Harsh Kapoor
Thu, 15 Feb 2007 18:45:29 -0800
South Asia Citizens Wire | February 14-16, 2007 | Dispatch No. 2360 - Year 9 [1] Pakistan: Speak up for Enlightenment - Dare to Know (Irfan Husain) [2] Pakistan India: Siachen a mountain of madness or peace (Q Isa Daudpota and Arshad H Abbasi) [3] India: Crime, but no punishment - for July 2006 bomb blasts in Mumbai trains (Teesta Setalvad) [4] India: Hindu Right and Film Censorship: Results of the Let Parzania be Screened SMS contest [5] India: Gujarat's Culture Police - Boycott Bigotry (Editorial, Times of India) - Why Gujarat 'Banned' Parzania (J.S. Bandukwala) [6] India: From Riot to Riot - The Hindu right is sharpening the knives: - Will Eastern UP Be The Next Gujarat? (Subhash Gatade) - Riot, manufactured in Gorakhpur (Apoorvanand) [7] Dont Suck Up to Fascists: An Open Letter To the Captain of India's Cricket Team (Shamsul Islam) [8] India: The State and the right to life [Clemency for Afzal] (Mike Marqusee) ____ [1] Dawn February 10, 2007 'DARE TO KNOW!' by Irfan Husain FOR the last few years, "enlightened moderation" has been this government's glib mantra. Ever since Musharraf used the phrase, his many spokesmen and sycophants have parroted it as though it was their leader's contribution to humanity. Just to remind them what the 18th century movement of Enlightenment stood for, I can do no better than to quote Immanuel Kant, writing in 1784: "Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-incurred immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one's own understanding without direction from another. This immaturity is self-incurred if its cause is not lack of understanding, but lack of resolve and courage to use it without another's guidance. Sapere aude! Dare to know! That is the motto of Enlightenment." This movement paved the way for the modern, secular society that has come to dominate the world. Spearheading it were giants like Voltaire, Rousseau, Bacon and Diderot. Scientists like Galileo and Newton contributed vastly to this struggle to establish reason as the basis for civilisation. So when our ill-educated politicians in and out of uniform speak of "enlightened moderation", they should reflect, even if briefly, on what the Enlightenment stood for. Indeed, had Mushrraf been aware of the term's true connotations, he might not have been so keen to adopt it as his motto. If he were to pass by the Madressah Hafsa in Islamabad , he would realise how far we have to travel before we reach the level of maturity Kant called for. In this seminary, hundreds of girls are being indoctrinated to hate everything western. Farhat Taj, a Pakistani academic, wrote about a recent visit to this madressah in a Lahore daily. According to Ms Taj, as soon as she walked in, she was bombarded with questions from the teachers and students: "They questioned my personal appearance - my hairdo and my attire, which in their view was 'too tight' and therefore un-Islamic. They told me I was committing a 'sin' by roaming all over the world unaccompanied by my male relations and sans burqa" Ms Taj continues: "The students of the Jamia wake up every morning at 5 am. They are not allowed any games, outdoor trips or TV. Watching TV, they said, was banned in Islam. They live in strict gender segregation and believe in the subordination of woman to man. They study Islam in its most extreme form. The students and teachers told me the madressah is grooming wives and mothers for jihadis, female suicide-bombers and female foot-soldiers who will clash with the law enforcement agencies of Pakistan, if necessary" The writer was asked to promise to kill the editor of the Danish newspaper that ran the offensive cartoons in 2005. When she replied she could not take the law into her own hands, the students of the madressah could not understand her reluctance. This, then, is the kind of 'enlightened moderation' being taught in the nation's capital, barely a stone's throw from the presidency, parliament and the Prime Minister's House. And to make matters worse, it is these girls who have now occupied a children's library to protest against the demolition of an illegally constructed mosque. Night after night, images of their scary black burqa-clad forms, armed with long batons, appear on TV. And even though the government has backed down and agreed to rebuild the mosque, these women are refusing to vacate the library. The administration is a mute witness to these illegal acts as its writ is challenged before the gaze of TV cameras. Yet, only some weeks ago, a small group of peaceful citizens was mercilessly thrashed, with one young man being publicly stripped and beaten by the Islamabad police. Their crime was to wish to present a letter protesting the disappearance of their near relatives to the deputy army chief. Human rights groups as well as courts have established the state's hand in these cases. Although the government fears a backlash from the mullahs if it acts, the fact is that our clerics are paper tigers when it comes to the crunch. This was amply demonstrated when the Protection of Women Bill was passed. Despite their threat to resign from the assemblies if the government pushed this watered-down piece of legislation through, the holy fathers still occupy their parliamentary seats. Their threat to launch a street protest has been equally empty. History shows that they enjoy a symbiotic relationship with the army, and will not act without GHQ's clearance. That this nexus exists is proved by the fact that bearded men and burqa-clad women are allowed to get away with literally murder, provided they can somehow link their actions to their version of the faith, no matter how erroneous. For years now, private and public land has been illegally occupied on the pretext of building mosques. Soon, shops and dwellings have sprouted on these sites, with the legal owners helpless to end this land grab. After shutting its eyes to this practice for years, the government woke up and decided to act. But its planned demolitions have ground to a halt in the face of resistance from a handful of madressah students. The reality is that Pakistan - and much of the world - is far from attaining the level of maturity the Enlightenment called for. We are guided, perhaps more than ever before, by considerations other than reason. All kinds of superstitions cloud our thinking, rendering us prone to the most irrational behaviour. Rather than moving forward, we seem determined to go back in time. The paradox is that while emotionally and intellectually we remain rooted in the mediaeval era, we still seek the fruits of modern science and technology. We see no contradiction in using the Internet to propagate the most violent quasi-Islamic philosophy. Videos of people being beheaded in the name of the faith are routinely sent around the world through cyberspace. In his wonderfully iconoclastic book "How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered the World", Francis Wheen writes in his introduction: "The sleep of reason brings forth monsters, and the past two decades have produced monsters galore. Some are manifestly sinister, others seem merely comic Cumulatively, however, the proliferation of obscurantist bunkum and the assault on reason are a menace to civilisation, especially as many of the new irrationalists hark back to some imagined pre-industrial or even pre-agrarian Golden Age My purpose in writing this book is to show how the humane values of the Enlightenment have been abandoned or betrayed, and why it matters: those who rewrite or romanticise history are condemned to repeat it" ______ [2] Daily Times February 13, 2007 SIACHEN MADNESS OR MOUNTAIN PEACE by Q Isa Daudpota and Arshad H Abbasi It is for opinion-makers in India and Pakistan to tell their respective governments to stop ruining the future of our water supplies and our weather system. Bringing their troops down from the inhospitable heights of Siachen would be the first step. This would be welcomed by the troops as well as the mountain wildlife that has been displaced by the war Back in 2003 one of us (QID) signed an email petition titled the Siachen Peace Park Initiative located at the glacier that bears this name. It had to do with getting India and Pakistan to withdraw from the futile conflict in the mountains and to let nature revert to its snowy tranquillity. "As part of the normalisation process/confidence building measures, the governments of India and Pakistan are urged to establish a Siachen Peace Park to protect and restore the spectacular landscapes which are home to so many endangered species including the snow leopard." This was the statement adopted as a lead-up to the 5th World Parks Congress held in September 2003 at Durban, South Africa. The petition was a follow-up to win widespread support for the idea from citizens of India, Pakistan and around the world, so that the Indian and Pakistani governments could move forward without loss of face, or strategic liability. Sadly there has been no progress in resolving this decades-old dispute. But new strongly worded reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released on Feb 2 this year could perhaps make the decision-makers change their minds about this wasteful, futile conflict. The IPCC forecasts that global temperatures would rise by 1.8 to 4.0 Celsius this century. There are already signs that South Asia will be one of the worst affected regions - monsoon affected with reduced agriculture production, sinking of island communities and increase in vector borne diseases. Here, however, we will mainly consider the impact of human presence and war on the glaciers of this region and the impact of this on the region and globally. Note that melting of the Himalayan glaciers contributes about 25 percent to the sea-rise globally. A serious unforeseen consequence of the Siachen war is the danger posed to four other glaciers: Gangotri, Miyar, Milan and Janapa, which feed the rivers Ganges (first two glaciers), Chenab and Sutlej respectively. This is because of the heavy traffic on the Indian road from the plains to Siachen passing near these four glaciers on the Delhi-Manali-Leh route. This finding is corroborated by a recent report by one of us (AHA) for the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), available at http://tinyurl.com/23b5de . According to Prof M N Kaul, Principal Investigator on glaciology in the Indian Department of Science and Technology, "the ecology, the environment and the health of the glacier can be under severe threat in case the Baltal route to the holy Amarnath cave was frequented by thousands of pilgrims." Mr Kaul said that heavy pilgrim traffic besides mountain expeditions result in depletion of glacier and environmental degradation. He explained that "this depletion and degradation are the result of human breath, refuse and land erosion." When these pilgrims can cause so much damage to the glaciers, imagine what the continual presence of troops from both countries must do to the ice and snow given their high-energy requirement. Science bureaucrats who wish to be totally 'objective' can often be very conservative in their assessment of complex phenomenon that require immediate attention and action. Often a watertight assessment is not feasible and decision ought to be based on the "precaution principle". Unlike Prof Kaul, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, director-general of The Energy and Resources Institute, is quoted as saying: "A number of scientists say Siachen should be made a protected area, a heritage site of sorts, and that there should be no army presence on either side. For purely ecological reasons, this might be a good idea. But I don't see why there would be melting as a result of military presence and activity." Italics are added to show a lack of conviction in supporting an end to armed conflict at Siachen. But Dr Pachauri holds an even more important position as the chairman of the IPCC. Launching the finding of the international report on Feb 2nd, he strongly emphasised the cost and danger if there is no action taken on reducing greenhouse emissions which, among other things, melt glaciers. Research about the Gangotri, India's largest glacier - which feeds the Ganges - has found that the rate of retreat has almost doubled to 34 meter per year compared to what it was in 1971. The melting of Himalayan glaciers could have serious consequences as more than 500 million residents of the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra river basins rely on them for water supply. As with Gangotri, so with Siachen the increasing melting can be largely attributed to human activities in these areas. In Siachen, which provides water to the Nubra River, a tributary of the Indus, the ecosystem has been hugely disturbed by the presence of nearly 15000 troops on its two sides, consuming and defecating, soiling the area and littering it with the remains of war. Much of this debris will flow into our river Indus as the glacier melts. India airlifts food and vital supplies to supplement material that goes up on an all-weather road. Fuel needed for daily needs of cooking and keeping warm is provided by India through a 250 km long pipeline. Vehicular traffic and the heat generated from the activities on this 21,000 ft high glacier has led to unprecedented melting and diminishing of this 72 km-long glacier. Currently temperature rise in the area is recorded as 0.2 degrees Celsius annually, resulting in destructive snow avalanches, formation of glacial lakes and snow holes. Note that Pakistani troops lie on the western side of the Saltoro ridge, which essentially runs north-south, while Indians are on the eastern side. This is where the Siachen glacier is. Due to much lower activity on the Pakistani side the western glaciers are stable, as shown by recent independent studies by researchers from the UK and Italy. Unfortunately, climate 'experts' in Pakistan seem to lack knowledge of the importance of glaciers for our ecosystem. In 2001, some of them associated with the Global Climate Change Impact Studies Centre in Islamabad suggested that glaciers be melted artificially (by lasers or darkening) to alleviate the drought in the plains! This Centre was set up by old hands of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission. It took one of their own colleagues, Dr Khalid Rashid, to debunk in a conference paper their suggestions, which he labelled as science fiction! Glaciers can also be made secure by the use of common sense. It is for opinion-makers in India and Pakistan to tell their respective governments to stop ruining the future of our water supplies and our weather system. Bringing their troops down from the inhospitable heights of Siachen would be the first step. This would be welcomed by the troops as well as the mountain wildlife that has been displaced by the war. The authors are Islamabad-based environmentalists ______ [3] HindustanTimes.com » Op-Ed. CRIME, BUT NO PUNISHMENT : July 2006 bomb blasts in Mumbai trains by Teesta Setalvad February 15, 2007 Months after the July 2006 bomb blasts in Mumbai trains and 13 years after the serial blasts ripped through Bombay in 1993, a judgment was delivered. Now, over 100 accused await the final sentence. As much as it seems inevitable that punishment for the perpetrators of the bomb violence is a necessary form of redressal for the 200 families who lost dear ones in the serial blasts, it becomes important and critical that Mumbai and India remember the truth of what tore India's cosmopolitan Mecca apart that December (1992) and January (1993). An act of national terror was perpetrated at Ayodhya on December 6, 1992, in public view. A historic mosque was pulled down amid macabre celebration. In Bombay the first victory procession celebrating this act of vandalism was taken out (and allowed) in the Dharavi area at 2 pm that Sunday afternoon, with slogans of victory. >From Monday, December 7, 1992, irate Muslim groups, alienated at the letdown by the Indian State, demonstrated and there were instances of some destruction of public property. Yet for many in the media, the earlier provocations of December 6 were ignored and 'angry Muslims carried the blame for having cast the first stone'. Detailed investigations by human rights groups and, finally, the official Srikrishna Commission report directed prosecutions against policemen and civilians, many of whom have political clout. So while the recent convictions in the blasts case surely send a message that the Indian system delivers justice to all for crimes, a gross lacunae remains: how are those pinpointed as guilty of the December 1992 to January 1993 mob violence scot-free? Justice BN Srikrishna who conducted the official probe into the violence had this to say, "One common link between the riots... and bomb blasts of March 12, 1993, appears to be that the former appear to have been a causative factor for the latter... The serial bomb blasts were a reaction to the totality of events at Ayodhya and Bombay in December 1992 and January 1993." The Srikrishna Commission has concluded that the resentment against the government and the police among a large body of Muslim youth was exploited by Pakistan-aided anti-national elements. They were brainwashed into taking revenge and a conspiracy was hatched and implemented at the instance of Dawood Ibrahim to train Muslims on how to explode bombs near vital installations and in Hindu areas to engineer a fresh round of riots. "There is no doubt that all the accused, except two or three, are Muslims and there is no doubt that the major role in the conspiracy, at the Indian as well as foreign end, was played by Muslims," says the report. Over 45 accused in the bomb blasts case have made a fervent appeal. Among them are simple hamaals (whose only participation in the crime was unknowingly carrying parcels that contained substances used in the crime), others innocent women, who were similarly clueless. They have argued that they have been victims of a system that has pre-determined their guilt and the long trial lasting 14 years has amounted to a pre-conviction punishment. While Sanjay Dutt's plea for removal of Tada charges was accepted, 91 accused of far less in abetment than him have been denied parity. Incidentally, the day the Tada court started pronouncing the verdict, there were about 96 accused on bail. They surrendered the moment the Tada court summoned them, which is not the behaviour of criminals. As the bomb terror of March 12, 1993, has been recalled in the public mind with the delivery of the verdict, the mob terror of December 6, 1992, in Ayodhya needs to be rehauled in public memory and condemned for what it was. None of the criminals responsible for the demolition of the Babri masjid and incitement and abetment of the crime have been convicted. Few have borne punishment for the loss of lives and property all over the country. If the soul of India was seared on December 6, 1992, the soul of Bombay was forever scarred by the mob violence of December 8 to January 20, 1993. Mobs stalked the streets that were likened to Nazi Germany and the Bombay police connived with mobsters in mass arson, murder and even rape. Worse still, the political leadership watched as Bombay burned. Justice for all and injustice to none is the credo on which independent India was conceived and built. Those guilty of the mob terror of 1992 and 1993 must be punished with the same determination as those responsible for the bomb terror that followed. The Indian republic today falters on the tombstone of discriminatory justice. Teesta Setalvad is co-editor, Communalism Combat ______ [4] 14 Feb 2007 16:50:03 +0530 From: "Shabnam Hashmi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> RESULTS OF THE LET PARZANIA BE SCREENED SMS CONTEST Officially the Gujarat government was not a part of the 2002 carnage. Modi maintained that that the inhuman massacre of over 2000 innocents, gang rapes of over 300 Muslim women and girls were all because of Newton's third law . Over 17 fact finding reports showed clear and open participation and connivance of the state machinery during the carnage. What is happening to Parzania clearly shows that the whole system is rotten and deceit is the way of governance. Even when the film is officially not banned, it cannot be screened as goons belonging to allied government forces, 'unofficially' threaten anyone who dares to talk about screening the film. Modi knows it too well that Parzania can be his unmaking. The brutalities and facts of 2002 carnage which were cleverly hidden from the ordinary Gujarati people by a well-oiled fascist propaganda machinery, will become transparent. Parzania has the capability of shaking Gujarat's conscience and asmita. And that is what Mr. Modi is afraid of. So he doesn't ban the film himself, he sends his goons to do that. A recent sms/ e-mail contest organised by Anhad got an overwhelming response with 99.5% respondents demanding screening of Parzania. We are pasting below the prize winning entries. The winners will go to Bombay in the third week of March, see the film and meet the director and the cast of the film. Prize Winners and Winning entries: Raksha Bharadia ( Ahmedabad), Kishan P Chavada, Altaf Ali Makrani (Rajkot), Jaishree Sharma ( Vadodara), Rishi Gautam( Ahmedabad), Govind Desai( Rajkot), Sanita (Ahmedabad), Nayan Patel ( Halol), Stuti Amin ( Ahmedabad), Sachin ( Khetbrahma), Sonal Pradhan (Baroda) 1. Yes. I definitely think that Parzania should be released here in Gujarat. We are a democratic country and the right of speech and expression is every Indian's birthright. If we keep quiet o day tomorrow we may have to pay a still heavier price for our passivity or indifference. We must speak out today as much for ourselves as fro the future generation. (Raksha Bharadia) 2. Pazania should be screened in Gujarat because Gujarat is a part of India. In fact Gujarat is a State of India. We have democracy in India. If we claim to be the biggest democratic country in the world then by stopping a movie screening , we are showing that India is a democratic country on paper. Way the unauthorised people stopped the screen of Fanah in Gujarat last year was very sad. By the way who has given the right to these unauthorised people to decide that which movie will be screened or not? In India we have the right to express our thoughts. By stopping the Parzania to be screen by unauthorised people they are depriving the right of expression. India has its own sensor board which decides which movie will be screened and which will not. Parzania is just a movie which is based on reality. (Kishan P Chavada) 3. Parzania should be released in Gujarat immediately. Because we do not want to watch out this film from the eyes of vote hungered politician but from the eyes of a mother who has lost the only star of her eyes in riots. Not by the eyes of contractor of any religion but by the eyes of a tired old man who has come home after the hard labor of a full day and crying while gazing at the photo of his young son lost in riots. And we want to feel the mental agony of those who gaze at the door whole night always waiting for their loving relatives who never returned after riots. We wants to feel all these with a view that no mother losses the light of her eyes again. No other old people loose their support of old age again. And no women losses her husband in youth. Really it is coward ness to run away from the facts of our history with shying and it is morality to remember our guiltiness of history and try to reform them with accepting them. (Altaf Ali Makrani) 4. The movie parzania ought to be screened .We live in an age where the power of official politics has made a mockery of our rights in a democratic country like India. Every individual should have the right to express his or her opinions freely without any fear.As a result of censoring films like Parzania, the youth would never come to know the truth and aftermath of such massacres. Children are the symbols of a bright tomorrow. The movie Parzania is based on a missing child whose dissapearance has cast his parents into a cloud of grief. To shove a movie under the carpet for the fear of a backlash is cowardly. Parzania should be screened in Gujarat. In turbulent times like ours we need to show that our sympathy is not dead. (Jayshree Sharma) 5. Let parzania be screened because the people should also get aware of truth. Are the people of the Gujarat are so close minded that they are not able to face the reality. Obviously PARZANIA should be screened because it has the truth ,the feeling of reality, It is showing the feeling of a family. So, not only me my whole family is supporting the screening of PARZANIA. (Rishi Gautam) 6. We this film [should be shown] in Gujarat because: 1. The film is showing a bitter truth which needs to be shown 2. We need to break the silence on this issue by provoking debate 3. We shouldn't bow down against inhuman forces, rather put forward our non-violent efforts. (Govind Desai) 7. All I know is that I want to see the film. I think the rest of Gujarat who has seen one side of violence should watch it to experience the other side. (Sanita) 8. Ban on Parzania: I see it as an affront of extremists to introduce modern Parda system, where they decide what people see and what not. (Nayan Patel) 9. Parzania could have been our story. Have sympathy towards the victims. Let it be screened. Stuti Amin 10. Gujarat Ke Kafi Log ek aisi situation se guzar rahe hain jisme unhe apna anewala bhavishya banana ki hod main kuch log mar bhi jaye to unhe lagta hai ki koi harj nahi. Par dusra pehlu bhavishya ka yeh bhi hai ki Gujarat me unka hal; bhi unke jaisa ho jayega , jinki aaj unhe fikr nahi. Dabe huyee logon ki yaad ko zinda rakhne ke liye aisi film ka aana behad zaroori hai. Hum tayyar hai is film ko apne kaam or apne district main ghar ghar pahunchane ke liye. Yeh hamari zimmedari hai aur hum ise nibhayenge. (Sachin) 11. Any nation gets the films it deserves. Parzania could have shaken the conscience of millions of Gujaratis. And may have helped the poor family. But it seems that our morality is dead and buried. Concerned and Troubled. (Sonal Pradhan) Released by Shabnam Hashmi February 14, 2007 ______ [5] (The Times of India 14 Feb, 2007) Editorial BOYCOTT BIGOTRY A movement is building up in Bollywood to counter unofficial bans imposed by communal outfits on films that question their politics. A few film personalities have threatened to black out Gujarat if Parzania is not allowed to be screened in the state. Distributors have refused to release Parzania, which tells the story of a boy who goes missing during the Gujarat pogrom in 2002, in multiplexes in the state after sections of the sangh parivar, particularly Bajrang Dal, warned of violence. Last year, political parties including BJP and Congress had come together to block the release of Aamir Khan-starrer Fanaa in the state. The film was targeted because Khan had supported the campaign of Narmada Bachao Andolan to protect the rights of people ousted by the Sardar Sarovar Project. It is probable that because Bollywood did not raise its voice against the 'social boycott' of Fanaa Bajrang Dal activists were emboldened to issue threats against the screening of Parzania. The BJP government in Gandhinagar, as expected, has refused to act against perpetrators of the unofficial 'ban'. Bollywood's decision to rally for Parzania is a welcome step, particularly so because its threat to stop releasing films in Gujarat would hurt the industry. It is anybody's guess if sangh parivar outfits would care for a boycott by Bollywood, but this should prompt the government to act against outfits that conduct politics using the threat of violence. Such cultural policing is, to say the least, undemocratic. The politics of social boycott has a long history in India. During the freedom movement, Gandhi built on the tradition of civil disobedience practised by American transcendentalists like Thoreau to boycott the imperial government. It is voluntary political action and derives legitimacy by ascending a higher moral plane. When Bollywood decides to protect its right to freedom of expression by boycotting a state that has failed to guarantee protection of that right, it is following in the Gandhian tradition. The mode of social boycott practised by the likes of Bajrang Dal is an inversion of the same idea. Fear and coercion are central to this tradition and its political morality is dictated by the mob. Unfortunately, there seem to be a lot of takers for politics of this kind. Pattali Makkal Katchi, a caste-centric outfit that is represented in the UPA government, has raised a 'Black Shirt Army' to protect Tamil culture and values. PMK volunteers have resorted to violence and vandalism in the past as part of their cultural policing. However, Gujarat stands out because the Bajrang Dal brand of policing appears to have received the tacit backing of the state government. o o o WHY GUJARAT 'BANNED' PARZANIA One man's diktat is the last word: even Narendra Modi acquiesces ...... by J.S. Bandukwala http://communalism.blogspot.com/2007/02/why-gujarat-banned-parzania.html ______ [6] THE YOGI AND THE FANATIC WILL EASTERN UP BE THE NEXT GUJARAT? by Subhash Gatade GORAKHPUR, a district in UP bordering Nepal and one which had reached national headlines during the anti-colonial struggle for its various militant interventions, is today making news altogether for different reasons. Gone are the days when the imagery of the nascent Indian nation had caught the imagination of the masses, and gone are the days when the region was reverberating with anti-feudal and anti-British slogans; all that is passé today. Today the slogans have achieved a majoritarian slant and talk of building a Hindu Rashtra or of making the whole area the citadel of a particular brand of Hindutva where the writ of only the local MP, who also happens to be the mahant of a famous mutt belonging to the Nath tradition, runs. UNFOLDING SCENARIO The unfolding scenario was once again evident to the outside world when this 'firebrand' MP, Yogi Adityanath, organised a three day international conclave named 'Virat Hindu Mahasammelan' on December 22-24, 2006, here. It was attended by thousands of people which not only included many leaders of the Sangh Parivar, but had enough presence of local sadhus as well as more than 500 delegates from Nepal. Ranging from Swami Nishchalanand Saraswati (the Shankaracharya of Govardhan Peeth, Puri) to Ashok Singhal (international president, VHP) or Keshar Singh (an ex-general of the Nepalese army) to Chinmayanand (a former union minister), it had brought together a motley combination of sadhus, politicos and activists of the Hindutva brigade together to discuss the "challenges present before Hinduism." The congregation not only called for declaration of Nepal as a "Hindu state" and restoration of monarchy there but also resolved for the construction of a grand temple in Ayodhya, "liberation" of the Kashi and Mathura shrines, and ban on cow slaughter. [. . . ] Another 'highlight' of the Mahasammelan was that it was organised parallel to the three day national executive meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party which was billed as the "party's grandest show of unity and strength in recent times." And while the BJP, in its executive meeting, seemed to waver initially on the agenda of Ram temple construction at Ayodhya, the Mahasammelan --- which was in a sense a show of defiance by its own MP --- seemed to focus itself on these very agendas over which the BJP seemed to be going soft because of political exigencies. It is a different matter that at the end of its meeting the party itself discovered the "merits" of raising this issue and riding whole hog on a rabid Hindutva agenda. PARALLELS WITH GUJARAT The question arises: whether the 'party with a difference,' which wears 'discipline' on its sleeves, has decided to tail its own 'defiant' MP or it is part of a wider gameplan of the Hindutva brigade which has seen for itself the 'success' of this model in this part of UP --- a model which has the potential of making it another Hindutva laboratory? It is for everyone to see that the experiment unfolded in this part of Eastern UP in a time of declining fortunes of the Hindutva brigade, and has brightened its prospects in a miraculous manner. It was a marker of things to come that when Gujarat was burning in the aftermath of Godhra, with the fire directed at minorities, Gorakhpur was not far behind. Many parallel instances of terrorising the minorities and razing their houses to ground, all under the leadership of this 'firebrand' Yogi, had then come to light. Loud proclamations of turning Gorakhpur into Godhra-Gujarat were also heard. In the post-Godhra bandh, a Hindu Mahasabha leader considered as the right hand man of the Yogi had in his speech declared: "If only yogiji permits us we will repay a hundred for each." The local MLA, Dr Radha Mohan Das Agarwal, had defiantly declared: "Gorakhpur is a Hindu Rashtra. Yogiji is both its president and prime minister." His speech was widely reported in papers. http://communalism.blogspot.com/2007/02/will-eastern-up-be-next-gujarat.html o o o RIOT, MANUFACTURED IN GORAKHPUR What happened in the eastern Uttar Pradesh town was not a conflict but violence unleashed by MP Yogi Adityanath and his henchmen by Apoorvanand If one tries to understand the developments in Gorakhpur and its neighbouring areas of eastern Uttar Pradesh (Poorvanchal) from January 26 to 31, 2007 through the eyes of the print and electronic media, one moves further away from the truth. It is a sordid story of a highly communalised media conjuring up a riot, collaborating with BJP MP Yogi Adityanath, a Bal Thackeray clone and heir to the Gorakhnath Peeth operating from the Gorakhnath temple. Adityanath is a BJP MP for 'technical' reasons and cares a damn for the niceties of party discipline because he knows that the party cannot dissociate itself from him. Though he mocked the party by holding a Vishwa Hindu Maha Sammelan at the same time as the BJP's National Council meet in Lucknow, the party did not mind. It had earlier swallowed the defeat of its candidate in the Assembly election by Adityanath's candidate. One should know that he is a Thakur; a Thakur heads the BJP now and the Samajwadi Party is also being run by a powerful Thakur. The Thakur spread across partylines ensures that Adityanath is allowed to have his own way in his fiefdom, i.e. Poorvanchal. He makes it a point to give calls for a Gorakhpur bandh whenever the chief minister visits the town. Poorvanchal mein rahan hai to Yogi-Yogi kahan hoga (You have to chant Yogi's name if you want to live in Poorvanchal) is a slogan popularised by his gang. But how true is the claim of his hold on Gorakhpur, leave alone Poorvanchal? He has lost all local elections held recently in and around Gorakhpur, and could only manage to lure the relatively respected Samajwadi Party (SP) member and mayoral candidate Anju Chaudhary to his side. Apparently, Chaudhary fell a victim to the myth spun around him during the last 15 years. Adityanath has been called the Yuvak Hindu Samrat, Narendra Modi of Poorvanchal, the premier of the Hindu Rashtra of Poorvanchal. He has used the wealth of the Gorakhnath Temple to sustain his army of lumpen youth. Adityanath has followed the rss methodology in creating organisations with different names that he calls cultural bodies. Among these are Hindu Yuva Vahini, Sri Ram Shakti Prakoshtha, Gorakhnath Purvanchal Vikas Manch, Hindu Mahasabha and Vishwa Hindu Mahasangh. Adityanath himself is the main functionary of these unregistered outfits. He also controls much of the functioning of the Bajrang Dal and the Hindu Jagran Manch. He holds his durbar in his temple that is attended by local police and officials. Adityanath has perfected his technique of manufacturing riots. An insignificant incident like a Hindu's clothes getting stained accidentally by the paan spat by a Muslim is turned into an act of humiliation of Hindus. A rape in which the victim is dalit and the perpetrator Muslim is used to substantiate the allegation that "Muslims rape our women" and all hell is let loose on the Muslims. The last 11 years are witness to several such acts. No criminal case has been registered against him except once in 1999 when a case was registered against him in Maharajganj after the killing of the official gunman accompanying sp leader Talat Aziz. The police and administration have remained mute spectators with the political leadership looking the other way. All this has given him an air of invincibility. Muslims have been given to understand that neither the Bahujan Samaj Party, nor the sp is willing to rein him in. Perhaps the SP is seeking to counter Mayawati's Brahmin card with its own Thakur card by indulging him. The Congress is nowhere and also lacks a will to take him on. All this leaves the Muslims here with no option but to resign themselves to their fate. [. . .] http://communalism.blogspot.com/2007/02/riot-manufactured-in-gorakhpur.html ______ [7] http://communalism.blogspot.com/2007/02/open-letter-to-rahul-dravid-captain-of.html AN OPEN LETTER TO RAHUL DRAVID, THE CAPTAIN OF INDIA'S CRICKET TEAM by Shamsul Islam 7 February 2007 Dear Rahul Dravid, Namaskar! You, presently, lead the cricket team of India and wear the National Flag, Tri-colour while playing for India in different parts of the globe. You must be well aware of the fact that this Tri-colour represents a Secular-Democratic India and team led by you which includes players from different religions and regions of the country, undoubtedly, symbolize the same reality. I hope you are familiar with the glorious heritage which the National Flag and a Secular-Democratic polity represent. These are the products of great anti-colonial struggle and ruthless fight against theocratic politics represented by organizations like the Muslim League, the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha. Despite the partition of India on the basis of religion mainly forced by Muslim League and dastardly killing of Father of the Nation by persons affiliated to the Hindu Mahasabha and the RSS, India chose to remain a non-theocratic state. That is the significance of the Nation which you and your team represent and the Flag which you display on your costumes. I am sorry to write that by participating in the birth centenary programme of M. S. Golwalkar (Guruji), the ideologue of the RSS, in Nagpur on January 20, 2007, you have not only violated the trust which this country has put in you but also saddened large sections of your fans who love and adore you because you and your team represent a Secular-Democratic India. According to a report which appeared in the Hindi organ of the RSS, Panchjanya (February 4, 2007, p.11), 'Indian cricket captain inaugurated the Surya Namaskar Mahayagya programme in the Vidarbh region (of Masharashtra)'. This campaign was organized by RSS 'to commemorate the birth centenary of Shri Guruji' who happened to be the second chief and the most prominent ideologue of the RSS.The cover page of Panchjanya also shows you lightening the lamp before the garlanded photograph of Golwalkar. I do not know who led you to join this programme of the RSS but I feel duty-bound to bring to your notice few crucial facts about the RSS and Guruji who led it from 1940 to 1973. The first Home Minister of independent India, Sardar Patel, held the RSS responsible for the assassination of Gandhiji. He in a letter to Golwalkar, dated 11 September 1948, clearly stated that it was communal poison spread by the RSS which was responsible for this tragedy. Without mincing words he wrote: 'As a final result of the poison, the country had to suffer the sacrifice of the invaluable life of Gandhiji. Even an iota of the sympathy of the Government, or of the people, no more remained for the RSS. In fact opposition grew. Opposition turned more severe, when the RSS men expressed joy and distributed sweets after Gandhiji's death.' I hope you know that consequently the RSS was banned for its role in the assassination. Dear Rahul Saheb! Golwalkar whose birthday centenary programme you inaugurated was a die-hard fascist who rejected any talk of a democratic-secular India. In 1939 he penned a terrible book We or Our Nationhood Defined which ousted minorities like Muslims and Christians from the Indian nationhood. Even after Independence, in another book his Bunch of Thoughts, Golwalkar declared Muslims as enemy number one and Christians as enemy number two of the country. I wish you had boycotted such a programme as you can vouch to the fact that many Muslim and Christian players playing cricket with you have done proud to the nation. Golwalkar also glorified dictators like Mussolini and Hitler and insisted on adopting their methods for cleansing minorities in India. In his 1939 book while eulogizing Hitler he wrote: 'German race pride has now become the topic of the day. To keep up the purity of the Race and its culture,Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the Semitic Races - the Jews. Race pride at its highest has been manifested here. Germany has also shown how wellnigh impossible it is for Races and cultures, having differences going to the root, to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindusthan to learn and profit by.' It is really astonishing that a renowned sportsperson like you went to be part of programmes dedicated to such a nasty person. I also would like to draw your attention to what RSS thinks about the Tri-colour which you so proudly wear. When the Indian Parliament decided to have Tri-colour as the National Flag, the English organ of the RSS, Organizer, ('Mystery behind the Bhagwa Dhawaj', August 14, 1947) denigrated this great choice in the following words: 'The people who have come to power by the kick of fate may give in our hands the Tricolour but it never [sic] be respected and owned by Hindus. The word three is in itself an evil, and a flag having three colours will certainly produce a very bad psychological effect and is injurious to a country'. The RSS has been demanding the adoption of saffron flag as the National Flag of the country. It also needs to be known that when the Constituent Assembly of India finally passed the Constitution on 26 November 1949, the RSS demanded that it should be replaced by the Codes of Manu (Organizer November 30, 1949) which openly glorified Casteism, upheld persecution of Untouchables and denigrated women. Dear Mr. Rahul! You went to commemorate the birth centenary of a RSS leader who hated democracy and declared (while addressing the top cadres of the RSS at its Reshambagh headquarters, Nagpur in 1940) that Hindu India of his dreams needed only 'one flag (saffron), one leader and one ideology'. Let me end with the hope that a great cricketer like you who stands as a symbol of Democratic-Secular India will not betray the trust the country has shown in you and fall prey to the designs of Hindu Separatism. Wishing you all the best. Shamsul Islam. February 6, 2007 ______ [9] Magazine / The Hindu Feb 11, 2007 Level Playing Field THE STATE AND THE RIGHT TO LIFE by Mike Marqusee IN 1793, the French Convention was debating the fate of the deposed and imprisoned king, Louis XVI. Thomas Paine, an Englishman who had already played a key role in fomenting the American revolution, and whose epochal book, Rights of Man, had made him a criminal in his native land, rose to address the assembly. "Citizen President," he began, "my hatred of and aversion to monarchy are well known. They are based on reason and on conviction, and you would have to take my life before you could eradicate them." But, he went on, he would not and could not support the proposal to execute the former king. "Since France has been the first of all the nations in Europe to abolish royalty, let her be also the first to abolish the penalty of death, and to substitute for it some other punishment." Respect for life Paine spoke as a proud "citizen of the world", and in this instance, as in many others, as a voice for the fully human civilisation that we have yet to achieve. In contrast, the voices crying themselves hoarse for the hanging of Muhammad Afzal speak for the residues of inhumanity, and if they are heeded, a primary condition for the existence of civilised society - respect for the sanctity of human life - will have been profoundly undermined. The argument that the execution of Afzal is required by the "collective conscience" of the nation insults and compromises that conscience. Yes, no doubt, this is a death that many millions in India would welcome and some would celebrate. But the word "conscience" is here grossly misapplied to a cocktail of bloodlust, bigotry, and vindictiveness. It is the duty of the judiciary to act as a check on this mentality; instead, the court has legitimised it, and in doing so, has made the citizens of India less secure and less free. Not democratic It is often forgotten that the ancient injunction of an "eye for an eye" was in its day an attempt to restrict inequitable punishments, to ensure that no more than an eye was taken for an eye. Since then, one hopes, our ideas about what constitutes justice have become more refined. In particular, it is generally recognised that the use of punishment to appease public demand is itself a species of injustice and inimical to democracy. To quote Paine again, "an avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty". Or, as The Temptations put it in their soul masterpiece of 1969, "Ball of Confusion": "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth ... vote for me and I'll set you free." The recognition of human fallibility is a fundamental argument for the rule of law. The irremediable nature of the death penalty makes it incompatible with that rule. In the mid 1970s, in response to the Irish Republican Army's terrorist campaign, many civil liberties were sacrificed, but the British Parliament did at least resist calls for the reinstatement of the death penalty, which had been abolished a decade earlier. As a result, though they were found guilty of horrific crimes of mass murder, the people known as the Birmingham Six and the Guildford Four were not put to death. They served 14-17 years in prison before their innocence was finally established and accepted by the judicial establishment - but at least they were still alive and could be released to enjoy their freedom and their vindication. There is already far more doubt about Afzal's guilt than there was about the guilt of the Birmingham Six or Guildford Four at the time of their convictions. If Afzal is put to death, and evidence of his innocence subsequently emerges, there will be no way to rectify the error. That is why Moses Maimonides, the 12th century Arab Jewish theologian, argued, "It is better and more satisfactory to acquit a thousand guilty persons than to put a single innocent man to death." Punishment and crime India's use of the death penalty is of course far more restrained than the US's (not to speak of China's). But with eagerness to emulate U.S. society currently so widespread in India, it is worth noting that the U.S. experience shows that the death penalty is no deterrent to violent crime, and especially not to terrorist crime. In the 10 years from 1997 to the end of 2006, the U.S. executed 700 convicted criminals (already, since the new year, another seven have been killed). However, not all U.S. States have the death penalty, and in those States which do not, the murder rate is substantially and consistently lower than in those which do. Some research also indicates that executions (or more precisely, the publicity attending them) actually increases the number of murders. Globally, the murder and violent crime rate in the U.S. is on average three times higher than in European countries that have abolished the death penalty. The choice ahead By commuting the sentence on Afzal and going on to abolish the death penalty altogether, India has the chance to join a growing vanguard of progressive and democratic nations. Eighty-eight countries have now abolished capital punishment; thirty others have not used it for 10 years. Since 1990, more than 40 countries have abolished the death penalty, including South Africa, Mexico, the Philippines, Turkey, and nearly all countries in eastern Europe. Abolition of the death penalty is a precondition for membership of the European Union, and European and other States will not extradite terrorist suspects to the U.S. if they are to face the death penalty there. Italy has announced that it will use its current term on the Security Council to promote a global ban on the death penalty. In doing so it has the support of a majority of U.N. member-States as well as all those working worldwide to enhance respect for human rights. In contrast, the execution of Afzal is bound to undermine India's reputation and specifically its campaign for a permanent seat on the Council - unless, of course, it's been decided that this campaign is exclusively dependent on Washington's sponsorship. Whatever he may be guilty of, Afzal has not been accused of being either a direct participant or a major conspirator in the 2001 attack on Parliament. The murder of 2,000 Indian citizens in Gujarat in 2002 was, by any realistic standards, a more severe and damaging attack on the fabric of Indian democracy. Yet prominent individuals whose complicity in that crime is far more direct and more clearly established than Afzal's complicity in the attack on Parliament remain unpunished, and indeed have yet to be brought before a court of law. Betrayed trust There is no excuse for the premeditated and avoidable physical destruction of a human being. That applies as much to States as to individuals. In fact, the State especially, as the guardian of the right to life, betrays its fundamental trust when it executes one of its own. Here one sees not the majesty of the law, but its opposite: the obscenity of legally sanctioned murder. The upshot is that society is coarsened, reckless authority is emboldened and respect for human life is decreased. _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), on matters of peace and democratisation in South Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit citizens wire service run since 1998 by South Asia Citizens Web: www.sacw.net/ SACW archive is available at: bridget.jatol.com/pipermail/sacw_insaf.net/ DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers. _______________________________________________ SACW mailing list SACW@insaf.net http://insaf.net/mailman/listinfo/sacw_insaf.net