SACW | Feb 14-16, 2007 | For Secular space in Pakistan; Pakistan India: Siachen a mountain of madness or peace; India - business as usual for the Hindu right; State and the right to life

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire  | February 14-16, 2007 | Dispatch No. 2360 - Year 9

[1]  Pakistan: Speak up for Enlightenment - Dare to Know (Irfan Husain)
[2]  Pakistan India: Siachen a mountain of 
madness or peace (Q Isa Daudpota and Arshad H 
Abbasi)
[3]  India: Crime, but no punishment - for July 
2006 bomb blasts in Mumbai trains (Teesta 
Setalvad)
[4]  India: Hindu Right and Film Censorship: 
Results of the Let Parzania be Screened SMS 
contest
[5]  India: Gujarat's Culture Police
  -  Boycott Bigotry (Editorial, Times of India)
  - Why Gujarat 'Banned' Parzania (J.S. Bandukwala)
[6] India:  From Riot to Riot - The Hindu right is sharpening the knives:
  -  Will Eastern UP Be The Next Gujarat? (Subhash Gatade)
  -  Riot, manufactured in Gorakhpur (Apoorvanand)
[7] Dont Suck Up to Fascists: An Open Letter To 
the Captain of India's Cricket Team (Shamsul 
Islam)
[8] India:  The State and the right to life 
[Clemency for Afzal] (Mike Marqusee)

____


[1]


Dawn
February 10, 2007

'DARE TO KNOW!'

by Irfan Husain

FOR the last few years, "enlightened moderation" 
has been this government's glib mantra. Ever 
since Musharraf used the phrase, his many 
spokesmen and sycophants have parroted it as 
though it was their leader's contribution to 
humanity. Just to remind them what the 18th 
century movement of Enlightenment stood for, I 
can do no better than to quote Immanuel Kant, 
writing in 1784:

"Enlightenment is man's emergence from his 
self-incurred immaturity. Immaturity is the 
inability to use one's own understanding without 
direction from another. This immaturity is 
self-incurred if its cause is not lack of 
understanding, but lack of resolve and courage to 
use it without another's guidance. Sapere aude! 
Dare to know! That is the motto of Enlightenment."

This movement paved the way for the modern, 
secular society that has come to dominate the 
world. Spearheading it were giants like Voltaire, 
Rousseau, Bacon and Diderot. Scientists like 
Galileo and Newton contributed vastly to this 
struggle to establish reason as the basis for 
civilisation.

So when our ill-educated politicians in and out 
of uniform speak of "enlightened moderation", 
they should reflect, even if briefly, on what the 
Enlightenment stood for. Indeed, had Mushrraf 
been aware of the term's true connotations, he 
might not have been so keen to adopt it as his 
motto.

If he were to pass by the Madressah Hafsa in 
Islamabad , he would realise how far we have to 
travel before we reach the level of maturity Kant 
called for. In this seminary, hundreds of girls 
are being indoctrinated to hate everything 
western. Farhat Taj, a Pakistani academic, wrote 
about a recent visit to this madressah in a 
Lahore daily. According to Ms Taj, as soon as she 
walked in, she was bombarded with questions from 
the teachers and students: "They questioned my 
personal appearance - my hairdo and my attire, 
which in their view was 'too tight' and therefore 
un-Islamic. They told me I was committing a 'sin' 
by roaming all over the world unaccompanied by my 
male relations and sans burqaŠ"

Ms Taj continues: "The students of the Jamia wake 
up every morning at 5 am. They are not allowed 
any games, outdoor trips or TV. Watching TV, they 
said, was banned in Islam. They live in strict 
gender segregation and believe in the 
subordination of woman to man. They study Islam 
in its most extreme form. The students and 
teachers told me the madressah is grooming wives 
and mothers for jihadis, female suicide-bombers 
and female foot-soldiers who will clash with the 
law enforcement agencies of Pakistan, if 
necessaryŠ"

The writer was asked to promise to kill the 
editor of the Danish newspaper that ran the 
offensive cartoons in 2005. When she replied she 
could not take the law into her own hands, the 
students of the madressah could not understand 
her reluctance.

This, then, is the kind of 'enlightened 
moderation' being taught in the nation's capital, 
barely a stone's throw from the presidency, 
parliament and the Prime Minister's House. And to 
make matters worse, it is these girls who have 
now occupied a children's library to protest 
against the demolition of an illegally 
constructed mosque. Night after night, images of 
their scary black burqa-clad forms, armed with 
long batons, appear on TV.

And even though the government has backed down 
and agreed to rebuild the mosque, these women are 
refusing to vacate the library. The 
administration is a mute witness to these illegal 
acts as its writ is challenged before the gaze of 
TV cameras. Yet, only some weeks ago, a small 
group of peaceful citizens was mercilessly 
thrashed, with one young man being publicly 
stripped and beaten by the Islamabad police. 
Their crime was to wish to present a letter 
protesting the disappearance of their near 
relatives to the deputy army chief. Human rights 
groups as well as courts have established the 
state's hand in these cases.

Although the government fears a backlash from the 
mullahs if it acts, the fact is that our clerics 
are paper tigers when it comes to the crunch. 
This was amply demonstrated when the Protection 
of Women Bill was passed. Despite their threat to 
resign from the assemblies if the government 
pushed this watered-down piece of legislation 
through, the holy fathers still occupy their 
parliamentary seats. Their threat to launch a 
street protest has been equally empty. History 
shows that they enjoy a symbiotic relationship 
with the army, and will not act without GHQ's 
clearance.

That this nexus exists is proved by the fact that 
bearded men and burqa-clad women are allowed to 
get away with literally murder, provided they can 
somehow link their actions to their version of 
the faith, no matter how erroneous. For years 
now, private and public land has been illegally 
occupied on the pretext of building mosques. 
Soon, shops and dwellings have sprouted on these 
sites, with the legal owners helpless to end this 
land grab. After shutting its eyes to this 
practice for years, the government woke up and 
decided to act. But its planned demolitions have 
ground to a halt in the face of resistance from a 
handful of madressah students.

The reality is that Pakistan - and much of the 
world - is far from attaining the level of 
maturity the Enlightenment called for. We are 
guided, perhaps more than ever before, by 
considerations other than reason. All kinds of 
superstitions cloud our thinking, rendering us 
prone to the most irrational behaviour. Rather 
than moving forward, we seem determined to go 
back in time.

The paradox is that while emotionally and 
intellectually we remain rooted in the mediaeval 
era, we still seek the fruits of modern science 
and technology. We see no contradiction in using 
the Internet to propagate the most violent 
quasi-Islamic philosophy. Videos of people being 
beheaded in the name of the faith are routinely 
sent around the world through cyberspace.

In his wonderfully iconoclastic book "How Mumbo 
Jumbo Conquered the World", Francis Wheen writes 
in his introduction:

"The sleep of reason brings forth monsters, and 
the past two decades have produced monsters 
galore. Some are manifestly sinister, others seem 
merely comicŠ Cumulatively, however, the 
proliferation of obscurantist bunkum and the 
assault on reason are a menace to civilisation, 
especially as many of the new irrationalists hark 
back to some imagined pre-industrial or even 
pre-agrarian Golden AgeŠ My purpose in writing 
this book is to show how the humane values of the 
Enlightenment have been abandoned or betrayed, 
and why it matters: those who rewrite or 
romanticise historyŠ are condemned to repeat itŠ"

______



[2]

Daily Times
February 13, 2007

SIACHEN MADNESS OR MOUNTAIN PEACE

by Q Isa Daudpota and Arshad H Abbasi

It is for opinion-makers in India and Pakistan to 
tell their respective governments to stop ruining 
the future of our water supplies and our weather 
system. Bringing their troops down from the 
inhospitable heights of Siachen would be the 
first step. This would be welcomed by the troops 
as well as the mountain wildlife that has been 
displaced by the war

Back in 2003 one of us (QID) signed an email 
petition titled the Siachen Peace Park Initiative 
located at the glacier that bears this name. It 
had to do with getting India and Pakistan to 
withdraw from the futile conflict in the 
mountains and to let nature revert to its snowy 
tranquillity.

"As part of the normalisation process/confidence 
building measures, the governments of India and 
Pakistan are urged to establish a Siachen Peace 
Park to protect and restore the spectacular 
landscapes which are home to so many endangered 
species including the snow leopard." This was the 
statement adopted as a lead-up to the 5th World 
Parks Congress held in September 2003 at Durban, 
South Africa.

The petition was a follow-up to win widespread 
support for the idea from citizens of India, 
Pakistan and around the world, so that the Indian 
and Pakistani governments could move forward 
without loss of face, or strategic liability. 
Sadly there has been no progress in resolving 
this decades-old dispute.

But new strongly worded reports from the 
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 
released on Feb 2 this year could perhaps make 
the decision-makers change their minds about this 
wasteful, futile conflict. The IPCC forecasts 
that global temperatures would rise by 1.8 to 4.0 
Celsius this century. There are already signs 
that South Asia will be one of the worst affected 
regions - monsoon affected with reduced 
agriculture production, sinking of island 
communities and increase in vector borne diseases.

Here, however, we will mainly consider the impact 
of human presence and war on the glaciers of this 
region and the impact of this on the region and 
globally. Note that melting of the Himalayan 
glaciers contributes about 25 percent to the 
sea-rise globally.

A serious unforeseen consequence of the Siachen 
war is the danger posed to four other glaciers: 
Gangotri, Miyar, Milan and Janapa, which feed the 
rivers Ganges (first two glaciers), Chenab and 
Sutlej respectively. This is because of the heavy 
traffic on the Indian road from the plains to 
Siachen passing near these four glaciers on the 
Delhi-Manali-Leh route. This finding is 
corroborated by a recent report by one of us 
(AHA) for the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), 
available at http://tinyurl.com/23b5de .

According to Prof M N Kaul, Principal 
Investigator on glaciology in the Indian 
Department of Science and Technology, "the 
ecology, the environment and the health of the 
glacier can be under severe threat in case the 
Baltal route to the holy Amarnath cave was 
frequented by thousands of pilgrims."

Mr Kaul said that heavy pilgrim traffic besides 
mountain expeditions result in depletion of 
glacier and environmental degradation. He 
explained that "this depletion and degradation 
are the result of human breath, refuse and land 
erosion."

When these pilgrims can cause so much damage to 
the glaciers, imagine what the continual presence 
of troops from both countries must do to the ice 
and snow given their high-energy requirement.

Science bureaucrats who wish to be totally 
'objective' can often be very conservative in 
their assessment of complex phenomenon that 
require immediate attention and action. Often a 
watertight assessment is not feasible and 
decision ought to be based on the "precaution 
principle".

Unlike Prof Kaul, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, 
director-general of The Energy and Resources 
Institute, is quoted as saying: "A number of 
scientists say Siachen should be made a protected 
area, a heritage site of sorts, and that there 
should be no army presence on either side. For 
purely ecological reasons, this might be a good 
idea. But I don't see why there would be melting 
as a result of military presence and activity." 
Italics are added to show a lack of conviction in 
supporting an end to armed conflict at Siachen.

But Dr Pachauri holds an even more important 
position as the chairman of the IPCC. Launching 
the finding of the international report on Feb 
2nd, he strongly emphasised the cost and danger 
if there is no action taken on reducing 
greenhouse emissions which, among other things, 
melt glaciers.

Research about the Gangotri, India's largest 
glacier - which feeds the Ganges - has found that 
the rate of retreat has almost doubled to 34 
meter per year compared to what it was in 1971.

The melting of Himalayan glaciers could have 
serious consequences as more than 500 million 
residents of the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra 
river basins rely on them for water supply.

As with Gangotri, so with Siachen the increasing 
melting can be largely attributed to human 
activities in these areas. In Siachen, which 
provides water to the Nubra River, a tributary of 
the Indus, the ecosystem has been hugely 
disturbed by the presence of nearly 15000 troops 
on its two sides, consuming and defecating, 
soiling the area and littering it with the 
remains of war. Much of this debris will flow 
into our river Indus as the glacier melts.

India airlifts food and vital supplies to 
supplement material that goes up on an 
all-weather road. Fuel needed for daily needs of 
cooking and keeping warm is provided by India 
through a 250 km long pipeline. Vehicular traffic 
and the heat generated from the activities on 
this 21,000 ft high glacier has led to 
unprecedented melting and diminishing of this 72 
km-long glacier. Currently temperature rise in 
the area is recorded as 0.2 degrees Celsius 
annually, resulting in destructive snow 
avalanches, formation of glacial lakes and snow 
holes.

Note that Pakistani troops lie on the western 
side of the Saltoro ridge, which essentially runs 
north-south, while Indians are on the eastern 
side. This is where the Siachen glacier is. Due 
to much lower activity on the Pakistani side the 
western glaciers are stable, as shown by recent 
independent studies by researchers from the UK 
and Italy.

Unfortunately, climate 'experts' in Pakistan seem 
to lack knowledge of the importance of glaciers 
for our ecosystem. In 2001, some of them 
associated with the Global Climate Change Impact 
Studies Centre in Islamabad suggested that 
glaciers be melted artificially (by lasers or 
darkening) to alleviate the drought in the 
plains! This Centre was set up by old hands of 
the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission. It took 
one of their own colleagues, Dr Khalid Rashid, to 
debunk in a conference paper their suggestions, 
which he labelled as science fiction!

Glaciers can also be made secure by the use of 
common sense. It is for opinion-makers in India 
and Pakistan to tell their respective governments 
to stop ruining the future of our water supplies 
and our weather system. Bringing their troops 
down from the inhospitable heights of Siachen 
would be the first step. This would be welcomed 
by the troops as well as the mountain wildlife 
that has been displaced by the war.

The authors are Islamabad-based environmentalists

______


[3]

HindustanTimes.com » Op-Ed.

CRIME, BUT NO PUNISHMENT :
July 2006 bomb blasts in Mumbai trains


by Teesta Setalvad

February 15, 2007

Months after the July 2006 bomb blasts in Mumbai 
trains and 13 years after the serial blasts 
ripped through Bombay in 1993, a judgment was 
delivered. Now, over 100 accused await the final 
sentence. As much as it seems inevitable that 
punishment for the perpetrators of the bomb 
violence is a necessary form of redressal for the 
200 families who lost dear ones in the serial 
blasts, it becomes important and critical that 
Mumbai and India remember the truth of what tore 
India's cosmopolitan Mecca apart that December 
(1992) and January (1993).

An act of national terror was perpetrated at 
Ayodhya on December 6, 1992, in public view. A 
historic mosque was pulled down amid macabre 
celebration. In Bombay the first victory 
procession celebrating this act of vandalism was 
taken out (and allowed) in the Dharavi area at 2 
pm that Sunday afternoon, with slogans of victory.

From Monday, December 7, 1992, irate Muslim 
groups, alienated at the letdown by the Indian 
State, demonstrated and there were instances of 
some destruction of public property. Yet for many 
in the media, the earlier provocations of 
December 6 were ignored and 'angry Muslims 
carried the blame for having cast the first 
stone'.

Detailed investigations by human rights groups 
and, finally, the official Srikrishna Commission 
report directed prosecutions against policemen 
and civilians, many of whom have political clout. 
So while the recent convictions in the blasts 
case surely send a message that the Indian system 
delivers justice to all for crimes, a gross 
lacunae remains: how are those pinpointed as 
guilty of the December 1992 to January 1993 mob 
violence scot-free?

Justice BN Srikrishna who conducted the official 
probe into the violence had this to say, "One 
common link between the riots... and bomb blasts 
of March 12, 1993, appears to be that the former 
appear to have been a causative factor for the 
latter... The serial bomb blasts were a reaction 
to the totality of events at Ayodhya and Bombay 
in December 1992 and January 1993." The 
Srikrishna Commission has concluded that the 
resentment against the government and the police 
among a large body of Muslim youth was exploited 
by Pakistan-aided anti-national elements. They 
were brainwashed into taking revenge and a 
conspiracy was hatched and implemented at the 
instance of Dawood Ibrahim to train Muslims on 
how to explode bombs near vital installations and 
in Hindu areas to engineer a fresh round of 
riots. "There is no doubt that all the accused, 
except two or three, are Muslims and there is no 
doubt that the major role in the conspiracy, at 
the Indian as well as foreign end, was played by 
Muslims," says the report.

Over 45 accused in the bomb blasts case have made 
a fervent appeal. Among them are simple hamaals 
(whose only participation in the crime was 
unknowingly carrying parcels that contained 
substances used in the crime), others innocent 
women, who were similarly clueless. They have 
argued that they have been victims of a system 
that has pre-determined their guilt and the long 
trial lasting 14 years has amounted to a 
pre-conviction punishment.

While Sanjay Dutt's plea for removal of Tada 
charges was accepted, 91 accused of far less in 
abetment than him have been denied parity. 
Incidentally, the day the Tada court started 
pronouncing the verdict, there were about 96 
accused on bail. They surrendered the moment the 
Tada court summoned them, which is not the 
behaviour of criminals.

As the bomb terror of March 12, 1993, has been 
recalled in the public mind with the delivery of 
the verdict, the mob terror of December 6, 1992, 
in Ayodhya needs to be rehauled in public memory 
and condemned for what it was. None of the 
criminals responsible for the demolition of the 
Babri masjid and incitement and abetment of the 
crime have been convicted. Few have borne 
punishment for the loss of lives and property all 
over the country.

If the soul of India was seared on December 6, 
1992, the soul of Bombay was forever scarred by 
the mob violence of December 8 to January 20, 
1993. Mobs stalked the streets that were likened 
to Nazi Germany and the Bombay police connived 
with mobsters in mass arson, murder and even 
rape. Worse still, the political leadership 
watched as Bombay burned.

Justice for all and injustice to none is the 
credo on which independent India was conceived 
and built. Those guilty of the mob terror of 1992 
and 1993 must be punished with the same 
determination as those responsible for the bomb 
terror that followed. The Indian republic today 
falters on the tombstone of discriminatory 
justice.

Teesta Setalvad is co-editor, Communalism Combat

______


[4]

14 Feb 2007 16:50:03 +0530
From: "Shabnam Hashmi" <shabnamhashmi at gmail.com>

RESULTS OF THE LET PARZANIA BE SCREENED SMS CONTEST

Officially the Gujarat government was not a part 
of the 2002 carnage.  Modi maintained that that 
the inhuman massacre of over 2000 innocents, gang 
rapes of over 300 Muslim women  and girls were 
all because of Newton's third law . Over 17 fact 
finding reports showed clear and open 
participation and connivance of the state 
machinery during the carnage.

What is happening to Parzania clearly shows that 
the whole system is rotten and deceit is the way 
of governance. Even when the film is officially 
not banned, it cannot be screened as goons 
belonging to allied government forces, 
'unofficially' threaten anyone who dares to talk 
about screening the film.
Modi knows it too well that Parzania can be his 
unmaking. The brutalities and facts of 2002 
carnage which were cleverly hidden from the 
ordinary Gujarati people by a well-oiled fascist 
propaganda machinery, will become transparent. 
Parzania has the capability of shaking Gujarat's 
conscience and asmita. And that is what Mr. Modi 
is afraid of. So he doesn't ban the film himself, 
he sends his goons to do that.
A recent sms/ e-mail contest organised by Anhad 
got an overwhelming response with 99.5% 
respondents demanding screening of Parzania.
We are pasting below the prize winning entries. 
The winners will go to Bombay in the third week 
of March, see the film and meet the director and 
the cast of the film.
Prize Winners and Winning entries:  Raksha 
Bharadia ( Ahmedabad), Kishan P Chavada, Altaf 
Ali Makrani (Rajkot), Jaishree Sharma ( 
Vadodara), Rishi Gautam( Ahmedabad), Govind 
Desai( Rajkot), Sanita (Ahmedabad), Nayan Patel ( 
Halol), Stuti Amin ( Ahmedabad), Sachin ( 
Khetbrahma), Sonal Pradhan (Baroda)
1.	Yes. I definitely think that Parzania 
should be released here in Gujarat. We are a 
democratic country and the right of speech and 
expression is every Indian's birthright. If we 
keep quiet o day tomorrow we may have to pay a 
still heavier price for our passivity or 
indifference. We must speak out today as much for 
ourselves as fro the future generation.   (Raksha 
Bharadia)
2.	Pazania should be screened in Gujarat 
because Gujarat is a part of India. In fact 
Gujarat is a State of India. We have democracy in 
India. If we claim to be the biggest democratic 
country in the world then by stopping a movie 
screening , we are showing that India is a 
democratic country on paper. Way the unauthorised 
people stopped the screen of Fanah in Gujarat 
last year was very sad. By the way who has given 
the right to these unauthorised people to decide 
that which movie will be screened or not?

In India we have the right to express our 
thoughts. By stopping the Parzania to be screen 
by unauthorised people they are depriving the 
right of expression. India has its own sensor 
board which decides which movie will be screened 
and which will not. Parzania is just a movie 
which is based on reality. (Kishan P Chavada)
3.	Parzania should be released in Gujarat 
immediately. Because we do not want to watch out 
this film from the eyes of vote hungered 
politician but from the eyes of a mother who has 
lost the only star of her eyes in riots.
Not by the eyes of contractor of any religion but 
by the eyes of a tired old man who has come home 
after the hard labor of a full day and crying 
while gazing at the photo of his young son lost 
in riots.  And we want to feel the mental agony 
of those who gaze at the door whole night always 
waiting for their loving relatives who never 
returned after riots.
We wants to feel all these with a view that no 
mother losses the light of her eyes again. No 
other old people loose their support of old age 
again. And no women losses her husband in youth. 
Really it is coward ness to run away from the 
facts of our history with shying and it is 
morality to remember our guiltiness of history 
and try to reform them with accepting them. 
(Altaf Ali Makrani)
4.	The movie parzania ought to be screened 
.We live in an age where the power of official 
politics has made a mockery of our rights in a 
democratic country like India. Every individual 
should have the right to express his or her 
opinions freely without any fear.As a result of 
censoring films like Parzania, the youth would 
never come to know the truth and aftermath of 
such massacres.

Children are the symbols of a bright tomorrow. 
The movie Parzania is based on a missing child 
whose dissapearance has cast his parents into a 
cloud of grief. To shove a movie under the carpet 
for the fear of a backlash is cowardly. Parzania 
should be screened in Gujarat. In turbulent times 
like ours we need to show that our sympathy is 
not dead.  (Jayshree Sharma)
5.	Let parzania be screened because the 
people should also get aware of truth. Are the 
people of the Gujarat are so close minded that 
they are not able to face the reality. Obviously 
PARZANIA should be screened because it has the 
truth ,the feeling of reality, It is showing the 
feeling of a family. So, not only me my whole 
family is supporting the screening of PARZANIA. 
(Rishi Gautam)
6.	We this film [should be shown] in Gujarat because:
1.	The film is showing a bitter truth which needs to be shown
2.	We need to break the silence on this issue by provoking debate
3.	We shouldn't bow down against inhuman 
forces, rather put forward our non-violent 
efforts.  (Govind Desai)
7.	All I know is that I want to see the 
film. I think the rest of Gujarat who has seen 
one side of violence should watch it to 
experience the other side. (Sanita)
8.	Ban on Parzania: I see it as an affront 
of extremists to introduce modern Parda system, 
where they decide what people see and what not. 
(Nayan Patel)
9.	Parzania could have been our story. Have 
sympathy towards the victims. Let it be screened. 
Stuti Amin
10.	Gujarat Ke Kafi Log ek aisi situation se 
guzar rahe hain jisme unhe apna anewala bhavishya 
banana ki hod main kuch log mar bhi jaye to unhe 
lagta hai ki koi harj nahi. Par dusra pehlu 
bhavishya ka yeh bhi hai ki Gujarat me unka hal; 
bhi unke jaisa ho jayega , jinki aaj unhe fikr 
nahi. Dabe huyee logon ki yaad ko zinda rakhne ke 
liye aisi film ka aana behad zaroori hai.
Hum tayyar hai is film ko apne kaam or apne 
district main ghar ghar pahunchane ke liye. Yeh 
hamari zimmedari hai aur hum ise nibhayenge. 
(Sachin)
11.	Any nation gets the films it deserves. 
Parzania could have shaken the conscience of 
millions of Gujaratis. And may have helped the 
poor family. But it seems that our morality is 
dead and buried. Concerned and Troubled. (Sonal 
Pradhan)

Released by Shabnam Hashmi
February 14, 2007

______


[5]

(The Times of India
14 Feb, 2007)

Editorial

BOYCOTT BIGOTRY

A movement is building up in Bollywood to counter 
unofficial bans imposed by communal outfits on 
films that question their politics. A few film 
personalities have threatened to black out 
Gujarat if Parzania is not allowed to be screened 
in the state.

Distributors have refused to release Parzania, 
which tells the story of a boy who goes missing 
during the Gujarat pogrom in 2002, in multiplexes 
in the state after sections of the sangh parivar, 
particularly Bajrang Dal, warned of violence.

Last year, political parties including BJP and 
Congress had come together to block the release 
of Aamir Khan-starrer Fanaa in the state. The 
film was targeted because Khan had supported the 
campaign of Narmada Bachao Andolan to protect the 
rights of people ousted by the Sardar Sarovar 
Project.

It is probable that because Bollywood did not 
raise its voice against the 'social boycott' of 
Fanaa Bajrang Dal activists were emboldened to 
issue threats against the screening of Parzania. 
The BJP government in Gandhinagar, as expected, 
has refused to act against perpetrators of the 
unofficial 'ban'.

Bollywood's decision to rally for Parzania is a 
welcome step, particularly so because its threat 
to stop releasing films in Gujarat would hurt the 
industry.

It is anybody's guess if sangh parivar outfits 
would care for a boycott by Bollywood, but this 
should prompt the government to act against 
outfits that conduct politics using the threat of 
violence. Such cultural policing is, to say the 
least, undemocratic. The politics of social 
boycott has a long history in India.

During the freedom movement, Gandhi built on the 
tradition of civil disobedience practised by 
American transcendentalists like Thoreau to 
boycott the imperial government. It is voluntary 
political action and derives legitimacy by 
ascending a higher moral plane.

When Bollywood decides to protect its right to 
freedom of expression by boycotting a state that 
has failed to guarantee protection of that right, 
it is following in the Gandhian tradition. The 
mode of social boycott practised by the likes of 
Bajrang Dal is an inversion of the same idea.

Fear and coercion are central to this tradition 
and its political morality is dictated by the 
mob. Unfortunately, there seem to be a lot of 
takers for politics of this kind. Pattali Makkal 
Katchi, a caste-centric outfit that is 
represented in the UPA government, has raised a 
'Black Shirt Army' to protect Tamil culture and 
values.

PMK volunteers have resorted to violence and 
vandalism in the past as part of their cultural 
policing. However, Gujarat stands out because the 
Bajrang Dal brand of policing appears to have 
received the tacit backing of the state 
government.

o o o

WHY GUJARAT 'BANNED' PARZANIA
One man's diktat is the last word: even Narendra Modi acquiesces ......

by J.S. Bandukwala
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2007/02/why-gujarat-banned-parzania.html

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[6] 

THE YOGI AND THE FANATIC
WILL EASTERN UP BE THE NEXT GUJARAT?

by Subhash Gatade

GORAKHPUR, a district in UP bordering Nepal and 
one which had reached national headlines during 
the anti-colonial struggle for its various 
militant interventions, is today making news 
altogether for different reasons. Gone are the 
days when the imagery of the nascent Indian 
nation had caught the imagination of the masses, 
and gone are the days when the region was 
reverberating with anti-feudal and anti-British 
slogans; all that is passé today. Today the 
slogans have achieved a majoritarian slant and 
talk of building a Hindu Rashtra or of making the 
whole area the citadel of a particular brand of 
Hindutva where the writ of only the local MP, who 
also happens to be the mahant of a famous mutt 
belonging to the Nath tradition, runs.

UNFOLDING SCENARIO

The unfolding scenario was once again evident to 
the outside world when this 'firebrand' MP, Yogi 
Adityanath, organised a three day international 
conclave named 'Virat Hindu Mahasammelan' on 
December 22-24, 2006, here. It was attended by 
thousands of people which not only included many 
leaders of the Sangh Parivar, but had enough 
presence of local sadhus as well as more than 500 
delegates from Nepal. Ranging from Swami 
Nishchalanand Saraswati (the Shankaracharya of 
Govardhan Peeth, Puri) to Ashok Singhal 
(international president, VHP) or Keshar Singh 
(an ex-general of the Nepalese army) to 
Chinmayanand (a former union minister), it had 
brought together a motley combination of sadhus, 
politicos and activists of the Hindutva brigade 
together to discuss the "challenges present 
before Hinduism."

The congregation not only called for declaration 
of Nepal as a "Hindu state" and restoration of 
monarchy there but also resolved for the 
construction of a grand temple in Ayodhya, 
"liberation" of the Kashi and Mathura shrines, 
and ban on cow slaughter.

[. . . ]

Another 'highlight' of the Mahasammelan was that 
it was organised parallel to the three day 
national executive meeting of the Bharatiya 
Janata Party which was billed as the "party's 
grandest show of unity and strength in recent 
times." And while the BJP, in its executive 
meeting, seemed to waver initially on the agenda 
of Ram temple construction at Ayodhya, the 
Mahasammelan --- which was in a sense a show of 
defiance by its own MP --- seemed to focus itself 
on these very agendas over which the BJP seemed 
to be going soft because of political exigencies. 
It is a different matter that at the end of its 
meeting the party itself discovered the "merits" 
of raising this issue and riding whole hog on a 
rabid Hindutva agenda.

PARALLELS WITH GUJARAT

The question arises: whether the 'party with a 
difference,' which wears 'discipline' on its 
sleeves, has decided to tail its own 'defiant' MP 
or it is part of a wider gameplan of the Hindutva 
brigade which has seen for itself the 'success' 
of this model in this part of UP --- a model 
which has the potential of making it another 
Hindutva laboratory? It is for everyone to see 
that the experiment unfolded in this part of 
Eastern UP in a time of declining fortunes of the 
Hindutva brigade, and has brightened its 
prospects in a miraculous manner.

It was a marker of things to come that when 
Gujarat was burning in the aftermath of Godhra, 
with the fire directed at minorities, Gorakhpur 
was not far behind. Many parallel instances of 
terrorising the minorities and razing their 
houses to ground, all under the leadership of 
this 'firebrand' Yogi, had then come to light. 
Loud proclamations of turning Gorakhpur into 
Godhra-Gujarat were also heard. In the 
post-Godhra bandh, a Hindu Mahasabha leader 
considered as the right hand man of the Yogi had 
in his speech declared: "If only yogiji permits 
us we will repay a hundred for each." The local 
MLA, Dr Radha Mohan Das Agarwal, had defiantly 
declared: "Gorakhpur is a Hindu Rashtra. Yogiji 
is both its president and prime minister." His 
speech was widely reported in papers.


http://communalism.blogspot.com/2007/02/will-eastern-up-be-next-gujarat.html


o o o

RIOT, MANUFACTURED IN GORAKHPUR

What happened in the eastern Uttar Pradesh town 
was not a conflict but violence unleashed by MP 
Yogi Adityanath and his henchmen

by Apoorvanand

If one tries to understand the developments in 
Gorakhpur and its neighbouring areas of eastern 
Uttar Pradesh (Poorvanchal) from January 26 to 
31, 2007 through the eyes of the print and 
electronic media, one moves further away from the 
truth. It is a sordid story of a highly 
communalised media conjuring up a riot, 
collaborating with BJP MP Yogi Adityanath, a Bal 
Thackeray clone and heir to the Gorakhnath Peeth 
operating from the Gorakhnath temple. Adityanath 
is a BJP MP for 'technical' reasons and cares a 
damn for the niceties of party discipline because 
he knows that the party cannot dissociate itself 
from him. Though he mocked the party by holding a 
Vishwa Hindu Maha Sammelan at the same time as 
the BJP's National Council meet in Lucknow, the 
party did not mind. It had earlier swallowed the 
defeat of its candidate in the Assembly election 
by Adityanath's candidate. One should know that 
he is a Thakur; a Thakur heads the BJP now and 
the Samajwadi Party is also being run by a 
powerful Thakur. The Thakur spread across 
partylines ensures that Adityanath is allowed to 
have his own way in his fiefdom, i.e. 
Poorvanchal. He makes it a point to give calls 
for a Gorakhpur bandh whenever the chief minister 
visits the town.

Poorvanchal mein rahan hai to Yogi-Yogi kahan 
hoga (You have to chant Yogi's name if you want 
to live in Poorvanchal) is a slogan popularised 
by his gang. But how true is the claim of his 
hold on Gorakhpur, leave alone Poorvanchal? He 
has lost all local elections held recently in and 
around Gorakhpur, and could only manage to lure 
the relatively respected Samajwadi Party (SP) 
member and mayoral candidate Anju Chaudhary to 
his side.

Apparently, Chaudhary fell a victim to the myth 
spun around him during the last 15 years. 
Adityanath has been called the Yuvak Hindu 
Samrat, Narendra Modi of Poorvanchal, the premier 
of the Hindu Rashtra of Poorvanchal. He has used 
the wealth of the Gorakhnath Temple to sustain 
his army of lumpen youth. Adityanath has followed 
the rss methodology in creating organisations 
with different names that he calls cultural 
bodies. Among these are Hindu Yuva Vahini, Sri 
Ram Shakti Prakoshtha, Gorakhnath Purvanchal 
Vikas Manch, Hindu Mahasabha and Vishwa Hindu 
Mahasangh. Adityanath himself is the main 
functionary of these unregistered outfits. He 
also controls much of the functioning of the 
Bajrang Dal and the Hindu Jagran Manch. He holds 
his durbar in his temple that is attended by 
local police and officials.

Adityanath has perfected his technique of 
manufacturing riots. An insignificant incident 
like a Hindu's clothes getting stained 
accidentally by the paan spat by a Muslim is 
turned into an act of humiliation of Hindus. A 
rape in which the victim is dalit and the 
perpetrator Muslim is used to substantiate the 
allegation that "Muslims rape our women" and all 
hell is let loose on the Muslims. The last 11 
years are witness to several such acts. No 
criminal case has been registered against him 
except once in 1999 when a case was registered 
against him in Maharajganj after the killing of 
the official gunman accompanying sp leader Talat 
Aziz. The police and administration have remained 
mute spectators with the political leadership 
looking the other way. All this has given him an 
air of invincibility. Muslims have been given to 
understand that neither the Bahujan Samaj Party, 
nor the sp is willing to rein him in. Perhaps the 
SP is seeking to counter Mayawati's Brahmin card 
with its own Thakur card by indulging him. The 
Congress is nowhere and also lacks a will to take 
him on. All this leaves the Muslims here with no 
option but to resign themselves to their fate.

[. . .]

http://communalism.blogspot.com/2007/02/riot-manufactured-in-gorakhpur.html

______


[7]


http://communalism.blogspot.com/2007/02/open-letter-to-rahul-dravid-captain-of.html

AN OPEN LETTER TO RAHUL DRAVID, THE CAPTAIN OF INDIA'S CRICKET TEAM

by Shamsul Islam

7 February 2007

Dear Rahul Dravid,

Namaskar!

You, presently, lead the cricket team of India 
and wear the National Flag, Tri-colour while 
playing for India in different parts of the 
globe. You must be well aware of the fact that 
this Tri-colour represents a Secular-Democratic 
India and team led by you which includes players 
from different religions and regions of the 
country, undoubtedly, symbolize the same reality. 
I hope you are familiar with the glorious 
heritage which the National Flag and a 
Secular-Democratic polity represent. These are 
the products of great anti-colonial struggle and 
ruthless fight against theocratic politics 
represented by organizations like the Muslim 
League, the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha. Despite 
the partition of India on the basis of religion 
mainly forced by Muslim League and dastardly 
killing of Father of the Nation by persons 
affiliated to the Hindu Mahasabha and the RSS, 
India chose to remain a non-theocratic state. 
That is the significance of the Nation which you 
and your team represent and the Flag which you 
display on your costumes.

I am sorry to write that by participating in the 
birth centenary programme of M. S. Golwalkar 
(Guruji), the ideologue of the RSS, in Nagpur on 
January 20, 2007, you have not only violated the 
trust which this country has put in you but also 
saddened large sections of your fans who love and 
adore you because you and your team represent a 
Secular-Democratic India. According to a report 
which appeared in the Hindi organ of the RSS, 
Panchjanya (February 4, 2007, p.11), 'Indian 
cricket captain inaugurated the Surya Namaskar 
Mahayagya programme in the Vidarbh region (of 
Masharashtra)'. This campaign was organized by 
RSS 'to commemorate the birth centenary of Shri 
Guruji' who happened to be the second chief and 
the most prominent ideologue of the RSS.The cover 
page of Panchjanya also shows you lightening the 
lamp before the garlanded photograph of Golwalkar.

I do not know who led you to join this programme 
of the RSS but I feel duty-bound to bring to your 
notice few crucial facts about the RSS and Guruji 
who led it from 1940 to 1973.

The first Home Minister of independent India, 
Sardar Patel, held the RSS responsible for the 
assassination of Gandhiji. He in a letter to 
Golwalkar, dated 11 September 1948, clearly 
stated that it was communal poison spread by the 
RSS which was responsible for this tragedy. 
Without mincing words he wrote: 'As a final 
result of the poison, the country had to suffer 
the sacrifice of the invaluable life of Gandhiji. 
Even an iota of the sympathy of the Government, 
or of the people, no more remained for the RSS. 
In fact opposition grew. Opposition turned more 
severe, when the RSS men expressed joy and 
distributed sweets after Gandhiji's death.' I 
hope you know that consequently the RSS was 
banned for its role in the assassination.

Dear Rahul Saheb! Golwalkar whose birthday 
centenary programme you inaugurated was a 
die-hard fascist who rejected any talk of a 
democratic-secular India. In 1939 he penned a 
terrible book We or Our Nationhood Defined which 
ousted minorities like Muslims and Christians 
from the Indian nationhood. Even after 
Independence, in another book his Bunch of 
Thoughts, Golwalkar declared Muslims as enemy 
number one and Christians as enemy number two of 
the country. I wish you had
boycotted such a programme as you can vouch to 
the fact that many Muslim and Christian players 
playing cricket with you have done proud to the 
nation.

Golwalkar also glorified dictators like Mussolini 
and Hitler and insisted on adopting their methods 
for cleansing minorities in India. In his 1939 
book while eulogizing Hitler he wrote: 'German 
race pride has now become the topic of the day. 
To keep up the purity of the Race and its 
culture,Germany shocked the world by her purging 
the country of the Semitic Races - the Jews. Race 
pride at its highest has been manifested here. 
Germany has also shown how wellnigh impossible it 
is for Races and cultures, having differences 
going to the root, to be assimilated into one 
united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindusthan 
to learn and profit by.' It is really astonishing 
that a renowned sportsperson like you went to be 
part of programmes dedicated to such a nasty 
person.

I also would like to draw your attention to what 
RSS thinks about the Tri-colour which you so 
proudly wear. When the Indian Parliament decided 
to have Tri-colour as the National Flag, the 
English organ of the RSS, Organizer, ('Mystery 
behind the Bhagwa Dhawaj', August 14, 1947) 
denigrated this great choice in the following 
words: 'The people who have come to power by the 
kick of fate may give in our hands the Tricolour 
but it never [sic] be respected and owned by 
Hindus. The word three is in itself an evil, and 
a flag having three colours will certainly 
produce a very bad psychological effect and is 
injurious to a country'. The RSS has been 
demanding the adoption of saffron flag as the 
National Flag of the country. It also needs to be 
known that when the Constituent Assembly of India 
finally passed the Constitution on 26 November 
1949, the RSS demanded that it should be replaced 
by the Codes of Manu (Organizer November 30, 
1949) which openly glorified Casteism, upheld 
persecution of Untouchables and denigrated women.

Dear Mr. Rahul! You went to commemorate the birth 
centenary of a RSS leader who hated democracy and 
declared (while addressing the top cadres of the 
RSS at its Reshambagh headquarters, Nagpur in 
1940) that Hindu India of his dreams needed only 
'one flag (saffron), one leader and one ideology'.

Let me end with the hope that a great cricketer 
like you who stands as a symbol of 
Democratic-Secular India will not betray the 
trust the country has shown in you and fall prey 
to the designs of Hindu Separatism.

Wishing you all the best.

Shamsul Islam.
February 6, 2007

______


[9]

Magazine / The Hindu
Feb 11, 2007 


Level Playing Field

THE STATE AND THE RIGHT TO LIFE

by Mike Marqusee

IN 1793, the French Convention was debating the 
fate of the deposed and imprisoned king, Louis 
XVI. Thomas Paine, an Englishman who had already 
played a key role in fomenting the American 
revolution, and whose epochal book, Rights of 
Man, had made him a criminal in his native land, 
rose to address the assembly.

"Citizen President," he began, "my hatred of and 
aversion to monarchy are well known. They are 
based on reason and on conviction, and you would 
have to take my life before you could eradicate 
them." But, he went on, he would not and could 
not support the proposal to execute the former 
king. "Since France has been the first of all the 
nations in Europe to abolish royalty, let her be 
also the first to abolish the penalty of death, 
and to substitute for it some other punishment."

Respect for life

Paine spoke as a proud "citizen of the world", 
and in this instance, as in many others, as a 
voice for the fully human civilisation that we 
have yet to achieve. In contrast, the voices 
crying themselves hoarse for the hanging of 
Muhammad Afzal speak for the residues of 
inhumanity, and if they are heeded, a primary 
condition for the existence of civilised society 
- respect for the sanctity of human life - will 
have been profoundly undermined. The argument 
that the execution of Afzal is required by the 
"collective conscience" of the nation insults and 
compromises that conscience. Yes, no doubt, this 
is a death that many millions in India would 
welcome and some would celebrate. But the word 
"conscience" is here grossly misapplied to a 
cocktail of bloodlust, bigotry, and 
vindictiveness. It is the duty of the judiciary 
to act as a check on this mentality; instead, the 
court has legitimised it, and in doing so, has 
made the citizens of India less secure and less 
free.

Not democratic

It is often forgotten that the ancient injunction 
of an "eye for an eye" was in its day an attempt 
to restrict inequitable punishments, to ensure 
that no more than an eye was taken for an eye. 
Since then, one hopes, our ideas about what 
constitutes justice have become more refined. In 
particular, it is generally recognised that the 
use of punishment to appease public demand is 
itself a species of injustice and inimical to 
democracy. To quote Paine again, "an avidity to 
punish is always dangerous to liberty". Or, as 
The Temptations put it in their soul masterpiece 
of 1969, "Ball of Confusion": "an eye for an eye, 
a tooth for a tooth ... vote for me and I'll set 
you free."

The recognition of human fallibility is a 
fundamental argument for the rule of law. The 
irremediable nature of the death penalty makes it 
incompatible with that rule.

In the mid 1970s, in response to the Irish 
Republican Army's terrorist campaign, many civil 
liberties were sacrificed, but the British 
Parliament did at least resist calls for the 
reinstatement of the death penalty, which had 
been abolished a decade earlier. As a result, 
though they were found guilty of horrific crimes 
of mass murder, the people known as the 
Birmingham Six and the Guildford Four were not 
put to death. They served 14-17 years in prison 
before their innocence was finally established 
and accepted by the judicial establishment - but 
at least they were still alive and could be 
released to enjoy their freedom and their 
vindication.

There is already far more doubt about Afzal's 
guilt than there was about the guilt of the 
Birmingham Six or Guildford Four at the time of 
their convictions. If Afzal is put to death, and 
evidence of his innocence subsequently emerges, 
there will be no way to rectify the error. That 
is why Moses Maimonides, the 12th century Arab 
Jewish theologian, argued, "It is better and more 
satisfactory to acquit a thousand guilty persons 
than to put a single innocent man to death."

Punishment and crime

India's use of the death penalty is of course far 
more restrained than the US's (not to speak of 
China's). But with eagerness to emulate U.S. 
society currently so widespread in India, it is 
worth noting that the U.S. experience shows that 
the death penalty is no deterrent to violent 
crime, and especially not to terrorist crime.

In the 10 years from 1997 to the end of 2006, the 
U.S. executed 700 convicted criminals (already, 
since the new year, another seven have been 
killed). However, not all U.S. States have the 
death penalty, and in those States which do not, 
the murder rate is substantially and consistently 
lower than in those which do. Some research also 
indicates that executions (or more precisely, the 
publicity attending them) actually increases the 
number of murders. Globally, the murder and 
violent crime rate in the U.S. is on average 
three times higher than in European countries 
that have abolished the death penalty.

The choice ahead

By commuting the sentence on Afzal and going on 
to abolish the death penalty altogether, India 
has the chance to join a growing vanguard of 
progressive and democratic nations. Eighty-eight 
countries have now abolished capital punishment; 
thirty others have not used it for 10 years. 
Since 1990, more than 40 countries have abolished 
the death penalty, including South Africa, 
Mexico, the Philippines, Turkey, and nearly all 
countries in eastern Europe. Abolition of the 
death penalty is a precondition for membership of 
the European Union, and European and other States 
will not extradite terrorist suspects to the U.S. 
if they are to face the death penalty there.

Italy has announced that it will use its current 
term on the Security Council to promote a global 
ban on the death penalty. In doing so it has the 
support of a majority of U.N. member-States as 
well as all those working worldwide to enhance 
respect for human rights. In contrast, the 
execution of Afzal is bound to undermine India's 
reputation and specifically its campaign for a 
permanent seat on the Council - unless, of 
course, it's been decided that this campaign is 
exclusively dependent on Washington's sponsorship.

Whatever he may be guilty of, Afzal has not been 
accused of being either a direct participant or a 
major conspirator in the 2001 attack on 
Parliament. The murder of 2,000 Indian citizens 
in Gujarat in 2002 was, by any realistic 
standards, a more severe and damaging attack on 
the fabric of Indian democracy. Yet prominent 
individuals whose complicity in that crime is far 
more direct and more clearly established than 
Afzal's complicity in the attack on Parliament 
remain unpunished, and indeed have yet to be 
brought before a court of law.

Betrayed trust

There is no excuse for the premeditated and 
avoidable physical destruction of a human being. 
That applies as much to States as to individuals. 
In fact, the State especially, as the guardian of 
the right to life, betrays its fundamental trust 
when it executes one of its own. Here one sees 
not the majesty of the law, but its opposite: the 
obscenity of legally sanctioned murder. The 
upshot is that society is coarsened, reckless 
authority is emboldened and respect for human 
life is decreased.


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Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), on
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