SACW | March 23, 2007 | Arbitrary rule in Pakistan / Troubled transition in Nepal / india: Justice in Gujarat / Land for Special Economic Zones / Toxic nightmare in Jadugoda / Secularism and freedom from religion

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire  | March 23, 2007 | Dispatch No. 2381 - Year 9

[1]  Pakistan: The cost of arbitrary rule (I. A. Rehman)
[2]  Nepal:
     - No More Corpse Politics, Maoists Stay Calm (United we blog)
     - Gaur Killing: Sign of Civil War in Nepal? (United we blog)
     - The Beginnings of a New Democratic Nepal?  (John Mage, Bernard D'Mello)
[3]  India - Gujarat:
     - Unfinished justice (Harsh Mander)
     - Gujarat balm before battle for UP
[4]  India's Bantustans: Special Economic Zones 
and Land Acquisition  (Citizens Research 
Collective)
[5]  India: Toxic Fallout: Jadugoda's Nuclear Nightmare
[6]  Pakistan, Israel and multiculturalism . . . (Amulya Ganguli)
[7]  UK & elsewhere: Engaging with religious 
liberals will not help to undermine extremists 
(Terry Sanderson)

____


[1]


Dawn
March 22, 2007

THE COST OF ARBITRARY RULE

by I. A. Rehman

THE whole nation has been in the throes of 
turmoil for many days and the controllers of its 
affairs are in visible disarray. They are again 
trying to suppress the symptoms of discontent 
instead of addressing its causes, although it is 
now quite clear that all of Pakistan's problems 
stem from arbitrary and secret governance.

A light-weight outfit has thrown the Pakistan 
cricket team out of the World Cup competition and 
a greater part of the population is howling in 
wild rage. Although the setback is not something 
unknown to the votaries of the game of glorious 
uncertainties, the players are being targeted for 
having failed the people's expectations. Little 
attention is being paid to the fact that the 
Pakistan cricket has been in a state of decline 
for quite some time, and that the responsibility 
for the rot lies less with the players than with 
the organisers.

The bitter truth is that the Cricket Board has 
been afflicted with the same malady - arbitrary 
and secretive management - that has been eating 
into the vitals of the Pakistan state.

The process of replacement of professional 
task-masters with overbearing bureaucrats at 
sports bodies (the destruction of Pakistan 
hockey, for instance, is no small cause of public 
grief) has been going on for quite some time. All 
sport has also been commercialised. Monetary 
reward is considered the sole motivation for 
striving for happy results, though not always for 
playing the game as it ought to be played. One 
looks in vain for the pack-leaders of yesteryears 
who were weak in financial resources and strong 
in commitment to the spirit of sport. Above all, 
decisions, even critical ones, are taken secretly 
and arbitrarily.

The present phase of Pakistan cricket's decline 
began with the Oval affair when it was found to 
have fallen into the hands of people whose 
knowledge of the game and capacity for crisis 
management both were suspect. Although many faces 
in the cast could be recognised only one 
character was axed in accordance with the 
arbitrary style lately developed in Pakistan. 
While both the set-up and the system needed to be 
shaken up, only a couple of scapegoats were 
targeted.

The public has little idea how the Cricket Board 
functions, what criteria is followed for the 
selection of its all-powerful boss, what the 
facts of doping and betting scandals are, and 
what arrangements are in place to ensure 
financial probity. The public will be satisfied 
if it is assured of collective and transparent 
decision-making mechanisms. Institutionalised 
bungling in sports bodies will cause Pakistan 
much greater harm than defeat in a game or two.

Around the same time that Pakistan cricketers 
were paying for their barons' follies, another 
form of institutionalised encroachment on 
people's rights was causing grave anxiety to the 
organisers of a regional conference of South 
Asians for Human Rights in Lahore because the 
intelligence agencies were dead-set against 
allowing Pakistan visa to Indian invitees. The 
delegates from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Maldives, 
Nepal and Sri Lanka had not faced much difficulty 
in securing visas, but no progress on Indian 
delegates' applications was possible. Then the 
authorities relented to the extent that visas 
were granted to a few Indian delegates, such as 
former prime minister I.K. Gujral, former MP 
Kuldip Nayar and Justice (R) Rajinder Sachar.

An overall toughening of attitude towards the 
Indian visa-seekers was visible. The South Asia 
Free Media Association, an NGO that had almost 
always managed to get Indian visitors over to 
Pakistan, was forced to cancel its Punjab - 
Punjab gathering because visas to its guests from 
India had been refused. This was happening while 
the foreign secretaries of Pakistan and India 
were smiling broadly into TV cameras in Islamabad 
and relaxation of the visa regime between the two 
countries was being announced.

This silly business of visa restrictions has been 
going on for so long and has caused such great 
hardship to countless citizens that one may be 
allowed some public time (and space in these 
columns) to discuss it.

There is no denying the principle that a visa 
cannot be claimed as of right, and that states 
are entitled to restrict the grant of visas for a 
variety of reasons. Some of the South Asian 
states, unfortunately, impose greater 
restrictions in this regard on people from within 
the region than on others. India and Pakistan in 
particular have raised visa-barriers to each 
other's nationals to absurd limits.

The most undesirable people in their eyes are 
neither warmongers nor communalist nor sectarian 
hate-preachers but journalists and human rights 
activists especially if they dare to hold joint 
meetings for promoting ideas of regional 
cooperation, peace and collaboration against 
neo-imperialists. The grant of visas to people in 
these categories is usually subject to clearance 
by the intelligence agencies.

Yet, hitherto it was possible for organisations 
and individuals against whom nothing was on 
record to get clearance from the government; that 
is, from a prime minister, minister or even from 
secretary in a ministry, over the head of the 
security apparatus. Now this window on reason is 
said to have been closed. The federal ministers 
in Pakistan protested in the instant case that 
they were under orders to respect the 
intelligence agencies' veto power in matters 
relating to visas.

Finally, one-third of the invitees were 
sanctioned visas, though many could not avail 
themselves of these because of the long delay. 
There were then reports of intelligence personnel 
making indiscreet inquiries from foreign guests 
and warning some of them against opening their 
mouths.

Now, the government of Pakistan will not be 
blamed for consulting its intelligence outfit, 
but it is necessary to lay down a decent, 
rational policy. The task of intelligence 
agencies is, or should be, to make report to the 
government. They are not supposed to take final 
decisions on grant of visas, or in any other area 
for that matter, because that will mean making 
the country into a police state to a greater 
extent than is commonly believed. Secondly, no 
criterion for selecting 30 or so visa applicants 
out of 110 is visible. The exercise appears to be 
totally arbitrary, and hence unacceptable.

It is time the dangers of allowing the 
intelligence agencies unbridled powers were 
realised. A single intelligence department should 
have the authority to report on citizens, the 
rules of the game should be made public and the 
people should be informed of their 'record' so 
that actions against them could be challenged.

* * * * *
The cricket debate will be forgotten after some 
time. The disgruntled civil society organisations 
cannot offer any immediate threat to an 
establishment that has learnt to destroy 
political parties and frighten the media into 
acquiescence. But the state is unlikely to emerge 
unscathed from the crisis a reckless assault on 
the judiciary has created. In this case too the 
establishment is ignoring the cause of protest 
and is using brute force to crush public reaction 
to its actions taken arbitrarily and in secrecy.

At this moment it is neither necessary nor 
desirable to go into the chargesheet against the 
Chief Justice, who was first made 
'non-functional' and is now said to be on 'forced 
leave', as the Supreme Judicial Council has 
prohibited such discussion. But the change in 
Justice Chaudhry's status is not sub-judice. What 
the law ministry's crude manipulation means is 
that an openly unconstitutional act is sought to 
be justified as a step allowed by a law that 
empowers the government to send judges on forced 
leave. It has been argued that the relevant 
measure is not in force, but even if it is 
enforceable, its invocation can be struck down on 
the ground of arbitrariness.

The administration is obviously following the 
stock formula to quell public unrest. It pretends 
that a junior functionary could have sent 
policemen in uniform to destroy a media centre or 
ordered the raining of teargas shells into the 
Lahore High Court compound or the beating up of 
lawyers and journalists. Regrets are expressed, 
compensation is promised and subordinate-level 
inquires are ordered. All this is for effect. The 
purpose of resort to wanton violence has been met 
- the critics and protesters both have been 
terrified into submission, at least they have 
recognised the virtue of moderation.

Even otherwise all conscious sections of society 
have become apprehensive of developments over the 
next few weeks. Whatever the decision on the 
reference, one organ of the state or another will 
have been mortally wounded. The consequences are 
bound to be grave.

It requires no great foresight to realise that 
the present crisis is the product of arbitrary 
and secret governance and if the jolt now 
received by the state can pave the way for return 
to transparent governance and rule by consensus, 
there may be reason to sustain hope.

______


[2]

United we blog for a Democratic Nepal
March 22, 2007

NO MORE CORPSE POLITICS, MAOISTS STAY CALM

Kathmandu will see tomorrow 28 corpses from Gaur 
killing lined up in Tundikhel (Open Air Theater), 
courtesy the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). 
They were killed by the armed cadres of Madhesi 
Janadhikar Forum (MJF or MPRF) yesterday. We can 
understand the Maoist situation. They have lost 
their cadres and they were all brutally murdered. 
Maoists have the right to pay respect to their 
fallen comrades whom they have declared 
'martyrs'. But CPN Maoist must not do the 
politics of corpse. We don't need lash ko rajniti.

CPN UML, the second largest party in the ruling 
alliance, did the lash ko rajniti when Madan 
Bhandari, the then General Secretary of the 
party, was killed in a road accident. Continuous 
protest programs organized by the UML at that 
time only contributed in defaming the democratic 
system. No one gained, and the sufferer was 
democracy. It has become an undeniable fact that 
Maoists are using all sorts of measures to 
intimidate all branches of society. The best way 
Maoists can effectively counter any such attacks 
in future is by gaining confidence of the people. 
They must stop bullying.

Maoist cadres are announcing on loud speakers in 
the city that third phase of Janaandolan will be 
started from tomorrow. What do they mean? They 
have the right to organize peaceful protests but 
this is not the right time for them to exert 
unnecessary pressure on the government. Maoists 
have demanded that the MPRF be outlawed. It's 
true that Maoists are the ones who can help 
government control the menace called MPRF but 
that should happen without declaring the outfit 
outlawed. We don't want another fighting in 
whatever pretext.

The statement issued by Chairman Prachanda of 
Maoist Party has words like exercising restrain 
but in today's public meeting organized in 
Kathmandu's Durbar Square, the Maoist cadres 
continuously talked about taking revenge. One of 
the slogans that cadres chanted after the meeting 
was over was this: Hatya ko badala linchhau, 
linchhau (We will take the revenge of murder). We 
know not all cadres are under Prachanda's control 
but the party Headquarter must try to show that 
it's doing the best to put the cadres under its 
tight leadership.

o o o

United we blog for a Democratic Nepal
March 21, 2007

GAUR KILLING: SIGN OF CIVIL WAR IN NEPAL?


     Provoking the Maoists in such a horrendous 
manner in Gaur is definitely a part of the 
royalist strategy to derail the peace process. 
This is very much crucial: Maoists must maintain 
restrain and cooperate with the authorities to 
bring the situation in control. Maoist leader Dev 
Gurung told us that his party would go for 
retaliation and revenge. That must not happen.

Activists of the Young Communist League (YCL), 
youth wing of the CPN Maoist, who were injured in 
the clash with MPRF activists in Gaur, Rhautahat, 
undergoing treatment at the Medical College in 
Bharatpur, Chitwan. Pics by Binod Tripathi 
(another pic inside)

At least 25 people have been killed in a clash 
between CPN Maoist and Madhesi Peoples Rights 
Forum (MPRF) cadres today in Gaur, headquarter of 
Rhautahat district. This is the single largest 
case of killing since Maoists announced cease 
fire last year. This is disturbing and alarming 
because Maoists were not armed and they came 
under attack from the suspicious group named MPRF 
or Madhesi Janadhikar Forum. Plus, this was not a 
fight between government security forces and 
agitating group but was between two different 
non-government groups. This makes us ask this 
chilling question: has the civil war started in 
Nepal? (Whatever happened during the decade-long 
Maoist insurgency that saw the deaths of more 
than 14 thousand people wasn't civil war for 
sure.)

It's an open secret that regressive forces who 
want to see the king or monarchy in power 
desperately want to derail the ongoing peace 
process between the government of Seven Party 
Alliance and the Maoists. The success of the 
peace process means the happening of the election 
of Constituent Assembly that will decide the fate 
of monarchy (read it as abolishing) by a simple 
majority. It is widely believed in the democratic 
circle that MJF was created by regressive force 
to bring about instability in Terai region so 
that the election plans could be derailed. The 
sole intention of MJF seems to fulfill that aim. 
Provoking Maoists in such a horrendous manner in 
Gaur is definitely a part of that strategy. This 
is very much crucial: Maoists must maintain 
restrain and cooperate with the authorities to 
bring the situation in control. Maoist leader Dev 
Gurung told us that his party would go for 
retaliation and revenge. That must not happen. 
Maoists must not give the regressive force a 
chance to do further damage to the fragile peace 
process. If Maoists react violently and escalate 
the tension, that will help no one but the 
royalist regressive forces.

The MPRF rally before the clash. MPRF cadres were 
armed with lathis. Pic by Shiva Puri

We didn't think from the beginning that the 
transition to complete democracy and 
republicanism would be completely peaceful. It 
will be painful but the pain has come in such a 
devastating manner. If this killing spreads and 
turns into the ethnic clash, we might see 
genocide in Nepal. A senior journalist who 
recently visited Nepalgunj told us that the 
western town was on the verge of plunging into a 
full fledged ethnic fighting. The situation is 
fluid and all forces, especially the Maoists, 
must show restrain and behave responsibly. We 
understand their pain and we express sorrow over 
the brutal killings of their cadres in Gaur but 
for the shake of lasting peace they must show 
restrain and behave responsibly.

o o o

Economic and Political Weekly
March 17, 2007

THE BEGINNINGS OF A NEW DEMOCRATIC NEPAL?

Significant developments in the last year have 
changed Nepal's political landscape. But a trek 
through the district of Rolpa in the Magarat 
region reveals the more profound shifts that are 
underway: a transformation, only a few years old, 
but one that is led by and for the people, 
promising thereby, to fundamentally alter the 
quality of their lives and by implication, the 
polity and society too.

by John Mage, Bernard D'Mello

http://www.epw.org.in/showArticles.php?root=2007&leaf=03&filename=11184&filetype=pdf


______


[3]


The Times of India
22 March 2007

UNFINISHED JUSTICE
by Harsh Mander

Five years after the events of 2002, a great deal 
desperately remains to be done for the people of 
Gujarat who suffered some of the most brutal 
communal violence - especially targeting women 
and children - since Independence.

Since law and order is a state subject, the 
central government pleads its inability to 
intervene to secure justice for the survivors of 
the 2002 carnage, citing constitutional propriety 
in a federal structure.

But Article 355 of the Constitution authorises, 
indeed requires, it to intervene in situations of 
grave internal strife.

There is perhaps no instance since Independence 
of such open and sustained denial to a segment of 
citizens - of elementary rights of security, 
livelihood, shelter and legal justice - only on 
the grounds of its adherence to a minority faith.

This is an eminently appropriate reason for the 
Centre to step in with binding directions to the 
state govern-ment.

Its failure to do so amounts to its abdication of 
its duties to defend the secular democratic 
ideals of the Constitution.

The state government has not restored even a 
sense of security and equal citizenship to the 
affected persons, which is evidenced by the fact 
that almost five years after the mass communal 
violence, several thousand people have still not 
returned to their original homes and are losing 
hope of doing so in the future.

Many have moved out of the state, others have 
bought or rented homes in the burgeoning Muslim 
ghettos that offer sectarian security, and around 
30,000 who have not returned to their homes are 
living in 81 makeshift relief colonies that the 
state government refuses to acknowledge, let 
alone equip with basic human facilities.

Socio-economic boycott is a reality in majority 
of the villages that were affected by the 
violence in 2002, though it is not always obvious 
at first glance.

The state government has given meagre 
compensation, and has no rehabilitation package 
in place to aid the affected rebuild their homes 
and livelihoods.

Witnesses remain under great pressure to not give 
evidence against those who attacked them and 
destroyed their homes; often it is a precondition 
for returning to their homes.

With the police, courts and prosecution being 
openly biased, criminal cases against the accused 
are sinking like stones in a turgid pool.

The central government recently announced a 
compensation package based on the most 
progressive features of the one given to the 
survivors of the 1984 riots.

While this is a welcome move, the home minister 
followed it up with a retraction, and confusion 
conti-nues to prevail about the status of this 
announcement.

The central government appears characteristically 
defensive in putting its lot with people who have 
had to live amidst hate and fear with tacit or 
open state support.

Similarly, the anti-democratic law, POTA, has 
been repealed, but without retrospective effect. 
The result is that the state government is free 
to misuse this draconian Act to victimise and 
incarcerate members of the minority community for 
many years, with very little evidence.

To counter the unprecedented subversion of the 
criminal justice system, the central government 
should empower the National Human Rights 
Commission to re-examine all cases of closure, 
acquittal and bail, and if it finds prima facie 
miscarriage of justice at the stages of 
complaint, investigation, prosecution and trial, 
it should be empowered to order and supervise a 
retrial.

The central government must also establish norms 
to ensure prosecution of all civil and police 
officers, and political leaders, who failed in 
their responsibility to prevent and control 
violence, protect victims, and extend relief and 
rehabilitation.

There were a few police officers who performed 
their duties with exemplary fairness and courage 
during the carnage. They were subsequently 
penalised by the state government with punishment 
postings.

A special task force should be set up to monitor 
and take appropriate action against all 
individuals and organisations that preach or 
provoke hatred amongst people on the grounds of 
faith.

It should take cognizance of the systematic 
manufacture of hatred against minorities through 
textbooks and ensure their immediate replacement 
with a liberal curriculum, which actively 
promotes secularism, equity, respect for all 
faiths, and democracy. India cannot afford the 
shame, agony and betrayal of another Gujarat.

The writer works for Aman Biradari.

o o o


The Telegraph
March 23, 2007

GUJARAT BALM BEFORE BATTLE FOR UP
Our Special Correspondent

[PHOTO Caption] A Bajrang Dal activist during the Gujarat riots

New Delhi, March 22: Ahead of the Uttar Pradesh 
elections, the Centre has announced a 
rehabilitation package for the victims of the 
2002 Gujarat riots on the lines of that drawn up 
for the 1984 anti-Sikh massacre.

The Centre came up with the package in the wake 
of complaints about the state government's 
failure to provide adequate relief.

According to the plan cleared by the Union 
cabinet tonight, immediate relatives of those 
killed in the riots will get an ex-gratia of Rs 
3.5 lakh, in addition to the money already paid 
by the state government. The official death toll 
in the riots was 1,169.

Each of the 2,548 injured will get Rs 1.25 lakh, 
including what the state has paid.

The entire package will cost Rs 106.57 crore, 
parliamentary affairs minister Priya Ranjan Das 
Munshi said. It also includes Rs 30.10 crore paid 
by the state government for damage to residential 
property and Rs 17.18 crore for uninsured 
commercial or industrial premises.

Other than the compensation, the rehabilitation 
package promises that children of those who died 
in the riots will be given preference for jobs in 
the paramilitary forces, Indian Reserve 
Battalions, state police forces, public sector 
undertakings and central government departments.

The Centre is also planning to launch a special 
recruitment drive for the riot-affected families, 
to ensure that those who lost their jobs get 
re-employment. Pension will be given to those who 
were forced to give up their jobs because of the 
riots but have since crossed the retirement age, 
the government said.

Although the package was in sight for some time 
now, the government has timed its announcement a 
month ahead of the crucial Assembly elections in 
Uttar Pradesh where the Congress is trying hard 
to woo back the Muslim voters. Elections in 
Gujarat are also due this year, in November.

The party has already come under attack from the 
BJP, which accuses it of practising the politics 
of minority appeasement.

The package is based on the recommendation of the 
Union home ministry, which had consulted the 
National Minorities Commission. A team of the 
commission had visited the state recently.

In another decision, the cabinet put its stamp of 
approval on providing security support to the 
organisers of the World Cup in the West Indies. 
India has sent three Intelligence Bureau 
officials, two bomb disposal squads from the 
National Security Guard and officials from Delhi 
police.

The security apparatus would cost the government Rs 2.58 crore.


______


[4]

[ An Information booklet (in English and Hindi) 
on SEZs prepared for the National Kisan Rally on 
March 23, 2007 in New Delhi ]

SEZ'S AND LAND ACQUISITION:
Factsheet for an unconstitutional economic policy  

by Citizens Research Collective

SEZ AUR BHOOMI ADHIGRAHAN (HINDI VERSION)

by Citizens Research Collective

______


[5] 


siliconeer.com
March 21, 2007

TOXIC FALLOUT: JADUGODA'S NUCLEAR NIGHTMARE

The folks who are cheering over the Indo-U.S. 
accord on civil nuclear cooperation live a world 
away from Jadugoda, the Jharkhand village where 
India's uranium mine is situated. It is these 
hapless villagers who continue paying a terrible 
price in terms of toxic health hazards after 
being made the sacrificial lambs of a government 
policy where jingoistic hubris trumps compassion 
or accountability, writes Sunita Dubey.


(Left): Ironically, the name Jadugoda literally 
means "magic land." Located in the Potka and 
Mosabani block of east Singhbhum district of 
Jharkhand, Jadugoda is 25 km from Jamshedpur. 
Home to the Santhali and Hotribes of Jharkhand, 
it also has a uranium mining facility that has 
had a catastrophic effect on the health of its 
residents.
(Below, left): A child's face says tells the 
horrific story of Jadugoda better than any bitter 
protest. Children have paid a heavy price for the 
toxic hazards posed by the callous and sloppy 
practices of a government-owned uranium mine.

"Whatever befalls the earth befalls the child of 
the earth. People did not weave the web of life; 
they are merely strands in it. Whatever they do 
to the web, they do to themselves".
- A native American on uranium mining

The Indo-U.S. nuclear deal may be considered 
groundbreaking and historic by many in India and 
the United States, but this euphoria must not 
shroud the misery of thousands of people 
suffering the effects of uranium mining in India 
due to poor technical and management practices in 
existing mines.
While major newspapers and television stations in 
India celebrated a major political victory by 
India as it covered the announcement of the 
Indo-U.S. deal, contrast this with an incident 
which happened Dec. 24.

Thousands of liters of radioactive waste spilled 
in a creek because of a pipe burst at a Uranium 
Corporation of India Limited facility at 
Jadugoda, India. It neither made newspaper 
headlines nor did UCIL come to know of the 
disastrous leak till alerted by the local 
villagers. Such are the realities of nuclear 
facilities in India.

Callousness of UCIL. The Dec. 24 accident is the 
latest example of UCIL's callousness, which 
occurred in a small village inhabited largely by 
displaced families whose lands were acquired to 
construct two of the three storage dams, also 
known as tailings ponds. Based on the experience 
of similar accidents in other countries, the 
negative effects on human and environmental 
health will impact not just Jadugoda, but several 
communities living downstream, perhaps even 
hundreds of kilometers away.

UCIL had no alarm mechanism to alert the company 
in cases of such a disaster. Instead, the 
villagers who had arrived at the scene of the 
accident soon after the pipe burst informed the 
company of the toxic spill.

The toxic sludge spewed into a creek for nine 
hours before the flow of the radioactive waste 
was shut off. Consequently, a thick layer of 
toxic sludge on the surface of the creek killed 
scores of fish, frogs, and other riparian life. 
The waste from the leak also reached a creek that 
feeds into the Subarnarekha river, seriously 
contaminating the water resources of the 
communities living hundreds of kilometers along 
the way. This is not the first such accident. In 
1986, a tailing dam had burst open and 
radioactive water flowed directly into the 
villages.

A similar disaster in 1979 in the United States 
at Church Rock, N.M., had also left many people 
and their environment scarred for years 
altogether. More than eighteen months after the 
accident, there were strong indications that the 
radiation and other pollutants had penetrated 30 
feet into the earth. A report by a 
Cincinnati-based firm brought in as a consultant 
by the EPA warned that at least two nearby 
aquifers had been put "at risk. "

According to Don Hancock of the Southwest 
Research and Information Center in New Mexico, 
though remediation/ clean-up in Jadugoda will 
depend upon local conditions, it is essential to 
monitor the situation very carefully. Some of the 
immediate steps which need to be taken include 
immediate sludge removal from the river bed, as 
river beds are usually very permeable. The 
communities downstream should also be warned to 
not use the water till it has been established to 
be safe. It can take several months for the water 
to become safe again.

India's Navajo Nation. Since 1967, when UCIL 
first started uranium mining in Jadugoda, the 
lives of people have been inflicted with unknown 
diseases, deaths and poisoned environment. The 
foundation of these mines has been laid on lies 
and misinformation by UCIL about the impact of 
uranium mining, radiation and toxicity in 
Jadugoda. Till the '90s the tailing ponds (where 
uranium mine liquid waste is stored to evaporate) 
was in close vicinity of areas in the villages 
used as children's playground, open grazing area 
and other public use. The radiation levels and 
related sickness were never revealed by UCIL, 
even though for years the local population has 
suffered from the extensive environmental 
degradation caused by the mining operations which 
are also responsible for the high frequency of 
radiation-related sicknesses and developmental 
disorders found in the area. Even though India's 
Atomic Energy Act states that there should be no 
habitation within five kilometers of a waste site 
or uranium-tailing pond and even though Jadugoda 
has been in operation for more than 30 years, 
seven villages stand within one and a half 
kilometers of the danger zone. One of them, 
Dungardihi, begins just 40 meters away.

Questioning Legitimacy. It was only in 1996 when 
a group of people working in the mines and living 
in close vicinity started questioning the 
legitimacy UCIL's free rein to pollute the 
environment and lives of indigenous people. This 
led to the formation of a local anti-uranium 
mining group called Jharkhandis Organization 
Against Radiation whose mission is to resist 
further nuclear development, and to educate the 
local Adivasis about the dangers of 
radioactivity. JOAR is also a winner of the 2004 
Nuclear-Free Future Resistance Award. Even after 
the documentation of severe damage caused by 
uranium mining in Jadugoda in a documentary 
titled "Buddha Weeps In Jadugoda" by Shri 
Prakash, UCIL still admits to no wrongdoing, 
claiming that none of the prevalent congenital 
diseases in the area are due to the radiation 
from their uranium mines and milling operations.

India's Nuclear History. Until World War II, 
uranium was regarded as little more than a 
substance used to color ceramics and glass, a 
byproduct of radium production. However, since 
the discovery of nuclear fission in 1938, the 
international nuclear industry has produced more 
than 1.7 million metric tons of uranium in about 
30 countries. The IAEA estimates that about 
360,000 metric tons of natural uranium or about 
20 percent of the world's production has been 
used for military purposes.

India was the first Asian country to develop a 
nuclear program and the Atomic Energy Commission 
was set up in 1948, just one year after 
independence, followed by the Department of 
Atomic Energy in August 1954. The Indian nuclear 
program got a boost with U.S. and Canadian 
support in 1969, which was for research purposes, 
but with the same technology, India exploded its 
first plutonium bomb in 1974. This shows that 
even though the façade behind the nuclear program 
might be for power generation or research, at any 
given time the program can be turned into nuclear 
weapons.

India's Nuclear Ambitions. India plans to put up 
a total installed nuclear power capacity of 
20,000 MWe by the year 2020. India has 14 
reactors in operation and has an installed 
nuclear capacity of 2720 MWe. At present eight 
reactors are under construction and, when 
completed, will add 3960 MWe to the nuclear 
installed capacity. With such ambitious plans and 
thrust on nuclear power as a future source of 
sustainable "green" energy and fresh impetus from 
the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal, many more uranium 
mines and nuclear plants are on the horizon. UCIL 
is engaged in mining and milling of uranium ore 
at Jadugoda, Bhatin and Narwapahar at Singhbhum 
district of Jharkand. Techno-commercially viable 
deposits are reported to have been found at 
Turamdih, Bagjata and Banduhuran in Jharkhand, 
Lambapur and Peddagattu in Andhra Pradesh and 
Domiasiat in Meghalaya.

Struggle Continues. Though some clean-up effort 
has been taken up by UCIL, the there are no 
alternatives for villagers to escape this 
radioactive fallout. Most of these poor villagers 
are already displaced from their lands more than 
once. They do not have any access to safe 
drinking water, and the creek, which got poisoned 
after the spill, was their only source of water. 
Even in these circumstances, not much is expected 
from UCIL to help this poor community. The 
perseverance and struggle of the Jadugoda 
community has led to international recognition of 
their problems. They have connected with other 
indigenous communities from all over the world, 
suffering the similar fallout of uranium mining. 
In December 2006 indigenous peoples from around 
the world who are victims of uranium mining, 
nuclear testing, and nuclear dumping came 
together at the Navajo Nation for the Indigenous 
World Uranium Summit, which called for a global 
ban on uranium mining on native lands. 
Representatives from Jadugoda gave testimony 
about the alarming number of babies who are 
stillborn or are born with serious birth defects, 
and of the high rates of cancer that are claiming 
the lives of many who live near the uranium mines.

The people of Jadugoda are not alone in this 
fight, even though the Indian government or UCIL 
may choose to ignore their plight. The recent 
spill and its mishandling by UCIL has drawn flak 
from the global community, and 400 individuals 
have signed petitions circulated by two 
U.S.-based groups, the Association for India's 
Development and FOSA.

More information on Jadugoda is available at www.jadugoda.net

Courtesy: Siliconeer Magazine.

______


[6]

The Tribune
March 21, 2007

JINNAH REVISITED
Pakistan, Israel and multiculturalism
by Amulya Ganguli

Six decades after two countries - Pakistan and 
Israel - were formed on religious grounds, second 
thoughts seem to be prevailing in at least one of 
them while the other is trying to swim against 
the tide of history. The resurfacing of the 
debate in Pakistan on the unambiguously secular 
content of Mohammed Ali Jinnah's speech on August 
11, 1947, is a sign that past prejudices are 
wearing thin. The move to include the speech in 
the Pakistan constitution marks, therefore, a 
dramatic new initiative with portentous 
consequences not only for the subcontinent but 
also for the very concept of religion-based 
states.

True, it is a Parsi member of the Pakistan 
National Assembly, M.P.Bhandara, who wants the 
speech to be a part of the constitution, but the 
fact that it has been referred to a standing 
committee and not rejected out of hand is a 
hopeful sign. It is not insignificant that the 
initiative has come in the wake of a decision to 
play down the two-nation theory in Pakistani 
textbooks. Instead, it is now being claimed that 
it isn't the pursuit of this theory which led to 
Partition, but the economic and religious 
insecurity of the Muslim minority in undivided 
India.

Even if the two-nation theory had been 
practically buried by the creation of Bangladesh, 
the move for its rejection in Pakistan is an 
episode of immense significance for 
inter-communal relations in the subcontinent. 
What is more, this decision has been taken 
together with the government's announcement that 
the minorities in Pakistan will enjoy the same 
rights as the majority, which is tantamount to 
cutting the ground from under the feet of an 
Islamic state. Not surprisingly, Gen Pervez 
Musharraf mentioned Jinnah while making these 
announcements. As is known, the Pakistan 
President has been in favour - at least in public 
- of a policy of "enlightened moderation", which 
is aimed at reducing the influence of the bigots 
and fanatics, for whom the Taliban and Al-Qaeda 
are an inspiration.

Predictably, these moves have aroused the ire of 
the fundamentalists. The chief of the Jamiat 
Ulema-e-Islami, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who is 
also the leader of the opposition in the National 
Assembly, has argued that "we cannot accept him 
(Jinnah) as one of the mujahidin-e-azadi (freedom 
fighters)" while the newspaper, Qaumi Azad, has 
quoted the Jamiat as saying that "Jinnah did not 
really do anything extraordinary for Pakistan". 
Another ultra-conservative leader, Liaquat Baloch 
of the Muttahida-Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), has said 
that "Pakistan is an Islamic state Š we can't go 
against the ideology Š any bill that negates 
Pakistan's ideology will not be supported by the 
MMA". The MMA has also opposed the inclusion of a 
chapter on Hinduism in textbooks.

These objections are understandable because 
successive military and political leaders have 
cynically fostered the belief in a distinctive 
concept of nationhood as a buffer against Indian 
influence with its grounding in secularism. But 
the fact that the concept is now being challenged 
with reference to a speech which the Pakistani 
historian, Ayesha Jalal, compared with the Magna 
Carta shows that something unusual is happening 
in Pakistan. It doesn't take much perspicacity to 
see that the very recitation of Jinnah's speech - 
"you are free to go to your temples, you are free 
to go to your mosques - you may belong to any 
religion or caste or creed - that has nothing to 
do with the business of the state" will be a 
devastating blow to the fundamentalists. No 
wonder that another Pakistani historian, Akbar S. 
Ahmed, compared the speech with Abraham Lincoln's 
Gettysburg Address.

There is little doubt that this slow and still 
uncertain drift towards moderation has come in 
the wake of the seeming consolidation of the 
Taliban and Al-Qaeda in the north-west and their 
continuing influence on sections of Pakistan's 
polity, including the military, the intelligence 
services, the clerics and politicians. While 
Islamabad may have once encouraged these bigots 
to take their battles to Kashmir and is probably 
still does so, the less ideological among the 
Pakistani authorities may be gradually realising 
(with some prodding from the US) the deadly 
consequences of playing with fire, especially in 
the context of the recent suicide bombings in 
Pakistan. And what better way to retreat than to 
hark back to the wisdom of the founder of the 
nation?

India, of course, cannot but wish godspeed to 
these endeavours. The elimination of religion 
from the "business of the state" in Pakistan will 
be yet another confirmation of the value and 
success of the Indian multicultural model, where 
faith remains in the private domain while the 
state is strictly non-denominational. It is also 
an example which is in keeping with modern 
trends, which reject the ancient concept where 
the ruler decided his country's religion - cuius 
regio, eius religio - articulated in the Peace of 
Augsburg, 1555.

Theocratic countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia 
base their polity on this archaic concept. So do 
other Muslim countries, except Turkey. In India's 
neighbourhood, Pakistan and Bangladesh subscribe 
to this model while Nepal has thankfully ceased 
to be a Hindu kingdom. If Pakistan decides to 
break away to join the modern world where a 
country is not identified by its religion, then 
it will set a wonderful example to those still 
living in the past. Among them is Israel, which 
was also established in 1948 on a land which had 
not been its own since the biblical times.

Though undeniably a democracy unlike, say, Iran 
and Saudi Arabia, Israel is not pluralistic since 
its Jewishness is its badge of distinction. 
Although it has Arabs as citizens, they resent 
Israel's flaunting of Zionism as the core of its 
nationhood, as is seen from the emblem of the 
Star of David in the country's flag. The Arab 
view has been articulated by Shawki Khatib, head 
of a 64-member Arab mayors' group, who said 
recently that "we do not accept our situation as 
second class citizens". To quote from Los Angeles 
Times, nearly half of Israel's 1.4 million Arabs 
live below the poverty line and their rates of 
unemployment and infant mortality are twice the 
national average. It isn't surprising that former 
US President Jimmy Carter has compared the 
conditions in Israel with those which prevailed 
in South Africa under apartheid.

Israel's insistence on retaining its Jewishness 
is based, of course, on the suffering of the Jews 
in Europe for long periods, culminating in the 
Holocaust in Nazi Germany. But if the Jews were 
victims of their second class status in Europe, 
the dispersal of the Palestinians after Israel 
was established is a reflection of the fate which 
the Jews themselves experienced for centuries. It 
is to avoid a repetition of that fate that Israel 
considers itself as the homeland for all Jews, 
just as Pakistan is supposed to be the homeland 
for the Muslims of the subcontinent.

But such religious and ethnic exclusivity 
militates against modern nation-states, which 
have realised that the minorities cannot be 
wished away. Nor can they be allowed to remain as 
a suppressed group. The view of a right-wing 
Israeli minister, Avigdor Lieberman, that the 
"minorities are a problem" and his preference for 
a hermetically sealed "Jewish homogeneous state" 
are no longer widely accepted. Instead, 
multiculturalism of the Indian kind is being 
increasingly seen as the answer. Pakistan seems 
to have realised this. Israel would do well to 
emulate this example.

______


[7]

The Guardian
March 20, 2007

GOING TO EXTREMES

Engaging with religious liberals will not help to 
undermine extremists; it will only enable and 
protect them.
by Terry Sanderson

There's an argument in religious circles that 
goes: in order to undermine the fanatics we have 
to encourage the liberal elements of religion. If 
you want to stop suicide bombers, you have to 
encourage the more moderate voices in Islam to 
speak up. The same argument surfaces regularly in 
Christian circles - yes, there are 
fundamentalists out there doing horrible things, 
but you can't judge all Christians by the 
activities of the minority at the extremes, it 
goes. Why not support the good guys who are doing 
their best and being ever so nice?

It's a seductive argument and I used to subscribe 
to it myself. But I've changed my mind.

As president of the National Secular Society I am 
are constantly approached by religious groups 
wanting to engage us in their pursuit of 
"interfaith dialogue". They want, they say, to 
"break down barriers", and who doesn't?

But once involved in these groups, it soon 
becomes clear that they are all from the liberal 
tradition. One set of moderates talking to 
another. The people who really need to engage - 
the jihadis and the literalists - are off 
practising the sectarian warfare they are so fond 
of. Let's talk? No, let's abuse human rights, 
persecute infidels and preach hate.

I've come to realise that the delusions of the 
liberals are not qualitatively different from 
those entertained by the Pat Robertsons or Abu 
Hamzas of this world.

The danger that these apparently harmless 
liberals pose is that of enabling the fanatics, 
who happily use them as human shields. Just as 
the terrorists of the Middle East will hide out 
in schools and hospitals to avoid being targeted 
by enemy bombs, so the ideological terrorists 
hide behind the liberals and the good-natured in 
order to spread their doctrine of intimidation 
and terror.

The poor, bleating liberals who are constantly 
complaining that their faith is not only 
misunderstood by its non-adherents, but also 
perverted by the fanatics who share it. There 
they stand, having spent a lifetime reinforcing 
in their heads the childhood brainwashing that 
they will never overcome, and making excuses for 
the same beliefs that motivate bombers and 
theocrats, misogynists and homophobes. This 
hinders the rest of us getting a clear run at the 
villains.

The liberals pave the way, open the doors and 
give succour to the very people they say bring 
their faith into disrepute. But it's no good the 
liberals trying to dissociate themselves from 
their wilder compatriots in faith. They promote 
and praise the same holy books that the fanatics 
use as justification for their murderous 
activities. "But the terrorists and the bigots 
are not true Christians/Muslims" say the 
liberals, while the bigots and the terrorists say 
exactly the same thing about them.

Or, as Sam Harris said in a recent essay:

     "The problem is that wherever one stands on 
this continuum, one inadvertently shelters those 
who are more fanatical than oneself from 
criticism. Ordinary fundamentalist Christians, by 
maintaining that the Bible is the perfect word of 
God, inadvertently support the Dominionists, men 
and women who, by the millions, are quietly 
working to turn our country into a totalitarian 
theocracy reminiscent of John Calvin's Geneva. 
Christian moderates, by their lingering 
attachment to the unique divinity of Jesus, 
protect the faith of fundamentalists from public 
scorn. Christian liberals 'who aren't sure what 
they believe but just love the experience of 
going to church occasionally' deny the moderates 
a proper collision with scientific rationality. 
And in this way centuries have come and gone 
without an honest word being spoken about God in 
our society."

I am now accustomed to being accused of 
practising "fundamentalist secularism" and 
"atheist extremism" by religious reactionaries, 
but now the terms are being eagerly embraced by 
liberals. But a moment's thought would tell the 
liberals that democratic secularism is their best 
friend. Not only does it protect those of no 
belief from being persecuted by over-mighty and 
ruthless religious regimes, but it offers 
protection to the smaller religious groups who 
have become used to being stamped on by their 
holier-than-thou big brothers (try being a 
Christian in Saudi Arabia, for instance).

Liberals in religious traditions may not have 
evil intentions towards their fellow men, but 
they provide cover for their fellow believers who 
do.


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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.