SACW | Feb 27, 2007 | Bangladesh's CHT accord under risk; Loonies in Pakistan and elsewhere; More war in Sri Lanka; Kashmiris should connect; India: Hindu right stoking communalism in UP
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at mnet.fr
Mon Feb 26 22:30:58 CST 2007
South Asia Citizens Wire | February 27, 2007 | Dispatch No. 2367 - Year 9
[1] State of Emergency in Bangladesh and
Political Repression on Indigenous Leaders in CHT
[2] USA, UK, Pakistan and elsewhere: Loony tunes (Irfan Husain)
[3] Sri Lanka: Disequilibrium on ground points
to more war before peace (Jehan Perera)
[4] India - Pakistan: Both sides [of the divided
kashmir should act] now (AG Noorani)
[5] 'Gandhi did not oppose science' Akeel Bilgrami interviewed by J Pais
[6] India: Hindutva's Uncivil Society in Eastern UP (Subhashini Ali)
____
[1]
Urgent Action Alert:
STATE OF EMERGENCY IN BANGLADESH AND POLITICAL
REPRESSION ON INDIGENOUS LEADERS IN CHT
February 26, 2007, New Delhi
Bangladesh has been in the state of emergency since the mid-January 2007.
The "joint forces" consisting of military, Rapid
Action Battalion (RAB), Bangladesh Rifles (BDR),
police and intelligence servicemen have been
given special power to control "corruption" and
"crimes" in the country.
Several top level political leaders including
former ministers allegedly involved in
"corruption" and "crimes" have been arrested and
put into the bar. Dozen of deaths under RAB
custody have been reported.
The Jumma indigenous people resisting Bengali
(Muslim) domination in their traditional
homeland, the Chittagong Hill Tracts, and
demanding autonomy for protection of their
distinct identity and culture since 1972 have
been the worst victim of the heat. The "joint
forces" are using the state of emergency as a
political tool to suppress their democratic voice
for proper implementation of the CHT Accord, a
prerequisite for democracy, peace and development
in the region.
The Accord signed between the Parbatya Chattagram
Jana Samhati Samiti (PCJSS), the political
organization representing the indigenous people,
and the Awami League Government of Bangladesh on
December 2, 1997 provides limited autonomy to the
indigenous people and addresses, among others,
the demilitarization of the Chittagong Hill
Tracts.
Indigenous political leaders are being specially
targeted. They are being arrested, tortured and
jailed indiscriminately. They are now even afraid
of talking openly to international human rights
groups and media about the situation for the fear
of being exposed and punished. They have no
freedom of association and speech. They cannot
freely move from one place to another place.
There are military check posts everywhere in the
Chittagong Hill Tracts. Telecommunications system
has been under the control of the military.
Mobile phone services have been banned. Internet
services are being monitored and checked.
Indigenous organizations cannot freely
communicate with international human rights
groups and media on the situation through
e-mails. Common people are living in great fear
and insecurity.
Dozen of indigenous political and student leaders
including the General Secretary of PCJSS Mr.
Satyabir Dewan have been under the detention of
the "joint forces". Mr Dewan was arrested on
February 18 on the ground of keeping "illegal
arms" with him. A source unwilling to be
identified for security reasons said that the
military deliberately kept arms in his house at
Rangamati town and made it a pretext to arrest
him. It is reminiscent of a usual practice
resorted to by Bangladeshi military during the
active phase of the conflict to suppress
indigenous political movement.
In a press release issued on 21 February, many
intellectuals like Dhaka University Associate
Professor Mezbha Kamal, Bangladesh Indigenous
Peoples' Forum General Secretary Sanjeeb Drong
and Director of Ain O Salish Kendra (Law and
Justice Centre) Mohammad Noor Khan stated that
Mr. Dewan was "innocent" and he could not be
arrested under any provisions of the emergency
law. Mr. Dewan is an "ideal and clean political
leader" and no cases are pending against him in
court, the statement added. They demanded his
immediate and unconditional release. He was sent
to police custody on 20 February.
Some of the other innocent indigenous political
and student leaders arrested are:
1) Mr. Bimal Kanti Chakma, Central Member of PCJSS from
Jurachari on 18 February
2) Mr. Ranjit Kumar Dewan, President of
Jurachari branch of PCJSS from Juranchari on 18
February
3) Mr. Udayjoy Chakma, General Secretary of
Jurachari branch of PCJSS from Jurachari on 18
February
4) Mr. Mayachan Chakma, Organising Secretary
of Jurachari branch of PCJSS from Jurachari on 18
February
5) Mr. Railai Mro, Chairman of Sualok mouza
and Headman of Sualok mouza from Badanban on 23
February
6) Mr. Bikram Marma, President of Kaptai
branch of PCJSS from Kaptai on 4 February
7) Mr. Saimong Marma, Organising Secretary
of Kaptai branch of PCJSS on 11 February
8) Mr. Sumit Chakma, Assistance General
Secretary of Rangamati district branch of Hill
Students Council from Dhaka on 6 February.
Peace Campaign Group (PCG) is deeply concerned
over political repression and gross human rights
violations by the "joint forces" against
indigenous political and student leaders in the
Chittagong Hill Tracts under the state of
emergency.
PCG feels that human rights must be respected in
all circumstances-no matter whatever situation
arises in a country.
PCG urges international human rights groups and
parties concerned with Bangladeshi affairs to use
their good office to ensure unconditional and
immediate release of the indigenous political and
student leaders arrested and early restoration of
people's fundamental rights and freedoms in the
Chittagong Hill Tracts.
PCG also urges the international community to put
pressure on the Caretaker Government to hold the
general elections as early as possible for
restoration of democracy in the country and
proper implementation of the CHT Accord.
Peace Campaign Group
RZ-I-91/211, West Sagarpur, New Delhi-110046, India
Tel: + 91-11-2 539 8383
Telefax: + 91-11-2 539 4277
E-mail: pcgoffice at yahoo.co.in, pcgonline at gmail.com
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Background:
With the end of its five-year term, the
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led 4-party
coalition government of Bangladesh demitted the
office on 28 October 2006. It left a
"controversial" Caretaker Government consisting
of eleven Advisors headed by the President of
Bangladesh Iajuddin Ahmed and assisted by the
Secretaries of various government departments and
an Election Commission to look after the business
of the state and general elections in the country.
The 14-party opposition alliance led by Awami
League rejected the Caretaker Government for its
"biased" and "pro-BNP" role in the election
process, and demanded, among others, formation of
a "neutral" Election Commission for free, fair
and credible elections. It resulted in a serious
political crisis in the country with violent
confrontation between the Caretaker Government
and opposition parties.
To maintain "law and order situation" the
President deployed military across the country.
It deepened the crisis, and the opposition
alliance demanded resignation of the President
from the post of Chief Advisor to the Caretaker
Government.
The President declared the state of emergency
under Article 141A (1), (2), (3), 141B, 141C (1),
(2) and (3) of the Constitution and resigned from
the post on January 11, 2007.
It paved a way for formation of a new Caretaker
Government headed by the Chief Advisor Dr.
Fakhruddin Ahmed on January 12, 2007.
Please write your letter of concern to:
1. Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed,
Honorable Chief Advisor, Caretaker Government,
Office of the Chief Advisor,
Old Airport Road, Tejgaon, Dhaka-1000,
People’s Republic Bangladesh
Fax: + 880-2-811 3244, 913 3722
2. Dr. Iftekhar Ahmed Choudhury,
Honorable Advisor on the Ministry of Foreign and CHT
Affairs,
Caretaker Government,
People’s Republic Bangladesh
Fax: + 880-2-9555283/956 5300
E-mail: mochtadh at bttb.net
_______
[2]
Daily Times
February 26, 2007
LOONY TUNES
by Irfan Husain
If I risked an infection as a patient, somebody's
'religious sentiments' would be very low on my
priority list. But in a litigious society like
America, lawyers would be rubbing their hands in
glee at the prospect of a class action suit
against hospitals that fire these nuts
As I write this, the rain has stopped after a
couple of hours of dreary drizzle, and the sun is
out. We are in Wiltshire, and it's as different
as it could be from the Aegean Sea where I was
last week. I landed at Heathrow at seven in the
morning, and was amazed to see thousands of
people queuing up at immigration at that
unearthly hour. The hordes flying into London are
unending, and the government is planning yet
another runway to handle the flights, despite the
presence of Gatwick and Stanstead airports that
also serve the capital.
Every time I visit tolerant Muslim countries like
Turkey or Morocco, I am reminded yet again that
the kind of absurd barriers we Pakistanis have
erected are not at all necessary. Take the recent
'debate' in the National Assembly on the teaching
of the pre-Islamic period to schoolchildren as an
example. Apparently, a number of our holy fathers
stormed out to protest the inclusion of the
Gandhara and Mohenjadaro civilisations in our
history textbooks. According to them, our history
should begin with the Islamic period in the
subcontinent.
This kind of asinine behaviour and outlook is a
sad comment on what passes for intellectual
discourse in Parliament. Instead of wishing to
educate the young about our rich historical and
cultural heritage, these barely literate clerics
are doing their best to push us back to the
medieval era.
But wait, it gets worse: according to a news
emailed to me by a reader in the United States,
some Muslim hospital workers are refusing to
clean their hands with anti-bacterial gel because
it contains alcohol. Now hospitals all over the
Muslim world have been using alcohol as a
germicide for decades. And while there is a
passing prohibition on the consumption of alcohol
(but without any penalty for this sin prescribed
in the scriptures), there is certainly no ban on
cleaning your hands with the stuff.
If I were a patient in a hospital and my nurse
refused to cleanse his or her hands properly, I
would immediately bail out of there. But by
claiming religious license for this unhygienic
practice, these paramedics have put American
hospital administrators in a very awkward
position. If they sack these workers - as they
certainly should - they face being accused of
being insensitive to a minority's religious
sentiments. Frankly, if I risked an infection as
a patient, somebody's 'religious sentiments'
would be very low on my priority list. However,
in a litigious society like America, lawyers
would be rubbing their hands in glee (if not with
germicidal gel) at the prospect of a class action
suit against hospitals that fire these nuts.
And here's another gem from the UK press that
awaited me: some bunch of crackpots has lodged a
demand with the education authorities to separate
showering and changing facilities for Muslim
students in British schools. According to them,
their faith does not permit them to expose
themselves before others. Talk about sick minds:
since time immemorial, boys at school have
showered and changed in one large area after
sports. Stalls have provided a modicum of
privacy, but thus far, nobody has made a big deal
of this. Understandably, school principals have
unanimously rejected this move to create a
further divide between Muslim and non-Muslim
students.
Why do our so-called scholars and clerics make
such idiots of themselves? Had their words and
actions not reflected so poorly on the entire
faith, nobody would have minded much about their
bizarre worldview. But as millions of normal
people share Islam with these loonies, their sick
interpretation of religion taints the entire
Muslim world.
All in all, it's not a great time to be a Muslim
in Britain. According to one report, a father
burned his wife and three daughters to death
because in his view, they had become too
'Western'. This Pakistani-born guy's wife had
made friends in her locality, and acquired a life
of her own. His eldest daughter refused to
consider an arranged marriage and wanted to
become a fashion designer. Fear of losing control
over them caused him to commit this horrible act
before taking his own life
On the same page of the newspaper the lady wife
had saved for me was an account of one of the
wannabe suicide-bombers who dressed up in a
burqa. This group was arrested last year soon
after the 7/7 tube and bus bombings that created
such mayhem in London over a year ago. But as
this suspect was 6 ft 2 in, his disguise was not
too credible. Even on the fuzzy film from a CCTV
camera, he looks decidedly male.
On the first night of my return to London after
four months, we were at a small party at a
Canadian diplomat's. There we met a Dutch lawyer
who recounted the worsening relations between the
large Muslim minority and its normally liberal
Dutch hosts. This is a part of a familiar pattern
that becomes more depressing every passing day.
The writer is a freelance columnist
______
[3]
Daily Mirror
February 27, 2007
DISEQUILIBRIUM ON GROUND POINTS TO MORE WAR BEFORE PEACE
By Jehan Perera
The fifth anniversary of the Ceasefire Agreement
passed without any dramatic intervention by
either the government or the LTTE who had been
its signatories. It was only civil society groups
who thought it fit to mark the occasion in a
positive manner and raise the question about the
future of the peace process that the CFA had once
given hope to. The civic groups were joined in
this endeavour most notably by representatives of
the international community who had placed, and
continue to place, a great deal of faith in the
ability of the Ceasefire Agreement and the peace
process that it undergirded. In the context of
the present climate of impunity this
international solidarity was a source of strength.
Civil society networks from all parts of the
country and representatives of the four religions
and civil society groups spoke of the need for a
political solution rather than a military
solution. Ambassadors from Norway, the United
States and Japan, and High Commissioners of
Canada and Australia took part as speakers at a
peace event at the Bandaranaike Memorial
International Conference Hall. In addition, the
Indian High Commission also sent a representative
which confirmed the broad-based consensus of the
international community with the call of civil
society for negotiations, peace and political
reform.
The key ideas that were expressed included
expediting the political proposals of the All
Party Representatives Committee, honouring the
mandate of the International Independent Group of
Eminent Persons who are observers to the
Presidential Commission to investigate Serious
Human Rights Violations, and to resume
government-LTTE peace talks. Perhaps not wishing
to be seen as left out, the government and
opposition political parties sent their political
representatives who also addressed the gathering
in accordance with the spirit of the symposium.
The peace symposium showed that large sections of
civil society are ready to take up the challenge
of working for peace, reconciliation and a new
political framework at the local level.However,
as could be expected in a plural society, not all
in either political and civil society were of the
same mind. During the course of the month, a
Sinhalese nationalist alliance led by the JVP,
and with fasting Buddhist monks, has been aiming
to pressurize the government into abrogating the
Ceasefire Agreement, but so far to no avail.
By saying that this agreement had been a mistake,
President Mahinda Rajapaksa would have given them
reason to believe that the government would go
along with their demand. But the government has
so far not taken any special measure to formally
reject the agreement. Demonstrating the
pragmatism for which he is noted, the President
has also said that the existence of the CFA does
not prevent the government from pursuing either
its military strategy or political reform
programme. The longer term challenge will be to
win trust and confidence when agreements are so
openly disregarded whenever pragmatism dictates.
No peace
There are no signs at the present time that the
government or LTTE are looking to engage
peacefully with the other. Government
spokespersons, and not only the President, are
continuing to say that their military strategy
against the LTTE remains the same. In addition,
posters have appeared throughout the country
showing President Rajapaksa in the company of
battle hardened troops with their guns in ready
position in thick jungles. This same photograph
had earlier been published in the state
controlled newspapers. The message in the poster
is that the battle commenced against the LTTE
must be fought to a finish.
Neither has the LTTE been any more conciliatory.
They warn of more bloodstained pages in Sri
Lanka's history. Their contribution to the fifth
anniversary of the Ceasefire Agreement was to
come up with an analysis of its failure, which
makes it no surprise that it was doomed to fail.
According to the LTTE, the Ceasefire Agreement
recognized the de facto existence of an
independent state of Tamil Eelam, with a
government of its own capable of entering into
agreements with other governments. This was the
same fear that has haunted the Sinhalese
nationalists who seek its abrogation.
Either deliberately or coincidentally, by
claiming that the CFA recognized their
government, the LTTE has provided more grist to
the mill of the Sinhalese nationalists and
enhanced their credibility among the general
public as having made a proper analysis of the
consequences of the Ceasefire Agreement. However,
the CFA did nothing of the sort. It was only an
instrument to halt the fighting at the forward
lines of each side. It opened the roads that had
hitherto made parts of the country inaccessible
due to LTTE-control on the ground. But the CFA
did not legitimize LTTE institutions, whether
they were the LTTE police and judiciary or
practices of child recruitment. Whether or not
those LTTE institutions of governance, good and
bad, were to be legitimized was left to the
political negotiations.
The debate over the political implications of the
Ceasefire Agreement highlights its main lacuna.
This was the political vacuum within which the
agreement was formulated. As a result the CFA
became an end in itself, which it was not. It was
only a means to an end. While the Ceasefire
Agreement was indeed the centrepiece of the peace
process, it was not an agreement that could stand
alone. At best the Ceasefire Agreement froze the
war, and the institutions of war, and kept them
separated where they stood at the time of its
signing. But the Ceasefire Agreement was not the
political solution that set up new institutions
of governance that might have won the acceptance
of the Sri Lankan government, the LTTE, the
general public and the international community.
Ironically, the Norwegian facilitators who are
being blamed today for the failure of the peace
process, set the stage for its success at the
very beginning of the peace process in 2001. The
Norwegian facilitators initially announced that
their facilitation was contingent on the two
parties accepting a common framework of a united
Sri Lanka in which Tamil aspirations would be
substantially met. They stated that the solution
should be within the framework of a united Sri
Lanka. They also stated that Tamil aspirations
should be met. However, this advantageous
position was not built on by the government, and
this left space to the LTTE to continue to be
ambivalent about their final goal.
Unlikely prospect
There was an important reason why the former UNP
government failed to present a political
framework that could have supported the Ceasefire
Agreement. The government that signed the
Ceasefire Agreement did not have the executive
power of the Presidency with it. Instead Prime
Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe who signed the
agreement was a bitter rival of President
Chandrika Kumaratunga, and both of them failed to
put their differences behind them in the national
interest. With his majority in Parliament,
President Mahinda Rajapaksa is in a much better
position to push through a political solution.
Unfortunately, the hope of a resumption of the
peace process any time soon seems unlikely.
Academic theorists have posited that ceasefires
occur in the context of hurting stalemates. This
is the point at which the conflicting parties
realize that the costs of continuing with warfare
outweigh the benefits to them. This was arguably
the case in 2001. The government was paying a
heavy cost in terms of military reversals and
economic difficulties. The LTTE was paying a
heavy cost in terms of its inability to progress
towards taking control of the entire north east,
and the prospect of more international bans in
the context of the US-led war against terrorism.
But at the present time there is an asymmetry of
costs being paid by the government and LTTE and
there is a situation of disequilibrium on the
ground. The government has been making
substantial gains on the ground in the east with
little immediate likelihood of the LTTE being
able to reverse it. The LTTE has shown no
goodwill to the government of President Rajapaka,
and there is no pragmatic reason (other than
statesmanship) for him to show goodwill to them.
Therefore it is unlikely that the government will
wish to stop its military campaign at the present
time, as the posters of President Rajapaksa with
battle hardened troops of the Sri Lankan army
seems to suggest.
On the other hand, a time is bound to come,
sooner or later, and after even more territory is
exchanged on the battlefield, when the lines of
communication and supply are stretched to their
limit, and the coffers are drying up, when a
situation of hurting stalemate will arise once
again. It is also a lesson drawn from
international experience that democratic
governments cannot sustain long drawn out wars,
but guerillas can.
The United States confronts this issue now in
Iraq, after having experienced it once before in
Vietnam. Capturing territory is one thing, but
holding it without huge cost is another. What has
befallen a superpower is unlikely to spare Sri
Lanka. Statesmanship and dialogue need to be
considered as the better ways to the future.
______
[4]
HindustanTimes.com
BOTH SIDES [OF THE DIVIDED KASHMIR SHOULD ACT] NOW
by AG Noorani
February 26, 2007
'Many of us think that it is rather disgraceful
and does no credit to India that this matter
should have dragged on... so long,' Sardar Patel
told the United Nations mediator on Kashmir, Owen
Dixon, on July 20, 1950. Come October, it will be
60 years since "this matter" arose, ruining the
peace of this region. If the peace process is
allowed to take its course, there is every
possibility of accord on the framework of a
Kashmir solution before October.
Meanwhile, a lot can be done to facilitate that,
as two promising statements suggest. On December
31, the J&K Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said
that some sort of "joint management" with
Pakistan-Administered Kashmir (PAK) is possible
in the fields of tourism, trade, culture and
water resources, which could pave the way for a
lasting solution to the Kashmir dispute.
On February 10, Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan, Prime
Minister of the Government of PAK offered to
supply gas and electricity to J&K and invited
entrepreneurs from "all regions and religions" to
invest in PAK. "The gas can be provided to the
Kashmir Valley through Chakoti and through
Sialkot to Jammu at Suchetgarh if the authorities
on the other side are willing." He had earlier
invited doctors and engineers from the state to
work in PAK and asked universities in J&K to
admit students from his region. He could not have
proposed all this without Islamabad's consent.
Azad would render a historic service if he
invites Ahmed Khan to Srinagar for talks on both
sets of proposals. Far from impairing the current
parleys on joint mechanism, it will buttress it.
The talks are at a political level and aim at a
final solution. The CM's venture will be purely
administrative, inspired by humanitarian
considerations, for alleviation of a harsh
situation in the interim, pending a solution. The
two leaders would consult on administrative
measures which each would take on his side of the
LoC. The top leaders would resolve the political
and legal issues on the basis of their agreement
that the LoC must be made "irrelevant".
True, J&K and PAK do not "recognise" each other -
formally. But if the United States and China can
hold talks for years at Warsaw without according
recognition to each other, it is absurd to
suggest that two Kashmiris cannot meet within the
State itself and discuss how best to provide
relief to the people.
They have several problems to resolve at the
administrative level - revival of pre-1947 mode
of transport and communication; improvement of
procedures for travel by bus; the opening of new
routes; cooperation in the Border Area
Development Programme; trade and investment;
joint power ventures; tourism, health, protection
of environment; promotion of traditional Kashmiri
handicrafts, captive breeding of chiroo goats;
protection of forests, etc.
Districts are arbitrarily divided. Poonch can now
be reached from Baramula only via Jammu. A trip
from Uri to Poonch; a mere 60 kilometres apart,
should take an hour or so. It now takes nearly
three days - from Uri to Baramula, thence to
Srinagar, on to Jammu and finally to Poonch.
Rajauri and Anantnag, virtually sister cities,
are divided by the LoC. The Jammu-Sialkot road
can be opened to mutual advantage.
Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan's visit will initiate a
regular exchange. Azad can go to Muzaffarabad.
Other exchanges can follow on ministerial and
official levels. The atmosphere will undergo a
radical change and so will the lot of people as
the administrative measures take effect.
The 'Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus' is a misnomer.
Buses from each side stops at the LoC and go
nearly empty thanks to the absurd requirements.
On January 15, 1949, the C-in-Cs of India and
Pakistan, Generals K.M. Cariappa and Roy Bucher
"agreed to restore the communication by road
between Srinagar and Rawalpindi and to rebuild
the necessary bridges".
Till 1953, the simple 'Rahdari' procedure was
followed. A letter from the District Commissioner
enabled the poor villager to go across. The
State's constitution has a chapter on "permanent
residents". A certificates of such residence
should suffice. The 2005 bus accord imposes
farcical conditions.
In December 2004, India proposed that divided
families be allowed to meet at five points -
Tangdhar, Uri, Poonch and Mendhar on the LoC and
Suchetgarh on the international border along the
Jammu-Sialkot road. Pakistan has yet to respond
to it.
Wajahat Habibullah made useful suggestions in a
paper he wrote in June 2004 on "the political
economy of the Kashmir conflict", which the two
CMs can study with advantage. "Governments in
the Indian and Pakistani parts of the state of
Jammu and Kashmir must grant their people
freedom, not merely by holding elections but also
by rolling back restrictions on business and
terminating governmental monopolies in trade and
commerce, which are, in any case, a drain on
government resources. The governments should also
be encouraging investment that will generate
economic activity.
"Key areas for investment are watershed
development, the timber industry (which will
first require investment to restore the forest
cover), fruit processing and power generation. If
these sectors were active, they could help
jumpstart the entire economy. The World Bank and
the Asian Development Bank (ADB) could make
low-interest loans."
But that cannot be all, as he points out. "The
deployment of large security forces in civilian
neighbourhood only feeds public resentment,
fuelling violence. While it will be necessary
for India to maintain a military presence in the
State until normalcy returns, that presence
should be scaled down steadily, and the
responsibility for the administration of law and
order should be restored to the local police.
Such a measure would help rebuild the Kashmiri
public's confidence in the Indian central and
state governments."
The Special Operations Group, comprising
surrendered militants, was "abolished, in name
only, in 2002". New Delhi must intervene
decisively and in fundamental respects to alter
the entire security set-up. There is something
terribly wrong in a set-up in which even Mohurram
processions are banned since 1989, tear gas
shells are lobbed to disband them, and the
processionists beaten up as they were on January
28 this year. Is the political process within the
State to be confined to party debates within
closed doors, the legislature and the occasional
seminar? Terrorism cannot be stamped out as long
as avenues of peaceful protest are barred.
On November 19, 2000, the then Prime Minister,
Atal Bihari Vajpayee, announced that the security
forces would not "initiate combat operations"
against the militants during the month of Ramzan.
Militancy has declined hugely since but the army
police's and security forces' excesses have
mounted steeply. The army is busy grabbing land
everywhere.
The political process badly needs reinforcement
by a host of administrative measures if it is to
make a difference to the people's lives.
______
[5]
rediff.com
February 26, 2007
'GANDHI DID NOT OPPOSE SCIENCE'
Professor Akeel Bilgrami is the Johnsonian
Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University in
New York. He is also director of Columbia's
Heyman Center for the Humanities. A Rhodes
Scholar, the India-born Bilgrami arrived in
America with a degree from Oxford University and
earned his PhD from the University of Chicago.
Harvard University Press recently published his
book, Self-Knowledge and Resentment. One of the
most distinguished philosophy professors in
America, he has also written Belief and Meaning.
The philosopher spoke to Managing Editor (Features) Arthur J Pais in New York.
Part I of the interview: 'What Osama is demanding
is on the lips of almost every ordinary Muslim'
As a professor of philosophy and author of
several books, you wrestle with mostly Western
philosophers. So some people could be surprised
that Gandhi had engaged your mind and even roiled
it a bit. How did it start at all?
It grew out of dissatisfaction with most of the
writing on Gandhi, which viewed him predominantly
as a political leader, but not as a thinker. I
think Gandhi was a very creative philosopher,
more so than any Indian of the last few centuries.
Most Indian philosophy of the last few centuries
consists of the study of Indian philosophers of
the past. Gandhi was one of the few who produced
a philosophy of his own.
One of the aspects of Gandhi that I wanted to
study was his critique of some enlightenment
ideas. My essay on Gandhi, Newton, and the
Enlightenment is an effort to present a
politically radical side of Gandhi, correcting
the view of him as a nostalgist anti-modernist. I
do so by situating his thought in a certain
intellectual history, which goes back to the
radical dissenting tradition of seventeenth
century England.
Gandhi did not oppose science or even technology
blindly. Rather, he wanted it to be in the
control of ordinary people, not the corporate
elite and the governments that serve them.
He thought from very early on that science in the
seventeenth century -- because it got aligned
with commercial and mercantile interests and the
propertied classes -- led to a predatory attitude
towards nature, which makes not only for
ecological disaster but destroys human relations
among us who inhabit the natural world. Isn't it
interesting that many of his thoughts are
repeated today by a new generation that is
opposed to the dehumanising effects of rampant
globalisation and destruction of the earth as a
place to live in?
You have also written about how while violence
has many sides nonviolence has no sides at all.
I was thinking about (in an essay) about
different kinds of violence. State violence
against other states, political violence by those
who resist the State's violence, psychological
violence, institutional violence, planned
violence, spontaneous violence, delinquent
violence as well as police violence.
A great deal has been written on violence, on its
psychology, on its philosophical justifications
under certain circumstances, and on its long
career in military history. But nonviolence, in
comparison, is unconditional.
However, we must also remember that Gandhi gave
nonviolence a different dimension. There were
many Indian nationalist leaders, such as (M G)
Ranade and (Gopal Krishna) Gokhale, at the time
that Gandhi had just returned to India from South
Africa, who did not like nonviolence but for whom
this meant that we must work within a
constitutional framework to get more power and
self-governance from the British.
These leaders were making nonviolent
constitutional demands. But Gandhi had seen such
demands had not been very effective. The
conventional alternative then would have been a
revolutionary violent response, which was carried
out by isolated groups but not due to mass
mobilisation. So he introduced his own strategy
of civil disobedience, at once a non-violent and
yet a non-or extra-constitutional strategy; and
virtually overnight (well, over just a very few
years) he created a mass movement.
You also note that Gandhi felt negative attitudes
and criticism too could lead to some form of
violence. And yet wasn't he was always critical
of social traditions, including the caste system?
More important than his criticism of these things
was his effort to live (and to urge the
satyagrahi to live) an exemplary life. The notion
of an exemplary action is very different from the
notion of moral judgment, which is based on
principles. I analyse that in my essay on
Gandhi's philosophical integrity.
He may have voiced criticism of others from time
to time, but he was much less frequent in doing
so than others. He may have criticised
institutions and practices extensively, such as
caste, but he avoided criticising people. In
fact, he believed so much in the moral
transformation of people rather than institutions
(one more aspect of his anti-Enlightenment
thought which put great stock in the capacity for
politics to constrain rather than change people)
that he did not demand the abolition of castes.
This was a major criticism against him by the
likes of B R Ambedkar and the Dalits. No doubt
Gandhi was wrong about this, but one has to, even
so, understand the larger philosophical attitudes
from which these attitudes of his flowed.
As a Rhodes Scholar and as an academic, you have
lived abroad for many years. Have you thought of
the role a section of the Indian community here
(in the United States) plays in appeasing, and at
times even applauding, Hindutva politicians?
The Indian communities in India have a great deal
of variety, in class, and in political opinion.
One should not elevate upper-class professionals
to spokesmen of the entire Diasporic community.
They are just one among the many kinds of Indians
in America. Many of this class have supported the
Sangh Parivar activity with financial
contributions. But a large number of lower
middle-class immigrants have far fewer Hindutva
ideologues among them.
In Queens, New York, I have seen lots of Hindus
and Muslims -- ordinary people, not upper class
professionals and rich business people -- who
live side by side with Muslims with many de facto
and informal solidarities. We should count these
people too when we think of the diasporic
communities from India. What I am saying is
equally true of the many Indian academics, who
are not at all given to Hindutva.
Many Hindu leaders accuse Leftist and secular
academics and community leaders for not holding
the Muslims to task the same way when it comes to
communal riots. There is no denying that some
Muslims have been contributing to communalism.
There are zealots in all religions and Islam is
by no means an exception.
But this criticism you mention fails to
understand that the Leftist and secular people
are trying to be sympathetic to the conditions of
the Muslim in an increasingly majoritarian
country ever since the Congress under Indira
Gandhi tapped the majoritarian sentiments against
Muslims and Sikhs to gain success in elections.
Though there were always Hindu conservative
elements in India, the kind of Hindutva we know
today did not exist before Indira Gandhi became
prime minister of the country. Her Garibi Hatao
programme had been exposed as empty rhetoric and
so she took to other avenues to gain the votes.
This in the decades after her created a very
poisonous atmosphere in Indian politics and, of
course, because the Bharatiya Janata Party could
play the majoritarian Hindu card with much less
hypocrisy than the Congress party, it rose in
power in that period.
Her son Rajiv Gandhi also played the card of
communal politics. He opened the gates of the
controversial Ayodhya site where Hindus were
demanding a temple be built by pulling down a
mosque since they believed Lord Rama had been
born there and a temple had existed.
When a divorced woman Shah Bano's supporters went
to the courts to get her (and, by extension,
other Muslim divorced women) alimony from her
husband, Rajiv Gandhi backed reactionary Muslim
leaders who opposed such settlements, saying that
it was a community issue and the Muslim community
was able to take care of that. Such action
created a bigger rift between Muslims and Hindus.
And so Muslims became an even more blatant target
and Christians began to be vilified and attacked,
too.
There is another piece of the analysis, which is
worth mentioning. The Bharatiya Janata Party and
its allies also rose in power to unify Hinduism
against a backward caste emergence that was
threatening to create a deep caste division
within Hinduism. So they created an external
enemy (the Muslims).
They also hoped that this external enemy could
scare even the backward caste Hindus and bring
them into the larger Hindu fold. By doing so, the
upper caste Hindutva movement distracted from the
demands of the backward castes especially after
the Mandal Commission report (which backed
affirmative action and the release of which
resulted in violence across India in 1990).
So the Leftist and secular forces analyse all
this and stress what I said earlier -- that the
defensive attitudes of Muslims which makes them
turn to the orthodox aspects of their religion is
a result of this longstanding feeling of defeat
and helplessness in a majoritarian context. They
are not simply pardoning Muslim zealotry where it
exists, or the violence that Muslims sometimes
commit.
In general, it is very honorable to show sympathy
to a subjugated minority. In my short essay on
'The Crisis at Columbia' (which should be on the
'Censoring Thought' web site and also in the
'Columbia Spectator' web site archives), I try to
say it is the intellectual's duty to support
those worse off sections of a society, as the
Muslims certainly are in India.
______
[6] sacw.net | 27 February 2007
http://www.sacw.net/DC/CommunalismCollection/ArticlesArchive/subhashiniFeb07.html
INDIA: HINDUTVA'S UNCIVIL SOCIETY IN EASTERN UP:
Its time stop the hate spewing yogi of Gorakhpur
by Subhashini Ali
The Hindu Mahasabha-BJP MP from Gorakhpur, Yogi
Adityanath, makes no attempt to mask his
intentions with civilities and double-talk. He
calls upon the majority community to recognize
Muslims as the enemy and to utilize every
opportunity to attack them. He has created his
own organization, the Hindu Yuva Vahini, which
has branches in almost every village, small town
and district headquarter of Eastern UP. The
members of this organization are mostly
unemployed and lumpen youth. The organization
has targeted poor youths belonging to the
Scheduled and Backward Castes who now throng to
its banner in the hope of gaining status and
prosperity. Every incident that can be utilized
to create communal tension is utilized by the
Vahini members with the full support of the Yogi.
As Dr. Hari Om, IAS, who was recently removed
from his post of DM, Gorakhpur, said in an
interview to the Hindi edition of 'Outlook' - "I
learnt in my two years as DM Gorakhpur that Yogi
is a religious leader and MP who wants to be
involved in every incident in the area in a
dominating fashion. He wants the Hindu community
to accept his as their uncontested leader and
also the Muslims as their enemies. They should
give him donations and gifts during every
ceremony. Š.He utilizes all big and small events
regularly. He inflates non-issues into issues
and gives them a communal colour. Giving small
and stray incidents involving Muslims like a
minor fight, or a case of eve teasing or water
flowing from one house in front of another house
or shop a communal colour has become a habit with
him."
As a result of the Yogi's activities, eastern
districts of UP like Gorakhpur, Maharajganj,
Kushinagar, Deoria and Gonda resemble a communal
tinderbox today. Every year, several incidents
of attacks on Muslims in one or several of these
districts take place. Often cattle being take to
fairs or bought in Haryana by both Muslim and
Hindu farmers are forcibly taken away by the Yogi
who alleges that these are going to be
slaughtered and they are then distributed amongst
his followers. Every such incident serves to
underline the fact that he is a law unto himself
and that he and his followers can act with
impunity. They can burn, attack and physically
assault as and when they please without facing
any administrative action of any kind. This is a
pattern established over the years in spite of
the fact that there have been Governments of all
hues in this time-span. A few police and
administrative have to their credit tried to
carry out their constitutional duties but they
have usually paid the price of ignominious
transfers as a result. The reason for this is
that the Yogi is the only mathadhish (head of a
math) in the country belonging to the Thakur
caste and almost all political leaders belonging
to his caste treat him with reverence and
deference. They also ensure that the party to
which they belong behaves in a similar fashion
when it is in power. As a result, the Yogi has
become a political force on his own. He
regularly puts up candidates against the BJP and
ensures their victories.
The CPI(M) has been campaigning against the Yogi
and his activities for some time now. In June
2005, it organized a massive rally in the heart
of Gorakhpur city against his vicious brand of
politics. The sound of slogans and the sight of
banners against communalism and for secularism,
unity and development were seen and heard for the
first time in years in Gorakhpur and its
neighbouring districts. The CPI(M) campaign and
rally were welcomed by many. Newspapers
commented on the fact that this was the first
time any political party had dared to take the
Yogi on. He also reacted by holding press
conferences and public meetings in which he
attacked the CPI(M) in the most intemperate
language.
In January of this year, a few days before
Moharram, a minor incident of a Muslim boy
misbehaving with a Hindu girl occurred. The
police intervened and the boy was punished in
front of members of his community who welcomed
this. Despite this, the Yogi tried to capitalize
on this issue and engineer a clash but the
administration acted firmly. But the extremely
well-organised rumour-mongering that followed
('Our Hindu sisters are being molested by muslims
and the administrative officers look on like
transvestites' etc.) was extremely inflammatory.
On the night of the 26th, a fight broke out
during a wedding reception organized by a
history-sheeter member of the Yuva Vahini in the
course of which shots were fired. Unfortunately,
a local Moharram procession was passing that way
and four Muslim boys were got gunshot injuries.
In the chaos that ensued, one of the boys at the
reception who was also involved in the fight,
Rajkumar Agrahari, ran onto the road and was
beaten up. Next day, he succumbed to his injuries
in the hospital. Yogi started a dharna at the
place that the clash had occurred and highly
inflammatory speeches were made and slogans
raised. His followers set fire to a nearby mazaar
but the police intervened to put it out. Then
curfew was imposed. Those involved in assaulting
Rajkumar were arrested immediately after this but
since the Yogi was determined to foment trouble,
he tried to break the curfew next day and was
then arrested. When it became apparent after a
few hours that he was not going to be released,
his followers went on the rampage burning and
looting Muslim homes and shops just adjacent to
the Gorakhnath Temple. A very poor Muslim
mechanic, Rashid, was murdered by them.
It was most unfortunate that the DM and SSP who
arrested Yogi were not only transferred but also
suspended the same day. It was this that
encouraged Yogi's supporters to go on the rampage
that night. A telling comment on the way in
which Yogi is treated with kid gloves by many in
the top echelons of the UP Govt. is the fact that
the new DM and SSP who arrived late in the
evening of the 28th were advised to go and visit
the Yogi in jail and talk to him by their
superiors! They found the Yogi being treated
like minor royalty in the prison. A well-known
ruling party leader and criminal, Amarmani
Tripathi, who was in the same jail since he has
been accused of conspiring to murder a poetess
with whom he had intimate relations, was
entertaining the Yogi to a feast and also to a
program of bhajans inside the jail (the bhajan
party had been brought in from outside.)
It was at this point that the CPI(M) national
leaders intervened. They spoke to the Chief
Minister and stressed on the importance of
stopping the rioting from spreading in Gorakhpur
and its neighbouring districts by keeping the
Yogi in jail for having attacked a religious
monument and inciting violence and by
implementing strict administrative measures. It
must be mentioned that the Chief Minister was
under great pressure from within his party and
from other political heavyweights to release the
Yogi.
As soon as it became apparent that the Yogi was
not going to be released, protests against his
arrest were started by the BJP and others and
there was a call to observe a bandh in all
markets in Gorakhpur and neighbouring districts.
To give an example of the kind of tactics
employed by the Yogis supporters, soon after his
arrest, his supporters sent out over a lakh sms'
which read as follows: "Katua mara jayega,
Baap-baap chillayega" (The circumcised one will
be thrashed, He will shout for his father).
In Gorakhpur, peace was soon restored. On the
30th, Muslim religious leaders decided on their
own not to take out the Taziya procession. In a
few days, shops also opened. Peaceful conditions
prevailed in all the neighbouring districts also,
with one shameful exception.
Padrauna is the district headquarter of the
neighbouring Kushinagar district. It is also a
vidhan sabha constituency held by the Congress
and it is here that Yogi is planning to field his
own candidate in the coming election. Two years
ago he had raised the following slogan - U.P.
Bhi Gujerat Banega, Padrauna shuruaat karega
(U.P. will also become a Gujerat and the process
will start in Padrauna).
And on the 30th and 31st of January, Padrauna
witnessed arson and loot of an unprecedented
ferocity. There are very few prosperous Muslims
in this area and the destruction wrought in these
two days reduced their numbers drastically. All
shops owned by Muslims in the main market and in
nearby localities were looted and gutted. Many
Muslim homes were also reduced to ashes. The
economic backbone of the community has been
almost completely destroyed.
A two-member CPI(M) delegation consisting of
Premnath Rai (State Secretariat member) and
myself visited Gorakhpur and Padrauna on the 21st
and 22nd of February. On the 20th, Com.
Premnath along with Com. Dinanath (also a State
Secretariat member) visited the riot-affected
area around the Gorakhnath Temple.
Our visit occurred just after Yogi's release on
bail from prison. The day after his release, he
addressed a Press Conference in Deoria in which
he blamed "Subhashini Ali, CPI(M) leader" for the
disturbances in Purvanchal saying that she had
been visiting the area to help the Maoists, SIMI
and ISI increase their activities and this was
what had led to the riots. To some reporters he
repeated what he had been saying earlier that she
and her party were also responsible for the
removal of the King of Nepal from his throne!
His utterances, however ridiculous, showed that
he was only too aware of the fact that apart from
the CPI(M), no other party had dared to oppose
him publicly and in no uncertain terms.
On the 21st, we visited Padrauna along with
CPI(M) members from Kushinagar, Com. Ayodhyalal
(Secretary), Shivnath Singh, Vijay Srivastava,
Raghavendra (DCMs) and Malti, Indu Pushpa and
Kranti (AIDWA leaders). We also met prominent
community leaders who gave us a lot of important
information.
The first place we visited was the Subhash Chowk
which is the main hub of the town. It is in the
middle of the main market and is the place where
all the Moharram processions congregate and then
proceed together towards the Karbala. From the
Karbala, they break up again and go back to
various mohallas and villages of the area. Just
at the Subhash Chowk is a large shop, Dr.
Maroof's X Ray. This was the first X Ray clinic
in Padrauna. It was also a well-stocked medical
store. Today, its shutters have been mangled
beyond recognition, its few remaining shelves are
bare and there is no X ray machine to be seen.
Dr. Maroof told us that he was told at about 2 in
the afternoon on the 30th that his shop had been
set on fire. He had come rushing from his house
and found that the police and some administrative
officers had arrived and the looters and
arsonists had been forced to move away. He had
then retrieved some of his goods which were lying
on the road and had closed the double shutters of
the shop and then left the place after the
officers present assured him that there was
nothing to worry about. As soon as he left, the
rioters returned and proceeded to burn and loot
his shop again, this time in the presence of the
police and the administration. There are a few
other shops owned by Muslims in this market -
hardware shops, an electronic store, shoe shops,
a PCO etc. - they are just charred, black holes
today.
The Moharram procession on the 30th started from
Subhash Chowk at about 1 in the afternoon. The
arson started after it left. The procession
turned from the Chowk onto the Khatkuiyan road
towards the Sidhua Sthhan from where it turned to
the left towards the Karbala. Just where the
procession was to turn, a large gate had been
erected a few months ago when a Yagnya was held
just there. For weeks before Moharram, the
administration had been pleading with the
organizers of the yagnya who, of course were
followers of the Yogi, to remove the gate so that
the procession could go through but they had no
agreed. Finally, the gate was removed by the
administration on the 29th night and in the
morning the rumour was spread that the 'Muslims'
had forcibly removed the gate. The yagnya mandap
was damaged just before the procession arrived
there. Many people say that some of the PAC men
of a large contingent posted there to 'protect'
the procession were responsible for this. As a
result of all this, after the procession left the
Karbala, all the shops, large and small, owned
by Muslims on either side of the road were looted
and burned. Small teashops, paan shops, tailors'
shops, repair workshops, a very large cloth
shops, small shops selling readymade garments -
all were looted and then completely gutted. A
little further down the road, some large thatched
homes of Muslims had also been burnt. We were
told that much of this stretch of land on the
roadside was actually Govt. land which had been
occupied by a former Pradhan, Nagina Kushwaha,
who was trying to get rid of all the others,
mostly Muslims, who either had their shops or
their homes here. What is of great concern is
that many of the Muslim shops that were burnt
have now been occupied by Hindus. We also saw
that a lady, Pandey along with her three sons,
had occupied a large area where a Muslim family
had been living in a home that had been burnt
down.
Further down the road, is the village of s .
Here 9 homes belonging to Kushwahas had been
destroyed and burnt. Apparently, one of the
processions returning down this road had been
stoned near this place and, in retaliation, some
of the processionists had attacked the Kushwaha
homes.
We also visited the small hamlet of Razapur which
is more in the interior, behind Sidhua. Here 37
fairly prosperous Muslim families who had
migrated from Bihar several years ago had built
their homes. Most of the men worked far away in
Surat and even in the Gulf. On the 30th and
31st, Razapur was attacked by a mob of villagers
from the neighbouring villages. Only 2 houses
have been left standing, the rest were all burned
down and looted. Women of the hamlet told us
that they had run away with their children. Some
of them had even jumped into the nearby canal to
save themselves. They had remained hidden in the
fields for two days and nights without any food
or shelter. They could see the rioters
slaughtering their chickens and goats and eating
them while they starved.
Nothing was left of these once prosperous homes.
Even the wheat and rice that had been stored in
huge earthenware pots had been burned and we
could see charred grain everywhere. The anguish
and despair of Razapur was lightened by only one
fact - Bilas Kushwaha, a neighbour, had come to
their help. He had saved the two houses that
were still standing and he had given them
shelter. He had been abused and threatened by
the rioters but he had stood his ground.
Another badly affected place is the Belua
Chungi. This is a small market-place where
several shops belonging to Muslims have been
looted and burnt. One shop-cum-home of a
prosperous Hindu, Chaurasiya, was also attacked
and has suffered some damage.
There are many things about Padrauna that bring
post-Godhra Gujerat to mind: the complete
destruction of the prosperity and livelihood of
the Muslim community; the appalling nature of
the propaganda methods used to spread hatred and
incite violence and the complicity of the
administration in the devastation of the minority
community. It is this last which is the most
dangerous aspect. UP is not a BJP-ruled state.
Its ruling party projects itself as a secular
force and it is accused by its detractors of
following a policy of appeasement of Muslims.
And yet it appoints district magistrates to
ultra-sensitive districts like Mau and Padrauna
who are completely incompetent so that the writ
of its MLAs can rule the roost. And yet its
administration is an impotent witness to arson
and loot directed against the minority community.
And, for a month, people who have lost their
homes, their cooking vessels, their foodstuffs
and their clothes are left to fend for themselves
in the cold and rain without any assistance from
the administration.
On the 22nd, in Gorakhpur, we visited the homes
and families of Rajkumar Agrahari and Rashid.
Their inconsolable grief was indistinguishable.
Rajkumar's mother said - Whether Muslim or Hindu,
the death of a young son is unbearable for his
mother.
After meeting the bereaved families, we met the
IG (Zone), Jagmohan Yadav and gave him a
memorandum in which we demanded the arrest of
those accused of leading and inciting the rioters
in Padrauna many of whom are still at large;
restoration of status quo as far as occupancy of
affected homes and shops was concerned;
immediate relief to the homeless and payment of
compensation to all those who had suffered
losses; and strict action against those found to
be indulging in provocative acts. In this
context we mentioned that Yogi had visited
Padrauna on the 20th and had made a speech in
which not only did he abuse those officers who
were strictly enforcing the law and coming down
harshly against those responsible for the
violence, but had gone to the extent of saying
that the task in Padrauna had only been partly
accomplished and it was now necessary to see that
it was completed.
The IG gave instructions regarding several issues
that we raised immediately and assured us that
the administration would do everything possible
to maintain law and order. Holi would pass off
peacefully, he said with confidence.
The situation in eastern UP should be one of
great concern for all those who are committed to
secularism and communal harmony. It is most
unfortunate that secular parties in government
and in the opposition in the State have
completely failed to intervene in any way at all
to combat all that the Yogi and his ilk
represent. It is only the CPI(M) and a few
courageous individuals who are doing their bit in
this regard. Party units in Kasya (Kushinagar)
and Deoria took out processions condemning the
Yogi's actions and urging the people to maintain
peace and brotherhood. The AIDWA unit in
Lakhsmipur village in Gorakhpur District took the
lead in insisting that the Taziya procession be
taken out and, in fact, participated in it along
with their family members.
While administrative action is crucial in
maintaining peace, ultimately the Yogi's evil
designs can only be foiled by a consistent
political campaign and united struggles around
the real demands of the people. The Kushinagar
CPI(M) district committee has taken a decision to
hold an Anti-Communalism Convention in Kasya on
the 18th March. This will be a small beginning
of a long and hard struggle.
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
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
necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers.
More information about the SACW
mailing list