SACW | Jan. 13-14, 2008 / Blogs blocked in Pakistan / 1 yr military rule in Bangladesh
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at mnet.fr
Mon Jan 14 06:29:29 CST 2008
South Asia Citizens Wire | January 13-14, 2008 |
Dispatch No. 2488 - Year 10 running
[1] Pakistan:
(i) Blogs Blocked in Pakistan
(ii) Extremism vs moderation (Rubina Saigol)
[2] One year after the implementation of military
rule in Bangladesh (Maneeza Hossain)
[3] Sri Lanka: Abandoning constitutional governance (Kishali Pinto Jayawardena)
[4] India - Human rights: Giving up too much (Kuldip Nayar)
[5] India - Gujarat: Moditva and the shrinking of the liberal space (GPD)
[6] India - Australia: Harbhajan Singh's excuse insults women (Sue Mott)
[7] Announcements:
(i) ViBGYOR Film Festival 2008: National
Curtain Raiser (Banglaore, 18 -19 January 2008)
(ii) Exhibition: Ram Rahman, Bioscope:
Photographs, (New Delhi 2 -16 February 2008)
______
[1]
(i) BLOGS BLOCKED IN PAKISTAN
Dear All,
In another desperate measure the government has
banned access to blogs (particularly
blogspot/wordpress) from Pakistan.
Don't worry. They can't stop us.
Sites you can use to access banned blogs:
1) www.pkblogs.com
So for instance you want to access The Emergency Times, type
http://www.pkblogs.com/pakistanmartiallaw
2) Free Online Anonymizers such as
http://www.siatec.net/proxyanonymizer/index.php
Anonymizers conceal your IP hence making tracking activity even harder.
Stay safe. Stay a step ahead.
-Admin
P.S. If you have not had chance to have a look at
the draconian cyber crimes bill it is posted at:
http://www.teeth.com.pk/blog/2007/09/08/draconian-cyber-crime-law-in-pakistan/
Though it doesn't make a difference to the
current regime. There are already many held
without any crimes.
o o o
LETTER TO PAKISTAN GOVT -RE DRACONIAN E-CRIMES BILL
Secretary
Cabinet Division
Government of Pakistan
Islamabad
Dear Sir,
Serious concerns about the e-Crimes Draft Law
A Threat to the Security, Fundamental Rights
under the Constitution and Interests
of the IT Industry and Investors
In recent days we, in the IT industry, have been
made aware of some serious concerns
with regard to the current Draft e-Crimes Bill
approved in principle by the Cabinet.
We must inform you that the erroneous legislation
in terms of its legal language,
definitional errors, policy implications,
complete conflict with International Best Practice
and International Treaties, failure to provide
any safeguards and a complete violation of
Fundamental Human Rights under the Constitution
of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
1973 has led to great concern and uneasiness not
jut within the IT industry but amongst
all sectors of business and industry. In
particular the International Chamber of
Commerce and Center for International Private
Enterprise have also expressed their
concern to the Ministry for IT & Telecom and the
advent of the legislation does not bode
well for Foreign Direct Investment into Pakistan.
The draft legislation was not shared with the
Industry in any meaningful manner. Even
the few who commented including the 67 page
report of the International Chamber of
Commerce highlighting the serious and extensive
errors has not been considered nor
implemented by the Ministry of IT & Telecom and
serious obvious and damaging flaws
remain in the draft Bill.
The failure of the Ministry to share the draft
with the industry, not hold stakeholder
meetings and interviews and most importantly the
lack of any policy study to ascertain
the true nature and impact of the various
erroneous definitions, policies and frameworks
is not encouraging for investment. Effectively,
the draft law was created within the
Ministry without first doing a stakeholder study.
We appeal to the Cabinet Division to allow the
draft to be shared with stakeholder groups
and allow what would the first meaningful
consultation on the draft law. We have
attached a self-explanatory 'Frequently Asked
Questions" document to give you a broad
idea of what is the devastating impact this
legislation with have no business, industry,
investment and fundamental human rights.
Best regards,
President
Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT & IT enables Services
P at SHA
cc.
Mr. Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari
Honorable Federal Minister for IT & Telecom
Ministry of IT & Telecom
Islamabad.
Mr. Ishaq Khan Khakwani,
Honorable Minister of State for Information Technology
Islamabad.
______
(ii)
Dawn
14 January 2008
EXTREMISM VS MODERATION
by Rubina Saigol
THE current conflict in Pakistan has been
characterised by both government and independent
analysts as the contradiction between extremism
and moderation.
The first is represented by various religious
outfits that seek to forcibly impose their will
upon society. The second is represented by the
government, its foreign backers and sections of
society that oppose a religious order.
However, a closer examination of the discourse
and the realities on the ground reveals that the
battle lines are not between religious extremism
on one side and tolerance and moderation on the
other. Rather, the contemporary struggles being
waged in our society appear to be between two
forms of extremism that overlap and resemble each
other in some ways and are different in others.
Both types of extremists, the Pakistani
government and its foreign backers on the one
hand, and religious organisations on the other,
feed off each other, create each other and use
each other - they form a continuum rather than a
contradiction. Moderation and tolerance have not
been exhibited by either side as both are engaged
in the struggle for power and control over vital
economic and political resources.
The moderate and tolerant elements of society
which do not believe in resorting to extremist
measures in the pursuit of power, and do not
employ violent methods to achieve their aims,
have been sidelined by both forms of extremists,
the state authorities as well as non-state
actors. Both seem to believe that all problems
can only be resolved by the resort to militant or
military means.
First, let us take the extremists who base their
justification for violence on a religious
worldview. These outfits range from relatively
small organisations that are influential in a
specific area such as the Sipah-i-Sahaba in Jhang
or the Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Shariat-i-Mohammadi
located near Bajaur Agency, to major powerful
groups such as the Taliban who came to power in
Afghanistan and operate in large parts of
Pakistan's northern areas. While there may be
differences in their beliefs in terms of little
details, the common aim of many such
organisations is to enforce Sharia law and Islam
by the force of arms.
Democracy, pluralism and diversity of opinion or
way of life are alien to the way of thinking
prevalent in such organisations. They believe in
capturing state power through the use of armed
struggle in order to impose their Wahabi version
of Islam on the population. Such outfits are not
averse to mass killing through suicide bombings.
Such organisations must be distinguished from
mainstream religious parties like the
Jamaat-i-Islami which believe in capturing power
through democratic means. Organisations like the
SSP, TNSM and Jaish-i-Mohammad are generally
considered not only extremist but also
'terrorist' since 9/11, and some of them have
been banned by the government of Pakistan.
Now let us take a look at the other types of
extremists who resort to violence, killing,
bloodshed and other extreme measures based on an
alternative worldview. This category justifies
violence and mass murder by using the rhetoric of
'democracy' and 'moderation'. Composed primarily
of heads of states and governments, the latter
category justifies mass killing through bombing
and attacking on the basis of spreading democracy
and human rights.The governments of the US, the
UK, Australia, Italy and Spain are not the only
ones implicated in this form of extremism, the
government of Pakistan is no less involved. The
extremist and terrorist methods employed by these
governments are ostensibly to decimate the other
form of extremism represented by quasi-religious
groups.
However, it is widely believed that this form of
extremism is designed to capture the world's oil
and gas resources illegally, but needs some kind
of ideology to legitimise the imperial actions.
The latter form of extremism, exhibited mainly by
governments and states, is also intolerant
towards dissent, disagreement and the plurality
of views. Democracy may be its legitimising
ideology but the belief in democracy is fairly
superficial. In the name of fighting 'terrorism',
most of these governments suppressed dissent,
concealed evidence, lied to the people and made
exaggerated claims to such an extent that the
prime minister in the UK had to resign.
In Pakistan, President Musharraf has tried to
pose as a tolerant moderate leader while sacking
the independent judiciary, jailing and beating
lawyers, imprisoning human rights activists,
muzzling the media and refusing to tolerate any
view other than his own.
He has completely dismantled democracy by
suspending the Constitution for the second time,
amending the Army Act of 1952 thus enabling the
court martial of civilians, forcing his own
presidential election while still in the service
of the state and disabling citizens from getting
redress against government excesses by empowering
the government to disbar lawyers. In short, there
has been a resort to all extremist measures to
hold on to power and unravel even the trappings
of democracy meticulously built up in the last
few years.
While he does all this, praise is showered upon
him by David Miliband of the UK and Condoleezza
Rice of the US who repeatedly argue that Pakistan
is on the road to democracy and civilian rule. It
seems the foreign backers of the Musharraf regime
think Pakistanis are immeasurably stupid and can
be duped into thinking that democracy is being
ushered into their country on the back of tanks
and F-16s.
The only moderates in the extremist/moderate
divide are the great majority of the people of
Pakistan. Caught between two forms of virulent
extremism, of a religious and non-religious
variety, the average, ordinary Pakistani citizen
is baffled, grieved and incredulous.
The judges, lawyers, human rights activists,
teachers, students, professors, workers,
labourers and peasants are the true and only
moderates who do not believe in picking up guns
or bombs to destroy everything in sight. These
are the people who go about their daily business
to be able to eke out a living in spite of the
terrifying circumstances created by extremists
and terrorists on both sides.
These are the people who get killed in suicide
bombings on their way to work, or are hit by the
bullets of security forces and the state's guns
in Swat or South Waziristan. These are the people
who are beaten, incarcerated and reviled in the
name of "national interest" when they raise their
voices to demand civil rights, rule of law,
constitutionalism, an independent judiciary, the
end of military rule, a free media - in short
when they ask for the basics of liberal democracy.
Just as the populations of the US, Australia,
Britain and Spain finally got the right to remove
their extremist rulers through the ballot,
Pakistanis clamouring for freedom, democracy and
choice should have the opportunity to rid
themselves of oppressive rule. Pakistan's people
and its electorate are mature and sophisticated
enough to remove both kinds of extremist menace -
one coming from those who commit crimes in the
name of religion, the other from those who commit
crimes in the name of the nation or country. The
only moderate force in Pakistan is its citizenry
both urban and rural. They should be allowed to
determine their destiny.
______
[2]
www.weeklystandard.com/
11 January 2008
DHAKA DILEMMA- ONE YEAR AFTER THE IMPLEMENTATION
OF MILITARY RULE IN BANGLADESH.
by Maneeza Hossain
TODAY MARKS THE first anniversary of the
momentous events of January 11, 2007, when
Bangladesh's constitutional government was
replaced by military rule. For 365 days,
Bangladeshis have lived under a state of
emergency: their constitutional rights have been
suspended, civil liberties limited, and hundreds
of thousands--ranging from former prime ministers
to ad hoc peddlers--arrested under the banner of
"fighting corruption." One year after taking
power, the military "caretaker" government's
promises to implement a better, truer democracy
have not been fulfilled.
To the contrary, the unelected,
paraconstitutional government of Bangladesh can
claim credit for two appalling developments: the
politicization of the army, which has blurred the
lines between the army and civilian
administration and has introduced into the army
the same corruption rampant in Bangladeshi
politics; and the creeping delegitimization of
democracy, which has occurred as various
undemocratic actions--arrests of perceived
enemies, the exclusion of duly elected leaders
from political life, the ban on "indoor
politics," which forbids private political
discussions--are normalized under the army's rule.
Despair is setting in among many Bangladeshis.
But in the West, and even among some in
Bangladesh, there is denial rather than despair.
Some reject the idea that a military coup took
place. Bangladesh's two previous military
takeovers both had a visible military face. The
uniqueness of the new takeover is that the
military hand is hidden in the velvet glove of a
renowned technocratic team, led by Fakhruddin
Ahmed, an internationally acclaimed, world-class
economist.
But the refusal to recognize the coup as a coup goes deeper than
that. Perhaps Western democrats never believed
Bangladesh really capable of democracy, or
perhaps they are willing to endorse a fictional
democracy if doing so is in line with perceived
international interests. Or perhaps new global
risks have prompted the international community
to accept an unelected government in Bangladesh:
the belief that Islamism must be contained at all
costs is taken to justify support for this new
order, even if it means the indefinite suspension
of democracy.
It is hard not be reminded of Pakistan.
Bangladesh, once known as East Pakistan, is
afflicted by many of the same ills: Islamism is a
rising threat; corruption has eroded the
political system; democracy appears a luxury too
dear for the present; and the military, as the
foremost professional institution, is the most
trustworthy partner against the rise of Islamism.
In both countries, moreover, reform will depend
on the government bureaucracy and the expatriates.
One difference between the two, however, is in
the response of Western diplomats. When Parvez
Musharraf declared the state of emergency in
Pakistan in November 2007, governments of
democratic nations expressed their disapproval
and dismay. "The people of Pakistan deserve the
opportunity to choose their leaders," declared
John Negroponte when he flew over to Islamabad.
But a year has passed since the military assumed
power in Bangladesh, and the silence of much of
the world amounts to complicity in the
destruction of Bangladesh's democratic potential.
While the West remains silent, Bangladesh sinks
deeper into crisis. The country's currency has
lost 10 percent of its value, leading businessmen
are kept behind bars, and the price of
commodities such as edible oil and rice are being
forcibly kept down by the army's experiment in
state-controlled economics.
Husain Haqqani, a Pakistan expert and advisor to
the late Benazir Bhutto, has referred to the
"Pakistanization" of Bangladesh. A decade from
now, we may see in Bangladesh a politicized
military that holds the reins of power, controls
the economy, and has the final say in social,
economic, and political affairs. We can likewise
expect a shrunken and weakened political class
exhausted from losing its leaders to exile,
trial, intimidation. The other effect is likely
to be a growing grassroots movement that appeals
to urban as well as rural populations, that
provides services parallel to the government's,
and that--under the banner of an
ever-radicalizing Islamism--offers an outlet for
venting frustration with corrupt politicians and
dire economic circumstances. We may even witness
Western powers arranging for the return of a
former prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, in response
to the military's failure to contain the Islamist
threat.
The current unelected government claims to pursue
genuine democracy, respect for political
pluralism, and avoidance of radical intolerance,
but the course it is now following is not
conducive to the fulfillment of these goals.
Still, Western governments seem inclined to
continue their tacit support for the actions of
the Bangladeshi Caretaker government--contingent
on a timetable to elections. In turn, the
Caretaker is adamant about excluding both former
Prime Ministers ("the feuding ladies") from any
future political role. What remains to be seen is
whether the Bangladeshi electorate is willing to
go along with this exclusionary stand. From the
military's point of view, this remains a sine
quo non. Political change will be limited to
tinkering with the current configuration of
façade players.
Instead of containing Islamism and paving the way
for the blossoming of democracy, the current
arrangement has delegitimized democracy in
practice as well as in culture, and in doing so
has helped to consolidate and strengthen Islamist
movements. A sensible approach for the current
government of Bangladesh would be to adhere to
its formal task of preparing for elections using
technical, not political, criteria. It should
also immediately stop attempting to force reforms
within political parties; this is a task that
should be left for the electorate. Democrats
worldwide, notably in India, Europe, and the
United States, should unequivocally demand that
the state of emergency be lifted at once in
preparation for the restoration of democracy.
Yes, the Bangladeshi experimentation with
democracy was riddled with problems. But that is
the nature of democracy. A democracy's problems
have to be resolved within the context of
democracy, not within the context of military
rule.
Maneeza Hossain is a senior fellow at Hudson
Institute and author of Broken Pendulum:
Bangladesh's Swing to Radicalism (Hudson
Institute Press, 2007).
______
[3]
Sunday Times
13 January 2008
ABANDONING CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNANCE
by Kishali Pinto Jayawardena
Notwithstanding the deceptively religious zeal of
the Rajapaksa administration in prosecuting the
war against the tiger striped enemy in the North,
let us not engage any longer in unconscionably
complacent thinking that the conflict and related
issues are all that is wrong with this country.
Such naivete presupposes the belief that if
tomorrow, the conflict is brought to an end
(through no doubt, a suitably divine
intervention), Sri Lanka would return to
responsible governance. This is far from the
case. We have abandoned principles of
constitutional governance to such an extent that
reversing the consequences of such abandonment
will be painfully slow and almost impossibly
laboured.
Party discipline and the politicization of governance
The sequence of events at each and every disputed
point bears this out. The continuing laissez-
faire attitude of the office of the Rajapaksa
Presidency in regard to the Mervyn de Silva
episode at the offices of the Rupavahini
corporation is just one illustration. The
Peoples' Alliance, it appears, does not believe
in party discipline any longer, except as a
weapon to castigate any party member for crossing
over to opposition ranks. The referral of the
dispute to a party committee instead of the full
weight of the law being exercised against this
individual who still continues to hold
ministerial rank, is shameful indeed.
Let alone de Silva's condemnatory actions at the
state broadcaster, footage of his various
vulgarly reprehensible exploits on other
occasions were also aired by the electronic media
during that time. Particularly, his obscenely
crude admonition to an officer-in-charge of the
area on a previous occasion where he was
addressing, (if that term can be used to dignify
the activity concerned), a political rally for
not being present and pointing to the detriment
that can follow by that police officer's absence,
given the senior superintendent of the area was
also present, is a good illustration of the same.
With open toleration of politicians of this
nature within party ranks, we are justified in
asking as to the purpose of a National Police
Commission which is supposed to bring back order
and discipline in the police force? But then,
when one examines the manner in which this body
itself has been packed with appointees of the
President and indeed, that it has been wholly
unable to fulfill its constitutional objectives,
the overall political scheme becomes very clear.
In fact, de Silva's supreme disregard for
consequences attendant upon his behaviour is well
shown by the fact that he allowed himself to be
televised while threatening that police officer
and indeed, seemed to be delighted to have his
exploits featured on national television, all
excepting the beating that he sustained by the
staffers at Rupavahini. Cumulatively, such
behaviour amounts to the most serious breach of
party discipline. Yet, no action is taken. And as
citizens, we can only say most vehemently, shame
on you, Mr President.
The JHU and the Constitutional Council
At another but connected level to this question
of responsible governance, the efforts of the
Organisation of Professional Associations (OPA)
to bring about some consensus regarding the
nomination of the remaining member to the
Constitutional Council (one slight ray of hope
that emerged as the country entered upon a new
year), appeared to have also been stymied at the
last minute by the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU).
The objections of the JHU appear not to be
directed to the personality of the individual
named as the nominee (obviously so, given that
the nominee is former Auditor General, Mr S.C.
Mayadunne, a public officer of unimpeachable
integrity) but rather to a puerile preoccupation
with the process of discussions on this question.
If the JHU represents this as the official
position of the party and continues to hold out
giving its approval to the nomination, the party
should be exposed for its most obvious bad faith.
There can be no question about this; if the
diametrically opposite party membership of the
Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and the Tamil
National Alliance (TNA) are able to agree on the
nomination of Mr Mayadunne, the JHU's holding out
on a cosmetic insistence on the manner of
discussions concerned masks a far more sinister
purpose in seeing the continued thwarting of the
17th Amendment to the Constitution. If, as rumour
has it, the JHU objections are being pushed by a
ministerial stalwart close to the office of the
Presidency, then that sinister purpose becomes
very clear.
The rule of law in the year ahead
It needs to be said and said very clearly; in as
much as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE) has consistently and ruthlessly eschewed
any real concern for the Tamil people, the
Rajapaksa administration has shown no empathy for
the people of majority and minority race in Sri
Lanka, leaving aside those ultra nationalists and
government propagandists who beat the war drum
while comfortably ensconced either overseas or in
the capital. Indeed, the administration has shown
no respect for constitutional governance in
general, so let us forget about empathy for its
citizens.
Rather than exhibiting concern at the breakdown
of national institutions, the government has
indeed, been a key actor in hastening their
deterioration. Rather than putting to right, the
abysmally poor law enforcement process by
safeguarding the police from political
interference, the government continues to delight
in the exploits of nonentities turned ministers
such as Silva and indeed, many other ministerial
colleagues who may be possessed of sufficient
grey matter not to allow themselves to be
televised while engaging in their nefarious
activities but who are, indeed, far more
dangerous in their links to the underworld and
corrupt law enforcement officers.
The death and renewal of hope
Perhaps, in the year ahead, we need to brace
ourselves for the situation to get infinitely
worse but then slowly inch itself back to a
semblance of decent functioning. At that point
perhaps, citizens of minority race may be able to
think of this country as being their own again
without fear, ordinary citizens might be able to
think of entering a police station without being
harassed and a litigant might enter a courtroom
without an equal amount of trepidation. At that
point indeed, we may recover the confidence that
disputes would be determined at the highest
levels of the legal system without political (or
personal) bias, the rule of law would be
implemented to its fullest and the prosecution of
the guilty would take place without fear or
favour.
We would expect that the profligate spending, the
debauchery and the dissolute lifestyles of those
who have declared themselves as our political
rulers would minimize, if not come to an end.
Schoolchildren would be able to attend sessions
of the House without being ushered out of the
public gallery in haste by their minders in order
to prevent them from hearing the choice language
in which our representatives entertain themselves
and there would be the ceasing of the tide of
mindless corruption and the endless earning of
ill gotten gain.
This is, of course, to think far ahead. But as
Paulo Coelho ruminated, when struggling not to be
overcome by despair at the fate of his own
country Brazil, despite the fact that everything
contradicts, despite feelings of the most
profound sadness and despite being almost
convinced that nothing ever will get better, one
must return to the comfortingly old reassurance
that there is always hope - '..the word that so
often rises with us in the morning, gets sorely
wounded as the day progresses, dies at nightfall
and is reborn with the new day' (Coelho, Like the
Flowing River, HarperCollins publishers, 2006).
His reflections are appropriate for each and
every genuine 'patriot' in this country today.
______
[4]
Dawn
January 11, 2007
GIVING UP TOO MUCH
by Kuldip Nayar
OUR history will be what we make it. If we go on
as we are, history will take revenge. This is as
much true for India as it is for other countries.
Fear has got hold of us and we have compromised
with the harshest laws and the most blatant human
rights violations.
Our focus on security concerns actually generates
repression. Terrorism has made us cast our
society in a mould where we justify the excesses
of central forces and the state police. We are
giving up too much.
In many states in India, the repressive POTA has
come back in one form or the other. The centre,
which included POTA's dictatorial part in the
Unlawful Activities Act, is using it with a
vengeance. As the shadows of intolerance
lengthen, the state discards even simple values.
Terrified citizens have nothing to say except
that the government knows best.
Thank God, the lieutenant-governor of Delhi
withdrew the order which made it compulsory for
every resident of the capital to carry a photo
identity card. This, as the order said, was meant
"to ensure that terrorists or anti-social
elements don't sneak into the city".
They do not want an identity card because they
know how to fudge papers. The order would have
meant harassment for hundreds of thousands of
people, particularly those from Bihar who do not
possess any paper to prove that they are
residents. They have been here for years doing
odd jobs. When even the Delhi chief minister
reads about the order in the press, it means that
the establishment wants to convey that big
brother is watching you.
After all, it was the Congress government which
had imposed the emergency (1975-77) to suspend
even fundamental rights. The order's withdrawal
does not come as a relief to me. I feel that the
central government which directly rules Delhi has
something up its sleeve to restrict the
individual's liberty and free movement that the
constitution has guaranteed. No society can
prevent all threats. Some element of risk will
always be there.
We should take normal precautions but never make
such intrusive rules which actually undermine
democratic principles. Democratic nations slip
into dictatorships when citizens are not
vigilant. Without the awareness of what is right
and a desire to act according to what is right,
there may be no realisation of what is wrong.
In fact, the manner in which the right to liberty
is being flouted is worrisome. The University
Grants Commission wants to prescribe a
"homogeneous curriculum" for all Indian
universities. This will squeeze out even the last
drop of creativity and independent thinking.
Finally, the report to find out the reasons for
the furor over the "obscene painting" at Baroda's
MS University is out. The three-member committee
has recommended the reinstatement of acting dean
Shivraj Pannikar who had defended the painter,
his student, against an attack by pro-Hindutva
students.
Yet, the committee appears to be afraid to come
out openly on the side of the painter. It says
that the painting would have been "obscene" if it
had been displayed in public but since it was
shown within the university premises, it was not.
What an apologetic approach. But then the
university is under the Gujarat of Narendra Modi
fame.
The case of paintings by M.F. Hussain is still
pending before law courts. He is staying out of
his country because the hooligans who call
themselves "the people" are after him. The
government is too timid to intervene since the
BJP is involved. Agreed, nobody has any right to
hurt the sentiments of others, but matters should
not be stretched to a point where the fundamental
right to freedom of speech and expression is
restricted.
The same is more or less the case with Taslima
Nasreen, the Bangladeshi author living in India.
I would like to see what she had written against
Islam because all that is known is that she
criticised Muslims in Bangladesh for victimising
Hindu women. Her book, Lajja (Shame) says all
that. Information Minister P.R. Dasmunsi has
demanded that she should apologise to Muslims.
What is that has hurt them?
At present it appears as if Taslima has been
penalised for her liberal views. The extremists
have made so much noise that the government has
confined her to a house. India's traditions do
not tally with the treatment meted out to her.
Even the few visitors and friends allowed to meet
her are harassed by the authorities. I only hope
that her visa ending next month is renewed for a
permanent stay. But then, the way in which she
has been sequestered suggests that the government
is looking only for a short-term solution.
When it comes to basic rights, the Naxalites are
the worst sufferers. An unequal society does
drive people to desperation. Still, I abhor
violence and favour a democratic solution to the
problem. But it looks as if the government is not
making way for even such Naxalites who want to
return to democratic ways.
One case is that of Dr Binayak Sen, PUCL
vice-president from Chattisgarh. Presuming he is
a Naxalite, there should be no bar if he wishes
to pursue democratic methods to deal with his
case. He wants to get bail for the crime of
"carrying a letter" from one set of Naxalites to
another. Even that has not yet been established.
Yet his application for bail has been rejected 22
times. Bail is the right of an accused. The
supreme court has said so in several judgments.
Maybe, the law under which Dr Binayak is detained
needs to be amended. He is only an "accused", not
proven guilty. In a climate where even bail is
not granted, desperation is the natural fallout.
And what about someone's right to live? Hindu
extremists led by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a
member of the Sangh Parivar, have killed scores
of Christians and burnt their houses in the
Khandamal district of Orissa. Even communist
leaders were stopped from visiting the area. A
committee of Christian intellectuals which has
visited the area has said in its report that the
whole affair - the killing of people and burning
of houses - was pre-planned and executed with the
blessings of the administration.
My purpose of putting together these different
incidents is to point out how the spirit of
accommodation, a basic need for a democratic
culture, is lessening day by day. There is a lack
of engagement in the country. New rules and
regulations are made regularly. But they are
meant to punish - and not to encourage a dialogue.
Democracy is nothing but a dialogue. We should
never adopt such measures which may kill the
basic principles that we want to uphold. The
lieutenant-governor of Delhi nearly did that.
The writer is a leading journalist based in New Delhi.
______
[5]
Economic & Political Weekly
January 5, 2008
MODITVA AND THE SHRINKING OF THE LIBERAL SPACE
by GPD
In his election campaign, Narendra Modi provided
a celebration of the anti-political in the highly
urbanised state of Gujarat. The Congress, even in
its use of the vernacular, showed how inept a
party it was. But the worrying message from the
elections is a collective failure to find a
strategy for combating Hindu chauvinism.
To nobody's surprise except the psephologists and
the liberals Modi won hands down in the Gujarat
poll. It cannot be denied that it has been a
breathtaking performance against the background
of the 2002 pogrom and the subsequent campaigns
against it. The Gujarat voter for reasons best
known to him has decided to stay with Modi. To be
sure, most of these campaigns against Modi were
outside Gujarat. There was no movement against
the pogrom worth the name in Gujarat or in
Gujarati. If there was one, we non-Gujaratis
never got to learn about it. The result is that
Modi is chief minister of Gujarat for the third
time in a row.
Nobody seems sure of whose victory it has been,
Modi's or BJP's. If you watched on December 23,
as dutifully as we did, the endless discussions
among New Delhi's elite and, of course, the
politicians of various hues, on the umpteen
television channels, you would have been
impressed by the number of times this question
was raised. There were of course no more than
three options: one, it was Modi's triumph, two,
it was BJP's, three, it was BJP's and Modi's.
Fairly straightforward formula- tions if you
asked us. The effort was some- how to separate
Modi from the BJP. Modi is more dynamic and more
flamboyant than any BJP leader. But he is a BJP
man and had been a Sangh pracharak before joining
the parliamentary game. Every- body knew this.
Why should then anybody raise the question is a
mystery. But there you are. A good TV presence
consists in making a trite question or
observation sound profound, except that in this
case it did not sound like anything at all. At
best it sounded like a tired comment that people
make when asked to say something profound in
about 30 seconds.
One, perhaps the only, good thing about this
election was the collective failure of all exit
polls and pre-election surveys. These analysts
have invented phenomena like anti-incumbency.
This term insists that like the overexposure of a
TV star, the politicians and people just get
tired of seeing the same face too often. Their
choices are not political. Politics is no
criteria and thank god for it. Exposure is. For
our anti-political middle class, in- cumbency is
a god-given tool. Use it and throw politics out.
Modi's government is not the first govern ment to
have won a third term. The Congress has done so
any number of times. Maharashtra has been ruled
by Congressmen all these years except for once in
1994-99. West Bengal has been ruled by the Left
Front for over three decades. Nobody should be
surprised if it wins the state yet again in spite
of Nandi- gram. There are, of course, political
rea- sons as to why parties win or lose elec-
tions. Incumbency is not one of them.
There is nothing political about incum- bency.
Our learned commentators and their willing
victims swallow these non- political explanations
as if they provide a kind of a new paradigm
shift. They probably heave a sigh of relief when
they hear something so non-political and intel-
lectually seductive.
anti-political
A new hero is born in Ahmedabad. To see him as a
saviour is the current fashion.
The violence of 2002 is forgotten. That is
certainly the case as far as the well-to- do
middle class urban votes of western India are
concerned. Gujarat is a highly urbanised state.
Seventy-eight of its 182 constituencies are urban
or semi-urban.
Depoliticisation of this area has been a
resounding success. Modi has achieved that. The
Modi slogan this time was, "I am not corrupt nor
is anyone else under my dispensation" ('Hun khato
nathi ane
khavo deta nathi'). That in these days and times
the slogan that an entire state was
corruption-free is believed is a measure of
Modi's charisma. There is also a com- fortable
and anti-political beliefthat "these" politicians
under Modi are kept out of the largesse. The
western Indian middle class is almost
pathologically against the political class. Modi
provided the celebration of the anti-political.
The only political thing that Modi's BJP did was
to offer a heady blend of the pride of being
Hindu and that of being a Gujarati. That is why
among other things, Modi's extraordinary mastery
of the Gujarati language was a major factor. If
you looked at the election news for the last few
days on the English, Hindi and Gujarati channels
you would have been struck by the fact that there
were hardly any Congress meetings where language
seemed to matter. In fact, the Congress
concentrated on projecting the "national",
non-Gujarati speaking, leaders.
Delhi usually is not very sensitive to the fact
that local people speak local languages and that
it is important that even the familiar rhetoric
has to reach people in their language. The net
result was it was a fight between a colourful and
spirited vernacular language rendi- tion and a
rather bland use of Hindi. Rahul Gandhi must
take a few lessons in Hindi rhetoric. As if this
was not enough, Kapil Sibal on the counting day
called Modi and his gang fascists. Now was that
the Congress position? It was not. And he should
have known that. All such remarks boil down to
branding the BJP as a fascist party. All very
well, but the Congress cannot sustain such
bravado. Indeed another Congress leader in a
discussion quickly retreated from that position.
The Congress was forever looking for slogans to
use against Modi and his entou- rage. "Merchants
of death" was one of them. It did not serve any
useful purpose. In fact it led to a not so happy
reminder of the 1984 riots in Delhi. That
Congressmen were directly involved in them could
not have been denied. The slogan "merchants of
death" had a boomerang effect. The Congressmen
seemed blissfully unaware of it.
collective failure
But the crucial and the central factor in these
elections has been a collective fail- ure in
finding a strategy for combating Hindu
chauvinism. It is futile to think that
communalism can be fought on a regional and
religious basis. You cannot fight it only in
Gujarat or only among the Hindus. If this elite
is unable to hold its own in the case of Taslima
Nasreen (even the left was less than courageous
in her case) it is hard to see if it can make
much headway in terms of seeing the end of
"Hindutva".
The confusion was clear when in one of the
discussions, a Congressman described
"Ramachandra" as a Hindutva-related issue. When
there is such scant regard for religion or
religious beliefs, there is little hope for
inculcating "sarva-dharma- samabhava" among
people, let alone secularism. The Congressmen and
liberals have so far failed to see that they are
no- where near evolving a strategy to fight the
commonly held belief that everyone is quite hard
at things Hindu, but quite timid when it comes to
Islamic or Christian fundamentalism.
Taslima can be asked to leave Bengal. The people
who decide that are rather cleverly polemical
about the fact that M F Hussain cannot return to
India.
Taslima is accused of things not dissimi- lar to
what some people hold Hussain guilty of. No, it
is not our contention that these cases are
absolutely the same. They cannot be. But they are
read as such at the popular level.
There is also no gainsaying the fact that the
Hindu liberal space is shrinking over time. The
political class has not reg- istered the
consequence of the same. It will continue to
shrink if Muslim or Christian liberals do not
preserve their space in the context of what
concerns their communities. In the Taslima case
or earlier in the Da Vinci code case, it did not
appear as if the liberals were active enough. The
liberal space in one com- munity cannot survive
if the liberal space in the others does not. The
problem really is that in such situations it is
not very dif- ficult for the BJP to ridicule and
neutralise the liberals. That is the meaning of
the slo- gan of pseudo-secularism. And the truth
of the matter is that Moditva prospers in these
conditions of the liberal space shrinking in
every community. It is not only a Hindu
phenomenon. It is a world of Modis of different
hues and colours, Hindu, Muslim or Christian.
Unless this is seen clearly, we might see more
Gujarats. Modi has won and shown what may well
be in our store.
GPD (gpdesh at vsnl.com) is a well-known com-
mentator on literary and political affairs.
______
[6]
The Telegraph (UK)
12 January 2008
HARBHAJAN SINGH'S EXCUSE INSULTS WOMEN
by Sue Mott
Mrs Symonds, what can we say? You have been
disgustingly insulted but as far as international
cricket is concerned, the abuse you have suffered
is of no importance whatsoever. In fact, it is
positively a good thing. The alleged 'truth' that
India bowler Harbhajan Singh did not call your
son Andrew a "big monkey" during the intense
Sydney Test match last week, but instead uttered
a highly derogatory remark about your good self
is the linchpin of the Indian's defence.
# In pics: Indians protest after Australia row
Heavyweight lawyers are to be wheeled in from
India, when a New Zealand judge hosts the
International Cricket Council appeal, to insist
that Harbhajan's offence was the minimal one of
being abusive to a man's mother and not involving
the primate kingdom at all. How civilised.
Harbhajan Singh's excuse insults women
Controversy: Andrew Symonds and Harbhajan Singh
In all the continuing controversy of this case,
not a living soul has thought to question whether
being rude about someone's poor mum is just as
heinous a sin as comparing them to a monkey. It
has been taken as read that this is a defence.
This tells us something rather significant about
cricket, sport, men, the law and our global
society. Racism - man the barricades. Sexism -
silly cows.
There is something almost funny about the casual
inconsiderateness of all this. There are highly
trained legal minds as we speak preparing to
argue that the alleged insult Singh offered
Symonds' mother in Hindi could have been misheard
by Symonds and team-mates Matt Hayden and Michael
Clarke as "big monkey" in English. That would be
all right then. Sorry chaps, misunderstanding.
Rescind Singh's three-Test ban, put the tour back
on track and we'll say no more about it.
Oh Mrs Symonds, you are political expedient.
Women may not be entirely logical creatures but
even we, examining the bare threads of the case,
are suspicious. India lose the second Test in
Sydney, partly thanks to some pretty hopeless
umpiring decisions, in the face of hard-baked
Australian sledging, and are highly offended by
the accusation that one of their players, the
'Sikh of Tweak', has allegedly called a mixed
race player a "monkey".
advertisement
At the hearing held by match referee Mike
Procter, the India tour manager, Chetan Chauhan,
apparently claims that the word "monkey" is held
by many Indians to refer to a god and hence is
not considered as offensive as it would be in the
West. There is no reference to mothers at all.
The ban is imposed, the Indians threaten to pull
out of the series. The ancient sporting rule is
invoked by the ICC: "Never let a controversy get
in the way of profit margin."
Seeking to appease the infuriated tourists,
umpire Steve Bucknor is sacked and Singh is
allowed to play on in the tournament pending an
appeal. Through news leakages we discover that
Harbhajan, though he said not a word of this at
the initial 41Ž2-hour hearing, has remembered
that he was speaking Hindi at the time and now
enters his new claim, the mother of all excuses.
That is indeed one heck of a tweak.
Sport will not tolerate racism. The monkey had to
go, albeit that monkey chants were only too
audible when Symonds toured with Australia in
India last autumn. Sport will, however, tolerate
blatant sexism. Indeed, sexism offered up like a
prize. It is quite a philosophical conundrum.
There are nations, and perhaps India is one of
them, where women do not enjoy equal status
across all the strata of society. Mind you, they
say that about Australia too, where sheilas have
long been lampooned as not quite as highly placed
in male affections as beer and a barbecued prawn.
It is certainly not possible for our own country
to mount its moral high horse on the subject,
when Manchester United's Christmas entertainment
featured leaving their wives and girlfriends at
home to party the night away in a boutique hotel
to which a queue of young, attractive women had
been invited, engendering an allegation of rape.
Abruptly, we have been halted in our smug female
tracks. There we were imagining that all this
work and ready meals were finally doing the
trick. We were mounting the ramparts of equality.
Even the MCC had consented to the disturbing
rattle of jewellery and squirt of hairspray in
the pavilion (and that's just the players going
out to bat).
We had moved on. It was a new world. Four out of
10 households, we are told, now feature women
bringing in the larger slab of the bacon.
We too can have strokes and peter out at 60. Good
lord, some of us girls even like to absorb porn
on the internet, so we were advised this week.
It was all going so well.
Then this Antipodean thunderbolt strikes and you
realise that it is all, aptly, cosmetic.
Governments like to pretend they are all for
equality, businesses wouldn't dare say they are
not. The Americans are flirting with Hillary
Clinton (but not in that way), and Pakistanis
separate on tribal, not gender grounds to mourn
the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
But the world of sport strips away all edifice in
the raw arena of combat (and courthouse). The
central lie has been exposed. Women, there you
were thinking you were more to cricket than mere
slatherers of butter on the sandwiches, and now
one of your number has been roped in - late in
the day - to bear the brunt of an insult that
might otherwise have been deemed offensive.
The offence to this dear lady is simply waved
away, with the swish of a barrister's silk
handkerchief.
Well, now we know. We must have been chatting or
comparing curtain material and not paying proper
attention, to have mistaken the situation so
entirely.
We are not back to square one, it would be
ridiculous to say that. Women are not routinely
hauled around by the hair any more - that is more
the domain of men playing rugby - but we are
still not quite the commanders of respect we
imagined.
The central tenet of Harbhajan's case is that he
was disgracefully rude to a fellow cricketer's
mother. The whole cricketing world seems to be
united in the view that this is such a minor
infraction it can be viewed as a positive. No
monkeys. Only mothers. All good. In fact, every
one of them connected with the case, from the ICC
chief executive, Malcolm Speed, to the lip-happy
bowler himself, should be thoroughly ashamed of
themselves. And one can only hope their mothers
let them know so at the earliest opportunity.
Perhaps the Beijing Olympics, born of a movement
that refuses to discriminate on any issue
including gender, will reassert a more balanced
view of 21st century woman. And why not? It is
only being held in a country where critics claim
the enforcement of a one-child policy has led to
the killing of female infants due to a
traditional preference for boys.
It seems, Mrs Symonds, we still have a way to go.
______
[7] ANNOUNCEMENTS:
(i)
ViBGYOR Film Festival 2008: National Curtain Raiser
and
Premiere Screening of 'Yi As Akh Padshah Bai'
Bangalore, January 18th and 19th, 2008
The two-day National Curtain Raiser Festival of
the third edition of ViBGYOR International Film
Festival for Short and Documentary films will be
held on 18th and 19th of January 2008 in
Bangalore. The event will open with the premiere
screening of the film 'Yi As Akh Padshah Bai'
(There was a Queen) on January 18th in Charles
Ranson Hall, UTC, Millers Road. A mix of national
and international Short and documentary films
from ViBGYOR Film Festival will be screened on
next day, January 19th in SCM House, Mission
Road, Bangalore.
Programme: (tentative)
Day 1 @ UTC:
5.00pm, January 18, 2008
Venue: Charles Ranson Hall
United Theological College (UTC), 17, Millers Road , Bangalore
5.00 pm - Introduction
5.30 pm - Screening of Film /'Yi As Akh Padshah Bai' /(There was a Queen)
Dir.Ms.Kavita Pai and Ms.Hansa
Thapliyal/Kashmiri,Urdu,Hindi,English/English
Subtitled/India/2007/90 minutes
The representative from Association of Parents of
the Disappeared Persons (APDP) from Kashmir and
the film directors will attend it. The screening
will be followed by an interaction with the
representatives of APDP and the directors of the
film.
7.45 pm - Screening of Film /Certain Liberation /
Documentary/ Dir. Yasmine Kabir/ Bangla/English
subtitled/Bangladesh/2003/ 37 minutes
Day 2 @ SCM
Date and Time: 9.30am to 8.30pm, January 19
Venue: SCM House, Mission Road.
Students Focus: 9-30am - 4.30pm
9.30 - 11.30 'Yi As Akh Padshah Bai' (There was a Queen)
Dir. Ms. Kavita Pai and Ms.Hansa
Thapliyal/Kashmiri, Urdu, Hindi, English/English
Subtitled/India/2007/90minutes
The screening will be followed by an interaction
with the representatives of APDP and the
directors of the film
Tea Break
11.45am -1.00pm
- Bare
Documentary/Santana Issar/ English/ India/2006/11 minutes
- Tickets Please
Short Fiction/ Dir. Lucas Figuroa /Spanish/ Spanish/ 2006/ 14 minutes
- Our Family
Documentary/ Dir. Anjalie Monteiro and
K.P.Jayasankar/Tamil/ English Subtitled/ India/
2007/56 minutes.
Lunch Break
2-00pm -4-30pm
- Theeram
Short fiction/ Dir. Sanju Surendran/Malayalam/
English subtitled/India/2007/20 minutes
- Black Pamphlets
Documentary/ Dir. Nitin,K./ Hindi, English/
English Subtitled/India/2007/84 minutes
- Goli
Short Fiction/ Dir. Manu/Malayalam/India/2006/31 minutes
5-00 to 8-30pm
- images you didn't see
Music video/ Dir. Anand Patwardhan/ English/ India/2005/ 5 minutes
- Resisting Coastal Invasion
Documentary/Dir. K.P. Sasi/ Tamil, Malayalam,
English/ English Subtitled/ India/ 2007/ 57
minutes.
- Shifting Prophecies
Documentary/Dir. Merajur Rahman Barwah/ Tamil,
Hindi, English/ English subtitled/ India/2007/ 31
minutes
- A Bit of Milton
Documentary/ Dir. Silvio Tendler/ Spanish/
English subtitled/ Brazil/2006/90mins
All are invited.
ViBGYOR Film Collective, The Other Media,
Environment Support Group, NESA, SICHREM,
VISTHAR, SANGAMA, Visual Search, National Adivasi
Andolan, INSAF, Moving Republic, SCM and UTC.
The third edition of ViBGYOR will be held from
February /13th to 17th 2008 in Thrissur/, Kerala.
Around 200 films from all over the world will be
screened in various categories and packages.
For more details: http://2008.vibgyorfilm.com, E-
mail: santhosh at othermediacommunications.com
_ _
Synopsis of the films
"Yi As Akh Padshah Bai"
(There was a QueenŠ)
All Women Crew/Dir. Kavita Pai / Hansa Thapliyal/
Kashmiri/Urdu/Hindi/English with English
subtitles /90 minutes
"Give us guns and we'll play our role!" - These
are not the words of a hardened criminal, these
are the words of a teen aged girl in Kashmir less
than a week after her sister was buried. Farha's
sister Shahnaza, and her friend, Ulfat, victims
of 'crossfire', would have been adult women today
- they were barely seventeen when they died, as
old as the tehreek, the movement, that exploded
into existence in 1989, shattering forever the
peace of the Valley, and turning it into one of
the most critical conflict zones in the world.
Over these eighteen years, flashes of intensified
conflict and bouts of negotiations have followed
one another with monotonous regularity in
Kashmir. Newspapers and television channels
manufacture predictable binary images of conflict
- angry men and weeping women, peace loving
Kashmiris and terrorist Kashmiris, misguided
innocents and fundamentalist separatists, victims
and aggressors. Over and above these is the image
that erases all differences - the Kashmiri as
terrorist.
When we set out to make a film on peace
initiatives by women in conflict, it felt strange
to speak to only women, ignoring the other half.
So we spoke to a few men and realized that while
every story had the power to shock and move, the
women's stories were compelling in their honesty,
in their rage, in their helplessness, in their
grief, in their contempt, in their fierce refusal
to forget, in their determination to survive, to
nurture. It is through these women - proud,
strong, with an undying zest for life - that we
examine what peace means and how it can come
about in Kashmir.
Shifting Prophecy
Director/Script: Merajur Rahman Barwah /India/ English/Tamil, 2007, 31 minutes
The film is on the struggle of rural Muslim
women, in particular, Sherifa Khanam to fight the
sexist rulings of he conventional Jamaat (a group
of Islamic male elders who decide on family
issues of marriage, dowry, divorce etc.) and
patriarchal social order in Tamilnadu.
"A Bit of Milton"
Directed by: Silvio Tendler/ Brazil/2006/90mins
The global world seen from over here (Brazil). A
conversation with Milton Santos. A libertarian
proposition for these tumultuous days.
The first globalization of colonism was
characterized by territorial occupation. The
second globalization begins at the end of the
20th century, marked by the fragmentation of the
territories. The 20th century was the century of
revolutions. Technological revolutions turned new
conquests into dreams of a better world. Soon
came the disassembly of the state of social
well-being. Humanism as a driving force for
development and progress was replaced by the
model of voracious consumption. Consumerism which
today, is the great fundamentalism. That is the
great fundamentalism. The techniques are
implanted in societies and territories based on
certain politics. Today, It is the politics of
global corporations, tomorrow the politics of
states driven by nations.
In this film by Silvio Tendler, the globalized
world, in which we are actually in, is presented,
in its different forms by he great Brazilian
thinker Milton Santos. There for, this is not a
biographic film, but a synthesis of the most
actual thoughts of this geographer, presented by
him. It's a real lesson about how to understand
the world we live in, and also the concrete
possibilities of changes for a better future.
Bare
Dir: Santana Issar/ 11 minutes / 2006 / English
A daughters' search to find meaning, if any, in
her relationship with heralcoholic father. She
strives to understand the impact of her father's
alcoholism on each of their lives. And the
questions she is struggling with come tothe fore:
should she stand behind him, drawing only on her
memories of what a wonderful father he was? Or
should she move onŠand build her life without him?
GOLI
Director: Manu/ 2006/Malayalam/India/31 minutes
Then the crooked Synopsis. Turned towards the
Heroine. Sounding like slithering foliage:
Where should I make your bed, little darling?
In the bedroom or in the veranda?
She knew that she didn't know.
So he tried to explain to her:
Eggs, larvae, pupa and butterfly
They always sleep in the room.
Things before egg and things after death
Sleep in this winding veranda.
The Heroine looked at the Earth,
Her dearest friend, and asked:
Where would you sleep tonight?
The Earth couldn't hold back her parenting smile.
If I ever go to sleep at all
That will be in my own room in my own home
She proudly pointed towards the Sun.
Images you didn't see
Anand patwardhan, English, India, 5 mins, 2005
Global censorship of the war on Iraq has stifled
the outrage that may have otherwise curtailed the
ongoing atrocity of occupation. Not only have the
real causes of war been hidden but also its
effects. Most people see a sanitized and
falsified version that feeds their complacence
and sedates their conscience. But one place where
the truth cannot be totally hidden is the
Internet. "images you didn't see" is a music
video that interprets images gleaned from the net
- images that either never appear in the
mainstream media, or images whose import are
masked behind a velvet curtain of global
infotainment.
Tickets please
Director: Lucas Figuroa/ Spain, Spanish, 2006, 14 mins
A train, a pursuit, only one-way to escape
A Certain Liberation
Bangladesh, English, 2003, 37min
Director: Yasmine Kabir
A woman who had been raped and whose family wiped
out by the collaborators of the occupying forces
during the bloody "liberation war" of Bangladesh
in 1971 now roams the streets, 30 years later, as
a mad person.
Our Family
Anjalie Monteiro and K.P.Jayasankar/ Tamil/ English Subtitled/2007/56 minutes
Set in Tamilnadu, 'Our Family' brings together
excerpts from Nirvanam, a one-person performance,
by Pritham K. Chakravarthy and a family of three
generations of trans-gender female subjects,
Asha, Seetha and Dhana, who are bound together by
ties of adoption.
Black Pamphlets
Nitin,K/ Hindi, English/ English Subtitled/2007/ 84 minutes.
A glimpse of democracy in practice through the
chronicle of students' elections at the Delhi
University. 'Black Pamphlets' takes you into the
heart of Delhi University student union election
process.
Resisting coastal Invasion
K.P.Sasi/ Tamil, Malayalam, English/2007/ India/57 minutes
Coastal Management Zone, a new jargon coined by
the Central Government that allows tourism and
other industries to invade the coastal areas in
India which would eventually throw the fisher
people out of coastal lands.
Theeram
Short fiction/ Dir. Sanju Surendran/Malayalam/
English subtitled/India/2007/20 minutes
When moving out from the house, father's mind was
in a mysterious state. Between lifeless dreams
and helplessness. His daughter's face flashed in
front of him. Her past and present played and
laughed and made a long face in his mind. At
first stories about his daughter were not
believable. Then when he went through her diaryŠ..
o o o
(ii)
From: ram rahman
Bodhi Art is proud to present Bioscope: Scenes
From an Eventful Life, photographs by Ram Rahman.
Rahman's major exhibition in Delhi comes after 20
years. He will be showing over 200 images
spanning 30 years. Mostly in black and white,
Rahman works in a documentary style and the
exhibition showcases images which have been made
as notations and observations of the changing
times over the last three decades.
As Peter Nagy writes in the catalog :
"Ram's camera has come to acknowledge a particular image of India's cities, and
particularly Delhi. The strange (but not surreal)
confluence of people, architecture, signage and
activity that one finds in urban India fits
easily into Ram's viewfinder, while his
compositional style savors the flattening,
foreshortening and collapsing of perspectives
that happens readily in the black-and-white
print. Ram delights in the subtle absurdities to
be found in these juxtapositions, exploiting the
opportunity to discover something about what
might make Indians tick. Raised and still based
in New Delhi, India's capital and political
engine, Ram has a special interest in the symbols
of politics as they enter popular culture, the
highly visual markers of both parties and players
that get mixed into the cacophony of the streets,
revealing playful readings of the public Indian
psyche."
Coming of age in the 1980's, Rahman has been an
important figure in the generation of independent
photographers who began to transform the
photography scene in India, through his published
work, exhibitions, critical writing and activism.
He has shown his work around the world in both
solo and group shows, including a solo at the
Cleveland Museum of Arts. With his interest in
our photography history, he curated a major
retrospective of the mid-century photographer
Sunil Janah in 1998 in New York.
With formal education in photography and
photo-history from MIT and Yale in the 1970's,
Rahman was one of the generation of Indian
photographers who were exposed to the photo
culture of the US. With and architect father and
a dancer mother, he grew up in the heart of the
post-independence culture of Delhi and much of
his work deals with the cultural milieu and
personalities of those times.
"In Ram's work the patina of the city walls,
graffiti and posters, hoarding and billboards –
all components of an ephemeral visual culture,
compete for attention. His language is in a sense
anti-pictorial and an instinctive rejection of
the cliché of eternal India. In building bodies
of work on the political party and the social
party, he compels a kind of opinion formation
through the sheer act of viewership. Rahman
presents himself as a commentator on class
issues, even as he, with the same interjection of
irony, enacts the role of witness and
participant." Gayatri Sinha
Rahman's show will be in the Rabindra Bhavan
Gallery, designed by his father Habib Rahman in
1961. It opens on Saturday, February 2nd, at 6
pm, and is on till the 16th of February.
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), on
matters of peace and democratisation in South
Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit
citizens wire service run since 1998 by South
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