SACW | June 8-12, 2007
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at mnet.fr
Tue Jun 12 05:56:39 CDT 2007
South Asia Citizens Wire | June 8-12, 2007 | Dispatch No. 2417 - Year 9
[1] Sri Lanka: Expulsion of Tamils from Colombo
stopped - Actions by citizens groups led to
Supreme court intervention
(i) Open Letter to President Mahinda Rajapakse to
stop the expulsion of Tamils from Colombo
(ii) Eviction of Tamil Citizens Highlights Divide
in Sri Lanka (National Peace Council)
(iii) Supreme court restrains abuse of power (Jehan Perera)
[2] Bangladesh: Lawrence Lifshultz Interview on
Coup of 1975 and Mujib's Assassin Mohiuddin (cbc)
[3] Pakistan: A Political Movement in the Making (S Akbar Zaidi)
[4] India: Prevent A Nuclear Disaster - Freeze
the Koodankulam project! (Praful Bidwai)
[5] UK - India: Text of House of Commons Motion on Arrest of Dr Binayak Sen
[6] Why is India's Picasso staying away? (Shashi Tharoor)
[7] USA/India: Sangh Spreads Its Cloak In American Campus (Girish Agrawal)
______
[1] SRI LANKA: EXPULSION OF TAMILS FROM COLOMBO
STOPPED - LETTERS FROM CITIZENS GROUPS AND THE
SUPREME COURT ORDER
(i)
Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2007 5:42 PM
Subject: [PR] Open Letter to President Mahinda
Rajapakse to stop the expulsion of Tamils from
Colombo
OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT MAHINDA RAJAPAKSE TO
STOP THE EXPULSION OF TAMILS FROM COLOMBO
Honorable Mahinda Rajapakse,
President of Sri Lanka
On receiving reports of the expulsion of Tamils
from various locations in Colombo this morning,
June 7 2007, members of our organizations visited
the Wellawatte, Pettah and Peliyagoda areas and
spoke to various persons who had been affected by
the process and the police in the area. This move
is directly attributed to the statement made by
the IGP on the 1st of June, claiming that Tamil
people cannot remain in Colombo without a valid
reason. On May 31 Tamils from the North and East
residing in lodges in Pettah were forced to
leave, as lodge owners were reportedly instructed
by the police to not to shelter people from the
North and East who had no "valid reasons" for
being in Colombo.
According to the information we have received, in
an operation that commenced in the early hours of
the morning, police and army officers visited
various lodges occupied predominantly by Tamils
in Colombo and forcibly removed Tamils from these
guesthouses. In several instances, eyewitnesses
reported that these were not from the local
police stations.
Hundreds of Tamils from the Northern and Eastern
Provinces, who had been staying in Colombo for a
range of reasons were forcibly loaded onto buses
and taken to Peliyagoda. A Police Officer at the
Peliyagoda Police reported that at least 8 buses
with approximately 50 people in a bus left
Peliyagoda. Later today, we heard that the IGP
had clarified to the party leaders meeting in the
parliament that 6 buses had left for Vavuniya, 1
bus to Batticaloa and 1 bus to Trincomalee. At
8.30am in the morning, an officer at the
Wellawatte Police reported that 3 buses with
approximately 60 people left for Trincomalee and
that they would be sent to Jaffna by ship. Later
on in the day, the Wellawatte Police reported a
figure of 83. However, as of now, there is no
confirmation of the numbers of people who were
put on the buses, nor of their names.
Many of the lodge managers, and remaining
inmates, complained to us that people were given
less than half an hour to pack all their
belongings and board the CTB buses that were
parked outside these lodges. They were also not
told their exact destination, only that the
return to their homes was being 'arranged'.
The criteria for their expulsion seemed to be
determined arbitrarily by the police and army.
Even in some cases where lodgers were able to
explain their presence in Colombo to establish
their bona fides, they were told that Tamils who
were not permanent residents of Colombo had no
right to be in Colombo and had to leave.
According to a senior official at the Wellawatte
Police, the criteria for determining return was:
those who wished to return but did not have the
funds to do so; those who had no rationale for
remaining in Colombo; and those who said they
were remaining in Colombo out of fear.
The Police claimed that they were simply
assisting Tamils return to their home towns, and
that they had come to know about these desires
during checking carried out. The reports from
residents, owners and staff of lodges, eye
witnesses to the expulsion however are in
complete contrast to these accounts. People were
forced to leave, even those who were in Colombo
for health reasons and were not fit to travel.
While we are full cognizant of the current
security situation and the need to maintain close
surveillance of the city and its environs, in
terms of the human rights principles that guide
us in our work as human rights defenders, we are
convinced that the above process is NOT capable
of guaranteeing security and rather creates
further polarization between the different ethnic
communities that share this island, and heightens
the sense of marginalization and alienation of
Tamil people of this country.
We reaffirm the principle enshrined in the
Constitution of Sri Lanka guarantees all Sri
Lankans the right to choose their own residence
(temporary or permanent), and freedom of movement
and maintain that what has taken place in Colombo
today is a flagrant violation of this principle,
and a disgrace to humanity.
We call on you, as our head of State, to take all
steps available to call an immediate halt to this
practice, and to offer facilities of return to
Colombo to anyone who has been forcibly removed
from Colombo in this process.
Sincerely yours,
Center for Human Rights and Development (CHRD)
Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA)
Free Media Movement (FMM)
INFORM Human Rights Documentation Center (INFORM)
Institute of Human Rights (IHR)
International Movement against All forms of Racial Discrimination (IMADR)
Law & Society Trust (LST)
Rights Now (RN)
7th June 2007
o o o
(ii)
National Peace Council
of Sri Lanka
12/14 Purana Vihara Road
Colombo 6
Tel: 2818344, 2854127, 2819064
Tel/Fax:2819064
E Mail: npc at sltnet.lk
Internet: www.peace-srilanka.org
08.06.07
Media Release
EVICTION OF TAMIL CITIZENS HIGHLIGHTS DIVIDE IN SRI LANKA
The ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka has taken a
sharp turn for the worse with the police forcibly
transporting over 350 Tamil people out of the
city overnight for security reasons. This
includes many women and children who had been
temporarily residing in Colombo in lodges and
rented places. The images of buses packed with
people being forcibly deported from the capital
city makes a mockery of a united Sri Lanka in
which all citizens enjoy equal rights. While
their ultimate destination remains unclear,
recent statements by police authorities suggest
that these people will be sent to various places
in the north and east.
This event appears to have come in response to
the recent LTTE bomb blasts in Colombo port and
the Colombo suburb of Ratmalana with consequent
civilian casualties. The National Peace Council
has condemned and called upon the LTTE to
immediately halt such acts of violence. We
believe that attacks of this nature continue to
detract attention, both within Sri Lanka and
internationally, away from the real issue of
Tamil rights and aspirations. On the other hand
we believe that the manner in which this eviction
of Tamil civilians took place, with a round up in
the early hours of the morning, without any sort
of due process, was totally unacceptable.
In responding to these attacks by forcibly
evicting Tamil citizens back to the north and
east, the government has provoked feelings of
anguish, alienation and bitter anger within the
entire Tamil community, and condemnation from Sri
Lankans of goodwill and the international
community. It is indeed tragic that the
government has become the principal reflector of
the divided nature of the polity, and that it
should fail to realise that measures of this
nature can drive people to the brink. This action
could play into the hands of separatist forces
who would interpretit as tantamount to ethnic
cleansing and seek to further justify their
claims for separation. Prior to taking this
precipitous action, the government could have
specified the criteria under which people from
outside could stay in Colombo or have to leave in
view of the current security conditions, and
given a time frame within which these specific
restrictions would apply.
Colombo has long provided a safe haven for people
from the North and East who might otherwise be
forced to live in deeply insecure and desperately
poor conditions and in areas where government and
LTTE forces are engaged in battles which include
air bombardment and artillery fire that have
severely victimized the civilian population. The
latest government position seems to be that Tamil
citizens from the North and East can only reside
in Colombo if they can satisfy the security
forces who raid their places of residence. This
is a gross violation of the human rights of
citizens under the Sri Lankan constitution and in
terms of international law to live or reside
wherever they choose to.
The National Peace Council demands that the
government immediately stop evicting Tamil
citizens from Colombo and elsewhere. We are
extremely concerned about the fate of an
estimated 15-20,000 Tamil civilians who are
residing in lodges in Colombo who may be
subjected to the same fate. We also demand that
the government and LTTE cease using violence that
causes death and injury to innocent civilians. We
call on both parties to return to the negotiating
table and work out a political solution to the
conflict in order put an end to terrorism,
violence and human rights abuses in Sri Lanka.
Executive Director
On behalf of Governing Council
o o o
(iii)
[Consequent to a fundamental rights application
filed by Dr. Packiyasothy Saravanmuthu , Director
for the Centre For Policy Alternatives, the
Supreme Court of Sri Lanka has restrained the
police from evacuating Tamils from Colombo
lodges.]
o o
Daily Mirror
June 12, 2007
SUPREME COURT RESTRAINS ABUSE OF POWER
by Jehan Perera
The power of the judiciary, as the third branch
of government, was demonstrated to great effect
last week when the Supreme Court put a halt to
the forcible eviction of Tamil people from
Colombo. Until the Supreme Court gave its
verdict, the eviction of 370 Tamil residents
overnight from their lodges and rented
accommodations seemed a foregone conclusion. The
ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka took a sharp turn
for the worse with the police forcibly
transporting these Tamil people out of the city
on the grounds of security reasons. Those evicted
included many women and children who had been
temporarily residing in Colombo contradicting
government propaganda that Tamils lived
harmoniously with their Sinhalese brethren in the
south and, hence, that there was no ethnic
conflict at all.
That the eviction order was a gross violation of
the human rights of citizens under the Sri Lankan
constitution and in terms of international law to
live or reside wherever they choose to was
patently clear and was mentioned by the
opposition in the debate in Parliament. But the
Rajapaksa government has shown itself to be a
stubborn one, unwilling to change course in the
middle. This is evident in the punishing military
battles that are taking place in both the north
and east and the government showing no signs of
being deterred despite heavy casualties being
reported and the government coffers being emptied.
True to form, and the somewhat anarchic
conditions that prevail in the country,
government spokespersons gave a mix of reasons to
explain what was happening. The most frank
admission was that the evictions were wrong, but
necessary in war. The argument was made that the
LTTE had infiltrated the city to carry out
terrorist attacks, and most of the LTTE suspects
lived in the type of lodges that were raided.
Therefore, temporary residents who were Tamil and
could not give an adequate reason for being in
Colombo needed to be sent away. But there were
also other government spokespersons who claimed
that the Tamil people who were seen loaded onto
buses and driven out of the city were doing so
voluntarily, and the government had given them
the benefit of free transport. The more
disingenuous of government spokespersons claimed
to have no knowledge of what was happening.
The media images of helpless Tamil people being
shipped out of Colombo was an outrage to moral
sentiments, except perhaps to hardened government
leaders and their die hard nationalist
supporters. What was unconscionable was that the
people selected for eviction had barely any time,
often less than an hour, in which to get ready to
leave in the early morning hours before the crack
of dawn. Most of the police personnel who took
part in the raids, and the soldiers who
accompanied them, did not know enough Tamil to
elicit an understandable response from the
agitated people they were questioning. As a
result, it is likely that the police used
intuition, and their own prejudice, to judge
whether people could stay on or be evicted.
Civic Opposition
Not surprisingly, with this level of discretion
being given to individual police officers, there
was a considerable degree of variability in their
choice of victims, which included the old, the
sick and women with young children, in addition
to young men who would be the prime suspects.
Although the number of people directly affected
by the first wave of evictions was relatively
small, the fact that it could occur at all
highlighted the ominous possibility that it could
be followed up with subsequent waves of
evictions. The fate of an estimated 15-20,000
Tamil people who are residing in lodges in
Colombo hung in the balance as an immediate
consequence of the eviction order. As a result
the feelings of anguish, alienation and anger
within the Tamil community both in Sri Lanka and
internationally reached fever pitch.
It soon appeared that the government had no clear
idea as to where to send the evicted people to,
except that they would be sent to the north and
east. In doing so, the government was
inadvertently legitimising the notion of a Tamil
homeland in the north and east. Ironically, when
anti Tamil riots broke out in Colombo and other
parts of the country in 1983, the government of
that time too decided to send the victims to the
north and east, regardless of the ties those
people had with the north and east. It is doubly
ironic that the Rajapaksa government which has no
ideological affinity at all to the Tamil homeland
concept should have become the principal
reflector of the divided nature of the polity and
confirmed the belief of Tamil people that the
north and east of Sri Lanka is the only place
they can call their home.
The first evidence of active public opposition to
the eviction of Tamil residents of Colombo came
from the public demonstrations organised by small
civil society groups. These groups have been seen
periodically demonstrating in Colombo, and
issuing media releases, on peace and human rights
related issues, in addition to conducting
awareness campaigns and offering legal aid to
victims. The question has been whether they were
having an impact on the decision making processes
of the chief protagonists who appear to have the
sole power to govern either well or badly. This
time too it seemed that these civic groups would
have no greater impact than making a statement
and being a moral voice.
New Possibility
But this time there was indeed a major
difference. Not only were the demonstrations
bigger than usual, with even those from private
sector establishments and international
organisations joining in. A petition filed in the
Supreme Court by one of the civil society groups,
the Centre for Policy Alternatives, in the name
of its director Dr Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, was
accepted by the Supreme Court. In recent years,
the Supreme Court's role in protecting minority
rights and human rights alike has seemed to
diminish. But in a decision that gives a new
lease of life to those who believe in
constitutional government and the role of the
judiciary in checking governmental abuse of
power, the Supreme Court granted interim relief,
and ordered a halt to the evictions.
There have been periods in the recent
violence-ridden history of the country when the
Supreme Court has given people the hope that the
cause of justice would be upheld even in the face
of powerful and ruthless governments. The period
1988-93 was one such. The period of terror in the
bleak years of 1988-89 when the JVP launched its
insurrection against the state was one in which
the majority Sinhalese population lived with the
same degree of uncertainty and fear that members
of the Tamil minority live with today, in the
context of abductions, killings and bland denials
of responsibility by all concerned. But during
those very dark days there was a sense amongst
the people and human rights defenders alike that
the Supreme Court was on their side, even if
there was not much that it could do to reverse
the tide of human rights abuses.
In the light of the positive direction taken by
the Supreme Court in its most recent decision on
the eviction of Tamils, there seems to be a new
possibility for restraining the abuse of power by
the government. Within hours of the Supreme
Court's decision, the government announced that
the evicted Tamils would be brought back from
wherever they had been abandoned in the north and
east. The Prime Minister went before the media
and admitted that a big mistake had been made and
expressed the government's regret to the Tamil
people. In a parallel development President
Mahinda Rajapaksa disclaimed all knowledge of the
forced eviction of Tamil people from Colombo and
called on the Police Chief, who appears to be
made the scapegoat, to submit a report on the
incident.
These unbelievable reversals on the part of high
government authorities are an indication of the
power of the judiciary to direct the government
on a new path of justice and respect for human
rights. They may also indicate a shift in the
balance of political power. But keeping Colombo
safe from terrorist attacks will call for more
than treating the Tamil population in Colombo
with justice and dignity. The government will
need to adopt that same principle of putting the
human rights of people first in other parts of
the country as well, most notably in the north
and east where major battles are being fought.
Likewise, if the LTTE wishes to be treated as the
representative of the Tamil people and be treated
on par with the government for purposes of
negotiation, it too should adopt that same
principle and refrain from acts that harm the
civilian population.
______
[2] [BANGLADESH: RADIO INTERVIEW - LAWRENCE
LIFSHULTZ ON MUJIB'S ASSASSIN MOHIUDDIN & COUP OF
1975]
www.cbc.ca
CBC Radio Show
Date: 2007/06/08
Time: 17:30:01
BANGLA LIFSCHULTZ
Duration: 00:13:31
When "As It Happens" first told the story of
Mohuiddin Ahmed back on the 29th of May, it
seemed like a relatively simple cry for help. A
former Bangladeshi army officer was begging
Canada for asylum. He was about to be deported
from the United States to face execution for his
role in a thirty year-old coup.
But we've been doing a little spadework since
then. And with every interview, the story reveals
itself to be more and more like a Graham Greene
novel -- in which individual lives are caught up
in international intrigues beyond their ken.
Lawrence Lifschultz has been following the story
of the 1975 coup from the beginning. He's the
former South Asia correspondent for the Far
Eastern Economic Review. We reached Mr.
Lifschultz in Branford, Connecticut.
http://www.cbc.ca/mrl3/8752/asithappens/20070608-aih-2.wmv
______
[3]
Economic and Political Weekly
June 2, 2007
PAKISTAN: A POLITICAL MOVEMENT IN THE MAKING
The largely unexpected public response to the
dismissal of the chief justice by Musharraf has
significantly changed the political situation in
the country. With the politicisation of the
issue, the growing "movement" is creating a
serious problem for the president.
by S Akbar Zaidi
Many of Pakistan's best known newspaper
columnists and analysts, especially those who
were politically active in the late 1960s, are
calling the present times and mood in Pakistan,
"revolutionary", and are making numerous
references to the 1968-70 period. Of a later
generation of writers, there are those who are
comparing Pakistan today to the 1986-88 period,
and here too, one hears the word revolution
repeated many times in columns, as well as on the
electronic media. Whatever one wants to call it,
there is no doubt that the political process
underway in Pakistan today is probably the most
significant development that has taken place in
many, many years. Numerous events and
developments have taken place in the last 10
weeks, which may have changed Pakistan's future
for some time to come, if not permanently. If one
looks at just the last few weeks, there are four
main events - or series of events, or processes -
that have taken place which have changed
Pakistan's political map.
A number of smaller happenings have also added
additional dimensions to these developments. The
four main actors/events which have come to the
fore relate to the chief justice "issue", the
muhajir Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), Benazir
Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP), and the
extraordinary new role and power of the
electronic media.
Chief Justice Resigns
On March 9, the fully-uniformed chief of the army
staff, president general Pervez Musharraf,
summoned the chief justice of Pakistan Iftikhar
Muhammad Chaudhry, to his office, and is supposed
to have kept him waiting for five-and-a-half
hours. In this period, it has been stated, that
the chief justice was pressurised by the
president along with a number of uniformed
generals, to resign his post. The president's
team had created a charge-sheet against the chief
justice on a number of accounts related to the
misuse of his office. He was accused of many
things, including using a government helicopter
to attend a funeral and ensuring for his son, a
public servant, privileged postings. When he did
not voluntarily resign, the chief justice was
made "dysfunctional" and sent home to await
further charges, and an acting chief justice of
the Supreme Court of Pakistan, appointed in his
place.
There is no denying the fact that this has been
president general Musharraf's worst mistake and
greatest miscalculation, and that he was
ill-advised in taking this decision. He himself,
very soon after it became clear what the reaction
to this move was, said that a "conspiracy" had
been hatched against him personally. For the
government, there may have been reasons to take
some action against the chief justice since he
had taken a stand in a major privatisation case
last year which embarrassed the government and
revealed its wrong-doings, and the chief justice
was increasingly making some (albeit muted)
sounds, about Pakistan's disappeared people, many
of whom are Baloch, who have been picked up by
one of Pakistan's many "agencies" and have
disappeared. It is important to state that the
chief justice is no trail-blazing revolutionary
for, as a judge of the Supreme Court, he had
signed all the nefarious laws and constitutional
changes which president Musharraf designed
without a whisper of protest.
Chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was as
much part of the establishment as was the chief
of the army staff himself. With the chief of the
army staff seeking a second term as president of
Pakistan - which many judges and politicians feel
is unconstitutional - he was advised by someone
close to him that the chief justice would create
a problem when it came to his re-election and
hence should be removed. No one, least of all
president general Pervez Musharraf, could have
expected a response of this order, by all means
novel in Pakistan's military-led history, that
has made these last 10 weeks the weakest and most
difficult of his seven-and-a-half years in
office. Initially, seeing that their chief
justice was not bowing down to military pressure,
some lawyers were emboldened and started a public
campaign to have a fair trial of the deposed
chief justice and to have him reinstated. Slowly,
this small campaign grew in nature and size, and
some judges resigned their posts in pro- tests,
and many judges started supporting the ousted
chief justice. In the first few weeks of the
campaign, the slogans were largely those related
to the restoration of the chief justice and
regarding upholding the stature and sanctity of
the judiciary. The judiciary fought back to
protect its own institutional interests and so in
the process, emerged united. There was little
"politicisation" and political parties, as always
the opportunists most have been in the past,
watched from the sidelines.
However, very soon it became clear that this was
not just a protest against one decision, but
there were clear beginnings of a "movement", for
justice with political overtones. The lawyers
were joined by a few activists from some
political parties and by members of the public.
While there has been considerable public support
- as seen by popular meetings and response to the
chief justice's various visits and trips to
different parts of Pakistan - this has not been a
"public" movement, but very much a lawyers'
protest movement, with some though growing help
from political parties. However, the colour of
the protest has changed, and from a collective
action issue concerning the lawyers and their
self- interest, the slogans and the politics of
the movement have become far more politicised.
From initially favouring the chief justice and
his reinstatement, the protests soon became
anti-government, anti-Musharraf, and have now
become audibly anti-military. There is growing
support for the lawyers' movement amongst
different cross sections of society, as can be
envisaged by the number and nature of people who
are participating in the movement, many as
observers rather than as activists and
participants. Even the more radical slogans are
being repeated in many quarters and the "Go
Musharraf, Go" chant heard at most of the jalsas
of the lawyers, is no longer uncommon. Yet, it
must be remembered that while the lawyers' move-
ment may have a lot of public support and
sympathy and it has increasingly become
"politicised", this is not, as yet, a "political
movement" in the sense that is usually recognised.
The Issue Turns 'Political'
An extraordinary May 5 road-trip from Islamabad
to Lahore, which usually takes four hours took 24
and completely changed the mood and scale of both
the lawyers and the government. The lawyers and
their supporters realised that they were on to
something bigger than they had envisaged, while
the government/military felt that this was
certainly not a normal issue. After all, this was
the Punjab which was following the journey of the
chief justice.
The MQM
In his address to different bar councils across
Pakistan, the chief justice was scheduled to
address the Sindh bar in Karachi on May 12.
Karachi has been ruled by the Muttahida
(previously muhajir) Quami Movement, since the
early 1980s, when the MQM emerged as an urban
militant political party, speaking for the rights
of the settled migrants (muhajirs) from India
after Partition. Its politics was known to have
been one which was overtly violent, yet they were
also popular. They have won all the elections
that they have participated in since the 1980s
from the larger towns of urban Sindh, especially
Karachi. Because of their urban Sindh vote bank,
they have also been part of the Sindh provincial
government, as they have been since the elections
of 2002. The city of Karachi has faced much
violence, destruction and mayhem since the rise
of the MQM, especially during the second Benazir
Bhutto government in the 1990s. However, since
1999, when general Musharraf and the military
took over power, Karachi has been at peace and
has prospered perhaps more than any other
region/part of Pakistan.
The MQM- Military-Alliance is the other MMA which
is part of the Pakistan political map. The period
since 1999 has been the longest period of peace
and prosperity that Karachi has seen probably
since the 1960s. The first MQM cadre, brought up
in an era of terror and violence in the 1980s and
1990s, is perhaps in its late 30s and 40s, or
even older. The MQM youth have, since 1999, lived
in an era of peace, prosperity and stability as
it has been part of government and has not needed
violenceor terror to achieve its political or
economic interests and goals. Clearly, demography
and economic well-being have remade the MQM and
its supporters, and until May12, overt violence
was not part of the MQM's strategy. On May 12,
the chief justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Muhammad
Chaudhry was scheduled to make a trip to Karachi.
As a counter measure, the MQM decided to hold its
own rally in support of general Pervez Musharraf.
However, the MQM (which forms the government of
Sindh and a major partner in the federal
government) tried everything possible to stop the
chief justice from coming to the city. After
putting hundreds of road blocks across the main
streets from the airport, they attacked small
groups of those lawyers and political activists
who wanted to come to the airport to receive the
chief justice. Over 40 people were gunned down in
cold blood. This was not the first time so many
people were killed in Karachi in a matter of a
few hours, but it was the first time for almost a
decade, and the peace of the city was destroyed
by those who were responsible for that peace.
The consequence of the killing of the 40 people
in Karachi this time around, unlike the killings
in the past, was unprecedented. Never before has
there been such condemnation of the federal
government, the provincial government and the MQM
and its leaders, as now. The MQM has never had to
make a tactical retreat in the past and has
weathered every political storm that has come its
way. This time however, it has been shaken by the
reaction of politicians and from the media. What
seems of interest is to try and understand why
the MQM has been more loyal than the king
himself. Why did the MQM do what no other
political party in government has done, even when
it could have disrupted the chief justice's
visits and addresses? One reason for this is,
that there is a strong MQM military alliance,
when both need the other. It could be that the
MQM panicked over the growing support for the
chief justice and against general Pervez
Musharraf. It could be that they wanted to show
him that they were on his side and would not
allow "their" city to be taken over by his
opponents. (In fact, president general Pervez
Musharraf has come out in extensive support of
the MQM's way of handling things on May 12, and
has said that they are completely innocent of the
killings.)
The MQM needs the military as much as the
military needs the MQM, and hence the
enthusiastic support to each other. Other reasons
suggest that the MQM military alliance is based
not simply on any ideological/ politicalbasis,
but that both have benefited from the billions of
dollars worth of land deals made in Karachi.
While the military may run Pakistan, MQM runs
Karachi. The MQM-military nexus is based on each
benefiting politically and economically through
each others' support. However, the reaction
against the way the MQM took over Karachi on May
12, has backfired and added to a renewed
resentment against it and many of its supporters
have also been shocked and find it difficult to
defend their party's actions. Importantly, the
MQM, for the moment at least, stands isolated
from the political mainstream, and only the
president and his prime minister are left with
embarrassing statements in their defence. Even
many of Musharraf's ministers are unable to
support MQM's actions of May 12. The PPP The
biggest and most embarrassed loser in the process
which started on March 9, has been Benazir Bhutto
and her PPP, with more egg on her face than she
would like. In April, when the chief justice
issue had neither become as politicised as it is
or had grown in scale to the size it is, Benazir
Bhutto said that she was willing to make a deal
with president general Musharraf allowing her to
come back to Pakistan to participate in the 2007
elections. She had even said that she had no
objection to being prime minister with him as
president. President Musharraf too, had said that
this was a possibility he could work with.
However, after the lawyers' movement became
bigger than anyone anticipated, and especially
after the May 12 killings in Karachi, the main
route open to Benazir Bhutto, is a littered
minefield. With so much antagonism against the
MQM for breaking with the settled political
parliamentary process since 2002, Benazir Bhutto
would face excessive protest if she were to go
ahead with accepting a minor or junior
partnership with general Musharraf.
The big winner as a consequence of the events of
May 12, and with the deal for the moment in
hibernation, has been the king's party, the party
in power at the moment, the PML-Q. What would
happen to the 70 or so ministers in government,
or the Chaudhry brothers of Gujarat who rule the
Punjab under the banner of the PML-Q, if Benazir
and Musharraf made a deal, has never been
discussed. Clearly, while Musharraf may have
required an alliance with the PPP, his current
crop of ministers from the PML-Q, do not. Also,
with the MQM and the PPP sharing a bitter past,
it was never quite worked out how both will work
together in Sindh, a province from where they
draw their greatest support. For the moment at
least, the Benazir-Musharraf deal has been put on
hold. Many in government hoping to be elected,
hope this stays so for some time to come.
Role of the Media
The star of the show since early this year has
been what one can collectively call "the media".
The revolution or political movement with its
consequences are all the making of the media.
They certainly are real and have mass support,
but without constant live coverage, with history
in the making as one watches, the sort of
reaction one sees would not have taken place. The
24 hour long car ride from Islamabad to Lahore of
the chief justice was shown live on television,
as were the murderous at- tacks on citizens and
on TV stations in Karachi on May 12. While the
visuals have been revolutionary in what they have
depicted, what has been even more extraordinary,
has been the media content, which has been truly
revolutionary. Never before has one heard the
slogans of Go Musharraf Go, or "No more military
rule", on live television. Never before has the
MQM been called a fascist party on live
television by dozens of analysts, nor Altaf
Hussain, the leader of the MQM equated with
Hitler. Both in the electronic media and in the
press, these parallels are made with great ease
and with a great deal of space repeatedly, even
daily. Just a few years ago, at least in Karachi,
it would have been impossible to survive after
calling the MQM fascist in private, leave alone
in public, or calling Altaf Hussain, Hitler. Or
for that matter, chanting slogans in the national
assembly which were reproduced in all newspapers
after May 12 'qatil, qatil, MQM' or 'qatil,
qatil, Musharraf' ("killer, killer MQM" or
"killer, killer Musharraf").
The press has been fairly free for some years
now, but never so free or so powerful. The power
of the press has been recognised and used by both
the government and those who oppose it. Every
speech of the leaders of the lawyers' movement is
televised live, and they get away with saying
whatever they want, including statements
televised live such as, "down with the generals,
down with the military". There have also been
many attempts to gag the press and to silence it,
but all such attempts have failed and rebounded
back into the face of the government. The press
is emerging as perhaps the most powerful hitherto
unknown force in Pakistan's politics.
Along with all this, there have also been
dramatic developments in Islamabad around the Lal
Masjid and the Jamia Hafsa, a madrasa for girls.
As all writers have been emphasising, just a few
kilometres from the presidency, a group of ulema
and their students, have raised the flag of the
sharia and of the call to a "talibanisation", all
in Musharraf's enlightened, moderate, Pakistan.
It seems that this group of students and their
leaders have been given a free hand to instil the
fear of god in the hearts of Islamabad's Muslims.
The comfort level of these instigators is so
high, that many believe that the freedom they
enjoy is deliberate and meant for publicity
reasons. The fear, the argument goes, is not to
be instilled in the hearts of the populace of
Islamabad, but in the hearts of the Americans in
Washington. The hope is that these cries of the
"talibanisation of Pakistan" will be heard in
Washington and will lead to continued and further
support to president general Musharraf's
enlightened moderation (or is it moderate
enlightenment? One forgets), and the Americans -
so critical and influential to the political
economy and geopolitics of the region - will
continue to support the man in uniform and in
power in Islamabad today, rather than bring about
any change over which they may have little
control or influence.
Trouble for Musharraf
While Pakistan is in the throes of major
developments, by no stretch of the imagination is
this a revolution. It is barely a political
movement, although it is in the process of
becoming one. In 1968-70, 1977 or 1983, 1986-88,
all political movements were organised around
political parties and political leaders. Today,
the only "leader" is a chief justice, while some
of the political parties are waiting to see when
they can join president general Pervez
Musharraf's camp and cut a deal with him, and
most have only shown symbolic support to the
lawyers' movement. The opposition to military
rule is still as disorganised as it is
opportunistic. Nevertheless, president general
Pervez Musharraf is in a spot of bother, and
needs to extricate himself from this hole he has
dug himself into. It is probable that there will
be some sort of change or transition in this year
of two elections, but at the moment it is
difficult to predict the out- come of this
transition. President general Musharraf may be
further weakened for the moment and may need to
rebuild his rule, more inclusive this time along
with more partners. It does not seem likely that
he will leave voluntarily or give up power. He
can always make a number of tactical retreats,
and salvage some room for himself. One does not
know what his most important constituency, the
army, is thinking, but they may prefer to enjoy
the benefits of military rule by supporting
someone who has ensured that they all benefit. On
the other hand, with the military being abused
publicly, on television, it may be the army which
calls for a collective retreat, to re-emerge
after playing its ubiquitous "behind the scenes"
role, which it did throughout the decade of
democracy in the 1990s. The TINA factor - there
is no alternative - however, might just result in
the general-president's political longevity. It
is 60 years and still the serving chief of the
army staff general, is the president of Pakistan,
ignominy of the worst kind.
______
[4]
Kashmir Times
11 June 2007
PREVENTING A NUCLEAR DISASTER - FREEZE THE KOODANKULAM PROJECT!
by Praful Bidwai
India has come to treat World Environment Day,
June 5, as a mere ritual, involving lip service
to the cause of environmental protection while
promoting policies and activities that are
ecologically thoroughly unsound. On the eve of
the G-8 summit, our government could not even
formulate a response to the question the world is
asking: what does India intend to do, as one of
the globe's fastest growing economies and its
fifth biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, to cut
its emissions? What is its strategy to mitigate
climate change, besides making money through
carbon trading? How long is the Indian elite
going to hide behind its poor people to resist
demands for limiting its growing contribution to
global warming?
In recent years the Indian government has
sanctioned countless environmentally hazardous
industrial and mining projects, promoted the
profligate use of energy and wasteful luxury
consumption by the rich, allowed extensive
deforestation and pollution of rivers,
gratuitously diluted environmental clearance
norms, and failed to remedy the human and
ecological effects of large dams, chemical
factories, and harmful activities along our
vulnerable coast. In 1994, it instituted a system
of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for
major projects, including public hearings-as a
token of "transparency".
However, this has been so comprehensively
subverted in practice as to have become a farce.
A whole army of "consultants" has mushroomed, who
will produce appallingly bad reports extolling
hazardous projects-as "command performance" for
their sponsors. Public hearings are conducted
with cynical collusion between state pollution
control boards (PCBs), EIA consultants, project
sponsors and the district authorities.
Typically, the hearings' organisers ensure that
the projects' opponents are not properly
informed, nor heard. The District Collector's
concluding report usually mocks the process and
arbitrarily grants the project approval even when
a majority of participants register their strong
opposition. In any case, the report can be
whimsically overruled by the Central Pollution
Control Board or Ministry of Environment and
Forests (MoEF).
I had experience of this last week in respect of
a public hearing for the Russian-designed Units 3
to 6 of the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Station
(KNPS), proposed to be built by the Nuclear Power
Corporation of India (NPC) at the Southern tip of
India, less than 20 km from Kanyakumari.
Ironically, Units 1 & 2, both of 1,000 MW, and
costing a huge Rs 13,171 crores, are already
three-fourths of the way through
construction-without even an EIA, leave alone a
public hearing. NPC claims, incredibly, that the
new Units won't add to the environmental impact
of the original project.
If approved, the 6,000 MW KNPS will be India's
largest and most concentrated nuclear power
centre, 10 times bigger than all other nuclear
power stations (barring one). It must also be one
of India's most hated and unpopular
electricity-generating facilities. The public
hearing of June 2 at Tirunelveli bore ample
testimony to this. More than 2,000 people from
three coastal districts (Tirunelveli, Tuticorin
and Kanyakumari) attended it-a number that speaks
to the strength of the anti-project sentiment.
The hearing took place in intimidating
conditions-a police posse of 1,500, tight
security barriers, nasty riot gear, "Striking
Force" trucks and water-cannon vehicles, and
armoured crowd control carriers called "Vajra".
Yet, hundreds of people insisted that they be
allowed to speak. Under MoEF guidelines, the EIA
report summary must be widely publicised in the
local language, and made available to people in
advance. This didn't happen.
The Collector claimed that a Tamil translation of
the EIA summary was available at designated
offices. But he couldn't produce a copy. None
among those present at the hearing had seen it.
Many said they nothing was available in these
offices during their visits.
The Collector, say MoEF rules, must conduct the
hearing in "a systematic, time-bound and
transparent manner, ensuring widest possible
public participation district-wise. Every person
present at the venue shall be granted the
opportunity to seek information or
clarifications. The summary of the. proceedings
accurately reflecting all the views and concerns
expressed shall be recorded. and read over to the
audience. explaining the contents in the
vernacular language."
None of this happened. Two hours into the
process, after about 10 persons had spoken, the
Collector abruptly closed the hearing and
declared he would convey the assembly's
sentiments to the PCB and MoEF. It's not as if
there was violence or any other provocation to
terminate the hearing. The people were simply not
given a chance to register their views.
This gross violation of due process has further
enraged the local people, who overwhelmingly
oppose the project. They want the hearing to be
resumed after MoEF requirements are fulfilled,
including wide circulation of the EIA in Tamil.
It's not difficult to understand why the people
hate the KNPS. They don't do so out of ignorance,
but because they are literate, worldly-wise and
aware of the hazards of nuclear power. The
project is being foisted upon them without even
an honest acknowledgement that nuclear power is
fraught with problems, including generation of
radioactive waste, routine releases of
radioactivity and other toxic substances, and the
possibility of catastrophic accidents like
Chernobyl 21 years ago. It's one thing to claim
that steps can be taken to overcome the hazards
and risks; it's another to deny their existence
altogether.
The Koodankulam project concentrates all the
classical problems associated with nuclear power
(discussed in this Column last February and in
December)-in a magnified form. Thus, it will
generate large amounts of spent fuel, which
contains concentrated high-level radioactivity.
But the EIA takes no account of this. The EIA
greatly underestimates routine releases of
radioisotopes like iodine-131 and noble gases.
The plant will expose hundreds of occupational
workers to high doses of radiation-a silent,
invisible poison that damages cell DNA and causes
cancers and genetic deformities. Like all reactor
types-and Koodankulam is a Russian design, as was
Chernobyl-KNPS can undergo a core meltdown, with
devastating consequences for Tamil Nadu and
Kerala, even Sri Lanka.
KNPS poses four additional problems that warrant
its scrapping. First, it's being built at the
edge of the Gulf of Mannar, one of the world's
richest marine biodiversity areas, with 3,600
species of flora and fauna, of which 377 are
endemic. The thermal discharges from the plant
are liable to adversely affect this sensitive,
vulnerable, yet precious, biological reserve.
Available data suggest that the seawater in the
secondary cooling circuit will be discharged at a
much higher temperature than the 7§C (above the
incoming water) norm of MoEF. The amount of
seawater circulated is 13 times higher than for
the average Indian nuclear station.
Second, within a 5 km radius of the plant lie
three large settlements: Koodankulam (pop.
20,000), Idinthakarai (pop. 12,000), and a new
Tsunami (rehabilitation) Colony (pop.
2,000-plus). KNPS's location violates the
Department of Atomic Energy's siting norms and a
Tamil Nadu Government Order of May 31, 1988,
which declares a 1.6 km-radius zone around the
plant "prohibited". The next zone, in a 5-km
radius, is a "sterilised area", where "the
density of population should be small so that
rehabilitation will be easier." Finally, "in the
outlying area of 16 km, the population should not
exceed 10,000."
Now, Koodankulam and Idinthakarai are just 2 to 4
km from the plant as the crow flies. And the
Tsunami Colony' last row is less than one km from
the reactors. The population in the 16-km radius
is at least 70,000. So either NPC will flagrantly
violate its own norms, or thousands of families
will be brutally uprooted-and separated from
their livelihood as fisherfolk. This is
unconscionable and altogether too disgusting even
to contemplate.
Third, the plant is being built in a seriously
water-stressed area. It originally planned to
bring fresh water from the nearest source,
Pechipparai dam, 65 km away. But in the face of
popular resistance, the idea was dropped. It will
now daily desalinate 48 million litres of
seawater-an exorbitantly expensive technology,
unproved on an industrial scale. This will send
the costs of electricity it generates through the
roof.
Finally, even without this additional expense,
the original (optimistically) estimated cost of
Koodankulam's power is Rs 3.08 per unit. By
contrast, the cost of electricity from the nearby
Neyveli thermal power station will be Rs 1.66 to
1.74 (on capacity factors of 85 and 70 percent
respectively). The Koodankulam estimate excludes
the costs of decommissioning nuclear reactors
(which are one-third to one-half their capital
costs).
KNPS represents a rotten deal, especially because
Southern Tamil Nadu has become the wind energy
capital of India-with hundreds of megawatts of
renewable, cheap and safe energy.
Koodankulam was always a political bargain,
signed during the last days of the USSR, to
symbolically reaffirm "Indo-Soviet (Russian)
friendship". It remains that despite today's
changed conditions. But there are better, less
toxic and expensive ways of expressing
friendship. Koodankulam must be scrapped.
______
[5]
House of Commons
Thursday 7 June 2007
Notices of Motions for which no days have been fixed
('Early Day Motions')
* The figure following this symbol is the total
number of Members' names submitted in support of
the Motion, including names printed for the first
time in this paper.
1615 ARREST OF DR BINAYAK SEN 5:6:07
Ms Diane Abbott
Peter Bottomley
Lynne Jones
Mr Martin Caton
Mr Ronnie Campbell
Jeremy Corbyn
* 11
Mr George Galloway John Hemming Mr Mike Weir
Mr Dai Davies
That this House is concerned at the
arbitrary arrest of the human rights activist and
General Secretary of the Chhattisgarh unit of the
People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Dr
Binayak Sen, in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh;
notes with concern that this arrest has taken
place in the aftermath of the alleged involvement
by the police in the unlawful killing of 12
adivasis or tribal people; further notes that,
despite these allegations being substantiated by
a police inquiry, the state government still
refuses to approve the prosecution of those
suspected to be involved; further notes that this
has occurred in the context of an escalation in
violence between Maoist rebels and the Salwa
Judum militia, which is widely believed to be
sponsored by the state government; further notes
with concern that other members of the PUCL have
been subject to harassment and threats of arrest;
and therefore supports the calls of Amnesty
International for the state government to release
Dr Sen immediately unless he is charged with a
recognisably criminal offence and take urgent
steps to end the harassment of the other human
rights defenders in the state.
______
[6]
Times of India
10 June 2007
WHY IS INDIA'S PICASSO STAYING AWAY?
by Shashi Tharoor
It's a lovely small apartment in Dubai, with a
view from the balcony of the old port where dhows
used to drift in before the town had a single
skyscraper. But what interests me is the view
inside: a room with a single easel, a bare floor,
and canvases stacked against the wall. And off a
narrow corridor, a treasure trove: mounted close
to each other on the walls of a bedless bedroom,
88 previously unknown paintings by the Master
himself, India's Picasso, MF Husain.
This tiny flat in the Gulf Emirate is Husain's
studio, his escape, his museum, his refuge. The
last word sticks in my throat as i utter it. Why
should our greatest living artist need a refuge
from his homeland? For the last year Husain has
been shuttling between Dubai and London, and has
not set foot in India, where his paintings have
been vandalised, his exhibitions assaulted. So
many abusive cases have been filed against him
that a court even went so far as to attach his
home and his property - a fatuous decision since
reversed by the Supreme Court. But Husain fears
the harassment will not end there; the moment he
sets foot in Delhi or Mumbai, he says, he is sure
to be dragged off to the lock-up, tormented by
legal proceedings. He is 92 and does not want to
spend his years battling the persecution of the
petty hypocrites who have turned on him. So he
stays away.
His tormentors profess to be defending their
faith and the nation's cultural integrity. They
object to the use of nudity in his art,
particularly in his evocations of Hindu
mythological figures and deities, which they
claim offends them. Instead of applauding the
decision of a Muslim artist to derive inspiration
from the ancient legends of his homeland, they
accuse him of desecrating a faith that is not
his. Instead of honouring an artist who has
revived worldwide appreciation of the richness
and diversity of the sources of Indian culture,
they have attacked him for insulting Indian
culture, reducing Indianness to the narrow
bigotry of their own blinkers. It is ironic that
a profoundly patriotic painting of the
geographical shape of India in the persona of a
semi-naked woman elicited the loudest howls of
outrage from these philistines.
It is a disgrace that our democracy has allowed
the most intolerant elements of our society to
derail the life and work of such a great Indian
artist. These so-called Hindus have clearly never
seen the inside of any of our ancient temples,
have never marvelled at Khajuraho or seen a
sunset at Konarak. Worse, Husain is far more
steeped in the Hindu sensibility than they are.
Theirs is a notion of 'Bharatiya Sanskriti' that
is profoundly inauthentic, because it can be
traced back no further than the Puritanism that
accompanied the Muslim conquests.
Will they next attack the explicitly detailed
couplings of Khajuraho, far more scandalous than
anything Husain has ever painted? What about the
Kama Sutra, the tradition of the devadasis , the
eros of the Krishna Leela - are they all
un-Indian now, or even un-Hindu?
When the late, great Mexican poet Octavio Paz
wrote his final ode to our civilisation, In Light
of India, he devoted an entire section to
Sanskrit erotic poetry, basing himself, among
other things, on the Buddhist monk Vidyakara's
immortal 11th-century compilation of 1728 kavya ,
many of which are exquisitely profane. Are poets
like Ladahachandra or Bhavakadevi, who a thousand
years ago wrote verse after verse describing and
praising the female breast, to be expelled from
the VHP canon of 'Bharatiya sanskriti' ? Should
we tell future Octavio Pazes seeking to
appreciate the attainments of our culture that
the Ramayana on Doordarshan is 'Bharatiya
sanskriti ,' but a classical portrayal of the
erotic longings of the gopis for Krishna is not?
It is time all Indians, but especially Hindus,
woke up to what is being done to our heritage in
our name. To reduce the soaring majesty of an
inclusive, free-ranging, eclectic and humane
faith to the petit-bourgeois morality of
narrow-minded bigots is a far greater betrayal of
our culture than anything an artist can paint. It
is deeply disappointing, too, that our government
has been silent in the face of the harassment of
a living Indian icon. Only a handful of
politicians - take a bow, Maneka Gandhi - have
had the nerve to speak out against the barbarians
who are destroying the image of India. And it's
striking that the only state government that has
had the courage to stand up for Husain is that of
Kerala, which has awarded him the Raja Ravi Varma
Prize. Reports say that Husain will travel to
Thiruvananthapuram in September to receive the
award. If so, it would be the first time he has
set foot on Indian soil in over a year.
But that is not enough. He must be able to return
to live and work, free of frivolous lawsuits and
the threat of assault, spending his last years in
the land whose culture suffuses his work - and
whose culture he has immeasurably enriched. In
that Dubai apartment, Husain showed me the 88
paintings and drawings that he had once gifted to
a Czech friend 50 years ago, and which she
insisted be returned to him upon her death. "She
could have kept them - they were hers," he told
me. "But she said these pictures belonged to
India and deserved to return there."
How ironic, then, that they are languishing,
crammed into every available inch of wall-space
in a Dubai apartment. They belong in India -
ideally in a Husain museum, showcasing the life
and astonishing career of a national treasure.
When will someone build such a museum, and where?
"Perhaps in Kolkata," Husain says wistfully.
"They would not attack my paintings in Kolkata."
______
[9]
Combat Law
8 June, 2007
SANGH SPREADS ITS CLOAK IN AMERICAN CAMPUS
by Girish Agrawal
That the sangh parivar, the 'family' of
organisations spawned and controlled by the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), has an
extensive overseas presence is no secret. That
the overseas arms of the sangh, just like the
parent body RSS, have Hindutva as their guiding
ideology, take direction from the RSS, and could
not care less about the social, constitutional or
political integrity of India, has also never been
in doubt. But the depths to which the sangh will
sink to spread its ideology of hate and recruit
foot-soldiers has only now been exposed by the
Campaign to Stop Funding Hate (CSFH) in its
recently released report called Lying
Religiously: The Hindu Students Council and the
Politics of Deception. (The report is available
at: http://hsctruthout.stopfundinghate.org/).
This report reveals that the sangh has spread its
web of hatred in universities across North
America to ensnare young Indian-Americans through
the Hindu Students Council (HSC), an organisation
based in North America, which "publicly claims to
provide a space to learn about Hindu heritage and
culture and draws it membership primarily from
the Indian-American student community."
The CSFH, of which the writer is a member, is a
voluntary organisation based in the US. The
organisation tracks the activities of the sangh
parivar in the US and in the wake of the
anti-Muslim pogroms in Gujarat, was instrumental
in researching and releasing a report documenting
the fund-raising activities of the sangh in the
U.S. (see The Foreign Exchange of Hate: IDRF and
the American Funding of Hindutva, available at
http://stopfundinghate.org/sacw/index.html).
Having watched with growing worry as the sangh
spread its message of hate among young people in
North America, CSFH decided to publish some of
its research into the sangh's activities among
youth in the hope that exposing these activities
to the light of day will stop, or at least slow
the spread of the Hindutva poision.
The Hindu Students Council (HSC) was formed in
1990 by a group of sangh parivar activists. They
claimed that the organisation was being formed to
assist Hindu students who struggle with the "loss
and isolation" due to their "upbringing in a dual
culture Hindu and Judeo-Christian?" The HSC
targeted the so-called second and third
generations, that is, the children and
grandchildren of Indians who had migrated to the
US in waves starting in the 1960s.
Even though the HSC wrapped itself in a cloak of
'culture,' the goal was not simply indoctrination
of young people in Hindutva ideology, but also to
plant the seed of a new generation of sangh
leadership.
As Vijay Prashad notes in a recent article in
ZMag ("Multicultu-ralism Kills Me"), "the HSC was
never simply about the identity struggles of
those whom it called Hindu Americans. It was also
the youthful fingers of the long-arm of
Hindutva-supremacy in India."
The report by CSFH, hereafter shortened to Lying
Religiously, points out that even though HSC was
started as a project by the VHP of America, and
had no independent legal existence until just
after the Gujarat violence of 2002, when it
registered as a non-profit, tax-exempt
organisation in the U.S., separate from the VHP
of America, perhaps in an attempt to put some
legal distance between itself and other sangh
parivar entities responsible for the brutal,
terrorist violence unleashed against Muslims in
Gujarat.
Ordinary HSC members are largely unaware of the
ideological and organisational links with the VHP
and the larger sangh parivar. The authors of
Lying Religiously further make the point that
this lack of awareness is not accidental, the
sangh has followed a deliberate strategy of
hiding intimate connections between HSC and
various parts of the sangh parivar. This practice
of deception, of hiding its true hate-filled
nature behind a mask of "heritage and culture,"
is of course not unique to the HSC, but is how
the sangh parivar always operates when it does
not hold the reins of power.
Ordinary HSC members are largely unaware of the
ideological and organisational links with the VHP
and the larger sangh parivar
Lying Religiously challenges the claims by HSC of
being a non-partisan, non-political, cultural and
spiritual/religious organisation. It "documents
the history, organisation, and political links of
HSC and demonstrates that it is part of the sangh
parivar. These findings sharply contradict the
public face HSC presents in the US 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 purposes behind the creation of
such an organisation. This report shows that HSC
has deep-rooted connections-institutional,
personal, and political-with the sangh parivar."
HSC was molded through the sangh's vision to woo
American youth to Hindutva, and as such, the
vision for the organisation is created not by
students who join a chapter of this seemingly
liberal organisation on their campus today, but
was established almost 15 years ago by the VHP.
In 1993, months after the destruction of the
500-year-old historic Babri Masjid by its goons,
the sangh organised a sort of victory celebration
worldwide, part of which was the World Vision
2000 conference held in Washinton, DC. Ashok
Singhal, the leader of the VHP in India, attended
the conference, and singled out HSC for attention:
"Now, the first project we have in mind is
strengthening the Hindu Students Council Š . This
is the generation which is going to throw up the
[sangh] leadership of the future. We therefore
feel that they should be the focus of our
attention."
Lying Religiously points out that although HSC
has an extensive web presence, nowhere does it
clearly identify its roots and connections, or
its agenda. "No connection or affiliation with
the RSS, the VHP, the Bajrang Dal, the BJP or any
other part of the sangh parivar is acknowledged.
And all HSC chapters are careful not to openly
articulate a sectarian agenda."
The report details the history of the HSC as a
project of the sangh parivar, started and
controlled by the VHP of America, and how, at the
beginning, it not just acknowledged its links
with the sangh, but declared them proudly. But as
it grew and matured, HSC made a "deliberate
effort to disguise, often disown, this
connection" with the sangh. The strategy appears
to be aimed at attracting a wider membership to
HSC who would not join if they knew that "HSC was
an offshoot of an extremist organisation with a
record of directing violence against minority
groups in India."
In the wake of the release of 'Lying
Religiously', the Hindu Students Council claimed
in a press release that it is not hiding
anything, on the contrary, it is "open about its
activities," and does such things as "hosting
speakers, performing community service, holding
poojas, celebrating festivals, and participating
in interfaith discussions." The last claim, of
interfaith amity, articulated by the national HSC
on its website as "Sarve Api Sukhina Santu Sarve
Santu Niramayah" (Let everybody be happy,
healthy, and blessed), is particularly cruel
given the sangh's anti-Muslim politics. As noted
in Lying Religiously, "[t]he rhetoric of HSC's
self-presentation flows easily into the North
American framework of 'liberal multiculturism'
where each cultural group (mostly 'ethnic'
minorities and religious groups) has, in
principle, its own separate, unique space to
perform its identity." As Vijay Prashad notes in
his ZMag article [referenced above],
"Multiculturalism in the US provided cover for
the cruel, cultural chauvinism in India."
The report presents a lot of specific information
in making its argument that the strength of the
denial by HSC of its connections with the sangh
gets suppressed "at moments of crisis, planning
and celebration in the sangh family. Š At Š
politically significant moments, HSC is present
along with other members of the sangh family."
In addition to all the evidence about the façade
of independence and liberalism presented by HSC
being underlain by deep connections to the sangh
parivar, a final bit of evidence presented in
'Lying Religiously', about the electronic
connection between HSC and the sangh parivar, is
extremely interesting.
"HSC, as the most technologically savvy segment
of the sangh, is in charge of the electronic
infrastructure of almost the entire sangh
parivar. Not only are core and flagship
institutions of the sangh - the RSS itself, the
VHP in India, the VHP of America, Seva Bharati in
India and the IDRF in the US - all located on [a]
network based in San Diego and run by HSC, but
even small and minor Sangh institutions such as
collegegrading.com (an ABVP front),
balagokulam.org (an HSS outfit), and
indiafriends.org (an HSS front) reside on the
same cluster." (emphasis added.)
The network referred to in the above quote from
Lying Religiously is the Global Hindu Electronic
Network, or GHEN, maintained and run by HSC. A
copyright notice for GHEN says: "Please note that
entire collection of GHEN websites is copyrighted
1998-1999, Global Hindu Electronic Networks,
Hindu Students Council." A map of the Class C IP
addresses of the various websites shows that they
all reside on the same server or cluster of
servers based in San Diego in the U.S.,
controlled and run by one of the founders of HSC.
No more evidence is required to demonstrate the
true strength of the 'family' connection between
the Hindu Students Council and the sangh parivar
in India and elsewhere.
The writer is a US-based human rights activist
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
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: http://insaf.net/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