SACW | April 18-19, 2007 | N. America: Campus group Linked to the Hindu Far Right / Pakistan: Fishermen and beaches face ruin / India: de militarise Kashmir; Communalists oppose inter-faith marriages ; Should BJP be Outlawed

Harsh Kapoor aiindex at mnet.fr
Wed Apr 18 21:43:56 CDT 2007


South Asia Citizens Wire  | April 18-19, 2007 | Dispatch No. 2390 - Year 9

[1]  Campus Organization Linked to the Hindu Far 
Right in the US and India (CSFH)
[2]  Pakistan: Net losses - traditional fishing 
communities are facing ruin (Annie Kelly)
[3]  Pakistan: Saahil Bacaho - Save Karachi's Beaches - A Citizens Petition
[4]  India's huge military presence in Kashmir 
does far more harm than good (The Economist)
[5]  India: Act of vigilantism [communalists 
oppose inter-faith marriages ] (Coomi Kapoor)
       + Muscling In (Editorial, The Telegraph)
[6]  India: Should BJP be derecognized? (Ram Puniyani)
[7]  India: In The Name of Faith (Yoginder Sikand)
[8]  India: Report on All India Secular Forum 
Convention, in Bhopal (Newsletter AISF)
[9]  Upcoming Events:
  Protest against religious extremism (Karachi, 19th  April , 2007)

____


[1]    CAMPUS ORGANIZATION LINKED TO THE HINDU FAR RIGHT IN THE US AND INDIA

The "Hindu Students Council" which operates on 
many US University campuses is the subject of a 
new report by the Campaign to Stop Funding Hate. 
The whole report is available at:
http://hsctruthout.stopfundinghate.org

from Prologue:
"The Hindu Students Council (HSC) is a North 
America based organization that publicly claims 
to provide a space to learn about Hindu heritage 
and culture and draws its membership primarily 
from the Indian American student community. HSC 
is headquartered in Houston, Texas, and is 
registered as a non-profit, tax-exempt 
organization. On its website (www.hscnet.org), 
HSC claims to have more than 75 chapters, most of 
them located on university campuses across the 
United States and Canada. The website also states 
that HSC was formed to assist Hindu students in 
their spiritual, emotional, and identity needs, 
including sorting out confusions and alienation 
arising from being brought up Hindu in a 
predominantly Judeo-Christian culture.  Many 
Indian American youth join HSC chapter on their 
campus and participate in its activities because 
of HSC's claim to be a cultural and spiritual 
organization providing an independent, apolitical 
space to learn about Hinduism through activities, 
such as celebration of Hindu festivals, 
discussion of sacred texts, religious rituals and 
community service (see 
www.hscnet.org/aboutus.php).

This report challenges the above claims of HSC 
and provides comprehensive evidence to the 
contrary. It documents the findings of an 
investigation into the history, organization, and 
political links of HSC and demonstrates that it 
is part of the Sangh Parivar (literally, the 
Sangh Family), the extended network of affiliates 
of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the 
creators of Hindutva.1 These findings sharply 
contradict the public face HSC presents in the 
U.S. as a spiritual and religious body. The 
information presented in this report locates and 
documents the origins and institutional links of 
HSC, and throws light on the concealed purpose 
behind the creation of such an organization. This 
report shows that HSC has deep-rooted connections 
- institutional, personal, and political - with 
the Sangh Parivar."

[CSFH is a collective of academics and 
professionals who work on monitoring the 
fundraising activities of the Hindutva movement 
in the U.S. See 
http://stopfundinghate.org/resources/FAQ.htm for 
more details.]


o o o

Campaign to Stop Funding Hate
17362 Boston Road, Hayward, CA 94541    hsctruthout at gmail.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Campus Hindu Organization Conclusively Linked to the Sangh Parivar
in North America and India
"Desi-American Students Deceived by the Hindu Student Council"
says New Report

For More Info call  512 786 1862 or 917 232 8437 or email:
hsctruthout at gmail.com

New York , Friday, April 13, 2007: The Campaign 
to Stop Funding Hate (CSFH) will release a new 
report, Lying Religiously: The Hindu Students 
Council and the Politics of Deception, on Sunday, 
April 15, 2007. The report brings together 
evidence from multiple sources to demonstrate a 
web of connections between the Hindu Students 
Council (HSC) and the violent, hindu ultra-right 
Sangh Parivar, and exposes the  deliberate 
efforts of the HSC leadership to conceal its 
links with the Sangh Parivar in order to deceive 
Hindu-American college students.  The report 
provides the first comprehensive documentation of 
the origins, methods and practices of the HSC.

Similar to " The Foreign Exchange of Hate," the 
2003 report documenting the flow of money from 
the United States into the coffers of the Sangh 
Parivar in India, almost all of the documentation 
used to construct the current report comes from 
the archives of the HSC itself and from the 
publications of the Sangh Parivar in North 
America and elsewhere. Starting with the origin 
of the HSC in 1991, when Ajay Shah, the first 
president of the HSC, proudly declared that the 
HSC was part of the VHP of America, the report 
documents the rise of early HSC leaders into the 
ranks of Sangh Parivar leadership in North 
America, the detailed family connections between 
a significant section of the HSC leadership and 
the Sangh Parivar, and the central role played by 
the HSC in the creation and maintenance of the 
Sangh Parivar's internet infrastructure, 
including the web infrastructure of the Sangh 
Parivar's parent organization, the RSS.

"Most of the young desi Americans who join the 
HSC have no clue as to the connections between 
the HSC and the militant and violent Hindu right 
wing in India" says Samip Mallick, one of the 
campaign coordinators for CSFH. "We fully support 
the creation and existence of Hindu student 
organizations on college campuses, but we are 
unable to condone the Hindu Student Council's 
continued misleading of college students 
regarding its ties to the Sangh Parivar," he 
continued. With the launch of the report, CSFH 
announces its six-month " Truth Out on HSCs" 
information campaign aimed at informing every 
desi American student of the two-faced methods of 
the HSC and the Sangh Parivar.
The report will be released on Sunday, April 15 
at 3:30 PM at a press conference hosted by the 
Youth Solidarity Summer at 451 West Street (@ 
Bank), New York, NY 10014.  For more information 
on the press conference write to: 
hsctruthout at gmail.com or call 917 232 8437. 
Summary and full versions of the report will be 
available at the press conference. The report 
will also be available online at 
www.stopfundinghate.org after 3 PM on Sunday 
April 15.

end-

--------

LYING RELIGIOUSLY:
THE HINDU STUDENTS COUNCIL AND THE POLITICS OF DECEPTION

A report by Campaign to stop funding hate (15 April 2007)

Table of Contents:

     * PROLOGUE

       CHAPTER 1: THE PUBLIC FAÇADE OF THE HINDU STUDENTS COUNCIL
           o 1.1 "LIBERAL" HINDUISM?
           o 1.2 SOME REASONABLE CONCLUSIONS

     * CHAPTER 2: THE HIDDEN BODY
           o 2.1 OF WELL-DEFINED LINEAGE
                 + 2.1.1 The Birth of HSC
                 + 2.1.2 Entanglements Without Escape
           o 2.2 DECEPTIVE "FREEDOM"
                 + 2.2.1 A Façade of Autonomy?
                 + 2.2.2 Crisis, Celebration and Unity
           o 2.3 HSC LEADERSHIP: A GROOMING SPACE?
                 + 2.3.1 Early Leaders, Later Patriarchs
                 + 2.3.2 All in the Family
           o 2.4 INCOMPLETE ERASURES: FLIPPING THE LOOKING GLASS
                 + 2.4.1 HSC Ten Years Later: Still Very Much a VHPA Project
                 + 2.4.2 Fundraising and Networking
                 + 2.4.3 HSC's Role in Building Sangh Electronic Infrastructure

     * CHAPTER 3: CONCLUSION - HSC AS A FULL MEMBER OF THE SANGH
           o 3.1 THE ELECTRONIC INFRASTRUCTURE
           o 3.2 THE REALIGNED INSTITUTIONS

     * APPENDIX A: KEY TO THE IP MAP
           o SECTION 1 - CATEGORIZED BY TYPE OF ORGANIZATION AND/OR AFFILIATION
           o SECTION 2 - LIST OF SELECTED SANGH 
WEBSITES ON THIS NETWORK WITH BRIEF DESCRIPTION 
OF THEIR SIGNIFICANCE
           o SECTION 3 - FULL LIST OF WEBSITES ON THE HINDUNET NETWORK

     * APPENDIX B: RASHTRIYA SWAYAMSEVAK SANGH: A PRIMER
           o ORIGINS & IDEOLOGY
           o THE SANGH AND VIOLENCE
           o THE INSTITUTIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE OF HINDUTVA

     * APPENDIX C: THE SANGH ON DHARMA, CASTE, GENDER AND SEXUALITY
           o DHARMA: ANOTHER WORD TO UNIVERSALIZE HINDUTVA
                 + Step One: Approaching a Concept That Sounds Universal
                 + Step Two: Owning the Universal
                 + Step Three: Universalizing Hindutva
           o CASTE AND THE HINDUTVA MOVEMENT
                 + The Sangh and Caste - 1925-1980
                 + Post-1980s Hindutva: A New Approach to Caste?
           o SANGH AND WOMEN
                 + Role of Women in Hindu Society
                 + HSCs and Women
                 + The Sangh's Position on Feminism
                 + The Coming of the Muslims
           o SANGH ON FAMILY AND SEXUALITY
                 + Notions of love and marriage: 
Attacks on Valentine's Day celebrations
                 + Homosexuality as an abnormality/disability
                 + Evils of Hindu society: the 
attacks on Deepa Mehta's film 'Water'

©  THE CAMPAIGN TO STOP FUNDING HATE

o o o

Download pdf version of Lying Religiously (751Kb)
http://hsctruthout.stopfundinghate.org/pdf/HSC_Report.pdf

_______


[2]

The Guardian
April 11, 2007

NET LOSSES

While Pakistan encourages foreign trawlers to 
fish in its seas, its traditional fishing 
communities are facing ruin. Now there are 
warnings that other countries are being pressured 
to follow its lead. Annie Kelly reports

There is an old proverb, beloved of fisherfolk in 
Pakistan, that says when all else fails the sea 
will provide. Now, after centuries of surviving 
on fish such as the tuna and shrimp that thrive 
in Pakistan's coastal waters, many traditional 
fishing communities are facing ruin as the sea is 
stripped bare by foreign trawler fleets and 
industrial overfishing.

According to trade campaigners, it is a story 
that is being replicated in poor fishing 
communities in developing countries across the 
world. And as the current round of World Trade 
Organisation (WTO) negotiations splutter back to 
life, the demise of Pakistan's fishing 
communities is being held up as a warning of the 
impact that the moves to further liberalise 
global fishing could have on some of the world's 
most deprived communities.

Article continues
The Pakistani Maritime Security Agency (MSA), 
which polices fishing along Pakistan's coastline, 
says there are currently 23 mid-size trawling 
boats and 21 trans-national trawlers operating 
with licences in Pakistani waters.

Local fishermen in Ibrahim Hydri, a small fishing 
town in the sparse Sindh coastal province, unload 
their fishing boats just yards from half-a-dozen 
trawlers with Chinese insignia in the town 
harbour. Many dispute the official figures, 
insisting that around 100 foreign ships have been 
spotted in local waters in the last 12 months.

"Since the government has let these foreign ships 
into our waters, our stocks have depleted and 
there is nothing left," says local fisherman 
Abbas Ali. "For hundreds of years, our 
forefathers have fished these waters, but our 
children are going to end up beggars."

He says the town's small wooden fishing boats are 
no match for the trawlers. "It's like trying to 
race a truck with a bicycle," he says. "In just a 
few years, these people have come here, destroyed 
the sea, and stolen our livelihoods from us."

In recent years, Pakistan has steadily been 
stepping up its efforts to exploit what it terms 
the "untapped potential" of its fish stock. In 
1982, the government opened its waters to 
international fishing fleets, and in 2003-04 
alone more than 90,255 tonnes of fish and fishery 
products were exported from Pakistan, to 
countries including the UK, Japan and Sri Lanka.

Pakistan's 2001 deep-sea policy set out a plan to 
further increase foreign exchange earnings from 
the increased export of fisheries and fishing 
products. The same policy relaxed regulations 
that restricted trawler activity to a zone 
35km-200km from shore after pressure from 
"friendly" trading partners, such as China and 
Taiwan. Licensed medium-sized trawlers are now 
allowed to fish 20km from shore, an area 
previously reserved exclusively to protect the 
livelihood of local fisherfolk.

Men scrubbing down their boats at Ibrahim Hydri 
say the impact trawling and overfishing has had 
on their livelihoods and on the marine 
environment has been devastating. They estimate 
that the daily catch has declined by 70%-80% in 
the last decade. Five years ago, it took Ali 36 
hours to catch 1,000kg of fish that fed and 
supported his family. Now he and seven other men 
return after 15 days at sea with a catch that 
weighs in at just under 500kg.

As he hauls his nets to shore, Ali reels off the 
names of more than a dozen fish species no longer 
found in the surrounding waters. Reports by the 
Pakistani Fisherfolk Forum (PFF), a environmental 
campaigning group set up to protect the rights of 
local fishing communities, says more than 50% of 
local marine species have been almost wiped out 
by intensive fishing of Pakistan's sovereign 
waters.

According to its research, only 10% of the fish 
caught by the trawlers' nets can be sold on the 
international markets, leading to the other 90% 
being pumped back into the sea and increasing 
marine pollution in shallow waters.

"Tonnes of fish that could have been used to 
sustain the livelihoods of local fisherman have 
been needlessly destroyed through foreign 
trawling," says Mohammad Ali Shah, chairman of 
PFF. Foreign trawlers, he says, are the "last 
straw" for fishermen who have seen their 
livelihoods destroyed in the name of progress.

Pollution from the trawlers joins 300 million 
gallons of urban sewage and 270 tonnes of 
industrial waste that is pumped into the sea from 
multiple channels every day. Dams and barrages 
built with World Bank loans along the delta of 
the Indus, Pakistan's longest river, have starved 
marine channels of fresh water, resulting in many 
inland fishing communities migrating to the 
coastal waters in search of fish. Pollution and 
over-population have contributed to the demise of 
the mangroves that provided breeding grounds for 
shrimps that previously provided the backbone for 
much of the local economy.

There is repeated criticism from environmental 
campaigners that, despite pressure from the UN's 
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Pakistan 
has yet to undertake an up-to-date fish stock 
survey. This means that licences to foreign 
trawling fleets could be issued without the 
government having a clear idea of how many fish 
are left in Pakistan's waters.

In a new report, entitled Taking the Fish, 
ActionAid, one of the international 
non-governmental organisations working with PFF, 
says the exploitation of Pakistan's marine 
environment is being done with no regard for the 
environmental or social impact on communities or 
resources. It is now calling on Pakistan's 
government to ban foreign trawlers and 
institutionalise in its fishing policy the FAO's 
code of conduct for responsible fisheries.

Moazzam Khan, deputy director of the Marine 
Fisheries Department (MFD) in Karachi, admits 
that Pakistan's fish stocks are fast depleting, 
but insists that the government has not issued 
licences to foreign trawlers since 2005, saying 
that the declining fish stock and rising fuel 
prices have made it uneconomical for foreign 
fleets to operate in Pakistan's waters. "We 
always heavily regulated the trawling activity," 
he says. "Although we are in talks about issuing 
further licences, we would not do so without 
assurances from the trawlers that they would fish 
in a sustainable manner."

Khan believes the real problem lies in the 
growing number of people entering the fishing 
industry, and says the government is planning to 
institute no-fishing zones in an attempt to help 
stocks recover.

But many fishermen dismiss the government's 
claims, saying they have never been visited by 
anyone from the MFD, and that they have seen no 
evidence of any moves to regulate fishing. "The 
government has no idea what is happening here," 
says Mohammad Ali, a fisherman living in a 
makeshift tarpaulin hut in the village of Dabla 
Mohalla Rarri, a fishing community 15km from 
Ibrahim Hydri.

"There are many trawlers operating illegally in 
our waters. They stay away when the MSA comes, 
but when it leaves they come back. They come in 
so close they are nearly colliding with our 
fishing boats."

Trade campaigners argue that even though 
three-quarters of the world's fish stocks are 
deemed to be fully exploited, countries including 
those in the EU, and the US and Japan, continue 
to subsidise their fishing industries by an 
estimated $6.3bn (£3.2bn) a year.

On top of this, the current round of WTO 
negotiations on subsidies and non-agricultural 
market access could lead to an elimination or 
significant reduction of all tariffs in the fish 
and fish products sector. Already five WTO 
members, including Brazil and India, have made 
offers to liberalise parts of their fishing 
services.

Alex Wijeratna, author of Taking the Fish, and 
trade policy campaigner at ActionAid UK, says 
that since Pakistan joined the WTO in 1995 it has 
independently pursued a significantly more 
liberalised fish trade regime.

"If what is happening to poor fishing communities 
in Pakistan is already happening through 
bilateral trading agreements outside the WTO, we 
can only imagine the global impact it would have 
if liberalisation is locked in by the WTO," 
Wijeratna says. "It's nothing short of mad 
short-termism."

In Ibrahim Hydri, there is growing anger about 
the loss of its traditional livelihood. The 
community claims it has been duped by false 
promises of financial assistance, and that no 
effort has been made to provide alternative 
livelihoods. "We are not against development, but 
what is happening here is not development - we 
are going backwards," says Shah.

· More information at actionaid.org.uk/takingthefish


_______


[3]

SAAHIL BACAHO - SAVE KARACHI'S BEACHES - PETITION
http://www.petitiononline.com/KHIBEACH/petition.html


TEXT OF SAAHIL BACHAO PETITION:

To:  City District Government - Karachi

     "The entire beach and its back waters from 
Hawksbay to Manora is to be developed as real 
estate. The Hawksbay Sandspit area as Sugar Land 
City and the Manora ridge as a 20 storey five 
star hotel. Manora is to be linked to Keamari 
with a bridge and the development is to continue 
along the coast upto the golf club. There is 
nothing wrong with development but this will 
deprive millions of Karachiites and people from 
outside of Karachi, who visit the beach for 
recreational and entertainment purposes, access 
to the bach. I feel the Karachi "elite" must do 
something about this. " - Arif Hasan, Architect

     WE, THE CITIZENS GROUP OF KARACHI FOR 
PROTECTION OF THE BEACH FRONT DEMAND AN END TO 
DHA's BEACH DEVELOPMENT PLAN:


     1. We, the undersigned citizens of Karachi 
oppose DHA's Beach Development Plan and demand an 
immediate end to its implementation as it 
prevents the common person's free access to the 
beach, contravenes the law, and will cause 
immense environmental damage.

     2. Land grabbers have planned to deprive once 
again the citizens of Pakistan, of their only sea 
front asset shared by millions of citizens. Their 
Development Plan consists of developing the area 
between the coastal road and the sea which at 
present is mostly undeveloped making access to 
the Beach possible. This development plan 
consists of seven zones in the 14 km strip 
between MacDonald's and Creek Club.

     3. All 14 kilometres of beach will eventually 
consist of commercial complexes, office blocks, 
multi-storey car parks, posh restaurants, 
amusement and theme parks (for which an entrance 
fee will be charged), a tramway track along the 
beach (whose fare has been estimates at Rs. 90 
per trip, an expo centre complex, vocational 
dwellings, elite clubs, expensive hotels, 
high-rise condominiums, a water sports stadium, 
and a marina.

     4. This development will destroy the natural 
environment of the coast and will make almost the 
entire beach inaccessible to the citizens of 
Pakistan, especially to the low and lower middle 
income communities who will not be able to afford 
the cost of the expensive entertainment being 
proposed and will be excluded simply by the 
nature of developments that are to be implemented

     5. No one can take away the right of the 
citizens of Pakistan to access their beach. Under 
international and domestic law, the beach area is 
for public use and everyone, regardless of 
income, has the right to free access to the beach 
without obstacles or interference. This is a 
principle enshrined in the public trust doctrine.

     6. We strongly oppose a development plan that 
will finish off the only natural multi-class 
recreational space available to Karachites and as 
a result will further socially fragment an 
already fragmented city. The beach is a public 
spot we share with the many hundreds of thousands 
of our countrymen who visit Clifton Beach every 
week and belong to all classes and ethnic groups. 
A plan that shuts out a majority of Pakistan's 
population is unacceptable.

     7. We have already seen the "gentrification" 
of the beach by the imposition of a fee of Rs 10 
per person as entry to Beach front Park. This 
Park controls access to the beach and therefore 
prevents low and lower middle income citizens 
from enjoying the beach. We can not allow any 
further such developments.

     8. We are not against theme parks, marinas, 
expo centres and expensive hotels and 
condominiums, but it is our considered opinion 
that for environmental and social reasons the 
area between the coastal road and the high water 
mark should be unencroached, construction free 
and accessible to the public free of cost as is 
the case in other South and South-East Asian 
countries and in the developed world.

     9. The Karachi Coastal Management Plan, 
prepared in 1989 by the KDA Master Plan 
Department with UN assistance, as part of the 
Karachi Development Plan 2000, had recommended a 
50 metre construction free accessible zone beyond 
the high water mark. We feel that this Coastal 
Management Plan should be followed.

     10. As children we have had free and 
unrestricted access to Clifton Beach as did our 
parents. Our children (in some cases our grand 
children) should also enjoy the same benefit.

     11. We derive strength from the fact that 
4,665 persons belonging to 73 CBOs and NGOs from 
all over Pakistan and individuals belonging to 89 
low and lower middle income areas of Karachi have 
supported concerns of the Sahil Bachao Movement 
whose concerns are similar to ours.

     Sincerely,

     The Undersigned


______


[4]

The Economist
April 4th 2007

Kashmir
Time to go
INDIA'S HUGE MILITARY PRESENCE IN KASHMIR DOES FAR MORE HARM THAN GOOD

LOOK at the houseboats lolling on the placid 
waters of the Dal Lake in Srinagar, summer 
capital of Indian-administered Kashmir, and it is 
hard to remember that this is still a war-zone of 
sorts. An insurgency against Indian rule has 
dragged on for 17 years and still claims an 
average of three lives each day. At intervals 
around the lake stand sentries bearing rifles, 
some of the estimated 600,000 soldiers and 
paramilitary police India has stationed in its 
state of Jammu & Kashmir. A debate has been 
raging in both Kashmir and Delhi about whether 
such a massive military presence is a good idea. 
It is not, and it is encouraging that prime 
minister Manmohan Singh, , has not ruled out 
"demilitarisation" of the state. But it is 
depressing that, instead of running with this 
ball, he has kicked it into the long grass: 
consideration by committees of experts.

There are at least three good reasons for cutting 
troop levels in Kashmir. First, present numbers 
are not needed. It is too late for the army to 
offer protection to the 300,000 Hindus displaced 
in the Muslim-majority state. And a ceasefire 
along the "line of control" that, in the absence 
of an agreed international border, separates 
Indian Kashmir from the Pakistani-controlled 
part, has been largely honoured for more than 
three years. Infiltration of militants from 
Pakistani-held Kashmir has tapered off. It does 
when winter snow blocks the mountain passes. But 
an Indian-built fence and a tighter Pakistani 
rein on the jihadist groups on its side of the 
line are also making a difference. The number of 
militants fighting Indian rule has dwindled to 
perhaps 1,000-1,200. At best, the Indian military 
presence is disproportionate.

Withdrawing soldiers would be hugely popular in 
Kashmir, where alienation from Indian rule runs 
deep. The demand for demilitarisation comes not 
just from separatists who boycott Indian-run 
state elections, but also from mainstream 
political parties that contest and win them. Many 
in Kashmir resent and fear the militants; but 
most feel the same about the army. When it was 
revealed earlier this year that, in order to 
boost their chances of promotion, Indian soldiers 
had been executing innocent civilians and 
claiming they were militants, the reaction was 
one of fury, but not of surprise. Hundreds of 
Kashmiris-thousands, say some human-rights 
activists-have vanished, into what many assume 
are the clutches of the security forces. The 
withdrawal of the army would be widely seen not 
as the removal of a protective shield, but as the 
lifting of an oppressive curse.

Third, withdrawing troops from Kashmir would be a 
great boost to the painstaking rapprochement 
between India and Pakistan. As Pakistan's prime 
minister, Shaukat Aziz, repeated at a regional 
summit in Delhi last week, a settlement in 
Kashmir is "the cornerstone of a sustainable, 
expanded relationship". It is also, if the leaks 
from back-channel contacts between the two 
countries are to be believed, tantalisingly 
close. Their positions, informally at least, are 
converging on a solution not so different from 
the status quo. India would drop its claim to the 
Pakistani-held part of Kashmir. Pakistan would 
make the far harder concession, dropping both its 
claim to Indian-held Kashmir and its demand for a 
plebiscite on the territory's future. This would 
be very like a Pakistani admission of defeat. 
Turning the Kashmir Valley into something less 
like a land under Indian military occupation 
would go a long way towards smoothing out that 
dent in Pakistan's pride.

© The Economist Newspaper Limited 2007


______


[5] 

Indian Express
April 18, 2007

ACT OF VIGILANTISM

When the law for inter-faith marriages is so 
reluctant, how can the government fight orthodoxy?
by Coomi Kapoor

  The recent marriage of a Sindhi girl with a 
Muslim boy against the wishes of their families 
has created a storm in Bhopal. The Sindhi 
panchayat pronounced a fatwa which would do the 
Taliban proud. The nervous Muslims of Madhya 
Pradesh are treading on eggshells. The secretary 
of the Majlis-e-Shura emphasised that when the 
couple came to the Shura for the girl to convert 
they were turned away, and he advised the boy, 
who had converted to Hinduism, to remain loyal to 
his new faith.

Earlier this week Surat was brought to a 
standstill because of a bandh called to protest a 
Hindu trader's daughter fleeing to Bombay with 
her Muslim lover. The Star News television 
channel which acted as saviour to the beleaguered 
couple - less, one suspects, due to altruism than 
an attempt to hike its viewership rating - 
attracted the ire of vigilantes. Lathi-wielding 
members of a group styling itself as the Hindu 
Rashtra Sena went on a rampage, ransacked the 
channel's office, beat up employees and generally 
created mayhem.

In a conservative society like ours mixed 
marriages generally raise hackles and bring out 
society's bestial side. Primeval passions are 
aroused when people are led to believe that one 
religion is asserting hegemony over another. 
Every now and then one reads about eloping 
couples who opt for conversion in order get 
married, leading to heightened communal tensions. 
The way it works in our country is that if a 
marriage has to be solemnised speedily and 
without red tape, both bride and groom have to be 
of the same religion. Conversion is an easy way 
out. At times, for convenience, both even convert 
to a third religion.

So why don't couples from different religions 
apply to get married under the Special Marriage 
Act 1954, which was specifically drafted with 
people like them in mind? I am something of an 
expert on the way the legislation works, having 
gone through the cumbersome procedure twice for 
my two daughters, who chose partners from 
different faiths. Even in the national capital, 
the act is administered in a manner so that as 
many obstacles as possible are placed in the way. 
You either end up hiring a lawyer familiar with 
the working of the marriage office or muster 
enough determination, time and patience to go 
through the lengthy rigmarole.

Just a few months back a JNU professor swore to 
me proudly that his daughter would be married 
only under the act - although she and her fiancé 
were both Hindus, they did not believe in 
religious ritual. After a few trips to the 
marriage office in South Delhi, and his 
enthusiasm for a secular ceremony waned. The 
couple got married with the traditional Hindu 
rites.

At the marriage offices in Delhi it is usually 
the clerks who interpret the law since they have 
been at the desk much longer than the young IAS 
officers who are additional district magistrates 
and burdened with numerous other duties, from 
riot control to elections. The trick in getting 
your way is not to be intimidated by the clerk, 
but to out-shout and out-reason him, quoting the 
relevant law. When I presented the forms of my 
would-be son-in-law, duly filled out and attested 
by the New York consul general's office, I was 
told they would have to be sent back and attested 
by a notary in New York. My daughter quoted the 
law - I still have no idea whether correctly or 
incorrectly - to say it was illegal for an Indian 
document to be attested in a foreign country. The 
clerk, who spoon-fed the officer, struck a 
compromise allowing the forms to be attested by 
the notary public on the pavement outside. For a 
fee, the notary made no fuss about attesting a 
document datelined New York when she had not even 
seen the face of the signatory. A retired senior 
diplomat's wife was less fortunate. She was 
informed firmly that she would have to fly her 
daughter and her foreign fiancé to India a month 
prior to the wedding to complete the formalities. 
In addition, the fiancé had to procure an 
affidavit from his embassy to confirm that he had 
not been married previously.

When applying for permission to get married under 
the act, you have to work against a deadline, so 
that the considerable paper work is completed in 
at least a month, and not more than three months, 
before the scheduled date of the wedding. Be 
prepared to be scrutinised and sneered at by 
sceptical clerks and marriage officers who 
believe that there has to be something dubious 
about your intentions or you would not be in 
their office in the first place. A colleague 
recalls how minutes before her wedding the 
marriage officer called her aside, bolted the 
door and told her she was making a terrible 
mistake. He laboured under the delusion that his 
role was that of a marriage counselor, not a 
marriage officer. When I presented my daughter's 
fiancé's documents with the column for religion 
left blank, the marriage officer took great 
offence and snapped that he had never heard of 
anyone doing such a thing in all his years.

One of the most retrograde provisions of the act 
is the column enquiring about religious 
affiliation. Since the entire form - with 
addresses, photographs and religious affiliation 
of the couple - is pinned on the notice board for 
a month, couples from different religions become 
easy prey for fundamentalist outfits who 
demonstrate outside their homes shouting slogans. 
The need for publicising the details a month in 
advance is so that anyone can voice objection to 
the marriage. In contrast, for a religious 
ceremony no notice whatsoever is required. And no 
elementary verification is considered necessary 
of the pundits, maulvis and granthis who 
officiate. The provision (19) in the Special 
Marriage Act, which states that those who marry 
under it, whether Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist or Jain, 
will effectively be severed from their families, 
implies that they are to be penalised for 
marrying outside their religion.

Bigotry and religious prejudice can be eradicated 
from society only when the government leads the 
way. But when the guardians of the law themselves 
have ambivalent feelings on the subject, is it 
any wonder that eloping couples almost invariably 
keep their distance from the marriage office and 
the Special Marriage Act?

o o o

The Telegraph
18 April 2007
Editorial

MUSCLING IN

The more India changes, the more it remains the 
same. Days after the media expounded on the 
changing face of the country by highlighting the 
increase in inter-community marriages - and, in 
the course of it, extolling young people's 
newly-acquired confidence in exercising their 
right of choice - conservative India hit back 
hard. The Star News office in Mumbai was badly 
damaged and its employees heckled for bringing to 
light the travails of a minor Hindu girl from 
Surat and her Muslim lover. The two had fled 
their neighbourhood and arrived in Mumbai. Like 
scores of others who defy religious strictures 
and the rigid, unwritten codes of social 
behaviour to follow their heart, the two risk 
losing their lives. It may even be argued that it 
is their brief moment of fame that has earned 
them a temporary reprieve. Elsewhere in India, 
couples are burnt or butchered for the same 
crime, without the nation batting an eyelid. The 
news channel, which intended to tell the tale of 
this victimhood, has been accused of "glorifying" 
transgressive behaviour. Such a blame may as well 
be apportioned to the judiciary, which regularly 
solemnizes inter-caste and inter-community 
marriages. It has done so recently in Bhopal, 
which is fast becoming the storm centre of 
another conservative backlash.

The juvenility at display in the attack on Star 
News betrays a cardinal truth about India -its 
refusal to grow up. The young are considered to 
be old enough to choose between brands, but they 
are never seen to grow into their right to choose 
their life-partners, especially from among those 
who belong to a different class, caste or 
community. The venom of the traditionalists, 
presently directed against Muslims, flows equally 
when caste-or class-divides are broken within the 
Hindu community itself. And just as in several of 
the present cases, the police and the State's 
other organs for dispensing justice become 
acquiescing parties to the zeal of society's 
self-appointed moral guardians. It is not without 
reason that the little-known Hindu Rashtra Sena 
wields the same muscle in such matters as the 
Shiv Sena or Vishwa Hindu Parishad does while 
flailing against the perceived threat to the 
other endangered Indian virtues. The media have 
little to defend themselves against this 
hooliganism. Nor do those Indians who do not wish 
to stand by such bigotry.

______


[6]

http://communalism.blogspot.com/2007/04/should-bjp-be-derecognized.html

Communalism Watch,
18 April 2007

SHOULD BJP BE DERECOGNIZED?

by Ram Puniyani

Election Commission is in the process of hearing 
(April 2007) the response of BJP leadership to 
the compliant filed by V.P. Singh about the 
communal CD released by BJP state leadership, 
Lalji Tandon and others. Election Commission has 
asked as to why BJP should not be derecognized? 
The clauses which it can attract are 153A, 153B 
and 505 of the Indian Penal Code, and Clauses (3) 
and (3A) of Section 123 and Section 125 of the 
Representation of the People Act, 1951. The pack 
of CDs is titled Bharat ki Pukar. The TV Channels 
showed prominently the release of the same by BJP 
leadership and also the interview of the CD maker 
who said that he was given the theme around which 
he developed the script.
In nutshell the CD contains the demonization of 
Muslims in the most blatant fashion. All the 
myths which RSS combine has been spreading about 
the Muslim minority are scripted in this, in the 
most glaring form. These myths pertain to Muslims 
loyalty to Pakistan, they killing cow, who is 
'mother' of Hindus, they being terrorists, and 
producing litters of dogs, threatening to convert 
this Hindu nation into Islamic state. It goes on 
to repeat the scenes of Babri demolition and 
Godhra violence, projects Muslim as the uniform 
monolith. It contains material which states that 
integrity of Muslims is suspect, Muslim youth are 
behind elopement of Hindu girls, and in this they 
get support from their parents and clerics. Hindu 
girls are then forced to convert to Islam, 
Madrassa teachers are engaged in anti national 
activities, if Muslims have first right to 
resources, then what should Hindus do? Each and 
every myth has been showed to be false to the 
core, and acts to polarize the communities along 
religious lines. BJP is resorting to this 
divisive politics, after a gap of some time. In 
some previous elections like the one in MP, 
Rajasthan 'development' was projected as the 
issue of some consequence. In UP the blatant 
communal tool is being used to the hilt.  One 
recalls there are nearly three methods along 
which the RSS vote bank has been consolidated.
The first one is the propaganda through its 
shakhas which began with its formation in 1925 
and went on rising slowly first, and 
exponentially later. Its infiltration in the 
media and educational arena strengthened the same 
to higher order. The second one, which began 
around violence of Jabalpur, Meerut, Malayana and 
Bhaglapur was implementation of what was being 
propagated, the violence. Most of the inquiry 
commission reports, Jagmohan Reddy, Vithyathil, 
Bhagalpur, Madon, and Shrikrishna have 
demonstrated the hand of RSS progeny or affiliate 
in planning and executing the violence. The 
analysis shows the rise in the electoral support 
of RSS electoral wing in these areas in the 
aftermath of violence. Later came in the massive, 
large scale violence, more like genocide or 
pogrom, in the aftermath of Babri demolition and 
then post Godhra Gujarat genocide. The latter 
pogroms were able to raise the level of 
communalization many notches higher and their 
impact was in the country as a whole.
Whenever these pogroms are organized, the level 
of communalization of minds goes so high that it 
is difficult to respond to them by facts, reason 
and logic. The type of communalization is mixed 
with emotive appeal. The biggest success of RSS 
propaganda has been to 'successfully' instill the 
fear in the minds of section of majority 
community from the community which not only is 
very low in the scale of social and economic 
scales but itself has been gripped by phobia, and 
forced to ghettoize.
The 'success' of RSS strategy in splitting the 
country along religious lines is very visible 
lately with the rise in ghettoization in 
different cities across the country. The work of 
RSS shakhas has been outsourced to a large 
section of media, and different state run 
schemes, more so after the BJP was in power in 
the center for six long years and also in the 
states ruled by BJP governments, which 
essentially are the conduits for RSS shakha 
program and propaganda.
It goes without saying that BJP gave varied 
response to the notice by the Election 
commission. While some sections of leadership 
said there is nothing wrong in what the CD 
contains, the official line adopted by the 
leadership with the Election Commission was to 
disown the CD. It was said that some fringe 
elements produced and distributed and the 
'responsible' top leadership has nothing to do 
with it. And that now it is being withdrawn. 
Where does one place the likes of Lalji Tandon in 
this scheme of things, Fringe element or a 
mainline leader? BJP is capable of dumping its 
leaders for the sake of long term goal. This line 
of defense continues to say that since the CD has 
been withdrawn, where is the case for action 
against the party? It wants others to believe 
that there are no duplicate CDs being distributed 
in lakhs if not more. Also to back up the 
material contained in CD, one advertisement 
endorsed with BJP symbol has come to light and 
that openly talks of anti Muslim sentiments.
It is more than clear that BJP wants to spread 
hate to consolidate its vote bank, without 
inviting censure of the due process of law. There 
is nothing surprising about that. BJP knows that 
it cannot come to power without the politics of 
hate against weaker sections of society, the 
religious minorities. Its 'glorious' run to power 
has always been preceded by such hate propaganda. 
It is very clear that only by pursuing identity 
politics and by opposing affirmative action for 
dalit, OBC and Muslims it can retain the support 
base required for winning elections. Once the 
elections are won than to use the existing 
mechanisms to further drive a wedge between 
people of different religious communities, to 
break the concept of Fraternity (Community)
One is witnessing the wily 'genius' of communal 
politics in full operation. After the Gujarat 
carnage there is a definite change in its 
strategy. It is now resorting to low intensity, 
sustained, violence in different places. The 
advantage of this is that it does not invite 
serious reprimand from the official legal 
mechanisms and social-world opinion at large. 
Last two years we have seen the violence being 
orchestrated in Mau, Indore and many other places 
and to keep the issues like Baba Budan Giri on 
the boil.
In a way the CD has just showed what BJP really 
stands for. The withdrawal of CD and sacking of 
the small fry who made the CD is just a face 
saving devise, as that will just put the Hate 
propaganda on 'vibrate/silent mode'. The response 
of BJP Muslim Leaders Shahnawaj Hussein etc. 
shows the mindset of those totally blinded by 
power. He states that BJP is a secular party and 
that this CD is an aberration, so the withdrawal 
of CD and sacking of its maker is good enough. 
Interestingly all the 'top' Muslim leadership of 
BJP has Hindu wives! Don't they feel ashamed that 
their own party is demonizing such inter 
religious marriages by putting the blame on 
Muslim youth? These Muslim leaders sitting in the 
lap of BJP deliberately want to overlook that 
this CD is merely an uncensored expression of 
what BJP and its parent organization are doing 
continuously. The propaganda is on any way.
Where does one go from here? Should Election 
Commission accept the false explanation, which 
BJP top brass is giving? The dissemination of the 
CD will go on unabated and the violation of the 
legal clauses will go on irrespective of what BJP 
will state in its reply. Election Commission 
needs to stand up and protect the clauses related 
to people's representation act, by derecognizing 
BJP, as such there are no other democratic 
options.
In a democracy it is a difficult choice to 
ban/derecognize parties or organizations. What 
does one do with the organizations which pay lip 
service to democracy but are tied to apron 
strings of those organizations which stand 
opposed to democracy and Indian constitution? It 
is no secret that RSS chief just six years ago 
called for scrapping of Indian constitution and 
bringing in one based in India holy books. It is 
no secret that RSS combine is working for Hindu 
Nation. By implication though BJP takes oath for 
preserving Indian constitution, it has no qualms 
in violating the same when the time comes.
One also has to remember that Hitler also came to 
power by using democratic means, by taking the 
oath to preserve democratic constitution in 
Germany. Once having come to power how he 
abolished democracy and brought in fascism is a 
history written with the blood of over a million 
Germans. Will we learn from history, as to how to 
nurture and protect the values of freedom 
struggle, the values of Liberty, Equality and 
Fraternity, (Community)? By constructing and 
demonizing the 'other', this political stream is 
breaking the concept of fraternity. One hopes we 
have mechanisms to ensure that those parties 
wedded to extra electoral non democratic outfits 
are not permitted to be part of electoral 
system.  

_____


[7]


The Times of India
April 19, 2007

IN THE NAME OF FAITH
by Yoginder Sikand

At the theoretical level, religions are often 
understood in strictly scripturalist terms.

Each religion comes to be regarded as a 
self-contained, monolithic and neatly bounded 
entity, completely apart, if not mutually opposed 
to, other religions.

In contrast, lived religious traditions often 
defy neat categorisations and allow for a 
considerable sharing as well as blurring of 
boundaries between religious communities.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the case of 
the popular Sufi traditions in north India. Some 
years before the demolition of the Babri masjid, 
I visited Ayodhya on a project to document Sufi 
traditions in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

By this time, Hindu right-wing forces had 
established a strong foothold there. One of their 
particular concerns was to erase all traces of 
the centuries-old Muslim presence in the town.

Yet, the remnants of history spoke louder than 
the shrill rhetoric of the Hindu supremacists.

Besides the Babri masjid and numerous old ancient 
mosques that dotted Ayodhya were scores of Sufi 
shrines, big and small, that testified to a rich 
local tradition of popular religion that defied 
the sternly Brahminical Hinduism that the 
Hindutva forces were so ardently seeking to 
impose on the country.

Muslims formed less than a tenth of the town's 
population, and a sizeable number of those who 
visited Ayodhya's Sufi shrines were Hindus.

This, of course, was not a unique phenomenon. All 
across Uttar Pradesh, and, in most parts of 
India, Hindus still flock to Sufi shrines in 
large numbers, out of devotion to buried Muslim 
saints and in the belief that they are able to 
intervene with God to seek His blessings.

A number of Sufis made Ayodhya their centre for 
spiritual teaching and instruction from as early 
as the 12th century - much before Babar, as is 
said by some, visited the town.

One of the first was Qazi Qidwatuddin Awadhi, who 
came to Ayodhya from Central Asia. He is said to 
have been a disciple of Hazrat Usman Haruni, the 
spiritual preceptor of India's most famous Sufi 
saint, Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti of Ajmer.

Another great Muslim mystic of Ayodhya of 
pre-Mughal times was Shaikh Jamal 'Gujjari', of 
the Firdausiya Sufi order.

According to popular legend, the Shaikh would 
regularly step out of his house carrying a large 
pot of rice on his head, as the men of the Gujjar 
milkmen caste did, which he would distribute 
among the poor and the destitute of Ayodhya.

Ayodhya was home to a number of spiritual 
successors of the renowned 14th century Sufi of 
Delhi, Khwaja Nizamuddin Auliya.

The most important of these was the famous Sufi 
Shaikh Nasiruddin Chiragh-i Dilli, who lies 
buried in New Delhi.

Shaikh Nasiruddin was born in Ayodhya and at the 
age of 40 left the town for Delhi to live with 
Khwaja Nizamuddin Auliya.

Yet, he would often return to Ayodhya to visit 
his relatives, and made disciples who emerged as 
great Sufis. These included people such as Shaikh 
Zainuddin Ali Awadhi, Shaikh Fatehullah Awadhi 
and Allama Kamaluddin Awadhi.

Ayodhya is also home to the shrine of a female 
Sufi saint, Badi Bua or Badi Bibi, sister of 
Shaikh Nasiruddin Chiragh-i Dilli.

She was particularly beautiful, but she remained 
single throughout her life and devoted herself to 
serving God and the poor. When she was asked why 
she refused to marry she would answer, 'I only 
love God and nothing else'.

She is said to have been greatly troubled by the 
local clerics, perhaps because of her refusal to 
marry.

The kotwal, the chief police officer of the town, 
asked for Badi Bua's hand in marriage, saying 
that he was in love with her eyes. Without a 
moment's hesitation, so the story goes, she 
plucked out her eyes and gave them to him.

The shocked Kotwal, realising that Badi Bua was 
no ordinary woman, but a true devotee of God, 
repented at once and begged her for mercy.

There is an attempt to erase from public memory 
stories of these and other Sufis of the town, as 
Hindu chauvinist forces cannot brook any 
association of Hindus with Islam and Muslims.

There are now hardly any Muslims left in the 
town, almost all of Ayodhya's Muslim families 
having fled in the wake of the destruction of the 
Babri masjid.

However, visible signs of centuries-old Muslim 
presence continue to dot the town - crumbling 
minarets of ancient mosques, neglected graveyards 
rapidly slipping under a dense cover of weeds, 
broken walls of what must have once been grand 
Sufi lodges.

Some of these structures came down along with the 
Babri mosque. In the violence, the dargahs of 
Shah Muhammad Ibrahim, Bijli Shah Shahid, Makhdum 
Shah Fatehullah, Sayyed Shah Muqaddas Quddus-i 
Ruh and the Teen Darvesh, were attacked.

Today, some Sufi shrines still survive in 
Ayodhya, continuing to be visited by local 
devotees in search of solace.

Strikingly, and despite the almost total takeover 
of the town by votaries of Hindutva, several of 
them are carefully tended to by local Hindus, 
particularly 'low' castes - a silent reminder of 
a past now rapidly being forgotten and one that 
perhaps can never be relived again.

The writer works with the Centre for Jawaharlal 
Nehru Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.

_____



[8]


(Excerpted from: Newsletter of All India Secular Forum
Vol.II, No.4, April 2007)

REPORT Of THE ALL INDIA SECULAR FORUM
National Convention, 18th March 2007 in AICUF Ashram in Bhopal.

The All India Secular Forum was set up to 
preserve the plural character of our polity and 
to confront the threat posed by sectarian 
politics a need was felt by various human rights 
groups to build a national forum, which could be 
a platform for common campaigns and efforts, to 
thwart the dangers posed by those imposing 
sectarian politics in the garb of religion.

Mr. L S Hardenia spoke of the activities 
of groups working on Secular Issues in Bhopal 
which aimed at projection of secular ideology and 
Principle of Secularism. Some of the activities 
mentioned by him were Raksha Bandhan Samarohs 
where Muslim children tied rakhees on Hindu 
children.  Condemning the activities such as the 
Suryanamaskar, Jalabhishek, and the Upanayanam 
Ceremony he said that they were instruments to 
further divide the country and ought to be faced 
with firm resistance.

Dr Engineer spoke on ' Communalism Today'.

He said that the political problem is that no 
single party can rule in the Centre much less in 
the States. Congress Secularism has weakened 
since the 80s and the BJP has become strong in 
the whole country. BJP feels that the only way to 
resume power is to spread Communalism.

Communal forces are overactive where there is no 
communal violence. It is in this interregnum when 
there is no communal violence   we should be 
active to counter propaganda communalism. BJPs 
control on education has become a medium of 
spreading communalism today. He gave the example 
of  ' fascism is being the best solution' 
mentioned in one of the history books This was in 
violation of our constitution. He said that it 
was a pity nothing much was being done about it.  

He also criticized  Mulayam Singh Yadav giving 
two and half crore to VHP to hold Hindu Sammelan. 
He questioned this act and said that in a 
Sammelan where a resolution is passed that Ram 
Mandir should be constructed how can money be 
given?

He advised that we should now take our commitment 
to secularism seriously. He urged the  civil 
society to come forward to strengthen secular 
forces . He ended by narrating      success 
stories of the secular groups working all over.

Participants from various states then shared on the said topic.

Following future programs were planned

·     To organize poster exhibitions  which has 
to be displayed from time to time. (this shall 
include photographs of communal violence , 
appealing verses of Kabir etc)
·     Intensive training programme for people 
with good understanding. Target group to be 20 
maximum. This will enable them to train other 
cadets.
·     Investigation of the communal violence to 
be done objectively and impartially.
·     To float a branch of the organization
·     Promote value education in schools.
·     Setting up of resource centers in as many groups as possible.
·     Cultural groups to propagate Secularism

Secular Action

1. Perzania Screening in Gujarat

Anhad held a contest for Gujarat students, with 
the theme whether Perzania, a feature film bases 
on the true story during the Gujarat carnage, 
should be screened in Gujarat or not. There was 
an overwhelming response from amongst the youth, 
calling for its screening. This is a strong 
indictment of the rising intolerance amongst the 
section of Gujarat community.

2. Peace and Conflict resolution Workshop

CSSS is holding a weeklong workshop on Peace and 
conflict resolution workshop, in Raipur from 9th 
to 15th April. Nearly 50 youth and others 
including social workers and teachers have 
registered for the same. These workshops a 
regular feature of CSSS activity.

______


[9]  EVENTS:

PROTEST AGAINST 'RELIGIOUS' EXTREMISM:
Venue:  main gate - The Mazar-e-Quaid [Karachi]   4 Pm on 19th  April , 2007
"Come and join a peaceful protest, organised by 
WAF and JAC  to say No to religious extremism." 
Organised by Women's Action Forum (WAF) and Joint 
Action Committee (JAC).

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

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