SACW | Dec. 24-25, 2007 / Sri Lanka: Justice for Women / Pakistan's Tyranny / India: Star wars fantasy; Modi's Victory / South Asia: human rights

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire | December 24-25, 2007 | 
Dispatch No. 2480 - Year 10 running

[1] Women's demands for justice in Sri Lanka (Kishali Pinto Jayawardena)
[2] Pakistan's Tyranny Continues (Aitzaz Ahsan)
[3] India: Preventing A Dangerous Arms Race - Say 
no to star wars! (Praful Bidwai)
[4] India: Comments on the electoral victory of 
Hindutva Right BJP in Gujarat Assembly Elections 
of Dec 2007
   (i) Modi's Victory: Portents for Indian Democracy (Ram Puniyani)
  (ii) Gujarat Assembly Elections of December 2007 : Some Facts (Shabnam Hashmi)
  (iii) Give or Take A Pinch of Saffron (Mahesh Rangarajan)
[5] South Asia's cynical about human rights (Ratna Kapur)
[6] Book Review: Outside the heterosexual norm (Suguna Ramanathan)


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[1]

Sunday Times
Sunday December 23, 2007

WOMEN'S DEMANDS FOR JUSTICE IN SRI LANKA

by Kishali Pinto Jayawardena

Securing justice for women whose lives have been 
destroyed by conflict is an insuperably difficult 
question in Sri Lanka. The tactic resorted by the 
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in using 
women as suicide bombers following thorough 
mental and physical indoctrination, has resulted 
in women of Tamil ethnicity being placed in the 
centre of the storm as it were. This week, the 
newspapers reported the extraordinary story of 
Nalini, accused number one in the Rajiv Gandhi 
assassination who had just completed her three 
year long Masters' course in computer 
applications from the Indira Gandhi Open 
University from the special camp for women in the 
Vellore prison.

Nalini's story and the plight of others

The picture attached to the news story showed a 
fair, sharp featured woman who, on a cursory 
glance, appears to be as far distanced from a 
possible suicide bomber as can be. Yet Nalini was 
the 'back-up human bomb' (as the news story 
went), in case Dhanu the woman who activated 
herself, thereby killing Gandhi, failed for 
whatever reason. Nalini's aptitude for her 
studies has apparently been marked; she could 
well be among the first batch of convicts to 
receive a post graduate degree and attend a 
convocation for that purpose.

The questions therefore are complex and countless 
but some predominate; namely in what way can 
these aggressively competing stories of one 
personality be reconciled? How many more women 
have undergone and are yet undergoing Nalini's 
plight, caught up in the mindless terror tactics 
of the LTTE who do not hesitate to use even 
disabled women to engage in self immolation as 
was evidenced just a few weeks back in the attack 
on EPDP politician Douglas Devananda?

For women generally of Tamil ethnicity who belong 
to the marginalized category, living in Sri Lanka 
is a stupendously high risk proposition. Used 
mercilessly by the LTTE on the one hand, they are 
also subjected to physical and sexual harassment 
by state actors, particularly soldiers and police 
officers in areas of the conflict as well as in 
the capital. The directive requiring female 
officers to be present for the purpose of 
frisking women at checkpoints is not uniformly 
followed and failure to comply with this 
directive does not lead to any consequences. An 
earlier proposal that women and children's desks 
should be established in police stations in 
conflict areas, headed by female personnel who 
have the language skills needed to deal with 
complaints and the training needed to handle 
cases of sexual violence and other forms of 
gender-based violence and who work together with 
local citizens' committees has also been limited 
to verbiage only.

Impunity for perpetrators of sexual violence

Indeed, widespread impunity that continues to be 
enjoyed by perpetrators of rape and other forms 
of violence committed against such women provides 
strong evidence of systematic discrimination. The 
consequences of this impunity are devastating for 
individual victims who are effectively denied 
access to criminal and civil remedies including 
reparations. Instead, at the most, perpetrators 
are transferred away from their stations. In most 
cases, witness intimidation results in the 
collapse of the case half way through the trial. 
The basic requirements of prosecution of rape 
cases including medical examinations are often 
subverted. One classic example of this was in the 
Vijayakala Nanthakumar and Sivamani Weerakoon 
case which arose out of an incident in Uppukulam 
in March 2001 when the two women were allegedly 
raped by members of the Mannar police's 
Counter-Subversive Unit (CSU).

Despite the initial report of the District 
Medical Officer to the magistrate that he had 
examined the women and that there was no evidence 
of rape, there was a further examination later 
due to public outrage and an appeal made by the 
Bishop of Mannar. The victims then stated that 
they had not been subjected to any medical 
examination and further, that they had been 
threatened by the police not to consent to an 
examination or provide any evidence to the 
magistrate concerning the torture. The second 
examination, eighteen days after the alleged 
rape, concluded that there were several injuries 
consistent with the allegations of torture. 
Police investigations commenced and twelve police 
officers and two navy officers were arrested. 
However, in a pattern symptomatic of these cases, 
the accused were later released on bail.

Other common patterns were evidenced. The trial 
was fixed not in Vavuniya but in Anuradhapura at 
the request of the accused. Indictment was filed, 
(after the women moved the Supreme Court on a 
rights violation), only years later against three 
CSU police officers and nine Navy officers in the 
Anuradhapura High Court. This trial is still 
pending. After being constantly threatened and 
intimidated, the women (who were stubborn for 
many years in their desire to see justice done) 
have now succumbed to the pressure with one 
victim fleeing to India.

Ineffective judicial interventions

This is just one case which is indicative of the 
general pattern. While impunity continues for 
members of the forces who engage in blatantly 
unconstitutional actions under the PTA and 
Emergency Regulations, interventions by the 
courts have not been able to stem a change of the 
general pattern of impunity behind which members 
of the forces take refuge for their actions. Such 
interventions have been able to correct 
injustices only in very exceptional situations 
which are more the exception rather than the 
rule. The Krishanthi Kumarasamy case some years 
back, where the rape and murder of a fifteen year 
old school girl and the subsequent murder of her 
mother, brother and neighbour who went in search 
of her, by eight soldiers and one policeman on 
duty at the Chemmani check point, resulted in the 
conviction of some junior army officers but this 
remains a unique case which has not been 
replicated in many other similar instances.

In some instances, women have been fortunate 
enough to obtain justice from the Supreme Court 
but these too, have been few and far inbetween. 
In August 2001, the case filed by Yogalingam 
Vijitha of Paruthiyadaippu, Kayts, against the 
Reserve Sub Inspector of Police, Police Station, 
Negombo and six others (SC FR No. 186/2001, SCM 
23.8.2002) was a case in point where the Supreme 
Court ordered compensation and costs to be paid 
to a Tamil woman who had been arrested, detained 
and brutally tortured. The Court pointed out 
thus; 'As Athukorala J in Sudath Silva Vs 
Kodituwakku 1987 2 SLR 119 observed 'the facts of 
this case has revealed disturbing features 
regarding third degree methods adopted by certain 
police officers on suspects held in police 
custody. Such methods can only be described as 
barbaric, savage and inhuman. They are most 
revolting and offend one's sense of human decency 
and dignity Š.."

The Attorney General was also directed to 
consider taking steps under the Convention 
Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or 
Degrading Treatment Or Punishment Act No. 22 of 
1994 against the respondent police officers and 
any others who are responsible for the acts of 
torture perpetrated on the victim. To the best of 
my knowledge, this has not yet happened. The lack 
of seriousness in which Act No. 22 of 1994 has 
been utilised with regard to members of the armed 
forces and police who commit serious human rights 
violations remains a problem.

Urgent Concerns

In the light of the above, there is an urgent 
need for a legal process geared towards dealing 
with the violations of the rights of life and 
liberty of women during the conflict, which would 
put into place strong structures of witness 
protection and examine current legal obstacles 
that impede such a process. In this context 
again, we are not being apprised of the contents 
of the proposed Witness Protection Bill in its 
final version and stay in continued apprehension 
of another 'half baked' law, akin to the recently 
passed so called International Covenant on Civil 
and Political Rights (ICCPR) Act which indeed, 
shames the very Covenant itself from which it is 
so presumptuous as to borrow its long title.

Meanwhile, none of the proposals put forward by 
the major parties in Sri Lanka have recognised 
this issue as being of primary concern. Instead, 
if at all, the focus has been in increasing 
women's representation in the political process 
which as laudable as it may be, does not go far 
enough to recognize the many faceted problem of 
women in conflict and examine their demands for 
justice. Guaranteeing of joint ownership rights 
in land where state lands are concerned and the 
devoting of special attention and staff to issues 
affecting women such as the clearing of land, 
rebuilding damaged houses and practical 
livelihood challenges facing the numerous female 
headed households, also remain of paramount 
importance.


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[2]


New York Times
December 23, 2007

PAKISTAN'S TYRANNY CONTINUES

by Aitzaz Ahsan

Lahore, Pakistan

THE chief justice of Pakistan's Supreme Court, 
Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, and his family have 
been detained in their house, barricaded in with 
barbed wire and surrounded by police officers in 
riot gear since Nov. 3. Phone lines have been cut 
and jammers have been installed all around the 
house to disable cellphones. And the United 
States doesn't seem to care about any of that.

The chief justice is not the only person who has 
been detained. All of his colleagues who, having 
sworn to protect, uphold and defend the 
Constitution, refused to take a new oath 
prescribed by President Pervez Musharraf as chief 
of the army remain confined to their homes with 
their family members. The chief justice's lawyers 
are also in detention, initially in such medieval 
conditions that two of them were hospitalized, 
one with renal failure.

As the chief justice's lead counsel, I, too, was 
held without charge - first in solitary 
confinement for three weeks and subsequently 
under house arrest. Last Thursday morning, I was 
released to celebrate the Id holidays. But that 
evening, driving to Islamabad to say prayers at 
Faisal Mosque, my family and I were surrounded at 
a rest stop by policemen with guns cocked and I 
was dragged off and thrown into the back of a 
police van. After a long and harrowing drive 
along back roads, I was returned home and to 
house arrest.

Every day, thousands of lawyers and members of 
the civil society striving for a liberal and 
tolerant society in Pakistan demonstrate on the 
streets. They are bludgeoned by the regime's 
brutal police and paramilitary units. Yet they 
come out again the next day.

People in the United States wonder why extremist 
militants in Pakistan are winning. What they 
should ask is why does President Musharraf have 
so little respect for civil society - and why 
does he essentially have the backing of American 
officials?

The White House and State Department briefings on 
Pakistan ignore the removal of the justices and 
all these detentions. Meanwhile, lawyers, bar 
associations and institutes of law around the 
world have taken note of this brave movement for 
due process and constitutionalism. They have 
displayed their solidarity for the lawyers of 
Pakistan. These include, in the United States 
alone, the American Bar Association , state and 
local bars stretching from New York and New 
Jersey to Louisiana, Ohio and California, and 
citadels of legal education like Harvard and Yale 
Law Schools.

The detained chief justice continues to receive 
enormous recognition and acknowledgment. Harvard 
Law School has conferred on him its highest 
award, placing him on the same pedestal as Nelson 
Mandela and the legal team that argued Brown v. 
Board of Education. The National Law Journal has 
anointed him its lawyer of the year. The New York 
City Bar Association has admitted him as a rare 
honorary member. Despite all this, the Musharraf 
regime shows no sign of relenting.

But for how long? How long can the chief justice 
and his colleagues be kept in confinement? How 
long can the leaders of the lawyers' movement be 
detained? They will all be out one day. And they 
will neither be silent nor still.

They will recount the brutal treatment meted out 
to them for seeking the establishment of a 
tolerant, democratic, liberal and plural 
political system in Pakistan. They will state how 
the writ of habeas corpus was denied to them by 
the arbitrary and unconstitutional firing of 
Supreme and High Court justices. They will spell 
out precisely how one man set aside a 
Constitution under the pretext of an "emergency," 
arrested the judges, packed the judiciary, 
"amended" the Constitution by a personal decree 
and then "restored" it to the acclaim of London 
and Washington.

They will, of course, speak then. But others are 
speaking now. The parliamentary elections 
scheduled for Jan. 8 have already been rigged, 
they are saying. The election commission and the 
caretaker cabinet are overtly partisan. The 
judiciary is entirely hand-picked. State 
resources are being spent on preselected 
candidates. There is a deafening uproar even 
though the independent news media in Pakistan are 
completely gagged. Can there even be an election 
in this environment?

Are they being heard? I'm afraid not.

Aitzaz Ahsan, a former minister of the interior 
and of law and justice, is the president of the 
Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan.

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[3]


24 December 2007

PREVENTING A DANGEROUS ARMS RACE
Say no to star wars!

by Praful Bidwai

Among the many dubious ideas that former United 
States President Ronald Reagan embraced, two were 
particularly dangerous. The first was that "a 
limited nuclear war" with the former Soviet Union 
could be fought and won. The second held that the 
US could reliably secure itself against nuclear 
weapons, those ultimate instruments of mass 
destruction, by building Star Wars-style 
ballistic missile defence (BMD), which uses 
space-based and high-tech devices.

BMD would detect launches of the enemy's 
nuclear-tipped missiles using satellites and 
radars, and then intercept and destroy them.. 
This would not only take the sting out of a 
deadly threat; it would render the adversary's 
nuclear deterrent useless. If the US took the 
lead in BMD-for which it alone had the necessary 
financial and technological resources in the 
early 1980s-it would acquire supreme, ultimate 
military supremacy, including both the "freedom 
to attack" an adversary with nuclear weapons, and 
"freedom from attack" by his weapons.
Peace-minded scientists and citizens criticised 
these ideas, and argued that they would create 
insecurity globally. For instance, a "limited 
nuclear war", in which only about 100 of the 
world's then-existing arsenal of 70,000 nuclear 
weapons were used, would create a huge cloud of 
chemical soot and smoke that would block sunlight 
for years.

This would lead to a prolonged "nuclear winter". 
Global food production would fall, and forestry 
would be devastated, creating climate havoc, food 
insecurity and large-scale hunger. Peace 
activists publicised the dangers of "limited 
nuclear war". Even Hollywood made films like The 
Day After on this. The awareness fused into the 
great global peace movement of the 1980s, which 
opposed the deployment of new NATO missiles in 
Western Europe.

Reagan eventually abandoned "limited nuclear war" 
and opened negotiations with the former USSR, 
which produced the Intermediate Nuclear Forces 
Treaty of 1987, the world's only agreement to 
dismantle a whole class of weapons. Under it, 
2,700 missiles, with a range between 500 and 
5,500 km, and their nuclear warheads, would be 
destroyed in a verifiable manner.

However, Reagan never fully gave up on BMD. The 
US continued to work on projects to develop a 
broad range of missile-launch detection 
technologies and missile-interception 
capabilities. Some $120 billion was spent on BMD 
by the mid-1990s to develop rudimentary 
technologies to engage ballistic missiles in all 
phases of their flight: soon after takeoff (boost 
phase), at the height of their trajectory 
(midcourse), and as they descend (terminal phase).
Reagan's successors, including Democrats, didn't 
stop this although they desisted from moving 
towards actual BMD deployment. They respected the 
Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty of 1972 
signed with the USSR, which prohibits such 
deployment.

Things changed with Mr George W. Bush's election 
as US President. In May 2001, he announced that 
he would proceed towards the deployment of a 
national shield against about 100-120 missiles. 
In 2002, the US withdrew from the ABM Treaty, 
giving its Missile Defence Agency (MDA) a free 
hand to move forward on BMD and space-based 
weapons, including powerful lasers, kinetic 
energy (hit-to-kill) weapons and advanced 
target-tracking satellites.

The world was dismayed and horrified at this 
revival of Star Wars. But India, which had for 
decades opposed Star Wars and the militarisation 
of space, warmly welcomed Mr Bush's announcement. 
Indeed, the then Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh 
(of the Bharatiya Janata Party), surprised 
America's own allies, by being the first leader 
anywhere to welcome it. India is now pursuing 
BMD-replicating the US's follies, as we see below.
The US's missile defence programme isn't confined 
to its borders and is setting off new 
international rivalries. The MDA has built two 
major bases in Alaska and California for missile 
interceptors. Their cost, $26 billion, equals 
India's entire annual military spending. The US 
is planning to spend $250 billion to beef up BMD 
over the next two decades. It's also building a 
smaller theatre missile defence system in 
northeast Asia in collaboration with Japan.
The US has just announced the construction of a 
BMD programme in central Europe, with radars in 
the Czech Republic and a $3.5 billion interceptor 
base in Poland with 10 rockets. Washington claims 
that this is aimed at guarding against possible 
missile strikes from "rogue" nations like Iran. 
But Russia believes the BMD shield is meant to 
undermine its nuclear deterrent, and has 
threatened to target these sites with its 
intercontinental ballistic missiles.

BMD is upsetting security calculations globally. 
The ABM Treaty was based on the recognition that 
BMD deployment would introduce uncertainty about 
the workability of nuclear deterrence, the 
doctrine on which all nuclear weapons-states 
(NWSs) ostensibly base their security. Nuclear 
deterrence assumes that NWSs won't attack each 
other because they know their adversary can 
retaliate and inflict "unacceptable damage" upon 
them. This is supposed to create a "balance of 
terror"-and hence security.

Nuclear deterrence is flawed because it makes 
unrealistic assumptions about transparency, rules 
out accidents or miscalculations, and demands 
entirely rational and cool-headed conduct on the 
part of fallible, panic-prone decision-makers. It 
cannot be the basis of a sustainable, rational, 
long-term approach to security, although it can 
provide some short-term stability. BMD undermines 
even limited stability by creating dangerous 
security illusions-and new asymmetries and 
dangers.

Globally, BMD is certain to trigger off a 
qualitatively new arms race, besides the existing 
nuclear and conventional arms races. And it's 
bound to lead to the militarisation and 
weaponisation of space. Ethically, the human race 
has no business to place armaments in space. And 
strategically, such militarisation will prove 
extremely destabilising.
At the present level of technology, BMD cannot 
provide even remotely reliable defence against 
missiles. It's near-impossible to hit a bullet 
travelling at 24,000 kmph with another bullet 
travelling at the same speed with any certainty. 
Even cloud cover can cripple the system.

The existing interceptors have had too many 
failures. Independent scientists say they are 
losers from a physics standpoint. Although the 
MDA claims that 29 of is 37 midcourse and 
terminal interceptor tests have been 
"successful", experts from the highly regarded 
US-based Union of Concerned Scientists question 
this and argue that most of the tests involve a 
degree of "rigging" like giving the interceptors 
advance warning.
More important, any number of countermeasures can 
neutralise BMD, including cheap decoys like 
balloons. The system cannot discriminate between 
real and fake targets. Similarly, real warheads 
can be made to resemble decoys by being enclosed 
in radar-reflecting balloons.

Besides, electronic and infrared jamming measures 
can also be used. These are inexpensive and can 
be mastered by the 30-odd countries which have 
missile programmes. In the last analysis, an 
adversary can "overwhelm" BMD simply by deploying 
a large number of missiles.

BMD can of course be improved. But that'll 
require something like a Second Manhattan Project 
(which pioneered nuclear weapons). Yet, despite 
BMD's poor efficacy, "the Star Wars infection", 
or an obsessive search to acquire anti-missile 
technologies, has spread to Russia, China, 
India-and even Japan, which conducted a 
interception test on December 18.

Earlier, on December 6, India's Defence Research 
and Development Organisation (DRDO) fired a fully 
solid interceptor to destroy a Prithvi missile 
launched five minutes earlier. In November 2006, 
the DRDO had successfully used a modified Prithvi 
to intercept another Prithvi. It boasts that its 
interceptor is superior to the US-developed 
"Patriot" PAC-3 missile. Further, it claims it 
can develop a fully indigenous missile defence 
shield in three years.

These claims must be taken with more than a pinch 
of salt-and not just because Israeli radars were 
used in the latest test. The DRDO hasn't 
demonstrated that it has the software to 
calculate the attacking missile's course from 
radar or satellite data and that its system can 
handle attacks by multiple missiles. It's 
doubtful if the DRDO can tackle the four 
categories of Pakistani missiles which are all 
nuclear-capable, with a range between 350 and 
1,100 km.

The DRDO's record inspires no confidence 
whatever. All its major projects, including the 
Main Battle Tank, Light Combat Aircraft, and 
Advanced Technology Vessel (nuclear-powered 
submarine) have failed in some measure or 
other-sinking thousands of crores. Its missile 
programme too has run into serious difficulties. 
The delayed Agni series has proved only 
half-reliable. Akash has drained Rs 500 crores, 
but hasn't yet proved fit. Nor has the anti-tank 
Nag.

However, it's even more important to recognise 
that BMD is strategically of dubious value, as 
well as destabilising and harmful to regional 
security. Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee 
admitted as much October when he ruled out 
joining the US-led BMD programme. The DRDO seems 
to be working at odds with this view.
India must not waste its scarce resources on Star 
Wars and BMD. We already spend too much on the 
military in relation to health, education and 
social security. BMD will further distort our 
priorities-without producing tangible benefits. 
We must put an end to these fancy-and 
dangerous-programmes before they become 
entrenched and get the better of us.

______


[4]  Comments on the electoral victory of Hindu 
Nationalist BJP in Gujarat Assembly Elections of 
Dec 2007

(i)

December 23, 2007

MODI'S VICTORY: PORTENTS FOR INDIAN DEMOCRACY

by Ram Puniyani

Surpassing many predictions, Modi did very well 
in the recently held assembly elections, (Dec. 
2007) bringing his victory tally to the one close 
to post carnage elections of 2002. While 2002 
elections were preceded by an unprecedented 
polarization of the society, in the current one 
it appeared as if there are many a factors which 
will go against Modi, the internal dissidents, 
the incumbency factor, the efforts of secular 
groups and slightly better efforts by Congress. 
This gave the impression that the results will be 
touch and go, but they turned out to be similar 
to the previous one giving him a massive mandate.

This makes many a things clear for us. One, the 
polarization has seeped in very deep in the 
Gujarat society. The observation is that after 
every communal-violence, the major player of the 
violence, in this case, RSS affiliate, BJP, 
becomes stronger. In this electiona also, as was 
the case in the last elections, BJPs performance 
has been best where the carnage was maximum. In 
other parts of the country the polarization is 
reaching towards the critical line from where the 
rupture in fabric of society becomes 
irreversible. It seems that it has already become 
so in Gujarat. Gujarat which began as a Hindu 
Rashtra laboratory seems to be turning in to a 
factory of Hindu rashtra. One of the major 
success of RSS combine has been that it has been 
able to propagate successfully that Hindu Rashra 
is for the benefit of all the Hindus, there is a 
struggle between Hindu and Muslim interests, RSS 
is on the side of Hindus, while others are 
against the interests of Hindus. The real fact is 
that in the name of Hinduism, RSS is merely 
playing with the identity of Hindus and enhancing 
an agenda which is against the social 
transformation of caste and gender, which is 
against the interests of majority of Hindus.

Further it has succeeded in instilling the fear 
of Muslims in the majority community. The formula 
used is that all terrorists are Muslims, baying 
for the blood of Hindus and RSS combine is their 
only savior. The propaganda is that while so many 
terror attacks are taking place all over the 
country, the Hindus in Gujarat are safe due to 
Modi/BJP/RSS. The fact is in during NDA regime 
and also during the rule of Modi major terror 
attacks have taken place including the attack on 
parliament and Akshardham. This, so called 
attitude towards terrorists is projected by RSS 
combine as Nationalism. Nationalism as such 
should mean sticking to the values of freedom 
movement and Indian constitution. The second 
illusion created is that of progress of Gujarat. 
As such Gujarat was already amongst the leading 
developing states. Now it is being presented that 
all this is due to Modi. Goebells is being beaten 
hollow in the techniques of innovating the 
propaganda techniques.

Sometimes what matters is not the truth but as to 
what is propagated and made a part of social 
psyche. One cannot but draw many analogies from 
Hitler who went on to create a fascist state, and 
in due course do away with the democracy. This 
also led to the disintegration of Germany and its 
terrible defeat the World War II, rupturing the 
German national fabric. There also, one saw the 
charisma of one person overshadowing the party. 
There also the polarization was brought in and 
sustained by targeting one after the other 
community or social group. In Gujarat one sees 
the targeting of Muslims followed by the 
Christians. What will follow next will unfold 
shortly? The only difference between the German 
and Gujarat analogy is that in Germany the nation 
came under the impact of the fascist boots at a 
rapid pace in most of the parts of the state, 
while here the trishuls are marching at different 
pace in different states. In Gujarat the RSS 
agenda seems to have come close to the peak, 
while in other states, the march is on and is in 
different stages of intimidation of democracy.

The journey of Hindutva fascism in Gujarat began 
with the anti dalit riots of 1980-81, followed by 
anti OBC riots of 1986. Both these crystallized 
the support base of Hindutva, the upper caste, 
affluent sections. The NRI Gujaratis, the money 
order senders, played no mean role in 
consolidating the native fascism. The alienated 
NRI Gujaratis fed the local divisive politics 
with dollars and pounds, aggravating the divisive 
politics. Conscious social engineering was 
deployed to co-opt Adivasis and dalits into the 
Hindutva fold from late 1980s. For co-opting 
Adiviais, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram campaigned 
against the miniscule Christian missionaries and 
attacked the tiny Christian community. For 
co-opting other deprived sections, including 
dalits, intense religiosity was promoted, 
Pandurnag Shstri, Asaram Bapu and Morari Bapu 
etc. ploughed the ground for BJP to reap the 
harvest. Section of urban people saw the benefits 
of the type of intimidation brought in by RSS 
affiliate politics. While Muslims and Christians 
were directly hit the major goal was to subdue 
the dalts and Adivasis, to ensure that they 
remain where they are, that the status quo is 
maintained.

With Ram temple movement, the polarization along 
religious lines went on deepening. The state 
sponsored genocide on the pretext of Godhra 
sealed the issue. The laboratory took clear 
shape, all necessary instruments in place. The 
experiment began. Carnage was conducted with RSS 
affiliates playing the coordinating role. No 
rehabilitation for the carnage victims, no 
justice for those who suffered violence and then 
their gradual marginalization from social sphere. 
The relegating of Muslims minority as second 
class citizens has become an established fact and 
a section of Muslims even started the campaign to 
reconcile to their changed status. A large 
section of Muslims saw that the only alternative 
for them is to be on the bent knees, to join in 
the victory celebration of the murderer-in-chief 
of the genocide, which led to their miseries. Yes 
life has to go on irrespective! Some sheep are 
beginning to cultivate the illusion that wolf is 
their savior.

The indirect fall out of this was the eventual 
ghettoization of the community in Gujarat and its 
fall out all over the country was in the form of 
widening gulf between religious communities. It 
set rolling the similar phenomenon all over the 
country. While electorally BJP sounds weak at all 
India level, the seeds of communal politics and 
polarization have been sown all over.

While comparing the BJP/RSS politics with fascism 
in the decades of 1990 one was hard pressed to 
explain the absence of a charismatic leader at 
the national level at that time. Classically 
fascist movement has to have a charismatic leader 
at the helm. While Advani was spearheading 
Hindutva agenda and Vajpayee was wearing the 
liberal mask very cleverly, none of them had the 
requisite charisma to send the crowd into frenzy 
to call for the extra judicial killing of a 
criminal. Modi has filled the gap and that too 
very effectively. Not only he is getting away 
with justifying the fake encounter, he is able to 
project it as a sign of bravery and courage. With 
observations of Gujarat poll, with the type of 
charisma, which Modi has cultivated, the analogy 
with Modi-Hitler, Hindutva-Fascism is more or 
less complete.
History does not repeat it self in the same 
manner. In Germany Fascism rode all over Germany 
with uniform speed, with speed which was 
blinding, and went on to target Jews to begin 
with. RSS, the patriarch of all Hindu right wing 
organizations, began in 1925; it is from 1980s 
that is has been able to actualize its political 
agenda in a serious way.

While Modi's victory will pave the way for total 
abolition of liberal space in Gujarat, the party, 
BJP, has already been overshadowed by one supreme 
leader. Those dissatisfied with him are shown the 
door. The plight of minorities and weaker section 
is going to be worse. A section of affluent 
middle class will shine while the majority 
deprived sections' voices will be put under the 
carpet in the name of Gauravi Gujarat, under the 
slogan of development. And of course development 
will never reach them.

At national level, the rising communal forces 
will derive encouragement from this and in other 
states like Karnataka; BJP will try with stronger 
assertion. The BJP ruled states will strongly 
implement the Hindutva agenda i.e. emotive, anti 
minority and anti poor policies in a more 
systematic way.

Modi's victory is a warning signal of transition 
of sub critical fascism, transcending the 
critical line to strangulate democratic values in 
an ideological form all over the country. The 
disarray in the BJP will give way to strong 
optimism, to strive for power at center. All this 
may take place sooner than later if the secular 
movements do not wake up and broaden their reach. 
Even today those standing for secular values are 
much more in number and strength than those who 
have came under the spell of divisive forces, 
communal forces. The point is can they come 
together to ensure that the country does go in 
the direction being asserted by Modi/BJP/RSS type 
politics? Need that the vision of founding 
fathers of India is brought back to the social 
and political arena, that pluralism, justice and 
harmony is made the central focus of our movement.

o o o

(ii)

www.anhadin.net

GUJARAT ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS OF DECEMBER 2007 : SOME FACTS

'In a democracy an electoral defeat is always a 
sobering moment, but it would be doubly 
counter-productive for the Congress and the other 
secular forces to feel overawed by Narendra 
Modi's victory.
. . . the Sunday win does not necessarily endow 
any kind of ideological legitimacy to Mr. Modi's 
voice nor does it provide a licence to communal 
forces or even political respectability to his 
message outside of Gujarat.'
  Harish Khare, The Hindu December 24, 2007


Dear Friends,

Pasting below a break up of votes from 33 Gujarat constituencies.

While the whole media except a handful of 
journalists is under the spell of Modi's magic it 
is important to register the fact that e.g. In 
Gandhinagar though 81864 people voted for BJP and 
they won the seat, there are 78116 people who 
voted against BJP and Modi.

Not everyone is under his spell in Gujarat. He 
has won the seats and will have the whole 
administration in his hand to stifle any dissent 
but the struggle against the undemocratic, 
fascist regime will continue.

. . .

Shabnam Hashmi
  December 24, 2007
  New Delhi

    READ FULL TEXT AT:  http://www.anhadin.net/article32.html


o o o


(iii)

The Telegraph
December 25 , 2007

GIVE OR TAKE A PINCH OF SAFFRON
Narendra Modi used the old cards of Gujarati 
asmita and Hindutva, but the Congress failed to 
capitalize on his weaknesses and lost the game 
along the way, writes Mahesh Rangarajan The 
author teaches history at the University of Delhi


The electoral triumph of the Narendra Modi-led 
Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat has, of course, 
silenced all critics and left the chief 
opposition party searching for fresh options in 
the run-up to the general elections due in the 
summer of 2009. But it did a lot more than just 
these two things.

Unlike in 2002, there were no riots to sharply 
polarize voters on sectarian lines. Again, the 
Congress's poll campaign was led by Sonia Gandhi 
and backed up by her son, Rahul, but it failed to 
revive the fortunes of the Congress. In the end, 
the results were remarkably similar to the last 
three times the BJP won in the state.

Yet, the picture conceals more than it reveals. 
The Congress's tally was lower than 91, the 
number of assembly segments in which it led 
during the general elections of 2004. It did 
recover from adversity in the seats reserved for 
the scheduled tribes, dropping only 10 of the 26 
reserved seats. The recovery in the central 
Gujarat belt famous for the Amul movement put the 
party ahead in its traditional bastion. Here, and 
here alone, the kshatriya-Other Backward Classes 
card so reliable in the past played out well for 
the Congress.

But the larger map was different shades of 
saffron. Many observers including this writer had 
seen hopes of change due to a rural-versus-urban 
divide. Yet, the result humbled all, observer and 
pollster alike.

The one region that was the hotbed of rebellion, 
Saurashtra, saw all but one BJP rebel bite the 
dust. Elsewhere as well, the ruling party made up 
for losses, such as among the adivasis and in the 
central region. The most significant was the 
region of north Gujarat where the BJP won 
handily. The Mehsana district, for instance, saw 
a clean sweep.

The temptation to ascribe the victory to a last 
minute polarization is tempting enough. There is 
indeed some truth in the assertion. The persona 
of Narendra Modi, ubiquitous mask and all, 
dwarfed all other contenders. At times, he seemed 
like the sole candidate for his party in all the 
182 seats. The Congress fell prey to Modi's 
expert play of the card of regional pride. In 
manner more befitting of the late M.G. 
Ramachandran in Tamil Nadu or N.T. Rama Rao in 
Andhra Pradesh, Modi cashed in on a fierce 
regional pride, repeatedly giving voters a sense 
of being put in the dock. He began with the 
litany of complaints about himself being the 
target. But he conveyed to the voters the feeling 
that it was they, their state, their culture and 
their language which were at stake. The solution 
he provided was simple enough: just vote for the 
lotus symbol.

This they did. The Congress was on the defensive 
on the riots. It fielded only six Muslims. It 
could easily have joined forces with the group of 
BJP rebels, which included figures like Dhirubhai 
Gajera in Surat, a veteran of the BJP's front 
organizations. The Congress's state unit never 
bothered to issue joint statements on matters 
ideological. The party sought to paint itself a 
paler shade of saffron and lost the game 
somewhere along the way.

The direct attacks on the chief minister and his 
functionaries were a godsend. The term, maut ke 
saudagar, and the issue of the encounter death of 
Sohrabbudin were used for all they were worth. 
The Congress had begun on a defensive note, but 
then it went on the attack. Next, it seemed to 
hesitate and spoke in more than one voice. In 
doing so, it ceded ground to the veteran 
campaigner, Narendra Modi.

The development card did not work except in 
Modi's favour. It is here that the economic 
upturn in both agriculture and manufacturing 
needs to be given credit for the BJP victory, 
though a large part of this was because of 
cyclical changes beyond his control. In 2002, the 
cotton textile industry was in crisis. Three 
years of drought had crippled farm output. 
Recession hit manufacturing in Gujarat hard. The 
complete reverse obtained in 2007. Good monsoons 
helped agriculture.

More important, the manufacturing boom created 
jobs in smaller towns and cities. Steel pipes 
from Anjar in Kutch and Ajanta locks, a company 
owned by a Patidar family, are symbols of that 
revival. The Jyotigram scheme helped supply 
24-hour power to households. There are also signs 
that it helped diamond polishing factories and 
flour mills to move to smaller centres, thus 
dispersing jobs. The closure of units was real, 
but more jobs were being created as production 
got decentralized.

These developments may not be akin to the big 
poster investments as in the refineries and in 
petrochemicals, but they made all the difference. 
Nothing else can explain why the town-country 
continuum outweighed the rural-urban divide.

In the plains at least, check dams and 
metal-topped roads that connected the villages 
met long-term needs. These were the result of 
concerted policy decisions of the state 
government. Again, in line with the 
chief-minister-driven tradition in southern 
India, these were directly overseen and driven by 
Narendra Modi.

On voting day, and as became evident as the votes 
were being added up, these factors weighed well 
against the negatives. Too much weight was also 
given to conventional caste-based voting logic by 
players and observers of the political game. The 
loyalties of the Patels and the OBCs, kshatriyas 
and adivasis did and do matter. There is no 
question of them melting away But they have 
ceased to be the prime movers. The pull of 
regional sentiment meshed with the feel-good 
factor of an economy on the move is far more 
important today.

There is little doubt that in the process, 
aspirations of the minorities occupied second 
spot. But here it can and should be argued that 
the Congress hardly took these up in any 
seriousness. The speeches of the party president 
were not backed by action on the ground. Nor did 
it try to rebuild a broad popular coalition to 
transcend the now dead KHAM (Kshatriya, Harijan, 
Adivasi, Muslim) of the Eighties.

In fact, the results throw up an urgent question 
about the Congress's tradition that does not 
allow a genuine rooted regional leadership to 
come up, one that can take on Modi in the contest 
for the regional personality of Gujarat. Unless 
the party begins to ask how this can be done, it 
will not make much headway even in the future.

Things never had looked as good for the Congress. 
Yet the dream of power proved elusive. A new 
factor in the equation was the Bahujan Samaj 
Party which contested all but 20 seats. It won 
none but ate away at votes in at least 50 seats 
and undercut the Congress in as many as 10.

What made Vibrant Gujarat work where India 
Shining did not? One part of the answer lies in 
the central role of Gujarati asmita combined with 
a pretty blunt espousal of Hindutva. There is 
little doubt that in the post-Vajpayee era, the 
latter is back, if in a different form.

But the larger picture is that in an era of 
economic reform, Gujarat does not fit any 
textbook model. Agriculture led the way in 
growth, and manufacture created jobs. Modi never 
spoke of IT. In Andhra Pradesh, N. Chandrababu 
Naidu always did. In Gujarat, rural roads, not 
highways, featured in the slogan.

In a larger sense then, the stock response of 
"resurgent Hindutva versus revived pluralism" is 
not the only issue. That will ignore the economic 
dimension of the Gujarat electoral story.

It is only by looking at both dimensions that 
those who disagree with Modi's vision of India 
will have to script a different story in the days 
ahead. Or else, he has crafted a victory that 
will reverberate well beyond Gandhingar.

______


[5]

Indian Express
December 25, 2007

SOUTH ASIA'S CYNICAL ABOUT HUMAN RIGHTS

by Ratna Kapur

  Casting a glance across the South Asian region, 
social and political protests abound. States 
continue to oppress and exclude sections of their 
citizenry from political participation or use the 
very tools of law to justify incarceration in the 
name of national security. As Sri Lanka quietly 
slides back into civil war, Pakistan sets up a 
facade of democracy, Nepal remains paralysed by 
political equivocation, Burma silences its 
protesting monks and India still drags its heels 
over providing justice to Muslims in Gujarat and 
Sikhs in Delhi, the question arises as to why the 
region remains so afflicted by political 
instability, civil conflict and reactionary 
nationalism? Sixty years after the adoption of 
the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, most 
countries in the region face serious instability, 
impunity and human rights abuses.

There is no comprehensive explanation why 
compliance with human rights remains such an 
elusive possibility within our region. But there 
is no question that human rights advocates must 
take a moment to reflect on the ways in which 
human rights have at times been implicated in 
producing some of the harms we are witnessing 
today. When the US bombs Afghanistan partly in 
the name of women's rights, or proponents of 
Hindutva use equality rights discourse to attack 
special measures for Muslims, there is a need to 
interrogate how and why human rights are 
susceptible to promoting such agendas.

Human rights constantly need to be addressed 
within the context in which they operate rather 
than be linked to some universal prescription to 
'do good'. In countries such as India or Sri 
Lanka, the forces of reactionary nationalism have 
pushed in the direction of 'one nation, one 
people' to justify the incarceration, if not the 
extermination of those who refuse to comply with 
such a claim. In Sri Lanka, the Rajapaksa 
government has declared an all-out war against 
the LTTE and the elimination of its entire cadre. 
The government's hand is strengthened by the 
Buddhist Sinhalese nationalists. They have 
characterised any proposal for the opening of a 
full office by the High Commissioner for Human 
Rights as nothing more than foreign interference 
and an abrogation of Sri Lanka's sovereignty and 
national integrity. Politically, while the High 
Commissioner's visit in October to Sri Lanka 
marked a high water point in drawing attention to 
the impunity with which atrocities were being 
inflicted by all sides, the government failed to 
address the seriousness of these complaints in 
its watered-down proposal to simply chronicle 
abuses rather than effectively redress them.

In Nepal, the failure of the Seven Party Alliance 
to ensure polls in November after the successful 
people's movement has dashed expectations for a 
stable democratic structure in the short term. 
Many issues thrown up by the decade-long armed 
conflict - which resulted in disappearances and 
human rights violations by all sides - remain 
unresolved. In Pakistan, a military dictatorship 
is attempting to refashion itself as a 
standard-bearer for democracy. Even while 
everyone recognises that in this instance the 
emperor has no clothes, Washington has declared 
Musharraf a true democrat. Meanwhile, the human 
rights violations of lawyers, the subordination 
of the judiciary, and the impunity with which the 
government conducts its affairs, has amplified 
the voice of religious fundamentalists, and 
shrunk the space for civil society. This does not 
bode well for any future progress on human rights 
in that country.

While India stands firm in its commitment to the 
democratic process, the Sangh Parivar continues 
to attack special provisions for Muslims and 
appeasement as non-secular and violating 
constitutional commitments to equality. It is 
indeed a prime example of how rights can be used 
to advance non-progressive agendas and are not 
per se liberatory nor emancipatory. At the same 
time, the Left has lost the plot in its 
intransigent opposition to the nuclear deal. The 
deal promotes the human right to development and 
has the ability to transform the lives of the 
poor.

The history of human rights has not been a long 
one towards progress. But the Janus-faced aspect 
of human rights needs to be acknowledged. While 
they can be used to advance equality, liberty and 
freedom, it is also at the same time informed by 
racial, religious and gender superiority, all of 
which are used to justify the exclusion of human 
rights protections to a host of people.

The exclusive potential of human rights remains 
evident in all countries in our region. It is a 
site of power, where different visions of the 
world are being fought out. To cede this terrain 
would enable less progressive forces to define 
the meaning of human rights. It is a messy 
terrain, where ultimately mere good intentions do 
not always result in progressive ends, and where 
quite clearly virtue does not always move in the 
direction of the virtuous.

The writer is director, Centre for Feminist Legal Research


______


[6]

Book Review - The Hindu
December 25, 2007 


Outside the heterosexual norm

THE PHOBIC AND THE EROTIC - The Politics of 
Sexualities in Contemporary India: Brinda Bose 
and Subhabrata Bhattacharyya - Editors; Seagull 
Books, 26, Circus Avenue, Kolkata-700017. Rs. 795.

Suguna Ramanathan

The fact that, when asked to review this book, I 
could not tell from the title what the subject 
matter would be, classing it in my mind vaguely 
with gender studies, is an indication of the 
general invisibility of dissenting sexualities in 
this country. The editors say they hope that this 
volume will inform, and help transform, society. 
Having read it through, I can vouch for the 
wealth of information and the very high level of 
academic discussion to be found here, which is 
not surprising considering the many well-known 
contributors to the study. Perspectives come from 
experts in economics, law, medicine, culture and 
politics. The fundamental issue under discussion 
is the status and identity rights of people with 
sexual orientations outside the heterosexual norm 
- gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgendered 
people, queers, kothis, hijras, pankhis, all 
categorised under the label as LGBT.

The norm

The screening of Deepa Mehta's Fire, while 
provoking outrage, also started a public debate 
starting December 1998, a debate that was 
stifled, as one contributor tells us, by the 
outbreak of the Kargil war and subsequent 
valorisation of male gallantry and valour. The 
Hindu Right saw the film as violating the 
sanctity of the Hindu family, claiming that same 
sex practices were imported from a hedonistic 
Western culture. It is interesting to note that 
Britain in its imperial heyday saw these 
precisely as importations from an effete and 
decadent East. More than one of the essayists 
adduces evidence from ancient texts to show that 
they were prevalent in ancient Greece as well as 
India. A continuous interrogation of the norm of 
heterosexuality runs like an underground stream 
through the study. Is it, Ranjita Biswas asks, 
pre-ordained? Or is it that the construction 
process is invisible? She asks pertinently 
whether, in the anxiety to keep the family unit 
as society's cornerstone, these are processes of 
fundamental repudiation (innate rejection) or 
repudiations of fundamental signifiers 
(marginalising of different but undeniable 
sexualities). Pramod Nayar notes that the 
ritualistic functions of hijras at marriages and 
births in our culture which rejects them suggest 
they are part of that very culture. Bandyopadhyay 
suggests that the homophobia about the 'other' 
different sexuality may well signify that that 
other is an unacknowledged part of self. Ruth 
Vanita writes of the disruptive effect of erotic 
love, so private and intense that it is 
indifferent to the outside world, and thus a 
threat to social institutions such as marriage.
Locating the issue

Other essays locate the issue in cultural and 
social spaces peculiar to their times. Leela 
Gandhi discusses both Empire and its antagonist 
as profoundly hetero-normative projects, 
expressive of a male signifying economy, and the 
homosexual dissidence that withheld consent to 
the imperial project. Dennis Altman in an essay 
titled "Sexuality and Globalisation" suggests 
that migration and the flow of labour and capital 
across the world today all affect sexuality 
profoundly and point (as do other contributors) 
to the fact that the AIDS/HIV phenomenon has made 
sexuality part of public debate. That sexual 
mores have always been part of the public domain 
is clear from Ratna Kapur's essay, which examines 
the legal lines drawn around 'right' sexual 
speech and behaviour and the responses to, for 
instance, Valentine's Day celebrations or the 
rape scenes in Bandit Queen. Arguing that there 
has been far too much censorship, she suggests 
that petitioning should move from simply the 
legal struggle to a wider mobilisation that takes 
on board the concerns of the queer community. 
Many contributors deal with the policing role of 
the state (an issue, one may recall, at the heart 
of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure). Many 
essayists point to Hindu mythology which suggests 
that sexuality is, to use Ranjita Biswas's 
phrase, "work in progress"; references to Shiva's 
role as Mohini and Ardhanarishwar, of Arjuna as 
Brahannala, of Amba as Shikhandi, occur in more 
than one essay.
Representation

Representation of the theme in the arts comprises 
a final section. Brinda Bose critiques Fire for 
suggesting that the women are drawn to each other 
out of expediency (no one else to love) rather 
than passionate choice. Hoshang Merchant writes 
sensitively of the poems of the gay poet Agha 
Shahid Ali from Kashmir. Georgina Maddox 
discusses the paintings of Bhupen Khakhar and 
Amrita Sher Gill and Shivani Mutneja the fables 
of Sunita Namjoshi. Sibaji Bandyopadhyay, in a 
fascinating essay called "Approaching the 
Present", full of digressions, takes us through 
Plato's Symposium, Sappho's lyrics, the 
Mahabharata and Manu with equal ease. The longest 
piece in the volume, it is a model of scholarship 
that keeps the reader fully engaged through its 
70 pages. That cannot be said of the 
introduction, alas, where the writing is academic 
to the point of aridity.


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

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