South Asia Citizens Wire | December 22-23, 2006 | Dispatch No. 2337 - Year 8
[1] Pakistan: New York Times reporter and
photographer harassed and detained (CPJ)
[2] Sri Lanka: Press Releases by the National Peace Council
- Assault on National Peace Council Staff at Hingurakgoda
- Bold Political Initiative Only Way To Halt Widening Conflict
[3] Bangladesh: In 1971, the goal was secular democracy (Syed Badrul Ahsan)
[4] National Interest: A Flawed Notion - Indian
Foreign Policy since 1991 (Achin Vanaik)
[5] India - Madhya Pradesh: Govt and Sangh
parivar blocking inter-faith marriages (Rasheed
Kidwai)
[6] India: German dictator no pariah to some in India (Kim Barker)
[7] India: Nanded Blast: The Hindutva Hand (Shashwat Gupta Ray)
[8] Think Again [Say no to segregation or
communal exclusivity] (Edit, The Telegraph)
[9] India -Gujarat:
(i) Gujarat Genocide 2002 - Five Years Later (Sabrang)
(ii) Interview with Cedric Prakash about the dangers of communalism
(iii) Gujarat Horror Tales Revisited (Parul Sharma)
____
[1]
Committee to Protect Journalists
330 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001 USA
Phone: (212) 465-1004 Fax: (212) 465-9568
Web: www.cpj.org E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Contact: Bob Dietz
Telephone: (212) 465-1004 ext 140
<http://www.cpj.org/>http://www.cpj.org
e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
PAKISTAN: New York Times reporter and photographer harassed and detained
New York, December 22, 2006-The Committee to
Protect Journalists called today for a full
investigation into the detention of New York
Times photographer Akhtar Soomro and the beating
of reporter Carlotta Gall in Pakistan on December
19.
Gall, who covers Pakistan and Afghanistan for the
Times, told CPJ that men who said they were from
the special branch of Pakistan's police, detained
Soomro, a Pakistani national, in his hotel around
8pm, and seized his computer and camera.
Four men later broke into her room in a separate
hotel, hit her and took away some of her
belongings. Gall said she had bruises on her
arms, temple, and cheekbone, swelling on her left
eye and a sprained knee.
"They were extremely aggressive and abusive. The
leader, who spoke English, refused to show any
ID," Gall said. The men accused of her of being
in Quetta, the restive capital of Baluchistan
province near the Afghan border, without
permission. They said she had been interviewing
Taliban members in Pashtunabad, a section of
Quetta. Pakistan prides itself on not restricting
journalists' travel to areas other than the
Federally Administered Tribal Areas in the
Northwest Frontier Province.
When Gall tried to stop them from taking the
photographer Soomro, she was told, "He is
Pakistani, we can do whatever we want with him."
He was released the next day, unharmed.
"We condemn the beating of our colleague Carlotta
Gall and the detention of Akhtar Soomro. The
Pakistani authorities must investigate this
incident immediately and ensure that journalists
are allowed to work freely," said CPJ Executive
Director Joel Simon. "We are alarmed by the use
of government security services to harass
journalists who are reporting in Pakistan on
issues of global significance."
______
[2]
National Peace Council
of Sri Lanka
12/14 Purana Vihara Road
Colombo 6
Tel: 2818344, 2854127, 2819064
Tel/Fax:2819064
E Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Internet:
<http://www.peace-srilanka.org/>www.peace-srilanka.<http://www.peace-srilanka.org/>org
20.12.06
Media Release 1
ASSAULT ON NATIONAL PEACE COUNCIL STAFF AT HINGURAKGODA
The National Peace Council wishes to highlight a
dangerous situation that arose on December 15,
2006 when four of our staff members had gone to
Hingurakgoda in the Polonnaruwa district to
conduct a training workshop on peace and a
political solution to the ethnic conflict. The
trainers belonged to a network on federalism
promoted by the Centre for Policy Alternatives.
When they reached the location, they were
physically attacked by some elements in a large
crowd who claimed that our staff members were
anti war and working for the LTTE and for
separation. The attack appeared to be
politically instigated and pre-meditated as local
politicians and supporters from a nationalist
alliance were present on the scene.
The National Peace Council is committed to a
negotiated political solution to the ethnic
conflict. On many occasions politicians from the
ruling SLFP and other political parties have
contributed generously of their time and
knowledge to enrich the quality of our
educational programmes. Over the past eleven
years we have conducted peace education
programmes in different parts of the country,
including the north and east, but have never
encountered a violent attack of this nature. On
this occasion, our staff was physically assaulted
and the vehicle in which they were travelling was
badly damaged.
As ruling party members were involved in the
attack, and also had led the attackers, we urge
the government to inquire into the incident and
take suitable action against them. We have made
a complaint regarding this incident at the Police
Headquarters and will be taking legal action
against those who assaulted our staff and
prevented our educational programme. We call on
the government to ensure that its party members
do not act in this undemocratic manner and resort
to violence against organizations like ours. We
also trust that the government will protect our
right, and the right of others, to peacefully
advocate their views on the ethnic conflict
without violence being inflicted on them.
Media Release 2
BOLD POLITICAL INITIATIVE ONLY WAY TO HALT WIDENING CONFLICT
The lack of consideration for the well being of
the civilian population and their use as tools of
war has been one of the most brutal features of
the ongoing ethnic conflict. The National Peace
Council condemns the use of political and
military strategies that penalise the civilian
population and cause injury to them. The exodus
of Sinhalese civilians from parts of the
Trincomalee district indicates that the conflict
has entered a wider and deeper phase. Earlier in
the year Muslim and Tamil civilians had been
forced to flee their homes due to the fighting
between government forces and LTTE that had
endangered their lives. Continuing large scale
displacement of Tamil civilians in extremely
cruel circumstances is taking place due to
fighting in the Batticaloa district.
We deeply regret the failure of the government
and LTTE to make use of opportunities to jointly
ensure the well being of the civilian population,
such as in providing humanitarian relief to the
people of the north east. We do not believe that
the reliance on harsh security measures alone
will lead to a beneficial outcome to the people.
Accordingly, we are concerned about the
governments re-imposition of the provisions of
the Prevention of Terrorism Act to deal with the
security threats posed by the LTTE. The
re-imposition of the PTA can lead to human rights
abuses by the security forces that distance the
Tamil people from the government and stand in the
way of the resumption of the peace process. It
will also not stop human rights abuses by the
LTTE. The recent abduction of children sitting
for their Ordinary level examination by the LTTE
highlights the need for a new approach without
war if the true interests of the people are to be
met.
In this context we welcome the proposal on a
constitutional framework to resolve the ethnic
conflict put forward by the Experts Panel of the
All Party Conference. This proposal was made
after the Expert Panel considered more than 700
submissions made to it by political and civic
organisations and the general public. The report
of the Expert Panel calls for genuine power
sharing between the different ethnic and
religious communities, and for provincial
institutions and local authorities to be set up
and all communities to share power in the central
government. While it would not go so far as to
explicitly propose a federal solution, the report
made it clear that the political solution had to
go beyond the confines of the present unitary
constitutional framework. This has been a long
standing demand of the ethnic minorities who seek
a power sharing solution to the ethnic conflict.
We call on the government and LTTE to take the
opportunity presented by this constitutional
proposal to re-start a process of dialogue.
Unfortunately, the signs at present are in the
direction of a continued resort to military
strategies and to confrontation, rather than to
an opening of new pathways to a negotiated peace
settlement. When faced with political
intransigence of this nature, it is easier to
advocate the cause of war than of negotiations.
As a result those who continue to call for an end
to the fighting and for a re-commencement of
negotiations find themselves vilified and
intimidated by the nationalists from a range of
political parties who have the effective backing
of the state apparatus. In these circumstances,
what can be expected is a further aggravation of
conflict between the government and LTTE, and
accompanying human rights abuses, unless there is
bold political decision making by both the
leaderships of the government and LTTE.
Executive Director
On behalf of the Governing Council
______
[3]
New Age
December 16, 2005
IN 1971, THE GOAL WAS SECULAR DEMOCRACY
by Syed Badrul Ahsan
The rise of Bengali nationalism throughout the
decade of the 1960s, precipitated as it had been
by the language movement of 1952 and again by the
clear attempts to strip away at the majority
status of Bengalis in the Pakistan state
structure, was clearly based on the principle of
secularism. It was felt, as much in those early
days as in later times, that the ethos upon which
Bengali politics shaped itself was all founded on
the heritage from which the culture of the land
and its people had taken root. One can argue, of
course, that the conscious move on the part of
the people of East Bengal to align themselves
with the patently communal movement for Pakistan
quite belied their secular background. The
argument would be right, up to a point. What
matters is the way history for Pakistan's
Bengalis shaped up in the days immediately after
the creation of Pakistan in August 1947. Mohammad
Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan revered as
the Quaid-e-Azam, for the first time in his long
political career encountered vociferous
opposition to his policies when he peremptorily
suggested that only Urdu would be the language of
the state he had built. The fact that he was
Pakistan's undisputed leader did not matter at
all when a band of young men quickly and even as
Jinnah spoke at Curzon Hall of Dhaka University
in March 1948 raised their voices in protest. It
was the earliest indication of a resurgence of
secular Bengali nationalism, even if the reality
was that East Bengal had turned into, and would
remain, part of Pakistan for the foreseeable
future.
The essential spirit upon which Bengali
politics was to develop would become increasingly
more manifest in the years after Jinnah's death.
His successor Khwaja Nazimuddin and Prime
Minister Liaquat Ali Khan tried giving the
Bengalis more of what the country's founding
father had tried doing. The result was badly
counterproductive. Indeed, it remains to the
credit of the people of East Bengal that the
first post-1947 banner of resistance to the rule
of the Muslim League was raised in a Bengali
ambience when Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy and
Moulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani moved to give
shape to the Awami Muslim League in June 1949.
There was, despite the qualification of the term
'Muslim' in the name of the organisation, little
mistaking the fact that it was unfettered
democracy of the Westminster sort the new party
aimed at. And that surely was pluralism as it
came wrapped in all the brilliance of secularism.
The 1952 upheaval over the place of Bengali in
the Pakistani scheme of things only added a
little more of substance to the struggle for a
democratic polity. In subsequent years, it would
be made clear to the West Pakistan-based
political classes that while they continued to
harp on what was becoming a worn-out theme of
Muslim nationalism for Pakistan, the Bengalis in
the country's eastern province were moving in the
opposite direction. The triumph of the United
Front over the Nurul Amin-led Muslim League
government in the East Bengal provincial
elections of 1954 was fundamentally a victory of
secular forces over a communalistic cabal.
Sher-e-Bangla AK Fazlul Huq, while visiting
Calcutta as the new chief minister of East
Bengal, basically gave out the right message
about East Bengali feelings when he reminisced
about the old days in pre-partition India. It was
behaviour that would soon lead to trouble for Huq
and the United Front ministry, but the point had
been made -- that East Bengal, a mere seven years
into Pakistan, was not willing to be lumped with
the provinces forming West Pakistan into a
communal body politic. This theme of secular
democratic politics was carried a dramatic step
further when Moulana Bhashani made his
'assalam-o-alaikum' address to West Pakistan at
the Kagmari conference of 1957.
The concept of secular Bengali politics, with
the ground thus prepared in the 1950s, was a
theme that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was to build on.
An important catalyst to the rise of Bengali
nationalism was the conscious move by the Bengali
cultural elite to go for an observance of
Rabindranath Tagore's centenary of birth in 1961.
The association of such influential men as
Justice S.M. Murshed with the celebrations sent
out a very potent message of the Bengali being a
culturally and politically distinct entity within
Pakistan. It was a message that Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman, even at that relatively early stage of
what would ultimately be a momentous political
career, heard loud and clear. There are reasons
to believe that it was in 1961 that his
disillusionment with Pakistan set in. The
commandeering of the state by the army in 1958
had only reinforced Bengali feeling that
democracy, rather than being the wave of the
future, was in sad retreat in Pakistan. Men like
Suhrawardy had grown unhappy with the decline of
the state. For Suhrawardy, who believed that the
country could have a future if it embraced
secular politics, the arrival of the Ayub Khan
military regime was a disaster. He was not
prepared, physically or psychologically, to put
up resistance to the dictatorship. His death in
December 1963 released men like Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman from any obligation to adhere to the
Pakistan ideology in the form it existed in at
the time.
By far the clearest and most powerful
expression of secular Bengali sentiment came
through the Six Point programme for regional
autonomy that Mujib presented at the Lahore
conference of Pakistan's opposition parties in
February 1966. There was hardly any question that
the reforms which the Six Points aimed at were
underpinned by a very strong base of secularism
and were therefore a strategic way of presenting
the argument for Pakistan, especially its eastern
wing, to move away from the two-nation theory
that had midwifed its birth in 1947. In the years
between 1966 and the fall of the Ayub regime in
early 1969, the resurgence of Bengali secular
nationalism was complete. It would only be a
matter of time before the political class which
had initiated the movement would roll to
preponderance on an all-Pakistan stage. That
triumph came through the Awami League's coming by
an absolute majority of seats in the national
assembly elections of December 1970. With East
Pakistan already being referred to as Bangladesh,
with the religious and communal political groups
like the Muslim League and the Jamaat-e-Islami
having been thoroughly marginalised by the
electorate, the moment appeared right for
Bangladesh to consider moving out of Pakistan
altogether. Had the military junta led by General
Yahya Khan not made a mess of things, it is
reasonable to suppose that Bengalis would have
eventually, through a democratic, confederal
process gone for the creation of their own
independent and necessarily secular state. The
genocidal action of the Pakistan army only
accelerated the path to separation. What happened
through the War of Liberation in 1971 was a
massive rejection of the communal state of
Pakistan and the establishment of a proper, fully
defined democratic and sovereign state for
Bengalis. Naming the country the People's
Republic of Bangladesh and vesting all powers in
the people was the final embodiment of a secular
spirit that had been developed and improved upon
in all the twenty four years that Bengalis had
spent within the Pakistan framework.
Close to three and a half decades into
freedom, Bangladesh faces perhaps the biggest
challenge to its existence and survival as a
secular democracy. The carefully laid-out
strategy that has gone into a rehabilitation of
the communal forces defeated in 1971, first
through a failure of the first Awami League
government to hold such forces to account for
their complicity with Pakistan in the genocide of
three million Bengalis and then the insensitivity
with which all collaborators were pardoned by
Mujib, followed naturally by the return of the
communalists to the political centre per courtesy
of the military regimes of General Ziaur Rahman
and General Hussein Muhammad Ershad now has
Bangladesh up against a wall. The rise of Islamic
extremists, all of whom have been peddling ideas
that go against the very grain of Bengali
political belief, is a bad and heavy assault on
the civilised principles upon which Bangladesh's
sovereignty rests. The Jamaat-e-Islami, which
clearly relishes the troubles secular democracy
is faced with today, cannot but look forward to a
time when the country reverts to a form of
theocratic rule. The murderous elements of the
Jama'atul Mujahideen clearly expect something
more radical, which is a state that will be ready
and willing to take the long, difficult path back
to religious medievalism. The suicide killings
and the threats constantly being held out against
any and all manifestations of secular power are
essentially a repeat, after a thirty four-year
interregnum, of the desperation that went into
the job of trying to save Pakistan in this
country back in 1971. The men who cheerfully
helped the Pakistani occupation army in shaping
such murder squads as al-Badr and al-Shams are
today safely and securely ensconced in political
power, thanks to men and women whose
understanding of Bengali history has been as
parochial as it has been outrageous.
As the nation recaptures the spirit of 1971 on
Victory Day this year, it is the goal of
secularism that takes fresh new meaning for
Bengalis once more. The raison d'etre for
Bangladesh has been its secular foundations,
which is why it is important that the old
principles be reasserted by the national
leadership and, more specifically, by those
forces which shaped the secular democratic basis
of the nation in the years leading to the War of
Liberation. The biggest lesson for the country,
in these fraught times, is that it can fulfil its
destiny through a determined adherence to its
original ethos of a modern democratic order. The
Islamic militants with the bombs out there are
therefore a warning to all Bengalis that should
secular politics falter, there will not be much
of a state of Bangladesh left to speak of. The
bottomline should be obvious: the People's
Republic of Bangladesh and communal bigotry do
not go together. In the present murderous
struggle for survival into which the religious
medievalists have pushed the state, it is the
secular republic that must emerge, even if
bloodied and wounded, triumphant.
------
[4]
Economic and Political Weekly
9 December 2006
NATIONAL INTEREST: A FLAWED NOTION
INDIAN FOREIGN POLICY SINCE 1991
National interest, as this article contends, does
not determine foreign policy. The belief that a
state can, does and should pursue the national
interest presupposes that the state in some way
or the other represents all sections of the
national society; after all, modern states are
nation states legitimised in the name of peoples
constituted, however, as separate nations. It is,
in fact, the political and therefore moral
character (which changes over time as well) of
the leadership strata that makes and shapes
foreign policy decisions. Itis against this
background that this article makes an analysis of
Indian foreign policy and the shifts seen in
policy since 1991.
by Achin Vanaik
http://www.epw.org.in/showArticles.php?root=2006&leaf=12&filename=10842&filetype=pdf
______
[5]
The Telegraph
December 22, 2006
FAITH CRY TO BLOCK POLIO GIRL'S MARRIAGE
Rasheed Kidwai
Bhopal, Dec. 21: Rickshaw-puller Peter Abraham
had offered polio-affected Meena Gond, 36, a
chance at a new life. Government officials and
Sangh parivar activists are working together to
block the marriage on the ground that the
orphaned tribal woman is likely to convert after
the union.
Abraham, 38, has handed the mandatory 40-day
notice to the Jabalpur marriage officer, the lone
marriage registrar in the district. The notice
period ended on November 13, but the official,
Deepak Singh, is refusing to register the
marriage.
"We have received complaints and objections,"
Singh said without revealing the objectors' names.
An official of the Vishwa Hindu
Parishad-affiliated Dharma Sena owned up to being
an objector.
"Peter is a Christian. We suspect he has lured
the innocent tribal girl offering her money.
Meena will later be forced to change her
religion," said Sudhir Aggarwal, Dharma Sena
convener in the Mahakaushal region.
"We have definite knowledge that some Christian
missionaries are doling out money to men like
Peter to convert tribals."
Meena's brother Radhey Gond denied the charge,
saying he was touched by Peter's offer to marry
his sister. "She can barely walk. We had all
along thought that nobody would marry her."
Radhey scoffed at the claim that Peter had
offered money to the family. "He has been a daily
wage earner for years. How can a poor
rickshaw-puller lure a woman with money?"
Jabalpur city Congress chief Naresh Saraf said
his party would ensure that inter-faith marriages
take place without hindrance.
"We have told district collector Sanjay Dubey
that a massive protest would be launched if the
couple is not allowed to marry before the New
Year."
The Sangh parivar is blocking the marriage at a
time the Madhya Pradesh BJP government is
offering a cash incentive of Rs 50,000 to any
non-tribal marrying a tribal.
Peter and Meena should be getting it in addition
to the Rs 10,000 that the chief minister's pet
Deendayal Antoday scheme offers to every couple
from below the poverty line. Shivraj Singh
Chauhan, who has blessed over 5,000 brides and
grooms under this scheme, has earmarked Rs 5
crore for it in the current financial year.
In Bhopal, tribal welfare commissioner K.K. Singh
admitted that the state offered a cash incentive
to anyone marrying a tribal, but provided a twist
saying he was "not sure" if Christians and
Muslims were entitled to it.
"You see, the broad objective of the scheme is to
end social discrimination and untouchability. How
can societies that do not have untouchability be
eligible for the incentive?".
Saraf said the scheme's provisions make no reference to religion.
"I have looked it up. It says anyone marrying a
tribal is entitled to the award."
_____
[6]
Chicago Tribune
December 21, 2006
LETTER FROM KHARGHAR
Hitler the trendy tyrant
German dictator no pariah to some in India, the Tribune's Kim Barker reports
By Kim Barker
Tribune's South Asia correspondent
KHARGHAR, India -- When an Adolf Hitler-themed
restaurant opened its doors in a suburb of
cosmopolitan Mumbai in August, many were
horrified. The restaurant, Hitlers' Cross,
changed its name a week later to Cross Cafe, but
it is hardly the only example of how some Indians
view Hitler and his legacy.
Hindu fundamentalist groups praise Hitler's
leadership skills. A college poll a few years ago
showed he was perceived as an ideal leader. Books
and videos of him are top sellers. Most patrons
prefer to call Cross Cafe by its previous name.
Plates and cups still bear the Hitlers' Cross
logo, with a Nazi swastika in place of the "O."
"We call it `Hitler' only," said Ashish Anant,
18, an aeronautics college student who likes to
come to the cafe with friends. "We say, `Let's go
to Hitler.' It's a trendy name. It's different."
It's not clear why Hitler is popular in some
circles. Some experts say it's because of a
belief that Indians were the original Aryan race.
Others say it's because Hitler used the
traditional Hindu good-luck symbol of the
swastika, rotating it slightly. Those who believe
strongly in the caste system of India also may
like Hitler's eugenics and race beliefs.
Any praise for Hitler is not reflected in
national policy. India has strong ties with
Israel and views it as an ally in the war on
terror. And Jewish and non-Jewish Indians were
horrified by Hitlers' Cross. Daniel Zohar
Zonshine, the Israel consul general in Mumbai,
looked visibly upset when talking about the
portrayal of Hitler in India, especially Hitlers'
Cross. He said he thinks the owners wanted the
free publicity that comes with such controversy.
Educating the public
The consulate has tried to educate Indians about
Hitler, sending a Holocaust photograph exhibit
and education materials last year to the western
state of Gujarat, where government textbooks have
praised Hitler. The Israeli Consulate will bring
a Holocaust survivor and artist to Mumbai to talk
to Indian audiences next month.
"It's not an Israeli issue," said Zonshine,
adding that World War II was not ingrained in the
DNA of India as it was in that of Europe or
Israel. "It's not a Jewish issue. It's a
humanitarian issue."
Joshua Reuben, 29, who belongs to India's small
Jewish community, said he was offended by the
restaurant but did not blame the owners.
"They probably haven't thought about hurting anybody's feelings," he said.
Interviews with many young Indians indicated that
they had little idea of what Hitler actually did
and that it did not really matter. They described
Hitler as "cool" or "trendy." They did not know
details of the Holocaust.
"I don't know much," admitted Puneet Sabhlok, 22,
one of the co-founders of Hitlers' Cross, which
serves only one marginally German item, German
chocolate cake.
"He was a dictator," added co-founder Shakir
Siddiqui, 27. "Gas chambers and all."
Hitler is glorified in other ways. A poll of 400
students from the country's most prestigious
colleges by a leading Indian newspaper in 2002
found that Hitler was their third most requested
ideal leader of India, behind independence leader
Mahatma Gandhi and the country's then-Prime
Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.
A pizza and cake chain in New Delhi, A Slice of
Italy, sells a cake called "one for the Hitler,"
featuring Hitler's face. Last year the cake was
sold with a swastika on the cap and was described
as a children's cake over the phone. Last month
there was no swastika.
"It's not common, but it's exciting, madam," a
worker at the pizza chain told one woman who
asked about the cake in November. "Order it."
`Hitler, the Supremo'
In Gujarat, textbooks have praised Hitler's
leadership abilities, fascism and the Nazi
movement. Until recently, state social studies
textbooks have featured chapters on "Hitler, the
Supremo" and "Internal Achievements of Nazism."
The textbooks have been changed slightly this
year but still barely mention the Holocaust.
This is the same state where Hindu-led riots led
to the deaths of more than 1,000 Muslims in the
spring of 2002. Several investigations blamed the
state government, led by a Hindu-right political
party, for permitting the riots.
Bal Thackeray, the founder of Shiv Sena, a Hindu
fundamentalist party based in Mumbai, has openly
praised Hitler and said he was willing to wipe
out troublemaking Muslims. Shiv Sena's secretary,
Anil Desai, said Thackeray liked Hitler's
leadership abilities, not his attempts to
exterminate the Jews.
Thackeray likes "the way Hitler pushed the things in his time," Desai said.
Hitler's autobiography, "Mein Kampf," flies off
the shelves of many bookstores. The Bandra branch
of Crossword, a major bookstore chain in the
Mumbai area, sells 35 copies a week.
At the Rhythm House in downtown Mumbai, one of
the city's oldest and most popular video stores,
the documentary "Hitler a Career" is sold in the
video section for children.
"Why are people buying it? Because they like
him," store clerk Maqbool Sayed said. "If it was
up to me, I would hide these. I wouldn't put them
out at all."
_____
[7]
NANDED BLAST: THE HINDUTVA HAND
Narco-analysis and brain-mapping reports of the
accused and the Maharashtra Police ATS's findings
on the Nanded blast add up to reveal an alarming
trend: local Sangh Parivar members are raising
their own terror networks.
by Shashwat Gupta Ray
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2006/12/nanded-blast-hindutva-hand.html
_____
[8]
(The Telegraph
December 22, 2006)
Editorial
THINK AGAIN
The Sachar committee's "grave concern" about the
educational status of Indian Muslims is prompted
entirely by integrative, rather than divisive,
principles. It is, therefore, ironic (and
ominous) that Muslim members of parliament and
some NGOs want the ministry of human resource
development to create exclusive schools for
Muslim children in Muslim-dominated areas. This
is certainly not what the Sachar committee report
has recommended anywhere, and is actually
inimical to the spirit of it. Besides, as the
report amply documents, this is not what most
Muslims want. One of the myths about the
'minority mindset' which the report breaks is
that most Muslim parents want to send their
children to madrassahs or exclusively Muslim,
Urdu-medium schools where the children would
receive a traditional, religion-driven education.
There is a growing number of urban and rural
Muslims who want to send their sons and daughters
to 'mainstream' schools so that they are
adequately equipped to enter and prosper in
'mainstream' Indian professional life. The report
reveals that only about four per cent of Muslim
children actually receive a madrassah education,
and there too it is often the case that such an
education only supplements the one provided by a
secular school.
It is important for Indian schools, especially
the government or government-aided ones, to
provide a range of choices which Muslim students
could avail themselves of. Properly trained Urdu
teachers should certainly be an important
priority here, as should be a whole set of
conditions that a substantial number of Muslim
parents usually look for when sending their girls
to school. This includes trained female teachers
and, in some cases, girls' hostels. In all this,
segregation or communal exclusivity is usually
the last thing on their minds. Hence, politicians
and certain social workers should be careful not
to misrepresent the communities they want to
serve.
_____
[9]
(i)
Sabrang Alternative News Network
December 20, 2006
Backgrounder
GUJARAT GENOCIDE 2002 - FIVE YEARS LATER
Press Release
Victim survivors of the Gujarat Genocide,
especially those committed to their struggle for
justice have been reduced to a life of every day
terror and harrasment. Five years later, Shaikh
Mohalla in Sardarpura village of Mehsana
district, Gulberg society in Ahmedabad, Ode
village in Anand district and other areas live as
internally displaced refugees without bare civic
rights like ration cards, BPL cards, electricity
and water. Victims of the Ode massacre still look
in vain for the lost ones missing bodies and
repeated inquiries with the police face a cold
response.
Discriminatory justice and development. While
criminals responsible for mass crimes have been
granted bail by the high and low judiciary in
Gujarat, 84 accused of the Godhra mass arson wilt
in jail having been refused bail for four years.
Victim survivors of the Pandharwada massacre who
located the mass grave are in vain trying to get
a CBI probe into the scandalous dumping of the
remains of Pandharwada and other massacres in the
Paanam river off Lunawada town (despite the
existence of a large graveyard) but instead face
intimidation and threat of arrest from the
police. Of the 413 officially declared misisng
persons, bodies of 228 are still not discovered
pointing to largescale illegal dumping of bodies.
The NHRC has been appealed to to contact an
all-Gujarat inquiry into this.
The Modi government is trying to use fraudulent
BPL card holdings (ostensibly given to minority
victims of the genocide) as a pre-election sop to
grant cheap housing. In fact the BPL lists need
to be scrutinised and examined. Ghettoisation and
segregation in Gujarat has reached unprecedented
levels with even the jails being communalised in
the state.
The bitter reality of Gujarat is not simply the
functioning of the Gujarat government but the
ambivalent position of the opposition in the
state, the dominant partner in the UPA coalition
in the Centre. The promise of CBI inquiry into
the major carnage cases was pre-lection hype that
has not materialised into a real promise. Even
today while the state government continues with a
regime of low intensity terror all over the
state, the centre's UPA is a mute opposition and
spectator.
Compensation
In 2002 then NDA government had given Rs 200
crores rehab package to Gujarat. In March 2003,
one year later, the cynical and callous state of
Gujarat returned about Rs 116 croes claiming that
no more relief needed to be done.
The state of Gujarat has paid compensation of
only Rs. 1.5 lakhs ( Rs. 90,000 in cash &
Rs.60,000 in Narmada Bonds) as compensation to
the next of kin of those killed in the rioting.
This amount is totally inadequate and arbitrary
and amounts to a failure on the part of the State
to fulfil its constitutional obligation of
compensation. Significantly the Hon'ble Delhi
High Court has in 1996 (six years earlier)
directed the payment of compensation of Rs. 2
lakhs & interest from 1984 (aggregating to Rs.
3.5 lakhs) to those killed in the 1984 anti Sikh
riots. On that basis and allowing even for a 7%
annual rate of inflation from 1996 to 2002, the
amount of compensation would be required to be
approximately 3.00 lakhs (40% increase on 2
lakhs) and interest on this amount from 2002 to
2007 at 8% per annum: an additional Rs. 1 lakh =
4.00 lakhs !. Compensation for injuries/
disabilities sustained should be pro rata to this
amount that is Rs 7 lakhs per loss of life.
Let Down by the Centre: After announcing a Rehab
Package of Rs 7 lakh per loss of life in 2002,
the Centre appears to have had a re-think. The
same man, MOS (Home) Sriprakash Jaiswal who made
the initial announcement of the package, in a
reply to an unstarred question (number 2486) in
the Lok Sabha on December 12, surprised everyone
by saying that "the centre has not taken a final
decision" on the package.
Regarding Destruction of houses/homes: The
position re compensation of houses is even worse.
The state of Gujarat had fixed an arbitrary and
irrational ceiling of Rs. 50,000 as compensation
for destruction of houses and in most cases has
paid only a pittance. The Womens Parliamentary
Committee in its Aug 2002 Report had recorded
that it had been informed that 18924 houses had
been partially damaged (11,199 urban & 7095
rural) and for which Rs. 15.55 crores had been
paid as compensation. This works out to an
average of only Rs. 870 per house !! In fact the
Committee noted that a number of persons /
recipients had shown them cheques of as little as
Rs. 40 to Rs. 200!!
Amounts paid so far (i) to relatives of those
killed (ii) to those whose houses were destroyed
and damaged - is totally inadequate , and at
times even illusory. Moreover no compensation has
been provided to women who were raped / molested/
attacked although the Respondents Home Dept had
informed the Women's Parliamentary Committee in
Aug 2002 that there had been 185 attacks on women
& at least 11 cases of rape. In fact rape /
molestation was far more pervasive - but a number
of the victims were killed / burnt and others
have been unwilling to file complaints with the
police having regard to their partisan and
callous responses. I reiterate that
constitutional obligations require that atleast a
compensation of Rs 3 lakhs & interest from 2002 (
Rs. 1.5 lakhs) be paid to the relatives of those
killed. That amounts pro rata be paid for
disabilities & serious injuries. Women who were
raped & molested should be given compensation
equal to that awarded for persons who were
killed. The ceiling amount for house compensation
should be raised to 1.5 lakhs in the rural area
and 3 lakhs in the urban areas and compensation
based on fair assessment of data and records,
including the Panchnamas contemporaneously
recorded be paid alongwith interest from 2002.
The National Human Rights Commission after
considering the responses of the Government of
Gujarat to its preliminary Reports/findings
concluded in its Report/ Proceedings of 31st May
2002, " there was a comprehensive failure of the
State to protect the Constitutional rights of the
people of Gujarat".
o o o
(ii)
INTERVIEW WITH CEDRIC PRAKASH
- ABOUT THE DANGERS OF COMMUNALISM
23 Dec, 2006)
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2006/12/interview-with-cedric-prakash-about.html
o o o
(iii)
The Hindu
Dec 22, 2006
GUJARAT HORROR TALES REVISITED
Parul Sharma
Survivors seek CBI probe into riots; shift of cases outside Gujarat
# CPI (M) leader Sitaram Yechury assures
survivors of all support in their fight for
justice
# Survivors say they had lost all faith in the State authorities
NEW DELHI : Shabana Bondubhai turned emotional as
she recounted the events of the day when her
mother and younger sister were burnt alive by a
mob during the Gujarat riots in 2002.
"It was a huge mob. They were brandishing swords,
and attacked our village in Naoda-Gam-Patiya. We
complained to the police but to no avail. They
did not protect us when we needed them the most.
We were trying to escape when the mob trapped us
in an alley and set some of us afire," she said
amid tears at a programme organised by Safdar
Hashmi Memorial Trust (SAHMAT) here on Wednesday.
Ms. Shabana was among the survivors of the 2002
Gujarat communal violence who gathered in the
Capital to share their tales of horror.
Saeed Khan Ahmed Khan Pathan from Gulbarg Society
in Ahmedabad narrated how rioters entered their
complex and set it afire.
"Ten members of my family and 68 locals were
killed as police kept watching. They did not stop
anyone. Our entire complex was gutted in the
fire. The place is in a shambles today. We had
our own houses earlier and today we live in
rented accommodation," he said.
"During the riots, we took refuge in a former
Congress MP's house. He telephoned practically
everyone he knew and all the authorities, but to
no avail. He was killed in front of us."
Jannat Bi from Naroda Patia - whose nephew was
killed during in the Gujarat violence - alleged
that the perpetrators of the violence were
"roaming free."
"I had named many people in First Information
Report . Some of them were political leaders too.
But no one was punished. We have suffered so much
because of them and they are enjoying themselves
while we try to pick up pieces of our lives."
She said the State Government's relief measures as were "inadequate."
"They have given us new houses on the outskirts
of the city, which is far away from where we
work. It is not feasible for us to go and stay
there," Ms. Jannat Bi said.
Johra Bi from Pandharwada told reporters how
police threatened her family members when they
began exhuming bodies that had been allegedly
dumped in a riverbed.
"Someone told us that the remains of the
Pandharwada and other massacres have been dumped
in the Paanam river bank off Lunawada town. When
the families began to dig up the area, the police
officials began harassing us accusing us of
exhuming bodies "illegally."
Missing persons
All the riot survivors demanded a CBI probe into
the cases of rioting and missing persons. They
also appealed to the Supreme Court to shift the
hearing of their cases to some other State as
they had "lost all faith in the State
authorities."
Political leaders like such as CPI (M) Politburo
Bureau member Sitaram Yechury and Congress MP
Madhusudan Mistry who were present during the
event expressed their support in the to the
survivors' fight for justice.
"We will press the UPA Government to do more than
they are doing presently for the victims of the
Gujarat communal riots. We will do whatever we
can to demand for a CBI probe in the issue," Mr.
Yechury said.
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
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
SACW@insaf.net
http://insaf.net/mailman/listinfo/sacw_insaf.net
