[sacw] SACW | 6 June 02

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire Dispatch | 6 June 2002
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex

South Asians Against Nukes:
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex/NoNukes.html

[IMPORTANT NOTICE TO ALL: Please note, the article 'Reporting 
Gujarat: Selective Contextualisation & Editorial Amnesia carried in 
SACW 5 June 2002, was posted with out a proper review before posting. 
This is a regrettable and unintended lapse. A wide range of matter is 
received and gathered each day for possible posting and is then 
quickly reviewed for possible use. The above article was 
inadvertently retained in the yesterdays dispatch. SACW offers its 
sincere apologies to readers for the circulation of this article 
whose place is very clearly in not in such fora !!! ]

__________________________

#1.Pakistan: Government policy on religious extremism has both 
domestic and external dimensions
#2. USA: The Distant Drums of War: In Queens, Indians and Pakistanis 
Live in Harmony
(Sarah Kershaw)
#3. India-Pakistan: Fallacies of war-mongering (Praful Bidwai)
#4. UK: Public Forum on Genocide In Gujarat - (8 June 2002, Southhall )
#5. India: Mythology of hate (BG Verghese)
#6. Indian Version of Fascism in Gujarat (Rakesh Gupta)
#7. UN body urged to reject VHP plea
__________________________

#1.

The Daily Times (Lahore)
June 6, 2002

Editorial: Plain speaking and acting needed

An official of the Madrassa Education Board was quoted as saying on 
June 2 that the federal government had decided to stop funding 115 
religious schools across the country for alleged involvement in 
extremism and militancy. This official spoke at a news conference 
called explicitly for this purpose. This news was also picked up by 
the internationally recognized newswire service, Agence France-Presse 
(AFP), and reported by the local papers. The official was clearly 
quoted as saying that: "There is no room for such institutions which 
promote sectarianism or terrorism or exploit religious sentiments. 
The government has, therefore, blacklisted 115 Madaris [seminaries] 
involved in such ugly activities."
It is, therefore, surprising that the Federal Ministry for Religious 
Affairs should have deemed fit to issue a clarification the next day 
(reported June 4), denying the veracity of the earlier report. The 
religious ministry's press note said that since no seminary is 
involved in sectarian, extremist or jehadi activities, the question 
of stopping funding to any seminary on that basis does not arise. We 
are at a loss to understand what is going on not only because of the 
obvious contradiction in the two statements but also because of a 
host of questions that arise from this contradiction. Here's why.
Leaving aside the issue of funding, the religious ministry's 
statement that no seminary is involved in any unlawful activity flies 
in the face of scores of statements made in the past not only by the 
Federal Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider but also by General Pervez 
Musharraf himself - not to mention scores of police and intelligence 
reports (some of which have also been leaked to the press over the 
years) that clearly speak of seminaries as training and nourishing 
grounds for religious intolerance, bigotry and sectarian violence. So 
someone is clearly fibbing. But the "facts" are troubling too.
A report by Jama'at-e-Islami's Islamabad-based Institute of Policy 
Studies puts the number of seminaries in Pakistan at 6,761. The same 
report puts the number of students at these seminaries at over a 
million. Figures given by the Ministry of Religious Affairs are 
fairly close to the IPS report. But the interior ministry has its own 
figures. It puts the number of seminaries at nearly 20,000 with 
nearly 3 million students. This latter figure nearly triples the 
number of such seminaries. The discrepancy is obviously very great. 
Similarly, while there have been innumerable reports about the role 
of the seminary in inculcating religious extremism and denominational 
exclusivity, numbers tend to vary about how many seminaries may 
actually be involved in imparting armed training to their students. 
Nonetheless, there is one undisputed fact as opposed to the "facts" 
we have just discussed: the seminary has an archaic syllabus and it 
thrives on an exclusionary discourse woven around denominational 
lines. This per se translates into sectarian bigotry.
It is this established fact, which has forced the government to look 
into the way these seminaries have been run and resolve to bring them 
into the mainstream. It is here that one runs into the issue of 
whether the concerned ministries and departments are - or indeed, can 
- function in a coordinated way. The figures put out by them and the 
statements made by their officials do not inspire much confidence. 
There can be two reasons for this: either it is part of a strategy to 
take action against entrenched religious interests less overtly, with 
one ministry playing the good cop and the other the bad one, or the 
ministries are working at cross purposes because of old or new vested 
interests. The first explanation doesn't seem to ring true. For 
instance, the minister for religious affairs has given many 
statements that run at cross-purposes from what the interior ministry 
has been trying to do or what the interior minister has been saying. 
>From the issue of seminaries and sectarianism to jehadi groups, riba 
and Afghanistan policy, the minister for religious affairs has often 
publicly taken positions at variance with the stated policies of the 
Musharraf government.
A policy of running with the hare and hunting with the hounds, which 
is what we seem to have cobbled, sends out all the wrong signals. 
Government policy on religious extremism has both domestic and 
external dimensions. Decisions in this regard relate not just to the 
external need for immediate cleansing to change critical perceptions 
but to internal requirements that are in the best interest of 
Pakistan and in keeping with the ideals of the country's founding 
father. We don't have to marshal arguments to prove what religious 
bigotry and retrogressive legislation based on such mindsets have 
done to this state. That story is too well known. What is required 
today is the ability of the government to act in good faith and stay 
the course. If this requires some plain speaking and acting, so be it.

____

#2.

The New York Times
June 06, 2002
Metropolitan Desk; Section B | Page 1, Column 2

The Distant Drums of War
In Queens, Indians and Pakistanis Live in Harmony
By SARAH KERSHAW

The magazines and newspapers for sale on the streets of Jackson Heights,
Queens, deliver the latest news from India and Pakistan with photographs
of missiles and headlines like ''War Clouds,'' ''Retaliation'' and
''Armageddon?''
Yet as the Indian and Pakistani armies fired machines guns across their
frontier in Kashmir the other day, immigrants from both countries who work
at a jewelry shop on 74th Street were having a late lunch together in the
store. Around the corner, Indians were selling luggage to Pakistanis,
Pakistanis were buying gold necklaces from Indians, and people from both
nations were buying toiletries at the Duane Reade drugstore.

Nearby, at Public School 69, classmates from countries that have been
enemies since 1947 were zipping their knapsacks and lining up for
dismissal, and a few blocks away, the movie theater was selling tickets to
Indians and Pakistanis for the 8 p.m. showing of a Hindi-language love
story.
More than 200,000 Pakistani and Indian immigrants live in New York City,
according to the latest census figures. And if the everyday rhythm of life
on 74th Street, in the commercial center of the city's growing South Asian
population, tells the tale of coexistence, theirs is a peaceful one that,
for now, seems almost untouched by the crisis.

''If you live with the people from other countries, you will know their
feelings,'' said Killol Butala, an immigrant from Gujarat, India, a state
near the border with Pakistan, and an owner of the Butala Emporium on 74th
Street.

Since Britain carved its Indian empire in 1947 into Pakistan, a Muslim
nation, and the largely Hindu India, the two countries have fought three
wars, two of them over Kashmir, a region that both claim. Rising tensions
in recent months over Kashmir have pushed the two countries, both with
nuclear capabilities, to the brink of another war.

And there is worry, if not division, on 74th Street. There are longer
lines to buy prepaid telephone cards to call home, cards that are sold on
virtually every corner in Jackson Heights, designed with scenes from
various regions and saying things like ''Hello Pakistan!'' and ''India
Express.'' There are lingering conversations about the conflict and
concrete fears about the safety of relatives in India and Pakistan.

''Everybody is upset,'' said Shahid Taj, an immigrant from Pakistan who
lives in Sunnyside, Queens, next door to Indian immigrants, and who was
buying a gold bracelet for his 1-year-old daughter at the Pakistan Chamak
Boutique on 74th Street.

Tucked under his arm was The Pakistani Post, an Urdu-language newspaper
that on Wednesday featured three pictures of a missile able to carry a
nuclear warhead that Pakistan had test-fired the day before.

''They are neighbors,'' Mr. Taj said. ''They should live like brothers.''

A majority of Indians -- and Indian immigrants in the city -- are Hindu,
although there are Muslim Indians who worship alongside Pakistanis in
mosques here, as well as Christian Indians. Pakistanis are generally
Muslim.

The official language of Pakistan is Urdu, which is virtually the same in
spoken language as Hindi, the main language of India, allowing the two
groups to communicate easily. The written versions of Hindi and Urdu,
however, are based on different alphabets.

While Hindus and Muslims in India and Pakistan are killing each other,
here their differences seem eclipsed by the shared experiences of being an
immigrant in New York City. They are South Asians in a foreign country,
''Desi,'' as many in the younger generations say, using a Hindi word that
means ''from my country'' to refer to Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis
and others from the Indian subcontinent.

''In America, we don't look so much at the differences,'' said JT
Hemrajani, a college student who helps his parents, Indian immigrants, run
the Little India Emporium on 37th Avenue, selling suitcases, perfume and
other items. ''It's a tense situation over there, but here it is really
fine. We are all bonded.''

Even the local police precinct sounds Pollyannaish about the neighborhood.

''We've never had any problems between Indians and Pakistanis,'' said
Police Officer Colleen West, who has worked at the 115th Precinct station
house on Northern Boulevard at 92nd Street for 14 years. ''This is a big
melting pot, this community. We have all nationalities and religions,
customs, beliefs. And we even have the second-largest gay and lesbian
community. And we never have any kind of problems. Everyone lives quite
happily here.''

Two Bangladeshi immigrants shopping for luggage for a trip to Florida
agreed, but added that they were feeling concerned about the latest
conflict between India and Pakistan, given the proximity of Bangladesh to
India.

''We are very afraid, very nervous,'' said Mohammed Sharif, who lives in
Woodside. ''If they fire, they will destroy everything. We'll be affected,
too.''

Qazi Hussein, an immigrant from Lahore, Pakistan, who opened the Pakistan
Chamak Boutique last year, eats lunch with his Indian employees at a table
in the back and sells Saris and gold jewelry, said he was worried about
his family in Lahore. He is losing patience, he said, with political
leaders who seem unable to defuse the crisis.

''Look at us,'' Mr. Hussein said, gesturing toward the street. ''We work
together -- Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims. We eat together. We have no
problems. This Kashmiri cause, the time is over. The problem must be
solved.''

Photos: Immigrants from India and Pakistan work and live together
peacefully in Queens.; At a jewelry store on 74th Street in Jackson
Heights, Queens, Pakistanis and Indians share lunch, but thoughts of
trouble brewing in their homelands are constant. From left, Afsheen
Masood, Nimisha Patel, Mohammad Katel and Qazi Hussain. (Photographs by
Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times)(pg. B1); Prepaid telephone cards are
sold in stores throughout Jackson Heights, enabling immigrants to call
relatives and friends in Pakistan and India. (Suzanne DeChillo/The New
York Times)(pg. B3)

____

#3.

The News (Pakistan)
June 06, 2002

Fallacies of war-mongering

Praful Bidwai

A requirement, if not precondition, of war is myth-making, especially 
by glorifying one state's greatness and devotion to peace, and 
demonising the adversary's inherent meanness and bellicosity. Another 
requirement is the promotion of fallacious beliefs about both the 
justice and the winnability of wars-irrespective of the cause, means, 
or combat conditions. Nobody has cultivated these arts better than 
South Asia's hawkish war-mongers.

Take a few propositions which have acquired currency in India and 
Pakistan since the cranking up of the war machine post-May 14. Indian 
hawks have promoted the idea that a war with Pakistan is winnable 
despite Islamabad's nuclear weapons. Some hold that Pakistan's 
nuclear status should not be taken seriously-indeed, it is time to 
"call Pakistan's nuclear bluff".

Pakistani hawks have floated the view that nuclear threats assuredly 
work; the world will soon recognise the legitimacy of Pakistan's 
right to "nuclear self-defence" just as it acknowledges the Kashmiri 
people's "freedom movement".

These views betray a comprehensive failure to understand what nuclear 
weapons can or cannot do, and the severe constraints they impose on 
military options, as well as on freedom of manoeuvre in the world 
arena. They also reveal warped mindsets.

Many Indian hawks-including that old devotee of nuclearisation K 
Subrahmanyam, and the younger Brahma Chellaney-make light of 
Pakistan's operational nuclear-weapons capability, and/or its ability 
to act relatively autonomously of the United States even in extreme 
crises.

This first anomalous premise is part of a long history of 
underestimation of Pakistan's nuclear capabilities, and 
overestimation of the technological sophistication involved in 
first-generation atomic weapons. This in turn derives from the Indian 
bomb lobby's hubris.

Examples of this anomaly would be hilarious if they were not sordid. 
For instance, before May 1998, Indian nuclear scientists would 
routinely boast that Pakistan could not possibly have the Bomb 
because, unlike India's, its nuclear programme was based on stolen 
technologies.

This assumes that making the Bomb is some major technological feat, 
possible only in a highly advanced country. In reality, publicly 
available manuals tell you it's pretty simple: once you have fissile 
material, you can assemble the Bomb in a garage. And you can get the 
material in any number of ways-if you are determined enough to build 
a reactor or an enrichment plant.

Yet, a number of BJP and RSS leaders-certainly including L K Advani, 
if not A B Vajpayee too-were seriously convinced until May 28, 1998, 
that Pakistan didn't have the Bomb. That's precisely why Advani made 
his infamous "geostrategic change" speech on May 18, linking 
nuclearisation to Kashmir.

Even today, many Indian "experts" pompously declare that Pakistan 
might have the rudimentary technology to set off nuclear-fission 
explosions, but lacks the ability to make really usable Bombs. This 
too vastly overestimates the level of technological advancement 
required to miniaturise a robust Bomb assembly and fit/load it on to 
a missile/airplane.

When these hawks talk of "calling Pakistan's nuclear bluff", they get 
eerily delusional. Pakistan isn't bluffing. It doubtless possesses 
some nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them to many Indian 
cities. By chiding or challenging Pakistan to use them, the hawks are 
in fact threatening millions of India's own citizens with genocide. 
This is morally sickening.

The circumstance that India has more Bombs, fissile material or a 
greater general technological proficiency than Pakistan is basically 
irrelevant. For, nuclear weapons are Great Equalisers. It doesn't 
matter if a nuclear adversary has 10 or 50 atomic bombs-so long as he 
can deliver them. One bomb can produce a Hiroshima-lakhs of deaths, 
and devastation for thousand of years.

The more devious among the hawks, who lay claim to greater knowledge 
and expertise, have strangely convinced themselves that the US will 
"neutralise" Islamabad's arsenal before it can be used. The 
assumption is that the US knows where each missile and warhead is 
stored; it can safely, reliably, destroy these with its own weapons. 
Alternatively, Gen Musharraf will voluntarily hand America the key to 
his arsenal.

The assumption is dangerously wrong. No Pakistani military ruler will 
give up control over that jealously guarded strategic "asset" and 
presumed "trump card". And the US cannot bomb Pakistan's nuclear 
weapons without risking a catastrophe. No one has the miraculous 
technology to accurately hit remotely placed golf-ball-sized nuclear 
cores.

The Pakistani hawks' assumptions are equally mistaken. Many thought 
Islamabad can once again "convert its weakness into its 
strength"-just as it had done post-May 1998 by pleading it would 
economically collapse under sanctions. But the overt playing up of 
the nuclear card against conventional asymmetry has proved extremely 
counter-productive. No one in the West takes "nuclear self-defence" 
seriously-certainly not in respect of other states.

So Munir Akram's statement in New York about India's "licence to kill 
with conventional weapons while Pakistan's hands are tied ..." turned 
out to be a total diplomatic disaster. Ordinary people saw this as 
shockingly crude nuclear muscle-flexing. According to reports, it 
even sent Colin Powell into a tizzy.

Musharraf has since done well to repeatedly clarify that only 
imbeciles can think of using nuclear weapons. But where does that 
leave the hawks' oh-so-clever strategy of deterring an Indian 
conventional attack?

It is also becoming apparent that the Kashmiri "freedom-fighter" card 
isn't selling internationally. It's not that there is no sympathy for 
the plight of the Kashmiri people in the face of New Delhi's 
repression and denial of their fundamental rights. There is, even in 
India. I am not alone in saying this, or in protesting against the 
rigging of elections, and Constitutional and human rights violations.

However, there is little sympathy for the fanatical Jaish-Lashkar 
style "freedom-fighter" who has no compunction in killing innocent 
people. The fidayeen suicide-bomber may inspire awe and fear, but 
never the respect that Abdul Ahad Guru or Abdul Gani Lone did. Since 
justice has much to do with the means used in its pursuit, the jehadi 
fanatic has compromised the justice of his own cause.

Islamabad's support for such "freedom-fighters", driven by blind 
faith in the nuclear "shield" since 1989-90, has earned it a terrible 
reputation. The backing can no longer be sustained. The government's 
protestations that it only lends "diplomatic, moral and political 
support" to jehadi fanatics and mercenaries in Kashmir sound 
unconvincing. After all, it never admitted to virtually creating, 
supporting and sustaining the Taliban.

Today, ordinary Kashmiris feel as disgusted with the "freedom 
fighters" as with the Indian security forces. An opinion poll, 
commissioned by Lord Avebury-no Indian agent he-and conducted by a 
subsidiary of one of Britain's biggest media groups, Mori 
International, finds that 86 percent of Kashmiris, including 78 
percent Muslims, want an end to the militancy, and believe that the 
militants must leave the state for peace to return.

As many as 63 percent feel India and Pakistan should not go to war to 
find a permanent solution to the Kashmir problem, and 71 percent 
believe a free and fair election could be a solution. It won't do to 
dismiss all this. It may be no more spurious or hyperbolic than A Q 
Khan's 1987 claim that "we have it (the Bomb)..." All of us South 
Asians must read the writing on the wall.

____

#4.

GENOCIDE IN GUJARAT - BOLLYWOOD CONDEMNS HATRED AND KILLINGS

For peace and justice in South Asia
RECEPTION AND PUBLIC FORUM
With

MAHESH BHATT
Mahesh Bhatt is one of the most acclaimed Bollywood film directors, 
who has produced many hits such as Zakham and Sarak

Other invited guests but not yet confirmed include Sanjeev Bhaskar, 
comedian and actor

Saturday 8 June 2002 7pm start
Southall Neighbourly Care,
The Old Featherstone Arms, 32 Featherstone Road
Southall, Middlesex

Since February 2002, Gujarat has witnessed horrific incidents of 
unparalleled violence that can only be described as genocide of 
innocent people.

Over 2000 people, mainly Muslims, have been slaughtered with more 
than 100,000 people displaced in under-resourced refugee camps. 
Houses have been systematically looted, businesses burnt down, 
countless women gang raped and many children murdered.

Who is responsible for the genocide? All the evidence suggests that 
the Gujarat state government and the police orchestrated the 
violence. Yet not a single prominent individual has been held to 
account or brought to justice and the violence continues even after 
three months.

So far the Government of India, led by the right wing Hindu 
nationalist BJP, has attempted a cover-up and deliberately heightened 
tensions between India and Pakistan bringing the region to the brink 
of a war and nuclear threat.

Break the silence. Condemn the Gujarat Carnage. Fight for Peace and Justice
For more information on the meeting, ring
020 8843 2333, 020 8571 9595, 020 8558 6399

ORGANISED BY AWAAZ- South Asia Watch

AWAAZ- South Asia Watch is a newly formed secular network of 
individuals and organisations including Aaaj Kay Naam, Ambedkar 
Centre, Asian Women's Refuge, India Forum, Indian Muslim Federation, 
Muslim Parliament, National Civil Rights Movement, SEWA Southall, 
Southall Black Sisters, Socialist Alliance, The Monitoring Group and 
others. We wish to be an inclusive and broad based alliance that 
challenges religious hatred and fascism. We would welcome others to 
join us. If you would like to lend your voice or become active, 
please contact Arif or Suresh on 020 8843 2333.
AWAAZ-South Asia Watch, PO BOX 304, Southall, Middx UB2 5YR

_____

#5.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/060602/detide01.asp
The Hindustan Times (New Delhi)
June 6, 2002

Mythology of hate
BG Verghese

Hindutva's litany of hate against Muslims and other minorities has 
been zealously recirculated after Gujarat. In this, interestingly, is 
reflected its own mindset. An RSS resolution in Bangalore on March 
17, 2002, reminded Muslims that "their real safety lies in the 
goodwill of the majority." This paraphrased both Savarkar's 
'Hindutva' and his early advocacy of the two-nation theory.

Later, in We or Our Nationhood Defined, Golwalkar told non-Hindus 
that "they must entertain no idea but glorification of the Hindu race 
and culture... cease to be foreigners or stay in the country wholly 
subordinated to the Hindu nation."

This credo echoed the Nazi and fascist theory of a militarised and 
pure master race that was admiringly adopted by the RSS founding 
fathers, including Hedgewar. The latter's mentor, B.S. Moonje, had in 
1934 envisaged "standardisation of Hinduism throughout India" under 
"a Hindu dictator". (Moonje's Diary).

Hinduism is a tolerant, accommodative, eclectic and inclusive "way of 
life". Hindutva is an intolerant and chauvinistic caricature of the 
great tradition it seeks to usurp. Originally portrayed by Savarkar, 
the old Hindutva project of creating a "Hindu sangathan" took recent 
shape in seeking to create a hothouse unity around a single book and 
church, aping Semitic tradition. Hence, Ayodhya and the compulsion to 
destroy the Babri masjid, with Gujarat now providing further impetus 
to "Hindu consolidation", on the one hand, and to define the Muslim 
once more not just as another Indian but as "The Other".

Hindutva looks on Ram Rajya not as an ideal, common to all faiths, 
but as a reality first betrayed by Asoka whose adoption of ahimsa 
after the Kalinga war bred Hindu cowardice, finally resulting in 
Muslim conquest. Later Moonje was to pose a choice between charkha 
and rifle; now translated in Gujarat into Gandhi versus a 
deliberately misconstructed Sardar.

So the new Hindutva history being assiduously rewritten attributes 
the decline of pristine Hindu glory to the blight and horror of 
Muslim conquest followed by an almost equally painful 
colonial/Christian interlude. Elements of an imagined past are being 
resurrected to recreate the future by revivalist cavemen crawling out 
of the dim past. The agenda for the new dawn is restitution and 
revenge.

* Hindutva defines Muslims and Christians as 'foreigners' 
because they 'came' to India which is not their holy land. False.

Kerala boasts one of the oldest Christian communities anywhere (52 
AD). Likewise Islam came to Malabar in the lifetime of the Prophet 
through Arab traders. It was in this very manner that Buddhism and 
Hinduism spread far and wide to Central Asia, China and Southeast 
Asia. Notwithstanding crusading conquerors, religions win adherents 
through the message they preach. Holy lands are secondary to faith. 
Hence Ram is not where Ayodhya is, but 'Ayodhya' where Ram is - in 
the cathedral of the believer's heart. The parivar is unable to 
understand this simple truth because it has misplaced the central 
idea.

* The minorities, the parivar says, must know their true place. 
On the contrary, they dare to claim "minority rights" at the cost of 
a marginalised and oppressed majority. They are entitled to run 
minority educational institutions with State aid but without State 
supervision. False.

They may indeed administer their own institutions but must conform to 
prescribed academic and financial standards. Many minority 
institutions have by common consent earned an enviably high 
reputation and enroll large number of students from the majority or 
other communities who benefit from the education they impart. What is 
so wrong with that?

* M.G. Vaidya, a leading RSS spokesman, would have it that 
minorities are eligible for cheaper credit than others and enjoy 
special below-the-poverty-line concessions. False.

On the contrary, Muslims face open and subtle discrimination in 
employment, housing and education. They do not enjoy the positive 
discrimination or reservations granted to scheduled castes, scheduled 
tribes and now OBCs, through affirmative action.

* Muslims are accused of multiplying rapidly because of 
polygamy (false), higher growth rates (not universally true) and 
illicit immigration. Infiltration is partly aided by welcoming hosts 
and corrupt border control mechanisms. There is also amnesia with 
regard to the ingress of (Hindu) 'refugees'; witness a news item in 
The Hindu of May 6 under the heading, "BJP unhappy over deportation 
of Bangladeshis (from Orissa)".
* Muslims are allegedly not loyal to India. This is patently 
untrue. No Indian Muslim has joined the Taliban while other 
communities far outnumber them among those apprehended as spying for 
Pakistan. This is not to condone Muslim fundamentalism, which too 
exists in India; but the answer is not competing Hindu fundamentalism.
* Muslims are invariably the aggressors in communal riots. This 
is not proven. On the other hand, there is overwhelming evidence that 
they are the principal victims of riots.
* All right, but they take time off and seek special facilities 
for namaz during office hours, use loudspeakers for azan and refuse 
to be assimilated. People of other faiths too use loudspeakers, chant 
bhajans and kirtans at high decibel levels by day and night, block 
traffic for wedding processions and grab real estate through illegal 
'religious encroachments'. These civic nuisances and violations of 
law must be punished in all cases.
* Muslims enjoy a Haj travel subsidy. However, those going on 
pilgrimage to Kailash and Mansarovar are also subsidised by the 
central and state governments. All religious subsidies should be 
abolished.
* Adoption of a common civil code is said to have met with 
Muslim resistance. Opposition comes from other quarters too. An 
optional common civil code is eminently desirable. Hindus derive tax 
benefits as members of Hindu undivided families. Divergent 
traditional Hindu personal laws (Dayalbagh, Mitakshara, 
Marumakkatayam, etc.) are widely prevalent and there is no uniform 
Hindu code. There was some regression in 1976 with the enactment of 
an amendment providing that Hindus marrying under the Special 
Marriage Act would be governed by the Hindu Succession Act.

The reality is that the substantive part of a common civil code 
relates essentially to gender justice. However, the record of the 
Hindu fundamentalist ideologues in this regard is far from 
satisfactory. Recall the agitation against the shooting of Deepa 
Mehta's film, Water, depicting the sorry plight of Hindu widows in 
Varanasi. India is badly in need of social reform.

* It is said that 'Indians' cannot buy property in J&K whereas 
Kashmiris (read Kashmiri Muslims) can do so anywhere in India. The 
fact is that this prohibition in favour of 'State subjects' was 
introduced long back by the Hindu Maharaja. 'Outsiders' are similarly 
discouraged from acquiring property in Himachal, Sikkim, large parts 
of the North-east and other tribal areas.

A growing mythology of hate is being viciously peddled with ever new 
embellishments. VHP spokesmen like Ashok Singhal and Giriraj Kishore 
openly rejoice in the Ayodhya 'struggle' and Gujarat carnage as a 
'Hindu awakening'. The so-called Sindhu Darshan or yatra in Ladakh is 
again being pushed this summer with special flights and events. 
Innocuous perhaps. Or could it be part of a more careful ideological 
design insidiously to extend the geography of the 'Sindhu-Saraswati 
civilisation' for collateral purposes?

The Muslim demonology propagated by the Sangh parivar is the product 
of a diseased mind. At the end of the day, it is these proponents of 
Hindutva who betray the symptoms of an advanced minority complex 
combined with elements of inferiority, insecurity and dementia. The 
divisiveness they preach is what threatens the nation.

______

#6.

Mainstream (New Delhi )
Volume No. XL, June5th2002

Indian Version of Fascism in Gujarat
Rakesh Gupta

As the body cannot be sustained in pain, so the mind cannot be 
functioning with deadly fear. Ordinary Indians affected by the 
continual carnage in Gujarat, beginning with Godhra, must squarely 
recognise this wholesome physical malady. The reality of the 
extensive extent and potential of pain to the human body-both Hindu 
and Muslim-inflicted by religio-political organisations like the RSS, 
VHP and Bajrang Dal are shared by the common people of India in the 
nook and corner of their physical self. That such organisations, 
described as the Indian version of fascism by no less a person than 
Jawaharlal Nehru, have laced with the State in Gujarat and the state 
of India raises questions about India's future political and social 
contours. The model of the State that Gujarat is offering about the 
now two month carnage is scary, to say the least, for Indians-in 
class and community terms as well as individual episteme ones. Since 
the mischievous distortion of the use of state levers during the 
communal riots in 2002 in Gujarat offers a new model of governance, 
one's mind grops in the dark for the future. Since history is one aid 
for it, one harks back to it, not to Geology or memory for discovery 
of the births of mythological heroes. Mythologicals do create the 
conditions of a warlike society. Actual history also does so in their 
name as well. But near-history need not rest on mythology and so one 
is saved the dubious task of looking for it in the present case. The 
pogroms in Gujarat remind one of fascism.

Some of the things that have come to light in the last two months 
about the bloody pain and fear challenge practically all assumptions 
of a liberal democracy. So the current exercise is part of a defence 
of retaining the liberal polity. Unlike at the Centre the BJP is the 
sole ruling party in Gujarat. If India has not witnessed such pogroms 
at the all-India level it is not owing to the 'benign' Vajpayee but 
to the fact that he is not the leader of the majority party in 
Parliament. So one will have to wait, hopefully not, for that 
occasion to actually visualise this. The emerging scenario of 
Gujarat's Modi-sthan will need a camp in his name as a place of 
pilgrimage for the RSS-sponsored Bharat. In practical terms this can 
come up with the forthcoming elections. Modi can here be lionised as 
the avtar who saved the Hindus-Bania-Brahmin-Patnidar who form the 
dominant Gujarati middle class supported by the inclusion of the 
Scheduled Castes (during the second wave of violence against the 
Muslims) and the tribals (who were included in the Hindutva fold 
during riots in the wake of Advani's rath yatra in 1992). Those who 
do not accept him will be forced at the point of bayonet (many Hindus 
who tried to save their Muslim neighbours were so terrorised). In an 
incident it is reported that a Muslim was running with a small child 
on his shoulders. The hoodlums stopped him. He said he was a Hindu 
boy. He was allowed to go. The moment the child said 'abba' the 
hoodlums ran after him. This implies that only those-Hindus and 
Muslims-will remain who get a certificate by the RSS. This is the 
response of the BJP and RSS combine to the KHAM (Kshatriya, Harijan, 
Adivasi and Muslim) strategy of the Congress for poverty alleviation 
and extension of the democratic governance. What a slide in terms of 
electoral strategy this from uplifting the poor to making them the 
gunpowder! The first feature then is of a distorted Hindutva polity 
which is anti-liberal, anti-poor and controlled by a Hinduised social 
compact. The anatomy of the new compact is that the poor engaged in 
the looting even during the curfew hours, but the loot went to the 
rich.

Second, the role of the police in communal riots has been noticed as 
one of the by-standers in this case of helping the pogroms. In the 
case of Gujarat those police officers, like Harsh Mander, who take 
oath to defend secular India as enshrined in the Constitution will 
have no place. The politics of commitment to the roots of the BJP's 
Hindutva has more meaning than the politics of commitment where the 
commitment is to the Constitution. Defence Minister George Fernandes 
leads a farcical peace march and that is followed by the communal 
violence again. In the initial stages the Army was not used by the 
Modi Government to quell the rioting. In earlier reports on the 
communal carnage it is known that whenever the Army was called in the 
situation came under control. The Defence Minister says in Parliament 
that what happened in Gujarat was ordinary. This takes away 
confidence in the Defence Minister of the government. It is also 
putting the Army in bad light for it implies that the Army could 
accept communal carnage in Gujarat as an acceptable level of violence 
in the internal matters of the country. Thankfully, George Fernandes 
is not the Army chief!

Among other institutions of the state is the judiciary. The Modi 
Government has taken the position of inquiring about the views of the 
judges of the High Court to see who are pro- or against the 
government. This goes against the independence of the judiciary. It 
is not even the notion of the committed judiciary that one heard 
about during the time of Mrs Indira Gandhi. Here in comparison Mrs 
Gandhi's position was in relation to the commitment to the social 
goals of the Directive Principles of the Constitution. In the case of 
Modi it is to the creation of the Hindu Rashtra. This leads to 
witch-hunt. This witch-hunt is on with regard to ordinary citizens 
who have either helped or are assumed to have helped Muslims in their 
locality. Hitler's SS boys had this kind of an anti-Semitic and 
anti-democratic role. This at a macro-level is reflected in the fact 
that most of the relief camps that have been set up in Gujarat are 
run by Muslims and not by Hindus. Only one relief camp was run by 
Hindus. That has been closed on the orders of Modi. To this must be 
added the controversy generated by the Human Resource Minister about 
Aryans being the original inhabitants of India, and all others being 
the hateful 'other'.

Now theories about the Gujarat carnage show up the aspect of lying at 
official quarters on it. First, that this is a premeditated internal 
Muslim plan. Second, that these incidents are spontaneous. Let us 
have a closer look. The Vajpayee Government was being pressurised to 
allow the VHP to organise their pujan on the site of Babri Masjid. 
The VHP 'sevaks' from all over the country were going there. If 
Vajpayee had been firm and not dilly-dallying, like P. V. Narasimha 
Rao in 1992, the need to mobilise the VHP 'sevaks' would not have 
taken place as the demolition of Babri Masjid would not have. At 
Godhra the dispute was a follow-up of the hooliganism of these 
travellers. It is reported by an activist of the RSS that at that 
time these hooligans took away the daughter of the Muslim vendor who 
was being mercilessly beaten by the hooligans of the coach at Godhra. 
The nearby basti is that of poor Muslim rickshawpullers. Learning 
this they came to the site and engaged in the avoidable tragedy of 
the train coach being burnt. That there was no planning in this local 
incident is also reported by the police officer who was investigating 
the incident. The Home Minister now is saying that there is a case 
for regarding these as spontaneous and not planned. He is 
contradicting Modi. So the fault is not in our stars but in 
ourselves, Mr Vajpayee. Hindus and their mythologicals are being 
wrongly rendered into a warlike society as much as you wrongly 
imagine the Muslims to be warlike. You believe that the world over 
Muslims are the sources of terror. Hindus in India are also being 
terrorised by the state to be so. It was and is your duty to be the 
leader of the nation and not the leader of the RSS pogrom of its 
nation-in-the-making.

Greater foresight is needed from him if one has to retain the second 
general theory of the destabilising role of the ISI and Pakistan in 
trans-border terrorism. Internal inter-communal harmony is the need 
of the hour. So is the need for democratic governance and not 
deceitful governance. Difference and democracy are the watchwords. 
Where difference is the mark of pulsating life of Gujarat's and 
India's productive potential, fascist pogroms are the cancer of the 
body politic. Beware Mr Vajpayee, you can fool the people sometimes 
but not always. In 1991 I was a witness to the following exchange 
between an old tribal woman and a BJP worker. The woman was standing 
in a queue to get kerosene. A BJP worker came with its poster of 
Sita-the picture of the actress who played the role of Sita. The 
woman asked the worker: if once the Ram Raj came will the kerosene 
queues go away? Embarrased, the worker ran away. It is also noticed 
that the tribals, who are sought to be incorporated, are actually far 
away from the Hindutva political baggage. Tribals are at the farthest 
margins of the caste system but not so from the Hindu moneylenders 
jealous of the Muslims affluence, as in Tejgadh. If at the 
anthropological level the different communities are co-mingling, why 
divide them? And do so in such a manner that people stop speaking for 
fear of reprisal from the bosses of the RSS and 'parivar' boys. 
Intercommunal harmony is the watchword to fight Pakistan's nefarious 
game. The last thing that should happen is Modi-stan as the RSS's 
real.
Future polity would be fascist with the eerie silence of the 
graveyard. This Rational is sought to be made the Real. Or, Modi is 
the RSS' Rational. Hindutva is threatening to be the grave of 
multicultural identities.

_____

#7.

The Hindustan Times (New Delhi) Wednesday, June 5, 2002

UN body urged to reject VHP plea
HT Correspondent
(New Delhi, June 4)
The United Nations Economic and Social Council has been urged to 
reject an application for consultative status by the Vishwa Hindu 
Parishad.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/050602/detNAT06.asp
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