South Asia Citizens Wire | May 12-13, 2008 | Dispatch No. 2515 - Year 10 running
[Please note, SACW dispatches are going to mostly remain interrupted between 16 May - 1 June 2008] [1] Bangladesh: Sensitive to Mullahs govt retreats from pledge on women's seats [2] Pakistan: Capital madressahs (Tasneem Noorani) + Pakistan Supreme Court moves to silence media (CPJ) [3] Sri Lanka: The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna Split (Jayadeva Uyangoda) [4] India: India's cultural divide (Ranjona Banerji) [5] India: Hindu right led Chattissgarh leading the way to curb democratic space (i) Chhattisgarh Has Lost The Plot (Siddharth Varadarajan) (ii) No Country for Good Men (S.P. Arun) [6] Bomb Care or Health Care - news report Pakistan peace coalition seminar against arms race + News Report on meeting of India-Pakistan Soldiers' Initiative for Peace [7] The God delusion - The film 'Khuda Kay Liye' etc (Harsh Mander) [8] India: NGOs campaigning against the BJP in poll-bound Karnataka in trouble with authorities [9] Announcements: (i) an evening of readings and conversation with Intizar Hussain (Karachi, 14 May 2008) (ii) 'Artists for Human Rights', an evening of protest & solidarity with Dr Binayak sen and other prisoners (New Delhi, 14 Nov) (iii) SANSAD invites you to a Press Conference on the unjust detention of Dr Binayak Sen (Vancouver, 14 May 2008) ______ [1] The Daily Star May 12, 2008 Women's Reserved Seats in Local Govt GOVT RETREATS FROM PLEDGE by Shakhawat Liton In a surprise move the caretaker government has retreated from its earlier pledge of reserving 40 percent seats for women at all tiers of the local government system for three consecutive terms. It is widely believed that the government has buckled in the wake of violent protests by hardliner Islamist groups against the National Women's Development Policy 2008. The pledge however was made to effectively empower women at all levels of the local government system. On March 23, the council of advisers approved in principle two ordinances regarding formations and functions of city corporations and municipalities with the provision for reserving 40 percent seats exclusively for women. The government also had a plan to incorporate the same provision in other upcoming laws regarding formations and functions of union, upazila and zila parishads, the sources added. But an Ulema Committee formed by the government to review the women's development policy, on April 17 in its recommendations to the government, strongly opposed the policy and asked the government to scrap the provision for increasing the number of reserved seats for women in the local government system, representatives to which would be elected through direct elections according to the earlier proposal. Following the recommendations of the ulemas, the council of advisers at a special meeting on April 24 finalised the two ordinances regarding city corporations and municipalities scrapping the provision for reserving 40 percent seats for women. The finalised ordinances however propose to continue the current provision for reserving one-third seats for women in city corporations and municipalities, which is expected to be promulgated as a law by the president soon, handing over a whopping victory to the Islamist hardliners in the country. According to the existing provision, Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) has 90 wards headed by as many commissioners. In addition, there are provisions for 30 women commissioners. Each woman commissioner is in charge of three wards. So in reality each ward has two commissioners -- one generally elected commissioner and the other a woman commissioner who is also elected by voters of three wards. This system leads to conflicts in sharing responsibilities as generally elected commissioners are often found to be non-cooperating with the specially elected women commissioners. Similar power sharing systems exist for other city corporations, municipalities and union parishads. But the proposed law suggested 40 percent of the total 90 wards of DCC be reserved for women. So, there would be no dual commissionership in any ward. Such reserved seats for women were supposed to be in place for three terms totalling in 15 years. After that the government was to make a fresh decision on whether the reserved women's seats would exist or not. Defending the government's back flip, LGRD Adviser Anwarul Iqbal on April 27 claimed to the media that the provision for reserving 40 percent seats for women had to be scrapped, since it would come into conflict with a court verdict. A government formed expert committee on strengthening local government institutions led by incumbent Health Adviser MM Shawkat Ali, which came up with the original proposal, however did so after reviewing the High Court verdict. The committee found nothing wrong in reserving 40 percent seats for women for the next 15 years, instead it argued that the constitution does not discourage making special provisions for women's development. Referring to the High Court judgement on a writ filed by some women ward commissioners elected to reserved seats in Khulna City Corporation, the LGRD adviser said the provision for reserving seats for women should not be a permanent system. The petitioners filed the writ to avoid being marginalised in the name of being assigned with 'special duties'. In fact according to the High Court's verdict, representatives elected to reserved seats for women cannot be officially assigned with 'special duties' in local governments and they must be treated as equals to other elected representatives. The High Court verdict actually said nothing about the percentage of seats to be reserved for women. DRFAT LAW FOR ZILA, UPAZILA & UNION PARISHADS Meanwhile, in line with the government's latest reversal of decisions, the LGRD ministry already drafted a law regarding formations, elections and functions of union, upazila and zila parishads without keeping the provision for reserving 40 percent seats for women, who would be elected through direct votes, sources in the ministry said. The draft ordinance proposes to continue the current provision for reserving three seats for women in each union parishad, having jurisdiction over nine general wards, a source said. Meaning, each elected woman to reserved seats in a union parishad will have to share her authority with three other elected members, running the risk of being marginalised. At upazila and zila parishad levels, instead of reserving 40 percent seats for women, the new draft law proposes to keep one-third of total posts reserved for women, who will be elected through indirect votes. Women, who are already elected to reserved seats at lower tiers of the local government system will only be able to contest in elections to upazila and zila parishads, and an electoral college of already elected women to reserved seats at lower tiers will elect from among themselves the representatives to reserved seats for women in upazila and zila parishads, says the draft law. The LGRD ministry draft however proposes to create a post of a vice-chairman in each upazila and zila parishads, which will be reserved for women elected through direct votes. Currently there are around 14,500 women representatives elected to reserved seats in over 4,000 union parishads, 6 city corporations, and the municipalities. ______ [2] Pakistan: The News May 8, 2008 CAPITAL MADRESSAHS by Tasneem Noorani We have been at the receiving end of some suicidal angry people who are convinced that this land is infested with infidels and lackeys of the West who need to be taught a lesson. The newly acquired weapon of suicide bombing is proving more effective, than the wildest dreams of the perpetrators. There is a lull, as if these extremist handlers are watching the change in government, giving the new team time to settle in. Perhaps their intensity of discontent is tempered due to the hope that Musharaf and his policy may finally be on their way out. The recent spate of agreements with activists in Swat and Waziristan do indicate to them a change in the air and they perhaps think that the government has come around finally to take their own decisions rather than blindly take dictation from the West. But is this respite a sustainable one, or a lull before the storm? The mosque where I go to say my Juma prayers, is located in the most posh part of Islamabad, I usually have children from the ages of five to 15 around me during namaz. Some so young and cute that you want to tweak their cheek and cuddle them. These are healthy and good-looking little things wearing white caps. Hailing from the NWFP or the Northern Areas, they are in Islamabad of all the places (better known for deals and extrajudicial takeovers) to learn Islam. The Imam often uses the captive audience of the Juma devotees to invite one of the boys to do tilawat, in order to impress the audience with the good work he is doing and then ask for assistance to sustain his venture. Now, these are children who are growing up, learning the Quran by heart, in a neighbourhood with which they have nothing in common. They see the luxury cars, well-fed and -clothed children, decked up aunties living in big houses who not only never invite them to their homes but, as a matter of fact, make a face to indicate that they wish these children never existed. The imam in all probability could not be speaking with a warm glow about the inmates of these posh houses. There is a complete mismatch. The poorest have been planted in the midst of the richest at an impressionable age. These children, after spending 15 or so years in these environs, will naturally feel they have a stake in the town, and at the same time resent the people who never accepted them all these years. On the other hand, what the children are being taught in the mosque is only rituals and hardly the essence of Islam. They rock while they recite the Quran as loudly as their small lungs allow them to, without an idea of what they are reciting. The mental, educational and intellectual level of the imam is so limited as to obviate the chances of any educated child coming out of the mosque school. Fifteen thousand or so madressahs exist in the country. More than seventy are located in Islamabad, most without any legal permission from the local administration. The manpower that is coming out of such institutions is unlikely to find a regular job in the government or the private sector, because the graduate of the madrassa knows nothing but to recite the Quran and perhaps some history of Islam duly slanted to the sect the madrassa belongs to. The degree/sanad is unlikely to allow him to enter the job market. With the result that he has to strive to either "capture" a mosque or a madrassa or make one himself. Thus, we have a self-propelled mosque-/madrassa-proliferation system in place. The government since 2001 has been trying to rein in the madressahs. Long negotiations have been held with the representative of the Wifaqul Madarris to induce them to register, to teach other subject besides Islam. A madrassa Education Board, I understand, has also been set up. Earlier, there was a scheme to set up a few model madressahs to show the existing ones how to become what the government expects them to become. But to the best of my knowledge the impact of all these efforts is zero. Madressahs guard their independence jealously. They do not want any government interference. The government is mainly in the dark about the funding sources of most such institutions. The madrassa managers are not willing to share this information with the government at any cost. The government claims to have registered a large number of madressahs, but to what use that registration is being put to by the government is not known. In Islamabad the madressahs are like Trojan horses. Thousands of children, who do not understand their surroundings and look at the citizens of the city with dislike and contempt at following infidel values, are growing up in the midst of this city. The unresolved story of the Lal Masjid is just the trailer. No regular school in Islamabad is allowed to have a boarding house in residential areas. Madressahs are exempted. The harshness of the CDA is confined to regular schools, most of which are under notice to leave residential areas and relocate to special plots sold to them in special zones. No such scheme for the madressahs. I have heard the new education minister, Ahsan Iqbal, saying his priority is to have a uniform education system in the country, as against the current elite English-medium along with the Urdu-medium government school stream. I wish him luck in this Herculean task that he has taken upon himself. I only hope he has also taken the merging of the religious education stream into the mainstream into account. We should be under no illusion: without mainstreaming the madressahs we are sitting on a ticking time bomb. (ii) Committee to Protect Journalists. http://www.cpj.org PAKISTAN SUPREME COURT MOVES TO SILENCE MEDIA New York, May 12, 2008-The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the Pakistani Supreme Court to drop its efforts to control media coverage. The court today ordered Geo TV, the country's most popular private broadcaster, and its print affiliate, Jang Group, to present all video clips and news articles dating to November 3, 2007, on the controversial issue of reinstating judges sacked last year by President Pervez Musharraf. The court set a May 22 deadline for Geo and Jang to meet the demand or be held in contempt of court, according to Pakistani media reports. The court said Geo and the Daily Jang, the group's flagship Urdu-language newspaper, had erroneously reported that Supreme Court Justice Muhammad Nawaz Abbasi had taken part in a recent meeting between government ministers and high court justices. The court, which issued the order on its initiative, is currently controlled by Musharraf appointees. The court did back down from an earlier, more far-reaching order. On Friday, it directed Geo TV and the Jang Group to stop reporting entirely on the judicial reinstatement issue. The court vacated the original order today after a raucous hearing in which several journalists vowed to disobey the directive. "The Supreme Court's decision threatens to reverse the movement toward renewed media freedom that came after elections three months ago," said Bob Dietz, CPJ's Asia program coordinator. "The court should be working to uphold freedom of the press, not silencing it whenever a controversial issue emerges in Pakistan." Soon after today's hearing, Minister of Information Sherry Rehman told Mazhar Abbas, secretary-general of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, that the government did not support the court's decision and would work to resolve the issue. She made the statement on Abbas' political discussion program on ARY One World TV. The judicial issue is a sensitive one in Pakistan. The new coalition government led by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani has split over the issue of reinstating the judges. Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who supports reinstatement of the judges, has left the cabinet as a result of the split but has not withdrawn his party from the coalition. The split has threatened Pakistan's move back to democracy after eight years of military rule under Musharraf. At the same time in November that Musharraf sacked 60 judges who had resisted his government, he closed down all private news broadcasters-about 40-all of which are distributed by cable. Geo was the last major broadcaster to resume broadcasting after it resisted government pressure to sign a code of conduct. ______ [3] Sri Lanka: Economic and Political weekly May 3, 2008 THE JANATHA VIMUKTHI PERAMUNA SPLIT by Jayadeva Uyangoda The radical, Sinhalese nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna has split, the real reasons for which are not yet clear. Among the various possible reasons are the mainstream jvp's unease with a breakaway faction's Sinhalese-Buddhist nationalist project and the collision of the Sinhalese nationalist and class struggle lines within the party. It is also a dispute about coalition strategies that has spilled on to the domain of personal relations. For now, the Rajapakse administration is the beneficiary. FULL TEXT AT: http://www.epw.org.in/epw//uploads/articles/12204.pdf ______ [4] Daily News and Analysis May 09, 2008 INDIA'S CULTURAL DIVIDE by Ranjona Banerji The Delhi High Court has done both India and art an enormous favour by dropping three obscenity cases against the 91-year-old artist, MF Husain. As is well-known, India's most famous artist has spent almost two years in self-imposed exile, ever since he was threatened for his 'obscene' portrayal of Hindu goddesses and mythological figures and his works were vandalised by Hindutva fundamentalists. Yet, at every art venue, Husain's works have continued to sell for top dollar - he remains India's most coveted painter both at home and abroad. In his quirky, whimsical manner, he has also given the idea of an artist new impetus. His obsession with a series of Hindi film actresses, his delightful forays into film-making, his keen interest in current affairs, and his own unique way of transferring that interest into his art add to his greatness. Husain has had his share of controversy within the art world as well and that is inevitable given his long career and body of work. But it is the controversy in the outside world that is truly shameful. That he should be hounded and attacked by obscure groups looking for cheap publicity and that the idea of offending 'sentiments' should stop the law from being implemented is one of independent India's less salutary episodes in upholding freedom of expression. Because whatever the ferocity of the religious organisations which have attacked him, the government of India should have stood up to them with courage rather than cowardice. Instead, we are unable to truly understand the significance of 'freedom of expression' - of artistic expression as well as of poetic licence. In all societies, popular culture rules over 'high' art. But in most societies, 'high' art is revered - it does not have to bow down to popular culture. Rather, the popular strives to reach higher. We seem to have turned that wisdom on its head. As more of us get 'voices', we register our outrage at everything that offends us and even more at what we do not understand. Some of this anguish has been expressed by Justice Sanjay K Kaul of the Delhi High Court. He said in his judgment, "We have been called the land of the Kama Sutra. Then why is it that in this land we shy away from its very name? Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder and so does obscenity." He went on to say, "It's most unfortunate that India's new Puritanism is being carried out in the name of cultural purity and that ignorant people vandalise art." In the second sentence lies the crux of the matter. When art critics or art lovers have objected to Husain - and they have -it has been on the basis of his art and that alone. When the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti launched the vicious campaign against Husain, it did not consider his work as an artist. It understood neither context not subtext but went straight for obvious pictorial representation. Even by itself, the right of these neo-Puritan saviours of 'cultural purity' to be offended would stand. But they went beyond intellectual discourse into physical intimidation, destruction of artworks and vituperative public campaigns. Dissent is essential in a democracy; threat, extortion, blackmail and violence are not. The judge has gone back to both ancient Indian culture as well as contemporary art traditions and rued that the people who have attacked Husain are not familiar with either. He has pointed - perhaps inadvertently - to a singularly divisive fault line in India today. The cultural divides between an open and cultured elite and a neo-puritanical middle class obsessed with maintaining 'cultural purity' are extreme and silly. The recent debate over the cheerleaders in cricket matches exposed both. The fault lies in a society which makes no effort to create space for both popular and high cultures. If your ideas of Indian mythology, for instance, are based solely on Hindi potboilers or televised mythological serials, then it is hardly surprising that Husain's interpretations would offend you. If you have never read any of ancient India's many eye-popping and enlightening texts, but have relied solely on word of mouth, then definitely Husain's interpretations would offend you. This ignorance is not deliberate but it is a natural corollary of a system where once the elite kept everyone else out and today, technical education is given more prominence than the humanities. Interestingly, it is the techies of Bangalore and the US's Silicon Valley who are the biggest supporters of India's religious fundamentalist groups. By mentioning what is known but rarely publicly stated, the Delhi High Court has pushed intelligence to the forefront over obscurantist rantings. It can only be hoped that now Husain will come home again and India will start a reasoned debate on how to disagree in a civilised manner. ______ [5] [All SACW subscribers are invited to join citizen protests on the International Day of Solidarity with Dr Binayak Sen on 13 May 2008] o o o The Hindu May 13, 2008 CHHATTISGARH HAS LOST THE PLOT by Siddharth Varadarajan One year after jailing the eminent doctor, Binayak Sen, State authorities have arrested another leading civil liberties activist, journalist and filmmaker, Ajay T.G. A file picture of Dr. Binayak Sen with his patients in Chhattisgarh. On May 5, the Chhattisgarh police announced the arrest of Ajay T.G., a Raipur-based journalist and filmmaker, under the State's draconian Special Public Security Act (PSA). He has been charged with sedition under the Indian Penal Code and with having unlawful contact with a banned organisation, the Communist Party of India (Maoist), under Sections 3, 4 and 8 of the PSA. Like Binayak Sen, who was arrested last year on May 14, Ajay is a leading member of the People's Union for Civil Liberties. He is also a prominent social worker whose contribution to the education of young girls from poor slum-dwelling families is well known. The circumstances leading to his arrest are so bizarre and reflect so poorly on Chhattisgarh's approach to dealing with the naxalite problem that they bear recounting in some detail. During the Lok Sabha elections of 2004, Ajay was part of a fact-finding team that visited a number of interior villages in the Dantewada region of the State to study the reaction of ordinary villagers to the Maoist call for a poll boycott, on the one hand, and heavy CRPF deployment, on the other. The team went through several deserted villages before arriving at a village around 4 p.m. As Ajay started taking photographs of a deserted polling booth, the team was surrounded by a group of angry, young Maoist villagers. The youth accused the group of being police agents and detained them for several hours. They were eventually allowed to leave late in the evening but Ajay's camera was confiscated. For Ajay, the loss of his camera was a real blow. His only source of income was the freelance filming he did as a mediaperson. His family was also terrified at the thought that the Maoists believed him to be a police agent and decided not to file an official complaint with the authorities. But as word spread in Raipur about the threats to which the fact-finding team had been subjected, the Maoist leadership in the State moved to control the fallout and declared that it would compensate him if the camera was not recovered. The fact that this incident occurred and that Ajay and his colleagues were the victims of Maoist high-handedness is public knowledge because the media covered it in June 2006. A year-and-a-half later, on January 21, 2008, the Chhattisgarh police intercepted an alleged arms drop by two Maoist women. When the house of one of the women was searched, they recovered a letter addressed to the Maoist spokesman by Ajay on the letterhead of the "The Campaign against Child Labour" (an organisation of which he is convenor). The letter, written in 2004, was about the return of the same camera. When the police arrived at his house to question him, Ajay, in the presence of lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj, readily acknowledged authorship of the letter and also explained the unfortunate circumstances in which it had been written. Nevertheless, the police seized his computer. Since filmmakers these days rely as much on their computers as on their cameras, Ajay moved the local courts for the return of his PC. His case was posted for hearing on May 10. Five days before that, however, the police came and arrested him, invoking the Public Security Act which was not even in force in 2004 when the letter was written. Incredibly, stories are now being planted in the local press about how the police only discovered he was the author of the letter after going through his computer and conducting "handwriting analysis." Think about this for a second. Here is a journalist who was actually the victim of a crime committed by the Maoists. For weeks, the family fretted about what the Maoists would do to Ajay since they seemed to believe he was a police agent. And now, the same police steps in to victimise him again, this time with perhaps deadlier consequences since the grant of bail under the PSA - as Dr. Sen has learned - is well-nigh impossible. The irony is that the police are prosecuting Dr. Sen for his alleged connections with the naxalites without pausing to ask why, if he was so well connected, a fact-finding mission of which he was a member was illegally detained by the Maoists in 2004. The fact of the matter is that both Dr. Sen and Ajay T.G. are being targeted because of their association with PUCL. And PUCL is under attack because it is one of the organisations inside Chhattisgarh - besides the Communist Party of India (CPI), the Vanvasi Chetna Ashram of Gandhian worker Himanshu Kumar, and others - that have been trying to expose the ugly reality of Salwa Judum, the State-run vigilante death squad that has led to the death of hundreds of civilians and the forced displacement of tens of thousands of adivasis. CPI leaders in the State are routinely harassed. Himanshu of the VCA, a long-time associate of the late Nirmala Deshpande, is being threatened with eviction from the land on which his ashram was legally built for documenting Salwa Judum atrocities. Courageous local journalists such as Kamlesh Paikra and Afzal Khan have also been attacked and intimidated for exposing state-sponsored violence. When CPI MP Gurudas Dasgupta tried to travel to Dantewada to support the protest of local adivasis against the expropriation of their land for a big industrial project, he was denied entry by motivated mobs with the police a silent spectator. Despite the growing ranks of those critical of Salwa Judum, the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Chhattisgarh continues to brand its critics as "naxalites" or as persons influenced by the "psychological war machinery of Maoists" - a claim the Chhattisgarh DGP Vishwa Ranjan made about Ramachandra Guha and Nandini Sundar in an interview to the Pioneer on April 3. The Maoists' psywar machinery is clearly formidable because among those it has now managed to "influence" is an expert committee of the Planning Commission, which includes former IB Director Ajit Doval as member, the Veerappa Moily Committee on Administrative Reforms and the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, all of which have documented the Salwa Judum's excesses or called for it to be disbanded. The Chhattisgarh government should realise that countering an armed insurgency requires tact, and intelligence. The arrest and intimidation of prominent critics such as Dr. Sen and Ajay show the utter non-application of mind on the part of its police force. The Salwa Judum is doomed; its withdrawal can be delayed a little but not prevented. The sooner it is withdrawn along with draconian laws like the PSA, the better. o o o (ii) Samar 29, published online May 13th, 2008 Editorial NO COUNTRY FOR GOOD MEN There is an alarming trend in India of arresting and detaining without bail human rights activists that challenge state authority. The unjust imprisonment of Dr Binayak Sen is the latest example. by S.P. Arun http://www.samarmagazine.org/archive/article.php?id=261 ______ [6] From South Asians Against Nukes Mailing List - Year 10 / Dispatch 1119 'NUCLEAR ARMS RACE HAS LED TO DISTORTIONS IN SOCIOECONOMIC PROGRESS' (The News International, by our correspondent, 12 May 2008) Karachi Speakers at a seminar titled "impacts of nuclearisation on social development" organised Sunday at the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) office by the Pakistan Peace Coalition (PPC) urged the adoption of people-focused policies. The nuclear arms race, coupled with militarization, has led to distortions in socioeconomic development and has undermined the democratic process, they said. Dr Syed Jafer Ahmed, Professor of Karachi University, said the arms race in South Asia had distorted the socio-economic policies. It also led to negative nationalism based on hatred instead of developing identity on self-assertion and good within the country. Same sort of nationalism had also developed in India where the BJP's emphasis on culture also contained imperial design. Stressing a need for changing the curriculum to promote healthy worldview about things, Dr Ahmed said arms procurement was also largely responsible for violence, extremism and aggression in the society as the people think that they can get anything through use of brute force. He believed that nuclear ambitions had also caused destruction of democracy by ensuring dominance of ambitious military generals on politics. He said less significant role of civilians in decision-making was also visible from the fact that among around "15 phases" of "nuclear command and control", the prime minister is supposed to be consulted in one phase only. He said the USA was using Pakistan's nuclear programme for black-mailing the government to continue support for its War on Terror. He said there was need to go beyond confidence building measures between India and Pakistan with focus on people's oriented policies, which could address the masses problems. He said the Kashmir dispute still remained unresolved because of lack of people's focus policies as its debate was restricted at foreign offices of both the countries. He also regretted that efforts of NGOs lack linkage and urged coordinated efforts among them. Dr Ahmed also underlined the importance of creating culture of debate and discussion at academic institutes for demilitarisation of minds. Karamat Ali of the PPC said possession of nuclear arms instead of decreasing demand for conventional weapons had in fact increased it for five times recently. He said South Asia topped in arms procurement in the world while number of the poor was also high there. He said 76 per cent poor live in India while 70 per cent poor live in Pakistan. He said nuclearisation and militarisation had not only put economic burden in both countries but it had also weakened democratic institut[ion]s. He claimed that now the Indian army was also determining certain policies there. He cited the Indian army chief's intrusive role to block the agreement between India and Pakistan for making Siachin as the world's biggest peace park in 2004 in this regard. Zahida Hina talking about US's interference in Pakistan's politics since 1947 said that the situation had now come to such pass that Richard Boucher, US official was deciding matters between leaders of two mainstream parties in London. She said since last over eight years, the people of Pakistan had been suffering and now their hopes from the present government were also fading. Abdullah Baloch, a Baloch activist, said nuclear tests in Balochistan's "Rast Koh" (straight hills) had brought devastated consequences there. He claimed that underground water had decreased from 60 feet to over 400 feet. He said prior to nuclear tests, there used to be rains in each year but since then, no rains had occurred there, leading to drought. B M Kutty of Piler; Osman Baloch, Adam Malik, Aijaz Malik, Prof Salman and others also spoke. o o o The Daily Times May 13, 2008 May 13, 2008 FORMER INDO-PAK MIL[ITAR]Y OFFICERS MEET NEW DELHI: Retired army men from Pakistan and India on Sunday attended a meeting in Mumbai to promote peace between the two South Asian neighbours. The India-Pakistan Soldiers' Initiative for Peace (IPSI) organised the two-day meeting, which was also attended by a 24-member delegation of the IPSI (Pakistan chapter). IPSI (India chapter) President Lieutenant General (r) Moti Dar told the meeting that India and Pakistan had to move towards collective security and strong economic ties as well as peace. "The two countries can become an economic and political force," he said, adding a good start could be made by resolving the Siachen issue. "The resolution of this issue can boost peace efforts and mutual trust," he added. He said that by 2050 India would be the most populous country in the world and that Pakistan would be the third-most populous country, adding that such a population would put water and food resources under tremendous pressure leading to problems. Political will: Pakistan Army's Lt Gen (r) M Naseer Akhtar said a political will was required on both the sides to resolve issues, adding that nothing new could be introduced with an old mindset. app ______ [7] THE GOD DELUSION by Harsh Mander Hindustan Times, May 12, 2008 There is today a world-wide resurgence of the politics of identity, separateness and divide. This has been spurred by declarations of an ongoing global 'war on terror', consummating in bloody military enterprises that have casually decimated vast helpless civilian populations. Religious texts as well as democratic principles have been reinterpreted to justify violent reprisals and to deny democratic rights. Democratic governments have felt it fit to label, place under surveillance and, in many cases, detain, torture and even exterminate people held in suspicion primarily because of their religious faith. But the greatest battle of all has been in the hearts and minds of people, in the everyday discourse of homes, classrooms and work-places, where the people of one faith have been demonised globally for their allegedly violent histories, and their alleged pervasive contemporary sympathies for terrorism. It is inevitable that this battle would spill over also into the songs we sing, the poetry we recite, and - in particular in this part of the world - in the films we make. This cinema is notoriously unrealistic in its literal depiction of people's lives. But because of the special emotional resonance of films with people in South Asia, they are often authentic as reflections of popular consciousness. It is, therefore, instructive to observe the evolution of the depiction of Muslim people in Indian cinema. In the relatively idealistic early decades after Independence, Muslim people were an essential element of the 'formula' of popular Hindi cinema, homogenised as gentle, friendly, benign neighbours, or people of exceptional culture, grace and poetry. In more recent times, their metamorphosis was precipitous, into shadowy, sinister figures: mafia, criminal, traitor, regressive, people who always initiate riots, are fundamentalist, violent. But many recent films have challenged these troubling, false stereotypes, and several have received enthusiastic audience endorsement. Important among these is a popular Pakistani film, Khuda Kay Liye. Although flawed as cinema, it is a moral document of unusual humanism. The film attempts a brave, searching exploration of the struggles that people of faith in Islam are embroiled in, as they strive to sift right and wrong in a world which holds them responsible for the reprehensible crimes of a few who claim to defend their faith. It tries to make sense of the teachings of some leaders of their faith, who interpret its texts in ways that deny its syncretic humanist traditions, and who justify the oppression of women and the bloody often random extermination of not just people of different faiths but even liberal and progressive political persuasions. It also tries to understand the compatibility of Islam with Western sensibilities of dress and music. The film endorses one of the most profound truths of our times: that the central battle is not of Islam with other faiths. The real war is between humanist and liberal interpretations and practices of faiths, and versions that advocate division, patriarchy, hate and violence. This war is by no means restricted to Islam, but people of Muslim faith in every country are forced more than any other to constantly make public choices about which side they stand on in this battle, because much of the world assumes that they are on the side of loathing and shedding of the blood of innocents. They shout their dissent, and sometimes pay for it with their lives, but few hear them, as they find themselves condemned because of the faith to which they are born. The film has the quality of anguished honesty: as it tracks this turmoil within Islam, it holds up its own truths for scrutiny by the rest of the world. And yet the truths it captures are universal. The film is not a portrayal of contemporary Islam alone; it is a mirror to fundamentalist resurgence in every major faith today. The bids of the Muslim cleric in the film to 'rescue' women who wish to marry outside their faith by abducting them and forcing them into weddings with men of their own religion could be the mission of a Babu Bajrangi in Gujarat. The endorsement of retributive violence against 'other' peoples echoes Bush's doctrine of 'collateral damage' and his and Blair's frequent reference to 'crusades', or Modi's resort to Newtonian physics to justify the post-Godhra massacres. The cleric's mocking of NGOs in the court scene of Khuda Kay Liye could have been Modi caricaturing 'five-star' NGOs or K.P.S. Gill's indictment of human rights groups. The harrowing portrayal of cruel torture of a Muslim man under police detention after 9/11 in Chicago resonates chillingly with many testimonies of torture and illegal detention of Muslim youth in Gujarat after 2002, or in Hyderabad after the bomb blasts last year. It is not the truth of Islam, of the 'other' out there that the film recreates; it is the picture of all of us, if we have the courage and compassion to see and hear it. My main quarrel with the film is its resolution. In its climax, the services of a 'good' cleric are recruited, as he offers his interpretation of Islamic scriptures, not just to justify music and Western dress and culture (which it could be argued was legitimate), but also to affirm that a woman cannot be forced to marry and have sex with her husband against her will. I feel troubled that judges of the court in the film rely on his interpretation of scriptures as clinching evidence, rather than reference to the undisputed facts, to reason and the secular law of the land; to gender equality, tolerance and the respect of adult choice. The court is dealing with a grave crime, of clerics motivating a young man to abduct, marry and rape his cousin to prevent her from marrying a white Christian man. By subjecting this crime to interrogation by faith rather than law and secular notions of justice, the film in the end compromises its universalistic, liberal and modernist premise. There is an attractive finale of the young protagonist back in his jeans and jaunty cap, defiantly confronting the disapproval of the hardline cleric by delivering the call to prayers in the mosque. But before he does that, I would have felt reassured to see him jailed for abducting and raping his cousin. There have been some as honestly introspective films about Hindu fundamentalism in India. The best recent example is Parzania, which tracks the heart-breaking search of parents for their child who disappeared in the 2002 carnage in Gujarat. It is as agonisingly scrupulous in its portrayal of Hindutva politics, and ends far more reassuringly, with the resolve of the survivors to fight against all odds for justice in the courts of law. Equally important is Shaurya, which courageously admits to communalism in the armed forces, and to human rights abuses against children in Kashmir. The Muslim officer who defends the civilians against the atrocities by his brother officer in uniform is viewed with suspicion because of his faith. The 'loyalty' test that Muslim citizens often find themselves subjected to was also illustrated in one of the most popular films of last year, Chak De! India, in which a Muslim hockey coach is believed to have deliberately thrown a match against Pakistan. In both films, audiences backed the Muslim who was unfairly labelled. All these films revive hope, that ultimately in the battle of hearts and minds - that rages in the name both of global crusade against terror, and the political mobilisation within India around religious identity - justice, truth and compassion still have a chance. Harsh Mander is the convenor of Aman Biradari ______ [8] From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 5, Issue 19, Dated May 17, 2008 ACTIVISTS IN TROUBLE CAMPAIGN PAINS A coalition of 150 NGOs campaigning against the BJP in poll-bound Karnataka have run afoul of the State Election Commission, reports SANJANA POLITICAL PARTIES are not the only ones engaged in a pitched battle in election bound Karnataka. People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) - a statewide coalition comprising 150 NGOs that work on a range of issues from Dalit and women's rights to farmers' issues, caste politics and labour - is actively engaged in campaigning against what it calls the BJPs 'communal agenda'. Says KL Ashok, a PAD convenor, "We have no doubt that the BJP is a communal party committed to treating Dalits, Muslims, women and the working masses as second-class citizens. We have seen what they did in 20 months when they were in power in Karnataka. We are saying - never again!" Headed by prominent cultural figures such as UR Ananthamurthy, Sara Aboobacker and Gauri Lankesh, the coalition has framed for itself a precise agenda - to ensure defeat of the BJP in the coming Assembly elections and to demand accountability from other political parties seeking to represent the people. It had undertaken a massive public awareness campaign including 'jeep jathas' across 100 towns in Karnataka and wide-scale distribution of a 'people's manifesto', backed by about 50,000 posters. The campaign had just started to make waves when it ran into trouble with the Karnataka State Election Commission (SEC) and the police, which stepped in to halt it. A Election Commission of India (ECI) directive issued to the Karnataka SEC on April 7, 2008 stipulates that "no wall writing, pasting of posters/papers, erecting of cut-outs, hoardings, banners, or defacement in any other form shall be permitted on public property" and that any local law applicable should be strictly enforced. Accordingly, MN Vidyashankar, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Karnataka issued strict orders to the police for "criminal cases to be booked against those flouting the directive." On April 12, activists belonging to PAD were detained and arrested by police in Madikeri (Kodagu district), Mulbagal (Kolar district) and Bangalore as they attempted to paste posters urging voters to say no to the BJP. In Jamkhandi (Bagalkot district), police authorities denied permission to hold a public meeting. In Bangalore, activists were detained and posters seized. "Everywhere the police demanded that we produce permission letters by the State Election Commission. No matter how many times we told them that we weren't a political party, they would not listen," says AMM Shaafi of PAD. For the State Election Commission too, this was a difficult proposition to buy - a non-political party coalition working to defeat the BJP and distributing copies of its own manifesto. When Shaafi along with other convenors approached the CEO Vidyashankar three days after the arrests, he said, "We want to ensure that they were not indulging in surrogate canvassing. The content of the posters have to be cleared." The CEO insisted that the coalition submit translated copies of publicity material to the ECI and wait for clearance, citing an April 2004 Supreme Court judgment. When the coalition obtained copies of the SC order, they found that it had nothing to do with their case, and instead pertained to cable television advertisements by Gujarat political parties during elections. When PAD representatives reverted to the CEO, he was apologetic but held that having submitted the poster for clearance, they had no choice but to wait for the ECI'S decision. With first phase of polling starting on on May 10, the coalition representatives are infuriated, but so far the only reply they have received from the SEC is that the matter is pending due to delays with the ECI in New Delhi. ELECTION COMMISSIONER Dr SY Quraishi, told TEHELKA that, "PAD is free to do their campaigning; provided they don't say that BJP is a communal party. That is a specific allegation. But they are free to ask voters to not vote for communal parties." He also categorically stated that the ECI had conveyed this to the Karnataka SEC during their last visit to Bangalore. But Karnataka's Joint Chief Election Commissioner BV Kulkarni, says they are "still waiting to hear from the ECI." Shabnam Hashmi, member, National Integration Council, who has undertaken similar campaigns in Gujarat, and who also wrote to the ECI on the PAD issue, believes that the organisation should simply get on with the task. "For eight months we carried a strong anti-BJP and anti-Modi campaign. There were cases against us. You can't keep rushing to officials to get their stamp of approval every time." PAD is doing just that. Tired of official dillydallying, they have proceeded with their campaign - albeit in different ways. ______ [8] ANNOUNCEMENTS: (i) Join us for an evening of readings and conversation with Intizar Hussain Date: 14th May 2008 | Time: 7:00 pm Intizar Husain came into prominence with the upheavel filled days of 1947, as the newly emergent country of Pakistan was affected by the displacement of people on both sides of the border. These became the themes of Intizar Husain's early fiction writings and his concern with the destiny of this country has deepened in his subsequent work. Intizar Husain is a well recognized figure on Pakistan's literary scene and many of his works have been translated into English. Intizar Husain will read selections from from his work and will answer questions from the audience. The session will be moderated by Asif Farrukhi. Date: Wednesday, 14th May 2008 Time: 7:00 pm Suggested Minimum Donation: Rs. 100 Venue: The Second Floor (T2F) 6-C, Prime Point Building, Phase 7, Khayaban-e-Ittehad, DHA, Karachi 538-9273 | 0300-823-0276 | [EMAIL PROTECTED] Map: http://www.t2f.biz/location Seats are limited and will be available on a 'first come, first served' basis. No reservations. NOTE --- (ii) Dear Friend, You are cordially invited to 'Artists for Human Rights', an evening of protest by Arundhati Roy, Ashok Vajpayee, Danish & Mehmood, Gauhar Raza, K.Satchidanand, Manu Kohli, Nageen Tanveer, Rahul Ram, Vishnu Nagar and many other artists, poets, writers and cultural workers demanding the release of Dr Binayak Sen and other political prisoners. 14 May 2008 marks the first anniversary of the arrest of well known health and human rights activists Dr Sen by the Chattisgarh government. Time: 6 PM onwards Date: 14 May, 2008 Venue: Rabindra Bhawan Lawns (Opposite Mandi House), Copernicus Marg, New Delhi In Solidarity Committee for the Release of Dr Binayak Sen New Delhi -- Anivar Aravind Free Binayaksen campaign http://binayaksen.net --- (iii) SANSAD invites you to a Press Conference International Day of Protest Demanding Unconditional Freedom for Dr. Binayak Sen Wednesday, May 14, 2008 3:30 p.m. In front of the office of the Consul General of India 325 Howe Street, Vancouver A Statement of Concerns and a Charter of Demands will be handed over to the Consul General. It was on May 14, a yaar ago, that Dr. Binayak Sen was arrested by the government of Chattisgarh State in India under the highly draconian and repressive Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act, 2005 (CSPSA) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 2004 (UAPA) on charges of sedition, conspiracy to wage war against the state and conspiracy to commit other offences. To mark the anniversary of the uncalled-for detention, protest activities are going on this day all over India, and also in many cities of North America and Europe, especially in front of Indian Embassies or Consulates: Baltimore, Boston, Houston/Dallas, London (England), Paris, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Fracisco, Stockholm, Washsington DC - in addition to here in Vancouver. For the last three decades, as a practicing pediatrician and a Public Health specialist, Dr. Sen has been promoting community rural health-care centres, and providing health care to some of most marginalized sections of society. He was principally instrumental in setting up the unique Shaheed Hospital as well as carrying out community-driven health care work through Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (People's Health Movement). On April 21 this year, Dr. Sen was awarded the 2008 Jonathan Mann Award by the Global Health Council which he is supposed to receive on May 29 at the International Conference on Global Health in Washington, D.C., (see: http://www.globalhealth.org/news/article/9833) Dr. Binayak Sen is also a prominent human rights activist as the State Secretary of People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) for Chattisgarh, and a Vice President of PUCL's national body. Over the years, PUCL has exposed a vast array of human rights violations, poor conditions of prisoners, custodial deaths and extra-judicial killings - especially those committed by a state-sponsored, heavily armed, vigilante group by the name of Salwa Judum, which has been terrorizing the local people struggling to defend their lands and their rights against the large-scale encroachment by big capital and multi-nationals. For a PUCL analysis of Dr. Sen's case, please check: http://www.pucl.org/Topics/Human-rights/2007/sen-case-analysis.html For a report on the Salwa Judum vigilante group (When the State Makes War on its Own People) please click: http://www.pucl.org/Topics/Human-rights/2006/slawajudum.htm For an understanding of the economic realities of the resource-rich land of Chattisgarh and why the State machinery, directly or through the Salwa Judum militia, is determned to serve the interests of local and international big capital and to repress people struggling for their lands and livelihood, please see: http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/amr140607.html Internationally renowned intellectuals have been arguing for almost a year for an unconditinal release of Dr. Sen (see http://monthlyreview.org/0607sen.htm). A few days ago, 22 Nobel laureates have come out openly demanding an unconditional release of Dr. Sen. Among them two got the Nobel for Economics, two for Physics, nine for Chemistry, and nine for Physiology or Medicine. See the link: http://www.binayaksen.net/2008/05/nobel-winners-call-for-release-of-dr-binayak-sen/ For a fuller version of Dr. Sen's work, and the legal aspects of the case slaped on him, you could look at this Medico Friend Circle Brochure: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/msg03256.html Although Dr. Binayak Sen has acquired a high profile - both nationally and internationally - it should be pointed out that he is only one among a large number of human rights activists and journalists, all across India, who have been incarcerated under one or the other provision of highly repressive laws. There are : Lachit Bordoloi, a human rights activist from Assam; Prashant Rahi, journalist from Uttarakhand; Govindan Kutty, editor of People's March in Kerala; Praful Jha, a journalist from Chhattisgarh; Vernon Gonsalves, an activist from Nasik; Arun Ferreira, Ashok Reddy, Dhanendra Bhurule, Naresh Bansode, activists from the Vidarbha region, have all been charged under the UAPA and kept under prolonged detention without bail. Please join us at the Press Conference, and a visit to the Consul General's office to hand over a Statement of Concens and a Charter of Demands. Wednesday, May 14, 3:30 p.m., 325 Howe Street, Vancouver. -- Hari Sharma, president SANSAD (South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy) Suite 435, 552-A Clark Road Coquitlam, B.C., Canada V3J 0A3 ph: 604 - 420-2972; fax: 604 - 420-2970 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ 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