South Asia Citizens Wire | 22 June, 2005 [1] Pakistan: - Lahore -- a Muslim city! (Ishtiaq Ahmed) - Obscene questionnaire or image problem again? (Editorial Daily Times) [2] Bangladesh: Government Fails to Act Against Religious Violence (HRW) [3] India - Gujarat : - Riot victims file suit to make VHP BJP pay damages (Tarunabh Khaitan) - 'In Right Measure' (Editorial, The Telegraph) [4] India: Untoo, the police and the press (Mukul Dube) [5] India: No rain, but `snow' and water parks (P. Sainath) [6] India - "The sounds of '[D]angey Mataram' ", directed by Madhya Pradesh's BJP Govt - Assembly Time (Editorial, The Hindu)
______ [1] Daily Times June 21, 2005 LAHORE -- A MUSLIM CITY! by Ishtiaq Ahmed If the obsession for confessional purity is allowed to keep eliminating all anomalies, the Shia-Sunni divide might prove fatal to the 'homogeneity' of Lahore and Punjab. As long as the people of Lahore remain peaceful and perform their civic duties they should be left to practise their distinctive beliefs and thus add to the richness of its cultural life The most dramatic change in Lahore's cultural personality in 1947 was that after August 14 it became an essentially Muslim city. Almost all the Hindus and Sikhs left and it received refugees from East Punjab, especially Amritsar but also Jullandhar and Ludhiana, and some from the Urdu-speaking areas of northern India and Hyderabad Deccan. In the subsequent decades, the city has expanded in all directions and new residents have continued to arrive from various parts of the Pakistani Punjab. Many old Lahoris whose roots predate the founding of Pakistan, complain that their sophisticated city and its relaxed lifestyle have been gradually subverted by the boorish and clumsy manners of these nouveau riche, especially since large number of villagers and small town dwellers, after making a fortune as migrant workers in the Persian Gulf region or in other parts of the world, have settled in the new localities on the outskirts of the city. Thus demographic change has continued unabated and from a petite city of around 700,000 in 1947, Lahore is now home to more than six million people. I remember that Lahore of the mid-1950s and the 1960s was a very dainty city. St Anthony's High School at Lawrence Road, where I studied, was a very popular place. The Mall, the Lawrence Gardens and the various restaurants made our city a most lively place. During the 1965 war with India, Lahore was in a very exposed position and the booming of guns and deafening sounds of supersonic air force planes breaking the sound barrier created a new sort of excitement. The next important period in Lahore's history was the 1968 mass movement to oust Field Marshall Mohammad Ayub Khan from power. That was followed soon by the meteoric rise of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on the political horizon of Pakistan. Bhutto quickly won the sympathy and admiration of the people of Lahore and every time he was in town mammoth crowds gathered to listen to him or participate in the marches arranged by his Pakistan People's Party. The anti-climax to his popularity came in December 1972 when workers took over various factories all over Pakistan. He unleashed considerable repression and the workers were forced to run for safety. At that moment, he decided to elbow out the leftists in his party and welcome the landowners. The coming into power of General Muhammad Zia ul Haq in 1977, by overthrowing ZA Bhutto, changed the character of Pakistan from a Muslim state with some liberal graces into an Islamic state distinguishable by its obscurantism. This meant that a deliberately dogmatic Islamic identity had to be fostered on Pakistan and indeed on Lahore. A cousin of mine tells the story that a friend of his who was a programme producer at the Lahore unit of the Pakistan Television was summoned by the military administrator of Lahore in the early stages of General Zia ul Haq's takeover of power. He was ordered to prepare a script for a television programme on the history of Lahore. Some days later, he returned with an outline. Not surprisingly he had begun the history of Lahore with the legendary origin of its name associated with Lav/Loh, son of Rama. The colonel listening to the script became livid with rage and demanded the deletion of any such reference. Instead the story of Lahore was to begin with the arrival in Lahore in 1039 of the Sufi-saint Data Ganj Baksh from Afghanistan along with the army of Masud of Ghazni. Did Lahore transform into a homogeneous city (by implication one that is free of fissures and deep cleavages) when the non-Muslims left? Indeed no comparable slaughter of citizens has taken place in Lahore after 1947, but in 1953 a virulent anti-Ahmadiyya agitation broke out in Lahore. Some Muslim League leaders masterminded it. There was considerable loss of life and property. The same Ahmadiyya community had played an active role in the promotion of the Pakistan demand in 1947 and the Muslim League had counted it among the Muslims. In 1974 they were found to be holding beliefs contrary to the teachings of Islam and declared a religious minority by the National Assembly. Earlier in 1972 my alma mater, Forman Christian College, was nationalised along with some other colleges in the Punjab, which were under the control and management of Christian missions. Mission-run schools were not nationalised. This was indicative of a populist and erratic policy of nationalisation represented by the Pakistan People's Party. From what I have heard the nationalisation ruined the best teaching institutions in our province, which the Christians had been running so successfully. The tiny Christian community protested and pleaded but was ignored. The eviction of Christian staff from FC College by the police and other authorities was carried out in a most brutish manner. It is to the great credit of the present government that the management of FC College has been returned to the Presbyterian Mission and it has been raised to the level of a university. >From the late 1980s onwards, the tranquillity between the Sunni and Shia communities of Lahore was undermined by terrorism. Behind the Shia-Sunni terrorism was the international rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia to dominate the Muslim world. It resulted in proxy wars between their protégés all over the Middle East and Pakistan. Lahore became an arena for sectarian killings. Sectarian militias began to engage in recurrent and protracted terrorism in Lahore. They did not hesitate to kill people belonging to the other sect even if they were praying or mourning death. Desecration of each other's mosques, graveyards and such other places peaked during the 1990s. If the obsession for confessional purity is allowed to keep eliminating all anomalies, the Shia-Sunni divide might prove fatal to the 'homogeneity' of Lahore and Punjab. As long as the people of Lahore remain peaceful and perform their civic duties they should be left to practise their distinctive beliefs and thus add to the richness of its cultural life. It is therefore all the more important that the state remains neutral on matters of religious affiliation and curbs all extremist groups while protecting peaceful citizens irrespective of which religion they adhere to. ______ Daily Times June 22, 2005 Editorial OBSCENE QUESTIONNAIRE OR IMAGE PROBLEM AGAIN? The Ministry for Social Welfare and Special Education has blacklisted Rozan, a non-government organisation (NGO), for allegedly distributing an 'obscene' questionnaire in schools and has ordered the NGO to immediately abandon its projects. Rozan had apparently circulated a questionnaire as part of a survey to improve children's emotional health and secure them against sexual abuse. The questionnaire asked students if they had ever been sexually assaulted or harassed or had sexual relations with the opposite sex. This the ministry has deemed objectionable and ordered the NGO to stop work on the project. If the issue were not so serious we would probably have laughed at the ministry's misplaced sense of propriety. What does the ministry want? That no effort should be made at improving the emotional health of children and securing them from paedophiles? Or is it that the ministry seriously thinks that such things do not happen in Pakistan and any attempt to uncover them will hurt the image of Pakistan? We would like answers to these questions because there is enough evidence to suggest that Pakistani children, like most children in most underdeveloped countries of the world, are in need of a better emotional environment. The only way to go about getting data on the extent of emotional health problems, especially those that result from sexual abuse, is to ask the kind of questions that the ministry mistakenly thinks are obscene. This is ludicrous. Pakistan is part of the modern world and it faces the same social problems that other countries do. Indeed, as Mukhtar Mai's case shows, even gang rape has a certain tribal sanction. Let the ministry therefore not express its holier-than-thou attitude, not deny some of the ugly realities that we have, for long, brushed under the carpet. * _______ [2] Human Rights Watch BANGLADESH: GOVERNMENT FAILS TO ACT AGAINST RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE ATTACKS ON MINORITY AHMADIS CONTINUE AMIDST CENSORSHIP AND POGROMS (Dhaka, June 16, 2005) - The Bangladesh government has aligned itself with extremist groups that foment violence against the minority Ahmadiyya community, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. It's a dangerous moment in Bangladesh when the government becomes complicit in religious violence. The authorities have emboldened extremists by failing to prosecute those engaged in anti-Ahmadi violence and by banning Ahmadiyya publications. Brad Adams, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Asia Division. The 45-page report, "Breach of Faith: Persecution of the Ahmadiyya Community in Bangladesh," documents the campaign of violence, harassment and intimidation unleashed by the Khatme Nabuwat (KN)--an umbrella group of Sunni Muslim extremists--against the Ahmadiyya community. The KN and other extremist groups have attacked Ahmadiyya mosques, beaten and killed some Ahmadis, and prevented access to schools and sources of livelihood for others. They have demanded an official declaration that Ahmadis are not Muslims and a ban on all Ahmadi writings and missionary activities. Founded in 1889 by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Ahmadiyya community is a religious group that identifies itself as Muslim. It differs with other Muslims over the exact definition of Prophet Mohammad being the "final" monotheist prophet. Under the Bangladesh National Party-led government, discrimination and violence against the Ahmadis has intensified. The report documents the government's failure to prosecute those responsible for anti-Ahmadi violence. It condemns the January ban on all Ammadiyya publications imposed by the government. The Jamaat-e-Islami and the Islamic Okye Jyote, junior coalition partners in the government, do not recognize the Ahmadis as Muslims and have been involved in fomenting religious violence against them and other religious minorities. "It's a dangerous moment in Bangladesh when the government becomes complicit in religious violence," said Brad Adams, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Asia Division. "The authorities have emboldened extremists by failing to prosecute those engaged in anti-Ahmadi violence and by banning Ahmadiyya publications." Bangladesh's High Court has temporarily suspended the ban on Ahmadiyya publications and the government argues that the ban was put into place to appease extremists and thereby protect Ahmadis. But anti-Ahmadi violence and agitation has continued. These include massive anti-Ahmadi rallies, threats against members of the group, attacks on mosques, the refusal in some places to allow Ahmadi children to go to school, and the confiscation of Ahmadiyya publications. Human Rights Watch said that given the alarmingly high levels of communal violence in Bangladesh directed against other minorities, including Hindus and indigenous peoples, further government concessions to extremist religious demands would set a dangerous precedent and, could unleash an uncontrollable wave of violence. For doctrinal reasons, many Muslims consider the Ahmadiyya to be non-Muslims. They become easy targets in times of religious and political insecurity. For those pursuing populist political goals, such as Islamist and conservative parties in Bangladesh, raising the bogey of Ahmadi subversion and persecuting them, ostensibly in order to preserve the faith, has provided a fast track to political power. Ahmadis fear that institutionalized discrimination and violence will become the norm if, as demanded by the Islamic Okye Jyote, they are officially declared to be non-Muslims. "Political parties that engage in religious incitement have no place in government," said Adams. "The Bangladesh National Party needs to make it clear to its coalition partners that they must end all support for anti-Ahmadiyya activities or leave the government." Human Rights Watch urged the international community to press the Bangladesh government to prosecute those responsible for planning and executing attacks against the Ahmadiyya and other minorities, to rescind the ban on Ahmadiyya publications, and take steps to encourage religious tolerance within Bangladeshi society. To monitor the immediate implementation of these measures, the Bangladesh government should immediately provide the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion, Asma Jahangir, firm dates to visit the country on terms consistent with her mandate. Human Rights Watch said that the ongoing official persecution of Ahmadis in Pakistan provides a chilling precedent. Since 2000, an estimated 325 Ahmadis have been formally charged in criminal cases, including blasphemy, for professing their religion in Pakistan. As a result, thousands of Ahmadis have fled Pakistan to seek asylum abroad. "Unless the Bangladesh government acts to allow Ahmadis to practice their faith in peace, the situation could spiral out of control," said Adams. "Continued failure to act will confirm the growing impression that Bangladesh's ruling coalition is more religiously intolerant than any government since the country's founding." Accounts from "Breach of Faith: Persecution of the Ahmadiyya Community in Bangladesh" They started hitting us with bamboo sticks. The beat us and beat us. We tried to escape but it was not possible. Shah Alam was being beaten particularly harshly by Aminur Rahman and Shahid. They continued hitting us with the bamboo sticks, particularly on the head. I could see that Shah Alam was getting badly injured. They beat his brain out of his head. I could see it. We asked them to stop as we could see Shah Alam was dying and had to be taken to hospital. But they did not. The entire incident lasted about thirty minutes. That is all I remember clearly. My memory has suffered as a result of what happened. -Interview with Abul Bashar, an Ahmadi villager, August 25, 2004. Early in the morning, after the Fajr (dawn) prayers, a mob from the village surrounded my house, dragged me out, and tied me to a tree. Then they started beating me with sticks and rods. Then they carried me to the local market and beat me more, this time even more badly. Just when I thought I was going to die, local policemen came to the spot and took me to another house and then the policemen asked me to leave the Ahmadiyya faith. When I refused, the policemen started beating me. Then they took me to the police station and put me in the lock-up where they handcuffed me and beat me again. The next morning, at about 11 o'clock, the policemen took me to the district headquarters of the police and beat me again. Maulana Abdul Rajjak and others came to check what was going on. The Officer in-Charge informed them within earshot of me that they should not worry, the police would "deal" with me "properly." The police said that it was clever of the village people to register a robbery case against me and that they would use that as an excuse to beat a Qadiani. -Interview with Mohammad Mominul Islam alias Raqeeb, August 24, 2004. _______ [3] The Telegraph June 21, 2005 MAKE THEM PAY FOR IT GUJARAT RIOT VICTIMS HAVE CLAIMED DAMAGES AGAINST THE VHP AND BJP. Tarunabh Khaitan Explores The Precedents And Implications Ahmedabad, February 28, 2002 The Rs 8-crore damages claimed against the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bharatiya Janata Party by the relatives of the victims of the Gujarat riots raise complex issues about the role constitutional morality can play in the daily lives of citizens. The foundational values of equality, human rights, security of life and liberty, enshrined in the chapter on fundamental rights of the Indian Constitution, have traditionally been invoked by the citizens against the State. The suit filed in the Gujarat court is a wake-up call to the reality of violation of these foundational values by non-State and quasi-State actors. These entities perform quintessentially public functions affecting the rights of citizens and include political parties, corporate bodies, non-governmental organizations, trade unions, employers, educational institutions, building societies and hospitals. The need to make non-State actors accountable to constitutional values is only more acute with the pre-liberalization State functions of producing steel, dispensing medicines and educating engineers moving into private hands. Therefore, fundamental rights should not only inform the vertical citizen-State relationship but also the horizontal citizen-citizen relationship. Civil action claiming damages against the State for breaching its duty of care is not new. In at least three cases, various high courts have ordered the State to pay compensation to victims of riots. In R. Gandhi v. Union of India (1989), the Madras high court held that "members of the Sikh community form an integral part of Indian society whose rights have been flagrantly infringed by the inaction of the law enforcing authorities. These unfortunate victims of arson and violence are entitled to seek reasonable compensation from the State of Tamil Nadu, which has failed in its duty to protect their constitutional and legal rights." Similar views were expressed by the Jammu and Kashmir high court in M/s Inderpuri General Stores v. Union of India (1992) and very recently by the Delhi high court in Manjit Singh Sawhney v. Union of India (2005). In all these cases, the courts ordered the State to pay compensation to the victims of the anti-Sikh riots for its inaction in protecting life and property. By not claiming damages from the State, the Gujarat suit digresses from these cases. It embodies a realization that the responsibility for compensation of victims rests primarily with the perpetrators, and only vicariously with the tax-payers. The suit relies on the precedent set by the Kerala high court, which ordered damages to be paid by the political party whose bandh call resulted in violations of fundamental rights. The high court held that "No political party or organisation can claim that it is...entitled to prevent the citizens not in sympathy with its viewpoints, from exercising their fundamental rights." The judgment was endorsed by the Supreme Court in Communist Party of India (M) v. Bharat Kumar (1998). The propriety of the right to call a bandh need not, however, be called into question in the riot compensation cases. The damages are sought for acts which violate the right to life, liberty and security, whether or not they took place during a bandh. That said, however, the fact of a bandh call surely is strong evidence for causally linking the alleged acts of violations of rights to the party which gave the call. The responsibility of quasi-State or private bodies should not be limited to preservation of the right to life, liberty and security alone. Such liability should be extended to the right against discrimination as well. Article 15 of the Constitution forbids the State from discriminating against any person on the basis of his or her race, caste, creed, sex, and so on. However, except for the Civil Rights Act, 1955, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of caste, Indian law has largely disallowed the horizontal citizen-to-citizen application of the right against discrimination. The point was reinforced by the Supreme Court in its recent decision in Zoroastrian Co-operative Housing Society Limited v. District Registrar Co-operative Societies (2005), where it allowed a housing society to rent and sell accommodation only to members of a particular religious community. Reports of discrimination by medical establishments, private employers and educational institutions on the basis of religion, caste and HIV status are not rare. Such division of civil society into ghettoes facilitates the insularity of different groups and nurses prejudice among them, with the disastrous consequences we have witnessed too often. Many liberal democracies which respect human rights have made discrimination by non-State actors a civil liability. The US Civil Rights Act, 1964 has helped to shape a political discourse of inclusion over the years. The South African constitution prohibits discrimination on the grounds of "age, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth" by the State as well as by any person. In Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan (1997) the Supreme Court opened up to the horizontal application of fundamental rights and held private employers liable for sexual harassment of employees in the work place. This idea needs to be taken to its logical conclusion. However, a judicial development of any doctrine is patchy, and is dictated more by the needs of the case at hand than by the overall policy choices. While the judicial expansion of the rights of citizens by applying them horizontally is welcome, it is time parliament laid down a coherent policy embodied in a statute. Parliament should, by law, extend the fundamental rights available in part III of the Constitution against the State to other natural and juristic persons who are capable of violating these rights as well. Such a law would need to resolve complex issues such as establishing efficient enforcement machinery and outlining the appropriate remedies available for such violations that should preferably be settled through a public debate rather than through judicial law-making. A civil liability on non-State and quasi-State actors to respect the fundamental values of the Constitution may not see the end of communal violence in this country. But it will make it more expensive to loot, kill and discriminate. Many acts of communal violence have gone unpunished by the criminal justice system. A civil remedy has the advantage of having to satisfy a lesser standard of proof than the more demanding "beyond reasonable doubt" standard required in a criminal trial. It is also more sensitive to the restorative and remedial needs of the victim. Further, a civil remedy is driven by the victim rather than by the State officials (especially the police) who themselves might be implicated in the violations. This is certainly not to suggest that the criminal justice system can be left in the mess it is in. A civil remedy, like the one demanded in the Gujarat cases, will complement the quest for justice. Those who reject the values of tolerance and plurality underpinning our multicultural Constitution should pay up. o o o o The Telegraph June 16, 2005 | Editorial IN RIGHT MEASURE There are some changes that take place almost invisibly. The demands for justice for the unspeakable horrors that took place in Gujarat in early 2002 have been gathering direction, as is demonstrated by the number of cases now in the courts. Most recently, the representatives of those killed in the Gulbarg Society massacre have filed a civil suit, demanding compensation from the local leaders of the Bajrang Dal and the leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Mr Praveen Togadia. The compensation suit makes particular political organizations liable, instead of claiming damages from the state for having failed to protect the life and liberty of its citizens. Petitions of the second kind are more common, and in a favourable judgment, the state, or the public, compensates the victims of violence. But the Gulbarg Society suit is the second of its kind. In the first, relatives of two non-resident Indians, who had been killed during the communal violence in Gujarat, filed a compensation suit making Mr Narendra Modi liable. The shift in emphasis is worth noting. The rights to life and liberty, to free movement and the right not to be discriminated against are no longer being held to be the sole responsibility of the state. Preserving constitutional rights is as much a responsibility of citizens towards one another as much as it is that of the state towards its citizens. The way to this change was inaugurated by the judgment of the Kerala high court against bandhs, by which the liability of the damage to life, property and mobility consequent upon a bandh could be fixed on political parties calling that bandh. At the broadest theoretical level, the expansion of the notion of accountability is the best route to a fuller understanding of the relationship between rights and responsibility, and of the application of the idea of rights. On a more practical level, it is an effective weapon against the overriding arrogance of dominant political parties. It is true that court cases take time. The message may take a while to sink in. Yet compensation to the tune of crores or lakhs or even thousands will begin to pinch, and the strength of numbers will no longer provide immunity from legal action. It is far more difficult to fix liability for murder during violent conflicts. The shift of emphasis will ultimately compel political organizations and every other institution and individual to think twice before attempting to breach the rights of citizens. _______ [4] www.thehoot.org 15 June 2005 UNTOO, THE POLICE AND THE PRESS Why did no one from the press attempt to get more information than was given out at briefings? Did any newspaper ask its people in Kashmir to make enquiries about anything connected with this case? Mukul Dube A report in the Pioneer of 26 February 2005 begins, "Delhi Police have arrested a former Kashmiri militant and a Pakistani agent, Mohammed Ahsun Untoo, from Church Road in Cantonment Area on charges of spying." Note that the staff reporter describes Untoo thus, implicitly accepting the claims of the police as fact. Here is how subsequent paragraphs of the report begin: "Police have recovered..."; "Deputy Commissioner of Police (south-west district) Dependra Pathak said..."; "Sources said..."; "The special staff got a tip-off...". Clearly an energetic and mobile reporter. The report says that Untoo was paid Rs 6 lakh by the Pakistan High Commission for handing over "defence secrets". One of the documents "recovered" was a schedule of patrolling drawn up in the late 1950s, which just happens to be available to anyone for the asking. Untoo was charged under two sections of the Official Secrets Act. He was arrested on 12 February, and "on the basis of information received from him", his "associate" Gulam Nabi Nagar was arrested in Srinagar on 17 February. [All spelling errors in the published report have been reproduced faithfully.] The Asian Age of the same date calls these inDIViduals Mohammed Ahsun Untoo and Gulam Nabi Najar. Untoo is described as "the former launching commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist group" and the other man is "his militant operator", the place of his arrest having changed to Baramulla. The list of "recovered" documents is much the same, but mobile phones "operating from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir", "fake identity cards" and "fake curfew passes" make their appearance. The report in the Hindu of the same date tries to play half-safe but falls on its face. It describes Untoo as "a self-proclaimed human rights activist" but says that he was arrested for "allegedly passing on sensitive information...." A little later we have, "Untoo, a former Hizb-ul-Mujahideen militant, had joined the human rights DIVision of the APHC in 1994." It is not clear whether this DIVision of the APHC consists only of self-proclaimed human rights activists or if Untoo is the lone one who sneaked in. This report also contains this fascinating information: "[Untoo] had been arrested ... for being in possession of AK-57 assault rifles. But, he was later acquitted." I call it fascinating because it is the mother of all Rubik's Cubes. What was Untoo doing with rifles (note the plural)? Was he a gun-smith licensed to stock, sell and repair unlicensed fire-arms? Had the security forces set up a museum of captured weapons and employed Untoo as its curator? We are not told of the charge or charges of which he was acquitted. Why, above all, did the staff reporter of the newspaper put in this singularly meaningless morsel? I can think of no reason other than the opportunity it gave to speak of an arrest and of weapons. Untoo's acquittal was an unfortunate but necessary footnote. Only one report published on that date, that which appeared in the Times of India, is almost entirely consistent in speaking of statements and claims made by the police. That is, it does not apply the stamp of truth to that which it does not know to be the truth. The first three reports give the date of Untoo's arrest as 12 February, all speak of Delhi's south-west police district, the first speaks of the cantonment area and the second speaks of Srinagesh Garden, which is in the cantonment. These reports were published in English newspapers. Of the three reports I have seen which appeared in Hindi newspapers, I shall speak only of the remarkable piece of work which the Dainik Bhaskar had put out some days earlier, on 12 February 2005. [The translation is mine.] "The Crime Branch Joint Commissioner, Ranjit Narain, said that solid clues about the attackers had been found, and they would soon be arrested. He said their links extended to Jammu and Kashmir." We should pay attention to three things here. The first is that "attackers" (plural) were spoken of. The second is that, as this very report said, "Even today, the police could not record Geelani's statement. They spent the whole day wandering about the hospital." When the police were finally allowed to meet Geelani - they had been held back not by Geelani himself or by cruel fate, as they and the newspapers constantly suggested, but by the doctors treating him - he spoke unambiguously of a lone attacker. How could the Joint Commissioner have said what he did? That is the third thing to which we should pay attention: the dates on which things happened or were said to have happened. We shall now look at claims that Untoo had already been in the custody of the police - but had not been formally arrested - for some days when Shri Ranjit Narain spoke to the Dainik Bhaskar. The Statesman of 17 May 2005 reported that S.A.R. Geelani's lawyer Nandita Haksar told members of the press that Untoo had in fact been illegally picked up by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police from the Priya Guest House in Paharganj on 9 February. She said he was being tortured so that he would confess falsely to having attempted to murder Geelani. The Asian Age of the same date says that Untoo was "allegedly beaten, tortured and sodomised in police custody." It goes on, "Untoo's lawyer N.D. Pancholi has filed an application on his behalf seeking protection of his life and enquiry into the torture by the police." Nandita Haksar is reported to have announced that a letter from Untoo, in which he had described the treatment meted out to him by the police, had reached the All-India Defence Committee for Syed Abdul Rehman Geelani. Sampat Prakash, state president of the All Jammu and Kashmir Trade Union Centre, is reported to have said, "Untoo is a well known human rights activist and is the chairman of the Human Rights Forum in J&K." It is not known if he said that that Forum was a bogus organisation which issued fake identity cards to non-existent members. The Hindu of the same date reported that "social activists from various organisations ... demanded that Mohammad Ahsan Untoo ... be immediately released." His lawyer, N.D. Pancholi, was reported to have said at a press conference, "He has told us that he was picked up by the police on February 9. But the FIR against him has only been lodged on February 12. Why this gap? And he was tortured and sodomised." The report says also that Untoo was "compelled to sign on blank pieces of paper." The Indian Express of 16 May had given Daryaganj, not Paharganj, as the location of the Priya Guest House. It had also said that Untoo's letter had been smuggled out. It had reported that the police had described Haksar's claim as false, given that the FIR in the case had been registered at the Delhi Cantonment police station. It had not, however, reported Haksar or Pancholi as having said that the FIR had been filed in Visakhapatnam. They had said that Untoo had been in illegal detention for three days. Assuming that the FIR was filed three days late, what was to prevent its being filed several miles away from the place where he had been picked up? If space can be changed, so can time. The police version may be true, of course: after all, there is an official document to show that it is true. Anyone who claims that it contains lies must prove that. If such a person presents an alternative document, the truth of that document - not an official one - must be established. The advantage always lies with those who have the majesty of the Indian State behind them. 12 February, which is the day on which the police claim to have arrested Untoo, was a Saturday. He was therefore produced before the duty magistrate the next day, a Sunday. Apparently this procedure has become routine in such cases. The accused, being surrounded by policemen who may well have been physically unpleasant to him or her, is usually too frightened to say anything to the magistrate, who therefore records only what the police say. It is part of the job of a magistrate to ask after the condition and welfare of the person being produced: but it appears that in this instance, the duty magistrate did not do this. Untoo could not say to the representative of Justice what appears in the next paragraph. The application mentioned in the Asian Age of 17 May (see above) was either not filed or else not heard. It contains these complaints: that Untoo was stripped and beaten; that a scavenger was made to sodomise him; that alcohol was forced down Untoo's throat and he was compelled to sign blank pieces of paper; that the magistrate before whom Untoo was produced on 13 February "did not give an opportunity to [him] to complain about the torture"; that the police denied him access to a lawyer as well as medical assistance; and that there had been reports in newspapers which said that Untoo had been arrested in connection with the attempt on S.A.R. Geelani's life. Despite the efforts of the police, though, Untoo did not "confess" to having made an attempt on Geelani's life. Possibly because setting him free could have created all manner of problems, the Delhi Police put together an assortment of papers - unless it keeps such things ready for such situations - and booked him under the Official Secrets Act. Untoo's lawyer, N.D. Pancholi, had spoken to the press. This is evident from the fact that at least one newspaper knew about and mentioned the "Application for protection of life ..." just described. Geelani's lawyer, Nandita Haksar, had spoken to the press. Sampat Prakash had spoken to the press. Why, then, were the complaints listed above buried by all but a few newspapers? Why is it that no one from the press appears to have attempted to get more information than was given out to all who attended the briefings? Did any newspaper ask its people in Kashmir to make enquiries about anything connected with this case? Was Untoo really "masquerading" as a human rights activist? Were identity cards really "recovered" from him, and were they really "fake"? What of the "large number of secret military documents, maps", etc., also "recovered"? Was Untoo carrying them on microfilm or on compact disks? In half a dozen suitcases on the back of a camel secretly brought in from across the border, perhaps? If indeed the police did any of the things which are listed in N.D. Pancholi's application, it is a serious matter in a country which calls itself a democracy. If indeed the magistrate before whom Untoo was produced failed to do his or her duty, that is a considerably more serious matter, since it reflects on our judiciary, to which was given both an independent place and great power in 1947 and in 1950. I do not know if the press is unaware of these matters. I do not know if the press considers these matters inconsequential. I do know, though, that in either eventuality, the press must be called, at the very least, irresponsible. It could be given a good many worse names. So far as I can see, it took the easy route: don't think, just swallow and regurgitate. Practise your vaunted "investigative journalism" only where unimportant, expendable people are not involved. Go where the gold is. Many have been saying, and for long - the press statement released on 16 May by Sampat Prakash was hardly the first example - that it has become the policy of the Indian State to "catch and frame" or "catch and kill" Kashmiris. It is legitimate to ask if there has been no change in the attitudes and biases - or the policy - of the Indian State despite the change of government at the Centre a year ago. The press cannot claim that it is not involved here. Does it not see Kashmiris as Indians and, for that reason, people to be respected and cared for by the Indian State? Is it the same press which, three years ago, roundly castigated Modi, Gujarat and the Sangh Parivar for having committed crimes against humanity in their own country? Is it now so obsessed with the stock market, fashion, motor cars and the shenanigans of political leaders who have no discernible ideology, that it has decided that such ideals as truth and justice are archaic and no longer of any consequence? _______ [5] The Hindu June 22, 2005 NO RAIN, BUT `SNOW' AND WATER PARKS P. Sainath Water-starved Vidharbha has a growing number of water parks and amusement centres. EVEN WHEN it's 47 degrees in the rest of the region, it's cool here. A little away from us is a patch that clocks in at minus 13 degrees. This is "India's first Snowdome" - in burning Vidharbha. Keeping its ice rink firm costs Rs.4,000 a day in electricity charges alone. Welcome to the Fun & Food Village Water & Amusement Park in Bazargaon gram panchayat of Nagpur (Rural) district. A portrait of Mahatma Gandhi greets visitors in the office of the huge complex. And you're assured daily disco, ice skating, ice sliding and "a well stocked bar with cocktails." The 40-acre park itself offers 18 kinds of water slides and games. Also services for events ranging from conferences to kitty parties. The village of Bazargaon (population 3,000) itself faces a huge water crisis. "Having to make many daily trips for water, women walk up to 15 km in a day to fetch it," says sarpanch Yamunabai Uikey. "This whole village has just one sarkari well. Sometimes, we have got water once in four or five days. Sometimes, once in ten days." Bazargaon falls in a region declared as scarcity-hit in 2004. It had never faced that fate before. The village also had its share of six-hour - and worse - power cuts till about May. These hit every aspect of daily life, including health, and devastated children appearing for exams. The summer heat, touching 47, made things worse. All these iron laws of rural life do not apply within Fun & Food Village. This private oasis has more water than Bazargaon can dream of. And never a moment's break in power supply. "We pay on average," says Jasjeet Singh, General Manager of the Park, "about Rs.4 lakhs a month in electricity bills." The Park's monthly power bill alone almost equals the yearly revenue of Yamunabhai's gram panchayat. Ironically, the village's power crisis eased slightly because of the Park. Both share the same sub-station. The park's peak period begins with May. And so things have been a little better since then. The Park's contribution to the gram panchayat's revenue is Rs.50,000 a year. About half what Fun & Food Village collects at the gate in a day from its 700 daily visitors. Barely a dozen of the Park's 110 workers are locals from Bazargaon. Water-starved Vidharbha has a growing number of such water parks and amusement centres. In Shegaon, Buldhana, a religious trust runs a giant "Meditation Centre and Entertainment Park." Efforts to maintain a 30-acre `artificial lake' within it ran dry this summer. But not before untold amounts of water were wasted in the attempt. Here the entry tickets are called "donations." In Yavatmal, a private company runs a public lake as a tourist joint. Amravati has two or more such spots (dry just now). And there are others in and around Nagpur. This, in a region where villages have sometimes got water once in 15 days. And where an ongoing farm crisis has seen the largest numbers of farmers' suicides in Maharashtra. "No major project for either drinking water or irrigation has been completed in Vidharbha in decades," says Nagpur-based journalist Jaideep Hardikar. He has covered the region for years. Mr. Singh insists the Fun & Food Village conserves water. "We use sophisticated filter plants to reuse the same water." But evaporation levels are very high in this heat. And water is not just used for sports. All the parks use massive amounts of it for maintaining their gardens, on sanitation and for their clientele. "It is a huge waste of water and money," says Vinayak Gaikwad in Buldhana. He is a farmer and a Kisan Sabha leader in the district. That in the process, public resources are so often used to boost private profit, angers Mr. Gaikwad. "They should instead be meeting people's basic water needs." Back in Bazargaon, sarpanch Yamunabai Uikey isn't impressed either. Not by the Fun & Food Village. Nor by other industries that have taken a lot but given very little. "What is there in all this for us," she wants to know. To get a standard government water project for her village, the panchayat has to bear 10 per cent of its cost. That's around Rs.4.5 lakh. "How can we afford the Rs.45,000? What is our condition?" So it's simply been handed over to a contractor. This could see the project built. But it will mean more costs in the long run and less control for a village of so many poor and landless people. In the Park, Gandhi's portrait still smiles out of the office as we leave. Seemingly at the `Snowdome' across the parking lot. An odd fate for the man who said: "Live simply, that others might simply live." _______ [6] The Telegraph June 22, 2005 | Editorial ASSEMBLY TIME What is common to government offices, cabinet meetings and schools in Madhya Pradesh? They have all been reduced to a levelling juvenility by Mr Babulal Gaur. His government had ruled that from July 1, all government employees, ministers and students would have to congregate and sing Vande Mataram on the first day of every month. This would inspire them to not only patriotic feelings but also punctuality, honesty and so on. Government employees would also have to be in some sort of uniform - back to school again - together with badges displaying their names and posts. There is a background to all this, which goes back to Mr Gaur's predecessor, Ms Uma Bharti. Ms Bharti, after enshrining the cow in her state's economy, had set about declaring all its pilgrimage spots "holy". This meant a ban on the sale of eggs, meat, fish, alcohol, sex and condoms in these towns. The sex-workers were piqued, but the sadhus and mahants were delighted. Mr Gaur then outdid her by declaring a few more towns holy, and outlawing "multi-national drinks" (Pepsi and Coke) as well, in order to promote butter milk, lassi and shrikhand in their place. The state legal department has now pointed out to Mr Gaur that it would be quite unconstitutional to force people to sing religious or patriotic songs and then punish them if they refused to do so. There are Supreme Court and high court rulings as well, which make such arbitrary impositions illegal. Minority organizations, civil rights groups, opposition members and women who cannot bear to wear cheap printed sarees supplied by the government have also added their voices of protest. This, as some would remember, is vintage Hindutva. Even the Bharatiya Janata Party, in its current avatar, would consider this sort of thing retrograde. When, in 1999, a "basic education" minister in Uttar Pradesh made similar noises about the same song, Mr L.K. Advani vetoed him, against the wishes of some of his party colleagues in the state. This minister was later removed, but UP's latest basic education minister has now vetoed sex education in the state's schools, declaring condoms - which Ms Bharti and the sadhus had once declared "evil" - bad for children. With purity-enthusiasts like Ms Bharti, Mr Gaur and these basic education ministers, the BJP would need to work somewhat harder to modernize its public image. _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on matters of peace and democratisation in South Asia. 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