South Asia Citizens Wire | October 25, 2006 | Dispatch No. 2311 - Year 8 [1] Pakistan: Call for freedom of information - HRCP consultation (I.A. Rehman) [2] Sri Lanka: Impressions: war and peace in Mutur (CTMPC) [3] India - Pakistan : To trust or not to trust (Edit., Kashmir Times) [4] India - Gujarat: The people of Citizen Nagar (Farah Naqvi) [5] India: Gujarat riot victims living in "sub-human conditions" [6] India - Madhya Pradesh: Undoing Secular State Administration (i) Government Employees in RSS: Hastening The End of Democratic-Secular India (Shamsul Islam) (ii) Madhya Pradesh: Sangh in service (A.G. Noorani) [8] Announcement: Rutgers 2nd Annual Conference on South Asia
____ [1] Human Rights Commission of Pakistan CALL FOR FREEDOM OF INFORMATION Lahore, October 18: Amendments to the Freedom of Information Ordinance, repeal of the Official Secrets Act, and the obligation of the government to disseminate information proactively, were termed essential for empowering people, transparency and accountability, at a consultation on the right to know at HRCP the other day. The discussion highlighted the shortcomings of the FOI Ordinance 2002, the possibilities of learning from experiments in the region, and focused on future strategies for ensuring government accountability and transparency. Former senators Farhatullah Babar and Shafqat Mehmood, Editor of The Nation Mr. Arif Nizami, Secretary-General of Safma Mr. Imtiaz Alam, Executive Director of Centre for Civic Education Mr. Zafarullah Khan, Executive Director of Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives Mr. Mukhtar Ahmad, Council Members of HRCP Dr. Mehdi Hassan and Salima Hashmi, senior journalist Abbas Rasheed, HRCP Director I.A.Rehman and HRCP National coordinator Hussain Naqi participated in the discussion. The culture of secrecy and the attitudes prevailing amongst government officials have curtailed the development of an open society. There is absolute lack of freedom of information across the country and those affected by this include all citizens. While there does exist an ordinance, the Freedom of Information Ordinance 2002, it is flawed, it makes access to information extraordinarily difficult and not many people are aware of its existence. Information enables people to make informed decisions and choices and keep tabs on elected representatives. All citizens, even the poorest of the poor, pay a range of indirect taxes to the government. They, therefore, deserve to know how and where public funds are spent by the government. This enables citizens to meaningfully exercise their rights and determine who is responsible for any violations. The right to information exists for all citizens and there can be no justice without any right to know. There is lack of awareness amongst the public of the general rights in terms of seeking information from the government. At the same time, officials are not sensitized towards their duty to provide information to those who seek it. The local government bodies, for example, are required to display information on boards regularly. The environment transcending from the top is not conducive for developing an open society as it is enshrined in secrecy. The culture, therefore, needs to be changed for the law to become effective as it can not really become operative in an atmosphere where facts are concealed and hidden. The speakers suggested that the struggle for ensuring right to information for all needs to be part of a bigger struggle. While the media must highlight the issue, the civil society must also lobby with parliamentarians for either evolving a new law or refining the amended version. There must be a rule to punish those willfully giving wrong information to the public and placing before the parliament. The participants discussed the national RTI Act of India that came into effect from October 2005 and provides freedom to every citizen to secure access to information under the control of public authorities. The growing demand for accountability of government officials in India was stated to be the result of a collective struggle by several organizations that remained at the forefront of the struggle since 1996 in order to get an effective law legislated. The participants asserted that citizens in the country need to address issues dealing with the daily lives of people, including water and sewerage, just like citizens across Delhi are using the DRTI Act to seek information on issues related to their daily lives like road maintenance, laying water and sewage pipes, sanitation and ration distribution. Information offers a short cut to development and democracy. The Right to Information Act of India has provided the public with a tool to question the government. While there is a serious lack of political will to transform the closed system of governance in Pakistan, the citizens have also taken a back seat and accepted it. The citizens must be committed to and willing to change this attitude. I.A.Rehman Director ____ [2] IMPRESSIONS: WAR AND PEACE IN MUTUR by Coalition of Tamils and Muslims for Peace and Coexistence (CTMPC) October 23, 2006 What have war, ethnic cleansing, inter-ethnic hostilities done to us? The town of Mutur and surrounding areas in Mutur district were the site of intense violence, of acts of ethnic cleansing carried out by the LTTE and forces of the State, including bombing, wanton killings and forced mass displacements and a general air of indifference by politicians just a month ago. Today, attention has shifted elsewhere, to Muhamalai, to Habaranna, to Galle and the continuing tragedy of the armed forces and the LTTE clashing and killing each other, in which more people are going to be displaced. We still do not know about the actual numbers of people displaced this year. This is a short impressionistic imprint of a village in Mutur district today, a village unable to recover, unable to recuperate in the continuing condition of war and instability. In this predominantly Muslim village, whose people want to remain unidentified, many of the people have come back, most of them reluctantly, to their houses, broken apart by bombing and shelling. And they have taken up residence there, not knowing where else to go. But they live in fear and loss. They feel totally helpless. "War is not outside us, the war and the violence is inside us. It's in our children's drawings. Our children draw the story of displacement in their sketches of that August month, and subsequent days of bombing and shelling, finding our friends gone; each one of them is a record of our history; each carries pictures of the hill of Kiranthimunai where young Muslim men were separated from the women by the LTTE so that they could be massacred. You know all about that. They draw multi barreled gun, some of them have not even seen it. They draw pictures of fleeing people." What we present about Mutur is not confined to it only. After the devastating war in the Trincomalee District in the past few months, the areas in and around Mutur, including Sampur, have become a land pock marked with the war that has swept through it like the ferocious tsunami that hit the shores of Sri Lanka. But the war has not just created destruction, it has ripped into the very fabric of society, normalcy, community bonding, trust in one another and in one's neighbours. The situation in this town is representative of other Tamil and Sinhala villages overturned by this cruel war, very much like what happened in April in the towns and villages of Trincomalee, where one was attacked from all sides. Yet some aspects are specific to it too, in this war of very specific targets, mistrusts, fears. We of course continue to hope, against all hope. Please do listen to us. "We live amidst the constant battery of the Multi (mulit barreled cannon). Just mere artillery shelling is nothing to us. It's like child's play now. When the multi pounds from our side, it uproots the buildings, the buildings take off into the air, as though they have left our bodies. It feels like that." "We are ready to run, take off, any moment. We feel that as there are no people in Sampur, LTTE will use our villages to attack the forces from. The LTTE is in neighbouring Alinagar and other places. We will be mere cannon fodder. The Muslims are ranged around the camps of the forces. If the LTTE attacks the camps, then that's it. We will be just crushed like ants. We cannot go through Kiranthimunai, and the terrible fleeing." "We cannot forget Kiranthimunai which is now part of our local history. What happened at Kiranthimunai is forever in our minds. We walked all the way to Thoppur. There was no water anywhere. We dipped the ends of our sarees in puddles on the way and squeezed the water out. The cloth was a filter for the mud. This is the tale we will tell our children." She does not cry or speak much, this woman who lost her child in her tummy when she ran miles, falling, falling on the way. "Allah gave me this gift of child. But I did not take care of it properly. People say now, you could have left the place early, gone to Trinco. It's through my carelessness that I lost this child" " So many pregnant women lost their babies. We are afraid now to have babies. If we are to run again?" A six month pregnant woman cannot feel life in her tummy. Her husband had disappeared, given up for dead at the hands of the LTTE. But he appears one day, with injuries that he does not want to talk about. In her sorrow of her missing husband, she had not thought of looking to her own welfare. In any case there is no gynaecologist , nor any facilities in her area. How can she go to Trinco given the way things are in the area? "We are numb with no feelings left. We are left speechless. A Tamil man who fed the fleeing Muslims,on the way, in a neighbouring village and who transported some of them in his van was shot dead by the LTTE for helping the "Sonis" "So, you are giving soda to the Sonis?" He was asked. His family seems to have vanished from the place. We cannot look to any assistance from Tamils, how can we?" The people are in shock, feeling depressed with their state of total helplessness. The tragedy of Mutur is a very specific tragedy. At the same time, it is part of the tragedy of war and peace in Sri Lanka. It's the same story in Sampur when Tamil women walked hundreds of miles to get to safe places, with a large number fleeing to Batticaloa. Trincomalee has become an epicenter of insecurity and violence. The majority of refugees fleeing to India are mainly from Trincomalee, who first cross overland to Mannar and then crossed illegally to India. Following the Marvil Aru sluice dispute, Sinhala villagers from the area fled the place in sheer terror. The phantom of Kebethigollewa and Welikanda, where Sinhala border villagers were massacred by the LTTE, driving them from their homes and villages. Tamils in the district like the other communities are caught between the terror of the LTTE and that of the state. A woman from a camp for displaced people in a government controlled area, who had remonstrated with the LTTE for taking away her 14 year old child for training way back in March, was told by them, "you can wear these very same clothes that you are wearing and go and live among the Sinhalese as a Sinhalathi (Sinhala woman). How can I do that, what are my means for doing that?" Everybody knows she would not be able to find a safe home in the 'Sinhala' areas. The violence has had a direct impact on relations between communities with an increased level of suspicion, tension and even communal violence as was seen in the riots against Tamils in Trincomalee Town during the Tamil and Sinhala New Year. The riots were ironically and cruelly set off by a bomb in the market place that claimed victims of all the communities. The tragedy of Mutur is not purely a tragedy of one town or district. Mutur a predominantly Muslim town has Tamils too. 17 aid workers (mostly Tamil, with one Muslim) were allegedly massacred by members of the armed personnel in Mutur town at the height of the war. With LTTE's acts of ethnic cleansing toward the Muslims, Tamils in Mutur feel beleagured and lost. There is a shortage of Tamil speaking doctors in the area, but Tamil doctors are scared to go to Mutur district, fearing danger from the armed forces and perhaps reprisals from Muslims in the area, though this is not so strongly articulated. While the destruction of lives is one of the tragedies of the war, the greater tragedy is that of how communities, who have not merely co-existed, but had communed together and been interdependent, both in times of well-being and adversity, have been cleft apart. The other tragic irony is that the conditions of war have actually not left any of the communities in the east untouched, and all three communities have been affected by both the LTTE and the armed forces. This very vicious war that has and continues to divide people according to ethnic lines, has deliberately tried to pit people against each other. At the same time, the conditions of war and the modus operandi of the LTTE and the state, bind the people in one common thread of suffering that all marginalized feel.. A Tamil woman from Mutur district said, the army would stay here for 10 or 15 days. After that? Is it war again? This could have been a Muslim woman, a Sinhala woman. When a Sinhala woman in Kantale displaced from the Marvil aru area says, I will go back if the artillery battery stops, it could have been stated by a Tamil woman too. Even in the face of increasing communal suspicions against the other community, there is a realization that one's own security is tied to that of the other. For a number of Mutur Muslims, until their Tamil neighbours return, there can be no return of 'normalcy.' The impact of violence on the people is at multiple levels. But media and political focus is on statistics- how many killed, how many displaced or on particular incidents which captures the attention of the media and the general public. There is something beyond the direct victims of the violence - an affect population. Nobody asks how many cannot sleep at night in their own homes (where the house is still standing?) and how many have to find refuge in numbers in one house or in a public building in their own community; how many cannot farm, fish or trade out of fear or security restrictions; how many are in debt as a direct result of the violence, destruction and displacement or simply because they cannot withdraw money from banks as the banks do not have money (in Jaffna and Killinochchi); how many patients who cannot get their regular doses of medication for diabetes, cancer or any such disease; how many are traumatized? In this continuing state of instability and uncertainty, one cannot move on. This is perhaps the most debilitating state of existence for the majority of people here: They, we, cannot move on beyond the state of war. For they are surrounded by war; it can resume any time. People who speak for peace or war for peace cannot remain silent in the face of this. Both the LTTE and the Government have by their actions further ethnicized this conflict, forcing the civilians to become part of the war efforts. In this war of ethnicity, the people have been given short shrift, their needs, fears and aspirations unheeded to. Their voices unheard. ____ [3] Kashmir Times 25 October 2006 Editorial TO TRUST OR NOT TO TRUST YEARS OF SUSPICION AND MISTRUST HAVE LED US NOWHERE By suggesting 'self rule' for Jammu and Kashmir, and by taking the initiative in proposing a joint mechanism for facing the challenge of terrorism, hand-in-hand with India, President Musharraf has once again lobbed the ball into India's court, and has left Indian leadership divided and confabulating over how to react to his proposals. Some suggest that the time has come for New Delhi to trust the Pak president, and to give a fair trial to his suggestions, while others are almost congenitally suspicious about his motives, and advise caution over camaraderie. The foremost among the non-Congress leaders to openly support a positive response to Musharraf's proposals is Mufti Mohammad Syed, the ex-CM of J&K. He is leaving for New York on the 28th to attend the 61st session of the UN General Assembly, and before that he has extended to the prime minister the courtesy of meeting and discussing with him the present situation in the state and its possible solution. Reportedly, he has strongly pleaded for for the state, and for allowing nearly 2000 young Kashmiris waiting just across the LoC a safe passage to their homes in the valley to let them start a new life afresh. By 'self rule', which the PDP has owned as their party creed, they mean some thing a little different from what the NC means by 'greater autonomy'. If for the latter autonomy means a return to the pre-1953 days, lock stock and barrel, for the PDP 'self rule' means something more. They expect the same form of self rule on both the sides of the LoC as well as for each region of the state. While men, like Mufti, are prepared to go whole hog to give Musharraf a chance to live up to his word and to help in finding a solution to the Kashmir problem, National Security Adviser (NSA), MK Narayanan, has repeatedly asserted that Pak sincerity in working out the joint effort against terror would be tested once or twice on the touch-stone of some specific incidents, and the joint mechanism would be scraped if sincere Pak cooperation is found wanting. What he thus asserts is common expectation, and no one seriously suggests that India should seek their cooperation and share its secrets with Pakistan even when their response to its sincerity is found inadequate. But, why unnecessarily utter words of suspicion and distrust on the eve of the effort at starting a new era of trust and cooperation? No one normally tells a wedding partner that the other partner is likely to prove adulterous. Expressions of doubts and warnings are never considered conducive to what is expected to be a happy union. Besides, MK Naryanan is just an official of the UPA government, however high and sensitive his post may be. Apparently, it is none of his business to warn people of the shoals that the joint effort envisaged at Havana is likely to run, after the prime minister and the Pak president had decided openly to put their trust in each other. It seems he has been given too much of a latitude, and is making the fullest possible use of it. After all, when the two leaders decided to sign an agreement at Havana they, apparently, decided to give a fair trial to what appeared possible and desirable. There is nothing irrevocable about the Havana agreement, and if the proposed joint mechanism does not work satisfactorily on a couple of occasions India will be free to walk out of it. Heavens will not crash if the expected joint investigation does not work smoothly or satisfactorily, and the situation will not be worse. Then why not give trust a chance, after years of suspicion and confrontation have led us nowhere but to a bloody wilderness? Considering the opposition that Musharraf is facing at home from the Jehadi elements and their attacks on him in person it is fair enough to assume that he is sincere in fighting the religio-terrorist organisations. Did he not put Hafiz Saed under house arrest till he was set free by their supreme court? He may not succeed in taming those wild elements or even in forcing his ISI and investigating agencies into cooperating with India. Then, our effort will fail, like many similar efforts made in the past. But, right now, why not give him a helping hand and a chance? If the effort succeeds both gain, if not none will lose any thing but a chance. Our experiment with trust will not leave any one a loser. _____ [4] Indian Express October 25, 2006 THE PEOPLE OF CITIZEN NAGAR by Farah Naqvi Gujarat's displaced Muslim families still await justice. Hopefully, the forthcoming report of the National Commission for Minorities will frontpage their plight For four and a half years the internally displaced Muslims of Gujarat have braved the forgetfulness of a nation. Kicked out of burnt homes and shops, attacked by neighbours, too terrorised to return, over 5,000 Muslim families have lived, hidden from view, in 50-odd resettlement colonies, sliding into sickness and slow death. But now, their truth is being told. The National Commission for Minorities not only visited these colonies recently, but has made public its intent to act. Finally, there could be hope that these Muslims who have existed in the twilight zone of no man's land, will be allowed to reclaim their place as citizens; their sub-human conditions of survival judged against India's constitutional promise to protect the rights of its minorities to live with dignity. Spread across the districts of Panchmahals, Dahod, Sabarkantha, Anand, and in the cities of Ahmedabad and Vadodara, the colonies are like festering sores in the body politic. And the gangrene they have spread is the forced alienation and ghettoisation of a community. Not a single colony was constructed by the Gujarat government. Nor did the government allocate any land for their construction. Survey the signposts at the entrance to each colony and examine the list of organisations who have housed, clothed, and kept alive the Muslims who survived 2002 - Jamiat Ulema e Hind, Gujarat Sarvjanik Welfare Trust, United Economic Forum, Islamic Relief Committee. Each, with few exceptions, is a Muslim organisation and the message sent out by the Gujarat government is clear - when Muslims are in trouble it's not our job to bail them out. Leave it to other Muslims to come to their aid. This kind of blatant discriminatory abdication of state responsibility spells disaster for the future of a secular democracy. A course correction is long overdue. The colonies themselves are shabby cubbyholes. A single 120 sq feet room generally houses an entire family. But even as NGOs have tried to provide shelter, they simply do not have the resources to provide everything else. So there is nothing. No electricity, water, sewage, health centres, schools, approach roads, street lighting, no BPL ration cards, no alternative source of livelihood, nothing. All that the Gujarat government did was to declare relief camps closed in July 2002 and stop all aid, leaving thousands of internally displaced people to fend for themselves. Every subsequent attempt to make the state government aware of the needs of these colonies has been stymied and blocked. One camp organiser in Halol, Mehboob Bhai, visited the Gujarat Electricity Board (GEB) over 40 times over a period of six months before the Halol colony (of 201 houses) got electricity meters. But GEB did not so much as subsidise the electricity infrastructure. Even that the local NGOs had to do. In Modasa taluka (District Sabarkantha) 62 displaced families lived in tents, braving the rain and winter cold, for over four years. It was as late as 2005 that Janvikas, an Ahmedabad based NGO, encountered these survivors, and hurriedly constructed a colony into which they have moved just six months ago. In other colonies, local Muslim leaders have been harassed, slapped with false charges and even arrested. Their crime - they made too much noise, demanded too many entitlements from the state. Displacement has meant pauperisation, robbing people of their traditional sources of livelihood. Many residents in these colonies once lived a better life. They were cattle traders and petty shopkeepers. Some of them owned tiny retail businesses, and had acquired small items of household comfort. Now they are all reduced to doing daily wage labour to survive. There has been no restitution, compensation or reparation by the state for its failure to protect their lives and property. Meet them, visit their homes, and look into their eyes, and you understand what the experience of violent pauperisation does to people; what it means to go from three square meals a day to one uncertain meal. This is the death toll that we forget to count, the death that comes slowly, with shrinking stomachs, low immunity and disease. But for four and half years, these families have not allowed themselves to lose hope. One of the resettlement colonies in Ahmedabad is located at the base of one of the city's largest garbage dumps. A dark hovel reeking with the smell of sewage waste that surrounds it, with nothing, except damp rooms and disenfranchised people. And yet, in perhaps their last desperate attempt to reclaim their space in the Indian nation, the people here have chosen to call it Citizen Nagar. The article has been co-authored with Gagan Sethi. The writers have formally sought the NCM's intervention in the matter of displaced Gujarat riot victims _____ [5] The Hindu Oct 24, 2006 Gujarat riot victims living in "sub-human conditions" Special Correspondent State not facilitating their return: National Commission for Minorities # Inmates do not have rudimentary civic amenities # "Overwhelming" number without ration cards NEW DELHI: Four-and-a-half years after the carnage of 2002, over 5,000 displaced families belonging to the minority community continue to live in camps in "sub-human conditions" because the Gujarat Government "is not fulfilling its constitutional responsibility" to create an atmosphere that would enable them to return home. This is the key finding of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) after a five-day visit to 17 of the 46 camps that are now the makeshift homes of the families. While the State Government stated that the inmates of the camps were living there voluntarily, the NCM in its report said: "In view of the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the Commission finds this viewpoint untenable and evasive of a government's basic responsibility." According to NCM member Zoya Hasan, the abdication of State responsibility in the post-violence situation is just as bad if not worse than its turning a Nelson's eye to the carnage in 2002. "While the Gujarat Government is refusing to recognise their displacement, it also seems that the nation has forgotten what happened in 2002." Acting on a complaint from an Ahmedabad-based non-government organisation about the condition of 5,307 families displaced in the 2002 riots, the NCM team visited the camps between October 13 and 17. During their visits, members found that inmates lived without the most rudimentary civic amenities like potable water, sanitation, streetlights, schools, primary health centres and approach roads. Besides, "an overwhelming" number of families did not have ration cards. Requests for below poverty line cards have been repeatedly turned down. As a result, many families were unable to obtain foodgrains, cereals and kerosene at subsidised rates. The Commission found this had increased their hardship, as most displaced families were reduced to working for daily wages after losing their means of livelihood. Though State Government officials escorted the Commission members to these camps, the establishment remained unmoved by the living conditions there. Most of the camps were located on land bought by NGOs or donated by wealthy Muslims. Many inmates were key witnesses in major legal cases. "They live in constant fear and terrible deprivation, yet they have not lost their faith in the State," the report said. _____ [7] Indian Express October 25, 2006 Editorial Image and justice Why can't Modi see that rehabilitating riot victims serves even his own interests? Narendra Modi's attempted make-over may have appeared persuasive. Over the last several months, a series of photo-ops have framed the Gujarat chief minister as the tech-savvy, investment-friendly man in a hurry to develop Gujarat, already one of India's most enterprising states. The leader who revels in organising investor extravaganzas and inaugurating projects with catchy names. The administrator impatient with bureaucratic red tape. A chief minister at home with big reforms that scare government leaders in other states. But the Rs 19.1 crore that the Modi government has returned to the Centre as money unspent on rehabilitating the over 5,000 Muslim families affected by the 2002 riots, who are still leading marooned lives in makeshift camps according to the findings of the National Commission for Minorities, is a terse reminder. Forward-looking nations cannot afford short memories. If India wants to move on from Gujarat 2002, Modi's efforts to recraft his image - howsoever genuine each specific exertion might be - must not blunt the pressure on him to address the continuing injustice in his state, four years later. This could even be a reminder that Modi might want to heed in his own political interest. He must know that there are serious limits to the politics he has patented so far. While hard Hindutva of the minority-bashing sort may have delivered massive political returns in Gujarat, it is a clear drag on any ambitions to make a place on the national stage. Gujarat's specific socio-political history has made it hospitable to Moditva in a particular moment. But if Modi has ambitions that go beyond that moment in that state, he will have to do much more than flaunt administrative acumen and talk FDI. He will have to address the basic needs of those living degraded lives in the state's relief camps. And create the conditions for those who live there to go back to their homes. In the last instance, the justice undone in Gujarat is not about Modi's political prospects. It is about the robustness or lack of it at the heart of India's constitutional democracy. Both political and civil society, therefore, must remain vigilant against the onset of forgetting. _____ [6] (i) Communalism Watch http://communalism.blogspot.com/2006/10/government-employees-in-rss-hastening.html o o o GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES IN RSS: HASTENING THE END OF DEMOCRATIC-SECULAR INDIA by Shamsul Islam (The Milli Gazette, 16-31 October 2006) None can beat the RSS in its nefarious attempts to undo a democratic-secular India from within. This Hindutva brigade, knowing fully well that the politics of Hindutva is not acceptable to this country, continues evolving newest foul methods of communalizing the democratic-secular constitutional set-up. The latest in this series has been the August 27, 2006, official communiqué of the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh led by a seasoned RSS cadre, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, allowing state government employees open participation in the activities of the RSS including its 'shakhas'. Interestingly, the RSS cadres have been ruling states of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh but no such announcement were made for these states. This blatant announcement has jolted even Congress Party from its slumber towards the pitfalls of the Hindutva game plan. Protesting against the move, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi wrote a letter to the President of India, APJ Abdul Kalam, demanding his intervention to stop the MP government from putting into action its above order. Sonia Gandhi in her letter to the President petitioned that the MP government move was not only "illegal and unconstitutional" but also would result into "religious prejudices and passions and polarizing the society".1 If Congress is serious in its protestation and takes the fight to the logical conclusion, this country can at least begin the process of putting a stop to the anti-national activities of the RSS and its gang. The issue is not only of saving government employees from getting communalized by coming in contact with the RSS but exposing an organization which stands for Hindu separatism and complete demolition of a democratic and secular India. The RSS led Gujarat government had come out with the same kind of communiqué in the year 2000 but due to the intervention of the then President of the India Republic, KR Narayanan, the order was reversed. Unfortunately, neither Congress nor the secular camp carried this fight to the logical end which would have resulted in proving that the RSS is antithetical to all those principles and institutions on which secular-democratic India rests. The BJP chief, Rajnath Singh who happens to be a senior RSS cadre himself, while defending the order of the MP government said: "As far as RSS is concerned, it is the world's largest socio-cultural body and there should be no ban on participating in its activities."2 It is pertinent for the security and existence of our democracy to compare the MP government's communiqué and its defence by the RSS gang with the essentials of secular-democratic polity of our country. A perusal of the comparison will make it abundantly clear how MP government's order poses a very serious danger to our constitutional set-up. Is RSS a non-political organization? We must compare the RSS claim that it is a cultural-social organization and has nothing to do with politics with the following two statements of M. S. Golwalkar, who headed the RSS after the death of the founder of the RSS, KB Hedgewar, and is considered the greatest ideologue of the organization till date. The first statement tells us about the kind of personnel who are sent to manipulate politics and what is expected of them by the RSS. While delivering a speech on March 16, 1954, in Sindi, Wardha, he said, "If we say that we are part of the organization and accept its discipline then selectiveness has no place in life. Do what is told. If told to play kabaddi, play kabaddi; told to hold meeting then meeting --.For instance some of our friends were told to go and work for politics that does not mean that they have great interest or inspiration for it. They don't die for politics like fish without water. If they are told to withdraw from politics then also there is no objection. Their discretion is just not required"3 The second statement is also very significant and reads: We know this also that some of our Swayamsevaks [cadres] work in politics. There they have to organize according to the needs of work public meetings, processions etc., have to raise slogans. All these things have no place in our work. However, the actor should portray the character accepted to the best of his capability. But sometimes Swayamsevaks go beyond the role assigned to an actor as they develop over-zealousness in their hearts, to the extent that they become useless for this work. This is not good.4 We find here Guru Golwalkar referring to the Swayamsevaks loaned to political offshoot as 'nat' or performers who are meant to dance to the tunes of the RSS. This fact should not be missed here that Golwalkar's above design of controlling the political arm was elaborated in March 1960 almost nine years after the establishment of Jansangh (the forerunner of the BJP) in 1951. The RSS has strong political ambitions and designs is further corroborated by a publication of the RSS. The central publication house of the RSS, the Suruchi Prakashan, Jhandewalan, New Delhi, published, Param Vaibhav Ke Path Par (1997) which gave details of more than 40 organizations created by the RSS for different tasks. The BJP as a political organization figures prominently in it at number 3, with the ABVP, Hindu Jagaran Manch, Vishva Hindu Parishad, Swadeshi Jagaran Manch and Sanskar Bharti etc. The preface of the book itself declares that "without the knowledge of the different kinds of activities of the Sawyamsevaks (the volunteers of the RSS) the introduction of the RSS is incomplete. Keeping this in mind it has been attempted in this book to produce the brief information about the diverse activities of the Sawyamsevaks. This book covers the organizational status till 1996 --We believe that this book will prove to be of use for those who want to understand the RSS with the Swyamsevaks"5 RSS stands for building a Hindu state Sadly, the whole debate on the MP government's communiqué is kept revolving round the fact whether RSS is a political or non-political organization. A far more serious issue is being skirted that is to investigate into the evil philosophical designs of the RSS about India. For instance, if government employees are allowed to join RSS 'shakhas' it would be mandatory for them to recite following Prarthana (prayer) and Pratigya (oath), the recitation of which is must in each 'shakha'. Prarthana: Affectionate Motherland, I eternally bow to you/O Land of Hindus, you have reared me in comfort/O Sacred Land, the Great Creator of Good, may this body of mine be dedicated to you/I again and again bow before You/O God almighty, we the integral part of the Hindu Rashtra salute you in reverence/For Your cause have we girded up our loins/Give us Your Blessings for its accomplishment.6 Pratigya: Before the all powerful God and my ancestors, I most solemnly take this oath, that I become a member of the RSS in order to achieve all round greatness of Bharatvarsha by fostering the growth of my sacred Hindu religion, Hindu society, and Hindu culture. I shall perform the work of the Sangh honestly, disinterestedly, with my heart and soul, and I shall adhere to this goal all my life. Bharat Mata Ki Jai.7 Thus the government employees will not be faithful to a secular India, as it exists as a legal entity today but would be committed to subvert it into a Hindu theocratic state. RSS denigrates the National Flag and the Constitution It is the outcome of its commitment to the building of Hindu nation that the RSS hates the Tr-icolour and the Constitution of India, the two great symbols of our secular-democratic polity. The RSS since its inception in 1925 has been demanding that India is a Hindu nation and its national flag should be Bhagwa Jhanda (saffron flag) only. When the Constituent Assembly adopted the Tricolour as the national Flag, the RSS demanded the hoisting of saffron flag at the ramparts of Red Fort in Delhi and openly denigrated the choice of the Tricolour in the following words: The people who have come to power by the kick of fate may give in our hands the Tricolour but it never [sic] be respected and owned by Hindus. The word three is in itself an evil, and a flag having three colours will certainly produce a very bad psychological effect and is injurious to a country.8 Golwalkar while addressing the Gurupurnima gathering at the RSS headquarters on July 14, 1946 declared that it was the saffron flag which in totality represented great Hindu culture and was the embodiment of God. He further resolved: "We firmly believe that in the end the whole nation will bow before this saffron flag."9 How loyal the RSS is to the Constitution of India can be known by the following statement of Golwalkar which is being reproduced from Bunch of Thought, which is not only selection of the writings of MS Golwalkar but also a Bible of the RSS cadres. Our Constitution too is just a cumbersome and heterogeneous piecing together of various articles from various Constitutions of Western countries. It has absolutely nothing which can be called our own. Is there a single word of reference in its guiding principles as to what our national mission is and what our keynote in life is?No.10 In fact, RSS wanted this Constitution to be replaced by Manusmriti or Codes of Manu which is known for its derogatory and inhuman references to Untouchables and women. When the Constituent Assembly of India had finalized the Constitution of India RSS was not happy. It's organ, Organizer in an editorial on November 30, 1949, complained, But in our constitution there is no mention of the unique constitutional development in ancient Bharat. Manu's Laws were written long before Lycurgus of Sparta or Solon of Persia. To this day his laws as enunciated in the Manusmriti excite the admiration of the world and elicit spontaneous obedience and conformity. But to our constitutional pundits that means nothing. There is no doubt that participation of government employees in the activities of such an organization which openly decries the national Flag and the Constitution will only hasten the end of a democratic-secular India. ANTI-DEMOCRACY The RSS, contrary to the principles of democracy, has been constantly demanding that India be ruled under a totalitarian regime. Golwalkar while delivering a speech before 1350 top level cadres of the RSS at Madras in 1940 declared, "The RSS inspired by one flag, one leader and one ideology is lighting the flame of Hindutva in each and every corner of this great land."11 This slogan of one flag, one leader and one ideology has directly been borrowed from the programmes of the Nazi and Fascist Parties of Europe. Thus all those who will join the RSS bandwagon would naturally be anti-thetical to a democratic India. AGAINST FEDERALISM The RSS is also dead against the federal structure of the Constitution, again a Basic Feature of the India polity. This is clear from the following communication of Golwalkar, which he sent to the first session of the National Integration Council in 1961. It read, Todays federal form of government not only gives birth but also nourishes the feelings of separatism, in a way refuses to recognize the fact of one nation and destroys it. It must be completely uprooted, constitution purified and unitary form of government be established.12 Imagine the bureaucracy who is supposed to be committed to the federal set-up of India would work to wreck it as per the wishes of RSS. Role of RSS in Gandhiji's murder It is a matter of shame that government employees in MP are being permitted to participate in the activities of an organization which was held responsible for the murder of Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi by no less a person than Sardar Patel. Sardar as the first Home Minister of India, in a letter dated July 18, 1948 to a prominent leader of Hindu Mahasabha, Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, wrote: As regards the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha, the case relating to Gandhiji's murder is sub judice and I should not like to say anything about the participation of the two organizations, but our reports do confirm that, as a result of the activities of these two bodies, particularly the former, an atmosphere was created in the country in which such a ghastly tragedy became possible. There is no doubt in my mind that the extreme section of the Hindu Mahasabha was involved in the conspiracy. The activities of the RSS constituted a clear threat to the existence of Government and the State. Our reports show that those activities, despite the ban, have not died down. Indeed, as time has marched on, the RSS circles are becoming more defiant and are indulging in their subversive activities in an increasing measure.13 If such are the philosophical commitments and activities of the RSS how can any patriotic Indian, what to talk of government employees, be allowed to participate in the RSS activities? It is high time that all those organizations and individuals who have faith in a secular-democratic India must ask the question that when Maoists, Khalistanis and Islamists etc. are routinely declared anti-national as they aim at subverting the constitutional set-up of India, why is it that RSS remains out of our scrutiny? It is really unfortunate that Hindu Separatism is yet to be acknowledged as a serious threat to the Indian democracy despite its terrible anti-national record. One reason could be as underlined by a prominent leader of the RSS, "RSS members are everywhere, including that very party which is making all these allegations against RSS. Just scratch their body and you will find RSS blood inside."14 This statement only shows how grave is the danger from the Hindutva gang. If Congress and other secular outfits are serious about saving secular-democratic India they must legally and politically confront the RSS gang with the documents cited above. They also need to weed out the Hindutva elements from their ranks. The time is fast running out. 1 Cited in The Hindu, September 29, 2006. 2 Cited in The Statesman, September 29, 2006. 3 MS Golwalkar, Shri Guruji Samagar darshan (collected works of Golwalkar in Hindi), Bhartiya Vichar sadhna, Nagpur, Volume 3, p. 33. Hereafter referred as SGSD. 4 Ibid, Vol 4, pp. 4-5. 5 SD Sapre, Parm Vaibhav ke Path Per, Suruchi, Delhi, 1997, p. 7. 6 Shakha Darshika, Gyan Ganga, Jaipur, 1997, p.1. 7 Ibid, p. 66. 8 'Mystery behind the bhagwa dhwaj' in the RSS English organ Organizer, August 14, 1947. 9 MS Golwalkar, SGSD, Nagpur, nd., Volume 1, p. 98. 10 MS Golwalkar, Bunch of Thoughts, Sahitya Sandhu, Bangalore, 1996, p. 238. 11 SGSD, Vol 1, p. 11. 12 Ibid, Vol 3, p. 128. 13 Letter 64 cited in Sardar Patel: Select Correspondence19450-1950, Volume 2, Navjivan Publishing House, Ahmedabad, 1977, pp. 276-277. 14 Cited in The Statesman, September 29, 2006. o o o (ii) Communalism Watch http://communalism.blogspot.com/2006/10/madhya-pradesh-sangh-in-service.html o o o Frontline Oct. 21-Nov. 03, 2006 Controversy SANGH IN SERVICE A.G. Noorani The Madhya Pradesh government's removing the ban on RSS membership for its employees violates the Constitution. [Photo Caption: CHILDREN IN RSS uniform holding swords before the start of Vijayadasami functions on October 2. by A.M. Faruqui URL www.hinduonnet.com/fline/images/20061103001508601.jpg] ON August 27, 2006, the Bharatiya Janata Party-run Government of Madhya Pradesh made an order revoking the long established ban on civil servants' participation in the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh's (RSS) activities. If this is allowed to pass muster, there would be nothing to prevent a government from inducting RSS men into the civil services. Congress president Sonia Gandhi has asked President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam to intervene, reminding him that his predecessor, President K.R. Narayanan, had taken up the matter with the BJP government at the Centre when, in January 2000, the BJP government of Gujarat made a similar order. It was revoked. The Madhya Pradesh case is far worse. It is sought to be covered up with brazen falsehood. As a matter of fact, the State government's order "only formalised what it [the State government] has been practising for close to three years. RSS men have been appointed to several key positions and all BJP leaders, including Ministers, openly attend RSS functions" (Milind Ghatwal in The Indian Express, September 15; emphasis added throughout). RSS leader Kantilal Chhatar exclaimed, "What ban? There was no restriction on taking part in RSS activities. We never felt the ban. In any case, the RSS inculcates cultural values." Formally the ban was imposed in 1981 and was revived in 2000. But similar laws have long been in place in several States. Rule 5(1) of the Madhya Pradesh Civil Service (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules of 1966 bars government employees from becoming members of any political party or organisation which takes part in political activities. They are also barred from participating in political agitations or fund-raising. The order revoking this ban was made by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan on August 28, but became known only on September 14. He issued a one-line order, which simply said that the ban was not applicable to the RSS. This alone suffices to render his order unconstitutional, as being violative of the constitutional guarantee of equality before the law embodied in Article 14 of the Constitution. It is not open to a government to make exceptions to a ban imposed by law, arbitrarily at its whim; still less for political reasons. [. . .] Ever since Independence, governments at the Centre and in the States banned members of certain organisations from recruitment to their respective services. Additionally, they forbade personnel of the services from membership of those bodies. The list was prepared by the Centre and revised periodically; the last time, in 1986. Accordingly, the Gujarat Civil Servants Conduct Rules, 1971, forbade them to have any connection with the RSS. Among the other 16 organisations on that list were the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Hindu Mahasabha, the Anand Marg, the All-India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushwawarat, the Sati Pati Creed and the Mass Movement (Madhok faction). The Madhya Pradesh Rules were similar. Sonia Gandhi has rightly sought the President's intervention. However, it would be perfectly open to the Opposition parties in Madhya Pradesh or, for that matter, any citizen to ask the Supreme Court to quash the Madhya Pradesh government's order and have the mischief ended once and for all. FULL TEXT AT: http://www.flonnet.com/stories/20061103001508600.htm _____ [7] Announcement: RUTGERS 2ND ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON SOUTH ASIA 'Being and Becoming: Perspectives on Global South Asia' You are cordially invited to Rutgers Second Annual Conference on South Asia. "Being and Becoming: Perspectives on Global South Asia" Friday, November 10th and Saturday, November 11th KEYNOTE SPEAKERS: Dr. Amitav Ghosh and Dr. Ramachandra Guha FEATURED PANELS: Arts, Diaspora and Migration, Democracy in Transition, Gender and Sexuality PRE-CONFERENCE EVENT: Screening of the movie "Punching at the Sun" director Tanuj Chopra. Wright Labs, Busch campus. 7:00pm-8:00pm all other events to take place at: Graduate Student Lounge Rutgers University, College Avenue Campus New Brunswick, NJ 08901 Sponsors: South Asian Studies Program, English Department, Faculty of the Arts and Sciences, Office of Academic Affairs For More Information and Complete Conference Schedule: http://southasia.rutgers.edu/events/conference.html _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ 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/ DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers. _______________________________________________ Sacw mailing list [email protected] http://insaf.net/mailman/listinfo/sacw_insaf.net
