SACW | Oct. 30 - Nov 1, 2007 | Pakistan: Tariq Ali Interview / Nepal Human rights / India: Inaction in Face of Tehelka Expose on Gujarat 2002 Killings
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at mnet.fr
Wed Oct 31 22:07:18 CDT 2007
South Asia Citizens Wire | October 30 - November
1, 2007 | Dispatch No. 2466 - Year 10 running
[1] Pakistan: Tariq Ali Interview (Aoun Abbas)
[2] OHCHR in Nepal: An early warning for NGOs
[3] India: Outraged Citizens Speak Up For Action
To Bring To Book The Killers Of Gujarat
(i) Prominent Citizens Public Statement
following Tehelka expose of the "Gujarat riots"
of 2002
(ii) Citizens For Peace Press Statement - 26th October 2007
(iii) AID Statement on Tehelka exposé on Gujarat violence
[4] India and Gujarat
(i) Silence of the lambs (Shoma Chaudhury)
(ii) Lawyer Bhushan says Tehelka expose 'fit
case' to dismiss CM Modi (Iftikhar Gilani)
(iii) Narendra Modi And Indian Democracy: The
Two Cannot Coexist (Daya Varma and Vinod Mubayi)
[5] India: The Displaced of Ahmedabad (Neera
Chandhoke, Praveen Priyadarshi, Silky Tyagi, Neha
Khanna)
[6] Announcements:
(i) Dharna [sit-in]- Justice for victims of
Gujarat Carnage 2002 (Ahmedabad, 1 November 2007)
(ii) Compelling Conversations: Reporting from
the Front Lines of Terror (Karachi, 1 November
2007)
(iii) Free Binayak Sen Website Launched
______
[1]
Newsline
October 2007
"JUDGES SPRING FROM THE SAME MILIEU AS THE RULERS"
Interview: Tariq Ali
Writer-activist
by Aoun Abbas
[. . .]
Newsline interviewed Tariq Ali at his
house in Lahore, during his recent visit to
Pakistan.
Q: How significant was Chief Justice
Iftikhar Chaudhry's decision to fight back?
A: The struggle to insist on the
separation of powers between the judiciary and
the state, which has been very weak in this
country, is very important. Judges have been
cajoled, they have been bullied, and they have
been fired from 1958 onwards. I remember Justice
Kiyani who took a very brave step against the
first military dictatorship in this country,
going around universities, addressing students,
speaking in a very subtle way, but encouraging us
to think.
It is a fact that, by and large, judges
in our country spring from the same milieu as the
other rulers of the country. So that is why the
decision of this chief justice to fight back was
extremely important.
You know the whole world thinks that
Pakistan consists of just military people,
corrupt politicians and bearded lunatics. That is
the image of Pakistan in the West. This
particular struggle to reinstate the chief
justice gave a completely different impression of
Pakistan.
Q: Can the rise of the judiciary help democracy in Pakistan?
A: This struggle has revived hope in
the country, but judges only interpret the law.
It's the politicians who make laws. So the
judiciary is structurally limited.
Q: Would you comment on the relatively
cool response to Nawaz Sharif's return?
A: If he was hoping that there would
be lakhs of people out to welcome him, he was
wrong. Money can buy you votes, but not popular
affection. In fact, the masses were indifferent.
People are not as stupid as politicians imagine.
Everyone knows that the country was looted
Q: How do you see a deal between Musharraf and Benazir?
A: This deal, pushed through by
Washington, will sink both parties in the end.
Bhutto's opportunism is disgraceful.
Q: Which political party has the
capacity to put Pakistan on the right track?
A: Judging by what Nawaz Sharif and
Benazir Bhutto did when they were in power
previously, it is extremely unlikely that they
are going to be different this time around.
Politics has become a mechanism of making money
in this country. Musharraf's martial law also
ended up ganging up with a bunch of corrupt
politicians and trying to run the country.
Q: What then is the future of democracy in Pakistan?
A: All they did was to grow rich
themselves. In my opinion none of the major
political parties offer any hope. They are
bankrupt gangs trying to enhance themselves and
their wealth. They can never change the fate of
this country. When you have three groups of
corrupt politicians - the Chaudhrys, the Sharif
Brothers and Benazir Bhutto lining up for power,
or power-sharing, one has to despair. None of
them did anything for the poor when they were in
power.
Q: Did this country ever have a chance to move forward?
A: The one big chance Pakistan had of
making a new start was at the time of the
break-up of the country, which was very brutal
for the population of then East Pakistan. But
nonetheless, Pakistan had an opportunity to make
a new start under Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. People
were filled with hope, and expectations were
high. But very little happened. The regime talked
a lot, there was a lot of rhetoric; some things
did get done, but on the question facing the
country, the institutionalisation of democratic
rule - destroying, once and for all, the power of
the landed gentry, setting up and establishing a
solid education and health system, cutting down
the size of the army and reducing the military
budget - it did not happen.
When it did not happen you had the
military coming back in again, and then General
Zia-ul-Haq, on the authorisation of the US,
executed the country's elected prime minister,
Zulifikar Ali Bhutto. Then began the worst period
in Pakistani history. The country's entire
political culture was brutalised. Many of the
things we are seeing now were seeded then.
Q:How would you compare General Musharraf with Zia?
A: The main similarity between the two
regimes is that they both do Washington's bidding
in Afghanistan. Zia did so when the US favoured a
jihad against the communists, and Musharraf is
fighting for 'global human rights' against the
jihadis who are now the enemy. Zia helped create
the MQM, and Musharraf used it against the chief
justice.
Q:The Left has failed to leave any impact on Pakistani politics.
A: The Leftist movement was never
strong in Pakistan. The bulk of the Left in this
part of the world went to India after Partition.
Punjab, in particular, was probably the most
reactionary and conservative province in British
India. In the NWFP, you had a progressive
nationalism led by Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and
the Khudai Khidmatgars who fought the British
politically and non-violently. The NWFP had a
strong, secular, progressive force, but it wasn't
a radical left-wing movement as such. In
Balochistan, Sardars dominated the society, so if
two Sardars became left-wing, people thought
Balochistan was very radical. But the basic
institutional structure remained the same. Sindh
was not a very radical place at all.
The tiny communist party that existed
here in trade unions and the peasant movement
made a big mistake by linking up with
nationalists inside the army and trying to
organise a half-baked coup in 1951. The Pakistan
Labour Party, in a very modest way, in the recent
movement to reinstate the chief justice was good.
Left groups can play a good role in society if
they are linked to it. If they are not linked to
it, then it's a joke.
Q:What are the reasons behind the
success of Leftist movements in Latin America?
A: These movements have won because
they have struggled for the last 20 to 25 years.
These are not movements which suddenly sprang out
of the air. In Venezuela, in Bolivia, in Ecuador,
there have been electoral victories recently.
They are the result of social movements that have
been struggling and working with the people,
giving them an alternative.
Q:How can the agenda of imperialistic forces be defied in South Asia?
A: Only a leadership with vision can
do it, and at present we don't have any. We have
politicians in South Asia and the Arab world who
are permanently on their knees before the US.
Now, the Arabs have so much oil they don't need
to be on their knees before anyone. But they are
because in most cases these are unrepresentative
regimes. They need US military backing to stay in
power. If we look at the situation in Pakistan
and India, I feel we need a European Union-style
structure in South Asia. Pakistan, India,
Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka need to form a
South Asian union which can later be expanded
within this framework.
Q:But is it possible to achieve this
without solving problems like Kashmir?
A: Since both Pakistan and India are
nuclear states, a new war to me is unthinkable. I
think Kargil was a foolish adventure by the
Pakistani military for which they paid the price
as a large number of Pakistani soldiers were
killed there. If they do anything like that
again, they will threaten the existence of this
country. Kashmir cannot be solved in the present
framework, we need a long-term solution. It can
only be solved by an overall deal either directly
with India, or within a South Asian framework.
There is no other solution. And Kashmiris would
also accept a unified, autonomous Kashmir within
a broader union with its autonomy guaranteed by
all the South Asian powers.
Q:Terrorism and extremism are two big
problems Pakistan faces. How can these be
addressed?
A: A series of radical social reforms
is the answer to religious extremism. The country
needs an excellent educational system, free for
the poor. At present you cannot get proper
education in Pakistan unless you have proper
money. The level of education is abysmal - and I
am not interested in the government's figures of
enrollment because there are no teachers and
infrastructure. I feel there is no military
solution, only a political solution, both
internally and externally. The problem is
deep-rooted in our history and has to be solved.
Q:Some people believe that US-led
western forces are justified in the occupation of
Afghanistan to combat terrorism. Is this the
right approach?
A: I am one of those people who don't
believe that big powers occupying small countries
solve any problem, even if they have good
intentions. The Soviet intervention of
Afghanistan created a mess which the Americans
fully utilised to drive them out. If you accept,
on principle, the right of the West to start
occupying countries on the basis of extremism or
terrorism, are you in favour of Pakistan being
occupied? Many people in the West regard Pakistan
as a failed state and name it as a base camp of
terrorists and terrorism. What if they come and
occupy Pakistan? They will find lots of figures
like Hamid Karzai ready to work with them, but
the overwhelming majority of the population
wouldn't be in favour of it.
To me, the Afghanistan issue can only
be solved first by pulling western troops out,
and then organising a summit of regional powers,
including Pakistan, India, Russia and Iran, to
discuss a joint deal to stabilise Afghanistan as
a federation.
Q:Are you in favour of a world without nuclear weapons?
A: I have always been against nuclear
weapons, but I do not believe that the US should
determine who should or should not have nuclear
weapons. If France and Britain, tiny little
countries on the world map, can have nuclear
weapons, why not India or Pakistan, and why not
Iran? It's the so-called monopoly of the West to
have them that I don't accept.
______
[2]
OHCHR IN NEPAL: AN EARLY WARNING FOR NGOS
http://www.achrweb.org/Review/2007/191-07.html
______
[3] [CITIZENS SPEAK UP FOR ACTION TO BRING TO BOOK THE KILLERS OF GUJARAT]
(i)
PROMINENT CITIZENS PUBLIC STATEMENT FOLLOWING
TEHELKA EXPOSE OF THE "GUJARAT RIOTS" OF 2002
The recent Tehelka expose of the "Gujarat riots"
of 2002, demonstrates very starkly that these
were neither "spontaneous" nor "riots", but were
in fact mass murder, loot and mayhem orchestrated
and organized by the top echelons of the Gujarat
units of the VHP, the Bajrang Dal, and the BJP
with the full connivance and complicity of the
Gujarat government headed by Narendra Modi. The
Tehelka tapes show senior functionaries of these
organizations and of the government bragging and
confessing to their having committed and
participated in committing heinous crimes like
brutal mass murder, rape, burning, looting etc.
Many of them claim and boast about how Narendra
Modi explicitly encouraged the carnage and told
the killers and rioters that they were being
given a free rein of three days. These people
also claim how several senior police officials
not only aided and abetted these killers by their
actions and inaction but in many cases themselves
participated in the carnage.
These senior functionaries who boast about having
committed these crimes also claim how Modi
provided shelter to these people and even got
inconvenient judges changed to ensure that these
mass murderers got out on bail. They also boast
about having successfully subverted the integrity
of the Nanavati Commission. In short, the tapes
reveal a horrific state of affairs in Gujarat,
which seems to have gone beyond the pale of the
rule of law, and the most basic norms of
humanity. And that it has become a state where
the government is not being carried on in
accordance with the Constitution.
It has become imperative that a special
investigating team be immediately constituted to
investigate the involvement of Narendra Modi and
other senior functionaries in his government and
the police in the killings, their abetment and
the shelter and help given to the criminals. This
SIT can be constituted by the Supreme Court and
should be monitored on a regular basis and asked
to compete their investigation within a few
months. This would be one of the most important
investigations ever undertaken in this country.
But most immediately, the persons shown on tape
confessing to having committed crimes must be
immediately arrested and those of them who are
serving officials, must be placed under
suspension. If the state government shows any
hesitation in doing this, that will only
reinforce the overwhelming evidence of their
complicity in the Carnage.
The pending cases of Naroda Patia, Gulbarga
society etc. which have been stayed by the
Supreme Court, pending hearing of the
applications for their transfer outside Gujarat
for the last 4 years, must be immediately taken
up by the court, ordered to be expeditiously
reinvestigated by an independent agency and cases
tried expeditiously.
We therefore call upon the central government and
the Supreme Court, whose duty it is to enforce
the rule of law and protect the Constitution, to
immediately take the above steps. We also call
upon all right thinking people of Gujarat to come
out in support of these demands. What is at stake
is not merely the survival of Constitutional
values and the rule of law but the survival of
civilisation itself in this country.
Signed by:
Admiral R.H.Tahiliani (Former Navy Chief,
Chairman Transparency International, India)
S.P. Shukla (Former Finance Secy, GOI)
Shanti Bhushan (Former Law Minister)
Muchkund Dubey (Former Foreign Secretary, GOI)
Ramaswamy Iyer (Former Water Resources Secy, GOI)
E.A.S. Sarma (Former Power Secretary, GOI)
B. George Verghese (Senior Journalist)
Madhu Bhaduri (Former Ambassador, GOI)
Medha Patkar (Social Activist)
Aruna Roy (Social Activist, Former member NAC)
Arundhati Roy (Writer, Social Activist)
Arvind Kejriwal (RTI Activist, Magsaysay awardee)
Sandeep Pande (Social Activist, Magsaysay awardee)
Major Gen. S.G. Vombatkere (Retd. Mysore)
Prof. Amit Bhaduri (Former Professor of Economics, JNU)
Prof. K.M.Shrimali (Department of History, Delhi University)
Arun Kumar (Professor Economics, JNU)
Prof. Girijesh Pant (School of International Studies, JNU)
Prof. Pramod Yadava (Professor, Dean, School of Life Sciences JNU)
Prof. Sujata Patel (Dept. of Sociology, University of Pune)
Prof. Achin Vinayak (Professor, Third World Academy)
Nasir Tayabji (Director, Centre for Jawaharlal Nehru Studies, Jamia
Milia Islamia)
Jean Dreze (Visiting Professor, Allahabad University)
Arshad Alam (Centre for Jawaharlal Nehru Studies, Jamia Milia Islamia)
Shailesh Gandhi (Convenor, NCPRI)
Vikram Lal (Director, Common Cause)
Shabnam Hashmi (Social Activist, ANHAD)
Dunu Roy (Social Activist and Director, Hazard Centre)
Ravi Chopra (Director, People's Science Institute)
N. Bhaskar Rao (Director, Centre for media studies)
Dr. Ajay Mehra (Director, Centre for public affairs)
Manoj Mitta (Journalist)
Sundeep Dougal (Journalist)
Ajit Bhattacharjee (Journalist)
Sudhirendra Sharma (Journalist)
Smitu Kothari (Dir. Centre for Intercultural Resources, Co-Founder Lokayan)
Himanshu Thakkar (Centre for Water Policy)
Nandini Oza (Social Activist, M.P.)
Ashish Kothari (Founder Member Kalpavriksh)
Vinod Raina (Founder Eklavya)
Rohit Prajapati (Social Activist, Baroda)
Trupti Shah (Social Activist, Baroda)
S. Srinivasan (Baroda)
Sanjay Kak (Filmmaker)
Arshad Amanullah (Documentary Filmmaker)
Nikhil Dey (Social Activist)
Ashok Rao (Secy. National Confederation of Officers Association)
Kamini Jaiswal (Lawyer)
Prashant Bhushan (Public Interest Lawyer)
(ii)
CITIZENS FOR PEACE
PRESS STATEMENT - 26TH OCTOBER 2007
The expose showing perpetrators of the 2002
carnage in Gujarat boasting about their crimes is
an open challenge to all citizens of India. It is
an urgent reminder that we must renew efforts to
prosecute those who commit such crimes against
humanity.
We, Citizens for Peace, in particular appeal to
the people of Gujarat to break silence and oppose
the politics of hatred and terror. It is possible
that many residents of Gujarat may have been
unaware of the enormity of crimes committed in
their state with open state support in 2002.
Others may have hesitated to confront a truth so
bizarre. Now, after the confessions, silence is
equal to endorsement of the chilling crimes.
Justice delayed is better than justice denied
altogether. It will make a difference if citizens
from all walks of life, across India, stand
emphatically opposed to the continuing
miscarriage of justice in Gujarat.
We urge all citizens to:
1. Write to the Prime Minister and Union Home
Minister demanding that they take immediate steps
to prosecute the culprits of the carnage.
2. Write to all national political parties in
India asking how and why the constitutional
crisis, of a dysfunctional judicial system in
Gujarat, is allowed to persist and urging them to
address this grave threat to the idea of India
with utmost urgency.
3. Write to the BJP, impressing on them that this
is their chance to dissociate themselves from
those responsible for these crimes, and to help
this country make a new beginning towards justice
for all.
For the text of our letters please see these posts on our website.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil
is for good men to do nothing."
Citizens for Peace is a Mumbai based non-party
group of volunteers committed to working for
communal harmony and a vibrant secular polity.
The Trustees of CFP are: Julio Rebiero,
B.G.Deshmukh, Titoo Ahluwalia, Rina Kamath, Tariq
Ansari, Dolly Thakore and Cyrus Guzder. The
Managing Committee consists of: Titoo Ahluwalia,
Tariq Ansari, Dolly Thakore, Dilip D'Souza, Gulan
Kripalani, Pervin Varma, Rajni Bakshi and Devieka
Bhojwani.
(iii)
Association for India's Development (AID)
Contacts:
Aniruddha Vaidya (Bay Area): 650-996-8249
Prof. Mohan Bhagat (College Park): 301-345-5308
Nirveek Bhattacharjee (Baltimore): 410-627-7679
E-mail Contact: <mailto:info at aidindia.org>info at aidindia.org
Web: <http://aidindia.org/>aidindia.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
College Park, MD.
Oct 31, 2007.
AID STATEMENT ON TEHELKA EXPOSÉ ON GUJARAT VIOLENCE
The Association for India's Development (AID)
views with great concern the various revelations
in the Tehelka exposé of October 25th 2007
regarding the planning and execution of the
Gujarat pogrom in 2002 and how a systematic
effort is going on to deny justice to the victims
and survivors of these violent events in which
over 2000 people were killed according to human
rights organizations.
The tapes reveal several prima-facie
incriminating statements by the perpetrators
themselves of how the pogrom in Gujarat was
planned, how administrative cover was provided by
the state, confessions of brutality, rape and
murder; statements to the effect that they will
murder again if opportunity arises; statements
indicating subversion of law by law officers such
as by a prosecutor and another person
representing the State of Gujarat in front of
judicial commission investigating the violence;
and bragging by a Gujarat MLA about how bombs
were made at a place in his control and arms
procured and distributed.
The tapes provide fresh evidence implicating
those involved in the Gujarat government at the
highest levels of the political establishment,
administration and law enforcement who colluded
with the key perpetrators of the violence. The
tapes also correlate with various statements
regarding the scale and the nature of violence as
well as attempts to subvert justice previously
made by various human-rights organizations in
India, and by eminent persons and activists who
were in Gujarat in the immediate aftermath of the
violence in 2002 to independently investigate and
provide relief and assistance to the survivors.
The violations of law and order recorded by
Tehelka are heinous in the extreme and cast a
most egregious blot on the very core of civic
society. Every effort must be made to immediately
bring the perpetrators and their supporters to
justice. Such crimes should not go unpunished for
such lengths of time by the judicial system, if
we are to ensure that they don't ever repeat in
Gujarat or elsewhere, and that people's faith in
the rule of law is restored. It is shocking to be
reminded that some of the most egregious violent
incidents such as the Naroda Patiya and Gulbarga
Society are still pending hearing for the past 4
years, not the least because of the way the state
government handled the prosecution.
Following the exposé, the administration in
Gujarat has responded by ordering a media
black-out of the Tehelka tapes in that state.
This goes against the Constitutional right of
freedom of speech and expression and the
fundamental tenets of the RTI Act of 2005 that
says in its preamble: "democracy requires an
informed citizenry and transparency of
information which are vital to its functioning."
We demand that new evidence brought to light by
the Tehelka exposé be rapidly looked at and
action taken to arrest and bring to justice those
who perpetrated, aided and abetted the violence;
and that the pending cases be heard and resolved
by the Courts in an expedited manner. Further,
all Constitutional means should be considered to
ensure that the Gujarat administration does not
continue to subvert the rule of law in delivering
justice to the victims. All the survivors and
families affected in Gujarat in 2002 should be
adequately compensated and rehabilitated, and
clear steps taken to end the isolation and
ghettoization of the communities affected by the
riots. We also demand that the media black-out of
Tehelka Tapes on televisions in Gujarat be lifted
immediately.
We appeal to the people of Gujarat to maintain
public order and peace as they look at the
evidence and demand that the Indian law
enforcement and judicial system bring to justice
all those who are implicated.
______
[3]
(i)
Hindustan Times
October 31, 2007
SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
by Shoma Chaudhury
We are all tempted to forget. Tempted to shake
our heads at 'mind-numbing' horror and get sucked
back into the urgencies of our own day. Tempted
to impute sinister motives or just look the other
way. We are tempted, but we must not give in.
Because what Tehelka's investigation last week
showed is not just about Narendra Modi and some
lumpen Hindus. It's about you and me and who we
are as people.
It is true that 'Operation Kalank' is about
things we already knew: mass murder, rape and
barbarous cruelty, all planned and executed by
the unforgivable sanction of the State. But the
unthinkable has happened. What was earlier
allegation by victims and their defenders has now
been corroborated by the perpetrators themselves.
And what is our response? Nothing.
Operation Kalank cannot be dismissed as the empty
bragging of anonymous men. The men caught in the
eye of the camera range from the Advocate General
of Gujarat to BJP MLAs, senior functionaries of
the VHP and RSS, influential lawyers and the
actual foot-soldiers of hate: not the bit players
cheering from the outer circle, but the hacksaws
themselves. And what the TV channels have shown
is only the broadstrokes. Tehelka documents an
even vaster and more detailed nightmare world of
thwarted justice and failed institutions,
including the fire on the Sabarmati Express.
Yet, in the face of all this, our story has only
been met by empty counter-arguments and
conspiracy theories. Why was the story timed for
now? Is Tehelka a Congress front? And even more
ludicrously, has Modi paid Tehelka to do the
story to consolidate the Hindu vote ahead of
elections? As one of the founder members of
Tehelka, these theories bring an exhausting sense
of déjà vu. We have been here before. Six years
ago, when Tehelka broke Operation Westend, the
investigation about corruption in defence
procurement, the same fantastic theories had
greeted us, each contradicting the other. But the
truth outlived it all.
Now it's happening again. Journalistic stories of
this nature can never be timed. Operation Kalank
began by sheer accident - we did not set out to
do it - and it took six months to nail down. If
it had taken three, we would have released it in
August; if it had taken ten, we would have
released it in January, post the election.
Imagine what conspiracy theories that would have
yielded.
Duck the truth and look for some new depravity to
explain it away: that's become our habitual
response as a people. We think it makes us
worldly and knowing. We think it makes us
sagacious. But in truth, it displays our fallen
nature. It displays the bankruptcy of our
emotions and the poverty of our conscience. We no
longer believe anyone can do anything without a
motive. The fact that cynical backroom games are
more easy to believe in than purity of intention
says something enormously disturbing about where
we have reached as a society. We can be shown a
man gloating over a foetus ripped out of a
mother's womb, but we would rather embroider why
we are being shown this than react with honest
emotion to the fact.
But what is far worse is the unremorseful
responses of the BJP and people who state that
the genocide is no longer an issue because it is
five years old and Modi has been voted back to
power since then. As if a mere assertion of
majority can nullify the fundamental cry for
human justice. What is far worse also are the
people who are trapped in the suicidal dialectic
of Godhra and Gujarat - action and reaction:
Muslim provocation and Hindu retribution. As if
Death leaves its aching footprint in shades of
green and saffron, one less painful than the
other.
It seems so simple to understand - crime has no
communal colour. The State should have identified
and arrested the Muslims who were in the mob at
Godhra and punished them instead of unleashing a
pogrom against innocents. Why engineer a communal
death embrace that neither community can ever
loosen itself from?
But of all the responses, what is by far the
worst is that everybody seems unperturbed by the
fact that Gujarat is a failed state. Modi may
have been re-elected post-2002, but Operation
Kalank is proof that every fundamental
institution that underpins the idea of a
democratic and civil society has been subverted
there: the police, the judiciary and the
political establishment. And yet we are all
content to continue with the charade of treating
Gujarat as a democratic state facing an on-coming
election.
Nations are built by the words men use to
describe it. Societies are shaped by the
collective rules men agree to live by. The India
we inherited, the India in which we all have a
right to life, liberty, livelihood, expression
and religion is not some self-perpetuating magic
State. It's a State that was articulated by the
heroic imagination of our founding fathers, a
State we all have to struggle and fight to
retain. If we are faced with something like
Operation Kalank and do nothing, we will turn a
dangerous corner as a nation. Our certitudes will
slip away from us. We will become morally
rudderless.
For me then, the most frightening thing about
Tehelka's investigation is not Narendra Modi and
his cold, unalloyed evil. It is not even the
animal violence of his henchmen. It is the
X-factor that seems to have paralysed everybody:
the fear of the 'Hindu vote'. This fear and the
unquestioning acceptance that it will blow in
Modi's favour if anybody speaks out against his
depraved state has made a mockery of every check
and balance that lies at the heart of a
democracy. It has made the media cautious. And it
has made timid marionettes of the Congress.
Neither the Prime Minister, nor the Home
Minister, nor any senior minister has spoken out.
Is Gujarat no longer a part of India? Doesn't the
same Constitution apply? Are we doomed to have
leaders whose heads are only trapped in the
abacus of electoral numbers?
The real faultline in India today is not between
Hindus and Muslims. It is between Hindus and
Hindus. If the Hindus of Gujarat are going to
re-elect Modi after being confronted with visual
proof of what he stands for, we have to
aggressively reclaim what being Hindu means. The
problem is too few people seem to have a stomach
for that fight. It is not a fight that can be won
by burning and slashing. Or ducking. It requires
words and eloquence and conviction. The Hindu
vote in Gujarat could swing both ways in the
years to come because the curious thing about
human beings is that they are always willing to
thrum to a nobler note. Someone just has to have
the courage to sound it.
Shoma Chaudhury is Editor, Features, Tehelka.
(ii)
Daily Times
November 01, 2007
MUSLIMS IN GUJARAT BEING HUNTED LIKE RABBITS: TEHELKA ED
LAWYER BHUSHAN SAYS TEHELKA EXPOSE 'FIT CASE' TO DISMISS CM MODI
by Iftikhar Gilani
NEW DELHI: The editor of Tehelka magazine said on
Wednesday Muslims in India's western state of
Gujarat were being "hunted like rabbits".
Hindu extremists had killed around 2,000 Muslims
in three days after Sabarmati Express, a train
carrying Hindu pilgrims, was allegedly set on
fire by Muslims at Godhra Railway Station.
Tehelka sting tapes have shown some hardliner
Hindus admitting that they and their men had
killed Muslims in Naroda Patiya in the Godhra
riots.
Tehelka editors here on Wednesday were at pains
to explain that their undercover operation was
not linked to the assembly elections in Gujarat,
which were scheduled for December.
Refuting allegations that they had set the
timings of the expose to help a particular
political party, magazine Editor Tarun Tejpal
told a seminar here that the hard work done by
their reporters for over five months "by chance"
coincided with the announcement of elections.
Praising his reporter Asish Khetan, who worked
undercover, Tejpal said he had been originally
deputed to report on the attacks on artists at
the Baroda University. He termed Khetan's
revelations on the Godhra train burning as most
critical and demanded attention from courts and
prosecution.
Booker prize winner author Arundhati Roy said the
society in Gujarat had been deeply communalised.
"It is a fact that a majority of Gujaratis voted
for Narindra Modi after the 2002 holocaust," she
said. She wondered whether Gujarat was a part of
India or not, "where an average Hindu does not
feel remorseful for what happed in 2002". She
lamented that neither the government nor the
courts took suo motu notice of the Tehelka tapes.
Expose 'fit case': Noted lawyer Shanti Bhushan
said the Tehelka expose was "a fit case" to
impose Article 356 and dismiss Chief Minister
Narindra Modi. He said the central government and
Congress lacked spine to take on the BJP and the
communalists in Gujarat. "In fact the Congress is
competing with the BJP to coax communalists," he
said.
He said it had become imperative to set up a
special investigating team to investigate the
involvement of Narendra Modi and other senior
functionaries in his government. "But most
immediately, the people shown on the tape
confessing to having committed crime must be
immediately arrested and those of them who are
serving officials must be placed under
suspension," he said.
Former Delhi High Court chief justice Rajinder
Sachhar called for a political fight against
Narindra Modi. "Dismissal of Modi is a small
thing. We need to reach to Gujarat people and
de-link them from marauders and rapists," he
said, adding that the 2002 programme and the hate
against Muslims were disgusting and a slur to
Hinduism, "which boasts of being a most liberal
religion in the world".
(iii)
INSAF Bulletin
November 2007
NARENDRA MODI AND INDIAN DEMOCRACY: THE TWO CANNOT COEXIST
by Daya Varma and Vinod Mubayi
The Tehelka exposure of the crimes of Hindutva
fascists led by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra
Modi only proves what was already well known. Yet
proof is important because legal action against
any one requires proof. The crimes committed by
the ruffians of Sangh Parivar in 2002 are
horrendous. They cannot happen unpunished in a
civilized society and the fact they happened in
India and the criminals remain scot-free simply
reveals not only the cultural degeneration of
Indian society but also the sham and incompetent
nature of Indian democracy.
There are lots of Asians, Arabs, Africans and
Latinos in Western countries. There is racism
here too. And yet any overt racial slur or
arbitrary harassment of visible minority people
does lead to consequences, which may be delayed,
unevenly applied, or insufficient, but which also
include retribution, enquiry and often enough
dismissal of the media person or police official.
In this sense, even the aftermath of 9/11,
horrible as it was for the hundreds of mainly
Muslim immigrants who were harassed, detained,
and deported, was not allowed to go out of
control a la Gujarat, nor was the bomb blast in
the London underground or riots in the Paris
suburbs. Bourgeois democracy just cannot afford
to violate certain norms.
However, the case in India is in stark contrast
to what is expected of a democracy. First the
Muslim community was brutalized under the
rationale articulated by Modi that the fire on
the railway train at Godhra station was an
"action" calling for a "reaction." Leaving aside
the question of whether there was any Muslim mob
that allegedly set fire to the train - all the
evidence gathered by agencies not directly
connected to the Gujarat government indicates
that the fire was an accident caused by kerosene
fuel cookers carried illegally in the train
carriage - no civilized society would allow a
general lawlessness to prevail against an entire
community, which ultimately resulted in a
horrendous pogrom. The laxity shown by the NDA
government towards the hordes of the Sangh
Parivar led by Narendra Modi was shameful but
understandable. It was a question of solidarity
within a mafia family.
But the hesitation of the UPA government, which
survives with the support of the left parties, on
the Gujarat genocide is beyond comprehension.
This marriage between parliamentary democracy and
feudal highhandedness must be broken if India is
to emerge as a modern democratic society. Herein
lays the challenge for the Left and Democratic
forces of India - to mount a massive protest to
force the UPA government to immediately dismiss
Narendra Modi's government, place all those
accused in their own words by the Tehelka
evidence in jail and try them all for crimes
against humanity. In the meantime, President's
rule should be declared and a central policing
authority should be placed in charge of Gujarat.
______
[4]
Economic & Political Weekly - October 27, 2007
THE DISPLACED OF AHMEDABAD
by Neera Chandhoke, Praveen Priyadarshi, Silky Tyagi, Neha Khanna
Elections draw near in Gujarat but the survivors
of the 2002 pogrom continue to live a miserable
life, belying the claims of a "Vibrant Gujarat"
by chief minister Narendra Modi who has embarked
upon a re-election campaign emphasising the
future over the shameful past. The plight of the
riot victims raises questions about the state of
democracy in Gujarat.
In his pre-election speeches, chief minister
Narendra Modi repeatedly makes two firm
statements. The first of these statements codes
the suggestion that any comment or criticism,
which conti nues to harp on the communal carnage
that was visited upon the heads of the Muslim
community in 2002 by mem- bers of his party, the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and other allied
organisations of the Hindutva brigade, should be
aban- doned. These comments/criticisms, alleges
Modi, remain far too preoccupied with the past.
Apparently the past, for Modi, is another
country. Observers of the Gujarat scene, he pro
poses, should rather look to the future, which
promises to be a luminous one for an already
"Vibrant Gujarat", provided he is elected to
power once again.
At stake here is a rather barefaced denial of
history, particularly of the history of
communalism in the state. This is simply bad
politics, because as any first year student of
political science knows, good politics is always
constructed upon an awareness of history. Does
Gujarat really want to hand over its future to a
man who has such a lamentably short memory? The
second of Modi's comments com- pletely denies the
existence of a rather deep Hindu-Muslim divide in
the state. Modi insists that he himself speaks
for, and represents all people in the state of
Gujarat. However, "representation" happens to be
a deeply problematic concept, and Modi who is in
the business of politics, should be conscious of
this. We as citizens of India, of which Gujarat
is a part, must ask this question: can Modi even
begin to represent the interests, or more
precisely the pressing needs of that category of
the population which his govern ment has re-
fused to recognise, or cater to - Muslim families
who were displaced by communal violence in 2002?
Are these interests fated to be unrepresented
just because they do not fit into the
self-representations that have been formulated
and disseminated by Modi and his ilk for
electoral pur poses? In effect, Modi not only
wants people to forget that the communal carnage
of 2002 ever happened, he does not want to
acknowledge that five years after the po- grom,
the victims of violence still con- tinue to
suffer through the production and reproduction of
different sorts of vi- olence. Surely this is not
the section of society that he represents,
because if he was representing this section of
society, as the chief minister of a state that
ranks first in the country in terms of per capita
income, he would have done something to
ameliorate the terrible and inhuman con- ditions
that these people live in.
Victims of Violence
Though a considerable amount of research has gone
into documenting and analysing the communal
carnage in Gujarat in 2002, little work has been
done on what happened to the people who survived.
Where did they go? How have they reconstructed
their lives? With the help of which agency? What
has the state done for them? These are some of
the anxiety ridden questions that our research
team has sought to address, through an investi-
gation of the resettlement colonies of Ahmedabad
into which the victims of the 2002 violence have
been herded. The answer to the last question is
easy to nego- tiate. The government of Gujarat
has done practically nothing for the people who
might have managed to survive the pogrom, but
who lost their family mem- bers, livelihoods,
hearths, and their homes in the process.
That the victims of violence were herd- ed into
poorly funded and grossly inade- quate relief
camps is well known. In a short time, these camps
were rapidly wound up, and the inhabitants, after
be- ing given pathe tically inadequate funds as
"compen sation"; funds sometimes as low as Rs
1,200, were now on their own, thrown onto the
mercy of a society that had proved complicit in
the carnage, either actively or through studied
silence.
The state government, recognising neither the
plight, nor the needs of the victims of communal
violence, simply refused to take any action which
would help these people to rebuild their
shattered lives. At this point a few civil
society organi- sations, predominantly the
Islamic relief committee, stepped in to help
people relo- cate and resettle. Some land was
acquired on the outskirts of the city, and the
victims were resettled in four pockets - Juha
pura, Ramol, Vatva and Dani Limda. All of these
"colonies" are on the periphery of Ahmedabad, and
are poorly connected to the city where most of
the jobs are gener- ated. The 729 households that
have been relocated in 15 such colonies in
Ahmeda- bad have been displaced mainly from
eastern Ahmedabad, from areas such as Naroda
Patia, Gomtipur, Daria Pur, Gomti Pur, Saraspur,
Bapu Nagar Jamal Pur, Rakhial, and other inner
city areas that have repeatedly suffered from
periodic outbursts of communal violence right
since 1969.
But the legal status of the land upon which these
shanty towns have been constructed is contested,
because much of it is agricultural land. This has
instilled dread among the residents that they
still live in temporary settlements, which can be
eas- ily mowed down by the bull dozers of the
Ahmedabad municipal corporation (AMC). Not only
are most resettlement colonies remotely located
from the city where jobs are to be found; they
are far away from schools and health clinics that
are an in- dispensable prerequisite of living a
life free of oppression. In sum these displaced
Muslim families are fated to remain out- side the
reach of all the amenities that a vibrant Gujarat
might perchance offer to those who form an
integral part of society and the polity.
It is clear that for the present govern- ment
these families just do not form an integral part
of Gujarati society and poli- tics; they have
been expelled both spatial- ly and socially to
the margins of the city. In these bare, stark,
inhospitable areas, civil society organisations
constructed rickety one room tenements, without
water supply, without electricity, without access
to internal roads because there were none, and
without sanitation and sewerage for families. And
it is here, in these barren spaces, that the
victims of the carnage in Ahmedabad have been
set- tled, and expected to begin their life anew,
amidst even more deprivation that they faced in
their original habitats.
Shabby existence
Many of these families still own some land *
where once houses that were burnt down by the
Hindutva goons stood - in their original
habitats. But even as bitter memo- ries of the
brutal violence that was inflic ted upon them and
their families and commu- nity haunts collective
psyches, people fear going back to their homes.
They prefer to live in these desolate, ugly, and
rundown one-room tenements, which house as many
as five members of a family. But this is not the
major problem that confronts refugees. Other and
much more serious problems stalk the everyday
life of the in- habitants of these settlements.
For instance, in the resettlement colony
ironically called the "Citizens Nagar" in Dani
Limda, families who once lived in the most
communally hit area of Ahmeda- bad; Naroda Patia,
have been resettled. This particular "citizen's"
colony has been built literally in the shadow of
a massive mountain. The only problem is that this
mountain has been constructed by human beings,
out of the garbage collected from every part of
Ahmedabad that is dumped here every morning. The
mountain of gar- bage dominates the collective
life of the inhabitants. The stench that emanates
from this rubbish dump overwhelms both sense and
sensibilities of people who live not only in the
colony, but also in the surrounding areas. More
critically, during the monsoons, the garbage
overflows the mountain sized dump, runs through
what passes for roads within the colony, and
enters homes. The garbage, which is highly
toxic, has penetrated the groundwater. Since the
inhabitants of the colony do not have access to
clean drinking water, they are forced to consume
this contaminated groundwater. This yellow,
grimy, and filthy water is so polluted that it
cannot be but the harbinger of disease. Not
surpris- ingly, gastronomical diseases are
rampant in this locality.
Despite repeated representations, the AMC has
made no attempt to look for an alternate site for
the dumping of the garbage of the city. To make
matters worse, residents complain that AMC often
deposits carcasses of dead animals around the
colonies, and the revolting odour makes the place
simply unlivable. The plight of the residents who
have been sub- jected to involuntary displacement
does not end there. When the AMC begins to burn
the garbage in the dump once in a while, the
pollutant ridden smoke which manages to pervade
every pore of the body leads to all kinds of
health problems, particularly respiratory
diseases. But the AMC, which is responsible for
providing services to citizens, has refused to
take notice of the deplorable condition of this
colony, or of the appalling lives that the
victims who live there, lead.
Dreadful Housing
Built as they were in a hurry, these so-called
houses are in dreadful condi- tion, water seeps
into the rooms during the monsoons, and rubbish
flows along what passes for internal roads. These
houses have low roofs, no ventilation, and have
been provided with temporary and unsafe
electrical wiring. The land these houses are
built in is generally low lying, and therefore
water logging is common. The situation is
worsened by the fact that there is absolutely no
drainage system, no 'pucca' pavements, or street
lighting in the so-called colony. Vulnerable and
insecure as the families already are; the highly
uncongenial and sorry surroundings in which they
are forced to live, leads to deep feelings of
helplessness and alienation. These feelings are
exacerbated by the fact that no aid from the
government to make these colonies habitable, to
build schools, and health clinics, or provide for
transpor- tation to the city where people can
work, is forthcoming.
The legitimacy of a democratically elected
government rests upon its ability to take care of
the worse off in society. In Ahmedabad as in the
rest of the state, the government does not even
acknowledge these responsibilities. Similar
problems attend other resettlement colonies.
Since most of these colonies are on the outskirts
of the city, they are surrounded by indus- tries
spewing pollutants, all of which makes the areas
hazardous for human habitation. In Sundaram Nagar
in Bapu Nagar, for example, cotton dust emana-
ting twice a day from the burning of in- dustrial
waste, makes breathing difficult for the
residents. The children and the adults that we
met have developed lung related diseases.
The residents of most of these resettle- ment
colonies eke out a bare existence without any
basic amenities, be it drink- ing water,
sanitation, drainage, health- care, education for
children, or approach roads and modes of
transportation. Chil- dren have been forced to
drop out of school and take to daily wage labour,
because it is too expensive to hire rick- shaws
to take the children to school. A few colonies
have now been given anganwadi centres more than
five years after they were established, but no
schools for children have been provided.
Residents of Ekta Nagar complained that they have
to pay Rs 12 daily to send their children to the
nearest school, and since they cannot af- ford
this, the children have dropped out of school.
Most families are terrified of sen- ding their
daughters to school outside the neighbourhood,
after the sexual violence that Muslim girls had
been subjected to in 2002. Resultantly, an entire
gene ration of children of Muslim families, who
are less educated than their parents, is growing
up in the city. Is this not a denial of the right
of every child to education? Healthcare for the
victims of the com munal violence is equally
deplorable. There are barely any healthcare
facilities available for these colonies. There
have been instances when due to absence of health
facilities, patients have died on the way to
remote hospitals, and babies have often been
delivered on the road.
Decline in Income
One major consequence of the way in which
resettlement has been carried out by private
organisations in spatially iso- lated areas is
that people have been forced to abandon their
previous vocations and look for alternative
employment. Most of them now work in informal and
petty jobs, and are known as 'chhuttak mazdoors'.
Whereas most of the men work as auto and cycle
rickshaw pullers, petty vendors, and casual
workers in nearby neighbour- hoods, women work
mostly as domestic help. Consequently there has
been a universal decline in income, which has
dropped to less than half to what people used to
earn before the violence and relo- cation. The
drop in income has not only led to extreme
pauperisation, the ramifi- cations of poverty are
seen in a new wave of child labour, and the
growth of a gener- ation of illiterate and
unskilled youth.
State apathy
The response of the state government to the
needs, the grievances, and the woes of the
victims of communal violence has been negligent
at best and vicious at worst. Five years after
the pogrom, many of the relocated families are
still awaiting their voters' identity cards and
BPL ration cards. Earlier this year, after a
large meeting of the internally displaced, the
Election Com- mission has taken measures to
ensure that the displaced are able to cast their
votes in the forthcoming assembly elections, but
the attitude of local state functionaries is that
of sheer indifference. When it comes to below the
poverty line (BPL) and Antyodaya cards, the case
is no different. Since these documents are
crucial for citizens if they want to access
ongoing social protection schemes, most of the
victims living in these colonies are not able to
do so. Ironically, residents of New Fazal Nagar,
one of the relocated colonies, have been served a
notice to pay Rs 8,000 as house tax; even though
these houses simply lie outside the pale of the
government, or of the corporation. role of nGos
Since the state government continues to be in the
denial mode, non-governmental and other civil
society organisations have stepped in to support
the victims of com- munal violence. Notably
whereas a small group of such organisations has
done a commendable job in resettling victims of
communal violence, and it is because of their
concerted effort that these people have been able
to survive, a majority of civil society
organisations have proved in- different to the
cause. The cloud of Hindutva obviously hangs
heavily on civil society organisations. Post
carnage, the relief work was carried out
predominantly with the help of the resources of
the Islamic Relief Committee (IRC) along with few
more agencies such as Action Aid. The role
played by some of the civil society organisations
has been highly commendable, and the victims are
all praise for them. Organi sations like Aman
Biradri and Jan Vikas, for example, have waged a
long battle against the indifferent attitude of
the state agencies towards the victims of
communal violence, and the issue of the
relocation of these victims. The documentation
carried out by some of these organisations has
gone a long way in exposing the callous attitude
of the state towards victims of violence, and in
fixing responsibility. It is with the help of
these organisations that displaced families have
been able to press for their rights, and put
their demands before the government at the local
level. That the plight of these victims has not
been sub- sumed completely in the state-sponsored
din about "Vibrant Gujarat" and the benefits of
globalisation is due entirely to these
organisations.
For instance, on February 1, 2007, the Antarik
Visthapit Haq Rakshak Samiti, Centre for Social
Justice and ANHAD, along with some other
organisations con- ducted the "Convention of the
Internally Displaced" in Gujarat. Thousands of
inter- nally displaced households gathered in the
convention, and demanded "recognition, reparation
and rehabilitation". Discussions on several
issues and problems such as livelihood of the
internally displaced, dis- crimination,
exclusion, and economic boy- cotts, police
intimidation, the problems of the children, youth
and women of this cat- egory highlighted several
crucial issues. The convention was successful in
expos- ing the lie of the state government's
claim that the rehabilitation of "riot" victims
had been accomplished. The convention also
provided the victims with a forum where they
could share their troubles and come together to
fight these predicaments. Apart from the demand
for the provision of basic amenities and
livelihood, the convention suggested forcefully
that there should be a national policy for
rehabilitation for peo- ple displaced due to
communal violence. One positive outcome of this
convention was that the Election Commission
recog- nised that the inhabitants of these
colonies should get election cards even though
they could not establish residence, simply
because they have not been given the re- quired
documents by the agencies that have relocated
them. The second positive outcome is that there
is hope that these families will be given BPL
ration cards, even though they cannot render
proof of residence, such as sale deeds, rental
receipts or electricity bills. no Substitute
However, private initiatives in resettling such
massive numbers of the displaced cannot
substitute for state action. For one, given the
limited resources at the disposal of these
agencies, relocation has been par- tial and
insufficient, and falls well short of the
requirements of the residents. Neither the poorly
constructed houses, nor the pathetic state of
facilities and services, can give the victims a
sense of security, or a feeling that they are
being compensated for a major lapse of justice.
Secondly, since the colonies are a product of
initiatives by non-governmental organisations,
they are obviously not in accordance with the
"city plan". The victims of communal violence
continue to pay for the sins committed by others
in 2002, because the status of these colonies as
unplanned or unauthorised, gives the civic agency
a pretext to deny basic amenities to the
inhabitants. Thirdly, the land on which colonies
are construc ted is privately bought, in most of
the cases by the Islamic Relief Committee. This
does not help either. According to city autho
rities these lands are "not for residential pur-
poses", and purchase of this land for resi-
dential use is not legal. This breeds trepi-
dation and uncertainty among people, who have
lived amidst fear most of their lives. Two more
consequences should be not- ed here because these
are of some import. One, the manner in which the
victims of violence were relocated, and the non-
response of the state when it came to the
pressing problem of looking after citizens who
have been rendered jobless and homeless for no
fault of their own, has led to new kinds of
conflicts and tensions within colonies.
Bagh-e-Aman in Vatva area is witness to one such
tension. Here 12 families were relocated from
various parts of the city which had witnessed
intense violence. Rehabilitation was ac-
complished through the collective efforts of the
Islamic Relief Committee, private initiatives,
and the people themselves. However, some people
who belonged to this area had rebuilt their lives
after the communal violence, mostly on their own,
and without any external support. Now they face
the odd problem of not being recognised as
"relocated" in the same way as the 12 families,
which have been reha-bilitated with outside help.
Even as the state agencies have been forced to
take cognisance of the 12 relocated families
because of litigation in various courts, they
refuse to recognise other affected households as
displaced. As a result about 100 households are
deprived of government schemes or compensation.
Consequently these households do not even have
voter identity cards. troubling Development
Secondly, our research team discerned a rather
troubling development in these colonies. Since
the state has refused to step in to
rehabilitatethe displaced, Isla mic organisations
have provided the major chunk of resources for
the purpose. For example, the land on which
victims have been relocated was mostly purchased
by these Islamic organisations. But the land
deeds remain with the IRC, even after families
have started to live in these colonies. As no
land entitlement has been given to the victims,
people believe with good reason that they live in
semi-perma- nent relief camps, that they are
dependent upon other agencies, and that they have
not really been rehabilitated. There have also
been instances where the IRC has put its own set
of conditionalities on people, if they want to
live in these colonies. Most of these problems
emanate from the conflict of priorities of the
victims and civil society organisations on the
one hand, and the IRC on the other. Residents
told us that the IRC prefers the construction of
mosques to health clinics, madrasas to schools,
and that the organisation insists on dress codes
for women, read purdah. The residents, on the
other hand, are more concerned about incomes,
health, and education for their children. In
general, there is some evidence that the IRC has
been trying to influence people to abandon their
traditional life practices, and follow rigid and
doctrinaire versions of Islam. This is the
natural outcome of state funda- mentalism and
neglect of religious minori- ties; for when
religious civil society organ- isations step into
the vacuum, they are likely to extort their own
price for helping people. Fundamentalism always
breeds counter-fundamentalism, and it is the
lives and the futures of ordinary people that are
at risk here.
Vibrant Gujarat, For Whom?
The plight of riot victims in Ahmedabad, and in
Gujarat in general, raises some very critical
questions about the state of democracy in
Gujarat, and the capacity of the present
leadership to represent the concerns of the
ordinary people, irrespective of their religious
denomination. As the state prepares for yet
another assembly election, the pathetic condition
of the majority of people who were hit by
communal violence in 2002 begs many questions.
For one,can Narendra Modi speak of a "Vibrant
Gujarat" when a substantial numbers of its
citizens live in want and despair? Secondly, why
have political parties such as the Congress not
taken up this issue? Is this due to the fear that
they will lose the "Hindu" vote? Will the
Congress Party that proclaims copyright over
secularism really make common cause with BJP
leaders who led the communally charged mobs in
2002?
And if so where do people who have been wronged
for no fault of their own, go? Do any of the
political parties who are contending for power in
Gujarat, but who are supremely indiffer ent to
the plight of minorities, have an answer? It is
election time in Gujarat, and elections are meant
to hold the ruling classes accountable for their
acts of omission. It is time that the electorate
in the state judges the government for what it
has not done for the marginal sections of
society, and not what for it has done for the
already privileged.
[This study forms part of the Cities Component of
the Crisis States Programme of the London School
of Economics and Political Science.]
______
[5] ANNOUNCEMENTS:
(i)
Subject: DHARNA (THURSDAY NOVEMBER 1ST 2007) -
JUSTICE FOR VICTIMS OF GUJARAT CARNAGE
2002....JOIN IN LARGE NUMBERS ... SPREAD THE WORD
AROUND
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2007 14:16:45 +0530
Dear Friends,
The need of the hour is to publicly register
moral outrage and shock at the disclosures
contained in the Tehelka- AajTak expose on the
Gujarat Carnage of 2002 and to intensify the
demand for justice and rehabilitation for the
victims.
A PUBLIC PROTEST is to be held in Ahmedabad for
this purpose. We strongly urge you to come and
join this and register your solidarity with the
victims of Gujarat 2002 and press the government
to do justice to them.
Date: Thursday, 1st November 2007
Time: 3.30 p.m.
Venue:
Income Tax Circle, Ashram Road, Ahmedabad
Please circulate widely. Those individuals or
organisations wishing to endorse the public
meeting may add their names to the list below and
mark a copy to persis_ginwalla at yahoo.co.in
Come with your banners, posters ... demanding
justice for Gujarat Carnage 2002.
Hiren Gandhi Fr. Cedric Prakash sj
Persis Ginwalla Saroop Dhruv
Samir Khan Jayesh Patel
Waqar Qazi Jayesh Solanki
Bhavik Raja Bharat Parmar
Meera Rafi Gaurang Raval
Bharat Jhalla Javed Ameer
and several others.......
_____
(ii)
Friends,
Please visit the <http://www.t2f.biz/karachi>
<http://www.t2f.biz/karachi>Reclaim
Karachi website (<http://www.t2f.biz/karachi>
http://www.t2f.biz/karachi) for information about
a citizen-led campaign to take back our city.
<http://www.t2f.biz/karachi>
COMPELLING CONVERSATIONS: REPORTING FROM THE FRONT LINES OF TERROR
Join us at T2F this Thursday to hear a young
reporter's experiences of Oct 18th 2007. Urooj
Zia will talk about the "job" of reporting,
political rallies, the "gullible" masses, and the
fact that we have nothing to lose but our chains.
Date: Thursday, 1st November 2007
Time: 7:00 pm
Minimum Donation: Whatever you like
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
Seats are limited and will be available on a
'first come, first served' basis. No reservations.
_____
(iii)
FREE BINAYAK SEN WEBSITE (http://www.freebinayaksen.org/)
It is now almost five months since the arrest of
Dr. Binayak Sen, National Vice-President of
People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), on
flimsy, trumped-up charges The case of Dr. Sen is
not an isolated one. All over India, we are
seeing a situation where human rights defenders
are being targeted under draconian legislations.
There is considerable material on Dr. Sen
available from various sources, but it is
necessary to bring all this material together in
one place where it can be easily accessed by
those concerned about the issue and campaigning
for his release. The website
http://www.freebinayaksen.org/ is a step in this
direction. At a later stage, this website will be
expanded to cover the cases of other human rights
activists who have been arrested on trumped-up
charges.
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
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