SACW | August 25-26, 2007
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at mnet.fr
Sun Aug 26 02:26:11 CDT 2007
South Asia Citizens Wire | August 25-26, 2007 | Dispatch No. 2440 - Year 9
[1] Global capital and the cities of the south (Arif Hasan)
[2] Grave crisis over India-US nuclear deal (Praful Bidwai)
[3] India: Peace Mumbai Condemns 123 Agreement
[4] Bangladesh:
- Shahidul Alam's account of recent happenings in Dhaka
- Release of five university teachers demanded
[5] India: Assault on Taslima - Abuse of Article 16 (Editorial, EPW)
[6] In India, Parents of Brides-to-Be Hire Sleuths (Mridu Khullar)
[7] India - Gujarat: Youth Karwan threatened and Intimidated by BJP MLA
[8] Announcements:
(i) Screening of Kavita Joshi's film 'Tales from
the Margins' (New Delhi, 26 August 2007)
(ii) Sharing of the Youth Karwan Experience (Ahmedabad, August 27, 2007)
(iii) Upcoming Events at the Second Floor
(Karachi, 29 August - 9 September, 2007)
______
[1]
Dawn
August 24, 2007
GLOBAL CAPITAL AND THE CITIES OF THE SOUTH
by Arif Hasan
KARACHI: International capital is desperately
looking for a home. Cities of South and
South-East Asia are attractive destinations since
they have a weak regulatory framework and have
undergone structural adjustment. Here, this
investment, is increasingly determining not only
the shape of the city but also social and
economic relations.
New terms, such as "world class cities",
"investment-friendly infrastructure", "foreign
direct investment" or "FDI" as it is called,
cities as "engines of growth", have entered the
development vocabulary. All politicians and
official planners in the Asian cities are using
these terms and it is largely because of them
that the whole approach to planning has undergone
a change. Local governments are obsessed by
making cities "beautiful" to visitors and
investors. This means building flyovers and
elevated expressways as opposed to traffic
management and planning; high-rise apartments as
opposed to upgraded settlements; malls as opposed
to traditional markets (which are being removed);
removing poverty from the centre of the city to
the periphery to improve the image of the city so
as to promote FDI; catering to tourism rather
than supporting local commerce; seeking the
support of the international corporate sector
(developers, banks, suppliers of technologies and
the IFIs) for all of the above.
The above agenda is an expensive one. For this,
sizeable loans have been negotiated with the
International Financial Institutions (IFIs) on a
scale unthinkable before. For example, between
1976 and 1993, Sindh borrowed $799.64 million for
urban development. Almost all of this was for
Karachi. Recently, the government has borrowed
$800 million for the Karachi Mega City Project.
Of this, $5.33 million is being spent on
technical assistance being provided by foreign
consultants.
Almost all the projects designed and funded
through previous loans have not met their
objectives and there is evidence to show that
they will again not meet their objectives as the
same process for their design and implementation
as before is being followed. Many of the new
projects are being floated on a BOT process. It
is clear that the projects have replaced
planning. This is especially true of transport
related projects. Cities such as Bangkok, Manila,
Cairo and earlier Calcutta have made major
investments in light rail and metro systems.
Other Asian cities are following their example.
However, these systems are far too expensive to
be developed on a large enough scale to make a
difference.
Manila's light rail caters to only 8 per cent of
trips and Bangkok's sky train and metro to only 3
per cent of trips and Calcutta's metro to even
less. The light rail and metro fares are 3 to 4
times higher than bus fares. As a result, the
vast majority of commuters continue to travel by
rundown bus systems. In addition, there has never
been more liquidity in banks and leasing
companies. However, due to the freedom that these
loan giving institutions have today, this
liquidity is used to provide short-term high
interest loans which do not bring any benefit to
the city or to the majority of its residents. For
example, 502 vehicles have been added to Karachi
per day during the last financial year, more than
half of which are cars. It is estimated that
about 50 percent of these have been financed
through loans from banks and leasing companies.
This means that loans worth $1.125 billion were
issued for this investment which could easily
have been utilised for improving the public
transport system or for the badly needed social
housing.
The nature of investments being made in many of
the Asian cities and the mindset behind them, are
increasing land hording; evictions of
settlements, hawkers and informal businesses;
informal settlements far away from the city and
from social sector facilities; exclusion (due to
gentrification) of poorer communities from public
spaces of recreation and entertainment; and, the
ad-hoc urbanization of ecologically sensitive and
agriculturally productive land. Monitoring of
evictions by the Asian Coalition for Housing
Rights, a Bangkok base NGO, has shown that in
seven Asian countries (Bangladesh, China, India,
Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines)
evictions are increasing dramatically. Between
January to June 2004, 334,593 people were evicted
in the urban areas of these countries. In January
to June 2005, 2,084,388 people were evicted. In
Karachi as well evictions have quadripiled in the
last four years and an increasing number of
families are now sleeping and living on pavements
in the absence of an alternative. The major
reason for these evictions has been the
"beautification" of the city, mega projects and
the land hunger of the developers backed by
politicians and bureaucrats. In the majority of
cases, people did not receive any compensation
for the losses they incurred and where
resettlement did take place it was 25 to 60
kilometres from the city centre. The current
master and/or strategic plans are not giving
priority (unlike in the decade of the eighties)
to the socio-economic issues arising out of these
trends.
The rich-poor divide has increased as a result of
these policies. Subsidies for the social sectors
and increase in inflation and price of utilities,
especially in countries which have undergone
structural adjustment, has multiplied this
divide. The economic survey of Pakistan 2006-07
concedes that the gap between the rich and the
poor is widening. It says that the share of
consumption of the richest 20 per cent stands at
39.4 while it is 9.5 for the bottom 20 per cent
population.
The survey further states that the gap is growing
in spite of a 7 per cent GDP growth. However, the
most serious repercussion of this new development
paradigm is that the overwhelming power of
international capital and consultants and their
local partners has weakened government
institutions and the democratic political process.
Governments have become deaf to the concerns of
the environmental and dissenting academic
lobbies. And all this in an age where the media
is freer than before and "consultations" are the
order of the day. NGOs and community activists
and academics in most Asian cities in which I
have worked have the same complaint. They claim
that consultations are an eyewash and
environmental assessments are rubber stamps.
Meanwhile, successful NGO projects, the result of
the populism of the '80s, have now in most cases
become "respectable" and are in partnership with
governments. Also, the NGO movement has undergone
a change. It is increasingly an industry manned
by "development professionals" and no longer by
populist altruism. Most of these "development
professionals" have been trained at special
courses in First World universities who have
turned exploratory Third World practices into
development theory!
If this Trend Continues
If the present trend continues then the rich-poor
divide, evictions, informal settlements and
exclusion will increase with not only the poor
but also the rich living in ghettos surrounded by
armed guards and security systems (this is
already happening).
Governance issues will increasingly become law
and order related and not justice and equity
related. This will increase fragmentation for the
only thing that will hold the city together will
be an aggressively upwardly mobile middle class
which by its very nature is not interested in
issues of justice and equity. In addition,
development will take place where the investor is
happy and so the other regions will become the
backwaters (again this is also happening). The
continuation of the current process is a recipe
for conflict.
How can this be changed?
Foreign capital (and local liquidity) has its
benefits and must be encouraged. However, it has
to fit into a larger development plan based on
development principles so that an inclusive and
an environmentally friendly urban environment can
be created. These principles could be: one,
planning should respect the ecology of the areas
in which the urban centres are located; two, land
use should be determined on the basis of social
and environmental considerations and not on the
basis of land value or potential land value
alone; three, planning should give priority to
the needs of the majority of population which in
the case of Asia are low- and lower-middle income
communities, hawkers, informal businesses,
pedestrians and commuters; and four, planning
must respect and promote the tangible and
intangible cultural heritage of the communities
that live in the city. Zoning byelaws should be
developed on the basis of these principles so
that they are pedestrian friendly and street
friendly, pro-dissolved space and pro-mixed land
use.
If South-Asian cities are to be taken as
examples, then what is required is: one, a heavy
non-utilisation fee on land so as to bring horded
land into the market; two, a cut-off date for the
regularisation of informal settlements and an end
to evictions (where relocation is required,
market rate compensation should be paid); three,
planned squatting for five years during which
programmes for closing the demand-supply gap for
low income housing takes place; four, initiation
of programmes for built units and plots which
successfully solve the issues related to
targeting and speculation (apart from the small
scale of social housing, the failure to respond
to these issues is the main reason for the
failure of social housing attempts all over the
Third World); five, development of rules,
regulations and procedures to guarantee that the
natural, entertainment and recreational assets of
the city will not be in the exclusive use of the
elite or the middle classes; six, a regime for
privatisation backed by institutional
arrangements that guarantees provision of
sustainable employment and development; and
seven, an understanding that all programmes and
projects will be advertised at their conceptual
stage, subject to public hearings before
finalisation, supervised by a steering committee
of interest groups, have their accounts published
regularly, and overseen by one government
official from the beginning to the end.
The major question is how can the above agenda be
achieved in an age where social and political
evolution is in a flux and the economy is
controlled globally by undemocratic international
organisations? For example, the UN is controlled
by five members who won the Second World War; the
IMF and the World Bank function on the principle
of one dollar one vote; the WTO was created out
of the green room negotiations that produced
GATT. Not much democracy in global institutions
in an age of globalisation! Civil society
organisations in many countries have come
together to challenge the new urban development
paradigm. However, most of them are funded by
bilateral agencies and international NGOs who, or
the governments they represent, are the promoters
of this paradigm. Maybe because of this their
success has been limited. There are also
international movements seeking to modify the
inequities in global relations of trade and aid.
Over the last few years they have become weaker.
The only viable option seems to be to make this
important issue a part of the larger political
process within countries. How this can be done
effectively is the big question.
(The above text was prepared as a discussion
paper for a meeting of the UN University in New
York in July 2007)
______
[2]
The News
August 25, 2007
GRAVE CRISIS OVER INDIA-US NUCLEAR DEAL
by Praful Bidwai
The writer, a former newspaper editor, is a
researcher and peace and human-rights activist
based in Delhi
The confrontation between the United Progressive
Alliance and the Left over the India-United
States nuclear deal has ballooned into a major
crisis, which could potentially dislodge the
government. The roots of the crisis lie in the
way the "123 agreement" was negotiated, without
political leaders being taken into confidence
about its context or content, or involved in
resolving differences over its text.
Opposition to the deal, whether genuine,
procedural or contrived, is widespread. But it's
only when the Left presented its critique on
August 7 that matters came to a head. This was
the first well-informed and -reasoned critical
analysis of the deal it after the "123" text was
made public.
Even so, an ugly confrontation might have been
avoided but for two events. First, Singh gave an
interview to the Kolkata-based Telegraph (Aug
11), challenging the Left to withdraw support to
the UPA. Second, US State Department spokesperson
Sean McCormack was reported to have said that
under "123", "all nuclear cooperation [would be]
terminated" if India conducts nuclear test. This
was one day after Singh said that testing is
India's "sovereign decision", and won't cause
sudden termination.
If the second event created confusion, the first
provoked the Left. Singh taunted it for not
having "thought" things "through", and said: "It
is an honourable deal Šif [the Left parties] want
to withdraw support, so be itŠ" Singh's
self-styled advisers calculated that this would
help him play the CPM's so-called "moderate
modernisers" in West Bengal off against its
"hardliners" to trump their opposition. This
betrayed a serious misunderstanding of how the
Left parties make policy decisions. It also
underrated the unanimity among them on foreign
policy and security issues.
The Left's reaction was ballistic. Within three
days, Singh was begging CPM general secretary
Prakash Karat for a reconciliation meeting. Thus
began the worst-ever crisis in UPA-Left
relations. The CPM, joined by the other three
Left parties, demanded that that the government
suspend further talks with the International
Atomic Energy Agency and the Nuclear Suppliers'
Group to complete the deal.
Or there would be "serious consequences". Without
the Left's support, the UPA would fall short of a
parliamentary majority by 30 to 50 seats. Instead
of sincerely exploring a via media, the UPA
deviously resorted to accusing the Left of acting
at China's and Pakistan's behest. This
tendentious charge was articulated through
Right-wing pro-US China-Pakistan-baiters
masquerading as "experts". In reality, there is
no live contact between the Indian Left and the
Chinese Communist Party, over some of whose
policies the Left has serious misgivings.
India is now witnessing the most vicious attack
on the Left since the 1962 China War. Every Tom,
Dick and Harry in the media--from semi-literate
television anchors, to former intelligence
spooks, to pitiable third-edit writers--is
unleashing vitriolic anti-Communist assaults.
This new McCarthyism betrays malignant
intolerance. Such intolerance can only have
dangerous consequences for public debate. If
every dissenting opinion is attributed to the
"foreign hand" by suppressing its rational
content, and if every difference on principle is
reduced to an "ego clash" between personalities,
there can be no rational discourse on policy
issues. That does not bode well for Indian
democracy.
It's simply undeniable that the Indian Left
represents the most important current driven by
ideology and principle in politics, which perhaps
concentrates more brainpower per capita than any
other party. Despite the Left's conduct in Singur
and Nandigram--of which this writer has been
strongly critical--, its objection to the deal on
strategic grounds cannot be dismissed. As this
column argued two weeks ago, the nuclear deal is
inseparable from the larger US game-plan to
recruit India into a junior strategic
partnership, not least to counter China, and more
broadly, to create an anchor for a
Washington-dominated security architecture in
Asia. The deal cannot be divorced from the
Defence Framework agreement of June 2005, nor
from India's two votes against Iran at the IAEA,
nor from the 27 recent high-level military
exercises with the US.
The Left's critique of the deal is foundational.
It's centred on the US's deeply destabilising
world role, and its attempt to ignite a second
Cold War by encircling Russia with NATO and
targeting China and Iran through "Son of Star
Wars" Ballistic Missile Defence. The US remains
the globe's most belligerent power, which has
made the world more insecure through its Global
War on Terror and its Empire project.
True, the Left did not consistently emphasise the
deal's strategic dimensions in the past two
years, and often concentrated on its text rather
than context. Since December, it has been more
concerned to point to differences between the
Hyde Act and Singh's assurances to parliament. It
didn't really agitate the issue in public. Any
genuine, principled opposition to the deal should
logically have focused on its harmful global and
regional consequences for nuclear disarmament,
and its promotion of an inappropriate, costly,
hazardous and environmentally unsound energy
trajectory through nuclear power
development--besides its consequences for the
loss of India's strategic and foreign policy
autonomy via a strategic embrace of the US. These
are significant errors of omission.
However, the government's errors of commission
are graver. Singh acted like a typical
bureaucrat, and left the deal's negotiation to
bureaucrats alone, without bringing political
leaders on board. He consistently underplayed its
strategic consequences, and fomented the illusion
that the deal would offer a magic bullet for
India's energy problems. He capitulated to US
pressures. Former US assistant secretary of state
Stephen Rademaker says India's votes on Iran were
obtained through "coercion".
Singh continues to pay lip-service to
disarmament, while knowing fully well that the
deal will enable India to stockpile 1,600 kg of
plutonium every year--enough for more than 300
bombs, in addition to the existing estimated
inventory of 100-150 warheads. This is a recipe
for a nuclear arms race with Pakistan, and worse,
China, which can only reduce the security of all
three.
Now, the UPA faces a crisis of survival. It would
be foolish for it to brazen this out. It can
still rescue the situation by doing four things.
The first is to distance itself strategically
from Washington demonstrably--by cancelling the
huge military exercises with the US, Japan,
Australia and Singapore planned for September.
Second, it should initiate what might be called a
"domestic Hyde Act" to prevent the transfer of
any imported nuclear material/equipment out of
India which would jeopardise the continuous
operation of Indian reactors.
Third, the UPA must update the Rajiv Gandhi plan
of 1988 for global nuclear disarmament and place
it before the United Nations. That's the only
concrete way of fulfilling the National Common
Minimum Programme's promise that India would
seize "leadership" in fighting for a nuclear
weapons-free world. Finally, the UPA must launch
a national debate on nuclear power, reviewing
India's (unhappy) experience with it, analysing
its international performance, and focusing on
its hazards, costs and unsustainability.
The UPA must suspend negotiations on the deal
while these processes are under way. Similarly,
the Left must clarify that it won't vote against
the government or contribute to its fall, thus
helping the BJP. That could promote an honourable
solution.
______
[3]
PEACE MUMBAI CONDEMNS 123 AGREEMENT
Peace Mumbai, an umbrella organisation of various
NGOs and mass organisations based in Mumbai,
notes with serious concern that the text
negotiated between the designated US and Indian
officials in Washington DC and finalised on 20th
of July for the "123 Agreement" - a major step
forward towards operationalising the
controversial nuclear cooperation deal between
the US and India has been okayed by the Union
Cabinet in a hush hush manner without taking even
the law-makers, let alone the general public,
into confidence. This obviously flies in the face
of basic democratic values and norms.
This deal, it needs be pointed out, will have
serious repercussions on the future relations
between India and the US - and thereby the rest
of the world, particularly India's traditional
allies and neighbours not too friendly with the
US; the prospects of global and regional nuclear
proliferation and disarmament; and also India's
energy security.
Peace Mumbai is opposed to the deal on all these three counts.
I. Strategic proximity with
the US would only provide further fillip to the
US project for unfettered global domination,
which has at the moment suffered serious setbacks
being continually delivered bloody nose in Iraq,
and also Afghanistan. Moreover, in the process,
it is highly likely that India would be drawn
into, formal or informal, military alliance with
the US and be compelled to fight its dirty wars
with all the concomitant dangerous consequences.
Similarly, code-named "Malabar 07", the
five-nation naval exercise that is scheduled to
take! place from September 4-9 in the Bay of
Bengal, in which India, Singapore, Japan,
Australia and the US are taking part cannot but
for understandable reasons elicit hostile
reactions from China and vitiate the relations
between India and its powerful neighbour for no
good reasons from the Indian point of view. Apart
from that, such growing proximity would also tend
to fuel India's burning ambitions to emerge as a
mini-hegemon in the region with the backing of
the global super-cop causing aggravation of
inter-state tensions and consequent deep hurt to
the cause of South Asian solidarity. That's
evidently a profoundly disturbing prospect.
II. The unique exception for
India, as is provided under the deal, would
further aggravate the discriminatory nature of
the NPT; undermine the current non-proliferation
order - for whatever it is worth, by encouraging
the threshold nations to cross the rubicon and in
the process gravely damage the prospects of
global nuclear disarmament. It would also further
worsen the ongoing nuclear arms race in South
Asia by radically boosting India's capabilities
for fissile material production by freeing up all
the indigenously produced uranium for that
purpose while imported stuff would be used for
power production.
III. The radically boosted nuclear
power programme, following as a consequence,
would throttle investments for developing
environmentally benign renewable sources of
energy including wind, solar etc., having grave
impacts on the prospects of long-term energy
security. This is apart from the fact that
nuclear power is not only as of now uneconomic
but also intrinsically hazardous - throughout the
complete fuel cycle from mining to power plant,
and potentially catastrophic. There is
furthermore no fail-safe method for disposal of
nuclear waste and outlived plants.
Given these serious implications, Peace Mumbai
makes its principled opposition loud and clear.
The claim that India's "strategic interests" have
been taken care of only implies that India is out
to further accelerate its downhill journey along
the path of self-destruction by further
intensifying its weaponisation programme and
thereby making South Asia and the world even more
dangerous and diverting scarce resources from
social sectors even otherwise badly starved of
funds.
Peace Mumbai Constituents:
Action Aid, Akshara, Asia South Pacific Bureau
for Adult Education (ASPBAE), Bombay Urban
Industrial League for Development (BUILD), CEHAT,
Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace
(CNDP), Documentation Research and Training
Center (DRTC), Explorations, Focus on the Global
South, India, India Center for Human Rights and
Law (ICHRL), Indo-Pak Youth Forum for Peace,
Institute For Community Organization and Research
(ICOR), Media for People, Movement for Peace and
Justice (MPJ), National Alliance of Peoples
Movements (NAPM), Pakistan-India Peoples Forum
for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD), Peoples' Media
Initiative,
Vidrohi Sanskrutik Chalval, Vikas Adhyayan Kendra
(VAK), Women's Research and Action Group (WRAG),
Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action (YUVA),
______
[4]
SHAHIDUL ALAM'S ACCOUNT OF HAPPENINGS IN DHAKA
http://shahidul.wordpress.com/2007/08/24/the-barren-banana-tree/ ...
o o o
The Daily Star
August 26, 2007
RELEASE OF FIVE UNIVERSITY TEACHERS DEMANDED
Staff Correspondent
Several socio-political and cultural
organisations yesterday condemned the arrest of
five teachers of Dhaka and Rajshahi universities
and demanded their immediate release.
The South Asian People's Union against
Fundamentalism and Communalism made the demand in
a statement signed by its President National
Professor Kabir Chowdhury, Justice KM Sobhan,
human rights activist Hena Das, Prof Borhanuddin
Khan Jahangir, Prof Ajay Roy and writer and
columnist Shahriar Kabir.
They also condemned the harassment of journalists during the curfew period.
They criticised the government for arresting the
academics without any warrants and for not
producing them before the court even 30 hours
after their arrest.
The rights activists also criticised the
government for its treatment of journalists and
teachers, comparing the present government's
action to that of the BNP-led four-party alliance
government.
In another statement, The Edu-Rights and Peace, a
human rights organisation of Rajshahi University
(RU) students, urged the caretaker government to
release the teachers and grant amnesty for
general students who violated the state of
emergency and staged demonstrations on the RU
campus.
They also called for a tripartite meeting between
the RU authorities, students and the caretaker
government to restore congenial atmosphere on the
campus.
Bangladesh Muktojuddha Nou Commando Association
Chairman Md Shahjahan Kabir Bir Pratik and
Secretary General Md Khalilur Rahman in a
statement demanded immediate release of the
teachers and condemned the attacks on students.
Condemning the arrest of teachers, Dilip Barua,
general secretary of Bangladesh Samyabadi Dal,
said the filing of cases in a bid to harass the
students and teachers would only worsen the
situation.
Bangladesh Group Theatre Federation denounced the
arrest of Prof Moloy Kumar Bhowmik who is a
dramatist and director. The Federation also urged
the government to release him immediately.
Expressing the hope that the caretaker government
would seek a peaceful solution to this crisis,
Bangladesh Chhatra Moitree said, "We urge the
government to stop harassing the teachers and
release them immediately."
Dhaka University teachers not only supported all
the democratic movements since the language
movement in 1952 but also took part in those
movements, it observed.
Chhatra Sangram Parishad also condemned the attack on students.
______
[5]
Economic and Political Weekly
August 18, 2007
Editorial
ASSAULT ON TASLIMA
Abuse of Article 16
The attack on Taslima Nasreen in Hyderabad on
August 9, 2007 by legislators belonging to the
Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) is yet another
instance of the steady criminalisation of
politics in the country. What followed the attack
is even more disturbing. While the Hyderabad
police booked the MIM legislators under fairly
inoffensive charges, they went ahead and booked a
case against Taslima Nasreen for hurting the
religious sentiments of Muslims. The political
motivation for the MIM is clear. Having ruled the
destiny of the Muslims in Hyderabad's old city
for decades, the MIM has steadily been losing
ground to the Majlis Bachao Tehreek and the
Communist Party of India (Marxist). Taslima
Nasreen's presence in Hyderabad provided the MIM
a perfect oppor- tunity to reclaim its dwindling
status as the sole spokesperson of Muslim
interests in the state.
The MIM leaders remain unfazed by the criticism
that has come from all right-thinking and
civilised sections of society. A day after the
incident, the MIM leaders vowed to eliminate
Taslima Nasreen and also prevent her from ever
entering the city again. They argued that for
them their religion was higher than the
Constitution of India. A closer look at this
statement shows that they have singular disregard
for god as well as the Constitution. Records show
that the MLAs who physically assaulted the exiled
Bangladeshi author had, indeed, sworn in the name
of god to protect and preserve the Constitution.
It is increasingly apparent that the Indian state
and its institutions have no mechanism to punish
lawmakers who metamorphose into common criminals.
There has not been a single known suggestion from
among the political classes to strip these
legislators of their membership of the Andhra
Pradesh assembly. Nor is there even the slightest
evidence on part of the political establishment
to initiate a debate on theinterpretation of
several problematic provisions of Article19of the
Constitution that guarantees a citizen the right
to freedom and expression. The idea of
"reasonable restrictions" on the freedom of
speech, and the limits imposed on such expression
in the face of public disorder, have been
systematically misused by the very people who
have little respect for civilised debate and
discussion.
In this race for reaping the benefits of identity
politics and competitive populism, there is no
secular-communal divide in the use of criminal
strategies. The Sambhaji Brigade, an offshoot of
the Nationalist Congress Party, had vandalised
the Bhandarkar Institute in Pune for allowing
James Laine to research his book on Shivaji in
their library (15 years before its actual
publication). The "secular" Congress-NCP govern-
ment in Maharashtra banned Laine's book. The
Narendra Modi government in Gujarat aided and
abetted the move to prevent Fanaa from being
screened in Gujarat because of the support of the
film's actor, Aamir Khan, for those displaced by
the Sardar Sarovar dam. More recently, the
Congress governments of Punjab and Andhra Pradesh
banned the film, Da Vinci Code, in response to
complaints from some Chris- tian groups that it
"hurt" their sentiments. It is also important to
recall that Rajiv Gandhi banned Salman Rushdie's
The Satanic Verses in India even before Ayatollah
Khomeini issued the fatwa against the author. The
Sangh parivar regularly manages to vandalise art
exhibitions and disrupt the functioning of
educational institutions. The saffron outfits
have driven M F Hussain out of his own country
into exile. The most recent instance of moral
policing and criminal assault on public
institutions was the desecration of the Faculty
of Fine Arts in Baroda and its examination
process in May 2007, resulting in the arrest of a
student, Chandramohan, on the pretext of having
hurt Hindu and Christian sentiments. In all
these instances, the attackers have invariably
gone scot- free or have even flourished, while
the attacked have suffered without reason.
Political alliances and expediency have often
dictated the reaction of the governments
responsible for ensuring the rule of law and
bringing these criminals to book. The attack on
Taslima Nasreen and the manner in which the
Rajasekhara Reddy government has chosen to turn a
blind eye to the whole incident testify to this
trend.
The Congress and the MIM have an alliance at the
state level and the MIM is also a partner of the
United Progressive Alliance (UPA). For the
Congress and the UPA, an assault on freedomof
speech and expression, and a violation of the
rule of law andcodes of civility, is a small
price to pay compared to losing a valuable
alliance partner. Ironically, the same Congress
Party and its leader, who now happens to be the
chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, poured scorn
over Chandrababu Naidu's refusal to withdraw
support to the National Democratic Alliance
government when the Gujarat riots of 2002
happened.
______
[6]
Women's eNews
20 August 2007
IN INDIA, PARENTS OF BRIDES-TO-BE HIRE SLEUTHS
by Mridu Khullar
WeNews correspondent
Even in rapidly developing India arranged
marriages remain popular. These days, brides and
grooms often match up online and the first people
in the screening process may be professional
detectives, not parents. First in a series on
women in India.
Sanjay Singh, private eye.
NEW DELHI (WOMENSENEWS)--Arranged marriages
continue to be a popular tradition in India, with
over 90 percent of men and women between the ages
of 17 and 25 in New Delhi and Mumbai approving of
them, according to a survey by the Hindustan
Times earlier this year.
The way these marriages get arranged, however, in
the fast-changing urban centers--where a rapidly
growing economy fuels women's social
mobility--are shifting with the times.
In the past, parents or relatives searched their
own social networks for suitable prospects. Today
family members and prospective brides and grooms
themselves are often looking online, at
matrimonial Web sites.
Sometimes these sites function as casual dating
services but people often use them to look for
potential husbands and wives, and parents are
also becoming involved in the process. The sites
offer a convenient alternative to the traditional
matrimonial sections in the newspapers.
Since people who meet online know little about
each other--nor do their relatives--the anonymity
offers a huge potential for fraud and deception.
Bring on the detectives.
Private eyes say the most common courtship lies
concern finances and past relationships and that
requests for their services are steadily
increasing.
Beyond the Rich and Famous
"The number has almost doubled in the last two
years," says Sanjay Singh, CEO of the New
Delhi-based Indian Detective Agency. "Earlier it
was just high-profile and very rich families that
were engaging our services. But now it's mostly
the middle class."
The number of premarital investigations, say
detectives, is higher in arranged marriages, as
opposed to when the betrothed choose each other.
Most are driven by a booming online matchmaking
industry, whose value rose to $22 million in 2006
from $14 million the previous year, according to
a trade group report.
The total registration base of India's biggest
online matrimonial portal Shaadi.com was 9.1
million in January and the site reported that
720,000 marriages were started by them.
Registration on another leading portal
BharatMatrimony.com over the years is again
nearly 9 million.
"In the present society, it is very necessary for
the life and for the security of a person to get
some kind of check done on a partner before
marriage," says Prashant Rana, marketing manager
for Fireball Investigation Services, a division
of Fireball Group in New Delhi. "But people don't
have that kind of time and resources to do a
thorough check."
New Delhi has over a hundred registered detective
agencies and thousands of smaller one-man shows,
and the Indian Detective Agency alone receives at
least 30 inquiries a week for premarital
investigations.
Starts the Screening Process
Investigations typically take between a week and
10 days and cost between $125 and $1,250,
depending on the company and the depth of the
investigation. Often families or prospective
mates hire detectives for the first part of the
screening process, when personal finances and
character are the chief considerations.
The investigations are usually undertaken only
once, at the point where the match is almost
finalized, essentially a last step before the
engagement. Considering that families now spend
anywhere from $12,000 to $25,000 on a daughter's
wedding, the cost for a seven-day investigation
isn't considered too big an expense.
Investigations are very discreet; only the
parents are usually privy to the results, hence
there is no shame or taboo if something negative
turns up. Even if it's all positive, the fact
that an investigation was undertaken is not
mentioned to anyone.
Investigators provide details about previous and
present relationships, education, career and
financial position. The family is checked out,
too.
Experienced investigators, pretending to be on
some other mission, get inside the house, talk to
the family and try to establish what kind of
people they are, how they treat others and, most
important, how they treat each other.
In order to do this, detectives follow their
subject's every move. A team of several people
monitor their target for every second of the
seven or 10-day period, dressing up as
rikshaw-wallahs, bouncers at a night-club or, as
Rana recalls, even a cleaner in their doctor's
office.
"It's human nature that within a span of seven
days, you'll repeat every habit," says Rana. "If
I have a girlfriend, once a week, I'll go see
her. If I drink, I'll do it at least once a week.
If I enjoy partying and going to clubs, again,
I'll do it at some point in the week. That's why
we do our surveillance for seven days. Within
that time, we make the report."
"Just like in the movies," he adds.
Most Clients Are Brides' Families
Of the hundreds of cases that come to him each
month, Rana says 80 percent are women or their
parents who come in to have their future spouses
investigated. This is due to the typical
arrangement for women in India, who live with
their parents until marriage and then move in
with their in-laws.
Since women are required by tradition to live
with their husband's family, some consider it
essential to know as much as they can about the
family they'll be spending the rest of their
lives with. Men, on the other hand, are only
concerned about past relationships and find a
lesser need to hire detectives.
Regardless of the findings, the investigation is
usually kept secret from the person being
investigated. "It's a sensitive issue," says
Singh. "If your prospective spouse finds out
you've been sending detectives after him, he's
not going to like it. Simple."
If the investigation turns out well, the woman
and her parents proceed with the match. If it
does not, there is rarely a confrontation,
detectives say. Matches can be blown when major
obstacles resurface from the past, or for small
transgressions, such as lying about a smoking
habit. Since the intended are not romantically
involved, however, the parties cut their losses
and move on.
Ankita Kohli, 23, a single advertising
professional, disapproves of the trend. "You're
starting the relationship by questioning his very
identity and then keeping it from him," she says.
"Because it's a matter of life, take the control
in your own hands and do the investigation
yourself. There are so many ways of finding the
truth about a person; why trust a second-hand
source and risk your relationship in the process?"
Of the investigations undertaken by Fireball,
Rana says about 40 percent of the people they've
scrutinized have been "very dishonest" about
their life and work.
One such case involved a man whose mother was
certain the intended fiance was not being honest
about her background and hired Rana's company to
verify her details. The investigation turned up a
previous marriage and a son; the woman's husband
had left her and fled to Iraq.
"If the marriage had happened, it would have been
a big problem for that family," says Rana. "But
the mother opted for verification, and they were
saved."
Mridu Khullar is a freelance journalist currently based in New Delhi, India.
______
[7] YOUTH KARWAN THREATENED AND INTIMIDATED BY BJP MLA
26 Aug 2007 01:48:54
Anhad's three Youth Karwans are traveling in different parts of Gujarat.
One of the Youth Karwans which is in Vadodara
district for the past three days performed three
shows in Chota Udaipur on August 25. On August
26th the shows are fixed in villages near Chota
Udaipur , so the group had to stay at night in
Chota Udaipur.
Shankarbhai Vichhiyabhai Rathwa , the local BJP
MLA, threatened and intimidated the group by
sending goons and asking them to clear out of the
district. The MLA called up the caretaker of the
circuit house, which was booked by the local
organizers and ordered him to tell the group to
leave immediately otherwise face consequences.
The local police instead of supporting the group
tried putting the charge of doing 'anti
national' activities on the troupe members. The
BJP MLA threatened to get them eliminated up if
they did not clear out.
Fortunately for the group the State Minister for
Railways, UPA govt. happened to be in the
district and immediately sent his security for
their safety. He was able to intervene with the
local police, which was as hostile, to ensure
their safety. One of the groups earlier in the
Amreli district had to spend over five hours in
illegal confinement.
We strongly condemn this intimidation and the
attack on the freedom of expression.
The shows for tomorrow will continue as
scheduled. Tomorrow is the last day of the
present campaign.
Anhad Collective
______
[8] Announcements:
(i)
Dear Friends,
As you are aware Anhad Yuva Karwans were flagged
off on June 5th, 2007 with the aim of carrying
out a campaign in 900 villages across 25
districts.
The karwans are returning on 26th August night.
We could not reach the target of 900 villages
partly due to rains and partly due to the
financial constraints. We have also not covered
Dangs, Narmada, Navsari, Valsad and half of
Bharuch. The approximate number of villages
covered by the time they return would be close to
700 but we will know the number once we compile
all the information on 26th night.
The young volunteers have worked round the clock,
have gained tremendous experience and confidence,
have shared their experience and knowledge with
thousands of ordinary villagers and in the
process learnt from them .
Anhad is organizing a two hour session both to
felicitate the young volunteers as well as to
hear their experiences both good and bad. This
session would be a learning session for us to
understand both the shortcomings and the
achievements of the campaign.
We invite all of you, especially all the
organizations and activists without whom this
campaign would have been impossible.
While Anhad played the initial role in conceiving
the campaign and organizing the training, the
rest of the district level coordination was done
by local organizations and their volunteers and
activists.
Pro gramme:
10.00- Tea
10.30- Welcome
10.35-11.35- Sharing of experience by karwan members
11.35- 12.20- Sharing of experience by local hosts
12.20- Felicitation, distribution of prizes
1.00- Lunch
An exhibition of posters signed by villagers will be on display.
Venue: Samajik Shikshan Bhawan, Indian Society
For Community Education, Community House,
Navjivan Press Road, Ahmedabad, situated almost
opp the side gate of Gujarat Vidyapeeth
Time: 10.30-2.00pm
We would appreciate a line of confirmation .
Sincerely
Anhad Collective
Sanjay Sharma
Manisha Telange
Dev Desai
Dharmendra
Shabnam Hashmi
----
(ii)
Dear friends,
My film, Tales from the Margins, on the conflict
situation in Manipur and the extraordinary
protests for justice by the women, will be
screening shortly in Delhi.
ON: Sunday, 26th August, 4:40 PM
AT THE: Auditorium, India Habitat Centre, Lodi Road.
Do come, and please inform others who may be interested.
With regards
Kavita
SYNOPSIS
Twelve women disrobe on the streets of Manipur,
in protest
For over six years a young woman has
been on a fast-to-death demanding justice; she is
kept under arrest by the government and is
forcibly nose-fed for this "crime". Why are the
women of Manipur using their bodies as their last
weapon?
Manipur - a state in the North-East region of
India – has for decades been torn by insurgency
and armed conflict. The Indian government has
attempted to crush the insurgency through its
military power, shielded by a drastic law that
allows the security forces to shoot, arrest or
kill on suspicion alone. Yet, little is heard
about Manipur and its simmering trouble’s across
the nation’s landscape. This is a place that
mainland India has marginalised; that the world
has forgotten.
The film travels to this forgotten, strife-torn
corner of India to document the extraordinary
protests of Manipuri women as they fight for
justice for their people.
- - - -
(iii)
T2F will be hosting a series of events over the
next couple of weeks, so please mark your
calendars. Details will be posted on our
<http://www.t2f.biz/events>website shortly.
Meanwhile, please do come and check out the
photography exhibition featuring the work of
Bangladeshi photographer, Rabeya Sarkar Rima.
UPCOMING EVENTS (29th August - 9th September)
"Science Ka Adda": The Ethics of Stem Cells -
Film screening followed by a discussion with
Biologist, Dr. Ather Enam and Medical Ethicist,
Dr. Aasim Ahmad
Date: Wednesday, 29th August, 2007
Time: 7:30 pm
Film screening of "Beyond Partition" followed by
a discussion with Justice Dr. Javid Iqbal
Date: Saturday, 1st September, 2007
Time: 6:30 pm
"In Their Own Voice": Literary responses to 1971
from Bangladesh and Pakistan, featuring Niaz
Zaman and Asif Farrukhi
Date: Tuesday, 4th September, 2007
Time: 7:00 pm
"Science Ka Adda": Featuring Dr. Atta ur Rehman
Date: Friday, 7th September, 2007
Time: 7:00 pm
A Tribute to Qurat-ul-Ain Haider: Readings, Story-telling, and Memorabilia
Date: Sunday, 9th September
Time: 6:00 pm
Venue: The Second Floor
6-C, Prime Point Building, Phase 7, Khayaban-e-Ittehad, DHA, Karachi
Phone: 538-9273 | 0300-823-0276 | <mailto:info at t2f.biz>info at t2f.biz
Map: <http://www.t2f.biz/location>http://www.t2f.biz/location
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), on
matters of peace and democratisation in South
Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit
citizens wire service run since 1998 by South
Asia Citizens Web: www.sacw.net/
SACW archive is available at: http://insaf.net/pipermail/sacw_insaf.net/
DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not
necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers.
More information about the SACW
mailing list