To defend Teesta Setalvad and to demand justice in Gujarat, please sign the petition at this link:
http://www.petitiononline.com/guj2002/petition.html
Dear friends,
Teesta Setalvad, Secretary of the Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) and recipient of the Nuremberg Human Rights Award in 2003 is being relentlessy harassed and intimidated by the Government of Gujarat because she has been a tireless campaigner in the struggle to seek redress and justice for the victims of the horrific carnage in Gujarat in 2002.
In a concerted attempt to intimidate human rights defenders like Teesta Setalvad, the Gujarat Government, through its police, is continually hounding her. She now faces at least three fabricated criminal investigations, forcing her to apply for multiple anticipatory bails. Now the latest appears to be a doctored charge-sheet.
This intimidation comes at a time when finally, after nine long years, serious allegations against the Chief Minister Narendra Modi for masterminding the criminal conspiracy to commit mass murder have reached a pivotal stage. In a pathbreaking development, the Supreme Court of India, on May 5, 2011, directed the amicus curiae to examine all evidence and meet all witnesses, and report back to the court whether a case exists against the Chief Minister and 61 others.
Serving and retired Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers have testified to the illegal and unconstitutional instructions given on February 27, 2002, by Narendra Modi that led to the carnage. In the ensuing days, at least 2,500 people, mostly Muslims, were murdered. Rape and other terrible acts of violence were committed while the state police and administration stood by.
Prosecution of all those responsible for these crimes is essential for justice, peace and reconciliation. It will help guarantee that similar crimes are not committed in the future. The Government of Gujarat is seeking to thwart the judicial process through its persecution of Teesta Setalvad.
Please join us in defending Teesta Setalvad!
Pleas be a part of the struggle for justice for the victims of the 2002 carnage! Please sign the petition at the link below!
Please forward it to your friends.!
http://www.petitiononline.com/guj2002/petition.html
Sincerely,
Bindu T. Desai
PS: For more background and details, please visit the following link:
http://www.cjponline.org/teesta.htm
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May 29, 2011
Karnataka: Hindutva outfit attempts to scuttle scheme for poor girls
The Hindu, May 29, 2011
Hindutva outfit attempts to scuttle scheme for poor girls
Rishikesh Bahadur Desai
Parents concerned following opposition from Bajrang Dal
New avenues: A batch of students undergoing training at the Carmel Vocational Training Centre in Bidar.
Bidar: A unique initiative that provides good education to poor girls from Bidar is facing stiff opposition from a conservative outfit.
The Sisters of the Apostolic Carmel that runs the Carmel Vocational Training Centre (CVTC) in Bidar has been sending 40 girls every year to Mangalore for the past 10 years. Over 90 per cent of the girls are Dalits. The Department of Social Welfare permits such transfers of orphans or non-orphan destitute students, providing them with destitute certificates and a monthly scholarship of Rs. 350 each.
The Bajrang Dal has opposed this claiming that Christian educational institutions in Mangalore are indulging in conversions in the name of education. Added to this, revenue officials in Bidar delay issuing destitute certificates to these children, saying that they do not want to be part of the controversy. Parents are naturally concerned. “We are not sure whether we should continue sending our children to Mangalore and whether they will be safe there,” said Anthappa Chandrapur of Kasar Tugaon village, who had planned to send his daughter to Mangalore.
New applicants
Of the 50 new applications for destitute certificates filed at various tahsildar offices, only 20 have been issued till now.
While the revenue office handbook says destitute certificates should be issued within two working days of the receipt of an application, some applications have been pending for over 45 days.
‘It is legal”
Deputy Commissioner Sameer Shukla told The Hindu that he would instruct officials to facilitate speedy distribution of destitute certificates. He said the movement of children to Mangalore was legal and valid and no one had the right to stop them.
Christine Misquith of the CVTC said, “It will be very difficult to send students to Mangalore if the certificates are not issued before June 1.”
According to DSS leader Maruti Bouddhe, “Officials feel the Bajrang Dal members will target them for helping the children go to Mangalore. Officials should realise that the Bajrang Dal is an extra-constitutional body trying to meddle in their work.”
Voicing his opinion, Christian leader Vaijanath Yanagunde asked, “Who are Bajrang Dal members to tell us where we should admit our children?”
He pointed out that there was no meaning in the argument that the children sent to Mangalore are being converted. “All these children are from Christian homes. There is no need to convert them now,” he said.
Hindutva outfit attempts to scuttle scheme for poor girls
Rishikesh Bahadur Desai
Parents concerned following opposition from Bajrang Dal
New avenues: A batch of students undergoing training at the Carmel Vocational Training Centre in Bidar.
Bidar: A unique initiative that provides good education to poor girls from Bidar is facing stiff opposition from a conservative outfit.
The Sisters of the Apostolic Carmel that runs the Carmel Vocational Training Centre (CVTC) in Bidar has been sending 40 girls every year to Mangalore for the past 10 years. Over 90 per cent of the girls are Dalits. The Department of Social Welfare permits such transfers of orphans or non-orphan destitute students, providing them with destitute certificates and a monthly scholarship of Rs. 350 each.
The Bajrang Dal has opposed this claiming that Christian educational institutions in Mangalore are indulging in conversions in the name of education. Added to this, revenue officials in Bidar delay issuing destitute certificates to these children, saying that they do not want to be part of the controversy. Parents are naturally concerned. “We are not sure whether we should continue sending our children to Mangalore and whether they will be safe there,” said Anthappa Chandrapur of Kasar Tugaon village, who had planned to send his daughter to Mangalore.
New applicants
Of the 50 new applications for destitute certificates filed at various tahsildar offices, only 20 have been issued till now.
While the revenue office handbook says destitute certificates should be issued within two working days of the receipt of an application, some applications have been pending for over 45 days.
‘It is legal”
Deputy Commissioner Sameer Shukla told The Hindu that he would instruct officials to facilitate speedy distribution of destitute certificates. He said the movement of children to Mangalore was legal and valid and no one had the right to stop them.
Christine Misquith of the CVTC said, “It will be very difficult to send students to Mangalore if the certificates are not issued before June 1.”
According to DSS leader Maruti Bouddhe, “Officials feel the Bajrang Dal members will target them for helping the children go to Mangalore. Officials should realise that the Bajrang Dal is an extra-constitutional body trying to meddle in their work.”
Voicing his opinion, Christian leader Vaijanath Yanagunde asked, “Who are Bajrang Dal members to tell us where we should admit our children?”
He pointed out that there was no meaning in the argument that the children sent to Mangalore are being converted. “All these children are from Christian homes. There is no need to convert them now,” he said.
May 28, 2011
BJP steps on Hindutva gas
The Telegraph, 28 May 2011
BJP steps on Hindutva gas
RADHIKA RAMASESHAN
New Delhi, May 27: The BJP has stepped up its Hindutva rhetoric ahead of its June 2 national executive, which is expected to set the tone of the party’s campaign for next year’s Uttar Pradesh elections.
The party has picked the issues of Afzal Guru’s hanging and the proposed communal violence bill drafted by Sonia Gandhi’s National Advisory Council (NAC), which it accuses of being biased against Hindus.
The BJP today bayed for Guru’s blood, a day after the President rejected two death-row convicts’ mercy pleas.
“When will he (Guru) be hanged? Will the government explain which law authorises it to adjudicate mercy applications only in a queue?” spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad asked.
Guru, convicted of conspiracy in the December 2001 Parliament attack, was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court in 2004. His mercy petition has been waiting in a long queue. Prasad said the Centre’s alleged indecision on Guru was a “copybook example of vote-bank politics”.
Arun Jaitley alleged the draft communal violence bill discriminated against the majority community — by which he meant Hindus — by making it culpable for communal trouble while letting minorities go scot-free.
“This draft bill... proceeds on a presumption that communal trouble is created only by members of the majority community and never by a member of the minority community,” he wrote.
“Thus, offences committed by members of the majority community against members of the minority community are punishable. Identical offences committed by minority groups against the majority are not deemed to be offences at all.”
Jaitley’s argument is based on the bill’s focus on the protection of “those particularly vulnerable groups of citizens who are routinely subjected to violence or threats of violence in different forms because of ‘who they are’”.
The NAC has defined these groups as religious and linguistic minorities, and Dalits and tribals.
A member of the working group that authored the draft denied that the bill discriminated against majority communities and said it was merely trying to protect vulnerable groups against violence.
The member also debunked Jaitley’s assumption that “majority” always meant Hindus, saying the bill would protect the Pandits in Jammu and Kashmir, as also Hindi-speaking migrants in Maharashtra where they are often attacked.
The member pointed out that Hindus were in a minority in Punjab, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Lakshadweep.
BJP steps on Hindutva gas
RADHIKA RAMASESHAN
New Delhi, May 27: The BJP has stepped up its Hindutva rhetoric ahead of its June 2 national executive, which is expected to set the tone of the party’s campaign for next year’s Uttar Pradesh elections.
The party has picked the issues of Afzal Guru’s hanging and the proposed communal violence bill drafted by Sonia Gandhi’s National Advisory Council (NAC), which it accuses of being biased against Hindus.
The BJP today bayed for Guru’s blood, a day after the President rejected two death-row convicts’ mercy pleas.
“When will he (Guru) be hanged? Will the government explain which law authorises it to adjudicate mercy applications only in a queue?” spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad asked.
Guru, convicted of conspiracy in the December 2001 Parliament attack, was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court in 2004. His mercy petition has been waiting in a long queue. Prasad said the Centre’s alleged indecision on Guru was a “copybook example of vote-bank politics”.
Arun Jaitley alleged the draft communal violence bill discriminated against the majority community — by which he meant Hindus — by making it culpable for communal trouble while letting minorities go scot-free.
“This draft bill... proceeds on a presumption that communal trouble is created only by members of the majority community and never by a member of the minority community,” he wrote.
“Thus, offences committed by members of the majority community against members of the minority community are punishable. Identical offences committed by minority groups against the majority are not deemed to be offences at all.”
Jaitley’s argument is based on the bill’s focus on the protection of “those particularly vulnerable groups of citizens who are routinely subjected to violence or threats of violence in different forms because of ‘who they are’”.
The NAC has defined these groups as religious and linguistic minorities, and Dalits and tribals.
A member of the working group that authored the draft denied that the bill discriminated against majority communities and said it was merely trying to protect vulnerable groups against violence.
The member also debunked Jaitley’s assumption that “majority” always meant Hindus, saying the bill would protect the Pandits in Jammu and Kashmir, as also Hindi-speaking migrants in Maharashtra where they are often attacked.
The member pointed out that Hindus were in a minority in Punjab, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Lakshadweep.
Announcement: Citizens Sit-in to Demand that Gujarat Govt. Provide Security to Sanjiv Bhatt (Ahmedabad, 4 June 2011)
State of Gujarat
Fulfill your assurance given to
The Hon’ble Supreme Court of India
Provide Security to Sanjiv Bhatt
Citizen’s Dharna
June 4, 2011
3 - 6pm
Outside Sardar Baug, In front of Rupali Cinema, Lal Darwaza, Ahmedabad
Organised by :
AIQM, AISF, Aman Samudaya, Anhad, AVHRS, Bahujan Samajik Sangthan, Banaskantha Jilla Dalit Sangthan, CSJ, Darshan, IFIE, Janvikas, Lok Kala Manch, Nawo, Naya Marg, Niswan, Parwaj, Pehchan, Prashant, Sahayog, Samarpan, Samarth Trust, Swabhimaan Andolan, Utthan
Fulfill your assurance given to
The Hon’ble Supreme Court of India
Provide Security to Sanjiv Bhatt
Citizen’s Dharna
June 4, 2011
3 - 6pm
Outside Sardar Baug, In front of Rupali Cinema, Lal Darwaza, Ahmedabad
Organised by :
AIQM, AISF, Aman Samudaya, Anhad, AVHRS, Bahujan Samajik Sangthan, Banaskantha Jilla Dalit Sangthan, CSJ, Darshan, IFIE, Janvikas, Lok Kala Manch, Nawo, Naya Marg, Niswan, Parwaj, Pehchan, Prashant, Sahayog, Samarpan, Samarth Trust, Swabhimaan Andolan, Utthan
India: whither Liberty
Ram Puniyani
With the development of different norms of peace and justice all over there are many a global organizations and organizations set up by some countries, which monitor the state of delivery of justice to its citizens. India has been in the focus of many such organizations, not for very good reasons. The issues being observed regarding India are peace and religious freedom. In both these the records of India are not very flattering for the country.
India’s rank currently stands at 135 out of 153 nations (2011) assessed on this scale called Global Peace This global Peace Index ranks the countries according to how peaceful they are. India currently falls amongst the 20 least peaceful nations. Similarly for the third successive year US Watch dog on religious freedom (USCIRF) has underlined the need to pursue investigation against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for his role in Gujarat 2002 carnage, and has put India on the Watch List. This body also points out that another reason, apart from lack of action against Modi, for putting India on the watch list is that the justice for the communal violence victims continues to be slow and ineffective.
‘
Both these observations put together highlight the rise of divisive sectarian politics, after the demolition of Babri Mosque in particular. The present state of affairs is also due to nature of response of state and the political leadership to the phenomenon of religious violence and the process taking place in the aftermath of the well orchestrated violence. The process of violence is generally initiated on the pretext of some event. Already in the society the ‘Social Common Sense’ has been manufactured. Due to this social common sense large sections of society look at religious minorities as a threat to the majority religion. This social common sense has been manufactured over a period of time through the work of communal organizations, (Muslim League, Hindu Mahasabha and RSS Combine) later intensified by the education and section of media. This ‘Hate Other’ propaganda creates the ground on which ethno-preuners (political leaders using religious divides to come to power) take up their initiative to get the violence initiated against minorities. In the last decade the massive violence against Muslims in Gujarat and the one against Christians in Orissa have been particularly disturbing.
This violence in turn displaces the sections of minority community from their houses-localities, forcing them to stay in refugee camps in wretched conditions. The apathy of state and political leadership deliberately creates a situation where the displaced persons-families are denied proper rehabilitation and justice. This not only polarizes the communities on religious lines but goes on to ghettoize the minorities in particular. The process of social exclusion of minorities is going on at very rapid pace.
This leads us to question of assessing the changing nature of Indian state and polity. Are we able to nurture and promote the values of equality enshrined in our Constitution or we are going downhill towards a Hindu majoritarian state? Though the major ruling party will swear by secularism on paper, when it comes to halt communalism in its tracks it shows no will power to protect the secular fabric of our heritage from freedom movement. The other major electoral party, BJP, is part of the Combine which does want to convert India in to a Hindu nation, is aiming at Hindu majoritarian state. So when in power indifferent states BJP does push its agenda of Hindu nation, while its affiliates, progeny of RSS, Vishwa Hindu parishad, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram and Bajrang Dal etc go on intensifying the hatred against minorities and creating a situation where minorities can not live a life of dignity and equal rights.
In this scenario the question of justice in Gujarat, Kandhamal and role of people like Narendra Modi become more frightening. Surprisingly things have come to such a sorry pass where the guilty of violence are moving with their bloated chests and the human rights activists are being hounded on purpose. As an example of this the case of Teesta Setalvad is a major example, as to how the Gujarat State under Modi is trying to target her through different legal means.
It is time to introspect as to where our democracy is going. The deeper infiltration of divisive political ideology and its impact on the nature of our polity needs to be negated to ensure that the deviation from the values of our political pluralism and the right of minorities to live with dignity and justice, like every other citizen, is restored. The state of health of a democracy is reflected by the equity and security of minorities. The rot seems to be all around in different aspects of life; still the state of affairs is not same all over the country. There are states where this process of sectarianism is partial while in states like Gujarat, post carnage 2002 the minorities, barring a small section, has been pushed away to live in ghettoes, the live the life of second class citizen. In other states this process prevails in different degrees.
The politics resulting form the aftermath of violence is supplemented by the lack of will of the state to ensure the proper implementation of recommendations of the committees like Sachar Committee and Rangnath Mishra committee. The grass root level life of the minorities has been allowed to rot. The affirmative action has been projected as ‘Minority appeasement’ by the intense propaganda which the communal forces are unleashed relentlessly.
It is time that all the social movements, the dedicated political leadership and section of state have to wake up from their slumber and try to do the course correction related to the basic aspects of the nature of democratic ethos. Can we let our democracy slip in to a sort of ‘ Majority Religion Democracy’ where section of people of only one religion enjoy part of the equality, while the rights of minorities are trampled recklessly? It is overdue that those committed to the goal of India as Plural-Democratic India shed their complacency and come forward to bring in the substantive equality for all, irrespective of their religion.
With the development of different norms of peace and justice all over there are many a global organizations and organizations set up by some countries, which monitor the state of delivery of justice to its citizens. India has been in the focus of many such organizations, not for very good reasons. The issues being observed regarding India are peace and religious freedom. In both these the records of India are not very flattering for the country.
India’s rank currently stands at 135 out of 153 nations (2011) assessed on this scale called Global Peace This global Peace Index ranks the countries according to how peaceful they are. India currently falls amongst the 20 least peaceful nations. Similarly for the third successive year US Watch dog on religious freedom (USCIRF) has underlined the need to pursue investigation against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for his role in Gujarat 2002 carnage, and has put India on the Watch List. This body also points out that another reason, apart from lack of action against Modi, for putting India on the watch list is that the justice for the communal violence victims continues to be slow and ineffective.
‘
Both these observations put together highlight the rise of divisive sectarian politics, after the demolition of Babri Mosque in particular. The present state of affairs is also due to nature of response of state and the political leadership to the phenomenon of religious violence and the process taking place in the aftermath of the well orchestrated violence. The process of violence is generally initiated on the pretext of some event. Already in the society the ‘Social Common Sense’ has been manufactured. Due to this social common sense large sections of society look at religious minorities as a threat to the majority religion. This social common sense has been manufactured over a period of time through the work of communal organizations, (Muslim League, Hindu Mahasabha and RSS Combine) later intensified by the education and section of media. This ‘Hate Other’ propaganda creates the ground on which ethno-preuners (political leaders using religious divides to come to power) take up their initiative to get the violence initiated against minorities. In the last decade the massive violence against Muslims in Gujarat and the one against Christians in Orissa have been particularly disturbing.
This violence in turn displaces the sections of minority community from their houses-localities, forcing them to stay in refugee camps in wretched conditions. The apathy of state and political leadership deliberately creates a situation where the displaced persons-families are denied proper rehabilitation and justice. This not only polarizes the communities on religious lines but goes on to ghettoize the minorities in particular. The process of social exclusion of minorities is going on at very rapid pace.
This leads us to question of assessing the changing nature of Indian state and polity. Are we able to nurture and promote the values of equality enshrined in our Constitution or we are going downhill towards a Hindu majoritarian state? Though the major ruling party will swear by secularism on paper, when it comes to halt communalism in its tracks it shows no will power to protect the secular fabric of our heritage from freedom movement. The other major electoral party, BJP, is part of the Combine which does want to convert India in to a Hindu nation, is aiming at Hindu majoritarian state. So when in power indifferent states BJP does push its agenda of Hindu nation, while its affiliates, progeny of RSS, Vishwa Hindu parishad, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram and Bajrang Dal etc go on intensifying the hatred against minorities and creating a situation where minorities can not live a life of dignity and equal rights.
In this scenario the question of justice in Gujarat, Kandhamal and role of people like Narendra Modi become more frightening. Surprisingly things have come to such a sorry pass where the guilty of violence are moving with their bloated chests and the human rights activists are being hounded on purpose. As an example of this the case of Teesta Setalvad is a major example, as to how the Gujarat State under Modi is trying to target her through different legal means.
It is time to introspect as to where our democracy is going. The deeper infiltration of divisive political ideology and its impact on the nature of our polity needs to be negated to ensure that the deviation from the values of our political pluralism and the right of minorities to live with dignity and justice, like every other citizen, is restored. The state of health of a democracy is reflected by the equity and security of minorities. The rot seems to be all around in different aspects of life; still the state of affairs is not same all over the country. There are states where this process of sectarianism is partial while in states like Gujarat, post carnage 2002 the minorities, barring a small section, has been pushed away to live in ghettoes, the live the life of second class citizen. In other states this process prevails in different degrees.
The politics resulting form the aftermath of violence is supplemented by the lack of will of the state to ensure the proper implementation of recommendations of the committees like Sachar Committee and Rangnath Mishra committee. The grass root level life of the minorities has been allowed to rot. The affirmative action has been projected as ‘Minority appeasement’ by the intense propaganda which the communal forces are unleashed relentlessly.
It is time that all the social movements, the dedicated political leadership and section of state have to wake up from their slumber and try to do the course correction related to the basic aspects of the nature of democratic ethos. Can we let our democracy slip in to a sort of ‘ Majority Religion Democracy’ where section of people of only one religion enjoy part of the equality, while the rights of minorities are trampled recklessly? It is overdue that those committed to the goal of India as Plural-Democratic India shed their complacency and come forward to bring in the substantive equality for all, irrespective of their religion.
May 27, 2011
Centre determined to make States accountable for communal violence: Sibal
The Hindu, 27 May 2011
Centre determined to make States accountable for communal violence: Sibal
Smita Gupta
New Delhi: The Centre is “determined” to make both State governments and individuals responsible for law and order “accountable” in cases of communal violence, Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said on Thursday.
He was responding to a question on the criticism of the Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill, 2011, drafted by the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council's Working Group, by Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley. In an article, Mr. Jaitley has argued that the NAC draft Bill attempts to encroach on the powers of the State governments, and that it wrongly assumes that the majority community cannot be victimised.
Mr. Sibal, who was addressing a briefing organised by the Group of Ministers on the media, said the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government was determined to take the Bill forward, in light of the horrific incidents of communal violence that had taken place in the past: “We are determined to make the State governments and individuals [responsible for law and order] accountable,” he said.
On Mr. Jaitley's point on the assumption in the Bill that the majority community could not be victimised, the Minister said, “A polity which is just, fair and equitable needs to protect the weaker sections, minorities, SCs and STs.” Citing the example of the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989, Mr. Sibal asked, “Can the Leader of the Opposition say the majority is not protected?”
Constitutionally, the Centre can enact a law to tackle communal violence, say legal experts, but its implementation will depend on its acceptance by the State governments. In the case of the SC and ST Atrocities Act, the State governments found it politically difficult not to accept it, but, clearly, in the case of the Communal Violence Bill, the UPA government — which hopes to bring the Bill in the monsoon session of Parliament — will have to factor in resistance from the State governments, especially the BJP-ruled States.
The NAC sources, however, stressed that the Bill should be acceptable across the country as it made provision for all minorities — not just religious, but linguistic and regional as well. They pointed out that there were seven States — Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Mizoram, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and the Union Territory of Lakshadweep Island, where Hindus were in a minority.
Indeed, the NAC has made a specific recommendation that the Bill should be extended to Jammu and Kashmir, so that Kashmiri Pandits would also be covered; it also points out that migrants from east Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in Maharashtra — most of whom are Hindus — would also be covered by the Bill.
These sources added that the Bill was not intended for small incidents, but for incidents of mass violence, such as the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 in Delhi, the anti-Muslim riots in 2002 in Gujarat, or the anti Christian violence in Odisha's Kandhmal district. “These could be categorised as occasions when the law and order machinery broke down — after all, there is an Article 355 in the Constitution already,” these sources said.
Centre determined to make States accountable for communal violence: Sibal
Smita Gupta
New Delhi: The Centre is “determined” to make both State governments and individuals responsible for law and order “accountable” in cases of communal violence, Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said on Thursday.
He was responding to a question on the criticism of the Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill, 2011, drafted by the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council's Working Group, by Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley. In an article, Mr. Jaitley has argued that the NAC draft Bill attempts to encroach on the powers of the State governments, and that it wrongly assumes that the majority community cannot be victimised.
Mr. Sibal, who was addressing a briefing organised by the Group of Ministers on the media, said the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government was determined to take the Bill forward, in light of the horrific incidents of communal violence that had taken place in the past: “We are determined to make the State governments and individuals [responsible for law and order] accountable,” he said.
On Mr. Jaitley's point on the assumption in the Bill that the majority community could not be victimised, the Minister said, “A polity which is just, fair and equitable needs to protect the weaker sections, minorities, SCs and STs.” Citing the example of the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989, Mr. Sibal asked, “Can the Leader of the Opposition say the majority is not protected?”
Constitutionally, the Centre can enact a law to tackle communal violence, say legal experts, but its implementation will depend on its acceptance by the State governments. In the case of the SC and ST Atrocities Act, the State governments found it politically difficult not to accept it, but, clearly, in the case of the Communal Violence Bill, the UPA government — which hopes to bring the Bill in the monsoon session of Parliament — will have to factor in resistance from the State governments, especially the BJP-ruled States.
The NAC sources, however, stressed that the Bill should be acceptable across the country as it made provision for all minorities — not just religious, but linguistic and regional as well. They pointed out that there were seven States — Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Mizoram, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and the Union Territory of Lakshadweep Island, where Hindus were in a minority.
Indeed, the NAC has made a specific recommendation that the Bill should be extended to Jammu and Kashmir, so that Kashmiri Pandits would also be covered; it also points out that migrants from east Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in Maharashtra — most of whom are Hindus — would also be covered by the Bill.
These sources added that the Bill was not intended for small incidents, but for incidents of mass violence, such as the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 in Delhi, the anti-Muslim riots in 2002 in Gujarat, or the anti Christian violence in Odisha's Kandhmal district. “These could be categorised as occasions when the law and order machinery broke down — after all, there is an Article 355 in the Constitution already,” these sources said.
Note on the Legal Proceedings in the Pandharwada Case (Victimisation of Teesta Setalvad, Human Rights Defender)
May 25, 2011
From Teesta Setalvad
Note on proceedings in Gujarat HC on May 25 2011
On May 25, 2011 the hearing in Teesta Setalvad’s petition oraying for the quashing of the FIR in the Pandharwada Mass Gaves Case (please refer to the Backgrounder and Petition attached), arguments went on for over two and a half hours. Senior advocate Ms Kamini jaiswal from the Supreme Court made a strong and cogent plea for quashing of the FIR and summons dated May 9, 2011. As the petition attached explains clearly Setalvad has been arraigned as an ‘absconding accused’, belatedly and in a malafide act, only on April 6, 2011, i.e. five years after the FIR against victim survivors of the Pandharwada mass graves case was filed and a former employee Rais Khan of the CJP was also made an accused. Rais Khan since disassociated with the organization has been won over by powerful state functionaries and accused in the state of Gujarat.
Before April 6, 2011 when the chargesheet was belatedly filed, Setalvad had been summoned as a witness under section 160 CRPC (on March 25 2011). She had immediately replied to the summons requesting the police to record her statement at her residence which is under the provisions of the law. Thereafter an illegal and malafide summons was issued that too after the charge sheet was filed. Once a chargesheet is filed the competent authority to issue any summons remains a Court of Law not the police. Even before March 25, 2011, Setalvad was in no way absconding as she had moved for ABA first in December 2010 in Mumbai and thereafter in Godhra. She received anticipatory bail on February 15, 2011 and therefore in no way could be called an absconding accused. Counsel Ms Jaiswal arugued that there had been in no way any change in circumstance between January, March and April 2011 for Setalvad to have suddenly made an ‘absconding accused’ after first being summoned as witness except that the Investigating Officer (Joshi) had suddenly been transferred (it is now an IO Ninama).
The impunity that Rais Khan a co-accused in this cas enjoys within the state of Gujarat is appreciable in the fact of the interviews given by him on December 30 and 31, 2010 gleefully published in the Times of India, Ahmedabad wherein he states that he would ensure Setalvad’s arrest. On January 25, 2011 Setalvad made a detailed representation to the state Director General of Police Chittaranjan Singh and DIG Vadodara Range, JK Bhatt making herself and her organization available for any lawfully conducted investigation. She had also provided copies of the CD an transcript of the original digging episode wherein Rahul Singh of Sahara Samay (then) had relayed the episode to the nation. Rahul Singh was originally feared to be also implicated but he has been kept out so far by the police though in late 2010 they had arrived in Bhopal with a summons for him.
The strategy of the Gujarat police appears to be to intimidate and bully setalvad into responding to an illegal and malafide summons and thereafter applying the same arbitrary principles maybe detain her and deny her freedom and liberty in complete transgression of the law. On May 27, 2011 orders are expected from the Gujarat High Court.
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIA/2011/05/26&PageLabel=4&EntityId=Ar00402&ViewMode=HTML
The Times of India, 26 MAY 2011
Gujarat EDN
PANDARWADA CASE
HC reserves order on Teesta’s petition
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Ahmedabad: The Gujarat high court on Wednesday completed hearing on the petition filed by activist Teesta Setalvad seeking quashing of the FIR in connection with exhuming dead bodies at the Pandarwada mass grave in 2005. Justice G B Shah has kept his order pending till Friday.
After the bodies were exhumed by the then coordinator of Citizens for Justice and Peace, Rais Khan along with some local residents, the authorities of Lunawada Municipality filed a complaint against seven persons. Khan and couple of others were arrested in this case earlier this year after the high court vacated the stay on investigation.
During their custodial interrogation, Setalvad’s name was revealed and Khan alleged the grave was dug up at Setalvad’s behest. The investigating officer issued summons to Setalvad, who had obtained anticipatory bail from a Mumbai court. Finally, when chargesheet was filed, Setalvad was shown as absconding accused.
Objecting to this, Setalvad filed a petition through advocate Kamini Jaiswal demanding quashing of the FIR claiming that instead of making her a witness in this case, the police sought to implicate her as an accused.
Setalvad has taken contention that instead of taking action against accused in the massacre, who were acquitted in absence of evidence, a section in the state government is trying to frame her and the victims of the violence. She also argued that the prosecution is taking undue advantage of disgruntled former employee of her organization, Citizens for Justice and Peace.
During the proceeding, Justice Shah asked the petitioner why she did not prefer challenging the summons, if she had objection to issuance of summons. To this, advocate Jaiswal proposed the court that if the summons are stayed, she would be withdrawing her quashing petition.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/hc-reserves-order-to-summon-teesta/795593/0
IE 26MAY2011 Gujarat EDN
HC reserves order to summon Teesta
Express News Service
Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday reserved its order till May 27 to quash the criminal proceedings against activist Teesta Setalvad. Panchmahals police had registered a case against her in connection with the digging of mass graves in Panderwada in 2006. Setalvad had filed a petition to quash the same. The state government has termed Setalvad as the main conspirator in the case while the activist has accused the government of acting against her with malafide intention.
In her petition, Setalvad has also sought quashing of the summon issued by the investigating officer asking her to appear before him on May 31. The police had first summoned her in connection with the case on May 9. Setalvad’s counsel Kamini Jaiswal said Setalvad was not present at the scene of the alleged offence when it was reported. Jaiswal also took objection to naming Setalvad an absconding accused in the chargesheet against the other accused. She said Setalvad has been in correspondence with the Investigating Officer regularly, adding that the IO has sent her summons at her residence after the filing of the chargesheet.
Public Prosecutor Prakash Jani opposed the petition and said Setalvad had come out as the main conspirator in the case and as many as five accused had given statements under Section 164 of the CrPC against her in this regard. He also argued that the HC had previously dismissed a similar petition seeking interalia to quash a particular section in the case.
During hearing, Justice G B Shah asked Jani why the state government called Setalvad an absconding accused in its chargesheet against the other accused when she was very much available. The court also asked why the police sent summons to Setalvad as she has been named absconding. Jani replied that it is not prohibited under the law.
Jaiswal said the very act of naming Setalvad an absconding accused proved the government’s malafide intention and that she would withdraw her quashing plea, but the summon has to be stayed. The case relates to the exhumation of 28 unidentified bodies of the riot victims of Panderwada and the surrounding villages — buried by the local authorities in a wasteland near Panam river in March 2002 — in December 2006 without permission. The accused were slapped with various charges under IPC, including inciting religious feelings of the people.
http://epaper.dnaindia.com/dnaahmedabad/epapermain.aspx?queryed=5&username=&useremailid=&parenteditioncode=5&eddate=5%2f26%2f2011
DNA 26MAY2011
Gujarat EDN
Exhumation case: HC reserves order
DNA Correspondent Ahmedabad
Justice GB Shah of the Gujarat high court on Wednesday reserved order on a petition filed by social activist, Teesta Setalvad, who has sought quashing of the complaint filed against her by the Godhra police in Pandarwada exhumation case.
Setalvad had filed the petition after she was summoned by the Godhra police for recording of her statement in connection with the incident. The state government stated before the high court that Setalvad was not cooperating with the investigating agencies in the matter.
Opposing Setalvad's plea, government pleader PK Jani contended that investigation in the case was still on. He further said that Setalvad was not cooperating with the investigating agencies. Jani said that she had not appeared before the investigating officer of the case despite several summons being issued to her. The government pleader further said that there was no bias against Setalvad who had already obtained anticipatory bail in the case.
Setalvad has been accused of conspiring to exhume the bodies of post-Godhra riot victims, in 2006, along with five other accused in the case who have given statements against her under section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). Setalvad's lawyer, Kamini Jaiswal, contended that the state's action against her client was mala fide and that she was neither involved in the act nor had encouraged it.
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIA/2011/05/25&PageLabel=4&EntityId=Ar00407&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T
TOI 25 MAY 2011
Gujarat EDN
‘Setalvad is being framed’
Mumbai: The Gujarat government came in for criticism for its shoddy handling of the 2002 Godhra riots from the ‘Committee for the Defence of Teesta Setalvad and Justice in Gujarat’. Retired SC judge P B Sawant, who heads the panel and Gujarat ex-CM Suresh Mehta said that harbingers of justice, like Setalvad, were being framed by corrupt government authorities.
Speaking at a press conference here, the panel addressed the charge of ‘absconding accused’ filed against Setalvad, secretary of Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP). Setalvad is an accused in the Pandharwada mass graves case. An affidavit has also been filed against her by Yasmeen Shaikh alleging Setalvad had influenced her to testify against Best Bakery case convicts. Supporting Setalvad, Mehta said, “She is being framed only to intimidate the people.” TNN
--
Teesta Setalvad
'Nirant', Juhu Tara Road,
Juhu, Mumbai - 400 049
From Teesta Setalvad
Note on proceedings in Gujarat HC on May 25 2011
On May 25, 2011 the hearing in Teesta Setalvad’s petition oraying for the quashing of the FIR in the Pandharwada Mass Gaves Case (please refer to the Backgrounder and Petition attached), arguments went on for over two and a half hours. Senior advocate Ms Kamini jaiswal from the Supreme Court made a strong and cogent plea for quashing of the FIR and summons dated May 9, 2011. As the petition attached explains clearly Setalvad has been arraigned as an ‘absconding accused’, belatedly and in a malafide act, only on April 6, 2011, i.e. five years after the FIR against victim survivors of the Pandharwada mass graves case was filed and a former employee Rais Khan of the CJP was also made an accused. Rais Khan since disassociated with the organization has been won over by powerful state functionaries and accused in the state of Gujarat.
Before April 6, 2011 when the chargesheet was belatedly filed, Setalvad had been summoned as a witness under section 160 CRPC (on March 25 2011). She had immediately replied to the summons requesting the police to record her statement at her residence which is under the provisions of the law. Thereafter an illegal and malafide summons was issued that too after the charge sheet was filed. Once a chargesheet is filed the competent authority to issue any summons remains a Court of Law not the police. Even before March 25, 2011, Setalvad was in no way absconding as she had moved for ABA first in December 2010 in Mumbai and thereafter in Godhra. She received anticipatory bail on February 15, 2011 and therefore in no way could be called an absconding accused. Counsel Ms Jaiswal arugued that there had been in no way any change in circumstance between January, March and April 2011 for Setalvad to have suddenly made an ‘absconding accused’ after first being summoned as witness except that the Investigating Officer (Joshi) had suddenly been transferred (it is now an IO Ninama).
The impunity that Rais Khan a co-accused in this cas enjoys within the state of Gujarat is appreciable in the fact of the interviews given by him on December 30 and 31, 2010 gleefully published in the Times of India, Ahmedabad wherein he states that he would ensure Setalvad’s arrest. On January 25, 2011 Setalvad made a detailed representation to the state Director General of Police Chittaranjan Singh and DIG Vadodara Range, JK Bhatt making herself and her organization available for any lawfully conducted investigation. She had also provided copies of the CD an transcript of the original digging episode wherein Rahul Singh of Sahara Samay (then) had relayed the episode to the nation. Rahul Singh was originally feared to be also implicated but he has been kept out so far by the police though in late 2010 they had arrived in Bhopal with a summons for him.
The strategy of the Gujarat police appears to be to intimidate and bully setalvad into responding to an illegal and malafide summons and thereafter applying the same arbitrary principles maybe detain her and deny her freedom and liberty in complete transgression of the law. On May 27, 2011 orders are expected from the Gujarat High Court.
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIA/2011/05/26&PageLabel=4&EntityId=Ar00402&ViewMode=HTML
The Times of India, 26 MAY 2011
Gujarat EDN
PANDARWADA CASE
HC reserves order on Teesta’s petition
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Ahmedabad: The Gujarat high court on Wednesday completed hearing on the petition filed by activist Teesta Setalvad seeking quashing of the FIR in connection with exhuming dead bodies at the Pandarwada mass grave in 2005. Justice G B Shah has kept his order pending till Friday.
After the bodies were exhumed by the then coordinator of Citizens for Justice and Peace, Rais Khan along with some local residents, the authorities of Lunawada Municipality filed a complaint against seven persons. Khan and couple of others were arrested in this case earlier this year after the high court vacated the stay on investigation.
During their custodial interrogation, Setalvad’s name was revealed and Khan alleged the grave was dug up at Setalvad’s behest. The investigating officer issued summons to Setalvad, who had obtained anticipatory bail from a Mumbai court. Finally, when chargesheet was filed, Setalvad was shown as absconding accused.
Objecting to this, Setalvad filed a petition through advocate Kamini Jaiswal demanding quashing of the FIR claiming that instead of making her a witness in this case, the police sought to implicate her as an accused.
Setalvad has taken contention that instead of taking action against accused in the massacre, who were acquitted in absence of evidence, a section in the state government is trying to frame her and the victims of the violence. She also argued that the prosecution is taking undue advantage of disgruntled former employee of her organization, Citizens for Justice and Peace.
During the proceeding, Justice Shah asked the petitioner why she did not prefer challenging the summons, if she had objection to issuance of summons. To this, advocate Jaiswal proposed the court that if the summons are stayed, she would be withdrawing her quashing petition.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/hc-reserves-order-to-summon-teesta/795593/0
IE 26MAY2011 Gujarat EDN
HC reserves order to summon Teesta
Express News Service
Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday reserved its order till May 27 to quash the criminal proceedings against activist Teesta Setalvad. Panchmahals police had registered a case against her in connection with the digging of mass graves in Panderwada in 2006. Setalvad had filed a petition to quash the same. The state government has termed Setalvad as the main conspirator in the case while the activist has accused the government of acting against her with malafide intention.
In her petition, Setalvad has also sought quashing of the summon issued by the investigating officer asking her to appear before him on May 31. The police had first summoned her in connection with the case on May 9. Setalvad’s counsel Kamini Jaiswal said Setalvad was not present at the scene of the alleged offence when it was reported. Jaiswal also took objection to naming Setalvad an absconding accused in the chargesheet against the other accused. She said Setalvad has been in correspondence with the Investigating Officer regularly, adding that the IO has sent her summons at her residence after the filing of the chargesheet.
Public Prosecutor Prakash Jani opposed the petition and said Setalvad had come out as the main conspirator in the case and as many as five accused had given statements under Section 164 of the CrPC against her in this regard. He also argued that the HC had previously dismissed a similar petition seeking interalia to quash a particular section in the case.
During hearing, Justice G B Shah asked Jani why the state government called Setalvad an absconding accused in its chargesheet against the other accused when she was very much available. The court also asked why the police sent summons to Setalvad as she has been named absconding. Jani replied that it is not prohibited under the law.
Jaiswal said the very act of naming Setalvad an absconding accused proved the government’s malafide intention and that she would withdraw her quashing plea, but the summon has to be stayed. The case relates to the exhumation of 28 unidentified bodies of the riot victims of Panderwada and the surrounding villages — buried by the local authorities in a wasteland near Panam river in March 2002 — in December 2006 without permission. The accused were slapped with various charges under IPC, including inciting religious feelings of the people.
http://epaper.dnaindia.com/dnaahmedabad/epapermain.aspx?queryed=5&username=&useremailid=&parenteditioncode=5&eddate=5%2f26%2f2011
DNA 26MAY2011
Gujarat EDN
Exhumation case: HC reserves order
DNA Correspondent Ahmedabad
Justice GB Shah of the Gujarat high court on Wednesday reserved order on a petition filed by social activist, Teesta Setalvad, who has sought quashing of the complaint filed against her by the Godhra police in Pandarwada exhumation case.
Setalvad had filed the petition after she was summoned by the Godhra police for recording of her statement in connection with the incident. The state government stated before the high court that Setalvad was not cooperating with the investigating agencies in the matter.
Opposing Setalvad's plea, government pleader PK Jani contended that investigation in the case was still on. He further said that Setalvad was not cooperating with the investigating agencies. Jani said that she had not appeared before the investigating officer of the case despite several summons being issued to her. The government pleader further said that there was no bias against Setalvad who had already obtained anticipatory bail in the case.
Setalvad has been accused of conspiring to exhume the bodies of post-Godhra riot victims, in 2006, along with five other accused in the case who have given statements against her under section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). Setalvad's lawyer, Kamini Jaiswal, contended that the state's action against her client was mala fide and that she was neither involved in the act nor had encouraged it.
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIA/2011/05/25&PageLabel=4&EntityId=Ar00407&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T
TOI 25 MAY 2011
Gujarat EDN
‘Setalvad is being framed’
Mumbai: The Gujarat government came in for criticism for its shoddy handling of the 2002 Godhra riots from the ‘Committee for the Defence of Teesta Setalvad and Justice in Gujarat’. Retired SC judge P B Sawant, who heads the panel and Gujarat ex-CM Suresh Mehta said that harbingers of justice, like Setalvad, were being framed by corrupt government authorities.
Speaking at a press conference here, the panel addressed the charge of ‘absconding accused’ filed against Setalvad, secretary of Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP). Setalvad is an accused in the Pandharwada mass graves case. An affidavit has also been filed against her by Yasmeen Shaikh alleging Setalvad had influenced her to testify against Best Bakery case convicts. Supporting Setalvad, Mehta said, “She is being framed only to intimidate the people.” TNN
--
Teesta Setalvad
'Nirant', Juhu Tara Road,
Juhu, Mumbai - 400 049
May 25, 2011
Welcome stay on the Ayodhya Judgement - Frontline
Frontline, May 21, 2011
Welcome stay
By Venkitesh Ramakrishnan
Right from the day it was delivered on September 30, 2010, the Allahabad High Court judgment recommending trifurcation of the disputed Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi site in Ayodhya evoked widespread criticism over its violations and limitations in terms of established judicial practices. The Supreme Court in its order of May 9, 2011, which stayed the High Court verdict, upheld, in a sense, the spirit of this criticism. The apex court observed that the three-way division in the High Court judgment was "strange" and "surprising". The two-member Bench of Justices Aftab Alam and R.M. Lodha stated thus: "A new dimension was given by the High Court as the decree of partition was not sought by the parties. It was not prayed by anyone. It has to be stayed. It's a strange order. How can a decree of partition be passed when none of the parties had prayed for it? Court has done something on its own. It's strange. Such kind of decrees cannot be allowed to be in operation."
In the wake of the High Court judgment, it was pointed out in both judicial and political forums that the tools of jurisprudence employed by the three judges in formulating the verdict marked a significant departure from usual judicial practice. Central to this criticism was the judges' use of faith and belief as key components in the arguments they advanced. Several legal experts pointed out that issues relating to faith and belief were brought in in such a large measure by Justices Dharam Veer Sharma, Sudhir Agarwal and Sibghat Ullah Khan in their individual judgments that they almost seemed to overlook the fundamental fact that the case under jurisdiction related to a title suit in a property dispute. The Supreme Court stay order has not gone into an analysis of this perceived transgression of normal judicial practice, but several parties to the dispute and close observers of the Ayodhya case say this will happen anyway in the course of the hearing on the appeals that have come up before the apex court.
Talking to Frontline, Anupam Gupta, former counsel of the Justice Liberhan Commission, which was set up to bring out the truth behind the demolition of the Babri Masjid in December 1992, said the Supreme Court stay order would enable a re-examination of all the premises and postulates of the Allahabad High Court order when the case progressed to the final hearing stage. He said: "The use of the words 'strange' and 'surprising' is significant. The Supreme Court could have just stated that all parties involved in the dispute - the Sunni Central Waqf Board, which claimed to have had possession of the disputed structure and the land around it since the 16th century, the Nirmohi Akhara, which has staked its claim to the property since 1885 and ran a place of worship on the premises, and Lord Ram Lalla (infant Ram), represented by his Sakha (close friend) Triloki Nath Pandey - are against trifurcation and hence the verdict is stayed. But the Bench chose to observe that the Allahabad High Court verdict was strange and surprising. Undoubtedly, this observation has significance beyond its immediate context and should serve as a reminder to civil society in general and in particular to those sections that had persuaded it to believe that trifurcation was the best possible pragmatic solution to the Ayodhya dispute. These sections had argued that the long-standing problem had caused social and political fatigue in the population and that one should look for easy and practical justice. The Supreme Court stay underscores one important aspect that these sections of civil society chose to overlook: that no solution that does not stand up to proper judicial principles and scrutiny can be acceptable to a nation and its people."
While Gupta did not name the sections of civil society, it is widely known that the two big mainstream political parties, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had welcomed the trifurcation recommendation as a possible basis for a negotiated settlement of the Ayodhya dispute. The Supreme Court order has virtually quashed this expectation. Interestingly, the BJP welcomed the Supreme Court stay too. The Congress maintained that the party, as a matter of principle, did not comment on judicial issues that were under process. Other secular political forces, including the Left parties, led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), and the Samajwadi Party (S.P.), have welcomed the Supreme Court order as a step in the right direction. In Ayodhya itself, the parties to the dispute welcomed the apex court order. Mohammed Hashim Ansari, the main plaintiff in the case on behalf of the Sunni Central Waqf Board, told Frontline that none of the parties involved in the dispute wanted a division of the property. "The apex court order should serve as a lesson for all those involved in cheap politics over the issue," Ansari said. Mahant Bhaskar Das of the Nirmohi Akhara echoed Ansari's view. He said his organisation was against the division of the disputed land and added that the Supreme Court had justified the akhara's stand.
The third party, Triloki Nath Pandey, representing Ram Lalla, also welcomed the decision because he and all the devotees of Ram believe that all of Ayodhya is the property of the deity and it cannot be apportioned to other organisations or faiths. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the sword arm of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh-led Sangh Parivar and the strongest political associate of the third party, also welcomed the stay and advanced arguments similar to those of Pandey. Talking to Frontline from Lucknow, Zafaryab Jilani, main lawyer of the Sunni Central Wakf Board and a leader of the Babri Masjid Action Committee (BMAC), said the Supreme Court stay did indicate that the earlier sanctioned decree of the Allahabad High Court was not sound in law. "The order has once again opened up the Ayodhya case for all possibilities and, of course, a long judicial process," he said. Jilani and other legal experts associated with the three parties to the dispute were of the view that legal procedures in the Supreme Court would at least take another two years. However, representatives of all the parties told Frontline that they were open to negotiations under a competent political authority, which could lead to an amicable settlement. In fact, Mohammed Hashim Ansari had joined hands with Mahant Gyan Das of the Hanuman Garhi temple in Ayodhya to initiate steps in this direction. But so far the move has failed to gather momentum. Given the chequered history of the dispute and the efforts for a negotiated settlement, no political organisation has the credibility to take the lead in such an exercise.
http://flonnet.com/fl2811/stories/20110603281109900.htm
Welcome stay
By Venkitesh Ramakrishnan
Right from the day it was delivered on September 30, 2010, the Allahabad High Court judgment recommending trifurcation of the disputed Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi site in Ayodhya evoked widespread criticism over its violations and limitations in terms of established judicial practices. The Supreme Court in its order of May 9, 2011, which stayed the High Court verdict, upheld, in a sense, the spirit of this criticism. The apex court observed that the three-way division in the High Court judgment was "strange" and "surprising". The two-member Bench of Justices Aftab Alam and R.M. Lodha stated thus: "A new dimension was given by the High Court as the decree of partition was not sought by the parties. It was not prayed by anyone. It has to be stayed. It's a strange order. How can a decree of partition be passed when none of the parties had prayed for it? Court has done something on its own. It's strange. Such kind of decrees cannot be allowed to be in operation."
In the wake of the High Court judgment, it was pointed out in both judicial and political forums that the tools of jurisprudence employed by the three judges in formulating the verdict marked a significant departure from usual judicial practice. Central to this criticism was the judges' use of faith and belief as key components in the arguments they advanced. Several legal experts pointed out that issues relating to faith and belief were brought in in such a large measure by Justices Dharam Veer Sharma, Sudhir Agarwal and Sibghat Ullah Khan in their individual judgments that they almost seemed to overlook the fundamental fact that the case under jurisdiction related to a title suit in a property dispute. The Supreme Court stay order has not gone into an analysis of this perceived transgression of normal judicial practice, but several parties to the dispute and close observers of the Ayodhya case say this will happen anyway in the course of the hearing on the appeals that have come up before the apex court.
Talking to Frontline, Anupam Gupta, former counsel of the Justice Liberhan Commission, which was set up to bring out the truth behind the demolition of the Babri Masjid in December 1992, said the Supreme Court stay order would enable a re-examination of all the premises and postulates of the Allahabad High Court order when the case progressed to the final hearing stage. He said: "The use of the words 'strange' and 'surprising' is significant. The Supreme Court could have just stated that all parties involved in the dispute - the Sunni Central Waqf Board, which claimed to have had possession of the disputed structure and the land around it since the 16th century, the Nirmohi Akhara, which has staked its claim to the property since 1885 and ran a place of worship on the premises, and Lord Ram Lalla (infant Ram), represented by his Sakha (close friend) Triloki Nath Pandey - are against trifurcation and hence the verdict is stayed. But the Bench chose to observe that the Allahabad High Court verdict was strange and surprising. Undoubtedly, this observation has significance beyond its immediate context and should serve as a reminder to civil society in general and in particular to those sections that had persuaded it to believe that trifurcation was the best possible pragmatic solution to the Ayodhya dispute. These sections had argued that the long-standing problem had caused social and political fatigue in the population and that one should look for easy and practical justice. The Supreme Court stay underscores one important aspect that these sections of civil society chose to overlook: that no solution that does not stand up to proper judicial principles and scrutiny can be acceptable to a nation and its people."
While Gupta did not name the sections of civil society, it is widely known that the two big mainstream political parties, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had welcomed the trifurcation recommendation as a possible basis for a negotiated settlement of the Ayodhya dispute. The Supreme Court order has virtually quashed this expectation. Interestingly, the BJP welcomed the Supreme Court stay too. The Congress maintained that the party, as a matter of principle, did not comment on judicial issues that were under process. Other secular political forces, including the Left parties, led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), and the Samajwadi Party (S.P.), have welcomed the Supreme Court order as a step in the right direction. In Ayodhya itself, the parties to the dispute welcomed the apex court order. Mohammed Hashim Ansari, the main plaintiff in the case on behalf of the Sunni Central Waqf Board, told Frontline that none of the parties involved in the dispute wanted a division of the property. "The apex court order should serve as a lesson for all those involved in cheap politics over the issue," Ansari said. Mahant Bhaskar Das of the Nirmohi Akhara echoed Ansari's view. He said his organisation was against the division of the disputed land and added that the Supreme Court had justified the akhara's stand.
The third party, Triloki Nath Pandey, representing Ram Lalla, also welcomed the decision because he and all the devotees of Ram believe that all of Ayodhya is the property of the deity and it cannot be apportioned to other organisations or faiths. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the sword arm of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh-led Sangh Parivar and the strongest political associate of the third party, also welcomed the stay and advanced arguments similar to those of Pandey. Talking to Frontline from Lucknow, Zafaryab Jilani, main lawyer of the Sunni Central Wakf Board and a leader of the Babri Masjid Action Committee (BMAC), said the Supreme Court stay did indicate that the earlier sanctioned decree of the Allahabad High Court was not sound in law. "The order has once again opened up the Ayodhya case for all possibilities and, of course, a long judicial process," he said. Jilani and other legal experts associated with the three parties to the dispute were of the view that legal procedures in the Supreme Court would at least take another two years. However, representatives of all the parties told Frontline that they were open to negotiations under a competent political authority, which could lead to an amicable settlement. In fact, Mohammed Hashim Ansari had joined hands with Mahant Gyan Das of the Hanuman Garhi temple in Ayodhya to initiate steps in this direction. But so far the move has failed to gather momentum. Given the chequered history of the dispute and the efforts for a negotiated settlement, no political organisation has the credibility to take the lead in such an exercise.
http://flonnet.com/fl2811/stories/20110603281109900.htm
Book Review: When caste & religion surged
The Hindu, May 24, 2011
When caste & religion surged
K. N. Panikkar
RELIGION, CASTE AND POLITICS IN INDIA: Christophe Jaffrelot; Primus Books, Virat Bhavan, Mukherjee Nagar Commercial Complex, Delhi-110009. Rs. 2250.
Post-Mandal, Indian politics got plebianised, resulting in the OBCs and others gaining power
The closing decades of the 20th century witnessed an unprecedented surge of caste and religion in Indian politics. It was then the Hindu communal forces, after a long wait, managed to occupy the centre stage, riding on the emotional wave generated by the agitation for putting up a Ram Mandir at the disputed site in Ayodhya. This was achieved primarily through a clever manipulation of ‘Ram' as a symbol of Hindu identity. The Bharatiya Janata Party, the political front of the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh, exploited the Mandir-inspired religious frenzy to capture power at the Centre.
A parallel development in Indian politics was the emergence of backward castes as a decisive factor, thanks to the report of the Mandal Commission, which unleashed an avalanche that had the potential to unsettle the existing power equations. The implementation of its recommendation for 27 per cent quota in government jobs for the ‘Other Backward Classes' created a new social ambience, with the members of the lower castes gaining self-confidence. Both developments aroused a lot of passion, leading to social conflicts and violence.
It is not surprising, therefore, that a bulk of the study of Indian politics of this period, both by Indian and foreign scholars, revolved around them. Notable among the latter is Christopher Jaffrelot, a Paris-based researcher. He has come out with a good number of publications, besides his doctoral dissertation, on issues related to ‘Hindu nationalism” and lower caste politics. His works constitute a substantial contribution to the understanding of Indian politics. And this, despite the avoidable repetitions and, sometimes, insufficient research, which are perhaps inevitable in the Western academic climate of ‘publish or perish'.
Ethnic nationalism
This book presents a collection of his published essays under six heads: ‘Secularism at Stake'; ‘The Sangh Parivar'; ‘Communal violence'; ‘The Rise of the Lower Castes'; ‘The Political Culture (of voting) in India'; and ‘India and the World'. The author, who (in the first section) traces the origin of ethnic nationalism to the 19{+t}{+h} century reform movements, considers these movements as “a reaction to the threat of Western domination and especially to a two-fold cultural challenge — utilitarian reformism and Christian proselytism.”
This argument is extended to account for the rise of communalism, which Jaffrelot calls ‘Hindu nationalism'. To quote him: “The sentiment that Muslims pose a threat to the majority community was the root cause for the crystallisation of a form of Hindu nationalism about one hundred years ago, its reactivation in the 1920s and 1930s, and most recently in the 1980s and 1990s.” This, surely, is an oversimplification; it overlooks the complex ideological, social, and political dimensions of Hindu communalism.
Then follows a discussion on the structure and functioning of the different branches of the Sangh Parivar and communal violence, with the focus on the 2002 pogrom in Gujarat. In Jaffrelot's view, “Gujarati patriotism and anti-Muslim feelings” contributed significantly to Narendra Modi's triumph in the 2007 elections, with development and economic achievements serving as a “very convenient fig leaf for the middle class, which wanted to find more legitimate arguments for justifying their vote for the BJP.”
In the 1990s, Indian politics acquired a positive dimension, and that was the assertiveness of the lower castes to gain their rightful place in society. During the post-Independence period, the middle class drawn from the upper castes had established their hold over the economy and the bureaucracy, and Ambedkarism was pushed to the background. All this changed radically in the wake of the Mandal Commission (1990) calling for affirmative action that would entitle members of the backward castes (officially categorised as the ‘other backward classes') to a fair share in employment, a proposition that had long-term implications for Indian democracy and greatly impinged upon the existing power structure. As Jaffrelot says, “it was a turning point in terms of the democratisation of Indian politics since the Mandal affair forced the lower castes to join hands in order to defend their common interests as OBCs against the resistance of the upper castes.” Post-Mandal, Indian politics got plebianised, resulting in the OBCs and other lower caste formations gaining power in north Indian States.
Indo-U.S. relations
The focus of the section on India's foreign policy is Indo-U.S. relations which, says the author, has undergone a qualitative difference in recent years. First, America is now more eager to engage with China than India from an economic point of view. Secondly, the Indian aspirations on the nuclear front may not be in consonance with President Barack Obama's thinking. In Jeffrelot's opinion, the ties between the two countries may not have deteriorated in any significant way, but they have at least hit a plateau.
The author identifies four processes that have contributed to the transformation in Indian politics since 1990: the plebianisaton of politics; the ethnicisation of democracy; liberalisation (cum inequalities); and rapprochement with the U.S. In conclusion, he strikes a note of optimism that the resilience of the rule of law and the innate strength and capacity of the political system would see the country through its journey to modernity — an optimism that needs to be tempered with such ground realities as growing inequality in a neo-liberal policy framework and the increasing influence of multi-national capital.
When caste & religion surged
K. N. Panikkar
RELIGION, CASTE AND POLITICS IN INDIA: Christophe Jaffrelot; Primus Books, Virat Bhavan, Mukherjee Nagar Commercial Complex, Delhi-110009. Rs. 2250.
Post-Mandal, Indian politics got plebianised, resulting in the OBCs and others gaining power
The closing decades of the 20th century witnessed an unprecedented surge of caste and religion in Indian politics. It was then the Hindu communal forces, after a long wait, managed to occupy the centre stage, riding on the emotional wave generated by the agitation for putting up a Ram Mandir at the disputed site in Ayodhya. This was achieved primarily through a clever manipulation of ‘Ram' as a symbol of Hindu identity. The Bharatiya Janata Party, the political front of the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh, exploited the Mandir-inspired religious frenzy to capture power at the Centre.
A parallel development in Indian politics was the emergence of backward castes as a decisive factor, thanks to the report of the Mandal Commission, which unleashed an avalanche that had the potential to unsettle the existing power equations. The implementation of its recommendation for 27 per cent quota in government jobs for the ‘Other Backward Classes' created a new social ambience, with the members of the lower castes gaining self-confidence. Both developments aroused a lot of passion, leading to social conflicts and violence.
It is not surprising, therefore, that a bulk of the study of Indian politics of this period, both by Indian and foreign scholars, revolved around them. Notable among the latter is Christopher Jaffrelot, a Paris-based researcher. He has come out with a good number of publications, besides his doctoral dissertation, on issues related to ‘Hindu nationalism” and lower caste politics. His works constitute a substantial contribution to the understanding of Indian politics. And this, despite the avoidable repetitions and, sometimes, insufficient research, which are perhaps inevitable in the Western academic climate of ‘publish or perish'.
Ethnic nationalism
This book presents a collection of his published essays under six heads: ‘Secularism at Stake'; ‘The Sangh Parivar'; ‘Communal violence'; ‘The Rise of the Lower Castes'; ‘The Political Culture (of voting) in India'; and ‘India and the World'. The author, who (in the first section) traces the origin of ethnic nationalism to the 19{+t}{+h} century reform movements, considers these movements as “a reaction to the threat of Western domination and especially to a two-fold cultural challenge — utilitarian reformism and Christian proselytism.”
This argument is extended to account for the rise of communalism, which Jaffrelot calls ‘Hindu nationalism'. To quote him: “The sentiment that Muslims pose a threat to the majority community was the root cause for the crystallisation of a form of Hindu nationalism about one hundred years ago, its reactivation in the 1920s and 1930s, and most recently in the 1980s and 1990s.” This, surely, is an oversimplification; it overlooks the complex ideological, social, and political dimensions of Hindu communalism.
Then follows a discussion on the structure and functioning of the different branches of the Sangh Parivar and communal violence, with the focus on the 2002 pogrom in Gujarat. In Jaffrelot's view, “Gujarati patriotism and anti-Muslim feelings” contributed significantly to Narendra Modi's triumph in the 2007 elections, with development and economic achievements serving as a “very convenient fig leaf for the middle class, which wanted to find more legitimate arguments for justifying their vote for the BJP.”
In the 1990s, Indian politics acquired a positive dimension, and that was the assertiveness of the lower castes to gain their rightful place in society. During the post-Independence period, the middle class drawn from the upper castes had established their hold over the economy and the bureaucracy, and Ambedkarism was pushed to the background. All this changed radically in the wake of the Mandal Commission (1990) calling for affirmative action that would entitle members of the backward castes (officially categorised as the ‘other backward classes') to a fair share in employment, a proposition that had long-term implications for Indian democracy and greatly impinged upon the existing power structure. As Jaffrelot says, “it was a turning point in terms of the democratisation of Indian politics since the Mandal affair forced the lower castes to join hands in order to defend their common interests as OBCs against the resistance of the upper castes.” Post-Mandal, Indian politics got plebianised, resulting in the OBCs and other lower caste formations gaining power in north Indian States.
Indo-U.S. relations
The focus of the section on India's foreign policy is Indo-U.S. relations which, says the author, has undergone a qualitative difference in recent years. First, America is now more eager to engage with China than India from an economic point of view. Secondly, the Indian aspirations on the nuclear front may not be in consonance with President Barack Obama's thinking. In Jeffrelot's opinion, the ties between the two countries may not have deteriorated in any significant way, but they have at least hit a plateau.
The author identifies four processes that have contributed to the transformation in Indian politics since 1990: the plebianisaton of politics; the ethnicisation of democracy; liberalisation (cum inequalities); and rapprochement with the U.S. In conclusion, he strikes a note of optimism that the resilience of the rule of law and the innate strength and capacity of the political system would see the country through its journey to modernity — an optimism that needs to be tempered with such ground realities as growing inequality in a neo-liberal policy framework and the increasing influence of multi-national capital.
Hindu right wing groups in Nepal stoke tensions
Express Buzz
Religious row grows in Nepal
Sudeshna Sarkar
First Published : 25 May 2011 01:48:55 PM IST
Last Updated :
KATHMANDU: With only three days left for a potential constitutional upheaval, Nepal's beleaguered communist government now faces religious tension as well with Hindu groups shutting down mid-western Nepal Wednesday as part of a two-day general strike.
The Vishwa Hindu Mahasangh (VHM), a Hindu group with close links to India's militant Hindu organisations like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Shiva Sena, enforced the regional strike calling for the promulgation of a new constitution within the stipulated May 28 deadline, an end to cow slaughter and the prevention of conversion of Hindus into other religions.
The closure mainly targets Nepalgunj, the main town in Banke district near the Indian border, where police recently arrested two men for slaughtering cows and selling the meat.
The cow, besides being Nepal's national animal, is also considered sacred by Hindus. Though Nepal, once the only Hindu kingdom in the world, became a secular republic formally three years ago, the state ban on cow slaughter remains.
The indigenous communities have been campaigning to discard the cow as the republic's national animal, saying it smacks of a pro-Hindu bias in a secular state.
Supported by seven other Hindu groups, the VHM has called a 48-hour closure in Nepalgunj to be followed by a countrywide general strike Friday.
On Tuesday, another Hindu organisation had held a public veneration programme in Kathmandu valley, worshipping the cow and raising slogans against cow slaughter.
Nepalgunj has one of the largest Muslim populations in Nepal with a growing number of mosques and madrassas.
The muscle-flexing by the Hindu groups, which are also calling for the restoration of Hinduism as the state religion, has created deep unease among the Muslim community, a minority in the Hindu-majority republic.
In yet another alarming development for the religious minorities, police Wednesday raided the Balaju area of the capital and impounded 1,000 tridents from the residence of a Hindu activist.
Trikal Shrestha, a leader of Shiv Sena Nepal, was also arrested.
With Nepal heading towards fresh turmoil Saturday, when the tenure of parliament ends and the fate of the house and government becomes uncertain, there are fears of a breakdown in law and order.
Hindu groups, some of whom are also demanding the restoration of monarchy, an institution abolished in 2008, are calling for fresh elections to choose a new parliament if the current 601-seat house fails to promulgate a new constitution even after three years.
The government Tuesday banned public protests and meetings near parliament and key administrative offices and ordered five additional inspectors-general of police to fan out to the five different regions to ensure law and security.
Unlike its southern neighbour India, where sectarian violence has been a frequent phenomenon, Nepal enjoyed harmony among its different religious sects.
The first incident of sectarian violence erupted in 2004 after Islamic militants killed 12 Nepali workers in Iraq.
It led to violent attacks on mosques, airlines offices and recruitment companies.
In 2009, an underground militant Hindu outfit engineered a bomb explosion in a Catholic church in Kathmandu valley, killing three women at mass.
Though police arrested the mastermind, Ram Prasad Mainali, chief of Nepal Defence Army, this year, investigations found that he was plotting further attacks from his prison cell.
Religious row grows in Nepal
Sudeshna Sarkar
First Published : 25 May 2011 01:48:55 PM IST
Last Updated :
KATHMANDU: With only three days left for a potential constitutional upheaval, Nepal's beleaguered communist government now faces religious tension as well with Hindu groups shutting down mid-western Nepal Wednesday as part of a two-day general strike.
The Vishwa Hindu Mahasangh (VHM), a Hindu group with close links to India's militant Hindu organisations like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Shiva Sena, enforced the regional strike calling for the promulgation of a new constitution within the stipulated May 28 deadline, an end to cow slaughter and the prevention of conversion of Hindus into other religions.
The closure mainly targets Nepalgunj, the main town in Banke district near the Indian border, where police recently arrested two men for slaughtering cows and selling the meat.
The cow, besides being Nepal's national animal, is also considered sacred by Hindus. Though Nepal, once the only Hindu kingdom in the world, became a secular republic formally three years ago, the state ban on cow slaughter remains.
The indigenous communities have been campaigning to discard the cow as the republic's national animal, saying it smacks of a pro-Hindu bias in a secular state.
Supported by seven other Hindu groups, the VHM has called a 48-hour closure in Nepalgunj to be followed by a countrywide general strike Friday.
On Tuesday, another Hindu organisation had held a public veneration programme in Kathmandu valley, worshipping the cow and raising slogans against cow slaughter.
Nepalgunj has one of the largest Muslim populations in Nepal with a growing number of mosques and madrassas.
The muscle-flexing by the Hindu groups, which are also calling for the restoration of Hinduism as the state religion, has created deep unease among the Muslim community, a minority in the Hindu-majority republic.
In yet another alarming development for the religious minorities, police Wednesday raided the Balaju area of the capital and impounded 1,000 tridents from the residence of a Hindu activist.
Trikal Shrestha, a leader of Shiv Sena Nepal, was also arrested.
With Nepal heading towards fresh turmoil Saturday, when the tenure of parliament ends and the fate of the house and government becomes uncertain, there are fears of a breakdown in law and order.
Hindu groups, some of whom are also demanding the restoration of monarchy, an institution abolished in 2008, are calling for fresh elections to choose a new parliament if the current 601-seat house fails to promulgate a new constitution even after three years.
The government Tuesday banned public protests and meetings near parliament and key administrative offices and ordered five additional inspectors-general of police to fan out to the five different regions to ensure law and security.
Unlike its southern neighbour India, where sectarian violence has been a frequent phenomenon, Nepal enjoyed harmony among its different religious sects.
The first incident of sectarian violence erupted in 2004 after Islamic militants killed 12 Nepali workers in Iraq.
It led to violent attacks on mosques, airlines offices and recruitment companies.
In 2009, an underground militant Hindu outfit engineered a bomb explosion in a Catholic church in Kathmandu valley, killing three women at mass.
Though police arrested the mastermind, Ram Prasad Mainali, chief of Nepal Defence Army, this year, investigations found that he was plotting further attacks from his prison cell.
May 24, 2011
Statement announcing creatio n of Committee for the Defence of Teesta Setalvad and Justice in Gujarat
Press Statement
Committee for the Defence of Teesta Setalvad and Justice in Gujarat
Nawab Building, 2nd Floor, 327, Dr. D.N. Road, Mumbai - 400 001
Dt. 23/05/2011
A.) Reason for the formation of the Committee:
Subversion of Justice is not a new phenomenon in the process of its
administration. The recent turns of events in cases following the communal
carnage of 2002 have borne its maximum brunt. Therefore, citizens concerned
for justice to the victims of Gujarat Carnage have formed a "Committee for
the Defence of Teesta Setalvad and Justice in Gujarat". The Committee would
undertake appropriate actions and activities to see that neither Teesta
Setalvad nor anybody else is victimized for working for the cause of
justice. The committee would also defend the human rights of vulnerable
sections, and would include, but not be limited to, monitoring cases slapped
on Teesta Setalvad, to stand in solidarity with her, to bring out detailed
facts before the people pertaining to this selective victimization of Teesta
Setalvad and those fighting for the cause of justice in Gujarat.
The ultimate objective is to allow the law and the process of justice to
take its own course without being subverted or influenced by vested
interests. The committee thus in the process will gradually bring out the
truth before the people of this country though statements, meetings,
engagement with the media and all available other platforms. Thus the
committee seeks to address issues not only from the legal angle but also
look at human rights abuses in the wider ambit of achieving equitable social
justice for all.
The Committee is headed by Shri P.B. Sawant (Retd. Justice, Supreme Court)
as the Chairperson. Shri. Suresh Mehta (Fmr. Chief Minister, Gujarat) and
Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer are Vice Chairpersons. Smt. Romila Thapar, Shri.
Irfan Habib, Dr. Ram Puniyani, Shri. Juzer Bandukwala, Shri. Irfan Engineer,
Shri Sukla Sen and many others are members of the Committee.
The extended meeting of the Committee, including other additional members is
also convened later on 25th May 2011 at 5 p.m. at Bombay Union of
Journalists Hall, Second Floor, Prospect Chambers Annexe, D.N. Road, Fort,
Mumbai.
B.) Immediate Concerns:
The malicious and motivated campaign against human rights activist Teesta
Setalvad and the lawyers struggling for justice for the victims of the
genocidal carnage in Gujarat in 2002 is aimed at distracting the course of
public justice and attacking the personal liberties of human rights
activists who have stood by the cause of truth, and justice. The attack
against Teesta Setalvad is three - pronged, aimed at threatening her
personal liberty through arrest, a widespread disinformation and malicious
campaign to affect the process of justice and distracting her from the
demands of the struggle.
Amongst the many examples of such subversion, following are the falsified
cases against Teesta Setalvad, mentioned herein:
1) Pandharwada Mass Graves Case - This is amongst the most serious and
imminent cases in which Setalvad is facing harassment by being falsely
implicated in the case. She has been arraigned as 'absconding accused,' five
years after distraught survivors claimed bodies of their relatives and moved
the courts to establish their identity. A detailed note on this is attached
below. There is also a strong possibility that the Gujarat Police may try to
stage an arrest of Teesta Setalvad on false grounds in the Pandharwada Mass
Graves Case soon.
In the latest update to this case, Teesta Setalvad has filed a petition in
the Gujarat High Court at Ahmedabad dated 17/05/2011, against the State of
Gujarat & Anr. Seeking to stay proceedings from offence registered as CR No.
I - 3/2006 against her and other alleged accused in the Pandharwada Mass
Graves case. This petition is due to come up for hearing in the Gujarat High
Court on 25/05/2011.
In a nutshell, the background of the case is as follows:
On Dec 27, 2005, the victim survivors of the Pandharwada Massacre (where
officially 27 persons were massacred) who were frustrated after the studied
refusal of the state authorities to hand back skeletal remains of their dead
relatives (which were dumped illegally by the State's Police) began the
digging themselves. The spot where they had been illegally dumped was off
the Paanam River in Lunawada in Godhra district.
For months before they started digging, they had approached the authorities
to dig out their remains. There was no response whatsoever from the
authorities. Frustrated, they started the digging after having informed some
members of the electronic media as also Citizens for Justice and Peace
(CJP). The CJP's then coordinator Rais Khan (who is since not with the
organisation following irregularities since January 2008) contacted its
Secretary in Mumbai. CJP through its Secretary Teesta Setalvad, clearly
told them to wait at the spot till the authorities came. The Collector, the
SP and lawyers were then contacted and the High Court of Gujarat was moved
the next day. The local police, too, was informed by fax, of the frustration
of victims by a senior functionary from Gandhinagar.
The victims and CJP together moved the Gujarat HC, the next day and got the
prayer granted for DNA sampling of the remains from Red HILL, Hyderabad. The
DNA sampling proved that the victimized survivors were right. Eight of the
22 skeletal remains were found to be of the relatives Pandharwada Massacre
victims. After the initial order in the Gujarat HC, which was a
breakthrough, a year later, the Gujarat HC dismissed the victims' petition,
asking for transfer of investigation of the massacre to the CBI. Ironically,
the petitioners had pointed out, that the panchnamas related to the crimes
had nowhere mentioned the skeletal remains.
The state has tried to say that, this was never an illegal dumping but a
proper burial on forest land off a river. Legally speaking, the Panchnama of
the original crime of mass murder has not listed the skeletal remains. Thus,
disproving the version of the Gujarat state and police. Victims and
Activists have argued that Lunawada has a large Kabrastan of more than a
hundred acres and hence, if Gujarat Police could in fact not trace
relatives, what was the need to so dump the remains rather than according
them a dignified burial in the Kabrastan? Why dump them in an obscure spot
off the river rather than give them to community leaders for a dignified
burial?
Following its tradition of victimising human rights defenders and victims,
the local police lodged an FIR on Jan 1, 2006 against victim survivors and
Rais Khan of the CJP. CJP gave full legal aid to them. Subsequently, the
bail and so also a stay against their arrest was granted by the Gujarat High
Court. In the interim, Rais Khan today is no more with the organisation.
Eventually, in a statement recorded under Section 164 CrPC has made false
accusations against Media persons and Teesta Setalvad. He appears to enjoy
full immunity and security within the state of Gujarat. Teesta Setalvad has
since obtained anticipatory bail first from a Mumbai and thereafter from a
Godhra court. This bail order stands. The date of the Godhra Bail Order was
15. 2. 2011. On March 18, 2011 she received summons under section 160 of the
CrPC, asking her to remain present at the Lunawada police station for
questioning. Since the section gives a woman the protection of being
questioned/examined at her place of residence, Teesta Setalvad replied
immediately, saying she was prepared to meet the police at her residence in
Mumbai. Suddenly, the Investigating Officer was changed and thereafter a
falsified charge sheet was filed naming her an "absconding accused" which
belied the facts and detailed correspondence with the authorities.
A second summon was issued to her by the Lunawada Police, listing her as an
accused and asking her to remain present on the 9th May 2011. A third summon
has since been issued asking Teesta to remain present at Lunawada on the
31st May 2011.
Under the law this makes her more vulnerable to arrest. She has since
pointed this out in response to the second and third summons issued to her,
requesting an immediate correction in the charge sheet filed on the 3rd
April 2011 which lists her as an accused. There has been no response to that
and she faces threat of illegal arrest.
In midst of this propaganda, what is being missed is, despite the fact that
victims through their efforts and the order of the Gujarat High Court, have
established the identity of their dead relatives in 2005-2006, it has taken
an order from the Supreme Court (February 2008 and a subsequent order of the
Trial Court in December 2008) for conducting a dignified burial in August
2010, i.e. six years after the brutal massacre, albeit with no one being
allowed to be present for the burial.
Ironically, the core and substance of false allegations being levelled today
have existed since the genocidal carnage of 2002 carried out by an
unrepentant Gujarat government. Absent is any concern for the lives lost or
processes of justice which have been subverted or perverted. While only the
people making allegations have changed, allegations have remained but the
same. Since September 2010, the agency for dissemination of this malicious
campaign has been a former employee who was asked to leave the organization
Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) in January 2008.
The patently false allegations of doctoring evidence in various cases are
being orchestrated at a time when crucial trials are nearing completion and
the accused, amongst whom are powerful politicians and policemen, face
charges of criminal conspiracy and murder. What is at stake is, the
conviction of over 350 accused in nine major trials (Gulberg, Sardarpura,
Odh, Naroda Patiya, Naroda Gaam) that are underway with some nearing
completion. Despite threats of intimidation and repression, eyewitnesses and
survivors have deposed without fear in Gujarat Courts. They have done this
while facing a hostile police and court atmosphere and all this while, they
have stood by the contents of their affidavits filed through the CJP in the
Supreme Court of India. At the heart of this sustained and malicious
campaign is a calculated and cynical desire by the Gujarat State to derail
the course of justice that is being monitored by the apex court. It wants to
ensure the acquittal of the accused, many of whom are functionaries of the
BJP, VHP and Bajrang Dal and also policemen and administrators. It is an
unfortunate fact that the SIT (Special Investigation Team) appointed for the
purpose of further investigation into these cases has sided, for the most
part, with the arguments of the Gujarat State.
The intensification of malafide allegations is also aimed at attacking the
individuals and the group responsible for sustaining the criminal
investigation currently afoot against top ministers and officials in the
Gujarat Government. Over the past few months, the apex court has passed
orders directing the Amicus Curiae to see if an offence of conspiracy to
commit mass murder and destroy evidence has been made out against the
accused officials and ministers. This is the result of a complaint, and a
tireless legal battle waged by Zakia Ahsan Jafri and Teesta Setalvad of the
Citizens for Justice and Peace. It is no surprise then, that a government
that has acted vindictively and maliciously against serving and retired IPS
and IAS officers, who have stood by the Indian Constitution, is now training
its guns on activists.
2) The ongoing Criminal Trials in Naroda Gaam and Sardarpura, in which
she and her organisation have been giving consistent legal aid to the
witnesses and victims
3) The Yasmeen Shaikh Affidavit in the Bombay High Court - Yasmin is a
witness in Vadodara's Best Bakery case where 14 people were burnt alive.She
had turned hostile last year. Yasmin Shaikh has moved the Bombay High Court
alleging that Setalvad had influenced her to testify against the accused.
This after the February 2006 judgment in the Best Bakery re-trial that the
"the signs of having been tutored were not found while analyzing the witness
evidence'." It must be noted here that, Yasmin's sister in-law Zahira
Shaikh, a prime witness in the Best Bakery case, served a year in prison for
perjury after she turned hostile a second time. She had first turned hostile
in a Gujarat trial court and then in Mumbai.
C.) Additional Background Information:
The charges in the criminal complaint against the Gujarat Government are
serious. Despite all the efforts of Gujarat Government along with it's
political mentors and allies to subvert the course of public justice,
preliminary investigations have revealed details of a high level involvement
of the senior officials and politicians, to have indulged in a series of
criminal and unconstitutional acts which has led to engineering the mass
massacre of 2,500 Muslims, post Godhra destruction. It has also revealed a
subsequent manipulation of evidence and subversion of witnesses.
On March 15 2011, the SC pulled up the SIT saying that evidence gathered by
them does not match with their inferences. On March 20, 21 and 22, the SIT
was compelled to record the statement of yet another serving IPS officer
Sanjeev Bhatt who has recorded (media reports tell us) that he was present
at a meeting at the Chief Minister's residence when the latter clearly said
"allow Hindus to vent their anger against Muslims." On May 5, 2011 the apex
court has directed the Amicus Curiae to arrive at an assessment of whether
or not a criminal offence is made out, without consulting the SIT.
The allegations against Government of Gujarat, of issuing criminal
instructions to their police officers and thereafter, the illegal stationing
of ministers, in the State and City Police Control Rooms are substantiated
by the macabre violence, killings, rapes and burnings that were unleashed on
Minorities in 19 districts of the State. The illegal handing over of the
bodies of victims of Godhra Mass Arson to a functionary of a rabid right
wing outfit - the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and not an official of the
administration or police as also the inflammatory media coverage of the
Godhra Incident by leading Gujarati newspapers, further points at how
premeditated the conspiracy actually was.
These allegations and the current investigation are unprecedented in the
history of independent India. Hence, the intimidation in four separate
criminal cases, and consistent threats to Teesta Setalvad need to be seen in
context of the historic inquiry underway. Attacks on her and other activists
are brazen attempts to scuttle the very process of inquiry and justice.
These attempts at intimidation need to be seen for what they are, given the
seriousness of charges against the Gujarat State and its functionaries. In
2004 too, after the Best Bakery trial was shifted to Mumbai a star witness
made similar allegations. She had thereafter to serve a jail term for
perjury while those found guilty of inducing her into falsehood escaped
penal punishment.
Making false accusations of doctoring testimonies (FIR lodged under the IT
Act, February 10, 2011), issuing affidavits and also of instigating victims
to exhume the dead bodies of their loved ones (CR 3/2006), the Gujarat
State's police is using discredited persons to trump up charges against a
person and an organization that has stood up for nine years in support for
the legal battle of survivors.
After Tehelka's exposure of the SIT report, The Smoking Gun (February 10,
2011), IPS officer Rahul Sharma was served with a show cause notice for
placing crucial telephone records before the Nanavati Shah Commission and
the SIT. Clearly, the Gujarat government is worried that offences could be
registered against its chief functionaries for not only simply aiding a
massacre in 2002 but thereafter also destroying evidence and subverting the
course of justice by doing all it can do to intimidate victim survivors and
human rights groups who have stood by them.
This despicable campaign was initially launched in May 2009, by the State of
Gujarat's counsel in the Supreme Court, and is now being echoed by Rais
Khan. The purpose of this campaign is plain and simple - it is designed to
disrupt the trials, derail the course of justice and influence the course of
conviction. Earlier, in 2004, after the historic decision of the Supreme
Court to transfer BEST Bakery trial to Maharashtra, similar such efforts
were made through star witness Zahira Shaikh.
Then, on an application made by Teesta Setalvad of CJP, the Honourable Court
had ordered an inquiry by the Registrar General of the Supreme Court that
cleared Ms. Setalvad of malicious charges, and in fact punished the witness
for perjury. It can be seen therefore, that from the outset, Government of
Gujarat through agents and provocateurs has subverted all efforts to punish
the perpetrators of the Anti Minority Pogrom of 2002. This onslaught against
Setalvad and her lawyers is a vindictive bid to derail the course of public
justice.
D) Conclusion:
The Committee aims at educating people about the flagrant subversion of
legal and social justice in Gujarat. It also aims at studying the situation
in detail and assist the victims for attaining justice. In the lieu of this,
it will study all the cases carefully for subversion or violation of justice
and present a memorandum to the Governor of Gujarat in the month of June.
The action programme will also include making suggestions for amending the 'Communal
Violence Bill' to include clauses related to Subversion of Justice.
The Committee is gravely concerned at the continued persecution of Human
Rights Defender Teesta Setalvad, Secretary, Citizens for Justice and Peace
(CJP). Further, Advocate Suhel Tirmizi and several other human rights
campaigners are also being harassed. These people have been in forefront of
the struggle to secure justice for 2002 Gujarat riots victims. The efforts
of leading activists to secure justice and dignity for the poor and
dispossessed are a source of inspiration for upcoming human rights
proponents. The divisive elements are now attempting to stifle their voice,
by organizing an intimidatory and malicious campaign against those who are
relentlessly fighting for this cause.
Note: - Petition can be obtained on request.
For further information, please refer to the following:
1. 12 FEB 2011 - THE TRUTH ABOUT THE GODHRA SIT REPORT
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main48.asp?filename=Ne120211coverstory.asp
Here's the smoking gun. So how come the SIT is looking the other way?
2. 11 FEB 2011 - THE TIMES OF INDIA, DELHI EDN
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=CAP/2011/02/11&PageLabel=12&EntityId=Ar01200&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T
Gujarat top cop may be paying for his 'initiative'
3. 19 FEBRUARY 2011 - 'I was there. Narendra Modi said let the people vent
their anger' DIG Sanjeev Bhatt knows the terrible truth about Gujarat 2002.
ASHISH KHETAN has his explosive revelations. Will the Supreme Court take it
on record?
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main48.asp?filename=Ne190211EXPLOSIVE.asp
4. February 2011 - HINDI OUTLOOK
http://hindi.outlookindia.com/articlefullwidth.aspx?270299
http://hindi.outlookindia.com/articlefullwidth.aspx?270299
Jagane Waloki awaz ko Kuchalne ki police ki koshish
5. 14 FEBRUARY 2011 - ENGLISH OUTLOOK
http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?270310
Modi Finds A Target
6. 12 MAR 2011 - TEHELKA WHOSE AMICUS IS HARISH SALVE?
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main49.asp?filename=Ne120311WhoseAmicus.asp
7. 17 MAR 2011 - TOI MUMBAI
SIT to quiz whistle-blower cop again on Modi riot role
DIG Had Said That CM Wanted To Allow Hindus to Avenge Godhra
8. 21 MARCH 2011 TIMES OF INDIA - 2002 RIOTS PROBE
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIM/2011/03/17&PageLabel=15&EntityId=Ar01500&ViewMode=HTML
Bhatt's testimony against Modi cut short
9. PUNISHING LAW ABIDING OFFICERS
http://www.gujarat-riots.com/subvrPunOfficer.htm
Note:
The behaviour of the Gujarat police/State has become more vindictive and
desperate......I have been false implicated by the Guj police in now four
separate criminal investigations and there is a strong possibility of
arrest...a Committee is being formed in my defence which wl be announced at
a PC on Monday in Mumbai(Jus Sawant Chairperson, Sureshbhai Mehta and Dr
Asghar Ali Eng Vice Chairs)
Could you consider looking into this for coverage -- especially the scandal
and calumny being committed by the Gujarat Police in implicating victim
survivors who simply trd to retrieve bodies of their loved ones ? And now
me?
Please do refer to the Backgrounder attached and also the petition for
quashing of the FIR that narrates the entire gruesome episode including the
fact that it was the digging by victim survivors ( who had before 27.12.2005
approached authorities only to be callously turned down) that got us the HC
order for DNA testing on 29.12.2005. Moreover the DNA testing proved the
claims of the survivors and now we are accused!! This can only happen in
Gujarat. Advocate Kamini JaiswaL appeared for me in the Gujarat HC on May 20
and the matter will now come up on March 25 2011.
This is not about an individual it is about how a state behaves with victims
and human rights defenders
Thanks
Teesta
Committee for the Defence of Teesta Setalvad and Justice in Gujarat
Nawab Building, 2nd Floor, 327, Dr. D.N. Road, Mumbai - 400 001
Dt. 23/05/2011
A.) Reason for the formation of the Committee:
Subversion of Justice is not a new phenomenon in the process of its
administration. The recent turns of events in cases following the communal
carnage of 2002 have borne its maximum brunt. Therefore, citizens concerned
for justice to the victims of Gujarat Carnage have formed a "Committee for
the Defence of Teesta Setalvad and Justice in Gujarat". The Committee would
undertake appropriate actions and activities to see that neither Teesta
Setalvad nor anybody else is victimized for working for the cause of
justice. The committee would also defend the human rights of vulnerable
sections, and would include, but not be limited to, monitoring cases slapped
on Teesta Setalvad, to stand in solidarity with her, to bring out detailed
facts before the people pertaining to this selective victimization of Teesta
Setalvad and those fighting for the cause of justice in Gujarat.
The ultimate objective is to allow the law and the process of justice to
take its own course without being subverted or influenced by vested
interests. The committee thus in the process will gradually bring out the
truth before the people of this country though statements, meetings,
engagement with the media and all available other platforms. Thus the
committee seeks to address issues not only from the legal angle but also
look at human rights abuses in the wider ambit of achieving equitable social
justice for all.
The Committee is headed by Shri P.B. Sawant (Retd. Justice, Supreme Court)
as the Chairperson. Shri. Suresh Mehta (Fmr. Chief Minister, Gujarat) and
Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer are Vice Chairpersons. Smt. Romila Thapar, Shri.
Irfan Habib, Dr. Ram Puniyani, Shri. Juzer Bandukwala, Shri. Irfan Engineer,
Shri Sukla Sen and many others are members of the Committee.
The extended meeting of the Committee, including other additional members is
also convened later on 25th May 2011 at 5 p.m. at Bombay Union of
Journalists Hall, Second Floor, Prospect Chambers Annexe, D.N. Road, Fort,
Mumbai.
B.) Immediate Concerns:
The malicious and motivated campaign against human rights activist Teesta
Setalvad and the lawyers struggling for justice for the victims of the
genocidal carnage in Gujarat in 2002 is aimed at distracting the course of
public justice and attacking the personal liberties of human rights
activists who have stood by the cause of truth, and justice. The attack
against Teesta Setalvad is three - pronged, aimed at threatening her
personal liberty through arrest, a widespread disinformation and malicious
campaign to affect the process of justice and distracting her from the
demands of the struggle.
Amongst the many examples of such subversion, following are the falsified
cases against Teesta Setalvad, mentioned herein:
1) Pandharwada Mass Graves Case - This is amongst the most serious and
imminent cases in which Setalvad is facing harassment by being falsely
implicated in the case. She has been arraigned as 'absconding accused,' five
years after distraught survivors claimed bodies of their relatives and moved
the courts to establish their identity. A detailed note on this is attached
below. There is also a strong possibility that the Gujarat Police may try to
stage an arrest of Teesta Setalvad on false grounds in the Pandharwada Mass
Graves Case soon.
In the latest update to this case, Teesta Setalvad has filed a petition in
the Gujarat High Court at Ahmedabad dated 17/05/2011, against the State of
Gujarat & Anr. Seeking to stay proceedings from offence registered as CR No.
I - 3/2006 against her and other alleged accused in the Pandharwada Mass
Graves case. This petition is due to come up for hearing in the Gujarat High
Court on 25/05/2011.
In a nutshell, the background of the case is as follows:
On Dec 27, 2005, the victim survivors of the Pandharwada Massacre (where
officially 27 persons were massacred) who were frustrated after the studied
refusal of the state authorities to hand back skeletal remains of their dead
relatives (which were dumped illegally by the State's Police) began the
digging themselves. The spot where they had been illegally dumped was off
the Paanam River in Lunawada in Godhra district.
For months before they started digging, they had approached the authorities
to dig out their remains. There was no response whatsoever from the
authorities. Frustrated, they started the digging after having informed some
members of the electronic media as also Citizens for Justice and Peace
(CJP). The CJP's then coordinator Rais Khan (who is since not with the
organisation following irregularities since January 2008) contacted its
Secretary in Mumbai. CJP through its Secretary Teesta Setalvad, clearly
told them to wait at the spot till the authorities came. The Collector, the
SP and lawyers were then contacted and the High Court of Gujarat was moved
the next day. The local police, too, was informed by fax, of the frustration
of victims by a senior functionary from Gandhinagar.
The victims and CJP together moved the Gujarat HC, the next day and got the
prayer granted for DNA sampling of the remains from Red HILL, Hyderabad. The
DNA sampling proved that the victimized survivors were right. Eight of the
22 skeletal remains were found to be of the relatives Pandharwada Massacre
victims. After the initial order in the Gujarat HC, which was a
breakthrough, a year later, the Gujarat HC dismissed the victims' petition,
asking for transfer of investigation of the massacre to the CBI. Ironically,
the petitioners had pointed out, that the panchnamas related to the crimes
had nowhere mentioned the skeletal remains.
The state has tried to say that, this was never an illegal dumping but a
proper burial on forest land off a river. Legally speaking, the Panchnama of
the original crime of mass murder has not listed the skeletal remains. Thus,
disproving the version of the Gujarat state and police. Victims and
Activists have argued that Lunawada has a large Kabrastan of more than a
hundred acres and hence, if Gujarat Police could in fact not trace
relatives, what was the need to so dump the remains rather than according
them a dignified burial in the Kabrastan? Why dump them in an obscure spot
off the river rather than give them to community leaders for a dignified
burial?
Following its tradition of victimising human rights defenders and victims,
the local police lodged an FIR on Jan 1, 2006 against victim survivors and
Rais Khan of the CJP. CJP gave full legal aid to them. Subsequently, the
bail and so also a stay against their arrest was granted by the Gujarat High
Court. In the interim, Rais Khan today is no more with the organisation.
Eventually, in a statement recorded under Section 164 CrPC has made false
accusations against Media persons and Teesta Setalvad. He appears to enjoy
full immunity and security within the state of Gujarat. Teesta Setalvad has
since obtained anticipatory bail first from a Mumbai and thereafter from a
Godhra court. This bail order stands. The date of the Godhra Bail Order was
15. 2. 2011. On March 18, 2011 she received summons under section 160 of the
CrPC, asking her to remain present at the Lunawada police station for
questioning. Since the section gives a woman the protection of being
questioned/examined at her place of residence, Teesta Setalvad replied
immediately, saying she was prepared to meet the police at her residence in
Mumbai. Suddenly, the Investigating Officer was changed and thereafter a
falsified charge sheet was filed naming her an "absconding accused" which
belied the facts and detailed correspondence with the authorities.
A second summon was issued to her by the Lunawada Police, listing her as an
accused and asking her to remain present on the 9th May 2011. A third summon
has since been issued asking Teesta to remain present at Lunawada on the
31st May 2011.
Under the law this makes her more vulnerable to arrest. She has since
pointed this out in response to the second and third summons issued to her,
requesting an immediate correction in the charge sheet filed on the 3rd
April 2011 which lists her as an accused. There has been no response to that
and she faces threat of illegal arrest.
In midst of this propaganda, what is being missed is, despite the fact that
victims through their efforts and the order of the Gujarat High Court, have
established the identity of their dead relatives in 2005-2006, it has taken
an order from the Supreme Court (February 2008 and a subsequent order of the
Trial Court in December 2008) for conducting a dignified burial in August
2010, i.e. six years after the brutal massacre, albeit with no one being
allowed to be present for the burial.
Ironically, the core and substance of false allegations being levelled today
have existed since the genocidal carnage of 2002 carried out by an
unrepentant Gujarat government. Absent is any concern for the lives lost or
processes of justice which have been subverted or perverted. While only the
people making allegations have changed, allegations have remained but the
same. Since September 2010, the agency for dissemination of this malicious
campaign has been a former employee who was asked to leave the organization
Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) in January 2008.
The patently false allegations of doctoring evidence in various cases are
being orchestrated at a time when crucial trials are nearing completion and
the accused, amongst whom are powerful politicians and policemen, face
charges of criminal conspiracy and murder. What is at stake is, the
conviction of over 350 accused in nine major trials (Gulberg, Sardarpura,
Odh, Naroda Patiya, Naroda Gaam) that are underway with some nearing
completion. Despite threats of intimidation and repression, eyewitnesses and
survivors have deposed without fear in Gujarat Courts. They have done this
while facing a hostile police and court atmosphere and all this while, they
have stood by the contents of their affidavits filed through the CJP in the
Supreme Court of India. At the heart of this sustained and malicious
campaign is a calculated and cynical desire by the Gujarat State to derail
the course of justice that is being monitored by the apex court. It wants to
ensure the acquittal of the accused, many of whom are functionaries of the
BJP, VHP and Bajrang Dal and also policemen and administrators. It is an
unfortunate fact that the SIT (Special Investigation Team) appointed for the
purpose of further investigation into these cases has sided, for the most
part, with the arguments of the Gujarat State.
The intensification of malafide allegations is also aimed at attacking the
individuals and the group responsible for sustaining the criminal
investigation currently afoot against top ministers and officials in the
Gujarat Government. Over the past few months, the apex court has passed
orders directing the Amicus Curiae to see if an offence of conspiracy to
commit mass murder and destroy evidence has been made out against the
accused officials and ministers. This is the result of a complaint, and a
tireless legal battle waged by Zakia Ahsan Jafri and Teesta Setalvad of the
Citizens for Justice and Peace. It is no surprise then, that a government
that has acted vindictively and maliciously against serving and retired IPS
and IAS officers, who have stood by the Indian Constitution, is now training
its guns on activists.
2) The ongoing Criminal Trials in Naroda Gaam and Sardarpura, in which
she and her organisation have been giving consistent legal aid to the
witnesses and victims
3) The Yasmeen Shaikh Affidavit in the Bombay High Court - Yasmin is a
witness in Vadodara's Best Bakery case where 14 people were burnt alive.She
had turned hostile last year. Yasmin Shaikh has moved the Bombay High Court
alleging that Setalvad had influenced her to testify against the accused.
This after the February 2006 judgment in the Best Bakery re-trial that the
"the signs of having been tutored were not found while analyzing the witness
evidence'." It must be noted here that, Yasmin's sister in-law Zahira
Shaikh, a prime witness in the Best Bakery case, served a year in prison for
perjury after she turned hostile a second time. She had first turned hostile
in a Gujarat trial court and then in Mumbai.
C.) Additional Background Information:
The charges in the criminal complaint against the Gujarat Government are
serious. Despite all the efforts of Gujarat Government along with it's
political mentors and allies to subvert the course of public justice,
preliminary investigations have revealed details of a high level involvement
of the senior officials and politicians, to have indulged in a series of
criminal and unconstitutional acts which has led to engineering the mass
massacre of 2,500 Muslims, post Godhra destruction. It has also revealed a
subsequent manipulation of evidence and subversion of witnesses.
On March 15 2011, the SC pulled up the SIT saying that evidence gathered by
them does not match with their inferences. On March 20, 21 and 22, the SIT
was compelled to record the statement of yet another serving IPS officer
Sanjeev Bhatt who has recorded (media reports tell us) that he was present
at a meeting at the Chief Minister's residence when the latter clearly said
"allow Hindus to vent their anger against Muslims." On May 5, 2011 the apex
court has directed the Amicus Curiae to arrive at an assessment of whether
or not a criminal offence is made out, without consulting the SIT.
The allegations against Government of Gujarat, of issuing criminal
instructions to their police officers and thereafter, the illegal stationing
of ministers, in the State and City Police Control Rooms are substantiated
by the macabre violence, killings, rapes and burnings that were unleashed on
Minorities in 19 districts of the State. The illegal handing over of the
bodies of victims of Godhra Mass Arson to a functionary of a rabid right
wing outfit - the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and not an official of the
administration or police as also the inflammatory media coverage of the
Godhra Incident by leading Gujarati newspapers, further points at how
premeditated the conspiracy actually was.
These allegations and the current investigation are unprecedented in the
history of independent India. Hence, the intimidation in four separate
criminal cases, and consistent threats to Teesta Setalvad need to be seen in
context of the historic inquiry underway. Attacks on her and other activists
are brazen attempts to scuttle the very process of inquiry and justice.
These attempts at intimidation need to be seen for what they are, given the
seriousness of charges against the Gujarat State and its functionaries. In
2004 too, after the Best Bakery trial was shifted to Mumbai a star witness
made similar allegations. She had thereafter to serve a jail term for
perjury while those found guilty of inducing her into falsehood escaped
penal punishment.
Making false accusations of doctoring testimonies (FIR lodged under the IT
Act, February 10, 2011), issuing affidavits and also of instigating victims
to exhume the dead bodies of their loved ones (CR 3/2006), the Gujarat
State's police is using discredited persons to trump up charges against a
person and an organization that has stood up for nine years in support for
the legal battle of survivors.
After Tehelka's exposure of the SIT report, The Smoking Gun (February 10,
2011), IPS officer Rahul Sharma was served with a show cause notice for
placing crucial telephone records before the Nanavati Shah Commission and
the SIT. Clearly, the Gujarat government is worried that offences could be
registered against its chief functionaries for not only simply aiding a
massacre in 2002 but thereafter also destroying evidence and subverting the
course of justice by doing all it can do to intimidate victim survivors and
human rights groups who have stood by them.
This despicable campaign was initially launched in May 2009, by the State of
Gujarat's counsel in the Supreme Court, and is now being echoed by Rais
Khan. The purpose of this campaign is plain and simple - it is designed to
disrupt the trials, derail the course of justice and influence the course of
conviction. Earlier, in 2004, after the historic decision of the Supreme
Court to transfer BEST Bakery trial to Maharashtra, similar such efforts
were made through star witness Zahira Shaikh.
Then, on an application made by Teesta Setalvad of CJP, the Honourable Court
had ordered an inquiry by the Registrar General of the Supreme Court that
cleared Ms. Setalvad of malicious charges, and in fact punished the witness
for perjury. It can be seen therefore, that from the outset, Government of
Gujarat through agents and provocateurs has subverted all efforts to punish
the perpetrators of the Anti Minority Pogrom of 2002. This onslaught against
Setalvad and her lawyers is a vindictive bid to derail the course of public
justice.
D) Conclusion:
The Committee aims at educating people about the flagrant subversion of
legal and social justice in Gujarat. It also aims at studying the situation
in detail and assist the victims for attaining justice. In the lieu of this,
it will study all the cases carefully for subversion or violation of justice
and present a memorandum to the Governor of Gujarat in the month of June.
The action programme will also include making suggestions for amending the 'Communal
Violence Bill' to include clauses related to Subversion of Justice.
The Committee is gravely concerned at the continued persecution of Human
Rights Defender Teesta Setalvad, Secretary, Citizens for Justice and Peace
(CJP). Further, Advocate Suhel Tirmizi and several other human rights
campaigners are also being harassed. These people have been in forefront of
the struggle to secure justice for 2002 Gujarat riots victims. The efforts
of leading activists to secure justice and dignity for the poor and
dispossessed are a source of inspiration for upcoming human rights
proponents. The divisive elements are now attempting to stifle their voice,
by organizing an intimidatory and malicious campaign against those who are
relentlessly fighting for this cause.
Note: - Petition can be obtained on request.
For further information, please refer to the following:
1. 12 FEB 2011 - THE TRUTH ABOUT THE GODHRA SIT REPORT
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main48.asp?filename=Ne120211coverstory.asp
Here's the smoking gun. So how come the SIT is looking the other way?
2. 11 FEB 2011 - THE TIMES OF INDIA, DELHI EDN
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=CAP/2011/02/11&PageLabel=12&EntityId=Ar01200&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T
Gujarat top cop may be paying for his 'initiative'
3. 19 FEBRUARY 2011 - 'I was there. Narendra Modi said let the people vent
their anger' DIG Sanjeev Bhatt knows the terrible truth about Gujarat 2002.
ASHISH KHETAN has his explosive revelations. Will the Supreme Court take it
on record?
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main48.asp?filename=Ne190211EXPLOSIVE.asp
4. February 2011 - HINDI OUTLOOK
http://hindi.outlookindia.com/articlefullwidth.aspx?270299
http://hindi.outlookindia.com/articlefullwidth.aspx?270299
Jagane Waloki awaz ko Kuchalne ki police ki koshish
5. 14 FEBRUARY 2011 - ENGLISH OUTLOOK
http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?270310
Modi Finds A Target
6. 12 MAR 2011 - TEHELKA WHOSE AMICUS IS HARISH SALVE?
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main49.asp?filename=Ne120311WhoseAmicus.asp
7. 17 MAR 2011 - TOI MUMBAI
SIT to quiz whistle-blower cop again on Modi riot role
DIG Had Said That CM Wanted To Allow Hindus to Avenge Godhra
8. 21 MARCH 2011 TIMES OF INDIA - 2002 RIOTS PROBE
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIM/2011/03/17&PageLabel=15&EntityId=Ar01500&ViewMode=HTML
Bhatt's testimony against Modi cut short
9. PUNISHING LAW ABIDING OFFICERS
http://www.gujarat-riots.com/subvrPunOfficer.htm
Note:
The behaviour of the Gujarat police/State has become more vindictive and
desperate......I have been false implicated by the Guj police in now four
separate criminal investigations and there is a strong possibility of
arrest...a Committee is being formed in my defence which wl be announced at
a PC on Monday in Mumbai(Jus Sawant Chairperson, Sureshbhai Mehta and Dr
Asghar Ali Eng Vice Chairs)
Could you consider looking into this for coverage -- especially the scandal
and calumny being committed by the Gujarat Police in implicating victim
survivors who simply trd to retrieve bodies of their loved ones ? And now
me?
Please do refer to the Backgrounder attached and also the petition for
quashing of the FIR that narrates the entire gruesome episode including the
fact that it was the digging by victim survivors ( who had before 27.12.2005
approached authorities only to be callously turned down) that got us the HC
order for DNA testing on 29.12.2005. Moreover the DNA testing proved the
claims of the survivors and now we are accused!! This can only happen in
Gujarat. Advocate Kamini JaiswaL appeared for me in the Gujarat HC on May 20
and the matter will now come up on March 25 2011.
This is not about an individual it is about how a state behaves with victims
and human rights defenders
Thanks
Teesta
May 23, 2011
Draft text (May 2011) Communal Violence Bill
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Anees Mohammed
Date: Sun, May 22, 2011 at 7:24 PM
Dear Colleagues,
The NAC has come out with the working group's draft "Prevention of Communal & Targetted Violence Bill". I have attached the draft bill here for your ready reference.
The draft is by far a much improved one than all its earlier versions.
Some of the higlights of this draft is as follows:
* Definition of Communal / Targetted Violence enhanced to include:
1. Sexual assault
2. Hate propaganda
3. Organized Communal and Targeted Violence
4. Aiding financially, materially or in kind for commission of offence under this Act
5. Set of exisitng Offence under the Indian Penal Code, 1860 namely 153, 153B, 295, 298 among others
6. Torture by a public servant
* No more need to declare an area as :Communally Disturbed" for enforcing its provision
* Power to the Centre to intervene invoking Art 355 in needed.
* In case where the victim belongs to SC/ST, this act will be in addition to the existing SC/ST Atrocities Act.
* Separate chapter on Prevention
* Formation of National Authority & State Authorities for Communal harmony, justice & reparation with additonal power equivalent to a Civil Court
The bill can also be downloaded from the link:
http://nac.nic.in/pdf/pctvb_amended.pdf
The NAC has also invited suggestion in the draft till 4th June 2011. The suggestions can be emailed to wgcvb@nac.nic.in
From: Anees Mohammed
Date: Sun, May 22, 2011 at 7:24 PM
Dear Colleagues,
The NAC has come out with the working group's draft "Prevention of Communal & Targetted Violence Bill". I have attached the draft bill here for your ready reference.
The draft is by far a much improved one than all its earlier versions.
Some of the higlights of this draft is as follows:
* Definition of Communal / Targetted Violence enhanced to include:
1. Sexual assault
2. Hate propaganda
3. Organized Communal and Targeted Violence
4. Aiding financially, materially or in kind for commission of offence under this Act
5. Set of exisitng Offence under the Indian Penal Code, 1860 namely 153, 153B, 295, 298 among others
6. Torture by a public servant
* No more need to declare an area as :Communally Disturbed" for enforcing its provision
* Power to the Centre to intervene invoking Art 355 in needed.
* In case where the victim belongs to SC/ST, this act will be in addition to the existing SC/ST Atrocities Act.
* Separate chapter on Prevention
* Formation of National Authority & State Authorities for Communal harmony, justice & reparation with additonal power equivalent to a Civil Court
The bill can also be downloaded from the link:
http://nac.nic.in/pdf/pctvb_amended.pdf
The NAC has also invited suggestion in the draft till 4th June 2011. The suggestions can be emailed to wgcvb@nac.nic.in
May 21, 2011
RSS hopes to recover lost ground riding the baba wave
Outlook Magazine, May 30, 2011
Deep Breathing Ramdev feels the RSS can help his political ambitions
Sangh Parivar: Baba Ramdev
The R + RSS Formula
In a conscious decision, RSS hopes to recover lost ground riding the baba wave
Prarthna Gahilote
Knight And Bishop
RSS Offer
* Support Ramdev's campaign from the outside
* Lend swayamsevaks to mobilise people
* Provide logistical support
Ramdev's Role
* Become a star campaigner endorsing the BJP's campaign
* Back good candidates. Support and patronise the BJP/RSS
* Possibly launch a political party
****
If insiders are to be believed, then the RSS decision to support yoga guru/godman Baba Ramdev in his anti-corruption campaign has more than what meets the eye. It was not simply the desire to participate in a ‘nationalist’ movement that brought forth vocal endorsement for Ramdev from the otherwise cautious Sangh. Not one to support causes easily, sources say the saffron outfit has done some serious calculation, thoroughly thinking out the political repercussions of such a move.
So, for now, the plan rolled out has been kept simple: support Ramdev’s campaign against corruption from the outside, lend swayamsevaks to mobilise people for the movement, ensure the popular yoga guru is available as a star campaigner who endorses and supports the BJP’s agenda and helps consolidate the Hindutva movement.
A large section within the Sangh firmly believes this would reap results. As a senior pracharak told Outlook, “The Sangh needs a strong force that can take up the issue of corruption which has huge resonance among the electorate. The BJP has failed to find a connect with people even over the issue of corruption in the last one year. This is where Baba Ramdev’s Bharatiya Swabhiman Andolan can come in handy. The Sangh wants to consolidate its constituency in the Hindi belt, which is also Baba Ramdev’s stronghold. Naturally, aligning with him will be helpful, particularly when the BJP faces a crisis of sorts in UP, slated to go to polls in 2012.”
It’s a plan the Sangh has been working on since September last year. It has expended much energy on building consensus over supporting Baba Ramdev’s campaign both within the parivar and the BJP. Even as the latter remained unsure about the dividends this would bring, the Sangh made calculated progress, holding many rounds of meetings with the yoga guru to fine-tune a plan. Insiders confirm that the offer to float a forum against corruption first came from the baba to the RSS last year. The Sangh then held discussions with BJP president Nitin Gadkari and senior leader L.K. Advani in October 2010. In January 2011, the discussions got more intensive. As the BJP voiced its reservations over a “direct clash of interest in case Baba Ramdev floated a political party”, the Sangh created a formula to suit both sides.
So, even as it assured the BJP that Ramdev would not be given any support in case he decided to float a political party, it was made amply clear to the party that the opportunity could not be lost considering the yoga guru had the support of the middle class and Hindus. Meanwhile, the Sangh communicated to Ramdev that “the RSS had unilaterally decided that he would be given all support possible till he floats a party of his own”. In April, soon after Anna Hazare began his fast unto death over the Lokpal Bill, Baba Ramdev travelled to Nagpur to hold the final round of meetings with RSS sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat and senior functionary Bhaiyaji Joshi.
Operation UP Mohan Bhagwat, others of the RSS think they can capitalise on Ramdev’s popularity. (Photograph by Jitender Gupta)
It was at this meeting in Nagpur that the unanimous decision was taken to launch Baba Ramdev’s Bhrashtachar Mitao Satyagraha from June 4. Former RSS ideologue K.N. Govindacharya was roped in as Ramdev’s political advisor and a plan to begin the satyagraha next month from the Ramlila Grounds in Delhi was chalked out.
“The BJP has failed to connect with people even on corruption. That’s where Ramdev’s andolan can be handy.”
Needless to say, the RSS cadre believes that by backing Ramdev, the Sangh and the BJP will get as much traction as it got by supporting the JP movement. Says a senior RSS leader, “You have to look at the complete picture. It wasn’t without reason that the RSS, after first deciding not to support Anna Hazare, sent in a written letter of support to Jantar Mantar. The Sangh chose three of its senior functionaries—Ram Madhav, Madhubhai Kulkarni and Bajrang Lal Gupta—to deliver the letter. The significance of that cannot possibly be missed. The Sangh was sending out a clear message: The corruption issue matters to them. It’s not an issue that the Sangh wants to let go of.”
On his part, Ramdev has offered a three-point plan to the Sangh. Ramdev’s own outfit will throw its weight behind good candidates. Two, it shall support and patronise a political party it identifies with; and three, it ultimately launches a political party of its own which would go along with the BJP. The importance of Ramdev’s offer is not entirely lost on the BJP. Late April at a gathering in Delhi, while sharing the stage with Baba Ramdev, senior BJP leader L.K. Advani endorsed Ramdev’s campaign: “Corruption has struck at the roots of faith in this country. The faith in democracy is in danger today. Baba Ramdev’s movement will help us get over this crisis.”
“The numbers have been worked out,” says a close associate of Ramdev. “On an average, we will have at least 50,000 people at the Ramlila grounds everyday till the dharna lasts. We have 80,000 yoga centres all over the country. People have been mobilised to participate in the fast and dharna all across these centres. Even if 10 people per centre come out and fast with us, we will have eight lakh people fasting everyday,” he adds. To that, factor in the 2.5 lakh panchayats that Baba Ramdev has been working on in the last two months, and you can see the numbers are staggering. “Village committees have been formed in these 2.5 lakh panchayats. That alone will give us 10 lakh supporters,” points out Baba Ramdev’s associate.
It’s these numbers that give the proposed partnership an allure for the BJP and Sangh. Insiders confirm, “Even if half these numbers materialise, we would achieve what BJP’s anti-corruption campaign against the UPA could not do.” Last summer, BJP president Gadkari had led a procession against corruption hoping it would gather some momentum. A year later, this summer, the BJP and Sangh together hope that Ramdev’s movement will give the party the necessary fillip required to give new impetus to an also-ran campaign.
Deep Breathing Ramdev feels the RSS can help his political ambitions
Sangh Parivar: Baba Ramdev
The R + RSS Formula
In a conscious decision, RSS hopes to recover lost ground riding the baba wave
Prarthna Gahilote
Knight And Bishop
RSS Offer
* Support Ramdev's campaign from the outside
* Lend swayamsevaks to mobilise people
* Provide logistical support
Ramdev's Role
* Become a star campaigner endorsing the BJP's campaign
* Back good candidates. Support and patronise the BJP/RSS
* Possibly launch a political party
****
If insiders are to be believed, then the RSS decision to support yoga guru/godman Baba Ramdev in his anti-corruption campaign has more than what meets the eye. It was not simply the desire to participate in a ‘nationalist’ movement that brought forth vocal endorsement for Ramdev from the otherwise cautious Sangh. Not one to support causes easily, sources say the saffron outfit has done some serious calculation, thoroughly thinking out the political repercussions of such a move.
So, for now, the plan rolled out has been kept simple: support Ramdev’s campaign against corruption from the outside, lend swayamsevaks to mobilise people for the movement, ensure the popular yoga guru is available as a star campaigner who endorses and supports the BJP’s agenda and helps consolidate the Hindutva movement.
A large section within the Sangh firmly believes this would reap results. As a senior pracharak told Outlook, “The Sangh needs a strong force that can take up the issue of corruption which has huge resonance among the electorate. The BJP has failed to find a connect with people even over the issue of corruption in the last one year. This is where Baba Ramdev’s Bharatiya Swabhiman Andolan can come in handy. The Sangh wants to consolidate its constituency in the Hindi belt, which is also Baba Ramdev’s stronghold. Naturally, aligning with him will be helpful, particularly when the BJP faces a crisis of sorts in UP, slated to go to polls in 2012.”
It’s a plan the Sangh has been working on since September last year. It has expended much energy on building consensus over supporting Baba Ramdev’s campaign both within the parivar and the BJP. Even as the latter remained unsure about the dividends this would bring, the Sangh made calculated progress, holding many rounds of meetings with the yoga guru to fine-tune a plan. Insiders confirm that the offer to float a forum against corruption first came from the baba to the RSS last year. The Sangh then held discussions with BJP president Nitin Gadkari and senior leader L.K. Advani in October 2010. In January 2011, the discussions got more intensive. As the BJP voiced its reservations over a “direct clash of interest in case Baba Ramdev floated a political party”, the Sangh created a formula to suit both sides.
So, even as it assured the BJP that Ramdev would not be given any support in case he decided to float a political party, it was made amply clear to the party that the opportunity could not be lost considering the yoga guru had the support of the middle class and Hindus. Meanwhile, the Sangh communicated to Ramdev that “the RSS had unilaterally decided that he would be given all support possible till he floats a party of his own”. In April, soon after Anna Hazare began his fast unto death over the Lokpal Bill, Baba Ramdev travelled to Nagpur to hold the final round of meetings with RSS sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat and senior functionary Bhaiyaji Joshi.
Operation UP Mohan Bhagwat, others of the RSS think they can capitalise on Ramdev’s popularity. (Photograph by Jitender Gupta)
It was at this meeting in Nagpur that the unanimous decision was taken to launch Baba Ramdev’s Bhrashtachar Mitao Satyagraha from June 4. Former RSS ideologue K.N. Govindacharya was roped in as Ramdev’s political advisor and a plan to begin the satyagraha next month from the Ramlila Grounds in Delhi was chalked out.
“The BJP has failed to connect with people even on corruption. That’s where Ramdev’s andolan can be handy.”
Needless to say, the RSS cadre believes that by backing Ramdev, the Sangh and the BJP will get as much traction as it got by supporting the JP movement. Says a senior RSS leader, “You have to look at the complete picture. It wasn’t without reason that the RSS, after first deciding not to support Anna Hazare, sent in a written letter of support to Jantar Mantar. The Sangh chose three of its senior functionaries—Ram Madhav, Madhubhai Kulkarni and Bajrang Lal Gupta—to deliver the letter. The significance of that cannot possibly be missed. The Sangh was sending out a clear message: The corruption issue matters to them. It’s not an issue that the Sangh wants to let go of.”
On his part, Ramdev has offered a three-point plan to the Sangh. Ramdev’s own outfit will throw its weight behind good candidates. Two, it shall support and patronise a political party it identifies with; and three, it ultimately launches a political party of its own which would go along with the BJP. The importance of Ramdev’s offer is not entirely lost on the BJP. Late April at a gathering in Delhi, while sharing the stage with Baba Ramdev, senior BJP leader L.K. Advani endorsed Ramdev’s campaign: “Corruption has struck at the roots of faith in this country. The faith in democracy is in danger today. Baba Ramdev’s movement will help us get over this crisis.”
“The numbers have been worked out,” says a close associate of Ramdev. “On an average, we will have at least 50,000 people at the Ramlila grounds everyday till the dharna lasts. We have 80,000 yoga centres all over the country. People have been mobilised to participate in the fast and dharna all across these centres. Even if 10 people per centre come out and fast with us, we will have eight lakh people fasting everyday,” he adds. To that, factor in the 2.5 lakh panchayats that Baba Ramdev has been working on in the last two months, and you can see the numbers are staggering. “Village committees have been formed in these 2.5 lakh panchayats. That alone will give us 10 lakh supporters,” points out Baba Ramdev’s associate.
It’s these numbers that give the proposed partnership an allure for the BJP and Sangh. Insiders confirm, “Even if half these numbers materialise, we would achieve what BJP’s anti-corruption campaign against the UPA could not do.” Last summer, BJP president Gadkari had led a procession against corruption hoping it would gather some momentum. A year later, this summer, the BJP and Sangh together hope that Ramdev’s movement will give the party the necessary fillip required to give new impetus to an also-ran campaign.
May 16, 2011
An educational illustrated comic on communalism in India
Source URL
Business Standard
Communalism in comic relief
Rajeev Anantaram | 2011-04-15 00:32:00
My introduction to Indian history and mythology was through illustrated comics sold under the brand name Amar Chitra Katha. Written mostly for the uninitiated, the presentation was unassuming to the point of occasional oversimplification, as I learnt when I graduated to more serious discourses. However, their contribution towards inculcating an interest in Indian history and mythology in multitudes of Indians is invaluable.
Communalism Explained! A Graphic Account attempts something similar, without ever attempting to trivialise what is arguably the most daunting social challenge confronting India today. This issue has attracted some of the finest minds in the social sciences working on India. To name just two, Bipan Chandra’s 1984 opus Communalism in Modern India or Ashutosh Varshney’s more recent work on ethnic conflict have explored the nature of inter-religious strife in India with remarkable insight. Despite the corpus of work that precedes it, the attempt by the present authors to clearly delineate the issues and point to the danger of pervasive myths is commendable.
It was never going to be easy to reintegrate a syncretic society that had been arbitrarily cleaved apart through Partition in 1947. What was the status of Muslims who chose to remain in India expected to be? While India has remained (largely) true to the secular vision of the founding fathers, the nagging question of the largely incomplete assimilation of the largest minority in the country continues to roil the waters. The portents for the future are deeply disturbing.
The point of departure of the book is the Babri Masjid demolition of December 1992 and the riots that followed, soon thereafter. The choice of episode is more than symbolic. To many observers, it was probably the event that led to the parting of ways between Hindus and Muslims in India, irrevocably destroying the latter’s faith in the secular experiment.
The authors approach the subject with a single-mindedness which enhances the book’s consistency. In doing so, they do not wander from the task they have set to achieve — highlighting the plight of the Muslims in India, complicated by global developments following 9/11. For example, the section on the history of Islam in India attempts to debunk the notion of Muslims as “outsiders” and points to innumerable examples of cultural cross-pollination, an idea that is under steady assault by the Hindu right wing. The feverish attempt at cultural exclusivity, often based on dubious “scholarship”, is what makes this campaign even more sinister. More valuable is the authors’ attempt to bust widely pervasive myths, some of which are culture-specific (“Many Muslims have more than one wife”) and others increasingly gaining an international flavour (“Islam is a terrorist religion”). There is no more effective way to demonise a group than by perpetuating a vicious myth, which snowballs in the absence of sustained efforts to counter it. If anti-Semitic myths are embedded even in otherwise liberal sections of European societies, a campaign of organised falsification, masquerading as history is to blame. Anti-Islamic groups the world over have taken their cue from the original masters.
Strength of belief often hinders objectivity, either in interpretation or by way of selective collation. This is a shortcoming of the book. While the authors are within their right to highlight the positives of the socio-cultural interface between Hindus and Muslims in India for over a millennium, a comprehensive study would be expected to include areas of conflict, which are also numerous. Thus, while the arrival of the Arabs on the west coast was by and large peaceful, the arrival of the early Afghans and Turks in the 10th to 12th century was often marked by grotesque violence. As an example, was the repeated sacking of the Somnath temple by Mahmud of Ghazni merely a violent act driven by the lure of loot or did it have religious connotations as well? The history of forced conversions and breaking of temples is well-documented, even by Muslim historians of the era. Did these actions reflect the tenets of Islam or merely the individual beliefs of the rulers? An analysis of these issues would in no way detract from the book’s central thesis.
If the success of a book is judged by the number it converts, this book will win few prizes, given that it will be restricted to an English-speaking readership. That would be unfair to the authors, who are swimming against a tide of hostility or sheer indifference. Above all, the authors’ commitment shines through and for such efforts, we need to be grateful.
COMMUNALISM EXPLAINED! A GRAPHIC ACCOUNT
Ram Puniyani and Sharad Sharma
Vani Prakashan
231 pages, Rs 250
Business Standard
Communalism in comic relief
Rajeev Anantaram | 2011-04-15 00:32:00
My introduction to Indian history and mythology was through illustrated comics sold under the brand name Amar Chitra Katha. Written mostly for the uninitiated, the presentation was unassuming to the point of occasional oversimplification, as I learnt when I graduated to more serious discourses. However, their contribution towards inculcating an interest in Indian history and mythology in multitudes of Indians is invaluable.
Communalism Explained! A Graphic Account attempts something similar, without ever attempting to trivialise what is arguably the most daunting social challenge confronting India today. This issue has attracted some of the finest minds in the social sciences working on India. To name just two, Bipan Chandra’s 1984 opus Communalism in Modern India or Ashutosh Varshney’s more recent work on ethnic conflict have explored the nature of inter-religious strife in India with remarkable insight. Despite the corpus of work that precedes it, the attempt by the present authors to clearly delineate the issues and point to the danger of pervasive myths is commendable.
It was never going to be easy to reintegrate a syncretic society that had been arbitrarily cleaved apart through Partition in 1947. What was the status of Muslims who chose to remain in India expected to be? While India has remained (largely) true to the secular vision of the founding fathers, the nagging question of the largely incomplete assimilation of the largest minority in the country continues to roil the waters. The portents for the future are deeply disturbing.
The point of departure of the book is the Babri Masjid demolition of December 1992 and the riots that followed, soon thereafter. The choice of episode is more than symbolic. To many observers, it was probably the event that led to the parting of ways between Hindus and Muslims in India, irrevocably destroying the latter’s faith in the secular experiment.
The authors approach the subject with a single-mindedness which enhances the book’s consistency. In doing so, they do not wander from the task they have set to achieve — highlighting the plight of the Muslims in India, complicated by global developments following 9/11. For example, the section on the history of Islam in India attempts to debunk the notion of Muslims as “outsiders” and points to innumerable examples of cultural cross-pollination, an idea that is under steady assault by the Hindu right wing. The feverish attempt at cultural exclusivity, often based on dubious “scholarship”, is what makes this campaign even more sinister. More valuable is the authors’ attempt to bust widely pervasive myths, some of which are culture-specific (“Many Muslims have more than one wife”) and others increasingly gaining an international flavour (“Islam is a terrorist religion”). There is no more effective way to demonise a group than by perpetuating a vicious myth, which snowballs in the absence of sustained efforts to counter it. If anti-Semitic myths are embedded even in otherwise liberal sections of European societies, a campaign of organised falsification, masquerading as history is to blame. Anti-Islamic groups the world over have taken their cue from the original masters.
Strength of belief often hinders objectivity, either in interpretation or by way of selective collation. This is a shortcoming of the book. While the authors are within their right to highlight the positives of the socio-cultural interface between Hindus and Muslims in India for over a millennium, a comprehensive study would be expected to include areas of conflict, which are also numerous. Thus, while the arrival of the Arabs on the west coast was by and large peaceful, the arrival of the early Afghans and Turks in the 10th to 12th century was often marked by grotesque violence. As an example, was the repeated sacking of the Somnath temple by Mahmud of Ghazni merely a violent act driven by the lure of loot or did it have religious connotations as well? The history of forced conversions and breaking of temples is well-documented, even by Muslim historians of the era. Did these actions reflect the tenets of Islam or merely the individual beliefs of the rulers? An analysis of these issues would in no way detract from the book’s central thesis.
If the success of a book is judged by the number it converts, this book will win few prizes, given that it will be restricted to an English-speaking readership. That would be unfair to the authors, who are swimming against a tide of hostility or sheer indifference. Above all, the authors’ commitment shines through and for such efforts, we need to be grateful.
COMMUNALISM EXPLAINED! A GRAPHIC ACCOUNT
Ram Puniyani and Sharad Sharma
Vani Prakashan
231 pages, Rs 250
Capital Accumulation and the Transformation of Religious Passion
Jordana Rosenberg
Critical Enthusiasm: Capital Accumulation and the Transformation of Religious Passion
Oxford University Press, April 2011
The Atlantic world of the long eighteenth century was characterized by two major, interrelated phenomena: the onset of capital accumulation and the infusion of traditions of radical religious rapture into Enlightenment discourses. In exploring these cross-pollinations, Crit! ical Enthusiasm shows that debates around religious radicalism are bound to the advent of capitalism at its very root: as legal precedent, as financial rhetoric, and as aesthetic form. To understand the period thus requires that we not only contextualize histories of religion in terms of the economic landscape of early modernity, but also recast the question of secularization in terms of the contradictions of capitalism.
Critical Enthusiasm contributes to new directions of scholarship in literary and legal history, secularization studies, and economic criticism. It is unique in producing a model for literary and cultural study that is simultaneously attuned to economic and religious forces. By approaching the history of capitalism through religious debate! s, Critical Enthusiasm discloses significant intersections of aestheti c form and of financial flows that have been hitherto ignored. Through chapters that highlight moral philosophy, religious prophesy, early modern statute law, poetry, and political theory, Rosenberg shows that the contested nature of enthusiastic rapture is crucial to understanding the major institutional transformations of early modernity. These transformations--colonial plunder, the rise of finance, the administration of racialized labor, and the legal reform that justified such practices--shaped the period; they also laid the foundation for our contemporary world.
http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subj! ect/ReligionTheology/HistoryofChristianity/ReformationCounterReformation/?view=usa&ci=9780199764266
Jordana Rosenberg is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Critical Enthusiasm: Capital Accumulation and the Transformation of Religious Passion
Oxford University Press, April 2011
The Atlantic world of the long eighteenth century was characterized by two major, interrelated phenomena: the onset of capital accumulation and the infusion of traditions of radical religious rapture into Enlightenment discourses. In exploring these cross-pollinations, Crit! ical Enthusiasm shows that debates around religious radicalism are bound to the advent of capitalism at its very root: as legal precedent, as financial rhetoric, and as aesthetic form. To understand the period thus requires that we not only contextualize histories of religion in terms of the economic landscape of early modernity, but also recast the question of secularization in terms of the contradictions of capitalism.
Critical Enthusiasm contributes to new directions of scholarship in literary and legal history, secularization studies, and economic criticism. It is unique in producing a model for literary and cultural study that is simultaneously attuned to economic and religious forces. By approaching the history of capitalism through religious debate! s, Critical Enthusiasm discloses significant intersections of aestheti c form and of financial flows that have been hitherto ignored. Through chapters that highlight moral philosophy, religious prophesy, early modern statute law, poetry, and political theory, Rosenberg shows that the contested nature of enthusiastic rapture is crucial to understanding the major institutional transformations of early modernity. These transformations--colonial plunder, the rise of finance, the administration of racialized labor, and the legal reform that justified such practices--shaped the period; they also laid the foundation for our contemporary world.
http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subj! ect/ReligionTheology/HistoryofChristianity/ReformationCounterReformation/?view=usa&ci=9780199764266
Jordana Rosenberg is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Death of Osama bin Laden and Changing World
Death of Osama bin Laden and Changing World
Ram Puniyani
The declaration of death (2nd May, 2011) of Osama bin Laden is mired with many a mysteries, It is also full of blatant violations of International law. It does have a profound impact on the future of global politics. Osama and Al Qaeda had been dominating the global political scenario overtly since a last decade or so, and covertly through their activities from last 2-3 decades. The West Asia- Indian subcontinent had been the major victim of their dreaded acts; still the death of this Frankenstein’s Monster has been accompanied by infinite questions and implications.
To begin with, there had been various news items claiming that Osama is dead, times and over again. Pakistan’s ex Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who herself became a victim of the acts of terror, had said that Osama is already dead. Any way, what matters is the popular perceptions and the ‘understanding’. This understanding ‘manufactured or real’, is propagated by the global emperor and the dominating US media. This seems to be more important than the truth. Truth shall ultimately prevail, but in the short run, the propaganda and perceptions do dictate the global and local scenario. So in that sense now Osama is really dead for good.
The manner of his killing reminds us as to who is the biggest violator of International law. Here is a Super power, with its tentacles spread all over the World, itching to undertake actions in the name of Democracy and Peace, but in reality protecting its interests of controlling oil wealth and maintaining global supremacy, the United States. Its armed forces blatantly violate the Pakistan’s air space, ignore its sovereignty and kill an unarmed Osama. Noam Chomsky, the indefatigable Human Rights Conscience keeper poses an interesting question. What if Pakistani or some other army lands up in White House, kills someone there and dumps his body in the sea? Unthinkable, no!
Osama could have been captured and tried in the International Court of law and punished accordingly. Why an unarmed man; a criminal, had to be killed is beyond imagination in the civil world with so many laws and norms. It seems laws and conventions are for the ordinary mortals and states, for some states (US) the medieval ‘Might is Right’, ‘We are the law’, still prevail. This is a warning signal for the whole humanity, reminding us of the need for reviving International bodies like United Nations not just formally but de facto, with real flesh and blood. Organizations like United Nations not only need to be revived and democratized they also have to be endowed with legal and moral authority to mediate in the international affairs. The arbitrary ‘cow boy’ norms need to be condemned and done away with.
This ‘death of Osama’ should open a new chapter in global and local politics. The previous decade has been dictated by the US policy of Oil hunt by creating the slogan of ‘Clash of Civilizations’, a slogan which is an insult to the humane values of mankind, a concept which deliberately overlooks the deeper alliance of people and civilizations. This clash of civilization thesis practiced by US projected Islam as the threat to democracy and freedom, irrespective of the fact that it is the same global power which overthrew democracies and promoted dictatorships in the area for its economic political agenda. The overthrow of democratically elected Mossadeq regime Iran, (1953) had set the tone for imposition of authoritarian regimes in this area. Again the processes which have begun in Tunisia, Egypt etc. are reminders that Arab World-Muslims aspire for democracy as much as any other people in the World and are trying to overthrow the yoke of dictatorial regimes.
The US invasions on different countries in the region were justified by projecting Islam and Muslims as backwards by the ‘global super-cop’, which projected the myth that it is playing the role of the savior. With the death of Osama-bin-Laden this chapter of dark global politics should be over, and the region should be left to its own moral and political resources to develop the political systems, away from the interference by outsiders. Democracy is basically a grass root process. It cannot be ‘exported’ or ‘imposed’ on others. The efforts should be to let the local alliances emerge, to let global democracy amongst nations emerge and let the local population decide their path for achieving the democratic system. It is on these issues that all the concerned peace movements assert the values of Peace and democracy through mass demonstrations. These voices and peace campaigns should act as a brake to hegemonic policies of the superpower.
In India the terrorism begun by local groups, Aseemanand, Pragya Singh Thakur and others derived its pretext from the terror acts of Osama and company. Since Hemant Karkare’s landmark investigation in Malegaon blast case, series of operatives wearing saffron clothes have been caught and hopefully this dreaded process will also come to an end, it will not derive provocation form other terror groups.
As far as India and Pakistan are concerned the whole talk of repeating Abottabad by a section in India, needs to be thrown in the dustbin. The Indian political leadership has shown political maturity and offered the dialogue table for achieving friendship with the neighbor. The same should be enhanced. On one hand we firmly deal with the criminal elements, by promoting trust and amity between nations and on the other the co-operation in the area of culture, trade, commerce and education needs to be boosted. Not only restricted to Pakistan, we need to revive the spirit of SAARC at deeper and broader level.
This May 2011, death of Osama, some claim its 9th time he is being declared dead, is a boon to the process of peace anyway. The demonization of Islam and Muslims will hopefully come to an end. Morality of all religions has been a great contribution to development of human values of the mankind. All religious communities have contributed to the progress of Human race, and this needs to be the major slogan of coming decades.
Ram Puniyani
The declaration of death (2nd May, 2011) of Osama bin Laden is mired with many a mysteries, It is also full of blatant violations of International law. It does have a profound impact on the future of global politics. Osama and Al Qaeda had been dominating the global political scenario overtly since a last decade or so, and covertly through their activities from last 2-3 decades. The West Asia- Indian subcontinent had been the major victim of their dreaded acts; still the death of this Frankenstein’s Monster has been accompanied by infinite questions and implications.
To begin with, there had been various news items claiming that Osama is dead, times and over again. Pakistan’s ex Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who herself became a victim of the acts of terror, had said that Osama is already dead. Any way, what matters is the popular perceptions and the ‘understanding’. This understanding ‘manufactured or real’, is propagated by the global emperor and the dominating US media. This seems to be more important than the truth. Truth shall ultimately prevail, but in the short run, the propaganda and perceptions do dictate the global and local scenario. So in that sense now Osama is really dead for good.
The manner of his killing reminds us as to who is the biggest violator of International law. Here is a Super power, with its tentacles spread all over the World, itching to undertake actions in the name of Democracy and Peace, but in reality protecting its interests of controlling oil wealth and maintaining global supremacy, the United States. Its armed forces blatantly violate the Pakistan’s air space, ignore its sovereignty and kill an unarmed Osama. Noam Chomsky, the indefatigable Human Rights Conscience keeper poses an interesting question. What if Pakistani or some other army lands up in White House, kills someone there and dumps his body in the sea? Unthinkable, no!
Osama could have been captured and tried in the International Court of law and punished accordingly. Why an unarmed man; a criminal, had to be killed is beyond imagination in the civil world with so many laws and norms. It seems laws and conventions are for the ordinary mortals and states, for some states (US) the medieval ‘Might is Right’, ‘We are the law’, still prevail. This is a warning signal for the whole humanity, reminding us of the need for reviving International bodies like United Nations not just formally but de facto, with real flesh and blood. Organizations like United Nations not only need to be revived and democratized they also have to be endowed with legal and moral authority to mediate in the international affairs. The arbitrary ‘cow boy’ norms need to be condemned and done away with.
This ‘death of Osama’ should open a new chapter in global and local politics. The previous decade has been dictated by the US policy of Oil hunt by creating the slogan of ‘Clash of Civilizations’, a slogan which is an insult to the humane values of mankind, a concept which deliberately overlooks the deeper alliance of people and civilizations. This clash of civilization thesis practiced by US projected Islam as the threat to democracy and freedom, irrespective of the fact that it is the same global power which overthrew democracies and promoted dictatorships in the area for its economic political agenda. The overthrow of democratically elected Mossadeq regime Iran, (1953) had set the tone for imposition of authoritarian regimes in this area. Again the processes which have begun in Tunisia, Egypt etc. are reminders that Arab World-Muslims aspire for democracy as much as any other people in the World and are trying to overthrow the yoke of dictatorial regimes.
The US invasions on different countries in the region were justified by projecting Islam and Muslims as backwards by the ‘global super-cop’, which projected the myth that it is playing the role of the savior. With the death of Osama-bin-Laden this chapter of dark global politics should be over, and the region should be left to its own moral and political resources to develop the political systems, away from the interference by outsiders. Democracy is basically a grass root process. It cannot be ‘exported’ or ‘imposed’ on others. The efforts should be to let the local alliances emerge, to let global democracy amongst nations emerge and let the local population decide their path for achieving the democratic system. It is on these issues that all the concerned peace movements assert the values of Peace and democracy through mass demonstrations. These voices and peace campaigns should act as a brake to hegemonic policies of the superpower.
In India the terrorism begun by local groups, Aseemanand, Pragya Singh Thakur and others derived its pretext from the terror acts of Osama and company. Since Hemant Karkare’s landmark investigation in Malegaon blast case, series of operatives wearing saffron clothes have been caught and hopefully this dreaded process will also come to an end, it will not derive provocation form other terror groups.
As far as India and Pakistan are concerned the whole talk of repeating Abottabad by a section in India, needs to be thrown in the dustbin. The Indian political leadership has shown political maturity and offered the dialogue table for achieving friendship with the neighbor. The same should be enhanced. On one hand we firmly deal with the criminal elements, by promoting trust and amity between nations and on the other the co-operation in the area of culture, trade, commerce and education needs to be boosted. Not only restricted to Pakistan, we need to revive the spirit of SAARC at deeper and broader level.
This May 2011, death of Osama, some claim its 9th time he is being declared dead, is a boon to the process of peace anyway. The demonization of Islam and Muslims will hopefully come to an end. Morality of all religions has been a great contribution to development of human values of the mankind. All religious communities have contributed to the progress of Human race, and this needs to be the major slogan of coming decades.
May 15, 2011
Book review: Yankee Hindutva Strikes
Outlook Magazine, May 23, 2011
Review
Yankee Hindutva Strikes
A study on Bible-thumping activism ignores titular faultlines, concocts plots couched in anti-imperialism
Gita Ramaswamy
BREAKING INDIA: WESTERN INTERVENTIONS IN DRAVIDIAN AND DALIT FAULTLINES
BY
RAJIV MALHOTRA AND
ARAVINDAN NEELAKANDAN
AMARYLLIS | PAGES: 664 | RS. 695
This doorstopper of a book is really one long polemical pamphlet. The authors’ intention is historiographical confrontation with Bible-thumpers in Tamil Nadu, but what they lack is expertise in handling historical data and a professional approach.
Rajiv Malhotra, who appears to be the main architect of this book, belongs to the diaspora. The difference between the world-view of the diasporic Indian and the Indian of the homeland is vast. The middle-class diaspora of Indian professionals in the States is probably the richest community of US migrants, yet they have been unable to attain either first-class citizen status or get political leverage. They know first hand the fragility of an existence which experiences exclusion in various domains of social living. Their minority status and marginality in the US provides the ground for Yankee Hindutva.
The authors see three major civilisations competing for global dominance today—the West (especially the US), China and Islam. All three have diabolical designs of splitting India, according to them, and they focus on Western efforts to break India. The problem we have is not in the study of Western intervention, though, curiously, Yankee Hindutva attempts to usurp the language of anti-imperialism. Often enough, the reader does a double take—is s/he reading Prakash Karat or Rajiv Malhotra?
The problem is in analysing Dravidian and Dalit faultlines. They don’t get wished away by denial. One would expect the authors to analyse these faultlines, acknowledge the limited validity of conversions and identity politics, and discuss their limitations. Instead, they are in denial throughout and consequently fall into outrageous positions. According to them, Maoists in Dantewada get vital information from the Chinese (from their espionage on India’s defence networks and embassy communications), famed Bharatanatyam dancer Leela Samson is an evangelist, former CEC Seshan is quoted to prove that Annadurai was a pawn of the CIA. Malhotra bemoans that China’s government controls academic studies there while India’s government does not, he wonders if India has too much democracy, he is angry that there are studies on how Raja Rao is prejudiced against his Muslim characters, or how there are very few Muslim characters in Tagore’s works (now isn’t that interesting?), and he speaks extensively of the Maoist-Chinese venture in the Red Corridor from Chhattisgarh to Nepal. His take on the 2002 Gujarat genocide: “...the violent Hindu retaliation to the Godhra carnage—a Hindu-Muslim bloodbath, both sides lost lives but the Muslims lost more.”
More than half the book deals with a father-and-daughter duo, Devianayagam and Devakala; have you heard of them? They are Tamil evangelists, and while I hold no brief for either of them, I find it hard to believe, as Malhotra does, that they are Enemies Number One and Two in India. In reality, the largest numbers of Bible-thumpers are in Andhra Pradesh, which also records the largest volume of Christian funding from abroad and the largest number of ngos. But strangely the authors have no explanation why this should be so, despite Andhra Pradesh not being noted for Dravidian rhetoric as Tamil Nadu is.
Should we be embarrassed when Dalits take their issues to international fora? Maybe it sounds distasteful to you and I, but possibly we are not Dalits. As long as the Indian state and society oppresses Muslims, Northeasterners, Kashmiris and Dalits, it is natural for them to garner what support they can.
The Aryan invasion theory occupies considerable place in the book. While Dravidianists insist on the fact of an Aryan invasion (and are supported by studies of scholars such as Romila Thapar), Malhotra disproves them—but uses the same tiresome polemic without the attendant scholarship. The reader may not want to take sides, but would certainly have wanted to know about important scholarship in the area.
The conclusion is rather surprising, or is it? Malhotra sees the possibility of an alliance with the US. According to Malhotra, the US wants to build up India (containment of Chinese and Islamic threat, as a market, etc.), and it could possibly stop giving aid to India’s Dravidianists and Dalits. The conclusion reveals that the book is really aimed at US policymakers in a bid to promote an alliance between the US state and Yankee Hindutvavadis.
Review
Yankee Hindutva Strikes
A study on Bible-thumping activism ignores titular faultlines, concocts plots couched in anti-imperialism
Gita Ramaswamy
BREAKING INDIA: WESTERN INTERVENTIONS IN DRAVIDIAN AND DALIT FAULTLINES
BY
RAJIV MALHOTRA AND
ARAVINDAN NEELAKANDAN
AMARYLLIS | PAGES: 664 | RS. 695
This doorstopper of a book is really one long polemical pamphlet. The authors’ intention is historiographical confrontation with Bible-thumpers in Tamil Nadu, but what they lack is expertise in handling historical data and a professional approach.
Rajiv Malhotra, who appears to be the main architect of this book, belongs to the diaspora. The difference between the world-view of the diasporic Indian and the Indian of the homeland is vast. The middle-class diaspora of Indian professionals in the States is probably the richest community of US migrants, yet they have been unable to attain either first-class citizen status or get political leverage. They know first hand the fragility of an existence which experiences exclusion in various domains of social living. Their minority status and marginality in the US provides the ground for Yankee Hindutva.
The authors see three major civilisations competing for global dominance today—the West (especially the US), China and Islam. All three have diabolical designs of splitting India, according to them, and they focus on Western efforts to break India. The problem we have is not in the study of Western intervention, though, curiously, Yankee Hindutva attempts to usurp the language of anti-imperialism. Often enough, the reader does a double take—is s/he reading Prakash Karat or Rajiv Malhotra?
The problem is in analysing Dravidian and Dalit faultlines. They don’t get wished away by denial. One would expect the authors to analyse these faultlines, acknowledge the limited validity of conversions and identity politics, and discuss their limitations. Instead, they are in denial throughout and consequently fall into outrageous positions. According to them, Maoists in Dantewada get vital information from the Chinese (from their espionage on India’s defence networks and embassy communications), famed Bharatanatyam dancer Leela Samson is an evangelist, former CEC Seshan is quoted to prove that Annadurai was a pawn of the CIA. Malhotra bemoans that China’s government controls academic studies there while India’s government does not, he wonders if India has too much democracy, he is angry that there are studies on how Raja Rao is prejudiced against his Muslim characters, or how there are very few Muslim characters in Tagore’s works (now isn’t that interesting?), and he speaks extensively of the Maoist-Chinese venture in the Red Corridor from Chhattisgarh to Nepal. His take on the 2002 Gujarat genocide: “...the violent Hindu retaliation to the Godhra carnage—a Hindu-Muslim bloodbath, both sides lost lives but the Muslims lost more.”
More than half the book deals with a father-and-daughter duo, Devianayagam and Devakala; have you heard of them? They are Tamil evangelists, and while I hold no brief for either of them, I find it hard to believe, as Malhotra does, that they are Enemies Number One and Two in India. In reality, the largest numbers of Bible-thumpers are in Andhra Pradesh, which also records the largest volume of Christian funding from abroad and the largest number of ngos. But strangely the authors have no explanation why this should be so, despite Andhra Pradesh not being noted for Dravidian rhetoric as Tamil Nadu is.
Should we be embarrassed when Dalits take their issues to international fora? Maybe it sounds distasteful to you and I, but possibly we are not Dalits. As long as the Indian state and society oppresses Muslims, Northeasterners, Kashmiris and Dalits, it is natural for them to garner what support they can.
The Aryan invasion theory occupies considerable place in the book. While Dravidianists insist on the fact of an Aryan invasion (and are supported by studies of scholars such as Romila Thapar), Malhotra disproves them—but uses the same tiresome polemic without the attendant scholarship. The reader may not want to take sides, but would certainly have wanted to know about important scholarship in the area.
The conclusion is rather surprising, or is it? Malhotra sees the possibility of an alliance with the US. According to Malhotra, the US wants to build up India (containment of Chinese and Islamic threat, as a market, etc.), and it could possibly stop giving aid to India’s Dravidianists and Dalits. The conclusion reveals that the book is really aimed at US policymakers in a bid to promote an alliance between the US state and Yankee Hindutvavadis.
Madhya Pradesh: Another Hindutva laboratory in the making
Communalism Combat, May 2011
Cover Story
Lethal Footprint
Madhya Pradesh: Another Hindutva laboratory in the making
BY LS HERDENIA
The dividing line between the government and the saffron brotherhood in Madhya Pradesh has become so blurred that the two are now virtually indistinguishable. Thus the state’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, calls upon government employees to join the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and attend its shakhas, or cells, police officers perform shastra puja – arms worship – on Dussehra, government schemes are named after Hindu rituals and ceremonies and organisations associated with the sangh parivar are gifted prime pieces of government land.
On a more sinister level, data is being collected about the Christians living in the state even as the government funds “religious functions” which are nothing other than platforms to spew venom against the minorities. The chief minister has made it clear in so many words that the government would in no case implement the recommendations of the Sachar Committee (which examined the status of the Muslim community in India), as that would “divide society and pave the way for another division of the country”. A case of the pot calling the kettle black?
When, sometime in the first week of April this year, a couple of uniformed policemen turned up at the office of a Christian priest in Bhopal and started asking him all sorts of questions about the Christian populace of the city, the latter became suspicious and demanded to know at whose behest the information was being sought. The policemen, apparently unaware that they were parting with an official secret, handed over to the priest a copy of the order – with the word “Secret” written in bold relief at the top – issued by Bhopal’s senior superintendent of police (SSP) to all police stations, asking them to collect information about Christians residing in the area under their jurisdiction. The information sought included details about the churches, schools and other institutions run by the community as well as their sources of finance. Policemen were also asked to collect information about the political patronage enjoyed by the community leaders, their criminal antecedents, if any, and the public functions that the Christians had organised. Names and other personal details about Catholic and Protestant priests were also sought.
When the Christian community protested, the state police headquarters initially denied the existence of any such order but subsequently declared that it had been withdrawn. How an order that was never issued can be withdrawn continues to be an unsolved mystery. What is interesting is that even after the order was “withdrawn”, the police continued to act on it; the chief minister told a delegation led by Rev Leo Cornelio, the archbishop of Bhopal, that this was due to a “communication gap”. What makes this exercise – aborted, at least for now – particularly scary is the fact that a similar exercise had preceded the Muslim genocide in Gujarat and, of course, much earlier, the Jewish Holocaust in Germany.
In further emulation of Gujarat, a ‘Narmada Samajik Kumbh’ was organised on the banks of the Narmada river in Madhya Pradesh in February this year, on exactly the same lines as the ‘Shabri Kumbh’ held in Gujarat in 2006. The objective: Hinduise the tribals, replacing their gods with Ram and Hanuman and their places of worship with Hindu temples. The government spent several crores of rupees on setting up the infrastructure necessary for the event. Lakhs of tribals from within the state as well as from neighbouring Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra were brought to the fair and treated to a stiff dose of the Ramayana, Bhagavad Gita and other Hindu scriptures. On the sidelines of this event, a ‘Ghar Vapasi’ (homecoming) programme was organised – meant to reconvert tribal Christians to Hinduism. Those who sermonised the tribals included luminaries of the RSS.
The Gondwana Ganatantra Party (GGP), a political outfit representing the tribal population, saw the Narmada Samajik Kumbh as an attack on tribal identity and launched a campaign in the tribal regions to make the tribals – who the sangh parivar prefers to call vanvasis, or forest-dwellers – aware of the real designs of the Kumbh’s organisers. “Tribals have never attended the Kumbhs held at Allahabad, Ujjain, Haridwar and Nashik for hundreds of years. So where is the question of their attending this fake Kumbh?” asked a pamphlet issued by the GGP.
Attacks on Christians and their places of worship are on the rise in Madhya Pradesh. Since the BJP came to power seven years ago, at least 200 incidents of physical attacks on Christians have been reported from different parts of the state. The Bajrang Dal and company are invariably the culprits in these cases and the police invariably refuse to take any action against them. The Christians have taken to the streets in protest several times, all to no avail.
And going by the names of various government schemes and programmes, one could legitimately suspect that Madhya Pradesh has already become a Hindu Rashtra. All of them, without exception, have names with Hindu connotations and many are named after Hindu religious ceremonies, sites, gods and goddesses. Thus the state’s water conservation scheme is called “Jal Abhishek” Abhiyan, a scheme for the welfare of the girl child is called “Ladli Laxmi” Yojana, a rural development scheme has been named “Gokul Gram” Yojana and another welfare scheme, meant to provide financial help to poor families in order to marry off their daughters, is called “Kanyadaan” Yojana. Farmers are called “Balram” (after Lord Krishna’s brother). In 2009 the government proclaimed that schoolteachers in state-run schools would be addressed as “Rashtra Rishis”, a decision that was withdrawn in the face of opposition from minority leaders.
The state capital, Bhopal, is proposed to be renamed “Bhojpal”. And eight towns in the state have been notified as “holy cities” where the sale of liquor, eggs and meat have been prohibited. The official website of the state agriculture department has an entire section devoted to “Kheti-sambandhi shubh muhurat (Auspicious times for agricultural activities)”, which guides farmers on how to choose the proper “muhurat (time)” – according to Hindu tradition, of course – for sowing, harvesting and other key agricultural operations.
The government had, early in 2007, also made it mandatory for all students from Class V onwards in government-run schools to perform “surya namaskar (sun salutation)”. The order came after the so-called yoga guru Baba Ramdev introduced the chief minister to the “miraculous benefits” of yogic exercise. This move was bitterly opposed by Muslim organisations in the state, which pointed out that Islam did not allow its followers to bow before anyone but Allah and so they could not worship the sun – an integral part of the exercise. The decision was ostensibly withdrawn after the Madhya Pradesh high court ruled on January 24, 2007 that surya namaskar could not be made compulsory. (The government however showed no signs of relenting and, in direct violation of the high court order, district education officers in some districts directed schools to conduct surya namaskar. In August 2009, more than two years later, a fresh order was again issued by the high court disallowing such compulsion.)
Seemingly undeterred, in August 2009 the government went on to declare that from September 5 that year, students would have to recite a Sanskrit hymn, the Bhojan Mantra, before partaking of their government-funded midday meals – a practice long adhered to in RSS-run schools, the Saraswati Shishu Mandirs.
The list is unending. The latest is the chief minister’s announcement on April 21 that “Gita Saar (Essence of the Gita)” would be taught to all school students in the state from the session commencing in July 2011. Also, government teachers are proposed to be trained in the Hindu “solah sanskar (the sixteen rituals, aimed at improving the inner self and all-round development of the individual)” whereby they would gain “more respect” in the rural areas.
In keeping with the maxim ‘make hay while the sun shines’, member organisations of the extended sangh brotherhood are seeking – and receiving – prime government land at throwaway prices. At a conservative estimate, at least 300 land allotments have been made to saffron bodies, one of which was struck down by the Supreme Court recently. In 2004 the Kushabhau Thakre Trust, whose trustees include BJP heavyweights like Lal Krishna Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, was allotted 20 acres of land on the outskirts of Bhopal. The state government was in such a hurry to allot the land to the trust that it did not even wait for the trust to be formally constituted before distributing its largesse. However, this move was challenged in the courts by the Akhil Bhartiya Upbhokta Congress, a Bhopal-based consumer organisation, which approached the Supreme Court after the Madhya Pradesh high court had refused to quash the government’s decision. Ultimately, on April 6 this year the apex court ordered the government to take possession of the allotted land.
But the judicial action in this case is an exception. As a rule hundreds of plots, ranging from 10,000 square feet to several acres in almost every town and city in the state, have been allotted – for peanuts – to Saraswati Shishu Mandirs, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and a host of other organisations owing allegiance to the sangh parivar, turning these institutions into millionaires and billionaires overnight.
It was at the inauguration of the state headquarters of the ABVP, built on a piece of land gifted by the government, slap-bang in the centre of Bhopal, that the chief minister urged government employees to join the RSS, technically a non-political organisation but for all practical purposes a partisan outfit. At another public function he announced with obvious pride that the government had done away with the ban on government employees joining the RSS because the Sangh was the only organisation that genuinely believed in universal brotherhood and the welfare of all. Thunderous applause ensued.
Without much sound and fury, the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh is busy converting the geographical heart of India into a saffron land. After Gujarat, it seems, another Hindu Rashtra is in the offing.
(LS Herdenia, a senior journalist based in Bhopal, is convener of the Rashtriya Secular Manch.)
o o o
Illegal order
Office of the Senior Superintendent of Police, Bhopal
March 22, 2011
Attn: All Police Stations, Bhopal
Concerning activities of Christians
Please collect and send detailed information as specified below concerning Christian activities to this office within the next 10 days:
1. Details of activities of the Christian community at the district and taluka levels: Denomination-wise (Catholics, Protestants) details of the community in terms of demographic composition, localities where they reside, assessment of their economic status, etc.
2. Details of church-owned convent schools at the district and taluka levels: The information should include: name of the school, total number of students and teachers, sources of funds, whether any foreign contributions are received, etc.
3. Details of churches, including those under construction, denomination-wise (Catholics, Protestants); personal details of bishop, priests, other concerned individuals, etc.
4. A list of Christians implicated in criminal cases, with full personal details, including political protection enjoyed by them, etc.
5. District and taluka-wise details of annual programmes: venue, organisers, number of participants, sources of funds for the same, etc.
6. District and taluka-wise details of communally sensitive areas in respect of the Christian community.
Senior Superintendent of Police
Bhopal
(The above is an English translation of the order issued by Bhopal’s SSP).
Cover Story
Lethal Footprint
Madhya Pradesh: Another Hindutva laboratory in the making
BY LS HERDENIA
The dividing line between the government and the saffron brotherhood in Madhya Pradesh has become so blurred that the two are now virtually indistinguishable. Thus the state’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, calls upon government employees to join the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and attend its shakhas, or cells, police officers perform shastra puja – arms worship – on Dussehra, government schemes are named after Hindu rituals and ceremonies and organisations associated with the sangh parivar are gifted prime pieces of government land.
On a more sinister level, data is being collected about the Christians living in the state even as the government funds “religious functions” which are nothing other than platforms to spew venom against the minorities. The chief minister has made it clear in so many words that the government would in no case implement the recommendations of the Sachar Committee (which examined the status of the Muslim community in India), as that would “divide society and pave the way for another division of the country”. A case of the pot calling the kettle black?
When, sometime in the first week of April this year, a couple of uniformed policemen turned up at the office of a Christian priest in Bhopal and started asking him all sorts of questions about the Christian populace of the city, the latter became suspicious and demanded to know at whose behest the information was being sought. The policemen, apparently unaware that they were parting with an official secret, handed over to the priest a copy of the order – with the word “Secret” written in bold relief at the top – issued by Bhopal’s senior superintendent of police (SSP) to all police stations, asking them to collect information about Christians residing in the area under their jurisdiction. The information sought included details about the churches, schools and other institutions run by the community as well as their sources of finance. Policemen were also asked to collect information about the political patronage enjoyed by the community leaders, their criminal antecedents, if any, and the public functions that the Christians had organised. Names and other personal details about Catholic and Protestant priests were also sought.
When the Christian community protested, the state police headquarters initially denied the existence of any such order but subsequently declared that it had been withdrawn. How an order that was never issued can be withdrawn continues to be an unsolved mystery. What is interesting is that even after the order was “withdrawn”, the police continued to act on it; the chief minister told a delegation led by Rev Leo Cornelio, the archbishop of Bhopal, that this was due to a “communication gap”. What makes this exercise – aborted, at least for now – particularly scary is the fact that a similar exercise had preceded the Muslim genocide in Gujarat and, of course, much earlier, the Jewish Holocaust in Germany.
In further emulation of Gujarat, a ‘Narmada Samajik Kumbh’ was organised on the banks of the Narmada river in Madhya Pradesh in February this year, on exactly the same lines as the ‘Shabri Kumbh’ held in Gujarat in 2006. The objective: Hinduise the tribals, replacing their gods with Ram and Hanuman and their places of worship with Hindu temples. The government spent several crores of rupees on setting up the infrastructure necessary for the event. Lakhs of tribals from within the state as well as from neighbouring Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra were brought to the fair and treated to a stiff dose of the Ramayana, Bhagavad Gita and other Hindu scriptures. On the sidelines of this event, a ‘Ghar Vapasi’ (homecoming) programme was organised – meant to reconvert tribal Christians to Hinduism. Those who sermonised the tribals included luminaries of the RSS.
The Gondwana Ganatantra Party (GGP), a political outfit representing the tribal population, saw the Narmada Samajik Kumbh as an attack on tribal identity and launched a campaign in the tribal regions to make the tribals – who the sangh parivar prefers to call vanvasis, or forest-dwellers – aware of the real designs of the Kumbh’s organisers. “Tribals have never attended the Kumbhs held at Allahabad, Ujjain, Haridwar and Nashik for hundreds of years. So where is the question of their attending this fake Kumbh?” asked a pamphlet issued by the GGP.
Attacks on Christians and their places of worship are on the rise in Madhya Pradesh. Since the BJP came to power seven years ago, at least 200 incidents of physical attacks on Christians have been reported from different parts of the state. The Bajrang Dal and company are invariably the culprits in these cases and the police invariably refuse to take any action against them. The Christians have taken to the streets in protest several times, all to no avail.
And going by the names of various government schemes and programmes, one could legitimately suspect that Madhya Pradesh has already become a Hindu Rashtra. All of them, without exception, have names with Hindu connotations and many are named after Hindu religious ceremonies, sites, gods and goddesses. Thus the state’s water conservation scheme is called “Jal Abhishek” Abhiyan, a scheme for the welfare of the girl child is called “Ladli Laxmi” Yojana, a rural development scheme has been named “Gokul Gram” Yojana and another welfare scheme, meant to provide financial help to poor families in order to marry off their daughters, is called “Kanyadaan” Yojana. Farmers are called “Balram” (after Lord Krishna’s brother). In 2009 the government proclaimed that schoolteachers in state-run schools would be addressed as “Rashtra Rishis”, a decision that was withdrawn in the face of opposition from minority leaders.
The state capital, Bhopal, is proposed to be renamed “Bhojpal”. And eight towns in the state have been notified as “holy cities” where the sale of liquor, eggs and meat have been prohibited. The official website of the state agriculture department has an entire section devoted to “Kheti-sambandhi shubh muhurat (Auspicious times for agricultural activities)”, which guides farmers on how to choose the proper “muhurat (time)” – according to Hindu tradition, of course – for sowing, harvesting and other key agricultural operations.
The government had, early in 2007, also made it mandatory for all students from Class V onwards in government-run schools to perform “surya namaskar (sun salutation)”. The order came after the so-called yoga guru Baba Ramdev introduced the chief minister to the “miraculous benefits” of yogic exercise. This move was bitterly opposed by Muslim organisations in the state, which pointed out that Islam did not allow its followers to bow before anyone but Allah and so they could not worship the sun – an integral part of the exercise. The decision was ostensibly withdrawn after the Madhya Pradesh high court ruled on January 24, 2007 that surya namaskar could not be made compulsory. (The government however showed no signs of relenting and, in direct violation of the high court order, district education officers in some districts directed schools to conduct surya namaskar. In August 2009, more than two years later, a fresh order was again issued by the high court disallowing such compulsion.)
Seemingly undeterred, in August 2009 the government went on to declare that from September 5 that year, students would have to recite a Sanskrit hymn, the Bhojan Mantra, before partaking of their government-funded midday meals – a practice long adhered to in RSS-run schools, the Saraswati Shishu Mandirs.
The list is unending. The latest is the chief minister’s announcement on April 21 that “Gita Saar (Essence of the Gita)” would be taught to all school students in the state from the session commencing in July 2011. Also, government teachers are proposed to be trained in the Hindu “solah sanskar (the sixteen rituals, aimed at improving the inner self and all-round development of the individual)” whereby they would gain “more respect” in the rural areas.
In keeping with the maxim ‘make hay while the sun shines’, member organisations of the extended sangh brotherhood are seeking – and receiving – prime government land at throwaway prices. At a conservative estimate, at least 300 land allotments have been made to saffron bodies, one of which was struck down by the Supreme Court recently. In 2004 the Kushabhau Thakre Trust, whose trustees include BJP heavyweights like Lal Krishna Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, was allotted 20 acres of land on the outskirts of Bhopal. The state government was in such a hurry to allot the land to the trust that it did not even wait for the trust to be formally constituted before distributing its largesse. However, this move was challenged in the courts by the Akhil Bhartiya Upbhokta Congress, a Bhopal-based consumer organisation, which approached the Supreme Court after the Madhya Pradesh high court had refused to quash the government’s decision. Ultimately, on April 6 this year the apex court ordered the government to take possession of the allotted land.
But the judicial action in this case is an exception. As a rule hundreds of plots, ranging from 10,000 square feet to several acres in almost every town and city in the state, have been allotted – for peanuts – to Saraswati Shishu Mandirs, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and a host of other organisations owing allegiance to the sangh parivar, turning these institutions into millionaires and billionaires overnight.
It was at the inauguration of the state headquarters of the ABVP, built on a piece of land gifted by the government, slap-bang in the centre of Bhopal, that the chief minister urged government employees to join the RSS, technically a non-political organisation but for all practical purposes a partisan outfit. At another public function he announced with obvious pride that the government had done away with the ban on government employees joining the RSS because the Sangh was the only organisation that genuinely believed in universal brotherhood and the welfare of all. Thunderous applause ensued.
Without much sound and fury, the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh is busy converting the geographical heart of India into a saffron land. After Gujarat, it seems, another Hindu Rashtra is in the offing.
(LS Herdenia, a senior journalist based in Bhopal, is convener of the Rashtriya Secular Manch.)
o o o
Illegal order
Office of the Senior Superintendent of Police, Bhopal
March 22, 2011
Attn: All Police Stations, Bhopal
Concerning activities of Christians
Please collect and send detailed information as specified below concerning Christian activities to this office within the next 10 days:
1. Details of activities of the Christian community at the district and taluka levels: Denomination-wise (Catholics, Protestants) details of the community in terms of demographic composition, localities where they reside, assessment of their economic status, etc.
2. Details of church-owned convent schools at the district and taluka levels: The information should include: name of the school, total number of students and teachers, sources of funds, whether any foreign contributions are received, etc.
3. Details of churches, including those under construction, denomination-wise (Catholics, Protestants); personal details of bishop, priests, other concerned individuals, etc.
4. A list of Christians implicated in criminal cases, with full personal details, including political protection enjoyed by them, etc.
5. District and taluka-wise details of annual programmes: venue, organisers, number of participants, sources of funds for the same, etc.
6. District and taluka-wise details of communally sensitive areas in respect of the Christian community.
Senior Superintendent of Police
Bhopal
(The above is an English translation of the order issued by Bhopal’s SSP).
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