SACW | Nov 28-30, 2009 / Rethink Security? / Fighting injustice / Internally Displaced / Liberhan report / Bhopal 25 years on /
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at gmail.com
Sun Nov 29 17:04:37 CST 2009
South Asia Citizens Wire | November 28-30, 2009 | Dispatch No. 2671 -
Year 12 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] Nepal: Proposed actions against security forces is a ploy to
promote General Toran Singh (ACHR)
[2] A militarised Sri Lanka on an uneasy path to peace (Sutirtho
Patranobis)
[3] Pakistan and India Must Resist the Hawks:
- India & Pakistan: case for common defence (Pervez Hoodbhoy)
- Mediation and South Asia (A.G. Noorani)
- Uncalled for remarks (Editorial, Daily Times)
- India’s Eternal Crisis (Pankaj Mishra)
[4] Pakistan: Crusading for land management (Dr Noman Ahmed)
[5] India: Fighting injustice and inequality (Bharat Dogra)
- Bhopal, 25 years on (Vidya Krishnan)
- Are we encouraging the violent turn? (Mallika Sarabhai)
- Homeless wanderers in their own country (Javed Iqbal)
- Press Note: Solidarity Committee for Internally Displaced
Tribals, Andhra Pradesh
[6] India: Resources For Secular Activists
(i) Unknowingly, Liberhan repeats some arguments put forward
by the Hindu nationalists
(ii) What Matters More the Liberhan Report or its Leak?
(iii) Politics of Liberhan report
(iv) Xenophobia in Seventeenth-Century India
[7] UK: Schools of incendiary thought (Shaaz Mahboob)
_____
[1] Nepal:
Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR)
PRESS RELEASE
25 November 2009
Nepal: Proposed actions against security forces is a ploy to promote
General Toran Singh
New Delhi: The Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR), a Delhi based
regional human rights organisation, today stated that reported
intention of the Government of Nepal to ‘take action’ against 350
security persons and Maoists is nothing but a ploy to hoodwink
international community and allow the government to push through
promotion of General Toran Singh to Chief of the Nepal Army Staff.
General Toran Singh is implicated in very serious crimes including
torture and disappearance.
On 24th November the Nepalese media reported ‘cabinet sources’
suggesting that the Government of Nepal intends to ‘take action’
against 350 persons including security personnel, government officers
and Maoist leaders for involvement in extra judicial killings and
human rights violations.
Empty Promises:
ACHR underlined that the international community should understand
that in the context of Nepal there is little value of promises of
undefined government ‘action’ on human rights.
ACHR further noted in this regard the recent analysis of Mr Ian
Martin the former Head of UNMIN who underlined in the Nepalese media
on 8th November 2009: ‘Repeated commitments have been made to
investigate the fate of the disappeared, compensate victims of the
conflict, enable displaced persons to return, establish a
comprehensive truth commission, and – less frequently and more
reluctantly - take action against those responsible for major human
rights violations.’
In examining the results of these commitments, Mr Martin also noted:
“Not a single person has been properly brought to justice for a
major human rights violation committed during the armed conflict or
since”.
‘This recent ‘media leak’ must be seen as part of a longstanding
pattern of unfulfilled promises to investigate and prosecute human
rights crimes in Nepal that violate the Comprehensive Peace Agreement
and international norms’. Stated Mr Suhas Chakma, Director of ACHR.
In the case of General Singh OHCHR has made representations to the
Prime Minister of Nepal that there should be no promotion until the
case is fully and impartially investigated. The Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights in its “Report of investigation into
arbitrary detention, torture and disappearances at Maharajgunj RNA
barracks, Kathmandu, in 2003-2004”of May 2006 concluded that the
“the commander of the 10th Brigade [General Toran Singh] knew or
ought to have known about these actions…” OHCHR recommended that
“those potentially implicated directly or through command
responsibility for units involved should be suspended from any
official duties pending the investigation, and should not be proposed
for participation in United Nations peacekeeping missions”.
But despite the overwhelming evidence the government has not only
failed to take action, but is now clearly moving toward promoting Singh.
[Ends]
_____
[2] Sri Lanka:
hindustantimes.com
A MILITARISED SRI LANKA ON AN UNEASY PATH TO PEACE
by Sutirtho Patranobis, Hindustan Times
Colombo, November 28, 2009
Sri Lanka has a history of violence. For a Buddhist country with a
population of 20 million that history is gory – one long civil war,
two bloody Marxist insurrections, ethnic riots, several
assassinations and an abortive coup in 1962. If that wasn’t enough,
the 2004 December tsunami battered the country’s scenic coastline
and took the lives of thousands.
Everyone knows about long war of attrition that government forces
fought against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE). The 26-year-long war ended in May at the cost of an estimated
100000 lives and two hemorrhaging communities.
Before Tamil militancy was the rebellion of the radical: not many
outside Sri Lanka are aware that the country has seen two armed
rebellions – 1971 and 1987-89 -- by extremist Marxists. The rebels
of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) were fuelled by anti-western
and waves of anti-Indian sentiments. Both claimed the lives of
thousands of youth from the majority Sinhala community and were
crushed under heavy military boots. Thousands more disappeared
without a trace.
But it was the protracted ethnic war with the LTTE that led to, what
a political analyst said, a `national security regime’ (NSR) in the
country. ``An NSR is created when militarisation is viewed as a
necessary component of the conduct of a state. That doesn’t mean
that country is under dictatorship; the regime could be in a broad
democratic framework,’’ the analyst, who requested anonymity, said.
It doesn’t really help that the country continues to be under a
``state of emergency’’ six months after the war. ``Holding of
elections alone is not democracy. Many rogue systems have many forms
of manipulated elections for no other reason than to have some
legitimacy, particularly before the eyes of the international
community,’’ the Asian Human Rights Commission said in a statement
soon after LTTE leader V Prabhakaran was declared dead.
The framework maybe democratic but essential components like the
practice of civil liberties, artistic freedom and dissenting opinion
is severely curtailed in such a regime. In Sri Lanka, it has meant
the murder and assault of journalists and human rights activists,
severe restrictions on critical opinion in the academia and a close
watch, bordering on intimidation, on artists who want to make
political comment.
A well-known painter HT spoke to said: ``I would say (the situation),
it’s scary. But don’t quote me. Do you get the picture?’’
A more direct impact of the internal strife and the security regime
has been the rapid strengthening of armed forces. Latest statistics
is hard to come by as the military continues to be cagey about
sharing numbers but Sri Lanka does have one of the highest ratios of
soldiers to civilians in Asia.
In 2006, according to a study by Mumbai-based Strategic Foresight
Group, Sri Lanka had already emerged as the most militarised country
in South Asia. "For every thousand population, it has eight military
personnel against 1.3 in India or four in Pakistan. In terms of
military expenditure, Sri Lanka spends 4.1 per cent of its GDP
against 2.5 per cent by India or 3.5 per cent by Pakistan,’’ the
study said.
Three years later, those numbers have gone up. The total number of
the forces including the army, navy, air force, police and civil
defence adds up to 350000-400000. The army accounts for about 2.4
lakh personnel. Military spokesperson Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara
recently said the "army would recruit another 10000 by the year-
end.’’
Basic requirements are simple – applicant has to be between 18 and
24 years of age, unmarried and physically fit.
Military budget is going up too. Recently, Parliament approved an
additional 20 per cent budget, over above the already allocated $
1.74 billion, for defence expenditure.
The government argued it’s was necessary because the security forces
still need strengthening.
The arrival of Sarath Fonseka, the first four-star general and
recently retired as chief of defence staff, in the political arena is
another sign of how ``militarised’’ the Lankan society was
becoming, Professor J Uyangoda, head of department, political
science, Colombo University argued.
``Militarisation has seen a gradual consideration in the society. Now
with general Fonseka fighting the Presidential election as the
opposition candidate, it indicates demilitarisation is not in the
agenda even for the opposition. It doesn’t look like the United
National Party (the main opposition party) is committed to
demilitarising Sri Lanka,’’ Uyangoda said.
Historian Silan Kadirgamar said he ``was afraid that the run-up to
the Presidential polls could be violent as the stakes were high.’’
``There are no professional army or security forces left in Sri
Lanka. Having Rajapaksa is terrible and having Fonseka would be a
nightmare. Unfortunately Sri Lanka has evolved a tradition where
rogues contest the presidency and no one could remotely hold them
down to their promises,’’ the respected civil rights group,
University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) told HT over email.
The run-up to the election could also see the proliferation of armed
groups, some of which brazenly operate in parts of eastern Sri Lanka.
These groups are usually affiliated to politicians and are known to
kidnap and extort.
What could add to the problem is the high rate of desertion from the
armed forces. Nearly 30000 personnel from the three wings went home
on leave but did not return to their regiments. There were 20,597
deserters from the army alone.
``Desertion has increased after the end of the war. Yes, it is a
problem because they are trained,’’ defence analyst and journalist
Iqbal Athas said. Athas was also worried about politicians using
thugs to protect their turf.
So, what are the ways to demilitarise provided the political class
has the intention. ``Battalions to the United Nations could be
increased. Or a transitory civil defence force could be constituted.
The extra force could also be used to strengthen existing police
stations or to man new police stations in the north,’’ Athas
suggested.
The government has to demilitarise not only in numbers but also
reduce its security paranoia. Sri Lanka’s history of violence cannot
be denied. But the country deserves a future of peace.
_____
[3] Pakistan and India Must Resist the Hawks:
The Hindu, 28 November 2009
INDIA & PAKISTAN: CASE FOR COMMON DEFENCE
by Pervez Hoodbhoy
The reason for India to want a rapprochement with Pakistan, and vice
versa, has nothing to do with feelings of friendship or goodwill. It
has to do with survival.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi says Pakistan is
“compiling hard evidence of India’s involvement” in terrorist
attacks on Pakistan’s public and its armed forces. If he and the
Interior Minister are correct, then we must conclude that the Indians
are psychotics possessed with a death wish or, perhaps, plain stupid.
While India’s assistance for Baloch insurgents could conceivably
make strategic sense, helping the jihadists simply does not.
As Pakistan staggers from one bombing to the other, some Indians must
be secretly pleased. Indeed, there are occasional verbalisations: Is
this not sweet revenge for the horrors of Mumbai perpetrated by the
Lashkar-e-Taiba? Shouldn’t India feel satisfied as Pakistan reels
under the stinging poison of its domestically reared snakes?
But most Indians are probably less than enthusiastic in stoking the
fires across the border. In fact, the majority would like to forget
that Pakistan exists. With a 6 per cent growth rate, booming hi-tech
exports, and expectations of a semi-superpower status, they feel
India has no need to engage a struggling Pakistan with its endless
litany of problems.
Of course, some would like to hurt Pakistan. Extremists in India ask:
shouldn’t one increase the pain of a country — with which India
has fought three bloody wars — by aiding its enemies? Perhaps do
another Bangladesh on Pakistan some day?
These fringe elements, fortunately, are inconsequential today.
Rational self-interest demands that India not aid jihadists. Imagine
the consequences if the Central authority in Pakistan disappears or
is sharply weakened. Splintered into a hundred jihadist Lashkars,
each with its own agenda and tactics, Pakistan’s territory would
become India’s eternal nightmare. When Mumbai-II occurs — as it
surely would in such circumstances — India’s options in dealing
with a nuclear Pakistan would be severely limited.
The Indian Army would be powerless. As the Americans have discovered
at great cost, the mightiest war machines on earth cannot prevent
holy warriors from crossing borders. Internal collaborators,
recruited from a domestic Muslim population that feels itself
alienated from Hindu-India, would connive with the jihadists.
Subsequently, as the Indian forces retaliate against Muslims —
innocent and otherwise — the action-reaction cycle would rip the
country apart.
So, how can India protect itself from invaders across its western
border and grave injury? Just as importantly, how can we in Pakistan
assure that the fight against fanatics is not lost?
Let me make an apparently outrageous proposition: in the coming
years, India’s best protection is likely to come from its
traditional enemy, the Pakistan Army. Therefore, India ought to help
now, not fight against it.
This may sound preposterous. After all, the two countries have fought
three-and-a-half wars over six decades. During periods of excessive
tension, they have growled at each other while meaningfully pointing
towards their respective nuclear arsenals. Most recently, after
heightened tensions following the Mumbai massacre, Pakistani troops
were moved out of North West Frontier Province towards the eastern
border. Baitullah Mehsud’s offer to jointly fight India was welcomed
by the Pakistan Army.
And yet, the imperative of mutual survival makes a common defence
inevitable. Given the rapidly rising threat within Pakistan, the day
for joint action may not be very far away.
Today Pakistan is bearing the brunt. Its people, government and armed
forces are under unrelenting attack. South Waziristan, a war of
necessity rather than of choice, will certainly not be the last one.
A victory there will not end terrorism, although a stalemate will
embolden the jihadists in south Punjab, including the Lashkar-e-Taiba
and the Jaish-e-Muhammed. The cancer of religious militancy has
spread across Pakistan, and it will take decades to defeat.
This militancy does not exist merely because America occupies
Afghanistan. A U.S. withdrawal, while welcome, will not end
Pakistan’s problems. As an ideological movement, the jihadists want
to transform society as part of their wider agenda. They ride on the
backs of their partners, the mainstream religious political parties
like the Jamat-e-Islami and the Jamiat-e-Ulema-Pakistan. None of
these has condemned the suicide bombings in Pakistani universities,
schools, markets, mosques, and police and army facilities.
Pakistan’s political leadership and army must not muddy the waters,
especially now that public sanction has finally been obtained for
fighting extremism in Swat and Waziristan. Self-deception weakens,
and enormously increases vulnerability. Wars can only be won if
nations have a clear rallying slogan. Therefore, the battle against
religious extremism will require identifying it — by name — as the
enemy.
India should derive no satisfaction from Pakistan’s predicament.
Although religious extremists see ordinary Muslims as munafiqs
(hypocrites) — and therefore free to be blown up in bazaars and
mosques — they hate Hindus even more. In their calculus, hurting
India would buy even more tickets for heaven than hurting Pakistan.
They dream of ripping apart both societies or starting a war —
preferably nuclear — between Pakistan and India.
A common threat needs a common defence. But this is difficult unless
the Pakistan-India conflict is reduced in intensity. In fact, the
extremist groups that threaten both countries today are an unintended
consequence of Pakistan’s frustrations at Indian obduracy in Kashmir.
To create a future working alliance with Pakistan, and in deference
to basic democratic principles, India must therefore be seen as
genuinely working towards some kind of resolution of the Kashmir
issue. Over the past two decades, India has been morally isolated
from Kashmiri Muslims and continues to incur the very considerable
costs of an occupying power in the Valley. Indian soldiers continue
to needlessly die — and oppress and kill Kashmiri innocents.
It is time for India to fuzz the Line of Control, make it highly
permeable, and demilitarise it up to some mutually negotiated depth
on both sides. Without peace in Kashmir the forces of cross-border
jihad, and its hate-filled holy warriors, will continue to receive
unnecessary succour.
India also needs to allay Pakistan’s fears on Balochistan. Although
Pakistan’s current federal structure is the cause of the problem —
a fact which the government is now finally addressing through the
newly announced Balochistan package — it is possible that India is
aiding some insurgent groups. Statements have been made in India that
Balochistan provides New Delhi with a handle to exert pressure on
Pakistan. This is unacceptable.
While there is no magic wand, confidence-building measures (CBMs)
continue to be important for managing the Pakistan-India conflict and
bringing down the decibel level of mutual rhetoric. To be sure, CBMs
can be easily disparaged as palliatives that do not address the
underlying causes of a conflict. Nevertheless, looking at those
initiated over the years shows that they have held up even in adverse
circumstances. More are needed.
The reason for India to want a rapprochement with Pakistan, and vice
versa, has nothing to do with feelings of friendship or goodwill. It
has only to do with survival. For us in Pakistan, this is even more
critical.
(The writer teaches Physics at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad.
This article will appear in Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper on Sunday.)
o o o
MEDIATION AND SOUTH ASIA
by A.G. Noorani
dawn.com, 28 Nov, 2009
India should not go into high dudgeon nor Pakistan into ecstasy
whenever any country or organisation talks of mediation in Indo-Pak
disputes or pleads with them to move expeditiously towards their
settlement or evinces interest in these matters.
India must view such exertions calmly, and Pakistan must assess them
realistically. We dwell on an island which is home to a global
community whose links will only increase with time. People will talk
if disputes fester anywhere; especially between two nuclear states.
However, neither of them will yield to external pressures where its
national interests are at stake. India must realise that Pakistan, as
the weaker power, will solicit mediation by others. On its part,
Pakistan must realise that India will respond to external influences
only up to a point and no further.
Presumptuous and silly are the only words one can use for the
formulation of the Obama-Hu Jintao joint statement issued in Beijing
on Nov 17. They first ‘welcomed all efforts conducive to peace,
stability and development in South Asia’; next, expressed ‘support
(to) the efforts of Afghanistan and Pakistan to fight terrorism’;
and went on to ‘support’ [sic] the improvement of relations
between India and Pakistan. All this is mother love and apple pie;
unexceptionable but patronising.
The next formulation reads thus: ‘The two sides are ready to
strengthen communication, dialogue and cooperation on issues related
to South Asia and work together to promote peace, stability and
development in the region.’
This smacks of joint oversight or monitoring. The US and China will
strengthen cooperation on issues related to South Asia. More, they
will ‘work together to promote peace in that region’.
The last time we heard of all this was in their joint statement on
June 27, 1998, during Clinton’s visit to China shortly after the
nuclear blasts by India and Pakistan.
They never repeated that pledge in all these 11 years. Their
interests diverge, as do their respective relationships with each of
the countries in South Asia, and in consequence, their perceptions also.
Reaction in the region was predictable. Pakistan was happy and India
got angry. ‘A third country role cannot be envisaged’.
American and Chinese retractions followed swiftly. The very next day
the US under secretary of state for political affairs, William J.
Burns, said that it was for the two neighbours to decide on the
‘scope, content and pace’ of the peace process.
The assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia Robert
Blake echoed this on Nov 19. China’s foreign ministry spokesman Qin
Gang spoke in a similar vein on the same day asserting besides that
the boundary dispute with India should not ‘undermine our greater
bilateral relations’.
Nothing will come out of the joint statement so far as South Asia is
concerned. But even without it, the US and China would have chatted
about this strife-torn region in confidence.
The record on mediation is instructive. Without it the Indus Waters
Treaty (1950) would not have been signed nor the results of the war
of 1965 arranged efficiently but for the Tashkent Accord. But the
Simla Pact (1972) was a bilateral affair.
In 2002 the Vajpayee government leaned heavily on the US to
pressurise Pakistan after the massing of the troops. The US responded
for a while, extracting its gain in the process.
When the optimum point was reached, it washed its hands off the
affair, and issued travel advisories to its citizens. India called
off Operation Parakram.
On the other side of the coin, even after its military reversals in
the war with China in October 1962, India did not yield to joint
Anglo-American pressure on Kashmir. Howard B. Schaffer served as
political counsellor in the American embassies in Pakistan (1974-77)
and India (1977-79).
His excellently documented book on ‘America’s role in Kashmir’
sums up accurately in the title the conclusion of his study: The
Limits of Influence. It covers the period 1947-2009. Fortunately
neither side accepted the obscene Anglo-American proposal for
partition of the Valley.
His advice to the Obama administration is to ‘work quietly’; that
is, ‘if Washington does decide on making a stronger effort’. It is
very unlikely that it will. The Great Powers step in only when there
is a threat of war or in the aftermath of one.
But right now we are not doing badly by ourselves. President
Musharraf revealed on May 18, 2007 that a broad outline of a solution
to the Kashmir dispute had been worked out ‘but we have yet to reach
a conclusion’.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on May 2, 2009, ‘Gen Musharraf
and I had nearly reached an agreement’. The then foreign minister of
Pakistan Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri confirmed that.
One thing after another prevented a summit: the train blasts in
Mumbai in July 2006, the crisis in Pakistan’s judiciary in March
2007 and the Mumbai attack on Nov 26, 2008.
The composite dialogue understanding has run its course. Foreign
secretaries cannot tackle Kashmir, Siachen, Wullar Barrage and Sir
Creek. On all four a broad framework for agreement exists.
They can be settled only at the highest level provided there is a
political will and resolve to do so by stable governments uninhibited
by predictable cries of a ‘sell-out’.
The rest of the matters are best left to the joint commission set up
by an agreement signed on March 10, 1983 by foreign ministers
Sahabzada Yaqub Khan and P.V. Narasimha Rao.
That process cannot begin unless and until the ‘battle of
dossiers’ is brought to a swift, satisfactory and amicable
conclusion. Mediators have no role to play. Discreet inquiries are
the stuff of diplomacy, though.
The writer is a lawyer and an author.
o o o
India:
Mail Today, 26 November 2009
EDITORIAL : UNCALLED FOR REMARKS
THE Indian Army chief General Deepak Kapoor’s statement earlier this
week that “ a limited war under a nuclear overhang is still very
much a reality in the Indian subcontinent” is an unfortunate example
of illtimed military bravado. For a country that aims to be a
responsible superpower, it is irresponsible, at the very least, for
its Army chief to say or imply that it would go to war with one of
its neighbours, and then for good measure, introduce the possibility
of a limited nuclear engagement.
This is not the first or the only time that Gen Kapoor has said
something that should have been rather left unsaid; at various times
he has warned his countrymen that up to 2500 terrorists are waiting
to infiltrate into India from across the border to effect terror
attacks; that India should be ready for another 26/ 11 type of attack
and that asymmetric warfare is a concern for India.
It is not for us to remind the general that in any democracy, it is
the Union cabinet’s responsibility to create a policy framework for
the nation’s security and indeed its defence in the face of a
military attack from its adversaries. By talking about a possible war
with its neighbour, Gen Kapoor seems to have overstepped his brief.
Understandably, his statement has given Islamabad a stick to beat
India with in international forums. The Pakistan foreign office has
already criticised Gen Kapoor’s remarks saying they “ only
reaffirm India’s dangerous and offensive nuclear doctrine” and
that it “ confirms the hegemonic thrust of India's nuclear
doctrine.” As the Army chief of one of the world’s economic and
military powerhouses, Gen Kapoor must rise above petty considerations
of one-upmanship in the subcontinent.
More important, he must choose his words carefully; and in a manner
that suggests that India knows its position in world affairs as a
would- be superpower, and not just as a small time regional player.
o o o
The New York Times, November 28, 2009
INDIA’S ETERNAL CRISIS
by Pankaj Mishra
Mashobra, India
ON the evening of Sept. 11, 2001, I hurried through a dark apple
orchard to the nearest television in this Himalayan village. My
landlord opened his door reluctantly, and then appeared unmoved by
the news I had just received by phone. I struggled to explain the
enormity of what was happening, the significance of New York, the
iconic status of the World Trade Center — to no avail. It was time
for his evening prayers; the television could not be turned on.
I did not witness the horrific sights of 9/11 until three days later.
Since then, cable television and even broadband Internet have arrived
in Mashobra and in my own home. Now the world’s manifold atrocities
are always available for brisk inspection on India’s many 24-hour
news channels. Indeed, the brutal terrorist assault on Mumbai that
killed 163 people a year ago was immediately proclaimed as India’s
own 9/11 by the country’s young TV anchors, who seem to model
themselves on Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly. Yet, on the first
anniversary of “26/11,” it seems as remote as 9/11 to the
inhabitants of this village.
There is no great mystery behind this indifference, which is distinct
from callousness. India, where most people still depend on
agriculture for a living, has just suffered one of its most serious
droughts in decades. The outlook for winter crops is bleak; many
farmers have committed suicide in recent months, adding to the
epidemic of rural suicides over the last few years.
Politically, too, India has lurched from one crisis to another in the
last year. Prudent financial regulation saved India from the worst
effects of the worldwide economic recession. But the rage of people
who feel themselves not only left behind but victimized by corporate-
driven and urban-oriented economic growth has erupted into violence;
the Indian government has called for an all-out war against the
Maoist insurgent groups that now administer large parts of central
India. Anti-India insurgencies in Kashmir and the northeast continue
to simmer, exacting a little-reported but high daily toll.
Geopolitically, India’s room to maneuver has shrunk since the Mumbai
attacks. Last November, middle-class nationalist fury, though
initially directed at inept Indian authorities, settled on Pakistan,
where the attacks were partly planned and financed. The writer Shashi
Tharoor described “India’s leaders and strategic thinkers” as
watching Israel’s assault on Gaza last winter with “empathy,”
and wondering “why can’t we do the same?” One hopes Mr. Tharoor,
who has since become India’s junior foreign minister, is today more
aware of why India can’t do a Gaza or Lebanon on its nuclear-armed
neighbor.
As Western anxiety about nuclear-armed Pakistan’s stability deepens,
India can barely afford aggressive rhetoric, let alone military
retaliation, against its longtime foe. Pakistan remains vital to
Western campaigns against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Aware of its
strategic importance, Pakistan has been in no hurry to accede to
India’s demands to prosecute those it holds responsible for the
Mumbai massacre. (One hopes the charges filed against seven radicals
on Wednesday mark a real change.) Islamabad has also upped the
rhetorical ante by accusing India of backing the violent secessionist
movement in Baluchistan, in western Pakistan.
India’s seeming impotence enrages those in the new right-wing news
media who are eager to commemorate 26/11, and to make that ersatz
shorthand signify India’s unavenged humiliation and shame. Prabhu
Chawla, the editor of India Today, the country’s leading
newsmagazine, expressed the frustration of many middle-class
nationalists: “India, divided by politics, doesn’t know what to do
with its enemy or with its much-mauled nationalist soul. We are as
clueless as we were on that dreadful November night one year ago.”
That may be true, but in a country where 400 million live without
electricity, it isn’t easy to manufacture, or sustain, a national
consensus. In any case, things are not as bad as the pundits make
out. The lone surviving Mumbai killer is already on trial; his
accomplices are being gradually apprehended. There have been no major
retaliatory attacks against Muslims. There are stirrings of a civic,
even political, consciousness among rich Indians who, until the
Mumbai massacre, were largely unaffected by our frequent terrorist
bombings.
India may have been passive after the Mumbai attacks. But India has
not launched wars against either abstract nouns or actual countries
that it has no hope of winning or even disengaging from. Another
major terrorist assault on our large and chaotic cities is very
probable, but it is unlikely to have the sort of effect that 9/11 had
on America.
This is largely because many Indians still live with a sense of
permanent crisis, of a world out of joint, where violence can be
contained but never fully prevented, and where human action quickly
reveals its tragic limits. The fatalism I sense in my village may be
the consolation of the weak, of those powerless to shape the world to
their ends. But it also provides a built-in check against the
arrogance of power — and the hubris that has made America’s
response to 9/11 so disastrously counterproductive.
Pankaj Mishra is the author of “Temptations of the West: How to Be
Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet and Beyond.”
_____
[4] Pakistan:
The News on Sunday, 29 November 2009
CRUSADING FOR LAND MANAGEMENT
The case of Gutter Baghicha proves that urban planning is merely a
ritual in Karachi
by Dr Noman Ahmed
The tragic murder of comrade Nisar Baloch on November 7, 2009 is not
the first atrocity committed against crusaders of public causes in
Karachi. Many activists and their kins have lost their life and limb
in bids to safeguard public lands.
The shady attempt to dispose of Gutter Baghicha is only one of the
several moves to grab land by quasi official actors. Many other
examples highlight the trend: The clandestine moves to privatise the
coastal belt of the city and open it to real estate development of an
elite kind; reckless sale of land along the Northern Bypass, unabated
pressure on Pakistan Railways to sell its priceless land assets to
"offset" its financial losses, mindless creation of factory built
hawker stalls and placement along public open spaces and the creation
of a plush housing scheme for military officers adjacent to National
Stadium are all examples of non-transparent land transactions without
any logical reasoning or reference to urban planning practices.
The policy makers, including members of legislature, view land as a
commodity, which can be traded to obtain short-term financial gains.
This is not correct from an urban planning and sociological
perspective. Land is a finite asset which can only be used for public
benefits. Its utilisation is best determined through a professionally
sound and socially appropriate planning process. A healthy urban life
cannot be imagined without a proper utilisation policy for land with
a detailed master plan to lay down all the proposed functions in
relation to existing constraints and potentials.
Given the ongoing crisis of infrastructural decay, poor governance
and declining urban management capacities, it is crucial that any new
venture must be examined for its operational viability and
sustainability in the short and long term periods. For example, the
Karachi Port Trust has begun the unabated process of land reclamation
along the Mai Kolachi Bypass. This area has been the site of
backwater and thick mangrove vegetation for ages. The British had
left this area open due to the fact that water from the port would
enter this area through Chinna Creek and after interface with the
marine forests, get finished and cleaned. This natural ocean
cleansing operation has been completely disrupted due to the reckless
land reclamation for anticipated real estate development.
Similarly, the federal government acquired an exceptionally wide land
strip for the construction of Lyari Expressway (16.5 kilometer
stretch from the port to Sohrab Goth). The allotment has created the
lucrative provision of over 1.8 million square yards of land for real
estate. It is important to note that none of these lands have been
allotted or utilised according to any openly pursued or applied land-
use policy for the city.
During the reign of an enthusiastic Chief Controller of Buildings,
the Karachi Building Control Agency (KBCA) developed a colourful land-
use plan for the Northern Bypass. Townships for jurists, government
officers, diplomats and other influential lobbies were outlined. To
please the all powerful lobby of builders and developers, half a
dozen towns with politically-correct nomenclature were earmarked.
This fantastic scheme was unveiled in a crowded exhibition on housing
industry during 2005; and this despite the fact that KBCA has no
direct role in planning process.
Decision making pertinent to urban lands has remained highly
centralised. One finds the federal government departments or the
chief executive of the country directly fiddling with the allotment
procedures. Few years ago, the management of Sindh Industrial and
Trading Estate (SITE) was unnecessarily pressurised to accommodate
the political favourites in land allotment in one of the new emerging
industrial schemes.
As per rules, the chief minister possesses the discretionary power to
allot land to any party as he deems appropriate. It is deplorable to
note that these powers have been used most injudiciously in the past.
From 1985 to 1993, four chief ministers of Sindh allotted land in
Karachi worth more than six billion rupees to cronies or party
favourites.
The institutionalised procedures of land allotment are also not free
from corruption. The standard procedure is through balloting. People
are free to fill any number of application forms as they can afford.
Thus rich people file dozens of applications by specifying different
names of their family members, relations or even servants. The
probability of computer ballot automatically increases compared to
the poor and needy who file only one application with great financial
hardship. As a result, schemes for low income groups become the high
ground for speculation.
It was found that land policies do not reflect the range of quasi-
legal situations existing between formal and informal housing.
Various intermediate situations have been discovered in the land and
housing scenario which cannot be described as legal from the
statutory standpoint. As per standard definitions, the land or
housing which is formally registered through the offices of registrar
after completion of formalities related to the title are recognized
as legal properties. According to another definition, the property
which can be accepted by a housing finance institution for mortgage
financing is a legally valid property.
Spot field studies have shown that there are many lacunae where land
and housing units fall short of meeting any of the two conditions. In
reference to land, the plots floated in any scheme of development
authorities, legally-constituted cooperative societies or any other
land owning agency are termed as formally titled land. Legality of
such land parcels is only verified and accepted when the leasing
conditions of the concerne neighbourhood/locality are completely
fulfilled. katchi abadies which have been approved for regularisation
but await the initiation of leasing process; neighbourhoods which
await the notification of amelioration plans; localities where change
of land use has taken place and areas that have a change of status or
jurisdiction are only a few types which cannot be compared with a
normally leased area. Owners and prospective buyers have to suffer
due to indifference of planning and development agencies. However
powerful groups acquire such properties at lower prices and harass
the stakeholders, including legal heirs, to submit to their demands.
Land and housing floating mechanism is so designed that speculation
automatically evolves in the process. Land development agencies from
civilian and military domain allot land parcels at a very low selling
price. As the owner completes the formalities, he already possesses
the opportunity of delaying construction and accruing profits on idle
land. Since powerful interest groups are averse to changes as they
benefit from this in-built procedural defect.
Regulatory controls in the form of non-utilisation fees or any other
form of levies are either non-enforceable or too miniscule to bother
the property owners. A simple outcome is the artificial rise in
property demands that results in a rush supply of land and housing
without any urban planning blue print. Land sales along Super
Highway, Defence Housing Authority and space along major
transportation projects are examples. These instances render land
management and control to be an even more uphill task.
It may also be understood that an absolutely uncontrolled market
mechanism soon becomes a detrimental entity for the stakeholders. In
Karachi, the impotence of land control bodies has been historical.
Vested interests, in connivance with government functionaries, have
managed to keep planning agencies and building/town planning control
departments separate from each other. Thus urban planning, wherever
and whenever performed, only becomes a ritual. Nobody is bound or
regulated to follow its prescriptions.
It is assumed that by revising the statutes and regulations of
building and town planning, land management strategies would emerge
automatically. The realities are otherwise. Building and town
planning controls affect a small minority of urban areas of the city.
Federal districts, cantonments and military estates, port
authorities, railways, katchi abadies are not under the writ of
building control mechanism of the city. Thus the land market and
construction boom generated from these locations soon exert pressure
on other city areas. Building code violations, blatant changes in
land use and mindless adoption of street commercialisation policies
play havoc in the domain of land control.
The current scenario demands various actions without any further
delay. It is an established fact that land is a finite asset which
requires careful utilisation, largely on the basis of social needs.
Any land transaction that is initiated must be finalised after
inviting views and observations from the concerned stakeholders. To
instill transparency in the routine processes, the various government
departments, including the military authorities, must be requested to
publish the details of the land owned or controlled by them. The
provincial and city government must create an autonomous planning
agency for Karachi to deal with land management, infrastructure and
planning issues for the city. This step shall greatly help streamline
the otherwise haywire scenario of misappropriation and ill-managed
utilisation of land in Karachi.
_____
[5] India
The Tribune, 29 November 2009
FIGHTING INJUSTICE AND INEQUALITY
by Bharat Dogra
In recent years, there has been an increasing tendency in South Asia
of movements demanding equality and justice to drift towards
violence. This is particularly seen in the growth of Maoist movements
in India, Nepal and Bhutan.
More recently as violence has escalated in Chhattisgarh and other
parts of the tribal belt of Central India, the government has also
launched a major offensive. Where will this take the country and what
will be the implications for the innocent people caught in the
crossfire?
Reflecting these concerns, a National Convention of the Citizens
Initiative for Peace held recently in Delhi called for commitment to
people on both sides. It asked the government to first stop the
offensive in the areas where the CPI (Maoist) and other Naxalite
parties are active, to facilitate a ceasefire.
At the same time, the resolution asked the Maoist and others to cease
all hostilities against the state forces to facilitate a ceasefire.
There should be no attacks on civilians by anyone and their lives
must be secure.
Unconditional dialogue must begin between the government and the
Maoists. People’s basic livelihood rights and democratic control
over their natural resources must be ensured. This appears to be a
very reasonable approach, but will the voice of reason and peace
prevail?
To avoid such situations in future, a broader plea needs to be made
in favour of peaceful struggles and movements for justice and
equality. The legitimate demands of equality and justice can be
better achieved at a lesser cost and in more stable ways by strong,
broad-based peaceful movements. Large-scale violence can increase the
overall problems of these countries and even lead to further
deterioration in the life of those weaker sections whom the violent
resistance movements claim to help.
From the point of view of the ordinary people of struggle areas, a
long drawn-out violent struggle can mean an endless series of
suffering. Several reports from these areas describe the plight of
the people caught between the cadre of violent struggle groups and
security forces. As both ask them at gun-point to be on their side,
ordinary people can easily become the target of either the violent
struggle groups or the security forces.
These problems intensify when there are divisions within the ranks of
the violent struggle groups, or when security forces start arming
villagers to create para-military squads among them. In fact, the
proliferation of increasingly more destructive modern weapons as well
as improvised devices has increased the possibility of more deaths
and serious injuries in the course of these violent struggles. Many
of the dead and injured are innocent civilians who have no protection
and can easily be caught in the crossfire, or fall victims to
improvised explosive devices.
Many gains made by the weaker sections as a result of violent
struggles are not stable. Whether these households can cultivate the
land allotted to them by struggle groups or harvest its crops depends
on whether the struggle groups are in control or in retreat. For land
and other gains to be stable, legal recognition by the same system is
needed which the struggle seeks to overthrow.
It is not possible for a violent movement to benefit from a wider
democratic debate. By its very nature, a very violent secretive
movement has to confine debate of critical planning and strategy
decisions to a relatively narrow group.
Even within this narrow group, free discussion may not always be
possible with respect to more basic formulations which have been
taken for granted. On the other hand, peaceful movements can be much
more transparent and benefit from the opinion of many wide-ranging
sources.
In a peaceful movement any problem within the movement or failure of
the leadership is more likely to come in for public scrutiny so that
remedial steps can be taken at an early stage. On the other hand, in
a violent struggle this may be delayed for too long and finally
violence within the group may have to be used to sort out problems
brought out peaceful transitions of governments for a long time now.
Therefore, the right way to fight injustice and inequality is to
establish very broad alliances of weaker sections for non-violent
struggles. All others who are sympathetic to such peaceful struggles
can also join in.
These peaceful struggles certainly have the right of such
mobilisation as may be needed to provide protection to their
activists from violent attacks, but as a matter of principle they
will not unleash any violence on their own.
Their means of achieving success should be their ability to have a
very broad alliance of vast number of people and making effective use
of all democratic, peaceful means of mobilisation and protest.
o o o
Indian Express, Nov 29, 2009
BHOPAL, 25 YEARS ON
by Vidya Krishnan
The cremator
The pyre used to burn day and night, says Shivcharan Dhaulpuria
SEVENTEEN Ashoka trees stand tall in a small park on Chola Road. Had
Shivcharan Dhaulpuria not seen it himself, he would never have
believed what the manicured grass hides.
Twenty-five years ago, where Dhaulpuria now stands, bodies were
cremated in batches of 200 and more. “We did not have time for
individual burials. Bodies came from hospitals in trucks and we had
to cremate them fast,” says Dhaulpuria, whose family has been
working at the Chola cemetery near the Union Carbide factory for
three generations.
For the first few minutes on the night of the gas leak, Shivcharan—
who had just gone to bed—thought it was smoke from the hawan kund in
the crematorium that was causing his eyes and throat to burn.
“It was like someone had put chilies in my eyes. When we came out,
everyone was running towards the railway station. When I heard
someone shout “tanki fuut gayi (the tank has burst)”, I decided to
take my wife, children and parents to Sujalpur. I left them with my
relatives and came back to work as bodies had to be cremated. We had
to cremate them quickly and send the remains to be immersed in the
Narmada,” he says.
Bodies of over 3,000 victims, who died in the first 24 hours, were
cremated at Chola cemetery and the Badebaag Shamshaan Bhumi. The
hospitals separated bodies of Hindu and Muslim victims.
“Initially, the pyre used to burn day and night. There were so many
bodies to be cremated. No one had enough wood, coffins or kerosene,”
he says. By the fourth day, volunteers came to cremate bodies and
traders donated coffins. The forest department arranged for wood
while people donated kerosene.
Dhaulpuria, meanwhile, considered moving to a new city. “But I could
not bring myself to do it. My family has lived here for generations
and cared for the departed. Tending to this garden gives me peace.
This is the final resting place of troubled souls and I will remain
here and watch over the place,” he says.
In the intervening years, he says his parents died due to MIC
poisoning while his wife developed tuberculosis. “Both my children
suffer from respiratory ailments. We received compensation twice but
that did not even cover even the basic medical care,” he says.
In 1990, to mark the sixth anniversary of the tragedy, the state
government set up Smriti Udyan, a memorial to the thousands who had
been cremated here. Twenty-five years later, the memorial is a
forgotten landmark in a city which now attracts ‘gas tourists’.
“The government does not have time to care for the living. Who is
going to remember the dead,” asks Dhaulpuria.
The ‘death doctor’
Dr D.K. Satpathy and his team conducted 750 autopsies in the first 24
hours
A month into retirement, Dr D.K. Satpathy does not know what to do
with the ‘papers’. They cover a whole range: from the medico-legal
notes he painstakingly took on the night of the gas leak to chits he
meticulously pasted on the forehead of each dead body for
identification.
Bright, cherry-red blood—that is the 60-year-old forensic expert’s
lasting memory of the disaster. “In every body that we examined, we
found that all organs were cherry red in colour. At that time, we
knew nothing about the nature of poisoning and this was our first
hint. It is typical of cyanide. When our Casualty Medical Officer
contacted Union Carbide, they said they didn’t know the composition
of, or antidote to, methyl isocyanate (MIC, the gas released from the
plant) poisoning,” he says.
By December 5, doctors had started administering sodium thiosulphate
(STS) to bring down the level of MIC in victims. “The treatment was
discontinued due to differences between doctors after rumours
circulated that STS was causing deaths,” he says.
The Casualty Medical officer at the Gandhi Medical College (GMC)
reported the first case at 12.45 a.m. on December 3, 1984. By the
time Satpathy reached the hospital, 42 bodies were kept near the
emergency and over 200 bodies were lying in the mortuary. To maintain
records, it was decided that each corpse would be given a number and
that it would be photographed. “When I entered the hospital campus,
everyone was retching, gasping and groaning. Our biggest challenge
was to identify bodies, number them, click pictures and swiftly
conduct post mortems,” says Satpathy.
Four doctors and 13 final-year students from GMC worked round the
clock for the next five days. “We could not possibly conduct a post-
mortem on each victim. So we decided to do random autopsies while
conducting detailed external examinations. We noted everything from
clothing, scars, even patterns of moustaches,” he says. In the first
24 hours, 750 autopsies were conducted.
Doctors assumed that the papers they were collecting would be useful
in medical research. “I was young and naive,” says Satpathy.
In February 1984, forensic experts submitted a report that connected
tank 610 to the deaths. “We gave the report to the court and waited
for the big day when responsibility would be fixed. No judgment
came,” he says.
Through the next decade, Satpathy worked on developing a disaster
management plan. “Our biggest failure is that we still do not have a
decent disaster management plan,” he says.
His wife calls him a hoarder and Satpathy knows too that his papers
are not of any relevance to anyone anymore. “I know one day all
these papers will end up in a museum,” he says.
The voice
Through his Sambhavna Trust, Satinath Sarangi tells the world about
Bhopal
THIRTY-year-old Satinath Sarangi had just completed his Ph.D in
metallurgy and was working as a community activist in Piparia, about
150 km south of Bhopal, when he heard of the gas leak. He reached
Bhopal on the morning of December 3, hoping to help the victims for a
couple of weeks and go back to his life. “I did not realise it has
been 25 years,” says Sarangi.
In all these years, Sarangi has used all his skill and resources to
tell the world about Bhopal.
In 1985, Sarangi started the Jan Swasth Kendra, a clinic from where
he administered sodium thiosulphate to the victims. But by then, the
government had discontinued that line of treatment and Sarangi was
arrested. His clinic was shut down within 20 days of its opening. “I
stayed in jail for 18 days and by the time I came out, I was clear
that this was a fight I would take to its logical conclusion. I knew
how to speak English and my family had contacts. I wanted to use
those privileges to help the victims,” he says.
By 1986, Sarangi formed the Bhopal Group for Information and Action.
“We started publishing papers in English and Hindi on corporate
crime. Our office was raided and all our documents were taken,” he
says.
In 1989, Sarangi toured four countries—US, Netherlands, Ireland and
Britain—campaigning against the “inadequate” compensation of USD
470 million awarded by Union Carbide. “We took along with us three
victims because the world had to see for itself what was unfolding in
Bhopal. Information was the key. If justice is done in Bhopal, the
whole world will be safer,” he says.
While in the UK, Sarangi met author Indra Sinha, who, at his own
expense, placed a large advertisement in The Guardian, appealing for
help for the victims. The donations provided the seed money Sarangi
needed to set up the Sambhavna Trust in 1995. For the last 13 years,
Sarangi has been focusing on medical research and dissemination of
information through the Sambhavna Trust.
The officer
FORMER BHOPAL SP Swaraj puri is pursuing a Ph.D in crisis management
—“I want to be better prepared”
WHEN the police commissioner told Superintendent of Police Swaraj
Puri to rush to the railway station that night, he was expecting a
stampede or a riot. When he reached the Bhopal railway station, Puri
couldn’t understand why people were sleeping outside.
“I yelled at the inspector in-charge for allowing people to sleep
there. He tugged at my shirt and asked me to look closely and then it
sank in. They were all bodies,” says Swaraj Puri, then SP who
retired in 2008.
The first call to a police control room came around 12.20 a.m. It
said two persons had died and a large crowd was walking away from the
Carbide factory. Against his driver’s advice, Puri decided to visit
Ground Zero. “We were both nauseous and our eyes were bloodshot. I
was one of the first officers to reach the factory. From there, I
went to the control room.”
“From the first floor of the police control room near Union Carbide,
the ‘grey-green’ cloud of chemical was clearly visible,” says
Puri, who was one of the MIC poisoning victims whom the Indian
Council of Medical Research studied between 1985 and 1994.
Soon, the police officers in the control room were vomiting
profusely. “I contacted the doctors at GMC when I first heard of
MIC,” he says.
By the morning of December 3, the police had been briefed to block
‘all entry points’ to avoid more casualties. The Chief Minister
had called a high-level meeting, during which a rumour spread that
another tank had leaked from the factory. “It was a law and order
problem of unimaginable magnitude. The government was up against an
unknown gas that was causing mass casualties,” he remembers.
Three days later, Warren Anderson, Chairman and CEO of Union Carbide,
reached Bhopal in a private jet. He was arrested immediately. “At
the airport, we asked him to come out. We shook hands, told him to
sit in the jeep and later told him he was under arrest. He was
astonished. The American embassy was involved and the matter was
discussed at a very high level and I am not privy to the details. But
yes, I do wish our government brings him back and holds him
accountable,” he says.
Anderson was charged under six sections of the Indian Penal Code with
culpable homicide, causing death by negligence, negligent conduct
with respect to poisonous substances and the killing of livestock. He
was released on a bail of Rs 25,000 and was allowed to fly back to
the US the following day.
At 63, Puri is now pursuing a Ph.D in crisis management from Delhi
University. “I am so disappointed by the turn of event that I know
that Bhopal can happen again. I want to be better prepared the next
time,” he says.
The fighter
Abul Jabbar is devoting all his time to ensure “the victim does not
become a victim again”
ANY quest for information on the gas tragedy usually starts from
behind the Central Library in Bhopal, where ‘Jabbar Bhai’, as Abul
Jabbar Khan is fondly known here, runs the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila
Udyog Sangathan (BGPMUS).
In 1984, Khan ran a lucrative tube-well boring business. His house
was two kilometres from the Carbide plant in Rajender Nagar. “After
the gas leak that night, I dropped my mother outside Bhopal and
returned for my sister. By then, she was in Kasturba hospital. Then I
started transporting people to hospitals and in effect, I am still
doing the same,” says the soft-spoken 52-year-old.
His mornings, over the last two decades, start the same way. People
start queuing up to meet him almost as if meeting Jabbar is a remedy
in itself. Khan has moved several litigations, helped thousands of
Bhopalis, yet there is little known about him. “A tragedy of this
scale attracts tourists of various kinds. Journalists feast on
anniversaries and activists make a profession out of this misery. It
is all part of such an event but the common man—the victim and
survivor—requires more than that,” he says.
In 1988, Jabbar married a widow with two children. “The marriage did
not work for various reasons but my activism also had a role to play
in it,” he says. Bowing to family pressure, Jabbar married again in
2002—he lives with his wife and three children in the same Rajender
Nagar house.
Till 1989, when the government finally distributed compensation,
Jabbar regularly led ‘morchas’. Today, he gets patients
transported to hospitals, teaches women vocational skills, and often
ends up as the voice for those who cannot fight for their share of
compensation or pension. Over the years, the activist in Jabbar had
very little time for his business and the tube-well money gradually
ran out. “I shut down the business as I could not turn away from
this (his activism). I may not have money but I cannot abandon the
forsaken,” says Jabbar.
Apart from those living in the gas-affected areas, not many have
heard of Jabbar or his work. He speaks little or no English, his
Sangathan has no foreign affiliation and he is not exactly ‘media
savvy’. All this has cost him dearly. “There are months when I
cannot pay the telephone or electricity bills. But we are not going
to ask people for money. Since 1984, the only thing we have been
fighting for is dignity—in medical treatment, in life and in death.
We want employment, not charity. That is the only way to ensure that
the victim doesn’t become a victim again. I cannot fight for these
people for ever but I can teach them how to fight by providing them
employment, education and skills,” he says.
He may not be a national hero, but Jabbar, who himself suffers from
degenerating vision and decreased lung capacity, personifies hope for
those who have none.
o o o
Daily News and Analysis, November 29
ARE WE ENCOURAGING THE VIOLENT TURN?
by Mallika Sarabhai
The demolition of the Babri Masjid and the horrors that followed are
much in the minds of people -- the BJP is up in arms about the
Liberhan commission -- not about the fact that it indicts all the top
brass, Atal Bihari Vajpayee included, but that someone leaked it to
the press. But the anniversary also comes up on the sixth, and for
many of us that act and that day started a chapter in history that we
still can not live down.
It was then that Darpana's Centre for Non-violence Through the Arts
was born with a debate on what caused prejudice that leads to
violence and how early in life this prejudice gets attached to us.
And whether art in any of its forms could open and light up the debate.
One of our first research projects was in a school, working with
four- and five-year-olds. All children love cartoons, whether in a
language they understand or not. But parents or adults who have
looked at them closely know that cartoons are cruel and very violent.
So we took them as a starting point to understand the comprehension
of violence and of violence as humour among the young children.
We edited all the funnies -- Tom and Jerry, Casper the Ghost, Tweety
and Silvester and what not -- till we had a six- to seven-minute loop
of people hitting others, kicking them, making them fall over,
throwing things at them and what not. We introduced this to our class
of youngsters. They rolled with laughter the first time around, and
the second and the third.
At that point we divided the class into two. We asked group one to
continue laughing if they found the visuals funny. We asked the other
group to say ouch every time someone hit someone else or did them a
violent act. After the first couple of rounds, both groups realised
that whenever one group laughed, the other said ouch. They looked
perplexed. We asked them if it was funny when they were hit or
kicked, and there was a universal 'NO'.
Then how did they find it funny when someone else was hit? And would
they like it if other people laughed when they were in pain? Slowly
the children began to understand that their laughter was perhaps
misdirected, that to find funny someone else's grief was perhaps not
such a great idea.
Another interesting study we did was with older children, adolescents
in fact. We asked them to keep a diary of their days, and to mark in
them whenever they felt they behaved violently towards someone or
when someone was violent towards them. We explained that banging a
door shut on someone was also a violent act. That being abusive
should also be noted. Soon the youngsters started getting a very
different picture of themselves and their peers, their teachers and
parents. And a strong gender difference started appearing. The girls
regularly reported feeling violated when whistled at, or looked at
inappropriately or commented upon when they were passing a group of
boys. When the boys discovered this they were stunned - they thought
it was a sign of admiration and appreciation.
We are a society where violence of all kinds is accepted. Much of
what we call normal behaviour is, in fact, violence. There is little,
however, that we do to sensitise our children about the ills of
violence. A teacher hitting a child is normal -- a recent study in
Gujarat asked children what a foot-ruler was used for: 100 per cent
of rural children put "hitting" as one of its uses! A father yelling
at or beating a mother is commonplace. A small incidence turning into
a lynching mob is not that unusual to see. And yet no discussion on
the subject takes place in the home or in our schools, or for that
matter in other forums.
We are being desensitised. We have become inured to the violence of
speech and the action that surrounds us, that involves us. Are we
aware of this? When Jains and Buddhists "practise" non-violence, are
they aware that there are many forms of daily violence that they and
we involve ourselves in, that are as dangerous, and perhaps more
cancerous and incipient than going to war?
o o o
expressbuzz.com, 29 November 2009
HOMELESS WANDERERS IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY
Internally displaced persons from Chhattisgarh’s Kistaram Panchayat
before their shack of sticks and palmyra leaf in Andhra Pradesh’s
Khammam.
by Javed Iqbal
As Operation Green Hunt gathers steam in Chhattisgarh state violence
is also going up steadily. The result is that more people, mostly
tribals, in the state’s Maoist-dominated areas are crossing the
border to find sanctuary in Khammam district of Andhra Pradesh as
Internally Displaced Persons.
Each of them fled their homes either after a raid or because they
feared for their lives. The stories these people tell of their
ordeals are also beginning to provide a picture of the true extent of
the destruction.
Gachanpalli is a small village some 30 km from the town of Konta in
Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh. According to witnesses, the
security forces raided Gachanpalli sometime in late October. They
allegedly killed Madvi Admaya, Madkam Sulaya, Madvi Joga, Kovasi
Gangaya, Madkam Moiyi. Witnesses say four of the five men were past
60 and too old to escape into the jungle. Madkam Moiyi was apparently
crippled and incapable of walking. They were said to have been
bayoneted and shot to death in the middle of the village.
Nineteen homes were also burnt down.
This was the second attack on Gachanpalli.
In 2005, the Salwa Judum burnt down 65 homes in the village.
“I have so much land at Gachanpalli, but no one to work on it
now.” Kovasi Jogi, 60, lived in Gachanpalli. Now she inhabits an
Internally Displaced Persons settlement in Khammam. Her village is
almost empty now, peopled by ghosts and memories. Most of the people
have scattered. Some have retreated further into the jungle, while
others are in Khammam.
Sodi Rani (real name withheld) left her village of Pallecharma with
her two children for Andhra Pradesh. She relies on the charity of her
relatives. According to her, three people were killed from her
village of Pallecharma by the security forces.
Sodi Sanausi, Tunki Chinnay and Dodhi Adma were killed sometime in
late October.
The police apprehended them in the morning as suspected Maoists and
shot them dead the same evening. The people of Pallecharma were
unaware of the killings for some time.
But when the news of the deaths reached them, they fled to Khammam
district.
On the same day as the attack on Pallecharma, the security forces
arrested Vaika Madvi (name withheld). He was held captive along with
an unidentified Pallecharma villager. Vaika Madvi managed to escape,
leaving behind the villager. He has no idea what happened to the man.
Vaika Madvi now lives in Khammam district.
Near Pallecharma is the village of Batiguda where Sodi Venka (name
withheld) was regularly harassed by Special Police Officers as well
as Maoists. He was detained over a year ago by security forces and
asked to relocate to the Maraiguda Salwa Judum camp, abandoning his
five acres of land. At the same time, the Maoists threatened him with
dire consequences if he left the land.
Drinking water is a big problem in Batiguda where four hand pumps
were installed about 12 years ago. Three of them don’t work anymore.
So the villagers approached the authorities at Konta for help to fix
the pumps. But their appeal was turned down flat.
“Go ask your Naxalites to fix your hand pumps,” the officials
jeered at them. The dejected villagers could only repeat this piece
of advice every time anyone asked them whether they had got any
assistance from Konta.
“And what do the Naxalites say?” Venka asks with a fatalistic
chuckle. “They say, ‘go to Bhadrachalam and buy the materials and
we shall fix it’. But the problem is we don’t have any money!”
Sodi Venka also lives in Khammam district now. He earns around Rs 60
a day working as a landless labourer — for about 10 to 20 days a
month. Back at his village, he used to sell a kilogram of tamarind
for five rupees, each mango for two to three rupees. He also sold
mahua for twelve to fourteen rupees a kg. He left his village soon
after he heard about the killings in Pallecharma.
Muchki Deva, 65, was picked up by Gondi- speaking SPOs from his
village of Oonderpad near Bhejji and taken to jail.
He says he was repeatedly beaten and given electric shocks. He was
incorrectly reported as being burnt with oil by some publications —
in fact, he had no idea what they were doing to him. He was released
after four days, when a superior police officer found him in the
company of young Special Police Officers who were beating him. The
officer chastised the SPOs and ordered them to release the old man.
He was neither booked nor asked to give a statement. He soon left his
village for Khammam district.
The stories seem never-ending and each one is harrowing. Take, for
instance, the case of Maroodbacka village in Usur Block of Bijapur
district in Chhattisgarh. On October 24, the security forces raided
the place. They picked up Katam Kistaya (20) and Bhandavi Bhimaya
(18). Bhimaya was suffering from a high fever and hence incapable of
escaping. Both of them are now reportedly languishing in Dantewada jail.
Soon after, some 15 families of Maroodbacka left for Khammam district.
Others, like Madkam Mooti from Bijjamariaguda, did not bother to wait
for the raids. They left their villages for Andhra Pradesh with their
families well before that. When news of the attacks on Tatemargu,
Pallodi, Doghpar and Pallecharma spread across the tehsil, villagers
from Paytalguta, Ampeta and Dormangum from Kistaram panchayat also
left their villages, afraid of what the authorities might do to them.
They are all now living in Khammam district. They have survived but
in Khammam they have no land, no ration cards, no schools, no
angaanbadi. They also suffer the risk of being branded as Maoists or
sympathisers by the Andhra Pradesh authorities.
Their difficulties are compounded by inter-tribal conflicts. For
instance, the Gotti Koya from Chhattisgarh and the local Koya
villagers find themselves at odds at times, fighting over meagre
forest resources.
Despite the tensions, many settlements have been built with
permission from the local gram sabhas and there is no confrontation
as the IDPs also work as landless labour for them. Many more IDPs are
living with their relatives.
There are disturbing reports that party members from New Democracy
(CPI-ML) have been demanding that the local Koya villagers evict the
Gotti Koya and send them back to Chhattisgarh. The Andhra Pradesh
police and forest officials are also considering a similar proposal
and have reportedly approached the Collector’s office for provisions
to ‘pack off ’ the IDPs back to Chhattisgarh.
There are some dissenters from this view, however. Gandhibabu of the
Agricultural and Social Development Society, who has been interacting
with government officials and the IDPs is against any forced
repatriation.
“First, it is their constitutional right, freedom of movement.
Secondly, how can you send them back to Chhattisgarh where they’d
end up in Salwa Judum camps and thus be in danger of being killed by
the Naxalites, or to their villages where they’re in danger of being
killed by the security forces? They really have no place to go back
to at the moment.’ The Solidarity Committee for Internally Displaced
Tribals, Andhra Pradesh has raised similar concerns. After meeting
IDP families in Khammam district, the committee held a press
conference in Hyderabad earlier in the week. It demanded that the
Union government and state governments concerned be responsible for
the safety of the tribals. Also, the refugees should be provided with
rehabilitation packages.
The committee also demanded that IDPs be given NREGAS job cards,
temporary ration cards, with pensions for senior citizens and
disabled people; and that the government should help set up schools
and mini-angaanbadi centres as a majority of the fleeing tribals are
children.
They are safe now, but what happens next is anybody’s guess.
o o o
Press Note: Solidarity Committee For Internally Displaced Tribals,
Andhra Pradesh
http://www.sacw.net/article1258.html
25th November, 2009
RECOGNIZE DISPLACED ADIVASI’S FLEEING TO ANDHRA PRADESH AS
INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS (IDPS) AND PROVIDE THEM REHABILITATION
PACKAGE.
The Chattisgarh Government and the Central governments have started
War in the name of Green Hunt. They are fully aware that when the
operation starts thousands of tribals will flee their homes. The
earlier experience of attacks by Sulwa Judum has taught this lesson.
In spite of this knowledge the Government of India or the state
governments have not taken any steps to set up a rehabilitation
programme and allocate adequate funds, or food security for the same.
Solidarity Committee for Internally displaced tribals spent 23rd and
24th November, 2009 in Khammam district in the Mulkalapally, Kukunoor
and Cherla Mandals visiting the displaced families. The Committee has
collected following information from them.
Murders and Burning villages (in Chattisgarh)
Under the protection of Para Military forces the Special Police
officers (SPOs) and Salwa Judum members have restarted attacking the
villages. For Example, in Gachanpad Village, Konta Tahsil. five men
were rounded up brought to the centre of the village and killed by
bayonets and bullets. Their names are: 1 Madave Adamiah, 2 Madakam
Soolaiah, 3 Madavi joga, 4 Kovasi Gangiah, 5 Madakam Mui. Except for
one, the others were old men who could not run . Madakam Mui was
disabled and could barely walk. The son of Madave Adamiah and sister
of Gangiah shared their horrors with the Committee. The forces burnt
19 homes in the village.
Earlier, Maraigudem village was burnt to the ground by Sulwa Judum.
The villagers who had run away returned after a while and had started
living in small huts nearby. In this round of attacks the huts were
burnt down again.
Next Pujari Kankeru village was attacked and two women and one man
was killed. Houses were burnt down.
Terrorizing the tribals
It is clear that by targeting some villages, killing and burning down
homes, people are being evicted. People reported that some villages
were targeted for the first time while others were attacked a second
time. The Para military are encircling villages and the SPOs and
Sulwa Judum entering the villages and carrying out the attacks.
Destroying property and disappearing livestock.
Last year the region faced drought and people lost their crops. This
year once again there was limited production. When the harvest was
ready the government started Operation Green Hunt. People left their
standing crops and either ran away to the forest or crossed over to
Andhra Pradesh. All the people reported that the forces stole their
chicken, goats and pigs which were killed and consumed by them. When
women dared to protest they were severely beaten up.
The situation in Andhra Pradesh
The people who are fleeing in groups are apprehended by the Andhra
police, taken to the Police camp and threatened to go back. They are
calling whole families including babies to be photographed as
suspected Maoists. In Charla mandal one such settlement (of thirteen
families) under a tamarind tree was threatened and forced to leave.
The Committee met four youth of these families who are struggling to
eke out a living in spite of these difficulties.
Hunger and Cold.
The fleeing families are burning with hunger and freezing in the
cold. Since they have come with only the clothes on their back they
do not have any vessels to cook in or blankets. The Committee met ten
families who came to Kukunoor Mandal, Kivaka Panchayat. The Committee
observed that they did not have any sheets to spread on the ground to
sleep on. They did not have any cover either. Nine children are
living with the families and are looking malnourished. Since breast
feeding mothers also do not have any food, the babies are underweight.
The families requested Committee members for plastic sheets, utensils
to cook, blankets and food grains as immediate rations.
Appeal to the Governments.
The government of India and the Concerned State governments must take
responsibility to create a safe environment so that the displaced
families can return to their homes and lead their normal lives.
Attacks on Adivasi villages should be stopped immediately
Arrest and punish the guilty immediately and uphold constitutional
rights and the Rule of Law.
The fleeing families should be recognized as internally displaced
People (IDP). The government of India must develop a rehabilitation
package and allocate funds to the state governments.
To ensure survival of the families, the Government of Andhra Pradesh
must take following steps:
For immediate relief : each family to be given 100 Kgs of rice, 10
kgs dal, kerosene, one set of cooking vessels, polythene sheets for
cover and blankets.
Issue NREGS job cards with 200 days of employment per year since they
have lost all their productive assets
Temporary ration cards for a year to be renewed on the basis of then
conditions. Double rations should be provided since the families have
lost access to their productive resources including land.
Pensions to be provided to people with disabilities and the elderly
on a temporary basis.
Set up bridge schools to uphold the Right to Education and provide
mini anganwadi centre’s in habitations.
Set up Medical camps to treat diseases and recognize malnutrition.
Set up feeding center’s for malnourished children.
Implement the recommendations of National Commission for the
Protection of Child Rights as above pertaining to children.
Immediately give directions to stop forest official and police
harassment of IDPs since they are citizens of this country and have a
right to live where they choose and travel according to their need
and will.
Appeal to Civil Society.
Civil society responded with great generosity during the recent
floods. We appeal that they respond equally to this emerging crises
of the innocent adivasis and support their survival.
Prof M Kodand Ram
B Ramakrishnam Raju
G Rajasekhar
Dr V Rukmini Rao
V Gandhi Babu
P S Ajay kumar
(Contact Numbers G RajaSekhar, 9440235978, A Krishna 9959098737)
_____
[6] India: Resources For Secular Activists (selected posts from
communalism.blogspot.org)
(i) Unknowingly, Liberhan repeats some arguments put forward by the
Hindu nationalists
http://bit.ly/8IR4Tc
(ii) What Matters More the Liberhan Report or its Leak?
http://bit.ly/5JdVGh
(iii) Politics of Liberhan report
http://bit.ly/5S6KhB
(iv) Xenophobia in Seventeenth-Century India
by Gijs Kruijtzer - 2009 - Social Science - 326 pages
https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/1887/13850/2/Kruijtzer2009-
low+resolution+small+file.pdf
_____
[7] Miscellanea:
The Guardian, 26 November 2009
SCHOOLS OF INCENDIARY THOUGHT
Faith schools that may be promoting extremist ideas must be closely
monitored – and should certainly not receive public funds
by Shaaz Mahboob
Any institution that promotes segregation and openly prescribes
members of society to lead separate lives deserves no sympathy and
most definitely not public support in the form of tax money.
Certainly not in a secular modern democracy such as Britain, where
the graduates of such institutions are at risk of coming out the
other end less able to integrate with the rest of the society. On top
of this, they are potentially liable to fuel the disintegration of
society by firmly believing in segregation, not only of the sexes but
also along the lines of faith and belief.
It is therefore quite disconcerting to find that countless "Muslim or
Islamic schools" – whatever the distinction might be – receive
public funds, and which go to extreme lengths in instilling the seeds
of segregation into these young minds.
Nevertheless, they at least appear to be hesitatingly tolerant (yes,
only tolerant, not entirely happy with the notion that a nation could
be run by the wishes of the Muslim and non-Muslim masses and not that
of a male unelected supreme leader).
Disturbingly, certain educational institutions are led and managed by
the adherents of a political ideology which goes one step further and
calls for the abolition of the democratic system in Britain. As part
of their vision, secular democracy would be replaced by another
system which is far more intolerant towards religious minorities,
placing curbs on their rights and relegating them to a second-class
position in society. Unsurprisingly, liberal, secular-minded, pro-
democracy co-religionists are relegated to the lowest of all possible
positions within such a theocratic state.
Ironically the model of governance to which some of the patrons of
these schools aspire seems to have failed elsewhere on other
continents; most recently in Afghanistan under the Taliban, which was
hailed as the "21st century model Islamic Caliphate" and the Ottomon
Caliphate during the last century, only to be replaced by a secular
Turkish state. Pakistan appears to be a new target for such movements
where certain British Muslims are attempting to transform the
nation's governing structure, from a democracy finding its feet, to a
theocratic Islamic Caliphate.
To add insult to injury, such centres of education in Britain receive
vast public funding to propagate their message through teaching these
values and ideals to the innocent and impressionable minds of our
future generations. One example of such schools is that of the
Islamic Shakhsiyah Foundation (ISF) that runs such schools in
Tottenham, north London, and Slough, Berkshire. Three quarters of the
trustees and certain individuals who run the schools are members of
Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HT), an organisation which to this day seeks to
abolish democracy and freedom.
The recent spat between the Tories and Labour frontrunners over the
funding of the schools run by the ISF appear to be between two major
stakeholders in the future governance of this country, both equally
unsure of how to deal with this Frankenstein's monster that is
threatening society (regardless of who comes into power for the next
five years). Although the Tories appear to have pledged to ban HT,
they – like Labour's top advisers – are not prepared to tackle the
issue of faith schools and in particular, certain Islamic schools
whose governing bodies have links to questionable organisations.
As a matter of principle, organisations such as British Muslims for
Secular Democracy have been opposed to any state funding of religious
schools, particularly schools which embed hard-line interpretations
of religious ideology into their curriculum. These teachings can have
far-reaching consequences on the pupils' personal and creative
development. A ban on music is the order of the day and girls as
young as five years old are forced to cover themselves up, even
though it is a well-established Islamic teaching that women who
choose to wear the hijab do not need to do so until the onset of
puberty. One of the standard reasons cited in defence of the hijab is
that women (and little girls in this case) are better protected by
wrapping themselves up from the prying eyes of men. It beggars belief
as to who these innocent female pupils are at risk from in a school
environment – the same-age male pupils or those whose responsibility
is to teach them. By teaching them at this tender age that the
exposure of their flesh and hair is somehow provocative to the men
(and little boys) around them is perhaps also akin to taking away
their innocence before it gets a chance to see the light of the day.
The question to both Ed Balls and David Cameron is not that of this
particular school but the future of countless other Islamic schools
dotted across the country, those which receive public funding and
those which are completely independent. Any institution – even if it
operates without any state funding yet promotes anti-democratic
ideals and preaches inequality using religion as an excuse – cannot
and must not be allowed to function, whether it's a Jewish, Sikh,
Hindu, Christian, Muslim or a Jedi school. And why only target the
schools run by Hizb-ut-Tahrir and absolve those run under the
protection of Muslim Council of Britain (MCB)?
The MCB almost always comes to the rescue of such schools each time
their inadequacies are exposed by the media or the regulatory bodies
which brave the Islamophobia rhetoric. Going beyond the remit of
acting as an umbrella organisation for the countless mosques,
madrasas and Islamic schools, the MCB demands from state-run secular
schools certain absurd and impractical privileges on behalf of Muslim
pupils, with or without their parents' agreement. Such demands –
recently made to the schools in a cunningly disguised booklet –
include promoting the idea that Muslim pupils be withdrawn from
religious education classes, yet ensuring that non-Muslim pupils are
made to learn about Islam as a religion, in addition to complete
segregation on the basis of gender and time off school each week to
perform Friday prayers at the cost of valuable lessons.
A potential solution which I have been advocating is perhaps not to
close down such schools (and other registered or unregistered
educational institutions) in the first instance, but to ensure that
their curriculums are effectively monitored for potentially
incendiary or divisive material, and revised accordingly. An
education that promotes a good balance between different faith
backgrounds and cultures should be maintained to promote equality,
respect and interaction between the future generations of Britain.
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
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