SACW | Jan. 20-22, 2008 / Sri Lanka citizens on Ceasefire Abrogation / Bangladesh universities and dissent (Rehman Sobhan) / India: Bilkis Bano and Trial of Gujarat riot cases; attack on NDTV
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at gmail.com
Mon Jan 21 18:49:43 CST 2008
South Asia Citizens Wire | January 20-22, 2008 |
Dispatch No. 2491 - Year 10 running
[1] Sri Lanka: Joint Statement by citizens groups re - Ceasefire Abrogation
[2] Bangladesh: The universities and dissent:
Some cautionary lessons (Rehman Sobhan)
[3] Pakistan Has Paid Dearly For America's Most
Generous And Tragic Patronage (Roger Morris)
[4] India: The battle Justice for victims of 2002
pogrom in Gujarat - The Bilkis Bano Case:
Editorials and reports
- Bilkis by example (Editorial, Indian Express)
- The first step (Editorial , Daily News and Analysis)
- I stand vindicated: Bilkis Bano (Aarti Dhar)
- Trial of Gujarat riot cases going nowhere (Gyanant Singh)
[5] India: Hindutva Fundamentalists attack
offices of TV network over MF Hussain
- Hindu fundamentalists attack NDTV office [in Ahmedabad]
- NDTV's Bhopal office attacked
- Attack on NDTV reflects 'fascist raj' in Gujarat: Activists
- Press Release by Prashant
[6] India: Modi, The Greatest National Security Threat (I.K.Shukla)
[7] India - Madhya Pradesh: Teachers say yes to
sex education, despite opposition BJP govt
(Rasheed Kidwai)
[8] Announcements:
(i) Remembering Ismail Gulgee (Karachi, 24 january 2008)
(ii) Public Meeting on 60th Year of Gandhi's
Martydom (Ahmedabad, 30 January 2008)
______
[1] SRI LANKA:
Please find below a joint statement by the
Association of War Affected Women, Centre for
Society and Religion, Centre for Human Rights and
Development, Colombo, Centre for Policy
Alternatives, Christian Alliance for Social
Action, Consortium for Humanitarian Agencies,
Equal Ground, Sri Lanka, INFORM, Home for Human
Rights, Colombo, Human Development Organization,
Kandy, Human Rights Resource Center, Kandy,
International Centre for Ethnic Studies -
Colombo, International Movement Against
Discrimination and Racism, Law & Society Trust,
Mothers and Daughters of Lanka, Mannar Women for
Human Rights and Democracy, Muslim Information
Centre - Sri Lanka, Muslim Women's Research and
Action Forum, National Peace Council of Sri
Lanka, Rights Now Collective for Democracy,
Setik, Kandy
[18 January 2008]
Joint Statement
ABROGATION OF CEASEFIRE AGREEMENT WILL ESCALATE SPIRAL OF VIOLENCE
The government's decision to abrogate the
Norwegian-facilitated Ceasefire Agreement (CFA)
signed with the LTTE in 2002 is a matter of the
gravest concern to the undersigned civil society
organisations. Truces historically tend not to
last long unless they culminate in a negotiated
peace agreement. Unfortunately, the conflicting
parties were not willing to negotiate a political
solution using the point of entry to the peace
process provided by the CFA that the government,
the LTTE, and the people of Sri Lanka could build
on. Instead of such negotiations, for the past
two years the government and LTTE vocally
supported a ceasefire but actually engaged in a
high level of hostilities tantamount to war,
including mounting human rights violations, the
overrunning of forward defence lines, capture of
territory, artillery, sea and air bombing, and
the large scale displacement of people.
The signing of the CFA brought numerous benefits
to the citizens of Sri Lanka. It ushered in a
period of relative peace, allowing civilians
directly affected by the conflict the opportunity
to re-build their lives, homes and livelihoods.
With the CFA, civilians from either side of the
no man's land could freely travel and feel
relatively safe from the threat of war. The 'no
war' no peace' scenario that was a direct result
of the CFA created not only the conditions for
negotiations between the Government and the LTTE,
but also an environment conducive for increased
economic growth and external assistance to Sri
Lanka as a whole.
As civil society organisations deeply concerned
about peace and human rights we all supported the
CFA. We were, however deeply concerned by the
violations of the CFA, the violations of human
rights and incidents of violence committed during
this period; hence we saw the need for
significant improvements on the CFA and its
implementation. With the increasing violence and
distrust that followed the collapse of peace
talks, the parties came to recognize the need for
the CFA to be strengthened and even amended, but
were unable to come to agreement or to cease the
bloodshed, resulting in a crisis of violence.
The government's decision to abrogate the CFA
follows repeated demands by the JVP and other
nationalist parties for its abrogation.
Government members have said that the peace
process and political talks will continue with
non-LTTE Tamil parties. While there is a clear
need to make political negotiations to find a
settlement to the ethnic conflict more inclusive
by including non-LTTE Tamil parties in political
talks, it cannot be done at the cost of
eliminating the LTTE from the dialogue. The
danger inherent in the government's position,
especially in the event of a total rejection of
the past peace process with the LTTE, is that it
is paving the way for a fight to the finish where
the costs can be very high, success is not
guaranteed, and no fall back position will be
available.
We regret that the role played by the Sri Lanka
Monitoring Mission (SLMM) established under the
CFA has also come to an end with the abrogation
of the Ceasefire Agreement. Although the
international monitors of the SLMM were unable to
prevent all acts of war and human rights
violations from taking place, we recognize that
the SLMM was a crucial third party that was able
to be physically present in the conflict zones,
record incidents, and report them to the
conflicting parties and the international
community. The presence of the SLMM deterred
further violence and violations and the SLMM's
removal now puts the populations in both the
North and the South more at risk. The Government
rejection of a UN Human Rights field presence,
the inability of the Commission of Inquiry (COI)
and the International Independent Group of
Eminent Persons (IIGEP) to make meaningful
progress in discharging their mandates, and the
inability of the National Human Rights Commission
to fulfill its mandate and duties, combine to
place respect for human rights in Sri Lanka in
further jeopardy.
The abrogation of the CFA in the present
circumstances will deprive the hapless civilians
within the conflict zones of a credible authority
to lodge complaints. This will also mean that it
will be more difficult for individual incidents
to be neutrally reported and verified, thus
making it easier for armed actors to deny
grievous violations and acts of violence. This
gap will constrain the work of human rights and
peace groups who have been pressing the
conflicting parties to address the issues of
impunity and end the violations of human rights.
It may also lead to the exaggeration of incidents
as each of the warring parties seeks to blame the
other, making identifying the truth that much
more elusive.
We are dismayed and deeply concerned at the
situation in the country at the beginning of the
New Year which has included the assassinations of
parliamentarians, fierce fighting in the north
and the displacement of civilians, and now the
abrogation of the CFA and the negation of the
institutions it set up. We hope that this period
of war and terror will soon come to an end, and
reason and concern for human rights takes the
conflicting parties back to the negotiating table
and to end all armed hostilities, political
assassinations and other criminal acts. We urge
all members of the international community who
have been engaged in the advancement of peace
through a negotiated settlement in Sri Lanka to
stand by us at this difficult moment in our
history and to use whatever modes of intervention
they feel are appropriate to impress upon the
government, the LTTE and all political actors in
Sri Lanka the need to abandon the path of war and
to return to a peace process immediately.
Association of War Affected Women
Centre for Society and Religion
Centre for Human Rights and Development, Colombo
Centre for Policy Alternatives
Christian Alliance for Social Action
Consortium for Humanitarian Agencies
Equal Ground, Sri Lanka
INFORM
Home for Human Rights, Colombo
Human Development Organization, Kandy
Human Rights Resource Center, Kandy
International Centre for Ethnic Studies- Colombo
International Movement Against Discrimination and Racism
Law & Society Trust
Mothers and Daughters of Lanka
Mannar Women for Human Rights and Democracy
Muslim Information Centre Sri Lanka
Muslim Women's Research and Action Forum
National Peace Council of Sri Lanka
Rights Now Collective for Democracy
Setik, Kandy
______
[2] BANGLADESH:
The Daily star
January 22, 2008
THE UNIVERSITIES AND DISSENT: SOME CAUTIONARY LESSONS
by Rehman Sobhan
HOPEFULLY, by the time this article appears in
print good sense will have prevailed and the
teachers and students of Dhaka University will
have been released from jail. I am writing this
in anticipation that some lessons have been
learnt and that such a pointless and regrettable
episode will not repeat itself during the
remaining tenure of the caretaker government
(CTG).
Since most, if not all, members of the CTG have
been students at Dhaka University they should
know something about the climate of dissent,
which characterises universities in general and
Dhaka University in particular. Universities are
a place where young and old think, argue and
periodically disagree with the established order.
In the turbulent history of the subcontinent,
political movements have been incubated in the
universities, and the campus has been a source of
resistance to established authority. From the
Language Movement to the Liberation War Dhaka
University has been at the vanguard of resistance
to the suppression of democratic rights. Such
movements have periodically invoked official
repression (1952), regime inspired violence
(1960s) and, eventually, the prelude to the
genocide of 1971.
A politically conscious and articulate university
campus is an integral feature of a strong civil
society. Politics on the campus has, thus, been
an essential instrument in the democratic
struggle of South Asia, and particularly in
Bengal. The university or college campus brings
together a small but more politically conscious
segment of the population in one place, which
facilitates collective action.
This is advantageous for political activism,
particularly where political parties command
limited organisational reach, as tends to be the
case in many Third World countries. I remember
making this same, rather unoriginal observation,
when I was invited in 1961 to give evidence
before the Justice Hamoodur Rahman Commission on
the university system in Pakistan. The good
justice was particularly exercised by the
salience of politics in Dhaka University, but
surprisingly appeared to lack any understanding
of the dynamics of politics in East Bengal.
The Commission's report inspired the government
of East Pakistan to pass an order barring
university teachers from participating in
politics. This order was challenged in the East
Pakistan High Court by Professor Abdur Razzaq,
one of Dhaka University's must venerated
teachers. His case was argued by Pakistan's most
eminent jurist, A.K. Brohi, assisted by Dr. Kamal
Hossain as his junior, before a Bench presided
over by Justice Mahbub Murshed, which eventually
upheld the right of university teachers to
participate in politics. Teachers such as myself
became a beneficiary of this judgement.
Otherwise, we might have had to choose between
our careers at Dhaka University and our right to
exercise dissent.
It is unthinkable that teachers or students in
Dhaka, or any other, university would not
regularly express themselves on the political
issue of the day. As a young teacher of Dhaka
University, I was one of these who expressed
himself through writings in the media or in
various academic and public fora, on a variety of
subjects of a political nature. My views were
rarely to the taste of successive regimes in
Pakistan.
My first paper on two economies, which has since
earned me some notoriety, was presented when I
was a 26 years old teacher at Dhaka University,
at a seminar in Lahore in October 1961, convened
by the Bureau of National Reconstruction.
Pakistan was then experiencing its first exposure
to Martial Law under Field Marshal Ayub Khan. My
session was chaired by a judge of the West
Pakistan High Court, who was appalled by my
implied assault on the integrity of Pakistan, and
by the concluding suggestion that if nothing was
done to correct the deprivation of East Pakistan,
two economies may end up as two nations. The
justice enquired from a friend who had
accompanied me to the meeting as to whether I was
aware that Pakistan was under Martial Law and
that my speech were potentially treasonable!
Those of us teachers at Dhaka University in the
1960's, who expressed themselves on public
issues, were rarely conscious of the consequences
of our writings and utterances. We were, thus,
honoured by recognition in the intelligence files
of the Home Department. But I was never invested
with the privilege of being arrested, in spite of
my rather well publicised writings and utterances
against the policies of the government. Nor were
any other university teachers arrested during the
two tenures of Martial Law, and even during the
notoriously oppressive regime of Governor Momen
Khan in the 1960s.
Indeed, since the arrest of Professors Munier
Chowdhury, Muzzafer Ahmed Chowdhury and others in
the wake of the 1952 Language Movement, no
university teacher, to the best of my knowledge,
was arrested by the government of Pakistan;
although NSF hoodlums, patronised by the Monem
Khan regime and the Vice Chancellor of Dhaka
University, severely assaulted Dr. Abu Mahmood,
Chairman of the Department of Economics and
Professor Shamsuzzoha was killed in a firing at
Rajshahi University during the movement against
the Ayub regime in 1969.
The most conspicuous attempt to arrest teachers
and eventually murder them began with the
genocide initiated by the Pakistani army in March
1971. After all my confrontations with successive
regimes in Pakistan, from 1961 to 1971, the first
time anyone came to arrest me was on the
afternoon of March 27, 1971, when a squad of the
Pakistan army, led by a Col. Saeeduddin, who had
earlier arrested Bangabandhu from his home in
Road No. 32 on the night of March 25, come to my
Gulshan residence to take me away to the
cantonment.
As evidence came in of the massacre at Dhaka
University I had been advised by friends to leave
my residence that morning, after the curfew had
been lifted. Had the Pakistan army come for me 24
hours earlier they would have found me at home,
along with every other teacher of Dhaka
University. None of us, even at that late hour,
thought we might be detained, let alone subjected
to execution, which awaited Professors Guha
Thakurta, G.C. Deb, Maniruzzaman and others, who
were all staying at home in their campus flats,
as the genocide unfolded around them. Some other
teachers of Dhaka University, who stayed on at
campus during 1971, were picked up by the
Pakistan military or their local collaborators,
and a number of these teachers never returned
home alive.
I have provided this short bio-history to educate
contemporary readers and policymakers to the fact
that upto March 26, 1971, the ground rules of an
autocratic and oppressive regime, twice operating
under Martial Law, left university teachers
immune from arrest. This awareness invested
teachers with a false sense of security upto that
fateful night in March 1971, which cost some of
them their lives. 98% of teachers at Dhaka and
other universities at that time and even today do
not say anything, or say little to generate
sleeplessness amongst our rulers.
The few who did speak out with varying degrees of
provocativeness were never deemed to be a
sufficient threat to the state to warrant their
detention. The carrot rather then the stick was
always seen by the Pakistan government as a more
effective weapon to deal with teachers. This
suggests that our Pakistani rulers had a greater
sense of their own power to be unduly disturbed
by the writings of academics. It may not have
been very flattering to the sense of self-esteem
of young firebrand teachers who spoke our mind,
that we were never deemed worthy of arrest.
The ruling elite reckoned correctly that the real
challenge to their power always originated from
the political parties whose leaders and workers
were periodically subjected to detention and
other acts of oppression.
This tradition of dealing with university
teachers as licensed critics, who could be denied
the carrot but rarely exposed to the stick, was
perpetuated in post-liberation Bangladesh under
the militarised regimes of Ziaur Rhaman and H M
Ershad, as well as the political regimes, so that
few if any teachers were exposed to arrest
throughout this period. This history of the
treatment of teachers under various regimes does
not imply that such regimes were paragons of
liberalism, but reflects on their notions of
threat perception.
It is argued that it was only when the regime
really felt threatened, such as by a national
uprising, where even teachers were seen as part
of a wider political struggle as in 1971, that
pro-active university teachers lost their sense
of immunity from arrest. When a regime feels
compelled to arrest teachers it, thus, reflects
on their own sense of self-assurance and
indicates the weakness rather than the strength
of the regime.
Today, when teachers are being arrested, perhaps
for the first time since 1952, is their rhetoric
more incendiary than those of the teachers of the
1960s, '70s, '80s and '90s? Have our teachers
graduated from talkers and scribblers into
political organisers capable of instigating acts
of violence by their students or anyone else?
With all due respect to their oratorical and
literary skills, the evidence filed against the
teachers currently in detention, suggests not.
All that the teachers are accused of was speaking
out against Emergency Rule. If it is a crime,
which warranted arrest, to speak against Martial
Law, or the incumbency of a particular regime, I
would have spent quite a few years of my teaching
career in the 1960s, in detention.
Certainly, in the 1960s students came to me for
guidance on how they should argue their case
politically against the undemocratic and
militarised ruling junta's from West Pakistan. I
offered such advise freely to the students. But
neither did I suggest nor was I asked, how to
organise violent dissent against the regime of
the day for the simple reason that I lacked
competence in this area, no matter how many books
I had read by Chairman Mao and Che Guevara on the
mechanics of armed struggle.
Again, I doubt if those teachers in detention
today have offered or were requested by their
students to offer, advise on making firebombs or
the technology of stone throwing. In such
circumstance, to criminalise university teachers
for voicing dissent, whatever may be the
prevailing laws, appears to be not only unwise
but impolitic and could prove costly to the CTG
in the days ahead.
There is much that is wrong with our universities
today. Student politics has been largely held
captive by leaders who function more as armed
businessmen and janissaries for their favoured
political party rather than as political
activists serving a cause. The tradition of
student leadership set by Abdur Razzaq, Sirajul
Alam Khan, Rashed Khan Menon, Motia Chowdhury,
Tofail Ahmed, Mujahidul Islam Selim and many
others like them, which empowered the students of
Dhaka University to play a vanguard role in
democratic politics, may be much weaker today.
But there are many students today who are also
aware of the state affairs in the country, have
strong views and emotions on various subjects
and, when offered the opportunity or given a
provocation, are likely to express themselves on
such issues in a variety of ways, mostly but not
always, peacefully.
In the same way, the partisanisation of the
teaching community may have perpetuated their
political divisions, compromised the
professionalism of the recruitment and career
advancement process of the teachers, and impacted
adversely on the quality of public education. As
part of this partisanisation of the campus, some
university teachers may have identified
themselves with one or another political party.
But it would be wrong to believe that all
teachers have politically affiliated themselves
for career advancement.
Many have chosen political sides out of strongly
felt political feelings, which reflect the
ideological fault lines which today divide the
Bangladesh polity. Most teachers, however, do not
have clear political affiliations though many do
have political views and will occasionally
express them where the occasion demands. In such
circumstances, it is best to recognise the campus
as an arena where dissent will be registered by
teachers and students. Some of this dissent may
be motivated or instigated from outside the
campus. But much dissent will be spontaneous,
originating in genuine grievances, whether
indigenous to campus affairs or inspired by
outside events. This space for dissent within the
campus should always be left open, lest such
voices go underground and engage themselves in
rather more sinister forms of resistance.
In spite of the best efforts of the CTG
Bangladesh continues to face a variety of
problems, such as rising prices, power shortages,
even corruption, which will extend beyond the
capacity and tenure of the CTG to resolve. The
longer they stay in office the more political
decisions will have to be taken by them. It will,
therefore, be sensible for the CTG to recognise
that in the days ahead, public dissatisfaction
will be voiced on the persistence of such
problems and the political implications of their
actions. Some of this discontent will spill over
into dissent on the campus. It will be a measure
of the maturity of the CTG as to how it handles
such dissent.
It is hoped that Emergency Powers will be lifted
soon so that dissent may be openly expressed
without invoking official wrath. However, even if
Emergency Powers prevail, it should not be
misused to suppress expressions of dissent, in
print or vocally, particularly if registered
in-house or on-campus and is peacefully
manifested.
Regimes, which engage in political actions cannot
expect to be immune from criticism or to be held
accountable for their acts of commission or
omission. An effective system of governance needs
to ensure that all governments, whether elected
or unelected, permanent or interim, civilian or
militarised, always remain exposed to such
challenges otherwise a nation degenerates into
mal-governance and eventually tyranny.
Professor Rehman Sobhan is Chairman, Centre for Policy Dialogue.
______
[3]
War in Context, January 17, 2008
PAKISTAN HAS PAID DEARLY FOR AMERICA'S MOST GENEROUS AND TRAGIC PATRONAGE
by Roger Morris
Benazir Bhutto was a precocious 23-year-old in
1976 when she noticed Army Chief of Staff
Mohammed Zia ul-Haq come and go at the office of
her father, Pakistani prime minister Zulfikar Ali
Bhutto. "A short, nervous, ineffectual-looking
man," she remembered the general, "whose pomaded
hair was parted in the middle and lacquered to
his head." Along with the hair, Gen. Zia's thick
mustache and diffident manner seemed to Islamabad
politicians a Punjabi version of English comedian
Terry Thomas. "Bhutto's butler" they called him.
General Muhammad Zia-Ul-HaqThen, suddenly, in
July 1977, Gen. Zia was no longer amusing when
his junta arrested Mr. Bhutto and his cabinet,
and imposed martial law. There followed more than
a decade of military tyranny as Pakistan became,
in Salman Rushdie's phrase, "a nightmarish land."
That era and its sequels would be the setting of
Benazir Bhutto's political career, climaxing in
her assassination Dec. 27. She was emblematic of
her country's nightmare, and of the tortuous role
the United States played in it. It is a history -
forgotten, denied - that haunts us all.
Benazir was a year old in 1954 as Washington
adopted Pakistan as its Cold War client,
lavishing the first of what would be billions of
dollars on a military that by the end of the
1950s seized power amid the country's chronic
poverty and hostility with India. It was cozy,
enduring patronage. Pentagon and CIA men shared
with their Pakistani peers an occupational
contempt for non-alignment and the hindrance of
democratic politics.
By 1959, the CIA had stationed an agent in
Karachi to advise Pakistani generals on public
relations practices that would be enabling
military dictatorships to claim legitimacy nearly
a half-century later.
Zulfikar Ali BhuttoCanny, charismatic,
irrepressibly ambitious, U.S.- and
Oxford-educated Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was a young
civilian minister for the junta in the 1960s,
veering between complicity and enmity with the
generals in the tangled pattern of Pakistan's
civilian-military politics. He then was an
occasional nemesis of Washington, courting
Communist China, fiercely bellicose on Kashmir
and India. Breaking with the junta and founding
his Pakistan Peoples Party in 1967, he inherited
power in the 1971 breakaway of Bangladesh, when
not even the U.S. could save the generals from
the toll of secession, genocide, and another lost
war with India.
While Benazir was driving her yellow MG at
Radcliffe and Oxford, her father moved to restore
his truncated nation and, in the process, seeded
much of the 21st century predicament in South
Asia - often in collusion with a heedless
Washington. Grateful for Pakistan's role as
go-between in their 1971 opening to China, U.S.
president Richard Nixon and secretary of state
Henry Kissinger joined and financed Mr. Bhutto in
his covert intervention against an Afghan regime
he claimed was a pawn for Soviet expansion to the
Arabian Sea and a menace to Pakistan's
ever-unruly northwest with its Afghan-kindred
tribes. In 1973-75 they secretly mounted attacks
in the Hindu Kush by radical Islamic Afghan
exiles - whose anti-Western politics, terrorist
tactics, and control by Pakistan prefigured the
mujahedeen and Taliban years before the 1979
Russian invasion, the Afghan civil war, al-Qaeda
and 9/11.
Meanwhile, in January 1972, under an awning on
the broad lawn of an estate in Multan - an
ancient city of Sufi shrines known as Pakistan's
"second heart" - Mr. Bhutto secretly gathered 70
of the country's finest scientists and asked them
to build a nuclear bomb. "They responded," said
one, "enthusiastically." For years, Washington
would look the other way. His foes sneered at Mr.
Bhutto as the "Raja of Larkana," after his estate
in the Sind where he and his daughter would be
buried. Both were seigniorial in their politics,
the PPP family chattel, inherited now by
Benazir's son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. "Our
feudals," a CIA agent called them. But unlike
Benazir, her father was a reformer as well as
demagogue, nationalizing exploitative industries,
insurance companies, and exclusive private
schools, giving the poorest farmers tax relief
and fixing ceilings on land ownership.
Despite periodic repression and no little
corruption in his ranks, his constitution in 1973
recognized Islam as the national religion while
establishing a parliamentary system to evolve
into a secular democracy. He freed Pakistan from
the fine-print fetters of the Commonwealth,
negotiated the Simla Agreement with India
accepting the line of control in Kashmir,
recognized Bangladesh and, by 1977, was making
peace with Afghanistan. It all won popular
support - but challenged the oligarchy, religious
right, and allies of both in the military,
Pakistan's ruling triad. Gen. Zia's coup came
with sanction from those forces - and,
ultimately, Washington.
After a show trial, they hanged Mr. Bhutto at
dawn at the old Rawalpindi prison, not far from
where his daughter was murdered three decades
later. The U.S. embassy referred to it delicately
as "resolving the Bhutto problem," and the
American media made its peace with the winner;
Newsweek taken with Gen. Zia's "brooding eyes,"
the Los Angeles Times finding him "low-key,
direct, and polite," an "incredibly canny man"
who "talks with quiet sincerity about his
country's problems" - the latter the Times and
others didn't bother to explore. Gen. Zia was no
stranger to the Pentagon and CIA, files plump
with his 1950s study in the U.S. as a young
officer, at the Command and General Staff School
at Fort Leavenworth in 1964, and in highly secret
Pentagon "command courses" not long before he
seized power. Like most of his predecessors and
successors, the pomaded general was, to some,
Washington's creature.
Two days after the April 1979 Bhutto hanging,
U.S. president Jimmy Carter's advisers formally
approved a major covert intervention using the
client Afghan religious radicals against the new
Communist regime in Afghanistan - this, eight
months before the Soviet invasion that the
U.S.-armed and Pakistani-controlled insurgency
was designed, in part, to provoke. The ensuing
enormity came to seem familiar, though distorted
to parody by versions like Charlie Wilson's War
and its Hollywood gloss. Hundreds of millions,
ultimately billions, poured into the mujahedeen
with their rampant drug trade and fulmination of
al-Qaeda; Washington's unstinting support of Gen.
Zia, with more winking at his nuclear arsenal,
and with as much as half the U.S. money siphoned
off by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence,
the notorious ISI already a state-within-a-state
and now dominant in a black economy that eclipsed
the open one. When he was assassinated in 1988 in
the crash of Pak One, Gen. Zia was returning from
a demonstration of a faulty tank the Pentagon was
typically keen to sell him, and in tête-à-tête
with a U.S. ambassador who knew him when he was
still "Bhutto's butler."
Benazir BhuttoBenazir Bhutto now joined the
story, though in ugly anticlimax. While the
CIA-Zia combine conducted its Afghan war and
associated trade over the 1980s, she worked
tirelessly as her father's chosen successor. This
included building furtive ties to the Americans,
the CIA covering its bets with subsidies to Ms.
Bhutto, some no doubt recycled in paying for her
Washington lobbyists.
With Gen. Zia's murder, she was ready and, like
her father, inherited power in a moment of the
military's division. But her tenures as prime
minister in 1988-90 and again in 1993-96 were
hobbled by the massive power of the ISI, old
habits of repression, including the murder of her
own dissident brother, and blatant looting by her
circle, not least by her husband Asif Zardari.
Failure and corruption went unrelieved by any
reforms approaching her father's. It stood to be
repeated had Ms. Bhutto held power again - the
ISI manacling along with her own corruption - and
is in the wings now with Mr. Zardari's regency
over the PPP.
Like her father, like Gen. Zia her nemesis, she
was partly America's creature as well, inserted
by the Bush administration, with the blessing of
congressional Democrats, to shore up Pakistani
President Pervez Musharraf with some coalition
manqué appeasing enough of the crowd as well as
the triad. As always, there was even an underside
to Ms. Bhutto's vaunted defiance of the Islamic
radicals; her own regimes had been instrumental
in the rise of the Afghan Taliban and given to
quiet accommodation and sharing of spoils with
the internal Pakistani zealots.
She was dead only days when it became clear that
the tragedy of her last 30 years would continue.
In a U.S. presidential campaign that, otherwise,
blares change, no candidate dares to change this
most disastrous, most bipartisan, most bigoted of
foreign policies, in which America's meddling was
so malignant and its ultimate control so
illusory. In Pakistan, the old politics go on,
including the security of the nuclear arms. None
of the ruling triad wants that horror unleashed.
The losers, as always, will be the more than
hundred million Pakistanis in abject want or on
the edge - the historic disgrace of the world's
longest running military despotism, and of
America's most generous and tragic patronage.
If only they buried in the Sind, along with
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his beloved daughter,
that sordid past. For now, we can only follow the
poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz: "We will inter hope with
appropriate mourning Every gate of prayer
throughout heaven is slammed shut today."
© Roger Morris
______
[4] INDIA: THE BATTLE JUSTICE FOR VICTIMS OF 2002 POGROM IN GUJARAT
THE BILKIS BANO CASE: EDITORIALS AND REPORTS
Indian Express
January 21, 2008
Editorial
BILKIS BY EXAMPLE
Justice is on the anvil in a high profile Gujarat
riots case; but this story is not over yet.
The Indian Express
: When the quantum of punishment is announced
today in a special court in Mumbai, the Bilkis
Bano case will reach a just closure. This is a
rare moment. The gangrape of the pregnant Bilkis
Bano as she fled her riot-torn village in March
2002 and the murder of her baby daughter along
with other relatives had become a symbol in at
least two ways - of the brutal nature of the
crimes committed in the days following the
gruesome torching of Sabarmati Express at Godhra;
and of the deliberate obstruction of justice by
agencies of the state in its aftermath,
especially the Gujarat police. That this case has
finally reached a conclusion and 12 accused have
been convicted, including a police officer,
raises a larger hope: surely, justice in other
cases of Gujarat 2002 cannot be far behind.
The fact that justice has been done in this case
is not just a testament to the terrific courage
and unwavering resolve of Bilkis Bano. In
different ways, the system rose to the challenge.
Confronted with evidence that a free and fair
trial would not be possible in Gujarat, due to
intimidation of victims for instance, the Supreme
Court of India shifted the trial to Mumbai in
August 2004 - the second case to be transferred
to Maharashtra. In turn, the CBI, called in to
take over investigations in 2003 following Bano's
petition in the SC, has shown a marvelous
tenacity in a case in which it had to literally
unearth justice. Its investigations led it to
exhume bodies from riverine graves in Dahod - the
heads had been removed so that the victims could
not be identified. At every step, it had to
contend with the clear complicity of the local
police in tampering with the evidence and case
records.
Yet even in this heartening moment, it is
necessary to point out that so much more needs to
be done. One, the onus is on the Modi
administration to reassure Muslim families in
Randhikpur and Devgadh Baria - most of the
convicted belong to Randhikpur, and Bano and many
riot victims live in a colony in Devgadh Baria -
that the state will not allow any disruption of
peace in the verdict's aftermath. Two, while the
verdict in Mumbai is welcome, the question will
not go away: when will it be possible to ensure
that Gujarat is also a safe place for justice for
the victims of 2002?
editor at expressindia.com
o o o
Daily News and Analysis
January 20, 2008
Editorial
THE FIRST STEP
The decision by the special CBI court on Friday
to convict 12 persons accused in what has become
known as the Bilkis Bano case will set a welcome
precedent for the other riot cases across the
country.
Bano was one of the victims of the 2002 Gujarat
riots and had asked the Supreme Court to move the
case out of Gujarat because she did not expect
justice in her state. The apex court shifted the
case to Mumbai.
The first step to justice has come almost six
years after the incident in March 2002 when 17
members of her family were attacked, and eight
were killed and six went missing.
Bano herself, who was five months pregnant at the
time, was gang-raped. The attackers were all
neighbours and people from the village.
There are several issues which have to be
examined here. The first, obviously, is that it
takes far too much time for riot victims - as for
anyone else - to get justice in this country.
Many of the accused in riots cases have never
been brought to book and many have died on the
way. In the case of the Gujarat riots, six years
after the event, we have only received the first
convictions on Friday.
As many times as it has been said before, it
bears repeating that little justice has been
given to the victims of the anti-Sikh riots in
Delhi in 1984 and of course, the Bombay riots of
1992 and '93. In Bombay, the irony is greater -
the bomb blasts of March 1993, a consequence of
the riots, have seen the accused getting
sentenced, but the riot cases have gone nowhere.
Even Bilkis Bano is only one of the innumerable
victims of the Gujarat riots who are awaiting
justice.
The other issue is the tendency in this country
to try and push riots cases under the carpet. The
general idea is that to push for justice will be
to open up old wounds, which are best left to
heal quietly by themselves.
This is specious logic which could be applied to
all court cases, since many of them have to do
with "old wounds". This logic when it comes to
riots is even dangerous.
Often, when the victims are minorities, the idea
of being oppressed gains greater ground.
The most important issue, however, is one of rule
of law and justice for all. Politicians have to
understand that when they win elections and form
governments they have to uphold the Constitution.
That this case was taken out of that state into
Maharashtra proves that the apex court was
questioning the then Gujarat government's
commitment to justice. There are questions here
which all elected governments must answer.
o o o
The Hindu
Jan 22, 2008
I STAND VINDICATED: BILKIS BANO
by Aarti Dhar
"The judgment does not mean end of hatred. But it
does mean that somewhere justice can prevail"
- Photo: R.V. Moorthy
SEEKS PROTECTION: Bilkis Bano at a press conference in New Delhi on Monday.
NEW DELHI: Bilkis Bano, who was gang-raped and
was witness to the killing of 14 members of her
family during the Gujarat riots in 2002, fears
for her life even after 11 of the accused were
sentenced to life and one to three years of
rigorous imprisonment by a Mumbai court on Monday.
Pointing out that it was the responsibility of
the State to ensure her security, Ms Bano said
here on Monday that she would appeal against the
acquittal of five policemen and two doctors in
the case.
"I stand vindicated. This judgment does not mean
the end of hatred. But it does mean that
somewhere justice can prevail. This judgment is a
victory not only for me but for all innocent
Muslim who were massacred and the women whose
bodies were violated only because, like me, they
were Muslims," she said at a press conference.
She lived in fear for the past six years,
shuttling from one place to another with her
children to protect them from the "hatred that
still exists in the hearts and minds of the
people." She received threats from unknown
people, continued to do so even after the court
judgment and feared going back to Gujarat.
"I do not want to tell anyone where I was all
these years or where I am staying now and under
whose protection," she said in reply to a
question.According to Ms. Bano, the conviction
was a victory because no one could now deny what
happened to women in Gujarat in those "terrible
days and nights."
That sexual violence was used as a weapon against
them had been proved. "I pray that the people of
Gujarat will some day be able to live without the
stigma of that violence and hatred, and will root
it out from the State that still remains my home."
"Officials remain free"
Ms Bano expressed anger that the officials, who
emboldened, encouraged and protected the
criminals to destroy an entire community, still
remained free and unblemished.
"It is the job of the State to protect me and if
the Gujarat government has to prove that it did
not encourage the riots, it should appeal against
the acquittal of its officers and doctors."
However, she pointed out that this was just one
among thousands of cases, many of which had not
even reached a courtroom.
o o o
Mail Today
21 January 2008
TRIAL OF GUJARAT RIOT CASES GOING NOWHERE
17 cases pending, including killings at Naroda Patia
by Gyanant Singh in New Delhi
The Bilkis Bano and Best Bakery cases ended in
convictions in Mumbai. But at least 17 other
cases relating to the 2002 Gujarat riots are
still gathering dust.
The Supreme Court, which had ordered retrial in
the Best Bakery case and transfer of the Bilkis
Bano case, has yet to decide the fate of cases
filed for eight major incidents during the
infamous post-Godhra riots.
Trial in most of the 17 cases has been pending
over the past four years when the apex court
stayed proceedings following allegations of
complicity of the state government in the riots.
The court had stayed trial in 10 cases in
November 2003 and some others in August 2004 on
petitions seeking transfer of the cases outside
Gujarat.
Even after six years, trial in most of the cases
that relate to murderous attacks in Gulberg
Housing Society, Naroda Patia, Ode and Sardarpura
are pending.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and
the Citizens for Justice and Peace, an NGO, had
moved the court for transfer of the cases and
re-investigation to ensure a fair trial. The NHRC
has sought transfer of 13 cases. The state
government, however, has been contending that a
case cannot be transferred on mere apprehensions
of unfair trial.
Teesta Setalvad, who has been pursuing the cases,
said the delay was harming evidence. Last year,
the matter was listed once on May 7 after amicus
curiae Harish Salve filed written submissions.
[. . . ]
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2008/01/trial-of-gujarat-riot-cases-going.html
______
[5] INDIA: FUNDAMENTALISTS ATTACK OFFICES OF TV NETWORKED OVER MF HUSSAIN
ndtv.com
HINDU FUNDAMENTALISTS ATTACK NDTV OFFICE
Joydeep Ray
Saturday, January 19, 2008 (Ahmedabad)
Intolerance is one of the dangers of journalism
in India. Today, NDTV's office in Ahmedabad was
smashed by hockey stick wielding goondas of a
right wing Hindu fundamentalist group.
The attack has been criticised across the
country. The Shiv Sena, which has been involved
in similar attacks elsewhere, denies that they
were involved in any way.
Members of the Hindu Samrajya Sena group forced
their way in and beat two employees with hockey
sticks and steel pipes.
They broke all the furniture, doors, windows,
airconditioners, computers, phones, television
sets and technical equipment.
After this they put up posters and banners,
proclaiming NDTV anti-national and a traitor
because the channel ran an opinion poll, asking
who should be awarded the Bharat Ratna. One of
the choices was painter M F Husain.
NDTV called the police and even the commissioner
of Police. But no one showed up for one hour,
even though the NDTV office is just 15 minutes
away from the police station.
Finally, the home minister promised action.
''This is very wrong. I condemn the attack. The
police are investigating. Strict action will be
taken,'' said Amit Shah, Gujarat Home Minister.
Two days before the attack, Hindu Samrajya Sena
chief Ashok Sharma had visited the office,
warning it not to run anything on Husain.
After the attack, he called the office and
claimed responsibility for the incident, but said
he himself was not present during the attack. His
group has been involved in earlier attacks.
In 2000, they vandalised a multiplex in
Gandhinagar, which was screening Husain's film
Gaja Gamini.
They joined the Bajrang Dal in the attack on M S
University, where an art students paintings at an
in-house exhibition were destroyed because they
were considered obscene.
Sharma has been known to be close to VHP and Bajrang Dal leaders.
Shiv Sena, also known to have attacked M F Husain
shows, has however denied any involvement this
time.
''If Shiv Sena had to attack the office, it would
do so under its own name, not under an alibi.
Although the Sena did protest against an M F
Husain exhibition in Delhi, we had nothing to do
with the Ahmedabad attack. But neither the print
media nor the electronic media should glorify M F
Husain,'' said Sanjay Raut, editor, Saamna.
Meanwhile, the Congress, the Left and media leaders have condemned the attack.
The police still haven't found the main accused
Ashok Sharma, though they have raided his home
and office.
o o o
NDTV'S BHOPAL OFFICE ATTACKED
NDTV Correspondent
Sunday, January 20, 2008 (Bhopal)
Hours after the right wing activists vandalised
the NDTV office in Ahmedabad on Saturday, the
Bhopal office was attacked late on the same night
by unidentified persons.
The office was attacked with stones and
windowpanes were broken. The culprits fled the
scene after creating a ruckus.
The attackers fled when the security guard came
out but no one could be identified.
o o o
ATTACK ON NDTV REFLECTS 'FASCIST RAJ' IN GUJARAT: ACTIVISTS
Express news service
Posted online: Sunday , January 20, 2008 at 02:36:01
Ahmedabad, January 19 Coming down heavily on
those involved in the attack on the office of
NDTV news channel here on Saturday, human rights
activists and Gandhians said that the incident
reflects the "fascist raj" in the state.
Reacting to the incident provoked by an SMS poll,
which has controversial painter MF Hussain in the
list of contenders for the Bharat Ratna Award,
noted Gandhian and rights activist Chunibhai
Viadya said, "Fascism can't be justified under
any circumstances because it is against the
interest of society at large in the long run."
"Violence in the name of religion either by
Muslims attacking Tasleema Nasreen or Salman
Rushdie, or leaders of Hindu Samrajya Sena
attacking NDTV's office can't be justified," he
said. "What they have done is no Hinduism; it is
simple fanaticism."
Pointing out that the "culture of violence" has
increased in the state in the last one decade,
Vadodara-based human rights activist Rohit
Prajapati said it was really shocking that the
media and journalists have become a target of the
fascist forces. "This is really very serious," he
said.
Holding the state government responsible for
recurrence of such violence activities, he said
it would stop only if the government took firm
steps against the accused persons. "But the
government seems to be siding with such elements
as happened in the case of Parzania and Fanaa
movies, which could not be screened in Gujarat
following threats from saffron outfits," he said.
Stating that the Constitution of India guarantees
freedom of speech and expression to all the
citizens and no one has the right to take the law
in his own hands, Jesuit human rights activist
Fr. Cedric Prakash appealed to the authorities to
book those responsible for the incident to
contain the "fascist and terrorist forces."
The president of the state unit of Peoples' Union
for Civil Liberties, J S Bandukwala said, "The
incident shows the fascist raj in Gujarat. If
media offices are not safe, one can imagine the
condition of minorities under (Narendra) Modi's
rule."
"The attack is absolutely deplorable and
condemnable," said Shabnam Hashmi of Act Now for
Harmony and Democracy (ANHAD). Another activist
Gagan Sethi termed it a "retrogressive step",
adding, "we are entering a very bad time."
Gujarat Home Minister Amit Shah said the culprits
have been identified and will be nabbed.
Promising strict action against those involved in
the ransacking of the channel's office, he said
that the BJP government's policy is very clear
that no one can take law in his hands.
o o o
Prashant
. The Province Office for Integral Social Development of the Gujarat Jesuits
. A Centre for Human Rights, Justice and Peace
Post Box No. 4050, Navrangpura,
Ahmedabad 380 009, Gujarat, India
Tel. : +91 (079) 66522333, 2745 5913
. Fax : +91 (079) 2748 9018
Mobile : 9824034536 .
e-mail : sjprashant at gmail.com . www.humanrightsindia.in
PRESS RELEASE
The attack this morning, on the NDTV Office in
Ahmedabad by a group of right-wing Hindu
extremists, needs to be strongly condemned in no
uncertain terms.
The Constitution of India guarantees freedom of
speech and expression to all its citizens. No
one therefore has the right to take law and order
into their own hands.
We call upon the authorities in Gujarat to book
those responsible for this attack immediately and
to ensure that these fascist and terrorist forces
are contained.
Fr. Cedric Prakash sj
Director
19 January 2008
______
[6] India - Gujarat:
MODI, THE GREATEST NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT
by I.K.Shukla
In his Mumbai speech Jan.21 Benito NaMo Ghanchi
alias Modi posed as a medieval warlord and
excoriated "Delhi Sultanate". The speech is
substantively much more than merely a reprobate
demagogue's rant. It
should send chills down the spine of not just the
minorities but also the entire nation. He would
drag India back to medieval times while chanting
"development, development". The ominous portent
of his megalomania rings more sinister with
Hindutva's Adolf AdVani in Delhi raring to become
PM and impatient in the interim as a pretend PM.
Oddly, he faulted Cong-UPA for the heinous sins
of "minority appeasement, vote bank politics, and
soft approach on terrorism". Ironically, he is
wholly right, but without knowing in the least
how or why. Yes, Congress has been persistently
and preferentially appeasing not the sizeable
national minorities, whether they be Dalits,
Christians, Tribals or Muslims, but the
loud-mouthed Hindu gangsters and hooligans, i.e.,
the saffronazis. As to the vote bank politics, it
is not a Congress specialty. Its initial forays
in the field were halting and half-hearted. But
the viciously virulent strain of exclusive vote
bank politics invented and inducted in the body
politic of India, poisoning its arteries, is the
solely distinctive achievement of Hindu fascism
(cunningly called Hindu nationalism in the Indian
media, a privilege ceded to no other community).
Soft- pedaling terrorism. This charge is as
monumental as it is monstrously mendacious,
characteristic of the trained and congenital
liars constituting the seasoned and marinated
rank and file of Hindu fascists. Really,
Congress-UPA is guilty as charged. But the
terrorists whom cravenly and treasonably Congress
has coddled all these years are all the Hindu
Taliban, saffron-soiled, who drenched India in
blood repeatedly and remained unpunished, enabled
thus to continue their crimes with impunity. It
was a failure of grievous proportions not just of
the Congress but also of the Indian state. India
as a nation state proved irresponsible and
delinquent, and for all practical purposes,
collaborative with the historical enemies of the
nation. India seemed to have rewarded the
terrorists instead of pillorying and quartering
them.
What Modi touted as the best development model
(out of the four that he dismissed as failures),
apparently mandated by 5.5 crore Gujaratis,
boils down to one word, genocide - mass murder,
mass rape, mass arson, and mass thugee
perpetrated on Muslims. Besides "teaching them a
lesson", the Butcher of Gujarat had laid out for
the world to see in gory detail the mold and
milieu of would be Hindu Rashtra, Gujarat being
only the prime abattoir, the lab of "final
solution".
The vitriol that runs in his arteries impelled
him to call criticism of his crimes
"mispropaganda". That is, he, the born liar and
the inveterate lout, denied any wrong doing, any
state-sponsored ethnocide and attendant horrors
that he and his cohorts committed on the
thousands of innocent Muslim men, women and
children of Gujarat in 2002. Those murdered and
flayed alive are certainly out of his chimerical
5.5 crore Gujaratis whom he regards his
collaborators in his brutal crimes, who crown him
as a designer warlord, and carry him in a chariot
supposedly in vogue in the middle ages.
The throwback to medieval horrors is a potent and
pernicious part of Hindutva project. It is the
fundamentalist call to savagery, the belligerent
negation of the modern state, an atavistic
repudiation of the multi-cultural nation, and the
declaration of open war on India and its
republican Constitution. That he has made his
intent known can be useful only if New Delhi acts
promptly to imprison him for treasonous sedition,
for fomenting divisive turmoil and openly
promising to cast the "Delhi Sultanate" in the
bin.
He is, in fact, the real progeny of Babar who too
had attacked Ibrahim Lodi of Delhi Sultanate.
Babar was a "geographical" outsider, whereas Modi
is a thorough outsider, a foreigner, in so far as
India's cultural ethos and historical heritage
are concerned. Modi is a bizarre and shameless
outré. By no definition of Hinduism or Indian can
Modi ever qualify as either (let him be a Guju).
He must be immediately deprived of citizenship,
the least that New Delhi, to prove its
seriousness, must and can do. Remember, he fought
the 2002 election in Gujarat against Gen. Pervez
Musharraf. There was no meeting where he did not
invoke him as his contender. And, his so-called
5.5 crore Gujaratis swallowed it.
Similarly, he insinuated in his Mumbai speech
that money was being paid to "foreigners" (read,
Sonia Gandhi). He forgot he had paid a humongous
amount to foreigners to do his PR work, an
American firm specializing in image make-over,
whose clients included Pinochet, Somoza, etc.
Modi chose well on whom to shower Indian money.
He betrayed his biradari - the notorious
dictators and bloodhounds.
As to his plea that the provenance of arms be
investigated, use of government and banking
channels by terrorist funds be stopped, use of
communal networks for subversive activities be
probed - who can disagree. But does he mean where
daggers (trishuls) are manufactured, where
saffronazi bomb- makers obtain explosive
materials to make bombs (and get killed
dutifully), who funds them via one of the
numerous Hindutva fronts, how foreign and hawala
money is helping communal fires rage incessantly
across India? No, he preempts this inquiry
against HinduTaliban by deflecting it towards the
victims of Hindu fascism, the minorities, mostly
the Muslims.
Modi must face trial for his innumerable crimes.
Democratic legalism should not stand in the way
of justice. He is guilty of crimes against
humanity (Geneva Conventions), and crimes against
the nation (Sedition, Terrorism).
After his provocative call to arms in Mumbai,
unless UPA is waiting for the reprise of March on
Rome, it should muzzle Modi immediately and, for
his own good, slam him shut. To suffer him free
even for a day would be inviting the destruction
of India. India faces no bigger threat to is
security. Meanwhile his citizenship must be
rescinded, and he be given the chance to escape
into exile and oblivion. Every patriot must
demand his ouster.
20Jan.08
o o o
[See Related news report in the Press]
Indian Express
January 21, 2008
MODI POSES AS WARLORD, TARGETS 'DELHI SULTANATE'
Express News Service
Mumbai, January 20: Delivering his speech from
atop a specially-designed chariot at Shivaji Park
here on Sunday, Narendra Modi imagined himself as
a medieval warlord taking on the might of - what
he called - the Delhi Sultanate. Attacking the
Congress-led UPA Government for minority
appeasement, vote bank politics and a soft
approach on terrorism, the Gujarat Chief Minister
claimed that his victory will lead to the plank
of development taking centrestage in electoral
politics. He was addressing a rally at a
felicitation programme organised by the Mumbai
unit of the BJP.
______
[7]
The Telegraph
January 19 , 2008
NOD TO SEX EDUCATION
by Rasheed Kidwai
Bhopal, Jan. 18: Shivraj Singh Chauhan might
disagree but 73 per cent teachers in Madhya
Pradesh do not think sex lessons in school
promote "indecency in the name of education".
A survey by the state chapter of the Voluntary
Health Association of India has found that most
schoolteachers want sex education re-introduced
in the curriculum.
About 245 teachers across 120 government and
private schools in Bhopal, Indore and Maheshwar
districts have said sex education was essential
for healthy growth and prevention of AIDS and
unwanted pregnancy.
The survey questions the ban on sex studies in
Madhya Pradesh schools since March 2006. Chauhan
had then told Union HRD minister Arjun Singh he
was withdrawing the lessons as they were
spreading "indecency in the name of education".
The row began when a book, Flip Chart - printed
by the National AIDS Control Organisation and
Unicef - was distributed to some teachers
involved with the Kishore Avastha Siksha, an
awareness programme for adolescents.
The BJP regime had found illustrations of
physical changes in male and female bodies from
childhood to puberty to adulthood "offensive".
The Madhya Pradesh government was today unfazed
by the call to revive the lessons.
"I have to study the findings minutely. Moreover,
I must ascertain the motive for conducting such a
survey," education minister Laxman Singh Gaud
said.
The Madhya Pradesh health association director,
Mukesh Sinha, said the motive was "advocacy" of
people-centric policies for dynamic health
planning and programmes.
"When we conducted the survey, we realised the
earlier sex education programme's methodology was
wrong. The whole focus was on promotion of
condoms. What we suggest is a school health
programme with focus on hygiene, nutrition and
sex education. Abruptly calling it off is not
sensible," Sinha said.
The association had conducted another survey last
year in which over 60 per cent teenaged girls had
said they were facing a "communication gap" with
their parents because of shyness and fear. About
80 per cent were unaware of physical changes in
their bodies during adolescence.
As many as 47 per cent girls said they were
sexually harassed outside their homes. Of them,
53 per cent said they had never complained to
their guardians about it.
______
[8] ANNOUNCEMENTS:
(i)
ISMAIL GULGEE
Born 6 October 1925, Peshawar
Died 19 December, 2007, Karachi
In Gulgee's tragic death, Pakistan has been
deprived of one of its most prolific artists.
Awarded the highest civilian awards, his 6 decade
long career runs parallel to the creative history
of Pakistan. Please join NuktaArt and t2f as we
pay our condolences to his family and celebrate
the spirit of his art.
Speakers: Mohammad Ali Siddiqui, Naz Ikramullah,
Wahab Jaffar and Niilofur Farrukh
Date: Thursday, 24th January 2008
Time: 6:00 pm
Venue: The Second Floor/t2f
6-C, Prime Point Building, Phase 7, Khayaban-e-Ittehad, DHA, Karachi
Phone: 538-9273 | 0300-823-0276 | info at t2f.biz
o o o
WILL THERE BE SINGING IN THE DARK TIMES
YES, THERE WILL BE SINGING ABOUT THE DARK TIMES. - BRECHT
Kya Zulmaton ke Daur Main Bhi Geet Gaye Jayenge?
Haan, Zulmaton ke Daur ke hi Geet Gaye Jayenge- Bertold Brecht
60th Year of Gandhi's Martydom
January 30, 2008
Public Meeting: 4pm-7pm
Music & Poetry: 7.30pm-9.00pm
Speakers: Cedric Prakash, Digant Oza, Gagan
Sethi, Ghanshyam Shah, Indu Kumar Jani, Ram
Puniyani, Sofiya Khan, Uttam Parmar
Documentary: Zulmaton Ke Daur Main
Singer: Vidya Shah
Venue: Narottam Jhaveri Hall, Paldi, Ahmedabad
Organised by:
AISF, Aman Samudaya, Anhad, Apnu Mandal, BMMA
(Gujarat Chapter), Gujarat Khet Vikas Parishad,
Naya Marg, Niswan, People's Movement of India,
Prashant, Vikas Parishad
Please pass on the information & collect
programme leaflets for distribution from:
Anhad, 1914, Karanjwala Building, Opp Khanpur Darwaza, Ahmedabad
Tel- 079-25500844
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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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