SACW | August 25-26, 2007

Harsh Kapoor aiindex at mnet.fr
Sun Aug 26 02:26:11 CDT 2007


South Asia Citizens Wire | August 25-26, 2007 | Dispatch No. 2440 - Year 9

[1] Global capital and the cities of the south (Arif Hasan)
[2] Grave crisis over India-US nuclear deal (Praful Bidwai)
[3] India: Peace Mumbai Condemns 123 Agreement
[4] Bangladesh:
   - Shahidul Alam's account of recent happenings in Dhaka
   - Release of five university teachers demanded
[5] India: Assault on Taslima - Abuse of Article 16  (Editorial, EPW)
[6] In India, Parents of Brides-to-Be Hire Sleuths (Mridu Khullar)
[7] India - Gujarat: Youth Karwan threatened and Intimidated by BJP MLA
[8] Announcements:
(i) Screening of Kavita Joshi's film 'Tales from 
the Margins' (New Delhi, 26 August 2007)
(ii) Sharing of the Youth Karwan Experience (Ahmedabad, August 27, 2007)
(iii) Upcoming Events at the Second Floor 
(Karachi, 29 August - 9 September, 2007)
______


[1]

Dawn
August 24, 2007  

GLOBAL CAPITAL AND THE CITIES OF THE SOUTH

by Arif Hasan

KARACHI: International capital is desperately 
looking for a home. Cities of South and 
South-East Asia are attractive destinations since 
they have a weak regulatory framework and have 
undergone structural adjustment. Here, this 
investment, is increasingly determining not only 
the shape of the city but also social and 
economic relations.

New terms, such as "world class cities", 
"investment-friendly infrastructure", "foreign 
direct investment" or "FDI" as it is called, 
cities as "engines of growth", have entered the 
development vocabulary. All politicians and 
official planners in the Asian cities are using 
these terms and it is largely because of them 
that the whole approach to planning has undergone 
a change. Local governments are obsessed by 
making cities "beautiful" to visitors and 
investors. This means building flyovers and 
elevated expressways as opposed to traffic 
management and planning; high-rise apartments as 
opposed to upgraded settlements; malls as opposed 
to traditional markets (which are being removed); 
removing poverty from the centre of the city to 
the periphery to improve the image of the city so 
as to promote FDI; catering to tourism rather 
than supporting local commerce; seeking the 
support of the international corporate sector 
(developers, banks, suppliers of technologies and 
the IFIs) for all of the above.

The above agenda is an expensive one. For this, 
sizeable loans have been negotiated with the 
International Financial Institutions (IFIs) on a 
scale unthinkable before. For example, between 
1976 and 1993, Sindh borrowed $799.64 million for 
urban development. Almost all of this was for 
Karachi. Recently, the government has borrowed 
$800 million for the Karachi Mega City Project. 
Of this, $5.33 million is being spent on 
technical assistance being provided by foreign 
consultants.

Almost all the projects designed and funded 
through previous loans have not met their 
objectives and there is evidence to show that 
they will again not meet their objectives as the 
same process for their design and implementation 
as before is being followed. Many of the new 
projects are being floated on a BOT process. It 
is clear that the projects have replaced 
planning. This is especially true of transport 
related projects. Cities such as Bangkok, Manila, 
Cairo and earlier Calcutta have made major 
investments in light rail and metro systems. 
Other Asian cities are following their example. 
However, these systems are far too expensive to 
be developed on a large enough scale to make a 
difference.

Manila's light rail caters to only 8 per cent of 
trips and Bangkok's sky train and metro to only 3 
per cent of trips and Calcutta's metro to even 
less. The light rail and metro fares are 3 to 4 
times higher than bus fares. As a result, the 
vast majority of commuters continue to travel by 
rundown bus systems. In addition, there has never 
been more liquidity in banks and leasing 
companies. However, due to the freedom that these 
loan giving institutions have today, this 
liquidity is used to provide short-term high 
interest loans which do not bring any benefit to 
the city or to the majority of its residents. For 
example, 502 vehicles have been added to Karachi 
per day during the last financial year, more than 
half of which are cars. It is estimated that 
about 50 percent of these have been financed 
through loans from banks and leasing companies. 
This means that loans worth $1.125 billion were 
issued for this investment which could easily 
have been utilised for improving the public 
transport system or for the badly needed social 
housing.

The nature of investments being made in many of 
the Asian cities and the mindset behind them, are 
increasing land hording; evictions of 
settlements, hawkers and informal businesses; 
informal settlements far away from the city and 
from social sector facilities; exclusion (due to 
gentrification) of poorer communities from public 
spaces of recreation and entertainment; and, the 
ad-hoc urbanization of ecologically sensitive and 
agriculturally productive land. Monitoring of 
evictions by the Asian Coalition for Housing 
Rights, a Bangkok base NGO, has shown that in 
seven Asian countries (Bangladesh, China, India, 
Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines) 
evictions are increasing dramatically. Between 
January to June 2004, 334,593 people were evicted 
in the urban areas of these countries. In January 
to June 2005, 2,084,388 people were evicted. In 
Karachi as well evictions have quadripiled in the 
last four years and an increasing number of 
families are now sleeping and living on pavements 
in the absence of an alternative. The major 
reason for these evictions has been the 
"beautification" of the city, mega projects and 
the land hunger of the developers backed by 
politicians and bureaucrats. In the majority of 
cases, people did not receive any compensation 
for the losses they incurred and where 
resettlement did take place it was 25 to 60 
kilometres from the city centre. The current 
master and/or strategic plans are not giving 
priority (unlike in the decade of the eighties) 
to the socio-economic issues arising out of these 
trends.

The rich-poor divide has increased as a result of 
these policies. Subsidies for the social sectors 
and increase in inflation and price of utilities, 
especially in countries which have undergone 
structural adjustment, has multiplied this 
divide. The economic survey of Pakistan 2006-07 
concedes that the gap between the rich and the 
poor is widening. It says that the share of 
consumption of the richest 20 per cent stands at 
39.4 while it is 9.5 for the bottom 20 per cent 
population.

The survey further states that the gap is growing 
in spite of a 7 per cent GDP growth. However, the 
most serious repercussion of this new development 
paradigm is that the overwhelming power of 
international capital and consultants and their 
local partners has weakened government 
institutions and the democratic political process.

Governments have become deaf to the concerns of 
the environmental and dissenting academic 
lobbies. And all this in an age where the media 
is freer than before and "consultations" are the 
order of the day. NGOs and community activists 
and academics in most Asian cities in which I 
have worked have the same complaint. They claim 
that consultations are an eyewash and 
environmental assessments are rubber stamps. 
Meanwhile, successful NGO projects, the result of 
the populism of the '80s, have now in most cases 
become "respectable" and are in partnership with 
governments. Also, the NGO movement has undergone 
a change. It is increasingly an industry manned 
by "development professionals" and no longer by 
populist altruism. Most of these "development 
professionals" have been trained at special 
courses in First World universities who have 
turned exploratory Third World practices into 
development theory!

If this Trend Continues

If the present trend continues then the rich-poor 
divide, evictions, informal settlements and 
exclusion will increase with not only the poor 
but also the rich living in ghettos surrounded by 
armed guards and security systems (this is 
already happening).

Governance issues will increasingly become law 
and order related and not justice and equity 
related. This will increase fragmentation for the 
only thing that will hold the city together will 
be an aggressively upwardly mobile middle class 
which by its very nature is not interested in 
issues of justice and equity. In addition, 
development will take place where the investor is 
happy and so the other regions will become the 
backwaters (again this is also happening). The 
continuation of the current process is a recipe 
for conflict.

How can this be changed?

Foreign capital (and local liquidity) has its 
benefits and must be encouraged. However, it has 
to fit into a larger development plan based on 
development principles so that an inclusive and 
an environmentally friendly urban environment can 
be created. These principles could be: one, 
planning should respect the ecology of the areas 
in which the urban centres are located; two, land 
use should be determined on the basis of social 
and environmental considerations and not on the 
basis of land value or potential land value 
alone; three, planning should give priority to 
the needs of the majority of population which in 
the case of Asia are low- and lower-middle income 
communities, hawkers, informal businesses, 
pedestrians and commuters; and four, planning 
must respect and promote the tangible and 
intangible cultural heritage of the communities 
that live in the city. Zoning byelaws should be 
developed on the basis of these principles so 
that they are pedestrian friendly and street 
friendly, pro-dissolved space and pro-mixed land 
use.

If South-Asian cities are to be taken as 
examples, then what is required is: one, a heavy 
non-utilisation fee on land so as to bring horded 
land into the market; two, a cut-off date for the 
regularisation of informal settlements and an end 
to evictions (where relocation is required, 
market rate compensation should be paid); three, 
planned squatting for five years during which 
programmes for closing the demand-supply gap for 
low income housing takes place; four, initiation 
of programmes for built units and plots which 
successfully solve the issues related to 
targeting and speculation (apart from the small 
scale of social housing, the failure to respond 
to these issues is the main reason for the 
failure of social housing attempts all over the 
Third World); five, development of rules, 
regulations and procedures to guarantee that the 
natural, entertainment and recreational assets of 
the city will not be in the exclusive use of the 
elite or the middle classes; six, a regime for 
privatisation backed by institutional 
arrangements that guarantees provision of 
sustainable employment and development; and 
seven, an understanding that all programmes and 
projects will be advertised at their conceptual 
stage, subject to public hearings before 
finalisation, supervised by a steering committee 
of interest groups, have their accounts published 
regularly, and overseen by one government 
official from the beginning to the end.

The major question is how can the above agenda be 
achieved in an age where social and political 
evolution is in a flux and the economy is 
controlled globally by undemocratic international 
organisations? For example, the UN is controlled 
by five members who won the Second World War; the 
IMF and the World Bank function on the principle 
of one dollar one vote; the WTO was created out 
of the green room negotiations that produced 
GATT. Not much democracy in global institutions 
in an age of globalisation! Civil society 
organisations in many countries have come 
together to challenge the new urban development 
paradigm. However, most of them are funded by 
bilateral agencies and international NGOs who, or 
the governments they represent, are the promoters 
of this paradigm. Maybe because of this their 
success has been limited. There are also 
international movements seeking to modify the 
inequities in global relations of trade and aid. 
Over the last few years they have become weaker. 
The only viable option seems to be to make this 
important issue a part of the larger political 
process within countries. How this can be done 
effectively is the big question.

(The above text was prepared as a discussion 
paper for a meeting of the UN University in New 
York in July 2007)


______



[2]


The News
August 25, 2007

GRAVE CRISIS OVER INDIA-US NUCLEAR DEAL

by Praful Bidwai
The writer, a former newspaper editor, is a 
researcher and peace and human-rights activist 
based in Delhi

The confrontation between the United Progressive 
Alliance and the Left over the India-United 
States nuclear deal has ballooned into a major 
crisis, which could potentially dislodge the 
government. The roots of the crisis lie in the 
way the "123 agreement" was negotiated, without 
political leaders being taken into confidence 
about its context or content, or involved in 
resolving differences over its text.

Opposition to the deal, whether genuine, 
procedural or contrived, is widespread. But it's 
only when the Left presented its critique on 
August 7 that matters came to a head. This was 
the first well-informed and -reasoned critical 
analysis of the deal it after the "123" text was 
made public.

Even so, an ugly confrontation might have been 
avoided but for two events. First, Singh gave an 
interview to the Kolkata-based Telegraph (Aug 
11), challenging the Left to withdraw support to 
the UPA. Second, US State Department spokesperson 
Sean McCormack was reported to have said that 
under "123", "all nuclear cooperation [would be] 
terminated" if India conducts nuclear test. This 
was one day after Singh said that testing is 
India's "sovereign decision", and won't cause 
sudden termination.

If the second event created confusion, the first 
provoked the Left. Singh taunted it for not 
having "thought" things "through", and said: "It 
is an honourable deal Šif [the Left parties] want 
to withdraw support, so be itŠ" Singh's 
self-styled advisers calculated that this would 
help him play the CPM's so-called "moderate 
modernisers" in West Bengal off against its 
"hardliners" to trump their opposition. This 
betrayed a serious misunderstanding of how the 
Left parties make policy decisions. It also 
underrated the unanimity among them on foreign 
policy and security issues.

The Left's reaction was ballistic. Within three 
days, Singh was begging CPM general secretary 
Prakash Karat for a reconciliation meeting. Thus 
began the worst-ever crisis in UPA-Left 
relations. The CPM, joined by the other three 
Left parties, demanded that that the government 
suspend further talks with the International 
Atomic Energy Agency and the Nuclear Suppliers' 
Group to complete the deal.

Or there would be "serious consequences". Without 
the Left's support, the UPA would fall short of a 
parliamentary majority by 30 to 50 seats. Instead 
of sincerely exploring a via media, the UPA 
deviously resorted to accusing the Left of acting 
at China's and Pakistan's behest. This 
tendentious charge was articulated through 
Right-wing pro-US China-Pakistan-baiters 
masquerading as "experts". In reality, there is 
no live contact between the Indian Left and the 
Chinese Communist Party, over some of whose 
policies the Left has serious misgivings.

India is now witnessing the most vicious attack 
on the Left since the 1962 China War. Every Tom, 
Dick and Harry in the media--from semi-literate 
television anchors, to former intelligence 
spooks, to pitiable third-edit writers--is 
unleashing vitriolic anti-Communist assaults. 
This new McCarthyism betrays malignant 
intolerance. Such intolerance can only have 
dangerous consequences for public debate. If 
every dissenting opinion is attributed to the 
"foreign hand" by suppressing its rational 
content, and if every difference on principle is 
reduced to an "ego clash" between personalities, 
there can be no rational discourse on policy 
issues. That does not bode well for Indian 
democracy.

It's simply undeniable that the Indian Left 
represents the most important current driven by 
ideology and principle in politics, which perhaps 
concentrates more brainpower per capita than any 
other party. Despite the Left's conduct in Singur 
and Nandigram--of which this writer has been 
strongly critical--, its objection to the deal on 
strategic grounds cannot be dismissed. As this 
column argued two weeks ago, the nuclear deal is 
inseparable from the larger US game-plan to 
recruit India into a junior strategic 
partnership, not least to counter China, and more 
broadly, to create an anchor for a 
Washington-dominated security architecture in 
Asia. The deal cannot be divorced from the 
Defence Framework agreement of June 2005, nor 
from India's two votes against Iran at the IAEA, 
nor from the 27 recent high-level military 
exercises with the US.

The Left's critique of the deal is foundational. 
It's centred on the US's deeply destabilising 
world role, and its attempt to ignite a second 
Cold War by encircling Russia with NATO and 
targeting China and Iran through "Son of Star 
Wars" Ballistic Missile Defence. The US remains 
the globe's most belligerent power, which has 
made the world more insecure through its Global 
War on Terror and its Empire project.

True, the Left did not consistently emphasise the 
deal's strategic dimensions in the past two 
years, and often concentrated on its text rather 
than context. Since December, it has been more 
concerned to point to differences between the 
Hyde Act and Singh's assurances to parliament. It 
didn't really agitate the issue in public. Any 
genuine, principled opposition to the deal should 
logically have focused on its harmful global and 
regional consequences for nuclear disarmament, 
and its promotion of an inappropriate, costly, 
hazardous and environmentally unsound energy 
trajectory through nuclear power 
development--besides its consequences for the 
loss of India's strategic and foreign policy 
autonomy via a strategic embrace of the US. These 
are significant errors of omission.

However, the government's errors of commission 
are graver. Singh acted like a typical 
bureaucrat, and left the deal's negotiation to 
bureaucrats alone, without bringing political 
leaders on board. He consistently underplayed its 
strategic consequences, and fomented the illusion 
that the deal would offer a magic bullet for 
India's energy problems. He capitulated to US 
pressures. Former US assistant secretary of state 
Stephen Rademaker says India's votes on Iran were 
obtained through "coercion".

Singh continues to pay lip-service to 
disarmament, while knowing fully well that the 
deal will enable India to stockpile 1,600 kg of 
plutonium every year--enough for more than 300 
bombs, in addition to the existing estimated 
inventory of 100-150 warheads. This is a recipe 
for a nuclear arms race with Pakistan, and worse, 
China, which can only reduce the security of all 
three.

Now, the UPA faces a crisis of survival. It would 
be foolish for it to brazen this out. It can 
still rescue the situation by doing four things. 
The first is to distance itself strategically 
from Washington demonstrably--by cancelling the 
huge military exercises with the US, Japan, 
Australia and Singapore planned for September. 
Second, it should initiate what might be called a 
"domestic Hyde Act" to prevent the transfer of 
any imported nuclear material/equipment out of 
India which would jeopardise the continuous 
operation of Indian reactors.

Third, the UPA must update the Rajiv Gandhi plan 
of 1988 for global nuclear disarmament and place 
it before the United Nations. That's the only 
concrete way of fulfilling the National Common 
Minimum Programme's promise that India would 
seize "leadership" in fighting for a nuclear 
weapons-free world. Finally, the UPA must launch 
a national debate on nuclear power, reviewing 
India's (unhappy) experience with it, analysing 
its international performance, and focusing on 
its hazards, costs and unsustainability.

The UPA must suspend negotiations on the deal 
while these processes are under way. Similarly, 
the Left must clarify that it won't vote against 
the government or contribute to its fall, thus 
helping the BJP. That could promote an honourable 
solution.


______


[3]


PEACE MUMBAI CONDEMNS 123 AGREEMENT

Peace Mumbai, an umbrella organisation of various 
NGOs and mass organisations based in Mumbai, 
notes with serious concern that the text 
negotiated between the designated US and Indian 
officials in Washington DC and finalised on 20th 
of July for the "123 Agreement" - a major step 
forward towards operationalising the 
controversial nuclear cooperation deal between 
the US and India has been okayed by the Union 
Cabinet in a hush hush manner without taking even 
the law-makers, let alone the general public, 
into confidence. This obviously flies in the face 
of basic democratic values and norms.

This deal, it needs be pointed out, will have 
serious repercussions on the future relations 
between India and the US - and thereby the rest 
of the world, particularly India's traditional 
allies and neighbours not too friendly with the 
US; the prospects of global and regional nuclear 
proliferation and disarmament; and also India's 
energy security.
Peace Mumbai is opposed to the deal on all these three counts.

I.                    Strategic proximity with 
the US would only provide further fillip to the 
US project for unfettered global domination, 
which has at the moment suffered serious setbacks 
being continually delivered bloody nose in Iraq, 
and also Afghanistan. Moreover, in the process, 
it is highly likely that India would be drawn 
into, formal or informal, military alliance with 
the US and be compelled to fight its dirty wars 
with all the concomitant dangerous consequences. 
Similarly, code-named "Malabar 07", the 
five-nation naval exercise that is scheduled to 
take! place from September 4-9 in the Bay of 
Bengal, in which India, Singapore, Japan, 
Australia and the US are taking part cannot but 
for understandable reasons elicit hostile 
reactions from China and vitiate the relations 
between India and its powerful neighbour for no 
good reasons from the Indian point of view. Apart 
from that, such growing proximity would also tend 
to fuel India's burning ambitions to emerge as a 
mini-hegemon in the region with the backing of 
the global super-cop causing aggravation of 
inter-state tensions and consequent deep hurt to 
the cause of South Asian solidarity. That's 
evidently a profoundly disturbing prospect.

II.                 The unique exception for 
India, as is provided under the deal, would 
further aggravate the discriminatory nature of 
the NPT; undermine the current non-proliferation 
order - for whatever it is worth, by encouraging 
the threshold nations to cross the rubicon and in 
the process gravely damage the prospects of 
global nuclear disarmament. It would also further 
worsen the ongoing nuclear arms race in South 
Asia by radically boosting India's capabilities 
for fissile material production by freeing up all 
the indigenously produced uranium for that 
purpose while imported stuff would be used for 
power production.

III.               The radically boosted nuclear 
power programme, following as a consequence, 
would throttle investments for developing 
environmentally benign renewable sources of 
energy including wind, solar etc., having grave 
impacts on the prospects of long-term energy 
security. This is apart from the fact that 
nuclear power is not only as of now uneconomic 
but also intrinsically hazardous - throughout the 
complete fuel cycle from mining to power plant, 
and potentially catastrophic. There is 
furthermore no fail-safe method for disposal of 
nuclear waste and outlived plants.

Given these serious implications, Peace Mumbai 
makes its principled opposition loud and clear. 
The claim that India's "strategic interests" have 
been taken care of only implies that India is out 
to further accelerate its downhill journey along 
the path of self-destruction by further 
intensifying its weaponisation programme and 
thereby making South Asia and the world even more 
dangerous and diverting scarce resources from 
social sectors even otherwise badly starved of 
funds.


Peace Mumbai Constituents:
Action Aid, Akshara, Asia South Pacific Bureau 
for Adult Education (ASPBAE), Bombay Urban 
Industrial League for Development (BUILD), CEHAT, 
Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace 
(CNDP), Documentation Research and Training 
Center (DRTC), Explorations, Focus on the Global 
South, India, India Center for Human Rights and 
Law (ICHRL), Indo-Pak Youth Forum for Peace, 
Institute For Community Organization and Research 
(ICOR), Media for People, Movement for Peace and 
Justice (MPJ),  National Alliance of Peoples 
Movements (NAPM), Pakistan-India Peoples Forum 
for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD), Peoples' Media 
Initiative,
Vidrohi Sanskrutik Chalval, Vikas Adhyayan Kendra 
(VAK), Women's Research and Action Group (WRAG), 
Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action (YUVA),

______


[4]

SHAHIDUL ALAM'S ACCOUNT OF HAPPENINGS IN DHAKA
http://shahidul.wordpress.com/2007/08/24/the-barren-banana-tree/ ...

o o o

The Daily Star
August 26, 2007

RELEASE OF FIVE UNIVERSITY TEACHERS DEMANDED
Staff Correspondent

Several socio-political and cultural 
organisations yesterday condemned the arrest of 
five teachers of Dhaka and Rajshahi universities 
and demanded their immediate release.

The South Asian People's Union against 
Fundamentalism and Communalism made the demand in 
a statement signed by its President National 
Professor Kabir Chowdhury, Justice KM Sobhan, 
human rights activist Hena Das, Prof Borhanuddin 
Khan Jahangir, Prof Ajay Roy and writer and 
columnist Shahriar Kabir.

They also condemned the harassment of journalists during the curfew period.

They criticised the government for arresting the 
academics without any warrants and for not 
producing them before the court even 30 hours 
after their arrest.

The rights activists also criticised the 
government for its treatment of journalists and 
teachers, comparing the present government's 
action to that of the BNP-led four-party alliance 
government.

In another statement, The Edu-Rights and Peace, a 
human rights organisation of Rajshahi University 
(RU) students, urged the caretaker government to 
release the teachers and grant amnesty for 
general students who violated the state of 
emergency and staged demonstrations on the RU 
campus.

They also called for a tripartite meeting between 
the RU authorities, students and the caretaker 
government to restore congenial atmosphere on the 
campus.

Bangladesh Muktojuddha Nou Commando Association 
Chairman Md Shahjahan Kabir Bir Pratik and 
Secretary General Md Khalilur Rahman in a 
statement demanded immediate release of the 
teachers and condemned the attacks on students.

Condemning the arrest of teachers, Dilip Barua, 
general secretary of Bangladesh Samyabadi Dal, 
said the filing of cases in a bid to harass the 
students and teachers would only worsen the 
situation.

Bangladesh Group Theatre Federation denounced the 
arrest of Prof Moloy Kumar Bhowmik who is a 
dramatist and director. The Federation also urged 
the government to release him immediately.

Expressing the hope that the caretaker government 
would seek a peaceful solution to this crisis, 
Bangladesh Chhatra Moitree said, "We urge the 
government to stop harassing the teachers and 
release them immediately."

Dhaka University teachers not only supported all 
the democratic movements since the language 
movement in 1952 but also took part in those 
movements, it observed.

Chhatra Sangram Parishad also condemned the attack on students.


______


[5]

Economic and Political Weekly
August 18, 2007

Editorial

ASSAULT ON TASLIMA
Abuse of Article 16

The attack on Taslima Nasreen in Hyderabad on 
August 9, 2007 by legislators belonging to the 
Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) is yet another 
instance of the steady criminalisation of 
politics in the country. What followed the attack 
is even more disturbing. While the Hyderabad 
police booked the MIM legislators under fairly 
inoffensive charges, they went ahead and booked a 
case against Taslima Nasreen for hurting the 
religious sentiments of Muslims. The political 
motivation for the MIM is clear. Having ruled the 
destiny of the Muslims in Hyderabad's old city 
for decades, the MIM has steadily been losing 
ground to the Majlis Bachao Tehreek and the 
Communist Party of India (Marxist). Taslima 
Nasreen's presence in Hyderabad provided the MIM 
a perfect oppor- tunity to reclaim its dwindling 
status as the sole spokesperson of Muslim 
interests in the state.

The MIM leaders remain unfazed by the criticism 
that has come from all right-thinking and 
civilised sections of society.  A day after the 
incident, the MIM leaders vowed to eliminate 
Taslima Nasreen and also prevent her from ever 
entering the city again. They argued that for 
them their religion was higher than the 
Constitution of India. A closer look at this 
statement shows that they have singular disregard 
for god as well as the Constitution. Records show 
that the MLAs who physically assaulted the exiled 
Bangladeshi author had, indeed, sworn in the name 
of god to protect and preserve the Constitution. 
It is increasingly apparent that the Indian state 
and its institutions have no mechanism to punish 
lawmakers who metamorphose into common criminals. 
There has not been a single known suggestion from 
among the political classes to strip these 
legislators of their membership of the Andhra 
Pradesh assembly. Nor is there even the slightest 
evidence on part of the political establishment 
to initiate a debate on theinterpretation of 
several problematic provisions of Article19of the 
Constitution that guarantees a citizen the right 
to freedom and expression. The idea of 
"reasonable restrictions" on the freedom of 
speech, and the limits imposed on such expression 
in the face of public disorder, have been 
systematically misused by the very people who 
have little respect for civilised debate and 
discussion.

In this race for reaping the benefits of identity 
politics and competitive populism, there is no 
secular-communal divide in the use of criminal 
strategies. The Sambhaji Brigade, an offshoot of 
the Nationalist Congress Party, had vandalised 
the Bhandarkar Institute in Pune for allowing 
James Laine to research his book on Shivaji in 
their library (15 years before its actual 
publication). The "secular" Congress-NCP govern- 
ment in Maharashtra banned Laine's book. The 
Narendra Modi government in Gujarat aided and 
abetted the move to prevent Fanaa from being 
screened in Gujarat because of the support of the 
film's actor, Aamir Khan, for those displaced by 
the Sardar Sarovar dam. More recently, the 
Congress governments of Punjab and Andhra Pradesh 
banned the film, Da Vinci Code, in response to 
complaints from some Chris- tian groups that it 
"hurt" their sentiments. It is also important to 
recall that Rajiv Gandhi banned Salman Rushdie's 
The Satanic Verses in India even before Ayatollah 
Khomeini issued the fatwa against the author. The 
Sangh parivar regularly manages to vandalise art 
exhibitions and disrupt the functioning of 
educational institutions. The saffron outfits 
have driven M F Hussain out of his own country 
into exile.  The most recent instance of moral 
policing and criminal assault on public 
institutions was the desecration of the Faculty 
of Fine Arts in Baroda and its examination 
process in May 2007, resulting in the arrest of a 
student, Chandramohan, on the pretext of having 
hurt Hindu and Christian sentiments.  In all 
these instances, the attackers have invariably 
gone scot- free or have even flourished, while 
the attacked have suffered without reason. 
Political alliances and expediency have often 
dictated the reaction of the governments 
responsible for ensuring the rule of law and 
bringing these criminals to book. The attack on 
Taslima Nasreen and the manner in which the 
Rajasekhara Reddy government has chosen to turn a 
blind eye to the whole incident testify to this 
trend.

The Congress and the MIM have an alliance at the 
state level and the MIM is also a partner of the 
United Progressive Alliance (UPA). For the 
Congress and the UPA, an assault on freedomof 
speech and expression, and a violation of the 
rule of law andcodes of civility, is a small 
price to pay compared to losing a valuable 
alliance partner. Ironically, the same Congress 
Party and its leader, who now happens to be the 
chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, poured scorn 
over Chandrababu Naidu's refusal to withdraw 
support to the National Democratic Alliance 
government when the Gujarat riots of 2002 
happened.


______


[6]

Women's eNews
20 August 2007

IN INDIA, PARENTS OF BRIDES-TO-BE HIRE SLEUTHS

by Mridu Khullar
WeNews correspondent

Even in rapidly developing India arranged 
marriages remain popular. These days, brides and 
grooms often match up online and the first people 
in the screening process may be professional 
detectives, not parents. First in a series on 
women in India.

Sanjay Singh, private eye.

NEW DELHI (WOMENSENEWS)--Arranged marriages 
continue to be a popular tradition in India, with 
over 90 percent of men and women between the ages 
of 17 and 25 in New Delhi and Mumbai approving of 
them, according to a survey by the Hindustan 
Times earlier this year.

The way these marriages get arranged, however, in 
the fast-changing urban centers--where a rapidly 
growing economy fuels women's social 
mobility--are shifting with the times.

In the past, parents or relatives searched their 
own social networks for suitable prospects. Today 
family members and prospective brides and grooms 
themselves are often looking online, at 
matrimonial Web sites.

Sometimes these sites function as casual dating 
services but people often use them to look for 
potential husbands and wives, and parents are 
also becoming involved in the process. The sites 
offer a convenient alternative to the traditional 
matrimonial sections in the newspapers.

Since people who meet online know little about 
each other--nor do their relatives--the anonymity 
offers a huge potential for fraud and deception.

Bring on the detectives.

Private eyes say the most common courtship lies 
concern finances and past relationships and that 
requests for their services are steadily 
increasing.
Beyond the Rich and Famous

"The number has almost doubled in the last two 
years," says Sanjay Singh, CEO of the New 
Delhi-based Indian Detective Agency. "Earlier it 
was just high-profile and very rich families that 
were engaging our services. But now it's mostly 
the middle class."

The number of premarital investigations, say 
detectives, is higher in arranged marriages, as 
opposed to when the betrothed choose each other. 
Most are driven by a booming online matchmaking 
industry, whose value rose to $22 million in 2006 
from $14 million the previous year, according to 
a trade group report.

The total registration base of India's biggest 
online matrimonial portal Shaadi.com was 9.1 
million in January and the site reported that 
720,000 marriages were started by them. 
Registration on another leading portal 
BharatMatrimony.com over the years is again 
nearly 9 million.

"In the present society, it is very necessary for 
the life and for the security of a person to get 
some kind of check done on a partner before 
marriage," says Prashant Rana, marketing manager 
for Fireball Investigation Services, a division 
of Fireball Group in New Delhi. "But people don't 
have that kind of time and resources to do a 
thorough check."

New Delhi has over a hundred registered detective 
agencies and thousands of smaller one-man shows, 
and the Indian Detective Agency alone receives at 
least 30 inquiries a week for premarital 
investigations.
Starts the Screening Process

Investigations typically take between a week and 
10 days and cost between $125 and $1,250, 
depending on the company and the depth of the 
investigation. Often families or prospective 
mates hire detectives for the first part of the 
screening process, when personal finances and 
character are the chief considerations.

The investigations are usually undertaken only 
once, at the point where the match is almost 
finalized, essentially a last step before the 
engagement. Considering that families now spend 
anywhere from $12,000 to $25,000 on a daughter's 
wedding, the cost for a seven-day investigation 
isn't considered too big an expense. 
Investigations are very discreet; only the 
parents are usually privy to the results, hence 
there is no shame or taboo if something negative 
turns up. Even if it's all positive, the fact 
that an investigation was undertaken is not 
mentioned to anyone.

Investigators provide details about previous and 
present relationships, education, career and 
financial position. The family is checked out, 
too.

Experienced investigators, pretending to be on 
some other mission, get inside the house, talk to 
the family and try to establish what kind of 
people they are, how they treat others and, most 
important, how they treat each other.

In order to do this, detectives follow their 
subject's every move. A team of several people 
monitor their target for every second of the 
seven or 10-day period, dressing up as 
rikshaw-wallahs, bouncers at a night-club or, as 
Rana recalls, even a cleaner in their doctor's 
office.

"It's human nature that within a span of seven 
days, you'll repeat every habit," says Rana. "If 
I have a girlfriend, once a week, I'll go see 
her. If I drink, I'll do it at least once a week. 
If I enjoy partying and going to clubs, again, 
I'll do it at some point in the week. That's why 
we do our surveillance for seven days. Within 
that time, we make the report."

"Just like in the movies," he adds.
Most Clients Are Brides' Families

Of the hundreds of cases that come to him each 
month, Rana says 80 percent are women or their 
parents who come in to have their future spouses 
investigated. This is due to the typical 
arrangement for women in India, who live with 
their parents until marriage and then move in 
with their in-laws.

Since women are required by tradition to live 
with their husband's family, some consider it 
essential to know as much as they can about the 
family they'll be spending the rest of their 
lives with. Men, on the other hand, are only 
concerned about past relationships and find a 
lesser need to hire detectives.

Regardless of the findings, the investigation is 
usually kept secret from the person being 
investigated. "It's a sensitive issue," says 
Singh. "If your prospective spouse finds out 
you've been sending detectives after him, he's 
not going to like it. Simple."

If the investigation turns out well, the woman 
and her parents proceed with the match. If it 
does not, there is rarely a confrontation, 
detectives say. Matches can be blown when major 
obstacles resurface from the past, or for small 
transgressions, such as lying about a smoking 
habit. Since the intended are not romantically 
involved, however, the parties cut their losses 
and move on.

Ankita Kohli, 23, a single advertising 
professional, disapproves of the trend. "You're 
starting the relationship by questioning his very 
identity and then keeping it from him," she says. 
"Because it's a matter of life, take the control 
in your own hands and do the investigation 
yourself. There are so many ways of finding the 
truth about a person; why trust a second-hand 
source and risk your relationship in the process?"

Of the investigations undertaken by Fireball, 
Rana says about 40 percent of the people they've 
scrutinized have been "very dishonest" about 
their life and work.

One such case involved a man whose mother was 
certain the intended fiance was not being honest 
about her background and hired Rana's company to 
verify her details. The investigation turned up a 
previous marriage and a son; the woman's husband 
had left her and fled to Iraq.

"If the marriage had happened, it would have been 
a big problem for that family," says Rana. "But 
the mother opted for verification, and they were 
saved."

Mridu Khullar is a freelance journalist currently based in New Delhi, India.


______


[7] YOUTH KARWAN THREATENED AND INTIMIDATED BY BJP MLA

26 Aug 2007 01:48:54

Anhad's three Youth Karwans are traveling in different parts of Gujarat.

One of the Youth Karwans which is in Vadodara 
district for the past three days performed three 
shows in Chota Udaipur on August 25. On August 
26th the shows are fixed in villages near Chota 
Udaipur , so the group had to stay at night in 
Chota Udaipur.

Shankarbhai Vichhiyabhai Rathwa , the local BJP 
MLA, threatened and intimidated the group by 
sending goons and asking them to clear out of the 
district. The MLA called up the caretaker of the 
circuit house, which was booked by the local 
organizers and ordered him to tell the group to 
leave immediately otherwise face consequences. 
The local police instead of supporting the group 
tried putting the  charge of doing 'anti 
national' activities on the troupe members. The 
BJP MLA threatened to get them eliminated up if 
they did not clear out.

Fortunately for the group the State Minister for 
Railways, UPA govt. happened to be in the 
district and immediately sent his security for 
their safety. He was able to intervene with the 
local police, which was as hostile, to ensure 
their safety. One of the groups earlier in the 
Amreli district had to spend over five hours in 
illegal confinement.

We strongly condemn this intimidation and the 
attack on the freedom of expression.

The shows for tomorrow will continue as 
scheduled. Tomorrow is the last day of the 
present campaign.

Anhad Collective


______



[8] Announcements:

(i)

Dear Friends,

As you are aware Anhad Yuva Karwans were flagged 
off on June 5th, 2007 with the aim of carrying 
out a campaign in 900 villages across 25 
districts.

The karwans are returning on 26th August night. 
We could not reach the target of 900 villages 
partly due to rains and partly due to the 
financial constraints. We have also not covered 
Dangs, Narmada, Navsari, Valsad and half of 
Bharuch. The approximate number of villages 
covered by the time they return would be close to 
700 but we will know the number once we compile 
all the information on 26th night.

The young volunteers have worked round the clock, 
have gained tremendous experience and confidence, 
have shared their experience and knowledge with 
thousands of ordinary villagers and in the 
process learnt from them .

Anhad is organizing a two hour session both to 
felicitate the young volunteers as well as to 
hear their experiences both good and bad. This 
session would be a learning session for us to 
understand both the shortcomings and the 
achievements of the campaign.

We invite all of you, especially all the 
organizations and activists without whom this 
campaign would have been impossible.

While Anhad played the initial role in conceiving 
the campaign and organizing the training, the 
rest of the district level coordination was done 
by local organizations and their volunteers and 
activists.

Pro gramme:

10.00- Tea
10.30- Welcome
10.35-11.35- Sharing of experience by karwan members
11.35- 12.20- Sharing of experience by local hosts
12.20- Felicitation, distribution of prizes
1.00- Lunch

An exhibition of posters signed by villagers will be on display.

Venue: Samajik Shikshan Bhawan, Indian Society 
For Community Education, Community House, 
Navjivan Press Road, Ahmedabad, situated almost 
opp the side gate of Gujarat Vidyapeeth

Time: 10.30-2.00pm

We would appreciate a line of confirmation .

Sincerely

Anhad Collective
Sanjay Sharma
Manisha Telange
Dev Desai
Dharmendra
Shabnam Hashmi


----

(ii)

Dear friends,

My film, Tales from the Margins, on the conflict 
situation in Manipur and the extraordinary 
protests for justice by the women, will be 
screening shortly in Delhi.

ON: Sunday, 26th August, 4:40 PM
AT THE: Auditorium, India Habitat Centre, Lodi Road.

Do come, and please inform others who may be interested.

With regards
Kavita

SYNOPSIS
Twelve women disrobe on the streets of Manipur, 
in protest
 For over six years a young woman has 
been on a fast-to-death demanding justice; she is 
kept under arrest by the government and is 
forcibly nose-fed for this "crime". Why are the 
women of Manipur using their bodies as their last 
weapon? 

Manipur - a state in the North-East region of 
India – has for decades been torn by insurgency 
and armed conflict. The Indian government has 
attempted to crush the insurgency through its 
military power, shielded by a drastic law that 
allows the security forces to shoot, arrest or 
kill on suspicion alone. Yet, little is heard 
about Manipur and its simmering trouble’s across 
the nation’s landscape. This is a place that 
mainland India has marginalised; that the world 
has forgotten.

The film travels to this forgotten, strife-torn 
corner of India to document the extraordinary 
protests of Manipuri women as they fight for 
justice for their people.

- - - -

(iii)

T2F will be hosting a series of events over the 
next couple of weeks, so please mark your 
calendars. Details will be posted on our 
<http://www.t2f.biz/events>website shortly. 
Meanwhile, please do come and check out the 
photography exhibition featuring the work of 
Bangladeshi photographer, Rabeya Sarkar Rima.

UPCOMING EVENTS (29th August - 9th September)

"Science Ka Adda": The Ethics of Stem Cells - 
Film screening followed by a discussion with 
Biologist, Dr. Ather Enam and Medical Ethicist, 
Dr. Aasim Ahmad
Date: Wednesday, 29th August, 2007
Time: 7:30 pm

Film screening of "Beyond Partition" followed by 
a discussion with Justice Dr. Javid Iqbal
Date: Saturday, 1st September, 2007
Time: 6:30 pm

"In Their Own Voice": Literary responses to 1971 
from Bangladesh and Pakistan, featuring Niaz 
Zaman and Asif Farrukhi
Date: Tuesday, 4th September, 2007
Time: 7:00 pm

"Science Ka Adda": Featuring Dr. Atta ur Rehman
Date: Friday, 7th September, 2007
Time: 7:00 pm

A Tribute to Qurat-ul-Ain Haider: Readings, Story-telling, and Memorabilia
Date: Sunday, 9th September
Time: 6:00 pm

Venue: The Second Floor
6-C, Prime Point Building, Phase 7, Khayaban-e-Ittehad, DHA, Karachi
Phone: 538-9273 | 0300-823-0276 | <mailto:info at t2f.biz>info at t2f.biz
Map: <http://www.t2f.biz/location>http://www.t2f.biz/location
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

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matters of peace and democratisation in South
Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit
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