SACW | Oct. 8-9, 2008 / In Bed with Taliban / Bangladesh Rights / Sri Lanka Breakdown / Kashmir Jackboots / India Fascism

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire | October 8-9, 2008 | Dispatch No. 2578 -  
Year 11 running

[1] Afghanistan: Dont Talk to the Taliban (Massoumeh Torfeh)
[2] Bangladesh:
(i) Illegal killings by legally constituted forces must end (New Age)
(ii) All those deaths . . . and all our questions (Syed Badrul Ahsan)
(iii) Human Rights Watch Letter in Response to Bangladesh Home Ministry
(iv) Human Rights Forum on UPR, Bangladesh
[3] Pakistan: Don’t get Lahore bombings wrong (Daily Times)
[4] Sri Lanka:
  (i) Breakdown of Law and Order (Media Release by Women’s  
Organisations and Networks)
  (ii) Profiling problem (B. Muralidhar Reddy)
[5] India Administered Kashmir:  Can brutal force silence people's  
voice?  (Kashmir Times)
[6] India: Hindutva continues to Maim, while to Govt pays daily lip  
service to secularism
(i)  Orissa is trying to replicate Gujarat’s ‘success’ in  
sectarianism (Mukul Kesavan)
(ii) No consensus on Bajrang Dal ban (Aditi Tandon)
(iii) BSP stink in Durga on jumbo (Tapas Chakraborty)
(iv) Betrayal Beyond Belief (Badri Raina)
(v) War against Terror and New Lawlessness (Sukumar Muralidharan)
[7] India: National Convention Against Fascism is being planned in Delhi
[8] Book Review: Why the Story of Bhagat Singh Remains on the  
Margins? (Pritam Singh)
[9] Naked Capitalism and the Defence Industry:
-Making sense of $700 billion (James Carroll)
-Land of Gandhi Asserts Itself as Global Military Power (Anand  
Giridharadas)
[10] Announcements:
(i) Film Screening: Firaaq a Film by Nandita Das (London, 16 and 18  
October 2008)
(ii) Demo to protest communal violence in India, (New York,11 October  
2008)
(iii) Join Jahanzeb Sherwani for evening devoted to apps for the  
iPhone (Karachi, 11 October 2008)


______


[1]

The Guardian
October 08 2008

DON'T TALK TO THE TALIBAN
Negotiating with the Taliban is an insult to the Afghan people. Has  
the world forgotten what they are like?

by Massoumeh Torfeh


The international community entered Afghanistan with Operation  
Enduring Freedom in 2001 to oust the Taliban. It promised  
reconstruction and democracy. Seven years on it is negotiating with  
the Taliban.

Details of the negotiations were revealed by Jason Burke in the  
Observer last month. The talks are said to have been initiated by the  
Afghan government and led by the national security adviser, Zalmei  
Rassul, approved by the French, MI6, the British Foreign Office and  
the Saudi king before being implemented by a man as yet unnamed.

Later, a French weekly reported comments attributed to the British  
ambassador in Kabul, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, advocating "an  
acceptable dictator" to rule Afghanistan. Then reports confirmed that  
the UN special representative in Afghanistan, Kai Eide of Norway, is  
also backing the idea of negotiations with the Taiban and advocating  
their taking up cabinet posts. The Taliban obviously have the upper  
hand and have put forward 11 demands, including having their members  
in cabinet posts.

These steps will have devastating consequences for Afghanistan and  
will discredit the international community beyond repair. The  
suggestion being voiced by some of our top international advocates of  
democracy is disrespectful to the people of Afghanistan. Imagine if  
you told Americans that the US wants to negotiate with al-Qaida and  
have a few of them in high-ranking posts in the administration. Would  
anyone dare to say that in the US? If not, then how is it that the  
interntional community permits itself to play that scenario for  
Afghanistan?

Has the world forgotten what the Taliban and their allies did to  
Afghanistan in the space of six years? They devastated the country,  
humiliated the nation, punished, tortured and killed Afghan men and  
women and tormented the young. Are we saying that the most powerful  
armies of the world were unable to defeat a few thousand tribal  
fighters? Are the top international men of peace running out of  
ideas? You cannot advocate "good governance" and then support an  
Afghan cabinet with Taliban members in key posts.

One of the main mediators in the negotiations with the Taliban is the  
notorious warlord, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. For more than 10 years he was  
one of the main culprits in the wars that raged in Afghanistan. He  
entered into hundreds of loose alliances, inflaming an already  
desperate situation. He was at the time responsible for the fall of  
Kabul to the Taliban. And now he is aiding their entry to Kabul for a  
second time. He has already placed in the Afghan cabinet one of his  
loyal supporters and the Taliban are asking for several more  
ministerial posts. There will be no end to these demands and there  
will be no reciprocal action.

Continuing high levels of unemployment and severe poverty are among  
the main reasons why young men join the Taliban. A lucrative  
narcotics business is also continuing to fund the Taliban's terrorist  
activity. So would it not be more appropriate if the international  
community focused on creating jobs, eradicating poverty and fighting  
the production of narcotics?

The International Crisis Group reported in July that the Taliban have  
created a "sophisticated communications apparatus that projects an  
increasingly confident movement". It said the Taliban are using a  
full range of media, "successfully tapping into strains of Afghan  
nationalism and exploiting policy failures by the Kabul government  
and its international backers". Is the international community doing  
anything to counter that propaganda?

Leaders of the latest brands of Taliban, recently interviewed by  
international media have openly confessed they work for the Taliban  
because their "pay and conditions" are far better than any other work  
they can find in Afghanistan. People are desperate due to  
unemployment and poverty. Are these the Taliban that the  
international community is referring to as "moderate" Taliban? If not  
who are these "moderate" Taliban? Why are their names not announced?  
Are they the ones who destroyed the statutes of Buddha in Bamyan, or  
those killing hundreds of international forces in southern  
Afghanistan, or perhaps the ones taking people hostage and placing  
roadside bombs in main highways? Or it might be their other new major  
partner, Jalaluddin Haqqani, who is based in Waziristan in the tribal  
areas.

The people of Afghanistan have been watching with horror the return  
of the Taliban since 2003, not only to the southern and eastern  
provinces but also to new areas to the north and, worst of all, to  
Kabul. They will be even more shocked when they find out the Taliban  
are in the so-called democratically elected government of Afghanistan.


_____


[2] Bangladesh:

(i)

New Age
October 7, 2008

ILLEGAL KILLINGS BY LEGALLY CONSTITUTED FORCES MUST END

Not only have extrajudicial killings not stopped, they are now being  
perpetrated with greater recklessness. Odhikar, a human rights  
coalition, says the killings are carried out ‘with absolute impunity,  
as reported in Sunday’s New Age. The rights group has listed 116 such  
killings by legally constituted forces in the first nine months of  
the current year. The censure by the public, the media and civil  
society and national and international watchdog bodies do not seem to  
have had any effect in this regard. So defiant of the laws and norms  
these errant law enforcers have indeed become that they do not even  
think it necessary to give an elaborate report of the circumstances  
of deaths to explain away their conduct but hand out the same  
stereotyped make-believe story of ‘crossfire’ or ‘exchange of  
gunfire’. In January 2008 eight people were reportedly killed while  
in September, the last month of the period under survey, those killed  
in this way numbered 19. During this period ten people were allegedly  
tortured to death while in custody.
    While election and democratic rights are in the air, police  
reforms and accountability are being talked about, the law enforcers  
continue to commit the grossest kind of human right violation. The  
emergency rules have curtailed the freedom of common citizens to seek  
fair trial while they have given a new freedom to law enforcers to  
arrest, torture and kill. This is not to say that extrajudicial  
killings were absent before the declaration of emergency but the  
unabated deaths go to prove that emergency neither controls crime nor  
improves crime control mechanism or performance of law enforcers. And  
the way the government is giving indulgence to law enforcers and  
covering up their excesses is puzzling. We do not know of any  
instance of the perpetrators being punished for their acts. This may  
create the impression that the country is abandoning the universally  
accepted justice delivery system.
    We have admitted above that extrajudicial killings have existed  
for years and are not an innovation of the interim government. But if  
the most outrageous abuses of the past are to be perpetuated and made  
worse then it can further smear the record of the 21-month-old  
government. If the government remained true to its claim that it  
would clear much of the cobwebs of the past, then it should have  
probed the summary executions that took place in the past instead of  
adding about a dozen new instances every month. Extrajudicial  
killings and custodial deaths are a national shame that should no  
longer be tolerated.

o o o

ALL THOSE DEATHS . . . AND ALL OUR QUESTIONS
by Syed Badrul Ahsan
http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=57667

o o o

(iii)

Human Rights Watch
October 6, 2008

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH LETTER IN RESPONSE TO BANGLADESH HOME MINISTRY

Major Gen (ret.) MA Matin
Home Affairs Adviser
Ministry of Home Affairs
People’s Republic of Bangladesh

Dear Home Affairs Adviser Matin,

Thank you very much for the response of the Ministry of Home Affairs  
to the Bangladesh section of Human Rights Watch’s World Report 2008,  
which was forwarded to us by the Bangladesh High Commission in London  
on August 8.

While we acknowledge the seriousness of the political situation  
leading up the declaration of a state of emergency on January 11,  
2007, and appreciate the importance of government actions to  
reconstitute and empower public institutions, we regret that the  
Ministry of Home Affairs has in its response sought to deny without  
factual basis the serious allegations made by Human Rights Watch  
rather than addressing our pressing human rights concerns.

The ministry states that “there is no allegation of torture by DGFI”  
– the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, Bangladesh’s chief  
intelligence agency – and that “DGFI has no interrogation cell by its  
own.” This is not true, and there is ample evidence that the ministry  
knows it is not true. Human Rights Watch has collected numerous  
statements by credible witnesses who have given detailed and  
independently consistent accounts of torture being inflicted on  
businessmen, politicians and others in the DGFI office inside the  
cantonment in Dhaka. Numerous suspects remanded in police custody  
have instead been detained inside the premises of DGFI. Journalist  
and human rights worker Tasneem Khalil’s detailed account of his  
arbitrary detention and torture by DGFI has been published in a  
February 2008 Human Rights Watch report. Instead of dismissing  
offhand the very serious allegations made in the report – to which  
many diplomats and government officials involved in obtaining Mr.  
Khalil’s release can vouch – the government should be mapping out its  
plan to ensure such abuses do not reoccur in the future.

The Ministry of Home Affair’s reply further says that, “the  
government and its law enforcing agencies and security forces are  
always respectful to the Court’s verdicts and orders...” However,  
Human Rights Watch’s research has found that many court ordered  
releases on bail have been delayed because prison authorities have  
not been granted the “required” DGFI permission to release the inmate  
in question. There are also numerous due process violations reported  
from the special anti-corruption courts and several lawyers  
representing some of the more high-profile prisoners have been  
subjected to harassment by DGFI.

As an example of the government’s respect for court orders, the  
Ministry of Home Affairs notes that businessmen like Mr. Abdul Awal  
Mintoo and Mr. Babul of the Jamuna Group have been released on bail.  
What is not mentioned is that government authorities have used  
threats and extortion to force detainees to transfer arbitrary sums  
of money to state coffers, and reportedly also to individual  
accounts, in exchange for promises of not arresting the person in  
question and for securing releases.

Regarding the media, the ministry says that “it is free and working  
without hindrance.” This assessment is unfortunately not shared by  
the media itself. On May 8, 2008, for instance, several newspaper  
editors and senior journalists expressed public concern about “the  
increasing interference of a security agency in discharging  
professional responsibilities of both print and electronic media.”

The Ministry of Home Affairs’ claim that the Rapid Action Battalion  
(RAB) only killed armed criminals while exercising the right to self  
defense and saving government property is contradicted by eyewitness  
accounts, evidence of torture on the victims’ bodies, and the fact  
that many victims were killed after being taken into RAB custody.  
Indeed, you yourself on January 29 this year acknowledged, according  
to press accounts, the problem of custodial deaths and instructed the  
security forces to put an end to such practices.

As judicial or executive inquiries have been conducted into RAB’s  
killings, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs’ response, we  
would greatly appreciate if these inquires could be made available to  
us.

Human Rights Watch remains deeply concerned by the issues raised in  
our 2008 World Report. We look forward to engaging in a constructive  
dialogue on these issues with the government of Bangladesh, and  
specifically with the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Yours sincerely,

Brad Adams
Executive Director
Asia Division

Cc: Mr. Allama Siddiki, Deputy High Commissioner, Bangladesh High  
Commission, London

o o o

(iv)

HUMAN RIGHTS FORUM ON UNIVERSAL PERIODIC REVIEW (UPR), BANGLADESH

This report has been prepared by the Human Rights Forum on UPR ('the  
Forum'), Bangladesh, a coalition of 17 human rights and development
organisations formed to prepare a joint stakeholders' report under  
the UPR.

Stakeholders
1. Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), Secretariat
2. Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF)
3. Bangladesh Mohila Parishad (BMP)
4. Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS)
5. Bangladesh Legal Aid & Services Trust (BLAST)
6. Bangladesh Dalit and Excluded Rights Movement (BDERM)
7. Centre for Rehabilitation of Torture Survivors (CRTS)
8. D.Net (Development Research Network)
9. Karmojibi Nari (KN)
10. Nagorik Uddyog
11. Nari Uddoyog Kendra (NUK)
12. Nijera Kori
13. Nari Pokkho
14. National Forum of Organizations working with the Disabled (NFOWD)
15. Research and Development Collective (RDC)
16. Steps Towards Development (Steps)
17. Transparency International Bangladesh (TI-B)

Download the document or read it online here:
http://www.drishtipat.org/blog/2008/10/07/upr-2008/

or see the PDF version see at SACW:
http://sacw.net/article114.html

______


[3]

Daily Times, October 9, 2008
Editorial

DON’T GET LAHORE BOMBINGS WRONG

The police have “opined” that the three bomb blasts that damaged the  
fruit-juice cabins in Garhi Shahu in Lahore could have been organised  
by “local” religious elements who were outraged by the boys and girls  
visiting these shops. The effort behind this “gloss” is to separate  
these small blasts from the activity of Al Qaeda and Taliban who blow  
up entire buildings. There is also an element of “criticism” of  
youths who drink juice in Garhi Shahu. This is taking the discussion  
of the blasts in the wrong direction.

The “moral” elements of Lahore also issued 70 hoax calls to co-ed  
schools too. There are large hotels where the “moral” people see all  
kinds of unseemly things happening all the time. And there are parks  
and grounds where people gather daily to avoid the congestion of the  
city. The truth is that families used to visit these fruit juice  
kiosks in Garhi Shahu because of the privacy they offered. And the  
“religious” elements who could manage small explosives can do a big  
one if they are not stopped. And they can be stopped with the help of  
the local policeman who knows who has been upset with the juice  
vendors. But let us not indirectly justify terrorism because it looks  
like being moral in any sense.

______


[4] Sri Lanka:

(i)
http://www.sacw.net/article116.html

SRI LANKA: BREAKDOWN OF LAW AND ORDER

Media Release by Women’s Organisations and Networks

A number of concerned women’s groups and networks join other  
organisations and individuals who have condemned the recent grenade  
attack on the residence of Mr. J.C Weliamuna the well known and  
respected human rights lawyer.

Women’s organisations have in the past, drawn the attention of the  
Minister of Women’s Empowerment and Child Development and the  
National Committee on Women to acts of violence against women and  
children committed with impunity by armed persons in various parts of  
the country, including the North and East. We have in particular  
highlighted the failure to monitor and implement the Presidential  
Guidelines that seek to prevent abuse of authority.

The grenade attack on the Weliamuna residence took place at night,  
traumatizing his two infant children. The attack followed Mr.  
Weliamuna’s professional involvement in two cases on police torture  
and bribery, and the gunning down of his client in the presence of  
the client’s 11 year old child. Despite the public outcry on the  
attack against Mr. Weliamuna, unidentified persons later attempted to  
force their way into his office, and escaped on a motor bicycle.

In the last few days the press has also reported an assault by army  
personnel on a doctor at the Ragama Hospital who made a police  
complaint regarding a drug crime. A woman doctor who had also filed a  
case of criminal intimidation was gunned down by the accused, a  
soldier alleged to be from the Embilipitya army camp. These incidents  
are all symptomatic of a dangerous breakdown of law and order, and  
the incapacity of the government and law enforcement authorities to  
protect men, women and children in all parts of the country from  
criminal acts of violence, perpetrated through a perceived sense of  
power and impunity.

It is time for the President and the Ministers specifically entrusted  
with law enforcement and the protection of human rights to inform the  
public of the specific measures that they have taken as well as put  
in place. It is their responsibility to ensure that there is no  
impunity for criminal acts committed by members of the police and  
armed forces, and gunmen who move around easily with their weapons.  
Mere condemnation of these acts and promises of investigation are no  
longer acceptable. It is in times of conflict and military offensives  
that specific measures are vital to prevent impunity, enforce  
discipline and ensure public confidence in the rule of law. Everyone  
in the police and the army must be held accountable for protecting  
the life, liberty and property of civilians, men, women and children  
in the community.

Endorsing Organisations

1. Centre for Women’s Research (CENWOR)
  2. Muslim Women’s Research and Action Forum (MWRAF)
  3. Women’s Education and Research Centre (WERC)
  4. Academy of Adult Education for Women
  5. Women and Media Collective (WMC)
  6. Women in Need (WIN)
  7. Agromart
  8. Kantha Handa/Voice of Women
  9. Kantha Shakthi
  10. Women’s Centre, Ja-Ela
  11. Siyath
  12. Wilpotha Kantha Ithurum Parishramaya
  13. Sri Lanka Muslim Women’s Conference (SLMWC)
  14. Sri Lanka Women’s NGO Forum
  15. Action Network for Migrant Workers (ACTFORM)
  16. Suriya Women’s Development Centre (SWDC)
  17. Women’s Development Centre, Kandy
  18. Uva Wellassa Farmer Women’s Organization
  19. Mothers and Daughters of Lanka (MDL)
  20. Community Encouragement Foundation, Puttlum
  21. Women’s Resource Centre, Kurunegala
  22. Women’s Support Group
  23. Women’s Development Centre, Kurunegala
  24. Dabindu Collective, Katunayake
  25. Women’s Development Centre, Badulla
  26. Association of War Affected Women
  27. Devasarana Independent Women’s Action Committee, Kurunegala
  28. Binthenna Women’s Front
  29. Community Education Centre, Malabe
  30. Sunile Women’s Centre, Welikanda

o o o

(ii)

Frontline, October 11-24, 200

PROFILING PROBLEM

by B. Muralidhar Reddy
in Colombo

“‘The Americans put all citizens of Japanese origin into camps for  
the duration of the World War. Did you know that?’

She did not say anything.

‘What if we place all Tamil citizens in camps for a period of one  
year,’ I asked. ‘We’d use that year to flush out and kill all the  
rebels hiding in the Wanni. You can’t blow up our cities when your  
bombers are not allowed free access to economic and civilian targets,  
pretending to be innocents.’

‘That idea is barbaric. It is only a short step from there to the gas  
chambers,’ she said furiously and then brightened. ‘But I like the  
idea. When you start on it, the whole world will condemn you…. It  
will help our cause in other ways as well. We’ll have plenty of new  
recruits and funding from our expatriate community will increase  
immediately.’

‘Oh, I understand that the idea is impractical but we don’t have many  
options.’”

So goes the dialogue between Captain Wasantha Ratnayaka, the  
Sinhalese officer in the Sri Lanka Army, and Kamala Velaithan, a  
female cadre of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who  
pretends to be an informer of the diabolical plans of the Tigers, in  
the much-acclaimed novel of the late Nihal de Silva titled The Road  
from Elephant Pass.

On September 21, the Sri Lankan government almost made real this  
surreal scenario with its diktat that all citizens from the five  
districts of the LTTE-dominated North who have been living in and  
around Colombo (Western Province) for the past five years “re- 
register” themselves with the police.
[. . .]
http://www.flonnet.com/stories/20081024252104700.htm

______


[5]

Kashmir Times
October 9, 2008

VALLEY UNDER SIEGE
CAN BRUTAL FORCE SILENCE PEOPLE'S VOICE?

If the ruling elite in New Delhi and its administration in Srinagar  
think that by putting the entire population of Kashmir virtually  
under house arrest, making it impossible for any one to move out,  
they have succeeded in silencing the voice of the alienated people of  
Kashmir then they are certainly living in a fools’ paradise. They  
have obviously refused to learn any lesson from history and the  
recent past in Jammu and Kashmir. The coordination committee, a joint  
front of the so-called separatist groups and other organizations, had  
only excercised its democratic right to give a call for a peaceful  
march to the historic Lal Chowk in Srinagar to demonstrate their  
strength and to reassert for what they described as their inalienable  
right for self-determination. The leaders of both factions of the  
Hurriet Conference- Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq- as  
also the JKLF chief Yasin Malik and several other leaders of the  
coordination committee had repeatedly warned the people joining the  
march against pelting of stones or resorting to any other kind of  
violence. There was no reason to believe that the Lal Chowk rally  
will lead to any kind of violence. Still the authorities betraying  
their colonial mindset and total lack of faith in the people, whom  
they consider as adversaries and dub as anti-national, decided to  
abort the march with all the force and resources at their command.

For two days the entire Valley was under the siege by security forces  
including the army, para-military forces and all wings of the state  
police. All roads and streets were blocked by putting up massive iron  
barricades and spools of barbed wire making it difficult for any one  
to move out of his or her house. On all accounts it was an ugly and  
frightening demonstration of the armed might of the Indian state.  
After two days of siege, converting the entire valley into a  
garrison, those at the helm gleefully claimed that they have  
succeeded in aborting the separatists plan for march to Lal Chowk.  
They might have prevented the march and rally by demonstrating and  
deploying their armed power but can they in any way silence the voice  
of the alienated people and suppress their political urges and  
aspirations by using brutal force. These methods are being tried in  
varying degrees for the past 20 years. But what has been the result ?  
Clearly the use of strong-arm methods and repression have failed to  
silence the people’s voice. The “ bullet for bullet “ policy too has  
proved counter-productive. Even the “carrot and stick “ policy by  
offering doles and massive economic packages on the one hand and  
using brutal force and resorting to grave human rights abuses on the  
other have not paid any dividends to the Indian state. On all  
accounts there has been perceptible increase in the level of people’s  
alienation from New Delhi with even the so-called mainstream  
political parties raising their voice against the policies pursued by  
the Indian state.

Within hours of the authorities proclaiming to have aborted the plan  
for Lal Chowk march the Chief Election Commissioner and his two  
commissioners landed in Srinagar to get endorsement from the state  
authorities and some power-crazy politicians of their already decided  
agenda of going for another farcical election to the State assembly  
to impose another puppet political regime on the alienated people of  
the State. They cannot be oblivious of the fact that under the  
present situation, with virtually the entire population in revolt,  
there is little possibility of holding an all inclusive election.  
Democratic, free, fair and credible election is possible only in a  
climate free from fear with people enjoying all the basic rights to  
ensure massive participation. Do we have such an atmosphere in the  
turbulent state? Fear of gun and sense of insecurity still persist.  
With over half-a-million armed forces present in the civilian areas,  
gun –totting soldiers parading the streets and with draconian laws,  
depriving the people of their freedom and fundamental rights, it is  
height of naivety to think that free and fair election with massive  
voters turnout is possible. Any such electoral exercise without  
voters willing participation for imposing a pliant regime on the  
estranged people will only further alienate them. Neither the use of  
strong-arm methods nor rushing with a farcical election will help in  
winning over the hearts and minds of the people. Dialogue is the only  
way out. But unfortunately the ruling elite in New Delhi is still  
living in a world of make-believe by perpetuating status-quo with the  
vain hope of tiring out the alienated and struggling people of Kashmir.

______


[6]  India: Hindutva continues to Maim, while to Govt pays daily lip  
service to secularism

(i)

The Telegraph
October 9, 2008

  AN ALIEN POSSESSION
- Orissa is trying to replicate Gujarat’s ‘success’ in sectarianism

by Mukul Kesavan

 From August 25 to now, Kandhamal district in Orissa has been the  
stage for organized violence against Christians. That adds up to one- 
and-a-half months. A week after the violence began, by September 1,  
the government of Orissa reported that more than 12,000 refugees from  
the violence had been fed in relief camps. Five weeks later, that  
figure has risen.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has an explanation for the burnt homes and  
churches that have led to the Christian exodus into relief camps.  
According to The Hindu, the VHP central unit secretary, Mohan Joshi,  
said, “Christians are setting their own homes on fire to get good  
compensation. There are rivalries among Christian groups. They are  
attacking and killing each other.”

Every conflict can be explained in more than one way, but historians  
know that one way of sifting out bad explanations is to look for  
plausibility. Here, we’re being asked to believe that the thousands  
of extremely poor people who make up the populations of these relief  
camps are self-arsonists running a compensation scam. This is not  
just a bad explanation; it’s an explanation made in bad faith.

There’s another, more respectable, sort of explanation for the  
prolonged violence that treats it as you would a natural disaster.  
This explanation, which doubles as an alibi for the inability/ 
unwillingness of the state government to stop the violence, goes like  
this. Kandhamal is a large, inaccessible district where the absence  
of good roads and the presence of a jungly landscape make it  
impossible for agents of law and order (that is, the police and the  
administration) to get to the affected villages and settlements to  
impose order. This was the explanation offered by Jay Panda, Biju  
Janata Dal MP and spokesperson, on more than one televised discussion  
of the chronic violence in Kandhamal. A related factor, according to  
Panda, was the Central government’s tardiness in sending CRPF  
reinforcements requested by the state governments.

It would be reasonable to give Naveen Patnaik and Jay Panda and the  
BJD the benefit of the doubt if it weren’t for the fact that the  
administration seems to have done so little with the powers and  
police forces that it did have at its disposal. The state government  
allowed the assassinated Swami Laxmananda Saraswati’s funeral  
procession to pass over 150 kilometres in a district electric with  
sectarian tension. This triggered off a massive campaign of violence  
against the Christian community. A nun was raped in front of  
policemen who did nothing. Organized bands of Hindu militants carried  
out night-time attacks on village after village with impunity. The  
larger question is this: why was Kandhamal, which had erupted in  
violence as recently as the last week of December 2007, so thinly  
policed?

Kandhamal district in Orissa is demographically unusual. The tribal  
community after which it is named, the Kandhas, are numerically the  
largest group in the district. The Kandhas are Hindus and their  
political loyalties lie with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and its  
affiliates who have worked amongst them for decades. The Panos, a  
community of Dalits, are mainly Christian, and while estimates vary,  
the Christian population of Kandhamal is estimated to be between one- 
fifth to one-fourth of its total population. This is a high figure  
compared to the figure for Orissa, where Christians constitute just  
over 2 per cent of the population.

The success of the RSS and its affiliates on the one hand and of  
churches and missionary organizations on the other, in influencing  
two distinct communities who often see their material interests to be  
at variance with each other, has made Kandhamal a tense place. These  
are both very poor communities who live in a district where the State  
has abdicated its ameliorist function: schools, roads, dispensaries,  
all the institutions that represent a responsible and caring  
government, are conspicuous by their absence. The absence of the  
State in matters of welfare is one reason why denominational  
organizations have been so successful in establishing themselves in  
Kandhamal. Even so, the Panos and the Kandhas look to the State for  
affirmative action and jobs, and since life in a straitened district  
seems like a zero-sum game, any concession to either community sparks  
resentment in the other.

This history, this social context, is often worked into accounts of  
the violence that has repeatedly made the headlines since August. Jay  
Panda referred to the long-standing tension between tribals and non- 
tribals, and warned against the dangers of simplifying a complex  
social history into a communal conflict. The problem with this  
apparently reasonable warning is that in Kandhamal, a complex social  
history is being violently simplified through communal conflict.  
There are two communities in Kandhamal, but only one is the object of  
sustained, organized violence. A social history of the district might  
help us understand the way in which tribal/non-tribal tensions have  
been exacerbated by religious affiliation, but it doesn’t explain a  
coordinated campaign of ethnic cleansing that renders a large  
fraction of the Christian community homeless, marooned in wretched  
refugee camps, unable to go home.

Unable to go home because Hindu militant groups announce with  
impunity that they won’t be allowed to return unless they reconvert  
to Hinduism. The refugee camps, filled with fearful Christians, are  
symbolic of the place of minorities in the Hindutva project. Guruji  
Golwalkar, the RSS’s most revered sarsanghachalak, wrote long ago  
that non-Hindus “may stay in the country wholly subordinated to the  
Hindu nation claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any  
preferential treatment, not even citizens’ rights”. The successful  
marginalization and subordination of Muslims in Gujarat has helped  
create a state where Muslims live, de facto, as second-class  
citizens, on Hindu sufferance.

What we’re seeing in Orissa is the attempt to replicate Gujarat’s  
‘success’ and Golwalkar’s object on a smaller scale. Thus, Christians  
are driven out of their homes to live in limbo as destitute, vagrant  
wards of the State in camps, or else allowed to return to their  
villages as neo-Hindus purged of an alien possession. This is, or  
should be, unacceptable. The use of murder, rape and arson against  
civilian communities to achieve a political object (in this case  
ethnic cleansing) is a form of terror, and this republic’s government  
needs to treat it as such.

The prime minister has declared his intention to visit Orissa so he  
can see for himself if the state government was discharging its  
responsibilities. The measure he should use to make this judgment is  
not the mere absence of violence, but evidence to show that Naveen  
Patnaik’s government is actually rehabilitating Christian refugees in  
the homes from which they’ve been driven. If the government of Orissa  
seems unwilling to do this, or (as it has done in the matter of law  
and order) eagerly declares its helplessness in the absence of  
Central aid, perhaps the government of India should take it at its  
word and directly assume the responsibility of governing that state.


o o o

(ii) India's Spineless Govt keeps dragging its feet to re the demand  
to outlaw Bajrang Dal.

The Tribune, October 9, 2008

NO CONSENSUS ON BAJRANG DAL BAN

by Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 8
The marathon meeting of the union cabinet today failed to arrive on  
any consensus on the controversial issue of banning the Bajrang Dal  
ahead of Assembly and general elections.

The issue came up for heated discussion when the Cabinet reassembled  
at 8 pm but did not end conclusively, with some members questioning  
its feasibility and legal standing. The Cabinet, however, decided to  
send a ministerial delegation to Orissa, even as home minister  
Shivraj Patil told the members that his ministry was in process of  
gathering evidence for banning the Bajrang Dal.

Meanwhile, sources told The Tribune that there was lot of discussion  
in the Cabinet on the practicability of imposing a ban on the Bajrang  
Dal, which has been on the forefront of anti-Christian violence in  
Orissa. Such a ban would have to be ultimately enforced by the state  
and the state’s role in this regard is crucial, sources said. It was  
on this ground that some members questioned feasibility of the ban.

Although the UPA allies, including the RJD, the LJP and the SP have  
been very vocal about their demand to ban the Bajrang Dal and the  
Congress, too, today pitched for similar action, saying there was  
enough evidence to proceed, a decision in this matter is likely to be  
advanced at least till the National Integration Council (NIC) meets.  
The idea, UPA sources said, is to not politically jostle the BJP at  
this time but to isolate it on a broader platform.

Moreover, sources said the matter regarding banning an extremist  
organisation needed not come to the Cabinet at all. Such a ban can  
simply be enforced through notification by the centre.

The government, however, feels the need to raise the issue at the NIC  
first, said sources, adding that the NIC is a 103-member forum of  
union ministers, Chief Ministers, political leaders, heads of  
national commissions and eminent public figures, and can be used to  
gauge broader opinion of the intelligentsia on sensitive matters.

The NIC is meeting here on October 13 to discuss ways of fighting  
divisiveness in the country. Orissa violence will feature in  
discussions, so will the matter of banning the Bajrang Dal and  
imposition of Article 356.

Also, discussions in the Cabinet today on the imposition of Article  
356 in Orissa remained inconclusive. Senior Cabinet members like  
external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee and agriculture minister  
Sharad Pawar were absent from the meeting, which, sources said, was  
another reason why vital decisions on Orissa could not be taken.


o o o

(iii)

The Telegraph
October 9 , 2008

BSP STINK IN DURGA ON JUMBO

by Tapas Chakraborty

The Durga idol sitting on an elephant in the Jaunpur pandal. Picture  
by Naeem Ansari

Lucknow, Oct. 8: A Durga on an elephant, the Bahujan Samaj Party  
symbol, rather than a lion has shocked devotees in Jaunpur town and  
triggered a court case.

“What a twist…. Durga riding an elephant to catch votes for the BSP,”  
said homemaker Manisha Rai derisively after visiting the Phool Wali  
Gali Puja, whose chief organiser is BSP leader and Jaunpur municipal  
chairman Dinesh Tandon.

“This is nothing short of blasphemy,” said Durgaram Saran, a Congress  
worker.

A lawyer, Arvind Prasad, moved a petition in a magistrate’s court in  
the eastern Uttar Pradesh town on Monday alleging the Puja organisers  
had hurt Hindu sentiments. “The motive is mala fide and there is a  
clear move to get political mileage out of this,” Prasad said.

Some priests had earlier asked the Jaunpur police chief to take  
action but the police did not. Now the court has asked the police to  
register a case and probe.

Mahendra Sonkar, chief patron of the Puja, justified the move in the  
name of artistic freedom. He also mentioned that according to the  
Hindu almanac, the goddess was supposed to arrive on earth this year  
riding an elephant, symbolising good rain and prosperity. “So what’s  
wrong if the idol is put on an elephant?”

A Sanskrit scholar from Varanasi, Satish Pandey, did not accept this  
argument.

“The basic deity of Durga is not to be interfered with,” he said.  
“She should be on a lion in keeping with mythology, since this image  
is embedded in the minds of devotees. It is outrageous to see Durga  
on an elephant.”

When Tandon came to the pandal to inaugurate the Puja on Saturday  
evening — Panchami — he had praised the organisers for the  
innovation. But the huge elephant and a relatively small Durga  
puzzled ordinary devotees.

Using the Puja for political campaign isn’t unheard of. Mayavati’s  
new ally, the CPM, regularly sets up stalls selling Marxist  
literature in front of Puja pandals.

Since the CPM does not organise pujas, however, it has had hardly any  
chance to use the idol to send out political messages.

o o o

(iv)

BETRAYAL BEYOND BELIEF

by Badri Raina

Agreed you were Adi Indians,
Long before the Aryans came;
Agreed we made you Dalit
To set off the conqueror’s name.
Agreed you are illiterate,
Agreed you have no say;
Agreed you are untouchable,
Agreed you are kept at bay.
Agreed that our development
Makes you resentful, red;
Agreed, in fact, we prosper
Upon your sweat and blood.
Agreed we rape your women,
Agreed we stray, at worst;
Agreed you may not use our wells
To quench your low-born thirst.
Agreed our Constitution
Is ours and ours alone;
Agreed our hallowed temples
Will not let you in.
Agreed your land, your forest
We grab, we chop, we burn;
Agreed our banks, our markets
Will never serve your turn.
Even so, your villainous move
To leave the Hindu fold –
How could we ever forgive you
Betrayal so beastly, bold?
Go tell these priests who dupe you
That all plants, animals, men
Were created Sanaatan Hindus
The minute the world began.
Do you then prefer Christian ease
To family atrocity?
How traitorous, how ungodly
Can this world of vermin be!

o o o

(v)

WAR AGAINST TERROR AND NEW LAWLESSNESS
by Sukumar Muralidharan
http://www.epw.org.in/epw//uploads/articles/12715.pdf

______


[7]  Support Secular Resistance

NATIONAL CONVENTION AGAINST FASCISM IS BEING PLANNED IN DELHI

anhadin.net

Dear Friends,

The urgency to intervene in defense of democracy, secularism and  
justice has never been more pressing than in the conditions  
prevailing in the country today. There is a recognizable change in  
the general tenor of public discourse; unlike in the past, it is  
informed more by the communal than by secular ethos. Concerted  
attacks have been mounted across India by communal fascist  
organizations by invoking religious symbols and sentiments. There is  
total apathy and indecisiveness towards confronting this challenge by  
those in power.

RSS and organizations under its umbrella have mounted a vicious  
campaign against the Christian community across India. Over 10 states  
have seen violent attacks on the Christian community , their  
institutions, religious places, property and businesses during the  
past one month. The culprits behind the communal violence against  
Christians in Orissa, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and other states are  
being allowed to go scot-free.

The recent attacks on Christian religious institutions are in fact  
openly claimed by Hindutva terrorist groups, like the Bajrang Dal, in  
front of television news cameras and yet no action is taken against  
them. Throughout the country Muslim youth are being targeted, without  
any or little evidence, as responsible for terrorist attacks. There  
is a concerted attempt by the Indian police, sections of the media  
and certain political parties to portray all members of the Muslim  
community as ’terrorists and extremists’ - to be arbitrarily  
arrested, tortured and killed in fake encounters.

On the other hand hard evidence available against Bajrang Dal and  
other Sangh outfits about their direct involvement in terror attacks  
is not only being ignored but actively being pushed under the carpet  
by the state.

The spaces uncolonized by the RSS network are decreasing by the day.  
The threat from the fascist forces is not only to the survival and  
dignity of India but to the very idea of India. We feel that there is  
urgent need to call for a national convention to challenge the forces  
of fascism. We had sent out sms messages to about 40 organisations to  
get a response from them about the possibility of organizing a  
national convention on 25 and 26 October, 2008 in New Delhi.

All those who responded felt the need for this convention.

Please respond urgently to this mail:

1. By endorsing the convention- send the name of your organization/  
individual

2. By supporting your own travel and if your organization can support  
the travel of 5-10 people from your state who are working on these  
issues.

3. Wherever possible arrange for your own stay in Delhi. Those who  
can’t inform us in advance.

4. Groups in Delhi- Help in sponsoring the breakfast/ lunch and  
dinner for the convention and stay for the outstation participants.

5. Please inform us how many people from your group will participate  
and whether any/ all of them will require stay arrangements in Delhi.

The program for the two days is being finalized . Please send  
suggestions . We will also inform the venue and the final schedule  
for the convention as soon as it is finalised after hearing from more  
groups/ individuals.

Shabnam Hashmi
  ANHAD
  Tel- 23070740/ 23070722
  e-mail: anhad.delhi at gmail.com

Those groups who responded the sms message and have already endorsed  
Anhad’s call for the convention are:

All India Dalit Mahila Adhikar Manch
  All India Quami Mahaz
  Aman Samudaya
  ANHAD
  Antarik Visthapit Hak Rakshak Samiti
  ASHA Pariwar
  Awaz e- Niswana
  Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan
  CSSS
  Darpana Academy
  EKTA
  ICHRO
  Insaf
  ISD
  Janvikas
  Mahatma Gandhi Foundation
  National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights
  Peace
  People’s Research Society
  Roshan Vikas
  Sahrwaru
  Sajhi Duniya
  Samarpan
  Sanchetana
  Sandarbh
  Urja Ghar
  Yuv Shakti

______


[8]

www.sacw.net
24 September 2008

Book Review
WHY THE STORY OF BHAGAT SINGH REMAINS ON THE MARGINS?

by Pritam Singh

S Irfan Habib, To Make the Deaf Hear: Ideology and Programme of  
Bhagat Singh and His Comrades (New Delhi: Three Essays Collective,  
2007), xviii+231pp. Rs. 500 (hb), ISBN 81-88789-56-9 and Rs. 250  
(pb), ISBN 81-88789-61-5.

The publication of this book in the year of the 100th birth  
anniversary of Bhagat Singh is aimed to highlight the ideological  
dimensions of the work of Bhagat Singh and his associates. S Irfan  
Habib is a historian of science and works with the National Institute  
of Science, Technology and Development Studies in India. This book  
can be usefully read in the context of competing ideologies in the  
current political landscape of India. The year 2007 has been a year  
of many anniversaries relating to South Asia. These include the 250th  
anniversary of the 1757 Battle of Plassey, 150th anniversary of the  
1857 uprising and the 60th anniversary of India’s independence from  
British colonial rule and its partition into Muslim-majority Pakistan  
and Hindu - majority, though formally secular, India in 1947. As an  
icon, Bhagat Singh can be called the Che Guevara of India. Yet, his  
100th birth anniversary was the least celebrated of all the  
anniversaries except the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Plassey.
[. . .]

http://www.sacw.net/article22.html

______


[9] Naked Capitalism and Military Power

International Herald Tribune
October 6, 2008

MAKING SENSE OF $700 BILLION

by James Carroll

How much is 700 billion? The mind registers the number with such  
imprecision as to make it meaningless. One blogger proposed this way  
of grasping the figure: As a stack of $100 bills, it would reach 54  
miles high. But who can imagine that? On the other hand, someone at  
the Smithsonian once calculated that counting to one billion, at the  
rate of one digit per second, would take 30 years. By that scale,  
counting to 700 billion would take 21,000 years.

Come again? That stretch of time takes us back to the cave painters  
of Lascaux, the glacial age, the last Neanderthals. The mind is not  
helped.

By a nice coincidence, though, the U.S. financial rescue package of  
$700 billion duplicates a number that was also in the news last week  
- the Pentagon budget. In the fiscal year just beginning, the U.S.  
Defense Department will spend $607 billion on normal military costs,  
and an additional $100 billion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  
(As of June 30, 2008, Congress had appropriated $859 billion for the  
wars; Congressional Budget Office projections assume further costs of  
$400 billion to $500 billion as the wars wind down). But for the  
coming year, $700 billion is the Pentagon's nice round number (this  
includes neither Homeland Security nor intelligence costs).

Step back. All of last week's hand-wringing hoopla over the emergency  
bailout stands in stark contrast to the utter indifference with which  
politicians approved an equivalent layout for the military - an  
approval so routine that it was ignored in the press and by the public.

Barack Obama has no issue with current Defense expenditures. The  
annual American military budget is at least 10 times larger than the  
military budgets of Russia and China; it is 20 times larger than the  
entire budget of the U.S. State Department. But last week's  
demonstration of anguish over the historic financial rescue figure  
throws an entirely new light on the nearly identical number that will  
fund the Pentagon for one measly year.

This is not a matter merely of comparison. Here is the question that  
no one is asking about America's grave financial crisis: By fueling  
corporate profits, jobs, and private-sector growth for two  
generations with massive over-investment in the military, has the  
United States gutted the real worth of its economy?

One needn't be an economist to know that spending money on war  
planes, missiles and exotic weapons systems, not to mention combat  
operations, creates far less social capital than spending on  
education, bridges, mass transit, new forms of energy - even the arts.

The genius of America's most brilliant minds has been yoked for more  
than half a century to the invention of ways to kill and destroy. ("I  
saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness." - Allen  
Ginsberg's "Howl," 1956) What if those minds had been put to work  
imagining alternative futures - the rescue of the environment, the  
ending of disease and poverty, the artistic fulfillment of new media,  
the teaching of children? It's a question as old as Eisenhower ("The  
cost of one modern heavy bomber," he said in 1953, "is this: A modern  
brick school in more than 30 cities." Leaving office, he said, "We  
cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without  
risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage."  
That's us.)

The $700 billion bailout aims to rescue the world's economy, but  
that, too, raises questions about the Pentagon's prior effect there.  
Because America has put military invention at the heart of its  
enterprise, the exporting of weapons to countries that do not need  
them and cannot afford them has become a main mode of America's being  
in the world. (The Arms Control Association reports that in 2007 the  
Pentagon sent $40 billion worth of arms to two dozen nations; that is  
double the 2007 appropriation for US foreign aid.) Unneeded weapons  
spark unnecessary wars.

That the majority of humans are in dire straits and that the planet  
itself is groaning are issues treated like givens of nature, yet they  
are results of the ways creativity is channeled and resources are  
shared. $700 billion for rescue. $700 billion for war. Something is  
wrong with this picture, and last week that coincidence of numbers  
told us what.

o o o

LAND OF GANDHI ASSERTS ITSELF AS GLOBAL MILITARY POWER
by Anand Giridharadas (New York Times, September 21, 2008)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/world/asia/22india.html? 
partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

______


[10] ANNOUNCEMENTS


(i)

Firaaq
a Film by Nandita Das
The story of how the Hindu-Muslim riots that ravaged Gujarat in 2002.

Thu 	16 October 2008 	13:30 	NFT1
Sun 	19 October 2008 	13:30 	ODEON WEST END 1
http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/node/1175? 
utm_source=lffs4&utm_medium=internal&utm_campaign=lffs


- - -

(ii)

Raise Your Voice!!
Stand Up For Freedom And Justice!!!
Join The Mass Demonstration To Protest The Mass Killings Of  
Christians, Adivasis And Dalits

Saturday Oct 11
11 AM - 2 PM
@ 47th Street and 1st Ave in New York City,
In Front of The United Nations

Draw International Attention To The Violent Murders Of Christians,  
Dalits, And Tribals Of India

- - -


(iii)

Join us at T2F for an exciting evening devoted to developing apps for  
the iPhone
Date: 11 October 2008  |  Time: 7:00 pm

Jahanzeb Sherwani is Pakistan's first developer whose application has  
been accepted into Apple's iPhone App Store. Jaadu is a  
groundbreaking application for the iPhone and iPod touch that lets  
you control your computer from wherever you are in the world.

After Jahanzeb shows us how Jaadu works, he will talk about life as  
an indie iPhone developer and his experience in selling applications  
through the App Store. Jahanzeb would especially like to guide other  
budding developers and entrepreneurs who are interested in pursuing  
similar opportunities.

Jahanzeb is a final year PhD student at Carnegie Mellon University  
and is working on speech interfaces for emerging markets in South  
Asia. He believes speech interfaces can be a revolutionary medium of  
interaction for a massive cell-phone consumer base that has, for the  
most part, not been able to tap into the digital revolution. Over the  
past year, he has worked with HANDS (a Pakistani NGO) to design,  
develop and test a telephone-based spoken interface in Sindhi for  
health information access by low-literate community health workers.  
Jahanzeb received his undergraduate degree from LUMS, where he  
studied computer science and social sciences, and also co-founded the  
LUMS Music Society. He was last spotted at T2F playing John Lennon's  
"Imagine" on his guitar.

This event is brought to you in association with TiE Karachi. If  
you're an aspiring entrepreneur, become a member of TiE and gain  
access to networking and mentoring opportunities. Forms will be  
available at the event.

Date: Saturday, 11th October 2008

Time: 7:00 pm

Minimum Donation: Rs. 100

Venue: The Second Floor (T2F)
6-C, Prime Point Building, Phase 7, Khayaban-e-Ittehad, DHA, Karachi
538-9273 | 0300-823-0276 | info at t2f.biz
Map: http://www.t2f.biz/location

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

Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), on
matters of peace and democratisation in South
Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit
citizens wire service run since 1998 by South
Asia Citizens Web: www.sacw.net/
SACW archive is available at: http://sacw.net/pipermail/sacw_insaf.net/

DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not
necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers.