SACW | July 7-8, 2008 / S. Asian Past / Toba Tek Singh / Messiah Syndrome / US India Nuclear Kiss

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire | July 7-8 , 2008 | 
Dispatch No. 2536 - Year 10 running

[1] Pakistan:
   (i) Real threat to Pakistan (M B Naqvi)
   (ii) Pakistan Turns into Toba Tek Singh (Q. Isa Daudpota)
[2] Bangladesh: Messiah Syndrome & Graveyard of 
Hope (Shameran Abed and Faruq Wasif)
[3] Sri Lanka: The culture of impunity rides on (Shanie)
[4] The pursuit of the Southasian past (Romila Thapar)
[5] India - J & K: Communal Protest in Jammu is 
part of Hindutva Agenda to Divide
[6] India : Cycle of violence and counter-violence in Assam  (Sanjib Baruah)
[7] US-India Nuclear Agreement - Still a Bad 
Deal: Press Release by A Global Network of NGOs
[8] Book Review: Thrice Divided (Sohail Hashmi)

______

(i)

Deccan Herald
7 July 2008

REAL THREAT TO PAKISTAN

by M B Naqvi

For 60 long years, Pakistan has flourished on a 
hollow and often dishonest rhetoric of Islam.


Pakistan has more or less reversed in practice 
all that the new government was talking about the 
way of tackling Islamic militancy: at election 
time they were emphasising that a purely military 
approach to fighting Taliban and extremists, such 
as the Americans insist upon, is unwise. The 
problem must be addressed by political means, 
though use of force has to be kept in reserve for 
sparing use.

The Army chief was entrusted with the task of 
fighting Islamic extremism as best as he can the 
other day. That apparently has gladdened the 
hearts of the Americans who, according to Samuel 
Hersh of the New Yorker, have three top US secret 
agencies, along with the US Special Forces and 
Pakistani intelligence agencies targeting the 
Taliban leadership inside Waziristan.

Richard Boucher arrived once again in Pakistan 
for three days on June 30. He will go round 
meeting all the bigwigs of the state and party 
leaders. This is apparently the start of what the 
Americans have wanted: a coordinated military 
effort by Americans, NATO and Pakistanis. In 
NWFP's tribal areas the US National Security 
Agency, the CIA and Defence Intelligence Agency 
along with Special Forces and Pakistani 
intelligence are said to be already active.

The second was the demonstrative military action 
in Khyber Agency, just outside Peshawar by 
paramilitary forces.
There was talk of possibly losing even Peshawar 
because the warlord Haji Mangal Bagh of Khyber 
Agency had started extorting money and throwing 
his weight about in Peshawar.

There are now two categories of Pakistani 
observers: Those who think that Talibanisation of 
Pakistan is underway and is irreversible and the 
others say the state has to be firm and act as 
the Americans advise to contain the Taliban.

The fact is that much of Frontier's tribal areas 
are already slipping out of Pakistani control. 
Prime Minister Gilani frequently asserts that the 
government will re-establish the writ of the 
state. Please mark this will.

Names of each warlord-cum-Taliban commanders of 
an agency are known; it is also known that they 
are the real governments that are realising taxes 
through extortion, administering rough justice 
and providing what security there is.

Look at the typical Taliban commander or warlord. 
All he has to do is to find a rich patron, 
probably a narcotics producer with money to help 
raise a Lashkar even of 70-80 armed people.

He proclaims himself a Taliban commander and, hay 
presto, he rules. All he has to do is to be 
ruthless in imposing taxes, administering simple, 
inexpensive and quick justice to follow the 
example of Arabian Peninsula's Middle Ages' 
customs. This elicits admiration from simple, 
gullible Frontier Muslims - indeed the Sunni 
Muslims of all the subcontinent.

This is now a cottage industry. Once a commander 
raises a Lashkar, he can extort more money and he 
becomes the locality's ruler. What is not 
prohibited by Taliban Islam is murdering 
opponents or kidnapping them for ransom.

Recently, Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan 
was abducted from near Torkhum. He was recovered 
after several months on payment of a (huge) 
ransom. Money otherwise is floating around in the 
Frontier largely because of the flourishing 
heroin and cannabis trade.

The beneficiaries are probably no more than 500 
or so rich individuals. The spread of such Islam 
is paradoxical for a place where civilisation 
goes back 6,000 years. Pakistan areas were the 
first where vedic culture flourished, followed by 
Buddhist era and later by Islam.

The real vulnerability of Pakistan lies in the 
proneness of gullible Muslims to admire 
everything associated with medieval mores of 
Arabian Peninsula, particularly of Mecca and 
Medina. What Prophet Muhammad and his companions 
said and did in accordance with their local 
traditions elicits now unlimited admiration. The 
notion is that everyone received just treatment 
then.

Taliban too impart supposedly honest and ruthless 
justice quickly and inexpensively. These 
qualities are greatly admired by the 
subcontinent's Muslims who yearn for establishing 
such an Islamic state, though scholars differ 
what can it possibly be.

There are local reasons in Pakistan too. For 60 
long years Pakistan state has flourished on a 
hollow and often dishonest rhetoric of Islam. 
Pakistanis have to pay the wages of 60 years of 
shallow and deceptive Islamic rhetoric and 
manipulations by Pakistan's intelligence outfits: 
for over 21 years Pakistan has organised a Jihad 
in which hundreds of thousands of Pushtoon and 
Frontier people have participated: first in 
Afghanistan, then in Indian-controlled Kashmir 
and later again in Afghanistan's civil war that 
erupted 1993 onwards.

Taliban conquered Afghanistan for Islam - maybe 
for Pakistan also. Taliban established an Islamic 
state that all Deobandi Muslims regarded as 
authentic Islamic State that must be supported by 
all. Today in Pakistan's tribal areas any number 
of warlords or Taliban commanders are 
establishing just such Islamic statelets. These 
are the wages of the 60-year long bogus rhetoric.

Pakistan's real vulnerability is its people's 
admiration for ruthless medieval mores adopted by 
charlatans today seeking power and pelf. Their 
game has to be exposed as a first real step to 
contain them. Otherwise Talibanisation will 
continue and the more the armies of Pakistan and 
others kill the ordinary Pushtoons the more 
militants and radicals will be produced.


o o o

(ii)

PAKISTAN TURNS INTO TOBA TEK SINGH

by Q. Isa Daudpota

Pakistan is like an airplane lost in a dark 
ominous cloud, running on autopilot.  Its 
coordinates and destination were set by previous 
crew members, who have been made to disappear or 
have parachuted out.

Passengers with gurgling stomachs and sweaty 
brows having long realized the trouble and appear 
paralyzed.  They have seen a stream of crew 
members pushed off the plane or bail out with 
parachute -- shady hunks in khakis, but some rare 
trustworthy ones too.

The Captain, Asif Zardari, took over when his 
wife was shoved off the plane.  The First 
Officer, Nawaz Sharif, is there propped up by his 
benefactor General Zia ul Haq.  CIA operatives 
onboard, passengers learned, had forced Zia to 
jump off with a crate of mangoes tied to him.

Every so often the passengers are flashed the 
grinning faces of the two pilots to assure them 
that the plane is in safe hands.  A sharp 
journalist on flight notes the lack of sparkle 
and empathy in their eyes and wonders if their 
bright smiles are a sham.

Air traffic control is in the hands of General 
Pervez Musharraf supported by American engineers. 
They built the autopilot and are the only people 
who now have flight plan that was entered in the 
plane.  Suddenly, a violent thumping on the door 
disturbs the peace inside the locked control 
room.  Outside, deposed Chief Justice Chaudhry 
Iftikhar and his attorney Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan 
having caught wind of the plot are trying to 
force their way in.   

Meanwhile pandemonium reigns in the cabin.  A 
lunatic Mullah from NWFP with a huge beard 
announces that he is Muhammad Ali Jinnah.  While 
the agitated passengers look at him, from the 
back of the cabin a man in cricketing whites who 
had earlier been talking to the Mullah, declares 
himself Master Tara Singh.  Jinnah and Singh 
launch into a bhangra dance in the two aisles but 
fail to attract the attention of the agitated 
passengers who are sweating in their seats. 
Fearing more trouble the two mad entertainers are 
locked up in the same toilet by on-flight 
security men. [This bit was left out by Dawn.]

To avoid further ruckus in the cabin the 
cool-headed Purser Saadat Hasan Manto puts on the 
film "Toba Tek Singh", a classic drama about the 
confusion at the time of partition when Hindu 
lunatics in a city in Punjab were repatriated to 
India.  Suddenly calm reigns as passengers get 
glued to the monitor in front of them.  This is 
like the reassurance of seeing oneself in the 
mirror on waking every morning.  That's me you 
tell yourself, that face is mine, I have survived 
the night!  The few who don't get the plot 
finally realize its parallel with their condition 
when they read the film notes in the flight 
magazine (http://tinyurl.com/45wje2).    

The rest of the world retains an interest in the 
future of this unstable flight - an unfolding 
drama viewed from ground level seemingly as 
surreal as that experienced by those onboard. 
Some characters in the drama are highlighted by 
the international press.

The New York Times in its Sunday magazine 
elaborates the past and present of Aitzaz Ahsan. 
He makes it to the Prospect magazine's top 100 
global intellectual's list.   In the NYT piece, 
Ahsan talks about himself being the virtual 
deputy prime minister in Benazir Bhutto's cabinet 
after Zia ul Haq was killed in 1988. 
Inexperience and other flaws of Bhutto mixed with 
serious interference by the army prevented much 
headway.  The president fired the government in 
1990.  Nawaz Sharif stepped in and got the courts 
to try the Bhutto and her hubby, Zardari.  They 
were defended in court by Ahsan, who now 
expresses disdain for Benazir viewing herself as 
the life chairperson of the People's Party and 
has little doubt about the corruption of the 
couple, which he said was evident in their 
expenses.   He nonetheless remains a member of 
the party, which is clearly non-democratic within 
its ranks.  No one knows how he balances his 
alliances.

Justice Iftikhar who originally approved of Gen 
Musharraf's takeover in 1999 has redeemed himself 
through his activist role in highlighting the 
fact of countless Pakistanis having disappeared 
due to the 'war on terror'.  This exposure has 
earned him the ire of the Yanks.  He also exposed 
and thus stopped the deal to sell off the 
national steel mill to a crony of the 
Citibanker-turned-Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, 
who is now safely back in America after his 
5-year overseas duty.  The Chief Justice also 
helped to stop the New Murree project which would 
have replaced a pristine pine forest in the hills 
with luxury hotels and villas for the filthy rich.

Meanwhile as the airborne drama of Pakistan 
unfolds the common citizen is burdened by 
sky-rocketing prices of food and other 
commodities, as well as a serious shortage of 
power coupled with serious eco-disasters.  This 
writer, who needs to walk the darkened bazaars 
near his home daily from 2-3 am during blackout 
to avoid mosquitoes and heat, can find many who 
live a far more deprived existence.  Take the 
Afghan refugee along his nightly route, a 
scavenger, who gathers discarded plastic bottles 
from the shopping area for recycling.  He earns 
Rs 60-100 daily, a sum below subsistence level.

The plane can be flown safely if Pakistanis wake 
up to the reality of their situation and begin to 
change things for the better.  Good sense and 
political will are levers needed to disengage the 
autopilot and take control of the country.


The author is an Islamabad-based physicist.
An edited version of this appeared in Dawn on 
Sunday 6 July 2008: 
http://www.dawn.com/2008/07/06/op.htm#3

and as a commentary in Himal: 
http://www.himalmag.com/2008/july/commentary_pakistan.php


______


[2]  Bangladesh:

a. In the Graveyard of Hope - Faruq Wasif
b. Messiah Syndrome - Shameran Abed

(Two recent op-eds at
http://www.drishtipat.org/blog/2008/07/01/graveyard-of-hope)


IN THE GRAVEYARD OF HOPE

by Faruq Wasif

[Prothom Alo, June 28, 2008]
[Translated for Drishtipat by Shabnam Nadiya]

Bangladesh is the name of hope's graveyard. 
Bangladesh is another name for waiting. Here, 
everything almost arrives, but nothing actually, 
finally comes. But even within the darkness, the 
possibility of the arrival shines like the 
morning star. Even though in exchange for our 
nose, a blade we received, we still hope that 
some day our noses will heal. We are waiting, 
hope, sister to waiting, will one day return. The 
train of history will stop at our platform. We 
wait. This is our life's force in this 
unspeakable reality. We water the grave of hope 
and bring forth the grass of sorrow. Waiting, 
brother of hope, keeps us awake. We traverse 
decades. We come through death, war, pestilence 
and famine.

A new decade arrives, and we spy hope in the 
dregs of frustration and are moved. Hope arose in 
1990, after the fall of the despot. Hope arose in 
2000, at the arrival of the new millennium. We 
were almost becoming self-sufficient in food 
production, xx was rising, our confidence was 
growing as the young men and women labouring here 
and abroad were earning dollars. But the lines of 
that poem turn true somehow: I built this house 
for happiness/It burnt up in fire/I bathe in an 
ocean of ambrosia/It turned poison.

The poem is more than a hundred years old. Today 
some non-poet would perhaps write, new bottle 
same wine. So it's with that in hand that we have 
to sit down today to take measure of our 
humiliation on a national scale.

Transparency International has conducted a survey 
and provided a record of the corruption during 
the rule of this government. It states that 
corruption hasn't decreased in comparison to the 
past two governments, it has increased. TIB 
themselves has prepared a comparative picture 
based on data from the survey of 5,000 households 
across 62 districts. An examination of the six 
months prior to and six months after 1/11 shows 
that ministry-wise corruption levels, meaning 
education, health, land administration, local 
government, the NGO sector, corruption and 
bribery are rampant everywhere. And that too is 
at higher levels than before. In the education 
sector, it used to be 12.5 percent, now it's 44.5 
percent. In the health sector, 32 percent has 
grown to 36.9 percent; in land administration 
39.4 percent has increased to 45.1 percent and in 
the NGO sector, 33.3 percent is now 35.7 percent.

In addition, 96.6 individuals out of every 100 
have been victims of the corruption in the law 
enforcement agencies. So who's been left out? We 
hear that the politicians are no longer in power, 
many of them are immobile, in jail. So who are 
the phantoms who have been doing all this? It was 
to curb corruption that so much effort was 
expended, so many upper floor chumps were sent 
downstairs, and chumps from lower floors promoted 
to the upper.

In the past the political leaders would call the 
TIB report a conspiracy, propaganda to tarnish 
their image. Will the same thing be said this 
time as well? I don't know. If corruption has 
decreased even slightly, then is the new TIB 
survey lying? Those who have nothing else, have 
experience. Its from that experience that we 
know, whatever the intent of the survey, the data 
that has emerged from it are close to the truth. 
If that is the case, then what was this game of 
hopscotch that we had been witnessing all this 
while?

We don't know whether in the future, after 
another 1/11, we will have to read another epic 
of corruption in an anti-corruption drive. Still, 
sorrow sulks within our hearts, Why did we build 
this house!

Our train never arrives; our night never dawns. 
The ringing of sword on shield never ends. If our 
train does come, it never runs on the right 
track. Still we wait. Like a condemned man waits 
with the noose around his neck, so we wait too, 
for some more breath, light, cherished faces, 
tastes of the mortal. We who inhabit the 
footpaths wait, one day we will have a house. 
Slum-dwelling rickshawpullers in Dhaka and 
Chittagong nurtures the yearning to one day 
return to the village and farming. The poor wait, 
something will happen some day. They will no 
longer want for rice, their children will laugh. 
The prostitute waits, even if she can't, her 
daughter will escape this life of the fallen. 
When her life is over, she thinks her 
granddaughter or her great granddaughter will 
surely find a different life. Then she goes to 
her grave and waits, when will the gates of 
heaven open. And she will ask the Creator of this 
world, did my children find happiness? Those 
fathers and mothers will wait even beneath the 
grass and earth of the grave, those that they had 
left behind, have they found happiness? Perhaps 
they won't know, but we do, over a million women 
have been smuggled to brothels in various 
countries. That's about the number of people who 
live in a smallish district of this land! Over 
400,000 among them are India, and 40 thousand 
boys are living the lives of sex slaves in 
Pakistan. Still we wait, they will return, they 
will be brought back. People cannot do without 
waiting and hoping. If we didn't have the hope of 
the times changing, we would move around like the 
living dead. If there was no wait for the 
establishment of our golden Bengal and the trial 
of the war criminals, the Liberation War would 
become a meaningless. If there was no hope that 
one day this lawlessness will end, we would turn 
to stone from sorrow.

It is through these eyes of stone that we witness 
the kings, queens and princes of corruption have 
either been released or are about to be. Of 
course we want to see freedom in politics, we 
want the re-establishment of the political rights 
of the people. But since when have these corrupt 
politicians become so similar that we have to 
witness the freeing of the corrupt in the guise 
of freeing politics?

We see that although corrupt individuals are 
being placed under pressure, institution 
corruption is not being addressed. Citizen's 
participation in administration and rule has not 
been increased. The people are like puppets in 
the reform and anti-corruption drives. Are we 
only supposed to go and vote when we're called 
upon? We've lost our rights in the regimes of 
both political and non-political governments. All 
we've retained is our right to vote. What can be 
done with that, if the same people stand for 
election? If the pond of politics is overrun with 
weeds, you cannot clean it with bamboo sticks, 
the entire pond has to be uprooted. Only the 
people can do that. It's the people of East 
Bengal that wiped out the last trace and name of 
Muslim League. It's the people of Bangladesh that 
forced out the Pakistani occupation forces. In 
Kansat, Shonir Akhra, Fulbari, the people rose up 
again and again. That was the muscle power of 
democracy. And this government, this is the 
muscle power of the ruling elite. The two not 
bring the same results.

A scream for a mass movement burnt deep inside 
the heart of society. But no response to that 
came from politics, and so a vacuum was created. 
The people could find no one any more to reflect 
their hopes on to. "People Power" hung in space 
with no heir, no one to claim the mantle. But 
power is such a thing, it does not, cannot just 
travel hand to hand without a final address. 
Since the people could not, the people's 
representatives would not, take it on, power 
landed in the laps of today's navigators, and 
said take me, use me, drive me. The next history 
every one knows. We needed a flush to get rid of 
all the waste, they pressed the flush button. But 
now all the blood, all the spoils, all the 
pollution is coming back. is that dirt now going 
to overflow the toilet and drown us all?

No one can deny that corruption is like a sea 
flowing over Bangladesh. Everyone knows that a 
sea cannot be cleaned like this. The only way is 
to allow rivers and streams to keep flowing into 
the sea until it cleans itself. And those rivers, 
those streams, are the people. So the only path 
is to remove the barriers in the way of the 
people. There is no other solution. There can be 
no ordering the river to flow from the heights of 
the Qutub Minar of power. Stuck between the 
scylla and charybdis, we also see a glimmer of 
hope. Will a bridge be built between the masses 
and government power, can state power finally 
pass out of the hands of the elite into the 
people? On that rests the future of hope and fear.

So we wait and wait. We wait as the hyphen 
between past and future. But no nation, no 
people, can spend decades suspended, waiting as 
hypens. We want to wipe away our poisoned 
inheritance and start a new day, but we cannot 
also erase our proud history.

The last 37 years have rained so many blows on 
our feelings, deep calluses have formed. It has 
become like a hard tortoise shell. Does a hopeful 
heart still beat under that shell? We fear that 
if hope is dead, opportunism will be born and 
will stretch its neck out of its shell like a 
tortoise. And Bangladesh will be transformed into 
a grave for hope. In that graveyard will walk a 
group of tortoise people, who have a strong shell 
as shields and whose necks are always stretched 
out in greed.

We do not want the dead weight of those 
tortoise-like opportunists to turn everything to 
poison forever.

o o o

THE MESSIAH SYNDROME

by Shameran Abed

Our current army chief is not the first general 
to have unsuccessfully tried to bring about a 
qualitative change in a nation's politics by 
giving it, in characteristic military style, 
short-term shock therapy. But strengthening 
democracy requires more than a messiah, it 
requires collective, long-term efforts to 
establish the rule of law, to ensure individual 
freedom and to allow democratic institutions to 
grow and flourish.

IT IS surprising that a major story on Bangladesh 
in the latest issue of Time magazine (June 
30-July 7), which is based on an exclusive 
interview with the army chief, General Moeen U 
Ahmed, has gone almost unnoticed. Could it be 
that those who have seen and read the story 
prefer not to discuss or highlight it, given its 
unflattering portrayal of the general and his 
attempts at being the nation's redeemer? Or are 
we ashamed at our collective folly at having 
initially been hopeful about the general and his 
band of deluded followers who still believe that 
they can put this country on a democratic path by 
stifling democracy itself?

General Moeen, like his purported boss, 
Fakhruddin Ahmed, appears to have a preference 
for the foreign media. One will not come across 
too many exclusive interviews of the army chief 
in local publications (he did, however, give an 
exclusive to one of the private television 
channels that has seemingly gone out of its way 
to pander to this military-controlled regime). 
But when foreign media organisations come 
calling, the army chief, like the chief adviser, 
seems to oblige them far more willingly. Do both 
men suffer from the same complex? Do they both 
feel that their accountability is to the west 
rather than to the people of Bangladesh? After 
all, it is the resident representatives of our 
western development 'partners' who are believed 
to have instigated the January 11, 2007 
intervention by the military in the first place, 
and it is they who have supported and propped up 
this regime ever since.

If the tendency of the principal players of the 
current regime to explain themselves to foreign 
audiences more willingly than to the people of 
this country is worrying, what is more worrying 
is their patent lack of appreciation of history. 
Our current army chief is not the first general 
to have unsuccessfully tried to bring about a 
qualitative change in a nation's politics by 
giving it, in characteristic military style, 
short-term shock therapy. This has never worked 
in the past, in this subcontinent or elsewhere, 
and it will not work this time around. Addressing 
our democratic deficit will require more than a 
discredited anti-corruption drive and the 
desperate neutralisation of two iconic political 
leaders. General Musharraf tried this very tack 
in Pakistan and failed miserably. In our country, 
the fallout, political and economic, of this 
government's ill-conceived agenda, which many 
believe is also designed to legitimise a greater 
long-term role for the military in national 
politics, will only be dire and frightening.

A sustainable democracy will not result in our 
country until our leaders work to establish the 
rule of law, uphold the fundamental rights of the 
citizens and allow democratic institutions to 
grow and flourish. Yet our current leadership, 
just like the elected and military leaders of the 
past, have continually undermined the rule of 
law, violated at will the rights of the people 
and continue to sidestep or destroy at every 
opportunity the institutions that are supposed to 
act as the pillars of a genuine democracy - a 
functioning legislature, an independent 
judiciary, an effective bureaucracy, civil 
society organisations that operate as 
non-partisan pressure groups and media that works 
to put additional checks and balances on 
government, not work as the mouth pieces of one 
or the other party or of an unelected, 
military-controlled regime.

Moreover, there is an inherent arrogance about 
our current rulers, who were never given a 
popular mandate but seem to believe in their own 
right not only to govern but also to determine 
who should govern in future. This may seem to 
most to be contrary to the basic democratic ideal 
of representative government, but it appears not 
to bother the chief protagonist of our present 
undemocratic dispensation in the least. To Time 
magazine, General Moeen stated that 'you can 
judge the people of a nation by the type of 
leaders they select'. Given that the general 
admittedly has an extremely low opinion of the 
leaders that we 'selected' in the past; does this 
mean that he has an equally low opinion of us, 
the people, as well?

That would explain why he apparently feels little 
need to explain himself, his actions, or that of 
the current regime to the people of this country. 
But what are its implications for our democratic 
aspirations? If our present rulers, whose primary 
duty is to allow the people to freely and fairly 
choose their governors, do not feel that the 
people are up to it, what reason could we have to 
feel optimistic about a return to democratic 
rule? General Moeen also told Time magazine that 
the people need to be educated 'so that they 
don't keep on cutting off their own feet'. Who 
will judge when the people have been sufficiently 
educated? And what will happen to elections till 
that desired level of education has been 
attained? If the general feels that the people, 
at their present level of awareness, are not 
capable of making the right decisions, surely he 
is better off not affording the people that 
opportunity at all.

Given his apparent take on the matter, the bigger 
question is: does the general believe in a 
representative democracy at all where every 
person has an equal vote? Or does he feel that 
the choice of governors should be left up to a 
select group of educated and enlightened men such 
as himself? Right now, it seems that he feels 
compelled to show support for the former while he 
secretly believe in the latter.

For those of us who feel that the only way to 
strengthen democracy is by allowing people more 
freedoms and greater choices, the implications of 
General Moeen's statements to Time magazine are 
disheartening to say the least. When rulers lose 
faith in the ability of the people to decide for 
themselves what is best and, more worryingly, 
when they feel that they can openly and 
unashamedly insult those they govern, the result 
is usually the confiscation of the people's 
democratic rights. That began with the 
declaration of the state of emergency that 
automatically suspended the fundamental rights of 
the people and the promulgation of the emergency 
power rules, which took away additional rights 
including the right to bail. When and under what 
circumstances those rights will be returned to 
the people remains anyone's guess.

Interestingly, General Moeen reportedly feels 
that 'no systems of government are bad in their 
own right, it's the human beings who make it so'. 
That is probably why he feels that he can bring 
about a qualitative change in politics by getting 
rid of our current crop of political leaders and 
installing 'effective leaders' in their place, if 
need be by circumventing the democratic process. 
But is it not an effective system of checks and 
balances that is meant to keep the leaders 
honest? And do we not require functioning 
democratic institutions to ensure that those 
checks and balances exist and work? Our 
democracy's many failings will not be addressed 
simply by imposing different leaders on the 
people. The sooner the army chief realises that 
and puts faith in the people's ability to learn 
from their mistakes, the sooner will he allow us 
to re-embark on our democratic quest.



______


[3]

The Island
5 July 2008

THE CULTURE OF IMPUNITY RIDES ON

by Shanie

Abductions and arbitrary arrests are once again 
reaching alarming proportions, together with 
extra-judicial killings by all sides involved in 
our little dirty war. Often, abductions are 
followed by beatings (as in the recent cases of 
media persons) or mysterious disappearances. 
Pious statements of condemnation and 
"explanations" from apologists ring hollow 
because there is no redress for the victims and 
their families. Nobody is charged with these 
offences and the usual excuse is that there was 
no evidence or that no eye-witnesses have come 
forward. This certainly is not the 
professionalism that we expect of the law 
enforcement authorities. Our Police have had an 
enviable record in cracking complex crimes in the 
past. But now a culture of impunity exists when 
it comes to crime associated with political 
figures. It gives rise to a feeling shared by 
many that these crimes are being committed on the 
direction of political powerful masters.

Take the case of Joseph Pararajasingham, who was 
killed as he attended Christmas Mass at the 
Batticaloa Cathedral in 2005. There were several 
eye-witnesses who identified the killer but the 
Police have chosen to release this suspect. A 
Commission of Inquiry headed by High Court Judge 
Mahanama Tillakaratne was appointed to 
investigate this and similar crimes. We do not 
know what conclusions the Commissioner has 
arrived at. In any case, the report released in 
2007 is presumably gathering dust in the 
President's Office. The family has understandably 
lost any faith that the killers will ever be 
brought to justice.

But this is not an isolated case. Hundreds have 
been abducted and have disappeared; many have 
been openly killed. All parties - the LTTE, TMVP, 
EPDP and the security forces - are widely 
believed to be responsible for one or the other. 
The killing of the innocent students in 
Tricomalee, the aid workers in Mutur (both in the 
Trincomalee District), the Tamil and Muslim 
civilians in Allaipiddy (Jaffna District), in 
Pesalai (Mannar District) and Pottuvil (Ampara 
District), in the Farm School in the Vavuniya 
District, and the spate of civilians killed in 
bus bombings in Kebittigollawa (Anuradhapura 
District), Buttala (Moneragala District) and in 
several areas of the Colombo District show that 
terror from all sides covers all parts of the 
island. The cited incidents are only the ones 
that are well known. There are daily incidents of 
terror that are a part and parcel of the life of 
civilians in the North and East. Elsewhere, a 
fear psychosis is building up.

Community Level Peace Building

These abuses of human rights cannot be left for 
self-correction by the very forces engaged in 
these abuses. The civil society, the media and 
even our religious leaders have been basically 
intimidated into near silence. Nobody likes to be 
beaten up or incarcerated without charges for 
months. Except for a few with discernment, the 
public are deprived of access to the stories of 
abuse. History has shown that genuine peace 
building must grow as a people's movement. In 
Marcos' Philippines and in Suharto's Indonesia it 
was people's power which overthrew repressive 
regimes. In South Africa and Northern Ireland, a 
people's movement supported by international 
pressure helped to restore peace and democracy. 
Such a people's movement is what this country 
needs at this stage. We need civil society and 
religious leaders who will challenge 'traitor' 
labels (as President Rajapakse courageously did 
during the 1988 insurgency) to give leadership to 
the people undergoing trauma.

Prof. Daya Somasundaram, then Professor of 
Psychiatry at the University of Jaffna and 
co-author with his colleagues in the University 
Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) of the Broken 
Palmyrah, addressed the 2002 Annual Sessions of 
the Jaffna Science Association. What he stated in 
the context of Jaffna in 2002 is valid for the 
country as a whole today. He said: 'Community 
level peace building activities have to be 
initiated. The mode of thinking and acting has to 
change from a conflict-habituated system of 
suspicions, grievances, ethnocentrism, violent 
solutions and confrontation to a peace system 
with give and take, accommodation, flexibility, 
forgiveness, non-violence and a wider world-view. 
A fixed belligerent posture should not be 
engineered or orchestrated, but a creative 
response allowed to grow independently and 
spontaneously from below. Only then can genuine 
peace be sustained."

Somasundaram is quite right that new initiatives 
need to taken at the grassroots. We should think 
anew and take a broader view of understanding the 
mind and frustrations of the 'other'. The media 
should set an example in this, despite the 
dangers involved. Too often, our media, 
particularly the Sinhala and Tamil media, do not 
promote the themes of national harmony and the 
respect for the human rights of all communities. 
Inconvenient truths are suppressed or worse, 
distorted. The media can be an indispensable tool 
for promoting public respect for democracy and 
human rights. Self censorship as practised now, 
for whatever reason, defeats the purpose for 
which the media exists - to disseminate knowledge 
and awareness. Chauvinism, from whomever it 
emanates, needs to be exposed for the harm it 
does to the future of our country.

Apologists and Red Herrings

We referred earlier to the case of 17 ACF workers 
who were killed in Mutur. This is being 
investigated by the Government appointed 
Commission of Inquiry (CoI). But it is indeed a 
pity that Prof Rajiva Wijesinha in a newspaper 
article this week has again returned to the theme 
of blaming the ACF for not withdrawing its 
workers from Mutur earlier. To borrow a phrase 
from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, it is obscene to 
draw this red herring. 17 young persons have 
brutally shot and killed in cold blood. We should 
find and punish the killers of this heinous 
crime. The University Teachers for Human Rights 
(Jaffna) by meticulous research have been able to 
present evidence that identifies the killers. We 
should assist the Commission of Inquiry to 
investigate independently, including the evidence 
presented by the UTHR (J), and make their 
findings. It is truly obscene for this liberal 
turned apologist to draw a red herring by trying 
to shift the blame on the ACF. The ACF may or may 
not have exercised good judgment in keeping its 
staff in Mutur on that fateful day. The ACF 
exists to provide assistance in precisely such 
situations but this was an extraordinary 
situation, which the local management may not 
have realised. But that is not the real issue. 
These young persons have been brutally murdered. 
The real issue is to identify and bring their 
killers to justice.

Whilst on the Mutur massacre, it may be pertinent 
to refer to another red herring that has been 
drawn in respect of the Presidential Commission 
of Inquiry headed by retired Supreme Court 
Justice. An eleven member International 
Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) 
headed by retired Indian Supreme Court Chief 
Justice P N Bhagwati were present as 
international observers and to assist the CoI. 
The IIGEP withdrew earlier this year citing 
various reasons why they felt that the CoI may 
not be able to arrive at the truth. One of the 
reasons they gave was that there was a conflict 
of interests in the counsel from the Attorney 
General's Department being closely involved in 
the collection and preparation of evidence and 
leading the questioning of witnesses. At least 
one of the leading counsel for the CoI had 
reportedly advised some of the original police 
investigations that are to be examined by the 
CoI. Counsel for the security forces whose 
conduct is under investigation have predictably 
drawn a red herring by accusing one of the 
Commissioners of a conflict of interest and 
accusing the Chairman Udalagama, a person of 
undoubted integrity, of misconduct. Are these 17 
young persons and their families entitled to 
justice. There have been disturbing reports of 
the intimidation of witnesses, some of whom have 
had to flee the country. Others have simply 
refused to come forward out of fear.

Bishop Lakshman Wickremesinghe

Soon after the 1983 pogrom, and shortly before 
his death, Bishop Lakshman Wickremesinghe gave a 
stirring and oft-quoted pastoral address to his 
flock at Kurunagala. What he said then still 
remains valid after twenty five years: "The 
urgent demands of our national crisis must 
overcome personal, party and petty interests. We 
must pray for and support those who are trying to 
build convergence in the midst of divergence. 
Renewed dialogue between the Sinhala and Tamil 
leadership should not be delayed. The possibility 
of renewed violence remains in the background 
like a dark shadowŠ. A genuine sharing of power 
between the majority and minorities has to 
emergeŠ. There must be a real determination to 
reach a settlement. Otherwise, there will be 
increasing disorder along with increasing 
dictatorship."


______


[4]

Himal
June 2008

THE PURSUIT OF THE SOUTHASIAN PAST

Moving beyond the colonial-era understanding of 
the history of the Subcontinent gives us a whole 
new way of looking at the Subcontinent's past. 
This now includes not just the usual explorations 
of politics and economy, but also of social, 
cultural and religious issues - as well as the 
writing of history in the first place.

by Romila Thapar

Sixty years ago, at the time of Indian 
Independence, we in the region inherited a 
history of the Subcontinent shaped by two 
substantial views of the past: the colonial and 
the nationalist. Both were primarily concerned 
with chronology and with sequential narratives. 
The focus was on those in power, a focus that has 
been basic to much of the writing of history. 
There was information on the action of kings and 
dynasties, on governors-general and viceroys, and 
on various national leaders. On these, there was 
broad agreement. What was contested, although 
only partially, was the colonial representation 
of early Indian society. The colonial view was a 
departure from earlier Indian historical 
traditions, and drew on European preconceptions 
of Indian history. The use of history to 
legitimise power had changed from the rule of 
dynasties to colonial and nationalist definitions 
of power.

Three arguments were foundational to the colonial 
view of Indian history. The first was a 
'periodisation' (the dividing of history into 
periods) that was to have not just consequences 
for the writing of history, but also major 
political impact during the 20th century. Indian 
history was divided into three sections - the 
Hindu, the subsequent Muslim civilisation, and 
then the British period - as formulated by James 
Mill in The History of British India, published 
in 1818. In the first two cases, these labels 
were taken from the religions of the ruling 
dynasties. The divisions were endorsed by the 
assumption that the units of Indian society were 
monolithic religious communities, primarily the 
Hindu and the Muslim, and were mutually hostile. 
Religion was believed to have superseded all 
other identities. This periodisation also 
projected an obsession with the idea that Indian 
society never changed throughout its history, 
that it was static.

The second assertion was that, through the 
centuries, the pre-colonial political economy 
conformed to the model of 'Oriental Despotism', 
an idea conducive to assuming society to be 
static, characterised by an absence of private 
ownership of land, despotic and oppressive rulers 
and, therefore, endemic poverty. A static society 
meant that it lacked a sense of history, since 
history records change, and consequently there 
was thought to be no historical writing in 
pre-modern India.

The third assertion was the claim that Hindu 
society had always been divided into four main 
castes - the varnas. These had been rigidly 
separated because they were believed to represent 
the diverse races of the Subcontinent. The 
identification of caste with race resulted from 
European ideas of what was called 'race science', 
and the labelling of people by racial labels. 
This caste organisation of society was rooted in 
what was seen as the Aryan foundations of Indian 
civilisation. In defining Indian civilisation, 
Sanskrit was viewed as its dominant language and 
the hegemonic religion was Vedic Brahmanism. 
Above all, the attempt was to project India as 
alien, the 'Other' of Europe.

Colonial interpretations claimed to be applying 
the criteria of Enlightenment rationality in 
their reconstruction of the history of the 
colony. But in fact, they were imposing a history 
that suited the requirements of colonial 
dominance. These preconceptions, together with a 
focus on chronology and the narrative of 
dynasties, governed routine history. Colonial 
historians drew on texts reflecting the 
upper-caste perspectives of Indian society. Many 
Indian historians, coming from the newly emerged 
middle class, were of the upper castes and were 
familiar with these texts; thus, by and large 
they continued this routine.

There was a debate, especially among historians 
influenced by nationalist ideas, about some of 
these preconceptions. For the most part, however, 
the colonial periodisation was generally 
accepted. A few historians altered the 
nomenclature to ancient, medieval and modern, 
terms that were borrowed from Europe and thought 
to be more secular - although the markers all the 
while remained the same and, in effect, there was 
little change. Oriental Despotism, as a system of 
political economy, was naturally rejected by the 
more nationalist Indian historians. Curiously, 
however, there was little interest in providing 
alternative hypotheses on the early Indian 
economy and society. Such an interest began 
relatively late. Social history in standard works 
largely reiterated the description of the four 
castes as given in the normative texts, the 
dharma-shastras. There was little recognition of 
how the system actually worked, however, with its 
many deviations from the norm.

The predominant form of nationalism, described as 
anti-colonial and secular, was beginning to be 
imprinted on Indian historical writing from the 
early 20th century. Parallel to this, and 
initially less apparent in historical writing, 
were the two religious nationalisms, Hindu and 
Muslim, both emerging at about the same time. 
Both had been deeply influenced by the colonial 
projection of monolithic and segregated 
communities of Hindus and Muslims in the past. 
Such nationalisms were not essentially 
anti-colonial, and were more interested in using 
history to legitimise their political ideology of 
religion-based nationalism to endorse the 
political mobilisation that they sought. Muslim 
religious nationalism came to define the identity 
of Pakistan, while Hindu religious nationalism 
sought a parallel identity for India. The agenda 
of colonial policy is apparent in such views.

[. . .]
Full text at:

http://www.himalmag.com/2008/july/coverfeature_southasian_past.php


______


[5]  Continued Communal Protest in Jammu is part of Hindutva Agenda to Divide


(Kashmir Times, July 8, 2008)

Editorial

SERVING NOBODY'S INTEREST
VIOLENT PROTESTS HARMING SOCIAL, ECONOMIC STABILITY

There appears to be no end to the violent 
protests in Jammu, which may not augur well for 
the social and economic stability of Jammu and 
Kashmir, particularly Jammu region. Whether or 
not those spearheading the agitation have a 
genuine grouse against the government, the 
ongoing protests with mobs on the rampage, is not 
a good omen. Most importantly, it is affecting 
the day to day life of a common man, for whom, at 
the end of the day, the question of bread and 
butter is more important than who gets to run the 
affairs of the Amarnath shrine, or even the 
larger regional disparities question. A one 
legged government has certainly been unable to do 
much in providing even the basic amenities to the 
people or in fulfilling their needs of essential 
commodities which are either scarce or available 
at exorbitant prices. In this scenario, many 
people huddled indoors, because of both the 
enforced bandh and the curfew, have nothing to 
even eat. Barring this, the ailing people are 
unable to get adequate medical attention. In 
fact, the one week long agitation so far has 
caused the entire region loss of several lakhs of 
rupees with business receiving a great set back. 
The economic blockade targeting business of 
Kashmir has adversely affected the business in 
Jammu as well. Tourism and Amarnath pilgrimage, 
the cause of which the protestors seem to be 
espousing, has also been adversely affected as 
many pilgrims travel via Jammu for the Valley. It 
is not simply a question of economics but also 
the social fabric of the state which has been 
severely damaged by the protests taking up a 
communal form. Even if the protest is sought to 
be legitimised on grounds of regional 
aspirations, the communal tones are apparently 
visible. Interestingly, those supporting the 
ongoing agitation, in response to allegations of 
creating a regional and communal divide, have 
stated that there is no attempt to create 
communalism in Jammu region and that some Muslims 
have even offered support to the protest. In 
fact, they are making strong appeals for 
maintaining communal amity and have ensured that 
no Muslim of Jammu would be targeted. This indeed 
may be a tricky assurance given the fact that 
such an assurance is silent about minorities and 
Muslims other than Jammu Muslims. And what really 
is the definition of a Jammu Muslim? Is it 
essentially a person from the city. Though no 
specific cases of harassment to the Muslims have 
come to the fore in Jammu city, there have been 
incidents on the outskirts of the city and on the 
Jammu-Srinagar national highway as also the other 
routes. The temporary shelters of some nomadic 
tribes too have been set on fire at some places. 
Such instances are being justified in the name of 
enforcing bandh. The BJP and others supporting 
the agitation maintain that such attacks were 
resorted to as normal part of protestors 
enforcing bandh and not selective targets against 
any particular community. Going by reports that 
all persons moving on the highways are subjected 
to some form of harassment or the other, from 
questioning to being physically heckled, this may 
be true. But is a party that seeks to use this 
protest as an election agenda and ensure a larger 
representation in the next state legislative 
assembly even aware that use of such forceful 
means to ensure bandh are violative of the civil 
rights of citizens and downright undemocratic?

Without going into the rationality of the 
demands, the violent street protests must stop 
immediately. So must the prolonged Jammu bandh, 
forcefully enforced by mobs on the streets so 
that curfew can be lifted from various parts of 
the region including the winter capital. Instead, 
if those wishing to get some political mileage 
out of the protests feel that their demands are 
reasonable, there are other democratic forms of 
protest that they ought to take recourse to. 
Holding the ordinary citizens to ransom and 
creating serious regional and communal divides, 
adding to the fear psychosis and insecurities of 
certain sections of the society will in the 
ultimate run not only be detrimental for Jammu 
region but also for the agenda they are pursuing. 
Neither the election card, nor the larger 
Hindutva agenda of the Sangh Parivar can in the 
long run work successfully here. A culture of 
hatred cannot sustain for long in a society that 
is plural, tolerant and has a history of not 
succumbing to provocations. The ongoing 
agitation, at least in its present form, is in 
nobody's interest. There has to be an immediate 
end to it.


______


[6] 

The Telegraph
July 8, 2008


  A CRISIS OF POLICY AND THE SOVEREIGNTY QUESTION

A unilateral ceasefire and a new governor may not 
be enough to end the cycle of violence and 
counter-violence in Assam, unless there is a 
radical renegotiation in the social contract 
between India and this state, writes Sanjib 
Baruah The author is at the Centre for Policy 
Studies, New Delhi

Tired of platitudes

Some in Assam like to see the unilateral 
ceasefire by the so-called Alpha and Charlie 
companies of United Liberation Front of Asom's 
28th battalion as good news. However, there is 
nothing in the history of the past two decades of 
the state's politics to suggest that the state's 
multi-faceted political crisis, of which Ulfa is 
a symptom, might end with new defections from 
Ulfa or, even a mutiny.

A far more promising development may be the 
appointment of former chief minister of 
Rajasthan, Shiv Charan Mathur, as governor. For 
the first time in nearly two decades, Assam will 
have a politician as governor.

Two other gubernatorial appointments in the 
region are significant. Sikkim's new governor, 
the retired IAS officer, Balmiki Prasad Singh, is 
an old 'Northeast hand.' Unlike these two men, 
the new governor of Meghalaya, Ranjit Shekhar 
Mooshahary, has had a career in a uniformed 
all-India security service. But his Bodo roots 
makes it an interesting appointment.

Governors of the northeastern states have more 
inputs in policymaking than in the less-troubled 
states. It is no coincidence that the primary 
thrust of our policy towards Ulfa during the 
tenure of the last two governors - both military 
men - has been military. The half-hearted steps 
toward negotiations were not the result of 
conviction on either side. They were gestures to 
satisfy Assamese public opinion that strongly 
favours a negotiated and honorable settlement 
with Ulfa.

The outgoing governor, Ajay Singh, leaves behind 
a remarkably unsuccessful record of locking horns 
with Ulfa for nearly two decades. In the early 
Nineties, long before he became the governor, he 
commandeered two counter-insurgency operations 
against Ulfa as head of the Indian Army's 4 
Corps. As governor, he came to be associated with 
a hardline position of opposing talks with Ulfa.

Singh claims in his resumé that as the commander 
of those counter-insurgency operations, he "was 
given the responsibility of wiping out [the] Ulfa 
insurgency" and that he "smashed the Ulfa 
insurgency in less than three months". But that 
was more than fifteen years ago.

While Ulfa is at a crossroads today, it is not 
because of its military reversals alone. Popular 
outrage at the killings of civilians, and a sense 
of hopelessness that there is no end in sight to 
the cycle of violence and counter-violence, are 
more important factors.

There is no evidence that anyone knows how to use 
the shift in the public mood as a political 
opening. One hopes that the new gubernatorial 
appointments would mark a shift in the balance 
between military and political thinking. Even 
though Ulfa as an idea has always been more 
powerful than the reality, this has not made 
engaging with it any less challenging.

The oft-repeated clichés about unemployment and 
underdevelopment creating conditions for 
recruitment by insurgent groups, and platitudes 
about solving the crisis of immigration through 
border-fencing do not give confidence that our 
decision-makers understand the sources of Ulfa's 
political influence.

The two most recent governors have both been 
highly vocal on the dangers of illegal 
immigration from Bangladesh. But to expect 
political dividends out of such speech-making on 
this extraordinarily difficult issue without 
addressing it in any substantial sense is to 
grossly misunderstand the nature of the 
immigration crisis and its relationship with the 
rise of Ulfa.

Ulfa was a radical fringe of the Assam Movement 
of 1979-85. From the very beginning, it tried to 
distance itself from some of the Assam Movement's 
extreme rhetoric on "foreigners" and 
"Bangladeshis." At the same time it tried to get 
propaganda value out of the evident indifference 
of our governmental institutions to this key 
Assamese concern.

But the immigration crisis, for Ulfa, has never 
been more than a piece of evidence of what it 
sees as a raw deal that the Assamese got in the 
postcolonial pan-Indian dispensation.

India's political and bureaucratic elites inherit 
a memory of Partition vastly different from that 
of their counterparts in Assam. Few people seem 
to know that the migration from eastern Bengal 
was a politically explosive issue in Assam even 
as far back as the 1930s. Indeed, it shaped 
Assamese attitudes towards Partition.

The flow of people from one of the subcontinent's 
most densely populated areas to a sparsely 
populated region - legally open to new 
settlements in colonial times - did not stop with 
Partition. The erection of an international 
border did not change that reality. Indeed, from 
the Assamese point of view, the effect of 
Partition was to intensify the migration pressure 
from eastern Bengal, with waves of Hindu refugees 
joining in.

In retrospect, Assam appears to have adapted to 
this demographic transformation rather well. 
Official predictions of the 1930s that 
immigration would permanently alter the future of 
Assam and destroy "the whole structure of 
Assamese culture and civilization" did not 
materialize. But it is not because the predicted 
demographic changes did not take place: they did, 
with profound consequences. But contrary to the 
fears of the colonial era, most East Bengali 
migrant Muslims adopted Assamese as their mother 
tongue. No one familiar with the relationship 
between demographic dynamics and civil disorder 
in other parts of the world would read this as a 
sign that everyone would live happily ever after.

Japanese scholar Hiroshi Sato talks about the 
faultline between the normative definition of 
citizenship in Indian law, and the actual 
exercise of franchise by people "based on the 
legitimacy of rudimentary documents rather than 
on the registration of citizenship." The 
"foreigners" question in Assam is the product of 
this faultline. Understood in this way, it is not 
surprising that the issue became the epicentre of 
a veritable political explosion in Assam in 1979. 
There is no evidence that the ripples of this 
explosion have subsided.

The power of Ulfa as an idea reflects a policy 
impasse of subcontinental proportions, showing up 
the failures of Partition borders and of the 
foundational ideologies of the post-Partition 
states. Assam's numerous tribal rebellions, and 
evidence of candidates of mainstream political 
parties turning to Ulfa's tacit support during 
elections, and of even the government relying on 
such support in certain situations - relations 
facilitated by the massive corruption that the 
state has become known for - outline the 
multi-faceted nature of the crisis. If political 
movements relate to reality, either to the bare 
facts, or to strivings that grow out of a 
reality, Ulfa provides an example of the latter.

In Ulfa's narrative of history, Assam lost its 
sovereignty in 1826. It sees itself as being 
engaged in a battle to recover that sovereignty. 
This reading of history has its elements of myth 
and fantasy. But as the veteran journalist, M.S. 
Prabhakara, points out, "a certain wistfulness 
and nostalgia over a past when Assam was a 
sovereign and independent political entity," have 
been part of Assamese "folk memories, literature 
and cultural and political polemics," for a long 
time.

To the military mindset, Ulfa's insistence on 
discussing sovereignty might seem audacious, 
especially given the organization's weak 
position. At the same time, it is hard to imagine 
how the strivings that animate Ulfa can be 
accommodated within the model of an ethnic peace 
accord - so popular among our politicians and 
bureaucrats.

The chief minister of Assam, Tarun Gogoi, has 
held out the Bodo Liberation Tigers as an 
example. The BLT, he says, is similar to Ulfa, 
but "we sat down with BLT and they 
surrendered.... Now we have BLT members as part 
of our government."

But historically, the 'Assamese' has not been 
purely an ethnic and exclusive category. If the 
category includes minorities of all stripes - as 
it does in Ulfa's vision - how can the 
aspirations of a territorially defined political 
community be accommodated within the model of an 
ethnic peace accord?

The reason for Ulfa's apparent intransigence on 
the sovereignty question may be because the 
concept provides a way of getting around this 
difficulty. It brings to the policy agenda the 
notion of renegotiating the social contract 
between India and Assam.

Sovereignty talk does not have to take the form 
of the familiar talk about independence. However, 
compromises within this paradigm are possible 
only if constitutional reforms are part of the 
agenda. It might also require a willingness to 
relate foreign policy issues, vis-à-vis relations 
with Bangladesh, to domestic policy concerns, but 
in ways other than those that our security 
establishment has long preferred.

A bold new political initiative to resolve 
Assam's complex crisis must consider such options.

The author is at the Centre for Policy Studies, New Delhi


______


[7]

Media Release
July 8, 2008

US-INDIA NUCLEAR AGREEMENT - STILL A BAD DEAL:
Global Network of NGOs Urge International Community to Oppose

The US-India Deal Working Group of Abolition 
2000, a global network of over 2000 organizations 
in more than 90 countries working for a global 
treaty to eliminate nuclear weapons, says that 
pressure to rush a decision on the US-India 
Nuclear Agreement must be resisted.

The organizations are calling upon key 
governments "to play an active role in supporting 
measures that would ensure this controversial 
proposal does not: further undermine the nuclear 
safeguards system and efforts to prevent the 
proliferation of technologies that may be used to 
produce nuclear bomb material," or "in any way 
contribute to the expansion of India's nuclear 
arsenal."

This week, in defiance of opposition from Left 
Parties on whose support it depends, the Indian 
government is expected to circulate a draft 
nuclear Safeguards Agreement to the Board of 
Governors of the International Atomic Energy 
Agency (IAEA). In doing so, it set in motion the 
remaining steps required to operationalize the 
US-India bilateral nuclear agreement (known as 
the "123 Agreement" after the relevant clause in 
the US Atomic Energy Act). Besides the Safeguards 
Agreement, the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group 
(NSG) must grant India a special exemption from 
its nuclear trade guidelines and finally the US 
Congress must accept the terms of the "123 
Agreement".

It took two years from the July 2005 Joint 
Statement by Prime Minister Singh and President 
Bush until the text of the "123 Agreement" was 
finalized and nearly a year has elapsed since 
then. After delaying for so long, the decision at 
this time by the Indian government to send the 
draft Safeguards Agreement to the IAEA Board of 
Governors has more to do with the personal pride 
of Prime Minister Singh than with any changes in 
national or international circumstances. It 
appears that Mr Singh is more concerned about 
keeping faith with President Bush than the 
chances that the deal might actually be 
concluded. Most political commentators, including 
proponents of the deal within the US government 
and Congress, believe that the required steps 
cannot be completed during the life of the Bush 
Administration. Furthermore, there is no 
guarantee that the next President will wish to 
proceed with the deal in its current form.

The US-India Nuclear Agreement was a bad deal 
when it was originally conceived and nothing has 
changed to redeem it since then. All the problems 
identified in a letter sent to the NSG and the 
IAEA by 130 NGOs and experts in January this year 
still remain. See the following link for the text 
of and list of signatories of the international 
letter:

http://cnic.jp/english/topics/plutonium/proliferation/usindiafiles/nsgiaea7jan08.html

The deal effectively grants India the privileges 
of nuclear weapons states (NWS), despite the fact 
that India developed nuclear weapons outside the 
NPT regime. It doesn't even require India to 
accept the same responsibilities as other states: 
full-scope IAEA safeguards for non-NWS and a 
commitment from NWS to negotiate in good faith 
for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

The IAEA and NSG must not to be stampeded into 
making decisions to fit in with an unrealistic 
political time-table. The 35 countries 
represented on the IAEA Board of Governors must 
consider the possibility that special conditions 
demanded by India could undermine the credibility 
of the IAEA safeguards system itself. They must 
also consider whether undertakings made by a 
government at the fag end of its tenure and 
facing strong domestic opposition would actually 
be honored. The NSG must consider the 
implications for the international 
non-proliferation regime of granting India a 
special exemption. These are weighty matters 
which should not be judged precipitously.

The IAEA Board of Governors and the Nuclear 
Suppliers Group of countries should, as a minimum 
condition, hold firm to the longstanding 
international effort to end all production of 
highly enriched uranium and plutonium to make 
nuclear weapons. They should insist that the 
U.S.-India deal be conditioned on an end to 
further production of fissile materials for 
weapons purposes in South Asia.

Contacts
JAPAN (English and Japanese)
Tokyo: Philip White, Coordinator, Abolition 2000 
US-India Deal Working Group +81-3-3357-3800
Toyako G8 Summit: Akira Kawasaki, Peace Boat, 
090-8310-5370, kawasaki at peaceboat.gr.jp
INDIA: Sukla Sen, National Coordination Committee 
Member, Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and 
Peace +91-22-6553-4377
UNITED STATES: Daryl Kimball, Director, Arms 
Control Association, +1-202-463-8270
AUSTRALIA - John Hallam PND Nuclear Flashpoints 61-2-9810-2598 61-2-9319-4296


______


[8]

Outlook Magazine
July 14, 2008


Review

THRICE DIVIDED
It is a book to buy, read, keep and most importantly to gift to your children

by Sohail Hashmi


FIREFLIES IN THE MIST
by Qurratulain Hyder
Women Unlimited
Pages: 404; Rs. 350

	Non-Urdu readers have just begun to 
realise that Qurratulain Hyder is without doubt 
one of the finest writers anywhere of fiction, 
especially reportage fiction. Trying to review 
Qurratulain Hyder's translation of her novel 
Akhir-e-Shab Ke Humsafar is like trying to review 
two books together. She has made several 
significant changes in the translation. The first 
two chapters-Caledonia and The Golden Album-have 
been written only for the English version. Many 
chapters have been shuffled around and new 
details added.

The changes, however, do not diminish the epochal 
tale that Fireflies is. In fact, they make it 
richer and easier for someone unfamiliar with the 
multi-layered complexity of a land and its 
diversities. Through short crisp chapters, the 
tale carries you on a journey of discovery and 
realisation. The rather detailed scene 
descriptions are not there just for atmosphere 
but are crucial to the tale. They are also a 
testimony to how deeply Qurratulain Hyder, whose 
own milieu was Urdu and East UP, knew and 
understood Bengal and its pain.

Fireflies is about three generations of Bengalis, 
one born around the time of the Bengal partition, 
the next growing into youth when India is 
partitioned and the last growing up with the 
emergence of Bangladesh. It is also about the 
shared heritage of the subcontinent and the 
artificial cleavages that politics created.

Hyder's finest, undoubtedly, is Aag ka Darya and 
Akhir-e-Shab is in many ways a sequel to that 
magnum opus. It is a book to buy, read, keep and 
most importantly to gift to your children.



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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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