SACW | May 30-31 , 2009 / Human Rights : Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Kashmir, Punjab / Ethnicity and Communalism
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at gmail.com
Sun May 31 06:04:10 CDT 2009
South Asia Citizens Wire | May 30-31, 2009 | Dispatch No. 2630 - Year
11 running
From: www.sacw.net
[ SACW Dispatches for 2009-2010 are dedicated to the memory of Dr.
Sudarshan Punhani (1933-2009), husband of Professor Tamara Zakon and
a comrade and friend of Daya Varma ]
____
[1] Sri Lanka:
- Sri Lanka will face an inquiry from the UN Human Rights Committee
- The silence of those who were warned of civilian deaths in Sri
Lanka is shameful
[2] Nepal: Statement by Progressive Nepali Forum in Americas
[3] Bangladesh: The era of women empowerment and 39 lashes (Moazzem
Hossain)
- Disband or Reform? (Nader Rahman)
[4] Pakistan: The fires of ethnicity (Kamila Hyat)
- Letter From Mardan: The Fight for Control of the Swat Valley
and the Future of Pakistan (William Wheeler)
- Victim of the victims : IDPs arriving in Sindh unwelcome by the
'nationalists’ (Adeel Pathan)
[5] India: Expectations from a secular government (Harsh Mander)
- Elections 2009 Verdict: Whither Communalism? (Ram Puniyani)
- The paradox of dynastic democracy (Ananya Vajpeyi)
[6] India : Human Rights
(i) Tragedy of contradictions (Zahir-ud-Din)
(ii) Book Review: The third Sikh ghallughara (Pritam Singh)
(iii) India Human Rights Report 2009 by Asian Centre for Human Rights
[7] Announcements:
(i) Memorial Meeting Former Student Leader Dr. Muhammad Sarwar
(Karachi, 31 May 2009)
(ii) 6th International Conference on Hands-on Science 2009
(Ahmedabad, 27 - 31 October 2009)
_____
[1] Sri Lanka:
HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYER GEOFFREY ROBERTSON QC SAYS SRI LANKA WILL FACE AN
INQUIRY FROM THE UN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8075000/8075064.stm
WITNESS TO DISASTER
The silence of those who were warned of civilian deaths in Sri Lanka
is shameful. They must speak out now to prevent future atrocities
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/
article6390967.ece
______
[2] Nepal:
Progressive Nepali Forum in Americas
2779 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5N 4C5, Canada
Tel: (604) 506 9259, Email: pnefacc at gmail.com
Progressive Nepali Forum in Americas (PNEFA) reiterates its previous
stand that President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav's move has not only violated
the constitution but also seriously undermined the legitimate mandate
of a democratically elected civilian government in Nepal. While
reinstating the fired Chief of the Army Staff the President has
overstepped the boundary of the constitution as well as the norms and
values of parliamentary democracy. He has acted in a regressive and
reactionary way, a move reminiscent of Mahendra Shah and Ganendra
Shah's assumption of executive power through dismissal of the elected
government in 1960 and 2005 respectively. We also condemn all
political parties including Nepali Congress and CPN(UML), which
instigated the President to launch the constitutional coup.
Instead of correcting regressive move of the President and
reinstating civilian supremacy, Madhav Kumar Nepal, a loser from two
constituencies in last year's Constituent Assembly (CA) elections,
has been declared the Prime Minister of Nepal through unethical
alliance of status-quoists and regressive forces with overt support
and blessings of foreign powers, which have threatened the peace
process and installed two power centers with military supremacy. This
has not only undermined and violated established democratic values
and norms of civilian supremacy but also insulted Nepali people's
aspiration for change and a new Nepal with democratic republican
federal setup. We firmly believe that incorporating losers of the CA
elections in the new council of ministers headed by another loser is
a mockery of democracy and unbearable insult to the sentiment of
Nepali people and popular mandate.
We urge all sovereign Nepalis: intellectuals, civil society leaders,
patriotic, democratic, progressive, and reasonable and rational minds
of all walks of life to condemn this unfolding grotesque political
drama regardless of personal and ideological affiliation and express
solidarity to the ongoing movement for civilian supremacy, democracy,
peace and rule of law in Nepal.
We urge members of the sovereign Constituent Assembly to nullify the
unconstitutional act of the President and safeguard national
independence by saying NO to foreign powers who meddle in the
internal affairs of Nepal.
We do not accept Madhav Kumar Nepal and others, who were rejected by
the people, in the council of ministers as legitimate government of
Nepal and ask them to step down to facilitate the process of
democratic solution of current political impasse. We believe in the
unflinching unity among patriotic and republican democrats to
safeguard national unity and independence
Abi Sharma
President - PNEFA
______
[3] Bangladesh:
Daily Star
May 30, 2009
THE ERA OF WOMEN EMPOWERMENT AND 39 LASHES
by Moazzem Hossain
I wish I did not have to write this piece. One must do it since there
has been a silence on the part of the commentators and the
politicians, except this daily which published a strongly worded
editorial on this issue on May 26. Moreover, the incident had taken
place next door to the upazila where I come from. Yes, I am talking
about the recent incident at a village in Daudkandi, where a girl was
whipped with 39 lashes in the presence of a few hundred peoplethe
outcome of a decree of a local salish.
This is not the first occasion that such a crime has been committed
by the so-called moulanas and their accomplices in this nation. The
aim of this piece is to remind the politicians at all levels that,
under any circumstances, this kind of atrocity cannot be allowed and
must be stopped immediatelyby making new laws if required.
There is no excuse for tolerating such a heinous act in rural
Bangladesh during the so- called era of women empowerment and
emancipation. Most importantly, it makes one doubly puzzled that no
politician has come forward and shown empathy towards that poor
injured girl in the hospital. Perhaps they do not want to be
stigmatised, and feared a backlash from the bigots.
Some readers may have thought that the village where the incident
took place was located in a remote and illiterate part of the
country. No, Daudkandi has one of the highest literacy rates, close
to 80%, and is located not too great a distance from Dhaka (only 50 km).
Politically, this is certainly one of the violence-ridden areas of
the country, although it has a very high level of per capita income.
Although the famous Goalmari fight had taken place here during the
war of liberation (Pakistan army even lost some its officers in this
fight), the post-liberation period has been infested with violence
after violence.
The infamous killers of the father of the nation come from this area
(Khandakar Mushtaq and Col. Rashid). Since General Zia's time this
locality has been dominated by BNP-Jamaat politics led by Khandakar
Musharaf, who lost the last election to AL's Subed Ali Bhuiyan.
If I am correct, neither the incumbent MP, nor the former MP has
visited the victim until now. None of the 45 MPs elected in the
women's quota has visited the poor girl, either. One may ask, what
kind of democracy we are heading towardsdemocracy for the elite, or
democracy for the masses?
As far as women's empowerment goes, Daudkandi region should be at the
top since numerous women from this area have occupied high positions
in the government, higher education, private businesses and NGOs over
the last half a century. In terms of transport and information
networks, this locality is one of the more developed areas, thanks to
the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway as well as the rural road networks
established on the southern side of the highway (where the victim's
village is located) since independence.
It is unimaginable how such an incident can occur in such a place. I
have no doubt that it has nothing to do with poverty, backwardness in
education or infrastructure and unemployment. It is more due to the
so-called Islamic education introduced in this area, with numerous
madrasas being established over the last decade or two. There is a
union called Mohammadpur, which is next door to the victim's village.
Mohammadpur is at the top in providing madrasa education per head if
compared with other similar regions. The moulana ,who is under
custody now in connection with the salish, belongs to one of these
madrasas. No wonder that the Bideshawar the girl was whipped 39 times
and sent unconscious to the hospital.
It does not mean that I am against religious education. Certainly,
the education the Madrasa Board is presently offering cannot be
friendly to the cause of empowering women. Having 85% success rate in
recent madrasa exams (equivalent to SSC) is another area that must
also be scrutinised closely. Alongside with Arabic as a second
language, there should also be vocational English introduced together
with courses on social sciences.
One may argue that the Bideshawar incident is an isolated case and
does not need any close attention from the administration. This
cannot be right. There is a correlation found between violence
against women and traditional Islamic education, here and elsewhere
in the Muslim world. The 39 lashes and subsequent silence from the
politicians, once again, remind us of the ground realityhow and where
the empowerment movement is heading to in 21st century Bangladesh.
Dr. Moazzem Hossain is the author of Democracy's Roller Coaster Ride
in Bangladesh.
o o o
Star Magazine
May 29, 2009
DISBAND OR REFORM?
by Nader Rahman
Last week Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report on Bangladesh
titled, "Ignoring Executions and Torture: Impunity for Bangladesh's
Security Forces," where they clearly outlined their opinions on the
Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and the Directorate General of Forces
Intelligence (DGFI). The report cast a critical eye over the
activities of the two agencies and openly called for both the DGFI
and RAB to be disbanded. It stated that, "The very forces tasked with
upholding the law and providing security to the public have become
well known for breaking the law in the gravest manner without ever
facing any consequences." It went on to say, "Forces such as Rab and
the military intelligence agency DGFI have become symbols of abuse
and impunity." Clearly they held nothing back when stating their case
against the two forces, but the real question is, where do we go from
here?
The current HRW report is not the first to implicate RAB in human
rights atrocities; in December 2006 they produced a damning 79-page
report on RAB titled "Judge, Jury, and Executioner: Torture and Extra-
judicial Killings by Bangladesh's Elite Security Force". It detailed
the highly questionable activities of RAB as well as investigating a
number of high profile deaths caused by "crossfire". Published a
month before the country went into a 23 month long state of
emergency, the report was largely overlooked at a time when RAB and
other security agencies were given increased powers. Yet it seems one
of the key recommendations of that report was taken to heart more
than two years after it was published. One of the recommendations to
the future government was to, "Make strong and repeated public
statements, at the highest institutional level, against unlawful
killings and custodial abuse by RAB, and that all those responsible
for abuses will be prosecuted." Seemingly Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina took the recommendation to heart when she announced that there
would be a 'zero tolerance' policy for extra-judicial executions. She
went on to say that state officials involved in such activities would
also be brought to book. It proved to be an empty promise, as within
weeks of her statement 'crossfire' killings made a comeback and she
remained mum on the topic.
HRW believes the problem with RAB and DGFI is that essentially they
are not accountable for their actions and that currently there are a
number of laws that protect the members of such forces. In simple
terms they are allowed to carry out their highly questionable
activities and answer to no one. When one plainly looks at the facts
which show over 1000 deaths in custody and through 'crossfire' along
with countless accusations of torture, it is easy to agree with HRW
recommendation to disband the DGFI and RAB, but that idea is a little
too simplistic. If any branch of the government or for that matter
any private institution is not working, or even if it is implicated
in innumerable corruption cases, there is never an easy way to tackle
the problem. But one thing is certain, disbanding them is usually not
the best way to solve the problem. One must first isolate the problem
and then look at constructive ways to solve them.
With regard to RAB and DGFI, isolating the problem is almost
impossible. Whenever they have been accused of human rights
violations they have vehemently denied any wrongdoing. Every now and
then they have set up tribunals and apparently disciplined some of
their officers, yet the tribunals continue to be held secretly and
any and all punishment handed out is not equivalent to the crime.
Officers are reshuffled, 'severely' reprimanded and essentially let
off the hook for crimes which would send any other person to the
gallows. In a press release Brad Adams, HRW Asia Director said, "If
you are a soldier, a member of RAB or the intelligence services, or a
police officer, you can get away with murder in Bangladesh." While
his sentiments are easy to understand what should also be taken into
consideration that very few, if any, members of DGFI and RAB have
ever actually been convicted of murder or an extra-judicial killing.
All the accusations against them at the end of the day are just that,
accusations. No court has ever been able to try them as they are
essentially protected by a multitude of laws that exempt them from
being tried in civil courts, and even protect their otherwise
allegedly unlawful actions while on duty.
HRW understands the problems within the system and that is why their
recommendation to at least form an independent commission is a
pragmatic one. They have suggested that such commissions be formed
for both the RAB and the DGFI and that they assess the forces
performance and identify those believed to be responsible for serious
violations such as torture and extra-judicial killings. Along with
that HRW believes that the commissions should form an action plan to
transform them into agencies that operate within the law and obey the
basic norms of international human rights. This suggestion is
seemingly far more practical than simply disbanding the two forces
and in a way if the commission is set up and goes about its
activities properly it could be a sort of truth and reconciliation
commission. Weeding out those who committed human rights offences
such as torture and extra-judicial killings will probably have two
distinctive results.
First and foremost by finding and trying people guilty of the crimes
they committed while on duty it will act as a wake up call to every
single officer. They should not and can not take their duties
lightly, they are being paid by the state to uphold the law and not
break it. It will be a sort of scare tactic to everyone else in the
force that they cannot bend the law and those that do will be
punished harshly. It will also help bridge the gap between ordinary
citizens and the forces, as currently many view their tactics as a
form of vigilante justice. It will also help the families of those
who have allegedly been killed by the forces to grieve and finally
move forward with their lives. The formation of a commission could be
a win-win situation, for the government, RAB, DGFI and the average
citizen. Truth be told, while many people have died along the way and
human rights have been trampled on, both the agencies have done their
fare share to help protect their country and its citizens. The main
problem is an ethical one. If they can break the rules to do their
job, then why shouldn't others be allowed to do so? If that was the
case then it would be acceptable for a member of the government to
accept a bribe for any sort of contract that was in the best
interests of the country. He could very well say, that he got the job
done and that's what counts. But life is not as simple as that.
RAB and DGFI have essentially taken a Machiavellian perspective to
their work. For them the ends justify the means, if people (innocent
or not) die or are tortured in the process then so be it.
Interestingly even if they think otherwise their opinion on the
matter has never been made public, thus leading the public to think
they do not care much for civil liberties and human rights. Their
attitude and actions must change and in the process so should they.
If it's a toss up between disbanding and reforming them, then there
is really only one answer. Reform.
Copyright (R) thedailystar.net 2009
_____
[4] Pakistan:
The News
May 28, 2009
THE FIRES OF ETHNICITY
by Kamila Hyat
The writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor
The violent opposition in Sindh to the presence of IDPs in the
province is a shocking reminder of the divisions that have
effectively fractured society.
The MQM and Sindhi nationalist parties have united forces to oppose
the entry of the IDPs to the province. The essential humanitarian
element of their situation has been lost amidst the blinding hate
inspired by ethnic factors, which has during the past few months
already triggered episodes of mayhem in Karachi. The inter-
connections between different parts of a country which make it one
nation rather than a collection of isolated portions of territory
have been lost.
There are many aspects to this issue that now confront us head on.
The ethnic issue has played a part in creating a situation where only
38 per cent of NWFP and the adjacent FATA areas, according to a map
put out by the BBC, are under the control of the Pakistan government.
The Taliban have in many places used ethnicity almost as much as
religion to establish their grip. Others too confuse the issue with
notions of a 'tribal' Pakhtun culture and 'tradition', ignoring the
fact that for the most part the militants of Baitullah Mehsud or
Maulana Fazlullah are opposed by tribal leaders who previously held
almost undisputed sway in the same areas. Neither offers a solution
to the problems of people who essentially seek a greater role in the
making of decisions about their own destiny.
The extent to which ethnic issues determine what happens in the state
is evidenced too by the matter of the Kalabagh Dam. The minister for
water and power has now re-affirmed the project has been scrapped,
and says that the decision in this respect is final. This
announcement will create some dissent in Punjab. The whole matter has
become one of provinces pulling in opposite direction; it has also
become one of pride rather than good sense. Amidst this tussle, it
has become impossible to look objectively at the dam and its possible
developmental benefits. It is possible that it may have brought some.
But the fact is that the ethnic friction it created was so damaging,
pitching groups of people against each other, that the decision to
abandon the reservoir is almost certainly a wise one. A dam that
resulted in so many further divides within an already weakening
federation could serve no useful purpose at all.
In the IDP situation too, the ethnic realities are visible
everywhere, and not just in Sindh. In NWFP, hundreds of people have
opened up homes to the nearly two million people displaced from the
war-hit areas. Keys to unused homes or rooms that lie empty have been
handed over to IDPs in many places. In Punjab, in Sindh and indeed in
Balochistan, the misery of the displaced is just as visible. The TV
images beam in just as they do in the Frontier. The appeals for help
are heard everywhere. But the generosity of spirit seen in the
Frontier is in many ways absent. Even though relief goods have been
handed over, there has been opposition in parts of Punjab to the
location of IDP camps close to their residences and the provincial
government itself seems somewhat confused about the issue.
Nowhere though are the ethnic tensions more visible than in
Balochistan. The reports of schools which no longer play the national
anthem or isolated incidents in which the Pakistan flag was
reportedly burnt are the latest unpleasant indications of this. They
have quite naturally created a wave of shocked anger. There is
speculation that a military operation may be conducted against
nationalists in Balochistan, possibly after the Taliban have been
overcome. This, in the minds of some, would be a straightforward
continuation of the bid to regain 'lost' territory. But there is a
need, before any such action is begun, to contemplate all the angles.
The events in Balochistan are extremely unfortunate; indeed tragic.
But they are tied in to perceptions regarding an unjust federal
policy to the province over many decades. It is this problem, which
lies at the heart of the anger we now see in Balochistan, which needs
in one way or the other to be addressed. Military manoeuvres will not
achieve this, even if they succeed in temporarily snuffing out
nationalist passions by adding to the growing list of those killed
for their struggle in this cause. In time, such action will fuel only
greater resentment and still more hatred. It must be avoided.
The ethnic issue then has come to dominate more and more elements of
life within the state. The manner in which it is being used in the
IDP issue is especially disturbing. What we need to do at this point
is to step outside our state – metaphorically and not physically –
and take a look at it from something of a distance. What we have is
increasingly divided communities and a huge distance between people
in various parts of the country. The distance is represented too by
differences in culture, in language in modes of thought. It is
senseless to try and eliminate these differences. That has not worked
in the past; it will not work now. What we need to do is to create a
greater sense of the whole, of unity – to use a cliche – by accepting
differences and learning to embrace them as a source of strength and
not a weakness.
It may of course take a generation, perhaps even more, for this to
happen. But the attempt to build togetherness needs to start in the
present, so that we indeed have a future. This can happen only by
looking into the past. There are many in the country quite genuinely
mystified by the war-crimes-trials process on in Bangladesh. This
aims to try, after three and a half decades, those guilty of crimes
committed in the then East Pakistan during its struggle for
independence which culminated in 1971 in the creation of the
independent state of Bangladesh. Although the proceedings, for which
Bangladesh will be assisted by the UN, involves persons in Pakistan
and also Bangladesh, Islamabad has feigned a kind of distant
indifference, insisting this is an 'internal matter' of Bangladesh.
This is not the case. The affair involves Pakistan and opens up many
questions as to its past.
These are questions we need to face up to; to confront head on. Only
by doing so can meet the challenges we face today and ensure that we
emerge from the process as a stronger nation rather than one in which
there is a constant pull in different directions, threatening to
weaken the basic structure itself.
o o o
Foreign Affairs, May 28, 2009
Letter From Mardan: The Fight for Control of the Swat Valley and the
Future of Pakistan
by William Wheeler
One day this month, Faridun Karimdad, a 36-year-old farm worker, was
lying on a cot in a gloomy hospital ward in Mardan, a town in
Pakistan's northwest. He inched onto his right side to show me the
splatter of dried blood above his left hip. The day before, as
Karimdad and his family prepared to flee the village of Khot in the
Swat Valley, a mortar exploded outside his home, shattering his hip
and killing his son and two daughters. He could live with his loss,
he told me, if he believed the Pakistani military's offensive would
bring peace -- if only the brief peace his village enjoyed after the
Pakistani government negotiated a cease-fire with Taliban fighters
last February.
Karimdad, like many of the refugees fleeing the fighting in Swat,
blames both sides for violating the terms of the deal. The government
had agreed to recognize sharia, Islamic law, in the region if the
militants agreed to lay down their arms. But peace did not hold for
long. The Taliban continued pushing into mountains toward the
capital, Islamabad, and claimed territory in the neighboring district
of Buner.
Then, in early May, facing harsh criticism from the United States for
ceding territory to the militants, the government launched a heavy-
handed military offensive against the Taliban in Swat -- a mission
that Karimdad, like many in his situation, believes is destined to
fail. The Pakistani military claims to have killed more than 1,200
Taliban fighters and is now waging street battles and searching
houses for militants in Swat's main town of Mingora.
Although the ongoing offensive suggests that Pakistan may finally be
committed to confronting the threat of militancy within its borders,
its reliance on overwhelming, and often indiscriminate, firepower
suggests that the military's longtime focus on a conventional war
against India has left it unequipped to launch a sophisticated
counterinsurgency with the tactics necessary to maintain public
confidence in the campaign. Karimdad told me that he is doubtful the
military will ever gain a decisive victory. "There will be another
compromise," he said. "Then there will be another dispute. Then
they'll both start killing people again."
Under international pressure, the army appears to have rushed into
the conflict unprepared for the consequences, which, as the situation
worsens, threatens to undermine support for the already fragile
administration of President Asif Ali Zardari. Pakistani leaders are
caught between the need to combat militancy inside the country --
proving their resolve to a U.S. administration that has promised not
to give Islamabad a "blank check" -- and the risk of a public
backlash. The human cost has already been high. Some 1.5 million
people have left their homes in recent weeks, bringing the total
displaced by fighting to more than two million and overwhelming
Pakistani officials with the country's largest internal migration
since its partition from India in 1947.
The government seems to have done little to prepare for such a
crisis, creating a growing danger of instability from an operation
that was supposed to achieve the exact opposite. Although the scale
of the crisis may have been hard to predict, the army's lack of
planning for the war's humanitarian implications was destined to
alienate many of those whom the Pakistani government most needs to
convince it can protect.
Rifaat Hussain, a professor of defense and strategic studies at Quaid-
i-Azam University, in Islamabad, told me that "90 percent of the
army's resources are dedicated fully to making the military
operations a success. But even if they are able to defeat the
militants in the Swat area, if you have 10,000 or 20,000 disgruntled
youth coming out of these refugee camps and then picking up arms or
joining hands with those who have been defeated, that can create
another nightmare situation for Pakistan." As Hussain put it, the
government's inattention to the civilian fallout has left many in
Swat without the feeling that "they have a dog in this fight."
Until several years ago, the Swat Valley was known as a picturesque
mountain destination for tourists, yet many of its residents are poor
laborers traditionally underserved by the government. Like Karimdad,
a large number of them welcomed the return of Islamic law -- which
had been in place there until 1969 -- as a swift and effective
alternative to the country's onerous bureaucracy.
But the Taliban's rough and often brutal imposition of sharia
alienated many residents of Swat. "These people [the Taliban] are not
Muslims," said an elderly man with a white beard in a camp near the
local hospital in Mardan. He told me about a recent killing of a
local imam who spoke out against the militants for laying landmines
and stockpiling weapons in Mingora, a Taliban stronghold. But as he
finished, his son, a 35-year-old surgeon's assistant, told me that
the military has not treated civilians in the area much better. "They
are shelling blindly," he said. "There is no target." The family did
not have time to leave before the military began bombing raids and
was trapped for days before authorities lifted the curfew so they
could escape.
As the central government in Islamabad reveals itself to be
increasingly unable to care for those affected by the military's
offensive, independent groups with ties to Islamist organizations
such as Jamaat-ud-Dawa -- which was banned for its suspected
involvement in last November's terror attacks in Mumbai -- have
stepped into the vacuum. They have a growing presence outside the
camps for providing food and medical care. Supplying relief aid and
services is a quick way to forge allegiances with those displaced by
the fighting, and that is a war Zardari's government is losing.
"There is no administration here," said Mehboob Khan, a student at
the University of Peshawar and one of a hundred students who have
assumed administrative control over a large section of the Mardan
camp, gathering and distributing donations of food, water, clothes,
and bedsheets for refugees. "We could manage this whole camp better
than the authorities," he said. That morning, he told me, he had
watched trucks loaded with supplies roll into the camp. A member of
Pakistan's parliament spoke to the press outside the camp's entrance
before disappearing with the trucks and supplies as soon as the
cameras were turned off. "They conveyed the message that they are
trying to bring relief to the people," he said. "But they didn't give
anything."
Meanwhile, rumor and conspiracy theories are quickly taking hold.
Many refugees I talked to were convinced that the Pakistani army was
letting in shipments of arms and ammunition to the militants and were
deliberately missing their targets as part of a war of show.
Two days later, I visited an unofficial refugee camp that had been
set up on a parcel of private land, tucked around the corner from a
modest neighborhood in Islamabad. Since the February cease-fire,
refugees had been slowly trickling in from Swat. A few days earlier,
there had been only 100 or so in the tents erected on a hill above a
polluted stream. On the day I visited, there were more than 400. A
doctor who was making rounds at the camp told me that people were
suffering from water-borne illnesses and depression. "People have
been here for two months, and still they have nothing," one refugee
told me, pointing to the dusty, sun-baked slope beneath his feet.
"There is no life here."
The refugee crisis is bolstering claims that the government is unable
to protect its citizens, especially in light of the U.S. drone
attacks in the borderlands between Afghanistan and Pakistan that have
killed a large number of civilians along with militants. Khalid
Rahman, the director of the Institute for Policy Studies in
Islamabad, told me that the war could plunge support for Zardari to
dangerously low levels. For the moment, his approval rating is 19
percent, lower than that of Pervez Musharraf when he was pushed from
office in August 2008. "They can take Swat militarily," Rahman said.
"But the issue is whether they can sustain the credibility of the
people and isolate the extremists."
Even if the army is able to win the military battle, it will face a
substantial challenge in resettling refugees. Zardari has made a plea
to the international community for $1 billion to care for refugees.
But the tab for relief and post-conflict reconstruction could likely
total more than $3 billion, according to Hussain. "Without that kind
of support for this area you will have a lot of resentment and a lot
of anger among these people." So far, Hussain told me, the
government's efforts have been too little, too late. "The whole idea
is to make the military operation a success," he said. "The rest can
come later."
o o o
The News on Sunday
May 31, 2009
influx
VICTIM OF THE VICTIMS
The predicament of the IDPs arriving in Sindh is aggravated by the
unwelcome attitude of the 'nationalists’
By Adeel Pathan
The nationalist parties of Sindh, especially those that demand a
greater autonomy for the province, have not only opposed the
temporary settlement of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) of
Malakand division in the province, they have actually taken to
streets to register their protest.
These parties see the IDPs as a burden on the deteriorating economy
of Sindh. On May 23 and 25, the two factions of Jeay Sindh Qaumi
Mahaz (JSQM), observed a strike supported by the Muttahida Qaumi
Movement (MQM).
Violence broke out as a consequence of the strikes that not only
paralysed life in the //city //Karachi// but also forced businesses
to close down, causing them losses of billions of rupees besides
leaving half a dozen persons dead in assorted incidents where the
vehicles were set to fire.
Sher Zaman of Buner, a bookseller and a father of six, says he left
his hometown "in extreme circumstances", landing in Hyderabad where
he had to take up lodgings in the premises of a cement factory.
Jehanzeb Khan, a labourer from the affected Kohana area, arrived in
Hyderabad with his wife and five children. He tells TNS that he was
"forced to flee with just a few clothes because of firing and
bombardment in our area".
Both Sher Zaman and Jehanzeb say they will return "as just as the
situation becomes normal back home".
To add to their woes, these dislocated people have to face the
regional forces that strongly oppose their existence in the province.
The ruling coalition partners -- Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and
MQM -- are all for resisting the arrival of IDPs in Sindh.
Dr Qadir Magsi, Chairman, Sindh Tarraqi Passand Party (STPP), opines
that those who are carrying out the operation in the northern areas
should have developed a strategy beforehand. Measures should have
been taken to save people from being displaced, he tells TNS.
Interestingly, Dr Magsi sees a kind of a 'method’ in the mad rush of
the IDPs (in Sindh). They couldn’t have travelled the long distance
of 1200 to 1500 kilometres not to settle in Sindh, he quips.
"There’s a lobby that is helping these displaced people to settle in
our motherland. …The situation poses a huge security threat to the
natives who fear they might be forced to shift into camps."
He promises the "movement" will continue.
The parties who are a part of the Sindh government propose that the
IDPs should be registered. Salahuddin, an MQM leader and the member
of the National Assembly from Hyderabad, says the IDPs should be
accommodated close to their own areas. Sindh is already dealing with
the issue of an increasing population; more people would mean adding
to its burden.
"We fear there might be some militants in the disguise of the IDPs,"
he declares. "Talibans are a threat not just to Karachi or Sindh, but
to the entire world."
He urges the government to provide financial support to the IDPs and
registration should be made compulsory. They should be kept in camps
and returned to their areas as soon as possible.
Zulfiqar Halipoto, Secretary, Sindh Democratic Forum (SDF), tells TNS
that the "reason why the peaceful, progressive and hospitable people
of Dir, Swat, Buner, FATA and the northern areas of Pakhtoonkhwa have
had to face the worst displacement in our history is the continuity
of the wrong policies of the military dictators.
"My heart goes out to the unfortunate IDPs. But the Sindhis’ past
experience with migrants is too bitter to be forgotten. We extended a
generous welcome to the migrants of 1947 but we were later hunted
down and killed in our own cities," he says firmly.
On the other hand, Asmatullah Khan Mehsud, Senior Vice President,
Awami National Party’s Sindh chapter, says the displaced people are
Swatis and their making a normal living depends on their returning to
their native areas.
"But their businesses and homes have been destroyed and the
conditions in the relief camps are also very bad, which is why they
have had to move down to Lahore, Karachi and other cities where they
have got some acquaintances."
Mehsud insists that the IDPs are "not migrants. According to the
Constitution, they are free to go anywhere in the country."
He maintains that the nationalist parties have the right to express
their reservations but this should be free of violence.
Mehsud also speaks of an ANP delegation meeting the nationalists in
order to allay their unfounded fears.
Abdul Wahid Arisar, the chief of his own faction of JSQM, is not
convinced. The success or failure of the strikes should be taken as a
referendum, he declares.
Asked as to what they would do to stop the IDPs from entering into
the province, he says the party "will go to any extent", even if that
means going to Ubaro (a town on the border of Sindh) to physically
stop them.
He insists that these people have got a "jihadi mentality" that would
badly damage the image of Sindh, seen as the home of Sufism. He
denies the involvement of his party and other nationalist groups in
attacking the Pakhtoons living in Sindh, saying that these were
occasional incidents that might have occurred because of the people’s
own feuds. "We are a non-violent nation and followers of G M Syed."
Sassui Palejo, Minister for Culture, Sindh, says demonstrations and
strikes are a democratic way but they should not inspire ethnic
violence.
Reportedly, the police as well as revenue officials have started
registering the IDPs on two different points in Karachi and
Hyderabad. The number of the displaced people arriving in Sindh is
being calculated.
The writer can be reached at journalistadeel at yahoo.com
______
[5] India:
Magazine / The Hindu
May 31, 2009
EXPECTATIONS FROM A SECULAR GOVERNMENT
by Harsh Mander
The people have put their trust again in a secular polity. Will the
new government live up to that trust?
Millions among the men and women who lined up patiently outside
polling booths this hot summer have voted for a caring State, for
inclusive growth and a secular government. The burden of
expectations, therefore, that rests on the shoulders of the
government in New Delhi — which has been returned with an emphatic
expanded mandate — is daunting and diverse. In these columns this
Sunday, I will try to reflect on possible elements of an agenda for a
government specifically to defend and promote secularism.
In this most pluralist of countries in the world, the large majority
of people of varied faiths have once again, during the recent general
election, opted for politics which does not divide people on the
basis of their beliefs and cultural practices. The government must
shed its reticence and place high on its agenda the active further
strengthening of the secular fabric of our land. It cannot allow
itself to be confused and diverted any longer by spurious debates
about “pseudo-secularism”. In an ancient tradition that has endured
and evolved with the passage of millennia, people in India have
practised secularism not as the denial of religious faith, but as
equal respect for every faith — including always also the absence of
faith. It is a way of life which is founded on understanding,
respecting and indeed celebrating differences of belief and culture;
one that does not mandate allegiance or subservience to any
majoritarian system of mores and practices as a pre-requisite of full
and equal citizenship.
Highest claim
In defending and advancing this precious tradition of uniquely Indian
secularism moulded to the context of a modern democratic polity, for
me the first and highest claim is of our children. Succeeding
governments have declared their commitment to universalising primary
and secondary education, and a bill that makes education a
fundamental right has been delayed far too long in Parliament. But as
the new government passes this bill, it must reflect also on the kind
of education that it will guarantee to all our children.
It has taken privileged schools in the national capital six decades
since Independence to open their doors for children of less
privilege, but even this is only for separate afternoon classes of
reduced standards and in the Hindi medium of instruction. The
government must guarantee a fundamental right to education which is
of the same standard to all children. It must also ensure that
children born into diverse levels of wealth, caste, ethnicity and
religious community, study in the same classrooms, shoulder to
shoulder. Recurring bouts of communal violence have pushed more and
more Muslim people into ghettoes. One outcome of this is that
children of different faiths no longer learn together. This enables
fostering of communal and caste stereotypes in young minds and
hearts. The government must actively promote mixed schools of high
educational accomplishment, where Hindu, Dalit, and Muslim students,
and those of diverse faiths and ethnicities, study and play together.
Over many decades, an array of communal organisations has
systematically penetrated into many forest settlements, villages and
slums across the land. They have converted the classroom into a site
of communal politics, in which communal, caste and gender stereotypes
are actively promoted. Seeds of difference, suspicion and hate, based
on diverse identities, are vigorously planted and often take deep
root in impressionable minds. The government must regulate the school
curricula of these communal and sectarian organisations, like Ekal
Vidyalayas, Saraswati Shishu Mandirs, Banvasi Kalyan Ashrams, the
Islamic Research Foundation, and other similar formations, and bring
all schools under the regulatory purview of an empowered national
autonomous body. It must also actively advance in all government and
private schools teaching caste, communal and gender equity and
tolerance, and what Nehru called “the scientific temper”.
The government must be consistent in its opposition to all forms of
religious fundamentalism and obscurantism, majority and minority.
Most religious fundamentalists, of every faith, have discriminated
against women. If one major faith denies women rights to maintenance,
another discriminates in inheritance and against widows. The
government must demonstrate the courage to enable voluntary access of
all to a gender-just common civil code.
In his first term, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh constituted a
committee chaired by Justice Sachar to investigate into conditions of
Muslims, and with painstaking empirical detail, the committee
established that on most socio-economic parameters, Muslims stand on
par with disadvantaged Dalits. Despite this, the government has not
crafted a strategy to redress this enormous injustice
comprehensively. A paramount priority of the government must be to
enable an estimated 140 million disadvantaged citizens to advance in
education, healthcare and employment.
The government must also redeem its unfulfilled promise to enact a
law to prevent mass communal crimes. In communal pogroms such as in
Delhi in 1984 and Gujarat in 2002, many public officials were guilty
of complicity in mass crimes by simply failing to act effectively and
promptly in controlling the violence. It is difficult to prosecute
people in command responsibility like Chief Minister Narendra Modi
for their manifest crimes against humanity, because failing to act is
not explicitly designated a crime. Minorities in India can feel safe
only by a law which holds governments and officials directly
accountable to protect citizens from communal and caste violence, and
penalises them for wanton failures to act.
Governments have also been partisan in extending rehabilitation to
survivors of communal violence, again based on their ethnicity and
faith. The law therefore must ensure a right to relief and
rehabilitation for all survivors of communal, ethnic and caste
violence on standards and levels which are binding on every
government, regardless of who are the victims of the violence. The
core principle of rehabilitation should be that the State government
must ensure that survivors are restored at least to the situation
they were in before the riots, and preferably better off.
Healing past wounds
There are many unhealed wounds of past communal massacres which a
caring government must address. It must set up a special cell and
mandate prosecution and legal aid for all survivors who wish to
pursue justice. I have in recent years visited the sites of many
communal carnages of the past; and found consistently that for the
survivors, the suffering does not end even decades later. The
government must set up a special fund for those widowed and orphaned
by conflict in the last 30 years; also a special package for all
widows, half-widows and orphans of Jammu and Kashmir and troubled
States of the Northeast.
But even more important is for the government to acknowledge and
redress grave mistakes of governments of the past. I think the time
is ripe for a Congress government to institute a Truth and
Reconciliation Commission on the 1984 Sikh massacre in Delhi.
Likewise, the wounds of the incendiary dispute around the mob
demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992 will continue to fester unless
the Supreme Court of India is encouraged to pass a legally just
ruling on a dispute that tore apart the nation for two decades.
The government which has been recently returned to power must
remember that there can be no closure to innocent blood spilt, and no
sense of equal citizenship, without justice done, and seen by all to
be done. And there can be no healing without caring. Our secular
polity is the most precious legacy of our struggle for freedom. It
stands today contested and battered, but endures ultimately because
our people live by secular convictions. The government must
demonstrate the same conviction, and the compassion and courage
required to restore secularism and equal citizenship as the
foundations of public life in India.
o o o
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2009/05/election-2009-verdict-
whither.html
ELECTIONS 2009 VERDICT: WHITHER COMMUNALISM?
by Ram Puniyani
The results of 2009 general elections have thrown up a verdict where
by BJP has lost lots of ground on electoral arena, its voting
percentage has declined and number of seats have come down. Its
calculations of coming to power as the head of NDA withered away. In
2004 elections despite the predictions by pollsters, its power
declined and it gave way to Congress led UPA alliance. While BJP is
ruling in many states and in couple of them it seems to have
entrenched itself firmly for the time being, an overall atmosphere
that BJP is on the decline is very much there.
BJP built its political fortunes on the foundations laid by RSS work
of decades and the contextual economic and social changes which
culminated during the beginning of 1980s. These related to changes in
global political chessboard due to decline of Soviet states, leading
to US becoming the sole superpower in the world. This in turn changed
the dynamics of globalization, making it more adverse to the large
sections of population. The changes which occurred due to lop sided
industrialization in the country led to the rise of affluent middle
classes. In this backdrop, the interest of affluent sections seemed
to be to support the politics of status quo, with the political
agenda to wean away the deprived sections from the path of struggle,
by promoting the identity based politics. This might not have been a
conscious planning, but this is what happened in the course of
political changes. And Ram temple issue came to grab the nation and
it threw the struggle for social issues to the margins. The rights
based movements did face uphill task to keep afloat in this
atmosphere, atmosphere seeped in divisive religious, social
identities and enhanced religiosity all around.
BJP at this stage, mid 1980s, shifted from its ploy of Gandhian
Socialism to Hindutva, Hindu nationalism. With Mandal coming to the
fore, opponents of Mandal crystallized around BJP in a big way. The
ascendance of BJP was assisted by the work of Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram,
wooing a section of Adivasis around BJP and Samajik Samrasta Manch co-
opted section of Dalits around Hindutva politics. This ascendance was
further assisted by opportunist forces, the ilk of George Fernendes,
that earlier would not touch it even with a barge pole. With the
assistance of these forces BJP controlled the levers of power for
close to six years. It is during this period that the infiltration
and impact of RSS ideology of Hindu nation, Hate minorities seeped
much further. It is during this period that severe cultural and
educational manipulations further intensified in the arena of
education and social work.
BJPs’ ability to come to power thrice was due to a section of
population opposed to the process of social transformation of caste
and gender, added on by winning over a section of middle class,
around aggressive nationalism, nuclear explosion, and threatening
postures against Pakistan and at times bravado against the issue of
terrorism. This section does not comprise the large masses. Affluent
sections, those who benefit from ‘Shining India’ and some others did
remain loyal to BJP, but remaining sections soon realized that the
empty rhetoric of identity politics is not going to fill their empty
stomachs and they voted against this Hindu Nationalist party during
2004 and later in 2009. Interestingly other political formations
operating around other identities also faced a set back during 2009
elections.
Meanwhile BJP has tried to change its stripes and at times been
talking Bijli Sadak Pani, and development agenda a la Modi. But can
it hide the fact that it is the party whose break away factions beat
up women; it is the party which inherently believes in what Varun
Gandhi says. Its so called development talk is a mere electoral ploy.
As they say you can’t fool all the people all the time, so BJP stands
in its moment of truth, electoral vote share going down from the 22
odd percentages last time to nearly 18% now. At one level now the
liberal space can be made stronger and those engaged in social
movements can further strengthen their work.
So what happens to BJP in times to come? It is definite that it has
brought in the polarization of sections of society through the ‘Hate
other’ ideology. Its major faces symbolizing this divisive ideology
have been Advani, Modi and Varun Gandhi in that sequence. This
politics did lead to violence of mammoth proportions. It is not easy
to write off BJP as it has already made its foundations around the
ideology of Hindu Nation etc. And BJP is not a stand alone party. It
is merely and electoral wing of RSS, the organization with hundreds
of branches and offshoots, which will continue to work
notwithstanding the defeat of BJP. Apart from these multiple
organizations, RSS ideology and politics has also got entrenched in
the educational, media and social channels of cooption. Social
engineering and increased religiosity is another phenomenon
strengthening communalism.
Communalism does not just mean the power of BJP in political arena.
Divisiveness begins from propagation of the exclusivist ideologies of
nationalism. The next layer is demonizing minorities through various
layers of propaganda etc. This has been leading to sectarian violence
and polarization of communities. Surely these processes are very much
intact and thriving in the society. The ‘social common sense’,
perceptions about minorities has been doctored to frightening
proportions. The subtle, and word of mouth propaganda against father
of the nation, against the values of Indian Constitution and a blind
reverence to elite tradition has been pushed through broad and deep.
So as of now, the divisive politics is very much thriving, in the
form of ideas, in the form of different organizations, which may be
presented as ‘cultural’, ‘religious’, ‘social’ or what have you.
Surely it is unlikely that Ram temple or any other emotive issues can
now come to the fore powerfully. It is unlikely that they can repeat
Gujarat or Kandhamal so easily, though one does not rule these
cataclysms, as the land mines of such a politics have already been
laid far and wide.
This type of politics knows that it can thrive through identity
issues, through divisiveness, so those efforts may be intensified.
RSS, BJPs’ political father, has already started telling BJP to go
back to Hindutva, i.e. take up issues like temple, Ram Setu etc.
There are studies which show that in the areas where communal
violence takes place, rather is orchestrated, BJP becomes stronger.
Same is the observation in current elections. Dominique Immanuel, a
Human Rights worker and Communal harmony award winner, points out
that despite an overall decline in BJP seats and voting percentage it
has retained its hold where violence took place or divisive agenda
was put forward. Mangalore, Udipi, Malegaon, Kandhamal, G. Udaigiri,
Gujarat and Pilibhit are the areas in which saw the sectarian
violence or propaganda or act of terror. In Kandhmal in the Loksabha
segments where violence took place BJP candidate did very well. In
many other places in the country, the constituencies where violence
was orchestrated, BJP has romped home. What does this indicate?
RSS has already stated that BJP needs to come back to Hindutva
agenda. A lot will depend on how RSS combine is able to whip up
hysteria around that. A lot will also depend on how much secular
forces can ensure the preservation of peace and amity all around.
This is possible by restating the core idea of India, pluralism,
values of freedom movement and values of syncretism. A lot will
depend on how effectively the propaganda done by RSS combine can be
effectively countered. Despite RSS instructions to BJP to ‘return to
Hindutva’, Nation has to guard against such deviations and stick to
the ethos of the country which thrive in diversity and inclusiveness.
o o o
The Economic Times, 27 May 2009
THE PARADOX OF DYNASTIC DEMOCRACY
by Ananya Vajpeyi
Jawaharlal Nehru’s campaign of 1936-37, during the provincial
assembly elections that marked the Congress’s transition from a vanguard
nationalist organisation to a political party proper, has, for us,
the character of a founding event of Indian democracy. It was Nehru’s
genius that he wrote an account of his whirlwind tour of the
subcontinent in Chapter 3 of The Discovery of India (1946) in a
manner that reveals both a sense of his political destiny, as well as
his awareness that history is made equally in the doing and the
telling of it.
It seems highly likely, judging from recent signs during the Lok
Sabha elections of 2009, that Nehru’s great-grandchildren Rahul and
Priyanka Gandhi have had his book, one of the charter documents of
democratic India, under their respective pillows as they went
campaigning in UP this spring.
In fact, Rahul’s travels across the country over the past many months
have been called his “discovery of India” tour in this and other
newspapers. In interviews, speeches and press conferences, both
brother and sister display a consciousness about the past and the
future that could not but rest on the homework they have been doing
to understand what allowed four generations of their ancestors, male
and female, to rule and represent modern India.
Rahul and Priyanka present many an Indian voter with a peculiar
dilemma. On the one hand you want to embrace a new generation of
political leadership
, and are glad that the biggest and oldest political party in India
has an echelon of articulate, pragmatic and apparently clean young
people waiting to take over the reins of power. On the other hand the
youngest Gandhis — together with a number of other political heirs in
the Congress and other parties — pose a direct challenge to the very
principle of democracy, since their presence in politics is primarily
a function of their lineage.
To add to the conundrum, people do vote for them, and do so even when
one of them, like Varun Gandhi, Rahul and Priyanka’s first cousin,
clearly lacks political judgement on issues of national importance,
like religion. The Nehru-Gandhis and other such politically powerful
families somehow seem to combine inherited privilege with genuine
popular legitimacy. More difficult to swallow is the fact that those
who lack such lineage, despite genuine political work, can find it
hard to break in to the upper reaches of power.
Several points to be noted: One, Nehru himself, we often forget, was
already the son of Motilal Nehru, and thus not quite as self-made and
original a figure as subsequent history might have us believe. Part
of his genius, as a politician, lay in successfully projecting
himself as a founder rather than an heir, a move Rahul could possibly
repeat in years to come. (Of course, historical events conspired to
make this projection on the part of Nehru seem entirely believable).
Motilal Nehru was around during his son’s political grooming, as
Jawaharlal was for Indira Gandhi, Indira was for Rajiv Gandhi, and
Sonia Gandhi is in turn for her son Rahul. Of all the generations
thus far, Jawaharlal and Rahul seem to have the best chance for a
really useful apprenticeship — though naturally Rahul does not have
any figure like Mahatma Gandhi to impart to him the highest values
that Indian politics has shown itself capable of in the past 150 years.
Two, a structure of authority, essentially patriarchal and trans-
generational, is deeply entrenched and widely understood in the
political culture of the subcontinent. People do not forget hundreds
if not thousands of years of politics overnight.
So the nation-state form, whether democratic or authoritarian,
retains traces of pre-modern political practices, as can be seen not
only in India but across South Asia, in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri
Lanka and Nepal. Do we judge and thereby condemn the residue of
history as undemocratic? It’s not immediately clear: people are
voting, but they are also replicating modes of expressing political
will and relating to political power that are older than 1947, or
1857, or even 1707.
Three, as we saw with Sonia Gandhi, Indians respect the eschewal of
power almost as much or more than they do the assumption of power.
Rahul would go a greater distance by holding off on taking office,
whether as a minister or as prime minister
, than he might by assuming office right away. The interesting thing
— which makes us suspect he is a better student of history than most
politicians, young or old — is that he seems to know this. Arguably
his sister knows it even better than he does, and says she will keep
out of politics altogether for the foreseeable future, a stance I am
willing to wager will change in the next decade. Rahul has declined a
position in Manmohan Singh’s new Cabinet thus far.
Four, the reality of continuity is as important as the prospect of
change. Rahul appears to have an excellent understanding of how he
can both reap the benefit of being a Nehru-Gandhi, and earn popular
acceptance by speaking the language of newness, reform and youth. It
is as though he were in the enviable position of being able to
combine within his own person the properties of a Kennedy and an Obama
. Call it unfair, but no other politician in India can do this .
The pattern of electoral victories in India constantly challenges
democratic theory as it has evolved in the west. If caste politics
presents an anomaly that needs explanation, so too does dynastic
democracy. Like it or not, we cannot dismiss players from political
families, whether the wives, widows, children, grandchildren or other
relatives of formerly powerful leaders, simply because of who they are.
We must accept that when a status claim that appears retrograde and
undemocratic is backed up by a popular mandate, we are pushed to
respect — and understand — the interplay of tradition and modernity
that such outcomes represent. The hope of course is that our leaders
too, would be conscious of the forces at work that make them the
people’s choice. The worst option would be a leader who takes for
granted his or her electorate, and imagines that family name will
trump performance or delivery.
Rahul Gandhi seems to have his feet on the ground and his head on his
shoulders. Let us hope that he will continue to be respectful of his
unique place in Indian politics, and vindicate the good name as well
as sound judgment of modern India’s greatest democratic leader thus
far, his great-grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru.
(The author is assistant professor of history, University of
Massachusetts)
______
[6] India : Human Rights
(i)
Kashmir Times
May 31, 2009
TRAGEDY OF CONTRADICTIONS
by Zahir-ud-Din
The next of kin of the disappeared persons have rejected recent
statement of the DIG (CID), Ashok Bhan on custodial disappearances as
yet another attempt to hood wink local and international opinion. The
DGP said that no custodial disappearance had been reported since
"past few years." If DGP's few years mean the past five or six years
then he needs to recheck the official statistics. For his information
298 disappearances have been reported during the said period.
Officially 22 custodial disappearances have been admitted from
November 2002 to September 1, 2007.
According to the Association of the Parents of Disappeared Persons
(APDP) 8000-10,000 persons have been subjected to enforced
disappearance since 1989. The government vehemently contests this
figure. A series of contradictory statements have been issued by
successive state governments. Amid these claims and counterclaims
truth has become a casualty. However, the contradiction in official
statements forces one to use a different yardstick for APDP data.
The APDP has repeatedly sought appointment of an enquiry commission
to probe all disappearances. "If government claims are based on truth
let them appoint a commission. Why are they reluctant to probe
disappearances", said APDP legal advisor, Parvez Imroz. Similar
demands have been made by Parveena Ahanger who heads the APDP. The
former coalition government headed by Mufti Muhammad Sayed had
promised a probe into custodial disappearances but the promise could
not be fulfilled. The incumbent Chief Minister repeatedly took Mufti
Sayed to task for his government's record on human rights. Addressing
a press conference on May 2, 2008 Omar Abdullah said 4000 Kashmiris
were subjected to enforced disappearance by the state since 1990.
The process of issuing statements on custodial disappearances started
in July 2002. Former home Minister, Khalid Najeeb Soharwardy issued a
statement on July 18,2002. He admitted 3184 custodial disappearances
since 1989. Another statement was issued by the former Chief
Minister, Mufti Muhammad Sayed on February 25,2003. "During 2000,
1553 persons disappeared in the state, 1586 in 2001 and 605 in 2002",
he informed the assembly. This was followed by former law minister,
Muzaffar Husain Beig's statement on March 25, 2003. He told the
assembly that 3744 persons had disappeared out of whom 135 had been
declared dead upto June 2002.
This was followed by a shocking statement by Mufti Muhammad Sayed in
April 2003. He said: "Only 60 persons had disappeared since inception
of militancy in the state." These figures were provided during a
joint press conference by the Prime Minister and Mufti Sayed. Mufti
contradicted this statement on June 11, 2003 when he said 3744
persons were reported missing from 1990 till December 31, 2002. The
tragedy of contradictions did not end here. In yet another statement,
the minister of state for Home, Abdul Rehman Veeri stated on June 21,
2003 that 3931 persons had been reported missing since 1989 to June
2003.
When Ghulam Nabi Azad took over as Chief Minister, he informed the
legislative assembly during zero hour in March 2006 that 693 cases of
custodial disappearances had been registered. His deputy, Muzaffar
Husain Beig informed the assembly on August 1, 2006 that sixty
persons had disappeared during National Conference rule. On August 4,
2006 Azad told the legislators that 33 custodial disappearances had
taken place since 1990-1996. On the next day (August 5) he said 60
persons were subjected to custodial disappearance since 1995-2006.
These contradictory statements reflect that the government has been
desperately trying to conceal the truth. In response to a list issued
by APDP a few years ago, the police said that most of the persons in
the list had crossed over to Pakistan administered Kashmir to seek
arms training. This is exactly what the governments in Nepal and
Pakistan tell the traumatized relatives of the disappeared persons.
In Nepal they are told that the missing persons had escaped to India.
In Pakistan they are told that the missing persons were consumed by
the war in Afghanistan. And in Kashmir they are told that the
disappeared persons went to Pakistan.
That the government wants to conceal the truth stands proved by the
observations made by the SHRC in its reports. In its report of
2005-2006, the SHRC observed: "In last two consecutive reports the
anxiety of the commission has vehemently been expressed against the
non-implementation of the recommendations of the commission. The
grievance has however, neither been registered nor addressed to. The
commission feels shocked to find those people in whose favour
recommendations are made, coming weeping and wailing with the
complaint that the exercise of the commission was futile. They are
justified in saying so; because after loss of sufficient time and
money the recommendations are not implemented. This way the profile
of the commission has been impaired. The commission knows its legal
position. It may not be obligatory for the government to implement
all the recommendations, but ignoring and brushing aside all the
recommendations means showing utter disregard to the Act." (SIC) Pg 4.
The SHRC again observed in its report 2006-2007 on page 5. "The
commission is disappointed to place on record to the effect that its
entire recommendations are blatantly rejected by the government. What
the government does in this behalf? They send the commission's
recommendations to the concerned deputy commissioners who forward it
to tehsildars for necessary action but till date these
recommendations are rejected by the revenue officers, though the
recommendations made by the commission are well reasoned. The attempt
is usually done by the deputy commissioners concerned who in no way
can sit over the recommendations of the commission which headed by
retired judge of the high court as higher form. We admit that the
judgements of the commission are recommendatory in nature. Government
cannot be compelled to implement all these recommendations of the
commission, but however, sincerity should be shown by the government
in dealing with such recommendations of the commission." (SIC).
The SHRC was created by an Act of the legislature in 1997 to 'uphold'
human rights. The commission, however, accuses the government of
insincerity viz-a-viz enforcement of human rights. A former
chairperson of the SHRC went public stating the commission was a
toothless tiger.
The government has shown utter disregard to the judiciary as well. In
the history of the civilized world never has a judge expressed his
helplessness in an open court. But, in this neglected land it
happened. In Jalil Andrabi's case, a judge observed that the
relatives of the deceased (Jalil) were justified in casting
aspersions on the judiciary for its failure to dispense justice.
Successive state governments have sought sanction to prosecution
under Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) since 1990. The
government of India accorded sanction in 270 cases. No action has
been taken against the culprits. A question arises. If the state
governments did not want to prosecute the culprits involved in
heinous offences, why was sanction for prosecution sought?
The local human rights groups have succeeded in making enforced
disappearance a big international issue and the contradictions in
government stand have only helped them. An impartial probe into
enforced disappearances and extra-judicial executions can improve its
image though not fully. But is anybody listening?
Feed back: din.zahir @gmail.com
o o o
(ii) Book Review:
Himal, June 2009
THE THIRD SIKH GHALLUGHARA
[Reviewed] By: Pritam Singh
Terror in Punjab: Narratives, knowledge and truth
by Ram Narayan Kumar
Shipra, 2008
June marks the 25th anniversary of Operation Blue Star, the fancy
name given by the Indian state to the military action it took at
Amritsar’s Harmandir Sahib, or the Golden Temple, the Sikhs’ holiest
shrine, starting on 3 June 1984. A quarter-century on, how do we
describe this action, and what meaning do we attach to it? Do we
describe it, as the ideologists of the Indian state continue to do,
as a holy task undertaken by the Indian military to clear the temple
of the militants who had taken control of it? Or do we describe it,
as some Indian nationalists and leftists do, as a sad and necessary
action to defeat an imperialist conspiracy to disintegrate India? Do
we celebrate it, as some Hindu nationalists do, as a successful
assertion of India’s Hindu strength against the Sikh minority’s
separatist aspirations? Or do we condemn it, as Sikh and Punjabi
nationalists do, as a genocidal attack on Sikh dignity, assertion and
identity? Perhaps we decry it, as most human-rights defenders and
leftists do, as a human tragedy resulting in the deaths of thousands
of human beings – pilgrims, priests, Sikh combatants and Indian army
men.
The contesting descriptions of Operation Blue Star and the meanings
attached to it are reflections of serious fault lines in the Indian
society and polity. To say that there would never be a consensus on
how to describe and signify this military action may be both
unreasonable and ahistorical. But to say that there is little
likelihood of a consensus in the foreseeable future would be alluding
to an uncomfortable truth about the fractured nature of Indian
nationhood. However this operation is described and whatever meaning
is subsequently attached to it, one thing is clear: one day, everyone
else might want to forget it – and, indeed, might succeed in doing so
– but this will never be true of the Sikh community.
Operation Blue Star has become an integral part of the Sikh
collective historical memory. It has become the third ghallughara
(holocaust) in Sikh history – the first referring to the massacre of
some 10,000 Sikhs in 1746; the second to the even larger massacre of
Sikh men, women and children in 1762, when 30,000, 50 percent of the
population, were slaughtered. Today, evidence gathered by this
reviewer suggests that many (though not all) gurdwaras in India and
abroad include references to the third ghallughara in their daily
ardas, or prayers.
The most reliable estimates of the total number of deaths during
Operation Blue Star are anywhere from 5000 to 7000. Yet a crucial
difference between the third ghallughara and the previous two is that
this massacre occurred in the Golden Temple, while the first two took
place on open battlefields. This gives added religious dimension to
the significance of the military action: a much larger number of
Sikhs died during Partition, but the 1947 deaths are not seen in
terms of attacks on and in defence of religion. In religious terms,
the largest Sikh loss in 1947 was the fact that the Nankana Sahib
gurudwara – marking the birth place of Guru Nanak, the founder of the
faith – was suddenly located in Pakistan. This, too, was a loss that
today figures in the daily ardas.
Non-violent dissent
Ram Narayan Kumar’s book is an attempt to trace the roots of Sikh
dissent in India that eventually culminated in the armed
confrontation in 1984. Kumar also deals with the post-1984 period of
Sikh militancy and the Indian state’s success in countering this
militancy. Kumar makes three important contributions to the existing
literature on the post-1984 developments, by placing them in a larger
historical context: first, that Sikh militancy has been defeated;
second, that the upper-caste Punjabi Hindus had a decisive say in the
strategic planning at the Centre in organising the Sikh defeat; and
third, that the Indian intelligence agencies executed this planning
by using complex and sometimes contradictory methods to prop up the
armed Sikh opposition, and to infiltrate and manipulate that
opposition in order to weaken and undermine democratic Sikh political
formations, such as the umbrella formation, the Akali Dal.
Kumar, a human-rights researcher currently based in Kathmandu,
documents and pays tribute to the Akali tradition of non-violence. He
refers to the Akali Dal’s peaceful struggle for a Punjabi-speaking
state, and makes an important point of historical value by
highlighting that the Akali agitation of the 1980s for Punjab’s
demands constituted “the largest non-violent movement in the sub-
continent, including both the colonial and the independent periods,
with over 150,000 volunteers courting arrest with in a period of
three years.” He also points out that the Akali Dal was the only
organisation that was able to sustain an uninterrupted non-violent
movement against the 1975 Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi.
The extensive elaboration and documentation of this non-violent
character of Akali struggles enables the author to expose the
intellectual poverty of the international media in its narratives and
unidimensional portrayals of the Sikhs and the Akalis as ‘militants’,
‘violent’ and ‘terrorists’. Kumar attributes this to the lack of
resources made available to journalists to investigate relevant
issues, and their consequent reliance on Indian government briefings
and police handouts. Some space is also devoted here to a critical
evaluation of the partisan and destructive role played by the Arya
Samaj-controlled media in Punjab. (With origins in the late 19th
century, Arya Samaj, a reformist and Hindu supremacist organisation
has extensive cultural and political influence in North India,
particularly in education and media in Punjab.) This aspect of
Kumar’s work is especially fascinating, and confirms this reviewer’s
own research on the anti-Sikh bias of government media (Doordarshan
and All India Radio) and Delhi-based English-language dailies.
Drawing on more than two decades of research in Punjab, Kumar is able
to provide impressive evidence that government agencies
systematically encouraged and used extremist and fringe groups in
Punjab to undermine the main democratic opposition structures of the
Akali Dal against the ruling Congress party. He has complemented that
evidence by sourcing material from the explosive confessions of a
former intelligence officer named M K Dhar, whose 2005 book, Open
Secrets, provides fascinating firsthand accounts not only of the
intelligence agencies’ manipulation of extremist groups but also of
their liquidation once these groups had been used or came to be
considered a nuisance. While praise is due for Dhar’s moral courage
in publishing this insider’s account of the role of intelligence
agencies in conflict inflation and resolution, it is also important
not to forget that it speaks about the strengths of the democratic
spaces that such a book could be published, distributed, read and
reviewed in India. From this point of view, recent moves by the
Indian state to muzzle the voices of ex-intelligence personnel are
dangerous signals.
A dual defeat
One criticism of Kumar’s book is that it denies agency and autonomy
to the Sikh militant groups in the shaping of their political
activities. Terror in Punjab presents these groups merely as pawns in
the hands of Indian intelligence operatives. A better methodological
approach might have been to accord the necessary autonomy to the
growth of militancy and the groups advocating the militant path, and
then to bring in the evidence of infiltration and manipulation to
show the twists and turns of the activities of various militant
activities. Such an approach would have ensured an integration of two
processes: the emergence of militant groups in terms of their own
ideology, history, factional politics and local conditions; and their
manipulated use and liquidation by the Indian intelligence agencies
and security forces.
The central point about the Sikh defeat deserves to be further probed
in its various dimensions. It is admirable that Kumar has written
this book to expose the victor (the Indian state) and defend the
defeated (the Sikhs). In so doing, he has tried to reverse the oft-
repeated claim that history is always written by the victors. It is
even more praiseworthy that, despite having come from a non-Punjabi
background, Kumar has chosen to articulate the perspective of Punjab
and the Sikhs simply because he believes that it is important to
recognise that the Sikhs have been unfairly treated by the repressive
power of the Indian state. He emphasises further that the defeat of
Sikh militancy has been justified by the writings of the overwhelming
majority of the academic and journalistic accounts of the Punjab
conflict, thus in a way handing the Sikh community a double defeat:
military and ideological. Military suppression of Sikh militancy
signified the military defeat, and the media/academe’s success in
justifying the suppression of both the violent and non-violent forms
of Sikh protest signified the ideological defeat.
If we ask Sikhs today whether they feel defeated, and whether the
Indian state considers that it has defeated the Sikhs, we are likely
to get an ambiguous answer. The Sikhs have indeed been defeated, at
least militarily; but the collective Sikh pride prevents many from
accepting this reality at the community level. Similarly, the Indian
state is aware of its success in crushing the armed rebellion, but
there is nervousness in openly admitting and claiming military
success. New Delhi would like to suggest that it won the battle of
Punjab by winning Sikh hearts and minds – but it knows this to be
untrue. Therefore, both the Sikh community and the Indian state
collude in camouflaging, for different reasons, the fact that the
Sikhs have been defeated.
Fighting nationalisms
What should be the human-rights approach in dealing with this complex
situation of defeat, which no one can claim? Kumar’s book is an
attempt to put forward the position of truth, accountability and
justice as a methodology to study and a tool with which to deal with
this painful situation. Kumar believes truth and justice can heal the
wounds – that is his hope. But he is simultaneously troubled that the
truth will never be allowed to come out and that justice will never
be done.
As for how to think about Operation Blue Star, first and foremost it
was a massive human tragedy. It was a tragedy that could have been
avoided if – and that is a big if – Indira Gandhi had had a larger
vision to reach a political settlement with the Akali Dal. Most Akali
Dal demands – regarding federal decentralisation, river-water rights,
territorial readjustment and the transfer of Chandigarh to Punjab as
its capital – could have been negotiated. In 1985, Rajiv Gandhi
agreed to each of these demands, plus many more. It is a different
matter that he implemented none.
Indira Gandhi’s political calculations – those of using the ‘Hindu
card’ for electoral victories – led her to deliberately choose a
dangerous path of confrontation, first with the Akalis and eventually
with the entire Sikh community. She paid for this miscalculation with
her life, but still left Punjab and India communally scarred and
polarised. Sikh nationalism was defeated militarily, but Hindu
nationalism was unleashed so powerfully that the Hindu nationalists
now openly make claim to capturing the Indian state.
Regarding the demands that led to the Akali agitation of the early
1980s and subsequent developments, the situation today remains where
we were back then. As far as accountability for atrocities is
concerned, Kumar suggests that the Indian government take a bold step
in following South Africa’s example, “by establishing a Commission of
Inquiry to investigate the truth about the sordid world of counter-
insurgency operations in Punjab which Dhar has revealed through his
confessions and by placing the findings before the country through
the publication of White Paper.” No one wants history to be repeated.
The least anyone can do today is to remember those thousands –
pilgrims, priests, politicians, traders, militants, policemen and
soldiers – who became victims in the tragedy of the third Sikh
ghallughara.
Pritam Singh is director of the Postgraduate Programme in
International Management and International Relations at Oxford
Brookes University, and is currently a fellow at Jawaharlal Nehru
University, Delhi
o o o
SEE ALSO:
India Human Rights Report 2009
by Asian Centre for Human Rights
http://www.achrweb.org/reports/india/AR09/AR09.pdf
______
[7] Announcements:
(i) Memorial Meeting Former Student Leader Dr. Muhammad Sarwar
on 31st May 2009 (6:30 PM)
at
PMA House Garden Road, Karachi
organized by Pakistam Medical Association
Historical Photographs and a short documentary will be screened.
All are requested to please come and join us to celebrate the life
time achievements of Dr. Muhammad Sarwar.
o o o
(ii) 6th International Conference on Hands-on Science (HSCI 2009)
Location: Science City, Ahmedabad, India
Date: 27 - 31 October 2009
Organisation: International Association Hands-on Science Network
6th International Conference on Hands-on Science
Focal Theme "Science for All : Quest for Excellence"
Key objectives
* To offer a forum for discussing, debating and addressing
issues and academic concerns emerging globally in the area of science
communication and education
* To encourage free flow of innovative ideas and concepts to
develop hands-on science to enrich science education and communication
* To foster science and technology communication to achieve
science literacy for all
* To encourage expert and non-expert interaction and develop the
spirit of using head and hands to achieve excellence in every walk of
life
Registration details
Last Date for Submission of Abstract (500 Words) : September 05, 2009
Last Date for Early Bird Registration : September 15, 2009
Last Date for Registration : October 15, 2009
Contact Details
Dr. Manoj Patairiya
Convener & Vice Chair (HSCI 2009)
National Council for Science & Technology Communication
Technology Bhavan, New Mehrauli Road, New Delhi-110016 India
Phone : +91-11-26537976
Fax : +91-11-26866675
E-mail : mkp at nic.in; manojpatairiya at yahoo.com
Website : www.dst.gov.in; www.hsci2009.org
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
South Asia Citizens Wire
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.
More information about the SACW
mailing list