S. Anand, Publisher, Navayana, writes:
Navayana is looking for an intern to be based in New Delhi. The role of the intern, to be placed for a minimum of 6 months and up to one year, shall be that of a publishing and editorial assistant. Graduates/postgraduates, with good English language skills, keen on a career in publishing are invited to apply. Awareness of and interest in issues related to caste would be necessary. While the post is open to all, Navayana shall give preference to a Dalit/Adivasi applicant.
The placement of the intern shall be facilitated by a progamme called Choice run by The Seagull Foundation. Click< http://www.choicemakers.org/choiceinterns.html> for more on the programme. Applicants must be aged 18 to 25.
The Choice Intern at Navayana shall receive a monthly stipend of about Rs 5,000; besides, his/her food, travel and accommodation expenses shall be covered in the city in which s/he works – in Navayana's case, Delhi. Navayana shall also make available a books allowance. All this may work up to Rs 14,000 to Rs 15,000 per month.
Those interested in applying for the internship programme are requested to send their CV to anand.navayana@gmail.com, along with a 300 word write-up on their interest in books and why they would be keen on a career in publishing.
Navayana is an award-winning publishing house that focuses on issues of caste from an anticaste perspective. It will be an ideal place to learn every aspect of book-making from commissioning, editing, production to marketing. See www.navayana.org to know more.
--
S.Anand
Publisher
www.navayana.org
Address for correspondence
Navayana Publishing
E-92 (Second Floor)
Saket, New Delhi--110017
Ph: +91-9971433117
15 October, 2008
14 October, 2008
Terrorism: its roots and complex rationale
When Sheikh Mujibur Rehman was released from a Pakistani prison and put on a flight to London, I left New Delhi for Dhaka to be there when he sets foot on Bangladesh soil as Father of the Nation. On arrival in Dhaka, a stranger approached me with a request for help to get to India. He was born in Jamshedpur in Bihar. At the time of Partition, he migrated to Pakistan. He did well as journalist in an Urdu paper of Dhaka. On the birth of Bangladesh, the Urdu paper closed down. Since migrants from Bihar were pro-Pakistan, the Bangladeshis viewed them with suspicion. They ended up in refugee camps. He had come out of a camp, risking his life, to meet me.
‘Shouldn’t you be going to Pakistan?’ I asked. I thought that was the right thing for him to do as a citizen of Pakistan. ‘You can say that,’ he said. ‘Twenty-five years ago I decided to become a Pakistani. I came here and remained here, telling myself this is my country. Now I have become an alien here. If I go to West Pakistan, what is the guarantee that the same thing will not happen there. After all, I don’t belong there either.’ His mother and brothers were living in Jamshedpur at the time. He believed he would be safe there.
When ‘Mathrubhumi’ correspondent VK Madhavan Kutty reached Dhaka, he located Rahim, a Malayalee businessman. Rahim invited me to his house along with Madhavan Kutty. There we met another Malayalee, Nizamuddin. Rahim, of Thalasseri, and Nizamuddin, of Kollam, were customs officials in Madras at the time of Partition. As Muslims in Indian government service they had the opportunity to opt for either of the two countries. Knowing that once the Hindus above them were out of the way they could move up fast, both opted for Pakistan. All those who went from Bengal and adjoining provinces belonged to the East Pakistan cadre and those from the other provinces of India to the West Pakistan cadre. To qualify for a special allowance, Rahim and Nizamuddin, who belonged to the West Pakistan cadre, opted to work in East Pakistan. Thus they reached Dhaka. Rahim later resigned the job and took up the agency of a typewriter company. Along with a professor of Dhaka University, he developed a Bengali typewriter. That earned him a special place in Bengali cultural circles. Nizamuddin became the Secretary of the Dhaka Club. The club was a favourite haunt of high-ranking army officers. As a friend of Pakistani military officers, he became persona non grata to Bengalis. Fearing for his life, he took shelter in Rahim’s house with his family.
While we were talking in Rahim’s drawing room, Nizamuddin’s daughter walked into the room. Unmindful of the presence of strangers, she went up to her father and said, ‘Daddy, let us go to Kollam’ Quivering behind closed doors and pondering about her uncertain future, that girl, who was a student of the Dhaka Medical College, the one place that struck her as safe was Kollam, which she had visited once or twice.
The sad characters in these real-life stories were people who went with their co-religionists when the country was divided on the basis of religion. Suddenly they became aliens in the land which they had thought of as home for many years. They were still amidst co-religionists. When language became more important than religion, as people who speak a different language they became aliens. How weak is the base on which the sense of identity that we cherish in our minds stands!
Throughout history, all over the world, people have become alienated in this manner. In the recent past we saw neighbours killing each other in parts of the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. This is a story which has repeated itself in our own subcontinent several times. Often such a situation is created by circumstances beyond our control. But it can also happen as a result of the work of interested parties with evil motives. Whether under the pressure of circumstances or due to conscious efforts, often religion and politics become partners in the process. When the two are mixed, we get a dangerous mixture.
The terrorist activities that occur in India from time to time cannot be seen in isolation from such activities elsewhere in the world. However, they have a different social and political background. Also, they have roots that run deep in history. There is evidence to show that there was a long ideological struggle in this subcontinent between the Buddhist-Jain stream that saw all human beings as one and the Vedic stream that sought to put human beings in different compartments. According to the widely held current belief, 10 or 12 centuries ago, a movement led by Sankaracharya exterminated Buddhism, which was already on the decline, and established Hindu supremacy. History texts tell you that Sankaracharya was born at Kaladi in Kerala and that he lived from 788 to 820 AD. These are the findings given towards the end of the 19th century by the then Dewan of Mysore, Sesha Iyer, in response to a request from the Sankara Mutt at Sringeri to help settle the prevailing differences of opinion on the Acharya’s birthplace and period. Sesha Iyer, who hailed from Kerala, reached his conclusions relying upon the heroic tales by Sankaracharya’s disciples and the traditions of Namboodiri Brahmins of Kerala. Since he showed a sense of realism that was lacking in the Acharya’s followers, historians accepted his findings. It is worth recalling here that Indians were not aware of Emperor Asoka until the 19th century and of the Indus Valley civilization until the 20th century.
Although precise information is not available, it is certain that the Indian subcontinent witnessed some major changes during the period when Sankaracharya’s influence is believed to have held sway. One of them was the unification of the many systems of belief and streams of thought that prevailed here in the name of Hindu religion. Al Barouni, the Muslim scholar, who was here in the early part of the 11th century, used the same term ‘Hindu’ to denote the people and their beliefs. Through Persian and Arabic
that word reached Europe. Thus all the people of India became followers of the Hindu religion, which does not find mention in any ancient work of the land. The impression that Sankaracharya’s work strengthened the society deserves close scrutiny. Forces which arrived subsequently from outside were able to establish supremacy probably because the divisions created by the caste system had weakened the society. Today, the freedom that was granted to Christianity, Judaism and Islam in Kerala is cited as proof of the liberal attitude of the Hindus and the secular traditions of the land. But these religions must have arrived when the region was under Buddhist-Jain influence.
We often accuse the British of using the ‘divide and rule’ strategy. The truth is that since the society was divided even before they arrived, there was no need for them to divide. The system of modern education, which the British introduced, could have helped the Hindus and the Muslims, who were following separate systems, to evolve into a unified community. But the two groups did not take to the new system at the same time. By the time the Muslims were ready to take to English education, the advanced sections of the Hindus had already established a firm grip on the colonial administrative machinery.
Gandhiji had recognized the need to bring together the Indians, who were standing on different levels, while working in South Africa. He took up the issue of restoration of the Caliph, raised by a section of the Muslims, in the belief that it will help unite the country against the British and bring the Muslims close to the Congress movement. It probably did more harm than good. It strengthened the conservative elements of Muslim society and in course of time distanced liberals like MA Jinnah and MC Chagla from the Congress movement.
Jinnah was already a front-ranking young leader of the Congress when Gandhi returned from South Africa. In 10 years, Gandhi captured the Congress. Jinnah, who was gradually thrown behind during this period, could find only one reason for his defeat: Gandhi was a Hindu. On his part, Gandhi saw not Jinnah, but Maulana Mohammed Ali, as the leader who could bring the Muslims close to the Congress. When the Muslim League was formed, Jinnah did not show any great interest in it. When Chaudhuri Rahmat Ali put forward the concept of Pakistan, he saw it as a mad idea. On leaving the Congress, he withdrew from national politics and moved to England. He returned later at the invitation of the League to fulfil the historic mission of becoming the founder of Pakistan. He argued that Hindus and Muslims are different nations. He countered the argument that both shared the same history by pointing out that ‘our heroes are different’. He added, ‘Our dress, language, food are all different.’
People on either side of the international borders consider Jinnah as the father of the two-nation theory. But even before him, VD Savarkar, the freedom fighter and exponent of Hindutva politics, had outlined the idea that Hindus and Muslims constitute separate nations. Today, Savarkar’s portrait along with Gandhiki’s in Parliament House. The circumstances in which the Congress, which had rejected the two-nation theory from the outset, and Gandhi, who had said ‘Over my dead body’, gave their nod to the formation of Pakistan are yet to be evaluated truthfully. Many have suggested that the generation of Jawaharlal Nehru, which was getting on in age, was in a hurry to assume power. But what became decisive was Jinnah’s thereat of a civil war in case the British left without conceding Pakistan. Echoing Churchill’s World War II speech, he said, ‘We will fight in every village, we will fight in every street’. The massacre on the Direct Action Day, observed in response to his exhortation, showed that the threat could not be lightly dismissed. As soon as Pakistan became a reality, Jinnah declared that the Hindus and the Muslims would be equal citizens there. But it was too late by then. The communal division that he had promoted with a political motive inevitably made Pakistan a Muslim state. Although India chose the path of secularism, the Hindutva forces did not give up the two-nation theory. They used the cloak of cultural nationalism to hide the communalism behind the Hindu state demand. The civil war that the Congress wished to avert did not go away. It has raised its heads many times in the form of India-Pakistan wars or Hindu-Muslim clashes. The truth is that the Congress and the other secular parties are not able to deal with communalism effectively at the political level even now. Their approach generally is to make temporary accommodations with it. All parties are always ready to make a compromise with communalism if they think it will help them in the elections. This circumstance imparts strength and courage to communal forces.
India now faces challenge from communal forces at two levels. On one side are external organizations working in the country directly or through proxies. On the other are local organizations. The activities of the former are immediately recognizable as terrorism. Those of the latter are often treated as mere law and order problems. Basically both are equally dangerous for the existence of a modern, secular and democratic society. The Kashmir issue, which has been there from the early days of Independence, creates a situation favourable for the activities of external forces. In a sense, it is a remainder of Partition. Pakistan, created on the basis of the theory that Muslims constitute a separate nation, cannot easily reconcile itself to a situation where a Muslim majority region is not part of it. Equally India, which rejects that theory, cannot accept the argument that it must become part of Pakistan merely because Muslims are in a majority there. Like other disputed territories on international borders, Kashmir’s place will ultimately be decided on the basis of the relative strength of the countries concerned. Kashmir was quiet when the war that resulted in the separation of Bangladesh left Pakistan weak. It became a scene of trouble again as a result of developments within the country and outside.
When we look at the history of communal conflicts outside Kashmir, we find local reasons behind most of them. An individual or group with a grievance incites communal feelings as reaction or reprisal and that leads to violence. After the Sangh Parivar demolished the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya one and a half decades ago, to be precise, on December 6, 1992, a big change occurred. That event was neither local nor incidental. The Parivar organizations had sent volunteers to pull down the mosque after raising the communal temperature through a nationwide campaign, raising the demand for a Rama temple. The event evoked strong protests within the country and outside. Following it, the Centre dismissed the State governments which were under the control of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Except in one State, the party was not able to come back to power in the elections that followed. This shows that the action was not acceptable to the majority of Hindus. Howsoever attractive the idea of a temple at the place said to be Rama’s birthplace may be, how can any good person, whatever be his religion, agree to the destruction of another place of worship?
In the action against Bhindranwale and his associates who had taken shelter in the Golden Temple, the Akal Takht, where they were camping, was destroyed. The entry of soldiers into the temple and the demolition of the structure saddened and angered the Sikhs. The psychological impact of that event could be seen in those days on the face of a Sikh living in the remotest part of the country. Babri Masjid may mot mean as much to the Muslim as the Golden Temple does to the Sikh, but the impact of the Ayodhya event on the Muslim mind was comparable to that of the Amritsar event on the Sikh mind. Both events questioned the identity of the concerned people. One prompted the Sikhs and the other prompted the Muslims to ask themselves whether they are in fact equal citizens.
There are reasons to believe that some of the recent acts of violence in the country are part of a series that began with the Sangh Parivar’s demolition of Babri Masjid. But there are also reasons to doubt whether Muslim terrorists are in fact responsible for all the acts the authorities have attributed to them. The Central government was not able to convince a High Court judge that the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) was engaged in terrorist activities. The government has now approached the Supreme Court against the judge’s decision.
As many as 137 persons were killed in the explosions that rocked Mumbai on July 11, 2006. In the charge-sheet filed in the court, the police had said that some Pakistanis were among those responsible for the blasts. Now, after two years, the police says they were the work of former SIMI activists from Azamgarh district of Uttar Pradesh. The evidence linking SIMI and Azamgarh with violence is the contribution of the Gujarat police. There is political influence on the police in most States. But no police is perhaps as contaminated as that Gujarat. It has the tradition of having implicated even a judge in a false case. It was the Supreme Court’s intervention that saved him. Instances of the police bumping off persons in custody and announcing that they died in encounters have occurred in many States including Kerala. In some States there are police officers who are known as encounter specialists. There have been allegations that some of them even work as hired killers. An IPS officer, who was a favourite of the Chief Minister, is now on trial in for shooting Sohrabuddin and his wife after the Gujarat police took them into custody. The way the police in that State handled the Godhra incident and the ethnic riots that followed invited adverse references from the National Human Rights Commission. The Supreme Court ordered transfer of riot cases to courts outside Gujarat. Information that has come to light through the Tehelka investigations show that a very dangerous politician-police nexus exists in that State. Without large-scale purification, it is not possible to expect satisfactory performance from the Gujarat police, which is contaminated by communal poison.
It was after the Delhi police picked up the Gujarat police’s SIMI-Azamgarh theory that the dubious Jamia Nagar encounter took place. The media also played a role in that development. The police staged the Jamia Nagar programme and improved its image at a time when it was under constant attack for not apprehending those responsible for the serial explosions. There were complaints about the Union Home Minister too. Shivraj Patil could not ignore them since the Congress is in power in Delhi State. The Delhi police decided to follow the Gujarat police even before the police in BJP-ruled Rajasthan did. Often, the media has also joined, knowingly or otherwise, the Sangh Parivar strategy of wholesale alienation of the country’s Muslims. Danger is to be expected when television channels with their eyes on ratings and the political parties with their eyes on elections come together.
The chain reaction to the Babri Masjid episode helps us understand how Hindu and Muslim communalism help each other grow. Muslim communalists used the demolition of the mosque for their own purposes. When the anger aroused by it found expression in the form of serial blasts, Hindu communalists used it for their own purposes. Thus both grew.
The attack on Christians in Orissa and Karnataka indicate that the Sangh Parivar has decided to open new battle-fronts against the minorities with an eye to the elections. When churches were attacked in Karnataka, and the trouble extended to Kasergode in Kerala, the governments intervened and were able to control the trouble quickly. But, as these lines are being written, weeks later, violence is still raging in Orissa. The State government having failed to maintain law and order, the Centre has the duty to invoke the powers vested in it under the Constitution and bring the situation under control. The Supreme Court has criticized the misuse of the special powers in this regard on several occasions. This should not dissuade the Centre from discharging its constitutional responsibility.
The Sangh Parivar’s words and deeds show that its leaders have still not recovered from the impact of the blow suffered by their forbears centuries ago. All traditions contain both good and bad elements. That they have not been able to internalize the good elements is evident from the fact that tolerance, the noblest part of Indian tradition, is totally alien to them. This is not a problem that can be remedied quickly. But it must be possible to put a quick end to their acts which challenge the rule of law. This can be done if the secular parties overcome the tendency to act with short-term interests in view. For, the good elements of our traditions still reflect strongly in the public mind.
Based on an article in Malayalam published in Mathrubhumi weekly’s issue dated
October 19, 2008
‘Shouldn’t you be going to Pakistan?’ I asked. I thought that was the right thing for him to do as a citizen of Pakistan. ‘You can say that,’ he said. ‘Twenty-five years ago I decided to become a Pakistani. I came here and remained here, telling myself this is my country. Now I have become an alien here. If I go to West Pakistan, what is the guarantee that the same thing will not happen there. After all, I don’t belong there either.’ His mother and brothers were living in Jamshedpur at the time. He believed he would be safe there.
When ‘Mathrubhumi’ correspondent VK Madhavan Kutty reached Dhaka, he located Rahim, a Malayalee businessman. Rahim invited me to his house along with Madhavan Kutty. There we met another Malayalee, Nizamuddin. Rahim, of Thalasseri, and Nizamuddin, of Kollam, were customs officials in Madras at the time of Partition. As Muslims in Indian government service they had the opportunity to opt for either of the two countries. Knowing that once the Hindus above them were out of the way they could move up fast, both opted for Pakistan. All those who went from Bengal and adjoining provinces belonged to the East Pakistan cadre and those from the other provinces of India to the West Pakistan cadre. To qualify for a special allowance, Rahim and Nizamuddin, who belonged to the West Pakistan cadre, opted to work in East Pakistan. Thus they reached Dhaka. Rahim later resigned the job and took up the agency of a typewriter company. Along with a professor of Dhaka University, he developed a Bengali typewriter. That earned him a special place in Bengali cultural circles. Nizamuddin became the Secretary of the Dhaka Club. The club was a favourite haunt of high-ranking army officers. As a friend of Pakistani military officers, he became persona non grata to Bengalis. Fearing for his life, he took shelter in Rahim’s house with his family.
While we were talking in Rahim’s drawing room, Nizamuddin’s daughter walked into the room. Unmindful of the presence of strangers, she went up to her father and said, ‘Daddy, let us go to Kollam’ Quivering behind closed doors and pondering about her uncertain future, that girl, who was a student of the Dhaka Medical College, the one place that struck her as safe was Kollam, which she had visited once or twice.
The sad characters in these real-life stories were people who went with their co-religionists when the country was divided on the basis of religion. Suddenly they became aliens in the land which they had thought of as home for many years. They were still amidst co-religionists. When language became more important than religion, as people who speak a different language they became aliens. How weak is the base on which the sense of identity that we cherish in our minds stands!
Throughout history, all over the world, people have become alienated in this manner. In the recent past we saw neighbours killing each other in parts of the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. This is a story which has repeated itself in our own subcontinent several times. Often such a situation is created by circumstances beyond our control. But it can also happen as a result of the work of interested parties with evil motives. Whether under the pressure of circumstances or due to conscious efforts, often religion and politics become partners in the process. When the two are mixed, we get a dangerous mixture.
The terrorist activities that occur in India from time to time cannot be seen in isolation from such activities elsewhere in the world. However, they have a different social and political background. Also, they have roots that run deep in history. There is evidence to show that there was a long ideological struggle in this subcontinent between the Buddhist-Jain stream that saw all human beings as one and the Vedic stream that sought to put human beings in different compartments. According to the widely held current belief, 10 or 12 centuries ago, a movement led by Sankaracharya exterminated Buddhism, which was already on the decline, and established Hindu supremacy. History texts tell you that Sankaracharya was born at Kaladi in Kerala and that he lived from 788 to 820 AD. These are the findings given towards the end of the 19th century by the then Dewan of Mysore, Sesha Iyer, in response to a request from the Sankara Mutt at Sringeri to help settle the prevailing differences of opinion on the Acharya’s birthplace and period. Sesha Iyer, who hailed from Kerala, reached his conclusions relying upon the heroic tales by Sankaracharya’s disciples and the traditions of Namboodiri Brahmins of Kerala. Since he showed a sense of realism that was lacking in the Acharya’s followers, historians accepted his findings. It is worth recalling here that Indians were not aware of Emperor Asoka until the 19th century and of the Indus Valley civilization until the 20th century.
Although precise information is not available, it is certain that the Indian subcontinent witnessed some major changes during the period when Sankaracharya’s influence is believed to have held sway. One of them was the unification of the many systems of belief and streams of thought that prevailed here in the name of Hindu religion. Al Barouni, the Muslim scholar, who was here in the early part of the 11th century, used the same term ‘Hindu’ to denote the people and their beliefs. Through Persian and Arabic
that word reached Europe. Thus all the people of India became followers of the Hindu religion, which does not find mention in any ancient work of the land. The impression that Sankaracharya’s work strengthened the society deserves close scrutiny. Forces which arrived subsequently from outside were able to establish supremacy probably because the divisions created by the caste system had weakened the society. Today, the freedom that was granted to Christianity, Judaism and Islam in Kerala is cited as proof of the liberal attitude of the Hindus and the secular traditions of the land. But these religions must have arrived when the region was under Buddhist-Jain influence.
We often accuse the British of using the ‘divide and rule’ strategy. The truth is that since the society was divided even before they arrived, there was no need for them to divide. The system of modern education, which the British introduced, could have helped the Hindus and the Muslims, who were following separate systems, to evolve into a unified community. But the two groups did not take to the new system at the same time. By the time the Muslims were ready to take to English education, the advanced sections of the Hindus had already established a firm grip on the colonial administrative machinery.
Gandhiji had recognized the need to bring together the Indians, who were standing on different levels, while working in South Africa. He took up the issue of restoration of the Caliph, raised by a section of the Muslims, in the belief that it will help unite the country against the British and bring the Muslims close to the Congress movement. It probably did more harm than good. It strengthened the conservative elements of Muslim society and in course of time distanced liberals like MA Jinnah and MC Chagla from the Congress movement.
Jinnah was already a front-ranking young leader of the Congress when Gandhi returned from South Africa. In 10 years, Gandhi captured the Congress. Jinnah, who was gradually thrown behind during this period, could find only one reason for his defeat: Gandhi was a Hindu. On his part, Gandhi saw not Jinnah, but Maulana Mohammed Ali, as the leader who could bring the Muslims close to the Congress. When the Muslim League was formed, Jinnah did not show any great interest in it. When Chaudhuri Rahmat Ali put forward the concept of Pakistan, he saw it as a mad idea. On leaving the Congress, he withdrew from national politics and moved to England. He returned later at the invitation of the League to fulfil the historic mission of becoming the founder of Pakistan. He argued that Hindus and Muslims are different nations. He countered the argument that both shared the same history by pointing out that ‘our heroes are different’. He added, ‘Our dress, language, food are all different.’
People on either side of the international borders consider Jinnah as the father of the two-nation theory. But even before him, VD Savarkar, the freedom fighter and exponent of Hindutva politics, had outlined the idea that Hindus and Muslims constitute separate nations. Today, Savarkar’s portrait along with Gandhiki’s in Parliament House. The circumstances in which the Congress, which had rejected the two-nation theory from the outset, and Gandhi, who had said ‘Over my dead body’, gave their nod to the formation of Pakistan are yet to be evaluated truthfully. Many have suggested that the generation of Jawaharlal Nehru, which was getting on in age, was in a hurry to assume power. But what became decisive was Jinnah’s thereat of a civil war in case the British left without conceding Pakistan. Echoing Churchill’s World War II speech, he said, ‘We will fight in every village, we will fight in every street’. The massacre on the Direct Action Day, observed in response to his exhortation, showed that the threat could not be lightly dismissed. As soon as Pakistan became a reality, Jinnah declared that the Hindus and the Muslims would be equal citizens there. But it was too late by then. The communal division that he had promoted with a political motive inevitably made Pakistan a Muslim state. Although India chose the path of secularism, the Hindutva forces did not give up the two-nation theory. They used the cloak of cultural nationalism to hide the communalism behind the Hindu state demand. The civil war that the Congress wished to avert did not go away. It has raised its heads many times in the form of India-Pakistan wars or Hindu-Muslim clashes. The truth is that the Congress and the other secular parties are not able to deal with communalism effectively at the political level even now. Their approach generally is to make temporary accommodations with it. All parties are always ready to make a compromise with communalism if they think it will help them in the elections. This circumstance imparts strength and courage to communal forces.
India now faces challenge from communal forces at two levels. On one side are external organizations working in the country directly or through proxies. On the other are local organizations. The activities of the former are immediately recognizable as terrorism. Those of the latter are often treated as mere law and order problems. Basically both are equally dangerous for the existence of a modern, secular and democratic society. The Kashmir issue, which has been there from the early days of Independence, creates a situation favourable for the activities of external forces. In a sense, it is a remainder of Partition. Pakistan, created on the basis of the theory that Muslims constitute a separate nation, cannot easily reconcile itself to a situation where a Muslim majority region is not part of it. Equally India, which rejects that theory, cannot accept the argument that it must become part of Pakistan merely because Muslims are in a majority there. Like other disputed territories on international borders, Kashmir’s place will ultimately be decided on the basis of the relative strength of the countries concerned. Kashmir was quiet when the war that resulted in the separation of Bangladesh left Pakistan weak. It became a scene of trouble again as a result of developments within the country and outside.
When we look at the history of communal conflicts outside Kashmir, we find local reasons behind most of them. An individual or group with a grievance incites communal feelings as reaction or reprisal and that leads to violence. After the Sangh Parivar demolished the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya one and a half decades ago, to be precise, on December 6, 1992, a big change occurred. That event was neither local nor incidental. The Parivar organizations had sent volunteers to pull down the mosque after raising the communal temperature through a nationwide campaign, raising the demand for a Rama temple. The event evoked strong protests within the country and outside. Following it, the Centre dismissed the State governments which were under the control of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Except in one State, the party was not able to come back to power in the elections that followed. This shows that the action was not acceptable to the majority of Hindus. Howsoever attractive the idea of a temple at the place said to be Rama’s birthplace may be, how can any good person, whatever be his religion, agree to the destruction of another place of worship?
In the action against Bhindranwale and his associates who had taken shelter in the Golden Temple, the Akal Takht, where they were camping, was destroyed. The entry of soldiers into the temple and the demolition of the structure saddened and angered the Sikhs. The psychological impact of that event could be seen in those days on the face of a Sikh living in the remotest part of the country. Babri Masjid may mot mean as much to the Muslim as the Golden Temple does to the Sikh, but the impact of the Ayodhya event on the Muslim mind was comparable to that of the Amritsar event on the Sikh mind. Both events questioned the identity of the concerned people. One prompted the Sikhs and the other prompted the Muslims to ask themselves whether they are in fact equal citizens.
There are reasons to believe that some of the recent acts of violence in the country are part of a series that began with the Sangh Parivar’s demolition of Babri Masjid. But there are also reasons to doubt whether Muslim terrorists are in fact responsible for all the acts the authorities have attributed to them. The Central government was not able to convince a High Court judge that the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) was engaged in terrorist activities. The government has now approached the Supreme Court against the judge’s decision.
As many as 137 persons were killed in the explosions that rocked Mumbai on July 11, 2006. In the charge-sheet filed in the court, the police had said that some Pakistanis were among those responsible for the blasts. Now, after two years, the police says they were the work of former SIMI activists from Azamgarh district of Uttar Pradesh. The evidence linking SIMI and Azamgarh with violence is the contribution of the Gujarat police. There is political influence on the police in most States. But no police is perhaps as contaminated as that Gujarat. It has the tradition of having implicated even a judge in a false case. It was the Supreme Court’s intervention that saved him. Instances of the police bumping off persons in custody and announcing that they died in encounters have occurred in many States including Kerala. In some States there are police officers who are known as encounter specialists. There have been allegations that some of them even work as hired killers. An IPS officer, who was a favourite of the Chief Minister, is now on trial in for shooting Sohrabuddin and his wife after the Gujarat police took them into custody. The way the police in that State handled the Godhra incident and the ethnic riots that followed invited adverse references from the National Human Rights Commission. The Supreme Court ordered transfer of riot cases to courts outside Gujarat. Information that has come to light through the Tehelka investigations show that a very dangerous politician-police nexus exists in that State. Without large-scale purification, it is not possible to expect satisfactory performance from the Gujarat police, which is contaminated by communal poison.
It was after the Delhi police picked up the Gujarat police’s SIMI-Azamgarh theory that the dubious Jamia Nagar encounter took place. The media also played a role in that development. The police staged the Jamia Nagar programme and improved its image at a time when it was under constant attack for not apprehending those responsible for the serial explosions. There were complaints about the Union Home Minister too. Shivraj Patil could not ignore them since the Congress is in power in Delhi State. The Delhi police decided to follow the Gujarat police even before the police in BJP-ruled Rajasthan did. Often, the media has also joined, knowingly or otherwise, the Sangh Parivar strategy of wholesale alienation of the country’s Muslims. Danger is to be expected when television channels with their eyes on ratings and the political parties with their eyes on elections come together.
The chain reaction to the Babri Masjid episode helps us understand how Hindu and Muslim communalism help each other grow. Muslim communalists used the demolition of the mosque for their own purposes. When the anger aroused by it found expression in the form of serial blasts, Hindu communalists used it for their own purposes. Thus both grew.
The attack on Christians in Orissa and Karnataka indicate that the Sangh Parivar has decided to open new battle-fronts against the minorities with an eye to the elections. When churches were attacked in Karnataka, and the trouble extended to Kasergode in Kerala, the governments intervened and were able to control the trouble quickly. But, as these lines are being written, weeks later, violence is still raging in Orissa. The State government having failed to maintain law and order, the Centre has the duty to invoke the powers vested in it under the Constitution and bring the situation under control. The Supreme Court has criticized the misuse of the special powers in this regard on several occasions. This should not dissuade the Centre from discharging its constitutional responsibility.
The Sangh Parivar’s words and deeds show that its leaders have still not recovered from the impact of the blow suffered by their forbears centuries ago. All traditions contain both good and bad elements. That they have not been able to internalize the good elements is evident from the fact that tolerance, the noblest part of Indian tradition, is totally alien to them. This is not a problem that can be remedied quickly. But it must be possible to put a quick end to their acts which challenge the rule of law. This can be done if the secular parties overcome the tendency to act with short-term interests in view. For, the good elements of our traditions still reflect strongly in the public mind.
Based on an article in Malayalam published in Mathrubhumi weekly’s issue dated
October 19, 2008
13 October, 2008
Politics of Terror: CNN-IBN reports
Two reports telecast by CNN-IBN on the Politics of Terror deserve attention. Videos of these are available at the channel's site. I am providing links to them.
One report, titled "How saffron terror outfits spread agenda of hate", refers to
rabid write-ups that endorse the Bajrang Dal's violent campaign against Christians.
The other, titled "Politics of terror: Parties take poll position", discusses the electoral calculations behind the demand for a ban on the Bajrang Dal.
One report, titled "How saffron terror outfits spread agenda of hate", refers to
rabid write-ups that endorse the Bajrang Dal's violent campaign against Christians.
The other, titled "Politics of terror: Parties take poll position", discusses the electoral calculations behind the demand for a ban on the Bajrang Dal.
11 October, 2008
Writers voice concern over attacks on Christians
We write to express our anguish and outrage at the continuing brutalities visited upon Christian communities and places of worship in Orissa and Karnataka, and elsewhere in India, as well as at the pusillanimous attitude of our political leaders towards the perpetrators of these atrocities.
While the police have stood by and watched churches being desecrated and acts of assault and rape carried out, the Central Government has reacted vigorously only after representatives of the European Union expressed their concern. The perceived damage to India's international image should not be a greater concern than the actual damage that such violence causes to the inclusive, multi-religious and multi-ethnic character of Indian society.
This violence is a failure of our political institutions and of civil society. It is a consequence of our failure to uphold the principles of the rule of law, mutual understanding, and civil dialogue. Eventually, such violence does not remain confined to a few clearly targeted victims. Rather, it spreads to engulf and destroy the entire society that spawns it, as is evident in neighbouring Pakistan and Sri Lanka, for instance.
The worst contributors to this scenario are politicians who dream of electoral victory at the cost of social catastrophe. The powerful ideal of 'unity in diversity', which has held this country together for six decades, has been seriously imperilled by the use of religious and ethnic prejudice as a political weapon. Intolerance of those different from ourselves, and the abandoning of reasoned discussion to deal with differences, spells the end of the India for which the freedom struggle was waged.
More and more of us must come out and say clearly that we do not share the dreams of these cynical opportunists. Their India is not the India we dream of. The India we dream of is a just society, not an aggressive power.
We call upon the Indian Government to ensure that hate speech is outlawed from the domain of public discourse. We also call upon the Indian Government to outlaw those political parties which, directly or through their cohorts, promote communal discord and encourage violence. The rule of law implies that every citizen's life is sacred. Let the law act decisively to punish those who perpetrate the appalling crimes of pogrom and murder.
Girish Karnad
Salman Rushdie
Amitav Ghosh
Vikram Seth
Ramachandra Guha
Kiran Nagarkar
Amit Chaudhuri
Mukul Kesavan
Suketu Mehta
Ranjit Hoskote
Arundhathi Subramaniam
Sampurna Chattarji
Nancy Adajania
Shobhana Bhattacharji
Romesh Bhattacharji
Sridala Swami
THE PEN ALL-INDIA CENTRE
While the police have stood by and watched churches being desecrated and acts of assault and rape carried out, the Central Government has reacted vigorously only after representatives of the European Union expressed their concern. The perceived damage to India's international image should not be a greater concern than the actual damage that such violence causes to the inclusive, multi-religious and multi-ethnic character of Indian society.
This violence is a failure of our political institutions and of civil society. It is a consequence of our failure to uphold the principles of the rule of law, mutual understanding, and civil dialogue. Eventually, such violence does not remain confined to a few clearly targeted victims. Rather, it spreads to engulf and destroy the entire society that spawns it, as is evident in neighbouring Pakistan and Sri Lanka, for instance.
The worst contributors to this scenario are politicians who dream of electoral victory at the cost of social catastrophe. The powerful ideal of 'unity in diversity', which has held this country together for six decades, has been seriously imperilled by the use of religious and ethnic prejudice as a political weapon. Intolerance of those different from ourselves, and the abandoning of reasoned discussion to deal with differences, spells the end of the India for which the freedom struggle was waged.
More and more of us must come out and say clearly that we do not share the dreams of these cynical opportunists. Their India is not the India we dream of. The India we dream of is a just society, not an aggressive power.
We call upon the Indian Government to ensure that hate speech is outlawed from the domain of public discourse. We also call upon the Indian Government to outlaw those political parties which, directly or through their cohorts, promote communal discord and encourage violence. The rule of law implies that every citizen's life is sacred. Let the law act decisively to punish those who perpetrate the appalling crimes of pogrom and murder.
Girish Karnad
Salman Rushdie
Amitav Ghosh
Vikram Seth
Ramachandra Guha
Kiran Nagarkar
Amit Chaudhuri
Mukul Kesavan
Suketu Mehta
Ranjit Hoskote
Arundhathi Subramaniam
Sampurna Chattarji
Nancy Adajania
Shobhana Bhattacharji
Romesh Bhattacharji
Sridala Swami
THE PEN ALL-INDIA CENTRE
10 October, 2008
Experts say Arabs may pull their economies away from US
Oil-rich Arab countries, which until recently were smug about being insulated from the financial debacle on Wall Street, are starting to worry.
Analysts are predicting that they are sure to increase regulations and start pulling their economies away from the United States.
See New America Media report "Middle East Hit by U.S. Financial Crisis" by Shane Bauer, a journalist and photographer based in the Middle East.
Analysts are predicting that they are sure to increase regulations and start pulling their economies away from the United States.
See New America Media report "Middle East Hit by U.S. Financial Crisis" by Shane Bauer, a journalist and photographer based in the Middle East.
09 October, 2008
Two Conventions against Communalism and Fascism
Plans for two conventions to be held in New Delhi in October have been announced. One is a Convention against Communalism and Assault on Democracy. The other is a National Convention against Fascism.
The CONVENTION AGAINST COMMUNALISM AND ASSAULT ON DEMOCRACY is to be held on OCTOBER 18, 2008 from 3.30 PM TO 7PM at MAVLANKAR AUDITORIUM RAFI MARG, NEW DELHI-110001.
The following is a note circulated by the organizers:
It is clear today that our secular and democratic republic faces a challenge regarding its very character. The Bajrang Dal and the VHP, with the open support of the BJP -- and in the states it is ruling with the help of the state machinery -- have mounted a savage attack on the Christians and Muslims. Tens of thousands are in refugee camps
in Orissa and Assam. Churches are being attacked in Karnataka. Communal violence, clashes and hatred between communities are now a preparation for the elections.
The secular forces and the civil society need to intervene if we are to resist these attacks. Towards building a broad initiative on this issue, we are calling for a convention. Convention against Communalism and Assault On Democracy.
The following are listed to speak at the convention:
Shri Prakash Karat, General Secretary, CPI(M)
Shri A.B. Bardhan, General Secretary, CPI
Shri Tahir Mehmood, Former Chairman, Minority Commission
Archbishop Vincent Concecao
Shri Mushirul Hasan, Vice Chancellor Jamia Millia Islamia University
Shri H.D. Deve Gowda, President Janata Dal(S)
Shri Yerran Naidu, Telegu Desam
Shri Kuldip Nayyar, Eminent Journalist
Shri S.P. Shukla, Former Secretary, Ministry of Finance.
Kumari Mayavati, Leader of the BSP and Chief Minister of UP is also
being requested to speak. The organizers are awaiting her confirmation.
The following are the organizers:
Seema Mustafa, Anu Chenoy, Kamal Chenoy, SP Shukla, Zafrul Islam Khan, Shahid Siddiqui, John Dayal, Zafar Agha, P.M.S. Grewal, Amarjit Kaur, Valson Thampu, Zakia Jowher, Kamala Bhasin, Asghar Wajahat, Vivan Sundaram, Danish Ali ,Vijender Sharma, Bijulal MV, Benny K, Vimalbhai, Dinesh Varsheny, Sagari Chabra, Vincent Manoharan, Sudhir Kumar, SQ Ilyas, MJ Vijayan Sehba Farooqui, Albeena Shakil, Sidheshwar Shukla, Ravindranathan, Rohit, Ginu Zacharia, Shaswati Mazumdar, Kewal Goswami, Rachpal Kaur, Dheerendra
Sharma, Arjumand Ara, Ramanand, S.S.. Sisodia, Mahesh Rathi, Jaishree, Prabir Purkayastha and others.
The NATIONAL CONVENTION AGAINST FASCISM is to be held on OCTOBER 25-26, 2008 in NEW DELHI
The following is a communication from ANHAD, which is organizing this convention:
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@gmail.com
The following groups have responded to the sms message and already endorsed Anhad's call for the convention:
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
The CONVENTION AGAINST COMMUNALISM AND ASSAULT ON DEMOCRACY is to be held on OCTOBER 18, 2008 from 3.30 PM TO 7PM at MAVLANKAR AUDITORIUM RAFI MARG, NEW DELHI-110001.
The following is a note circulated by the organizers:
It is clear today that our secular and democratic republic faces a challenge regarding its very character. The Bajrang Dal and the VHP, with the open support of the BJP -- and in the states it is ruling with the help of the state machinery -- have mounted a savage attack on the Christians and Muslims. Tens of thousands are in refugee camps
in Orissa and Assam. Churches are being attacked in Karnataka. Communal violence, clashes and hatred between communities are now a preparation for the elections.
The secular forces and the civil society need to intervene if we are to resist these attacks. Towards building a broad initiative on this issue, we are calling for a convention. Convention against Communalism and Assault On Democracy.
The following are listed to speak at the convention:
Shri Prakash Karat, General Secretary, CPI(M)
Shri A.B. Bardhan, General Secretary, CPI
Shri Tahir Mehmood, Former Chairman, Minority Commission
Archbishop Vincent Concecao
Shri Mushirul Hasan, Vice Chancellor Jamia Millia Islamia University
Shri H.D. Deve Gowda, President Janata Dal(S)
Shri Yerran Naidu, Telegu Desam
Shri Kuldip Nayyar, Eminent Journalist
Shri S.P. Shukla, Former Secretary, Ministry of Finance.
Kumari Mayavati, Leader of the BSP and Chief Minister of UP is also
being requested to speak. The organizers are awaiting her confirmation.
The following are the organizers:
Seema Mustafa, Anu Chenoy, Kamal Chenoy, SP Shukla, Zafrul Islam Khan, Shahid Siddiqui, John Dayal, Zafar Agha, P.M.S. Grewal, Amarjit Kaur, Valson Thampu, Zakia Jowher, Kamala Bhasin, Asghar Wajahat, Vivan Sundaram, Danish Ali ,Vijender Sharma, Bijulal MV, Benny K, Vimalbhai, Dinesh Varsheny, Sagari Chabra, Vincent Manoharan, Sudhir Kumar, SQ Ilyas, MJ Vijayan Sehba Farooqui, Albeena Shakil, Sidheshwar Shukla, Ravindranathan, Rohit, Ginu Zacharia, Shaswati Mazumdar, Kewal Goswami, Rachpal Kaur, Dheerendra
Sharma, Arjumand Ara, Ramanand, S.S.. Sisodia, Mahesh Rathi, Jaishree, Prabir Purkayastha and others.
The NATIONAL CONVENTION AGAINST FASCISM is to be held on OCTOBER 25-26, 2008 in NEW DELHI
The following is a communication from ANHAD, which is organizing this convention:
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@gmail.com
The following groups have responded to the sms message and already endorsed Anhad's call for the convention:
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
People's Convention for Democracy and against anti-Muslim Witch-hunt at Azamgarh
The All India Students' Association (AISA), the Revolutionary Youth Association (RYA), the All India Progressive Women's Organisation (AIPWA), the Jan Sanskriti Manch (JSM), the People's Union for Human Rights (PUHR), the CPI(ML) Liberation, and other human rights groups and social organizations based in Azamgarh have decided to organize a People’s Convention for Democracy and against Anyi-Muslim Witch-hunt at Azamgarh on Sunday, October 19, 2008.
The following is the text of a statement issued by them:
Azamgarh, specifically the Muslim community of Azamgarh, has been turned into a byword for 'terrorism' by the state machinery. Even before the Delhi serial blasts and their aftermath, Muslim youth from Azamgarh were being arbitrarily jailed and tortured as 'masterminds' of serial blasts in Uttar Pradesh, without a shred of evidence. Lawyers taking up the cases of such accused young men were beaten up by Sangh Parivar supporters in court premises in UP. At the same time, evidence of involvement of members of Sangh Parivar outfits (at many places in UP as well as in other States) has been wilfully suppressed or ignored by investigative agencies.
Now, after the Delhi blasts, the investigative machinery, aided by large sections of the media, has intensified its targeting of Azamgarh. The minorities of Azamgarh are living in terror, in an atmosphere of sharpened communal polarization and open instigation by communal forces in the region.
Many democratic voices have come forward to challenge the communal common-sense peddled in the name of anti-terrorism. Lawyers, human rights activists, university teachers, and student and youth groups have reached out to the people of Jamia Nagar and Azamgarh, have demanded a judicial enquiry into the Jamia Nagar encounter, and are waging a struggle for fair trial for all those accused of abetting or perpetrating terror.
Meanwhile, even as Manmohan Singh, choking with emotion, sealed the Nuke Deal with the US and declared eternal 'love' (on behalf of 'all of India') for President Bush, bombs explode at regular intervals all over urban India to warn us that we are fast turning into a typical outpost of the US 'empire of terror,' much like our neighbour Pakistan.
The BJP has renewed its clamour for re-enactment of POTA and the Congress, while uncertain about the return of POTA, has promised 'tougher' anti-terror laws. Even beyond the domain of legislation, the competitive anti-terrorist rhetoric of the Congress and the BJP continues to fuel anti-Muslim prejudices across the country. The Sangh brigade is using this environment to the hilt to refuel its communal fascist agenda and anti-minority campaign. The Sangh's campaign of anti-Christian violence has already spread from Orissa to Chhattisgarh and Karnataka, and in U, Sangh outfits are working overtime to whip up anti-Muslim communal frenzy.
In the name of tackling terrorism, the US has imposed a global war on the world. Similarly, in India, the Sangh brigade has been using anti-terrorist rhetoric to intensify its campaign of communal fascist violence. Nothing could pose a bigger threat to India than a combination or convergence of these two ominous trends under the patronage of the state and the ruling classes.
We invite you to stand in solidarity with the people of Azamgarh, send out a strong message that 'Not Azamgarh but America is the 'mastermind' of terrorism,' and defend democracy and people's rights by joining a People's Convention at Azamgarh on October 19 2008.
For more information, the following persons may be contacted:
Kavita Krishnan at kavitakrish73@gmail.com, Phones: 09868112252, 01122481067
K K Pande, kkjanmat@gmail.com, Phone: 09415366520
The following is the text of a statement issued by them:
Azamgarh, specifically the Muslim community of Azamgarh, has been turned into a byword for 'terrorism' by the state machinery. Even before the Delhi serial blasts and their aftermath, Muslim youth from Azamgarh were being arbitrarily jailed and tortured as 'masterminds' of serial blasts in Uttar Pradesh, without a shred of evidence. Lawyers taking up the cases of such accused young men were beaten up by Sangh Parivar supporters in court premises in UP. At the same time, evidence of involvement of members of Sangh Parivar outfits (at many places in UP as well as in other States) has been wilfully suppressed or ignored by investigative agencies.
Now, after the Delhi blasts, the investigative machinery, aided by large sections of the media, has intensified its targeting of Azamgarh. The minorities of Azamgarh are living in terror, in an atmosphere of sharpened communal polarization and open instigation by communal forces in the region.
Many democratic voices have come forward to challenge the communal common-sense peddled in the name of anti-terrorism. Lawyers, human rights activists, university teachers, and student and youth groups have reached out to the people of Jamia Nagar and Azamgarh, have demanded a judicial enquiry into the Jamia Nagar encounter, and are waging a struggle for fair trial for all those accused of abetting or perpetrating terror.
Meanwhile, even as Manmohan Singh, choking with emotion, sealed the Nuke Deal with the US and declared eternal 'love' (on behalf of 'all of India') for President Bush, bombs explode at regular intervals all over urban India to warn us that we are fast turning into a typical outpost of the US 'empire of terror,' much like our neighbour Pakistan.
The BJP has renewed its clamour for re-enactment of POTA and the Congress, while uncertain about the return of POTA, has promised 'tougher' anti-terror laws. Even beyond the domain of legislation, the competitive anti-terrorist rhetoric of the Congress and the BJP continues to fuel anti-Muslim prejudices across the country. The Sangh brigade is using this environment to the hilt to refuel its communal fascist agenda and anti-minority campaign. The Sangh's campaign of anti-Christian violence has already spread from Orissa to Chhattisgarh and Karnataka, and in U, Sangh outfits are working overtime to whip up anti-Muslim communal frenzy.
In the name of tackling terrorism, the US has imposed a global war on the world. Similarly, in India, the Sangh brigade has been using anti-terrorist rhetoric to intensify its campaign of communal fascist violence. Nothing could pose a bigger threat to India than a combination or convergence of these two ominous trends under the patronage of the state and the ruling classes.
We invite you to stand in solidarity with the people of Azamgarh, send out a strong message that 'Not Azamgarh but America is the 'mastermind' of terrorism,' and defend democracy and people's rights by joining a People's Convention at Azamgarh on October 19 2008.
For more information, the following persons may be contacted:
Kavita Krishnan at kavitakrish73@gmail.com, Phones: 09868112252, 01122481067
K K Pande, kkjanmat@gmail.com, Phone: 09415366520
Alienation of Indian Muslims
Mushirul Hasan
Vice-Chancellor, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
08 October, 2008
Countercurrents.org
The extent to which the Indian society is getting polarized along religious lines is very disturbing. If this is the state of affairs almost seven decades after Independence, what might happen a few decades later? This is not the time to attribute responsibility to different parties or communities. This is a moment for self-reflection and for finding out what gives rise to this mindless violence.
The other very disquieting fact is how the electronic media and sections of the Hindi print media have taken upon themselves the responsibility of being the custodian of the nation’s interest. The arrogance and intolerance in their coverage reflects a very ominous trend in the history of journalism. I have experienced this recently. The Jamia encounter in New Delhi was not a big affair, it could have been easily sorted out, but it was turned into a campaign against a university. Students of the Jamia Millia Islamia University were arrested without charge, they were denied access to lawyers and even their parents could not meet them. On top of it the university was blamed and its reputation was attacked. A student of the London School of Economics (LSE) was nabbed very recently by the police — does it mean that the LSE has become a hotbed of terrorism? This is senseless.
The university’s doors are open to non-Muslims; it’s teachers are drawn from all communities. Compare our record with that of other so-called secular universities where Muslims have limited access — Benaras Hindu University, Allahabad University and even Delhi University — then what are we questioning?
I think we have to fight back. We have tolerated this nonsense for far too long. We demonstrate to the people that the media are not trustworthy and that they only sensationalize events. Jamia Millia is a secular institution funded by the Central Government. The question of legal aid is not being looked at from the perspective of a teacher’s responsibility to her students. As the head of the institution, I feel I have an obligation towards my students and I am not using the taxpayer’s money for it. The real issue is of principle. If this had happened to a non-Muslim student, I would have done the same. I am also upholding the rule of law. Why have we forgotten the principle that says that an accused is innocent until proven guilty?
In the ultimate analysis, our society, which has gone through the Khalistan movement and experienced terrorism in the Northeast, must look at these incidents in a more cool-headed manner. You can’t fight it by reacting in a hysterical manner. Our police is becoming more and more politicized and communalized. We haven’t oriented them into becoming the custodians of the secular values enshrined in our constitution. Over the past 10 years, there has been a systematic pattern — Deoband University, an institution with a glorious record, has been targeted. So has Nadvat-ul-Ulema in Lucknow. Attacking the Aligarh University is not new, despite it being a modern institution with its doors open to students of all communities. Is there a pattern in this madness? We need to reflect on these issues. The alienation is very deep and it has to stop. Instead of supporting us, which would also mean supporting an institution committed to secular values, there are attempts to undermine our secular foundations.
We are dealing with a younger generation of Muslims. I believe in liberal, eclectic and pluralist values, but I suspect this vision will not be shared by those who feel insecure and excluded, socially and culturally. Why have the guilty in Gujarat not been punished? Why? Why? Why? Why is the VHP and Bajrang Dal not banned for killing innocent Christians and desecrating their churches?
I regard myself, as do millions of others, as part of the edifice that is called India. The idea of India is my idea. There is no India without me and I will not let that change. We have already taken certain steps to counter subversive ideas that might fracture our secular society. I appeal to civil society and the media to let us live in peace and get on with our simple and innocent job i.e. pursuit of knowledge. There is a limit to what one can tolerate. Nobody dare question our commitment to education, and our loyalty to the Indian Constitution.
Vice-Chancellor, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
08 October, 2008
Countercurrents.org
The extent to which the Indian society is getting polarized along religious lines is very disturbing. If this is the state of affairs almost seven decades after Independence, what might happen a few decades later? This is not the time to attribute responsibility to different parties or communities. This is a moment for self-reflection and for finding out what gives rise to this mindless violence.
The other very disquieting fact is how the electronic media and sections of the Hindi print media have taken upon themselves the responsibility of being the custodian of the nation’s interest. The arrogance and intolerance in their coverage reflects a very ominous trend in the history of journalism. I have experienced this recently. The Jamia encounter in New Delhi was not a big affair, it could have been easily sorted out, but it was turned into a campaign against a university. Students of the Jamia Millia Islamia University were arrested without charge, they were denied access to lawyers and even their parents could not meet them. On top of it the university was blamed and its reputation was attacked. A student of the London School of Economics (LSE) was nabbed very recently by the police — does it mean that the LSE has become a hotbed of terrorism? This is senseless.
The university’s doors are open to non-Muslims; it’s teachers are drawn from all communities. Compare our record with that of other so-called secular universities where Muslims have limited access — Benaras Hindu University, Allahabad University and even Delhi University — then what are we questioning?
I think we have to fight back. We have tolerated this nonsense for far too long. We demonstrate to the people that the media are not trustworthy and that they only sensationalize events. Jamia Millia is a secular institution funded by the Central Government. The question of legal aid is not being looked at from the perspective of a teacher’s responsibility to her students. As the head of the institution, I feel I have an obligation towards my students and I am not using the taxpayer’s money for it. The real issue is of principle. If this had happened to a non-Muslim student, I would have done the same. I am also upholding the rule of law. Why have we forgotten the principle that says that an accused is innocent until proven guilty?
In the ultimate analysis, our society, which has gone through the Khalistan movement and experienced terrorism in the Northeast, must look at these incidents in a more cool-headed manner. You can’t fight it by reacting in a hysterical manner. Our police is becoming more and more politicized and communalized. We haven’t oriented them into becoming the custodians of the secular values enshrined in our constitution. Over the past 10 years, there has been a systematic pattern — Deoband University, an institution with a glorious record, has been targeted. So has Nadvat-ul-Ulema in Lucknow. Attacking the Aligarh University is not new, despite it being a modern institution with its doors open to students of all communities. Is there a pattern in this madness? We need to reflect on these issues. The alienation is very deep and it has to stop. Instead of supporting us, which would also mean supporting an institution committed to secular values, there are attempts to undermine our secular foundations.
We are dealing with a younger generation of Muslims. I believe in liberal, eclectic and pluralist values, but I suspect this vision will not be shared by those who feel insecure and excluded, socially and culturally. Why have the guilty in Gujarat not been punished? Why? Why? Why? Why is the VHP and Bajrang Dal not banned for killing innocent Christians and desecrating their churches?
I regard myself, as do millions of others, as part of the edifice that is called India. The idea of India is my idea. There is no India without me and I will not let that change. We have already taken certain steps to counter subversive ideas that might fracture our secular society. I appeal to civil society and the media to let us live in peace and get on with our simple and innocent job i.e. pursuit of knowledge. There is a limit to what one can tolerate. Nobody dare question our commitment to education, and our loyalty to the Indian Constitution.
An opportunity for China in the US distress
The Wall Street fire-sale has prompted China economic pundits to call on Beijing to avail of the opportunity to acquire stakes in United States financial institutions and further its influence on global financial power, Inter Press Service (IPS) correspondent Antoaneta Bezlova reports from Beijing.
From Mexico to South Africa, investors and strategists are calling on Beijing mandarins to step into the limelight and help determine the new set of financial rules to emerge after the 2008 Wall Street crisis.
"China cannot easily afford to pass up such an opportunity," says Chen Jie, professor of economics at Shanghai Fudan University. "We have been anxiously trying to find investment opportunities for our financial capital but before the crisis there existed a myriad of visible and invisible barriers for Chinese investment overseas, particularly in the United States.’’
The full report can be seen at the Countercurrents.org site
From Mexico to South Africa, investors and strategists are calling on Beijing mandarins to step into the limelight and help determine the new set of financial rules to emerge after the 2008 Wall Street crisis.
"China cannot easily afford to pass up such an opportunity," says Chen Jie, professor of economics at Shanghai Fudan University. "We have been anxiously trying to find investment opportunities for our financial capital but before the crisis there existed a myriad of visible and invisible barriers for Chinese investment overseas, particularly in the United States.’’
The full report can be seen at the Countercurrents.org site
U.S. colleges turn to China for IT training
The United States, faced with a shortage of IT workers, is turning to China to train its students in information technology, says Donal Brown in a report circulated by New America Media. .
American colleges are seeking help from a Chinese scholar to design curricula to train students in the United States in crucial areas of information technology and database administration.
IBM, which made the announcement in September, hopes that this will provide them with a high-tech work force. The courses will also be taught to university students in China, who may be hired by companies like IBM that have prominent enterprises there.
For the rest of the report, please go to NAM site.
American colleges are seeking help from a Chinese scholar to design curricula to train students in the United States in crucial areas of information technology and database administration.
IBM, which made the announcement in September, hopes that this will provide them with a high-tech work force. The courses will also be taught to university students in China, who may be hired by companies like IBM that have prominent enterprises there.
For the rest of the report, please go to NAM site.
08 October, 2008
China Will Look to Rescue Itself, Not the U.S.
by Ying Zhao
News Analysis
New America Media
Editor's Note: Now that the United States has passed the biggest rescue plan in history to bail out its struggling financial industry, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is set to visit China to ask the Chinese government to open their coffers. But this time, getting money from the Chinese will not be as easy. Ying Zhao worked in China as a business reporter before she came to the United States in 2006. She covered Silicon Valley for the China Business News, a Shanghai-based newspaper. She is now studying business journalism at the Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York.
As the U.S. financial industry suffered the biggest turmoil since the 1930s, rumors spread that the Chinese government, which holds about $1 trillion of U.S. debts, had ordered state-owned banks to stop buying American bonds. Although the Chinese government immediately dismissed the rumors, and reaffirmed its confidence in the United States, the rumors are sending out a clear signal: this time, China won’t be a willing rescuer of the United States.
The Bush administration predicted that the federal government’s deficit of the next fiscal year, starting in October, will stand at a historic high of nearly $500 billion. And adding the new $700 billion bailout plan, the United States’ public debt ceiling will be raised to $11.3 trillion from $10.6 trillion. With its vault empty, the administration has to hit up such countries as China and Japan. China, holding the world’s largest foreign reserves of $1.8 trillion, might be the first country Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will visit for money.
In fact, the Wall Street Journal has reported that pressure from China played a role in the U.S. government’s bailout of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the two giant government sponsored enterprises. The two mortgage companies owe China more than $200 billion. By bailing them out, the United States is showing China that the U.S. government is standing ready to guarantee its debt.
Overall, the U.S. debt held by China is the world’s second largest after Japan, according to data from the Treasury. About 45 percent of foreign bonds held by China is related to the United States, according to Jiang Jianqing, chairman of China’s biggest bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). But will China trust the United States as much as it did before the financial crisis? The answer is clearly no.
“We aim to be a strategic investor,” said Jiang. “The ICBC will take good care of its purse, and has no interest in fire sale [of U.S. bonds].” And, he added, “Both China and the world’s financial markets have focused too much on the U.S.”
Meanwhile, China has its own trouble at home: a tumbling stock market, rising inflation and a slowing economy. Instead of gobbling up U.S. bonds, China may use its massive foreign reserves to boost its own economy. Instead of holding U.S. dollars as the dominant foreign asset, the country is very likely to replace them with the Euro, Japanese assets and gold.
What action China will take this time could be determined by China’s policies during Asia’s financial crisis a decade ago. In 1998, the then Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji vowed not to devalue China’s currency, the yuan, to attain an 8 percent growth rate in gross domestic product (growth was 9.3 percent in 1997), and to contain inflation to below 3 percent. By boosting government investment, and at the same time holding a modest monetary policy, Zhu delivered what he promised. Facing similar external challenges this time, it is more than likely that China will take the same course.
China’s two-digit economic growth speed has slowed to around 9 percent in the second quarter of this year. Just two weeks ago, the benchmark Shanghai stock exchange index slumped to below 2,000 points. Meanwhile, inflation rates stay above policy-makers’ comfort level.
Because of declining consumer spending in the United States, one of China’s major export destinations, many Chinese exporters are suffering from shrinking revenue. In provinces such as Guangdong and Zhejiang, some manufacturers have had to declare bankruptcy.
Facing mounting economic challenges, China is making all efforts to stabilize the Chinese economy. Wen Jiabao, China’s incumbent premier, said recently in the World Economic Forum that “the biggest contribution we can make to the world economy under the current circumstances is to maintain China’s strong, stable and relatively fast growth, and avoid big fluctuations.”
China has unveiled a number of initiatives to shore up its stock market and bolster investor confidence. The government used its foreign reserves to purchase shares in three of its largest banks. State-owned enterprises will also be encouraged to buy back their own shares.
To boost the economy, China’s central bank unexpectedly cut its base lending rate on Sept. 15 and lowered the ratio of funds that banks must set aside as reserves. Ting Lu, an economist at Merrill Lynch, said the Chinese government could cut tax and spend more money on infrastructure and housing. That means China will use more money in its domestic development, instead of buying low-yield U.S. bonds.
Also prohibiting China from investing in the United States is China’s inexperience in foreign investment. By putting $3 billion of China’s hard-earned savings into the initial public offering of Blackstone, a U.S. private-equity firm, China suffered the biggest holdings loss, about $1 billion in six months, as Blackstone’s share prices tumbled.
The Chinese government is learning the hard way. It recently abstained from buying a big chunk of shares in Morgan Stanley, a large U.S. investment bank, which allowed a Japanese bank to step in as Morgan Stanley’s rescuer. Going forward, China will become more cautious on its U.S. investments.
However, dumping U.S. assets is also unlikely, as it will only further upset their value and make China lose more money. China, then, is likely to maintain a more neutral position. It will become more scrupulous. But it could also implicitly promise not to dump U.S. assets.
The debate in China over foreign investment isn’t focused on whether it should invest in overseas markets, but on how to invest. China may use its reserves to buy foreclosed real estate in the United States, or make loans to the U.S. government. Or it could buy shares in companies with stable profits. The key is maximizing the revenue, not cleaning up the mess for the United States.
News Analysis
New America Media
Editor's Note: Now that the United States has passed the biggest rescue plan in history to bail out its struggling financial industry, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is set to visit China to ask the Chinese government to open their coffers. But this time, getting money from the Chinese will not be as easy. Ying Zhao worked in China as a business reporter before she came to the United States in 2006. She covered Silicon Valley for the China Business News, a Shanghai-based newspaper. She is now studying business journalism at the Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York.
As the U.S. financial industry suffered the biggest turmoil since the 1930s, rumors spread that the Chinese government, which holds about $1 trillion of U.S. debts, had ordered state-owned banks to stop buying American bonds. Although the Chinese government immediately dismissed the rumors, and reaffirmed its confidence in the United States, the rumors are sending out a clear signal: this time, China won’t be a willing rescuer of the United States.
The Bush administration predicted that the federal government’s deficit of the next fiscal year, starting in October, will stand at a historic high of nearly $500 billion. And adding the new $700 billion bailout plan, the United States’ public debt ceiling will be raised to $11.3 trillion from $10.6 trillion. With its vault empty, the administration has to hit up such countries as China and Japan. China, holding the world’s largest foreign reserves of $1.8 trillion, might be the first country Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will visit for money.
In fact, the Wall Street Journal has reported that pressure from China played a role in the U.S. government’s bailout of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the two giant government sponsored enterprises. The two mortgage companies owe China more than $200 billion. By bailing them out, the United States is showing China that the U.S. government is standing ready to guarantee its debt.
Overall, the U.S. debt held by China is the world’s second largest after Japan, according to data from the Treasury. About 45 percent of foreign bonds held by China is related to the United States, according to Jiang Jianqing, chairman of China’s biggest bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). But will China trust the United States as much as it did before the financial crisis? The answer is clearly no.
“We aim to be a strategic investor,” said Jiang. “The ICBC will take good care of its purse, and has no interest in fire sale [of U.S. bonds].” And, he added, “Both China and the world’s financial markets have focused too much on the U.S.”
Meanwhile, China has its own trouble at home: a tumbling stock market, rising inflation and a slowing economy. Instead of gobbling up U.S. bonds, China may use its massive foreign reserves to boost its own economy. Instead of holding U.S. dollars as the dominant foreign asset, the country is very likely to replace them with the Euro, Japanese assets and gold.
What action China will take this time could be determined by China’s policies during Asia’s financial crisis a decade ago. In 1998, the then Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji vowed not to devalue China’s currency, the yuan, to attain an 8 percent growth rate in gross domestic product (growth was 9.3 percent in 1997), and to contain inflation to below 3 percent. By boosting government investment, and at the same time holding a modest monetary policy, Zhu delivered what he promised. Facing similar external challenges this time, it is more than likely that China will take the same course.
China’s two-digit economic growth speed has slowed to around 9 percent in the second quarter of this year. Just two weeks ago, the benchmark Shanghai stock exchange index slumped to below 2,000 points. Meanwhile, inflation rates stay above policy-makers’ comfort level.
Because of declining consumer spending in the United States, one of China’s major export destinations, many Chinese exporters are suffering from shrinking revenue. In provinces such as Guangdong and Zhejiang, some manufacturers have had to declare bankruptcy.
Facing mounting economic challenges, China is making all efforts to stabilize the Chinese economy. Wen Jiabao, China’s incumbent premier, said recently in the World Economic Forum that “the biggest contribution we can make to the world economy under the current circumstances is to maintain China’s strong, stable and relatively fast growth, and avoid big fluctuations.”
China has unveiled a number of initiatives to shore up its stock market and bolster investor confidence. The government used its foreign reserves to purchase shares in three of its largest banks. State-owned enterprises will also be encouraged to buy back their own shares.
To boost the economy, China’s central bank unexpectedly cut its base lending rate on Sept. 15 and lowered the ratio of funds that banks must set aside as reserves. Ting Lu, an economist at Merrill Lynch, said the Chinese government could cut tax and spend more money on infrastructure and housing. That means China will use more money in its domestic development, instead of buying low-yield U.S. bonds.
Also prohibiting China from investing in the United States is China’s inexperience in foreign investment. By putting $3 billion of China’s hard-earned savings into the initial public offering of Blackstone, a U.S. private-equity firm, China suffered the biggest holdings loss, about $1 billion in six months, as Blackstone’s share prices tumbled.
The Chinese government is learning the hard way. It recently abstained from buying a big chunk of shares in Morgan Stanley, a large U.S. investment bank, which allowed a Japanese bank to step in as Morgan Stanley’s rescuer. Going forward, China will become more cautious on its U.S. investments.
However, dumping U.S. assets is also unlikely, as it will only further upset their value and make China lose more money. China, then, is likely to maintain a more neutral position. It will become more scrupulous. But it could also implicitly promise not to dump U.S. assets.
The debate in China over foreign investment isn’t focused on whether it should invest in overseas markets, but on how to invest. China may use its reserves to buy foreclosed real estate in the United States, or make loans to the U.S. government. Or it could buy shares in companies with stable profits. The key is maximizing the revenue, not cleaning up the mess for the United States.
06 October, 2008
A Consceince Encountered
By Dr Sandeep Pandey
06 October, 2008
Countercurrents.org
I've often been blamed by friends and colleagues for not keeping secrets to myself. It has been my practice to share information with people whenever I feel my conscience burdened. From my experience I can say that whenever I've, under such circumstances, shared the truth, it may have put some people in inconvenient positions but in the long run it proved to be right thing to do. But, I must confess, I've never encountered something as big as this. Till now it has been only very personal things or at the most matters dealing with my friends or colleagues. But the information I possess now is of societal and national significance. I'm revealing it because it can save two lives. I'm quite aware, that in the process, I'm raising a finger at the departments concerned with internal and external security of the country and can possibly attract some punitive action too. But when I weighed the pros and cons of this I was convinced that if by revealing this information lives of two youth can be saved then I must do it. I must take the risk.
The UP Police in a planned joint operation with the army is likely to kill two Kashmiri youth (obviously Muslim), already picked up and in their custody somewhere in Meerut , in an `encounter' with these `dreaded terrorists.' The drama would be enacted in the Lucknow cantonment area, the most plausible location for an anti-national to be encountered in. Two AK-47 guns, already bought from Nepal and brought through the Bahraich route, would be shown to have been recovered from these `terrorists. ' Very high level police officials and Colonels of the Army are involved in planning this Jamia Nagar encounter equivalent of UP level operation. An encounter specialist, posted at the Cantonment Police Station till recently, has been chosen to implement the design. Recently, UP police has been presented in poor light because of contradictory (and competitive) claims made by Delhi and Mumbai police for having arrested terrorists which they claim were responsible for bomb blast incidents in UP. The question raised then is who are the people the UP police has arrested earlier who are being claimed to be responsible for these same incidents. UP police doesn't want to remain behind in the game of bravery now being played by police elsewhere. They are anxious to demonstrate that they too can carry out high profile encounter operations like the one at Jamia Nagar in Delhi . It is a different matter that civil society groups and some media have questioned the bona fides of the Jamia Nagar operation itself and the credibility of the government is at stake.
The objective of the above operation is to bring laurels to UP police. The operation would be justified in the name of national interest. UP is under pressure because it has been projected as the breeding ground for terrorist. The UP police wants to show that it is doing its part in countering terrorism.
If this is true then nothing can be more shameful. Most of the newspaper reading citizens would go along with the police version and not question it in the national interest if such an operation takes place. However, I've decided that my commitment to my nation is in ensuring justice to its citizens or at least questioning what is not just. Killing of innocent citizens in such operations or incidents like hunger deaths and farmer suicides are all government's responsibility and no such incident can be pardoned.
However, if what I've written above is totally based on imagination run wild and doesn't have an iota of truth in it then I'll be most relieved person, because I shudder to think that responsible government institutions could be engaged in such gross things. I obviously apologize to the police and army for having questioned their integrity. But the fact of the matter is that police has lost so much credibility in this country that I thought it fit to bring out the matter in open for the sake of two Kashmiri youth. We hope that not only they will not be `encountered' but no innocent will be subjected to such a fate, ever.
Dr Sandeep Pandey is one of the founders and early volunteers of Asha for Education, New York. He was awarded the 2002 Ramon Magsaysay Award in the Emergent Leadership category for his work towards uplift of the poor and the underprivileged. He is currently Coordinator for Asha-India and devotes time to the Asha Ashram at Lalpur in UP.
He can be contacted at the following address:
Dr. Sandeep Pandey
A-893, Indira Nagar, Lucknow-226016, U.P.
Email: ashaashram@yahoo.com
06 October, 2008
Countercurrents.org
I've often been blamed by friends and colleagues for not keeping secrets to myself. It has been my practice to share information with people whenever I feel my conscience burdened. From my experience I can say that whenever I've, under such circumstances, shared the truth, it may have put some people in inconvenient positions but in the long run it proved to be right thing to do. But, I must confess, I've never encountered something as big as this. Till now it has been only very personal things or at the most matters dealing with my friends or colleagues. But the information I possess now is of societal and national significance. I'm revealing it because it can save two lives. I'm quite aware, that in the process, I'm raising a finger at the departments concerned with internal and external security of the country and can possibly attract some punitive action too. But when I weighed the pros and cons of this I was convinced that if by revealing this information lives of two youth can be saved then I must do it. I must take the risk.
The UP Police in a planned joint operation with the army is likely to kill two Kashmiri youth (obviously Muslim), already picked up and in their custody somewhere in Meerut , in an `encounter' with these `dreaded terrorists.' The drama would be enacted in the Lucknow cantonment area, the most plausible location for an anti-national to be encountered in. Two AK-47 guns, already bought from Nepal and brought through the Bahraich route, would be shown to have been recovered from these `terrorists. ' Very high level police officials and Colonels of the Army are involved in planning this Jamia Nagar encounter equivalent of UP level operation. An encounter specialist, posted at the Cantonment Police Station till recently, has been chosen to implement the design. Recently, UP police has been presented in poor light because of contradictory (and competitive) claims made by Delhi and Mumbai police for having arrested terrorists which they claim were responsible for bomb blast incidents in UP. The question raised then is who are the people the UP police has arrested earlier who are being claimed to be responsible for these same incidents. UP police doesn't want to remain behind in the game of bravery now being played by police elsewhere. They are anxious to demonstrate that they too can carry out high profile encounter operations like the one at Jamia Nagar in Delhi . It is a different matter that civil society groups and some media have questioned the bona fides of the Jamia Nagar operation itself and the credibility of the government is at stake.
The objective of the above operation is to bring laurels to UP police. The operation would be justified in the name of national interest. UP is under pressure because it has been projected as the breeding ground for terrorist. The UP police wants to show that it is doing its part in countering terrorism.
If this is true then nothing can be more shameful. Most of the newspaper reading citizens would go along with the police version and not question it in the national interest if such an operation takes place. However, I've decided that my commitment to my nation is in ensuring justice to its citizens or at least questioning what is not just. Killing of innocent citizens in such operations or incidents like hunger deaths and farmer suicides are all government's responsibility and no such incident can be pardoned.
However, if what I've written above is totally based on imagination run wild and doesn't have an iota of truth in it then I'll be most relieved person, because I shudder to think that responsible government institutions could be engaged in such gross things. I obviously apologize to the police and army for having questioned their integrity. But the fact of the matter is that police has lost so much credibility in this country that I thought it fit to bring out the matter in open for the sake of two Kashmiri youth. We hope that not only they will not be `encountered' but no innocent will be subjected to such a fate, ever.
Dr Sandeep Pandey is one of the founders and early volunteers of Asha for Education, New York. He was awarded the 2002 Ramon Magsaysay Award in the Emergent Leadership category for his work towards uplift of the poor and the underprivileged. He is currently Coordinator for Asha-India and devotes time to the Asha Ashram at Lalpur in UP.
He can be contacted at the following address:
Dr. Sandeep Pandey
A-893, Indira Nagar, Lucknow-226016, U.P.
Email: ashaashram@yahoo.com
05 October, 2008
Azamgarh: District in discomfort
Shahira Naim
Special Correspondent
The Tribune
IT was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us…
— Charles Dickens in Tale of Two Cities
These lines best describe the state of affairs in Uttar Pradesh's Azamgarh district. For Azamgarh, being projected as the epicentre of terrorism, things had just started looking up. In tune with the changing milieu of post-liberalisation India, the youth from the district were no longer jumping to grab a job in the Gulf. Instead of earning their livelihood doing petty jobs in these countries, they were in search of avenues in the lucrative service sector in the country.
The latest trend was to do an English-speaking course, get computer literate and do short-duration job-oriented management or other professional courses being offered in the private sector in the metropolitan cities. The final destination was to land a job in an MNC or BPO.
"Our young men were easily finding jobs paying a salary of around Rs 20,000 in the cities. This had almost reversed the trend to go to the Gulf in search of jobs," said Dr Iftekhar Ahmad, Principal of Shibli National College.
Consequently, what was emerging was a visibly confident young generation. This generation next youth was ably competing in the job markets of Mumbai, Noida, Gurgaon and Delhi. The BPOs and MNCs were giving employment to these youth purely on merit and regardless of their regional or religious background.
A possible reversal of this heartening trend is worrying those who are suspicious of a political conspiracy behind the recent turn of events branding the entire Azamgarh district as the nursery of terrorism — a term first used to describe Azamgarh by Gorakhpur firebrand Hindutva leader and BJP Member of Parliament Yogi Adityanath.
Would the global MNC employers also succumb to this negative branding? Would youth from the district still be whole-heartedly accepted by employers, universities and professional colleges? With the police in hot pursuit, even parents are having second thoughts in sending their children to study outside the district.
As Maulana Juwaad, a wizened old man from Sanjarpur, says, "The whole government machinery seems to be working towards Raj Thackeray's game plan of sending people from Azamgarh back to their villages".
Azamgarh emerging as India's terror capital started on September 19 with the Delhi police staging the Batla House encounter. During the encounter, it killed two alleged terrorists — Atif and Sajid. Both of them belonged to Sanjarpur village, around 30 km from the district headquarters.
Atif Amin had been staying in New Delhi for the last three years. After getting a B Sc (IT) degree from Manipal University, he had secured admission in the post-graduation course in Human Rights Development in Jamia Millia Islamia.
Similarly, 17-year old Sajid had stepped out of Sanjarpur barely two months ago to do an English-speaking course in Delhi. His identity card from Shri Param Sant Jamunadas Inter College in Azamgarh shows his date of birth as September 2, 1991. He had passed his Class Tenth examination in 2008 and was enrolled for Class XI.
The Delhi police also arrested Saif from the flat in Batla House. He also belongs to the same village. According to his father Shadab Ahmad, Vice-President of the Azamgarh unit of the Samajwadi Party, he wanted to do a good computer course from Delhi as he thought it would open doors for a good job. Incidentally, the Samajwadi Party was quick to disown Ahmad. No senior party functionary has cared to visit him. "No I am not angry, just hurt," says Ahmad commenting on his party's response.
Two more boys picked up by the Delhi police in connection with the Delhi blasts belong to Azamgarh. Both Mohammad Shakil and Zia-ur-Rahman are students of Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi.
On September 23, a heavily armed team of Delhi's Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) descended on Sanjarpur in the wee hours and raided the house of four young boys — Sajid, Arif, Salman and Khalid — who, they claim, were the absconding associates of Atif and Sajid. This Squad believes them to be associates or sleeping modules.
Of these, two were studying in Lucknow. Arif was taking medical coaching in Lucknow and preparing for the CPMT examination. Like most boys of their age, Atif, Saif and Arif were also passionate about cricket. In fact, Saif and Arif had even played up to the district level. "Isn't it normal for boys from the same village to live together? It took care of homesickness that a first-timer feels in a big city like Delhi. Anyone going to Delhi for taking an examination or job interview invariably stayed with them and is now on the police radar", explained Tariq Shafiq, a social activist from Sanjarpur.
Even before the news of the encounter, arrests and raids could sink in Mumbai police made another round of disclosures. On September 24, the Mumbai police arrested five young men all belonging to Azamgarh.
Claiming to have delivered a body blow to the Indian Mujahidden, Mumbai's Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Rakesh Maria asserted that the five persons were part of the Indian Mujahidden's think-tank and assisted or participated in all incidents where blasts happened or unexploded bombs were found in the country since 2005.
The net result of the police operations has been that hundreds of young boys and girls from Azamgarh studying in various colleges in Delhi, Aligarh, Lucknow and elsewhere have switched off their mobile phones. Their parents have no news of them. Some of them had booked their tickets to celebrate Eid with their families at home. Now no one knows if they would come at all. The uncertainty hanging in the air is mind numbing.
Since the Batla House encounter, newspapers and channels are competing with one another to run stories toeing the "Azamgarh nursery of terrorism" line, a description that makes people from the district cringe.
Too hard hit to challenge these allegations, an average Azamgarhi or Azmi as they call themselves, is extremely angry with the media for believing every word the police is saying. "Nowadays, it's common for the media to be skeptical of police encounters and custodial deaths. But in the case of terrorism in general and Azamgarh in particular, the media is more than willing to swallow hook line and sinker whatever fabrication is being churned out by the police", said Umair Siddiq Nadwi, Editor of Marif, an academic publication brought out by the prestigious Darul Musannefin Shibli Academy in Azamgarh.
The legacy of Allama Shibli Nomani holds no significance in the changed environment. This writer, poet, historian, teacher and nationalist had set up the Shibli Academy, a leading centre of Islamic learning. Similarly, many can still recall a poem learnt in school about Rana Pratap's horse Chetak. Few know that its writer Shyam Narain Pandey also hailed from Azamgarh.
In these dark times, the media is in no mood to remember the contribution of Rahul Sanshkrityayan, Ayodhya Prasad Hari Oudh, Kaifi Azmi, Shamsur Rahman Farooqui or Shabana Azmi.
It is only interested in playing up the fact that Dawood Ibrahim's relatives live in Azamgarh. That Abu Salem belongs to Sarai Mir. That Abu Bashar, the so-called mastermind of the Ahmedabad blasts, belongs to Binapara, a village not far from Sarai Mir.
What probably means little to the media is that the district has produced many celebrities. Incidentally Uttar Pradesh Principal Secretary (Home) Kunwar Fateh Bahadur and the Additional Director-General of Police (Law and Order) Brijlal, the two top law enforcement officials, are also from Azamgarh. Even the high profile Samajwadi party leader Amar Singh originally belongs to the district.
What has never hit the headlines is the fact that the district has the highest sex ratio of 1026 females in Uttar Pradesh. And this is not due to men going out in search of livelihoods as even the under six sex ratio is an impressive 949!
Despite having one of the highest literacy rates in the state (overall 57 per cent, male 71 per cent and female 42 per cent), Azamgarh having a population of about 40 lakh does not have a single university, engineering college or medical college. Students have no option but to go elsewhere to pursue a higher degree and professional course.
Despite perceptions to the contrary, the madarsas have made an important contribution to the relatively strong literacy standard of the district. Most of them now impart modern education along with religious guidance. For example, in Uttar Pradesh villages where it is difficult to come across a girl who has passed Class XII, it was surprising to learn that Sanjarpur, painted as the den of terrorists by the media, has no less than 50 women post-graduates!
Something that the world perhaps needs to know is that the district being projected as the centre of religious orthodoxy was founded in 1665 by Azam, son of Vikramajit, a descendant of Gautam Rajputs of Mehnagar in pargana Nizamabad.
According to the official website, Vikramajit like some of his predecessors embraced Islam, married a Muslim woman who bore him two sons, Azam and Azmat. While Azam gave his name to the town of Azamgarh, his brother Azmat constructed a fort and settled the bazaar of Azmatgarh in pargana Sagri.
In the run-up to the Lok Sabha election next year, the Intelligence Bureau-police-media combine is causing a polarisation not only in Azamgarh but across the nation that suits the Hindutva brigade. In the name of internal security and combating terrorism, an alarming minority bashing and stereotyping is taking place.
However, things are slowly changing for the better and that is providing a flicker of hope. Jamia Millia Islamia Vice-Chancellor Mushirul Hasan's decision to provide legal aid to two university students picked up by the Delhi police was, perhaps, the first step. Dr Hasan also took the initiative to hold a counseling session for the traumatised students from the districts living in New Delhi's Jamia Nagar.
Samajwadi Party President Mulayam Singh Yadav urging the media not to brand the entire district as terrorist has worked like balm for the wounded souls of the people of the district. "Some may have strayed but why malign every single person from the district?", said Yadav.
And now the National Human Rights Commission's notice to Delhi police raising questions regarding the Batla House encounter has provided some solace to the people. They hope that in the coming days Azamgarh would substantially reclaim its lost reputation. (The Tribune, October 5, 2008)
Shahira Naim is a senior journalist serving as Special Correspondent of The Tribune in Uttar Pradesh. She can be reached at shahira@rediffmail.com
Special Correspondent
The Tribune
IT was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us…
— Charles Dickens in Tale of Two Cities
These lines best describe the state of affairs in Uttar Pradesh's Azamgarh district. For Azamgarh, being projected as the epicentre of terrorism, things had just started looking up. In tune with the changing milieu of post-liberalisation India, the youth from the district were no longer jumping to grab a job in the Gulf. Instead of earning their livelihood doing petty jobs in these countries, they were in search of avenues in the lucrative service sector in the country.
The latest trend was to do an English-speaking course, get computer literate and do short-duration job-oriented management or other professional courses being offered in the private sector in the metropolitan cities. The final destination was to land a job in an MNC or BPO.
"Our young men were easily finding jobs paying a salary of around Rs 20,000 in the cities. This had almost reversed the trend to go to the Gulf in search of jobs," said Dr Iftekhar Ahmad, Principal of Shibli National College.
Consequently, what was emerging was a visibly confident young generation. This generation next youth was ably competing in the job markets of Mumbai, Noida, Gurgaon and Delhi. The BPOs and MNCs were giving employment to these youth purely on merit and regardless of their regional or religious background.
A possible reversal of this heartening trend is worrying those who are suspicious of a political conspiracy behind the recent turn of events branding the entire Azamgarh district as the nursery of terrorism — a term first used to describe Azamgarh by Gorakhpur firebrand Hindutva leader and BJP Member of Parliament Yogi Adityanath.
Would the global MNC employers also succumb to this negative branding? Would youth from the district still be whole-heartedly accepted by employers, universities and professional colleges? With the police in hot pursuit, even parents are having second thoughts in sending their children to study outside the district.
As Maulana Juwaad, a wizened old man from Sanjarpur, says, "The whole government machinery seems to be working towards Raj Thackeray's game plan of sending people from Azamgarh back to their villages".
Azamgarh emerging as India's terror capital started on September 19 with the Delhi police staging the Batla House encounter. During the encounter, it killed two alleged terrorists — Atif and Sajid. Both of them belonged to Sanjarpur village, around 30 km from the district headquarters.
Atif Amin had been staying in New Delhi for the last three years. After getting a B Sc (IT) degree from Manipal University, he had secured admission in the post-graduation course in Human Rights Development in Jamia Millia Islamia.
Similarly, 17-year old Sajid had stepped out of Sanjarpur barely two months ago to do an English-speaking course in Delhi. His identity card from Shri Param Sant Jamunadas Inter College in Azamgarh shows his date of birth as September 2, 1991. He had passed his Class Tenth examination in 2008 and was enrolled for Class XI.
The Delhi police also arrested Saif from the flat in Batla House. He also belongs to the same village. According to his father Shadab Ahmad, Vice-President of the Azamgarh unit of the Samajwadi Party, he wanted to do a good computer course from Delhi as he thought it would open doors for a good job. Incidentally, the Samajwadi Party was quick to disown Ahmad. No senior party functionary has cared to visit him. "No I am not angry, just hurt," says Ahmad commenting on his party's response.
Two more boys picked up by the Delhi police in connection with the Delhi blasts belong to Azamgarh. Both Mohammad Shakil and Zia-ur-Rahman are students of Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi.
On September 23, a heavily armed team of Delhi's Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) descended on Sanjarpur in the wee hours and raided the house of four young boys — Sajid, Arif, Salman and Khalid — who, they claim, were the absconding associates of Atif and Sajid. This Squad believes them to be associates or sleeping modules.
Of these, two were studying in Lucknow. Arif was taking medical coaching in Lucknow and preparing for the CPMT examination. Like most boys of their age, Atif, Saif and Arif were also passionate about cricket. In fact, Saif and Arif had even played up to the district level. "Isn't it normal for boys from the same village to live together? It took care of homesickness that a first-timer feels in a big city like Delhi. Anyone going to Delhi for taking an examination or job interview invariably stayed with them and is now on the police radar", explained Tariq Shafiq, a social activist from Sanjarpur.
Even before the news of the encounter, arrests and raids could sink in Mumbai police made another round of disclosures. On September 24, the Mumbai police arrested five young men all belonging to Azamgarh.
Claiming to have delivered a body blow to the Indian Mujahidden, Mumbai's Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Rakesh Maria asserted that the five persons were part of the Indian Mujahidden's think-tank and assisted or participated in all incidents where blasts happened or unexploded bombs were found in the country since 2005.
The net result of the police operations has been that hundreds of young boys and girls from Azamgarh studying in various colleges in Delhi, Aligarh, Lucknow and elsewhere have switched off their mobile phones. Their parents have no news of them. Some of them had booked their tickets to celebrate Eid with their families at home. Now no one knows if they would come at all. The uncertainty hanging in the air is mind numbing.
Since the Batla House encounter, newspapers and channels are competing with one another to run stories toeing the "Azamgarh nursery of terrorism" line, a description that makes people from the district cringe.
Too hard hit to challenge these allegations, an average Azamgarhi or Azmi as they call themselves, is extremely angry with the media for believing every word the police is saying. "Nowadays, it's common for the media to be skeptical of police encounters and custodial deaths. But in the case of terrorism in general and Azamgarh in particular, the media is more than willing to swallow hook line and sinker whatever fabrication is being churned out by the police", said Umair Siddiq Nadwi, Editor of Marif, an academic publication brought out by the prestigious Darul Musannefin Shibli Academy in Azamgarh.
The legacy of Allama Shibli Nomani holds no significance in the changed environment. This writer, poet, historian, teacher and nationalist had set up the Shibli Academy, a leading centre of Islamic learning. Similarly, many can still recall a poem learnt in school about Rana Pratap's horse Chetak. Few know that its writer Shyam Narain Pandey also hailed from Azamgarh.
In these dark times, the media is in no mood to remember the contribution of Rahul Sanshkrityayan, Ayodhya Prasad Hari Oudh, Kaifi Azmi, Shamsur Rahman Farooqui or Shabana Azmi.
It is only interested in playing up the fact that Dawood Ibrahim's relatives live in Azamgarh. That Abu Salem belongs to Sarai Mir. That Abu Bashar, the so-called mastermind of the Ahmedabad blasts, belongs to Binapara, a village not far from Sarai Mir.
What probably means little to the media is that the district has produced many celebrities. Incidentally Uttar Pradesh Principal Secretary (Home) Kunwar Fateh Bahadur and the Additional Director-General of Police (Law and Order) Brijlal, the two top law enforcement officials, are also from Azamgarh. Even the high profile Samajwadi party leader Amar Singh originally belongs to the district.
What has never hit the headlines is the fact that the district has the highest sex ratio of 1026 females in Uttar Pradesh. And this is not due to men going out in search of livelihoods as even the under six sex ratio is an impressive 949!
Despite having one of the highest literacy rates in the state (overall 57 per cent, male 71 per cent and female 42 per cent), Azamgarh having a population of about 40 lakh does not have a single university, engineering college or medical college. Students have no option but to go elsewhere to pursue a higher degree and professional course.
Despite perceptions to the contrary, the madarsas have made an important contribution to the relatively strong literacy standard of the district. Most of them now impart modern education along with religious guidance. For example, in Uttar Pradesh villages where it is difficult to come across a girl who has passed Class XII, it was surprising to learn that Sanjarpur, painted as the den of terrorists by the media, has no less than 50 women post-graduates!
Something that the world perhaps needs to know is that the district being projected as the centre of religious orthodoxy was founded in 1665 by Azam, son of Vikramajit, a descendant of Gautam Rajputs of Mehnagar in pargana Nizamabad.
According to the official website, Vikramajit like some of his predecessors embraced Islam, married a Muslim woman who bore him two sons, Azam and Azmat. While Azam gave his name to the town of Azamgarh, his brother Azmat constructed a fort and settled the bazaar of Azmatgarh in pargana Sagri.
In the run-up to the Lok Sabha election next year, the Intelligence Bureau-police-media combine is causing a polarisation not only in Azamgarh but across the nation that suits the Hindutva brigade. In the name of internal security and combating terrorism, an alarming minority bashing and stereotyping is taking place.
However, things are slowly changing for the better and that is providing a flicker of hope. Jamia Millia Islamia Vice-Chancellor Mushirul Hasan's decision to provide legal aid to two university students picked up by the Delhi police was, perhaps, the first step. Dr Hasan also took the initiative to hold a counseling session for the traumatised students from the districts living in New Delhi's Jamia Nagar.
Samajwadi Party President Mulayam Singh Yadav urging the media not to brand the entire district as terrorist has worked like balm for the wounded souls of the people of the district. "Some may have strayed but why malign every single person from the district?", said Yadav.
And now the National Human Rights Commission's notice to Delhi police raising questions regarding the Batla House encounter has provided some solace to the people. They hope that in the coming days Azamgarh would substantially reclaim its lost reputation. (The Tribune, October 5, 2008)
Shahira Naim is a senior journalist serving as Special Correspondent of The Tribune in Uttar Pradesh. She can be reached at shahira@rediffmail.com
Chhattisgarh DGP faces barrage of questions from HR defenders at Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley, was the venue of a conference on Indian democracy on September 26 and 27. Among those invited to the conference was Vishwa Ranjan, Director-General of Police, Chhattisgarh. Some human interest groups in India were appalled by the decision to offer the DGP a forum. As it happened, his appearance at Berkeley provided human rights defenders an opportunity to question him and to expose the misdeeds of the state machinery over which he presides.
The following is a report on the Berkeley proceedings:
As part of the conference, there was a two-hour panel discussion on the human rights situation in Chhattisgarh. The panel consisted of Justice Srikrishna (former judge of the Indian Supreme Court), Vishwa Ranjan (Director-General of Police, Chhattisgarh), Nandini Sundar (Professor of Sociology, University of Delhi), Sunil Kumar (Editor, Daily Chhattisgarh) and Dipti Bhatnagar (Students for Justice in Chhattisgarh).
Chhattisgarh is the site of an ongoing conflict between Naxalites and state security forces, including the state-backed "Salwa Judum" vigilante army. Counterinsurgency programs have displaced over 300,000 tribals from their villages. The state security forces, including the Salwa Judum, have been implicated in many instances of extrajudicial killings, rapes, extortion, torture and theft from adivasis, the main inhabitants of the mineral rich southern part of the state. Human rights activists who have criticized state actions, journalists reporting on state atrocities, and tribals resisting forced dislocation have been arbitrarily detained, harassed and/or imprisoned under the draconian Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act of 2005, and accused of working for the Naxalites.
Dr. Binayak Sen, an acclaimed human rights activist and development worker, has been imprisoned in Raipur jail since May 2007, despite calls for his release from Nobel Laureates, Amnesty International, national and international organizations of physicians, and thousands of individuals from around the world. Ajay T.G., who made a film about the circumstances surrounding Dr. Sen's arrest, was himself arrested by Chhattisgarh police in May this year, but had to be released after 93 days in jail because the police were unable to produce a charge-sheet. Almost five months after his arrest, although out on statutory bail, the charges against Ajay have neither been filed nor dropped.
THE PANEL
The first speaker at the panel was Justice BN Srikrishna. He forcefully pointed out that there was no role for vigilante armies in a democracy, and who was or was not a Naxalite or what punishment should be meted out to a Naxalite are questions that only a court of law can decide, not private citizens.
DGP Vishwa Ranjan defended the Salwa Judum's "peaceful," "spontaneous," nature, despite widely available evidence to the contrary, including a recent report by Human Rights Watch enumerating numerous violent abuses by the militia.
Nandini Sundar challenged the DGP's description of Salwa Judum. She traced the collusion of the state in supporting and arming the Salwa Judum, and detailed some cases from the widespread murder, rape, arson, and theft committed by Salwa Judum. She also talked about the increase in Naxalite violence in the past three years.
Sunil Kumar alleged in his presentation that human rights activists only speak out against violence by the state and disregard Naxalite violence.
He was directly challenged by Nandini Sundar who reminded him that when she had written a letter condemning the Naxalite-driven blackout in Bastar and the Salwa Judum violence earlier this year, all papers in Chhattisgarh, including Sunil Kumar's
Daily Chhattisgarh, had refused to carry it.
The audience was appalled to hear Sunil Kumar claim in his presentation that the "little political understanding" of the people of Chhattisgarh, unlike that of a "mature democracy" such as the US, makes them incapable of appreciating the difference between state and extra-state actors.
Dipti Bhatnagar, a UC Berkeley graduate student who had been added to the panel at the request of student groups, challenged Vishwa Ranjan, as the chief of Chhattisgarh police, to explain his role in suppressing dissent in Chhattisgarh. She highlighted specific cases, such as the fabrication of evidence in the trial of Dr. Binayak Sen, the arrest of documentary film maker Ajay T.G. without any charge-sheet, and the tacit complicity of the security forces with Salwa Judum when it exacted revenge on residents
of Nendra village for testifying against it in front of the National Human Rights Commission.
QUESTION-ANSWER SESSION
Rajeev Dhavan, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India, started off the question and answer session by challenging DGP Vishwa Ranjan's facts and asking for his resignation.
Students attending the event silently carried signs that, among other issues, voiced protest about children being held in police custody, about a Chhattisgarh superintendent of police accused of rape and murder, and about the ongoing harassment of Dr. Binayak Sen's family. One protestor carried a placard pointing out that even Gandhi would be jailed as a dissenter under Chhattisgarh's black law (CSPSA).
The DGP was handed a letter written by 106 academics calling for him to address a number of egregious human rights and police brutality cases. The signatories included professors from many universities including UC Berkeley's Center for South Asia Studies, the organization co-hosting the conference.
The DGP evaded most of the pointed questions from conference attendees. Asked why independent filmmaker Ajay was arrested and jailed for 93 days, given that the police has not been able to come up with charges even after 150 days, he replied that it might have been a "technical mistake"! If so, then why has the police still not withdrawn the case against Ajay? How many other such technical mistakes are there?
The DGP was asked that based on his claim that there are 3,200 SPOs today, and his recent article in the Pioneer where he wrote that 3,250 SPOs have been discharged for indiscipline, can one draw the conclusion that most SPOs have engaged in criminal behavior? He neither answered nor acknowledged this question.
Given that the charge-sheet against Dr. Binayak Sen is very vague, mentioning no date or time or place, nor a description of any actual illegal act, the DGP was asked to list the specific charges for which Dr. Binayak Sen has been imprisoned. Instead of answering the question, he said that the charges were about providing "logistical support" to Naxalites. He also claimed that he had nothing to do with Dr. Sen's imprisonment since the arrest happened before he became the DGP, and that Dr. Sen's supporters should petition the government.
The DGP is either obfuscating, or being disingenuous, because as chief of police, it is within the DGP's power to withdraw the charges against Dr. Sen, and to not oppose his bail application in the court.
Asked about recruitment of child soldiers as SPOs, a very common practice in Chhattisgarh, DGP Vishwa Ranjan replied that the police do not deliberately recruit children, but go by whatever age the applicant claims to be. This means that despite reports by several independent human rights groups--including Human Rights Watch, Forum for Fact-Finding Documentation and Advocacy (FFDA), and Asian Center for Human Rights--that large numbers of children are being employed by the state as soldiers, the police has taken no steps to verify the ages of the SPOs. This is a war crime under the Rome Statue of the International Criminal Court, and the DGP is liable for this gross human rights abuse.
THE DEMANDS
Apart from the unconditional release of Dr. Binayak Sen and other political prisoners, community members also demanded that the Salwa Judum be disarmed, the Black Law (Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act of 2005) be repealed, and the use of child soldiers in counter-insurgency measures be prohibited.
Below are links to some videos related to this report:
DGP Vishwa Ranjan on Ajay TG's case: http://tinyurl.com/3lqm5c
DGP Vishwa Ranjan answering Srividhya's question on Dr. Binayak Sen's
arrest: http://tinyurl.com/422bbr
Attorney Rajeev Dhavan says charges against Dr. Binayak Sen false;
asks DGP to resign: http://tinyurl.com/45cp56
Protestors chanting slogans after the session is over: http://tinyurl.com/52dvcq
The following is a report on the Berkeley proceedings:
As part of the conference, there was a two-hour panel discussion on the human rights situation in Chhattisgarh. The panel consisted of Justice Srikrishna (former judge of the Indian Supreme Court), Vishwa Ranjan (Director-General of Police, Chhattisgarh), Nandini Sundar (Professor of Sociology, University of Delhi), Sunil Kumar (Editor, Daily Chhattisgarh) and Dipti Bhatnagar (Students for Justice in Chhattisgarh).
Chhattisgarh is the site of an ongoing conflict between Naxalites and state security forces, including the state-backed "Salwa Judum" vigilante army. Counterinsurgency programs have displaced over 300,000 tribals from their villages. The state security forces, including the Salwa Judum, have been implicated in many instances of extrajudicial killings, rapes, extortion, torture and theft from adivasis, the main inhabitants of the mineral rich southern part of the state. Human rights activists who have criticized state actions, journalists reporting on state atrocities, and tribals resisting forced dislocation have been arbitrarily detained, harassed and/or imprisoned under the draconian Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act of 2005, and accused of working for the Naxalites.
Dr. Binayak Sen, an acclaimed human rights activist and development worker, has been imprisoned in Raipur jail since May 2007, despite calls for his release from Nobel Laureates, Amnesty International, national and international organizations of physicians, and thousands of individuals from around the world. Ajay T.G., who made a film about the circumstances surrounding Dr. Sen's arrest, was himself arrested by Chhattisgarh police in May this year, but had to be released after 93 days in jail because the police were unable to produce a charge-sheet. Almost five months after his arrest, although out on statutory bail, the charges against Ajay have neither been filed nor dropped.
THE PANEL
The first speaker at the panel was Justice BN Srikrishna. He forcefully pointed out that there was no role for vigilante armies in a democracy, and who was or was not a Naxalite or what punishment should be meted out to a Naxalite are questions that only a court of law can decide, not private citizens.
DGP Vishwa Ranjan defended the Salwa Judum's "peaceful," "spontaneous," nature, despite widely available evidence to the contrary, including a recent report by Human Rights Watch enumerating numerous violent abuses by the militia.
Nandini Sundar challenged the DGP's description of Salwa Judum. She traced the collusion of the state in supporting and arming the Salwa Judum, and detailed some cases from the widespread murder, rape, arson, and theft committed by Salwa Judum. She also talked about the increase in Naxalite violence in the past three years.
Sunil Kumar alleged in his presentation that human rights activists only speak out against violence by the state and disregard Naxalite violence.
He was directly challenged by Nandini Sundar who reminded him that when she had written a letter condemning the Naxalite-driven blackout in Bastar and the Salwa Judum violence earlier this year, all papers in Chhattisgarh, including Sunil Kumar's
Daily Chhattisgarh, had refused to carry it.
The audience was appalled to hear Sunil Kumar claim in his presentation that the "little political understanding" of the people of Chhattisgarh, unlike that of a "mature democracy" such as the US, makes them incapable of appreciating the difference between state and extra-state actors.
Dipti Bhatnagar, a UC Berkeley graduate student who had been added to the panel at the request of student groups, challenged Vishwa Ranjan, as the chief of Chhattisgarh police, to explain his role in suppressing dissent in Chhattisgarh. She highlighted specific cases, such as the fabrication of evidence in the trial of Dr. Binayak Sen, the arrest of documentary film maker Ajay T.G. without any charge-sheet, and the tacit complicity of the security forces with Salwa Judum when it exacted revenge on residents
of Nendra village for testifying against it in front of the National Human Rights Commission.
QUESTION-ANSWER SESSION
Rajeev Dhavan, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India, started off the question and answer session by challenging DGP Vishwa Ranjan's facts and asking for his resignation.
Students attending the event silently carried signs that, among other issues, voiced protest about children being held in police custody, about a Chhattisgarh superintendent of police accused of rape and murder, and about the ongoing harassment of Dr. Binayak Sen's family. One protestor carried a placard pointing out that even Gandhi would be jailed as a dissenter under Chhattisgarh's black law (CSPSA).
The DGP was handed a letter written by 106 academics calling for him to address a number of egregious human rights and police brutality cases. The signatories included professors from many universities including UC Berkeley's Center for South Asia Studies, the organization co-hosting the conference.
The DGP evaded most of the pointed questions from conference attendees. Asked why independent filmmaker Ajay was arrested and jailed for 93 days, given that the police has not been able to come up with charges even after 150 days, he replied that it might have been a "technical mistake"! If so, then why has the police still not withdrawn the case against Ajay? How many other such technical mistakes are there?
The DGP was asked that based on his claim that there are 3,200 SPOs today, and his recent article in the Pioneer where he wrote that 3,250 SPOs have been discharged for indiscipline, can one draw the conclusion that most SPOs have engaged in criminal behavior? He neither answered nor acknowledged this question.
Given that the charge-sheet against Dr. Binayak Sen is very vague, mentioning no date or time or place, nor a description of any actual illegal act, the DGP was asked to list the specific charges for which Dr. Binayak Sen has been imprisoned. Instead of answering the question, he said that the charges were about providing "logistical support" to Naxalites. He also claimed that he had nothing to do with Dr. Sen's imprisonment since the arrest happened before he became the DGP, and that Dr. Sen's supporters should petition the government.
The DGP is either obfuscating, or being disingenuous, because as chief of police, it is within the DGP's power to withdraw the charges against Dr. Sen, and to not oppose his bail application in the court.
Asked about recruitment of child soldiers as SPOs, a very common practice in Chhattisgarh, DGP Vishwa Ranjan replied that the police do not deliberately recruit children, but go by whatever age the applicant claims to be. This means that despite reports by several independent human rights groups--including Human Rights Watch, Forum for Fact-Finding Documentation and Advocacy (FFDA), and Asian Center for Human Rights--that large numbers of children are being employed by the state as soldiers, the police has taken no steps to verify the ages of the SPOs. This is a war crime under the Rome Statue of the International Criminal Court, and the DGP is liable for this gross human rights abuse.
THE DEMANDS
Apart from the unconditional release of Dr. Binayak Sen and other political prisoners, community members also demanded that the Salwa Judum be disarmed, the Black Law (Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act of 2005) be repealed, and the use of child soldiers in counter-insurgency measures be prohibited.
Below are links to some videos related to this report:
DGP Vishwa Ranjan on Ajay TG's case: http://tinyurl.com/3lqm5c
DGP Vishwa Ranjan answering Srividhya's question on Dr. Binayak Sen's
arrest: http://tinyurl.com/422bbr
Attorney Rajeev Dhavan says charges against Dr. Binayak Sen false;
asks DGP to resign: http://tinyurl.com/45cp56
Protestors chanting slogans after the session is over: http://tinyurl.com/52dvcq
04 October, 2008
Shiver, down the Spine: My tryst with the e-messengers of terror
Shahina K K
Since14th September 2008, writing has become a laborious exercise for me. It was all of a sudden that words turned heavy, staring at my own convictions, political thinking and journalistic vigor. It was on a gloomy Sunday (the day after the bloody Saturday on which the life of twenty odd people had been taken away by somebody called Indian Mujahideen) that things turned upside down. It's difficult to describe my terrible sense of shock when it came to my notice that a part of the email sent by perpetrators of the Delhi blasts laying claim to the deadly bombs on the day, had been written by me! It was lifted verbatim from a piece of mine (“Bombs defused in Newsrooms”) which appeared in the media watchdog portal, The Hoot. Newspapers had given extensive quotes wondering at the 'journalistic character' and 'impeccable English' of those who prepared the mail. Even when everybody calls it plagiarism I was not spared because my name carries the identity of a community which is put in the dock for all that happens dreadfully around us. I wrote about what the media does, how it deals with the unending
episodes of terror strikes juxtaposing with the violence by Hindu extremists and how flagrantly they fail in the 'balancing' act!
A published material is neither mine nor yours. Plagiarism in cyber space is not a rare phenomenon. There are limited options to check it. I am not very serious about plagiarism because I am skeptical about how far we are the masters of our own words. I personally believe that what I wrote is not only mine. It was reproduced by other websites and several bloggers. It is exciting to watch the cyber movement challenging the dogmatization of knowledge. I don't subscribe to the concept of copyright too. But I never thought of being caught up in a deep sense of anguish, terror and shock by
someone else picking up my words for the manifestation of a heinous crime.
It came to my notice that Sunday evening, while I was perusing the Times of India looking for stories missed in the morning. One story on the terror e-mail had extensively quoted the lifted portion from my article analyzing how the extremist forces make a common cause with other victims of 'Sangh terror' -- Christians and Dalits. 'The idea of a broad coalition of all minorities and Dalits in a broad anti-Hindutva coalition is not new, but its use amid clear signs of unease within Muslims about the radicalization of sections within it is immensely interesting," says the Times of India.
The Times' story prompted me to go online in search of the full text of the terror mail and shockingly I found more than a paragraph of my article had been copied and pasted. It's beyond words how I survived those moments of scare, insecurity and a deep sense of guilt. We were all 'alone' at home, in that entire residential area, nobody knows us. We all are living in this metro not knowing what kind of a life is there at the next door. I was in a state of numbness, incapable of picking up the phone and calling somebody. My partner Rajeev did the same with a shivering heart. Our friends initially responded as if it is nothing but rather a minor crime of plagiarism that we need not worry about further. In fact as they explained later, they had been trying to shrug off the acerbic realization that what we call terrorism is somewhere very near our doorstep.
However their arrival at my place was followed by a call from Sevanti Ninan, the columnist who edits The Hoot. Even though it was not unexpected, I had felt a tremor while being informed of the enquiry by the Maharashtra Anti Terror Squad about me. They contacted Sevanti and she told me that it was impossible to hold back whatever information they wanted about me. I too never wanted her to keep me in hiding. Why should I be? The life I lived was not a private affair at all. I had been constantly there in the public space with my stories, television appearances and interventions in social discourses. It was very much tangible when I was in Kerala, but living in a metro stricken with terror, it was altogether a different ball game. Here even my name matters. The heaviness of a Muslim name could make life miserable in Delhi. No matter whether you follow religion, religion will definitely follow you.
After a night of tossing and turning, one of our journalist friends took it on himself to unfold the tangle in which I had been caught up. Along with him I contacted the Defence Minister, met the MoS for External affairs and Home affairs. They, except the MoS for Home Affairs, know me in person as I had been active in Malayalam language journalism for over a decade. They might be well aware that religious extremism will be the last thing I could be booked on! Our attempt was not to avoid an enquiry, but to ensure that I would not be targetted because of my name.
Even after a couple of weeks passed, I think I am not out of woods. I have been waiting for the boot steps at my door any time. My friends say the investigators might have been monitoring my cyber activities and telephone calls. It is hard to live knowing that you are under surveillance. For the last two weeks we had been in touch with several of the authorities to clarify my position on the whole episode. One of the top officials we met during the course of this, a gentleman who amazed us with his extremely polite manner, asked, “So, you're a Muslim?” I wanted to respond with a big ‘NO,’ and to shout from the roof top that I am an agnostic, kept away from the clutches of religion even from my teens. But I couldn't. I gave him no answer. I was skeptical about the political correctness of such an answer throughout my life. Am I doing wrong by turning my back on the millions of innocent people who follow religion, bearing the brunt of what ever have been done in the name of religion? My partner who is, by birth a Hindu had been cajoled to claim the same in front of that officer, in order to prove our secular credentials in a city where we are nothing more than names. It was for the first time that religion intruded into our life together. We had not hesitated even fraction of a second to leave the column for religion blank in the birth registration form when our son, Anpu, was born.
I was caught up again in another round of bewilderment, shock and grief next day when I went to meet Brinda Karat MP at AKG Bhavan with one of our journalist friends. While waiting in the reception, a heartbreaking cry fell upon my ears. Four or five women appeared at the door shouting and crying loudly. The whole scene rang no bell for me, but I saw Brinda rushing out, hugging those women and listening to them. Somebody told me that they are the remaining desperate souls from a family of which nine people had been killed in the blast. Those women were lamenting their plight in which they had been forced to bribe even for a decent burial for their beloved ones. I was scared. I wish they would not see me! I was again blanketed by a terrible sense of distress. My vision was blurred off in tears; I couldn't speak a word, my voice strangled in my throat. In such moments of emotional turbulence the rationale of political thinking may not help.
Many of my friends who shared the sleepless nights with me thought of writing about the entire trauma of an identity and its subjectivity, but they were skeptical about the ramifications of such an act in my life. One of my friends sharing the deep anguish, posted in his blog, a single liner- ‘Shiver, down the spine.’ No comments have been posted yet, because the readers of his blog are left with no other clue. Now I think it is high time to speak up. I don't want to grow a censor within me.
Shahina reports for the Malayalam daily Janayugom from New Delhi
Since14th September 2008, writing has become a laborious exercise for me. It was all of a sudden that words turned heavy, staring at my own convictions, political thinking and journalistic vigor. It was on a gloomy Sunday (the day after the bloody Saturday on which the life of twenty odd people had been taken away by somebody called Indian Mujahideen) that things turned upside down. It's difficult to describe my terrible sense of shock when it came to my notice that a part of the email sent by perpetrators of the Delhi blasts laying claim to the deadly bombs on the day, had been written by me! It was lifted verbatim from a piece of mine (“Bombs defused in Newsrooms”) which appeared in the media watchdog portal, The Hoot. Newspapers had given extensive quotes wondering at the 'journalistic character' and 'impeccable English' of those who prepared the mail. Even when everybody calls it plagiarism I was not spared because my name carries the identity of a community which is put in the dock for all that happens dreadfully around us. I wrote about what the media does, how it deals with the unending
episodes of terror strikes juxtaposing with the violence by Hindu extremists and how flagrantly they fail in the 'balancing' act!
A published material is neither mine nor yours. Plagiarism in cyber space is not a rare phenomenon. There are limited options to check it. I am not very serious about plagiarism because I am skeptical about how far we are the masters of our own words. I personally believe that what I wrote is not only mine. It was reproduced by other websites and several bloggers. It is exciting to watch the cyber movement challenging the dogmatization of knowledge. I don't subscribe to the concept of copyright too. But I never thought of being caught up in a deep sense of anguish, terror and shock by
someone else picking up my words for the manifestation of a heinous crime.
It came to my notice that Sunday evening, while I was perusing the Times of India looking for stories missed in the morning. One story on the terror e-mail had extensively quoted the lifted portion from my article analyzing how the extremist forces make a common cause with other victims of 'Sangh terror' -- Christians and Dalits. 'The idea of a broad coalition of all minorities and Dalits in a broad anti-Hindutva coalition is not new, but its use amid clear signs of unease within Muslims about the radicalization of sections within it is immensely interesting," says the Times of India.
The Times' story prompted me to go online in search of the full text of the terror mail and shockingly I found more than a paragraph of my article had been copied and pasted. It's beyond words how I survived those moments of scare, insecurity and a deep sense of guilt. We were all 'alone' at home, in that entire residential area, nobody knows us. We all are living in this metro not knowing what kind of a life is there at the next door. I was in a state of numbness, incapable of picking up the phone and calling somebody. My partner Rajeev did the same with a shivering heart. Our friends initially responded as if it is nothing but rather a minor crime of plagiarism that we need not worry about further. In fact as they explained later, they had been trying to shrug off the acerbic realization that what we call terrorism is somewhere very near our doorstep.
However their arrival at my place was followed by a call from Sevanti Ninan, the columnist who edits The Hoot. Even though it was not unexpected, I had felt a tremor while being informed of the enquiry by the Maharashtra Anti Terror Squad about me. They contacted Sevanti and she told me that it was impossible to hold back whatever information they wanted about me. I too never wanted her to keep me in hiding. Why should I be? The life I lived was not a private affair at all. I had been constantly there in the public space with my stories, television appearances and interventions in social discourses. It was very much tangible when I was in Kerala, but living in a metro stricken with terror, it was altogether a different ball game. Here even my name matters. The heaviness of a Muslim name could make life miserable in Delhi. No matter whether you follow religion, religion will definitely follow you.
After a night of tossing and turning, one of our journalist friends took it on himself to unfold the tangle in which I had been caught up. Along with him I contacted the Defence Minister, met the MoS for External affairs and Home affairs. They, except the MoS for Home Affairs, know me in person as I had been active in Malayalam language journalism for over a decade. They might be well aware that religious extremism will be the last thing I could be booked on! Our attempt was not to avoid an enquiry, but to ensure that I would not be targetted because of my name.
Even after a couple of weeks passed, I think I am not out of woods. I have been waiting for the boot steps at my door any time. My friends say the investigators might have been monitoring my cyber activities and telephone calls. It is hard to live knowing that you are under surveillance. For the last two weeks we had been in touch with several of the authorities to clarify my position on the whole episode. One of the top officials we met during the course of this, a gentleman who amazed us with his extremely polite manner, asked, “So, you're a Muslim?” I wanted to respond with a big ‘NO,’ and to shout from the roof top that I am an agnostic, kept away from the clutches of religion even from my teens. But I couldn't. I gave him no answer. I was skeptical about the political correctness of such an answer throughout my life. Am I doing wrong by turning my back on the millions of innocent people who follow religion, bearing the brunt of what ever have been done in the name of religion? My partner who is, by birth a Hindu had been cajoled to claim the same in front of that officer, in order to prove our secular credentials in a city where we are nothing more than names. It was for the first time that religion intruded into our life together. We had not hesitated even fraction of a second to leave the column for religion blank in the birth registration form when our son, Anpu, was born.
I was caught up again in another round of bewilderment, shock and grief next day when I went to meet Brinda Karat MP at AKG Bhavan with one of our journalist friends. While waiting in the reception, a heartbreaking cry fell upon my ears. Four or five women appeared at the door shouting and crying loudly. The whole scene rang no bell for me, but I saw Brinda rushing out, hugging those women and listening to them. Somebody told me that they are the remaining desperate souls from a family of which nine people had been killed in the blast. Those women were lamenting their plight in which they had been forced to bribe even for a decent burial for their beloved ones. I was scared. I wish they would not see me! I was again blanketed by a terrible sense of distress. My vision was blurred off in tears; I couldn't speak a word, my voice strangled in my throat. In such moments of emotional turbulence the rationale of political thinking may not help.
Many of my friends who shared the sleepless nights with me thought of writing about the entire trauma of an identity and its subjectivity, but they were skeptical about the ramifications of such an act in my life. One of my friends sharing the deep anguish, posted in his blog, a single liner- ‘Shiver, down the spine.’ No comments have been posted yet, because the readers of his blog are left with no other clue. Now I think it is high time to speak up. I don't want to grow a censor within me.
Shahina reports for the Malayalam daily Janayugom from New Delhi
Media losing its credibility, says Delhi Union of Journalists
New Delhi, Oct 3 (IANS): Taking a hard look at media reports on the Jamia Nagar episode over the past few weeks, after two suspected terrorists and a Delhi Police Inspector were killed in a police shootout Sep 19, the Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ) prepared an interim report which was released in the capital Friday.
Pointing out discrepancies in various media over reporting of facts, S.K.Pande, president of DUJ, said that in what can be seen as a growing trend - albeit a dangerous one, verification of facts is quite often overlooked by reporters these days.
"To state an example, the Times of India said that there were 25 firing rounds by the police and eight by the 'terrorists'. The Indian Express, the Hindu, Dainik Hindustan, Punjab Kesari and Rashtriya Sahara say that the police fired 22 rounds. They were all silent about the rounds fired by the suspects," Pande said.
"Whether it's the time of the shootout, the duration, the number of policemen present at that time or the number of bullets that hit Police Inspector M.C. Sharma - different media have different versions. At least in the initial reportage, the source of the
information was the same, the police. Then why the difference?" he asked.
Agreeing with Pande, veteran journalist Kuldip Nayar said that because of instances such as these the 'media is losing its credibility'.
The interim report, which will be followed by a more detailed one later, was a result of intense discussion among 15 members of the DUJ and its Ethics Council, scanning of the various media - both print and electronic, and visits to the Jamia Nagar area by three members who spoke to the residents of the area.
"The purpose of this report is not to pass a judgement on the shootout, whether it was a fake one or not. The aim was to analyse the role of the media in handling such serious issues. In the age of fast news and 24/7 news channels, unfortunately we sometimes resort to hyping of news," Pande said.
The report said: 'The Hindustan Times, for instance, Sep 20 ran a story 'India's Bin Laden was a good boy in school' on alleged terrorist Abdus Subhan Qureshi. The story did not warrant that headline'.
'By and large, the press has forsaken the use of such prefixes like ‘alleged’ and ‘suspected’ in front of names of those who have been arrested and killed. Television reports have been even more blatant with such words simply missing from the language used by reporters and anchors'.
The report also had words of praise for certain media like the Veer Arjun which on Sep 20 gave a detailed description of the operation that is at variance with the versions in the other papers.
DUJ now plans to send the report to the National Commission of Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), among others.
"There were four-five children, all between the age of 10-17 who were picked up for questioning by the Police. One of the boys killed in the shoot out was 17 and branded as a terrorist in most papers even before any proof could be established against them. Are the NCPCR looking into the matter? We are going to send this report to the NCPCR and see what their reaction is," Pande said.
Pointing out discrepancies in various media over reporting of facts, S.K.Pande, president of DUJ, said that in what can be seen as a growing trend - albeit a dangerous one, verification of facts is quite often overlooked by reporters these days.
"To state an example, the Times of India said that there were 25 firing rounds by the police and eight by the 'terrorists'. The Indian Express, the Hindu, Dainik Hindustan, Punjab Kesari and Rashtriya Sahara say that the police fired 22 rounds. They were all silent about the rounds fired by the suspects," Pande said.
"Whether it's the time of the shootout, the duration, the number of policemen present at that time or the number of bullets that hit Police Inspector M.C. Sharma - different media have different versions. At least in the initial reportage, the source of the
information was the same, the police. Then why the difference?" he asked.
Agreeing with Pande, veteran journalist Kuldip Nayar said that because of instances such as these the 'media is losing its credibility'.
The interim report, which will be followed by a more detailed one later, was a result of intense discussion among 15 members of the DUJ and its Ethics Council, scanning of the various media - both print and electronic, and visits to the Jamia Nagar area by three members who spoke to the residents of the area.
"The purpose of this report is not to pass a judgement on the shootout, whether it was a fake one or not. The aim was to analyse the role of the media in handling such serious issues. In the age of fast news and 24/7 news channels, unfortunately we sometimes resort to hyping of news," Pande said.
The report said: 'The Hindustan Times, for instance, Sep 20 ran a story 'India's Bin Laden was a good boy in school' on alleged terrorist Abdus Subhan Qureshi. The story did not warrant that headline'.
'By and large, the press has forsaken the use of such prefixes like ‘alleged’ and ‘suspected’ in front of names of those who have been arrested and killed. Television reports have been even more blatant with such words simply missing from the language used by reporters and anchors'.
The report also had words of praise for certain media like the Veer Arjun which on Sep 20 gave a detailed description of the operation that is at variance with the versions in the other papers.
DUJ now plans to send the report to the National Commission of Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), among others.
"There were four-five children, all between the age of 10-17 who were picked up for questioning by the Police. One of the boys killed in the shoot out was 17 and branded as a terrorist in most papers even before any proof could be established against them. Are the NCPCR looking into the matter? We are going to send this report to the NCPCR and see what their reaction is," Pande said.
03 October, 2008
US professor seeking Dalit documentaries
The following is a message circulated by Professor Sreenath Sreenivasan in SAJA Forum:
From: "Erika George" erika.george@law.utah.edu
Subject: RE: India Dalit Documentaries?
I am teaching a seminar course comparing affirmative action/positive discrimination initiatives in different countries, including India. I am looking for a more recent documentary film (past 10-15 years) that
addresses issues of caste discrimination in India or the social justice
movements working on issues of caste discrimination. Basically, I am looking for something that would introduce the issue and provide background and context to students with little knowledge about the country or the issue of caste.
The film could be a biography of a prominent person from a low caste
or scheduled tribe or could address caste as a social category more generally and how it has evolved from colonialism through today. I suspect it would be difficult to find a film dealing exclusively with the issue of positive discrimination. At minimum I am hoping to identify a film that would be able to offer context to a classroom conversation about the justifications offered for quotas as well as the backlash against such programs in contemporary India.
Many thanks.
Erika
Erika R. George
Professor of Law
University of Utah
S.J. Quinney College of Law
332 South 1400 East, Room 101
Salt Lake City, UT 84106-0730
Phone: 801.581.7358, 801.581.6897 (fax)
georgee@law.utah.edu
From: "Erika George" erika.george@law.utah.edu
Subject: RE: India Dalit Documentaries?
I am teaching a seminar course comparing affirmative action/positive discrimination initiatives in different countries, including India. I am looking for a more recent documentary film (past 10-15 years) that
addresses issues of caste discrimination in India or the social justice
movements working on issues of caste discrimination. Basically, I am looking for something that would introduce the issue and provide background and context to students with little knowledge about the country or the issue of caste.
The film could be a biography of a prominent person from a low caste
or scheduled tribe or could address caste as a social category more generally and how it has evolved from colonialism through today. I suspect it would be difficult to find a film dealing exclusively with the issue of positive discrimination. At minimum I am hoping to identify a film that would be able to offer context to a classroom conversation about the justifications offered for quotas as well as the backlash against such programs in contemporary India.
Many thanks.
Erika
Erika R. George
Professor of Law
University of Utah
S.J. Quinney College of Law
332 South 1400 East, Room 101
Salt Lake City, UT 84106-0730
Phone: 801.581.7358, 801.581.6897 (fax)
georgee@law.utah.edu
02 October, 2008
Why everybody loves a good stereotype
by Antara Dev Sen
The Asian Age
October 2, 2008
"You support terrorists?" my friend was horror-struck.
"We can’t presume they are terrorists," I begin, "there must be a
trial first."
"Rubbish! They are terrorists! And it’s indefensible that Jamia Milia
University is using government money to protect them."
"Everyone is entitled to legal aid and is innocent until proven
guilty..."
"They are guilty. The police nabbed them."
"That’s the police version?"
My friend, a secular and sensitive writer, is mortified. "The terrorists shot an officer dead! But you still won’t believe them?"
"You believe police ‘encounters’?"
"Certainly. You don’t?"
"Maybe, if they’re credible."
"Why won’t you believe the police?"
"It would have been easier to believe the cops if they didn’t offer several versions of the same ‘encounter’, if they could find the bullets that killed Inspector M.C. Sharma and the gun that fired them, or answer the questions locals and activists are throwing at them punching holes in their theories, if fake ‘encounter’ killings like Sohrabuddin’s and his wife’s were not fresh in our minds?"
"A police officer is killed, and you side with the terrorists!"
"No, a life cut short is tragic, especially for the family. But two boys were also killed in the shootout. Terrorists? Prove it. Sharma did have a reputation? Remember his killing ‘terrorists’ in a fake encounter at Ansal Plaza?"
"He faked his own killing, you say?"
With bombs going off every few days and our threat perception spiralling, it’s not easy to root for civil rights. Logic and ethics get all tangled up as fear spooling out of bombed markets and grieving neighbourhoods flood your senses. Where does one draw the line between safeguarding human rights and supporting terrorism? How much of our rationality and morals are we ready to barter for some more security? Would it really buy safety or are we being manipulated into fighting others? battles? Conversely, are we bending over backwards so much to protect civil rights that we can’t see the obvious?
For example, you can’t deny that there is Muslim terrorism in India. We are not immune to the global virus, especially since some neighbours have been diligently breeding it for us. And it is naïve to pretend that all Muslim terrorism in India is retaliation against
discrimination and abuse, or to romanticise the murder of innocents.
But to prop up Muslims as the enemy, or suggest that every Muslim is a potential terrorist, is ridiculous. For decades, we have faced terrorism from non-Muslims, from Punjab to the Northeast to the recent rash of terror across India by Maoists or Hindutva extremists. We have lost one Prime Minister to Sikh killers and one to Hindu terrorists. And lost thousands of lives to Muslim militants, from Jammu and Kashmir to the Mumbai blasts.
Yet the trend today is to equate terrorism with Islam. Take Delhi. Every recent bomb blast has been blamed on Muslims. The attack on the Red Fort in December 2000 and on Parliament in December 2001, the Diwali blasts of October 2005, the serial blasts of September 13, 2008, and the blast last Saturday. Even though 15,000 clerics had
congregated in February at Darul Uloom Deoband, the Muslim seminary in Uttar Pradesh whose alumni include the Taliban, and denounced terrorism as anti-Islam.
We love stereotypes. So while parading the three suspects in the Delhi blasts, middle class kids, two of whom are students of the Jamia Milia Islamia University, instead of the hood to protect their identity, the police wrapped brand new red Palestinian scarves around their heads, revealing only their eyes, like Hamas militants. Manipulating the perception of the Muslim as terrorist, or the terrorist as Muslim, was easy.
Religious profiling has been part of our anti-terrorism drive, and with their socio-political deprivations, Muslims are easy targets. According to the Sachar Committee Report, only 59 per cent of Muslims are literate and their participation in governance is severely limited: only 4 per cent in the IPS, 3 per cent in the IAS, barely 1.8 per cent in the IFS, etc. Marginalised for long, Muslims are now being pushed dangerously close to the edge.
Apart from violating the constitutional guarantee of equality, religious profiling hinders the fight against terror. It diverts attention from those who are tangibly linked to terrorism but do not fit the religious profile. So stereotypes about Muslim terrorists make us ignore State-sponsored Hindu terrorism like in Gujarat, where justice was so beyond reach that the Supreme Court had to transfer the 2002 "riot" cases outside of the state. Or the continuing terror attacks on Christians in Orissa (about 50 killed in Kandhamal this
time), and Karnataka by Hindu extremists. Bajrang Dal activists have been found making bombs, like in Kanpur a month ago. Maharashtra’s Anti-Terrorism Squad found them making bombs in Nanded in 2006 and also recovered a false beard, moustache and sherwani. This Hindu group had bombed three mosques since 2003. Once free from
stereotypes, the police can efficiently counter terror.
But stereotyping terrorists is easier. We remember the jailing and torture of Iftikhar Gilani, Delhi bureau chief of Kashmir Times, for almost seven months, before intense lobbying by the media and politicians got him released in January 2003. Similarly, Tariq Ahmed Dar, a young Kashmiri model, was jailed for several months in 2006, as a "Pakistani spy". He was released after intervention by the media and top politicians. In August, cops picked up Milan Molla, a tea-shop owner in Kolkata, threatening to brand him a terrorist unless he paid up Rs 150,000. His mother paid part of it with borrowed money, freed him and went public with a complaint. Every year, there are dozens of such cases. Given that young Muslim men are routinely targeted in the name of fighting terrorism, Jamia?s decision to provide legal aid to its students is perhaps essential.
"But would Jamia have provided this support if the boys were accused of rape?" exclaimed my friend. Maybe not. But then, being accused of a crime against an individual is not the same as being charged with a crime against the nation. The loyalty of Indian Muslims is regularly questioned, from India-Pakistan cricket matches to national
politics. In a terrified society, officially branding them anti-national would be easy. To prevent our strained social fabric from falling apart, we need to pursue the truth, not myths, and protect civil rights. That does not make us supporters of terrorism, it helps
us curb it.
Antara Dev Sen is editor of The Little Magazine. She can be contacted
at sen@littlemag.com
The Asian Age
October 2, 2008
"You support terrorists?" my friend was horror-struck.
"We can’t presume they are terrorists," I begin, "there must be a
trial first."
"Rubbish! They are terrorists! And it’s indefensible that Jamia Milia
University is using government money to protect them."
"Everyone is entitled to legal aid and is innocent until proven
guilty..."
"They are guilty. The police nabbed them."
"That’s the police version?"
My friend, a secular and sensitive writer, is mortified. "The terrorists shot an officer dead! But you still won’t believe them?"
"You believe police ‘encounters’?"
"Certainly. You don’t?"
"Maybe, if they’re credible."
"Why won’t you believe the police?"
"It would have been easier to believe the cops if they didn’t offer several versions of the same ‘encounter’, if they could find the bullets that killed Inspector M.C. Sharma and the gun that fired them, or answer the questions locals and activists are throwing at them punching holes in their theories, if fake ‘encounter’ killings like Sohrabuddin’s and his wife’s were not fresh in our minds?"
"A police officer is killed, and you side with the terrorists!"
"No, a life cut short is tragic, especially for the family. But two boys were also killed in the shootout. Terrorists? Prove it. Sharma did have a reputation? Remember his killing ‘terrorists’ in a fake encounter at Ansal Plaza?"
"He faked his own killing, you say?"
With bombs going off every few days and our threat perception spiralling, it’s not easy to root for civil rights. Logic and ethics get all tangled up as fear spooling out of bombed markets and grieving neighbourhoods flood your senses. Where does one draw the line between safeguarding human rights and supporting terrorism? How much of our rationality and morals are we ready to barter for some more security? Would it really buy safety or are we being manipulated into fighting others? battles? Conversely, are we bending over backwards so much to protect civil rights that we can’t see the obvious?
For example, you can’t deny that there is Muslim terrorism in India. We are not immune to the global virus, especially since some neighbours have been diligently breeding it for us. And it is naïve to pretend that all Muslim terrorism in India is retaliation against
discrimination and abuse, or to romanticise the murder of innocents.
But to prop up Muslims as the enemy, or suggest that every Muslim is a potential terrorist, is ridiculous. For decades, we have faced terrorism from non-Muslims, from Punjab to the Northeast to the recent rash of terror across India by Maoists or Hindutva extremists. We have lost one Prime Minister to Sikh killers and one to Hindu terrorists. And lost thousands of lives to Muslim militants, from Jammu and Kashmir to the Mumbai blasts.
Yet the trend today is to equate terrorism with Islam. Take Delhi. Every recent bomb blast has been blamed on Muslims. The attack on the Red Fort in December 2000 and on Parliament in December 2001, the Diwali blasts of October 2005, the serial blasts of September 13, 2008, and the blast last Saturday. Even though 15,000 clerics had
congregated in February at Darul Uloom Deoband, the Muslim seminary in Uttar Pradesh whose alumni include the Taliban, and denounced terrorism as anti-Islam.
We love stereotypes. So while parading the three suspects in the Delhi blasts, middle class kids, two of whom are students of the Jamia Milia Islamia University, instead of the hood to protect their identity, the police wrapped brand new red Palestinian scarves around their heads, revealing only their eyes, like Hamas militants. Manipulating the perception of the Muslim as terrorist, or the terrorist as Muslim, was easy.
Religious profiling has been part of our anti-terrorism drive, and with their socio-political deprivations, Muslims are easy targets. According to the Sachar Committee Report, only 59 per cent of Muslims are literate and their participation in governance is severely limited: only 4 per cent in the IPS, 3 per cent in the IAS, barely 1.8 per cent in the IFS, etc. Marginalised for long, Muslims are now being pushed dangerously close to the edge.
Apart from violating the constitutional guarantee of equality, religious profiling hinders the fight against terror. It diverts attention from those who are tangibly linked to terrorism but do not fit the religious profile. So stereotypes about Muslim terrorists make us ignore State-sponsored Hindu terrorism like in Gujarat, where justice was so beyond reach that the Supreme Court had to transfer the 2002 "riot" cases outside of the state. Or the continuing terror attacks on Christians in Orissa (about 50 killed in Kandhamal this
time), and Karnataka by Hindu extremists. Bajrang Dal activists have been found making bombs, like in Kanpur a month ago. Maharashtra’s Anti-Terrorism Squad found them making bombs in Nanded in 2006 and also recovered a false beard, moustache and sherwani. This Hindu group had bombed three mosques since 2003. Once free from
stereotypes, the police can efficiently counter terror.
But stereotyping terrorists is easier. We remember the jailing and torture of Iftikhar Gilani, Delhi bureau chief of Kashmir Times, for almost seven months, before intense lobbying by the media and politicians got him released in January 2003. Similarly, Tariq Ahmed Dar, a young Kashmiri model, was jailed for several months in 2006, as a "Pakistani spy". He was released after intervention by the media and top politicians. In August, cops picked up Milan Molla, a tea-shop owner in Kolkata, threatening to brand him a terrorist unless he paid up Rs 150,000. His mother paid part of it with borrowed money, freed him and went public with a complaint. Every year, there are dozens of such cases. Given that young Muslim men are routinely targeted in the name of fighting terrorism, Jamia?s decision to provide legal aid to its students is perhaps essential.
"But would Jamia have provided this support if the boys were accused of rape?" exclaimed my friend. Maybe not. But then, being accused of a crime against an individual is not the same as being charged with a crime against the nation. The loyalty of Indian Muslims is regularly questioned, from India-Pakistan cricket matches to national
politics. In a terrified society, officially branding them anti-national would be easy. To prevent our strained social fabric from falling apart, we need to pursue the truth, not myths, and protect civil rights. That does not make us supporters of terrorism, it helps
us curb it.
Antara Dev Sen is editor of The Little Magazine. She can be contacted
at sen@littlemag.com
01 October, 2008
Communalism is at centrestage
By Shabnam Hashmi
01 October, 2008
Tehelka
Life and liberty are not the gift of society, state or Constitution but inalienable rights of every individual. The flame of liberty will glow so long as there are persons who have guts, grit, and vision to expose and disprove those nibbling away liberty in the name of expedients.
A journalist of a well-known television channel recently asked me why the community to which I belong (of human rights activists) always takes stands which are opposed to the stand of the whole nation. Can the shrill voices of the electronic media replace our whole being? Can they replace the Indian Constitution and the rule of law? The strong judgements passed by the media after every terror attack, every encounter and every arrest of a ‘mastermind’, can sway the middle classes and the executives working in the multinational companies. But can they stop a nation from questioning? Even at the height of Hitler’s rule in Germany, when benches on the roadside had signs saying, ‘Not for Jews’, someone had the guts to put a black cross on them, establishing that such politics of genocide was not acceptable.
Though India is being transformed at a fast pace where all minorities are being forced to realise that they are second-class citizens, the difference is that there are many more people in India who are challenging the fascist agenda of those who are in power and others, who are desperately trying to capture power in the coming election.
The ascent of these forces has been systematic and well planned. Twenty years ago, most of the secular forces believed that the communal fascist forces were on the fringe of society and laughed at the possibility of their ever moving centerstage. Today the situation has reversed — the communal forces are so centrestage, it is difficult to differentiate between what is right and what is centre. They have invaded all spaces and areas including the minds of our secular politicians.
Among the plenty of weapons that they have used in this journey — from the peripheral to the Centre — fake encounters occupy a fairly important position. They have cleverly used different weapons at different stages. Beginning from ordinary bhajan mandalis, they moved to more organised kathas, to new age gurus. Working at different levels over 15 years — shishu mandirs, shakhas, ekal vidyalayas, sant samagams, television serials, the rath yatras, leaflets, videos, CDs — they have slowly entered the consciousness of an entire society with targeted messages against minorities. Only those sections of society who strongly and consciously contested this ideology could retain their sanity. After the seeds of hatred were sowed successfully and the harvest was being reaped, started the more decisive phase — the physical attacks and largescale genocide. Most of the experiments were done in Gujarat and the remote areas of other states. For example, the experiment within the tribal belts started in the late 1960s and early 1970s.Almost simultaneously, the VHP swamis then moved into these areas.
Today, we have reached a stage when an innocent person can be killed in a fake encounter, and declared a terrorist. A large number of innocent young Muslim boys are being victimised by the police on charges of terrorism. In most cases, they are not shown to be arrested by the police until many days after their arrest in gross violation of the law. Their families are also not informed about their arrest and while in police custody, they are made to ‘confess’ and sign blank papers. The courts routinely deny them bail. When the police chargesheet them, the trials go on almost endlessly during which the poor victims are virtually defenceless. GUJCOC, MCOCA, POTA and many other such draconian laws are required only so that the statements which the police force out of the victims can be considered as evidence.
After years of torture and confinement, when the case against the victims is found to be baseless, no action is taken to hold police officials accountable. The young patriotic journalists, of course, are then not around to report the horrors of all those years lost in the dark cells of a jail. Stopping the victimisation of the innocents will be the first step towards finding a solution against terrorism.
Shabnam Hashmi is a social activist with Anhad. This article, which appears in Tehelka Magazine, Vol 5, Issue 39, dated Oct 04, 2008, has been distributed by Countercurrents.org
01 October, 2008
Tehelka
Life and liberty are not the gift of society, state or Constitution but inalienable rights of every individual. The flame of liberty will glow so long as there are persons who have guts, grit, and vision to expose and disprove those nibbling away liberty in the name of expedients.
A journalist of a well-known television channel recently asked me why the community to which I belong (of human rights activists) always takes stands which are opposed to the stand of the whole nation. Can the shrill voices of the electronic media replace our whole being? Can they replace the Indian Constitution and the rule of law? The strong judgements passed by the media after every terror attack, every encounter and every arrest of a ‘mastermind’, can sway the middle classes and the executives working in the multinational companies. But can they stop a nation from questioning? Even at the height of Hitler’s rule in Germany, when benches on the roadside had signs saying, ‘Not for Jews’, someone had the guts to put a black cross on them, establishing that such politics of genocide was not acceptable.
Though India is being transformed at a fast pace where all minorities are being forced to realise that they are second-class citizens, the difference is that there are many more people in India who are challenging the fascist agenda of those who are in power and others, who are desperately trying to capture power in the coming election.
The ascent of these forces has been systematic and well planned. Twenty years ago, most of the secular forces believed that the communal fascist forces were on the fringe of society and laughed at the possibility of their ever moving centerstage. Today the situation has reversed — the communal forces are so centrestage, it is difficult to differentiate between what is right and what is centre. They have invaded all spaces and areas including the minds of our secular politicians.
Among the plenty of weapons that they have used in this journey — from the peripheral to the Centre — fake encounters occupy a fairly important position. They have cleverly used different weapons at different stages. Beginning from ordinary bhajan mandalis, they moved to more organised kathas, to new age gurus. Working at different levels over 15 years — shishu mandirs, shakhas, ekal vidyalayas, sant samagams, television serials, the rath yatras, leaflets, videos, CDs — they have slowly entered the consciousness of an entire society with targeted messages against minorities. Only those sections of society who strongly and consciously contested this ideology could retain their sanity. After the seeds of hatred were sowed successfully and the harvest was being reaped, started the more decisive phase — the physical attacks and largescale genocide. Most of the experiments were done in Gujarat and the remote areas of other states. For example, the experiment within the tribal belts started in the late 1960s and early 1970s.Almost simultaneously, the VHP swamis then moved into these areas.
Today, we have reached a stage when an innocent person can be killed in a fake encounter, and declared a terrorist. A large number of innocent young Muslim boys are being victimised by the police on charges of terrorism. In most cases, they are not shown to be arrested by the police until many days after their arrest in gross violation of the law. Their families are also not informed about their arrest and while in police custody, they are made to ‘confess’ and sign blank papers. The courts routinely deny them bail. When the police chargesheet them, the trials go on almost endlessly during which the poor victims are virtually defenceless. GUJCOC, MCOCA, POTA and many other such draconian laws are required only so that the statements which the police force out of the victims can be considered as evidence.
After years of torture and confinement, when the case against the victims is found to be baseless, no action is taken to hold police officials accountable. The young patriotic journalists, of course, are then not around to report the horrors of all those years lost in the dark cells of a jail. Stopping the victimisation of the innocents will be the first step towards finding a solution against terrorism.
Shabnam Hashmi is a social activist with Anhad. This article, which appears in Tehelka Magazine, Vol 5, Issue 39, dated Oct 04, 2008, has been distributed by Countercurrents.org
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