SACW | Sept. 23-24, 2007

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire | September 23-24, 2007 
| Dispatch No. 2452 - Year 10 running

[1] Sri Lanka: Militarism or a political solution (editorial, The Island)
[2] India - Gujarat: Minorities Under Attack: 
Sangh Prepares for the Coming Elections
[3] India: Who's to judge the judges? - Scandal In The Palace  (Arundhati Roy)
[4] India: Sethusamudram Canal: An Expensive Voyage? (Jacob John)
[5] Announcements:
(i) Book release : To Make the Deaf Hear - 
Ideology and Programme of Bhagat Singh and his 
Comrades by S. Irfan Habib
(New Delhi, 26 September 2007)
(ii) Commemoration 100th birth anniversary of 
Bhagat Singh  (Bonsor, 28 September, 2007)
(iii) Films for Distribution - Magic Lantern Foundation

______


[1]

The Island
22 September 2007

Editorial

MILITARISM OR A POLITICAL SOLUTION

Feting the naval personnel who had destroyed 
three LTTE sea vessels, Defence Secretary 
Gotabhaya Rajapakse has said that the 
implementation of a political solution won't be 
possible until the LTTE is crushed militarily. He 
made this shocking statement in the presence of 
his brother President Mahinda Rajapaksa. We must 
therefore assume that this is the official 
Government line. Only a few days earlier, Mahinda 
Rajapaksa, in an interview with the India media, 
had acknowledged that the Tamils had genuine 
grievances and reiterated his commitment to a 
political solution based on the APRC proposals. 
But, we have totally contradictory statements by 
members of this Government, depending on the 
nature of the audience. So, we are never sure 
what the government's official policy is - if 
there is one.

If the Government is committed to a political 
solution, one cannot understand why it has to 
await the defeat of the LTTE. If a consensus 
political solution acceptable to major Sinhala, 
Tamil and Muslim parties is offered to the 
country, there can be no doubt that it will be 
accepted at a country-wide referendum resulting 
in the marginalization of both the LTTE and the 
chauvinist elements among the Sinhalese. But, if, 
on the other hand, the Tamils and Muslims are to 
continue enduring the present militarism in the 
North and East, it will be extremely difficult to 
sell any political package to the minorities, 
even if we assume that it is possible for this 
Government to come up with a meaningful package. 
Tamil civilians will then be inclined to support 
the LTTE, if the LTTE decides to go underground 
and resume guerrilla warfare in areas under 
government control.

Whatever the government may say, it is clear that 
in the East the Karuna group continues to enjoy 
Government patronage. Old habits die hard! The 
Karuna Group continues to employ the same tactics 
as their erstwhile colleagues by intimidating and 
eliminating anyone who challenges them. It is a 
short-term self-defeatist policy to go along with 
terrorism to defeat terrorism.

Constitutional Proposals

Prof. Tissa Vitarana has been saddled with the 
unenviable task of formulating and presenting a 
proposal acceptable to one and all. He is placed 
in the same predicament as his former senior 
party colleague who was responsible for drafting 
the 1972 Constitution. Colvin R de Silva pandered 
to Sinhala nationalism and helped sow the seeds 
of Tamil militancy. Vitarana seems to have done 
better in getting agreement on many issues. But, 
he needs to stand his ground, even in the face of 
Presidential pressure, and stick to the document 
he has already proposed and released. Trying to 
appease nationalist elements within the 
Government will destroy all the good work that he 
has done so far. Coming up with proposals that 
are unlikely to be acceptable to the minorities 
and the major parties is the recipe for the 
perpetuation of the war. Dr. Sumansiri Liyanage 
and a number of Tamil and Muslim liberals have 
urged, this week, that words like 'unitary' and 
'federal' must be avoided. These are emotive 
words in our context and no consensus will be 
possible so long as they find themselves in a 
draft solution. The minorities want power-sharing 
which will not be taken away at some future date. 
The Sinhala nationalists fear a separatist move 
in the future. Both parties can reach middle 
ground if the words such as 'unitary' are avoided 
and safeguards to prevent secession are written 
into the Constitution. UNP MP and former minister 
K. N. Choksy has proposed the term 'Union of 
Regions' for the proposed 2000 Constitution. The 
SLFP readily agreed to this. Vitarana's draft 
proposals go on to a more detailed definition of 
a united Sri Lanka. He avoids using any emotive 
word and strikes a balance between minority needs 
and majority fears.

His proposals are, therefore, commendable and 
they have won broad acceptance. It is understood 
that there is agreement on nearly all the 
substantive issues. It will be disaster if the 
proposals are scuttled by the Sinhala 
nationalists just by the irrational insistence on 
the use of the word 'unitary'. But for this the 
Governments must make its intentions clear. Do 
they or don't they want a political solution that 
will achieve consensus and help marginalise the 
extremists? The first mistake the government made 
was to exclude the TNA from the APRC. Were they 
seeking to bring about conditions conducive to a 
political settlement or was the APRC a mere 
dilatory tactic? And when the experts' panel of 
the APRC made its recommendations, strong 
indications were given that the Government 
preferred to go along with the three-man minority 
report. But, pressure from various quarters has 
changed the Presidential stance. The unit of 
devolution will remain the Province. But will he 
also change his stance on the use of the term 
'unitary'?

Elections in the East

It is becoming clearer that we are not going to 
have any fair election in the East. The Karuna 
Group is having a free rein in the East, thanks 
to Government patronage. No Tamil party is going 
to field candidates let alone contest an 
election. Anyone who comes forward will have to 
do so at the risk of being physically eliminated, 
just the way politicians suffered at the hands of 
the LTTE during elections in Jaffna. TULF 
President V. Anandasangaree was kept under 
virtual house arrest by the LTTE. The EPDP had to 
go around with military escorts. There is bound 
to be a similar situation in the East, should 
there be an election. The EPDP has already 
suffered assassinations as a warning that they 
have no right to be present in the East.

Given the fact that the Karuna Group enjoys 
government patronage, other Tamil groups like the 
EPDP cannot expect the kind of protection they 
have in Jaffna.

It will, therefore be, in the long term, totally 
counter-productive to have an election at this 
stage. Those elected will owe their positions to 
Karuna and with their new found political status, 
they will certainly prove difficult to handle in 
the longer term. The Government must realise that 
hasty attempts to defeat the 'enemy' by promoting 
counter-terrorism will prove self-defeating as 
experience suggests.

______


[2] India: Gujarat


http://tinyurl.com/2ffr8r

MINORITIES UNDER ATTACK: SANGH PREPARES FOR THE COMING ELECTIONS

After receiving distress calls for help from 
members of the Muslim community from various 
villages of Surat district a team rushed there. 
Yusuf Shaikh, President All India Quami Mahaz and 
Convener, Samajik Nyay Kendra, Dushyantbhai S. 
Somabhai Unjakar from Samajik Nyay Kendra, Baroda 
and Shabnam Hashmi, a social activists from 
Anhad, Delhi and member of the National 
Integration Council visited the following places: 
Village Hathoda, Village Velaccha, Village 
Kosamba, Village Navi Kosadi, Village Kosadi and 
Kim Char Rasta.

This report is based on the visit of the team to 
various affected villages and other areas and 
interviews with the victims and other villagers 
of these areas. There are a number of other 
villages which have been attacked but we could 
not visit all of them.

Background: For the last few months, violence has 
been constantly taking place against minorities 
in Gujarat especially in the districts of 
Vadodara and Surat. In July 2007, an attack was 
organized against the Muslim community living in 
Kosamba. The Gau Rakshak Suraksha Samiti has been 
at the forefront of these attacks. Detailed Fact 
Finding report of Kosamba attack attached

Village Kosadi:

On 18th around 11am approximately 20 goons led by 
Jasu Darbar reached Kasodi. Jasu Darbar -a local 
bad element and also the Vice President of the 
Gau Rakshak Suraksha Samiti, Mangrol was 
regularly visiting the village for over 6 months 
and harassing the people especially the butchers 
and he used to extract 'hafta' from them to allow 
them to continue their business.

On 18th under the pretext of inspecting and 
looking for a lost calf of some local tribal he 
entered the village along with 20 goons in two 
cars and 5 motorcycles. They reached the very end 
of the village near the crematorium. The whole 
group started abusing the local Muslims and 
threatened to burn the houses of local villagers. 
The local residents asked him to go back with his 
group and not to create a situation which will 
lead to tension in the village. Jasu Darbar took 
out swords from his car and soon an altercation 
started. The local people also brought wooden 
sticks for their protection. Most of the people 
who had accompanied Jasu darbar fled from the 
scene leaving their 5 motorcycles and two cars 
there and Jasu was surrounded by the local people 
and beaten up with sticks.

The village Deputy Sarpanch called the Mamlatdar 
and they put an injured Jasu Darbar in a vehicle 
to take him to hospital. He collapsed on the way.

Following this the Police arrived and entered the 
mosque where Muslims were praying and took away 
about 25 people on the pretext of taking their 
statements and till this report is filed no one 
knows where they are kept. The local people 
talked to the police a number of times asking 
them to arrest the culprits and punish them but 
release the innocents but to no avail.

We met the Sarpanch Laxman bhai Chotubhai Vasava 
and the Deputy Sarpanch Hasin Ismailji bhai and a 
number of local people who had gathered as our 
team arrived there.

Laxmanbhai Vasava and Hasinbhai informed us that 
there are about 1000 families and half of them 
are from the minority community, the others 
Adivasis, Lohar and Dalits. There has been no 
communal problems in the village between the 
communities.

Following this the Gau Raksha Suraksha Samiti and 
various units of the Sangh- VHP, Bajrand Dal etc 
organised attacks on a number of nearby villages 
and systematic attacks, looting and burning of 
property and businesses and terrorizing of 
Muslims by the Police and goons is taking place 
for since September 18, 2007. Constant phone 
calls are coming from different parts as we write 
and file this report:

Visit to Hatoda, Kosamba and Velachcha

1. Velachcha: Destroyed- 22 Muslim houses, 3 
shops , 2 motorbikes- started at Time: 5.15pm

22 houses have been totally gutted. When we 
visited Valechcha on 19th September, 2007 the 
smoke was still coming out of the houses. There 
was nothing left in the houses. The families fled 
from the village.

The police was present and the fire brigade trying to douse the fire.

The victims whom we met in Hatoda told us that 
the attack on these houses took place in the 
presence of the Police and at that point there 
was enough police and could have stopped the 
attackers. Instead the attackers after reaching 
the spot spoke to the police and the police went 
and stood hundred meters away in front of the 
local school in Velachcha, while the attackers 
used petrol and kerosene to burn the houses. The 
fire brigades arrived too late to save any 
belongings.

Men, women, small children fled from the houses 
to save lives, hid for a few hours in jungles, 
then walked through the night and only on 19 th 
morning at 5.30am some of them reached Hathoda- a 
Muslim dominated village, some reached Kosamba 
and some were still missing. Most of them had 
left without chappals or slippers and they 
reached with thorns all over their feet in 
bruised state.

The families have lost everything except a set of 
clothes that they were wearing. The local 
residents of Hatoda village are looking after the 
families.

The government has made no arrangement for any 
relief. We spoke to the DSP on the phone. He 
refused to file their FIRs as he said police has 
already filed the FIR. In fact the DSP told us 
that we are disturbing the peace in the district. 
Later when the paralegal team of the Centre for 
Social Justice team after documenting individual 
cases went to the police station, he again 
refused to file any FIR.

Those whose houses were burnt:

Bazar Vistar Padar- 3 houses

1. Ismail Yakub
2. Manubibi
3. Sairabibi Shaikh

Masjid Mohalla

1. Shaikh Usmanmian Gulzarmian
2. Irfankhan Pathan
3. Mehranbibi Gulzarmian Shaikh
4. Hanifmian Gulzarmian Shaikh
5. Salimmian Gulzarmian Shaikh
6. Gulammian Rehmanmian
7. Hydermian Rehmanmian
8. Jabbarmohd Rehman Shaikh
9. Chotumian rehmanmian
10. Shabbibmian Gulzarmian
11. Bikhanmian Amirmian
12. Amirmian Rasulmian
13. Usmanmian Gulzarmian
14. Shaikh MOhd Noormian
15. Mian Mohd Hydermian
16. Mohd Aslam Ghulam Nabi Shaikh
17. Rafikmian Hydermain
18. Fatimabibi Mohdmian Shaikh
19. Farookmian Bambayya ( Chelliya)
20. Ahmad Mohd Shaikh

Shops:

1. Cycle and Cutlery:
2. Chicken shop
3. xx

Those who attacked, burnt and looted the houses:

Attackers who came from Tarsadi village

1. Kishore Singh Kosada
2. Dayabhai Rabari
3. Jango Rabari
4. Chetan ( Raj Mobile shopwala)
5. Mohan Rabari
6. Kalu Chotalia
7. Jaideep Gabbar
8. Guddu Bhaiya

Attackers from the Velachha village

1. Dharmendra Singh Chauhan
2. Chandra Singh Chauhan Urf Umesh Arvind tailor
3. UdaySinh Ramsinh Chauhan
4. Hareshbhai Jeevanbhai Prajapati
5. Naveenbhai Hiralal Shah
6. Ghemalsinh Chauhan
7. Chattrasinh Gambhirsinh Chauhan
8. Pankaj Panchal
9. Dinesh Sukha Koli Patel ( tempowala)
10. Bharat kalidas Adivasi ( rikshawwala)
11. Haresh Mulji Makwana
12. Samir Sawawala


Visit to Mosali village and Mosali Char Rasta

Jasu Darbar's body was brought for postmortem to 
referral hospital situated in Mosali around 4pm. 
About 150 people from outside the village had 
gathered at the hospitals. Most of them were on 
motorcycles.

After coming out of the hospital they attacked 
the Muslim shops which were near the hospital and 
then they went on a looting and burning spree 
across the village.

According to the eye witnesses the Police was 
though out present and did not take any step to 
stop the looting and burning.

Names of victims whose shops were burnt and 
looted (we could not meet some of the victims, so 
there shop names are mentioned instead of their 
names:

1. Ibrahim Panchbhaiya
2. Ayub Panchbhaiya
3. Umar -Radio Service
4. Lucky cloth store
5. Rashid bhai- Shan Footware
6. Kasimbhai Khalifa- Takdeer hair Art
7. Fatimaben Farook- Tailor House
8. Steel furniture-recently opened
9. Pan Centre shop- Musabhai Bobat
10. Hashimbhai- Paras Watch Centre
11. Tea Stall- Sureshbhai Vasava
12. we saw three more burnt shops but could not get the names of the owners.

Most of the shop owners were able to fled in time 
and were not physically attacked but a young shop 
owner Rashidbhai who was inside the shop after 
putting the shutter down was badly beaten up. The 
attackers opened the shutter, Rashidbhai ran to 
the first floor of the shop, he was dragged down 
and severely beaten up. The Gau Rakshak Suraksha 
Samiti members looted from Rashibhai's shop- a 
laptop, mobile phone and 60,000 cash. His 
motorcycle Honda was burnt down.

We spoke to a large number of local residents 
from the majority community who had gathered 
there. They told us that both the communities 
lived together peacefully and there has been no 
history of communal tension between the, they ate 
together, celebrated together different 
festivals. The attackers they sad had all come 
from outside.

Mosali Char Rasta

After attacking and burning the shops inside the 
village the mob moved outside and reached the 
Mosali Char Rasta. The mob used stones and bricks 
to break open the locks of the shops and looted 
and burnt down the shops:

1. provision store- owner-Shuaib Mohd Patel- totally burnt down
2. hotel- cold drinks-safari telecentre- 40 crates looted, partially burnt
3. auto part shop- super auto garage
4. biku auto parts garage- owner-yakub ibrahim biku- totally burnt down
5. hotel vasraiwala-owner- ibrahim 
tadwala-dhabha- From this shop it is interesting 
to note that the members of the Gau Rakshak 
Suraksha samiti looted -two cylinders, one 
chulha, a sack of Potatoes , sack of onion, oil 
and wheat floor.- Partially burnt


On the Char Rasta the following was burnt too:

truck burnt- owner- Yusuf Musaji Ugraddar- GRV 7602

Jeep- Manjulaben

Jeep-belongs to Mehmood Shaiklh's wife

There were 12 policemen present throughout this 
period when the shops were being burnt. According 
to the eye witnesses they did not take any steps 
to stop the attackers.

Nava Kasodi

On our way to Kasodi we had briefly stopped at 
Nava Kasodi and met some of the victims from 
different places who had taken refuge there.

Abdul Kada's bike was burnt in Vadoli, his house attacked, glasses broken

Those who attacked included:

Bhalabhai Darbar, pradeepbhai, sukhabhai, 
rajubhai, shambhubhai, ( sarpanh), jitubhai, 
vikram, rakesh, arun, bhupendra, babubhai, haresh.


Kim Char Rasta

We received several calls from the Kim Char Rasta 
as it was being attacked while we were visiting 
other villages.

As we reached the Kim Char Rasta we saw 5 
motorcycles on the main Char Rasta which were 
recently burnt. Smoke was coming out and a stench 
of rubber being burnt was in the atmosphere.

We had visited several calls from the mosque so we went to the Madani mosque.

Prakash Manjra LCB constable and PI Rabari along 
with approximately 25 policemen stormed the 
mosque with rifles and wearing shoes. Because of 
the month of Ramzan there were a lot of people 
resting in the hall of the mosque. It was around 
1.15pm. The policemen immediately started 
breaking the glasses and mercilessly beat up many 
people who were inside the mosque. When we 
reached the mosque it was littered with broken 
glasses and there were blood stains all over the 
mosque floor. It was evident that people were 
attacked in every corner of the mosque. We were 
told that many people, young and old were 
mercilessly beaten up on their thighs, on their 
shoulders and all over the body with rifle butts.

The police then picked up around 15 people and 
took them away. It is only now after 24 hours 
that we have been able to find out that they have 
been taken to a place near Navi Pardi in galore 
police quarters. One of the boys Arshad was 
beaten up in custody and his condition is very 
critical; sources have informed us today on phone.

Places we could not visit

Kemraj Char Rasta- mosque attacked, Asarma village- attacked


Demands

1. Immediate arrest of culprits - the members of 
the Gau Rakshak Suraksha Samiti and other 
hoodlums who attacked the villages.

2. The people responsible for attacking Jasu 
Darbar should be apprehended and innocent people 
released immediately.

3. Release of innocent people arrested from the mosques.

4. Open Relief Camp and provide relief urgently 
to the victims who have lost their houses.

5. Suspend DSP Jha responsible for the safety of 
the citizens of his area and other lower rank 
officers, who were present at the spot but did 
not do anything to stop the attackers.

6. Suspend PI Pardi and Prakash Manjra LCB constable.


______


[3]

Outlook Magazine
October 1, 2007

Who's to judge the judges?: Justice Y.K. Sabharwal

SCANDAL IN THE PALACE
Judges in India are divine beings. And if you're 
an ex-CJI, your sins are above mortal reproach. 
............

by Arundhati Roy

Scandals can be fun. Especially those that knock 
preachers from their pulpits and flick halos off 
saintly heads. But some scandals can be corrosive 
and more damaging for the scandalised than the 
scandalee. Right now we're in the midst of one 
such.

At its epicentre is Y.K. Sabharwal, former Chief 
Justice of India, who until recently headed the 
most powerful institution in this country-the 
Supreme Court. When there's a scandal about a 
former chief justice and his tenure in office, 
it's a little difficult to surgically excise the 
man and spare the institution.

	But then commenting adversely on the 
institution can lead you straight to a prison 
cell as some of us have learned to our cost. It's 
like having to take the wolf and the chicken and 
the sack of grain across the river, one by one. 
The river's high and the boat's leaking. Wish me 
luck.

The higher judiciary, the Supreme Court in 
particular, doesn't just uphold the law, it 
micromanages our lives. Its judgements range 
through matters great and small. It decides 
what's good for the environment and what isn't, 
whether dams should be built, rivers linked, 
mountains moved, forests felled. It decides what 
our cities should look like and who has the right 
to live in them. It decides whether slums should 
be cleared, streets widened, shops sealed, 
whether strikes should be allowed, industries 
should be shut down, relocated or privatised. It 
decides what goes into school textbooks, what 
sort of fuel should be used in public transport 
and schedules of fines for traffic offences.
It decides what colour the lights on judges' cars 
should be (red) and whether they should blink or 
not (they should). It has become the premier 
arbiter of public policy in this country that 
likes to market itself as the World's Largest 
Democracy.

Ironically, judicial activism first rode in on a 
tide of popular discontent with politicians and 
their venal ways. Around 1980, the courts opened 
their doors to ordinary citizens and people's 
movements seeking justice for underprivileged and 
marginalised people. This was the beginning of 
the era of Public Interest Litigation, a brief 
window of hope and real expectation. While Public 
Interest Litigation gave people access to courts, 
it also did the opposite. It gave courts access 
to people and to issues that had been outside the 
judiciary's sphere of influence so far. So it 
could be argued that it was Public Interest 
Litigation that made the courts as powerful as 
they are. Over the last 15 years or so, through a 
series of significant judgements, the judiciary 
has dramatically enhanced the scope of its own 
authority.


Investigate Sabharwal L-R: Arvind Kejriwal, Swami 
Agnivesh, Shanti Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan at 
a press meet

Today, as neo-liberalism sinks its teeth deeper 
into our lives and imagination, as millions of 
people are being pauperised and dispossessed in 
order to keep India's Tryst with Destiny (the 
unHindu 10% rate of growth), the State has to 
resort to elaborate methods to contain growing 
unrest. One of its techniques is to invoke what 
the middle and upper classes fondly call the Rule 
of Law. The Rule of Law is a precept that is 
distinct and can often be far removed from the 
principle of justice. The Rule of Law is a phrase 
that derives its meaning from the context in 
which it operates. It depends on what the laws 
are and who they're designed to protect. For 
instance, from the early '90s, we have seen the 
systematic dismantling of laws that protect 
workers' rights and the fundamental rights of 
ordinary people (the right to 
shelter/health/education/water).


International financial institutions like the 
imf, the World Bank and the adb demand these not 
just as a precondition, but as a condition, set 
down in black and white, before they agree to 
sanction loans. (The polite term for it is 
structural adjustment. ) What does the Rule of 
Law mean in a situation like this? Howard Zinn, 
author of A People's History of the United 
States, puts it beautifully: "The Rule of Law 
does not do away with unequal distribution of 
wealth and power, but reinforces that inequality 
with the authority of law. It allocates wealth 
and poverty in such indirect and complicated ways 
as to leave the victim bewildered."


[Photo:] Papa's the best judge: Justice 
Sabharwal's sons were running their businesses 
out of his 'official' Motilal Nehru Marg house

As it becomes more and more complicated for 
elected governments to be seen to be making 
unpopular decisions (decisions, for example, that 
displace millions of people from their villages, 
from their cities, from their jobs), it has 
increasingly fallen to the courts to make these 
decisions, to uphold the Rule of Law.

The expansion of judicial powers has not been 
accompanied by an increase in its accountability. 
Far from it. The judiciary has managed to foil 
every attempt to put in place any system of 
checks and balances that other institutions in 
democracies are usually bound by.
It has opposed the suggestion by the Committee 
for Judicial Accountability that an independent 
disciplinary body be created to look into matters 
of judicial misconduct. It has decreed that an 
fir cannot be registered against a sitting judge 
without the consent of the chief justice (which 
has never ever been given). It has so far 
successfully insulated itself against the Right 
to Information Act. The most effective weapon in 
its arsenal is, of course, the Contempt of Court 
Act which makes it a criminal offence to do or 
say anything that "scandalises" or "lowers the 
authority" of the court. Though the act is framed 
in arcane language more suited to medieval ideas 
of feminine modesty, it actually arms the 
judiciary with formidable, arbitrary powers to 
silence its critics and to imprison anyone who 
asks uncomfortable questions.
Small wonder then that the media pulls up short 
when it comes to reporting issues of judicial 
corruption and uncovering the scandals that must 
rock through our courtrooms on a daily basis. 
There are not many journalists who are willing to 
risk a long criminal trial and a prison sentence.

Until recently, under the Law of Contempt, even 
truth was not considered a valid defence. So 
suppose, for instance, we had prima facie 
evidence that a judge has assaulted or raped 
someone, or accepted a bribe in return for a 
favourable judgement, it would be a criminal 
offence to make the evidence public because that 
would "scandalise or tend to scandalise" or 
"lower or tend to lower" the authority of the 
court.

Yes, things have changed, but only a little. Last 
year, Parliament amended the Contempt of Court 
Act so that truth becomes a valid defence in a 
contempt of court charge. But in most cases (such 
as in the case of the Sabharwal...er... shall we 
say "affair") in order to prove something it 
would have to be investigated. But obviously when 
you ask for an investigation you have to state 
your case, and when you state your case you will 
be imputing dishonourable motives to a judge for 
which you can be convicted for contempt. So: 
Nothing can be proved unless it is investigated 
and nothing can be investigated unless it has 
been proved.

The only practical option that's on offer is for us to think Pure Thoughts.

For example:

     a. Judges in India are divine beings.

     b. Decency, wholesomeness, morality, 
transparency and integrity are encrypted in their 
DNA.

     c. This is proved by the fact that no judge 
in the history of our Republic has ever been 
impeached or disciplined in any way.

d. Jai Judiciary, Jai Hind.

It all becomes a bit puzzling when ex-chief 
justices like Justice S.P. Bharucha go about 
making public statements about widespread 
corruption in the judiciary. Perhaps we should 
wear ear plugs on these
occasions or chant a mantra.

It may hurt our pride and curb our free spirits 
to admit it, but the fact is that we live in a 
sort of judicial dictatorship. And now there's a 
scandal in the Palace.

Last year (2006) was a hard year for people in 
Delhi. The Supreme Court passed a series of 
orders that changed the face of the city, a city 
that has over the years expanded organically, 
extra-legally, haphazardly. A division bench 
headed by Y.K. Sabharwal, chief justice at the 
time, ordered the sealing of thousands of shops, 
houses and commercial complexes that housed what 
the court called 'illegal' businesses that had 
been functioning, in some cases for decades, out 
of residential areas in violation of the old 
master plan.

It's true that, according to the designated 
land-use in the old master plan, these businesses 
were non-conforming. But the municipal 
authorities in charge of implementing the plan 
had developed only about a quarter of the 
commercial areas they were supposed to. So they 
looked away while people made their own 
arrangements (and put their lives' savings into 
them.) Then suddenly Delhi became the capital 
city of the new emerging Superpower. It had to be 
dressed up to look the part. The easiest way was 
to invoke the Rule of Law.

The sealing affected the lives and livelihoods of 
tens of thousands of people. The city burned. 
There were protests, there was rioting. The Rapid 
Action Force was called in. Dismayed by the 
seething rage and despair of the people, the 
Delhi government beseeched the court to 
reconsider its decision. It submitted a new 2021 
Master Plan which allowed mixed land-use and 
commercial activity in several areas that had 
until now been designated 'residential'. Justice 
Sabharwal remained unmoved. The bench he headed 
ordered the sealing to continue.


Vasant Kunj Mall: When Rule of Law winked and looked away

Around the same time, another bench of the 
Supreme Court ordered the demolition of Nangla 
Macchi and other jhuggi colonies, which left 
hundreds of thousands homeless, living on top of 
the debris of their broken homes, in the 
scorching summer sun. Yet another bench ordered 
the removal of all "unlicensed" vendors from the 
city's streets. Even as Delhi was being purged of 
its poor, a new kind of city was springing up 
around us. A glittering city of air-conditioned 
corporate malls and multiplexes where mncs 
showcased their newest products. The better-off 
amongst those whose shops and offices had been 
sealed queued up for space in these malls. Prices 
shot up. The mall business boomed, it was the 
newest game in town. Some of these malls, 
mini-cities in themselves, were also illegal 
constructions and did not have the requisite 
permissions.

But here the Supreme Court viewed their 
misdemeanours through a different lens. The Rule 
of Law winked and went off for a tea break. In 
its judgement on the writ petition against the 
Vasant Kunj Mall dated October 17, 2006 (in which 
it allowed the construction of the mall to go 
right ahead), Justices Arijit Pasayat and S.H. 
Kapadia said:

     "Had such parties inkling of an idea that 
such clearances were not obtained by DDA, they 
would not have invested such huge sums of money.

     The stand that wherever constructions have 
been made unauthorisedly demolition is the only 
option cannot apply to the present cases, more 
particularly, when they unlike, where some 
private individuals or private limited companies 
or firms being allotted to have made 
contraventions, are corporate bodies and 
institutions and the question of their having 
indulged in any malpractices in getting the 
approval or sanction does not arise."

It's a bit complicated, I know.

	A friend and I sat down and translated it 
into ordinary English. Basically,

a. Even though in this present case the 
construction may be unauthorised and may not have 
the proper clearances, huge amounts of money have 
been invested and demolition is not
the only option.

b. Unlike private individuals or private limited 
companies who have been allotted land and may 
have flouted the law, these allottees are 
corporate bodies and institutions and there is no 
question of their having indulged in any 
malpractice in order to get sanctions or approval.

The question of corporate bodies having indulged 
in malpractice in getting approval or sanction 
does not arise. So says the Indian Supreme Court. 
What should we say to those shrill hysterical 
people protesting out there on the streets, 
accusing the court of being an outpost of the New 
Corporate Empire? Shall we shout them down? Shall 
we say 'Enron zindabad'? 'Bechtel, Halliburton 
zindabad'? 'Tata, Birla, Mittals, Reliance, 
Vedanta, Alcan zindabad'? 'Coca-Cola aage badho, 
hum tumhaare saath hain'?

This then was the ideological climate in the 
Supreme Court at the time the Sabharwal "affair" 
took place.
It's important to make it clear that Justice 
Sabharwal's orders were not substantially 
different or ideologically at loggerheads with 
the orders of other judges who have not been 
touched by scandal and whose personal integrity 
is not in question. But the ideological bias of a 
judge is quite a different matter from the 
personal motivations and conflict of interest 
that could have informed Justice Sabharwal's 
orders. That is the substance of this story.

In his final statement to the media before he 
retired in January 2007, Justice Sabharwal said 
that the decision to implement the sealing in 
Delhi was the most difficult decision he had made 
during his tenure as chief justice. Perhaps it 
was. Tough Love can't be easy.

In May 2007, the Delhi edition of the evening 
paper Mid Day published detailed investigative 
stories (and a cartoon) alleging serious judicial 
misconduct on the part of Justice Sabharwal. The 
articles are available on the internet. The 
charges Mid Day made have subsequently been 
corroborated by the Committee for Judicial 
Accountability, an organisation that counts 
senior lawyers, retired judges, professors, 
journalists and activists as its patrons. The 
charges in brief are:

1. That Y.K. Sabharwal's sons Chetan and Nitin 
had three companies: Pawan Impex, Sabs Exports 
and Sug Exports whose registered offices were 
initially at their family home in 3/81, Punjabi 
Bagh, and were then shifted to their father's 
official residence at 6, Motilal Nehru Marg.

2. That while he was a judge in the Supreme Court 
but before he became chief justice, he called for 
and dealt with the sealing of commercial 
properties case in Delhi. (This was impropriety. 
Only the chief justice is empowered to call for 
cases that are pending before a different bench.) 
.

3. The Midday journalists have been held for 
contempt. Why? For an imagined insult to unnamed 
judges!


	That at exactly this time, Justice 
Sabharwal's sons went into partnership with two 
major mall and commercial complex developers, 
Purshottam Bagheria (of the fashionable Square 1 
Mall fame) and Kabul Chawla of Business Park Town 
Planners (BPTP) Ltd. That as a result
of Justice Sabharwal's sealing orders, people 
were forced to move their shops and businesses to 
malls and commercial complexes, which pushed up 
prices, thereby benefiting Justice Sabharwal's 
sons and their partners financially and 
materially.

4. That the Union Bank gave a Rs 28 crore loan to 
Pawan Impex on collateral security which turned 
out to be non-existent. (Justice Sabharwal says 
his sons' companies had credit facilities of up 
to Rs 75 crore.)

5. That because of obvious conflict of interest, 
he should have recused himself from hearing the 
sealing case (instead of doing the 
opposite-calling the case to himself.)

6. That a number of industrial and commercial 
plots of land in Noida were allotted to his sons' 
companies at throwaway prices by the Mulayam 
Singh/ Amar Singh government while Justice 
Sabharwal was the sitting judge on the case of 
the Amar Singh phone tapes (in which he issued an 
order restricting their publication.)

7. That his sons bought a house in Maharani Bagh 
for Rs 15.46 crore. The source of this money is 
unexplained. In the deeds they have put down 
their father's name as Yogesh Kumar 
(uncharacteristic coyness for boys who don't mind 
running their businesses out of their judge 
father's official residence.)

All these charges are backed by what looks like 
watertight, unimpeachable documentation. 
Registration deeds, documents from the Union 
ministry of company affairs, certificates of 
incorporation of the various companies, published 
lists of shareholders, notices declaring 
increased share capital in Nitin and Chetan's 
companies, notices from the Income Tax department 
and a CD of recorded phone conversations between 
the investigating journalist and the judge 
himself.

These documents seem to indicate that while Delhi 
burned, while thousands of shops and businesses 
were sealed and their owners and employees 
deprived of their livelihood, Justice Sabharwal's 
sons and their partners were raking in the bucks. 
They read like an instruction manual for how the 
New India works.

When the story became public, another retired 
chief justice, J.S. Verma, appeared on India 
Tonight, Karan Thapar's interview show on CNBC.


He brought all the prudence and caution of a 
former judge to bear on what he said: "...if it 
is true, this is the height of 
impropriety...every one who holds any public 
office is ultimately accountable in democracy to 
the people, therefore, the people have right to 
know how they are functioning, and higher is the 
office that you hold, greater is the 
accountability...." Justice Verma went on to say 
that if the facts were correct, it would 
constitute a clear case of conflict of interest 
and that Justice Sabharwal's orders on the 
sealing case must be set aside and the case heard 
all over again.

This is the heart of the matter. This is what 
makes this scandal such a corrosive one. Hundreds 
of thousands of lives have been devastated. If it 
is true that the judgement that caused this 
stands vitiated, then amends must be made.


Sealing fates: Is it Enron zindabad, to hell with the poor?

But are the facts correct?

Scandals about powerful and well-known people can 
be, and often are, malicious, motivated and 
untrue. God knows that judges make mortal 
enemies-after all, in each case they adjudicate 
there is a winner and a loser. There's little 
doubt that Justice Y.K. Sabharwal would have made 
his fair share of enemies. If I were him, and if 
I really had nothing to hide, I would actually 
welcome an investigation. In fact, I would beg 
the chief justice to set up a commission of 
inquiry. I would make it a point to go after 
those who had fabricated evidence against me and 
made all these outrageous allegations.

What I certainly wouldn't do is to make things 
worse by writing an ineffective, sappy defence of 
myself which doesn't address the allegations and 
doesn't convince anyone (Times of India, 
September 2, 2007).

Equally, if I were the sitting chief justice or 
anybody else who claims to be genuinely 
interested in 'upholding the dignity' of the 
court (fortunately this is not my line of work), 
I would know that to shovel the dirt under the 
carpet at this late stage, or to try and silence 
or intimidate the whistle-blowers, is 
counter-productive. It wouldn't take me very long 
to work out that if I didn't order an inquiry and 
order it quickly, what started out as a scandal 
about a particular individual could quickly 
burgeon into a scandal about the entire judiciary.

But, of course, not everybody sees it that way.

Days after Mid Day went public with its 
allegations, the Delhi high court issued suo motu 
notice charging the editor, the resident editor, 
the publisher and the cartoonist of Mid Day with 
Contempt of Court. Three months later, on 
September 11, 2007, it passed an order holding 
them guilty of criminal Contempt of Court. They 
have been summoned for sentencing on September 21.

What was Mid Day's crime? An unusual display of 
courage? The high court order makes absolutely no 
comment on the factual accuracy of the 
allegations that Mid Day levelled against Justice 
Sabharwal. Instead, in an extraordinary, almost 
yogic manoeuvre, it makes out that the real 
targets of the Mid Day article were the judges 
sitting with Justice Sabharwal on the division 
bench, judges who are still in service (and 
therefore imputing motives to them constitutes 
Criminal Contempt): "We find the manner in which 
the entire incidence has been projected appears 
as if the Supreme Court permitted itself to be 
led into fulfilling an ulterior motive of one of 
its members.

The nature of the revelations and the context in 
which they appear, though purporting to single 
out former Chief Justice of India, tarnishes the 
image of the Supreme Court. It tends to erode the 
confidence of the general public in the 
institution itself. The Supreme Court sits in 
divisions and every order is of a bench. By 
imputing motive to its presiding member 
automatically sends a signal that the other 
members were dummies or were party to fulfil the 
ulterior design."

Nowhere in the Mid Day articles has any other 
judge been so much as mentioned. So the 
journalists are in the dock for an imagined 
insult. What this means is that if there are 
several judges sitting on a bench and you have 
proof that one of them has given an opinion or an 
order based on corrupt considerations or is 
judging a case in which he or she has a clear 
conflict of interest, it's not enough. You don't 
have a case unless you can prove that all of them 
are corrupt or that all of them have a conflict 
of interest and all of them have left a trail of 
evidence in their wake. Actually, even this is 
not enough. You must also be able to state your 
case without casting any aspersions whatsoever on 
the court. (Purely for the sake of argument: What 
if two judges on a bench decide to take turns to 
be corrupt? What would we do then?)

So now we're saddled with a whole new school of 
thought on Contempt of Court: Fevered 
interpretations of imagined insults against 
unnamed judges. Phew! We're in La-la Land.

In most other countries, the definition of 
Criminal Contempt of Court is limited to anything 
that threatens to be a clear and present danger 
to the administration of justice. This business 
of "scandalising" and "lowering the authority" of 
the court is an absurd, dangerous form of 
censorship and an insult to our collective 
intelligence.

The journalists who broke the story in Mid Day 
have done an important and courageous thing. Some 
newspapers acting in solidarity have followed up 
the story. A number of people have come together 
and made a public statement further bolstering 
that support. There is an online petition asking 
for a criminal investigation. If either the 
government or the courts do not order a credible 
investigation into the scandal, then a group of 
senior lawyers and former judges will hold a 
public tribunal and examine the evidence that is 
placed before them. It's all happening. The lid 
is off, and about time too.

______


[4]


Economic and Political Weekly
July 21, 2007

SETHUSAMUDRAM CANAL: AN EXPENSIVE VOYAGE?

The economic viability of the Sethusamudram Canal 
rests on weak grounds, for the savings in time 
for ships travelling from the east to west coasts 
are not as large as advertised and some shipping 
companies may even find the tariffs too expensive 
to make it worth switching from the current 
shipping lanes.

by Jacob John

http://www.epw.org.in/uploads/articles/10823.pdf

______


[5] ANNOUNCEMENTS:

(i)

Director, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library
and
Three Essays Collective

cordially invite you to the release of the book

To Make the Deaf Hear
Ideology and Programme of Bhagat Singh and his Comrades

by
Dr. S. Irfan Habib
NISTADS, New Delhi
on
Wednesday, 26 September 2007
at
6.00 P.M.
in the Auditorium, Library Building
Teen Murti House, New Delhi

Prof. Romila Thapar
Professor Emeritus, JNU
will release the book

Prof. Mridula Mukherjee
Director, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library
will chair

Main Speakers:
Prof. K.N. Panikkar, Eminent Historian
Shri Jagmohan Singh, Nephew of Shaheed Bhagat Singh


RSVP
23015333,23010666			Tea: 7pm



---

(ii)

With great pride and humbleness in our hearts, we 
invite you to the commemoration of the 100th 
birth anniversary of Shaheed (Martyr) Bhagat Singh

" Revolution is an inalienable right of mankind. 
Freedom is an imperishable birth right of all." - 
Bhagat Singh

----------------------------------------------------
Friday September 28th, 2007 at 6:30 pm
Bonsor Community Centre, 6550 Bonsor
(right next to Metrotown Skytrain Station - behind the Bay Store)
Entrance by donation (pay what you can)
----------------------------------------------------


  The evening will be in Punjabi/Urdu/Hindi/English and include film,
shayari/poetry, talks, readings of Bhagat Singh’s writing, plus a photo
exhibit hosted by the Indo-Canadian Workers Association.


All across South Asia and amongst South Asian diaspora, September 28th
2007 is being honoured as the 100th birth anniversary of one of South
Asia’s most well-known freedom fighter's Bhagat Singh.

Bhagat Singh joined the Quit India movement in 1921 and over the years,
became a cofounder and leader of the Naujavan Bharat Sabha and Samajvadi
Prajatantra Sangha. He was hung at the age of 24; and although portrayed
by the British as a terrorist for engaging in acts of armed resistance,
Bhagat Singh became a legend, symbolizing courage, bravery, and
revolution. As he said : "The war neither began with us nor is it going to
end with our lives. It is easy to kill individuals but you cannot kill the
ideas." His martyrdom prompted an entire generation of youth to continue
the fight for independence.

This event will mark the legacy of Bhagat Singh as well the relevance of
his ideas and actions today as the people of South Asia are caught in the
crosshairs of US interventions, the World Bank and IMF, corporate
globalization, militarization, and crushing levels of poverty and
inequality.

We hope you will join us.

Organized by Radical Desi Youth.
Supported by: Bulland Awaaz on Co-op Radio, Chetna Dalit Association,
Indo-Canadian Workers Association, Komagata Maru Heritage Foundation,
Punjabi Artists Association Richmond, Siraat Collective, South Asian
Network for Secularism and Democracy, Watan Magazine

For more information call 778 885 0040 or email harjap at gmail.com


---

(iii)

Dear Friends,
I am delighted to announce that the contract that Under Construction draws
up with filmmakers is now non-exclusive. Under Construction is Magic Lantern
Foundation's initiative for distributing independent films. You can find
details of this initiative on our website www.magiclanternfoundation.org in
the page marked: Films for Distribution.

I also take this opportunity to welcome filmmakers - Indian and foreign - to
talk to us about distributing your films. Please don't respond to this list
though but write to Priyanka Mukherjee at
<underconstruction at magiclanternfoundation.org>

For those who don't know us, we follow a simple system. We draw up a
contract, take a master, run copies, and sell either VCD or DVD copies. We
retain 35% of the revenue towards our costs and remit 65% to the filmmakers
as royalty. We remit royalties every quarter. Filmmakers can choose how long
they want to give us the film for and the territories they want us to work
in. Filmmakers also jointly decide with us the price of copies.

We also have a another system in place for those who don't want to formalise
the relation and prefer to give us copies to sell. In this case we remit 80%
as royalty to the filmmakers. However, these films retain their original
identity (cover etc) and also sales only takes place at the events like film
festivals or mass meetings where we create a 'sale opportunity' and not
through the internet or through using retailers as re-sellers.

Nevertheless, we have filmmakers who use both systems,  even though the
former is more popular.

We also have foreign filmmaker's films in distribution. However, for them
the territory is restricted to either the territorial borders of India or at
most South Asia.

The Indian filmmakers can choose any  - India, South Asia, Asia, World.

Royalty payment to foreign filmmakers is still a little problem as banks
take a huge chunk off as transferring costs. (Also foreigners have to pay
tax deducted at source even if 1 Rupee is generated, and the  percentage of
tax is guided by the Double-Taxation Treaty that the Government of India has
signed with the nation the filmmaker belongs to.) So rather than follow a
quarterly system we pay once a year or when at least the equivalent of 100
dollars have accumulated, whichever is earlier.

I won't go into more details now but I welcome anyone who is interested to
talk to Priyanka.

However before writing off I want to add one important detail. Before taking
films on for distribution we preview and select and not all films are taken
on. This is because to us the initiative is for creating space, for creating
political space for a different sort of dialogue and using films to assist
that discourse - nevertheless our definition of politics is broad as well as
nuanced as the eclectic collection of films on our website will demonstrate.
So this is a non-commercial, non-broadcast distribution for education aimed
at connecting films to audience and thereby expanding as well as creating an
audience base for independent films.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Warmly,
Gargi Sen
Magic Lantern Foundation
J 1881 Chittaranjan Park, Basement, New Delhi 110019
P: +91 11 41605239 and 26273244
E: magiclantern.foundation at gmail.com/ magiclf at vsnl.com
W: http://www.magiclanternfoundation.org


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

Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), on
matters of peace and democratisation in South
Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit
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