South Asia Citizens Wire | 7 November, 2004 via: www.sacw.net
[1] Pakistan: Supreme Court's philosophical black-hole (Edit, Daily Times)
[2] India: 1984 Riots - Oh, That Other Hindu Riot Of Passage (Khushwant Singh)
[3] India - Rajasthan: Lost tribes - Draw Adivasis into the Hindu fold, then poison their minds (DK Singh)
[4] India: Gujarat Carnage: Need for Justice being Side Tracked - Press Release (PUCL Baroda / Vadodara Shanti Abhiyan)
[5] India: On The "Tribal Policy" (All India Democratic Women'S Association)
[6] Asian Africans: `We're all Kenyans here' (Shashi Tharoor)
[7] Upcoming events :
- Film Screening Film: "Bhopal: The Search for Justice" (Toronto, November 30)
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[1]
Daily Times November 07, 2004
Editorial: SUPREME COURT'S PHILOSOPHICAL BLACK-HOLE
On Friday, a three-member bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan struck down the Punjab Marriage Functions Act, 2003, and upheld the Marriages Ordinance passed by the federal government in 2000. The federal ordinance had banned ostentatious marriages, including the serving of any meals, while the Punjab government had limited the number of meals served to one dish and the number of guests to 300. The limitations on feasting were made in order to discourage the display of wealth and make it easier for middle-class and low-income group families to solemnise marriages of their children without social pressures.
The SC agrees with this logic and its verdict says: "It is the duty of the state to take steps to encourage the celebration of marriages in simple and informal ways, such as the performance of the nikah in the mosque of the locality". Of course, the Court also deemed fit to refer to the Quran to justify its verdict against ostentation. What should we make of this?
For a start, the argument that makes the state responsible for intervening in the life of citizens on those counts where a citizen is doing no physical "harm" to anyone else is a dangerous one. What surprises us is that while the Court and the federal government are prepared to interfere with citizens' private affairs, we have so-called Islamic laws on the books that determine "body harm" as an affair between two private citizens rather than an offence against the state, which it is for the simple reason of its being an irreparable loss. The recent bill passed by the National Assembly on 'honour killing' is perfidious precisely for the reason that instead of making murder an offence against the state - which would require striking down the Qisas and Diyat laws - it has sought to confuse the issue by creating further anomalies. All this is done because literalist Islamic jurisprudence cannot move away from the concept of the wali. While the wali has the right to forgive a murderer, should the wali not have the right to celebrate his child's marriage as he deems fit?
The point we are making should be obvious. The state's functioning and the legal interpretations of it have become ludicrous because issues are increasingly being decided on the basis of religion rather than civic common sense. So the state makes a certain type of murder a private affair and celebration of marriage a public one. That is turning reason and rationality on their head. But this is not all.
From a legal-political perspective, the SC has come up with an interesting point about banning provincial legislatures from enacting laws that are in conflict with federal laws. We say this is interesting because that principle is already established (Articles 141, 142 and 143). What need should there be for the SC to bring that in? Pakistan has a written constitution and each authority - executive, legislature, judiciary - has a clearly prescribed mandate. The limits on authority are determined. In the event of any grey areas, the SC has the right to determine whether a transgression has taken place. Similarly, powers have been distributed on the basis of three lists - federal, provincial and concurrent. The provincial governments cannot legislate on any subject given in the federal list; the federal government would not intervene into any subject on the provincial list. However, this exclusivity of legislative authority - the principle of "covered field" - does not belong in the domain of the concurrent list. Here, a provincial government may legislate but cannot do so if its legislation is inconsistent with any existing federal laws.
The issue is fairly clear. However, in its enthusiasm to say the obvious, the SC may have opened another debate. Should the concurrent list not have been abolished by now? After all, that was the original premise on which the 1973 Constitution was accepted by all parties, including the nationalists in the smaller provinces: namely, that within ten years the concurrent list will be abolished and all powers contained therein would be devolved to the provinces. That has not happened. Should the SC not determine that issue considering that it brought in the principle of covered field in deciding the question of performance of marriages?
We do not have the full verdict of the SC, but it is worth asking whether or not it could have invoked Item 5 on the concurrent list that deals with "Marriage and divorce, infants and minors, adoption" as the basis of its decision in conjunction with Article 143 to strike down the Punjab law? If that be the case, then it is important to determine whether Item 5 deals with marriage and divorce as a law solemnising the contract and its operation thereafter or whether it is also meant to deal with the manner of performance or celebration of marriage.
As things stand, the SC verdict, far from removing the anomalies, has actually added to the confusion. In trying to 'progressively' interpret a 'socially progressive' ordinance, it has pegged its argument to state intervention in the private sphere, besides invoking religion to support its argument. In doing so, not surprisingly, it has ended up in a philosophical black-hole. Someone should now take the issue of Qisas and Diyat laws on the basis of this verdict and get the SC to strike them down because they put in the private sphere something that squarely belongs to the state. *
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[2]
Outlook Magazine
Nov 15, 2004
84 RIOTS
OH, THAT OTHER HINDU RIOT OF PASSAGE
The assassins of Mrs Gandhi were hanged within four years, while 20 years later, the killers of 10,000 Sikhs remain unpunished. Are there two sets of laws in the country?
Khushwant Singh
There are two anniversaries so deeply etched in my mind that every year they come around I recollect with pain what happened on those two days. They occurred 20 years ago. One is October 31, when Mrs Gandhi was gunned down by her two Sikh security guards. The other is the following day, when the 'aftermath' consummated itself: frenzied Hindu mobs, driven by hate and revenge, finally killed nearly 10,000 innocent Sikhs across north India down to Karnataka. Four years later, Mrs Gandhi's assassins Satwant Singh and Kehar Singh paid the penalty for their crime by being hanged to death in Tihar jail.
Twenty years later, the killers of 10,000 Sikhs remain unpunished. The conclusion is clear: in secular India there is one law for the Hindu majority, another for Muslims, Christians and Sikhs who are in minority.
October 31, 1984: The sequence of events remains as vivid as ever. Around 11 am, I heard of Mrs Gandhi being shot in her house and taken to hospital. By the afternoon, I heard on the bbc that she was dead. For a couple of hours, life in Delhi came to a standstill. Then hell broke loose-mobs yelling khoon ka badla khoon se lenge (we'll avenge blood with blood) roamed the streets. Ordinary Sikhs going about their life were waylaid and roughed up. In the evening, I saw a cloud of black smoke billowing up from Connaught Circus: Sikh-owned shops had been set on fire. An hour later, mobs were smashing up taxis owned by Sikhs right opposite my apartment. Sikh-owned shops in Khan Market were being looted. Over 100 policemen armed with lathis lined the middle of the road and did nothing. At midnight, truckloads of men armed with cans of petrol attacked the gurudwara behind my back garden, beat up the granthi and set fire to the shrine. I was bewildered and did not know what to do. Early next morning, I rang up President Zail Singh.
He would not come on the phone. His secretary told me that the president advised me to move into the home of a Hindu friend till the trouble was over. The newly-appointed prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, was busy receiving guests arriving for his mother's funeral; home minister Narasimha Rao did not budge from his office; the Lt Governor of Delhi had no orders to put down the rioters. Seventy-two gurudwaras were torched and thousands of Sikh houses looted. The next few days, TV and radio sets were available for less than half their price.
Mid-morning, a Swedish diplomat came and took me and my wife to his home in the diplomatic enclave. My aged mother had been taken by Romesh Thapar to his home. Our family lawyer, Anant Bir Singh, who lived close to my mother, had his long hair cut off and beard shaved to avoid being recognised as a Sikh. I watched Mrs Gandhi's cremation on TV in the home of my Swedish protector. I felt like a Jew must have in Nazi Germany. I was a refugee in my own homeland because I was a Sikh.
What I found most distressing was the attitude of many of my Hindu friends. Two couples made a point to call on me after I returned home. They were Sri S. Mulgaonkar and his wife, Arun Shourie and his wife Anita. As for the others, the less said the better. Girilal Jain, editor of The Times of India, rationalised the violence: the Hindu cup of patience, he wrote, had become full to the brim. N.C. Menon, who succeeded me as editor of The Hindustan Times, wrote of how Sikhs had "clawed their way to prosperity" and well nigh had it coming to them. Some spread gossip of how Sikhs had poisoned Delhi's drinking water, how they had attacked trains and slaughtered Hindu passengers. At the Gymkhana Club where I played tennis every morning, one man said I had no right to complain after what Sikhs had done to Hindus in Punjab. At a party, another gloated "Khoob mazaa chakhaya-we gave them a taste of their own medicine." Word had gone round: 'Teach the Sikhs a lesson'.
Did the Sikhs deserve to be taught a lesson? I pondered over the matter for many days and many hours and reluctantly admitted that Hindus had some justification for their anger against Sikhs. The starting point was the emergence of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale as a leader. He used vituperative language against the Hindus. He exhorted every Sikh to kill 32 Hindus to solve the Hindu-Sikh problem. Anyone who opposed him was put on his hit list and some eliminated. His hoodlums murdered Lala Jagat Narain, founder of the Hind Samachar group of papers. They killed hawkers who sold their papers.
The list of Bhindranwale's victims, which included both Hindus and Sikhs, was a long one. More depressing to me was that no one spoke out openly against him. He had a wily patron in Giani Zail Singh who had him released when he was charged as an accomplice in the murder
of Jagat Narain. Akali leaders supported him. Some like Badal and Barnala, who used to tie their beards to their chins, let them down in deference to his wishes. So did many Sikh civil servants. They lauded him as the saviour of the Khalsa Panth and called him Sant. I am proud to say I was the only one who wrote against him and attacked him as a hate-monger. I was on his hit list and continued to be so on that of his followers-for 15 long years-and was given police protection which I never asked for.
Bhindranwale, with the tacit connivance of Akali leaders like Gurcharan Singh Tohra, turned the Golden Temple into an armed fortress of Sikh defiance. He provided the Indian government the excuse to send the army into the temple complex. I warned the government in Parliament and through my articles against using the army to get hold of Bhindranwale and his followers as the consequences would be grave. And so they were. Operation Bluestar was a blunder of Himalayan proportions. Bhindranwale was killed but hailed as a martyr. Over 5,000 men and women lost their lives in the exchange of fire.
The Akal Takht was wrecked.
Symbolic protests did not take long coming. I was part of it; I surrendered the Padma Bhushan awarded to me. Among the people who condemned my action was Vinod Mehta, then editor of The Observer. He wrote that when it came to choosing between being an Indian or a Sikh, I had chosen to be a Sikh. I stopped contributing to his paper. I had never believed that I had to be one or the other. I was both an Indian and a Sikh and proud of being so. I might well have asked Mehta in return, "Are you a Hindu or an Indian?" Hindus do not have to prove their nationality; only Muslims, Christians and Sikhs are required to give evidence of their patriotism.
Anti-Sikh violence gave a boost to the demand for a separate Sikh state and Khalistan-inspired terrorism in Punjab and abroad. Amongst the worst was the blowing up of Air India's Kanishka (June 23, 1985), which killed all its 329 passengers and crew, including over 30 Sikhs. Sant Harchand Singh Longowal, who signed the Rajiv-Longowal accord (July 29, 1985), was murdered while praying in a gurudwara just three weeks later. In August 1986, General A.S. Vaidya, who was chief of staff when Operation Bluestar took place, was gunned down in Pune in August 1985. The killings went on unabated for almost 10 years. Terrorists ran a parallel government in districts adjoining Pakistan which also provided them arms training and escape routes. It is estimated that in those 10 years over 25,000 were killed. Midway, the Golden Temple had again become a sanctuary for criminals. This time the Punjab police led by K.P.S. Gill was able to get the better of them with the loss of only two lives in what came to be known as Operation Black Thunder (May 13-18, 1988). The terrorist movement petered out as the terrorists turned gangsters and took to extortion and robbery.The peasantry turned its back on them.
About the last action of Khalistani terrorists was the murder of chief minister Beant Singh, who was blown up along with 12 others by a suicide bomber on July 31, 1995, at Chandigarh.
It is not surprising that with this legacy of ill-will and bloodshed a sense of alienation grew among the Sikhs. It was reinforced by the reluctance of successive governments at the Centre to bring the perpetrators of the anti-Sikh pogrom of October 31 and November 1, 1984. A growing number of non-Sikhs have also come to the conclusion that grave injustice has been done to the Sikhs. Several non-official commissions of inquiry-including one headed by retired Supreme Court chief justice S.M. Sikri, comprising retired ambassadors and senior civil servants-have categorically named the guilty. However, all that the government has done is to appoint one commission of inquiry after another to look into charges of minor relevance to the issue without taking any action. The Nanavati Commission has been at it for quite some time: I rendered evidence before it over two years ago. It has asked for further extension of time, which has been granted till the end of this year. The only word I can think of using for such official procrastination is disgraceful.
I have to concede that the attitude of the bjp government led by Atal Behari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani towards the Sikhs has been more positive than that of the Congress, many of whose leaders were involved in the 1984 anti-Sikh violence. Some of it may be due to its alliance with the principal Sikh political party, the Akalis, led by Parkash Singh Badal. It also gives them a valid excuse to criticise the Congress leadership. Nevertheless, I welcomed the Congress party's return to power in the Centre because it also promises a fairer deal to other minorities like the Muslims and Christians. And I make no secret of my rejoicing over the choice of Manmohan Singh, the first Sikh to become prime minister of India and he in his turn selecting another Sikh, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, to head the Planning Commission.
The dark months of alienation are over; the new dawn promises blue skies and sunshine for the minorities with only one black cloud remaining to be blown away-a fair deal to families of victims of the anti-Sikh violence of 1984. It was the most horrendous crime committed on a mass scale since we became an independent nation. Its perpetrators must be punished because crimes unpunished generate more criminals.
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[3]
Communalism Combat October 2004 Cover Story
LOST TRIBES
DRAW ADIVASIS INTO THE HINDU FOLD, THEN POISON THEIR MINDS AGAINST THE MINORITIES. WITH THE GROUNDWORK THUS COMPLETED, AND THE STATE UNDER SAFFRON SWAY, IS RAJASTHAN HEADING FOR A REPLAY OF GUJARAT?
BY DK SINGH
Government and Hindutva
'Compromise' has become a key word to survival for the minority Christians and Muslims in tribal Rajasthan. They no longer attempt to fight Hindu extremists. Legal recourse is hardly a remedy any more. Pushed to the wall by aggressive Hindutva and abandoned by law enforcement agencies in a secular, socialist, democratic republic, they have resigned themselves to fate. Go to any part of tribal Rajasthan and the story is the same.
Nathu Dindor, principal of Salom Mission Primary School at Rohaniya Laxman village in Banswara, was ambushed by some Hindu extremists in July 2002. They caused his motorbike to skid on the road, leading to fractures in Dindor's leg. "I reported it to the police but nobody was arrested. Later on, I made a deal with the two assailants from the VHP because I have to pass by the same road daily and cannot afford to have enmity with them," said the teacher.
In the case of Gautam Pargi from Nal Dhibri village, the police have been refusing to help him get possession of his land occupied by some members of the VHP, despite a court order in favour of Pargi.
Currently, over a dozen Muslim families live in makeshift tents at Kotra in Udaipur district. They have been driven out of their villages by Hindu extremists over the past three or four years. But the administration is keeping quiet about it.
"Cops are completely biased against Adivasi Christians. There have been several incidents of attack against Christians here but people don't report them to the police any more. The cops either don't register the FIR or don't act at all." This statement of helplessness from Father Walling Masih of Bijalpur village in Banswara district summed up the relationship between Hindu extremists and the official machinery.
The State as an institution is becoming a tool in the hands of the sangh parivar. In fact, the Rajasthan government has been allocating up to Rs. 50 lakh per annum to the Vanwasi Kalyan Parishad, an NGO affiliated to the sangh parivar, to run hostels for tribals, which are nothing but training camps for Hindu extremists. (A Bangalore-based weekly maintained that ironically, this budgetary allocation continued through the years of Congress rule.)
Take a look at one such VKP-run hostel at Timerabara in Kushalgarh block of Banswara. The single room hall is made of mud and roofed with tiles. Pictures of Hindu gods and goddesses adorn the walls. A large carpet spread out on the floor serves as a bed for poor tribal students. This 'hostel', aided by the state social welfare department, has 25 inmates studying in different classes - from Class VI to X. The department pays Rs. 1.5 lakh per annum to this travesty of a hostel.
Although the money was to be utilised for students' food, uniforms, soaps and beds, there was nothing in the room to suggest it. Bharat Kumawat, who introduced himself as in-charge of the hostel and district organisation secretary of the VKP, escorted probing visitors out when questioned about the source of funds and their utilisation. "It is none of your business," he said.
Meanwhile, so-called secular parties like the Congress, the Left and the Janata Dal have all chosen to remain detached from the sangh parivar's 'business'.
On August 14, 2004, a day before India was to celebrate its 58th Independence Day, the Pink City of Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, resounded with slogans of "Jai Shri Ram". The VHP, having decided to thumb its nose at law enforcement agencies, organised a trishul deeksha (distribution of tridents) programme barely a kilometre away from the state secretariat. Similar tridents had been used to kill many a hapless Muslim during the Gujarat carnage of 2002. Alarmed by the possible fallout of the open distribution of this weapon among frenzied Hindu youth, the then Congress-run state government had banned trishul deeksha in early 2003.
The VHP decided to make a mockery of this ban after the BJP took over the reins of the state. About a year ago, with the Congress at the helm in Rajasthan, VHP leader Praveen Togadia had been arrested for participating in a similar programme. But in August 2004, the BJP government was already nine months old. As the programme began in the afternoon, senior police officials either switched off their cellular phones or feigned ignorance about events. Uniformed men from the local police station were posted outside the venue where the law of the land was being violated amidst much fan-fare. Following a public outcry over this flagrant mockery of law, the state home minister, Gulab Chand Kataria announced a lifting of the ban on trishul deeksha.
There were press releases from opposition parties against this on the first day but they were not heard thereafter. Secular voices were too exhausted to question government action any more.
Earlier, in July 2004, the government had made its intentions clear: it would provide asylum to all Hindu extremists, writing off all their sins. To start with, the government withdrew five cases against those accused of indulging in arson, attacks and looting against the minority community and damaging a mosque in a Banswara township near Gujarat in September 2002.
In the six FIRs registered at Kalinjara police station after the incident, five were against more than a hundred people of the Hindu community while one counter-FIR was against Muslims. The state home department only withdrew the five cases involving Hindu accused.
Even before the government order was presented in the additional district judicial magistrate (ADJM) fast track court-II, Banswara, on July 22, the court had already ordered conviction in one of the cases. Trial was on in the government versus Nathu case, in which 35 people were challaned for attacking Muslims and damaging the mosque in Kalinjara; the case was withdrawn following the government order. The court had earlier acquitted the accused in the other three cases.
The state home department ordered withdrawal of the cases more than a week before the court had passed a ruling in any of the five cases naming Hindus as offenders. The Banswara district collector had communicated the order to the public prosecutor on July 19 but the PP only received it on July 22. "As a result of the government's order, one very serious case has been withdrawn. There could be no appeal against the ADJM court's ruling, even in the four other cases. Muslims have nowhere to go for justice now," according to Abdul Gaffar, a Muslim leader in Kalinjara who was one of the victims in the September 2002 attacks.
On September 8, 2002, a person belonging to the scheduled caste had died in a truck accident but sangh parivar activists spread the rumour that Muslims had killed him, Gaffar recounted. The next morning, scores of people from adjacent villages had gathered and attacked Muslim houses, burning their properties, and damaging a mosque and scriptures, following which the FIRs were lodged.
"The order exposed the BJP government's communal agenda. It was like giving a green signal to communal elements to attack the minority community," said Congress MLA Sanyam Lodha. Lodha had raised the issue in the state assembly but there were not many Congressmen on his side. The issue was left to die, as his party colleagues refused to speak on the matter outside assembly precincts.
But this was only the beginning. The government went about withdrawing the cases against BJP ministers and MLAs. Among these were minister of state, medical & health, Bhawani Joshi, who had been challaned for slapping a sub-inspector in Banswara, home minister Gulab Chand Kataria, who had barged into the Rajsamand district collector's office and grabbed his chair, and BJP MLA from Ghatol in Banswara, Navneet Neenama.
Around 150 cases had been withdrawn by mid-September 2004 and the process continued despite vociferous protests from civil rights organisations. The government steadfastly refused to provide details about the nature of these cases and the accused involved. But it was obvious from the cases that came to light that it was the Hindu extremists whose past deeds were being written off by the executive organ of the state.
But the so-called secular parties kept mum. As did the civil rights organisations, which had first raised an outcry in the media.
From August 2004, following orders from the state social welfare minister, Madan Dilawar, over 21,000 scheduled tribe and scheduled caste students staying in the 527 government-run hostels started chanting mantras before meals and reciting Vande Mataram. Spiritual reasons aside, the purpose behind introducing the mantra was that all children should eat together, the minister explained. The hostels would be converted into 'Sanskar Kendras' as part of the hostel improvement programme. Students from Class VI to Class XII would be given a "model and patriotic" education.
Bal Sabhas would be organised in the hostels twice a year, where religious heads, local saints, inspiring men and subject specialists would give sermons to the students. The hostels would have pictures of goddess Saraswati, Swami Vivekanand, Maharana Pratap and Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar. Residential schools would be named after Shivaji, Maharana Pratap, Subhas Chandra Bose, Rani of Jhansi, Pannadhay, and Chandrashekhar Azad. The hostels attached to these schools would be named after Pandit Deen Dyal Upadhayay and Dr. Shyama Prasad, the minister announced. There were no protests against the minister's plans. Nobody seemed to care.
A few weeks after the BJP came to power in Rajasthan, the state tribal area development minister, Kanak Mal Katara issued a press statement that a survey would be conducted to identify Christians. Following an uproar over this by some NGOs, he backtracked. But the government appeared to have made up its mind. In the first week of August 2004, Christian missionaries and NGOs in Banswara district came under the scanner.
District collector Gayatri Rathore ordered an inquiry into the sources and utilisation of their funds and their activities. She justified her action saying that she had received a delegation complaining against these (Christian) institutions for "misutilising" the funds given by the government of India and agencies from abroad. She did not remember the name of the organisation that led the delegation.
"As per the directions of the government of India, I am supposed to be looking into the utilisation of funds by organisations registered in my district," Rathore explained.
According to VHP leaders in Banswara, the memorandum was submitted to the DC by an organisation called Adivasi Ekta Chhatra Sangh (AECS); the delegation included VHP activists as well. Christian organisations were "misutilising" the funds to convert innocent tribals, they are said to have complained.
Christian community leaders remained unfazed, however. "It's good that an inquiry has been ordered into the funding of Christian organisations. The final report would shut the mouth of the sangh parivar for ever," said Udaipur-based Father Jaswant Singh Rana, founder patron of the Tribal-Christian Welfare Society of India and joint secretary of the Philadelphia Fellowship. "The district administration's action is in keeping with the sangh's strategy to marginalise and prosecute Christians," believes Dr. Narendra Gupta, a social activist based in Rajasthan.
Activists questioned the administration's action, saying that if utilisation of funds had to be inquired into, all organisations, regardless of the religious affiliation of their managers, should have been put under the scanner and not Christian institutions alone.
But these protests remained little more than mere press statements, as political parties showed little interest in taking up the issue. This despite the fact that the Congress had completely lost its base in the tribal belt, a Congress stronghold prior to the assembly elections of December 2003. A senior Congress leader confided that the party leadership saw no point in trying to challenge the sangh amongst tribals. "We want to discuss development issues to bring them back to the party fold. Issues like religious conversion or religion-based prosecution is like fire. If you try to touch it, you will get your fingers burnt," he said. Communists argued that they had no presence in the tribal belts but they continued to fight against communal forces in other areas.
There was apparently no individual or party in Rajasthan to protest against this saffronisation of the official machinery. And this was largely a result of their nonchalance rather than the lack of means.
Propaganda as weapon
The sangh parivar does not constantly look to Nazism for inspiration. Hindutva ideologues are always adopting and adapting their propaganda methods to demonise and prosecute the Christians in tribal Rajasthan. From slanderous whispers to blasphemous literature, the sangh reels out spools of half-truths and blatant lies to expand its network and influence among the largely illiterate masses.
There are pamphlets, leaflets, calendars and magazines to imprint their version of truth on impressionable minds in a region where the literacy rate is yet to cross 50 per cent and life is an endless struggle against abject poverty. Without modern day scepticism, hearsay carries tremendous credibility.
[...].
[Full Text at: http://www.sabrang.com/cc/archive/2004/oct04/cover.html ]
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[4]
People's Union for Civil Liberties, Baroda and Vadodara Shanti Abhiyan 13, Pratap Kunj Society, Karelibaug, Vadodara - 390 018 [Gujarat, India]
Press Release
November 6, 2004
GUJARAT CARNAGE: NEED FOR JUSTICE BEING SIDE TRACKED
It is extremely unfortunate that the issue of securing justice in the Best Bakery case is being systematically, continuously and deliberately being side tracked.
First and foremost concern of the citizens of Gujarat and the nation is justice for the victims of the gruesome tragedies during the Gujarat carnage. Best Bakery is just one of these horrific tragedies.
It should be pertinent to recall that the highest Court of the country has taken grave notice of all cases and has passed most unsavory and condemnatory strictures on the miscarriage of justice in the State. The circumstances, in which Zaheera Sheikh has resurfaced, with self-contradictory positions once again in the case, are shrouded in great mystery that requires a thorough inquiry by an impartial body like the CBI so that the people of India know the truth behind the mega plot.
Signed by following Members of PUCL, Vadodara:
Kirit Bhatt J.S.Bandukwalla Jagdish Shah Ishaq Chinwala Rohit Prajapati Jehanara Rangrez Mansoor Saleri S.Srinivasan Raj Kumar Hans Ranjit Contractor Trupti Shah Jahnavi Andharia Nandini Manjrekar Renu Khanna Rajan Bhatt Neeta Hardikar Deepta Achar Maya Valecha Tapan Dasgupta Deepti Bhatt Amrish Bhrambhatt
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[5]
ALL INDIA DEMOCRATIC WOMEN'S ASSOCIATION
November 5, 2004
ON THE "TRIBAL POLICY"
The Minister of Tribal Affairs, Shri P.R.Kyndiah assured a delegation of the AIDWA of sympathetic consideration of their demand to review the NDA adopted National Tribal policy and to frame a policy which reflected the needs and aspirations of tribal communities. The delegation consisting of Brinda Karat, Archana Prasad, Premila Pandhe and Manjee Rathee pointed out that the NDA tribal policy was made public only two days before the last general elections and was "adopted" without any discussions in Parliament. It was unfortunate that instead of framing a new policy the UPA Government has called for discussions on this flawed framework. Shockingly, the concerns of tribal women, the mainstay of tribal economies and communities do not find even a mention in the policy. They are rendered completely invisible. The Minister agreed with the delegation on this aspect and some of the issues raised including the dubious formulation in the policy regarding the "assimilation" of tribals, a code word for the RSS understanding of undermining tribal identity. The Minister said he believed in "integration" not assimilation.' AIDWA pointed out that there is a multiplicity of authority as far as tribal rights are concerned since the Environment and Forest Ministry has pursued policies which are inimical to tribal advance. An example given by the delegation was the GO issued in May 2002 by the MOF Ministry which ordered the eviction of tribals from forests in the name of environment protection. The delegation demanded that the tribal Affairs Ministry should take this issue up and get the circular withdrawn. The Minister said this matter would have to go before the cabinet. The Minister also agreed to an AIDWA request that the detailed memorandum given to him by the organization should be included in the ongoing discussions and AIDWA representatives called in meetings proposed in this regard.
Brinda Karat
General Secretary
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[6]
Magazine > The Hindu, November 7, 2004
THE SHASHI THAROOR COLUMN
`We're all Kenyans here' Did this Asian home in Kenya have room for African angels too?
THE HINDU PHOTO LIBRARY In 1969, before the turmoil ... an Asian trader in Nairobi.
"HERE," said Mr. Shankardass, leading me to his garden, "we live in heaven."
I looked around the lush African foliage, multicoloured flowers ablaze amidst the verdant Nairobi green. "It certainly looks like Paradise," I replied.
"I don't mean the garden," my 86-year-old host replied. "I mean Kenya." Mr. Shankardass' garden was a metaphor: a fertile place in magnificent bloom, it stood for the life that Asians were able to lead in this corner of East Africa.
Mr. Shankardass and his wife were both born in Kenya, when it was a British colony. They had grown up amidst anti-colonial ferment, in which most Asians - descended mainly from 19th-Century migrants and indentured workers from the Indian subcontinent - made common cause with their African fellow-subjects. But when Independence came, some Africans looked on the Asians as interlopers, foreigners depriving the locals of jobs and economic opportunity. In next-door Uganda in 1972, the dictator Idi Amin gave his entire Asian population 72 hours to leave the country for good. The mass expulsion of Ugandan Asians, mainly people who had never known any other home, sent tremors through the Asian community in Kenya and Tanzania as well. But their fears proved unfounded. Asians stayed on in Kenya as honoured and respected citizens, building flourishing businesses and excelling in the professions. Mr. Shankardass' garden was emblematic of that.
But I couldn't help wondering, as I devoured a delicious Punjabi lunch on his porch with three generations of his Kenya-born family, whether the garden was an oasis as well, isolating the Asians from the Africans amongst whom they prospered. Indians abroad are often an insular people, focusing on their own community, customs and (as I could savour it) cuisine. Did Mr. Shankardass' heaven have room for African angels too?
It didn't take me long to find out I needn't have worried. Later that day I attended a party in my honour thrown by another Kenyan Asian, the media entrepreneur Sudhir Vidyarthi, to whom I had been introduced by my good friend and former U.N. colleague Salim Lone, a Kashmiri Kenyan. Mr. Vidyarthi's father had run an anti-British newspaper, The Colonial Times, in which the legendary Jomo Kenyatta had first published his nationalist screeds. The elder Vidyarthi had gone to jail for his pains, and his son had continued in the family tradition, as a courageous anti-establishment publisher.
A striking ethnic mix
Sudhir Vidyarthi's garden, with its outdoor deck and outsize bar, was even grander and more impressive than Mr. Shankardass', but as 50 guests milled about on the patio, what struck me most was their ethnic mix. An Indian DJ bantered with the African CEO of a rival radio station; a Ugandan Asian journalist questioned the newly appointed Government spokesman; a senior government official, a striking woman with a vivid tribal scar down her cheek, held forth to an older lady in a graceful sari. Asians and Africans melded seamlessly into one. "We're all Kenyans here," my host said simply.
A group of Kenyan South Asians was publishing a magazine called Awaaz, subtitled the Authoritative Journal of Kenyan South Asian History. I was given a copy of the latest issue. On the cover was a photo of the recently deceased Pranlal Sheth, a hero of Kenyan independence who was then deported from his country by the Kenyatta Government and died in exile in England. If that seemed discouraging, the same issue carried a review of a new play by a Kenyan-Indian playwright, Kuldip Sondhi, dealing with shop demolitions in Mombasa. And a portfolio of photographs by the legendary Mohammed Amin, who first broke the news of the Ethiopian famine with his searing pictures, lost a leg in the Somali civil war but went on immortalising East Africa through his lens till he was killed in a plane crash five years ago.
There was much talk at the party about a new exhibition that had just been mounted by the National Museum of Kenya. It was called "The Asian African Heritage: Identity and History"; through photographs, documents and artefacts, the exhibition depicted two centuries of Asian assimilation into Kenya. Indian labour had built forts in Kenya as early as the 16th Century; Indian masons and carpenters had practised their craft in even larger numbers from 1820, and over 31,000 contract labourers from Punjab and Gujarat had built the famous Mombasa railroad, 2,500 of them perishing in the process. The city of Nairobi (like 43 other railway towns along the line) was erected by Indian hands.
"This is our home," said Pheroze Nowrojee, who had authored the text of the exhibition. "Our social identity rests on our bi-continental tradition. We are both Asian and African. We are Asian African."
Sudhir Vidyarthi soon emerged, proudly holding a little black toddler in his arms. "Meet my new daughter," he beamed. "She's been with us since she was four months old; the official adoption comes through next week." His excitement was as palpable as his affection for the girl, who nibbled at Indian hors d'oeuvres from his palm. "Give Daddy a kiss," he told her in Swahili, and the tiny tot, bits of samosa and kebab still on her lips, duly obliged.
I looked at them - Asian father, African daughter, sharing Indian food and chatting in an East African tongue - and I raised a silent toast to their Kenyan garden. I only wished I knew the Swahili word for heaven.
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[7]
National Film Board Film: "Bhopal: The Search for Justice".
The screening of the National Film Board Film: "Bhopal: The Search for Justice" will take place on November 30 at 7 pm at:
The Royal Cinema 609 College Street Toronto, Ontario
There will be a panel discussion with the filmmakers following the screening. Below find a synopsis of the film for your information.
Please promote this showing and the CBC Nature of Things showing later in the week. This is part of an effort to generate strong support for the survivors as the 20th anniversary of the accident approaches and their case goes back to the Supreme Court of India in December.
For further details contact:
Mark Haslam <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Park Palace Productions 79 Hallam Street Toronto, ON M6H 1W7 416-537-7742
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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/
SACW archive is available at: bridget.jatol.com/pipermail/sacw_insaf.net/
Sister initiatives : South Asia Counter Information Project : snipurl.com/sacip South Asians Against Nukes: www.s-asians-against-nukes.org Communalism Watch: communalism.blogspot.com/
DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers.
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