SACW | Jan 26-27 , 2009 / Pakistan's Schoolgirls / Sri Lanka Trapped Civilians / Dalits in Hindutva
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at gmail.com
Tue Jan 27 00:13:20 CST 2009
South Asia Citizens Wire | January 26-27, 2009 | Dispatch No. 2601 -
Year 11 running
From: www.sacw.net
[1] A War on Pakistan's Schoolgirls (Yasmeen Hassan)
[2] Sri Lanka: Trapped Civilians In End Game of War (Jehan Perera)
[3] Bangladesh:
- Laws of Discrimination (Hana Shams Ahmed)
- Still Waiting For Justice (Asma Kibria)
[4] India's Internal War(s) on Terror: The ongoing collateral damage
- selected reports & analysis
- Probe all HR abuse cases in Jammu nand Kashmir (Kashmir Times)
- Kashmiri‘ terrorist’ acquitted by court (Kumar Vikram)
- Batla House flak for cops (Mail Today)
- Azamgarh to charter train for Delhi rally (Piyush Srivastava)
- Binayak Sen in jail for 19 months: a 3 part article (Vinay Sitapati)
- The NHRC on Salwa Judum: A Most Friendly Inquiry (K Balagopal)
[5] Pakistan - India: Peace activists are great folks, so why are we
still in trouble? (Jawed Naqvi)
[6] India: The Ideological and institutional Incorporation of Dalits
Into Hindutva maelstorm ( Subhash Gatade)
[7] India: Hindutva's Morality police in Karnataka
- Girls, interrupted (Editorial , The Indian Express)
- ‘We were molested in the name of God ’ (Sudipto Mondal)
[8] Culture: Opium and Empire - Amitav Ghosh in conversation with
Kwame Anthony Appiah
[9] Announcements:
(i) T2F's Science Ka Adda as we explore the Big Bang Machine
(Karachi, 29 January 2009)
(ii) Insaaniyat Public Discussion: “Terrorism and Democracy:
resisting the cultural and legal backlash” (Bombay, 30 January 2009)
_____
[1]
Washington Post
January 26, 2009; Page A11
A WAR ON PAKISTAN'S SCHOOLGIRLS
by Yasmeen Hassan
I have such fond childhood memories of summer holidays in the Swat
Valley in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province, a place well known
among Pakistanis for its breathtaking views, cool summer climate and
lush fruit orchards. But today the Swat Valley is experiencing
heartbreaking pressures, as the Taliban strike with disconcerting
regularity and, among other atrocities, impose a ban on the education
of girls.
Even before this ban was put in place on Jan. 15, more than 100
schools for girls in Swat, as well as more than 150 such schools in
the greater Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), had been shut
down, many after being bombed or torched, leaving approximately
100,000 girls out of school. Radio announcements warned girls that
they could be attacked with acid if they dared to attend school, and
teachers have been threatened and killed. Last Monday, five more Swat
Valley schools were bombed.
The attacks and threats have not been confined to schoolgirls. Women
and girls have been ordered to wear full veils. Directives have been
issued requiring that women be accompanied by male family members in
public places and forbidding women from carrying compulsory
government identification cards displaying their photographs. About a
dozen women have been shot for "immoral activities," including Bakht
Zeba, a 45-year-old social worker committed to advancing girls'
education. The area seems to be in competition with Afghanistan over
which will establish the worst record on women's rights.
The Pakistani and Afghan governments have responded similarly to the
Taliban's penchant for terrorizing the population. A few months ago,
Afghanistan sought to enter into negotiations with the Taliban, a
precondition of which would be the imposition of sharia (Islamic
law). While those talks have not yet gone forward, Pakistan seems to
be on the brink of accepting enforcement of sharia in the FATA
territories. Reports indicate that more than 70 Taliban courts
already operate in the Swat Valley, a first step toward
implementation of the Taliban's interpretation of sharia. That the
government is open to negotiating on this issue shows that it has no
regard for what such a move would mean for Pakistani women.
ad_icon
The lives of Afghan women and girls remain precarious. Schoolgirls
continue to be attacked. Women in public office are threatened or
killed. Malalai Joya, a female political leader who has been wrongly
suspended from parliament, has been forced into hiding because of
threats against her. Only a few months ago, Malalai Kakar,
Afghanistan's most senior female police officer, was shot dead.
Pakistan must not become another Afghanistan.
The unfolding disaster in Pakistan demands an immediate response both
from the Pakistani government and the international community.
Pakistan must accept its responsibility to take urgent action to
protect the rights of women and to curb the Talibanization of the
country. Any intervention must be based on upholding Pakistan's
commitments under its own constitution and under international human
rights instruments that it has ratified. The various branches of
government -- the legislature, executive and judiciary -- must work
in concert to address this situation in a comprehensive manner.
Last week, the Pakistani government announced that it will reopen the
schools in the northern areas in March, after their winter recess,
but in view of the loss of huge areas to the effective control of the
Taliban, it is clear that will be difficult. On Jan. 20 --
Inauguration Day in the United States -- Parliament voted unanimously
to condemn and reject the Jan. 15 Taliban school closings. Now the
government should immediately announce its commitment to implementing
a plan to ensure that all girls have access to education, as well as
to safeguard them not only in school but also outside of school.
President Obama has put Pakistan at the forefront of the war on
terrorism. The 2008 Biden-Lugar bill in the Senate calling for a
tripling of nonmilitary aid to Pakistan, to $1.5 billion annually for
five years, is expected to be revived this year as the Kerry-Lugar
bill and has the support of the Obama administration. To avoid the
mistakes of the Bush administration, not only should there be greater
accountability for how these funds are used, but the money should be
conditioned on the Pakistani government taking active steps to curb
the Talibanization of the country and, in particular, to uphold and
protect the rights of girls and women. The consequences of inaction
or inadequate action could be devastating.
Yasmeen Hassan is a Pakistani lawyer and the deputy director of
programs at Equality Now, an international women's rights
organization based in New York.
____
[2] Sri Lanka:
Daily Mirror
January 27, 2009
TRAPPED CIVILIANS IN END GAME OF WAR
by Jehan Perera
The fate of several hundreds of thousands of people trapped in
remaining areas of LTTE control in the Mullaitivu district hangs in
the balance. There is dispute about the numbers displaced.
Government spokespersons claim that the figure is not much more than
100,000. The estimates of humanitarian organizations are much
higher, going up to 400,000. The people who are trapped include the
original population of Mullaitivu together with most of those
displaced in the earlier rounds of fighting from other places in the
north. This latter group fled from those battle grounds to preserve
their lives.
At present this civilian population is confined to a shrinking area
to which the LTTE has retreated, estimated by the military to be
about 300 square kilometers. These unfortunate people are described
as trapped for two reasons. One is that the heavy fihting between the
government forces and LTTE is taking its toll on them. The Bishop
of Jaffna, Thomas Savundaranayagam, has recently made two urgent
appeals to the government.
In the first appeal Bishop Savundaranayagam referred to the
collateral damage caused to the civilians by aerial and artillery
bombardments. He wrote that “artillery shells fell among the huts of
the displaced people and men, women and children have died and many
more are mortally injured. Moreover the artillery shells have fallen
in the safety zone of Valipunam Temporary Government Hospital. Last
one week alone 88 persons have died and more than 200 persons are
injured. The President said that he would protect the civilians.”
In his second appeal the Bishop has asked for an extension of the
Safety Zone proposed by the government. He wrote, “We thank you
sincerely for declaring a part of the west of Mulaithivu as Safety
Zone. The area indicated is small and uninhabitable considering the
large number of people who are congregating in this area... Therefore
I am pleading with your Excellency to consider declaring the Western
portion of Mulaithivu also a Safety Zone for the sake of the innocent
civilians.” He has added that “We are also urgently requesting the
Tamil Tigers not to station themselves among the people in the safety
zone and fire their artillery- shells and rockets at the Army. This
will only increase more and more the death of civilians thus
endangering the safety of the people.”
Inhumane choices
The dilemma for the government is how to safeguard civilians while
also minimizing casualties among its own troops who are engaging in
intense battle with the LTTE. As an organization that is essentially
guerilla in nature, the LTTE requires the presence of civilians from
whom to draw sustenance as well as hide amongst. This is the second
reason why the civilians are considered to be trapped. The LTTE is
not permitting the civilians in their areas of control to move out
and seek refuge in places under government control which are no
longer battle zones. The LTTE has come in for strong criticism even
from the UN for not permitting its local staff to leave those areas
with their families in accordance with international law.
In times of war governments are presented with difficult choices to
make due to the inhumane and all or nothing nature of war. For the
past several weeks the attention of the international media was on
the fighting in the Gaza Strip between the Israeli defence forces and
Hamas. Hamas fought the Israeli defence forces from within the
civilian population. This made it extremely costly for Israel to
exploit its vastly superior advantage in terms of conventional
military hardware and obtain international support. In the short
space of two months, over 1000 civilians, including many women and
children, were killed at the hands of the Israeli forces.
When governments take decisions to inflict harm on civilian
populations, they may do so for reasons they can justify, especially
to hasten the end of war and to save the lives of their own
soldiers. In 1945, the United States used atomic bombs against Japan
for these reasons. But the verdict of history is invariably harsh on
those who cause such harm to civilian populations. Until the end of
time, the US will be condemned for utilizing the terrible weapon it
had developed that blighted the lives of innocent men, women and
children of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Israel was compelled to declare
a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza on account of international pressure
and the difficulties it faced in eliminating Hamas fighters in the
midst of the civilian population.
Humanitarian option
The Sri Lankan government is entitled to its military campaign
aimed at totally defeating the LTTE and ending the separatist war.
But the government needs to be mindful also of the fate of the
trapped civilians in Mullaitivu. Not only is the international
reputation of the government at stake, so is reconciliation in a post-
war Sri Lanka. Much more than the governments of the United States
and Israel, the Sri Lankan government needs to be mindful of the fate
of the people in Mullaitivu as they are its own citizens.
So far the government has declared areas in the north to be safety
zones and has issued public calls for the people to move into those
areas. But these calls have had only a limited effectiveness due to
the LTTE’s refusal to let them leave. By compelling the civilians to
remain, the LTTE is ensuring a human shield for itself and a pool for
recruitment. Relatively few civilians have been able or willing to
leave in defiance of the LTTE and in the midst of major military
operations. Therefore the government needs to consider the option of
a humanitarian truce for a limited period to permit the evacuation of
the trapped civilians.
In the game of chess, there is a possibility of the game ending in
a stalemate in which neither side wins. This situation of stalemate
can occur even if one side has the preponderance of pieces remaining
on the board. It appears that in Gaza, the Israeli government was
forced into a situation of stalemate despite its vastly superior
fighting machine. On the other hand in World War 2, the US forced
Japan into surrendering by resorting to the nuclear option and
carnage on the civilian population. The negotiation of the
evacuation of civilians through a humanitarian truce, if possible,
would certainly be the better way for Sri Lanka.
____
[3] Bangladesh:
(i)
Star Magazine
24 January 2009
LAWS OF DISCRIMINATION
Simi Banu's suicide seven years ago and the eventual unearthing of
the events leading to the fateful day was an awakening. There are
still laws in our country that are discriminatory towards women but
most importantly, despite the existence of some positive laws, this
and other cases show that the state machinery needed to provide
redress to women victims at grass roots level is still very frail.
Hana Shams Ahmed
A recent report by IRIN (Integrated Regional Information Networks)
highlighted an issue that has been neglected by the media for some
time now -- acid attacks and the failure of the authorities to
control it at the source. Although the number of cases of acid
attacks have gone down considerably (According to ASF, there were 192
reported cases of acid violence in 2007, down from 221 in 2006. In
2001 there were 349 cases and in 234 cases in 2000), the core problem
is far from over.
Although a mother gives birth, she is never the legal guardian of her
child.
The report revealed that the sale of acid (sulphuric and nitric acid)
is going on completely unchecked despite the government acts against
its sale, and a mechanism to keep it in check. In 2002, the
parliament enacted two laws against acid violence: Under the Acid
Control Act of 2002, the unlicensed production, import, transport,
storage, sale, and use of acid can result in a prison term of 3-10
years. Those who possess chemicals and equipment for the unlicensed
production of acid can get the same prison term. Jewellers use acid
widely to melt gold and other metals, and unfortunately there is no
effective monitoring to control the use and sale of this acid. The
caretaker government's mobile court drive in 2007 and early 2008 came
to an early demise, and after that there have been no follow-ups.
That has always been a problem with laws, especially laws regarding
women, enacted at a policy level but which do not get implemented
because of a weakly functioning mechanism. In a recent incident, a
woman who had gone to report a case of rape against her, and the duty
officer asked her to describe exactly how the rape took place. The
police are so insensitive about what a victim of rape or any other
gender crime goes through, that the victim often prefers to drop
charges.
Last month was the seventh death anniversary of Simi Banu. Her death,
which was recorded as a case of suicide, but in reality was result of
systematic harassment by local hoodlums, disregard by self-righteous
neighbours and ultimately failure of an unconcerned law-enforcing
agency, is a reminder for a change in state machinery related to
crimes against women.
“There are many laws to protect women but these laws are not enforced
properly,” says Salma Khan, the President of Women For Women,
“unfortunately the grievance reprisal machinery is too weak and
sometimes inaccessible. It's very important for the police to be
sensitised on such matters.”
There are many laws that are still discriminatory towards women. The
citizenship laws do not allow a Bangladeshi woman to pass on her
citizenship to a foreign husband, but if a man marries a woman his
wife automatically becomes a Bangladeshi citizen. There is also
discrimination in the Muslim Family Law and Hindu Law. Under Muslim
Law, “the wife (or wives taken together) get one-eighth if there is a
child, and one fourth if there be no child from the estate of her
husband, though the husband gets exactly double. Mother gets from the
estate of her sons one-sixth when there is child of her son or when
there are two or more brothers or sisters or one brother and one
sister of her son, and one third when there is no child and not more
than one brother or sister of her son. On the other hand, the father
gets from the estate of his son one-sixth if there be child of his
son and in the absence of any child of his son, he gets the entire
residue after satisfying other sharers claim, and so on and so
forth” ('Law for Muslim Women in Bangladesh', Sultana Kamal).
Muslim Law still allows polygamy “with the previous permission in
writing” from his first wife and a wife can only file for divorce
from her husband if her husband gives her the permission to do so in
a marriage certificate. A man, however, can divorce his wife whenever
he wants. Under Muslim Law a man is always the legal guardian of a
child and the mother only has temporary custody of the child up to a
certain age depending on the sex of the child. But she is not the
natural guardian either of the person or property of the child; the
father, or if he is dead his executor, is the legal guardian.
A Hindu woman is the most vulnerable. The rights and obligations of
Hindus are determined by the principles of Hindu law. “Although in
India the laws have been reformed,” says Khan, “because the
government of our country is very sensitive about how to deal with
Hindu groups our laws have remained the same.”
A Hindu woman in Bangladesh does not have the right to divorce.
According to Khan many people who consider themselves to be leaders
of their communities resist changes in their laws. “The present
government is in a position to amend these laws,” she says, “most
governments have been neglectful or scared to touch issues around
minority communities. In India Hindus enjoy almost complete equality
between men and woman, legally and a Hindu woman can divorce her
husband and they inherit the same amount of property as a man.” In
Bangladesh no Hindu woman can ask for a divorce.
For the first time in our country we have a woman as a Home Minister
and as a Foreign Minister. It is a great initiative of the government
to assign leadership positions to deserving women. Now is the best
time for the government to reform discriminatory laws against women,
and amend the state mechanism of redress towards women victims.
o o o
(ii)
The Daily Star
27 January 2009
STILL WAITING FOR JUSTICE
by Asma Kibria
IT has been four long years since my husband Shah A. M. S. Kibria,
M.P., was assassinated in a grenade attack at a political meeting in
his Habiganj constituency. It is difficult for me to express the
overwhelming sense of loss and grief I have felt every moment since
that terrible event of January 27, 2005. The worst part has been a
sense of helplessness as his murder has not even been properly
investigated and that the real culprits may get away without punishment.
We will never get back the person we have lost but, perhaps as his
family, we might at least obtain a sense of closure once his killers
are identified and punished under the laws of this country. So many
other families who have been the victims of murder have also been
waiting, sometimes for decades, for justice. It is important for all
the citizens of this country that such crimes should not go
unpunished. Where murderers operate with impunity not only is the
rule of law undermined, the integrity of the entire democratic
framework of governance is imperiled.
The problem goes back to the Liberation War of 1971, and the
subsequent failure to investigate and punish numerous crimes
perpetrated by the Pakistan army and its collaborators. This was
followed by the killing of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975, together with much of his family --
even his six-year old son was not spared by the murderers -- and soon
after, that the jail killing of the four national leaders.
All these terrible crimes remain a blot on the national psyche, given
the failure to complete the legal process, creating a sense of
impunity among those forces using murder as an accepted means of
dealing with political opponents. After the 2001 elections, victims'
families watched in horror as the killers of their loved ones took
office under the flag of the Republic.
The general elections of December 2008 may well be regarded as a
decisive turning point in the history of our nation. The electorate,
bolstered by a new generation with a strong commitment to the ideals
of the Liberation War -- unencumbered by the narrow communal hatreds
of an earlier age -- completely repudiated the politics of murder,
corruption and intimidation of the BNP-Jamaat-e-Islami coalition. In
constituency after constituency, the BNP-Jamaat leaders were swept
aside by members of the Awami League-led coalition, which achieved a
landslide victory, winning three-quarters of contested seats.
The assumption of office on January 10, by Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina -- daughter of the Father of the Nation -- brought a sense of
relief and renewed optimism to the people. There is a pervasive sense
that the dark age of mismanagement and misrule has at last come to an
end.
This victory has also rekindled the hope for justice among the
families of the victims of political murders. Perhaps few other
leaders will understand and empathise with our anguish as the prime
minister herself, who lost so many members of her family on that
terrible day in August 1975, and who herself was the intended target
of an assassination attempt in August 2004. We are hopeful that she
would give high priority to finally dealing with these crimes.
Since my husband's assassination, our family has carried out a
peaceful campaign of protest demanding the proper investigation and
justice for all such political murders. Our campaign met with a
gratifying degree of public support and participation, and we were
able to generate considerable interest both in Bangladesh and among
our friends overseas in my husband's case. Our campaign continued
during the darkest days of BNP-Jamaat misrule, ceasing only during
the period of the caretaker government when we did not receive
permission for even our peaceful demonstrations.
Shah Kibria returned to Bangladesh in 1992 and joined the Awami
League (AL), first as a member of the Advisory Council, later as
political advisor to Sheikh Hasina (then Leader of the Opposition)
and then, in 1996, as Co-Chairman of the AL Election Monitoring
Committee. During the 1996-2001 Awami League government headed by
Sheikh Hasina, he served as finance minister with considerable
distinction. While he was finance minister the country achieved
strong economic growth with low inflation, despite the catastrophic
floods of 1998.
Before he returned to Bangladesh my husband had a distinguished
career as a diplomat (he was secretary, foreign affairs in 1972 under
Bangabandhu) and a United Nations official (he was executive
secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the
Pacific in Bangkok from 1981 to 1992, holding the rank of under-
secretary general). Over the years he had developed an international
network of friends and admirers, many of whom have continued to
support us in our quest for justice. Throughout the period after his
death, agencies such as the International Parliamentary Union have
closely monitored the murder trial and investigation.
During the BNP-Jamaat government period, my husband's murder
investigation was carefully limited to avoid implicating the real
masterminds behind his assassination. A number of mid-level BNP
leaders of Habiganj were identified and arrested as the persons who
actually carried out the attack, but the investigators carefully
avoided two key questions; 1) who actually ordered the killing and,
2) what was the source of the grenades used in the attack.
There was an attempt to rush the case through the courts on the basis
of the incomplete investigation, which our lawyers successfully
resisted. The important thing is to ensure that a complete
investigation is undertaken before the case finally comes to trail,
and we faced a situation where the investigation was seriously
flawed. Key witnesses and members of the administration who were
likely to know about the events of that day were not questioned,
despite repeated demands through the courts.
A team of investigators from the FBI arrived soon after the
assassination but soon left, reportedly due to the lack of
cooperation by the government investigating team. Toward the end of
their tenure, the BNP-Jamaat government sought to turn the
investigation toward the outlawed terrorist group Harkat-ul-Jihad
(sometimes referred to as Huji). However, in statements to the press
the arrested members of this group admitted to involvement in various
attacks but always denied knowing anything about the Kibria
assassination.
Initially the investigation during the 2007-2008 caretaker government
followed a similar pattern to that during the BNP-Jamaat regime (at
first the same investigators were retained), except that they sought
to place the entire responsibility for the killing on the Harkat-ul-
Jihad, despite the fact that no direct motive could be established.
It was argued that the Harakat-ul-Jihad did actually carry out the
killing, but there was no attempt to identify those who actually
ordered it.
With the new Awami League government, we are hoping that a proper
investigation can finally be undertaken. There should now be no
problem in requesting FBI assistance for the investigation. This will
be particularly important as the FBI will be able to make an
assessment of the available forensic evidence (the forensic
capabilities of the Bangladesh police are very limited) and indicate
whether evidence available at the time of their 2005 visit is still
intact. There are fears that the investigators appointed by the BNP-
Jamaat government have systematically destroyed what evidence was
then available.
If there has been a cover-up and attempt to protect the real killers,
we would hope that the current government would have the resolve to
unearth the perpetrators and ensure that they are punished. The
criminal coterie behind the killings during the BNP-Jamaat regime
left behind many supporters in the police and civil administration.
It is vital for the survival of our democracy and the establishment
of the rule of law that that the killers and those that aided and
abetted them are identified and removed from positions of trust. Our
family and all other victims' families are now hoping that with the
new overnment we will get justice at last.
Asma Kibria is the wife of late S.A.M.S. Kibria.
_____
[4] INDIA'S INTERNAL WAR(S) ON TERROR: THE ONGOING COLLATERAL DAMAGE
Kashmir Times
23 January 2009
Editorial
PROBE ALL HR ABUSE CASES
Need to set up high-power commission
The 19th anniversary of the Gowkadal massacre in Srinagar not only
comes as a sad reminder of the untold atrocities committed by the
security forces in Kashmir, resorting to grave human rights abuses
during the past nearly two decades but also underlines the need to
probe all such cases and bring the guilty to book. The first massacre
of innocent people in Kashmir was witnessed on January 21, 1990 when
the trigger-happy CRPF men fired indiscriminately on peaceful
demonstrators killing more than fifty persons. Since then several
such massacres have taken place in different parts of the State. But
unfortunately there has been no credible probe into such human rights
abuses and the killers in most cases have gone scot free. Such grave
human rights abuses have been committed in different parts of the
State since 1990 with the beginning of the armed struggle for
azadi. Thousands have been arrested and were made to languish in
jails for years together and some of those detained have yet to be
set free. There have been several cases of mass rapes, killings in
custody, torture during detentions at the interrogation centres,
deaths of people in unprovoked firing, disappearance of a thousands
of youth whisked away by the security forces and other incidents of
human rights abuses. The wounds caused by them have yet to be healed
and the memory of such atrocities cannot fade out from the people’s
memory. The worst part of it is that most of these cases have
neither been probed in an independent and impartial manner nor those
guilty brought to book. Though the PDP-Congress coalition, which came
to power after 2002 elections had promised to pursue a policy of
healing touch, committing itself to put an end to the human rights
abuses it failed to order probe into all cases of human rights abuses
or even to strengthen the agency for checking such abuses. A few
initial half-hearted measures did create some hopes of justice but
these were not pursued to their logical end.
Omar Abdullah, who now heads the NC-Congress coalition, had made a
categorical commitment on the eve of 2008 elections for the State
assembly that if his party came to power its first task would be to
set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to probe into all cases
of human rights abuses and injustices and to pursue a process of
reconciliation at various levels. But within days of his assuming
office as the chief minister Omar has expressed his helplessness in
setting up such an institution. Asked by the mediapersons recently as
to when such a Commission would be set up, the chief minister said
that it was not possible to do so without the support of the
governments of India and Pakistan. Clearly he has backed out from his
commitment in this regard. Even if it is not possible for the chief
minister to go for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission on the
pattern of South Africa it is within his competence to atleast set
up a high power commission to probe into all cases of human rights
abuses in a credible and transparent manner to identify the culprits
and bring them to book. All the cases of human rights abuses should
be reopened and investigated afresh by the Commission. The chief
minister is also expected to take steps for strengthening the State’s
Human Rights Commission which should have the jurisdiction even over
the Indian armed forces deployed in Jammu and Kashmir. It is also
important to take necessary measures to scrap all draconian laws
including the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and the Public Safety
Act to create a climate of confidence for initiating a process of
dialogue for resolving the basic Kashmir issue. Similarly a large
number of people, who are still languishing in jails including those
arrested during the recent poll boycott campaign should be set free
and all cases against the political leaders and activists involved in
the struggle for azadi should be withdrawn. These steps are
necessary for any meaningful process of reconciliation.
o o o
Mail Today
January 22, 2009
KASHMIRI‘ TERRORIST’ ACQUITTED BY COURT
By Kumar Vikram in New Delhi
Judge raises doubts on Delhi Police’s Special Cell
RAISING serious doubts on the functioning of Delhi Police’s Special
Cell team, a city court acquitted a Kashmiri “ terrorist” on Thursday.
Ayaz Ahmad Shah alias Iqbal — allegedly member of Kashmiri terrorist
outfit Hizb- e- Islami — was arrested by a team of Delhi Police
Special Cell policemen headed by slain inspector Mohan Chand Sharma
in early 2004.
Questioning the police investigation, additional sessions judge R. K.
Jain in his verdict said: “ It appears officials of the Special Cell
were not vigilant enough in procuring the required sanction and
treated the present case as an ordinary case under Arms Act that has
resulted in lapses.
The benefit of all these lapses has to be given to the accused.”
Iqbal was nabbed at Shastri Park area near Welcome Metro Station on
January 22, 2004, allegedly with a bag containing explosives and Rs 3
lakh in cash. He was charged with bringing the explosives and hawala
money to wage war against the state.
However, all claims of the police fell flat with loopholes in the
prosecution and insufficient statements made during the trial.
Special Cell team member ASI Rishi Pal told the court he wasn’t sure
about the place Iqbal was arrested from.
Another team member, SI Jai Kishan, admitted no metro employee
accompanied the police team during the raid.
Similarly, another team member, SI Umesh Barthwal, failed to recall
during cross- examination how long the raid proceedings continued.
Taking into account the statements of the team members, the court
observed, “ Except socalled disclosure statement of the accused,
there is nothing on record even to indicate that the accused was
member of any terrorist outfit.” Pointing at the failure of the
prosecution, the court added, “ The prosecution has also failed to
prove that accused had entered into any criminal conspiracy to wage
war against the Government of India or in pursuance of that
conspiracy, had collected the explosive substance.”
o o o
Mail Today
January 22, 2009
BATLA HOUSE FLAK FOR COPS
THE DELHI High Court on Thursday sought an explanation from Delhi
Police for not initiating a magisterial inquiry into the Jamia Nagar
encounter, despite National Human Rights Commission ( NHRC)
guidelines to do so.
“ NHRC has been asking from the day one for compliance with the
guidelines ( for magisterial inquiry). Tell us what has been decided
by the Lt Governor ( L- G) on the issue,” a bench comprising Chief
Justice A. P. Shah and Justice Sanjeev Khanna said, directing the
police to file an affidavit.
The court was hearing a PIL filed by an NGO, Act Now for Harmony and
Democracy, seeking a judicial inquiry into the encounter on September
19 in which two suspected terrorists, allegedly involved in the Delhi
serial blasts, and inspector M. C. Sharma were killed.
Advocate Mukta Gupta, appearing for the police, said it has sought
the L- G’s permission for an inquiry.
o o o
Mail Today
24 January 2009
AZAMGARH TO CHARTER TRAIN FOR DELHI RALLY
By Piyush Srivastava in Lucknow
Community seethes over honour to cop killed in Batla House encounter
The UPA government’s delay in setting up a judicial probe into the
Batla House encounter has prompted the people of Azamgarh to organise
a protest rally in the Capital on January 29.
The community leaders plan to book a special train to bring
protesters to the Capital.
Two of the youngsters killed in the controversial encounter, Atif
Amin and Mohammad Sajid, were from the eastern UP district. Another
youth arrested from the shootout site, Mohammad Saif, was also from
Azamgarh. They were allegedly involved in several bomb blasts in the
country.
The community leaders, who met here on Friday, are peeved at the
announcement of Ashok Chakra for Delhi Police officer, M. C. Sharma,
who had died during the encounter on September 19 last year. The
congregation condemned the government for its “ double- standards”.
The people of Azamgarh believe it shows the dichotomy in the UPA — on
one hand it is toying with the idea of setting up a judicial probe
and on the other it is honouring a police officer involved in the
encounter even before reaching a conclusion.
“ Although it hurts to hear that Sharma will receive the highest
peacetime gallantry award, the fact remains that our focus is on
quashing the charges of terrorist activities levelled against the
people of Azamgarh,” said Amir Rasadi, convener of the Ulema Council.
“ Now that they have taken a decision on Sharma, we believe either
they will a take decision for us soon or we will force them to do so.
Our protest at Jantar Mantar is just a fresh beginning to achieve our
goal,” Rasadi added.
Union HRD minister Arjun Singh had said recently he was in favour of
a judicial inquiry and even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was of the
same opinion.
for Delhi rally So far, 22 coaches in several trains have been booked
to ferry people from Azamgarh to New Delhi on January 28 and for
their return the next day.
“ Since it is a self- motivated decision of every person of the
district to register his protest in New Delhi, the leaders of the
community have decided to plan it in an organised way.
There is every possibility that a special train would be flagged off
from Azamgarh railway station at 12 noon on January 28.
However, a large number of people have already booked seats for
themselves in various trains.
We hope at least three lakh people will assemble at Jantar Mantar,”
claimed Shahid Badra Falahi, former president of the Students Islamic
Movement of India ( SIMI).
Falahi was arrested in 2001, soon after a ban was imposed against the
SIMI. He was released later. He is currently pursuing a case in the
Supreme Court to get the ban lifted.
“ The latest announcement of the Centre to honour Sharma has pumped
in a new zeal among the people of the district to demand a judicial
probe into the Batla House encounter. Till Thursday evening, more
than 1.40 lakh people had confirmed their participation in the rally
at Jantar Mantar. This happened after the announcement of Sharma’s
name for the award,” said Tariq Shafiq, a member of the Peace
Committee constituted in Sanjarpur village, from where most of the
Batla House “ victims” hailed.
“ We are closely watching the political mood of the UPA and believe
that we can’t shift our focus from the safety of the youth of
Azamgarh to other issues. We are focussed and will keep protesting
till the Centre bows before our demand,” Shafiq added.
o o o
BINAYAK SEN: 19 MONTHS IN PRISON ON FABRICATED CHARGES
by Vinay Sitapati
http://www.freebinayaksen.org/?p=229
o o o
The Economic and Political Weekly
THE NHRC ON SALWA JUDUM: A MOST FRIENDLY INQUIRY
by K Balagopal
The Supreme Court, which is hearing writ petitions on the Salwa Judum
in Chhattisgarh asked the National Human Rights Commission to
constitute a fact finding committee that would prepare a report on
allegations “relating to violation of human rights by the Naxalites
and Salwa Judum”. The report, prepared by a group set up by the
police wing of the NHRC makes no pretence of neutrality or
objectivity. It reads like a partisan statement, whose tone and tenor
is to protect the Salwa Judum and its image from being tarnished by
allegations of crime. View Full Article
http://www.epw.in/uploads/articles/12988.pdf
_____
[5] Pakistan - India
Dawn 26 January 2009
PEACE ACTIVISTS ARE GREAT FOLKS, SO WHY ARE WE STILL IN TROUBLE?
by Jawed Naqvi
A GROUP of battle-scarred peace activists from Pakistan was in Delhi
last week. They included fighters for human rights, champions of free
media, politicians who take on military dictators and freethinkers
who work for democracy at home and peace in the neighbourhood. The
unflappable and courageous Musarrat Hilali, vice-chairperson of the
National Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in the NWFP, who has
lost friends and associates battling the Taliban’s stranglehold in
her homeland, particularly struck me as one who needed to be heard
and seen in India.
It is tempting to compare her with Sharmila Irom of Manipur. Her fast
unto death now on for over six years against the draconian Armed
Forces Special Powers Act in her state will inspire future generation
of rights workers across India. Or Musarrat’s challenges could be
even as threatening as Geetaben’s, the brave Hindu woman who was
stripped and lynched in the streets of Gujarat by members of her own
faith, because she was married to a Muslim, or Teesta Setalvad who
fights religious bigotry in Gujarat and in the den of Shiv Sena in
Mumbai.
Musarrat shared her experiences of a region where only the other day
the bullet-ridden body of Shabana, the renowned dancer, was thrown in
the centre of Mingora’s Green Square with two messages to the locals
in the Swat Valley’s largest town: “un-Islamic vices” will no longer
be tolerated, and the Taliban is now effectively in control.
Shabana’s body was found slumped on the ground, strewn with bank
notes, CDs of her dance performances and pictures from her photo
album. In case someone missed the point the Taliban commander Maulana
Shah Dauran broadcast a warning on one of its FM radio stations in
the valley that his men had killed her and if any other girls were
found performing in the city’s Banr Bazaar they would be killed “one
by one”.
The fact that Musarrat was largely ignored by Indian TV and
newspapers during her two or three days in Delhi speaks more for the
self-absorbed Indian media and its blinkered views about Pakistan,
than about the insights she could have shared about an inaccessible
region that has become a fountainhead of zealotry, a painful bout of
which India experienced recently in Mumbai. Asma Jehangir, Salima
Hashmi, I.A. Rehman were the other main interlocutors in the 24-
member delegation that came here as South Asians for Human Rights
(SAHR).
The group mostly included individuals who work in different fields in
Pakistan under extremely adverse conditions, who have faced
authoritarian governments and religious fanatics alike, and if I am
not wrong most of them have been to jail at some point in their
endless battles with state and non-state actors who cross their path.
They are a truly laudable lot and there’s no one I can think of in
India among the so-called civil society folks, who match their gutsy
resolve to fight for democracy and liberal ideals as they do in
Pakistan.
It was heartbreaking that with so much to offer in the cause of our
shared fight against religious terrorism, the group was not given the
audience they deserved. I am inclined to believe that it had to do
with the mythology the Indian media nurtures about its notions of
Pakistanis. Indian channels are happy to show repeated looped shots
of a mullah on a Pakistani channel ranting that India be destroyed,
if necessary with nuclear weapons. The mullah-stereotype fits snugly
with the image needed to whip up hysteria with Indian audiences
whenever it is needed, as we saw happening when Mumbai was attacked.
Voices of sanity of the kind that SAHR or ANHAD or SANGAT, the groups
that hosted the visit, bring to an India-Pakistan discourse are
sought to be drowned chiefly because they question the stereotype.
Part of the blame for the low exposure the visitors received – and
blame should be apportioned to avoid future hiccups must go to the
habit of sectarianism that contuse to stalk the left and liberal
groups in India. That alone may have prevented several major groups
in Delhi from actively participating in the peace mission. I asked
the Pakistanis if they faced a problem like it in their country.
“Thank God, in Pakistan the mullahs are victims of their own
sectarianism,” was the cheerful reply. Thank God for small mercies,
indeed. I am sure, therefore, that if the net were cast wide enough
and everyone who had a track record in speaking up for peace,
democracy and fundamental rights was posted an invite, it would have
made a big difference to the ambience, if not necessarily the outcome
of the visit. The only group that brought 15,000 people on the
streets of Delhi to condemn the war drums after Mumbai, and which,
true to form, was ignored by the Indian TV channels, was the
Communist Party of India (ML). They appeared to be shunned, though
not by design surely, from the discussions that were organised with
the Pakistani peace mission. It’s unforgivable.
At another level, there is a mismatch between the spaces that civil
society groups have forged for themselves in Pakistan and their
Indian groups who are getting increasingly marginalised from the
mainstream struggles. The Pakistanis have thrown out a military
dictator, restored the dignity of their judiciary and generally
created a consensus for democracy to strike roots in an otherwise
difficult terrain in their country. They are standing tall even in
the unequal battle against religious fundamentalism. Indians were way
ahead of their Pakistani counterparts in having a better-
choreographed struggle, like the one they displayed in the overthrow
of the emergency regime.
Moreover, they always have the inherent advantage of getting even
with the government, or even the system, thanks to a degree of stable
democracy that exists, although democracy by ballot alone can be
harnessed to nefarious objectives as we see happening in Gujarat. At
any rate, there is a greater need for Indian left and liberal groups
to come together to fight for their spaces before it is too late.
Their Pakistani counterparts and those from other surrounding
countries equally engaged in struggles against religious tyranny and
economic emancipation can thus join a more robust struggle in India.
Asma Jehangir led the group from Pakistan. It made all the right
observations, though the logic of peace quite evidently failed to
pierce the armour of jingoism. They indicated this to be the case.
Some of the groups the peace mission met were “negative and
untrusting”, some called for “surgical strikes”, but “the
overwhelming voices we have heard have expressed a strong need for
peace and understanding, despite the sorrow and anguish they continue
to have regarding the Mumbai attacks”, an end of visit statement
said. This brings me to an observation once made by Arundhati Roy,
another person who was not invited to last week’s discussions, that
civil society groups or and NGOs are not an effective substitute for
a political movement. In the absence of a vibrant political campaign,
well-meaning visits like SAHR’s would amount to no more than Band-Aid
to help heal a hemorrhage. The answer perhaps does not lie in
engaging rightwing hawks, as key members of the delegation tried to
do, but in fortifying the shrinking liberal political space, and
expanding it. That’s a lot tougher than finding grudging space on TV
channels or newspapers.
_____
[6] India: Shrinking Secular Space
sacw.net, 27 January 2009
THE IDEOLOGICAL AND INSTITUTIONAL INCORPORATION OF DALITS INTO
HINDUTVA MAELSTORM
by Subhash Gatade
There are many lower orders in the Hindu society whose economic,
political and social needs are the same as those of majority of
Muslims and they would be far more ready to make a common cause with
the Muslims for achieving common ends than they would with the high
caste hindus who have denied and deprived them of ordinary human
rights for centuries.
— Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar - Writings and Speeches Vol 8., P. 359
(“[U]ntouchability, is a kind of disease of the Hindus..it is a
mental twist.. I do not know how my friend is going to untwist the
twist which the Hindus have got for thousands of years unless they
are all sent to some kind of hospital.’
— Dr B.R.Ambedkar , 1954 , Quoted in Bhagwan Das, 95 :53).
INTRODUCTION
Dalits, or ex ’untouchables’, comprising one-sixth of India’s
population, a majority of whom still live at the bottom of the social
hierarchy called caste system live a precarious existence. The plight
of this section - which is routinely discriminated against and
subjected to overt-covert violence of many forms - has of late been
much discussed in the international fora as well.
There is no denying the fact that despite half-a-century of
constitutional measures - which has helped a minority among it
benefit from the affirmative action programmes and has helped
emergence of a more vocal and assertive section among it - the system
of exclusion in the form of untouchability continues in myriad ways
and forms. Dalits till date are denied entry into temples or served
tea in different glasses in hotels and restaurants or are not allowed
to draw water from government wells which are situated in dominant
caste areas or dalit women are driven to prostitution thru’ religious
customs like Devadasi or are forced to do menial and polluting jobs
like scavenging. And it is a sign of the longevity of this system
that despite many a superficial changes due to the compulsions of
modernity it has maintained the core of purity and pollution intact.
Of late one is witness to the growing awareness about the plight of
this section of society. Individual researchers, political-social
formations as well as national-international institutions have come
forward to document the present lifeworlds of the dalits in all its
dimensions and present action plans to ameliorate their situation.
The latest report submitted by the United Nations ’Committee on the
Elimination of Racial Discrimination ’ presented in its seventieth
session ( 19 February - 9 th March 2007) could be considered a
classic case which has tremendous import for the policymakers as well
as activists.
The following writeup does not intend to summarise what is being said
in all the earlier reports nor does it want to reemphasise the
’hidden apartheid’ practised by the rest of the civil society towards
the dalits, which has yet to make a radical rupture with the ideology
of purity and pollution even in the wee hours of 21 st century.
One could say that one wants to take a dispassionate look at an
emergent phenomenon in the lifeworlds of the dalits themselves. And
it pertains to what is popularly understood as growing fascination of
a section of the dalits towards Hindutva.
The genocide in Gujarat (2002) led by the organisations affiliated to
the Sangh Parivar - which officially saw deaths of more than a
thousand innocent people - has made us aware of this ’detour’ in the
trajectory of the dalit movement. Close watchers of the dalit
scenario who have seen militancy of this section on various issues of
social concern ( may it be the street battles in Bombay between
activists of the Dalit Panthers and the Shiv Sena in early 70s or
their long drawn struggle to rename a university to commemorate
Ambedkar’s contribution in the field of education) and their inbuilt
hatred for the project for Brahminical fascism presented as Hindutva
are baffled by the newfound bonhomie between forces of Hindutva and a
section of Ambedkar’s own followers.
It is no less significant that this phenomenon of inversion of dalit
consciousness and communalisation of the movement has occured / is
occuring in the backdrop of the greater dalit assertion which had
made its presence felt in the 90s - a phenomenon which has helped
unleash the process of deepening and widening of democracy. It cannot
be denied that wherever radical or democratic forces are strong, or
dalits are a dominant partner in the political arithmetic, one finds
that a large section of the dalit masses have aligned themselves with
them and are engaged in struggles of dignity and livelihood and
political power and seem to be aware of the designs of the Hindutva
brigade. It has also been well documented that while a section of the
thinking dalits has shown affinity towards the Hindutva project or
preferred to side with the marauders of the Hindutva brigade during
the genocide, a significant section among them decided to side with
the minorities despite heavy odds and helped save them from the
impending attacks. 1
[. . .]
FULL TEXT AT:
http://www.sacw.net/article544.html
_____
[7] India: Hindutva's Morality police in Karnataka
The Indian Express
January 27, 2009
Editorial
GIRLS, INTERRUPTED
Whether it takes place in Afghan wastelands, in Mangalore or in
Margaret Atwood’s dystopian republic of Gilead, one thing is obvious:
every form of religious coercion involves the regulation and control
of female behaviour. In a disgraceful incident, around 20 members of
the Sri Rama Sena, a stray sprout of the Bajrang Dal, barged into a
pub called Amnesia in Mangalore and roughed up the young women
drinking there — “in the interests of society”. “There are some
activities going on here that spoil Hindu tradition. We’ve just shown
our frustration at that assault on Indian tradition. We don’t like
such indecent behaviour and tried to stop it,” said a spokesman.
At one level, these actions are sanctioned, and further encourage a
latent puritanism, the kind that is deeply threatened by modernity
and dark subversions like women enjoying alcohol. They also rouse a
visceral disgust among normal freethinking citizens, and it is vital
that events like this should emphatically demonstrate whose side the
state is on. Some politicians have called it an intolerable
“Talibanisation of India”, while others have been reluctant to even
label the group “Hindu”. But whatever the credentials and motives of
the organisation, they are undeniably part of the same phalanx of
intolerance — one that plays politics with faith and culture, and
instrumentalises beliefs for their own malign ends.
Any act of intimidation (even one as lowdown as a large group of men
brutalising a few girls) ensures that these groups get on the
national radar. As Raj Thackeray’s tactics in Mumbai have proven,
swinging out wildly with your fists and picking on the most
vulnerable is the unofficial route to political prominence.
Incidents of barbarity and violence have been steadily rising in
Karnataka and elsewhere over the past few years. They range from
raids on rave parties to churches being attacked and despoiled by
these self-appointed keepers of the Hindu flame. This time, Karnataka
appears to have taken this incident seriously, giving the police full
authority to clamp down on the perpetrators. But unless we take every
opportunity to bludgeon home the point that these tactics will not be
tolerated, these incidents will continue to mar India. It is a clash
between civilisation and bigotry, and the stakes run deep.
o o o
The Hindu
27 January 2009
‘WE WERE MOLESTED IN THE NAME OF GOD ’
by Sudipto Mondal
MANGALORE: “The entire scene has been playing out in my mind over and
over again,” said a woman who was in ‘Amnesia,’ the pub that was
attacked by a mob of Sri Ram Sene members on Saturday. She was
sitting at the reception counter when the mob entered the compound
and was witness to the incident from beginning to end.
She said that before barging into the pub, the mob went into a huddle
and prayed silently. They then began raising slogans ‘Bharat Mata ki
Jai,’ ‘Jai Sri Ram,’ ‘Bajrang Dal ki Jai’ and ‘Sri Ram Sene ki Jai.’
“We have been molested and humiliated in the name of God and country
by people who obviously have no regard for either of the two,” she
told The Hindu on Monday.
Around 4 p.m. on January 24, a group of over 40 people, wearing
saffron headbands and scarves, came in through the main gate and
approached the bouncer of the pub. “They asked to be let in so that
they could get everybody out of the joint,” she said. Even as the
bouncers negotiated with them at the entrance, the pub’s staff
quickly closed the doors, and locked the woman and the bouncers outside.
Hearing the noise, a curious kitchen staffer opened the rear door to
see what was happening. The mob seized this opportunity and barged in
through the kitchen. The victim too followed the mob indoors through
the back door. “Once inside, they went straight for the women guests.
They rounded them up at the centre of the dance floor and then
started beating them mercilessly,” she said. After the initial
beating, some of the assailants began to single out some of them and
molested them.
“One of them stripped a girl and groped her. She was also badly
beaten up. We are still trying to trace her,” she said. According to
her, several girls were targeted similarly. “They were laughing when
they were doing all this. It was just fun for them,” she said. The
attackers then targeted the men who dared come to the rescue of the
girls. The narrator herself was slapped a few times.
What tormented her was the reaction of certain sections of the media.
“They arrived on the scene even before the attackers did,” she said,
and added, “there was no nude dancing or prostitution going on there
as reported.”
She and a few other victims are now trying to form a support group of
those who were attacked in the incident. “Some of the women are in
shock because of the humiliation they had to face on television,” she
said. “We are trying to get professional counsellors for the victims
and for their families.”
Asserting her right to frequent the pub, she said, “We will also soon
launch a protest on the streets to voice our opposition. We want to
tell the world that we will not tolerate the growth of a Taliban-
style group in this city.”
_____
[8]
Opium and Empire
Historical Novelist Amitav Ghosh in conversation with Kwame Anthony
Appiah on Ghosh’s new novel, Sea of Poppies
NEW YORK, December 15, 2008 - Great Britain's 19th-century opium
trade, and its wide-ranging impact, became a central topic of
conversation between novelist Amitav Ghosh and Princeton philosopher
and cultural theorist Kwame Anthony Appiah when the two sat down
together at Asia Society to discuss Ghosh’s new novel, Sea of
Poppies. Short-listed for the Booker Prize, and the first volume of a
projected trilogy, the novel is a sweeping historical epic following
the voyage of the Ibis, a ship transporting Indian coolies,
criminals, and opium to Mauritius in 1838.
Video (1 hr., 23 min.)
http://media.asiasociety.org/video/081215_amitav_ghosh_complete.flv
_____
Announcements:
(i)
Join us at T2F's Science Ka Adda as we explore the Big Bang Machine
Date: 29th January 2009 | Time: 7:00 pm
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), is the world's largest, most
expensive science experiment, running through a 26-kilometer
underground tunnel below pastures near Geneva, Switzerland. The
experiment will collide two beams of protons - miniscule sub-atomic
particles that are key building blocks of every atom - with the hope
of creating never-before-seen particles that will give us a better
understanding the fundamentals of matter, and how the universe worked
in the first split second after the Big Bang.
Some say the experiment could destroy the planet, by creating tiny
black holes that would swallow the planet from the inside out. But
Mason Inman will explain why you shouldn't worry - and along the way,
explain how it was built over the last 10 years, how smashing
together particles allows physicists to understand the forces of
nature and the universe's history, and what they hope to discover in
these experiments.
No prior understanding of physics needed.
Mason Inman is a science journalist from the U.S., now based in
Karachi. After getting his Bachelor's in physics, he went to
journalism school, then later worked in the press office at CERN
while the LHC was under construction. He writes regularly on physics,
climate change, and more, for National Geographic News, New
Scientist, Science, Nature, and other publications.
Date: Thursday, 29th January 2009
Time: 7:00 pm
Minimum Donation: Rs. 100
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
Seats are limited and will be available on a 'first come, first
served' basis. No reservations.
Other Events at T2F This Week
The Poet & The Pragmatist: A Conversation about Iqbal and Jinnah
Tuesday 27th January 2009 | 7:00 pm
Details: Hosted by Pakistan Citizen's Resolution - http://
www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=110560885229
No Man's Land / Everybody's Land - Glaring in Defiance: 3 Days of
Film Screenings Exploring Partitions
Friday 30th January - Sunday 1st February 2009
Details and Full Screening Schedule: http://www.t2f.biz/no-mans-land/
- - -
(ii)
INSAANIYAT INVITES YOU TO
“Terrorism and Democracy: resisting the cultural and legal backlash”
talks by
Vrinda Grover & Saeed Mirza
Lawyer and Human Rights Activist Writer and Film Director
Tough laws do not enhance peoples’ security, they only strengthen
authoritarian tendencies in the State. The aftermath of the November
terror strikes has seen a rapid recourse to draconian legislation
based on a principle (Presumption of guilt at the threshold) which is
contrary to international law. We are also seeing a concerted drive
to impose a de facto ban on performers, literature, music, etc. from
Pakistan. What can we do to resist such bigotry and cultural fascism?
Venue: Conference Room, The Press Club, Mumbai
Time and date : 6.00 – 8.00 p.m. Friday 30th January 2009
The meeting will be chaired by Mihir Desai
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
S o u t h A s i a C i t i z e n s W i r e
Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), on
matters of peace and democratisation in South
Asia. An offshoot of South Asia Citizens Web: www.sacw.net/
DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not
necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers.
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