SACW | Nov 14-15, 2008 / India Pushes out Taslima Nasrin / Obama's shady advisor / Artistes of hypocrisy / Women's rights

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire | November 14-15, 2008 | Dispatch No. 2580 -  
Year 11 running
From: www.sacw.net

[1] Pakistan: Justice for women (I.A. Rehman)
[2] Living Traditions Exhibit Explores Art in War-torn Afghanistan  
(Aryn Baker)
[3] Artistes of hypocrisy in Sri Lanka (Anonymous)
[4] Bangladesh: Emergency Treatment (HRF)
[5] India: Taslima Nasreen shunted out again
[6] India: Living in is living out (Manash Bhattacharjee)
[7] India: Different Kinds of Silence (The Telegraph)
[8] USA: Statement on Sonal Shah (Campaign to Stop Funding Hate)
[9] India: Orissa govt should have been dismissed (Kuldip Nayar)
[10] Asian (con)Fusion: Busted at the border (Andrew Buncombe)
[11] India: Journalists denied visas for India after critical  
reporting (Reporters without Borders)
[12] Announcements:
(i) Discussion: Identity Politics, Nationality Issue and Human Rights  
Response (Chennai, 15 November 2008)
(ii) Pedro Meyer's mind and a discussion with Karachi's leading  
photographers (Karachi, 18 November 2008)
(iii) Samir Amin to deliver 1st Anuradha Ghandy Memorial Lecture  
(Bombay, November 20, 2008)

-----

[1]

http://www.sacw.net/article292.html

JUSTICE FOR WOMEN

by I.A. Rehman (Dawn, November 13, 2008)

THE shelter for women in distress is often described as a halfway  
house and one wonders whether Pakistani women are considered entitled  
to anything more.

Another case of extraordinary barbarism towards a young woman is in  
the news. It is said that before being shot dead, young Tasleem  
Solangi was subjected to a forced abortion and a dog was set upon her  
and bit her repeatedly. The emphasis in the story as told by the  
media has been on the use of a dog to torture and humiliate the  
victim. No strong reaction was seen when the killing of Tasleem was  
first reported in a Sindhi newspaper in March and listed in the  
HRCP’s bulletin in April this year.

Earlier, the alleged burying alive of five (the precise number is  
disputed) women in a village in Balochistan was a nine-day sensation  
in the media. In that case the emphasis was on the victims’ burial  
before they were dead.

The manner in which such incidents are reported and discussed reveals  
both society and the media in a most uncomplimentary light. The story  
of a woman’s foul murder deserves front-page headlines and discussion  
at exalted forums only if the final act in the drama includes some  
unusual form of bestiality.

One of the problems with this approach is that the debate on the  
incident is restricted to the extra act of cruelty and the  
ascertainment of facts related to that cruelty, and due attention is  
not paid to the crux of the matter — the wanton willing of women.  
During the period between the Balochistan and Khairpur incidents 27  
women fell victim to the karo-kari custom and the number killed  
between January and Sept 11 this year stood at more than 130. These  
murders were considered routine happenings, no more serious than  
deaths in road accidents and hence consigned, if considered  
newsworthy at all, to the bottom of a column on an inside page.

Karo-kari, the killing of women (and sometimes men too) for having  
illicit sex or the mere suspicion of it, has been an issue in public  
debate for at least 150 years since Charles Napier first noticed it.  
The increased awareness of women’s oppression in various forms has  
pushed the vile custom to the top of human rights activists’ concerns.

Two factors in particular have added to the gravity of the matter in  
recent years. First, while in the past the so-called honour killing  
was confined to some tribal settlements its incidence in the settled  
areas of the four provinces has shown an upward trend. Second, the  
jirgas (councils of tribal nobles/elders) that have a long history of  
dealing with karo-kari cases have been awarding and enforcing  
punishments that were never reported earlier. Newer punishments  
include forcibly marrying off women from the accused male’s family or  
raping or gang-raping the women.

Both these factors have been strengthened by the state’s failure to  
deal with the custom of honour killing adequately and effectively. No  
serious study has been done on the consequences of the migration of  
tribal families from rural to urban areas. All that we have is an  
intelligent guess that faced with newer and often harsher forms of  
exploitation in suburban settlements these families withdraw into  
their tribal traditions in order to protect their identity. The  
question of whether better work and living conditions in katchi  
abadis could facilitate their social advancement remains unanswered.

At the same time the state institutions have adopted an ambivalent  
attitude towards the jirga system. The system of lawfully created  
panchayats and jirgas introduced by the British disappeared long ago.  
Many factors, including the failures of the justice system, have  
contributed to the rise of non-formal panchayats and jirgas.

The feudals patronise jirgas and panchayats to preserve their social  
clout regardless of the size of their estates. They have borrowed two  
expressions from the state — quick justice and deterrent punishment —  
and have gone berserk in their attacks on the people’s rights,  
especially women’s. No feudal has condemned karo-kari murders, the  
auction of kari women in southern Punjab or the sack of girls’  
schools in the Frontier.

The executive and the legislative organs of the state have devised no  
definite plan of action to eradicate the custom of sacrificing women  
to the male patriarchs’ warped sense of honour. On the contrary, the  
executive’s frequent calls on jirgas to establish peace in conflict  
zones have rehabilitated such forums.

As for the judiciary, the Sindh High Court’s valiant effort to  
extinguish a deep-rooted social evil with a single verdict has been  
thwarted by a coalition of political satraps, nazims and police  
officials. These self-appointed justices have held jirgas with  
impunity. Above all some of the political parties have helped the  
jirga and its champions survive because their support is needed in  
the curious system of representative government Pakistan follows. A  
politician denounced by the whole country for his advocacy of cruelty  
to women suffers from no handicap in securing high political office.

The state has not been unaware of the extreme forms of violence  
against women such as honour killing but it can be indicted for  
treating it as merely a crime against the victim concerned. Even in  
this respect, however, it has been guilty of tardiness. It took years  
of agitation to get the custom of vani made a penal offence.

Other instances are available to prove the government’s lack of  
interest in pushing legislation aimed at protecting women’s rights or  
in implementing laws and policies designed to achieve this objective.  
Quite some time ago the Council of Islamic Ideology proposed a  
measure to outlaw the outrageous custom of marrying girls to the holy  
book. Nothing is known of the government’s response. The Law and  
Justice Commission was rightly agitated over the continued practice  
of denying women their share of inheritance, especially in land. What  
has been done about it? Bills dealing with domestic violence have  
been lying in cold storage for a pretty long time. And this in a  
country where not only constitutional amendments but also legislation  
on banal issues, such as marriage feasts, can be adopted in a matter  
of hours.

Most of the conscious citizens, some of whom can also be found in  
government, will agree that laws alone will not guarantee women’s  
most basic rights, especially since strong social forces invoke  
belief and culture to fiercely resist any women-friendly measure. But  
how long will these be used as an excuse for denying women their  
basic freedoms and fundamental rights?

While laws may continue to be made and their implementation improved,  
it is time the government undertook a serious review of its national  
plan of action regarding women’s uplift, considered ways to implement  
the Saarc social charter and used the educational curricula to  
demolish the walls of myths, prejudice and feudal fads behind which  
the lives of countless women have been destroyed. A good beginning  
may be the creation of a working group to retrieve and implement pro- 
women plans which have drawn up over many decades.

_____


[2]

Time, Oct. 17, 2008

LIVING TRADITIONS EXHIBIT EXPLORES ART IN WAR-TORN AFGHANISTAN

by Aryn Baker Friday, Oct. 17, 2008


A major art exhibition has opened in the Afghan capital Kabul. Given  
its location in a war-torn country known better for anarchy than  
aesthetics, this is remarkable. But even if one were to ignore that  
fact, Living Traditions, an exhibition of contemporary pieces from  
Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, is extraordinary on its own merits as  
a moving meditation on modernity, tradition, beauty and horror.

Running until Nov. 20 at the elegant Queen's Palace, in the newly  
renovated gardens of the Mughal era Emperor Babur, the exhibition has  
been expertly brought together by former Tate Gallery curator Jemima  
Montagu, and features modern interpretations of two genres that have  
long defined the region: calligraphy and miniature painting. "I  
wondered if it was possible to bring contemporary art to Afghanistan  
while at the same time going back to the traditions of the past and  
seeing how they still have links to modern day," says Montague, who  
now works with Turquoise Mountain, a foundation dedicated to  
revitalizing Afghanistan's cultural heritage.

Among the 15 participating artists is British-Iranian Jila Peacock,  
who plays with the Persian calligraphic practice of turning poetic  
verses into images of plants and animals. Peacock takes this one step  
further, breathing life into the images through mesmerizing animation  
accompanied by music and readings from the 14th century poet Hafez.

The work of Khadim Ali, an Afghan born as a refugee in Pakistan,  
incorporates classical miniature techniques honed at Lahore's  
renowned National College of Arts. He uses the flat planes, thick  
gouache, gold leaf and impeccable brushwork, all typical of 18th  
century Mughal miniatures, to portray scenes from the Shahnameh, a  
Persian epic familiar to Afghan children. Ali is a member of  
Afghanistan's Hazara minority, and his people's persecution by the  
Taliban during the late stages of the civil war is also reflected in  
the dark panels of his miniatures. His Herculean hero, Rustam, is  
ambiguous, portrayed as a demonic figure with horns and a monster's  
face, often bristling with an arsenal of modern weapons — AK-47s,  
bayonets and grenade launchers. This is an allusion to Taliban videos  
in which militants declare themselves to be the new Rustam. Nothing  
is sacred, Ali seems to be saying. Even heroes can be co-opted.

Another renowned miniaturist, the Pakistani Muhammad Imran Qureshi,  
has contributed an installation entitled "Changing Times." In the  
pools of light coming through the exhibition venue's French windows,  
he has painted the delicate foliage common to traditional miniatures.  
They were executed at different moments of the day, indicating the  
passage of time, but also the ravages of history: it is as if the  
building's marble floors are witnesses to Afghanistan's eras of light  
and destruction. Some are filled in completely, others are more  
fragmented, as if indicating the slow state of reconstruction in  
Afghanistan today.

Qureshi, who teaches modern miniature painting at the National  
College of Arts in Lahore, was nervous at first about coming to  
Afghanistan. But this exhibition, bringing together work from three  
countries that suffer contentious relations even if they share a  
common heritage, has opened his eyes, he says. "We all live next door  
to each other, but there is no communication between our peoples.  
This experience may be able to bring about understanding, tolerance  
and the beginnings of change."

______


[3]

groundviews.org

ARTISTES OF HYPOCRISY IN SRI LANKA

November 14, 2008


By Anonymous

The response by a critical mass of Sri Lanka’s artist community to  
the protests by South Indian artistes to the fighting in the North of  
Sri Lanka will be noted down as a shameful moment by future  
generations of creative Sri Lankans.

While war lobbies have often recruited artistes to manipulate and  
revise the impact of war, it is sad that Sri Lanka’s artist community  
unites only to re-enforce military engagement. There have been many  
peace vigils during the recent years. Most of these only attract a  
handful of people, usually the usual suspects who tirelessly repeat  
their position of peace ahead of war, human rights ahead of murder.  
Where are the artistes, dressed in white, defending peace and human  
rights?

An article in the Daily Mirror (14 Nov 2008) quotes actress Geetha  
Kumarasinghe saying “We want to send a message to these Indian  
artistes this evening and that message is that their allegations are  
simply not true. And furthermore, all Sri Lankans, regardless of race  
or religion, will stand as one united force, against inequality, and  
support our troops”.

Thanks Geetha, for representing me, without my permission.

Firstly, how do you, Geetha, know that the Indian artistes  
allegations are not accurate. Sri Lankans and the whole world are  
starved of information from the battle zone. We simply have no idea  
what is going on there. The Military Government (and that’s what it  
is) has successfully censored and created an environment of self- 
censorship in our media, and now, they seem to have successfully  
seduced you and your fellow artistes to their version of the war and  
their fanciful tale that they can win the war. They may win the land,  
but they won’t win the war. To truly win the war that will unite us  
takes people like you, creative people, to imagine a better world for  
all of us. But I suspect you are simply imagining a better world for  
yourself.

As artistes, you and other creative people such as Ravindra Randeniya  
and Malini Fonseka, should not be so easily manipulated. Perhaps its  
all an act to for short-term career benefit. I don’t know. But in my  
book, artistes are the radicals - they are the people who push the  
boundaries and challenge the authorities through their creative  
abilities. They don’t bow down to a president and an army commander  
(and that’s what you are doing) and say “yes sir”. Artistes are at  
the forefront of change - they are the vanguard. There’s nothing  
radical about supporting the Military Government and claiming to  
unite for war - which is the message of your expression.

Let the world know each and all of your names. And let the world know  
that you support war. If you support the troops, you would be  
gathering together, pooling your talents, in order to save the troops  
- not to send especially young men, some of whom have no idea they  
are going to the front, to their deaths.

And where are you all when your fellow artistes have their works  
banned by the Military Government? Vimukthi Jayasundara’s “Sulanga  
Enu Pinisa” (Foresaken Land) and Asoka Handagama’s  
“Aksharaya” (Letter of Fire) come to mind.

How many soldiers are being killed on a daily basis? How many are  
injured every day? Of course, it may not be possible to make peace  
with the LTTE, and they do need to be militarily defeated. But this  
war is being carried out by a Military Government that is killing Sri  
Lanka. It is being carried out by people who are not fit to defend  
the idea of Sri Lanka. You, as artistes, must know that this  
wonderful island is being destroyed by ignorant politicians and a  
brotherhood that may have charisma but lacks the wise leadership  
that’s required to make this island what it once was.

Some of your faces look familiar. I know you, but I have lost my  
respect for you. I may still work with you - but I will no longer  
consider you to be an artiste. I know deep in your hearts you know  
that you are disposable also to the Military Government you seem to  
unquestioningly serve.

The sparkle in your eyes faded a long time ago.


The person who produced this response wishes to remain anonymous  
because in Sri Lanka, there is a growing culture that encourages Sri  
Lankans to kill their compatriots.

______


[4]
	
EMERGENCY TREATMENT
We have the cure, the world sang to Bangladesh

Human Rights Features
07 November 2008


Gotterdammerung, Wagner’s moving death march, rather than Beethoven’s  
Ode to Joy was the concert for Bangladesh organised by certain  
democracies – with the UN providing backup vocals. And what a show it  
has been. The performers clamoured for a ‘change’ in Bangladesh’s  
turbulent politics, muttered darkly about the financial consequences  
of the bickering among the country’s two key political figures, and  
went on to endorse the installation of a military-backed government  
that has now lasted two years.[1]

They sang hosannas to the regime.[2] The General responded in kind.  
The change of guard of 11 January 2007 was part of the ‘reinvention’  
of the country, he crowed. The people had accepted the intervention  
and the international community had “seen its logic and provided us  
with full support”.[3]

Support for an endeavour that has seen the progressive whittling down  
of fundamental freedoms, the detention of hundreds without trial, the  
use of torture and extrajudicial executions[4], and the replacement  
of fair-minded judges[5]. Protest rallies by students have been  
beaten back,[6] and the preferred method of beating down rising  
prices has been to strike unscrupulous vendors with truncheons.[7]  
There was little by way of due process in cases brought under the  
Emergency Powers Rules (EPR).[8] The Rules were also used against  
workers protesting against their redundancy and farmers demanding the  
distribution of fertiliser.[9] In addition, the Election Commission  
announced recently that those convicted under the EPR will not be  
allowed to contest the planned elections even if their appeals are  
admitted by the higher courts.[10] The High Court refused to hear a  
petition challenging the legality of that EPR provision.[11]

No wonder Bangladeshis refused to applaud.

Two years on, as the country inches towards possible elections in  
December, the international community has expressed its willingness  
to send observers to test the genuineness of the scheduled elections.  
The United States, while admitting that “an election under a state of  
emergency would not be as credible”,[12] has promised to send 120  
observers.[13] The Commonwealth plans to send an assessment team  
ahead of the vote and then decide whether to send observers.[14] The  
European Union has been delightfully ambiguous. The head of the  
European Commission delegation in Dhaka, Stefan Frowein, who was very  
much taken by the ‘distinctive’ nature of the Bangladesh emergency 
[15], said in September 2008 that “[w]e do not normally observe  
elections under the state [sic] of emergency. We normally don’t do  
that.”[16] More recently, he stated that observers would arrive “when  
conditions are right.” However, “it does not necessarily mean the  
lifting of the emergency; it can be relaxation that creates a  
situation where the emergency will not be felt [sic]”.[17]

The presumptuousness is breathtaking, the hypocrisy even more so.  
Apparently, what is good for members of the European Union, the  
United States, and for some members of the Commonwealth is not good  
for Bangladesh. Their dissimulation would be almost comical if it was  
not for the enormous implications they have had for Bangladesh, for  
the practice of good diplomacy, and for the credibility of their much- 
touted endorsement of universal democracy.

[ . . .]
http://www.sacw.net/article294.html

_____


[5]

Times of India
14 Nov 2008

TASLIMA NASREEN 'FORCED' TO LEAVE INDIA AGAIN

PTI

NEW DELHI: Exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen has again been  
"forced" to leave India after her brief stay here, prompting the
controversial writer to question the country's alleged secular  
credentials.

The writer, who returned to India on August 8, said she had to leave  
on October 15 following the government's dictum.

"Yes, I was forced to leave India once again... The government gave  
me resident permit for 6 months with a secret condition that I must  
leave the country in a few days," she told PTI in an e-mail interview.

The ex-physician-turned-feminist author, who is under attack from  
Muslim fundamentalists for her book 'Lajja', said she is now  
somewhere in Europe, delivering lectures.

Taslima's second exit from India comes seven months after she was  
forced to leave the country in view of protests by fundamentalist  
groups against her presence here.

Prior to her departure, she had been living in Kolkata since 1994  
after being exiled from Bangladesh over her book, which was dubbed  
anti-Islam by the fundamentalists.

"The condition of getting permission to reside in India is yet a  
direction for not to reside in India."

She said she will "go back" to India in January. "As the door of  
Bangladesh is closed for me, my home, I still consider, is in India,  
in the West Bengal city of Kolkata. If I am not allowed to return  
there, then it is back to nomadic existence again, without a land,  
without a home," the author said.

Expressing her angst over being shunted out again and again, she said  
"India, which prides itself of being the world's largest democracy,  
an allegedly secular state, could not give shelter to me."

_____


[6]

Times of India
14 Nov 2008

LIVING IN IS LIVING OUT

by Manash Bhattacharjee

The Supreme Court's decision earlier this year, to legalise live-in  
relationships and children born out of long-term live-in  
relationships, came
as a surprising and welcome relief. The Maharashtra government, by  
recently proposing a change in the legal definition of a 'wife', has,  
by inference, also sought to legally legitimise live-in  
relationships. The granting of legal legitimacy to live-in relations  
in the country will significantly contribute to the widening  
acceptability of the idea of a secular, sexual relationship.

Minister of state for women and child development Renuka Chowdhury, a  
strong advocate of live-in relationships, has said that so far only  
the "legal" and not the "moral" aspect of live-in relationships has  
been tossed up for approval. I would like to push the case further  
and assert that if a secular state is held moral, then a live-in  
relationship is equally moral, because in both cases the sanctions  
are not derived from God or any particular tradition, but by granting  
human beings the right to constitute their own framework of life and  
destiny as free, rational agents.

It isn't necessary to look at live-in relationships only vis-a-vis  
marriage. They should be seen as one among the many ways in which it  
is possible for two human beings having a sexual relationship to live  
together. We need not turn marriage into a monolithic, moral standard  
for everybody. It would be illuminating to remember that since  
ancient times we have had different notions of marriage itself. We  
have examples of polygamy, polyandry and gandharva marriages in our  
epics and in our history.

Monogamy in India is a product of colonial history. Victorian  
morality played a crucial role among other factors in fostering the  
idea of monogamy in the late 19th century. So it is indeed ironic  
when people hold live-in relationships to be a "western value"  
whereas the idea of monogamy also has its Christian-European influence.

The growing legal acceptance of live-in relationships has taken place  
in the context of meeting the challenges regarding cases of  
harassment against women and in securing more rights for them. It is  
partly because cases of marital torture against women have gone up  
alarmingly in recent years that the judiciary and now a state  
government have thought of creating less threatening spaces in which  
women can live.

Live-in relationships have nothing to do with social crimes like  
dowry, and cultural pathologies like ostentatious weddings. If a  
woman wants to get rid of a bad marriage, she has to go through an  
endless, painful ritual of explanations, paper work and even  
coercion. If a live-in relationship goes wrong, a woman can simply  
walk out without much familial and no legal pressures.

One of the so-called serious charges against live-in relationships  
revolves around the question of responsibility, or the lack of it. It  
is assumed that because laws and tradition don't bind the live-in  
couple, they have ample space to shirk obligations. What is strongly  
connoted here is that live-in relationships encourage sexual  
promiscuity and infidelity. It would be good to ask if the sense of  
responsibility in an Indian marriage includes sexual responsibility.

There is also a prevalent belief of live-in relationships fostering  
insecurity, particularly in women. One wonders if the most socially  
accepted ideas in India regarding women make them feel secure in any  
manner. The idea of women's security itself is gendered, being made  
dependent on men. A woman's real insecurities are deliberately  
produced in the interests of a patriarchal society. Live-in  
relationships make women active agents of their own security and  
freedom. A woman in a live-in relationship has more opportunity to  
understand a sexual relationship outside conventions. To borrow a  
phrase from the French surrealist poet Arthur Rimbaud, a live-in  
relationship might help us "reinvent love".

To live-in is to live outside the conventional idea of the family,  
outside patriarchal values and norms. To live-in is also to live  
outside those social obligations which everyone doesn't enjoy or  
approve of.

The writer is a freelancer.

_____


[7]

The Telegraph
November 13, 2008


DIFFERENT KINDS OF SILENCE

The elections in Chhattisgarh are about a myriad voices: the shrill  
mikes, the booming, amplified echoes of contestants, the deafening  
sound of drums, pipes and tape recorders used in campaigns. But there  
are voices that have no place in a democracy which the State drowns  
with its might, or is unwilling to listen to.

Two local journalists and I drove along the highway one morning  
towards Bhilai, 70 km from Raipur, speeding past green and brown  
fields, dhabas, village markets and management institutes. We were to  
meet Ajay T.G. (picture, left) — one of the men whom the Chhattisgarh  
government has been trying to silence — to understand how dissidents  
perceived democracy.

Ajay had been jailed under the Jan Suraksha Adiniyam or the  
Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act 2005, in May this year, on  
charges of being involved with the urban Naxal network. In jail, he  
was also pressurized to sign statements against Binayak Sen, another  
prized catch for the CSPSA. But the prosecution, expectedly, had not  
been able to establish his crime in court. The police had produced a  
letter as evidence in which Ajay is supposed to have demanded that  
the Maoists return his camera or compensate him monetarily. The  
truth, said Ajay sitting in his modest house beside a quiet chapel,  
is that in 2004, he had travelled to Bastar to film a documentary  
along with Binayak Sen and two others. There, the Maoists confiscated  
his camera. Two years later, it was returned to him, along with a  
letter of apology. At the time of his arrest, Ajay had not denied  
that he had written the letter, and informed the police of the chain  
of events. The truth landed him in Kendriya Jail.

He is out of prison now, but isn’t a free man. The charges haven’t  
been withdrawn yet, and Ajay still has to seek the police’s  
permission to travel outside Chhattisgarh. His personal belongings  
have not been returned. The reason for this persecution, he said, is  
that the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, with whom both he and  
Binayak Sen are involved, had been critical of the excesses committed  
by the Salwa Judum, the ‘people’s movement’ that the Congress and the  
BJP both support, in its war against the Maoists.

So I am not surprised when Ajay describes Indian democracy as a two- 
edged sword. He told me that he had returned from Dantewada district  
last night, where he heard Mahendra Karma, the Congress leader  
contesting from that region, say that he would clear the jungles,  
bring industry, and crush all opponents. The police had also arrested  
every man in Karampal village recently. “In these parts, the State  
misused its immense powers to buy silence, destroy the environment  
and create a divided, unequal land,” he said quietly. Ajay did not  
sound like a rebel. He merely spoke like a concerned citizen, and  
looked very tired.

We took his leave and set out for Maana, on the outskirts of Raipur,  
to meet a people whose voices, although not gagged, had gone unheard.  
Inside the car, I saw my friend, the local journalist, fiddling with  
his phone. I asked him whom he was calling, but he smiled and said  
that he was removing Ajay’s name from his contact list. We laughed,  
but I thought I saw a shadow pass across his face.

Hours later, Maana unfolded, beautiful and unreal. We travelled  
through leafy, narrow lanes bordered by low-roofed huts. There was  
also a recreation club, a picture of Tagore painted on one of its  
walls. Some shop addresses had been scrawled in Bengali, and I saw  
dhakis inside a pandal. Maana was a transit camp for Bengali refugees  
from East Pakistan who had been rehabilitated as part of the  
Dandakaranya Project in 1964. Some men and women stayed behind in the  
camp, and were given citizenship and government jobs, but denied the  
right to own land. After they retired, they were asked to leave their  
quarters, and settle down in huts by the highway. These waiting men  
and women, inside their decrepit buildings, were thus refugees even  
in their new home.

Shefali Mandal and I sat in her tea-shop and talked about the  
elections. Using her voter’s identity card to fight the flies,  
Shefali said that she will vote for the Congress in the hope that the  
party would give her ownership of the land she lives on. She is  
concerned about the future of her children under the BJP: “Raman  
Singh does not care for people like us. Otherwise, he would have  
reserved seats in education and in employment for our children.”  
Reservation is empowerment, she believes: “Look at what the Gujjars  
are doing in Rajasthan.” Mandal is a member of the Chhattisgarh  
Namasudra Kalyan Samiti, a nodal agency that is demanding caste  
reservations for the community’s children. She pointed to some broken  
furniture, an old TV and her utensils, and said that her riches would  
be of no use if she had no land to call her own. She still remembered  
where she came from, even after all these years, and said she was  
free there. Here, she is a citizen in chains.

Before leaving to fetch tea, Mandal said that in an ideal democracy,  
people should take responsibility of the land and its people. I  
waited for her to return, and, looking around, saw a huge cut-out of  
the local candidate. Satyanarayan Sharma had a beaming face, and  
towered over the settlement with his folded hands. I felt a strange  
sadness. This man made of paper was unlikely to answer Mandal’s  
prayers. Glasses tinkled behind me, tea had arrived.


______


[8]

http://www.sacw.net/article291.html

STATEMENT ON SONAL SHAH

by Campaign to Stop Funding Hate, 14 November 2008

A virtual melee has ensued in print and digital media over the  
selection of Ms. Sonal Shah, an American of Indian origin to the  
Obama transition team’s advisory board. Shrill accusations of Ms.  
Shah being a "racist and Hindu chauvinist" are being reciprocated by  
equally shrill attempts to portray anyone who raises serious  
questions about the selection as being anti-India, anti-Hindu, anti- 
progress, and recently, as against "liberal civility." We condemn  
such baseless and unfair statements.

At the outset we wish to acknowledge that Ms. Shah has had a record  
of being a visible and an important face of the "desi American"  
community - a successful professional, and a politically and socially  
engaged citizen.

We are also happy to note at least one positive effect from this  
debate. Even as this issue gets played out on pubic fora, the din of  
militant Hindutva drumbeats has suffered some dampening. Almost all  
participants, including those who have come out in support of Ms.  
Shah, have said that the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the  
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) — both integral to the Hindutva  
movement, are part of the "politics of hate" that must be resisted.  
We wish such statements had come much earlier, such as the time when  
people were being butchered in Gujarat, or when Indicorps (an  
organization Ms. Shah co-founded) was felicitated by Mr. Narendra  
Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat.

Ms. Shah has become something of a point of pride for many Americans  
with origins in India. But Ms. Shah does have feet that leave tracks,  
has written words that have been archived, and has occupied offices  
of responsibility. We wish to explore this material record below by  
examining two of the most persuasive claims made by supporters of Ms.  
Shah. These are:

1. That accusations of Ms. Shah being a closet Hindutva ideologue  
amount to "guilt by association", a reference to the fact that her  
father Mr. Ramesh Shah has well documented leadership roles within  
the Sangh Parivar (Collective Family, the name for the set of  
organizations of Hindutva).

2. That Ms. Shah’s only association with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of  
America (VHPA) was in the context of the Gujarat earthquake; surely,  
she cannot be faulted for not picking the right organization when  
urgent action was the need of the hour.

Our claims of Ms. Shah’s Hindutva associations are not based on guilt  
by association. Instead, we ask: What organizational and ideological  
work did Ms. Shah perform for and as part of the VHPA?

We have archived records demonstrating that Ms. Shah was a part of  
VHPA’s leadership group—the governing council and chapter presidents/ 
coordinators. She participated in strategy discussions with prominent  
leaders of the Sangh Parivar. Ms. Shah was not just a bystander, she  
was considered important and trustworthy enough by the Hindutva  
leadership to be included in a core group with Ajay Shah, Gaurang  
Vaishnav, Mahesh Mehta, Yashpal Lakra, Vijay Pallod, Shyam Tiwari,  
and others. Does Ms. Shah deny that she played such a role? Even in  
light of the recent public statement by Gaurang Vaishnav, General  
Secretary of the VHPA, that Ms. Shah was made a member of the  
governing council as she came out of college?

We are glad to hear Ms. Shah assert that her "personal politics have  
nothing in common with the views espoused by the Vishwa Hindu  
Parishad (VHP), the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), or any such  
organization", and that she does not "subscribe to the views of such  
Hindu nationalist groups". However, in view of her close association  
with VHPA, as summarized above, Ms. Shah’s claim to have "never"  
subscribed to such Hindu nationalist views strains credulity.

Ms. Shah’s participation in the VHPA Governing Council predates by a  
few years her position as National Coordinator of VHPA’s Gujarat  
earthquake activities in 2001. The position of earthquake relief  
coordinator doesn’t seem to be an easy one to ascend to — VHPA’s  
website states that "national projects are executed by a committee of  
members drawn from the Governing Council and the various chapters."  
Thus, Ms. Shah’s coordination of VHPA earthquake relief seems to have  
built upon her earlier leadership role within the VHPA. We do not  
know when/if her affiliation with the VHPA ceased, but VHPA media  
secretary Shyam Tiwari has recently claimed: "Sonal was a member of  
VHP of America at the time of the earthquake. Her membership has  
[now] expired."

A note about Ms. Shah’s earthquake relief work. Calamities such as  
the 2001 Bhuj earthquake often bring out the best in humans, but the  
Sangh Parivar is notorious for using such moments instrumentally and  
cynically for advancing its violent ideological agenda. An ordinary  
donor or fund-raiser can be excused for not knowing the Sangh agenda,  
but for someone like Ms. Shah, who grew up in a family deeply rooted  
in the Sangh Parivar, it is more than a little disingenuous to claim  
that such fund-raising was apolitical or neutral. There are numerous  
documented instances of the Sangh Parivar’s religion- and caste-based  
discrimination in doling out relief. Therefore we are shocked that  
Ms. Shah has expressed pride in coordinating relief work (under the  
ambit of VHPA) following the Gujarat earthquake of 2001. The relief  
work coordinated by the VHP is known to have rebuilt villages in the  
Kutch region exclusively for caste Hindus while marginalizing lower  
caste Hindus and Muslims to the periphery. The VHP thus took the  
opportunity of the earthquake to re-create multi-ethnic villages into  
exclusive Hindu spaces. In addition, given the pivotal role played by  
the VHP and other Sangh organizations in the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom,  
we fear her pride is entirely misplaced.

Although we appreciate the positive influence Ms. Shah has had on  
many second-generation desis, we have a hard time forgetting the many  
victims of Hindutva. If Ms. Shah really wants to dispel doubts about  
her linkages with the VHPA and other Sangh Parivar outfits, we urge  
her to be more forthcoming in her condemnations of the Sangh Parivar,  
especially its branches in the United States since that has been the  
site of her involvement. Some ways for Ms. Shah to do this would be to:

1. acknowledge her past organizational associations with the Sangh  
Parivar

2. distance herself from the public reception reportedly planned by  
the RSS in her native village in Gujarat

3. categorically condemn the role played by Hindutva forces in anti- 
minority violence in India, and the facilitation of this violence by  
funds sent through various Sangh Parivar affiliates in the United States

In Peace and Justice

Campaign to Stop Funding Hate (www.stopfundinghate.org)

______


[9]

The Tribune
October 20, 2008

Naveen in Modi’s company
ORISSA GOVT SHOULD HAVE BEEN DISMISSED
by Kuldip Nayar

I KNEW Biju Patnaik, once Orissa Chief Minister, very well. He was  
corrupt and the Justice Khanna Commission nailed him. But he was  
administratively excellent. In a way, he is an architect of modern  
Orissa.

This writer knows his son Naveen Patnaik very little. He is not  
corrupt, but administratively zero. His performance is in proportion  
to the competence of the Chief Secretary and Home Secretary he has.  
His own ability does not go beyond his stock phrase: the law will  
take its own course. There is nothing wrong with that observation if  
it is followed by action. He just does not know how to act, much less  
when to act.

One admirable trait of Biju was that he was secular. The mishmash of  
communities that Orissa represents had in him a person who honoured  
religious identities, tribal diversities and did not allow them to  
come in the way of his secular administration. Naveen is out of the  
depths when he has to face claims of different communities in the  
state. He is not communal, but does not lose his sleep if the  
minorities are under pressure. A person used to luxuries has little  
time for mixing with people or meeting them, an opportunity which his  
father reveled. Naveen cannot event speak Oriya. Till the other day,  
he could not even read and write the language.

His plus point is that the other leaders in his own party or the  
opposition are zeros. And he shines in comparison with them. Naveen  
is the Chief Minister for the second time, for almost eight and a  
half years, not because he has a large following but because the  
party in the opposition, the Congress, is hopelessly divided and is  
still driven by the people who have grown old in ideas and in age.  
They do not pose him much challenge because they are more sullied in  
the eyes of the voters. Compared to them, Naveen looks taller.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is Naveen’s hero. The partial  
ethnic cleansing of Christians does not prick his conscience because  
he believes that he did all that he could like Modi. It is more than  
a coincidence that the killings and burning of Christians which took  
place were on the pattern of the post-Godhra massacre. There the  
Muslims were victims and here the Christians. The manner in which the  
riots in Orissa started seemed to have been copied from Gujarat.

An RSS mahant is killed on September 23. The following morning sees a  
procession of thousands of people led by the Bajrang Dal. They had  
all the weapons to kill and the material to burn houses and churches.  
It was obvious that the preparations had been made well in advance.  
The police are silent spectators. When the mob attacks Kandhmal where  
the Christians live, the Bajrang Dal has the field and the  
administration connives at the whole thing.

This was the way when thousands of Muslims were attacked by Hindu  
extremists. In Orissa it was the mahant who provided the spark and in  
Gujarat the burning of a train compartment in which the kar sevaks  
were traveling near Godhra. Here also the police were mute witnesses.  
It has been proved in Guajrat with the help of documents and the  
records at the police stations that there were verbal orders not to  
act. It looks that similar kind of instructions, not to interfere,  
were issued to the Orissa Police. The conspiracy at both places was  
that the central forces were not used. Naveen asked Delhi for more  
forces but Delhi, in turn, told him to deploy at least the ones he  
had. He acted after a few days, just as the Gujarat administration  
woke up after the killings in the state.

Nobody would have come to know about the rape of a nun if The Hindu  
had not published the full story on its front page. Naveen’s  
explanation for the police negligence was “a clash of interests”  
between ethnic tribes. And all he said was that the rape was  
“shocking and savage.” All rapes are.

Once again, like Gujarat, the riot victims, numbering more than one  
lakh, have been in refugee camps with all the handicaps. The  
authorities are so callous that none from the Chief Minister’s side  
ever visits them. Naveen has made a proud announcement that their  
number has decreased to 20,000. He has not said that they are the  
people who have refused to move from the camps because they have no  
confidence in the police if and when they return to their homes.

Hands of both Modi and Naveen are stained with blood and so are of  
the BJP leaders who have backed the two governments. The inept Centre  
is busy considering a ban on the Bajrang Dal. In fact, by this time  
the Naveen Patnaik’s government should have been dismissed on the  
basis of the Governor’s report which, if published, would bring  
tears. The untold atrocities are beyond description and the  
authorities’ attitude is still cursory.

Even the instructions the Centre sent to the Orissa government were  
more of an advice than a directive. Article 355 enunciates the Union  
Government’s duty to protect states against internal disturbances.  
The Manmohan Singh government did not do so because it is just afraid  
of the BJP and India was shamed throughout the world. When the  
President of France told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at his face in  
Paris that there was a “massacre” of Christians in India, the latter  
had very little explanation to offer.

Meanwhile, the Christians and their churches were attacked in other  
BJP-run governments, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh. Conversion is not  
defendable and so is the re-conversion. Both Hindu and Christian  
leaders would have to sort it out. L.K. Advani who met Christian  
leaders should take the initiative.

The tragedy of what happened in Gujarat was that Modi got away  
because the BJP was ruling at the Centre then. Naveen should not be  
let off the hook. But the problem with the Congress is that in view  
of the coming general elections it does not want to take any stand  
lest it should, in the process, rub Hindus on the wrong side. It is  
hard to say which Hindus the Congress has in mind because the  
community as such has been abhorred by killings in Orissa.

_____


[10]

http://blogs.independent.co.uk/independent/2008/11/busted-at-the-b.html
13 November 2008

ASIAN (CON)FUSION: BUSTED AT THE BORDER

by Andrew Buncombe

A couple of weeks ago I was crossing the border to Pakistan bearing,  
as a gift for a friend, a bottle of vodka. I'd hate readers to think  
that us journalists have a thing for drinking, but I'd reckoned that  
with the bombs and violence becoming ever more commonplace in  
Pakistan, he might like to unwind with a drink. And it's not as  
though alcohol is banned in Pakistan; indeed the Muree Brewery, now  
headquartered in Rawalpindi, makes excellent beer and spirits for non- 
Muslims. (One of the great pleasures of staying in a swanky Pakistani  
hotel is, when you order a drink, signing a disclaimer that says  
you're not only a non-Muslim but that you take responsibility for any  
after-effects experienced.)

As it turns out, however, taking alchol into the country is not  
permitted. I was informed of this by the customs officer at the  
Waggah border who x-rayed by luggage, spotted the bottle and seized  
it. I pointed out to the official the madness of a situation whereby  
a country produces its own beer and gin but bars anyone bringing the  
stuff into the country.

I also pointed out (with regrettable arrogance, I afterwards  
realised) that there were bigger issues confronting Pakistan than  
some foreign journalist bringing in a bottle of booze. Surely, I  
insisted, if it was against the law, the official would be able to  
show me that law in writing. The patient, polite and calm official  
did just that, collecting the book of rules and regulations from his  
office and letting me read if for myself.

It was crazy I insisted; anyone who has been to Pakistan knows that  
middle-classes Pakistanis love a drink and that in private homes  
you're never far from a bottle of Johnnie Walker Red Label. "Sorry  
Sir", said the official. "When you leave the country present this  
receipt and you can have your bottle returned."

I wandered off in huff, bemused and angry.

But the more I thought about it, the more I came to admire that  
customs official. He knew his job, he knew the law. I might not have  
agreed with the law, but in a region of the world rife with  
corruption, here was a man actually playing by the rules. I came to  
the conclusion that, confronted with all the problems as it is,  
Pakistan needs more men like that customs official. Not less.

A week later, leaving Pakistan and heading back into India, I dug out  
the receipt and handed it over to the customs man on duty, fully  
expecting that the bottle of vodka had been destroyed, impounded or  
was otherwise missing. Not a bit of it. "Here you are Sir," said the  
official, handing over the bottle and a pen. "If you would please  
just sign for it."

_____


[11]

reporter without borders - Press Release

10 November 2008

JOURNALISTS DENIED VISAS FOR INDIA AFTER CRITICAL REPORTING

Reporters Without Borders has condemned the Indian embassy in Sweden  
after journalists were denied visas after writing critical reports  
about the country.

“This points to a lack of understanding of the basis of press freedom  
which is deeply worrying. If there is also a blacklist of  
inconvenient journalists, it is in fact outrageous. It means India  
has a lot of work to do on respecting press freedom”, said Jesper  
Bengtsson, chairman of the Swedish section of Reporters Without Borders.

Freelance journalist Ulrika Nandra and foreign correspondent of daily  
newspaper Göteborgs-Posten, Marina Malmgren, are two of the Swedish  
journalists whose visa applications have been rejected. In both  
cases, the rejections appear to be linked to articles they wrote  
about social problems in India, according to Swedish radio programme,  
The Media. Journalists are blacklisted if their reports about India  
are seen as too negative, according to sources quoted by the  
programme. This has happened to several other Swedish journalists.

Other Indian embassies around the world have also rejected visa  
applications from journalists, said Vincent Brossel, head of the Asia  
desk at Reporters Without Borders’ head office in Paris. He confirmed  
that foreign journalists have also had difficulty returning to India,  
usually after reporting on sensitive social issues.

Ulrika Nandra told Reporters Without Borders, ”I am sincerely shocked  
that a democracy should tell journalists what to write”.

Nandra’s problems began in autumn 2007 when she was about to make a  
second visit to India as a freelance journalist. She submitted a visa  
application in September but more than one year later had still  
received no response. Representatives of the media for which Nandra  
worked, state-run Sveriges Television and daily newspaper Svenska  
Dagbladet, held a meeting with the Indian embassy in February 2008 at  
which the embassy said they were displeased with her reports,  
including one about the sex trafficking in Bombay and a series of  
articles about changing gender roles in India, carried by Svenska  
Dagbladet in the summer of 2007.

“India is going through a sensitive phase at the moment and I think  
they are nervous that negative reports will frighten potential  
investors. Also, writing about sexuality is very much a taboo in  
India. Moreover, there may be expectations of me because I am half- 
Indian that I should be more loyal to India than other journalists,  
Ulrika Nandra said.

Reliable sources have told Nandra that it is uncertain that she will  
ever be able to return to the country, even on a tourist visa. Apart  
from working in India as a journalist, Nandra also has relatives  
there, making the visa rejection a strong personal blow as well.

Press contacts: Jesper Bengtsson, chairman of the Swedish section of  
Reporters Without Borders: + 46 702/68 25 29 Urban Löfqvist, office  
head of the Swedish section of Reporters Without Borders: +46 70/29  
98 693


_____


[12] ANNOUNCEMENTS:

(i) Discussion: Identity Politics, Nationality Issue and Human Rights  
Response

People's Union for Civil Liberties – Tamil Nadu & Puducherry
42 (Old No. 85). I Floor, Opp. Syndicate Bank, Armenian Street, Chennai
600 001, Ph.: 25352459; rightstn at yahoo.com
President Dr. V. Suresh (94442-31497)
General Secretary S. Balamurugan (9443213501)


Invitation to a Panel Discussion

On 15th November, 2008 (Saturday), 2.30 to 5.30 pm at

Venue
AICUF House, 125, Sterling Road, (near Loyola College), Nungambakkam,
Chennai 600034

Panelists
Mr. Rajinder Sachar, former CJ, Delhi High Court, former President,  
National
PUCL
Mr. Inquilab, eminent Poet
Mr. Bhagwan Singh, Senior Journalist

The Context

Violence against Biharis in Maharashtra, attacks against  
Maharashtrians in Haryana, UP and other northern states; attacks  
against Biharis in Assam; the bomb strikes across Assam killing  
scores of people; the Amarnath temple controversy in Kashmir; the  
Orissa attacks against minorities; the mass deaths of Tamils in Sri  
Lanka…The violence and death toll continues; and the situation is  
turning grimmer by the day.

In this dismal scenario, suddenly there are some changes in both the  
nature of politics and the political discourse. Arrest of members of  
majority community fundamentalist groups in terror attacks in  
Malegaon in Maharashtra and their dubbing as terrorists has suddenly  
broken the smug and complacent superiority of Hindutva groups dubbing  
all minority groups as terrorist. Suddenly finding themselves dubbed  
as `terrorist' is not comfortable.

The debate as to whether the Sri Lankan issue is one of 'civil war'  
and not 'terrorism' has suddenly changed the political discourse on  
violence. The proposal of Barack Obama of the appointment of former  
US president Bill Clinton as Special Envoy for Kashmir, has raised  
the hackles of the Indian state establishment decrying the move as  
interference in a bilateral issue. Political parties in Tamil Nadu,  
however want the international community to intervene in Sri Lanka.

Issues of identity politics and nationality struggles are changing  
character. How do we, as members of the human rights movement,  
understand these changes? What stand should we take?

We invite you to the beginnings of a new discussion on these
issues.

PLEASE DO SHARE THIS INVITATION WITH OTHERS!

Dr. V. Suresh, S. Balamurugan

- - -

(ii)

Join us for a look inside Pedro Meyer's mind and a discussion with  
Karachi's leading photographers
Date: 18th November 2008  |  Time: 7:00 pm

Those who regard photographic imagery as a precise representation of  
the physical world will find Pedro Meyer's work unsettling and  
perhaps even reject it. The internationally acclaimed Mexican  
photographer captures visual images of solitude, materialism, and  
conflict documenting the spirituality inherent in peasant life, folk  
customs, and religious artifacts.

The advent of digital tools enabled Meyer to place a person from one  
picture into the landscape of another; to enlarge, diminish,  
eliminate, highlight, or suspend in space people or objects; and to  
alter light and shadow.

Join us as we explore Pedro Meyer's special Theory of Relativity:  
Truths and Fictions, and engage in an informal discussion with  
Karachi's leading photographers, including Amean J, Tapu Javeri, Arif  
Mahmood, Izdeyar Setna, Farah Mahbub, and Kohi Marri.

Date: Tuesday, 18th November 2008

Time: 7:00 pm

Minimum Donation: Anything you like. Please support the PeaceNiche  
platform for open dialogue and creative expression generously.

Venue: The Second Floor (T2F)
6-C, Prime Point Building, Phase 7, Khayaban-e-Ittehad, DHA, Karachi
538-9273 | 0300-823-0276 | info at t2f.biz
Map: http://www.t2f.biz/location

- - -

(iii)

Anuradha Ghandy Memorial Lecture

An Invitation

The Anuradha Ghandy Memorial Committee invites you to the First  
Annual Lecture dedicated to the memory of the dynamic and inspiring  
communist revolutionary. Com Anuradha passed away on April 12th this  
year.

SAMIR AMIN, eminent Marxist scholar and writer will deliver this  
lecture on `Beyond Liberal Capitalism in Crisis, the Socialist  
Perspective for the 21st Century’.


On Anuradha Ghandy

Com Anuradha, or Anu as she is fondly remembered, spent her early  
years in Mumbai working actively in the student movement and  
Democratic Rights movement. She worked as a university lecturer  
teaching sociology and writing on various issues. After shifting to  
Nagpur Com Anu became a leading activist of the women’s movement and  
trade union movement and became a well known  and popular mass  
leader. She moved to Chandrapur, in eastern Maharashtra and in the  
face of increasing repression on people’s movements, she chose to go  
underground. Her writings on the dalit and women’s perspective are  
some of her exceptional contributions to Marxist theory. She was also  
active in the movement for revolutionary culture. Anuradha led her  
entire life as a devoted communist revolutionary contributing both  
her intellectual and organizational skills and inspiring personal  
qualities to the CPI Maoist party. She took the hardships of  
underground life in her stride. It was during her stay in a tribal  
area, taking political classes for tribal women, that she was struck  
by malaria. She passed away on 12th April.

On Samir Amin
Professor Samir Amin is one of those scholars who believes that the  
current state of the world is not just about culture, national  
identity and religion but about imperialism, capitalist development  
and underdevelopment and, ultimately, class. Amin, along with such  
equally renowned names as Emmanuel Walerstein, Giovanni Arrighi,  
Gunder Frank and others, is viewed as among the founders of the  
"world systems" school of thought which gained tremendous influence  
in the late sixties and seventies, not just in academia but also as  
guiding framework to the left-wing activism that overwhelmed the  
world's campuses during those times.
He has written more than 30 books including Imperialism & Unequal  
Development, Specters of Capitalism: A Critique of Current  
Intellectual Fashions, Obsolescent Capitalism: Contemporary Politics  
and Global Disorder and The Liberal Virus. His memoirs were published  
in October 2006. His latest work, published in 2006, is Beyond US  
Hegemony: Assessing the Prospects for a Multipolar World.
The Programme
There are many ways in which the revolutionary movement is keeping  
alive Com Anuradha’s moving spirit, the most important being the  
continuation of her work. The Anuradha Ghandy Memorial Committee in  
Mumbai has been set up by her friends, comrades and family members.  
The Annual Lecture series is a small contribution to the effort of  
keeping her memory alive.

We earnestly request you to participate in this effort.


The 1st Anuradha Ghandy Memorial Lecture

Date:  Thursday, November 20, 2008.
Lecture: 'Beyond Liberal Capitalism in Crisis, the Socialist  
Perspective for the 21st Century' by Samir Amin
Time: 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Venue: Convocation Hall, University of Mumbai, Fort, Mumbai

ANURADHA GHANDY MEMORIAL COMMITTEE
P.A. Sebastain, Asghar Ali Engineer, Sagar Sarhadi, Anand Patwardhan,  
Neera Desai, Anusuya Dutt, Jyoti Punwani, Sunil Shanbag, Pushpa  
Bhave, Jayant Kripalani, Gurbir Singh, Kumud Shanbag, Gulan  
Kripalani, Anand Teltumbde, P K Das, Shereen Ratnagar, Wilas Wagh,  
Siddharth Bhatia, Sambhaji Bhagat, N. Vasudevan, Manorama Savur,  
Sujata Patel, Bernard D'Mello, Vilas Sonawane, Gayatri Singh, Pravin  
Nadkar, Sanober Keshwaar

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

Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), on
matters of peace and democratisation in South
Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit
citizens wire service run since 1998 by South
Asia Citizens Web: www.sacw.net/
SACW archive is available at: http://sacw.net/pipermail/sacw_insaf.net/

DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not
necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers.