SACW | Jan 1-8, 2009 / Campaign by Indian - Pakistani Citizens Against Terror, War Posturing

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire | January 1-8, 2009 | Dispatch No. 2596 -  
Year 11 running
From: www.sacw.net

[1] Sri Lanka: Attack on broadcaster needs independent inquiry (CPJ)
     + "Spirited Tigers defeated" by Sri Lanka (Shanie)
[2] Living Traditions Exhibit Explores Art in War-torn Afghanistan  
(Aryn Baker)
[3] Joint Signature Campaign by Citizens of India and Pakistan  
Against Terrorism, War Posturing
[4] Statement by Pakistani human rights activists, feminists, labour  
leaders on the between India and Pakistan.
[5] Independent Appeal - Sex workers dicing with death in Bangladesh
[6] South Asia: Courting the Devil (Harsh Mander)
[7] India - Interview: 'Don't allow fanatics to rule' Taslima Nasreen
[9] India - Freedom of Expression:
    - Mumbai bookstore pulls Pak writers off its shelves (Anahita  
Mukherji)
    - Letter to the Editor (Ram Puniyani)
    - Banning Pakistani writers is hypocrisy (Neel Mukherjee)
[10]  Pakistani theatre group plays a peace tune (Avneep Dhingra)
[11] India - Jammu and Kashmir?: BJP's Electoral Victory - Appearance  
and reality (Rekha Chowdhary)
[12] International: Bombing of Gaza: statement by Communist Party of  
India (Marxist)
[13] Announcements:
    (i) “The world after 9/11: Exploring alternatives to the ‘War on  
Terror’” a talk by Mahmood Mamdani, (Bombay, 8 January 2009
    (ii) Panel discussion on 'The Terrorist and the Citizen: How  
Television Transforms Political Life' (New Delhi, 10 January 2009)
    (iii) Play Sheema Kermani, (Lucknow, 14 January 2008)

_____


[1] Sri Lanka

(i)

Committee to Protect Journalists
330 7th Avenue, 11th Floor
New York, NY 10001

ATTACK ON BROADCASTER NEEDS INDEPENDENT INQUIRY

New York, January 6, 2009--Following today's early morning assault by  
about 15 masked gunmen on Maharaja TV's (MTV) studios outside the Sri  
Lankan capital, Colombo, the Committee to Protect Journalists called  
for an independent, nonpartisan parliamentary board of inquiry to  
investigate.

Attackers shot at and destroyed broadcast equipment, held staff at  
gunpoint, and attempted to burn down the station's facilities,  
according to local and international news reports. Three TV channels  
and four radio stations of MTV's parent company, MBC, were off the  
air for several hours. MTV's Web site is still unable to transmit due  
to the attack. On Sunday, the station was hit with a gasoline bomb,  
but there was little damage.

In a statement today, Mass Media and Information Minister Anura Yapa  
condemned the attack and President Mahinda Rajapaksa ordered a full  
investigation.

"Even with its condemnations, the government can longer be trusted to  
act with impartiality when it comes to those who want to silence Sri  
Lanka's media," said Bob Dietz, CPJ's Asia program coordinator. "Far  
too often the government or its unofficial allies have been prime  
suspects behind attacks on journalists and media organizations, and  
this latest outrage must be fully and clearly explained in an  
impartial and transparent parliamentary investigation."

In recent days, government-controlled media had accused the station  
of "unpatriotic" coverage concerning the military's reported advances  
against the secessionist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in  
the north of the country. The LTTE's de facto capital of Kilinochchi  
fell last Friday. Government troops have been reported to be  
advancing on the strategic Elephant Pass that links the mainland to  
the Jaffna peninsula, the LTTE's stronghold.

Government run-media had specifically criticized MTV for giving too  
much coverage to a suicide bombing in Colombo on Friday, undermining  
a victory speech by Rajapaksa after government troops took  
Kilinochchi, local and international media reported.

o o o

(ii)

The Island
3 January 2009

SPIRITED TIGERS DEFEATED BY SRI LANKA

by Shanie

The headline in a website this week read "Sri Lanka defeat spirited  
Tigers". The reference was of course to the victory that the Sri  
Lanka cricket team secured over Bangladesh in the First Test  
concluded on Wednesday. Bangladesh is the minnow among the test- 
playing nations and Sri Lanka were expected to have an easy win.  
Early on the fourth day, it appeared so when Bangladesh, chasing 521  
to win in the fourth innings, were reduced to 180 for 5. But the  
Bangladeshi skipper Mahamed Ashraful and his tail-enders had other  
ideas. Two century partnerships for the sixth and seventh wickets  
took them to 403 for 6. The minnows had not only taken the match well  
into the final day but were in a position to pull off a sensational  
and record-breaking win. In the end, the Bangla (Bengal) ‘Tigers’,  
despite a spirited performance, succumbed to a better-equipped  
opposition,

We do not know if the web editor coined the headline with tongue in  
cheek but it is possible that the headline could apply at some future  
date to the ongoing conflict in the Vanni. The predicted easy victory  
for the security forces is not happening so easily and the war, like  
the test match, is dragging on and being pushed to the wire. In the  
cricket match, it was one tragic mistake by a tail-ender, who dragged  
a ball well outside his off stump to his wicket, which both deprived  
him of a well deserved century and also triggered the quick collapse  
of the last four wickets. Can that happen to the Sri Lankan Tigers?  
Only time will tell.

For the present, we can only watch with a mixture of admiration and  
dismay. Admiration is for the performance of the Bangladeshis at  
cricket and dismay is at the mounting loss of young lives in the  
conflict at home. The sacrifice of these young men and women who are  
being killed or maimed could have been avoided or at least minimized  
to a great extent if only President Rajapaksa and the LTTE kept to  
their promises to the people whom they claim to represent. The LTTE  
has repeatedly failed to seize opportunities to secure an honourable  
peace by spurning attempts, particularly by the Government of  
Chandriika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge, that sought to provide a  
constitutional framework to address minority grievances. President  
Rajapaksa promises justice to the minorities but has only rhetoric to  
offer. He has had and continues to have opportunities to offer a  
political solution to minority grievances but continues to spurn  
every such opportunity.

His twisted logic that this will be done once the war is over rings  
hollow. If, as his Government often says, the war is against the LTTE  
and not the Tamils, why does the war against the LTTE prevent the  
offer of a political package to the Tamils and Muslims? Indeed, if  
the government were sincere about offering a political solution, the  
war itself would have been rendered unnecessary. The LTTE would have  
been marginalised among Tamil opinion makers had the LTTE opposed  
such a solution worked out by consensus among the non-LTTE and non- 
Sinhala chauvinist political parties and civil society/religious groups.

Losing the larger picture

But sadly, President Rajapaksa has opted not to take that line. He  
seems unwilling or incapable of looking at the larger picture.  
Instead, he is going along with, or at least turning a Nelsonian eye  
to the lawless and reactionary actions of the obscurantist and  
fascist forces that are part of his Government.

In the North, Anandasangaree is quite right with his complaint that  
an armed group, seemingly enjoying the support of the security  
forces, is engaging in abductions, extortions and extra-judicial  
killings, replicating the actions of the LTTE in earlier years. The  
armed groups of today are totally insensitive to the feelings of  
civilians. Locals agree with Anandasangaree and say that people could  
be increasingly turning to the LTTE for protection from this armed  
fascist group. Civilians are being robbed in their homes by armed  
gangs in the night during curfew hours. It is possible that in  
addition to this armed group, lawless elements are also taking  
advantage of the breakdown in the rule of law. But, since the  
robberies are taking place during curfew hours, the armed gangs  
obviously are confident of immunity.

If President Rajapaksa is sincere about restoring democracy in the  
North, he should not be replacing one set of armed fascists by  
another. ‘The future minds of Jaffna’ deserve better than that. But  
first, genuine democracy must be restored in the rest of the country.  
Journalists should be free from intimidation, assault and arbitrary  
arrests. Lawyers should be free to practise their profession without  
death threats and without having their photograph and name ominously  
displayed on the web.

The Rajapaksa Government must learn lessons from a disastrous policy  
in the East that has brought about a multiplicity of armed groups and  
brought back a strong LTTE presence. Bishop Kingsley Swampillai,  
Bishop of Batticaloa and Trincomalee, was expressing the concerns of  
many locals when he complained of continuing abductions, violence and  
killings. It is a self-defeating policy to promote one armed group of  
fascists against another. And it is pity that continuing calls for a  
respect for the rule of law are being ignored. Sooner or later, such  
a policy will come to haunt the government.

[. . .].

_____


[2]  Afghanistan:

New York Times,  page A1 of the New York edition. January 2, 2009

FOR AFGHANS, A PRICE FOR EVERYTHING, AND ANYTHING FOR A PRICE

by Dexter Filkins

Kabul, Afghanistan — When it comes to governing this violent,  
fractious land, everything, it seems, has its price.

[Photo] Danfung Dennis for The New York Times
[Caption] A man pulls a cart loaded with fire wood past a mansion  
owned by high-ranking government officials in the Sherpur  
neighborhood of Kabul.

[Photo] Danfung Dennis for The New York Times
[Caption] The mansions of Afghan officials in the Sherpur  
neighborhood of Kabul are a curiosity not only for their size, but  
also because government salaries are not very big.

Want to be a provincial police chief? It will cost you $100,000.

Want to drive a convoy of trucks loaded with fuel across the country?  
Be prepared to pay $6,000 per truck, so the police will not tip off  
the Taliban.
Need to settle a lawsuit over the ownership of your house? About  
$25,000, depending on the judge.
“It is very shameful, but probably I will pay the bribe,” Mohammed  
Naim, a young English teacher, said as he stood in front of the  
Secondary Courthouse in Kabul. His brother had been arrested a week  
before, and the police were demanding $4,000 for his release.  
“Everything is possible in this country now. Everything.”

Kept afloat by billions of dollars in American and other foreign aid,  
the government of Afghanistan is shot through with corruption and  
graft. From the lowliest traffic policeman to the family of President  
Hamid Karzai himself, the state built on the ruins of the Taliban  
government seven years ago now often seems to exist for little more  
than the enrichment of those who run it.

A raft of investigations has concluded that people at the highest  
levels of the Karzai administration, including President Karzai’s own  
brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, are cooperating in the country’s opium  
trade, now the world’s largest. In the streets and government  
offices, hardly a public transaction seems to unfold here that does  
not carry with it the requirement of a bribe, a gift, or, in case you  
are a beggar, “harchee” — whatever you have in your pocket.

The corruption, publicly acknowledged by President Karzai, is  
contributing to the collapse of public confidence in his government  
and to the resurgence of the Taliban, whose fighters have moved to  
the outskirts of Kabul, the capital.

“All the politicians in this country have acquired everything —  
money, lots of money,” President Karzai said in a speech at a rural  
development conference here in November. “God knows, it is beyond the  
limit. The banks of the world are full of the money of our statesmen.”
The decay of the Afghan government presents President-elect Barack  
Obama with perhaps his most underappreciated challenge as he tries to  
reverse the course of the war here. Mr. Obama may be required to save  
the Afghan government not only from the Taliban insurgency —  
committing thousands of additional American soldiers to do so — but  
also from itself.
“This government has lost the capacity to govern because a shadow  
government has taken over,” said Ashraf Ghani, a former Afghan  
finance minister. He quit that job in 2004, he said, because the  
state had been taken over by drug traffickers. “The narco-mafia state  
is now completely consolidated,” he said.
On the streets here, tales of corruption are as easy to find as kebab  
stands. Everything seems to be for sale: public offices, access to  
government services, even a person’s freedom. The examples mentioned  
above — $25,000 to settle a lawsuit, $6,000 to bribe the police,  
$100,000 to secure a job as a provincial police chief — were offered  
by people who experienced them directly or witnessed the transaction.

People pay bribes for large things, and for small things, too: to get  
electricity for their homes, to get out of jail, even to enter the  
airport.

Governments in developing countries are often riddled with  
corruption. But Afghans say the corruption they see now has no  
precedent, in either its brazenness or in its scale. Transparency  
International, a German organization that gauges honesty in  
government, ranked Afghanistan 117 out of 180 countries in 2005. This  
year, it fell to 176.
“Every man in the government is his own king,” said Abdul Ghafar, a  
truck driver. Mr. Ghafar said he routinely paid bribes to the police  
who threatened to hinder his passage through Kabul, sometimes several  
in a day.

Nowhere is the scent of corruption so strong as in the Kabul  
neighborhood of Sherpur. Before 2001, it was a vacant patch of  
hillside that overlooked the stately neighborhood of Wazir Akbar  
Khan. Today it is the wealthiest enclave in the country, with gaudy,  
grandiose mansions that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Afghans refer to them as “poppy houses.” Sherpur itself is often  
jokingly referred to as “Char-pur,” which literally means “City of  
Loot.”
Yet what is perhaps most remarkable about Sherpur is that many of the  
homeowners are government officials, whose annual salaries would not  
otherwise enable them to live here for more than a few days.
One of the mansions — three stories, several bedrooms, sweeping  
balconies — is owned by Abdul Jabbar Sabit, a former attorney general  
who made a name for himself by declaring a “jihad” against corruption.

[Photo] Danfung Dennis for The New York Times
[Caption] Farooq Farani has been trying to resolve a property  
dispute. An Afghan judge wants $25,000, but Mr. Farani has refused.

After he was fired earlier this year by President Karzai, a video  
began circulating around town showing Mr. Sabit dancing giddily  
around a room and slurring his words, apparently drunk. Mr. Sabit now  
lives in Canada, but his house is available to rent for $5,000 a month.

An even grander mansion — ornate faux Greek columns, a towering  
fountain — is owned by Kabul’s police chief, Mohammed Ayob Salangi.  
It can be had for $11,000 a month. Mr. Salangi’s salary is unknown;  
that of Mr. Karzai, the president, is about $600 a month.

Mr. Ghani, the former finance minister, said the plots of land on  
which the mansions of Sherpur stand were doled out early in the  
Karzai administration for prices that were a tiny fraction of what  
they were worth. (Mr. Ghani said he was offered a plot, too, and  
refused to accept it.)

“The money for these houses was illegal, I think,” said Mohammed  
Yosin Usmani, director general of a newly created anticorruption unit.
Often, the corruption here is blatant. On any morning, you can stand  
on the steps of the Secondary Courthouse in downtown Kabul and listen  
to the Afghans as they step outside.
One of them was Farooq Farani, who has been coming to the court for  
seven years, trying to resolve a property dispute. His predicament is  
a common one here: He fled the country in 1990, as the civil war  
began, and returned after the fall of the Taliban, only to find a  
stranger occupying his home.
Yet seven years later, the title to Mr. Farani’s house is still up  
for grabs. Mr. Farani said he had refused to pay the bribes demanded  
by the judge in the case, who in turn had refused to settle his case.
“You are approached indirectly, by intermediaries — this is how it  
works,” said Mr. Farani, who spent his exile in Wiesbaden, Germany.  
“My house is worth about $50,000, and I’ve been told that I can have  
the title if I pay $25,000 — half the value of the home.”
Tales like Mr. Farani’s abound here, so much so that it makes one  
wonder if an honest man can ever make a difference.

Amin Farhang, the minister of commerce, was voted out of Mr. Karzai’s  
cabinet by Parliament earlier last month for failing to bring down  
the price of oil in Afghanistan as the price declined in  
international markets. In a long talk in the sitting room of his  
home, Mr. Farhang recounted a two-year struggle to fire the man in  
charge of giving out licenses for new businesses.
The man, Mr. Farhang said, would grant a license only in exchange for  
a hefty bribe. But Mr. Farhang found that he was unable to fire the  
man, who, he said, simply bribed other members of the government to  
reinstate him.

“In a job like this, a man can make 10 or 12 times his salary,” Mr.  
Farhang said. “People do anything to hang on to them.”

Many Afghans, including Mr. Ghani, the former finance minister, place  
responsibility for the collapse of the state on Mr. Karzai, who, they  
say, has failed repeatedly to confront the powerful figures who are  
behind much of the corruption. In his stint as finance minister, Mr.  
Ghani said, two moments crystallized his disgust and finally prompted  
him to quit.
The first, Mr. Ghani said, was his attempt to impose order on Kabul’s  
chaotic system of private property rights. The Afghan government had  
accumulated vast amounts of land during the period of Communist rule  
in the 1970s and 1980s. And since 2001, the government has given much  
of it away — often, Mr. Ghani said, to shady developers at extremely  
low prices.
Much of that land has been sold and developed, rendering much of  
Kabul’s property in the hands of unknown owners. Many of the  
developers who were given free land, Mr. Ghani said, were also  
involved in drug trafficking.

When he proposed drawing up a set of regulations to govern private  
property, Mr. Ghani said, he was told by President Karzai to stop.

“ ‘Just back off,” he told me,’ ” Mr. Ghani said. “He said that  
politically it wasn’t feasible.”
A similar effort to impose regulations at the Ministry of Aviation,  
which Mr. Ghani described as rife with corruption, was met with a  
similar response by President Karzai, he said.
“Morally the question was, am I becoming the fig leaf to legitimate a  
system that was deeply corrupt? Or was I there to serve the people?”  
Mr. Ghani said. “I resigned.”
Mr. Ghani, who then became chancellor of Kabul University, is today  
contemplating a run for the presidency.
Asked about Mr. Ghani’s account on Thursday, Humayun Hamidzada, a  
spokesman for Mr. Karzai, said he could not immediately comment.

The corruption may be endemic here, but if there is any hope in the  
future, it would seem to lie in the revulsion of average Afghans like  
Mr. Farani, who, after seven years, is still refusing to pay.
“I won’t do it,” Mr. Farani said outside the courthouse. “It’s a  
matter of principle. Never.”
“But,” he said, “I don’t have my house, either, and I don’t know that  
I ever will.”

Abdul Waheed Wafa and Sangar Rahimi contributed reporting.

_____


[3]  India - Pakistan:


JOINT SIGNATURE CAMPAIGN BY CITIZENS OF INDIA AND PAKISTAN
AGAINST TERRORISM, WAR POSTURING AND TO PROMOTE COOPERATION AND PEACE

 From 9th January 2009 to 8th February 2009

Seeking Signatures from People and Endorsements from Organisations

(To be submitted to the Prime Minister of India and the President of  
Pakistan

With Copies to important political functionaries and media houses of  
both countries.)

Come! Sign and endorse the Petition on line by clicking: http:// 
www.PetitionOnline.com/indopak/petition.html

And take signatures from people in your area of operation by  
downloading the attached Petition Form.


Let People Express!

Time Peace Loving People Decide the Agenda!! And the Course of Our  
Countries!!!

Dear Fellow Citizens of India and Pakistan,

After 55 years of tense relations, just five years of sustained peace  
process between India and Pakistan was producing good results for  
all. Unfortunately, the terror attack in Mumbai suddenly changed the  
entire scenario and the tensions between India and Pakistan have once  
again reached dangerous levels that are detrimental to the interests  
of both the countries.

It is clear that a dependence on the political- bureaucratic-  
military establishments in both the countries may not lead to  
reduction in tensions but on the contrary, this nexus could possibly  
land us in a war. Role of the media of both the countries in the  
ongoing crisis is also not very heartening.

In such a situation, assertion by the people and civil society groups  
of both the countries in favour of resolving the present crises  
through dialogue, cooperation and appropriate actions by both the  
governments to address terrorism and all other outstanding issues  
could influence the processes that are set in motion.  The collective  
will of the people could certainly compel the establishments to adopt  
peaceful and appropriate processes to address all the issues and  
bring back normalcy.

Joint Signature Campaign from 9th January 2009 to 8th February 2009

To facilitate such assertion by the people of both Pakistan and  
India, a number of civil society organisations of Pakistan and India  
have come together to launch a Joint Signature Campaign in both the  
countries. All civil society organisations and concerned citizens of  
both the countries are invited to endorse and be partners in this  
Joint Signature Campaign and facilitate this Campaign in their areas  
of operation by reaching out to the people to collect their  
signatures in large numbers. All endorsing organisations will be  
listed alphabetically- country wise.

The Joint Signature Campaign will be launched in different cities and  
towns of Pakistan and India on 9th January 2009 from 3 pm (IST). in  
India and 2.30 pm (PST) in Pakistan to ensure simultaneity.

The Campaign would be carried out for one month and will conclude on  
Sunday, 8th February 2009. Copies of signatures collected in both the  
countries will be compiled to be submitted to the Prime Minister of  
India, The President of Pakistan and other important political  
functionaries of both the countries and members of the Media before  
20th February 2009.

The Petition prepared for the Joint Signature Campaign is attached.  
We appeal to organisations in both India and Pakistan to become  
partners in taking forward this Joint Signature Campaign.

What Can Be Done:

Petition Form for the Signature Campaign is attached. Civil society  
organisations and concerned citizens of India and Pakistan can print  
copies of the Petition Form to take signatures from people and post  
the completed forms by 10th February 2009 to the Indo-Pak Joint  
Signature Campaign Secretariats set up in both India and Pakistan at  
the following addresses

For Pakistan:

Indo-Pak Joint Signature Campaign Secretariat
C/o PILER Centre, ST.001, Sector X ,
Sub-Sector V Gulshan-e-Maymar,
Karachi 75340- Pakistan
Ph:. 00-92-21-6351145 – 7
Fax: 00-92-21-6350354

For India:

Indo-Pak Joint Signature Campaign Secretariat
C/o COVA, 20-4-10, Charminar
Hyderabad, A.P. India, 500002
Ph: 0091-40-24572984
Fax: 0091-40-24574527

All organisations endorsing the Campaign and accepting to take up the  
Joint Signature Campaign in their areas of operation will be listed  
in alphabetical order as Partner Organisations in all communications  
and also on the Campaign Website. All collaborating organisations are  
requested to send their names, city/town, country and other contact  
details for inclusion as Partner Organisations.

Online Signatures:

Online endorsement of the Campaign is also possible at  
Petitionsonline.com through the link:

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/indopak/petition.html

Email and Website:

The email ID for the Campaign is: indopak.jointcampaign at gmail.com
Website: http://www.indopakcampaignagainstwarnterror.org


Come! Let us join hands across borders to usher in peace and  
prosperity for both our countries!!

In solidarity

Pakistan- India Joint Signature Campaign

_____


[4]


PAKISTANI HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS, WOMEN'S RIGHTS ACTIVISTS, TEACHERS,  
LABOUR LEADERS AND JOURNALISTS HAVE ISSUED A STATEMENT ON THE CURRENT  
STAND-OFF BETWEEN INDIA AND PAKISTAN.
(Among the signatories are Asma Jahangir, I.A Rehman, Mubashir  
Hassan, Ahmed Rashid, Salima Hashmi and Iqbal Haider.)

Islamabad January 4, 2008

The statement is as follows:

“We condemn the recent terrorist attack on Mumbai and extend our  
heartfelt condolence and sympathy to the victim families. Likewise,  
we condole and sympathize with the victims of terrorism in Delhi ,  
Kabul , Swat, other parts of NWFP and FATA. Pakistan's civil society  
is alarmed at the loss of life, denial of education to girls and  
large-scale displacement of civilians in FATA and Swat. The influence  
of militant groups is rapidly growing in all parts of the country  
without any effective challenge by the government. Regrettably, there  
appears to be a total absence of a cohesive policy by the government  
of Pakistan to protect its own citizens or any strategy to challenge  
militant outfits that operate with impunity within and outside the  
country.

“We regret that the media in both India and Pakistan failed to  
present the Mumbai outrage in a proper context and, instead, used the  
event to fuel hostility between the two countries. It aided  
warmongers on both sides to whip up a war hysteria. Quite ironically,  
terrorism, which should have brought India and Pakistan together to  
defend peace and people's security, pushed them to the brink of a  
mutually destructive war. Confrontation between these two closest  
neighbours has never had such a puerile basis.

“Mercifully, the tension between India and Pakistan seems to have  
abated somewhat and this is some relief. But the danger of an armed  
conflict persists and we call upon both the governments not to take  
peace for granted. Better understanding and constructive action  
rather than confrontation between states will discourage militant  
groups that are growing in strength in both countries. The government  
of Pakistan must no longer stay in a state of self-denial. It must  
not miss the opportunity of devising an effective strategy to  
overcome the menace of terrorism that is posing a greater threat to  
this country than any other nation. India too must bear in mind that  
militant groups and extremists thrive in a state of conflict and  
polarization. Both governments must sincerely redouble their efforts  
at addressing the rise of militant groups in the region. They need to  
quickly compose their differences over ways of dealing with  
terrorism. This could be done through the composite dialogue that  
must resume forthwith because neither country can bear the cost of  
keeping defence forces on alert and suspension of normal peacetime  
duties.

“We should also like to caution the government of Pakistan against  
lapsing into its traditional complacency with the disappearance of  
the war clouds. Blinking at the existence of terrorist outfits within  
the country, some open and others disguised, will amount to self- 
annihilation and greater isolation from the comity of nations. The  
state's commitment to root out terrorist groups must be total. It  
must ensure, as far as possible, that Pakistan is not even accused of  
allowing cross-border terrorism by any group, alien or indigenous.  
But everything must be done within the canons of law and justice.  
Killing of innocents and extra-legal excesses will not end terrorism.  
They will only fuel it.

“Islamabad must also repudiate the suggestion that its firmness in  
the ongoing standoff with India has contributed to national cohesion,  
revived the Kashmir issue, and enriched the national coffers. Nobody  
can forget the cost paid by the country for unity behind Yahya Khan  
in his war on fellow Pakistanis, for the financial windfall during  
Zia's agency for the Afghan war, and for the 'revival' of the Kashmir  
issue through adventurism is Kargil. The hazards of living in a make- 
believe environment are all too clear.

“Success neither in the fight against terrorism nor in defending the  
nation's integrity can be guaranteed by arms alone. The way to end  
the abuse of belief for politics or for terrorism, there being little  
difference between the two, is going to be long and hard. The task  
cannot be accomplished without the whole-hearted support of a fully  
informed and wide-awake society. The returns on investment in  
people's food security, education, shelter, health cover and creation  
of adequately rewarding employment for both men and women will be  
infinitely higher than on resources expended on guns and explosives.  
This can be best achieved through regional cooperation and trade  
liberalisation.

“It is these pre-requisites to national unity, solidarity, and  
survival that we urge the state to address and the people shall not  
fail it. Pakistan can beat off all challenges but only through  
people's fully mobilized power."

____


[5]

INDEPENDENT APPEAL: SEX WORKERS DICING WITH DEATH IN BANGLADESH

Charities must overcome the disapproval of a conservative society to  
teach prostitutes about safe sex

By Andrew Buncombe
The Independent, 30 December 2008

Ajij works as a male prostitute in Bogra, Bangladesh

Ajij lives a double life – half in public, half in the shadows.  
During the day he works as a helper in a restaurant kitchen. In the  
evening, the slightly-built 25-year-old has sex with men for money in  
one of Bogra's many cheap hotels.

His customers are students, rickshaw drivers, police and soldiers –  
everyday people. Away from prying eyes, they pay anywhere between 10p  
and a pound, depending on what they want from the young man.  
Afterwards they quietly leave and return to their other lives.

"At the weekend I have a long line of police and soldiers," says  
Ajij, who says he has up to 25 clients a week. "Some are married,  
some are unmarried. We don't question them."

Bangladesh's male prostitutes operate on the edge of this  
conservative Muslim society. Commonplace but little discussed, they  
are vulnerable to harassment, extortion and violence. They are  
vulnerable, too, to sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV.

Ajij's double life could hardly be more complete. Having started  
selling sex when he was just 10 years old, he married at the age of  
18 under pressure from his family. His wife and five-year-old  
daughter live in a village outside the city, unaware of his real  
existence. Meanwhile, he lives and works in Bogra, where he also has  
a male partner. That relationship, he stresses, is about love, not  
money.

"When I got married there was a lot of social pressure. I did not  
know I was homosexual until after I got married," he says. "In  
Bangladesh, the life of a homosexual is very secret ... There is  
restriction from society but the [male sex trade] is growing."

The potential dangers from this secretive trade are obvious. But  
educating sex workers about safe sex and the use of condoms is not as  
straightforward as it perhaps should be. NGOs and charities working  
in the field are constantly having to fight disapproval from certain  
sectors of Bangladeshi society, notably religious conservatives. What  
a charity might consider health awareness and education can be just  
as easily be seen by critics as promotion of an irreligious lifestyle.

There have been instances where outreach workers have been harassed  
by local police and government officials. Sometimes maintaining a low  
profile is the most effective option. Sometimes, however, the staff  
battle to persuade their critics of the value of what they are doing.

"I think it is still secret. We are working with an area of the  
community that is very vulnerable," says Muradujjaman, the health  
manager of a drop-in centre in Bogra run by the charity Light House.  
"It's very challenging work to try to reduce their risk level.  
Sometimes the people we are working with are not very educated."

Light House, a Bangladeshi-based partner of Voluntary Services  
Overseas (VSO) – one of the charities for which money is being raised  
by The Independent Christmas Appeal – has for the past 10 years been  
running health education programmes for both male and female sex  
workers in Bogra. Around 500 men are on its books.

Kathy Peach is one of the British VSO volunteers who have worked with  
Light House. Before volunteering she had worked in advertising and  
with the Department for International Development. Once in Bangladesh  
she brought her professional skills to bear on the sex workers'  
problems – and those of Light House's outreach workers who were also  
afraid.

"It's a tough, often thankless job with huge stigma attached to it,"  
she says of the work done by the outreach staff on the streets of  
Bogra. "I was impressed by the resilience, courage and dedication of  
all the outreach workers I met." But the workers were regularly being  
attacked by members of the local law enforcement agencies – or else  
subjected to extortion. "The result was that many outreach workers  
were scared to do their jobs and it was becoming harder to get  
condoms ... to the sex workers who had gone into hiding."

Using her advocacy skills she devised a strategy through which the  
workers were able to build bridges with the community. She arranged  
meetings with the police and army in which the Light House staff were  
able to convince them of the vital need of the organisation's work.  
Since then the harassment has fallen off significantly.

All the same, 22-year-old Ekalas still keeps a low profile. This shy  
young man works at a tailor's shop, but as evening descends on this  
dusty city of a million people, men will come to the shop in search  
of more than needlework. "Most of my clients I know," says Ekalas.  
"If it is someone new they will come to the shop and ask for me by  
name, so I know."

Having started in the sex trade when he was 17, Ekalas estimates he  
has around seven or eight customers a week. He says he earns up to £3  
a time. He has four brothers and five sisters and he says none of  
them know that he works as a male prostitute. Since coming to the  
regular sessions organised by Light House, he says he has been  
persuaded of the importance of condoms and tries to demand that his  
clients use them.

"There are huge numbers of male sex workers in Bogra. They range in  
age from 13 to 67," says Ekalas. But it is dangerous work. The young  
men say that after sex, customers often refuse to pay the agreed  
price. And there is always the hovering threat of violence; on one  
occasion Ajij went with a customer to a construction site where he  
discovered there was a group of men waiting for them. He was forced  
to jump from the third floor of a partly constructed house in order  
to escape being gang-raped.

As for the future, Ekalas says he would like to get out of  
prostitution. But, as he explains, the key factor is economics. His  
boss at the shop pays him only a quarter of what their customers pay  
for the shirts that Ekalas makes. Sex is a much more lucrative  
option. At least with the help of Light House he is a little safer in  
that perilous profession, and considerably less likely to assist with  
the spread of the Aids epidemic. It is progress, of a kind.

____


[6]  South Asia:

Hindustan Times
December 30, 2008

COURTING THE DEVIL

by Harsh Mander		

As the flames of war are being fanned in both India and Pakistan,  
fortunately there are sane voices of restraint against the futility  
of sacrificing precious young lives in both countries. Also, since  
military pressure on terrorists operating along the border with  
Afghanistan would ease as troops engage the Indian armed forces,  
nothing will be gained in the battle against international terror.  
There could be heavy civilian casualties, although there is no  
conflict between the people of the two lands. In times of global  
economic crisis, the economies on both sides of the border will  
flounder, inflaming prices, and extinguishing food and jobs.

But this orchestra of war and hate has muffled an important debate  
which concerns the major defence of the Pakistani establishment, as  
voiced by President Zardari, to the effect that the State has no  
responsibility — legal, moral or practical —  for the violence  
perpetrated by what he describes as ‘non-State actors’. This means  
that even if non-State individuals and organisations based in  
Pakistan plan and execute acts of terror, within its borders or  
outside, the Pakistan government cannot be held responsible.  
Arguments like these have enabled these organisations to operate with  
impunity, given the assurance that they will go unpunished for their  
transgressions. The issue gets murkier when allegedly non-State  
organisations implement the illegal, unconstitutional and violent  
political agendas of the State. Blurring the already thin lines  
between the State and non-State are  elements within the state which  
openly or tacitly support these organisations — whether logistically,  
morally or politically.

States must accept responsibility for the crimes of hate and violence  
perpetrated by non-State organisations. In a salutary ruling  
following the 2002 Gujarat carnage, the National Human Rights  
Commission Chairperson Justice Verma had held that States were  
vicariously but directly responsible for crimes that organisations  
outside the State commit, if the state does not do enough to rein in,  
control and punish them. In practice, however, most communal riots  
tend to be more in the nature of pogroms, where non-State  
organisations commit hate crimes with impunity, given a sympathetic  
political command, police, magistracy and judiciary, which often  
shares their ideology of hate.

States often use non-State actors as their front-line forces, without  
spilling the more costly blood of their men in uniform. Examples in  
India are militant renegades, such as the surrendered militants in  
Kashmir, the ikwanis; or in insurgent north-eastern regions, like the  
surrendered ULFA. Armed by the State, answerable to no law or code,  
they loot and kill civilian populations in conflict zones without  
fear of punishment. Vigilante armies like the Salwa Judum have been  
set up by the state in Chhattisgarh to provide dispensable foot  
soldiers in the battle against Maoist insurgency.

But those who play with fire will one day burn in it, like the  
Taliban has turned against Pakistan in alliance with extremist  
religious fringe groups which have miniscule support, but are holding  
the country to ransom. But this is not a time for war, because a war  
will only strengthen and embolden the forces of hate and terror and  
engender enormous human suffering. Instead, it is a time to tell our  
governments unambiguously that they can no longer protect and foster  
those who live by the gun, by hate and terror. It is a time to refuse  
to accept the thin and dishonest defence of government helplessness  
before the crimes of non-State actors. .

  Harsh Mander is the convenor of Aman Biradari.

_____


[7] India:

India Today

DON'T ALLOW FANATICS TO RULE: TASLIMA

Abhijit Dasgupta
Kolkata,  January 2, 2009	

Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen

Exiled Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen pines for Kolkata, her  
adopted home. Ever since she was forced to leave the city after  
protests by fundamentalists, she has lived a desolate life in New  
York. Nasreen tells India Today's Abhijit Dasgupta that she now finds  
it difficult to concentrate on writing and yearns to return to the  
city she needs so sorely for inspiration. Excerpts from the interview:

Q: Why are you perpetually harping on the fact that you are homeless  
in the world? You seem to be moving around the globe and there would  
have been many people back in our country who would revel in such a  
situation.
Taslima: It is not my choice to become a nomad. Neither is it my  
choice to be homeless. I badly need a home.

Q. We know that and we are in full sympathy and support. What is it  
that you are working on now?
Taslima: It is very difficult to concentrate on my writings...When I  
have no place to live, and I am not allowed to live where I like to  
live.

Q. We understand the pain. But tell me what are you writing now?
Taslima: I am finishing a novel.

Q. What is it on?
Taslima: It's about Kolkata...

Q. When is that coming out?
Taslima: I am not sure. It is hard to get publishers. I am  
blacklisted and banned in both the Bengals. No Bengali newspaper  
publishes my articles…hardly any publisher dare to publish my books.

When the fanatics are against me, I get support from people, but when  
governments are against me, I lose almost all the support. People are  
scared of supporting me. Publishers are afraid to publish my books. I  
saw exactly the same thing happen in Bangladesh.

Q. Why should everybody be scared of publishing Taslima Nasreen?
Taslima: They should not, but they are. They think publishing my  
books or supporting me would show that they are against the government.

Q. But is the government that powerful?
Taslima: Government is always powerful. If the government supported  
me, I could easily live in Kolkata, the city I love the most, the  
city I need to be inspired.

Q. Why didn't you get the support of the people? Are they impotent?
Taslima: I don’t think they are impotent. I don’t like this word. I  
think civil society should not shut its mouth. They should protest  
against any kind of injustice. Most of the people have become immune  
to injustice. That is very alarming.

Q. And what about Bengal...don’t you think the situation here is  
alarming for the arts?
Taslima: As long as you compromise, it is fine. But for a writer like  
me, who is fighting for equality and justice, who has dedicated her  
life for secularism and for women's rights is not fine.

Q. Why don’t you compromise with the CPM?
Taslima: I have done nothing against the CPM. Actually, I always  
supported them.

Q. Then why did they throw you out?
Taslima: I don’t think my ideology and theirs are different. I had  
been living in Kolkata for years and suddenly the fanatics came out  
on the streets and demanded my deportation. I thought the government  
would protect me.

Q. You share the same ideology and they give you the boot. "Sounds  
strange. I am okay with you but when it comes to vote banks, I will  
ignore you"—sort of strange policy.
Taslima: But unfortunately, I am getting punished for no fault of  
mine. I am being punished for the crimes Islamic fundamentalists  
committed against me. I do not believe in religion, superstition, or  
any kind of dogmas. I believe in humanism, I don’t believe in  
consumerism or capitalism. I believe in equality and justice for all  
people. Don't you think communists have the same beliefs?

Q. If they did, then why did they surrender?
Taslima: I was thrown out of my own country 14 years ago. West Bengal  
was my home.... and still it remains a shock that I have been thrown  
out and will never be allowed to go there. Only they know why they  
surrendered, if they surrendered. But I don’t think the fanatics will  
love them (the Communists) for too long.

No political party, for the sake of the country, should surrender to  
the fanatics. But unfortunately you do not see this picture. The  
great politicians never give up their ideology for votes.

Q. How would you describe the CPM in one word?
Taslima: I can’t describe the CPM in one word. The CPM banned my  
book. But still even in my worst nightmares, I can never think that  
CPM would throw me out of Kolkata, my only refuge.

Q. Do you  think the CPM exchanged you for votes? It was a deal?
Taslima: I don’t think they have earned a single vote by throwing me  
out. I am not subject worth that much...99% Muslims do not know about  
me. It's just handful of fanatics who use me for their political gain.

The politicians in many countries bow their heads in front of  
fanatics. It happens in the subcontinent. Instead of taking action  
against the fanatics who issue fatwas against me, the governments of  
both Bengals took action against me.

In India, it is heartbreaking when you take a decision to make an  
exiled writer homeless once again. I hope they will allow me in  
Kolkata again. I am not powerful, I am not a politician. If they do  
not open the door, if they do not show their sympathy and support,  
how can I go back home?

Q. Have you written to Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi? He is a non- 
partisan man.
Taslima: He was very sympathetic to me. I always got his support.

Q. Any more support?
Taslima: Recently Manmohan Singh wrote a very good letter to someone.  
He wrote: '"India's glorious traditions of welcoming people  
irrespective of caste and creed, community and religion will  
continue, whatever be the odds. The atmosphere of hate being  
perpetuated by a small segment within the country will not prevent us  
from persisting with this tradition. We recognize Taslima Nasreen's  
right to remain in a country of her choice, viz., India in this case.  
She shall also have the option to choose whichever city or state she  
chooses".

Q. But why isn't the PM intervening? He compares you with The Dalai  
Lama in his letter and then forgets all about it. That is not the way  
a PM should react...
Taslima: Maybe somebody else is taking all the decisions regarding  
me. I do not have the foggiest idea as to how a government works.

Q. Did you contact anybody in the government?
Taslima: I wrote to the chief minister and foreign minister.

Q. Both are Bengalis...
Taslima: As a Bengali, I would like to trust Bengalis. If they are a  
bit considerate, I think the problems would be solved.

Q. Is the prime minister serious about your return?
Taslima: I believe one day I will be able to go back to Kolkata and  
live there. The door of Bangladesh is closed for me. I can't imagine  
the doors of India are permanently closed. I don’t know politics. I  
am against fundamentalism but then so are many others. But I am a  
soft target because I just a mere writer, I am not influential, I do  
not have any organisation and above all, I am woman.

Q. But you are influential. You are Taslima Nasreen...
Taslima: I have some innocent readers who love me, that’s all. They  
are not united. You know something. You can fight fundamentalists but  
you can't cross swords with the government. And so I could not live  
where I want to live. Bengal is my place…Bengal is my home.

Q. What are you doing in New York?
Taslima: I am homeless everywhere...I move around and depend of  
friends to allow me to stay with them. I do not want to live in a  
Western country. It's an impossible situation. Emotionally and  
economically, it is very difficult.

Q. When did you last come to India?
Taslima: In August. I was only allowed to stay in Delhi. I could not  
go to my apartment in Kolkata. I wrote letters to both Buddhadeb babu  
and Pranab babu, I begged, pleaded and cried for getting the  
permission to be allowed to go back to Kolkata to survive as a  
writer. But it did not work. I did not get the permission. I had to  
quit my Kolkata home.

I have had to remove all my furniture from Kolkata and they are now  
lying in a sealed warehouse in Delhi. I asked Pranab babu whether I  
could visit Kolkata for just two days. It was refused.

Q. Why don't you suck up to the CPIM if you are so desperate to live  
in Kolkata? Just some mere kowtowing?
Taslima: The cruelty that I have seen...this is not the real India. I  
cannot act. I am not an actor, I am a writer. All I have is honesty.  
Why should I sacrifice that?

Q. What sort of cruelty have you seen?
Taslima: I sometimes wonder whether all that is happening around me  
is true...I am too stunned to react. .

Q. Any friends in the CPM?
Taslima: There were many people in CPM who support me...LF Chairman  
Biman Bose once told me so many stories of his adventures. He invited  
me to visit   his Vidyasagar Girls School.

Q. But what do these people have against you? I just do not  
understand...
Taslima: I don’t know. If they still believe in communism, I don’t  
think they have any reason to go against me. One day they will  
realise their folly. But that might happen after I die.

Q. Did you approach Sonia Gandhi?
Taslima: I did.

Q. Can I ask you a personal question?
Taslima: Shoot.

Q. Are you in love now? Any chances of marriage? Don't you want to  
become a mother?
Taslima: It would have been nice if I were in love. The answers of  
your three questions are, NO, NO and NO.

Q. Have you cut down on your smoking? The last time I met you years  
ago, you were smoking like a chimney...
Taslima: I stopped smoking in 2003.

Q. What about your cat? You miss her, don't you?
Taslima: When I had to leave Kolkata, my friends in Kolkata took care  
of her. I miss my Minu so much. But what can I do? There is nobody in  
India who could take care of her. She was sent to Dhaka with my  
brother. She is a great football player. She does not play anymore.  
She hardly eats. She is from Kolkata. She misses her wonderful life  
in Kolkata, she misses being with me.

Q. What are your plans?
Taslima: I have no future, everything is uncertain.

Q. If you were in Bangladesh now, who would you have voted for?
Taslima: I wouldn’t have voted for anyone.

_____


[8] India - Freedom of Expression:

The Times of India
4 Jan 2009

MUMBAI BOOKSTORE PULLS PAK WRITERS OFF ITS SHELVES

by Anahita Mukherji, TNN

MUMBAI: 'The reluctant fundamentalist' could just as well be a  
description of the Oxford Bookstore in Mumbai's Churchgate area as  
the title of
last year's Booker-nominated novel by Pakistan-born author Mohsin Hamid.

The store has taken books by Pakistani authors off its shelves  
following "friendly advice" from police. The store was asked to take  
precautions in the light of Raj Thackeray's "ban" on Pakistani artists.

Store manager Girish Thakur said, "Ten days ago, a policeman from the  
Marine Drive police station dropped in at our store and told us to be  
careful. He advised us to remove books and CDs related to Pakistan,  
as we may be targeted after the recent terror strikes in Mumbai. He  
reminded us of Raj Thackeray's ban on Pakistani artists".

Thakur says he is opposed to banning books, whatever the reason.  
"People who love books should be allowed the freedom to read  
literature from across the world so that they get different  
perspectives on an issue," he said. He added that the books would be  
back on the shelves once he was assured he could.

But it's not just the police who advised the store against selling  
books by Pakistani authors. A store employee, who belongs to Raj  
Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), also urged Thakur not  
to display Pakistani books. When contacted by TOI, the employee said:  
"After the recent attack on Mumbai, why should we have any Pakistani  
material in our bookstore?"

o o o

(4 January 2008]

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Madam/Sir

The fatwa by Nav Nirman Sena's (MNS) boss Raj Thackeray to 'ban' the  
Music CDs and books by Pakistani Musicians/writers is akin to  
terrorizing the society yet again. MNS which has gained notoriety for  
its attacks on North Indians was totally quiet when Mumbai faced the  
terrible attack. Since the phenomenon of terrorism has been due to  
formation  of Al Qaeda by US, with the goal of controlling the oil  
wells in the region, the same US has also used Pakistan as its base  
to do serious damage to the World as a whole and India in particular  
by planting this cancer of terrorism. Today we are witnessing the  
left-over of the same phenomenon. As a matter of fact it is time that  
India-Pakistan come together to solve this problem. Within Pakistan  
itself Pakistan army is playing hawk and any military confrontation  
in the region will be counterproductive to both the countries. It is  
imperative that India as a bigger power sets the tone for peace and  
interaction with Pakistani Government and civic society to have a  
peaceful South Asia. It will be shortsighted to spread Hate against  
our neighbor. Our firm and reasoned stand can bring in Pakistani  
democratic Government and civic society to have joint efforts to root  
out the evil of terrorism, the evil which has also demonized Islam  
and Muslims. MNS politics is not only short sighted it will harm the  
interests of our nation.

Ram Puniyani

Secretary, All India Secular Forum
1102/5 MHADA Rambaug Powa Mumbai
www.pluralindia.com

o o o

The Guardian
7 January 2009

BANNING PAKISTANI WRITERS IS HYPOCRISY
As a response to the Mumbai terror attacks, this smacks of hysteria  
and has disturbing ramifications in the longer term

by Neel Mukherjee

If fresh evidence were needed that books and writers are one of the  
greatest threats to bigotry, especially during times that are  
malleable enough to be twisted to serve their agenda of hysteria and  
fear, Mumbai provides an eloquently senseless example. Hard on the  
heels of the terror attacks in the city and the resultant "ban"  
declared on Pakistani artists and their works by Raj Thackeray,  
leader of the rightwing Hindu party, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena  
(MNS), the Oxford bookstore in Churchgate in Mumbai has been asked to  
remove all books written by Pakistani authors from its shelves on the  
"friendly advice" of the police.

Is it possible to determine the "friendliness" of the advice? In the  
store manager's words, "A policeman from the Marine Drive police  
station dropped in at our store and told us to be careful about a  
possible attack. He advised us to remove books and CDs related to  
Pakistan, as we may be targeted after the recent terror strikes. He  
reminded us of Thackeray's ban." How diligent of the Mumbai police to  
be so proactive in protecting from possible vigilante attacks: the  
policeman in question denied having advised the bookstore against  
stocking Pakistani literature. He had dropped in to "check that  
everything was all right".

One wonders if this dutiful "dropping in" has anything to do with the  
MNS employee at the same store who warned his manager not to display  
Pakistani books. In righteous anger, the staff member explained to  
the Times of India, "After the recent attack on Mumbai, why should we  
have any Pakistani material in our bookstore?" Unlike the collusive  
and internalised censorship that saw french fries renamed "freedom"  
fries after 9/11, this is a more straightforward case of petty  
terrorising by apparatchiks. Let us not forget that these are the  
very people who attack Clinton Cards outlets just before Valentine's  
Day every year for selling corrupting tokens of foreign cultures. The  
mirage of purity remains, as ever, the holy grail of the right.

But there are more disturbing ramifications to be reckoned with  
before we dismiss this as cultural illiteracy, anti-democratic  
intolerance of all kinds of pluralities, or rightwing  
"patriotism" (that massive holdall, which accommodates some of the  
greatest criminalities in history). It is all those things, but also  
something more. Like those who had never read a single word written  
by Salman Rushdie but bayed for his blood on the publication of The  
Satanic Verses and after his knighthood, these censors are terrorists  
in the purest sense of the term: playing at the politics of fear by  
manufacturing a terrifying Other to intimidate and to disseminate  
lies. By what crazy logic would one seek to have, say, Philip Roth or  
Joan Didion removed from bookstores if one finds the existence of  
Guantánamo Bay intolerable? And what do the MNS suggest we do with  
one of the greatest Urdu writers of the last century, Saadat Hasan  
Manto, who was born in undivided India in 1912 and only spent the  
last seven years of his life, from 1948-55, in the new country of  
Pakistan? Is he "Pakistani material"?

The Pakistani writers the MNS want to banish from bookshops would  
have been the first not only to condemn but also to understand,  
expose and analyse the intractable history of such acts. Now, more  
than ever, we should be rushing out and dedicating entire shelves and  
tables in bookstores to Pakistani writers. A culture that bans books,  
especially on the grounds of such dangerous nationalism, is a culture  
on the brink of self-destruction.

_____


[10]

Mail Today
27 December 2008

PAK THEATRE GROUP PLAYS A PEACE TUNE

By Avneep Dhingra in New Delhi

AS TENSION mounts between India and Pakistan over the Mumbai attacks,  
a theatre group from across the border took the stage in Jawaharlal  
Nehru University ( JNU) to spread the message of peace.

Ajoka Theatre from Lahore is the first Pakistani theatre group to  
visit India in 20 years. The irony of the group’s visit in these  
tense times was not lost on the crowd that applauded their  
performance with gusto.

“ For years, artists have been trying their bit to promote peace and  
harmony between the two nations. It is our small attempt to help  
diffuse the tension. Peace activists and artists like us have worked  
very hard to build this peace process,” said Madeeha Gauhar, artistic  
director of the theatre group.

The 23- member group performed its popular play “ Bullah” at a  
festival hosted by the Students’ Federation of India ( SFI) and the  
All India Students’ Federation on Tuesday.

Ajoka also performed Sufi qawwali on the JNU campus, which attracted  
a lot of crowd.

“ It’s a great feeling to have artists from our neighbouring country  
perform here. Not only do we get a chance to interact, but it is also  
a peace making process,” said Abdul, a senior SFI member.

The performance by the group was well appreciated.

“ The show was splendid. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Our politicians  
should learn something from them and should understand a war- like  
situation is not the solution to terror,” said Devdeep Choudhury, a  
student of international relations.

“ We are here to bring the message of the great Sufi poet, Bulleh  
Shah, that is extremely relevant in today’s turbulent times,” said  
Gauhar, a famous theatre artist from Lahore. The famous Sufi poet  
professed “ humanism, peace, love, tolerance and looking beyond  
religious divides”. She said many people were apprehensive about the  
visit but she decided to go ahead.

“ When the Indo- Pak cricket tour was cancelled, there was  
disappointment in our country.

People questioned us why we were going and said we would not be  
welcomed there,” Gauhar said.

“ People came out to condemn those terror strikes. There were marches  
and human chains in Karachi and Lahore,” the actor said. The group  
will perform at several other places in India.


_____


[11] India Administered Kashmir

Indian Express
Jan 02, 2009

APPEARANCE AND REALITY

by Rekha Chowdhary

How does one interpret the massive victory of the BJP in the assembly  
elections of Jammu and Kashmir? Is it simply the communal  
polarisation of the Jammu region — a direct impact of the religious  
mobilisation during Amarnath land agitation? Certainly the BJP’s  
gain, from one seat in 2002 to eleven now — all in the Hindu- 
dominated belt of the region — has a reflection of the agitation, and  
yet the verdict is not as straight as it seems to be.

To begin with, the Hindu belt has not exclusively gone to the BJP;  
there are many significant exceptions where the party has lost. Of  
these, the most interesting is the case of Bishnah where it had  
fielded the widow of Kuldeep Verma, whose suicide during the  
agitation had generated an intense response in Jammu. It was this  
constituency which Gujarat CM Narender Modi had chosen to campaign  
for. This epicentre of the agitation could not be returned to the  
BJP. There were many other constituencies that had witnessed a strong  
emotional response during the agitation — such as, Kathua, Samba,  
Vijaypur and Akhnoor — that remained constantly in the news during  
the agitation, but did not return the BJP. Another constituency where  
the BJP faced a setback was Gandhi Nagar, the urban heartland of  
Jammu where Nirmal Singh, the erstwhile party president, was  
contesting. Nowshera, Billawar, Ramnagar, Udhampur, Chenani, Chhamb  
were the other constituencies which saw the mobilisation during the  
agitation but remained out of the BJP fold.

Interestingly, some of these seats have gone not only to the Congress  
and the local Panthers Party, but also to the National Conference — a  
party against which negative campaigns were launched in these areas,  
and the statement made by Omar Abdullah in Parliament was used to  
whip up frenzy against the Kashmiri leadership. That the impact of  
such campaigning had not gone deep could be seen soon after the  
election process began — the flags of the NC were all over the place.

Like the earlier times, one can see a plural political response in  
the Jammu region. The seats have been divided between the Congress,  
the NC, the BJP and the Panthers Party. It is difficult to see the  
communal polarisation, since the Muslim belt of the region has given  
as much of a plural response as the Hindu belt has. While in the two  
districts of Poonch and Rajouri the seats have been divided between  
the NC, the Congress and the PDP, in the Doda belt — comprising the  
three districts of Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban — it is the Congress  
which has registered its dominance, winning five of the six seats.  
The entry of the PDP is seen by many as an indication of the  
communalisation of the Muslim belt. Yet one cannot see Muslims in  
Rajouri and Poonch voting as a bloc for any party, divided as they  
are between the two identities — Gujjars and Paharis. Doda,  
meanwhile, is a story of development — it was the most backward and  
unattended area of the region, which was paid attention to by the  
Congress government, specifically by Ghulam Nabi Azad, who himself  
represented one of the constituencies within this belt.

If the BJP has succeeded in Jammu, it is not because of its communal  
agenda; it is because of many other factors, anti-incumbency working  
against the Congress being the most important one. The Congress faced  
problems also due to internal dissensions, wrong candidate choices,  
rebels and the lack of credible faces. Where it could field a  
credible candidate, as in Gandhi Nagar, it could win despite the BJP  
wave. It is a similar story of credible candidates in Kathua where an  
independent could win despite the constituency being a BJP stronghold.

On the whole, one can say that it was the vacuum of the regional  
politics that has helped the BJP. Jammu does not have a regional  
party parallel to the NC. (The Panthers Party is the only regional  
party of Jammu and it has succeeded in maintaining its position by  
retaining three of the four seats it had won in 2002.) Hence, the  
politics based upon the regional aspirations is appropriated by the  
BJP. The Amarnath agitation in many ways succeeded in Jammu because,  
apart from the Hindu sentiments, it could mobilise the dormant but  
persistent feeling in Jammu that this region is politically  
subordinated to Kashmir and is taken for granted when it comes to  
political negotiations with the Centre. It is therefore the regional  
rather than the communal response that has resulted in the BJP’s  
unprecedented victory.


The writer teaches political science at Jammu University

_____


[12] International: The Bombing of Gaza

  January 5, 2009

  Press Statement

  The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has  
issued the following statement:

  The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) denounces the invasion of Gaza by  
the Israeli armed forces.  After a week of barbaric air raids, the  
Israeli armed forces have now launched the ground offensive which has  
sharply increased civilian casualties.  More than 500 people have  
died in this State-sponsored terrorism.

  The Polit Bureau condemns the stand taken by the United States of  
America in the UN Security Council which prevented a statement  
calling for an end to the hostilities.

  The CPI(M) demands that the Manmohan Singh government immediately  
take diplomatic steps alongwith countries like South Africa and  
Brazil to see that Israel immediately halts its aggression.  The  
Polit Bureau calls upon all its Party units and other progressive  
forces to organise protest demonstrations against this brutal  
aggression by Israel and demand that the UPA government halt its  
military and security collaboration with Israel.

_____


[13]  Announcements:

(i)

Insaaniyat And The Press Club of Mumbai

Invite You To

“The world after 9/11: Exploring alternatives to the ‘War on Terror’”

a talk by

  Mahmood Mamdani,

Professor of Governance, Columbia University (New York)
And Author of the book Good Muslim, Bad Muslim

The aftermath of the November terror attacks is almost as depressing  
as the attacks themselves and can have consequences that are fatal  
for our democracy. The most obvious is the crisis of liberalism; any  
space that is identifiably liberal evaporates and the general climate  
descends into rank authoritarianism. Another is the erosion of our  
civil liberties. The argument for this is that America’s “war on  
terror” has been successful in stopping further attacks. The talk on  
Thursday and the discussion that follows will explore some of these  
themes.

Venue:  Conference Room, The Press Club, Mumbai

Time and date : 6.00 p.m. Thursday 8th January 2009

- - -

(ii)

The Sociology Unit at the Institute of Economic Growth, and the India  
International Centre invite you to a panel discussion on 'The
Terrorist and the Citizen: How Television Transforms Political Life'.

4 pm on Saturday, Jan 10, 2009

Lecture Room, India International Centre Annexe

Participants:
*Chair: Arindam Sengupta, Executive Editor, *Times of India*
*Jawed Naqvi*, Delhi correspondent, *The Dawn*, Karachi
*Ashutosh*, Managing Editor, IBN 7
*Harinder Baweja*, Editor-Investigations, *Tehelka*
*Dipankar Gupta*, Professor of Sociology, Jawaharlal Nehru University


- - -

(iii)

From: Sheema Kermani,
It would be a pleasure to meet all of you once again. Do inform  
friends and comrades to come and see the play on Jan 14 at 4.30 pm at  
the Bharat Rang Mahutsav taking place in Lucknow - it is an anti- 
fundamentalism play which I would like people to watch, about a  
family that migrates from Lucknow to Lahore. I think you would like  
it. There is the character of Nasir Kazmi a poet who had migrated  
from Ambala and his poetry is sung live throughout the play.
Regards
Sheema Kermani


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