SACW | August 6-9, 2007

Harsh Kapoor aiindex at mnet.fr
Wed Aug 8 22:03:50 CDT 2007


South Asia Citizens Wire | August 6-9, 2007 | Dispatch No. 2432 - Year 9

[1] Pakistan: Mad Mullahs are bad for health
   (i) Anti-polio campaign (edit, The News)
   (ii) Pakistan polio drive is suspended - 
Islamic hardliners say the vaccine is part of a 
Western plot (BBC)
[2] US-India Nuke Deal May Spark Asian Arms Race (Thalif Deen)
[3] Can The Government of Sri Lanka Consolidate Its Gains? (Rohini Hensman)
[4] Bangladesh: Protecting Rights as Vital as 
Ending Corruption (A letter from Human Rights 
Watch)
[5] India: Online Petition - Punish the Guilty of 
the 1992-1993 Anti Muslim Pogrom in Bombay
[6] India: What about the '93 rioters ? (Ram Punyani)
[7] India: A Special Experience of Protest (Lalita Ramdas)
[8] A migrants fight for survival (Sanjib Baruah)
[9] Announcements:
(i) A Public Discussion: Communal Violence Bill (Ahmedabad, 9 August 2007)
(ii) Native Women of South India : Manners and 
Customs by Pushpamala N & Clare Arni
(iii) Call for photos and correspondence for the 
P.C. Joshi Birth Centenary Celebrations Exhibition

______


(i)

The News
August 09, 2007
Editorial 

  ANTI-POLIO CAMPAIGN

Not a day goes by these days without news of 
extremist violence emanating from some corner of 
the country. On Tuesday night, to take just one 
of the incidents of this kind, a police check 
post was destroyed in a bombing in Bannu; 
fortunately, the only casualties were the three 
people hurt in the blast. In the Chamang area of 
Bajaur Agency, meanwhile, 12 health workers were 
taken captive and beaten up, for visiting the 
place to dispense anti-polio drops to children. 
In fact, the team was doubly guilty of the sin - 
for their campaign is "un-Islamic," according to 
local clerics, and intended to keep the local 
population in check -- because its members dared 
to go to Chamang despite warnings in advance from 
the clerics. Tuesday's detention and beatings of 
the team resulted in the anti-polio drive being 
suspended in the Agency. For only a while, let's 
hope, because the effort in Chamang was part of a 
countrywide campaign against the crippling and 
often fatal disease. At last, polio is on the way 
out in the world.

After Dr Marwat's assassination and the shock 
waves it sent across Pakistan, the government had 
pledged to provide every possible security to 
anti-polio health workers in the tribal areas and 
elsewhere in the NWFP. While this may not be the 
easiest thing to do in that wild region, the ease 
with which the criminals appear to have kidnapped 
the workers shows the local authorities could 
have done far more to keep that promise than they 
actually did. Apart from the aspect of probable 
negligence, there's the element of possible 
politics. It would be naive to assume that the 
incident was solely the result of clerical 
bigotry. It's not unlikely that it was another 
facet of the religious extremists' campaign of 
destabilisation of the province, of keeping Lal 
Masjid alive.


o o o

(ii)


BBC News
8 August 2007

PAKISTAN POLIO DRIVE IS SUSPENDED
A child in neighbouring India receiving the polio vaccine
Islamic hardliners say the vaccine is part of a Western plot
A polio vaccination programme in a remote 
Pakistani tribal region has been suspended after 
villagers threatened health workers, officials 
say.

Hardline clerics in the area are against the 
programme, saying it is a US conspiracy to render 
people incapable of producing children.

Officials say that up to 4,000 children in two 
villages in the Bajaur tribal region were due to 
be vaccinated.

Pakistan is one of only five countries where the polio virus still exists.

Eleven new cases have been reported so far this year.

Hotbed

"We have stopped vaccination programme after 
tribesmen threatened our workers and broke their 
equipment in Sarkari Killa and Kotgi Charmang 
villages on Tuesday," Dr Cherag Hussain told the 
Reuters news agency.

"They have threatened to kill health workers if they visit again."

On Tuesday officials said that armed men abducted 
and beat 11 health workers sent to Bajaur to 
administer polio vaccinations.

They said that health workers were held for four 
hours as their captors smashed vaccination kits.

Dr Hussain said that the work in Bajaur was part 
of a national drive this year to immunise 32 
million children aged under five-years-old.

The campaign in the Bajaur region - part of North 
West Frontier Province (NWFP) - was also 
suspended early this year after a doctor and a 
health worker were killed in a roadside blast.

Correspondents say that Bajaur is considered a 
hotbed of support for Islamic militants.

Health officials in the area have been trying to 
dispel rumours - sometimes spread by radio 
stations and mosques - that the polio campaign is 
a Western conspiracy to reduce Muslim populations.

The disease has been eliminated in developed 
nations but persists in parts of India, Nigeria, 
Afghanistan and Pakistan.

______


[2]

Inter Press Service
1 August 2007

DISARMAMENT: US-INDIA NUKE DEAL MAY SPARK ASIAN ARMS RACE

by Thalif Deen, UN Bureau Chief, Inter Press Service

NEW YORK (IPS) - The U.S. decision last week to 
proceed with a controversial civilian nuclear 
deal with India has triggered strong negative 
responses from peace activists, disarmament 
experts and anti-nuclear groups.

"The development of a nuclear/strategic alliance 
between the United States and India may promote 
arms racing between India and Pakistan, and 
(between) India and China," says John Burroughs, 
executive director of the New York-based Lawyers' 
Committee on Nuclear Policy.

The deal, he told IPS, also undermines prospects 
for global agreements on nuclear restraint and 
disarmament.

An equally negative reaction came from former UN 
Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs 
Jayantha Dhanapala: "It has the dangerous 
potential of triggering a nuclear arms race among 
India, Pakistan and China, with disastrous 
consequences for Asian peace and stability and 
Asia's emerging economic boom."

But the Indian government argues that the nuclear 
agreement would neither destabilise the region 
nor prompt an arms race.

Nor will it trigger a "copycat deal" between 
Pakistan and China, India's national security 
adviser N.K. Narayanan told reporters last week.

"This agreement was not an excuse to enhance our 
strategic capabilities," he told a press briefing 
in New Delhi.

Zia Mian of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public 
and International Affairs at Princeton University 
says the United States sees strategic and 
economic benefits in the nuclear deal with India.

"But the people of India and Pakistan will pay 
the price, since the nuclear deal will fuel the 
India-Pakistan nuclear arms race," he added.

The deal will allow India to increase its 
capacity to make nuclear weapons materiel, and 
Pakistan has already said it will do whatever it 
can to keep up with India.

"This means nuclear establishments in both 
countries will become more powerful, drain even 
greater resources away from social development, 
and increase the nuclear danger in South Asia," 
Mian told IPS.

Nicholas Burns, the U.S. undersecretary of state 
who led the negotiations, denied the deal was a 
clear example of political double standards by an 
administration which has been trying to punish 
Iran for its nuclear ambitions but gives its 
blessings to India.

"This agreement sends a message to outlaw regimes 
such as Iran that if you behave responsibly, you 
will not be penalised," he told reporters last 
week.

India -- along with Pakistan and Israel -- has 
refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation 
Treaty (NPT), but Iran has.

Called the "123 agreement", last week's nuclear 
deal will help create a civil nuclear enrichment 
facility in India, mostly with U.S.-made reactors 
and expertise.

Still, in a major speech in February 2004, U.S. 
President George W. Bush said that "enrichment 
and reprocessing are not necessary for nations 
seeking to harness nuclear energy for peaceful 
purposes."

"The details of the so-called '123 agreement' are 
still shrouded in secrecy but, on the basis of 
what has been disclosed, it is clear that the 
U.S.-India nuclear cooperation deal is an example 
of crude realpolitik trumping nuclear 
nonproliferation principles in total disregard of 
the NPT," Dhanapala told IPS.

He warned that it sends "a bad signal to the 
overwhelming majority of NPT parties who have 
faithfully abided by their treaty obligations."

Last week Burns told reporters that the deal 
would not act as an incentive for other countries 
to develop nuclear weapons outside the NPT.

Burroughs said that India made it clear when the 
NPT was negotiated that it could not accept a 
world divided into nuclear haves and nuclear 
have-nots, and stayed out of the treaty.

"The problem with the deal is not that it 
acknowledges that India has nuclear weapons," 
Burroughs told IPS. "The problem is that both 
India and the United States are showing no signs 
of working towards the elimination of their 
arsenals together with other states possessing 
nuclear weapons."

Under the deal, neither country agrees to ratify 
the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

"And while India agrees to work with the United 
States towards a treaty banning production of 
fissile materials for nuclear weapons, India is 
not required to stop producing materials for 
weapons now or to refrain from building 
additional weapons from existing material," he 
added.

Nor does India assume the obligation the United 
States has under the NPT, to negotiate in good 
faith cessation of the nuclear arms race at an 
early date and the elimination of nuclear 
arsenals.

In short, the deal seems to certify India as a 
member of a permanent nuclear weapons club, 
Burroughs declared.

Mian of Princeton University pointed out that the 
deal is also a clear violation of UN Security 
Council Resolution 1172, adopted on 6 June 1998, 
which was passed unanimously, and called upon 
India and Pakistan "immediately to stop their 
nuclear weapon development programmes, to refrain 
from weaponisation or from the deployment of 
nuclear weapons, to cease development of 
ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear 
weapons and any further production of fissile 
material for nuclear weapons."

That resolution also encouraged all States to 
"prevent the export of equipment, materials or 
technology that could in any way assist programs 
in India or Pakistan for nuclear weapons," said 
Mian who along with M. V. Ramana co-authored 
"Wrong Ends, Means, and Needs: Behind the U.S. 
Nuclear Deal With India", in the January/February 
2006 issue of Arms Control Today. (END)

______



[3]

CAN THE GOVERNMENT OF SRI LANKA CONSOLIDATE ITS GAINS?

by Rohini Hensman

The elimination of LTTE bases from the Eastern 
Province could be a prelude to its defeat.
Alternatively, it could just be a temporary 
setback, from which the LTTE will recover: it 
has, after all, lost the East to the government 
in the past, and re-established itself there 
subsequently. The final outcome depends on what 
steps the government takes in the next few 
months. The strategy proposed by the LTTE and the 
brutal strategy currently being imposed by 
Sinhala nationalists with Karuna's complicity 
would both end in disaster for the whole of Sri 
Lanka, not just the North and East. It is vitally 
important that the people of Sri Lanka press for 
the third alternative outlined below.

The LTTE Proposal

LTTE spokesman S.P. Thamilchelvan has demanded a 
return to the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) of 2002 
as the only basis for a return to peace talks. 
This would, of course, be a bonanza for the LTTE, 
but would benefit no one else. Fatal flaws in the 
2002 CFA and the ‘peace process' based on it are 
directly responsible for the dirty war that 
engulfs the island today. The absence of any 
agreement on protection of human rights, as well 
as recognition of the LTTE as the sole 
representative of the Tamils in Sri Lanka, 
allowed the LTTE to kill its critics and 
political opponents one by one and persist in the 
abhorrent practice of child conscription, thus 
tightening its totalitarian control over Tamils 
and building up its army. International 
legitimacy and funding from the Norwegian 
government enabled it to step up intimidation of 
Tamils abroad and escalate its levels of 
extortion from them, and also to equip its armed 
forces, including its new Air Wing.

The impunity with which the LTTE was able to 
violate human rights strengthened the hand of 
Sinhala chauvinists in the South enormously. When 
the LTTE launched Eelam War IV, they felt 
justified in responding in a manner that violated 
human rights just as egregiously, and there was 
nothing anyone could do about it because human 
rights were not part of the peace process. It is 
also notable that not a single serious proposal 
for a political solution was put forward during 
the ceasefire. The ISGA proposal of the LTTE was 
the only one to be presented: a thinly-veiled 
demand for a Tamil state under their own 
totalitarian rule. Appeasement of the Tigers by 
domestic NGOs as well as international actors was 
used by Sinhala nationalists to label ALL 
interventions by NGOs and the international 
community as 'pro-Tiger', even when this was 
patently untrue.

Going back to the CFA of 2002 would simply allow 
the LTTE to regain lost territory and legitimacy, 
re-arm, regroup and launch Eelam War V. It would 
benefit no one else, least of all the embattled 
people of the North and East. And it would mean 
that all those who have lost their lives fighting 
the LTTE – whether politically or militarily – 
would have died for nothing.

The Sinhala Nationalist Strategy

A broad spectrum of Sinhala nationalists, ranging 
from those in the JVP and JHU to leaders of the 
SLFP, seem to think the next step should be an 
assault on the LTTE in the North. They should 
think again. The last time the LTTE was cleared 
out of the East was in 1994.  But shortly 
afterwards, the LTTE returned in full strength. 
The reason was that troops were withdrawn from 
the East for Operation Jaya Sikurui in the North. 
More than two years later, after thousands of 
lives had been lost and large quantities of 
military equipment had been captured by the LTTE, 
that operation was abandoned. Not only was the 
Northern campaign a failure, but it also led to 
the recapture of the East by the LTTE.

Attacking the Northern stronghold now would 
almost certainly have the same consequences. 
Several factors which aided the government 
earlier would not be available to it. Most 
importantly, the assistance of Karuna's forces, 
which played a crucial role in the East, would 
not be available in the North. The split weakened 
the LTTE considerably in the East, but their 
military power in the North remains undamaged. 
Moreover, with their backs against the wall, they 
can be expected to fight ferociously. As in the 
case of Operation Jaya Sikurui, thousands of 
soldiers could be killed in a battle that ends in 
stalemate.

Worse still, with the security forces shifted 
North, the LTTE could easily stage a comeback in 
the East. As several skirmishes and the 
assassination of a top government official 
demonstrate, they are still active in the East. 
Nor have they lost excessive numbers of cadres or 
military hardware. It is a staple of guerrilla 
strategy to retreat when attacked, and that is 
what they did. But this leaves them free to move 
back when government forces move North. Such a 
return would be facilitated by the brutal 
oppression imposed by Karuna and the government's 
security forces in the East.

Concentrating on a military solution, the 
government would almost surely continue to 
condone human rights violations by its forces, 
and fail to pursue a political solution 
acceptable to Muslims and moderate Tamils. This 
would antagonise foreign governments. As a result 
of an unremitting campaign waged by anti-LTTE 
Tamils, criticising the LTTE's human rights 
violations and refuting their claim to represent 
the Tamils of Sri Lanka, several countries not 
only declared the LTTE a terrorist organisation, 
but also took action to cut off its sources of 
funding and armaments. More recently, however, 
with the spurt in human rights violations by 
government forces, some of these countries have 
cut aid to the GOSL. More aid could be cut in 
future, especially if it appears that Tamils and 
Muslims are being displaced from their homes in 
the East in order to facilitate Sinhalese 
colonisation drives. This would have an adverse 
impact on the government's development plans for 
the East, not to mention its international 
legitimacy.

In the South, the euphoria over Thoppigala is 
likely to evaporate rapidly when the war 
continues, prices keep rising, and soldiers keep 
dying. The JVP is now egging on the government to 
attack the North, but would have no compunctions 
about exploiting dissatisfaction in the South as 
the war continues. And the war WILL continue. No 
government can defeat a guerrilla force unless 
the people are with it, and the GOSL is no 
exception; even the most powerful military 
machine in the world, that of the US, was 
defeated in Vietnam, and is currently unable to 
win the war in Iraq. It is not that the people of 
the North and East support the LTTE: far from it. 
They have made it clear that their preferred 
option is peace. But the worst option, for them, 
is being crushed under the jackboots of either 
Sinhala or Tamil fascists. Even war is preferable 
to that. Therefore they will not support the 
government so long as it is dominated by Sinhala 
nationalists. And without their support, the 
government cannot win.

The Third Alternative
THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE TO BOTH THE LTTE AND GOSL

STRATEGIES. It would involve, first and foremost, 
the government consolidating its position by 
clamping down heavily on human rights violations, 
calling in a UN monitoring mission to verify that 
it is doing so.  Secondly, it would have to 
provide maximum assistance to all displaced 
people from the East to return to their original 
homes and rebuild their lives there. At present, 
the GOSL seems to have a conception of ‘security' 
which resembles that of a military dictatorship: 
the ability of the state to crush the people. 
That is why it wants to displace people 
permanently in order to establish High Security 
Zones.  But a democratic conception of security 
would be the ability of the state to PROTECT the 
people, and that would entail the security forces 
moving among the people rather than isolating 
themselves in HSZs. Even from a military point of 
view, this would make far more sense, helping to 
ensure that the LTTE does not infiltrate the East 
again.

If normality and security were restored, the East 
could be a showpiece demonstrating the viability 
of a united Sri Lanka. This would also be a 
precondition for elections and a referendum. 
Unless people have settled back in their homes, 
and a neutral agency like the UN confirms that 
their human and democratic rights are being 
respected, any elections would quite correctly be 
regarded as fraudulent. An important element of 
this programme would be ensuring that every 
government and police official in the East has a 
working knowledge of Tamil; even rank-and-file 
soldiers should be given a crash course in Tamil 
so that they can at least communicate effectively 
in the language, otherwise they will be regarded 
as an army of occupation. The majority of the 
population in the Eastern Province is 
Tamil-speaking, and that should be the language 
of administration. With an astonishing lack of 
sense and sensitivity, the development programme 
for the East has been called ‘Nagenahira 
Navodaya'; this could be its subtitle, but 
certainly not its title. Until we have Tamil 
titles for programmes in Tamil-majority areas, 
suspicions of a Sinhala-supremacist agenda will 
persist.

Thirdly, the government would have to present as 
soon as possible a political solution that in its 
broad outlines is acceptable to the minorities 
(not the LTTE). This was achieved months ago by 
the Majority Report of the panel of experts and 
Tissa Vitharana's proposals; while these would 
still need to be elaborated, they constitute the 
basis for a viable solution. Setting up the All 
Party Representative Committee and initiating a 
debate on a political solution was one of the 
best things done under the Rajapakse persidency, 
and one would have expected the SLFP to make 
political capital out of it. Normally it is the 
opposition party that sabotages such efforts; 
this is the first time that the ruling party has 
performed the acrobatic feat of stabbing itself 
in the back by presenting proposals that, if 
accepted, would ensure the failure of its own 
initiative! The SLFP would be well advised to 
withdraw its proposals in order to ensure the 
success of the APRC process.

If, in addition, efforts are made to ease the 
humanitarian crisis in the Jaffna peninsula by 
ensuring adequate supplies of essential 
commodities at the same prices that prevail in 
the South, both Tamils and the international 
community would put heavy pressure on the LTTE to 
agree to the political solution and lay down 
their arms, stepping up sanctions against it if 
its leaders refused.  Unilaterally declaring a 
ceasefire, while reserving the right of security 
forces to defend themselves if attacked, would 
send out a clear message that the GOSL does not 
wish to kill LTTE conscripts, many of whom are 
children. Instead of attacking the LTTE's 
stronghold, the security forces could lay siege 
to it instead, allowing food to move in freely 
but enforcing a strict embargo on arms, 
ammunition and any fuel that could be used for 
its combat vehicles, especially its aircraft. 
Starved of ammunition, its guns would eventually 
fall silent, and it would either be forced to 
surrender, or, if its leaders wished to fight to 
the last, it could be defeated with minimal 
casualties.

A Critical Juncture
What happens in the next few months is critically 
important for Sri Lanka's future. If the 
government consolidates the gains in the East as 
outlined above, the end of the war could be in 
sight. If, on the other hand, it pursues a 
military assault on the LTTE stronghold in the 
North, it would be inviting political and 
military disaster. President Rajapakse could be 
remembered as the president who ended the war 
during his term in office, or he could go down 
ignominiously as the leader who snatched defeat 
out of the jaws of victory.

It would not be an exaggeration to describe the 
LTTE leadership as psychopaths, sending thousands 
of people, including their own cadres, to their 
deaths with no remorse whatsoever. But the 
Sinhala nationalists, no less psychopathic, have 
also sent tens of thousands to their deaths 
without any remorse.  Despite paying lip-service 
to the Buddha, they treat the first of his five 
precepts – ‘to abstain from taking life' – with 
utter contempt. None of these leaders, Sinhalese 
or Tamil, can be trusted to make humane decisions.

If it were mandatory for those who back an 
offensive strategy to go to the battlefront 
immediately, or, if they are too old, to send 
their children there, we could be sure that steps 
would be taken to end the war. Unfortunately, it 
is not the political leaders who suffer the 
consequences of war; it is not they or their 
children who get killed or crippled, and they 
continue to live in luxury while ordinary working 
people go hungry. This is why the decisions 
should not be left to them. If Sri Lanka is a 
democracy, it is the people who should choose 
between a military strategy that leaves thousands 
dead and ends in stalemate, or a political 
strategy that defeats the LTTE and ends the war.

______


[4]

BANGLADESH: PROTECTING RIGHTS AS VITAL AS ENDING CORRUPTION

August 1, 2007 

Mr. Fakhruddin Ahmed 
Chief Advisor 
Government of Bangladesh 
Dhaka

Re: Human Rights Situation in Bangladesh 

Dear Chief Advisor: 

When your caretaker government was established in 
Bangladesh on January 11, 2007, many Bangladeshis 
and international actors were reassured by the 
appointment of apparently non-partisan and 
competent officials. The initiative largely had 
the support of Bangladesh's influential civil 
society as well as the international community. 
Many had despaired at the state of near political 
anarchy, widespread corruption, and severe human 
rights abuses that had emerged in the country in 
recent years. The promise of free and fair 
elections in the light of attempts to rig 
elections was also welcomed. 

Your government has taken some strong initiatives 
to clean up corruption and hold political and 
business leaders accountable for their actions. 
Measures to reform the civil service and 
bureaucracy have been welcomed by many 
Bangladeshis, though we caution that due process 
for civil servants must be observed. And, unlike 
the previous government, you have made it clear 
that you will not tolerate or condone the actions 
of violent militants. 

However, we are deeply concerned that the 
laudable goals of fighting corruption and 
reforming the political system are not being 
matched by efforts to protect human rights. 
Serious and systemic human rights abuses are 
taking place on your watch. Many of these, such 
as torture and feigned "crossfire killings," were 
serious problems before you took office and 
continue today. Others, such as emergency rules 
that do not respect basic due process rights, or 
the large number of arbitrary arrests and 
detention without proper judicial oversight or 
public accountability, are a direct result of 
your government's policies. 

Since your administration took over, torture of 
persons in the custody of the security forces has 
continued to be routine. Many people have died in 
custody in unexplained circumstances. Your 
government has not put into place the most basic 
safeguards to ensure proper independent access to 
places of detention, requiring all persons to be 
held in official places of detention, and 
establishing a process whereby independent 
investigations are routinely undertaken when 
deaths in custody occur. 

The joint forces, led by the army, have shown 
almost complete disregard for established legal 
norms conducting arrests and holding people in 
detention. Instead of being brought immediately 
before a magistrate, detainees are routinely 
taken to army barracks and other unofficial 
places of detention and tortured, both as 
punishment and to force them to sign confessions. 
Many people are being picked up in the middle of 
the night without warrant. Led by Bangladesh's 
military intelligence unit, the DGFI, the 
security forces are often in plainclothes and 
offer no identification. When asked, they claim 
they can do anything they want because they are 
thus empowered under Bangladesh's emergency laws. 

Bangladeshi civil society and the media, which 
have often been celebrated in the past for 
courage and freedom, are under severe threat. 
Activists and journalists have been summoned by 
members of the army, particularly those claiming 
to be members of the DGFI, and threatened. Many 
have been silenced for fear of arbitrary arrest 
because they know of other cases of arbitrary 
detention, torture, and death. 

We are particularly concerned because the rule of 
law appears to be breaking down under your 
administration. Under the emergency laws, the 
right to bail and the right to appeal are 
routinely denied. Court decisions are regularly 
ignored. Bangladesh's many fine judges and 
lawyers are not being allowed to play their 
legitimate roles in the legal and judicial 
process. When some judges began ordering bail 
when habeas corpus petitions were filed, public 
prosecutors have secured contrary rulings from 
the Appellate Division, even in cases where there 
is clearly no threat to public security or risk 
of flight. This is all happening under an 
administration that claims to be committed to 
reform. 

Illegal acts by the security forces are being 
enabled by the sweeping emergency rules your 
administration has put in place, which are being 
misused on a daily basis by the armed forces. 
Under emergency rules that ban protests and limit 
effective legal remedies, the security forces 
believe they can commit abuses with impunity. 

The International Covenant on Civil and Political 
Rights, to which Bangladesh is a party, permits 
limitations on some rights during properly 
declared states of national emergency. However, 
such measures are limited to "the extent strictly 
required by the exigencies of the situation." 
Certain basic rights, such as the right to life 
and the prohibition on torture and other cruel, 
inhuman or degrading treatment, may never be 
restricted. The principles of legality and the 
rule of law require that the fundamental 
requirements of a fair trial be respected even 
under emergency regulations. 

Because the sweeping emergency regulations under 
the state of emergency now in force do not comply 
with international requirements and have been 
misused in practice, we urge you to repeal them 
immediately. All persons currently detained under 
the emergency regulations should be charged with 
a cognizable criminal offense or released. Those 
mistreated in detention should be able to seek 
legal remedies through competent authorities. 

When challenged about the human rights situation, 
officials of your government cite the commitment 
to create a national human rights commission. 
Creating an independent and competent national 
human rights commission in accordance with the 
UN's Paris Principles on national institutions 
for the promotion and protection of human rights 
would be an important step, one in which Human 
Rights Watch would be happy to offer advice. 
However, a national human rights commission will 
take years to set up and act effectively. With so 
many arbitrary arrests, torture and extrajudicial 
killings, much more has to be done, and without 
delay (see recommendations below). 

We would particularly like to use this 
opportunity to remind you of the case of 
journalist Tasneem Khalil, who has worked as a 
consultant for Human Rights Watch and as a 
stringer for CNN. On May 11, 2007, Mr. Khalil was 
taken into custody after midnight by men in 
plainclothes claiming to be Bangladesh's "joint 
task force." Mr. Khalil was taken from his home 
in front of his wife and child, blindfolded and 
driven to an interrogation center, where he was 
tortured and questioned about his work as a 
journalist, writings on his blog, as well as his 
employment with Human Rights Watch and CNN. Many 
of Mr. Khalil's possessions, including computers, 
phones and passport, were confiscated when his 
home was ransacked. We immediately contacted your 
government for help, and Mr. Khalil was 
eventually released after more than 22 hours in 
custody. 

We have since learned that Mr. Khalil had been 
held and tortured by the DGFI. The interrogation 
center Mr. Khalil was taken to is an extension of 
the DGFI headquarters in Dhaka cantonment that 
houses at least one torture chamber and a 
detention facility. This is a full-time illegal 
detention and torture facility. Mr. Khalil saw 
sophisticated torture equipment and could hear 
other detainees screaming in pain. At least five 
DGFI officers took part in the torture sessions 
that left Mr. Khalil with severe injuries. At one 
point he was photographed with a revolver and 
some bullets placed before him, suggesting that 
he was being set up for a faked "crossfire 
killing." Before his release, Mr. Khalil was 
forced to make false confessions, and asked to 
sign documents and testify on video admitting to 
acts that could be considered treasonous. We have 
received other credible reports of the same type 
of activities by DGFI. 

As you know, Bangladesh's military forces have 
become notorious for taking people into custody, 
torturing them to death or executing them in 
faked "crossfire killings." We were concerned 
that Mr. Khalil would meet a similar fate even 
after his release. He had to remain in hiding 
until, after long and unnecessary negotiations, 
his passport was eventually returned and he and 
his family were able to leave Bangladesh for 
safety abroad. 

In a sense Mr. Khalil was fortunate. He had the 
advantage of foreign friends, colleagues, and 
diplomats who were in a position to appeal to 
your government for help. However, there are 
thousands now in custody, unable to secure bail 
and often subjected to torture, who are not so 
well connected. We do not know who is being 
tortured at this very minute by DGFI or others, 
but we do know that it is happening. 

We appreciate your personal intervention and that 
of other government officials to ensure Mr. 
Khalil's release and safe exit from the country. 
But as his case makes clear, arbitrary arrest and 
detention and torture are a significant problem 
in Bangladesh today. 

Your government knows who was responsible for Mr. 
Khalil's torture - and that of many other victims 
- where they work, and where the torture centers 
are located. Your government knows that these are 
not isolated cases - an untold number of people 
are being tortured every day. As a matter of 
basic human decency as well as your obligations 
under international law, you must act to close 
down such torture centers without delay. We look 
forward to public statements from you and members 
of your government on this subject, as well as 
action. 

We take your government's claims to be 
reform-minded seriously. For that reason, you 
would expect nothing less than to be held to the 
domestic and international standards that 
Bangladesh has long committed itself to uphold. 
It is therefore time for your administration to 
act with the same sense of urgency to end human 
rights abuses as it has to end corruption. 

Specifically, Human Rights Watch urges your 
government and the armed forces to take steps to 
protect human rights and follow the rule of law 
by:

       
     * Immediately repealing the emergency 
regulations under the state of emergency and 
restoring fundamental rights guaranteed by the 
constitution. 
     * Charging or releasing those detained and 
give them access to legal counsel and family 
members. 
     * Restoring the right to petition for bail and challenge detentions. 
     * Using only official places of detention and 
end the use of irregular sites, such as the one 
maintained by DGFI, to prevent torture. 
     * Ensuring that those whose rights have been 
violated have an effective remedy before 
competent authorities. 
     * Allowing access by independent monitors to all places of detention. 
     * Prosecuting members of the army, RAB, 
police and other government officials responsible 
for human rights violations.

While some in your government claim that the 
human rights situation is no worse than under the 
previous democratically elected government, I'm 
sure you will agree that this is not an 
appropriate standard. You and your colleagues 
have chosen to lead the government. We are 
certain that you did not take your positions in 
order to preside over a government and security 
forces that routinely abuse human rights, but 
that is the reality in Bangladesh today. 

It is now your responsibility to ensure that the 
rights of all persons in Bangladesh are 
respected. We are disappointed that we have not 
seen any significant signs that your government 
is attempting to tackle these problems. This is 
surprising given your stated commitment to 
reform. We look forward to a public and strong 
commitment to making the protection of human 
rights the highest priority of your time in 
office. 

Thank you for your consideration. We would be 
pleased to meet with you and appropriate 
officials in your government to address these 
matters further. 

Yours sincerely, 

Brad Adams 
Asia Director, Human Rights Watch

______


[5]

JUSTICE FOR ALL: PUNISH THE GUILTY OF THE 
1992-1993 ANTI MUSLIM POGROM IN BOMBAY

Do Sign this petition to implement the 
recommendations of the Srikrishna commission and 
prosecute those guilty in the 1992-1993 riots.
Signatures are being collected to submit to the High Court.

   http://www.PetitionOnline.com/jus4all/petition.html

______


[6]

Hindustan Times
2 August 2007

WHAT ABOUT THE '93 RIOTERS ?

by Ram Punyani
 
	             
 
	    
 
 
		SANJAY DUTT'S defence for keeping 
an AK-56 rifle and an 9 mm pistol   was that they 
were for protecting his family as they were 
getting threatening calls during the 1993 Mumbai 
riots. His father, the late Sunil Dutt, was 
amongst the few trying to save the colonies under 
siege by hooligans. Sanjay Dutt's mother was the 
legendary actor Nargis, a Muslim. The Dutts got 
many threatening phone calls. Sanjay Dutt did 
procure the rifle illegally, but all the same it 
was not used at any point. As one saw the glum 
face of Sanjay Dutt after the verdict was 
pronounced, one remembered another case of 
violation of the Arms Act.   During the 1992-93 
riots, Shiv Sena leader Madhukar Sarpotdar was 
caught carrying revolvers, pistols, choppers and 
hockey sticks. The role of this Shiv Sainik, who 
became an MP, was outlined by the Srikrishna 
Commission of inquiry: "Šthe other two pistols 
were unlicensed. (Sarpotdar's) explanation (was 
that) they were carrying them for 
self-defenceŠThis explanation strains credulity."

Further, the Commission pointed out, "It took 
police two days to register an offense against 
SarpotdarŠThe mere possession of unlicensed 
firearms in a 'notified area' would have 
attracted penal liability under TADA (but) there 
was neither an attempt to (do this) nor to oppose 
bail." Sarpotdar was not even served a 
chargesheet. The Shiv     Sena  Government 
dropped all cases against him. The Congress 
alliance, which came to power after this, on 
the promise of implementing the Srikrishna 
Commission report, not only failed to reopen the 
case but shamelessly proclaimed that the 
recommendations of the commission have to be 
implemented in letter and spirit.

   These two cases in a way show as to how the 
justice delivery system in the country   is 
turning politically schizophrenic.     The Mumbai 
riots took place in the aftermath   of the 
demolition of the Babri Masjid. The riots were 
followed by the bomb blasts. The verdict on those 
involved in the cases is close to complete by 
now. During the Mumbai violence the police not 
only participated and aided in the anti-minority 
violence, it deliberately refused to register the 
First Information Reports (FIR). And where the 
FIRs did get registered they were neither 
recorded properly nor pursued. Later the cases 
were closed on one pretext or the other. The 
Srikrishna Commission clearly indicted the   Shiv 
Sena and BJP leaders. It also named several 
police personnel for their crimes. Forget 
punishing them, some of the policemen even got 
promotions in due course. The commission was 
initially stalled midway and later its findings 
were withheld on the ground that they would 
reopen old wounds. Finally, the   findings were 
rejected by the Shiv Sena- BJP government.

   The Gujarat violence is still   being 
investigated by the inquiry commission, but as 
far as the police is concerned nothing had 
happened. Here matters go one step further: the 
complainants are threatened and asked to withdraw 
the cases, witnesses turn hostile and the victims 
are reduced to second-class citizens. Now the 
police are coming into 'efficiency mode' again 
and are ready to launch cases against the 
culprits of the July 2006 blasts. The rioters of 
the Gujarat carnage are moving with pride at 
"having taught them a lesson".

  In April 2006, two activists belonging to 
Bajrang Dal died while making bombs in Nanded, as 
confirmed by the Maharashtra Anti-terrorist Squad 
Chief K.P. Raghuvanshi. One of them, Himanshu 
Panse, had stated that unless Hindus bomb 
mosques, it would be perceived that Hindus are 
hijras (eunuchs). The blasts are the only way to 
stop attacks like the ones in Varanasi and Delhi. 
The Malegaon blast, the blast in a Hyderabad 
mosque and the Samjhauta Express followed this 
pattern. It is explained away as thework of an 
external hand in league with local minority 
elements to foment trouble.

  One can see the emergence of a clear pattern in 
dealing with communal crimes and acts of 
terrorism. While the communal parties proactively 
pursue a divisive agenda, most other parties have 
compromised their principles of fair play At one 
level they are . infected by this communal virus 
and at another most of the police and 
bureaucratic system have succeeded in demonising 
Islam as the propagator of violence and projected 
Muslims as a violent, terrorist community. Seeing 
the fate of justice in the case of the Mumbai and 
Gujarat riots and many other scattered acts where 
minorities were the victims, and conflating them 
with the way justice is meted out in acts of 
terrorism, a uniform pattern seems to be 
emerging: punish those involved in acts of 
terrorism and exonerate those indulging in 
communal violence.

     Ram Punyani is secretary,       All India Secular Forum

______


[7]

Bhaimala - Alibag Taluka
Raigad Dist, Konkan, Maharashtra

Sunday July 29 2007
			A SPECIAL EXPERIENCE OF PROTEST

One week ago we sent round an update about what 
was happening in Raigad - the coming together of 
groups to protest the policies of the Govt of 
Maharashtra and the Govt of India with regard to 
the Special Economic Zones; the fast unto death 
by the group of men and women  in PEN.

The fast was called off on Monday 23, on 
receiving assurances [so far only verbal!] from 
the Chief Minister of Maharashtra that the 22 
villages will be excluded from acquisition on the 
basis of their being categorized as`irrigated'. 
However, the bigger question of why SEZ - why 
forcible acquisition - and who would benefit, 
still remains unanswered. And so it was that in 
an unparalleled show of solidarity, strength and 
peoples power, OVER A HUNDRED THOUSAND  people 
from all over the District, came together in a 
massive demonstration on July 27th, outside the 
headquarters of the Commissioner for Konkan - in 
Belapur in New Mumbai.

Despite the deluge that set in that very morning 
after a dry spell of over two weeks - people came 
in trucks and tempos - on foot - and in three 
wheelers - many of them traveling up to 50 kms to 
get to the venue. By and large, these were no 
paid crowds  -these were people who were willing 
to do whatever it took to fight for their 
survival - and for each one, their land was their 
hope for survival - for livelihood - and 
supported and fed the extended families. Women 
and children came out in large numbers  - and 
they did not need to be PhDs in economics to 
raise fundamental issues regarding the hollow 
promises made by governments and corporates - you 
will have jobs; your homes will be safe - just 
give us your fields! "Where will we go they asked 
in anger - to the footpaths and pavements of the 
cities -to beg, to work as sweepers and servants? 
Or to be thrown into the sea" - said the large 
numbers of fisherfolk from Uran.

Truck loads carried their fishing nets, clumps of 
paddy, other produce from their fields and farms 
- brandishing them proudly and asking what kind 
of government it was that declared their 
productive lands [su-pick jameen], as na-pick 
[no-crops]?

For over two hours, this mighty crowd stood in 
pouring rain, drenched to the skin - as were we 
all - listening as speaker after speaker from 
each of the local organisations spoke of their 
grief, their sense of betrayal, and their 
determination not to yield an inch of their land 
- not today, not tomorrow, not ever. Slogans and 
cries rent the air - and it was an inspiring 
sight indeed to see their determination and their 
discipline - no riots - no stone throwing - no 
violence . `Jameen apna hakka chi - nahin thumsa 
bappa chi!' [This land is ours by right - and 
does not belong to your fathers] .
"NO - NA - NEVER - Amcha Jameen Denaar Nahin" - we will not give up our land."
People smiled and waved at the police who had 
turned out in their hundreds - with riot control 
vehicles and other equipment - and asked them to 
join us or go home.
A group of youngsters staged a mock funeral 
ceremony of an effigy of the CM  - and at least a 
dozen young men shaved off their heads in protest.

The final message was clear - we will continue 
our protests until SEZ is rolled back, 
notifications are withdrawn, and section 6 under 
which land acquisition has begun is removed. So 
far we have been peaceful - but make no mistake, 
do not underestimate us - this could change if no 
one is listening to us. Beware of the touts, 
agents and intermediaries who are acting on 
behalf of the Companies - and no one minced word 
as to how they felt about RELIANCE INDUSTRIES.

WE GIVE YOU TWO WEEKS IN WHICH TO GIVE US AN 
ANSWER.  Throw out the CM and his government was 
the other unambiguous message - and all local 
political parties, with the exception of 
Congress, were quick to demonstrate their support 
to the people  - well aware that 2009 is not too 
far away.

The Konkan Bhavan Morcha  demonstrated also the 
richness  of a way of life - of culture and 
language and song and poetry - all of which stand 
to be destroyed so that this vast hinterland can 
be converted into a series of Foreign dominated 
SEZs. All promises of retaining the so-called 
`Gauthans' - the homes of villagers is itself a 
big lie ! One of our senior leaders graphically 
described to a community meeting last week how 
systematically the large builders and 
conglomerates operate to destroy the small 
homesteads over time and force the families off 
the tiny enclaves which will be surrounded by a 
sea of  sanitized pockets of gated communities - 
living the `good life' - of malls and resorts and 
golf courses and hotels of flying in and out of 
the new airports so conveniently located. And the 
rice bowl of Konkan - the orchards of alphonso 
mangoes - ah well - no problem - we will have 
WALMART and RELIANCE FRESH  to feed us!

  So - what next - ? One might well ask the 
questions: Do these many small pockets of 
resistance spell any kind of real threat to the 
might of governments, corporates and global 
financial institutions put together? Can we ever 
match the staying power of the state and 
corporations combined? since popular wisdom has 
it that almost every party today has 
unquestioningly `bought -in' to the idea that the 
SEZ is the road to economic salvation, the basic 
question continues to haunt - namely  to what 
extent are politicians and their parties to be 
trusted? How do people cope with the temptations 
of the middle men who stalk them day and night?

That's still a difficult question - but certainly 
there is a different and incredible  kind of 
power in seeing physically the impact of 100000 
human beings marching down both sides of the 
highway into Mumbai - like some kind of an 
awesome phalanx, a Peoples' Army - and 
effectively  blocking traffic for over two hours. 
And this was only a representative section of the 
people of the district.

	A personal account - Lalita Ramdas - Village Bhaimala - Alibag Taluka

______


[8]

The Telegraph (Guwahati edition)
July 26, 2007

A MIGRANTS FIGHT FOR SURVIVAL

GUEST COLUMN -SANJIB BARUAH

The name Jamir Ali is perhaps fictional. But his 
story, recounted in the 2005 Arunachal Pradesh 
Human Development Report, might throw some light 
on the phenomenon of suspected Bangladeshi 
nationals currently being expelled from that 
state as the result of actions by the states 
student organisations.

Barely two years ago, this Arunachal government 
report had chosen to recount Jamir Alis story to 
underscore a remarkable economic phenomenon in 
the state: a quiet agricultural revolution led by 
migrant sharecroppers.
Ali lived in the Dikrong river valley and, 
according to the report, he had moved to 
Arunachal from Lakhimpur district of Assam. 
Bringing with them the technology of wet rice 
cultivation, Ali and other migrant sharecroppers 
are described as pioneers of settled cultivation 
in Arunachal Pradesh. Their bullock-driven plough 
is the main instrument for extending settled 
cultivation and is therefore the symbol of the 
states agricultural modernisation. Thus huts that 
belong to migrant sharecroppers dot the entire 
valley and people like Jamir Ali are increasingly 
becoming common in the other valleys of Arunachal 
as well. They are now an important segment of the 
peasantry extending settled cultivation to 
Arunachal. Despite their significant contribution 
to Arunachals economy, however, the report also 
indicates that political and economic status of 
this odd group of agricultural modernisers is 
extremely vulnerable.

Banal existence

Ali, for instance, leased five acres of land on a 
sharecropping arrangement, and his family of 
seven lived in a thatched hut he built on that 
land. Apart from the share of the crop, earnings 
from seasonal labour, including the part of his 
wages as a rickshawpuller that he can keep 
another part he pays as rent to the rickshaw 
owner  were the familys sources of livelihood. He 
cannot think of sending his children to school. 
For a group heralded as agricultural modernisers, 
the vulnerability of the legal status of Jamir 
Ali and his peers perhaps has few parallels in 
the world.

The contract between sharecroppers and landlords 
says the report, is only short-term and eviction 
may take place any time. Since access to land in 
Arunachal is governed by customary law, the oral 
leases that allow them to live and cultivate 
after all the residential rights of most 
outsiders in Arunachal are severely restricted 
under the inner-line permit (ILP) regime.

Not surprisingly, the drive against suspected 
Bangladeshis in Arunachal Pradesh has resulted in 
an exodus to Assam and the political parties and 
other organisations in Assam have reacted along 
predictable lines.
The All Assam Students Union and the youth wing 
of the BJP have urged the state government to 
ensure that these displaced suspected 
Bangladeshis do not settle in Assam. The All Bodo 
Students Union and the All Assam Koch Rajbongshi 
Students Union, too, have raised their voice on 
the same lines. The Bodoland Territorial Councils 
chief executive Hagrama Mohilary said, no 
foreigner will be allowed to settle in the BTC 
area at any cost.
On the opposite camp is the Congress-led state 
government that describes those expelled from 
Arunachal Pradesh as residents of Assam. The 
Assam United Democratic Fronts president 
Badruddin Ajmal calls them Bengali- speaking 
Indian Muslims, and has said only a judicial 
authority can determine the citizenship status of 
each individual. But who is right and who is 
wrong in this debate? Since no one doubts that 
there are large numbers of illegal immigrants 
from Bangla-desh in the Northeast, given the 
highly porous international border, it is perhaps 
safe to guess that some of them are indeed 
Bangladeshi nationals.

But such a guess can hardly be a basis for a 
programme of action. For it is equally clear that 
since India has no mandatory personal 
identification system, it would be impossible to 
say with certainty who is a Bangladeshi national 
and who is not.

The dangers of the conflation between 
Bangladeshis and the descendants of earlier 
settlers are real. After all, given that many of 
these immigrants of an earlier generation had 
settled in erosion-prone chars and other 
vulnerable lands, mobility is essential for their 
strategies of survival.
For instance, many older generation migrants had 
settled in char areas despite the hazards of 
floods, erosion and submergence since sediments 
make for very fertile soil. Yet most chars are 
notoriously inhospitable to round-the-year 
living. Thus over the years, descendants of those 
settled in chars of Assam have dispersed to all 
parts of the Northeast and beyond in search of 
economic opportunities.

For instance, Jamir Alis great grandfather, 
according to the account in the human development 
report, migrated to Assam from Mymensingh 
district of East Bengal (todays Bangladesh) in 
the early part of the 20th century. But this 
fourth generation immigrant from East Bengal 
could easily be labelled a Bangladeshi today. 
Indeed the Bangladeshi discourse could be an 
alternative framing of the reports story on 
migrant sharecroppers as agricultural modernisers 
in Arunachal Pradesh.

Descent matters

The exclusive focus on citizenship status 
obscures the economic forces that attract them to 
Arunachal Pradesh and the inescapable fact that 
the impact of immigration to the Northeast today 
internal and cross-national, legal as well as 
illegal -- is not the same everywhere. While 
continuing immigration produces acute stress 
ecological, political and economic in the Assam 
plains, Alis story also suggests that from an 
economic point of view, additional population is 
not a problem but a solution for places like 
Arunachal Pradesh.

Development is bound to bring more people to 
Arunachal and other parts of the Northeast that 
are still sparsely populated. For instance, if 
the goal is to bring about a transition from 
shifting cultivation to settled cultivation, it 
cannot be done without significant expansion of 
the labour force.

The story of migrant sharecroppers like Ali, who 
makes intensive use of family labour, simply 
illustrates this economic logic.
The expansion of the labour force is even more of 
a prerequisite when it comes to other economic 
activities such as building roads or introducing 
modern businesses, industry or services.
It is a new world of informal land markets and 
economic opportunities growing behind the legal 
fictions of community ownership of land and 
customary law that attract immigrants like Ali to 
Arunachal Pradesh.

Calling the shots

While our public discourse continues to be shaped 
by the image of migrant settlers taking advantage 
of the misery of a poor tribal, there are many 
places in the Northeast today where a tribal 
landlord, often empowered by positions in or 
connections to the state government, is in a 
position of power and dominance vis--vis the 
migrant sharecropper informally leasing his land 
to foreigners as well as Indian citizens. The 
informality of the arrangements exposes a large 
number of poor people to a more vulnerable legal 
position than that already implied in the 
marginal nature of the economic niches they 
occupy. The exodus from Arunachal Pradesh is a 
dramatic illustration of that.

There is a remarkable symbiosis between the 
mobility-intensive livelihood strategies of 
generations of char settlers in Assam, and the 
new economic niches opening up in Arunachal 
Pradesh and other historically sparsely populated 
parts of the Northeast.

It is important to address this dimension of the 
problem raised by the exodus from Arunachal 
Pradesh. Should we not begin thinking about 
legalising and formalising the land rental 
markets that bring the
Jamir Alis to Arunachal Pradesh?

In a political democracy, is it too much to ask 
that we begin working towards giving people like 
Ali a permanent stake in the regions economic 
future and more equal citizenship rights than 
what they could have under the colonial-era ILP 
regime?

The writer is a visiting professor at the Indian Institute of Tech

______



[9] Announcements:

(i)

COMMUNAL   VIOLENCE   BILL

PUBLIC   MEETING  

Mehendi Nawab Jung Hall, Paldi, Ahmedabad

9th August 2007    :    4.30 - 7.30 pm.


As all of us are aware, the UPA Government had 
promised the nation a comprehensive legislation 
to combat communal violence. This legislation 
would be expected to address the root causes of 
such violence and enable the State to take 
decisive action to prevent it. We should not also 
forget the fact that such legislation was 
expected to have been conceived in the context of 
Gujarat genocide of 2002. Mass crimes, sexual 
crimes against women, total impunity of state as 
well as non-state perpetrators of such violence, 
victims languishing for years without any 
entitlements or reparations - all these have 
become part and parcel of our national scenario 
today. All these dimensions should have been 
addressed by the comprehensive legislation that 
we were waiting for. Instead we have been given a 
half-baked, ill-conceived Bill which in the 
present form would not only be ineffective, but 
could be dangerous. This Bill does not take 
cognizance of the politically motivated, 
conspiratorial process of build up towards any 
sequence of communal violence; instead reduces 
such violence to discrete events. It neither 
defines mass crimes / gender-based crimes nor 
provides for new punitive measures. The impunity 
of the state officials and the political class 
would still remain intact. This legislation, 
which should have empowered the citizens, made 
them feel more secure, strengthened the secular 
fabric of our nation, and given the victims 
broader avenues for justice, instead, has nothing 
to offer at all.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has presented this 
Bill to the Parliament. However due to excellent 
advocacy done by several groups and activists 
from across the country, the Bill may not be 
passed in its present form during the current 
session of the Parliament. Alternative drafts 
also have been prepared by different groups. 
However it is important that we as civil society 
organizations and activists raise our voice 
against the Bill and also engage in the process 
of developing a citizen's draft of the Communal 
Violence Bill.

The public meeting on the 9 th of August is an 
opportunity for all of us to deliberate on this 
legislation, update ourselves as to the efforts 
being made to stall this Bill from being passed 
in the current form, and also exchange notes 
regarding the alternative drafts which have been 
developed. If we all agree we could also draft a 
resolution to be sent to the PM and the HM 
registering our total disagreement with the Bill 
in its present form, exhorting them not to pass 
the Bill and urging them to have wider 
consultations at the civil society level in order 
to draft an effective legislation. We request you 
to be present in this meeting.

In solidarity,

Hiren Gandhi,  Fr. Cedric Prakash,  Shabnam 
Hashmi,  Gagan Sethi,  Zakia Jowher,

Hanif Lakadawala,  Sheeba George,  Prasad Chacko, Persis Ginwalla



o o o

(ii)

NATIVE WOMEN OF SOUTH INDIA : MANNERS AND CUSTOMS
  a photo-performance project by

by Pushpamala N & Clare Arni

With essays by Susie Tharu  & Ashish Rajadhyaksha

  Hard Bound with dust jacket

150 pages with more than 300 full colour illustrations

"Goddesses, political satire, film stills, 
calendar icons, votive and high art images, 
anthropometrical and ethnographic records, news 
and documentary photographs and a host of other 
images and image formats are cited and wittily 
cross-fertilized. The artists create a virtual 
population explosion that mimics the mood, energy 
and
genius of the visual vernacular in contemporary India."- Susie Tharu

Price from Nature Morte or Gallery Chemould  in India Rs. 1500 +  VAT
Shipping in India + Rs. 500/-   International Shipping + Rs. 1000/-

Price in New York  US$40. + Sales Tax.  Shipping extra. 

Enquiries to Publishers
Gallery Nature Morte, New Delhi
A-1, Neeti Bagh, New Delhi-110049
91-11-41740215 /  info at naturemorte.com

Gallery Chemould, Mumbai
Chemould Prescott Road,
Queens Mansion, 3rd Floor,
G. Talwatkar Marg (Above Yantra)
Fort, Mumbai-400001
91-22-22844356 /  art at gallerychemould.com

Bose Pacia, New York
508, West, 26th Street, 11th Floor,
New York, NY-10001
1-212 9897074 /  mail at bosepacia.com


o o o

(iii)


P.C. Joshi Birth Centenary Celebrations Committee 
has decided to prepare an exhibition to be put on 
display from the first week of November 2007. The 
work for preparing the exhibition would begin 
from the first week of September 2007.

We request comrades and friends who are in 
possession of any photographs, correspondence of 
articles of P.C. Joshi, to send them to us by 
August 30, 2007. The originals, if they so wish, 
would be returned to them.

Prof. Arjun Dev Convenor P.C. Joshi Birth 
Centenary Celebrations Committee 4 Windsor Place, 
New Delhi -110001 Tel.: 23711732/ 
9810329473/9810144958


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

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