SACW | May 2-4, 2009 / Afghan Women Who Defy /Nepal Crisis / India Ajmer Blasts Hindutva hand

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire | May 2-4, 2009 | Dispatch No. 2621 - Year  
11 running
From: www.sacw.net

[1] Bangladesh: Seizure of posters betrays intolerance to criticism  
(Editorial, New Age)
[2] Sri Lanka: Island of blood (Meenakshi Ganguly)
[3] Nepal: Constitutional crisis (Kanak Mani Dixit)
[4] Pakistan:
   - A Pak-US game (M.B. Naqvi)
   - In Islamabad, a Sense of Foreboding (Pamela Constable)
[5] Afghanistan: Defying threats, fighting oppression - the woman  
leading protests (Tom Coghlan)
[6] India - Pakistan: Resurrecting peace process
[7] India: The politics of the ethical (Harsh Mander)
[8] India:  Supreme Court's Fast Track Courts on Gujarat Riots of  
2002 - Commentary
   - Gujarat Carnage-Role of Narendra Modi (Ram Puniyani)
   - Where silence prevails, justice will not (Siddharth Varadarajan)
   - Poor Sense Of Timing (Rajeev Dhavan)
[9] India: Ajmer Blasts - Revisiting Hindutva Terror (Subhash Gatade)
   + A Rising Anger in India's Streets - Hindu Extremists Lash Out  
Against Symbols of Change (Emily Wax)
   + Exploring Gender, Hindutva and Seva  (Swati Dyahadroy)
[10] Announcements:
   - Condolence Meeting for Ahilya Rangnekar (Bombay, 5 May 2009)

_____


[1] Bangladesh:

New Age
May 3, 2009

Editorial

SEIZURE OF POSTERS BETRAYS INTOLERANCE TO CRITICISM

THE freedom of thought and conscience is a constitutionally ordained  
fundamental right, and so is the freedom of speech and expression.  
Just as the people reserve the right to praise a government, so do  
they reserve the right to criticise the government in a manner they  
deem fit. When the elected government of the Awami League-led  
political combine took over from the military-controlled interim  
government, which kept the fundamental rights of the people under a  
state of emergency through its tenure of nearly two years, the people  
expected the new administration to protect and promote their rights  
as enshrined in the constitution. However, if the confiscation on  
April 29 by a law enforcement agency of the state of posters  
reportedly criticising the government’s performance in its first 100  
days were to be taken as the government’s attitude towards dissenting  
views, there are valid reasons to be concerned.
    As reported in the national media, officials of the detective  
police, acting on a tip-off, raided a printing press at Fakirerpool  
in the capital Dhaka on the night of April 29 and seized 20,000  
posters which, the claimed, were anti-government. The police said the  
posters were inscribed with the words ‘the failure of the government  
during its first 100 days in office’. While no one was arrested  
immediately, the police were on the lookout for a designer who had  
allegedly ordered for the posters to be printed.
    In our view, at this point in time, it is more pertinent to find  
out under which law the law enforcers confiscated the posters than  
who ordered for the posters to be printed. The constitution says the  
right of every citizen to freedom of speech and expression is  
guaranteed ‘[s]ubject to any reasonable restrictions imposed by law  
in the interests of the security of the State, friendly relations  
with foreign states, public order, decency or morality, or in  
contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence’. The  
authorities need to explain why and how criticism of the government’s  
failure in its first 100 days, which is what the posters were  
apparently about according to the police statement, necessitated  
invocation of the constitutional caveats.
    Otherwise, it would seem that the law enforcement agency in  
question may have been in violation of the constitutional decree for  
the people’s rights to freedom of thought and conscience, and of  
speech and expression. Worrying still, it would cast the current  
government in poor light and could be construed as the government’s  
intolerance to any critical appraisals of its words and deeds. The  
ruling Awami League-led political alliance has come to power on its  
pre-election promise for change in politics and governance for the  
better. The April 29 incident hardly indicates any breakaway from the  
practices of the past.

_____


[2] Sri Lanka:

Hindustan Times
  	
ISLAND OF BLOOD

by Meenakshi Ganguly
April 30, 2009
		
If there were a chessboard to demonstrate the war between Sri Lankan  
forces and the LTTE, the pawns would be wearing sarongs and saris.  
These individuals — civilians, not soldiers — are the war’s  
‘collateral damage’. Human rights groups are despised by both for  
they don’t understand this mathematics and mourn over the increasing  
number of corpses.

The LTTE is responsible for human rights abuses — forcibly recruiting  
people, turning schoolchildren into combatants, indiscriminate  
killings, using landmines and human bombs. Successive Sri Lankan  
governments, in order to appease the Sinhalese population, have  
failed to address the grievances of the Tamils, thus, building  
support for the Tigers.

To ensure its success, the government has chosen to silence the  
dissidents. Those who criticise its actions or policies are accused  
of being closet LTTE supporters; they are either shot down by unknown  
gunmen or men in vans prowling the streets of Colombo makes them  
‘disappear’. Journalists and human rights defenders live in constant  
fear.

The military has made gains in reclaiming virtually all of northern  
Sri Lanka previously under the LTTE. The withdrawing Tigers have  
taken with them civilians to be used as combatants, provide labour to  
build trenches or serve as human shields. These are the people that  
the LTTE claims to represent and protect, and yet, it is deliberately  
putting them in danger.

For over two years, the Sri Lankan government knew that civilians  
were being forced to accompany the retreating Tigers, yet it did  
nothing about their safety. Instead, the detention camps house around  
60,000 of those who managed to escape the
LTTE’s writ. They now feel that they will be persecuted when the war  
is over.

Even with reports of civilian casualties pouring in, the government  
has denied that it is targeting civilians. Credible reports, however,  
prove it’s a lie. The military says that those killed are not  
necessarily civilians. A senior Sri Lankan diplomat has reportedly  
said, “A fighter doesn’t become a civilian when he dons a sarong.”  
Health Secretary Athula Kahandaliyanage had stated, “It’s been found  
that terrorists fight in civil clothes and when they get wounded they  
can be mistakenly considered as civilians”. He added that there could  
be accidental injuries to non-combatants if they were in the line of  
fire.

While some information is available, it’s still impossible to know  
what’s going on in the combat zones. The government has booted out  
almost all humanitarian agencies and has kept independent journalists  
away from the war zone. With both parties engrossed in their  
mathematics of disaster, it is up to India, with its historical  
engagement in the conflict, to take decisive steps to ensure the  
safety of war victims. It should work with other governments that  
oppose the LTTE. It should also encourage those members of the Tamil  
diaspora who have backed the Tigers to speak up for the safety of  
Tamil civilians.

The LTTE must end its policy of risking civilians’ lives and should  
allow them to flee the combat zone. The Sri Lankan government should  
make efforts to rescue and protect civilians. Both sides should work  
towards an emergency evacuation plan for civilians before more die or  
are maimed. For each passing day is a stain on the consciences of  
those who could have saved new victims.

(Meenakshi Ganguly works with Human Rights Watch, South Asia)


_____


[3] Nepal:


Nepali Times
4 May 2009

CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS
The Maoist ouster of the army chief has endangered the peace process

by Kanak Mani Dixit

For two weeks, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal had sought to oust  
the Chief of Army Staff Rookmangud Katawal. On Sunday morning, the  
Maoists Chairman moved to unilaterally show him the door, at a  
cabinet meeting
boycotted by all his coalition partners. The prime minister's action  
ignited exhilaration among the Maoist cadre while inviting a  
constitutional crisis that embroils him in a confrontation not only  
with all the other major parties, but also President Ram Baran Yadav.

On 20 April, the Prime Minister had sought an explanation from  
Katawal for alleged insubordination on several counts, clearly with  
the intent of sacking him regardless of the answers furnished. Even  
as his own party leadership clamoured for Katawal's sacking,  
President Yadav advised that the prime minister only act in  
accordance with the interim constitution, which decisions to be taken  
by consensus of all political players in the context of the ongoing  
peace process.

Even as the Maoists sought to steamroll the issue, the two main  
coalition partners - the Communist Party of Nepal (UML) and the  
Madhesi Janadhikar Forum - came to the conclusion that there was not  
enough reason to sack
the CoAS. They felt that the action would break with the tradition of  
succession in the Nepal Army and affect morale of an important  
institution of state that had remained out of the complete grasp of  
the Maoists.

Apparently concerned about the political instability that the sacking  
would invite in the neighbouring country, the Indian Foreign Office  
went into overdrive to get the Maoists to pull back. Ambassador  
Rakesh Sood met Prime Minister Dahal half a dozen times over the last  
two weeks, warning of New Delhi's displeasure with the threatened  
move. In between, Mr. Sood made a dash for Delhi for consultations in  
South Block.

CoAS Katawal is a haughty soldier who had deep links to the royal  
regime of the past, and was given to ronouncements that verged on the  
political.He wrote articles under a nom de plume that supported the  
royal
adventurism after February 2005. Yet Gen. Katawal is also credited by  
some for having played a role in convincing King Gyanendra to bow  
before the force of the People's Movement of April 2006. Under his  
watch, the army
did remain true to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2007, and  
watched the peaceful declaration of republic from the sidelines.

Since Gen Katawal had only four months to go before retirement, what  
was the hurry for the Maoists to see his departure through an ouster.  
As best as one can make out, the rush had to do with the  
'integration' Maoist
combatants into the national army. The earlier gentleman's  
understanding with the other parties was of individual entry of  
combatants into the army according to the regular recruitment standards.

Energised by their electoral win in April 2008, the Maoists moved the  
goalpost, demanding a full merger of the two forces to make up a true  
national army. They see CoAS Katawal as implacably opposed to the  
move, and seem to have bargained with some of his associates to be  
more flexible.

As the crisis grew over the last two weeks, the Maoist leadership  
sought to label this as a battle for 'civilian supremacy' over the  
army. It is of course true that the lack of civilian control over the  
military has invited many accidents for Nepali democracy since as far  
back as 1959. However, civilian supremacy in the current context does  
not mean submitting to the Maoist definition of the term and principle.

Under the interim constitution during a time of transition to peace,  
civilian supremacy refers not merely to the elected government but  
also the other political forces with whom it is duty-bound to seek  
consensus. This means not only the UML and MJF, but also the Nepali  
Congress in opposition. The argument for civilian supremacy as  
proposed fails the
credibility test also because the peace process is still not ended,  
and the political party which leads the government and invokes the  
principle has its own combatant force of 19,000 plus, in cantonments  
around the country.

The procedures used on Sunday by Prime Minister Dahal was to take a  
unilateral decision that has been disavowed by his partners in  
government, and sending a note 'for information' to President Yadav.  
The constitutional President is also the supreme commander of the  
Nepal Army, who clearly has to be taken into confidence as it is his  
constitutional duty to formally apoint the CoAS.

After insisting many times over the last week that the Prime Minister  
move on the Army chief only through consensus, the President on  
Sunday responded to the government's decision by suggesting that it  
was against
due process. This is where matters stood on Sunday evening. The  
Maoist move has created a constitutional crisis in Nepal, their  
cadres are in a triumphant mood, while the rest of the polity wonders  
what is the way out of the danger zone.


_____


[4] Pakistan:

(i)

The Daily Star
  May 4, 2009

A PAK-US GAME

by M.B. Naqvi

SERIOUS talks are going on between the US and Pakistan. The two,  
allies for 55 years, have complaints against each other. It looks  
like a scene from a film in which two middle aged lovers are doing a  
tango and letting out their heartfelt complaints on one side and  
reassurances on the other.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke to a Congressional  
committee recently. She conceded that America was wrong to have left  
Pakistan alone to clean up the mess that the Americans had left  
behind in Afghanistan since 1989 when the Russians withdrew. True,  
Pakistan has now made it a major complaint, though this writer's  
assessment at the time was that Pakistanis were pleased as punch at  
having inherited Afghanistan all to themselves.

Pakistanis had their own mini imperial dreams of utilising the  
Mujahideen elsewhere (in Kashmir). They did it successfully after the  
Indians initially accepted the doctrine of mutual deterrence;  
Pakistan was able to inflict a thousand cuts on India without the  
latter being able to fight back properly. Clinton also admitted that  
the US was wrong then and, by implication it, has to do right now.  
Which means giving Pakistan more aid and accommodating some of its  
wishes.

The US is really panic-stricken. Pakistanis have, whether by design  
or by sheer inability to prevent, shown that American supplies  
through Pakistan from Karachi to Torkhum and Bagram in Afghanistan  
are no longer safer. There is word that the other supply line from  
Karachi to Chaman and Kandhar may also not remain safe for long. The  
Americans have seen this as Pakistani blackmail. Will it succeed, if  
it is contrived? No one can predict accurately.

The Americans have no real alternative to Pakistan. In theory, there  
are two possible routes to Afghanistan; one is through Russian  
territory, and of many other former Soviet republics, on to  
Afghanistan. It is negotiating separate deals with the countries  
involved, but they are under Russian influence and Russians cannot be  
relied upon to be as a faithful to today's commitments as Americans  
might want. It is a more expensive and time-consuming route.  
Additionally, they may not permit war equipment to pass through their  
territory.

The second alternative is through Iran. It would mean swallowing a  
huge amount of wordage emitted by the US to demonise Iran. It would  
mean humiliation in the US at one end and possibly anger in the most  
trusted ally of Americans in the Middle East, Israel. Can the  
American administration carry it through? America recognises that  
Iran is vital to many problems in the ME, particularly in Iraq. Even  
in Afghanistan the Iranians can be useful in other ways.

But Pakistan remains a riveting subject for the US. It is certainly  
the epicentre of Islamic extremism. The ideas and political trends  
that emanate from here go far and wide. America had developed a  
logical strategy to meet the situation. Noting that Pakistan's  
political class and its army have to hang on to the coattails of  
Uncle Sam, the Pakistani political class needs only plenty of dollars  
for the mismanaged country and the economy as also for personal  
enrichment.

America's strategy now is to give plenty of money to Pakistan and  
other supplies to the army. Make them happy. Maybe they will  
cooperate. They have no other real option, just as America has no  
other choice. This is the stern logic of geography.

There is another qualification of Pakistan. As Kissinger put it the  
other day, Pakistan has so many nukes but "no government." The state  
seems to be unravelling to every outside observer, and it is  
vulnerable in so many ways. It is as inefficient and corrupt as  
Chiang Kaishek's Kuomintang government was in 1939. Pakistan is  
inherently more so because of its political trends.

The Taliban are displacing the Pakistan state at a faster pace than  
people had thought only a few months ago. The US has got to save it  
for the sake of India and Bangladesh also. Pakistan cannot be allowed  
to fail. It is only the US and the west that have got to prevent  
South Asia going haywire.

The problem is Pakistan's implied threat of cutting the supply lines  
from Pakistan to Afghanistan. The Taliban have interdicted the supply  
line near Peshawar many times, which could possibly be the state  
strategy to remind the Americans how vulnerable they are. And it can  
also be an indicator of the failure of the Pakistan state to  
safeguard these supply lines.

The real trouble between Pakistan and America is the American desire  
to include India, with its Kashmir problem, in a comprehensive  
solution to the regional problems. Deep down, the US wants Pakistan  
to make up with India, and not compete as a rival.

This runs contrary to the rationale for Pakistan. It is the basis of  
today's foreign policy, and it is nationalism that was meant to keep  
Pakistan united and moving forward in an anti-Indian direction.  
Friendship with India might rock Pakistan in the eyes of its  
political class and security establishment. It has reason to be  
worried. This is a major hurdle.

For Americans, deep philosophical problems do not stand in the way of  
political solutions. Should Pakistan go its way for a variety of  
reasons, either as a result of its failure or for a purpose, the  
Americans can turn to alternatives. One is, as noted, Russia and  
Central Asian states that were once part of Russia. This is a time  
consuming and problem-ridden route, and is probably available to the  
US. But it requires continued Russian goodwill, which might pose a  
problem.

The second alternative is via Iran. This is doubtless the cheapest,  
safest and perhaps speediest route. But the US has demonised Iran for  
30 years. To approach now, would involve considerable humiliation on  
its part. Israel can become angry and put difficulties in the way. In  
contrast, Pakistan has given some bases for the US military and a lot  
of its air space has been reserved for Americans.

The question is: Will Pakistan's perceived blackmail, as the  
Americans actually put it, succeed? Probably it can. US will have to  
dole out more dollars and some aircraft to keep the Pakistani  
political class happy. It will also have to continue to supply the  
Pakistan army's needs.

But India has bigger prizes to offer. India is bigger, richer, more  
developed and more influential than Pakistan. The US can depend on  
India much more than on Pakistan, whose utility from longer-term  
viewpoint is questionable.

This tango with Pakistan has to end soon. Who will get away with what  
they are trying to do is not clear. But neither can Pakistan's  
political class have its wishes nor can the US do without Pakistan's  
cooperation. When and how will they make up is the issue.

M.B. Naqvi is a leading Pakistani columnist.

o o o

(ii)

Washington Post

IN ISLAMABAD, A SENSE OF FOREBODING
Pakistanis Nervously Look to Northwest, Where Taliban Fighters Are  
Taking Control

Shoppers examine goods at Islamabad's Jinnah Market, which has seen a  
dip in business because of terrorism fears. (Pamela Constable - The  
Washington Post)

(Photos By Pamela Constable -- The Washington Post)

By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, April 27, 2009

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, April 26 -- Every spring, the Margalla Hills  
overlooking this capital city burst into life. Evening thunderstorms  
send torrents of water down the slopes, scenic paths attract hikers  
and picnickers, and bands of monkeys scramble down from the trees to  
watch the weekend visitors.

But this season, the forested ridges have taken on a new, ominous  
significance for jittery residents. Suddenly, the hills are being  
depicted as the last barrier to hordes of Islamist insurgents  
sweeping south from the Afghan border and as perfect places for  
suicide bombers to lurk.

"If the Taliban continue to move at this pace, they will soon be  
knocking at the doors of Islamabad. The Margalla Hills seem to be the  
only hurdle in their march toward the federal capital," Maulana  
Fazlur Rehman, a religious party leader, warned last week in a speech  
to Parliament. He was exaggerating for effect, but the image struck  
home.

Islamabad, a placid, park-filled city of 1.5 million people, was  
built in the 1960s as a symbol of Pakistan's modern and democratic  
aspirations. Its boulevards are lined with grandiose federal  
buildings, and its shady side streets are home to an elite class of  
politicians and professionals. Until several years ago, the orderly  
capital seemed immune to the religious violence that bedeviled the  
country's wilder rural fringes.

But now, a psychosis of fear has gripped the Pakistani capital,  
driven partly by recent televised images of turbaned Taliban fighters  
occupying town after town in the northwest districts of Swat, Shangla  
and Buner -- as close as 60 miles from Islamabad -- and partly by a  
rash of bombings and threats in the quiet, heavily policed federal  
district.

Private schools that cater to international and wealthy families have  
installed security cameras and gun turrets; many are losing foreign  
students as embassies and agencies send families home. The local  
World Bank office just moved into the heavily guarded Serena Hotel.
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Police barricades, detours and checkpoints are sprouting so fast that  
drivers barely have time to learn the new traffic patterns. Without a  
foreign passport or a VIP license plate, it is almost impossible to  
enter the federal district that includes the Supreme Court, the  
Parliament and the diplomatic enclave.

"We're not going to let anyone come and capture Islamabad, but we  
have too few resources to secure the city," said Nasir Aftab, the  
superintendent of police, his eyes red after a night of little sleep.  
"We need more weapons and men. We need explosive detectors and  
vehicle scanners on the highway entrances. If a mullah tells a boy of  
15 to blow himself up, how do you stop him? This is the capital, and  
we don't even have a sniffer dog."

It is the insidiousness of suicide bombers, more than the bravado of  
gun-toting Taliban troops, that keeps officials such as Aftab up at  
night. The biggest bombing yet here was in September, when a truck  
full of explosives rammed into the luxury Marriott Hotel, killing 52  
people.

The hotel has since reopened, and the lobby has been restored to its  
former elegance. But the inviting scene is hidden behind blast walls,  
and the doormen who once swept open wide glass portals guard a narrow  
opening with a huge metal detector.

"Sometimes I think we've overdone it. The hotel looks like a  
fortress, but security has to be our top priority," said Zulfikar  
Ahmed, the Marriott's general manager. He said hotel occupancy had  
plunged to 40 percent of what it once was. "We maintain a calm  
atmosphere, but if something happens tomorrow, it will drop again,"  
he said.

A less spectacular but equally worrisome attack occurred last month,  
when a young man approached an open camp for off-duty paramilitary  
guards, located in a small park in an upper-class residential area.  
The man blew himself up, killing himself and five guards.
	
The blast sent shoppers fleeing in panic from the exclusive Jinnah  
Market a few blocks away. Now, the market is half-empty, waiters  
stand idle and merchants sit behind sale racks on the sidewalk.

"The future looks very bleak. Fear chases us everywhere, from the  
moment we leave home to the moment we return at night," said Mohammed  
Ismael, 46, who sells fabric for party dresses. "These blasts and  
attacks don't hurt the ruling class, but they destroy our  
business. . . . The tension is everywhere."

The tension is relatively new to Islamabad, which until 2007 had been  
tranquil. But that summer, the calm was shattered by a violent face- 
off between the government and radical leaders of the Red Mosque, who  
had turned their compound in central Islamabad into an armed camp.  
After a standoff, security forces stormed the mosque, killing at  
least 100 people, and the leaders vowed revenge.

Since then, terrorist assaults, bombings and kidnappings have become  
regular occurrences across the country. The targets included former  
prime minister Benazir Bhutto, U.N. officials, NATO supply convoys,  
police checkpoints, video shops, mosques of minority sects, an  
Italian eatery in Islamabad and a Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore.

There was also a growth in the number of religious schools, or  
madrassas, some of which espoused radical visions of Islam.

This month, the former chief cleric at the Red Mosque was released  
from detention and appeared there, nearly two years after the deadly  
siege. More than 5,000 people gathered to hear Maulana Abdul Aziz  
urge his excited followers to bring a "true Islamic system" to the  
nation.

"We know very little about some of these madrassas, and where their  
funding comes from is a mystery," said a police intelligence official.

Islamabad is far better known for its top-quality academic schools  
and colleges, including private institutions tailored for foreign  
students. Several weeks ago, police learned of terrorist threats to  
attack such schools and recommended that they take security measures.
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The capital also houses a well-regarded national university. The  
student body includes thousands of women, and though more of them  
wear Islamic garb than before, many make clear they have no sympathy  
for fundamentalists.

"We've been discussing what would happen to us if the Taliban come  
here. Would I have to wear a burqa?" demanded Fatima Tanvir, 21, in  
reference to an all-covering garment. Like several of her classmates,  
she said she resented the negative impression many foreigners now  
have of her country. "People see the TV images and think we are a  
rogue, barbarian society. It makes us really sad," she said.

With extra contingents of paramilitary police being sent to beef up  
security, it seems unlikely that militant hordes will swarm down from  
the Margalla Hills anytime soon. But the recent attacks, and the  
calls to arms ringing from dozens of mosques, suggest there is more  
religious violence ahead.

"If they come again, we'll be ready," said an off-duty paramilitary  
guard in the camp that was bombed in March. Since then, the survivors  
have dug a trench around their tents and piled the earth into a  
perimeter wall. On one side are wreaths from well-wishers, and a hand- 
lettered sign that says, "Resist or Die."


_____


[5]  Afghanistan:

The Times (UK)
April 30, 2009

DEFYING THREATS, FIGHTING OPPRESSION: THE WOMAN LEADING PROTESTS IN  
AFGHANISTAN

by Tom Coghlan in Kabul

They were stoned, spat on and assaulted, but when 200 women staged  
Afghanistan’s first public women’s rights protest since the 1970s  
their voices were heard around the world.

And if centuries-old traditions are to change, it may well be a  
petite but pugnacious 28-year-old called Diana Saqeb who is responsible.

One of the organisers of the march, which took place a fortnight ago  
in the capital, Kabul, Ms Saqeb was present this week when President  
Karzai promised activists that there would be changes to the Shia  
Family Law that prompted their protest.

Mr Karzai said that the legislation would be amended and he did not  
know that the law he was signing legalised marital rape, child  
marriage and a host of Taleban-era restrictions on women, because his  
advisers had failed to inform him of its contents.

Sitting in her home in Kabul, where the walls are lined with arthouse  
film posters and translations of Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Virginia Woolf  
and Michel Foucault, Ms Saqeb was unimpressed.

“This excuse is worse than the actual crime,” she said. “It was not  
acceptable for a lot of women present at the meeting that the first  
person of the country signs a law, which directly affects the lives  
of the people, without reading it.”

She said that Mr Karzai should have been more responsible in a  
society where, as the UN puts it, women “remain victims of  
discrimination and violence” and the concept of human rights means  
little to many Afghan women.

“The society we live in is full of intimidation,” said Ms Saqeb.  
“Always concealing ideas, beliefs, dressing the way others want, it  
is a kind of continuous stress and intimidation; more mental  
intimidation than physical.”

Nonetheless, the protesters were taken aback by the fury they  
provoked. “We did not expect the wild reaction from them,” Ms Saqeb  
said of a mob, several thousand strong, that surrounded the marchers.  
“We wanted ours to be a silent protest but then they turned violent  
with rocks and stones, saying terrible things to the women, trying to  
physically attack the women. I was not frightened but I was shocked.”

Many women did not reach the protest, she said, after being attacked  
or intimidated as they tried to approach the area.

“The women who came were from all walks of life. We talked to women  
in many parts of the city. All the women who came had seen  
difficulties and oppression in their daily lives, and now they were  
seeing it legalised.”

Since the protest, she said, she had received threatening messages  
and rumours had circulated that she was not a Muslim — the evidence  
being that her name sounded foreign.

To describe the country’s women’s rights movement as embryonic is to  
overstate its strength. At its heart are a few score visible  
activists, including a number of young women MPs such as Sabrina  
Saqib, Diana’s sister.

The women politicians owe their seats in most cases to a quota  
system, included in the Afghan constitution — to the dismay of  
conservatives — which reserves 25 per cent of Parliament for women.

Afghanistan today is a world away from Saqeb’s early life in one of  
the few old liberal Kabul families to have returned to the city since  
2001. She spent most of her upbringing as a refugee in Iran, finding  
in the arts faculty at Tehran University a relative freedom of  
thought far from the constraints of home. She is now a film-maker.

The risks attached to attacking the status quo are very clear. A  
growing number of women holding public positions have been killed in  
the past two years by Taleban militants, whose influence extends to  
the outskirts of the capital. Ms Saqeb says she is undaunted.

Among a new generation of supporters is Hamida, 18, who told The  
Times: “I think since the day of the demonstration, more and more  
girls in our school are speaking against the law and it has become a  
big subject for the girls’ discussions. I think rights are something  
that you have to always take by struggle. If you sit by, no one will  
come to give them to you.”

Ms Saqeb said that the campaign to change the Shia family legislation  
was just the start: “We are just confronting people who don’t dare to  
doubt what they are told.”

_____



[6]  India - Pakistan:

Kashmir Times
May 4 2009
Editorial

RESURRECTING PEACE PROCESS
It should not remain hostage to terrorism and political convenience  
of the ruling elite

The political elite both in India and Pakistan must understand that  
the present tension between the two neighbouring countries is not in  
the interest of their people suffering from the growing terrorist  
menace on the one hand and the lack of mutual trust on the other. The  
prolonged conflict has only served the cause of anti-democratic  
forces and fundamentalists in the two countries. The ruling  
establishments must listen to the voice of reason which is trying to  
assert in both India and Pakistan.The peace process should not remain  
hostage to terrorism and political convenience of the elite in the  
two countries. They need to overcome the trust-deficit which is the  
main cause for the slow progress of the composite dialogue earlier  
and its coming to a screeching halt in the wake of the terror attack  
in Mumbai. The subsequent elections in India, with neither of the  
political parties in race for forming the next government, in a mood  
to abandon their chauvinistic stance has only weakened the peace  
process. To hoodwink the gullible voters and trying to cater to the  
popular mood of hostility they are naturally engaged in a kind of one- 
upmanship.Unless there is a perceptible change in their perception  
and mindset it is doubtful that even after the elections there can be  
any radical shift in their stance. With Pakistan facing the growing  
threat from Taliban,threatening even its survival as a democratic  
country, the hawks in India find it easy to oppose any move for  
breaking the logjam.It is in this context that the political elite in  
the two countries must listen to the voices of sanity. The political  
elite both in Islamabad and New Delhi must heed the advice of the  
noted peace activists and members of the civil society in the two  
countries for de-escalating the present tensions and resuming the  
stalled dialogue process. The civil society activists in Pakistan  
while expressing their serious concern over the growing challenge  
from Taliban have rightly pointed out that instead of facing this  
threat jointly India and Pakistan should not engage themselves in  
blame game and finger-pointing. They feel that instead of trying to  
take political mileage out of their predicament the Indian state  
should not do any thing that can only further isolate the civilian  
government and the emerging democratic forces in their country.  
Similarly a number of noted Indian intellectuals and peace activists  
including the former Prime Minister I.K.Gujral, Aruna Roy, Teesta  
Setalvad, Salman Haider and Rajmohan Gandhi, grandson of Gandhiji,  
have urged for resumption of talks with Pakistan, saying the  
beleaguered country needed neighbourly support as well as self-help  
strategy to overcome its many challenges. As they rightly point out,  
in their hour of crisis Indians must express total support to all  
Pakistanis striving to preserve normal life in their country.
Instead of having a sadistic pleasure over the Pakistan's  
discomfiture and adopting an attitude of hostility and justifying the  
disruption of the dialogue process, Indians must release that the  
threats to Pakistanis are not only threats to close neighbours ; they  
are threats moving towards India, and threats that can easily scale  
the international border. As the statement by the peace activists  
said " self-interest plus the simplest humanity demands that Indians,  
citizens and the government, do all they can to make the challenges  
before Pakistanis less arduous." Despite the country's ongoing  
elections, and notwithstanding Indian complaints against Pakistani  
governments, agencies and non-state groups, India and Indians must  
offer every encouragement and support to the people of Pakistan in  
the difficult times they face. "Indians cannot and must not remain  
mute witnesses of the grave danger that the neighbouring country  
faces and of the brave efforts of a large number of Pakistanis to  
meet that danger." While the efforts of the people of Pakistan who  
are working for reconciliation and strengthening of the democratic  
forces in their country need to be appreciated all those who cherish  
peace and stability in the region must express their solidarity with  
them. Nothing should be done that weakens these forces and make the  
task of divisive and anti-democratic forces easier.The present thaw  
in the relationship between the two countries is not in the interest  
of the people in the two countries. The resumption of composite  
dialogue to resolve all outstanding disputes including the major  
issue of Kashmir can act as a catalyst for eliminating the menace of  
terrorism in the region. Neither the blame game should be allowed to  
continue nor the present stalemate in the dialogue process should be  
made to prolong. While the Pakistan has to overcome the internal  
trust-deficit and emerge stronger as a civilised and democratic  
society, India needs to shed its rigidity and take steps for the  
resumption of the peace process for ushering into a new era of peace,  
cooperation and stability in the region.

_____


[7] India:

Magazine / The Hindu
May 3, 2009

THE POLITICS OF THE ETHICAL

by Harsh Mander

On the campaign trail with Mallika Sarabhai as she tries to put in  
practice a cleaner, more ethical and accountable politics…

She is already victorious, because she chose to engage with electoral  
politics… with independence, grace, and integrity.


Photo: PTI

Not pulling her punches: Mallika Sarabhai making a point in Ahmedabad.

Amidst the colour, din, dust and heat that typically mark elections  
in this chaotic, flawed but ultimately robust democracy — the largest  
in the world — there are always glimmerings of hope. During the  
current general elections held in the summer of 2009, one of these is  
the unexpected decision of a leading classical dancer, Mallika  
Sarabhai, to stand as an independent candidate, against one of the  
Prime Ministerial hopefuls, L.K. Advani, from Gandhinagar. This  
constituency has consistently returned him with large margins for  
many recent elections. Mallika’s battle has captured segments of the  
popular and intellectual imagination.

She explained that her decision was to establish the possibilities of  
a “politics of the ethical”. Her candidacy was an invitation to a new  
mode of politics. It was to challenge and establish ethical processes  
of politics: “the means, the culture and aesthetics of politics, (and  
for)… raising issues that concern us as citizens. The means have to  
be fair, democratic, just, civil, non-violent, and therefore  
transparent”.


Empathetic vibes

Her announcement elicited endorsements of support from many corners  
of the country, firstly because of her brave, outspoken and ethical  
stand against the communal carnage that shamed Gujarat in 2002. It  
was her voice which first rang out with the words: I accuse. “I stand  
amidst the ruins of civilisation as I knew it… For, they have taken  
away my pride at being a human being… They have taken away my joy of  
belonging to a land of understanding and compassion.” She lamented  
the silence and complicity that enabled the massacre, and spoke of  
her own sense of guilt. “For letting myself become part of that  
silence. For trusting incorrectly. For letting everyday inanities  
dull myself to the genocide being planned and executed”. This earned  
her a great amount of credibility and admiration, more so because she  
did not waver despite a battery of harassment mounted by the State  
government.

For this reason, Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer, himself one of the most  
credible moral voices among living Indians, notes that since Mallika  
“waged a spirited and consistent struggle on various fronts —  
judicial, social, cultural, political — against the forces of  
communalism and majoritarian extremism in the State”, he feels  
confident that if elected she will “uphold the secular and democratic  
principles as enshrined in our Constitution”.

But what has also won her a great deal of support is the idea that a  
person of privilege and accomplishment, but also of undoubted  
integrity, can choose to leap into what many regard as a cesspool of  
electoral politics. She echoes the despair of the majority of Indians  
with the state of our electoral politics: the “corruption and  
criminalisation everywhere” in mainstream political parties. “They  
are forever indulging in horse-trading and it has only become a game  
of numbers. The citizen is forgotten in this ‘game’. In the Lok Sabha  
of 2004-2009, there were 128 MPs facing criminal charges out of the  
total 534. Is that not shameful? We need to change this.”


Being the change

Her decision to contest derives from her realisation that she can  
alter the sickness of electoral politics in India only by  
participating in it; by attempting to adhere to ethical rules, and  
still surviving. “For very long now, politics has become a space for  
politicians and not for you and me. I have been waiting for long for  
things to change, for good people to come into politics and change  
the system. I realised that people with integrity do not want to  
enter politics because it has become such a dirty word. I decided to  
change that.”

Mallika believes that independent candidates like her can “bring a  
different style, a different sensitivity, a more personal concern to  
governance, to the questions of deprivation and exclusion, to the  
very idea of suffering”. It is this promise of the possibility of  
clean, ethical and sensitive, accountable politics that has generated  
much hope and expectation riding on her shoulders. Many like Anu Aga,  
herself a voice of conscience in Indian industry, have endorsed her  
candidature, declaring, “I am glad that people like you have decided  
to join politics. India needs you”. Hundreds of young people from  
within and outside Gujarat have volunteered to support her campaign,  
and I found them cheerfully braving the heat of Ahmedabad, dancing,  
beating drums, distributing pamphlets, urging people in homes and on  
the streets to vote for Mallika Sarabhai.

I followed Mallika on her campaign trail for a couple of days, and  
was riveted by the ease with which she related with the people in her  
constituency. She was assured, energetic, and empathetic: not seeming  
a novice greenhorn politician, but one born to the vocation. She  
spent eight hours every day on the road, most of it on foot, often  
running between settlements, leaving her young volunteers trailing  
and breathless. Her campaign team estimated that she has personally  
met in the first 25 days of her campaign more than a hundred thousand  
voters in 125 villages and city settlements.

Her volunteers lead with the beat of drums, others dance and people  
gather. In high-rise housing colonies in Ahmedabad, they collect in  
their verandahs, and listen to her from there. Mallika speaks to them  
from her hand-held microphone, or individually in small groups. She  
dwells on how established political parties have failed them. In 20  
years, a small seed grows into a tree, she says, and you can rest in  
its shade. But in 60 years of Independence, political parties have  
alternately come to power, but have failed to provide you even clean  
drinking water, drains, toilets, work, food, schools, hospitals, and  
security for women. You deserve better, she declares, and they agree.  
If they work together, she promises, change is possible.

A new aesthetics

In announcing her candidature, Mallika had talked not just about  
experimenting with new means and a culture of politics, but also a  
new aesthetics, and this last was clearly evident in all her public  
meetings. The colours of her campaign were carefully chosen, and she  
explained them to her audience. White, she said, stood for non- 
violence, because she opposes the use of violence, both in public and  
domestic spaces. Purple is the international colour of women’s  
rights. And red is the colour of blood of all human beings,  
regardless of their faith, caste or wealth. She explains the  
significance of her election symbol, the harmonium. “Each note of it  
is separate, just as we are separated by our caste, religion, gender.  
But only when they are in harmony together do they produce music”.  
She ends all her campaign meetings by breaking into Gujarati folk  
dances, and many in the audience join in. She believes that elections  
must also be a celebration.

She tells me that she has seen so much human suffering and  
deprivation in this past month of campaigning that it is now  
impossible for her to turn her back to her people. At the time I  
write, and probably when you read this, we will not know how many  
votes have been cast in favour of Mallika Sarabhai. But she is  
already victorious, because she chose to engage with electoral  
politics against a formidable contestant, and demonstrated that it is  
possible to do so, with independence, grace, verve and integrity. And  
in trying to walk the path of a politics of the ethical, she has  
crafted authentic hope.


_____


[8] India:  Supreme Court's Fast Track Courts on Gujarat Riots of  
2002 - Commentary

Gujarat Carnage-Role of Narendra Modi
by Ram Puniyani
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2009/05/gujarat-carnge-role-of-modi.html

Where silence prevails, justice will not
by Siddharth Varadarajan
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2009/05/silence-on-communal-role- 
prevails-will.html

Poor Sense Of Timing
by Rajeev Dhavan
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2009/05/supreme-court-and-attorney- 
general.html


_____


[9] India's Hindu Far Right:

(i)

sacw.net, 1 May 2009
http://www.sacw.net/article885.html

INDIA: AJMER BLASTS - REVISITING HINDUTVA TERROR

by Subhash Gatade

It has been more than one and half years that the great Sufi shrine  
of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti based in Ajmer, Rajasthan, which is  
equally revered by the Hindus and Muslims, reached headlines for  
unforeseen reasons. On 12 th October 2009 it witnessed a bomb blast  
which saw deaths of two innocents and injuries to many. In fact it  
was for the first time in its few centuries old history that blood of  
innocents lied splattered in those areas where thousands and  
thousands of people use to gather daily to offer their prayers.

As was the routine procedure then - when Hindutva terror had not  
reached headlines - a few fanatic Islamist groups were blamed for  
this ignoble incident. There were interrogations, arrests, quite a  
few people were illegally detained supposedly to extract their  
confession for this act. Media was not to be left behind, it had  
juicy stories about the plans and the execution of this inhuman and  
barbaric act, and definite clues about its real ’masterminds’ remote  
controlling from across the border. Witchhunting of the community  
went on for a while. And as usually happens in such case(s), after  
some initial hullaballo Ajmer blasts were relegated to the inner  
pages of newspapers in one small corner. People also lost interest.  
Perhaps they had more exciting news awaiting them.

Few days back, Ajmer blasts suddenly reappeared in a section of the  
press, with Maharashtra ATS alongwith Rajasthan ATS making startling  
revealations about the perpetrators of this act. It was worth noting  
that the mainstream media largely ignored this news which had  
important ramifications for the secular fabric of the country. ’The  
Statesman’ carried a front page news on 13 th April, followed by  
Asian Age which carried it on inner pages and ’Mail Today’ carried a  
three column story on its second page on 19 th April. Apart from NDTV  
none of the other channels bothered to report this incident.

The crux of the revelations was that the Ajmer blasts were the  
handiwork of the same Hindutva terrorist group ’Abhinav Bharat’

According to NDTV [’Abhinav Bharat under ATS scanner for ’07 Ajmer  
blast’ Rajan Mahan, Tuesday, April 14, 2009, (Jaipur)]

Abhinav Bharat, the Hindu extremist group, involved in the Malegaon  
blasts may also be the hidden hand behind the Ajmer blasts. The Anti- 
Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Rajasthan police says investigations  
into the blasts that shook the Ajmer Dargah in 2007, have led them to  
members of the Abhinav Bharat.

In an exclusive interview to NDTV, the ATS Chief in Rajasthan, Kapil  
Garg, has admitted that Abhinav Bharat is now actively under their  
scanner. And a special team of the Rajasthan police had recently  
visited Mumbai to collect full statements and reports of the narco- 
analysis and brain mapping tests done on the mastermind of the  
Malegaon blasts Lt Col S P Purohit and others accused in the Malegaon  
blast cases.

Police sources say that in his narco-analysis and brain mapping tests  
Lt Col Purohit has revealed that another member Dayanand Pandey, also  
an accused in the Malegaon blast, had planned the Ajmer blast that  
killed 2 and injured over 20 people in October 2007.

What is Abhinav Bharat? It is a Hindu extremist group of pre- 
Independence era that was revived in Pune in 2006 and now has a large  
base in Madhya Pradesh. This group, the police say may be involved in  
the other attacks on Islamic establishments.

’Mail Today’ carried the story bit further and its report ’Malegaon  
accused had role in Ajmer’ (Mailtoday) filed by Krishna Kumar said :

The Maharashtra ATS believes the arrest of three suspected Hindutva  
terrorists who had planted bombs at Malegaon is key to solving the  
Hyderabad Mecca Masjid and the Ajmer Sharief blasts.

A senior ATS official said on Saturday the Malegaon blast was linked  
to these two incidents as the same group of men, belonging to  
arrested Hindutva terror suspect Lt. Col Srikant Purohit’s Abhinav  
Bharat, executed the other blasts, too.

"We have evidence that the same group of men associated with the  
Abhinav Bharat carried out all the three blasts.If we arrest the men  
who planted the bombs at Malegaon, the other two cases could easily  
be cracked" he said.

The three suspects are Shivnarain Kalsangra, Sameer Dange and Pravin  
Mutalik. The ATS is hunting for the trio who, it suspects, has fled  
to Nepal or is hiding near the Indo-Nepal border.

The statement of the ATS official is significant as the Jaipur  
police, too, are investigating Abhinav Bharat’s links to the Ajmer  
blast in October 2007.

The conversation between Purohit and Dayanand Pandey, who were  
arrested in connection with ghe Malegaon blast, revealed they were  
involved in other blasts, too.

While Pandey claimed the Hyderabad blast was carried out by Hindutva  
activists and not the ISI, Purohit boasted how he had carried out two  
successful operations like the Malegaon blasts in the past. The ATS  
believes the two operations could be the Mecca Masjid and the Ajmer  
Sharief blasts.

It need not be forgotten that when Malegaon II investigations were  
going on many names had come to the fore but the untimely death of Mr  
Hemant Karkare, the ATS chief of Maharashtra, in the terrorist attack  
in Bombay created a situation where all such people were allowed to  
go scot free. May it be the case of Dr R.P. Singh, a leading  
physician working in a hospital in Delhi, or may it be the case of  
Himani Savarkar, the president of Abhinav Bharat or for that matter  
the old Saffron hand who is contesting elections for the Parliament  
from Delhi, none of them were interrogated. Himani Savarkar had given  
an important clue to the investigators during initial investigations,  
wherein she had divulged that the plan of the attack was hatched in  
her presence during the meeting in Indore.

Question naturally arises why did the police acted in a partial  
manner ? There were reports that Togadia, the international secretary  
of VHP had funded Abhinav Bharat. According to CNN-IBN :

Purohit claims Togadia funded Abhinav Bharat

CNN-IBN Published on Mon, Nov 24, 2008 at 11:45, Updated on Mon, Nov  
24, 2008 at 12:53 in India section

New Delhi: In a sensational development in the Malegaon blast case  
Lieutenant Colonel Srikant Prasad Purohit has claimed that Vishwa  
Hindu Parishad leader Praveen Togadia was involved in funding Abhinav  
Bharat.

Abhinav Bharat is being investigated in connection with blast of  
September 29 in Malegaon in which at least six people were killed.

Lt Col Purohit, who has been arrested for masterminding the blast,  
reportedly claimed that Togadia provided the organisation with some  
funds to start out.

The claims were reportedly made while the Lt Col was being  
interrogated by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

He revealed that he received a call from a man who called himself the  
VHP’s Maharashtra chief to say that Togadia wanted to know who was  
investigating the Nanded blasts case.

However, Togadia has denied his involvement with Abhinav Bharat. He  
said the allegations are unfounded, criminally defamatory, malafide  
and politically motivated.

(With inputs from Sumon K Chakrabarti)

It also need be reminded that a few other bomb blasts before Malegaon  
bomb blasts - which clearly showed involvement of Hindutva terrorist  
- were not even investigated properly. The bomb blast in Kanpur  
( August 2007) which saw deaths of two RSS/Bajrang Dal activists-  
Rajeev Mishra and Bhupendra Arora - is a case in point.The Kanpur  
police had even claimed that the explosives seized from the site  
could have easily destroyed half of Kanpur. Police had also found  
maps of Muslimmajority areas of Ferozabad from the house of one of  
the victims. How did the whole matter proceed ? Narco test was done  
on two acquaitenances of Rajiv and Bhupendra and they were left  
untouched. And the police did not even bother to apprehend/ 
interrogate two vital contacts of the victims/perpetrators whose name  
had surfaced during the narco test of the two acquaitenances . One  
among them was a Professor in Kanpur IIT and the other one was a  
local leader of VHP.

Digvijay Singh, the ex chief minister of M.P. who has been in the  
forefront as far as divulging details/conspiracies involving Hindutva  
terrorists are concerned, had made an interesting point sometime  
back. He posed the question, should it be called mere coincidence  
that there are no bomb blasts after the arrests of Masterminds of  
Malegaon bomb blast.

o o o

(ii)

Washington Post

A RISING ANGER IN INDIA'S STREETS - HINDU EXTREMISTS LASH OUT AGAINST  
SYMBOLS OF CHANGE	

by Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, May 1, 2009

Bangalore, India -- At a trendy pub in this cosmopolitan IT capital,  
Hemangini Gupta, 28, and some of her girlfriends were recently  
relaxing with cocktails after work. A group of Hindu men later  
followed them outside, verbally accosting them for drinking in a  
public bar and for wearing jeans.

"These guys went psycho," Gupta said. "This isn't Afghanistan. But  
here in Bangalore, as a young woman on the streets, if you are  
driving a car or in a pub or dressed a certain way, you just feel  
this rising anger."

The incident was mild compared with some of the violent assaults on  
women that have taken place here. The attacks are part of what many  
see as rising Hindu extremism in much of the country over the past  
few years, especially in places such as Bangalore, precisely because  
it is a bastion of India's fast-changing culture. Bangalore is home  
to an explosion of software companies, a lively heavy-metal rock  
music scene and burgeoning gay rights and environmental movements.

The growing extremism has sparked a national debate -- especially  
with national elections this month -- over what has become known by  
the Indian media and analysts as the "Talibanization of India." It  
features a rise of moral policing and an increasingly active  
constellation of Hindu right-wing groups that believe in a  
politicized form of religion known as Hindutva.

In Bangalore, recent street protests by Hindu extremist groups have  
targeted the emblems of globalization. The demonstrators have thrown  
rocks at the glass office buildings of call centers and software  
companies. They have shut down clubs that feature dancing and live  
music. They have hurled verbal and physical abuse at women in jeans  
or skirts. They have vandalized Christian churches, which are  
regarded as foreign trespassers.

Political experts predict that the rise of Hindu extremism will spur  
greater participation during India's marathon, month-long elections  
by the secular middle class and by those who support traditional values.

Some Indians see the growing number of attacks as a national  
embarrassment. The issue has resonated among young urban voters,  
frustrated that politicians and police have turned a blind eye or  
have themselves taken on the task of moral policing.

For India's young, the debate goes to the heart of India's new  
identity. In this fast-changing society, long-held religious  
sentiments about public behavior are still being negotiated in Indian  
homes and on the streets. The discussion is complicated by the fact  
that India's economic growth has been lopsided: Well-paid urban youth  
tend to embrace Western values, while the country's poor appear more  
eager than ever to stick to traditions that have been shaped by Hindu  
religious teachings.
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"Before the IT culture, things were very peaceful. Our youth enjoyed  
their own Indian culture," said Vasanth Kumar Bhavani, 32, president  
of Bangalore's branch of Sri Ram Sene, a right-wing Hindu group  
involved in a string of attacks on women. "Now it's been spoiled by  
all these outsiders flowing in, and it's all because of this IT  
sector. They need to be taught a lesson."

His lesson plan apparently includes violence. In January, his  
followers -- 40 men wearing saffron-colored headbands -- barged into  
a pub called Amnesia in the southern city of Mangalore as television  
cameras rolled. They pulled down the skirts of several young female  
patrons in an effort to embarrass them and kicked others, accusing  
them of being prostitutes. Since the stunt, which was billed by the  
group as an effort to "preserve Indian culture," nearly a dozen cases  
of attacks on women have been reported in Bangalore.

"What they did was correct in some ways and wrong in others," Bhavani  
said. "When something is wrong, you have to respond. Sometimes the  
reaction is too much. But you must respond."

On a recent afternoon, he sipped coffee at a hotel garden in  
Bangalore, as his buff bodyguard hovered nearby, and said he sees his  
group as a custodian of Indian culture. It will soon be launching  
social outreach programs: visiting with tech companies and putting on  
street plays that preach traditional values. It will also provide  
marriage counseling.

Bhavani said he was concerned about the opening of more retirement  
homes in Bangalore, which he said indicated that young people were  
abandoning their parents and grandparents instead of caring for them  
in their homes, as is India's family tradition. "These IT youths are  
partying at pubs after work instead of spending time and their new  
salaries on their parents, who gave them everything," Bhavani said.

Bhavani is also at the forefront of crackdowns on the closing time of  
discos -- known here as Cinderella laws -- and protests against  
Valentine's Day, which Bhavani and his followers say gives young  
people the wrong ideas about love and romance. Combined, the efforts  
have given Bangalore a new nickname in the Indian media: Bans-Galore.

In response, a group of artists and writers that calls itself the  
Consortium of Pub-Going, Loose and Forward Women mailed his group a  
Valentine: hundreds of pink panties. "We felt enough is enough. You  
suddenly see a state that is going berserk," said Nisha Susan, 29,  
who organized the protest and started the consortium. "The attacks  
are just spreading like crazy along with Hindutva. We didn't want the  
protest to be wishy-washy. We wanted to thumb our noses at these  
right-wing groups."

Few places symbolize a changing and youthful India more than  
Bangalore. It is a destination for young people from across the  
country who come here for well-paid outsourcing jobs or to escape the  
pressures of family.

It's common to see young women wearing saris with jasmine strung to  
their long braided hair walking alongside girls in miniskirts with  
pixie haircuts and bright purple highlights.

"It's a clash of cultures, for sure. But the heart of the issue is  
that in India, globalization has left many more people alienated from  
development and confused. That frustration has been converted into  
hatred," said Arvind Narrain, 33, a lawyer with the Alternative Law  
Forum in Bangalore who wrote a report on the state's rise of cultural  
policing. "So many young men can't afford a drink at those pubs,  
can't afford Western clothes, can't speak English. The girls they are  
attacking wouldn't look twice at them."

Narrain pointed out that every place where the Hindu nationalist  
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other right-wing parties have  
whipped up communal strife, they have been able to remain in power  
and have become even more popular. In the Western state of Gujarat,  
controversial Chief Minister Narendra Modi is accused of complicity  
in the 2002 violence against Muslims. But he was overwhelmingly  
elected last year.
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Both sides of the debate have been moved to political action in  
Bangalore, where the BJP was elected to the state government last  
year. Elections for the national government here are dominated by  
debate over cultural policing.

"They call us Hindu Taliban. But we are not against modernization,"  
said P.M. Girdhara Upadhyaya, 36, of the Hindu Awareness Forum. "This  
country has its own heritage and way of living. If you ask the common  
man if he wants his daughter going to a pub, he will of course say no."

Sitting at a fusion restaurant that serves Belgian beer along with  
pomegranate mojitos, several generations of women recently had lunch  
to the sounds of blaring Bob Marley music.

"India is going through a very confused phase. There are many  
cultures coming at us. But at the end of the day, we are a secular  
democracy. That means we don't all have to wear a sari every minute  
of the day," said Lakshmi Khanna, 26, an Indian classical dancer who  
was dressed in a sexy, low-cut Western dress.

Her grandmother, Sarla Seth, 76, was wearing a sari and gently  
smiled, agreeing. But she also joked with her granddaughter to put on  
a scarf.

"Women have progressed so much in India," she said. "Still, there are  
limits."

o o o

(iii)
Exploring Gender, Hindutva and Seva
by Swati Dyahadroy
http://www.epw.in/uploads/articles/13456.pdf


_____


[10] Announcements:

AKHIL BHARATIYA JANWADI MAHILA SANGHATANA
(ALL INDIA DEMOCRATIC WOMEN'S ASSOCIATION)
Maharashtra State Committee
E 5 Ensa Hutments (Next to Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh), Mahapalika  
Marg, Mumbai 1.
Tel: 65286823

CONDOLENCE MEETING

Freedom fighter, doyen of the women's movement and a fighter for the  
rights of the working class and poor citizens, Comrade AHILYA  
RANGNEKAR passed away on 19th April 2009. We are organizing a  
condolence meeting on Tuesday, 5th May 2009 at the Ruia College ,  
Matunga (E), at 5 pm. We request you to attend the meeting and join  
us in paying tribute to a veteran leader.

Date: Tuesday, 5th May 2009
Time: 5 pm
Venue:  Ramnarain Ruia College , G 12 Hall (Ground Floor), Main Gate
Matunga (E), Mumbai.


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Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), on
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