Harsh Kapoor
Wed, 21 Feb 2007 19:10:33 -0800
South Asia Citizens Wire | February 21-22, 2007 | Dispatch No. 2363 - Year 9 [1] India- Pakistan: On the Samjhauta Express Fire Bombing . . . - 'A new track is opened up each time a person from one country crosses the border to the other' (Furrukh Khan) - Re My letter published in "The Hindu" (F Zakaria) - Samjhota Express tragedy (Editorial, Dawn) [2] Pakistan: Demise of Gujranwala (Editorial, Daily Times) [3] India: Exiles in their own land (Harsh Mander) [4] India: Area of darkness (Mujibur Rehman) [5] India: 'Treat Hindu terror acts, jihad on par' (Anupam Dasgupta) [6] In India, Showing Sectarian Pain to Eyes That Are Closed (Somini Sengupta) [7] India: Playing Moral Police on Valentines Day [the Left joins hands with the Hindu Right Wing] [8] Letter - On The Holocaust Conference Sponsored By The Government Of Iran (Gholam Reza Afkhami and over one hundred others) [9] International Seminar 'Indo-US Nuclear 'Deal' - India, South Asia, NAM and the Global Order' in (Bombay, 10-11 March 2007) ____ [1] Indian Express February 22, 2007 'A NEW TRACK IS OPENED UP EACH TIME A PERSON FROM ONE COUNTRY CROSSES THE BORDER TO THE OTHER' by Furrukh Khan For many passengers on the Samjhauta Express on its way to Lahore from Delhi, two explosions in the middle of the night ended everything. 'Samjhauta' offers a variety of meanings: understanding, agreement, coming together, compromise and other such affable connotations. This might have been the idea behind naming this train service which provides multiple avenues of negotiation and contact for people between two traditionally hostile and often suspicious governments. Today, that aim of integration, much like the train which symbolised it, lies in a wreckage. One can only imagine how the victims' families are dealing with this mortal blow. Right now the attention should be solely focused on the victims and survivors of this terrible tragedy. Historically, Panipat has been the site where many innocents have lost their lives to the forces of bigotry. It befalls the rest of us to fight back on multiple fronts and talk about coexistence, about tolerance and about life. Such should be a path undertaken by a wider, more diverse group of people from Pakistan and India as a practical and viable alternative to the 'official' track of diplomacy. History has revealed that official talks continue to be held hostage to the actions of a few. But parallel tracks exist. Unfortunately, only one, euphemistically named 'track two' is talked about. But a new track is opened up each time a person from one country crosses the border to the other. It is only by this physical act that one is able to challenge the ideologies of fear and loathing instilled in sections of the population. The victims of the Samjhauta Express carnage, which included children, women and men, all of them innocent, paid a terrible price. It could have been any one of us who might have been unfortunate enough to have been on that train that day. Under 'normal' circumstances, people could have travelled easily across the border to the site of this terrible tragedy. However, considering the track record of India and Pakistan with their citizens, there is no doubt that those affected would have to deal with more insults that add to their injuries. Now is the time to grieve for those whose lives have been forever changed. Yet, when the time comes to take up the task of pushing for a more encompassing dialogue between the people and the governments of Pakistan and India, there has to be a more steely resolve to open more tracks of communication. While one might not be able to do much for the victims, one can at least promise to use their memory to fuel the drive for better relations between the two countries. The moral majority has to make its presence felt through its participation in a variety of ventures which would make it much more difficult for the minority to believe that it can destroy the feelings of goodwill which beat in so many hearts on both sides of the border. Next time someone sets out from Delhi for Lahore, it should be the warmth of a Lahori that greets the traveller, not the murderous smoke and fire of a terrible attack. The writer teaches postcolonial studies at Lahore University of Management Sciences, Lahore o o o Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2007 10:14:27 +0500 SUBJECT: FWD: MY LETTER PUBLISHED IN "THE HINDU" >http://www.hindu.com/2007/02/21/stories/2007022102901001.htm > >I was appalled on reading the article by Praveen >Swami and Siddharth Varadarajan's "Keep the >peace process on track." For a >Pakistani-American and a strong supporter of >better India-Pakistan relations like me, the >deep-seated prejudice of the writers was >disheartening. > >Without a shred of evidence, they have laid the >blame at the door of Pakistanis for the death of >Pakistani citizens. Not once do they even >suggest that this could be the work of Hindu >extremists. > >F. Zakaria, >Palo Alto, California > >This was my original that they edited: > I was appalled and disgusted by both Praveen Swami and Siddharth Varadarajan's op-ed pieces in The Hindu. As a Pakistani-American and a strong supporter of better India-Pakistan relations, the deep seated prejudice of the writers was deeply disheartening. Without a shred of evidence they lay all blame on Pakistanis for the death of Pakistani citizens on the Samjhota Express. Not once do they even raise the possibility that this could also be the work of Hindu extremists, so close to the 5th year anniversary of the terrible Godhra tragedy. If one cannot get fair-minded and balanced opinions in India's premier newspaper what hope do we have of healing the deep wounds of conflict between the two countries. o o o Dawn 21 February 2007 Editorial SAMJHOTA EXPRESS TRAGEDY MONDAY'S tragedy at Panipat is too staggering for words. The identification of the charred bodies will take some time. But so far a minimum of 68 people have fallen victim to flames lit by men utterly indifferent to human suffering. The fire-bombing of the Samjhota Express, carrying 757 passengers, 553 of whom were Pakistanis, did more than cause death and destruction in Samjhota Express; it rocked the subcontinent itself. Newspaper reports and TV images cannot catch even a fraction of the humanitarian dimensions of the tragedy, the grief and misery inflicted on the hundreds of families, and the agonies of the severely burnt now fighting for their lives. What precisely the perpetrators of this crime wanted to achieve by killing innocent civilians and destroying entire families is a mystery. If the aim was to sow discord and derail the peace process, both governments have made it clear that such dastardly deeds will not be allowed to stand in the way of the normalisation process and the pursuit of the composite dialogue to which they are committed. In fact, as Pakistan has made it clear, even the train service will continue to run on schedule. Condemning "such wanton acts of terrorism", President Pervez Musharraf said that he would not allow "elements who want to sabotage the on-going peace process to succeed in their nefarious designs". Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh's focus was on the humanitarian side of the tragedy, and he reaffirmed his government's "commitment to ensure that its perpetrators are punished". Monday's crime at Panipat came a week ahead of the fifth anniversary of the burning of the train at Godhra and a day before the arrival of Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri in New Delhi for talks with his Indian counterpart. It took years of investigations and court judgments to finally establish that the Muslims initially held responsible for the Godhra train fire were not to blame. In the present case, too, one hopes that time will sooner or later establish the truth and unmask the fiends behind this despicable crime whose victims were innocent people. It must also be noted that the casualties would have been far fewer if the Indian authorities had not sealed off all train windows. There are several ways in which the impact and immediate outcome of the Panipat tragedy are different from similar acts of terrorism committed earlier. Unlike what happened immediately after the Bombay train blasts in July last year, no responsible person in the Indian government has pointed fingers at "Pakistan-based terrorist groups" for the crime. Since a majority of the dead are Pakistanis, no one in his right mind would see Islamabad's hand in the crime. Secondly, we now have in place an Indo-Pakistan "anti-terrorism mechanism" to which President Musharraf and Prime Minister Singh agreed at Havana last year. This part of the Havana statement was criticised in India by some right-wing elements who objected to the establishment of a forum designed "to identify and implement counter-terrorism initiatives and investigations." The existence of such an instrument obviously irks those in India who blame Pakistan for every act of terrorism even before investigations begin. There is no doubt that the two sides will jointly investigate a crime that has shocked the world. There are extremists and hate groups on both sides of the border, and they would love to derail the peace process. However, the two governments must know that the scourge of terrorism now seems to be operating on a scale that, if left unchecked, could make a mockery of not only the peace process but everything else meant to promote harmony and understanding between Pakistan and India. ______ [2] Daily Times February 22, 2007 EDITORIAL: DEMISE OF GUJRANWALA A 'religious fanatic' murdered Punjab's welfare minister, Zille Huma Usman, in broad daylight Tuesday as she was about to address an open session of her 'meet-the-people' pre-election routine at the Muslim League House in Gujranwala. The killer was Maulvi Sarwar and the press has tried to play down his heinous crime by calling him an 'Islamist'. In fact, the man is a stereotypical follower of the religious parties. He has serial-killed women in the past but was prevented from being punished by his powerful religio-political patrons. The fact also is that by Gujranwala standards, he was no fanatic, just a product of Gujranwala where the religious parties are strong and the city has contributed the largest number of youthful 'martyrs' to the earlier state-run jihad in Kashmir. Maulvi Sarwar is supposed to have disapproved of women in public life. But this was not sticky personal matter. He was simply following the MMA manifesto against the inclusion of women's special seats in the assemblies. (The deceased minister was inducted on one of these seats by the ruling party.) If the religious alliance is not worried about the consequences of its 'Islamic' teachings, the rest of the nation should certainly be, because it gives the largest number of votes to a woman called Benazir Bhutto. Minister Zille Huma Usman was only 37 and was dreaming of a life of freedom for the daughters of Gujranwala. She had organised the 'marathon' for them in 2005 in Gujranwala which was attacked by the local seminary aligned to the MMA. Unfortunately, far from challenging the seminary at the time and siding with Ms Huma, the provincial government had kowtowed and called off all 'mixed marathons' in the province which finally meant that girls stayed indoors. The minister had received death threats for several months. Most probably they came after it was heard that she was planning another marathon for Gujranwala girls. Who were the people behind these threats? They were the same people who repeatedly saved the serial killer Maulvi Sarwar from being tried and hanged because "he was following his Islamic conscience" and cleansing the city of sin. Let us take a look at this Maulvi Sarwar. The man had earlier murdered seven women described in the press as 'call girls' in Gujranwala and Lahore. He was arrested once and confessed to killing the 'sinful women'; he was let off after one year because of lack of evidence but, more accurately, because of religious support. His patrons, according to the police, had "paid off" the relatives of the killed and been reprieved under 'Islamic' laws. There is nothing new in this. Anybody who knows the decade of religious mayhem in Karachi knows how criminals are protected from punishment by powerful patrons. If our universities had not already been 'conquered' by the religious parties they could have done a sociological profile of Gujranwala as a city without a soul and a dangerous tendency towards punishing all kinds of 'entertainers', often with death. No one could imagine a decade ago that Gujranwala would become so violently Islamist in the future. No doubt it was becoming a wayside city that was growing by accretion without an intellectual mooring, more or less like Faisalabad that began well under the British but declined spiritually afterwards. After General Zia ul Haq's Islamisation, Gujranwala began to produce jihadis and turned inward, scrutinising its citizens for moral backslidings. It first turned on the minorities and produced the famous Salamat Masih Case, accusing an under-age Christian child of insulting the Holy Prophet (PBUH). A religious party attacked him and his co-accused in Lahore when they were coming to attend the High Court, killing one. Salamat Masih had to be sent out of Pakistan to save his life. The second famous Gujranwala case was about a hafiz of Quran and amateur doctor who accidentally dropped his copy of the Holy Quran in the fire and was reported over the loudspeaker by a local cleric. His neighbours came out and burnt him alive. The rural nature of the population was expressed in the way the citizens mistook the word atai (quack doctor) applied to the victim over the loudspeaker, for asai (Christian). In other words, in Gujranwala one doesn't have to check the facts before killing a non-Muslim! Meanwhile, because of the atmosphere of extremism created by the clergy, some citizens like Maulvi Sarwar took to killing women they suspected of fahashi. Maulvi Sarwar began killing women in 2002 after listening to the most powerful cleric of the city (who shall remain unnamed) calling down the wrath of God on the entertainers that performed in the seven theatres of Gujranwala. He was not the only one who was inspired. The city's police and the magistracy equally took part in 'acts of piety' by arresting actresses from the city theatres. Only Maulvi Sarwar went further than that. He turned a serial killer and first murdered two dancing girls of Gujranwala, but went scot-free because witnesses who had earlier deposed against him quickly recanted under threat or inducement. He was now wanted only in one case of injuring a dancing girl after an attempt to murder her. After that, he went around catching dancing girls outside cinema halls and theatres and hotels and shooting them to death. In each case he was let off because many powerful people seemed to actually enjoy or approve of what he was doing. The method was the same: witnesses either recanted or were made to recant. The politicians did nothing in Lahore. In fact one not-very-reputable politician of Gujranwala whose newly elected son was given the portfolio of culture complained to the chief minister that culture was a morally incorrect portfolio as it was not allowed by Islam! Today the press has forgotten the dark past of the city that has killed a young minister who thought of bringing progress to it. While jihad was at its height in the 1990s, the state sacrificed the fourth largest city of Pakistan to 'martyrdom' in Kashmir. Now most cities of the country are becoming like Gujranwala. And the politician and the officer are still slumbering. * ______ [3] Hindustan Times 20 February 2007 EXILES IN THEIR OWN LAND by Harsh Mander (February 19, 2007) She wept bitterly that it was her son's first day at work. We were initially confused. Why was this an occasion for grief? "He is just 10 years old," she explained. It was his own decision to drop out of school, and join his father's trade as a house painter. He felt that if he worked, at least the family would be freed from the burden of providing for him. His home is a grimy single-room tenement at the edge of the garbage dump for all of Ahmedabad city. The colony is one of more than 80 that sprang up for survivors of the 2002 massacre in Gujarat, who continue, even five years later, to live in dread of returning to their original homes. They survive not just as economic refugees but as fugitives from a continuing climate of sustained hate and fear. The Gujarat government is in complete denial about the conditions of internal displacement. In an affidavit to the Supreme Court in January 2006, it admitted that some affected persons had not returned to their homes, but maintained that this was not because of fear but because of superior economic prospects that they found in the new locations. In a recent communication to the Supreme Court commissioners in the right to food case, it stated even more categorically that all "riot-affected people have returned to their homes". This official falsehood was easily nailed by a visit in October 2006 by the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) to 17 such colonies, where they found appalling living conditions. This was further confirmed by a comprehensive survey of 81 relief colonies by Aman Biradari, which found around 30,000 internal refugees living with abysmal denial of public services and livelihoods. The survey noted that not a single of the 81 colonies were established by the state government, which did not even provide the land for any of these. Instead, every single of these were built by Muslim organisations on purchased land. In only six of these was there some kind of collaboration by secular NGOs. This is a grave abdication by the State but also by international and national humanitarian organisations. >From the start, after the forced closure of relief colonies by the Gujarat government in 2002, the return of 200,000 internally displaced persons to the land of their ancestors had to be painfully negotiated with neighbours who had betrayed and attacked them. There was rarely a welcome, or expression of remorse. It was made amply clear that their homecoming was on sufferance. The first condition if they insisted on returning was that they would not give evidence against their attackers in any criminal case. As a result of their consent to this humiliating condition, thousands of criminal cases connected with the carnage collapsed at the stages of investigation or trial. They also had to accept residential segregation and boycott in employment and trade. For those who were unwilling to accept the terms set for their return, or who could still not muster the necessary trust to come back to the land of their ancestors with their families, or those who continued to be openly intimidated, the choices before them were stark: to leave Gujarat, to buy or rent homes in Muslim ghettoes or, if they were too poor, to live in the deprivation of relief colonies. It is difficult to estimate the numbers of the first two, in a situation in which the government refuses to keep records of displacement. This minimises its own responsibility and culpability. But this survey gives an idea of the numbers of internally displaced persons in relief colonies five years later. The colonies were established by Muslim organisations on the cheapest land available, without connecting roads and distant from economic prospects. The daily grind of finding work is compounded by the fact that people who fled from numerous villages were bunched together in colonies that were built with paramount considerations of safety in numbers rather than sustainable prospects of employment. The survey found that the majority of men travel long distances to their old places of residence to eke out work, but there they are hampered by boycott of Muslim shops, eateries, even factory and farm workers and artisans. Women have mostly had to drop out of low-end employment once available in their old homes. Most colonies continue to be treated as 'unauthorised', denied public services of drinking water, drainage, street lighting, ration shops and ICDS centres. There are only five ICDS centres in the 81 colonies, and only three serve supplementary nutrition to children. The NCM noted conditions of great destitution in the colonies - only 725 of the 4,545 families had below poverty line ration cards that entitle them to subsidised foodgrain. Even in such desperate conditions of daily survival, the state government chose to return Rs 19.1 crore unutilised from the highly insufficient grant of Rs 150 crore. Yet, it maintained that all tasks of relief, rehabilitation and compensation were fully accomplished. This was observed with regret also by the NCM, "In the course of our visits to the camps, we found several people who are in need of funds under different schemes. If the state government was able to identify such people and extend the benefits of the scheme to them they would be able to utilise the entire money allotted." The colonies' residents, whose existence, let alone legality, is denied by the government, live under continuous insecurity also because they are vulnerable to pressures from local religious organisations. Residents report pressures to follow the specific beliefs of particular Muslim sects, or other lesser legitimate demands of local managers, on constant threat of overnight eviction. Widows and single women are the most vulnerable. Children, as always, are worst affected. Only two of the 81 colonies were found to have government schools and five some form of private schools. In addition, religious teaching was offered in four mosques. There were non-Muslim students in only two of these schools. By exiling Muslim children into ghettoes and relief colonies through fear and hate, children of both communities are deprived of contact and companionship with children of other faiths. They will be far more susceptible to falsehoods about the 'other' community. In the colony on the garbage dump, children have cleared a space amid the mountains of refuse to play cricket, while we found it hard to bear the stench. The residents survive with spirit and courage, amid sub-human conditions and failure of the State to provide a life of security and dignity to all without discrimination. But they also live with isolation, fear, hate, boycott, intimidation and penury as a way of daily life. For this, we all stand indicted. Harsh Mander is the convenor of Aman Biradari, a people's campaign for secularism, peace and justice. ______ [4] The Times of India 22 February 2007 22 Feb, 2007 AREA OF DARKNESS by Mujibur Rehman Hindu-Muslim relations have impacted India's development discourse more decisively than was anticipated in the pre-Partition years. And for good reason: Conditions of Indian Muslims, according to the Sachar committee report, point to an appalling policy neglect over decades. Public debate on the report suggests it is only about India's contentious Muslim reservation issue. Two articles in this newspaper 'Sachar report flawed' (Jan 23) and 'No Quotas, Please' (Nov 20) are an example of this projection. But the report is, in effect, about how incomplete and shallow the discourse on secularism has been. It also shows how flawed frameworks of interaction between the state and communities have shaped unequal outcomes. While the statistical portrait that emerges from the report is deeply disturbing, identical trends were noticed long before 1947. As early as 1871, W W Hunter in his book, The Indian Musalmans, articulated the community's deep sense of discrimination. "A great section of the Indian population, some 30 million in number, finds itself decaying under British rule. They complain that they, who but yesterday were the conquerors and Governors of the Land, can find no subsistence in it today", he said. Muslim backwardness became the rallying point for a powerful fraction of Muslim elites who successfully campaigned for a separate homeland. In post-Sachar India, Muslim elites have no such option. What, however, still gives an edge to Indian Muslims is the power of their votes in nearly 85 parliamentary constituencies, which could determine the fate of any national regime. With the onset of coalition politics since the early 1990s, Muslim voters have gained unprecedented bargaining power in India's competitive party politics. It is this factor, not commitment to secularism, that motivates non-Hindutva, supposedly secular, political elites to take the Sachar report's recommendations seriously. The claim that there is nothing fresh about the report except that it bears official stamp is quite misleading. The trends are not new, but the facts are. For example, the facts about Muslim backwardness in West Bengal with its 23.16 per cent Muslim population, are a shocking revelation. This fact remained out of public knowledge, even as the region was always part of research agenda of eminent scholars like Amartya Sen, Partha Chatterjee, Sudipta Kaviraj, Amiya Bagchi, Pranab Bardhan and others. It suggests the exclusive character of our mainstream research agenda. The Left Front regime should be given some credit for building a riot-free society, which other major parties failed to accomplish in regions they governed. However, a riot-free society is not enough to address the backwardness of a com-munity with historical disadvantages. This calls for special policy interventions. The report points to a significant intellectual failure. When Muslims were up against a vicious political campaign on so-called appeasement during the late 1980s and early 1990s, the secular response either dismissed it as prejudiced claims of Hindutva ideologues or recognised it as appeasement of Muslim fundamentalists, citing the infamous Shah Bano case. But had the facts the Sachar report lays down been available, the appeasement campaign could have been confronted more effectively. Though this report is the first of its kind exclusively on Indian Muslims, there were similar efforts in the past, such as the Gopal Singh panel (1980-83), which also studied other minorities. According to its member-secretary Rafiq Zakaria, its findings sent shock waves through South Block. As many as 200 researchers were sent to different parts of India to collect the facts, and Rs 57.77 lakh invested in the report's preparation. Although submitted in 1983 to the government, it was tabled in Lok Sabha on August 24, 1990, with its major recommendations rejected. According to MIT scholar Omar Khalidi, the report is not available in any major library. Intellectuals concerned with secularism could have nailed down Hindutva votaries with this panel's findings, but they failed to place this in the public domain. The Sachar report once again exposes the failings of our secular researchers. The writer teaches at Jamia Millia university. ______ [5] Daily News and Analysis February 22, 2007 'TREAT HINDU TERROR ACTS, JIHAD ON PAR' by Anupam Dasgupta Two days after the Samjhauta Express blasts, social activist Teesta Setalvad took potshots at the administration demanding that Hindu right-wing fundamentalist groups like the RSS, Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal and VHP be banned. The point, the firebrand social worker, was trying to convey was that the state governments and the Centre should be neutral to the point of treating Hindu terrorist acts and jihadi terrorism "on a par". Though Setalvad was not willing to comment on the possibility of a "Hindu terror link" to the Samjhauta bombings (since innocent Pakistani nationals were targets), she claimed Hindu terrorist groups are being "protected" by the police and the intelligence agencies. She claimed the acts of terror perpetrated by Hindu fundamentalist groups were not being properly "explained". She said, "In some cases, investigations were abandoned midway while in some others the investigating agencies just preferred to turn a blind eye to the existing state of affairs. The need of the hour is to instil a sense of neutrality and purpose in our police agencies and the way they are marshalled by their political masters." Expressing concern at the smaller urban towns across Maharashtra registering significant growth of "bomb-making factories", mostly run and managed by Hindu operatives with terrorist leanings, Setalvad demanded that they should be arrested by the government. Referring to the "impact explosion" on February 10 at Nanded that took a life due to the inept handling of highly inflammable materials stored inside a godown, Setalvad tried to explain that Hindu right-wing terror is as much a worrying phenomenon as the jihadi variety. Pointing fingers at the sloppy probe into the Malegaon blasts, the activist said the state was virtually compelled to summarily transfer the case to the CBI even as the Anti-Terrorism Squad had a 2,000-page chargesheet in place. On the latest incident at Malegaon (on February 10), Setalvad said the Concerned Citizens Inquiry report - a parallel investigation carried out by the social group in the two Nanded blasts cases - suggested the existence of ingredients (glycerine, sulphuric acid and nitric acid/ glass and gelatine sticks) used in manufacturing liquid bombs. Such materials are being used to prepare crude liquid Molotov cocktails. "The blasts on-board Samjhauta were executed using a combination of similar crude pieces," she claimed. ______ [6] The New York Times - Movies - The Awards Season February 20, 2007 IN INDIA, SHOWING SECTARIAN PAIN TO EYES THAT ARE CLOSED Sarika in Rahul Dholakia's film "Parzania," which isn't being shown in Gujarat, the Indian state where the action is set. by Somini Sengupta MUMBAI - Rahul Dholakia, an Indian filmmaker and a native of the western Indian state of Gujarat, set out five years ago to make a movie about a friend who lost his son during the Gujarat riots of 2002. This film, "Parzania," is based on the true story of Azhar Mody, or Parzan, as he is called in the film, a 13-year-old boy who disappeared during the riots, which began after 59 Hindus died in a train fire for which a Muslim mob was initially blamed. The cause of the train fire is still unknown, though a number of politically competing investigations are looking into it. But there is little mystery in what it inspired: a Hindu-led pogrom against the Muslims of Gujarat, in which 1,100 people were killed, some by immolation, and many women were raped. The film is now being shown in nine Indian cities, and it has received a fair amount of critical acclaim, particularly for the performance of its two leading actors, Naseeruddin Shah, who plays the father, and Sarika, who plays the mother. Time Out Mumbai credited Mr. Dholakia for having managed to "remind viewers of what really happened in 2002, and why it's important not to forget." But in Gujarat, the director's home state, theater owners have said it is too controversial and have refused to show it. "Parzania" is hardly alone; India maintains a storied and constantly replenished dustbin of cannot-be-seen movies. Among the best known are "Black Friday," Anurag Kashyap's film about the 1993 terror attacks on Mumbai, in which Islamist militants were blamed. Its release was held up for over two years by the Central Board of Film Certification, which must clear all films, after those on trial for the crime argued in court that the film could prejudice potential jurors. Another was Anand Patwardhan's 2001 anti-nuclear documentary, "War and Peace," which was released only in 2005, after a protracted court battle. And Mahesh Bhatt's movie of Hindu-Muslim strife, called "Zakhm," meaning wound in Hindi, was released in 1998, but only after the director agreed to alter scenes with headbands and flags in saffron, the color of the Hindu right, by making the headbands and flags gray. Plenty of books and plays have been banned too. The government generally contends that it is for the sake of protecting public order. "Parzania" stands out, though, because theater owners are refusing to screen the film even after it was approved by the censor board. In late January, as Mr. Dholakia prepared to send three prints to Ahmedabad, Gujarat's largest city, the multiplex owners' association called to say they could screen it only if the head of a radical Hindu group called Bajrang Dal, known for rowdy protests, gave his blessings. "I said, 'Are you mad?' " Mr. Dholakia recalled. " 'What's he got to do with it?' " Manubhai Patel, the chairman of the Gujarat Multiplex Owners Association, said the film could inflame tensions among Hindus and Muslims by resurrecting recent history. "They have shown the Gujarat riots," he said by telephone of the movie, which he also said he had not seen. "By now the public has settled down and is living peacefully and engaged in their regular work. We fear that after watching the movie, their sentiments might get hurt, and there might be an uprising again." "Parzania" is set in Ahmedabad, the adopted hometown of Mohandas K. Gandhi and the center of much of the terror. The film offers an unflattering portrait of Gujarat's leaders and police officials. The ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party was widely accused of turning a blind eye to the assaults on Muslims and then, 10 months later, resoundingly re-elected in state elections. "Parzania" chillingly renders a savage mob attack. For Mr. Dholakia, 40, the riots were an eye-opener. He was at home in Corona, a small town east of Los Angeles where he lives most of the year, when news broke of the fire and the mob violence that followed. There, in placid Corona, he sat and watched the horror unfold on Indian satellite television. >From members of his own family, Hindus who live in Gujarat, he heard satisfaction over the carnage. "Whatever happened, we taught these Muslims a lesson," he recalled being told. One of his relatives, a 9-year-old boy, said he wished all the Muslims had been killed. On the third day of the violence, Mr. Dholakia heard about Azhar, the son of his friend Dara Mody, whom he had met years before when Mr. Mody worked as a projectionist at an Indian movie theater in New Jersey. A Hindu mob had attacked the housing complex where the Modys lived. The Modys are Zoroastrians, not Muslims, but the attackers weren't particularly discriminating, and in the confusion the boy became separated from his family and disappeared. News of his friend's loss turned Mr. Dholakia's artistic attention to the brutality that had swallowed his state, an unlikely transformation for a self-described apolitical man who for 15 years has produced a celebrity-studded Bollywood-style annual dance contest in New Jersey. He was a co-writer of the screenplay for "Parzania" and shot it, mostly in Gujarat, in 2004. The $700,000 needed to make the film came largely from two Indian friends in the United States. The film was cleared by the censor board in August 2005, but after meeting with a number of reluctant distributors, Mr. Dholakia, who has been commuting between Corona and Mumbai, took on that job as well. Mr. Dholakia said he now planned to organize private screenings of "Parzania" in Gujarat, partly out of a faint hope that they would help Azhar Mody's parents learn what happened to their son. The film ends with a photograph of Azhar and an appeal for information. "His parents are still waiting for him," the message reads, and offers an e-mail address to which tips can be sent: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ______ [7] [ PLAYING MORAL POLICE : Communist students in Rajasthan openly join the right wing show ] Washington Post 13 February 2007 Guns, Roses & India's V-Day by Emil Steiner Valentine's Day Massacre? Cupid Better Pack Some Extra Arrows If you thought Americans went crazy with their Valentine's Day brew-ha-ha, wait 'till you hear about the insanity which may go down in India's Madhya Pradesh. According to reports, the right-wing Hindu group Bajrang Dal is so opposed to Western tradition that they are threatening to force couples caught fooling around into on-the-spot marriages. Rolling around town in their "vivah rath (marriage chariot) manned by activists," they hope to discourage the celebration of Hallmark's February festival through intimidation and shame. Couples who refuse marriage will be forced to "tie a rakhi (a thread on the wrist establishing brother-sister relation)." Does that make it incest? Their efforts will be opposed by two women's groups, who plan to arm themselves with batons and mace (Lord Hanuman's weapon of choice) "to take on those threatening to oppose Valentine's Day." Gun-toting police will also be on patrol to uphold people's right to smooch from the marauding anti-Valentine patrols. Meanwhile, the Congress' student wing, National Students' Union of India, will take a more fragrant approach, "offering roses to Bajrang Dal workers," to dissuade them from harassing young lovers. With these opposing forces taking to the streets, Cupid's holiday of candy hearts and cheesy cards may degenerate into a Valentine's Day massacre. o o o The Hindu Shiv Sena, SFI threaten to spoil V-day Jaipur, Feb. 14 (PTI): Organisations affiliated to the Shiv Sena and CPI(M) on Tuesday warned against Valentine's Day celebrations, and said they would "blacken the faces" of those making public displays of affection. Bharatiya Kamgar (Shiv Sena), Students' Federation of India (CPI-M) and Sanskriti Bachao Samiti said in separate statements they would not allow couples to romance in public. They threatened to "blacken the faces" of young couples found diplaying their love in public places and to burn Valentine's day cards outside gift shops. SFI national vice-president, Sanjay Madhav, said "unsocial elements" will not be allowed to "distort" Indian values, while Kamgar leader Govind Khandelwal said a demonstration would be organised outside the District Collectorate today. Sanskriti Bachao Samiti president, Amit Punia, said six teams of youth would move around the colleges and university campus to "detect couples abusing public places." ______ [8] The New York Review of Books February 15, 2007 Letter ON THE HOLOCAUST CONFERENCE SPONSORED BY THE GOVERNMENT OF IRAN by Gholam Reza Afkhami and over one hundred others To the Editors: We the undersigned Iranians, Notwithstanding our diverse views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; Considering that the Nazis' coldly planned "Final Solution" and their ensuing campaign of genocide against Jews and other minorities during World War II constitute undeniable historical facts; Deploring that the denial of these unspeakable crimes has become a propaganda tool that the Islamic Republic of Iran is using to further its own agendas; Noting that the new brand of anti-Semitism prevalent in the Middle East today is rooted in European ideological doctrines of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and has no precedent in Iran's history; Emphasizing that this is not the first time that the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has resorted to the denial and distortion of historical facts; Recalling that this government has refused to acknowledge, among other things, its mass execution of its own citizens in 1988, when thousands of political prisoners, previously sentenced to prison terms, were secretly executed because of their beliefs; Strongly condemn the Holocaust Conference sponsored by the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Tehran on December 11-12, 2006, and its attempt to falsify history; Pay homage to the memory of the millions of Jewish and non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust, and express our empathy for the survivors of this immense tragedy as well as all other victims of crimes against humanity across the world. Abadi, Delnaz (Filmmaker, USA) Abghari, Shahla (Professor, Life University, USA) Abghari, Siavash (Professor/Chair, Department of Business Administration, Morehouse College, USA) Afary, Janet (Faculty Scholar/Associate Professor of History, Purdue University, USA) Afkhami, Gholam Reza (Senior Scholar, Foundation for Iranian Studies, USA) Afkhami, Mahnaz (Executive Director, Foundation for Iranian Studies/Women's Rights Advocate, USA) Afshar, Mahasti (Arts/Culture Executive, USA) Afshari, Ali (Human Rights Advocate/Political Activist, USA) Ahmadi, Ramin (Associate Professor, Yale School of Medicine/Founder, Griffin Center for Health and Human Rights, USA) Akashe-Bohme, Farideh (Social Scientist/Writer, Germany) Akbari, Hamid (Human Rights Advocate/Chair/Associate Professor, Department of Management and Marketing, Northeastern Illinois University, USA) Akhavan, Payam (Jurist/Senior Fellow, Faculty of Law of McGill University, Canada) Amin, Shadi (Journalist/Women's Rights Activist, Germany) Amini, Bahman (Publisher, France) Amini, Mohammad (Writer/Political Activist, USA) Amjadi, Kurosh (Human Rights Advocate) Apick, Mary (Actress/Playwright/Producer/Human Rights Advocate, USA) Ashouri, Daryoush (Writer/Translator, France) Atri, Akbar (Student Rights and Political Activist, USA) Bagher Zadeh, Hossein (Human Rights Advocate/Former Professor, Tehran University, Great Britain) Bakhtiari, Abbas (Musician/Director, Pouya Iranian Cultural Center, France) Baradaran, Monireh (Human Rights Advocate/Writer, Germany) Behnoud, Massoud (Writer/Journalist, Great Britain) Behroozi, Jaleh (Human Rights Advocate/Iranian Mothers' Committee for Freedom, USA) Beyzaie, Niloofar (Theater Director/Playwright, Germany) Boroumand, Ali-Mohammad (Lawyer, France) Boroumand, Ladan (Historian/Research Director, Boroumand Foundation, USA) Boroumand, Roya (Historian/Human Rights Advocate, USA) Chafiq, Chahla (Sociologist/Writer/ Women's Rights Advocate, France) Dadsetan, Javad (Filmmaker) Daneshvar, Abbas (Chemist, Netherlands) Daneshvar, Hassan (Mathematician, Netherlands) Daneshvar, Reza (Writer, France) Davari, Arta (Painter, Germany) Djalili, Mohammad Reza (Professor, L'Institut Universitaire de Hautes Études Internationales, Switzerland) Ebrahimi, Farah (USA) Eskandani, Ahmad (Entrepreneur, France) Fani Yazdi, Reza (Political Activist, USA) Farahmand, Fariborz (Engineer, USA) Farssai, Fahimeh (Writer, Germany) Ghahari, Keivandokht (Historian/Journalist, Germany) Ghassemi, Farhang (Professor in Strategic Management, France) Hejazi, Ghodsi (Professor/Researcher, Frankfurt University, Germany) Hekmat, Hormoz (Human Rights Advocate/Editor, Iran Nameh, USA) Hojat, Ali (Entrepreneur/Human Rights Advocate, Great Britain) Homayoun, Dariush (Writer, Switzerland) Idjadi, Didier (Professor/Associate Mayor, France) Jahangiri, Golroch (Women's Rights Advocate, Germany) Jahanshahi, Marjan (Professor, Institute of Neurology, University College London, Great Britain) Karimi Hakkak (Director, Center for Persian Studies, University of Maryland, USA) Kazemi, Monireh (Women's Rights Advocate, Germany) Khajeh Aldin, Minoo (Painter, Germany) Khaksar, Nasim (Writer, Germany) Khazenie, Nahid (Remote Sensing Scientist/Program Director, NASA, USA) Khodaparast Santner, Zari (Landscape Architect, USA) Khonsari, Mehrdad (Political Activist, Great Britain) Khorsandi, Hadi (Poet/Writer, Great Britain) Khounani, Azar (Educator/Human Rights Advocate, USA) Mafan, Massoud (Publisher, Germany) Malakooty, Sirus (Composer/Chairman, Artists Without Frontiers, Germany) Manafzadeh, Alireza (Writer, France) Mazahery, Ahmad (Engineer/Political Activist, USA) Mazahery, Lily (Lawyer, President of the Legal Rights Institute/Human Rights Advocate, USA) Memarsadeghi, Mariam (Freedom House, USA) Mesdaghi, Iraj (Human Rights Advocate/Writer, Sweden) Milani, Abbas (Director, Iranian Studies Program, Stanford University, USA) Mohyeddin, Samira (Graduate Student, University of Toronto, Canada) Moini, Mohammadreza (Journalist/ Human Rights Advocate, RSF, France) Molavi, Afshin (Journalist, USA) Monzavi, Faeze (Women's Rights Advocate, Germany) Moradi, Golmorad (Political Scientist/Translator, Germany) Moradi, Homa (Women's Rights Advocate, Germany) Moshaver, Ziba (London Middle East Institute, SOAS, Research Fellow, Great Britain) Moshkin-Ghalam, Shahrokh (Ballet Dancer/Actor, France) Mourim, Khosro (Sociologist, France) Mozaffari, Mehdi (Professor of Political Science, Denmark) Naficy, Majid (Poet/Writer, USA) Nafisi, Azar (Writer/Johns Hopkins University, USA) Nassehi, Reza (Human Rights Advocate/Translator, France) Pakzad, Jahan (Teacher/Researcher, France) Parham, Bagher (Writer/Translator, France) Parsipour, Shahrnush (Writer, USA) Parvin, Mohammad (Human Rights Advocate/Founding Director of Mehr/Adjunct Professor, California State University, USA) Pirnazar, Jaleh (Professor, Iranian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, USA) Pourabdollah, Farideh (Human Rights Advocate, USA) Pourabdollah, Saeid (Human Rights Advocate, USA) Rashid, Shahrouz (Poet/Writer, Germany) Royaie, Yadollah (Poet, France) Rusta, Mihan (Human Rights Advocate/Refugee Adviser, Germany) Sadr, Hamid (Writer, Austria) Sarchar, Houman (Independent Scholar, USA) Sarshar, Homa (Journalist, USA) Satrapi, Marjane (Writer, France) Sayyad, Parviz (Actor/Playwright, USA) Shahriari, Sheila (World Bank, USA) Soltani, Parvaneh (Actor/Theater Director, Great Britain) Tabari, Shahran (Journalist, Great Britain) Taghvaie, Ahmad (Founding Member, Iranian Futurist Association, USA) Toloui, Roya (Human Rights Advocate, USA) Vaziri, Hellen (Germany) Wahdat-Hagh, Wahied (Social Scientist, USA) Zarkesh Yazdi, Fathieh (Human Rights and Refugee Rights Advocate, Great Britain) Ziazie, Arsalan (Writer, Germany) ______ [9] INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR ON 'INDO-US NUCLEAR 'DEAL' - INDIA, SOUTH ASIA, NAM AND THE GLOBAL ORDER' in Mumbai, India, March 10-11 [2007] Venue: St. Pius College, Goregaon (E), Mumbai [Bombay, India] Dear Friends, The Afro-Asian Peoples' Solidarity Organisation (AAPSO), headquartered in Cairo, in collaboration with other organisations in India, the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP) and Vikas Adhyayan Kendra (VAK) to begin with, are organising a two-day International Seminar on 'Indo-US Nuclear 'Deal' - India, South Asia, NAM and the Global Order' in Mumbai, India on March 10th and 11th, 2007. The impact of the 'deal' would be multiple. 1. It would accelerate the nuclear arms race in South Asia severely undermining our objectives of a peaceful nuke free South Asian region. 2. It would also act as a serious dampener for the pursuit of renewable and environmentally benign energy like wind power, solar energy and such others. 3. It would also weaken our efforts of making India take a lead role in the struggle for a nuclear weapons free South Asia and the world. The objectives of the seminar are twofold and closely intertwined. The seminar to be held in Mumbai would try to spread awareness about the harmful effects of the 'Deal' amongst the different sections of Indian public including the opinion-makers and decision-makers and also have a strong regional impact. It would also engage with the benefit of the presence of a number of national, regional and international expert-activists an effective strategy to counter and scuttle this nefarious move making use of the NAM resource base as well. The schedule of the programme is as follows: March 10 (Saturday) 10 00-11 00: Registration & Inauguration. 11 00-14 00: 1st Plenary: 'Indo-US Nuke Deal: India , Non-Aligned Movement and the Emerging Global Order'. 15 00-18 00: 2nd Plenary: 'Indo-US Nuke Deal: Its Impacts on Global and Regional Nuclear Arms Race'. March 11 (Sunday) 10 00-13 00: 3rd Plenary: 'Indo-US Nuke Deal: Its Impacts on Global and Regional Energy Options'. 14 00-18 00: 4th Plenary: Strategy Session and adoption of Resolution. We invite you to the seminar and would also invite your organization to be a part of the organizers. The local hospitality, for all outside delegates, would be taken care of by the local host committee. Regards, Bombay Urban Industrial League for Development (BUILD) Centre Study of Society and Secularism (CSSS) Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP) Documentation & Research Training Centre (DRTC) Forum for Justice & Peace (FJP) Indian Institute for Peace, Disarmament & Environmental Protection Institute Community Organization & Research (ICOR) Pakistan India Peoples Forum for Peace & Democracy (PIPFPD) Peace Mummbai People's Media Initiative Vikas Adhyayan Kendra (VAK) (The list is growing.) An Extract from the Concept Note: Background On the December 18 last the US President George Bush inked the Henry Hyde Act towards actualizing the much talked of Indo-US Nuke 'Deal', which had been outlined in the Bush-Singh joint statement issued on July 18 2005 at Washington DC and further developed and reiterated on March 2 in the joint statement issued from Delhi. The 'Deal', however, has still to pass through a number of stages in order to be operative. To be more specific, India and the US will have to work out an agreement, popularly known as 123 Agreement, on the specifics of the 'cooperation' in terms of respective rights and responsibilities. Promises are being made from the US side that precisely at this stage India's current concerns will be addressed and the legal framework as worked out by the US Congress in the form of the Act will be tricked to the extent necessary. Be that as it may, India will also have to work out a separate treaty with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) laying down the scopes and terms of inspections of the 'civilian' plants. And then both these agreements will be presented to the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) for ratification. On consensual endorsement by the NSG the whole package will again be presented to the US Congress for final approval so as to enable the President to bring it into force. An Analysis of the 'Deal' The 'Deal' has essentially three dimensions: the strategic-political, the nuclear weapons related and the energy dimension. ....... Summary The 'Deal' as and when, and if at all, comes through will grievously undermine the current global regime of nuclear non-proliferation and thereby also the prospects of global nuclear disarmament. It is also likely to further aggravate tensions and accelerate arms race in the region. So it's a very serious negative development for global and regional peace and security. It'd also further cement the growing strategic ties between the US and India and thereby would add momentum to the US project for unfettered global dominance. It'd just not only undermine India's position as a founding and leading member of the NAM, it'd also pose a very serious challenge to the NAM and its objectives in terms of radically raised level of US domination on the global scene. It'd also act as a booster for nuclear energy industry and a considerable dampener for efforts to develop ecologically benign renewable sources of energy - nationally and also globally. The Speakers: The confirmed speakers include: Ms. Hamsa Abd El-Hamid from the International Secretariat, AAPSO, Cairo. John Hallam from Australia. Also Achin Vanaik, Praful Bidwai, M V Ramana, Sandeep Pandey, Surendra Gadekar from India. Speakers, and delegates, are expected also from Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Iraq, Bahrain and a few other countries apart from India. A press conference will be held on March 12 in the afternoon. N.B.: Outstation participants may send in their confirmation ASAP to "Mr. Sushovan Dhar"<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (Phone: 91 22 28898662 / 28822850, Mobile: 9821855593) for arrangement of accommodation. _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ 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