamic opposition the constitution was quickly 
amended and the law on political parties 
radically changed.

During the second parliamentary election of the 
Ayub period the ruling party adopted the policy 
of marginalising the opposition through every 
conceivable form of electoral manipulation and 
the regime became totally free of opposition 
advice. Backed by an overwhelmingly supportive 
parliament the Ayub government became insensitive 
to any sane counsel.

Between January 1965, when Field Marshal Ayub 
Khan managed to win a new term for himself as 
president, and March 1969, when he abdicated in 
favour of the army chief, Pakistan suffered one 
grievous setback after another. The 1965 conflict 
with India brought disaster to Pakistan on more 
than one count. On the one hand, Pakistan's moral 
standing on the Kashmir issue was compromised 
and, on the other hand, East Bengal population's 
alienation from the state acquired a definite 
direction. Above all, the government's incapacity 
to overcome the consequences of lopsided economic 
policies and its decision to subject the state to 
another spell of military rule inexorably led to 
Pakistan's disintegration in 1971.

Today's Pakistan is by no means strong enough to 
survive a heavy mandate for the present ruling 
coalition in the coming general election. It may 
be true that Pakistan faces the danger of 
entering a darker age, but whether one is moving 
into darkness or whether one is moving out of 
darkness depends on the choice of direction.

Politicians who have no use for history often 
defend their misadventures by claiming to be 
better or cleverer than their vanquished 
predecessors, and Islamabad's present gurus may 
be similarly comforting themselves. In that case, 
they will be guilty of ignoring the fact that 
whenever a majoritarian state has been deprived 
of effective opposition, it has courted 
irremediable disaster. Such a regime quickly 
acquires notions of its infallibility, tends to 
read in the people's apathy and their 
acquiescence with whatever is ordained by the 
chamber of power is proof of its popularity and 
correctness both. It also loses its capacity to 
alter its course.

If the Musharraf government is really interested 
in preventing Pakistan from a future that will be 
worse than its present, it should call a halt to 
the PML (Q) mandarins' campaign to win more 
parliamentary seats than they deserve to do in a 
free, fair and democratically appropriate 
election.

The requisites of a fair election have been 
identified. The country must have, sooner rather 
than later, a new, independent and multi-member 
election commission, and the controversies over 
arbitrary changes in constituencies and 
preparation of electoral lists should be resolved 
through an all-party consensus. No election will 
be considered fair if any leader of a political 
party is not allowed to lead his/her party in the 
electoral contest, nor will any set-up under the 
presidentship of General Musharraf will be 
accepted as a neutral caretaker regime.

Incidentally, barely a couple of decades after 
Madame de Pompadour talked of the deluge, her 
prophecy did come true in the form of the French 
Revolution and the flood of blood that followed 
it. Sometimes those who try to save themselves by 
conjuring up before their people the spectre of 
apocalypse are eventually found to have paved the 
way to the dreade

_____


[2]

Open Democracy
11 January 2007

ISLAMISM AND EXPEDIENCY IN BANGLADESH

by Delwar Hussain

The way Bangladesh's secular parties and leaders 
conduct politics is fuelling Islamist extremism 
and destabilising democracy, reports Delwar 
Hussain.  The long-term damage done to the 
secular project over the years is evident in the 
fact that its self-declared champion is doing 
nothing to uphold it. As power is transferred - 
from Zia to Ershad to Khaleda to Hasina - the 
Islamist project gets stronger and stronger. The 
logic is that the next election - whenever it is 
held - will bring the Islamists to power, 
regardless of who becomes prime minister. The 
Islamists were once seen as being against 
Bangladesh itself, anti-national; then as 
important power-brokers in the country's 
politics; today, they are on the point of being 
crowned kings.

About the Author: Delwar Hussain is a working for 
a PhD at the London School of Economics.  His 
most recent article published in Open Democracy 
was, "Bangladeshis in east London: from secular 
politics to Islam". Where he Hussain charts a 
long-term shift from secular leftism to Islamism 
among the poor Bangladeshis in East London

The general election in Bangladesh scheduled for 
22 January 2007, already surrounded by bitter 
political dispute, has been thrown further into 
doubt by the declaration of a state of national 
emergency on 11 January. The country's president, 
Iajuddin Ahmed, prepares to address the nation 
after several weeks of mass protest and blockades 
by the government's opponents who seek to have 
the election postponed. The long-standing doubts 
over the fairness of the poll and the legitimacy 
of the institutions that will oversee it have 
thus exploded into a wider national crisis.

A new phase has opened in Bangladesh's stormy 
political trajectory since 2001, a period 
dominated by the polarisation between the ruling, 
centre-right Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) 
and the opposition, centre-left Awami League 
(AWL). Behind the street barricades and the 
decisions of state, however, is a far larger 
story than the nature of the next government and 
the identity of the prime minister. For the 
underlying dynamics of Bangladeshi politics 
suggest the slow rise of Islamism towards 
political power.

Indeed, it is all too tempting to predict that - 
unless there is a rapid and unforeseen change - 
the outcome of the election (if indeed it takes 
place) will be less significant in statistical 
terms than as the culmination of the politics of 
expediency that has dominated the last six years.

In that case, the real losers will be the 140 
million people of the country and with them, the 
ideals of secularism and socialism on which the 
country was established in 1971. The winner, 
almost regardless of the results, will be the 
burgeoning Islamist parties which are unremitting 
in their ideological drive to establish an 
Islamic state refounded on sharia law.

A new order in waiting
The election victory of the BNP in 2001 was 
secured in partnership with the ardently 
fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and the 
Islami Oikka Jote (IOJ). Since then, these 
parties have been working to advance their 
ideological objectives; a task strengthened by 
popular antagonism to the wars in Afghanistan and 
Iraq, the shadow of an increasingly Hindu 
fundamentalist India, and the widening gap 
between the haves and the have-nots in Bangladesh 
itself.

However, the politics of expediency - a 
combination of violence, greed and opportunism - 
that taints the two major parties is arguably an 
equally important factor in the slow Islamisation 
of the country.

In December 2006, the Awami League announced that 
it had accepted the Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish 
(BKM), an Islamist party led by Shaikul Hadith 
Azizul Haq as one of its partners. As part of 
their joint memorandum of understanding, the AWL 
(led by Sheikh Hasina) has agreed to the BKM's 
four key demands in the event of an opposition 
victory:

*"certified" alem (Islamic clerics) will have the 
right to issue fatwa (Islamic religious edicts)
*the parliament in Dhaka will impose a bar on 
enacting any law that goes against Quranic values
*the parliament can initiate recognition of the 
degrees awarded by Qaumi madrasa
*the parliament can implement a ban on any form 
of criticism of the Prophet Mohammed, including 
accepting that he is the last and the most 
supreme prophet.

The BKM has nominated five prospective candidates 
for government positions; of these, two are 
veterans of the Soviet-Afghan war and one 
supports a Taliban-style regime in Bangladesh. 
All have been high-ranking members of the banned 
extremist organisation Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami 
which has been waging a war to establish Islamic 
hukumat (rule) in Bangladesh.

One of these, Maulana Habibur Rahman, the 
principal of a madrasa, is standing in the 
constituency Sylhet-6 (Biyanibazar province), 
where many British Bangladeshis originate from. 
His opponents accuse him of involvement in 
several bomb blasts in Sylhet, including the one 
in May 2004 where the British high commissioner 
to the country, Anwar Choudhury - himself a 
British Bangladeshi - was nearly killed.

All these demands have been on the agendas of 
every rightwing extremist party in the country 
for a very long time. Now, as part of its bid for 
power, the AWL - albeit in an election it is 
determined to prevent happening - has suddenly 
acquiesced to them. Even the JI, which had fought 
against the liberation of the country and is 
today implicated in the rise of Islamist 
militancy and violence, had not managed to 
achieve what the AWL has agreed to. The decision 
means in effect that the country is a few steps 
away from introducing a process whose ultimate 
outcome will be an Islamic State of Bangladesh.

The announcement of the pact was made on 24 
December 2006, the same day Hasina was 
entertaining a group of Bengali Christians in her 
home. She made no mention of the pact, but 
reasserted the party's scripturally-based 
"commitment to secularism" argument and called on 
every citizen irrespective of their caste and 
creed to work to build a secular country. She 
also added - in what apparently was not a 
Christmas joke - that "the BNP-Jamaat alliance 
use religion as a tool of political gains, but 
the Awami League believes in secularism".

The agreement runs profoundly against the AWL's 
belief in religion-free politics, an ideology 
which Hasina's father, Sheikh Mujib had enshrined 
in Bangladesh's first constitution. It also 
breaks with the rest of the coalition partners' 
agreement to eliminate religious bigotry and 
communalism.

Three of the BKM's demands are a particular cause for worry.

The right to issue fatwa by alem who operate by 
Islamic law represents the creation of a parallel 
legal system to the existing, state one. Some 
years ago, the high court upheld a case brought 
by human-rights groups opposed to an earlier 
effort to establish this right. The groups argued 
that fatwa were biased against women, ethnic and 
religious minorities and secular organisations. 
An influential report by the legal aid 
organisation Ain O Salish Kendra in 1997 stated 
that "fatwas were issued sentencing women to 
whipping, stoning, social boycott etc. All these 
resulted in murder, suicide, physical assault, 
harassment (and) humiliation".

Islamist groups responded to the verdict by 
gathering under the banner of an "Islamic law 
implementation committee", which called for the 
judges who made the decision to be hanged; a 
cancellation of the verdict; and a ban on NGO 
activities. The committee was led by Shaikhul 
Hadith Azizul Haq, now leader of the BKM. In 
Dhaka, the committee attempted to block a rally 
by women's organisations supporting the 
anti-fatwa ruling; during the confrontation, a 
policeman was murdered inside a mosque.

Shaikhul Hadith Azizul Haq, then chairman of the 
Islami Oikka Jote, was arrested for the murder. 
Altogether ten people were killed and over 200 
injured during the month-long protests. The party 
in power at that time, and which oversaw and 
initiated the prohibition of fatwa, was the AWL. 
The violence ended after the supreme court 
suspended the verdict for an indefinite period. 
The result was predictable: a report from the 
United States state department estimates that 
thirty-five fatwa were issued during 2005.

A minority under pressure
The implementation of a ban on any form of 
criticism of Mohammed and of laws that contravene 
Quranic values is a way of using law to forbid 
and punish blasphemy. But there is particular 
aspect to such repressive efforts in Bangladesh, 
which are specifically aimed against the 
Ahmadiyya community: a sect of Islam whose 
members are persecuted in Bangladesh.

The Ahmadiyyas do not believe that Mohammed is 
the final messenger of Allah - a view that 
Islamist groups (including the Jamaat and the 
IOJ, organised with others under the banner of 
the Khatame Nabuwat Movement) find abhorrent. In 
line with a ruling in Pakistan, they demand the 
Ahmadiyyas be declared non-Muslim. The community 
has been attacked with relative impunity, and 
these attacks are on a rising trend since the 
2001 election.

Amnesty International has repeatedly raised 
concerns about the safety of the Ahmadiyyas in 
Bangladesh. The incidents it cites include the 
killing of an Ahmadi preacher, vandalism against 
their mosques, the illegal house arrest of Ahmadi 
villagers, street agitations against Ahmadis, and 
the waves of "hate speech" and public rallies 
calling for the declaration of Ahmadis as 
non-Muslims.

The BNP government, seeking to preserve the 
relationship with its extremist partners, has 
done very little to protect the Ahmadiyyas during 
its tenure. In 2004, it even initiated a ban on 
all Ahmadi publications, though currently its 
implementation is suspended by the high court. By 
entering into the pact with the BKM, the AWL has 
reproduced a political anti-Ahmadiyya agenda, 
further stigmatising and threatening an already 
vulnerable community.
   
The new kings
The BNP and the AWL are alike at the root of the 
politics of expediency, and share responsibility 
for its persistence in Bangladesh. The problem 
began soon after independence when (in 1975) 
Sheikh Mujib was assassinated and power seized by 
a military dictatorship. The military elite 
sought to consolidate its position and gain 
much-needed political legitimacy by turning to 
the Islamist groups - especially as a 
counterweight to the AWL's secular, socialist 
ideals.

General Zia ur-Rahman's BNP party removed 
secularism from the constitution and replaced it 
with "... absolute faith and trust in the 
almighty Allah". He also inserted 
Bismillah-ar-rahman-ar-rahim (In the name of 
Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful) into this 
foundational document.

Zia encouraged the return by stealth of what are 
euphemistically called "the anti-liberation 
forces", members of the JI, back into power. 
These were the very same people that Zia himself 
had fought against in the war of liberation a few 
years earlier. General Ershad also responded to 
mounting opposition and popular uprisings against 
his rule (1982-90) by amending the constitution 
to declare Islam the state religion.

Democracy returned in 1991 but unfortunately this 
did not stem the tide of political opportunism. 
Both parties have sought the support of the 
Islamists (in particular the Jamaat), either to 
help form a government or to topple a 
democratically elected one. Following the 2001 
BNP-JI-IOJ coalition victory, the country 
witnessed a spate of systematic attacks on 
minority communities.

During the coalition's tenure, some commentators 
have characterised Bangladesh as a possible "next 
Afghanistan". Such fears were increased in August 
2005, when 500 home-made bombs exploded across 
the country in a series of coordinated 
explosions. In order to protect the alliance, and 
continue in government, the BNP prime minister 
Khaleda Zia, (General Zia's widow) accused the 
AWL of responsibility for this and the other 
atrocities taking place across the country.

Minority groups and other coalition partners are 
in uproar and feel abandoned by the AWL's 
decision to endorse Islamist demands. One 
coalition partner said the deal will "destroy the 
country's democratic and progressive spirit and 
will encourage militancy". The English-language 
Daily Star newspaper argued the deal has "laid 
the foundation of destruction of our 
constitution, our legal system and our way of 
life. In fact, it is a blueprint for a different 
Bangladesh, not the one we have now and not the 
one for which millions died".

In response, the AWL has been quick to resort to 
damage limitation. Its general secretary Abdul 
Jalil reiterated the party's "commitment to 
secularism". He has stated that this relationship 
with the BKM is crucially not a binding agreement 
but a "memorandum of agreement" and "an 
understanding based on an election strategy."

The cost of power-games
This last comment goes to the heart of the 
problem. The AWL may believe that the agreement 
with the BKM is nothing but a clever if dangerous 
game designed to hoodwink the Islamist vote-bank, 
an attempt to split the numbers who 
overwhelmingly vote for the BNP-JI-IOJ coalition. 
The party possibly has no intention of actually 
fulfilling any of the BKM's demands. In short, 
this can be understood as an example of the 
marriage of expediency and crude unprincipled 
politics which characterises the establishment 
parties in Bangladesh.

But while the AWL tries to orchestrate extremist 
opinion, it is also taking for granted the 
minorities and the secularists, confident that it 
"owns" their votes. As one Dhaka-based 
commentator said, the tragedy for minorities and 
the left in Bangladesh is that they get the long 
pole from both ends: attacked, raped and looted 
by BNP thugs and Islamists for voting AWL, then 
abandoned by the AWL in its bid to gain power.

Over the years, the result of this kind of 
arrogance is that the Islamist agenda has 
trickled, drop by drop, into mainstream politics 
- to the extent that it is becoming hard to tell 
the difference between the mainstream parties and 
their extremist partners. The consequences of 
this kind of degradation in democratic politics 
can be fatal. A cartoon in a national newspaper 
is suggestive: it depicts Sheikh Hasina feeding 
milk and bananas to a snake (wearing a 
mosque-hat) coiled around her. The snake is no 
longer interested in the food.

The long-term damage done to the secular project 
over the years is evident in the fact that its 
self-declared champion is doing nothing to uphold 
it. As power is transferred - from Zia to Ershad 
to Khaleda to Hasina - the Islamist project gets 
stronger and stronger. The logic is that the next 
election - whenever it is held - will bring the 
Islamists to power, regardless of who becomes 
prime minister. The Islamists were once seen as 
being against Bangladesh itself, anti-national; 
then as important power-brokers in the country's 
politics; today, they are on the point of being 
crowned kings.


_____


[3]

Hard News
January 2007

SECOND-CLASS CITIZENS

Two high-profile official committees discover how 
Indian Muslims in Gujarat, exiled and condemned, 
have been effectively ghettoised

Akash Bisht Delhi

Four years have passed since the state-sponsored 
Gujarat carnage shook the entire nation, leaving 
hundreds dead and lakhs displaced and brutalised, 
but till this day many of the survivors of the 
post-Godhra killings have not found their way 
back home. These exiled 'second-class citizens' 
are living in inhuman conditions in make-shift 
camps and are deprived of basic amenities, like 
potable water, sanitary facilities, street 
lights, schools, banks, public transport and 
primary healthcare centres. Recent visits by 
members of the National Commission for Minorities 
(NCM) and a Parliamentary committee revealed the 
pathetic state of more than 5,000 Muslim families 
living in these sub-human camps in Ahmedabad and 
Sabarkantha districts of Gujarat.  Both the 
'secular' Left-backed UPA regime and the Narendra 
Modi-led BJP government, which tacitly and 
overtly backed the genocide, seem to have left 
the people to their fate, and rather 
intentionally.

Living in 10 x 10 rooms with large families to 
support, basic civic amenities are denied to the 
people of these colonies. An NCM team, comprising 
Michael P Pinto, Zoya Hasan, Dileep Padgaonkar 
and A Banerji, visited the 'relief camps' and 
noted that the roads that lead to these colonies 
are non-existent. They also came to know how two 
boys drowned in the water collected at a road 
near a village during the last monsoon. The team 
also noticed that the residents had no means of 
earning livelihood to support their families. 
Many of these residents were artisans, 
industrialists and self-employed traders, who now 
face organised discrimination by their old 
clients, Hindutva supporters, the local 
administration and police; they find it extremely 
difficult to earn even a meagre income to support 
their large families in a state where their 
isolation and condemnation is absolute, 
relentless and precise.

The NCM team witnessed abject poverty in these 
camps and discovered that but for a few houses, 
most of them had little except bare minimum 
bedding and utensils. "Most of the residents of 
these colonies had no ration cards and the ones 
that were issued by the government were of the 
Above Poverty Line (APL) category, instead of the 
Below Poverty Line (BPL) category," revealed A 
Banerji, joint secretary in the NCM. The 
residents have little source of income and are 
forced to buy food grains at much higher rates. 
The BJP government has done nothing to help out 
these victims, many of whom went through personal 
tragedies and deaths, and who have been now 
dumped to fend for themselves.

Ironically, the NCM, in its report, revealed that 
not a single colony was constructed by the state 
government, nor was any land allotted to these 
families, while, earlier last year, the Modi 
regime returned Rs 19 crore to the centre, 
stating that all the relief work across the state 
for riot victims had been done. The NCM team 
found out that the government did not 
rehabilitate those who could not return to their 
homes after the killings. All of them, 
predictably, are Muslims.

The residents complained of inadequate 
compensation; a maximum compensation of Rs 10,000 
was given to them. Muslim organisations and NGOs 
took up their cause and bought land for these 
displaced people at high commercial rates. But 
due to deliberate lack of support from a biased 
and compromised state government, these 
organisations have not been able to provide the 
basic amenities and livelihood options in these 
colonies. The report read, "The implications that 
this has for the security and well being of civil 
society as a whole are extremely serious."

The state government came under fire from the 
Parliamentary committee for its failure to 
rehabilitate victims of the post-Godhra killings 
and found that the BJP-led regime was stunningly 
indifferent to the plight of the people who had 
been displaced en masse after the blood bath of 
2002 in Gujarat. The members of the committee 
claimed that the riot victims are being 
ghettoised and forced to live in pitiable 
surroundings. The committee also requested the 
centre to intervene to help the victims and 
criticised the Gujarat government for 
surrendering Rs 19 crore out of the Rs 150 crore 
that the Centre had given to the state for 
rehabilitation of the survivors.

Residents of these colonies also spoke to the 
respective committees about the atmosphere of 
insecurity in which they are being forced to 
live. "The team received several complaints about 
the hostile attitude of the police towards the 
residents of these colonies or their 
representatives who have taken up their problems 
with relevant authoritiesŠ" read the NCM report.

Narrating his story, Sheikh Naushad Rasol, in a 
public meeting held in New Delhi, said, "My 
entire family is living in a very small room and 
there are many other families that don't have 
even this. Muslims in Gujarat are in a terrified 
state and are living with the stigma of being 
Muslims. We are not given any jobs and eventually 
it's our women who are cleaning utensils in 
houses for a paltry sum of Rs 200 to support 
their families."

One of Gujarat's biggest garbage dumps is just 
outside Ahmedabad and right next to Citizen 
Nagar, a colony constructed for the survivors of 
the Naroda Patiya carnage. This colony is home to 
several epidemics that haunt the residents. But, 
most of these displaced families still believe it 
is much safer to stay in these camps rather than 
returning to their homes.

"Children are being forced to leave schools and 
are constantly asked by their classmates and 
teachers to leave India and go to Pakistan. 
Abdul, an engineer by profession before the 
genocide, is now selling toys, as nobody is ready 
to offer him a job because of his Muslim 
identity," informed journalist Dionne Bunsha in a 
public meeting to relaunch her book on Gujarat: 
Scarred. Bunsha also mentioned how 
fundamentalists, like VHP leader Babu Bajrangi, 
one of the accused in the killings, are openly 
terrorising the minorities by training people in 
shooting, judo and martial arts and organising 
vicious propaganda attacks. He recently led a 
violent campaign to beat up couples in parks and 
especially targeted Muslims. Numerous signboards 
welcoming Hindus to the 'Hindurashtra' can be 
seen all over the place, as if Gujarat is a 
'Hindu republic' outside secular India. Narrating 
an incident, Bunsha informed that a Hindu girl 
married to a Muslim was forced to abort her child 
and the boy was brutally beaten up by VHP 
activists. 

However, the report brought out by the NCM and 
the Parliamentary committee only highlights the 
problem in some parts of Gujarat. "They surveyed 
only a few areas and could bring forward issues 
pertaining only to these families while there are 
many other areas and families in Gujarat that are 
facing similar issues. The numbers are much 
higher than the count of 5,000 that is being put 
forward by these committees. One has to visit 
entire Gujarat to assess the real situation and 
see the deadly plight of hundreds of people who 
have been forced to be condemned in sub-human 
ghettos," revealed Father Cedric Prakash, 
director of an NGO, Prashant, who recently won 
the 'Minorities Rights Award' for his work in 
favour of human rights in the country.

The state government seems uninterested in 
lending a helping hand to these riot victims. 
However, the central government is likely to 
announce a relief package for the victims of 
Gujarat violence in line with the compensation 
awarded to the 1984 riot victims. This move will 
definitely come as relief for several families, 
which have received hardly any support from the 
Gujarat government despite suffering loss of 
their members and friends and property. But the 
real question that should still haunt the minds 
of the minorities in Gujarat is how will the 
central government put an end to the trauma and 
stigma faced by Indian Muslims for being 
patriotic Indian citizens in the saffronised, 
Hindutva state of Narendra Modi's BJP-led Gujarat.

______


[4]  Hindutwa @ work:

(i)

The Tribune
12 January 2006

Editorial

SAFFRON NAMASKAR
IMPART EDUCATION, NOT MUMBO-JUMBO

THE Madhya Pradesh Government, doubtless, accords 
the highest priority to schools and colleges - 
though not for education. Schools seem to have 
become the ruling BJP's favourite playground for 
sectarian political games. Chief Minister Shivraj 
Singh Chauhan's government first claimed national 
attention when it ordered that singing Vande 
Mataram would be compulsory in educational 
institutions. Now, in his zeal to popularise 
yoga, the Chief Minister has decreed that from 
January 25 surya namaskar will be compulsory in 
all government schools and colleges in the state. 
Predictably, this has given rise to opposition, 
especially from Muslim organisations, which have 
said that their children would not submit to this.

The state of education in Madhya Pradesh, as in 
several other parts of the country, is hardly 
enviable. There are schools with teachers, but no 
students; and schools with students and no 
teachers. Even as there are schools in search of 
both teachers and students, there are no schools 
in many places where they are needed. The problem 
is not only one of infrastructure and resources 
but also motivating enrolment and attendance. 
This is challenge enough for any government 
serious about ensuring education for all.

Far from addressing this, the MP government seems 
to be doing its best to drive students away from 
educational institutions. Schools and colleges 
should confine themselves to educational and 
relevant extra-curricular activities. Programmes 
in the interests of the students' health are 
desirable, but to exploit this for insidiously 
pursuing a saffron agenda and extending state 
patronage to yoga gurus is not the job of a 
government. Educational institutions should stick 
to education in the strictest sense of the term 
and foster an inclusive and secularist culture. 
Muslim organisations would also serve the 
community and the country better by not rising to 
such baits that are calculated to communalise 
education. The government order makes no sense 
when surya namaskar is compulsory for the 
institutions but not the students. While Muslims 
can exercise the choice, the government should 
revoke the order if only to avoid another 
imposition on teachers and administrators.

o o o

http://in.rediff.com/news/2007/jan/03rss.htm
Rediff.com

Rewriting Rajasthan's history important: RSS

January 03, 2007 18:34 IST

Brushing aside Congress' apprehension of Hindutva 
agenda in the academic curriculum, the Rashtriya 
Swayamsevak Sangh on Wednesday hailed Rajasthan's 
Bharatiya Janata Party government for its move to 
rewrite the state's history.

It said that the move would delete 'unscrupulous 
facts' mentioned in textbooks against heroes and 
leaders.

"History books need improvement and correction as 
there are a number of citiations where Maharana 
Pratap, Guru Govind Singh and ex-rulers are being 
misquoted or defamed in the school and college 
curriculum," RSS' kshetriya seva pramukh 
Moolchand Soni told reporters.

RSS has constituted a committee called the Itihas 
Sankalan Samiti in the state and at the central 
level and the Rajasthan government's steps 
towards a campaign on Apni Dharti, Apne Log (our 
land, our people) was in the right direction, he 
said.

The Congress alleged on Tuesday that the ruling 
BJP was trying to tamper with historical facts of 
the state in a bid to enforce its Hindutva agenda.

"The re-writing of history of Rajasthan's 
villages is irrelevant and unauthentic. We will 
not let the state became a testing laboratory for 
Hindutva agenda," state Congress chief B D Kalla 
said in a statement.

Rajasthan's Education Minister G S Tiwari 
announced on Sunday that his department would 
soon compile historical and cultural facts 
related to over 41,000 villages for new textbooks.


© Copyright 2007 PTI.

_____


[5]

The Telegraph
January 04, 2007

ARMY LANDS IN ROW OVER BABA
Our Correspondent
Baba Harbhajan Singh: Service to be terminated?

Gangtok, Jan. 3: The Indian Army's decision not 
to allow offerings and donations at Baba 
Harbhajan Singh Mandir near Nathu-la has provoked 
angry response from devotees.

"The decision will hurt the sentiments of those 
who go there to offer prayers," said Sunil 
Periwal, a businessman from Gangtok, after an 
unfulfilling visit to the temple yesterday.

Baba Mandir, located on the road to Kupup near 
Nathu-la in East Sikkim, is a popular tourist 
destination-cum-pilgrim centre for its 
association with the legend of Harbhajan Singh, a 
soldier of the 23rd Punjab Regiment who died 
while on duty in the late 60s. It is widely 
believed that even after his death, Baba 
continued to guard the border at night and look 
after the men on patrol. At present an honorary 
captain on extension (he is past the retirement 
age), Baba continues to feature on the payroll of 
the army, and is even granted annual leave from 
September to November.

The temple is maintained by the Indian Army, 
which has a substantial presence in the area 
located close to the Chinese border. Devotees 
have even suggested that the army hand over the 
responsibility to a managing committee comprising 
civilians, the kind of arrangement that exists in 
Hanuman tok, another temple located above Gangtok.

Though the ban has reportedly been in place since 
last week, no official explanation has been 
forthcoming from the army as to why the decision 
was taken. When The Telegraph contacted senior 
army officers posted in the area, they refused to 
comment on the matter but admitted that the 
orders had come from highest ranks.

Meanwhile, even the weekly bhandara (feast), 
normally held on Tuesdays and Sundays, has been 
stopped.

One possible reason behind the decision is the 
legal suit filed in a Punjab court in September 
last year by one Pyare Singh, a former subedar in 
the Indian Army and a close relative of Baba. 
Singh accused the army of propagating 
superstitious belief among the public by treating 
Baba like a person who is alive. He reported that 
even now two army jawans are deputed to accompany 
Baba to his hometown in Punjab, while special 
vehicles are hired to take him to the New 
Jalpaiguri station and train reservations are 
made for the onward and return journeys.

The court has asked the army to respond to the charges.

_____


Upcoming Events:

(i)

WORKSHOP ON RIGHT TO INFORMATION ACT

Time: 11 AM,
Saturday, 13 January 2007
Venue: Manoranjan Kaksha
Delhi Administration Flats
Timparpur, Delhi 110054

Hope your participation will help us to 
understand the issue in a better way. In case you 
find any difficulty
please call @ +91 9811 972 872. The nearest Metro 
Station is Vishwvidyalaya (Delhi University)

Since 13 January is a holiday many of you can manage to attend the same.


Warm Regards

safar team
http://www.safarindia.zoomshare.com

o o o

(ii)

Say no to Political Witch hunt!

Say no to the gagging of political opponents!

Join Citizens' Dharna

To Demand the release of activists and students in West Bengal jails

Manjusha (Residents' Commissioner's Office, West 
Bengal State Emporium, Baba Kharak Singh Marg, 
Connaught Place)
12:00 Noon - 3:00 pm
Saturday, 13th January 2007

On 4th January, a six-member fact-finding team 
travelling to Nandigram was arrested at Tekhali 
Bazar. The team included veteran communist leader 
Sankar Mitra and two students, Jitendra Kumar of 
Jamia Millia Islamia of Delhi, and Malay Tiwari 
of Jadavpur University. The team members were 
implicated in blatantly false charges under 
sections 147, 148, 149, 341, 323, 325, 307, 186, 
353, 332, 333, 337, 338, 427, 435, 379, 2527 
(involving attempt to murder, arson, arms act and 
inciting violence) of IPC. They are being held in 
judicial custody.

Further, on 9 th January, eleven more students 
from Jadavpur University and Presidency College 
participating in demonstrations (protesting the 
violence in Nandigram in which seven peasants 
were killed) at the CPI (M) state head quarters 
were also arrested.

Demands will be made from the West Bengal 
Governor for the immediate and unconditional 
release of students arrested and held under false 
charges in the state for protesting land 
acquisition and killing of innocent persons in 
Nandigram, West Bengal.

Please forward this mail to others and inform them about it.

Regards,

Radhika Menon,
9868038981

o o o

(iii)

SEMINAR

SOCIAL JUSTICE AND RESERVATION: A REVIEW OF THE 
FINDINGS OF THE SACHAR COMMISSION

14th January, 2007
Commencement: 9 A.M.

Venue: Love Shore Inn Auditorium, Thrissur
Inauguration by: Dr. K.N. Pannikkar

Forum for Faith and Fraternity
Vanchinad Residency, Post Box – 4239
Kaloor, Cochin - 682 017

Tel: 0484 – 6529815. E-mail: fffkochi at yahoo.com


Dear Sir/Madam, 

Even five decades after independence, equal 
opportunity and social justice remain elusive 
dreams for a large section of the population. An 
ideology founded upon social justice, matched by 
political will, remain the inevitable instruments 
to drive and sustain democracy. The backwardness 
of a significant segment of the majority 
community, and almost the entire Muslim minority, 
in diverse walks of life must come to an end. 
Left uncorrected, this could become a challenge 
and threat not only to our social security, 
nation building, and democratic system but also 
to our cultural heritage. Time and again 
indications of this danger have surfaced in 
different parts of the nation.
A year ago, the Prime Minister of India set up a 
seven-member commission, with Justice Rajindar 
Sachar as the chairman, to examine the nature and 
extent of the socio-economic and educational 
deprivation of the Indian Muslim community, and 
to suggest possible correctives.
Muslims constitute fifteen percent of the Indian 
population. The Sachar Commission Report, and the 
studies and reports of other commissions and 
agencies in the past, confirm the appalling 
condition of the community in social, economic 
and educational terms. The development and 
progress of the nation cannot be carried forward 
meaningfully, without addressing this issue.  The 
restoration of equity must be adopted as a 
national agenda.  Governmental agencies, social 
scientists and non-governmental agencies must 
work together to formulate and implement remedial 
policies. In the national interests, the majority 
community must extend wholesome support to such 
initiatives. 
The Forum for Faith and Fraternity, FFF or 3F in 
popular parlance,   is a Muslim cultural 
organization based in Ernakulam. During the 
sitting of the Sachar Commission in Kerala, a 
representative group including members of the 
executive committee of the Forum led by Prof. 
K.M.Bahavuddin submitted a memorandum with 
extensive statistical and survey documentation on 
the plight of Indian Muslims in general, and 
Kerala Muslims in particular.
The study report of the Sachar commission was 
submitted to the parliament a few weeks ago. 
Social scientists, political parties, community 
leaders and the media are already engaged in an 
exercise to comprehend and assess the findings 
and observations of the Commission.
The Forum joins the public debate with a one-day 
Seminar.  The Seminar will take place on Sunday, 
14-01-2007 at the Love Shore Inn Auditorium 
located near the Railway Station, Trichur. 
Topic: Social Justice and Reservation: A Review 
of the Findings of the Sachar Commission.
We request your participation, with your friends, 
in the Seminar and your involvement in the 
follow-up discussion.

Adv. A.Y.Khalid 
Dr. K.K.Usman
Chairman, 
Secretary,
Organizing Committee, Trichur 
Forum for Faith and Fraternity


PROGRAMME

Registration
Khirat
Welcome                                  : Adv. A.Y. Khalid
Address by the Chairperson      : K.V.Mohamed Zakeer.
Inauguration                              : Dr. K.N. Panikkar

Papers

1. Sri. K.E.N.Kunjahammed     : Social Justice in a Plural Society
2. Dr. K.K.Rahulan                  : The Ideology of Reservation
3. Prof. T.B. Vijayakumar         : The History 
of Social Backwardness and its Present
   Context
4. Dr. K.K. Usman                   : The Findings of the Sachar Commission
5. M.R. Sudesh                        : Reservation and the Creamy Layer
6. Dr. M. Kabir                        : Status 
of the Muslims in Kerala- the Myth and the
   Reality
   
Lunch                           : 1 P.M. to 2 P.M.
Discussion                    : 2 P.M. to 4 P.M.
Moderators                  : Prof. K.M. Bahavuddin, Dr. N.A. Karim
Vote of thanks              : V.A. Mohamed Ashrof


FORUM FOR FAITH AND FRATERNITY
VANCHINAD RESIDENCY
POST BOX 4239
KOCHI 682017

o o o

(iv)

TORTURE, LIES AND A FABRICATED CONFESSION:
NO DEATH PENALTY FOR AFZAL GURU!


PICKET OF THE INDIAN HIGH COMMISSION,
Friday, 26 January 1.30pm-4.30pm
India House, The Aldwych, London WC2
(nearest tube: Holborn)

On December 13, 2001 the Indian parliament was 
attacked by five men. They were killed by the 
security forces but even today their identity 
remains a mystery. Three other men, who according 
to the police masterminded the attack, have also 
not been found.

However, on 14 and 15 December, 2001 the 
investigating agencies together with the Special 
Cell of the Delhi Police picked up four persons, 
all Kashmiris, and charged them with the offence 
of conspiring to attack the parliament under 
India's notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act 
(POTA). 

After a nationwide campaign for a fair trial, two 
of them, Syed Abdul Rahman Geelani and Navjot 
Sandhu who was jailed along with her newborn 
baby, have been acquitted of all charges, a 
third, the husband of Navjot Sandhu, has had his 
death sentence converted to ten years in prison. 
But the fourth Afzal Guru was due to be hanged on 
October 20, 2006. A stay on his execution has 
been obtained by the Save Afzal Campaign through 
a Mercy Petition, and he is now being held in 
Tihar jail in Delhi. But he is still facing a 
death sentence.

Who is Afzal Guru?

Afzal  Guru was involved with the JKLF for only 
three months in 1990 when large numbers of 
Kashmiri youth were attracted to the movement. 
During these three months he neither received any 
training nor took part in any activities. For 
details see his wife Tabassum's letter:  
<http://justiceforafzalguru.org/background/tabassum.html>http://justiceforafzalguru.org/background/tabassum.html

After he surrendered he was constantly picked up 
by security forces, asked to spy on people and 
also routinely tortured. He eventually decided to 
move to Delhi hoping to be left alone but even 
here the notorious Special Task Force caught up 
with him and continued to harass him.
Afzal's  trial

His trial was a mockery of justice since he was 
denied an opportunity to defend himself - he did 
not even have a lawyer.  Afzal was not involved 
in the actual attack on the Indian parliament and 
he did not kill or injure anybody and the Indian 
Supreme Court has ruled that there was no direct 
evidence against him, only circumstantial. 
However the court has sentenced him to death 
because in their words the  "the collective 
conscience of the society will be satisfied if 
the capital punishment is awarded to the 
offender... The appellant, who is a surrendered 
militant Š   is a menace to society and should 
become extinct." 

Abu Ghraib style torture and media collusion

In the Special Cell of the Delhi police Afzal was 
kept naked for two days and beaten mercilessly - 
once by a man who later appeared as a prosecution 
witness; police officers urinated in his mouth 
saying 'This is the way you can break your 
Roza(fast)'. After he was tortured he was 
handcuffed and made to sit on a chair and forced 
to 'confess' at a media conference. But 
television broadcasts did not show the handcuffs 
and did not show the men who tortured and 
humiliated him. On the 15 and 16 of December 
2006, New Delhi Television (NDTV) re-ran the 
'confession' several times although they had been 
informed that by now that the Supreme Court of 
India had rejected it and the High Court had 
reprimanded the police for it. The programme was 
accompanied by remarks such as  'See how natural, 
how truthful, how fluent his statement appears' 
and 'Who can believe that such a statement can be 
given under torture'. They then invited viewers 
to act as a virtual lynch mob by soliciting SMS 
messages from them asking whether Afzal should be 
hanged in light of the tape telecast by them.

Right-wing Hindu chauvinist forces of the Sangh 
Parivar have continually harassed members of 
Afzal's campaign while calling for Afzal to be 
hanged.

Afzal Guru  faces a death penalty although:

There is no direct evidence against him and he is 
known not to have injured or harmed anyone

The Courts have found that the investigating 
agencies deliberately fabricated evidence and 
forged documents against him and others accused.

Currently Afzal is waiting for the results of a 
Mercy Petition but the decision of the courts is 
extremely uncertain. Even after enormous efforts 
by his campaign he is being denied basic rights 
in prison - he is not allowed to go out of doors 
for even half an hour of sunlight and the Red 
Cross who have access to Kashmiri prisoners have 
not been allowed to visit him.

SAVE AFZAL GURU!

Further details: 07814983105 sasg at southasiasolidarity.org


o o o

(v)

CERAS 2007

South Asia at the Crossroads
monthly discussions - ALL invited.

The discussions will be preceded by a detailed 
presentation or brief introductory comments.
Participants are encouraged to inform themselves 
and participate actively in the discussion.


1st monthly discussion:

Sunday 21 January 1-3pm

South Asia at the Crossroads - India

Presentation by Professor Mritiunjoy Mohnty, Indian Institute of Management
Calcutta; Institut d'études internationales de montréal (UQAM)

Venue: South Asian Women's Community Centre

1035 Rachel est (between Boyer and Christophe-Colomb)
Metro Mt-Royal and bus # 11 [Montreal ]

UPCOMING

February:  South Asia at the Crossroads - Bangladesh
March: South Asia at the Crossroads - Muslims in 
India Five Years after Gujarat and
in Light of the Findings of the Sachar Report
April:  South Asia at the Crossroads - Nepal - anniversary of democratic change
May: South Asia at the Crossroads - Pakistan
June:  South Asia at the Crossroads - Sri Lanka
July:  South Asia at the Crossroads - Challenges Facing Communist Movements in
South Asia


Information: 514-938-3678

ceras at insaf.net

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

Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), 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
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