South Asia Citizens Wire | 23 September, 2004 via: www.sacw.net
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[1] Pakistan: Multi Mullah Alliance versus the Constitution (Editorial, Daily Times)
[2] Pakistan India: Sparring over a seat (Praful Bidwai)
[3] Pakistan, India & Kashmir: Clear the air (Balraj Puri)
[4] India's Alternative Film Movement Defies Censors to Impact Change (Divya Chandel)
[5] Publication Announcement -India: book for children on prejudice, superstition and violence "The Winning Team by Githa Hariharan"
[6] India: Letter to the Editor (Mukul Dube)
[7] India: Anhad /IHRLN Workshops on Communalism (Calcutta, September 25 & 26, 2004 | Secunderabad,October 2,3, 2004)
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[1]
The Daily Times September 23, 2004
EDITORIAL: MMA VERSUS THE CONSTITUTION
According to reports, the Council for Islamic Ideology (CII) declared at its 154th meeting in Islamabad on August 12-13 that the Hasbah Bill tabled by the MMA government in the NWFP violated the Constitution. It said: 'The proposed bill clashes with the Constitution, Article 175 [3], which concerns the independence of the judiciary. The proposed Hasbah institution will not achieve the purposes of Shariah. It will instead raise controversies over the teachings of Quran and Sunnah, and certain ambiguities in Clause 23 of the bill would make their implementation dependent on the mohtasib and the Hasbah force'. An eight-point recommendation on the issue was passed unanimously by the Council.
The CII also criticised Clause 3 [1] of the bill for politicising the ombudsman's office by allowing the chief minister to appoint him - a power that must rest with the governor, it argued. It also held that the advisory council and reconciliation committees placed alongside the ombudsman will affect his freedom and put him under political pressure. The recommendation stated: "The mohtasib should not be told whom he needs to consult on issues". It noted that the mohtasib and ombudsman offices were already enforcing Hasbah at the centre and in the Punjab, Balochistan and Sindh. It recommended that the institution of ombudsman or mohtasib be extended to the NWFP instead of enforcing the Hasbah Bill. The appointment of ombudsman in districts and tehsils needlessly duplicates offices already included in the North West Frontier Province Local Government Ordinance, 2001. It opined that the Supreme Judicial Council should have the authority to remove ombudsmen and to bar extensions to their tenure so that their decisions were not influenced.
The Hasbah Bill controversy began with the MMA government's plan to replicate in the NWFP the reign of the Taliban in Afghanistan through the imposition of a peripatetic justice-dispensing institution. Those who recall the Taliban system of Amr bil Maaruf will know that punishments were awarded on the spot to people the judge thought were guilty of violations of the Shariah. On the pretext of 'enforcing Allah's system in Allah's world', the NWFP government drafted a law, called the Hasbah Bill. Under Article 131 (a) of the Constitution, the bill was sent to the governor of the province. The governor raised a number of objections to its clauses and asked the chief minister to amend them to bring the law in line with the Constitution. This went on for over a year, but the chief minister and the governor could not arrive at an agreed text.
What might the proposed mohtasib-judge under the Hasba law have done or achieved? The bill gave him a large number of powers. Half a dozen of them would give the citizens an idea about how 'transformational' the law was purported to be: he would monitor adherence to the moral values of Islam at public places; he would ensure respect and regard at the times of iftar and taravih; he would discourage extravagance and beggary; he would discourage entertainment shows and business transactions during Eid and Friday prayers; he would remove the causes of negligence in the maintenance of mosques; he would discourage all un-Islamic social values; and he would deal with those found to be disobedient to their parents. In short, Hasbah was going to be a catch-all law meant to satisfy the emotion of revenge rather than justice in conditions of freedom.
The MMA government in Peshawar has encountered difficulties in enforcing its brand of Shariah through administrative measures. Its order that namaz be strictly enforced in specially designated areas in all business houses and shopping malls stops short of laying down the pain of punishment. The government says it will not use coercion but everyone knows that coercion and punishment will come later once the MMA has consolidated its power and the centre becomes weak. In the 1990s, when the centre was weak, a similar Shariah movement sprang up in Malakand. Pakistan was punished for not taking timely action against it in the shape of thousands of youth that the movement sent illegally to Afghanistan to 'fight the Americans' in 2001. Over 3,000 of them are said to have perished.
What the MMA cannot achieve through legislation, it is now trying to realise by setting up its own NGOs to enforce its own version of Shariah. It has chosen the district of Nowshehra to stage what might be termed its 'pilot project' on Shariah. The proposed salat committees have no legal mandate and are actually NGOs functioning with full backing from the MMA government in Peshawar. This is clearly an attempt to get the Hasbah Bill enforced through other means. Islamabad must intervene at this stage when public objection to such unconstitutional religious coercion is in its early intense stage. The small opposition in the NWFP assembly has protested, but there is no representation of the shopkeepers of Peshawar who are harassed by the MMA's pro-Taliban reform.
The NWFP government has shown discrimination against all kinds of entertainment. Musicians and singers once popular in the city have moved to other parts of Pakistan. Posters and hoardings carrying women's likenesses have been disfigured and the cinemas are under severe pressure. So far the MMA has been allowed to act freely in the NWFP, but this laissez faire is affecting other parts of the country. Down in Punjab, centres of entertainment are under pressure from the MMA clerics. In Gujranwala, entertainment programmes have been attacked by vigilante groups and in Faisalabad there is a movement to bring down the cinema houses. If the MMA is permitted to encroach on the constitutional freedoms in the NWFP, the rest of Pakistan may eventually come to reel under its impact. This must not be allowed to happen. It would be the death-knell of General Pervez Musharraf's vision of "enlightened moderation". *
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[2]
The News International - September 23, 2004
SPARRING OVER A SEAT by Praful Bidwai
As we await the outcome of tomorrow's meeting between President Musharraf and Prime Minister Singh, a discordant note has crept into India-Pakistan exchanges. India's announcement of its plan to lobby concertedly, with Brazil, Germany and Japan, for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council has drawn a sharply negative Pakistani response. Pakistan's ambassador to the UN, Munir Akram, says Islamabad "would do everything possible to thwart India's attempts..."
Akram first reiterated Pakistan's long-standing opposition to any expansion of the Security Council's five-member permanent group (P-5), but then added: "If we have to choose, we will support Germany and Japan against India". Two factors seem to be at work: knee-jerk opposition to a larger global role for India, and diplomatic pressure from Germany and Japan, whose foreign ministers visited Pakistan in July and August.
Pakistan's stiff opposition to India's search for a larger world role appears to be rooted in instinctive rivalry and a "zero-sum" calculus: India and Pakistan should logically cut each other down to size.
The operational issue for the moment is: How valuable is a permanent Security Council seat? Is it in the interest of global security that the Council be expanded without being reformed? Is Tony Blair right in saying, as he did on Monday: "For India not to be represented on the Security Council is, I think, something that is not in tune with ... modern times..."? Will India gain in stature and influence by acquiring a permanent seat?
Some sobering thoughts are in order. Take first an interesting contrast between India's new self-assertion and its just-announced reversal of its 2003 decision to refuse bilateral aid from most countries. It will now accept assistance from all G-8 countries, and the European Union, including its non-G-8 members, provided they give an annual minimum of $25 million. The earlier hubris, enhanced by peevishness at the EU's demarches over the Gujarat pogrom, has given way to acknowledgement that India needs external assistance.
This is unsurprising. India has a rank of 127 in the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI). Its per-capita income is a mere $487, or less than one-tenth the global average. (Even in purchasing-power parity, it is one-third the world average.) India's lofty ambition is not matched by its poverty, general backwardness, and aggregate economic size, which in absolute terms equals the Netherlands' (pop 16 million). A Council seat won't redress this mismatch.
Nor is a Council seat the best index of international standing. Britain, France and Russia are declining powers despite being in the P-5. There is nearly as much disproportion between, say, Pakistan and India's nuclear-weapons status and their political weight, as between Council membership and leadership in politics, economy or culture.
In today's world, "soft power" probably matters than "hard" military power. Nations are often respected more for their moral leadership and for what they have done for their citizens than for their might. For instance, Sweden, South Africa and Ireland - because they have endorsed good causes like peace. Norway (pop 4.5 million) commands prestige because of its steady Number One HDI rank and conflict-resolution role in Palestine-Israel and Sri Lanka.
Contrariwise, brute power is no guarantee of effective political authority. The United States' military superiority is unmatched in history. But the US is politically failing in Iraq, as it failed in Vietnam. During the critical February 2003 debate over the "Second Resolution" on Iraq, the US's powers of persuasion, coercion and bribery could not recruit it the support it needed. Not just Pakistan, Mexico and Chile, but even Guinea, Cameroon and Angola (all extremely weak) defied Washington!
This does not argue that the Security Council is irrelevant - it proved relevant precisely when the US threatened to consign it to the dustbin of history - but that there are limits to its most privileged members' power. Wisdom lies in working within those limits - not equating Council membership with unbridled authority and legitimacy.
The Security Council, it bears recalling, failed to stop French and US interventions in Vietnam, the Korean War, Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and many wars in Africa and Latin America. After the Cold War, it also failed in Bosnia and Rwanda. It is now disastrously failing in Sudan. It has proved shamefully ineffectual in bringing justice to Palestine.
These failures are largely attributable to lack of will on the part of the major powers to enforce peace and security. This won't change unless the Council is thoroughly reformed. Some elements of reform are obvious. The Council must be democratised and enlarged by giving more representation to the Global South. Vetoes must be eventually abolished. Its decision-making powers must be restructured, so the General Assembly gets greater authority. It won't do just to include Germany and Japan (which won't enhance the Council's credibility), nor even large Southern countries like India, Brazil, Nigeria and Indonesia. It would be better to have permanent seats for different regions, which are rotated among their members.
Some interesting proposals have also come from a Ford Foundation-Yale University working group (whose members were drawn from both North and South). One calls for enlarging the number of permanent (non-veto) members, while restricting use of the veto by the P-5 "only to peacekeeping and enforcement measures...[This] ... could be arranged by agreement among the P-5 and without Charter amendment..."
One major merit of this transitional idea is that it reduces the danger that the North will altogether derail reform. It is an urgent necessity to expand the General Assembly's role in security-related decision-making and empower the Economic and Social Council to oversee the working of the World Bank, IMF and World Trade Organisation. Other proposals have also been made for creating a "Second Chamber" of civil society organisations.
India could play a valuable role in promoting a dialogue for UN reform along these lines. That would be a major contribution to global governance. But that means returning to a Nehruvian vision of a peaceful and just world order and seizing moral leadership, while abandoning a search for glory through military-political-economic power.
Pakistan, too, should promote UN reform. That would be in its own (and the world's) long-term interest. By obsessively opposing India's bid for a Council seat, Pakistan will have negated that possibility. The time has come for Pakistanis to ask whether their main global preoccupation should be to seek parity with India, or failing that cut India down. Size and location, as well as the existence of a stable democracy, may have put India in a different league. There is nothing wrong with accepting that in a spirit of generosity and friendship - in order to promote a common global democratic agenda.
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[3]
The Hindustan Times - September 23, 2004 | Op-Ed.
CLEAR THE AIR Balraj Puri September 22
Manipur has reminded us again that human rights violations are the surest way to alienate people and consolidate mass support for insurgents. This is true of Kashmir as well. Earlier, when the Hurriyat Conference was united, its leaders had complained that by raising the human rights issue, attention was being diverted from the azadi movement. People were also led to believe that some human sacrifices were inevitable for the cause.
Now when azadi is no more round the corner, separatist groups and mainstream parties vie with one another to protest against incidents of human rights violation. Thus, when the alleged torture of a female student by the police in Handwara on July 9 came to light, there were large-scale protest demonstrations. Forest Minister Sofi Ghulam Mohi-ud-Din, who belongs to the area, offered to resign if he failed to get the culprits punished. Within two days, three special police officers (SPOs) were dismissed and two police officers were attached even as an inquiry was ordered.
Pakistan's main plank on Kashmir at international fora has been the issue of human rights. India, on the other hand, lays the blame for the turmoil in the state on cross-border terrorism. In reality, terrorism and human rights violations are not two different phenomena. Their victims may, however, be different. While ceasefire between the armed forces and militants may again be attempted and pressure may continue to be exercised on Pakistan to stop export of terrorism, the issue of innocent killings can be isolated from other killings. It can be tackled through mobilisation of opinion within Kashmir, in the rest of the world and even within Pakistan.
As a person who has been monitoring human rights violations in Kashmir since the start of militancy, I had no hesitation in exposing excesses of the security forces, which were more pronounced in the first phase. Such excesses alienated the people, defamed India abroad and undermined the morale of the forces. But while the activities of the human rights activists, national and state human rights commissions, independent judiciary and free media helped in improving discipline among the forces, the new brand of militants, mostly non-Kashmiris who were more brutal, were under no discipline.
The latest phase of militancy, which started in 1998, was marked by a series of mass killings - at Parankote in Udhampur district, Chapanari in Doda, Wandhama in Srinagar, Chattisinghpora in Pulwama, Nandimarg in Anantnag and Kaluchak, Rajiv Nagar and Sunjwan in Jammu. The death toll ranged from 25 to 35 in each case. Their only crime was that they were Hindus or Sikhs. At Kotchadwal in Rajouri and Marah in Poonch, militants killed 15 and 13 Muslims respectively, as they were suspected to be informers of security agencies. Other Muslims killed were members of mainstream parties and their relations. Even secessionist leaders, who developed differences with the Pakistan establishment, were not spared.
That human rights violations continue to be committed by either side is objectively recorded by the Amnesty International. According to its report 2003, the PDP-Congress administration had initially raised hopes that human rights violations in J&K would be a thing of the past. "However, soon afterwards there were reports from Baramulla that security forces opened unprovoked and indiscriminate fire killing one person and injuring two others. Since then, human rights abuses by the security forces and police have continue to be reported almost daily."
The report adds: "[These] persisted at high-level with a reported 344 civilians killed in a targeted and indiscriminate way. Torture, including rape and beating of the civilian population by members of armed political groups (militants), also continued to be reported throughout the year. They failed to abide by standards of international law and many civilians were killed as a result of indiscriminate violence... Militants were also reportedly involved in criminal activities, including extortion."
At one stage, separatist groups attributed the killings of innocent Hindus and Sikhs to the security forces "to defame the freedom movement". When militants killed four tourists at Pahalgam and an engineer of Indian Railways Construction International Limited and his brother in Pulwama and Maulvi Mushtaq, uncle of Mirwaiz Maulvi Umar Farooq, in Srinagar, the identity of the killers was evident to all. But when three buildings of an Islamic school run by Mirwaiz, along with rare documents and books, were set ablaze, there were oblique references to the culprits.
Eventually, differences developed even within the militant camp. When Harkat-ul-Mujahideen was involved in a case of torture and rape of one Mariam in Doda, the Hizbul Mujahideen is reported to have asked the reason. It was told, "You fellows are too soft. You start vomiting when we give such treatment to an informer. We know that Mariam was not an informer but her brother was."
Pakistan is becoming impatient for a solution to Kashmir. Instead of evading a discussion on Kashmir and human rights violations, India should insist on making it the first item of the agenda. It is time to relax a ban on Amnesty International work in J&K, at least on a case-to-case basis. A word of condemnation by such an organisation will carry far more weight in the rest of the world than a diplomatic campaign by the Indian government.
In the first phase, India and Pakistan should agree to condemn killings of non-combatant and unarmed civilians for their religious or political beliefs by either the militants or the security forces. This should be followed by similar condemnation of collateral damage in armed operations, that is killing of innocents in cross-firing or Eid blasts that are aimed at the security forces. Finally, complete withdrawal by the militants and the return of the army to the barracks. Then would the stage be set for a discussion on the political aspects of the problem.
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[4]
OneWorld.net - Sep 22, 9:02 AM ET
INDIA'S ALTERNATIVE FILM MOVEMENT DEFIES CENSORS TO IMPACT CHANGE
Divya Chandel, OneWorld South Asia
NEW DELHI, Sept 22 (OneWorld) - A forum of over 300 documentary filmmakers is campaigning for the right to freedom of expression in India's capital, New Delhi, screening over 60 powerful films, most of which were rejected by the country's draconian censor board.
Declaring September 2004 as the "Month of Free Speech," in protest against rising government censorship, the festival includes a package of 64 films revolving around the themes of communalism, destructive development, globalization, the environment, womens rights and the oppression of marginalized communities.
Targeting the impressionable youth, the independent films are being screened in collaboration with academic departments and student bodies in three of Delhi's most prestigious universities ? the Delhi University, the Jamia Millia Islamia and the Jawahar Lal Nehru University.
The package of 64 films was drawn from Vikalp (Alternative), a film festival that ran parallel to an International Film Festival held in India's film capital, Mumbai, in February 2004, called the Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF).
It screened a slew of documentaries rejected by MIFF, as a mark of protest against the mandatory precondition of censor certificates for Indian documentaries demanded by India's ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Explains documentary filmmaker Rahul Roy, "It made sense to sustain the movement (that began with MIFF) and enlarge the debate on censorship that affects not just filmmakers but the common man. A festival such as this widens our platform."
The festival took-off this month with a three-day seminar appropriately titled "Resisting Censorship/Breaking Silences and Celebrating Freedom of Expression," where filmmakers, media persons, activists and students engaged in a heated debate on issues ranging from the rights of sex workers; womens movements and the media; to censorship and hate speech; privatization, censorship and the judiciary.
One of the most controversial rejected documentaries on view is the poignant "A Night of Prophecy" by noted documentary filmmaker Amar Kanwar, which depicts songs of protest signifying oppression, pain and broken promises in an unequal society.
Explains Kanwar, "Its a journey through different regions of India, which takes a look at its various problems as a nation like the issue of caste, class, poverty, nationality and terrorism."
Kanwar is the recipient of the Golden Conch (Best Film award) at the 1998 MIFF for his film "A Season Outside."
The filmmakers are protesting against India's 1952 Cinematograph Act which regulates both the production and screening of films in the country. The Act empowers a Central Board of Film Certification to decide whether a film is suitable for restricted or unrestricted viewing.
Very often, the Board rejects avant garde films which depict stark social and political realities.
Slamming the censorship law as "extremely draconian," filmmaker Saba Dewan says people should be given the freedom to decide what they want to see.
As she protests, "A handful of people now decide what a nation of million should see. The law was introduced under the colonial regime and is outdated and archaic."
Explaining the rationale behind the restrictive law, Kanwar comments that, "Political parties have vested interests in preventing the truth from coming out. This was apparent by the fact that any film critical of the government would be rejected."
This is not to say that all the films screened in the festival were rejected. The MIFF accepted around 15 of them, but filmmakers withdrew them in solidarity with the rest.
The Campaign Against Censorship aims to reach the widest possible community of viewers to fight against censorship of all forms. The entire collection of documentaries will also travel to other Indian cities as a package, comprising post-screening discussions and interactive dialogues with the filmmakers.
"We are taking the films to whoever is interested and creating an energy for the movement," stresses filmmaker Anupama Srinivasan, one of the organisers of the event.
Predictably, given their provocative themes, many of the films have triggered violent protests from fundamentalists. For instance, members of the rightwing Hindu Jagran Manch (Hindu Awareness Group) tried to halt the public screening of a bold internationally acclaimed film called "Final Solution" in the south Indian city of Bangalore this July.
The documentary explores the anatomy of hate and violence between the Hindu majority and minority Muslims during the February 2002 riots in the western Indian city of Gujarat.
The festival has received an overwhelming response from university students. Claims one of the organizers, "People want to see and talk about the films and college auditoriums are always packed, forcing many enthusiastic viewers to return. We feel that a healthy, social and educational movement has emerged."
The filmmakers are keen to make the festival a recurring event rather than just a one-time affair.
Enthuses Dewan, "We have seen such possibilities emerge where we can work with people on issues related to real life and intervene as filmmakers to make a difference."
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[5] [Publication announcement]
Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2004
Hi,
This book grew out of visits to schools I made with several other writers, artists, film makers and academics after the Gujarat communal killings in 2002. The school teachers felt there just weren't enough books for children that deal with prejudice, superstition and violence, and I have tried to deal with these themes in today's Indian context, and when possible, with humour. I would be delighted if you can use the book in any way to help our children see and understand our situation better.
best
Githa Hariharan
o o o
[Attached Note]
On behalf of the author, illustrator and Rupa Books, I am happy to announce the publication of The Winning Team on October 1, 2004.
Kapish Mehra
Rupa & Co.
The Winning Team Written by Githa Hariharan Illustrated by Taposhi Ghoshal
Once there was a storyteller who was out of work. He didn't know how it had happened - but he no longer had anyone to tell his stories to.
But luckily for Kahani Bhai (also called Bhai K), he finds the best audience in the world - the winning team of friends, Nasira, Gopal, Akbari, Veer, Dulari and Ram. And like magic, or like the kahaniwala he really is, all the old stories crowding Bhai K's mind, all the happy, clever and funny faces - of Tenali Raman, Naseeruddin Hodja, Gopal Bhar, Birbal - change into people he knows. Knows as well as the children sitting around him, in the city he lives in, near the villages and towns he has seen with his own eyes.
Ten stories of the different kinds of people the winning team meet as they get into the stories, from Ramu the Boy Wonder, to the hill-moving Hodja, to the bald babus of Krishnapur, to Nasser the Ferryboy. And while the children find much to puzzle them or make them sad, they always find laughter. Laughter, which can never be banned. They find laughter, new friends, and cause for celebration, because there are so many different people and stories in their India.
Githa Hariharan has written several highly acclaimed novels, including the prizewinning The Thousand Faces of Night and the more recent In Times of Siege. She has also co-edited, with Shama Futehally, a collection of stories for children, Sorry, Best Friend!
Like many children she knows, she feels that our old stories will remain just that -- old stories -- if we don't make them up all over again so they speak to us and give us joy.
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[6] [Letter to the Editor]
Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2004 18:49:25 +0530
D-504 Purvasha Mayur Vihar 1 Delhi 110091
22 September 2004
Truly the BJP can tell the trivial from the weighty. One hundred of its MPs, who so recently declined to waste their time debating the Finance Bill in Parliament, travelled to Port Blair to demand that the honour be restored of the material object which for them represents V.D. Savarkar. They were accompanied by 40 MLAs who presumably wanted to educate themselves.
The admiration of the BJP's parent body, the RSS, for Savarkar is clear from the reverential distance it always maintained from him and his Hindu Mahasabha. For fear of putting its many feet in its single mouth, it said nothing when he was being tried for Gandhi's assassination. It took care not to compromise him when it launched its political wing, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, even though that was headed by S.P. Mookerjee, formerly of the Hindu Mahasabha. In his declining years, it thoughtfully left him in the solitude he so eminently deserved.
Justice Jivanlal Kapur, who headed the Commission of Inquiry into the Conspiracy to Murder Mahatma Gandhi, set up in 1965, examined evidence and witnesses not available to the Court of Sessions at the original trial. His findings were unambiguous: "All these facts taken together were destructive of any theory other than the conspiracy to murder by Savarkar and his group."
How can the RSS-BJP possibly fail to beatify this heroic freedom fighter, who freed them of none other than Gandhi, that arch enemy of their Hindu Rashtra? Veer Mandirs should dot the landscape: and maybe they will, for the constructors of heroes can cobble together divinities too.
Mukul Dube
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[7]
Workshop on Communalism and the Law
Organizers: Human Rights Law Network & Anhad
Venue: The Institute of Cooperative Management for Agriculture & Rural Development (ICMARD)
Block -14, CIT Scheme-VIII (M), Ultadanga Road, Kolkata 700 067
Date: September 25 & 26, 2004
Programme
contact : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Day - I-RESOURCE PERSON- HARSH MANDER
9.00 – 9.30
Introduction of Anhad and HRLN 9.30 –10.00 10.00 –10.15 10.15 –10.30 Identity, Self and the Other Ten minutes from the docu-lecture by Sohail Hashmi Discussion 10.30 –11.00 11.00 – 11.15 11.15 – 11.30
Freedom Struggle and Formation of India Fifteen minutes from the docu-lecture by Prof. Mridula Mukherjee Discussion
11.30 – 12.00
Tea Break 12.00 – 12.30 12.30 – 12.50 12.50 – 1.15
Fascism In Dark Times – Documentary by Gauhar Raza Discussion
Lunch : 1.15 – 2.00
2.00. –2.40 2.40 – 3.00
3.00 – 3.15
History and Ideology of the Sangh Parivar
Ten minutes each from Lalit Vanchani’s Documentary “ Men in the Tree”, Nivedita Menon’s docu-lecture and Prof. S.K.Thorat’s docu-lecture
Discussion
3.15 – 3.45
3.15 – 3.45
3.45 – 4.15
What is Secularism/ assault on secularism: education/history
Fifteen minutes each from Prof. Bipin Chandra’s and Rizwan Qaiser’s docu-lectures
Discussion – initiator: Harsh Mander
4.15 – 4.30
Tea Break 4.30 –5.00 4.30.- 5.00 5.15 – 5.30
Myths
Ram Puniyani’s docu-lecture Discussion- Initiator: Harsh Mander 5.30 –6.00
5.30 – 6.00
6.00 – 6.30 Defence of Secularism and the Constitution Fifteen minutes each from Harsh Mander’s and Mihir Desai’s docu-lectures Discussion- Initiator: Harsh Mander
6.30 –7.30
Tea Break/ informal discussion
DAY – II
9.00 –10.00 Secularism and the law in India and abroad Chairperson: Hon’ble Mr. Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta
10.00 – 12.00 Communal killings and the use of law Sikh massacres in Delhi Bombay carnage – 1992 Gujarat carnage – 2002 Attacks on Christians Chairperson: Hon’ble Mr. Justice Moloy Kumar Sengupta
12.00 –1.00
Hate Speech and how the law has been / can be used
Chairperson : Sardar Amjad Ali, Senior Advocate, Calcutta High Court & President, Bar Association, Calcutta High Court
Lunch : 1.00 – 2.00
2.00 – 3.00
Communalism in text books
Decisions of the courts / how the law can be used
Chairperson: Prof. Subhash Chakrabarty, Dept. of History, Presidency College, Kolkata
3.00 – 4.00 Role of human rights commissions/ inquiry commissions Chairperson: Prof. Amit Sen, Member, West Bengal Human Rights Commission
TEA
4.00 – 5.00 Election matters: Hindutva as an election plank Chairperson: Mr. Goutam Sen, senior political activist
5.00 – 6.00 Conversions and the law Chairperson: Hon’ble Mr. Justice Ashok Kumar Ganguly
6.00 – 7.00
Discussion on using PILs to fight communalism, and the possibilities of doing PILs
Chairperson: Prof. D. Banerjee, The National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata
o o o
OCTOBER 2,3, 2004
resource person for day I : PROF. RIZWAN QAISER
VENUE: HASS, SECUNDERABAD, NEAR SANGEET THEATRE, ANDHRA PRADESH
Schedule for OCTOBER 2, 2004- ANHAD –FOR participation and second day’s schedule contact M.A.Vanaja ( <http://mail.yahoo.com/config/login?/ym/[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED]) or Shakeel ( [EMAIL PROTECTED])
9.00-9.30- Introduction of Anhad and HRLN
9.30-10.00- IDENTITY, SELF AND THE OTHER 10.00-10.15- Ten minutes from Docu-lecture by Sohail Hashmi 10.15-10.30- Discussion
10.30-11.00- FREEDOM STRUGGLE AND FORMATION OF INDIA 11.00-11.15- Fifteen minutes from Docu-lecture by Prof. Mridula Mukherjee 11.15-11.30- Discussion
11.30-12.00- TEA BREAK
12.00-12.30- FASCISM 12.30- 12.50- In Dark Times- Documentary by Gauhar Raza 12.50-1.15- discussion
1.15-2.00- LUNCH
2.00-2.40- HISTORY AND IDEOLOGY OF THE SANGH PARIVAR
2.40-3.00- Ten mnts each from Lalit Vachani’s documentary ‘Men in the Tree’, Nivedita Menon’s lecture Docu –lecture and Prof. SK Thorat’s docu-lecture
3.00-3.15- Discussion
WHAT IS SECULARISM/ ASSAULT ON SECULARISM: Education/ History
3.15-3.45- Fifteen minutes from Prof. Bipin Chandra and Fifteen mnts from Rizwan Qaiser’s docu-lecture
3.45-4.15- DISCUSSION INITIATED BY PROF. RIZWAN QAISER
4.15-4.30- TEA BREAK
MYTHS
4.30-5.00- Ram Puniyani’s docu-lecture 5.15-5.30- DISCUSSION INITIATED BY PROF. RIZWAN QAISER
DEFENCE OF SECULARISM AND CONSTITUTION
5.30-6.00- Fifteen mnts from Harsh Mander’s docu-lecture and fifteen mnts from Mihir Desai’s lecture
6.00-6.30- DISCUSSION INITIATED BY PROF. RIZWAN QAISER
6.30-7.30- TEA BREAK/ INFORMAL DISCUSSION CONTINUES
7.30 ONWARDS- FILM- FINAL SOLUTION – FOR THOSE WHO STAY BACK FOLLOWED BY DINNER
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Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, 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/
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