[sacw] SACW | 5 August 02

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire | 5 August 2002

>From South Asia Citizens Web:
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex

__________________________
Pakistan:

#1. Pak HR groups press govt for full apology
#2. Joint statement by leaders of 51 organisations on 1971 atrocities 
- An apology from Pakistan

India:
#3. Match words with action, NHRC tells PM
#4. [Communalisation of education ] Eklavya loses thumb again (Harbans Mukhia)
#5.[ Sarasvati river, Rig Veda, India's minister of 'Religious' 
Tourism & Cultural Affairs] (T.K. Rajalakshmi)
#6. Gujarat poll poses test for Indian leaders (Edward Luce)
#7. Carnage is his manifesto - Modi's call for polls is a dangerous 
precedent (Kuldip Nayar)
#8. Temple Proof Excavation Plan Draws VHP Threat (Yogesh Vajpeyi)
#9. Avoid hasty elections, advise intellectuals
#10. Fight election on real issues: NGOs

__________________________

#1.

Daily Star (Dhaka)
4 August 2002

Pak HR groups press govt for full apology

AFP, Islamabad
Pakistan's human rights groups have stepped up a campaign to demand a 
full apology by its government for excesses during the 1971 war which 
led to the creation of Bangladesh, activists said yesterday.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has renewed a campaign 
to press for an apology following President Pervez Musharraf's visit 
to Dhaka last week.

Musharraf was the first Pakistani military ruler to visit what was 
once part of Pakistan since the bloody independence war, which is 
referred to here as "the dismemberment of Pakistan."

He twice expressed regret for his country's military "excesses" in 
the war, which Dhaka says claimed three million lives. Islamabad 
refutes the Dhaka toll as wildly exaggerated, but will not disclose 
figures of its own.

HRCP chairman Afrasiab Khatak welcomed Musharraf's statements of 
regret but said it did not go far enough.

"That is not enough. What we are calling for is a full apology to the 
Bangladeshi people," he told AFP.

HRCP and more than a dozen other rights groups took out a newspaper 
advertisement over the weekend reiterating their demand for an 
apology.

"Through the advertisement campaign we are sending a message to our 
brothers and sisters in Bangladesh that civil society in Pakistan 
does not endorse what was done by the military," Khattak said.

Bangladeshis also say that 250,000 women were raped by Pakistani 
soldiers. Pakistan's military says the figure is impossible because 
only 90,000 troops were deployed.

At a banquet hosted by Bangladeshi Prime Minister Khaleda Zia on 
Tuesday Musharraf said Pakistanis "share with their fellow brothers 
and sisters in Bangladesh profound grief over the parameters of 
events of 1971."

"We feel sorry for this tragedy and the pain it caused to both our peoples."

However he stopped short of meeting the demands of Bangladeshi groups 
and as well as rights groups here for a direct apology.

Zia thanked Musharraf for his "candid expression on the events of 
1971" saying "this would, no doubt, help mitigate old wounds."

"We would like to look forward and work together as brothers, based 
on the right prospects of tomorrow," she said.

Pakistan newspapers praised Musharraf's words but called for 
reciprocal statements from Dhaka "over the suffering of the people 
who were not Bengalis in the then East Pakistan during and after 
1971."

o o o o

#2.

News From Bangladesh
4 August 2002

Joint statement by leaders of 51 organisations on 1971 atrocities

An apology from Pakistan

Fifty-one civil society organisations of Pakistan, including the 
Human Rights Commission, and other groups in a joint statement issued 
yesterday made a public apology to the "sisters and brothers" of 
Bangladesh for all the excesses and atrocities committed upon 
civilians in 1971. "We feel sad and burdened by what we know was a 
violation of the people's human rights", the statement added.

It said, though the apology should have come a long time ago, and 
some citizen groups did make attempts to do so, " we deeply feel that 
a message from us is necessary to acknowledge the historic wrongs, to 
express sincere apology and to build a bond based on honest 
sentiments.

The statement came in the wake of Pakistan President's visit to 
Bangladesh and began by saying. "We the citizens of Pakistan welcome 
the statement of regret by President Pervez Musharraf in Bangladesh 
on the atrocities of 1971."

The civil society organisations hoped that it would be possible to 
build solidarity in future and move towards a peaceful South Asia 
where people could find solutions to poverty and social injustice 
through a healthy political process and an empowered civil society 
rather than military force.

A copy of the statement was faxed to The Independent under the 
signature of Nasreen Azhar, Manager Social and Legal Rights 
ActionAid, Pakistan.

The statement was endorsed by the Human Rights Commission of 
Pakistan, the Democratic Commission for Human Development, the 
Pakistan Worker's Federation, the Labour Party Pakistan, the Pak 
Christian National Party, the Joint Action Committee for People's 
Right, Action Aid Pakistan, South Asia Partnership Pakistan, Lawyers 
of Human Rights and Legal Aid, the Damaan Development Organisation, 
the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Badari (women's 
awareness and crisis intervention), the Democratic Women's 
Association, the Progressive Women's Association of Badari and Sind 
NGO Forum.

The other organisations and groups which endorsed the statement also 
include the Working Women Organisation, Inter Press 
Communication-Karachi, the Sind Development Society- Hyderabad, 
Mengal Trust Aranji - Balochistan, the Gorakh Development 
Organisation, the Abadgar Association, the Sungi Development Forum, 
Young Samaj Tanzeem, the Kachho Foundation, the Joho Organisation for 
Rural Development and Natural Disaster, the Sind Graduate 
Association, the Association for Human and Education Development, the 
Centre for Legal Assistance and Settlement - Lahore, the Youth 
Commission for Human Rights, Insaan Foundation- Lahore and Kaccho 
Bachayo Tehrik. ( The Independent )

_____

#3.

The Times of India
SUNDAY, AUGUST 04, 2002

Match words with action, NHRC tells PM

PTI [ SUNDAY, AUGUST 04, 2002 6:53:29 PM ]
NEW DELHI: Equating the recent communal carnage in Gujarat as nothing 
short of a war in terms of sufferings and misery undergone by the 
affected, National Human Rights Commission Chairman J S Verma on 
Sunday asked Prime Minister A B Vajpayee to translate his 'rhetoric' 
on religious intolerance into 'action'.
Verma said here that those affected by Gujarat incidents could not go 
back to their areas for "whatever reasons", and stated that they had 
lost their kith and kin in large numbers. "How is it different from 
war ?", he asked.
He said the people of Gujarat had undergone the same sufferings and 
miseries that one experiences during war. "The effect remains the 
same", Verma said.
"How can this (communal riots on a large scale) happen in this 
country? I never hope to witness this in my life", he said, 
inaugurating a National Roundtable Conference on Communalism and 
Human Rights organised by NHRC and National Law School of India 
University.
Indicating that the situation had not returned to normal as yet, he 
said, "Gujarat continues to haunt us even now. I only hope the agony 
does not go on much longer".
He said he was happy to read that the Prime Minister (on Jul 31) had 
expressed anguish over religious intolerance, without referring to 
Gujarat. On an earlier occasion, he had said it was Vivekananda's 
Hinduism (tolerance to other religions and acceptance with open arms) 
which he believed in and that if Hinduism had taken a different 
shape, he would remain miles away from it. "Once again, there is a 
need to translate rhetoric into action", he said.
Verma said a silent majority of people in India believed in 
secularism and asked them to 'wake up'.
"We are becoming more self-centred. We don't bother about anything 
until we are directly involved. If a house is on fire, how much time 
does it take to spread to yours?", he asked.
Describing the recent communal violence in Gujarat as a "national 
shame", Verma, the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, said as 
an Indian, he felt demeaned by the incidents and as a Hindu, felt 
even more ashamed.
The carnage could not be the handiwork of religious people, since no 
religion preaches violence and hatred. It was inflicted upon by 
criminals and vandals, he said.
The people of Gujarat were just about coming out of the of the 
ravages of natural calamity (earthquake) when the man-made calamity 
(communal riots) had struck them, he said.

_____

#4.

The Hindu
Aug 05, 2002
Opinion - Leader Page Articles

Eklavya loses thumb again

By Harbans Mukhia

The sharpness of the demarcating lines is all the more important in 
such critical areas as the question of communalising education.

ONE IMPORTANT offshoot of the turmoil of the 1960s and 1970s around 
the world and in India was a considerable experimentation in the area 
of education at all levels. In India, experimenting with a different 
mode of imparting education at the highest level resulted in the 
establishment of the Jawaharlal Nehru University in 1969; it started 
functioning in 1971 with the appointment of faculty and the admission 
of the first batch of students next year.

If JNU attracted a lot of media attention for a whole spectrum of 
reasons, another, humbler but extremely significant experiment was 
being tried out in a small town of Madhya Pradesh around the same 
time. A group of highly motivated scholars, young and not so young, 
were restless with the way they had learnt science in their schools 
and later at the university; the whole mode of teaching science to 
children should be turned upside down, they felt. Instead of being a 
quest, the method of teaching science in class killed all the 
excitement of the pursuit of knowledge which explains the mysteries 
of life to children. The class teacher, following the textbook, 
proceeds from the abstract to the concrete, expatiates upon a 
concept, say, of gravity, to sixth class and then illustrates it with 
examples. Unable to grasp the abstract concept, the child is also 
unable to link the concrete with it. She thus learns both by rote. 
Rare would be the child who would rather remain in such a class than 
run out if it.

The group of scholars, like the Mahabharata lad Eklavya, whose name 
they were later to adopt for their organisation, opted to pursue 
their search in near wilderness, away from the glare and distractions 
of a metropolis and settled down in the small town of Hoshangabad on 
the banks of the Narmada in Madhya Pradesh. There they set out to get 
the children to generate knowledge for themselves by putting the 
textbook aside for the moment and going out in the neighbourhood, 
looking for special kinds of tree leaves, stones, what not and then 
asking questions and seeking answers. The questions led them to 
concepts, and the search for answers to the scientific methods of 
observation, experimentation, analysis and generalisation. They were 
to be trained in the critical method of acquiring knowledge rather 
than in the passive acceptance of knowledge generated by teachers; 
this would stand them in good stead and well prepared to leave behind 
knowledge that had fallen out of place with the advancement of 
science. In life too they would learn the application of reason.

There was also another valuable principle implied in it. In the great 
energy and resources expended in the pursuit of education for the 
next generation, the poor should not have to satisfy their quest with 
second rate, leftover education: what their children get too should 
be good and worthwhile.

The group started working in 1972 under the rather prosaic name of 
Hoshangabad Science Teaching Programme (HSTP), until ten years later 
when it acquired the present very evocative name. The idea attracted 
a large number of scientists, some of them as eminent as M.S. 
Swaminathan, M.G.K. Menon, Yash Pal, and many others teaching in the 
University of Delhi, who involved themselves in the development of 
the programme at some stage or the other, in one form or another. The 
HSTP and later Eklavya sought to develop the programme well within 
the framework of the system of school education in Madhya Pradesh and 
with the approval, cooperation and assistance of successive 
Governments of the State at costs that were almost ridiculously low. 
As they went along, they developed expertise in writing new kinds of 
textbooks, training teachers through short term refresher courses, 
publishing magazines for children and for teachers, and devising tool 
kits at a fraction of prevailing costs. In course of time, a social 
science component was also developed based upon the same principle of 
proceeding from the familiar to the abstract rather than the other 
way around. By 2001, the HSTP was operative in 1000 schools in 15 
districts and 100,000 children were its beneficiaries. The best 
testimony to its success has been the excitement and joy the process 
of learning has brought to the children over the past three decades.

Education that inculcates critical faculty and reasoning is by its 
very nature secular education. Understandably then the one-term BJP 
Government led by Sundar Lal Patwa was dead set against continuing to 
allow any space and assistance to Eklavya and initiated steps to pack 
it off. The Government had the solid backing of the BJP-affiliates in 
the community of school teachers. Fortunately for Eklavya, the 
Government lost the election in the aftermath of the demolition of 
the Babri Masjid and the Congress Government under Digvijay Singh has 
remained ensconced since then. Eklavya could thus heave a sigh of 
relief.

Not for long, though. For, keen as the Congress, at the central and 
the State levels, is to project itself as an alternative to the BJP's 
politics of hatred, obscurantism and communalism, it is not immune to 
the BJP's politics of manipulation from the outside. At one meeting 
of the Hoshangabad District Planning Committee, the local BJP MLA (a 
special invitee and therefore not even a member) quite casually 
suggested that the programme be dropped; and the meeting, chaired by 
the Finance Minister, a Congressman, agreed to it without any further 
ado. This is without reference to the very high-powered State 
Advisory Board on Education, which includes some of the country's 
most distinguished names, constituted by the Madhya Pradesh 
Government very recently. Within days, nine of twelve members of the 
Committee sought a review of the decision in writing, but this too 
has not been conceded. Eklavya's thumb was chopped off a second time 
and with the same ruthlessness. Understandably, the first to 
congratulate the Government on this bold step was the ABVP. The 
bureaucracy which had all these years extended appreciation and 
support to the programme suddenly issued swift office orders 
announcing the termination of the science teaching programme; clearly 
the social science teaching component would be next on the block and 
not too long from now. All this is within the knowledge of the Chief 
Minister and presumably with his approval.

In a scenario where the BJP and the Congress are fast emerging as the 
political alternatives, the sharpness of the demarcating lines is all 
the more important in such critical areas as the question of 
communalising education. While the BJP makes no bones about 
saffronising the minds of Indian children from the word go as its 
objective, the blurring of the demarcating lines between it and the 
Congress is tantamount to the cause being already lost. The Congress 
has already lost a lot of its secular ground by its passivity in 
Gujarat. Are we really witnessing the saffronisation of the Congress?

_____

#5.

Frontline
Volume 19 - Issue 16, August 3 - 16, 2002
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PROJECTS

The riddle of a river

Union Minister Jagmohan's efforts to establish a role for the 
Sarasvati river in the Indus Valley civilisation take the shape of a 
project of excavations, which will begin in Haryana.

T.K. RAJALAKSHMI
in New Delhi

UNION Minister for Tourism and Cultural Affairs Jagmohan has an 
unenviable task in hand - that of putting in place a cultural policy 
for "national reconstruction", which is explained as a cultural 
renaissance that will enable Indians to be aware of their heritage. 
One step in this regard is the revival of interest in the Sarasvati 
river, references to which are found in the Rig Veda. Efforts are on 
to identify the river's course and to ascribe to it a civilisational 
virtue under the camouflage of promoting domestic and religious 
tourism. These are based on the assumption that the seasonal Ghaggar 
river in Haryana is the ancient Sarasvati. The cultural revival as 
envisaged by Jagmohan will be made possible by excavating the course 
of the river in parts of Haryana and then developing certain areas 
there as religious and tourist sites.

At a seminar organised at Yamunanagar, Haryana, on June 12 by the 
Sarasvati River Research Centre (Sarasvati Nadi Shodh Sansthan), 
Jagmohan announced that the Central government, along with the State 
governments concerned, including the Haryana government, would 
undertake the excavation of the entire course of the extinct river. A 
four-member committee will be in charge of this. The committee 
comprises Baldev Sahai, former Deputy Director, Space Applications 
Centre, Ahmedabad; V.M.K. Puri, a glaciologist who was formerly with 
the Geological Survey of India, Lucknow; S. Kalyanaraman, a former 
senior executive of the Asian Development Bank, who is also trained 
in archaeology; and Madhav Chitle, former Secretary, Ground Water 
Management, and coordinator for Global Water Partnership. The first 
phase will involve the digging up of the stretch from Adi Badri in 
Yamunanagar district to Bhagwanpura in Kurukshetra district to Sirsa 
(all in Haryana). In the second phase, the excavation and related 
work will be taken up from Bhagwanpura to Kalibangan in Rajasthan. 
The Central government is yet to sanction the funds, as the estimates 
are still in the process of being prepared by the State governments 
concerned. [...]
The project is evidently a conscious effort to address the "plaguing 
problem" of the origin of the Aryans, an ideological riddle that was 
first raised by the Baba Saheb Apte Smarak Samiti (named after the 
founder of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad) and the Bharatiya Itihasa 
Sankalan Samiti (which is devoted to the rewriting of history) in the 
early 1980s. A survey of the lost Sarasvati was planned in 1983 by 
the former institution. [...]

Full Text at : http://www.flonnet.com/fl1916/19160970.htm

____

#6.

The Financial Times
Sunday Aug 4 2002.

Gujarat poll poses test for Indian leaders
By Edward Luce in New Delhi
Published: August 2 2002 5:00 | Last Updated: August 2 2002 5:00

Narendra Modi, chief minister of the Indian state of Gujarat, is a 
fortunate man. In April his political career seemed destined to end 
in ignominy after he had presided over the worst sectarian violence 
India had seen in a decade.

The riots, in which up to 2,000, mostly Muslims, were killed by Hindu 
fundamentalists were condoned - and, it is widely believed, 
facilitated - by Mr Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata party.

Yet five months after the violence erupted, Mr Modi's political 
career is back in the ascendant. If all goes to plan, Gujarat's 
30m-strong electorate will go to the polls in October and sweep Mr 
Modi's Hindu nationalists back into office. What has prompted his 
rehabilitation?

Last month Atal Behari Vajpayee, prime minister of India's BJP-led 
coalition, conceded ground to hardliners within his own party in a 
sweeping cabinet reshuffle. Most significantly, L.K. Advani, the 
pugnacious interior minister, was promoted to deputy prime minister, 
effectively making him Mr Vajpayee's successor.

Shortly afterwards Mr Modi announced that Gujarat would go to the 
polls. The events were not coincidental.

Last week Mr Advani described Mr Modi as having handled the communal 
violence better than any other chief minister in India's 55-year 
history. In contrast, Mr Vajpayee has pointedly refrained from 
endorsing the Gujarat leader.

"Mr Vajpayee wanted to sack Narendra Modi in April but was prevented 
from doing so by Advani and other rightwingers within the BJP," said 
Mahesh Rangarajan, a political scientist in New Delhi. "Having lost 
the battle, Mr Vajpayee has conceded much of his power to Mr Advani."

Indeed, Mr Advani is now widely seen as India's de facto prime 
minister. The 72-year-old deputy leader who, like Mr Vajpayee, has 
been involved in Hindu nationalist politics for more than 50 years, 
has assumed control of many functions associated with the prime 
minister.

Mr Advani has retained control of the key home ministry but has also 
made it known he will become much more involved in shaping India's 
diplomacy - an area traditionally controlled by the prime minister's 
office.

Meanwhile, Mr Vajpayee, aged 77 and suffering from indifferent 
health, appears to have withdrawn from much of the day-to-day 
functioning of government.

And yet Mr Advani's succession is by no means guaranteed. Although 
the BJP's mostly secular coalition partners accepted his elevation 
last month, the deputy prime minister has been given the tricky task 
of restoring the BJP's waning electoral fortunes, with just two years 
before the country goes to the polls.

If Mr Advani fails - most immediately in Gujarat, which also contains 
his parliamentary constituency - the initiative could swing back to 
the prime minister. But fighting an election on Mr Modi's 
bloodstained electoral territory is a strategy that could also 
backfire. Even should it succeed, the "Gujarat model" might not be a 
recipe for electoral success elsewhere.

"The BJP has clearly decided to flirt openly with communalism again 
after three years of relative moderation in government," said T.N. 
Madan, at the Institute for Economic Growth in Delhi. "But what 
applies to Gujarat might not work in other states. Remember, the 
communal rioting did not spread beyond Gujarat although everyone 
feared it would."

In addition, India's Election Commission could still stop the Gujarat 
poll from going ahead or at least not at a time of Mr Advani's 
choosing. Yesterday members of the commission, which has a reputation 
for stubborn independence, visited riot-torn areas to gauge if 
conditions would permit a fair election in October.

Many of the 110,000 Muslim refugees from the Gujarat riots have 
returned to their homes. But 12,000 still remain in camps while 
others are too frightened to sleep in their homes. If the commission 
chose to delay the polls, Mr Modi's leadership could be challenged 
from within the state BJP.

"Mr Modi is deeply disliked by many senior figures within the state 
BJP," said an opposition politician. "If elections are delayed, they 
might just remove him. That is what moderates everywhere must hope 
for."

_____

#7.

Indian Express
Tuesday, July 30, 2002

Carnage is his manifesto
Modi's call for polls is a dangerous precedent
Kuldip Nayar

Could anyone have imagined earlier in the year that the BJP would 
have its own nominees as the country's president and speaker? The 
party looks close to grabbing even the office of vice-president.

And the way in which the Vajpayee government is filling the posts of 
governors with RSS pracharaks, India may well have Hindutva men 
heading most of the states by the time this government ends its term 
two years from now.

The framers of the constitution expected outstanding public men to 
occupy these offices, not street peddlers of fundamentalism.

The BJP could not have done this without the dubious role that its 
allies in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) have played. When 
they went before the electorate, they vowed to uphold the country's 
secular ethos. But after the polls, they hitched their wagon to 
communal elements for the sake of ministership.

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has turned out to be a genuine fake. It 
claims to have an independent stand. But it has supported the BJP 
whenever there has been a political crisis at the Centre. The issue 
before the country is how to resist saffronisation. The TDP is 
content with getting more rice from the Centre. The party looks like 
a half-reluctant bridegroom, not really unhappy to go through with 
the marriage ceremony.

The TDP and other NDA allies have given respectability to forces that 
are trying to cut the roots of our pluralistic society, the bedrock 
of any democratic system.

Probably, the initial mistake was that of Jayaprakash Narayan, who 
trusted the then Jana Sangh and hoped it would give up its parochial 
thinking. But it never became part and parcel of the Janata Party's 
pluralistic discipline. He realised his error during his lifetime but 
by then it was too late.

What one has seen of the BJP over the years is that it has allied 
itself to the approach - and the ideology - of communalism. Even if 
it does not indulge in physical violence, its language is that of 
violence, its thought is violent. It does not seek to change by 
persuasion or peaceful democratic pressures but by coercion and, 
indeed, by destruction and extermination.

Fascism has all these evil aspects of violence and extermination in 
their ugliest forms and, at the same time, it has no acceptable idea.

It is the same type of fascism that the BJP has tried in Gujarat, 
Hindutva's laboratory. Hitler picked on the Jews to build up the fear 
of the 'enemy'.

Chief Minister Narendra Modi has done the same thing by making 
Muslims the target. By going in for early polls after parading the 
Muslims as the problem, he is following in the footsteps of Hitler. 
The Social Democrats failed Germany at that time because they could 
not understand the real nature of Nazism - the harm it could do. 
Hitler, after capturing power, went on to initiate the Second World 
War.

Will the educated, liberal Hindus in Gujarat see through Modi's 
chauvinistic posture to save the state from him, a state is shattered 
economically, socially and culturally?

The question is not whether Gujarat has an identity but whether that 
identity is on the basis of religion. Gujaratis all over the world 
are cosmopolitan in their outlook.

When I was briefly in London as India's high commissioner, I found a 
Gujarati community, not a Hindu Gujarati group or a Muslim Gujarati 
section. Together, they are still ahead of other ethnic communities.

A few fanatics cannot besmirch the fair name of Gujaratis by 
indulging in killing or razing to the ground places of worship of 
another religious community. After Partition, Sardar Patel himself 
stood outside some mosques in Delhi to foil the challenge of Hindu 
chauvinists to destroy them. In contrast, dargahs in Ahmedabad were 
demolished and roads were built over them overnight.

That Modi is trying to take advantage of the atmosphere that he has 
communalised, is a valid ground for not holding elections 
immediately. He has destroyed a prosperous state. The commission is 
sitting to examine his role in the carnage. Should a person like him 
be allowed to participate in elections, which he proposes to fight to 
glorify the crimes he has committed during his rule?

Modi may be ready for fresh polls. But what about thousands of voters 
whose lives have been thrown into disarray? Their tears have not 
dried up yet. There is no certainty about their present, much less 
about the future, which the new polls will help shape.

It is true that the imposition of President's rule may not make any 
real difference - the same governor will be in charge of the 
administration. The only advantage is that Modi will go.

Happenings like those of Gujarat make a seminar held at the 
Jawaharlal Nehru University the other day on the criminalisation of 
society especially relevant. Who is a criminal? This is the question 
which was debated at length at the seminar. Only those who commit 
murder, rape or some other heinous crime? What about those 
responsible for incidents like ethnic cleansing in Gujarat? The BJP 
says - as it had after the demolition of the Babri Masjid - that 
offences of the second category relate to politics.

It is not understandable how this is so except for the fact that 
those involved are politicians. Whatever the nomenclature one gives 
to the crime, it remains an act against the law. The BJP can shrug 
its shoulders and maintain that the accusation against the state 
government is of a general nature. But how does the party cover up 
the complicity of the chief minister? It is setting a bad precedent 
by allowing Modi to continue till the elections. The governor should 
have intervened and asked Modi not to ask for elections till the 
return of normalcy in the state. Unfortunately, the governor of 
Gujarat is an RSS pracharak.

_____

#8.

The Telegraph
5 August 2002

TEMPLE PROOF EXCAVATION PLAN DRAWS VHP THREAT
YOGESH VAJPEYI

Lucknow, Aug. 4:
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has opposed the suggestion of the Lucknow 
bench of Allahabad High Court that the Babri Masjid site be excavated 
to verify if a Ram temple existed under the demolished mosque.

The chairman of the VHP-controlled Ramjanmbhoomi Nyas, Ramchandra 
Paramhans, today warned the authorities not to shift the idol of Ram 
Lalla installed at the disputed site for the proposed excavation.

"The Hindu community will not tolerate (it) if the idol was shifted 
for any reason whatsoever," Paramhans said.

After the pran pratistha (installation) ceremony according to Vedic 
rites, no deity can be shifted, even temporarily, he explained.

"It is against the Hindu religion and no court or government has any 
right to interfere in religious matters," the VHP seer said, 
threatening a countrywide agitation if an attempt was made to 
excavate the site in Ayodhya.

Paramhans contended that doubts over whether a temple existed there 
had been cleared after many artefacts, including carved blackstone 
pillars, were found among the debris of the demolished structure.

He dared the court to suggest excavation beneath the disputed 
Gyanbapi Masjid in Kashi. "There is proof that once upon a time Kashi 
Vishwanath temple existed there," he said.

The mahant has decided to convene a meeting of Hindu religious 
leaders soon to discuss the controversy triggered by the court 
suggestion.

The VHP's stand could create a dilemma for the Mayavati government in 
Uttar Pradesh, which will have to implement the court's order should 
it rule in favour of excavation.

A direct confrontation with the VHP could create a rift in the BJP, 
whose continued support is necessary for the survival of the ruling 
coalition in the state.

The Mayavati government is already in hot water over the Supreme 
Court directive that it clarifies its stand on the trial of deputy 
Prime Minister L.K. Advani and others in the Ayodhya demolition case.

The apex court has ordered the state government to decide within 
eight weeks if it is going to issue fresh notification. "We are 
taking legal opinion on the matter," the chief minister said.

The BJP is expected to put up stiff resistance to any move to revive 
the criminal cases against Advani and seven others, including Union 
ministers M.M. Joshi and Uma Bharti and BJP state chief Vinay Katiyar.

The trial has been on hold since February 12 this year, when 
Allahabad High court quashed the state government's notification for 
the trial as defective.

Mayavati's predecessor, Rajnath Singh, had taken the stand that his 
government was not bound to issue a fresh notification unless the 
court directed it to do so. Moreover, it could not issue the 
notification till the CBI, the investigating agency, made a request.

_____

#9.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_ID=18090740
The Times of India
MONDAY, AUGUST 05, 2002

Avoid hasty elections, advise intellectuals
TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ SUNDAY, AUGUST 04, 2002 10:02:12 PM ]
AHMEDABAD: A group of prominent individuals from Ahmedabad, including 
NGOs and human rights activists, met the Election Commission team on 
Saturday and said Gujarat was not ready for elections.
In a letter to the team, they said the state government had a clear 
majority with no threat to its power. "Such haste smacks of the 
bloody, charred remains of the recent genocide for political 
mileage," the letter said.
According to official figures, more than 12,000 people are still 
living in relief camps in Ahmedabad alone, the letter adds and says 
that those forced to live on in the camps have not received adequate 
compensation. The signatories felt that at a time when even a slight 
rumour could send such people scurrying for cover, they cannot be 
expected to vote with confidence.
They have also said that in times of drought like this year, many 
people migrate and return to their villages only during Holi 
festival. Such people may not be able to cast their vote if elections 
are held soon.
Among the 20 signatories are well-known human rights lawyer Girish 
Patel, former chief justice of the Rajasthan High Court Justice A P 
Ravani, professor Darshini Mahadeviya, social activist Swaroop Dhruv, 
Prashant director Father Cedric Prakash and others.

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#10.

The Times of India
MONDAY, AUGUST 05, 2002

Fight election on real issues: NGOs
TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ SUNDAY, AUGUST 04, 2002 10:52:45 PM ]
AHMEDABAD: Sonal Mehta of the Movement for Secular Democracy has 
opposed the Congress party and its policies all her life. However, if 
she thinks it is necessary to support it in the coming state 
elections just to defeat the BJP, she will not hesitate to do so. 
Mehta strongly believes that the BJP in Gujarat is seeking a mandate 
on the basis of the recent communal riots and can not be allowed to 
succeed.
Mehta was part of a meeting of voluntary agencies in Ahmedabad 
recently, which have decided that if an election has to be fought in 
the state, it should be on issues like water and education, not the 
riots. "In fact, I believe that there should be a single-point 
agenda," Mehta says, adding, "Defeat the BJP."
The meeting was attended by a wide cross-section of voluntary 
agencies, including Gandhians, NGOs, and individuals. Among them was 
veteran Gandhian Chunibhai Vaidya. "There were three kinds of people 
at the meeting," he says, adding, "There was the first lot that 
believed the Congress should be openly supported as it was the lesser 
of the two evils. The second group of people felt it was more 
important that the failures of the present government should be 
highlighted and they should stop short of supporting anyone. The 
third group felt the BJP should be stopped at all costs."
Vaidya felt that despite their differences, they were all on a single 
platform, that of putting development issues on the centre-stage.
"I can tell you that in many of the villages people are already tired 
of talking about the riots when their basic necessities are not being 
met," says Lalji Desai of Marag NGO, which works with the Maldhari 
community. "Each time a new issue crops up just before elections, 
sidelining the real problem of the people. If it is not war with 
Pakistan, it is the riots. It is about time we fight elections on the 
basis of real issues."
However, the issue of development being sidelined is not the only 
fear of these voluntary bodies. Many of them believe the basic 
democratic rights of the people are threatened under BJP rule. As 
Mehta puts it, "I have been threatened and attacked in the last three 
months only because I have taken a stand against the riots. If we 
don't stand up right now, our voices will be crushed."
There are others like Stalin K, part of the Citizen's Initiative, who 
insist that development NGOs can't take a clear political stand. 
"However, we can definitely talk to the people on what this 
government has done for them on some of the basic problems that have 
been plaguing them for years. They should not lose sight of such 
issues. Whom to vote for will be a decision left entirely to them."

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