SACW | Jan. 27-28, 2008 / Pervez Hoodbhoy : Pakistan's Nuclear assets / India's Hindu Taliban
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at gmail.com
Sun Jan 27 18:44:09 CST 2008
South Asia Citizens Wire | January 27-28, 2008 |
Dispatch No. 2494 - Year 10 running
[1] Pakistan's Nuclear Threat : A state of denial (Pervez Hoodbhoy)
[2] Bangladesh: The media freedom fallacy (Editorial, New Age)
[3] India - Decreasing Freedom of Expression:
(i) Married to the mob (Rajdeep Sardesai)
(ii) 'In Hindu culture, nudity is a metaphor
for purity': M F Husain interview (Shoma
Chaudhury)
[4] India: India's Hindu Taliban (Kuldip Nayar)
[5] India : Citizens Paying a Heavy Price of Its
Security Mania - the case of Aftab Alam Ansari
[6] India: On State Repression in Chhattsgarh and
Continued Detention of Dr Binayak Sen (citizens
and groups)
[7] India: Justice Eludes Victims of Gujarat Pogrom of 2002:
(i) Saluting Bilkis Bano: Reflecting on Gujarat (Ram Puniyani)
(ii) After Bilkis Bano - Ensure Justice For
All (Editorial, People's Democracy)
[8] Diaspora: Public Statements by CERAS
- on ethnic divisions and the signs of an all out war in Sri Lanka
- on the attack on Christians in Orissa, India by Hindu fundamentalists
[9] Announcements:
(i) New Publication: Bangladesh, India & Pakistan writers on 1971
(ii) Public Forum: APRC Committee on
Power-Sharing Process and Ways Forward (Colombo,
29 January 2008)
(iii) D.D.Kosambi Memorial Lecture Series (Bombay, 11-12 February 2008)
______
[1]
International Herald Tribune
January 16, 2008
PAKISTAN'S NUCLEAR THREAT
A state of denial
by Pervez Hoodbhoy
A cacophony of protests in Pakistan greeted a
recent statement by the head of the International
Atomic Energy Agency, Mohammad ElBaradei. "I fear
that chaos, or an extremist regime, could take
root in that country, which has 30 to 40
warheads," he said. He also expressed fear that
"nuclear weapons could fall into the hands of
extremist groups in Pakistan or Afghanistan."
But in Pakistan, few worry. The Strategic Plans
Division, which is the Pakistani agency
responsible for handling nuclear weapons, exudes
confidence that it can safely protect the
country's "crown jewels." The SPD is a key
beneficiary of the recently disclosed secret $100
million grant by the Bush administration, the
purpose of which is to make Pakistan's nuclear
weapons safer.
This money has been put to use. Indeed, ever
since Sept. 11, 2001, there has been a regular
traffic of Pakistani military officers to and
from the United States for coaching in nuclear
safety techniques. While multiple layers of
secrecy make it hard to judge success, the
improvement in the SPD's public relations is
palpable. PowerPoint presentations, guided tours
of military headquarters and calculated
expressions of openness have impressed foreign
visitors.
Senator Joseph Lieberman, chairman of a Homeland
Security and governmental affairs committee, left
reassured. After a briefing by the SPD's chief,
Lieutenant General Khalid Kidwai, Lieberman
declared in a press conference, "Yes, he did
allay my fears," and promised to carry that
message back to Congress.
So, is ElBaradei needlessly alarmed? Of the two
diametrically opposed opinions, which deserves
greater credence?
The two men are looking at different things.
Lieberman was impressed by how well Pakistani
nuclear handlers have been tutored in the United
States. ElBaradei, on the other hand, expressed a
broader concern. He presumably reasoned that
safety procedures and their associated
technologies are only as safe as the men who use
them.
This is the crux of the problem. Pakistan has
become steadily more radicalized as the influence
of Islamists increases in its culture and
society. The deliberate nurturing of jihadism by
the state has, over 30 years, produced extremism
inside parts of the military and intelligence.
Today, some parts are at war with other parts.
This chilling truth is now manifest. A score of
suicide attacks in the last few weeks, some
bearing a clear insider signature, have rocked an
increasingly demoralized military and
intelligence establishment. For example, an
unmarked bus of the Inter Services Intelligence
agency was collecting employees for work early in
the morning in Rawalpindi when it was boarded by
a suicide bomber who killed 25 when he blew
himself up. The ISI had not recovered from this
shock when, just weeks later, another bus was
blown up as it entered the service's closely
guarded secret headquarters.
Elite commandos of the Special Services Group
have fared no better. Here, the suicide bomber
was an army man. Still more recently, a group of
six Pakistani militants, reportedly brainwashed
by clerics linked to Al Qaeda, was arrested in
December for plotting suicide attacks against
military targets. Their leader was revealed to be
a former army major, Ahsan-ul-Haq, who had
masterminded the Nov. 1 suicide attack on a
Pakistan Air Force bus that killed 9 people and
wounded 40 others in the city of Sargodha, where
nuclear weapons are said to be stored.
Fearful of more attacks, military officers have
begun the transition to a new, surprisingly
modest lifestyle. They have given up wearing
uniforms except on duty, move in civilian cars
accompanied by guards in plain clothes, and no
longer flout their rank in public.
As the rift within widens, many questions pose
themselves. Can collusion between different
field-level nuclear commanders - each responsible
for different parts of the weapon - result in the
hijacking of one complete weapon? Could jihadist
outsiders develop links with sympathetic
custodial insiders?
Many vexing questions concern the weapons
laboratories and production units. Given the
sloppy work culture, it is hard to imagine that
accurate records have been maintained over a
quarter century of fissile-material production.
So, can one be certain that small, but
significant, quantities of highly enriched
uranium have not made their way out? More
ominously, religious fervor in these places has
grown enormously over the last 30 years.
Nevertheless, we Pakistanis live in a state of
denial. Even as suicide bombings escalate,
criticism of religious extremists remains taboo.
The overwhelming majority still attributes recent
terrorist events - such as the assassination of
Benazir Bhutto - to the Musharraf government. But
these delusions will eventually shatter. At some
point we will surely see that ElBaradei's warning
makes sense.
Pervez Hoodbhoy is chairman of the department of
physics at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad
and the author of "Islam and Science: Religious
Orthodoxy and the Battle for Rationality."
______
[2] Bangladesh:
New Age
January 28, 2008
Editorial
THE MEDIA FREEDOM FALLACY
In an interview on the sidelines of the
just-concluded annual meeting of the World
Economic Forum at Davos in Switzerland, the chief
adviser to the military-controlled interim
government, Fakhruddin Ahmed, claimed that the
incumbents do not pose any hindrance to media
freedom in Bangladesh. His claim cannot be any
farther from truth. As recently as on January 24,
the media cell of a national intelligence agency
circulated a written order among the private
television channels, detailing in unambiguous
terms what programmes they might air live and
what programmes they might not, who could be
invited to talk-shows and who could not, so on
and so forth. According to an Agence
France-Presse report, printed on the back page of
New Age on Sunday, the government banned two live
political talk-shows of the private television
channel ETV. ETV officials claim that the
information ministry handed them 'a written order
saying that we cannot telecast our live
talk-shows any more.' Meanwhile, many newspapers
continue to receive 'advisories' over telephone
from intelligence agencies. Then, of course, some
media outlets exercise 'self-censorship,' which,
again, is a natural reaction to the Emergency
Powers Rules. If these do not constitute
hindrance to media freedom in the chief adviser's
perception, we wonder what would.
It is neither unwarranted nor unprecedented
for intelligence agencies to have media cells. In
fact, we believe such cells can go a long way in
keeping the government abreast of popular opinion
about its actions and policies so that it may
modify its actions and policies in view of the
public interests and expectations. Regrettably,
the intelligence agencies have thus far employed
these cells in a repressive role in their bid to
force the media outlets into toeing the lines of
the government. The intelligence agencies under
the political regimes preceding the interim
government also resorted to intimidation of the
media; however, they never went to the extent of
laying down dos and don's in black and white for
the media to follow.
Fakhruddin Ahmed cannot, and should not, take
refuge in the excuse that he is not or was not
aware of the workings of the intelligence
agencies vis-à-vis the media. As the head of
government, he is expected to be updated of
whatever action that the intelligence agencies
take. Besides, he has been informed by senior
journalists of such intimidation exercises of the
intelligence agencies on several occasions. It is
exceedingly disappointing that the chief adviser
has not only been unable to put an end to such
unhealthy practices by the intelligence agencies
but also making inflated claims about absence of
hindrance to media freedom at international
forums.
We would like to remind the chief adviser in
particular and the incumbents in general that
ostrich syndrome will not help them in any way
accomplishing the task of putting the country
back on the path to democratic governance. We
would also like to remind him that as an
economist he should know better than anyone else
that pervasive development cannot take place in
an environment where the freedom of expression is
neither recognised nor nurtured.
______
[3] INDIA: DECREASING ROOM FOR FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION ?
(i)
Hindustan Times
January 24, 2008
MARRIED TO THE MOB
by Rajdeep Sardesai
Last Saturday, as India was celebrating a famous
cricket victory over Australia in Perth, NDTV's
Ahmedabad office was ransacked by a mob calling
itself the Hindu Samrajya Sena. The alleged
provocation: an sms poll on the network that had
asked viewers to vote for painter M.F. Husain as
a possible Bharat Ratna. Only a week before that,
an IBN-7 broadcast van was damaged in Mumbai,
allegedly by supporters of Raj Thackeray's
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. Their grouse? The
channel had questioned the manner in which
Thackeray had supported a group of men accused of
molestation on New Year's Eve to the Home
Minister. A few months ago, journalists in Patna
were attacked after they reported on the possible
involvement of a Janata Dal United MLA in a
murder case. Last year, the Star News office in
Mumbai was badly damaged by another little known
group, offended by the channel's coverage of a
Hindu-Muslim marriage. In 2006, a CNN-IBN car was
burnt outside the Uttar Pradesh assembly by a
mob, only a day after the channel reported on BSP
leader Mayawati's disproportionate assets case.
In all the instances, a clear pattern emerges: a
faceless mob, often belonging to an equally
unknown organisation, gets its 15 seconds of
fame by taking the law into its own hands.
Violence becomes the substitute for logical
argument; anonymity provides an alibi and a
disturbing licence to kill; spurious asmita or
self- respect becomes the justification and
television the soft target. After all, what
better way to find yourself on prime time TV than
attacking a television channel's crew? The camera
lens is the window to a wider world, reaching
out to millions of viewers. What better way to
express yourself than destroy the very instrument
that could leave you exposed?
If you can't physically touch Husain, then try
and attack any symbol connected with the artist,
be it a painting exhibition or an innocuous sms
poll. If you can't stop Hindu-Muslim marriages,
then shoot the messenger carrying the story. If
you can't enter the courtroom to stop the
judicial process against your leader, allow the
writ of the mob to prevail over the rule of law.
The profile of the 'mob' is also familiar. A
majority of them are young, mostly unemployed,
desperately seeking an identity and relevance in
an increasingly chaotic and competitive world.
Faced with the threat of marginalisation, being
part of a Sena or a politician's armed militia
provides an individual with at least a sense of
'being', an identity that gives some meaning and
excitement to a life otherwise spent in drudgery
and deprivation. Do I want to spend the rest of
my life in a queue for water before sunrise at
Dharavi, and then an even longer queue for a job?
Or do I want to be part of a group that promises
me upward mobility, through a clever mix of money
and muscle power?
The image of tearing down an Aamir Khan film
poster seems far more attractive than avoiding
the pot-holes in the mucky bylanes of the slum
pocket. Call it ersatz machismo, or simply urban
anomie, it is so much easier to be married to the
mob than be engaged to the harsh realities of
daily living.
Nor is this only the big city phenomenon that it
perhaps was a few years ago. The original Senas
might have emerged in the grimy and unforgiving
cauldron of Mumbai's backstreets, but they have
now spread their web across the country. What
started off as groups seeking a political
identity - like the Shiv Sena - are now
re-inventing themselves as the morality police,
guardians of a so-called cultural 'purity', based
largely on a growing conflict between 'them' and
'us' at different levels of society, between
conflicting notions of social conservatism,
religious identity and rapid westernisation.
Then, whether it is a group that threatens women
without headscarves in Srinagar, or young couples
in a park in Meerut, or those wearing jeans in a
Chennai college, it is clear that there is a
growing geographical spread to the culture of
moral absolutism through the use of violence and
intimidation.
The real culprits though are not the faceless
mob. Much like the TV camera, they are, in a
sense, the soft targets. The actual
responsibility must lie with the law enforcers,
those who are supposed to ensure respect and
adherence to the rule of law. How, for example,
does one explain that the same Gujarat government
that gets tough with farmers who don't pay their
electricity dues, cannot act against those who
ransack art exhibitions in Vadodara or even dare
to enter the Sabarmati ashram and assault Narmada
Bachao Andolan activists inside the Mahatma's
abode of non-violence? How does one explain that
the Congress-NCP government in Maharashtra, which
gets tough against bar dancers, chooses to turn a
blind eye to the destruction of valuable archival
material in a prestigious library in Pune by the
so-called Sambhaji brigade? What can one expect
from successive governments in UP and Bihar that
openly side with criminal elements? Mayawati can
demand the highest security for herself, but is
she willing to provide any security to those who
are routinely targeted by the political gangsters
of UP? Nitish Kumar may have done a shade better
after he arrested his MLA Anant Singh for
assaulting journalists, but did he have the moral
or political courage to remove him from the party
despite his long criminal track record?
The fact is that the 'faceless' mobs are often an
extension of the ruling clique, deriving their
authority and even legitimacy from the support
and protection they are provided by the police
and political system. A policeman in a majority
of the states who chooses to act independently
runs the risk of offending his political bosses,
and being transferred or suspended with immediate
effect. Police reforms exist on paper: in the
real world, whether it be a constable or an IPS
officer, there is little security of tenure or
insulation from political interference. UP is
again only the worst example: in the last eight
months, Mayawati has transferred around 400
senior officers.
The media, too, aren't blameless. How many times
are we willing to stand unitedly against
political intimidation of various forms? The
occasional dharna or indignant statement in
support of press freedom is only a camouflage for
a genuine failing to take a collective approach
against the targeting of the media. News
organisations will report when their own
interests are compromised. But how many of us
take a principled stand when, say, a channel in
the North-east is pulled off the air, when a
competitor is singled out, or when a Tehelka was
harassed into virtual extinction by the
government in power? And what of those of us
within the media who feed on images of
orchestrated vigilantism and mob violence
designed for the camera? Are we ready to be
confronted with a serious credibility check that
we so desperately need to strengthen our case in
the face of the growing physical and financial
threats?
Perhaps, we are victims of this age of
instantaneous television images, where this
hour's story is the next bulletin's history.
Indeed, within hours of the attack in Ahmedabad,
all TV channels were gleefully celebrating the
'chak de' spirit with half-crazed crowds in
different corners of the country. Maybe the
muscular hyper-nationalism on display is only a
flip side of the mob fury that is waiting to
erupt on the streets. Maybe some of the manic
faces painted in tricolour have also been part of
the crowds that have attacked the media in the
past. Maybe we just can't tell the difference
between the good, the bad and the ugly any longer.
o o o
(ii)
Tehelka Magazine,
Vol 5, Issue 4, Dated Feb 02, 2008
'IN HINDU CULTURE, NUDITY IS A METAPHOR FOR PURITY'
Maqbool Fida Husain tells SHOMA CHAUDHURY why his
faith in India's secular and tolerant traditions
remains undiminished
Husain saheb, what do you feel about the fundamentalist attacks against you?
I'm not really perturbed by all this. India is a
democracy, everyone is entitled to their views. I
only wish people would air their views through
debate rather than violence.The media comes to me
looking - almost hoping - for strong statements,
but I am actually very optimistic about India. I
see this as just a moment in time. For 5,000
years, our work has been going on with such
force, this is just a minor hiccough. I am
certain the younger generation will get fed up of
the fundamentalist, conservative mood in the
country and change things. I didn't want to leave
my home. At the same time, it's not even as if I
want the conservative element to be pushed out of
society. We are all part of a large family and
when a child breaks something at home, you don't
throw him out, you try and explain things to him.
Yeh aapas ka mamla hai. (This is a family
matter.) Those opposed to my art just do not
understand it. Or have never seen it.
Why don't you come back to India and take on the fight?
As things stand, I cannot come back. No one has
exiled me; I cameaway myself because I am an old
man and vulnerable to physical danger. It's not
just the cases. If I came back, given the mood
they have created, someone could just push or
assault me on the street, and I would not be able
to defend myself. The only way I can come back to
India, perhaps, is if the BJP comes to power at
the Centre. Or maybe, Mayawati. This government
has no spine. Their hands are tied. They think if
they speak out or take action, they will be
accused of appeasement. The irony is, out of
power, the BJP uses issues like this to fan its
votebank. In power, they would probably control
their extreme brigades to look respectable and
secular! (laughs) These are the ironies of India.
Actually, it is for the courts to sort this out.
The allegation that my work is obscene or hurts
religious sentiment can never stand merit in a
court. Perhaps, if someone filed a counter public
interest litigation It is not my place to do so.
Why did you apologise for your art? You know more
about Hindu iconography and the shastras than the
goons who deface your work.
Never. I have never apologised for my art. I
stand by it totally. What I said was that I have
painted my canvases - including those of gods and
goddesses- with deep love and conviction, and in
celebration. If in doing that, I have hurt
anyone's feelings, I am sorry. That is all. I do
not love art less, I love humanity more. India is
a completely unique country. Liberal. Diverse.
There is nothing like it in the world. This mood
in the country is just a historical process. For
me, India means a celebration of life. You cannot
find that same quality anywhere in the world.
Could you talk about how your exposure and love
for Hindu iconography and culture began.
As a child, in Pandharpur, and later, Indore, I
was enchanted by the Ram Lila. My friend,
Mankeshwar, and I were always acting it out. The
Ramayana is such a rich, powerful story, as Dr
Rajagopalachari says, its myth has become a
reality. But I really began to study spiritual
texts when I was 19. Because of what I had been
through, because I lost my mother, because I was
sent away, I used to have terrible nightmares
when I was about 14 or 15. All of this stopped
when I was 19. I had a guru called Mohammad
Ishaq- I studied the holy texts with him for two
years. I also read and discussed the Gita and
Upanishads and Puranas with Mankeshwar, who had
become an ascetic by then. After he left for the
Himalayas, I carried on studying for years
afterwards. All this made me completely calm. I
have never had dreams or nightmares ever again.
Later, in Hyderabad, in 1968, Dr Ram Manohar
Lohia suggested I paint the Ramayana. I was
completely broke, but I painted 150 canvases over
eight years. I read both the Valmiki and Tulsidas
Ramayana (the first is much more sensual) and
invited priests from Benaras to clarify and
discuss the nuances with me. When I was doing
this, some conservative Muslims told me, why
don't you paint on Islamic themes? I said, does
Islam have the same tolerance? If you get even
the calligraphy wrong, they can tear down a
screen. I've painted hundreds of Ganeshas in my
lifetime - it is such a delightful form. I always
paint a Ganesha before I begin on any large work.
I also love the iconography of Shiva. The Nataraj
- one of the most complex forms in the world -
has evolved over thousands of years and, almost
like an Einstein equation, it is the result of
deep philosophical and mathematical calculations
about the nature of the cosmos and physical
reality. When my daughter, Raeesa wanted to get
married, she did not want any ceremonies, so I
drew a card announcing her marriage and sent it
to relatives across the world. On the card, I had
painted Parvati sitting on Shiva's thigh, with
his hand on her breast - the first marriage in
the cosmos. Nudity, in Hindu culture, is a
metaphor for purity. Would I insult that which I
feel so close to? I come from the Suleimani
community, a sub-sect of the Shias, and we have
many affinities with Hindus, including the idea
of reincarnation. As cultures, it is Judaism and
Christianity that are emotionally more distant.
But it is impossible to discuss all this with
those who oppose me. Talk to them about
Khajuraho, they will tell you its sculpture was
built to encourage population growth and has
outgrown its utility! (laughs) It is people in
the villages who understand the sensual, living,
evolving nature of Hindu gods. They just put
orange paint on a rock, and it comes to stand for
Hanuman.
In what terms would you like your paintings to be spoken of and remembered?
I never wanted to be clever, esoteric, abstract.
I wanted to make simple statements. I wanted my
canvases to have a story. I wanted my art to talk
to people. In 1948, I exhibited my work publicly
for the first time in the Bombay Arts Society
show. I had already been painting and practising
for years. Now in those paintings, I took the
classical images of the Gupta bronzes - the
tribhanga form; the sensuous and erotic colours
of Pahari paintings - its deep maroons, blacks,
haldi; and the nine rasas. I wanted my format to
be classical, yet retain the innocence of the
folk. Souza came and asked me excitedly, from
where have you got this? I didn't tell him, I
said, you go search it. This is what lies at the
heart of the artistic enterprise.
It is in picking from what has gone before. In
India, there have been so many high periods -
Tanjore, Chola, Gupta Centuries of seeing lie
behind that. You cannot reinvent the wheel - your
individuality, your creative eye lies in what you
pick. The other thing is to find one's own rhythm
and calculation: Where exactly do you place a
line on an empty canvas? Where exactly do you
place the dot? How much yellow should I use, how
much red. If I use 1mm of red, should the blue be
a half millimeter or more? An artist's voice lies
in this calculation, this maths. To find your
style and language takes 60-70 years of
continuous work.
Which among your paintings do you consider the
most significant, your equivalent of Picasso's
Guernica?
'Between the Spider and the Lamp' (1956). I feel
happy with the structure of that grouping - there
is a kind of mystery about what the five women
are talking about. Stories perhaps even unknown
to themselves. There is something in the
precarious way the woman is holding the spider on
a delicate thread. A fear. I rarely draw eyes, I
don't want to use eyes because to give someone
eyes is to define and identify the person. I
prefer to make the body expressive. To understand
hand expression, I had observed Rodin's
sculptures - 'Men of Calais'. To that I brought a
knowledge of classical mudras. So much is made of
culture and tradition in India, yet 60 years
after Independence, art students are still made
to study the body from Greek art. Dr Kumaraswamy
does not even find mention. In colleges, you
learn about Shakespeare and Keats, Kalidas does
not find mention. This is why there is no pehchan
in India, no recognition of what is Indian.
Things are so farcical that years ago when the
Benaras Hindu University honoured Subbulakshmi,
JRD Tata, Mother Teresa and me, we were given red
caps and cloaks! (laughs) This was the seat of
Hindu learning! The custodian of Bharatiya
sanskriti! Is there anything that you find
obscene in the world? Bad behaviour. That is all.
______
[4]
Dawn
25 January 2008
INDIA'S HINDU TALIBAN
by Kuldip Nayar
"WILL you arrest anybody and identify him by any
name that suits your case?" a judge asked the
police while setting Aftab Alam Ansari free. He
was imprisoned on suspicion that he was involved
in the serial blasts at the courts in Lucknow
some two years ago.
He is an electrician working at Kolkata in the
government's power corporation. He was picked up
from there. The UP police chief described him as
'a hard core' belonging to the
Harkat-ul-Jihad-i-Islami. Sheepishly, the police
have admitted that it was a case of 'mistaken
identity'.
What Aftab went through in jail is something too
familiar in the subcontinent to be repeated. I do
not know whether he is suing the authorities for
his illegal detention. But this is a case which
some NGO should take up to demand not only
compensation for him but also punishment for
those who misused the law. It has become a
practice with the police to arrest anyone without
even a semblance of evidence to allay the
people's fear in the wake of a blast.
One more example of the police getting away with
'false testimony' has come to the fore. This is
the Bilkis Bano case in Gujarat. Eleven people
who raped her and killed 14 of her relatives,
including her three-year-old daughter, have been
sentenced to life imprisonment. At last some
persons have been punished, thanks to the
persistence of Bilkis and Teesta Setalvad, a
human rights activist, supported by the media.
Yet, five policemen have been acquitted. Bilkis
wants to pursue their case of 'false testimony'.
The case had to be heard outside Gujarat because
of pressures within the state. Yet the main
culprit, state chief minister Narendra Modi, who
had planned the ethnic cleansing and had it
carried out, moves around freely because there is
no 'legal proof'" against him. The Nanavati
Commission appointed to find out those
responsible for the carnage has been sitting for
the last five years; it is still examining
witnesses.
Modi, without any qualms of conscience, had the
audacity to talk about the centre's failure to
curb terrorism when he was touring Tamil Nadu and
Maharashtra. What happened in Gujarat was
something more terrible than terrorism. British
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced
financial help and his government's support for
concerted action against terrorism. He wants
Pakistan to be part of the drive.
But he should know that terrorism is only a
symptom, not the disease. Fundamentalism has very
much to do with it. The terrorism witnessed in
Gujarat was the work of Hindu fundamentalists.
Without curbing them or their counterparts among
Muslims, there can be little progress on this
front.
Gujarat continues to be in the grip of Hindu
Taliban. Sainiks destroyed the NDTV office at
Ahmedabad a few days ago because the channel
reported M.F. Hussain, a world famous painter, as
one among the people's choice for the Bharat
Ratna, the highest civilian award. The land of
Modi has such a pathological hatred for Muslims
that there is no question of taking action
against the culprits because they are the warp
and woof of the state's Hindutva apparatus.
There has been no word of explanation, much less
condemnation, from the BJP spokesman, Ravi
Shankar Prasad, otherwise an urbane person. When
the entire structure of his party, the BJP, has
been built upon anti-Muslim sentiments, its youth
followers, the sainiks, are only instruments of
terror and tyranny, at the beck and call of the
party.
The same sainiks or their type broke glass at the
NDTV office in Bhopal. This is the capital of the
BJP-run Madhya Pradesh. It is assumed that no
action will be taken against them. True, it is a
minor incident compared to the Ahmedabad one.
What the nation must realise is that Germany was
not taken over by the Nazis in one day. They
nibbled at the country ideologically and socially.
People would shrug their shoulders saying that
the NDTV incident did not hurt them. The Nazis
too did not take on all the people at one go.
Only one set of them was attacked first. Left
aside, the other sections asked themselves why
they should raise their voice when they had not
been touched. Ultimately, when the Nazis came for
the last set of people, there was nobody left to
speak out.
The Muslims accused in the Godhra train arson
case have been denied even a fair hearing and
have been deprived of basic freedoms. In all
there were 135 accused in the incident. The last
bail order was granted by the Gujarat high court
on October 30, 2004. The court has not heard any
bail application since. Many serious
discrepancies in the arrests, including some
glaring inconsistencies, have been pointed out to
the state which simply refuses to address the
concerns.
Compared to the Hindu Taliban, the Muslim Taliban
may be less active. But they are very much there.
They demonstrated against the Godrejs, a house of
industrialists, recently because they had hosted
Salman Rushdie, the author of Satanic Verses. The
demonstrators demanded a boycott of the goods
produced by them.
Not many Muslims were associated with the
hooligans. But then nobody in the community dared
to speak against them. People were simply afraid
of what the fundamentalists might do to them. In
fact, the fear they instill in the general public
is their weapon. They have already silenced the
government of India in the case of Taslima
Nasreen, the Bangladeshi author who has been
installed in a house in Delhi, isolating her from
the outside world. She has protested against the
'house arrest' but neither the government nor the
Muslim community is sensitive to her freedom.
I do not know why New Delhi is soft on
fundamentalists. The example of Pakistan is
before us. There was a time when the madressahs
and maulvis did not pose any danger. Religious
parties would never cross double digits in
elections to the provincial and national
assemblies. The madressahs went on brainwashing
the youth studying there. Thousands of them are
now an integral part of Pakistani society. The
government did not lift a finger against them.
Now that they have begun to challenge the state,
the army has been deployed to curb them. Several
suicide attacks on the military have demoralised
the army as have beheadings of security officials.
Still, the terrorists have come to occupy a large
bit of Pakistan's territory. Waziristan is under
their command. President Pervez Musharraf has
tried to convince Europe that the terrorists have
been nearly ousted from the country. Very few
believe him. That is his and Pakistan's tragedy.
His credibility is zero.
The writer is a leading journalist based in New Delhi.
______
[5] India : Citizens Paying a Heavy Price of Its Security Mania
The Telegraph
18 January 2008
'I WAS WHIPPED WITH A BELT UNTIL I SCREAMED'
Aftab Alam Ansari, the Calcuttan who spent over
20 days in captivity because of a police blunder
that made him a suspected explosives courier, was
released on Thursday from a Lucknow jail. The
26-year-old CESC employee spoke to Tapas
Chakraborty of The Telegraph.
The account of his ordeal in detention is
reproduced below as he narrated it, not in
chronological order.
In a small room inside the Special Task Force
(STF) detention centre of Mahanagar (in Lucknow),
I was told to look straight at two police
officers and admit that I was Mukhtar alias Raju,
a wanted terrorist.
I said I was a simple mazdoor in CESC in
Calcutta. I repeatedly refused to accept the
allegation that I was an aatankwadi (terrorist).
Suddenly, one officer began reeling off instances
of blasts in which I apparently had a hand. He
blamed me for the deaths of many innocent people
in Uttar Pradesh. I said I didn't know what he
was saying.
Then he slapped me so hard twice that my head
reeled from the impact for some time. But I was
unmoved in the chair.
The officer shouted at the top of his voice: "Sab
aatankwadi hi kahate hai ki woh beguna hai."(All
terrorists say they are innocent). I again said I
was not a terrorist.
The officer flew into a rage. Suddenly, he
whipped out his belt and began beating me until I
screamed in pain.
This must have happened on December 31, the day
after I was brought from Calcutta. But I had no
way of knowing the time as the torture chamber
had no access to daylight and my watch had been
taken off in Calcutta itself. When I reached
Lucknow, the Rs 500 I had and my mobile phone
were also taken away.
Trip from Calcutta
On the morning of December 29 - two days after I
was picked up in Calcutta - Uttar Pradesh police
tied my hands with a rope and kept me in the rear
seat of a Tavera bound for Lucknow from Calcutta.
My face was hooded with a piece of red cloth.
I was given a cup of tea before the car sped off.
A meal later in Varanasi, I reached Lucknow on
December 30 afternoon. I was driven straight to
the detention centre.
During the next two days of my stay at the
detention centre, I was put through gruelling
interrogation sessions. I kept requesting them to
get back to my office, my employer and my
neighbours to investigate about me but they
refused to budge.
Marriage, a code?
The officers asked me why I had gone to Gorakhpur
in March last year and then in May-June last
year. I said I had gone to get married in
Gorakhpur. One officer asked me if "getting
married" was a code word for getting serial
blasts carried out in a city. I looked puzzled.
On December 31, the STF brought two other
suspects - Mohammad Khalid and Mohammad Tariq
Qazmi. They were asked to look at me and tell the
police if they recognised me. They said they had
never seen me before. He is not the Mukhtar we
spoke of, they kept repeating.
I never touched any firearm in my 26 years of
life. I dread the sight of blood. I am so scared
of violence that I often avoid Muharram
processions in my locality where
self-flagellation causes wounds.
On January 2, I was taken to a court. In the
courtroom, I was accused of ripping Varanasi
apart with serial blasts, ferrying RDX into Uttar
Pradesh and setting off explosions in courts. I
was also blamed for the triple blasts of
Gorakhpur on May 22.
Nightmare in cell
I was then sent to judicial custody. I was dumped
in Cell No. 5 in the high-security barracks and I
fell ill in the evening. I had a cellmate called
Arif. He never told me why he was being kept in
prison. I began to vomit late that evening. I was
asked to lie on the elevated concrete bed where
jail officials spread a blanket.
As I lay down, I could see the faces of my wife
Shafana, who I married on March 13 last year, my
sister, my mother and my brother. I am the only
earning member of my house. What will happen to
my family if I am forced to live in jail all my
life? I could hear a chorus of voices calling me
aatankwadi.
I was having these terrible spells of nightmares
for some hours. Then a doctor came to the cell
and gave me some medicine. Soon, I fell asleep.
In the 8-foot-by-8-foot dank, depressing room, I
often had this thought: Am I destined to die
here? I grew quite an unkempt beard and stank of
body odour. I could not bathe in cold water.
The first shock
How did I become a jailbird? My days in hell
began on December 27 when, along with a friend
who I fondly call Balle, I had gone to Shyambazar
in Calcutta to buy some essential items for my
Cossipore home.
On my way back from the market by a bus, my
friend got down at Chitpur. After a while, I got
a call from a stranger who asked where I was and
when I would return home. I told him I was on a
bus and on my way to Chiriamore. It was 1.30pm.
Half an hour later, when I got down at Chiriamore
and was about to cross the road, six
plainclothesmen stopped me and shoved me into a
car.
I was told that I was "Mukhtar alias Raju alias
Bangladeshi". My vehement denials increased their
suspicion. I was produced the next day before the
Alipore sub-divisional judicial magistrate's
court and handed over to Uttar Pradesh police.
In the jail, I was given bread made of coarse
wheat flour, rice full of stone chips and a
tasteless vegetable. On January 3, I had acute
diarrhoea for which I was given medicine. My
urine had turned yellow and I had no appetite. No
one was allowed to meet me. I was not given the
half-hour recess outside the cell that
undertrials are entitled to.
Ray of hope
On January 8, the STF brought me back to the
detention centre. This time, I found a new
investigating officer, S.N. Shukla, who replaced
C.N. Sinha. Shukla went through my case diary.
He did not ask me many questions except why I
visited Gorakhpur so often. I said my wife was
from Gorakhpur. Besides, I hail from Golabazar
(near Gorakhpur).
He asked me how a call was made to a blast
suspect from my mobile number. I said a stranger
used my phone to call up his relative in
Gorakhpur on March 6, 2007, when I was on my way
to Gorakhpur from Calcutta on the eve of my
marriage.
On the afternoon of January 8, the same officer
met me and said: "I have nothing against you. You
will go back to Calcutta soon."
Day of freedom
Since January 8, I was counting my days to
freedom. In the morning today (Thursday), I was
given a cup of tea and two slices of bread. Told
that I would be released, I did not have the
patience to eat the bread. I had the tea.
At 10.30am, when I saw my mother waiting for me
at the jail gate, I ran up to her, hugged her and
began to cry.
The jail employees were smiling at me, and a group of journalists was waiting.
I am still wearing the same sky-blue denim
trousers and a grey T-shirt that I had on when I
left home in Calcutta on December 27. I lost
about a kilo in jail.
But I am happy to return to this new world as
Aftab Alam Ansari, not as Mukhtar, not as Raju,
not as Bangladeshi
______
[6]
STATEMENT OF CONCERNED CITIZENS AND PEOPLE'S
ORGANIZATONS ON STATE REPRESSION IN CHHATTSGARH
AND CONTINUED DETENTION OF DR BINAYAK SEN
A group of former bureaucrats, academicians,
lawyers and social activists visited Chhattisgarh
from 18 - 22 January 2008 in connection with the
prolonged incarceration of Dr Binayak Sen. The
team met the Governor and Director General of
Police and also met Dr Binayak Sen in the central
prison at Raipur. Some members of the group also
visited areas in the districts of Bastar,
Dantewada and Bijapur.
In the light of the information gathered, the
team is of the opinion that the charges filed
against Dr Sen under the IPC, CrPC and the
Chhattisgarh Public Safety Act (CPSA) are
unwarranted and unconstitutional. The CPSA
enables the government to interpret the rendering
of simple humanitarian acts as unlawful The Act
defines "unlawful activity" so broadly that every
act of vigilant citizenship can be construed as
unlawful and anti-national. Thus it is clear that
Dr Sen is being targeted in his capacity as
General Secretary of People's Union for Civil
Liberties, Chhattishgarh. The reports produced by
the PUCL have highlighted the anti-constitutional
violence legitimized by the state through the
Salwa Judum campaign.
It seems that the government is determined to
destroy the human rights movement in the state.
In this process, the government is eliminating
the possibility of a strong civil society that
can act like a middle ground between Naxalites
and the government. Dr Sen represents a voice
that is critical of the anti-people policies of
the government, but his work is in the field of
health, education and providing succor to the
poor and tribal people under distress. He has
been running clinics in the remote areas where
the official medical facilities haven't reached.
It is ironic that on the one hand the government
is planning to compel medical graduates to sign a
bond to serve in rural areas, while on the other,
it actively victimizes committed individuals such
as Dr Sen who have voluntarily dedicated their
lives to serving the neediest.
It may be noted that the Indian Social Science
Congress at its annual convention held in Mumbai
in December 2007, felicitated Dr Sen with a
citation honouring him as a committed Gandhian.
In a meeting with the group inside the jail the
team was shocked to learn that Dr Sen is deprived
of basic amenities and assistance due to
under-trials. He does not have access newspapers
of his choice, only to one highly censored Hindi
daily. His request to be allowed to use his
professional skills as a medical doctor for the
benefit of a vastly over-crowded jail has been
refused. He is not permitted to walk in the area
where other prisoners are allowed. He has lost 20
kilos and the team is seriously concerned about
his health and well-being.
The team learnt with concern that at the hearing
on January 17th when the court was to decide
whether charges were to be framed against Dr Sen,
he was not physically produced in court. Senior
jail officials offered the flimsy excuse that
they did not have enough guards to accompany Dr
Sen. However, since the police could not have
known in advance that Dr Sen would not be
discharged by the court, his not being produced
on that day is a serious matter.
The team also met the Director General of Police
(Prisons) and requested him to ensure that Dr
Sen's rights as an under-trial are protected. The
DGP assured the team that these circumstances
would be rectified.
During the visit of the team to the jail, media
people present to cover the visit of the team
were harassed by the jail authorities. The camera
of one media person was confiscated and another
was detained at the jail offices. The team also
complained to the DGP against the high handedness
of the jail authorities and condemned the attack
on the right of the media to gather information.
During the visit to the districts mentioned
above, the team talked to several people and met
with officials. It is evident that the
government in its haste to industrialize the
state and exploit the mineral resources is
aggressively trampling on the rights of the
people. Their right to informed and democratic
consent to the official plans for mega
development, and all safeguards for environmental
protection and democratic decision-making and
autonomy available to the gram sabhas under the
Panchayat (Extension to Schedules Areas) Act,
have been violated. In some areas repression of
most brutal forms on any kind dissent has been
used.
When the team met the Governor, they impressed on
him his responsibility to use his powers under
Schedule V to ensure the protection of rights of
tribal people and bring about democratic
functioning in the state.
Dr Sen had consistently raised these concerns,
and it clear that he is being victimized for
alerting the official agencies to the plight of
the poor. Thus we urge the Government of
Chhattisgarh to immediately release him
unconditionally and withdraw all charges against
him.
Amit Bhaduri, Professor Jawaharlal Nehru University
Delhi
Medha Patkar, social activist, National Alliance of
People's Movements
Sandeep Pandey, Magsaysay Awardee
Arvind Kejriwal, Magsaysay Awardee
Manoranjan Mohanty, retired Professor (Delhi
University)
Uma Chakravarty, retired Professor (Delhi University)
Gabriele Dietrich, Madurai University and National
Alliance of People's Movements
Madhu Bhaduri, former Ambassador
V S Krishna, Human Rights Forum, Andhra Pradesh
Vrinda Grover, Advocate, Delhi
Nivedita Menon, Delhi University
Gopal Iyer, Professor, Panjab University, Chandigarh
Manish Sisodia, media activist
Ravi Hemadri, The Other Media, Delhi
Swati, Parivartan
Santosh, Parivartan
Santosh Jha, Parivartan
Om Prakash, Delhi University
Mukta Srivastava
National Alliance of People's Movements
______
[7] JUSTICE ELUDES VICTIMS OF GUJARAT POGROM OF 2002:
(i)
SALUTING BILKIS BANO: REFLECTING ON GUJARAT
by Ram Puniyani (25 January 2008)
After a long time one has come across the
delivery of justice in the cases pertaining to
Gujarat carnage. Bilkis Bano, a pregnant young
woman was gang raped and her family was wiped out
in the Gujarat carnage, which was engineered on
the pretext of Godhra train burning. Despite all
the obstacles posed by Gujarat police and state,
finally her tormentors have been held guilty (18
th Jan 2008) and given the punishment. Even in
this the involved police personnel and doctors
have got away despite their complicity in the
crime. All in all despite this lacuna, it is a
heartening respite in the prevailing dismal
scenario. One recalls that there are thousands of
cases which have neither been properly registered
nor are being pursued despite the best efforts of
social and legal activists in Gujarat.
In this case it the grit, determination and
strength of the victim, Bilkis bano, and the
support of civil rights group which supported
her, are crucial factors in getting the justice.
The justice in this case stands out as a small
ray of respite, in the gloomy scenario of
Gujarat, where by now justice for minorities is
conspicuous by its absence.
This case also brings to our notice that while
this underbelly of Gujarat is visible to those
who care, for a section of people all over,
Gujarat is being presented as a model state under
the efficient leadership of Narendra Modi. It is
under his patronage and leadership that the state
had witnessed the carnage. This carnage, the
worst in recent memory, fractured the whole
Gujarat society along religious lines. The post
violence obligations of state were turned into
further means of intimidation and marginalization
of minorities, who by now have been made to bend
their knees if they have to live in Gujarat. The
all round boycott, marginalization and
gheotttization of Muslim minorities has reached
levels which are unprecedented in India so far
and all this has been projected as a successful
experiment of Hindu Rashtra.
Same Modi who led the carnage and post carnage
humiliation of minorities with extreme cruelty
romped home to electoral victory, which is being
celebrated far and wide, by a section of people
and section of media. His victory has given
signal of revival of the aggressive designs for
Hindu nation. Narendra Modi is emerging as the
sole leader of BJP, endowed with appeal to a
section of middle classes. He is being upheld as
the brave man, with 56 inch chest, a lion, an
honest, efficient, incorruptible man, but while
his chest is visible his blood soaked hands are
hidden. His fan following is peaking to new
heights. A section of media is also projecting
him as the hope of the future. Incidentally he
has been named as the Prime Ministerial candidate
of the future by RSS, the patriarch of communal
fascist politics in India.
It is important to look at Modi's role as the
charismatic leader of a party BJP, which is
wedded to Hindu Rashtra, a Hindu fascist state,
is on the upswing. He seems to be fitting the
bill of an authoritarian leader perfectly.
India's well known post modern social scientist
Ashish Nandy after interviewing him said that
Modi is a classic fascist personality. A bit of a
peep into his personal life is important for
understanding what his persona means. He
abandoned his wife long ago and is a full time
RSS prachrak. As per the usual norms of a
pracharak has been living a life cut off from
family ties. This fact of his breaking the family
ties is also being glorified. In the ideology of
RSS family ties for a Pracharak are regarded as a
drag for achieving the goals of Sangh (RSS).
From all accounts he is an autocrat who is using
democratic space to grab the power to abolish
democratic space itself. Keshubhai Patel the
previous chief minister described Modi's rule as
mini emergency. Most of the decisions from top to
bottom are taken by him alone. Modi has been
boasting that he neither takes money nor lets
others do the corruption. This authoritarian
control on corruption is flimsy as the opaqueness
of such an administration leads to levels of
corruptions which are too big in proportions,
like control of the whole state machinery by big
industrialists and business houses. Transparency
is the key to eradication of corruption, but in
Modi's scheme of things, since the affairs are
controlled exclusively from top, transparency has
no place as such. Lot of these traits are similar
to what were seen in Hitler's Germany.
Gujarat is being ruled by BJP form last several
years. With Modi coming to the helm of affairs,
the section of affluent middle class is too happy
as its interests are safe and secure at the cost
of interests of poor dalit, adivasis and
minorities. This section of middle class which is
very dominant, has global connections, and can
smell dollars, is rising in other parts of the
country as well. The response which Modi got in
Chennai or the type of hype which was created
around him in Mumbai for his rally (January 23,
2008) signifies that the new middle class, cozy
in its privileges and scared of the rise of
dalits and poorer sections of society is eager to
welcome him as the messiah. It is another matter
that these material interests of this section,
the base of 'Shining India', are couched in the
language of protection of Hindu religion.
The biggest success of RSS propaganda work is
that over a period of years, it has succeeded in
promoting the ideas of social status quo,
conservatism in outlook, and total opposition to
any affirmative action for weaker section of
society. Interestingly this politics does talk
about poor, but in the language of patronage. For
this politics patronage is dished out as a
substitute for promotion of their human rights.
It is no wonder that the language of religion
which is spoken by Dharmagurus (clergy) has no
concept of rights; it revolves around the notion
of duties and respect of traditions. These shri
shri's, acharyas and bapus are dime a dozen,
promoting the culture and values which suit the
material interests of sections of middle classes,
and political interests of the likes of Modi.
Needless to say their preaching aims to promote
traditions which reinforce the secondary status
of dalits, women and other weaker sections of
society. With times, RSS politics has succeeded
in co-opting sections of deprived and minorities,
and there is a difference between cooption and
notion of equality.
While maintaining status quo of social
hierarchies, and suppression of human rights of
weak is the core agenda of sectarian political
outfits, irrespective of the race and religion in
whose name they are unfolded, the same is
presented in the language of religion or race.
The same is built around the 'Hate other',
minorities, and this serves to create hysteria to
suppress the democratic space. This is precisely
what Modi has brought in. Through the carnage he
has broken the values of pluralism and national
integration. He has instilled the communal
divides on permanent basis, so now he can talk of
development. A prominent academic describes Modi
brand of politics as 'communal body with the mask
of development'. Modi has projected the interests
of few industrialists, some NRIs and some
affluent sections as the development of Gujarat.
Needless to say here also, as in other parts of
India, there are farmer's suicides and rising
poverty of poor and destitution of marginalized,
running parallel to the 'development' as
understood in the language of globalization.
Are we witnessing the rise of a Hitler? Hitler
who crushed democracy under his boots in the name
of solving the German national problem of Jews,
Communists and minorities? There is a sense of de
ja vu in the rise of Modi, more so since he has
started picking up charisma, more so because now
the minorities in his state dare not even ask for
their citizens rights as they know that none
exists for them unless some one like Bilkis bano,
assisted by human rights groups, can take it up
to the highest levels of battles. And other such
cases are doomed to disappear in to oblivion over
a period of time. Bilkis bano case is the mirror
of Gujarat. By its presence it is showing us how
other cases have been suppressed by the trishuls
of Modi associates. While he can bloat his chest
to 56 inches and pose as the temporary savior for
some, this politics will ultimately break the
integration of the nation, which has been won the
hard way by the democratic streams, political
streams, which fought for nation's independence
and its values, represented by the likes of
Bhagat Singh, Gandhi and Ambedkar!
o o o
(ii)
People's Democracy
January 27, 2008
EDITORIAL
After Bilkis Bano - Ensure Justice For All
FINALLY, at least in one case amongst the
thousands that occurred in the State-sponsored
communal genocide in Gujarat in 2002, justice
appears to have been done. The special court in
Mumbai, designated by the Supreme Court, to
conduct the trial in some of the most gruesome
incidents of communal carnage, has sentenced
eleven out of the twelve guilty to life
imprisonment in the Bilkis Bano gang rape and
massacre case. In addition, one police officer
was sentenced to three years rigorous
imprisonment on charges of complicity.
In one of the many inhuman atrocities in Gujarat
in 2002, a pregnant Bilkis Bano was gang raped
and her child crushed to death. Fourteen members
of her family, including six women and four
children, were massacred when they were trying to
escape their riot-affected village. Bilkis,
demonstrating a rare determination and fortitude,
had petitioned the judiciary stating that the
Gujarat police were hand-in-glove with the
accused, evidence was being tampered with and
witnesses were being threatened.
In response to this, the Supreme Court
transferred the case to a special court in
Maharashtra from Gujarat. Bilkis deserves all
praise and support for refusing to succumb to
threats and rejecting all inducements in doggedly
pursuing this case.
Though this judgement has come after six cruel
years of agony and wait, justice nevertheless
seems to have been finally delivered. In this
context, several points need to be considered.
There are several hundreds of pending cases
relating to the Gujarat carnage. Given the track
record of the system of delivery of justice in
our country, particularly in relation to justice
to the victims of communal riots, it is
imperative to ensure that justice in the
remaining cases is delivered at the earliest.
Apart from delivering justice to the victims and
punishing the guilty, which is the basic norm in
any modern civil society, this is imperative to
generate a sense of confidence amongst the people
in our justice delivery system. Needless to add,
the break down of such confidence amongst the
people is the surest recipe to undermine the
legality and authority of our parliamentary
democracy.
The judgement in this particular case proves,
once again, a very discomforting fact that
justice to the victims of the communal carnage is
not possible in the state of Gujarat. The Gujarat
government had already closed more than 1600
cases claiming lack of any evidence. It was only
in 2004 at the express intervention of the
Supreme Court that these were reopened. Of the
six specific cases where the apex court had asked
the CBI to investigate, apart from this case, the
only other is the Best Bakery massacre case.
Justice continues to elude the victims of other
massacres like the Naroda Pataya case. The wife
and family of the former Congress member of
parliament, Ehsan Jaffri, continue to knock doors
seeking justice. Ehsan Jaffri, readers will
recollect, was set on fire while alive by a mob
after various parts of his body were chopped off.
Many of these cases are yet to reach the stage of
a trial, leave alone judgement in the courts.
There are many other cases which continue to
remain pending before the courts. 84 of the
allegedly accused in the Godhra train burning
case continue to languish in custody with bail
being denied. This is despite the fact that the
Central Review Committee on POTA cases had
decreed in May 2005 that none of the alleged
offences in this case warranted the invocation of
POTA. Consequently, the courts were to decide on
the matters relating to bail for the accused.
Finally, in February 2007, the Supreme Court
ruled that these accused could file bail
applications before it. Yet, to this date, these
have not been heard.
While these need to be expedited, the real
challenge facing the judiciary, in fact facing
the Indian democratic system itself, is to
demonstrate the promptness and the efficacy of
the justice delivery system. This will be
determined by the manner in which the judiciary
deals with the remaining large number of
unresolved cases relating to the Gujarat genocide.
It is imperative that the CBI must speed up the
process of investigation in certain other cases
under directions from the apex court. It is,
indeed, a travesty of Indian democracy and its
justice delivery system that there is little
faith in the Gujarat state government's
administration and police on this score. The
complicity of the State apparatus in protecting
the guilty and denying justice to the victims is
being repeatedly demonstrated.
In this context, it is, indeed, ominous that the
BJP should continuously invoke the refrain that
it shall turn all states in India into Gujarats.
The RSS/BJP's `prime minister in the waiting'
designate has continuously repeated this on every
possible occasion since his anointment. As it
rolls out the communal juggernaut in its urge to
capture power at Delhi in the next general
elections, the RSS/BJP increasingly portrays the
Gujarat communal carnage as the assertion of
`Hindu pride' seeking to negate the fact that
this remains the most organised communal pogrom
that undermines the very foundations of secular
democracy in India. It is clear that in its urge
to consolidate the Hindu vote bank, the RSS/BJP
will leave no stone unturned to sharpen communal
polarisation in the days to come. Alongwith
ensuring that the justice delivery systems
delivers, this larger challenge to the secular
democratic foundations of modern India must be
met resolutely.
______
[8]
For immediate release
25th January 2008
CERAS URGES A POLITICAL SOLUTION TO THE
TAMIL-SINHALA ETHNIC DIVISION IN SRI LANKA AS ALL
SIGNS POINT TO ALL-OUT WAR
On 3rd January, the Mahinda Rajapaksa government
in Sri Lanka unilaterally ended the Cease Fire
Agreement (CFA) with the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
At the end of November 2007, the government
arrested 2,700 Tamils living the country's
capital Colombo, in a night-time swoop. The
implication is that every Tamil is a potential
LTTE recruit.
CERAS (South Asia Center, Montreal) considers
these recent actions of the Sri Lankan government
very regressive. Unilaterally ending the
ceasefire brokered earlier by Norwegian
mediators, escalating its offensive against the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and
arbitrarily arresting thousands of Tamils
residing in Colombo is only going to intensify
the conflict.
The situation has been described by observers as
"all out war" by the Sri Lankan government. In
this armed conflict in which nearly 70,000 lives
have already been lost, the new offensive by the
Sri Lankan government will only add to civilian
losses and not further the goal of a fair and
mutually acceptable political solution.
The unilateral action of the Sri Lankan
government has come in the wake of an
international crackdown on the LTTE. Countries
like Canada, the USA, India, Malaysia and 25
member states of the EU have all included the
LTTE on their list of terrorist organization.
These actions give the government of Sri Lanka
the impression that they have the backing of the
international community in their conflict with
the LTTE.
In this climate of an escalation of the war and
growing civilian misery and insecurity, CERAS
demands that the government of Sri Lanka resume
the ceasefire. At the same time it calls upon the
LTTE to end attacks on civilians and seek the
resumption of a political dialogue to help
realize the legitimate demands of the Tamil
population of Sri Lanka. A military solution is
not possible. Only a political situation can
bring peace, put an end to the escalating number
of lives lost and allow people to live in peace,
security and dignity.
ceras at insaf.net
-30-
o o o
For immediate release
25th January 2008
CERAS STRONGLY CONDEMNS THE ATTACK ON CHRISTIANS
IN ORISSA, INDIA BY HINDU FUNDAMENTALISTS
In the latest of continuing attacks on minorities
in India, on the eve of Christmas 2007, in the
eastern Indian state of Orissa, a Hindu
fundamentalist organization launched a series of
premeditated attacks. They attacked almost fifty
churches and other Christian institutions and
assaulted Christians, killing a number of them.
Despite being widely reported and condemned, this
religious coercion continues unabated, with Hindu
fundamentalists continuing to threaten Christians
in the area with dire consequences unless they
'reconvert' to Hinduism.
With shades of the anti-Muslim genocide of 2002
in Gujarat, the local administration offered no
protection. The Chief Minister of the state,
Naveen Patnaik, said or did little to counter or
quell these communal* (and criminal) acts.
Regrettably, the central government in Delhi,
despite its strong anti-communal rhetoric, also
remained a passive observer.
CERAS (South Asia Center, Montreal) strongly
condemns these attacks on the Christian minority
in Orissa. It sees a pattern of communal violence
and threats of violence directed to Muslim and
Christian minorities in Indian states such as
Orissa, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
The targeting of minorities by Hindu
fundamentalists must receive the full attention
and intervention of the government of India.
CERAS demands that the Government of India take
urgent action to end continuing communal violence
and punish the guilty.
-30-
ceras at insaf.net
______
[9] Announcements:
(i) Publication Announcement:
Fault Lines: Stories of 1971
Ed. Niaz Zaman and Asif Farrukhi
2008
English
University Press Ltd.
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Finally the book is out! Fault Lines: Stories of
1971 edited by Niaz Zaman and Asif Farrukhi has
been published by the University Press, Dhaka and
is being distributed by Oxford University Press
in Pakistan. Copies are already available in
Karachi bookstores.
Fault Lines includes 37 stories from Bangladesh
and Pakistan. It also includes stories written
in/ from USA, Britain and India related to the
events of 1971. This is probably the first time
that stories from both sides of the divide are
presented together and such a proposition is not
without difficulties, as the introduction
highlights. The stories from Pakistan include
stories written in Urdu, English, Sindhi and
Punjabi.
The writers whose work is selected include such
prominent names as Intizar Husain, Masood Ashar,
Asad Mohammed Khan, Hassan Manzar, Ibrahim
Jalees, Masood Mufti, Amar Jaleel, Umme Umara,
Saleem Akhtar, Tariq Rehman, and Ahmed Salim
among others. The translators include Muhammad
Salim ur Rahman, Durdana Soomro, Samina Rahman
and Shah Mohammed Pirzada. The stories from
Bangladesh include the work of Urdu writers
Gholam Mohamed and Ahmed Saadi, voices often
ignored or avoided. One of the most poignant
stories for me is by Mohan Kalpana, the Sindhi
writer, who was born in Karachi but migrated to
India after 1947 and it is from this perspective
of shifting boundaries that he ahs written his
story.
Apart from the hard work and trekking down of
stories, the introduction was particularly
difficult and painful to write. After much debate
(some of it rather heated) Niaz Zaman and I
decided to write our separate versions. We
understand that this book may rake up painful
memories on both sides, but we hope that it does
more than create controversies. We hope that
there is debate and discussion leading to a
better understanding of not simply the political
events but the stories of the people who were
affected by the events.
As you can imagine this has been a tough going
but a very interesting one, which has made me
"read" 1971 again and try to look at it with a
fresh or different perspective.
_____
(ii) LST FORUM
A WHIMPER AND NOT A BANG?
The All Party Representative Committee on
Power-Sharing (APRC) Process and Ways Forward
Tuesday 29 January 2008
5pm @
3, Kynsey Terrace
Colombo 08
RSVP Janaki 2691228/2684845
____
(iii) D.D.KOSAMBI MEMORIAL LECTURE SERIES
Organized By Lokavangmaya Gruha & Ramnarain Ruia College
Lokavangmaya Gruha and Ramnarain Ruia College,
are cordially inviting you for D.D.Kosambi
Memorial Lecture Series. We have planned a 2 day
Lecture Series on 11th and 12th of February 2008,
in Ramnarain Ruia College Mumbai.Eminent
Historians like
Prof.Romila Thapar and Prof D.N.Jha would be
participating in this seminar as speakers.
D.D.Kosambi is well known to the scholars and
students of Social sciences as the
historian-indologist who introduced historical
materialist methods in the study of Indian
history. Prof.Kosambi's work was instrumental in
bringing a paradigm shift in the Indian
historiography from the 'glorified history of
dynasties to the history of the evolution of
relations and modes of production thus making it
people's history. Although DDK was a Marxist and
his historical analysis is largely influenced by
Engels he never copied the historical stages of
development propounded by marx-engels to suit
Indian history without any
'archaeological-anthropological-linguistic'
research. Prof.Kosambi's work always remains
inspirational for those who seek to analyze
Indian history through Marxist perspective but
refuse to be Oms i.e. Official (party line)
Marxists. As kosambi has pointed out in one of
his articles rather incisively; Marxism is a
method of thinking not a substitute to thinking
Although DDK is a respected figure in academic
circles people at large (even students of
history) seem to be unaware of the work and
thoughts of this legendary mathematician turned
historian. A Marathi biography of DDK written by
Prof.C.D.Deshmukh (People's Science Activist) is
perhaps the only serious effort made to
popularize DDK's Thought. Hence his initiative is
intended to spread Prof.Kosambi's thoughts and to
initiate discussions on historical issues of
contemporary relevance
So we appeal to you to participate in this
lecture-series and further this process of the
'popularization of academic discourse'.
Lokavangmaya Gruha Ramnarain Ruia College
Schedule
Day 1 11th February
1st session
11.30 - 13.30 D.D.Kosambi's Contribution to
Indian Historiography By- Prof.Romila Thapar
Chair- Prof.Ram Bapat
2nd session 'Inventing India' Screening
of 3 Documentaries. by Late Prof A.N.Das
Day 2 12th February
1st session
11.00-1.00 Hindu Identity Stereotypes
versus History By Prof. Dwijendra Narayan Jha
2nd Session
2.00-4.00 19th Century Religious Reformers and
Renaissance in Maharastra By Prof.Umesh Bagade
Chair- Prof. Ashok Chausalkar
Participants,registering at least a week before
the event would be provided with lunch.
Registration Fees-50 Rs.( For 2 days)
( Please Note that Registration is for lunch and
not a precondition for the participants.)
o o o
[ Contact addresses of Organisers of the above event:
LOKVANGMAYA GRIHA
Bhupesh Gupta Bhavan,
85,Sayani Road,
Prabhadevi ,Mumbai 400 025.
Ramnarain Ruia College
L. Nappo Road, Matunga, Mumbai 400 019, India
http://www.ruiacollege.edu/ ]
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
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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