South Asia Citizens Wire | August 25-26, 2007 | Dispatch No. 2440 - Year 9 [1] Global capital and the cities of the south (Arif Hasan) [2] Grave crisis over India-US nuclear deal (Praful Bidwai) [3] India: Peace Mumbai Condemns 123 Agreement [4] Bangladesh: - Shahidul Alam's account of recent happenings in Dhaka - Release of five university teachers demanded [5] India: Assault on Taslima - Abuse of Article 16 (Editorial, EPW) [6] In India, Parents of Brides-to-Be Hire Sleuths (Mridu Khullar) [7] India - Gujarat: Youth Karwan threatened and Intimidated by BJP MLA [8] Announcements: (i) Screening of Kavita Joshi's film 'Tales from the Margins' (New Delhi, 26 August 2007) (ii) Sharing of the Youth Karwan Experience (Ahmedabad, August 27, 2007) (iii) Upcoming Events at the Second Floor (Karachi, 29 August - 9 September, 2007) ______
[1] Dawn August 24, 2007 GLOBAL CAPITAL AND THE CITIES OF THE SOUTH by Arif Hasan KARACHI: International capital is desperately looking for a home. Cities of South and South-East Asia are attractive destinations since they have a weak regulatory framework and have undergone structural adjustment. Here, this investment, is increasingly determining not only the shape of the city but also social and economic relations. New terms, such as "world class cities", "investment-friendly infrastructure", "foreign direct investment" or "FDI" as it is called, cities as "engines of growth", have entered the development vocabulary. All politicians and official planners in the Asian cities are using these terms and it is largely because of them that the whole approach to planning has undergone a change. Local governments are obsessed by making cities "beautiful" to visitors and investors. This means building flyovers and elevated expressways as opposed to traffic management and planning; high-rise apartments as opposed to upgraded settlements; malls as opposed to traditional markets (which are being removed); removing poverty from the centre of the city to the periphery to improve the image of the city so as to promote FDI; catering to tourism rather than supporting local commerce; seeking the support of the international corporate sector (developers, banks, suppliers of technologies and the IFIs) for all of the above. The above agenda is an expensive one. For this, sizeable loans have been negotiated with the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) on a scale unthinkable before. For example, between 1976 and 1993, Sindh borrowed $799.64 million for urban development. Almost all of this was for Karachi. Recently, the government has borrowed $800 million for the Karachi Mega City Project. Of this, $5.33 million is being spent on technical assistance being provided by foreign consultants. Almost all the projects designed and funded through previous loans have not met their objectives and there is evidence to show that they will again not meet their objectives as the same process for their design and implementation as before is being followed. Many of the new projects are being floated on a BOT process. It is clear that the projects have replaced planning. This is especially true of transport related projects. Cities such as Bangkok, Manila, Cairo and earlier Calcutta have made major investments in light rail and metro systems. Other Asian cities are following their example. However, these systems are far too expensive to be developed on a large enough scale to make a difference. Manila's light rail caters to only 8 per cent of trips and Bangkok's sky train and metro to only 3 per cent of trips and Calcutta's metro to even less. The light rail and metro fares are 3 to 4 times higher than bus fares. As a result, the vast majority of commuters continue to travel by rundown bus systems. In addition, there has never been more liquidity in banks and leasing companies. However, due to the freedom that these loan giving institutions have today, this liquidity is used to provide short-term high interest loans which do not bring any benefit to the city or to the majority of its residents. For example, 502 vehicles have been added to Karachi per day during the last financial year, more than half of which are cars. It is estimated that about 50 percent of these have been financed through loans from banks and leasing companies. This means that loans worth $1.125 billion were issued for this investment which could easily have been utilised for improving the public transport system or for the badly needed social housing. The nature of investments being made in many of the Asian cities and the mindset behind them, are increasing land hording; evictions of settlements, hawkers and informal businesses; informal settlements far away from the city and from social sector facilities; exclusion (due to gentrification) of poorer communities from public spaces of recreation and entertainment; and, the ad-hoc urbanization of ecologically sensitive and agriculturally productive land. Monitoring of evictions by the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights, a Bangkok base NGO, has shown that in seven Asian countries (Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines) evictions are increasing dramatically. Between January to June 2004, 334,593 people were evicted in the urban areas of these countries. In January to June 2005, 2,084,388 people were evicted. In Karachi as well evictions have quadripiled in the last four years and an increasing number of families are now sleeping and living on pavements in the absence of an alternative. The major reason for these evictions has been the "beautification" of the city, mega projects and the land hunger of the developers backed by politicians and bureaucrats. In the majority of cases, people did not receive any compensation for the losses they incurred and where resettlement did take place it was 25 to 60 kilometres from the city centre. The current master and/or strategic plans are not giving priority (unlike in the decade of the eighties) to the socio-economic issues arising out of these trends. The rich-poor divide has increased as a result of these policies. Subsidies for the social sectors and increase in inflation and price of utilities, especially in countries which have undergone structural adjustment, has multiplied this divide. The economic survey of Pakistan 2006-07 concedes that the gap between the rich and the poor is widening. It says that the share of consumption of the richest 20 per cent stands at 39.4 while it is 9.5 for the bottom 20 per cent population. The survey further states that the gap is growing in spite of a 7 per cent GDP growth. However, the most serious repercussion of this new development paradigm is that the overwhelming power of international capital and consultants and their local partners has weakened government institutions and the democratic political process. Governments have become deaf to the concerns of the environmental and dissenting academic lobbies. And all this in an age where the media is freer than before and "consultations" are the order of the day. NGOs and community activists and academics in most Asian cities in which I have worked have the same complaint. They claim that consultations are an eyewash and environmental assessments are rubber stamps. Meanwhile, successful NGO projects, the result of the populism of the '80s, have now in most cases become "respectable" and are in partnership with governments. Also, the NGO movement has undergone a change. It is increasingly an industry manned by "development professionals" and no longer by populist altruism. Most of these "development professionals" have been trained at special courses in First World universities who have turned exploratory Third World practices into development theory! If this Trend Continues If the present trend continues then the rich-poor divide, evictions, informal settlements and exclusion will increase with not only the poor but also the rich living in ghettos surrounded by armed guards and security systems (this is already happening). Governance issues will increasingly become law and order related and not justice and equity related. This will increase fragmentation for the only thing that will hold the city together will be an aggressively upwardly mobile middle class which by its very nature is not interested in issues of justice and equity. In addition, development will take place where the investor is happy and so the other regions will become the backwaters (again this is also happening). The continuation of the current process is a recipe for conflict. How can this be changed? Foreign capital (and local liquidity) has its benefits and must be encouraged. However, it has to fit into a larger development plan based on development principles so that an inclusive and an environmentally friendly urban environment can be created. These principles could be: one, planning should respect the ecology of the areas in which the urban centres are located; two, land use should be determined on the basis of social and environmental considerations and not on the basis of land value or potential land value alone; three, planning should give priority to the needs of the majority of population which in the case of Asia are low- and lower-middle income communities, hawkers, informal businesses, pedestrians and commuters; and four, planning must respect and promote the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of the communities that live in the city. Zoning byelaws should be developed on the basis of these principles so that they are pedestrian friendly and street friendly, pro-dissolved space and pro-mixed land use. If South-Asian cities are to be taken as examples, then what is required is: one, a heavy non-utilisation fee on land so as to bring horded land into the market; two, a cut-off date for the regularisation of informal settlements and an end to evictions (where relocation is required, market rate compensation should be paid); three, planned squatting for five years during which programmes for closing the demand-supply gap for low income housing takes place; four, initiation of programmes for built units and plots which successfully solve the issues related to targeting and speculation (apart from the small scale of social housing, the failure to respond to these issues is the main reason for the failure of social housing attempts all over the Third World); five, development of rules, regulations and procedures to guarantee that the natural, entertainment and recreational assets of the city will not be in the exclusive use of the elite or the middle classes; six, a regime for privatisation backed by institutional arrangements that guarantees provision of sustainable employment and development; and seven, an understanding that all programmes and projects will be advertised at their conceptual stage, subject to public hearings before finalisation, supervised by a steering committee of interest groups, have their accounts published regularly, and overseen by one government official from the beginning to the end. The major question is how can the above agenda be achieved in an age where social and political evolution is in a flux and the economy is controlled globally by undemocratic international organisations? For example, the UN is controlled by five members who won the Second World War; the IMF and the World Bank function on the principle of one dollar one vote; the WTO was created out of the green room negotiations that produced GATT. Not much democracy in global institutions in an age of globalisation! Civil society organisations in many countries have come together to challenge the new urban development paradigm. However, most of them are funded by bilateral agencies and international NGOs who, or the governments they represent, are the promoters of this paradigm. Maybe because of this their success has been limited. There are also international movements seeking to modify the inequities in global relations of trade and aid. Over the last few years they have become weaker. The only viable option seems to be to make this important issue a part of the larger political process within countries. How this can be done effectively is the big question. (The above text was prepared as a discussion paper for a meeting of the UN University in New York in July 2007) ______ [2] The News August 25, 2007 GRAVE CRISIS OVER INDIA-US NUCLEAR DEAL by Praful Bidwai The writer, a former newspaper editor, is a researcher and peace and human-rights activist based in Delhi The confrontation between the United Progressive Alliance and the Left over the India-United States nuclear deal has ballooned into a major crisis, which could potentially dislodge the government. The roots of the crisis lie in the way the "123 agreement" was negotiated, without political leaders being taken into confidence about its context or content, or involved in resolving differences over its text. Opposition to the deal, whether genuine, procedural or contrived, is widespread. But it's only when the Left presented its critique on August 7 that matters came to a head. This was the first well-informed and -reasoned critical analysis of the deal it after the "123" text was made public. Even so, an ugly confrontation might have been avoided but for two events. First, Singh gave an interview to the Kolkata-based Telegraph (Aug 11), challenging the Left to withdraw support to the UPA. Second, US State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack was reported to have said that under "123", "all nuclear cooperation [would be] terminated" if India conducts nuclear test. This was one day after Singh said that testing is India's "sovereign decision", and won't cause sudden termination. If the second event created confusion, the first provoked the Left. Singh taunted it for not having "thought" things "through", and said: "It is an honourable deal if [the Left parties] want to withdraw support, so be it" Singh's self-styled advisers calculated that this would help him play the CPM's so-called "moderate modernisers" in West Bengal off against its "hardliners" to trump their opposition. This betrayed a serious misunderstanding of how the Left parties make policy decisions. It also underrated the unanimity among them on foreign policy and security issues. The Left's reaction was ballistic. Within three days, Singh was begging CPM general secretary Prakash Karat for a reconciliation meeting. Thus began the worst-ever crisis in UPA-Left relations. The CPM, joined by the other three Left parties, demanded that that the government suspend further talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Nuclear Suppliers' Group to complete the deal. Or there would be "serious consequences". Without the Left's support, the UPA would fall short of a parliamentary majority by 30 to 50 seats. Instead of sincerely exploring a via media, the UPA deviously resorted to accusing the Left of acting at China's and Pakistan's behest. This tendentious charge was articulated through Right-wing pro-US China-Pakistan-baiters masquerading as "experts". In reality, there is no live contact between the Indian Left and the Chinese Communist Party, over some of whose policies the Left has serious misgivings. India is now witnessing the most vicious attack on the Left since the 1962 China War. Every Tom, Dick and Harry in the media--from semi-literate television anchors, to former intelligence spooks, to pitiable third-edit writers--is unleashing vitriolic anti-Communist assaults. This new McCarthyism betrays malignant intolerance. Such intolerance can only have dangerous consequences for public debate. If every dissenting opinion is attributed to the "foreign hand" by suppressing its rational content, and if every difference on principle is reduced to an "ego clash" between personalities, there can be no rational discourse on policy issues. That does not bode well for Indian democracy. It's simply undeniable that the Indian Left represents the most important current driven by ideology and principle in politics, which perhaps concentrates more brainpower per capita than any other party. Despite the Left's conduct in Singur and Nandigram--of which this writer has been strongly critical--, its objection to the deal on strategic grounds cannot be dismissed. As this column argued two weeks ago, the nuclear deal is inseparable from the larger US game-plan to recruit India into a junior strategic partnership, not least to counter China, and more broadly, to create an anchor for a Washington-dominated security architecture in Asia. The deal cannot be divorced from the Defence Framework agreement of June 2005, nor from India's two votes against Iran at the IAEA, nor from the 27 recent high-level military exercises with the US. The Left's critique of the deal is foundational. It's centred on the US's deeply destabilising world role, and its attempt to ignite a second Cold War by encircling Russia with NATO and targeting China and Iran through "Son of Star Wars" Ballistic Missile Defence. The US remains the globe's most belligerent power, which has made the world more insecure through its Global War on Terror and its Empire project. True, the Left did not consistently emphasise the deal's strategic dimensions in the past two years, and often concentrated on its text rather than context. Since December, it has been more concerned to point to differences between the Hyde Act and Singh's assurances to parliament. It didn't really agitate the issue in public. Any genuine, principled opposition to the deal should logically have focused on its harmful global and regional consequences for nuclear disarmament, and its promotion of an inappropriate, costly, hazardous and environmentally unsound energy trajectory through nuclear power development--besides its consequences for the loss of India's strategic and foreign policy autonomy via a strategic embrace of the US. These are significant errors of omission. However, the government's errors of commission are graver. Singh acted like a typical bureaucrat, and left the deal's negotiation to bureaucrats alone, without bringing political leaders on board. He consistently underplayed its strategic consequences, and fomented the illusion that the deal would offer a magic bullet for India's energy problems. He capitulated to US pressures. Former US assistant secretary of state Stephen Rademaker says India's votes on Iran were obtained through "coercion". Singh continues to pay lip-service to disarmament, while knowing fully well that the deal will enable India to stockpile 1,600 kg of plutonium every year--enough for more than 300 bombs, in addition to the existing estimated inventory of 100-150 warheads. This is a recipe for a nuclear arms race with Pakistan, and worse, China, which can only reduce the security of all three. Now, the UPA faces a crisis of survival. It would be foolish for it to brazen this out. It can still rescue the situation by doing four things. The first is to distance itself strategically from Washington demonstrably--by cancelling the huge military exercises with the US, Japan, Australia and Singapore planned for September. Second, it should initiate what might be called a "domestic Hyde Act" to prevent the transfer of any imported nuclear material/equipment out of India which would jeopardise the continuous operation of Indian reactors. Third, the UPA must update the Rajiv Gandhi plan of 1988 for global nuclear disarmament and place it before the United Nations. That's the only concrete way of fulfilling the National Common Minimum Programme's promise that India would seize "leadership" in fighting for a nuclear weapons-free world. Finally, the UPA must launch a national debate on nuclear power, reviewing India's (unhappy) experience with it, analysing its international performance, and focusing on its hazards, costs and unsustainability. The UPA must suspend negotiations on the deal while these processes are under way. Similarly, the Left must clarify that it won't vote against the government or contribute to its fall, thus helping the BJP. That could promote an honourable solution. ______ [3] PEACE MUMBAI CONDEMNS 123 AGREEMENT Peace Mumbai, an umbrella organisation of various NGOs and mass organisations based in Mumbai, notes with serious concern that the text negotiated between the designated US and Indian officials in Washington DC and finalised on 20th of July for the "123 Agreement" - a major step forward towards operationalising the controversial nuclear cooperation deal between the US and India has been okayed by the Union Cabinet in a hush hush manner without taking even the law-makers, let alone the general public, into confidence. This obviously flies in the face of basic democratic values and norms. This deal, it needs be pointed out, will have serious repercussions on the future relations between India and the US - and thereby the rest of the world, particularly India's traditional allies and neighbours not too friendly with the US; the prospects of global and regional nuclear proliferation and disarmament; and also India's energy security. Peace Mumbai is opposed to the deal on all these three counts. I. Strategic proximity with the US would only provide further fillip to the US project for unfettered global domination, which has at the moment suffered serious setbacks being continually delivered bloody nose in Iraq, and also Afghanistan. Moreover, in the process, it is highly likely that India would be drawn into, formal or informal, military alliance with the US and be compelled to fight its dirty wars with all the concomitant dangerous consequences. Similarly, code-named "Malabar 07", the five-nation naval exercise that is scheduled to take! place from September 4-9 in the Bay of Bengal, in which India, Singapore, Japan, Australia and the US are taking part cannot but for understandable reasons elicit hostile reactions from China and vitiate the relations between India and its powerful neighbour for no good reasons from the Indian point of view. Apart from that, such growing proximity would also tend to fuel India's burning ambitions to emerge as a mini-hegemon in the region with the backing of the global super-cop causing aggravation of inter-state tensions and consequent deep hurt to the cause of South Asian solidarity. That's evidently a profoundly disturbing prospect. II. The unique exception for India, as is provided under the deal, would further aggravate the discriminatory nature of the NPT; undermine the current non-proliferation order - for whatever it is worth, by encouraging the threshold nations to cross the rubicon and in the process gravely damage the prospects of global nuclear disarmament. It would also further worsen the ongoing nuclear arms race in South Asia by radically boosting India's capabilities for fissile material production by freeing up all the indigenously produced uranium for that purpose while imported stuff would be used for power production. III. The radically boosted nuclear power programme, following as a consequence, would throttle investments for developing environmentally benign renewable sources of energy including wind, solar etc., having grave impacts on the prospects of long-term energy security. This is apart from the fact that nuclear power is not only as of now uneconomic but also intrinsically hazardous - throughout the complete fuel cycle from mining to power plant, and potentially catastrophic. There is furthermore no fail-safe method for disposal of nuclear waste and outlived plants. Given these serious implications, Peace Mumbai makes its principled opposition loud and clear. The claim that India's "strategic interests" have been taken care of only implies that India is out to further accelerate its downhill journey along the path of self-destruction by further intensifying its weaponisation programme and thereby making South Asia and the world even more dangerous and diverting scarce resources from social sectors even otherwise badly starved of funds. Peace Mumbai Constituents: Action Aid, Akshara, Asia South Pacific Bureau for Adult Education (ASPBAE), Bombay Urban Industrial League for Development (BUILD), CEHAT, Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP), Documentation Research and Training Center (DRTC), Explorations, Focus on the Global South, India, India Center for Human Rights and Law (ICHRL), Indo-Pak Youth Forum for Peace, Institute For Community Organization and Research (ICOR), Media for People, Movement for Peace and Justice (MPJ), National Alliance of Peoples Movements (NAPM), Pakistan-India Peoples Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD), Peoples' Media Initiative, Vidrohi Sanskrutik Chalval, Vikas Adhyayan Kendra (VAK), Women's Research and Action Group (WRAG), Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action (YUVA), ______ [4] SHAHIDUL ALAM'S ACCOUNT OF HAPPENINGS IN DHAKA http://shahidul.wordpress.com/2007/08/24/the-barren-banana-tree/ ... o o o The Daily Star August 26, 2007 RELEASE OF FIVE UNIVERSITY TEACHERS DEMANDED Staff Correspondent Several socio-political and cultural organisations yesterday condemned the arrest of five teachers of Dhaka and Rajshahi universities and demanded their immediate release. The South Asian People's Union against Fundamentalism and Communalism made the demand in a statement signed by its President National Professor Kabir Chowdhury, Justice KM Sobhan, human rights activist Hena Das, Prof Borhanuddin Khan Jahangir, Prof Ajay Roy and writer and columnist Shahriar Kabir. They also condemned the harassment of journalists during the curfew period. They criticised the government for arresting the academics without any warrants and for not producing them before the court even 30 hours after their arrest. The rights activists also criticised the government for its treatment of journalists and teachers, comparing the present government's action to that of the BNP-led four-party alliance government. In another statement, The Edu-Rights and Peace, a human rights organisation of Rajshahi University (RU) students, urged the caretaker government to release the teachers and grant amnesty for general students who violated the state of emergency and staged demonstrations on the RU campus. They also called for a tripartite meeting between the RU authorities, students and the caretaker government to restore congenial atmosphere on the campus. Bangladesh Muktojuddha Nou Commando Association Chairman Md Shahjahan Kabir Bir Pratik and Secretary General Md Khalilur Rahman in a statement demanded immediate release of the teachers and condemned the attacks on students. Condemning the arrest of teachers, Dilip Barua, general secretary of Bangladesh Samyabadi Dal, said the filing of cases in a bid to harass the students and teachers would only worsen the situation. Bangladesh Group Theatre Federation denounced the arrest of Prof Moloy Kumar Bhowmik who is a dramatist and director. The Federation also urged the government to release him immediately. Expressing the hope that the caretaker government would seek a peaceful solution to this crisis, Bangladesh Chhatra Moitree said, "We urge the government to stop harassing the teachers and release them immediately." Dhaka University teachers not only supported all the democratic movements since the language movement in 1952 but also took part in those movements, it observed. Chhatra Sangram Parishad also condemned the attack on students. ______ [5] Economic and Political Weekly August 18, 2007 Editorial ASSAULT ON TASLIMA Abuse of Article 16 The attack on Taslima Nasreen in Hyderabad on August 9, 2007 by legislators belonging to the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) is yet another instance of the steady criminalisation of politics in the country. What followed the attack is even more disturbing. While the Hyderabad police booked the MIM legislators under fairly inoffensive charges, they went ahead and booked a case against Taslima Nasreen for hurting the religious sentiments of Muslims. The political motivation for the MIM is clear. Having ruled the destiny of the Muslims in Hyderabad's old city for decades, the MIM has steadily been losing ground to the Majlis Bachao Tehreek and the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Taslima Nasreen's presence in Hyderabad provided the MIM a perfect oppor- tunity to reclaim its dwindling status as the sole spokesperson of Muslim interests in the state. The MIM leaders remain unfazed by the criticism that has come from all right-thinking and civilised sections of society. A day after the incident, the MIM leaders vowed to eliminate Taslima Nasreen and also prevent her from ever entering the city again. They argued that for them their religion was higher than the Constitution of India. A closer look at this statement shows that they have singular disregard for god as well as the Constitution. Records show that the MLAs who physically assaulted the exiled Bangladeshi author had, indeed, sworn in the name of god to protect and preserve the Constitution. It is increasingly apparent that the Indian state and its institutions have no mechanism to punish lawmakers who metamorphose into common criminals. There has not been a single known suggestion from among the political classes to strip these legislators of their membership of the Andhra Pradesh assembly. Nor is there even the slightest evidence on part of the political establishment to initiate a debate on theinterpretation of several problematic provisions of Article19of the Constitution that guarantees a citizen the right to freedom and expression. The idea of "reasonable restrictions" on the freedom of speech, and the limits imposed on such expression in the face of public disorder, have been systematically misused by the very people who have little respect for civilised debate and discussion. In this race for reaping the benefits of identity politics and competitive populism, there is no secular-communal divide in the use of criminal strategies. The Sambhaji Brigade, an offshoot of the Nationalist Congress Party, had vandalised the Bhandarkar Institute in Pune for allowing James Laine to research his book on Shivaji in their library (15 years before its actual publication). The "secular" Congress-NCP govern- ment in Maharashtra banned Laine's book. The Narendra Modi government in Gujarat aided and abetted the move to prevent Fanaa from being screened in Gujarat because of the support of the film's actor, Aamir Khan, for those displaced by the Sardar Sarovar dam. More recently, the Congress governments of Punjab and Andhra Pradesh banned the film, Da Vinci Code, in response to complaints from some Chris- tian groups that it "hurt" their sentiments. It is also important to recall that Rajiv Gandhi banned Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses in India even before Ayatollah Khomeini issued the fatwa against the author. The Sangh parivar regularly manages to vandalise art exhibitions and disrupt the functioning of educational institutions. The saffron outfits have driven M F Hussain out of his own country into exile. The most recent instance of moral policing and criminal assault on public institutions was the desecration of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Baroda and its examination process in May 2007, resulting in the arrest of a student, Chandramohan, on the pretext of having hurt Hindu and Christian sentiments. In all these instances, the attackers have invariably gone scot- free or have even flourished, while the attacked have suffered without reason. Political alliances and expediency have often dictated the reaction of the governments responsible for ensuring the rule of law and bringing these criminals to book. The attack on Taslima Nasreen and the manner in which the Rajasekhara Reddy government has chosen to turn a blind eye to the whole incident testify to this trend. The Congress and the MIM have an alliance at the state level and the MIM is also a partner of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). For the Congress and the UPA, an assault on freedomof speech and expression, and a violation of the rule of law andcodes of civility, is a small price to pay compared to losing a valuable alliance partner. Ironically, the same Congress Party and its leader, who now happens to be the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, poured scorn over Chandrababu Naidu's refusal to withdraw support to the National Democratic Alliance government when the Gujarat riots of 2002 happened. ______ [6] Women's eNews 20 August 2007 IN INDIA, PARENTS OF BRIDES-TO-BE HIRE SLEUTHS by Mridu Khullar WeNews correspondent Even in rapidly developing India arranged marriages remain popular. These days, brides and grooms often match up online and the first people in the screening process may be professional detectives, not parents. First in a series on women in India. Sanjay Singh, private eye. NEW DELHI (WOMENSENEWS)--Arranged marriages continue to be a popular tradition in India, with over 90 percent of men and women between the ages of 17 and 25 in New Delhi and Mumbai approving of them, according to a survey by the Hindustan Times earlier this year. The way these marriages get arranged, however, in the fast-changing urban centers--where a rapidly growing economy fuels women's social mobility--are shifting with the times. In the past, parents or relatives searched their own social networks for suitable prospects. Today family members and prospective brides and grooms themselves are often looking online, at matrimonial Web sites. Sometimes these sites function as casual dating services but people often use them to look for potential husbands and wives, and parents are also becoming involved in the process. The sites offer a convenient alternative to the traditional matrimonial sections in the newspapers. Since people who meet online know little about each other--nor do their relatives--the anonymity offers a huge potential for fraud and deception. Bring on the detectives. Private eyes say the most common courtship lies concern finances and past relationships and that requests for their services are steadily increasing. Beyond the Rich and Famous "The number has almost doubled in the last two years," says Sanjay Singh, CEO of the New Delhi-based Indian Detective Agency. "Earlier it was just high-profile and very rich families that were engaging our services. But now it's mostly the middle class." The number of premarital investigations, say detectives, is higher in arranged marriages, as opposed to when the betrothed choose each other. Most are driven by a booming online matchmaking industry, whose value rose to $22 million in 2006 from $14 million the previous year, according to a trade group report. The total registration base of India's biggest online matrimonial portal Shaadi.com was 9.1 million in January and the site reported that 720,000 marriages were started by them. Registration on another leading portal BharatMatrimony.com over the years is again nearly 9 million. "In the present society, it is very necessary for the life and for the security of a person to get some kind of check done on a partner before marriage," says Prashant Rana, marketing manager for Fireball Investigation Services, a division of Fireball Group in New Delhi. "But people don't have that kind of time and resources to do a thorough check." New Delhi has over a hundred registered detective agencies and thousands of smaller one-man shows, and the Indian Detective Agency alone receives at least 30 inquiries a week for premarital investigations. Starts the Screening Process Investigations typically take between a week and 10 days and cost between $125 and $1,250, depending on the company and the depth of the investigation. Often families or prospective mates hire detectives for the first part of the screening process, when personal finances and character are the chief considerations. The investigations are usually undertaken only once, at the point where the match is almost finalized, essentially a last step before the engagement. Considering that families now spend anywhere from $12,000 to $25,000 on a daughter's wedding, the cost for a seven-day investigation isn't considered too big an expense. Investigations are very discreet; only the parents are usually privy to the results, hence there is no shame or taboo if something negative turns up. Even if it's all positive, the fact that an investigation was undertaken is not mentioned to anyone. Investigators provide details about previous and present relationships, education, career and financial position. The family is checked out, too. Experienced investigators, pretending to be on some other mission, get inside the house, talk to the family and try to establish what kind of people they are, how they treat others and, most important, how they treat each other. In order to do this, detectives follow their subject's every move. A team of several people monitor their target for every second of the seven or 10-day period, dressing up as rikshaw-wallahs, bouncers at a night-club or, as Rana recalls, even a cleaner in their doctor's office. "It's human nature that within a span of seven days, you'll repeat every habit," says Rana. "If I have a girlfriend, once a week, I'll go see her. If I drink, I'll do it at least once a week. If I enjoy partying and going to clubs, again, I'll do it at some point in the week. That's why we do our surveillance for seven days. Within that time, we make the report." "Just like in the movies," he adds. Most Clients Are Brides' Families Of the hundreds of cases that come to him each month, Rana says 80 percent are women or their parents who come in to have their future spouses investigated. This is due to the typical arrangement for women in India, who live with their parents until marriage and then move in with their in-laws. Since women are required by tradition to live with their husband's family, some consider it essential to know as much as they can about the family they'll be spending the rest of their lives with. Men, on the other hand, are only concerned about past relationships and find a lesser need to hire detectives. Regardless of the findings, the investigation is usually kept secret from the person being investigated. "It's a sensitive issue," says Singh. "If your prospective spouse finds out you've been sending detectives after him, he's not going to like it. Simple." If the investigation turns out well, the woman and her parents proceed with the match. If it does not, there is rarely a confrontation, detectives say. Matches can be blown when major obstacles resurface from the past, or for small transgressions, such as lying about a smoking habit. Since the intended are not romantically involved, however, the parties cut their losses and move on. Ankita Kohli, 23, a single advertising professional, disapproves of the trend. "You're starting the relationship by questioning his very identity and then keeping it from him," she says. "Because it's a matter of life, take the control in your own hands and do the investigation yourself. There are so many ways of finding the truth about a person; why trust a second-hand source and risk your relationship in the process?" Of the investigations undertaken by Fireball, Rana says about 40 percent of the people they've scrutinized have been "very dishonest" about their life and work. One such case involved a man whose mother was certain the intended fiance was not being honest about her background and hired Rana's company to verify her details. The investigation turned up a previous marriage and a son; the woman's husband had left her and fled to Iraq. "If the marriage had happened, it would have been a big problem for that family," says Rana. "But the mother opted for verification, and they were saved." Mridu Khullar is a freelance journalist currently based in New Delhi, India. ______ [7] YOUTH KARWAN THREATENED AND INTIMIDATED BY BJP MLA 26 Aug 2007 01:48:54 Anhad's three Youth Karwans are traveling in different parts of Gujarat. One of the Youth Karwans which is in Vadodara district for the past three days performed three shows in Chota Udaipur on August 25. On August 26th the shows are fixed in villages near Chota Udaipur , so the group had to stay at night in Chota Udaipur. Shankarbhai Vichhiyabhai Rathwa , the local BJP MLA, threatened and intimidated the group by sending goons and asking them to clear out of the district. The MLA called up the caretaker of the circuit house, which was booked by the local organizers and ordered him to tell the group to leave immediately otherwise face consequences. The local police instead of supporting the group tried putting the charge of doing 'anti national' activities on the troupe members. The BJP MLA threatened to get them eliminated up if they did not clear out. Fortunately for the group the State Minister for Railways, UPA govt. happened to be in the district and immediately sent his security for their safety. He was able to intervene with the local police, which was as hostile, to ensure their safety. One of the groups earlier in the Amreli district had to spend over five hours in illegal confinement. We strongly condemn this intimidation and the attack on the freedom of expression. The shows for tomorrow will continue as scheduled. Tomorrow is the last day of the present campaign. Anhad Collective ______ [8] Announcements: (i) Dear Friends, As you are aware Anhad Yuva Karwans were flagged off on June 5th, 2007 with the aim of carrying out a campaign in 900 villages across 25 districts. The karwans are returning on 26th August night. We could not reach the target of 900 villages partly due to rains and partly due to the financial constraints. We have also not covered Dangs, Narmada, Navsari, Valsad and half of Bharuch. The approximate number of villages covered by the time they return would be close to 700 but we will know the number once we compile all the information on 26th night. The young volunteers have worked round the clock, have gained tremendous experience and confidence, have shared their experience and knowledge with thousands of ordinary villagers and in the process learnt from them . Anhad is organizing a two hour session both to felicitate the young volunteers as well as to hear their experiences both good and bad. This session would be a learning session for us to understand both the shortcomings and the achievements of the campaign. We invite all of you, especially all the organizations and activists without whom this campaign would have been impossible. While Anhad played the initial role in conceiving the campaign and organizing the training, the rest of the district level coordination was done by local organizations and their volunteers and activists. Pro gramme: 10.00- Tea 10.30- Welcome 10.35-11.35- Sharing of experience by karwan members 11.35- 12.20- Sharing of experience by local hosts 12.20- Felicitation, distribution of prizes 1.00- Lunch An exhibition of posters signed by villagers will be on display. Venue: Samajik Shikshan Bhawan, Indian Society For Community Education, Community House, Navjivan Press Road, Ahmedabad, situated almost opp the side gate of Gujarat Vidyapeeth Time: 10.30-2.00pm We would appreciate a line of confirmation . Sincerely Anhad Collective Sanjay Sharma Manisha Telange Dev Desai Dharmendra Shabnam Hashmi ---- (ii) Dear friends, My film, Tales from the Margins, on the conflict situation in Manipur and the extraordinary protests for justice by the women, will be screening shortly in Delhi. ON: Sunday, 26th August, 4:40 PM AT THE: Auditorium, India Habitat Centre, Lodi Road. Do come, and please inform others who may be interested. With regards Kavita SYNOPSIS Twelve women disrobe on the streets of Manipur, in protest For over six years a young woman has been on a fast-to-death demanding justice; she is kept under arrest by the government and is forcibly nose-fed for this "crime". Why are the women of Manipur using their bodies as their last weapon? Manipur - a state in the North-East region of India has for decades been torn by insurgency and armed conflict. The Indian government has attempted to crush the insurgency through its military power, shielded by a drastic law that allows the security forces to shoot, arrest or kill on suspicion alone. Yet, little is heard about Manipur and its simmering troubles across the nations landscape. This is a place that mainland India has marginalised; that the world has forgotten. The film travels to this forgotten, strife-torn corner of India to document the extraordinary protests of Manipuri women as they fight for justice for their people. - - - - (iii) T2F will be hosting a series of events over the next couple of weeks, so please mark your calendars. Details will be posted on our <http://www.t2f.biz/events>website shortly. Meanwhile, please do come and check out the photography exhibition featuring the work of Bangladeshi photographer, Rabeya Sarkar Rima. UPCOMING EVENTS (29th August - 9th September) "Science Ka Adda": The Ethics of Stem Cells - Film screening followed by a discussion with Biologist, Dr. Ather Enam and Medical Ethicist, Dr. Aasim Ahmad Date: Wednesday, 29th August, 2007 Time: 7:30 pm Film screening of "Beyond Partition" followed by a discussion with Justice Dr. Javid Iqbal Date: Saturday, 1st September, 2007 Time: 6:30 pm "In Their Own Voice": Literary responses to 1971 from Bangladesh and Pakistan, featuring Niaz Zaman and Asif Farrukhi Date: Tuesday, 4th September, 2007 Time: 7:00 pm "Science Ka Adda": Featuring Dr. Atta ur Rehman Date: Friday, 7th September, 2007 Time: 7:00 pm A Tribute to Qurat-ul-Ain Haider: Readings, Story-telling, and Memorabilia Date: Sunday, 9th September Time: 6:00 pm Venue: The Second Floor 6-C, Prime Point Building, Phase 7, Khayaban-e-Ittehad, DHA, Karachi Phone: 538-9273 | 0300-823-0276 | <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED] Map: <http://www.t2f.biz/location>http://www.t2f.biz/location _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ 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: http://insaf.net/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
