SACW | May 16-17, 2007 | Pakistan Law n Order / Himal censored in Bangladesh / India: Freedom of expression in Baroda and beyond / Binayak Sen / UK: commissioner tribute to admirer of Nazi's

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire  | May 16-17, 2007 | Dispatch No. 2406 - Year 9

[1]  Trojan Horse as a South Asian Theme (J. Sri Raman)
[2]  Pakistan: Law and order (Tariq Ali)
      + Pakistan Christians demand help  / Running 
Pakistan's biggest city - from London (BBC)
[3]  Himal Censored in Bangladesh:  A press release by Himal
[4]  India:  More on Hindutva assault on Baroda's art school
     - On-line Petition to the Governer of Gujarat 
- Attack on M. S. University Autonomy
     - 'Free art, fight fascism' Times of India (15 May, 2007)
     - Eye on Art: Freedom of expression (Mallika Advani)
    - Beauty And The Beast (Anil Dharker)  
    - Hurt sentiments and moral policing (Editorial, The Hindu)
    - Romila Thapar seeks Kalam's intervention in Vadodara issue
[5]  India: Maharashtra style Moditva (Suhas Palshikar)
      + Bhopal: Bajrang Dal, [hateful exhibit as] 
right to expression (Milind Ghatwa)
[6]  India: Concern about the safety of Dr 
Binayak Sen (Peoples Union for Civil Liberties)
[7]  UK: Commissioner on Integration reportedly 
pays tribute to admirer of Nazism and Fascism 
(AWAAZ)
[8]   India Events:
(i)  [Late announcement] Anhad Press conference (May 16, 2007)
(ii) India: Sit-in and Press conference - to 
condemn the arrest of Dr. Binayak Sen (Delhi, May 
17)
(iii) Launch of Amnesty International Report 2007 (23 May 2007)
____


[1]

truthout.org,
16 May 2007

TROJAN HORSE AS A SOUTH ASIAN THEME
by J. Sri Raman

     Forty persons died in bloody street battles 
in Pakistan's Karachi on May 12. Tension grips 
the Terai plains of Nepal, where militants of the 
ethnic Madhesi movement cock a snook at Kathmandu 
and paralyze transport and public life. And a 
nerve-racking "normalcy" reigns in Bangladesh, 
where a deceptive peace has been restored by 
severe restraints on political parties and their 
democratic activities.

     Do the situations in the three South Asian 
countries present a common syndrome?

     Yes, says Shaidul Alam, a Bangladeshi writer 
and photographer. A Trojan horse is the common 
theme, as he sees it. Like the Trojan horse that 
ancient Troy greeted, the device Alam talks about 
is a beast that hides the military in its belly. 
In plain prose, all three countries are being 
made to wait for a military savior or solution.

     On the face of it, this may not appear to be 
true of Pakistan. Appearances, however, can be 
deceptive. Before we come to the prospects of the 
latest of Pakistan's popular movements, a look at 
the scenario in Bangladesh may be in order.

     Many observers, in addition to Alam, have 
more than once pointed to the apparent eagerness 
and even anxiety of the Bangladeshi army to learn 
or unlearn from the Pakistani example, besides 
the failed experiments in brazen-faced military 
rule at home in the past. The army, under Moeen U 
Ahmed, has chosen to avoid a direct military 
takeover, though it is an open secret that it is 
the real force and power behind the caretaker 
government of Fakhruddin Ahmad.

     The Trojan horse, in this case, was a 
victorious anti-corruption vehicle, welcomed as 
such by wide sections of people in the initial 
phase. It did not take long, however, for the 
militarist character of the campaign to become 
public. The Trojan horse was exposed as an 
internal war engine once Lt. General Moeen 
publicly ruled out "a return to electoral 
democracy" of the kind the country knew.

     The army seemed actually determined not to 
learn from Pakistan's experience when it made a 
serious effort to send into exile and political 
wilderness the country's two most important 
political leaders - Sheikh Hasina Wajed of the 
Awami League (AL) and Begaum Khaleda Zia of the 
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). The efforts 
to block Hasina's return from holiday in the US 
boomeranged, with an embarrassed West constrained 
to disapprove of such tactics. Plans to shunt 
Khaleda off to Saudi Arabia, in return for a 
respite from the anti-corruption offensive 
against her sons, were also shelved subsequently.

     The real power behind the army's political 
role is also, meanwhile, learning its lessons. 
William B. Milam, former US ambassador to 
Bangladesh and Pakistan, had given the game away 
earlier when he talked of the caretaker rule 
creating conditions conducive for the growth of 
such safe political parties as the one eminent 
economist Mohammed Yunus promised. As for 
Bangladeshis grumbling about a denial of 
democratic freedoms, Milam taunted them in a 
newspaper article with the sage counsel: "Be sure 
what you wish for, you may end up getting it."

     Yunus, however, has now announced his 
decision to opt out of politics. The envoys of 
the US and its Western allies are only trying to 
be seen as exerting pressure on the army and the 
caretaker government to announce a schedule for 
elections, which are promised to be held before 
the end of 2008.

     In Kathmandu, meanwhile, observers are 
talking of defeated royalists planning to repeat 
Bangladesh in Nepal. The ever-growing ethnic 
disturbances are expected, in certain quarters 
not overly sympathetic to the pro-democracy 
struggle, to provide a return route for 
overthrown King Gyanendra, who still enjoys overt 
support from the Nepal army's top brass.

     Reverting to Pakistan, an end seemed to be in 
sight for the politics of exile in Islamabad too, 
when keen Musharraf-watchers started talking of a 
"done deal" with Benazir Bhutto, former prime 
minister and Pakistan People's Party chief. 
Actually, she was expected to return home any 
time this month in terms of an unwritten 
agreement, which would have made her the prime 
minister once again, but under President 
Musharraf, with or without his uniform.

     The trouble in Karachi, Bhutto's hometown and 
power base, however, has put paid to such hopes 
for the foreseeable future. Both Bhutto and the 
other former prime minister in exile, Nawaz 
Sharif, have condemned the role of the president 
and his political ally, the Muttahida Qaumi 
Movement (MQM), a ruling party in the Sindh 
Province (with Karachi as capital), in the 
violence. The bloodbath resulted when the MQM 
resisted with brute force a rally led by former 
Pakistan Chief Justice Iftikar Mohammad 
Chaudhary, who had been sacked unceremoniously by 
Musharraf earlier.

     The outcome of a political confrontation in 
Pakistan is unpredictable. Some expect Musharraf 
to ride out the storm, just as he survived a 
Balochi backlash after the killing of tribal 
chief Nawab Akbar Bugti. The analogy may not be 
apt, as the current revolt is led by the Punjabi 
elite, the predominant section in Pakistan's 
establishment.

     Optimists among observers hope that Musharraf 
will find it harder to face popular opposition on 
a secular, constitutional issue than a 'jihadi' 
offensive (which can also win him the vital US 
support). The president has, in addition, ruled 
out imposition of an emergency.

     This does not, however, rule out the return 
of the Trojan horse. Fears of a 
military-fundamentalist backlash are not 
ill-founded, according to many in Pakistan's 
peace movement. One of them, eminent scientist 
Pervez Hoodbhoy, spells out the scary prospect.

     Says Hoodbhoy: " Military generals and 
fanatical clerics have been symbiotically linked 
in Pakistan's politics for decades. They have 
often needed and helped the other attain their 
respective goals. And they may soon need each 
other again - this time to set Islamabad ablaze. 
An engineered bloodbath that leads to the army's 
intervention, and the declaration of a national 
emergency, could serve as excellent reason for 
postponing the (promised) October 2007 elections. 
Although Musharraf denies that he wants a 
postponement, a lengthy martial law may now be 
his only chance for a continuation of his 
dictatorial rule into its eighth year - and 
perhaps beyond."

     We can only hope that the Trojan Horse tactic 
of mythological hoariness does not triumph in 
South Asia today.


_____

[2]

The Guardian
May 16, 2007

LAW AND ORDER

In Pakistan, the general should discard his 
uniform, the judge should forego his black robes 
and the two men should battle it out on the 
electoral terrain.

by Tariq Ali

Sixty years old this August, Pakistan has been 
under de facto military rule for exactly half of 
its life. Military leaders have usually been 
limited to a 10-year cycle: Ayub Khan (1958-69), 
Zia-ul-Haq (1977-89).

The first was removed by a nationwide 
insurrection lasting three months. The second was 
assassinated. According to this political 
calendar, Pervez Musharraf still has another year 
and a half to go, but events happen.

On March 9 this year, the president suspended the 
chief justice of the supreme court. Unlike some 
of his colleagues, the judge in question, 
Iftikhar Chaudhry, had not resigned at the time 
of the coup, but like previous supreme courts, 
had acquiesced to the bogus "doctrine of 
necessity" that is always used to judicially 
justify a military takeover. He was not known for 
judicial activism and the charges against him are 
related to a "corrupt misuse of his office", but 
its hardly a secret that Chaudhry's recent 
judgments against the government on a number of 
key issues, including the rushed privatisation of 
the Karachi Steel Mills in Karachi, the demand 
that "disappeared" political activists be 
produced in court and taking rape victims 
seriously, panicked Islamabad. Might this 
turbulent judge go so far and declare the 
military presidency unconstitutional? Paranoia 
set in.

TV stations engaged in objective reporting were 
raided by the police, thus destroying the 
regime's proud boast (hitherto largely true) that 
it interfered less with the media than all its 
predecessors.

The decision triggered off a remarkable social 
movement. Initially confined to the country's 
80,000 lawyers and several dozen judges, it soon 
began to spread. This in itself came as a 
surprise to a country whose people have become 
increasingly alienated from elite rule whose 
roots are rotten. Also worth noting is that this 
civil society opposition to a crude decision had 
nothing to do with religion. It was a defence of 
judicial independence (however nominal) against 
the executive. The lawyers who marched on the 
streets did so to insist on a separation of 
constitutional powers. There is something 
delightfully outmoded and old-fashioned about 
this struggle. It involved neither money nor 
religion, but principle. As respect for the 
movement grew, bandwagon careerists from the 
opposition (some of whom had organised their own 
thuggish assaults on the supreme court when in 
power) made the cause their own.

As often happens in a crisis, Musharraf and his 
advisers, instead of acknowledging that a mistake 
had been made and moving rapidly to correct it, 
decided on a test of strength. As Iftikhar 
Chaudhry's cavalcades became more and more 
popular, Islamabad plotted its counter-strike. 
The judge was due to visit the country's largest 
city, Karachi. Political power here rests in the 
hands of the MQM, an unsavoury outfit created 
during a previous dictatorship, addicted to 
violence and protection rackets and insensitive 
to moral and human realities. It consisted 
largely of poor muhajir families (Muslim refugees 
who fled to Pakistan at the time of partition in 
1947), who felt abandoned by the state. Musharraf 
too, hails from a middle-class refugee 
background. For this reason, the MQM adopted him 
as one of their own (even though Musharraf's 
mother was a Communist sympathiser and the family 
as a whole was progressive).

On Islamabad's instructions, the MQM leaders now 
decided to prevent the judge from addressing any 
meeting in Karachi. That is what led to armed 
clashes and nearly 50 deaths in the city a few 
days ago. Footage of the killings, screened on 
Aaj (Today) TV led to the station being assaulted 
by armed MQM volunteers. All this provoked a 
successful general strike, isolating the regime. 
Were a presidential election to be held today 
there is little doubt that the judge would defeat 
the general. Justice Chaudhry's popularity can 
only be understood in a context where traditional 
politicians had become thoroughly discredited.

The failure by Benazir Bhutto (Pakistan People's 
Party) to do anything substantial for the poor 
who had voted her into office resulted in mass 
disillusion. She was removed from office, 
allegedly for corruption, and in the subsequent 
elections her old rival Sharif (Pakistan Muslim 
League) won a large majority on the basis of a 
very low turnout (under 30%). Bhutto's disgusted 
supporters stayed at home.

Nawaz Sharif made his brother Shahbaz the chief 
minister of the Punjab. His late father became 
the unofficial president of Pakistan and was 
involved in negotiations with a disaffected army. 
It was old man Sharif who advised his sons that 
generals, not being angels from heaven, could 
also be bought and sold in the marketplace. But 
not all of them. And not Musharraf. Nawaz 
Sharif's comic-opera attempt to retire Musharraf 
backfired disastrously.

9/11 made Pakistan's president a key player in 
the region. For the native elite this was a 
godsend. Money began to pour in, nuclear-related 
sanctions were lifted, and the EU granted trade 
concessions worth over a billion euros and 
simultaneously relaxed tariffs on Pakistani 
textile exports. As the US became more closely 
involved the Pakistani military and political 
elite fell into line. Everyone - venal 
politicians,
grovelling high officials, and harebrained 
society hostesses - applauded Pakistan's return 
to its old status as a frontline state. Not the 
Islamists, of course, since the new war was 
against them and their friends in Afghanistan. 
For a while the only opposition to the regime 
came from the Islamists, moderates and extremists 
alike, though the methods were different in each 
case.

The attempt to browbeat a judge has released a 
new fissure in Pakistani society. The violence in 
Karachi makes compromise difficult for both 
sides. There is an easy solution. The general 
should discard his uniform, the judge should 
forego his black robes and the two men should 
battle it out on the electoral terrain without 
hindrance from the MQM or the numerous 
apparatuses of the state. It may seem like 
attempting to square a circle, but there are 
imminent dangers unless the generals agree to 
compromise.

o o o

BBC News - 16 May 2007

PAKISTAN CHRISTIANS DEMAND HELP
Christians in north-west Pakistan are demanding 
government protection following threats of bomb 
attacks if they do not become Muslims.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6663305.stm

RUNNING PAKISTAN'S BIGGEST CITY - FROM LONDON
by Alastair Lawson
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6658231.stm

_____


[3]  [Himal Censored in Bangladesh]


Press Note

HIMAL MAGAZINE REGRETS DHAKA AUTHORITIES' ACTION

The editors of Himal Southasian magazine regret 
that authorities in Bangladesh have obstructed 
the proper distribution of our May 2007 issue. 
The issue has been allowed to be distributed only 
after the pages containing the editorial "Khaki 
Politics in Dhaka" and the article "The Dhaka 
Regime's Messy Surgery" were removed.

We regret this course more so because the 
Bangladeshi press continues to carry independent 
pieces much like the one carried by Himal.

We would also like to alert readers that the 
cover feature of the upcoming June 2007 issue of 
Himal will address the ongoing political 
experimentation in Bangladesh.

The expunged editorial and article from our May 2007 issue will be found at
www.himalmag.com/2007/may/commentary_bangladesh_hasina.htm
www.himalmag.com/2007/may/analysis_bangladesh.htm


Himal Southasian
The Southasia Trust (publisher)
www.himalmag.com
editors at himalmag.com
himalsouthasian.blogspot.com/
+977-1-5552141 (phone & fax)

_____


[4]  India: More on Hindutva assault on Baroda's art school :
[everyone on this list must sign the below 
electronic petition to the Governer of the state 
of Gujarat]

ON-LINE PETITION TO THE GOVERNER OF GUJARAT - 
ATTACK ON M. S. UNIVERSITY AUTONOMY
http://www.petitiononline.com/MSUAUTO/

'FREE ART, FIGHT FASCISM' Times of India (15 May, 2007)
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Mumbai/Free_art_fight_fascism/articleshow/2046136.cms


EYE ON ART: FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
by Mallika Advani

It was disheartening to read about M F Husain's 
continuing problems with the legal system last 
week, all purportedly fuelled by his choice and 
interpretation of a subject that upset Hindu 
sentiments. While the underlying reasons for this 
furor against him are an entirely separate 
debate, the issue that is becoming increasingly 
relevant in today's Contemporary context is the 
right to artistic interpretation and freedom of 
expression.

For hundreds of years, art has managed to elicit 
negative responses and criticism in some way, 
shape or form. Be it at the birth of the 
Renaissance, Caravaggio's new Realism or the 
Impressionist movement. At the Salon held in 
Paris in 1863, the jury and audience alike were 
up in arms at the works of Edouard Manet and his 
contemporaries, balking equally at the subjects 
as much as the style of painting.

Of course, this has continued tenfold over the 
last century as the definition of art has 
expanded to include photographs and 'found' 
objects, both of which heighten the viewing 
experience by their very nature. One of the best 
known examples, even today, almost a century 
after it was first displayed, is Marcel Duchamp's 
signed Urinal (an actual full-size urinal 
installed unadorned on a wall), which when viewed 
in 1917 had people in a tizzy. Today, it may seem 
tame in comparison to some of the Contemporary 
works that have been created since. Italian 
artist Maurizio Cattelan's photorealist sculpture 
of the Pope being struck down by a meteorite and 
Young British Artist Chris Ofili's Virgin Mary, 
showing a dark-skinned Virgin Mary surrounded by 
photos of cut-out genitalia and his trademark 
elephant dung, have generated protests around the 
world.

Closer home, India has had its fair share of 
protests. Although Classical art, for reasons 
possibly dictated by political agendas, has 
escaped the wrath of fundamentalists, Modern 
artists have gotten into trouble as early as the 
1950s. In addition to Husain's several skirmishes 
over the years, Akbar Padamsee was dragged into 
court for what has since become one of his 
seminal works. Lovers, showing a man's hand on a 
woman's bare breast drew an obscenity charge from 
the High Court that was later dismissed. A 
well-known recent example was the exhibition at 
the Jehangir Art Gallery titled Tits, Clits N 
Elephant Dicks, which was shut down after 
protestors deemed both its title and content 
obscene and offensive.

One school of thought would say that if an artist 
has managed to evoke any response from his 
viewing audience, he has succeeded. Today, that's 
an oversimplification. A lot of art is 
sensationalist, created specifically to stir 
controversy, which in turn leads to increased 
viewership as everyone wants to see these works 
first-hand.

However, artists should have the right to create 
works independent of restrictions. Their work is 
an exercise in creativity and an expression of 
their times, and should be viewed with an open 
mind. Whether it meets critical acclaim is a 
separate issue.

Art is also subject to interpretation. No one 
looks at art with a clean slate. The artists' 
intent will often be coloured by the viewers' 
preconceptions and knowledge, with the result 
that the original point may be either lost or 
misunderstood as two people can take away two 
divergent thoughts from the same work.

Objectivity, therefore, becomes critical. It 
enables the audience to read the works in the 
context the artist intended rather than weave it 
into individual situations that could skew the 
meaning. An introduction to the artist's 
background helps. By walking into a show, viewers 
take on a responsibility to give the works a fair 
shot and only then pass a final judgment.

(The columnist is an independent art consultant)


o o o

The Times of India
17 May, 2007

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

by Anil Dharker

Who is Chandramohan Srilamantula? Is he such a 
famous artist that the entire art community is 
staging protests against his arrest? Actually, 
Chandramohan is only 23 and still a student, and 
it is his project work that's made an impact far 
beyond his wildest imagination.

A few details in case you missed them. Baroda 
University's Fine Arts faculty is acknowledged as 
one of the finest art schools in the country. It 
has a tradition of asking its final year students 
to mount an exhibition of their submissions, a 
display meant for other students and staff to 
see, assess and discuss. It was this show that a 
group of VHP activists led by Niraj Jain, a 
small-time local advocate, barged into, 
vandalised and then manhandled Chandramohan. The 
policemen present acted only after the damage was 
done, and then arrested not the ransackers but 
the artist.

Even though Chandramohan has since been released, 
what is pertinent is that this skewed view of 
justice was shared by the vice-chancellor. He 
urged Chandramohan to stay in jail and asked the 
head of the department, Shivaji Panikkar, to 
close down the exhibition (and when he refused, 
promptly suspended him).What has made the artists 
come together in protest is that this attack 
isn't an isolated one, but one more in a series 
now increasing in both frequency and wantonness. 
Chandramohan is the straw that broke the camel's 
back.

This particular attack raises more than the usual 
questions. To start with, there's the university 
administration taking on the role of predator 
when we had assumed that educational institutions 
are liberal in their outlook and encourage the 
free flow of ideas and the dissenting view.

That certainly was the case at the M S University 
which has had distinguished vice-chancellors like 
Bhikhu Parekh, and earlier, syndicate members of 
the standing of former president of India, S 
Radhakrishnan.Gujarat's CM, Narendra Modi, has 
syste-matically changed that. Nothing exemplifies 
that more than the elevation of Manoj Soni to the 
VC's post at the age of 40, while he was a mere 
Reader. Apparently, what impressed Modi was 
Soni's brand of scholarship, particularly the 
book,

In Search of Third Space, on the Gujarat carnage 
of 2002, in which he took a strong Hindutva line. 
Soni is said to allow the RSS and BJP members of 
the university senate to wield so much influence 
that he is called Chhote Modi on campus. Then 
there's the role of the police, whom we, out of 
force of habit, call law enforcers.

The Gujarat police's record in this field is a 
tragic joke, but then other states have not 
distinguished themselves either. The Mumbai 
police stood by when Shiv Sainiks attacked cinema 
theatres showing a Deepa Mehta film, while the 
Pune police did nothing when a mob destroyed 
priceless original documents in the Bhandarkar 
Institute (because Richard Laing had done some 
research for his Shivaji book there). Recently, 
Mumbai cops did some moral policing of their own, 
arresting young couples found in "compromising 
position" (policespeak for young men and women 
having their arms around each other).

Leading these attacks are religious groups of 
many colours: Muslim groups (Satanic Verses), 
Christian groups (Da Vinci Code), but most of all 
Hindutva groups (everything). They are led by 
people like Niraj Jain, apparently a leading 
light in the Vadodara BJP who has been known to 
brandish a revolver, and throw eggs at the 
Gujarat education minister for including them in 
school mid-day meals.

Or people like Babu Bajrangi, a key suspect in 
the Naroda Patia massacre of Muslims, who stopped 
the screening of Parzania recently. Or Amit 
Thaker who launched a campaign against all Aamir 
Khan films because the actor expressed support 
for Medha Patkar.

Which brings us to the question of the media's 
role. We have been brought up to believe that its 
primary role is to report. But what happens when 
reporting becomes a spotlight? A few goons enter 
a museum, destroy what's on display and claim 
that it's done to protect the interests of the 
general morality or whatever. The group is 
generally small (say 15 people) and represents 
nobody, yet its impact is far larger than it 
should be because the media gives it prominence. 
To take the Baroda example, did anyone even in 
the university have an inkling of the exhibition?

Should the media blank out such incidents 
altogether? The time has come for an evolved 
consensus because we have reached a stage when 
undemocratic forces take advantage of democratic 
institutions to enforce their illiberal ideas. 
This consensus is necessary when you see that the 
state itself (whatever its political colour) will 
continue to play a passive role. When forced to 
act, it will generally take the path of least 
resistance (which means banning the book, closing 
the exhibition, turning the victim into the 
accused). In other words, it joins the ranks of 
moral and religious zealots, which now include 
academia, politicians, enforcers and even the 
judiciary.

The danger is that, ultimately, this will bring 
about self-censorship, as artists become 
"careful" under the continuing assaults on their 
freedom. Their role is to provoke, to expand 
vocabularies and get under our comfortable skins. 
If they cannot do that, their art becomes 
decorative. And a society whose art is purely 
decorative becomes intellectually dead.

The writer is a journalist.

o o o

The Hindu
May 16, 2007

EDITORIAL  - HURT SENTIMENTS AND MORAL POLICING

Hurt sentiment in India has become a cynical 
euphemism for moral policing and vigilantism. The 
recent incidents in Gujarat relating to 
Chandramohan, a fine arts student of Maharaja 
Sayajirao University in Vadodara, highlight this. 
A gang of Vishwa Hindu Parishad activists enters 
the institution, roughs up the young artist, and 
vandalises his on-campus exhibition. The local 
police arrest him under Section 153(A) of the 
Indian Penal Code, which relates to the promotion 
of enmity and the hurting of religious sentiment. 
The artist spends almost a week behind bars 
before being granted bail. The Chandramohan 
incident - which follows the M.F. Husain and 
Shilpa Shetty controveries - points to a rising 
tide of intolerance and fanaticism. The charge 
that Chandramohan's works offended Hindu and 
Christian religious sentiments makes no sense 
given the context in which the works were 
displayed. The faculty of MS University has 
clarified that they were part of a student 
exhibition, an exercise that was wholly internal 
and academic. Given this, what possible offence 
could they have caused except to the fanatical 
storm troopers?

The answer is none at all. But the pattern of the 
attack, the ideological affiliation of the mob, 
and the high-decibel sound bites to television 
cameras suggest that the reason for creating the 
controversy has little to do with sentiment and a 
lot to do with politics. It is an irony that 
organisations that thrive on promoting enmity 
between communities routinely accuse others - 
artists, filmmakers, actors, writers - of doing 
exactly the same. The enormous influence these 
groups wield in Gujarat's cultural space was 
reflected in MS University's outrageous decision 
to suspend Shivaji Panikkar, the Dean of the Fine 
Arts Department. It was Mr. Panikkar who 
mobilised democratic solidarity with his student, 
resisted the decision to close down the 
exhibition, and criticised the University 
authorities for buckling under pressure from 
extreme right wing groups. The community of 
artists, to whom creative freedom is like oxygen, 
has done well to come together in an 
unprecedented show of solidarity. In cases 
relating to cultural freedom, the lower courts 
have shown a tendency to accommodate vexatious 
complaints rather than dismiss them with 
exemplary penalties. By doing so, they have 
provided the space for moral vigilantes and 
mischief-makers to abuse the legal process. All 
democrats look up to the higher judiciary for the 
protection of artistic freedom and the freedom of 
expression guaranteed in the Constitution - and 
for putting an end to a distressing situation in 
which vandals can make a mockery of this 
fundamental right.


o o o

The Hindu
May 16, 2007

ROMILA THAPAR SEEKS KALAM'S INTERVENTION IN VADODARA ISSUE

New Delhi: Prof. Romila Thapar, Emeritus 
Professor of History, Jawaharlal Nehru 
University, New Delhi, and Prof. Deepak Nayyar, 
Professor of Economics, JNU, New Delhi, and 
former Vice-Chancellor, Delhi University, have 
written to President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam 
expressing concern over the recent incidents at 
the Maharaja Sayajirao University in Vadodara and 
urged his intervention. The letter said:

"This letter comes to you as a reflection of our 
concern and that of many other persons of the 
academic community, over the recent incidents at 
the M.S. University in Vadodara.

"We regard both the incident as well as the 
Vice-Chancellor's action on it, unacceptable to 
the functioning of a University. No action has 
been taken against the known members of the 
public who entered the Faculty of Arts of the 
M.S. University, unlawfully destroyed the work of 
a student and organised his arrest on the absurd 
grounds that his work offended this particular 
group of people. What is equally appalling is 
that when the Dean attempted to get the student 
released from police custody, the Vice-Chancellor 
suspended the Dean.

"There is no way in which either of these actions 
can be justified. On the contrary, such actions 
become precedents and are thereby conducive to 
the destruction of the university as an institute 
of learning and of academic freedom.

"We are addressing this letter to you both as the 
President of the country and in your capacity as 
Visitor to various premier universities. We 
would, therefore, request you to intervene in 
this matter, if necessary through the Governor, 
and insist upon an immediate legal reading of 
both actions, to examine whether they are 
admissible in terms of the statutes by which a 
university is governed. If not, we would request 
you to direct remedial action."


______


[5]

Indian Express
May 17, 2007

MAHARASHTRA STYLE MODITVA
by Suhas Palshikar

A research institute demands a ban on a book. A 
'secular' government ignores it and 'secular' 
parties behave like Gandhi's three monkeys. 
Academia remains silent

  The vandalism at MS University and the abject 
complicity of the university authorities in the 
episode are a sad sign of the failure to expand 
democracy to our civil and social lives. But 
before the MS University controversy arose, a 
small news item appeared in section of the media 
and then died down without much attention from 
media and the intellectuals alike.

This concerned the infamous controversy over a 
reference to Shivaji Maharaj in James Lane's book 
Shivaji: Hindu King in Islamic India. The 
Maharashtra government banned the book. The ban 
was challenged in the Bombay High Court and only 
recently the court ruled that the ban was 
indefensible. The aggrieved parties decided to 
appeal to the Supreme Court as the apex court had 
almost at the same time upheld a ban on a book in 
another case originating in Karnataka.

But one research institution decided that books 
not only need to be banned but that research 
institutions can serve the academic cause better 
by demanding a ban on books. So, the Bhandarkar 
Oriental Research Institute of Pune (BORI) 
formally passed a resolution and its office 
bearer, Vijay Bhatkar, publicly stated that the 
BORI has demanded that the book be banned. 
Ironically, it is the same book that brought BORI 
into trouble three years ago when angry 
protestors stormed into the institute's library 
and ransacked it on charges that the institute 
was complicit in the "insulting" writing in 
Lane's book. Following that incident, public 
sympathy and support flooded the BORI; large 
amounts of public funds were allocated to it for 
modernisation and digitisation of its library. 
Having benefited from the attack, now the BORI 
finds it convenient to demand a ban on the book.

Let us keep out the details of the controversy. 
What is painful is that the institute crawled 
when it may have simply be expected to bend. This 
episode shows the importance our academic 
institutions give to the issue of freedom of 
expression and autonomy of academic 
establishments.

In the case of the MS University, it is a 
well-known fact that the university, which once 
used to be a matter of pride for Gujarat, has 
recently turned into a playground of 
narrow-minded politics propped up by 
self-appointed protectors of Hindutva. So, while 
it is sad that the vice chancellor and the 
establishment have thrown academic freedom to the 
wind; it is something one was not ignorant about. 
In contrast, the BORI case poses an even more 
serious challenge.

Both when the controversy emerged and today, the 
state government is run by parties that have 
avowedly come together to counter the communal 
menace. The Congress-NCP government did not 
protect academic freedom; nor did any of the 
other secular parties in progressive Maharashtra 
come forward to intervene on behalf of freedom of 
expression. That was when the Lok Sabha elections 
were round the corner and at least the NCP tried 
to derive mileage from the controversy; some 
sections even tried to revive the old 
brahmin-non-brahmin dispute. The issue of 
academic freedom was quickly overshadowed by 
pseudo-progressivism based on one's caste origin.

Two, when the ban had to be lifted following 
court orders, the book was publicly burnt in a 
number of places to create an atmosphere of 
terror. Again, the government chose to ignore it 
and the secular parties together constituted 
Mahatma Gandhi's three monkeys.

Three, a research institute entrusted with 
thousands of valuable manuscripts and rare books 
demanded a ban on the book. Could one trust it 
for retaining the intellectual heritage with 
fortitude in the light of this act? Four, ever 
since the BORI passed this resolution, there is 
no whimper of protest from the academic 
community. Is not the BORI a public institution 
and does it not have to answer to the academic 
community?

The episode at the MS University Baroda only 
showcases what may be a more generic ailment with 
the academic and intellectual community in India. 
The idea of creative and academic autonomy is not 
ingrained in Indian academia. It is easy to blame 
it on parties and governments and protestors. But 
are we as academics really interested in the idea 
of academic freedom? Are we too afraid to pay the 
price of upholding the freedom? Or is it just 
that we are so callous as an intellectual 
community, and so removed from the world of ideas 
and creativity, that we genuinely do not 
appreciate the value of academic autonomy? 
Combined with the near unanimous disregard of 
academic freedom by the entire political 
establishment across party lines, the abdication 
of its role by the academic community is 
indicative of our democratic pretensions.

The writer teaches political science at the University of Pune

o o o

Indian Express
Here Bajrang Dal fights for right to expression
Milind Ghatwai
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/31107.html

______


[6] 

People's Union for Civil Liberties
Press Statement
For favour of publication

May 15, 2007

Dr Y P Chhibbar, General Secretary, People's 
Union for Civil Liberties, has issued the 
following statement:

  CONCERN ABOUT THE SAFETY OF DR BINAYAK SEN

"The PUCL strongly condemns the arrest of the 
General Secretary of the Chhattisgarh State 
branch of the PUCL, Dr Binayak Sen, on trumped up 
charges under the Chhattisgarh Special Public 
Security Act 2005 and the unlawful Activities 
(Prevention) Act, 1967 as amended in 2004. These 
laws do not have provisions like bail, appeal, 
etc.

"The PUCL is specially concerned on the 
development of events in the wake of the wave of 
custodial violence cases unfolding in various 
parts of the country after the revelation of the 
fake encounter case of Sohrabuddin Sheikh in 
Gujarat.

"The PUCL is also concerned about the illegal 
detention of Shri Piyush Guha, who has been in 
detention for more than a week in contravention 
of Supreme Court guidelines.

  "The National General Secretary of the PUCL has 
sent the case to the National Human Rights 
Commission.

"The undersigned has been receiving anxious 
enquiries about the wellbeing of Dr Binayak Sen 
from all over the country from members of the 
PUCL and also from other fraternal organisations. 
He is thankful to all of them and appeals to them 
to send letters of concern to the NHRC and the 
Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh".

(Y P Chhibbar) Ph D
General Secretary 


______


[7]  [United Kingdom and its officially 
prescribed mad multiculturalism disease is making 
publicly acceptable groups that ought to be 
ostracised : Official tailors of Hinduness, 
Muslimness are part of the Govt. Commission on 
Integration and Cohesion. Poor British National 
Party is left out for inexplicable reasons. The 
commissions Hindutva creep celebrates India's 
admirer of Fascists. But that's no problem in 
Britain. Read the awaaz statement below ]

o o o

AWAAZ STATEMENT: TUESDAY 15 MAY 2007
Email: contact at awaazsaw.org
Telephone: (+ 44) 020 8843 2333
http://www.awaazsaw.org

UK COMMISSIONER ON INTEGRATION REPORTEDLY PAYS TRIBUTE TO ADMIRER OF NAZISM
AND FASCISM

Ramesh Kallidai, a member of Secretary of State Ruth Kelly's Commission on
Integration and Cohesion, paid glowing tribute to an extremist who admired
and promoted Nazi-like, fascist and violent ideas in India and who believed
that what occurred to European Jews under Nazi Germany was a model that
India could learn and profit from - according to recent reports.
Mr. Kallidai was speaking at an event to celebrate the birth centenary of M.
S. Golwalkar (1906-1973), the second "supreme leader" of the Indian
neo-fascist organization, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
Mr. Kallidai, who is general secretary of the Hindu Forum of Britain, was
reported in the RSS's weekly paper as saying that trying to pay homage to M.
S. Golwalkar "was like holding a candle to the Sun". The paper writes that
he went on to praise the expansion of the RSS and its "exemplary" ideology.

The RSS's extremist ideology of Hindu supremacism has been widely blamed for
large-scale anti-minority violence in India. The RSS has been banned three
times in India since Independence. The murderer of M. K. Gandhi was a former
RSS member.
The event in London on the 12th April was organized by the supremacist Hindu
Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS), the British branch of the Indian Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Golwalkar continues to be universally venerated by
the organization despite his support for Nazi-like views. The event took
place at the Advait Cultural Centre in Wembley, north-west London.
Earlier, in December 2004, Ramesh Kallidai, speaking at the Parliamentary
Select Committee on Home Affairs, defended the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP,
World Hindu Council), an offshoot of the RSS, from the accusation that it is
an extremist organisation. Kallidai said that the VHP works for the "social
and moral upliftment of Hindus". According to Human Rights Watch, the VHP
was among the organisations "directly responsible" for the anti-Muslim
pogroms in Gujarat in 2002, in which thousands were killed over the course
of three days of carnage. (We have no orders to save you: State
Participation and Complicity in Communal Violence in Gujarat, Human Rights
Watch, April 2002, page 4.)
The Indian RSS's joint general secretary, Suresh Soni, was a major guest at
the Wembley event. The event was also attended by key figures from the
National Council of Hindu Temples, the Swaminarayan Mandir, ISKCON -
Bhaktivedanta Manor, the Hindu Council UK, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (UK), Singh
Sabha Gurudwara (Southall) and other Hindu organizations.
The Commission on Integration and Cohesion was set up by the Secretary of
State, Ruth Kelly and one of its main tasks is to address the dissemination
of extremist ideologies.
"Next month, the Commission on Integration and Cohesion is due to publish
its findings on how communities can tackle extremist ideologies and overcome
tensions between different groups. The credibility of the Commission's
findings may be seriously limited if its own Commissioners are seen to
endorse individuals widely considered to be extremist", said Arun Kundnani,
spokesperson for Awaaz - South Asia Watch.
Awaaz deplores the fact that someone who the British government has
appointed as a Commissioner working towards good community relations and
harmony between groups appears to have commended and endorsed a man whose
life-long ambition was to promote ideas and organizations in India inspired
by Nazi, fascist and racist thinking, organisations that have been
repeatedly indicted for anti-minority extremism, intolerance and violence.
[ENDS]
NOTES
Who was M. S. Golwalkar?
Madahav Sadashiv Golwalkar (1906 - 1973) was the second leader of the
paramilitary RSS, a Hindu supremacist organization formed in 1925 devoted to
turning India into an exclusive Hindu state. Golwalkar supported Nazi
Germany and Fascist Italy. In his key book We, or our nationhood defined,
published in 1939, he openly supported the anti-semitic policies of Nazi
Germany towards German-Jews, openly supported Hitler's violent invasion of
other sovereign territories, lauded Fascist Italy and said these were models
which India could learn and profit by:
"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 shown how well nigh 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." (Golwalkar, We, or our nationhood defined, Bharat Publications,
Nagpur, [1939] 1944, page 37.)
In the 1950s, even when the horrors of Nazi Germany was known across the
world, the RSS called these ideas of Golwalkar an "unassailable doctrine of
nationhood" Golwalkar also stated that in India, minorities deserved no
rights whatsoever, not even any citizen's rights. Minorities could
"live only as outsiders, bound by all the codes and conventions of the
Nation, at the sufferance of the Nation and deserving of no special
protection, far less any privilege or rights. There are only two courses
open to the foreign elements, either to merge themselves in the national
race and adopt its culture, or to live at the sweet will of the national
race. That is the only logical and correct solution. That alone keeps the
national life healthy and undisturbed. That alone keeps the Nation safe from
the danger of a cancer developing into its body politic of the creation of a
state within a state. From this standpoint, sanctioned [by] the experiences
of shrewd old nations, the non-Hindu peoples of Hindusthan must either adopt
the Hindu culture and language, must learn to respect and hold in reverence
Hindu religion, must entertain no ideas but those of the glorification of
the Hindu race and culture i.e. they must not only give up their attitude of
intolerance and ungratefulness towards this land and its age-long traditions
but must also cultivate a positive attitude of love and devotion instead -
in a word they must cease to be foreigners, or may stay in the country
wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation, claiming nothing, deserving no
privileges, far less any preferential treatment - not even citizen's
rights." (Golwalkar, We, or our nationhood defined, Bharat Publications,
Nagpur, [1939] 1944, pages 48-9.)
For Golwalkar, minorities were to either give up their beliefs or live at
'the sweet will of the majority'. In 2002, the RSS stated that the safety of
Muslims in India lies in 'the goodwill of the majority'.
Golwalkar also actively promoted racism and race superiority as central to
the Indian nation:
"It is superfluous to emphasise the importance of Racial Unity in the Nation
state. A Race is a hereditary Society having common customs, common
language, common memories of glory and disaster; in short it is a population
with a common origin under one culture. Such a race is by far the most
important ingredient of a Nation.We will not seek to prove this axiomatic
truth, that the Race is the body of the Nation, and that with its fall, the
Nation ceases to exist." (Golwalkar, We, or our nationhood defined, Bharat
Publications, Nagpur, [1939] 1944, page 21.)
What is the RSS?
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS, National Volunteers' Corps) was formed
in the period 1925-1926 by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar in Nagpur, Maharashtra
state, north-west India. Golwalkar became its second "supreme leader" after
Hedgewar's death. The RSS is an exclusively male organization devoted to the
political ideology of Hindutva (or Hindu nationalism) and represents an
Indian version of fascism. Hedgewar formed the RSS as an organization of
young boys and men that was based on military drills, physical exercise,
weapons training, propagation of the ideology of Hindutva and anti-minority
hatred. Hedgewar, together with another key founder of the RSS, Balkrishna
Shivram Moonje, was also influenced by Fascism and Nazism. In 1934, Hedgewar
presided over a meeting in Nagpur aimed at propagating Mussolini's fascist
thought in India. Moonje not only met Mussolini but was a strong admirer of
Nazism and Fascism. He is today called Dharamveer - hero in the religious
struggle - by the RSS. He said that India not only needed a dictator like
Hitler but that a scheme to bring such a dictator had to be urgently carried
out. The RSS is not a democratic organization but based on the idea of one
'Supreme Leader' (sarsanghchalak), obedience to the one Supreme Leader (ek
chalak anuvartitva) and of the Supreme Leader as "the principle one who is
to be venerated" (parampoojaniya). Today, the RSS is at the core of a large
family of extremist Hindu nationalist organizations operating in India and
transnationally, including the UK.

Original report from RSS newspaper, The Organiser
The Organiser
May 13, 2007 p.5

Shri Guruji birth centenary celebrations in UK Sangh meet turns out a grand
Hindu Sangam
http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=183&page=5


_____


[10]   EVENTS:

(i)

[Received from Shabnam Hashmi following 
intimidation by Hindutva goons. The below 
announcement may be late but people interested 
can get in touch for information ]

Anhad
1914, Karanjwala Building
Opposite Khanpur Darwaza
Ahmedabad

  9879567079- nafees khan

June 15, 2007

Subject: Press Conference June 16, 2007, 4pm

Dear Sir,

We request you to kindly depute a reporter and a 
photographer to attend a press conference on June 
16 th, 2007 at 4pm at the Anhad office: 1914, 
Karanjwala Building, Opposite Khanpur Darwaza, 
Ahmjedabad. ( Tel- 25500844)

Yesterday VHP, Bajrang Dal in collision with the 
local media chased the vehicles in which our 
youth group was returning from Vadodara and 
stopped them and surrounded them around the Toll 
Naka and threatened them to give statements 
against their wishes. Before that they had 
attacked three of them during the peaceful 
demonstration.

  We wish to brief the media about the whole 
incident and the unethical means applied by some 
section of the local media.

Shabnam Hashmi will brief the media and some of 
the young volunteers will be at the press 
conference.

Yours sincerely

  Manan Trivedi

o o o

(ii)

PROTEST & PRESS CONFERENCE - 17th MAY 2006

To condemn the arrest of Dr. Binayak Sen, General
Secretary, PUCL Chhattisgarh

A dharna and press conference is being organised 
to protest against the arrest of Dr. Binayak Sen, 
General Secretary, PUCL (Chhattisgarh) and Vice 
President, PUCL (National) under the draconian 
Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 and 
Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act, 2006. 
Dr. Binayak Sen has been targeted as PUCL 
Chhattisgarh has been actively speaking out 
against the Salwa Judum as also against other 
atrocities committed by the security forces in 
Chhattisgarh. The arrest is possibly to deflect 
attention from the murder of 12 adivasis in 
Bijapur District on 31st March which the police 
had tried to pass off as an encounter killing and 
which had been investigated by PUCL.
Besides being a highly respected civil rights 
activist of long standing, an alumnus of the 
Christian Medical College Vellore and former 
faculty member of Jawaharlal Nehru University , 
as a medical doctor Binayak Sen has also been 
actively involved in reaching health care to the 
poorest people as well as monitoring the health 
and nutrition status of the people of 
Chhattisgarh.

DHARNA
Chhattisgarh Bhawan, 7, Sardar Patel Marg, New Delhi

12 Noon
17th May 2007

PRESS CONFERENCE

Press Club of India , 1 Raisina Road , New Delhi

   3 pm

17th May 2007

o o o

(iii)

Invitation

Polycentric Peoples’ Launch
23 May 2007
Amnesty International Report 2007
the state of the world's human rights

Freedom from Fear
•Use of Fear by Powerful Governments, Repressive States, Armed Groups
•No Right is Sacrosanct, No Person is Safe!
•Fear to fuel Inequalities, Division and Discrimination

Investment in Human Security
Sustaining Respect for Human Rights

Report Launch and Panel Discussion

Bhubaneswar: Rabi Ray and Others, Jayadev Bhavan, 
6.00-8.00 pm, Contacts: 0674-2573533, 09811793127
Delhi: A G Noorani and Others, Women's Press 
Corps, 4.00-5.00 pm, Contacts: 9818448041, 
8911033419 
                              
Kolkata: Mahashweta Devi and Others, Press Club 
Maidan, 3.00-5.00 pm, Contacts: 033-24122637, 
09830049689                     
Thiruvanthapuram: Binoy Vishwan and Others, Press 
Club, 2.30-4.30 pm, Contacts: 9447077822, 
09868114470           


Launch Programme in Other Places
The Report Release will also happen in Amroha, 
Allahabad, Agra, Banda, Kanpur and Khalilabad 
(Uttar Pradesh)* Dhanbad, Jamshedpur 
(Jharkhand)*Guntu & Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh)* 
Imphal (Manipur) * Mumbai (Maharashtra)* Nadiad 
(Gujarat)* Poonch (J&K)* Raigarh and Raipur, 
(Chhatisgarh)* Satna (Madhya Pradesh). 

Amnesty International India
C-1/22, First Floor, Safdarjung Development Area, Hauz Khas, N Delhi 110016
011-41642501, 26854763, 
<mailto:admin-in at amnesty.org>admin-in at amnesty.org, 
<http://www.amnesty.org.in/>www.amnesty.org.in


_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

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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Asia Citizens Web: www.sacw.net/
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DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not
necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers.