South Asia Citizens Wire | March 28-29, 2007 | Dispatch No. 2384 - Year 9 [INTERRUPTION NOTICE: Please note that there will be no SACW dispatches between the period 30 March 2007 - 5 April 2007]
[1] Level Playing Field - Historical echoes (Mike Marqusee) [2] Pakistan's Silent Majority Is Not to Be Feared (Mohsin Hamid) [3] In Pakistan, a media group cries foul over government advertising (CPJ) [4] Pakistan: The rise of the 'new media' (Omar R. Quraishi) [5] Pakistan: Islamist Students raid Islamabad 'brothel' [6] India: 23 years too late - Will all '84 riots victims ever get justice?(edit, The Tribune) [7] India: A Christian Testimony at the Peoples tribunal on Fascisms rise . . . [8] Gujarat: unofficial ban on film Parzania - 'Screen Parzania' chorus gets louder - Gujarat's theatre of the absurd (Pawan Khera) [9] India: Guns, Jail for People and Roses for Corporates Press Release ACTION 2007 [10] An International Non-violence day, but when? (Purushottam Agrawal) [11] Public Events: (i) Seminar on Bhutan Refugees (New Delhi, March 31, 2007) (ii) Discussion - Ethnic and Religious Militancy and the New World Order: Hindu Nationalism, Islamism, and Regionalism (Washington DC, April 4, 2007) (iii) Discussion: Prostitutes and Politics: the Tolerated Brothels Debate in Colonial India (New Delhi, 12 April 2007) ____ [1] The Hindu, 25 March 2007 LEVEL PLAYING FIELD Historical echoes by Mike Marqusee THE more I travel, read and study the history of peoples and societies, the more analogies I discover, and at the same time the warier I become of all analogies. History does not repeat itself exactly, but it is full of echoes. Some analogies are routinely abused, while some are bitterly resisted. Today, the prime example of the latter must be the angry clamour that arises whenever Israel's treatment of the Palestinians is compared to white South Africa's treatment of black people under apartheid. In the U.S., uttering the "A-word" in relation to Israel elicits a surfeit of outrage, inevitably accompanied by accusations of anti-Semitism. As Jimmy Carter has found out, even being a widely respected former President of the United States does not shield one from the backlash. It is true that people throw the word apartheid around incautiously. I was guilty of this when I referred in an article to the segregation of business from economy class passengers at airports as a form of "social apartheid". But when it comes to Israel, the analogy is apt and unavoidable. Crucially, it is a spontaneous response from those black South Africans who have visited the Occupied Territories. What they see there the Jews-only roads, the "security fence", the confinement in camps and villages, the checkpoints, the daily harassment reminds them graphically of the system they once suffered under. There is, however, at least one major difference, though it's not one that favours Israel. Under apartheid, the dominant whites used the black population as a source of cheap labour; they denied that population basic human rights, but they needed it. In contrast, Zionism has aimed to remove the Palestinian population, to replace Palestinians with Jews. That was the meaning of what Zionists called "the conquest of labour" (when Jewish settlers campaigned for the non-employment of Palestinians) and it is the ultimate source of the current calls within Israel for "transfer", the final expulsion of the bulk of the Palestinian population. In an article I published on the fifth anniversary of the Gujarat pogrom, I referred to the role played by "the stormtroopers of the Hindu right" and was rebuked by a correspondent who said that he never trusted writers who invoked the Nazi analogy, because it tended to close rather than open debate. I have some sympathy for his argument. The Nazi analogy is indeed indiscriminately used, as is the word "fascist", applied too readily to anyone who is authoritarian and racist. It becomes a form of name-calling, a substitute for analysis. By the way, the prime culprit here is not the left. In my lifetime, every U.S. military action, from Vietnam to Iraq (and now the threat against Iran), has been justified with analogies drawn from World War II. Every enemy is a new Hitler (Nasser, Qadaffi, Noriega, Milosevic, Saddam Hussein, Ahmadinejad) and every call for peace is Munich-style appeasement. Nonetheless, I stand by my use of "stormtroopers" in the Gujarat context. The Sturmabteilung or SA (German for "Storm division", always translated as "stormtroopers" ) was the paramilitary, street-fighting wing of the Nazi movement, also known as "brownshirts" because of the colour of their uniforms. Claiming to be the guardians of German national pride, they mounted aggressive public actions whose aim was to spread terror among minorities and political opponents. In November 1938, they played a key role in Kristallnacht, ransacking Jewish homes, beating Jews to death, burning down synagogues, destroying Jewish-owned shopfronts with sledgehammers, leaving the streets covered in broken glass from smashed windows (hence the name). Given the similarities with what happened in Gujarat in 2002, it takes an effort to avoid the analogy, and the effect of that effort is to downplay the horror of the Gujarat pogrom. Of course, the Nazis and the holocaust represent an acme of inhumanity, an evil so enormous that any comparison seems dubious. Yet if we remove them from history and treat them as sui generis, we debar ourselves from learning and applying the broader lessons. When the world discovered the extent of Nazi barbarism in the wake of World War II, the cry was "Never again!" We cannot turn that cry into a reality; we cannot ensure that nothing even remotely like this happens again, unless we are permitted to draw appropriate analogies from the experience. League tables of atrocities serve no purpose, or rather, the only purpose they serve is to allow scope for the apologists for atrocities. The holocaust, the enslavement of Africans, the genocide of Native Americans and Australians, the centuries of `untouchability' in south Asia, the Belgian Congo (where, according to Adam Hochschild's revelatory book King Leopold's Ghost, some 10 million Africans may have perished in little more than a decade), Stalin's Gulag. All these are distinct historical phenomena, but share in common an institutionalised inhumanity on a mass scale. All are unspeakably, irredeemably horrific; they exemplify that which every human being has an absolute obligation to resist and not to aid, in any way, even by omission. Which brings me back to the Palestinians. Their suffering is not only analogous to black suffering under apartheid but also to Jewish suffering, and specifically the experience of exile and diaspora. "We travel like everyone else, but we return to nothing," writes the marvellous Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish, "We travel in the chariots of the Psalms, sleep in the tents of the prophets, and are born again in the language of Gypsies... Ours is a country of words. Talk. Talk. Let me see an end to this journey." _____ [2] The New York Times March 27, 2007 PAKISTAN'S SILENT MAJORITY IS NOT TO BE FEARED by Mohsin Hamid I WAS one of the few Pakistanis who actually voted for Gen. Pervez Musharraf in the rigged referendum of 2002. I recall walking into a polling station in Islamabad and not seeing any other voter. When I took the time required to read the convoluted ballot, I was accosted by a man who had the overbearing attitude of a soldier although he was in civilian clothes. He insisted that I hurry, which I refused to do. He then hovered close by, watching my every action, in complete defiance of electoral rules. Despite this intimidation, I still voted in favor of the proposition that General Musharraf, who had seized power in a coup in 1999, should continue as Pakistan's president for five more years. I believed his rule had brought us much-needed stability, respite from the venal and self-serving elected politicians who had misgoverned Pakistan in the 1990s, and a more free and vibrant press than at any time in the country's history. The outcome of the referendum - 98 percent support for General Musharraf from an astonishing 50 percent turnout - was so obviously false that even he felt compelled to disown the exercise. Rigged elections rankle, of course. But since then, secular, liberal Pakistanis like myself have seen many benefits from General Musharraf's rule. My wife was an actress in "Jutt and Bond," a popular Pakistani sitcom about a Punjabi folk hero and a debonair British agent. Her show was on one of the many private television channels that have been permitted to operate in the country, featuring everything from local rock music to a talk show whose host is a transvestite. My sister, a journalism lecturer in Lahore, loves to tell me about the enormous growth in recent years in university financing, academic salaries and undergraduate enrollment. And my father, now retired but for much of his career a professor of economics, says he has never seen such a dynamic and exciting time in Pakistani higher education. But there have been significant problems under General Musharraf, too. Pakistan has grown increasingly divided between the relatively urban and prosperous regions that border India and the relatively rural, conservative and violent regions that border Afghanistan. The two mainstream political parties have historically bridged that divide and vastly outperformed religious extremists in free elections, but under General Musharraf they have been marginalized in a system that looks to one man for leadership. What many of us hoped was that General Musharraf would build up the country's neglected institutions before eventually handing over power to a democratically elected successor. Those hopes were dealt a serious blow two weeks ago, when he suspended the chief justice of Pakistan's Supreme Court, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. For General Musharraf, Justice Chaudhry had become a major irritant. He had opened investigations into government "disappearances" of suspects in the war on terrorism. He had blocked the showcase privatization of the national steel mill. He had, in other words, demonstrated that he would not do General Musharraf's bidding. With elections due later this year, and challenges to irregularities like the rigging that took place in 2002 likely to end up in the Supreme Court, an independent chief justice could jeopardize General Musharraf's continued rule. Like many Pakistanis, I knew little about Justice Chaudhry except that he had a reputation for being honest, and that under his leadership, the Supreme Court had reduced its case backlog by 60 percent. His suspension seemed a throwback to the worst excesses of the government that General Musharraf's coup had replaced, and it galvanized protests by the nation's lawyers and opposition parties, including rallies of thousands in several of Pakistan's major cities yesterday. More troubling still was the phone call I received recently from a friend who works for Geo, one of Pakistan's leading independent television channels. The government had placed enormous pressure on Geo to stop showing the demonstrations in support of Justice Chaudhry, and the channel had refused to comply. When my friend told me that policemen had broken into Geo's offices, smashed its equipment and beaten up the staff, I felt utterly betrayed by the man I had voted for. Despite his subsequent apology for the Geo incident, General Musharraf now appears to be more concerned with perpetuating his rule than with furthering the cause of "enlightened moderation" that he had claimed to champion. He has never been particularly popular, but he is now estranging the liberals who previously supported his progressive ends if not his autocratic means. People like me are realizing that the short-term gains from even a well-intentioned dictator's policies can be easily reversed. General Musharraf must recognize that his popularity is dwindling fast and that the need to move toward greater democracy is overwhelming. The idea that a president in an army uniform will be acceptable to Pakistanis after this year's elections is becoming more and more implausible. The United States has provided enormous financial and political support to General Musharraf's government, but it has focused on his short-term performance in the war on terror. America must now take a long-term view and press General Musharraf to reverse his suspension of the chief justice and of Pakistan's press freedoms. He should be encouraged to see that he cannot cling to power forever. Pakistan is both more complicated and less dangerous than America has been led to believe. General Musharraf has portrayed himself as America's last line of defense in an angry and dangerous land. In reality, the vast majority of Pakistanis want nothing to do with violence. When thousands of cricket fans from our archenemy, India, wandered about Pakistan unprotected for days in 2004, not one was abducted or killed. At my own wedding two years ago, a dozen Americans came, disregarding State Department warnings. They, too, spent their time in Pakistan without incident. Yes, there are militants in Pakistan. But they are a small minority in a country with a population of 165 million. Religious extremists have never done well in elections when the mainstream parties have been allowed to compete fairly. Nor does the Pakistan Army appear to be in any great danger of falling into radical hands: by all accounts the commanders below General Musharraf broadly agree with his policies. An exaggerated fear of Pakistan's people must not prevent America from realizing that Pakistanis are turning away from General Musharraf. By prolonging his rule, the general risks taking Pakistan backward and undermining much of the considerable good that he has been able to achieve. The time has come for him to begin thinking of a transition, and for Americans to realize that, scare stories notwithstanding, a more democratic Pakistan might be better not just for Pakistanis but for Americans as well. Mohsin Hamid is the author of "Moth Smoke" and the forthcoming novel "The Reluctant Fundamentalist". This article was originally written for the New York Times ______ [3] 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] IN PAKISTAN, A MEDIA GROUP CRIES FOUL OVER GOVERNMENT ADVERTISING New York, March 27, 2007- The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about a deteriorating media environment in Pakistan that includes both business retaliation and outright attacks on media companies. Pakistan's largest independent English-language media group, the Dawn Group of Newspapers, distributed a letter on Friday from Publisher Haroon Hamid, who said President Pervez Musharraf "has become increasingly intolerant toward criticism in the press and toward the publishing of news that reflects poorly on the performance of his government on security matters." In the letter, Hamid said authorities have punished his company by withholding government advertising, a revenue source on which Pakistani papers rely heavily. "Since December 2006, the Dawn Group is facing massive advertising cuts equivalent to two-thirds of total government advertising," he said. Hamid said the government has also withheld a television broadcast license from the Dawn Group, even though the application has gotten requisite approvals from the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority and the Ministry of Information. "We are very concerned by threats to the independent Pakistani press," said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. "When the government pulls advertising and holds up licenses, it sends the unmistakable signal that it wants critical coverage to be toned down." At least one other media group has come under attack this month. On March 16<http://www.cpj.org/news/2007/asia/pak16mar07na.html>, riot police fired tear gas and roughed up staff inside the Islamabad office of the Jang Group, which houses Geo TV, the Urdu-language Daily Jang, and English daily The News. The raid came a day after authorities ordered Geo to stop airing its daily news program, "Aaj Kamran Khan Ke Saath" (Today with Kamran Khan). Minister for Information and Broadcasting Mohammad Ali Durrani announced today that Pakistani authorities will work with media groups to form a press council to address numerous complaints from local media houses hit with reprisals after critical coverage of the government. CPJ is a New York-based, independent, nonprofit organization that works to safeguard press freedom worldwide. For more information, visit www.cpj.org. ______ [4] The News March 25, 2007 THE RISE OF THE 'NEW MEDIA' by Omar R. Quraishi The events of the past couple of weeks suggest that the so-called 'new media' has well and truly arrived with a bang in Pakistan, and that's perhaps the positive thing to have emerged out of the current crisis. By new media, one obviously is referring to the electronic media, to cable television and more importantly to the Internet and the various ways in which it allows users to provide and access information. The rise of the new media is important because it provided a platform for the many disparate segments of civil society who all came together through experiencing it (either in the form of watching live coverage of the police lathi-charging unarmed defenceless lawyers or plainclothes intelligence sleuths posted at the gate of Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry's residence stopping visitors). Perhaps the best example of this (and one doesn't want to come across as blowing one's trumpet) was the live coverage shown by various TV channels, particularly GEO and followed closely by AAJ TV and others of the happenings in Islamabad in and around the Supreme Court building on March 16. This of course led to the unbridled assault on the offices of the TV channel and of this newspaper in a building that couldn't be a few hundred yards away from the seat of government and parliament. All this was shown live on television -- and one can imagine the impact that it would have made if it were not sh own live in real time. A lot has already been written on the attack and on the possible motives -- the president has apologised and the prime minister even visited the offices of the TV channel and the newspaper but the question still remains: how could the police have done this on their own, and who were they receiving orders from on their walkie-talkies, as reported by many eyewitnesses, and if they didn't do it on their own, who are the people behind the attack? Also, will a tribunal formed at the additional sessions judge level have the requisite courage and authority to come to a fair assessment as to the possible identities of those who ordered the attacker. One thing that I would like to say here is that some people in cyberspace and in online web forums have actually tried to justify the attack by saying that the channel should have known better than to be broadcasting what it did. This is probably the view of the government and its apologists as well. The fact of the matter is they should know that the job of the media -- anywhere and not just in Pakistan -- is to try and show events and incidents, and clearly the police engaged in a street battle with civilian protesters qualifies as extremely newsworthy footage. After all, the footage showed policemen picking up stones and throwing them at random at the protesters -- so the people of this country finally got to see for themselves their conduct for themselves (perhaps the attack on GEO showed this in more stark fashion). Of course, in all of this, one shouldn't forget the blogging world, which though still small seems to have matured in Pakistan. There are several sites -- my personal favourites have been www.pakistaniat.com and www.karachi.metblogs.com -- which have been carrying lively discussions and exchanges regarding the current crises. Both these have also been carrying footage of the lathi-charges, of the attack on GEO and The News and also the now famous (or should one say infamous) exchange between Ansar Abbasi and Law Minister Wasi Zafar on a Voice of America radio show where the minister proceeded to tell the journalist what he would do with his (the minister's) 'big arm'. There is the medium of the SMS (short message service) as well, which has now become a handy means of communication in most Pakistani cities and used by people regardless of financial standing. It can't be said that the advent of the new media was the reason for the near unanimity that has been seen in the response by Pakistanis in general to the 'suspension' of the chief justice and the attack on the press and media, but it has certainly helped crystallise it. Clearly, from the point of view of those in the government and the establishment who would like to see the media be put in its place (read submissive and deferential to the government's wishes) had not envisaged that new technology brings with it its own democratising possibilities and opportunities. That has been particularly true in the case of the Internet since it isn't known as the Great Leveller for nothing -- a truly democratic way for people to communicate and to provide and access information. And the best part of this all is that the new media is very much here to stay. Perhaps, newspapers and TV channels (though none have done this so far in Pakistan) need to begin their own blogs soon. The writer is Op-ed Pages Editor of The News. ______ [5] BBC News 28 March 2007 STUDENTS RAID ISLAMABAD 'BROTHEL' Female students at the Jamia Hafsa religious school beside a banner reading "Enforce Islamic law " The girls also demand that video owners close their stores Dozens of young women from a religious school in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, have broken into an alleged brothel and kidnapped the manager. The students from the Jamia Hafsa madrassa burst into the building late on Tuesday, demanding it be shut down. The students say they have a right to end immoral activity under Islamic law. The BBC's Navdip Dhariwal in Islamabad says it is the first time such bold Taleban-style activity seen elsewhere in Pakistan has occurred in the city. Police have not stepped in to rescue the alleged madam, who was taken by the women back to the madrassa after refusing to close her premises. She is still being held against her will. The girls have also demanded that video owners close their stores. Our correspondent says it appears the administration is reluctant or helpless to take action against the students. Taleban-style activity has been seen in Pakistan's tribal areas and in North West Frontier Province, where religious groups have tried to clamp down and impose Islamic law on local people. ______ [6] The Tribune 28 March 200è Editorial 23 YEARS TOO LATE Will all '84 riots victims ever get justice? THE phrase "better late than never" becomes a meaningless jumble of words when the woman who saw her husband, son and son-in-law murdered brutally in the 1984 riots has to wait for 23 years to see three of the killers convicted. Harminder Kaur has relived the horror of that lynching all these years. The consolation that she has at least been alive to see this day is too meagre to be of much value. In this long long time, a whole generation has come and gone. Her daughter Harjinder had become a widow on that dark day during the holocaust at the age of 23. She had a daughter only two years old who became an orphan. The child has grown into a woman who has never known her father. We know that justice is not dispensed in a hurry in India. But this case went much further than that. After all, it took Harminder Kaur all of 12 years just to get an FIR registered. What a fight against the irresponsive system it has been for the traumatised widow! It is not only a classic example of too late, but also of too little. Imagine nearly 3,000 persons being killed and conviction coming in only a handful of cases, like this one and the earlier life sentence passed on five persons in May 2005 for killing Baba Singh. And it is only the foot soldiers who are being served just desserts. Politicians who masterminded the horror have as good as escaped punishment. Everyone knows their role but they have managed to ensure that the trail goes cold and there is not "sufficient evidence" against them. The 1984 riots were among the worst nightmares that Independent India has had to suffer, the others being the Babri mosque demolition and the Gujarat riots. Till all the guilty are accounted for, such incidents will continue fostering disillusionment, embarrassment and misgivings. The sooner the shame-faced country comes clean, the better. ______ [7] Communalism Watch March 27, 2007 GRIM BUT TRUE :INDIAN CHRISTIAN TESTIMONY AT PEOPLE'S TRIBUNAL Justice Rare for Victims of Christian Persecution in India New Delhi, March 26 (International Christian Concern) - Victims of Christian persecution from across India shared their horrific stories and highlighted the denial of justice to them before an independent people's jury. The depositions were part of "The Independent People's Tribunal against the Rise of Fascist Forces in India and the Attack on the Secular State," a three-day program which concluded here on March 22. The independent jury was organized by non-profit organizations Anhad and Human Rights Law Network, and supported and attended by a plethora of rights groups, including Christian organizations, like the All India Christian Council (AICC) and the Christian Legal Association. Of the 100 victims who submitted their statements, about 40 were Christian. The rest were mainly were from Gujarat state, which witnessed a wide-scale killing of members of the Muslim minority community in 2002. [. . .] http://communalism.blogspot.com/2007/03/grim-but-true-indian-christian.html ______ [8] http://communalism.blogspot.com/2007/03/screen-parzania-chorus-gets-louder-in.html Ahmedabad Newsline March 27, 2007 'SCREEN PARZANIA' CHORUS GETS LOUDER People speak out against unofficial ban on film in contest held by NGO Express News Service Vadodara, March 26: AFTER a Delhi-based NGO ANHAD recently carried out an SMS/E-mail contest on 'Screen Parzania in Gujarat', the chorus against the 'unofficial' ban on the film in the state, is getting clearer and louder. ANHAD's contest had 99.5% respondents demanding that the film be screened in the state, and those who sent the 10 best entries condemning the 'unofficial' ban on Parzania, had a chance to meet the film's cast. Seven of 10 winners from across the state met Parzania lead actors Naseeruddin Shah and Sarika in Mumbai on March 25 and interacted with them at length. The 'Screen Parzania' contest received a total 437 responses from across the state, of which two were in support of the ban. The contest was declared open for 15 days after advertisements in local newspapers. Shabnam Hasmi from ANHAD said, "Gujarat is showing signs of growing dictatorship, which is taking away citizens' basic rights of expression." A contest winner, Nayan Patel, a Jan Vikas activist, said, "It is not just an issue of freedom of speech but there is much more at stake and we need to fight it out before it gets too late." He said Parzania is a movie which will make sensitive people realise their guilt. He said, "Who are they to decide what I should watch or not? Gujarat is a part of democratic India and it is the Censor Board that decides." He said it was sad that the Modi establishment did not make a single statement publicly on providing security cover to those who wanted to watch the movie. Another winner, Sanita Xalxo, a second-year LLB student at Gujarat University, said, "When films related to riots and other communal issues can be screened in Mumbai then why not Gujarat." Govind Desai from Rajkot, again a contest winner, said, "We had enriching interaction with Sarika and Shah. It was all about how the 2002 riots affected one community and how basic human rights are being violated on a day-to-day basis across the nation." He said politicians should not use muscle power against any film, which are a strong medium to take any issue to the peoples. He said that Parzania has the capability of shaking Gujarat's conscience. Another winner from Vadodara, Szar, said, "It was good to see that youngsters really went out of their way to try to get the film screend. We live in a democratic state and cannot see fascism coming back." He questioned as to why people should obey a ban which was called by Babu Bajrangi, an expelled member of a political group. However, Szar said while he had lost some friends when he wrote against the ban. http://communalism.blogspot.com/2007/03/gujarats-theatre-of-absurd.html The Asian Age (26 March 2007 GUJARAT'S THEATRE OF THE ABSURD by Pawan Khera Another move by Bajrang Dal to assert themselves, another meek acceptance by the people of Gujarat. And yet another, hopefully the last, question mark added to Narendra Modi's much-touted Gujarat ka gaurav. The ban on the screening of Parzania by the multiplex association of the state, reportedly under pressure from the Bajrang Dal, raises serious doubts about the fragility of the gaurav of the state - especially so when this pride seems to be under threat from every free expression of speech or opinion in various forms of popular culture. Parzania is an emotionally powerful film with a potential to shake if not stir and thus depolarise the Gujarati society ahead of elections this year. That is the worst fear of the Bajrang parivar. The bullies of the Bajrang Dal shall do what is their wont, only some have the suicidal courage to fly in the face of history asking it to repeat itself. But the docile acceptance of the decision by the people may not be healthy for the people themselves in the long run. It is bound to further embolden such elements in our society that use fear to suspend the fundamental right to choose. Fear as an instrument to get institutional legitimacy is not new to Gujarat, or to any part of the country where submission to such tactics has been found easy. But Gujarat has the gaurav of being one of the states with the largest number of NGOs and activists. Then why does its civil society repeatedly fails, and only sporadically succeeds, in showing the way how to win these crucial conflicts? On the face of it, the villains of the piece are the Bajrang Dal and the Multiplex Association of Gujarat. Not on the face of it, however, not in the same order. By now, even the most uninitiated would not be surprised at the Bajrang Dal and its various country cousins following their brief. As theatres are meant to be vehicles of expression, outfits like the Bajrang Dal must find it irksome to let them do their job unhindered. The fact that they hinder the job so often, and so successfully, should worry everyone interested in freedom as a concept. We must believe that democracy as a dream is close to being lost when fear, coercion and perhaps even political pressure take precedence over free voice. The threat to democracy appears fatal when one finds the elected chief minister of Gujarat totally helpless to the diktat of the Bajrang Dal et al. Surely this isn't good news for the kind of no-nonsense image the CM has so carefully cultivated, nor also for the kind of confidence he would want investors to have in the institutional stability of the state. Not many interpretations are possible for his silence over the matter. The only one which is evident does a serious damage to the pride of the state he heads. His silence certainly lends sanctity to the bullies. There have, however, been other silences which are more difficult to fathom. For instance, the silence of the other stakeholders of the system, particularly the media, on this issue is deafening. Those loud votaries of "freedom of expression" ought to know there is buried somewhere in this entire din, the right of people to be able to see cinematic expressions that have been duly cleared by the Censor Board. Will any of these so-called "fearless" television channels show the courage to air the film across the state? This would be the most befitting riposte to both the Bajrang Dal and the Multiplex Association. At best the channel would be forced off the air from the state for a while. Imagine what such a ban can do to the TRP of the daring channel! When all other institutions, including the worst critics of political institutions, fail to deliver, the onus of restoring the rights of the people comes back on a political party. Recently, the Gujarat unit of the Congress party has decided to hold special screenings across the state. For those of us who can afford the commonplace luxury of cynicism, we may dismiss it as a political stunt. But what else is a political party there for, if not to lend legitimate political muscle to those who are held to ransom by anti-Constitutional and anti-social ideologies and organisations? Unlike other institutions, including the otherwise vocal civil society, that abdicated their responsibility in this case, the Congress showed the sensitivity towards the cause of the people. And what are the MPs from the film industry doing? Will Ms Hema Malini, Mr Dharmendra, Mr Navjot Sidhu, Ms Jaya Bachchan, Mr Vinod Khanna, Mr Govinda, Ms Jaya Prada and Mr Shatrughan Sinha rise up to the occasion and speak for the industry which has given them all that they deserve, and much more? It was the same multiplex association of the same Gujarat which had refused to screen Fanaa last year fearing attacks by angry groups reacting to Aamir Khan's support to Medha Patkar on the Narmada issue. By failing to protect the freedom of speech and expression, the state government has supported the culture of intolerance towards voices of dissent. Even the most illiberal societies like Saudi Arabia do not disallow broadcast of the Radio Sawa or the Al-Hurra TV - both supposed to be vehicles of American propaganda targeted towards Arab youth. The aggressive media campaign by the United States in West Asia in the form of the Hi magazine in response to the anti-American sentiment following its Armageddon in Afghanistan and Iraq, has not been blocked by local governments, even if it is offensive to the cultural and also political sensibilities of West Asian societies. The Hi Magazine is sponsored by the US state department. There have been powerful depictions of emotive issues. Fearing their disruptive potential the state often banned them. Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin, although banned in Nazi Germany for fear of evoking revolutionary zeal, was considered by Joseph Goebbels as "a marvellous film without equal in the cinema Anyone who had no firm political conviction could become a Bolshevik after seeing the film." At the end of this debate, unlike other such similar ends and similar debates, one needs to look for the reason for the insecurity that forces films like Parzania off the screens. It must be to make sure that the issues the film raises, the emotions it kindles, the humanity it questions are kept beyond the realm of a common Gujarati, so that he or she can continue to feel the gaurav they have been promised. An entire state's political thought, manoeuvred into position of power after an infamous bloodbath, cannot be allowed to delve into the cinematic expression of a true story of pathos of a Parsi family that lost its child in the riots. For those who deal in numbers, what is one missing child? Parsis are a dwindling race in any case. After all, the rioters did not have time to find out whether Azhar was a Parsi or a Muslim. Will be more careful next time around, with the religious census in place now Until then it is Bajrang bully ki jai in Gujarat: Victory to the bullies of Bajrang Dal. Pawan Khera is political secretary to the chief minister of Delhi ______ [9] Action 2007, Jantar Mantar, New Delhi Press Release - 27th March 2007 Guns, Jail for People and Roses for Corporates; Policies like SEZ Can Only Be Implemented By Resorting to State Repression A collective of people's movements and organisations from all across the country, under the banner of Sangharsh 2007 has been sitting in protest at Jantar Mantar since the 19th of March. Planned as an indefinite struggle in Delhi, till UPA government listens to the concerns of the majority of India's population, Action 2007 has conducted a Jan Sansad on a number of key issues that the Parliament of India does not deem fit to engage in serious discussion about. Wide range of issues, largely placed under 11 categories were discussed in the Jan Sansad. However, unfortunately any of the ministers of or many of the bureaucrats did not feel necessary to attend the People's Parliament or to take account of the concerns raised °V after repeated invitations. The Jan Sansad organized detailed discussions on many issues as every major and minor policy and projects cause large scale displacement, dispossession, dis-employment and de-humanisation in India and the political establishment and ruling classes refuse to even recognize these as problems. State Repression & Shrinking Democratic Space As many of those invited from ministries and other constitutional authorities did not dare to be present with people to discuss issues, women from Action 2007 had approached the planning commission on 22nd March 2007 (World Water Day) to demand a meeting with the planning authority of the country. However, the brutal state repressions that was carried out through the Rapid Action Force and Delhi Police only proved the apprehensions about state intent to implement anti-people policies with police protection. Including Medha Patkar, Gautam Bandopadhyay, Simpreet Singh, Sanjeev and Sr. Celia, as many as 62 people were given 15 days of judicial remand in Tihar Jail for demonstrating outside a government office. Due to an intervention from higher judiciary, all those accused have been granted bail by the 26th March 2007. However, the government has shown no willingness to withdraw the false cases charged on peaceful demonstrators. It is now crystal clear that people across the country, both affected and those concerned about public policy, are rising in revolt be it the SEZ Policy & Act, the JNURM, the issue of slum demolitions, or of hawkers' dis-employment. The Dalits, Adivasis and other marginalised sections are on the verge of boycotting the state, which has only been an oppressor. In face of such strong opposition the Government can only push these policies only by recourse to violent repression as witnessed in Delhi on 22nd March with ACTION 2007 activists, and with the Kuki students on 23rd March'07. Given the State & Police attitude to people's resistance Nandigram is only a logical culmination, no matter how much blood flows. When the State and its other arms resort to violence the issue is not only the overt repression but also the constant effort to prevent people from expressing themselves, and shrinking democratic space. It will have to be concern of every conscientious citizen and particularly peoples' movements to challenge and prevent that. SEZ & Issues Representatives from people's organizations and communities across the country marched from Jantar Mantar yesterday, 26th March to protest against the Special Economic Zones being set up in the country. - The large scale forced acquisition of land (for the 'public purpose' of promoting private profit), the loss of agricultural land for real estate speculation which is an assault on the nation's farmers as well as food security has been the most critical concern - The SEZ Act compromises severely on sovereignty of the country by making thousands of hectares of land 'foreign territory'. - Fishworkers movements from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh have raised issues of destruction of the coastline by SEZ projects. - Unprecedent Environmental destruction and usurpation of natural resources by SEZ projects. For instance, 33 projects are coming up in Konkan region alone leading to a complete destruction of the Western Ghats forests. - Scarcity of water and power, especially due to SEZs coming up close to Urban Centres has been raised as an issue. - The problem of unregulated labour exploitation has been seen in existing SEZs and will worsen further with the dilution of labour legislations. - The Ministry of Finance itself has raised the issue of huge revenue losses to the state exchequer. A veritable double faced policy On the one hand people are told that the market and the invisible hand will determine this and on the other, the State acquires land for corporates. Since the past one year communities have issued memorandums and appeals consistently raising these concerns about the establishment of SEZs. But instead of having a dialogue the state machinery has resorted to violently suppressing people's protests, as the entire world witnessed through the media coverage of the merciless killings of the peasants in places like Nandigram. This will remain a shameful scar imprinted on the memory of the public. We are aware that the Empowered Group of Ministers under the chairmanship of Shri Pranab Mukherjee is reviewing the SEZ policy and legislation. However, we do not see any of the issues being raised by the people's groups addressed in the government's review process. In this dismal scenario, the consensus emerging is for a country-wide intensification of the struggle against SEZs and scrapping of the SEZ Act 2005. Action °V Next Phase As part of our efforts to hold the state accountable for its policies and to make transparency in governance, different delegations from the movements represented in Sangharsh will meet with different ministries, concerned citizens and political parties in the coming days. The political dialogues will focus on issues relating to land acquisitions, SEZ, unorganised sector legislation and issues, Dalit, Adivasi and women's rights issues, issues of urban poor, hawkers, etc. Co-ordination Committee ACTION 2007 For further details please visit-www.action2007.net Delhi Office: Action 2007, 1-A, Goela Lane, Under Hill Road Civil Lines, Delhi °V 54 Tel.: 011-23933307 Rajendra Ravi (0-9868200316), Vijayan MJ (0-9868165471) E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mumbai Office: Action 2007, C/0 Chemical Mazdoor Sabha, 28-29, First Floor 'A wing' Haji Habib Building, Naigaon Cross Road, Dadar (East), Mumbai-400014 ______ [10] Hardnews March 2007 AN INTERNATIONAL NON-VIOLENCE DAY, BUT WHEN? by Purushottam Agrawal The idea of Satyagraha, non-violent civil disobedience, is now a hundred years old. The centenary was celebrated with gusto a few days ago in Delhi. This is the century that historian Eric Hobsbawm calls the Age of Extremes. In this age, humanity dreamt the loftiest of dreams and faced the most terrible realities. Dreams of radically transforming societies, of eradicating violence, exploitation and injustice forever. And the reality of dream projects turning into the worst nightmares. Social systems claiming to have freed men from chains turned entire societies into prisons. It was an age of wars, each claiming to be the war to end all wars, a cause that justified its own mass violence and cruelty. The violence was on a scale that made epic wars of different traditions seem like the bickering of naughty children. The same century witnessed the unprecedented accomplishments of science - rooting out several killer diseases, but afflicted by the rise of new maladies, notably the modern "lifestyle" diseases. But what if the lifestyle itself were the malady? A socially institutionalised disease which ensures that once you are in its grip, you are condemned to succumb to its poison. What then calls for a cure, the lifestyle or its pathological symptoms? http://www.hardnewsmedia.com/portal/2007/03/820 ______ [11] EVENTS: (i) BHUTAN SOLIDARITY N-1/2, MLA Rest House, Bhopal 462003 (M.P.) A-124/6, Katwaria Sarai, New Delhi 110016 Dear friend, You might be aware with the plight of Bhutanese refugees who are languishing in 7 camps in Jhapa and Morang districts of Nepal since 1991. They are more than 1 lakh in numbers. Apart from this some were forced to live in insecure hideouts across the Indo-Bhutanese borders. They don't enjoy even the refugee status.Their only crime is that they launched a peaceful movement in favour of human rights and against monarchy. In response the king of Bhutan showered bullets on these Bhutanese citizens, put them behind the bar and depriving a large chunk of Bhutanese population of their citizenship expelled them from the country. Having been expelled from Bhutan, these hapless people reached the Indian territory, from where they were dumped in trucks by the Indian security forces and were dropped in Nepal. Since then they are living in refugee camps and UNHCR, the UN organisation, is taking care of these camps. But the Indian Government had shown utter cruelty by calling the problem as a bilateral one between Bhutan and Nepal and washed its hands off from the problem.Not only that, the Indian Government has consistently developed its good relations with Bhutanese Government. Though 17 round ministerial level talks have been organised between Nepal and Bhutan in last 16 years, without any fruitful outcome. In the context of geo-political power balance within South Asia and in the context of inability of Nepal and Bhutan to resolve the issue it is acknowledged that this problem is not a bilateral one, but tripartite involving Nepal, Bhutan and India and as long as India won't take interest in it, no solution could be possible. There is a demand that India should take initiative in solving this problem, and to raise this demand effectively and efficiently we have decided to organise a convention, which will be attended by all the political parties, human right organisations, peoples' organisations, intellectuals and prominent individuals of India. We have also invited the representatives from refugee camps as well as the the representatives of SPA (Seven Parties' Alliance) and Maoists from Nepal. We hope that you will be present and participate in this convention and pressurise Indian Government to take an initiative in this regard. Date: March 31, 2007 Time: 10 A.M. onwards Venue: Gandhi Peace Foundation, Deendayal Uppadhyay Marg, New Delhi-110001 Dr. Sunilam (MLA, Madhya Pradesh) Convenor l N-1/2, MLA Rest House, Bhopal 462003 (M.P.)l A-124/6, Katwaria Sarai, New Delhi 110016 o o o (ii) ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS MILITANCY AND THE NEW WORLD ORDER: HINDU NATIONALISM, ISLAMISM, AND REGIONALISM Time: 3:30-5:30 pm Date: April 4, 2007 Location: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Speakers: Arvind Rajagopal, Woodrow Wilson Center and New York University; David Ludden, New York University; Fasial Devji, The New School University; Engseng Ho, Harvard University Woodrow Wilson Center One Woodrow Wilson Plaza 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W. Washington, D.C. 20004-3027 o o o (iii) The South and Southeast Asia Resource Centre on Sexuality is hosting a discussion on PROSTITUTES AND POLITICS: THE TOLERATED BROTHELS DEBATE IN COLONIAL INDIA 12 April 2007 (Thursday), 3:00 - 4:30 pm TARSHI, 11, Mathura Road, First Floor, Jangpura B, New Delhi In 19th century colonial India the reaction to the threat (both social and biological) of the prostitute was to forcibly confine infected women in "lock hospitals". An international backlash against these measures left the government in need of a method of regulating prostitutes without seeming to impinge upon their liberty. Steve Legg, PhD will make a presentation for 45 minutes, tracing the 20th century evolution of the legislative machinery that allowed the state to exert some authority over female prostitutes. This involved a shift from initial policies of segregating women into certain quarters of a town, to the later targeting of brothels under the Suppression of Immoral Traffic Acts, both of which the prostitutes resisted and challenged in various ways. Steve attained BA and PhD from the University of Cambridge and spent three following years as a Research Fellow. He is now a Lecturer in cultural and historical geography at the University of Nottingham and has a book out in March/April entitled Spaces of Colonialism: Delhi's Urban Governmentalities to be published by Blackwells (in the UK, America and Australia) and Rawat Publishers (in India). He is currently expanding this work on urban politics to look at the regulatory policies applied to prostitutes in 20th century colonial India. This entails situating the local history of Delhi's prostitutes in the national politics of the Suppression of Immoral Traffic Acts and the international politics of social hygiene campaigners and the League of Nations. The presentation will be followed by an open discussion. Please stay for tea /coffee and biscuits from 4:30 - 5:00pm. RSVP: Sumit Baudh Senior Programme Associate The South and Southeast Asia Resource Centre on Sexuality TARSHI, 11 Mathura Road, 1st Floor, Jangpura B, New Delhi-110014 tel: +91 11 2437 9070, +91 11 2437 9071 fax: +91 11 2437 4022 eml: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), on matters of peace and democratisation in South Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit citizens wire service run since 1998 by South Asia Citizens Web: www.sacw.net/ SACW archive is available at: 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