SACW | Feb 21-22, 2007 | Samjhauta Express Killings; Gujranwala, Gujarat, Sachar Report, Parzania, Moral Police, Iranian Dissidents, Anti nuclear conference
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at mnet.fr
Wed Feb 21 21:02:58 CST 2007
South Asia Citizens Wire | February 21-22, 2007 | Dispatch No. 2363 - Year 9
[1] India- Pakistan: On the Samjhauta Express Fire Bombing . . .
- 'A new track is opened up each time a person
from one country crosses the border to the other'
(Furrukh Khan)
- Re My letter published in "The Hindu" (F Zakaria)
- Samjhota Express tragedy (Editorial, Dawn)
[2] Pakistan: Demise of Gujranwala (Editorial, Daily Times)
[3] India: Exiles in their own land (Harsh Mander)
[4] India: Area of darkness (Mujibur Rehman)
[5] India: 'Treat Hindu terror acts, jihad on par' (Anupam Dasgupta)
[6] In India, Showing Sectarian Pain to Eyes That Are Closed (Somini Sengupta)
[7] India: Playing Moral Police on Valentines
Day [the Left joins hands with the Hindu Right
Wing]
[8] Letter - On The Holocaust Conference
Sponsored By The Government Of Iran (Gholam Reza
Afkhami and over one hundred others)
[9] International Seminar 'Indo-US Nuclear 'Deal'
- India, South Asia, NAM and the Global Order' in
(Bombay, 10-11 March 2007)
____
[1]
Indian Express
February 22, 2007
'A NEW TRACK IS OPENED UP EACH TIME A PERSON FROM
ONE COUNTRY CROSSES THE BORDER TO THE OTHER'
by Furrukh Khan
For many passengers on the Samjhauta Express on
its way to Lahore from Delhi, two explosions in
the middle of the night ended everything.
'Samjhauta' offers a variety of meanings:
understanding, agreement, coming together,
compromise and other such affable connotations.
This might have been the idea behind naming this
train service which provides multiple avenues of
negotiation and contact for people between two
traditionally hostile and often suspicious
governments.
Today, that aim of integration, much like the
train which symbolised it, lies in a wreckage.
One can only imagine how the victims' families
are dealing with this mortal blow. Right now the
attention should be solely focused on the victims
and survivors of this terrible tragedy.
Historically, Panipat has been the site where
many innocents have lost their lives to the
forces of bigotry. It befalls the rest of us to
fight back on multiple fronts and talk about
coexistence, about tolerance and about life. Such
should be a path undertaken by a wider, more
diverse group of people from Pakistan and India
as a practical and viable alternative to the
'official' track of diplomacy. History has
revealed that official talks continue to be held
hostage to the actions of a few. But parallel
tracks exist. Unfortunately, only one,
euphemistically named 'track two' is talked
about. But a new track is opened up each time a
person from one country crosses the border to the
other. It is only by this physical act that one
is able to challenge the ideologies of fear and
loathing instilled in sections of the population.
The victims of the Samjhauta Express carnage,
which included children, women and men, all of
them innocent, paid a terrible price. It could
have been any one of us who might have been
unfortunate enough to have been on that train
that day. Under 'normal' circumstances, people
could have travelled easily across the border to
the site of this terrible tragedy. However,
considering the track record of India and
Pakistan with their citizens, there is no doubt
that those affected would have to deal with more
insults that add to their injuries.
Now is the time to grieve for those whose lives
have been forever changed. Yet, when the time
comes to take up the task of pushing for a more
encompassing dialogue between the people and the
governments of Pakistan and India, there has to
be a more steely resolve to open more tracks of
communication. While one might not be able to do
much for the victims, one can at least promise to
use their memory to fuel the drive for better
relations between the two countries. The moral
majority has to make its presence felt through
its participation in a variety of ventures which
would make it much more difficult for the
minority to believe that it can destroy the
feelings of goodwill which beat in so many hearts
on both sides of the border. Next time someone
sets out from Delhi for Lahore, it should be the
warmth of a Lahori that greets the traveller, not
the murderous smoke and fire of a terrible attack.
The writer teaches postcolonial studies at Lahore
University of Management Sciences, Lahore
o o o
Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2007 10:14:27 +0500
SUBJECT: FWD: MY LETTER PUBLISHED IN "THE HINDU"
>http://www.hindu.com/2007/02/21/stories/2007022102901001.htm
>
>I was appalled on reading the article by Praveen
>Swami and Siddharth Varadarajan's "Keep the
>peace process on track." For a
>Pakistani-American and a strong supporter of
>better India-Pakistan relations like me, the
>deep-seated prejudice of the writers was
>disheartening.
>
>Without a shred of evidence, they have laid the
>blame at the door of Pakistanis for the death of
>Pakistani citizens. Not once do they even
>suggest that this could be the work of Hindu
>extremists.
>
>F. Zakaria,
>Palo Alto, California
>
>This was my original that they edited:
>
I was appalled and disgusted by both Praveen
Swami and Siddharth Varadarajan's op-ed pieces
in The Hindu. As a Pakistani-American and a
strong supporter of better India-Pakistan
relations, the deep seated prejudice of the
writers was deeply disheartening. Without a shred
of evidence they lay all blame on Pakistanis for
the death of Pakistani citizens on the Samjhota
Express. Not once do they even raise the
possibility that this could also be the work of
Hindu extremists, so close to the 5th year
anniversary of the terrible Godhra tragedy. If
one cannot get fair-minded and
balanced opinions in India's premier newspaper
what hope do we have of healing the deep wounds
of conflict between the two countries.
o o o
Dawn
21 February 2007
Editorial
SAMJHOTA EXPRESS TRAGEDY
MONDAY'S tragedy at Panipat is too staggering for
words. The identification of the charred bodies
will take some time. But so far a minimum of 68
people have fallen victim to flames lit by men
utterly indifferent to human suffering. The
fire-bombing of the Samjhota Express, carrying
757 passengers, 553 of whom were Pakistanis, did
more than cause death and destruction in Samjhota
Express; it rocked the subcontinent itself.
Newspaper reports and TV images cannot catch even
a fraction of the humanitarian dimensions of the
tragedy, the grief and misery inflicted on the
hundreds of families, and the agonies of the
severely burnt now fighting for their lives. What
precisely the perpetrators of this crime wanted
to achieve by killing innocent civilians and
destroying entire families is a mystery. If the
aim was to sow discord and derail the peace
process, both governments have made it clear that
such dastardly deeds will not be allowed to stand
in the way of the normalisation process and the
pursuit of the composite dialogue to which they
are committed. In fact, as Pakistan has made it
clear, even the train service will continue to
run on schedule. Condemning "such wanton acts of
terrorism", President Pervez Musharraf said that
he would not allow "elements who want to sabotage
the on-going peace process to succeed in their
nefarious designs". Indian Prime Minister Dr
Manmohan Singh's focus was on the humanitarian
side of the tragedy, and he reaffirmed his
government's "commitment Š to ensure that its
perpetrators are punished". Monday's crime at
Panipat came a week ahead of the fifth
anniversary of the burning of the train at Godhra
and a day before the arrival of Foreign Minister
Khurshid Kasuri in New Delhi for talks with his
Indian counterpart. It took years of
investigations and court judgments to finally
establish that the Muslims initially held
responsible for the Godhra train fire were not to
blame. In the present case, too, one hopes that
time will sooner or later establish the truth and
unmask the fiends behind this despicable crime
whose victims were innocent people. It must also
be noted that the casualties would have been far
fewer if the Indian authorities had not sealed
off all train windows.
There are several ways in which the impact and
immediate outcome of the Panipat tragedy are
different from similar acts of terrorism
committed earlier. Unlike what happened
immediately after the Bombay train blasts in July
last year, no responsible person in the Indian
government has pointed fingers at "Pakistan-based
terrorist groups" for the crime. Since a majority
of the dead are Pakistanis, no one in his right
mind would see Islamabad's hand in the crime.
Secondly, we now have in place an Indo-Pakistan
"anti-terrorism mechanism" to which President
Musharraf and Prime Minister Singh agreed at
Havana last year. This part of the Havana
statement was criticised in India by some
right-wing elements who objected to the
establishment of a forum designed "to identify
and implement counter-terrorism initiatives and
investigations." The existence of such an
instrument obviously irks those in India who
blame Pakistan for every act of terrorism even
before investigations begin.
There is no doubt that the two sides will jointly
investigate a crime that has shocked the world.
There are extremists and hate groups on both
sides of the border, and they would love to
derail the peace process. However, the two
governments must know that the scourge of
terrorism now seems to be operating on a scale
that, if left unchecked, could make a mockery of
not only the peace process but everything else
meant to promote harmony and understanding
between Pakistan and India.
______
[2]
Daily Times
February 22, 2007
EDITORIAL: DEMISE OF GUJRANWALA
A 'religious fanatic' murdered Punjab's welfare
minister, Zille Huma Usman, in broad daylight
Tuesday as she was about to address an open
session of her 'meet-the-people' pre-election
routine at the Muslim League House in Gujranwala.
The killer was Maulvi Sarwar and the press has
tried to play down his heinous crime by calling
him an 'Islamist'.
In fact, the man is a stereotypical follower of
the religious parties. He has serial-killed women
in the past but was prevented from being punished
by his powerful religio-political patrons. The
fact also is that by Gujranwala standards, he was
no fanatic, just a product of Gujranwala where
the religious parties are strong and the city has
contributed the largest number of youthful
'martyrs' to the earlier state-run jihad in
Kashmir.
Maulvi Sarwar is supposed to have disapproved of
women in public life. But this was not sticky
personal matter. He was simply following the MMA
manifesto against the inclusion of women's
special seats in the assemblies. (The deceased
minister was inducted on one of these seats by
the ruling party.)
If the religious alliance is not worried about
the consequences of its 'Islamic' teachings, the
rest of the nation should certainly be, because
it gives the largest number of votes to a woman
called Benazir Bhutto.
Minister Zille Huma Usman was only 37 and was
dreaming of a life of freedom for the daughters
of Gujranwala. She had organised the 'marathon'
for them in 2005 in Gujranwala which was attacked
by the local seminary aligned to the MMA.
Unfortunately, far from challenging the seminary
at the time and siding with Ms Huma, the
provincial government had kowtowed and called off
all 'mixed marathons' in the province which
finally meant that girls stayed indoors.
The minister had received death threats for
several months. Most probably they came after it
was heard that she was planning another marathon
for Gujranwala girls. Who were the people behind
these threats? They were the same people who
repeatedly saved the serial killer Maulvi Sarwar
from being tried and hanged because "he was
following his Islamic conscience" and cleansing
the city of sin.
Let us take a look at this Maulvi Sarwar. The man
had earlier murdered seven women described in the
press as 'call girls' in Gujranwala and Lahore.
He was arrested once and confessed to killing the
'sinful women'; he was let off after one year
because of lack of evidence but, more accurately,
because of religious support. His patrons,
according to the police, had "paid off" the
relatives of the killed and been reprieved under
'Islamic' laws. There is nothing new in this.
Anybody who knows the decade of religious mayhem
in Karachi knows how criminals are protected from
punishment by powerful patrons.
If our universities had not already been
'conquered' by the religious parties they could
have done a sociological profile of Gujranwala as
a city without a soul and a dangerous tendency
towards punishing all kinds of 'entertainers',
often with death. No one could imagine a decade
ago that Gujranwala would become so violently
Islamist in the future. No doubt it was becoming
a wayside city that was growing by accretion
without an intellectual mooring, more or less
like Faisalabad that began well under the British
but declined spiritually afterwards.
After General Zia ul Haq's Islamisation,
Gujranwala began to produce jihadis and turned
inward, scrutinising its citizens for moral
backslidings. It first turned on the minorities
and produced the famous Salamat Masih Case,
accusing an under-age Christian child of
insulting the Holy Prophet (PBUH). A religious
party attacked him and his co-accused in Lahore
when they were coming to attend the High Court,
killing one. Salamat Masih had to be sent out of
Pakistan to save his life.
The second famous Gujranwala case was about a
hafiz of Quran and amateur doctor who
accidentally dropped his copy of the Holy Quran
in the fire and was reported over the loudspeaker
by a local cleric. His neighbours came out and
burnt him alive. The rural nature of the
population was expressed in the way the citizens
mistook the word atai (quack doctor) applied to
the victim over the loudspeaker, for asai
(Christian). In other words, in Gujranwala one
doesn't have to check the facts before killing a
non-Muslim!
Meanwhile, because of the atmosphere of extremism
created by the clergy, some citizens like Maulvi
Sarwar took to killing women they suspected of
fahashi. Maulvi Sarwar began killing women in
2002 after listening to the most powerful cleric
of the city (who shall remain unnamed) calling
down the wrath of God on the entertainers that
performed in the seven theatres of Gujranwala. He
was not the only one who was inspired. The city's
police and the magistracy equally took part in
'acts of piety' by arresting actresses from the
city theatres. Only Maulvi Sarwar went further
than that.
He turned a serial killer and first murdered two
dancing girls of Gujranwala, but went scot-free
because witnesses who had earlier deposed against
him quickly recanted under threat or inducement.
He was now wanted only in one case of injuring a
dancing girl after an attempt to murder her.
After that, he went around catching dancing girls
outside cinema halls and theatres and hotels and
shooting them to death. In each case he was let
off because many powerful people seemed to
actually enjoy or approve of what he was doing.
The method was the same: witnesses either
recanted or were made to recant.
The politicians did nothing in Lahore. In fact
one not-very-reputable politician of Gujranwala
whose newly elected son was given the portfolio
of culture complained to the chief minister that
culture was a morally incorrect portfolio as it
was not allowed by Islam!
Today the press has forgotten the dark past of
the city that has killed a young minister who
thought of bringing progress to it. While jihad
was at its height in the 1990s, the state
sacrificed the fourth largest city of Pakistan to
'martyrdom' in Kashmir. Now most cities of the
country are becoming like Gujranwala. And the
politician and the officer are still slumbering. *
______
[3]
Hindustan Times
20 February 2007
EXILES IN THEIR OWN LAND
by Harsh Mander (February 19, 2007)
She wept bitterly that it was her son's first day
at work. We were initially confused. Why was this
an occasion for grief? "He is just 10 years old,"
she explained. It was his own decision to drop
out of school, and join his father's trade as a
house painter. He felt that if he worked, at
least the family would be freed from the burden
of providing for him. His home is a grimy
single-room tenement at the edge of the garbage
dump for all of Ahmedabad city. The colony is one
of more than 80 that sprang up for survivors of
the 2002 massacre in Gujarat, who continue, even
five years later, to live in dread of returning
to their original homes. They survive not just as
economic refugees but as fugitives from a
continuing climate of sustained hate and fear.
The Gujarat government is in complete denial
about the conditions of internal displacement. In
an affidavit to the Supreme Court in January
2006, it admitted that some affected persons had
not returned to their homes, but maintained that
this was not because of fear but because of
superior economic prospects that they found in
the new locations. In a recent communication to
the Supreme Court commissioners in the right to
food case, it stated even more categorically that
all "riot-affected people have returned to their
homes".
This official falsehood was easily nailed by a
visit in October 2006 by the National Commission
for Minorities (NCM) to 17 such colonies, where
they found appalling living conditions. This was
further confirmed by a comprehensive survey of 81
relief colonies by Aman Biradari, which found
around 30,000 internal refugees living with
abysmal denial of public services and livelihoods.
The survey noted that not a single of the 81
colonies were established by the state
government, which did not even provide the land
for any of these. Instead, every single of these
were built by Muslim organisations on purchased
land. In only six of these was there some kind of
collaboration by secular NGOs. This is a grave
abdication by the State but also by international
and national humanitarian organisations.
From the start, after the forced closure of
relief colonies by the Gujarat government in
2002, the return of 200,000 internally displaced
persons to the land of their ancestors had to be
painfully negotiated with neighbours who had
betrayed and attacked them. There was rarely a
welcome, or expression of remorse. It was made
amply clear that their homecoming was on
sufferance. The first condition if they insisted
on returning was that they would not give
evidence against their attackers in any criminal
case. As a result of their consent to this
humiliating condition, thousands of criminal
cases connected with the carnage collapsed at the
stages of investigation or trial. They also had
to accept residential segregation and boycott in
employment and trade.
For those who were unwilling to accept the terms
set for their return, or who could still not
muster the necessary trust to come back to the
land of their ancestors with their families, or
those who continued to be openly intimidated, the
choices before them were stark: to leave Gujarat,
to buy or rent homes in Muslim ghettoes or, if
they were too poor, to live in the deprivation of
relief colonies. It is difficult to estimate the
numbers of the first two, in a situation in which
the government refuses to keep records of
displacement. This minimises its own
responsibility and culpability. But this survey
gives an idea of the numbers of internally
displaced persons in relief colonies five years
later.
The colonies were established by Muslim
organisations on the cheapest land available,
without connecting roads and distant from
economic prospects. The daily grind of finding
work is compounded by the fact that people who
fled from numerous villages were bunched together
in colonies that were built with paramount
considerations of safety in numbers rather than
sustainable prospects of employment. The survey
found that the majority of men travel long
distances to their old places of residence to eke
out work, but there they are hampered by boycott
of Muslim shops, eateries, even factory and farm
workers and artisans. Women have mostly had to
drop out of low-end employment once available in
their old homes.
Most colonies continue to be treated as
'unauthorised', denied public services of
drinking water, drainage, street lighting, ration
shops and ICDS centres. There are only five ICDS
centres in the 81 colonies, and only three serve
supplementary nutrition to children. The NCM
noted conditions of great destitution in the
colonies - only 725 of the 4,545 families had
below poverty line ration cards that entitle them
to subsidised foodgrain. Even in such desperate
conditions of daily survival, the state
government chose to return Rs 19.1 crore
unutilised from the highly insufficient grant of
Rs 150 crore. Yet, it maintained that all tasks
of relief, rehabilitation and compensation were
fully accomplished. This was observed with regret
also by the NCM, "In the course of our visits to
the camps, we found several people who are in
need of funds under different schemes. If the
state government was able to identify such people
and extend the benefits of the scheme to them
they would be able to utilise the entire money
allotted."
The colonies' residents, whose existence, let
alone legality, is denied by the government, live
under continuous insecurity also because they are
vulnerable to pressures from local religious
organisations. Residents report pressures to
follow the specific beliefs of particular Muslim
sects, or other lesser legitimate demands of
local managers, on constant threat of overnight
eviction. Widows and single women are the most
vulnerable.
Children, as always, are worst affected. Only two
of the 81 colonies were found to have government
schools and five some form of private schools. In
addition, religious teaching was offered in four
mosques. There were non-Muslim students in only
two of these schools. By exiling Muslim children
into ghettoes and relief colonies through fear
and hate, children of both communities are
deprived of contact and companionship with
children of other faiths. They will be far more
susceptible to falsehoods about the 'other'
community.
In the colony on the garbage dump, children have
cleared a space amid the mountains of refuse to
play cricket, while we found it hard to bear the
stench. The residents survive with spirit and
courage, amid sub-human conditions and failure of
the State to provide a life of security and
dignity to all without discrimination.
But they also live with isolation, fear, hate,
boycott, intimidation and penury as a way of
daily life. For this, we all stand indicted.
Harsh Mander is the convenor of Aman Biradari, a
people's campaign for secularism, peace and
justice.
______
[4]
The Times of India
22 February 2007
22 Feb, 2007
AREA OF DARKNESS
by Mujibur Rehman
Hindu-Muslim relations have impacted India's
development discourse more decisively than was
anticipated in the pre-Partition years. And for
good reason: Conditions of Indian Muslims,
according to the Sachar committee report, point
to an appalling policy neglect over decades.
Public debate on the report suggests it is only
about India's contentious Muslim reservation
issue. Two articles in this newspaper 'Sachar
report flawed' (Jan 23) and 'No Quotas, Please'
(Nov 20) are an example of this projection.
But the report is, in effect, about how
incomplete and shallow the discourse on
secularism has been. It also shows how flawed
frameworks of interaction between the state and
communities have shaped unequal outcomes.
While the statistical portrait that emerges from
the report is deeply disturbing, identical trends
were noticed long before 1947.
As early as 1871, W W Hunter in his book, The
Indian Musalmans, articulated the community's
deep sense of discrimination. "A great section of
the Indian population, some 30 million in number,
finds itself decaying under British rule.
They complain that they, who but yesterday were
the conquerors and Governors of the Land, can
find no subsistence in it today", he said. Muslim
backwardness became the rallying point for a
powerful fraction of Muslim elites who
successfully campaigned for a separate homeland.
In post-Sachar India, Muslim elites have no such
option. What, however, still gives an edge to
Indian Muslims is the power of their votes in
nearly 85 parliamentary constituencies, which
could determine the fate of any national regime.
With the onset of coalition politics since the
early 1990s, Muslim voters have gained
unprecedented bargaining power in India's
competitive party politics. It is this factor,
not commitment to secularism, that motivates
non-Hindutva, supposedly secular, political
elites to take the Sachar report's
recommendations seriously.
The claim that there is nothing fresh about the
report except that it bears official stamp is
quite misleading. The trends are not new, but the
facts are. For example, the facts about Muslim
backwardness in West Bengal with its 23.16 per
cent Muslim population, are a shocking revelation.
This fact remained out of public knowledge, even
as the region was always part of research agenda
of eminent scholars like Amartya Sen, Partha
Chatterjee, Sudipta Kaviraj, Amiya Bagchi, Pranab
Bardhan and others. It suggests the exclusive
character of our mainstream research agenda.
The Left Front regime should be given some credit
for building a riot-free society, which other
major parties failed to accomplish in regions
they governed. However, a riot-free society is
not enough to address the backwardness of a
com-munity with historical disadvantages. This
calls for special policy interventions.
The report points to a significant intellectual failure.
When Muslims were up against a vicious political
campaign on so-called appeasement during the late
1980s and early 1990s, the secular response
either dismissed it as prejudiced claims of
Hindutva ideologues or recognised it as
appeasement of Muslim fundamentalists, citing the
infamous Shah Bano case.
But had the facts the Sachar report lays down
been available, the appeasement campaign could
have been confronted more effectively.
Though this report is the first of its kind
exclusively on Indian Muslims, there were similar
efforts in the past, such as the Gopal Singh
panel (1980-83), which also studied other
minorities. According to its member-secretary
Rafiq Zakaria, its findings sent shock waves
through South Block.
As many as 200 researchers were sent to different
parts of India to collect the facts, and Rs 57.77
lakh invested in the report's preparation.
Although submitted in 1983 to the government, it
was tabled in Lok Sabha on August 24, 1990, with
its major recommendations rejected.
According to MIT scholar Omar Khalidi, the report
is not available in any major library.
Intellectuals concerned with secularism could
have nailed down Hindutva votaries with this
panel's findings, but they failed to place this
in the public domain.
The Sachar report once again exposes the failings of our secular researchers.
The writer teaches at Jamia Millia university.
______
[5]
Daily News and Analysis
February 22, 2007
'TREAT HINDU TERROR ACTS, JIHAD ON PAR'
by Anupam Dasgupta
Two days after the Samjhauta Express blasts,
social activist Teesta Setalvad took potshots at
the administration demanding that Hindu
right-wing fundamentalist groups like the RSS,
Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal and VHP be banned.
The point, the firebrand social worker, was
trying to convey was that the state governments
and the Centre should be neutral to the point of
treating Hindu terrorist acts and jihadi
terrorism "on a par".
Though Setalvad was not willing to comment on the
possibility of a "Hindu terror link" to the
Samjhauta bombings (since innocent Pakistani
nationals were targets), she claimed Hindu
terrorist groups are being "protected" by the
police and the intelligence agencies. She claimed
the acts of terror perpetrated by Hindu
fundamentalist groups were not being properly
"explained".
She said, "In some cases, investigations were
abandoned midway while in some others the
investigating agencies just preferred to turn a
blind eye to the existing state of affairs. The
need of the hour is to instil a sense of
neutrality and purpose in our police agencies and
the way they are marshalled by their political
masters."
Expressing concern at the smaller urban towns
across Maharashtra registering significant growth
of "bomb-making factories", mostly run and
managed by Hindu operatives with terrorist
leanings, Setalvad demanded that they should be
arrested by the government.
Referring to the "impact explosion" on February
10 at Nanded that took a life due to the inept
handling of highly inflammable materials stored
inside a godown, Setalvad tried to explain that
Hindu right-wing terror is as much a worrying
phenomenon as the jihadi variety.
Pointing fingers at the sloppy probe into the
Malegaon blasts, the activist said the state was
virtually compelled to summarily transfer the
case to the CBI even as the Anti-Terrorism Squad
had a 2,000-page chargesheet in place.
On the latest incident at Malegaon (on February
10), Setalvad said the Concerned Citizens Inquiry
report - a parallel investigation carried out by
the social group in the two Nanded blasts cases -
suggested the existence of ingredients
(glycerine, sulphuric acid and nitric acid/ glass
and gelatine sticks) used in manufacturing liquid
bombs.
Such materials are being used to prepare crude
liquid Molotov cocktails. "The blasts on-board
Samjhauta were executed using a combination of
similar crude pieces," she claimed.
______
[6]
The New York Times - Movies - The Awards Season
February 20, 2007
IN INDIA, SHOWING SECTARIAN PAIN TO EYES THAT ARE CLOSED
Sarika in Rahul Dholakia's film "Parzania," which
isn't being shown in Gujarat, the Indian state
where the action is set.
by Somini Sengupta
MUMBAI - Rahul Dholakia, an Indian filmmaker and
a native of the western Indian state of Gujarat,
set out five years ago to make a movie about a
friend who lost his son during the Gujarat riots
of 2002.
This film, "Parzania," is based on the true story
of Azhar Mody, or Parzan, as he is called in the
film, a 13-year-old boy who disappeared during
the riots, which began after 59 Hindus died in a
train fire for which a Muslim mob was initially
blamed. The cause of the train fire is still
unknown, though a number of politically competing
investigations are looking into it. But there is
little mystery in what it inspired: a Hindu-led
pogrom against the Muslims of Gujarat, in which
1,100 people were killed, some by immolation, and
many women were raped.
The film is now being shown in nine Indian
cities, and it has received a fair amount of
critical acclaim, particularly for the
performance of its two leading actors,
Naseeruddin Shah, who plays the father, and
Sarika, who plays the mother. Time Out Mumbai
credited Mr. Dholakia for having managed to
"remind viewers of what really happened in 2002,
and why it's important not to forget."
But in Gujarat, the director's home state,
theater owners have said it is too controversial
and have refused to show it.
"Parzania" is hardly alone; India maintains a
storied and constantly replenished dustbin of
cannot-be-seen movies. Among the best known are
"Black Friday," Anurag Kashyap's film about the
1993 terror attacks on Mumbai, in which Islamist
militants were blamed. Its release was held up
for over two years by the Central Board of Film
Certification, which must clear all films, after
those on trial for the crime argued in court that
the film could prejudice potential jurors.
Another was Anand Patwardhan's 2001 anti-nuclear
documentary, "War and Peace," which was released
only in 2005, after a protracted court battle.
And Mahesh Bhatt's movie of Hindu-Muslim strife,
called "Zakhm," meaning wound in Hindi, was
released in 1998, but only after the director
agreed to alter scenes with headbands and flags
in saffron, the color of the Hindu right, by
making the headbands and flags gray. Plenty of
books and plays have been banned too. The
government generally contends that it is for the
sake of protecting public order.
"Parzania" stands out, though, because theater
owners are refusing to screen the film even after
it was approved by the censor board. In late
January, as Mr. Dholakia prepared to send three
prints to Ahmedabad, Gujarat's largest city, the
multiplex owners' association called to say they
could screen it only if the head of a radical
Hindu group called Bajrang Dal, known for rowdy
protests, gave his blessings.
"I said, 'Are you mad?' " Mr. Dholakia recalled.
" 'What's he got to do with it?' "
Manubhai Patel, the chairman of the Gujarat
Multiplex Owners Association, said the film could
inflame tensions among Hindus and Muslims by
resurrecting recent history. "They have shown the
Gujarat riots," he said by telephone of the
movie, which he also said he had not seen. "By
now the public has settled down and is living
peacefully and engaged in their regular work. We
fear that after watching the movie, their
sentiments might get hurt, and there might be an
uprising again."
"Parzania" is set in Ahmedabad, the adopted
hometown of Mohandas K. Gandhi and the center of
much of the terror. The film offers an
unflattering portrait of Gujarat's leaders and
police officials. The ruling Hindu nationalist
Bharatiya Janata Party was widely accused of
turning a blind eye to the assaults on Muslims
and then, 10 months later, resoundingly
re-elected in state elections. "Parzania"
chillingly renders a savage mob attack.
For Mr. Dholakia, 40, the riots were an
eye-opener. He was at home in Corona, a small
town east of Los Angeles where he lives most of
the year, when news broke of the fire and the mob
violence that followed. There, in placid Corona,
he sat and watched the horror unfold on Indian
satellite television.
From members of his own family, Hindus who live
in Gujarat, he heard satisfaction over the
carnage. "Whatever happened, we taught these
Muslims a lesson," he recalled being told. One of
his relatives, a 9-year-old boy, said he wished
all the Muslims had been killed.
On the third day of the violence, Mr. Dholakia
heard about Azhar, the son of his friend Dara
Mody, whom he had met years before when Mr. Mody
worked as a projectionist at an Indian movie
theater in New Jersey. A Hindu mob had attacked
the housing complex where the Modys lived. The
Modys are Zoroastrians, not Muslims, but the
attackers weren't particularly discriminating,
and in the confusion the boy became separated
from his family and disappeared.
News of his friend's loss turned Mr. Dholakia's
artistic attention to the brutality that had
swallowed his state, an unlikely transformation
for a self-described apolitical man who for 15
years has produced a celebrity-studded
Bollywood-style annual dance contest in New
Jersey. He was a co-writer of the screenplay for
"Parzania" and shot it, mostly in Gujarat, in
2004. The $700,000 needed to make the film came
largely from two Indian friends in the United
States.
The film was cleared by the censor board in
August 2005, but after meeting with a number of
reluctant distributors, Mr. Dholakia, who has
been commuting between Corona and Mumbai, took on
that job as well.
Mr. Dholakia said he now planned to organize
private screenings of "Parzania" in Gujarat,
partly out of a faint hope that they would help
Azhar Mody's parents learn what happened to their
son. The film ends with a photograph of Azhar and
an appeal for information.
"His parents are still waiting for him," the
message reads, and offers an e-mail address to
which tips can be sent: info at parzania.com.
______
[7]
[ PLAYING MORAL POLICE : Communist students in
Rajasthan openly join the right wing show ]
Washington Post
13 February 2007
Guns, Roses & India's V-Day
by Emil Steiner
Valentine's Day Massacre?
Cupid Better Pack Some Extra Arrows
If you thought Americans went crazy with their
Valentine's Day brew-ha-ha, wait 'till you hear
about the insanity which may go down in India's
Madhya Pradesh. According to reports, the
right-wing Hindu group Bajrang Dal is so opposed
to Western tradition that they are threatening to
force couples caught fooling around into
on-the-spot marriages. Rolling around town in
their "vivah rath (marriage chariot) manned by
activists," they hope to discourage the
celebration of Hallmark's February festival
through intimidation and shame. Couples who
refuse marriage will be forced to "tie a rakhi (a
thread on the wrist establishing brother-sister
relation)." Does that make it incest?
Their efforts will be opposed by two women's
groups, who plan to arm themselves with batons
and mace (Lord Hanuman's weapon of choice) "to
take on those threatening to oppose Valentine's
Day." Gun-toting police will also be on patrol to
uphold people's right to smooch from the
marauding anti-Valentine patrols. Meanwhile, the
Congress' student wing, National Students' Union
of India, will take a more fragrant approach,
"offering roses to Bajrang Dal workers," to
dissuade them from harassing young lovers. With
these opposing forces taking to the streets,
Cupid's holiday of candy hearts and cheesy cards
may degenerate into a Valentine's Day massacre.
o o o
The Hindu
Shiv Sena, SFI threaten to spoil V-day
Jaipur, Feb. 14 (PTI): Organisations affiliated
to the Shiv Sena and CPI(M) on Tuesday warned
against Valentine's Day celebrations, and said
they would "blacken the faces" of those making
public displays of affection.
Bharatiya Kamgar (Shiv Sena), Students'
Federation of India (CPI-M) and Sanskriti Bachao
Samiti said in separate statements they would not
allow couples to romance in public.
They threatened to "blacken the faces" of young
couples found diplaying their love in public
places and to burn Valentine's day cards outside
gift shops.
SFI national vice-president, Sanjay Madhav, said
"unsocial elements" will not be allowed to
"distort" Indian values, while Kamgar leader
Govind Khandelwal said a demonstration would be
organised outside the District Collectorate today.
Sanskriti Bachao Samiti president, Amit Punia,
said six teams of youth would move around the
colleges and university campus to "detect couples
abusing public places."
______
[8]
The New York Review of Books
February 15, 2007
Letter
ON THE HOLOCAUST CONFERENCE SPONSORED BY THE GOVERNMENT OF IRAN
by Gholam Reza Afkhami and over one hundred others
To the Editors:
We the undersigned Iranians,
Notwithstanding our diverse views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict;
Considering that the Nazis' coldly planned "Final
Solution" and their ensuing campaign of genocide
against Jews and other minorities during World
War II constitute undeniable historical facts;
Deploring that the denial of these unspeakable
crimes has become a propaganda tool that the
Islamic Republic of Iran is using to further its
own agendas;
Noting that the new brand of anti-Semitism
prevalent in the Middle East today is rooted in
European ideological doctrines of the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries, and has no precedent in
Iran's history;
Emphasizing that this is not the first time that
the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran
has resorted to the denial and distortion of
historical facts;
Recalling that this government has refused to
acknowledge, among other things, its mass
execution of its own citizens in 1988, when
thousands of political prisoners, previously
sentenced to prison terms, were secretly executed
because of their beliefs;
Strongly condemn the Holocaust Conference
sponsored by the government of the Islamic
Republic of Iran in Tehran on December 11-12,
2006, and its attempt to falsify history;
Pay homage to the memory of the millions of
Jewish and non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust,
and express our empathy for the survivors of this
immense tragedy as well as all other victims of
crimes against humanity across the world.
Abadi, Delnaz (Filmmaker, USA)
Abghari, Shahla (Professor, Life University, USA)
Abghari, Siavash (Professor/Chair, Department of
Business Administration, Morehouse College, USA)
Afary, Janet (Faculty Scholar/Associate Professor
of History, Purdue University, USA)
Afkhami, Gholam Reza (Senior Scholar, Foundation for Iranian Studies, USA)
Afkhami, Mahnaz (Executive Director, Foundation
for Iranian Studies/Women's Rights Advocate, USA)
Afshar, Mahasti (Arts/Culture Executive, USA)
Afshari, Ali (Human Rights Advocate/Political Activist, USA)
Ahmadi, Ramin (Associate Professor, Yale School
of Medicine/Founder, Griffin Center for Health
and Human Rights, USA)
Akashe-Bohme, Farideh (Social Scientist/Writer, Germany)
Akbari, Hamid (Human Rights
Advocate/Chair/Associate Professor, Department of
Management and Marketing, Northeastern Illinois
University, USA)
Akhavan, Payam (Jurist/Senior Fellow, Faculty of
Law of McGill University, Canada)
Amin, Shadi (Journalist/Women's Rights Activist, Germany)
Amini, Bahman (Publisher, France)
Amini, Mohammad (Writer/Political Activist, USA)
Amjadi, Kurosh (Human Rights Advocate)
Apick, Mary (Actress/Playwright/Producer/Human Rights Advocate, USA)
Ashouri, Daryoush (Writer/Translator, France)
Atri, Akbar (Student Rights and Political Activist, USA)
Bagher Zadeh, Hossein (Human Rights
Advocate/Former Professor, Tehran University,
Great Britain)
Bakhtiari, Abbas (Musician/Director, Pouya Iranian Cultural Center, France)
Baradaran, Monireh (Human Rights Advocate/Writer, Germany)
Behnoud, Massoud (Writer/Journalist, Great Britain)
Behroozi, Jaleh (Human Rights Advocate/Iranian
Mothers' Committee for Freedom, USA)
Beyzaie, Niloofar (Theater Director/Playwright, Germany)
Boroumand, Ali-Mohammad (Lawyer, France)
Boroumand, Ladan (Historian/Research Director, Boroumand Foundation, USA)
Boroumand, Roya (Historian/Human Rights Advocate, USA)
Chafiq, Chahla (Sociologist/Writer/ Women's Rights Advocate, France)
Dadsetan, Javad (Filmmaker)
Daneshvar, Abbas (Chemist, Netherlands)
Daneshvar, Hassan (Mathematician, Netherlands)
Daneshvar, Reza (Writer, France)
Davari, Arta (Painter, Germany)
Djalili, Mohammad Reza (Professor, L'Institut
Universitaire de Hautes Études Internationales,
Switzerland)
Ebrahimi, Farah (USA)
Eskandani, Ahmad (Entrepreneur, France)
Fani Yazdi, Reza (Political Activist, USA)
Farahmand, Fariborz (Engineer, USA)
Farssai, Fahimeh (Writer, Germany)
Ghahari, Keivandokht (Historian/Journalist, Germany)
Ghassemi, Farhang (Professor in Strategic Management, France)
Hejazi, Ghodsi (Professor/Researcher, Frankfurt University, Germany)
Hekmat, Hormoz (Human Rights Advocate/Editor, Iran Nameh, USA)
Hojat, Ali (Entrepreneur/Human Rights Advocate, Great Britain)
Homayoun, Dariush (Writer, Switzerland)
Idjadi, Didier (Professor/Associate Mayor, France)
Jahangiri, Golroch (Women's Rights Advocate, Germany)
Jahanshahi, Marjan (Professor, Institute of
Neurology, University College London, Great
Britain)
Karimi Hakkak (Director, Center for Persian
Studies, University of Maryland, USA)
Kazemi, Monireh (Women's Rights Advocate, Germany)
Khajeh Aldin, Minoo (Painter, Germany)
Khaksar, Nasim (Writer, Germany)
Khazenie, Nahid (Remote Sensing Scientist/Program Director, NASA, USA)
Khodaparast Santner, Zari (Landscape Architect, USA)
Khonsari, Mehrdad (Political Activist, Great Britain)
Khorsandi, Hadi (Poet/Writer, Great Britain)
Khounani, Azar (Educator/Human Rights Advocate, USA)
Mafan, Massoud (Publisher, Germany)
Malakooty, Sirus (Composer/Chairman, Artists Without Frontiers, Germany)
Manafzadeh, Alireza (Writer, France)
Mazahery, Ahmad (Engineer/Political Activist, USA)
Mazahery, Lily (Lawyer, President of the Legal
Rights Institute/Human Rights Advocate, USA)
Memarsadeghi, Mariam (Freedom House, USA)
Mesdaghi, Iraj (Human Rights Advocate/Writer, Sweden)
Milani, Abbas (Director, Iranian Studies Program, Stanford University, USA)
Mohyeddin, Samira (Graduate Student, University of Toronto, Canada)
Moini, Mohammadreza (Journalist/ Human Rights Advocate, RSF, France)
Molavi, Afshin (Journalist, USA)
Monzavi, Faeze (Women's Rights Advocate, Germany)
Moradi, Golmorad (Political Scientist/Translator, Germany)
Moradi, Homa (Women's Rights Advocate, Germany)
Moshaver, Ziba (London Middle East Institute,
SOAS, Research Fellow, Great Britain)
Moshkin-Ghalam, Shahrokh (Ballet Dancer/Actor, France)
Mourim, Khosro (Sociologist, France)
Mozaffari, Mehdi (Professor of Political Science, Denmark)
Naficy, Majid (Poet/Writer, USA)
Nafisi, Azar (Writer/Johns Hopkins University, USA)
Nassehi, Reza (Human Rights Advocate/Translator, France)
Pakzad, Jahan (Teacher/Researcher, France)
Parham, Bagher (Writer/Translator, France)
Parsipour, Shahrnush (Writer, USA)
Parvin, Mohammad (Human Rights Advocate/Founding
Director of Mehr/Adjunct Professor, California
State University, USA)
Pirnazar, Jaleh (Professor, Iranian Studies,
University of California, Berkeley, USA)
Pourabdollah, Farideh (Human Rights Advocate, USA)
Pourabdollah, Saeid (Human Rights Advocate, USA)
Rashid, Shahrouz (Poet/Writer, Germany)
Royaie, Yadollah (Poet, France)
Rusta, Mihan (Human Rights Advocate/Refugee Adviser, Germany)
Sadr, Hamid (Writer, Austria)
Sarchar, Houman (Independent Scholar, USA)
Sarshar, Homa (Journalist, USA)
Satrapi, Marjane (Writer, France)
Sayyad, Parviz (Actor/Playwright, USA)
Shahriari, Sheila (World Bank, USA)
Soltani, Parvaneh (Actor/Theater Director, Great Britain)
Tabari, Shahran (Journalist, Great Britain)
Taghvaie, Ahmad (Founding Member, Iranian Futurist Association, USA)
Toloui, Roya (Human Rights Advocate, USA)
Vaziri, Hellen (Germany)
Wahdat-Hagh, Wahied (Social Scientist, USA)
Zarkesh Yazdi, Fathieh (Human Rights and Refugee
Rights Advocate, Great Britain)
Ziazie, Arsalan (Writer, Germany)
______
[9]
INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR ON 'INDO-US NUCLEAR 'DEAL'
- INDIA, SOUTH ASIA, NAM AND THE GLOBAL ORDER' in
Mumbai, India, March 10-11 [2007]
Venue: St. Pius College, Goregaon (E), Mumbai [Bombay, India]
Dear Friends,
The Afro-Asian Peoples' Solidarity Organisation
(AAPSO), headquartered in Cairo, in collaboration
with other organisations in India, the Coalition
for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP) and
Vikas Adhyayan Kendra (VAK) to begin with, are
organising a two-day International Seminar on
'Indo-US Nuclear 'Deal' - India, South Asia, NAM
and the Global Order' in Mumbai, India on March
10th and 11th, 2007.
The impact of the 'deal' would be multiple.
1. It would accelerate the nuclear arms race
in South Asia severely undermining our objectives
of a peaceful nuke free South Asian region.
2. It would also act as a serious dampener
for the pursuit of renewable and environmentally
benign energy like wind power, solar energy and
such others.
3. It would also weaken our efforts of
making India take a lead role in the struggle for
a nuclear weapons free South Asia and the world.
The objectives of the seminar are twofold and
closely intertwined. The seminar to be held in
Mumbai would try to spread awareness about the
harmful effects of the 'Deal' amongst the
different sections of Indian public including the
opinion-makers and decision-makers and also have
a strong regional impact.
It would also engage with the benefit of the
presence of a number of national, regional and
international expert-activists an effective
strategy to counter and scuttle this nefarious
move making use of the NAM resource base as well.
The schedule of the programme is as follows:
March 10 (Saturday)
10 00-11 00: Registration & Inauguration.
11 00-14 00: 1st Plenary: 'Indo-US Nuke Deal:
India , Non-Aligned Movement and the Emerging
Global Order'.
15 00-18 00: 2nd Plenary: 'Indo-US Nuke Deal: Its
Impacts on Global and Regional Nuclear Arms Race'.
March 11 (Sunday)
10 00-13 00: 3rd Plenary: 'Indo-US Nuke Deal: Its
Impacts on Global and Regional Energy Options'.
14 00-18 00: 4th Plenary:
Strategy Session and adoption of Resolution.
We invite you to the seminar and would also
invite your organization to be a part of the
organizers. The local hospitality, for all
outside delegates, would be taken care of by the
local host committee.
Regards,
Bombay Urban Industrial League for Development (BUILD)
Centre Study of Society and Secularism (CSSS)
Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP)
Documentation & Research Training Centre (DRTC)
Forum for Justice & Peace (FJP)
Indian Institute for Peace, Disarmament &
Environmental Protection
Institute Community Organization & Research (ICOR)
Pakistan India Peoples Forum for Peace & Democracy (PIPFPD)
Peace Mummbai
People's Media Initiative
Vikas Adhyayan Kendra (VAK)
(The list is growing.)
An Extract from the Concept Note:
Background
On the December 18 last the US President George
Bush inked the Henry Hyde Act towards actualizing
the much talked of Indo-US Nuke 'Deal', which had
been outlined in the Bush-Singh joint statement
issued on July 18 2005 at Washington DC and
further developed and reiterated on March 2 in
the joint statement issued from Delhi.
The 'Deal', however, has still to pass through a
number of stages in order to be operative.
To be more specific, India and the US will have
to work out an agreement, popularly known as 123
Agreement, on the specifics of the 'cooperation'
in terms of respective rights and
responsibilities.
Promises are being made from the US side that
precisely at this stage India's current concerns
will be addressed and the legal framework as
worked out by the US Congress in the form of the
Act will be tricked to the extent necessary.
Be that as it may, India will also have to work
out a separate treaty with the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) laying down the
scopes and terms of inspections of the 'civilian'
plants. And then both these agreements will be
presented to the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers
Group (NSG) for ratification. On consensual
endorsement by the NSG the whole package will
again be presented to the US Congress for final
approval so as to enable the President to bring
it into force.
An Analysis of the 'Deal'
The 'Deal' has essentially three dimensions: the
strategic-political, the nuclear weapons related
and the energy dimension.
.......
Summary
The 'Deal' as and when, and if at all, comes
through will grievously undermine the current
global regime of nuclear non-proliferation and
thereby also the prospects of global nuclear
disarmament. It is also likely to further
aggravate tensions and accelerate arms race in
the region. So it's a very serious negative
development for global and regional peace and
security.
It'd also further cement the growing strategic
ties between the US and India and thereby would
add momentum to the US project for unfettered
global dominance. It'd just not only undermine
India's position as a founding and leading member
of the NAM, it'd also pose a very serious
challenge to the NAM and its objectives in terms
of radically raised level of US domination on the
global scene.
It'd also act as a booster for nuclear energy
industry and a considerable dampener for efforts
to develop ecologically benign renewable sources
of energy - nationally and also globally.
The Speakers:
The confirmed speakers include:
Ms. Hamsa Abd El-Hamid from the International Secretariat, AAPSO, Cairo.
John Hallam from Australia.
Also Achin Vanaik, Praful Bidwai, M V Ramana,
Sandeep Pandey, Surendra Gadekar from India.
Speakers, and delegates, are expected also from
Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Iraq,
Bahrain and a few other countries apart from
India.
A press conference will be held on March 12 in the afternoon.
N.B.: Outstation participants may send in their
confirmation ASAP to "Mr. Sushovan
Dhar"<vak at bom3.vsnl.net.in> (Phone: 91 22
28898662 / 28822850, Mobile: 9821855593) for
arrangement of accommodation.
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), on
matters of peace and democratisation in South
Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit
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