SACW 27 March 2012 | Afghan Taliban smelling victory / Sri Lanka: Human rights / Pakistan: fear and silence / India: Modi and Gujarat massacre - New India's blood rite; Sri Sri's Art of privatisation; Crackdown on anti nuclear movement; AK Ramanujan; Defence spending / Women Say No War on Iran
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at gmail.com
Mon Mar 26 14:58:52 EDT 2012
South Asia Citizens Wire - 27 March 2012 - No. 2735
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contents:
1. US defeat won’t be Afghan victory (Pervez Hoodbhoy)
2. Sri Lanka: Three human rights defenders respond to attacks in state media
3. Bangladesh 1971: A genocide and refugees - Ripples in the pond (Bina D’costa)
4. Pakistan: A city of three tales (Afiya Shehrbano)
5. Pakistan: Who killed Benazir Bhutto? (Najam Sethi)
6. Pakistan: Unwelcome conversions (I.A Rehman)
7. Pakistan: Faith & fear silence Pakistan's singers (Kim Arora)
8. India: Protest Promotion of India's Milosevic by Time Magazine and Brookings Institution
9. The Gujarat massacre - New India's blood rite (Pankaj Mishra)
10. India: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar pushes Art of privatization of state-run schools - A statement by concerned citizens
11. India: Protest Letter by 4000 intellectuals against removal of A K Ramanujan’s essay from courses of Delhi University
12. India: Protest and solidarity actions against crackdown on anti nuclear movement re Koodankulam plant
13. India - Chhattisgarh: Return these girls to us, Mr Raman Singh
14. India: Militarised politics of Hindutva - RSS chief’s speech at the Bhonsala Military School
15. India: Defence spending versus Social Spending
International:
16. Women Say No War on Iran - An Appeal from Alice Walker, Eve Ensler and Gloria Steinem
17. The Third Republic of Movements (Francesco Brancaccio, Alberto De Nicola, Francesco Raparelli)
18. Announcements:
(1) Conference - India – Pakistan Civil Society Review of Strategic Relations (New Delhi, 29 – 31 March 2012)
(2) Charity Art Exhibit on Contemporary Art in aid of Citizens for Justice and Peace (Bombay, 5-9 April 2012)
(3) Invitation 4th National Conference of National Forum of Forest People And Forest Workers (Dehradun, 26-28, May 2012)
=======================================
1. US DEFEAT WON’T BE AFGHAN VICTORY
by Pervez Hoodbhoy
=======================================
Ever since US Sergeant Robert Bales surrendered after calmly massacring Afghan women and children, he has been depicted as a man under unusual personal circumstances. A high-ranking US official told the New York Times: “When it all comes out, it will be a combination of stress, alcohol and domestic issues – he just snapped”. Unlike those sentenced to death by drones flying high over Waziristan, Bales will enjoy a thorough investigation. Whisked out of Afghanistan, he may or may not ever be convicted. If convicted, the penalty is unlikely to exceed a few prison years; “good behaviour” may qualify him for an early parole.
Although President Obama and Secretary Clinton habitually apologise to the Afghan people after every such atrocity — of which there is a long list — the fact that they happen is inevitable. Indian troops in Kashmir, and Pakistani soldiers in Balochistan, have not behaved any differently. At the core, the problem is the forcible occupation by an army of another country or people.
[. . .] much as one welcomes the US exit, America’s defeat will not be Afghanistan’s victory. The crimes of foreign occupation pale in front of the enormous crimes committed by the Taliban government, 1996-2001. Although the outside world knew the Taliban largely for having blown up the 2000-year old Bamiyan Buddha statues and their cruel treatment of women, their atrocities were far more widespread.
http://www.sacw.net/article2606.html
=======================================
2. SRI LANKA: THREE HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS RESPOND TO ATTACKS IN STATE MEDIA
=======================================
http://www.sacw.net/article2597.html
JOINT STATEMENT: Sunila Abeysekara, Nimalka Fernando and Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu
23rd March 2012, Colombo, Sri Lanka: As the three Sri Lankan human rights defenders who have come most under attack by the state media in Sri Lanka in the past week, because of our active involvement with the on-going session of the UN Human rights Council in Geneva, we feel compelled to issue this statement of clarification.
We do not deny that we are critical of the conduct of the government of Sri Lanka, and the institutions and agencies under its control, whenever disregard for the human rights obligations imposed on the government by virtue of its being signatory to almost all international human rights conventions comes to our attention. As the President of Sri Lanka, and his Special Envoy on Human Rights well know, the three of us have offered our services to this government to ensure human rights accountability in the past. For example, all of us served on the National Advisory Council appointed by Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, when he held the portfolio for Human Rights.
Nor do we deny that we work with a range of human rights organizations, nationally, regionally and internationally, to draw attention to human rights violations in Sri Lanka as well as to the culture of impunity and the lack of accountability for violations of the past and of the present. This is our right, as human rights defenders, and we have exercised that right for many years, under various governments, in spite of a barrage of attacks and intimidation from various quarters, including state and non-state entities.
It is indeed regrettable that at a time in the history of our country when we have the opportunity to transform our society, to move from a post-war to a post-conflict phase, and to enjoy the support of the international community to rebuild a just, humane and prosperous Sri Lanka in which all its citizens can live together with peace and dignity, the government and its media have seen it necessary to launch into an unprecedented and utterly personalized attack against the three of us. There is no attempt to challenge us substantively on any point. None of the comments attributed to us, were actually ever made by any one of us; there are many who were present at the side events where we have spoken who can testify to that.
This attack is totally counter-productive in terms of the government’s campaign to resist the Resolution on Sri Lanka, which has been tabled at the Council. In fact, in Geneva today, there is more focus on the attacks and acts of intimidation of Sri Lankan human rights defenders than there is on the negotiations around the Resolution. Those who accuse us of bringing the country into disrepute would do well to examine both their own motives and the consequences of their actions. Instead of carrying on with advocacy for defeating the Resolution, Sri Lanka’s ambassador to the Council, Ms. Tamara Kunanayagam has had to spend hours of her valuable time talking to delegations, to the President of the Council and to officials of the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights about the campaign of intimidation and attack against Sri Lankan human rights defenders at the Council and in Sri Lanka.
As human rights defenders working to defeat impunity in Sri Lanka and to build a strong system of justice and accountability for human rights violations, whether committed in the past or in the present, we remain committed to our ideals and to our goals. For us, whether there is a Resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN Human rights Council or not, our work to defend human rights in Sri Lanka must, and will, go on.
=======================================
3. BANGLADESH 1971: A GENOCIDE AND REFUGEES - RIPPLES IN THE POND
by Bina D’costa
=======================================
Ever since the 1971 war, Pakistan has officially denied the accusation of genocide that is at the centre of Bangladesh’s historiography. Pakistani scholars, politicians and columnists often describe the 1971 killings as a ‘disaster’ (Abdul Sattar, 2007), a ‘debacle’ (Hasan-Askari Rizvi, 1987; M. B. Naqvi, 2000; Ahmad Faruqui, 2003), an ‘incident’ or ‘catharsis’ (Ikram Sehgal, 2000) and, at most, ‘excesses’ (in the words of former President Pervez Musharraf) or ‘summer madness’ (M. A Khan, 1982). Some exceptions in scholarship and in the media on labelling the atrocities as genocide include the well-known reports filed by Anthony Mascarenhas for the Sunday Times, Feroz Ahmed’s analysis of the break-up of Pakistan (1972), Aijaz Ahmed’s review of Zulfikar Bhutto’s The Great Tragedy (1972), and Rubina Saigol’s analysis of the silences of the genocidal conflict in Pakistani textbooks (2005).
http://www.sacw.net/article2603.html
=======================================
4. PAKISTAN: A CITY OF THREE TALES
by Afiya Shehrbano
=======================================
(The News, February 14, 2012)
In Karachi, any reference to the ‘other side of the bridge’ is usually a euphemistic allusion to social class difference, between those who live on either side of the actual, Clifton Bridge.
On February 12, three major gatherings took place in the city on the same day – each soaked in socio-political symbolism and significance. Each was also a direct commentary on our collective class identities, national concerns and political disconnect.
The Karachi Literature Festival was held in a private hotel in the suburbs near the sea and attended by the English-speaking elite. However, the Difa-e- Pakistan rally and the conference on Balochistan on Pakistan Women’s Day were, ideologically and literally, public events that took place on the ‘other side of the bridge’.
The first one was a congregation of the holy men from forty religio-political parties at the Quaid’s mazaar. The second, was a public meeting organised by the Joint Action Committee at the Karachi Press Club, to commemorate Pakistan Women’s Day. February 12 is the anniversary that marks the police action against women who took out a pro-democracy/anti-Zia rally in 1983 in Lahore. The theme this year was to focus on Baloch women’s issues. Ironies abounded. The Literature Festival was mostly non-literary, the Difa-e- Pakistan Rally was about defence against imagined not real enemies, and Baloch people refused to attend the conference that women activists had organised for them.
It would be interesting to offer a cost-analysis comparison of the events but one can only guess that the British Council budget for the hotel venue of the literature festival had to beat that of the Joint Action Committee one at the press club, especially since there were no celebrities and no tea at the latter. There is no accounting for budgetary sources or expenditures of religio-political events.
Never mind, money and social class attendance. Everyone (who is honest) knows that the most important point of being part of the literati is to read and then be seen to be well-read. Where better to be seen than a festival of repeat English literature (since nothing new has really been written since the last one)? At least one can hear our English language authors read out what we have already read and then tell us whether they stood or sat, or read out their prose to themselves as they punched away at their laptops while taking in the Manhattan skyline or by the French Riviera?
Clearly, we English-speaking elite are so stupid that we need the authors to refresh our memories, by having novelists read out excerpts from books written a decade ago and swoon at their throaty, larynx-filled renditions. Yes, readings are quite the legitimate literary activity but what has earned authors renown in this regard has been their ability to weave around their texts, the stories and connections that make their bodies of work, art.
Embarrassingly rich examples abound of how readings have mesmerised audiences because they contextualise the writings, making one understand the history, political and personal connections that can make reception of reading, a live experience. But reading a random page from your old novel in a gravely voice just sounds pompous and reminds you of the Eng Lit teacher from ‘O’ levels who loved to hear her own fake British accent.
The attempt to expand the themes of the literature festival to include the fields of sociology, geo-politics, economics and nuclear science, successfully killed off any romance that a literary event in the city by the sea may have promised. Instead, it is now fully converted into one of those dull, predictable, heard-it-all-before and mediocre, Islamabad development conferences. More consultants than creative-artists, do not a literary festival make. Known for its candid exposes of sex, relationships and socialite gossip, the Karachi literature festival invited Shoba De to be its apt muse.
Known for exposing nothing outside of the veil, Afia Siddiqi was the iconographic symbol for the religious parties’ congregation at the other end of Karachi. For religio-patriots, a woman must be a victim of American injustice to qualify as worth defending. The rest of the defenceless women of Pakistan can save themselves.
The Press Club event was perhaps the most poetic, political and pertinent of all three events. It was also the most under-attended by the ‘other-siders’. Three, actually. While the speakers managed to raise conceptual and pragmatic realities of Baloch politics, the missing persons’ epidemic and the impotent role of the state in accounting for Baloch activists, the protesters outside refused to join the conference inside. Why is it that our hearts break at Palestinian children holding their fathers’ portraits but not the tiny Baloch girl who can hardly carry the reminder of her brother’s absence in her lap?
The symbolism of their refusal to join the conference was apt. The breakdown of trust is such that it’s not just the state the Baloch women activists do not trust — they do not trust civil society anymore. It’s a comment on how long we have allowed things to fester. With the exception of the HRCP over decades, most of us make no specific gesture, organise no collective conferences, no petitioning, no day of missing persons, no exchange student programmes, no dialogue on nationalism, literature, music and no media coverage of the Baloch issue.
Hence, we contribute to the institutional backlash they continue to face. As one Baloch woman put it, “There can be no concept of the ‘millat’ when you torture one province”. Were the Defenders of Pakistan at the mazaar listening? Were the well-read in Defence society inspired?
What seemed to amuse the literati at the festival the most was the session which satirised the much scorned “ghariat” brigade. Mocking the self-appointed squadrons of Pakistan’s moral respectability is all well and good, but by the looks of the events at the Quaid’s mazaar, the Difa-e-Pakistan lot may be having the last laugh before the next literature festival.
Meanwhile, what is deadly sobering is to hear your fellow Karachi resident claim that they came to ‘Pakistan’ from Balochistan because they were being persecuted. Citizenship as a commodity is running out in this country. To find out just how fast, the litterateurs who masquerade as social scientists and commentators may want to relocate their consciousness next time they visit the city. A different kind of after-party takes place on the other side of the bridge.
The writer is a sociologist based in Karachi. She has a background in women’s studies and has authored and edited several books on women’s issues
=======================================
5. PAKISTAN: WHO KILLED BENAZIR BHUTTO?
by Najam Sethi
=======================================
The Friday Times, February 24 - March 01, 2012 - Vol. XXIV, No. 02
Editorial
Rehman Malik has finally, and rather dramatically, aired the Joint Investigation Team's report on the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. But we are already privy to much of what he has revealed, partly because of media dribs and ministerial drabs in the last four years, and partly because of the inquiry reports of Scotland Yard and the UN, on the matter. Nor are we surprised by the choice of the venue - the Sindh Assembly represents the arena of Sindhi "nationalism and anti-Punjabi-establishmentism"; it is the burial province of three martyred Bhuttos and it is the source of a parliamentary resolution on the subject. The timing of the surprise is also understandable: in the run-up to general elections later this year, the theme of martyrdom will doubtless figure prominently.
Some facts are now established. Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban (who was killed in a Drone strike subsequently), gave the order to kill Ms Bhutto. Several Afghan, Pakistani Taliban and former Jehadi groups played a role in the chain of command and action. Most of the assassins had been schooled at the Darul Uloom Haqqania, an Islamic radical Deobandi seminary in Akora Khattak whose "Vice-Chancellor" Maulana Sami-ul Haq is the leader of his own faction of the Jamiat Ulema e Islam and currently leader of the firebrand Defense Council of Pakistan floated by the military establishment.
It is confirmed that senior military leaders ordered the civil administration to hose down the scene of crime within hours of Ms Bhutto's assassination. Significantly, the DG-ISI and DG-MI refused to appear before the three commissions of inquiry. Nor is there a shred of doubt about the unwillingness and inability of the Musharraf regime to provide requisite security to Ms Bhutto - who was constitutionally entitled to it as a twice-elected prime minister - after her return to Pakistan.
The background to the "deal" between General Musharraf and Ms Bhutto brokered by the Americans is also well-established. The Bush and Mush administrations were getting along like a house on fire. But, in the run up to general elections in 2007, General Musharraf was looking politically frail in the aftermath of the lawyers' movement and alienation from the mass media. The Americans proposed to prop him up by extending the populist hand of Ms Bhutto in a power-sharing arrangement for the next five years. General Musharraf and Ms Bhutto disliked the scheme but clutched at its potential utility. Musharraf thought he would be able to keep a tight rein on her by denying the PPP an outright majority in parliament and compelling a coalition with his King's PMLQ League. Ms Bhutto believed she would be able to manoeuver after she got a toehold in power. He wanted her to stay away from Pakistan until after the elections so that he could manipulate them. She demanded an even playing field to make a dent. He offered her the NRO as a face-saving device when she sought an amendment in the law barring third-term prime ministership. As D-Day neared, the existing trust deficit yawned and both backtracked from their commitments. When she firmly declared her intent to return before elections, he cunningly raised the specter of security threats to her life. Conveniently enough, that's when Baitullah Masud publicly threatened to send over 100 suicide bombers to stop Ms Bhutto in her tracks. When she remained undaunted, General Musharraf warned he wouldn't extend security to her. When she got the US administration to propose sending Blackwater guards to Pakistan for her private security, he refused permission. His hostility peaked when Nawaz Sharif's Saudi hosts insisted that their guest would also return to Pakistan to "balance" the concession to Ms Bhutto. That is when General Musharraf's carefully laid plans seemed to go awry and all seemed lost because of Ms Bhutto's intransigence. Consequently, if anyone had a powerful personal and political motive for stopping her in her tracks, it was General Musharraf, his military coterie and his political cabal in the Q league. Significantly, on the eve of her departure for Pakistan, Ms Bhutto released a letter naming those in such circles who constituted a threat to her life.
Mr Malik insists he will extradite General Musharraf to face charges in Pakistan. That's a hope in hell. The military has stopped him from establishing any nexus between the assassins and those who facilitated them in the establishment. And it will not allow a former chief of army staff, whose commanders are either still in power or retired at home in Pakistan, to be dragged through the courts and tried by the "bloody civilians".
The thunderous rhetoric of martyrdom, rather than proof and convictions, will therefore have to suffice for the heirs of Benazir Bhutto. That is the formula they have followed to win three elections in the past three decades. And that is the formula they are most likely to follow in the future.
==================================
6. PAKISTAN: UNWELCOME CONVERSIONS
by I.A Rehman
==================================
THE Hindu community, particularly in Sindh, has been in the grip of strong feelings of grief, anger and insecurity for several weeks. Unless its grievances are speedily addressed Pakistan stands to suffer incalculable harm in both material and moral terms.
The issue of Hindu girls’ conversion to Islam and marriage to Muslim men, both transitions alleged to be forced and often after abduction, is not new. Indeed, it has always been high on the Hindu citizens’ list of complaints. What is new is the scale and intensity of their reaction and the large number of their appeals for justice. It seems three recent cases involving Rinkal Kumari, Lata Kumari and Aasha Kumari have unleashed the Hindu community’s long-brewing fears of loss of its religious and cultural identities.
The three cases are not identical in detail. Dr Murli Lal Karira, who belonged to Jacobabad and practised medicine at Suhbatpur, in Jafarabad district, was reported to have been abducted while travelling homeward. Some days later, his niece, Aasha Kumari Karira, who was taking lessons at a Jacobabad beauty parlour, did not return home after her work hours, and was believed to have been abducted. Her whereabouts are unknown.
http://www.sacw.net/article2601.html
=======================================
7. PAKISTAN: FAITH & FEAR SILENCE PAKISTAN'S SINGERS
by Kim Arora
=======================================
(The Times of India / TNN | Mar 18, 2012)
NEW DELHI: Until a few months ago, Pakistani singer and composer Shiraz Uppal's caller tune was the song "Rabba" from the Pooja Bhatt film Dhokha (2007). Now, one hears a prayer. Earlier this month, the Lahore-based musician announced that he would not be making music anymore as his religion forbids music.
After over a decade in the industry, Uppal has cut himself off entirely, even giving away all his instruments and recording equipment, save a guitar which was a gift from his late father. "He gave it to me in 1995. I've kept it as a memory of him," says Uppal.
Uppal's decision seems to fall into a pattern in Pakistan. In recent years, various singers and musicians have renounced their careers, either for personal reasons or in the face of threats from militant groups. UAE-based Pashtun singer Nazia Iqbal announced her retirement from music at a concert this January, reportedly to live as a "devoted Muslim woman". She also announced her plans to open madrassas in Pakistan.
Ali Haider of "Purani Jeans" fame made the transition from pop to devotional songs and qawwalis in 2009. In fact, as early as 2001, Junaid Jamshed, a sensation in Pakistan in the late 80s and early 90s and known to his fans as JJ, too gave up his musical career for religious reasons. Now, he only sings religious naats and has taken to preaching.
There are other artistes who have been killed. A significant Taliban presence in north-west Pakistan has ensured a strong clampdown on music and musicians. Guns have been in constant battle with guitars. Singer and dancer Shabana from Swat was killed in January 2009, followed by Peshawar-based Ayman Udas who was murdered the same year, in what was said to be an honour killing. Pakistani newspapers suggest that singers Gulzar Alam and Gulrez Tabassum, known for their Pashto songs, too quit after threats from militants.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Faith-fear-silence-Pakistans-singers/articleshow/12310080.cms
=======================================
8. INDIA: PROTEST PROMOTION OF NARENDRA MODI BY TIME MAGAZINE AND BROOKINGS INSTITUTION
=======================================
Even while Indian Courts are yet to assess whether the Evidence collected by invetigators appointed by India's Supreme Court on material filed in the Smt Zakia Ahsan Jafri and Citizens for Justice case make out a case to prosecute Narendra Modi, chief minister Gujarat and Cabinet Colleagues, Administratos and Policemen, a US based Magazine supposedly "liberal" and Brookings Institute collecvtively promote him as the promoter of inclusive development (sic) and a future national leader. Quite apart from the selective facts reflected in both pieces of work, the timing is significant. Weeks after the Tenth Anniversary of independent India's worst ever anti minority carmage, during which Indian newspapers and periodicals accurately showcased the state of the victim community in Gujarat as also the progress of the cases, the fact that overall figures of Gujarat's economic and social development have been manipulated exposes both exercises for the poor but highly motivated public relations exercises that they are.
http://communalism.blogspot.in/2012/03/protest-promotion-of-modi-time-and.html
o o o
AN AARTI FROM TIME, A BROOKINGS CHALISA
Are they drowned in Modi’s magnetism? Is this worship exigency?
Anil Dharker , Cyrus Guzder , Nandan Maluste , Teesta Setalvad
http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?280343
[SEE ALSO:
US-WARY MODI'S TOP PITCHMAN IS A POWERFUL AMERICAN FIRM
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2120215/US-wary-Narendra-Modi-s-pitchman-powerful-American-firm.html#ixzz1qDBL7ojM
Plight of Gujarat riot victims shocks UN rapporteurs
http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/report_plight-of-gujarat-riot-victims-shocks-un-rapporteurs_1667255
=======================================
9. THE GUJARAT MASSACRE - NEW INDIA'S BLOOD RITE
by Pankaj Mishra
=======================================
Ten years on, we need to consider the links between the anti-Muslim pogrom of 2002 and economic globalisation
http://www.sacw.net/article2604.html
=======================================
10. INDIA: SRI SRI RAVI SHANKAR’S VIEWS ABOUT GOVERNMENT-RUN SCHOOLS - A STATEMENT BY CONCERNED CITIZENS
=======================================
March 21, 2012
This press statement comes via Kavita Srivastava; see full list if signatories at the end.
PRESS RELEASE
Jaipur, 21st March, 2012: We are shocked and strongly condemn the statement made by the Global Corporate Brand “Art of Living” businessman, Ravi Shankar in Jaipur on 20th March, 2012, wherein he states that “Government schools are breeding grounds of violence and Naxalism ….that is why Government run schools and colleges must be handed over to private bodies….and that ‘Adarsh schools’ must reach all areas”. We would like to demand evidence from Ravi Shankar that Government schools, in which 16 crore children of the age group 6 to 14 years are studying are breeding grounds for violence and Naxalism. An army of Indian engineers, doctors, nurses, computer professionals, government servants army and police personnel and factory workers come from government schools. It would appear that this human resource that is the backbone of this country is wholly ‘Naxalite’ in the eyes of this completely irrational guru.
The truth is that Ravi Shankar, being the brand Guru of the Global corporates, would like education to be the milking cow of this sector, so that there is colossal growth in their profits.
We consider the statement
· Anti-constitutional as it goes against Article 21-A where the Government is bound to provide free and compulsory education to children of the age group 6 to 14 years. Since the Parliament of India has passed this Fundamental Right, the implication is that Ravi Shankar considers the Parliament to be promoting violence and Naxalism, by charging the government with the responsibility of providing education to every child of the country.
· And also talks of reproducing the ideology of hate as presented by Golwakar and Sarvarkar which schools like Adarsh Vidya Mandir teach, since he said that Adarsh schools should be set up evreywhere in the name of bhartiya sanskriti. It should be known that this statement was made from the platform of the silver jubilee celebrations of Adarsh Vidya Society which runs more than 1000 Adarsh Vidya mandir schools in Rajasthan.
We demand legal action against the global brand corporate guru.
We are,
Prem Krisha Sharma, President, PUCL, Rajasthan
Vinod Raina, Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti
Shabnam, ANHAD
Nishat Hussein, PUCL, Vice President and National Muslim Women’s Welfare Society, Jaipur
M Hasan, IRADA, Jaipur
Komal Srivastava, Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti
Raja Ram Bhadu, SAMANTAR and People’s Union For Civil Liberties, Rajasthan
Vishwambhar, Digantar
Ashok Khandelwal, Rajasthan Right to food and Work Resource Centre, Jaipur
Shiv Singh, Alarippu
Rashid, People’s Union For Civil Liberties, Rajastha
Vijay Goyal, Resource Institue of Human Rights, Rajasthan
Sabir Khan, Sarthak and PUCL, RAjasthan
Harkesh Bugalia, Rajasthan General and Nirman Workers Union,
Radha Kant Saxena, People’s Union For Civil Liberties, Rajasthan
Nirmal Mor , Student MSW University of Rajasthan
Kavita Srivastava, People’s Union For Civil Liiberties, Rajasthan
Mohan Shrotirya, Eminent citizen
H. C. Bhartiya, Rajasthan Science Society
Anant Bhatnagar, PUCL, Rajasthan, Organising Secretary
DL Tripathi, Vice President, PUCL, Rajasthan
======================================
11. INDIA: LETTER BY 4000 INTELLECTUALS AGAINST REMOVAL OF A K RAMANUJAN’S ESSAY FROM COURSES OF DELHI UNIVERSITY
======================================
Dear Professor Dinesh Singh
We are forwarding a letter signed by more than 4000 intellectuals from all over the world protesting against the withdrawal of Professor Ramanujan’s celebrated essay ’Three Hundred Ramayanas’ from the reading list of one of the under graduate courses of Delhi University.
http://www.sacw.net/article2599.html
======================================
12. INDIA: PROTEST AND SOLIDARITY ACTIONS AGAINST CRACKDOWN ON ANTI NUCLEAR MOVEMENT RE KOODANKULAM PLANT
Statements by concerned citizens, people's parliament, CNDP and PUCL
======================================
(a) PRESS RELEASE
Seven Day Protest fast in Delhi in solidarity with fasting activists in Idinthakarai
NATIONWIDE PROTESTS IN SUPPORT OF ANTI-NUCLEAR STRUGGLE IN KOODANKULAM
March 26, New Delhi : National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM), Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP), Lok Rajniti Manch and Delhi Solidarity Group, is organising a protest and fast from today 26 March 2012 till 1st April 2012, at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, in solidarity with ongoing fast by activists of the anti-nuclear movement at Idinthakarai, Tamil Nadu against the Koodankulam nuclear power plant. NAPM National Convener and noted Social activist Sandeep Pandey is sitting on a seven day fast.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SAAN_/message/1505
(b) http://www.sacw.net/article2594.html
Against repression of a mass movement in Tamil Nadu - statement in solidarity with fellow citizens
sacw.net | 22 March 2012
In Solidarity
The state government of Tamil Nadu has finally succumbed to pressure by the Central government and decided to commission the operation of the two Russian built nuclear reactors in Koodankulam. It has carried out a major crackdown on the mass movement in and around Koodankulam in southern Tamil Nadu, outrageously slapping sedition charges — no less — on several people, and arresting close to 200 people in a pre-emptive show of intimidation and force.
Over the last six months in what has been the latest phase of a more than decade long struggle, tens of thousands of residents in and around Koodankulam have peacefully and non-violently demonstrated against the government’s nuclear power plans. They have demanded that their concerns over issues of safety, environmental hazards and procedural violations of the AERB (Atomic Energy Regulatory Board) be fully and properly addressed. That their livelihood and life concerns should have been so casually ignored by a government that has even resorted to allegations of ‘foreign manipulation’ of what is an indigenous mass movement is extremely disturbing.
We strongly condemn the repression launched against the people of Koodankulam and southern Tamil Nadu and demand that those arrested be immediately released. If a willingness to exercise one’s democratic right of protest in peaceful and non-violent ways, or to criticize the pursuit of nuclear energy, or even to oppose government plans in this regard is to be deemed seditious and warrants being arrested, then we the undersigned also declare ourselves to be as guilty as our fellow citizens in Tamil Nadu. We stand in solidarity with them. The government may please take note.
Admiral L. Ramdas (former Chief of the Indian Navy & Magsaysay Awardee)
Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat (former Chief of the Indian Navy)
Justice Rajender Sachar (former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court)
S.P. Shukla (former Finance Secretary, Government of India)
Romila Thapar (Professor Emeritus, Dept. of History, JNU)
Aruna Roy (Member, National Advisory Council and Magsaysay Awardee)
Medha Patkar (Social Activist)
Arundhati Roy (Writer)
Sandeep Pandey (Social Activist and Magsaysay Awardee)
Ramchandra Guha (Historian and Professor, London School of Economics)
Rammanohar Reddy (Editor, Economic and Political Weekly)
Justice P.B. Sawant (former Judge of Supreme Court)
Justice B.G. Kolse-Patil (former Judge of the Bombay High Court)
Binayak Sen (Member, Planning Commission)
Ilina Sen (Professor, MG International University, Wardha)
Lalita Ramdas (former Chairperson, Greenpeace International)
Praful Bidwai (Independent Journalist and Professor, Council for Social Development)
Jean Dreze (Professor, G B Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad)
Kamal Mitra Chenoy (Professor, School of International Studies, JNU)
Anuradha Chenoy, (Professor, School of International Studies, JNU)
Surendra Gadekar (Social Activist)
Vasanth Kannabiran, (Founder & Head, Asmita Resouce Centre for Women, Hyderabad)
Ritu Menon (Founder Publisher, Women Unlimited)
Pamela Philipose (Director, Women’s Feature Service)
Rohan D’Souza (Assistant Professor, Centre for Studies in Science Policy, JNU)
Darryl D’Monte (former Resident Editor, The Times of India)
Soumya Datta (Scientist & Activist)
Lawrence Surendra (Founder Director of the Asian Regional Exchange for New Alternatives, South Korea)
Achin Vanaik (Former Dean of Social Science, University of Delhi)
22 March 2012, New Delhi
o o o
(c) http://www.sacw.net/article2593.html
March 20, 2012
No to Government Crackdown at Koodankulam
The Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP), India strongly condemns the arrests and repression in and around Koodankulam of the activists involved in the entirely peaceful and non-violent mass agitation against the installation of two Russian built nuclear reactors. That the Tamil Nadu government has decided to collude with the Central government is deeply disappointing and will destroy the hopes that were held by the people of southern Tamil Nadu that the state government would respect their democratic rights and their concerns.
Earlier the Centre made untenable allegations of foreign funding against a longstanding peoples’ movement that is based on genuine fears concerning the safety and environmental hazards of nuclear power. It is now clear that those allegations as well as the revocation of a visa to a Fukushima survivor to visit India was done with the purpose of not only seeking to divert attention away from the strong need for a prolonged public debate on the pros and cons on nuclear energy towards a discourse of ‘foreign conspiracies’, but also to lay the grounds for physically repressing and assaulting an indigenous mass movement in order to assuage the concerns of foreign suppliers of nuclear power equipment and materials.
Not only is such anti-democratic behaviour deeply shocking, it is also extraordinary that this should happen at a time when over 80% of the Japanese public have repudiated nuclear energy demanding that their country’s nuclear plants be completely phased out, and when an official German Ethics Commission on Nuclear Safety said “Fukushima has shaken people’s confidence in expert’s assessments of the ‘safety’ of nuclear power stations. This is also and particularly true of those citizens who have until now relied on such assessments. Even citizens who do not reject nuclear power categorically are no longer prepared to leave it to committees of experts to decide how to deal with the fundamental possibility of an uncontrollable, major accident.”
The CNDP demands that those arrested be immediately released and that
a) before any commissioning of reactors takes place, the ‘Expert Committee’ set up by the Tamil Nadu government, which has so far refused to even meet the public or their representatives and experts, do so and fully address to their satisfaction their concerns and questions.
b) That the Central government, in the light of the worldwide disillusionment with nuclear energy, put a moratorium on all nuclear power plans, until a full and proper public debate without any intimidation on its part is carried out on the pros and cons of nuclear energy in India.
For CNDP
Achin Vanaik
Anil Chaudhary
Amarjeet Kaur
Admiral L. Ramdas
Lalita Ramdas
Praful Bidwai
P K Sundaram
Sukla Sen
o o o
(d) PEOPLE'S UNION FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES - TAMIL NADU AND PUDUCHERRY
Hussaina Manzil, III Floor, 255 (old No. 123) Angappa Naicken Street, Chennai 600 001.
Phone: 91-44- 25352459
President: Dr. V. Suresh
94442-31497
General Secretary: S. Balamurugan
94432-13501
19 March 2012
PUCL CONDEMNS THE UNPROVOKED ARRESTS OF THE ANTI-KKNPP ACTIVISTS
Sir/Madam,
PUCL, TAMIL NADU-PUDUCHERRY strongly condemns the arbitrary and illegal exercise of police repression by the Tamil Nadu State Government against peacefully demonstrating local protestors in Koodankulam today, 19.3.2012. What exposes the deceitful move of the State Government is the fact that the State Government which had been conducting discussions with the protesting villagers, did not even bother to inform the public about its final decision ; while so, the Tamil Nadu State Government moved in more than 5,000 armed police early this morning encircling Idinthakrai and neighbouring villages. The operation resembled a military action of `encirclement and suppression’ and was wholly an unnecessary show of police might against peaceful, unarmed demonstrators.
The Police action against idinthakrai villagers resembles the Jalianwalabagh incident and raises concern about the true intention of the State Government’s action coming immediately after the Sankarankovil bye-elections. The least the State Government could have done is to take the Koodankulam and Idinthakarai villagers into confidence and engage in democratic discussions. Such Police action is wholly unwarranted and is meant to intimidate local villagers and citizens.
We condemn the State Government’s dishonest police crackdown as an act of democratic betrayal without parallel.
We condemn the illegal arrest of villagers as also the arrest of Sivasubramaniam, Advocate and Rajalingam at the struggle committee office which was set up near the plant with the concurrence and approval of the District Collector and the State government aothers. PUCL demands immediate and unconditional release of all arrested villagers. PUCL also demands immediate withdrawal of Police force from the area. PUCL also calls upon the state government to resume dialogue with the villagers and desist from using force and unleashing repression.
With Regards,
(Dr. V. Suresh) National Secretary.
(e) New Delhi, 20 March 2012 Jan Sansad Resolution on Kudankulam Police Action
http://sacip.blogspot.in/2012/03/new-delhi-20-march-2012-jan-sansad.html
(f) National Fishworkers’ Forum’s (NFF) open letter to the Prime Minister on the Koodankulam Nuclear Plant
http://www.sacw.net/article2598.html
(g) SEE ALSO: http://www.dianuke.org/koodankulam-occupy-pictures/
======================================
13. INDIA - CHHATTISGARH: RETURN THESE GIRLS TO US, MR RAMAN SINGH
======================================
Their names are Madkam Hungi and Veko Bajare. Hungi is 12 years old, and Bajare 22 years. Village of residence: Nendra, District Sukama (old name district Dantewada). Nendra was one of the several adivasi villages burnt under your Empty the Villages campaign (which you christened ’Salwa Judum’ and under the guise of a peace campaign which was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court). Four girls from this village disappeared during this campaign.
http://www.sacw.net/article2600.html
======================================
14. INDIA: VIOLENT POLITICS OF HINDUTVA - RSS CHIEF’S SPEECH AT THE BHONSALA MILITARY SCHOOL
======================================
MILITARY MEDIUM FOR THE PARIVAR
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s speech at the Bhonsala Military School, calling for a more militant Hinduism, smacks of an ideology crisis in the Sangh, says Rana Ayyub
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main52.asp?filename=Ne240312Military.asp
======================================
15. INDIA: DEFENCE SPENDING VS SOCIAL SPENDING
======================================
DEFENCE BUDGET RISES BY 17.6 PERCENT
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/defence-budget-hiked-by-17.6-pc/924712/
FUNDS SLASHED FOR FLAGSHIP PROGRAMME MGNREGA
by K. Balchand
The budget focuses on rural development with a moderate hike in allocation, but the government has downsized in a big way the importance of its flagship programme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), on which it reportedly galloped to power in 2009.
For the scheme entitling jobs to below poverty line (BPL) households in rural areas, the allocation has been reduced by 17.5 per cent to only Rs. 33,000 crore in the next financial year from Rs. 40,000 crore in 2011-12.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article3003335.ece
TO FIX BPL, NIX CPL
by P. Sainath
To get the Below Poverty Line figures in perspective, we need to closely monitor the numbers driving the Corporate Plunder Line.
One Tendulkar makes the big scores. The other wrecks the averages. The Planning Commission clearly prefers Suresh to Sachin. Using Professor Tendulkar's methodology, it declares that there's been another massive fall in poverty. Yes, another (“more dramatic in the rural areas”). “Record Fall in Poverty” reads one headline. The record is in how many times you've seen the same headline over the years. And how many times poverty has collapsed, only to bounce back when the math is done differently.
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/sainath/article3223573.ece
INTERNATIONAL
======================================
16. WOMEN SAY NO WAR ON IRAN - AN APPEAL FROM ALICE WALKER, EVE ENSLER AND GLORIA STEINEM
======================================
CodePink
March 22, 2012
https://codepink.salsalabs.com/o/424/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=7107
Dear Friend,
Before the U.S. military attacked Iraq, I joined many activists, writers and artists in signing a call opposing a preemptive military invasion of Iraq. We feared such a war would increase human suffering, arouse animosity toward our country, damage the economy and undermine our moral standing in the world. Our fears turned out to be right.
Once again, we are calling on people around the country to stop another devastating war, this time on Iran. We are especially calling on women, not to add a burden, but because, as we've seen from Ireland to Liberia, women often have a peacemaking advantage: we're less likely to be raised with the culturally "masculine" idea that dominance and violence are inevitable. Let's hope that this time, our government listens.
Please join us as we call on three powerful American women who can make a difference -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Ambassador Susan Rice and First Lady Michelle Obama
-- and as we take on this responsibility ourselves.
Sign this petition today - join the thousands who have
signed on and make your voice heard.
http://codepink.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=nacs%2FQD9RHXj3knTeKqT1upXaJWZZ7QL
If you've already signed, please share it with your friends.
Tweet it.
http://codepink.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=MfxwvUfKge8f4qr2TtlNK%2BpXaJWZZ7QL
Post it to your facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fj.mp%2FGAxy0I
Wear a Peace with Iran tee.
http://codepink.myshopify.com/products/peace-with-iran-arabic-fitted-unisex-tee
with friendship -- and hope,
Gloria Steinem
PS: This petition is being organized by CODEPINK in
solidarity with Iranian and Israeli women. Please sign
today.
====
American women rise up for diplomacy not war!
Will you join Iranian, Israeli and Palestinian women to oppose war on Iran?
Join Alice Walker, Eve Ensler, and Gloria Steinem and please sign now below.
This petition will be delivered to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, and First Lady Michelle Obama.
We, American women and our allies, join with
Iranian, Israeli and Palestinian women to oppose the
inflammatory rhetoric of war and the recently
publicized plan of the Israeli government to attack
Iran. Such an assault is not likely to stop the
Iranian nuclear plan, but is likely to lead to
regional war, loss of human life and long-term
environmental damage.
On moral and economic grounds, we also oppose any US
intervention to support an Israeli attack on Iran.
Economically, we can't afford another war - and the
escalating oil prices - during the worst economic
downturn since the Great Depression. Morally, we
need only look at the devastation from the Iraq War,
which left thousands of Americans and hundreds of
thousands of Iraqis dead. We cannot repeat this
tragic mistake.
We cry out for diplomacy, not bombing, to ensure
security and peace. We join the brave call started
by Iranian women and say no to war.
Sign this petition today - join the thousands who have
signed on and make your voice heard.
http://codepink.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=nacs%2FQD9RHXj3knTeKqT1upXaJWZZ7QL
======================================
17. THE THIRD REPUBLIC OF MOVEMENTS
======================================
www.alternativacomune.eu
CONSIDERATIONS ON THE ALTERNATIVE AND THE CONSTITUENT CONFLICT
by Francesco Brancaccio, Alberto De Nicola, Francesco Raparelli
Following the events of October 15th the main challenge the Movement faces is to avoid being pressed in the grip of simplification and strict dichotomy, and at the same time to preserve its open and varied nature. We believe this risk has been outlined better than elsewhere in the editorial by Piero Ostellino published by Corriere della Sera. Ostellino uses the riots that took place during the demonstration to worn that there is no possibility of transforming the present beyond the choice between civil war or respectful reform of representative democracy and of the capitalist market rules.
Tertium non datur. Even radical conflict, when it comes onto the scene, is bound to follow one of these two paths sooner or later, leaving behind any ambition to modify social relations.
Moving from this premise we believe that it is of crucial importance today, more that in the past, to explore in depth the concept of the political category going under the name of “alternative”, since this is what should occupy the position excluded from the game in Ostellino’s view. This imperative is easily understood: the historic phase we are experiencing is marked by the structural crisis of Neo-liberal capitalism, involving the foundations of the social and economic system as well as the institutional system, established in these past thirty years. This crisis is accompanied by a widespread awareness that it is not possible for anyone to turn back anymore. Discussion about the alternative is compulsory if we wish to seriously acknowledge the radical nature of this historic moment. This imperative is also, and this must be clear, very ambiguous: in fact the political category of the alternative summarizes a variety of meanings and different options, all potentially diverging.
1. The statue of revolt
An assumption we find useful to start from point is found in Fausto Bertinotti’s articles in Manifesto: the political and institutional dimension is currently locked into an enclosure with no way out. Within this enclosure, the direct expression of the financial governance (evident in the letters to the Italian government from the ECB), no truly alternative government practice is possible. Least of all is it possible the resort, way past the deadline, to political options attempting the rehabilitation of representative democracy, which has been in crisis for a long time and is currently forced to face the terminal phase of its decline. Only a “revolt”, if it were capable of breaking the scene of compatibility, would produce a rethinking of politics itself.
This view, which we mostly share, does however require a few specifications. The first one being, at the origin, that the condition imposed by the financial governance by holding hostage the governments is not in the least reducible to a “field invasion” in the political sphere. It is if anything the expression and the counterpart of the interpenetration of financial economy and real finance that has redefined the forms of capital accumulation. The pervasive influence of finance (both on an economic scale as well as on a political one) is the result of a crisis (much previous to the current one) regarding the inability on the one hand to exploit productive forces undergoing radical change, and on the other to govern populations that have proved, over time, the inadequacy of the forms of organization and regulation of power. What is hastily called the “dominance of finance” is in fact a new form of withdrawal (of wealth and of decision power) operating on unprecedented forms of existence, all the more authoritarian as the old social organizational schemes reveal their inability to organize and command lives. This means that the crisis, both economic and political, is not at all the expression of an exceptional state, but is in fact the short-circuit within the new order, solidified long ago.
This first specification is closely linked to another one, downstream as to say, regarding the statue of revolt. If it’s true that the crisis is deep rooted and involves the transformation of the forms of capital accumulation and government, the role attribute to the “revolt” cannot be limited merely to a function of de-structuring, be it the de-structuring of the political and economical enclosure. We do not intend to attribute such thoughts to the former President of the Chamber of Deputies, but we are however interested in exposing one of the possible interpretations of his thought. This wrong interpretation could be schematically summarized as follows: only revolt, by breaking the compatibility that is tying down the functions of government, can reactivate sovereignty and with it the legitimacy of political and social representation. We consider this interpretation disputable and inadequate as it cannot account for the nature of the new social movements.
In the same way, we consider the insurrectionist rhetoric spreading on the web in these days to be inadequate. In fact, this type of logic moves from an oversimplified reading of the current situation, according to which the increase of intensity of the crisis extends the sphere of the social rage, which in turn tends to be expressed in a symmetric “hand to hand fight” with the state: the variety of forms of conflict are reduced to this single image of civil war. The generic and undifferentiated idea of revolt as an “outburst” strangely becomes, in both cases, the key passage behind the blind interruption of sovereign order and its “rehabilitation” at the same time. Both these readings, although deriving from opposite points of view, seem to share the same “myth of the State” that Foucault already conveniently dissolved by focusing the attention on the reality of government. In other words, even though this may appear as a paradox, what reunites these readings so different from each other is the idea that revolts are to be interpreted as the expression of an essentially revoking power.
A line of reasoning about the political category of the alternative should instead begin from the opposite assumption, from the acknowledgement of the constituent nature of social turmoil. This constituent nature, institutional and regulatory, is clearly visible in movement experiences ranging from Spain to Iceland (the later a case in which the democratic claim to refuse-renegotiate the default develops into a constituent rule), to the fights of workers in the entertainment rewriting the statue of an occupied theatre, and of university students launching a process of auto-reform of the university, to the extraordinary experience of the Italian referendum last June. These and other experiences yet describe a precise need for change that aims at braking the same two phase old politics that attributes an essentially negative and defensive function to conflict and assigns the mandate to translate demands coming from below to representative politics. Setting the political discourse on the level of the alternative has no other meaning than to question the exhaustion of this “double timing”, enabling us to convey the creation of experiences of revolt and effective balance of power within a trajectory of transformation.
2. The movement and the Italian transition
Now, we need to set these premises in the context of the so called “Italian anomaly”. In fact in Italy we face a complex but nevertheless exciting challenge: we are witnessing negotiations and attempts to form political alliances with the aim to reconstruct the political scene and secure the passage to the Third Republic, eliminating precisely the constituent force that springs from movements. Aside from the shape it will take, this picture will be built on the same premises (technical government, coalition government, Nuovo Ulivo, assuming there are differences between them): commitment to pay the debt, the balanced budget constitutional amendment, a model of social pact that follows the guidelines set by the agreement between Confindustria and the unions signed on June 28, implementation of the austerity measures and privatization of public goods, as dictated by the main financial institutions. If this picture is not pre-emptively questioned, any participation by the movements, even when positive, is destined to fail bitterly.
Nevertheless, we mustn’t abandon this level, however difficult it may be: we must strive to understand how the social movements can fit in the transition. In our opinion there are two fronts that must be open to debate.
The first front regards the current transformation of the Welfare State. It is not enough to note that the austerity policies are contributing to its dismantlement. It is much more interesting to begin with the idea that welfare today is in a totally different relationship with the production system than it was historically at the time of its creation. Some economists (among them Boyer, Marazzi and Vercellone) have applied the term “anthropogenetic model” to an emerging economic system based more and more on services centred around production by man for man, such as healthcare, education, culture, security and so on. If we accept this hypothetical model, which is confirmed by the centrality these sectors have in determining growth, it is immediately clear that the current transformation of welfare does not regard sectors “close to” the productive processes, but defines these sectors as absolutely central. The modification and privatization of welfare is in other terms the grounds for revitalizing capital accumulation. The attention with which the financial markets are dealing with this is no coincidence. Transformation of the welfare system is a result of an accelerated break-up of the so-called wage-based society on the one hand (unpaid work, private debt, the precarious nature of employment are a clear example of this, and have been so for some time), and on the other of the interruption of public funding which is determining the crisis of the public sector (hospitals, universities and schools, cultural sites). Movements seem to have understood this tendency very well, so much that their action is focusing not only on the claim for guaranteed income not linked to employment wages, but is also focusing, at a deeper level, on the democratic repossession of those public institutions. We have previously listed a few examples: all that needs to be said about these struggles is that while defending what has been brought to its knees by austerity policies, they are re-writing the managerial practices in the places they occupy, re-defining the nature of the subjects taking part in the production of public services, increasing and socializing access to them, and promoting a new form of common property, an alternative to privatisation as much as to the old state management. Starting from these local experiences that we believe will continue to prosper, we can start to imagine a Federation of new social institutions.
We think it is crucially important to revive thought and debate on a new post-State federalism, not to be interpreted as a model or form of government, but on the contrary as a horizontal and open process, resulting from pacts capable of involving a plurality of powers, subjects and institutions with a constituent potential ab origine. A form of federalism, to say it in the words of Luciano Ferrari Bravo, conceived as a concentration of non centralized power, cutting across transversally and recombining territorial and social dimensions. Within the Italian context, this topic is an urgent and relevant one in any serious discussion about the alternative, unless federalism is to be considered achieved with the reform of the Title V of the Constitution, or even worse, with the current debate on fiscal federalism. The sphere of local authority, strangled in the grip of government funding cuts, is a good candidate for a first significant passage.
3. A Constitution for the next twenty years
Secondly, we must realistically acknowledge that the next step towards the Third Republic is already marked by an actual constitutional transition. The introduction of the balanced budget “golden rule” in the Constitution, along with the reform of the articles regulating free enterprise, describe a regressive process that affects its substance. The Italian economic constitution will be profoundly changed by this process. Why not enter the process of transition overturning its course?
We are addressing this issue in spite of our awareness concerning the crisis of the democratic constitutions, be they mere interfaces mediating between State and society, or, more materially, the result of a compromise between political, economic and social subjects (the Welfare State). This crisis, like every crisis, has most certainly not produced a void. New institutonalism currents of thought within the field of legal science have observed for some time now that the crisis has been accompanied by the emergence of new constitutional devices, fragmenting and surpassing the state-nation perimeter, and blurring the line that used to separate public from private law. On these premises, a level of discourse that does not directly involve the European and international dimension is clearly unsatisfactory.
Ultimately, we are aware that in Italy the debate around transition has mostly been misleading: the leitmotif of the so-called institutional reforms that has characterized the political debate in our country for the past twenty years, has been used to deny any possible re-opening of a true constituent process at the roots. We are stuck half way: the First Republic seems to have never really ended, and the Second to have never taken shape, if not in a distorted and deviated way. In substance the term transition has been used to block the possibility of real transformation.
This is why we believe that the legitimate and sharable effort to defend the 1948 Constitution is, in this picture, a very weak prospect. If movements today present an institutional and regulatory nature active outside of the known track of representation, it is also true that conflict must create a political process with the aim to acknowledge and elaborate, and not to recover, the decline of political party forms, working in the direction of an institutional restructuring. It is necessary to start with the idea that the material constitution has by now radically changed, with the appearance of new social subjects insisting on a common level which is already political. In the same way, a new Constitution, which would preserve the most advanced aspects in the previous one, could represent the highest meeting point for the re-composition of the multiple demands brought forth by present and future struggles. We intend a new Constitution as lever for the beginning of a political process, not as its final result, and not merely as a formal and procedural matter (maintaining the openness of the political and legal dimension tracing the distinction between constituent power and constitution itself.)
The hegemonic nature of the manifesto contained in the expression Common Goods, ratified by the referendum victory, should be the infrastructure of this new Constituent. During the French Revolution, article 28 in the 1793 Constitution, which was never applied, read: “A people has the right to review, reform and change its Constitution. A generation can not subject future generations to its laws”. A few years before, in the United States, Thomas Jefferson, in opposing the proposal for re-election of the Union’s President, expressed the hope that the Constitution be completely revised ‘every twenty years’. In renewing this ‘constituent tension’, we believe that debate on the alternative must be faced, as this is the demand being voiced by the Indignant protests worldwide.
[Traduzione a cura di Sarah Gainsforth]
26 ottobre, 2011
=====================================
18. ANNOUNCEMENTS:
=====================================
(1) Conference - India – Pakistan Civil Society Review of Strategic Relations
29 – 31 March 2012
Convention Hall, India Islamic Cultural Center, 87 – 88, Lodhi Road, New Delhi, India
Governments have placed India and Pakistan relations on a see-saw, swinging to concerns other than the need for peace and stability in the region.
Civil society attempts to keep relations on an even keel, have for the most part, remained focused on peace building, with strategic issues left largely to the governments of both countries to resolve. Given the suspicions and distrust, forward movement on this has been at best lethargic calling for a civil society review of progress made on important issues determining relations between the two countries.
As part of its larger program on India and Pakistan, the Centre for Policy Analysis in collaboration with the Heinrich Boll Foundation and Focus on the Global South, is organizing a three day Conference from March 29-31, 2012 in New Delhi to facilitate a civil society review of some major issues such as Afghanistan, Kashmir, Terrorism, Nuclear, Water. We have left out a special session on Economy, although the issue will definitely come up in the discussions, for the purpose of this Conference as there is already a vibrant and healthy dialogue going on between the business communities of India and Pakistan.
Strategic experts from India, Pakistan and Afghanistan will discuss the strategic issues of concern over a period of two days, with active participation from the floor. A political session addressed by key political leaders from India will conclude the Conference on the third day.
The Conference will attempt to put together a consensus reflecting the sense of the House on the issues of strategic importance and make specific recommendations to governments of both India and Pakistan to ground relations in an institutional and meaningful dialogue, with specific time bound actions to move ahead.
Programme Schedule: (Tentative)
Day 1: Thursday, 29 March 2012
9:30 am Registration and Tea
10:00 – 11:00 am Opening Session
Speakers:
· Mani Shankar Aiyar, Former Minister and Congress Leader, India
· Aitzaz Ahsan, Pakistani Lawmaker, Barrister and Senior Leader of the Pakistan People’s Party
Chair:
· S.P.Shukla, Former Finance Secretary,Trustee, CPA
11:00 – 11:15 am Tea
11:15 am – 1:15 pm Strategic Ties: An Overview
Speakers:
· Talat Masood, Retired General and Defence and Political Analyst, Pakistan.
· Satish Nambiar, Former Deputy Chief of Army Staff, Expert on UN Peace keeping Operations, National Security, India.
· Najmuddin Shaikh, Former Foreign Secretary, Pakistan
· Rajiv Sikri, Former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, India
· Ayesha Siddiqa, Military Analyst and Commentator, Author, Pakistan
Chair:
· Muchkund Dubey, Former Foreign Secretary, India
1:15 – 2:00 pm Lunch
2:00 – 3:30 pm Water (Interactive Session)
Speakers:
· Ramaswamy R. Iyer, Former Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources, India
· Dr. Arshad Hameed Abbasi, Water and Energy Expert, Pakistan
· Salman Haider, Former Foreign Secretary
Chair:
· Dr. Axel Harneit-Sievers, Country Director of Heinrich Böll Foundation – India
3:30 – 3:45 pm Tea
3:45 – 6:00 pm Afghanistan (Interactive Session)
Speakers:
· Rahimullah Yusufzai, Senior Journalist and Analyst, Pakistan
· Maseeh Rehman, Senior Journalist and Analyst, India
· Waliullah Rahmani, Kabul Strategic Centre, Afghanistan
Chair:
· Neera Chandhoke, Professor, University of Delhi
Day 2: Friday, 30 March 2012
9:30 – 11:15 am Kashmir (Interactive Session)
Speakers:
· Siddiq Wahid, Former Vice Chancellor, Islamic University, Jammu and Kashmir
· Ejaz Haider, Executive Director, Jinnah Institute
· Wajahat Habibullah, Chairman, Minorities Commission, India
· Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Chairman, All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Jammu and Kashmir
Chair:
· Seema Mustafa, Journalist and Director, CPA
11:15 – 11:30 am Tea
11:30 am – 12:45 pm Terrorism (Interactive Session)
Speakers:
· Najmuddin Shaikh, Former Foreign Secretary, Pakistan
· E N Rammohan, Former Chief of the Border Security Force, India
· Pervez Hoodbhoy, Professor of Nuclear and High-Energy Physics, Analyst, Pakistan
Chair:
· Deepak Nayyar, Economist and Former Vice Chancellor, Delhi University, Trustee CPA
12:45 – 1:30 pm Lunch
1:30 – 3:00 pm Nuclear (Interactive Session)
Speakers:
· AH Nayyar, Physicist, Pakistan
· Satish Chandra, Former Deputy National Security Advisor, India
· Pervez Hoodbhoy, Professor of Nuclear and High-Energy Physics, Pakistan
Chair:
· Achin Vanaik, Nuclear Expert and Author
3:00 – 3:15 pm Tea
3:15 – 5:30 pm Military and Others CBM’S
(Interactive Session)
Speakers:
· Talat Masood, Retired Army General, Pakistan
· Salman Haider, Foreign Secretary, India
· Ayesha Siddiqa, Author and Military Analyst, Pakistan
· Ejaz Haider, Executive Director, Jinnah Institute
Chair:
· Anuradha Chenoy, Professor, JNU, Trustee, CPA.
Day 3: Saturday, 31 March 2012
10:00 – 12:00 Noon Political Session: The Way Forward
Speakers:
· Aitzaz Ahsan, Pakistani Lawmaker, Barrister
· Prakash Karat, General Secretary, CPI (M)
· Engineer Rashid, MLA, Jammu and Kashmir
· Ram Vilas Paswan, President, Lok Janshakti Party
· Shahid Siddiqui, Samajwadi Party
+++++++++
(2.) CHARITY ART EXHIBIT ON CONTEMPORARY ART IN AID OF CITIZENS FOR JUSTICE AND PEACE (Bombay, 5-9 April 2012)
http://www.cjponline.org/afh/
+++++++++
(3.) INVITATION
4th NATIONAL CONFERENCE NATIONAL FORUM OF FOREST PEOPLE AND FOREST WORKERS, (N.F.F.P.F.W.)
26-28, MAY 2012
DEHRADUN, UTTARAKHAND
Dear Friends,
It is our great pleasure to invite you to the 4th National conference of National Forum of Forest People and Forest Workers to be held on 26-28 May 2012 in Dehradun Uttarakhand. Delegates from constituent groups/organizations and fraternal organizations from 20 states, representing more than 50 forest regions will participate in the conference.
On 26th May, a one day public hearing will be organized on the issue of "National Parks and Forest Rights Act”. Formal proceeding of the organizational conference will start after the Public Hearing. As you may be aware that Forest right movement today is passing through a critical phase. This is also very challenging period which will decide the fate of forest people and that of the forest in India i.e. whether the forest and forest people should remain under the domain of Indian state which is under seize of big corporations, under the neo-liberal regime or should it be within a democratic framework under a system of people's governance. With the passing of the legislation on Forest Rights Act (FRA), the forest based working communities have come under increasing attack from the forest bureaucracy supported by mafias, local feudal and vested interests (including illegal mining contractors) in a very organized manner across the country. This attack is also supported by the dominant political class. This has given rise to significant growth of resistance movements against such attack across the country. This resistance movement in some areas has grown in developing alternatives against the present dominant regime. There is a direct conflict of interests between the communities and the Indian State on the issue of forest governance. It is also evident that political consciousness of struggling people has grown unprecedentedly manifesting in newer methods of resistance and in creating alternatives for the protection of resources and that of livelihood and also for the future organizational process. Such struggles are going on in Kaimur region of UP, Bihar, Jharkhand and Chattisgarh, Rewa, Lakhimpur Khiri UP Assam, Himanchal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Javari hills Tamil Nadu. Along with this strong resistance movements are going on in Odisha, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Another significant process that has been started independently by women groups to attain their forest rights with the formation of “women forest rights action committee". Along with this the movement of fish workers struggle, tribal struggle against illegal mining and peasant movements against SEZ and land acquisition are creating new political space against the neo-liberal regime.
NFFPFW recognizes this historic process and resolves to take appropriate action plan to strengthen the organizational process so that it can provide a sustainable political leadership to forest rights movement through a dynamic process. Such a situation has also necessitated basic changes in structure of organization building as new forces are emerging in creating new form of leadership especially among the women and youth. This phenomenon is urgently needed to be consciously incorporated in the organizational building process. The present political challenges demand some major changes in the organizational process also. The emerging consciousness of the community leadership must be reflected in the organizational structure, so that the movement and the leadership correspond to each other realistically. Symbolic community leadership will not be effective. The leadership which has grown in the struggle process needs to be brought in the forefront. Self strengthening of the emerging new leadership from the communities and especially that of women and young groups has to be strengthened in the organizational process. In this context the national conference of NFFPFW will emphasize on these key issues:
1. Setting the political agenda for the collective struggle by the natural resource based traditional working people against the neo-liberal regime.
2. Strengthening the self strengthening process of community leadership in the forest rights movement and also in the organization process to create an alternative forest governance system under the community leadership across the country.
3. Strengthening of women leadership at all levels in the movement and in
the organization from local to national level.
4. Propagating and strengthening the collective process of production and reproduction of natural resources i.e. forestry, agriculture, fisheries and mining.
5. Strategic alliance building with other natural resource based working people’s organizations focusing on vulnerable areas and with the workers' movements.
These serious political and organizational issues in regards to forest right movement needs to be discussed within the organization and it is equally important to discuss all such issues with the fraternal organizations who are working in the field of natural resources and with the working people in general. As you may be aware that on 15 December 2011 a mass protest rally on forest rights was held before the Parliament and this was followed by the formation of “Federation of Natural Resource Based Traditional Working People" in the founding convention held on 16 December 2011 at Mavlankar Hall, New Delhi. The strengthening of Federation will be a crucial issue for discussion in the national conference of NFFPFW. The national committee has taken a decision to involve fraternal organizations and other alliance organizations in future programmes so that formation of a wider alliance of the working people could be developed. An organizing committee for the fourth conference of NFFPFW has been formed with representation from all the struggling areas that also needs to be expanded with the consent of other comrades.
In this context, we understand that your participation will be very crucial in this conference. We cordially invite you to participate in this conference and help the process to take forward in facing the challenges of neo-liberal regime attacking our natural resources. We will appreciate an early confirmation from your end.
The details of venue will be followed in the next letter. Kindly block your dates in advance.
In Solidarity,
On behalf of Organizing Committee,
Gautam Bandhopadhaya ( M.P/ Chhatisgarh), Munnilal, Ganga Arya ( Uttarakhand), Matadyal, Rani ( M.P and Bundelkhand UP), Rajnish, Shanta
Bhattaracharjee, Roma, Ashok Chowdhury, Ramchandra Rana, Ramesh Shukla, Nathu kol, Rajkumari Bhuiya (Uttar Pradesh), K.Krishnan, Amni (Tamil Nadu),
Guman singh (Himachal Pradesh), Sushovan Dhar (West Bengal), Kishore Thapa, Shiva Sonwar (Gorkhaland), Vijay Jena (Odisha), Sarang Dhabekar (Maharashtra), Roy David (Karnataka), Sanichar Agaria, Vasavi Kiro (Jharkhand), Mamta Kujur (Chattisgarh), Vedanta, Mridula (Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti, Assam).
Dehradun is the capital city of state of Uttarakhand. 65% of the state is forest area and there have been many historic forest right movements in different regions of Uttarakhand during the colonial period and also in Indipendent India.
Approach to Dehradun via Road, Air and Train route: Dehradun is well connected by railway from Chennai, Trivandram, Vijaywada, Nagpur, Itarsi, Bhopal, Jhansi, Gaya, Agra, Delhi, Haridwar, Lucknow, Howrah, Mumbai, Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Indor, Ujjain, Kota. Nearest major railway junction is Saharanpur.There are regular bus connection from Delhi(Anand Vihar I.S.B.T) and two daily flights from delhi. Since May will be tourist season for the hills we would request you to book your ticket at the earliest.
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
South Asia Citizens Wire
Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), on
matters of peace and democratisation in South
Asia. Newsletter 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